[I would like to remind you that this chapter is quite difficult to read, as its content may shock some readers. It contains numerous extremely violent scenes with very detailed descriptions. Remember, this story is not a fairy tale and takes place in an era where violence and the horrors of battle are a reality.
Now that you've been warned, happy reading!]
Sakura didn't even bother to wait for Madara. Fear had gripped her intensely when she realized that the Hi no Kuni army was near the southern border of Ta no Kuni. Driven by a visceral panic, she ran like never before, a desperation she had never felt even during the most perilous missions of her past life.
Every leap she took left deep impressions in the ground, marking the raw power she was unleashing. Nothing mattered to her—neither obstacles nor the people she passed by. Her sole objective was to reach her old home in time, the village that had welcomed her when she returned to the past. She had to protect them, especially Hitomi.
Seeing that she wouldn't slow down for him, Madara ordered Ashina to deploy the army in anticipation of a multi-pronged attack while he pursued Sakura. After about twenty minutes, he finally caught up with her.
Madara remained confident. No one on this earth could match his strength; he was the number one ninja.
After another ten minutes, the two leaders of Heiwa neared the border, and what Sakura had feared was confirmed: a column of smoke rose in the distance, making her heart race even faster.
The southern region of Ta no Kuni, dotted with rice fields and rugged terrain, was difficult to defend for an organized army. Although soldiers were stationed to secure the villages surrounding the capital, their numbers were likely insufficient to repel an enemy attack.
Leaping over a cliff about fifty meters high, Madara and Sakura were horrified by the grim scene unfolding below.
The village was in ruins. Some buildings were on fire, and the ground was littered with bodies, while Konoha ninjas finished off the remaining survivors.
"No!" Sakura cried out, drawing the attention of the army to their position.
Held by a Konoha ninja with a kunai pressed against her throat, Hitomi appeared to be the last person still alive. Terrified, she begged to be let go, pleading for her life.
The soldiers' gazes shifted from the woman to the man beside her, whom they recognized immediately. There was no doubt about his identity: his stature, his silhouette, his presence...
"You!" roared the chief commander of the army.
How could this man be here? He was supposed to be dead, killed by Hashirama Senju!
"So you're behind all this, Uchiha?" the commander continued, trying to mask his unease at the presence of the Shinobi God. After all, Madara Uchiha was known to all, his exploits elevated to the status of legend.
What to do? Hiruzen Sarutobi, by declaring war on Ta no Kuni, had ensured that the army would encounter no significant resistance. That was one reason why the commander had only a thousand soldiers under his command. But now, with Madara's sudden appearance, fully capable, everything had changed. Would his contingent be enough to neutralize such an opponent?
Madara, arms crossed, continued to observe the shinobis below, his Heikage hat floating slightly at his waist. He was disappointed by what the Will of Fire had become: mere mercenaries massacring civilians for resources. He understood why Sakura had clenched fists, why a dark aura radiated from her. Among the soldiers, he spotted a dozen members of his clan, reading shock on their faces.
They now had proof that Kagami's suspicions were well-founded. Why hadn't their leader informed them that he was still alive? Why hadn't he returned to Konoha to guide them? But the question that haunted them all: would the great Madara Uchiha forgive them for their past betrayal, having turned away from his plans?
"Release her!" Sakura commanded, her voice laced with such severity that Madara turned his gaze toward her. When he saw her face, he understood. He would finally see her in action.
"You weren't summoned, woman!" the commander retorted, not recognizing her, too focused on Madara. "So now you let a woman speak for you, you coward?"
Madara remained silent in the face of the insult.
"Sakura!" Hitomi cried out, desperate, upon recognizing her friend's voice.
The forty-year-old had been living a nightmare since these men had burst into the village. All she wanted was to escape, to join her friend and hold her. She wanted to find her husband and son, whose whereabouts were unknown to her.
"I said… release her!" Sakura repeated, exuding a palpable murderous intent.
The intensity of her intent was so overwhelming that the hatred and fury emanating from her were almost tangible. A surge of pure rage, close to what could be described as a Berserk state.
Feeling this aura of power and anger, many wondered suddenly: Who was she?
There was no doubt that this woman was incredibly powerful, far from the image of weakness often associated with women. On the contrary, the confidence she radiated was terrifying.
"It's the pink-haired woman from the last war!"
"What is she doing here?" several of them exclaimed.
