Chapter 718 To Be a Shinobi Is to Carry a Blade in One’s Heart

Sakura gracefully landed a safe distance from the veil of dust where she had sent Toneri crashing, her gaze briefly flicking towards the pale blue dot floating far away in the inky depths of space. The chakra cannon shot was almost upon them, carrying enough energy to shatter the moon. No matter what happened in her duel with Toneri, she had to make sure she was in position to block it when it entered her jumping range.

'Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!'

Without warning, rays of golden light began spilling from the cloud of moon dust, and an unending pillar of light raced skywards, tracing a wide arc of golden chakra as Toneri brought down the immense energy blade upon her.

'PERFECT SUSANO'O!'

In a flash, the completed Susano'o burst into being around Sakura. She raised her naginata, shouting a wordless cry as she poured hundreds of Kakashis' worth of senjutsu chakra into the blade at the tip of the polearm and braced herself.

[Boom.]

Fissures began rapidly spreading across the Susano'o's pink armour as the unbearable weight of a thousand exploding suns fell upon its blade, the sheer force of the impact driving its heels into the moon's dusty surface. The turquoise light of the Celestial Sovereign Lotus Seal on Sakura's forehead flickered dangerously as her senjutsu chakra supplies dwindled away at a dangerous rate.

'SHA!'

In that moment, as Sakura was growing lightheaded from the effort of staunching the endless flow of exploding golden chakra, a faint voice seemed to ring out in her ears. It bore the loneliness of being the last of its kind, the heaviness of an impossible burden, the envy of being forced to sit in a cuck chair on the moon while the rest of humanity frolicked below.

'The Sage of Six Paths' world has failed, humanity ignored his teachings and used the chakra he gave them to murder each other. Hamura's will must be done. Wipe away humanity's sins and start anew, it's the only way forwards!'

It is said that when truly skilled shinobi clash, they can read each other's deepest thoughts. No words are necessary, only blows, and Toneri's Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion contained the sum of his chakra, his spiritual energy, his emotions and deepest held desires…

His「Sword of the Heart 」!

'The Sage of Six Paths' world isn't a failure, mostly! And even if it was, that doesn't give you the right to commit genocide!' Sakura screamed inwardly. 'So what if people use the chakra given to them by the Sage to fight? Plenty of people live far away from the shinobi continent and have no idea chakra even exists, and they still fight every day to survive! Crashing the Moon into the Earth would kill them too, you know!'

It was no use.

Toneri couldn't hear Sakura's inner voice, as their spiritual link was currently flowing in only one direction, and even if he were able to hear her words, her argument for humanity's salvation wasn't especially convincing. If she wanted to get him to understand her point of view, she would have to give him a good punch in return… but how?

'The stakes have never been higher,' said Inner Sakura. 'Just look up and you'll see.'

That pale blue dot floating above the Moon was Earth, her adopted home. If Toneri had his way, that fragile world would soon undergo an extinction event on par with that of the dinosaurs. Nature would endure, it always did, but humanity would almost certainly vanish from the face of the Earth.

'That star… or rather, the Earth…' Sakura inwardly reflected. 'Almost perfectly round, just like a breast…'

Sakura closed her eyes even as her Susano'o melted under the golden chakra's radiance, but even so, she focused her chakra. Every last drop of senjutsu chakra in her Celestial Sovereign Seal, along the length of her naginata's blade…

A Manyū blade can cut through almost anything, as long as it's to slice a pair of breasts.

Sakura's eyes flew open.

'I can see them!' she inwardly roared. 'The attack's boobs!'

A thin thread of light, amidst the golden…

'Cut it with the sword in your breast!' Inner Sakura shouted. 'Sever the Nyūmyaku!'

The Sage markings on Sakura's skin had faded to such an extent that they were barely visible. Sage Mode was on the verge of running out!

'SHANNAROOO!'

At last, the torrent of golden light parted, carving wide swathes of destruction across the moon's surface on either side of Sakura as her naginata slash sliced clean through the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion. The backlash from such a massive technique being forcibly interrupted travelled back to Toneri, and he fell to one knee, clapping a hand over his eyes in agony. The frequency of his palpitations was increasing, meaning that his transformation was still ongoing.

Sakura could feel his chakra skyrocketing!

'The chakra cannon!'

The pillar of blue light was almost upon them, and within it, Sakura could sense Killer B's chakra signature. He must have helped charge the chakra cannon at some point, not to use against the Land of Fire, but against the moon!

Either take the opportunity of Toneri's momentary weakness to finish him off now, or allow the moon to be destroyed along with Naruto and their companions… for Sakura, the choice was easy enough to make.

Sakura jumped to intercept the shot, her fingers forming a window.

'Six Paths Style: Calamity Swallowing Pill Refining Jutsu!'

The crackling pillar of blue chakra struck Sakura dead-on.

…

Land of Lightning, Kumogakure.

"Direct hit!" called the artilleryman as he peered through the massive chakra cannon's spyglass. "Awaiting confirmation of the moon's destruction!"

It had taken weeks of Kumo's thousands of ninja taking turns in rotating shifts to feed the cannon's chakra batteries to quarter capacity, and it was only when the world discovered the moon was falling that Killer B finally agreed to help fill up the rest. However, since the Sixth Hokage had threatened to declare war if they shot the cannon at her friends on the moon, it was doubtful he would volunteer to help again.

If they missed, that would be it!

"Status report," Darui's voice crackled over the radio. "Was the target successfully teleported?"

After the Fourth Shinobi World War ended and the Leaf released their feminised prisoners of war, they returned to their villages with strange stories of endless mist and warping space-time that either caused their friends to vanish or return to where they had started, leading experts to correctly deduce what Sakura had done to Konoha: she has shunted it into a different dimension!

So naturally, Kumogakure immediately began work on a weapon that would be able to strike the Hidden Leaf Village despite their no longer actually being on the same plane of existence: the Chakra Transportation Cannon!

The jutsu smoke from the impact soon cleared.

"Negative!" the radio operator cried in anguish. "The moon is still there, I repeat, the moon is still there!"