Sakura Takes a Hostage

A deathly silence fell upon the Hidden Cloud following the pink-haired Shadow Clone's bold declaration, punctuated only by the occasional snores of Kumogakure's unconscious inhabitants lying here and there.

A droplet of sweat ran down Sakura's wide forehead— even with her prodigious stamina, she wouldn't be able to maintain such a powerful Genjutsu over such a wide area for much longer.

As long as they stayed inside the shrine, the bridal party would remain safe, and once Sakura ran out of chakra, she would be easy pickings for Kumo's elite Jōnin. All they needed to do was to sit tight, but would the prideful Cloud shinobi really be willing to continue cowering in fright before a single girl…?

"Fifth Raikage? Strongest of the Gokage? What a joke!" the Shadow Clone shouted, adding fuel to the flames. "I should have figured that a man who would resort to kidnapping young girls would be too much of a coward to face—"

The shrine's doors were suddenly blasted off their hinges with a loud bang, and they were sent flying with such force that they ended up embedded up to the doorknob in the mountain peak behind the Shadow Clone; who was counting her lucky stars that she hadn't been standing right in front of their flight path!

Up on the roof of a neighbouring building, Sakura squinted her eyes, trying to catch sight of the enemy hiding behind the veil of dust that had been raised by the explosion…

"Lord Raikage, I beg you to reconsider!" came a voice from within the dust cloud. "We've lost contact with the guards posted around the shrine— this is obviously a trap of some kind!"

"Shut up, C! Like hell I'm going to take this lying down!" growled the Raikage. "The Leaf dares to send mere Genin to insult me within my own village— since they won't give me face, then don't blame me for taking matters into my own hands!"

The dust cloud began glowing and flashing with blue light. Bright arcs of lightning crackled and licked the ground at the Raikage's feet…

…And before Sakura could even react, her Shadow Clone's memories began flooding her mind— she had got obliterated within a blink of an eye! The Raikage had turned into a living lightning bolt and pierced through the Shadow Clone's breast, leaving a trail of upturned pavement in his wake!

"Wait, stay back, Darui!" shouted C. "Something's wrong!"

For a moment, the Raikage just stood there, shrouded in a cloak of crackling lightning, looking vacantly into empty space at the pretty feathers— and then, he fell to one knee. He slowly raised one hand, and to Sakura's surprise, he plunged it into his thigh, causing a torrent of blood to spurt out of his self-inflicted wound…

The Raikage roared, a ferocious expression on his face, before finally keeling over. Despite trying countless times to disturb his own chakra, despite the constant pain of keeping up the Lightning Chakra Mode, and despite stabbing himself in the leg, the Raikage A had failed to dispel Sakura's powerful Genjutsu.

"C, we gotta do something!" shouted Darui urgently. "We can't just stand here and do nothing!"

"I'm thinking!" said C helplessly, looking behind him as the Raikage's honour guard finally caught up to them. "But this shouldn't have happened in the first place! How could the Raikage fall for a Genjutsu while having the Lightning Chakra Mode active…?"

Obviously, covering one's body in elemental chakra was not the most pleasant of experiences— but as long as a Jutsu did more damage to the enemy than to its user, then all the pain in the world was worth it!

Sakura abruptly ended the Temple of Nirvana Genjutsu, having exhausted more than half of her stamina reserves already, before flickering to the unconscious Raikage's side. A wild idea had just popped into her head!

"Barehanded Manyuu Style: Breast Severance!"

"Shannarooo!" Sakura shouted, as she delivered a knifehand strike into the Raikage's chest.

Had she attempted to strike A normally, Sakura would have broken her hand against his body— the Raikage's skin had been tempered through the baptism of the Lightning Chakra Mode's training method, making it almost as hard as diamond.

…

But how, might one ask, was such hardness even achievable with the human body?

As Sakura was about to find out, since the Raikage kept the secret scroll on his person at all times, the secret behind the Raikage's incredible resilience lied in the Lightning Chakra Mode's training method, known only to the various Raikage and their successors.

Indeed, there was a reason why no Uchiha had ever managed to copy this incredible Nintaijutsu— just like the Hozuki clan's Hydrification Jutsu, it required more than just knowing how to mobilize one's chakra!

To train in the Lightning Chakra Mode, one had to bathe in a special solution of chemicals and chakra metal. Then, one had to open all of their Tenketsu in a very specific order, releasing lightning-attributed chakra in timed bursts. It was the equivalent of dropping a toaster in one's bathtub 361 times in a row, but the result was indeed worth the pain.

The electricity would effectively electrodeposit the dissolved chakra metal in the aqueous solution onto the user's skin and muscles, which would grant the practitioner two major boons:

Firstly, the chakra metal bonded to one's cells would massively enhance one's durability!

Secondly, the chakra metal would arrange itself between the Tenketsu, creating electrical circuits. Those circuits would guide the lightning into forming a cloak around the user's body— much like a Tailed Beast's chakra cloak!

…

However, Sakura did not break her hand and all of her fingers against the unconscious Raikage's rock-hard body; Manyuu-Style Jutsu allowed one to cleave only the Breast Vein, leaving the flesh unharmed; as a result, her hand passed right through him, since men have no breasts to slice!

"Not one step closer!" Sakura shouted to C and Darui, who froze on the spot. "See what I'm doing? I'm currently phasing my hand through your Raikage's heart— he won't be harmed for as long as I keep doing it, but why don't you try and guess what will happen if I stop?"

Sakura didn't actually know what would happen if she stopped using Breast Severance while her hand was still stuck in someone's ribcage. Would her hand simply pop out, like a balloon pushed underwater? Would her flesh fuse with his? Or would both her hand and his heart turn into scrambled eggs, since two different objects couldn't occupy the same space?

"His heart will be turned to shreds," answered C through gritted teeth.

C couldn't see a way out of this predicament yet.

The pink-haired girl was using strange Jutsu that he had never seen before; he needed more time to analyse her powers, but there just wasn't enough information to go off of yet!

"My Storm Style: Laser Circus is fast enough to take her by surprise," Darui murmured. "Shall I do it?"

C shook his head slightly.

The pink-haired girl's attack was like a dead man's switch— the instant she died, her hand would stop phasing, and their beloved Raikage's heart would presumably explode…

"Send out Hinata and the Tsuchimikado family unharmed!" shouted Sakura. "Or your Raikage dies today!"