Chapter 591: Synchronization
The night grew deeper.
While Sasuke and Naruto were enjoying their last meal of the year at Ichiraku Ramen, the Hokage's office was still brightly lit.
The Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, had not yet gotten off work.
She was considered a diligent superior, but working straight until now without taking a break for dinner was indeed rare.
The main reason, of course, was Sakura Uchiha.
That mischievous disciple of hers bringing Sakura Uchiha back to the village had certainly created a pile of trouble for Tsunade; but on the other hand, with the village happily gaining the reliable affiliation of a Kage-level powerhouse, this pile of trouble instantly became insignificant. Tsunade practically wished Haruno Sakura would create even more trouble!
Inside the Hokage's office.
She had just finalized the arrangements for the future with Sakura Uchiha—the latter had chosen to stay in Konoha—and was now enthusiastically inquiring about Sakura Uchiha's actual combat power.
The door was suddenly opened.
The girl who strolled in was precisely Tsunade's precious disciple, Sakura Uchiha's original body.
Haruno Sakura.
"It would be more reliable to ask me this question, Master Tsunade." She interrupted Tsunade's words. "Although theoretically she inherited most of my ninjutsu, there are still discrepancies in actual combat."
"It's you!" Sakura Uchiha abruptly stood up from her chair.
"Why are you back early?" Tsunade rocked her chair and smiled. "Wasn't the treatment supposed to be finished tomorrow?"
"Because of some major comprehensions and breakthroughs in training," Haruno Sakura casually waved her hand, walking to the other girl's side. "So the healing process went more smoothly than planned, finishing a day early."
With the two girls standing together, they truly looked like twin sisters. Their completely identical beautiful faces were a feast for the eyes and difficult to distinguish.
However, after a brief moment of distraction, Tsunade quickly noticed the differences between the two: apart from the obvious difference in eye color, their expressions, demeanor, and even the sensation of their chakra were vastly different.
For example, Sakura Uchiha would puff up her small cheeks and angrily say to the original: "You came back early, so what am I supposed to do?"
As she spoke, she poked Haruno Sakura's ribs with her fair fingers, expressing serious protest.
That cute posture of a little girl was rarely seen on Haruno Sakura.
"Just serve as an Anbu for a couple of days. After the New Year, I will return to the Shikkotsu Forest for the next phase of training." Haruno Sakura lightly suppressed the girl beside her. She casually picked up a mask from the desk, pressed it onto her face, and said, "Back to the matter of combat power..."
She turned Sakura Uchiha's body to face her (the latter was dissatisfiedly discarding the mask: "It's dirty and torn, I want a new one!").
"It's the perfect time for me to update a wave of data. Let's not talk about previous strength, we'll use the latest data as the standard."
"Stand still and don't move."
Saying that, Haruno Sakura pressed her hand against the other Sakura's neck and leaned in. The two girls were forehead to forehead, nose to nose, extremely close, so close they could feel each other's warm breath. Their soft lips, separated by the distance of a few sheets of paper, were touched by the moist airflow.
"Relax."
Sakura Uchiha dizzyingly followed the original's command, her mind going blank. Then, a warm current suddenly surged into her forehead—
Only then did Sakura Uchiha realize what was happening.
Mental Synchronization!
This typically happens between a clone and the original body.
She forcefully pushed the original away, raising her delicate eyebrows in shock and anger: "You, you! What did you do!"
"I told you, updating the data." Haruno Sakura spread her hands, saying with an innocent face.
Sakura Uchiha angrily slapped the table, her face full of grief and indignation: "You clearly said I was already independent!"
For some reason, seeing Sakura Uchiha's face flush pink with anger, Tsunade felt that the conversation between the two girls could be adapted into a standard soap opera or a third-rate romance novel. In this scenario, the role Haruno Sakura played was that of a scumbag who took a girl's innocence and downplayed the 404-worthy act as "It's nothing, I just left some genetic information with you."
Even though absolutely nothing happened between the two of them!
"Don't you know best whether you have independent thought?" Haruno Sakura rolled her eyes at her, shrugging her shoulders and saying, "Besides, chakra is inherently an energy used to transmit information. Anyway, I just transmitted information to you, and can only transmit information to you; I cannot control your actions or change your thoughts."
She tapped the clone girl's forehead, her icy fingertips helping the girl calm down quickly. "Think about it carefully."
Sakura Uchiha carefully flipped through the newly emerged knowledge in her mind—Haruno Sakura had given all those comprehensions to her, hoping she would follow the orthodox ninja training path.
These were truly good things!
In Xianxia novels, these would be the sect-guarding secret manuals that point directly to the Great Dao and achieve True Immortal (Sage of the Six Paths) status.
She operated her little brain to think for a moment, and began to feel that the original indeed wouldn't harm her, instantly restoring her trust in the original.
"Anyway, let's get back to the main topic!" Tsunade coughed drily twice, interrupting the staring contest between the two. "Now, let's evaluate your true strength, Sakura Uchiha."
"The most concise way to put it is that she is roughly a weakened version of me," Haruno Sakura said first. "Her biggest problem is that her body hasn't undergone long-term training and real combat tempering. It doesn't match this level of strength, so she probably can't fully exert her theoretical combat power..."
Fortunately, after a year or two of training and combat, this flaw would be greatly compensated.
The Yin Seal was the same.
After becoming independent, Sakura Uchiha no longer shared the energy in the Yin Seal with the original body as a clone. From now on, she had to save chakra for her own Yin Seal herself. Of course, Sakura Uchiha didn't have a constitution that lacked chakra, so chakra volume wasn't a big problem either.
