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
And so, a chapter with some fighting and development all in one. I hope that it is satisfactory enough for you all.
Chapter 123: Life-threatening development
Sakura and Heikō had sparred with Tsunade a few times prior, mostly during their travel back to Konohagakure from Tanzaku Quarters. The essence of battling Tsunade came down to one thing, evasion. A single hit from Tsunade could be devastating, and Tsunade had warned them about it before ever even considering the idea of sparring against them. Previously, Tsunade had always held back, as to not injure them permanently. Now, however, she was faster, and hitting harder than ever. With their clone dodging a punch, there was instead a crater where it had stood previously, shaking their surroundings, and nearly tripping Sakura and Heikō as the Real Tsunade closed in on them.
Had Heikō not unlocked the Gate of Death, Sakura doubted they'd be able to keep up. As it was, they barely managed to avoid Tsunade's attacks, unable to retaliate or force her to back off. The killing intent Tsuande kept locked on them, as well as the relentless attacks, barely giving Sakura and Heikō any time to think. Fortunately, they were two of them sharing the same head. While Sakura focused whole-heartedly on dodging and diverting Tsunade's blows, Heikō took the initiative to think of a plan.
Tsunade had been incredibly vague in what she was trying to accomplish, but it clearly included their clone in some capacity. Tsunade's words, "By your own admission, you seem to learn and improve the most in dire circumstances. So, if that's the case, we'll see how well that rings true." implied that they should make use of the clone to try out and master the techniques they couldn't before due to the risks they posed. If that were the case, their clone would need an opening to do so, which meant that they themselves needed a moment's respite.
Making an opening themselves seemed almost impossible, suggesting it would be best to use a natural one either given to them by Tsunade, or someone interrupting them. No doubt Tsunade's attacks had attracted the attention of others. Heikō could already feel several ANBU surrounding the battlefield. Sadly, none of them had taken the initiative to interfere. It also meant that the ANBU would likely stop anyone else from interfering as well, possibly on Tsunade's orders if she had planned this ahead of time, something Heikō wouldn't put past her. This meant that Tsunade would have to give them the moment to retaliate or retreat, something she was unlikely to do, leaving Sakura and Heikō to tough it out or find a solution that didn't distract Sakura from keeping them uninjured. Heikō was in charge of figuring their dilemma out, and fast, as she could feel their stamina draining with the amount of effort Sakura had to bring out to keep up, using their chakra to passively strengthen their body. A risky move that Heikō felt Sakura resorting to subconsciously. It led to her considering using a technique to purposefully reinforce the body using chakra without flooding their entire system and risking chakra burns. But the effect and method to do so were purely theoretical so far, making her discard the idea as too risky.
Any further thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the loud noise of flesh striking flesh, and a new crater forming, sending up a cloud of dust. Any further observations were cut short, as Tsunade didn't let Sakura take advantage of the distraction, but Heikō immediately realized something was off. For one, they hadn't received any memories, suggesting their clone hadn't actually dispelled. In which case, what had Tsunade actually hit? Curious, and with careful suggestions, Heikō got Sakura to slowly maneuver their spar with Tsunade so that they could observe the cloud of smoke from the corner of their eyes. They didn't have to wait long as the cloud of dust was soon disturbed by the two clones resuming their sparring. Only unlike the originals, the Haruno clone was not merely blocking and dodging, but now also blocking and countering Tsuande's attacks, despite them seemingly still being enhanced with chakra. Each hit to the clone's body seemed to instead be transferred to the ground it was standing on, considering the cracks that spread out, ruining the terrain.
Seeing this, Heikō once again considered trying out the technique she had been thinking about but dismissed it again. There was no guarantee that their clone had thought of exactly the same technique, as she had. They had, after all, considered a multitude of methods to achieve the same effect, and even after several of them being scrapped when others pointed out they wouldn't work, there were still multiple ones that would, in theory, grant them a full body enhancement. Although, Heikō didn't know how the clone had managed to redirect the power of Tsunade's attacks into the ground without damaging itself and wasn't about to risk their life and ability as a Shinobi on a simple assumption or guess. She'd just have to wait until their clone had enough data and chose to dispel for their benefit. With an admittedly simple plan, Heikō then brought her focus to join Sakura in the fighting, giving them a bit more breathing room that would lessen their chakra usage and allow them to conserve their strength until their clone could reveal its secrets.
