Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals Stage Three (Bonus Chapter for [AncientSin]!)
She recently developed the third stage of the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals, gaining another new technique. However, its effectiveness is still uncertain, as this is the first time Sakura has used it against a powerful enemy.
Before Phase Two, Ice Body Flicker Technique can only be paired with skills like Nintaijutsu that can be activated instantly without time. After all, the purpose of Body Flicker Technique is to launch a surprise attack before the opponent can react. If you have to Hand Seals after the Body Flicker Technique, there is no point in launching a surprise attack.
During this time, she underwent Phase Three development, and Sakura experimented with a more powerful Body Flicker Technique.
First, complete the hand seals for Wind Blade Torrent, hold back from activating it, then Body Flicker Technique to the enemy's blind spot and unleash the prepared Ninjutsu!
The combat style that combines Body Flicker Technique with Ninjutsu is extremely cool and powerful, but the difficulty is also ridiculously high.
This is because it's equivalent to maintaining the Chakra flow of two Ninjutsu simultaneously, and the two don't conflict in the meridians!
No... In reality, using two Ninjutsu simultaneously will inevitably cause some degree of conflict.
It's just that if you control your Ninjutsu well, the impact on your body's meridians won't be that strong—on the contrary, if you don't control it well, it can lead to damage to your meridians or even serious injury and death.
This requires long-term practice.
Even the Fourth Hokage, when fighting the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, only used the technique of using Body Flicker Technique and Kunai to attack; it wasn't until Naruto was born that he mastered the technique of using Body Flicker while simultaneously making Body Flicker Technique.
However, making dumplings is far less difficult than making Wind Blade Torrent.
Sakura Haruno has only just developed this technique, and given her limited self-control, she doesn't dare to use it too often.
However, one hit is enough.
While she was speaking, she had already surveyed the terrain on Scorpion's side.
The vast ice field created by Frost Ice Burial was largely destroyed by Scorpion, whether intentionally or unintentionally. The soil was churned up in the battle, and boulders and broken ice rippled outwards.
In particular, the huge crater, about a hundred meters wide, that the massive black shadow dug when it entered the ground was a huge hole dug directly into the ice.
This has resulted in very few large blocks of ice remaining that can be used as Ice Body Flicker Technique.
"There's one ice block each at their feet, one to their right front and one to their side rear," Sakura thought to herself. "Including the one at my feet, there are only three ice blocks left that I can use for Body Flicker Technique..."
That's enough.
The area to the right front is blocked by thick Iron Sand; only the ice mirror to the side and rear provides an opening for attack.
Is that really the case...?
Sakura's mind raced, and a battle plan was quickly devised; it wasn't complicated. For this level of combat, complex battles lacked sufficient redundancy and were impossible to execute.
The only question is, how much did Scorpion do while the black mist was shrouding the area?
It all comes down to who has more backup plans!
Sakura Haruno took a deep breath, her eyes sharpening.
"After waiting so long... are you finally going to attack?" Scorpion raised an eyebrow and said coldly. He watched as the girl suddenly circulated her Chakra, quickly Hand Seals in front of her chest.
It was the seal of the Wind Blade Torrent and the Chakra fluctuations... He had been cut by this move twice, so he naturally remembered it vividly. The black iron mountain moved silently, blocking his way. Sasori was just waiting for Sakura Haruno to launch a powerful attack with her Ninjutsu!
"Water Release: Wind Blade Torrent..."
He didn't have to wait long: the Wind Blade Torrent only took a little over a second to activate, and Sakura quickly completed the Hand Seals.
However, she didn't actually use that Ninjutsu; she was merely feigning an attack.
Using realistic feints, Sakura drew Sasori's attention to her front, and the next moment, Sakura appeared behind Sasori's side!
Ice Release: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!
"Just as I expected." Sasori watched Sakura Haruno disappear before his eyes without any surprise. He turned around with a cold laugh and, as expected, found the girl who had appeared behind him in an instant!
With a flick of his index fingers, the iron mountain recombines into black sand, which, as if prepared, swiftly moves behind him, attempting to quickly construct an iron wall.
"The Ice Body Flicker Technique has been exposed..." Sakura raised an eyebrow, and as soon as she landed, she saw Scorpion's reaction.
The Iron Sand defense was not yet fully constructed, and Sakura's Star Cannon Hammer had a chance to smash through the iron wall and hit Sasori, but she did not hesitate to activate her Chakra.
Instead of using Nintaijutsu, he used Ice Body Flicker Technique again.
She can't stay here any longer!
Boom! The giant pincers under Scorpion's feet exploded, and a viscous, gelatinous blue liquid, carrying deadly poison, rushed towards Sakura, intending to engulf both of them.
Whoosh—The broken blades on the ground rose up in unison. Sasori moved his left middle, ring, and little fingers in unison, and strong Chakra Threads pulled down, causing the sharp ninja tools to transform into several cold stars that shot towards Sakura.
This is a trap!
Ice Release: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!
The trap of venom and sharp blades only caught Sakura's afterimage, shattering the ice into dust.
Scorpion was genuinely taken aback this time. He turned around and saw Sakura sway slightly and land on the ice mirror to his right.
