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

Well, this chapter is a bit of a doozy. It didn't end up going entirely in the direction I had planned, but it works out, all the same, so please, enjoy it.

Chapter 98: Shukaku's fall, an eye-opener


Sakura hadn't expected the reckless attack from Naruto, and neither had Gaara. With his sand armor gone, it was a direct hit, and Sakura realized just how damaging the attack seemed to be, as Gaara's wound immediately began leaking blood, a lot of it. Naruto himself escaped any serious injury from the attack, both due to being the attacker, as well as due to wearing his forehead protector. Gaara's eyes had gone blank, giving away the fact that he had been stunned into inaction by the simple, yet devastating attack. Something that was further reinforced as the sand beast around him began to crack and fall apart.

The chief toad watched them fall impassively for a moment, before suddenly speaking up. "Gamakichi, let's head home! You all better get down." He warned his passengers, only to suddenly disappear in a cloud of smoke as soon as Gamakichi responded, blasting them all away, including Naruto and Gaara.

"That son of a bitch!" Heikō swore through their combined panic while trying to figure out how to land safely. In a fit of panic, Sakura channeled some of the chakra they'd managed to recover into the additional coils in her head, unable to focus enough to actually sense Natural energy the proper way, allowing her to feel it, all the same, using her Kekkei Genkai. Fortunately, despite relying mostly on the other method of sensing her surroundings, she hadn't allowed herself to neglect using her Kekkei Genkai occasionally, as it was easier and less focus intensive, even if it required chakra.

The world around her came into almost perfect clarity, and Sakura noticed in relief how Naruto landed in the crown of one of the nearby trees, while Gaara landed in another. Seeing their fall broken rather easily by the trees, she decided that it'd do for her and the others as well, since she had been stupid enough to use chakra for her Kekkei Genkai, instead of transforming into a dove, or something light that could glide down safely instead.

Reaching out behind her, she managed to grab onto Hinata, before swinging her towards Karin, sending her away from them, while sending them all towards different tree-tops. She saw Asuma catch Sasuke, and use a wind Jutsu she'd review in her memories later, to get them to safety as well, scooping up the unconscious Kankuro as well. Something that left Sakura with catching Temari, by pushing off of the tree she was about to land in, and shoot towards her, before using the wall walking jutsu to slide down another tree, as she held onto Temari, their combined weight, and the fact that Sakura had little chakra to spare, while they had already missed all the remaining branches, meant that they had a rather abrupt, and harsh landing. Fortunately, as far as Sakura could tell, neither of them were hurt too seriously, nothing worse than what might end up developing into a serious bruise.

"Damn, that could have gone better," Sakura admitted out loud, while Temari groaned next to her.

With her chakra exhausted, Sakura felt her awareness of her surroundings wane, and her body revert to normal as her Human-sage-mode released, leaving her feeling cold, hollow, and drained, as well as ready to keel over from a sudden pain in her forehead.

Sakura hadn't even realized she was screaming until Asuma Sensei had begun trying to calm her down, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"It hurts!" Was all Sakura managed, before reaching up and tearing her forehead protector off, only to feel her breath hitch from a sudden influx in pain as her vision went white. Her last conscious thought was that everything smelled and tasted like copper.


Sakura awoke feeling like absolute shit. Her head rang while her mouth felt dry and her forehead wet and stinging terribly. She tried opening her eyes, but found the simple action too burdensome for her, causing her to panic, which ironically allowed her to finally see, only for her eyes to land on something she was beginning to hate waking up to. A white ceiling, recognized as the ceiling of the Konohagakure hospital.

"We did it again, huh?" Sakura asked mentally but didn't get a response. For a moment, she simply laid there, almost scared to move or think about anything. Worried that the pain she felt would intensify or the security of knowing she was alive would somehow be stolen away from her.

Slowly, the stinging sensation in her forehead began to abate, and the labored breaths she hadn't realized were such a hassle began to calm. Something had gone seriously wrong, and she didn't dare use any jutsu at the moment. In fact, she couldn't even feel her own chakra as she was.

The realization thrust her into another panic, realizing that she was without any chakra. She knew that Heikō wouldn't suddenly disappear with her chakra, but she had a feeling that the reason she couldn't feel Heikō or even reach their mindscape was connected with her missing chakra.

Despite the pain and strain it put on her sore, and still hurting body, Sakura sat up and looked down on herself, only to see the white covers she had been tucked beneath slide off of her bandaged body. The sight of both the cover and bandages stained with blood, both fresh and dried made her nearly choke and gag. "I-is that my blood?" She wondered for a moment, before instead distracting herself, by focusing on the third color mixed in with the crimson red, and white. Namely, the black of ink, forming a large seal across her chest.

Sakura frowned as she felt she recognized parts of the seal. Without being able to immediately access her mindscape, and therefore her perfectly compartmentalized library of memories, Sakura took a moment to figure out what it was, only to relax when she realized it was just a chakra suppressing seal. It wasn't identical to what she remembered, but it was close enough to what she knew that she could understand that it wasn't harmful, or a problem.

Relaxing, she laid down again and winced as the pain seemed to intensify. She briefly wondered if she had been drugged, and the drugs wearing off had awakened her. However, as she focused on the pain, she realized it wasn't actually agonizing or constant. It was dulled, letting her know that she had indeed been drugged, and either it had begun wearing off, or she was just in that much pain.

