บท 32: Sakura Used Headbutt!

"Tell the truth!" Yamanaka Inoichi shouted, banging the table with his fist. "Who are you really? Where are you from? What do you have planned? Why do you want to infiltrate the Chūnin exams!? Who are your superiors?"

"How many times are you going to make me repeat myself!?" Sakura exploded. "I've told you; I don't have to infiltrate the Chūnin exams, I'm already a registered participant! You're just as pig-headed as your daughter, aren't you!?"

After leaving her bound to the table in her holding cell for who knew how long, Yamanaka Inoichi had come back to interrogate her. Sakura supposed it was small comfort that she wasn't facing Morino Ibiki, Konoha's best torturer.

Ibiki, as well as Kotetsu and Izumo, were currently busy getting things ready for the Chūnin exams. It seemed as though Konoha was slightly short-staffed, since they were members of the Intelligence Division and the Barrier Team, respectively…

"What time is it, anyway?" Sakura demanded to know. "The Chūnin exams start at four in the afternoon, and I can't be late. I've got a date with Ino, you see; I'm gonna make her eat pavement, as thanks for the lovely treatment you've given me here. Oh, and when do you serve lunch, by the way?"

A vein popped on Inoichi's forehead; this girl had some nerve, threatening his daughter while she was chained up like this! She couldn't even put her hands together to make seals!

"You've asked for it!" Inoichi snapped. "I don't want to use Mind Reading Jutsu on a young girl, but you're leaving me no choice, unless you tell me what I want to know right now."

Sakura glared at him; it was taking her all she had to stop herself from asking to see his manager. Not that it would have done her any good, since he was probably his own manager, as the head of the Analysis Team.

"And I've told you a thousand times," Sakura hissed, "just fetch a Hyūga clan shinobi, and he'll confirm that I have a technique that takes foreign chakra into myself. Or you know, analyse my blood! Or better yet, get Kakashi-sensei!"

Yamanaka Inoichi ignored her, shaking his head helplessly, before placing his hand on the top of her head.

"Psycho Mind Transmission!"

Inoichi closed his eyes, and he began sifting through Sakura's most recent memories.

Ding! It has been detected that the Host's mind has been breached. Prime directive #3 has been activated: the native inhabitants of the world the Host has incarnated into must never find out about the System's existence. Deploying countermeasures!

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Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi were walking across a large bridge; they were on their way home to Konoha after weeks of watching over the bridge builders in the Land of Waves.

"Where d'you think Haku and Zabuza have gone, Kakashi-sensei?" said a blonde-haired boy that Inoichi recognized as the village's Jinchūriki. "Back to the Land of Water?"

A few steps behind the Jinchūriki, the pink-haired girl seemed to be talking to herself; he could see her mouth flapping, but he couldn't make out what she was saying. Inoichi frowned; something was wrong. The girl he suspected had replaced the real Haruno Sakura was talking to something invisible; he needed to go deeper.

'Looking for me?'

Startled, Inoichi looked towards the source of the thundering voice.

A gigantic pink-haired girl rose from the sea below the bridge, grinning fiercely.

This was clearly abnormal; the memories of Kakashi and his three pupils were calmly walking away, acting as if they couldn't see the gigantic girl!

'What!?' Inoichi gasped.

Inner Sakura waggled her finger disapprovingly.

'Don't you know it's impolite to stare?' she sneered. 'And prying into a lady's secrets isn't gentlemanlike, you know…'

The gigantic Inner Sakura raised her fist, and she smashed it down upon Inoichi before he had a chance to react, shattering the bridge and sending him plummeting into the freezing waters below. He couldn't breathe, he needed to get out of here now!

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Yamanaka Inoichi groaned, before collapsing onto the interrogation table. He then blinked a few times, dabbing his upper lip with the tip of his fingers; it was slick with blood. A nosebleed…? What had just happened to him…? He couldn't remember…

"Sakura Headbutt Jutsu!"

Seeing Inoichi hunched over the table within striking range, Sakura unleashed a powerful headbutt onto Inoichi's nose with her incredibly hard forehead. Inoichi was instantly knocked out, his own bones being no match for Sakura's, which were reinforced with Guy's bone density!

"And now," Sakura told herself. "All I need to do is master one-handed seals within thirty minutes, so that I can use the Transformation Jutsu to escape these shackles…"

Yeah, there was no way that was happening.

Maybe she could try dislocating her thumb? But then, how would she be able to make seals, let alone pass the written exam part of the Chūnin exams? And it would probably hurt a lot…

Just as Sakura was beginning to seriously consider dislocating both of her thumbs to avoid missing out on the plot, she heard a key turning in her cell's door lock.

Ding! The Yamanaka clan member won't remember what has just occurred; it is recommended that the Host lie.

"He just slipped and fell on my forehead!" Sakura pre-emptively defended herself, before the mystery visitor had even finished opening the door. "It wasn't my fault!"

To her relief, it was Kakashi who stepped into the holding cell, holding her confiscated belongings and her sword. He paused for an instant to look at the unconscious Inoichi, before walking over to her, key in hand, to unlock her shackles.

"I figured something like this might happen," said Kakashi slightly sheepishly, as he turned the key in the lock. "It's my bad, I forgot to warn the Barrier Team."

Kakashi knew a little about sensing, so he had naturally felt Sakura's chakra signature change when her breasts had grown before his very eyes, that fateful night a few weeks ago.

As for what she had done to Inoichi… Kakashi didn't approve of comrades attacking each other, but in his opinion, if a Jōnin like Yamanaka Inoichi had allowed himself to get knocked out by a rookie Genin, then it was probably his own fault.

"Here's your application form," Kakashi continued, as he handed her the document. "Better hurry, Naruto and Sasuke are waiting for you."