Five thousand troops composed mostly of chūnin, with nine thousand genin in reserve; those were all the Hidden Leaf could spare to match the Hidden's Stone twenty thousand currently marching across the Land of Grass straight towards their home.
"Look, it's the Lady Sixth!"
"Lead us to victory, Milady!"
"Hokage banzai!"
As she walked through the ranks of her army, drawn up on the plains bordering the Land of Grass, Sakura could not help feeling a twinge of anxiety. Though she had been meant to take command of the north-eastern front, this was actually her first time leading troops into battle… and although she would have liked Sasuke and Kakashi to be there with her for support, they were unfortunately bedridden due to chakra exhaustion.
At any rate, her five thousand men were divided into various corps, each specialising in close-range, mid-range, or long-range combat, while additional corps focused on scouting, mobility or defence. Every one of them was equipped with one of Katsuyu's divided selves, ensuring access to her healing jutsu at all times.
"Our troops are in position, Milady," said Yamanaka Inoichi, bowing as Sakura entered the command tent. Naruto, Shikaku and several other members of the Barrier and Intelligence Teams were present as well. "The operation can begin at your command."
The command centre was a large tent housing the Intelligence Division's equipment, which in this case consisted solely of a perfect replica of the Barrier Team's Sensing Water Sphere. It floated in mid-air, the occasional ripple spreading across its otherwise placid surface. Conspicuously absent was any form of electronic equipment, a rarity for the Intelligence Division.
Sakura took a deep breath. "Begin."
Though the existence of chakra somewhat diminished the advantage of superior numbers, five thousand soldiers could not possibly contain twenty thousand men; it's common knowledge that two fists cannot rival four palms.
As such, superior tactics were the only way to bridge the gap, for even sending Sakura out personally would not erase the disparity in numbers. After all, ninja did not wage war as samurai did; they would not stand in orderly formations and wait their turn to fight as a conventional army would. Instead, they spread out in small groups and slipped through the gaps in the enemy's lines to strike at the rear, making it impossible for even someone as powerful as Sakura to catch them all at once.
"I understand your anxiousness, Milady, but you must stay put for now," Shikaku said, taking note of Sakura's restlessness. "You cannot enter the fray just yet, or Ōnoki will be forced to show himself as well, which would be disastrous for the strategy. As the Hokage, you must learn to trust those under you… you cannot be everywhere at once."
Shikaku's attitude seemed to have shifted slightly after Sakura's return from the north. He took her side more often in negotiations with the Daimyō's envoys and the capitalists who wished to divert the Leaf's forces to protect their assets. Perhaps he had finally come to accept that the Hidden Leaf was facing a genuine, existential crisis, or perhaps he had finally realised that the village needed Sakura more than Sakura needed the village.
"I don't get it," Naruto said insistently. "We should be out there, helping everyone instead of staying cooped up in here, ya know!"
"But you are helping, Naruto," Shikaku replied tactfully. "You are providing Lady Hokage with the chakra she needs to keep our troops alive, and you are providing protection against the enemy's decapitation tactics."
Ever since they had… connected, so to speak, something rather interesting had happened to their chakra: Naruto's had become compatible with Sakura's. That meant they could give and take chakra between each other as though their partner's were their own.
Each person's chakra was unique, which was why their signatures could be used to identify individuals, and normally it could not be exchanged freely, only stolen and assimilated… but somehow, Naruto seemed to have found a way to alter his output signature to match hers, like two interlocking puzzle pieces.
Even with her high attainment in chakra control, Sakura could not do this on the fly, even with people she resonated well with. As for how Naruto had learned to do it without any practice, she had no way to explain it, other than the fact that he was finally growing up. Going by the original timeline, it should have taken him a few more months to gain the ability to distribute chakra at will to strangers, yet even though it was only March, he was already well on his way to becoming the hero he was always meant to be.
"Shh!" Sakura said, closing her eyes. "I need to concentrate!"
In her mind's eye, the five thousand or so Katsuyu clones appeared as stars in the night sky. Each luminous dot represented a soldier whose life she was responsible for. Even though they all looked the same, each dot was irreplaceable and incomparably precious… and very soon, they began blinking.
At last, Sakura understood how Lady Tsunade could have let herself wither away into an old woman at such a young age. Such an intimate connection, the knowledge that each vanishing dot meant a life lost… it was no wonder she had left the village after the Second Shinobi World War. If she had stayed on through the Third, she would have become an emotional alcoholic wreck at best, or aged herself to death at worst.
Sakura clapped her hands.
"Katsuyu Art: Immense Network Healing!"
At once, an immense quantity of chakra, so dense that it was visible to the naked eye, began flowing out of Sakura's pores and into the seemingly empty space above her head as she transmitted her healing power to the injured through Katsuyu's divided selves. Her Hokage robes flapped wildly, her long pink hair billowing in the torrent of chakra pouring from her…
"No!" Sakura gasped. "I lost one!"
The first luminous dot had winked out. Even though she could heal faster than the enemy could injure, even she could not ward off instant death.