Standard disclaimers apply. I'm just borrowing these characters for a little while.
Author's note: Kishimoto-sensei's plan is to fit the entire 4th Shinobi War Arc into a matter of days in the Naruto timeline, but I'm taking the liberty of extending it since war is never so quick and clean-cut. Events from the manga will be added, removed or shifted around. Please pardon my impudence.
The characters here are all turning 18, which I intended from the start. That puts them at 3 years for Naruto's training, and 3 years following Akatsuki's attack on Suna, if you are wondering why it seems like the timeline doesn't match up to canon.
CW for graphic descriptions of bodily injuries.
Tsunade's chakra signature was fading.
That was Sakura's first twinge of realisation as she muscled the boulder that had pinned Lee's arm off of him. Lee made a sound that was a cross between a gasp of pain and relief, but she barely took notice of it. Katsuyu quickly latched onto the green-clad shinobi, sending healing chakra to him while Sakura rose to her feet, eyes fierce with concentration as she focused.
Gaara's chakra signature was almost gone as well.
She had to fight against the rising tide of bile in her throat as she cast her chakra out towards the rest of the Kage's to track them. Madara's Susanoo had vanished minutes after a series of earth-crushing swings of his swords, and those blows had rang in the direction of where the Kage's last stood.
Madara would not leave a job half-done. Combined with the fact that the Kage's chakra signatures were all rapidly dwindling, it meant only one thing.
Her heart was shattering.
"Katsuyu-sama," her voice was oddly calm even as she raised trembling hands to clasp at her bosom, "We need to get to the Kage's. We need to get to them now."
"Of course, Sakura. Tsunade-sama summoned a portion of me minutes ago. She is still fighting." The slug summon reassured her even as her very much diminished stature told of the many injured shinobi she had to lend her healing abilities to.
Sakura nodded stiffly, then made for the rocky bluff that was now rendered into a mound of rubble. She pumped chakra into her feet as she moved, aware that she was leaving Katsuyu behind as she did so; The slug summon already had her work cut out for her treating the many injured around her.
The sand-cat materialised next to her, its lower half of its body a sandy wisp as it kept pace with its mistress. They leapt over the wounded and the dead alike, paying little care to the bodies they had to dodge and jump over as they ate up the distance rapidly.
If the Kage's died, it was all over; Even with Naruto's immense powers, the deaths of the five strongest shinobi in the world would be a devastating morale blow that would cost them the Fourth Shinobi War.
She ignored the moans of pain that barraged her from all sides as she ran towards the Kage's; she ignored the desperate need inside of her to scan for the chakra signature of the Konoha Eleven minus Naruto.
She had already expended so much of her chakra on her comrades through Katsuyu; She had to conserve her chakra to heal the Kage's. If there was still time…
No. She could not allow herself to think otherwise.
"Shizune nee-san!" She called out to the brunette kunoichi who was running parallel to her a short distance away.
"Sakura!" She answered back with a curt nod of her head as they realised their common goal.
When they finally made it to the location where Madara once stood, chests heaving with the rapid pace they had used, they both froze up at the sight before them.
Tsunade's waist had been crushed, and her torso was completely detached from the lower half of her body; her legs were skewed and bent, and was resting under one of the curving, massive branches that Madara had conjured up some distance away.
And she was inexplicably still breathing.
"Shizune. Sakura." A massive version of Katsuyu greeted the two newcomers from beside the dying Hokage.
"Katsuyu-sama! Can you heal her?" Shizune called out as she dashed to Tsunade's side.
"I'm trying, but my powers are limited to her Strength of a Hundred Seals. I need you to help me re-attach her body," Katsuyu confessed, "And afterwards, we can try to save the other Kage's."
At the slug's words, Sakura quickly surveyed the area surrounding them, hoping to locate the four Kage even as she saddled herself with the grim task of retrieving Tsunade's lower limbs and bringing them over to Shizune.
Shizune and a smaller version of Katsuyu gently aligned the Hokage's torso with her crushed hips, and they began knitting organs and nerves together.
"What should I do?" Sakura asked her fellow apprentice. It was standard protocol during trauma surgeries for the medic-nin to communicate with each other the different areas that they were stabilising. It was to avoid unnecessary overlapping of efforts and to ensure that the patient's other injuries were not neglected.
