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Chapter 48
"That's why I came all this way—just to let you meet Uchiha Sakyo face-to-face."
Fire's consciousness began to blur. The side effects were far beyond what a ninja of his level could endure.
Especially… he wasn't even a normal person. With his already defective body, being forcibly used as a Flying Thunder God anchor—he couldn't hold on much longer.
At the mention of Sakyo, Itachi finally spoke: "Location."
Fire, in a daze, saw anger flicker across Itachi's face.
Good… mission complete…
"The location is…"
With those words, Fire closed his eyes and breathed his last.
But throughout it all, Itachi's expression remained unchanged. He had never been angry.
That… was just genjutsu.
Itachi stood silently in place for several minutes. Kisame also stood frozen for several minutes.
The sky… the rain stopped.
After the rain ceased, Itachi gave Kisame a slight glance. Kisame nodded, formed hand seals, and vanished in a puff of smoke.
At the same time, in a certain room in the Land of Rain, the real Kisame was sleeping soundly and peacefully…
…
Pfft~
A sharp pain exploded in Naruto's chest. He looked down in shock and saw a ninja sword pierced straight through his torso.
"What the—?"
He clearly hadn't seen the sword coming, yet it had struck him.
"Cough… cough…"
Naruto coughed up fresh blood. Luckily he was the jinchūriki—these people didn't dare kill him. Otherwise, that blade would have gone straight through his heart.
Naruto spun around, scooping the soft Sakyo into his arms with one hand while forming a seal with the other and slamming it toward the ground.
"Earth Style—Earth Splitting Palm!"
BOOM~
Massive chakra surged into the earth, pouring deep underground. The technique took effect, making the entire ground tremble and crack apart.
This time, Naruto was serious—the range was much larger than before.
The Root ninjas, seeing this, had no choice but to scatter and dodge first.
Naruto seized the moment and ran a good distance.
The ninja sword, still dripping with blood and cold light, snapped Sakyo back from her inner world.
The first thing she saw was the ninja sword buried in Naruto's chest!
Her eyes trembled and widened. Her Sharingan appeared almost instantly, blood vessels quickly surfacing in the whites…
"N-Naruto…?!?"
"Aaah!!"
As for Naruto—seeing Sakyo like this, he immediately came up with a plan.
First, he spoke to her gently: "Little Sakyo… live on with my share…"
Then, with all his strength, he hurled Sakyo far away before collapsing to the ground, convulsing twice… and going completely still…
Sakyo was already in full panic mode. Everything that had just happened had some inexplicable parts.
But she had only just returned from her inner world, still in a daze, and the first thing she saw was Naruto's "death." It made her forget how to breathe.
In the darkness, Naruto's "corpse" lay about ten meters away from Sakyo. Her vision was blurry—she could only see that his body had stopped moving!
"Naruto… Naruto!!!"
Sakyo nearly broke down. Ever since the Uchiha massacre, in all these years, Naruto had been her only friend.
Besides training together every day, they did all the things real friends do.
Scene after scene of her time with Naruto flashed through her mind like a slideshow.
From the day they met, to when Naruto egged her on to chase Sakura.
Then… Naruto discovered her true identity and completely changed…
Those few days when Naruto lived in her house—Sakyo had felt peace and harmony for the first time in so long…
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