Naruto: The Strongest Suiton User

Chapter 28: An Expected Attack

For a moment, Sakura didn't know how to respond to Tsunami's words.

From a ninja's perspective, Sakura believed that if a country had the means, it was best to cultivate a ninja village, or at the very least, have a ninja force.

It was hard to say whether the Land of Waves' choice not to have ninja was bold or foolish. At least in the past decades when world wars frequently occurred, this choice had kept the country far from the flames of war, turning it into an isolated paradise. At least for the great nations, this small country, nestled in a corner, had little strategic or economic value and posed no threat. The trouble of occupying it would outweigh the benefits, so naturally, they wouldn't divert their strained forces to attack it.

However, such an undefended country also became a tasty morsel in the eyes of the ambitious. After the war, Gato, having ascertained that the Land of Waves had no powerful backer, used his underworld connections and hired rogue ninja to monopolize the country's transportation lines, turning the Land of Waves into his personal plaything to exploit.

Sakura really wanted to know what the leader who had established the "no ninja village" rule for the Land of Waves would think if he saw this scene.

Only a ninja can fight a ninja. This was common sense in the Naruto world. What made Sakura feel awkward was that during Gato's takeover of the Land of Waves, the rogue ninja he hired had undoubtedly played an extremely disgraceful role, contributing crucial force to dismantle the country's defense forces. Rogue ninja were still ninja, and ninja had always been a source of chaos in this world. Sakura didn't know if Tsunami would harbor resentment towards the entire ninja community because of this.

After some consideration, Sakura decided on a neutral response.

"Don't worry, Tsunami-san! Under our protection, Mr. Tazuna will definitely complete the bridge successfully! Once the bridge is built, everything in the Land of Waves will get better!" Sakura said with a smile, her eyes narrowed.

Regardless of why Sakura called the 29-year-old Tsunami "san" instead of "obasan," Sakura genuinely believed that the bridge could help the Land of Waves out of its predicament.

Of course, the reason wasn't that the bridge would restore the courage of the people. While it was certainly a good thing for the people's spirits to be lifted, Gato had hired even a ninja like Zabuza. No matter how much courage ordinary civilians mustered, what use would it be? It would be nothing more than sending them to their deaths. In front of an elite ninja like Zabuza, numbers were meaningless.

What could truly deter villains and protect the Land of Waves was the intervention of Konoha's ninja and the close ties that would be formed between the Land of Waves and the Land of Fire after the bridge was built. The Land of Waves was already heavily dependent on resources from the mainland. Once this bridge was completed, resources from the Land of Fire could be conveniently transported into the Land of Waves, and the special products of the Land of Waves could be transported out in large quantities. The bridge would become the economic artery of the Land of Waves, tightly linking it with the Land of Fire.

Sakura could even foresee that in the near future, the Land of Waves would officially become a vassal state of the Land of Fire.

For a small country, was such an outcome good or bad? As a Konoha ninja, Sakura was in no position to judge this course of action for the Land of Waves. Perhaps some would say the Land of Waves was sucking up to a great nation, but at the very least, its people would be freed from the shadow of people like Gato, and their lives would become much more stable.

The world depicted in the original story always seemed so hot-blooded and sunny compared to the real world. But since she had come to this real world, Sakura couldn't possibly take that passion and sunshine as the whole truth. The real world was sometimes just that cruel and merciless.

The leisurely time of an ordinary person couldn't last for too long.

The next day, on the morning of the eighth day, the bridge was nearing completion. Zabuza's group could attack at any time. The three Kakashi-led members were at the construction site protecting Tazuna. At Tazuna's house, Sakura was accompanying Tsunami with the housework.

"That's amazing, Sakura-chan! It's really so convenient for you ninja to do things!" Tsunami said, looking at Sakura with an envious expression.

Sakura smiled slightly and continued to control her chakra to make the water in the wooden bucket spin wildly, agitating the clothes within. The small wooden bucket had at this moment become a washing machine, cleaning the clothes with extremely high efficiency.

"Actually, ordinary ninja can only wash by hand," Sakura said with a hint of pride. "There aren't many ninja who can do what I do! Don't be fooled by how simple it looks; there's a lot of technical difficulty here!"

Of course, a ninja who could do this, if they had any sense of a powerhouse's dignity, probably wouldn't use their chakra for housework! Probably only Sakura wouldn't care about this so-called dignity of the strong. That kind of dignity, in the end, was just a boring sense of superiority. What's more, for Sakura, doing housework this way was essentially a method of using fragmented time for training. This was true, minute-by-minute cultivation!

As they were talking, Sakura suddenly frowned. She sensed the approach of enemies. Although she wasn't a sensory-type ninja, within a close enough range, Sakura's perception was even more acute than a sensory-type's!

Sakura narrowed her eyes slightly.

Two enemies, no concealment, no chakra texture. Are they samurai...? There's a faint chakra source behind them. It seems the people in front are just a probe.

"Shh, don't talk!" Sakura protected Tsunami and Inari behind her, looking faintly at the entrance. In her perception, the two completely unconcealed samurai had already reached the door.

Clack! The wooden main door was mercilessly split apart by a sharp katana, turning into wooden planks of various sizes. Two arrogant-looking samurai walked to the doorway, looked at Sakura and the other two, and said coldly, "It seems you're Tazuna's daughter. In that case, please come with us! As for the other two..."

