Kurotsuchi felt the sounds around her being swallowed. In the absolute silence, it seemed as if plants were sprouting around her.
The fragrance of iris flowers rapidly spread under the watering of blood and fighting spirit, delineating a wonderfully beautiful and marvelous scene.
'Wait, this is the sky, how could plants possibly grow here?'
Her survival instinct made Kurotsuchi sense something wrong, abruptly awakening.
Looking again at the beautiful fairyland adorned with flowers around her, she could now perceive the accumulated malice hidden beneath the beautiful blooms and branches.
Just a wisp of her aura had already woven a beautiful death illusion for her.
"Gulp!"
Kurotsuchi forcibly swallowed a mouthful of saliva, her gaze turning toward the inhuman girl floating among the illusory flowers.
'Hmm, can we reconcile?'
The answer is, no!
In the distance, Sakura swung her long spear, her entire body rushing toward her like an arrow released from a bow.
"Damn it, I don't have much Chakra left!"
Kurotsuchi gritted her teeth, extracting the last bits of Chakra from her body to form hand seals again.
She raised both hands and spread them outward. A white, semi-transparent membrane condensed before her hands, aiming at Sakura, also soaring through the sky, and shooting out a pale white laser.
—Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!
"Perfect, try this!"
Sakura gripped the cross-shaped spear tightly. Dark thunder erupted as it was wrapped in two Haki. The heat death force caused by her fruit ability followed like a shadow, finally transforming into a giant spear shadow that she swung out.
—Spear of Decay: Ikoku Sovereignty!
The two terrifying attacks met in the sky. The moment they collided, they released a dazzling brilliance that was impossible to look at directly.
The light illuminated the entire sky. The Ninjas on the Konoha's defense line below looked up, gazing at the two young women fighting fiercely in the sky.
"Dust Release, such a dangerous technique?"
Jiraiya, puffing on a pipe, raised an eyebrow, secretly relieved that he had sent Sakura up.
If this new Dust Release user from Iwagakure had run amok inside Konoha's defense line, it would likely have killed quite a few people!
But before Jiraiya's exclamation had even settled, a deafening roar came from the sky.
Boom!
Countless eyes witnessed together the triangular light beam in the sky being shattered bit by bit by a burning cross-shaped wooden spear. Then the residue of the Dust Release Ninjutsu triggered a massive explosion.
The first thing torn apart was the sky. Above the hazy, starry night, the air pressure difference caused by the explosion stirred up the surrounding water vapor cycle, creating a large hole above the defense line, rapidly gathering the surrounding clouds.
In the end, it turned into a torrential downpour.
Before the endless torrential rain had even fallen, the blazing flames on the earth had already been extinguished by the violent shockwave swung out by the spear shadow, silently evaporating in the storm. The dust spread in the raging tide, falling from the sky with the black rain, pale as bone ash.
The entire defense line was shrouded in turmoil. Countless Iwagakure's Ninjas watched heartbroken as their battlefield leader fell from the sky, caught and carried away by another figure.
"This is bad, we can't fight anymore!"
Darui of Kumogakure, seeing Sakura carrying the momentum of her victory land on Konoha's city wall, overlooking everyone, knew that the morale of both armies would surely be greatly diminished due to the defeat of Iwagakure's commander.
So this man, who had long been known as Kumogakure's external brain, immediately turned around and shouted to the Ninjas behind him, whether from Kumogakure or Iwagakure: "Retreat!"
The Ninjas of both sides began to abandon their fights with the enemies before them, gradually withdrawing from Konoha's border along the pre-planned routes they had established before the battle.
Many Konoha's Ninjas wanted to pursue, but the Explosive Corps of Iwagakure, before withdrawing, jointly launched their Explosion Release, shattering the defensive wall.
The collapsing rubble and debris formed a barrier. The very wall that had previously protected the Konoha's Ninjas from harm now became an obstacle preventing their pursuit.
"Sigh, what a shame!"
Kakashi, who had dug himself out of the rubble using Earth Release, watched the rapidly disappearing Kumogakure and Iwagakure forces and sighed.
