"Sakura, that bear's charging at you! Don't let it get away!" Naruto shouted to Sakura.
An enormous bear charged wildly toward Sakura. It stood a full two stories tall.
Facing the Giant Bear charging toward her, Sakura smiled faintly. "Hehe, don't worry. It won't get away." She clenched her fist, gathering tangible chakra around it.
Sakura slammed her fist into the ground. The earth shattered and collapsed, burying the Giant Bear beneath it.
Sakura dusted off her hands and grinned. "Hehe, all done."
Naruto walked over to where the Giant Bear had been buried. "Sakura, you've gotten even stronger."
"I don't know why," Sakura replied. "Three months ago, I suddenly noticed that I could gather chakra much faster, and the amount I could gather each day increased a lot, too. It's really strange, but my teacher said it was a good thing, so I didn't think much of it."
Her words made Naruto freeze, bringing back memories of the final moments of their battle against the Eight-Headed Serpent three months earlier.
Three months earlier, just as Young Naruto, Young Sasuke, and Jiraiya were about to seal the Eight-Headed Serpent, he suddenly erupted in fury. "Even if I die, I will never let you lowly humans seal me inside those sunless Three Sacred Treasures again! Aah!" His roar rang out.
The Eight-Headed Serpent unleashed a tremendous aura, his body turning directly into black smoke. Naruto and the others sensed an immensely powerful, evil presence within it. The smoke billowed outward, blasting Jiraiya, Young Naruto, and Young Sasuke away and scattering the Three Sacred Treasures.
Jiraiya struggled up from the ground and looked at the dispersed Eight-Headed Serpent in confusion. "What's gotten into this monster now? Does he still have another trick up his sleeve? How did he suddenly unleash such