Chapter 518: Interlude
Anbu Area.
Haruno Sakura had spent more than a year here. Although she rarely came here recently, she still knew the place well.
Anbu is a place with many strict rules.
But many times, man-made rules automatically become invalid when facing people above a certain level. For example... well, for example, Haruno Sakura didn't wear a mask to hide her identity, didn't wear an Anbu uniform, and had no reason to enter or exit the Anbu building, but the girl just swaggered in, and no one stopped her.
On the contrary, the two Anbu guarding the door nodded respectfully in greeting: "Haruno Sakura-sama."
People in every circle will consciously or unconsciously arrange a position for others and themselves.
And Haruno Sakura, even in the elite Jonin circle, belongs to the top-tier figures of the food chain; so it seems comical for people in the Anbu circle to respectfully call an underage girl "sama", but the logic behind it is actually very clear.
Although Haruno Sakura herself didn't put on many airs of a big shot.
"Please don't call me that..."
Haruno Sakura was a bit embarrassed. Being called "sama" at only fifteen years old made her feel uncomfortable all over.
"Just call me Sakura. Or just call me Haruno Sakura directly."
After exchanging a few pleasantries, she finally entered the door.
Because there hadn't been a major war in over a decade, the ninja who had enjoyed peace for a long time also started to pay attention to personal connections... It's hard to say whether this is a good thing.
She went to find Shino first.
—That guy, whenever he's free, goes to the small exam room to guest star as a rookie examiner, so he's the easiest to find.
"Sasuke has been working in the Interrogation Department recently, doing the work of interrogating former Root ninja. I guess right now he's either on a mission or training by himself." Shino, who hadn't appeared for a long time, said, "You still remember the location, right?"
"Of course." The girl nodded, then disappeared in front of Shino with a Body Flicker, "Thanks, see ya!"
"Eh? Wait... why are you leaving in such a hurry?" Shino's hand was only half extended when Haruno Sakura had already disappeared from his sensing range.
The last time the two met was the month before last at Yugao's house.
Couldn't she stop and chat for a bit?
Looking in the direction the girl left, Shino blinked: "This guy... couldn't be... probably not, right?"
"Tsk tsk tsk."
The Interrogation Department was in a remote small building in the Anbu area, connected to the prison built on the underground floor, so it seemed to have caught a bit of a gloomy and dark atmosphere.
Because of the special nature of interrogation work, this department didn't pay much attention to the combat power of its personnel, but instead valued their investigation ability, observation ability, and genjutsu ability more—of course, the Byakugan and Sharingan were the most popular.
So it wasn't surprising that Ibiki Morino would borrow both Hinata and Sasuke here at the same time.
"Alright, Iken, take number 28 down." Ibiki's cold voice sounded emotionlessly in the interrogation room.
After the former Root ninja number 28 was taken away, the expression on Ibiki's face softened a bit. He looked at the two young people sitting aside: "How is it? Very tired, right?"
Sasuke wiped the sweat beads off his forehead with his hand, panting in small breaths, too tired to speak at all.
For a whole morning, he had been using Sharingan genjutsu in coordination with Ibiki's rhetoric and interrogation skills to try and break through the interrogatee's psychological defenses.
Even if the genjutsu itself wasn't a heavy burden, using it too many times was enough to make Sasuke out of breath from exhaustion.
Hinata also nodded silently.
She was similarly covered in sweat, not seeming much more relaxed.
Sasuke was responsible for casting genjutsu, so the task of observing chakra had to be done by her, who possessed the Byakugan.
Although the burden of the Byakugan was much lighter than the Sharingan, she couldn't withstand the long duration—Sasuke still had room to rest, but Hinata had to keep her Byakugan activated all the time to prevent the interrogatee from secretly casting secret techniques.
Keeping the Byakugan activated continuously for a morning, Hinata was also exhausted.
But there was no other way. Dealing with this kind of particularly stubborn, thoroughly brainwashed former Root ninja, ordinary methods were hard to be effective. But based on Tsunade's philosophy of curing illnesses and saving people, it wasn't good to use heavy hands on these people who might become companions in the future.
Ibiki also found it tricky.
