A/N: So when I said I had plans for the war arc...turns out the war arc is veerrry long, so I decided to approach and divide it by days, according to canon. So here's day one, which I had far less plans for then the subsequent days. Sorry about that.
"Inner Sakura..."
"Sakura's thoughts..."
memory
writing
Standard disclaimers apply.
Sakura stood, one among many, all lined up facing the division leaders. All around her, she could hear the arguments of fellow shinobi alliance members breaking out. It was to be expected. So many of them had been at war with each other for so long, they couldn't all be expected to just start getting along immediately. Tensions were high.
Gaara stood at the front as the commander-in-chief, hearing the wave of arguing descend on his subordinates. As one argument in particular escalated to a near fist fight, Gaara knew it was his job as commander-in-chief to intervene. They all needed to get on board with this alliance now, or the war was lost before it begun.
A swirl of sand rose between a sand shinobi and a stone shinobi, forcefully separating them before they could make contact with each other.
"In the name of gain and profit for one's nation and village, shinobi have hated and hurt each other for many years, from the first to the third great wars. That hatred desired power, and I was born. In the past, I was hatred and power, and a Jinchuriki. I hated the world and all the people in it. I often thought about destroying it all. In some ways, I was no different than the Akatsuki in my plans." Gaara spoke, his voice carrying over the crowd of shinobi.
Sakura, looked around, noting how everyone had stilled to listen, and smiled softly. "Gaara has always had that effect. Before, it was because he was terrifying and intimidating. Now, people still and listen not 'cause they're scared, but out of respect. He commands honor, and everyone gives it to him, because there's no other feasible response. He's come so far."
"But two Konoha shinobi stopped me."
There are…a lot of things I fear…you aren't one of them…
I love you. It's…different then how you feel about me, but that doesn't mean I mean it any less, Gaara-kun. I love you.
…The way you feel…I dunno way but…I understand it so well…the hurt…
You had us worried!
"One of those Shinobi addressed me as a friend, and forgave me even while I slowly killed her. And later, without any ill will listened to me, treated and protected me, more than once, despite the fact that we were once enemies. The other cried for me, his enemy! He called me friend even though we had done battle. He saved me! We were on different sides, but we were both Jinchuriki. There can be no bad blood between those who have experienced the same pain! There can be no bad blood between those who are really willing to see and listen to others! There are no enemies here in front of me! For we all bear the pain of having been hurt by the Akatsuki! There is no sand, no stone, no leaf, no mist, or cloud! There is only Shinobi!"
No one moved. No one spoke, the crowd riveted by Gaara's words. Sakura heard all of it. Every word he spoke, the pain and fondness in his voice, his sincerity, his determination.
"You've done so well, Gaara-kun, and come so far from where you were. I'm so proud of you!"
"If you still can't forgive Suna, you can come back and face me when this war is over!" Gaara shouted, staring directly at the hidden stone ninja who'd picked the fist fight. "One of those friends that saved me is standing among you, placing herself in danger you couldn't fathom to keep you all safe and alive during the course of this war, because that other friend of ours, who saved me, is now a target of our enemy! If he falls into their hands, this world as we know it is finished! I want to protect that friend, and this world! I am too young! Too inexperienced! So please…Lend me your strength!"
And just like that, Gaara had gotten everyone on his side. Sakura beamed with pride at the roar of support that went up from the allied shinobi forces.
"All who feel as I do, follow me!" Gaara called, met with another resounding roar of agreement.
Sakura followed Kakashi through the woods to their front, and then held as they waited for the signal.
"Sakura."
She turned to face Kakashi, eyes determined and serious.
"I know what you're going to say, sensei. I'm here as a field medic first and foremost. Don't engage in close combat, avoid combat at all if I can, do not get hit, and see to it that my comrades don't die. No casualties."
"Actually, I was going to ask how it felt to be acknowledged by the Commander-in-chief of the allied shinobi forces, openly as one of his two saviors?"
"Uhhmm…wait, there was no way that's what you were gonna ask!" Sakura deflected, but others nearby had already heard.
"That was about you?!"
"No way! The commander-in-chief's savior is in our platoon?!"
"So you're the medic that saved Kazekage-sama!"
"He didn't mention she was so pretty…"
"Do you think Kazekage-sama's in love with her? Does this mean I don't have a shot?"
"Incredible! She saved someone as strong as the commander-in-chief multiple times?"
"Treating him as a friend while he nearly killed her—she's gotta be the kindest person in the world or the craziest!"
"I've been treated by her in the hospital before! Sakura-san's an absolute angel!"
"Don't worry savior-san! We'll protect you with our lives!"
Sakura, overwhelmed with the sudden influx of attention, stepped closer to her sensei.
"What the hell, Kakashi-sensei?!" She hissed quietly. "Why would you announce that?!"
"A few reasons." He answered enigmatically, though the largest was in hopes that there would be responses like that last comment. To highlight that Sakura was not only the medic of the platoon, but also someone of deep value to the commander-in-chief, and platoon head, and thus her survival was imperative.
"Name one." Sakura hissed, clearly uncomfortable with the level of undivided attention she was now receiving.
"To force you to own the fact that you're a hero, for one. To give them someone to fight for, for another."
True enough, there were resounding cries about her beauty and declarations to protect her coming from all sides. Some shouted promises to confess to her if they survived this. Of course, Kakashi would never approve of any of them for her. Sakura had already set her heart, and thus was spoken for. If she did ever open up to the possibility of loving another, the only three he truly approved of were Naruto, Gaara, and Shikamaru, and Shikamaru seemed to already be looking elsewhere, if his time with Temari was any indication. Naruto and Sakura had seemed to reach an understanding of some sort as well, and Naruto seemed to be gravitating more towards Hinata, by his observations. So really, all that was left was Gaara. And while he approved…that would be difficult, because politics would inherently become involved, which was always messy. So…when it came down to it, Sasuke was the only one for her. Which was also messy, but Sakura had already made that choice, and he'd seen just how much Sasuke loved Sakura. Kakashi would personally put every single boy that stood in their way in the ground if he had too, he just wanted her to be happy. However, people tended to stay alive and fight harder when they had someone they wanted to protect and fight for. Some of them probably already had that, but many of them were young—closer to Sakura's age, which meant less time to form bonds worth living for. So dangling the hope of that—certainly a manipulative move—hopefully spurred them to fight harder and survive more. And most importantly, protect Sakura.
"So I'm the stay alive bait." Sakura drawled, never one to miss a thing.
Kakashi smiled at her from behind his mask. "Just trying to inspire my troops."
"Glad I could help. I don't need protection though, sensei. I've been trained to survive, in part by you. And that was the first thing I learned under shishou."
"And yet you have a reckless streak that could rival Naruto's." Kakashi answered, unbothered. "I know you don't need protection. I just wanted to stress who our squad medic was and all the reasons she should survive this."
Sakura was quiet for a long moment. "You're really worried, huh sensei?"
"You've never been in war before Sakura. I wish you never had to be."
"I won't make you worry sensei. I'm gonna survive."
"How many times do I have to tell you, you'll always make me worry."
"You sound like my mom." Sakura said, her eyes soft and tone fond.
That was a precious compliment coming from Sakura, and one he took to heart. He reflexively reached out to tussle her hair.
"Stay sharp. I'm relying on you."
"You got it sir." Sakura smiled.
