Chapter 2: The mission
The next morning, Sakura woke up early as usual and headed to the hospital. While she was in the middle of an appointment with one of the children, Ino came in.
"Hello, you two! Well, if it isn't my little Aka-chan," Ino said, addressing the little girl in the room. She quickly scooped her up and added, "Sakura-senpai has to leave, so I'll stay with you!"
Sakura's eyes widened. "Leave?"
"You've been summoned by Kakashi-sensei. You have a mission."
Sakura hadn't been on a mission for months, and when she had once, it was only medical training trips to other villages. She sighed, removed her doctor's coat, and said:
"Well… in that case, I'll go."
She then made her way to the Hokage Tower to meet her former teacher. Knocking on the door, she entered:
"Hello, did you call for me, Sensei?"
"Ah, Sakura, hello! It's good to see you. You're always at the hospital; come visit me more often!" Kakashi greeted.
"Sensei, from the way you're talking, it sounds like you're on vacation…"
"I really need one..." Kakashi admitted with a chuckle. "Anyway, let's get back to the matter at hand. I have a mission for you."
Sakura's demeanor shifted to serious as she focused on the Sixth Hokage.
"Recently, we've received troubling reports of children disappearing in the Land of Tea. Last week, a farmer discovered deformed bodies in his field: half-human, half-animal hybrids. There have also been sightings of children being herded into the country's hospital. Local attempts to investigate were thwarted by the emperor's guards, who seem to be involved. The emperor protects the doctors and punishes anyone who tries to disrupt their operations. Without a Kage system, the village lacks the authority and power to challenge the emperor and his medical ninjas. We suspect the new daimyo of the Land of Tea is ordering these kidnappings to use the children as subjects for medical experiments."
Sakura's face tightened with anger. "Kidnapping children and using them for experiments… it's horrific!"
Kakashi continued, "Your mission is to travel to the Land of Tea and uncover what these doctors are hiding. If they are responsible for the kidnappings, you need to arrest them, rescue the children, and return them to their families."
"Very well. I propose taking Ino with me. Her transposition jutsu would be invaluable in uncovering what the doctors are hiding."
"That's not possible. The children's mental health clinic has just been established, and with the new recruits still in training, it's essential for one of you to remain in Konoha to oversee it. You'll go on this mission with someone you know very well…"
"Someone I know very well…? Wh—"
Her question was cut off by a knock on the door. Sakura's heart skipped a beat as the door opened and she saw Sasuke.
"Sasuke-kun!" she exclaimed, her heart racing. Sasuke had returned… and now they were going on a mission together. After waiting so long for his return, she had completely given up on the idea of going on a mission with him again. It felt surreal, like a dream.
Kakashi's voice brought her back to reality. "Sakura! This is not the time to daydream!"
Sakura jolted, composed herself, and refocused.
"With Sasuke's genjutsu, it will be easier to extract information and learn the enemy's plans. It will also be beneficial for quick teleportation if trouble arises. I would have liked Naruto to accompany you, but he's currently traveling with Hinata, and I didn't want to interrupt his vacation. Both of you are among the most powerful shinobi in Konoha and the shinobi world, so I'm confident you won't encounter any major problems."
Kakashi closed his eyes, then reopened them and smiled beneath his mask.
"Sasuke, Sakura. This will be your first mission together in nearly ten years and the first one with just the two of you. Never forget that you were Team Seven, and you always will be."
"Yes!" Sakura responded firmly.
"Mm," Sasuke agreed.
"You must depart within the next two hours. The journey will take between two days and three, depending on your speed. You have a deadline of six days. Good luck."
With that, Sasuke and Sakura left the Hokage's office.
"I'll go to my apartment to grab my things for the mission. Then we can head out."
"Alright. I'll wait for you at the Konoha gate."
Sakura rushed to her apartment, quickly changing into her mission outfit, putting on her headband, and preparing her weapon pouch and bag. Once she was ready, she met Sasuke at the gate as planned. They set off on their journey.
