Naruto and Sakura bounded from branch to branch, brushing aside the occasional branch or twig as they leapt through the thick canopy fringing the Hidden Leaf Village. Morning dew still clung to the leaves, beads of silver trembling at each tip, and as they passed, the drops burst into a fine mist, glittering prettily as they caught the early sunlight filtering through the canopy.
Komorebi, or the sunlight filtering through the forest canopy.
Sakura had always found the word oddly specific, yet quite beautiful… but this was scarcely the time to be waxing poetic, she ruefully thought to herself. The natural beauty of the forest that concealed the Hidden Leaf would soon turn into a sea of ashes, unless she put a stop to Hiruko's ambitions.
Preceded by their long shadows, Naruto and Sakura emerged from the forest around 7 o'clock.
From there, they continued their journey towards Mt Shumisen, at the far north-western edge of the Land of Fire, while the sun continued to rise steadily behind them. According to Tenten, there would be an eclipse at solar noon today, which, if Sakura remembered correctly, was 11:53 for this time of year. When that happened, Hiruko would integrate Kakashi-sensei into his body, and he would become unstoppable.
"I've received a message from my divided self in Konoha," the Mini Katsuyu gathering nature energy on Sakura's shoulder whispered in her ear. "Lady Tsunade is ordering you to return to the village immediately."
Sakura groaned. "Can't you tell her I'm not there?"
"My other self has already confirmed to Lady Tsunade that you have summoned a piece of me."
Well, now it was official. Sakura was disobeying a direct order… but what was Tsunade going to do about it? The Lady Fifth now found herself in the exact position she had once put the Lord Third in when she had walked away from the village all those years ago; the Hokage's disciples were simply too powerful to threaten with punishment, and too valuable to declare missing-nin.
Especially as war loomed on the horizon.
"Then tell Lady Tsunade I'm going after Hiruko," Sakura said. "If we can't succeed by noon, I'll take responsibility and drag Naruto back to the village with me."
There was a small pause as Katsuyu telepathically passed on the message, and after a few seconds, she opened her little mouth and spoke.
"Don't you dare come back unless it's all three of you."
…
The scenery gradually began to change as the morning went by, leaving the lush forests of central Land of Fire far behind them. The distance they had to cover was immense, perhaps a bit shorter than going from the Hidden Leaf to the Hidden Sand, but thankfully, it was all flat terrain and plains with sparse woods, so what might have been a two- to three-day journey was vastly shortened… but even so, they would make it to their destination with only moments to spare.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto suddenly hissed. "Get down!"
Naruto pushed her to the ground behind a lone berry bush and threw himself down at her side.
"What was that for, Naruto?" Sakura hissed back. "This isn't the time to be picking berries!"
"Suna-nin!" he mouthed, pointing in front of them. "Scouts, coming our way, ya know!"
Sakura pressed her ear to the ground and listened. The ground was shaking with the rhythm of a thousand footsteps, which could only mean one thing… an invasion force. And according to Naruto, though she couldn't see them with her poor eyesight, their vanguard was coming this way; a reconnaissance party.
"If I remember correctly, Tenten packed something for this sort of occasion," Sakura muttered to herself as she reached into Tenten's backpack and rummaged through the scrolls she had looted from her unconscious body. "Aha!"
Sakura flattened the scroll she had just retrieved onto the ground and unsealed it with a hand sign. From the jutsu formula, a grass-patterned camo tarpaulin appeared in a puff of white smoke, and she draped it over herself and rolled into a ball, making it look as though she were a second, albeit curvier, bush.
"Naruto, get under here!" Sakura whispered, glancing around for her friend. "…Naruto?"
Sakura's stomach flipped. Where had that idiot gone? It wasn't like him to miss a chance to cuddle with her! Hearing footsteps, she held her breath and remained as still as she could. Tenten's gear was of exceptionally high quality, but her camouflage would not hold up under close scrutiny.
Without warning, a disembodied voice spoke, giving Sakura quite a start.
"…the two monstrous chakra signatures I sensed came from over here," a man's voice said. "The larger one is somewhere that way, but I don't have it on record…"
Sakura squinted, trying to make out where the voices were coming from through the semitransparent inner side of Tenten's camouflage cloak. Strangely, she couldn't see anything even vaguely resembling a human form… had her eyesight not recovered enough yet?
"I don't see anything, Shishio-kun," a woman's voice rang out from thin air. "They might also be using a similar jutsu to yours."
"…I've lost the smaller chakra signature, though I do have it on record…" Shishio growled. "It's that pink-haired medic-nin who thrashed us during the Chūnin Exams, Uchiha Sakura!"
Now Sakura remembered their voices! It was those three Suna weaklings from the Konoha-Suna Joint Chūnin Exams: what's-her-face, what's-his-face, and the handsome bloke. Ameno the busty combat medic, Shishio the sensor-nin, and Kōji the sand-user!
"I'll never forget that look of disdain on her face when she healed us after her fat friend squashed us," growled Kōji. "So what if she's a sage or whatever? We'll pay back the humiliation the Sand suffered at the hands of the Leaf a thousandfold!"
"I'll need to drop my Polarised Sand Formation: Hot Sand Camouflage to set up another Sensing Hexagram Seal," came Shishio's voice. "Enemy shinobi are much harder to sense if they aren't actively moulding chakra. Team leader?"
There was a small pause.
"Do it," said Ameno at last. "We'll stand guard over you. It's three against two, and the main army isn't far behind us. We're not going back without at least identifying the other one."
Sakura silently brought her hands together into the sign of the ram as the three Genin shimmered into view.
There were bound to be more sensors in the Suna army's main force, so she would have to do this stealthily… and without killing. As long as Hiruko's life was extinguished by noon, there was a non-zero chance that war could be avoided, but if blood was shed…