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Covenant
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Synopsis: Four years into the Fourth Shinobi War, Orochimaru offers to turn.
He all but requests Sakura by name to be the contact.
It is, quite clearly, a trap—least of all because he's supposed to be dead.
But what is a losing side to do except take the hand that's offered?
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13. The Victory
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THIS TIME around, Sakura had the authority to strategize her own plan.
And she would not subject her squad to Iwa's medical crypt. That had to be one of the worst battle strategies she'd ever been compelled to witness or forced to be a part of.
Instead, she set up field medical's base in an enclaved area at the bottom of a tall cliff. It was a massive space, a hundred yards long and fifty wide. One side of the hundred-yard stretch opened onto the barren rocky land that was most of Earth Country. The craggy rock walls scaled toward the sky, protecting the base on its remaining three sides.
She stationed six guards atop the cliff, so high above them they were little more than ants. Now, in the after-midnight darkness, they were invisible to her. Their only job was to ensure medical wasn't ambushed from overhead, unlikely as it was. The drop was potential suicide, even for a shinobi.
If an enemy wanted to fall upon medical, he'd have to descend in small jumps, opening him fully to attack from below.
Forty-four other guards were stationed some distance away from the medics, protecting the exposed side of the base.
It was a large patrol, far bigger than Sakura had ever been given, and they were almost entirely ANBU-level. The owl-masked man she'd come to rely on was the guards' de facto leader. While Sakura was technically their commander, she'd be too preoccupied with maintaining Katsuyu to order them around on defense.
Since Madara targeted medical in recent battles, the numbers and skill were necessary. Shikamaru hoped the extra protection would keep her platoon up and running. All but six medics were ordered to port to safety if their guard was breached, and medical would shut down until the base was cleared again.
With over 8,000 shinobi to tend to, even ten minutes without medical could be catastrophic. Of course, Sakura could keep up with funneling chakra into Katsuyu even if field medical went down, but that wouldn't help the mortally wounded.
Ino, two other Yamanaka clan members, and Sagan were on a cliff wall ledge 20 feet above the clearing. Sagan's job was to sensor for incoming attacks. Although he wasn't the most gifted sensor, he was still highly skilled and, most importantly, familiar with the landscape and workings of Earth Country.
He was the best sensor left that Iwa could field.
Sakura had a ledge to herself, to the right of and slightly lower than the linkers'. Katsuyu's summoning circle was already active on it. Standing beneath her perch, she gazed across the darkened base.
It was massive for field medical. Double the size of any other base she'd commanded over.
The Medics had found areas apart from one another across what would soon be the Healing Ground, leaving enough space between them for the groups of patients they'd care for. She'd selected three runners for the battle and given every medic a stockpile of soldier pills for themselves and to distribute to healed patients.
Most of the shinobi she commanded over were familiar. She knew every medic from Konoha, most from Suna and Kiri, and those from Iwa she'd met last week.
All of them bowed when she strode past them—even those from Konoha, whom she'd known most of her life.
It was a gradual change over the past few weeks, she noticed. Something had shifted in the army at large. Sakura was gravitating from her role as Tsunade's student to something a little more like Tsunade herself. Eyes repositioned to the ground when she passed, heads nodded in acknowledgment. More people addressed her with honorifics, even significantly older shinobi.
She was the kunoichi that kept their army going. She was the one keeping them alive.
Not the Kage.
Kiri sent Ugai, his partner, and the younger male medic again. Like the other medics, they'd bowed to her when she approached them on the battle base yesterday—unlike their first meeting in Water Country months ago.
"Did the Mizukage send the girl?" she'd asked after the greetings.
"Muhei isn't combat anymore. She lost her twin brother in Sangosho and...hasn't been well." The boy had spoken at a space near her feet, a nervous edge to his voice. "But she'll be happy that Haruno-sama remembered and asked about her. I'll let her know."
Sakura wondered if it was her twin that Muhei froze over.
Her stomach gave a mule's kick as a memory bobbed to the surface. Black tagging a corpse to the pit of death—round, horrified eyes turning on her. Her hands on a young medic's shoulders, screaming in the girl's face. Watching the girl drop to the ground and leaving her there, frozen.
"...Tell her that I'm sorry."
"She's a good girl. I trained her." Ugai had smiled sadly. "She begged the Mizukage for orders when she found out Mimaru was being deployed. I asked Mei not to send her, but Muhei was persistent. I don't quite know whether I regret not fighting it harder. I don't know." He'd turned back to sealing salves and bandages in scrolls. "What's worse, seeing death take someone you can't save or finding out that it happened when you weren't there?"
It held a rhetorical tone, but the young medic had still muttered, I'd want to be there, before kneeling to help his elder.
