Chapter 135: Yugito's Miserable Captivity
Sakura sat slumped on a small folding stool at the open tent entrance, wrapped in a heavy white military coat, hair still a mess from sleep, dead-fish eyes watching the ninja further down the camp working themselves into a frenzy over the relocation.
Kumogakure had pulled back fifty li, which meant Konoha needed to advance — camp and all.
Jiraiya had granted Sakura a few days of leave on account of the continuous fighting. She was making full use of them by sitting very still and staring at nothing.
"You wanted to see me?"
A large figure appeared beside her with no particular ceremony and crouched down, then produced a compressed ration biscuit from his pocket and held it out.
Sakura looked at the brown rectangular thing. She took it without comment.
Crunch.
Hard biscuit meeting teeth. She chewed the grainy, faintly nutty flavor methodically while Jiraiya watched with mild confusion — and began running seals.
Heaven Concealment Array.
She wasn't sure it would work on White Zetsu if one was present, but it was better than nothing.
"Do the same. See if you pick up anything suspicious."
He didn't ask questions. He did it.
Once both of them had confirmed nothing was within range except the distant bustle of the relocation, Sakura spoke.
"The intelligence was leaked. Last mission."
Jiraiya's eyes sharpened. He checked the perimeter again reflexively, then dropped his voice.
"Why wasn't this in your mission report?!"
Sakura gave him a flat look.
"Our command tent was apparently an open book to whatever's listening. You want me to put it in writing?"
He pressed his lips together.
She had a point.
They'd discussed cutting Kumogakure's supply lines in the evening. By the next day, the location of those supply lines had conveniently appeared. Yes, their embedded spy had been turned — but the timeline was too clean. Too fast.
A command tent surrounded by nearly ten thousand ninja.
Compromised.
"Could it have been—"
He stopped himself.
Beyond eavesdropping, there was one other possibility he didn't want to put into words.
An informant inside the tent.
That day it had been him, Kakashi, Sakura, Shirakumo, and two or three border commanders.
Himself, Sakura, Kakashi — not a consideration.
Shirakumo had fought to rescue Sakura's team. That cleared him partially. But partially.
Sakura bit her biscuit and leaned her chin in her hand.
"From now on, every meeting gets a sensory barrier, a soundproofing barrier, and a sealing barrier."
"As for whether there's an informant—"
She thought about White Zetsu's ability to perfectly replicate another person's chakra signature — undetectable even to the Byakugan — and felt a headache coming on.
"That's your problem. You're the commander."
Jiraiya looked at the disheveled, half-awake girl in front of him and clicked his tongue internally.
She looked less like a twelve-year-old prodigy and more like a twenty-something in the middle of an extended low point.
"Actually," he said, something carefully offhand in his tone, "I have another assignment for you."
The green eyes shifted slightly.
"What is it?"
He glanced around one more time, leaned in, and explained it in a near-whisper.
The previous intelligence leak had clearly rattled him.
Sakura listened, and her brow creased slightly.
The latest offensive had produced a win — but also a significant number of critically wounded and permanently disabled. They needed to be transported back to the village.
That was the surface reason.
The real reason was Yugito.
The Two-Tails jinchūriki. The first jinchūriki ever captured alive in the history of the ninja world. Jiraiya wasn't the only one who considered this significant — Hiruzen himself had sent word immediately, requesting she be transferred to Konoha without delay.
And he had specifically requested Sakura handle the escort personally.
Sakura pressed her lips to one side.
Yugito's importance was self-evident. Getting her back to Konoha quickly made sense.
Right now Yugito was completely sealed — Jiraiya's fuinjutsu had locked down her chakra entirely, every last drop of it still as standing water. Between the seal and the very real possibility of a Kumogakure rescue attempt, assigning Sakura as escort was logical.
But the old man had specifically named her.
Which was interesting.
It could simply be appropriate caution about a jinchūriki. But knowing Hiruzen as well as she did, Sakura suspected the more likely explanation was—
Enma had filed a report.
Whatever Inner Sakura had said to the enraged Raikage had been, by any reasonable measure, deeply alarming. And Hiruzen was raising Sakura to be Hokage.
A Hokage could be hard. Could be fierce. But not that.
In Hiruzen's vision of the role, a Hokage was like a great tree standing in sunlight. The darker work could be left to others.
And with Tsunade still in the village and not deployed — this assignment was probably doing double duty. Escort the jinchūriki, and let Tsunade look at whatever was happening with Inner Sakura.
Sakura glanced at Jiraiya and decided not to voice any of that.
"Where is she?"
Darkness. A cold that settled in the bones.
The heavy tent kept out every trace of light. Yugito lay bound in chakra-suppression shackles covered in sealing script, her Kumogakure uniform replaced with a plain white prisoner's shift that could conceal nothing.
The tent flap lifted.
Daylight flooded in along the widening gap, cutting through the dark.
Yugito turned her face weakly toward it. She was not simply wounded — her chakra was locked away, and her food and water had been dosed at regular intervals with something that kept her in a state of heavy, persistent weakness. This was the most powerless she had ever been in her life.
The pink-haired girl in full ninja gear pushed the entrance open and looked at the woman with the disheveled golden hair. No expression in the green eyes. None at all.
She reached down and took Yugito's chin between her fingers, turning her face upward.
The bold self-assurance that had defined Yugito's bearing — entirely gone. What was left was exhaustion so profound that keeping her eyes open seemed to cost something.
Even now, Sakura found herself noting with clinical detachment that the woman was remarkably beautiful. And found — with equal detachment — that her current state inspired a very specific kind of uncharitable impulse.
"Haruno..."
Yugito's eyes were still closed. She'd identified the person by something else entirely — the feeling of that presence, the particular quality of it. She would know it for the rest of her life.
She'd barely gotten two syllables out before a white cloth was pressed firmly over her nose and mouth.
"Mmf—"
(Chapter End)
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you