Sakura couldn't help but be annoyed with her own Shadow Clone out of all people. Together with Heikō and herself both focusing on the fight, it had freed up a small enough amount of focus for Sakura to process Heikō's plan and occasionally observe their clone in action. However, what they saw didn't really bring Sakura any joy. Their clone was doing better than them, that was for sure, yet, despite the obvious advantage it had managed to build for itself, it didn't go on the offensive. Sakura had already noticed at least two different instances where their clone could have retaliated and possibly have dispelled the Tsuande clone. Yet, it hadn't done so, prolonging the fight for longer than necessary, while Heikō and her, the originals, suffered.
"I got it. I know why our clone is dragging this out!" Eventually exclaimed, sounding excited. Sakura couldn't manage more than mentally acknowledging Heikō, letting her know that she was listening, as most of her focus was otherwise on the fighting.
"I suspect that whatever technique it's using, isn't as harmless as it looks, and it is figuring out how to counter the negative effects of it, before passing it back on to us. Besides, if we had such an opportunity, it's possible that we'd begin trying out multiple, different methods, not just a single one if we could. And if more than one of them turns out to work, they might be combined. I think that's what our clone is doing." Heikō exclaimed her suspicion, and Sakura had to agree, that it seemed logical. Still, it was annoying to keep up a serious spar for longer than fifteen minutes. Their arms and legs were already burning from exertion, and carefully molding medical chakra internally could only do so much to combat the natural tear on their muscles, even when reinforced with chakra.
Almost as if to answer Sakura's annoyance with their situation, the two clones managed to dispel each other at the same time. Sakura couldn't help but greedily try and process the new memories as they arrived, only realizing her mistake too late as Heikō was forced to take over their body and dodge to the side, turning Tsunade's punch into a glancing blow. Still, even a glancing blow from Tsunade was enough to make something in their upper arm snap, and their body to be thrown backward violently, while pain flared up from the right arm and shoulder where Tsunade's fist had brushed against them. Fortunately, Heikō managed to prevent further injuries by landing on their feet, grabbing their undoubtedly broken arm with the left one, and then somersault backward to bleed off momentum, landing on their feet once again, facing Tsunade who had decided not to pursue them.
"Well, I think that's good enough for today. How do you feel?" Tsunade asked them. Heikō was about to curse Tsuande out, only for Sakura to take over instead.
"Could have done without the broken arm. What the hell Tsunade?" She demanded to know, not all that happy with the far too serious spar.
"Are you telling me you didn't learn anything after all that?" Tsunade asked, frowning at them. Sakura was about to respond, only for Heikō to stop her, and provide her with the memories of their clone instead, making her calm down as she found out just what they had managed to learn. Still, she scowled at Tsunade.
"We did, but you didn't have to try and kill us for us to get results. The clone would have sufficed." Sakura argued, only for Tsunade to shake her head.
"That's not true. If it had just been your clone, we would have experienced the same flaw all Shadow Clones share. If it didn't fight to stay alive and learn to keep you alive, then would you really have figured out as much as you did? I have to say, considering what you clone managed to do, I think it was well worth it. Not many can simply shrug off a hit from me. Especially not Shadow clones. The fact that your's managed is incredible. So, mind explaining what exactly happened?" Tsunade inquired.
Sakura had to admit, Tsunade had a point. While she wasn't happy with it, it was true that had the clone not considered them in mortal danger, it might not have taken the entire fight seriously enough to develop as it had. Although, she supposed that in a worst-case scenario if push came to shove. They would have ended up resorting to the same method the clone had, as it had been the same one Heikō had been considering as the most optimal one.
"Only if you heal my arm first," Sakura responded, sitting down carefully, wincing as she moved her right arm into a position where Tsunade could take a better look at it.