The already palpable tension on the battlefield escalated further. Stress began to invade the hearts of the many Shinobi, fueled by the legend surrounding this woman: the strongest woman in the world.
"Don't give me orders!" the commander snapped, too proud to lose face in front of his men. Ignoring the threat Sakura posed, he turned to the prisoner. "Kill her!"
The Shinobi holding Hitomi showed no hesitation at the command. He had been trained to carry out such acts without remorse.
The blade sank into the flesh, releasing an initial trickle of blood, then, with a precise motion, it sliced horizontally. The jugulars and carotids were severed, depriving the brain of all blood supply. The pain was brief for Hitomi ; her brain disconnected instantly from the traumatic impact. In the seconds that followed, her blood spurted out in jets as her body convulsed in spasms, the final twitches before the Shinobi let her lifeless body fall to the ground. He did not tremble or even feel the slightest emotion while arbitrarily taking the life of a woman whose only wish was to live freely.
Sakura, powerless, had just witnessed the brutal execution of her friend, her surrogate mother, the godmother of her child. Time seemed to freeze around her. Nothing existed anymore, neither Madara nor the surrounding noises. Her mind was focused solely on the horror that had unfolded before her eyes, on the terrible consequences of this act. All of this had happened because she had believed in her dream of peace. A deep rage, mixed with burning hatred, stirred within her. For the first time, Sakura understood what it meant to hate someone. Her suffering was so intense that it had to be expressed. So, she let that fury grow deep within her, embraced it fully, and decided to unleash it against her enemies. They would pay for what they had done. They would suffer as much, if not more, than she herself did! They would experience the pain they had inflicted on Hitomi! YES! THEY WOULD ALL DIE!
"I will never forgive you!" Sakura screamed, releasing the enhanced forehead seal bestowed by the Rikudō Sennin.
It was the first time she had used it since arriving in the Sengoku era, and she felt all the power accumulated over the years flow into her body, exploding in a shockwave that spread over ten kilometers. The overwhelming force she unleashed made several Shinobi tremble, even drop to their knees. The diamond-shaped seal glowed with pink and violet hues, while hundreds of Fūinjutsu seals spread across her entire body. Under this surge of chakra emanating from every pore of her skin, her hair began to whirl violently. Her emerald eyes turned white, a white so bright that a faint aura radiated from it.
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!" Sakura screamed in a voice that was neither feminine nor even human. She demanded only one thing : revenge!
She slightly bent her legs, took a leap, and propelled herself into the air, her goal clear: to land right in the midst of Konoha's armed troops.
Madara, completely mesmerized by what he saw, would never have imagined such power from any Shinobi other than Hashirama or himself. This strength exceeded that of a Jinchūriki. Seeing her in the air, he decided not to intervene and whispered a warning that only members of his clan could read on his lips thanks to their Sharingan.
"The choice is yours..."
Everything was happening at a breathtaking speed. The entire army was paralyzed by this display of chakra, and no one reacted when Sakura landed among the Shinobi.
"SHANNARO!" Sakura roared as she struck the ground with her fist, imbued with chakra to the point of glowing with a brilliant blue. Years of precise chakra control had made her an expert, and when her fist hit the ground, a flash of light blinded all witnesses before a chain reaction began. A shockwave spread, sweeping away dozens of Shinobi unprepared to face such raw power. The ground cracked with a deafening seismic roar, creating huge fissures over a kilometer. The debris seemed to have a life of its own, crushing the less fortunate under tons of earth and stone, while a cloud of dust rose.
The closest Shinobi, who had avoided being buried, suddenly began to cough up blood before collapsing, dead on the spot. Sakura had learned that when chakra was not used for Iryō Ninjutsu, it became a lethal poison to those who received it directly. Unable to handle this foreign energy, the victims' cells imploded, destroying their organs from the inside.
In one second, Sakura had taken the lives of a hundred people.
Without waiting to see the effects of her attack, she sprang back up with lightning speed, rushing toward the closest Shinobi who had managed to stabilize himself despite the tremors. The man had no time to react before receiving a punch to the face, dying instantly with a horrifying crunch. The force of the impact crushed his cervical vertebrae, dislocated his jaw, and forced his eyeballs from their sockets, while the vibrations obliterated his brain. His lifeless, distorted body was thrown backward, knocking over several of his horrified comrades.
How could a single punch cause so much damage?
