Chapter 257: The Unblockable Genjutsu
The battle here was still ongoing.
"Before the new river water flows over, you can't use such a strong Water Style again, can you...?" Sasori smiled faintly, pointing at the dry riverbed at Sakura's feet.
"Indeed, without the help of the river here, even if I were wrung dry, I couldn't use a Water Style of this power," Sakura narrowed her eyes, looking at Sasori with a dangerous gaze. "So why didn't you use that fire jutsu from before to deal with me?"
The corner of her mouth curled up slightly. "Such a good opportunity, and you didn't strike... could it be that you can't use that kind of fire jutsu again either?"
"Hehe, don't be in a hurry," Sasori pursed his lips and gave a shy smile. "That was just an appetizer. The human puppet I made can retain his chakra and ninjutsu from his lifetime. The full power of the Third Kazekage... you haven't experienced it yet! He was the strongest of all the Kazekage..."
He hooked his index finger, and the iron spikes that the Kazekage puppet had shot out earlier turned into iron sand and returned to the puppet's side. And then—
"Magnet Style: Iron Sand Gathering Assault!"
Swoosh—! The highly compressed and deformed iron sand transformed into an extremely hard iron spear, turning into a black shadow that cut through the air. Amidst a sharp whistle, it pierced towards Sakura in the blink of an eye.
Swish—! Just as the sharp point of the spear was about to touch Sakura's cheek, she nimbly moved her neck, turning her head to dodge the iron spear's thrust by a hair's breadth.
Her light and elegant movements, her calm and indifferent expression, it was as if the girl had merely turned her head to pick a flower petal.
Her eyes, from beginning to end, had never even focused on the iron spear. She just gazed at Sasori's every move from a distance.
The iron spear missed. Sasori wasn't very surprised; that was just a greeting. He was just a little astonished that the girl could dodge at such an extreme range. Her reaction speed is very fast...
"A beautiful dodge..." Sasori said, while waving his fingers, controlling the puppet to open its mechanisms. The Kazekage puppet's mouth opened with a kashu sound.
Countless black iron sand particles poured out of its mouth, converging with the iron sand from before into giant blocks of iron sand. They floated in the air in formation, densely filling half the sky! This was the true power of the Iron Sand Gathering Assault.
"So, how will you dodge this time?" Sasori commanded the restless black iron sand formation, a faint smile on his lips.
Sakura, who had been indifferent all along, her face paled slightly, her expression finally turning grave. "As expected of the Third Kazekage's ninjutsu..." she said, her voice dropping low.
She quietly watched as Sasori turned the black sand into dozens of giant, conical iron spears, each ten-odd meters long and as thick as her wrist, floating menacingly in the air, ready to be launched. The Kazekage puppet's ninjutsu was indeed majestic, extremely fast, and extremely powerful.
Not easy to block, and not easy to dodge. But... she happened to have just developed a new ninjutsu that could counter it.
Taking the opportunity while the Kazekage puppet was releasing the black sand, the ninjutsu in Sakura's hands also completed its hand seals. In the instant Sasori was about to wave his hand—
"Water Style: Mirror Flower, Water Moon!"
The scene in front of Sasori's eyes suddenly distorted. His heart skipped a beat, his gaze sharpened, but the movements of his hands did not hesitate, controlling the giant iron spears to shoot towards Haruno Sakura.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh— Sasori was stunned to find that the iron sand, which had been aimed at Sakura, had mysteriously and slightly changed direction in mid-flight, all of them grazing past the girl's figure. Sakura stood on the spot, motionless, and not a single iron spear had hit her!
The only effect was that the fierce wind it stirred up had fluttered the corners of her clothes.
"A genjutsu?" Sasori suddenly recalled the sudden distortion of his vision just now, and was greatly surprised! He was already a human puppet. Ordinary genjutsu that acted on the brain should be ineffective against him!
Sasori tried the long-unused genjutsu release method, but to no avail. What was going on!
Seeing Sasori's wide-eyed, surprised expression for the first time, the girl sneered. Indeed, ordinary genjutsu had no effect on Sasori. But... this jutsu of Haruno Sakura's was, in essence, not a genjutsu!
The effect of "Mirror Flower, Water Moon" was the same as a genjutsu, it could distort vision. But its method of implementation was by increasing the moisture in the air to change the atmosphere's refractive index, just like a mirage.
The refractive index of air changes with four factors: air pressure, temperature, air composition, and humidity. Humidity, in particular, has a great influence on the refractive index. And when light enters a medium with a different refractive index, it will refract, and the light path will bend, causing the image seen to not match reality!
