Sakura's will permeated the entire forest, infusing every tree and shrub with her immense senjutsu chakra. Shikkotsu Forest's Sage Mode's Organic Reincarnation granted her dominion over carbon-based life forms bearing her chakra, bringing every root, trunk, branch, and leaf under her command.
"Wood Style Hiden Jutsu: Deep Forest Emergence!"
It was as if the forest itself had come alive.
The earth ruptured at the enemy's feet, prehensile roots erupting from the ground, finding each one of them with unerring precision and wrapping around them tightly, binding them and crushing the life out of them.
"Team B!" shouted Samui. "Let's go!"
Samui, Karui and Omoi jumped into action, drawing their swords and slashing at the roots and vines lashing at their comrades.
"I should thank the Lady Hokage before Lord A kills her," Samui muttered as she swung her blade. "Chopping off my breasts was the best thing that could have ever happened to me… I haven't been capable of such kenjutsu since I was a teenager, back before my shoulders started bothering me…"
"Cloud-Style Reverse Beheading!"
The trio's blades freed many of their comrades, but inevitably, the roots and vines snaked back and wound around them, almost as if they had a mind of their own. Despite their blades being wreathed in lightning chakra, they had a hard time cutting through the plant life, which was itself imbued with superior senjutsu chakra…
"If it weren't for Lord A drawing most of the Hokage's attention, I doubt we'd be able to leave so much as a scratch on these things," Samui muttered. "Seriously uncool…"
The Raikage had entered Lightning Style Chakra Mode for battle, but the Hidden Leaf's Jinchūriki had entered Tailed Beast Mode to match him. Astonishingly, the young man was keeping pace with him in speed. Their figures stretched into blurs of blue and red, their colourful afterimages the only parts of them still visible to the naked eye.
Try as she might, Sakura's roots and vines could not catch up to the Raikage's speed, but if she decided to chase after him with Naruto and let go of her jutsu, they would instantly be swarmed by Kumo-nin…
"Ugh, my shoulders hurt," Karui said plaintively as she hacked at a vine trying to choke her. "Your boobs are so heavy, Samui… I used to think you were just bragging, but these things are a serious pain…"
Back then, when Sakura and her friends had invaded Kumogakure to rescue Hinata three years ago, Sakura had been forced to leave behind most of Samui's breasts. Her small, immature body would have been unable to support such mass, and if she had insisted on keeping them, she would undoubtedly have been captured at that time.
"Sakura!" cried Sasuke. "Watch out!"
The situation had taken a turn for the worse. They were surrounded on all sides and far from any reinforcements, and despite Sakura's formidable ability to wield the forces of nature against their opponents, she couldn't catch them all— especially the speedier ones.
"Sorry about this," said Darui as he flickered behind Sakura's back, taking aim at her.
Sasuke cut down swathes of Kumo-nin with his Raikiri as he stormed across the battlefield like a bolt of lightning. Electricity arced wildly between the trees, the result of his technique clashing with the enemy's; Kumo was renowned for its Lightning Style, but thankfully, the Lightning Cutter was perfectly suited for striking down stray bolts of lightning.
"Damn it," Sasuke swore, gritting his teeth. "I won't make it… SUSANO'O!"
In a flash, purple chakra burst from his Tenketsu, coalescing into a skeletal frame as he thrust out both his real hand and his chakra limb to intercept the laser beams firing from Darui's palm towards Sakura's unprotected back.
Unbeknownst to him, since he couldn't use Sage Mode, Sakura had sensed the threat long ago.
"Crystal Style Sage Art: Senbonzakura, Emergence of A Thousand Cherry Trees."
In the blink of an eye, the forest crystallised.
Tree trunks transformed into towering pillars of crystal, roots and vines hardened into sharpened blades, and leaves became glittering petals... pink, deadly, razor-sharp cherry blossoms that rained down mercilessly upon the Kumo-nin below, embedding themselves deep into their skin.
To the horror of the Cloud ninja, the flesh around each petal began to crystallise rapidly, and even those who managed to pluck them free found the process continuing unabated. All they could do was watch in despair as their bodies gradually hardened into living statues. Very few had the wherewithal to roll themselves into the foetal position, to lower the risk of their limbs breaking off.