But Sakura didn't stop there. She continued, charging at a second man, then a third, and so on. Taking advantage of their state of shock, she continued her rampage for a few more seconds before the Shinobi finally began to react and attempt to fight back.
"Kill her!" ordered the commander, stunned by what he had just witnessed. He had never seen such a massacre in such a short time.
The Shinobi, having regained their senses, attacked the woman with all their fury, but she dodged their strikes with disconcerting ease. Thanks to her intensive training with Tsunade Senju, the non-chakra-charged blows seemed trivial to her. With every dodge, Sakura retaliated mercilessly.
"Ahh! My arm!" screamed a man as he saw his limb torn off. Torn muscles, broken bone, blood pouring out abundantly; if nothing was done quickly, he would die. At that moment, Sakura cared nothing for the grim fate awaiting him.
"Kill he-Arrg...," another tried to scream before receiving a kick to the face. The blow drove his jaw into his skull, causing immediate death.
In the seconds that followed, the battlefield was a series of bloody and horrific scenes. In less than a minute, Sakura had killed over two hundred people, demonstrating her exceptional mastery of Taijutsu. For those unaccustomed, it was almost impossible to follow her movements, so fast and precise was she.
Suddenly, she stopped, surrounded by the bodies she had turned into corpses. She held the neck of a blond Shinobi, kneeling next to her, while she stared at the standing soldiers. Her hand rested on the man's face, who was terrified of what she was going to do to him.
"Please... Please!" he begged, hoping in vain that she would show mercy.
But it was not to be. Sakura activated one of the seals on her wrist, releasing a stream of water that gushed out. The Shinobi understood immediately what was coming, but he couldn't make a single move to escape. Sakura's grip was relentless, and she directed the flow of water into his mouth and nose.
Without taking her eyes off the soldiers, she continued to pour water... again and again... The Shinobi was gasping, his body wracked with spasms as he desperately tried to expel the excess liquid. His arms weakly struck at Sakura, but the flow was too strong; he eventually drowned, and no one dared to intervene.
Sakura did not hesitate for a second. She wanted to see the fear in the eyes of Konoha's Shinobi. She had just psychologically scarred them to make them understand that she would show no mercy, that there would be no negotiations. She would take no prisoners.
"What are you waiting for ?" the commander shouted at his men, who were now too terrified to attack, afraid of meeting the same fate as their comrades.
"Attack! That's an order!"
In a final surge of obedience, the Shinobi all charged at her simultaneously.
But this was their end.
Seeing the men charging in her direction, Sakura manifested five kunai in her right hand, observing her opponents. Did they not understand that no matter what they tried, the result would be the same?
She decided it was time to show them that one should not play with a virtuoso of Fūinjutsu.
Each kunai bore sealing seals, glowing faintly with a royal blue hue. These same kunai had impressed Ashina Uzumaki with their ingenuity and danger.
Sakura executed a swift circular motion, sending the five kunai in different directions. With her legendary strength, the weapons did not merely hit their targets—they literally pierced through them, cutting through armor, clothing, and flesh with disconcerting ease. The instant the blood came into contact with the seals engraved on the blades, they activated.
Each kunai released ten more blades, all propelled with the same devastating force. These new blades pierced other Shinobi, triggering the appearance of dozens of additional kunai. Within moments, a hundred enemies were eliminated, their bodies riddled with projectiles.
But this devastating attack did not slow the remaining adversaries who, spared by the kunai, rushed toward Sakura. They had no choice: the order was to eliminate her, and the massacre she was inflicting on their comrades had to be stopped at all costs.
Sakura dodged and blocked the attacks of the Shinobi surrounding her. Her sensei Kakashi's teachings echoed in her mind: always innovate to gain the advantage. She activated her Chakura no Mesu, her hands transforming into sharp scalpels, imbued with enough chakra to cut through even the toughest weapons, as if she were a wind specialist.
"Take this!" yelled a gigantic Shinobi, swinging a massive axe. Sakura blocked the weapon with one hand, her Chakura no Mesu slicing the axe in two before continuing on to the enemy's neck. The man realized too late what was happening: he collapsed to the ground, his head separated from his body, watching his own corpse a few meters away.
Sakura leaped into the air again and landed a little further, striking the ground once more with her chakra-charged fist, killing everyone who was too close to the impact.
