"No good, another failure!"
In Konoha's laboratory, Katsuyu split off its own mutated tissue and destroyed it with strong acid, then turned and shook its head at Tsunade.
"Damn it, can't even you iterate an antibody?"
Tsunade, wearing a protective suit, slid down the white wall of the lab. The tenacity of this virus gave her a feeling of helplessness similar to facing her own grandfather.
"Heh heh, how rude. After all, this isn't really my specialty!" Katsuyu twisted its body and climbed down from the experimental table.
As the first Sage of Shikkotsu Forest, Katsuyu had invested all its skill points in abilities for preserving its own life. Thus, it had developed Yang Release: Slug Division and the first stage of the Senjutsu Evolution Technique, Regression.
When faced with an unstoppable virus, it could simply split and discard the necrotic tissue. Unlike humans, who make such a fuss about missing a few organs.
But for the current situation, which required relying on biological iteration to produce antibodies, it did know a suitable candidate!
"Well then, let me recommend a suitable Sage for dealing with viruses~"
Katsuyu crawled in front of Tsunade, extended its little tentacles and reassuringly touched Tsunade's protective suit.
"Who?"
"Sakura~"
"Absolutely not!"
The teasing aura subtly emerging beneath Katsuyu's gentle tone had already made Tsunade sense something was wrong. And when it officially said it, Tsunade refused without hesitation.
"Eh~ Tsunade-chan is so mean. You didn't hesitate nearly as much when you used it on me." Katsuyu twisted pretentiously, even raising a small arm to wipe a tear from the corner of its eye.
"That's different!" Tsunade waved her arm and retorted loudly: "You're just a split body, anyway. Your main body won't die."
"But Sakura won't die either~"
Katsuyu put its two little hands together and tilted its head to press them against its cheek.
"That's still not okay!"
Tsunade rejected Katsuyu's suggestion again, stood up, and threw herself back into the research.
No matter what, as long as she, as her teacher, hadn't fallen yet, she would absolutely never allow her disciple to face danger. This was her responsibility as an adult and as an elder!
"Master and disciple, they have the same temperament. And they do the same things."
Katsuyu muttered in a voice Tsunade couldn't hear, looked up, and squinted its eyes as it gazed far to the north, beyond the laboratory.
Its gaze seemed to cross thousands of mountains and rivers, seeing the girl who had just packed her bags at the northern border of the Land of Fire.
Inside the encampment at the northern border.
Leaving a letter and tucking the sleeping Sato Sakura in, Sakura stood up and exhaled a murky breath.
"Mm, I'll just take these."
She put the luggage on her back, stepped out of the tent, and followed her Observation Haki's perception toward the direction of the person she was looking for.
Passing through the camp, she arrived at the outer training ground. The black-haired boy was currently crouched among the bushes, his crimson Sharingan fixed on the scene inside the training ground.
"Yo!"
The girl, moving like a ghost, suddenly appeared behind the boy and slapped his shoulder. The startled boy's tomoes spun, the power of his Mangekyo spilling out from his eyes in an instant.
But upon turning and seeing Sakura's face, he forcibly stopped his urge to use his technique.
Sasuke gritted his teeth and lowered his voice. "Please act like a human being!"
"Sorry, but in terms of species, I'm not one anymore!" A hint of purple flashed in Sakura's emerald pupils as she blinked at Sasuke.
"But what were you looking at, so engrossed?"
Driven by curiosity, Sakura reached out with both hands and parted the bushes a little.
Then, through the gaps in the bushes, she saw a boy and a girl inside the training ground. The two stood facing each other beneath the bright moon.
The girl with long, deep-purple hair and Byakugan eyes was pressing a bento box into the hands of the blond-haired boy.
The boy took the bento generously, a radiant smile on his face.
"Wow~" Sakura, peeping, couldn't help but whistle. "How long have those two been together?"
"Just recently." Sasuke looked at her with a surprised expression. "Aren't you concerned? I mean, Naruto used to be..."
"This is good. After all... I'm a bad woman who's not suited for family life."
The girl tilted her head, flipping up her long hair and tucking it behind her ear. Her narrowed eyes shimmered with bewitching light, and the corner of her mouth curled into a wicked smile.
"I see..."
Sasuke's gaze was calm as he turned his head back toward where Naruto was being peeped at. "Oh, was there something you needed from me?"
Turning to business, Sakura put away her playful expression. "Mm, I plan to go into the heartland of the Land of Earth to trace the source of the virus. So I wanted to ask..."
"Got it. I'll go with you."
Sasuke cut off Sakura before she finished speaking, and he agreed to her request without hesitation.
Understanding the importance of Sakura's work, he would naturally do his utmost to support her. Not only to protect Sakura as a comrade, but also because Sasuke himself had people behind him he couldn't bear to lose, people he needed to step forward for.
"OK, then we leave early tomorrow morning. Go get ready tonight."
Gesturing to Sasuke, Sakura raised a finger and prepared to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to leave.
"You two... are too cunning!"
A hand in an orange tracksuit suddenly reached into the bushes, grabbing both Sasuke and Sakura. "You're planning to do something so important without me?"
"Naruto?" x2
The two, their technique interrupted, their bodies jolted, looking in surprise at the grinning boy before them.
"Um... you heard all that?" Sakura swallowed, her voice as quiet as a mosquito's buzz.
But both Naruto and Sasuke, having trained in Observation Haki, couldn't possibly not have heard Sakura.
Thus, unusually, the three of them fell into silence simultaneously.
"Well... uh... how should I put this? We're still comrades, right!" After a long while, Naruto scratched his cheek, his deep blue eyes looking timidly at the other two.
"You... always been like this since we were kids, always making people worry about you!" Sakura reached out and placed her hand in the middle of the three.
Naruto raised his hand with a radiant expression and placed it on top, using his elbow to nudge Sasuke, who was trying to look cool. Sasuke rolled his eyes at him for a long time.
"Hmph, you actually dare to come along? Aren't you afraid of leaving your newly-made girlfriend waiting alone?" The last to put his hand in the middle, Sasuke snorted and showed a nasty grin.
"What? You, the loner Sasuke, are you jealous?" The blond boy's eyes turned into circles, baring his shark teeth, and roared back without backing down.
The black-haired boy, with shadows under his eyes, also gritted his teeth: "Bastard, you want to fight?"
"Alright, don't start an internal conflict before our first mission together in a long time even begins!"
Sakura hooked her arms around both their necks, turned her gaze to Hinata, who was approaching gracefully, and asked, "Is it okay if I borrow him for a while?"
"I will wait here for your triumphant return. May you all have good fortune in battle!" Hinata lightly pressed her hand to her chest, smiling at Sakura.
"Good, then Team 7, move out!"
"Yeah!" x2