Chapter 334: The Secret of the Mist
"Water Style: Great Waterfall Jutsu!"
On one side was a pair of slender, powerful hands, moving swiftly; on the other side was a pair of delicate, nimble hands, dancing gracefully. Yet both sides made the same hand seals!
A huge amount of river water extracted from the river deformed and flowed with the hand seals and chakra circulation of the ninja, attacking from two sources towards each other. They collided brazenly in mid-air, making a deafening sound.
BOOM—!
Water splashed, as if a torrential rain had begun to fall.
The two ninjutsu perished together between Sakura and Hagura, turning into nothing amidst a roar, leaving only a puddle of water on the ground.
Looking at the splashing water, Hagura's brow furrowed tightly.
This is the fifth time.
The opponent has used the same Water Style as him five times in a row to cancel out his ninjutsu!
He had never fought such a strange battle. Every Water Style was perfectly canceled out by the opponent. The first time was a coincidence, but what about the second, third, fourth, and fifth times?
Even the large-scale Water Style he had used with all his might was intercepted by the opponent without a single error, using the same Water Style, and the result was still the same mutual destruction!
The opponent's Water Style is a level above his...
Hagura caught his breath and glanced at his opponent. Her expression was still as calm as the wind and clouds, without any sign of fatigue or struggle on her face.
He gritted his teeth and used all his strength to cast another Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu. A water dragon close to a hundred meters long changed its shape in the air under the control of a huge amount of chakra, finally condensing into a translucent giant dragon!
With a huge body and surging momentum, the water dragon appeared in the air in a form that dominated the battlefield!
Hagura finished forming the seals, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead. After perfectly casting his signature ninjutsu, he smiled.
This was the ninjutsu he practiced the most and mastered the best. It was his trump card, his ace in the hole! When ordinary Water Style ninja used this ninjutsu, it would be at most thirty or forty meters long, and its power was already very astonishing. But he could create a water dragon over a hundred meters long. Just the momentum alone was extremely terrifying, and its power was unimaginably huge!
In the entire Mist Village, there were no more than three people who could compare to him in this one move alone!
It was precisely because of this ninjutsu that he had won the favor of the Fifth Mizukage and the respect of others.
Hagura looked up. This time, you shouldn't be able to use the exact same ninjutsu, right!
And then, he was stunned.
The exquisite face of the girl remained unmoved. Her chakra controlled the water flow to undergo the same changes, effortlessly condensing a water dragon that was also over a hundred meters long!
His huge Water Dragon Bullet, which he was so proud of, was just a casual ninjutsu in the opponent's hands, without needing any preparation.
Hagura only felt a rush of blood to his head. What is this?
He immediately shouted angrily, indignantly, "Enough! Use your true strength! Stop fooling around!"
How strong is the opponent? No matter how I probe, I can't find the bottom of the opponent. Every time the opponent displays her strength, it's a few points stronger than the strongest strength I imagined!
The so-called 'strongest Water Style'... was originally just a compliment from me, but I didn't expect it to become a prophecy!
Haruno Sakura just smiled indifferently. "True strength? As you wish!"
She extended her right hand and waved fiercely, extracting a huge amount of river water from the river flowing through the training ground again, almost draining half of the river with ample flow until only the riverbed remained. The water dragon over there was supplemented by this, and its size swelled again by more than double. Its length impressively broke through the limit of one hundred meters, becoming two to three hundred meters long!
Not only the change in body shape, but also the carving of details, from the skeleton to the muscles to the skin scales and sharp teeth and claws, every inch was lifelike, demonstrating the user's superb chakra control and Water Style cultivation that had reached perfection!
If the nearly hundred-meter-long water dragon just now was using a B-rank Water Dragon Bullet with the style of an A-rank ninjutsu, then the giant dragon hovering in mid-air, showing off its power at this moment, had broken through to the category of S-rank ninjutsu.
Comparing the two, the water dragon used by Hagura, in front of Sakura's giant dragon, was simply a comparison between a pheasant and a phoenix, the light of a grain of rice and the brilliance of the bright moon!
The girl waved her right hand, and the giant dragon roared, diving towards Hagura's water dragon. Hagura gritted his teeth and also urged his water dragon to meet it.
The two crashed together with a boom. Hagura saw, as expected, that his ninjutsu was crushed without any resistance. The giant dragon twisted it into pieces like an adult bullying a child, and then dived towards Hagura!
Is this her true strength?
Facing such a powerful Water Style, Hagura actually felt himself trembling slightly. Dodge? Intercept? Or use a trump card?
In an instant, his mind raced, countless thoughts flashed through his mind, and finally he made a decision—
"I surrender!" Hagura raised his hand and said.
He found that he and the Mizukage had made a serious error in their estimation. They thought that a ninja of her age would have a limit to how strong she could be. With his strength, which was not bad among Jonin, he could at least deal with her for a while. He didn't expect to be defeated so cleanly and completely!
There was no point in fighting any further, unless it really turned into a life-or-death battle and he exposed his trump cards...
No, there was no need for that. Even if he used his trump cards, Hagura had no confidence in winning against the opponent! If he still had trump cards, what about the opponent? It seemed she didn't need to use any cards, just an ordinary Water Style was enough to beat him into a sorry state.