The man next to him, bare-chested and revealing a ferocious tattoo, showed a bloodthirsty smile and said in a cruel tone, "Just a useless ninja and a little kid. I'll take care of them. I was just thinking of cutting something to vent my frustration!"

"Frogs in a well!" A faint voice sounded from behind the two boastful samurai. The arrogance and cold smiles on the two samurai's faces instantly froze, turning into terror. They were then knocked out and stunned on the ground by Sakura's water clone with a single, casual punch, as if they were trash.

At the same time, several kunai crashed through the window and flew towards Sakura's group. It was the ninja hidden behind the two samurai, launching a sneak attack while Sakura's attention was drawn by the two men!

"Be careful!" A sneak attack of this level posed no threat to Sakura. With a wave of her right hand, she turned the laundry water into a water shield to block the kunai, but she saw that when the kunai pierced the shield, they actually dyed the water a light green!

Poison! But it's weak. After the enemy's probing attack, they stopped attacking again. Are they testing my patience, or simply stalling for time? Sakura's brow furrowed slightly as she pondered.

Whatever the reason, it proves they don't have the confidence to face me head-on. Moreover, if I'm being attacked here, then Kakashi's side must be encountering enemies at the same time. I have to end this quickly and go support them! Sakura quickly figured this out.

Her fingers twitched slightly, and she transformed the water shield into a number of water-made kunai, then froze them into hard ice kunai. Although she couldn't use a formal Ice Style ninjutsu yet, using the ice nature transformation to do small things was no problem.

Swish! Swish! Dozens of light green ice kunai, under the control of Sakura's chakra, shot towards the direction where she sensed the enemy.

After a series of crisp sounds of blades clashing, a masked ninja burst through the window into the house. The scratched Kirigakure forehead protector on his head was clearly visible. The moment his hands landed, he had already completed his hand seals!

"Water Style: Wild Water Wave!"

Activating a ninjutsu while moving at high speed! Compared to him, Sasuke and Naruto are far behind!

Sakura praised him inwardly. However, having seen the overwhelming and unstoppable momentum of B-rank and even A-rank water jutsu from Kakashi and Zabuza, and having even faced Kakashi's ninjutsu head-on, when Sakura now looked at this C-rank water jutsu cast by a small fry, she only felt that it was full of openings, completely lacking in power, and not worth her attention at all!

Sakura unhurriedly condensed a translucent longsword in her hand. A chilling aura emanated from the blade, hinting at its incredible sharpness. She infused wind-natured chakra into the blade, and the transparent ice sword instantly flared with a blue light of chakra. Then she calmly waited for the Wild Water Wave to rush in front of her before swinging the sword straight down!

Swish! The air seemed to be torn apart by the sharp longsword, making a sound like ripping silk. Under Sakura's swift slash, the longsword, with its astonishing sharpness, forcefully cut the Kirigakure ninja's jutsu in two!

The Kirigakure rogue-nin's eyes went wide. He stared in disbelief at the longsword infused with wind nature transformation chakra, unable to imagine that its power could be so terrifying!

Sakura didn't stop. After shattering the water jutsu with one slash, she stepped forward and delivered another horizontal slash. The ice blade shone with a dazzling blue light as it irresistibly slashed towards the rogue-nin!

Seeing the longsword that could even shatter ninjutsu coming at him, the rogue-nin's expression changed drastically. He retreated rapidly while throwing a kunai with a backhand motion! The kunai was unsurprisingly cut in two, but it still bought him a crucial bit of time. Splash! The longsword cut horizontally across the rogue-nin's waist, turning him into a shower of water droplets.

"Ninpō: Substitution Jutsu!" A successful activation!

The Kirigakure rogue-nin, having just swapped places with a water clone, appeared outside the house in a sorry state. But he had forgotten that Sakura had another water clone outside as well! Before the shaken rogue-nin could even steady himself, the water clone had already appeared silently behind him, stabbing viciously towards his heart with a kunai!

The movement from the water clone's sneak attack was detected by the rogue-nin through his rich experience. He reacted extremely quickly, not wasting a single millisecond before making the most correct choice. Without futilely turning back, he leaned his body forward rapidly into a strange posture, dodging the blow by a hair's breadth. At the same time, without a line of sight, his left hand delivered a fierce backhand strike, accurately plunging a kunai into the head of Sakura's water clone!

Even in such a disadvantageous situation, the rogue-nin had completed a comeback with his superb skill!

The crisp feel of the kunai piercing the water clone told the rogue-nin that he had defeated it. Normally, a clone would collapse immediately after receiving such damage. However, in the moment the rogue-nin relaxed—SPLASH!! The water clone fell, and the masked Kirigakure ninja's heart was pierced by a crystal-clear kunai!

Although he had struck the water clone's head first, the remaining part of the clone had held on for another half a second, long enough to plunge the ice kunai into his heart. For the current Sakura, it was not difficult to forcibly maintain the form of a collapsing clone for an extra second after it was defeated.

"How... how is this possible..."

With endless doubt and regret, the unknown Kirigakure rogue-nin and Sakura's water clone fell to the ground at the same time.