That, and criss-crossing healing chakra could end up undoing each other's work through over-healing or accidentally sewing together injuries that needed to be left for later.
"Gather the Kage's," Shizune did not take her eyes off her hands as she fine-tuned her chakra, pushing it into Tsunade's weakening organs even as Katsuyu tried her best to summon her limited chakra towards keeping Tsunade alive. "I need you to find them and bring them here so we can assess their situations and decide."
Decide who to save and who to let die.
That part went unspoken but understood.
The most unsavoury part of being a medical professional meant making the judgement on how many and who they could save if chakra reserves or manpower was an issue.
Right then, there were only two of them: Shizune and Sakura. And Shizune was very much occupied.
Tearing her eyes away from the sight of her dying mentor, Sakura cast her chakra out to search for her targets. She would be damned if any tardiness on her part cost them more precious minutes in locating and healing the Kage's.
Quietly, she made the promise to herself that she would not be put in the position of whose life to save; she would save all the Kage's.
Because she had failed the Kazekage once, and the price to bring him back was Chiyo's life. Now, there was no such failsafe, no one to count on if she found her skills lacking.
Ohnoki was the closest, and she quickly reached the old man who was flat on his back, a pool of blood growing rapidly under him. A quick scan of his physical condition told her that he had several cracked ribs and a collapsed, punctured lung that was the cause of his unconsciousness. A severe injury to be sure, especially in light of his advanced age, but still within her powers to heal.
Quickly hoisting him onto her back, Sakura made for Shizune's side. The Tsuchikage was carefully placed near Tsunade, and Sakura immediately summoned a portion of Katsuyu - with the newly summoned portion tied to her own chakra reserves instead of Tsunade's, it meant that the slug summon now had more power at her disposal to use in healing the Kage's.
"Thank you, Sakura," the slug said as it split a portion of itself away to curl over Tsunade's lower half. Another portion of the slug split itself off to clung onto Ohnoki, sending healing chakra into his wounds.
The next Kage Sakura located was A, slumped over against a rock face and drooling blood out of his mouth. His injuries were more serious, including several puncture wounds that had pierced his chest cavity, and he made for a larger body to heft as well. Still, Sakura managed to bring him to the recovering Tsuchikage's side within a short amount of time, the sand-cat helping to lift the lower half of the man's massive frame.
Mei was the next Kage she recovered, half her leg crumpled under herself as she bled out from a wound that left her intestines hanging outside of her ripped-open stomach. Realising it was too risky to move her for now, Sakura began to pour healing chakra into her limp form.
She forced herself not to grimace as she pushed her intestines back into her abdominal cavity, stitching together crucial veins and nerves as she did so. It was an incredibly difficult task, as intestines were compressed and tightly-packed within the human body, but once outside of it, they tangled and expanded. She could not risk causing an obstruction if she had just carelessly shoved everything back inside; every organ had its specific place within the human body.
She tried not to flinch too much as her hands probed and pushed the slippery, slimy organs back into place. And when her wound was finally closed up, Sakura was at last able to transport Mei to the others.
That left the Kazekage for her to locate.
There was an explanation as to why she was not seeing Gaara; his chakra signature was scattered throughout the battlefield in the form of his chakra-infused sand, making him with his dwindling chakra impossible to pinpoint.
"Gaara!" She called out, desperately, irrationally; Biting her lips in frustration as she fought back tears.
She caught movement out of a corner of her eye, and jumped to her feet at once.
It was the sand-cat, hovering as a cloud of sand in the distance; Sakura bolted towards it without a second thought.
Her feet skidded to a halt when she was finally several metres away from the sand cloud. Gaara's gourd had disintegrated, the sand scattered over his body and quite hiding him from sight. If the sand-cat had not located him, she could have spent hours trying to do so. And that would have surely spelt his death.
Three years ago. Naruto had just returned from his training with Jiraiya.
Her first mission with her blond teammate after she had gained her status as a medic-nin.
Akatsuki. A terrible fight.
A Kage dead.
And she was powerless to save him.
