That history lessons didn't tell them everything, Sarada had realized long ago. Konoha's past had too many blank spots. Dates, skimpy descriptions of some events and overly detailed ones of others...
For example, she knew very little about Orochimaru's invasion of the Leaf. The main thing she—and everyone else—remembered was the Third's death. The legendary Professor, the face carved on the Hokage Rock, Konohamaru-sensei's and Mirai's grandfather.
His feat was praised in every way.
The history textbook stated that Orochimaru killed the Fourth Kazekage and, in his name commanding the Hidden Sand Village, attacked the Leaf with combined forces of Sand and Sound. However... Sarada knew nothing about the genjutsu that had engulfed the entire stadium. Nor about the role played in these events by the future Fifth Kazekage Gaara, or his brother and sister. What was that tentacle reaching for Dad from the sand cocoon? Why hadn't genjutsu worked on Gaara? What had she seen?
Explosion! Shattering tiles flew apart.
Sarada whipped around. Smoke billowed on the roof of the Kage box.
"Hokage-sama!" Guy yelled.
He and Kakashi-sensei rushed toward it, but ANBU beat them there.
"We'll handle this."
Identical cloaks flashed among the rows of sleeping people. Sarada nervously shifted her gaze from the arena to the Kage box. Sasuke had turned toward the explosion too. Tiny figures leaped from the smoke. The fake Kazekage had taken the Third hostage and stood on the ridge of the roof, while four shinobi formed a rectangle on the slopes. The arriving ANBU squad charged to aid the Hokage, but four flashes gleamed purple, and a barrier enveloped the roof. One ANBU slammed into the barrier and fell, engulfed in flames.
"These aren't ordinary shinobi if they outplayed ANBU..." Kakashi said.
Another ANBU member appeared below the sector, in a cat mask with sadly drooping lines of a miniature mouth.
"What are you... What are you doing here?" Guy demanded. "Hokage-sama's in danger!"
But the ANBU didn't budge. Sound shinobi slipped from the rows of sleeping spectators and stood beside him.
"What a surprise," Kakashi said, shielding Sarada.
"Didn't think the enemy would hide among ANBU," Guy said displeased. "So he cast the genjutsu too?"
"Yes. Undoubtedly."
"Sensei..." Sarada called cautiously.
"Kakashi," Guy interrupted. "Look at the barrier more closely."
"Orochimaru!" Kakashi exclaimed.
"Huh?" Sakura jumped up. "Orochimaru?"
Yes, yes, Orochimaru! Listen to me, shannaro!
Guilt and shame tormented Sarada. She knew it would happen and told no one. But right now, Gaara worried her.
"Sensei!" Sarada exclaimed in desperation.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura blurted, shifting her gaze from the barrier to the arena.
Sarada, peeking from behind Kakashi-sensei, looked too... and didn't see her father. On the arena remained Genma and some man. No trace of Sasuke or Gaara.
A loud bang echoed from the distant forest, and a cloud of smoke and dust rose to the sky. Shisui squinted.
"What is that?" one of the chuunin on duty asked.
Heads of giant snakes burst from the smoke.
"Lord..."
"Toru, report to the Hokage and call reinforcements. Immediately!" Shisui commanded.
"Hai!"
Bearded Toru vanished from the post. The snakes approached at incredible speed, leaving trails of felled forest behind.
"Damn, we have to stop them."
"But how, taichō?"
"Any way you can!"
Shisui vanished, leaving Matsuto frozen in confusion. The door behind flew open, and a panting chuunin rushed onto the post.
"What hap... " he started and fell silent, seeing the giant snakes approaching the wall.
They were very close now.
"Explosion seals! Hurry!" Matsuto yelled.
They hurled kunai with seals at the nearest snake. Flashes sparked on the thick skin of the snake's head, explosions boomed, but the colossal beasts didn't slow.
"Again!"
They repeated. No effect.
"Look, Shunshin!" the newcomer exclaimed.
On the wall, right in the snakes' path, appeared Shisui's tiny figure. He instantly formed seals and exhaled a barrage of fire. The snakes, enveloped in flames, hissed and thrashed their heads. The fire subsided. The summoned beasts bared fangs and flicked long forked tongues.
"It didn't work..." Matsuto exhaled. "Incredible. Even that didn't work! How thick is their hide?"
Shisui leaped from the wall onto a snake's head, jumped into the air, and bright lightning flickers gleamed around his tanto. He plunged the blade, wrapped in electric discharges, into one snake's eye, somersaulted in the air, and landed back on the wall. The wounded reptile went berserk. Blood gushed from the gouged eye, flooding the scaly head, but the Uchiha's strike, enhanced with Raiton, wasn't strong enough to kill it. It only enraged it more. The snakes slammed their massive bodies into where Shisui had stood, and the fortress wall began crumbling.
"Damn, Shisui... Did you see? He got away in time?"
The chuunin shook his head and suddenly bulged his eyes.
"Right!"
