It was already night when they arrived at the Land of Waves.
Tazuna led the group to his home.
As soon as they entered, they saw Tazuna’s daughter, the gentle and beautiful woman with waist-length brown hair, Ms.
Tsunami.
There was also Tazuna’s grandson, Inari.
Ms.
Tsunami warmly hosted the four of them and even specially brought out seaweed sushi she had made herself.
Inari looked at the wolfing-down Naruto, seemingly very unwelcoming, pouting his little mouth and glaring fiercely at the four of them.
“Inari, don’t be like that, it’s very impolite.” Ms.
Tsunami looked at her son on the side and said in a low voice.
“Hmph!!
You bad guys, you ate up all our food for three days as soon as you arrived.
Now Mom will have to work hard for several more days!” Inari suddenly shouted loudly, then ran upstairs in anger.
Sakura was stunned.
Associating this with the current plight of the Land of Waves, she realized that every villager on this island lived an incredibly difficult life.
The other three members of Team 7 felt embarrassed to continue eating after hearing this, and Naruto scratched his head in embarrassment.
“It’s okay, please continue eating.
There is still plenty at home.
Thank you for saving my father.” Ms.
Tsunami had already learned from Tazuna about the thrilling encounter at sea earlier.
“Haha, you’re welcome!
I’m the one who is going to be Hokage in the future.
Saving someone is just a small matter!” Naruto shamelessly accepted the other party’s gratitude.
Sakura stretched, planning to go to her room to rest, wanting to practice more Ninjutsu early tomorrow morning.
“Ms.
Tsunami, where am I staying tonight?
I’m a bit tired from today’s battle and would like to rest early.” Sakura asked Ms.
Tsunami on the side.
“Oh, okay.
Sakura, you can stay on the second floor, right next to Inari’s room.” Sakura nodded in thanks, greeted Kakashi and the others, and then went upstairs on her own.
In the hallway, just as the girl was about to enter her room, she heard faint sobbing coming from next door.
The girl quietly walked to the window.
Through the glass, Sakura saw Inari with a face full of tear tracks, silently wiping away tears while looking at a photo.
The middle-aged man in the photo, whose features resembled Inari’s, was clearly the boy’s father.
Familiar with the original plot, Sakura knew that Inari’s father was dissatisfied with Gato’s reign of terror over the Land of Waves, organized the islanders to launch a resistance, and was finally sent to the execution ground by Gato and strangled to death.
How desperate must Inari have been, not yet three years old, to watch his father die before his eyes.
Gato is truly damnable!!
At this thought, Sakura couldn’t help but clench her delicate fists.
Since she had come this time, she must ensure the successful completion of the bridge.
…
The next day, Kakashi took Sakura and the others to the grass outside to train.
In a few days, Tazuna would start the bridge-building project, and they would have to stay by his side at all times, leaving no time for training.
“This mission is different from previous C-rank and D-rank missions.
We will very likely encounter even more powerful assassin Ninja.” “To prevent you from being killed during combat, and to better protect Mr.
Tazuna, you must improve your strength as soon as possible.” Kakashi looked at the three people in front of him and continued: “Naruto and Sasuke, practice tree climbing.
Try to concentrate Chakra on the soles of your feet, then walk up the tree trunk sideways.” After finishing, Kakashi looked at the pink-haired girl on the side: “As for Sakura…
I’ll take a look at the new Ninjutsu you created later to see what flaws it still has.” Sakura should have already known how to climb trees.
Kakashi understood this girl’s talent for Chakra control.
Naruto argued with an unconvinced look: “Why doesn’t Sakura-chan need to do tree-climbing training?” Sasuke on the side was also a bit confused, his black eyes glancing at the girl next to him.
“Naruto, if you want to catch up to Sakura, don’t ask such boring questions here.
Go train quickly, otherwise, the gap between you will only get wider and wider.” Kakashi said to Naruto without any politeness.
Both Naruto and Sasuke were stunned.
Throughout this journey, they had gradually realized that the gap between them and Sakura was slowly widening.
The two were silent for a moment and didn’t ask any more questions.
Immediately, they seized the time to practice.
Only more rigorous training could improve their strength, at least so they wouldn’t hold Sakura and Kakashi back.
Watching Naruto and Sasuke leave, Kakashi said to the girl on the side: “Sakura, where are the problems with the Ninjutsu you mentioned before?
