From the outside, the black market outpost looked like your average, innocuous two-storey governnt building— beige and uninteresting. Really, the only points of interest were the radio antenna and the w (a birdhouse which houses ssenger hawks), which were both located on the roof.
"They're right underneath you, onee-sama," ca Karin's voice through Sakura's radio's earpiece. "There's a secret subbasent beneath the first floor— you'll find the stairs down on your left."
The inside of the building was just as thrilling as the outside.
There was only a single employee manning the front desk, and she hadn't even batted an eyelid when Sakura had wandered in and started looking around, like a tourist— she'd doubtlessly seen all kinds of people pass through the area.
"Understood," Sakura responded through her portable radio transceiver. "Karin, extinguish your chakra signature and hide yourself— I'll leave the use of Sensing Jutsu at your discretion, but make sure to change hiding spots whenever you use it. Shino, hang back a little— I'll be going in first to draw their attention."
While Karin's ability to hide her chakra signature was nothing special for Ōtsutsuki, it was unique among humankind— but even the Ōtsutsuki couldn't manage hiding and sensing at the sa ti.
Indeed, while Sensing Jutsu were extrely useful tools for reconnaissance, they also broadcast one's location to other sensor-nin, just like radar technology. However, even with this massive innate disadvantage, Sensing Jutsu had remained a mainstay in warfare, because it wouldn't matter if your enemy discovered your location, as long as you found them first!
"Got it," said Shino, who had remained outside with Karin. "I'll send in my Kikaichū for reconnaissance ahead of you, then."
"No need," said Sakura, cracking her knuckles. "I'm planning on making an entrance…"
"Take care, onee-sama," said Karin worriedly. "Their bodies are… super weird!"
...
anwhile, a few tres below Sakura…
"Kakuzu…"
"What do you want, Hidan?"
Neji ducked, narrowly avoiding getting sliced in half by the crimson scythe that the madman he was facing had just thrown at him. There he'd been, minding his own business, when a stranger wearing black robes emblazoned with scarlet clouds had accosted him, rambling on about so Jashin, before attacking without warning.
"Don't you what do you want , Kakuzu!" the man nad Hidan roared. "You're the one who asked to pick a fight with him, so why are you standing back with your arms crossed like it's none of your business!?"
"It's against the rules to fight on the black market's premises— how am I to make any money if I get banned from the black market?" said the man nad Kakuzu calmly. "Hidan, don't tell you're having trouble with this stripling?"
Even though Neji was young, he was a genius among a clan of geniuses, and his Gentle Fist was a direct counter to Hidan's immortal fighting style. Even though Hidan had received a classic education as a shinobi in Yugakure, he had grown used to fighting with reckless abandon, ever since he had received Jashin's boon of immortality. No weapon could kill him, so why would he ever try to avoid enemy attacks when could just weather them and counterattack?
At first, Neji had found it surprisingly easy to land his debilitating Gentle Fist attacks on his foe's Tenketsu, when Hidan hadn't even been trying to dodge, but as the fight had progressed and Hidan had got wise to the Gentle Fist's special properties, he had switched to swinging his huge scythe like a madman.
"Ha! As if I'd need any help!" shouted Hidan, spinning his heavy scythe by swinging it by the cable attached to its base. "Boy, you should feel honoured— you'll make a fine offering to Jashin-sama!"
Hidan and Kakuzu suddenly froze and looked up, having sensed sothing strange— and then there was as sharp crack, as a pink-haired figure tore through the ceiling above them, sending debris cascading down upon their heads.
"SHANNAROOO!" shouted Sakura, erging headfirst from the hole she had just punched through the Entrance Hall's floor.
Sakura's fist connected with Kakuzu's jaw as she fell, but even though she had coated it in enormous quantities of chakra, she still felt pain stabbing through her knucklebones, leaving her feeling as if she had just punched a brick wall.
Nevertheless, she pushed through the pain, and the force of the impact sent Kakuzu flying through a rice paper sliding door, sending the black market's employees who had been hiding behind it scurrying away in a panic.
"How dare you interrupt my ritual!" Hidan said angrily. "There's crap all over the floor now, so how am I supposed to draw my—"
Sakura stepped out of the haze of suspended particles in the air, weaving hand signs as she advanced towards Neji and Hidan. Punching her way through the basent's ceiling with her Chakra Enhanced Strength had raised a cloud of dust and powdered cent around her…
"Manyuu Assassination Genjutsu: Breast Illusion!"
Neji's and Hidan's pupils seed to turn into nipples, as their vision began filling with swaying breasts. Despite his passion for his god, Hidan fell for Sakura's Genjutsu remarkably easily, but Neji continued putting up a fight.
While Neji's Byakugan couldn't unravel visual Genjutsu by seeing through its flaws like the Sharingan, it did allow him to see the disturbances in the chakra network within his head!
Furthermore, constructing illusions that took into account a 360-degree cone of vision was all but impossible for non-Hyūga, making Byakugan-users even more resilient to regular visual Genjutsu. To put things into perspective, it would be like showing soone an apple and a drawing of an apple and asking them to identify which one has three dinsions.
Just like it's simply too easy for humans to differentiate 2D from 3D (as long as you're not an otaku, that is), it's also easy for Byakugan users to realise that any images placed in front of them that are designed for a regular human's 114-degree FOV are fake (when in reality they should be seeing in 360 degrees)!
Even so, while the Byakugan rendered the Ōtsutsuki and the Hyūga virtually invincible against low-level Genjutsu, it rely added to their resilience when they were faced with higher-tier illusions. While Neji was fully aware that he had fallen under Sakura's Genjutsu (enhanced with the Kurama clan's Kekkei Genkai), he just couldn't turn his eyes away from the incredibly vivid bouncing breasts surrounding him!
"Capture complete," Sakura spoke into her radio transceiver's microphone. "Shino, can you—"
"Onee-sama, behind you!" Karin's shrill voice scread into Sakura's ear.
Sakura swivelled on the spot, her breasts swinging with her angular montum, and she turned her Genjutsu on Kakuzu, causing him to freeze on the spot and fall into the dreamland of n's hopes and dreams.
Or not!
"Watch out, onee-sama! He's just pretending—!"
Kakuzu's right hand suddenly shot off his wrist like a rocket punch, and quick as a flash, he seized Sakura by the throat before dragging her back to him by retracting the grey tendrils connecting his hand to his arm.
As a result of Kakuzu having transferred his consciousness into his many hearts and having most of his flesh replaced with tentacles, Sakura had failed to make his chakra frequency resonate with hers, causing her Genjutsu to fail to take root in his brain! Wherever that was, because it clearly wasn't inside his skull any more!
"Haruno Sakura? Bounty of seventy million ryō?" Kakuzu asked coldly, holding up Sakura's face to the light filtering through the hole in the ceiling. "Your head is mine."
Though it didn't show on his masked face, Kakuzu was overjoyed. He'd obtained intel that Hyūga Neji (who was on the Cloud's most wanted list) was coming his way, and he'd successfully intercepted him. And then, the most wanted kunoichi in the Hidden Cloud's Bingo Book had shown up?
The heavens were truly blessing him today— he was going to make a fortune on bounties!
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