I groaned in pain as I woke up and forced myself to sit up. My arms, chest, and half of my face were covered in bandages, and the scent of jade aloe paste was overwhelming. Although I was behind a privacy curtain, I still recognized the familiar sounds of the recovery ward.
There was a jumble of memories in my mind from my clones, but I ignored the details for now and tried to figure out which of my clones were still active through my pounding headache. It took a few moments, but only Phantom was still active, so I summoned Space and got a look at my current appearance, which was not pretty. The upper half of her body was completely wrapped in bandages, and the few patches of exposed skin were bright red while patches of my hair had clearly been burned away, but unlike me, she did not feel the pain of those wounds.
"Damn," I muttered a little too loud as Space teleported away.
A chair scraped across the floor, and a hand pushed aside the partition as Yuri poked her head into my view.
"Akari-sama! You shouldn't move so much," she chided, rushing over to my side.
"You worry too much," I grumbled despite the pain I was in. "How long have I been out?"
"Ten hours," she answered as she made the hand signs for the Mystic Palm jutsu. "You were brought in with third-degree acid burns to your hands, and second and first-degree burns to the rest of your upper body. It's a wonder that you made it back at all... after fighting the Six-Tails."
"Someone has to keep this place in one piece," I chuckled weakly.
She placed her glowing hands onto my chest which instantly eased the pain. Despite my pounding headache, I summoned another two clones, Yin and Yang. Yang was still low on chakra, but Yin had over half her reserves.
"How can you even mold chakra right now?" Yuri asked with a note of exasperation.
"Trade secret," I retorted with a smirk, knowing that I was heavily medicated, but thankfully, that did not stop my special clones.
Yang sat down and started to meditate on the end of my cot while Yin placed a hand on my head, channeling her chakra into my mind to soothe my pounding headache.
"What's wrong?" Yuri asked with concern.
"I woke up with a jumble of memories from my clones, and a headache more painful than the rest of my body, so she's helping me."
"You have a jutsu for mental damage?"
"Not a proper one; just something to take the edge off the headache," Yin explained.
"Our glorious commander has a habit of overloading her mind with her clones," a familiar voice remarked from the other side of the curtain.
Shikaku and Phantom, who still looked like I had this morning, walked past the screen. He looked me over with a critical eye as if assessing how badly I was hurt and how long I would take to recover. There was a look in Phantom's eyes that instantly told me something was wrong, so I turned to Shikaku and gave him a hard look.
"What happened while I was unconscious?" I demanded.
Shikaku glanced at my clone before sighing heavily and saying quietly, "The Stone used the negotiations to try and assassinate the Hokage and Kazekage. They both survived, but... they were heavily injured."
"Bastards," I growled since it was a dirty move, but the look in Phantom's eyes did not fade, and my stomach dropped with a chilling realization. "Where's Shisui?"
Shikaku did not bother to disguise his glare at Phantom, but she simply shook her head without saying anything. That told me everything I needed, so I started to swing my legs over the side of the cot, but Yuri physically stopped me.
"You need rest," Yuri snapped.
"I need to protect my student," I shot back as I tried to push her hands off me.
"You can't protect anyone in your current condition," Shikaku chided. "Team Kurenai has already rendezvoused with them."
"You sent Kurenai!" I practically exclaimed, glaring at my clone.
"Duy has the strength to keep them safe until you can," Phantom replied.
(Duy… right.) I thought to myself with a grim sigh.
"I know that you're worried about your students, Akari, but there are more pressing matters. There are Mist ninjas roaming the countryside, we've lost an entire outpost… and you need to recover above all else," Shikaku said, adding the last bit as Yuri's scowl turned dangerous.
I chuckled weakly, though it was more forced than I would have liked. It was always funny when Shikaku's henpecked nature popped up since he was usually lecturing me on paying more attention to camp logistics, but there were so many thoughts swirling through my mind. Thankfully, Space teleported into an empty spot near my cot with a thermos of hot tea made from the herbs from the Yamanaka clan, which drew some of the attention away.
"Another clone?" Yuri accused.
"I could have had her teleport me back to my own room to avoid all of this fussing," I retorted, taking the thermos.
"Just would have made it worse when she figured out where you are," Shikaku muttered.
"And why I ultimately remained," I chuckled as I poured myself a drink.
"What's this?" Yuri asked.
"Mind-Spirit tea from the Yamanaka clan," I answered before swallowing the bitter drink.
"Yuri... There are things that I need to discuss with the commander privately," Shikaku said.
"She needs to rest," Yuri insisted.
"But I won't," I responded as I summoned my Wind clone. "Please, Yuri... I feel like crap, but there isn't anything else you can do for me, and I have too many responsibilities to just lay around."
Yuri sighed, shaking her head, as she scoffed, "Who am I to disagree with Commander Sarutobi?"
She did not wait for a reply and walked away, annoyed. I understood her frustrations quite well since I was not in good shape, but there was simply too much going on for me to rest. The entire war front was on the verge of collapsing, Konoha had been directly attacked, but even more dangerous was Madara's unfolding scheme, which I could not reveal. The situation seemed far worse than what I remember of the original timeline, so I was not sure if I should be worried or proud that he saw me as such a big threat to his goal.
