Chapter 129: The Hunter and the Hunted

Fire, smoke, ear-splitting roars, explosions, pain…

Hinata had disappeared down the beast's maw. Karin, burned alive by its blue flames. Neji and Sakura were the only ones still standing— but not for much longer…

"Rotation!"

The giant blue cat's paw fell down upon Sakura's and Neji's heads.

And then finally, nothingness.

…

Sakura woke up from her nightmare with a start, a scream trapped halfway out her throat, and her clothes drenched in cold sweat.

Breathing heavily, it took her a few seconds to finally realize that she had only been dreaming— she hadn't really died four times in a row. The memories she had relived in her nightmare belonged to her Shadow Clones; their final moments having bled into her subconscious…

'To die, to sleep,' said Inner Sakura, waxing poetic. 'To sleep— perchance to dream…'

There was no time to waste quoting authors from her past life— everything was coming back to her. These particular Shadow Clones had been heading south-west, following the same route they had taken a week ago, except in the opposite direction. As for Team Sakura, they had headed directly southwards, before continuing to make their way west upon hitting the coastline.

Long story short, the point was that as Team Sakura approached the isthmus that connected the Land of Lightning's peninsula to the main continent, the landmass began to drastically taper off— which meant that Team Sakura's current location was a mere dozen or so kilometres away from where Nii Yugito had vaporized Sakura's Shadow Clones…

"Wake up!" Sakura hissed, as she roused the sleeping Hinata and Neji. "We need to leave— now!"

'Think they might be tracking the Lightning Chakra Mode's secret scroll, somehow?' said Inner Sakura. 'We should probably throw it into the sea, just to be safe.'

The System had already stored the relevant information in its database, so it's not as if Sakura needed to carry around the original any more.

"What's going on, onee-sama?" yawned Karin, whose turn it had been to keep watch. "I'm not sensing anything within my range…"

"Time to go," said Sakura brusquely. "If we're lucky, our pursuers might turn back to follow our trail, but if they're smart, they'll head straight to the Land of Frost's border to wait for us…"

And so, Team Sakura packed their things, and within minutes, their makeshift camp was a kilometre behind them. Their sleepiness having completely evaporated, they streaked across the sandy beach, ignoring their aching limbs and their weariness.

But as they began approaching the Land of Frost's border, Karin's voice suddenly rang out.

"Yugito just turned!" she cried out. "She's making a beeline for us!"

"We must have unknowingly entered her sensing range," said Neji bitterly. "Sakura, orders?"

It seemed like a fight would be inevitable, but on the bright side, Killer B was on the other side of the country. B had followed Sakura's second team of Shadow Clones that had gone east, on the off chance that a boat was waiting to extract them there— which, of course, there wasn't.

So, at the very least, they wouldn't have to fight against the Jinchūriki of the second-strongest Tailed Beast— only the second-weakest…

"We're going over the sea!" said Sakura without missing a beat. "You can all walk on water, right?"

Karin, Neji and Hinata all nodded.

"Then, let's go!" Sakura shouted. "Follow me!"

Sakura gathered chakra under her feet and leapt onto the water's surface, which glinted and glimmered under the full moon's light, but the moment her sandals touched the water, a tiger's fierce roar sounded in the distance, accompanied by the sound of trees crashing to the ground in quick succession…

Team Sakura needed no further encouragement.

They bolted across the tranquil sea surface like arrows let loose from a bow; their stamina depleting at a worrying rate, as they were forced to rapidly convert it into chakra…

"I think I can see the other side!" said Karin breathlessly. "We're halfway there!"

Plop!

Upon hearing the worrisome sound, Sakura skidded to a halt and turned around to do a headcount:

Sakura, check.

Karin, check.

Neji, check.

Princess Beach… air bubbles floating up to the surface.

"Lady Hinata!" Neji shouted, accidentally letting slip an honorific.

A few seconds later, Hinata's head popped out of the water, her limbs flailing around her as she desperately sucked fresh air into her lungs. As it would have been a shame to let her drown after going to this much trouble to save her, Neji quickly grabbed Hinata's hands and pulled the shivering girl onto her back. Unwilling to let herself become a burden, Hinata had pushed herself too far and had almost run out of chakra…

"Neji, are you going to be okay carrying—" Sakura began, but a loud roar interrupted her sentence.

In the distance, a gigantic blue cat had just walked onto the sea's surface; plumes of steam sent spiralling into the air wherever it made contact with the water under its paws. The Tailed Beast's flaming blue chakra glowed ominously in the mist that rose in its wake, its true form cloaked in the ethereal azure fog that danced around its body…

"Go," Sakura told Neji grimly. "Take Hinata— we'll hold the Jinchūriki here."

Hopefully, the Two-Tails' flames would be inhibited by the watery environment— or much more likely, the scalding-hot steam rising up from under its paws would instantly cook Sakura and Karin alive the moment it got too close…

Neji took off without giving them a second glance, while Sakura and Karin began building up their chakra, watching the blue Tailed-Beast bounding across the water at full speed towards them.

'Wish we knew some water-style,' said Inner Sakura glumly.

'Can't you use your Genjutsu against that thing, onee-sama?' asked Karin, trembling in fear.

The answer was a resounding no— even if Sakura could momentarily seize control of the chakra inside of her brain, Yugito's buddy hidden inside of her body would instantly snap her out of her confusion.

Of course, things would be different if Sakura had Sharingan instead of regular eyes.

The Sharingan was a devolved version of the Rinne Sharingan, which was a Dōjutsu that could normally only be obtained upon eating the God Tree's chakra fruit. Its purpose was to control the God Tree, and by extension, the Tailed Beasts— in essence, it was like having administrator privileges over the God Tree and its kin.

Without root access to the Tailed Beast's consciousness, no matter how good her affinity with yin chakra, Sakura's Genjutsu would never be able to override the 'brain' of what was effectively an amalgamation of chakra …