Naruto: Reborn as Sakura with Manyuu Chifusa Template Chapter 567 567: MIA

"Hang on, hang on," Naruto said, screwing his eyes shut as he massaged his temples. "I can sense a whole lot of malice aid at us… it's coming from not too far away…"

"Who cares?" Sasuke replied lazily. "Power breeds resentnt, and we're the strongest in the world. Besides, we're at war in a foreign country, it's only natural."

Team 7 was currently flying over the Land of Hot Water on Garuda's back. Overburdened by its four passengers, it was not flying as swiftly as it usually did.

"Aid at us?" Sakura's Shadow Clone echoed curiously.

Naruto crossed his arms and tilted his head from side to side, visibly deep in thought.

"Hmm, how should I put this?" he said, chewing on the inside of his cheek. "There's two types of malice I can sense through the Nine-Tails, ya know? One is aid at other people, the other at ... but this kinda feels like it's aid at Sakura-chan and that bastard over there, ya know?"

"If they know Sakura and Sasuke are here…" Kakashi-sensei said slowly. "Then, wouldn't that an this enemy knows exactly where we are?"

Kakashi couldn't understand how that could possibly be the case.

They were currently flying high above the ground, so high that anyone looking up from below would have mistaken Garuda for an ordinary bird of prey. Furthermore, they had not shared their itinerary with anyone; Garuda was doing most of the flying anyway, so even he did not know exactly which path they were taking.

"It's funny, ya know?" Naruto said, nodding. "With the way the malice is increasing, it's almost as if they know exactly where we are…"

Sakura's Shadow Clone inched her way towards Garuda's neck and peered over its feathery side at the terrain racing by hundreds of tres below. The Valley of Hell would be coming up soon, and once they crossed it, they would be in the heart of Yugakure's territory...

"If anything, I did Yugakure a favour by taking out the Cult of Jashin," Sakura muttered to herself. "Hidan and that Ryūki fellow… could it be they had more comrades?"

Even if there were still cult mbers in the Land of Hot Water whom Yugakure had yet to unmask, that still did not explain the strange malice Naruto was sensing.

First of all, Jashin cultists were stark raving mad; they believed they were doing their victims a favour by liberating them from their lives, so there was no hatred involved... and second, how in the world did they know exactly where they were!?

"I don't like this at all," Kakashi-sensei said, shaking his head. "We haven't even entered the Land of Lightning yet, and the enemy already knows where we are?"

Powerful though Team 7 might be, enough to bring down a small country between the four of them, they were still only human. Although they were fully capable of inflicting terrible losses on the enemy and breaking out of any encirclent with the invincible Susano'o, they would eventually tire.

The enemy would only have to shadow them from a distance to avoid being crushed, harassing them to keep them from sleeping and eating, and stalking them until they ran out of chakra… before finally moving in for the kill.

This was a lesson Sakura had learned while fighting Root in their secret base beneath the village: invincibility in combat did not an she couldn't be killed by other ans.

After all, even soone like the invulnerable Third Raikage had eventually been brought low when Iwagakure trapped him in an encirclent. The Hidden Stone had sent wave after wave of its own shinobi after him, and after three days and three nights of unrelenting battle, he had died not from his wounds, but from chakra exhaustion...

"I suppose we have no choice but to turn around," Sakura's Shadow Clone said reluctantly. "Sakura can't afford to lose any of you—"

Boom! A distant explosion rang out, cutting off Sakura mid-sentence.

Garuda let out a panicked squawk and, without so much as a warning, the great bird tucked in its wings and perford a barrel roll. Sakura and the others clung on for dear life as the world spun around them… until a second, ear-shattering explosion rang out, battering them with its shockwave.

Poof!

Unable to take any more damage, Sakura's Shadow Clone vanished in a puff of white smoke.

"Pull up!" Sasuke shouted. "Garuda, pull up!"

A series of detonations rang out, prompting Garuda to take further evasive manoeuvres, and it was then that Sasuke and Kakashi finally discovered the true nature of what was attacking them at such an altitude…

Human bodies were rocketing up towards them as their legs exploded in sequence, starting from the feet, then the shins and knees, and finally the thighs, propelling them skywards... and once they had reached the appropriate altitude, their bodies swelled grotesquely before violently exploding!

"Wait, we've lost Naruto!" Kakashi suddenly realised. "Sasuke!"

Back when Garuda had flipped upside down for the first ti, Naruto, fully imrsed in searching for the source of the malice he was sensing, had failed to react in ti and fallen off the bird's back!

"That idiot!" Sasuke fud. "Garuda, dive!"

Although it was reluctant to obey, Garuda transitioned into a steep dive as it shot down towards the boy in orange, who was screaming his lungs out as he tumbled head over heels towards the ground. It extended its talons to catch him, twisting and twirling to avoid the exploding human bodies shooting up towards them...

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A cluster of detonations caught the tip of Garuda's wing, shattering its hollow bones. It shrieked in pain before vanishing in a puff of white smoke, leaving Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi in freefall with no way of slowing down.

"SUSANO'O!"

Purple chakra flowed outwards from Sasuke's body, enveloping the three of them in the Susano'o's ribcage. Blood flowed freely from his eye as he desperately urged the Susano'o to evolve. The ground was quickly rushing up towards them… and at the last second, the purple titan sprouted a pair of wings and gave them a tentative flap.

The wind imdiately caught in the Susano'o's wings, but they were already falling too fast to stop; the giant chakra construct abruptly swerved in midair, sending them into a cliffside, and with a series of crashing noises that were heard all the way to Yugakure, they tumbled into the depths of the Valley of Hell.

Intercepted by a mysterious foe before they could even reach the Land of Lightning, Team 7 had gone missing in action at the worst possible ti.