Previous Translations: Yorokobi - Pleasure/Delight/Joy
Yokubo - Desire/Lust
Kajo - Excess
Shifuku no Kurushimi - Blissful Throes/Blissful Suffering
Tatakainouta - Song of Battle
Zeitakuna Kutsu - Luxurious Torment
Hentai-ryu: Erokenho - Pervert Style: Erotic Fist Art
Konton - Chaos
Kanzen - Perfect
Henka - Change
Harakainokeru - Dispel
Aka-en - Red Flame
Aoi-en - Blue Flame
Kiiro-en - Yellow Flame
Orenji-en - Orange Flame
Tankoshoku-en - Pink Flame
Maho - Magic
Chishiki - Knowledge
Unmei - Fate
Nozomu - Hope
Hoho no Chenja - honestly this one is a mess, but roughly means Changer of Ways
Ryuketsu - Bloodshed
Chikara - Strength
Meiyo - Honor
Budo - Martial Arts
Ikari - Rage
Jumon - Incantation
Himitsu no Sewanin - Secret Caretaker(Keeper of Secrets)
Sento - Combat
Same no On'na - Shark-Woman
Maebure - Harbinger
Shibari no Ashikase - Binding Fetters
Kanpeki - Perfection
Reikan - the closest English word would be Inspiration, but it specifically refers to 'a divine creative impulse'
Sekkyo-sha - Preacher
Aijin - Lover
Kaen Hosha-ki - Flame Radiator (Flamer of Tzeentch)
Himeiwoageru - Which Screams (Screamer of Tzeentch)
Shikkan - Disease
Ai - Love
Zetsubo - Despair
Mi Haito - Undivided/Not Divided
Shibo - Aspiring
Koki - Exalted
Chakra no Bato - Coruscating Chakra/Chakra of Coruscation
Gyokai - Industry
In case someone somehow doesn't know, Hi - Fire
Don'yoku - Greed/Avarice
Yokuatsu - Tyranny/Oppression
Yami no Chichi - Father of Darkness/Dark Father
Raimeiton - Thunder Release, what Naruto has decided to name his mix of wind and lightning chakra
Shuryoju - Hunting Beasts (same word for plural or singular), an alternate name for Fiends of Slaanesh, best word I could find for them
Konton no Omo - Lord of Chaos
Kemonojin - a very jank way of translating Beastmen into Japanese, basically would mean Animal-Human
Gyumao - Ox Demon King
Eiyu - Hero
Gyumahime - Ox Demon Princess
Kajomahime - Excessive Demon Princess
Renkinjutsu = Alchemy
Shizune examined Sasuke's injury with a raised eyebrow, it was a clean puncture wound that went dangerously close to his internal organs, "An inch lower and your own stomach acid would have damaged your other organs." she commented dryly, but what had her most baffled was his story, "You tripped?" she asked again, turning her attention to the clearly embarrassed young Uchiha.
Sasuke was mostly embarrassed that it was the best lie he could come up with, thankfully Maemi wasn't there to call him out so he was hoping his genuine embarrassment would be believable, "I was shooting arrows, went to collect them, tripped over a tree root and onto an arrow." he confirmed his fake story.
Shizune was skeptical, he had the minor scrapes and bruises to corroborate this story since he was smart enough to fake such secondary injuries before approaching a medical professional, but his wound was very clean, "An arrow with no feathers." the iryonin mused out loud.
Sasuke almost jumped in surprise, he hadn't expected that to be noticed, nor had such a fact even registered, "It's for a new jutsu." he said mysteriously.
"Does this new jutsu cause you to lose your equilibrium?" Shizune asked next, taking down notes.
Sasuke was relieved to note she was mostly asking questions for the sake of the medical report, "No, I was absorbed in a discussion with Aoki and had too much confidence in my own footwork." he lied smoothly, his confidence in such a statement briefly confusing the clawed iryonin before she marked it down.
"Alright," Shizune said, "I've healed what I could, you'll still have some tenderness for a few days but you should recover fine." she said dismissively, "Wrap what's left of the hole with clean bandages every few hours until it disappears in a couple of days." she instructed calmly. The Uchiha didn't show it, but he was slightly annoyed since he'd seen Naruto recover from worse injuries much faster.
