AN: Note that I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters from either Anime. This work is a fanfiction written out of my love for the series and not in any attempt to make a profit.
Proofread by: Author
This chapter contains character deaths, gore, and horrifying implication. You have been warned.
Chapter 87: The change and the feeling
One moment, Sakura was looking down in shock at the blood that had come from her mouth as it stained the yellow tiles beneath her. Next thing she knew, someone had pulled her backward and down over the edge of the roof she was on, safely depositing her on the ground down in the arena.
"Sakura!" Came a familiar, concerned voice. Looking up, Sakura recognized Karin as the person who had taken her away from the ANBU, Hokage, and Orochimaru.
Trying to respond, Sakura felt her mouth suddenly erupt with more liquid, before it escaped her mouth, staining it with the taste of copper, before filling her nose with the smell of blood. Surprised, Karin jumped back, before stuffing something in Sakura's mouth and forcing her to bite down.
The effect was imminent, and Sakura felt how something within her stomach suddenly tensed, before relaxing again, and her head cleared of the fog she hadn't even realized was there, allowing her to realize what Karin had just done.
Parting her jaws, Sakura spat Karin's arm out of her mouth, staring at the bloodied limb for a moment, before looking up to meet Karin's concerned gaze. "Karin, why did you-?" Sakura began, only for Karin to suddenly hug her.
"Don't scare me like that Sakura! You nearly killed yourself! If Kakashi hadn't told me to get you, you could have died!" Karin exclaimed, crying over Sakura's shoulder, making Sakura feel regretful over how she had worried Karin.
"I'm fine now. I'm not dead." Sakura tried to assure her, trying to figure out why Karin thought she'd die. She had felt pretty normal until she had spat out blood. It hadn't even hurt.
"You idiot. Of course, you are, I healed you." Karin responded, sniffling before she chuckled and let go of Sakura, pulling back to look her in the eyes. "What did you think you were doing jumping into a fight between the ANBU, Hokage, and a Sannin?" Karin demanded to know.
"I was the only one who could help, so I did," Sakura answered bluntly, but as the words left her mouth, they felt like a lie, as if they weren't her own words. Karin merely kept searching for something in her gaze, her own eyes filled with concern. Sadly, she finally broke eye contact and sighed.
"Well, if you're feeling better now, Kakashi ordered us to go after Sasuke, he's pursuing the Sunagakure Genin," Karin informed Sakura, and she nodded in understanding, still feeling as if something was wrong.
"Heikō?" Sakura asked, hoping for her sister to provide an explanation, only to receive none, confusing her even more. She could feel that Heikō was still there, that she had heard her, but the only feedback she got was shame, confusion, anger, and regret.
"Something is wrong with Heikō," Sakura informed Karin with a frown, deciding to share her situation with Karin.
"Heikō? What's wrong with her?" Karin asked, even more, concerned and now frowning as well.
"She did something, and she feels bad about it. I can feel she did something, but I'm not sure what. Things feel… off." Sakura tried to explain, while also attempting to figure out what was wrong. She was certain that Heikō was the one responsible for it, considering how she had apologized right before doing it, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Only in hindsight, Sakura realized that it hadn't been for the reckless plan they had resorted to.
Karin's brows furrowed while she thought about Sakura's words for a moment. "Will it be a problem?" She finally asked, and Sakura shook her head in response.
"No, I trust Heikō, it's just a bit odd that she's keeping quiet," Sakura explained, before deciding to drop the issue and change the subject. "Which way is Sasuke?" She asked, and Karin nodded, before pointing over one of the walls of the arena.
"He followed Gaara and his friends over the wall that way, and I can sense Naruto there as well," Karin informed her.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked for clarification, receiving a nod from Karin.
"He went on ahead. We should try and catch up." Karin suggested. Agreeing with a nod, Sakura took off in the direction Karin had pointed out along with Karin herself, ignoring the fighting going on all around them. It seemed like Konoha Shinobi had an advantage anyways.
