Sakura's everything was killing her.
She was pretty sure—
Not certain, because Arden's memories were kind of screwy and she'd clearly not been paying much attention—
But she was pretty sure that was Black Zetsu.
All she could remember about it was that it—or maybe something else?—had ended up in space.
She supposed that had happened again.
Hopefully.
Certainly, the fact that Minato had (using all his own energy as well as most of about a dozen others') managed to shoot it into space resulted in more than a few gaunt faces from the other Great Nations.
…Something to worry about later.
Much, much later.
They'd managed to hide the third jinchuuriki (probably) even with the close proximity but that had taken most of Sakura's attention, and hiding things hadn't exactly been a focus of her past experience or education.
She hoped she'd managed to hide him, though.
Between Minato, Kushina, and Kakashi—
Well.
And now her body was killing her, and she and Jiraiya and Obito were carrying all the other Konoha-nin into Fire, including the bodies of those who hadn't survived, and—
Obito grunted, stumbled.
His seals must be draining fast; she wondered if they'd make it.
The grace period that the other Great Nations had clearly given them (because the byoki was disturbing, because they hadn't received orders to attack, because they personally might not want war—) wouldn't last forever.
They needed to get within their borders.
Fast.
(Everything hurt.
(Everything hurt.
(She was almost out of chakra.
(She—
(Everything hurt.)
It was, thankfully, not long until they saw more Konoha-nin racing towards them, racing towards the flares that had been sent up earlier.
Sakura forced herself to sign explanations (she couldn't speak, could barely get enough air in—she was panting, out of breath, exhausted. She was still carrying too many bodies), to sign that they were safe, really, but they needed to get back to Konoha.
And then she passed out.
.
Jiraiya tried not to grit his teeth, to show how—how hard this was to watch.
It was necessary.
The—
Well, he tried not to think about what had happened in the Land of Canyons, but it had certainly created a lot of loose ends.
The most immediate issue, of course, was the Three-Tails' host; it (he) was going to be dead within twenty-four hours.
Which meant they were out of time.
Minato shouldn't have been up, shouldn't have been awake.
Tsunade was doing everything she could, actively healing his body as he stood, worked opposite Jiraiya.
This was going to be a very messy un-sealing, a very problematic—
But it was necessary.
They couldn't cope with a rampaging beast right now.
And then there was Minato's complete unwillingness to seal the Three-Tails into a new container; he felt that they were close to figuring out to seal beasts in older people, in adults, and he wasn't willing to burden any child if he didn't have to.
Jiraiya said they had to.
His student didn't agree.
The Hokage won.
And now they were standing, working.
Minato was swaying, slightly, but his hands were shockingly stable.
On the other hand, he looked like a giant bruise and Tsunade was visibly sweating , trembling, as she kept him upright, awake.
And Jiraiya—
He knew some about jinchuuriki sealing, some about how to do it, how to maintain it.
But it was painfully convoluted, difficult, and this whole situation—
He knew enough to know he'd flub it if he was working alone.
He needed Minato.
And Minato needed to pass out for at least a week.
And that was just—not an option.
At all.
Even once they were done (if they got done), so, so many foreign-nin were there, saw exactly how exhausted Minato was, exactly how much he and everyone else (Jiraiya included) had put into dealing with the byoki.
So Minato had to do something in public, as healthy as possible, quick.
And even that might not be enough.
The other nations might be dealing with a plague, but Research said they were over the hump, that they should be seeing their daily numbers beginning to decrease.
Except before Minato could appear in public, look far healthier than he actually was—
They needed to deal with the tailed beast.
Jiraiya wished Kushina were here too, but Tsunade could only keep one person awake, and they agreed that Minato was more important.
He was exhausted.
He stared at the seal, unblinking, until Minato's hand nudged him.
He wondered how long he'd just been standing there, unmoving.
He went back to work.
They needed—
They needed a lot.
And the first thing was dealing with the Tailed Beast.
.
Minato felt like everything was buzzing.
Not just him, not just everyone else, not just his surroundings—
Everything.
It was all he could do to keep upright.
His ears felt stuffed, almost deafening him.
His mouth was parched, but he couldn't swallow, couldn't keep even water down.
He was so, so tired.
The fuuinjutsu blurred in front of him, and he blinked several times, tried to focus.
