"How am I even supposed to wear this forehead protector when I go out now…"
A young ninja hung his head, utterly dejected.
The Sky Screen continued to shift, and time moved to the following day.
Sakura Haruno seemed to have temporarily forced down the unease from yesterday. After completing a round of training outside, she returned home, slightly exhausted.
But the moment she pushed open the door, the sight before her made her blood run cold and her expression change instantly.
A ROOT operative, wearing an animal mask, stood silently in the middle of her living room—like a ghost that had appeared out of nowhere.
"You—why are you here?!" Sakura demanded, shocked and furious, a powerful sense of dread rising in her chest.
The ROOT member's voice was flat and mechanical.
"Lord Danzo requests your presence."
"I'm not going!" Sakura refused without hesitation, her eyes full of vigilance and disgust.
"I already reported everything to the Hokage yesterday! You people can forget about targeting me again!"
Faced with her refusal, the ROOT operative neither grew angry nor retreated. He simply stared at her coldly from behind the mask and repeated:
"You will go."
Those three calm, certain words struck Sakura like a bolt of lightning.
A terrifying possibility flashed through her mind. Her heart nearly stopped, and her voice trembled uncontrollably as she clenched her teeth and asked:
"My parents… where are my parents? What did you do to them?!"
The ROOT operative didn't answer—only continued to look at her in silence, exerting invisible pressure.
That silence was more despairing than any reply.
After a long moment, the color drained completely from Sakura's face.
Her fists clenched tightly, nails digging deep into her palms. Her body trembled with rage and fear.
She knew she had no choice.
"…Fine."
The word was squeezed out through clenched teeth, filled with humiliation and helplessness.
And so, under the "escort" of the ROOT operative, Sakura Haruno left her home step by step, her movements heavy, heading toward the outskirts of the village—toward places hidden from the light.
The same underground facility.
But this time, the atmosphere was even heavier, even more suffocating.
Sakura once again stood before Danzō Shimura.
This time, even more masked ROOT members stood around him like silent statues, radiating cold killing intent and faintly enclosing Sakura in their midst.
Danzo gazed down at the girl who had been forced to come, his single eye calm and indifferent. His hoarse voice carried the tone of someone firmly in control.
"Sakura Haruno. We meet again. It seems you've recognized reality."
Sakura was silent for a moment. Instead of answering, she asked a question whose answer she already knew—yet still clung to a final, fragile hope.
"The Third Hokage… he did nothing, didn't he?"
"He didn't even summon you to question you. Am I right?"
Danzo let out a sneer without the slightest attempt to hide it. The sound echoed harshly through the underground chamber.
"Hiruzen has always been too 'kind'… and too 'indecisive.'"
He didn't explicitly admit it—but that near-acknowledgment utterly crushed the last trace of hope in Sakura's heart.
She took a deep breath, as if forcing down the anger and disappointment in her chest, then slowly exhaled. When she spoke again, her voice was chillingly calm.
"I understand."
Satisfied with her "sensibility," a trace of smugness flashed through Danzo's eye as he began expounding his twisted ideology.
"Good. Understanding is enough."
"I am the Root, buried deep in the darkness, holding up Konoha's great tree."
"Only in my hands can a power like the Divine Technique be used to its fullest—sweeping aside all obstacles."
"And only I am capable of leading Konoha to a true peak that no one else can reach."
These self-aggrandizing words—dressing naked ambition in the guise of noble purpose—made the entire shinobi world watching through the Sky Screen feel physically ill. Curses erupted everywhere.
As for Sakura—
She responded with a cold, merciless laugh.
Raising her head, she locked eyes with Danzo. Her words were like the sharpest of blades, stabbing straight into his core.
"Your 'peak'?"
"You mean the kind of 'peak' where you watch helplessly as Sasuke tears Konoha in half with a single strike—
and all you can do is hide in the shadows and threaten a genin by kidnapping her parents to steal a secret technique?"
—Hiss!
It felt as though countless people, both inside and outside the Sky Screen, sucked in a sharp breath at the same time.
That was brutal.
Absolutely devastating.
She ripped apart Danzo's self-important façade and exposed his most incompetent, most despicable side for all to see—bloody and undeniable.
"Well said!!"
"Perfectly said, Sakura!"
"Destroy that shameless old bastard!"
Cheers erupted across the shinobi world.
Danzo's arrogance and hypocrisy had infuriated them beyond measure, and Sakura's precise, merciless rebuttal voiced exactly what they were thinking. It was immensely satisfying to hear.
Unsurprisingly, Danzo was completely enraged.
His face darkened instantly, his single eye erupting with undisguised, bone-chilling killing intent. The pressure in the room seemed to drop.
"Sharp-tongued little brat…"
The words were ground out through clenched teeth.
"Filthy, twisted old monster…"
Sakura shot back without hesitation, returning his murderous glare without the slightest fear.
Danzo stared at her in silence for a few seconds.
Then he raised his hand.
At once, two ROOT operatives dragged out two bound figures from the shadows—
Haruno Kizashi and Haruno Mebuki.
Their bodies were tightly bound with ropes, mouths gagged with cloth. They couldn't speak—only stare at their daughter with wide, desperate eyes, struggling in vain.
"Dad! Mom!"
Sakura's heart lurched at the sight. She shouted at Danzo in panic,
"Let them go! If you want something, come at me!"
Danzo ignored her desperation completely. His hoarse, icy voice issued a single command:
"Hand over the Divine Technique."
"Never!" Sakura refused without a moment's hesitation, her gaze unwavering.
"If I give something like that to you, you'll only use it to harm even more people! I will not hand it over!"
Danzo seemed to have expected this and didn't bother arguing further.
Slowly, he drew a sharp tantō. The cold blade came to rest directly against the neck of Sakura's father—Haruno Kizashi.
"I'll give you one last chance to reconsider."
His voice was flat, devoid of emotion—yet more terrifying than any shouted threat.
Seeing the blade pressed against her father's throat, Sakura trembled violently. An overwhelming killing intent surged within her, and she wanted nothing more than to tear Danzo to pieces.
But she couldn't move.
Her parents' lives hung by a single thread.
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