At first, Sakura felt a bit embarrassed about having Sasuke as her mission partner. But as they traveled, the thought of innocent children potentially being subjected to cruel experiments at their destination ignited her anger and determination. Her resolve to rescue them grew stronger with every step.
After a full day of travel, they stopped to rest as night fell. Sakura sat in contemplation, while Sasuke silently used his Chidori to start a fire and settled beside it. The flames flickered and cast dancing shadows. Eventually, Sakura broke the silence:
"…What could drive someone to take a child from their family and leave them alone in the dark?"
Sasuke glanced at her briefly before closing his eyes.
"People have different philosophies. What seems abhorrent to one person might seem just to another, and vice versa."
Sakura sighed deeply, frustration evident in her voice.
"I understand that people have their reasons, but if blood must be spilled, why does it have to be the blood of innocent children?"
Sasuke looked at her with a mix of concern and understanding.
"When an innocent child is subjected to such cruelty and left to fend for themselves, you can't predict what they might become over time. Our enemy is not just the one responsible for the abductions, but also the darkness they might instill in the children… their very subconscious."
Sakura's fist clenched in determination.
"I won't let these children fall into darkness."
Sasuke closed his eyes for a moment, reflecting on his own past and the darkness he had faced, consumed by hatred and vengeance.
I won't let you fall into darkness
When Sasuke reopened his eyes, the sun was just beginning to rise.
"Morning already…"
He looked around and saw that Sakura had already woken up. Her eyes, filled with determination and concern, showed her deep worry for the children's fate. She seemed lost in thought, and Sasuke wondered if she had even slept. She started when she felt Sasuke's gaze, but he turned away and stood up without a word. They quickly prepared to continue their journey.
Seeing Sakura's eagerness to reach their destination, Sasuke stopped and said, "Sakura, come here."
Curious, Sakura stopped and turned. Without hesitation, Sasuke took her hand and used his Rinnegan to teleport. Within moments, they arrived in the Land of Tea. Sakura gasped as the scenery changed completely before her eyes.
"This is…" she began.
"The Land of Tea," Sasuke finished.
Sakura noticed that Sasuke was still holding her hand. She blushed slightly and murmured:
"Th… thank you."
Sasuke released her hand and turned his head slightly, changing the subject without acknowledging her gratitude.
"We're at the entrance of the village. The hospital shouldn't be far."
They continued on until they spotted the hospital and then hid in the nearby bushes. They crouched down to finalize their plan.
"Since it's a hospital, I'll injure myself and go in as a patient, with you accompanying me. While I'm being examined, use your genjutsu on the doctor to make him talk. If they're responsible for the kidnappings, we'll act immediately," Sakura instructed.
"Alright."
"Hide your Rinnegan with your hair," she added, removing her forehead protector: "We'll pretend to be peasants."
She hid her headband in her bag, took out a kunai, and then deeply stabbed it into her arm right in front of Sasuke's widened eyes. He had expected her to make a minor injury, but she had cut her arm open quite seriously. He stammered:
"Sa...Sakura! What are you...?"
"Don't worry, I'm a medical ninja. I'll heal this in no time. But I'm going to act unconscious, and you need to look worried so that they'll take us straight to a competent doctor. They should be the ones who know about the operations."
Sasuke nodded, unable to hide his surprise at the fifty-centimeter wound that was bleeding profusely.
"Ready?" Sakura asked as if it were just a small scratch.
"Yeah."
Sakura climbed onto Sasuke's back and pretended to lose consciousness. Sasuke carried her with one arm and ran toward the hospital.
"Doctor! We have an emergency!"
A nurse came running. Sasuke shouted:
"My wife was attacked! She might die if she loses too much blood—please, save her!"
On Sasuke's back, Sakura tensed up, blushing and trying her best to suppress her reaction to this odd playacting. The nurse seemed horrified by the amount of blood pouring from her arm. She hurriedly led them to the emergency room, shouting:
"Dr. Kinosaki! We have an emergency!"
A man in his fifties entered the room. Sasuke laid Sakura on the gurney and finished:
"Doctor, please treat her quickly! I don't want to lose her!"