Wind used a sound-dampening jutsu, and Shikaku began to go into the details that I had missed while unconscious. Pakura had heavy burns but would recover in a few weeks while my father had lost an arm, a career-ending injury for the average ninja. Nearly a hundred ninjas had been killed across all of the outposts and main camp, just shy of how many people we had lost throughout the entire last year of fighting, and another forty-two had severe injuries which would likely force their retirement. About a third of our supplies had been destroyed and getting resupplied would be all but impossible with Konoha's current state.
There had not been an attack on the Stone front in Rain Country, or at least none reported, so Tsunade and Orochimaru should be safe. Along the Cloud front, a series of attacks were launched, drawing Minato and Jiraiya into combat against their jinchuriki, though they did not release the tailed-beasts' full power as the Mist had done. Their front was also reporting losses, but not as many as ours.
Our only reprieve was that the Cloud and Mist stopped attacking shortly after Saiken's appearance. The Mist seemed to focus on causing chaos and looting what they could from the countryside while the Cloud directly retreated to their territory after their assault. Just like Shikaku, if I did not know any better, my concerns would solely be on the Mist instead of a single missing genin.
Our conversation stretched out for over an hour, making me realize just how significant this event was. So much had been invested into attacking the Leaf, keeping us distracted, to ensure that Madara's plan succeeded, but even with my current condition, I was not as useless as I seemed. Phantom had my other clones recover their chakra before they dismissed themselves, though I would not be able to summon Water and Chrono for a week after the fight with Saiken.
Suddenly, there was a call along my FTG network which I could still sense despite the drugs messing with my chakra network. I looked at Phantom, who made a hand sign, and teleported the note directly to her hand. She glanced at it then sighed and held it out towards me.
"We believe we've narrowed down Rin's location to a small island off the coast. There is some kind of barrier covering the island, but despite that, there are random bursts of intense, malevolent chakra. Requesting reinforcements."
I recognized Kurenai's handwriting, so I knew the message was from her. Still, I crushed the note with frustration since I already knew that it was too late to stop the sealing ritual.
"Yang, I need you," I said, waking her from her meditation.
"What's wrong?" Shikaku asked.
I passed him the message as Yang held up her fist. I pressed my fist against her, yet nothing happened after several seconds. Since it was an ability of my system, I did not understand what was wrong as my fusion always activated with the simple gesture.
"The painkillers are still disrupting your chakra network," Yin theorized. "You'll need another hour before you can mold your chakra and fuse again."
"We don't have an hour," I snapped.
"The Mist have lost their minds! Sealing a tailed beast within one of our shinobi?!?" Shikaku exclaimed as he easily deduced from Kurenai's clues.
"The Stone already used peace talks for attempted assassination, so is that really so crazy now?" I retorted, swinging my legs over the side of the cot.
"Akari... you can't fight in your current state," he sighed.
"Name one other person on this front with the ability to seal a tailed beast," I stated and stood up shakily. "If we're right, the Mist has already done the hard work in suppressing the beast, so I just need to make sure the seal is stable on Rin, or she will become a walking time bomb. Besides, my clones can still fight even if I can't."
"Let me get Fugaku first."
"I can't bring him. Phantom needs to stay with you, and be protected, because her memories will probably knock me out at this point, while Chrono is out of commission for a while after reflecting that bomb attack."
Shikaku gave me a hard look, calculating my chances of success. He knew as much as Tsunade when it came to my abilities, maybe more since I had told him about all of the Kekkei Genkais I had developed since I knew it would be stupid to try and hide it from him. The past year had built a lot of trust between us, so he sighed with resignation after a few moments.
"I'll see who we can spare and reinforce your position as quickly as possible."
"Thanks, Shikaku," I replied then dismissed Wind, Yin, and Yang.
My head spun for a moment with the influx of memories, but the strain was not too bad since they overlapped with my own. I gave Space a nod, and she placed a hand on my shoulder before teleporting both of us away. The soft sounds of the recovery ward were replaced with the loud crashing of waves after a dozen or so jumps.
With so many of my markers gathered together, Space was able to drop us in front of the group and catch them by surprise. Duy jumped between us and the team while Guy and Asuma took combat stances on either flank. Kakashi's and Shisui's Sharingans focused on me and, while neither prepared to attack, they did show signs of surprise. Kurenai was in the center of the group, looking at me with realization and concern.
"Stand down, Duy," I ordered as Space held me upright, the teleportation leaving me dizzy.
"Akari-sama/Onee-chan?!?" Duy, Guy, and Asuma exclaimed with shock.
"What happened, Akari-sensei?" Shisui asked.
"The Mist attacked multiple outposts and unleashed the Six-Tails on the main camps. Choza and I managed to drive it off but not easily or without cost. What happened to you?" I explained.
"I overloaded my weapons with chakra," he replied.
"It must have been a tough fight; good job."
Shisui smiled proudly before there was a burst of heavy chakra in the distance, making all of us turn our heads towards it. It left no room for doubt being this close; this was the lead-up to Rin's death and the breaking of Obito's mind. I already knew that I wanted to save her and, while I was not sure if I still could, I was certainly going to try.
"What is that?" Asuma asked with a hint of fear in his voice.
"If Shikaku and I are right..."