Chapter 226: The Shinobi World's Foremost Medical Ninja
Unfamiliar ceiling...
Consciousness slowly returned. Sakura blinked her eyes open, still bleary with sleep.
Her emerald eyes stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment, unfocused.
"You're awake?"
A familiar voice sounded nearby.
Sakura rubbed her forehead and looked over to find Uchiha Hikaru approaching with a bowl of plain congee and a small side dish.
"Where am I?"
Sakura, still not fully awake, blinked in confusion, glancing down at the pure white sleeping robe she was wearing.
"You clung to me last night and wouldn't let go. Didn't have much choice but to bring you back to the Uchiha estate."
Hikaru shot Pinky an irritated look.
"Here. Breakfast."
She set the food down in front of Sakura.
Her and Sasuke's daily routine was pretty simple — a bowl of congee and pickled vegetables sufficed for breakfast.
"Oh, thanks..."
Sakura scratched her head, feeling like she'd genuinely slept like the dead.
She didn't remember a single thing.
She picked up the bowl and downed half of it in one gulp, then popped a piece of pickled vegetable into her mouth.
So I'm at the Uchiha estate...
No wonder Mirai was so uncharacteristically quiet this morning — she didn't even wake me up...
!!!
MIRAI!
Sakura suddenly recalled what Hikaru had just said.
"You said... I clung to you and wouldn't let go, when?"
Her expression stiffened slightly.
"Yesterday. Why?"
Hikaru looked at her, confused.
Pfft!
Sakura's mouthful of congee sprayed out instantly. Hikaru, caught off guard, took the full blast straight to the face.
"YOU—"
"Looking for a FIGHT?!"
Hikaru's fury ignited instantly.
Damn this pinky — I kindly bring her breakfast and THIS is the thanks I get?!
"I'll KILL you!"
She wiped the congee off her face and reached for the sword at her hip — only to grab empty air.
Because who brings a sword to breakfast at their own house.
"I'm DONE FOR!"
Sakura clutched her hair, letting out an anguished wail.
"You lunatic — have you lost your MIND?!"
Watching Sakura's sudden meltdown, Hikaru sensed something was genuinely wrong.
"No time to explain, Hikaru, I'll apologize properly next time, I have to GO!"
Sakura threw off the blanket, grabbed clothes from the rack without a shred of concern for modesty in front of Hikaru, and yanked them on in seconds.
"What is WRONG with you? What's going on?"
Hikaru frowned at Sakura, who now looked like a woman possessed.
"My — my — MY PARENTS weren't home last night..."
"And I had Yūgao take Mirai out yesterday..."
"If Yūgao couldn't find me, she probably just dropped Mirai back home..."
"I have NO idea if she even ate dinner last night..."
"If Mom finds out about this, she is going to KILL me!"
Sakura wailed in genuine anguish.
Without waiting for Hikaru's response, she grabbed her jacket, didn't even bother tying up her hair, and bolted out the door in a single burst of speed.
"That woman... what an absolute idiot."
Hikaru scrubbed at her congee-covered face, gritting her teeth.
There wasn't time to walk home slowly. After a night's rest, Sakura's chakra had largely recovered. One step, and she launched herself over a hundred meters in a single leap. Within a few bounds, she'd left the Uchiha estate far behind and was sprinting straight for home.
Panting, Sakura arrived at her front door and yanked it open.
"MIRAI!"
She shouted into the house without thinking.
"Sis!"
The little troublemaker, sitting calmly at the kitchen table gnawing on a fried egg, lit up the moment she saw Sakura.
Huh?
Seeing her little sister perfectly fine and unharmed, Sakura let out a breath of relief — then finally registered the breakfast sitting in front of Mirai.
Did Mom and Dad come home?
At that moment, a figure in purple, wearing an apron, emerged from the kitchen — Uzuki Yūgao — carrying a bowl of congee that she set down in front of Mirai.
"Lady Hokage, you never came back last night. I was worried the little one might wander off, so I took the liberty of staying over in the guest room."
"..."
Seeing that everything was fine, Sakura finally let out the breath she'd been holding.
Thank goodness...
"Yūgao, thank you. Really."
Sakura's tension finally eased.
"It's no trouble at all. And Mirai's very sweet, honestly."
Yūgao shook her head.
"By the way, Lady Hokage, would you like something to eat?"
Yūgao gestured toward the breakfast spread.
"No need, I already ate. I need to head to the Hokage Building shortly."
"And what should I do next?"
Yūgao glanced hesitantly between Sakura and Mirai.