"You! Bring me the suturing equipment" shouted the renowned Dr. Kinosaki to the nurse, who quickly obeyed.
She ran out of the room while the doctor pressed his hand against Sakura's arm to stop the bleeding. Suddenly, he felt another hand on his and saw Sakura open her eyes.
"'Wha...?'"
"'Sharingan!'" said Sasuke, activating his dōjutsu. The still disoriented doctor quickly fell under Sasuke's genjutsu.
Sakura removed the doctor's hand from her arm, activated her medical technique, and stood up from the gurney.
"'You're better at acting than I thought, Sasuke-kun,'" she said with a smile.
Within seconds, her wound had healed. She took a pill from her pouch, biting into it to regain the energy lost from her injury. She then put her headband back on and assumed a combat stance, a slight smile on her lips. Sasuke returned to his cold, serious demeanor and asked:
"'Who are you? What are your plans?'"
The doctor, completely under the influence of the genjutsu, had half-closed eyes and a slightly open mouth.
"'Doctors of... the Land of Tea... create... the perfect being...'"
"'How do you create perfect beings?'" Sasuke asked, frowning.
"'A being that combines the strength of shinobi... and the power of nature... by fusing humans... and animals...'"
Sakura bit her lip and clenched her fist tightly to contain her rage, furrowing her brow. Sasuke glanced at her out of the corner of his eye without saying a word, then continued:
"Where are the children?"
"Lab... basement... entrance is at the end of the hallway... to the left..."
"How many of you are there?"
"Ten doctors... supervised by... the ninja... Oboke..."
Sasuke deepened the genjutsu until the doctor lost consciousness, then said:
"'We have our answers, Sakura. Let's attack now.'"
The nurse rushed in with the equipment, but before she could scream, Sasuke used his genjutsu to make her lose consciousness.
They then ran out of the room.
"He said it's at the end, on the left" Sasuke said.
They reached the designated room and found a door that required a code.
"I didn't think to ask for the code" Sasuke said.
Sakura cracked her knuckles and approached the door.
"Hn, we're in battle now anyway." With those words, she clenched her fist and shouted as she punched the door:
"'SHANAROOOO!'"
The steel door and the adjacent wall were completely shattered, triggering an alarm throughout the hospital.
They descended the stairs and found another even larger steel door, which Sakura destroyed just like the previous one. Upon entering, they were met with the sight of a vast laboratory, and the scene that unfolded before them shook Sakura to her core. In cages, there were animals that had been injected with substances to keep them constantly enraged. On the other side of the room, three unconscious children were locked in a cage, piled on top of each other. At the back of the room, several large tubes were used for experiments on test subjects. They saw a figure advancing towards them from the far end of the room.
"I see some people have come to stick their noses into matters that don't concern them..."
The figure stepped out of the shadows, revealing a man in his forties with red hair and dark, sunken eyes. He had a malevolent smile. Sakura clenched her fist even tighter as she looked around her.
"...Why..."
"I see you are ninjas from Konoha. You have no business being here."
Sasuke furrowed his brow as he sensed several presences around them. In no time, they found themselves surrounded by several ninja doctors.
"I'm asking you why..." Sakura repeated through gritted teeth.
"Why? Does it bother you?" the doctor replied arrogantly.
Sakura bit her lower lip so hard that blood dripped down. She erupted in fury:
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO INNOCENT PEOPLE?!"
Sasuke placed his arm in front of Sakura to restrain her:
"Calm down, Sakura." Then he turned his dark gaze towards the doctor.
"So you're the one responsible. You kidnap children, torture them, and inject substances into animals to push them to their limits before merging them… to create mutant beings."
"Oh… I see you're strong enough to have made Dr. Kinosaki talk. Well, now that you know, you won't leave here alive."
With those words, a dozen shinobi attacked Sasuke and Sakura.
"Watch out!" Sasuke shouted.
The two engaged in hand-to-hand combat, evading the numerous attacks that came one after the other. Sasuke and Sakura were incredibly powerful, and the ninjas they faced were no match for them. Sasuke managed to defeat six of them using a combination of Chidori and genjutsu, while Sakura completely crushed three of them with her fists, leaving them bleeding heavily. Oboke watched them with a smile before starting to laugh maliciously.
