Chapter 81: The Plot Thinnens

The audience held their collective breaths, as they waited for the smoke to clear and for the victor to be revealed. The collision between an unstoppable spear and an impenetrable shield had created a massive explosion in the centre of the arena, raising a cloud of dust and making it impossible for normal people to tell which one of them had won just yet…

"The winner of the first match is…" announced Genma.

Only one single silhouette behind the veil of dust still stood within the crater caused by the explosion; a very curvy one!

"HARUNO SAKURA!"

Sakura was immediately greeted with a storm of cheers, hooting and clapping. Initially, the nobles in attendance hadn't expected much of this match between two civilian-born shinobi; in fact, upon first seeing Sakura's striking figure, a few of them even had the idea of hiring her as a honeypot to compromise rival nobles.

But now, they could see that she wasn't just another pretty face!

"SHA!" Sakura shouted, thrusting her fist towards the heavens in victory.

Sakura was in a pitiful state; she had an engorged black eye which refused to open all the way, and her exposed skin was peppered with yellow, black and purple bruises. But despite the pain, she stood proudly, chin held up high. She had defeated one of the strongest Genin in the entire Leaf Village, proving to herself and to everyone else that Haruno Sakura was not a useless girl!

At her feet lied the mangled figure of Rock Lee; broken, but still breathing… He had been forced to take the entire brunt of his own attack due to the Rotation Jutsu's rebound, and he was also suffering the side effects of having opened five of the Eight Gates. So, he was in fairly rough shape!

But despite the cheering and the hooting, not everyone was pleased to see Sakura's victory; the problem lied in the way she had attained her victory. Up in the stands, clan leader Hyūga Hiashi stood up from his seat in shock; his Byakugan not having missed a single second of the action. At his side, his father, the previous clan leader, shook with rage…

"Father, isn't that your Rotation Jutsu…?" asked Hanabi, Hinata's little sister.

"There can be no doubt about it," Hiashi said grimly. "This Haruno Sakura somehow learned the Eight Trigrams Palms: Revolving Heaven, even though it is only taught to the sole heir of the main branch..."

"Clan leader, you must ask the Hokage to lead an investigation into this girl!" said Hiashi's father furiously. "The clan's secrets must remain secure!"

It wasn't like Rotation was a complicated Jutsu, by any means— in fact, if one knew the principles behind its workings, it was rather easy to recreate.

However, in order to do so, one needed the Byakugan.

To copy and replicate the Eight Trigrams Palms: Revolving Heaven, one had to first find out that chakra needed to be expelled from each of the 361 Tenketsu. With this information in mind, you would then need to practise opening all of your Tenketsu, which would also require possessing the Byakugan Kekkei Genkai…

No matter how you looked at it, the Byakugan was necessary to learn this technique. In the past, Uchiha clan members had tried to copy this Jutsu, but even with the Sharingan, they had all failed. The Sharingan couldn't perceive the Tenketsu, so if they tried copying the Jutsu, the Uchiha wouldn't see anything but chakra covering the Rotation user's skin, making it impossible for them to replicate the exact methodology just by relying on their cheats…

"Unless…" murmured Hiashi to himself, "Could Neji have taught her Rotation? He has seen me using it in the past, and with his genius, I wouldn't discount the possibility of him having figured it out on his own…"

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Luckily for Sakura, her internal injuries weren't so bad, so after enduring a few rounds of medical Ninjutsu, the Iryō-nin pronounced her fit to continue, and she was released from the colosseum's hospital wing. But as Sakura walked down a long corridor, following the sound of cheering to find her way back to the stands, a certain person's figure appeared around the corner, blocking her way…

"That's quite the beating you gave Lee, huh?" said Tenten, winking at her.

Sakura froze for a split second, not having expected Tenten to confront her in a dimly lit corridor, now of all times.

"Y-yeah," Sakura spluttered. "Did you come to see how Lee's doing?"

Tenten didn't answer her question immediately; her gaze slowly sliding down to Sakura's bustline.

"You know what's coming, don't you?" said Tenten pointedly. "What are your plans?"

"…What?" Sakura blurted out.

"Don't play dumb with me, Sakura," said Tenten impatiently. "I'm not stupid, you know; you're way stronger than I remember you being and you know Jutsu that you're not supposed to have learned yet; not to mention the thing you did to your boobs— I mean, overcompensating, much?"

Sakura could only stare at Tenten indignantly.

"You're just like me, aren't you?" Tenten continued. "You're from the future— just probably not my future, from what I can tell."

It suddenly occurred to Sakura that Tenten was operating under the misconception that she was a Regressor as well! From her point of view, it had to be the only logical explanation— after all, how could Tenten have possibly imagined that Sakura was being possessed by the soul of a teenage Japanese boy who had transmigrated to her world?

"I need to know your plans concerning the Konoha Crush," said Tenten matter-of-factly. "As long as you don't interfere with my plans, I don't mind letting you play house with Sasuke for a bit longer. But saving the Lord Third is out of the question— Lady Tsunade must become the Fifth."

Tenten's idol was the Fifth Hokage, and once upon a time, she had tried to become just like her. Unfortunately for Tenten, she didn't possess any of Tsunade's legendary qualities, so she had been forced to give up and find her own path.

Firstly, she wasn't born with superhuman strength.

Secondly, her chakra control was too poor for her to learn either medical Ninjutsu, Chakra Enhanced Strength, or the Yin Seal.

Thirdly, she didn't like alcohol or gambling that much… unless you counted opening a ninja tool shop during peacetime as gambling.

And finally… Tenten lacked Senju Tsunade's legendary huge rack! (And she definitely wasn't envious of Sakura's!)

"Wait, what did you mean by letting me play house with Sasuke for a bit longer?" asked Sakura, startled. "Tenten, what are you—"

A mechanical voice suddenly rang out from Tenten's pocket, cutting off Sakura mid-sentence.

Beep! Temporal Signature of Subject is a match for the Timeline Snapshot. Conclusion: Subject is not a regressor. Analysis complete.

"What?" Tenten blurted out. "That can't be, unless— have I returned to the wrong past!?"

"Tenten!" Sakura shouted. "What are you planning to—"

Sakura's words got stuck in her throat mid-sentence.

'Kanashibari no Jutsu?' Inner Sakura groaned. 'But how is it this strong!? I should be about Chūnin-level, but I can't move a single finger!'

And then, Tenten simply disappeared from Sakura's sightline. So smoothly, in fact, that it was like she had never even been there to begin with. A Shisui-level Body Flicker, or a Space-Time Ninjutsu…?

"I'm so sorry, Sakura," Tenten whispered into her ear from behind her. "If what you've shown in your match is the extent of your strength, then what I'm about to do to you is a little unnecessary, but just to be safe, I'm going to have to seal your memories a little bit."

"Wipe Out!"

Sakura's eyes rolled back into her head, and everything went dark.