The group's pace, which had been a forced march for days, quickened on the final stretch. Sakura and Naruto, on either side of Sasuke's stretcher, seemed to move on pure inertia, their feet finding the path almost by instinct.
"Are we almost there?" Naruto panted, not slowing down. "I feel like my legs are going to turn into noodles."
"Closer than before," Sakura replied, her voice strained with effort. "Just focus on not tripping. If we drop him, I swear I'll use you as the stretcher."
"Hilarious."
On the flanks, Kiba moved with renewed agility, Akamaru trotting beside him, though the dog let out an occasional whine. Shino, as always, glided between the trees without a sound.
Hinata, who was at the vanguard, stopped for a moment and looked back. "The air feels lighter here. We're close to the village's security perimeter."
From the top of a tree fifty meters high, a familiar voice rang out, clear and precise.
"We're close! I see the gates. Keep the pace. Don't relax until we're inside."
Kakashi's voice was like a shot of adrenaline. A wave of pure relief washed over the group. They were safe. Almost.
They emerged from the forest at dusk, a strange procession of bruised heroes. The village's enormous gates rose before them, a symbol of safety they had never appreciated so much. At the guard post, life moved at a much slower pace.
"Did you hear what happened last night in the shopping district?" Kotetsu was saying, his feet propped up on the desk, a kunai balancing precariously on his nose. "They say Anko-san got into a fight with three jōnin at a dango stand over the last limited-edition skewer."
Izumo didn't even look up from the logbook. "That's not news, Kotetsu. That's a Tuesday. It would be weird if she didn't fight someone over food."
"Good point. Still, I'm jealous. The most exciting thing that happened here today was a squirrel that tried to steal my lunch. I named him 'the Shadow Thief.' He made a good attempt, but my surveillance techniques are superior."
"You're an idiot," Izumo said with a yawn. "Team Seven and Eight, returning from a C-rank mission in the Land of…"
He stopped mid-sentence as the group's shadow fell over him. He looked up, his expression shifting from utter boredom to disbelief in a split second.
Kotetsu's kunai clattered to the floor. He shot to his feet, his eyes wide.
"What the…!" he stammered. "By the gods! It's Hatake Kakashi! And Yūhi Kurenai!" His voice rose. "Look at the state they're in! And that one on the stretcher… that's the Uchiha!"
The lazy calm of the afternoon shattered. Izumo was already moving, his face transformed, now serious and professional.
"Clear a path!" he shouted into the guardhouse, where Kotetsu, snapping out of his stupor, slammed an emergency alarm button. "Medical team to the main gate! I repeat, medical alert at the main gate!" He turned to Kakashi, who was already beside him. "Report, Kakashi-san?"
"Complications in the Land of Waves," Kakashi said. "Sasuke Uchiha, critical condition. The rest are exhausted."
"Jōnin priority!" Izumo continued, his voice echoing over the comms. "Emergency response team, now!"
In less than a minute, the chaos became controlled. A team of four medical-nins in pristine white uniforms came running, pushing a professional gurney. Their leader, a middle-aged woman with a stern expression and eyes that missed nothing, assessed the situation in an instant.
"The one on the stretcher to trauma room one, now!" she ordered without preamble. Two of her subordinates expertly took over from Naruto and Sakura, lifting Sasuke's stretcher and breaking into a run toward the hospital without wasting a second. Naruto tried to follow, but the medical team leader blocked his path with an arm.
"You stay here," she said, not looking at him.
Then, she approached Kurenai, her clinical eyes scanning the dried blood and torn clothes.
"Kurenai-sama, your uniform… you have a wound. You need to come with us immediately for a full evaluation."
Kurenai shook her head, her posture one of iron-clad, almost defiant calm. "I'm perfectly fine. It's just dirty clothes and some dried blood. The one who's seriously injured is Sasuke. Treat him."
The med-nin didn't flinch. Her professional firmness was unshakeable. "With all due respect, sensei, let us be the judge of that. You're bleeding from a wound we can't see. Your condition is a priority. Please, come with us. That is not a suggestion."
Kurenai sighed, a mix of frustration and resignation. She knew arguing with a med-nin in emergency mode was useless. She gave a stiff nod. "Fine."
The rest of the team, now led by Kakashi and surrounded by medical personnel, was hastily escorted through the village streets. People stopped to stare, whispering as the procession passed. It wasn't the triumphant return Naruto had so often imagined. It was a silent, urgent race to the one place all missions gone wrong end up: the Konoha Hospital.
The waiting room was white. Painfully white. The walls, the tile floor, the hard plastic chairs—everything was a sterile white. The adrenaline from the mission, which had kept them on their feet for days, finally faded, leaving behind a deep exhaustion and an uncomfortable silence that filled everything.