Sakura was surprised by her team for her next Konton patrol, namely that it included Ino, "When did you get a mark?" the Haruno asked with a raised eyebrow, she noticed a distinct lack of visceral unexplained hatred for her long term rival which narrowed down the likely culprits significantly.
"Like, three days ago, Mi Haito apparently." Ino answered, doing an impressive job of hiding the fact that she was still intimidated by Sakura ever since the last Chunin Exams. Shizune and Hana were not overly fooled, the Inuzuka woman having apparently earned a permanent form of her Clan's hijutsu while one of her ninken had grown a pair of tusks. The hound seemed to take his boon as being that he was above his siblings as far as his body language went.
Shizune was curious if the tusks would remain when the dog transformed to resemble Hana with the other Inuzuka hijutsu, she assumed they would as the main reason more shinobi didn't use Henge no Jutsu to create natural weaponry was that having chakra potent enough to have enough weight to be used as a claw or horn was absurd, and for an entire limb would probably cost almost as much as the infamous Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.
Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Knowing you, I'm surprised you didn't end up with the same mark as Naruto and end up in his harem." she said dryly, Ino glowered at the perceived insult.
Shizune blinked as she registered what was said, as she and Anko both had the same mark as Naruto, "This mark doesn't mean I have to sleep with Naruto-kun." the iryonin insisted, a little annoyed that the pink haired genin didn't seem to believe her.
Ino nodded in agreement, "Yeah, Shikamaru has it and I'm pretty sure he doesn't even swing that way." she pointed out.
Sakura scoffed, "You think Naruto still looks enough like a guy to turn him off?" she asked rhetorically, Ino halted as she didn't quite have a response for that.
Hana was trying not to be amused but with Shizune failing to hide her embarrassment the Inuzuka woman didn't stand a chance, "Alright, enough gossiping about your teammates love lives, girls." she announced, making the two younger kunoichi embarrassed.
Shizune nodded, "Yes, we have a job to do." she reminded, although she still had a pink tinge to her cheeks.
Naruto was openly pouting at the birds he was still failing to hit, Jiraiya was glad they were almost into the highlands at the edge of Kaminari no Kuni, the steppes beyond them were already visible past the treeline. Kakashi was just impressed the young blonde had been maintaining his attempts the entire time, and had been getting noticeably faster too. The Hatake was actually pretty sure Naruto had moved faster than a normal eye could see at one point, he lamented not watching that with his Sharingan because that had caused the bird to actually panic as it pulled away from the young genin.
Jiraiya hadn't been watching that time, and when Kakashi brought it up he'd been surprised at how fast their shared student was becoming. As near as they could guess the young blonde was rivaling shunshin speeds in short bursts without actually using shunshin, which was impressive enough without considering that the genin was wearing his leg weights again.
Naruto himself was struggling to figure out if there was some trick to hitting a bird in flight, since it seemed not even moving his sword faster than the bird could move helped as movement speed and reaction time were two different things. The blonde Uzumaki had never appreciated the difference until he watched a bird drift out of range of his swing the second he began to actually swing, it was rather infuriating for the young genin.
The hermaphrodite was only keeping his cool because he'd been informed he was attempting something that was viewed as 'impossible without Sharingan', but that just made him want to succeed more thus feeding into his annoyance whenever he failed. With a deep breath, Naruto made one last attempt as they reached the edge of the treeline, he swung his sword horizontally and watched the bird evade yet again with an eye twitch.
What followed was a furious flourish of sword strikes and a scream of incoherent rage from the blonde genin that startled both of his sensei, the two older shinobi turning to see their student panting and glaring at a bird that was flapping away while making terrified chirping sounds. Kakashi was the first to notice a couple of feathers falling to the ground near Naruto's katana, indicating he had come far closer with that outburst than any of his calmer attempts.
