Sakura eyed the curved hand-blown glass she held, tilting it in the light. The liquid within was as red as blood, perhaps a touch sweeter in colour, and had a slight glow. Her fingers brushed down the label, too faded to make out much of it, its listed ingredients and purpose faded away.
"Sakura, hurry up!" Naruto's voice shook the many little glass baubles and vials in hanging displays and cases around where Sakura knelt on a dusty floor. She let out a soft curse and shoved the glass of unidentifiable liquid into her pack along with the other things she'd taken. "Yeah, I'm coming. Give me a second."
"Obito says we need to go. Something about how we've been here too long. What are you doing?"
"What do you think?" Sakura's head of tied-back pink hair poked up from behind the counter, glaring at Naruto where he stood in the shadowy entrance to the shop. "I have to look for any kind of healing supplies. I found some more stuff behind the counter here. Tell the others that I'll be out in a second."
"Yeah, sure!" Naruto turned around, disappearing into the sunlight, and Sakura swept her hand over the counter, scattering a stack of Ryo out of the way in favour of a ball of thread. Snatching that and shoving it in with the other objects in her pack, she also took a set of sewing needles and an empty glass vial before pausing to ponder the roll of faded ribbon beside it. Sakura's eyes narrowed upon it.
Even as she picked it up, setting it in her bag, she could hear Tsunade in the back of her head – that's the worst bandage imaginable! It isn't sterile; it won't protect from infection! It probably won't even hold over a bleeding wound!
Biting her lip, Sakura zipped up her pack, willing her doubts to quell. She had no other options. Without enough chakra to heal the many wounds she and her teammates regularly endured on a daily basis, she had to rely on some kind of medical supplies to support keeping them alive, atypical or not.
Sakura thought again of the strange glass she'd pilfered and ducked back under the counter. She swept her hands through the hidden glass case she had found it in, and when she found that there weren't any more bottles, she got back to her feet with a sigh. Oh well; one possible poison to use on her enemy was better than none at all. Knowing she was running out of time before her team came back to shout at her for delaying them, Sakura glanced over the cluttered, dusty shop once more, her careful scrutiny practiced and thorough.
It had been too many weeks of running and pilfering supplies, she knew, as one glance was enough to tell her there wasn't anything else she could use right now. Sakura hated that she was getting used to this, taking what she needed and ducking back out without paying. The shops were always empty, and she was always in a hurry, quick on her feet with urgency nipping at her feet to get in and get out. There was no normalcy to life anymore but for the lack of normalcy entirely.
Sakura paused, a grim tilt about her lips; after a pause, she took out what was left of any money in her pack and set it on the counter. It was useless, but she'd leave it anyway, a tiny flag of hope that someday, perhaps, the shop's owner might be awoken and given back their life.
As soon as she stepped outside, four figures blurred into a run ahead of her. Without hesitation she picked up into a run astride with them, taking her place as the watchful medic at the back of the group. Automatically Sakura's trained gaze swept over each one of her teammates, analysing their conditions as they sprinted through the shadowy dead streets out of the town and into the darkening treeline.
Naruto at the front of the group sprinted with his usual tireless energy, an unfamiliar new jacket in dark orange and black fluttering about his shoulders. Sakura guessed he'd picked up the new acquisition in this supply run, since his previous one was bloodied, torn, and singed into scraps from their last battle. He seemed fine, but she winced, knowing that there were burn marks across his back and arms that she hadn't had enough chakra left to fully heal away.
Guilt continued to twinge at her as she shifted her gaze to Sasuke at Naruto's side. She'd had to use whatever energy she'd had left after healing the worst of Naruto's burns for Sasuke's puncture wounds, and after that Kakashi's broken bones, before nearly draining herself to unconsciousness working on Obito's bleeding eyes. She glanced over each of them another time, recognising that for now, they were fine.
Sakura clenched her teeth, picking up her pace to keep up with her team as they dashed through and around the trees. They were fine, but only for the moment. Any minute, any second, and it could be another life-or-death battle. She silently prayed to whatever gods existed that she could regenerate enough chakra to save their lives again before that inevitability.
