For a few seconds, Obito stared up at the full moon in the starry night sky, wondering what he was doing lying on the forest floor. Then his Zetsu half restarted his still heart, and he sat bolt upright, dragging in a sharp breath.
He'd come dreadfully close to meeting the fake Rin in the Pure Land!
"Sakuraaaa! Hang in there, we're comiiiing!"
Obito pushed himself to his feet, adjusting his chipped, fractured mask. For all his absurd durability, that punch had very nearly knocked the life out of him, so he'd need to retreat until his artificial cells fixed the internal damage. His ears were still ringing, and colourful spots flickered across his vision— he wasn't faring much better in the sensory department, either.
And suddenly, he was surrounded. Shizune, Shino, Kurenai, Kiba, and Akamaru flickered into the clearing, forming a loose encirclement around him.
Obito frowned.
The full moon cast more than enough light to show his face clearly; if his damaged mask slipped during the fight, Kurenai would almost certainly guess who he really was. Killing most of them wouldn't be a problem, but if they got spooked and scattered in different directions, he wouldn't be able to hunt them all down. The name Madara still served its purpose, and it would be troublesome to discard it so early.
"…!"
"…?"
He could see Kurenai flapping her mouth at her comrades as she wove her hand signs. Reading her lips, he gathered she meant to bind him in a Genjutsu while the others attacked.
"Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death!"
Obito remained impassive as a thick tree seemed to rise behind him, its pliable branches ensnaring his limbs and holding him fast. If he'd been so inclined, this would have been the moment to say, "Courting death!"
"Genjutsu: Reversal!"
His Mangekyō Sharingan spun, and suddenly Kurenai found herself trapped in her own Genjutsu. Illusory branches coiled around her wrists and ankles, pulling and quartering her, and forcing her limbs in the real world to spring apart as if she were doing star jumps.
"Not again…" groaned Kurenai.
Kiba went down on all fours, while Akamaru Transformed himself into Kiba.
"Secret Jutsu: Insect Tornado!"
"Man Beast Clone:Fang Over Fang!"
Obito was instantly swarmed by a whirlwind of insects.
The Kikaichū nipped at his exposed skin as they circled him at high speed, their bodies obscuring his sight and the beat of their wings drowning out his already limited hearing. Taking advantage of their foe's incapacitation, Kiba and Akamaru spun themselves into drills and lunged at the swarm. Just before impact, Shino commanded his insects to scatter, revealing... empty space.
The enemy had vanished!
"Whoa!" shouted Kiba, but it was too late. "Akamaru, stop!"
He and Akamaru tumbled uncontrollably, crashing into Shizune and knocking her down… inadvertently triggering her brand-new repeating poison dart launcher, which left them both howling in pain and looking rather like pincushions as dart after dart lodged itself in their bodies.
…
...
...
Sakura dreamed that she was running.
"Wake up! You're having a nightmare!"
It wasn't a pleasant dream. Something terrifying was chasing her through a dark tunnel, and she was at the end of her rope. Her comrades had all died strange deaths, though oddly, she couldn't recall the details— only that an unquenchable thirst for revenge burned fiercely within her.
"What in the world are those eyes!?"
It was dark and damp, but she was a being of pure fire. She could feel her heart hammering in her breast and hear the sound of her four paws striking the wet concrete. The enemy was close, and she roared at them, spewing gouts of flame—
"I won't stop," Sakura mumbled in her sleep. "Until everything burns to ashes."
!!!
Sakura felt a jolt, and her eyelids creaked open.
She blinked, peering blearily at her surroundings. Shizune was leaning over her, but she could have sworn she'd been drowning in boiling sewer water only a moment ago…
"Oh good, you're finally awake. You overdrew your stamina, you silly girl," said Shizune in relief. "You were running a terrible fever— don't get up, you're still weak— and you've been sleeping for the past three days."
The world gradually came into focus.
Before her rose the twin mountains of her chest, and beyond them were the cream-coloured walls of someone's house. Above, an unfamiliar ceiling.
"What happened?" croaked Sakura, sitting up with difficulty on her bedroll laid out over the tatami floor. "The Akatsuki…"
There was a window to her right, looking out onto a forest of bamboo. She vaguely recognised it as the grove surrounding Takumi Village— she had returned to civilisation.
"The man in the mask was already badly injured when we arrived, but unfortunately, he somehow managed to escape our encirclement," explained Shizune, a sorrowful look on her face. "Kurenai, Shino and I are fine, and Kiba and Akamaru should pull through given enough rest, but…"
Shizune's voice trailed off.
"Your friend, Hinata, she…" Shizune went on, her voice trembling slightly. "When we found her…." Her tone hardened. "Well, you should see for yourself."
Leaning on Shizune's shoulder, Sakura shuffled to the neighbouring room.
There, on a clean white cloth laid out in the centre of the floor, lay a pile of small red crystals— some as fine as dust. At first, she had no idea what she was looking at… until her eyes settled on an eyeball sealed inside a larger chunk of crystal, staring up at her emptily.
Sakura gasped, her hands flying to her mouth.
"Is that… Hinata?" Sakura squeaked out, feeling sick to her stomach. "What happened to her?"
"It's not Earth Style petrifaction— I sent a crystal containing one of Shino's crystallised insects to Lady Tsunade for analysis three days ago, and apparently, it was done using Crystal Style, an exceedingly rare bloodline limit," Shizune said sombrely. "Judging by the sizes and number of crystal shards Shino found scattered over a wide area, I can only assume Hinata was struck by the enemy's Jutsu while flying and crashed… resulting in this."
Shizune swept her arm outwards with a defeated look, gesturing to the pile of crystals. How many shards were there, Sakura wondered morbidly? Definitely more than a thousand, at the very least.
"Thanks to Shino's Kikaichū, we managed to recover all the fragments," sighed Shizune. "We'll return the pieces to her father once we get back to the village tomorrow, so at least Hinata won't have to worry about her body resting in a foreign land—"
"No."
Shizune subconsciously took half a step back at the sight of Sakura's cold, crimson eyes, a drop of cold sweat trailing down her back. The oppressive chakra pouring off Sakura in waves… there was no other word for it but sinister.
"Excuse me?" Shizune choked out indignantly, swallowing her fear. "Sakura, I know you're upset, but I am your superior, and orders are to—"
"We're in the Village of Artisans, aren't we? Completing a puzzle shouldn't be too difficult for them," said Sakura brusquely. "Have them piece the shattered crystal back together. I want it done by the time I return."
And having said her piece, Sakura stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind her and vanishing in a swirl of leaves.
"Sakura! Come back here this instant!" shouted Shizune, running out of the house after her. "We have orders to return to the village! The Akatsuki weren't part of the original mission scope— it's too dangerous! Sakura!"
Shino stepped out of the house after her.
"I'll go with her," said Shino quietly. "She won't be able to find the Crystal Style user without my help."
Shizune put a hand on Shino's shoulder to stop him… and then he disintegrated into a pile of writhing bugs, and she swiftly removed her hand in disgust. Muttering angrily to herself, Shizune returned inside to write a strongly worded letter to the Hokage about her problem children.
They needed backup.