Chapter 19
Chapter Summary
"I feel the shadows hanging over,
They're waiting to come closer,
To come and take me away.
And I can feel my heart skip,
Every time that I slip,
I wanna run away." - Closer, Lemaitre
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Sakura was ten when she made a seal that changed the world. It changes the tide of war everywhere she goes, and she goes everywhere.
During her time away from the field, Sakura creates another seal. She's ten when she changes the medical ninjutsu field forever, and she's twenty-three when she changes the fūinjutsu world. Not that they'll ever know it.
"It's a work of art." Kahan murmurs and Tabane grunts his agreement. "But how are you going to use it? And against what?"
"We'll see." Sakura offers with a shrug, pocketing the large scroll that detailed the forbidden fūinjutsu they'd just finished creating. She'd store it with the rest of the Clan jutsus later, after she's come up with an obscure label for it. Something that wouldn't give it away to any snoopers.
She secures the seal, burying away in the records they'd re-created after (or invented since) Uzushio's fall.
There was one enemy out there that she'd yet to encounter - and this time she wouldn't be caught by surprise.
Come and find me, Black Zetsu, she thinks with dark smugness, tucking the scroll into the massive bookshelf full of others just like it.
I'm waiting.
Sakura's twenty-four and the Third Shinobi World War has been officially going on for nearly two years, and unofficially for nearly four.
She's twenty-four and she's already survived the destruction of one village.
She nearly has to survive another.
"She was forced to carry the Sanbi." Obito had told her in her past life when they'd worked to save Naruto's life. "Rin. Our teammate. She killed herself to stop the attack from happening."
Sakura had known.
She still hadn't been prepared for it.
Rin doesn't die on her way to Konoha. She doesn't throw herself on Kakashi's hand. Obito, abandoning his order to rest and recover, had taken off the second word reached him that Rin had gone MIA.
He stops Kakashi, and then rushes to Sakura. "Please!" He begs, tears streaming down his face, and Sakura's already pushing to her feet to hurry to the emergency. "It's Rin - Kiri sealed a bijū in her, the seal's going to break once she gets here - and something won't let her stop running."
Something won't let her stop running, Sakura repeats in her mind even as she moves. "Follow me," She commands, flickering away and reappearing outside Kahan's home. Obito appears an instant later, and Sakura shoves the door open. "Kahan! Tsuru! I need you both, now!" She calls urgently.
Kahan's instantly there, flickering into the space before them. "What's going on?"
"We're going to have to seal a bijū."
"What?" Tsuru demands as she runs into the room, her two year old toddler clinging to her side and watching with wide eyes.
"It's Rin - Kirigakure, they put the Sanbi in her. But the seal's set to break once she reaches Konoha-" Obito starts and Sakura cuts in,
"And there's a curse seal forcing her to keep moving." She says with certainty. A curse seal is the only thing that makes sense.
"Kakashi's holding her back, but Sensei's on the frontlines. He isn't here and we need help."
"And you'll have it." Kahan promises severely, turning to take Saka from Tsuru. "Tsuru?"
"Yeah." The woman nods, flashing a grin with too many teeth. "I'm always ready for some jinchūriki wrangling. Don't worry, I'll be gentle to the girl - I can keep the bijū locked up tight in her until someone can seal it."
"I'll get Kushina to help me." Kahan says quickly and Sakura nods.
"Let's go. Obito, lead the way."
The sweaty, tearful, wild-eyed boy nods, and flickers away faster than Sakura has ever seen him move. She follows with Tsuru at her side.
They don't stop until they're a quarter of the way to the Kirigakure border - where they find Kakashi facing against no less than thirty hunter-nin and trying to stop Rin at the same time.
"Obito, help Kakashi. Tsuru." Sakura nods to the enemies and Tsuru grins again.
Between Tsuru's chains whipping around and Sakura's explosive punches and swordwork, the hunter-nins are dealt with in less than five minutes.
The second the last one falls, Tsuru's chains whip out to grab Rin.
"I have to keep moving!" Rin wails as she goes down and Sakura quickly moves to her side. Rin wriggles frantically against the chains and Sakura kneels down, pressing a hand to her chest.
It takes only a small pulse of chakra for the blood to rush from her face.
Oh, no.
There's a curse seal, alright.
And it's directly on Rin's heart.
Sakura closes her eyes, both to hide her grief and to concentrate. She tries to think, to come up with some way to remove it - but curse seals are notoriously touchy. The slightest shift and they lash out violently. With it on Rin's heart…
"Why aren't you doing anything?" Rin whispers, voice fearful.
