Chapter 223 - Hinata's New Jutsu
*Author Note*
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*End of Author Note*
A while later, the group left the city's underground network and arrived on the surface. The moment Hinata and the two Narutos saw the city of Loran, their mouths gaped open in wonder.
The whole city consisted of gigantic, interconnected stone towers and looked significantly grander than any city they had ever seen. Neither of the three had ever seen buildings this huge, so after seeing an entire city constructed only with such structures, they could only be dumbfounded by it.
Seeing the trio's dumbfounded faces, Yuna started chuckling. She had seen a lot of impressive buildings in her previous life, so a bunch of towers that were barely 100 meters tall didn't impress her in the slightest.
"Hehe, this is certainly different from how cities are usually built. It reminds me a little of Amegakure, but the towers are made of stone instead of metal."
After getting over their surprise, the group continued traveling and reached a vast plaza that was filled to the brim with people. From the looks of it, a massive festival was currently being held.
After seeing what was going on, Yuna couldn't help but be surprised.
"*Whistle* That's pretty f*ed up."
Minato nodded in agreement when he heard Yuna's words.
"You have sharp senses."
Yuna scoffed when she heard Minato's words but didn't comment any further. Naru2, meanwhile, tilted his head in confusion after he heard the conversation between Yuna and Minato.
"What do you mean? Isn't it just a festival?"
Hinata, Naruto, and Kakashi, who also didn't understand what Yuna meant either, started paying more attention to the festival, and moments later, all of them opened their eyes in surprise.
"All of these people are puppets!"
Yuna nodded her head when she heard Naruto's exclamation, while Naru2 opened his eyes in surprise after he understood what Yuna meant.
While everyone was watching the puppets moving around like they were celebrating something, happy calls of "your majesty" started echoing over the plaza. Moments later, a young woman with long, red hair appeared on one of the balconies of one of the towers and started waving to the crowd.
Yuna chuckled with a wry smile on her face when she saw the woman happily waving towards the sea of puppets.
"I guess that is the queen you are supposed to protect, Minato."
Minato didn't say anything and simply nodded his head with an expression that was mimicking Yuna's on his face.
"Indeed. I guess you can see why we thought that she was in danger?"
"Yeah. She is either incredibly narcissistic to have a bunch of puppets applauding her, or someone wants her to believe that her people love her. Considering your current mission, I assume it's the latter?"
Just when Minato was about to confirm Yuna's guess, the person standing on the balcony stumbled forward, and the moment she reached the railing, it "coincidently" broke apart.
Yet again, Yuna couldn't help but chuckle.
"Well, that's an assassination attempt if I have ever seen one."
Yuna vanished from where she stood without saying anything else, surprising those who didn't know of her speed. What no one noticed, however, was that someone else's presence vanished as well.
Yuna appeared underneath the falling queen and was just about to catch her when a water bullet appeared out of nowhere and smacked into her. Although the shot was too weak to deal any damage to her, it was still strong enough to send her slightly off course, resulting in her missing the queen.
Instead of being surprised, Yuna had a wry smile on her face.
"Well, that's just unreasonable."
After Yuna finished speaking, Hinata appeared and caught the falling queen instead of Yuna. A small smile appeared on her face while she murmured something to herself.
"[First Wife Style: Denying the Harem Jutsu]"
On the way down, Hinata jumped from wall to wall so the person she caught wouldn't feel any discomfort from the landing, and moments later, the rest of the group landed next to her with weird expressions on their faces. The first to speak was Minato.
"Errr... I would like to ask you why you shot a water jutsu at Yuna? It was relatively weak, so it only pushed her away, but I would still like to know why."
Hinata scoffed when she heard Minato's words before answering his question.
"Isn't that obvious? If Yuna were the one who caught her, she would, obviously, fall in love with her, and before I realize what is going on, Yuna's harem would have a new member. Constant vigilance! That's the only way for me to prevent Yuna's harem from getting too big!"
While Hinata's words dumbfounded everyone, Yuna theatrically flicked her hair away from her with a melancholic look on her face.
"*Sigh* It is not an easy fate to be as beautiful as I am. No matter where I go, I have to be careful not to spark a war between nations due to my beauty."
Everyone's dumbfounded gazes switched from Hinata to Yuna. Most of them expected Yuna to blush in shame after making her extravagated "joke", but after seeing that she seemed to be genuinely sad about her "cruel" fate, all the people present, except for Hinata and Naruto, had the same thought at the same time.
""""""How can someone be this shameless?"""""
While Yuna's actions still dumbfounded everyone, the person Hinata just rescued started speaking with a meek voice.
"Err...I am not exactly sure what is going on, but could you let me down, please?"
Hinata felt a little awkward when she realized that she has been carrying the queen of this country without paying any attention to her, so she quickly let her stand on her own. The moment her feet touched the ground, she sighed in relief while looking at Hinata with a grateful look on her face.
"Thank you for saving me from that fall."
Hinata casually waved her thanks away, like she didn't just push the first person that wanted to save her away with a water jutsu, and gave her a casual smile.
"Please don't worry about it. My name is Hinata, by the way."
"I am called Sara, and I am the queen of the city of Loran. You don't seem to be from here. May I know why you are here?"