Matsuto turned, but too late. Five Sand shinobi stood on the wall, and kunai were already flying at him. At him and his comrade.
Won't make it!
The signal from brain to arms hadn't even reached.
Something clinked a meter and a half away. Kunai fell to the floor with dull clangs, others ricocheted off the post wall or over the parapet, downward, on their own.
I'm alive. Still alive. How?
Muffled screams sounded. Something flashed around the Sand shinobi, too fast for the eye... Seconds later, instead of the attackers, mangled dead bodies lay on the wall.
"Body Flicker," Matsuto said.
Frowning Shisui appeared on the post.
"Don't slack off, damn it!" he barked and vanished again.
Sakura shoved Naruto through the hole in the stadium wall, followed by Shikamaru and Pakkun. Sarada gripped prepared shuriken between her fingers and pressed against the back row seatbacks.
'They're going to help Dad. But why didn't the Rokudaime send me?' Sarada thought resentfully.
He'd only said, "Stay. I'll need you here." And forbade fighting to conserve chakra, which was already low.
Clash of weapons echoed over the rows of sleeping people, shadows flashed quickly. Guy-sensei and the Rokudaime fought back-to-back. A young jonin in glasses leaped onto the sector railing and struck the enemy with a fire technique.
War.
Sarada was in war for the first time. It wasn't as scary as walking through the dark Uchiha district late at night and finding more and more bodies, but her body still trembled nervously.
Kakashi-sensei's dog pup emerged from the hole in the wall. Not Pakkun, another one, with light fur, long ears, and slightly puffy eyelids. A kunai gleamed in the air. Sarada hurled a shuriken and knocked it off course.
One more second...
The pup noticed its mistake and quickly vanished into the seats. A Sound shinobi appeared by the hole and charged at Sarada. Must've been targeting the summon.
Conserve chakra. Sharingan last resort.
Damn if she knew where these thoughts came from in her head, spoken in her inner voice sometimes with Kakashi-sensei's intonation, sometimes in young uncle's low tone. Itachi taught her to save dojutsu for last, Shisui insisted she and Sasuke spar without Sharingan, and Sarada followed automatically.
I'm fighting the enemy. This is the enemy. Real enemy. Gods...
The opponent could seriously injure her with one strike, but Sarada didn't let him even touch her. She deftly dodged attacks without dojutsu. Kunai screeched nastily clashing with the enemy's blade. Goosebumps ran over her skin from the metallic sound. And only when the Sound shinobi carelessly met her eyes did Sarada activate Sharingan. The man, caught in illusion, dropped his kunai and crashed heavily to the floor.
Sharingan deactivated. Sarada crouched quickly.
Conserving as best I can, Kakashi-sensei.
A body in Sound uniform slammed against the wall. The Rokudaime followed, flipping in the air, and landed silently on the concrete.
"Pursuit after Naruto and the kids. Go join them; Bisuke will brief you en route. Handle the pursuit—send me a crow so I know you're safe."
That was all Sarada needed.
"Hai!"
The same pup she'd saved life seeped from under the seats. "Shinobi" was inscribed on its furry forehead, and a Leaf forehead protector dangled around its neck instead of a collar.
"Let's go," the dog said in a human voice and headed for the hole.
Sarada was incredibly excited. As the village was attacked, they'd sent her alone on mission. She and the dog slid down the steep main arena wall and slipped into the tree thickets.
"Nine shinobi pursuing them," Bisuke reported. "Eight in one group and one more nearby."
"And us..."
"We catch up and help Pakkun's team."
"Will we make it?"
"Who knows. They're far ahead."
The sun hid behind clouds. Shadow blanketed the village. Such a wonderful summer day, coolness, wind, rustling leaves... But her heart wouldn't calm from the fast run and feverish thought: "War... War!"
Sarada reassured herself: "It'll be fine. You read history. The Third dies, but Orochimaru flees the village. We repel Sand and Sound. It'll be fine." But unease lingered. Who knew, maybe changes from her arrival in the past altered this conflict's outcome?
"Pick up the pace," the dog said.
Nine shinobi. Probably chuunin. How will we... Four genin and two small dogs, how do we manage?
Sarada gritted her teeth. If sensei thought they could, they could. Otherwise he wouldn't send them. In the end, all this was to find Sasuke, stop, and save him.
The snakes broke into the village and crushed everything in their path. Buildings collapsed with deafening crashes. The colossal reptiles hissed and writhed; explosion-seal flashes at their maws caused no discomfort. Five shinobi, positioned on rooftops, synchronously struck the snakes with Katon.
"Useless!" Shisui exclaimed, landing on a roof curb. "It won't take!"
"We see that," a jonin from the neighboring building replied angrily, catching breath after the fire technique.
"Run!" one chuunin yelled.
He first noticed a snake coiling into a half-loop, preparing to strike. The shinobi scattered hastily. The massive tail slam leveled nearby buildings. Air sliced through the settling dust—Shisui's technique.
