"What the—!?" yelped a soldier, as two shadowy figures swept over his head. "What the hell was that?"
"Enemy attack!" yelled another. "Sound the alarm!"
Sakura and Sasuke soared through the air, above the security checkpoint that had been set up on the only road connecting the town to the royal palace, and they hit the ground running, dashing off into the night side by side.
They could have easily slipped past the patrols by skirting around the checkpoint through the forest, but the entire point of this exercise was for them to be seen!
"I'll go on ahead and clear the way," said Sasuke, trying not to look at Sakura's large globes furiously bobbing up and down as she ran by his side. "Don't keep me waiting."
A brilliant blue glare cut through the darkness as lightning sparked to life on Sasuke's right hand; crackling with blue electricity and echoing with the sound of a thousand birds chirping at once. At that moment, lightning chakra leaked out from his chakra pathway network and flooded into his body, activating his muscles. In a flash, Sasuke's running speed multiplied tenfold— he turned into a blur, leaving Sakura behind in his dust as he all but teleported to the palace gates.
Sasuke thrust his lightning-imbued arm towards the wrought-iron gate, sending it crashing open with a loud bang. The bars, glowing yellow and half-melted by the intense current surging through them, twisted and gave way— warped beyond recognition, bending outwards from the impact point. Tongues of electricity licked at the ground and the metallic wreckage around him, making for a rather showy entrance…
"It's the Leaf shinobi!"
Awoken by the sounds of soldiers running about and the loud crash Sasuke had produced, Prime Minister Shabadaba, now self-proclaimed king, jumped out of bed in his pyjamas and ran out onto the balcony to see what all the fuss was about.
"You fools! How could you let the enemy get so close!" he shouted, fuming at his troops gathering below. "There's only one enemy, so kill him already so that I can go back to sleep!"
Meanwhile, Sakura finally caught up to Sasuke. She leapt onto the twisted wreck of a gate, using it as a springboard to gain even more height.
"There's another one!" shouted a soldier, spotting Sakura sailing through the air in her rather unstealthy red attire.
"This is getting out of hand!" raged Shabadaba. "Now, there are two of them!? What the hell are those three shinobi I hired doing?"
The answer to that question was that they were trussed up tighter than sausages in their casings. Kakashi had even taped sealing tags to their foreheads to suppress their chakra, further reducing any chance they might escape from their bindings.
"Damn it, she's aiming for the king's head!"
"You coward! Come down here and fight us fair and square!"
"Skill issue!" Sakura taunted the soldiers down below as she flew. "Why don't you come up here and fight me, then?"
It is often said that shinobi are like glass cannons, which is true to a certain extent. Most ninja can output extreme amounts of damage while being barely more resilient than regular humans— that is, unless they're an anomaly with more chakra than good sense like Naruto, have heavily modified their body, or have access to any type of chakra cloak.
Unfortunately, Sakura had only heavily modified two parts of her body, so she was still very much vulnerable to conventional cold weapons. A well-placed sword, spear or kunai could easily snuff out her life in an instant.
After all, it was a humble pitchfork in the hands of a farmer that brought down the famous Geralt of Rivia, the Butcher of Blaviken...
At any rate, by gathering chakra under her feet and in her legs, Sakura could obtain the proportional jumping strength of a grasshopper, simply by virtue of being a shinobi— so why on earth should she stick to the ground and get stabbed to death by normies, when she could dunk on them from above?
"Guards, to me!" squealed Shabadaba, his face turning as white as a sheet as Sakura landed on his balcony's railing. "Help me, you useless bunch of fools!"
Sakura gracefully dismounted from the railing with a front flip, slamming her sandaled heel down on Shabadaba's head as he turned to flee, knocking him out cold instantly.
Meanwhile, Sasuke was still locked in melee combat with the soldiers in the courtyard below. Despite being encircled, he was holding his own, efficiently dodging attacks and effortlessly counterattacking with no wasted movement. Even so, Sakura preferred not to take chances with his life, so she quickly clasped her hands together into the tiger seal, summoning vast quantities of her chakra.
"Temple of Nirvana Jutsu!"
Illusory, pure white feathers drifted down from the heavens, their soft glow a stark contrast against the darkness of the night. Slack-jawed, the soldiers froze mid-battle, gazing up at the falling feathers. A series of metallic clangs rang out as their weapons slipped from their hands and struck the stone pavement, as one by one, the soldiers crumpled into unconscious heaps— fast asleep before they had even hit the ground.
With the bulk of the enemy forces neutralised, Sakura reached into her weapons pouch and pulled out a slender tube. She raised it high above her head, then yanked the cord at its base. With a sharp crack, a flare launched skywards from the tube, trailing sparks before exploding in a burst of light that lit up the night sky, signalling for Captain Korega to move in with his troops.
From there, things went rather smoothly.
Sakura led Sasuke and the loyalist faction into the palace to root out any combatants who had escaped her wide-scale Genjutsu by staying indoors. One by one, all enemy combatants were tracked down, restrained, and rounded up, before being thrown into holding cells to await judgment.
Before the tumultuous night ended, the counter-revolutionary forces had kicked down every traitorous minister's door and arrested them, purging the government of all dissenters and securing a decisive victory for the royal faction in the power struggle for the future of the wealthy Land of the Moon.
After that, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi didn't get to see much of Tsuki Michiru, the new king of the Land of Moon. Still, they were given a lovely villa by the sea (that had once belonged to a minister, judging by the fresh bloodstains in the carpet), a comfortable spot to relax while they waited for the next ferry back to the mainland.
During this time, Prince Hikaru often stopped by the villa to hang out with Naruto. Despite his tsundere nature and belief that money could solve everything, he had grown genuinely attached to him. Still, since Hikaru never got the chance to prove himself like he had in the original timeline, Naruto maintained a reserved attitude around the princeling, much to his disappointment.
Indeed, Naruto much preferred his teammates' company— playing beach volleyball with Sakura, Kakashi and even Sasuke; sneaking glances at Sakura in her new bikini; and feasting on fresh, high-quality seafood every day. It was the happiest Naruto had ever been, and Kakashi let him enjoy every moment, knowing that very soon, he'd be going away for a very long time...
Eventually, with the Land of the Moon's internal troubles resolved, the ferry to Crescent Island resumed service, marking the end of Team Kakashi's week-long summer vacation. Much to Naruto's and Sakura's regret, they departed, leaving the Land of the Moon just as prosperous as it had been before their arrival — and perhaps, just a little bit happier.