"What were our exact orders?" Sakura asked, feeling that just following Sasuke was too vague. Were they supposed to support him, stop him, or relay new orders?
"We're supposed to stop Sasuke and then find a safe place to await new orders," Karin explained, making Sakura frown. Sure, they might just be Genin, but she felt that doing nothing was a waste of potential.
"So, we're just supposed to do nothing?" Sakura asked, feeling slighted, a little glad to see Karin shake her head.
"We can still act on our own until we reach Sasuke, and I doubt stopping him will allow us to retreat if Sasuke has already engaged Gaara. We'll likely have to fight if we wish to bring him back. If that's the case, he might need medical aid or recover chakra. I think we're meant to recover and rest until the new orders." Karin explained her own interpretation of the orders, something Sakura didn't see any faults in and agreed with.
"Alright, we'll do that. Is Kakashi coming after us then as well?" She questioned, only for Karin to shake her head.
"Hinata and Kiba will be joining us, they've already left with Naruto I think. Tenten and Lee stayed with Kakashi and Gai, joined by Neji." Karin informed Sakura.
"Ah, I guess they're both sensor-nin, so it makes sense they'd be able to lead Naruto to Sasuke and Gaara," Sakura concluded, considering for a moment how they'd be able to find Sasuke.
"Not only that, but Kakashi summoned a dog summon named Pakku that would help them track Sasuke by scent. Kakashi reasoned that Pakku was better at tracking than either Akamaru or Kiba and that Sasuke was likely outside of the range of Hinata's Byakugan by now." Karin added, which Sakura felt made sense. There was just one detail nagging at her that didn't.
"Why did Sasuke pursue Gaara?" Sakura asked out loud, only for Karin to shake her head.
"I don't know. We'll have to ask him once we find him." Karin reasoned as they both leaped off of the ground, and up onto the branches of the trees scattered all throughout Konohagakure.
"How far away is Naruto?" Sakura asked, hoping for an estimate, wondering if they'd be able to catch up with him, or Sasuke at all before they got too far away to pursue.
"Far," Karin answered simply, before gritting her teeth. "This is bad, he's already outside of the village walls," Karin explained, biting her lower lip, only for her brows to furrow together. "Even worse, they're being pursued by nine Shinobi, and they're gaining on them," Karin revealed, causing Sakura to worry.
"Dammit, we need to hurry," Sakura stated the obvious. While trying to calculate how they could go faster. She knew that on her own, she could go a lot faster, but she had to rely on Karin to find Naruto and the others in the first place, so going on ahead was a bad idea, especially since it'd mean both Karin and she would end up being on their own and in danger of being severely outnumbered if they fell into an ambush, something that was true even if they stuck together.
"If we push ourselves, we should still be faster, even if we carry Karin." Heikō chimed in. Sakura restrained herself from questioning Heikō about why she'd been so quiet until then, but their situation took precedence, and she did appreciate Heikō's help.
"I can carry you." Sakura offered, surprising Karin who looked at her questioningly. "I'm a lot stronger now than before. And not just by training my muscles, you've felt that my chakra is different, right?" Sakura asked, receiving a nod from Karin. "It's Senjutsu chakra. A lot more potent than regular chakra. I'm currently using Human Sage-mode. The chakra passively strengthens my body, making me faster and stronger. I can carry you without slowing us down." Sakura explained. Thankfully, despite how confused Karin looked at the explanation, she nodded and allowed Sakura to catch her as she sped up.
"Just tell me when I need to change direction," Sakura told Karin as she caught her, carrying her over her left shoulder.
"Just keep going forward for now. I thought Sage-mode comes with some kind of transformation." Karin inquired, making Sakura chuckle.
"It does. But I'm lucky, mine isn't that flashy, or external. For me, a line appears on my forehead, and a small hole with a nerve of some kind going through it appears in my skull, but that's it. Easily hidden behind my forehead protector." Sakura explained.
"A nerve?" Karin inquired, frowning. Although even when out of sight, Sakura could still read Karin's expression, making her chuckle again.
