As an invader, Shira could afford to wait; that was his privilege. He had all the time in the world. Sakura, however, could not do the same; every second she remained inactive was a second she could have been using to help defend the Hidden Leaf Village... and, besides, maintaining Susano'o was quite exhausting for her chakra pathways, even though she had enough chakra to sustain it for quite a while.
If Shira didn't want to fight her in G*ndam mode, there was nothing she could do if he kept his distance except run down the regular shinobi fighting alongside him and stomp them to death. These small fry were nothing compared to a sacrificial technique user such as him, but going for his comrades might elicit a reaction from him…
"I have to take him down, no matter what!" Sakura muttered to herself. "He's too dangerous!"
So far, Sakura had only seen the first three breaths of the Seven Heavens Breathing Method… and that had been during the Joint Leaf-Sand Chūnin Exams, what seemed like ages ago. She was terrified of what the young man was capable of after a few more months of training.
If the final stage of his technique was anything like the Eight Inner Gates, she was going to have a bad time. It would be like Ten-Tails Jinchūriki Madara vs. Might Guy all over again… only this time, she would be the bad guy everyone was cheering for the hero to defeat.
Sakura blinked, her eyes turning from scarlet to purple as she switched to the ringed Rinnegan. For some reason, she was still capable of maintaining the Susano'o in this state, so she might as well take advantage of having armour if she was going to reduce her visual acuity!
"Universal Pull!"
Sakura splayed her fingers, aiming at the Hidden Sand's long-range ninjutsu and puppet squads, who were launching attacks on her from the sidelines, like annoying mosquitoes. Gravity seemed to shift ninety degrees, and they began falling towards her…
Shira's neutral expression darkened.
"Seven Heavens Breathing Method: Third Activation!"
"Gotcha!" Sakura crowed.
Now clad in a fiercer yellow aura, Shira's skin turned red as his blood flow accelerated. In a flash, her appeared before Sakura and kicked, knocking away her Susano'o's incomplete skeletal arm as she reached for the Suna-nin falling towards her palm. Freed from the inexorable gravitational pull, the Sand-nin tumbled along the ground and came to a halt before they could reach her.
"Shira… saved us?"
Shira's comrades had always taken him for human waste of space, a failure of a shinobi who couldn't even use ninjutsu or genjutsu. They couldn't understand why Gaara and, subsequently, Lady Pakura had given him a chance, but now they knew… he was truly strong. And even though they had relentlessly mocked and ostracised him, he had still saved them. He was… a true comrade and a patriot.
"I never knew…"
"I shouldn't have made fun of him that time…"
"I'll never talk behind his back ever again…"
"Shira is a hero!"
"Oi, oi," Sakura grumbled angrily. "Experiencing character growth while you're in the middle of a war of aggression, are you kidding me? Go home to your stupid desert, you bastards!"
It was as if they were treating her like some sort of raid boss, or something!
Why couldn't they go bother Madara, damn it? He was the real final boss! And what was he even doing? Although his overall goal was to end all wars, Madara wasn't exactly the type to pass up the fun of battle, was he? Whatever he was up to, Sakura thought to herself, she could only assume it was more important than fighting them, which didn't exactly bode well for the Hidden Leaf…
Sakura's fingers danced as her Susano'o turned illusory, the rib cage's chakra scattering to the four winds. If she wanted to save her senjutsu chakra for the real final boss, she would have to gamble big to take down Shira and the A-B Combo, and divvy up her chakra to summon a few helpers.
Unlike Naruto, Sakura hadn't truly mastered Sage Mode. She needed the Celestial Empress Lotus Seal in order to process nature energy into senjutsu chakra, which meant that only her real body could do so, limiting her absorption rate… but that didn't mean she couldn't use clones for other purposes.
"Wood Style: Wood Clone Jutsu."
Five wooden girls sprouted from the ground before Sakura, rapidly taking on her shape and colours as they grew into indistinguishable copies of herself.
Unlike regular elemental Clone Jutsu variants, Wood Clones were very durable, their strength scaling with the amount of chakra they possessed. In that last regard, they were suspiciously similar to Shadow Clones, in that both techniques halved one's chakra with each new clone… and the similarities mounted when Sakura realised that any chakra remaining within each clone could be reabsorbed into the main body!
Tobirama had clearly plagiarised the Shadow Clone Jutsu from his big brother's Wood Clone Jutsu!
Sakura's Rinnegan flashed as she imbued her five clones with Six Paths power through the underground roots linking them together, keeping the Deva Path's power for herself. "Six Paths Jutsu!"
Although she didn't have black receivers, the clones were also herself, connected through their shared chakra, so perhaps…
"It works!" Sakura breathed in relief as she received visual feedback from the Wood Clones. "The Sakura Five Strategy works!"
Sakura planted her hands on her hips, and the Sakura Five hastily assembled around her, striking Super Sentai poses in sync. At her sides, Lesbian Sakura and Lovey-Dovey Sakura dabbed in perfect symmetry, while Inner Sakura and Paragon Sakura dropped to one knee before them, one arm over their chests and the other extended longingly towards the main body in the centre, mirroring each other. And lastly, Horny Sakura threw herself onto the ground at their feet, making a V-sign with her fingers over her eyes, as if she were posing for a gravure shot.
"Now you face," Sakura and her Wood Clones intoned as one, "The Six Paths of Sakura!"
It was a good thing Sakura had some experience with her eyesight going all over the place thanks to the Byakugan, because seeing from six different perspectives at once was incredibly confusing. If it weren't for the Celestial Empress Lotus Seal personalities taking over some of the micromanagement, Sakura was fairly certain she'd be lying on the ground right now, twitching uncontrollably and foaming at the mouth.
Men's brains were supposed to be horrible at multitasking, so just how did Nagato do it!?
"Wow, my butt is enormous," all six Sakuras muttered to themselves as the Sakuras in the back row examined those in front. "Is that all me?"
Fusing with dreamworld Sakura had wreaked havoc on her previously tight little bottom. Finding spats, panties, trousers and skirts that fit her butt was a nightmare nowadays… but clothes shopping was a problem for another day. There wouldn't be any department stores if the Hidden Leaf was fully destroyed, this time.
"Manji Formation!" Sakura cried. "Here he comes!"
Though it was not on the level of a true chakra cloak, Shira was capable of leaking chakra from all 361 of his tenketsu in the form of owl feathers. The fringed texture of his chakra could break up the flow of air passing around him when he moved, reducing turbulence and making his movements incredibly quiet, almost imperceptibly so, even to Sakura's sharp ears… but if she was looking in every direction at once, then not hearing him was not really a problem!