"Well, whatever… I suppose it's fine," Sakura sighed. Her eyes briefly turned white as she swept her gaze across their surroundings. "Orochimaru's holding Sasuke deep beneath the earth, under that fancy building over there," she added, pointing at the royal palace. A few moments later, she spoke again. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go and save him. I'm not going to hold your hand."
It was just as Tsubaki had suspected. Something evil stirred deep beneath the mountain, in the catacombs buried below the city… But even if she could get past Hikari, Guren, and Kabuto, how was she supposed to defeat Orochimaru?
"I'll be fine, don't worry about me," Sakura said confidently, smacking her fist in her palm. "I'll hold these three back for you, so you just focus on taking down Orochimaru."
That's exactly what I'm worried about, Tsubaki wanted to shout!
"You were heading for the catacombs…? In that case, we wouldn't mind letting Tsubaki through," Kabuto said loudly and clearly, pushing up his glasses with his middle finger. "However, I'm afraid we're going to have to stop you right here if you intend to accompany her… legendary Sixth Hokage or not."
Tsubaki gathered her courage and flickered past the Sound Three, glancing over her shoulder to make sure they weren't following her. Locked in a standoff with the Sixth Hokage, they hadn't budged a single centimetre from where they stood.
As far as the Sound Three were concerned, Tsubaki was walking into the lion's den of her own accord; since getting her back under Orochimaru's thumb was all they really wanted, they had no reason to stop her.
"Crystal Style: Ruby Crystal Labyrinth Jutsu!"
"Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation!"
The earth rumbled beneath Tsubaki's feet as a gigantic crystalline dome rose behind her, trapping Sakura with the Sound Three inside Guren's ruby-coloured labyrinth. She kept going without looking back, her chest bobbing up and down heavily as she raced towards the royal palace.
"There's the assassin!"
"Stop her!"
"Ready, steady… fire!"
It appeared the royal guards hadn't yet got the memo that they were supposed to let her through, as Tsubaki was greeted with a hail of arrows the instant she set foot on the stairs leading up to the royal palace. A glistening pink sheen swiftly spread across her body as she weaved the Crystal Armour Jutsu's hand signs, and the arrows glanced harmlessly off her skintight protective layer of crystal chakra.
In a flash, Tsubaki ascended the final steps and barrelled through the guards, the impact sending them flying feet first into the air before gravity inexorably reasserted itself and sent them crashing back down in a motley heap.
Ignoring their pained groans, Tsubaki crashed through the great stone doors and burst into the palace's entrance hall in a shower of dust and rubble, scaring the living daylights out of a few maids who had gathered to ask the guards why the front door was being locked.
"Don't get any closer—"
Tsubaki ignored the stammering guards and screaming maids and made a beeline for the side passage. Moving faster than their eyes could follow, she appeared to vanish, and a heartbeat later, military men and women in frilly maid outfits collectively flinched as one of the side doors was brutally wrenched open with a loud crash.
The guards exchanged fearful glances.
"I didn't see anything," the captain of the guard said shakily. "Did you?"
The others quickly shook their heads; after all, none of them had signed up to fight monsters capable of moving at supersonic speeds! And so, they decided to stand guard over the main entrance until, fifteen minutes later, the prime minister, followed by what seemed like the entirety of the city guard, stormed into the entrance hall.
"Where is the assassin?" the prime minister spat, slamming the butt of his golden ringed staff against the beautifully tiled floor. "Where did she go?"
The prime minister's gaze immediately fell on the side door that led to the catacombs, which had been flung open with such force that it had almost been torn from its hinges. It was now half-buried in the cracked stone wall.
"Isn't that the king's sceptre…?" one of guards whispered.
The other guards realised with a start that the golden staff the prime minister held in his clawlike grip was indeed the ceremonial sceptre the king had once carried everywhere. Even if King Sora was dead, it was not right for a mere official to hold the symbol of divine rule…
"Hmpf, useless lot…"
The prime minister swept past them and descended the stairs to the antechamber leading to the catacombs, where he found further signs of forced entry. Evidently, these ninjas from afar, whom he had been planning to blame for the king's assassination, had come to the Land of Redaku with some kind of beef against that detestable Orochimaru, who had established his repulsive laboratory in the deepest layers of the catacombs…
"Do I even need that white snake any more…?"
The Dragon Reincarnation Jutsu Orochimaru had been researching and refining for him was already more than serviceable, so what further need had he of this treacherous snake? After all, he already possessed the technique, so he only had to hire another shinobi from the far east to make use of it… someone more controllable than this disrespectful snake!
"Two birds… no, two snakes with one stone…" the prime minister told himself, grinning evilly as he raised the former king's ringed staff. "Oh, Shuigu," he then muttered under his breath. "Hear my call, and bring forth a flood to snuff out those interlopers…"
"By the king, that's the miraculous power of the royal family!" the captain of the guard exclaimed as water gathered at the golden sceptre's tip. "Prime Minister, you were of royal descent!?"
The prime minister felt some sort of energy flowing through his arm and into the Shuigu, the divine heirloom bestowed upon successive generations of kings… but no longer would it serve a king, but rather an emperor, for he had already signed a contract with the golden tool! With the Shuigu's divine might and an immortal army of dragons, none would be able to stand in the way of his conquest…
"Hmpf!"
With a cold snort, the prime minister sent a torrent of water spiralling into the gloomy depths of the catacombs through the fractured doorway. That venomous snake Orochimaru, that busty, pink-haired kunoichi… let them all drown in the depths, and let all evidence of his plot to replace the royal family be washed away along with them!