Cutting streams slashed the snakes' bodies, carving deep furrows in the scales, but the hide held. The beasts hissed threateningly.
"We have to stop them now!" Ibiki yelled, seeing where one snake headed. "That district hasn't been evacuated! Damn, where's backup?!"
'Damn,' Shisui thought. 'No choice. Again. Damn!'
Leaping balcony to balcony, eave to awning, he soared onto a still-intact building roof to get closer to a snake and activated Mangekyo. Burning pain scorched his eyes and spread through his body. Timing when the reptile's head drew nearer, Shisui charged and leaped right onto it. In flight, familiar green chakra enveloped his body. Semitransparent ribs formed, then collarbones higher up, bones of the right arm... Susanoo's fist shattered the snake's skull with a mighty blow. The thin pupil froze in the iris, the huge eye's gaze faded. The serpentine body toppled. Shisui deactivated Mangekyo, regrouped, and landed on the dying beast's neck. Sliding down the scales on his feet, he rode to the tail base and jumped off. The dead animal crashed onto building ruins with a boom.
"Not bad, kid!" a cheerful voice exclaimed. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
A giant spotted toad appeared out of nowhere, crossed sword sheaths on its back, and squashed another snake under its bulk.
Dust stung the eyes. Shisui wiped tears with his fist and leaped onto the sannin's summon's head. Ibiki stood beside Jiraiya.
"Where's the Sandaime?" Jiraiya asked.
"On the main arena," Ibiki replied.
"I see..."
Shisui tensed.
"With Orochimaru?"
"Yes."
"Jiraiya-sama," Shisui said agitatedly. "Can you handle the third? I want to go to the arena."
"Wait, Shisui," Ibiki cut him off sternly. "Plenty of ours on the arena, and you won't help the Third; they raised a barrier around him and Orochimaru. You're needed here."
No, Ibiki. I'm needed there!
Shisui gritted his teeth.
"That's an order!" Ibiki barked.
"I'll take the snake," Jiraiya grinned.
"We'll handle the rest," the interrogation master replied and jumped off the toad.
Shisui shifted to the top of a lone tree miraculously surviving the chaos. The toad drew swords from its back, made a giant leap, spread legs wide, and severed the last snake's head.
Not bad summon. But he spent no less chakra on it than I did on Susanoo. Maybe more.
Shisui jumped onto a surviving building wall, climbed to the top. The roof offered a good view of the nearby battlefield. In street labyrinths amid half-ruined houses, Leaf shinobi fought Sand and Sound invaders. Shisui activated Sharingan and picked future victims in the chaos.
I have to finish here quick.
He could cast genjutsu at range on multiple people at once. Some might resist, but two-thirds usually fell into illusion for sure. And any who escaped genjutsu—the freed Leaf shinobi would finish collectively.
"They've stopped," Bisuke reported. "All nine, plus one of yours holding them off. We're close. Get ready."
Soon they overtook the pursuers. Sarada peeked stealthily from the leaves. On a small clearing stood eight Sound ninja in identical clothes, Shikamaru before them.
His fight with Temari had drained him. Shikamaru was soaked and trembling. His shadow, stretched to each Sound shinobi, twitched unevenly; he barely held control.
Eight. But where's the ninth? I can't attack till I deal with him. Damn.
Shikamaru seemed to read her mind. With great effort, he drew shuriken and kunai from his pouch, gripped between fingers, and hurled at the captured foes. The Sound shinobi reluctantly mimicked. A volley of kunai burst from the left foliage and clashed with Shikamaru's shuriken and kunai. Weapons clattered to the ground at the opponents' feet.
Bisuke sniffed and nodded toward the same side.
Right, I'm with a dog...
Sarada activated Sharingan and looked where Bisuke indicated. That's where the ninth had launched kunai to deflect Shikamaru's attack.
The forest came alive. Explosion of life! Such sensory sharpening would stun or drive an unprepared person mad, but Sarada was used to her dojutsu. A chakra cluster appeared in the leaves. Leaving the dog on a branch, Sarada quietly crept toward the man.
She took a good position and held her breath. From her cover, the stranger's back was perfectly visible.
Now!
She hurled shuriken at the foe, but at the last instant, he noticed and turned. Shuriken embedded in the tree.
Damn!
He launched at her.
Eyes... He didn't look away in time. Sharingan released a chakra pulse; illusion seeped through his pupils into his brain, seizing consciousness mid-flight. The Sound shinobi's eyes glazed, horror flashing. Sarada, seizing the enemy's daze, hurled a kunai into his heart. The man slammed face-first into a branch short of her. His body crashed through branches downward and thudded on the ground.
I killed a man.
Guilt stirred in her soul, but something heavy instantly crushed it, as if the personality born the night after the Uchiha massacre stepped on the throat of that impressionable good girl from the future she'd once been.
'No reason to attack my home and friends. His fault,' the new personality said.
And a swift thought flashed: 'Shikamaru!'