A Timely Rescue

While searching separately, Sakura and Yamato began looking through the room Sai had once stayed in and discovered something that shocked everyone.

They found the Root secret order booklet Sai carried with him.

Yamato pulled it out and flipped through two pages, his pupils abruptly shrinking. Written on the paper were: "Target: Sasuke Uchiha. Method: Make contact and cooperate with Orochimaru's faction. After gaining trust, assassinate when the opportunity arises. Executor: Sai. Supervisor: Danzō."

Only then did all of Team 7 learn the full truth: Danzō had never simply intended to contact Orochimaru. His real purpose had been to use this opportunity to eliminate Sasuke, and Sai had been an assassin sent to carry out the mission from the very beginning!

When Naruto saw the words on that page, his entire body seemed nailed in place. He stood there with one hand still extended, but he did not take the paper. His lips moved, yet no sound came out. Sakura covered her mouth, her eyes reddening. Yamato folded the paper and tucked it into his clothes, not allowing anyone another look. But that action alone had already told everyone what was written on it.

"Go after Sai! Stop that crazy plan of his!" Naruto shouted, already preparing to rush out himself.

Footsteps came from outside the door. More than one person. Fast and hurried, making Naruto stop.

Jiraiya and Yunju landed on the platform at the hideout entrance. Jiraiya swept his gaze over the tunnel entrance.

Yunju nodded. Without wasting words, the two entered the tunnel one after the other. Yamato had already put away the paper in the corridor. When Jiraiya and Yunju appeared at the end of the tunnel, their eyes met those of the others. Jiraiya's gaze quickly passed over every face before settling on Naruto. "Looks like you've already found him."

"No." Naruto's voice was so hoarse it barely sounded like his own. "But we're close."

He raised his head. His eyes were red, but what lay in those blue pupils had not been crushed—there was no collapse, no despair. It was a tightly drawn, bowstring-taut stubbornness, a refusal to stop until something had been seen through to the end. "I'll find him."

Yamato quickly exchanged information with Yunju and the others. Jiraiya immediately decided they would split up to stop Sai, and they sprang into action at once.

On Sai's side.

He had originally found Sasuke asleep, but he had not chosen to strike. After Sasuke woke, Sai even told him about Naruto's bond with him. However, Sai, who lacked emotion, was far too blunt, and Sasuke could not stand hearing any of it. As a result...

Half of the secret chamber deep within the hideout had collapsed.

The smoke had yet to disperse, and rubble and wood splinters carpeted the corridor. Sai crawled out of the ruins, his back slamming against the wall, a streak of blood at the corner of his mouth. The hand gripping his sketchbook was trembling—not from pain, but because in that instant, he had felt something he had never felt before.

Fear.

No, not fear. Killing intent. Pure, undisguised killing intent, like a blade held against his throat. One more inch forward, and it could take his life.

Sasuke stood amid the rubble without even forming a hand seal. He merely glanced over, his Sharingan turning once, and Sai's entire body froze. He could not move, and even his breathing slowed by half a beat. The aftereffects of the genjutsu still buzzed inside his skull, as though someone were chiseling holes into his brain.

Orochimaru leaned against the wall at the corridor entrance, his arms folded, that unreadable smile hanging at the corner of his mouth as though he were watching a play whose ending he had long known.

"Well? You've seen it now, haven't you?" Orochimaru's voice was unhurried, as though chatting with a friend about the weather. "Sasuke's current strength is not something you can contend with. I suggest you stand where you are, put away that sketchbook, and think carefully—was the choice you just made worth it?"

Sai did not answer. He wiped the blood from his mouth and opened his sketchbook. Ink flowed across the pages, spilling out and gathering into shape. Several Ink Birds flew out of the book, swelling to half a person's size in midair before flapping toward Sasuke. At the same time, two ink snakes slithered up from the ground and coiled toward Sasuke's feet.

Super Beast Imitation Drawing.

Sasuke glanced at the ink birds and snakes. Then he lifted a hand, lightning bursting from his fingertips—not a complete Chidori, but an electric current compressed to the extreme, sweeping across like a whip. The Ink Birds and ink snakes were shredded in the same instant, scattering into broken clumps of ink across the floor without ever getting close to him.

The shattered ink clumps spread across the ground. One larger fragment landed right by Sasuke's feet. The ink was still wet, bleeding out from its edges. Sasuke looked down at it without speaking. Then he took one step toward Sai. Just one.

Sai felt his knees weaken. It was not that he did not want to stand straight; his body simply would not obey him. His sketchbook was still open, but his fingers could not move—not because his chakra had been sealed, but because his instincts were desperately trying to make him retreat.

"You can't move me," Sasuke said. His voice was neither loud nor cold, just a calm statement. "You're not capable enough. I knew it from the moment you walked in."

Sai clenched the edge of his sketchbook. He did not argue, because Sasuke was right.

Boom.

A huge crash came from above, and then the ceiling at the end of the corridor shattered.

Light and rubble fell together as dust surged through the air. Jiraiya landed in the middle of the corridor, spiderweb cracks spreading through the stone tiles beneath his feet. Yunju followed close behind, standing slightly behind and to his side. Naruto, Sakura, and Yamato came last. After the explosion, they all appeared in the corridor at once.

