Chapter 140: Sakura's Inner World
Three days passed. Sasuke's recovery moved quickly.
During that time, battle reports came in from both the River Country and Frost Country fronts.
What surprised Sakura was that Sunagakure had held.
Against Danzō Shimura on one side and the Iwagakure force under Ōnoki on the other — they'd held.
Whatever else Danzō was, his battlefield command was unmistakable — a direct inheritor of Tobirama Senju's style, with striking resemblance to the original. Both men were defined by the same quality. Calculating. Precise. The kind of commander who struck where you weren't looking. Danzō had taken the field and immediately demonstrated why he'd co-managed Konoha's war strategy in the Second Shinobi World War alongside Kagami Uchiha.
Ōnoki, meanwhile, had practically fought the Third Shinobi World War himself. His style was the opposite — methodical, grinding, advancing behind what amounted to moving walls. No brilliance, no flash. Just inevitable, inescapable forward pressure.
Two exceptional commanders. And Suna had held against both.
Chiyo covering Danzō — that made sense. Her tactical ceiling was high enough.
But Ebizō holding against Ōnoki? How?
Suna's entire doctrine was built around elitism born of poverty — they couldn't sustain large forces, so they trained exceptional individuals instead. But a puppet corps against Ōnoki's grinding advance seemed like the wrong tool for the problem.
Hokage Tower — the Hokage's office —
Sakura scanned the battle report Hiruzen had handed her, brow drawn tight.
Two names.
Kakuzu — missing-nin of Takigakure. Kisame Hoshigaki — missing-nin of Kirigakure. Both hired as mercenaries by Sunagakure.
Kakuzu's reputation preceded him. He'd been operating as a high-end black market enforcer for decades — no restriction on targets, no ideological limits, strictly transactional. He'd famously crossed blades with Hashirama Senju at some point, which told you everything you needed to know about his longevity.
Kisame she knew personally. They'd had a round together.
"According to intelligence, both individuals belong to the same mercenary organization. Identifiable by a black robe with red cloud motifs."
Hiruzen's voice was low. His eyes had gone somewhere private.
Sakura looked at the report without releasing the tension in her brow.
Their open appearance didn't surprise her. But the fact that they were operating publicly — did that mean the Akatsuki had stopped caring about visibility?
Or perhaps they simply didn't need to anymore. Fire, Earth, Wind, and Lightning were busy trying to destroy each other. What was there to fear?
She rubbed her temples.
The five-nation coalition of the original story was already becoming a fantasy. At this rate, by the time the Akatsuki moved openly on the tailed beasts — three years, maybe less — the great nations would be too deep in mutual hatred to work together. Meeting each other on a battlefield would more likely end in a three-way fight than a joint operation.
"So what's the plan?"
She looked at Hiruzen, who was clearly thinking about something else entirely.
Hiruzen turned his gaze back. Kisame and Kakuzu — concerning, but manageable.
Danzō had his Root intelligence network, including Yamato and the nano-scale parasitic insects of the Aburame Root division. Anyone sent against that unit tended not to come back.
The Iwa front — that was its own problem with its own people assigned to it.
What Hiruzen was actually thinking about was Itachi Uchiha.
Itachi and Kisame were in the same organization. When Itachi had wiped out the Uchiha clan, he'd mentioned an organization had approached him — that he intended to infiltrate it as a Konoha asset.
That had been nearly seven years ago.
Not a word.
Seven years of deep cover and Hiruzen had received exactly nothing.
At some point a man had to accept that his asset was no longer reliable.
But Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan — identical in power to Madara Uchiha's — made any rash conclusion dangerous.
"Hey. Old man." Sakura leaned forward. "I'm talking to you."
Hiruzen looked at the pink-haired girl with mild exasperation and pressed her back by the forehead.
"Nothing worth discussing. Kisame is Danzō's problem — that's why he's the field commander. I'm not solving every problem personally."
He said this as if Kisame were a minor inconvenience.
From a Sannin's perspective, the man called the Tailless Tailed Beast was a serious threat in isolation. Against a major village's full assets, he was manageable.
Kisame and Kakuzu had only gotten into Konoha smoothly last time because Konoha had been reeling from an unexpected attack. That window was closed.
"Alright." Sakura accepted that. "Then the Frost Country front needs more Hyūga."
Kumogakure had apparently adapted quickly after Sakura's departure. They'd dissolved their main force into precision strike teams and were hitting the Konoha line with surgical accuracy — targeting gaps as they opened, pulling back moments before reinforcements arrived.
Real-time intelligence on Jiraiya's deployments.
The advance Konoha had pushed — dozens of kilometers — had been rolled back nearly halfway.
Sakura was almost certain of the explanation: White Zetsu. The Akatsuki's living reconnaissance network. In a large-scale engagement, White Zetsu's intelligence value eclipsed even what Kakuzu and Kisame contributed operationally.
"That was my thinking as well."
Hiruzen frowned. More sensors was the obvious answer. Alternatively — identify the source of Kumogakure's inexplicable intelligence capability and surgically remove it.
