Naruto Hiden Vol 2 Chapter 16

For a split second in time, Temari allowed herself to feel relieved. She’d reached Shikamaru in time.

After that conversation with Gaara, Temari had headed to Konoha and questioned Naruto. The blonde ninja didn’t have any answers for her. 

But, just like Temari, Naruto had been havinga weird feeling that something about Shikamaru just wasn’t right lately. Ino and Chouji were consulted as well, and when those vague feelings of wrongness strengthened into certainty, Naruto had brought Temari with him to go and press Kakashi for answers.

Naruto’s bloodcurdlingly blunt speeches bothered Kakashi on one side, while Temari requested she bring in reinforcements from Suna on the other. And, eventually, he caved in.

Under the promise that they weren’t to aggravate the situation, Sunagakure’s shinobi were given the consent to move out.

Temari had made prior arrangements with her village so that her back-up could start heading out immediately if necessary. As soon as she got Kakashi’s consent, Temari sent out a message to her village, and then started running towards the Country of Silence. En route, she met up with the group of Sunagakure shinobi that Gaara was leading.

The moment they entered the country, they started picking out handy people for questioning.

At this point, it had already been 10 days since Shikamaru had set out for the Country of Silence. Temari was losing her presence of mind in her hurry, and her interrogations turned more severe. Soon enough, one man who called himself an ‘Enlightened One’ blurted out that the shinobi from Konohagakure had been taken prisoner inside the country’s castle.

As soon as she knew that, the rest was easy.

They infiltrated the castle with a sand shield made by Gaara. Temari had led her small armada down the corridors, taking out guards before they could call out an alarm, and slowly, stealthily making their way to the great hall. It had been good timing, too, right when Shikamaru was almost about to give his allegiance to Gengo.

The moment that Temari saw Shikamaru looking like he was being affected by Gengo’s talk of shinobi ruling the world, she had lost all self-control.

Shikamaru was not the kind of man who would be swayed by that sort of crap!

When Temari summoned her win to blow off the doors to that hall and lunge inside, her body wasn’t being commanded by her. She was fuelled by pure, unadulterated fury.

Hearing it was a genjutsu had made her feel relieved…

After waking up, Shikamaru had turned back into the man she knew. He’d faced on Gengo with a bloody nose and his usual lazy eyes, and just the sight of him had been enough to make Temari feel like everything up to now had been worth it.

“You shouldn’t be so absentminded right now.”

It was the Konoha shinobi who said that, with a mechanical smile on his face. The paintbrush clutched in his hand had been giving life to countless tigers and wolves for a while now. At this moment, he’d summoned a wickedly snarling white tiger. Out of all the ink animals he’d summoned, this one looked the most vicious.

If she remembered right, the guy’s name was Sai…

Naruto and Sakura’s teammate.

“Absentminded? I’m not the one repeating the same attack over and over again.” Temari muttered under her breath, and swung her tessen, her whole body twisting into the movement.

Her tessen’s wind transformed into a sickle-wielding weasel: Kamatari. He twisted and spung his body along with the wind’s current, lunging towards the tiger and slashing at its throat with his sickle. Sai’s tiger melted back into lifeless ink, collapsing in on itself into the ground.

“It’s admirable how you lack even the slightest bit of hesitation.” Sai commented.

Temari turned to look at where his voice had come from.

Gone!

When had he disappeared, and where to?

She hadn’t even had the time to follow his movements with her eyes…

“A shinobi who can see through the Ink Body Flicker Jutsu…does not exist.”

Sai had teleported right behind her.

He was definitely going to go in for a stab.

She wasn’t going to be able to turn around in time.

Left or right?

“Oh, screw it!”

She’d have to make a gamble.

Silently hoping a blade wouldn’t follow, Temari shifted her body towards the right. A tiger’s claw swung in her direction, grazing her left eyebrow.

“Too naïve.” Sai’s voice was cold enough for chills to go up a person’s spine.

When had he teleported in front of her?

“Dammit!”

Temari swung her tessen alongside her body as a make-due shield. Her fan had been custom made so that its weaving was strong enough to deflect iron blades. She was completely protected against weapons such as kunai.

But…

“Guh!”

Temari collapsed where she had stood, a sharp pain piercing through her abdomen.

“The manipulation of chakra…It’s my specialty.” Sai said, in a blank, innocent voice. The kunai he was holding had pierced straight through Temari’s war fan and into her stomach.

There was something faintly coiling around the weapon, like mist.

Chakra.

He’d wrapped the kunai in chakra so thick you could actually see it. The blade’s strength and sharpness must’ve increased by ten folds….

“No matter how hard you fight, none of you are a match for Gengo-sama.” Sai said. “At the end of the day, we enlightened ones will end up controlling the world.”

“Is that…really what you want?”

“Yes.” Sai let a smile break across his face. He didn’t look like someone under a genjutsu. Unshakable faith in Gengo was written all over Sai’s face.

But…

“Well then…” Temari said with difficulty. “Why’re you crying?”

The tear that had leaked out of Sai’s right eye hadn’t escaped Temari’s notice.

In the depths of his heart, he was at conflict.

“I am not crying.” Sai grit out, and his grip tightened on the kunai, preparing for one final lunge.

Temari held her breath.

“GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF AND WAKE UUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!”

Suddenly, Sai was knocked off his feet by a barrelling kunoichi. He was thrown out of Temari’s field of vision entirely, the kunai he’d stabbed her with clattering to the floor.

“Are you okay?” The kunoichi asked as she supported Temari’s collapsed form.

