Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Hiruko's chakra signature swelled to monstrous levels.
In Sakura's mind's eye, an illusory thunderbolt exploded behind her eyes and raced down her spine… and before she even knew what had happened, she had flickered down the crystal corridor with an ear-splitting bang and skidded to a halt behind cover, the soles of her sandals smoking as they caught fire. The electric blue aura shrouding Sakura's form gradually faded as she ran out of stolen electric potential.
A fraction of a second later, Hiruko's small form burst apart, shattering the crimson crystal around him, which had already been weakened by the onslaught of his Storm Style. Sakura's scarlet eyes widened as she saw a pressure wave of compressed air unfurl in slow motion, racing down the labyrinthine corridors after her. Even though the shockwave would have to navigate around several sharp bends to reach her and the others scattered through the maze, she had no doubt it was strong enough to kill them all…
"Release!" Sakura hollered, clapping her hands.
At her command, the crystalline matrix holding the maze's structural integrity shattered, allowing the trapped energy to disperse in all directions. Sakura braced herself as a mass of red crystal dust and crimson chakra rushed past her, carried up and outwards by the blast in the form of a mushroom cloud, while Hiruko laughed maniacally at the epicentre.
After a few seconds, the crystal dust settled, revealing the dishevelled forms of Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi… as well as that of a monstrous-looking Hiruko. He seemed to have transformed himself into a great oozing mass of blue slime, his slightly deflated upper body flailing wildly atop it like some sort of demented sock puppet. It seemed this enormous bulk was his true body, which he usually crammed inside his discarded shell to keep up the pretence of humanity...
"Raikiri!"
Lightning sparked at Kakashi's and Sasuke's fingertips.
"I SEE YOU, KAKASHIII!" Hiruko screamed. "YOU'RE MINE!"
His slime body contracted, and a heartbeat later, hundreds of tentacles burst from his massive form like spears, stabbing deep into the stone around Kakashi as he flickered here and there, dodging each lance of ooze that sought to impale him. Evidently, Hiruko could still use his stolen Steel Style Kekkei Genkai even in this form.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
A series of loud bangs rang out as thousands of plumes of white smoke erupted in a circle around Hiruko's monstrous form, from which thousands of Naruto Shadow Clones emerged, each holding a giant rotating sphere of compressed chakra in their hand.
"Get him!" shouted one of them, which may or may not have been the original.
"Big Ball Rasengan Barrage!"
Tentacles of ooze lashed around Hiruko as the army of Shadow Clones leapt at him, bursting several apart… but even he could not intercept them all as Sasuke and Kakashi flickered past him, their Lightning Cutters shearing through hundreds of slimy tentacles in a single sweep. With Hiruko's defences down, the Shadow Clones slammed their Rasengans into his body with a series of obnoxious war cries, bringing his liquid form to a boil wherever they struck.
In this form, Hiruko was far too large a target to miss, and for some reason, he was not using his Dark Style to absorb their ninjutsu. But before Team 7 could coordinate a second wave of attacks, Hiruko shrank back down, sucking his true form back into his small, childlike body in a flash.
"D-damn you…! How d-dare you!" Hiruko groaned, holding his face in pain. "Come on, wake up, already…!"
The sun was shining brightly overhead.
Hiruko had missed his chance to ascend to a higher level of existence, and he would have to wait at least another two years for the next solar eclipse… but he could still exterminate the pesky pests who had ruined two decades of planning.
Even though he had expended most of his chakra to self-detonate, the pink-haired girl seemed even more exhausted than he was. The annoying Crystal Style prison that had restricted his movements was no more… and with Swift Style and Steel Style, he was still invincible in close combat!
"Lightning Style:Raikiri!"
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Once again, Kakashi's hand was wreathed in brilliant blue lightning, and Sasuke's fingers leapt to his lips as he breathed out a massive fireball… but unfortunately for them, it was at that moment that Hiruko's Dark Style body came back online. At last, it had dispelled Sakura's Sharingan genjutsu, which the main body had transferred to it to safeguard its consciousness.
"Useless, useless, useless!" Hiruko laughed as he extended his palm. "Dark Style: Inhaling Maw!"