That part looked right…
That part too…
He was distantly aware that Jiraiya had collapsed.
He wondered why.
Realized they'd done it, they'd transferred the beast into—into—
That was a manatee.
That was—
They'd sealed the Three-Tails into a manatee?
Right, because manatees didn't really have natural defenses.
Were safe.
He vaguely, distantly, sort-of remembered the ANBU running around, setting up a giant enclosure, bringing in the mammal.
And then—
And then they'd—
They'd done what they could on the old seal, moved to the new one…
He blinked, refocused.
Held out his hand, pushed out what chakra he had to check the seal.
It was—
It was good.
They'd
Done it.
They were
They'd
Finished.
He tried to say it out loud, hoped he'd succeeded.
Collapsed.
.
The Hyuuga seal was ready.
This was absolutely not the time—not with so many people unconscious in the hospital (his aunt included), not with everyone running to the borders, running to protect Fire after everyone in the entire world saw their Hokage collapse, saw so many of their A-level ninjas collapse—
Not with everything.
But Head Hyuuga didn't want to wait.
Didn't want to risk waiting, not given that he needed to get to the front yesterday, needed to trust that his kin would be safe in his absence.
So Rento stood in a Hyuuga courtyard, and prepared to etch the first seal.
He was starting with the oldest Branch Hyuuga, who had volunteered for the risk, for the hope. It would be long, and arduous, and it wouldn't be until the end that Rento could really, truly be sure it would work. Fourteen hours per seal, that's what he had calculated.
Now, several hours in, he realized that his estimation was more than a little optimistic. Still, he had to continue, had to keep going, couldn't take a break, and even outside of the sealing implications there were also the implications of the Hyuuga remaining distracted until the promise was caried out.
And so Rento would continue.
And continue.
And continue.
Until he collapsed, got thrown into a bed alongside his aunt.
(No one knew what had happened, really. Everyone involved was either unconscious or too busy, couldn't spare any time to describe more than the very basics: the byoki formed into a human-like, unkillable thing, and they'd thrown it into space. That was… that was nothing. That brought too many more questions to be considered even sort of an answer. Rento had so many questions.
(No one, himself included, would get answers.
(Not within any reasonable time frame).
Seventeen hours after he'd begun, Rento completed the seal, eyes aching over the strain.
Hiashi nodded at the elder, who nodded back.
He tried to activate the caged-bird seal, tried to make the ninety-something-year-old man writhe.
The elder smiled.
Rento did too.
Then it was time for the four-hour rest he'd calculated between each seal, to eat and sleep and drink enough to remain conscious when it mattered.
He was sure when he woke, the next volunteer would be ready.
.
Tsunade felt the strain everywhere, felt pain everywhere.
She—
This—
Iwa was already attacking. Kumo, too, though they were at least polite enough to try for infiltration at the same time.
Everyone wanted her to get Minato up, get him out, in public, fighting, pushing back the threat—
But it was all she could do to keep him alive.
To keep them all alive.
The seal Minato had created—
The ability to throw someone so far away, far enough away that they never came back down—
And then everyone had given up most if not all of their chakra, pushed to make sure it could happen.
All while fighting the byoki.
And the byoki wasn't even gone.
It was gone, it was flying out, out, out; would hopefully never stop.
But the byoki, the little bits that could exist within people, could harm their fertility, could—
Could twist their minds—
Sensei wasn't…
He was better.
He was so, so much better.
But they couldn't bathe his brain in acid.
And they'd done what they could, and the quick skim she'd been able to do post-Spacing was enough to know he'd further improved since—
But he wasn't…
Her best guess (her hope) was that it was the remnants of the byoki's actions, that it had banged up his brain enough that it needed time to heal.
Her greatest fear, however, was that the byoki was still in there. Still lying low. Still waiting to get close enough to other byoki to form another unkillable monster, another—
Tsunade needed time.
Needed to research.
Needed to think.
Instead she kept scrambling, kept trying to keep everything alive.
Everything else—long term security, the survival of Konoha, sleep—would just need to wait.
.
Ibiki nudged the food around his plate, wondering how much longer he had to stay in training.
He got how prisoners felt.
He was bored, and tired, and kind-of hungry, and desperate for any new entertainment.
He got it, really.
So why wouldn't they let his time finish, let him do something more interesting?
(Ibiki would give anything for some excitement.)