"You missed? How could you miss, Sakura-chan!? The door isn't even moving, ya know!" Naruto shouted, watching the fireballs spiral skywards with dismay written plainly across his face. "Kakashi-sensei's waiting for us to save him, remember!?"
Sakura dismissed his concerns with a nonchalant wave of her hand.
"Just give it a moment," she replied, her gaze fixed on the dark clouds gathering overhead. "The real attack is coming… at least, I hope so."
Naruto gave an exasperated sigh as he tore his eyes away from the sky. Time was running out, and he could not understand why Sakura was suddenly playing fast and loose with Kakashi-sensei's life, or why she was not helping him break down Hiruko's front door.
"Huh," he begrudgingly said, catching sight of a fast-moving object in the sky out of the corner of his eye as he turned. "That's a really big bird."
"A bird?" Sakura echoed, squinting her eyes. "Where?"
The clouds rumbled.
"Who cares?" Naruto said desperately. "Sakura-chan, please just help me break down this…"
KRAKOOM!!!
Accompanied by an eardrum-piercing boom, lightning forked down from the heavens in a blinding flash of light, briefly illuminating the darkness and highlighting the shadowy figure of a large bird in a steep plunge.
"Kakashi-sensei!?" Naruto yelped. "Sasuke!?"
"Where?" Sakura shouted. "I can't see!"
As if drawn by a magnet, the tip of the lightning bolt arced unnaturally sideways, pulled towards the two figures astride the diving bird. Pale blue light flickered into their palms, and the lightning bolt seemed to shatter upon contact, exploding into diverging, smaller bolts that lit up the sky like fireworks as they showered down upon the mountain peak.
"Raikiri…!" Sakura gasped in amazement. "They really did split a bolt of lightning!"
The bird swooped down, and Sasuke and Kakashi hopped down from their mount, which vanished in a puff of white smoke.
"Kakashi-sensei!?" Naruto said, gaping at them in turn. "What are you doing here? I thought you were in there!"
"It's a long story, but the short of it is that Sasuke broke the puppetry technique that Hiruko used to manipulate me," Kakashi replied, his eyes flicking to Sakura's busty figure. He sighed. "I suppose you disobeyed orders and came here to rescue me?"
Naruto and Sakura nodded.
"Sakura," said Sasuke, tossing her a small phial. "I got you those eyedrops I mentioned."
"Oh, thanks," Sakura said, blushing… and then the crystal bottle hit her on the forehead and fell into her cleavage. "Ouch."
"That Lightning Style technique, just now…" Sasuke said, trying not to stare as Sakura went fishing for the bottle in her cleavage. "Was that you?"
Sakura successfully retrieved the medicine and used the eyedropper to moisten her eyes with the healing solution. A cool sensation spread across her eyeballs, and she blinked, suddenly feeling refreshed.
"I was trying to interrupt Hiruko's advancement ritual through the Thunder and Heaven Trigrams," Sakura explained. "I noticed that his selection was a bit heavy on lightning-based nature transformation bloodline limits, so I wanted to alter the mountain's overall charge, as well as blot out the light from the eclipse with the thunderclouds… but I guess it was all for nothing, since you were never in need of saving to begin with, Kakashi-sensei…"
Kakashi smiled under his mask.
"You were always the smart one, Sakura," he said, ruffling her hair. "I'm proud of you… proud of all of you."
"We couldn't just leave you to die, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said, laughing. "We never forgot what you taught us in your first lesson, ya know? In the Ninja World, those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum!"
"Heh," Sasuke grunted, a smile forming on his lips despite himself. "How could we forget?"
It was at that moment that an unpleasant grating sound rang out, as the battered stone gates that led into Hiruko's mountain lair slowly swung open. Team 7 immediately turned to face the gates, taking up fighting positions and moulding chakra in preparation for a fight.
"You… how dare you… years of preparation… all for nothing…"
Sakura's vision suddenly sharpened, vivid colours blooming across her sightline as the eyedrops' medicine seeped into her eyes… and the placebo effect hastened the regeneration rate of her pupil power granted by her Hashirama cells.
A short figure slowly walked into sight, his all-white clothes contrasting with the dark depths of the mountain from which he had emerged. Though his collar hid most of his face, his eyes betrayed a fury uncharacteristic of the calm, detached demeanour he had displayed during his address to the continent.
"It's not too late, Hiruko," Kakashi said warningly. "All-out war can still be avoided if you give yourself up. You once fought for the village, so…"
"Hateful."
Kakashi's voice trailed off as Hiruko interjected sharply.
"To think… this bloated female…" Hiruko snarled, glowering at Sakura. "To think the shinobi continent considers this overstuffed sow to be on the same threat level as me and my Chimera Jutsu…! And to think the very same, vapid, insipid cow dares to interrupt my ritual!"
"Oi!" Sakura said, sounding thoroughly affronted. "I resent that!"
"You don't get to talk to Sakura like that," Sasuke said coldly.
"Yeah!" Naruto added vehemently. "Sakura-chan is a splendid kunoichi, ya know!"
Hiruko tore off his trenchcoat and opened his mouth. The bandages wrapped around his face fell away, revealing the scars and stitches running from the corners of his maw, hinting that it could open far wider if he so wished…
"Well, no matter… I see five Sharingan here, and the ritual can be held the next time a solar eclipse occurs…" Hiruko said coldly. "So let us put our talents to the test— your natural talent to steal others' talents, or my scientifically developed artificial talent to absorb others' inborn talents. We will stake our lives, our principles, our resolve, our talents, our everything… and whoever emerges on top will be the righteous one!"
"…what?" said Sasuke, startled.
Hiruko took up a fighting stance.
"Shinobi of Konoha!" he thundered. "As someone who was once a fellow ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village, let us meet in battle… now, come at me!"