“Ouch, ouch, ouch!!!” The yellow-haired boy grimaced in pain on the ground.
“I told you not to show off, serves you right!” Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto, feeling helpless.
“You’re next, little girl.” After saying that, the tall one put strength into his legs and lunged rapidly toward Sakura.
Just as he was about to raise a foot, Sakura fiercely pressed it down.
Over the past six months, although she hadn’t learned any powerful Ninjutsu, Sakura practiced Taijutsu whenever she had the time.
First, it was to increase her health points, and second, it was for self-defense once she joined in battles in the future.
Sakura shook her slender little arms.
Although she had some confidence in Taijutsu sparring, her current body was still that of a five-year-old’s skeletal structure.
Facing a fully developed Genin, even if she was familiar with his moves, it was by no means easy to subdue him in one strike.
“Oh ho, little thing, you’ve got some moves.” The tall one became interested and took a Shuriken out from the pocket at his waist.
It seemed he was going to get serious.
Sakura sneered inwardly; it was time to put the skill she had just acquired to use.
Shadow Clone, a B-rank Ninjutsu.
What could be better for practice than actual combat?
The energy card on her chest activated and appeared before her eyes.
The instructions for using Shadow Clone appeared as text in front of Sakura.
Within this system space, the text was only visible to the girl.
Shadow Clone Usage Instructions: First, you need to concentrate and gather the Chakra within your body.
Second, use the correct hand signs: The Shadow Clone Jutsu requires specific hand signs to activate, including Ox, Dog, Dragon, Rat, Dog, Boar, Snake, Tiger, etc.
Finally, complete the hand signs and shout out the name of the technique.
Sakura thought the last step was so cringey; it was totally unnecessary.
“Hey, what are you spacing out for?
He’s coming!” Naruto, who was beside her, shouted.
Sakura jolted, and her hands immediately began forming seals.
Chakra went from concentrated to dispersed, and her hands moved rapidly to form the seals.
“Haha, whatever you’re trying to do, it’s already too late.” The tall one grinned maliciously and launched a sweep kick toward Sakura’s waist.
“Bang!” Almost at the same time, two identical clones appeared beside Sakura.
The clone on the right grabbed the opponent’s left leg.
The tall one was stunned; he naturally hadn’t expected the girl before him to be able to use Ninjutsu.
And it was a B-rank Ninjutsu like Shadow Clone at that.
At first, he thought it was just the basic Three Basic Jutsus.
But when his left leg was grabbed firmly by Sakura’s clone and he couldn’t move, he realized this wasn’t the Three Basic Jutsus used to fool children, but Shadow Clone!!
Because the three pink-haired girls in front of him were real, solid entities!
Seeing the tall one’s shocked expression, the corners of Sakura’s lips curled up.
The clone on the left clenched its fingers into a fist and smashed it forcefully toward the tall one’s face.
The force was controlled just right, knocking out one of his front teeth.
The tall one flipped and fell to the ground due to the full force of the blow, letting out a miserable wail.
The outcome was decided.
The younger brother on the side saw his older brother defeated; his small eyes widened, and he trembled with fear, his body shrinking backward uncontrollably: “You…
you…
don’t…
don’t come over.” It looked like he was about to cry in the next second.
Sakura smiled bitterly.
Where had this kid’s arrogant attitude from just a moment ago gone?
Sure enough, the Ninja village was a world of survival of the fittest; when they encountered someone stronger than themselves, they couldn’t help but tremble and weep.
“I’m not despicable enough to lay a hand on a defenseless child.
Hurry up and take your brother and go; don’t go around causing trouble in the future.” When Sakura said this, she forgot that she was also in the body of a five-year-old child.
The younger brother was a bit surprised that this girl hadn’t hurt him, but there was no time to think too much about it.
He panicked and dragged his brother, who was missing a front tooth, and disappeared into the night.
“Goddess, you’re so amazing!!” The Crown Prince’s voice suddenly rang out behind Sakura, and immediately, her forehead wrinkled with black lines.
Goddess?
What a weird nickname.
“First, don’t call me Goddess, it’s cliché.
Second, how could you steal other people’s things?
Don’t you know stealing is against the law?
You’re making things very difficult for me!” Sakura suddenly felt that her reason for saving Naruto wasn’t sufficient; after all, he had stolen from others first, and he deserved to be beaten.
