A while later, Karin and Sakura were done treating patients, and it was time to hunt down Gaara, and his two kidnappers, which, considering they left on a flying mount, won’t be too easy in normal cases.
Luckily, there were a lot of things that could be done with seals, so after Yuna got her hands on one of Gaara’s personal items and around ten minutes of work, Yuna managed to throw together a tracker that would point towards the greatest concentration of Gaara’s chakra signature, which in most cases would be the person himself. Naturally, its range was far from infinite, but it would at least speed up the search progress, so they wouldn’t have to comb through every square meter.
So, the group of five started the hunt, and only after five minutes, Yuna’s eyebrows started twitching in irritation due to Sakura constantly fidgeting around.
“Haa~, If you want to say something, then do so, Sakura. Your indecisiveness is irritating.”
Sakura blushed a little due to Yuna seeing through her so easily, but nonetheless started speaking.
“W-Well, we are about to face Akatsuki, right?”
“That is correct.”
“…”
“…”
Instead of continuing to speak, Sakura started fidgeting again, which irritated Yuna even more. Yuna was just about to deploy a little more forceful method to make her speak when Sakura opened her mouth again.
“W-Would it be possible if I try facing one of them without yours or Naruto’s help?”
Instead of answering, Yuna gave Sakura a questioning look, motioning her to continue speaking.
“Well, I heard that Sasuke joined Akatsuki as well, and I would like to experience how strong their members are. But, if you were to participate in that fight, I would at best take on a support role.”
Yuna pondered Sakura’s words for a short moment before nodding in approval.
“I see; you want to gather combat experience against an S-Rank shinobi that is actually willing to kill you. Very well, I can approve of that. Karin, are you interested as well?”
Karin thought about that offer for a short moment before nodding in agreement.
“She, Yuna-sama, I would like to participate.”
“Hehe, good, how about it Chiyo? You and those two can go play with Sasori. Sakura specializes in short-range, Karin in mid-range, and you in long-range, so that should work out rather well, no?”
However, Chiyo had an ugly expression on her face when she heard Yuna’s words.
“Aren’t you to leisure about this? We are about to face two S-Rank shinobi; I don’t think this is a good time to play around. Wouldn’t that kind of attack formation mean that you and Naruto, our strongest fighters, would be fighting the same person? Wouldn’t that be a waste?”
Yuna looked at Chiyo weirdly for a moment, clearly not understanding what she was talking about, but after a moment, she realized what she meant and chuckled in amusement.
“Aren’t you misunderstanding the situation? The formation wouldn’t be you three vs Sasori and Naruto and me vs Deidara. It would be Naruto vs Deidara, and you three vs Sasori, while I spectate the fight. In the report I got, I read that Deidara was incapable of defeating Gaara while he was defending Suna, so there is absolutely no way that Naruto wouldn’t annihilate him by himself.”
Chiyo paused for a moment and looked at Naruto in disbelief. Naturally, she was somewhat aware of Yuna’s strength and didn’t doubt that Naruto was pretty powerful as well, but she didn’t expect it would be to such a considerable degree. Someone defeating an S-Rank shinobi by themself was no joke.
“A-Are you fine with that?”
Naruto, who barely paid any attention to the conversation, noticed that Chiyo was speaking to him and quickly went through his memories to find out what she was talking about.
“Oh? Deidara, huh? Yeah, I will be fine. I heard he stole some kind of clay explosion jutsu from Iwa; no biggie, I fought worse.”
Although Chiyo couldn’t really believe that that was true, considering how much confidence Naruto was oozing, there really was no space for her to say anything about it.
“*Sigh* Very well, let’s go with that battle plan.”
“Haha, excellent. I can feel that you still have some doubt about this, so the following fight should be a good scale for you to see what we can do.”
Before Chiyo could ask what fight Yuna was talking about, her face stiffened, and the whole group came to a standstill.
“Impossible; why are they here?”
Two people appeared in front of the group. Both of them were wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it. One of them had black hair and crimson red eyes with three black tomoe in each of them, while the other one had a massive sword strapped to his back, blue skin, and shark-like teeth.
Without a second of hesitation, Yuna stepped forwards to welcome the newcomers.
“If it isn’t Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki. How can I help you two?”
Although Kisame was slightly taken aback by Yuna’s friendly greeting, he pulled his blade from his back and pointed it at Yuna.
“Isn’t that obvious? We are here to capture you.”
Yuna eagerly nodded her head in understanding.
“I see, as expected, you want to stall us, so your bum-buddies can extract the Ichibi in peace.”
Kisame’s face stiffened when Yuna casually revealed their real goal, and moments later, his face twisted in fury.
“YOU DAMN BITCH, I WILL SHRED YOU TO PIECES!!!”
Kisame charged at Yuna, his face twisted in anger, and after he ran about half the distance, a small seal appeared under Kisame’s right foot, removing all friction, causing him to slip.
Kisame became even angrier when he realized that Yuna was using the same trick against him Naruto used all those years ago, but despite that, he didn’t use his senses entirely and immediately reacted to the familiar trap.
He twisted his head to the side, intending to dodge the seal that would increase the gravity around his head and smash him into the ground at an accelerated pace. Unfortunately, this was precisely what Yuna expected to happen, so it looked like Kisame voluntarily pushed his head into a cake that was hovering midair, caking himself in the process.
*SPLAT*
However, Yuna wasn’t done yet, as the icing on Kisame’s face started glowing, activating the seals that were hidden in the cake, resulting in the exact effect Kisame tried to avoid. The gravity around his head increased, smacking him headfirst into the ground.
Oppressive silence covered the clearing where the two groups met. While Itachi’s face still appeared to be completely indifferent, he was dying on the inside due to Kisame getting tricked by the same seal yet again.
‘Shouldn’t he have learned his lesson by now? Why does he still charge his enemies head-on after the slightest provocation? *Sigh* Why me?’
Meanwhile, Sakura and Chiyo looked at the downed Kisame in bewilderment. They couldn’t believe how casually Yuna just pranked an S-Rank shinobi.
On the other hand, Karin’s thoughts about the situation were rather…unique.
‘Haaa~ Yuna-sama completely humiliated him in front of his colleague; I’m so jealous~’
At the same time, Yuna turned around and walked towards Naruto. Both of them lifted their right arm and high-fived each other.
“Okay, that was as easy as you claimed it would be. Your turn, Naruto.”
“Hehe, okay. Don’t worry, nee-san, I already have a good scheme in my mind.”
