Naruto: Reborn as Sakura with Manyuu Chifusa Template

Sakura, Ino, and Chōji strode across the dusty ground of the coliseum, halting as they met the opposing team at the centre of the arena. This time, they were up against Kirigakure's Team Kurosuki— two of whom belonged to the newest generation of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

Hōzuki Suigetsu's normally spindly arms had swollen to twice their usual size just to lift the Kabutowari, a giant axe paired with an equally massive hammer. At his side stood Ringo Kosame, wielder of the electrifying Kiba blades, once wielded by her sensei Kurosuki Raiga and her aunt, Ringo Ameyuri. And standing in between them was little Ranmaru, who didn't have any magical weapons, but a pair of Dōjutsu in his eye sockets that had far too many abilities for Sakura's liking.

"Checking these out?" said Suigetsu, flashing a toothy grin and flexing his temporarily musclebound arms. "…Ooh, what scary eyes you have~"

Curious to learn how Suigetsu could liquefy his flesh with such ease, Sakura had opened her Sharingan to get a better understanding of his body's inner workings, but unfortunately for her, her two-tomoe Sharingan couldn't glean any useful information from Suigetsu's body at first glance.

From what little she remembered, the Hōzuki clan's Hydrification Jutsu wasn't a Kekkei Genkai, which meant that, technically, anyone could learn it. If she were so inclined, Sakura could even copy Hiden Jutsu like the Ino-Shika-Chō's signature techniques, so long as she saw the hand signs— it was just that doing so would get her into trouble, so frankly, it wasn't worth the effort.

But the Hydrification Jutsu was likely something else entirely. If she couldn't replicate what Suigetsu was doing right in front of her— swelling his muscles with fluid to boost his strength— then it probably meant the technique was more like the Raikage's Lightning Chakra Mode: something that required bodily modification to cultivate and was therefore beyond the reach of the Sharingan's broken copy pasterino ability.

In Sakura's expert opinion, Suigetsu had probably soaked in some sort of medicinal tonic to unlock his automatic liquefaction ability— but even if she read his mind, she doubted she'd find the eleven secret herbs and spices that went into his family's secret recipe.

Sakura's stomach rumbled.

"Team Kurosuki and Team Asuma, send out your first fighters!" shouted Jōnin Baki, raising an arm high into the air. "The rest of you, fall back."

Sakura, Ino, Kosame and Ranmaru retreated to a safe distance, while Suigetsu and Chōji remained on the field, staring each other down.

"FIGHT!"

With considerable effort, Suigetsu hefted the Bluntsword and took a wide swing at Chōji with the axe part of his weapon.

"Partial Multi-Size Jutsu!"

Chōji's right hand rapidly swelled up, ballooning to the size of a small cow. He caught the axe's blade cleanly between thumb and forefinger, halting it mid-swing— a fraction of a second before it would have cleaved him in two.

"Watch out, Chōji!" Sakura shouted. "The real attack is coming!"

…

The Kabutowari— also known as the Helmsplitter or the Bluntsword— had never been intended for slaying humans. The axe and hammer were far too heavy, far too unwieldy, to wield against swift-footed foes. No, these twinblades had been forged to fell monsters.

Shortly after the founding of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Senju Hashirama singlehandedly captured all the Tailed Beasts— save for Shukaku— and handed Tails Two through Eight over to Kumo, Kiri, Iwa, and Taki. The idea was to use their sheer destructive power as a form of nuclear deterrence— an overwhelming threat to ensure no war would ever break out again.

But the First Mizukage was not so naïve as to believe in the First Hokage's idealism.

And so, when he summoned the Hidden Mist's finest blacksmiths to forge seven swords for his seven mightiest swordmasters, he made a simple request: some of the blades needed to be powerful enough to kill Tailed Beasts. That way, when the chakra monsters would inevitably be turned against his village, his shinobi would have the means to strike them down.

In other words… the Kabutowari was a giant's bane!

…

"Take this!" yelled Suigetsu.

Muscles bulging in his left arm, he raised the hammer end of his weapon and brought it crashing down on the butt of the axe— but thanks to Sakura's timely warning, Chōji managed to spring back just in time to avoid being cleaved in twain by the axe. Even so, he was a fraction of a second too slow to react, due to his massive fingers blocking his sightline— the axe blow tore through the front of his metal body armour, leaving it dented and gaping open.

Chōji tore off his warped armour before he could gash himself on its jagged edges, and hurled it at Suigetsu, who caught the blow on the flat of his axe. Seizing the opening, Chōji expanded both arms and clapped them together— flattening Suigetsu like a pancake… or so he thought.

The audience collectively gasped.

"Tag out!" shouted Sakura from the sidelines. "He's gone liquid! Brute force won't work against the Hydrification Jutsu!"

Waiting any longer wouldn't serve any purpose— she had managed to refine a bit of chakra while Chōji was fighting, but that was all she could extract from her cells until she could get a chance to digest the military ration pill she had consumed before the match. Any more, and she risked dying of chakra exhaustion.

"Tsk, so you've done your research," Suigetsu's disembodied voice called out. "So what— Water Gun Jutsu!"

Water spilled through the gaps in Chōji's fingers, pooling on the ground before rising once more into Suigetsu's shape. Grinning, he raised his hands and formed two finger guns, pointing them point-blank at Chōji's face. He had no time to move out of the way!

"Tag out!" Chōji hastily shouted out.

"Tsk…"

Suigetsu lowered his finger guns and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Team Asuma uses its last remaining tag out!" shouted Baki. "Uchiha Sakura is next in the turn order!"

At the sight of the pink-haired girl striding confidently towards the centre of the arena, the crowd erupted into cheers, catcalls and whistles. Clearly, they liked what they were seeing…