Sakura lifted her head.
Those blood-red eyes locked onto the Third Hokage. Gone was the respect she once held—only hatred born of betrayal remained, cold and bone-deep. She spoke each word slowly, as if crying blood:
"You—are—so—hypocritical!!"
The words struck Hiruzen like a sledgehammer. His expression changed instantly.
And then—Sakura moved.
She couldn't stay here any longer.
Cradling her parents' bodies, she tried to force her way through the ANBU encirclement!
"Stop her!" Hiruzen ordered reflexively.
No matter what, before the full truth was clarified, he could not allow a shinobi who had already killed many of her own comrades—and who was clearly unstable—to leave so easily.
The ANBU obeyed at once. Binding techniques and attacks surged toward Sakura.
Seeing this, Danzo let out a sharp, mocking laugh and snarled at Hiruzen:
"Hiruzen! Stop pretending here! Her parents are already dead—dead right in front of her! Yes, because of my pressure—but also because of your tacit approval! Do you really think that after all this, she would still hold even a shred of loyalty toward Konoha? Toward you?! She's already nothing but a beast driven by revenge!"
"Shut up, Danzo! You idiot!"
Hiruzen was completely enraged by those words and spun around to shout back.
"Look at what you've done! How could you push things to a point beyond repair?!"
Danzo was unmoved. Instead, he sneered and countered coldly:
"How I act is my way. What matters now is what you do. Will you let this monster—who has mastered a so-called 'Divine Technique' and harbors nothing but hatred for Konoha—leave, only to become a mortal threat in the future?"
"Or…"
He paused deliberately.
"…will you make the correct choice here and now—for the village's future?"
Hiruzen was choked with fury, his blood boiling, yet he couldn't immediately refute it.
And in the brief exchange between them—
Screams rang out from ahead.
The ANBU trying to stop Sakura stood no chance against her rampaging state. Against a Sakura who was no longer holding back—
With just one clash, ANBU operatives were torn apart, bodies shattered and strewn across the ground in pools of blood!
The situation had completely spiraled out of control.
"Enough! Sakura! Stop!"
Hiruzen shouted in anguish as another ANBU fell, trying to awaken her with the bonds of the past.
"They're your comrades!"
Sakura abruptly halted her attack.
Her arms tightened around her parents' bodies. She slowly turned her head, those blood-red eyes fixing on Hiruzen. Her voice was hoarse, yet colder than ice:
"Comrades? Then what about my parents?!
Weren't they villagers of Konoha? Weren't they your 'comrades' too?!"
Hiruzen's face darkened further, a pallor of helplessness spreading across it. He spoke with difficulty:
"That… that was an accident. I never imagined things would come to this…"
"An accident?"
Sakura let out a bitter, mocking laugh, filled with grief.
"Hahaha… You really are hypocritical!!"
"Sakura!"
Hiruzen raised his voice, trying to steady her.
"Believe me. I'll give you an explanation. I swear I will!"
"An explanation?"
Her reply was sharp, brimming with hatred.
"I want nothing! I only want Danzo dead!!"
At the side, Danzo merely snorted in disdain. His single eye flicked toward Hiruzen with mockery, watching to see how he would handle it.
Sure enough, Hiruzen refused almost without hesitation. His tone even carried a trace of defense for Danzo:
"Danzo… may have used extreme methods, but everything he did was for the village's interests and security. He didn't intend—"
"For the village?!"
Sakura exploded, her scream tearing through the air as she cut him off.
"Then what?! So my parents just died for nothing?!"
"I'll compensate you—"
Hiruzen attempted to placate her materially, but the words sounded hollow, almost ridiculous.
"Compensate?!"
Even Danzo couldn't listen anymore.
He barked angrily, "What are you hesitating for?! She's killed so many, openly defied orders—she's already a missing-nin! Take her down!"
Hiruzen's face darkened to the point it seemed ready to drip water. He turned sharply toward Danzo, saying nothing aloud—yet his lips clearly formed two words:
Sasuke Uchiha.
Danzo's eye shrank abruptly.
He understood instantly.
Outside Konoha, there was still Sasuke Uchiha—wielding the Mangekyō Sharingan, sworn to destroy the village.
And the Sakura standing before them was the only person who had ever repelled Sasuke head-on.
Her power was crucial against that external threat.
Danzo fell silent. After weighing the pros and cons, he temporarily suppressed the order to kill her on the spot.
But in that brief stalemate, Sakura took a deep breath, as if forcing all her grief and rage deep into her heart.
She looked at Hiruzen and Danzo. The madness in her eyes faded slightly, replaced by a chilling, resolute calm.
She spoke loudly, her voice ringing clearly through the area:
"I don't trust you, Hiruzen Sarutobi—and you don't trust me either."
"No matter what, Danzo—I will kill you."
"Whoever stops me—
I will kill them too."
With that final declaration steeped in killing intent, Sakura hesitated no longer. Holding her parents' bodies, she moved again, turning into a streak of light and racing toward the edge of the village!
"Stop her!"
Hiruzen ordered instinctively.
The ANBU tried once more to block her, but before a Sakura driven solely by escape, their efforts were pitifully ineffective—only adding to the casualties.
Watching Sakura's resolute figure vanish into the distance, and the new corpses on the ground, the last trace of hesitation disappeared from Hiruzen's face.
What remained was the cold resolve of a Hokage.
He had to stop this future, enormous, uncontrollable threat.
His hands flew through seals, then slammed into the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu: Enma!"
With a burst of white smoke, the old monkey king Enma appeared, gripping the Adamantine Staff.
Hiruzen stood upright, his face as cold as ancient ice, and issued the final decree:
"By this announcement: former Konoha genin, Sakura Haruno, having killed fellow villagers and defected—"
"Is hereby classified as an S-rank missing-nin."
"Dead or alive."
As the words fell, Hiruzen, wielding the transformed Adamantine Staff together with Enma, was the first to pursue Sakura in the direction of her escape.
Faced with the Third Hokage's final dead-or-alive order, the summoned beast, and the surging killing intent behind her—
Sakura felt no fear.
Instead, she let out a cold, mocking laugh.
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 300+ chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/Sagamaster789