Kabuto vs. Sakura

Sakura's Ninjutsu was only a fleeting glimpse, gone in an instant.

Then, broken wood and branches crashed to the ground, splattering blood and debris everywhere.

A single, brief slash of the silver blade left a lasting scar on the already ravaged woodland.

The Ninjutsu was fleeting. In an instant, the water, now deprived of Chakra support, carved a deep crack in the ground before disappearing from the fingertips of a slender arm that suddenly emerged from the forest.

Sakura Haruno, a girl dressed in a black ninja bodysuit, leaned out from the forest, her right hand resting on a tree trunk.

Her left hand, clad in a white elbow pad, slowly drooped down. Water droplets from the Wind Blade Torrent seeped onto it, leaving faint marks. In her palm, a ball of clear water, having suddenly lost the support of that violent Chakra, transformed into a stream of water guided by the most basic laws of gravity, dripping down Sakura's index and middle fingers.

The transmigrator's Water Release: Wind Blade Torrent is already the Third version of the Water Gun Technique.

The earliest Water Gun Technique was essentially a replica of the water jets used in industry on Earth. It was simple, sharp, and powerful, but it had many drawbacks. The most important one was that the water jet would quickly disperse and lose its power without special control, making the water jet only effective at close range, like a sharp longsword.

However, in a world with Chakra, these shortcomings are not a problem. After developing the first version of Water Release: Water Blade, Sakura quickly realized these problems and began developing the second version of Water Gun Technique — Water Release: Super Water Gun, which incorporates the Nature Transformation and Shape Transformation of Water Release.

The Water Release technique's Shape Transformation allows the water stream to maintain its ultra-fine beam shape even after shooting hundreds of meters, ensuring that the water blade's sharpness does not dissipate and completely solving the problem of the first version of the Water Gun Technique having too short a range.

On the other hand, in principle, the power of a water jet is directly proportional to the square of its diameter (that is, its cross-sectional area) and the water pressure.

Having immersed herself in Water Release for a long time, Sakura Haruno's control over the Shape Transformation of Water Release is unparalleled. Now, when she uses Water Release: Super Water Gun, she can even control the diameter to less than 0.1 millimeters, thinner than a hair! Compared to the Second Hokage's Water Release: Water Severing Wave, which is only a few millimeters thick, Sakura has reduced the diameter by tens of times, almost a hundred times. In other words, if Sakura and the Second Hokage used the same amount of Chakra to use this Ninjutsu, Sakura's Ninjutsu power would be thousands of times greater than the Second Hokage's! Things that the Second Hokage's Water Severing Wave could not cut—such as steel—are as fragile as Utakata under Sakura's Super Water Gun. Conversely, ninjas who do not have a good grasp of Water Release Shape Transformation, even if they learn this Ninjutsu, may not be able to unleash the terrifying power of the indestructible water blade, unless they can forcibly increase the power of the Ninjutsu by expending a large amount of Chakra like the Second Hokage.

With the addition of Water Release's Nature Transformation, the water pressure also increases dramatically. Ninjutsu -type ninjas skilled in Water Release can often multiply the water pressure, thereby multiplying the sharpness of their water blades.

Therefore, after incorporating the Shape Transformation and Nature Transformations of Water Release, this Ninjutsu, whose difficulty of execution is comparable to Rasengan and Water Release: Wind Release: Shuriken: Super Water Gun —became Sakura's trump card and most powerful offensive Ninjutsu.

So far, the girl has not encountered anything it cannot cut.

However, Cherry was still not satisfied.

Not long ago, during her battle with Orochimaru, she had already sensed something when facing the endless swarm of snakes. In that battle, although Sakura's Super Water Gun was still invincible and destroyed everything in its path, when cutting through the fake Kusanagi Sword among the snakes, the girl unusually felt a sense of resistance. As a result, she had to use all her Chakra to unleash the full power of the Super Water Gun, and then she quickly fell into a state of exhaustion.

Chakra can alter the properties of objects. Adding Chakra, especially Nature Transformation Chakra, to ninja tools can significantly increase their strength and sharpness. Even ordinary iron Kunai, imbued with Chakra, are easily destroyed by the violent cutting of the Super Water Gun. But what about specially crafted Chakra weapons? The Chakra -mimicking fake Kusanagi Sword already struggles against the Super Water Gun; what about the real one? Or Zabuza's Zabuza 'Kubikiribōchō, Kisame's Samehada? Or perhaps some special Chakra shields—like the Susanoo, though Sakura at this point is unaware of this Ninjutsu.

Against something with extremely high physical hardness, the Super Water Gun is no match; but things change once Chakra and Ninjutsu are involved.

Since then, the development of the third stage of Water Gun Technique has been put on the agenda.

Water Release: Wind Blade Torrent is the so-called third version of Water Gun Technique. It was developed by Sakura to break through special ninja tools or Chakra- type shields. It is a super S-rank Ninjutsu that further incorporates Wind Release Nature Transformation into pure Water Release Ninjutsu. By adding Wind Release Nature Transformation to the water beam, the sharpness of the water blades is enhanced, and the power of the Water Gun Technique is further improved. Although the Chakra consumption to maintain the Ninjutsu is higher, the cutting speed is faster and the duration is shorter. Therefore, the total Chakra consumption of Wind Blade Torrent is not much compared to the Super Water Gun. Apart from the increased difficulty of casting, it does not increase the burden on the caster.

