Surrounded!

"Saaaa↓ku↑ra↓-chaaaan↑!" Naruto shouted, waving at her wildly in the distance.

The dying light of the flare overhead sputtered out, bathing his surroundings in a pale red light. He was standing at the mouth of a cave, accompanied by Sasuke and a tall kunoichi…

"Naaaarutoooo!" Sakura squealed, her chest bouncing heavily as she jumped up and down happily. "You're alive!"

As expected, Naruto had not ended up as a pancake at the bottom of the ravine or been poisoned to death by hydrogen sulphide gas, to which there was no antidote. Sakura really would have become to the laughingstock of all reincarnators if she'd allowed her Naruto to die there…

"Oof!" Naruto grunted, as Sakura slammed into him with all the grace of a lorry, burying his face between her breasts. "Can't… breathe. But… I'm… so… happy!"

Meanwhile, Sumaru and his mother were in the midst of an emotional reunion of their own, although it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. After all, Natsuhi had chosen duty over motherhood, spending Sumaru's entire childhood watching over the village from the shadows, to ensure the star's power was never abused— and that no child would ever suffer through the star training again.

To make matters more complicated, Natsuhi could be considered a missing-nin under the current administration, since she had technically faked her death. The Third Hoshikage had died abruptly (murdered by Akahoshi and his two goons) without getting the chance to tell anyone of her mission, so she was pretty much stuck in limbo.

It mirrored what had happened with Itachi— having been violently murdered by Orochimaru, Hiruzen never got the chance to tell Tsunade of Itachi's status as a double agent. The only ones still aware of the secret were those three relics of the past, Shimura Danzō, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, but they weren't about to tell anyone of their shameful role in the Uchiha massacre!

"All right, that's enough," said Sasuke tersely, extricating Naruto from Sakura's cleavage by yanking him back by the collar. "Follow me, we need to decide what to do next."

"You guys go on ahead," said Naruto quickly, stuffing his hands into his pockets and hunching forward a little too casually. "I'll, er… catch up, y'know."

And with that, Sasuke and Sakura departed from Natsuhi's hideout. But after a dozen steps, still feeling a bit worried about her teammate, Sakura glanced back over her shoulder. Naruto hadn't budged a centimetre from the spot they'd left him in.

"Are you sure you're okay, Naruto?" asked Sakura anxiously. "You might have breathed in a bit of toxic gas when you fell, so maybe it'd be safer if I gave you a quick checkup…"

"I said I'm fine!" said Naruto shrilly. "Just gimme a mo', okay?"

…

A few minutes later, all three members of Team 7 were standing in front of an enormous boulder in the middle of a clearing in the forest, and Naruto had miraculously recuperated from whatever had been afflicting him mere moments ago.

"I found this spot while I was tracking Natsuhi," said Sasuke coolly. "See for yourself."

With a slight twinge of pain, Sakura's beautiful green eyes turned scarlet, tomoe orbiting her pupils in each of her irises. The world's colours suddenly turned vivid, with swirls of wisteria-coloured chakra floating around the boulder.

"Wha—!?" Naruto hiccupped in surprise. "Sakura, your eyes! They're just like Sasuke's and Kakashi-sensei's!"

The memories were all coming back to her now.

This was where Natsuhi had buried her husband after he'd passed away from star cancer, and where she had hidden the star— under this huge, totally not conspicuous boulder in the middle of nowhere.

"Can you lift it?" asked Sasuke.

The rock was huge— Sakura was strong, but she was not that strong yet.

Tsunade would certainly be able to lift it, since she was born with monstrous strength and had fully mastered Chakra Enhanced Strength, but the current Sakura would need something like Sage Mode to lift such a massive weight. So far, the only application of Chakra Enhanced Strength Sakura had mastered was for striking— delicate actions like lifting required far more training than just timing a burst of chakra for a punch.

"Sasuke, you don't need the star to become stronger," said Sakura softly, immediately realising what he was after. "It'll just kill you."

"Unlike like you or Naruto, I don't have one of the Sannin as a teacher," said Sasuke, clenching his fists tightly. "I need strength wherever I can find it."

How else would he able to kill his genius of a brother and protect those he had grown to care about? If he could accomplish these things, he didn't care if he died young…

!!!

"Sakura!" said Sasuke sharply, suddenly tensing up.

"I know," said Sakura miserably, peering into the depths of the surrounding forest. "Shit, this is worse than bad…"

"What is it?" asked Naruto in confusion. "What's going on?"

In a flash, Team 7 was surrounded.

The adult Hidden Star shinobi and the Mysterious Peacock Method trainees flickered into existence around the trio of Leaf shinobi— on the forest floor, perched on tree branches, sitting on the boulder, and scattered across the clearing. Using their special chakra to resonate with the thief's, they had tracked Natsuhi's chakra to this location, only to find the Leaf shinobi they had hired standing directly over the star's radiation signature…

"Do you see now, everyone?" said Akahoshi loudly, as he strode out of the forest. "Betrayal, from our supposed ally, the Hidden Leaf… as expected, they were behind the traitors Natsuhi and Sumaru all along! Outsiders are not to be trusted!"

Earlier, Sakura had boasted to Sumaru that with her newfound powers, she and her friends would easily be able to take down his entire village… Now, it seemed like she was about to have the chance to prove those words.

"What the hell are you talking about, we just got here!" Naruto shouted angrily. "We were just looking for your star like you asked us to!"

"I believe our contract has already concluded," said Akahoshi, his voice growing colder. "Care to explain why you haven't left yet— and why you're standing directly over our stolen star, right in the middle of our territory?"

Akahoshi raised his hand, and the encirclement began tightening.

"Manji formation," said Sakura with grim determination.

Without a word, Naruto and Sasuke fell into place, their backs pressed together with hers to eliminate blind spots.

"And Naruto," added Sakura as the enemy drew near, "I think it might finally be time to pull out that Combination Jutsu of ours that we never got to do in the Chūnin exams..."

"About time," said Naruto, grinning mischievously.