Sasuke had been taken into surgery. Kurenai, to an exam room in another wing. Kakashi was in some office, talking to the hospital director. And they, the genin, had been left here. To wait.
Kiba was the first to break the silence. He dropped into one of the plastic chairs, which groaned ominously under his weight.
"I hate hospitals," he said loudly, to no one in particular. "I hate this smell. It smells like where fun comes to die. How long are we going to wait? We've been here... ten minutes? Feels like ten years."
He shifted in his seat. "And these chairs were designed by someone who deeply hates humanity. They're hard, cold, and shaped all wrong for a human spine. Why can't we just go home? We already did our job." He looked at Akamaru, who whimpered at his feet. "Besides, Akamaru must be starving."
Sakura couldn't stand still. She paced back and forth across the small room, a repetitive pattern of five steps in one direction, turn, five steps in the other. She chewed on her thumbnail with a feverish anxiety, her mind replaying the image of Sasuke on the stretcher, pale and still. Every step was an unanswered question: Is he going to be okay? Did what I do work? Did I make it worse?
Naruto tried to sit, but nervous energy consumed him. He lasted thirty seconds before jumping up again. He leaned against a wall, then started stretching his legs, then began pacing in circles in the opposite direction of Sakura, creating a chaotic pattern of movement in the small room.
"Would you stop moving so much?" Sakura snapped as they nearly collided.
"You're moving too!" Naruto retorted. "It looks like you're trying to wear a groove in the floor! You're making me more nervous!"
"Then sit down!"
"I can't!"
Hinata sat in a chair, perfectly upright, her hands clasped in her lap. She said nothing. Her pearl eyes followed Naruto's erratic movements, her face a mask of silent concern. She wanted to say something, to offer some word of comfort, but the words were stuck in her throat.
And Shino… Shino stood in a corner, perfectly still. So motionless he looked like a wax statue, a forgotten piece of furniture. He didn't blink. He didn't move. He just existed, watching the others through his dark glasses. And that, for some reason, made Kiba even more nervous.
"Can you stop doing that?" Kiba finally snapped, jutting his chin toward Shino.
Shino's head turned slowly toward him, an almost mechanical movement. "Doing what?"
"That!" Kiba exclaimed, getting to his feet and gesturing at him. "Standing there like a ghost! You're creepier than the horror stories they tell about this place! It's like you're just waiting for one of us to drop so your bugs can have a feast!"
Shino adjusted his glasses, a minimal gesture in his stillness. "I am conserving energy. It is the logical response to a wait of indeterminate length."
"Whatever, you weirdo! You're giving me the creeps!" Kiba growled, slumping back into his chair with a frustrated sigh.
"Your nervousness is counterproductive," Shino added in his monotone voice.
"Shut up, Shino!" Kiba, Naruto, and Sakura shouted at the same time.
Shino fell silent, but he didn't move an inch.
The doors to the room burst open, making everyone jump. Kakashi entered, his expression unreadable behind his mask. Behind him was a middle-aged med-nin with her hair in a tight bun and a look that tolerated no nonsense. They all stood up instantly, Sakura's heart pounding so hard she could feel the pulse in her throat.
"Listen up," Kakashi said, his voice quiet but failing to hide the gravity of the situation. "This is Dr. Abe. She's in charge of Sasuke's case and Kurenai-sensei's evaluation. She has a preliminary report."
Dr. Abe held up a chart, her eyes sweeping over the group of tired, dirty genin, lingering on each for a second.
"I'll start with Kurenai-sama," she said, her tone purely clinical as she glanced at her notes. "We've completed her evaluation. And frankly, we're baffled."
Sakura took a step forward, unable to stop herself. "Is she okay?"
Dr. Abe looked up from her notes, and for the first time, Sakura saw an expression of utter perplexity on her professional face.
"She's in exceptional health. That's the problem." She opened the chart and showed them a photo of Kurenai's tunic, a torn and bloodstained hole in its side. "Her uniform was damaged in a way that suggested a near-fatal puncture wound to her left side. The fibers were soaked with blood and tissue. Blood analysis confirms it's hers. She should be in intensive care, if not the morgue."
She paused, looking at Kakashi. "Instead, she doesn't have a scratch on her. Not a scar. Not even the mark of a healed wound. It's as if the hole in her clothes appeared by magic."
She looked back at the group. "Did any of you apply medical ninjutsu in the field?"
Sakura's blood ran cold. She and Naruto exchanged a tenth-of-a-second glance.
"No," Kakashi said before anyone could speak. "I was the only one with the ability to, and I was occupied. There was no advanced medical treatment for her."
