"You're bound to run out of chakra sooner or later," Temari snarled. "Flank her, Kamatari!"
Unfortunately for Temari, Sakura's chakra levels were still pretty much in the green. It was rather Temari who was about to run out of chakra, since she had used a Summoning Jutsu— and Space-Time Ninjutsu tended to be fairly chakra-intensive …
Interestingly, the amount of chakra required to summon an object or a living being (from within the same dimension) doesn't depend on the distance between the summoner and the summonee, but rather on the latter's size and the quantity of chakra it has. As such, the amount of chakra that a summoned beast possesses cannot exceed its summoner's.
(Which is why the regular Summoning Jutsu has a time limit; once the delay is up and all of the Jutsu's chakra is expended, the summoned animal is pulled back to its original space-time coordinates.)
So, for Kamatari to create such a large-scale hurricane, it had to have at least a Jōnin-level chakra pool, which would have exhausted a good part of Temari's reserves…
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The safest place to be when facing a scythe user, Sakura thought to herself, was in your opponent's personal space, because as long as you stayed within arm's length, a scythe was merely a rather unwieldy stick.
However, staying close was easier said than done, since Kamatari was a weasel with sharp fangs and claws. Sakura was running out of breath from having to constantly dodge the weasel's inborn weapons; and dancing with Kamatari wasn't getting her any closer to completing her part of the plan.
For Sakura's plan to work, Temari could not be allowed to use her war fan. And to achieve that, Sakura had to knead some more wind chakra to reactivate her Gale Palms as a deterrent… but she couldn't weave hand signs if she was locked in close combat with a gigantic weasel.
'Focus,' said Inner Sakura urgently. 'Calm down, and remember our training…'
…
Two days ago, Sakura had still been training to unlock wind nature transformation, but she'd been having some trouble mastering some of the more abstract concepts.
'No, that's not quite right,' Orochimaru's mental imprint said good-naturedly. "You are still operating under the assumption that the chakra natures act identically to their counterparts from the natural sciences."
'I don't get it,' Inner Sakura sighed. 'I got the hang of the fire nature so easily, so why is converting my chakra to wind nature so difficult?'
'Your understanding of chakra is still lacking,' Orochimaru observed. 'The root of chakra lies in the Taiin Taikyokuzu— the Yin-Yang Moon Diagram— and the Inyōgogyō— the Doctrine of the Five Elements. Once you have understood these principles perfectly, no Jutsu will be beyond you.'
'By all means,' Inner Sakura said sarcastically. 'Please, do try and be more esoteric— I actually understood some of those words.'
Orochimaru smiled.
'What do you picture when you perform fire nature transformation?' he asked.
'Well,' said Inner Sakura thoughtfully, 'I gather chakra around here—' she gestured to her stomach '—and I imagine my chakra vibrating and colliding with itself.'
That had been how Sasuke had taught her to do it.
'Shinobi extract stamina from the trillions of cells in their body; this energy is carried through the chakra pathway network to their organs, where it melds with their spiritual energy to produce chakra,' Orochimaru explained. 'Once the chakra has been moulded, the user must then release it back through the chakra pathway network once again to cast Ninjutsu.'
'Various factors dictate which nature the chakra will prefer to adopt once it has been created,' Orochimaru continued. 'But the organ in which the chakra is moulded is very important when it comes to nature transformation:
Fire, the stomach.
Wind, the lungs.
Lightning, the spine.
Earth, the bones.
Water, the circulatory system.'
'It is called the wind nature, and not the air nature, for a reason,' Orochimaru concluded. 'Your failure to transmute your chakra is due to your mental image being incorrect. If wind nature chakra were truly like the air, it would simply scatter away uselessly. Winds are turbulent; they bite, cut, tear; you must make your chakra turn into the wind itself.'
'Then, what about the other natures?' Inner Sakura asked eagerly. 'What's the image training for those like?'
'You shouldn't bite off more than you can chew,' Orochimaru responded. 'Now, I shall teach you a certain Jutsu, which is quite unlike the Great Breakthrough. This Jutsu should be fairly similar to what you have in mind for the elementalized version of Chakra Enhanced Strength…'
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Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
Sakura felt the pressure building up in her lungs, expanding her ribcage; the wind brushing against the innumerable cuts all over her skin. She needed to make her chakra rub and tear at itself; shear stress was the key to unlocking wind nature transformation!
