["Y-You... who are you...?"
Seeing Sakura suddenly appear in place of the person they thought they had captured, the samurai leader's expression changed drastically, and he instinctively blurted out the question.
But the moment the words left his mouth, Sasuke Uchiha had already flashed behind him in an instant. With a precise chop to the back of the neck, the leader did not even manage a groan before collapsing unconscious on the spot.
The samurai restraining Sakura saw their leader go down and immediately lost their nerve. Panicked, they let go of Sakura and turned to flee in all directions.
But before they could get more than a few steps away, Sakura, burning with anger, cut them off. Her fists came crashing down one after another, and each samurai was beaten flat onto the ground.
Sasuke followed right behind her, working in perfect coordination. Together, he and Sakura subdued the fallen samurai one by one and bound them tightly with rope.
"Well, well... what exactly are you all so busy with here?"
A lazy male voice suddenly sounded at that moment.
"Kakashi-sensei."
Turning toward the voice and seeing that it was indeed their jōnin instructor, Hatake Kakashi, Sakura immediately called out to him. Beside her, Sasuke calmly dusted off his hands and replied in an offhand tone:
"Nothing much. Just killing a little time."]**
"First it was three newly graduated genin appearing on the screen, and now even Hatake Kakashi himself—the elite jōnin known as the 'Copy Ninja'—has shown up..."
Hidden Cloud Village, Raikage's office.
Staring at the images on the light screen, the Fourth Raikage muttered to himself for a long while. Then, recalling one of the earlier comments criticizing Konoha, he suddenly pieced everything together and slammed his palm down on his desk in fury.
"I get it now—I finally get it! This is just some damned movie made to build up Konoha's reputation! That despicable Third Hokage—using a trick like this to steal mission shares from the Hidden Cloud! What a shameless bastard!"
"No! I'm not swallowing this. I'm going to curse that old fox out properly in the comments and let the whole ninja world see his true face!"
With that said, the Fourth Raikage began releasing waves of chakra and flooding the screen with furious accusations.
Seeing this—and then glancing at the office desk that had once again been damaged—his secretary Mabui could not help rubbing her forehead.
"Lord Raikage, this is already the third desk broken this month. And besides... the light screen isn't something we can control freely. Even if you vent your anger through the comments, I'm afraid there's still nothing you can actually do to Konoha."
"That's none of your concern. This time, no matter what, I'm not letting Konoha get exactly what it wants through that screen!"
The Fourth Raikage snapped back instinctively, then stopped paying attention to anything else and focused all his energy on posting comment after comment.
["Our apologies."
Looking at the two students who had just greeted him, Kakashi did not say anything more. He simply used the Body Flicker Technique and, with a light swipe of the kunai in his hand, cut through all the ropes binding the samurai.
Then he stepped forward, helped up the leader who had only just regained consciousness after being knocked out, and apologized in a sincere tone.
At this, Sakura and Sasuke immediately showed obvious confusion.
Kakashi did not drag things out. He explained directly:
"This gentleman is actually the client for this mission."
The moment those words fell, the scene on the screen shifted at once.
Now it showed a beautiful little stream. Beside the clear running water sat Fujikaze Yukie in silence, gazing quietly into the current. Nearby, the magnificent white horse lowered its head and drank leisurely from the stream, making the whole scene seem especially peaceful.
"Your Highness, you weren't hurt, were you?"
Just then, an excited voice sounded from behind her.
Fujikaze Yukie slowly turned her head, expression cold and unreadable. The one who came into view was none other than Naruto Uzumaki, the very one who had helped her escape earlier.
But the chill on her face did not lessen in the slightest. She merely looked at Naruto in silence, without saying a word.
"Well... how should I say this..."
Naruto paid no attention at all to her indifference. Instead, scratching the back of his head, he said excitedly, "Big sis, you really are the genuine Princess Fūun, aren't you? Um—well—I watched your movie earlier, and honestly, it moved me so much!"
"Especially when you said, 'We can't give up now'... my tears actually started coming out on their own..."
Faced with Naruto's nonstop chatter, Fujikaze Yukie still showed no reaction. She silently rose to her feet and, with the white horse giving a sharp neigh and lifting its hooves, rode swiftly past Naruto's side.
Caught off guard, Naruto lost his balance and tumbled straight into the icy stream.
Seeing this, Fujikaze Yukie thought she had finally gotten rid of everyone.
But before the white horse had gone very far, Naruto came hurrying after her again, continuing to babble on about his thoughts on the movie—and even bringing up his dream of becoming Hokage.
Faced with this relentless pestering, Fujikaze Yukie instinctively cracked the whip to urge the white horse to go faster. What she never expected, however, was that Naruto would suddenly leap up cleanly and land right behind her on the saddle.
At that point, she had no other choice. Still, she remained silent, saying nothing, simply continuing to crack the whip and push the horse faster and faster.
Even when they rushed along winding forest paths and the branches tore her ornate, luxurious outfit full of rips, she did not slow down in the slightest.
"Big sis, isn't this a little too fast?!"
Watching the trees on both sides fly by in a blur, Naruto could not help shouting a warning.
But before Fujikaze Yukie could respond, they suddenly spotted several small children slowly emerging near a wooden roadside guardrail ahead. Naruto's heart leapt straight into his throat.
Fortunately, Fujikaze Yukie's horsemanship was excellent. The instant she saw them, she yanked hard on the reins. The white horse reared up with a long neigh, then came to a steady stop, narrowly avoiding disaster.
But the force of the sudden stop threw both her and Naruto off balance, and the two of them fell from the horse.
The unexpected turn of events startled the children, who all took half a step back in fright.
But when they noticed Fujikaze Yukie's elegant and splendid outfit and recognized it as Princess Fūun's costume, they immediately swarmed around her excitedly, clamoring for autographs.
Even Naruto, whose back still ached from the fall, could not help stretching out a trembling hand and joining the crowd to ask for a signature.
Having been harassed from start to finish and finally run completely out of patience, Fujikaze Yukie at last snapped, her voice full of anger:
"That's enough! All of you, stop it already! And what's so exciting about getting my autograph anyway? In the end, you'll just toss it into some corner and let it gather dust. Something that meaningless—isn't it just boring and stupid? No different from fools!"
With that, she ignored the children crowding around her for autographs. She did not even spare a final glance for the white horse that had stayed with her day and night through all this time. Alone, she simply turned and walked away from the scene.
Only Naruto remained sitting there blankly on the ground, his dream shattered, staring at her retreating figure for a long while, unable to come back to himself.]**
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 172)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 116)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter119)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 66
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 52
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 55
The Way the Umamusume Look at 42
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 40
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 36
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 30
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 26
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