This phenomenon was actually commonplace in her previous life. Although Sakura had never seen a mirage, she knew that in the summer, you could see the ground distorting on a scorching hot road. That was actually because the air density had changed, causing the refractive index of the air to change, because the propagation of light was being distorted...
In a battle, this kind of image refraction, even if it was only a hair's breadth, could lead to a miss by a thousand miles. The position of Haruno Sakura that Sasori saw was not her real position at all.
A simple way to understand it is like trying to spear a fish from above the water. If you aim directly at the fish's position, you will definitely miss...
Of course, the actual effect was much better than this.
In short, "Mirror Flower, Water Moon" had the effect of a genjutsu, but it was actually just an application of Water Style. Using a genjutsu release method to deal with it was futile!
As long as a person used their eyes to see, "Mirror Flower, Water Moon" could make them have an illusion. Sasori himself was no exception. Therefore, it was an "unblockable genjutsu"!
The mystery in this, Sakura would naturally not explain to Sasori.
On the contrary, taking advantage of this gap where Sasori's attack had failed, she was forming hand seals.
The tactic to be used next was naturally the old routine of setting up the field with Ice Style, followed by a combination of Body Flicker and nin-taijutsu. This combination of moves had already proven its practicality in previous battles, and she would, of course, continue to use it on Sasori.
She had basically figured out the intelligence on the Kazekage puppet. It was nothing more than various applications of Magnet Style. The powerful magnetic field might have a great impact on iron ninja tools like swords. If Yūgao were the one standing here now, most of her combat power would probably have been nullified...
But it was a pity! Sakura had never carried ninja tools... nor did she wear any accessories. Even her clothes had no metal rings or zippers. There were no metal objects on her entire body. The straightforward attack method of Magnet Style was not much of a threat to her, who had activated her Sakura Rush state and had extremely fast reaction speed. What's more, she had "Mirror Flower, Water Moon" to disturb his vision. Sasori would not be able to discover the secret of this jutsu anytime soon.
So this puppet had no more trump cards. At most, it had a few small, insidious mechanisms like poison gas... It was time to get rid of it!
"Ice Style: Cold Frost Ice Funeral!"
On the ground where she had just used the super-large-scale Water Style, a large amount of water remained, allowing Sakura's Ice Style to be cast even more swiftly and fiercely.
This wave of attacks from the Kazekage puppet had just passed, and Sakura's counterattack immediately followed. Crack, crack!
A bone-chilling cold current instantly froze the puddles and pools on the ground into ice. Hard ice began to grow crazily on the ground. Ice blades, ice spears... countless ice weapons shot up into the air like bamboo shoots after a spring rain!
In the blink of an eye, this area had been turned into a world of frost.
Just as a surprised thought had flashed through Sasori's mind, a sudden change occurred at his feet. He didn't have time to think too much and subconsciously leaped up, quickly avoiding the encirclement of the ice spikes—Sakura's main attack direction was not him.
The one caught in the siege of ice blades and ice spears was the Kazekage puppet.
The ice spikes were crystal clear and sparkling. While their appearance was gorgeous and dazzling, they concealed a murderous intent: extremely high hardness, incomparably sharp ice blades. The Kazekage puppet was at a loss and couldn't block them at all. It was soon cut and covered in wounds.
Sasori had just dodged the attack of the Cold Frost Ice Funeral. Freeing his hands, he immediately controlled the Kazekage puppet to respond—
"Secret Technique: Thousand-Hand Manipulation!"
The puppet's left arm swung forward, a mechanism suddenly opened, and a sealing formula hidden in the arm was suddenly activated.
Hundreds upon thousands of arms then poured out crazily from the mechanism, squeezing into a dense mass, and met the ice spikes on the ground.
Papapa—! In the roaring collision, the ice spikes were beaten into broken ice slag. Countless broken puppet arms flew in all directions and scattered on the ground. The continuous sound of collision and shattering rang out!
The hard ice generated by the Kekkei Genkai was far harder than the puppet's arms, but after all, many ants can bite an elephant to death. The offensive of the Cold Frost Ice Funeral was instantly suppressed.
However, this did not mean that Sakura's offensive had stopped.
Seeing that the ice spike thrust of the Cold Frost Ice Funeral was suppressed, she decisively stopped her hand seals, cut off the chakra supply to the Cold Frost Ice Funeral, and another ninjutsu was immediately cast—
"Ice Style: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!"
The girl instantly appeared behind the Kazekage puppet!
"Nin-taijutsu: Wing Chun Hidden Leg!"
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