Attack

One hour later.

Naruto: "=͟͟͞͞(꒪ᗜ꒪‧̣̥̇), I'm dying..."

Sasuke: "(ŐдŐ), my body... can't take it... have I reached my limit?!"

Hongshi shook Naruto, who lay on the ground foaming at the mouth. "ﾞ━=͟͟͞͞(Ŏ◊Ŏ‧̣̥̇), Naruto-kun, stay strong!"

Sakura was beside him, shaking Sasuke too. "Sasuke, don't scare me."

Tazuna took a sip of sake. "You youngsters push yourselves too hard. You need to learn to rest. You can't just keep charging ahead blindly."

Kakashi strolled over from behind. "Ah, very good. Now that's what I call training!"

Hongshi took two black pills from his backpack and fed one to each of them. "These are my special Super Military Rations Pills. Take one and rest a little, and you'll recover completely!"

"Urgh! What is that taste?"

"Pfft!"

After swallowing the Super Military Rations Pills, Naruto and Sasuke shuddered and passed out, but Sakura and Kakashi could sense their bodily functions rapidly recovering.

Using his Rinnegan's ability, Hongshi had infused the Military Rations Pills with chakra from the Yin Seal's Creation Rebirth, giving them extremely powerful restorative effects.

"Hongshi-kun, why are they smoking?!"

Looking at the two of them, Tazuna urgently asked Hongshi, "Kid, nothing's going to go wrong, is it?"

Hongshi smiled. "They'll be fine."

Just then, two people suddenly leaped out of the nearby pool.

Both wore masks, and their clothing marked them as Mist Ninja. Each had one mechanical arm covered in sharp blades.

Catching Kakashi off guard, they connected their mechanical arms with a steel cable and wrapped it around him.

"Heh, hooked one."

"Die!"

With a hiss, the mechanisms inside their mechanical arms rapidly retracted, and the force sliced Kakashi's body into several pieces.

Sakura cried out, "Ah! Kakashi-sensei!"

The two Mist Ninja worked in perfect coordination. After succeeding, they swiftly switched targets and wrapped the steel cable around Hongshi. "You look troublesome. We'll deal with you first!"

Hongshi merely smiled with narrowed eyes. "Uh, are you sure this is a sensible thing to do?"

"Hm?"

They retracted the mechanisms, only to discover that the steel cable did not move at all.

"Is it broken?!"

Sakura's voice rang out behind them. "(▼皿▼#) You two bastards!"

"Tiger-Ox-Monkey-Tiger-Ox-Monkey, Water Release: Twin Water Severing Waves!"

Water swiftly rose from the small pool the Mist Ninja had emerged from, turning into two extremely thin jets that shot toward them.

"Hm?"

In unison, they released the steel cable, intending to attack Sakura first, but discovered they could not move at all.

Hongshi gripped the steel cable tightly and smiled. "Where are you going?"

"Superhuman Strength?!"

The two Mist Ninja had spent years carrying out assassination missions and had hovered between life and death countless times. They immediately activated their mechanisms to sever the steel cable and leaped to either side.

However, Hongshi's tug had slowed their movements. The jets cut straight into their bodies, bringing searing pain. Wounds deep enough to expose bone opened across their chests and thighs, blood streaming out.

"Damn brat!"

In pain, both stared at Sakura with bloodthirsty eyes and charged together, their steel arms gleaming purple with poison as they went straight for her face.

They were extremely fast, but Sakura was not slow either. She leaped up, her hands rapidly forming hand seals in midair. "Tiger-Rat-Boar, Earth Release: Earth Prison Submergence!"

An earthen wall appeared precisely beside the one on the left, trapping him, before the earthen sphere sank underground.

"All right! That's one trapped."

The other Mist Ninja had already reached Sakura. His mechanical arm struck her squarely in the head, but the next instant, Sakura turned into a wooden log.

"You know the Substitution Technique too? Troublesome brat!"

A sizzling sound suddenly came from the log. The Mist Ninja recognized the sound of an Explosive Tag immediately, but it was already too late to throw it aside.

"Oh no!"

Boom! The Explosive Tag detonated, blasting the Mist Ninja away.

Sakura looked at the Mist Ninja sprawled on the ground. "(งᵒ̌皿ᵒ̌)ง⁼³₌₃ You bastard, I'm no brat!"

Boom! The ground burst apart as the other Mist Ninja escaped from underground. A dozen or so shuriken shot from his mechanical arm, all coated in deadly poison.

"Rat-Ram-Tiger, Earth Release: Earth Wall!"

Thud, thud... the earthen wall blocked every shuriken.

Sakura moved swiftly, forming hand seals again. "Tiger-Ox-Xu-Boar, Earth Release: Four-Pillar Pincer."

Four stone pillars rose around the Mist Ninja, pinning him in place. Unable to break free for the moment, he said, "So much chakra."