Sakura let her gaze drift, voice going deliberately casual.
"What if I—"
"No."
Flat. Immediate.
"Not until that second personality is resolved. You're not leaving this village."
Sakura's eye twitched.
She'd been about to suggest taking Kushina and the Ino-Shika-Chō team. Kushina's sensory range could blanket the entire engagement area. Combined with Ino's Mind Body Transfer — essentially a mobile command network with a radar built in. Real-time information superiority, specifically tuned to counter precision harassment tactics.
Yes, a sensor of Kushina's caliber would absolutely be detected by White Zetsu, which might bring something worse down on them. Possibly the Raikage personally.
But with Jiraiya there, and with Sakura present—
Short of Pain, Tobi, or Ōnoki himself, nothing coming for them would leave.
The tactical value of Kushina and Ino working in combination was arguably greater than White Zetsu's.
The one complication being that Kushina and Ino in the same vicinity might spend more time fighting each other than the enemy.
But since Hiruzen wasn't letting her go to the front anyway, she wasn't going to put either of them in the field without her.
"Fine. Whatever you say."
She raised her hands.
"When do we start?"
"Tomorrow."
"Good."
Hiruzen watched her go with the exhaustion of a man who had been carrying this village for too long.
He'd invested everything in this one student. And around her — Jiraiya, a brilliant pervert with the discipline of a mayfly. Tsunade, with a gambling addiction that defied intervention. The next tier down: Kakashi too lazy, Asuma capable but not extraordinary, Guy—
Hiruzen didn't let himself finish that thought. If Guy became Hokage, Hiruzen was certain Tobirama Senju would reanimate himself out of sheer outrage and immediately strangle the man.
Further down: Naruto, idealistic to the point of recklessness. Neji Hyūga, branch family — politically complicated. Shikamaru Nara was genuinely promising but shared Kakashi's core problem. Sasuke was entirely focused on revenge.
Only the girl in front of him had the breadth of mind and the capability the role demanded.
Who he then discovered had a split personality.
He really wanted to retire.
Though — in his darker moments, staring at this particular problem, he sometimes thought about Minato. Talented beyond measure, driven, almost entirely without personal failings—
Except for the one fatal one.
He'd used the Reaper Death Seal to let Kushina see their son for a few minutes.
You could have raised him alone, Hiruzen thought, not for the first time. You could have secretly used Impure World Reincarnation on some condemned prisoner so Kushina could say goodbye. The Second Hokage did exactly that kind of thing.
You chose the dramatic option.
He was tired.
Sakura had expected the suppression session to take place somewhere dark, underground, clinical — a facility she'd never been to.
She hadn't expected Training Ground 3.
Bright sunlight. Clean air. A light wind moving through the tree line with a sound like distant water.
She sat cross-legged inside a sealing array that had been drawn across the ground — the binding variety, she could tell on instinct, similar to the feeling she'd had in Kushina's old residence.
She wasn't wrong. Tsunade had replicated it from Mito Uzumaki's surviving notes. She'd spent most of the past three days on this while conducting Sasuke's rehabilitation — studying Yin Release theory, then refining the array.
The entire training ground was sealed off. Present: Sakura, Tsunade, Hiruzen, and Sasuke.
"Ready?"
Tsunade looked as she always did — green coat, the kanji for gamble on the back, expression pragmatic.
"Whenever."
Sakura sat with her hands on her knees, face calm.
Tsunade nodded to Sasuke.
"Yes."
His quiet voice. Then his dark eyes shifted — red, three tomoe turning slowly in each.
Three-tomoe Sharingan. Active.
Sakura held his gaze without looking away.
The Sharingan — the purest expression of Yin Release in the current era. And Sasuke, as Indra's reincarnation, carried Yin Release that was intrinsically powerful. With Sakura's mind open and receptive, Sasuke moved through the boundary without resistance.
Blue sky.
White clouds.
Glass and steel reaching upward.
An iron bird passed overhead with a roar that rattled Sasuke's perception.
He stood on a street and stared.
Where was this?
Skyscrapers. Traffic. The organized chaos of a city in motion.
Sakura's inner world is... like this?
"Ah—!"
A small shape stumbled and fell near his feet. Six or seven years old. Pink hair.
"Are you alright..."
He reached down automatically. And froze.
This was Sakura.
A six-year-old Sakura in children's clothes, looking up at him with wide, guileless eyes.
"Thank you, big brother!"
She beamed at him like he'd done something remarkable.
"Goodness, this child — thank you so much, young man."
A woman jogging over. Thirty-something. Adult Sakura — unmistakably, though the years had changed her.
She scooped the small Sakura up, gave Sasuke a polite look, said thank you, and departed at speed.
He thought he heard something muttered about young people looking dazed these days.
He turned around.
And stopped breathing.
All of them.
All of them were Sakura.
Every person on the street. Every pedestrian. Every age, every outfit, every context.
A Sakura in a school uniform with a backpack, walking briskly.