She could feel the tension of war and imminent battle all around her. It bled from every person in the platoon—mostly men. And in breathing that tension in, she understood. Before Kakashi's little manipulation the tension had been loaded with anxiety and fear. After, the tension remained but the anxiety had been replaced by determination, the fear with camaraderie. Gaara had gotten everyone on his side—he'd gotten everyone to cooperate. This was Kakashi's move for the same—to get his platoon united, except rather than uniting them under him, he'd united them around her. They would still listen to him without question, but he'd given them a common rallying point and goal: keep her safe. And since it was obvious he would be following that directive as well, they would follow him.
She supposed she couldn't fault him for the tactic, even if it used her as a tool. She was the unit medic. Her job was to look after and maintain their well-being. If this move had lowered their anxiety and fear, that was better for their well being. If she spun it that way, than this was just part of her job.
The tension rose when a red flare shot into the sky. But even so, it was a tension born of determination.
"It's the commando unit…let's go!" Kakashi ordered, and they all shot off.
Kakashi leapt ahead, stopping the kunai from stabbing Sai where he plummeted.
"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei!" Sai said.
"Don't kick up your heels just yet. These are all bothersome shinobi." Kakashi warned, his eyes darting between their enemies. Pakura of the Sand, Gari of the stones, Haku and Zabuza.
"Master Kakashi!" Haku gasped.
"I knew I would have to fight, but I never imagined it would be against you, Kakashi. That day on the bridge, you were supposed to finish me off and send me to hell." Zabuza rasped. "But when I came to, I was with Haku. I thought it odd then. So this is neither hell nor heaven."
"This is the world of the living. You shouldn't be here." Kakashi answered, resolutely. What was going on? Why were shinobi long since dead standing among them…fighting them?
Even though it was the last thing she was supposed to do, Sakura found her confusion carrying her three steps forward, away from the platoon. "Zabuza? Haku?"
"What? You know them, Sakura-san?"
"Sakura-san, stay back! Wait for Captain Karachi's signal!"
Zabuza glanced over Kakashi's shoulder at the pink-haired young woman. "Ho! You've grown up, Karkashi's little kunoichi." He greeted, looking directly into her eyes. "You've hardened more. Did you actually take a life?"
"Yeah…I did. Sasori of the red sand."
"Akatsuki? That's a powerful enemy. You must have grown a lot. You were so weak back then."
"I know…I found a focus—medical ninjutsu."
"Medical ninja aren't usually in combat, how'd you end up killing Sasori?"
"Thorough teacher." She answered. "How are you here?"
"We're not sure." Haku answered.
"Are you…you sound in control of yourselves…"
"Our minds are ours, but we can't control our bodies." Haku explained. "I apologize for any attacks. They aren't personal."
Immediately her mind was whirring. "Shikamaru asked months ago who the Akatsuki forces were—it wouldn't be possible to wage war against all shinobi nations with only three people. We never did figure out an answer but…the dead never even made it to our consideration list. That's insane! Who would do that?!…Orochimaru, probably. But he's dead. But…is Kabuto? Or maybe one of the other sound—no. He wasn't trusting. Kabuto was his right hand man, his second in command. So if this jutsu is at all related to him…it's probably because of Kabuto. Their mind is still theirs though…is that the jutsu being done wrong? Not having enough chakra to overtake their will? Or is the jutsu incomplete? Is it a jutsu at all or some sort of experiment—no it has to be a jutsu. There's no scientific way to bring the dead back like this. This is…wrong. It's not fair to the dead to disturb them like this! How dare these psychos mess with this! This is so fucked up, Shannaro!"
"And that other lad still doing well?" Zabuza asked, jarring Sakura from her mental work.
"Huh?! Uh…which one?"
"The loud spazzy blonde kid. He defeated us. He must be famous." Zabuza stated.
"Yeah, they named that bridge after him. The Great Naruto Bridge! To everyone in that village he's a hero." Kakashi said casually, recognizing when Sakura's mind was placing information.
"Heh…" Haku smiled, his wrist held steady by Lee, preventing him from loosing his senbon.
"Thanks to the two of you, Naruto was able to discover his shinobi way. He pledged to follow it at your grave. He's now quite the splendid shinobi." Kakashi said, his eye jumping back to Sakura to see if she'd figured anything out.
"Even if it's a fault in the jutsu…in a way, it's psychological warfare as much as it is physical…at least, depending on who they bring back. There has to be rules or limitations to it…there probably has to be a body to bring back…and, they wouldn't bring back just anyone…Sasori used human puppets because they retained the chakra and jutsu of the original body. So they'd pick shinobi with strong chakra and jutsu, probably with kekkei genkai. And their bodies are being controlled…how? To monitor that many…is it like the network healing, or Sasori's hundred puppets…or is it more autonomic then that? Like they're given a directive and then carry it out whether they wish for it or not…wait. If they're bringing back kekkei genkai…there's no way they won't bring back Itachi!"
"Well, then he'll only continue to get stronger." Haku said, smiling.
"You guys are back, and you can't control your bodies…" Sakura said, her eyes darting between the resurrected shinobi. "Did you see who resurrected you?"
"Some snake-freak."
"Orochimaru? That's not possible, he's dead…" Sakura shook her head, "nope focus. They picked you. Cause your powerful. You killed everyone from Mist's graduating class when you were—like eight? And you have an ice style kekkei genkai…"
"Pakura and Gari also have kekkei genkai." An ally informed her.
"So they picked who they brought back carefully, based on strength and ability criteria. So we can assume that they will probably also bring back any deceased Kage, any deceased but renown ninja with a clan style or kekkei genkai, all of the Akatsuki…sensei, if the Uchiha bodies weren't completely mutilated and destroyed…they might bring back the Uchiha clan."
Kakashi grew very serious. That was an absolutely horrible and completely plausible analysis. "I'll pass on your suspicions to HQ…be ready."
"This is just a guess, but to pull off a jutsu of this magnitude, it's unlikely that they could just raise the dead. They probably needed to physically obtain the bodies, or at the very least, a lot of genetic material."
"So if there are any reports or sightings of recent grave diggers…it may be a lead."
"It's a hypothesis. Anyway, if they're already dead, they'll be no killing them. They'll just keep attacking. If it's like a puppet jutsu, getting the jutsu caster is the only sure fire way to stop it, but…if they're reanimated with their souls…maybe severing the connection is enough," she said, recalling the sealing jutsu Lady Chiyo had attempted to use to stop Sasori. "Sealing them should work."
"Your real time analytical skills have grown stronger, Sakura-san." Haku complimented.
She remembered how she measured herself against him back then, and the dip her self confidence and self esteem took when she failed.
Kakashi nodded grimly. "Fall back Sakura."
Sakura took three steps back, rejoining the fleet of ninja, many of whom immediately took a protective step forward.
"Good call." Zabuza rasped, as a demonic face formed above him.
"Isn't that…?" One shinobi around her gasped.
"Yeah, no mistake!" Another answered, a slight tremor of fear in his voice. "That's the demon Momochi Zabuza! And the accursed snow clan child with the ice style!"
"That Aura! The Demon Zabuza! Another ice style ninja!" Gai gasped.
"Prepare yourselves! Don't let your guard down, Gai! He is unparalleled at silent killing!" Kakashi warned, as the troops fell into battle stances.
"Ugh. My mind…foggy." Haku groaned.
All the resurrected shinobi seemed to be struggling against something, grabbing at their heads.
"Master Kakashi, I beg of you! You must stop us again!" Haku pleaded, turning to face the copy ninja. "My dream was to die an instrument of Master Zabuza! The fact that Master Zabuza too is here under the influence of this jutsu means I failed to protect him from you that day. And now not only can I not protect Master Zabuza, I cannot even do his bidding!"
