Chapter 123: Mouth-to-Mouth — Just Force It In!
At some point the roaring had stopped.
The sun was coming up now, gold light spreading across an endless white plain that glittered softly in the early morning.
Then the snow moved.
A blue-black cat's head emerged very cautiously from the snowfield, looking around for a certain infuriating pink pest.
Matatabi checked. The pest was no longer attached to its body.
The enormous head swiveled in every direction. No pink. The coast was clear.
Matatabi pulled itself out of the snow, massive paws crunching against the surface, and gave its whole body a vigorous shake — snow flying off in every direction. Then it planted its hindquarters high, front paws extended, and stretched the soreness out of its body with the deep satisfaction of a cat that has earned a nap.
A shadow fell over it.
Matatabi looked up.
A colossal slug was falling out of the sky, accompanied by a furious shout.
"Summoning — Slug House Crushing Technique!"
Oh, COME ON—
It's that insufferable pink pest again—
"Sakura! Could you not summon me like this next time?!"
"And I hate cold places!"
Katsuyu's voice cracked with something approaching genuine distress as the frigid air hit her on the way down.
"Next time for sure, Lady Katsuyu! I'm so sorry and I'm counting on you!"
Sakura called down her apology, already scanning from several hundred meters up — where she'd leaped to in order to spot Enma charging toward her position from a distance.
She didn't hesitate.
"Summoning Jutsu — Great Monkey King!"
Matatabi saw the enormous slug descending toward it and made a decision: run.
But Katsuyu, for all her vocal complaints about the cold and the manner of her summoning, was not the type to ignore Sakura's needs. And she was a sage who could hold her own against the entirety of Ryūchi Cave or Mount Myōboku on her own.
There was nowhere to run to.
"MEOW—!"
BOOM.
Katsuyu landed dead-on. The impact sent a tremor rolling across the snowfield, and Katsuyu's smaller bodies scattered outward in every direction through the billowing white.
"Adamantine Staff!"
"Grow."
Sakura was still in free fall. She gave the order.
"Got it!"
Enma transformed — and kept growing. Larger, thicker, until a pillar of iron dozens of meters long hung in the air above the battlefield.
Sakura landed on one end, ran its length, reached the other end, and—
"Heaven Stomp!"
She kicked.
The staff became a ballistic projectile.
It hit Matatabi — still on the ground, still dazed, still wobbling from Katsuyu's impact — at a speed nothing should have been moving at.
The sound was a thunderclap.
Matatabi's enormous eyes rolled back. Consciousness left the building instantly.
The blue-black form flickered, lost cohesion, contracted — pulling back into Yugito's body as the jinchūriki slumped and collapsed.
Enma ignored the unconscious woman and turned toward Sakura, who was currently in free fall.
He moved to catch her.
THUD.
Sakura hit the snow in front of him instead, throwing up a spray of white.
Enma scratched the back of his head.
Sakura climbed out of the crater she'd made and gave him a flat look.
She moved to Yugito immediately and crouched to check her status.
Alive. Of course she was. Jinchūriki were built differently.
Sakura pulled wire from her pouch and bound her — thoroughly, efficiently — and Enma slung the unconscious woman over his shoulder without being asked.
Sakura looked back across the vast white expanse.
The supply depot was gone. Buried under meters of snow. This was deep in Kumogakure-controlled territory — once a large force arrived, even Sakura would need to run. And the moment word got out that Yugito had been captured, either Killer Bee or the Raikage would come personally.
That news wouldn't stay quiet long. Before the fight started, Darui had pulled out with the main force — they were standing by to support Yugito. They'd figure it out fast.
"Let's move, Lord Enma. I need to find Sasuke."
With Enma leading, it didn't take long.
They were at the base of a hill — Shino, Kiba, and a badly injured Sasuke, waiting.
"Sakura!"
Kiba's eyes lit up the moment he saw the familiar pink figure. He stopped himself from calling out too loud, remembered where they were, and settled for a look of profound relief.
Sakura bypassed him and went straight to Sasuke.
Kiba and Shino had done emergency field dressing. Bandages. That was about all they could do.
There was a deep sword wound across Sasuke's chest. The blood had soaked through his shirt and through the bandages both.
Sakura looked at it, expression going very still. She began unwrapping the bandages without turning around.
"Get a pot of hot water going. Dissolve one of the special soldier pills in it."
Green chakra bloomed in her hands as she began to work.
The wound was too serious for anything comprehensive right now. She could stabilize him — keep him from dying before they reached Konoha's lines. That was the goal.
That he'd made it to this point at all was already a miracle.
She studied his face — pale as paper, the look of someone who might decide to stop at any moment.
Sakura made a decision.
"Uchiha Itachi."
A single finger moved.
There. She had him.
Kiba arrived behind her, carrying a canteen of hot water with a dissolved soldier pill.
"Feed it to him."
Kiba tried. Nothing happened. Sasuke's throat wasn't responding.
"Can't get it in. What do I—"
Sakura turned her head and gave him a withering look.
"Use your brain. If you can't pour it in, force it in."
"Can't force it in, drink it yourself and push it mouth-to-mouth."
Kiba looked horrified.
"What, you want me to do it?!" Sakura's voice had the edge of someone who had been awake for too long and was running out of patience. "Move, and I will!"
Kiba looked at Sasuke's face, looked at Sakura, looked at Sasuke's face again, made a deeply pained expression — and pried Sasuke's mouth open to try and trickle the water in.
Sasuke seemed to have heard the exchange.
His throat moved. Slowly, a little at a time, he swallowed.
Kiba exhaled with his whole body and wiped nonexistent sweat from his forehead.
Thank every god that exists. His first kiss remains intact.
A little color crept back into Sasuke's face as the hot water and dissolved soldier pill began their work. Sakura let herself breathe.
(Chapter End)
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