Chapter 94: Grind the Cherry Blossom to Dust
"Naruto!"
"Sasuke!"
In a dense stretch of forest, a blond boy and a dark-haired boy drove Chidori and Rasengan through one sand construct after another, closing the distance on the thing ahead of them.
"Thing" was the more accurate word. "Person" felt like a stretch.
Gaara's body was almost entirely encased in sand — arms massive, torso swollen, even his head buried under a layer of grit shaped like a tanuki's. A thick tail dragged behind him. Violet tattoo-lines covered every surface. Only his feet still looked human.
"Die, die, die—"
Saliva ran down the side of his open mouth. His expression was somewhere between frenzy and agony.
Sand erupted in every direction under his will, a crashing wave aimed at both of them.
Like a chorus of birds taking flight — a burst of blue-white lightning cracked through the air and shattered the incoming sand claws.
"Naruto!"
The Chidori faded from Sasuke's hand. He turned to the blond beside him.
"Yeah!"
Naruto understood immediately. He reached out. Sasuke grabbed his wrist, pivoted, and launched him hard toward the churning sea of sand claws ahead.
"Rasengan!"
The spinning sphere of chakra tore through another wave of grasping sand. But there were too many — everywhere, endlessly replenished — and a single Rasengan wasn't enough to clear the field.
The claws were about to close over Naruto from all sides.
He wasn't scared. He was smiling.
ZAP.
A flash of lightning.
Sasuke — blade in hand, moving faster than the eye — hit the space behind Naruto and was already past him, one foot planted, launching himself into the canopy of sand above. The blade swept in a single arc and severed dozens of claws in one motion.
He moved through the storm like a butterfly through a flower garden — precise, untouchable, every claw grasping for him and finding nothing. The Sharingan drank it all in, painting the entire battlefield in perfect clarity.
"Nice!"
"Sasuke!"
Naruto saw the opening and ran through seals, blue eyes blazing.
No one gets to destroy this village.
Multi Shadow Clone Technique!
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—
The Uzumaki bloodline's chakra reserves detonated outward. Hundreds — no, thousands — of shadow clones materialized and swarmed Gaara from every direction simultaneously.
The tide turned in an instant.
Sasuke drove forward through the collapsing sand constructs, slicing through the ones that got too close, watching the clones flood around Gaara from the corner of his eye. The corner of his mouth moved.
Not bad at all.
But I haven't been standing still this month either.
His blade style shifted.
Where before Sasuke had been a butterfly — showcasing, precise, elegant — he became something else entirely. Something that moved only to kill. No wasted motion. No flourish. Just the fastest possible path from here to the target.
The blade became a fang.
"Where are Sasuke and Naruto?"
Kakashi looked at the two bodies the slugs had deposited on the rooftop — Tayuya and Kidōmaru — and the pile of confetti that had been the Senju brothers.
Sakura heard the question and felt cold.
Naruto and Sasuke went after Gaara.
Rasa would never let Gaara be captured by Konoha.
Those two are in danger.
"I'm going to find them!"
She was already moving before anyone could respond, sprinting toward the forest at the edge of the village.
Tsunade watched her go and didn't ask questions. She turned to Kakashi, who had arranged himself on the ground in the posture of a man who had given everything he had and was not ashamed of this.
"Pathetic. That tired after a fight this short."
Kakashi looked up at her with the eye of a dead fish.
With respect, Lady Tsunade, not everyone is a Senju.
The Senju clan is literally famous for chakra reserves and physical constitution. You also have the Yin Seal storing years of accumulated chakra.
Comparing me to you on endurance is not a fair metric.
I humbly ask to be left alone.
Sakura hit the treeline and activated the Heavenly Canopy Method.
The sensory field expanded. She followed the trail of destruction through the forest — clear as a road — and ran.
By the time she reached them, Naruto and Sasuke had Gaara cornered.
Without another move, it would have ended there.
But Gaara had made a decision.
His left eye's pupil reshaped — gold, circular, the mark of a beast trying to surface.
He's releasing the One-Tail.
"ROAR—"
Savage. Rampant. Terrifying.
The closest shadow clones were simply blown away by the pressure of the sound.
"What... is that..."
Naruto stared, and something in his chest recognized it.
He's the same as me.
There's something sealed inside him. The same way there's something sealed inside me.
He couldn't forget the feeling of the Nine-Tails' chakra in his own body. What was pouring off Gaara right now was the same thing, wearing a different face.
Gaara pressed the advantage, preparing to release Shukaku completely—
A figure dropped from above.
Rasa landed between his son and the clones, brow furrowed. He scanned the field. The thousands of shadow clones. And then — the blond boy at their center.
His eyes went briefly cold.
He knew this one. He'd watched him use Nine-Tails chakra against Neji in the earlier round.
Konoha's Nine-Tails jinchūriki.
If he could eliminate the boy here. Or extract the Nine-Tails...
The thought moved through him before he could stop it.
He started to move.
Then — thunder. Distant but getting louder.
A pink shape at the edge of his vision, trailing a cloud of dust, closing fast. Every footfall hit the ground like a detonation.
Sakura Haruno.
The Hokage's student.
Before arriving in Konoha, Rasa had assessed her as high-end jōnin at best. A talented child. Nothing that changed the strategic picture.
Then he'd watched what she did at the exam arena.
Another Minato Namikaze...
But the Yellow Flash had only become the Yellow Flash after he grew up.
Rasa had no intention of fighting Sakura today.
What he intended was this: in the war that was coming — in the mud and blood of a real battlefield — he would find that brilliant cherry blossom and grind it into the dirt.
Not today.
But soon.
(End of Chapter)