"Well, this is the only place we haven't checked yet," said Sakura, as she squinted her eyes to look at the blue egg-shaped building in the distance. "The Raikage's office."
Sakura and Neji were supposed to be taking turns guarding Lord Tsuchimikado's and Karin's V.I.P. suite through the night, but they had instead climbed up to the roof of their hotel for some light reconnaissance work, leaving a Shadow Clone on guard duty…
"Byakugan!"
Thick veins spider-webbed around Neji's face, as his telescopic X-ray vision activated. He slowly scanned the Raikage's office from top to bottom, before deactivating his Byakugan and shaking his head.
"Nothing!? But that can't be— we've checked all of the buildings!" said Sakura agitatedly. "Maybe we should get closer— you might have missed her…"
The current Neji's Byakugan could only see in a 50-metre radius while in 360-degree vision mode, but as long as he concentrated on a faraway point, he could extend his range to dozens of kilometres.
"That's not possible," responded Neji in a levelled voice. "I have been guarding that waste since the day she turned three years old. I am more familiar with her chakra signature than I'd like to be, and furthermore, the Byakugan's light is unmistakeable. She is not here."
By process of elimination, there could only be one logical explanation; if Neji couldn't see Hinata within the Hidden Cloud Village's limits, then she simply wasn't being kept here.
It wasn't as if Kumogakure lacked secret hideouts, after all— from the top of her head, Sakura could count two places outside of the village where they might be keeping Hinata.
The first was the gigantic turtle island, but that place couldn't be found by outsiders, since it was constantly on the move. The second was Killer B's secret training grounds, the Valley of Clouds and Lightning, but Sakura didn't know where that was, either.
Both were B's favourite places, so if Sakura were to stick her nose there, she'd probably run into him— but at her current level, she'd get completely flattened if she were to try and fight him. Furthermore, there was no guarantee Hinata would be there, and Sakura didn't have the luxury to go off on a wild goose chase.
"Still… we do know when and where Hinata will appear," Sakura muttered to herself. "She's bound to turn up to her own wedding, right…?"
According to what they'd been told, the wedding ceremony was going to be held a week from now in the Hidden Cloud— but if they were to strike then, they would have to fight off the entire village in order to escape.
'How about using Genjutsu to interrogate some Kumo-nin? They might have the information we need,' Inner Sakura proposed. 'It worked for Sasuke, when he needed to find the Eight-Tails' Jinchūriki during his brief stint with the Akatsuki.'
"Genjutsu…" Sakura muttered to herself.
"You have an idea?" said Neji, glancing sideways at Sakura.
The entirety of the Hidden Cloud Village would be gathered in one place for Hinata's wedding— and it was giving her Konoha Crush flashbacks. However, unlike the Sand and the Sound, Sakura was just one person— but if she were to use the collaboration Genjutsu they had used to put the Chūnin Exams' audience to sleep in conjunction with the Kurama clan's Kekkei Genkai, she might very well be able to put an entire wedding venue to sleep, if she were to take them by surprise…
"Maybe," said Sakura hesitantly. "I'm not sure yet."
She knew how to turn off a single person's brain with Genjutsu to make them fall asleep, but she didn't know the principles behind the specific Genjutsu that had been used during Operation: Konoha Crush… yet.
"Say, Neji," said Sakura abruptly. "Do you like boobs?"
Neji made a sort of strangled noise.
"No— I mean, yes— er… maybe," Neji spluttered. "Sakura, this really isn't the time to be—"
"I'm going back to my room to practise a special Jutsu that will help us rescue Hinata," said Sakura sweetly. "We'll be rescuing Hinata-chan at her own wedding, a week from now— but if you want to make yourself useful in the meantime, I'd like you to become acquainted with the chakra signatures of some very important people, if you can find them."
…
"The Raikage A, his right-hand man Killer B, a woman named Nii Yugito, and a busty woman named Samui."
Sakura then quickly described their appearances to Neji, without getting into too much detail about what Jinchūriki truly were.
"Got it," said Neji, before adding a few moments later, "I can understand why you'd want me to keep an eye on the first two, but what's so important about the last two on the list?"
"Yugito is strong, and my Genjutsu likely won't work on her," answered Sakura. "And if I'm remembering things correctly, I believe Samui might be the groom's team leader…"
Sakura swiftly turned on her heel before Neji could ask her where she had obtained her information, and a few minutes later, she was back in the relative privacy of her own hotel room. She plopped herself down onto her bed and crossed her legs, assuming the lotus position, and then she closed her eyes to enter a meditative state.
…
And when she opened her eyes again, instead of seeing her hotel room's décor, she found that she was now in Inner Orochimaru's laboratory…
'It's certainly been a while, Sakura-kun,' said Orochimaru's mental imprint.
'Let's skip the small talk, shall we?' said Inner Sakura impatiently. 'You promised to teach me Jutsu if I did as you asked, so it's time for you to fulfil your end of the bargain. I want to learn a Sealing Jutsu formula that will allow me to temporarily shrink my chest, and I want to learn a Genjutsu that can knock out thousands of people at once.'
But to Sakura's surprise, Orochimaru wagged his finger at her disapprovingly.
'The entire point of curing Kimimaro's illness was for the main body to take it over using the Living Corpse Reincarnation,' said Orochimaru, tut-tutting her. 'And yet, you handed over the Sound Five to Tsunade, knowing full well that she would keep them out of my reach— it seems to me like you are the one who is not serious about our agreement…'