"Sakura," said Sasuke, giving her the slightest of nods. "You go low, I'll go high."
"Got it," Sakura replied, her crimson eyes locked on the ninja ostrich.
As their Sharingan's tomoe started revolving rapidly around their pupils, Condor shifted into a crane-style combat stance, lifting its left leg and spreading its wings wide. With deliberate motion, it flexed its primary feathers, using them like fingers to beckon for them to come forwards.
"Come! Let me show you the true power of the animal kingdom!" shouted Condor. "The Second Gate— the Gate of Healing… open! Uuuuooohhhh…!"
In perfect synchronicity, Sakura and Sasuke dashed forwards, their hands rapidly weaving hand signs.
"Chidori!"
"Shanna… eh?"
Completely out of nowhere, Kakashi flickered behind Condor and karate-chopped it in the back of its long pink neck. And just like that, the bird went out like a light, crumpling into a heap on top of poor Naruto. It had all happened so fast that even Sakura's eyes hadn't managed to capture all the details!
"All right, that's quite enough," said Kakashi, clapping his hands. "You do know there's such a thing as dragging things out for too long, right?"
"But… it's against the rules to attack someone while they're powering up!" protested Sakura. "Isn't it anticlimactic to finish things like this?"
Didn't Kakashi know it was common courtesy to let the enemy finish their transformation? He had even sucker punched Condor from behind! In Dragon Ball Z, Goku had let Frieza transform three times in a row, and Frieza hadn't interrupted Goku when he was transforming into a Super Saiyan for the first time, even though it was taking him ages!
"In case you've forgotten, we're shinobi," said Kakashi, giving Sakura a look that questioned whether she'd left the one brain cell she shared with her parents at home. "We're here to protect our clients, not entertain them or the peanut gallery."
Clearly, all the nutrition that was supposed to go to Sakura's brain had gone to her fat chest.
He'd trusted his disciples not to mess around too much with lives on the line, but instead of quickly finishing off her opponent, Sakura had decided to suplex a woolly mammoth just to test her strength. While she was busy with that, Kakashi had been evacuating the circusgoers, and he had even taken out a sabre-toothed tiger before it could make it into the tent.
Since Kakashi knew his disciples were strong, he'd focused on saving lives instead of focusing on the job itself— but if things took a turn for the worse during a mission, Kakashi's list of priorities would look a little bit like this:
Sasuke (my beloved) >>>>>>>>>> Sakura > Naruto > The Mission > Kakashi > Random Civilians
This was the product of the fusion between the village's Will of Fire propaganda and the death of his father— younglings and comrades had to be protected at all costs, even at the expense of the mission.
In comparison, Sakura's list of priorities during a mission would look like this:
Sakura > Sasuke = Naruto > Kakashi > Civilians with nice boobs > Other Civilians > The Mission
It is commonly known that people die if they are killed.
In the end, Sakura only had one life… or was it two? At any rate, she wasn't in a hurry to get reincarnated again, so she was number one in importance, followed closely by her two friends. Naruto and Sasuke were the only ones who could prevent the end of the world— and since the world was where Sakura kept all her stuff, she wasn't especially keen on having it end…
"Can somebody get this thing offa me!" came Naruto's muffled voice from underneath the unconscious ostrich's fluffy butt. "This thing stinks, ya know!"
…
The following morning, the convoy departed from the quaint little village with Condor the ostrich in tow. At first, Prince Michiru had been adamantly against letting it join, even if it was only temporary— he and his son had spent the night plagued by nightmares thanks to the bird's antics. But in the end, he relented, but on one strict condition: the ostrich had to be gagged. The last thing he needed was for it to foment a rebellion among the carriage horses.
And then who would haul all his souvenirs back to the Land of Moon, hmm?
At any rate, the convoy reached its penultimate stop by early afternoon— a coastal city on the Land of Fire's eastern shore. From there, they would charter a ship to sail south, passing by the Lands of Tea and Sea on their way to the Land of Moon.
But to Team 7's surprise, there were a few familiar faces awaiting them at the city limits…
"ONEEEE-SAMAAAAA!"
"Ooof!" grunted Sakura, as Karin threw herself into her pillowy chest, knocking the wind out of her.
It was Team 3, minus Neji and Lee— that is, Guy, Karin and Tenten.
"You're here for Mr Ostrich?" asked Kakashi, scratching his head in confusion. "How in the world did you get here ahead of us, Guy? I only sent that message about a few hours ago…"
"Sorry about that, Kakashi," said Guy sheepishly. "Lee's little blunder caused you some problems with your mission."
Before going to sleep the previous day, Kakashi had gone to the post office to send a telegram to the village, requesting someone come fetch Condor. The wealthy noble who owned the ostrich was notoriously stingy with reward money— especially considering how troublesome his pet was— but since they'd done the job, they might as well get paid for it.
"It's all thanks to these two girls, Kakashi," responded Guy with a laugh. "Go on, tell him how it works."
"I've been leaving Flying Thunder God Jutsu formulas behind every time I left the village on missions," explained Tenten. "With Karin's help, I can reach all of the Land of Fire's major cities within a few jumps."
"Guy-sensei got Ino's dad to teach me Sensing Transmission," said Karin proudly. "Please praise me, onee-sama!"
Tenten excelled at handling weapons and using Space-Time Ninjutsu, but she struggled with the finer applications of chakra. To use the Flying Thunder God Jutsu effectively, she had borrowed the division of tasks method from the Flying Thunder Formation Jutsu, relying on Karin's massive sensory range to cut down the number of jumps needed to reach her destination.
After all, distance wasn't the issue when it came to the jutsu's chakra cost— only the size of what was being teleported. So the less jumps, the better!