Naruto's first movement was to look up. He saw Sasuke. Standing amid the ruins in dark clothing, his hair somewhat longer than it had been two and a half years ago, his jawline harder, his entire presence seeming carved by a blade—sharp, cold, and keeping everyone at a thousand miles' distance.

"Sasuke..." Naruto's voice caught in his throat, taking several seconds before it fully emerged.

Sakura stood behind him, unconsciously clutching the collar over her chest. Her eyes were already red, but she bit her lip and made no sound.

Yamato stood at the outermost edge, his gaze shifting rapidly between Sai and Sasuke.

Sai pushed himself upright from the wall and closed his sketchbook. "Naruto," he said. His voice was not loud, but everyone heard it. "I will disobey Danzō's orders and help you bring him back."

The corridor fell silent for several seconds.

Naruto stepped out from the group and walked up to Sasuke. The two stood two steps apart, neither moving. Naruto looked into Sasuke's eyes, eyes that had met his countless times before—back then, there had still been light in them, fire, anger, and unwillingness, but at least they had been alive. Now there was nothing in them, like two dried-up wells.

"Sasuke," Naruto said, his voice rougher now. "Come back with me."

Sasuke looked at him without answering.

"In the two and a half years you've been gone, there hasn't been a single day when I didn't want to bring you back." Naruto's hands clenched into fists, his knuckles turning white. "I know you don't want to. I know you think Konoha is too weak, not enough for your revenge, but—you're my most important comrade. No matter how much you change, that won't change."

"I'm strong now too. I'm not the dead last anymore, Sasuke."

"Shut up. You don't owe me anything." Sasuke finally spoke. "I never asked you to become stronger. You became stronger for yourself."

"No!" Naruto raised his voice, carrying a trace of anger he was forcing himself to hold onto. "I became stronger because I'm bringing you back!"

Sasuke's expression did not change at all. He looked at Naruto's flushed face, his tightly clenched fists, his faintly trembling shoulders, then shifted his gaze to Sakura. At last, her tears fell.

"Sasuke..." Sakura's voice was very soft. "Come back with us."

Sasuke did not even answer.

Sakura did not continue. She stepped back half a pace and stood behind Naruto, lowering her head, clutching the hem of her clothes as she kept her breathing quiet and steady.

Sasuke swept his gaze over everyone present before finally looking toward Orochimaru at the other end of the corridor.

"The people you called?"

"I didn't call them." Orochimaru slowly walked over from the wall. "They came looking on their own. Your old friends, and someone I didn't expect to encounter here." His gaze passed over the group and settled on Yunju. "Long time no see, Yunju."

Everyone turned to look at Yunju.

Yunju stood beside Jiraiya, his back slightly tense, but his posture did not shift. He looked at Orochimaru, at the face he had once regarded as that of a "savior." In the dim light, it looked thinner, paler, and colder than he remembered.

"Orochimaru." Yunju's voice was lower than usual. "I belong to Konoha now."

Orochimaru tilted his head. "And?"

"I told Jiraiya on the way here," Yunju said. "There have always been people in the village spreading rumors that I'm your spy. I thought I needed to do something to prove that I'm not. So today, I'm not standing here to catch up with you. I'm here to settle a score, and to clean up a rogue ninja as a Konoha shinobi."

Orochimaru looked him up and down. The smile at the corner of his mouth never faded, but his gaze tightened faintly for an instant, as though reevaluating him. He could feel that Yunju's chakra was completely different from two years ago—not merely greater in quantity, but transformed in quality. The outline of the Yin Seal flickered beneath his forehead, and the chakra stored through the Strength of a Hundred Seal was like an underground volcano that had yet to erupt.

"You want to fight me?" There was a hint of amusement in Orochimaru's tone. "You've grown bolder."

Jiraiya stepped half a pace forward, his position unmistakable.

He did not form a hand seal. He simply stood there. "Orochimaru, Yunju isn't who he used to be. Now, he's a comrade we can rely on."

Orochimaru finally withdrew his gaze from Yunju and shifted it to Jiraiya's face. "You're still the same."

"You're still the same too," Jiraiya shot back. "Always luring away other people's kids."

Orochimaru looked at him, then at Jiraiya again, before finally settling his gaze on Yunju's eyes.

"Interesting."

At that moment, Sasuke suddenly moved. He turned his head, his gaze resting on Yunju for two seconds. "You're Yunju."

It was not a question, but a statement. Yunju did not turn around, yet he could feel Sasuke watching him. "Orochimaru mentioned you to me," Sasuke said flatly. "The one who escaped from him."

"Yes."

"He said you might become an unpredictable factor." Sasuke's Sharingan narrowed slightly, as though assessing him. "I didn't really believe him. Orochimaru likes making everyone sound more formidable than they are. But now it seems he wasn't entirely wrong."

Yunju did not answer.

Orochimaru clapped his hands once. "Sasuke, do you want to watch this fight?"

"Whether you fight or not is up to you," Sasuke said. "I don't care. But if you do fight, I'd like to see it too. I want to see how much skill he's gained since escaping from you."