Currently, he had no good solution either, and could only wear them down slowly, which was hard on the two seconded young people.
"How is it? Can you still hold on?"
Ibiki asked.
The two were silent for a moment.
Hinata's sentence "Let's rest for a day" was stuck in her throat and couldn't be spoken. She suppressed the urge to shake her head and glanced at Sasuke.
Coincidentally, Sasuke also looked over.
The two sharp gazes instantly collided in the air.
"I, I can still do it." Sasuke panted, gritting his teeth as he forced out these words.
Sasuke can still hold on?
Hinata was stunned, then gritted her teeth, her eyes becoming incredibly firm.
"I... I have no problem either!"
The Hyuga clan absolutely cannot lose to the Uchiha clan!
She, Hinata, just didn't want to lose to Sasuke!
The aura on the Byakugan girl's body burned up. She suddenly stood up and said: "I can still hold on!"
Commendable determination.
But the problem was she had long run out of stamina. Standing up so abruptly, her legs instantly gave way, and she fell backward.
Then the back of her head hit something soft with a bit of hardness.
"Eh?!" Hinata was instantly stunned.
This familiar touch, could it be—
"Besides holding on and putting up a brave front," Haruno Sakura suddenly appeared behind Hinata, reached out to catch her, and smiled, "what else are you holding on for?"
Saying that, she helped Hinata sit down on a chair.
"You're back, Sakura." Sasuke lay on the table, saying weakly.
"Hn." Haruno Sakura nodded.
"Arrived this morning. Then got criticized by Master Tsunade when handing over the mission." The girl curled her lips.
"So you mean, Haruno Sakura, you came straight here to find them right after reporting the mission?" Ibiki joked, "So anxious?"
"Quite anxious." Haruno Sakura answered.
Then looked at Sasuke: "So, Sasuke, come out with me for a bit."
Sasuke dragged his exhausted body out of the building, leaning against the wall basking in the sun, and asked lazily: "What do you want with me?"
Normally, he would absolutely not strike such a lazy posture, but exhausted at this moment, he couldn't care about his image anymore.
"Go to your house." Haruno Sakura looked around before whispering.
"Hm?"
"That scroll I gave you to keep before I left, you remember, right..." Haruno Sakura leaned close and whispered in his ear, "I need it urgently now."
Sasuke frowned.
The breath from the girl when she spoke made his ear itch.
He shrank his neck, thought for a moment, and simply stuffed the key to the girl: "I'm extremely tired, still have to work in the afternoon, so I'm not going back... Go get it yourself, return the key to me when you're done!"
To meet Hinata's challenge in the afternoon, Sasuke had to conserve his strength and store up his energy; the Uchiha's honor cannot be lost in his hands!
"The scroll is placed in the corner of the living room, a very conspicuous place, you'll see it."
"Also, don't rummage through my things!"
Haruno Sakura looked at the key in her hand and twitched the corner of her mouth: "You really trust me enough... alright, then go rest."
She went to fetch the scroll herself, not mentioning it further.
After retrieving the scroll, Haruno Sakura headed straight to the outskirts of Konoha, upstream along a branch of the Naka River, to her secret underground base.
Opening the scroll, she injected the originally reserved spiritual power into the clone's body, activating the clone.
The clone woke up from the table.
She opened her eyes, the beautiful bright black eyes suddenly turned into an eerie blood red, a few tomoe flowing leisurely. Then, with another fluctuation of chakra, the three-tomoe Sharingan evolved into a Mangekyo Sharingan.
The clone climbed down from the bed, staring at Haruno Sakura with her eerie four-corner windmill-shaped eyes.
"To think you actually woke me up..." The clone searched through memories, her face a bit solemn, "Main body, did you encounter any trouble?"
"I encountered a very strange and powerful genjutsu in the Land of Lightning..." Haruno Sakura said slowly, "Although I cracked that jutsu, whether the effect of the genjutsu has truly disappeared, I need to use the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan to confirm."
"What if you were indeed affected by that genjutsu?" The clone asked.
Haruno Sakura looked up and glanced at the clone.
"Then... use Kotoamatsukami on me once!"
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