Now, a day after that interaction, Sakura breathed deeply. The tension in the air sewed hot into the seams of her lungs as she weighed Ugai's question.
She agreed with the boy—better to be there than far away. It was the sole reason Sakura demanded to be in Ino's battles. Why she'd abhor Tsunade if Naruto died in hiding.
Death was inevitable. But to let your loved ones die alone, far away, with no company but the enemy...
That was unthinkable. Unforgivable.
The new moon hid in the sky, its absence bathing the earth in eerie gloom. In the crisp dark, it was impossible to know who was who. The stars basked them all in an almost-light, where she could see that people were far in the distance, but they were little more than black masses moving about.
A terrifying way to do war—but Sakura preferred the cover of night to the nightmare of day.
"The Kazekage requests an update," Katsuyu said from her shoulder.
"Medical is clear."
The army had moved into position almost two hours ago; she'd summoned the slug an hour later.
The space Sakura placed her squad in was nine miles from where the Allies planned to stage the battle. In terms of chakra depletion from teleporting, it was a short distance—while still long enough that Sagan could sense an attack coming at least five minutes in advance.
The average shinobi could run nine miles in about six minutes, unhindered. Any incoming threat should be easily intercepted with Sagan's warning.
Shikamaru had dispatched three scout teams when the Allies were set. So far, only one had encountered enemies. That was an hour ago—when Sakura summoned Katsuyu. Since then, it'd been quiet.
A deadly game of chicken. The anticipation was almost unbearable.
Everyone had their own way of dealing with it. Soft prayers carried on the wind, voices pleading to the heavens. Indiscernible dark shapes moved slowly through forms in the distance. Some did pushups. Others rolled chakra in a steady circle through their paths.
Sakura's way, as always, was to find someone else to distract herself with. But Ino was already in her army-wide mind-link and Shizune preferred to meditate before a battle, so she settled on monitoring the shadows of her platoon.
Drafty air nipped the naked skin of her wrists and toes.
She tried not to let her mind wander too far past, Would they all survive? and, How high would the casualties be?
But what other thoughts were there when faced with the inevitability of immediate war?
Madara's forces are moving in from the southeast. Battalions Three and Four, prepare for advance. Ino's voice pulled her from the introspection. Good luck. Stay strong.
Here it was.
"Stay calm and stay focused!" she shouted to the field before her, unsure if her voice carried far enough to reach the medics furthest out. "Don't be afraid to take your soldier pills!"
Hopping on her ledge, she settled with crossed legs. Adrenalin kicked in and set her heart off on a hard beat.
"Lady Katsuyu, can you ask the lead guard to come?"
He appeared beside her six seconds later, owl mask a haunting shade of white in the moonless air.
"Ready, Haruno?"
"Ready as ever. Any concerns with the guards?"
"None."
"Good. Alert me through Lady Katsuyu if that changes." She paused, then added, "If a fight comes, I'm granting you the authority to Call."
He bowed. "Understood. See you at the next battle."
She smiled at the phrase's familiarity—at its hopefulness. At the boundless weight such a short phrase held.
"Yes, I'll see you. Dismissed."
The first pop sounded from below as he body-flickered back to position. Sakura inhaled, closed her eyes, and mentally grabbed ahold of the 8,500 individual links to her summon.
Too many people, she thought before she could stop it.
Then she shoved the dread away. It would just have to be done.
"Please start the Healing Ground, Lady Katsuyu."
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There were so many pieces of Katsuyu to control. She'd broken out in a cold sweat after just an hour.
She could think of nothing but the thousands of slugs that split her consciousness across the battlefield, nothing but feeding the pieces that needed it and withdrawing chakra from those that didn't.
If she focused too hard on one individual, the pain of their injuries would ghost through her own body. The slash of a sword would tear across her own cheek. Poison would tickle her muscles. If she focused too hard, the pain would surprise her out of it.
It was a waltz between focusing just enough and not too much. With so many people to tend to at once, it should've been easier than it was.
Sakura had no idea how much time passed.
Eyes squeezed shut in concentration, a sharp pain bloomed at the front of her forehead.
Battle orders from Ino flowed into her mind, ignored. None were directed to medical. They were more of a nuisance than anything.
She'd never been responsible for so many troops and Healing Ground without any support from Tsunade. Her reserves would take a heavy hit if she didn't handle the link meticulously, so she retained tight control on her funneling. Due to the care, her reserves were barely dented. Certainly not to the extent such a numerous army might call for.
But it was savagely painful to keep up with over such a long time. Her brain pounded against her skull. She ignored it using the minuscule attention she had left to spare.
The presence on her back alerted her senses almost a second too late.
"Shit! Zetsus here!" someone shouted from the ledge above. Sagan.
Without thinking, she threw herself to the ground. A kunai gripped in a white hand missed her head by inches.