Jiraiya found that a little concerning, mostly due to what he knew of the Kyubi and the Fuin that was supposed to hold it, but seeing as Naruto was just blowing off steam and not glowing with red power the Sennin presumed everything was still fine. The killing intent Naruto was pointing at a small bird and the glowing pink slit pupils were concerning, but they'd be concerning without the threat of a Kitsune no Yoko taking over his body.
Naruto glanced at the feathers his blade had managed to pull from the tail of his avian target, "I'll get it on the way back." he insisted with a slight grumble as he sheathed his katana, moving to follow his pair of sensei further to Kaminari no Kuni.
Kakashi was surprised that he didn't even doubt that statement anymore, Jiraiya however still had some reservations, "Sure you will kid." he said sarcastically, although now he was nervous that the blonde might actually accomplish something he had called impossible which would not be a good look for him as a sensei. The white haired Sannin considered it a good thing that kenjutsu was not considered his specialty, which should at least lessen the embarrassment should his student actually somehow cut a bird out of the air while it was in flight.
Shikamaru had hoped things would return to normal, going on a mission with Choji and their sensei helped reinforce that. Then he saw Kiba was being put on their team and noted the growth Akamaru had gone through, the puppy wasn't even small enough to ride around in Kiba's hoodie anymore. As far as Shikamaru was aware the canine was still not fully grown, although it had reached the adult size of smaller breeds.
Asuma looked confused, "This isn't going to be a Konton Gundan mission is it?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow right back, "Of course not, ninso are still shinobi and these two in particular are genin still." she answered to the relief of the jonin commander of cell ten, "I got him for this mission to give you guys someone with heightened senses since Ino, your sensor, is on a patrol mission." the Hokage explained calmly, "This is a delivery mission, you need to head to the edge of Kawa no Kuni and meet with some Sunagakure shinobi, confirm their identity with the password on this card," she continued, pulling out a small folded card and handing it to Asuma, "then deliver this scroll." she finished, handing a bound scroll to the jonin next.
"Yes ma'am." Asuma agreed, taking the scroll as he memorized the password he'd need to hear to confirm the Suna ninja's identities.
Ino was surprised at just how much Sakura had calmed down since they'd last interacted, the other kunoichi had been borderline frothing at the mouth during the second half of the last Chunin Exams but on patrol with Ino, Hana, and Shizune the pink haired girl just seemed bored. Until the second Ino pointed out enemy contacts in the direction they were heading and the brass skinned kunoichi had utilized Shunshin no Jutsu to rush ahead.
Hana didn't even look surprised and Shizune just seemed exasperated, by the time they and Ino caught up Sakura had already torn her axe through the necks of two Oto shinobi. A third Oto ninja was fighting defensively in an attempt to get away only for Hana to slip behind him with her own use of shunshin and halt him with a left back heel kick to the back right side of the man's head, driving his skull directly into Sakura's axe swing.
The patrol they'd rescued looked surprised and startled until they recognized the Konoha symbols on their hitai-ate, although even then they kept their distance from Sakura as Genkei landed next to her. Ino raised an eyebrow, "Is this how these patrols usually go?" she asked while the pink haired girl wiped the blood from her axe blade with a cloth that had stains indicating wiping blood was its only purpose.
Shizune shrugged, "Not always, sometimes it's Naruto-kun, Sasuke, or Kiba who runs off ahead." she explained, indicating that was indeed usually how things went down on such patrol missions.
"That Rock Lee kid too." Hana piped up with an amused grin, Ino was mostly surprised to hear Sasuke included in with that group of high energy knuckleheads.
Unknown to the others, Genkei was annoyed that Sakura had left her new axe at home. He did not consider her inability to wield it a valid excuse, as he argued she could carry it for intimidation and had been shot down.
Sasuke decided Renkinjutsu was complicated nonsense, he'd been given the equivalent of high level mathematics homework for accomplishing even the simplest jutsu. It was so bad he even considered asking for Sakura's help, a fact that Aoki was apparently embarrassed and disgusted by. The Uchiha didn't really care, he knew the kunoichi was a massive nerd when it came to such things, what really confused him was why it took so much chakra for even the most basic things.
