Three loud bangs rang out in quick succession, white smoke billowing across the battlegrounds. Shockwaves rippled through the summoning haze, and the fighters on the ground reeled and stumbled back. They tightened their grips on their weapons, glancing around in alarm. One summoned beast had already wrought this much havoc upon their little village, and now more had appeared!?
The veil of smoke began rapidly dispersing, revealing three hulking shadows…
"Jiraiya-sensei… Minato-sensei…" Kakashi murmured, his voice tinged with melancholy. "I've always known the new generation would surpass the one before, but I never expected the day to come so soon. To think those three little selfish brats from back then have already grown stronger than me…"
Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke each stood on the heads of their respective summoned beasts. The Boss Toad Gamabunta of Mt Myōboku, the Giant Slug Sage Katsuyu of Shikkotsu Forest, and the young and upcoming prodigy Aoda of Ryūchi Cave.
"Don't shoot!" Kakashi shouted, noticing the Manyū firing squad taking aim at his students. "They're on our side!"
With surprising speed for their immense sizes, the three summoned beasts sprang into action.
In a flash, Aoda slithered forwards and coiled himself around the Sphinx, tangling its limbs and halting its charge toward the castle keep, before sinking his fangs into the bloody gash Sakura had already torn into its neck. Gamabunta drew his sword and leapt high into the air, landing squarely on the monster's back and burying his immense blade deep into its back.
The Sphinx screeched in pain and tensed, its knotted muscles rippling under its tough hide.
"What would you have me do, Mistress Sakura?" Katsuyu queried, dividing a small portion of her body and sending it crawling up Sakura's body to her shoulder. "I don't sense many injured."
Tsunade rarely called upon Katsuyu in an offensive capacity, despite her ability to spit acid strong enough to melt through nearly anything. She preferred to rely on her in a supportive role, using the slug's divided selves' telepathy to relay orders to subordinates or to heal them from afar, or even using her massive bulk as a shield.
However, Katsuyu knew Sakura preferred a more aggressive approach.
"Hold for now," said Sakura uncertainly. "Naruto and Sasuke seem to have things in hand… for the moment."
Thanks to Bunta's and Aoda's intervention, the Manyū kunoichi had had plenty of time to collect themselves, and they were once again twirling their kusarigama and throwing their sharp sickles, anchoring them into the Sphinx's flesh and pulling it down with their chains, further restraining its movements.
"Damn it, what's this thing made of!?" shouted Gamabunta, twisting his sword in the Sphinx's wound. "I could swear I severed its spine, hmpf!"
Gamabunta pulled with all his might, but his sword remained buried deeply in the creature's back and refused to come free. Then, all at once, feathers sprouted from the two bloody stumps on the Sphinx's back in a torrent of white, and before he knew it, he was flying backwards spitting blood, literally punched away by the sudden regrowth of its wings!
The giant toad disappeared in a puff of smoke as he crashed into a building, unilaterally ending the summoning due to internal injuries.
The Sphinx beat its newly grown wings experimentally, creating a rush of air that sent the ant-like kunoichi and their chains tumbling with a metallic jangle, tangled up in their own restraints. It lifted slightly into the air, loosening Aoda's grip just enough for it to swipe at the giant snake with its paws, sending him sliding away.
"Not good!" shouted Sakura. "Slug Great Division— protect everyone!"
"Understood!"
Not only was the Sphinx immune to attributeless chakra— meaning only nature transformation-based Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, or Kenjutsu could harm it—its regeneration rate was absurd. The only way Sakura could see to defeat it was with a single, devastating strike from a full-powered Lorentz Gun Jutsu headshot, which she doubted she could manage unless the Sphinx could be immobilised again.
Oh well, they would just have to treat this as practice for the battle with the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki, and their immunity to everything but Senjutsu and Taijutsu…
At any rate, short of finishing off the monster in a single blow, there was no alternative but to wear it down, slowing its healing with cauterising fire, poison, or acid. Even that, however, would be tedious, for the beast constantly regained chakra by absorbing ambient negative emotions— which were plentiful, given that it had effectively just flattened the Manyū clan's homes.
"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!"
A high-pitched whine suddenly reached Sakura's ears, and her heart dropped.
"Don't use that jutsu, Naruto!" Sakura shouted in alarm. "I won't be able to heal you if you hurt yourself with that!"
Naruto ignored her and leapt at the still-trapped Sphinx, pressing the spiralling sphere of compressed wind chakra into its flank. It exploded instantly, rocketing him back to the ground and leaving a crater where he landed.
The Sphinx screamed in agony as a swarm of nanometre-long chakra needles tore into its flesh, shredding tendons, muscles, and chakra pathways on an invisible, microscopic scale. It started rampaging, shattering the remaining four crystal pillars Sakura had created. It was now completely free, and both Naruto and Gamabunta were out of commission!
Sakura hopped from Katsuyu's head as the great slug began dividing herself, landing on the roof of the building where she had stashed her sword… and the handle of the chakra blade, which her Manyū captors had left with her during her brief stint in their jail, deeming it harmless. She had temporarily set aside her metallic belongings to avoid accidentally firing them along with her kunai using the Lorentz Gun Jutsu, but now she needed them back!
"Eww, what are those things!?
"Get away from me!"
On the way back to the fight, Sakura ran past many injured kunoichi squeamishly backing away from the slugs attempting to smother them. Katsuyu's slime had natural regenerative and haemostatic properties, so in a pinch, it would work for cuts and abrasions, even without Sakura's input.
"Catch, Sasuke!" Sakura shouted, cocking back her arm and throwing the blade handle at him. "Run your Chidori through that!"
Hanging on for dear life atop Aoda's head, Sasuke looked up as the chakra blade's handle spun through the air… and he caught it. The weapon ignited, singing the Chidori's song as its electric-blue blade surged skywards!