Chapter 58: Home Field Advantage
The girl took a deep breath, calming her mood.
This was the first time she had been this close to a body of water in a battle since becoming an official ninja. Compared to her academy days, the girl's understanding of combat had undergone a world-shaking change, and her comprehension and application of chakra and ninjutsu were on a completely different level from the past.
Standing on the water's surface.
A brand-new feeling welled up in her heart.
The river water within the range of her chakra felt like an extension of her own hands and feet. With a single thought, she could control it freely. In this moment, the girl had the illusion of having control over the heavens and the earth. She had no doubt that she could even, in an instant, easily manipulate a water current of several dozen meters to form a roaring giant dragon and crash it down upon her enemy!
In this environment, the amount of chakra consumed by ordinary Water Style ninjutsu was greatly reduced, while the power and controllability of the jutsu were rapidly enhanced. The closer to water, the more water in the environment, the more advantageous it was for a Water Style ninja. No wonder the combat power of traditional water ninja was so restricted by terrain!
Like a fish in water.
Her core water ninjutsu, the Water Gun Jutsu and ultrapure water, were not affected by the environment, so they did not receive a great boost here. Even so, Sakura felt that her combat power had increased severalfold!
And at this time, while Sakura was adapting to the environment, Naruto was the first to complete his ninjutsu.
"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
One after another, battle-ready shadow clones appeared shoulder to shoulder, and in the blink of an eye, the vast army of Narutos had filled the water surface and the riverbank.
As far as the eye could see, the girl's vision was completely occupied by the clones that covered the mountains and plains, the river and the shore, without a single gap.
Relying on his astonishing amount of chakra, Naruto would often start with hundreds of shadow clones. Although it felt a bit like a brainless reliance on numerical advantage to overwhelm the enemy, it was undeniable that such a human-wave tactic was almost impossible for an ordinary ninja to break.
—Just the pressure of being watched by several hundred people was very intense.
The zerg rush tactic has always been a popular one. As the saying goes, "As long as you learn my macro, the rest is just A-moving." And Naruto's own vast amount of chakra was the strongest macro.
"Sakura-chan, I'm coming!" the hundreds of shadow clones said in unison. The neat shout was immense and extremely shocking!
Hundreds VS One!
But the seemingly outnumbered girl revealed a strange smile.
A human-wave tactic?
With a light stomp of her heel on the water's surface, the girl's chakra seeped into the river water from under her feet, combining with it.
The ninjutsu silently churned and took shape under the water's surface.
A human-wave tactic... I can do that too!
"Water Style: Legion Water Clone Jutsu!" the girl shouted softly.
The next moment, the calm and shimmering surface of the river suddenly began to boil!
Swish, swish, swish! One by one, water clones holding crystal longswords leaped out from under the water like a startled flock of birds and landed on the water's surface.
One, two, ten, all the way to several hundred...!
The strange water clones densely crowded the water surface behind Sakura, their presence vast and innumerable.
The Legion Water Clones had a crudely made feeling at first glance. They only had a translucent human form and clear facial features, but without the texture of clothes or skin, and without the slightest expression. They just stood motionless, coldly staring at the enemy in front. This strange appearance, neatly arranged, actually had a peculiar sense of intimidation.
Since it was called a legion, the number would naturally not be small.
A ninjutsu like the Water Clone is simple, but no matter how simple a problem is, when the quantity increases, it is no longer a small problem.
In the Forest of Death, she had tried using such an army of water clones to deal with the enemy, and the effect was quite ideal. Those simplified water clones consumed less chakra and mental energy, but their power did not decrease too much. This was the prototype of the Legion Water Clone.
In the few days after the exam, she had spent a lot of effort carefully studying this ninjutsu.
In principle, the less chakra consumed, the cruder the clone, and the weaker its power.
The currently popular Water Clone Jutsu had achieved the most cost-effective balance among chakra consumption, the clone's power, and the clone's similarity to the original, which was its deceptive ability.
And this Legion Water Clone Jutsu no longer cared about the clone's similarity to the original. In addition, it incorporated ice-natured chakra to create ice swords to strengthen the water clones. Thus, it achieved a new, most cost-effective balance between chakra consumption and the clone's power. The price to pay was that the clones looked strange, and the caster needed to have mastered ice nature transformation, making the jutsu more difficult to perform.
After this modification, the Water Clone Jutsu had been completely transformed, from a ninjutsu for bullying weaklings and luring enemies into a general-purpose, powerful offensive ninjutsu. Thus, it was renamed by Sakura as the Legion Water Clone Jutsu, and could be considered an advanced version of the Water Clone Jutsu.
She had already made many attempts at such improvements. She had many wild ideas. Even just by recalling the creative ideas from the fanfictions she had read in her past life, with her perfect chakra control, she could "create" many ninjutsu by just copying them.