A Sakura in a business suit, moving like she was already late.
A Sakura in a mascot costume handing flyers to passersby.
A Sakura behind a shop counter, cigarette in the corner of her mouth, running what appeared to be a butcher's stall.
A Sakura in an apron, smiling warmly, working at a bakery.
Two Sakuras stuck in traffic — one honking at the other, the other honking back, both apparently furious about the same roadblock that they themselves were collectively creating.
A Sakura's face on a flyer stapled to a telephone pole. The text read: SEEKING PARTNER — GENEROUS TERMS.
Sasuke stared at the flyer longer than he intended.
This is indecent. This is deeply indecent—
He looked away.
And looked back.
"What are you staring at?"
A hand landed on his shoulder from behind. He startled.
Another Sakura. This one in ninja gear — the familiar kind. His kind.
He knew her.
"You — "
"Yes, it's me. Stop gaping."
This Sakura looked at him with mild exasperation.
This is my inner world?
Everywhere she looked — herself. Every version of herself.
How was she supposed to find Inner Sakura in here?
Were all of them Inner Sakura?
"So, um. Sakura. How did you — "
Before either of them could figure out where to start—
"Excuse me! Can I interest you both in our new seasonal menu?"
A Sakura in a full mascot costume had materialized in front of them, holding flyers with a cheerful, professional smile.
Sakura looked at the costume, then at the sign behind her.
Sakura Snow Desserts.
Even the mascot figure out front — normally a snow king — had been replaced with a snow Sakura.
This place is completely unhinged.
— The real world —
"Sakura's" eyes opened.
There was a smile on her face that wasn't Sakura's smile.
Tsunade's expression went cold immediately.
She'd felt this before. She knew it without needing confirmation.
The moment the host consciousness entered the inner world, Inner Sakura took the body.
Hiruzen's eyes narrowed.
This was his first time seeing Inner Sakura directly. The air around her was wrong in a way that was hard to define — something that made the skin prickle.
"Lady Tsunade." The smile was pleasant. Too pleasant. "I've already handled Inner Sakura. You can let me out now."
"Give it up."
Tsunade's eyes were flat and sharp.
"You've existed for at most thirteen years. Don't try that on me."
"Is that right?"
A perfect pantomime of disappointment crossed the borrowed face.
"Then what a shame."
The smile returned.
"Your biggest mistake, busty lady, was sending the real Sakura into the inner world to find me."
"You think Uchiha Sasuke's Yin Release can suppress me?" The body stood up and stretched, rolling her neck with an audible crack. "Don't make me laugh."
"Oh?" Tsunade kept her tone neutral. "Why not?"
"Nice try." A dismissive sound. "Fishing for information with that kindergarten bait? Did gambling rot your brain?"
The vein at Tsunade's temple surfaced.
She stopped talking.
One hand came up, index and middle finger raised.
"Diamond Adamantine Chains!"
One of the strongest sealing techniques left by Mito Uzumaki. Clan secret of the Uzumaki, one of their absolute highest arts — and with Tsunade's own Strength of a Hundred as the foundation, she'd absorbed it with terrifying speed.
The array that had been prepared in advance activated.
Golden chains erupted from the sealing marks and drove straight at Inner Sakura.
"Ha!"
"Now this is interesting!"
Inner Sakura's grin was unhinged and delighted. She pulled back her fist and drove it into the ground.
BOOM.
The earth shuddered.
The golden chains hit the shockwave radius and the sealing array beneath them fractured. Every link dissolved.
"Damn."
Tsunade cursed under her breath. First time deploying this — she needed to extend the array's perimeter beyond the reach of that monstrous strength before the next attempt.
But that was a problem for later. Right now Inner Sakura was standing free and something needed to contain her before she walked out of this training ground.
Tsunade pulled off her green coat and moved.
Keep her here. Keep her here until Sasuke and Sakura find what they need in there.
Hiruzen watched the two of them square up, something working in his expression.
Extreme Yin Release. So extreme the body couldn't contain it — had to generate a second personality to distribute the pressure.
But what if you used Yang Release to counterbalance directly?
Worth trying next time.
"Come here and die, little brat!"
Tsunade's battle cry hit the air with the force of someone who had been waiting to hit something.
"You want this body dead, old woman? Killing the host in the process doesn't bother you?"
Inner Sakura matched her with equal enthusiasm.
CRASH.
Fist met fist. The chakra displacement from the impact swept the entire training ground. The ground under both of them cratered.
"You think you can out-strength me?!"
"You're dreaming, child!"
"Who's dreaming?"
"Come on then!"
Full force. Tsunade launched her second strike.
Inner Sakura's grin was savage and fearless. She surged forward to meet it — absorbed the hit on her guard, and in the same fluid motion drove a kick into Tsunade's midsection.
Inner Sakura existed because of overwhelming spiritual energy. Fine-motor precision was hardwired into her at an instinctual level.
And from the sideline, Hiruzen's hands moved through seals.
"Earth Release — Earth Dragon Bullet!"
(Chapter End)
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