Naruto: The Strongest Suiton User

Chapter 15: Sakura VS Kakashi

In the final moment before the kunai struck, Sakura revealed her last trump card—

A small, transparent, slightly bluish water shield materialized in front of her chest!

Does she think a thin water shield can stop me? A desperate struggle, is it? Kakashi thought with surprise, but he turned the kunai in his hand, rotating the sharp blade to the back and striking with the ringed end—this was a spar, after all, not a life-or-death battle.

Kakashi fully expected this hastily formed water shield to be crushed as easily as bubble wrap. However, when the kunai struck the shield, only a deep "clang" sounded from the point of impact. The water shield, which looked like it would break on contact, only dented slightly. The powerful blow, carrying immense force at high speed, was stopped dead by a thin water shield, unable to advance another inch!

A bizarre scene, a drastic contrast! Having never expected to run into a wall harder than a steel plate, Kakashi felt his blood churn from the impact, and even the ring of the sturdy kunai was bent out of shape.

Going from extreme motion to extreme stillness, Kakashi felt so uncomfortable he wanted to vomit blood!

That's right, this was a shield made of ultrapure water. It was only a few centimeters thick, but in theory, it could withstand a thousand tons of pressure!

A confident smile curved Sakura's lips. She took several quick steps back to get out of Kakashi's attack range, her hands continuously forming seals without pause, pressing her advantage!

"Blue Water Style: Water Python Strangulation!"

Under Sakura's control, the water shield transformed into a python and coiled around Kakashi's arm. Then, Sakura's open palm suddenly clenched into a fist. In an instant, the water serpent used its unparalleled strength to easily twist Kakashi's arm into countless pieces!

Then, in the air, the fragments of Kakashi's arm turned into countless falling wood chips—

"Substitution Jutsu!"

A loud alarm bell went off in his mind. Kakashi, sensing the power of this jutsu, used the Substitution Jutsu without hesitation to escape in the nick of time, just before the technique activated.

Watching her ninjutsu fail once again, Sakura wrinkled her delicate brow and sighed in resignation. No matter how powerful a ninjutsu is, if it can't hit the target, it's useless.

The wood, crushed to splinters by the transparent water serpent, fell from the sky. Kakashi couldn't help but swallow. Though his face was expressionless, his heart was already in turmoil! This strange ninjutsu had a destructive power comparable to the Sand Coffin, but how could a Water Style jutsu possibly have such power?

This pale blue water serpent, a Water Style jutsu he had never seen before... Kakashi suddenly remembered the jutsu the Hokage had mentioned.

"...A jutsu beyond S-rank, stronger than the Water Cutter series," Kakashi said slowly, his expression a little grave as he looked at Sakura. "Is this what he meant?"

"Eh?" Sakura was slightly taken aback. How does Kakashi know? This was the first public appearance of ultrapure water!

"How did you know, Kakashi-sensei? Oh! Lord Hokage already told you!"

"I only knew that you might be developing another, stronger set of water jutsu... I never thought you would have already succeeded!" Kakashi said with a hint of emotion.

Sakura smiled wryly and shook her head. The problem with ultrapure water wasn't using the jutsu, but preparing it!

"If only it were that simple! This ninjutsu can only be completed with special water. It took me a year to produce just this little bit, and it's a consumable. Once it's used, it's gone," Sakura puffed her cheeks and sighed. "But, it can be considered a partial success. You've already seen its power, haven't you!"

Kakashi looked at the completely deformed ring of his kunai and the red marks on his left arm, left by the water serpent in the final moment before the substitution activated. When the serpent had coiled around him, Kakashi hadn't felt like it was water at all, but rather like an impossibly hard steel bar.

"It's still just a semi-finished product? It's shockingly strong, terrifyingly strong..."

Sakura smiled demurely, a little pleased with Kakashi's praise. However, thinking of the difficulties in its subsequent development, the proud smile on her face immediately fell.

"It's called a semi-finished product, but at the current rate of progress, its completion is still a distant prospect..."

"Anyway, let's save the chatter for after the fight! Kakashi-sensei, what's your plan for breaking through my ninjutsu?"

The Substitution Jutsu requires an object to replace, like an enemy's shadow clone or a pre-placed log. But in a desperate escape, there's not enough time to lock onto a replacement item unless it's a specially marked, dedicated substitution log. Kakashi had already used two substitution logs, which could be considered a luxury. Sakura didn't believe Kakashi would be so wasteful as to place a third one. Next time, Kakashi wouldn't be able to use the Substitution Jutsu for a last-ditch escape.

So, what will Kakashi do? Sakura was very curious.

"Two weaknesses." Kakashi calmly ignored Sakura's provocation. He held up two index fingers. "You have two fatal weaknesses."

Sakura frowned slightly and tilted her head, not believing that Kakashi could analyze two weaknesses at a glance.

"The first weakness is your chakra reserves. From the beginning until now, you've already used quite a few ninjutsu, haven't you? Although your jutsu don't consume much, that's only in comparison to their power. The chakra consumption of your nin-taijutsu, which combines Water Style and taijutsu, isn't small either, right? And your Blue Water Style, the amount of chakra needed to control it is much greater than controlling ordinary water, isn't it? Otherwise, with your level of chakra control, why would a simple strangulation jutsu still require hand seals?"

