The Legend of Konoha's Shooting Star

Trapped Rats...!

"..." April furrowed her brow, scanning their surroundings for clues that might help her understand this jutsu. She knew the majority of the bodies surrounding them had to be clones, but what kind? And which of these bodies belonged to the real enemies? Or... was all of this still part of the enemy's genjutsu?

"... There's quite a number of them. And these are clones...?" Kabuto asked, voicing her thoughts.

"Wh...What is this?" Sakura asked as the enemy continued to close in on them, alarmed.

"Hehe...You're trapped like rats," one of the enemy ninjas taunted them.

"!!" Sasuke furrowed his brow and glared at him.

"Shut up!!" Naruto roared, ready to launch himself at the creep, until he saw what was happening by April.

"?!!" They all gasped when three of the closest enemies suddenly threw themselves at her without warning.

"!!" In that instant, April narrowed her eyes and furrowed her brow. They were only inches away from her. The one in the front was one inch away, the one at the side was two inches, and the one at her back was three inches. Only one thing left to do. 'Consecutive one-inch punches!'she thought, gritting her teeth as she clenched her fist and straightened her leading and trailing legs with a rapid, explosive knee extension, which increased the twisting speed of her hips—which, in turn, lurched  the shoulder of her thrusting arm forward—and as her shoulder bolted ahead, her arm got to work. The swift and simultaneous extension of her elbow drove her fist forward, and for a final flourish, she flicked her wrist just prior to impact to further increase its velocity. Once the punch landed on her target, she pulled back almost immediately. This shortened the impact time of her blow, which compressed the force and made it all the more powerful. Although her fist traveled a tiny distance in milliseconds, the punch was an intricate full-body movement. She repeated the entire process two more times, each time she rotated her body around to face the next opponent, until her fist connected with its final target.

BAMM! BAMM! BAMM!

"!!!" Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kabuto's eyes widened in shock when all three enemies were knocked back with enough force to send them sliding.

'That attack...!!' Kabuto thought, amazed by the force behind it. How was she able to generate so much power over that short distance? Her counter-attack had only taken a total of three seconds! Ordinarily, the answer would be obvious, but he didn't sense a shift in her chakra, nor was she showing a reaction to the seal, which would indicate that she had tried to manipulate it. 'It... doesn't seem like she used chakra, so how...?'

"Don't use your chakra!!" Sasuke shouted at her.

"Don't get distracted!!! Naruto!!" she shouted back, reminding him of the attack that was still headed his way.

"She... She didn't!!!" Naruto said, grinning, as he recovered from his surprise, ducking his head just in time thanks to her warning. He gritted his teeth as he threw powerful straight punch to nail his attacker in the abdomen, pushing him back with his momentum. "It's April's special attack!! The 'one-inch' punch!!!" Despite her attempts to teach it to him, he was never able to master it himself. And even though he had seen it many times before while the two of them trained together, this was the first time he had ever witnessed her using it in a real battle. It was just as amazing as always!

"One-inch punch?!!" Sasuke and Kabuto asked.

"That's right... It's just taijutsu..." April said, keeping her eyes on the enemies.

Sasuke furrowed his brow in confusion. She didn't use her chakra? Naruto was acting like he had seen it before, but... An attack that powerful shouldn't be possible with only the space of an inch to build momentum. It had happened so fast that his eyes couldn't keep up—all he saw was her turning! 'A plain taijutsu attack like that without any help from chakra... just how strong is she!?'