Naruto: Reborn as Sakura with Manyuu Chifusa Template

"Here she comes!" yelled Sakura. "Scatter!"

The gigantic cat cloaked in blue flames pounced, so Sakura and Karin split up, flickering a short distance away in different directions. A fraction of a second later, Nii Yugito in her Tailed Beast Mode landed right where they'd been standing; her flaming body raising a thick cloud of steam as it made contact with the sea water.

The hissing of steam filled Sakura's ears, and the next thing she knew, a wave of superheated water vapour slammed into her back and blasted her off her feet; leaving her dazed, and smelling vaguely of fish that had been left out in the sun for too long…

As Sakura staggered to her feet, she found a pair of heterochromatic eyes— one golden, one turquoise— staring back at her through the thick steam billowing around the monster's body…

"Surrender the secret scroll now," Yugito growled, her human voice mixed with a tiger's roar. "And your death shall be quick and painless."

'What, no, "give me the scroll, and I'll let you live?"' said Inner Sakura. 'Seems like they're serious about this…'

Even though she hadn't killed anyone in the Cloud Village (as far as she knew), by taking the Raikage hostage, Sakura had taken things too far. She had hit the Hidden Cloud right where it hurts— its pride, making reconciliation with the Leaf impossible without her death.

After all, how could this village of burly macho men ever recover from the humiliation of having their leader beaten by a teenage girl, even though she had tricked him?

"Come and get it yourself," Sakura shouted back at her with false bravado. "If you think you can."

Sakura's arsenal of Jutsu had not kept up with her chakra levels; even though she had nearly as much chakra as Jiraiya, she possessed no Ninjutsu that could actually seriously hurt a Tailed Beast.

The vast majority of her Ninjutsu and Genjutsu were only C-rank and B-rank, and to her credit, she did know two and a half A-rank Jutsu: the Temple of Nirvana Genjutsu, the Rasengan, and a bit of the Chidori. The only S-rank Jutsu that Sakura currently knew was a supportive one: the Yin Seal. And even then, she wasn't even done charging it up…

Even so, that's not to say B-rank and C-rank Ninjutsu couldn't come in handy— with enough talent and chakra, one could supercharge a low-ranked Ninjutsu's damage output to S-rank levels, but Sakura wasn't really ready for that sort of thing yet.

'How on earth do we fight this thing?' said Inner Sakura fearfully. 'Even if we could get close, there's no way to actually beat it!'

Tailed Beasts were walking calamities, but they weren't invincible. In the original timeline, Hidan and Kakuzu had somehow taken down the Two-Tails on their own, but even though the fight had happened offscreen, Sakura could somewhat guess at how they could have done it— Hidan's Jujutsu and Kakuzu's Water Style Jutsu, most likely.

"Over here, you overgrown kitty!" came Karin's trembling voice from behind the curtain of steam. "Paws off my onee-sama! She's mine, you hear!?"

'If Karin could just awaken her Adamantine Sealing Chains,' said Inner Sakura wistfully, 'this would be over in a flash…'

Karin threw a few kunai in an attempt to get Yugito to chase her, but they either bounced off the Two-Tails' chakra cloak or got stuck in its flaming fur and melted there— in all likelihood, Yugito hadn't felt a thing. Still, Karin's voice had momentarily distracted Yugito— and so, taking advantage of this opportunity, Sakura began weaving hand signs.

Tiger! Ox! Dog! Rabbit! Snake!

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

Sakura took in a deep breath, before releasing a great gale of wind that temporarily blew away the steam wrapped around the Tailed Beast; revealing its true, ferocious appearance. But she wasn't done yet— Sakura continued weaving hand signs.

Snake! Rat! Snake! Tiger!

She was about to use Asuma's signature technique: a Ninjutsu that released a cloud of volatile, explosive chakra, which could also be used as a smokescreen… as long as nobody ignited it. As it relied on the same principles as dust explosions to inflict damage, this Fire Style technique wasn't a true Explosion Style Jutsu, but hey, as long as it worked…

"Fire Style: Ash Pile Burning!"

Sakura spat out a billowing cloud of grey smoke at Yugito… with predictable results. While Matatabi the Two-Tails was pretty much immune to fire, due to its body literally being made out of fire-attributed chakra, it wasn't immune to shockwaves!

Upon making contact with the Jinchūriki's flaming body, the grey cloud ignited, producing a deafening roar that seemed to distort the very air and sea around her!

At the epicentre of the explosion, Yugito and the Two-Tails yowled in pain as one— so loudly, in fact, that their voices combined with the detonation nearly pierced Sakura's eardrums, even though she had shoved her fingers down her ears in advance!

At any rate, the shockwave didn't stop there; it continued rippling across air and water. The sea itself churned and swelled— sending concentric waves undulating outwards from the explosion's epicentre.

Sakura, Karin and the big blue cat all fell through the water's surface, forcing them to actually swim to remain afloat. The sea's surface had just become too chaotic to stand on, even for a seasoned shinobi!

'It's a good thing we didn't eat any Devil Fruits,' said Inner Sakura happily. 'Bleh, tastes salty…'

Shaking the water out of their long hair, Karin and Sakura glanced at Yugito— the only part of her body that wasn't submerged was her big blue cat's head. She was now doggy paddling for dear life, even though her Tailed Beast had the form of a cat…

And then came the battering rain.

The explosion had thrown up a column of seawater, which was only now cascading all around them. The salty rainfall finally dampened Yugito's flaming cat head, which meant that Sakura and Karin could now finally bring the fight to her!

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Amidst the rocking waves, ten Sakuras appeared in front of the original in a row.

"Up we go!" shouted the first Sakura Shadow Clone. "One!"

Sakura jumped onto her Shadow Clone's head, and using her as a foothold, she then jumped onto the next Shadow Clone's head.

"Two!"

The moment Sakura jumped off her head, the first Shadow Clone dispelled herself, returning her chakra to the original's body.

"Three!"

Gaining confidence in herself, Sakura began quickening her pace.

"Four, five, six, seven, eight (ouch!), nine… ten!"

One after the other, Sakura jumped off the Shadow Clones' heads, leaving a trail of white smoke behind her, until finally, she reached her final destination...

"Rasengan!"

Two spheres of spiralling blue chakra began growing in Sakura's two hands— Orochimaru's approximation of Tsunade's Chakra Enhanced Strength Jutsu just wasn't powerful enough to make a dent in a Jinchūriki's Tailed Beast Mode!

"SHANNAROOOO!" Sakura screamed, before shoving her twin Rasengan into the Two-Tails' eyes.