The fact he could turn a handful of kunai into a highly volatile volley of explosive ordinance was well worth the effort, despite the extensive chakra requirements. As Sasuke surveyed the damage he frowned, "Well, that one jutsu completely drained me of chakra." he grumbled out loud, wondering how he was supposed to get around such a limitation. According to Aoki his chakra reserves would eventually reach the point he could use such jutsu more than once, but until then he supposed it was a last resort bombardment that devastated a small area.
The fact that he was likely the only genin with such a devastating jutsu was a small consolation prize when he recalled how much raw power Naruto had under his control, the young Uchiha shuddered to imagine if Itachi somehow did get hold of the Kyubi within Naruto and took that power for himself. Sasuke had all the motivation he needed even without that, but that thought did add some urgency to his desire for power.
"Tenten, what even is that?" Neji asked with a raised eyebrow, it looked like a kibaku fuda but he'd seen those enough times to recognize it was not that.
"Fuin tags!" Tenten declared proudly, "This one has a bunch of lamp oil under high pressure alongside a kibaku fuda that's rigged to explode on release." she explained.
"That sounds more dangerous to you than your enemies." Neji pointed out dryly.
"That's nothing!" Tenten continued with even more pride, startling her teammate, "Behold!" she announced as she unveiled what looked almost like a crossbow but without the arms, or string, or a firing mechanism.
"What even is that?" Neji asked, confused by the design, "Did you build a potato gun or something?"
"Better!" Tenten insisted, "It uses kibaku fuda to launch balls of kibaku fuda!" she boisterously proclaimed.
"Have you tested any of this?" Neji asked nervously.
"Of course not, I wanted you Byakugan to double check my Fuinjutsu." Tenten answered calmly, her sudden shift confusing the Hyuga.
Neji activated his Byakugan, "I am surprised the oil tag is stable, but your" he began before stalling on a name for the weapon Tenten had made with the express purpose of launching mass amounts of kibaku fuda a long distance, "uh, your new toy" he decided that was the best word for it, "is going to explode the second you try to use it." he pointed out.
Tenten pouted, "Aw, seriously? Why?" she asked.
"Because you're using explosives to launch explosives." Neji answered with the least amount of sarcasm he could manage, watching as who he previously viewed as his most sensible teammate made a surprised expression as she processed this fact.
After a moment of thinking, just as Neji was about to leave, Tenten spoke up, "Oh yeah, wanna come see Sasuke Uchiha with me?" she asked curiously, flushing when her teammate raised an eyebrow, "I have a delivery to make to his house again and I really need to know why he needs so many kunai." she clarified.
Neji frowned and cocked his head to the left, "How many kunai?" he wondered out loud.
"Two-hundred, a hundred per crate, so uh, please help?" Tenten requested bashfully, revealing the real reason she'd asked if he'd come along. The Hyuga rolled his pale eyes but nodded, sighing at his teammate as he followed her.
"I use a lot of kunai." Sasuke answered truthfully, thinking the question was ridiculous.
"How do you go through a few hundred kunai in a matter of days!?" Tenten snapped, curiosity fueling her passion towards the subject.
Sasuke sighed, "I'm developing a bunch of fuinjutsu, shurikenjutsu, ninjutsu, and trying to combine my shurikenjutsu and ninjutsu more." he explained, leaving out a lot of minor details and one major detail.
Tenten narrowed her eyes in suspicion, "Why do you have a beak?" Neji asked bluntly, having been distracted by that the whole time.
"Same reason I have wings and some feathers, I'm a karasu tengu obviously." Sasuke answered sarcastically, allowing the other two genin to deduce it was Tzeentch's doing.
Shikamaru blinked owlishly, Choji halted a hand halfway to delivering chips to his mouth, and Kiba visibly tensed. Asuma didn't blame them, he hadn't expected the liaison from Sunagakure no Sato to be the same team from the Chunin Exams, "Nice whether in Hi no Kuni." the jonin greeted blandly.
"The harshness of Kaze no Kuni suits us better." Baki returned the greeting with the other half of the pass code, basic but not easy to guess and hard to tell it was even a password if overheard. There was an old woman with the Suna team, but what surprised the Konoha genin more was that Gaara looked disappointed for some reason.