"Don't pursue a beaten enemy. Clean the battlefield and treat the wounded."
Jiraiya descended from the sky, patted Kakashi on the shoulder, and led them in beginning to treat the wounded.
…
A few hours later, in the medical camp of Konoha's encampment.
Dozens of Sakura's Wood Clones, along with a group of Medical-Nins, shuttled between the various tents.
Fortunately, she had prepared enough medicine in the past few days… otherwise, this small-scale battle would have likely killed at least dozens of people.
The noise outside awakened Sasuke, who was wrapped in bandages. He with difficulty raised his head to look around and suddenly discovered that he was surrounded by wounded people just like him.
"What happened?"
Sasuke, sitting up from his sickbed despite the pain, muttered quietly.
"It should be that Konoha's Ninjas have already fought with the invading forces from Kumogakure and Iwagakure!"
A steady voice came from beside the boy, and this voice carried a slight tremor.
Sasuke looked down beside his bed. A face with tear troughs, bearing a fifty percent resemblance to his own mother's features, appeared in his line of sight.
The two of them were thus sleeping in the same bed, thoughtfully stuffed under the same blanket by someone, just as close as they were in childhood...
Yeah, right!!!
"Bro... Uchiha Itachi, you bastard!"
The boy's face visibly flushed red. Cherry-pink scales began to emerge on his arm.
Click!
The sound of a camera shutter being pressed. Sasuke's expression, three parts shyness, three parts anger, three parts nostalgia, was thus frozen.
The two brothers simultaneously turned their gaze toward the source of the sound and saw the pink-haired girl, her eyes shining with excitement.
"Oh, am I disturbing you? Sorry, sorry."
Sakura put down her camera as if nothing had happened, waved to them apologetically, and lifted her foot to open the tent flap and walk out.
The scene she had been anticipating for two full days was finally captured. It was worth leaving a clone here to wait before she went out to fight.
"Wait, Haruno Sakura, you stop right there!"
Sasuke, not even bothering to put on clothes, rushed out from under the blanket and leaped toward Sakura in one bound, trying to grab the camera from her hand.
"So small..." The girl's gaze moved down, her lips curling.
Veins bulged on Sasuke's forehead. He opened his mouth and roared: "It's not small, you female hooligan!!!"
Then, lightning crackled inside the tent. After a chaotic commotion, Sasuke put on his clothes and followed Sakura to the tent where she organized her patient records.
"So, what does the village want to do now, have these Missing-Nin return?" Sasuke, sitting on a chair, took a sip of the tea Sakura handed him.
Sakura picked up a declassified file from the village and handed it to Sasuke. It recorded the beginning and end of Itachi's betrayal. "The war has already begun. This branch of the Uchiha Clan will become the object of covetousness for many nations. The village doesn't want to see dark-skinned Uchiha running all over the world with their Sharingan."
"And what about their crime of betraying the village back then?" Sasuke gritted his teeth, the words squeezing out between them.
Unlike the hatred of his entire clan being slaughtered in the original work, with Sakura's involvement back then, the number of Uchiha casualties was not high, except for Uchiha Fugaku, who sacrificed himself to save everyone.
But Fugaku's death and the harsh words and cold stares Sasuke and his mother endured within the Uchiha Clan over the years were still a thorn lodged in Sasuke's heart. Healing this wounded heart would not be so easy.
"Those willing to return, as long as they compensate for the damage they caused back then according to the destruction, and serve some time in prison, that's all." Sakura crossed her hands and propped up her chin.
Sasuke clenched his fist and slammed it on the table: "No, I disagree!"
"Really? Don't you want your beloved big brother to come home? Aunt Mikoto is really looking forward to it, you know?" The girl bared her shark teeth, her tempting smile gradually distorting. "If you keep acting like this, you'll regret it someday, won't you?"
"Shut up! The village has no right to interfere in this matter. I am the head of the Uchiha Clan!" Sasuke slammed the table and stood up, then turned and walked out of the tent.