Chapter 528: Reorganization
You can't blame some girls for seeing bromance everywhere.
When guys with good relationships get close, they seem inseparable, as if glued together, much closer than ordinary boyfriends and girlfriends.
Thinking carefully about it—besides getting a room, guys can play and have a lot of fun together with anything, whereas with more vulgar male-female relationships, getting a room is the only thing left to get excited about.
Switching to the ninja world, it's pretty much the same.
And our transmigrated protagonist, for the first time from a girl's perspective, discovered this problem: Naruto and Sasuke, seemingly one hot and one cold, looking like their conversation could die at any moment, actually left absolutely no room for Sakura to interject once they started talking.
According to the principle of opposites attract and likes repel, she and Naruto, and she and Sasuke should have a closer relationship than Naruto and Sasuke, but in reality—
"Hehe, I wasn't idle during these two years I was out, I trained several new ultimate moves yo!"
Naruto smugly showed off to Sasuke.
"Tch. You definitely just upgraded the Rasengan into some other kind of Rasengan and counted it as a new move." Sasuke curled his lip and said disdainfully, but a faint smile hung on his face, "Let me tell you, I am the one who mastered a new big move. Hmph, definitely beyond your imagination!"
"Eh, wait," Haruno Sakura squeezed in and laughed dryly, "Actually, I also have a new ultimate move! I'll show it to you later—"
Before she could finish half her sentence, she was interrupted by Naruto's perfunctory smiling: "Hn hn, got it Sakura."
Because the two occasionally communicated by letters, Naruto knew a lot about Sakura's training progress, knew many of the girl's moves, and was also clear that she had mastered Sage Mode—which was what Naruto needed to train in the next stage.
So Naruto understood very well that the gap between him and Sakura hadn't shortened. In the short term, he wasn't interested in Sakura; his goal was still to catch up to and surpass Sasuke.
Naruto immediately turned his head to look at Sasuke again and said with full interest: "Sasuke, haven't sparred for a long time, let's have a long-lost practical training session this afternoon! Don't you just think my ultimate move is only a chakra ball!"
"The training grounds inside the village are too small to perform," Sasuke said lightly, "I recently found that the training ground in the Forest of Death is very spacious, and there's usually almost no one there. Let's go there this afternoon!"
The girl raised her delicate eyebrows.
That training ground was finalized by me and Kakashi, how did it become you who found it, Sasuke?
She wanted to retort but couldn't interject. Her oval face puffed up into a bun face, left out in the cold on the side.
Are you two really not a couple?!
In most occasions, Haruno Sakura was the focus of the crowd, or at least one of the objects of attention: because of her superb strength and her status and position that left much room for imagination. Even ordinary people who didn't understand these things would take a few more glances because of the girl's exquisite face.
Only the two boys present were exceptions.
They were already used to her high strength, didn't care much about her status as the Hokage's disciple, and her appearance was even less of a point worthy of the boys' attention—even if it's a heavenly immortal, facing her every day would cause aesthetic fatigue; moreover, the girl's beauty was only relatively outstanding, far from reaching the fantasy level in web novels where a frown or a smile would startle the world.
Haruno Sakura endured for a bit. Seeing that the two had no intention of stopping, she forcefully squeezed between them, forced a smile, and said:
"I'm so hungry, let's go eat!"
"Oh." "Hn."
The two took time out to express their opinions to Sakura, their eyes not even turning to look at her, and then continued to chat about the previous topic.
"Hey, I say," seeing the two finish speaking and walk forward very tacitly, the girl blinked and followed, "where are you guys going?"
"To eat."
Sasuke finally turned his head and explained to her.
"Didn't you say you were hungry?"
Haruno Sakura hurriedly walked to Sasuke's side and smiled: "Then where are we going to eat? I know a new hot spring buffet restaurant opened a few months ago, last time Hinata and I—"
"Of course it's Ichiraku Ramen!" Naruto didn't hear what she said next at all, and answered reflexively as soon as eating was mentioned, "Hehe... haven't eaten at Ichiraku Ramen for a whole year, so nostalgic!"
Sasuke looked at him, heard this expected answer, smiled slightly on his face, and shook his head helplessly again.
"Hmph, knew you would say that."
He said in an accommodating tone: "Then Ichiraku it is."
—If it weren't for Sakura herself also often accommodating Naruto's obsession with Ichiraku Ramen, she would definitely have seen a doting meaning in Sasuke's eyes.
"...Then Ichiraku it is."
The girl sighed, her voice weak.
"Speaking of which, Naruto's undying love for Ichiraku over so many years is really long-lasting affection!" Haruno Sakura raised her eyebrows and said.
"Hehe, once I decide on something, I won't change it easily!" Naruto smiled proudly and said, "This is my ninja way!"
"Don't use your ninja way on food!"
