"I'm telling you, Haruno Sakura, I've gotten stronger!!!"
Kurotsuchi, floating in the sky above Konoha's defense line using the Ultralight-Weight Rock Technique, shouted at Sakura.
Her face was flushed bright red, sweat beading on her forehead. After breathing heavily to calm her racing heart,
Kurotsuchi accelerated in mid-air, charging straight at Sakura.
"Kurotsuchi-sama, wait!"
The members of the Explosive Corps each showed horrified expressions and hurriedly chased after her.
This was several thousand meters in the air. If Kurotsuchi, the user of the Ultralight-Weight Rock Technique, made even the slightest mistake, none of the Explosive Corps' members following her would survive either.
Thus, dozens of Ninjas using Explosion Release, along with other Earth Release Ninjas, each began using their own Ninjutsu to cover Kurotsuchi's assault.
"Ooh, a group fight? That's fine too!" Sakura's Observation Haki quickly locked onto all directions of attack, agilely dancing among the attacks with Leviathan.
She was purely enjoying the fight, enjoying that deadly feeling of dancing beneath the blade's edge, because it allowed her to more clearly experience the pulse of life at its limits. Every throb was so real and so precious.
Anyone could perceive the girl's exalted spirits. Her rising spirit transformed into dark thunder, resonating in the void.
"Damn you! Don't underestimate me! Lava Release: Quicklime Seal Technique!"
Her hands flying through hand seals, Kurotsuchi took a deep breath and spat out a large amount of black concrete, spreading a black net in mid-air.
Sakura raised her hand. A heat cycle gathered a storm at her fingertips, which she blew out, pushing the unhardened concrete backward.
But Kurotsuchi seemed to have a plan for this situation. Her hands slid down. The concrete was caught by stronger gravity, changed course in mid-air, condensed into bundles of sharp, pitch-black long swords, and fell toward the defense line below, packed with Konoha's Ninjas.
"Hahaha, after all these years, you've finally learned to be a little cunning, haven't you?" Sakura spread her five fingers, clenched her fist toward the defense line below, then pulled hard.
The Wood Release vines above the defense line twisted. Their open flowers moved like protective umbrellas to various densely populated areas, blocking the concrete swords.
"Great opportunity! Die!"
Kurotsuchi took the chance to rapidly close the distance with Sakura. Earth Release Chakra coiled around her arm, condensing out of thin air a layer of black arm guards, which she swung hard at Sakura.
"If this is all you've got, it's not enough, Kurotsuchi-chan!" Sakura raised her other hand, and a storm gathered again in her palm.
"Kurotsuchi-sama, let me help you!" A member of the Explosive Corps pressed his hands to his back, triggering an explosion, and shot toward Sakura like an arrow released from a bow.
Seeing the Chakra on the enemy gathering toward his heart, Sakura changed her palm into a claw. Small characters for the five elements, metal, wood, water, fire, earth, lit up in sequence between her five fingers.
The tornado she had been manipulating with her ability shifted from blowing air currents to sucking them in, forming a large suction device in the center of her palm.
Instantly, she accelerated the Iwagakure's Ninja's speed several times over, bringing him flying to her front. Then she slapped the pre-prepared Five Elements Seal onto him, sealing the flow of Chakra within his body.
"Cough, cough, cough..." The technique backlash made the Iwagakure's Ninja spit blood, and he immediately fell unconscious.
And behind Sakura, Kurotsuchi's rock fist, wrapped in the Added-Weight Rock Technique, stopped less than ten centimeters from the back of her head.
"Oh, why the hesitation? Could it be that you can't bear to hurt me~?" The pink-haired girl's delicate face was filled with pleasure. Her emerald eyes narrowed, the gaps reflecting Kurotsuchi's struggling expression.
"I said I would defeat you myself, without relying on anyone else's power. This time, it's a duel between you and me!!!"
