Sakura Had Gotten Stronger!

A year passed in the blink of an eye.

Over the course of that year, Mitaraishi Anko became Sasuke's regular after-school training instructor.

She was supposed to be training Sasuke, but there were always a few extra people at the training ground.

Naruto was always the first to arrive. Sakura had cut her long hair short and tied it into a neat ponytail.

At first, Ino had only come along because Sakura dragged her there. Later, she started pushing herself, too.

Anko mainly taught them general Taijutsu fundamentals.

Sakura's talent for chakra control pleased Anko. Naruto's stamina kept improving, but he was still a little lacking when it came to ninjutsu.

Ino learned to coordinate the timing of her Mind Body Switch Technique with the hidden weapons she used in close combat.

Compared to practicing chakra control and Taijutsu with them, Sasuke spent more time researching how to obtain Cursed Energy.

That year, armed with a pass specially approved by the Third Hokage, he pored over every document in the Konoha Library about chakra pathways, the meridian system, and changes in ninjutsu form.

Chakra was refined by mixing physical and mental energy.

Cursed Energy was drawn from negative emotions. It could be extracted fairly easily from the red energy emanating from Naruto.

But he should have been able to obtain Cursed Energy from the mental energy gained through daily training, too.

It took Sasuke three months to find the bottleneck in the conversion process: the mental energy extraction rate was too low.

He stimulated the mental energy to draw out the negative emotions within it, but most of it went to waste.

Later, he found inspiration in a paper about the precise control of chakra in Medical Ninjutsu.

Medical ninja had to separate large amounts of chakra into pure physical energy to heal injuries. The more precisely they could separate it, the more efficient the healing.

If he applied that same precise control to mental energy, he could divert it the moment he refined chakra.

One portion would mix with physical energy to form chakra, while the other would be used directly to condense Cursed Energy.

Sasuke spent another two months testing it at the training ground, and finally managed to increase his supply consistently.

Now that his Cursed Energy recovery had stabilized, he could start practicing Jujutsu.

Things like partially manifesting Shikigami or creating Chimera Beasts.

Of course, that was still nothing compared to drawing it directly from Naruto.

Under Round Deer's constant treatment, the Cursed Seal on Black Dog's neck had shrunk to a faint gray-white ring.

The chakra he returned to Sasuke was growing gentler by the day.

White Dog teased that Black Charcoal was no longer the Cursed Seal's slave. He was its caretaker.

Black Dog promptly pinned White Dog to the ground and gave him a good bite.

Uchiha Training Ground, afternoon.

Naruto stood on a white line painted across the sandy ground, pointing at Sasuke beside a stone post.

"Sasuke! You absolutely can't use the dogs today!"

White Dog was lying beside the stone post, taking a nap. At the word "dogs," his ears perked up, then drooped again.

Sasuke tossed his backpack onto the ground and glanced at Naruto.

"What do you mean, 'don't use the dogs'?"

"I mean you can't use your Shikigami!" Naruto planted his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest.

"Your Shikigami are way too unfair! Those two dogs are way too good at Taijutsu, that huge Round Deer can fight and heal, and when Escaping Rabbit comes out, it's an entire field of white!"

Naruto counted them off on his fingers.

"The three of us are fighting you, and then you call out all your Shikigami, and suddenly it's five against three! That's not fair!"

White Dog yawned and spoke with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, Sasuke. The short blond guy knows what fair means now."

"Shut up, you dumb dog! I've gotten way better!" Naruto yelled at White Dog, then turned back to Sasuke.

Sakura stood at the edge of the training ground, twirling a Kunai in her hand. The wind gently swayed her ponytail.

Ino leaned against a wooden post beside Sakura, arms crossed, her long blond hair draped over her shoulders.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto.

"First of all, three against one was never particularly fair to begin with."

Naruto's mouth hung open, his raised fingers frozen in place. "Uh..."

"Second, you're the ones who want to fight. I never asked you to."

Naruto mumbled, apparently unable to come up with a rebuttal. He could only scratch the corner of his mouth.

Ino straightened up from the post and spread her hands.

"I want to fight you one-on-one, too, but I can't use the Mind Transfer Jutsu without someone to help me."

"When I'm performing it, I'm just a sitting duck. Sasuke-kun could dodge it easily."

