"Ouch…" Sakura groaned. "My head… what happened…?"
Her eyes fluttered open.
"No, no, no," she muttered dizzily as she took in her blurry surroundings. "This can't be happening, not again, not again…"
Sakura's pulse surged, breath coming in ragged bursts as the onset of a panic attack seized her.
Once again, she was behind bars, entombed in a dark, dank cell beneath the ground… Lady Tsunade had abandoned her again without a second thought; she was back in Hōzuki Castle, and she would rot there for the rest of her life, at the mercy of those who lusted after her body…
This was the stuff of her very worst nightmares.
"Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan, ya know! Calm down! You're okay!"
At the sound of that familiar voice, Sakura turned her head with mechanical stiffness and gazed blearily into the neighbouring cell. Naruto was hopping on the spot to try and catch her attention, bound in a white straitjacket covered with sealing tags, his arms pinned behind his back and his legs shackled. When Sakura glanced down, she saw she wore the same restraints. They pressed so tightly against her chest she could scarcely draw breath…
"Naruto…?" Sakura said dully.
"Kakashi-sensei's been declared a missing-nin!" Naruto shouted. "We have to get him back!"
Sakura's eyes widened in disbelief as Naruto went on, describing what had taken place while she'd been unconscious. Kakashi, defying martial law, had run away from the village. When Naruto had tried to stop him, noticing the strange way he was behaving, Shikamaru intervened, saying it was all by the Hokage's design and that Naruto was to let him go.
"And then I said no," Naruto concluded, "and then they threw me in here."
With some difficulty, since her arms and legs were bound, Sakura rocked herself into an upright position. She chewed her lip as she tried to make sense of things. The only Kekkei Genkai Hiruko was missing was the Sharingan, but it seemed like she wasn't being sacrificed to him after all. Sasuke and his eyes were away looking for eyedrops, Sakura's own pair was still recovering, which meant…
"Lady Tsunade means to hand over Kakashi-sensei to Hiruko?" Sakura said, thinking out loud. "He did declare war on the entire continent on our behalf, so maybe he plans to force the village into accepting him back… to force the village that repudiated him to acknowledge that his taboo path was the right one… because once the enemy is at the gates, people would do anything to be saved. But even so, I don't think Lady Tsunade would simply offer up a precious comrade as a sacrifice to a missing-nin like him… unless it's a trap?"
Tsunade's words all made sense now; she was torn between her sense of duty and her love for her fellow villagers. No wonder she had knocked her out when Sakura had told her about her Will of Fire; Sakura might as well have said that she would stop at nothing to save Kakashi. But unlike sending Sakura to Hōzuki Castle on vacation, sending Kakashi to Hiruko was a death sentence.
Being Hokage wasn't just about inanely filling out paperwork and occasionally stepping up to protect the village; it also meant having to make impossible choices. Sakura might have sympathised with her, but she didn't envy Lady Tsunade in the least.
"That's a pretty good guess," came a girl's voice from outside. "Kakashi-sensei plans to kill Hiruko the moment he tries to absorb him, when he'll be at his most vulnerable."
Startled, Sakura and Naruto peered out from their cells. Tenten stood in the corridor beyond the steel bars that trapped them inside, her pale face illuminated by the flickering flames of the ensconced torches. There were dark shadows beneath her eyes, and she looked as though she might collapse at any moment.
"Is that you, Tenten?" Sakura asked warily. "What are you doing here?"
"To free you, of course," Tenten said weakly. "Why else would I be here?"
"You want to save Kakashi-sensei too?" Naruto asked hopefully.
When Tenten heard that Sakura had been imprisoned, her heart had almost stopped.
In the original timeline, Sakura would have been the one to free Naruto from prison, allowing him to save Kakashi, who would later prove essential when the world itself needed saving. But with both Sakura and Naruto behind bars, someone else would have to free them!
"Come closer," Tenten said, reaching through the gaps between the bars with both arms. "I'm getting you both out of here."
Literally bound hand and foot, Naruto and Sakura shuffled and hopped closer, and Tenten placed her hands on their heads, screwing her eyes shut as her brow furrowed in concentration. Her senses spread outwards painfully slowly, searching for the jutsu formula she had planted just beyond the Sensing Barrier's range.
"Flying Raijin Jutsu!"
The world spun, and in the blink of an eye, the three of them were standing in the forest just outside the village. Tenten staggered, bracing herself against a tree as she fought for breath. Even after a day's rest, her strength had scarcely returned. Teleporting away from Pain with consecutive jumps, all the while dragging along four people, had taken a toll on her chakra.
After taking a moment to catch her breath, Tenten flipped a kunai into her hand and sliced through the belts holding Naruto's and Sakura's straitjackets, freeing them from their restraints.
"You'll need to kill Hiruko to put an end to this," she gasped. "Unless I'm mistaken, he should have Steel-, Dark-, Swift-, and Storm-style Kekkei Genkai. Meaning he's immune to Taijutsu, Kenjutsu, and elemental ninjutsu. He'll move faster than the eye can see and attack with lightning bolts…"
Sakura began counting her Kekkei Genkai on her fingers.
There was the Munamori clan's Breast Flow; the Kurama clan's power to turn Genjutsu into reality; the Uchiha clan's Dōjutsu; the Holy Miko Shion's Death Perception Dōjutsu; Hashirama's Wood Style; her own Plasma Style; and Guren's Crystal Style.
Leaving aside the Sharingan, since her pupil power was still exhausted; along with Plasma Style, whose hand signs she hadn't yet figured out; Breast Flow, which was useless against men; and Shion's foresight, which only triggered in the face of death; Sakura was left with three combat-ready Kekkei Genkai.
One less than the number Hiruko currently possessed.
"You're not coming?" asked Naruto worriedly.
Tenten shook her head dizzily.
"It took me everything I had left to break you two out," she groaned. "I didn't trip any alarms, so you've got some time before they send pursuers after you… the ritual... Earth… Heaven… Man… your destination is Mount Shumisen, north-west of here… you have until noon… before the solar eclipse… to save Kakashi… ugh."
Tenten's eyes rolled back, and Sakura caught her before she fell, easing her down onto the cool earth. She felt for a pulse, then let out a quiet sigh of relief. Tenten would be all right with a bit of rest.
"Er…" Naruto said as Sakura started rifling through Tenten's pockets. "What are you doing, Sakura-chan? We need to go, ya know?"
"It wouldn't hurt to pick up a few supplies for the journey," Sakura replied. "Tenten's rich; she's got all the good stuff!"