Chapter 293: The Ants Strike Back
Wind streamed past her ears, long pink hair whipping wildly at altitude.
Sakura flew on, eyes fixed straight ahead, cutting through the sky toward the Land of Rain at tremendous speed.
Right now, she was in better condition than she'd been in a long while.
The Yin Seal brimmed with sage chakra, and after fully replenishing Hikaru's eye power, her Yang Release had recovered quickly as well.
And beyond that—
Having absorbed Hagoromo's knowledge of Yin-Yang Release, she felt, unmistakably, that she'd brushed up against the very threshold of "Six Paths-level" power.
The signature marker of that level — the Truth-Seeking Balls — were formed from seven types of chakra: Yin, Yang, Wind, Lightning, Water, Fire, and Earth.
Right now, Sakura only had Yin, Yang, Water, and Earth Release.
But that didn't stop her from continuing forward, one step at a time, along a path entirely her own.
Just like Yang's power in Naruto, and Yin's power in Sasuke.
Neither of them had completed training in all seven chakra natures either. Naruto's tailed-beast chakra effectively granted him the properties needed to wield the Truth-Seeking Balls temporarily; Sasuke, with only Lightning and Fire Release plus the Sharingan's inherent Yin Release, had still managed to step toward Six Paths-level power in his own way.
Sakura, right now, was walking the same road Sasuke had.
She hadn't reached Six Paths-level yet. But she wasn't far off, either.
At this point, even if Hashirama Senju himself stood in her path, she could hold her own.
— Three days earlier —
At that moment, Sunagakure — which should have been focused entirely on war preparations — had fallen into chaos instead.
The reason was simple.
In an age still ruled by nobility, a man had been killed, publicly, on Sunagakure's main thoroughfare.
Blood filled the young woman's vision, her eyes carrying, alongside fury and humiliation, a flicker of something close to satisfaction.
Three days earlier, the Land of Wind's Daimyō had sent emissaries to deliver supplies to Sunagakure, in preparation for the coming war.
None of it should have had anything to do with the girl named Sai.
But—
Through some unfortunate turn of events, one of the Daimyō's envoys, drunk, had crossed paths with Sai — or, more precisely, with her close friend, Tobi.
It was a depressingly common story. Almost tediously so.
Drunk beyond reason, the Daimyō's envoy had grabbed Tobi, meaning to drag her back to his quarters.
There'd been plenty of people around. But the man wasn't just any envoy — he belonged to an influential noble house within the Land of Wind itself.
Tobi could easily have killed a lecherous wretch like him without much effort. But she was a shinobi of Sunagakure, and given the village's harsh environment, Suna had always depended on the Land of Wind's Daimyō for its supplies.
So Tobi went along with him.
When Sai finally found her friend, what she discovered was—
She'd braced herself, at most, for the thought of her friend having to share a bed with other women.
What she found instead shattered something in her entirely — the full ugliness of what people were capable of.
That night, at Tobi's own desperate pleading, Sai killed her own best friend with her own hands.
Sai asked herself, honestly — as a shinobi of Sunagakure, was this the kind of person she'd spent her whole life protecting?
She'd meant to go straight to Temari, Suna's acting Kazekage, to lay out the injustice of it all. But on the way, she ran straight into the very man who'd caused it, the one who made her sick to look at.
"If it isn't Sai."
"Tobi wasn't bad, you know. Not just my opinion, either — my servants and guards have been lining up for a turn."
"How about it — care to serve me a while yourself?"
"Keep me satisfied enough, and I might put in a good word for Sunagakure next time."
Facing this wretched excuse of a man, the young woman's pale knuckles went white with how hard she clenched her fists.
A pair of eyes that should have been bright and clear were, in this moment, filled with roiling fury.
The passersby, curious as they were, took one look at the crest emblazoned on the man's robes and hurried away without a word.
And then—
For some reason, unbidden, Sai found herself thinking of an old enemy.
Konoha's Fifth Hokage. Sakura Haruno.
She'd seen that Hokage in person twice.
The first time, on the battlefield. Simply standing before her had left Sai feeling like she couldn't breathe.
The second time, before the fight against Yomi, when the Hokage had stood before the assembled coalition and called every single one of them worthless.
Against that crushing weight, one person had actually fought back.
Throwing a kunai at that towering, untouchable Hokage.
That had been Sai.
She'd wanted to prove — the shinobi Lord Gaara led weren't worthless.
And now Gaara was dead. As his sole disciple, facing this same kind of crushing injustice once more — did she still have it in her to throw that kunai?
