Flames were burning, sword lights were flashing.
The white-haired masked ninja forcibly dragged her younger self onto the carriage, forcibly taking her away from her home, away from the Land of Snow...
Fubuki Koyuki groggily opened her eyes and instinctively reached for her chest.
Feeling the hexagonal crystal still there, the heart that had been hanging in suspense relaxed slightly.
Her head felt a bit dizzy.
Fubuki Koyuki vaguely remembered seeing a pair of crimson eyes just before falling asleep, after which her consciousness had completely vanished.
"Sandayu, Sandayu."
Fubuki Koyuki struggled to sit up in bed, calling out the name that had accompanied her for ten years.
Hm?
Why am I swaying?
Am I still not fully awake?
Feeling the rocking beneath her feet, Fubuki Koyuki walked to the window, wanting to open it and breathe some fresh air.
However, the salty, damp sea breeze that hit her nose made her eyes snap wide open.
"What is this!!!"
A miserable yet incredulous wail echoed across the ship.
"You're looking pretty lively."
Sakura gripped her fishing rod and sat at the ship's edge, raising an eyebrow at Fubuki Koyuki's wail.
"But speaking of which, is it really okay for us to be this idle?"
Karin, sitting beside Sakura, glanced at her, then looked around.
Their entire Konoha team was fishing!
Five people holding fishing rods, sitting neatly in a row!
Fishing! Even Shino, the guy who couldn't say five words in half a day, was holding a fishing rod.
Are we really okay just posing like this?
This doesn't look like we're on a mission at all!
"Relax, relax, I'll protect Karin just fine."
Sakura waved her hand dismissively, but then her expression instantly froze, her brows and eyes turning gravely serious.
This feeling...
A fish is on!
Heaven rewards the diligent!
Ever since fishing with Naruto five years ago, Sakura had finally hooked another one!
Faced with this situation, Sakura vowed to break her curse of being an empty-handed angler!
Her fair wrist suddenly exerted force!
Azure chakra rapidly spread from her hands to the fishing rod and even the line!
Sakura yanked hard, but to her surprise, she couldn't lift it?
What a joke?
She couldn't pull up a single fish?!
What the heck was so heavy?
Could it really be a sea king?!
"Hm? Did Sakura hook a fish?"
Sakura's abnormality drew the attention of Sasuke and the others.
"Just a little fish."
"Break for me!"
Yang Release: Strange Strength!
Unmatched power erupted from Sakura's hands, and she even reinforced the fishing rod in the process.
"Uh, Sakura, maybe just let it go?"
Sasuke watched Sakura's temper flare and spoke up awkwardly.
Let it go?
No way!
She finally hooked something!
Following the blue chakra, pink chakra flames instantly ignited around Sakura!
"Get up here!"
With Sakura's angry shout, a massive creature instantly burst out of the sea!
Sasuke and the others stared wide-eyed at the huge thing.
This...
If they weren't mistaken...
Sakura had fished up a killer whale?
The enormous black-and-white killer whale was yanked straight out of the water by Sakura's strange strength.
"Im-impossible!"
"So awesome!"
"As expected of a Konoha ninja!"
"Too strong!"
"Unbelievable!"
"Where's the camera! Where's the camera! Hurry and record this moment, we'll edit it into the movie later!"
The dozen-meter-long killer whale, accompanied by splashes of water, gleamed with rainbow light in the air.
Its massive body leaped directly over the ship's bow, then plunged fiercely back into the sea.
And Sakura, still gripping the fishing rod tightly, was flung flying by the inertia!
"Sakura!"
Sasuke's face paled in shock as he hurriedly chased after her.
By the time Sasuke reached the other side of the ship, he saw Sakura's head pop out of the water, and that killer whale... was gently nudging Sakura back to the surface?
As if afraid she might get hurt?
Sasuke was puzzled.
"Killer whales have high intelligence."
"And they're very friendly toward humans, like how we see kittens and puppies."
"They think humans are cute."
Shino, watching the scene from the side, spoke up.
"As for why..."
"That's because knowledge is power."
Sasuke twitched at the corner of his mouth as he looked at Shino beside him.
Though he'd carried out missions with Shino before, the guy's personality was really...
Sakura looked speechlessly at the killer whale beneath her butt.
Did this count as breaking her empty-handed curse or not...
A water spout shot out from the killer whale, as if responding to Shino's words.
In the end, Sakura let the killer whale go.
"Sakura, you're amazing."
"You even reeled in such a huge fish!"
Karin excitedly spoke while toweling off the pink-haired girl's hair.
She'd never seen a fish that big before!
Sakura felt Karin's actions behind her and couldn't help but feel a bit speechless.
Strictly speaking, that thing wasn't a fish.
But Sakura was too lazy to explain.
If she did, she'd have to start from the difference between mammals and oviparous animals—it was too much trouble.
Uchiha Hikari, watching Sakura from the side, looked thoughtful.
The power that pink-haired girl had instantly erupted with—even she might not withstand it.
If she didn't use the Mangekyo's power and let that pink-haired girl get close, she'd likely be knocked out and killed in one punch.
Only now did Uchiha Hikari truly take Sakura's strength seriously.
Originally, she'd thought Sakura was just a civilian ninja with a bit of luck.
Now, that idea had to be overturned and reconsidered.
Life at sea was destined to be boring.
With nothing else to do, Sakura spent her days leading the Konoha team in fishing by the ship's edge.
Worth mentioning, ever since that incident, several killer whales would occasionally appear around the ship.
That killer whale from before must have gone back and spread the news to its companions.
There's a super strong pink kitten who fished me up!
Everyone, hurry and bite her hook!
But it was precisely because of these guys that there wasn't a single fish around the ship.
All the fish had been scared off by these sea gangsters.
Aside from coming up empty every day, Sakura and the others' only entertainment was probably watching the film crew shoot.
Gotta say, Fubuki Koyuki's acting was pretty good.
The only issue was that, as an actress, she couldn't cry no matter what and had to use eye drops instead.
This led to several NGs at key moments.
As the days passed, one early morning while Sakura was still asleep, a startled exclamation suddenly rang out.
"Oh my god!"
"This is practically a holy filming location bestowed upon me by the god of cinema!"
The director, well over fifty, immediately directed everyone nonstop to haul a pile of film equipment off the ship.
Sakura walked out of the cabin with sleepy eyes, looking at the scene before her, her mind clearing a bit.
No wonder—overnight, an iceberg had somehow drifted right in front of the ship.
"Sakura."
Karin, in her pajamas, sidled up to Sakura and followed her gaze.
"That iceberg has traces of chakra."
Sakura didn't react much to the news.
"Notify everyone, go ashore, protect the film crew's safety."
Karin twitched at the corner of her mouth as she looked at the nonchalant pink-haired girl beside her.
Huh? My lady, do you really think this is just a B-rank mission?
Even with a bit of brainpower, Karin knew that although the war was nearing its end, it wasn't over yet.
At such a critical time, specially assigning a combat asset like Sakura to a B-rank mission was utter nonsense.
Yet Sakura seemed to really treat it like a vacation?
"Relax."
"I've got everything."
Sakura looked at Karin's world-weary expression and couldn't help but pat her red hair.
As the film crew boarded the iceberg, Sakura and her three teammates followed ashore.
Only Uchiha Hikari stayed on the ship to sleep.
After all, she wasn't a Konoha ninja; this trip was just for fun.
She'd grown up this much and had never traveled this far from home.
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