Witty Naruto Life

Chapter 183: Sasuke Rescue Operation
Naruto immediately stopped transforming.

"What do you mean? I checked him before, and there was no sign of contamination."

[It was normal before, but it's not right now!] Naruto's eyelids jumped at the anxious tone of the deity.

Against the cold blade, he slowly turned his head.

If it weren't for the master's reminder, Naruto would not have noticed that there was a layer of faint black mist lingering around Sai, which was invisible to the naked eye.

At this moment, Naruto realized the black hand's sinister intentions.

He deliberately attacked the clone and Haku in order to divert Naruto's attention and to contaminate Sai while no one was noticing, thus inducing a quarrel between the two.

In fact, although Sai in the original work has a different stance from Naruto and Sakura, he acts more rationally, and even the timing of his "defection" is appropriate, which is somewhat different from his current extreme behavior.

"That was a close call... I almost killed him." Naruto said to himself, a trace of fear flashing through his mind.

If Sai is really killed, the negative emotions generated will become food for the Black Hand after his death, and he will also lose his teammates, which is not worth the loss.

On the other side, Orochimaru, who had dodged a fatal blow, recovered. Kabuto appeared beside him and said, "Lord Orochimaru, they seem to be having a conflict."

"...Hehe, that child seems to be on our side." Orochimaru licked his lips with a playful expression.

He didn't know the details, but anyone with a discerning eye could see that Sai was planning to turn against them.

At the same time, Sakura flashed to the side of the two, staring at Sai.

"Stop it, Sai. You have no chance of winning against the two of us." She tried to persuade Sai to turn back.

Sai avoided Sakura's gaze and shook his head: "I have no choice."

"Sai, failure is allowed in this mission. Put away your sword and we will continue to surround and kill Orochimaru. I will not hold you responsible after the mission is completed, and I will do my best to protect you."

After hearing what Naruto said, Sai's eyes twitched slightly and he couldn't help but pursed his lips.

Naruto continued to add: "Your brother wouldn't want you to do this, right? Fratricide is enough once."

"Once is a last resort, but what about twice or three times?"

"If you don't want to do it, just give up. This is what every human being would do. You are not a machine. You have your own emotions and desires..."

Sai's sword-holding hand trembled slightly, as if he was caught in a dilemma and struggle. His heart, which had long ago been programmed to simply 'complete the mission', began to waver.

But this wavering mood was soon covered by another wave of indifference, and then it was repeatedly entangled.

As one grew stronger and the other waned, the different viewpoints seemed to become two little men, starting to fight in Sai's mind.

But before he could figure out the answer, he saw a fist in front of him getting bigger and bigger!
"boom!"

Naruto stretched his neck and punched Sai, and Sakura followed closely behind him, instantly appearing behind him and knocking him out with a knife!

"Stop the bleeding!" Naruto shouted at Sakura, and she immediately covered Naruto's neck with the Palm Fairy Technique to prevent further bleeding.

At this time, Sakura turned to Orochimaru: "They're gone..."

Orochimaru and Kabuto did not choose to continue fighting with Naruto and Sakura. The purpose of their trip was to eliminate Scorpion. Since Scorpion did not come, it meant that the goal had been achieved.

Without a moment's hesitation, he immediately chose to retreat.

"I know."

Naruto looked at Bai who was rushing towards the two of them, which meant that he had already dealt with the black hand clone.

In other words, there is no need for Bai to be delayed any further.

"Sorry, I'm late!" Bai rushed to Mingying's side and found Sai unconscious. "He got hit?"

"No, he betrayed us." To be on the safe side, Naruto took out a rope and tied Sai up.

"What?" Bai was a little surprised. He thought Sai was just foul-mouthed, but he didn't expect that his entire stance was crooked.

Naruto said calmly: "It's unexpected, when you only see his shortcomings of low emotional intelligence, you often ignore the bigger shortcomings behind him."

Bai looked at Sai, silent.

"quack--"

Suddenly, several people heard the cry of a crow from high in the sky. It circled a few times and then lowered its flying altitude. Finally, it landed on Naruto's shoulder, looking at him with its head tilted.

Bai looked at the crow and said, "Excuse me, will Sasuke still join us?"

Naruto shook his head: "Probably not, he has missed the best time."

"Then what do we do now?"

"Don't we still have it?" Naruto looked at the crow. "It can show us the way. Let's meet Sasuke at Orochimaru's lair."

"And quickly," Sakura stood up and added, "This crow also showed its face during the raid just now. Orochimaru and the others may have become suspicious of Sasuke."

Bai's heart sank, "So this is Sasuke's crow... They know Sasuke's crow?"

"I don't know, but the way I looked at Kabuto just now was a little strange. They might have recognized me, so the worst-case scenario is..."

Sakura hesitated to speak, and Naruto added for her: "In the worst case scenario, they will settle accounts with Sasuke after returning to their nest. We must rush there before they surround and kill Sasuke."