She shook her head violently from side to side, trying to chase away the visage of Gaara's lifeless body.
Steeling herself, Sakura brushed as much of the sand off his body as possible, and had to clamp her teeth over her lower lip to stop herself from crying out in dismay at the sight before her.
Belatedly, she realised that she was not simply shifting away the sand that made up his gourd. A much finer, lighter layer of sand came away under her hands as she brushed his cheek, revealing skin that was smoother and softer than what she normally caressed.
Gaara's Sand Armour.
He was completely unconscious. That was the only explanation as to why he was unable to maintain his Sand Armour.
Though he was chest-down on the ground, it was obvious that Gaara had been skewered by a massive blade cleaved through his torso, tearing into his entire left latissimus dorsi muscle. Several centimetres more to the right, and the likelihood of an artery being ruptured was practically a given. As it was right now, his breathing was compromised, and one side of his rib cage was completely exposed.
The sand-cat rematerialised as a feline, and purred to Sakura, startling her from her stunned horror.
"I'm going to roll him over, Mr. Fluffy-kins," she told the cat as she gingerly reached for his back and waist.
The sand-cat helped her nudge Gaara's head along with the rest of his body as she did so, then quietly shuffled off to draw to itself Gaara's special sand. Slowly but surely, the gourd began to reform before them.
Not that Sakura was paying the cat any attention. She was too busy fighting back the shock at seeing the blood matting his head.
Concussion, she concluded. Possible brain trauma.
She should not have risked moving him at all. There was the very high likelihood that his neck had been injured as well, and if there was spinal cord damage there, he would become paralysed if she accidentally severed a nerve.
She had to assess the severity of his head wound, and Sakura reached for the part of his hair where it hung limp with blood. There was a gash and the first signs of a forming contusion. When she pulled back her fingers to look at them, she acknowledged with grim satisfaction that most of the blood was already caked and dried, flaking off in dark red specks as she rubbed her fingertips together. He would not bleed out from that wound.
The only thing she could do now was to strip off her flak jacket, fold it up, and roll it under his neck and head to keep his head as steady as possible. With that done, she pried open his mouth, checking for any obstruction in his airways.
The wet whistling as he inhaled and exhaled shallowly was proof that he was alive, but if she did not drain the fluid from his lungs and pushed his ribs out of his perforated left lung, he would drown in his own blood.
Then she noticed the way his right arm was twisted and resting out of alignment with the rest of his body, and she had to fight back the urge to scream.
There were too many injuries; she had to focus on stabilising him first before tackling anything else. And since she could not risk moving him, Sakura knew that she had to stay by his side to heal him.
That meant no more wasting of chakra. Her Katsuyu summon was steadily draining her of her chakra reserves in the process of healing the other four Kage and the shinobi army, and even as she held herself still, she could feel her chakra reserves being tapped into and sapped. Like a bottle being drained through a straw.
She felt like the weak, little, useless kunoichi she was, once more.
But there was also something different about her now.
Gaara.
She could not let him die; She would not let him die on her watch.
Scrubbing away the remnants of futile tears from her eyes, she thinned her lips in determination, and her palms immediately took on the green glow of her healing chakra. She peeled away his torn vest and jacket that clung stickily to his body, and ripped away whatever that was left of his shirt to expose his torso.
Lungs first. Move his broken ribs out of the way so the puncture wounds can be healed up. Then clear them of blood so he can breathe easier.
The slightly healthier sight of pink on his cheeks as he heaved steadier and deeper breaths told her that she had made the right decision to tackle his lungs first. But it was only a field dressing for now - he would need a tube inserted later in a more sterile environment.
Chest wound next. Reattach the major blood vessels and stitch back the muscles that would support his lungs further.
She tried not to flinch when he coughed up a glob of coagulated blood that landed wetly on the back of her hand.
Check for spinal injuries. Watch for pinched or severed nerves in the cervical spine. Those are the most crucial and must be re-aligned or re-attached with absolute precision.
The rigorous manner in which she probed his neck and upper back for nerve and spinal damages was an immense drain on her chakra. She was magnifying her chakra expenditure as her chakra tendrils raced down every single spinal nerve, tracing them to their ends to find signs of damage.