"No…you did indeed protect Zabuza." Kakashi countered, remembering that day on the bridge with vivid clarity. "He died from a different cause. Plus…Zabuza never thought you were merely a tool to use for his destructive whims."
Haku gasped, turning to face Zabuza, whose face remained blank.
"Kakashi…shut your mouth." Zabuza growled.
"Naruto carved up the depths of Zabuza's heart."
Zabuza's memory flooded with that day on the bridge as well…with every single word Naruto had spoken to him.
Sakura watched, her eyes narrowing. The other risen shinobi seemed to have already succumbed to…someone's total control. But not Zabuza and Haku. Not yet.
"Maybe it's like Ino-chan's mind transfer…the stronger their willpower the more they can resist fully succumbing to the jutsu. But it doesn't do much other than allowing them to stay conscious. But they don't become the jutsu caster, they just have their will overtaken and become a full puppet. So its more of a mix of Sasori's human puppets and Ino-chan's mind transfer…or even that other technique she told me about, the mind disturbance jutsu. Both of which you beat by knocking out the jutsu caster."
"Heh…that day was my first defeat ever. Kakashi don't hold back. Use whatever means necessary to stop me. Remember…I am already dead! And I died a human!" Zabuza proclaimed.
Kakashi lifted his forehead protector, revealing his sharingan. "I know."
The last thought Haku had before his will was overtaken, was gratitude to his Master Zabuza.
"Here they come!" Kakashi warned.
"Captain Kakashi, that Iwagakure ninja is a master of explosion style kekkei genkai! His name is Gari! He's like Deidara, a former demolitions unit member! And that woman is Pakura, a sunagakure scorch style kekkei genkai master! Please be wary!" An older ninja informed him.
"All kekkei genkai users, huh?" Kakashi muttered, watching as Zabuza started his mist jutsu. "Assemble battle groups with sensory type ninja at the center! The other members cover 12,3,6 and 9 o'clock positions in standard manji formation! Zabuza can pinpoint a targets location based on sound alone."
Gai, Lee, Sakura, and Kakashi were the ones to group up, being closest to the front lines, Gai, Lee, and Kakashi's stances remained wide and low, while Sakura assumed a starting dance position.
"The mist is getting thicker! Visibility is near zero! It must be the hidden mist jutsu!" Gai announced, his eyes pinging back and forth in an attempt to see through the ever-growing haze.
"Do not be afraid, Sakura-san! I shall protect you even if I must die in the process!" Lee declared.
"You won't be dying on my watch, Lee-san. Last time, he attached us from the one blindspot in this formation, the center. So watch your back too!"
Kakashi nodded. It was because she knew that, that he was allowing her to stand as a guard in this formation rather than the protected position. Given Sakura's battle style, being boxed in so closely would put her at a disadvantage to react if the center got attacked.
"Huh? Oh…O-Okay!" Lee stuttered, touched by Sakura's proclamation to protect him. She truly was the most radiant blossom of Konoha!
The temperature began to drop around them, which didn't bother Sakura physically—she quite liked the cold—but she knew what it meant. Haku had begun utilizing his ice style. Suddenly grunts and cries of pain surrounded them.
"It's begun!" Kakashi said, turning towards the closest cry of pain, his sharingan uncovered. Sakura's muscles tensed, unsure of what she should do. Her medical instincts told her to run towards the sound of the injured, her shinobi instincts told her to hold formation—if she moved, she was leaving Kakashi, Gai and Lee wide open to attack. Being the unit field medic in a war was different than any of her other missions acting as a medical ninja. There were many more she was solely responsible for, during active combat where she also needed to answer to a commanding officer…maybe it wasn't that different, but she'd been more comfortable bending and breaking rules when it was just team 7. If she did that now and showed insubordination, others might do the same and start disregarding Kakashi's orders. Once that started, there would be no hope.
"Just wait, Sakura…" Kakashi murmured, as if reading her mind.
"S-Sensei…"
"I need you to listen to me. This is a war. People will die. Members of this unit will die. You will not be able to save them. It has nothing to do with you, or your skill level, or not moving fast enough, and everything to do with the situation. There will death and dying, and nothing you can do for them. I need you to accept this right now, because I can't have you freezing later because of it." Kakashi spoke hurriedly as more cries of pain and final breaths filled the air.
For a mili-second, her surroundings faded and all Sakura heard was her own heart beat, as the onslaught of helplessness that perpetually plagued her through her life threatened to overwhelm her.
"I'm scared! I don't want to be useless! I don't want so many people to die, and have not even tried to help them! I don't want to be in this war!"
And then Sakura breathed.
"Alright! That's enough now! We'll work our hardest, and do our best, and that'll be what it is, shannaro!"
"Here she comes!"
"Scorch style! Super steam kill!"
"I'm burning! Agh!"
Shouts and death filled the air, and flooded her ears. To her right, there was a loud explosion as Gari used his explosion style.
"Don't worry sensei, I'm prepared." Sakura answered quietly, her voice level and serious.
"Good. On my signal."
Sakura nodded.
"No! Tajiki blew up!" A squadron member cried in the aftermath of the explosion, his face splattered with his dead friend's blood. "Monster!" He yelled, charging Gari, and not realizing he was also charging towards one of Haku's ice mirrors.
"Now!" Kakashi signaled, understanding the pattern.
"Leaf hurricane whirlwinds!" Gai and Lee chorused, intercepting Haku before he could kill the man.
Sakura danced her way through the chaos, sliding to a stop at the first injured person she found that she could tell wasn't an automatic write-off. It was triage rules again…there could be no wasting time with black tags. Healing chakra flowed into the injured man as she kept alert for nearing danger. She could not get hit. She could not get injured. She could not fall.
Who will heal the team if the medical ninja dies?
No one. Which was why she wouldn't die.
"Might Gai!" The man Gai and Lee rescued gasped, as Haku retreated to a safer distance.
"Comrades will die on the battlefield! You've got to prepare yourself for that fact! If you lose focus, you'll cause even more to die! Don't allow their deaths to have been in vain! Got that, newbie?!" Gai shouted.
Sakura took his words in, steeling herself. She knew how to be tough, cold, hardened. She discovered she had the capability to go there during their first encounter with Zabuza. Accessing that place as a medical ninja felt counter intuitive, but it wasn't beyond her. Already she could feel the internal defenses rising around herself, prepped for an onslaught of death she couldn't prevent. It just meant all the more that she couldn't lose the patients she did take. If they were a red tag, she'd stabilize them and pull them to safety. If they were a yellow, she'd down grade their case to green and tell them to get to safety. If they were green she'd heal them in full. No wasting chakra, no wasting time. Calm face for the patient, but speaking firmly and acting with urgency. No margin of error. She could do it.
"Get to safety!" She ordered her patient, and then moved on to the next one.
Behind her, Gari and Pakura did a summoning that had Zabuza leaping away to join whatever it was that they had summoned—past members of the seven ninja swordsmen of the mist.
"This is unbelievable" Kakashi grunted.
"Th-those are…" A squadron member gasped.
"The seven swordsmen, eh?" Kakashi sighed. But he had a plan, the Yamanaka clan was doing well to keep all the platoon heads connected to both each other and their own squads, and he had a Yamanaka and a Nara in his squad. It was time to utilize more precise battle strategies.
Sakura didn't know Kakashi's plan, nor did she have time to worry about it. That wasn't her role. She had her own job to carry out.
"Everyone, attack together! Buy me some time!" Kakashi ordered, which in a way, made her job a bit easier.
Everyone surged forward to attack leaving those who were injured behind, allowing her to move more freely between them. Sakura flitted between the injured efficiently bringing them out of critical condition, and healing many enough to return to combat.
