Naruto: Reborn as Sakura with Manyuu Chifusa Template

"Mum!" Sakura shouted, poking her head round her bedroom door the following morning. "Did you feed my goldfish while I was away? Tenpuramaru looks a bit hungry!"

The orange fish swam in a leisurely circle around his fishbowl and blew out a bubble of air.

"Yes, dear!" Mebuki called out from downstairs. And a few seconds later… "Wait, what are you still doing here!? You're going to be late for work!"

"I quit!" Sakura shouted in response. "I'm back to being a mission ninja!"

Owing to their modest means, Sakura's parents had had little choice but to enrol their daughter at Konoha's ninja academy, the only way she could receive an education at all. Though they'd never openly expressed disapproval of their daughter's rather perilous career path— despite her graduating top of her class in ninjanomics and performing consistently well on missions— they had been nothing short of delighted when she gave it up and took on a permanent post as a medic at the hospital.

This way, they knew she was safe, and they could see her every day!

"YOU DID WHAT!?" Mebuki's screech shook the house.

That was Sakura's cue to leave.

She grabbed her scroll pouch and hastily strapped it to her thigh, hopping on one foot as she did so, before throwing open her bedroom window and slipping out. Catching a tree branch on the way down, Sakura swung herself over the fence and landed on the neighbour's roof.

"One month, huh…" Sakura murmured to herself, gazing up at Tsunade's stony face carved into the Hokage Rock in the distance.

Hearing from Tsunade's mouth that Naruto would be returning in less than a month had been a proper wake-up call for Sakura. The real plot was about to begin, which meant bracing for wave after wave of ever more overpowered enemies, as the world's power scaling spiralled completely out of control.

Until she could find a safe way to master Shikkotsu Forest's Sage Mode, Sakura needed a technique of her own— something powerful enough to keep her alive when things inevitably went sideways. Sooner or later, Naruto and Sasuke would get their Eva Units 01 and 02 in the form of Kurama Chakra Mode and Susanoo, and she'd be left choking on their dust.

Sakura wasn't confident she'd ever be able to awaken the Sharingan— and she didn't have Naruto's plot armour or his nepotism perks, either. So, when the Tailed Beast Bombs inevitably started dropping, she was going to need some actual armour. And at this point, the only technique that fulfilled Sakura's requirements was Kumogakure's Lightning Chakra Mode.

If she couldn't have a G*ndam, she would at least have an Iron Man armour!

…

The Third Training Ground, tucked away on the outskirts of town, was empty when Sakura arrived a few minutes later. Kakashi-sensei often stopped by to pay his respects at the war memorial here, so she'd half-expected to find him standing there. He wasn't— which was just as well, since she was about to strip and give Rin quite a show.

Sakura offered a quick prayer in her memory.

May Rin rest in peace in the Land of Bliss as Obito committed ALL the war crimes in her name.

For his part, Kakashi rather enjoyed wallowing in regret in front of the memorial stone, since he had a hard time letting go of the past. He would talk to his dead friends about his students' current struggles, and in return, the monument would grant him a much-needed WIL (willpower) stat buff. The monument had a way of lending perspective— or, failing that, making self-pity feel productive.

It was a Press F to Pay Respects kind of thing, as Sakura understood it.

In any case, she wasn't here to press keyboard keys, but to master a new Jutsu, so she quickly unpacked her things from her pouch, unfurling her scrolls and laying them flat on the grass.

"Unseal!"

With a hand sign, the scrolls released their contents in puffs of white smoke: a blue plastic barrel filled with rainwater; a Pyrex baking dish she'd borrowed from home; a carton of sodium bicarbonate from her fridge; a flask of etching acid she'd bought from the swordsmithing forge near the city centre; and a box of springs, coils, and screws made from chakra metal, their nebulous origins still a mystery to Sakura.

…

There was a good reason why, to Sakura's knowledge, only two people in Kumogakure had ever mastered Lightning Style Chakra Mode, and why such a powerful technique wasn't more widespread among their ninja: it was expensive!

Much like the Hōzuki's Hydrification Jutsu, Lightning Style Chakra Mode required body modification to be practised. The procedure involved metallising the body with high-purity chakra metal, effectively turning the skin into a Faraday cage— allowing lightning chakra to flow smoothly around it, while also granting the user immunity to electricity-based attacks and a hide as tough as steel.

Which explained why the Third and Fourth Raikage's bodies were so remarkably resilient against physical blows, even without actively using Lightning Style Chakra Mode.

Earth Style is all about agglutination— hardening chakra into an immovable wall.

Water Style is all about flexibility— loosening chakra into a weapon that can take any shape.

Fire Style is all about chaotic collisions— heating chakra into an all-consuming blaze.

Wind Style is all about shear stress— sharpening chakra into a precise blade.

Lightning Style, in a way, is most similar to Water Style: it, too, is all about flow— just on a different timescale. Like water, lightning chakra moves swiftly along the path of least resistance…

And the only thing Sakura had to do was to show it the way!

First, Sakura prepared her metallic solution by combining the etching acid with the assorted chakra metal components in the Pyrex dish. The moment the acid touched the metal, it began to dissolve with alarming speed, releasing thick plumes of yellow and red smoke.

Sakura retreated to a safe distance and waited for the reaction to run its course. Once the fumes had subsided, she returned and sprinkled a small amount of sodium bicarbonate into the crimson liquid that she had obtained. The mixture remained inert— a sign that the acid had done its work and was no longer active.

Sadly, there would be no science volcano today.

Now that the metallic solution was safe to touch, Sakura dumped it into her water barrel. With a quick look to check that no one was around, she removed all her clothes and put them in a neat pile on one of the three logs planted in front of the stone memorial.

Sakura shivered as a thrilling tingle of excitement ran down to her nether regions. She was filled with a sort of guilty pleasure at the thought that, if anyone happened to walk in, they would be able to see her fully exposed!

Unfortunately, no one did, so Sakura clambered into the water barrel and started cycling her chakra, gently releasing it through all 361 of her Tenketsu in sequence. The water started to churn and mix, and once she was certain her entire body was covered in chakra from head to toe…

Sakura frowned— her breasts kept floating to the surface.

"GYAAAAH!" she screamed.

The instant she converted her chakra to the lightning nature, pain unlike anything she had ever felt before tore through her. Her body convulsed violently as the surging currents lanced beneath her skin— and with her muscles no longer under control, her head slipped beneath the water…