Even though Sakura had worked out Crystal Style's weak point, there was no way she could get close to her opponent— not unless she fancied being diced into neat little Sakura cubes. As for Guren, she was all too eager to close the gap, her leisurely stride quickening into a sprint as great crystal blades sprouted from her arms like a praying mantis's scythes.
"Yes, that's more like it!" cried Guren, tearing after Sakura, her arm-mounted blades singing as they sliced through the air. "What a lovely expression!"
Sakura repeatedly backflipped away as Guren swung her arm blades at her like a madwoman. If she stood still for even a single second, she'd get cut in half!
Taking advantage of a slight opening, Sakura sprang backwards into the air and rapidly began weaving hand signs, before putting her fingers to her lips and filling her lungs with…
"Fire Style: Great Fire—Blargh!"
…noxious, rancid corpse stench.
The flame died in Sakura's throat, drowned by the bile rising from her stomach, and she stumbled back just in time to avoid being impaled by Guren's blades.
If only she still had a sword of her own, Sakura ruefully thought to herself, then she wouldn't have to keep running away. As it was, the only reason she hadn't been sliced to ribbons yet was her Sharingan's keen sight, guiding her through the relentless onslaught.
Sakura reached into her tool pouch and flung a handful of shuriken at Guren to buy herself some time, while she crossed her fingers.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
A second busty, pink-haired girl appeared in a column of white smoke, causing Sakura to grimace as her chakra suddenly halved. This had better work!
"Two can play at that game," said Guren with a taunting smirk. "Jade Crystal Clone Jutsu!"
Two additional Gurens stepped out of each of the three mirrors orbiting the original.
Sakura blanched. Now, there were seven of her!
In the original timeline, it had taken no fewer than twelve shinobi working together— a mix of three fully fledged Jōnin, including Kakashi, plus nine members of the Konoha 11— to bring Guren down, so Sakura definitely had her work cut out for her.
One Crystal Clone broke off in pursuit of Sakura's Shadow Clone, while the remaining six Gurens closed in on her as one. If there was a silver lining, it was that the Crystal Clones couldn't use Guren's techniques— they were nothing more than mirror images formed from pure crystal.
But even so, the Crystal Clones still had those crystal scythes attached to their arms, since Guren had already produced them at the moment of their creation. Sakura had no doubt those would be just as sharp as the original's pair!
Sakura ducked as two Crystal Clones swiped at her, caught their wrists as the momentum of the extra weight on their forearms carried them forwards, and yanked them down, slamming their faces into each other, the impact shattering them.
"Chidori!"
With a few hasty seals, her hand lit up with flickering blue lightning, and she thrust her hand through a third Crystal Clone's chest like a hot knife through butter, causing it to fracture and fall apart.
That had not been worth the chakra she had expended, Sakura grimly thought to herself.
Over the course of the battle and after producing a Shadow Clone, her stamina had dropped to the extent that she only had about four uses of the Chidori left— now three. She couldn't afford to expend chakra on an A-rank Jutsu just to remove one measly, easily replaceable Crystal Clone from the fight!
She needed her Chidori to stay in contact with a large chunk of Guren's crystal long enough to recreate the scream and trigger a resonance cascade— but the speed of the stab, not to mention the fact that Guren's clones were actively trying to kill her, wasn't exactly making things easy.
"Allow me to help!" mini-Katsuyu's small voice rang out from Sakura's shoulder.
Sakura had summoned her earlier to help keep an eye on the surroundings— she didn't have the chakra to call forth a larger aspect of the slug— but with all the flipping about Sakura had been forced to do, poor Katsuyu hadn't been able to do much but hang on for dear life.
"I've an idea, but it might sting a little," said Sakura breathlessly. "Would that be okay with you, Lady Katsuyu?"
Bluish chakra danced at her fingertips as she parried a flurry of scythe slashes with the Chakra Scalpel Jutsu. Then, taking advantage of her opponent being off-balance, she snatched Katsuyu from her shoulder and, with a swift flick of her hand, sliced her cleanly in two.
"Here, catch!" Sakura called out, before tossing the newly created Katsuyu into the midst of the four remaining Gurens.
Their arm blades turned into blurs, reducing the mini-Katsuyu into thin strips and neutralising whatever threat she presented to them… or so they thought.
"Useless, useless, useless!" cackled Guren as Sakura's fist lit up with singing lightning. "Don't you know any other moves, you one trick…!?"
Guren's voice trailed off as she noticed identical lightning sparking across her body and her clones'.
"Katsuyu: Immense Network Chidori!"
Unbeknownst to her, Katsuyu was as immune to edged attacks as Buggy the Clown.
Slice one of her divided selves in half, and two more would take its place, just like a hydra's heads! Through some kind of miracle of quantum entanglement that Sakura couldn't even begin to explain, Katsuyu had the ability to transmit chakra between her divided selves, perhaps because they were all technically the same slug— but instead of sending soothing yang chakra, Sakura was sending her hand's lightning chakra!
Perhaps one day, Sakura would revolutionise long-distance communication and become a telecommunications mogul, by inventing the Interconnected Katsuyu Network. Or, as she'd probably call it… the Interknet.
"What are you doing?" Guren snarled, feeling her arm blades beginning to vibrate. "Whatever, it'll stop when you die!"
The Chidori's song grew steadily louder as each crystal attached to Guren as well as her clones began to resonate with the alternating electric fields coursing through Katsuyu's divided selves— and like tuning forks, the rest of the crystals strewn across the battlefield began to hum in answer. Knowing what was coming, Sakura sealed her ear canals with chakra from her ear Tenketsu.
"CHIDORI!"
The instant before Guren's blade reached Sakura's throat, the piercing chirping grew to an ear-splitting climax. Every single one of Guren's crystals crumbled to dust, and overcome by the high-intensity soundwaves rebounding off the walls and ceiling of the underground battle arena with nowhere to escape, Guren fainted and fell flat on her back, blood streaming from her ears.
Feeling as though her head were about to explode, Sakura staggered over to Guren's body, grabbed a handful of her pert breasts and began massaging them, draining her breast chakra and absorbing it for herself!