Chapter 540: Setting Off
"Kunai, shuriken, chains, explosive tags, smoke bombs... all here."
Various ninja tools were placed close together, neatly stacked one by one in the rigorously layered ninja tool pouch. The sound of steel rubbing echoed in the room, the atmosphere extremely similar to the feeling of loading bullets and pulling the bolt of a firearm in movies from her previous life. A strong smell of gunpowder before battle diffused from this sound.
While putting on a white wristband to cover the sealing formula on his wrist, Sasuke picked up the hard-shell arm guard on the table.
"Arm guard? Better not wear that," Haruno Sakura glanced at him and said.
Sasuke was slightly stunned, his hand stopped, and he looked up at her.
"In a battle of this level, wearing armor has little meaning anymore and affects flexibility. Better to save some energy," the girl waved her hand and explained.
This mission was not an ordinary Anbu mission.
If they faced that group of people from Akatsuki, a mere layer of hard armor wouldn't be effective; agile movements and Susanoo were the keys.
"True," Sasuke thought about it, then casually stuffed the arm guard into his pack and said, "Then let's go with this."
He stood up, checked everything once over, patted the ninja tool pouch, indicating he was ready for battle.
In a broad sense, combat preparation also includes training and cultivation before combat; but under normal circumstances, the combat preparation we refer to still points to the process of arranging ninja tools into the pouch, loading up on military ration pills, bringing scrolls, putting on leg wrappings, and even donning armor before executing a combat mission.
Yes, armor.
Before the establishment of the ninja village system, wearing armor to fight was popular among ninja.
It was a half-body armor imitating samurai armor, linked together by thigh-thick long plates of thick armor pieces, including a chestplate, vest, shoulder armor, and kusazuri (the groin guard and leg armor below the waist), combining both protective power and flexibility. The whole set of equipment weighed up to tens of kilograms, looking extremely majestic and domineering when worn.
Vividly the attire of a military commander in the Sengoku period.
When Haruno Sakura first saw the record of Madara Uchiha fighting in armor in the data before, she was also somewhat astonished: How is this a ninja? Looking at that appearance, protected all over and armed to the teeth, he's clearly a samurai/general who has mastered ninjutsu!
In fact, modern ninja did gradually replace the status of samurai and armies.
After the establishment of the ninja village system, the combat style of heavily armored ninja was slowly eliminated. Heavy armor was gradually replaced by light armor, soft armor, and even no armor, moving from a focus on protective power towards a path of supreme flexibility. The subtle aspects of the game and development in this involve the financial problems of the ninja villages, the evolution of new ninjutsu and combat styles, and the evolution of craftsmanship. To elaborate on this in detail would probably be enough to write a thick tome.
Given that the title of this book is not The Replacement of Modern and Contemporary Ninja Combat Styles, this book is not a monumental documentary work aimed at hardcore readers, and Haruno Sakura is not an expert scholar investigating humanities and history, the two hundred thousand words of textual research and demonstration are omitted here.
To this day, in the sixtieth year of Konoha, heavy armor is no longer part of the formal attire of Anbu ninja, replaced by tough soft armor vests and hard-shell arm guards on the forearms. The classic Anbu attire is a black sleeveless tight suit underneath, a white soft armor outside, a mask on the head, and a ninja pouch tied around the waist—Sasuke was currently in this image.
Haruno Sakura, however, was different.
"I'm ready. How about you guys?"
Sasuke turned his head to size up the girl's appearance. Haruno Sakura did it even more thoroughly than him; not only did she not wear armor, she didn't even wear the same style of soft armor vest. He frowned slightly: "Are you okay like this?"
"Uh-huh." The girl spread her hands, raised her eyebrows, and noncommittally responded with a nasal sound.
She rarely wore armor—not because she disliked the greyish color as not pretty enough, but purely because at the girl's level, ordinary equipment was already of little use.
Soft armor can prevent chopping and piercing, but cannot resist blunt trauma.
However, for Sakura, an enemy capable of threatening her would absolutely not be stopped by a mere layer of mass-produced cheap soft armor: in front of BUG-level cheats like the Samehada greatsword, Amaterasu and Susanoo, Space-Time Ninjutsu, or the Rinnegan, is there any difference whether she wears armor or not?
But if she only wore a tight suit, the level of embarrassment would be a bit too high... That outfit which extremely highlighted the figure, in all of Konoha only Might Guy and his disciple would wear it all day without feeling awkward (and their kind of tight suit is grass-green, looking exactly like a giant frog when worn). Or a great beauty with an exquisite and curvy figure like Yugao Uzuki could also wear it to show off her figure greatly; others wouldn't find it awkwardly abrupt, but would only feel it was stunning and neat.
Brother Sakura can't even afford a pair of A's... no, she actually also had growth, but compared to Hinata, Ino, and even Yugao... forget it, better not ask for a snub.
Like Kakashi, the girl put a Jonin flak jacket over the tight suit. She wore over-the-elbow sleeves on her arms, tied her hair in a ponytail, looking clean, neat, heroic, and valiant.
Of course, the silk black sleeves also had no protective ability—she did once have a pair of quite expensive special gloves made of chakra threads, tough and reliable, with quite a bit of protective power, but they were destroyed in the battle with Kisame (see Chapter 373 and onwards for details)—anyway, besides the decorative function, the main purpose of the sleeves was to cover the sealing formula printed on her arm, just like Sasuke.
