Sakura shivered as an odd sensation ran down her spine. Tears still streaming down her face, she raised her head and stared absentmindedly into the distance… and then her reddened eyes grew round as saucers.
All over the Land of Fire, chakra signatures were lighting up like beacons in the night. She could sense them because she still had not exited Sage Mode; she simply had not used that much senjutsu chakra in the previous battle.
Indeed, the planet did not stop turning just because she was busy feeling sorry for herself. Even though Hiruko was dead, the world was not yet aware that Team 7 had triumphed over the man who had declared war on the entire continent on behalf of the Hidden Leaf.
They had saved Kakashi-sensei, and now it was time to save the world… but how?
"Hiruko's chakra projection technique!" Sakura blurted out.
Naruto and Kakashi stared at her. Of all the things they could have expected her to say, that particular sequence of words hadn't even made the list of the top ten thousand.
"Er…" Naruto said in confusion. "What about it?"
Kakashi quickly caught on. Sakura wanted to rely on the technique to signal to everyone that the threat had passed.
"That technique can't be used without preparation," Kakashi said at once. "It requires a specialised jutsu formula array, and it must be placed at a high altitude… I suppose Hiruko must have installed one in his lair on Mt Shumisen."
Sakura dashed through the great stone doors of Hiruko's mountain fortress and sprinted across the atrium, with Naruto and Kakashi close behind her. She soon found herself in a round chamber where the ritual would have taken place.
A circular hole yawned in the ceiling directly above the centre of the room. Around it were five equally sized stained-glass windows, evenly spaced and stained in five different colours, each one representing a Kekkei Genkai Hiruko had stolen, or intended to steal… but this wasn't what Sakura was looking for.
Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi scattered to go looking for the array.
"Found the dining room… ugh, natto," Naruto's voice echoed from another room. "If they were eating this, then they were definitely bad guys, ya know."
"Found it!" came Kakashi's voice from a different room. "I'll need a hand with this!"
Naruto and Sakura came running as Kakashi staggered out into the main chamber, holding an enormous scroll in his arms. Together, they rolled out the paper onto the stone floor in the middle of the room, right under the spotlight cast by the hole in the ceiling.
"I won't be able to supply enough chakra to the jutsu formula on my own," Kakashi said, studying the intricately inked patterns. "Naruto, Sakura— you'll have to help. When I give the signal, place your palms on the paper and release as much chakra as you can output. Ready?"
Naruto and Sakura nodded, and Kakashi stepped onto the circle drawn in the middle of the jutsu formulae. He flashed them a thumbs up, and they channelled chakra into the ink.
"Hem, hem," Kakashi cleared his throat. "Is this thing working? Can everyone see and hear me? I'll go ahead and assume you can."
He took a deep breath.
"To any invading armies who might be listening, my name is Hatake Kakashi of the Hidden Leaf Village. The matter of Hiruko has been settled internally. Turn back and leave the Land of Fire at once."
…
All over the Land of Fire, shinobi and civilians alike stopped what they were doing and stared at the gigantic white-haired figure looming in the distance to the north-west. Ninjas of all nationalities stopped marching towards the front lines, and skirmishes between reconnaissance teams were put on pause to look at Mt Shumisen's broadcast.
The waves of chakra extended far beyond the borders of the Land of Fire, reaching as far as the Land of Demons in the far west, Kumogakure in the north, the Land of the Sea in the south, and Kirigakure in the east.
…
Sunagakure…
"It's that damned White Fang again!" Lady Chiyo screeched, throwing one kunai after the other out of her window at Kakashi's projection. "Come help me, brother!"
"The White Fang's been dead for years, sister," Ebizō's voice rang out from the living room. "Quit agitating your sciatica and come back inside, the food's getting cold…"
(Indeed, the Honoured Siblings were still alive. With no dead Gaara to revive, they had no reason to be dead, especially since those Temari had seen killed had only been White Zetsu fakes.)
Iwagakure…
"This again…" Ōnoki, the Third Tsuchikage, muttered to himself. "Don't those Hidden Leaf fellows have better things to do than appear in our skies? Kurotsuchi, have half our forces divert to the north and pillage Kumo's supply lines and raid the Land of Lightning."