The attacks resumed quickly, but a swordsman, more skilled than the others, managed to offer some resistance. His movements were subtle, unpredictable, forcing Sakura to constantly dodge. This opponent mastered the wind element, a rare affinity in the Land of Fire, making each strike potentially fatal.
Sakura dodged, deflected, but never directly blocked the Shinobi's sword. The survivors watched their companion with hope, praying he would turn the tide of the battle. Seconds passed in a deadly dance, one striking into empty air, the other dodging while searching for a flaw… And it appeared! Sakura wasted no time. She concentrated her chakra in her index and middle fingers, striking the swordsman's wrist.
"Ahh!" screamed the man in pain.
In one blow, he lost control of his nerves and tendons, dropping his weapon. But Sakura did not stop there. She attacked his legs and arms, completely paralyzing him, before grabbing him by the neck and lifting him off the ground, half-strangling him. The other Shinobi watched, horrified.
How could a woman possess such strength? She had ravaged the battlefield, thrown men, broken weapons with her bare hands, and now, she was lifting a man weighing over eighty kilos with one hand, effortlessly.
Sakura, her Chakura no Mesu still activated, cut the straps of her victim's armor, exposing his torso to everyone. She wanted to instill visceral fear in her adversaries, drive them into panic, break them psychologically. This terror would make them lose all confidence, rendering them more vulnerable.
With surgical precision, Sakura plunged her hand into the man's chest, cutting through his flesh and ribcage. The Shinobi screamed in agony, the sensation of the attack surpassing that of a wound from a traditional weapon. Sakura showed no mercy, ignoring any anesthetic techniques. The further her hand delved into the man's torso, the closer she got to her goal: grabbing his heart.
Her fingers wrapped around the organ, still pulsing with life. With a brutal motion, she yanked the heart from its cavity, causing immediate convulsions in her victim. She dropped his body to the ground with not a shred of compassion.
Sakura raised her arm, holding the still-beating heart for all to see her macabre act. Her arm was covered in blood, and the organ still pulsed weakly, driven by its final nerve spasms. Staring at the survivors with a cold gaze, she closed her fingers around the heart, crushing it in a splatter of blood.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" yelled a Shinobi behind her.
The ninja had tried to surprise her, hoping to turn her into ashes with a giant fireball. But Sakura, reacting with her legendary strength and speed, avoided the attack with a leap. The projectile continued its path, burning everything in its way. The smell of charred flesh, mixed with heated blood, filled the air. Those who could not get out of the way in time were incinerated on the spot, much to the dismay of the attacker.
Sakura kept moving, refusing to remain still. Her long strides forced her adversaries to move according to her plans. Each movement was calculated, each action methodically thought out.
The Konoha army might have thought she had embarked on this vendetta thoughtlessly, blinded by rage, but it was not so. Sakura, despite her anger, had kept a clear mind, using all the techniques at her disposal. And she was preparing something that no one had yet seen coming. Her adversaries would soon discover that she could eliminate them even faster and in greater numbers.
From the beginning of the conflict, Sakura had discreetly placed explosive tags on the ground, hidden beneath her steps. A storage seal under her right foot allowed her to deploy the scrolls in an instant, ready to explode at her mental command. However, she was waiting for the perfect moment to trigger this technique, preferring to hold off a little longer…
"Mercy !" begged a Shinobi Sakura was holding firmly by the throat. Terrified, he did not want to die like all those who had fallen before him. He dreamed of going home, seeing his wife and children again. He had only been following orders from his superiors, nothing more. He was just a tool in this ruthless war.
"Mercy?" Sakura repeated with contained rage. "Did you show any mercy for her, earlier? Did you SPARE HER, DID YOU?"
Terror twisted the man's face, his body trembling uncontrollably. He had even soiled himself from the palpable hatred in Sakura's voice. With a simple squeeze, Sakura tightened her grip, crushing the bones in his throat and crushing his windpipe. The man collapsed, dead on the spot, suffocated by the lack of oxygen and broken blood vessels. Without a glance, Sakura dropped his corpse to the ground like a worthless piece of trash.
It had been barely five minutes since the carnage began, and already more than half of the enemy troops lay lifeless. On her part, Sakura had not a single scratch, not a sign of fatigue. Her endurance and strength were simply incomprehensible.
How was she doing it? What other surprises did she have in store? Until now, she had only used Taijutsu and Fūinjutsu, suggesting she still had other techniques in reserve. As if she could read their thoughts, Sakura quickly formed the Ram hand sign: Ninjutsu!
