SWNOVELXO Chapter 260: Jumper
"Tenten, where are you?" Lee bellowed, his voice echoing off the walls of the concrete jungle that was Sunagakure. "Say something if you can hear my voooooice!"
Sakura, Sasuke, and Lee had trailed after Ino through the winding streets of Sunagakure, until they arrived at a quiet-looking ryokan. Behind them, the distant roar of the stadium still echoed; shouts and cheers carrying far on the dry desert wind. The village itself lay eerily still in the absence of people; most of the Hidden Sand's residents had gone to watch the Chūnin Exams— which was exactly where they were supposed to be, too.
"Keep it down, will you?" said Ino breathlessly. "Third floor, fourth window from the left!"
Lee dashed up to the side of the yellowed building and kicked in the window, before slipping through the frame. A moment later, his hand appeared above the sill, flashing them a thumbs-up. Sakura and the rest of her party followed suit, disappearing into the room before any Sand-nin on patrol could spot them.
Sakura didn't know exactly how things worked here, but in the Hidden Leaf, a ninja could be fined for running across rooftops in residential areas— unless it was an emergency. And even if the Sand were allies of the Leaf, it was doubtful they'd welcome a band of foreign shinobi tearing through their village unsupervised and breaking people's windows.
"Wake up, Tenten!" Lee shouted, violently shaking her shoulders like a weary mother trying to hush a wailing baby by shaking it, making her head jerk and bob wildly. "Wake up!"
Tenten's eyes had glazed over, and a thin trail of saliva ran down the side of her mouth. It seemed Itachi had done quite the number on her…
"Give her here," said Sasuke brusquely, two pairs of triple tomoe spinning to life in his crimson irises.
"Wait!" said Sakura. "There might be another trap!"
Before Sakura could stop him, Sasuke met Tenten's blank gaze and began unravelling the Genjutsu Itachi had placed on her. Recognising his brother's handiwork immediately, his gaze hardened like stone.
"Itachi…" Sasuke growled.
He turned his crimson eyes on Sakura as if blaming her for not warning him sooner. After all, she would have found traces of his brother in the Waterfall ninja's mind.
"Sasuke…?" Sakura's voice was hesitant.
Sasuke's eyes were getting a bit scary.
"Eh? Why are you all…" Tenten stirred, her eyes slowly focusing as she took in the worried faces around her. "Oh, no."
By once again interfering with the proper course of history, Tenten had set in motion a chain of events that should never have unfolded. By thwarting Gaara's assassination attempt at its very inception, a third phase of the Chūnin Exams— one that had never seen the light of day in the original timeline— had come to pass, disrupting the sequence of events that were meant to follow.
As of now, all bets were off.
"Did you bring Karin? How long has it been?" Tenten babbled incoherently as she looked around the room blearily. "Ugh, not enough time..."
She reached for the people closest to her— which just happened to be Sakura and Sasuke.
"Wait, what are you doing?" asked Sakura, as Tenten's delicate fingers closed around her wrists. "Don't tell me—"
The world seemed to spin in on itself, the colours and shapes of Tenten's hotel room melting and twisting wildly. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the spinning ceased abruptly, reality solidifying around her as Sakura felt her toes touch the hot desert sand.
"— you're—"
Sakura barely had time to take in her new surroundings before the world lurched and spun wildly once more.
"Someone—"
And again…
"Stop this crazy girl—"
And again…
"Heeeeelp!"
After a dozen times being teleported, Sakura lost count.
Over the past two years, Tenten had left behind thousands of Flying Thunder God Jutsu formulas across the shinobi continent. The markings were even denser in places where she recalled significant events unfolding in her previous lifetime.
"Got it!" gasped Tenten. "I've locked onto Fū!"
Following the trail of Jutsu formulas that led from the Hidden Sand to the secret hideout where the Akatsuki would one day seal the One-Tail, Tenten had finally come close enough to sense Fū's Flying Thunder God kunai!
"I think I'm going to be sick," groaned Sakura.
Sakura doubled over, vomiting onto Tenten's sandaled feet. Before she could even wipe her mouth, the world spun around her yet again, the remnants of her breakfast spreading thinly across space and time as Tenten completed her final jump. But instead of arriving in a dark cavern as Tenten had expected, they now found themselves in a grassy plain…
"Wait," Tenten said dizzily. "This isn't the right place…"
"Looking for this?"
At the sound of that man's chilling voice, Sakura's blood ran cold.
Clenched in the iron grip of the man cloaked in dark robes patterned with red clouds was the Flying Thunder God kunai she'd given to Fū. Without thinking, Sakura grabbed Tenten by the collar and flickered twenty metres away… but they had left someone behind.
"ITACHIII!" roared Sasuke, his right hand igniting with blue lightning. "I'VE FINALLY FOUND YOU!"
"Hey, I remember him," came Hoshigaki Kisame's smooth voice from behind Itachi. "Isn't that your little brother?"
"If it isn't my worthless little brother," Itachi said coolly, ignoring Kisame's words. "My business today is with your little girlfriend— so I'm afraid you'll just have to wait your turn."
Sasuke was livid.
First, Itachi had murdered his entire clan. Then, he had gone after his teammate Naruto. And now, he was after the girl he loved? Would that man not stop until he'd killed everyone he cared about and turned his life into a living hell!?
"I'LL KILL YOU!" screamed Sasuke. "DIE, ITACHI!"
…
For the sake of the village, Itachi had betrayed his very own flesh and blood. To quell the Uchiha uprising before it even began, he had massacred every last one of his clansmen. All but one… or so he thought.
The heads of the entire Uchiha clan, in exchange for a single one— Sasuke's. That was the deal he'd struck with the devils at the head of the Hidden Leaf at the time.
But now, standing before Itachi, was an Uchiha he had somehow missed— an illegitimate child, unacknowledged for years… until she, too, awakened her crimson eyes. If Danzō believed he had gone back on his word and let her live on purpose, then Sasuke would have to live the rest of his life in fear of the ROOT… and that was unacceptable.
Indeed, it wasn't as if Sasuke could hate him any more than he already did— not even if he killed his girlfriend. And perhaps, if the girl died, his eyes would finally evolve… and then, he'd no longer have to fear the darkness hiding beneath the leaves.
In other words…
This time, Itachi would be fighting seriously.