Chapter 153: The Purpose of the Swallow Snowstorm
"Hmph... aren't you also taking the opportunity to recover your stamina while we're talking?" Kidōmaru sneered. "To use such a large-scale ninjutsu to trap us here, it must have been quite taxing on you!"
"Your taijutsu and that water jutsu are actually not impossible to break. Taijutsu requires getting close, and ninjutsu requires hand seals. Both of these take time... So, as long as we react fast enough, we can dodge your attacks! And we have three people on our side, no," he glanced at the summons Tayuya had brought out, "now it's six against one..."
"..." Seeing Kidōmaru's delusional, confident smile, Sakura's eyebrows rose. "Let me correct you. Using an Ice Style jutsu like this is not a burden on me at all..."
After activating the Yin Seal, she wouldn't even frown when using such a large-scale ninjutsu.
Seeing the smile on Kidōmaru's face turn into astonishment, she said faintly.
"The reason I waited for you for so long was because I also needed a little time to adapt to Phase Two of Sakura Rush. Although Phase Two of this jutsu has not yet been fully developed... Forget it, you wouldn't understand even if I told you."
Because Phase Two had not yet been completed, this was the first time it had been used in actual combat.
Although it was only a half-completed version of Phase Two Sakura Rush, Haruno Sakura still found that its effect was still very significant, much stronger than the Phase One that the girl had already adapted to.
In her conception, after Phase Two was fully completed, the time it took for a nerve signal to be sent from the brain and transmitted to the hands and feet would be compressed to an incredible limit. Compared to Sakura Rush - Phase One, Phase Two could reduce Sakura's reaction time by another fifty milliseconds!
It would be five times stronger than the effect of Phase One.
This was the so-called effect of electronifying the nervous system.
At that level, the so-called "thought and action advance together" and "heart arrives, hands arrive" would be just that: as soon as a thought arises, it will be immediately reflected in the movements of the hands and feet.
Of course, Phase Two of Sakura Rush was still not the limit. The next stage after "thought and action become one" was "action before intention" and "ultimate action hides intention." According to Haruno Sakura's understanding, the generation of a "thought" also required time. Phase Three of Sakura Rush would find a way to compress the time the brain took to process information as well. A battle like that would look as if the hand had already moved before a thought had even arisen in the mind. This was probably "action before intention."
But for now, the Sakura Rush - Phase Two she had activated was still a half-completed version. Although it was much stronger than Phase One, it still couldn't be called "thought and action become one." It could only be considered a relatively strong "intention before action."
"It's best not to maintain Phase Two for too long..." Sakura reminded herself in her heart.
After using the uncompleted Phase Two for more than twenty minutes, it would begin to become unstable. This problem would have to wait until she had completely studied this phase through and through before it could be solved.
But if she only used Phase One, she wouldn't be able to bring out the power of the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals' ultra-high-speed Body Flicker combat... And only by mastering these two ninjutsu would she have the capital to save people in front of Orochimaru.
To sharpen one's spear just before battle; better late than never.
Before facing Orochimaru, she needed to find some minions to reap some experience first!
"However, two minutes is enough!"
She first took a dozen or so seconds to adapt to the feeling of the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals in coordination with Sakura Rush Phase Two. The extremely high reaction speed was like adding wings to a tiger in this kind of Body Flicker combat.
The sense of imbalance brought by the Body Flicker, which had always troubled her, was greatly reduced because Sakura Rush had shortened her reaction speed, allowing her to recover her balance much faster, making her a master of the Body Flicker jutsu... although she was still not at the level of the Fourth Hokage's.
This experience was really exhilarating—after the Body Flicker ended, in the instant she felt the imbalance and wanted to adjust her balance back, her body had already made the movement and stabilized itself.
The thought of attacking had just arisen, and her hand was already raised to her chest.
A few fallen leaves drifted past her eyes. With a thought, she instantly twisted an ice senbon in her hand, raised her hand and shot it out, stringing the fallen leaves into a long strip.
Where the thought went, the action was already completed.
When dodging the arrow shot by Kidōmaru, she only gently turned her head at the last moment, letting it fly past her cheek.
When Tayuya was controlling the corpse puppets to charge at her, she even had the leisure to count the number of spikes on the club in the summon's hand, and then, when the club was almost about to hit her face, she used a Body Flicker at the last possible moment to leave, appearing on another ice mirror.
To see is to react; to think is to act.
And so, a critical moment that would normally be a matter of life and death was still handled with ease in Sakura Rush - Phase Two.
Is this the feeling of those speed-type ninja? Is this how people like the Raikage, the Fourth, and the White Fang usually fight?
She felt an unprecedented power.
A jutsu like this should be enough to be a bargaining chip against Orochimaru, right?
After briefly testing the feeling of Sakura Rush - Phase Two and easily dodging the first wave of the Sound ninja's attacks, they had a new move—
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
Jirōbō slammed his hands on the ground, and in an instant, several hundred earth walls rose up, hiding the three's figures behind the rocks.
"Trying to cut off my line of sight to avoid being locked on by the Water Style: Wind Blade Raging Stream?"
Sakura quickly saw through the opponent's intention. The Sound ninja were indeed very wary of her ninjutsu. However—
"A meaningless gesture."
The cat-faced girl used a Body Flicker to appear in an ice mirror on the ceiling, looking down at the battlefield from above. The Sound ninja's attempt to hide was completely exposed from this angle. After all, the stone walls had no roof. And the Sound ninja apparently hadn't noticed that their enemy had already appeared above their heads...
"Before I face Orochimaru, I still need to get as familiar as possible with the feeling of the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals - Phase Two, and its coordination with Sakura Rush. This is the first time these ninjutsu have been used in actual combat. I can't afford to make any mistakes... I hope they can last for a minute!"
She murmured to herself in a low voice.
The cat-faced girl was upside down, calmly forming hand seals.
The fluctuation of chakra immediately caught the Sound ninja's attention. "Look, she's in the sky! Watch out for her ninjutsu!"
The Sound ninja subconsciously wanted to dodge, but to their surprise, what Haruno Sakura used was not the Wind Blade Raging Stream, but just a not-so-complex ninjutsu.
"Ice Style - Swallow Snowstorm!"
With the surge of chakra, over a hundred half-man-high ice darts suddenly appeared in the air and then shot down at the enemy below!
"Hah!"
The Sound ninja's reaction was not slow either. Jirōbō once again gathered his chakra and continued to raise and extend the stone walls in front of the three of them. The ice darts aimed at their heads were all blocked by the stone slabs.
Thud, thud, thud— The remaining ice darts scattered and embedded themselves in the ground around the three of them.
"Be careful, these darts will explode!" Kidōmaru's expression changed, sensing a stream of chakra still remaining on the ice darts. His reaction was the fastest, and he immediately reminded the two of them.
"Secret Technique - Sticky Gold Armor!"
At the same time as he spoke, Kidōmaru's own defensive ninjutsu was already prepared. The Sticky Gold Armor could coat the surface of his body with a layer of special spider silk. After it dried and hardened, its hardness would be much higher than steel. He was sure that even if the ice darts exploded, they would not be able to do anything to it.
However, Haruno Sakura's tactic was not a repeat of the Swallow Snowstorm plus the Dart Explosion.
The chakra attached to the ice darts had another use!
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