"I told you there was no guarantee they'd send him." Temari said to her youngest brother quietly, still visibly nervous around the auburn haired young sand manipulator. Shikamaru was able to ascertain that the messed up genin had mellowed out for some reason, but wasn't certain why.
Kiba was still on edge as Asuma handed over the scroll they'd been given to Baki, who briefly inspected it before handing it to the old woman, "Eh? What?" she asked, inspecting it herself, "Oh, it's for me." she muttered absently, unfurling it right there.
Asuma was surprised by that, "You're opening it here?" he queried, wondering what prompted such an idea.
The old woman nodded as Baki spoke up, "Chiyo-dono is acting as interim Kazekage for now, her puppetry is second to none and she's wise enough to have lived this long as advisor for the Kazekage." he explained.
Chiyo scoffed, "They named me interim Kazekage while I was taking a nap." she grumbled, "Anyway, you can tell your Hokage that we did indeed receive an invitation to the upcoming Chunin Examinations, and we intended on seeing things through to the meeting between village leaders at the least." she explained.
Asuma was surprised his team had been given that particular message, and concerned with how unconcerned the Suna shinobi were until he considered that they didn't have to deal with foreign shinobi constantly testing their borders. Also given their geographical distance from Orochimaru's bases and his focus on Konoha the ninja of Sunagakure no Sato were probably having a much less exciting time.
Having come to a similar conclusion to his sensei, Shikamaru was jealous of Suna and surprised the Chunin Exams would be happening again, "Who is hosting?" he asked.
"Kusagakure." Asuma answered, seeing no harm in it. Although he knew it was strange for a minor hidden village to host the Chunin Exams, as they generally liked to actually live up to the hidden part of their names. Something the larger hidden villages of the Shinobi Godaikoku simply couldn't do, although they were all considered powerful enough that it didn't matter.
Sakura was having no trouble with her patrol with Ino, barely interacting with her former rival. The Haruno didn't consider them rivals anymore, oddly enough she felt more rivalry towards Naruto, a desire to be stronger than her hermaphrodite team member had blossomed after he won the three way spar between team seven. The fact she and Sasuke had briefly teamed up only to be soundly beaten, the Uchiha surprisingly even giving in after activating his weird golden flame eye thing that Sakura didn't understand, was a fact that both annoyed the young kunoichi and made her giddy.
Her mind seemed to automatically gravitate to why she was annoyed, Naruto had been dead last in the academy, terrible grades and sub par practical applications. His only good points had been, surprisingly, his stealth and taijutsu. The fact he could hide so well it took Iruka or some other more experienced shinobi to catch him before he graduated wasn't something Sakura had considered until she was reviewing what she actually knew about Naruto's abilities.
Lately though, Naruto was like an entirely different beast, nigh limitless chakra despite his difficulty with chakra control, insane stamina, and thanks to a song only he could hear he was particularly dangerous with taijutsu and kenjutsu. Yet despite her perfect chakra control and stamina training, Sakura just couldn't keep up with the raw amount of chakra the blonde could throw around. Being taught some taijutsu by Tsunade recently was good now that she was seeing results at least, but against enemies of Konoha the pink haired kunoichi reached for her axe almost as if instinctively.
Feeling herself becoming angrier, Sakura took a deep breath and reminded herself that she and Sasuke had teamed up against Naruto, that made her giddy. But the girl was pulled from her thoughts as Ino spoke up, "Uh, is it bad if there's only one chakra signature at the next meeting point?" the Yamanaka asked nervously, the somber look Shizune and Hana shared was enough of an answer. Sakura gripped her axe and shield tightly as she tensed her legs and pooled extra chakra to her feet before leaping ahead again.
Soon enough the Haruno had visual contact, a clearing of broken bodies with strange crystals bursting from the earth, one chunin impaled upon such a crystal. The only living thing was a woman, the young kunoichi assumed the woman was behind the massacre. The woman was fair skinned and had light blue hair up in a spiky ponytail, long strands of it framing her face. The woman wore a green dress with a long left sleeve and a short right one, a red turtle-neck which has a white, fluffy collar and brown gloves, a red one piece body suit visible beneath the outfit and calf length brown sandal boots protecting her feet.