But then she heard a sharp cry from in front of her.
"Master Kakashi!"
Sakura was up immediately, dashing toward the familiar scene. Haku had acted as a shield for Zabuza, except this time, under full control of their enemy, Zabuza really had heartlessly cut through Haku to kill Kakashi. Zabuza leapt away, putting distance between himself and Kakashi. She knew there was a plan in place, from the positioning of the Nara clan member, and a squadron comrade a few paces behind Kakashi, but her sharp eyes caught the wide gash across his torso, steadily leaking blood. Depending how deep it was, that was three vital organs that might be damaged—for any medic other than her, Tsunade, and Shizune, an impossible injury to heal, and even for them, it would be rough…hopefully it wasn't that deep. But this was Zabuza, one of the seven swordsmen, and trained assassin. Sakura didn't want to place too much hope in unlikely luck. The sooner she got a chance to get to work on him, the better.
"Sensei—"
"You won't let me die, Sakura." Kakashi said calmly, the faith in his voice unwavering.
"He's damn right I won't, shannaro! But he's gotta finish this fast so I can heal him, that wound is bad…"
"I've captured the shadow of one of the enemy! But there's been too little contact time with the second one's shadow! I can't freeze his movements!" The Nara clan member reported.
"Contact time?! You meant Captain Kakashi getting slashed by Zabuza?! Of course that's too short!" The Yamanaka member shouted.
Kakashi stared at Zabuza, scenes of Team 7's first C-turned-A rank mission swimming through his head. Zabuza and Haku both had done so much for Sasuke and Naruto. And while Sakura hadn't interacted with them as directly, she'd learned so much about being a shinobi through observing those battles. He was no longer fighting Zabuza and Haku. Their wills had been dominated and their deaths desecrated. That, he couldn't forgive.
Kakashi smiled, looking out at Zabuza. "I'm glad you were team 7's first adversaries."
Zabuza hefted his sword, and Kakashi's hands flew through seals, the sound of chirping birds filling the air.
"Maki, until I give the signal, stay behind me. Get the cloth paralysis jutsu ready to go!" Kakashi ordered seriously.
"Yessir!"
Kakashi watched as Zabuza charged him. "Zabuza, you hesitated to slice through Haku that day. You couldn't hide the unrest in your heart over Haku's death. But things are different today! You're just an emotionless tool of evil. So! Let's just get this senseless fight over with!"
Kakashi rushed to meet him, and drove his chidori through the assassin's chest, Zabuza's outstretched arm beginning to disintegrate as his sword flew from his grasp, impaling the ground next to Haku's prone body.
"Ensui! Bind him!" Kakashi ordered, and the shadows around them began to surge with the Nara's jutsu. "As a shinobi, I've got plenty to protect too. I need to protect the way Zabuza and Haku died! Especially since I was, and am again, their final enemy." He wondered what Naruto would think, though he was sure his loud mouth student would approve. "Do it, Maki."
"Yessir!" As the shinobi's cloth jutsu wrapped around the bodies of both Haku and Zabuza, sealing jutsu formula sliding up the cloth strips.
Sakura didn't wait until that process finished. She rushed up to Kakashi and began healing the gash across his stomach.
"You should have waited."
"You would have bled out." Sakura countered her eyes focused. She had to be quick, both so Kakashi could get back to work, and also because she couldn't linger this openly on the front line. She was under no illusions. Part of the reason she was one of the few medics of her level permitted on the front was because of her speed and stealth. The less the enemy saw of her, the better.
She didn't fully heal the wound. She didn't have the chakra for that. Soon, she wouldn't have to ration. She was so close. The seal was nearly complete—maybe 24 hours. But not yet. For now she was still stuck with rationing 20% of her chakra. And 20% was not a lot to work with on a war front. There were so many to heal, and soon she'd be falling back to med camp, where she would no doubt have her work cut out for her with even more injured from several other fronts.
"It's going to scar. Apply my ointment and bandage it properly when you fall back."
"I will. Speaking of falling back."
"I'm going." Sakura said before he could make it a proper order, retreating, hearing Kakashi order Sai to show him the sealing jutsu Danzo had used on him. She didn't get a chance to hear Sai's response or worry about the effect of that request on Sai's emotional well being. There wasn't time for that during war.
Everything was in chaos. Sakura could hear explosions, shouts and screams, the sounds of destruction echoing from several fronts. Even as she danced from injured to injured, she couldn't help her mind from wandering, concerned for her friends. There were so many options for the enemy to have brought back, and all of them could hurt those precious to her emotionally as much as physically. If the enemy brought back powerful shinobi, or even picked shinobi for the emotional damage they'd deal, she didn't want to think about what that might put her friends through. Team 10 might have to face Asuma. Kakashi may have to face the two friends he lost in the war. If they brought back any of the Kage, Gaara may have to face his abusive heartless father.
"That's the one that worries me the most…team 10 has each other, there's a chance they won't bring back Kakashi-sensei's teammates, but if Gaara-kun has to face his father…I wish I could be there for him. I hope his siblings will be nearby, although I don't think Kankurou's in his unit…Temari might be though. I hope she is. If he has to fight his father, he'll need her support."
Sakura finished working on the patient she was with, returning him to battle capable.
"Thank you, Sakura-san! I get why the Kazekage likes you so much. Now it's my turn to get these guys!" The shinobi proclaimed, leaping up to rejoin the fray.
The next injury she tended too was extensive. Most medics would have called it a lost cause and moved on, but where other medics saw black, Sakura saw red. And anything she deemed a red tag, she was determined to downgrade to yellow. She bit at her lip, her eyes narrowed in focus.
"Really he needs surgery, but conditions aren't exactly in my favor…but without it, this patient dies…right. Surgery it is. Kakashi-sensei's teammate did it for him…I can do this." Sakura made an incision with a chakra scalpel and got to work supporting and rebuilding the collapsed lung.
"Sakura-san!"
Sakura's head snapped up at the shout of warning to see an enemy had broken through and was coming straight for her. She couldn't pull away from the procedure right now or the patient would surely die. Time seemed to slow as she watched the enemy close in, evaluating her options.
"Hopefully someone interferes, but it looks like the enemy is faster than my allies at the moment, so what's my move…Can I attack while healing? I've never tried it before but, hypothetically the two different styles of chakra application shouldn't feel all that different from chakra enhanced strength while wearing chakra weights. I need my hands focused on heeling, and don't have time for full prep, so this can't be dancer's style taijutsu, or integrating any of the weapons I've been working with so far. Clocks ticking, Sakura…It's just gonna have to come down to a well timed kick, shannaro!"
Sakura didn't blinked as the enemy enclosed. It wasn't one of the swordsmen, thankfully. The reach provided by their swords would have rendered her a goner. This looked like just a reincarnated enemy ninja combatant. One that apparently hadn't thought her worth preparing a jutsu for. Why would he? Medical ninja were known for Subpar combat skill. A hard strike or well placed kunai should be enough. But Sakura wasn't a standard medical ninja.
Sakura had always had good battle timing—a combination of her dancer's rhythm, quick reflexes, real time analytical skill, and brutal training. And in this moment, no skill saved her as much as her battle timing. There was no margin of error, too early she'd be dead, too late she'd be dead. Her kneeling stance shift had been subtle as she brought her weight fully over her right leg, preparing to kick out.
"5, 6, 7, Now!"
Sakura's leg shot out, her chakra charged kick sailing precariously over her patient and straight into the advancing enemy's face. He went flying back across the battle field, but Sakura didn't bother to track the distance, her attention refocusing on her patient.
