"Spear!" Tenten shouted, and the puppet carrying the weapon in question tossed it to her.
Tenten snatched the weapon out of the air, and after giving it a twirl to point it downwards, she plunged it into the ground in one quick motion, before pulling it out with a flourish.
The spear's tip was tinged crimson with blood!
Half a second later, the ground spat out Shino, who clumsily rolled away from Tenten, clutching his bleeding shoulder. Tenten lunged at Shino, thrusting her weapon at him; her spear's shaft sliding out of her palm until she was only holding on to it with one hand by the heel, for extra range.
"Tenten, watch out!" Sakura cried out. "It's a trap!"
Tenten had overextended past her puppets, overlooking the presence of the insects on the ground, which had been left behind by Shino's Insect Clone! The insects rose as one, like a tsunami, before crashing down on Tenten, leaving her buried under a mass of parasitic Kikaichū…
Shino rose to his feet and dusted himself off, before calling off his insects, not wanting them to kill Tenten…
Except…
"Looking for me?" Tenten called out.
Startled, Shino spun around to look behind him— and there stood Tenten, armed this time with a pair of sai… Had he been fighting a Shadow Clone all this time!?
"Close in!" Tenten shouted as she threw her weapons at him, forcing him to duck.
Her puppets encircled Shino, leaving him nowhere to escape. And then… Tenten disappeared.
…and reappeared within the encirclement behind Shino's back, brandishing this time a pair of tonfa in her two hands. She moved in, unleashing a ten-hit combo into his body, before vanishing again.
Shino turned on the spot, flailing wildly at her, but Tenten was already gone. From the audience's perspective, it was like watching a repeat of the Rock Lee versus Haruno Sakura fight; with Lee flickering rapidly around Sakura, advancing to land a strike and then retreating before she could retaliate!
'It's not Shadow Clones, and it's not the Body Flicker, either!' Inner Sakura said in amazement. 'She's making her puppets Reverse-Summon her in rapid succession to teleport! If I didn't know any better, I'd say it's almost like Tenten's trying to show off her mastery of Space-Time Ninjutsu to make the village give her the Flying Thunder God Jutsu!'
System: "…"
Once again, Tenten reappeared behind Shino's back, wielding this time a bō staff. She took a swipe at the back of Shino's legs, sweeping him off his feet, before twirling her staff and striking him in the ribs a few times with both ends of her weapon, as he fell.
But before Tenten could knock him out with a thrust of her wooden staff to the forehead, Shino rolled backwards and jumped to his feet with a rising handspring, a cloud of insects spilling out of his sleeves. Tenten didn't seem overly concerned, however— she gave her staff a jerk, revealing its hidden mechanism; her bō staff was actually a three-section staff!
Tenten crouched and spun like a tornado, picking up speed as she rose from the ground like a dragon, whipping her sectioned staff around her as she did so; precisely striking at Shino's knees, stomach and chin in quick succession!
Shino shuddered, before falling to his knees, and finally falling flat on his face… completely K.O.ed.
!!!
"The winner of the third match of the quarter-finals is… Tenten!" Genma shouted, his voice nearly drowned out by the audience's cheering and clapping.
Sakura and Ino clapped enthusiastically, though something in the back of Sakura's mind kept bugging her.
"That young girl's almost like the Yellow Flash reborn!" Sakura heard a man say excitedly behind her. "The Fourth was a true hero, you know! I caught a glimpse of him during the war, and…"
'The Flying Thunder God Jutsu, huh?' said Inner Sakura dreamily. 'We should be able to use it, in theory. I know we've got some talent with space-time Ninjutsu; otherwise, the original Sakura wouldn't have been able to summon Katsuyu. With the Minato's reflexes cheat, we should be able to use it better than anyone else… I wonder if we could get Kakashi-sensei to convince the Third to give it to us? I mean, the Fifth…'
The Flying Raijin was one of the Scroll of Secrets' ultimate techniques, but for some reason, the higher-ups had shelved it, determining that no one after the Fourth deserved to have it, which was a huge waste in Sakura's opinion. But for the foreseeable future, the Flying Thunder God Jutsu would continue accumulating dust in the Scroll of Secrets on the Hokage's shelf…
"Ooh, where's Sasuke?" said Ino worriedly, as she looked around her in a panic. "If he doesn't make it to his match in time, he'll be disqualified… you're not worried about him, Sakura?"
"He'll make it in time," said Sakura confidently.
In the original timeline, Sasuke's match was supposed to happen directly after the first, Naruto's. Under normal circumstances, he would have been disqualified for his tardiness, but the Fourth Kazekage (Orochimaru) had interceded in his favour, wanting to see him fight Gaara. But due to the butterfly effect, Sasuke's match was now the last. Knowing that Sasuke would show up after two matches' length of time, Sakura was confident that he would be arriving, aaaaaany day now…
"Wow, you trust in him that much, huh?" Ino teased Sakura. "Which reminds me, that Genjutsu of yours earlier was really lewd~ I was surprised to see that confident side of you, Billboard Cow— I mean, Brow. But, are you sure you shouldn't be keeping something like that for Sasuke-kun's eyes alone~?"
"Sh… shut up, Ino-Pig!" Sakura stammered, her cheeks turning as pink as her name. "It's not real, so it doesn't count, okay?"
In a bid to hide her blushing face from Ino, Sakura looked away from her— catching sight of Tenten coming up the stairs as she did so. Neji had left his seat to meet with her, and now, she was whispering something in his ear.
"Do you think they're together?" said Sakura out loud, with a hint of jealousy in her voice.
"You already have Sasuke," said Ino enviously, "and now you're after Neji too? Leave some handsome guys for the rest of us, Top-Heavy…"
Sakura narrowed her eyes, ignoring Ino's ribbing. Sakura knew everything there was to know about her waifu Tenten, but something seemed somehow off about her. Didn't she usually fight by raining weapons on her enemies from storage scrolls? Those puppets, and that strange fan that one of them had held…
'Could it be that she's a transmigrator just like us?' gasped Inner Sakura. 'Is she cheating…? That's not fair, I want a good System just like hers!'
System: "…"
All jokes aside, Sakura was beginning to wonder if this colder and more experienced Tenten didn't have something to do with her current situation. After all, she was supposed to be good at Fūinjutsu, right?