To sum up, Sakura Uchiha was a powerful, comprehensive ninja with no blind spots.
How strong exactly?
The previous text briefly mentioned the division of strength in the ninja world (Chapter 382). Based on Haruno Sakura's experience, although many factors determine a ninja's combat power, and a ninja's displayed strength can fluctuate greatly under different circumstances, generally speaking, the strength of each level—Genin, Chunin, Jonin, and even Kage—is distinctly divided.
But the "Kage" level is not the endpoint for a ninja.
Haruno Sakura had deep realizations about this.
From the miserable state of fighting Kakuzu alone, to the arduous and outstanding battle against Sasori of the Red Sand, to the ease of repelling Orochimaru, then the familiarity of repeatedly killing Kisame, and the effortlessness of crushing Danzo... and finally, the thrilling, narrow victory over Pain. Along the way, Haruno Sakura had fought against numerous Kage-level enemies. From bitter struggles to absolute crushing, Kage-level enemies gradually ceased to exert pressure on her. In other words, there was already a gulf-like disparity between ordinary "Kage" level individuals and her.
She was an existence that surpassed the Kage level!
In popular terms, this level could be called "Super Kage."
Haruno Sakura and Pain could probably be considered to have just stepped into this level. In addition, Haruno Sakura believed the gap between her and the First Hokage was no longer too large, so Hashirama Senju was also at this tier.
Lastly, Sakura Uchiha was a fraction weaker than the original, making her one of the very top experts within the "Kage" level.
Sakura Uchiha was a bit dissatisfied with this conclusion, but didn't dare refute the original loudly. She pouted and mumbled: "Super Kage, Super Kage, what's so great about it! The codename is so tacky and sounds terrible... Wait until I train for a few more months, I'll definitely step into that level myself!"
Tsunade didn't care whether the name was tacky or not. She just felt that with Haruno Sakura dividing the levels like this, the issue of Sakura Uchiha's combat power instantly became clear. In short, she was a powerhouse who could rank among the top few in the ninja world.
"According to your classification method, where do I stand?" The Fifth Hokage suddenly became curious.
Haruno Sakura let out a dry laugh and had to say: "Master's medical ninjutsu, in terms of realm, is definitely at the 'Super Kage' level."
Tsunade smiled reservedly, about to say a few modest words, when Sakura Uchiha started undermining the original: "Only talking about medical ninjutsu and not combat power, your subtext is that Lord Hokage's strength is just average, right?"
That sarcastically mocking skill; she truly is a woman who inherited from Haruno Sakura.
Of course, the consequence of offending both Tsunade and Haruno Sakura at the same time was Sakura Uchiha being kicked out of the Hokage's office. Let's not mention that later, a ninja guided her and arranged trivial matters like room and board.
Only the master and disciple were left in the office.
After exchanging a few private words, Tsunade suddenly changed the subject: "Speaking of which, just now... you indeed still have means to restrict her, right?"
Haruno Sakura chuckled, neither confirming nor denying.
"She will not harm the village or us." The girl spoke very conclusively.
But her answer was ambiguous, as if she had said nothing. Was it "she wouldn't do it" or "she couldn't do it"? Haruno Sakura didn't elaborate, and Tsunade didn't press the matter.
She was very satisfied with this answer, and that was enough.
"It seems you're starting to understand a bit of politics." The Fifth Hokage smiled. "So, before going to the Hidden Mist Village, the questions I asked you, do you have an answer now?" [See Chapter 518 for details]
Over a month ago, Tsunade had asked Haruno Sakura, using the genjutsu incident in the Hidden Cloud Village as an example: if it wasn't genjutsu, but something that actually happened, what would she do?
Haruno Sakura had considered this question. Although she wasn't very interested in studying these things, she had thought about it when bored during the healing process over the past few days.
Tsunade's intention was to admonish her disciple with some common sense in politics:
For example, don't substitute judgment with emotions; or, don't place personal emotional venting and conflicts of interest above the overall interests.
These are the basic qualities a Kage, a village leader, a statesman rather than a politician, should possess.
Having figured this out, it was very clear what kind of answer Tsunade wanted her to give.
"Looking at this issue from the perspective of a Hokage," Haruno Sakura said slowly, "retaliating on the spot, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, is the most foolish choice. War is always the last resort. Before that, one should negotiate, apply pressure, and demand the other party hand over all the perpetrators."
If she became Hokage, holding great power, capable of starting a war whenever she wanted, she would instead need to use her power more cautiously, especially the option of war.
After all, people always die in wars.
The Fifth Hokage was quite satisfied with Haruno Sakura's answer.
"Very well said. I hope you can remember your thoughts today." Tsunade said sternly. "Then, the question I'll leave you with this time is: why didn't the First Hokage unify the ninja world?"
Without waiting for the girl to answer, she waved her hand, sending her home: "Go back and think about it slowly! That's all for today... It's time for me to get off work and have dinner too."
"By the way, Jiraiya told me," Tsunade suddenly remembered something just as Haruno Sakura was about to open the door, "He will be taking Naruto back to Mount Myoboku to train tonight. If you go now, you should still be able to see Naruto and say goodbye."
The girl's footsteps paused.
Using the New Year's time to train? Naruto truly is hard-working. But in that case, hasn't Sasuke's anticipated Team 7 reunion turned into an illusion again?
"I understand." She sighed and replied softly.
With a bang, the door was locked by Haruno Sakura.
The sound of footsteps quickly faded away and disappeared.