She was on her feet and turned the next second, a chakra-infused fist aimed at the entity behind her. Knuckles connected with a Zetsu's forehead, blowing through bone and brain before meeting cold rock, the wall doing nothing to stop the punch. The Zetsu's lifeless body went with it, forced into the tunnel her fist carved. His limbs folded and crunched their way into a stone tomb.
The cliff quaked in response, pebbles raining from above on her and linking like hail.
Shaking her hand to dislodge the wet something clinging to it, she ordered, "Tell Shikamaru that Zetsus are in the ground coming for medical."
The black sky glowed with the promise of light. By its color, it was nearing five in the morning.
"Command asks if you need assistance," Katsuyu relayed.
Five guards appeared around her, two more on linking's ledge.
"Orders?" asked the owl ANBU, beside her again.
"Hold, Lady Katsuyu." She turned to the lead guard as the other four took knees in a bow to her. "Send ten guards with Earth Release to the top of the cliff. Zetsu can move freely through the ground. The guards should be able to catch them with jutsu as they advance toward us."
"Understood." He flash-stepped away.
"You four keep guard around the base of the cliff and stop any Zetsu that get through."
"Yes, Haruno-sama," said one. The four of them jumped off the ledge and spread out around the edges of field medical.
She turned to the linking platform. "You two, return to your positions!"
They disappeared without a word.
Sakura lept into the spot they'd abandoned. Ino and the two other Yamanaka were drenched in sweat, their eyes pressed closed and hands on each other's knees in a circle.
Sagan stood and bowed. "Orders?"
The ANBU guards could deal with Zetsu—they weren't challenging enemies. But she and the linkers couldn't stay entirely focused if they had to worry about attacks from the walls.
"We're moving," she answered. "Lady Katsuyu, tell command we don't need assistance, but we need forty seconds to relocate linking."
It was too dangerous to move Ino in her concentrated state without warning her through Shikamaru or Gaara first. After a few seconds—
Linking is going down for forty seconds. Don't panic. Maintain orders.
The three Yamanakas blinked into the present. One of them, the youngest, vomited over the ledge, barely missing his own lap. Sakura knelt and pulled Ino's shaking frame up, draping the woman's arm over her shoulders.
"We have to get away from the cliff," she explained with a clipped voice. Sagan helped the sick man up before he could even finish emptying. The third Yamanaka was already on his feet. "We'll move to the space between base medical and the guards."
Tugging Ino's full weight onto her, she vaulted them both off the ledge. She led them through the field of injured shinobi, not looking down at any of the faces. Though dark enough not to see anything identifying on the splayed bodies, there was no blocking out the pained cries that filled the air.
She sat Ino down gently on the other side. The two other linkers were beside her in the next second, settling down around the head of their clan.
So young to hold such a position. Too young.
The women's gazes locked. Are you okay? Their thoughts bounced off one another. Don't die. Please don't die.
"Thank you," said Ino, holding the moment for another beat. Then she closed her eyes, made the Ram seal, and the two other Yamanaka followed.
Linking is back. Ino rang in her mind. A pause. Battalion One, move left four hundred yards to assist the fighters on Tobi.
Sakura rounded on Sagan. "You can't sense Zetsu?"
He bowed his head again. "No, commander. Not while they're in the ground."
"Very well." There was nothing to be done about it. It wasn't his fault; he probably didn't know that before this battle. "Report to the top of the cliff and sensor for attacks there. Send any information through Lady Katsuyu. Dismissed."
He disappeared.
The guard had otherwise operated flawlessly. Katsuyu gave brief reports of the ANBU's success in fending off at least 12 attempted attacks since the start of the battle. They were performing their job, allowing her and the other medics to complete theirs.
Dropping into the empty space left of the linkers, she bit her thumb and made a new summoning circle beneath her. It was easier to focus her chakra inside of it.
She resumed her work.
Her absolutely excruciating work. A mind shouldn't be split across so many links. Even Ino had help from her clan members in maintaining her mind-link.
Sakura didn't have the additional headspace to consider this conundrum, though. Her whole being was funneled into her jutsu.
There were injured shinobi on the battlefield that needed her, dying shinobi on the Healing Ground that required her, and nothing else.
Her life diminished until it was just her and Lady Katsuyu, divided into 7,000 pieces, scattered miles in every direction. She channeled and withdrew as fast as her brain could process, faster than she could even think. Over and over, feeling nothing but the summon and her responsibility.
"Shizune is requesting your assistance," said Lady Katsuyu, startling her out of concentration.
Her brow creased. "If it's not urgent, tell her I can't."
"It's urgent."
The slug's tone gave Sakura pause. Lady Katsuyu rarely sounded anything but helpful or upbeat, but that last statement rang guarded.