Verifying her combat power was enough. From the girl's performance, she was at least at the elite level among Jonin, or perhaps higher...
Hagura said something disrespectful to the Mizukage in his heart: It seems even Lady Mei Terumī's Water Style isn't this strong, right?
Hagura's decisive surrender made Sakura slightly stunned. She could feel that Hagura had only used half of his strength. Was he giving up just like that? It was the first time she had encountered a scene where an opponent surrendered readily in battle. However, her hands did not hesitate. With a wave of her right hand, under the command of her slender jade fingers, the giant dragon circled around and landed beside her. The chakra was withdrawn, and it returned to its original state of clear river water.
Hagura walked over slowly.
Looking at his opponent, he felt a little emotional.
Ninja these days, you really can't judge a book by its cover! Is it true that the more beautiful a woman is, the more powerful she is?
Hagura secretly compared Haruno Sakura with Mei Terumī in his heart. Then again, if Lady Mei Terumī wasn't sitting in the Mizukage's seat and putting on the majestic posture of a Mizukage, she was actually a delicate beauty in private. Her appearance was definitely not inferior to this Hokage's disciple, and her figure completely crushed this bean sprout that hadn't fully grown yet. As for the most important strength, Lady Mei Terumī should still be superior, right!
As expected, Lady Mei Terumī is the best!
As a close confidant of the Fifth Mizukage, after wavering for a moment, Hagura became even firmer in his supreme faith, and greeted Haruno Sakura with a smile on his face.
"Alright, you've finished verifying my strength," Sakura crossed her arms and said faintly. "Can you tell me what exactly is going on?"
Hagura put away his smile and looked around vigilantly. An empty training ground was the hardest place to hide people, so it was actually the hardest place to eavesdrop, sometimes even safer than a hidden secret room.
After confirming that there was no one around, and even the three students of Team Haruno Sakura were far away, he said seriously, "Actually, you should be able to guess. The Fifth Mizukage is going to completely solve the problem of the opposition in the near future."
The girl's fine eyebrows rose, and she said, "Is she going to act directly?"
Hagura nodded with a solemn look in his eyes. "Yes."
Sakura sighed inwardly. Sure enough, it's this routine. If you can't convince the other party with words, you can only convince them with violence...
The politics of the ninja world were indeed simple and crude. However, for a world where great power belonged to the individual rather than the organization, this approach was actually quite common.
"The First Elder's faction resolutely opposes the Mist Village opening up, believing that continuing the previous closed-door policy is the reasonable approach!" Hagura said somewhat agitatedly. "We have been discussing this with them for a long time, but we can never reach a consensus."
"The reason is obvious. If the Mist Village doesn't move towards opening up, it can only move towards decline! Any clear-headed person would come to this conclusion! The reason why the First Elder's faction resolutely opposes us is simply because they believe that this policy will harm their interests, so they disregard the facts and bewitch everyone!"
He spoke emotionally and at length.
If the person standing in front of him was really a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl, she might really have been stirred up by him.
However, Haruno Sakura had lived two lives, and her psychological age was not low. She was not someone who would get hot-blooded after hearing a few words. She said calmly, "What you said is all about the Mist Village. The problem is... I am a Konoha ninja. Why should I help you?"
The girl's expression was completely unmoved.
Hagura frowned. "We, the Mizukage's faction, are Konoha's true collaborators. If we lose, the Mist Village and the Land of Water will close themselves off again, and you will lose a powerful ally. The plan to fight against the Akatsuki will also be greatly affected, right!"
"Well said!" The corner of Sakura's mouth curled up, revealing a faint smile. "But there are two problems. First, I brought my subordinates here. I need to protect them. The reasons you mentioned are not enough for me to risk getting involved in your actions."
"Second, I don't think you will lose either."
Speaking of this, the smile on her lips instantly had a somewhat sinister meaning.
There were some unspoken words Sakura didn't say.
Konoha and the Mist were not even allies right now. Why should a "Kage"-level ninja of Konoha work for the Mist's affairs? Did they have that much face? To put it bluntly, the possibility of war breaking out between the Mist and Konoha at any time was not ruled out. Haruno Sakura would even wish for more of them to die in their internal strife!
A person like Hagura could obviously understand the meaning behind Sakura's words.
He took a deep breath and said, "You have such a reason! Because a weak Mist cannot play a role in Konoha's actions against the Akatsuki, especially when the Akatsuki is likely to have a shocking conspiracy. You need every bit of strength! Moreover, you don't need to worry about our stance, because we, the Mist Village, will also spare no effort to stand with your Konoha on the opposite side of the Akatsuki!"
"Why do you say that?" Haruno Sakura frowned tightly, looking deeply at Hagura, questioning, "As far as I know, some ninja villages shout about guarding against the Akatsuki on the surface, while hiring the Akatsuki on the side..."
Hagura's face was gloomy, and he looked back at Sakura with hazy eyes.
"We won't do that, because the Mist Village and the Akatsuki have an irreconcilable hatred! The reason is simple. The reason our village became the Village of the Bloody Mist before was because the previous Mizukage was controlled by the people of the Akatsuki. All the bloody policies and cruel massacres were at the Akatsuki's instruction!"
"Our entire village has been ravaged by the people of the Akatsuki for more than ten years!"
He said through gritted teeth!
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