Show it to me.” Sakura blinked her emerald eyes.
With Kakashi’s guidance, she would surely be able to break through the bottleneck as soon as possible.
The girl stood up, her palms moving, and blue Chakra flickered at Sakura’s fingertips.
A crystal-clear water column grew from small to large, then spread out, resembling a deep blue, hard transparent armor.
On the armor were blue scales formed by densely packed water droplets.
“Water Release!
Water Armor!!” The girl gave a light shout, and the armor seemed to hear the girl’s call, directly wrapping around Sakura’s petite body, layer by layer, seamlessly.
“Water Armor?
What a powerful defensive Ninjutsu!” Kakashi, standing outside the armor, widened his eyes, his expression filled with not just astonishment, but also a hint of excitement.
“No, this isn’t just a simple defensive Ninjutsu.
It should be both offensive and defensive!” Kakashi realized his judgment error and immediately corrected himself.
“Yes, teacher.
Water Armor can not only defend but also change into various forms at will to launch attacks on the enemy.” The girl, completely covered by the armor, explained while controlling the armor to change forms.
The original garment-like fluid slowly branched out.
The speeding scales turned into a slender, powerful Water Whip, slashing towards a tree in the distance.
“Whoosh—Snap!” The tree was instantly cut in half at the waist.
“Such strong destructive power.” Kakashi couldn’t help but exclaim.
But the coolness didn’t last three seconds.
The armor on Sakura’s body dissipated shortly after, and the girl was also panting, plopping down on the ground.
“Is this the problem you were talking about?” Kakashi’s handsome brows knitted slightly.
Although this offensive and defensive move was powerful, it lasted too short a time.
In total, it didn’t exceed three minutes.
This was not a good sign in actual combat, especially when fighting against powerful Jonin, which usually turned into a protracted war.
Three minutes wasn’t even enough for a warm-up.
“Yes, teacher.
I’ve also been wondering, why does this Ninjutsu consume so much Chakra?
Was it a mistake to develop it in the first place?” At this moment, Sakura envied Naruto so much.
If only she had a little fox living in her body, how good would that be.
“The Ninjutsu itself can’t be wrong.
The mistake lies in your methods.” Kakashi supported his forehead with his right hand, lost in thought.
“What do you mean?” Sakura blinked her eyes, looking at the handsome uncle in front of her.
“The reason you consume it so quickly is that after the Water Release condenses into armor, every scale on your body carries high-speed rotating Chakra.” “This means you need to continuously inject Chakra into the armor to maintain the high-intensity operation of the scales.” After a pause, Kakashi added: “If you want to reduce the amount of Chakra consumed, you can try to be targeted.” “Targeted?” Sakura was still confused.
“Yes, the moment you form the Water Armor, radiate from one scale to the surroundings.
Keep the center force the strongest, and the parts far from the center can be weaker.” “But how can I ensure the armor at the edges is hard enough?
If the amount of Chakra becomes weaker, won’t the hardness of the armor decrease accordingly?” Sakura was still a bit confused.
“Speed.
Through the control of speed, let the center of the Chakra move at high speed.” Kakashi explained word by word.
Sakura suddenly realized: “Oh, that’s right!
When the enemy’s attack targets a certain part of my body, I can move the Chakra so that that part becomes the center point, making it hard enough to withstand a fatal blow.
As for other points not under attack, they are not center points, so there’s no need to waste Chakra.” “Smart.
As expected of Sakura.” Kakashi touched the girl’s broad forehead, looking doting.
Sakura felt uncomfortable and instinctively stepped back several steps.
“Then shall I try again?” The girl said, and re-cast the Water Release.
Sure enough, by controlling it according to Kakashi’s “targeted” approach, the Chakra consumption was reduced by more than dozens of times.
After all, in the original armor, every scale was a center point.
And now, the number of center points was reduced by hundreds of times, and the Chakra consumption was correspondingly reduced a lot.
“Hee hee, this way it can last for two or three hours without any problem.” The pink-haired girl said proudly to Kakashi.
“Well, go see how Naruto and Sasuke are training.
Perhaps they need your help.” Kakashi’s addiction to icha icha paradise was acting up again.
“Okay, teacher.
Leave them to me.
Thank you for your big help.
Go read your little perverted book.” Kakashi’s old face turned red.