"You!" snarled Sakura, rounding on Akahoshi. "What the hell is wrong with—"
Sakura froze mid-sentence— Akahoshi's chakra beast had its fangs at her throat. But faster than even Sakura's newly awakened Sharingan could track, Sasuke flickered in front of Akahoshi, striking a cool pose with his kunai poised at the man's throat.
"My apologies, my control still leaves a lot to be desired," said Akahoshi coolly as he retracted his chakra, breaking the deadlock. "But you must understand that I had no choice but to strike while Natsuhi was off balance— the Peacock Arts are invincible, and she would have surely killed us all if I hadn't acted."
Sasuke slowly lowered his kunai from Akahoshi's throat, but Sakura's furious glare didn't waver.
"Hidden Leaf shinobi, your services are no longer required," continued Akahoshi, glancing at them dismissively. "You may return to the village to fetch your belongings, but you are to leave our lands as soon as you are able. Thank you for your assistance, and goodbye."
With that said, Akahoshi turned on his heel and walked away, his two lackeys scurrying after him, having wisely kept their distance from the previous fight.
"Sasuke," said Sakura quietly, pointing at the air. "You can see that too, can't you?"
As its main purpose was enhancing insight, the Sharingan's visual prowess wasn't as great as the Byakugan's, but the Uchiha's Dōjutsu could still perceive chakra and interpret it as colours.
While neither Sakura nor Sasuke specialised as Sensory-nin, they could still see the faint trails of colourful smoke floating around the battlefield— ordinarily, free chakra would rapidly dissipate in the atmosphere and return to the planet's energy flow, but it appeared that star chakra had some pretty impressive staying power…
Sakura shook her head.
She wasn't stupid— she'd known the moment she cut down Nanashi that her Sharingan would awaken eventually. Sasuke doubtlessly had a million questions, but there was a time and a place for everything.
"As squad leader, I order you to follow Natsuhi's chakra back to its source," said Sakura in a tone that brooked no disobedience. "If I'm guessing correctly, the female thief must have saved Naruto— her chakra must lead back to her hideout and the star's hiding place. If you find either, move a safe distance away and set off a signal flare. Got it?"
For the Uchiha, the deeper the love, the greater the hatred that followed when bonds were broken. Sooner or later, Sakura would have to tell Sasuke the truth before any misunderstandings grew out of control, but now wasn't the time. Naruto's life— and the Hidden Leaf's relationship with the Hidden Star— depended on what would happen next.
"Understood," said Sasuke stiffly. "Be careful, Sakura."
"Mm," answered Sakura softly. "You too, Sasuke."
On the way back to Hoshigakure, Sakura brooded over what ought to be done next. She might have forgotten nearly everything about this particular filler arc, but the one thing she couldn't have forgotten was a certain MILF by the name of Natsuhi. Sumaru's total babe of a mum had finally helped jogged Sakura's memory: the true culprit behind the Sumaru's kidnapping was Akahoshi, with the purpose of holding him hostage to force Natsuhi to hand over the stolen meteorite!
The first thing Sakura did upon returning to the Hidden Star was to head for the dovecote— the building that housed messenger pigeons— to send a coded letter to the Hokage, since Tsunade had explicitly told her to inform her as soon as her Dōjutsu manifested itself, for some reason.
The secret message went something :
Sharingan awakened, one tomoe. Naruto missing in action. Star giving everyone cancer.
❤️ Many kisses, your Sakura-chan.❤️
Unfortunately, the Land of Bears was not connected to the Land of Fire's electrical telegraph network. As a result, Sakura had no other choice but to resort to pigeon post, which meant she would have to wait a day or so for a response letter, which would undoubtedly arrive via messenger hawk. By recognising her chakra signature, the hawk would then ensure the response letter reached her smoothly… as long as she didn't stray too far away from where she was supposed to be.
And that, essentially, was Konoha's protocol for staying in contact with its shinobi abroad.
With her letter sent, it was time for Sakura to get sneaky… or not. Reaching deep into her genetic memories, she walked up to the guards standing outside the Hoshikage's house and glared at them so hard they just had to let her in without a fuss.
"Saimingan: Sharingan Hypnosis!"
At only one tomoe, Sakura's Dōsatsugan— her Eyes of Insight— was an incredible upgrade from her regular eyesight. It was as if she were only now seeing the world as it truly was, filled with sharp details, 8K resolution, and brand-new colours she could scarcely begin to describe.
Even so, her current level of insight was still no match for Sasuke's fully awakened three-tomoe Sharingan, but where they differed was in their Saimingan— their Eyes of Hypnosis. Her Kurama clan's Kekkei Genkai, steeped in potent yin chakra, had merged with her ocular power, pushing her Genjutsu capabilities beyond even the Mangekyō Sharingan— though the chakra cost of performing such illusions would also scale proportionally, as she hadn't truly unlocked the kaleidoscope eyes yet.
The Kurama clan needed powerful sensory stimuli to trap their targets in unbreakable, full dive illusions, while the Uchiha only needed eye contact. So really, not much had changed for Sakura— except that now, even more of her body was considered off-limits to look at.
'Can't look into my eyes?' said Inner Sakura mockingly. 'That's fine, just take a page out of Guy's handbook and look at my feet… and too late, you accidentally looked at my boobs while you were looking down!'
And even now, she could feel the slumbering ability in her right eye stirring…
"Kekeke, I wonder what I should call my Mangekyō Sharingan ability when it awakens?" Sakura sniggered, covering her eye with her hand as if it were an eyepatch. "Tch… That forbidden power sealed within my eyes… is clawing at the chains of restriction!!"
'Chill out, girl,' said Inner Sakura in disgust. 'Your Inner Chūnibyō is spilling out…'
Upon performing a quick Area Scanning Jutsu, Sakura finally managed to pinpoint Sumaru's location in the building. She ascended the creaking stairs to the attic, where she found the boy in bed, suspended in an artificial coma by a cocktail of sleeping drugs injected directly into his veins. Without wasting a second, Sakura yanked out the tubes from his arms, before leaving the building with the boy slung over her shoulder.