Sakura stepped into the ladies' toilet backstage, the venue's clamour fading away abruptly as the door closed behind her. The music and the ambient chatter of the crowd were muted in here, allowing her to make out quite clearly the unladylike sounds coming from the person whose feet she could see behind one of the stalls.
"Hello… what's all this, then?" Sakura giggled to herself, as she spotted a second pair of feet in the stall. "Someone's having a good time, eh?"
Shaking her head, Sakura went straight to the sinks to look at her reflection in the big mirror and checked her make-up, which Yurika had kindly applied for her before the contest began. She observed herself under all angles. Not a smudge could be seen.
Smacking her lips in satisfaction and blowing a kiss at her reflection, Sakura turned on the tap and washed her hands to rid her palms of nervous sweat. As she reached for a towel, the toilet's door swung open with a slam, and the outside's clamour burst in. A crowd of kunoichi swept in behind her, chattering amongst themselves, but when Sakura turned to leave, they barred her path.
"You're that Manyū girl, right?" the first kunoichi said, her hands planted on her hips.
"What's it to you?" Sakura demanded.
Sakura's eyes narrowed subtly.
Judging by their striking looks and pretty dresses, she was facing a group of her fellow contestants, and they did not look at all pleased with her. She could not tell which minor villages they hailed from, as none wore forehead protectors, but judging by their chakra signatures, she was up against Chūnin and at least one Jōnin.
"You know, it's funny how easily men spill their secrets when they think they're talking to vapid sluts," the brunette kunoichi scoffed. "Apparently this whole contest is a sham. A fixed race, since it was settled from the start that you'd be the winner, Manyū girl."
"Eh?" Sakura hiccoughed in surprise.
When had that been arranged? Nobody had told her.
"Weren't you listening?" a second kunoichi told her, rolling her eyes. "This whole beauty pageant idiocy is apparently a revival of a ceremony the Manyū clan held especially for the Daimyō."
"Oh," Sakura said, searching her memories. "I zoned out right before the curtain came up, so I suppose I missed that part… but yes, I already knew."
The kunoichi began drawing various hidden weapons from their persons and took a menacing step towards Sakura, who raised her hands slightly to show she did not wish to fight, taking a half step back.
Despite having all been thoroughly searched, they had somehow managed to smuggle kunai in various places on their bodies… except for Sakura, who was too trusting for her own good and had come to the capital completely unarmed.
"This doesn't have to get ugly," Sakura said warningly, closing her hands into fists.
"Are you going to drop out? No? That's what we thought," one of the kunoichi, a beautiful blonde, called out. "We're going to take you out of the running, and then we'll share the prize money amongst ourselves."
For a shinobi, the mission came above all else. Tsunade had commanded her to win, and Sakura fully intended to do so to the best of her abilities. There was no way she would give up without at least trying… at which point she might consider throwing in the towel.
"Watch out, she's got the Sharingan," one of the kunoichi called out. "Someone get behind her."
The kunoichi closed in around Sakura, who took another step back.
None of her opponents dared to be the first to strike, which gave Sakura a few last moments to think. While she would rather not have her back to a wall during a fight, it was a much preferable alternative to getting stabbed in the back. Her eyes flicked across the room, searching for some kind of weapon to use.
Hand signs were far too slow to use at such close range, so Ninjutsu was out— not to mention the lecture she'd receive for demolishing part of the Daimyō's palace. Simple, one-sign Genjutsu remained an option, but all her opponents were female, so she'd have to get clever. As for Taijutsu… it seemed she had no choice but to rely on her fists, because, all at once, the kunoichi came rushing at her, all five of them.
"Saimingan: Sharingan Hypnosis!"
In a flash, Sakura's eyes turned scarlet, and the condescending kunoichi's eyes rolled back in their sockets as she crumpled into a heap. Sakura twirled, aiming a spinning elbow at the head of the kunoichi flanking her on the right, but a sudden tug made her yelp in pain as the kunoichi to her left yanked at her long hair, pulling her off-balance.
Using the momentum she had inadvertently gained when her hair was yanked, Sakura drove her broad forehead into her attacker's face, making her clutch her bloody nose and cry out in pain. She then struck her in the stomach, making her double over, leading to an easy knock out finisher with a sharp knee to the chin that sent her sprawling into the toilet stalls, knocking down one of the stall doors.
"Hang on, Kimi, I'll wake you up!"
While Sakura was busy dispatching the second of her five assailants, one of the kunoichi darted to the one she had trapped in an illusion and tapped her shoulder, disrupting her chakra network and rousing her from her artificial coma.
"Oh no, you don't!"
Sakura started towards the two kunoichi, when she caught sight of the fourth and fifth in the large mirror above the sinks, who were constantly making sure to keep to her back, her blind spot. They swung their kunai at her, forcing Sakura to spin around to face them, and duck and weave to avoid their weapons.
"Oh, come on!" Sakura hissed, as one of the edged weapons came precariously close to slitting her neck, instead slicing through one of her black dress's straps. "This thing cost me a month of salary!"
It was at that moment that Sakura's high heels decided they could take no more abuse, and her sandal's right heel snapped in half, causing her to lose her balance mid-dodge.
"Eh?" Sakura squeaked out in surprise.
Stars exploded across Sakura's vision as she keeled over, her head striking the sinks with a dull thud as she fell. Dazed, she reflexively curled up into a ball to cover her vital spots, and the four remaining kunoichi started slamming kicks into her ribs.
As the ringing in her ears slowly subsided, Sakura peered out through the gap in her arms covering her head, searching for a way to turn the tide, when she saw something amidst the forest of legs raining down blows. Staring back at her, in the toilet stall where she had seen the two sets of feet, were the glassy eyes of a dead woman, lying limply on the floor.
The owner of the second set of feet was nowhere to be seen.
"SHA!" Sakura screamed.
She grabbed one of the kunoichi's ankles as the adult woman kicked her quite painfully in the breast, twisting her foot until it pointed backwards, causing her to shriek in agony. Sakura then swept her attackers off their feet, using the angular momentum of her legs to spring up into a starfish kip-up. Two of the kunoichi fell, but the remaining pair leapt back just in time, keeping their eyes firmly fixed on Sakura's toes.