Chapter 110: Yin Release, Yang Release
Sakura sat in the Hokage's office rubbing the enormous lump on her head, explaining what had happened to Hiruzen with the expression of someone who had genuinely had enough of today.
Hiruzen and Tsunade, for their part, were considerably less interested in Itachi than in the second personality.
Tsunade's concern was general. Hiruzen's was specific: he had effectively been grooming Sakura as his successor. If she came with unpredictable additional residents, that was a problem of a different order.
Per Sakura's account: she'd been caught by the Mangekyō Sharingan's Tsukuyomi, the so-called second personality had appeared, broken her out, and then simply taken over and fought Itachi and Kisame while Sakura was a passenger.
Tsunade sat with her arms folded and looked at the girl rubbing her head without particular sympathy.
She had every reason to believe the second personality had done that last part on purpose — picked a fight with the most famous pair of forbidden technique users in the shinobi world and then, when it was time for consequences, shoved the original back into the driver's seat to receive them.
Sheer, petty, committed envy.
Hiruzen stood across from Sakura with a frown, feeling a tiredness that was at least partly philosophical.
Orochimaru had become a human experimentation enthusiast. Tsunade had gambled away approximately her own weight in gold. Jiraiya was a professional pervert masquerading as a spy novelist.
He had finally, against considerable odds, taken another student.
And she appeared to have a second personality.
The universe, it seemed, had decided his teaching career was a comedy.
"So," he said, finding the diplomatic angle, "what's this second personality actually like?"
Sakura was very carefully pressing on the lump Tsunade had left on her head.
The sequence of events had been as follows: Inner Sakura had provoked Tsunade. Inner Sakura had then, upon sensing the incoming retaliation, instantly retreated and pushed the real Sakura forward to take the hit. The real Sakura had received what Tsunade described as an "affectionate head flick" — which, at Tsunade's baseline force, had nearly knocked her unconscious.
"She's an absolute menace," Tsunade said, from the side.
Then she glared at Sakura specifically.
"...The personality is, admittedly, somewhat difficult," Sakura said, with a slightly strained laugh.
Hiruzen suppressed something that was trying to become a smile.
He had genuinely never seen Sakura make that expression before.
"Hah. Secondary personalities typically emerge from the deepest, most suppressed aspects of the primary self." Tsunade grabbed Sakura's cheek and pulled. "I have very good reason to think that is the real you."
"I didn't ask for this—"
Sakura extracted herself from Tsunade's grip.
In truth, she'd already arrived at a working theory about Inner Sakura.
The original Sakura — canon Sakura — had always had a second personality. It was practically canon lore. Strong enough mental presence to generate an autonomous inner self, strong enough that the Yamanaka clan's Mind Body Switch couldn't get through. That inner self was the manifestation of Sakura's natural gift for genjutsu — a spirit produced by exceptional Yin chakra density.
What she was dealing with now was that same phenomenon, but fed by years of Yin Seal accumulation and growing steadily stronger as Sakura herself grew stronger.
"I can feel it. She doesn't have hostile intent. She just has terrible taste in how she expresses things."
Sakura rubbed her cheek and continued: "In the end — and in canon — she was always fighting for me. She still is. She's just doing it in the most aggravating way possible."
Is this actually who I am, underneath everything?
One who refers to herself as "this old man" and hits things?
Who provokes the legendary medical ninja of the Sannin and then hides behind the nearest available body?
What kind of person does that?
She pushed the self-examination aside.
"Is that so."
Hiruzen stroked his chin and went quiet for a moment.
Second personality. Pros and cons.
If he framed it this way: Sakura's primary self — the one with the Strength of a Hundred, the medical ninjutsu, the methodical long-term thinking — was the Yang side of the equation. Life force, physical vitality, accumulated energy made manifest.
And the secondary self — Inner Sakura — born of spiritual power strong enough to generate independent consciousness, was the Yin side.
He'd never encountered anything quite like this combination in sixty years of shinobi experience.
Yin and Yang Release. The two most complex and opaque domains in the entire practice of ninjutsu.
But the implication was that at any given moment, the Yin personality could take over.
An unpredictable variable.
Hiruzen felt a particular melancholy settle over him.
My successor candidate has a bug in the system.
"It'll be fine, old man." Sakura, reading his expression with the accuracy of four years of regular proximity, started talking faster. "I can feel it — the temperament is terrible, but the intention is genuinely to help me. Think of it like a shadow clone. Shadow clones have independent consciousness too. But they're still fundamentally me. Based on me. Working from me."
"I know that."
Hiruzen said it with a heaviness that had nothing to do with doubting her.
If she can't fully integrate this — if the Yin personality remains outside her control—
Then the Hokage position needs to be reconsidered.
Tsunade could take it in the interim. Give Sakura time to work through this.
Because a Hokage who might, at moments of extreme stress, become a different and considerably less stable version of herself — that was a situation with too many unknowns.
"Go home first. Get your hair fixed."
Hiruzen looked at the shorter, unevenly cut pink hair — legacy of Inner Sakura's field grooming decision after the Great Dragon Fire hit — and opted for the practical.
Sakura didn't particularly mind the hair. She'd been planning to cut it for months.
"Right."
She stood, and then looked at Tsunade with poorly concealed disappointment.
Of course.
The Senju archives. Again. She'd been trying to get there for weeks.
And now she was going to war tomorrow morning.
Her entire Yang Release taijutsu research program — the one she'd been planning to build from Tobirama's notes, combining it with the Strength of a Hundred, her medical ninjutsu, and Karin's regenerative ability to survive the Shikkotsu Forest's sacred pool — that plan was contingent on getting into those archives.
When was she going to have time for any of this?
She made a face.
Then: "Lady Tsunade — can I sleep at your place tonight?"
"???"
Tsunade blinked.
"Sure. Saves me from being bored alone."
"Bring the red-haired one too."
Sakura received this answer and immediately felt something unwind.
"Thank you, Lady Tsunade!"
She was out of the office before anyone could say anything else.
Time was genuinely short. She had the Frost Country front tomorrow.
Tonight she was not sleeping. She was going to the Senju clan archive and staying until she had what she needed.
As for Tsunade's reason for wanting Karin there—
Sakura had a reasonable guess.
Karin was a pure-blooded Uzumaki. Her bloodline was arguably more concentrated than Kushina's had been — Kushina hadn't had the Mind's Eye of the Kagura, and she certainly hadn't had the body restoration ability. Tsunade had loved Kushina. Not as a mentor loves a student, not as a colleague — as family, almost, the kind that didn't fit neatly into categories.
Seeing Karin would be, in its own complicated way, seeing a trace of someone gone.
(End of Chapter)
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