AN: Note that I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters from either Anime. This work is a fanfiction written out of my love for the series and not in any attempt to make a profit.

Proofread by: Author

Hey, no blood and stuff this chapter. Is that an improvement, or an issue? I know I feel slightly relieved not having to include that warning this chapter at least...

Chapter 88: A little extra, speed in demand


Sakura was startled by Karin's sudden gasp, but Sakura resisted the urge to ask Karin what she had reacted to, as Karin would tell her if it was of any importance. "Am I still on course?" She asked instead, getting an affirmative hum from Karin before she spoke to explain what she had felt.

"Someone arrived to help Kiba, they seem to be taking down the opponents without any difficulty." Karin relayed to Sakura, making her relax slightly.

"They must all have been Chūnin level in that case, and Kiba's backup Jōnin level. Hopefully, it's someone we know." Sakura responded, already trying to determine who it might be, based on what she knew of the battlefield they had left behind. Considering the closest Jōnin to Kiba and Hinata both was Kurenai, she had a suspicion it was her, but there were other possibilities as well.

Of course, any of Sakura's guesses proved needless as Karin informed her that none of the chakra signatures ahead were moving and that they'd be able to see them soon.

As soon as Sakura burst into view, she found herself dodging a hail of shuriken and kunai, doing so easily as she had sensed them coming before she could see them. Although, by Karin's surprised shout, she realized she had failed to warn her passenger as she abruptly changed direction.

"Hey, watch the friendly fire!" She exclaimed as she dropped down and landed next to Asuma Sarutobi, the Jōnin Sensei of team ten.

"Sakura? What are you doing here?" Kiba demanded to know, surprised by her arrival, while Akamaru let out a single bark as if to mirror Kiba's question.

"Carrying a Kusagakure-nin no less. Is she a prisoner?" Asuma asked, baffling Sakura for a moment before Karin jumped off of her shoulder to stare at Asuma in confusion and annoyance.

"Prisoner? I'm- Oh, right, you guys don't know yet. I guess now's as good a time as any." Karin told them, before smiling and lifting the front of her beanie, revealing a Konohagakure forehead protector hidden beneath. "Was going to make a big thing out of it during the exam, but I guess that moment is ruined," Karin explained with a sad smile, before removing her forehead protector and lowering her beanie back into place, before placing the forehead protector back over it.

"Well, that's a bit of a surprise. Didn't expect that." Asuma admitted while Kiba gaped for a moment, only to begin smiling again. "Awesome, welcome to Konoha!" Kiba told her, giving her a thumbs up which made Karin smile.

"So, you got to it faster than we thought?" Sakura asked with a smirk, receiving a happy nod from Karin.

"Yeah, the Hokage was very helpful in hurrying the process along. He even managed to get me my belongings from Kuzagakure sent over." Karin revealed with an even bigger smile, that Sakura couldn't help but mirror.

"Well, I'd hate to ruin this moment, but I don't think this is the best time for this. What are you two doing here?" Asuma asked them.

"We're following orders to stop Sasuke and bring him back. Karin can sense Naruto, who's with Hinata and one fo Kakashi's summons, tracking Sasuke, so we're trying to catch up. I was carrying Karin since it's faster, even when I'm carrying her." Sakura explained, surprising Asuma and Kiba with her claim.

"Wait, how?" Kiba demanded to know, feeling like Sakura's claim didn't quite match with his image of Sakura, even after watching her fight against Chōji, confident that most of what he had actually seen had been either a genjutsu or a trick of some kind, considering her clones.

Sakura leveled a glare at Kiba which shut him up, before turning back to look at Asuma. "I assume you're here to help us out as well?" Sakura asked, receiving a nod from Akuma.

"Then we need to hurry," Karin told them, nodding at Sakura before walking over to her and jumping onto her back into a more comfortable position, one they could now afford as they would be accompanied by a Jōnin who'd be able to cover for Sakura's need to carry Karin. Sakura easily caught Karin, only slightly annoyed by how Karin had gone about doing things, but didn't complain and instead set off in the direction they had been going before reaching Kiba and Asuma.

"Hey, hold up!" Kiba protested, but Sakura didn't slow down, letting Asuma and Kiba figure out their own way to catch up.

Asuma soon caught up to them, and Sakura noted with some amusement that he had picked up Kiba to carry along with him, much like she had Karin, in order to allow him to keep up.

"You're faster than I expected Sakura. If you can go even faster, we could reach them very soon." Asuma told her, making Sakura frown, as she was already going full speed.

"No, we're not. There's one more trick we can use to make our jumps longer, our strides stronger and our burden less cumbersome." Heikō insisted, providing Sakura with a memory that made her slightly embarrassed. However, it was true what Heikō had said, it really was a useful if neglected skill. Fortunately, it was also part of the basics Sakura had made sure to perfect. Smirking, Sakura turned to look at Karin, giving her a bit of warning as she raised her hands together to form the ram seal.

As the transformation took, Sakura could feel Karin's confusion for a moment, before she allowed it to envelope her as well, adding her own idea and chakra to the transformation. In a cloud of smoke, Sakura felt herself become lighter, yet heavier at the same time. Her center of mass shifting, her new limbs throwing her off balance for just a moment, before her training caught up to her, and the adult form of Sakura Haruno was suddenly the only one jumping from tree to tree. Karin had taken the form of a wireless radio upon her head, allowing her to continue directing Sakura towards their goal, using a speaker, while remaining disguised as something simple and light. The lighter weight added muscle mass and longer limbs allowed Sakura to increase her speed, while Asuma and Kiba, caught in their own surprise, nearly missed the next branch. Sakura chuckled as she saw Asuma struggle to catch up to her, but she didn't slow down for them. Instead, she continued ahead, appreciating all the training she had gone through to allow her to pull something like this off.