The only thing that made Sakura hesitate was the lack of any hitai-ate, no identifiable indicator of what village the woman worked for, implying a mercenary or an intentional effort at concealing who she worked for, "Who the fuck are you?" the pink haired girl asked bluntly, raising her shield and brandishing her axe as Genkei caught up with her along with the rest of the patrol.
Instead of answering, the woman pulled out a little black book and started flicking through it. After a moment of wondering, Sakura figured it must be a bingo book, then the woman spoke up, "Ah, Sakura Haruno, Ikari no Ninso of Konoha's new Konton Gundan." she said, "Hm, you look different." she added thoughtfully.
Sakura's eye twitched, "I asked who you are, not who I am." she retorted dryly, struggling to reign in her temper.
The woman tutted at the young pink haired kunoichi, "Temper, temper." she scolded, "But, call me Guren." she introduced, growing a blue crystal blade on her right forearm, "Now, from what I heard you ninso can't refuse or interfere with a challenge." she intoned.
Shizune had learned that wasn't entirely accurate, if one could be considered to have lost a challenge but not been killed yet she was pretty sure she was allowed to intervene, and there was the curious case of Ino luring an enemy into charging right into Shikamaru's attack. She didn't correct the woman however, "Unless I challenge you first!" she announced instead, as the jonin it was her job to handle something like this, even if she was pretty sure Tsunade might disapprove there was another two iryo trained shinobi on hand.
Hana used shunshin to get closer to the downed Konoha shinobi, "I've got two survivors, Ino-chan, lend me a hand." she called out as Shizune leaped at Guren, swinging her left arm's claw at the woman as her tentacle coiled down behind her own back to hover near her shuriken holster. Ino frowned but moved to assist as Sakura shook with frustration, without an opponent the pink haired kunoichi had nothing to do but help protect the injured survivors if back up arrived for the enemy.
Guren blocked Shizune's opening attack with the blade of crystal she'd grown, making another on her left forearm to counterattack with. Shizune's tentacle flicked a kunai to her right hand and she blocked the counterattack to pullback, swinging her left arm as she stepped back to meet Guren's attempt to chase but the other kunoichi blocked again with her right forearm blade.
Shizune tossed her kunai and leaped back, weaving one handed signs and making her mantis-like claw glow with a chakra scalpel. Guren halted her advance at that, not certain if the jutsu would be a threat to her crystals or not for certain and hesitant to risk it.
"Run into trouble, Guren-chan?" A new voice spoke up mockingly, a voice that alarmed Shizune and confused Sakura.
The pink haired girl recognized the young man, "Kabuto?" she asked, vaguely recalling that he'd gone rogue and was working with Orochimaru. Now that she considered it, she remembered Naruto bragging about defeating this guy.
"Careful, Hana!" Shizune called out, as the bespectacled shinobi had revealed himself close to the injured survivors, "Kabuto is Orochimaru's personal iryonin, and he's on par with Kakashi-san!" she added as warning. Hana's ninken leaped to their Inuzuka companion, using the clan hijutsu to become copies of the chunin and confirming the one with the tusks maintained the tusks while 'disguised' as Hana.
Then Sakura leaped at Kabuto, unaware of the context about the battle between Kabuto and Naruto, only that Naruto had won so she should win too. Naruto was not one to downplay his abilities, and while he wasn't much of a liar he forgot to mention to Sakura that Kabuto had been weakened from a fight with Tsunade before Naruto beat him. To be fair, Shizune still had difficulty with the weakened Kabuto herself, but she was surprised by the sudden fire of the pink haired girl.
Kabuto was surprised as well, swiftly palming a pair of kunai to defend himself, stepping to his left around Sakura's right handed axe swing and testing the brass epidermis of his opponent personally with his left hand kunai as he used the blade in his right hand to control the arc of the younger ninja's swing. To his surprise it truly was metallic, although quite flexible for a metal, as if each skin cell had become as brass to retain some flexibility.
