A sharingan drug. They were going to make a drug from Sasuke’s eyes.
Sakura’s face twisted up hearing their disgusting plan. And she was furious that they had included her in it. But her fury didn’t last long. It was quickly followed by a wave of self-hatred.
What am I doing?
Feelings of self-recrimination welled up from a seemingly bottomless fountain and robbed Sakura of her willpower. Just when she was finally feeling like she was doing something for Sasuke, this failure. So that now, instead of doing anything for him, she was a pawn in the scheme against him.
I’ll see you soon, he had said.
She had been waiting for that “soon.”
But now, because of her failure, Sasuke was being backed into a terrible corner. This was the worst. Seeing him again like this was the worst possible outcome.
Sai! Ino! she cried out in her heart. Have you already realized that they’ve got me? Hurry and help—
She gasped suddenly. She felt like she had managed to catch herself just on the verge of falling into a dark ravine.
What am I saying? Hurry and help me?
No, she avowed to herself firmly. No, no, no.
She remembered the time when she, Sasuke, and Naruto first came together on Team Seven. Remembered the self who was so weak then.
Naruto and Sasuke would protect me. I was always protected. And I hated myself for that. So I got stronger. I didn’t want to always be looking at their backs. I wanted to be their equal. Which is why…
Me right now, she thought, I’m just being the weak me from back then, aren’t I? Feeling hopeless, waiting for friends to save me. I can’t face Sasuke like this.
It started with “You’re annoying” and got to “I’ll see you soon. Thank you.”
It’s come this far, my relationship with Sasuke.
Sakura didn’t want to go back to that old annoying self. She didn’t want to go back to being weak.
Do it, do what you can right now…
“Sasuke—” Sakura said, looking up at Kido. “You really think Sasuke’s going to be caught that easily by the likes of you?”
“I do,” Kido said icily, the smile disappearing. His attitude, so filled with certainty, made Sakura shudder. “I wouldn’t presume to try and lure him to the village when I had no chance of success. It’s true that he is strong. I acknowledge that. However, we also have no little amount of skill.”
The word “skill” made Sakura remember. The men who attacked Sai were cloaked in Tailed Beast chakra.
“So you’re going to use the Tailed Beast chakra?” Sakura said.
“Did Sai tell you? Yes, exactly. Although strictly speaking, it’s not Tailed Beast, it’s pseudo-Tailed Beast. Even so, you can get a reasonable bit of fight from it.”
“A reasonable bit of fight? You don’t talk like you have a chance of beating him.”
“It’s sufficient. We don’t have to defeat or kill him. All we need to do is restrain him and take his eyes.”
The way Kido kept his cool made her angry. But this was a good turn of events. She couldn’t let him stop talking to her.
“So you really want Sasuke’s eyes that badly, huh?”
“We have made all these preparations to that end, after all.”
“You collected Sasuke’s hair and blood in the Final Valley, extracted his chakra, and created the fake. Isn’t that right?”
“Just like a medical ninja to figure it out. Sharp insight. However, doesn’t it all work out this way? You got to see Sasuke, even if he is a fake.” Kido chuckled.
Sakura glared at him. “Why would I be glad to see a fake? And you all probably don’t know this, but the real Sasuke’s slimmer, his eyes are cooler, his voice is just a little bit lower, and the bridge of his nose is straighter. This fake you made is not the best quality. Definitely a quality issue.”
“Coming from you, that’s not very convincing, given that you were taken in by that very fake.”
“Shut up. I’m telling you it doesn’t look like him, it doesn’t—”
“This is the man who has been playing the part of Sasuke,” Kido said, interrupting her. One of the masked men behind him stepped forward. “He was acting as the Sasuke copy when we took you.”
“So? What’s your point?”
“Take off your mask,” Kido ordered, and the man did as he was told.
The mask was removed, revealing the face of a man who did not bear the slightest resemblance to Sasuke.
“And this,” Kido said, taking a white capsule from the pocket of his coat. “This is a capsule containing Sasuke’s chakra. If you take it, you will be cloaked in a chakra of the same color and lineage as Sasuke. Here.” Kido handed the capsule to the man who had removed his mask.
“Let her meet Sasuke,” Kido ordered him, watching Sakura out of the corner of his eye.
“Stop it.”
“Understood,” the man replied.
“I said, stop it!”
Heedless of Sakura’s cries, the man swallowed the capsule. He wove a sign with both hands.
Poof! A puff of smoke rose up, and when it cleared, Sasuke was standing there. Sasuke’s face. And the chakra was Sasuke’s as well.
“Ngh!”
Sakura quickly averted her eyes. She was ashamed of herself for the way her heart pounded for a moment, albeit unconsciously.
“What do you think? Take another look and tell me about the poor quality.”
As if I’ll look.
Sakura closed her eyes and turned her face away from Kido and the man. As if she would ever look.
Soon, she heard footsteps. They were coming toward her. Whoever it was stopped close to her.
She opened her eyes a crack and gasped. The fake Sasuke was crouching down and peering at her.
Get away from me!
Sakura tried to turn her face away again.
Then.
“I love you, Sakura,” said the fake Sasuke, stroking her hair.
“Ngh!” A chill so severe she wanted to cry out raced through her entire body, and she glared at the fake Sasuke.
His mouth stretched out into a thin, vulgar smile, the sort of expression that would never cross the face of the real Sasuke.
No words came out. Her entire being was filled with rage. Sakura glared very nearly hard enough to set the fake Sasuke on fire as he returned to Kido’s side.
The fake Sasuke released the transformation and put his mask back on. Right up until the mask hid it, the man wore that same thin smile.
“Congratulations on being reunited,” Kido said. A certain satisfaction at having put Sakura in her place bled into the bottom of his voice.
Sakura let out her breath. She inhaled, exhaled again. She felt the violent storm in her heart recede bit by bit. Finally, she said, “Totally different.”
Kido looked puzzled.
“I was right. The real thing and the fake are totally different. But fine. Thanks to your creepy little show, I’ve stored up plenty inside me. Anger…and chakra,” Sakura said, and sent all the chakra she had been secretly kneading while talking with Kido racing to all points in her body.
Because of the effect of the drug, she had needed time to knead her chakra, something she could normally do in a short time—which was why she had been trying to drag out the conversation. She kept challenging Kido to make him keep talking.
Having finished the One Hundred Healings jutsu, Sakura had no trouble building up chakra while talking, and keeping her opponent from realizing it to boot.
She had built up a nice stock of chakra. Spiced with her rage at being forced to witness that tasteless display, an unparalleled superhuman strength surged through Sakura’s limbs.
“Magire, get another inject—”
“Too late!”
Sakura put all her strength into her arms and legs, and the cuffs around wrists and ankles went flying.