It was just that the two people from earlier showed signs of bullying, so even if they were strangers, Sakura would have stepped in to help.
“I didn’t steal anyone’s things!
This bread was thrown away by them; it was expired.
They saw me pick it up and purposely picked a fight with me!” The yellow-haired boy retorted indignantly.
Sakura was slightly stunned.
Naruto’s childhood was truly terrible; he even had to scavenge for leftovers just to have something to eat.
How sad Minato and Kushina would be if they knew!
“Alright, I misunderstood you; I apologize.” In her past life, Sakura had quite a bit of respect for the character Naruto.
Although he was cocky, silly, blindly confident, and a total simp, he was, after all, the male lead in the anime and the soul of the series.
If it weren’t for him, the flavor of the passionate Naruto series would be cut by more than half.
After all, when it came to protagonists who conquered the world with their “Talk no Jutsu,” if Naruto claimed second place, no one would dare claim first.
“It’s nothing!
Idol, you are really, really amazing!!!
It was so, so cool!
Can you teach me the Ninjutsu you just used?
Whoosh, you suddenly made three clones appear.” Naruto described it exaggeratedly while imitating Sakura’s hand seal gesture, making a complete mess of it.
“I don’t need to teach you; you’ll be able to play around with Shadow Clone in all sorts of ways in the future,” Sakura predicted, watching Naruto’s dorky behavior.
“What do you mean?” Naruto scratched his head, looking completely confused.
“It’s nothing; you’ll know in the future.
Hurry home; it’s very late.” Sakura put her hands behind her back, looked at the clear night sky in the distance, and did a stretch as if waking up.
She took a deep breath.
Mmm—after stretching her muscles and bones, it felt comfortable.
Then, she walked toward her home without turning back, leaving the boy alone, messy in the wind.
“Hey, Idol, I still don’t know your name!” The boy shouted in Sakura’s direction.
“Sakura Haruno.” Sakura didn’t turn back, but she still responded.
“Okay, Idol, my name is Uzumaki Naruto, please—take care of me in the future!” The boy didn’t yet know that the pink-haired girl before him would be one of his two most important teammates and companions in the future.
The only other important one was, naturally, his cool and aloof best friend, Sasuke!
Returning home, Sakura restarted the energy card inside her body.
Ding— [Completed the first battle mission against a Genin, Health Points +200, Chakra volume +50, dropped one surprise reward.] Sakura clicked on the reward pouch.
Ding— [Please choose one between “Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu Training Scroll” and “Water Release Ninjutsu Training Scroll”.] She chose the “Water Release Ninjutsu Training Scroll”.
Sakura chose the latter without even thinking.
The reason she didn’t choose Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu was that Sakura felt she didn’t want to be a second Naruto.
In the original work, Naruto had already played around with Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu in all sorts of ways, so there was no need for her to blindly imitate him; otherwise, the subsequent plot would be too unchallenging.
As for choosing Shadow Clone the first time, it was because Shadow Clone could create two or three solid entities, which was enough.
Whether for future Taijutsu training or studying S-rank Ninjutsu like Rasengan or Wind Style: Rasenshuriken, it was highly beneficial.
Especially for Sakura, whose body hadn’t fully developed yet, if she wanted to develop more advanced Ninjutsu, she had to have multiple people working together, multiple hands working together.
On this point, Naruto had done quite well in the original work.
Opening the Water Release scroll, the hand signs for basic Water Release and the methods for Chakra control appeared impressively: Water Release Ninjutsu is a type of Ninjutsu controlled by changing the nature of one’s own Chakra, utilizing properties such as the density, impact force, pressure, and deformation of water.
It can be divided into attack type, defense type, enemy-confusing type, enemy-binding type, etc.
Basic hand signs for Water Release: Ox – Monkey – Hare – Rat – Boar – Rooster – Ox – Horse – Rooster…
It looked simple; based on Sakura’s current ability to control Chakra, she estimated that she could learn it within a week.
“Hehe, the most basic Water Release.” Sakura’s lips curled upward.
It seemed the system had kept a trick up its sleeve and hadn’t given her more advanced Water Release Ninjutsu directly; later, if she wanted to obtain more advanced Water Release, she would still have to rely on her own study and development.
Sure enough, the cheat wasn’t omnipotent.
However, things seemed to have become more interesting this way.
Sakura’s heart was stirring with anticipation.