บท 362: I Prefer Punching Things
Moments after Yuna cut through Itachi's body, the real Itachi opened his eyes with a bewildered expression on his face. Just know, Yuna cut through two of his kunai like they were made out of paper. That should be impossible.
Considering Itachi's strength, he would naturally not use the standard kunai that every random genin had. After all, those would simply bend or shatter if he were to use his full strength. So, every shinobi started using specially made kunai that were harder, sharper and made out of more expensive materials after reaching a certain level of strength.
And yet, Yuna cut through those kunai with a weapon she created out of her ice and, as far as Itachi could tell, without injecting any additional chakra into it while slashing down.
Wasn't that impossible?
"I WILL DEFINITELY KILL YOU, NARUTO UZUMAKI!!!"
Itachi was awoken from his contemplation when he heard Kisame's hate-filled roar echo over the forest, causing Itachi to shake his head.
'Did that meathead get hit by another prank? It seems like Naruto Uzumaki got himself an enemy for life. Oh well, I don't really care. I guess I should report the situation for now."
Itachi directed his consciousness into the ring he was wearing. Moments later, he found himself inside a big room with multiple transparent and two non-transparent people standing in a circle around an unconscious young man with white skin and the symbol for love on his forehead.
"Itachi, you are back already? Did you get your ass kicked or what?"
However, Itachi ignored Deidara's jeering and started speaking.
"This mission is a failure. Yuna Uzumaki will be here soon, and we are far from done with the extraction."
"Haa? What kind of nonsense are you saying? Isn't this perfect? You can continue the extraction while Sasori and I capture her."
Itachi gave Deidara a look of pity before looking at Pain, who had the final say in this matter.
Pain, or rather, Nagato, was quite flustered after Yuna managed to cake him, but after a little bit of coaxing from Obito, his god complex was firmly back in place, so he was naturally looking down on Yuna.
"For now, our priority is extracting the Ichibi, so you should priorities stalling her rather than capturing her. However, if there is a good opportunity, then you can capture her. In fact, even killing her is fine since we still have her little brother as a backup."
Itachi could only shake his head when he heard Pain's orders but didn't comment on it any further.
'It seems like Akatsuki will lose two of its members today, and with a bit of luck, Kisame's brain will overheat due to anger, resulting in him waltzing straight into Konoha to get his revenge. *Sigh* Enduring the quirks of all these obnoxious people is so annoying, but it's all worth it. After all, it's for the sake of my little sister.'
Meanwhile, Yuna and her group continued their search for Gaara. Since they met Itachi and Kisame, they could at least be certain that they were moving in the correct direction.
While they were moving, Sakura couldn't help but look and Yuna and Naruto in awe. After all, they just defeated two S-Rank shinobi, and even if they were only copies with a smaller chakra amount, that only made that achievement slightly less impressive.
Although she couldn't really understand what kind of trick Naruto was pulling during his fight, she could at least understand that Naruto was moving very fast the whole time.
Additionally, Yuna's fight with Itachi was even more impressive from her perspective simply because it was easier to understand. A high-speed clash of sword and kunai. In fact, the clashes were so fast that Sakura couldn't even see half of them.
'So that is what it means to be an S-Rank shinobi. If that Sasori guy I'm about to face can move at that speed as well, I see no hope for me actually winning this fight. So the real question is how Itachi compares to other S-Rank shinobi. I can only hope that his strength is at the top of the power scale.'
As if she could read Sakura's thoughts, Yuna chuckled in amusement at her changing facial expressions.
"There is no need to worry, Sakura. Itachi heavily specializes in speed and genjutsu and is, at least in my opinion, one of the more dangerous S-Ranks. Fighting at such a high speed is something only very few can do. For example, Sasori specializes in puppets and poison, so he naturally can not move as fast as Itachi."
Sakura sighed in relief when she heard Yuna's words. If everyone in Akatsuki could move that fast, then she really wouldn't know what to do with herself.
Meanwhile, Chiyo was even more shocked than Sakura. After all, she had lived a long life and had a much better grasp on the level of strength a shinobi had and was much more experienced in judging it.
An essential factor that Sakura oversaw was that while Yuna used a huge sword to fight Itachi, Itachi was only using two kunai. That means, that Yuna could keep up with Itachi, despite using a significantly slower weapon than him, so she was either even faster than him, or her skill was superior. As far as Chiyo could judge, it was the second case.
'*Sigh* I guess it's good that we are allied with Konoha now. I really wouldn't want to face this woman on a battlefield.'
A few minutes later, the group reached their destination. A huge boulder that had a seal tag on it and was covering the entrance to a cave.
Yuna chuckled in amusement when she saw the seal tag and directed her gaze at Karin.
"Well, give it a try, Karin."
"Yes, Yuna-sama!"
Karin ran up the bolder and squatted down next to the seal without a moment of hesitation. The finger on her right hand lit up with chakra as she started moving them slowly over the seal.
Moments later, a contempt-filled sneer appeared on her face.
"I see; this is supposed to fix the bolder to this location and make it unbreakable. To remove the seal the proper way, we need to locate four more seal tags in the surrounding and rip them off simultaneously."
Naturally, everyone immediately understood that that wasn't the only solution when Karin talked about the "proper way" to remove the seal.
"I see; the way you said that implies that you have a less time-consuming solution, right?"
Karin nodded at Chiyo's question and looked at the seal tag in front of her like it was a piece of garbage.
"I will just dismantle the whole thing and deactivate it that way."
"Mhh, I see; how long will that take?"
"Aaaand, I'm done."
"Huh?"
Yuna and Naruto couldn't help but chuckle a little when they saw Chiyo's bewildered expression, while Sakura couldn't help but smile wryly. She considered herself to be pretty smart, so she decided that she would dabble in seals a little and was pretty much met with failure.
Failure probably wasn't the correct word since she managed to create a few minor seals, but her success could at best be called adorable in front of what an Uzumaki could do.
She once asked Karin for some tips, which she readily agreed to, but unfortunately, the tips were in a language that Sakura couldn't comprehend. Despite knowing the basics of sealing, the "basic hints" Karin gave her were so complex that she had absolutely no idea what to do with them or what they even meant.
That was when she decided that there was no purpose in her learning proper sealing arts. She decided that the Uzumaki clan could have all that sealing mumbo jumbo for themself and that she wouldn't bother with it.
"Well, the door is unlocked; why don't you open it for us, Sakura."
Sakura nodded her head at Yuna's request, and moments later, chakra started gathering in her fist.
In the end, she preferred punching things over learning seals.
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