"Find anything useful?" Kakashi called back to Sakura, and she nodded as the group slowed in the center of a small clearing in the forest. "Kind of," she sighed as Obito pulled a large bag out of his dimension and tossed it on the ground. He and Naruto knelt, tugging it apart and beginning to set up camp. Sasuke prowled the perimeter of the clearing and checked the trees; Kakashi gave Sakura a weary-eyed nod, pausing at her side. "Try to take less time in the future. I know you're being thorough, but every second is vital."
"Yes, sensei," Sakura replied, keeping the annoyance she felt out of her expression, and Kakashi nodded to her grimly before setting off in the opposite direction of Sasuke.
Shaking off her weariness, Sakura turned her attention to Obito. He was directing Naruto on pitching the tent, crouching nearby in the grass. Sakura walked up to him and set a gentle hand on his shoulder. "How are your eyes?"
"Fine," he replied gruffly, and she exhaled through her nose, observing with him as Naruto finished driving in the last stake. "Stop hiding your wounds," Sakura scolded, setting a hand on one of his temples and running healing through to his ocular nerves, mending the damages she was so used to finding and fixing as of late. "I'd rather you complain too much than too little. I need to know when you need healing."
"You've done enough for me." Obito cast Sakura a side-glance. "I still don't know how you managed to save my life before. I owe you too much already."
"I'm not keeping tabs on debts," Sakura replied, a little more waspishly than she intended, "if I was, everyone would owe me more than they could repay at this point." She focused harder, knitting together broken blood vessels, feeling Obito relax minutely with her healing. He sighed through his nose and closed his eyes. "Sorry. I'm used to my debts being used against me." Both his and Sakura's expressions pinched briefly as they thought of his past.
Obito glanced over at her, his dark eyes glinting solemnly. "That's enough healing. I know that your chakra reserves are dangerously low."
Sakura didn't argue, retracting her hands to her sides, and Obito ran a hand over his forehead, his fingers running through his choppy white hair. "I don't know how much longer we can all keep this up."
Sakura was silent as she acknowledged his doubts with a small inclination of her head. Neither of them needed to vocalise their mutual exhaustion, pain, and their collective mental weariness from constant vigilance and paranoia of when the next battle would take place.
Sakura shifted uncomfortably in the dark cloud that had settled over them both. "I found some interesting stuff in that last village. That little shop was like an apothecary's, or some kind of curiosity shop."
"We don't risk our lives in supply runs for curious trinkets." Obito looked over at Naruto. "That's good. You've gotten better at setting up camp. I'll be there in a second to help set up a fire; use the deadwood around this clearing."
As Naruto gave Obito a wave, finishing staking the tent into the ground, Sakura folded her arms, annoyed at Obito's dismissal. "Not trinkets. Chakra-infused stuff. Some kunai, some shuriken, even some throwable glass stuff with poisons inside."
"Oh." He hummed. "Sounds like it was once run by a shinobi." Getting to his feet, Obito returned his attention to Naruto. "It looks great, stop troubling over the fact that it's a little crooked on one side. Hurry up on gathering wood; we need to get a fire going. I have to get out there and hunt something for our food tonight."
"No," Sakura cut in, "you're staying and resting, and you'll be last on watch tonight. You're forgetting how important you and your visual abilities are. I'll go hunt."
Obito scowled at her. "It's faster to hunt with Sharingan."
"And countless shinobi without Sharingan hunt successfully," Sakura countered, "sit with Naruto and help him finish setting up. Either I'll hunt, or if Sasuke wants to do that, I'll keep guard."
"Fine." Obito stretched his arms and knelt near Naruto, who was focused on setting up a stack of sticks, his face pinched with focus; Obito sighed. "No, these won't do. I told you a hundred times! Green wood is the worst for a fire. Let me show you – that one over there would work – toss this stuff out. Now…"
Leaving them to it, Sakura held a deep breath and released it before peering into her pack at the things she had grabbed earlier. She would give Sasuke the shuriken, Kakashi the kunai, and keep the glass of poison for her own use in battle. It didn't matter to her that they were probably intended for slipping into drinks; she could and would use them as a throwable projectile with added chakra. The chance that such a move could buy her team time was worth it.
Sakura's teeth clenched in frustration. Weeks, she and her team had been on the run. For weeks she had used every ounce of chakra she had to keep her teammates alive, and it was often only just enough. For weeks, her team had narrowly dodged full-out battles with clones that seemed to appear out of nothing, decimating their campsites, causing severe injuries in seconds, and mocking them for running instead of fighting. But fighting was death, and everyone knew it: without at least some significant piece of time for all of them to rest and recover, they would never be able to finish this war in their favour.