Kurotsuchi's determined eyes glared at Sakura. She even broke through the nearly substantial aura around Sakura without realizing it. She turned her head and shouted, "All of you, listen to me! Whether you go attack Konoha's defense line or go back home, get the hell out of here, now! Immediately!"
Under the Iwagakure girl's scolding, the surrounding members of the Explosive Corps scattered toward the surrounding defense lines, their Chakra forming earth that they threw down explosives, violently bombarding the protective net woven by Wood Release.
"Alright, all the nuisances are gone. Continue, Haruno Sakura!"
Kurotsuchi's fist, still wearing its rock arm guard, once again swung toward Sakura. The Added-Weight Rock Technique made the rock fist even more powerful.
"It's useless!" Sakura raised her hand, Haki coiling around her fingertips, meeting Kurotsuchi's fist with her palm.
Crack!
The internal destruction Haki shattered the rock layer on the surface of Kurotsuchi's fist. Sakura's hand grabbed Kurotsuchi's fist. "Kurotsuchi-chan, got you!"
"Don't call me chan!" The Iwagakure girl looked up and roared. Then a triumphant smile appeared on her face. "And, you bastard, it's me who's got you!"
A fierce, fierce light lit up inside Kurotsuchi's fist. Surging Chakra rapidly consumed, causing a white ball of light, wrapped in a transparent triangular pyramid, to open in the center of Kurotsuchi's palm.
"This is...!" Sakura's heart tightened. She quickly let go of Kurotsuchi's hand and tried to create distance.
"Too late, Haruno Sakura!!!" Kurotsuchi's smile was wild.
Day and night of hard training, specifically hiding and concealing this dangerous forbidden technique, all so that one day she could turn the tables and wipe away her past shame against Haruno Sakura.
The past seemed to surface before her eyes again, but since things had reached this point, she could only act quickly!
—Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!
The triangular pyramid instantly expanded into an unstoppable, long column of light, instantly covering part of Sakura's body.
The power that decomposes all things into particles descended, instantly turning everything within the column of light to ash. At the same time, the conflict between particles intensified, triggering a violent explosion!
Boom!
A violent smoke cloud rose. Dust Release, one of the most powerful Ninjutsu in the Ninja World in terms of offensive power, displayed its deserved might. In this brief surprise attack, it created an unexpected result for Kurotsuchi.
"Pant, pant, pant..."
The rapid consumption of Chakra left Kurotsuchi very exhausted. She was now breathing heavily.
But exhaustion could not conceal Kurotsuchi's current excitement. Her brown eyes trembled as she stared into the smoke and dust.
After the roar, on the silent sky, the smoke created by the explosion slowly dissipated. Sakura appeared before her, with half her chest and one arm gone, the severed edges incredibly smooth.
"Haha, hahahaha!" Kurotsuchi laughed wildly.
The nightmare that had haunted her for six full years had finally been shattered by her own hands today.
'Farewell, Haruno Sakura, her former rival! In the future, when I became the strongest in the Ninja World, I would let you bastard appear as a talking point in my stories!'
"Hahaha, with this kind of power, I acknowledge you, Kurotsuchi!" Sakura laughed loudly, blood streaming down her face. "Among the powerful enemies I have fought, I, Haruno Sakura, acknowledge you as the ultimate pinnacle of human Ninjutsu."
Seeing Sakura speak, Kurotsuchi's face visibly paled.
'What the hell? You've suffered injuries like this, so why the f*ck aren't you dead yet?'
"So then, as a sign of respect for you, let me show you my technique as well!"
Sakura took a deep breath. A large amount of Natural Energy gathered into her body. Her mask, haori, and silver-white horns manifested. The wearing and tear of her flesh was regenerated at high speed through cell division.
The bone mask hung from her silver-white horns. The pure white haori, radiating particles, fluttered without wind.
A cross-shaped wooden spear, burning with emerald flames, condensed and spun as she hoisted it onto her shoulder. A fierce, cruel aura emerged from her body.
—Twilight Mode: Celestial Evolution Body!