Fortuitously, there was no nerve damage to speak of, though the muscles around a few disks were becoming inflamed and swelling; most likely the result of a hard collusion. As long as none of his vertebrae themselves were impacted, he was not in danger of paralysis.
Gaara was blissfully unconscious, and that meant that checking for mental signs of head trauma had to wait until he was awake once more. She carefully brushed away his hair from the wound above his ear, finally noting that it was an angry-looking cut that probably appeared worse than it actually was. Head wounds always tended to look more serious than they really were, and their tendency to bleed excessively often threw observers for a loop. That she could clean up later.
That left her with his dislocated shoulder to deal with. She knew it could wait in light of all his other injuries, but there was also little else she could do in the field about those. She had put him back together, and he would live long enough to be stabilised in a more hygienic setting.
"Sorry," she whispered, as she took hold of his wrist in both hands.
The sand-cat, as if understanding what Sakura was planning, transformed itself into a brace that wrapped itself around Gaara's torso, carefully avoiding contact with his injuries. With his body secured, Sakura furrowed her brows in determination and applied a steady, pulling pressure at a right angle from his body.
The subsequent yelp of pain as his shoulder snapped back into its joint startled her, and she quickly bent over Gaara's face.
"Gaara?" Sakura whispered, pushing his dusty fringe out of his eyes.
Clouded jade-green eyes opened and looked up at her, blinking as if its owner was not quite believing the sight in front of him.
Weakly, his left hand reached out to her face, and Sakura caught it by clasping his hand to her cheek.
"Sakura?" muttered Gaara as he tried to focus his eyes on the kunoichi.
The first wet splash of tears from her eyes landed on his chin, and he knew there and then that he was very much in the world of the waking.
The sudden awareness of the magnitude of his injuries hit him all at once, consciousness slamming into him in an unexpected wave, and the explosion of pain caused his entire body to spasm.
His scream of sheer agony made her heart constrict painfully.
"No no no… dammit!" Sakura cursed as she slammed her palms down on his chest to steady him; to stop him from further injuring himself as his nerves lit up and fired away in confused distress.
The only thing she could do in this situation was to send a soothing pulse of chakra into his temple with the goal of knocking him out. That she promptly did when Gaara's body finally relaxed for a split second, allowing her to take her hands off him to reach for his head.
When Gaara was unconscious once more, Sakura fell back onto her haunches, and let herself weep in a terrible mixture of relief and anguish.
She finally collected herself after a few minutes, chest heaving and fingernails biting into her palms. Checking that Gaara was still out but no longer in danger of perishing from his injuries, she knew that she needed to move him to the medic corps so he could get treated properly; field dressing was just an emergency patch.
Also, she had closed his wounds for efficiency, not for aesthetics. He was going to be scarred and marred all over permanently if she did not apply advanced healing techniques on him soon.
"Sakura!"
The kunoichi's head snapped up upon hearing her name, eyes darting towards Gaara's now serene-looking face. It took her a moment to realise that it was not Gaara that had called out to her, but a shinobi racing towards her on foot.
As the shinobi drew nearer, he split into two distinct shapes, and Sakura blinked away unshed tears to clear her vision.
"Shikamaru? Kankurou!"
Both men ran straight for her, and came to a screeching halt a dozen metres away when it became clear to them what or more specifically, who Sakura was hovering over. They had assumed the worst, seeing how her hands were covered in blood, the same manner in which a sheen of red was coating Gaara's now-healed side.
"Is he…?" Kankurou's voice was laced with disbelief, his eyes wide and wild at the sight of his lifeless-looking sibling.
She shook her head, willing away traitorous tears that were threatening to spill from her once more. "He's still alive. I managed to stabilise him. But we need to get him back to the medic corps for proper treatment."
Shikamaru and Kankurou exchanged looks, the puppet master holding in his palm several grains of sand. At the sight, Shikamaru sighed softly, rubbing his now sand-free neck as well.
They had known that something serious had happened to Gaara the moment his chakra-infused tracking sand fell off their skin; Gaara losing control of his sand usually meant only two things: either he was possessed by Shukaku and therefore no longer in control of himself (which was not possible, since he was no longer a Jinchuuriki), or…
He was unconscious. Or worse.