"Sakura-san!" An ally gasped in absolute shock, staring at her wide eyed. Sakura's combat skills were far less well known than her medical mastery.
"Find someone to get this man to med-camp now! Hurry!" She ordered, not acknowledging anyones surprise as she finished as much of the medical procedure as she could under the circumstances.
"R-Right!" A shinobi answered, kneeling beside her and swinging the man's arm over his shoulder, carefully hoisting his weight up and taking off.
Before she could move on to the next injured shinobi, two more landed in front of her supporting an injured ally.
"Sakura-san! He was poisoned further down the front. Captain Hatake said to bring him to you and for you to get to med camp to start the antidote, cause there'll be more poison victims."
Sakura shot up, immediately grabbing the poisoned man and throwing his arm around her to support his weight.
"Any idea of the poison?"
"It was from Hanzo's salamander. Lady Chiyo began instructing us on how to make the antidote but he interrupted her before she could say anything."
"Lady Chiyo, huh?" Sakura echoed tonelessly.
"I wish I could have seen her. Apologize to her, tell her I'm keeping my promise to her, and say bye one last time…I don't have time for this. This patient needs my help."
"Let Kakashi-sensei know I've headed to med camp. If there comes a point where some men can be spared, help the injured get to med camp." She instructed, and then she was off.
She didn't think retreating would be so hard. Med camp had been set up in an area that was relatively protected by the various platoons, so it was easily accessible while under guard. Most medics weren't proficient in combat so the med camp had to be secured and protected. But she'd come across three different white Zetsu in her retreat which didn't bode well.
She'd been thrown off by the first one she'd come across. It took her a minute to recognize him as the "spiky aloe guy" who'd been lingering around Sasuke along with Tobi. She also wasn't entirely sure why he looked so different. She hadn't been expecting to run into a not-dead enemy, one of the actual Akatsuki members, so far behind their lines, though she remembered how easily Zetsu popped up from and sunk into the earth. Maybe she shouldn't have been surprised.
Regardless, she never hesitated—something that seemed to surprised Zetsu—in punching him in the face, sending him flying. The second time she'd come across one, she'd thought he was the same as the first, baffled at how he'd recovered so quickly. By the third she came across, she was certain something else was going on.
"Shadow clones, maybe? Maybe the dead aren't the only soldiers the Akatsuki's utilizing…maybe shadow clones too? But to make that many that would be durable enough to be useful, how much chakra would Zetsu have to have? He has to be strong if he's in the Akatsuki…and he was always the enigma, the one we weren't sure about. These look different from how Zetsu looked that other time too…is it a kekkei genkai, or some rare jutsu?"
Still despite how her mind churned to generate and place puzzle pieces, she never lingered longer than it took her to clear the white Zetsu from her path, or spin away from his reach. She didn't have time. She needed to get to med camp to make the antidote.
By the time she reached med camp, it was packed with injured. She wasn't sure if she was surprised at how quickly things had gotten this bad or not. There wasn't time to freeze from shock or take in the situation. Shouldering her poisoned patient, she quickly found Shizune who was mid healing a shinobi with a nasty gash down his side.
"Sakura-chan! Thank the gods, I was gonna send for you if Kakashi didn't send you over within the next hour."
"I don't suppose you know the antidote for Hanzo's salamander's poison off the top of your head, do you senpai?" Sakura had proven herself more than capable at antidote crafting, but poisons and antidotes were Shizune's specialty, so there was a good chance she may already be aware of the antidote. Time was of the essence, so the less they relied on trial and error, the better.
Shizune stared at her for a second, before coming to a decision. "Switch with me."
"Smart choice. Both of us are more than capable of either task, but I'm slightly faster with healing jutsu and she's more experienced with poisons."
Sakura joined Shizune by her paitient, and hovered her hand over his injury, picking up the healing where Shizune was, right as her senpai cut off the jutsu to sling the poisoned man's arm over her shoulder, taking his weight from Sakura. And then she was gone and it was just Sakura and the injured man.
In no time at all, she had the worst of the injury healed, and opted to switch to manual procedures to preserve chakra.
"There." She said, gently covering the stitches she'd administered in her ointment before bandaging them.
"Can I return to the front?" The man asked.
"Ideally no, but we're not in ideal times. You can head back tomorrow morning, after a medic takes another pass with medical ninjutsu. The worst of the damage is healed, but if you return to combat right now and your stitches rip, you could bleed out. With another short round of treatment, even if you pop a stitch, the damage won't be life threatening."
"Understood." The man said, getting up to clear the treatment table before heading off to the green ward tent.
"Sakura-chan, go nap and eat something. Start your shift in three hours." Shizune called to her from a few tables over, where she was finishing up a large batch of antidote for Hanzo's salamander venom.
"You sure? I'm okay to—"
"You just came back from the front, and I know how you work. If I let you continue now, you'll fall into a rhythm you won't break until you're on the verge of collapse. First eat something and sleep ideally, but at the very least meditate, so you can make it through the night, which will be worse."
"Night will be the worse?"
"I would think that's when things ease up, since the battalions would pull back and make camp."
"Evening, when the fighting slows, is when they make the time to bring the surviving injured in from the front. We'll get an influx in four hours. I'd rather you be as rested and ready as possible for it."
"That makes sense."
"You got it, senpai."
Sakura left the treatment tent, heading over to the makeshift mess hall. She hadn't paid much attention to this portion of war prep, aside from giving a brief consultation on basic nutrition needs. She was surprised there was an actual meal being served and not just onigiri, not that it was anything fancy or complex. She wasn't complaining. She wolfed down the trey of food, oblivious to the whispers and looks of admiration from the other medics and some patients. Rumors about the Hokage's apprentice's medical expertise had been circulating outside of just Konoha since she saved Kankuro, but those rumors had only increased in the wake of Pain's attack after the alliance was formed.
It wasn't fully that Sakura didn't hear the whispers about her, so much as it was her choosing to actively ignore them. She still wasn't quite sure how to be the center of positive attention or accept praise, despite how Naruto and Kakashi had been warning her about how she'd need to figure it out fast, because many would look at her as a hero. If there was one thing she hadn't put the effort into, it was that—figuring out how to accept and own the praise gracefully. But also, in the midst of war, people looking at her like she was the hero who would heal them all and keep them all alive both felt pressuring and wrong. There were already so many on the front who were gone before she could have even made an attempt to save them, and so many more she'd chosen not to treat because they were too far gone. Even some of those injured within med camp were too injured to treat. She was no savior hear to heal everyone. She accepted it on the front. It was harder to accept though, when everyone was whispering about her like she was. So Sakura did her damndest to ignore the glances and whispers from other nurses and medics, and the way patient's faces lightened with hope at the sight of her.
"I wonder if this was how Sasuke-kun felt back in the academy when our classes first got integrated. He already felt like he was under pressure from his father and trying to live up to his brother, maybe all the whispering admiration from the girls just made that pressure worse…I wonder if they brought Itachi back. If they did, I hope he and Sasuke-kun get a chance to talk…I hope he and I get a chance to talk as well. He's the only one who can really give me answers. If I earn anything in this war, I hope it's that. Just some goddamn answers, shannaro!"
Knowing her sleep cycle, two and a half hours wouldn't help much, so she instead used the remainder of her time before her shift to meditate, sinking into the breathing exercise that had become to familiar to her, and letting the world fade around her.
It was just her, her body, her breath, and her chakra. She fell into the rhythm of the exercise easily her body acting from muscle memory, allowing her to sink into her mind and fully visualize her seal reserves.