"Understood, grandfather!"
Kumogakure…
"I don't care what he says, it's all lies! Follow through with the assault! We need that Byakugan back, no matter what!" A, the Fourth Raikage, shouted into his radio. "But make sure to watch our supply lines properly this time, damn it! And can somebody tell me where Bee disappeared off to this time!? He's supposed to be leading the vanguard!"
Kirigakure…
"Well, if it isn't a familiar face," Momochi Zabuza said to himself. "As expected of the man who defeated me…"
Nadeshiko Village…
"What a handsome man…" Terumī Mei sighed forlornly as she stared at Kakashi's heroic figure. "I think I'm in love…"
"But how can you tell, Lady Mei? Kakashi-san is wearing a mask," replied Haku. He was wearing a flowery dress that exposed his slender midriff; after all, men were forbidden from entering Nadeshiko Village… or perhaps he simply liked cross-dressing that much. "Oh, and the Lord Fifth ordered us to cancel the invasion and return home… but he said that you could go ahead and throw yourself overboard and drown in the ocean, for all he cares."
…
In Sage Mode, Sakura's senses could extend for hundreds of kilometres around. A Slug Sage's range was far superior to a Toad Sage's, due to their deeper connection to the continent's flora… but what Sakura sensed didn't inspire confidence…
"They're not retreating, they're all preparing for battle," Sakura said worriedly, sensing thousands of chakra signatures flaring up. "Though half of the Stone's army just diverted towards the Land of Rice Paddies… Kakashi-sensei, let me have a try, I have an idea."
Kakashi stepped out of the spotlight, and Sakura took his place. Her image appeared in the sky, her reddened eyes and streaked make-up betraying the fact that she had been bawling her eyes out, up until a few minutes ago.
"My name is Manyū Sakura, but I'm sure you've all already read my entry in your bingo books," Sakura said, her voice trembling slightly. "Some of you may know me as one of the heroes who saved the world in the Land of Demons, and some of you may know me as the kunoichi who can steal Kekkei Genkai… but what you may not know is that the Holy Miko of the Land of Demons, Lady Shion, entrusted me with the scroll in which the demon Mōryō was sealed for safekeeping."
Sakura paused for effect.
"Mum, if you're listening, I've hidden the scroll under a loose floorboard under the foot of my bed," she said, her tone hardening. "I'm going to count to a hundred, and if I don't stop before I hit one hundred, you can go ahead and open it. I'll only stop counting once I'm certain each invading army has turned around, and believe me, I'll know if you're taking a detour… I'm a Sage, and I can sense each and every one of you…"
Sakura's voice trailed off, and she pointed at the ground. Her gigantic projection in the sky pointed down, jabbing its finger at one very large chakra signature.
"I can see you, Killer Bee! What are you doing over by Kannabi Bridge, all by yourself?" Sakura shouted, before switching to another signature she had recognised. "And I can see you too, Temari and Kankurō, in the Village of Artisans! And I don't know anyone from Iwagakure except Kurotsuchi, but I can see half of you heading towards Kumo's backlines!"
Satisfied with her threat, Sakura crossed her arms under her enormous breasts, offering quite a spectacle to the entire continent through her projection.
"So, unless you fancy getting mowed down by an unstoppable army of terracotta soldiers," she said slowly, "the countdown to MAD … Mōryō Assured Destruction, that is… begins now. One… Two… Three…"
Slowly but surely, the Sand and Stone armies ground to a stop. Their chakra signatures grew fainter as they stopped kneading chakra, and one after the other, they turned on their heels and returned the way they had come from. It was too dangerous to proceed with their positions exposed to each other like so, and they all knew very well the threat of the demon Mōryō; the Stone and the Sand in the west would be the first to fall if the terracotta army came back to life, before they swept over the rest of the continent.
"Seventy-one… Seventy-two… You're the only ones left, Kumo! …Seventy-three…"
The Cloud army was the last to turn around. Evidently, they did not relish the idea of fighting even a weakened Hidden Leaf all by themselves.