What had just happened here answered the question.
She could. She would fight back.
Sai looked down at the wretch lying in a pool of his own blood, and the fury and humiliation in her eyes drained away, leaving only a quiet, cold satisfaction.
The surrounding crowd flinched at the sudden violence, a wave of dizziness washing over them.
"Lady Sai... what are you doing?"
Someone spoke, voice trembling.
Sai didn't answer. She simply turned to look at the guards standing behind the dead man's body.
They'd been part of it too. Part of what had happened to Tobi.
Just as much wretches as their master.
She pulled the kunai free from the corpse pinned to the ground, blood dripping, one drop at a time, off the blade and onto the dusty street.
She stepped forward.
Ordinary people stood no chance against a shinobi — and Sai's skill, even by shinobi standards, was far from mediocre.
She stood amid a field of bodies, her face — ordinarily bright, endearing — now streaked with blood, strikingly, terribly beautiful in its violence.
The onlookers stood frozen, staring at what had just unfolded.
It felt as though the sky itself had fallen.
This coming war — what had even sparked it in the first place? The Hokage's assassination of a Daimyō.
And now—
Another noble, dead at a shinobi's hands. In broad daylight, no less, on the main street.
Even if Temari wanted to protect Sai, it wouldn't be easy. The war hadn't even started yet, and already Sunagakure had a nearly identical incident on its hands.
What were they supposed to do now?
Sai looked down at the now-lifeless body at her feet and laughed.
It was a genuinely beautiful smile — nothing like her old, foolishly cheerful grin. This one carried nothing but ice in her eyes.
Covered in blood, surrounded by silence broken only by the wind, she murmured to herself:
"So this is what it looks like, then..."
"...when nobility dies. Ugly. Every bit as ugly as anyone else."
Her murmured words landed on the crowd around her like a dropped bomb.
Nobility. So they can die too, after all.
But before anyone could process the thought further, a furious figure came storming toward Sai.
Baki, one of Sunagakure's elite jōnin.
"Sai!"
Baki stared at the scene before him, his hands and feet going cold.
"You've just started something catastrophic!"
While everyone stood transfixed on the scene unfolding, no one noticed two figures — dressed like ordinary civilians — quietly slipping away in the background.
As they vanished around a corner, one of them briefly revealed a flicker of unsettling crimson in his eyes.
...
By now, Karin and Sasuke had already slipped out of Sunagakure without a trace.
Stoking conflict between shinobi and nobility.
This had been exactly the mission Sakura assigned them.
"Sasuke. Iwagakure's next."
Karin looked at the young man walking ahead of her.
"Right."
Sasuke answered, calm.
"The war's already started. We don't have much time to spare."
"One more incident like this in Iwagakure should be enough. If the same thing happens too quickly in the Land of Water and the Land of Lightning too, anyone paying attention will start suspecting something's off."
Karin said, a touch of worry in her voice.
"They won't find any trace of anything."
"I never used any dōjutsu on Sai, or on that noble, from the start."
The young man walked, step by step, across the desert sand, heading toward the Land of Earth.
"Huh?"
Karin looked at him, confused.
According to the plan, Sasuke was supposed to use his dōjutsu on Sai directly, to stoke her conflict with the nobility. If she hadn't been influenced at all, why had everything played out exactly as intended?
Seeming to sense her confusion, Sasuke explained.
"If I'd used Kotoamatsukami on that noble or on Sai directly, it would've left a trace of my eye power behind."
"To avoid leaving any evidence, I used Amatsukami on myself instead."
"I wanted that noble to go looking for trouble with Sai, so — following my own intent — he happened, by pure 'coincidence,' to run into Sai and Tobi at exactly the right moment."
"And to make sure Sai actually fought back, I wanted him to target her close friend specifically."
"And from there, Sai — again, following my own intent — found her way to Tobi, already suffering."
Listening to the explanation, Karin was quiet for a moment, then understood.
"So you're saying — Sai killed the noble because it aligned with your intent, too?"
Sasuke shook his head.
"Amatsukami isn't omnipotent. Sai killed him because she genuinely wanted to."
"Meaning — Sai's desire to kill him, and the act itself, were entirely her own choice."
Listening to this, Karin finally grasped just how terrifying Sasuke's dōjutsu really was.
But she still didn't quite understand why Sakura hadn't chosen to use a technique this powerful directly on the front lines of battle.
Does she really consider the nobility a bigger threat than the enemies on the battlefield?
"So what happens to Sai now?"
At Karin's question, Sasuke shook his head.