"Hn hn… HAAHAHHAHA! I underestimated you, but show me what you can do against this…"
He took a syringe from his pocket and injected it into his arm with a sinister laugh. Suddenly, his veins began to bulge and protrude from his skin, his features contorted, his eyes changed color, his teeth became sharper, his nose and mouth elongated, and his body grew larger and larger, towering over the young shinobi.
Before them stood a wolf-like man over three meters tall.
"Hnhnhn… Look! Look at what science has done! You shinobi from the big villages look down on us. You've created your own system without considering the smaller villages! We've managed to create our own soldiers too! The perfect form, the alchemy between man and animal! You come in and interrupt our experiments; I'll show you that what we've created far surpasses all your childish endeavors!"
In a split second, he raised his paw, which was over a meter long, to strike them. Sasuke quickly grabbed Sakura around the waist and teleported a few meters away, taking stock of the situation he had created.
"Tsk… He's significantly stronger than the others," Sasuke said, releasing Sakura.
She looked around and saw they had been teleported right next to the tubes. Her eyes widened when she saw a small girl inside one of the large tubes, connected by rods to another tube where a decomposing tiger was kept.
Sakura gently placed her hand on the glass tube and murmured:
"…Wait for me, I will save you."
Her gaze darkened as she looked towards the mutant man:
"To create soldiers… you've kidnapped children, deprived them of their parents, kept them in cages, and tortured them with experiments destined to fail…"
"For the sake of our country, these sacrifices are necessary! The Five Great Nations look down on us. We, a small village without strength or an army, are used by the great nations! We will prove that we are more powerful than you, that we are worth more than you! Konoha trains its shinobi by sending them to war for years, but we train our future soldiers with science! By creating perfect beings! These children will be our prestige! Our honor! Our power!"
Sakura looked back at the tube… the little girl seemed exhausted, even dying.
"Prestige… honor… power… what is it when there is no humanity left?!" Sakura shouted, tears welling in her eyes. She continued:
"You have the chance to live in a peaceful country, and to regain 'honor,' you kill innocents! Look! A man remains a man, an animal remains an animal; all these experiments will only create more victims! Your current power is temporary, I know, but turning a human into a mutant forever is impossible!"
"What do you know about it?!" the doctor shouted.
"I KNOW!" Sakura cried out even louder, sobbing.
Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw her in this state. She approached him fearlessly, looking him straight in the eyes:
"The greatest honor… the greatest prestige… the greatest power! It is to be able to prevent suffering! Look! The children suffer… their parents suffer, and you suffer too… you suffer from this emptiness that drives you to commit all these crimes! Stop, please stop!"
Oboke attacked her with his paw, but she didn't move and allowed him to drive his claws into her stomach. Blood began to flow profusely.
Sasuke's eyes widened as he ran toward her.
"SAKURA!"
She looked up at the wolf-like man… the Byakugo seal was drawn on her forehead. She wrapped her arms around his claws and gripped them tightly, then looked up with tearful eyes:
"Stop… please…"
Oboke's eyes widened, and he gritted his teeth:
"...It's too late… I can't stop now."
He tried to pull his paw from her stomach to attack again, but he couldn't:
"This strength… I can't move… she didn't really freeze me just by holding my claws…?"
Sakura closed her eyes and murmured:
"...What a shame."
Sasuke arrived at the wolf's neck after activating Chidori on his katana. Oboke hadn't realized what was happening before Sasuke had already severed his shoulder completely. Oboke cried out in pain and reverted to his human form, clutching his shoulder and screaming. Sasuke grabbed him by the neck, choking him as he struggled:
"Many children were killed during these experiments… you inflicted terrible suffering on them, but I won't kill you."
"...!"
"If we kill you, others will say that the great nations prevent the smaller ones from building their own strength, that we come only to kill those who seek change… but that's not Konoha's philosophy."
Oboke collapsed to the ground, staring into the void:
"Ha… So that's what it was…"