Her daily use reserve was less than a quarter full, and there was only that much in there because of the food pill she'd taken earlier. Meditating helped fill this reserve quicker, as well as restock the fifteen percent she had free use of. Even now, she watched the trickle of chakra increasing to fill the reserve faster. Trusting that by the time she had to start her shift, her daily use reserve would be at least three fourths of the way full, she turned her attention to her larger reserve.
While she had been keeping sensory tabs on the larger reserve, it had been a very long time since she actually translated that sensed information into a visualization. The last time she'd really "looked" at her larger reserve had been in a dream during her second chunin exam when it wasn't even a quarter of the way full. But now, her chakra only had about fifty more centimeters to fill until it reached the edge of the reservoir. Once full, the seal would be complete and the reservoir would stay formed, locked in place whether she was actively funneling chakra into it or not. She'd also be able to expand it to store even more, without threat of losing what she had. It was something she'd been considering for a while now, but if her could store most if not all the chakra from a reaction, her reservoir could be larger than Tsunade's. At the moment, she had to keep the infusion amount and rate consistent, which meant she couldn't store the extra chakra from attacks. But once it was the seal fully formed and locked, she'd be free from the limits placed on the infusion amount and rate, so storing reaction chakra became a strong possibility, which boded well to her future power and strength. She was so close, by her estimate it would take roughly 25-30 hours to fill completely.
Her pessimistic side reminded her that 25-30 hours was still plenty of time for everything to go wrong.
"We're at war with a powerful and unpredictable enemy. I've trained my body to maintain the seal through a lot, but they may pull something that messes up even my muscle memory. I'll have to keep my guard and focus up now more then ever! It'd be so stupid to lose it all in when I'm this damn close, shannaro!"
But even her pessimistic side couldn't detract from the excitement and impatience. It was a strange time for it. They were at war. People were dying. Every single one of her friends were in danger. The enemy was targeting Naruto more than ever. There was no sign of Sasuke, but the last they'd seen of him, he was unstable and in the hands of the enemy that had declared this war. She was acutely aware of it all. And yet she was excited. So excited. And the excitement brought with it a muted happiness. Years of feeling weak and limited were 25-30 hours away from coming to an end. So many of her insecurities, tied to feeling helpless and useless, were about to evaporate. Soon, she would never be useless again. Soon, her lack of chakra would never sideline her in a fight, or prevent her from administering full treatment. Soon, she wouldn't be breaking the rules by standing on the front lines and choosing to fight. She wouldn't have to drop back and stay behind others. She wouldn't need to be protected or have her safety prioritized over others.
"Soon I'll be able to protect and heal everyone I care about."
Sakura stayed in that cavern in her mind, watching the reservoir fill millimeter by millimeter, until her shift started.
Shizune hadn't been wrong about getting busier during the evening. An hour into her shift, they took in a massive influx of patience. Sakura got comfortable at the table she'd been assigned, clearing through patient after patient at a rate that made the other medics and nurses start their whispering a new. All of them were being taxed to their limits, running ragged with the never ending stream of injured. Even Ton-Ton was putting in the work, running heavy loads from tent to tent. The little pig had even been the one to run Hanzo's salamander poison antidote to the Commando unit.
Sakura had hoped she'd see the Suna medic she'd met at the second chunin exams, Ameno, again. But her water-style medical ninjutsu and her self-healing water-jellyfish technique had qualified her as a combat field medic, as Sakura had been serving earlier and would be again come morning.
"There." Sakura said, her voice soothing and hands gentle, as she finished bandaging an injured man's arm.
"Thank you." He murmured, glancing up at her shyly—something that escaped Sakura's notice as she prepped her work space for the next patient. Already her chakra reserves were running low, and she was determined to do as much manual treatment as possible to save chakra.
"Next!" She called, as the man cleared out to a different tent, and her new patient walked in, the lack of light from the tent flap behind him revealing that night had fallen. "Neji!" Sakura gasped. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Neji said in his stoically calm voice, even as he winced.
"Sure you are. Have a seat. TenTen will murder me if I took your word for it."
Neji sat in front of her, removing his shirt as instructed. He let her work in silence, which was just as well for Sakura. The more focused she was, the less risk their was of wasting chakra. The damage to Neji's torso was extensive though largely external, which was a good sign. So long as his wounds were treated and kept from infection, he'd be fine.
"Do I use chakra to heal him?…No. It's not necessary, and he'd be mad at me for wasting my chakra on him. He's the suffer in silence type."
So Sakura got to work stitching and bandaging, her mind drifting to a cave in the Land of Tea, when she was the one being stitched up by Sasuke, hushed conversation and an air of intimacy surrounding them.
"Alright." She said, coming back to the present as she finished wrapping bandaging the last of the stitches. "Your external wounds are patched at least."
"Thanks."
"You need to sleep." She told him firmly, knowing he was the stoic kind of masculine that would insist on returning to the front, or taking up a guard post for med camp.
"Should I assume you'll tell TenTen if I don't?"
"You bet your ass I will." Sakura muttered.
"Strange. Even though they're always glued at the hip, he doesn't usually openly acknowledge his thing with TenTen. Not verbally, at least."
"I suppose I have no choice then." Neji said, a long suffering undercurrent to the statement as he rose and headed out. "Thank you, Sakura."
"What are friends for?" Sakura smiled.
It was a third of the way into her shift when things started to go from rough to—
"Something's wrong!" A medic shouted, shoving aside their tent flap. "Toyosa, Takemaru, and Hino are dead! Murdered!"
That drew the attention of every medic and patient in the tent. Immediately gasps and exclamations broke out. "What?!"
Sakura was not technically the highest ranking medic in the room, however she was of a high specialty rank, and couldn't allow the room to continue its decent into chaos.
"Calm down." She ordered, her voice carrying over the din. "Matsuya, Kazuma, come with me. Everyone else, focus on your stations and keep alert." She looked to the medic who'd run in. "Take us to the bodies."
No one questioned her, immediately falling in line under her orders.
"Right." The medic acting as messenger nodded, as the rest of the medics turned their attention back to their patients.
Sakura and the two medics she'd tapped followed him out.
Sakura stared down at the three bodies that had been dragged out of the tent and covered with white sheets. Two other medics and one of the guards had been there when Sakura and her two medics had arrived.
"What's going on?" Kazuma asked, kneeling next to one of the bodies.
"We've been infiltrated." The guard stated, his voice glum.
"The target are our jonin medics." One of the medics that had been there when Sakura arrived informed them.
"But it shouldn't be possible." The guard said. "Everyone's chakra is being verified upon entry. A simple transformation jutsu would be detected immediately. Only allied forces shinobi can get in."
"That only leaves the option of someone inside being controlled, which would require some serious power to pull off." Sakura said, her eyes narrowing.
"But is that really the only option? The enemy has brought back and controlled the dead by the thousands, and create thousands of Zetsu clones as well. I'm sure they have the power necessary to puppet someone here, but an enemy with that much power might have access to a more powerful transformation jutsu—one that could copy a chakra signature…it can't be impossible. If I can share chakra by matching the rhythm, it still doesn't account for…texture I guess would be the best way to put it, but with enough chakra control and maybe a more mutable and adaptable chakra signature…it could be possible."
"What's happening?" A familiar, controlled voice called, breaking Sakura from her mental calculations.
"Neji. You should be resting." She admonished, turning to face him.
One of the other medics filled him in, his mouth falling into a frown.
"How are we going to find the murderer if it's one of us? We have no idea who the suspect is. Anyone standing here right now could be the killer!" Neji stated seriously.
