Chapter 242 Konoha cannot be in danger, and neither can you.
Inside the nearly sealed cave was only Nohara Rin, who was tied to a thick wooden stake. There were intricate and strange magic circles carved around her feet. Haruko tested the magic circles but found that they did not move, so she rescued her first.
With the ropes no longer binding her, Nohara Rin's body fell to the ground. Haruko caught her just in time, only to realize that Rin's consciousness had been controlled by an illusion.
"untie."
Nohara Rin struggled to open her eyes, and as her blurred vision gradually came into focus, she saw Haruko's pretty face, which couldn't hide her worry.
"Haru...ko..."
"Are you alright, Lin? Do you feel unwell anywhere?"
Nohara Rin, nestled in her arms, slowly shook her head, instead offering her a reassuring smile, "You saved me again, I'm really useless..."
"A person is alive to be useful; you're not allowed to say that about yourself."
Haruko helped her up, but her eyes kept scanning the surroundings. Finding nothing else suspicious, she focused her gaze on the magic circle that had been under Nohara Rin, trying her best to memorize it.
Following her gaze, Nohara Rin also looked at the magic circle and explained to her, "The Mist Ninja performed some kind of ritual on me earlier, but I was stripped of my consciousness and can't remember anything."
"It's alright, let's go back to Konoha first."
Escaping the sandcastle was not as easy as entering. Rin Nohara's chakra was disordered, and even the genjutsu she was casting was exposed.
"She's a Konoha ninja, and the prisoner is with her!"
The enemy's roar came from behind, and Haruko pulled Nohara Rin along, quickening their pace of escape.
The longer she was away from the cave, the stranger her body felt. She frowned, but when she checked her body, she couldn't find anything wrong.
Out of caution, she called out to Haruko, "Haruko, wait a minute, I feel like... something's not right."
Haruko, who was in a hurry to get on her way, didn't stop. While carefully avoiding detours to escape the enemy, she asked her, "What's wrong? Is something amiss?"
"I can feel it, as if there's another creature inside me..."
"What's the meaning?"
"I...can't go back to Konoha!"
Haruko was forced to stop by the wrist she was holding. When she turned around, she noticed that Nohara Rin looked very uncomfortable.
Haruko moved closer and whispered her name, "Rin?"
"Haruko!" Nohara Rin raised her head, her eyes filled with determination. "Kill me now!"
Dark clouds filled the cold sky, and the faint rumble of thunder foreshadowed impending disaster.
The layers of trees appeared particularly gloomy under the cover of the haze, with dense foliage intertwined within, and the cold air felt impenetrable.
As if all her blood had been stripped away by her inner beliefs, Nohara Rin's face was unusually pale, but because the safety of the village was at stake, she forced herself not to show any fear.
Her short brown hair swayed gently in the cold air as she spoke in a trembling voice: "Kill me... Haruko."
She had already guessed something from her demeanor, but Haruko refused to accept it. She forced a smile and said, "What are you talking about, Rin? Let's go back quickly."
"That's their goal. Once I return to Konoha, what they sealed within me will erupt."
With a slightly trembling voice, she revealed the truth word by word. Nohara Rin carefully described the girl who had been silently watching her with her eyes, as if she could never get enough of looking at her, or as if her vision was blurred by the rising mist.
Her slender body stood in the cold wind, and her smile, which should have been bright, appeared fragile.
"Konoha cannot be harmed."
The stinging pain in her fingertips brought Haruko back to her senses, and she composed herself in the encouraging yet sorrowful look in Uenohara Rin's eyes.
"Lin, don't worry, you'll be alright, you can't possibly be alright..."
"Haruko." A gentle voice interrupted her, and Nohara Rin stepped forward and gently hugged her. "I am happy to be killed by you."
In the darkness, Haruko couldn't tell whether the pounding was her heart or her own; she only felt as if her buzzing brain was being slowly tortured by her own heartbeat.
She didn't understand why all sorts of crises were always lurking around the people she cherished.
Why...? The bond she risked her life to protect...
For a time, hatred and resentment towards fate overwhelmed her reason. After experiencing life and death time and time again, in the end... she still failed to protect everyone.
The dampness on her shoulder washed over the haze in her heart, and Haruko gently pushed Nohara Rin away.
"I...I didn't mean to cry, it's just...it's just..." Nohara Rin sobbed, wiping away her tears with her hands.
Her feigned strength stung Haruko deeply. Now was not the time for her to give up; she still had time to fight for a glimmer of hope for the future, didn't she?
Remembering that she had not yet mastered the sealing technique, Haruko gritted her teeth and had no choice but to go for it.
"Rin, you won't die." Haruko activated her eye technique and stared directly into Rin's watery eyes. "Now I want to enter your consciousness space, is that alright?"
Startled by the fleeting pupil technique that appeared in her eyes, Nohara Rin nodded blankly.
The next second, Haruko activated her eye technique and appeared in a sea of flowers.
It seemed that this was Nohara Rin's consciousness space. Before Haruko could examine it closely, a loud noise from not far away attracted her attention.
Within the dense sea of flowers lies a lake, where a giant tortoise, its body covered in a hard shell with countless sharp spikes extending out, roars incessantly.
The struggle caused the ground to shake violently, and Haruko's face remained solemn in the face of such a colossal creature.
This giant turtle's strength might be comparable to Jiraiya's toad. Did Kirigakure go to great lengths to kidnap Nohara Rin just to make her a sealing vessel?
If their plan is to have Rin Nohara bring the monster to Konoha, then what exactly is this monster...?
Before she could think any further, the giant tortoise had already spotted her.
Dodging the water wave attack, Haruko quickly formed hand seals to release the Yin Seal on her forehead. Black patterns extended from the diamond-shaped mark and spread to her arm.
"Sealing Technique: Vajra Lockdown!"
The chakra she had accumulated over time surged forth at this moment, and together with the chains that flew out from her body, they wrapped around the giant turtle's body in circles.
"Roar! Roar! Roar!" Feeling the restraints on its body, the giant tortoise resisted even more fiercely.
She hadn't fully mastered the Vajra Lock technique yet, and with the giant tortoise's resistance, the backlash rapidly impacted Haruko, causing her to bleed from her clenched teeth.
Crimson drops fell onto the trembling chains, slid down their hard surfaces to the ground, and stained the bright flowers.
Time passed second by second, the giant tortoise's struggles gradually weakened, and Haruko was also about to give up the high-energy sealing technique.
Finally, the chains tightly bound the enormous creature, pinning it down and imprisoning it in the lake, temporarily restoring peace and harmony to the beautiful world of consciousness.
Back in reality, Haruko couldn't swallow the urgency in her throat and turned her head to vomit bright red blood.
"Haruko?!"
Nohara Rin's pupils contracted, and she hurriedly checked on her condition, wanting to use medical jutsu to help her recover. However, as soon as she used her chakra, the abnormal fluctuations within her body started acting up again, causing her body to jolt.
"I'm fine." Haruko wiped the blood from her mouth with her sleeve, her voice weak. "Go back quickly and find Kushina."
"……good."
Nohara Rin suppressed the tears that were about to well up again, and this time she took Haruko's hand.
Holding onto their most sacred protection, they rush towards hope.
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