Kapitel 51: Chapter 51 Those Willing Shall Take the Bait

When Sakura returned to the riverside, Naruto had already cleaned and prepared several fish, letting their blood flow freely down the river.

"You really caught them? So quickly?"

Sakura was amazed. She placed the dry branches she had in her arms on the ground before walking over to Naruto.

"Yeah, just caught a few." Naruto replied without looking up, "We don't have enough salt to preserve the meat, so..."

"Naruto, you're amazing." Sakura said.

"It's not that great, practice makes perfect." Naruto stood up, "Don't sleep too deeply tonight, there might be more fish biting."

"Tonight? Fish?"

Even though Sakura didn't fully understand what Naruto meant, seeing the blood flowing down the river almost instinctively sent shivers down her spine. Blood would attract more predators, and what might happen after dark was anyone's guess.

Whoosh.

Naruto reached out and released a small amount of Lava Release into the pile of dry branches, using the instantaneous high temperature to ignite the branches.

The fire dispelled the fear in Sakura's heart, and she stood up to fetch water from the river. After moistening a towel, she gently placed it on Sasuke's forehead. All that was left was to wait.

She looked at Naruto, who was stringing fish on cleaned branches and then setting up a grill.

"Let me help."

Sakura stood up, took the branch with the fish on it, and roasted it over the fire carefully, just like Naruto did.

The flickering firelight danced on Sakura's dust-covered face, and her eyes were slightly unfocused. She seemed to be thinking about what happened during the day, and her eyes were filled with fear and confusion.

After a long silence, she lowered her head and asked, "Naruto, why would Orochimaru attack Sasuke?"

"Who knows." Naruto answered casually, "Maybe Orochimaru has his eye on Sasuke. He must have talked to you guys about power and stuff, right?"

"Yeah." Sakura nodded, "He did say that. He told Sasuke that if he needs strength, he would definitely come to him again."

"Then there's nothing we can do." Naruto said as he roasted the fish next to Sakura, "Sasuke cares so much about strength, and all he thinks about is revenge. Who knows, Orochimaru might have hit the nail on the head."

"Eh? What should we do then?" Sakura panicked, "Will Sasuke really do that?"

"I'm not sure. We'll have to ask him about that." Naruto flipped the fish to prevent them from getting burnt, "Didn't he say something about revenge before? Hatred is something once it takes root, it's irreversible and will only drag people deeper into the abyss."

"Unless…"

"Unless what?" Sakura pressed.

"Nothing." Naruto smiled, "Unless he dies, and then the hatred ends."

What he actually wanted to say was that unless Sasuke was also possessed by someone, he would understand it like he does. After all, what does the past have to do with him?

However, Naruto also didn't intend to interfere with Sasuke's journey of revenge. He would mind his own business and live a long life.

As for what the world will be like in the future, he'll just think about it later.

As night fell, there was almost no light in the woods.

Next to the campfire, Naruto handed Sakura a salted, roasted fish and said, "Try it."

"Thank you." Sakura was also hungry after the long day, so she took the fish from Naruto and took a bite, "It's delicious."

Sasuke was still unconscious, but he looked much better now, at least his breathing was even. Naruto glanced at Sasuke, who is lying beside him, thinking, 'This guy wouldn't be defeated by the Cursed Seal, right?'

Naruto and Sakura each ate two fish, leaving the remaining two for the unconscious Sasuke.

Satisfied and no longer hungry, the two began to discuss their next plan.

"The Heaven Scroll was taken by Orochimaru." Sakura said with some annoyance, "Now we need to defeat two teams to have a chance of advancing, but Sasuke-kun is still unconscious."

"Oh, don't worry about that." Naruto said as he took out the Heaven Scroll and Earth Scroll from his pocket and handed them to Sakura, "Here, I got these."

"Huh?" Sakura was stunned, "Naruto, how did you manage to get two scrolls by yourself?"

"On the way to find trouble with the Otogakure's Shinobi, I ran into a team of Kusagakure's Shinobi, and they happened to be holding the Heaven Scroll." Naruto scratched his head and said, "I wasn't planning to take it with me at first, but after hesitating for a while, I took it anyway. Now it comes in handy."

"That's amazing! Naruto!" Sakura, overwhelmed with joy, hugged Naruto tightly!

In the distance.

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio leaned against a tree, watching the campfire from afar. Shikamaru, his hands forming a telescope shape, stared at that place while complaining.

"What are Naruto's team up to? Lighting a fire in the forest at night will only attract attention."

"That's near the river, right? Maybe they lost their Military Food Pills, so they decided to cook whatever they hunted?" Ino crossed her arms over her chest and said nonchalantly.

"It looks like Sasuke is asleep?" Shikamaru lazily observed, "And why is Naruto being hugged by Sakura? Isn't that guy so popular with girls?"

"What! Hugging?!" Ino suddenly lost her composure.

She peered towards the campfire but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Naruto and Sakura were just sitting by the fire talking.

"Ino, what's wrong with you?" Shikamaru asked.

"Nothing, nothing. I'm just curious." Ino said with a forced smile, "I remember that Sakura only liked Sasuke. There's no way she'd hug Naruto. You must be seeing things."

"That makes sense." Shikamaru scratched his head, "I probably saw it wrong."

"But they might run into trouble soon. If they keep that fire going., it would attract other teams." Choji narrowed his eyes and added, "Should we go and warn them?"

"Too late." Shikamaru suddenly lowered his voice and said, "Hide quickly, someone's coming!"

The trio's expressions tightened and they hid themselves tacitly.

By the river, the campfire was almost going out.

Sakura sat nervously, but she didn't make a sound. Following Naruto's instructions, she just closed her eyes and pretended to sleep.

Soon, three figures emerged from the river.

Almost silently, the three Kusagakure's Shinobi slowly moved towards the campfire by the river.

Naruto continued to poke at the fire with a stick, seemingly unaware of the approaching danger. This put the three Kusagakure's Shinobi at ease, and they signaled each other before suddenly launching their attack.

At the critical moment, Naruto's figure vanished from the fire's side.

'What!'

The Kusagakure's Shinobi knew that something was wrong and suddenly realized that this was a trap.

However, it was too late for them to escape. Naruto suddenly appeared behind one of them, his hand glowing with bright blue light. A large ball of lightning was forcibly injected into the body of a Kusagakure's Shinobi, causing a scream that echoed through the night, startling the birds in the forest.