Sakura's eyes narrowed. "He's not wrong. But saying that here will ignite paranoia and panic. He's a Jonin. He holds a leadership position. He has to know that's a bad move…"
"If that gets out it'll be a free-for-all. And that is the enemy's aim." Neji continued, but to Sakura, it seemed even mentioning it out loud in the first place had already wrought the damage.
"Medic ninja are pivotal. We're fighting an edotensei jutsu. We can't win without medics." One of the other medics said, anxiety in her voice.
"If we let this paralyze us now, we lose at dawn." Matsuya agreed, but even as he said it, his eyes glanced around at all of them warily.
"I'll find the killer with my own eyes!" Neji declared.
"You should be resting." Sakura admonished him, not that she truly had any better recommendations. The Byakugan would be able to see if someones chakra was being manipulated or controlled. But if they'd been able to clone someone's chakra signature, Sakura wasn't even sure the byakugan would be able to see it.
"TenTen would never speak to me again if you got killed because I was resting." Neji insisted.
"Well, we can't have that." Sakura smiled.
"Neji doesn't usually say stuff like that—I wouldn't be shocked if he thought it, but he doesn't verbalize it. Is it cause of the war? I think they're in different units, for maybe the first time ever. Is it the loneliness and fear? Or…No. Don't start suspecting someone without proof, just be on your guard no matter what."
Sakura shook her head lightly, pushing down her suspicion.
"In the meantime we must continue to heal our wounded. We just need to watch our backs…and each others…especially the jonin medics." Sakura declared. Infiltration, controlling jutsu, or not, they were medics with patients to treat.
Sakura had returned to ward three, and was once again clearing through patient after patient, until there was finally a bit of a lull. She washed her hands and sighed, using her sleeve to dab the sweat off her face. Roughly 19 hours left, and then she would never feel this bone-deep exhaustion again—precluding extenuating circumstances.
The tent flap behind her pushed to the side, and Sakura's eyes immediately snapped open. She turned to face a shinobi she'd treated earlier, both arms heavily bandaged, the left supported in a sling.
"Oh, it's you. Are your wounds still bothering you?" Sakura asked kindly, her muscles tensing to react incase he tried to attack.
"Oh, no, no. I feel fine now. A-Actually ever since you treated me, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you." He said, face flushed and stuttering slightly as he held an envelope out to her with his good arm.
Sakura felt an uncomfortable twist in her stomach. "What's this?"
"I-It's a love letter. When I next go off to battle there's no guarantee I'll return alive, but…" The man fixed his gaze on her unwaveringly. "…if I do make it, I hope you'll consider my feelings…"
Sakura took the letter, the twisting in her gut getting worse. She looked at the letter for a long moment, biting down lightly on her lip in anxiety. "Thank you. I have someone already, though, you see…" Sakura answered softly.
The man sighed, disappointment across his face. "Of course you do…" the man shook his head slightly. "Of course you would." Immediately the man caught himself, swallowing down his disappointment and scratching at the back of his head. "I won't be rude and try to ask you who it is that you're with. I guess I should just go."
"I'm sorry…" Sakura murmured.
"Well, good luck! If you love him he must be a good man!"
Sakura swallowed hard, trying to push down the wave of ache that slammed into her chest. "When you go back, I hope you make it. And when you do, you'll find someone better than me." Sakura said, dawning a fake smile.
The man laughed a little. "I don't know about better than you. But I'll find someone good for sure."
"I'll be rooting for you." She said, smiling at him as he left. The second he was gone her smile fell, raising the love letter sadly.
"Is there something wrong with me, that I can't even consider other men? It's only ever Sasuke-kun I can imagine myself with. Lee-san, Idate, Gaara-kun, Naruto…well maybe not Naruto—but there've been guys who were interested in me. Good guys. And yet, I've never once been able to set Sasuke-kun aside. I mean, clearly I matter deeply to him—not quite sure in what way, but there's a very high chance that my feelings are reciprocated. Everyone else seems to think they are and Sasuke-kun…but…if I love him, he must be a good man, huh? He's caused so much harm though…how wrong am I for continuing to love him despite that? How wrong am I for believing he's not bad, just…lost and in need of help? When I fell in love with him though, it was because he was unquestionably good. And that's still in there, somewhere."
Sakura shouldn't have let herself spiral—she almost missed the person approaching her from behind. Her head whipped sharply to her right as a hand laid on her shoulder.
"Are you alright?"
"Neji!"
"Since when does he make friendly physical contact with anyone but TenTen and Hinata-chan?"
"It's easy to get discouraged. We don't even know who we're fighting." Neji spoke the words of comfort, his tone analytical and stoic as usual. But the hand on her shoulder made her uneasy.
"Fuck it, my instincts are usually right. Screw the paranoia. If I'm wrong…Neji will understand. I just need the confirmation…"
"Yeah. Utmost caution." Sakura agreed after a long pause, as Neji removed his hand.
"Yup." Neji stepped away a few paces. "Hey, Sakura, where is Captain Shizune?"
"Why?" Sakura asked, allowing her tone to take an anxious edge and fighting the instinct to narrow her eyes. "Have you figured out what's going on?"
"Maybe. I do at least think we need to report any ideas or clues any of us have, no matter how small we think they might be. We have to be on high alert 'til we find this phantom."
"That sounded pretty Neji-like. Alright. The enemy is targeting Jonin medics. I'm technically not one, so hypothetically I'm not a target. So I can follow him to Shizune-senpai to see what he does…Let's test the waters. "
"Yeah, she should be in tent B-2." Sakura lied easily, followed by a truth to sell the lie. "Shizune-senpai is treating TonTon at the moment. One leg is badly sprained."
"Well, better a leg than a hand, right? Will TonTon be able to rejoin the battle?"
"Well what do you know? I don't even have to follow him. Got you, fake!"
"I think so." Sakura smiled reassuringly, brining her hands up to make a ram seal hand sign. "TonTon can still weave hand signs for sure!"
"Right. Good. So…Sakura, can you take a look at my arm again? It's still bothering me." Fake-Neji said, holding out his "injured" arm to Sakura, while the other reached behind his back.
"Of course. Come sit down over here." Sakura said gesturing to the wooden stool next to her and turning to her table, keeping close attention on him in her peripheral vision.
To his credit, he was fast. She'd always had naturally fast reaction time and reflexes, but those reflexes alone wouldn't have allowed her to survive. Sakura had come a very long way from when she was 12 and relying only on her reflexes. She'd been trained by Tsunade to evade. So when the kunai drove toward her neck, Sakura planted her feet and leaned back, dodging the kunai within a hair's breadth, grabbed his hand and used it to pull herself up and twirl around, her chakra charged fist slamming down hard into the back of his head. The force of the punch cracked the ground, and shattered the wooden stools, dirt dancing in the air.
"Ugh!" Fake-Neji grunted. "How'd you know?!"
"Several reasons, but the damning one: Pigs don't have hands!" She growled staring down at the body that was slowly morphing from Neji into one of the strange looking white Zetsu.
"TonTon is a pig?" White Zetsu gasped. She tricked him!
"I'm not a jonin medic, so I shouldn't have been his target. But he was there when I went with Tobi to heal Sasuke-kun. And at the bridge too…he wants me out of the way so I don't further influence Sasuke-kun, so even though I'm below his target rank—I must have been made an exception."
Sakura's fist tightened, charging up a much bigger punch, one that shook the tent and decimated the ground under them. Even that at point blank range hadn't killed white zetsu. Sakura straddled him, sitting on his chest to keep him immobilized, one hand readied for another punch, the other wrapped around his neck.