His expression changed as he suddenly realized that the iron mountain that had been protecting him had turned into fine sand and moved behind him, leaving him without any defense.
Then they saw the girl suddenly raise her right hand, her slender index finger, which looked completely harmless, pointing at the scorpion.
The Ninjutsu he had prepared was released the instant he landed.
"Goodbye." The girl's cold voice rang out, and a burning pain shot through her meridians. It was the Chakra that remained in her body due to the Wind Blade Torrent, which had been activated twice by the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals, causing Chakra conflict and damaging her meridians. She endured the excruciating pain, but her face remained impassive. The Wind Blade Torrent she had been waiting for, was finally unleashed.
A silvery-white stream of water suddenly shot out from the tip of the index fingernail.
It shot towards the scorpion, which was now defenseless!
This set of moves... I feel like I've seen it in some popular comic book from the last century. In an instant, this thought flashed through Sakura's mind, and an image of a blond warrior with his hair standing on end, teleporting behind the enemy and suddenly launching an attack appeared in her mind.
She was not distracted by this; her hands continued moving, her slender white index finger twirling lightly, dancing with long, flowing lines of water, sweeping across the air in a fan shape, slicing through the bodies of the scorpion and the Kazekage puppet from left to right without any hindrance, just like a knife cutting tofu.
Cut them completely in two!
Crackling sound--
The puppets scattered into fragments, crashing and tumbling as they fell from mid-air.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh--
The iron wall floating in the air lost its Chakra support and gradually disintegrated into fine black sand, which drifted and fell to the ground.
The Kazekage Shadow Puppet is utterly dead.
Sakura flicked and turned her index finger, pulling the water line, about to make a few more cuts on the fallen debris.
Suddenly, he was startled, and his pupils shrank drastically.
Sasori's Chakra senses... were still in that location, and he showed no signs of being severely injured or dying!
Meanwhile, swish swish swish --
Hundreds of black figures suddenly flew up from the hiding place made of jagged rocks on the ground and appeared around Sakura Haruno, densely occupying the entire sky above her head!
"Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!"
This is the real trap that the scorpion has laid.
The scorpion, hidden in its giant pincers, revealed a cold smile on its cute face.
Then, from the black figure, countless fireballs, wind blades, lightning bolts, and various ninja tools were unleashed, threatening to engulf Sakura!
They can use Ninjutsu; they are Human Puppet...
The thought flashed through Sakura's mind. Enduring the burning pain in her meridians, she subconsciously began to circulate the Chakra of the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals.
Of course, she wouldn't take such a dense attack head-on... Sakura Haruno didn't have any Ninjutsu to defend against such a fierce attack in that instant; even her abandoned Azure Water Release wouldn't be enough.
Boom boom boom--!
Hundreds of powerful Ninjutsu blasted down, shattering everything, including ice, and creating a huge crater in the ground.
The girl, looking slightly disheveled, suddenly appeared in the very spot where she had started.
She was greeted by a giant puppet that had been lurking underground for a long time!
It leaped out from underground and, taking advantage of Sakura's momentary lapse in balance after her Body Flicker Technique, swung its massive pincers and slammed down!
The timing was impeccable.
"This is the final blow...! You can't dodge it anymore."
"Scorpion said calmly."
Yes, Sakura didn't even make a dodging motion.
She stared fixedly at the dark shadow that was pressing down hard in mid-air. At this moment, she finally saw the appearance of the giant puppet of the scorpion. It was an unimaginably huge desert burrowing scorpion, hundreds of meters wide and tens of meters high.
One of its pincers had been cut off, and it was now swinging its other pincer to attack her.
The girl looked dazed, as if she had given up resisting.
Then.
The backup plan she left behind came in handy.
Boom!
The giant pincers brushed past Sakura Haruno and slammed heavily to the ground.
Just like... the situation where the Kazekage Puppet's iron spear missed the girl.
"That Genjutsu hasn't disappeared?" Scorpion's expression suddenly changed. His confident final attack missed its mark, and his brows furrowed tightly!
"Even though there's no Chakra sensing and no Chakra support, why can the Genjutsu's effects still be preserved?"
This is illogical... oops, it should be called Ninjutsu!
Sakura didn't hear his mutterings and naturally couldn't answer them.
The girl merely glanced at the giant pincers that had landed beside her, a mocking smile playing on her lips.
"Water Release: Mirror Flower, Water Moon" transforms water on the ground into water vapor, which diffuses into the air to change humidity and bend the line of sight, rather than forcibly distorting the line of sight in the form of Genjutsu.
Therefore, once Ninjutsu is completed, it no longer requires Chakra to maintain.
The distorted vision effect will persist until the air humidity naturally decreases to the same level as the surrounding air, which will take at least half a day.
This is why the giant scorpion's attack missed!
Sasori saw through her Ice Body Flicker Technique, but he failed to see through this Ninjutsu based on scientific principles; in the end, he was still one move behind in this attack.
Sakura took a step to the left, a cold smile on her face, and grabbed the giant scorpion's pincers.
(Minimum 1 chapter guaranteed. Bonus chapter depending on my ability to write it!)
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