With a double palm strike, Sakura sent Kamatari flying, buying her the precious time she required to perform hand seals.
"Wind Style: Gale Palms!"
Temari clicked her tongue in annoyance; the pink-haired girl had managed to reactivate her Gale Palms, which meant that the Great Sickle Weasel Jutsu was off-limits again until her opponent's Jutsu ran out. The pink-haired girl's attacks would always come out faster than hers, meaning that she would only get disarmed again if she tried to use a large-scale attack with her fan.
Sakura leaned back slightly, narrowly avoiding a scythe slash; then, as she returned to her stance, she snapped her right palm against the air. The space between the two combatants shimmered, and Kamatari and its scythe were sent skidding away!
"We're ready!" Sakura's Shadow Clones called out in unison.
"Got it!" Sakura called back. "Let's finish this!"
Temari warily began retreating towards her fallen summoned beast, even if it meant having to put her back against a wall, which would leave her with no escape routes. As it was, she was pincered between the real Sakura and her Shadow Clone, who had spawned two more Shadow Clones of her own…
"Ready! Set!" Sakura shouted, "Throw!"
The Shadow Clones immediately began flinging at Temari all of the shuriken and kunai that they had been collecting from the ground; the arena hadn't been cleared of foreign objects at the conclusion of any of the four previous matches.
Temari raised her iron fan, but she only unfolded it to a fraction of its maximum capacity; she needed to protect herself against the projectiles, but at the same time, she was wary of Sakura disarming her again! Pelted by a rain of sharp metal objects, she could only endure and bide her time, waiting for the Shadow Clones' attack to subside. Kunai, shuriken, stones… they all bounced harmlessly off of her metal fan, producing a series of pinging and dinging sounds.
But… was it just her imagination, or were the pink-haired girl's Shadow Clones multiplying?
'That's it, keep wasting your chakra!' Temari inwardly encouraged Sakura.
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'The Taiin Taikyokuzu, the Yin-Yang Moon Diagram, teaches us that there is no such thing as an absolute,' Orochimaru explained. 'Within extreme Yin, there will be some Yang; and within extreme Yang, there will be some Yin. There cannot be light without shadows, and there can be no shadows without light.'
Inner Sakura raised an eyebrow. Then, did that mean…?
'Yin-Yang Style is theorized to be the pinnacle of Ninjutsu, but that level is far beyond even my prowess,' Orochimaru continued. 'It is said that achieving a perfect balance between the Yin and the Yang would bring about a miracle, but I digress. You were trying to create a Genjutsu of your own, were you not?'
Inner Sakura nodded.
'Then, I would suggest familiarizing yourself with the Genjutsu that my adorable follower has already taught you. Genjutsu uses Yin Style, but always keep in mind the principles that embody all things in this world…'
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Temari fell to her knees, holding her head in pain. The world around her kept spinning, and she was too dizzy to think straight…
"Auditory Genjutsu: Sound Clones!"
"A Genjutsu!" Temari groaned. "Damn it, just when did she…!?"
Temari tried circulating her chakra to clear the turbid chakra flow in her head, but to no avail. She kept hearing imaginary ringing sounds in her ear, even though the Shadow Clones had stopped throwing things at her fan. She could only cower on her knees, and watch helplessly as the army of pink-haired girls walked towards her, their breasts bouncing with each step they took.
"You can only blame your parents for not giving birth to you as a boy," Sakura sighed, as she came to a stop right in front of Temari. "You wouldn't have needed to suffer so much, if you'd fallen for the ultimate Genjutsu from the start…"
With Sakura standing over her, Temari couldn't even see Sakura's face, only the jiggling of the underside of her chest as she talked.
"Well, that's it for you, I suppose," said Sakura. "…Good night."
And upon saying so, Sakura grabbed the back of the older girl's head with both of her hands and pulled her in, kneeing her in the face. Temari crumpled to the ground, unconscious, and Kamatari disappeared in a poof of white smoke.
"Haruno Sakura is the victor!" Hayate declared. "She will be moving on to the third exam!"
"ALL RIGHT!" came Naruto's shout from above her.
She had really won!