Temari held the tessen. The tessen was fully opened, and she was just about to fiercely swing it toward Sakura's direction.
BOOM!
The ground suddenly shook violently.
Sakura smashed a fist down onto the ground. This punch was even more terrifying than when she had fought Ino just now.
The arena shook.
The entire arena sank several inches under Sakura's fist.
The ground cracked, spreading outward from the center of Sakura's punch, and the violent tremor sent dirt and rocks flying everywhere.
"Gulp—", Temari instinctively swallowed.
If that punch landed on her, it wouldn't just be bruises all over her body, it would be pieces of her all over the place.
Countless stones, like a barrage filling the sky, came flying at her. Their speed was no slower than thrown shuriken.
And with the violently shaking ground, Temari couldn't keep her balance at all, so her movement of swinging the tessen stopped involuntarily.
She could only find another way to deal with the shower of stones.
Meanwhile, under the spray of debris, a transparent barrier rose around the spectator stands, blocking the stones that kept flying toward them.
"This…", In the stands, Kankuro looked at the scene before him, swallowing in sync with Temari's action.
"With such terrifying strength… Temari's not going to get hurt, is she?"
Kankuro turned to Gaara beside him.
He was honestly a little worried that the two of them might start fighting too fiercely.
After all, those two looked like romantic rivals.
Gaara, although also a little concerned, shook his head, "No."
His gaze shifted to Aoba, and he added, "He won't let Temari get hurt."
"This…", Kankuro suddenly felt a chill down his spine.
'My sister and brother… have both been charmed by the same guy.'
'That is terrifying!'
But no one cared about Kankuro's feelings right now.
Everyone's attention was on the arena.
When the dust on the field finally dispersed, the scene inside revealed itself.
At this moment, Temari was holding the fully opened tessen in front of her, its sturdy surface blocking all the stones that had been shot at her.
And now, she finally found her chance to swing the fan.
Temari gripped the handle again and fiercely swung it toward Sakura's position.
"Wind Release: Kamaitachi!"
Still without making any hand signs, Temari just swung her fan, whipping up a fierce wind.
It swept toward Sakura.
In an instant, the gust blew away all the lingering dust in the air over the arena.
After leaving slicing marks all over the ground, it also revealed Sakura from within the dust.
What appeared before Temari was a massive boulder covered in scars.
Judging from its appearance, it was something Sakura had created earlier when she punched the ground.
Sakura was hiding behind the boulder, using the same method Tenten had used earlier to block Temari's attack this time.
Seeing Temari's attack stop, Sakura immediately made her move.
BANG!
Sakura didn't use the monster strength technique this time, but simply slammed her palm onto the boulder.
The boulder, easily twice the height of a person, let out a massive rumble, then shot toward Temari at extreme speed.
Now steady on her feet, Temari showed no panic at the incoming boulder.
She swung the tessen again.
"Wind Release: Kamaitachi!"
The violent gale once again instantly shredded the already-scarred boulder.
But after the boulder broke apart, a flash of pink light bloomed like a flower before her eyes.
Sakura had already raised her fist.
Even with the boulder as a shield, her body still bore several cuts from the slicing wind.
Blood splattered, but it didn't affect her movements at all.
At this point, Temari had no time to swing her fan again or dodge.
She placed the tessen horizontally in front of her chest, just in time to block Sakura's punch.
BOOM!
Temari could hear the tessen's cry of protest. She felt her hands go numb from the terrifying impact.
The next moment, her body shot back like a cannonball, slamming hard into the wall.
Chunks of stone rained down, sending up a huge cloud of dust.
Sakura, having landed her blow, didn't immediately attack again. Instead, she began healing the wounds on her body.
Some of her injuries were serious enough that they had to be treated immediately.
Once she had healed the main ones, two coughs came from where Temari was.
Hearing it, Sakura immediately lunged forward with a straight punch toward Temari's position.
The terrifying impact blasted the dust away.
The wall, which already had large cracks, now had a huge hole in it.
But Temari was no longer there.
Sakura instinctively looked up.
Temari was standing on the wall above her head, and just then, she sprang off, landing behind Sakura.
Temari didn't immediately launch an attack, because her hands were still trembling.
Attacking now would only make her more vulnerable.
After steadying herself, Temari took a deep breath and said gravely, "An attack like that… you can't use it many more times, can you?"
That punch just now had been even stronger than her Wind Release.
If its stamina cost was small, that would be impossible.
Suddenly, she remembered the tactics Neji had used against Chojuro.
Although that time the field had been covered by the Hidden Mist Technique, she had still understood it from Hinata's explanation.
She had to drag the fight out with Sakura, to wear down her stamina.
But Sakura's expression was strangely unreadable.
Temari had clearly fallen victim to having no intel.
Monster strength was just a chakra control technique.
It had nothing to do with the amount of chakra in the body.
Only taijutsu techniques specifically developed from monster strength consumed large amounts of chakra.
But she had no obligation to explain this to Temari now.
She directly charged at her.
After that, loud booms rang out from the arena from time to time.
Of course, Sakura didn't use monster strength in every single attack.
But Temari couldn't be sure when Sakura might use it, so she had to dodge or block with all her strength every time.
Gradually, it was Temari who began to feel exhausted from defending.
No… If this goes on, she didn't know if Sakura would fall first, but she herself definitely wouldn't last.
'Go all out, don't hold back!'
"Wind Release: Cutting Dance…"
Using the recoil from Sakura's punch, Temari quickly widened the distance between them, preparing to unleash her trump card.
But before she could swing the fan, she suddenly felt a headache, followed by dizziness.
When the pain subsided, Sakura's figure in her vision suddenly grew larger.
Temari's eyes widened, but Sakura was already in front of her, her left hand glowing green as it struck her arm—
—just a light tap.
Then she felt her arm go numb.
Something had… broken.
"This is the Chakra Scalpel."
Sakura's left hand shone with green light, while her right hand clenched into a fist. Smiling, she said, "Temari, don't forget, I'm also a medical ninja."
Left hand, Chakra Scalpel. Right hand, monster strength.
"This match… you've lost."
"…"
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