Sakura doesn't open her eyes, trying to think of anything.
The idea that strikes her is a very unpleasant one.
She opens her eyes, wetting dry lips, and looks up at a hesitant-looking Kakashi. Obito looks almost as afraid as Rin herself does. "Kakashi." She starts, faltering for a second. She looks away from them, closing her eyes. "Get Obito out of here."
"What?" Obito hoarsely asks. "No, no, no no are you saying you can't help her? I'm not- Kakashi, get off me!" Obito snarls, fighting violently. Sakura grimaces deeply, opening her eyes to meet Rin's.
"I might be able to save her," Sakura says loudly, momentarily silencing Obito. "But I need you to leave. Now."
This time, there's only silence before Kakashi flickers away, dragging Obito with him.
"Rin." Sakura says gently, reaching back to draw a kunai. "I'm very sorry for this. But if it works, you'll be okay."
Rin looks up at her with silent tears running down her face.
She doesn't say anything at all.
Not even when Sakura takes the kunai in both hands and plunges it into her heart.
She's still struggling with the curse seal when Kahan arrives with Kushina at his side. Kushina gasps sharply at the sight.
Sakura's hand is buried in the girl's chest, her other hand gripping the bloody kunai she'd used to pierce it. "Curse seal directly on the heart," Sakura explains quickly, eyes narrowed and focused. "I already removed the kill factor, but I'm having trouble removing the control part."
She doesn't mention that she did that by impaling her heart and then healing it.
Kahan crouches down across from her, glowing hands reaching out to touch Rin, and he inhales harshly at the state of the girl. "Kami, you're butchering her."
"Needs must. The seal is butchering her, I'm just trying to remove it." Sakura grunts, glaring at the bloody mess her hand is shoved into. She sends a small jolt of chakra through the seal, trying to discern what part to break up next.
"Stop. I can take it from here. Just keep her alive for me." Kahan instructs. Sakura pulls her hand out and Kahan grimaces thickly before sliding his own hand in. He grimaces further at the sensation and his brow furrows in concentration once he's touching the seal.
"Tsuru?" Sakura questions and the woman, sitting cross legged a couple feet from Rin's head, offers a faint shrug.
"It's struggling. I think her not moving is trying to make the seal unravel, but I'm keeping it in place." She explains. "But it's thrashing."
Swear beads at Rin's forehead, the girl unconscious but still no doubt feeling the pain.
"At least the chakra's separate from her network. That's why it'll get free the second this seal pops." Kahan explains, frowning deeply at the girl. "It's not connected to her properly."
"Does that mean we can let it free and you can reseal it in her properly? Or will it coming free still kill her?" Sakura demands, looking up at Kahan.
The man's brow furrows uneasily. "I'm not sure. But I don't think we'll need to. I think… I've almost got the curse seal… if I just layer another seal on top of the bijū seal, we should be in the clear." Kahan pauses for a moment, sweat rolling down his temple. "I think I've got it. Be ready to heal her, this might be bad."
"How bad?" Sakura asks and Kahan grimaces.
"I'm not sure."
Sakura lifts her free hand and made the sign with it. Yin Seal: Release! Strength of a Hundred!
Her chakra flares and Sakura hopes Obito and Kakashi don't come running at the sensation of it. Black bars sweep down her face, shoulders, and to her hands, then stretch out across Rin's body. "Do it."
There's a flicker of chakra from Kahan, and blood sprays. He flinches away from it, the arterial spray cutting off a split second later. "I got it." Kahan says quickly, pulling his hand out. The hole in her heart seals, and the hole in her body closes up a moment later. Kahan breathes a couple harsh breaths, then places both his hands on Rin's stomach. "I need to seal it properly."
For a second, Sakura thinks about the only jinchūriki sealing she knows. The one where Minato had traded his own life to seal the Kyūbi. Her stomach turns and she looks anxiously at Kahan. "Can you do it? Safely?"
"Well." Kahan pauses before offering up a pained smile. "It's only three-tails. I should be alright."
"I'll hold it down for you, honey." Tsuru promises seriously and Sakura reaches out to plant her hands over Kahan's. The black lines spread across his arms and he inhales sharply at the chakra input.
"Ah. That'll help." He exhales harshly, then takes a deep breath and braces himself. His chakra thrums to life, flowing into Rin for a moment - and then shooting out. A seal spiderwebs out from his palms, glowing dark blue and faintly purple. Sakura twitches at being in the center of it but doesn't move since Kahan doesn't tell her to.