So Sakura's answer, while not exactly good news, was a source of relief.
It did not escape both men's notice in the way that she reached out to brush the hair out of Gaara's face, and the way her fingers twitched with the need to caress his cheek even as she gazed upon his face tenderly while drawing her hand back.
"Sakura," Shikamaru's tone was soft, as if afraid to give voice to his words, "The entire encampment has been destroyed. The medic corps compound is no more. We have to get him somewhere safe."
Oh.
"Come on," Shikamaru held a hand out to her, then he turned to Kankurou, "You and me, we need to carry the Kazekage to Hokage-sama. She will…"
"Shishou is very badly hurt," Sakura's flat tone startled Shikamaru, "She won't be able to help him."
At that revelation, the Nara prodigy swore. He ran his hand through his hair in clear frustration, and took a moment to compose himself.
"She'll live, though, right?"
Sakura's quiet nod was her answer. She was so exhausted, and the betraying fluttering of her eyelids as she fought against the urge to just curl up and sleep was apparent to Shikamaru.
"Can you stand?" Shikamaru's hand continued to hover in front of her.
She surprised both shinobi by shaking her head. "I used up too much chakra healing him and the other Kage's. Katsuyu-sama is still tapping into my reserves to save shishou."
With a defeated-sounding sigh, Shikamaru bent over and slipped his hands around Sakura's back and under her knees, and he pushed himself off the ground with her now cradled in his arms. Sakura barely moved at his actions, her mental facilities quite depleted from the focus she gave on patching up the Kage's.
At Kankurou's silent alarm written across his features, Shikamaru shook his head.
"We'll worry about the Kazekage killing me for this transgression later. Can you get a few of your puppets out to transport him and his gourd?" Shikamaru was definitely not looking forward to having to explain to anyone why he was carrying the Regimental Commander's girlfriend like a bride, but he could not very well leave her here either; They will just need to steer clear of other scouting shinobi when they make their way back to the gathering point for the Allied Shinobi Forces.
Kankurou nodded, pulling out one of his scrolls and summoning Sanshouo to stand before them. However, when he started towards Gaara, he suddenly found himself face-to-face with a small, growling sand-cat.
"Hey, Mun-cat, I don't have time to mess with you," Kankurou waved both hands in a dismissive gesture, "Let me get Gaara and we can play later, ok?"
Not understanding that cats in general do not partake in something as undignified as to be construed as 'play', his offer held little temptation for the sand-cat.
Kankurou's groan of frustration as he tried to navigate around the sand-cat drew Sakura's attention, and she turned back to observe them. The sand-cat was clearly agitated at Kankurou's attempts to approach its maker, and did not appear ready to back off anytime soon.
"Let him, Kankurou."
Kankurou turned to give Sakura a baffled look, only to have her point in Gaara's direction.
The unconscious Regimental Commander was now suspended in the air, held up by a cloud of sand.
"Where did the cat… oh," Kankurou's eye lit up in understanding.
With the sand-cat and its human cargo now trailing after Sakura and Shikamaru as they picked their way across the rubble, Kankurous found himself staring at his younger brother's infamous gourd. Knowing that he could not simply leave it behind, he heaved it onto Sanshouo's back.
He swore rather colourfully as he allowed the gourd to drop solidly onto Sanshouo; that damn thing was much heavier than he expected it to be. How in the name of his forefathers did his brother manage to walk with that on his back all the time, let alone run or fight?
Inhumanly strong former Jinchuuriki-turned-Kage, meet the inhumanly strong medic-nin kunoichi.
His nephews and nieces were going to be total badasses.
Halfway through their trek back, Sakura finally regained enough chakra to cease trembling and insisted that Shikamaru put her down to walk the rest of the way. He was only too glad to do so, and that left Sakura free to make her way to the temporary camp that she could see in the distance.
Calling it a 'camp' was charitable: it was more a gathering of shinobi who were surrounding their injured comrades, as others worked to pile together supplies salvaged from their previous encampment. Usable tents were rolled up and leaning on one another, and any stockade not crushed by Madara's Susanoo sat like massive piles of firewood. Crates of supplies were being stacked on the other side of the camp, and from what Sakura could see, at least half their stores were gone.
