Naruto sat cross-legged in the corner of the underground jail cell, staring at the gentle rise and fall of Sakura's chest, which bulged obscenely over and to the sides of her tightly hugged knees. Her chin rested just atop the soft swell of her breasts, eyes dull and unfocused. Though she was facing him, she wasn't looking at him— or rather, she wasn't really looking at much of anything.
As for Sasuke, he was leaning against the wooden bars of their jail cell with his usual detachment, arms folded, eyes closed. Whether he was thinking, brooding, or simply bored was anyone's guess. He was probably just aura farming again, though his usual audience was still too shellshocked to appreciate the effort.
"Ugh, it reeks!" Sakura exclaimed, the light suddenly returning to her eyes as an unbearable stench filled her nostrils. "Naruto, did you just fart?"
"Sorry," said Naruto sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "I didn't think you'd notice, ya know…"
Sasuke let out a silent breath of relief, only to regret it instantly, for he was now faced with the choice between asphyxiation and choking on the noxious fumes Naruto had just released.
Until now, he hadn't dared use his Sharingan to pull Sakura from her nightmare, wary that the more proficient Genjutsu practitioner might lash out instinctively and damage his psyche— or worse, that his clumsy attempt might cause her to slip further into whatever corner of her mind she'd retreated to.
"What happened?" asked Sakura in a panic. "The Kikaichū, I remember they swarmed Lady Kyōko—"
Sasuke silently put his finger in front of his lips to silence her. Their cell was guarded by Manyū clanswomen, and he had no doubt they would report their every word to their superiors. He had naturally recognised the insects as the Kikaichū, the Aburame clan's signature parasitic insects.
Despite her lizard brain, Sakura was quite smart, so she quickly caught on to Sasuke's meaning.
Using insects wasn't by any means exclusive to Aburame clansmen, but if those particular insects were present, their Aburame handlers couldn't be far behind, which meant this attack had been orchestrated by Konoha. Saying any more on the subject would only worsen their current situation.
Sakura shuddered.
She liked to think she'd mostly put her severe phobia of insects behind her after fighting alongside Shino, but as expected, the trauma from her previous life wasn't so easily overcome. If only she hadn't shut down, maybe Lady Kyōko's baby wouldn't have been taken, and they wouldn't have found themselves in jail…
As Sakura inwardly berated herself for her weakness, loud cries and angry shouts began to echo through the prison in the distance. She and the others pricked up their ears as the noise drew closer. At last, Koharu and Lord Munenori appeared on the stairs leading to the surface, accompanied by three kunoichi.
"Never has the Hidden Leaf suffered such disrespect!" Utatane Koharu said witheringly as they descended the creaky stairs. "How dare you confine our shinobi when it is obvious they had nothing to do with the attack? Our village is the largest and most powerful of the Five Elemental Nations' Great Villages. Do you really think we would stoop so low as to take your children?"
Lord Munenori waved his hand, and his kunoichi guards stepped back. He then approached the wooden bars with Koharu, while Naruto and Sakura rose to face them with Sasuke.
"Ten children, including my granddaughter, have been taken," he said quietly. "I do not believe in happenstance, so you'll have to forgive my scepticism when your so-called negotiator insists your Hidden Leaf Village has nothing to do with this kidnapping, especially when you are the first and only visitors our mountains have seen in seventy years."
"We had no knowledge of this," said Sasuke, looking past the bars that separated them and meeting him dead in the eye. "We were only assisting Lady Kyōko during her labour. Sakura saved both your daughter's and your granddaughter's lives."
"Yeah!" Naruto added vehemently. "We did the best we could to stop those insects, you know?"
Lord Munenori examined their expressions. The straw-haired brat seemed honest enough, but the Uchiha kid's expression was unreadable. As for Chifusa's descendant… she seemed too depressed to care. He'd heard from Munekichi how she'd used miraculous Medical Ninjutsu to help his daughter give birth, and he now wanted her more than ever…
"I would believe in the honour of the Uchiha clan, our old allies," Lord Munenori said firmly. "However…" He cast a derisive glance at Koharu. "I wouldn't say the same for these leaders of yours."
"Let us help," Sasuke said insistently. "We'll track down the kidnappers and bring your children safely back to you."
Lord Munenori raised a bushy, white eyebrow at the young Uchiha clansman.
"Very well," he said brusquely. "But Chifusa's granddaughter must stay in the Manyū compound as insurance."
Koharu made a mental note of this. According to Kakashi's account of his audience with the patriarch, this would mark the second time he'd refused to let Sakura go, as if he was loath to let her out of his sight.
"You have no right to detain Sakura, the Hokage's direct disciple," Koharu said firmly. "Need I remind you that we hold all the cards? Your mountain lies at the very heart of the Land of Fire, which falls under the authority of the Daimyō and, by extension, Konohagakure's Hokage. You command at most fifty kunoichi, while we can muster tens of thousands of shinobi. Unless you wish to live out the rest of your days here, like a toad at the bottom of a well, your only course is to rely on our Fūinjutsu experts to unseal the mountain."
Lord Munenori smiled faintly.
"It is true that you hold all the cards," he said. "I cannot send my kunoichi out of this place, but your shinobi may enter my home as they please. So, pray tell, what exactly would change if I complied or not? The Manyū lose either way, it seems."
Koharu grit her teeth.
Orochimaru's interest in the pink-haired girl had, in turn, drawn Danzō's attention—and in light of recent events (his agents had reported witnessing Sakura practising both Wood Style and Crystal Style), he had finally deduced the secret Tsunade had long tried to keep buried: Sakura's Kekkei Genkai allowed her to steal others' bloodline limits.
Like it or not, Sakura had become part of the village's core fighting strength— one point of a new three-way deadlock alongside Naruto and Sasuke, each with their colossal summons.
To the higher-ups, Sakura's potential for unchecked growth was troubling; she ran the risk of becoming too powerful to control, not unlike the Sannin before her. Even so, her strength was indispensable— both in the upcoming showdown against the Akatsuki and in keeping the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki in check. And so, because of her status as the Fifth Hokage's disciple, the Council of Elders was prepared to… tolerate her.
But that was one thing, and this was quite another.
The situation had been manageable when there had been only one Sakura— but as it turned out, there was an entire clan of kunoichi just like her, hidden away in the heart of the Land of Fire. The Village Hidden in the Cleavage was a powder keg waiting to explode: the Manyū kunoichi might seem harmless now, but if ever freed from their prison, they would grow exponentially in power, copying Kekkei Genkai as they swarmed across the land like a plague of locusts!
Just as rabid dogs must be put down before they spread their sickness, so too did the Manyū need to be exterminated— before they found a flaw in the Uzumaki seal that kept them caged and escaped into the wider world. But of course, not before Root obtained a few experimental samples…
…
In the end, Sakura found herself all alone in her cold and damp and dark cell. It would only be too easy for her to snap the wooden bars, but if she did, then her comrades' lives would surely be forfeit…
"Go away, go away," she groaned, hearing the scuttling and skittering of insect legs on the cold stone floor. "Just leave me alone…"
Sakura screwed her eyes shut and pressed her hands to her ears as a nightmarish scene unfolded before her: a writhing sea of black carapaces streaming from the hairline cracks in the stone of her cell and gathering at her feet, undulating and pulsating, until they assembled into words:
Prove your loyalty. Exterminate the Manyū clan. It is the will of Konoha.
Unfortunately, Sakura never saw her new orders. She had already fainted from sheer terror and now lay motionless on the floor, froth bubbling at the corners of her mouth.