Chapter 393: Swords Drawn and Bows Bent
Inside the limestone cave.
The hidden cave chosen by the two Root ninja earlier was not large. Entering straight from the entrance in the mountain wall and turning two corners, one would reach the deepest part of the cave.
There was only this one path in the entire cave, not even a hidden wrinkle. However, when Danzo found Haruno Sakura standing openly in the center of the cave without setting any ambush, he was still somewhat surprised.
"Long time no see, Danzo Shimura." The pink-haired girl stood proudly with her arms crossed, watching Danzo and his group walk into this small cave. Her expression was indifferent, and she said coldly, "Are you here to collect the corpses for these two..."
"Or, are you already impatient to find someone to collect your own corpse?"
Cold and solid killing intent permeated the air with Haruno Sakura's threatening words, lingering between the girl's lips and teeth.
"Bastard, how dare you be so disrespectful to Lord Danzo!"
The Root ninja walking at the front narrowed his eyes and shouted sternly.
"Enough, Terai! You step back first." Danzo stopped his subordinate who was eager to teach Sakura a lesson. There was a huge gap between "Kage" and "Jonin." Even if Haruno Sakura's stamina was greatly reduced and she was exhausted, she was not someone his subordinates, who were at most stronger than ordinary Jonin relying on weird secret techniques, could provoke.
He stepped forward, his face solemn, and said in a deep voice: "Haruno Sakura, this old man came here to question you about one thing... Why did you let Uchiha Itachi go?"
Rarely, Danzo actually put on a look of awe-inspiring righteousness, dressing himself up as the patron saint of Konoha.
Haruno Sakura sneered, looking at Danzo sarcastically: "Truly amazing... Danzo, are your eyes dim and your memory unreliable? Uchiha Itachi is a spy placed by Konoha in the Akatsuki. Wasn't this decided by you guys back then?"
"Hmph, since you know he is a Konoha spy, why did you sit back and watch the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki being captured by the Akatsuki?" Danzo's face was as cold as solid ice, showing no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, only reprimanding sternly, "Your suspicion is great... no, it should be said that you are clearly colluding with foreign enemies and have discord with the Akatsuki!"
"Hehe..." The sarcastic meaning of the smile on the girl's face became more prominent. She pointed at Danzo and said, "Just fought a bloody battle with the Akatsuki, and as soon as I came down, you put such a big hat on me. How interesting! I wonder who led a fully-equipped elite squad, sneaking around outside the battlefield peeping, watching fellow village ninja fighting strong enemies but holding back, and only running out to condemn after the battle ended..."
"In my opinion, the person most suspected of betraying the village should be you, right?"
"Danzo Shimura?"
The fierce momentum belonging to a Kage-level expert climbed to the peak in the last sentence, erupting mightily and unscrupulously, pressing unceremoniously towards the ninja on Danzo's side!
And the atmosphere in the field also became tense to the extreme, the smell of gunpowder in the air seemed like a single spark could detonate it loudly!
However, the two people at the center of this depressing and gloomy atmosphere, Haruno Sakura and Danzo Shimura, were not angry, but very calm.
After a verbal dispute, Danzo's expression showed no sign of being angered, only the haze in his eyes became deeper.
Haruno Sakura put away the sarcastic smile on her face and just looked at him coldly.
"Neither you nor I are people accustomed to solving enemies and problems with words... So running eagerly in front of me, you didn't just come to say a few useless nonsense words to me, did you?" She narrowed her eyes, her gaze full of dangerous and sharp aura, scraping Danzo's face like a knife, "Or, are you prepared enough to bear the anger of someone you can't afford to provoke?"
Danzo was not a stupid person, nor would he do unexpected things because of a sudden hot head. On the other hand, Danzo feared her more because of her strength, not her identity.
And now Danzo actually dared to run out of his rat hole to intercept her, this could only mean—
"Bluffing...!" Danzo snorted coldly, his cold and dry voice echoing in the cave. He pointed at Haruno Sakura and said, "We sensed it clearly outside. After two consecutive battles, your chakra and stamina are long gone!"
"Current you, your combat power probably isn't even ten percent of usual..."
So that's it...
Haruno Sakura suddenly realized and finally understood where Danzo's confidence came from—
The play she and Itachi performed not only fooled the White Zetsus on the field but actually fooled the people of Root too! This was really...
A pleasant surprise.
"What do you want to do?" Haruno Sakura felt this person in front of her more and more ridiculous. It wasn't unreasonable that so many people hated him.
A very sad detail was that since he had already torn his face, when facing Haruno Sakura, he still didn't dare to rush up and fight simply like a ninja, but attempted to make her yield with words. Cowering, sneaky.
How narrow this magnanimity was!
Accustomed to walking in the dark, accustomed to profiting by conspiracy and tricks rather than the righteous path, accustomed to sordid conduct, Danzo probably forgot that chakra is a combined reflection of body and spirit. Narrowness of spirit often means weakness of chakra. So throughout the ages, there have been cruel, kind, treacherous, and awe-inspiringly righteous experts in the ninja world, but never narrow-minded ones.
This is where Danzo could never compare to the Third Hokage.
Danzo did not notice the disdain Haruno Sakura felt for him in her heart, only saying indifferently: "'Root' needs a strong person of your level, so join Root and become my subordinate."
"What if I say no?"
"You have no choice. Either cooperate actively, or..." The coldness in Danzo's eyes deepened, lowering his eyelids and saying, "Be forced to join 'Root' by us!"
"Hehe..." Haruno Sakura sneered, "The result of refusal is actually not death. You are really kind!"
The sarcastic mockery did not disturb the good mood of Danzo who had already decided the prey was in hand. He even explained a couple of sentences: "As a top expert of Konoha, killing you would greatly reduce Konoha's strength, so even if it's a bit troublesome, your life must be preserved..."
"Alright... then the last question." The Ice Style girl put away the smile on her face and looked at Danzo meaningfully, "Since you clearly know I know Uchiha Itachi's identity, on what basis did you determine that a 'great battle' directly occurred between me and Itachi?"
"On the premise of knowing I possess the Yin Seal, on what basis did you determine that my stamina and chakra have been exhausted?"
Danzo's turbid old eyes, which had been narrowed, suddenly widened a bit.
Could it be... Haruno Sakura's combat power is still mostly preserved?
That look of declining aura was faked?
The girl's pretty face with a faint smile suddenly became abominable in Danzo's eyes!
"You..." He spat out a word with difficulty, "What did you say?"
However, Haruno Sakura had no intention of mocking Danzo with words anymore. She simply released the bewitching purple mark on her forehead. Complicated and nearly transparent patterns instantly unfolded from the girl's forehead.
Chakra, vigorous and surging chakra immediately spewed out!
The Root ninja's eyes went straight, almost stunned, looking at the astonishing chakra momentum coming from Haruno Sakura, shocked speechless.
Danzo's face remained unchanged, but turbulent waves were set off in his heart—
Haruno Sakura's combat power actually hadn't declined at all!
The surging and swirling chakra fluctuations on the pink-haired girl stirred up bursts of strong wind in the small limestone cave!
The piercing whirlwind whistled in the cave, slapping on the faces of the people in front of the girl, scraping their cheeks painfully.
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