Ino looked perfectly matter-of-fact.

"So I'm out."

Sakura straightened and stepped forward, moving in front of Naruto.

"I'll fight you by myself."

Naruto turned to her, eyes wide.

"Sakura, don't steal my—"

"Let me do it!" Sakura cut him off.

Naruto froze.

Sakura's voice was much louder than usual, as if she had been holding it in for a long time and had finally let it burst out.

Her ponytail swayed behind her as she gripped her Kunai tightly. In the midday sunlight, her profile looked especially serious.

Naruto's hand had been raised, fingers still outstretched. He slowly lowered it, then turned his face away and muttered something under his breath.

"Fine. Get ready." Sasuke jumped down from the stone post and pulled his hands from his pockets.

Sakura took a deep breath.

She spread chakra evenly across the soles of her feet, adjusted her breathing, and lowered her center of gravity slightly, taking the standard fighting stance Anko had taught her.

Sasuke simply stood where he was, arms hanging at his sides, watching Sakura.

The sunlight cast a sharp line between light and shadow across the training ground. Sakura stood on the brightest side of it.

Sakura attacked first. She pushed off with both feet and charged straight at Sasuke, slashing upward with the Kunai in her right hand.

Sasuke dodged to the side. The metal blade of the Kunai grazed his collar.

Sakura didn't stop. Her left fist followed close behind, aimed at Sasuke's chest.

Sasuke raised his right arm to block. Her fist slammed into his forearm with a dull thud.

His hand tingled a little.

It wasn't a powerful hit, but the angle was tricky. She'd aimed for the tendon attachment at his elbow.

Teacher Mitarashi had taught her well.

Sakura kept up the attack. She drew back the Kunai in her right hand and pulled out another with her left. She attacked with the two Kunai in turn, always targeting the joints and weaker muscles.

The steel blades flashed silver in the midday sunlight, slicing through the air with a series of sharp whooshes.

Sasuke retreated and dodged, occasionally blocking with his arms, but never counterattacking.

Naruto stared from the edge of the training ground, eyes wide. "Since when could Sakura fight like this...?"

Ino crossed her arms, one corner of her mouth twitching. "Forehead Girl's a lot stronger than before!"

At some point, White Dog had gotten to his feet and hopped onto the stone post to watch the two of them.

"Forehead Girl's made a lot of progress in Taijutsu."

Black Dog stood beside White Dog and blew a hot breath through his nose in agreement.

Sasuke knocked Sakura's Kunai aside and jumped back two steps to make some distance.

"Not bad." Sasuke's voice was calm. "Again."

Sakura's lips twitched slightly.

She threw one of the Kunai in her hand at Sasuke's face.

Sasuke dodged to the side. The Kunai flew past his ear.

But Sakura gave him no time to catch his breath. She had already formed three Hand Seals, moving through them an entire order of magnitude faster than she had a year ago.

"Water Release: Water Wave!"

A powerful jet of water burst from Sakura's mouth and shot straight at Sasuke's face.

At the same time, several Shuriken flew toward him, blocking off his escape routes to either side.

Naruto shot to his feet at the edge of the training ground. "Sakura can use Water Release now?!"

Ino was so stunned by Sakura that she could only stare, mouth agape.

Sasuke stomped, and a wall of shadow rose up to block the jet of water.

But Sakura had already circled around from the side under cover of the water.

Her right fist was clenched at her waist, and a visible blue glow of chakra gathered around her knuckles.

Anko hadn't taught her only Taijutsu.

There was a technique in Medical Ninjutsu that concentrated chakra at a single point to repair tiny injuries in tissue.

But Sakura had discovered that if she used that concentrated release for an attack, the result was completely different.

She had figured it out on her own over countless nights that year.

Sakura suddenly slid forward, slipping into the blind spot in Sasuke's defense. A trail of blue chakra light streamed behind her fist.

Her chakra-empowered fist slammed toward Sasuke's chest, and the force of the punch blew his black bangs to either side.

Sasuke leaned backward and fell.

His back nearly touched the ground as he kicked upward with his right leg, striking the joint of Sakura's wrist with his toes.

The kick knocked her fist aside, but the force of her punch still burst outward, sending Sasuke flying off to one side.