However, most of them were flashy but impractical ninjutsu, fancy on the surface but full of holes in reality, and utterly useless. Sometimes she would even develop harmful ninjutsu—such as some of the experiments she did with Hinata.
It wasn't until recently, after experiencing the Land of Waves mission and the battles in the Forest of Death, that the girl's understanding of battle and of herself had undergone a more profound, transformative change.
Her grasp of ninjutsu creation had also become more skillful.
This Legion Water Clone Jutsu was a small, recent gain for Sakura.
It was precisely because he had seen the girl's recent growth that Kakashi felt at ease letting her develop her own ninjutsu on her own, and instead focused all his energy on guiding Sasuke. This biased action also, from another angle, showed Kakashi's trust and affirmation of the girl.
Of course, a ninjutsu like the Legion Water Clone, whether in its applicability, killing power, or cost-effectiveness, was far inferior to a trump card water jutsu like the Water Gun Jutsu. However, always using the same move makes it easy for people to target you. It was also very necessary to develop some more conventional tactics.
What's more, during sparring, a ninjutsu like the Water Gun, which could be fatal at any moment, was something Sakura wouldn't dare to use casually. On the contrary, the Legion Clone Jutsu, whose power was easy to control, could be used for a very intense fight.
And at this moment, the two members of Team 7 were engaged in a tit-for-tat battle with their endless clones!
The battle between clones, because they had no emotions and did not count their lives, was different from a battle between real human armies. They could cooperate seamlessly one moment, killing the enemy with tacit understanding, and in the next second, sell out their teammates, just to take down one more enemy.
Without panic, without fear, without excitement, without rout, the clones perfectly demonstrated a fighting style of advancing one after another. Life and death were just a numbers game for the clones. The battle was a life-or-death struggle where every slash drew blood and every punch hit flesh, and was therefore more cruel and direct.
Sakura's water clones, with their long swords at their side, their taijutsu light and elegant, their eyes cold and their faces like frost, attacked silently.
Naruto's shadow clones, with their kunai either brandished or shot out, their fists and feet as swift as the wind, their offensive like thunder, shouted and roared without stopping.
Thud, thud, thud—! Relying on their sharp ice swords and more agile taijutsu, Sakura's water clones often had the upper hand, killing several enemies in a row and blowing up Naruto's shadow clones into clouds of smoke.
Swish, swish, swish—! Relying on their greater numbers and a fighting style of trading life for life, Naruto's shadow clones stubbornly resisted Sakura's legion's offensive with a human-wave tactic. The water clones, facing attacks from all directions, even if they could kill a few first, were soon drowned by the tide of Narutos, turning into pools of clear water and returning to the river.
A stalemate!
Naruto's shadow clones did not use their numerical advantage to overwhelm Sakura.
Sakura's water clones did not break through Naruto's defense line with their superior offensive power either.
The clones continuously turned into smoke and clear water and dissipated one by one. The two were also constantly consuming chakra to continue creating clones, filling the gaps in their forces.
The battle line was thus deadlocked, and the clone battle was trending towards becoming a war of attrition.
However, in a battle of attrition, it was absolutely disadvantageous for Sakura.
Although the river was her home field, and the chakra consumption of the Legion Water Clone Jutsu was not high here, Sakura was not so naive as to think she could compete with Naruto in stamina and consumption based on this.
Quickly realizing this point, the girl's delicate brows furrowed slightly. She decisively stopped the chakra supply to the Legion Water Clone Jutsu, brought her hands together, and quickly formed the seals like weaving flowers—
"Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique!"
Whoosh—!
A huge amount of river water slowly rose with Sakura's hand gesture, being rolled up several dozen meters into the sky by her chakra. The water from a several-dozen-meter-long stretch of the river was drawn into the air, and the small river actually revealed a large, dry riverbed out of thin air!
The Great Waterfall Technique was said to have power comparable to a natural disaster, and Sakura found that this was no exaggeration—if the river's flow had not been too small, she could have even created a small-scale flood attack on this small riverbank!
The girl opened her palm and slowly raised her right hand.
The huge amount of river water also rose with that slender, fair hand, held high in the air.
The clear river water was stirred up and became turbid. Looking up, it actually covered the sun, casting a large shadow.
It blotted out the sun and sky.
Just looking at its presence, imagining the scene of the water mass falling from the sky, crashing down madly with the momentum to topple mountains and overturn seas, sweeping everything away, was enough to make one's blood run cold.
The presence was majestic, awe-inspiring.
Then, the girl's raised right hand forcefully swung down.
The suspended river water, like a fierce tiger descending a mountain, roared and rushed towards Naruto!
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