“We didn’t hit the mark after all.” Just as Sakura said, the satellite’s trajectory was off to the west of the pillar’s route by about 165 feet. “I wonder if the ultra particles really are in there.”
“Nah, I’m telling you that round thing’s a vessel to beat out all vessels. Believe it.” Naruto checked it with the Byakugan, and his voice grew darker. “There’s a bamboo vessel inside, and it’s got the ultra particles in it. But … the wards are still there.”
Shikamaru’s team hadn’t made it in time. The ultra particles were still sealed. At the advance meeting, they’d decided that if the wards hadn’t been released at this point in time, they’d abandon the mission and return to the earth.
However.
“Not a problem,” Sasuke said curtly and grabbed Naruto.
“Huh?” Baffled, Naruto looked up at Sasuke. Did he have some kind of secret plan? But the look on his face was the same as always.
“Sasuke.” Sakura suddenly took her hands off the bike grips and stood up. She twisted her torso around, grabbed Sasuke’s collar, and pulled him forcefully toward her. She pressed her lips against his.
“Huh …” Naruto’s jaw dropped at the kiss being exchanged above his head.
“I believe in you!” Sakura shouted and then reached into Sasuke’s coat, pulled out a headband, and flung it at the approaching satellite.
Naruto very much did not understand what was going on.
This should have been no place for kissing. If they couldn’t release the seal in time, they would go back to the ground. That was all. And whose headband was that? Couldn’t have been Sasuke’s …
Still holding onto Naruto, Sasuke kicked at the wheel and flew up. Having lost its chakra supply, the bike slowed and wobbled, and began to fall with Sakura on it. The headband she had thrown neared the satellite, sparked with the friction of the resistance of what little air still existed at this altitude, and burst into flame before their eyes.
Now charcoal, the headband drifted on the wind and began to crumble.
Ame-no-tejikara!
Sasuke switched himself and Naruto with the decaying charcoal in front of them. The satellite was coming up straight ahead. The air resistance was powerful enough to cause parts of their clothing to spontaneously combust, and Sasuke drew his long sword, pierced the top of his own left foot with the sword’s tip, and kept going to stab into the side of the satellite.
Violent, but it got the job done. After fixing the satellite to his own body, Sasuke pulled a sheathed dagger out from his cloak.
“Hang on, Sasuke!” Naruto cried. “The seal on the ultra particles is still there!”
“Not a problem. I’ll smash the vessel.”
“Idiot! If you do that …” Naruto swallowed the rest of his words, and the color drained from his face. “You’re not actually …”
Sasuke didn’t answer. The usual expression on his face. He was calm, as if to say that he was simply doing what had to be done.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Naruto shouted and began to squirm against Sasuke. “Listen to me! You think anyone’s gonna be happy if you die to keep me alive?!”
He’d known Sasuke was an idiot, but he hadn’t thought he was this much of an idiot. Did he think that all the village needed was Naruto? How many thousands of times did he have to tell him, “I need you” and “You’re my best friend” and all that before it finally got through to that ridiculously well-formed head?
Sasuke had always been like this, always ready to sacrifice himself. He really believed that if there was a world where everyone except Sasuke was happy and Sasuke alone suffered immensely, then that world was at peace. Just like Sasuke needed Naruto, Naruto needed Sasuke—it was such an obvious thing, and yet no matter how many years passed, no matter what Naruto said, Sasuke didn’t get that.
“Are you listening to me?! I’m telling you to let me go!”
“Say sorry to your wife for me,” Sasuke said bafflingly, before clamping his teeth down on the sheathe of his dagger and pulling the blade free.
Kashnk!
Shikamaru slammed into the hot pin light with his back. The exposed heated wires touched him, and he heard the sound of sizzling flesh.
Without giving him the time to feel the heat of his wounds, Long Hair charged. Shikamaru leaped to the right to dodge the body blow, and a kunai whizzed past the end of his nose, like it had been lying in wait for him.
“Come on!”
Long Hair had been well trained, as one would expect for the bodyguard of a Kengakuin VIP. Shikamaru was forced into a defensive battle while he kept putting in passcodes.
1180.
He still hadn’t found the correct passcode for the terminal hidden in his sleeve. This one made thirty-five combinations. The last one left had to be the correct one.
It was almost ten o’clock. Seriously dicey.
Taking advantage of Shikamaru’s distraction with the terminal, Long Hair came barreling at him. He grabbed Shikamaru’s chin and knocked him to the floor.
Not good, Shikamaru thought, and in the next instant, the palm of an enormous hand swept in from the side and mowed Long Hair down.
“Choji!” Shikamaru lifted his face with a gasp, and Choji pressed on his stomach and fell over. Other than the enormous arm, the rest of him had returned to his original size. The Art of Partial Expansion. “Don’t release your expansion technique! The poison will spread, and you’ll die!”
“I … know!”
Poof!
In a puff of smoke, Choji’s body swelled up again.
Long Hair was splayed out on the floor, not moving.
1108.
When he input the remaining four-digit combination, the lock on the terminal was released. “Yes!”
He tapped on the firewall icon displayed on the screen. A string of characters popped up that would have been totally meaningless to someone who didn’t know the rules, a special language only understood by a computer.
Shikamaru deftly input the algorithm for the command “unlock system.” After that, all he had to do was tap “execute.” But.
“This is such a hassle!”
A bloody fist grazed the top of his head where he was crouched over. The man with the long hair had stubbornly come back to life.
“I got you now!” Long Hair brandished a kunai, blood streaming from his nose and mouth.
Shikamaru kicked him in the stomach and sent him slamming into the wall. The portable terminal hidden inside his coat had returned to the lock screen.
“Ah! Dammit!”
1108. He impatiently input the passcode and found the firewall system fortunately still open, complete with the algorithm Shikamaru had input.
Long Hair got back to his feet and was coming at him again, but he couldn’t waste time dodging now.
A second before Long Hair’s fist drove into his gut, Shikamaru hit the “execute” button with his thumb.