"How many?" Sakura asked quietly.
Shikamaru paused to regard her expressionless face, and decided that honesty was the best policy, "My best estimate is we lost between eight thousand to ten thousand shinobi. The Intelligence Division is running a scan to get a more accurate number.
"We did not lose the Konoha Eleven," he added as he nodded to her.
That was what Sakura was really asking, and they both knew that.
"There you are!"
Temari was coming towards them, her fan used awkwardly as a crutch of sorts as she fought to hide a limp in her steps. The sight of her injured friend sparked something in Sakura, and she ran to meet Temari halfway, hands already glowing green with healing chakra.
The blonde kunoichi kindly but firmly pushed Sakura's reaching hands away.
"You're exhausted. A twisted ankle doesn't warrant you wasting your chakra, anyhow," Temari reasoned, then she jerked her head back towards a group of medic-nin and mini-Katsuyu's, "Good job, by the way. A lot of the injured are going to be ok."
At Sakura's placid nod, Temari grew concerned, and she leaned forward to peer into her emerald-green eyes. With the other kunoichi so blatantly invading her personal space, Sakura was forced to take a step backwards, and she ended up bumping her back up against…
"Gaara!"
Sakura stumbled as Temari shoved forward to stand before the hovering sand cloud that was carrying her brother; the grains had obscured the worst of his injuries from her sight, and she tentatively reached out to touch his head, only to pull her hand back at the last minute to bite nervously on her thumbnail.
"He'll make it," Shikamaru offered up, seeing how Sakura was stock-still with her arms wrapped around herself as she looked down, "Sakura fixed him up as best as she could, but he will need more advanced healing to be back at one hundred percent."
Shikamaru was not even certain if he was telling the truth as he uttered those words; Gaara had looked close to death when they first found him, and the amount of blood that lingered on the scene belied the seriousness of his injuries.
But he also knew that Sakura would not let someone so precious to her die under her watch, mission assignment or not.
Temari heaved a long sigh of relief, and unexpectedly, threw herself at Sakura in a fierce hug. Sakura was not prepared for the action and promptly fell ass-backwards onto the ground, taking Temari down with her as she did so.
The softly murmured series of "thank you"s and Temari's painful embrace left Sakura feeling somewhat detached from the situation, her eyes now locked on the unconscious Regimental Commander instead of focusing on the kunoichi on top of her.
Kankurou arrived shortly after them, one hand braced against the gourd to keep it from rolling off Sanshouo's back. At the sight of his sister and brother's lover crushed against each other, he grimaced.
Girl-on-girl fantasies were nice, but not if they involved his blood relative and future sister-in-law.
"Shikamaru," he turned to the frowning Nara heir, "What do we do now?"
Shikamaru held up a finger to ask for silence as he closed his eyes, and Kankurou understood at once that he was liaising with the War Council through their mental network.
Sakura somehow managed to convince Temari to let go of her, and she was next to Gaara in an instant, chakra flowing from her fingertips as she touched his scar; the redhead was exhibiting signs of regaining consciousness, and she did not need him back in the world of the waking given how much pain he must be in. Temari and Kankurou exchanged knowing looks at her actions, pleased to see that she was still very much devoted to their brother despite her own ordeal of healing so many of the injured; she would not allow herself to neglect her beloved no matter her own mental state.
A trait most befitting of a future Kage's wife, Temari thought to herself, her lips pulling into a knowing smirk in spite of all they had witnessed today.
"I've been made interim Regimental Commander," Shikamaru spoke up matter-of-factly, his eyes sweeping from the Sabaku siblings to Sakura. None of them looked surprised at his declaration.
The Nara heir had expected that order to come down from the War Council, of course. He was the Proxy Commander, and the highest-ranking field officer at this point that was not incapacitated.
Shikamaru's fingers twitched as he shoved his other hand into his hair; He could really use a cigarette right now, but he had polished off his supply during the early days of the war, and had been bumming them off whoever he could. Temari had snuck him some additional rations (the perks of being the Regimental Commander's sister), but in the same breath had complained about how the smoke permeated his tent.
He probably should try quitting that habit, anyway.