The curious man was then taken aback as Sakura used a controlled burst of chakra to launch the brass thorns in her right arm at him, attempting to swing her axe at him again as she did. This time Kabuto just used a kawarimi, leaving a log behind to be peppered with brass thorns and get stuck on the blade of Sakura's axe. The genin frowned momentarily before swinging the log against a rock to chop it in half.
Kabuto took this opportunity to throw his kunai at the girl from behind.
As this was happening Guren took the opportunity to escape, using a kawarimi of her own to escape from Shizune's claw, making it a lump of crystal to test something and taking note that, while the crystals she used withstood the chakra scalpel, they were cracked by the impact. Shizune and Hana wanted to give chase but they had other problems, like protecting the survivors and that Sakura had challenged Kabuto.
The pink haired girl turned to face where the kunai had been thrown from, her armor blunting the glancing blows and bouncing the thrown blades to the ground. Kabuto took note of this reliance on armor, it was a weakness he could exploit. The grey haired young man had already changed position, using the distraction to form chakra scalpels and charging the pink haired girl from behind.
"Behind you!" Shizune, Hana, Ino, and Genkei all warned, Kabuto gave a wry smirk as Sakura turned to meet his charge. The way ninso liked to fight had altered the theater of battle slightly, he supposed they would be better suited to large scale combat, but at his speed and skill Sakura alone was fighting a losing battle. As the older shinobi almost touched the kunoichi's right arm with his left hand, her shield came up and knocked his hand aside as the girl twisted on one foot to face him.
This however allowed his right hand an opening to tap against an exposed part of her leathery left forearm, her fingers going numb. Sakura leaped back, tossing her axe as Genkei moved to flank and retrieve the thrown weapon. Kabuto hopped over the low thrown spinning axe to leap at Sakura as she palmed a kunai, but to his surprise instead of waiting for him to get in close she tore open her left wrist with the blood, spraying molten blood at him.
Kabuto was surprised for a few reasons, not because of the molten blood but having it thrown at him was startling. He used kawarimi as he considered Sakura, he'd heard she was a had a raging berserk temper, but she was alarmingly focused and determined to beat him. The girl glanced around, and not seeing him she put her kunai in her mouth and started hand signs as Genkei pulled up next to her.
The personal iryonin of Orochimaru made a note that it seemed the Imp's were allowed to fight alongside their masters in a challenge, but it seemed only the armored 'Malice' types actually bothered. Seeing what ninjutsu she was preparing did spur him into action, albeit too late to stop the girl from performing Kuchiyose no Jutsu one handed. From the smoke five Flesh Hounds leaped towards Kabuto, forcing him to back off as Sakura weaved more one handed signs.
The young man proved his capability, darting between the Daemon hounds and dispelling two of the reptilian mammals with precise and devastating strikes with his chakra scalpels, the other three turned to pounce but one hesitated, sparing it from being dispelled like the other two and granting it and opportunity to get a bite in, only to clamp down on a log and the real Kabuto to ram a kunai in the back of its skull, dispelling it too.
Then Sakura unleashed her Karyudan no Jutsu, the flame taking on the shape of a dragon head at the end of the stream of fire flying towards her opponent, the grey haired young man sighing as he evaded the attack, watching carefully as Sakura palmed a pair of shuriken and launched them before flicking her wrist to tug chakra strings and send them curving at Kabuto from opposite directions.
The young man flicked his kunai to his left hand and dodged towards the shuriken coming from that direction, cutting it from the air as he palmed his own quartet of shuriken to toss them right back. However, he made the mistake of throwing ordinary shuriken at Sakura, who simply palmed a kunai and ran through them, the small bladed weapons bouncing off her brass skin as they managed to avoid her armor.
Kabuto was surprised by how sturdy Sakura was against weak attacks, and as he met her in hand to hand he realized the shield and kunai combination was actually rather irritating to fight against, and worse that Sakura could tank his taijutsu strikes, bunting his kicks with ease, blocking his kunai, and not giving him the opportunity to use his chakra scalpels.
