"Just a bit farther, Chōji!" Ino telepathically communicated to him as he thundered through the sandstorm. "Ranmaru says we're nearly out!"
Shielding her eyes with one hand, Sakura squinted through the gap between Chōji's enormous, sausage-like middle and ring fingers, trying to see the ground through the swirling sands of the storm. But the wall of sand was too thick— from this height, she couldn't even see his knees.
At his current size, Chōji could weather the sandstorm far better than anyone at normal scale. Sakura had no idea how the science behind his powers worked— only that chakra seemed to ignore the Law of Conservation of Mass. In any case, growing that large seemed to make him far more durable, even if it also meant he had a much greater surface area for the storm to hammer with sand.
"Hungry…" Chōji wheezed. "So hungry…"
The unstoppable juggernaut could easily carry more than the eight people now resting in his palm, but the strain of holding such a massive form was quickly catching up to him. The Akimichi clan's size-altering techniques were incredibly chakra-intensive, and Chōji had already done admirably well by taking them this far.
Feeling Chōji flagging, everyone held onto a finger for dear life. His knees buckled, but just as he was about to fall face first into a dune, he extended his arm in front of him, throwing Sakura and company to safety outside of the storm, before shrinking back down to his normal size.
"Oi, where do you think you're going?" Suigetsu shouted at the three Sand Genin, watching them dust themselves off and leave without saying a word. "Didn't we all agree we'd go looking for the Kazekage!?"
"Idiot, did the heat go to your head, or something?" chortled Mamushi. "Don't tell me you really took the Leaf ninja's words seriously! We just agreed to hitch along for the ride! See ya~"
And just like that, Team Saya flickered away.
Suigetsu was beginning to feel a little silly. How could he have fallen for such an obvious lie? Why would a bunch of Leaf Genin care more about the Sand's leader than their own promotion exams?
"Miss Sakura is telling the truth, senpai," Ranmaru reminded him. "Or at least, she believes her own words. That's what my eyes are telling me."
The three Mist Genin watched as Sakura and Ino ran back into the sandstorm, before returning moments later, struggling under the weight of an exhausted Chōji. It was obvious to them that the chubby boy had overdrawn his chakra and needed immediate rest. If his teammates cared about his life at all, they'd stop here and take a break.
Besides, night was falling on the first day of the exam's second phase…
"Do you think you could recognise the Kazekage's chakra signature?" Sakura asked Ranmaru, leaving Chōji to Ino. "Your sensing range should be greater than Ino's."
Ino was a total beginner at Sensory Ninjutsu, even though she was quite gifted at it.
"I've never personally met him, so I don't think so," Ranmaru answered her. "But if you told me what to look for, I might be able to help, I think."
It didn't take long for Sakura to come up with a list of criteria.
To seal a Tailed Beast, a strong physique was required. Furthermore, no seal was perfect— inevitably, a Tailed Beast's chakra would leak into their Jinchūriki's chakra pathway network and blend with their chakra, continuously replenishing their stamina.
All that to say, even if someone suspected of being a Jinchūriki wasn't actively using their powers or even entering Tailed Beast Mode, any Sensor-nin worth their salt would at least be able to tell that their body naturally harboured an enormous amount of chakra.
"Inordinately huge chakra pool for their age, huh…" said Ranmaru thoughtfully. His eyes flashed red. "Let me see. One… two… and… three."
"Three?" asked Sakura curiously.
Other than Fū and Gaara, was there another Jinchūriki running around in the desert?
"It's you, Miss Sakura," said Ranmaru innocently.
Sakura could at best be considered a Pseudo-Jinchūriki— there was Tailed Beast chakra sealed in her two breasts, but that was a mere fraction of the real thing. The amount was so small it wouldn't diffuse through the Breast Seal for at least another hundred thousand years, even though the chakra itself still carried a faint trace of animalistic instinct.
However… after going slightly wild during bathtime yesterday, Sakura's chakra pool had surged to a massive 8.19 KK along with her bustline, making her appear— at least to any Sensor-nin— very much like a Jinchūriki.
In fact, her chakra reserves now surpassed even Naruto's… for the time being. In a day or two, Jiraiya would deliberately loosen Naruto's Eight Trigrams Seal to test whether he could stay lucid in Demon Fox Mode with four or more tails… and he'd come to regret it almost immediately.
Leaving Jiraiya's trip to the hospital aside, with the extra chakra leaking through the Fox's seal, Naruto's effective reserves would spike to a new height of 100 KK, twenty-five times what he would have on his own— which meant he wouldn't even have to get riled up any more to access a greater part of Kurama's power.
A small price to pay for the occasional loss of control…
"Point me towards the smaller of the two chakra signatures," said Sakura decisively. "I'll go check it out, and you guys can go check the other one."
Either Team Suigetsu ran into Gaara and saved him, earning glory for the Hidden Mist, or they found Fū and battled her for her scrolls. Win-win, right?
"So you say," grunted Kosame. "Fine, but after that, we're through, understand?"
And with that settled, Sakura turned to speak to Ino… at that's when she noticed Chōji's skin turning purple. His face had swollen to twice its normal size!
"What's happening to Chōji!?" asked Sakura, startled. "Why is his face doing the Multi-Size Jutsu!?"
"This isn't the time to be saying stupid things, Sakura!" said Ino in a panic. "I think he's been poisoned! It's that blue-haired girl and her team, one of them must have done it!"
Chōji clutched at his throat and writhed in pain. His airways were constricting— he couldn't breathe!
"An antidote, we need to find an antidote," muttered Ino, patting down her clothes in search for something. "I'm sorry Sakura, I'm dropping us out— Chōji's life comes first."
She pulled out a distress signal flare and grasped its string.
Ino knew Sakura was Lady Tsunade's greatest pupil, but she also knew the Hidden Sand was infamous for its terrifying poisons. Long ago, during the Second Shinobi World War, Tsunade had become Granny Chiyo's greatest nemesis on the Land of Wind front of the war, countering every toxin the old crone could devise with a specifically designed synthesised antidote.
But for each poison Tsunade would render ineffective, the lives of hundreds of Leaf shinobi would first have to be sacrificed. Ino simply wasn't willing to risk Chōji's life on the hope that Sakura could whip up a cure on the spot, without a lab, without equipment, and without time. A promotion just wasn't worth it.
"Wait!" shouted Sakura, reaching for the sword at her hip. "I can—"
But it was too late. Ino lifted the flare and yanked its string. Like a firework, it streaked into the sky, exploding into a million bright stars and a colourful puff of smoke.
"—easily purge the poison from his body," sighed Sakura. "Oh, Ino…"
Had Ino checked Chōji's feet, she would have noticed a dozen needles sticking out from the soles of his sandals. While in giant mode, he had accidentally stepped on a poison cactus, due to his vision being impaired by the sandstorm. And upon shrinking back down to normal size, the needles had pierced his skin, delivering their toxin.
Team Saya wasn't even responsible for Chōji's plight, and the cactus's toxin wasn't even all that hard to neutralise. Even Ino, as a novice medic, could have cured him…