Tobi and Kajura are out. All troops move west to contain Sasuke and Hidan.
"Alright." Releasing her attentive control over her jutsu, she set a low stream of healing into Katsuyu's parts and stood with a pained breath. Her head throbbed.
And she decidedly ignored the skip of her heart at his name in Ino's orders.
Sasuke would be fine. It was the Allies ordered to face him that she should be concerned for.
To worry about the enemy was seditious—and, in this context, Sasuke was an enemy. She felt the chidori burns through her links. Woke Allied shinobi from genjutsu only an Uchiha could perform.
She left the thought. He wasn't important right now.
Dawn hung in the sky. The sun was low on the flat eastern horizon; a soft orange soaked the base.
Finding someone in particular in the hundreds of bodies that filled field medical was challenging, made even more tricky by her trying to intentionally not identify anyone on the Healing Ground. After a minute, she tentatively picked out Shizune's chakra signature in a far corner of the field and moved toward her.
"What is it?" Sakura asked, approaching.
Shizune knelt next to someone who was missing half their body. At least 40 shinobi were scattered around Shizune in various states of injury. All of them alive, some only barely. A few peered up at her like one might an angel, delirious in their pain.
Shizune glanced at her with a look that immediately made Sakura want to run away. Sakura didn't dare check who the medic hovered over, holding her chakra tight so she wouldn't recognize any signatures.
"You requested me?" she reiterated.
Dread crawled up her spine as Shizune's expression only worsened.
"Sakura."
Shizune's mouth hadn't moved. The voice blanked Sakura's mind.
No. Sakura's head shook slowly. No, she mentally begged Shizune. Shizune's lips pressed into a thin line as if she could read minds.
"Come here." It was the shallow, pained voice of someone dying. And when Sakura stood frozen—"It's okay. Come, Sakura."
It was the voice belonging to Tenten.
Sakura shut her eyes. Please, God. Let it be someone else. I won't ask anything else of you. Please. Cracking them back open, she glanced down.
It was Tenten.
She rushed forward, air sucked from her lungs in a single gasp, almost pushing Shizune out of the way. Green hands hovered over her friend, pulsing chakra into the sliced body without even scanning.
Her vision filled and spilled over. "You'll be okay," Sakura whispered, painfully aware that Tenten hadn't asked.
Half of Tenten was gone. It started at her right wrist, sideways through her right thigh, and into her left knee. Just...gone.
Bones peaked out of the three wounds; muscles oozed from their openings. Like a sword had cleaved downward, right through her in one swing. Just like the image in Sakura's panic attack.
Like Sakura had willed this into existence.
Tenten was covered in blood. There were finger tracks of it flaked across her face, clumped in her hair, soaking through her uniform. So much blood.
The Healing Ground stopped the bleeding as a tourniquet would, but Sakura could sense that Tenten had already lost too much. That the woman wouldn't survive without a transfusion—that she should probably already be dead.
"You'll be okay," Sakura repeated, maybe to herself, pounding chakra into Tenten.
She could seal the wounds. She could seal them and put Tenten to sleep until the battle ended. Tenten would sleep until they could find some blood for a transfusion. Sakura couldn't regenerate whole limbs—no one in the world could, but in time—
Tenten's left hand gripped the wrist of Sakura's green one. "Stop," she entreated, voice resolved. Strong.
Stronger than Sakura felt.
"No." Through the jutsu, Sakura felt the wound on her friend's wrist begin to close as she funneled more aggressively.
Unprompted, her mind dredged up the memory of—Tenten giggling in the halls of the first Chunin exam building, seeming so much older and more powerful than herself.
"Stop!" Tenten tugged at Sakura's wrist.
But it was weak, without any strength to make it happen. Sakura could easily ignore it—did ignore it. She pushed against Tenten's chest like trying to bring life back into it.
There is Tenten outside the dango stand in Konoha, laughing with Lee. She's inviting her over, offering a skewer of four and asking, These are your favorite, right?
"Sakura… Stop."
"No!" Sakura cried, sight so watered she could barely see. Looking up from Tenten's body to her face, she blurrily stared into the woman's beautiful milk-chocolate orbs and long, dark lashes.
Tenten is kneeling across from her over Hinata's torn body in the rubble of their town, tears in her worried cocoa-colored eyes. Is she going to be okay? Tenten asks for herself and for Neji, who stands behind them, wanting to know but unable to bring himself to voice it.
"I can save you," Sakura vowed like a prophet. "Let me. Please," she begged like a sinner before God.
Tenten smiled at her. Smiled.
And Sakura's mind shrieked—it was a smile that was going to haunt her, was going to drive her mad—Don't smile, you aren't dying, you cannot die, DON'T SMILE LIKE THAT—
Tenten is frowning and telling Naruto that the Konoha 11 won't stand by and watch him kill Sasuke on his own.
