章節 91: This is so Sad— Alexa, Play Hokage's Funeral Theme.Mp3

"Sakura-chan, hurry up!" Sakura's mother Mebuki called out from downstairs. "We can't be late for the funeral!"

"I'm trying!" Sakura grunted, as she struggled to stuff her breasts into the cups sewn into her little black dress. "But… this… stupid… thing… won't… fit!"

In her search for something to wear to a funeral (that wasn't red or pink), Sakura had unearthed a black evening dress in her wardrobe. However, it was only now, two days after the fact, that she was realizing that the dress that the old Sakura had purchased no longer quite fit her new form— it felt tighter than a sausage casing.

"What do you mean?" came her mother's disapproving voice. "I specifically went to buy a funeral dress in your size yesterday— did you look on your bed?"

Sakura wiggled her body out of the too-small dress and looked behind her. And just like her mother had said, there it was; lying at the foot of her bed.

Sakura sighed audibly— this day was definitely going to suck.

…

A dozen minutes later, Sakura and her parents left their small apartment building, which had miraculously survived the One-Tail's rampage, and they joined the throng of men and women dressed in black heading for the Hokage residence, where the funeral ceremony was being held.

There were a lot of people standing in line to pay their respects to the late Hokage, despite the light drizzle. Even though he had bungled the conclusion to the Third Shinobi World War, forcing him to step down as Hokage and give way to the Fourth, Sarutobi Hiruzen had remained a very popular leader, all thanks to the power of propaganda…

As she approached her destination, Sakura began seeing people standing on the roof of the Hokage residence, where the funerary altar had been set up.

For a few gloomy moments, she reflected on what it meant to be shinobi— it would be much faster for her to simply skip the line, leap to the top of the roof and be done with this whole ordeal— why did shinobi have to pretend to be like regular people and take the stairs, just like everyone else?

No, that wasn't quite right— it was especially in these hard times that it was necessary to take a step back and reaffirm what it meant to be human. And if that meant waiting in line under the rain and taking the stairs, then Sakura would do it. Shinobi, for all of their wondrous abilities, were still humans with human emotions, at the end of the day… more or less.

Although, according to Sakura's System panel, she was now only 98% human (with a 1% margin for error) …

Eventually, the line moved forward, and upon reaching the roof of the Hokage residence, Sakura was given a single white flower to place on the deceased's altar. From here, Sakura wasn't exactly sure how the funerary ceremony would differ from her homeland of Japan's, but she was sure that she could figure it out, if she just watched the other attendees.

Sakura lined up with the other Genin and waited for her turn to pay her respects; one after the other, Shikamaru, Chōji and Ino delivered their flowers to the funerary altar… and finally, it was Sakura's turn.

Sakura walked up to the altar and placed her flower with the others, bowing to the smiling portrait of the Third Hokage. She had mixed feelings about the man— for all of his many problems, the Third Hokage had been the first Hokage that she had ever known. He might have been a lecherous pervert who kept sneaking glances at her chest whenever he thought she wasn't looking, but he had still been a kindly old man… whenever he hadn't been a pervy old man.

Beneath the Third Hokage's veneer of kindness was a hidden layer of hypocrisy, and beneath that layer of hypocrisy was a good heart; a weak and an ineffectual one to be sure, but a good one nonetheless.

Sakura lifted her head and returned to her parents, looking over her shoulder at Sasuke, who had been next in line after her. If only he knew that he was paying his respects to a man that had been complicit in the annihilation of his clan…

"Psst!" a hushed voice reached Sakura's ear. "Sakura!"

Sakura looked around to search for the source of the voice— the members of the village's major clans were all around her, at the forefront of the crowd— the Sarutobi and their diehard supporters, the Yamanaka, the Akimichi and the Nara— and also the Hyūga, the Aburame, the Inuzuka…

"Look to your right, discreetly," the voice continued saying. "Whom do you see?"

"Tenten?" Sakura whispered back. "Is that you?"

After Tenten had pulled a nasty trick on her, Sakura had lost confidence in the girl who was supposed to be her comrade.

Surem Tenten had saved the village; her plan to teleport the One-Tail out of the village by tricking it into chasing after Sasuke and then having Naruto knock it into the Heavenly Transfer Jutsu formula had worked splendidly, but her true objectives remained uncertain…

Still, as far as Sakura knew, Tenten still believed that her memory was sealed— so if Tenten was going to lower her guard around her, then Sakura would gladly take the opportunity to gain any insight into future-girl's true goals.

Doing as she had been asked, Sakura glanced warily to her right— she could see Hiruzen's best friends, the Konoha Council of Elders. Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, and… Shimura Danzō. They seemed to be arguing with the Hyūga elder, but Sakura couldn't quite make out what they were saying…

"Hinata has gone missing," said Tenten urgently. "No one knows where she's gone, but I know; and that man knows."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, startled. "How could this have happened?"

Tenten was sort of indirectly responsible for Hyūga Hinata's disappearance.

In the original timeline, Hinata had been kidnapped during the Crush by Cloud Jōnin taking advantage of the confusion, but Neji, Tenten and Kiba had managed to slow down the kidnappers enough for Hiashi to catch up to them and come to Hinata's rescue.

But in this timeline, Tenten and Neji had fought the One-Tail instead of going to save Hinata, resulting in her getting kidnapped…

"It's already been two days," Tenten whispered hoarsely. "The village isn't going to be lifting even a single finger to help, not in its current state. Hinata's done for, unless we do something about it."

Basically, there are three ways for a ninja village to obtain a new Kekkei Genkai.

The first way is transplantation— directly stealing a special organ from an enemy shinobi.

The second way is to create a new Kekkei Genkai clan by inviting stray shinobi to settle in one's village.

"It's a race against the clock," whispered Tenten. "The darkness hidden under the Leaf Village's roots will stop at nothing to keep the Byakugan from spreading to other villages— even if it means killing Hinata!"

And the third way is also to create a new Kekkei Genkai clan… but the how is too distasteful to put into words.

If it was for the Leaf Village, a man like Danzō wouldn't even baulk at the idea of killing a pregnant woman. He had likely already sent assassins to the Cloud village to kill Hinata and to destroy/retrieve her eyes— assassinating a target was much safer and easier than extracting a target from hostile territory…

"What makes you think we could help?" Sakura whispered back, her mind racing. "We're just Genin, and if we try to leave the village without permission, we'll become rogue shinobi!"

"With the team I've got in mind, we'd have a much easier time infiltrating the Hidden Cloud than even elite Jōnin!" Tenten murmured in Sakura's ear. "I know we can save Hinata— but we need the Fifth Hokage to take office first!!"

Hesitant, Sakura couldn't help but think of Kakashi's words:

In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum…