Friendship With Curry Ended— Now Ramen is my Best Friend

"What are you doing, Tenten?" asked Rock Lee curiously, as he observed his teammate kneeling at the unconscious Raiga's side.

"Taking a blood sample— just in case we accept Momochi Zabuza's offer," Tenten responded without missing a beat. "It's standard procedure to bring back enemy elites' corpses for study, since shinobi bodies are a treasure trove of information… but a blood or tissue sample is the next best thing."

'The village's higher-ups are a bunch of hypocrites,' Inner Sakura grumbled. 'So, I'm not allowed to steal Kekkei Genkai, but playing grave robbers is fair game?'

Tenten placed a sealing scroll under Raiga's arm and flattened it out, then flipped a kunai into her hand and made a shallow incision in his wrist.

"Seal!"

With a one-handed hand sign, the blood pooling from the man's wrist was siphoned off into the scroll, leaving behind a profound inscription on the pristine parchment paper.

"…you're not doing Ranmaru?" asked Sakura questioningly, as she watched Tenten carefully roll up the scroll and slip it into her sleeve. "He's got some sort of Dōjutsu."

"Does he, now?" said Tenten, startled by Sakura's words. "I suppose I might as well get a sample too, then…"

Sakura looked at Tenten suspiciously, as she repeated the same procedure with Ranmaru.

She knew for a fact that Tenten was a Returner, so Tenten was bound to know about Ranmaru's Kekkei Genkai— Tenten had even warned her not to bother using Genjutsu against Raiga, knowing full well that it wouldn't work with Ranmaru running interference…

'She's up to something again,' said Inner Sakura sceptically. 'She's acting awfully shifty…'

Even though Tenten had confirmed that Sakura wasn't a Returner like her, she still suspected that something was terribly off about the pink-haired girl, knowing about her useless self from the original timeline. She had just watched Sakura nearly choke a man to death without even touching him, which had reminded her of a certain clan in decline…

In the future Tenten had come from, the Kurama clan's Kekkei Genkai had gone extinct. In a desperate attempt to reclaim this lost power, the clan's chief had ordered the corpses of those who had awakened the ability to be unearthed and asked future Orochimaru to study them.

Sadly, Orochimaru hadn't managed to recreate the lost bloodline factor, but he had managed to work out how the Kekkei Genkai functioned.

When Kurama clan members who had awakened their Kekkei Genkai used Genjutsu, they would also greatly agitate the chakra in their victim's brain in two very specific spots— specifically the hypothalamus and the amygdala.

By targeting the part of the brain that regulates the body's cycles and rhythms and by targeting the fear and emotion centre of the brain, a Kurama clan member would force their target's brain to produce a cocktail of hormones that suspiciously resembled a potent psychoactive toxin found on the skin of a certain species of Mount Myōboku toad.

The result?

The victim would undergo a severe psychosomatic response to illusions— a reaction so intense that it could literally force the body to tear itself apart. If Tenten could detect this toxin in the blood sample, it would provide undeniable proof that Sakura had extracted a Kekkei Genkai from a fellow villager— a cardinal sin worthy of Danzō himself!

As for what Tenten would use this proof for…

She didn't quite know yet herself, as this was still circumstantial evidence— not enough to have the Konoha Military Police Force conduct a formal investigation— but it was somewhere to start…

"Done," said Tenten, as she got to her feet. "So, what should we do with these two?"

The matter was put to a vote.

As a Returner, Tenten naturally wanted to keep the current timeline as similar as possible to the one she knew, since her greatest advantage was her knowledge of the future— so she voted to have Raiga handed over to the Land of Rivers's authorities and Ranmaru given up to Granny Sanshō for adoption.

Sasuke voted to have Kurosuki Raiga and Ranmaru released into Zabuza's custody— he wanted Zabuza's Fourth Mizukage assassination plan to go on as planned, since there was a chance Itachi would show up to the party.

Naruto and Rock Lee both felt sorry for Ranmaru, who would lose his father figure if Raiga was arrested, but they disagreed on what to do with Raiga himself. Due to his sense of justice, Naruto sided with Tenten, but following his emotions, Lee voted alongside Sasuke.

"…I'll pick whatever you choose, onee-sama!" said Karin fawningly.

Which meant that Sakura's vote would be the tiebreaker, as it was currently two votes against two. Sakura thought about it long and hard— on one hand, Raiga was a madman who deserved to spend the rest of his life behind bars, but at the same time, stopping the Fourth Mizukage's reign even one or two years in advance would save many more lives than Raiga could possibly put an end to… not to mention that it would interfere with Obito's plans!

"We'll hand Raiga over to Zabuza in exchange for the Katabami villagers' gold," said Sakura decisively. "The miners won't survive the coming winter without money."

When they had first moved in, the Kurosuki gang had murdered the prefectural governor who ruled over the area surrounding the mine. At first, the villagers had been happy to be rid of the tyrant and his heavy taxes, but the Kurosuki family had turned out to be even worse rulers!

'Not to mention the villagers will be so grateful they'll probably give us a fat bonus!' sniggered Inner Sakura. 'Mummy needs a new pair of sandals!'

-------------------------------------------

The following morning, the gang had a healthy breakfast of curry (honestly, even Sakura was beginning to get tired of eating nothing but curry for every meal of the day; breakfast, lunch and dinner), but as Sakura was untying Ranmaru from his post…

"I-I…" stammered Ranmaru. "I can stand…?"

"It's a miracle!" Raiga blubbered, soaking his shirt with a flood of tears. "Ranmaru, you're cured!"

It turned out that the reason Raiga carried Ranmaru around like a backpack was because the young boy's legs were crippled— Sakura had completely forgotten about it!

"That is the power of youth!" sniffled Lee, who had also begun crying. "OUR YOUTH IS EVERLASTIIIING!"

"No," said Sakura, shaking her head as she put her hand on Lee's shoulder. "It's all thanks to the magical curry of life!"

Tenten shot a bemused look in Sakura's direction— was this airheaded, curry-loving, top-heavy bimbo really the evil mastermind she believed her to be? If so, she was hiding her game well…

"I bet Ichiraku ramen could have done a better job," Naruto grumbled. "Eating spicy curry all day… each time I go take a dump, it feels like I'm setting my butt on fire, ya know…"

For once, Sasuke was seeing eye to eye with Naruto, but he still had to make a conscious effort to stop himself from nodding in agreement— nobody could know how much it pained him to go to the bathroom, for the sake of his reputation as a cool and aloof guy…