Chapter 94: Ice Clone
For this unplanned benefit, Sakura was naturally happy to see it happen, but she wouldn't pay it too much mind.
With Miss Sakura's pride, she was confident that she would find better ways to improve herself in the future and naturally didn't think much of this little bit of accumulation. However, these were all matters for at least a few years down the road. Miss Sakura's predicament was in the present.
She had now entered a plateau in her strength growth.
To put it bluntly, the room for improvement in her physical fitness was not high. The ninjutsu she had recently developed could only be considered as adding flowers to brocade, not playing a core role. New ninjutsu were still under research. Therefore, her strength could not grow at the high speed it had a while ago.
Many of the ninjutsu she had developed and learned during the Chunin Exams, after being tested in actual combat, did not have the potential for further development.
And her two major core ninjutsu had basically been maxed out by her. For ultrapure water, she could only work on its preparation. As for the Water Gun Jutsu, from the initial high-pressure water cutter, it had been continuously upgraded, increasing its pressure and range, to later incorporating water and wind nature transformations, becoming the Water Style: Wind Blade Raging Stream. In terms of strengthening its killing power, this ninjutsu had already gone far enough.
But this did not mean that Sakura could just lie on these two ninjutsu and rest on her laurels.
No matter how strong a ninjutsu is, it's useless if the caster is not good enough. It's like a child holding a gun. It looks intimidating, but in a life-or-death battle, it's not necessarily more dangerous than an adult with a knife.
For example, what would be the result of a duel between Sasuke's Raikiri and Sakura's Wind Blade Raging Stream? Sakura had thought about this question long ago.
The Water Gun Jutsu is a mid-range ninjutsu, and Raikiri is a close-range one. So, of course, Sasuke would be taken out first?
Sakura had once been certain of this, but after watching Sasuke's battle against Gaara, she gradually had some uneasy thoughts. A ninja who could fight at extremely high speeds was a huge counter to a ninjutsu-type ninja. Even a ninja with an absolute defense like Gaara had been put in such a sorry state by Sasuke. Speaking of which, Gaara's absolute defense was very similar to her own water defense, wasn't it? As long as the enemy's speed exceeded a certain limit, the jutsu's defense or the person's mind might not be able to keep up with the enemy's rhythm.
Yes, when she was on the viewing platform during the Chunin Exams, Sakura could still keep up with Sasuke's speed. But Sasuke's speed still had a lot of room for improvement. And what about her? She really had no talent in terms of speed, even though Ice Style had already helped her improve a lot... In a year or two, would she still dare to be certain that she could keep up with Sasuke?
Would high-speed combat become her Achilles' heel?
After Sasuke had awakened his three-tomoe Sharingan, she had also gradually found it strenuous when sparring with him. Sakura's reaction speed was definitely not slow, but Sasuke was getting faster and faster. Admittedly, the girl was confident that she could now keep up with the rhythm of a Jonin-level battle, but in the future, it was almost certain that she would encounter Kage-level or even beyond-Kage-level opponents—like that mysterious Akatsuki.
She had to be faster, at least her reaction speed had to keep up!
Otherwise, it would be like the enemies of Namikaze Minato back then. When they encountered a super-high-speed opponent like Minato, they would be instantly killed in the blink of an eye, unable to display their skills no matter how strong they were.
However, a speed-type ninja was almost born that way. Kinetic vision and reaction speed would quickly reach a limit through training. Most ninja would stop at the level of being "a bit fast," while those with talent or cheats could be even faster, and were thus called speed-type ninja, like the Fourth Hokage, or Sasuke with his Sharingan.
And Miss Sakura, unfortunately, was not.
Actually, there was nothing to regret. In comparison with her two teammates, the gap in Sakura's stamina, chakra amount, and Kekkei Genkai was despairingly large. In comparison, not being a speed-type ninja was nothing at all.
Of course, what was more important was that in Sakura's plan, these gaps were not something that couldn't be bridged. Yes, the brilliantly talented her would certainly not sit and wait for death. There are always more solutions than problems...
"So this is your solution?" Hinata's delicate brows rose slightly as she questioned her best friend with deep doubt.
In the empty room, in front of the white-eyed girl was a low table covered with a plain white long cloth. Besides that, there were no other decorations. Its length and width were just right for a person to lie on.
And on the table, there was indeed a person lying there.
Lying there was a young girl with empty eyes and a blank expression, quietly staring at the ceiling, motionless.
What was particularly striking was that she was completely naked, her body covered only by a layer of white cloth, barely concealing her figure, revealing only her fair limbs.
Her pink hair was casually scattered on the table, but her light green eyes had lost their usual agility. But looking at the girl's appearance, there was no doubt that it was Haruno Sakura.
However, the Sakura lying on the low table was indifferent to Hinata's question. Her red lips were slightly parted, and she didn't even spare her good friend a glance. She just lay there quietly and unresponsive. If not for the faint, small rise and fall of her chest, it was possible that she would have been mistaken for a corpse.
But the room did not remain silent. "Don't be in a hurry, Hinata-chan... this is just a necessary preparation for developing a new jutsu."
The one who spoke was, of course, not the Sakura who was lying on the table, staring blankly at the ceiling, pretending to be a corpse.
Hinata raised her head, her faint white eyes turning, and looked at the other Haruno Sakura who was standing across the table from her.
The charming girl before her had agile eyes and a radiant smile—and more importantly, her clothes were all properly worn: a light blue short-sleeved shirt and lotus-root-colored capri pants. This was clearly the real one.
"Necessary preparation?"
Hinata's eyebrows rose. She didn't say much, her gaze moving from the foot revealed by the girl's semi-high-heeled white sandals to her fair cheeks, waiting for Sakura's explanation.
She had been mysteriously dragged into the laboratory by Sakura, who had said that she needed an important favor from her. Then they had been busy for a whole morning, with Sakura constantly summoning clones for her to identify... She was really curious what the point of all this was.
Actually, Hinata knew what Sakura had been worrying about recently. In the history of the Naruto world, there had almost never been any famous female speed-type ninja. Whether in reaction or movement, it seemed to be common sense that women were a line slower than men. But on the other hand, Hinata also knew Sakura's temper. Her strong desire to improve would not allow her to submit to this common sense, to default to the existence of such a fatal weakness.
Perhaps in the eyes of an ordinary person, challenging common sense was a foolish thing... but Sakura was a person who could break conventions. Hinata was very much looking forward to what her good friend would do.
It was just that, what did all this have to do with the strange clone in front of her?
This kind of clone was really strange. It was even more solid than a shadow clone. The ice clone formed by Ice Style really looked much more advanced than an ordinary water clone...
"Hn, you'd better look with your Byakugan, Hinata-chan," Sakura said, releasing the Tiger seal she had been holding and smiling with satisfaction. "My chakra control was perfect this time. The effect should be very obvious."
Acting all mysterious? Hinata glared at Sakura speechlessly and turned her gaze to the ice clone on the table.
She didn't rush to open her Byakugan, but instead carefully sized up the clone: upon closer inspection, its eyes were clear and stern, with an exquisite nose and slightly upturned lips, and cheeks so fair they were almost transparent. Although it was a clone, it had a unique, cold temperament, like an ice mountain goddess.
If she hadn't been in contact with her day after day and seen it with her own eyes, Hinata would have suspected that her good friend had asked Lady Tsunade to give her some minor cosmetic surgery. Then again, for a clone to have more charisma than the original was also a strange thing.
She still remembered when they had just graduated from the Ninja Academy, Sakura was still that little brat with a wide forehead, who did things carelessly, and whose features had not yet matured and could only be described as cute. Two years had passed, and without realizing it, she had already grown into a beautiful young girl. Just from her appearance, the leap from a 4 to a 7 was far from what "a girl changes eighteen times between childhood and womanhood" could explain. The extent of this growth was even faster than the growth of her strength. Although at a rough glance, her features had not changed much—her eyes were still her eyes, her nose was still her nose—only with careful observation could one discover some small changes, such as her nose bridge having become a little higher, her chin a little more slender, and so on. And then the feeling the whole person gave to others was much prettier, with a bit of Haku Yuki's flavor.
She had heard from Sakura that practicing Ice Style had the effect of improving one's constitution, but did the so-called "improving one's constitution" also include one's appearance? To be honest, Hinata was a little envious: I really want to learn Ice Style too!
Hinata sighed silently in her heart, her gaze following the girl's long neck, across her delicate collarbones, and landing on her moderately-sized, handful of a chest.
Hinata couldn't help but straighten her back.
"Hinata-chan, open your Byakugan," Sakura reminded her softly.
Hinata naturally complied. She activated her Byakugan, and her extremely penetrating vision passed through the thin cloth, past the skin, fat, and bones. She saw... a beating heart?
Yes, a living heart that was beating just like a real person's, pumping blood.
Inwardly astonished, Hinata scanned the entire ice clone with her Byakugan. The internal organs, blood vessels, meridians, nerves, and so on, all became visible under the scan. Compared to a real human body, there were no omissions or errors!
"Heh, it really is... a complete simulation of a real body! You actually managed to do it." Yes, unlike an ordinary clone, this clone that Sakura had spent so much effort to create was actually a perfect replica of her real body, with flesh, blood, organs, and meridians all simulated!
"How is it? Help me take a closer look. Are there any omissions?"
"Hn, not for now... It's perfect!" Hinata said with a bit of emotion. "Amazing, amazing. The difficulty of this kind of clone must be extremely high, right? No wonder even you had such a hard time. You actually managed to completely replicate your real body. What's next? Are you going to use the clone for some dangerous experiment?"
Sakura nodded. Hinata was not stupid; of course, she could guess what she wanted to do.
"Yes... mainly, I want to develop a jutsu that, if successful, can greatly improve reaction speed! It's about using ninjutsu to strengthen the nervous system, just like how chakra strengthens muscle power, but the details will be much, much more troublesome. And since it involves the nerves, it's too dangerous to experiment on myself directly. Also..." Sakura paused meaningfully.
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