"I'm going to use a Four Symbols Seal." Kahan explains, breathing out a slow breath. "Brace yourself, Tsuru."
"I'm bracing." Tsuru says, a hint of worry in her flippant response.
Kahan's lips give a tiny twitch before the fingertips on his bottom hand glow like blue fire. "Here goes. Shishō Fūin!" He shouts, twisting his hands under hers. The seals around them moves like fire, sizzling as it shrivels up into a solid seal on Rin's stomach.
A seal that looks freakishly familiar. Naruto, Sakura recalls the same seal. Kahan pants softly but moves his hands, shifting them into the opposite position they'd started it. "I'm adding a second layer. Let go of it, Tsuru."
"If you're sure." Tsuru says a bit quietly, carefully pulling back the chains. Kahan, breathing heavily, braces himself again. He repeats the seal, placing another one on top of the first, upside down and mirrored to the first.
"There." Kahan says breathlessly, pulling a bloody hand back to rub at the sweat on his forehead. "If that doesn't hold the damn thing, we're screwed."
"That's the spirit." Tsuru chimes in, sliding behind Kahan to set her hands on his shoulders, rubbing at them distractedly. "You alright?"
"Might need some help getting home." He admits.
"You got it. Piggy-back?" Tsuru suggests brightly. Kahan huffs out a laugh.
Sakura leans down and slides her arms under Rin, lifting the unconscious girl. "Get back to the compound. Take some rest. I'll speak to the Hokage." Sakura says much more seriously.
She looks at Rin's pale face, at the seal glowing faintly through her shirt, and wonders just how badly this was going to end.
"Kirigakure won't stand for this." Sarutobi confirms her grim thoughts as they hover over Rin's form. She's in an underground, private room - secluded from the rest of the hospital. There's six others of them under there - Tsunade, Fugaku, Hiashi, Shikaku, the Hokage, and Sakura herself.
"They'll be furious. They'll demand the return of the bijū and play as though we stole it from them. It won't reflect well on us." Shikaku agrees darkly, arms folded across his face.
Hiashi, who had just recently replaced his elderly father as Clan Head, eyes the girl with his Byakūgan. "It's settled into her chakra system. If it's removed now, it'll kill the girl." He glances at her as he says it and she grimaces.
"We had two choices. Seal it properly, or let it get unleashed in the middle of the damned forest outside Konoha."
"Yes. And now we may have to ship a Konoha chūnin off to Kiri to make amends." Fugaku says darkly.
"Bullshit." Tsunade barks out sharply, glaring at Fugaku. "Like hell will we be kowtowing to the same fuckers who would put a monster in a fourteen year old girl and send her off to destroy her own home. She nearly killed herself just to be freed of it."
"And she'll do it again before she goes into Kirigakure's hands. She's a true Konohan." Sakura agrees instantly, straightening her spine. "I won't agree to that."
"Fuck them, this is war. I say we send a public thank you to Kiri, one that every country will hear. Shame them so bad they don't show their faces again." Tsunade suggests with a smile that looks like it should have fangs.
"I say we send her to the front lines." Fugaku chimes in unexpectedly. "Send her against Kiri with her team, and your jinchūriki hunter." Fugaku glances at her and Sakura can't help the way her lips twitch at the title.
"Tsuru. My cousin." Probably her cousin, at least. Very distant, no doubt, just like Kahan.
"Yes. She can suppress the bijū if it gets to be too much for the girl."
"As entertaining as the idea," Sarutobi says dryly, "we need her elsewhere."
Sakura blinks. "Like on the Iwa border, perhaps?" She suggests lightly.
Sweet as Rin was, she had a small vengeful streak. Sent against Iwa, who had nearly killed her teammate? She'd do alright there.
Shikaku glances at her, eyes narrowing slightly before he nods to Sarutobi. "We could always use more healers there. And the Suna border."
"I'll handle Suna." Sakura says before looking over at Tsunade. It was rare for them to be off the front lines at the same time, and it's still difficult for her to look at the woman, but she does her best. "You're back on Ame, aren't you?"
"Yeah. With my idiot teammates. Honestly, you Uzushio people had the right idea with nixing the three-man parties." Tsunade complains and Sakura's lips twitch a tiny bit.
"Tsunade-chan." Sarutobi sighs plaintively.
The war presses on.