Chapter 136: The Seal
Bright afternoon sun.
A convoy moved slowly down the road — to all appearances, a standard wounded transport detail, horses and covered carts, nothing remarkable.
Inside one of the carts, Sakura sat with her arms folded, watching the pale golden-haired woman lying quietly beside her.
White patient's garb. White blanket pulled up. Even her eyes were wrapped in gauze.
The woman's lips twitched slightly. She was close to surfacing.
Sakura stood, produced a white cloth from somewhere without particular hurry, and pressed it efficiently over Yugito's nose and mouth.
Within moments, Yugito's breathing deepened and she went still again.
She hadn't managed a single word before losing consciousness a second time.
Even with the suppression seal in place, Sakura was medicating her on schedule.
Better safe than sorry. This woman was one of Kumogakure's highest combat assets.
As for nutrition — an IV drip handled that.
From the moment of capture, she had ceased to be a person in the logistical sense. She was an asset. An extremely valuable one, which was precisely why Sakura wasn't taking any chances.
To cover the convoy's movement, Jiraiya had launched another offensive against Kumogakure's forces — keeping them too occupied to spare attention for a wounded transport. Even if Kumogakure's intelligence network tracked the detail, they couldn't be certain Yugito was in it. And even if they were certain, only the Raikage personally leading a retrieval force would pose any real threat — and the moment the Raikage left the front line, there was nothing to check Jiraiya. The main Kumogakure force would collapse. The math didn't work in their favor.
Four days passed.
Under Jiraiya's cover, the wounded convoy entered Konoha's territory without incident.
Sakura saw the familiar landscape through the cart opening and let herself exhale.
As they came closer, the gates materialized ahead, solid and real.
News of the front line victories had already reached the village. The weight that had been sitting over Konoha like weather since the war began seemed to have lightened somewhat. On both sides of the road, civilian villagers had come out on their own to watch the convoy come in.
The upper echelon, by contrast, was conspicuously absent. Even Hiruzen.
Which was deliberate. The war wasn't over. Making a ceremony of it would be premature. If the intention was to elevate a rising name — and clearly someone intended that — it needed to be done at the right scale.
Let the battlefield reports circulate. That was enough.
"Sakura!"
A flash of red in the crowd — someone practically jumping in place, incapable of containing herself regardless of circumstances.
Sakura smiled slightly and waved to Kushina, then kept moving. There would be time later.
The convoy arrived at the hospital entrance. A full medical team was already assembled and waiting.
One by one the wounded were lifted onto stretchers and brought inside. When they reached Yugito—
"She's my responsibility."
Sakura stopped the medical ninja who'd reached for the stretcher.
"Ah — yes, of course."
The person stepped back, slightly flustered, and redirected to another patient.
Sakura lifted Yugito herself and transferred her to a waiting gurney that had been prepared in advance.
"Are you going to kill me?"
The question came from the gurney — barely audible, Yugito's voice stripped of everything that had once been in it.
"That's not my decision."
Sakura answered without inflection, straightened the blanket over her, and began pushing the gurney toward the hospital entrance.
They took the dedicated elevator. Sakura pressed the button for the third basement level.
The doors closed.
As the elevator descended, the air changed — growing heavier, colder, in a way that had nothing to do with temperature. Yugito couldn't see anything through the gauze over her eyes, but she felt it pressing in from every direction. Seeping into her.
She hated this feeling. A clean death would have been preferable.
But preferences were no longer relevant.
Her chakra was sealed. She'd been medicated for days and her body felt like it belonged to someone else — standing up unaided would have been a genuine question. She could map her likely future without difficulty.
They'd find a suitable candidate. Extract the Two-Tails. Transfer the jinchūriki.
Then they'd use what remained. Yamanaka specialists going through every layer of her memory. Nothing left unexplored.
Best case for her body afterward: Konoha feeling generous enough to wrap it in something and put it in the ground.
The soft sound of the gurney's wheels filled the underground corridor as Sakura pushed her deeper into the dark.
When they emerged, Sakura found herself in sunlight again — standing before a wooden structure half-hidden in the trees.
Someone was already waiting.
"So this is Kumogakure's Two-Tails jinchūriki."
Tsunade, arms folded, took in the woman on the gurney — golden hair loose, eyes covered, completely still.
"Yes. Her name is Yugito Nii."
"Whatever her name is, it won't matter much going forward."
Tsunade dismissed it with a wave and turned.
"With me."
Sakura followed, pushing the gurney through the entrance.
The moment she crossed the threshold her eyes narrowed slightly.
Sealing barriers. Multiple layers. Powerful ones — the suppressive, binding type. And approximately twenty ANBU stationed throughout the building, placed with professional care in positions she could only partially identify.
"Until a suitable candidate is selected, this is where she stays."
Tsunade glanced back at Yugito's pallid, half-conscious face.
"She's getting a generous arrangement."
"How so?" Sakura looked around the space.
"This was the residence built for the previous Nine-Tails jinchūriki. Close to ten layers of sealing barriers, all laid personally by Lady Mito."
"The Eight-Tails jinchūriki couldn't break out of here, let alone the Two-Tails."
A cold smile.
On the gurney, whatever fraction of hope Yugito had been holding onto went out entirely.
The Nine-Tails' containment facility. For a Two-Tails host.
At least someone thinks highly of me.
Tsunade approached the gurney, drew the blanket aside, and exposed Yugito's pale abdomen. Her expression was all business. Her palm pressed flat against the skin.
"Self-Cursing Seal!"
Brief. Precise.
Layered directly on top of Jiraiya's existing suppression seal, a second seal was inscribed. Its function was simple: the moment Yugito drew on any chakra, it would activate — black cursed lines spreading across her body, locking her in place.
(Chapter End)
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