“Too late!”
As she cried out, Sakura clenched her hands into fists and looked up at the ceiling. She dropped her hips, stiffened her knees, and—I’m smashing through and getting out!
She didn’t care whether this room was underground or however many floors aboveground. She was going up and out. That was her sole thought.
“Hold her down!” Kido roared, but Sakura moved faster.
Cherry Blossom Crash!
“Oh yeeeah!!”
Sakura leapt toward the ceiling. Her right fist, glittering with chakra, pulverized the concrete ceiling. Beyond the ceiling, there was simply a space like an enormous storehouse.
So I was locked up underground.
Her recognition of this was fleeting. The force of the Cherry Blossom Crash still with her, Sakura smashed through the ceiling of the storehouse as well.
Abruptly the sky opened up before her eyes, and a sense of liberation filled her heart. And then she heard, “Sakura?!”
Turning her gaze to the right, she saw Sai’s bird. On its back were Sai and Ino.
Sakura killed her upward momentum, landing right next to the storehouse before leaping off to put some distance between herself and the building.
Sai and Ino slid off the bird and hit the ground very close to Sakura.
“Are you okay?” Ino asked.
“Yeah, basically. But how did you guys know I was here?”
“We strung up one of Kido’s subordinates. Although seeing how things have turned out, I guess you were okay by yourself.” Sai grinned wryly.
“No way,” Sakura replied with a severe look. “I’m glad you’re here. Kido and Magire are in there. Don’t let your guard down.”
Kido and Magire then came flying out of the hole Sakura had torn in the roof. They were followed by several members of the Anbu.
Sakura and her friends stood and glared at the ten or so members of Kido’s faction.
“A woman of superhuman strength, just as word had it,” Kido said, as if to provoke her. “But I’m not letting you get away. You really must stay and refine those eyes of Sasuke’s for us.”
“As if I’d do a thing like that!”
“Sakura, what’s he talking about?” Ino asked. “Refining Sasuke’s eyes?”
“These guys are planning to take Sasuke’s eyes and make a drug out of them.”
“A drug?”
“A sharingan drug. They say it’ll give anyone who takes it the power to use sharingan. They think that if they kill me in front of Sasuke, it’ll be too much of a shock for him, and that shock will increase the powers of his eyes.”
Ino was speechless.
Sakura continued. “They made the fake Sasuke with a drug too. They give this capsule with Sasuke’s chakra to someone who uses transformation jutsu to look like Sasuke.”
“Since you’re here, why don’t the two of you die in front of Sasuke as well?” Kido said, with a broad grin.
“Three of his friends die at once before his eyes.” Magire picked up where his leader left off. “We can expect an equivalent increase in his visual power. That is all.”
“You wouldn’t!” Ino narrowed her eyes.
“A drug, huh?” Sai’s voice was cool. “So the Tailed Beast chakra that the guys who attacked me were cloaked in. That’s the effect of a drug too?”
“It is,” Kido said. “A Tailed Beast drug.”
“So in the Final Valley, you didn’t just collect Sasuke’s hair and blood,” Sakura said. “You also got Naruto’s and extracted his chakra?”
“You’re half-correct. The remaining half…let’s just say that’s a trade secret.” Kido’s grin grew broader.
“What do you mean, trade secret? Talking like you’re a company!” Ino laughed.
“We are,” was Kido’s immediate response.
“What?”
“I’m leaving the village and starting a military company. Of global scale.”
“A military…company?” Sakura’s face was skeptical.
“Oh, is that it?” Sai said. “You’re going to sell the drugs in conflict regions?”
“That is precisely it,” Kido replied. “Take this drug and be cloaked in Tailed Beast chakra. Take this one and use the sharingan. If such drugs exist, organizations wishing to increase their fighting power will most certainly desire them. And that’s not all. I can even manufacture the conflicts themselves. This time, I made a fake Sasuke, but theoretically I could make a copy of a key person in a certain country and have the fake take actions to instigate a conflict. The result being that we could sell our drugs in the region once the conflict breaks out. Or there’s the route of selling mercenaries enhanced with drugs. At any rate, massive profits will come rolling in. And I will obtain money, enough money to burn, should I so wish.” As Kido spoke, an almost ecstatic expression rose up onto his face.
“The drugs are a sham. I don’t believe everyone is just going to line up for something like that,” Ino said.
Kido shook his head, chastising. “I’d appreciate it if you’d refer to them as a rational choice, rather than a sham. And there absolutely are people who want them. They’ll be able to use the powerful chakra of the Tailed Beasts and the sharingan, after all.”
“You’re deluded if you think a drug can make you stronger,” Sakura said. “People get stronger by making it through tough times. They move up one step at a time, aiming for the sky.”
“That is truly infantile thinking,” Kido snorted. “The humble opinion that time simply makes good. You made this children’s therapy center or whatever it’s called, hmm? If I had to say, that sort of thing is the very soul of inefficient and uneconomical. Care for the minds of children? The only thing spending time and money on that is going to do is produce more weak children. Children whose spirits can be broken are simply weak in the end.” He spat this last part out.
“Excuse me?! Sakura and I—” Ino started, but Sakura cut her off.
“It’s okay, Ino. Let him talk. This guy could never understand the human heart. He doesn’t understand, and that’s why he failed at luring Sasuke out, right?” Sakura said, and laughed boldly. “He set a fake to work, and Sasuke still didn’t come back to the village. He totally misread Sasuke.”
A flash of annoyance raced across Kido’s face. “He will come back. If we use you three as bait, that is. You there!” Kido called to his masked subordinates on standby behind him. “Take the Tailed Beast drug. And then secure them. If you have to use force and you end up killing them, that’s fine as well.”
At Kido’s order, the subordinates began to move all at once. They removed their Anbu coats and tossed them aside before taking off their masks. Once they were in just their uniforms for easier movement, they brought capsules to their mouths.
“Now you can get a taste of the immensity of this ‘sham’ power, as you call it,” Kido said.
Sakura and her companions spread out, leaving a good distance between them so they could spring into action.
And then, one after another, the chakra of Kido’s subordinates grew until all were cloaked in a pale purple chakra with tails growing out of it. The number of tails varied. Some of the ninja only had one, others had two. The lengths of the tails also differed from person to person.
“They have different numbers of tails,” Ino noted.
“Two seems like it’d be stronger than one, going from the strength of the chakra,” Sakura replied, sizing up their enemy.
“The number of tails is proportional to the amount of chakra the person has,” Kido remarked, lightly. “If you’re interested, perhaps you’d care to try the drug?”
“Careful,” Sai said. “Even the ones with a single tail are fairly strong.”
“Got it.” Sakura nodded.
Kido thrust his chin out. “Get them.”
Enemies cloaked in Tailed Beast chakra charged them.