Sakura swallowed back a sob.
"I believe you," Tenten confessed. "But other people who'll cost less to save need you more, and I don't want to be saved like...this." Holding her mangled arm up, the skin and meat slid down and exposing the bone.
If she lived, she could never be a shinobi again.
But Tenten said the whole thing while smiling. The woman was missing half her body. She should've been writhing in pain or passed out from the shock, but she was smiling.
"I can fix this," Sakura breathed.
Tenten pulls a piece of barbeque meat off a hot plate, sniggering as Ino and Sakura fight over nothing and Hinata shies away from the noise.
"It's time—"
"Please, let me try. You have to let me..."
Tenten is helping her gather flowers for soldier pills.
There she is returning to base from a mission.
She is broken and sobbing over Lee's body.
There she is in Ino's tent, eating dinner quietly, reminiscing about her genin days.
Tenten is teaching her how to seal a liquid more efficiently.
Tenten is holding her as she cries about one of Naruto's letters.
There is Tenten yelling her name, laughing, pulling her from the medical tent to see the strange purple sunset.
Tenten was looking at Sakura like someone speaking to a child. "Shino once said you have a jutsu—"
"I-I can't..." Tenten asks about the boy Shino brought, who drowned in his own lungs.
"—that makes it quick."
"I can't! Don't do this, Tenten, don't—" Her hands were shaking. Her whole body was shaking.
How could she be responsible for this? It was too much.
There is Tenten on Shizune's cot, her eyes glazed over. You could die tomorrow and what can I do about it, really? Tenten asks, searching for an answer that doesn't exist.
"I'm not afraid. I know Lee and Neji are waiting, and... I'm tired, Sakura. I'm done."
Biting her tongue so hard that her mouth filled with blood, Sakura clutched Tenten's hand like strength alone would hold the woman to the earth.
Here is Tenten saying that she's done.
The memory burned itself into Sakura's brain as her tears dripped onto Tenten's face.
"I don't think I can do it myself, and I don't want to wait for it," said Tenten, staring right at her. Smiling. "Please."
"I can't do it either. I can't do this. Let me save you. I—" Something in Tenten's gaze choked her off.
It was the face of someone who wanted to die.
Tenten was going to die.
Tenten was going to die, and Sakura could make it quick and painless or painfully drag it out. Tenten's death rested firmly on her shoulders either way. Either way, Tenten was going to die. No matter what she did, Tenten was going to die.
Tenten was dying. She wasn't leaving this battlefield. They'd never eat another meal together. They'd never share another secret. She'd never tell another story about Team Guy, never watch another sunset, never help again in medical—
Tenten was dying and Sakura was shaking and—
"It's okay, Sakura. It's okay." A smile. "Please."
Here is Tenten dying.
The medic couldn't see past her tears.
As if in a trance, she forced herself to let go of Tenten and made the signs. Felt Tenten's central nervous system fall upon hers, its cadaverous condition almost overwhelming her own. Sakura wanted to let it.
Sakura wanted to die, too.
She couldn't do this. She couldn't do it.
Tenten stared up at her with a smile.
Sakura blinked hard, trying to see her friend's face clearly. Trying to etch it into her mind.
It didn't matter that it was bathed in blood and dirt. She would remember Tenten like this for the rest of her life, so she had better remember it right. Her kind chocolate eyes. The curve of her nose. Her full, pink lips curved in a stunning smile. The two buns atop her head. Everything about the woman was so enchanting.
"I can't do this," Sakura faltered.
"You can. I'm asking you to." Tenten fucking smiled.
She could do it. She could. Her friend would die, and she could make it painless. Her friend was dying, and she could be there through her last moments. Her friend Tenten wanted to die, and she wanted Sakura to do it.
She could do it.
"I love you," she whispered.
"I love you too, Sakura. Thank you."
Here is Tenten saying goodbye.
She couldn't do it. She couldn't. She could—
Sakura closed her fists.
Let herself remain connected to the link as it snapped off.
Felt the life on the other side of it end.
Begged her own to follow—please, just let this end, ple—but her heartbeat slammed against her chest the next second like a landslide.
Her head fell onto Tenten's lifeless chest, breaths quick and shallow, forehead rolling to rest on the woman's still belly. A shudder was sinking into her bones, her whole body overcome with growing quivers.
Shizune should not have called her here. How much more could this war ask of her? Why—why did she have to bear this? She couldn't—I'm done. I'm done, too. I can't—
Shizune's hand was next to her with a black tag.
"DON'T!" Sakura howled, ripping Shizune's whole arm back and placing herself between the two women.
Between Shizune, who was alive, and Tenten, who was dead.
"We have to," said Shizune with a palliative voice.
