'SHANNAROOO!' Inner Sakura shouted, as she watched Lee jump to his feet. 'This is our chance!'
Sakura strode forward confidently, weaving hand signs and arching her back to make sure that her bouncing breasts were on full display. And yes, gathering chakra in her swaying breasts was a crucial step for her special technique to work properly…
"Manyuu Assassination Genjutsu: Breast Illusion!"
Since most of the audience already had their eyes glued to her enormous melons from the very beginning of the fight, almost every single man in the audience (along with a few noblewomen), instantly fell for Sakura's Genjutsu. Within their minds appeared the image of a full-grown Sakura in all of her sultry glory, sitting provocatively on a throne of a myriad jiggling breasts, gesturing lazily for them to come closer…
The richer nobles in the audience, those who could afford to hire either kunoichi or elite shinobi, were instantly snapped out of their trance by their bodyguards. However, instead of being grateful for having been freed, they began berating their saviours angrily, hurling abuse at them for daring to tear them away from the dream world!
Embarrassingly, even the Lord Hokage fell for Sakura's Genjutsu.
Catastrophic amounts of blood began spraying out of his nose, with such an intensity that he was nearly knocked out of his chair by the recoil— the overwhelming sex appeal of Sakura's Jutsu nearly stopping his old heart right there and then!
At his side, Orochimaru, who was disguised as the Fourth Kazekage, began wondering if it wouldn't be easier for him to just kill the old lecher right there and then, and be done with it all. However, since the entire point of this operation was to obtain closure for himself and to prove himself against his disappointing teacher, Orochimaru decided in the end against kicking the old man while he was down…
Absolutely thrilled by the results she was getting, Sakura could only imagine how powerful her illusions would become once she acquired the Kurama Kekkei Genkai. Her Genjutsu would become so lifelike that she would be able to make men cream their pants, without ever having to come close to touching them!
Except…
'What the?' Inner Sakura blurted out. 'Lee's not even looking at us!'
Almost all of the men present had fallen for the Genjutsu— almost being the key word.
Just as Inner Sakura had pointed out, Lee wasn't even looking in her direction. In fact, he actually had his back turned to her, because he was talking to his mentor Might Guy, up in the stands.
"But Guy-sensei!" Lee argued. "You told me that was only to be used as a last resort, when the lives of the people important to me are at stake!"
"That's right, I did!" said Guy, flashing him a smile and thumbs up. "But you care about this girl, don't you, Lee? If you really wanna impress her, you're gonna have to show her the full extent of your YOUTH!"
"Really?" said Lee, overjoyed. "Really!?"
"So, take 'em off! Go out there, and show her what you've got, Lee!" Guy shouted down at him. "Besides, you can't fight with half of your weights destroyed, can you?"
Sakura had destroyed the training weights on one of his legs, so if Lee had persisted in fighting her like this, his movements would have been constantly off, due to the intact weights on his other leg!
And so, having obtained the permission to go all out, Lee removed his heavy leg weights, letting them fall to the ground with a resounding crash— they were so ridiculously heavy that they raised clouds of dust upon making contact with the dirt!
'Well, no matter,' Inner Sakura sniffed haughtily. 'As long as he doesn't activate any of the Eight Gates, he's bound to look at my breasts, and then it'll be all over for him…'
"Contestant Haruno Sakura!" yelled Genma, who was currently bleeding heavily from the nose. "I did say that there were no rules, but I never said that you could attack the audience! You're to cancel your Genjutsu at once, if you haven't properly mastered it yet!"
'Oh no, this is bad.'
The problem with Breast Illusion was that it attacked indiscriminately; anyone who looked into her cleavage would immediately fall into the Genjutsu, whether Sakura wanted them to or not. That was how the skill worked in Manyuu Hikenchou's universe, so it was also forced to obey the same rules here, in the world of shinobi!
"Here I come, Sakura-chan!" cried Lee. "If I win, will you go out with meeeee!?"
If there was a silver lining to this, it was that Sakura didn't have to fight Rock Lee indoors, because at least out here in the open arena, his movements would mostly be restricted to two dimensions. Had she fought Rock Lee during the preliminaries, he would have been able to bounce off the walls and the ceiling, which would have made it a thousand times more difficult for her to defend against his attacks!
…
Lee's figure flickered, as he sprinted in a straight line towards her, and time seemed to slow to a crawl as Sakura's reflexes went into overdrive. Half an instant later, Rock Lee was upon her, and at the very last moment before his fist shot out like a bullet and took her head off her shoulders, Sakura moved.
In what seemed like slow motion to her, Sakura stepped forward with her right foot and transferred all of her weight on it, bringing her face centimetres away from Lee's fist. Then, using her right foot as a pivot, she spun on the spot, sweeping her left leg behind her in a semicircle. Effectively, Sakura had left her upper body facing Lee until the last possible second, before moving her entire body to his side in a flash, causing her to seemingly vanish from his narrowed field of view!
"Look Hinata, she's using your move!" Kiba shouted obnoxiously from the stands.
Even Hinata had been able to use this footwork technique effectively against Lee— The circular nature of the Gentle Fist's footwork, which resembled the Chinese Kenpō from Sakura's previous life, worked especially well against nimble opponents like Lee, who moved so fast that he would be constantly plagued by tunnel vision.
Thus, feeling like it would come in handy, Sakura had practised this footwork more than a thousand times while her Shadow Clones had been hard at work unlocking her Tenketsu for her. Naruto and Sasuke weren't the only ones who could steal moves from Taijutsu specialists!
'But I'm not done yet!' Inner Sakura shouted. 'As Archimedes once said, give me a long enough lever and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world!'
"Sakura-chan…" Hinata murmured. "I never showed the rest of the move, so how did you…?"
Sakura's right foot rapidly swept outwards as she righted her stance, and at the same time, she grabbed onto Lee's right arm and collar, and stuck to them like glue, preventing him from immediately jumping out of harm's way.
"SHANNAROOO!" Sakura shouted.
She gave Lee a push, causing the back of his feet to trip against her right foot, effectively knocking him off balance— then, taking advantage of his unsteadiness, she flipped him onto his back! And now that he was immobilized, Sakura gathered chakra onto her fist, before driving it into the defenceless Lee's chest in order to finish him off!
…or so she thought.
"Chakra Enhanced Strength!"
BANG!
Sakura's chakra-coated fist exploded, creating a huge depression in the ground and raising a thick cloud of dust; causing her to temporarily lose visibility. However, Sakura immediately knew that something had gone wrong; she hadn't felt her fist hit flesh and bone, but rather the compacted dirt floor of the arena instead…