Kido had grown…nine tails. But they weren’t growing from the chakra cloak.
Is this…did he turn into a Tailed Beast? Sakura furrowed her brow.
The changes to Kido’s body after taking the Tailed Beast drug were very different from what happened with his subordinates.
The light purple chakra explosively growing larger was the same, but in Kido’s case, it became something like a hard skin covering his entire body, much different from the semi-transparent filmlike cloak that coated his subordinates.
Although he had nine tails, his silhouette was not that of a storied fox spirit. Rather than a beast, he was perhaps more accurately described as a mysterious purple person.
“I can’t say the look is very refined, but you’ll soon see that I’m orders of magnitude stronger,” Kido said.
His appearance itself was not particularly frightening. But the amount of chakra he was emitting was overwhelming.
“I guess so,” Sakura said. “I’m a little sorry I turned this into a one-on-one fight.”
“Don’t worry. I intend not to kill you if possible. Here, at least. But—” In that instant, Kido disappeared. “—if you do die, my apologies.”
“Ngh!” She didn’t have time to turn around. She sprang forward and immediately felt a roaring wind at her back. She knew Kido was waving his tails.
She heard the splintering crack of an enormous tree falling in the wind generated by those tails as she landed on a thick branch and dropped into a defensive posture.
Or that’s what she intended to do, at least. But the branch under her feet was destroyed by a tail sailing forth, and Sakura was thrown into the air.
But she didn’t fall to the ground. Instead, a tail shooting in from the side struck a direct hit to her body.
Sakura flew through the forest, smashing through branch after branch after branch. If she hadn’t sent her chakra racing through her entire body, that single blow would have knocked her out of the fight.
Her back slammed into a massive tree trunk, and she finally came to a stop. She started to slide down the trunk, but she quickly bounced back into a counterattack.
She kicked at the trunk and leapt through the branches to approach Kido dead-on.
“That’s the spirit!” Kido launched his tails in rapid succession.
Sakura slipped through the purple spears by a hair’s breadth and landed before her enemy. She drove a fist into his chest.
The skin was hard. The reactive force threatened to shatter her own body. The sensation of the punch lingered in her fist.
As proof of her act, a crack appeared where she had hit him. The skin in that area broke into small pieces and peeled away, falling to the ground.
“That is an almost terrifying destructive power. To be able to injure my body when it’s enhanced by the Tailed Beast drug. However…” Kido laughed abruptly. “This takes us back to where we started.”
The cracked outer skin was repaired before her eyes and restored to its original form.
Sakura gasped.
“I suppose you drew Magire and myself apart because he’s a medical ninja,” Kido remarked. “It seems there was no point in that, hmm?”
An armor of unusual hardness with the ability to regenerate itself. Topped with nine tails sent out at will, an attack that was impossible to predict.
This just gets worse and worse, Sakura thought. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea…
But Sakura herself had brought about this situation. This was no time for whining.
“Are you going to give up and choose instead to die before Sasuke? Isn’t that how you’d really like to die anyway?”
“You’ve got to be kidding.” Sasuke smiled slightly. “If it’s this or dying in front of Sasuke, I choose fighting it out with you here.”
“Fighting it out?” Kido grinned. “The only thing you have is ridiculous strength. How do you intend to fight it out with me?”
“I’ll just do this!” she cried out, and once again launched her fist.
She punched hard at the same place where the crack had been before.
She felt a response, the spot where her fist had landed cracking. But the results were the same as before. A small area of the skin peeled away and fell off, but was quickly repaired.
“You might have ridiculous strength, but like this, you’re simply ridiculous.” Kido wove a sign with both hands. It was one she’d seen before.
Lightning Style! Bear Trap!
The circle of electric teeth came snapping at Sakura.
In an instant, she determined that she wouldn’t be able to stop it. She realized that the jutsu, now enhanced by the drug, was several orders of magnitude faster and more destructive than when she had seen it before.
Unable to retreat and avoid the attack, Sakura leapt forward and slipped through the circle of lightning to dodge the bear trap. The sharp snap behind her told her the trap had closed.
Perhaps not expecting that Sakura would step toward him, Kido took another hit from Sakura’s fist.
But this time, no cracks appeared.
“What? Are you exhausted already?”
“Not by a long shot!” she shouted back, and launched her fist once more. A hit. But no cracks. She pulled her arm farther back.
“I’m not about to simply stand here and allow you to punch me to your heart’s content,” Kido snarled.
A tail shot out. She dodged. Another tail came flying at her. She dodged. But the next tail hit.
Sakura flew backward and slammed into an enormous tree, forcing the air out of her lungs. She very nearly lost consciousness, and dropped to the ground. But soon enough, she was back on her feet.
Kido also jumped down to earth.
Sakura clenched her hands into fists and dashed toward him.
Pummel Kido’s chest—that was the only thing in her head.
“The foolhardy only die young, you know,” Kido said, as he threw out his tails in a feint.
Sakura dodged them, one after the other. But simply dodging didn’t get her any closer to Kido.
One tail snaked forward sharply, and she couldn’t get out of the way. Thmp! The thick tail plunged through her stomach. But Sakura ignored it and kept running.
I won’t die!
Ninja Art! Mitotic Regeneration!
Sakura’s entire body swelled with Byakugou chakra, and a design rose up on her forehead. The cells where she had been pierced rapidly divided, healing the wound. But the tail was still plunged through her midsection, so she couldn’t close the wound opening.
“You…!” Kido stared in disbelief.
It was only for a moment, but he seemed almost afraid of Sakura charging forward, his tail still lodged in her.