Bab 48: Chapter 48: The First Victim of the Rasengan
In a certain area of the Forest of Death, two girls were engaged in a fierce battle between two towering trees.
The sound of explosions, like popping balloons, and the constant swishing of projectiles filled the air, startling nearby animals and sending them fleeing in all directions.
Zooming in on the scene, we see Sakura using her sensory techniques and continuously disrupting the flow of chakra in her body to break the genjutsu in front of her.
From Sakura's perspective, multiple afterimages of the dark-haired girl before her—Kin, one of the three Sound ninjas—were attacking her, along with the real one, throwing an endless barrage of senbon needles.
Faced with Kin's needle attacks, Sakura skillfully used the Substitution Jutsu, swapping places with pieces of wood she had prepared in advance. At the same time, she threw smoke bombs from her tool pouch, aiming them at Kin.
Each time the smoke obscured Kin's vision, Sakura retaliated with shuriken. Thanks to her strong sensory abilities and solid foundation, Sakura managed to leave several wounds on Kin, humiliating her in front of her comrades.
However, Sakura wasn't in great shape either. Her face was covered in bruises, with red handprints on her cheeks, and there were traces of blood on her lips—clear signs she had been slapped around.
The truth was, Sakura hadn't expected to face such a monstrous opponent during the Chunin Exams.
Both Naruto and Sasuke, who was second only to Yagyu, had been completely overpowered by a strange Grass ninja.
In that Grass ninja, Sakura had felt an overwhelming gap, something far more terrifying than even Zabuza.
At that moment, Sakura had thought she was surely going to die.
But, for reasons unknown, the Grass ninja didn't kill her, Naruto, or Sasuke. Instead, he placed a black curse mark on Sasuke's neck and then left.
Sakura had tried healing Naruto and Sasuke afterward and found their bodies in good health, yet they hadn't woken up since the night before.
Left alone, Sakura moved them to a tree hollow and camouflaged the entrance with an invisibility technique.
But not long after sunrise, the Sound ninja trio found them, and they were targeting Sasuke specifically.
Having already bonded with her teammates over time, Sakura couldn't bring herself to abandon them. Instead, she bravely stood up to fight.
Kin, who had grown up in the harsh environment of Otogakure, was disgusted by Sakura's privileged upbringing and insisted on teaching her a lesson personally.
Confident in their abilities, the other two members of the Sound team, Dosu and Zaku, didn't rush to complete Orochimaru's task. They let Kin "play" with Sakura first.
At first, the two fought hand-to-hand.
As one of the top ten students of her class, Sakura had scored either perfect or near-perfect marks in all subjects.
Her combat skills, honed from sparring with Yagyu and Hinata since childhood, were on par with Kin, who had grown up fighting for survival in Otogakure.
However, Sakura hadn't anticipated that her opponent would be a genjutsu user, specifically one who used sound-based genjutsu.
Without prior knowledge of Kin's techniques, Sakura was caught off guard during their close combat.
However, rather than landing a lethal blow, Kin opted to slap Sakura around, showing her disdain.
Realizing she couldn't win in close quarters, Sakura smartly put some distance between herself and Kin, which was why she had been using substitution techniques and smoke bombs.
But her tools were running out, and soon enough, she had no more shuriken or smoke bombs left.
Since this was her first real fight to the death, Sakura, who had only extensive experience in taijutsu, was soon caught in Kin's genjutsu again and was sent flying with a kick.
Her body tumbled across the ground, and before she could rise, a foot pressed down on her back. One of her arms and her pink hair were grabbed tightly.
"Has anyone ever told you that your face and your hair are absolutely hideous?"
Kin yanked on Sakura's pink hair, her words laced with mocking jealousy.
What Kin envied wasn't just Sakura's pink hair but also her red qipao and the privileged air she carried.
They were around the same age, yet Kin was an orphan who had struggled to become a genin in the harsh conditions of Otogakure, while this girl was born in Konoha, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Sakura had beautiful hair and clothes and had easily obtained the headband that Kin had fought so hard for.
Sakura was weak—so why did she have all of this?
Even though her hair and arm were being tugged, Sakura didn't cry out or beg for mercy. She simply looked at Kin with her green eyes, unafraid, and even a little disdainful.
"What's with that look?"
Kin, enraged by Sakura's defiance, yanked harder on her hair and shouted, "You need to recognize your position! You're just a loser, and I'm the one who's winning!"
Though the pain in her scalp caused Sakura to frown, she managed a smile despite her bruised face. "You've already lost. You should blame yourself for not killing me when you had the chance."
"Are you talking nonsense because I hit you too hard?" Kin sneered. "I can kill you now, but I'm not going to let you die that easily. I'll pull out all your hair, slash your face, gouge out your eyes, and let you die in agony."
As Kin prepared to yank Sakura's hair with all her strength, her eyes suddenly widened, and her pupils contracted in shock.
Her wrist, which had been holding Sakura's hair, was now gripped by a large hand. A tall figure had appeared beside her out of nowhere.
But that wasn't the real issue.
The real problem was that the moment her wrist was grabbed, her body became completely paralyzed, as if she had lost all control over it.
"Ki...Kinbinding Jutsu...Ah!"
Kin recognized the technique immediately—being a genjutsu user herself—but before she could disrupt her chakra flow to break free, her expression twisted in agony, and she let out a scream.
The intense pain caused her to release Sakura's hair and arm involuntarily.
Yagyu had stabbed a kunai deep into the crook of her elbow, forcing her to let go.
Once Kin had released Sakura's hair, Yagyu twisted her wrist with a sharp motion.
"AAAGHHHH!!"
The sickening sound of bone snapping filled the air, and Kin screamed in agony, her eyes red with pain.
Dosu and Zaku, who had been standing by and watching from a distance, finally snapped to attention.
As they rushed to rescue Kin, Yagyu spun and, with a powerful kick, sent her flying toward them.
Before they could catch her, Yagyu reappeared in front of the airborne Kin, a glowing blue sphere of swirling energy in his hand. He slammed the Rasengan into her body.
In an instant, Kin's body spun violently in the air, her speed multiplied several times over as she flew like a spinning boulder toward Dosu and Zaku.
Seeing this, both Dosu and Zaku abandoned their attempts to catch her and dodged out of the way.
Kin's body flew between them, crashing a great distance away into a massive tree, leaving a deep crater in the trunk before finally coming to a stop.
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Status Power Mingguan
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Power 
-- Power
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