Sakura tugged at her gloves. "There's plenty more! Ox-Hare-Tiger, Earth Release: Rock Gauntlets!"

Sakura thrust both arms into the ground, and stone immediately encased them. "I'll finish you!"

"Water Release: Water Gun!" Seeing Sakura charge, the Mist Ninja spat out a jet of water that formed a long spear and stabbed toward her.

With both hands encased in stone, Sakura could not form hand seals to use ninjutsu.

"Ox-Rat-Boar, Earth Release: Earth Shore Return!" Still sitting where he had been watching Sakura fight, Hongshi unhurriedly cast a ninjutsu. A round earthen shield flipped up and flew toward the water spear, blocking it before falling to the ground.

Sakura used the earthen shield to leap upward.

"Here it is! Cherry Blossom Impact!"

The Mist Ninja held his mechanical arm across his body to block.

"Shannaro!"

Boom!!

Despite the mechanical arm's protection, Sakura's Superhuman Strength, combined with the weight of the Rock Gauntlets, still drove him into the earth. Held in place by the Four-Pillar Pincer, the Mist Ninja's chest caved in under the blow. He spat blood and passed out.

By then, Sakura's chakra was nearly depleted. The Mist Ninja blown away by the Explosive Tag had immediately shielded himself from the blast with his mechanical arm. Although injured, he was not fatally wounded. He stood and leveled his mechanical arm. "Die, brat!"

He fired a dozen or so kunai.

Caught off guard, Sakura could only shield her head with her arms.

Clang, clang, clang, clang.

The pain she expected never came. Through the gap between her arms, Sakura saw only Hongshi standing in front of her.

The speeding kunai snapped and fell to the ground as though they had struck steel. Hongshi turned his head and smiled. "Sakura, doing this well in your first battle is pretty impressive!"

"What?! A monster!" Seeing that even kunai could not hurt Hongshi, the Mist Ninja widened his eyes and leaped backward, trying to escape.

"Hey, trying to run?"

Kakashi's voice suddenly came from behind him.

"What?! You're not dead?"

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm a jonin. How could I die so easily? You're the one who's going to die."

A kunai swiftly swept across the Mist Ninja's neck, and blood gushed out.

"Kakashi-sensei!" After seeing Kakashi, Sakura looked at the pieces of wood on the ground. "So it was the Substitution Technique."

Kakashi came over and rested a hand on Sakura's head. "Sakura, that was very good. I doubt even Sasuke could beat you now."

Although Sakura's technique had been very unpolished in this battle, it was clear that she was indeed strong-at least far stronger than in the original story.

Tazuna, who had long since been frightened speechless, stood to the side. "You're really strong, kid!"

Hongshi smiled. "Sakura, you really use Superhuman Strength well. It would be even better combined with taijutsu."

With the Nine-Tails inside him, Naruto recovered quickly. He slowly sat up, saw the wreckage around him, and frowned. "Hm? Did something happen just now?"

Hongshi smiled. "Sakura just defeated two Mist Ninja chunin all by herself!"

"Σ(ﾟ∀ﾟﾉ)ﾉ What?!"

Kakashi smiled. "Naruto, you'll have to work harder."

Naruto looked at the large crater Sakura had just smashed into the ground. "I'd better not go provoking Sakura anymore!"

Kakashi took several boxed lunches out of his backpack. "Well, since we've stopped, let's eat."

Sakura looked at Sasuke, who was still foaming at the mouth. "Aren't we waiting for Sasuke? Is he really all right like that?"

Tazuna looked worried too. "That's right. Isn't he foaming more and more?"

Hongshi slowly walked over and pressed a hand to Sasuke's chest, releasing a green glow. He looked a little embarrassed. "Someone with an ordinary constitution needs ten hours to fully digest this Super Military Rations Pill. I'll help him along with Medical Ninjutsu now."

Kakashi was even more astonished. "You know Medical Ninjutsu too? Just what kind of genius are you?"

Sakura smiled. "Hongshi-kun knows lots of ninjutsu, and he can use all five elemental releases. He's actually the strongest of us genin. He's just too slow, that's all."

Kakashi nodded too. "Yes. To understand advanced Medical Ninjutsu and Yin-Yang Release as a mere genin is truly remarkable."

Just as he finished speaking, Sasuke shuddered and slowly woke. "Where am I? What happened?!"

Naruto burst out laughing. "Hahaha, I woke up before you did! You lost!!!"

Kakashi walked over and smiled. "All right, let's have lunch. We'll keep training afterward!"

Naruto: "∑(❍ฺд❍ฺlll), what?! More carrying?"

Sasuke: "Σ(°△° )︴, Kakashi-sensei, do we really have to?"

Kakashi rested his hands on their heads. "Training isn't something you finish in a moment. Don't you want to get stronger?"