Despite it All

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Sakura's POV (Nearby Chakra Anchor - Western River Plains)

Evening

As he did Hinata poised her hands together and carefully aimed it at the moving Kiba, his speed and the small target she had to aim for made this a difficult yet crucial shot. Simple Beam simply would not have the power and range to be effective. It was concerning, the very nature of Indiscriminate Beam was to be powerful yet less precise. But Hinata did not failure to stall or weigh her down, she simply had to succeed. After ten seconds to catch onto Kiba's movement pattern and the timing of his dashes Hinata was ready. Flaring her chakra to begin she screamed out a warning as a thick beam of pure chakra shot from her hand.

Sakura gasped worried but smiled as Hinata's aim proved true. The beam shot through the sky and through several wasps that had begun to charge. Outright incinerating some and bisecting others. Once it hit Kiba it reflected off the mirror as intended and shot off at an angle slicing through another easy dozen. Kiba cheered with a howled he spun himself slightly forming an air platform beneath his feet. "Watch out!" He warned Sakura and Hinata. The casual action led to devastating consequences, the beam still reflecting off the mirror moved with frightening speed in sync with Kiba. Whizzing around and wreaking havoc.

Despite the dense armored bodies and the layers of them intent on defending their queen. The Chakra beam cut through them all with sickening ease leaving their bodies to fall to the ground in a grizzly rain. Tearing lines through the hive it even managed to wing the Queen. The laser burned through her left wing and made her drop slightly flight more unevenly as she voiced her pain. The voice of their leader in pain enraged the wasps that attempted to evade the beam and kill their foes before they harmed their Queen further.

"Kiba I'm ready, let's give it our all!" Hinata called out. Kiba nodded and Sakura watched in amazement as Kiba rebegan his wild and seemingly random flying through the air, combined with Hinata's beam reflecting off it their attack only increased in furocity. The single beam shooting out in so many directions it seemed more like dozens of them coming in from all directions, as opposed to the single beam of death it was. As planned the two worked Hinata called out directions controlling their chaos. The beams slaughtered wasps yet never ventured too close to their Queen.

Through the chaos of the whirling beam, booms of Kiba kicking off air, beating of wasps wings, screams of dying wasps, and falling bodies of felled foes. Sakura was focused and calm, her eyes locked snugly on the Queen. Tracing a path carefully Sakura saw her opening clearly. "This time I need to use it to close the distance." Sakura reasoned to herself. Directly above her high in the sky was the Queen, the beam and wasps seemed chaotic but Sakura saw the wasps were unknowingly being hoarded away from their Queen, in fact the beam in its reflecting chaos even had created a visible gap of laser or wasp. Though with the unpredictability of lasers this would be risky, if it shifted in the wrong angle the laser would hit her before she could do anything. If it did it would almost certainly be a critical wound if not outright kill her. But Sakura could not afford doubt, not anymore.

Sakura kicked off the ground with all her strength, her body flooded with constantly controlled chakra. The force of her mere jump caved in the ground below into a deep hole as Sakura shot off the ground high into the sky. The Queen buzzed loudly in shock, yet all the same struck out with its stinger. It appeared a clan boss was nothing to underestimate.

Sakura knew all too well how deadly this simple sting would be. The size of it would make it nearly split her in two, the venom would flood her body and paralyze her, death would be either by instant organ failure, consistent bleeding, or by suffocation by blood and or venom. It was not too long ago Sakura would've been much too fearful of death to attempt something like this. Now she was more worried about causing the death of her friends. Confidence or desperation filled her, and she moved with it, no doubt for once in her life.