"Yes, I don't know what it's for, but we'll figure it out later. Are we getting closer?" Sakura asked, feeling a bit worried as she felt her chakra drain, slowly but surely.
"Yes, we're catching up. I suspect even faster than I imagined. Kiba separated from Naruto and Hinata, I think he's intending to slow down their pursuers." Karin explained, sounding somber. Sakura didn't like the sound of it either.
"Can you tell how strong the pursuers are by their chakra?" Sakura asked.
"Chūnin, mostly, but one or two fo them could be Jōnin by their chakra levels alone," Karin informed Sakura, who held back a curse. Things were not going well.
"How long would you estimate until we reach Kiba at this speed?" Sakura asked.
"A few minutes. The pursuers will reach him in two." Karin told Sakura as they reached the outer wall of Konohagakure. It only took Sakura a moment to run up the wall and jump down into the forest on the other side. She didn't even pause at the sight of Konoha Chūnin corpses up on the wall.
Sakura listened carefully as Karin gave her an estimate of what seemed to be going on with Kiba. It seemed that Kiba and Akamaru were doing a decent job of delaying their pursuers, having even managed to knock one of them out for Sakura to find.
Sakura had considered stopping and looting the Otogakure Shinobi for something she could use against them, but it would have taken too long. Instead, she simply threw a Kunai at his neck as she passed him, startling Karin with her ruthlessness as she felt the Shinobi's chakra vanish behind them, while the pressure from his jugular painted the surrounding greenery a new color.
"Sakura?" Karin asked, clearly upset about something.
"Yes?" Sakura asked, not looking back as she spoke.
"Y-you could have warned me. You didn't need to kill him, did you?" Karin asked, making Sakura frown for a moment, wondering why Karin seemed so shook about it.
"He was an enemy. If I didn't, he could have gotten up again to hurt or kill someone. It was a risk to leave him alive. So I took the kill." Sakura explained her reasoning, thinking it was rather solid.
"I saw you kill the Shinobi that made the barrier, and I know that you can't hold back with your Natural energy, but you only needed to kill one of them, right? You didn't need to kill two of them, or that man either." Karin told Sakura as if trying to prove something to her.
"They're the enemy. They're not hesitating to kill us, why should we? Besides, I was actually aiming for all four of them, as well as Orochimaru himself, but Orochimaru avoided it somehow, and I don't know why the other two didn't die." Sakura explained to Karin, a bit bothered by the conversation. Her feeling that something was wrong intensified tenfold. As did Heikō's feelings of shame.
As Sakura once again contemplated what was wrong, Karin remembered Sakura's words about Heikō having done something. She was almost certain she knew what, and she didn't like it one bit. Sakura was far too terrifying like this. Karin shuddered at the thought of if Sakura had been like that when they first met, she did not like the idea.
AN: Kids… the mind is not a toy. The brain isn't a computer where one can turn a program off for a while, and then turn it back on without consequences. Unlike a computer, where preferences can be restored, and the damage is undone, everything the brain experiences leaves its mark.
I believe that I should clarify exactly what it is that Heikō has done, for those having a bit of trouble with figuring it out from the context. Sakura has lost her hesitation to kill. This naturally isn't normal for Sakura, but Heikō realized hesitation in an invasion might get them killed, so she asked for Sakura's forgiveness, as well as her own, before removing the hesitation to kill. Normally, this might not be considered a bad thing, but mental self-manipulation is a very slippery slope.
A good example of this would be Cammie's temporary self modifications in the Roosterteeth series Gen:Lock. In an attempt to overcome her trauma and shortcomings, she hacks her own code (while her mind is running on a computer) and nearly ends up locking herself in a psychotic feedback loop.
While Heikō has every intention to restore Sakura and herself back to normal, there is a multitude of issues that could arise from such a decision. I will leave you to think about the implications of this yourselves but want you to understand what happened, and why.
As for the rest of the chapter, I suppose I'll ask you how you like the shakeup with which characters ended up where. Something that might end up changing a lot of the story from here on out. Hopefully, you're all on board with finding out what comes next.