The sparks dancing at Kakashi's fingertips and the flames at Sasuke's lips seemed to stretch like gum as Hiruko drew them into the dark red sigil branded in his palm, converting them into chakra for his own use…
Then, without warning, the orange flames turned black as ink.
"...it burns. It burns…? It burns!!"
Hiruko shrieked as his body caught fire. The black flames he had absorbed refused to turn into attributeless chakra, and they were searing him from the inside out. His pale skin cracked and dried and blackened, and thick, acrid smoke poured from his orifices as he clawed in vain at the sutures holding him together.
"What is this, what is this!" he screamed. "I don't understand, I don't understand, I don't understand!"
Sakura instinctively glanced at Sasuke, and her heart leapt into her throat. Where there had once been three tomoe spinning around his pupils, there was now the signature atomic model pattern of his Mangekyō Sharingan.
But why now…!?
The black flames had completely engulfed Hiruko now, and despite having been reduced to a dry, blackened husk, he still clung to life, rolling on the ground and ranting incoherently… but eventually, his form collapsed into ashes, drifting away in the wind. The flames of the Amaterasu continued blaze even now, despite having no more to feed on…
"Sakura," Sasuke said quietly, not even bothering to turn as his eyes remained fixed on the blackened shadow where Hiruko had once lain. "From whom did you steal the Uchiha's power?"
"It's not like that…" Sakura began.
Sasuke fixed his terrifying gaze on her, and her voice died in her throat. He only had to will it, and she would turn into a blackened stain on the ground, just like Hiruko. She would have less than a second to quash the black flames with an electric field and save herself, but if he looked at her somewhere more vulnerable, somewhere she could not regenerate, like the eyes…
"Uchiha Nanashi," Sakura said in a small voice. "She works for Orochimaru… but she gave me her breasts willingly, she was following orders…"
Sakura hiccoughed in surprise as Naruto stepped in front of her, arms spread out protectively.
"Don't look at Sakura-chan like that," Naruto said defiantly. "She's the one who wanted to tell you the most, ya know, but she couldn't."
Sasuke let out a short, disbelieving scoff.
"To think that even you knew, you useless dimwit… or maybe I was the idiot, convincing myself I could ever lead a normal life, even when all the signs were there…" he chuckled to himself, and then his gaze hardened. "Kakashi and Tsunade obviously knew. Who else? Those three?"
"You were in a very delicate state of mind back then," Kakashi reminded him. "Lady Tsunade didn't want you—"
Sasuke's knuckles turned white.
"You've all been lying to me, keeping secrets from the very beginning," he hissed. "The truth behind the Uchiha massacre… I'm starting to think Madara was telling the truth."
"What?" Kakashi said, startled.
Sakura's vision blurred as tears welled in her eyes. She knew she ought to have told Sasuke the truth ages ago, but Tsunade had forbidden her to do so… and since it had been convenient for her to keep up the lie and monopolise Sasuke's attention, she had kept it going far longer than she had any right to… but now that he had figured it out for himself, it was too late.
All of Sasuke's love for her had turned into hate. Her betrayal had awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan, and it was all her fault…
"Please… don't go… Sasuke," Sakura whimpered, her heavy chest heaving with sobs. "We can go after Orochimaru together… Nanashi doesn't seem to like the Uchiha clan for some reason, but together, I'm sure we can convince her to come back to the village… with us… Naruto's really good at convincing bad guys, you know…"
Sasuke smeared his palm with blood oozing from the many scratches on his forearms and performed a few hand signs. A giant hawk appeared next to him in a puff of white smoke, and he hopped on its back.
"Sasuke, you bastard!" Naruto shouted as Garuda took off. "That's it!? You're leaving the village… me, Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan… just like that!?"
"Considering everything we've been through up until now, I'm letting you go," Sasuke said coldly, fixing each of them with a glare that they knew could very well kill them within seconds. "But if I ever see any of your faces again… or even hear that you're coming after me… I won't hesitate to cut you down."
Sasuke gave a sharp whistle, and Garuda beat its wings, buffeting Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi with a rush of feathers and wind, and within moments, the hawk and its rider had shrunk to a speck on the horizon. Sakura was inconsolable. She sank to her knees, sobs wracking her body as she howled and cursed Sasuke's name, while Naruto and Kakashi stood nearby, their faces downcast.
In that moment, the threat of imminent war was the last thing on any of their minds.