Shizune was surprised Sakura was doing so well against Kabuto, she wondered if Kakashi was still stronger than his own students as the girl stood toe to toe with Kabuto. But she was aware of what Sakuira was not, Kabuto could heal himself and had far more stamina than his younger opponent, who recklessly ignored pain and spilled more blood than needed for Kuchiyose no Jutsu.
As the jonin opened her mouth to speak her warning Sakura hopped back and tossed her kunai at the footwork of her opponent, throwing him off with the change in tempo and directing his dodge into an axe swung at the back of his legs by Genkei, the young man back flipping and ramming his kunai into the helmet of the Imp, perturbed when it didn't dispel like the hounds Sakura had earlier summoned.
Then Sakura was on him, as his feet were still touching down her right fist slammed into his chest with a precise burst of chakra. Kabuto went flying, skipping across the ground as he failed to halt his own momentum. The young man stood and spat up some blood, healing his broken ribs, "Alright, this is irritatingly familiar." he grumbled, disarmed by the sudden strike after leaving his weapon in the helmet of the Malice.
He meant it in more ways than one, another of Kakashi's brats was matching him look bad and he recognized that taijutsu. He'd recognized her earlier taijutsu too, having analyzed it, she'd learned the fundamentals in the academy from Iruka and Mizuki, at some point Ebisu had refined the taijutsu of the girl, Kabuto recognized the standard style of Konoha's Anbu there indicating that much, but he had not expected to be struck by in an imperfect form of Tsunade's taijutsu.
"You're not even an iryonin are you?" Kabuto asked, partially curious and partially kind of jealous. Shizune wasn't sure what was surprising her more, that Sakura was matching Kabuto or that she was using tricks and fighting intelligently instead of throwing her rage enhanced strength around.
"Heal people? I'm not here to stem bloodflow!" Sakura snapped in response, gritting her teeth and showing her temper was indeed still there. Ino frowned as she considered how Sakura used to be, the pink haired girl had been tempermental, but far less violent tempered in the academy after all.
Kabuto sighed, "You know, iryoninjutsu has plenty of combat applications if you have the mind for it, inducing internal bleeding even." he pointed out dryly, exasperated that his opponent merely rolled her eyes. However the young man was no fool, he was still confident he could beat Sakura, but if her Imp helped her he could be injured enough to be slowed down enough for Shizune to defeat him before he could escape.
So instead he dropped a smoke bomb, sending a Doton: Kage Bunshin to briefly engage Sakura in close quarters combat, his kunai impacting against her shield and her fist going through the earthen skull, revealing the use of a bunshin to the Konoha shinobi. It was more than enough of a distraction for Kabuto to get away, Sakura blinked owlishly after a few moments as she registered Kabuto had run away from her.
As she wondered if that counted as a win, she noted a lack of boons and concluded that the result of the fight was deemed inconclusive, "That coward." she grumbled under her breath, clenching her right fist with irritation. The fact that she had fought well enough to force him to retreat was good consolation for the girl at least, as she had no idea he was being cautious of her teammates and thinking ahead of their direct conflict.
Shizune was surprised, she knew that Konoha shinobi, especially in the Konton Gundan, were becoming more threatening, but she didn't expect Kabuto to run away. She supposed he was outnumbered, and she realized he'd used the way Konton no Ninso had to interact with challenges as a chance to escape. Still, the young man was able to hold his ground against Tsunade thanks to knowing a weakness of hers, and had even proved too much for Shizune back then after being injured by Tsunade.
It made the young jonin consider how fights couldn't be accurately predicted, there was no telling what information either party had that could affect the outcome or how certain strengths and weaknesses interracted with each other. Shizune also considered that Sakura had finally been refined into something more resembling a ninja, rather than a rampaging beast in humanoid form.
Ino was not only surprised, she was alarmed as she wasn't even aware Sakura was working on her anger, so to her the shift from violent rampage to tempered fury focused on targets was a startling one to suddenly become aware of. The young Yamanaka frowned, wondering how she was supposed to catch up with the likes of cell seven.
AN: This has officially become my longest story, both in word count and in chapter numbers by this chapter, so thank you to everyone who has been enjoying it and sorry again for the schedule slippage as of late.