The Village Hidden Among the Clouds

"Good, it looks like neither of you are using the Transformation Jutsu," the Kumo-nin's squad leader told Sakura and Neji. "All right, you're cleared to enter, but keep in mind that if you cause any trouble, we'll have you sent to Hōzuki Castle in a heartbeat, got it?"

Sakura gingerly rubbed her throbbing thumb and shot an angry glare at the man.

"Didn't quite catch your name," said Sakura, who was the type to hold a grudge. "What was it, again…?"

"The name's Warui," said the squad leader haughtily. "Remember that name, because I'll be keeping a close eye on the both of you during your stay…"

Worried that she might be carrying concealed weapons, the shinobi leader named Warui had ordered Sakura to be strip-searched— and as expected, his subordinates had quickly found the two large weapons of mass distraction stuffed down her dress; much to her embarrassment.

Then, to add insult to injury, and just to make sure that Sakura and Neji really were who they said they were, Warui had pricked them both with a needle, to dispel any lingering Transformation Jutsu on their persons.

Naturally, if Sakura had managed to learn Tsunade's special version of the Transformation Jutsu in the time it had taken her to travel to the Hidden Cloud, then no amount of pain would have ever dispelled her disguise. Unfortunately, since Sakura needed to learn the Yin Seal as a prerequisite before learning Tsunade's take on the Transformation Jutsu, she had been forced to drop that particular idea, for the time being…

Still, time constraints notwithstanding, Sakura was already perfectly capable of learning and setting up her own Yin Seal, at her current level. After all, in the original timeline, Sakura had started learning the Yin Seal a month or two from today, in a bid to catch up with Naruto's and Sasuke's rapidly increasing power levels.

'I've finally caught up with these two,' Inner Sakura sniggered. 'Yeah, right…'

Anything the original Sakura could do, Sakura could do too— but now was really not the time, since she was currently about to enter the enemy's lair. Condensing a Yin Seal would require constant concentration, and furthermore, it would also continuously drain her chakra— but Sakura couldn't afford to become distracted now.

'Now that I think about it,' said Inner Sakura thoughtfully, 'Couldn't the original's poor performance after the time skip be due to her concentrating on the Yin Seal for more than half of Shippuden?'

Due to her extremely ordinary chakra capacity, the original Sakura had ended up taking four years to accumulate enough chakra to fill her Yin Seal to 100% capacity; two years of time skip, and then two more years until the Fourth Shinobi World War began. Her low chakra levels and her concentration being divided would certainly explain her slow reaction speed during most Shippuden fights…

Thankfully, now that Sakura had Tsunade's amazing vitality and enormous volumes of chakra, it wouldn't take her nearly as long as the original to fill up her Yin Seal. Once she got the hang of the Jutsu, Sakura was certain that it wouldn't take her more than a weekend to reach maximum capacity!

"Please remain where you are," said Warui.

Warui turned on his heel and strode towards a sheer rock face, which stretched so high up into the sky that Sakura couldn't see its upper limits behind the thick cover of cottony clouds. Warui knocked a few times on the rocky wall following a certain rhythm, before backing away.

Hearing some squeaking noises over her head, Sakura craned her neck and peered into the mist above— and a few minutes later, a lift pierced through the clouds and descended to their level, lowered by a system of ropes and pulleys. This lift was more of a cross between a wicker basket and a wooden pallet than the modern lifts that Sakura was used to back in Japan, but riding one sure beat rock climbing…

"All aboard!" shouted Warui.

He and his teammates lightly jumped aboard the lift, causing it to creak ominously— this whole apparatus seemed awfully rickety. Lord Tsuchimikado and his 'wife' climbed aboard after them, followed by Sakura, Neji and the rest of the nobleman's retinue of guards and servants. Once everyone was securely on board the lift, Warui knocked a few more times on the rock wall with a different rhythm, and the lift finally started rising.

"I can't see anything!" said Karin in amazement, as they passed through a cloud. "And it's all wet!"

It wasn't Sakura's first time going through heavy fog, so she wasn't as impressed as Karin— and it wasn't as if she held fond memories of her previous experience with low-visibility environments, in the first place; trying to survive in the middle of Zabuza's Hiding in Mist Jutsu was really stressful!

Eventually, the lift emerged from the layer of clouds, allowing Sakura and the others to witness for the first time the full extent of the Land of Lightning's breathtaking beauty…

"Welcome," said Warui proudly, "to Kumogakure!"

The Hidden Cloud was relatively small compared to the Hidden Leaf— it was mostly composed of upside-down cone-shaped buildings nestled within the mountain range's many peaks. In the distance, Sakura could also see a larger blue-coloured building, marked with the kanji for 'lightning.' It was the Raikage's home— Sakura hoped she wouldn't have to go anywhere near there in her search for Hinata…

"Are you finally going to reveal whose wedding we'll be attending?" asked Lord Tsuchimikado. "Now that we've finally reached your village…"

"I suppose I might as well," chuckled Warui. "The groom is my second cousin Omoi— a prodigy in Cloud-style Kenjutsu, trained by the Killer B himself. He's one of the most promising geniuses of his generation!"

Sakura wasn't particularly interested in this Omoi bloke— she couldn't remember him from the anime at all, so she was certain that he had to be fairly unimportant.

"And which distinguished young lady will have the honour of taking your cousin's hand in marriage?" asked Lord Tsuchimikado disinterestedly. "Honestly, I'm not quite sure why your Raikage invited so many of your neighbouring countries' nobles to these youths' wedding— could it be that there is something special about the bride?"

Warui smiled.

"The bride is none other than the princess of the Hyūga clan, Hyūga Hinata," Warui said self-assuredly. "Very soon, there will be a new Kekkei Genkai clan in the Hidden Cloud…!"

The Leaf's historical dominance in large-scale wars was due in large part to three major pillars: the Hyūga clan, the Yamanaka clan, and the Nara clan. In other words, intelligence gathering, communication technology, and data analysis!

In war, information was power— and no village was better than the Leaf at intelligence!

"You can't be serious!" Lord Tsuchimikado blurted out. "That would be tantamount to declaring war against Konoha! These wedding invitations— are you planning on dragging our lands into your squabbles, Kumo!?"

The Hidden Leaf was unprecedentedly weak, due to the death of the Hokage and the devastation caused by the Konoha Crush; and unlike the Land of Water, which was located halfway across the sea, or the Hidden Sand, which was located halfway across the world from the Land of Lightning, the Land of Fire was quite easy to siege and pillage!

And now that they had the ability to produce elite reconnaissance units… the shameless Hidden Cloud could very well become unstoppable in the near future— but there was no way the Hidden Stone and the Hidden Leaf would let them do as they pleased!

'The Fourth Shinobi World War might come sooner than we expected,' said Inner Sakura worriedly. 'All of this, for just one girl…?'