"Madara probably thinks he had killed the Kage's. We are going to use that to our advantage and secret them away," Shikamaru glanced around, noting that while his words contained information soon to be disseminated amongst the shinobi, he wanted fewer ears listening in for now. Luckily, the nearest group of shinobi was some distance away. "Each Kage will be assigned a team of ANBU and a skilled medic-nin, and kept at separate locations to recover for the time being. Only my father and Inoichi-san will know their precise hideouts."
Turning to address Sakura, Shikamaru continued, "Shizune-san has liaised with the War Council and reported that all the Kage's will live. She will be selecting medic-nin to be assigned to each Kage to assist in their recovery, and requests that you give her a report on their initial conditions and any healing you've done. You can submit it to her through the War Council, and it needs to be done immediately."
"I…" Sakura began.
Shikamaru held a hand up, sighing, "You'll naturally be assigned to the Kazekage, Sakura. The Hokage will be attended to by Shizune-san herself."
It was not as if he was a stranger to Sakura's sense of loyalty to Tsunade, especially knowing that her current skills were the direct result of the Legendary Sannin's training. However, the number of medic-nin capable of taking care of such important individuals and that could be trusted had dwindled down to less than a dozen, and they could not afford to assign two of them to the Hokage alone.
If there were even that many skilled medic-nin left at all, seeing how many of their numbers were wiped out today.
Sakura knew that she could not argue against that - Shizune was her senior, and had known and trained under Tsunade longer. She was the perfect candidate to care for her mentor, even if part of her greatly wanted to be by her side as well.
What she did not expect was for the sudden feeling of her loyalties being torn into two halves, as she warred internally with her devotion to her mentor, and her feelings towards Gaara.
"Of course," she replied, nodding once lightly, "I'll find Ino and have her link me up with the headquarters so I can give them a verbal report."
Her hesitance in moving did not escape Temari's notice, and she placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder, making the kunoichi turn to her as she reassured her. "We'll watch Gaara in the meantime. Go now so you can be back sooner."
Sakura stood silently for a moment, looking from Temari to Gaara. She stepped up to the latter's side and pressed her palm to his forehead once more, green chakra flowing into his temples. Gaara gave an involuntary sigh, and his body sagged a little more in the sand cloud's suspension.
"That should keep him comfortable a bit longer. I'll come back as soon as I can."
Casting one last backwards glance at Gaara, Sakura thinned her lips and ran off in the opposite direction, already pin-pointing the location of her friend through her chakra signature.
Watching the kunoichi disappear into the distance, Temari's eyes caught sight of a few shinobi walking towards them. Sakura had run right past those shinobi, almost bumping into them, and the leader of the group had turned their head to regard Sakura with clear wariness.
Matsuri.
Her youngest brother's first student. Temari knew her on sight, and had always wondered privately to herself why did her brother agree to train such a meek, quiet kunoichi who could barely stand to even wield a weapon. Though that girl had eventually overcome her aversion to violence, she never did move past her infatuation with Gaara; The Kazekage became a downright obsession for her.
Also, there was the fact that she was the president of Gaara's unofficial fanclub (Gaara had adamantly refused to acknowledge said club's existence, always shuffling its written requests to be made an official club to the bottom of his paperwork pile and eventually 'losing' it altogether multiple times), and she had never kept it a secret that she considered herself a prime Kazehime candidate.
Small wonders that she had tolerated Sakura's dalliances with Gaara for so long, and now, it seemed that her patience had finally worn out.
"Temari-sama!" Matsuri called out as she approached them, "Is Gaara-sama alright?"
Temari planted her fan in front of Gaara and opened it, quickly hiding Gaara from their view. She studied the group of shinobi, noting that they were made up mainly of Suna kunoichi.
More of his fangirls.
"He is injured, but he will live," Shikamaru offered up as he stepped up to stand beside Temari.
Inexplicably, Matsuri tilted her chin up and replied in a haughty manner, "I am speaking to Kazekage-sama's sister, Nara-san."
"Matsuri, show your respect to the interim Regimental Commander," said Temari, one finger tapping against the blade of her fan impatiently.
If anything, that made matters worse. Matsuri and a few kunoichi's gasped aloud, raising hands to their mouths in shock.