"Doesn't matter. She killed a noble in broad daylight on a main street. There's no covering that up."
"Our objective's already been accomplished."
"Next target: the Land of Earth."
—
Land of Rain — Amegakure
"What — Sunagakure only just set out?"
Kitsuchi, having just arrived in Amegakure, frowned deeply at the news.
"That's correct. Though it hardly matters at this point."
"According to the latest report, the Hokage has already left Konoha and is heading this way."
Konan looked at the man before her, her tone flat.
"Akatsuki, essentially, has committed everything to this effort. Shouldn't Iwagakure show a comparable level of commitment?"
Kitsuchi, who hadn't even had a chance to take a sip of tea since arriving, set his cup down at Konan's words, brow furrowed.
"What exactly are you implying?"
"Surely the Tsuchikage doesn't intend to sit this out comfortably in Iwagakure."
"And your jinchūriki are both Perfect Jinchūriki, as I recall."
The room's atmosphere between Konan and Kitsuchi cooled noticeably at that.
"How do I know you won't turn on our jinchūriki the moment it's convenient?"
Kitsuchi's expression tightened as he studied the striking woman before him.
Everyone knew Akatsuki had been hunting tailed beasts across the shinobi world — that alone gave him every reason to remain cautious.
"Heh. You think we'd betray an ally at a moment like this?"
Konan's amber eyes met his, calm, unwavering.
A long moment passed.
"I need to use your village's communications to contact Iwagakure directly."
In the end, Kitsuchi decided the matter needed Ōnoki's judgment.
"Go ahead."
At Konan's approval, Kitsuchi drained the last of his tea and headed for the door.
Watching him leave, a flicker of something like regret crossed Konan's eyes.
Sorry.
When the moment's right, the betrayal will come.
The more beautiful a woman, the better she lied — even though Konan had never actually deceived anyone before, she seemed to have a natural gift for it regardless.
Her deception game was only getting sharper by the day.
"Oh — and Deidara?"
Just as Kitsuchi was about to disappear around the corner, Konan spoke up suddenly.
"He's at the temporary camp outside Amegakure. Go find him there, if you're interested."
Kitsuchi waved a hand, distracted, and left.
—
Meanwhile, Sakura had already reached the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain.
This particular stretch of border held the largest concentration of troops — two thousand Konoha shinobi stationed here, given it faced directly onto Rain territory.
"Lord Hokage."
The shinobi in charge of this section of the border was a branch-house Hyūga jōnin.
"Any recent movement from the Land of Rain?"
Sakura strode toward the command tent, the Hyūga jōnin close behind her.
"None so far. But reliable intelligence confirms Kitsuchi's Iwagakure forces have already reached the Land of Rain."
"Sunagakure's forces are expected to arrive in about two days."
At that, Sakura paused, just slightly.
Sunagakure and Iwagakure were roughly the same distance from Amegakure. But Iwagakure's forces had already arrived ahead of schedule, while Suna's were still two full days out.
Did Sasuke and Karin's mission succeed?
"Understood."
Sakura nodded slightly.
"Also — Lord... Yuki should arrive here in roughly another day."
The Hyūga jōnin said, a note of hesitation in his voice.
Sakura nodded at that.
Given the pace Yuki and her three hundred jōnin-level shinobi were maintaining, a day should be more than enough time.
"Once Yuki arrives, have them rest for a day, then prepare to move into the Land of Rain."
Sakura didn't comment on the man's hesitation — understandable enough, given Yuki's status as a captured prisoner from Kumo.
"Understood. Please take every precaution, Lord Hokage."
The Hyūga jōnin bowed and withdrew quietly.
Waiting here a full day didn't bother Sakura at all. Even if it gave old Ōnoki time to arrive in Amegakure in the meantime, that suited her plans just as well.
Better to settle everything in one decisive strike, if possible. And it would buy a little extra time for Sasuke and Karin, working behind the scenes.
Reaching the command tent, the pink-haired Hokage settled into the seat at its head, closed her eyes, and rested.
To Sakura's mind, the greatest threat in this war wasn't Akatsuki at all. It was Orochimaru — whose current whereabouts remained entirely unknown.
Given the timing, Tobirama hadn't had the chance to fully refine Edo Tensei. But Orochimaru was a different matter entirely — especially with Kabuto still at his side.
Orochimaru remained a genuinely dangerous wildcard. But since taking the Hokage seat, Sakura hadn't even had a full year yet — nowhere near enough time to track down where he'd gone.
And now, night had fallen.
A single figure crept quietly into the border encampment.
(End of chapter.)
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