The doctor nodded slowly, though her expression said she didn't quite believe it. "Furthermore, her chakra system is more robust and vital than what we've seen in a jōnin of her age in years. Her reserves are at maximum, her flow is perfect. Her energy levels are those of a kunoichi in her prime, around nineteen years old. It's as if she just returned from a spa vacation, not an A-rank mission that nearly killed her. It's… medically impossible."
Naruto and Sakura looked at each other again, this time a mixture of relief and panic growing inside them. It worked, they both thought. It worked too well.
The doctor's tone grew graver as she turned to the next page in her report, and the relief evaporated.
"As for Sasuke Uchiha… his condition is stable, for now." She looked directly at Kakashi. "Whoever applied that stasis jutsu on him in the field saved his life. It was an incredibly precise piece of emergency medical ninjutsu. It stopped the damage's progression just in time."
Her gaze slid over the group and stopped on Sakura for an instant. The girl's heart skipped a beat.
"However," the doctor continued, "the injuries are… complicated. The ice needles didn't just pierce the tissue. They seem to have induced a type of necrotic cell damage that doesn't correspond with any ice technique we know of. Hatake-san, did the enemy use some kind of poison?"
"Not that I'm aware of," Kakashi replied. "It was a Hyōton-based bloodline technique. Pure and fast."
"Well, this 'pure and fast' technique is killing his cells from the inside out, like a kind of frost spreading through his chakra pathways," Dr. Abe retorted, her frustration seeping into her voice. "And what's stranger, we detected two anomalous and persistent chakra signatures in his system. One is from the stasis jutsu—cold and controlled. The other…"
The doctor frowned, looking at her notes as if they contained a language she couldn't decipher.
"The other is a warm, vibrant energy, clearly healing in nature, but it's not a trained medical ninjutsu. It seems to be actively fighting the cell damage, but in a way we don't understand. It's…" She paused, searching for the word. "It's a miracle and a disaster at the same time."
Oh, no. The thought screamed in Sakura's mind, so loud she feared she had said it aloud. Her mouth went dry. Cellular-level attack. What does that mean? It doesn't matter. What matters is: 'warm, healing energy, but untrained.' They felt my chakra in him! They're going to ask me. They have to ask me. Was it wrong to try and heal him secretly? What do I say? 'Oh, yes, it was a secret jutsu from my family…' No, that's ridiculous! It sounds like the name of a cheap tea! My family is civilian. I need a believable story, now!
Dr. Abe sighed, snapping the chart closed with a sharp sound that echoed in the silent room. The frustration on her face was plain to see.
"We can't treat Sasuke aggressively without risking making the cell damage worse. If we try to eliminate the necrosis, we could interfere with that unknown healing energy. If we try to boost the energy, we could accelerate its chaotic growth and damage healthy tissue. We don't know how to counter the enemy's technique, we don't understand the technique that's keeping him alive, and we can't explain Kurenai-sensei's complete regeneration. We're at an impasse in both cases. Two medical impossibilities in a single day."
She looked at Kakashi, her expression grim and defeated. "I've been a med-nin for twenty years. I've seen Suna poisons, Iwa jutsus that turn flesh to stone, I've seen it all. I have never seen anything like this. We're flying blind."
Kakashi, who had been silent all this time, his head bowed, finally spoke in a low voice. "Is there no one?"
"What do you mean?"
"No one in the whole village, in the whole country… no one who can understand this?"
Dr. Abe was silent for a moment, as if weighing her next words with extreme care.
"There is only one person in the world who might have an answer for either of these two mysteries," she said finally, almost in a whisper. "Her knowledge of cellular regeneration, forbidden jutsus, and unique bloodlines is legendary. She's the only one who could possibly understand a spontaneous regeneration or a healing energy of this kind."
Kakashi lifted his head. "Are you referring to…?"
"Yes," Dr. Abe confirmed, her voice filled with a reluctant, almost fearful respect. "The Legendary Sannin. The greatest med-nin the world has ever known. And probably the most dangerous."
"Who?" Naruto asked, unable to contain himself any longer. "Who are you talking about?"
The doctor looked at him, and then at all the others.
"Tsunade-sama. But no one has seen her in years. She's a ghost."
The doctor gave a brief bow and left, leaving the team in a stunned silence.
The name resonated in the sterile white room: Tsunade. The name Iruka-sensei had mentioned to Naruto. The name of a legend.
"Tsunade…" Kiba muttered. "My mom told me stories about her. Said that during the war, she could heal any wound with a single touch and that she once split the ground open with a single punch."
"One of the Legendary Sannin," Kakashi added quietly, more to himself than to the others. "The First Hokage's granddaughter."
Everyone's eyes fell on Sakura. They saw how her anxiety, her fear for Sasuke, which had been consuming her for hours, disappeared. She had just heard the name of the one person who might hold the key, not only to saving the boy who had saved her, but to understanding the incredible and terrifying power that now lived inside her.