I've decided to separate the prologue into three parts. This is the second.
The fish was dead. Dead as a doornail.
And nothing Sakura did was going to change that.
"Tell me again what bringing back a fish has to do my training?" she asked.
The Senju matriarch sighed. She truly adored her grand-niece, but as an apprentice, the girl was quite the handful.
"It has everything to do with it. This is an exercise every medic does for their training," Tsunade advised. "And the fish isn't quite dead. There's still a spark a life left in it. You just need to...rekindle it."
The girl's eyebrows furrowed, thinking this over. "Okay, I'll try." Turning back to the fish, she hovered the palm of her hand over its body and concentrated. Light green chakra pulsed from her fingertips, and with a gentle push, she let it trickle into the fish's chakra coils.
Using chakra always felt strange. It was like she was using an extension of her very being – which, essentially, she was. From what her Auntie had said, she needed to apparently needed to find some sort of "spark" inside the fish, so she decided to start with that – finding it.
After a few moments of searching, Sakura reached the fish's heart, and gasped. She'd found it! The spark was faint, and gradually fading, but it was there. Cautiously, she brushed it with her chakra, and it seemed to flicker briefly.
Tsunade smiled as she watched the girl work with renewed determination. She was getting the hang of it now.
After some minutes, Sakura suddenly pulled away from the fish, which then began flailing. The reanimated creature flopped around wildly, before landing in the koi pond with a splash.
Sakura turned towards her mentor and punched a fist in the air. "I did it! HELL YEAH!"
Tsunade had never felt so proud.
Up next: Sasuke.