Naruto: Reborn as Sakura with Manyuu Chifusa Template

"Manyuu Style: Purification Slash!"

The tip of Sakura's sword traced a delicate arc across Guy's chest, passing harmlessly through his flesh and drawing out the toxins from his blood. Sakura examined her blade with care; it now bore a slick coat of inky-black fluid.

Judging by its metallic odour, this wasn't some kind of venom or poison that had been extracted from an animal or a plant, which meant that it couldn't be denatured, only extracted or isolated into a protein complex (the latter of which would take a long shopping list of ingredients that Sakura didn't presently have on her). She surmised that Guy had been afflicted with heavy metal poisoning— which would account for Karin's failure to compound an effective antidote.

Guy's pained expression immediately eased. He would make a full recovery within a week… that is, if they managed to survive that long.

"Yoisho," Sakura grunted, as she heaved Guy's heavy body onto her shoulder.

Knowing the Akatsuki might descend from the skies at any moment to investigate the explosion, Sakura wasted no time in dragging Guy's limp body a safe distance from the clearing. With a quick hand sign, she performed the Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu, excavating a Saddam Hussein-shaped hole in the ground. She then carefully lowered Guy into the depression, placing a section of bamboo between his lips to ensure he wouldn't suffocate. And with his hiding spot complete, Sakura hurriedly swept earth and plant matter back over his body, leaving only the bamboo tube poking out of the ground.

Suddenly, she caught a shadow flitting at the edge of her vision in the clearing— something large had just swept overhead. She pressed herself flat against the rough bark of a nearby tree, peering through the dappled light that filtered down through the thick canopy of leaves above.

Sakura raised a hand to her ear, snaking the other to her weapons pouch, hooking a finger through a kunai's ringed pommel. She listened carefully to the sound of steady wingbeats, already picturing how she would proceed. She wasn't stupid enough as to believe she could fight one against two, so she knew she needed to aim carefully. The instant Deidara stopped circling overhead and made his clay bird land in the clearing, she would shoot…

And eventually, the large clay bird carrying Deidara and Sasori on its back began its descent.

Sakura bit down firmly on the handle of her kunai, freeing her hands to weave a flurry of hand signs. She could slow or hasten her fingers depending on how soon she needed to fire, but the moment she finished the final sign, she would have to throw her kunai within the span of one second.

25 hand signs remaining.

All of a sudden, the bird halted its descent.

Had they noticed something was amiss? Perhaps they had sensed her chakra building. She slowed her hand signs, careful to bide her time. There was no room for error, which meant she needed to kill at least one with her first shot. Deidara and Sasori had to land in order for her to guarantee a killing blow.

14 hand signs remaining.

Sweat poured down Sakura's brow. What in the world had she been thinking by volunteering to stay behind to restrain the enemy!? She was going to get herself killed, and die a virgin for the second time!

3 hand signs remaining.

"I don't see any bodies," came Sasori's gravelly voice from above, a few seconds later. "Just puppet wreckage."

2 hand signs remaining.

"They must have been blown apart by my art," said Deidara cheerfully. "Man, I wish I could've been there to see it happen from up close."

1 hand sign remaining.

"I'll go check out the situation," replied Sasori. "Keep an eye out from above."

0 hands signs remaining.

The plan had failed before it had even started. Sasori was about to leap down, but she had to fire now!

Sakura stepped out from behind her hiding place and took aim, the three tomoe in her crimson eyes rotating rapidly. Deidara's bird was soaring just at the height of the surrounding trees!

"Deidara, evade!" roared Sasori, his eyes instantly locking on Sakura's shock of pink hair.

The clay bird veered to the side, while Sasori, who was hidden inside his Hiruko doll, thrust out his segmented scorpion-like tail in front of him as a shield.

"Lightning Style: Lorentz Gun Jutsu!"

Sakura hurled her kunai, which instantly accelerated to supersonic speeds the moment it passed through the magnetic field she had summoned before her. It hurtled skywards, shedding flakes of molten iron as it moved so swiftly it seemed little more than a beam of light. In a flash, the kunai tore through the clay bird, ripping it in half, before slicing through the Hiruko doll's segmented tail, severing it completely.

"Going down!" yelped Deidara. "I can't keep us airborne!"

Sakura's face paled.

Not only had she failed to eliminate the enemy, but she had also disabled Deidara's Explosion Style clay with Lightning Style, rendering it incapable of flight (and it didn't help that the clay bird was now in two halves)! Which meant that like it or not, she would have to fight against two members of the Akatsuki at the same time!

"I'll take care of the girl," Sasori grunted as he fell. "Rebuild your mount and go chase after the others. If this one's buying time, they can't be too far."

"Gonna turn her into a work of art, eh?" said Deidara cheerily, eyeing Sakura's curvy figure. "If I were you, I'd rather turn her into a fine red mist, but you do you."

Sakura inwardly blew a sigh of relief. Good thing the Akatsuki loved their duels…

The Hiruko puppet, which resembled a masked man on all fours with a scorpion's tail sticking out of its behind, landed heavily in the clearing with a dull thud, cracking the earth beneath it. Meanwhile, Deidara vanished into the forest, leaving his companion to face Sakura alone.

"You there, pink-headed girl…" Sasori said, turning his gaze to Sakura. "Do you know which master puppeteer from your village crafted that sublime work of art?"

It was obvious he was referring to Tenten's autonomous puppets. To a person like Sasori, who viewed humans as defective products, a puppet that could walk and talk and think on its own represented the culmination of everything he had ever worked towards.

In other words, he was down bad for marionettussy.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Sakura replied, sneering. She slammed her fist in her palm, causing her breasts to jiggle wildly. "Now, come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!"