Tsunade nodded and walked over, while Sakura and Heikō felt many of the observing ANBU leave. "Lie down," Tsunade ordered them as she kneeled down next to them, and Sakura obeyed, letting Tsunade's healing chakra wash over their arm. Looking up at Tsunade's face, they saw it turn into a grimace.
"There's an awful lot of trace chakra in your muscles. Prolonged reinforcement leads to chakra burns and atrophying muscles. You could have snapped your tendons or bones like this. Although, using healing chakra did help, but it will take time before your muscles are back to normal. I would suggest against channeling chakra into your muscles for a while." Tsunade told them, and Sakura nodded in understanding. The principle was similar to what Tsunade did with her enhanced punches, only that they had kept channeling chakra through their muscles, rather than doing so in brief bursts. The discussion about enhancing themselves like that had been brought up when learning Tsunade's strength, but Tsunade had explained it to be unsustainable as their body simply wasn't built for using chakra that way. It had actually been something that had led them to the idea that ended up forming the technique their clone had used.
"Well, it was instinctual at first. I had to in order to keep up. But once we could allow ourselves to think, we used medical chakra to keep ourselves from going too far and keep ourselves from tiring too fast using medical chakra. We were hoping for our clone to dispel faster and teach us what it figured out. Our clone on the other hand decided to milk this opportunity for all it was worth. We learned a lot." Sakura explained, before activating the new technique. They had yet to name it, but it had already proven itself useful.
Tsunade took on a confused, then awed expression as she felt their chakra move and form the basis of their technique, as small strands of chakra formed not inside of their cells, but in between them, weaving and coiling around their cells, forming a sort of net that reinforced the membrane between individual cells, and created a network through which energy and chakra could flow through. In addition, in order to protect the surrounding cells from chakra burns when more chakra traveled through these strands of chakra, natural energy had been layered around each strand, isolating them.
Having the chakra threads connected only using the same technique they used to mold chakra outside of their body, they had ensured it to be cut off from their own body completely, except for their Physical and Mental energies. As a result, the network protecting them could even take in foreign chakra, channel it, and redirect it along with the kinetic force of Tsunade's attacks, and release it elsewhere. The clone had used this to push Tsunade's chakra and out in all directions, and the kinetic force into the ground through its feet.
They truly worked the best when their life was on the line because, in the end, the technique was leagues beyond the concept they had first had in mind.
AN: Right, so I think the first thing I should address is the sheer OP potential of this technique. Not only does it work as some rather OP body-reinforcement, but it also allows Sakura, Heikō, and even their clones to redirect chakra and kinetic energy, as well as other possible ones as well. Sounds OP as hell. Well, there are a few things to note about this technique. First of all, the ability to redirect energy is not passive except for kinetic force. It requires active effort to deal with any other form of energy, so one needs to be aware of the attack they redirect. There are also other limits to this technique, for example exactly how much force it can handle and redirect at once. Kinetic energy is one of the easier forms of energy to handle. The only reason the Haruno clone could safely redirect Tsunade's chakra whenever she attacked was that it knew what to expect and how to handle it. Otherwise, that much chakra would have dispelled it, despite the technique.
Now, for the more interesting part, I suppose. What should we name this technique? I am willing to hear suggestions, but there are a few criteria for it. The name has to make sense, and it has to be something that Sakura and Heikō could reasonably think of naming the technique. Personally, I am thinking of naming it something with the word "net" in it, as the many strands within the body that form from this technique criss-cross all over, essentially forming an omnidirectional net.
Now, I would also like to mention that I've begun planning for the winter break, and think that this story will be finished by then. I am considering taking a break, reviewing all of the chapters so far in this story, and rewriting/cleaning it up during the holidays, before posting the sequel in January. I can't say if I'll really stick to this plan or not, but updates will be bi-daily until this story ends, and once more when the next one begins. So, just a heads up. I will repeat this information in the last chapter of this story, which will likely be a chapter where I thank people and explain what happens with the story next.
