"Er… hello," Sakura said awkwardly. After a surprisingly short climb, she had finally reached the top of the pit, only to find herself staring down the gleaming points of half a dozen spears the instant her fingers curled over the ledge. "I'm terribly sorry, I didn't realise this was your pit."
Sakura's eyes flitted between the men holding her at spearpoint, her mind already piecing together what little she could from their bearing. They did not look like Hidden Sand shinobi at all… in fact, they did not seem like shinobi at all. What kind of ninja carried Jūmonji cross-spears, of all things? Polearms were far too unwieldy and cumbersome for most shinobi, suited only to specialists in bukijutsu, like Tenten, who could summon them at will.
"Really, would it have killed you to put up a wet-floor sign, or something?" Sakura babbled, trying to buy time while she decided whether these people were the sort she could afford to offend. "I'm the one who ought to be angry, really. Where's my compensation? I could've hurt myself, falling into this pit."
Now that she was seeing them up close, these people didn't seem like shinobi at all. The tips of their spears trembled ever so slightly, their arms straining to keep the stance beneath the weight of their own weapons. If whoever had hired this lot couldn't even afford proper shinobi, then they were hardly worth worrying about.
"Hup!"
With a radiant smile, Sakura hoisted herself up, slipped past the bewildered men's spears, and spun lightly through the air above their heads. She landed behind them with barely a sound and blew them a cheeky kiss as they turned in confusion— so clumsily that they nearly knocked each other into the pit with their polearms— before darting back the way she had come.
Except…
"The intruder's getting away!"
"Catch me if you can!" Sakura called.
Yet as she raced through the winding corridors, trying to retrace her steps, Sakura noticed at once that something was wrong. For one thing, the hole she'd climbed out of wasn't the one she'd fallen into. And besides, the place no longer looked half as ruined as before— there were guards at every turning, civilians bustling about where everything had been deserted before. Had she taken a wrong turn somewhere?
"In the name of Queen Sēramu, I order you to stop!"
Sakura's eyes narrowed. Several spearmen wearing flowing beige robes had set up a blockade of overturned merchants' stalls, up ahead.
"The intruder is a shinobi!" yelled a guard as Sakura jumped, easily clearing the blockade. "Call for Lord Anrokuzan! We have need of his puppets!"
Sakura wasn't the least bit afraid of Sunagakure's puppet masters. Her fists could easily shatter the hard wood and dent the tough steel their puppets were made of, disabling their internal mechanisms and hidden weapons before they could be deployed. Furthermore, she was more or less immune to poison, thanks to Breast Purification.
At last, Sakura glimpsed light at the end of the tunnel and emerged into a plaza beneath the open sky. The blue sky stretched overhead, framed by the myriad tall towers rising all around her. She supposed she must have remained unconscious longer than she'd first thought, if it was now daytime.
A flicker of movement caught her eye, and her gaze returned to the ground. Civilians were already evacuating the plaza and surrounding streets, seeking refuge in nearby buildings… and in their place, Dogū-like puppets, resembling Persona's Arahabaki, came flying out to greet her.
"Autonomous puppets!?" Sakura gasped in surprise. Her eyes narrowed as her irises turned scarlet; there were bright purple lines attached to the puppets' backsides. "No, that's not it… but where's the puppet master?"
More spearmen spilled out into the plaza, surrounding Sakura as the puppets landed before her.
"In the name of Queen Sēramu's justice, I order you to stand down and come quietly with us," one of the spearmen called. His clothes were slightly finer than those of his companions, so Sakura took him for their captain. "Lōran is a country of law and order; I swear you'll not be treated unfairly. Once we've ascertained you've not stolen our country's secrets, you'll be released after interrogation. But if you refuse…"
As one, the spearmen banged the butts of their spears against the stone pavement before adopting aggressive stances, the tips of their weapons trained on Sakura. She blinked, and her eyes quickly returned to their emerald hue.
"Well, since you're asking so nicely…" Sakura grumbled, raising her hands in the air.
…
Sakura spent the next few hours behind bars in a well-lit and well-aerated cell.
This arrangement suited her perfectly; the stillness allowed her to maximise her absorption of nature energy. After spending some time in her cell, she had come to realise that something about the atmosphere reminded her of Shikkotsu Forest. It was not the dampness, but the sheer concentration of nature energy in the air… it was off the charts!
The clanging of metal bars roused Sakura from her reverie, and she opened her eyes to see a hooded woman approaching. With a wave of her hand, the woman ordered her two guards to step back and keep watch at the holding area's exit, leaving her alone with her prisoner. Then the woman removed her shawl and lifted her veil, gazing at Sakura expectantly… though Sakura returned only a blank stare.
Who dis?
"As I expected, you have no idea who I am, do you?" she said, sounding rather happy. "Minister Anrokuzan was the same, when he first arrived here..."
She glanced at the spiral and leaf symbol embossed on Sakura's forehead protector.
"My name is Sēramu, Queen of the Kingdom of Lōran, and I would ask a favour of you, kunoichi from the Hidden Leaf," she said. "I wish to hire your services to escort my daughter to your village and inform your Hokage of my country's plight. I know your village's situation is far from ideal at present, but the Land of Lōran and I would be eternally grateful if the Hidden Leaf could spare some military aid."
"If you want to hire me, you'll need to go through the mission desk first," Sakura said helpfully. "If anyone hears I took money for a job without going through the proper channels, I'll get investigated for tax evasion… and believe me, nothing is scarier than those investigators."
A look of despair appeared on Sēramu's delicate features.
"You do not understand. I have sent countless messengers to the Hidden Leaf, the Hidden Sand, and even the Hidden Stone, yet never received a single word in return," she said, her voice trembling. "You see, six years ago, our people invited a wolf in sheep's clothing to modernise our country using the Ryūmyaku, our land's sole natural resource. I saw through this man's wicked intentions from the very start, but our ancient customs of hospitality forbade me from turning him away. In time, he ingratiated himself with my people and worked his way up to the rank of minister, amassing considerable influence... I believe he is the one who intercepted my messages… and I fear he has already discovered that I sent them."
Sakura had diligently read the mission briefing, even though she had not been pleased at being sent on an errand when she really ought to have been pursuing Danzō.
The Ryūmyaku, literally meaning Dragon Vein, which the Fourth Hokage had sealed, was an immense source of natural chakra: a place where the ley lines converged and knotted together, forming a pool of pure telluric energy, somewhat like an uncrystallised Gelel Stone vein.
Nature energy was the very breath of the planet itself, and if this so-called Ryūmyaku bore any resemblance to Gelel energy, then the royal family presiding over this infinite well of power undoubtedly possessed some bloodline ability to control it…
"Prime Minister Anrokuzan transformed our small nomadic desert kingdom into a city of the future. He showed us applications for the Dragon Vein's powers that we could never have imagined, fulfilling my citizens' every need," Queen Sēramu said bitterly. "But I always knew his true character. Little by little, he was expanding his influence, usurping my kingdom right under my very nose. He used fearmongering to instigate my people into beseeching me to open the Ryūmyaku ever wider for his experiments, and now that he has linked his puppets to it, I fear he has little use left for me and my daughter, Sāra…"
She bowed deeply.
"Please, I will give you whatever you desire," she said, tears streaming freely down her face and dripping onto her dress. "My Sāra knows nothing of all this. I implore you to at least escort her to the safety of your village— even if only as a political prisoner."