Chapter 558: A Powerful Opponent  

Currently, the new Team Seven wasn’t having a good time, as Yuno crossed two kunai above his head to block a hammer kick from a weirdly blade-like leg.

*Clang*

Surprisingly, the sound of two metals clashing against each other echoed over the battlefield while Yuno sank to his knees with a groan.

He felt like his enemy was just about to overcome his defense when a slender blade was swung diagonally upwards and smashed into the leg as well, supporting Yuno’s defense.

“Urgh, thanks, sis.”

“Hush, focus.”

“[Ice Style: Rising Icicle]”

Dozens of icicles grew out of the ground surrounding Yuno and Natto and shot toward their enemy, who quickly propelled themselves away, dodging the incoming attack, allowing Yuno and Natto to regroup with two other people.

One of them was a young man with smooth blonde hair and large brown eyes, Haka, Naruto, and Haku’s eldest son, and the other one had a black undercut, with the shaven sides being colored blonde. He had the roman numeral “IX” under his left eye and a pair of hooped piercings under his right eyebrow. In conclusion, he was trying really hard to look cool. His name was Kawaki. All four of them were covered in sweat with a few bruises on their bodies and were clearly in no condition to continue fighting for much longer.

Their enemy, on the other hand, a woman with long, curly, blonde hair and light purple eyes with vertical lines running through her pupils and irises, snorted in annoyance at the four people in front of her. She was completely unharmed and not even out of breath.

“Seriously, why are you brats protecting Kawaki? Just hand him over, and we can part ways. The only reason why you aren’t dead yet is because it would be annoying if the Uzumaki clan were to interfere with us.”

Yuno was just about to retort when a lazy voice echoed over the clearing they were fighting.

“Oh my~ A grown woman bullying a bunch of children, that’s not very nice.”

Without anyone noticing her approach, Yuna appeared between the group of four and their enemy, causing the woman to click her tongue in annoyance.

Yuna briefly glanced at the group she was protecting and wondered who the brat with black hair was but quickly shoved that problem away into the depth of her mind.

Surprisingly, the unknown kid started talking to her.

“That’s Delta; she is one of the top echelons of Kara. She is one of the Inner.”

Yuna turned around and looked at him before she nodded her head, pretending to understand the gibberish that was just served to her.

[You really stopped giving a shit after Kaguya, didn’t you?]

‘Meh, why bother to continue gathering information? I have people for that. If anything important pops up, Akane knows to inform me about it. Besides that, I needed to allocate some time to cultivation. I had to choose between less sex, less other training, or less information gathering, so I think the choice is pretty much set in stone.’[Right, I might sound like a heretic, but I’m pretty sure reducing the amount of sex would have been a reasonable choice.]

‘That DOES sound like something a heretic would say.’

Meanwhile, Delta frowned in displeasure when Yuna appeared in front of her target.

“I know who you are. Yuna Uzumaki, head of the Uzumaki clan, right? Would you mind stepping aside so I can collect Kawaki?”

“Mah, it seems like my kids want to protect him, so sorry about that; I’ll have to deny your request.”

Delta scoffed in disdain as she lowered her stance.

“In that case, I’ll have to use force to get him.”

Yuna’s eyebrow rose in doubt when she heard Delta’s words.

“You know who I am and still want to face me? That is quite… bold. Besides, didn’t you say you don’t want to agitate the Uzumaki clan? I can still let this matter slide since no one got hurt too badly, but if you want to continue, things will be different.”

Delta snorted in disdain as she bent her knees even further and shot herself towards Yuna at high speed.

“I only said that it would be annoying if the Uzumaki clan were to interfere, but IF WE HAVE TO FIGHT THEM, WE WILL DO SO!!!”

Kawaki’s eyes widened in shock when he realized that Delta was coming at them seriously this time.

“Careful! All of the Inner are…” *BOOM*

A fist smashed into Delta’s face, crashing her head-first into the ground while leaving a behind a knuckle-shaped imprint on her temple, knocking her out instantly.

“… monsters.”

Kawaki’s jaw hit the ground as he looked at the knocked-out Delta.

“O-One shot? I-Impossible!”

Moments later, a hand landed on his shoulder, making him flinch. He looked at the owner of the hand and saw Yuno giving him a smug look.

“Those Inner sure are dangerous, huh? That took mother almost a full second; how scary~”

Kawaki couldn’t help but blush when he heard Yuno’s mocking words. Right, he plays the enemy up as a big shot, just for them to get defeated with a single punch. He couldn’t help but be a little ashamed about that.

However, he also couldn’t help but get excited. After all, if Yuna was that powerful, she might even be able to defeat Jigen.Meanwhile, Yuna took out an orange kunai with a blonde ribbon wrapped around it and tossed it to the ground. Moments later, Naruto and Ino appeared next to the kunai.

Naruto looked around the clearing and noticed a person whose head was stuck in the ground while their leg occasionally twitched.

“Information extraction?”

“Information extraction.”

Without needing to hear more, Ino crouched down next to the twitching person and pulled their head out of the ground.

“Oh, and this one seems to be some kind of android, so I’m not sure how well your techniques work on her.”

Ino nodded her head as she carefully opened Delta’s eyelid.

“How careful do I need to be regarding damaging her mind?”

“Go all out.”

“Okay~”

As Ino said that, her eyes started shining in a ghostly white color, while intense pressure started radiating out of her, making the kids uncomfortable.

“Mhh, let’s see~ Ohh? She actually has some mental defense in place. Let’s see, open… open… Oh my, how cute, open… oops, that’s broken… aaaand, I’m in.”

While Ino was rummaging around in Delta’s mind, Naruto could only smile wryly at how casually his wife messed with someone’s mind.

“Okay, I think I got everything that’s useful out of her; what do you want to know, Yuna?”

“Mah, just tell me if she is part of some criminal organization, and if she is where their base is, so I can crush them. It’s been a while since I crushed my last bandit hideout.”

“You are going to attack them!?” Yuna glanced at the speaking and noticed that it was the black-haired boy, whose name she totally remembered.

“Yeah, you wanna come as well, kids? What about you, Naruto, Ino?”

Yet again, Kawaki’s chin dropped to the ground due to how casually Yuna looked at the situation while the other three got excited.

“Awesome, I’m definitely coming! I wanna see mother use more cool moves!”

“Yup, I’m coming as well. I want to see more of mum’s swordsmanship!”

“I have heard a lot about how strong auntie is from grandfather and mother, so I would also like to see a few of aunties techniques.”

While the kids got excited, Ino rejected the offer, not really being interested in hunting bandits, while Naruto decided to follow Yuna so he could keep an eye on the kids.

*Author note*

Well, I just imagined Zabuza’s face when Haku’s son calls him grandfather, and somehow, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

*End of Author note*