“Sa…Sakura?”

“Hold on, don’t talk right now.” Sakura said, “I’ll be sealing up the wound in your stomach.”

Chakra surrounded the kunoichi’s hand as she gentle pressed against the opening of Temari’s wound. Warm waves of chakra gently enwrapped her stomach.

“Wait…Sai?”

“It’s alright, our comrades are handling it.”

“Eh?” Temari shifted to look in the direction Sai had been sent flying.

Someone was pinning Sai down to where he’s been thrown by Sakura.

Giant…

No mistake. That giant man was definitely Shikamaru’s best friend.

“Chouji!” A long-hired kunoichi yelled from behind him. “You keep restraining him like that!”

“Shikamaru was in danger, but the shinobi of Konoha didn’t mobilise to help him.” Sakura imitated a citizen’s comment as she healed Temari’s stomach. “It’d be really irritating if the case turned out like that, so…”

There were two shinobi standing behind Sakura, both covered in wounds. One was a middle aged man with a fearsome face. The other was a girl many years younger than Temari.

Temari gritted her teeth against the pain of her wound, and turned to speak to Sakura again.

“He’s under…a genjutsu…”

“It’s okay,” Sakura assured her, “We already heard from these two.”

The two shinobi standing behind her nodded in affirmation of her words.

“Alright! Everything’s prepared!” The long-haired kunoichi yelled at Chouji, holding out her palms.

Sai was struggling furiously under Chouji’s giant body, his face full of bloodlust. He was snarling through grit teeth, light shining on his canines.

“Ninja art – Shintenshin no Jutsu!” The long-haired kunoichi yelled.

“As long as that jutsu of Ino’s works, it should be fine.” Sakura murmured.

Chouji released Sai, backing away.

Sai got to his feet.

It was one instant.

As if struck by lightning, a shudder went through Sai’s body, and he stopped moving. Across him in perfect symmetry, Ino’s body had stiffened as well.

“Ahh, there we go. It’s all good now.” Sakura slowly removed her hand.

The pain in Temari’s stomach had completely disappeared.

Ino was diving inside darkness. Deeper and deeper still.

She still hadn’t found Sai.

No matter how much she dived and dived, all that surrounded Ino was a deep, inky blackness.

This was Sai, after all. He wasn’t fully aware of who his true self was on a daily basis. He wasn’t going to be found easily.

But she was going to save him no matter what…

Because if Ino couldn’t save Sai, then her coming here would be meaningless.

She desperately continued floundering through the layers of Sai’s heart.

The shintenshin no jutsu could make you move someone else’s body according to your own will, and the method to it was exerting your influence from the insides of those peoples’ hearts. During the chuunin exams, Ino had clearly realised this when she and Sakura had fought for control of the latter’s heart.

Back in Konoha, she had read Sai’s letter, seen his handwriting turned messy and chaotic with a grief she couldn’t hope to grasp. In that moment, Ino had felt Sai’s suffering so keenly that it hurt.

At that moment, Ino hadn’t yet known about Gengo or the genjutsu or anything else, but she had clearly thought to herself that she had to go. Of course, she wanted to save Shikamaru as well, but the trigger for Ino to start moving was Sai’s distressed letter.

Sai, who was constantly worried about the blankness of his own heart, was suffering more than anyone else under Gengo’s genjutsu. There was no one who could save Sai from that other than Ino.

And that was why she was determined to keep diving, no matter how deep she had to go.

When you dived too deep into other people’s hearts, the first thing that would happen was your own existence starting to blur at the edges.

The last thing that would happen was your consciousness disappearing completely in those depths. Once that happened, there was no turning back.

There was a reason Ino was taking such a big risk to save Sai.

…She wanted to talk to him more.

Sai who always gave such lonely smiles, she wanted to get to know him more and more.

There was no way she could leave him in a dark place like this.

Soon, Ino started to feel some faint warmth coming from the darkness. A faint light…

She’d come across a large gathering of chakra. A mix of people’s chakra…

Naruto.

Sakura.

Yamato.

Kakashi.

All of Konoha’s shinobi were there.

It was like a lone fire burning in the middle of a blizzard.

Ino dived a little, eyes peering into the giant tangle, searching amidst everyone’s chakra.

There he was…

Cocooned in the middle of everyone’s warmth was Sai.

“Sai!” Ino desperately reached out for him. “Over here!”

Sai looked up at the sound of her voice. Both his eyes were red and swollen from crying.

“Come on.” Ino said. “Let’s get out of here together.”

“You’re…”

Ino reached out, her hand finally landing on Sai’s shoulder, firm and reassuring.

“Let’s go, alright?” She said.

In that moment, Sai smiled.

Ino had never seen him smile so naturally before.

Ino was breathing deeply and heavily, as if she’d just broken through the surface of a very deep ocean. She took in great lungfuls of air, her body desperate for oxygen.

The darkness had been left behind, and now the background was brimming with light.

Sakura and Chouji were standing guard over them. Ino was sitting across the sleeping Sai.

“How’d it go, Ino?”

Although she heard Chouji’s question, Ino was too drained to answer.

Sai’s head was close to Ino’s knee. Slowly, his eyes opened.

Before she noticed who had reached out first, they had clasped their hands together.

“Sai.”

“You…” Sai dazedly murmured, tightening his hold. “You were…”

“You can stop worrying already.” Tears had started leaking out of Ino’s eyes.

“Thank you, miss beautiful.”

“Idiot…”

The two gently smiled at each other.

Chapter end