Chapter 499: Scaredy-Cat
Chapter 499: Scaredy-Cat
Boom Boom Boom Boom
The roaring and rumbling sounds continued to pass through the thick layers of earth and continued to be heard at the Refugee Center that is located tens of meters deep underground.
In the continuous waves of tremors traveling through the ground, dust would arise and enter everyone’s nasal cavity causing the children to sneeze occasionally, the rows of light bulbs at the refugee center would also flicker making people feel afraid and distraught…
At this time, another group of people entered the evacuation shelter under the leadership of an elderly man of the Hyuga Clan. From his clean forehead, it wasn’t difficult to judge that he is a member of the distinguished Main Family of the Hyuga Clan, and following behind him are the children, weak women, disabled, and the elderly of the Hyuga Clan who needs to take refuge.
Among these people, there is also a middle-aged man who is disabled and is sitting in a wheelchair; but unlike the other people taking refuge at the evacuation shelter his face is not panicked or worried, instead, he is completely calm; as if whatever that is happening outside has nothing to do with him.
With the arrival of the members of the Hyuga Clan, the evacuation shelter became more crowded, so the members of the Hyuga Clan had to separate themselves to find a place to sit or stand.
Upon seeing this, Taruho, who has entered the evacuation shelter quite earlier, quickly stood up and gave up his seat to Hinata, “Hinata-sama, please come here, there is space available here.”
Because of Kuroto, Shion is very close to the members of the Hyuga Clan, especially to Hinata since both she and Hinata are taught by Yui. Not to mention, both of their mothers are deceased so they also understand each other and regard each other as best friends. As such, Taruho who is Shion’s attendant is also very respectful towards Hinata.
Hinata who had tightly held her little sister Hanabi’s little hand with her left hand hastily waved her free hand towards Taruho and said, “No… no… Taruho-san, please sit… I am fine here.”
“Hinata-sama, not only are you Shion-sama’s friend but also the princess of the Hyuga Clan, how can I let you just stand there? So, please sit.” Insisted Taruho.
Even Hyuga Natsu (Hanabi’s caretaker) standing behind Hinata and Hanabi said, “Please Hinata-sama.”
With Taruho and Natsu’s insistence, Hinata finally nodded and took Taruho’s seat next to Shion, and of course, Hanabi sat on Hinata’s lap.
After sitting down, Hinata looked at Shion sitting next to her; and upon noticing that Shion’s entire body was shivering; she immediately asked in worry, “Shion-chan… what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
However, before Shion could answer Hinata, Naruto who happened to be seated on the opposite side said quickly, “Rather than injured or ill, I think she is scared of something.”
Sasuke who was huddled with Naruto also looked at the shivering appearance of Shion, and lightly hummed in a cold tone, “She is shivering in fright even when we are at the evacuation shelter? Such a scaredy-cat!”
Head Chop!
As soon as Sasuke said so, Sasuke’s mother, Uchiha Mikoto who had Uchiha Kiyomi sitting on her lap, knocked on his head, “It’s rude to speak to others in such a manner.”
Sasuke was slumped and had a bump on top of his head.
Seeing Sasuke slumped, Naruto immediately covered his mouth and snickered.
Sasuke on the other hand was quiet and whispered slightly, “Humph, the bad guys are too cunning. They only dared to attack the village when nii-san, and Shisui-nii has gone out to train… if nii-san and Shisui-nii were in the village currently then the bad guys would have been defeated already…”
Mikoto just shook her head slightly and said nothing, if it is said that she is not worried about Itachi, then she would be lying, but at this point, when the village is under such an attack, she can only choose to trust that Itachi and Shisui will be fine.
On the other hand, after listening to Naruto, Hinata quickly turned towards Shion, and asked with a worried expression, “What happened Shion-chan?”
Shion raised her head and wanted to confide to Hinata about the terrifying scenes she had seen in a prophecy not long ago, but upon remembering Kuroto-nii-chan’s previous instructions she just shook her head slightly and endured it, at the same time, she silently prayed in her heart that Kuroto-nii-chan prevents that from happening.
Noting Shion’s silence, Hinata was at a loss, but she consciously did what her Okasan used to do with her in a similar situation, Hinata reached out her free hand and held Shion’s hand and said with a slight smile, “It will be alright, Shion-chan.”
Shion said nothing but nodded slightly.
The mature ones on the side smiled slightly when they saw Hinata’s actions, and Uchiha Mikoto can’t help but remember the women named Uzumaki Kushina and Hyuga Himeji as she saw the naughty Naruto and the kind Hinata.
…
Inside the Underground Base where the Gokage Conference took place.
In an underground hall, five people are sitting around a round wooden conference table.
These five people are none other than the Sandaime Tsuchikage Onoki of Iwagakure, Yondaime Raikage Ay of Kumogakure, Yondaime Mizukage Karatachi Yagura of Kirigakure, Godaime Kazekage Pakura of Sunagakure and Elder Mitokado Homura of Konohagakure.
Behind each of the Kage stood their respective guards and subordinates.
Counting the four Kage, one elder, and many subordinates… the number of people in this hall is quite a lot, despite this, the hall is extremely quiet at this moment, no one is talking, and there is only a faint rumbling sound being heard due to the battle taking place in Konoha.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was very shrewd, only after all five Kage had gathered in Konoha did he reveal his true purpose.
Although everyone realized that they are being used by Sarutobi Hiruzen, no matter which Kage; they can’t help but admit that this is indeed a very good opportunity to deal with Akatsuki. So after a brief discussion, all four Kage agreed to the request Hokage.
