---Sunagakure - The Triage Ward---
The field hospital was a cavernous warehouse, hastily repurposed to accommodate the wounded. The air was thick with the smells of antiseptic, sweat, and the coppery smell of blood. Rows of cots lined the walls, filled with groaning Shinobi who had been caught in the crossfire of the Akatsuki's attack.
Haku, Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi followed Kankuro through the chaos. They moved silently, but their eyes scanned the devastation.
In the center of the room, a small crowd had gathered around a makeshift operating table.
An old woman with a hunched back and a face mapped with wrinkles stood over a patient. She wore a white shawl over black garments, and her hands hovered over a gaping chest wound, glowing with faint green chakra.
"Tsk, tsk," the granny sighed, shaking her head. She pulled her hands back, the glow fading. She cupped her chin, thinking hard, but her expression was grim. "I can't help him... the poison has spread too far, and he's lost too much blood. His chakra network is collapsing. No jutsu I know can fix this without killing him faster."
"Ah, Lady Chiyo!" Kankuro called out, stepping forward. "Come, meet the backup from Konoha. We need your expertise."
"...Kankuro," Lady Chiyo turned slowly, her eyes narrow and skeptical. "Didn't I tell you to rest? The poison in your blood is still..."
She stopped.
Her gaze swept over the group, dismissing Naruto and the kids, until it locked onto a single figure with silver hair and a mask covering half his face.
Her eyes widened. Her pupils contracted into pinpricks of pure, distilled rage.
"You!" Chiyo hissed. The air around her spiked with killing intent.
She didn't hesitate. With a speed that belied her age, she launched herself across the room.
"I shall avenge my son's death by defeating you today! Prepare yourself, White Fang!"
"Er... no, wait... you see... I'm..." Kakashi stammered, his single visible eye widening in panic. He raised his hands, backing away. He knew who she was... Chiyo of the Red Sand, a legendary puppet master and poison expert. And apparently, she was senile enough to mistake him for his father.
Sasuke and Sakura immediately moved to intercept, stepping in front of their sensei. They didn't want to fight an ally, but they couldn't let Kakashi get stabbed. Haku remained standing, watching with a calm, analytical gaze. He sensed no lethal intent... just old, misguided anger.
"Why you!" Naruto shouted.
He formed a cross seal. Poof. A Shadow Clone appeared instantly.
The clone intercepted Chiyo mid-lunge, blocking her fist with crossed arms. The impact pushed the clone back a foot, but it held.
"Out of my way!" Chiyo snarled.
She twisted her body in mid-air, delivering a sharp kick to the clone's chest. Pop. The clone vanished in a puff of smoke.
But the distraction worked. Another clone dropped from the ceiling beams, aiming a roundhouse kick at her shoulder to push her back.
"Take this!"
Chiyo blocked it effortlessly, catching the clone's ankle and throwing him into a pile of crates. She landed gracefully, her eyes still locked on Kakashi.
"STOP!"
Another elder, a man who looked like Chiyo's twin but with a slightly kinder face, rushed forward.
"Big Sister! What are you doing!?" Ebizo yelled, grabbing her arm.
Chiyo ignored him, glaring daggers at Kakashi. "I'll never forget what you did back then! You took my son! You took my grandson's father!"
"Can't you see he's not the White Fang!?" Ebizo shouted, shaking her. "Look at him! Really look at him!"
"Huh?" Chiyo blinked. She stopped struggling. She narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing Kakashi's face, his hair, his posture.
"He resembles him closely," Ebizo sighed, releasing her arm. "But this one is not Sakumo Hatake. Look at the eye. The White Fang didn't cover his left eye."
Kakashi's hands were still up in a surrender position. He offered a weak, polite wave. "Uh... hello... I'm Kakashi. Sakumo's son."
"Moreover," Ebizo continued, his voice dropping to a gentle murmur. "The White Fang of the Leaf died long ago. Decades ago. Remember? When you got word of it, you cried tears of regret because you lost your chance for vengeance."
"Ugh..." Chiyo's eye twitched.
The rage drained out of her, replaced by a sudden, jarring shift in demeanor. She straightened her back, smoothing out her shawl.
"Gotcha!" Chiyo cackled, slapping her knee. "I was only pretending to have gone senile! Aha aha aha aha ahahahaha!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
Everyone sweatdropped. The entire room deadpanned. Even Sasuke, the king of brooding, let out a soft "hn" of disbelief.
"She's... eccentric," Kankuro muttered, rubbing his face.
Haku watched the scene without reacting. He had seen too much in the world to be surprised by the antics of old masters. Alaric was far weirder on a good day.
"UGHHH!"
A guttural grunt of pain broke the awkward silence.
The patient on the table... the one Chiyo had given up on... arched his back, blood soaking through the bandages on his chest.
