"SASUKE?!"
Seeing Sasuke's sudden appearance, Naruto was first surprised, then overjoyed!
He pinched his own thigh hard beneath his cloak, forcing himself to calm down and stay in character.
He hadn't forgotten his mission.
He had to act!
He had to provoke his rival to push him into awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan!
Sasuke's eyes still only showed the standard Three-Tomoe Sharingan, which meant the mission wasn't over.
He had to keep pushing!
"NARUTO, STOP LOOKING AROUND! LOOK ME IN THE EYES AND ANSWER ME!" Sasuke was furious at Naruto's shifty movements.
He had come all this way to confront him, yet Naruto was still ignoring him, nervously glancing over at Killer Bee and Sai.
As for why Sasuke hadn't activated his Mangekyo? His new abilities were purely for intelligence gathering, offering zero practical combat use.
Activating it right now would just burn through his chakra for no reason.
"I..."
"Hello, Uchiha Sasuke. Why are you so angry?"
Before Naruto could respond, Sai stepped forward with a cheerful dead-eyed smile.
To atone for his past failures with Danzo, Sai had eagerly accepted this black-ops mission: cooperate with Naruto to psychologically break Sasuke.
To help Sai understand the best way to provoke the Uchiha, his mission scroll contained a highly detailed, exaggerated summary of Naruto and Sasuke's relationship.
Kakashi had even thoughtfully provided Sai with two volumes of the Vigorous Paradise series as reference material.
Sai, ever the diligent student, had studied the smut nonstop on the boat ride over and had already gained some cursed insights.
"And who the hell are you?" Sasuke asked, taking a deep breath to suppress his raging urge to kill.
"My name is Sai," he replied, flashing his signature fake smile.
He then grabbed Naruto's hand and placed it intimately on his own pale, exposed waist.
"So you are Sasuke. Naruto called out your name ninety-nine times in his sleep."
"S-Sai?!" Naruto stammered, sweating bullets.
Sasuke's fists clenched.
Hearing that Naruto called his name in his sleep, Sasuke allowed himself a fleeting smug smirk for exactly one second.
"But he called my name a hundred times," Sai added smoothly.
"I know I was just a substitute for Naruto's longing for you," Sai continued, perfectly recalling a dramatic passage from Vigorous Paradise.
He guided Naruto's arm tighter around his waist and leaned his head shyly against Naruto's chest, delivering his terrifying lines to Sasuke.
"But now, this substitute has completely replaced the original! I have ascended to become his true partner!"
"Huh? Oh, uh... right, yeah!" Naruto stammered, caught entirely off guard but awkwardly going along with the unhinged script.
"..."
Up in the tree, Sarada trembled as she watched the horrific soap opera unfold.
'I can't tell... I really can't tell what is real anymore...'
Makoto had assured her that the Cloud Village breeding story was a total fabrication, a ruse to help Sasuke.
But where was the line between truth and lies?!
Why did Sai's delivery feel so disturbingly genuine?! Did that mean Sai and Naruto really...
Sarada remembered—Sai was the one who replaced Sasuke in Team Seven.
In the future, he was the Director of the Anbu and the Commander of the Pillar Division, the black-ops unit formed by merging the Anbu and Root.
'This relationship...'
Sarada's mind flashed back to the history books, including the complex love-hate relationship between the Third Hokage and Danzo Shimura.
"You are the leaves bathed in sunlight, I am the root that grows in the dark."
Wasn't the dynamic between the Hokage and the head of Root exactly like the one between Naruto and Sai?!
Sai was Naruto's root in the darkness!
In other words, Sai was Naruto's secret partner, the one who couldn't be seen in the light!
Then there was Sasuke's future title, the "Supporting Kage"—the man who supported the Hokage from behind the scenes!
Thinking about it now, that title probably wasn't innocent at all!
Perhaps the shinobi world noticed the twisted relationship between Sasuke and Naruto but, fearing their immense power, could only use coded metaphors to warn future generations.
The Supporting Kage... supporting from behind.
And how he was supporting him... well, that went without saying.
Sarada was on the verge of a complete mental breakdown, and Sasuke had reached the absolute end of his patience.
Repeatedly provoked by Sai's smug face, Sasuke's expression darkened into pure murderous intent!
He rapidly formed hand seals.
The lightning of the Chidori bloomed in his hand, crackling with a piercing shriek.
"STOP IT! DON'T FIGHT ANYMORE!"
Pushed past her breaking point, Sarada couldn't hold back.
She leaped from the branch and landed directly between them.
Both sides froze, stunned by the sudden interruption.
A girl with a Three-Tomoe Sharingan stood there with tears streaming down her face.
"Who are you?" Sasuke's brow furrowed.
'An Uchiha? How is that possible? Didn't Itachi slaughter the entire clan?'
'Could she be like that so called Uchiha ancestor—sealed away in a jar and only recently dug up?'
"I'm Sarada... I'm..."
Sarada hadn't thought this far ahead.
Now, she didn't know what to say.
Her feelings about her relationship with her father were already poisoned with fear and disgust.
Only the thinnest thread of family loyalty remained, and it was fraying fast.
"She's obviously a 'material' provided by the Hidden Cloud," Sai declared smoothly, seizing the perfect opportunity.
"A descendant of an Uchiha captured by the Cloud during the last war. Now she is being used for Naruto to..."
Sai was desperate to redeem his past failures and prove his worth as an Anbu.
The moment Sarada revealed her Sharingan, his tactical mind concocted a new angle, willing to say anything to push Sasuke over the edge.
If one substitute isn't enough to make him jealous, let's add a female one to the mix.
"Sai... Sarada... Sa..."
Sasuke clutched his head, his sanity slipping!
He couldn't believe it!
Naruto had found a male substitute and a female substitute for him!
And both of them had pale skin and dark hair! They were both replacing him!
Torment. Pain. Unfathomable rage, that's what all Sasuke feels right now.
Sasuke looked up, his furious glare locking onto Sarada as he raised his left hand, the Chidori shrieking like a thousand birds.
"D-DAD?!" Seeing Sasuke actually about to strike her, Sarada cried out, her voice a mixture of sheer shock and heartbreak.
"Hmph! So you'll even call me 'Daddy' to beg for your miserable life?!" Sasuke sneered.
He lunged forward without hesitation, the sharp edge of his Chidori piercing clean through Sarada's shoulder.
In the next instant, he pivoted and delivered a brutal kick to her stomach, sending the girl flying through the air like a ragdoll.
Makoto watched Sarada fly backward while staying hidden behind a tree.
Sarada eyes... were now entirely vacant from the psychological damage.
He manipulated gravity, pulling her safely into his arms.
"Crazy Diamond."
The bloody hole in Sarada's shoulder vanished instantly, and even the torn fabric of her shirt knit itself back together.
But while her physical wounds were erased, the scars on her heart were permanent.
Sarada was utterly broken!
This was the second time Sasuke had tried to kill her upon meeting her. And this time, he actually landed the blow.
"SASUKE, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Naruto yelled.
Ever the kind soul, the blonde grew frantic seeing an innocent girl get seriously maimed just for their little acting exercise.
But in Sasuke's twisted perspective...
"You're still worried about your new toy?!" Sasuke flicked his wrist, shaking off blood that had already been healed away.
His furious gaze shifted back to the pale boy clinging to Naruto, and he pointed a lethal finger.
"YOU'RE NEXT, SAI!"
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