'This is going straight on Yahoo Auctions,' said Inner Sakura, as she admired the gaudy ring engagement ring in her palm. 'It's not as nice as Shodai Hokage's necklace, but at least I can sell this…'
Unlocking the introductory stage of Lightning Chakra Mode required a significant amount of chakra metal— an exceedingly rare, expensive, and strategically important resource. Since it wasn't always available for purchase, Sakura made a point of keeping plenty of money on hand so she could buy a few grams whenever the opportunity arose— and this jewel-encrusted ring was sure to sell for a pretty ryō!
Suddenly, an arrow tipped with a suction cup shot out of nowhere, and Sakura instinctively snatched it from the air. Thanks to Sasuke's specialised training, her hand-eye coordination had sharpened significantly over the past few months!
"Enemy attack!" roared Naruto, looking every which way for the assassin. "Where's the enemy!?"
Conveniently, an arrow usually pointed in the direction it was fired towards— so to find its point of origin, it was a simple matter of flipping it around and following the tip back to the sniper!
"Hmpf," came a young boy's voice. "Even though they look a bit unreliable, especially that orange one, I'll admit they have some skills."
A dark-haired bespectacled boy clambered out of the same stagecoach Prince Michiru had just squeezed through, a toy bow in hand. Dressed in white and blue archer's garb, he had a quiver slung across his back.
'…Harry Potter?' said Inner Sakura. 'Aren't you supposed to be in Hogwarts right now?'
"This is my son, Hikaru," said Prince Michiru unapologetically, patting the boy on the shoulder. "He's at that age, you know— mischievous. Won't you overlook his actions for me?"
So, not only was this fat man propositioning minors, but he also was already married and had a child? Sakura was shocked and appalled! Shocked, I tell you! Well, not that shocked. Mostly appalled.
The boy rather rudely jabbed his index in Sakura's direction.
"I'll allow them to join us, Papa," said Prince Hikaru haughtily, "but I refuse to accept that overinflated hag as my Mama!"
To a young child, even someone just a few years older might seem positively ancient! Especially one so… rounded.
"Hag!?" spluttered Sakura, deciding to let the 'overinflated,' comment slide. "I'll teach you not to disrespect a delicate maiden's spirit, you little twerp— mmphf!"
Momentarily forgetting her fear of offending royalty— and getting 'off-with-her-head'-ed— Sakura began stalking towards the young boy, only to be gagged and yanked back by Kakashi.
"Nice to meet you, Hikaru," said Kakashi pleasantly, as he tried to restrain a struggling Sakura without touching her in inappropriate places.
If anything happened to the father-son prince duo, it would turn into an international incident…
…
With that, Sakura and her group joined the prince's convoy, and the long journey to the Land of Moon began— but no sooner had the mission started than they were ambushed by bandits. And just like that, Sakura knew she was in for a busy time ahead.
It turned out that most of the stagecoaches in the convoy were filled with treasures and souvenirs of the princes' travels throughout the shinobi continent, making for extremely enticing bait for every would-be two-bit thief, highwayman and cutthroat bandit in the region.
Furthermore, thanks to Prince Michiru's lavish, very public displays of wealth, and the fact that most of the carriage drivers and servants were strangers he had hired along the way to carry his goods…
There wasn't a single ruffian in the area unaware of the princes' exact travel route by the time the four shinobi from the Leaf joined the convoy!
Honestly, Sakura had no idea how they'd managed to survive this long. By day's end, she and her companions had already repelled no fewer than three groups of desert bandits. Thankfully, there hadn't been a single shinobi among them— making the skirmishes hardly worth narrating— but even so, after just these few encounters, Sakura could easily understand why Prince Michiru's previous guards had abandoned him one after another...
'And there's that annoying brat who called me a hag earlier, not a cute kid at all,' grumbled Inner Sakura. 'If he shoots another arrow at me, I'm shoving it so deep up his arse it'll come out from his eye socket!'