Although it's an advanced Ninjutsu that incorporates both Shape Transformation and two Nature Transformation, Sakura's Chakra manipulation skills are still sufficient to handle it.

Let's get back to the main topic.

No matter how many times Hinata watched it, Sakura's Super Water Gun Technique or Water Release: Wind Blade Torrent's clearing effect still left Hinata secretly amazed.

As expected, she saw her best friend appear. Although she had already realized from the style of her Ninjutsu that Sakura had arrived, she still subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

The feeling of escaping death... it feels so good.

Even if one is prepared to sacrifice oneself, escaping death is still much better than heroically sacrificing oneself to become a hero.

The black-haired girl took a deep breath to calm her turbulent emotions. Once she regained her composure, she immediately realized something else.

"Sakura, you've been here for a while?!"

Hinata frowned, her white eyes glaring at Sakura.

The timing of Sakura's Ultra-Pure Water Shield activation was far too perfect. If she arrived at the battlefield at the last minute to cast the spell, the noise from traveling and casting a spell in such a critical moment would be minimal. However, the surroundings were completely calm before the shield formed, which means she had been lying in wait all along! And the time she arrived must have been during the time I was talking to Kabuto after I closed my Byakugan, so she heard my conversation with Kabuto. Well, instead of coming out to help me sooner, she deliberately hid to watch me make a fool of myself!

Hinata gave a haughty snort, thinking to herself with displeasure.

Sakura, her wicked thoughts exposed, subconsciously touched her cheek, gave an awkward laugh, then coughed lightly, straightened her face, and quickly glanced to the side to change the subject.

"Kabuto, how long are you planning to hide? Do you really think you can get away with using a corpse that isn't even your real body?" Sakura said coldly, arms crossed.

"He's not dead?" Hinata was startled, immediately abandoning her relaxed attitude and tensing up.

"Byakugan? Activate!"

Gathering her last remaining Chakra, the Byakugan girl reopened her all-seeing black-and-white vision.

"Wait, Sakura, Kabuto is right here--"

However, Kabuto acted even faster than Hinata spoke!

"--Your feet!"

Before Hinata could even utter those words, the ground beneath Sakura's feet suddenly exploded, and a pair of hands flashing with dangerous Chakra light grabbed at her exposed ankles with lightning speed!

Kabuto uses Earth Release to walk underground and launch surprise attacks with Mystical Palm Technique. Even with a simple technique, he can make it incredibly powerful. In the original work, he even dared to use this move to ambush Tsunade!

However, this move failed when facing the master and disciple.

The water surface... is trembling.

After the Water Release: Wind Blade Torrent ended, the remaining water droplets fell to the ground, forming puddles. The residual Chakra allowed Sakura to sense the state of the puddles. Before Kabuto launched his attack, he broke through the soil, causing a tremor in the puddles. The perceptive girl immediately realized the presence of the enemy.

Kabuto was fast, but Sakura was even faster.

She suddenly pushed off the ground and jumped high into the air, a new ball of clear water quietly gathering in her left palm.

He was in mid-air, his Ninjutsu ready and waiting to be unleashed!

However, Kabuto's offensive was not that simple.

As Sakura leaped into the air, a wave of Doki emerged from the shadows, raising Kunai and charging towards her from behind.

Sensing the wind behind her, the girl, still in mid-air, remained calm. She suddenly twisted her waist, using the force from somewhere to suddenly rise several inches higher, and at the same time, she turned her vertically jumping body sideways, placing her feet on the tree trunk to dodge the attacker's attack!

"Water Release: Wind Blade Torrent..."

The girl parted her lips slightly and murmured as if whispering.

No one heard what she said; they only saw Sakura reach behind her with her left hand, point her sword at the Doki, and a silver line shot out from her fingertip!

Whoosh--!

The water jet sliced through the air with a short, sharp bang, and the Doki, propelled by inertia, rushed past Sakura before shattering into numerous immobile chunks of flesh.

Sakura didn't take the time to confirm the Doki's second "death," because Kabuto's third wave of attack was imminent!

The urgency here is even literally what it means.

As Sakura twisted to dodge the second wave of attacks, a Doki that had unknowingly lurked on the treetop seized the opportunity to launch a sudden attack from above, Kunai and aiming for the girl's smooth forehead!

(It must be because a large forehead makes aiming easier -- a mysterious voice-over.)

Kabuto timed his move perfectly, just as Sakura's old power had waned and new power had yet to emerge.

The girl's gaze, in that instant, finally shifted from indifference to sternness.

Retreat, and retreat again.

Stepping onto the tree trunk to stop her ascent, the girl's supple body arched backward, but she still couldn't outpace the enemy's speed as they attacked from above.

She could even feel the cool aura emanating from the tip of the Kunai as her brow touched it.

They retreated again, then retreated swiftly, but the raiders were even faster!

In the blink of an eye, it was about to touch the girl's forehead, as if it were about to slice through her smooth skin and let fresh blood flow out.

At this moment, the Doki seemed to sense the emotions of its controller, Kabuto, and accelerated again from its already limited speed!