"How are you able to recreate Neji's chakra? What kind of jutsu is this?! I will hit you again, and I promise to make it hurt like hell, so I suggest you answer!" Sakura growled.
"Heh, this transformation jutsu is not anything you can handle. Do you really think I'm the only one who's infiltrated your ranks?!"
A memory floated to the surface of Sakura's brain—a report from Yamato she'd read during the war prep.
Note regarding parasitic clones. Hoshigaki Kisame was originally thought to have been taken down by the Raikage and Killer Bee. But it now appears that he had switched places with a parasitic clone or some such that is likely a type of transformation jutsu, and survived. Because this transformation also replicates the target's chakra, it is very difficult to detect. At the gokage council, Zetsu of the Akatsuki suddenly emerged from people's bodies. He had absorbed their chakra.
"So he's a parasite…how much contact does he need to have to properly perform the jutsu on a chakra signature level? He had grabbed my ankle while I was trying to heal Sasuke-kun…No that can't be enough. I have greater access here than Neji. If he had my signature, he would have transformed into me instead. That also explains why he came so hard for me on my way to med-camp…"
"You use the chakra you absorb from someone. It transforms you into that ninja, complete with their chakra imprint. But you never used the gentle fist or the Byakugan. You can't use their jutsu, their chakra only acts as a template for you to match your own to. You also don't get memories. You only latched onto TenTen because it was the one name I gave you." Sakura reasoned.
Zetsu twitched. She was a frighteningly smart girl. "And…?"
"And once that chakra is used once, if you drop the transformation, you can't access it again. So now, it doesn't matter what you look like! Your disguise is useless!" Sakura declared, the slight twitch in his face telling her she was dead right.
"What's going on?!"
"We heard screams!" Two of the guard burst through the flap of the tent, before freezing. "Who is he?!"
"Secure him!" Sakura ordered. "I have to contact HQ right away!"
Sakura updated HQ and Shizune at the same time, the concensus being that they needed as much information about white Zetsu as they could gather. That meant an autopsy. The shinobi body held many secrets and abilities. That was the whole reason behind why Sasori's human puppets were so dangerous, why ANBU hunter units existed. It was why no one could get Sakura's body, especially while her seal was in progress, lest they figure out the secrets to Tsunade. But by the same token, white Zetsu's body had just become its own enemy. The secrets it revealed would aid the alliance.
Shizune tapped Sakura to be her only aid in the dissection. It was a multipurpose choice. For one, because it was Sakura who had taken down white Zetsu, she was the only one definitively above suspicion at the moment. For another, she was one of the few skilled enough to help and keep up. And, should a white zetsu masquerading as a comrade break through the guards and attack, Sakura was the only medic trained in combat by Tsunade. If it came down to close combat, Sakura would be the best to have on hand. Shizune preferred ranged combat and poisons, neither of which worked well in a confined space if the enemy were to break through.
So Sakura found herself in quarantined solo surgical tent with Shizune, one guard, and a dead white Zetsu corpse, very late at night.
"Sakura, take a look at this genetic profile data." Shizune said, waving her over to the computer monitor.
Sakura opened her eyes, removing her finger from the heart muscle she'd been scanning. She had a feeling she knew what Shizune was about to show her. White Zetsu's regenerative capability was insane it almost rivaled…
"This is Zetsu's genetic analysis pulled from a blood sample Kankuro obtained when the Akatsuki attacked the gokage summit." Shizune said pointing to one chromosome map. "This is the genetic sequencing analysis from the sample I just collected. And this," she said pointing to a third set of data, but Shizune didn't need to finish, Sakura knew what she was looking at.
"That's Captain Yamato's." She'd looked over Yamato's profile several times, both to better understand Orochimaru's experiment, and to know how best heal their team captain should he be hurt. "Zetsu's current genetic profile has been altered to resemble Captain Yamato's even more closely than at the gokage council." Sakura muttered, her eyes narrowing.
"It's almost identical to the first Hokage's genetic profile." Shizune agreed.
"I thought that might be the case. His regenerative capability is enormous. He has a high but well regulated presence of telomerase, and more stem cells than the average person. Shishou said that was part of the first Hokage's biology." Sakura said.
"This sort of thing was Orochimaru's territory, which means Kabuto probably had a hand in this mutation."
"What are you talking about?! How are these white zetsu things related to the first Hokage?" The guard asked, not following a word the two medics were saying.
"These white zetsus are essentially clones of the first Hokage. Since there are so many of them, the must be like plants, harvested from the first Hokage's cells. Even the malleability of their chakra suggests they use a weak version of wood style. Actually, now that I think about it, Naruto did compare him to Aloe. He wasn't far off, although a carnivorous plant probably would have been more apt." Sakura explained.
"Huh?! I don't get it!" The guard muttered.
"They have to be using Captain Yamato to up their power level. That's got to be it!"
"I'll let HQ know right now!" Shizune agreed. "Finish up with your scans, and then take an hour to meditate and eat. After that, rejoin the front. Be carful. Tsunade-sama will kill you if you die."
"Don't worry. I won't." Sakura nodded seriously, turning back to Zetsu's body to finish up the autopsy while Shizune relayed the information they had to HQ.
Sakura rushed through the woods towards the front on high alert. The sky as beginning to lighten, which meant the fighting would resume in earnest soon. So far, she'd seen no sign of white zetsu or edotensei soldiers. She wasn't sure if that was a good sign, or a bad one.
She was glad for that alertness when a shadow dropped onto a tree branch she was charging towards at top speed. Her reflexes kicked in, high body control and flexibility allowing her to shift her position mid-air so the next tree branch she made contact with, she rebounded off of, landing several branches away from the shadow blocking her path.
"Graceful as ever, Sakura-chan."
"Itachi."
Author's Note: So many things happen in the war arc, and flagrantly I just don't want to deal with all of it, so this will pretty much exclusively follow Sakura. Everything with Naruto and Sasuke are playing out more or less the same-I may touch on Sasuke and Naruto's meeting with Itachi, but other than that, we're stickin' with Sakura. There are some really great moments in the war arc though, particularly Gaara's confrontation with his father-that part's beautiful, the only change to that scene I would make for this story's sake would be that Gaara wouldn't say "Lady Chiyo and her friends revived me," but "Lady Chiyo and my friends revived me." As for the changes that I did write, aside from just staying in Sakura's POV, there aren't that many in this one. She's suspicious of Neji quicker, and she's aware and keeping tabs on how close her seal is to being done. She's a bit more involved in the autopsy than she's shown being in the manga, with a bit more medical science thrown in. She does have this brief spiral where she questions how she can still love Sasuke. I don't think of this as a true moment of doubt for her, but I think she does realize that many would not still be holding on in her position. It's not a question for her of if she should or won't continue, but just that teenage moment where she's recognizing how different her response is from others and questioning that. If that made any sense. The point is, she's not wavering, and doesn't doubt that there's still hope for Sasuke. If anything it's more like acknowledging that while that good's still there, he has done a lot of bad. The biggest change is right at the end which will have greater follow up for the next chapter, Sakura getting a chance to talk to Itachi. It always pissed me off that Sakura was never explicitly told about the massacre. In this she's made the conscious choice not to be told incase of falling into a manipulative trap. But she still should have had a chance to learn the truth. She should have had the time to face Itachi. And there's no way this versions Itachi, knowing how much Sakura was digging, how much she'd put together, and how much she loves Sasuke, wouldn't go talk to her about it. This doesn't negate his conversation with Naruto or Sasuke. Both still happen, it'll be addressed next chapter.
Thank you so much for all your lovely comments, they really do keep me writing! Thank you for your patience and for reading this far! :)