"You're already starting to pant slightly, aren't you?!"

How terrifying. Kakashi was able to see so much from a ninjutsu he had encountered for the first time! Indeed, generally speaking, unless a young ninja's potential was deliberately stimulated during wartime, a normally developing ninja's chakra reserves would only grow rapidly during puberty. For a ninja of Sakura's age, being able to use one A-rank ninjutsu was already good. Although the three members of Team 7 were all exceptionally talented with chakra reserves far higher than their peers, it just meant they could use a few more ninjutsu.

Sakura checked her own stamina. After the battle just now, it had dropped a lot. Even though her Water Gun Jutsu and the Blue Water Style made of ultrapure water were S-rank jutsu that only required the chakra of a B-rank jutsu, she couldn't use them indefinitely. At most, she could only use them a few more times.

The outcome would be decided soon; Sakura knew this very well. According to the plan, she was supposed to hold Kakashi off at the front to create an opportunity for Naruto and Sasuke. However, she still couldn't sense their chakra nearby. Clearly, the group battle plan had completely failed. Naruto and Sasuke must have been intercepted by Kakashi's clones.

Knowing that the hope of victory was slim, Sakura refused to admit defeat verbally.

"Hmph, hmph! I still have enough chakra for at least four or five more Water Gun attacks! That's enough to take you down!"

Kakashi was unmoved and said lightly.

"The second weakness is that, compared to the super-strong defense against physical attacks, your Water Style's ability to resist other elemental ninjutsu is very average! I'd like to know, when you put water pads on the soles of your feet, did you ever consider that water conducts electricity?"

Kakashi said, looking at Sakura's feet. Ever since trying it during the Scroll of Seals incident a few days ago, Sakura had been specially practicing this technique of using chakra-water masses to aid her movement. For this test, she had taken off the standard open-toed ninja shoes from the start and used pads made of ultrapure water on the soles of her feet. At a glance, it looked as if she wasn't wearing shoes at all.

As soon as he finished speaking, Kakashi quickly formed hand seals. "Lightning Style: Earth Crawl!" A large amount of dazzling lightning gathered in his hands, crackling dangerously. He then slammed it onto the ground, and several faint bolts of lightning shot along the ground towards Sakura!

Sakura was already a little impressed by Kakashi's keen combat intuition. Ultrapure water was indeed easily countered by elemental ninjutsu. But this time, Kakashi had made a critical mistake.

Sakura paid no mind to the lightning bolts. She neither dodged nor defended, but instead stood her ground and formed hand seals at the same time—

"Water Style: Super Water Arrow Jutsu!"

The lightning from the Raiton did not pierce the water pads under Sakura's feet. The electricity flashed for a moment, then bypassed Sakura without any effect and dissipated into the distance! A corner of Sakura's mouth curled up—Pure water doesn't conduct electricity!

Next, a water arrow, fired after the lightning, struck Kakashi with the speed of a thunderclap. Then, with a poof, Kakashi turned into white smoke!

Sakura's heart suddenly tightened. Still a shadow clone! Where is the real one?

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

Behind her! Sakura turned to see a giant fireball already rushing towards her face. The rolling heatwave even faintly singed her hair yellow!

Too close! There's no time to use a substitution or run!

Sakura subconsciously mobilized a large amount of chakra to form a protective water shield around her body. Her nin-taijutsu erupted at full power, and in an instant, she went from a dead stop to top speed. Her right fist, wrapped in a thick layer of water, slammed into the fireball with unparalleled momentum!

"Heya!" Sakura's unrestrained punch dispersed the Great Fireball! Riding the momentum, she rushed past the Fire Style's attack range. The protective water around her body was already boiling hot!

Without a moment to spare for the waste, without time to feel the heartache of the ultrapure water being instantly ruined by absorbing impurities as it boiled, Sakura immediately dispersed the water shield. If she didn't, she would have become steamed Sakura!

But dispersing the water shield also meant losing her defense.

Sakura's scalp tingled. She sensed something strange behind her. In the instant she turned, she gathered chakra-water into a shield to block Kakashi's fist. The hastily formed water shield was easily shattered. Taking advantage of that momentary delay, Sakura twisted her body sideways and barely dodged the punch.

Kakashi pressed his advantage, following up with a low sweeping kick that knocked the battered Sakura down! The rhythm was completely under Kakashi's control!

Even with her center of gravity completely destroyed, Sakura didn't give up. She gritted her teeth and continued to form a water mass in mid-air to support her body. Relying on her nin-taijutsu to push off the water mass in mid-air, she kicked Kakashi from an unbelievable angle!

Forcing Kakashi back, Sakura landed with one hand on the ground in a backflip. With her other hand, she formed a single-hand seal, using chakra-water to stick to dozens of shuriken in her ninja pouch and shoot them at Kakashi!

Clang, clang, clang—the shuriken Sakura had thrown casually were easily blocked by Kakashi, buying her only a single second of respite! The ultrapure water she had prepared beforehand was used up, her body was starting to get injured, and her chakra and stamina were nearly depleted! Sakura tasted despair. Her attacks were useless, and her defense couldn't hold. Everything she was doing now was nothing but a futile struggle!

The fight of a cornered beast!