"Sakura failed in her duties as his personal medic?" Matsuri's voice dripped with accusation, "Gaara-sama is so badly hurt that he can no longer protect us?"
"Back off," Temari could feel one of her eyes twitching at the insolence she was getting from the kunoichi, and she forced herself to continue in an even tone, "You know the Kage's all went to fight to protect us, knowing they could get very badly hurt. Sakura managed to help all of them afterwards. I don't see any of you doing anything useful. Why aren't any of you helping to recover our supplies?"
A few of the kunoichi at the back of the group had the good sense to look uncomfortable at Temari's accusations, but Matsuri continued to glare defiantly at Temari's fan, as if cursing it for preventing her from reaching the wounded Kazekage.
It was starting to become very obvious that Gaara's fangirls only tolerated Sakura for as long as she served him well in her professional capacity. The kunoichi's overlooked the suspected fling for months now, convincing themselves that she was a convenient partner for their young Kage to take to his bed as he already had use for her services on a daily basis. But now that she had faltered in their eyes…
"Dismissed," Shikamaru commanded as he straightened his posture, "There will be a briefing from the War Council shortly."
Matsuri, unable to glance past the breadth of Temari's fan, finally nodded in acknowledgement to the trio; she spun on her feet, and that was the cue for the rest of the kunoichi to return to their stations.
Temari watched with narrowed eyes as the group walked away, taking note of the particular kunoichi's that dared to glance backwards. Besides Matsuri, there was another Suna kunoichi, and two others from another village that she could not place. Her youngest brother's appeal to the kunoichi population of their world had no doubt grown beyond the reach of their country already.
"This is going to be very troublesome," sighed Shikamaru.
Kankurou nodded, "Puberty did our little brother a lot of favour with the ladies, and the title that came with the hat helped, too. I just feel bad for Sakura, seeing how she's going to have to go away with Gaara for who knows how long now. Those kunoichi's are going to be beside themselves with jealousy."
Shikamaru frowned at him, "There will be ANBU with them. And since Sakura will need to focus on taking care of him, I am going to request that Baki-san go with them, too. There will be too much correspondence for Sakura to keep up with and it will take her attention away from the Regimental Commander's well-being."
Kankurou shrugged nonchalantly. Certainly, it was not going to be a pleasure trip for his brother and his personal medic. There was still an ongoing war, and the army had to re-establish a whole new camp in the meantime as well.
But he had seen Gaara come back from the dead once, and he had defied death once more today. What were the odds of that happening?
It helped that it was the same kunoichi that saved him previously who would now be taking care of his younger brother while he healed. He had every confidence in Sakura to not only fix Gaara up nicely, but probably get that stick out of his arse at the same time, too.
"I want to be an uncle someday," Kankurou declared suddenly, shocking both Temari and Shikamaru into rigid stillness, "And I trust that Sakura will bring him back in fighting condition. That Naruto kid is probably leading the rest of the Jinchuuriki around a campfire singing Gako the Frog right about now. I think we'll all be fine."
Shikamaru glanced backwards at the number of injured, and quietly admitted to himself that, yes: they may have lost a lot of their men today, but enough of them had survived, and all five Kage were going to live as well.
As far as battles went, it was not a complete defeat.
Temari was rubbing her forehead as she levelled her first brother with a suspicious look, "I have caught them together in compromising situations many times, Kankurou. Trust me, you will be hearing the pitter-patter of little redheaded feet soon enough. But geez, what did you see that made you say that?"
Kankurou grinned, and glanced down at Gaara's strangely serene expression. For someone that looked on the brink of death when he had first seen him after the battle, he seemed very much at peace. Sakura's extraordinary level of attention that she paid to his well-being that he saw just now gave him confidence that she felt as strongly as Gaara did towards her.
Having Sakura assigned to Gaara as his personal medic would go down in the history of the Fourth Shinobi War as one of the most astute of decisions; The Hokage deserved a medal for coming up with this S-rank mission.
The Kage's would be healed, and they will have their revenge on Madara with all the Jinchuuriki's by their side.
Hope. It was all they had right now.
Ladies, they're headed to their love shack.