"I need to ask you a favor. Until my parents get back, could you look after Mirai for me?"
Sakura grabbed Yūgao's hands, her expression earnest.
She'd figured this much out already — playing with a kid for a bit was manageable. Handling a full day's worth of childcare responsibilities, though? That was a different matter entirely.
"But..."
Yūgao hesitated visibly.
Childcare wasn't exactly her specialty. Her actual job was serving as Pinky's personal ANBU escort.
Sure, the little pink-head was technically also "pink," but still.
"I'll bump your pay!"
"Mission accepted. I will complete it!"
Konoha's Main Gate
Dawn
Thick fog rolled through the air
Just as Kotetsu Hagane yawned mid-shift-change with the night guard, a group of figures appeared at the far edge of his vision, and his eyes narrowed slightly.
The group was moving fast, showing no signs of slowing.
"Halt—"
Kotetsu moved to intercept, but a kunai whistled through the air and embedded itself directly at the gate.
"It's me."
Asuma's expression was grave, tinged with urgency, and he didn't so much as glance back as he sped past. Behind him, two or three more figures filed in.
Kotetsu's eyes narrowed further.
The air carried the scent of blood.
An overwhelming amount of it.
Watching the group's retreating backs, Kotetsu finally registered clearly: one of them was carrying another person.
Clearly, that was where the smell of blood was coming from.
"What?"
Sakura, having just arrived at the office and not yet had a sip of water, was instantly on her feet at the sight of the man before her — nearly drenched entirely in blood.
"The mission..."
Hayate began, visibly shaken.
"Tell me on the way."
"Yes."
The pink-haired figure rose from her seat and moved toward the door.
"When we arrived at the Fire Temple, we found it already utterly destroyed."
Hayate kept pace with Sakura, relaying everything that had happened as quickly as he could.
"The monks? The nobles?"
Sakura's brow furrowed, her stride unbroken.
"All dead."
At this, Sakura paused for a fraction of a second.
"Who did it?"
"Akatsuki. Kakuzu and Hidan."
Hayate spoke gravely.
"We ran straight into them and engaged."
"I'd given Asuma a copy of the Akatsuki intelligence beforehand."
"Right — and it was precisely because we had intel on those two that we managed to escape at all."
At this, Sakura's frown deepened.
"You were a squad of four jōnin?"
At the unmistakable displeasure in her Hokage's tone, Hayate's expression twisted into a bitter smile.
"The intelligence had a gap. Their abilities matched what we'd been told, technically."
"But Kakuzu's Lightning Release heart was far more powerful than anticipated."
"And..."
A shadow of grave concern crossed Hayate's eyes.
"I suspect... that heart belonged to the Fourth Raikage."
Sakura's stride faltered slightly. She turned to Hayate.
"You're certain?"
Hayate nodded firmly.
He'd faced the Fourth Raikage in combat personally. He knew exactly what that fight had felt like.
It had been during the Land of Frost campaign three years ago, when he'd joined forces with Kakashi to help rescue Sakura — his Vacuum Blade and Kakashi's Chidori striking the Fourth Raikage simultaneously, only to be effortlessly neutralized.
And beyond the current Fifth Raikage, Hayate genuinely couldn't think of anyone else in the shinobi world capable of wielding Lightning Release with that kind of overwhelming power.
"I see."
Sakura's brow furrowed as she made her way toward the hospital.
During Tobirama's earlier strike against the Akatsuki in the Land of Water, Sasori had deployed a puppet fashioned from the Fourth Raikage's body.
So creating a human puppet doesn't require the heart, then?
That detail remained unclear to Sakura.
As it happened, Konoha itself already possessed one human puppet — a leftover from three years ago, when Itachi and Sasori had infiltrated the village and encountered Sakura in a skirmish. Sasori, fighting for his life, had been forced to abandon a puppet crafted from the Third Kazekage's body.
But Sakura had never been particularly interested in puppetry. Already overwhelmed with other responsibilities, she'd simply had the ANBU cleanup crew drop it off at the Research Bureau afterward and never followed up.
"Anko took the fatal blow meant for Asuma, shielding him. She's critically wounded because of it."
"Kosuke-senpai..."
Hayate trailed off, falling silent.
Facing two core Akatsuki members — especially Kakuzu, now wielding the Raikage's heart — even with the majority of the relevant intelligence in hand, escaping without cost had been essentially impossible.
Even setting Hidan aside, who at best qualified as a Kage-tier gatekeeper.