Mingying and Ying are not sure how much Sasuke has grown, but Orochimaru may choose to cut the Gordian knot and directly cooperate with his men in the nest to subdue Sasuke and forcibly take over his body.

The worst thing is that the pursuit of Sasuke in the original work did not happen.

In other words, the Sound Four are still alive and well at this moment...

If they cooperated with Orochimaru and Kabuto to besiege Sasuke, it would be really bad.

"Do you want to take him with us?" At this time, Bai pointed at the tied-up Sai.

"...Yes." Naruto knew that abandoning Sai at this moment would be like handing him over to the culprit. Using Flying Thunder God to send him back to Konoha was not a safe option. His condition was unstable, so it was best not to give Danzo any chance to contact him.

"We'll take turns watching him during this time." Naruto carried Sai on his back, and the crow flapped its wings and took off, flying towards the front of the Heaven and Earth Bridge.

The three followed closely behind and changed their formation, with Sakura leading the way, Naruto in the middle, and Haku at the rear to ensure that Naruto, who was carrying Sai on his back, would not be attacked suddenly.

beep, beep...

As they continued to move through the dense forest, they soon discovered that one area was in a mess.

Many tree trunks were either cut in half or had charred surfaces, with traces of lightning burns and explosions remaining. Scattered kunai and shurikens were scattered around, indicating the fierce battle that had taken place here.

"The traces of Lightning Release...it must be Sasuke without a doubt." Sakura said in a deep voice, feeling a little worried.

It is impossible to judge the outcome based on the traces of the battlefield alone, and I don’t know if he still has the energy to deal with the next situation.

Naruto was silent for a moment: "Look at the bright side, at least we didn't see a lot of blood, even if there is an injury, it is unlikely to be too serious."

He further speculated that Sasuke probably didn't use his full strength during the fight, otherwise he would have been able to see jutsu like Kirin from a long distance away.

"Ga--" The crow showed no intention of stopping and increased its flying speed. The three of them raised their feet to catch up.

Along the way, they could occasionally see traces of human footsteps on the tree trunks, which meant that they were following the road that Orochimaru had passed.

At this time, Naruto took out a talisman from his pocket, took a look at it and put it back.

Bai noticed this detail: "What is this...?"

Naruto didn't turn his head, "I left a life-saving charm for Sasuke. I told him to burn the charm immediately if he gets into trouble. I'll get the signal right away."

"I see... This spell probably involves some very advanced space-time ninjutsu?" Bai showed a strange look. Naruto invested more energy in Sasuke than he imagined.

"Indeed. Konoha didn't mass-produce this kind of talisman back then, so I had someone make it specifically for me."

Naruto said as he glanced at the talisman again, seeing nothing unusual.

"If I were the enemy, I would immediately find an opportunity to destroy this spell... Isn't that right, Sai?"

Bai and Sakura were both startled and looked at Sai on Naruto's back. He had woken up slightly at this time, but his hands and feet were still tied.

"Did I... fail..." Sai murmured softly, his eyes blank. He didn't struggle violently, just leaning on Naruto's back.

He was silent for a moment: "What will you do to me next?"

"Deal with you..." Naruto smiled and said slowly:

"If you had backstabbed us while fully conscious, I might have really punched you."

"But now, that's another matter."

"Why don't you punish me directly?" Sai couldn't help but glance at Naruto.

Naruto paused and chuckled, "If punishing someone is so easy, the person next to you would have met his end by now."

Sai saw Bai next to him, looked at him, lowered his eyes, and remained silent. His brother's face flashed before his eyes.

Is he the same person as his brother... This question flashed through his mind.

But then, Naruto changed the subject: "But someone's situation is not so easy to deal with."

Shiro, Sakura: "Who?"

Naruto: "Sasuke."

There was a sudden silence all around.

"Why do you say that?" Sakura asked in confusion.

Naruto looked at the talisman in his hand, "Actually, what I'm most worried about right now isn't him choosing to use a talisman for help."

"Then what are you worried about?"

"What worries me is that he is holding on and choosing not to ask for help."

"..."

……

the other side.

Two figures continued to rush towards the nest.

"Are you sure that it was Sasuke who made the move?" Orochimaru glanced at Kabuto beside him, his eyes narrowed slightly.

Kabuto pushed his glasses up. "I'm not sure, but I definitely saw that crow somewhere before."

"Haha, Kabuto, do you want me to devour Sasuke now?" Orochimaru looked at Kabuto with a playful expression.

"I just feel that something is a little strange. As for whether to do this or not, it's entirely up to you."

Dou didn't add fuel to the fire nor refute.

Orochimaru stopped asking questions and recalled the traces of lightning escape techniques and shuriken techniques he had seen before.

He had clearly seen those methods on Sasuke. In other words, Sasuke had really followed them here.

But due to some unexpected circumstances, Sasuke finally chose not to take action.

However, Orochimaru did not intend to settle accounts with Sasuke directly. His intuition told him to first clarify the cause and effect of the matter and make plans before taking action.

(End of this chapter)