"Nice one Karin." Sakura praised her partner's thinking. "How much farther?" She asked, resisting the urge to press the button for transmitting, as she would need with a real wireless radio.

"At this rate, a few minutes. We should have done this from the beginning. While it takes chakra to maintain, the advantage is big enough to be worth it." Karin told Sakura, who agreed with a nod.

"Sorry, but I didn't think about it until now," Sakura told her, not willing to admit it was Heikō who had reminded her since Asuma and Kiba might end up overhearing. Despite how much Heikō deserved recognition as her own person, they had both concluded that keeping her a secret for as long as possible was the best course of action after all.

"I don't blame you, I didn't think about it either. Now that I think about it, altering your mass and shape… transformations could be really useful in combat if one mastered them to the point of not needing hand seals. One could develop a fighting-style based around it." Karin considered, and Sakura had had to suppress a shudder as an idea of what Naruto might do with a weaponized form of his Sexy-jutsu transformation. Heikō couldn't help but be amused at the idea.

"We're not telling Naruto about your idea, Karin," Sakura told her matter of factly, confusing the Kunoichi, now wireless radio. However, Kiba who had overheard their conversation almost fell off Asuma's back as he realized what Sakura had meant.


"We need to hurry up. Pakku seems to have sensed us. They're trying to throw us off their trail." Karin warned Sakura after a few minutes of silence dashing through the forest. Sakura then relayed the information to Asuma who frowned and tried to think of a way to signal Pakku, Naruto, and Hinata that they were friendly.

"If we get within range of Hinata's Byakugan, she should recognize me and Akamaru at least," Kiba suggested, and Sakura nodded in acknowledgment of the information.

"That is unless she's trying to conserve chakra. We can't rely on her keeping her Byakugan active this entire time if Pakku can detect us. We'll just have to follow them and hope that they don't exhaust themselves trying to shake us." Sakura decided. Asuma's frown didn't disappear but lessened as he nodded in agreement.

"Unfortunately, Sakura is right. Keep us on course Karin." He ordered, although only Sakura could feel Karin's acknowledgment of the order.

"Sakura, careful. Someone has laid traps ahead." Heikō warned, turning Sakura's attention to the faint trace of Natural energy stretched taunt into nearly perfectly straight lines, indicating trip-wires.

"Traps ahead," Sakura warned her companions, gesturing for them to get behind her as she began leading them past all of the wires as they appeared in their path.

"So that's what they were doing…" Karin commented, likely having felt their targets slow down for a while to set the traps for them. Sakura could almost tell how desperate they seemed to get rid of their pursuers. The sudden alarm from Karin did not reassure her.

"Sakura, there's suddenly a lot of chakra signatures heading our way, all of them identical!" Karin exclaimed, startled. Sakura thought about the issue for a moment, before smiling, realizing it was actually a blessing in disguise.

"Don't worry Karin. It's likely Naruto's shadow clones. They won't attack us once they see who we are, and if we make them dispel, Naruto will know that it's us, allowing us to catch up without any more distractions." Sakura assured Karin.

"Oh, that's actually a benefit to us. Hopefully, he didn't waste too much chakra. We might have to fight yet." Asuma hoped, making Sakura chuckle. Naruto had far too much chakra to be affected by a few clones. Especially since all the chakra remaining within a clone as it was destroyed was redistributed back to Naruto and the rest of his clones, along with its memories. It really as a shame she couldn't use the technique herself. Although, she hoped that soon, she would actually reach the point where she could.

As the clones got closer, Sakura could feel them enter her sensing range and drew a kunai, ready to destroy a clone, sending Naruto a message faster than she could ask them to dispel themselves.

As soon as Sakura saw orange, she threw the kunai and shouted. "Naruto, you idiot! It's us!" Short, simple, and effective. At least, that's the way Sakura considered it as she saw the surprise of the first clone as it was dispelled by a kunai to its stomach. The remaining clones, thrown off by her sudden shout, the memory they received, or both, stumbled, resulting in a fair few more of them dispelling themselves by falling out of the air, hitting the ground too hard, or flying right into a branch or trunk of a tree.

"Please tell me the real Naruto didn't end up doing the same," Sakura told Karin with a bit of despair.

"He didn't, he just paused for a moment, but they're still moving," Karin informed Sakura, who was relieved to hear it, only to frown as the happy Naruto clones began accosting her with questions, greeting her and being a nuisance in general.

"Just dispel already, you're not needed anymore!" Sakura growled, punching one of the clones out, seemingly spooking the rest of them into shock. Moments later, after considering their options, the remaining, sheepish looking clones dispelled themselves.

"This time, he seems to have hit a tree," Karin informed Sakura who suppressed an annoyed groan.


AN: And so, the slight, but useful application of a transformation into yourself. Imagine, no hand seals needed, and a Shinobi would be able to transform their limb into weapons, gaining the necessary properties to cut, slash, pierce and whatever else. Unarmed? Make some claws. Not enough reach? Longer limbs. Really, the transformation jutsu is rather underused in that capacity, and all its potential seems rather wasted. Naruto can probably get a lot of use from the technique if he practiced it enough. He can already perform Sexy jutsu with just one hand seal, yet it is still the same thing as a very good transformation jutsu. Something I allowed Sakura to do in this chapter as well, as a testament to her practice of the technique.

Now, for the joint transformation Sakura and Karin performed, it seems to be a relatively simple idea, one that Naruto could use with little to no previous attempts in canon, so I assume it is common knowledge for Shinobi, that a willing participant can become part of one's transformation, or join it. As for Karin's reason to become a wireless radio, it is the most effective transformation she could think of. Small, light, not that out of place and still allowing her to speak without drawing too much attention in a worst-case scenario in case she wishes to keep the illusion up in front of enemies.