And that little old man who'd carried the weight of the world on his shoulders his whole career had chosen to stay behind alone, buying time for the younger members to escape.
Facing two enemies whose strength far exceeded his own, entirely by himself.
"I understand."
Sakura's tone remained even. No one could have guessed what lay hidden behind those emerald eyes.
By now, she and Hayate had reached the operating room at Konoha Hospital.
"Sakura."
"Lady Hokage."
A cluster of people sat outside the operating room. Asuma, drenched in blood. Kurenai Yuhi, heavily pregnant. Yamashiro Aoba, wearing dark glasses. Raidō Namiashi.
All close friends of Anko's.
But what genuinely surprised Sakura was Jiraiya's presence here as well.
"Sakura..."
Asuma looked at the girl before him in silence.
"No need to explain. This wasn't your fault."
Glancing at the blood covering him, Sakura walked straight into the operating room.
Inside, three or four medical ninja were fighting to stabilize Anko on the operating table, barely clinging to life. The lead physician was Tsunade herself.
"Status?"
Sakura tore off her Hokage robes and moved to Tsunade's side, studying the girl she'd personally designated as team leader.
"Abdominal puncture wound, penetrated by a bladed weapon — internal organ damage. Plus lightning-based trauma across the body."
"Most critically, significant blood loss."
Tsunade's hands glowed faintly, hovering over the wound on Anko's abdomen, her expression grim.
Sakura studied the dark discoloration at the edge of the wound.
Residue from her own custom soldier pills.
Over the past three years, Sakura had successfully introduced her formula throughout Konoha. But because several of the ingredients were somewhat rare, distribution remained fairly limited.
Standard-issue jōnin like Asuma and Hayate, however, kept a reserve on hand — and clearly, they'd administered it to Anko immediately.
That was precisely why she'd survived the entire journey from the Fire Temple back to Konoha.
Sakura placed her hand over Tsunade's, and a shimmering golden light bloomed from her palm, radiating an intense vitality that surged directly into Anko's body.
Under that golden glow, Anko's wound began healing at a visibly rapid pace.
Not just the other medical staff — even Tsunade's eyes went wide at the sight.
Pink flesh spread rapidly across the wound's edges, and even the damaged internal organs began knitting back together beneath the golden light!
Flesh regrowing over bone!
Watching this, the green glow in Tsunade's own hands faded away entirely, her attention fixed completely on the scene before her, one thought echoing in her mind.
She'd only ever witnessed healing at this speed once before — in her great-uncle, Hashirama Senju.
Even Tsunade herself possessed a similar ability — the Strength of a Hundred Seal.
But whether it was Hashirama's technique or her own, both could only be applied to oneself. Neither could heal another person.
Sakura's Yang Release has reached THIS level already?
Tsunade watched, unable to suppress a genuine flicker of awe.
In this exact moment, the throne of the shinobi world's foremost medical ninja had quietly changed hands.
As the wound continued closing, Anko's vital signs stabilized completely.
Under the overwhelming power of Yang Release, not only Anko's abdominal wound but every lightning-inflicted injury across her body was healed in passing.
All that remained now was rest and recovery — Anko was out of danger entirely.
There were limits, of course. Yang Release could regenerate flesh and organs, but it couldn't replace blood already lost.
"Phew..."
Watching Anko — pale but otherwise stable — Sakura let out a breath of relief.
At that moment, Anko's eyes fluttered open in a daze. Looking at the figure before her, her lips parted weakly.
"Captain..."
Back during Sakura's days as ANBU Squad Seven captain, Anko had served under her.
Waking now, still hazy and disoriented, Anko instinctively defaulted to that old title.
"Rest. You're going to be fine."
Seeing Anko awake, Sakura's expression softened. She gently smoothed a hand over the girl's forehead, speaking with quiet warmth.
"Waaah, I'd already prepared my last words..."
"Leave my big fluffy cat to Anko—"
"And my hamster, and my lizard, and my parrot, and my chinchilla, and my husky..."
"Quiet."
"Okaaay..."
"Well, she's still got plenty to say — guess she really is fine."
Tsunade watched Anko rambling the moment she woke and let a faint smile cross her lips.
With Anko now stable, Sakura had no reason to linger further and walked out of the operating room.
The moment she stepped out, the waiting crowd immediately surrounded her.
Sakura's emerald gaze swept over the assembled shinobi, calm as ever.
"Someone!"
"Send word to Genma Shiranui and Iwashi Tatami!"
"And at the same time — send word to Mei Terumi, Hatake Kakashi, Might Guy, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Kushina!"
☆☆☆
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