The dark storm clouds overhead parted, allowing a faint ray of sunlight through. Sakura's eyes flicked up; the solar eclipse was still in progress, meaning there was still a chance for Hiruko to complete his ritual if they let their guards down.
"Summoned a thunderstorm to interrupt my ritual, eh?" said Hiruko, glancing skywards as his hands blurred, rapidly forming seals. "You're making this too easy for me… Storm Style, Ultimate Technique: Demon Dragon Storm!"
The thunderclouds, which were already beginning to dissipate, swirled and thickened overhead, blotting out what little sunlight remained. It seemed Hiruko was serious about postponing his advancement ritual for the sake of defeating Sakura, whom he perceived as his ideological nemesis, here and now…
"Not so fast!" Sakura shouted, clapping her hands. "You looked at my chest earlier, didn't you? Then you've already lost! Manyū Assassination Genjutsu: Breast Illusion!"
Hiruko stiffened as visions of plump breasts danced before his eyes. His bloodline limits might have rendered him nigh invulnerable to ninjutsu and taijutsu, but without the Sharingan's insight, his mind was still vulnerable!
Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi immediately jumped into action.
"Rasengan!"
"Raikiri!"
With their jutsu in hand, they rushed at a dazed Hiruko, but just as they were about to thrust their fists through his seemingly frail, small body, their target flickered and vanished, reappearing a short distance away with a wary look on his face.
"What the…?" Naruto shouted. "He's not paralysed at all! What gives, ya know?"
"There's something strange about his mind," Sakura called. "It's as if there's background noise playing, I'm not quite sure how to explain it…"
"That would be my Kekkei Genkai's donors' voices," Hiruko responded. "Had you allowed my advancement ritual to go through, those voices would have been silenced as their bodies truly became one with mine… but then again, I would never have fallen for such a shoddy illusion with the power of the Sharingan!"
Sakura frowned.
This complicated things… the illusion had seemed to work at first, yet even without the Sharingan, Hiruko appeared immune to Genjutsu… but why had he bothered explaining all this? If it were her, she wouldn't have said anything, leaving her opponent to try again in vain… and take advantage of the opening to counterattack.
"Swift Style: Shadowless Flight!"
Before Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi could react, Hiruko performed a hand seal, and his figure flickered and disappeared as he flashed past them. Already anticipating an attack, aware of his feelings of rivalry towards her, Sakura completed the hand seals for the technique she had already begun casting.
"Crystal Style: Growing Crystal Thorns!"
A wall of sharpened crystal spikes grew out of the ground in front of Sakura, but her defences bloomed a fraction of a second too late. A pained gasp escaped Hiruko's lips as he charged right through her budding crystal brambles, the spikes merely tearing through his bandages and drawing blood instead of impaling him.
Three tomoe rotating rapidly as her Sharingan struggled to keep track of his movements, Sakura threw herself aside just as Hiruko whizzed past. His sheer speed exceeded her expectations; she needed some way to slow him down… because even though he had just barely grazed her, he had sent her spinning to the ground.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto cried in alarm.
"Crystal Style, eh?" Hiruko groaned, holding his side as scarlet spots bloomed across his white bandages. "That's a rare one… Is that one of the talents you've stolen?"
Sakura's threat level had just vastly increased in his eyes. His Dark Style could not absorb physical matter and stable chakra constructs (for instance, those created through Wood or Crystal Style), and without the Sharingan, he lacked the visual prowess to change direction properly while running at supersonic speeds. Not to mention Newton's First Law of Motion— the Law of Inertia— which made it difficult to move at high speed in anything but straight lines…
Boar! Monkey! Horse! Dog! Ram!
"Crystal Style: Ruby Crystal Labyrinth!"
Sakura slammed her palms against the ground, and crimson walls shot up rapidly all around them. Hiruko backflipped repeatedly to evade the walls closing in, but it was too late. The jutsu's range was far greater than he'd anticipated; the outermost walls were already looming behind him, and the ceiling was already closing in over his head.
Deprived of its chakra supply, the storm outside began dissipating again.
"Sa…ku…ra…chan…!" Naruto's muffled voice carried through the crystal barrier separating them, punctuated by the dull sounds of his fists banging against the wall. "Hang… on…! We're… coming…!"
Sakura had purposefully separated everyone from herself and Hiruko.
Hiruko would not stop ranting about stealing talents, and Sasuke was not stupid. From what Hiruko had said and done already, she was certain Sasuke was infinitely close to discovering the truth… that, as an Uchiha, she was nothing but a big, sexy fraud.
"Steel Style: Iron Fist!"
Hiruko experimentally transmuted his skin and bandages into a steel-like substance, then punched the crystal wall surrounding them, producing a high-pitched squeal. He examined the wall and his fist in turn; the strike had left the crystal perfectly intact, but had shaved metallic filings from his knuckles… this was bad. He wouldn't be able to use his speed to its fullest extent in here; the labyrinth's corridors were too narrow and too short.
"It's no use," Sakura said coldly. "The molecular structure of the crystals produced by this technique is incredibly stable. Unless one of your Kekkei Genkai allows you to teleport outside and strike at my labyrinth from there, you'll find this prison quite inescapable… but then again, if you possessed that kind of space-time ninjutsu, you wouldn't need to destroy it at all, would you?"
What made the Ruby Crystal Labyrinth Jutsu so special was the way it presented its cleavage planes. From within the prison, it was impossible to direct a strike along its failure plane, because the crystal had been grown so that its cleavage planes never pointed directly inwards. Furthermore, its structure was extraordinarily stable, making it nearly impossible to nucleate a weak point, even with a pinpoint strike such as a punch.
Hiruko was invulnerable, but he was not physically strong. Someone like Tsunade might possess the overpowering strength to bypass plane orientation and force a catastrophic failure in the crystal's structure, through its weakness to blunt impacts, but he didn't!
Blue eyeshadow appeared around Sakura's eyes as she activated Sage Mode.
"Sage Art: Water Style Starch Syrup Capturing Field!"
Hiruko extended his arm, a dark sigil glowing ominously in his palm.
"Dark Style: Inhaling Maw!"
Sakura spat out a glob of sticky fluid, spattering the length of the crystal corridor with her goo. With this, his speed, and Crystal Style's only weakness— if it could indeed be called a weakness— were sealed; should Hiruko step in the glue, he would find himself stuck; and should he attempt to use Storm Style's lightning against the crystal's Earth Style base, he would short-circuit and electrocute himself.
"What!?" Hiruko gasped. "I can't suck it in!"
"You can count yourself lucky you can't," Sakura said, grinning as she smacked her fist into her palm. "Senjutsu chakra doesn't tend to agree well with the systems of those who are not sages…"