She attempted to backhand the attack away, as if redirecting a mere punch. Sakura inwardly cursed her foolishness, size mattered in physical combat, even with her boost she couldn't hope to merely swat it away. Science would say her hand would shatter from the blow before the rest of her followed. Sakura was shocked as she felt the massive weight and power behind the Queen's attack come into contact with her hand as she attempted to smack it away, and with ease Sakura batted away the attack managing to make the Queen spin with her power. Sakura not even losing momentum in her flight toward the Queen wasp. This new technique of hers, she was strong…

This new technique of hers was something else, it was almost like the super strength of the famed Tsunade… filing away the knowledge for later Sakura reared back her fist at the open and screaming Queen. While her strength was impressive she could not afford to risk the Queen surviving this attack, they may not get another chance. "Cherry Blossom: Nerve Impact!" She called out as she smashed her fist into the exoskeleton thorax of the Queen. With a sickening crack her fist shattered it and a wetness made it clear to Sakura she had struck true. A mere half instant later Sakura flared her chakra through chakra scalpels into the nervous system of the Queen. The massive Queen shot up into the air unnaturally stiff and still. Sakura was grimly aware of why, her attack now fully realized was not only an absurdly powerful blow that shattered the outside defenses, her chakra would be shot within and attack the nervous system of her foe directly. Likely it fried it and the brain attached to it as well. Likely killing the Queen in an instant.

However Sakura's vision darkened for a moment. With a blink she regained vision but a light nausea was pooling in her head. Using such consistent and precise chakra control for an extended period of time was no easy feat. And Sakura was experiencing the backlash of it physically and mentally. Much more than her mere headache earlier, she needed to use this new style sparingly. Stunning her as she fell to the ground with the corpse of the Queen. 'I can't recover yet!' Sakura thought alarmed as she fell to her death.

Kiba however snatched her out of the air, rebounding off it multiple times to bleed off their force. Before he gently hopped them down to the ground beside Hinata. "Holy shit Sakura that was nuts!" He congratulated. "Now that is repping our team! We're gonna be unstoppable now!"

Hinata nodded but the three didn't dare fully relax as the couple dozen or so wasps still remained in the air buzzing with such volume it was nearly deafening even at a distance. They watched as the massive body of the Queen smashed into a river causing the waters to rise and overflood the area a bit. Realizing for certain their leader was dead the wasps' intelligent eyes honed in on them. The three were tired, Sakura was low on chakra and she was certain Kiba and Hinata were on the lower end by their stooped stances. However the group were shocked as the audibly disturbed wasp began to prepare for combat.

Instead of attacking them however they turned on one another. A bloody free for all filled the sky as wasp on wasp violence reigned rampant. While others seemed to flee, panic was evident as they left the area in all different directions.

"So we killed their boss and their response is to take it out on each other?" Kiba asked dumbfounded. "Seems odd to have an immediate power struggle. You'd think they'd prioritize revenge on us. Know I would."

"Perhaps they realize they simply cannot and fell into despair due to such?" Hinata mused.

"From what I've read on wasp behavior before, their societal structure is built entirely around their Queen. She is the most important member, defended till the last, and solely responsible for reproduction. With normal wasps on Earth there would be a few drones with the necessary organs to replace her. But with the Queen being so large and powerful I doubt they have such preparedness. Combine that with some level of high intelligence and you have a political bloodbath." Sakura agreed. "Though this is reliving, we should get moving. Lee and Shino are both fighting as well. They might need our help."

"Maybe, I hate to say this but I feel as though it may be necessary to trust them to pull through for now." Hinata said, sounding disturbed by her own musing. "The two of them are quite powerful and resourceful, and I can see some kind of hole in the barrier. It seems Mono and Muuni were successful in bypassing it."

"So shouldn't we help those two regardless? If they are already dealing with the barrier it's all the more reason for us to rally with the others and challenge this big bad together." Kiba pointed out with a raised brow.

Sakura hummed as she pondered over it however. "Her point isn't that Kiba, it's that they made an entrance and entered yet the barrier is still up. It suggests there is some sort of struggle going on inside of it. We can assume while not weak, our Okama allies are not as strong as us. Might be worth us checking on them, especially since we know the others are still out there. Naruto, Sasuke, and Yuno haven't shown up after all. With the master and wolves not being here as well we can assume the others are dealing with them. Knowing Naruto and Sasuke they'll tear through them and be on their way shortly. It would be our best move to reinforce Okama. Besides we all know Naruto will check on them regardless of logic."

"I guess you two are right." Kiba said with a sigh. "Fine, let's kick ass quickly so we can check on the others.

Their choice made the three raced off to the pulsating new entrance to the giant scarlet barrier. Heedless of the danger that lied ahead.