As Sakura scribbled her name on the waiver forfeiting her right to sue if she was accidentally killed during phase two of the exams, she couldn't shake the feeling of impending doom. This wasn't the first time Karin had claimed to sense people underground— according to her, there were always one or two of them lurking deep beneath Konoha at any given time.
Thanks to her knowledge of the anime, Sakura had no doubt these were White Zetsu. They might not have been powered up by Kabuto's experiments yet, but the idea of having hundreds of them just hanging around underfoot didn't exactly inspire confidence… even if they were only there as observers, to keep track of the Jinchūriki.
"Hey, are you okay, Sakura?" Ino asked as she, Sakura, and Chōji made their way around the rampart enclosing the Demon Desert towards their starting positions. "You look kinda nervous."
"You want a snack?" asked Chōji, loudly munching down on some crisps. "We're not allowed to bring food in, but I hate wasting food."
Chōji was limping slightly, favouring his right leg.
A giant scorpion had nearly killed him the night before, when he'd tried to raid the snack bar in the Jōnin-sensei's lounge next door. Fortunately, the Kazekage himself had come to his rescue— but not before the scorpion had crushed his ankle. Ino had done her best to heal him, but she wasn't quite on Sakura's level, so the injury hadn't fully mended.
Now that his ankle was technically "healed," there wasn't much more Sakura could do to help— short of cleanly re-breaking the whole thing and starting from scratch. However, Chōji had vetoed that idea, so here they were: Sakura distracted and half sleep-deprived, and Chōji crippled and hobbling along like a wounded duck.
What a wonderful start to the second phase of the Chūnin exams!
Fortunately, Sakura had just secured a new trump card. She hadn't had a chance to redeem it last night— she'd passed out halfway through an Old Maid game with Karin and Fū— so now seemed as good a time as any to cash it in.
Ding! The requisite breast chakra has been obtained! Redeem Tailed Breast Mode?
"Redeem!" Sakura mouthed, quickly turning away from Ino and Chōji so they wouldn't think she'd completely lost it, talking to herself like a lunatic.
Beep! Congratulations to the Host for obtaining the Tailed Breast Chakra Mode! This mode envelops the user in Tailed Beast chakra, providing the Host all the advantages a chakra cloak confers: heightened durability, speed and strength. This mode also further enhances the unique traits that the Tailed Beasts grant to the Host's chakra— for example, the Two-Tails' blue fire and the Seven-Tails' ability to weave chakra into sticky webs.
After Naruto became a perfect Jinchūriki in the original timeline— even before befriending his furry little problem— he would gain Kurama's sensitivity to malice and negative emotions whenever he would enter Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.
Warning! The Host may only remain in this mode for one minute at most. It takes 30 days on average for the Tailed Beast chakra to regenerate. Recharge rate depends on the density of ambient Natural Energy.
"One minute?" hissed Sakura. "That's it!?"
If the Host wishes to extend the Tailed Breast Chakra Mode's duration, please acquire a greater fraction of Fū's chakra. Note that if the Host goes over the time limit, this mode may become unavailable until more Tailed Beast chakra can be acquired.
It wasn't unheard of for a non-Jinchūriki to harbour Tailed Beast chakra within their body— it was just incredibly risky. Without proper sealing or a body strong enough to withstand it, the foreign chakra would usually incinerate them or mutate them beyond recognition.
Take Kumogakure's Gold and Silver Brothers, for instance— their concentrated Ōtsutsuki blood had spared them from the worst effects of the Nine-Tails' power. But for an ordinary human, the Nine-Tails' chakra could be devastating: just look at Sora, from the Twelve Guardian Ninja filler arc— his arm was completely disfigured by the poorly sealed chakra leaking from within him.
At any rate…
The point was that if a portion of Tailed Beast chakra was separated from the original, it wouldn't grow back into a whole new different being, like a starfish's arm would (unless the Tailed Beast was separated into two perfectly equal halves of yin and yang).
This lump of separated Tailed Beast chakra would conserve a vague sense of instinctual awareness and would still be able to regenerate to a certain extent (as long as it wasn't completely consumed), but it could never exceed the volume of the original lump of chakra that had been separated from the Tailed Beast's main body.
"But I took every last bit of breast flesh she had on her chest!" hissed Sakura. "There isn't any more to steal— not that there was much there to begin with!"
By analysing and cross-referencing Yugito's and Fū's chakra, the System had deduced how a Jinchūriki might develop a Tailed Beast Chakra Cloak. Accordingly, the resulting mode required equal portions of both Two-Tails and Seven-Tails chakra.
It didn't matter how much of Matatabi's chakra Sakura had stolen from Nii Yugito: Chōmei's chakra was the bottleneck, and Fū's flat chest was the limiting factor!
…
By the time Sakura and her team reached their starting positions on the Great Wall of Taxpayer Money that surrounded the Demon Desert, the sun was already beginning to rise over the horizon.
The second phase of Suna's exams was a carbon copy of Konoha's Forest of Death exam, complete with Heaven and Earth scrolls to be collected and brought to a central location in the testing grounds. Points for originality, the time limit was three days instead of five days.
"There's the signal!" shouted Ino, as a firework exploded overhead. "Let's go!"
With practised ease, Chōji ripped open five bags of crisps, funnelled their contents into his mouth in one motion, and then jumped off the wall to catch up with Ino and Sakura, already on the ground below.
"Somebody please catch meeee!" he yelled, suddenly remembering about his injury mid-flight. "I forgot about my ankleeee! Heeeelp!"
"Water Style: Starch Syrup Capturing Field!"
Sakura spat out a glob of syrup at Chōji just as he was about to hit the ground. Her Jutsu exploded on contact, covering him in some sort of… suspicious white fluid. It was all gooey and sticky, and it clung to his clothes and glued him to the wall.
"Eww, what is that stuff?" Ino shrieked.
"I'm so sorry, Chōji!" gasped Sakura. "I swear this never happened to me before!"
"It's okay..." groaned Chōji, blowing white bubbles from his mouth. "Happens to everyone..."
Premature ejaculation jokes aside, it was then that Sakura remembered how Matatabi's chakra had affected her Fire Style, turning up her flames' heat until they always came out blue. Could it be that Chōmei was also changing the way she applied nature transformation? For instance, turning Water Style into web fluid...?
"It might take a while to get Chōji out of there," said Sakura sheepishly, remembering the time Naruto's and Sasuke's hands had ended up glued to her chest. "Guess I'm a bit out of practice, ehehe~"
Sakura winked and stuck out her tongue cutely…
Tehe-pero~
…but Ino was having none of it.
"GET HIM OUT NOW!"