And since everyone reached a consensus so a plan was formulated.
The plan is simple, while the main force of Konoha keeps the entire Akatsuki Organization in check, the Gokage will strike the leader of the Akatsuki Organization by a surprise attack, killing him in the resulting process at the same time destroy his Rinnegan to completely solve the Akatsuki Organization once and for all.
And all the four Kage agreed to this plan because it really is a good plan, it’s just that nobody expected the situation to get out of hand at the starting. Even the first monster released by Akatsuki as temptation isn’t solved yet.
After a long time, listening to the roars and sounds that showed no signs of stopping, the Yondaime Mizukage couldn’t help but question the Konoha Elder Mitokado, “Has Konoha not yet found a way to restrain that monster?”
The Sandaime Tsuchikage spoke as if an elder mocking the young generation, “The young and vigorous still can’t hold his breath.”
As far as Onoki is concerned, it is not his village being ravaged by a monster, so he is not in any hurry or worry. In his opinion, this is a god-gifted opportunity to not only deal with the Akatsuki Organization but also deplete Konoha’s vitality.
Karatachi Yagura is naturally not worried about Konoha, he is rather worried about the Fujin. After all, not long ago the people in this hall received the report that a member of Amatsukami is fighting against the monster that came out of the Box of Ultimate Bliss, and as a secret member of Amatsukami, he does care about the life and death of the members of Amatsukami.
Raikage, Ay also couldn’t help it any longer and asked Elder Mitokado, “Does Konoha have any secret agreement with Amatsukami that we are not aware of?”
Elder Mitokado shook his head, “None.”
The grumpy Raikage immediately asked again, “Then why would Amatsukami help Konoha?”
The cunning Tsuchikage also intervened, “Yes, Konoha must give us a reasonable explanation for this matter.”
Elder Mitokado replied, “Amatsukami’s appearance was simply not in our plan so we are also surprised by the intervention of Amatsukami… for now we can only assume that either Amatsukami intervened because of their enmity with the Akatsuki Organization or because of their interest in the monster that came out of the Box of Ultimate Bliss.”
Raikage seems to want to say something, but Godaime Kazekage Pakura tapped her finger on the wooden table to attract others on herself and said lightly, “Don’t quarrel anymore… if we fail this battle, then the five great shinobi villages will become history. So, these disputes and questioning should be put on a hold until after the war.”
The Raikage snorted heavily and said nothing more.
The others also tacitly became silent.
…
The battle on the ground continues.
Konoha, who was unable to cause damage to Satori could only choose to passively defense against it and retract its defense line backward. Therefore, more and more blocks were destroyed, and the area affected by Satori, Fujin, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Gamabunta’s movements became larger and larger and gradually spread to the center of the village.
After attacking again to no avail, Jiraiya with heavy breath loudly asked Fujin who is floating in mid-air, “Hey, do you have any ideas on how we can deal with Satori?”
To Jiraiya, the Amatsukami Organization is also weird and unpredictable, most of all this organization has always been a mystery to all. It’s hard to tell whether the members of Amatsukami are enemies or not, but as a temporary teammate who has been fighting against Satori for a while now, Jiraiya, for some inexplicable reason feels that this member of Amatsukami is very reliable.
Tsunade also looked at Fujin with an expectant gaze, because she could see that from the beginning, Fujin hasn’t made any active attack against Satori except for the first time, and after that, Fujin has only passively defended against Satori… it’s as if he is delaying something. Initially, she felt that Fujin was buying time for the civilians to evacuate but as the fight continue, she felt that’s not the case.
Although he felt Jiraiya and Tsunade’s gaze, Fujin said nothing, just looked towards the far sky.
At this moment, a mass of Iron Sand was coming here from the distance and soon approached Tsunade.
The vigilant Tsunade did not attack immediately because what came was Iron Sand, which means it was sent by this member of Amatsukami.
After landing in front of Tsunade, the Iron Sand dispersed and revealed the unconscious and injured figure of Mui.
Tsunade was confused looking at the man and soon realized that this man is a Kusagakure Shinobi, more specifically, the master of Hozuki Castle.
While Tsunade was confused, the Iron Sand that dispersed previously turned into the appearance of Fujin, and hurriedly ordered the confused Tsunade, “Hurry up Tsunade-hime, heal him… this dying man is currently the only key at our disposal in solving Satori.”
Tsunade crouched down, and observed Mui’s state; she could see that he is very closed to death, and suspiciously questioned Fujin’s Iron Sand Clone, “How is he the key to solving Satori…?”
Just as Fujin’s Iron Sand Clone was about to answer Tsunade’s doubt, Satori who was hovering in the air sensed Mui’s breath and realized that he is not yet dead, instantly, he dived towards Mui and Tsunade with the objective of killing Mui.
Noting Satori’s intentions, Fujin’s main body descended from the sky, and immediately after dispersing the Iron Sand Clone, he waved his hand.
Instantly, under Fujin’s control, Iron Sand from everywhere gathered together and formed a small Iron Sand Dome protecting Mui and Tsunade inside it while the two will be unable to put any fight, Mui because he is unconscious and dying, and Tsunade because while saving Mui’s life she won’t be able to focus on other things.
With that done, Fujin who had descended down not long ago unfolded a pair of huge Iron Sand wings giving him an elusive appearance, and said in a cold tone, “That’s as far as you go!”