Madara. Sakura flinched just from his name sounding in her head, the memories of her teammates' battered conditions and the smell of blood and flame stinging her nose like they were still in battle. He'd been just another clone on hunting duty – hunting for Team Seven – and each had barely escaped alive.
Sakura shuddered as she slid a hand past a tree, stepping into the forest. She could still hear Black Zetsu's unearthly screams as Madara had torn him apart and set him afire with Amatarasu, months earlier, when he had first cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Three of Madara's limbo clones had spotted Black Zetsu's backstabbing attempt before it had happened, and even without their shared vision, Madara had sensed it coming before being hit.
Sakura's hands clenched around her pack, and she couldn't help swivelling her head around to scrutinise the forest, regardless of knowing that her teammates with better vision would have already sounded the alarm if he was near.
She couldn't help her bitter reminiscing as she made her way to find Sasuke and Kakashi, gifts in hand from her bag. She could still taste the desperate adrenaline from hers and the team's rapid escape during Black Zetsu's annihilation. They were lucky to have been able to snatch Obito away, and Sakura had stayed awake somewhere around twenty straight hours healing him from within their first hideout. All (except perhaps Sasuke) had been relieved when she had been successful in saving him from death.
Sakura shook herself from her ruminations. She had to get going on the rest of her tasks before night fell, for she needed to rest in whatever time there was left before Madara found Team Seven again.
Sakura sat forward in her bedroll hours later, breathing hard. The dreams she'd had turned her mind over and over – burning metallic eyes beneath shifting hair – and she nearly jumped out of her skin at the raspy voice cracking to life beside her. "Nightmares again?"
Sakura nodded, her shoulders slowly falling into a tired slump. Her weariness whispered through her ears. I wish everything was a dream. I want to wake up in my old bed, in my old life.
"Make sure you aren't overheating when you go to sleep." Obito's observant red eyes glowed upon Sakura in the darkness. "It makes nightmares worse, and more frequent."
Sakura nodded, running a hand over her sweaty forehead and letting out a withered sigh. "You're probably right… thank you."
"It's about time for your turn."
She nodded again, glancing over at where Kakashi and Sasuke slept in their bedrolls beside her in the cramped obsidian-coloured tent. They looked peaceful in their sleep, and she relaxed minutely at the sight, hoping they were having better dreams than what she'd had.
Her lips tightened. They were fortunate to still be free of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, unlike the countless thousands of others forced to dream in their cocoons high above their tent.
Getting to her feet, Sakura made sure she had her pack secured to her waist. Wanting to be certain that her new possessions were within easy reach, she dug around in it, pausing again at the cool touch of the glass potion-like thing she had found in the curiosities shop.
She pulled it out, glancing over it once more. It had directions she hadn't noticed before; the top half of the label was too faded to be legible, but some notable characters remained, reading dangerous, volatile, do not use atop experimental, chakra-infused, topical only.
Sakura nodded. So it must be potent enough. It would do.
Obito had been watching her quiet pondering; his dark eyes glinted with suspicion. "What is that?"
"Something probably illegal," Sakura replied. She raised an eyebrow at where Obito lay back on his bedroll, arms behind his head; she put her hands on her hips, potion in one hand. "You should be sleeping."
"I needed to make sure you knew the new plan." Obito narrowed his eyes upon Sakura. "Call my name if and when you sense Madara's approach. Make sure you're close to the tent."
Sakura raised both eyebrows. "That's a new plan?"
"You didn't let me finish," Obito scoffed. "Thanks to you, I've regained enough of my visual prowess over the last few weeks to take more than one person with me into my dimension again."
A genuine smile lifted Sakura's face in response. Sakura nodded to Obito before ducking out of the tent, her skin tingling with relief.
This was the best news in weeks and Sakura couldn't stop smiling as she got back to her feet, glancing up at the starry sky through the trees. If Obito could manage to transport the whole of the team, they could make easier, cleaner escapes when death came calling again.
Sakura glanced around for Naruto, her smile fading but leaving behind a good mood in its stead. She was still resolved to stand as a shield for her team should it come down to it, but it felt good to feel an inch of hope enter her heart that they still had a chance to live and end this war.
