"Make sure to leave one or two alive for the Intelligence Division!" Sakura roared, deflecting a kunai with the back of her hand. "We need to know where they're coming from!"
The enemy numbered four: one Chūnin leading three genin, the standard composition of a squad. But just as with cockroaches, if you found one Iwa-nin under a rock, there were bound to be a thousand more hiding nearby.
"That's the Hokage!" shouted the Iwa-nin captain, instantly recognising her curvy form. "Buy me some time, you damned brats!"
At long last, Sakura and her expeditionary force had finally managed to find traces of the enemy in the wasteland a few kilometres north of Mt Shumisen, where the borders of the Land of Fire, the Land of Waterfalls, and the Land of Grass met... well past the Hidden Leaf's defensive line, but not quite where she would have expected to find them.
"Water Style: Starch Syrup Capturing Field!"
Sakura reared her head, performing nature transformation on the chakra rising in her throat before spitting a geyser of sticky syrup at the fleeing shinobi with the force of a firefighter's hose, knocking the three fleeing genin off their feet and gluing them face down to the ground. Without a second look back, the chūnin fled, abandoning his comrades.
In a flash, the Hokage Guard Platoon safely apprehended the trapped Stone genin, but upon flipping them over, they found them foaming at the mouth, their eyes revulsed, rolled back in their sockets so that only the whites showed.
"For… Iwagakure…" one of them croaked.
It appeared as though they had each bitten down on their false tooth and crushed the poison pill concealed within, clearly intending to take their secrets to the grave, but unfortunately for them, they were facing the greatest medic in all the land.
"Yes, yes, very dramatic, your dying wills are all very impressive," Sakura sighed, drawing her sword. "Manyū Style Kenjutsu: Purification!"
Makoto's blade drew a swift arc, drawing the poison from the three genins' bodies with a single swing. With a flick of her wrist, Sakura shook the black goop from the length of her blade, before planting it in the ground and squatting beside them, grinning evilly over the upper curve of her chest.
"Welcome back to the land of the living," Sakura said, watching as the trio's eyelids fluttered. "Good thing I happened to be nearby to save you, eh?"
"Whatever you do, don't open your eyes!" one of the genin shouted. "She'll hypnotise you with her evil eye!"
The other two genin screwed their eyes shut, shuddering.
Honestly, Sakura felt a little bad for them. The three Iwa-nin were about her age, but they had been abandoned by their team captain. They were like weak kittens in her hands, though it wasn't as if she could let them go... left unopposed, even a lowly genin was fully capable of murdering a small village's worth of people in a single night.
"Open wide," Sakura said, prying open the closest one's eyelids with two fingers, the three coal-black tomoe in her eyes spinning rapidly. "Tell me what I want to know..."
The genin's eyes glazed over… but no!
Ishigami's teachers at the academy had firmly instilled the Will of Stone in him!
The Hidden Stone was like a pile of rocks, and the villagers were like a bunch of stones; ordinary at first glance, but each with an important part to play. For when those seemingly insignificant stones were stacked together, they could scrape the very skies! But for that to be possible, the villagers' wills needed to be as unshakeable as the bedrock upon which the village was founded; just like a pile of rocks, a village was only as strong as its foundation!
Ishigami's will was unbreakable, and no evil eye could make him submit!
"Oh, I'll open wide, all right!" Ishigami snarled, clearing his throat. "Rhhhk— Ptooey!"
"Eww!" the Sixth Hokage shrieked as the boy spat a wad of phlegm in her face. "That's like, so disgusting!"
Taking advantage of the Hokage being distracted, Ishigami quickly freed himself from the sticky bindings holding him down, and with a flick of his wrist, he accurately flung three kunai into the Hokage's bodyguards' throats before they could react, downing them instantly.
"Quickly!" Ishigami said, freeing his teammates with a swipe of his kunai. "Before she recovers!"
"Ishigami-kun!" Ootomo-chan gasped. "You've saved us all!"
The three genin quickly ran for their lives.
"We're not out of the woods yet," Ogino said breathlessly. "The Hokage will catch up to us in no time—"
Poor Ogino never got the chance to finish his sentence. A loud whoosh tore through the air as his figure vanished in a blazing stream of orange flames, and by the time the fire petered out, there was nothing left of him but a blackened stain on the rocky ground.
"Go on without me, Ootomo-chan!" cried Ishigami. He stopped in his tracks and whirled around. "I'll buy you some time!"
But to his surprise, he felt a firm hand press down on his shoulder.
"Gwahaha!" came a familiar voice from behind him. "You've got guts, kid!"
Ishigami's eyes widened in surprise.
"Lord Tsuchikage!" he exclaimed, tears of joy streaming from his eyes. "And sensei! You came back for us!"
"As if I'd abandon my precious disciples," said Kamizuru-sensei warmly. "Leave the rest to us, brat— take Ootomo with you and return to camp!"
Isihigami didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed Ootomo-chan's dainty hand, and they started running back to the Hidden Stone's secret forward operating base nearby. It was right under those Hidden Leaf idiots' noses, in a small country that bordered the Land of Fire!
"Wuwuwu…" Ootomo-chan blubbered as they approached their destination. "Poor Ogino-kun… he's dead…"
"It's okay, Ogino's no great loss," Ishigami said offhandedly. "That bastard was cheating on you with your best friend…"
Ootomo threw her arms around Ishigami's neck, and they began snogging…
CRACK!
Ishigami blinked as he abruptly found himself lying on his back, his arms extended in front of him, wrapped around nothing at all as he smooched nothing but thin air.
"Wha…?"
"Ishigami, you traitor!" came Ootomo's furious voice nearby. "You told her everything!"
Ishigami blinked in confusion. The last thing he remembered was reaching the Hole, a hidden nature reserve in the wasteland, which they had secretly invaded and turned into a forward operating base to stage their invasion into the Land of Fire...
"Now I feel like killing you even less, Virgin-kun," Sakura said glumly, looking at the trio of young Iwa-nin glued to the ground, bickering amongst themselves. "Your brain tried to imagine what it would be like to make out with a girl, but since you haven't even had your first kiss yet, the illusion broke down..."
In order to get an accurate picture of Ishigami's memories, Sakura had deliberately avoided adding her own experiences to the illusion; and since information could not appear out of thin air, the genjutsu had naturally exposed its flaws to Ishigami's subconscious at that time.
"Oh, I'll open wide, all right!" Ishigami snarled. "Rhhhk—"
He cleared his throat, ready to repeat his heroic feat from the illusion, but Sakura lazily tilted her head out of the way of the gob of spit, before giving him a light slap that instantly knocked him unconscious.