As soon as she activated the technique, the air began to vibrate, charged with the chakra bursts that triggered the explosive tags scattered across the battlefield. No one had noticed them before it was too late. The distinctive sound of a fuse lighting up finally revealed the imminent threat. All eyes turned to the glowing tags, now visible and ready to explode.
"Explosive!" yelled a Shinobi, but it was already too late. Nothing and no one could escape this deadly trap.
"Katsu!"shouted Sakura, activating all the tags at once.
Two hundred explosions rang out simultaneously, reducing everything to nothing. Arms and legs were torn off, bodies exploded into pieces, scattering fragments of organs and bones in all directions. The battlefield turned into a true slaughterhouse.
A thick smoke enveloped the area, masking the agonized cries of the few survivors. Taking advantage of this deathly fog, Sakura continued to fight, invisible to her opponents. They, blinded and disoriented, could only hear the screams of terror from their comrades, the sounds of deadly blows Sakura dealt, and the bodies collapsing, struck by her relentless fury.
In this desperate situation, the last survivors did the only thing that still made sense: they fled.
To hell with the orders, to hell with being called cowards or traitors! Their survival depended on it. Panic overwhelmed them, and they ran without looking back towards the Land of Fire.
At this precise moment, Madara decided to intervene.
What he had just witnessed was phenomenal. He had longed to observe the extent of his wife's abilities, and he was not disappointed. Sakura had displayed a strength and power that would make anyone envious.
But as the Heikage, he could not allow any intruder to escape from his lands.
With a leap, Madara joined the battlefield, plunging into the heart of the melee. Some Konoha Shinobi, gripped by panic, no longer knew whether to flee or confront the legendary Madara Uchiha.
A dozen men, however, had managed to escape Sakura's fury by keeping their distance while she massacred their comrades. These men, members of the Uchiha clan, made a unanimous decision upon seeing their leader join the battle alongside this formidable woman: they chose to rally to him, their clan leader.
Without hesitation, the Uchiha clan members turned against their own allies. Thus, the last Shinobi of Konoha No Sato perished in a brutal betrayal by the Uchiha.
All, except one.
Indeed, Sakura had deliberately spared the squad leader. She wanted him to witness the consequences of his orders. By keeping him alive as the sole survivor of this carnage, she hoped he would be deeply terrified by the fate that could await him as well.
Standing before him, while Madara watched from a distance, Sakura was an embodiment of coldness and rage. The man, visibly terrified, feared what Sakura might do to him even more than Madara. For the first time in his life, he was faced with a woman who truly frightened him.
"Take off your jacket!" Sakura ordered in a cold voice.
"What?"
"TAKE OFF YOUR JACKET!" Sakura shouted, her anger barely contained.
Despite the recent massacre, Sakura was not at ease. On the contrary, by remaining the last, the commander was rekindling her suffering. She wanted to torture him, make him experience as much pain as she had endured, but she had other plans for him.
The man quickly understood he had to obey. Trembling with fear, he removed his Jōnin vest, then his jacket, finding himself shirtless. As he expected to meet the same fate as the others, Sakura produced a sealing scroll with a puff of smoke. Before he could react, she pressed it forcefully against his chest.
The scroll stuck instantly to his skin and caught fire, the ink embedding deeply into it.
"Now, go! Run to your Hokage and tell him this: he will have his war, that monkey! And hurry up, you have only a few days before this seal kills you! And above all… tell him that his assassination attempt against me, as the Daimyō of Tani no Kuni, has failed!"
The seal was a specific creation of Sakura, intended for particular circumstances. She felt it was the perfect time to use it. Of course, the assassination attempt had not been directed at her, but he was not supposed to know that.
In intense panic, the Shinobi did not hesitate for a second. His heart pounded as he fled at top speed towards Konoha.
"You will pay for what you have done, Hiruzen Sarutobi," Sakura murmured, consumed by hatred towards this betrayal.
As the commander moved towards the forest, Sakura shouted one last time, so he could hear clearly:
"KONOHA WILL BURN!"
[I sincerely hope that you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Developing an underestimated Sakura from the original work has been a pleasure. To me, she is a very dangerous person, and I'm proud to have managed to convey that in this chapter. Thank you again for your reading and your loyalty. Please feel free to let me know what you thought of this chapter]