Her violently trembling grip tightened on Shizune's wrist. "I don't CARE!"
"Sakura..."
Something snapped.
In the world or in herself—it was impossible to tell, but then she was screaming. She screamed, bent back over Tenten's still body, and released Hundred Healings.
It flooded her summoning connection. She screamed and screamed and sobbed, and the ground under her turned a blazing green—beaming so bright it shone like a neon sun.
Its light doused the orange of the dawn so intensely it hurt to look at. The parts of Katsuyu on the shoulders of every shinobi pulsed and shone like brilliant viridescent beacons against the rising sun.
It was beautiful in a way that would drive Sakura insane.
She screamed and rammed her technique through Katsuyu.
No one else would die today. Not a single person more. She couldn't let anyone else die.
"Stop!" Shizune shouted.
But Sakura could barely hear her. She clutched Tenten's vest and sobbed. The black markings snaked from her hands onto her friend's corpse, crisscrossing Tenten's neck and forehead—useless.
She was useless.
"You must stop," Lady Katsuyu said worriedly in her ear.
Her friend was dead and she couldn't do anything!
The Kazekage orders you to stop, Haruno! a voice yelled in her mind. One of the Yamanaka's.
She didn't.
Sakura pushed more, and the ground turned so radiant under her that she had to close her eyes. Medics were clamoring across the field. Her body shook with the force of a seizure.
Why was she here? It was all so fucking futile—everyone wouLD DIE AND ALL I CAN DO IS WATCH—
"You'll drain all your reserves, Sakura," said Lady Katsuyu quietly.
"No one else can die," she mewled into Tenten's chest.
But even as the words came out, she clenched her dead friend's vest and tried to wrestle her mind for control. Tried to focus on Katsuyu's warning.
She couldn't break here. Not now. Not in battle.
Her piece of Katsuyu sent her own warm chakra back into her. "Tsunade-sama says, Please stop."
"OKAY! Okay!" she shrieked, fighting herself.
It was war. They were at war, in the middle of a battle; she had a responsibility, couldn't let herself fall apart. Sakura was the medical commander. She had so many other people to save.
She could save them. No one else could die.
No one else would die.
Tenten's bloody, smiling face swam into her head—there is Tenten saying goodbye—and Sakura screamed again. The neon green flared.
Hatake wants to remind you that the Allies will have to field Naruto if you're unable to summon Katsuyu in upcoming battles.
Naruto. Sakura grabbed ahold of his name and focused on it with a whimper. Naruto. If she drained herself here, it would be Naruto's job to chakra-cloak the Allies in battle. She couldn't let Naruto get orders.
Naruto was safe, away from this endless fighting, far removed from the battlefield that everyone here was trapped inside. That Tenten had died on.
Tenten was dead. Tenten was dead, and she was smiling, and Sakura couldn't do a fucking thing.
She held back the scream.
Don't break.
Not here. Not yet. Sakura inhaled deeply and—
And—
And—
She let go of Hundred Healings before releasing the breath.
Swallowed the scream.
Uncurled her fingers from Tenten's body and looked towards the sun. Vision locked anywhere but down, she turned to Shizune with dead, leaking eyes and shut her mind off completely.
Katsuyu and the ground stopped glowing. The field fell back into orange dawn.
"It was against protocol to summon me for this," she said, toneless.
Shizune bowed her head. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I only called because she asked for you."
In time, Sakura would likely be grateful to Shizune for it. But right now, she couldn't let herself think at all. Couldn't think of anything except healing. Absolutely couldn't.
Sakura pivoted away from her dead friend to place green hands on the injured shinobi to her left, gaping at her in awe. He was completely healed.
Shizune tagged Tenten's body at her back.
Here is Tenten leaving forever. She didn't look. She couldn't break.
"I'm sending you back." There was no emotion in her voice.
Pulling a yellow teleport tag from her pouch, she placed it on the shinobi's chest. He popped away, back to the fight.
A fight that Tenten would never leave.
She turned to the next person.
All those who'd been on the blazing Healing Ground were totally healed. Swallowing three soldier pills, she jumped to the teleport location instead, catching the injured more recently sent to medical.
She funneled into the thousands of Katsuyu with precision—scanned and healed the new arrivals all while maintaining the Healing Ground. It felt effortless now. Sakura could meticulously control her summon and manually heal at the same time without thought.
The pain in her head was nothing compared to what she was blocking herself from feeling; her mind was filled only with healing others.
She was barely alive.
Seal that wound, pull out that poison, release that genjutsu, set that bone, cauterize that artery.
Outside healing, she was nothing. She wasn't even human—she was a medic and nothing else.
She moved and thought only of the body under her hands and the thousands of bodies on the field, pouring her whole being into her responsibilities, keeping nothing for herself.
