Naruto: Reborn as Sakura with Manyuu Chifusa Template

'Where did he go!?' cried Inner Sakura. 'He was right in front of us!'

Sakura's head swivelled from side to side, her eyes straining to catch any sign of movement that could betray the enemy's position. Due to the thick mist that had settled on the valley, visibility had been greatly reduced— she could barely see even a metre in front of her.

"Thunder Funeral: Feast of Lightning!"

The distinctive sound of metal clanging on metal rang out to Sakura's right, and she instinctively turned her head, searching for the source of the noise. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a blue glow through the fog— and just barely managed to throw herself to the floor to avoid the torrent of lightning that flew over her head.

'We're sitting ducks!' yelped Inner Sakura. 'He knows exactly where we are!'

Under normal circumstances, the Kirigakure no Jutsu affected its user's vision just as much as it affected its victims'. However, unlike conventional shinobi, practitioners of the technique were usually masters of silent killing— which meant that they could track their prey by sound alone, all the while remaining completely quiet themselves.

As such, shinobi who relied too much on their eyes— such as the Uchiha (but not the Hyūga)— were especially vulnerable to the Kirigakure no Jutsu…

"Area Scanning Technique!"

At this rate, they were all going to get picked off one by one— so, rather than keep fumbling around blindly, Sakura stopped where she stood. Slamming her palms on the ground, she sent out a pulse of her chakra like a radar, and within moments, she had a clear sense of both her comrades' and her enemies' locations.

'There's two powerful Jōnin-level chakra signatures standing on the sidelines,' Inner Sakura pointed out. 'They feel awfully familiar, somehow…'

The two onlookers weren't immediate threats, so Sakura shelved away the information for later. Quick as a flash, she darted behind the larger boulder where Naruto, Sasuke and Lee had taken refuge to take shelter from Raiga's arcing electric attacks.

"Sakura, you're all right!" Naruto cried out in relief, upon seeing her busty figure piercing through the veil of mist surrounding him. "Over here!"

Sasuke's reaction, however, was much more violent.

"Duck!" Sasuke yelled.

Sasuke flicked a handful of shuriken into place between his fingers with a swift wave of his hand, then hurled them towards Sakura. Reacting quickly, Sakura tucked in her body and rolled, executing a somersault to avoid the attack.

The shuriken sailed over Sakura's head, missing their mark entirely— harmlessly embedding themselves in a nearby tree, if Sakura had to judge by the series of sharp thunks they produced.

As soon as the shuriken had whizzed past her, Sakura sprang to her feet and ran to the others, pressing her back against the boulder, just as they had. They were surrounded— more than a dozen shadowy figures had emerged from the depths of the mist around them, eerily silent as they slowly closed in on them…

"It's a Genjutsu!" said Sakura, immediately noticing how off the shadowy beings were. "Naruto, come over here, I'll release it for you!"

"They're not illusions, they're real," Sasuke immediately interjected. "My eyes can see through any Genjutsu's flaws."

Unfortunately for Sasuke, this was only true for regular illusions— all bets were off when a Dōjutsu wielder was pitted against a Genjutsu produced by a Dōjutsu of equal rank! Sasuke's Sharingan merely possessed two Tomoe, and Ranmaru possessed an immature Ketsuryūgan, so they were evenly matched…

"And I'm telling you those things aren't real!!" Sakura retorted. "It's probably a distra—"

And at that moment, the world went white— a burst of light exploded in front of Sakura, searing the images of her comrades' backs into her retinas. A fraction of an instant later, the sound of thunder exploded in her eardrums, and Sakura was tumbling head over heels on the ground.

"Oi, Bushy Brows, wake up! Oiiii!"

Sakura could barely hear Naruto's voice through the constant ringing in her ears. There was this metallic taste on her tongue, and she could also smell the stench of ozone pervading the air…

"Ugh…" moaned Rock Lee, coughing up a puff of black smoke. "My youth…"

Lee's perfectly straight black hair, which was normally styled into his signature bowl cut, had puffed out in every direction, turning into a frizzy afro— and he also smelt vaguely of bacon. Thanks to the steel wires wrapped around his body serving as a Faraday cage, Lee had been spared the worst of the attack, as the electricity had flowed around him— but due to the intensity of the current, the wires had melted, rendering them completely useless.

"Summoning natural lightning from the sky," Sasuke mumbled deliriously to himself, as he lied flat on his back. "Impossible to dodge that sort of speed, even with those eyes…"

Sakura glanced at her surroundings.

Naruto was already back on his feet, but Sasuke and Lee were out of commission— they weren't dead, but they might as well be, unless they could find a way to escape through the mist… but where was the exit? And where was Tenten!?

"Sakura, your hair!" Naruto blurted out.

Positive static charges were building up around Sakura, causing her pink hair to float, as each strand repelled the others. The moment enough electrical potential had built up between her and the thunderclouds, lightning would fall from the sky and onto her head. Run as she might, there was no escape— the enemy had locked onto her!

Unless… she filled the air with enough wind chakra to disrupt the enemy's Jutsu. She had previously theorised that it might be possible to create an elemental version of Tsunade's signature Nintaijutsu, instead of using attributeless chakra, but this would be her first time actually trying it— without the pre-moulded chakra within her Breast Seal, adding nature transformation to a Jutsu that represented the pinnacle of chakra control was much too difficult.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura drew out every last bit of wind chakra that she had stored in her left Breast Seal, and she compressed it into her fist…

"Fangs of Lightning!"

"Chakra Enhanced Strength: Sakura Version!"

Her fist howling with gale-force winds, Sakura threw a punch towards the heavens— and at the same time, lightning arced down from the chakra-infused thunderclouds overhead.

"SHANNAROOOO!" Sakura screamed.

And in that moment, Sakura recreated Kakashi's legendary feat of splitting a lightning bolt with the Chidori, which had earned its upgraded version the title of Raikiri— Lightning Cutter.