"But Ichiraku Ramen is really delicious yo!"
After lunch.
Outskirts of the Forest of Death, Training Ground 39.
"Let's put gossip aside for now and get back to business."
Haruno Sakura stood in front of the two and said seriously.
"Hn... the three of us, starting from now, will reform Team 7, which is Team Kakashi." She said solemnly.
Although Sasuke and Naruto already knew this news beforehand, they still couldn't help but feel excited at this moment.
"Great!" Naruto clenched his fists, jumped up, and shouted.
"Calm down a bit, Naruto." Haruno Sakura shook her head and smiled.
Pausing for a moment, she put away her smile and said: "I want to remind you, reforming Team 7 this time is not because of our desire to be together, but because the village needs us to form an elite squad now."
"You have some understanding of the current situation in the ninja world, and I just explained the parts you didn't know in detail to you."
"We formed Team 7 to deal with Akatsuki's aggressive posture and resist Akatsuki's unbridled actions of collecting Tailed Beasts and Jinchuriki."
"Of course, there is another important role, which is to protect you, Naruto, as the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki." The girl pointed at the demon fox boy and said in a deep voice.
"...Understood."
Naruto put away the smile on his face and answered seriously.
Haruno Sakura nodded and continued: "To be blunt, Team 7 is currently the squad with the highest combat power in the village, and even the entire ninja world... This also means we need to face the most ferocious and powerful enemies in the entire ninja world!"
"That is 'Akatsuki'..."
"I emphasize, those will inevitably be extremely dangerous and extremely difficult missions!"
"Hmph." Sasuke smiled faintly, resting his left hand on his eye socket, and said calmly, "I'm already prepared."
"My Sharingan has long wanted to find a suitable opponent!"
Sasuke looked at the girl with burning eyes, implicitly carrying a bit of anticipation in his expression.
Last time, in that world, the battle where he used the newly awakened Mangekyo Sharingan against the other-worldly himself, Sasuke didn't consider it a real battle.
Moreover, Sasuke didn't use the true power of the Mangekyo at all at that time.
As for now, Sasuke, who had already mastered big moves like Susanoo and Takemikazuchi, couldn't wait to face an enemy with enough weight to show off his power.
This mentality was similar to just getting a new toy and urgently sharing the feeling with companions.
Haruno Sakura looked back at him calmly, the corner of her mouth curling up slightly.
"There will definitely be opportunities, Sasuke." She said faintly, "And it won't be a long wait."
"So before that, we have to seize the time to train."
Although Haruno Sakura said this, even she didn't expect the request to dispatch would come so quickly.
Land of Water, Mist Ninja Village.
Mizukage Mei Terumi looked at the man bandaged like a mummy on the hospital bed in front of her, her face extremely gloomy.
The few medical ninja in Mist Ninja Village were busy around the man, continuously casting medical ninjutsu to maintain the life of the ninja on the bed; the piercing sound of the instruments indicating critical condition kept screaming, making the Mizukage-sama's mood increasingly irritable.
After a good while, the medical equipment finally stopped flashing the dazzling red light, and the leading medical squad captain breathed a sigh of relief.
"How is the situation?"
Mei Terumi asked with a cold face.
"Temporarily saved his life, passed the critical period..." The captain took off his mask, wiping sweat while panting, "But, whether he can recover his ninja abilities later, or even recover ordinary mobility, and even when he can wake up... is hard to say."
"Hmph!" Anger flashed across the Mizukage's face, but she forcefully suppressed it, snorted coldly, and said, "That is to say, Chojuro might never wake up? Can only lie in bed for the rest of his life?"
"Isn't Konoha's medical ninjutsu known as being able to absolutely save people as long as they have a breath?! What are you eating for!"
The voice hiding anger pressed down on the medical ninja awe-inspiringly like a monstrous giant wave. The captain's face instantly turned pale, and his body shook violently.
"S-sorry, Mei Terumi-sama!" He said with a trembling voice, "Our training time in Konoha was only one year, we haven't fully mastered the essence of medical ninjutsu, we can't reach the level of Konoha's medical ninja..."
Mei Terumi gritted her teeth.
She knew that a short period of one year was completely insufficient for their own medical ninja to grow up.
She also knew she was angry at her own powerlessness but venting her anger on others, and the medical ninja had already done their best.
She knew even more that the root of the problem lay in the overall decline of the Mist Ninja, which couldn't be made up for in a short time.
If not for Konoha promising to help them train some medical ninja after the Mist Ninja allied with Konoha, I'm afraid Chojuro would have already died in front of her.
Mei Terumi took a deep breath.
No need to hesitate anymore, the current situation was no longer something Mist Ninja could handle alone.
"Ao, bring paper and pen."
The woman had a gloomy face, sinking like water.
"After I finish writing, deliver my letter to the Fifth Hokage at the fastest speed!"
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