Her gaze softened on the head of messy yellow hair next to the dark tent. Naruto was watching the skies, blue eyes distant where they tracked across the stars, and she felt her personal resolve settle deeper, etched into her gut since before the war. She would die for her teammates if she had to. She would never allow Madara or his clones to kill any one of them.
The thought didn't disturb Sakura, and she set a hand on Naruto's shoulder, following his stare along the night sky for a moment. Her determination gave her a quiet strength – to die saving the ones she loved was something Sakura had accepted as a possibility for a long time. It was her reality. In these difficult and tumultuous months following the Infinite Tsukuyomi's casting, it was perhaps her fate, as well.
Naruto's solemn stare shifted from the stars to the hanging branches of cocoons high above the forest canopy. With a grimace, he looked to Sakura. "Do you think this will ever end?"
"Yes, Naruto," Sakura lied. She tilted her head back towards the tent behind her. "Sleep. Get what rest you can, while you can. And stick close to Obito."
"I heard the plan," Naruto affirmed, grazing a reassuring hand across Sakura's arm before disappearing into the tent. Sakura let out a soft exhale and settled on the ground where he had been sitting, looking around the forest with tension between her shoulder blades.
She hated being on watch. She hated the pure paranoia of it: every tiny movement, sound, and feeling could be her enemy, about to pounce. She was no sensor like Ino either, whom she desperately wished was here with her and not somewhere bound up in a cocoon dreaming. Yet, all of her teammates needed sleep, and they trusted her to be vigilant when she was on watch, allowing them time to recover and resharpen their senses.
Sakura's hand returned to the inside of her pack, feeling the glass of chakra-infused mystery there, and she felt a vicious sudden rush of impatience to use it, imagining throwing it directly into Madara's frightening face. Fuelled by countless hours healing away the wounds he had inflicted upon her team, Sakura was ready to vent her anger through fighting, even if her chances of landing a hit were slim.
A crack in the woods. Sakura looked over, but she didn't make the call yet, knowing that Madara was too talented a shinobi to give himself away by something as simple as snapping a twig beneath his feet.
She didn't like the little sharp sound's obviousness. Was it just a wandering animal? That had happened before. A deer had walked right through their camp, sniffed curiously at the put-out campfire, and wandered back off. It had scared her half to death until she'd understood it wasn't death approaching, but a harmless animal. She hoped it was that.
Sakura got slowly to her feet anyway, her head swivelling as she surveyed the grassy clearing they had made camp in. Silence; crickets chirped, and high above her, the red Tsukuyomi Moon continued to shine, obscured somewhat by a gently creaking distant Divine Tree branch that held a large sum of cocoons. Sakura dragged her eyes through the trees, her heart pounding. Just a deer, or a rabbit, or something. It's nothing.
She had a moment to recognise it was indeed a deer, and she saw the dip of its tail as it bounded away. Her relief was momentary as she understood it had rebounded, running in the opposite direction it had been going before. Looking over to what had startled it, Sakura noticed a shift in the shadows in the opposite end of the clearing. It was just so slight, but she already knew.
"OBITO!"
With her roar, Sakura twisted, strangling the glass's neck and hurling it as hard as she could. The sound of it shattering was followed by a splash, the little glass pieces glittering as they cascaded down across the clearing and into the underbrush.
Sakura stood squarely, facing Madara's clone as he emerged from the trees. Silvery, red-tainted moonlight painted his figure, his ringed metallic eyes piercing.
She stood her ground, breathing a little harder, all her hatred and ferocity biting into her features. She stepped out in front of the tent entrance, her slightly shaking hands shifting out protectively in front of it. It didn't matter that she might be out of Obito's range: she would shield them this time.
A rustling in the tent, Madara's gloved hand gesturing – Sakura shifted further out, obscuring his view of the tent's opening. Behind her, reaching out, Naruto screamed her name. Flames burst around the clearing in a voiceless roar, and the wind whipped around Sakura as the tent and Naruto's voice warped into silence, the rest of Team Seven and the tent in its entirety spiralling into the safety of Obito's pocket dimension.
Sakura stood alone, fingers gripping into fists. The forest was afire around the small patch of unburnt ground where she stood across from Madara. Heat filled the air in rippling intangible waves as the trees crackled and burned, the smoke rising and obscuring the cocoon-filled sky.
As she faced her death, Sakura felt a fierce wave of victory instead of fear: her team had escaped.