So focused on ignoring everything except her job, she didn't hear Ino announce that the battle was over. The shinobi in the field stopped receiving injuries that required Katsuyu, and new bodies were arriving less frequently...but she didn't allow herself to think about it long enough to make the connection.
She just kept moving. Move, don't think. Don't think.
There were fingers digging into her shoulder. Stopping her from moving.
Keep moving, don't think.
"We won," said a voice at the other end of the arm.
Sakura slid out of the grip and moved to the next body. He was missing a leg.
Like Tent—she left the thought and sealed the wound. Keep moving.
The hand was back, tighter this time. "You can release your summon. The battle is over."
"It's not over."
Then she was gently pulled up, away from her responsibility. Temari had both hands on Sakura's shoulders now, staring at her intensely.
"It is over. We won," Temari repeated. "You can stop. Let your platoon finish."
Sakura held her gaze without seeing, without letting any thought cross her mind. She couldn't.
"It isn't over. Some still need healing."
Temari's brow darkened as she examined Sakura's face. "Fine," she finally acquiesced, releasing Sakura's shoulders. "Then I'll stay and help you. But release the slug, at least... We don't need you to maintain it any longer."
"Okay." Sakura cut her connection to Katsuyu without bidding the summon her usual farewell. The Healing Ground disappeared, and the portion on her and Temari's shoulders popped away.
Sakura turned her empty sights towards the ground again and searched for her next patient. Clasping her elbow, Temari guided her to a shinobi some yards away shouting in pain. Sakura bent to heal the man—Temari kneeled with her, a soft hand on her back.
The Suna woman stayed with Sakura for over an hour, steering the medic through the field of injured shinobi, doing nothing more than keeping a warm hold on the medical commander's body.
.
.
Eventually, she was pulled away from the field by Shikamaru.
She saw the worried look that passed between him and Temari but didn't allow herself to think about it. Wouldn't let any thought stick too long in her mind.
"Sakura." His voice was soothing. "Do you think you can help with Ino?"
She nodded without thinking. "Yes."
"Good. Okay. Thanks, Temari," he said, his hand taking the place of his girlfriend's on Sakura's arm. "Then I'll take you to her."
He walked them through the field of injured slowly. The medics they passed bowed their whole bodies towards her, just as they did when Tsunade entered medical. Sakura didn't think about that either.
When they arrived at the place Sakura had housed linking, Ino was on her knees staring across the field, a senseless look to her. The other two Yamanakas sat nearby with only minimally better expressions.
Relief washed over her. Ino was alive.
She allowed herself to hold that thought.
Kneeling, she cupped Ino's cheek. Despite the air about Ino's shoulders, the woman's skin was warm and full of life.
"Ino. We won." Unwilling to think hard enough to find her own, she merely restated Temari's words.
"Won?" Ino gazed beyond Sakura as if the word's meaning was hidden somewhere among the bodies. "Won?" she repeated.
Shikamaru dropped to their level, reaching to grasp Ino's hands. His presentation was controlled as ever, but dirt was on his face, and clean tracks ran through the grime from his eyelids down to his chin.
"Yes," he answered. "We won."
The burden of winning fell on the three of them, something they'd be forced to share forever. They'd never escape this place—they were never getting off this battlefield.
"It's over?" Ino asked, soft like an infant.
He nodded. "For today."
Then Shikamaru glanced at Sakura as if requesting backup, and before she could stop it, she thought, Do they know about Tenten?
In an instant, her mind crashed back into her. She shuddered against a compounded pain that cracked her skull like an explosion.
Tenten had smiled as she asked for and met death. Smiled.
There is Tenten leaving forever.
Suddenly the three of them were on a shattered battlefield, a thousand Tentens all around, all of her bodies cleaved in half, begging for death and smiling. And because there was no good way to say someone died except to just say it—
"Tenten is dead."
Shikamaru's eyes widened and glossed over, the clean tracks on his face suddenly shimmering with fresh tears. Ino's fingers tensed on her wrist, on the hand still cupped around the woman's cheek.
"No," whispered Ino, voice filled with quiet horror.
Shikamaru's sober stare was harrowing to behold. "...Was it Hidan?" he asked, though it sounded like he didn't really want to know.
It sounded like he already knew.
Because it was under his orders that Tenten was always dispatched to Hidan's containment squad. He was the one who organized the members of today's special forces. He was supposed to have trapped Hidan in the Nara Forest permanently.
Sakura thought of how Tenten's body had only half existed, lying under her, smiling. She looked over Shikamaru's shoulder at the Tenten that bled out behind him, her blood creeping toward them over the barren stone ground. How the cleave wounds were sharp and precise.
The clean work of a scythe.
"Yes."