The difference is that Sasuke's formula usually stores some ninja tools, like shurikens, kunai, and sharp swords, while Haruno Sakura's is the special gold dust given by the Kazekage-sama: mixing it into the Water Blade can greatly enhance the cutting power of the Water Blade, which is exactly a little trick of the Water Gun Jutsu. (Note)
"Aren't you bringing some ninja tools?" Naruto squeezed his bulging ninja tool pouch at his waist, looked at Sakura's overly simple attire, and asked uneasily.
"No need." Haruno Sakura patted the tactical pockets on the chest of the flak jacket and explained, "Bringing these is enough for me."
The tactical pockets on the Jonin flak jacket were carefully designed, sturdy and reliable, and could be very conveniently accessed even during combat. Many things could be stuffed inside, including precious sealing scrolls and other ninja tools.
The scroll of the clone body was solemnly placed by Haruno Sakura close to her body in a pocket inside the flak jacket.
Besides this, it also held some odds and ends, such as explosive tags and smoke bombs just in case, or military ration pills for emergencies.
Haruno Sakura didn't bring a single weapon or ninja tool: Ice Kunai and Ice Shuriken were much harder and sharper than standard ninja tools, and handier. Until her chakra ran out, she had everything she needed.
"Alright."
Naruto didn't say much either. He jumped down from the table, zipped up his coat all the way to the very top at his neck, and popped his collar. "I'm ready too."
Haruno Sakura pulled her sleeves tight, turned her head, her gaze sweeping over the two companions full of fighting spirit standing behind her, and nodded lightly.
She turned around, opened the room door, and took the lead to walk out.
The morning mist was thick outside the door. Through the hazy shadows, one could see a tall and a short Mist Ninja guide waiting outside. Haruno Sakura led the two boys forward, only to see the Mist Ninja dressed as Anbu, their hair slightly damp, obviously having waited for some time.
The tall Mist Ninja in the lead had a gloomy and indifferent gaze, a stiff expression, just like most people in this village. He was a middle-aged man about thirty or forty years old; while the short ninja had a childish face, and happened to be Chojuro, whom they had met once in the hospital.
"It's you!"
Seeing Sakura walking at the very front of the Konoha trio, Choujuurou suddenly yelled in surprise.
He had made a fool of himself in front of Haruno Sakura and had a very deep impression of her. Pointing at the girl, he shouted, both surprised and suspicious: "Aren't you a medical ninja?!"
The implication was that a medical ninja shouldn't get involved in this dangerous mission.
The three people of Team 7 instantly looked at each other, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"Haruno Sakura-sama is a powerhouse capable of fighting side by side with Mei Terumi-sama, idiot!" The tall Mist Ninja turned his head and gave him a fierce glare, scolding angrily.
"Medical ninja is just my side job, don't misunderstand." Haruno Sakura shook her head speechlessly. Having been misunderstood many times, she was already used to this kind of suspicious gaze, her heart calm without ripples, even feeling a bit like laughing.
"Enough gossip, let's set off!"
The tall Mist Ninja nodded indifferently, taking the lead to walk into the morning mist.
Marching rapidly all the way along a river flowing into the sea, at noon, the five people had already arrived on the sea, with the storm area where dark clouds blotted out the sky right in front of them.
The scene before them was of cold winds howling angrily and muddy waves surging into the sky. It was clearly high noon, yet the sky was extremely gloomy, the sun and stars hidden.
"A sea storm in October? Truly unusual." Haruno Sakura stopped her steps, standing on the undulating sea surface, looking from afar at the thick, ink-black dark clouds in the distance, and said coldly.
"And it has lasted too long..." The tall Mist Ninja said coldly, "The chakra reaction and the abnormal weather both match the historical scene of the Three-Tails Isobu's revival, so we can conclude the Three-Tails will revive here. Choujuurou?"
"Yes." Choujuurou took a step forward and continued, "Previously, we left the storm area along this direction. Look, marching rapidly towards the northwest for two hours, you can see a protruding small reef island. That's the island where we rested when passing by last time, and also the location where we encountered the enemy. Akatsuki's people are very likely still near there."
"Understood." Haruno Sakura's face was solemn as she nodded.
The tall Mist Ninja patted Choujuurou's shoulder and said: "I'm sorry, we can only bring you here. Going any deeper is already beyond the scope of our abilities... The subsequent mission will have to be completed by you, friends from Konoha."
Haruno Sakura smiled faintly and didn't say anything, but Naruto rushed to answer: "Don't worry, we will definitely foil Akatsuki's conspiracy, beat Akatsuki's people until they piss their pants, and stop them from getting the Three-Tails!"
Sasuke followed and nodded. Although he didn't speak, the confident look in his eyes and his eager expression revealed his thoughts.
Haruno Sakura secretly rolled her eyes at their overly confident mentality of randomly setting flags.
Choujuurou, however, totally bought it, not feeling at all that they were ruining their character (T/N: meaning being arrogant and jinxing themselves), and said with great joy: "Do your best! You must defeat Akatsuki and avenge my brother!"
After speaking, the two Mist Ninja solemnly gave a salute, then turned and left.
Haruno Sakura watched them go far away until they disappeared below the sea horizon, before turning her head.
"Let's go," the girl said calmly.
"Let's meet these Akatsuki people!"