"He's crashing!" a medic shouted.
Sakura snapped into action. Her eyes hardened, the uncertainty of the previous moment vanishing. She was Tsunade's apprentice now.
"Kakashi-sensei, everyone, stand back!" Sakura ordered, rushing to the table.
She placed her hands over the wound. Green chakra flared to life, intense and focused.
Diagnostic Jutsu.
"Laceration to the subclavian artery," Sakura muttered, her mind racing. "Poison in the system... neurotoxin type B. Heart rate is erratic. Blood pressure is critical."
She began to work. Her hands moved in a blur, knitting smaller vessels together, flushing the poison out with a chakra scalpel.
"Impressive," Chiyo noted, watching from the side. "That chakra control... she must be the Slug Princess's student. Only Tsunade teaches that level of brute-force healing."
Sakura ignored her. She was sweating.
"I can stabilize the poison," Sakura gritted her teeth. "But he's lost too much blood. I need a transfusion. Now!"
She looked around. "Where are the blood packs?"
A Sand medic shook his head despairingly. "The storage was destroyed in the first blast. We have nothing. We're using saline, but it's not enough."
Sakura looked down at the man. He was pale as a sheet, his lips turning blue. Exsanguination. Without blood to carry oxygen, all her healing was useless. He would die in minutes.
"Dammit..." Sakura whispered. She pressed harder on the wound, trying to physically hold the life inside him. "I can't... I can't let him die."
A shadow fell over her.
"Move slightly to the left, Haruno-san."
Sakura looked up.
Haku stood there. He wasn't looking at her; he was looking at the patient.
In his hand, he held a strange device. A plastic bag filled with dark red liquid, connected to a clear tube and a needle.
"What is-" Sakura started.
"Blood," Haku said simply. "Type O-Negative. Universal donor. Alaric-sensei insists I carry it in my emergency kits."
He unsealed a metal stand from his wrist tattoo and set it up next to the cot. He hung the bag.
"We need to do this quickly," Haku said, his voice calm and authoritative. "Before his heart gives out."
He grabbed the man's arm. He didn't search for a vein; he knew where it was. He cleaned the spot with a wipe he pulled from a pocket.
Slide.
He inserted the needle into the dorsal metacarpal vein with the precision of an assassin delivering a lethal injection. He taped it down.
Sakura watched, stunned. This wasn't Iryojutsu. This was... science. It was mechanical medicine.
"Open the valve," Haku instructed, pointing to the clamp on the tube.
Sakura did so automatically. The red liquid began to flow, rushing down the tube and into the man's arm.
"Hold the bag higher," Haku ordered gently. "Gravity assists the flow."
Sakura lifted the bag. She watched as color slowly began to return to the man's face. His breathing hitched, then deepened.
"My Sensei taught me," Haku explained, noticing her stare. He placed his hands over the man's chest, right next to Sakura's. "Iryojutsu is powerful. It is miraculous. But it has a weakness. It uses the patient's own chakra and vitality to heal. If the patient has no blood to carry that energy... the jutsu kills them."
Haku's hands glowed. Not green, but a soft, cool blue. It wasn't medical chakra; it was Yang-infused water release, hydrating the cells directly.
"Sometimes," Haku said, "you don't need magic. You just need plumbing."
Sakura blinked. "Alaric-san... he knows medical theory?"
"He knows a lot of things," Haku smiled faintly. "He says that sometimes a bandage is better than a spell."
Together, they worked. Sakura repaired the tissue damage with her precise chakra control, while Haku managed the systemic shock and fluid replacement.
Minutes later, the man's eyes fluttered. His pulse steadied. He was going to live.
Sakura let out a breath she had been holding for five minutes. She wiped sweat from her forehead, looking at Haku with newfound respect.
"Thank you," she said. "I... I didn't think of that."
"You did the hard part," Haku demurred, packing up the empty blood bag. "This was just logistics."
"Hey!" Kankuro's voice cut through the moment. He stood at the door of the triage center, looking urgent. "We're moving out. The tracking team has a lead. We leave in five minutes."
Haku nodded. He stood up, dusting off his kimono.
He looked at Sakura.
"You can take over from here," Haku said, gesturing to the stable patient. "You have the hands for it."
Sakura smiled, a fierce, determined expression. "Right."
As Haku walked away to join the team, Chiyo watched him go, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
'That boy...' Chiyo mused. 'He moves like water. And he carries strange tools. Konoha has changed since my time.'
She looked at her brother.
"Ebizo," Chiyo said, her voice serious now. "Get my fishing gear."
"Sister?" Ebizo blinked. "You're going?"
"Someone has to make sure these children don't get themselves killed," Chiyo huffed. "And besides... I haven't seen my grandson in a long time."
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