Chapter 260: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals - Phase Three
She had recently developed the third phase of the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals, adding another new technique. However, it was not certain whether it was effective, and this was the first time Sakura had used it in front of a strong enemy.
Before Phase Two, the Ice Body Flicker could only be paired with skills that could be activated instantly without any time, such as nin-taijutsu. After all, the Body Flicker jutsu was all about achieving the effect of a surprise attack that others couldn't react to. If one were to flicker over and then form hand seals, there would be no point to the surprise attack.
During this period, she had been developing Phase Three. Sakura had tried an even more powerful Body Flicker jutsu—
First, complete the seals for the Wind Blade Raging Stream, hold it back without activating it, then use the Body Flicker to move to the enemy's blind spot, and then release the ninjutsu that had already been prepared!
The combat style of pairing a Body Flicker with a ninjutsu was extremely cool and powerful, but its difficulty was also ridiculously high.
Because this was equivalent to maintaining the chakra circulation of two ninjutsu at the same time, and ensuring that the two did not conflict in the meridians!
No... in fact, when two ninjutsu were cast at the same time, there would always be some conflict.
It was just that if the ninjutsu was well-controlled, the impact on the body's meridians would not be as strong—conversely, if the control was not good, it would lead to damage to the meridians and even serious injury or death.
This required long-term practice.
Even the Fourth Hokage, when he was fighting the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, was still only using the attack method of a Body Flicker plus a kunai. It wasn't until just before Naruto was born that he had mastered the routine of flickering while holding a Rasengan.
And the difficulty of holding a Rasengan was far less than that of the Wind Blade Raging Stream.
Haruno Sakura had also only just recently developed this routine. With her control, she also did not dare to use it too much.
However, as long as it hit once, it would be enough.
While they were talking just now, she had already surveyed the terrain on Sasori's side.
The large-scale ice field created by the Cold Frost Ice Funeral, whether intentionally or unintentionally, had been destroyed quite a bit by Sasori. The soil had been overturned by the battle, and the giant rocks and broken ice were undulating.
Especially the hundred-meter-sized crater that the giant black shadow had dug when it had burrowed into the ground, it had directly dug a large hole in the ice layer.
As a result, the large ice blocks that could be used as a medium for the Ice Body Flicker were already few and far between.
"There's one piece under his right front and one under his rear flank," Sakura said silently in her heart. "Counting the piece under my feet, there are only three pieces of ice left that can be used for the Body Flicker..."
It was enough.
The position on the right front was blocked by the thick iron sand. Only the ice mirror on the rear flank had an opening for attack.
Is that really the case...
A small battle plan was quickly drawn up in Sakura's mind. It was not complicated. In a battle of this level, a complicated battle plan would not have enough redundancy and would be impossible to realize.
The only question was, how many tricks had Sasori played over there when the black mist was covering everything?
Let's see who has more hidden moves!
Haruno Sakura took a deep breath, her gaze becoming sharp.
"After waiting for so long... are you finally going to attack?" Sasori said coldly, his willow-like brows raised. He watched as the girl suddenly circulated her chakra, her hands coming together in front of her chest and rapidly forming hand seals.
It's the seals and chakra fluctuation of the Wind Blade Raging Stream... He had been cut by this move twice, so of course he had a deep impression. The black iron mountain moved quietly, blocking in front of him. Sasori was just waiting for Haruno Sakura to attack him with her ninjutsu!
"Water Style: Wind Blade Raging Stream..."
He did not have to wait too long: the activation speed of the Wind Blade Raging Stream only required a little over a second. Sakura quickly completed the hand seals.
But she did not activate this ninjutsu. This was just a feint—
Using a realistic fake move to draw Sasori's attention to the front, in the next moment, Sakura's figure had already appeared at Sasori's rear flank!
"Ice Style: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!"
"As expected." Sasori watched as Haruno Sakura disappeared from before his eyes, not surprised at all. He sneered and looked back, and as expected, he found the figure of the girl who had instantly appeared behind him!
His index fingers twitched, and the iron mountain re-differentiated into black sand, which had been prepared long ago and moved quickly behind him, trying to quickly form an iron wall.
"My Ice Body Flicker was seen through..." Sakura's delicate brows rose. Just as her figure had landed, she saw Sasori's reaction.
The iron sand's defense had not yet been fully constructed. Sakura's Star Cannon Hammer had a chance to shatter the iron wall and hit Sasori, but she unhesitatingly spurred on her chakra.
Not to use nin-taijutsu, but to once again cast the Ice Body Flicker.
—She could not stay here any longer!
BOOM— The giant pincer that Sasori had been stepping on under his feet suddenly exploded. A viscous, gelatinous green liquid, carrying a deadly poison, pounced on Sakura's figure, intending to cover both Sasori and her at the same time.
SWISH— The broken blades and knives on the ground all shot up towards the sky. Sasori's left middle, ring, and little fingers moved in unison. Under the pull of the tough and powerful chakra threads, the sharp ninja tools turned into several points of cold stars and shot towards Sakura.
This was a trap!
"Ice Style: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!"
The trap, composed of poison and sharp blades, only hit Sakura's afterimage, smashing the ice block to dust.
This time, Sasori was truly stunned. He turned his head and found Sakura's figure swaying slightly, landing on an ice mirror on the right front.