Turning away, Shikamaru heaved his guts onto the earth. It splashed back onto his face, its puddle rivering across the hands that supported his body. He retched until he gagged up air. Then he shrieked in a deep, broken way, aiming it at the ground, loud and bitter until it choked off in a sob.
Ino cried without sound beside him, her gaze disordered and inward again.
Sakura watched. Empty.
This was what winning a battle felt like.
.
.
Tsunade and Kakashi greeted her carefully two days later. Slowly.
Sakura didn't mind. She preferred it.
Holing herself away in medical every waking hour, she downed soldier pills anytime she felt fatigued or noticed her active reserve dip. Shikamaru and Ino hovered around her, unwilling to let her be alone—or maybe reluctant to be alone themselves.
She healed the strain in Ino's mind and the minor wounds on Shikamaru's body, but no shinobi had unlocked a technique to heal a heart.
There was no curing a wound only marked by the lack-of. Tenten's absence was palpable.
Kakashi received the news to pass to Guy. She didn't have the nerve to. All his students were dead; surely, Guy would break after this. How could he endure it?
Sakura could let Tenten break her if she leaned into it. If she just turned and looked into the chocolate eyes that smiled at her in her periphery. If she laid down, Tenten's body would fall on top of her, only half as heavy as it should be. Tenten's voice would find her if she sat in the quiet long enough. Her friend's blood could drown her if she stood still too long, the thick red liquid inching up her ankles, up her calves.
And Sakura could let it.
But she wouldn't.
She had so much responsibility to fulfill. So many more lives relied on her. Naruto's safety depended on her. Sakura knew this. It was repeated to her numerous times over the past two days by Shizune, by Tsunade, by Kakashi.
No one let her go more than a few hours without reminding her that she belonged to more than just herself. She wasn't allowed to be selfish. Wasn't allowed to wallow over one gone when there were hundreds still here.
So she couldn't turn to look at Tenten's smile. Instead, she leaned into Ino and Shikamaru, grateful they rarely left medical.
And since Shikamaru was there, Temari frequented medical, too. The Suna woman loomed about the three of them like a worried hen, but what could she do? She brought Gaara once, who'd hugged Sakura and assured her that Naruto was safe.
And that was all anyone could do. Nothing.
There was no way to bring back the dead.
The dead stayed dead until they rose from the ground to torment her. Until she turned a corner too quickly and came face to face with a ghost. Until their smiling corpse grasped her arms, her feet, her neck—pulled her down to join them as the war intended.
The dead stayed dead, except that they were far more present than anyone left alive.
When the battle debrief happened, no one spoke about the luminous Healing Ground or the illuminated Katsuyus. No one talked about how the three commanders from Konoha sat listless and hushed. How it was Shikamaru's job as battle commander to lead the debrief, but Gaara and Temari did instead. How one of the Yamanaka clan members who'd assisted Ino with linking was part of the debrief, despite not having the required Classed. How Shizune fielded all the questions asked about medical.
No one said anything, but the Kage regarded Tsunade with disapproval.
It seemed to the whole room that Konoha had pushed their commanders too far. Like maybe the Hokage had broken them.
The Allies only lost a little over 20 percent of their forces. It was the most successful battle of the entire war—they decisively won.
Sakura stared at her fingers clasped on the table as voices spoke excitedly around her, the words drowning into one another in her ears.
If she looked up too fast, Tenten would be in the seat across from her, smiling. If she focused too hard on the Hokage's words, she'd hear Tenten saying, I'm tired, Sakura. I'm done. The room was closing in around her, Tenten's apparitions were multiplying in the air. If she breathed too deep, she might breathe her in—
A hand fell onto her clutched ones, warm and real.
The tent walls seemed to fall away, back to where they should be. Her sights slid slowly up the arm to Shikamaru's face. He gazed into her, expression mirror what she felt. Sakura flipped her right hand up to hold his.
Sounds swam back into focus; the smiling Tentens faded away.
"-ole four and a half years. This could be the turning point we've been waiting for," said Tsunade, on her feet near the head of the table. "Good job, everyone."
Some people around the table smiled and clapped half-heartedly, averting their eyes from the corner where Konoha's commanders sat. Except for Temari, who crossed her arms and examined Shikamaru, perturbed. Kakashi had his forehead resting on his palms. The Tsuchikage sat unnaturally motionless next to the Mizukage. The Yamanaka stood by Ino's chair, a palm on his clan head's slightly shaking shoulder.
But most of the bodies around the room allowed themselves to feel the fleeting pleasure of success. They smiled at one another—the way the forever-22 Tenten would always smile now.
Sakura gripped Shikamaru's hand and glared at the table, holding tears back through willpower alone.
This was what winning a war felt like.
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As always, thank you to my beta-reader Leech :)
Please let me know what you thought...
and have a good week!