Frowning, Sakura decided to try and fall asleep, ignoring the constant beeping of a heart monitor she had somehow missed until that moment and tried to fall back asleep. She felt tired from just trying to sit up, and perhaps, next time she woke up, she wouldn't be feeling so awful. Hopefully, her chakra wouldn't be sealed anymore either, and she'd be able to converse with Heikō again.

She was soon out like a light again. Unaware that she had just missed a nurse entering her room for a checkup.


The next time Sakura woke up, she thankfully felt a lot better, almost perfectly normal, if not for the absence of her chakra. She had been woken up by the familiar, pleasant, yet equally unpleasant sound of Naruto arguing with Sasuke.

"-some, how can you think it's anything but?" Naruto seemed to demand something of Sasuke, who simply huffed in annoyance, while she heard someone flip a page, likely Kakashi reading his book of porn.

"It's literature. And I'll admit, the writing and plot are rather poor, but it's entertaining and juicy." Heikō argued, surprising Sakura, who immediately checked if her chakra was still suppressed. It was.

"Heikō!" Sakura exclaimed, relieved, and cheerful. "I thought you had been sealed away with my chakra. Also, what? When did you have time to read Kakashi's smut?" Sakura demanded to know, feeling a bit offended that Heikō had gone behind her back to do so.

Heikō chuckled mentally. "I had some free time while you were sleeping. You should try it. I'm certain you'd enjoy it. And yes, I was, but that doesn't mean I was inactive. I'm still part of your head, so I managed to find a way around that little issue." Heikō explained, sounding amused, but also a bit tense at the same time.

"Any idea what happened?" Sakura asked, only for their conversation to be interrupted before Heikō could answer.

"Hey! Sakura's awake!" Naruto exclaimed, making Sakura sigh slightly as she opened her eyes, and immediately startled as she suddenly had a grinning Naruto in her face.

"Idiot, get away from her," Sasuke told him, before pulling Naruto back, who blushed a bit in embarrassment as he realized his mistake.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Sakura," Kakashi told her, not even looking up from his book, where he stood, leaning against the wall, next to the door.

"What happened?" Sakura asked them, frowning as she tried to remember herself. Looking down at herself, she was glad to see that there wasn't any blood anymore, making her wonder if she had imagined it last time.

However, as she looked up again, she realized that Naruto and Sasuke hadn't responded, and were looking really uncomfortable. Snapping his book shut, Kakashi pushed himself up from the wall and walked over to join the boys by her bedside.

"Well, things went a little screwy for a while there, that's for sure. The invasion is over now, so you don't have to worry about that. Although, yourself, however…" Kakashi trailed off, which only worried her more.

"What. happened?" She demanded, not appreciating the suspense he was building.

"You died." Sasuke blurted out, making Sakura's eyes go wide. Sakura could feel that while she was surprised, Heikō was less so than her.

"Died?" Sakura questioned, still caught in disbelief and surprise.

"Y-yeah. Your heart stopped." Naruto explained, only for Kakashi to comfort them both by putting a hand on each of their heads.

"From what Asuma told me, you seemed to be in excruciating pain. You screamed yourself into unconsciousness, and it seems the pain was too much of a shock to your system. Your heart stopped." Kakashi informed her, and Sakura felt ice-cold. "Fortunately, when Hinata pointed out what had happened, Asuma was able to resuscitate you before any serious harm could befall you. I'm told that you're expected to make a full recovery." Kakashi assured her.

"A-and the bandages?" She asked, looking down at herself. "They were all bloody last I woke up," Sakura explained, before looking up at Kakashi again, seeing Naruto and Sasuke doing the same, with an eyebrow raised, each, unaware of that detail.

Sighing, Kakashi explained. "Those are from the surgery. While Karin managed to heal you up pretty good, her ability is limited to supercharging your body's natural healing ability to an unreal degree, using her chakra. However, it seems that you overused your own abilities, and even after Karin healed you, the stunt you pulled in the arena against the Shinobi you killed, left a mess inside of your body. It had to be removed in order to allow you to heal properly." Kakashi explained, making Sakura feel queasy, as she realized just how much she had managed to mess up. Heikō was feeling incredibly guilty as well.

"W-what kind of mess?" Sakura asked, not sure she actually wanted to know.

"Tumors. Our best guess is that the amount of Natural energy you used, finally overcame your Kekkei Genkai's natural resistance. You're lucky that Karin was there to heal you when she was. There were signs of certain areas nearing petrification, and her chakra allowed your body to effectively kill all the tumors, so they could be removed safely." Kakashi told her, and Sakura felt absolutely horrible with how close her reckless behavior had brought her to killing herself.

"A-anything else?" Sakura asked, almost dreading what more Kakashi could tell her. With a sigh, Kakashi handed her a hand mirror.

Confused, Sakura accepted the hand mirror and was relieved to find that her body didn't even ache anymore as she took it. Looking into it though, her brows furrowed as she saw her forehead. Where on her forehead, there once had been a vertical black line pigmenting her skin in her Sage-mode, there was now a slit in her skin instead. As her eyes widened in surprise, the slit opened up as well, sliding open as if it were a third eye, revealing smooth, pink flesh, and what looked like a sixteen pointed, white star, made out of nerves.


AN: Okay, longshot, but who here is willing to guess what the hell just happened? Don't be shy. I am willing to discuss, disprove, and confirm your guesses in DMs, so feel free to leave a review for that.

Also, yeah… The side effects of overusing Natural energy, even with their Kekkei Genkai are severe and scary.