"Ugh, I feel like I just went ten rounds with the Island Turtle…" Killer B groaned as he picked himself up. "That's gonna leave a bruise yeah, I'm already turning purple…"
'It's not so bad being purple,' Hachibi said. 'At least now our colours will match.'
"On your feet, B!" A's loud voice echoed in their ringing ears. "We've got a war to win!"
The Fourth Raikage had already recovered from the Sixth Hokage' attack and was keeping her and her clones busy and away from him, flitting back and forth and exchanging blows with her at high speed.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," called Shira as he strode purposefully towards them, clenching his newly healed fist. "I'm ready."
"Good lad!" A called, laughing uproariously. "Come on, B! We've got the Hokage on the ropes!"
Even though it was still three versus three, the Sixth Hokage's remaining clones were in bad shape, whereas their side remained mostly unharmed. And yet, B couldn't help but suppress a flicker of worry in the pit of his stomach when he saw the sunken palm print left in his big bro's chest where his lightning armour had fizzled out. For some reason, that patch had remained bare, devoid of lightning chakra.
"Seven Heavens Breathing Method: The Sixth Breath."
Shira literally burst into flames as the oxygen concentration in his blood neared 100% and effused through his pores, the gaseous fumes mixed with chakra igniting from the sheer friction and internal heat generated by his rapid movements.
Before B knew it, the Wood Clone Sakura had kept on the sidelines had been pummelled into wooden shavings, and the strange Wood Clone that seemed more puppet than human had been shattered, her concealed weapons scattered around her in a bed of wooden splinters, twisted beyond repair.
And at the same time, somewhere nearby, a tree turned to stone. Animal Pat゠Lesbian Sakura had failed to balance the three energies and died. Now only one remained.
"Susan—"
Sakura raised her arms and tucked in her head, covering her vitals as hundreds of blows rained down upon her body every second from every direction, shattering and peeling away the Susano'o chakra bursting from her tenketsu faster than it could condense into armour.
All three of her enemies were too fast for even the Rinnegan to see, and without the Sakura Five, she was blind. She could only build up her chakra and hunker down, buying time for a next move that even she had no idea what would be.
"Crystal Style: Crystal Armour!"
Fissures rapidly spread across the bejewelled chakra, and Sakura's crystal armour shattered almost instantly as the Fourth Raikage's and Shira's figures seemed to double, quadruple, even octuple, accelerating to such speeds that their afterimages appeared to strike her in perfect tandem.
One of her Rinnegan turned red as she popped a blood vessel.
"PERFECT SUSANO'O!"
Pink chakra gushed from Sakura's tenketsu as the phantom of a titan's skeleton began to form around her, but before it could even grow ligaments and muscles, let alone armour, its bones had already been reduced to dust and shattered beyond repair.
!!!
Without warning, A flickered in front of Sakura. Her eyes went wide, blood spurting from her mouth as his lightning-wreathed fist stabbed through her gut, bursting out from the other side in a scarlet spray.
"Like master, like disciple," A grunted as he twisted his hand in her entrails. Sparks danced in the black smoke hissing from the wound. "Fitting that you should both meet your ends at my hand…"
A frowned. Sakura's abdominal muscles were clenched so tightly that he couldn't pull out his hand to finish her off…
"Funny, that's not what I would've said," Sakura gasped, copious amounts of blood gurgling from the sides of her mouth, staining her teeth red. Tsunade had begun the job, and she intended to finish it. "You really ought to learn from your mistakes, Raikage…"
And upon saying those words, Sakura smashed her wide forehead into his burly chest, shattering his rib cage, causing his lightning armour to fizzle out entirely. His already fragile ribs had become a collection of deadly weapons, splintering inwards as they stabbed into his heart and collapsed one of his lungs.
Shira froze, unsure of what to do. The Raikage was at Sakura's mercy, and though he didn't particularly care about the man, he hesitated because he wasn't sure whether he would still need him alive to finish off their common enemy.
"Big Bro!" Killer B called in anguish. "Your old injuries, yo!"
"You think… this much… is enough to bring down the likes of the Raikage!?" A roared. "Lightning Style Chakra Mode!"
ZAP!
The lightning chakra mode shorted out almost immediately.
"Just so you know, even I have no idea what my last attack did to you," Sakura said with a pained laugh. "That being said, I don't expect you'll ever be able to use that jutsu any time soon…"
"B, Sand brat!" A roared as he wrapped Sakura in a bear hug. "Forget about me! Kill her, while you still have the chance… what the!?"
Sakura's flesh seemed to melt as she sank into his body, returning his embrace by using the Hagoromo clan's Kekkei Genkai, Sakon and Ukon's ability to parasitise other bodies, to take root in the Raikage's body and erode him from the inside…
"NO!" B shouted as Shira flickered towards them, catching him by the ankle with a chakra tentacle.
"B, let him go!" A screamed, his impressive abdominal muscles stretching and distending strangely as Sakura burrowed deep into his body. "Do it already, she's inside of me! Kill me, and you'll kill us both!"
Sakura swam through the Fourth Raikage's body, exploring every nook and cranny and learning the secrets his training had imprinted upon it. She briefly considered using the Shikotsumyaku to make their shared bones skewer him from the inside, but she quickly reconsidered turning him into an inside-out pincushion.
The Lightning Style Chakra Mode training was something she had failed, because she kept fainting or losing concentration from the pain… unlike her, A had successfully completed the introductory step: he had managed to imprint lattices of chakra metal onto his skin, forming circuits and thus turning his epidermis into a Faraday cage that rendered him immune to attacks purely based on lightning chakra. This was the secret behind the Raikage's impenetrable skin!
…and now it was hers.
A fell onto his back, screaming in agony as his caved-in chest swelled outwards. Something was trapped beneath his skin— something incredibly curvy, judging by the two bulges that appeared as the parasite within rose to its full height beneath the tent of his taut skin…
Killer B and Shira could only watch on in horror as the dark, lustrous skin A prided himself on receded, vacuum-sealing itself around the intruder's silhouette and leaving behind only his flayed insides, raw, bloody muscles and connective tissues.
"At last, I can finally break the taboo," Sakura rapped, clenching her fists as lightning crackled around her body. The gaping wound in her gut had vanished. "And say it with Hard R, too…"
Sakura stared back as the two men goggled at her.
"Ninjer," she said casually.
"BIG BROOOOO!" B wailed.