Sakura's senjutsu chakra ran out halfway to her destination, as she had not had any time to absorb more nature energy since her fight with Hiruko. Even so, even without the benefit of a Sage's senses, there was no way she would lose track of Root HQ's location, so she continued tunnelling through the earth.
Under the influence of the earth-style chakra radiating from Sakura's body, even the bedrock gave way before her, turning to sand through which she swam. At some point, she passed through the sensing barrier, and a few minutes later, she silently dropped into a dark room through the ceiling into a pile of dust and sand.
Without performing hand signs, Sakura produced a little flame from the tip of her index through nature transformation and held her arm aloft, bathing her surroundings in soft, flickering light. Judging from the futons laid out on the ground, she had landed in the Root's barracks.
Sakura blew out the flame on her finger, plunging the room back into darkness.
Finding the Root's headquarters was all well and good, but Danzō was the man she was after, and she wouldn't find him by wandering around aimlessly and opening random doors. She lowered herself to the ground in the lotus position and closed her eyes. Breathing in and out deeply, she began absorbing nature energy into her Celestial Lotus Seal.
Even though Sakura was angry enough to kill, she still knew deep down that Root's operatives were themselves victims of Danzō. They had been raised from childhood to serve him; they knew nothing of an ordinary life. Perhaps it would be a kindness to put them out of their enslaved misery, but Sakura felt it would be cruel of her to deprive them of a chance at a normal life.
After all, they were men and women of the Hidden Leaf as well, so she would avoid killing them unless her life truly became threatened.
A few minutes later, Sakura cracked open one eye, faint strokes of blue eyeshadow appearing at the corners of her eyes. Silently, she rose to her feet and glided to the doorway, flattening herself against the wall next to the door. Or at least, as flat as she could make herself; even when limiting herself to an N-cup, her bulging breasts still projected a great deal from her ribcage.
As expected, they were here.
Four people just outside in the corridor, and many more on the way; Sakura could sense many chakra signatures converging on her location… but unfortunately, none were Danzō's; it didn't look like he was home. Sakura realised she must have set off some sort of silent alarm by blundering through the sensing barrier; perhaps he had already fled, or perhaps he had been away on business from the very beginning.
"All female squad," Sakura heard whispered with her enhanced hearing. "Move in!"
The door suddenly flew open with a bang, and a round object flew in through the doorway. Instinctively, Sakura tracked it with her eyes, tomoe spinning rapidly as she tried to identify its nature through the half-light… and then her pupils shrank as she read the character for light written on it.
BANG!
Sakura shrieked in pain and clapped her hands to her eyes as the flash bomb detonated, momentarily blinding her. She lashed out with her Sage's strength and felt the back of her hand connect with something giving as it darted into the room. Whatever she had struck went flying, before crashing into a wall outside with a loud sickening crunch.
"Secret Art: Shadow Stitching Jutsu!"
Twisting tendrils of darkness surged out of the darkness and bound Sakura's limbs.
"I've got her!" came a woman's voice. "Do it now!"
"Secret Art: Mind Destruction Jutsu!"
The struggling pink-haired girl bound in shadows suddenly turned into a sleeping bag with a puff of white smoke. To their credit, the female Root operatives reacted quickly, backing away from the door; the Yamanaka clan member cast out her senses to locate Sakura's real body, while the Nara clan member took up a defensive stance to protect her teammate…but in Sage Mode, Sakura was just too fast for them.
"Genjutsu: Bringer-of-Darkn…"
Sakura reappeared behind them, crystal needles between her fingers, and in one smooth motion, she planted the thin weapons in their necks' Tenketsu. Their eyes rolled back as she forced them into suspended animation; they would be down for the count for about a week or so.
"Where's the other one?" Sakura muttered to herself, rubbing her eyes. She peered at a cloud of roiling black smoke down the corridor, clearly the result of a smoke bomb. "I could have sworn there were four…"
Her eyeshadow was already gone, and with it her Sage Mode had sputtered out… again.
One of these days, Sakura told herself, she would take a weekend off in Shikkotsu Forest to completely fill her Celestial Lotus Seal, because this was getting ridiculous. Entering Sage Mode starting from zero took her ages, and what little nature energy she could scrounge up was barely enough to last her a few minutes… without Katsuyu's continuous assistance, that is. No wonder Minato had given up on Sage Mode, despite having pushed its mastery further than even Jiraiya; it was incredibly impractical to use on the fly.
"What do I do now…?" Sakura muttered to herself. "Danzō's not even here, so it's not as though I have any reason to stay and fight…"
The fires of righteous fury that had engulfed Sakura were beginning to cool, restoring her ability to think logically. While it was true that she had no reason to stay here and mow down wave after wave of Danzō's men if the man himself was not even present, there was still worth in destroying and looting his base… the only question remaining was whether it was worth the risk.
The Uchiha eye storeroom, secret technique scrolls, Hinata's missing eye, misappropriated village funds… and a few deeply disturbing chakra signatures that Sakura had sensed just before her senjutsu chakra ran out, in the deepest layer of the underground base. She had to steal everything that wasn't nailed down and destroy whatever she couldn't fit in the sealing scrolls she had brought.
Leaving behind the three Root operatives she had incapacitated, Sakura continued sneaking down the deserted corridor, coming face to face with an intersection a few hundred metres later. She picked a direction at random and continued along the path, breaking down doors as she came across them and finding nothing too useful behind them. That is, until she came across a certain door, and a rather peculiar sound reached her ears.
It sounded rather like a baby's cry.
Sakura pressed her ear to the door and listened. Rather than there being just one baby, it sounded as though there was an entire nursery back there…