The Disappearance of Ta (Family Happiness)

Chapter 43: The Disappearance of Ta (Family Happiness~)

That transmigrator had chosen to help the Sound ninja!

Did that mean the transmigrator's faction was hostile to Konoha, and that they intended to target us?

Sakura keenly picked up on this information, but before she could think it through, she saw Zaku raise both hands with a savage expression, revealing the holes in his palms.

"Severing Air Wave!"

The air before Zaku visibly twisted, followed by a fierce pressure wave sweeping toward Sakura.

"Boom!" Sakura's body was torn to pieces by the Severing Air Wave, turning into a puddle of water in the blink of an eye.

"This is a clone?" Zaku's scalp prickled. He saw Dosu wrapped in Rock Lee's bandages, beginning to shoot straight toward the ground like a drill!

Zaku shouted that something was wrong, but a powerful gust suddenly came from behind his head. He didn't dare hesitate and ducked straight down, dodging a heavy punch from Sakura's real body!

If it had hit the bull's-eye, Zaku's head would probably have split open on the spot, earning a GG amid cheers and laughter.

"Jingle~" Just then, Sakura suddenly heard a crisp ringing sound.

She turned her head and saw Kin charging straight toward Lee and Dosu. Sakura's eyelid twitched. She hadn't expected the situation to change like this.

Thoughts raced through Sakura's mind. Was it because I kept Zaku tied down and changed the plot, causing Kin to change as well?

Indeed, in the original story, the Sound ninja had been suppressing Sakura until the Konoha 12 arrived to support her. Kin hadn't had much chance to act at all. She had only grabbed Sakura's hair, and that had even allowed Sakura to escape.

Sakura was just about to step forward and stop her when the scene before her began changing at incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, Kin appeared directly in front of Sakura!

"Zaku!" Kin shouted and hurled a large number of Senbon toward Sakura.

It was an illusion!

The corner of Sakura's mouth twitched. She dodged the Senbon and charged toward Zaku. At this critical moment, Zaku chose to plunge his hand directly into the ground, causing the loose soil to rush rapidly toward the spot where Dosu was falling!

"I have to make it..." Zaku gritted his teeth and shouted, but the clear ringing sounded again, making him feel dizzy.

After reaching Zaku's back and preparing to punch him until he couldn't tell up from down—literally—Sakura saw multiple images appear before her eyes. For a moment, she couldn't distinguish which of them was Zaku's real head.

It was too late.

"Bang!!!"

"Bang!!!"

Two deafening explosions rang out. One came from Rock Lee's direction. Dosu had ultimately escaped disaster, his head landing on soft ground and suffering only minor injuries.

The other came from Zaku's direction. He was blasted backward, his chest visibly caved in as he vomited blood, spraying the thick crimson fluid across the pink-haired girl's cheeks.

The intense smell of rust entered Sakura's nostrils, churning her stomach and causing slight discomfort.

She quickly recovered, turned around, and pulled Rock Lee backward, trying to avoid Dosu's counterattack in the chaos.

Though this brief clash had allowed Dosu to survive by sheer luck, it had also robbed Zaku of his ability to fight. That counted as a gain.

She just felt a little sorry for Shino. In the original story, he had stepped on Zaku to rise to prominence and show off. Now, his presence would probably be even weaker...

"Lee, rest for a while. I'll deal with these two." Sakura pushed the somewhat stubborn Rock Lee backward. He had originally wanted to force himself to keep fighting, but he discovered that her hand was extraordinarily strong. He could only stand there dejectedly and recover from his injuries.

Sakura-chan truly is worthy of being the woman I chose, Rock Lee thought excitedly.

Sakura once again scanned the surroundings. Looking at the somewhat twisted expressions on Dosu and Kin's faces, the doubts in her heart grew even deeper.

Why had the transmigrator stopped acting?

If they were on opposing sides, they should seize this precious opportunity, when everyone was isolated, and defeat them one by one. But in reality, it had been nothing more than thunder without rain—only constant harassment through words.

Sakura couldn't help putting herself in the transmigrator's shoes. If she were in their place, she would have directly attacked and killed her when Sakura ambushed Zaku, or circled around and executed Sasuke. Of course, she would definitely spend some time dealing with the traps.

But Ta had given up this once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity. That could only mean the transmigrator had other concerns and therefore hadn't acted.

Could it be because of Orochimaru, and Ta can't directly harm Sasuke? Then why not target me directly?

Sakura found that she had too little information to make a judgment, so she gave up and focused on dealing with the two people before her.

Just then, Sasuke's body suddenly erupted with thick purple smoke. His eyelids began twitching constantly, as if he were about to awaken completely.

"This way, Konoha's advantage will only grow greater. So what will you do..." Sakura couldn't help tensing her body. She had a vague premonition that something unexpected would happen around the moment Sasuke awakened.

"That really is an astonishing technique..." Dosu twisted his head and glared at Lee and Sakura, unable to conceal the wariness and fury in his eyes.

Zaku was beaten into this state after only one exchange... Dosu rolled up his sleeves again, intending to defeat both people before him.

He sprang forward, only to see the girl slam her fist into the ground.

"Bang!!"

Huge cracks instantly appeared across the ground, greatly disrupting Dosu's movements. At the same time, faint flashes of fire appeared in the ground around him!

Land mines! Sakura had directly detonated the land mines buried deep underground!

"Rumble!!" Within a few breaths, the battlefield had been transformed beyond recognition. The green grass and trees had nearly vanished, leaving only gray earth, swirling dust, and utter disarray.

Yet the footsteps approaching Dosu grew increasingly clear. He looked up and saw Sakura throw several boulders into the air, shatter them with a punch, and send the fragments flying toward him!

She knew she couldn't approach Dosu recklessly, so she chose to maintain a certain distance and search for an opening.

Dosu used the holes in his arms to blast the fragments away, but he couldn't withstand the extremely high frequency of Sakura's punches. He had no choice but to continuously increase the amount of Chakra he released, shaking everything around him into powder.

The two of them thus entered a war of attrition, but it was obvious that neither of their expressions looked particularly good.

Rather than a contest of skill, this was a contest of stamina.

Either Dosu would exhaust his Chakra, or Sakura would run out of strength.

But this was clearly more advantageous for the latter. There was no other reason than the fact that Sasuke's awakening was only a matter of time. If she wasn't mistaken, Tenten and Neji were also heading in this direction. Exchanging stamina with each other absolutely wouldn't hurt her.

In her previous life, Sakura had used a strategy against Soul Game bosses: she replaced all her equipment with health gear, then neither rolled nor dodged skills, but simply traded blows with the boss. Whenever her health was nearly depleted, she immediately drank a potion. It was a contest of foundations, commonly known as the full-damage build.

Just as the two of them were locked in a stalemate, the clear ringing of a bell once again came through the air, leaving them both dazed.

"I knew you would use this move, but so what? I'm still the one with the upper hand..."

Before she could finish, Sakura herself froze in place, and the ringing stopped in sync with her.

She stared blankly at Dosu. Dosu also gazed blankly at her, only feeling a sudden wave of agony surge through his chest.

Dosu lowered his head and looked at his chest.

A kunai dripping with black blood protruded from his chest.