"Storm Style: Laser Circus!"
The dozens of lasers radiating from Darui's palm struck the cherry blossom petals falling from the heavens, the multifaceted pink crystals refracting them unpredictably in every direction. The beams veered wildly, slicing through his nearest comrades even as he desperately tried to cancel his jutsu, but it was already too late.
In an instant, his friends came apart into neat little cubes of meat and bone.
Meanwhile, the Raikage was still duelling Naruto at breakneck speed. Their chakra cloaks warded off the falling crystal cherry blossoms as they exchanged blows faster than the eye could follow, leaving them free to ignore the deadly petals altogether.
"Boss, we're taking heavy losses!" Darui called out, desperately weaving between the falling petals as his eyes blurred with tears. "This can't go on, we have to retreat!"
"No! We have to end this, right here and now!" A roared, sending Naruto hurtling away with a lightning-fast straight punch. "If we leave the Hokage be, she'll only grow stronger and stronger until she becomes unstoppable! And where's that conniving old bastard Ōnoki? He should have been here ages ago!"
The Third Raikage A's ribs ached terribly.
He watched wearily as the Demon Fox brat sprang back to his feet, seemingly no worse for wear despite taking a direct hit to the chin. That Jinchūriki was absurdly durable, shrouded as he was in an impenetrable chakra cloak, while his insides were equally saturated with chakra. Every cell was probably filled to bursting with indestructible Tailed Beast chakra, able to withstand tremendous punishment and mend whatever damage slipped through...
"Lord Raikage, Lord B is under attack! The shinobi assigned to watch him are being slaughtered by some kind of shark-man!" said C, pressing a finger to his earpiece. "What are your orders?"
"Akatsuki...!" A hissed. "I knew they weren't trustworthy! They took Nii Yugito and Iwa's two Jinchūriki to boot, and still that stubborn old man insisted some usefulness could be extracted from them! Damn it, Ōnoki better have a good reason for not showing his face here!"
Although A was devoid of shame, he had not parted ways with common sense. Numbers would be of little help against Konoha's Sixth Hokage; only the cream of the crop stood any chance of wounding her without falling victim to her breast-slicing blade and strengthening her in the process.
Today's assault had been a failure, and losing Killer B was out of the question, for without him he had no hope of matching the sheer, unbridled might of the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki. Though A's heart ached for the thousands of men he was being forced to leave behind in their petrified states, he could only cut his losses and live to fight another day.
And so, A turned into a lightning bolt and vanished from the battlefield, with what remained of his army quickly following suit. Most were in a sorry state, having been forced to sever their own limbs to stave off the encroaching crystallisation of their bodies or escape the inextinguishable black flames of Sasuke's Amaterasu.
As for the rest, those who had been turned into pink statues and avoided shattering, it was arguable whether they were the lucky or unlucky ones. They were not dead, but unless Sakura undid her jutsu, they would remain rooted in the forest for eternity, unable to move a single centimetre, think a single thought, or even pass on to the next life.
"It's over, Sakura," Sasuke said, placing his Susano'o's hand in her path as she attempted to pursue. "They're routed."
Sasuke was glad he had summoned his Susano'o when he had. He would rather not have known whether Sakura had been in control of her jutsu, or whether she would have cared if he had been caught in the crossfire. In any case, he was almost out of chakra, and if he maintained the Susano'o any longer, he would end up sleeping off the exhaustion for a week like a certain dead-fish-eyed bloke he knew.
"Let me go, Sasuke!" Sakura screamed as she wriggled in his Susano'o's fist. "I'll kill him!"
Sasuke felt a twinge of pain in his hand as Sakura began forcing the Susano'o's fingers apart through sheer brute strength, but when she failed, she let out a frustrated cry and punched its palm. He winced in sympathy as a loud crack echoed through the air; she hadn't used any chakra in that last blow, only raw frustration.
"The Raikage murdered Lady Tsunade, and now he broke my hand," Sakura sniffled. "It's not fair…"
Nearby, Naruto curled up like a cat on a mossy, rounded boulder and dozed off peacefully. He was merely slightly tired from his fight with the strongest man in the world.