His face changed. He suddenly realized that the iron mountain that had been protecting his front had already turned into fine sand and moved to his back. There was no defense in front of him.
And then he saw the girl suddenly raise her right hand. Her slender, seemingly non-threatening index finger was pointing at Sasori.
The ninjutsu she had prepared just now was released the moment she landed.
"Goodbye," the girl's clear and cold voice sounded. A fiery pain spread through her meridians. That was the chakra of the Wind Blade Raging Stream that had been stored in her body. And having simultaneously circulated the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals twice, it had caused a chakra conflict, resulting in damage to her meridians. She endured the intense pain, but her face remained impassive. The long-awaited Wind Blade Raging Stream was finally unleashed.
A silver-white water line suddenly shot out from the tip of her index fingernail.
It shot towards the defenseless Sasori!
This set of movements, I feel like I've seen it in a certain national manga in the last century. In that instant, this thought suddenly flashed through Sakura's mind. The image of a golden-haired warrior with his hair standing on end, teleporting behind an enemy and suddenly launching a move, appeared in her mind.
She was not distracted by this. Her hands did not stop. Her slender, pale index finger moved lightly, and the long water line danced, sweeping out a fan-shape in the air. Like a knife cutting through tofu, from left to right, it cut through the bodies of Sasori and the Kazekage puppet without any obstruction.
Cutting them both in two!
CRACK, CRACK—
The puppet scattered into wreckage, bumping and clattering as it fell from mid-air.
HISS, HISS, HISS—
The iron wall, which had been floating in the air, lost its chakra support and, bit by bit, dispersed into fine black sand, which drifted down to the ground.
The Kazekage puppet was completely destroyed.
Sakura's index finger flicked and turned, pulling the water line, and was just about to cut the falling wreckage a few more times.
But she was suddenly startled, her pupils shrinking violently.
Sasori's chakra signature... was still in that direction. It had not weakened in the slightest, as if he were on the verge of death from a serious injury!
And at the same time, SWISH, SWISH, SWISH—
Over a hundred black figures suddenly flew up from the hiding places constructed from the jagged rocks on the ground, appearing all around Haruno Sakura, densely occupying the entire sky above her head!
"Secret Technique: Hundred-Puppet-Drill!"
This was the true trap that Sasori had laid.
Sasori, hidden in the giant pincer shell, a cruel smile on his cute, pretty face.
Then, from the black figures, countless fireballs, wind blades, lightning, and all kinds of ninja tools were launched at the same time, as if they were about to drown Sakura!
They can use ninjutsu. They are human puppets...
This thought flashed through Sakura's mind. She endured the burning pain in her meridians, and the chakra for the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals subconsciously began to circulate.
Of course, she would not take such a dense attack head-on... Haruno Sakura had no ninjutsu that could defend against such a violent attack in this instant, not even the "Blue Water Style" she had abandoned.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!
Over a hundred powerful ninjutsu rained down, blasting everything, including the ice blocks, to smithereens, digging a huge, deep crater in the ground.
The girl's slightly pathetic figure suddenly appeared at her original position.
What greeted her was the giant puppet that had been lurking underground for a long time!
It suddenly leaped out from the ground. Taking advantage of the moment Sakura had just finished her Body Flicker and was unsteady on her feet, it swung its giant pincer and smashed down!
The timing was perfect.
"This is the final blow...! You can't dodge it."
Sasori said faintly.
Yes, Sakura didn't even make a move to dodge.
She just stared blankly at the black shadow that was pressing down on her from mid-air. At this moment, she finally saw clearly the appearance of this giant puppet of Sasori's. It was a giant desert scorpion of unimaginable size, a full hundred meters wide and dozens of meters high.
One of its pincers had already been cut off, and it was now swinging its other pincer to attack her.
The girl's dazed appearance, as if she had given up resisting.
And then...
The back-up plan she had left behind came into play.
The giant pincer brushed past Haruno Sakura and slammed heavily onto the ground.
Just like... the scene just now when the Kazekage puppet's iron spear had missed the girl.
"That genjutsu didn't disappear?" Sasori's expression suddenly changed. His sure-kill final blow had suddenly missed. His eyebrows immediately furrowed tightly!
"There's clearly no chakra signature, and it's lost its chakra support. Why is the genjutsu's effect still there?"
This is unscientific... ahem, I mean, this is un-ninjutsu-like!
His mutterings, Sakura did not hear, and naturally could not answer.
The girl just glanced at the giant pincer that had landed beside her, a mocking arc on her lips.
The "Water Style: Mirror Flower, Water Moon" was to turn the water on the ground into water vapor, which would diffuse into the air to change the humidity and bend the line of sight, rather than forcibly twisting the line of sight in the form of a genjutsu.
Therefore, once the ninjutsu was complete, it no longer needed chakra to be maintained.
The effect of distorting vision would continue to exist until the air humidity naturally decreased to the same level as the surrounding air, which would take at least half a day.
This was the reason why the giant scorpion's attack had missed!
Sasori had seen through her Ice Body Flicker, but he had not seen through this ninjutsu, which was based on scientific principles. This wave of attacks, in the end, it was he who was one step behind.
Sakura leaned a step to the left, a cold smile on her face, and grabbed the giant scorpion's pincer.
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