"It doesn't matter who I am. The real question is, if you knew he'd forget, why didn't you just pick a shorter code?" The long-haired ninja sneered, holding the brim of her hat and looking at Sasuke with amusement.
"Because I knew you were hiding nearby, listening to everything," Sasuke replied calmly. "That's why I used such a long code—just to throw you off."
The female ninja raised an eyebrow, taking off her hat and nodding in admiration. "Clever. Seems like you're sharper than I expected," she said, a smile playing on her lips. Her long, bright red tongue slipped out, licking the hat in her hand, giving her an unsettling and eerie look.
"What you want is the Earth scroll, right?" she taunted, pulling a scroll from her pack and holding it up. Then, in a disturbing display, she extended her tongue, wrapped it around the scroll, and swallowed it in one gulp.
The sight made Sasuke and Sakura feel a chill down their spines, their skin crawling in horror.
"This one's a complete creep," Lee muttered under his breath from his hiding spot, disgusted. In his memories of Sion Mun, he'd seen him encounter many monstrous foes, but this level of unsettling behavior was on another level.
"Alright, let's begin the battle for the scroll," the female ninja announced, her gaze narrowing on Sasuke and Sakura. "I'll be coming at you with everything I've got!"
With those words, a wave of intense, murderous intent swept across the clearing, hitting Sasuke and Sakura like a physical force. The sheer pressure of her aura was so overwhelming it felt as though the air itself was frozen in dread. Her killing intent was so powerful it seemed almost tangible, wrapping around them like icy chains and filling them with a sense of impending doom.
To Lee, even from a distance, her killing intent was terrifying. If it was affecting him, how much worse was it for Sasuke and Sakura, who were directly in her line of sight? They could almost see themselves being brutally torn apart, as if the images were real.
Sakura's knees buckled, and she collapsed to the ground, her eyes blank, completely overwhelmed by fear. She looked almost lifeless, her spirit shattered under the immense pressure.
Sasuke held out a bit longer, but he was still struggling to breathe, his mind clouded with horror. His breathing grew shallow and rapid as he tried to resist the crippling fear gripping his entire body.
"Is this… an illusion, or…?" he muttered weakly, finally collapsing to his knees and throwing up as he fought the wave of murderous energy.
Lee watched silently, feeling a pang of pity. He knew Sasuke wasn't weak—it was just that the gap between him and this Kage-level ninja was immense. Sasuke was just a Genin, facing a powerhouse who was accustomed to slaughter. The killing intent of someone like her was not something a rookie could withstand.
She must be after something, he thought. There's no way a ninja of her level would come here just to mess with a Genin. Maybe she's after Sasuke's eyes—the Sharingan, the legacy of the Uchiha clan.
The female ninja kept watching Sasuke, her gaze expectant, almost curious. She seemed to be waiting, as if testing his resolve to see if he'd break under the weight of her presence or rise to face her.
"This isn't an illusion," Sasuke realized, his mind racing as he forced himself to analyze the situation. "It's just pure killing intent… But how can one person's intent feel so deadly? She's leagues above Kakashi and even Zabuza. Who is she?"
Glancing at Sakura, Sasuke saw that she was paralyzed, shaking in terror with tears streaming down her face.
If we stay here, we're dead, he thought desperately. We have to escape, now.
"Heh, is this all the famous Uchiha has to offer?" the female ninja taunted, her smile filled with sadistic glee as she took a step forward.
Sasuke tried to force his limbs to move, but his body felt like it was frozen in place. Move! he screamed in his head, panic rising as he saw her approach. But his body wouldn't listen, held captive by his fear.
If I don't move, both Sakura and I will die here! With sheer determination, Sasuke gritted his teeth and focused all his willpower on moving his right hand, slowly reaching into his bag and grabbing a kunai.
"Oh, you're still fighting back? Not bad," the female ninja chuckled, sounding almost amused. "But what can you do?"
She drew two kunai of her own and started to close the distance between them, a look of anticipation in her eyes. "Don't worry—it'll be over in a second. You won't even feel a thing."
With a swift flick of her wrist, she sent the kunai flying toward both Sasuke and Sakura.
But just before they hit, Sasuke drove his own kunai into his thigh, a sharp, searing pain flooding his senses and jolting his body out of the paralyzing grip of her murderous intent. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he knocked away her kunai in a swift, desperate motion, then grabbed Sakura and started running into the dense forest.