Departure

"Huff, huff... There's no point in continuing..." Uchiha Itachi gasped for breath, his shoulders heaving. "Let's stop here for today."

"Hmph..." Sakura Haruno gritted her teeth and snorted coldly, "You think I'd just stand by and watch you take the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki and then retreat safely? Dream on!"

Itachi simply raised his hand and pointed at Sasuke lying on the ground.

"Although you're strong... you still can't bring an unconscious Sasuke to chase after me, can you?" he said calmly, catching his breath. "Or are you going to leave him unconscious in the wilderness and come after me alone?"

The Ice Release Girl's expression changed. She glanced back at the black-haired boy lying on the ground, clenched her fists, and adopted a resentful look.

"Are you... threatening me?"

"I'm just pointing out a fact..." Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan flickered a few times, reverting to the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. He put his Akatsuki trench coat back on and continued, "Mission or comrades? Given the usual practices of you Konoha Ninja, I'm afraid you'll choose to protect your comrades, won't you?"

The girl bit her lip, adopting an indignant yet helpless posture, and spat out two words resentfully. "... Despicable!"

Sakura Haruno's angry outbursts of insults went unanswered by Uchiha Itachi.

The latter stared at her for a few seconds, confirming that she had made her choice, before turning back to White Zetsu, who was waiting at his feet with the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki, Fu.

"Let's go, take the Seven-Tails with us."

White Zetsu nodded, and quickly sank into the ground with Fu. Only then did Itachi release his Susanoo, turn around and give Sasuke a deep look Body Flicker Technique disappearing into thin air.

Sakura Haruno watched Itachi leave with a cold eye, finding no opportunity to capture the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki.

"If I were ruthless enough," a thought suddenly flashed through the girl's mind, "Perhaps it would be better to kill Fu the moment she fainted..."

If that happens, the Seven-Tails will enter a resurrected state, and Akatsuki's plans will be delayed again...

Sakura gave a bitter smile.

Before she guessed that Fu might be taken away, would she really kill Fu, this somewhat innocent and romantic Jinchūriki, with her own hands? Her personality doesn't seem to be that ruthless and heartless.

Sakura Haruno took a deep breath. There's no need to dwell on things that haven't happened. Besides—

"Forget about Uchiha Itachi... Did I give you permission to leave?"

The Ice Clone suddenly appeared beside the group of White Zetsu arguing in the distance, its killing intent sharp!

The White Zetsu who had just arrived shouting, "Stop arguing, we should go! Itachi is about to retreat!" were immediately taken aback, their expressions changing drastically!

"Wh-when!"

"Run! Get underground!"

"It's a clone, don't be afraid, let's attack together!"

The White Zetsu panicked and began shouting in disarray.

Some wanted to escape, some wanted to resist, and others were so shocked that they stood frozen in place, at a loss for what to do.

For a moment, these plant-people moved about haphazardly, as if they were headless in Aono.

Sakura Haruno's Ice Clone acted much more decisively, completing the preparation of their Ninjutsu in the instant they startled the White Zetsu.

"Burst!"

With a deafening roar, the clone detonated itself without hesitation.

The extremely hard ice shattered into tens of thousands of ice shards during the explosion, which flew out at speeds exceeding ten times the speed of sound, piercing through anything they encountered until the ice shards were pulverized!

When the Ice Clone exploded with all its might, the ground shook as if struck by a giant drum, and the shockwave rose dozens of meters high. Every humanoid creature within a forty-meter radius was pierced by dozens, even hundreds, of ice shards. The cold, hard edges of the ice shards were extremely sharp, tearing the unsuspecting White Zetsu through them like piercing tofu, easily shredding their grotesque bodies to pieces...

Even Orochimaru suffered from this kind of Ninjutsu, let alone the White Zetsu, who were essentially cannon fodder.

Unlike the White Zetsu in the original work, these White Zetsu have not yet been enhanced by Wood Release. As scouts, their combat strength is extremely weak, and in a direct confrontation, they are likely only at the level of Genin, or at most Chunin...

So even though there's only one clone, the power of its explosion is enough to give them a run for their money!

When the dust settled and the view cleared, there were no more White Zetsu still standing on the ground. All that remained were a large pile of limbs and corpses torn into unidentifiable shapes, with blood flowing everywhere, almost forming a stream.

White Zetsu... completely wiped out.

No, Sakura looked intently and was surprised to find that one of the White Zetsu had moved. This White Zetsu was the strongest and fastest-reacting among the group. After the clone self-destructed, he immediately gathered a large amount of Chakra to strengthen his body, protect his vitals, and hide behind the others!

So he was very lucky to escape death on the spot, but he suffered severe injuries to his limbs, with several large holes in them...

The lucky man struggled to turn over the blood and gore that covered the ground, trying to burrow into the soil—"Faster, faster... I'll be safe once I'm buried!" He endured the pain all over his body, forcibly directing his limbs to move his body, but the last bit of distance seemed as far as an insurmountable chasm in his severely injured state...

During his painful shuffling, his luck finally ran out, and a pair of cold eyes fell upon him.

The murderous aura, seemingly solidified, stirred up goosebumps on White Zetsu's back. He jolted and looked up into the distance, where he saw a pink-haired girl standing upright. Her pretty face, stained with blood and dirt, had a pair of clear and indifferent emerald eyes.

The moment their eyes met, the girl snorted coldly, her right hand moved slightly, a white light flashed, and a head fell to the ground. The last survivor was plunged into eternal darkness.

After Itachi left, he vented his anger on the cannon fodder, but he still couldn't vent the pent-up emotions in Sakura's heart.

Actually, she didn't know what she was angry about.

Seeing Sasuke collapse in agony and Fu being taken away without her noticing, a feeling of unease welled up inside her.

Perhaps it was a combination of heartache for his companions' plight and resentment at not being able to protect others?

However, she was not a serial killer after all, and torturing these vegetative people would not bring her any pleasure. The reason she was so ruthless and merciless was simply to cut off as many of Xiao's outstretched branches as possible.

--Although she had a premonition that the true number of these White Zetsu might be far greater than imagined, possibly several thousand or even tens of thousands! The death of a few dozen was nothing at all.

"Besides..."

She took a deep breath and calmed down, remembering Itachi's last words of advice.

Carrying the unconscious Sasuke on her back, Sakura Haruno, following Itachi's clues, quickly located the corpse of the Root ninja who had been monitoring them...

When they were discovered, the Akatsuki members—likely Uchiha Itachi —casually killed them.

It's clear that Itachi also doesn't have a good impression of Root.

"Danzo..." Sakura Haruno walked up to the two corpses with their eyes wide open in death, her face slowly darkening.

Was his goal Sakura herself, Sasuke, or...?

Is he the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki?