Konoha --- Temporary Hokage Administrative Building
Seven in the morning exactly.
Sakura knocked.
"Come in."
She came in.
Tsunade was already at her desk.
Tea in one hand.
Three mission reports open in front of her.
Reading all three simultaneously in the way of someone who had learned to process information in parallel because the alternative was never sleeping.
She looked up.
Read Sakura's face for three seconds.
"Tell me the two you didn't finish," she said.
Sakura didn't blink.
"The sustained healing pulse," she said. "I got seventeen minutes out of twenty. The absorption rate at the twelve-minute mark drops below threshold and I haven't identified why." A pause. "And the sixth exercise --- the bilateral chakra split. I can split the chakra but I can't sustain both streams independently for longer than forty seconds."
Tsunade set down her tea.
"Why forty seconds specifically?"
"Right hemisphere dominance in my chakra routing. When I try to hold both streams independently past that point, the weaker stream starts following the stronger one."
Tsunade was quiet.
"You diagnosed that yourself."
"Last night. After the fifth attempt." Sakura paused. "I couldn't fix it in time. But I understand what's wrong."
Tsunade looked at her.
She thought about herself at twelve.
She'd been brilliant and she'd known she was brilliant and she hadn't known what she didn't know because she'd been too busy being certain.
This girl had done fourteen exercises in one day, failed two of them by specific margins she'd identified and could explain, and shown up the next morning to report her own shortcomings before being asked.
"The healing pulse," Tsunade said. "Twelve-minute drop. What's your theory?"
"Fatigue accumulation in the mid-section pathways," Sakura said. "They're not conditioned for sustained output at that level yet. It's a training limitation, not a structural one."
"Correct." Tsunade folded her hands. "How do you fix it?"
"Progressive load training. Start at five minutes, extend by one minute every three days until the pathways adapt." She paused. "It'll take six to eight weeks."
"Probably four if you train the way you did yesterday," Tsunade said flatly.
Sakura said nothing.
Just took that in.
"The bilateral split," Tsunade said. "The right hemisphere dominance. How do you correct it?"
"I'm not sure yet," Sakura said. "I know what's wrong. I haven't figured out the fix."
"Honest."
"There's no point in pretending otherwise. You'd know."
Tsunade looked at her for a long moment.
She thought about the evaluation.
About the best thing Tsunade ever taught was not a technique.
About a girl who had read that and shown up the next day anyway.
She asked three questions.
"Why medicine specifically? Not just strength. Why healing."
Sakura answered without pausing: "Because the people I care about keep ending up in situations where strength isn't enough. I want to be the reason they survive it."
"If your teammate is dying in a field and you can either save him or complete the mission, what do you do?"
Sakura looked at her.
"Save him," she said. "And then complete the mission faster to make up for the delay."
"And if you can't do both?"
"Then I save him," Sakura said. "And I figure out what I should have done differently so next time I can."
Tsunade was quiet.
"Third question," she said. "The scroll said you'll be remarkable. Does that feel like pressure or permission?"
Sakura thought about this for a moment.
She thought about standing in a doorway yesterday saying I want to learn from someone who knows how to stand back up.
"Permission," she said. "To be what I was already going to be."
Tsunade looked at her.
A long moment.
"Be here tomorrow at five," she said. She turned back to her mission reports. "Bring bandages. You're going to need them."
Sakura stood very still for one second.
"Yes, Lady Tsunade," she said.
She turned to go.
"Haruno."
She stopped.
"The bilateral split," Tsunade said, still reading. "Start with twenty-second holds and drop the split-point depth by half. The right hemisphere isn't dominant --- it's just faster. Slow it down instead of trying to speed up the left."
Sakura took this in.
"Thank you," she said.
She left.
Konoha Street --- Outside the Administrative Building
She walked.
Not fast.
She was not going to run.
Running would be undignified.
She was going to be a medical ninja under the Fifth Hokage of Konoha and medical ninja did not run in streets unless there was a medical emergency.
She walked very quickly.
Two blocks.
Then she stopped.
Pressed her back against a building wall.
Looked at the morning sky.
Be here tomorrow at five.
She breathed out.
She breathed in.
She breathed out again.
She was twelve years old.
She had just been accepted as an apprentice by the greatest medical ninja alive.
She had reported her own shortcomings before being asked and gotten the answer anyway.
She pressed her hands flat against the wall behind her.
She was not going to be undignified about this.
She was very close to being undignified about this.
She pushed off the wall.
She walked.
Very quickly.
In the direction of the training ground.
She had a bilateral split problem to work on.
Group Chat:
[Sakura Haruno: She said yes.]
One message.
Three words.
The chat erupted.
[Naruto Uzumaki: SAKURA-CHAN!!! I KNEW IT!! I KNEW IT!! SHE SAID YES!!]
[Sasuke Uchiha: Congratulations.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE??]
[Sasuke Uchiha: It's accurate.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: SAKURA-CHAN JUST GOT ACCEPTED BY TSUNADE AND YOU SAY "CONGRATULATIONS"??]
[Sasuke Uchiha: Yes.]
[Sasuke Uchiha: Sakura. Well done.]
[Sakura Haruno: Thank you. Both of you.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: WHEN DO YOU START??]
[Sakura Haruno: Tomorrow at five.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: FIVE IN THE MORNING?!]
[Sakura Haruno: Yes.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: SHE'S STARTING YOU AT FIVE IN THE MORNING ON THE FIRST DAY?!]
[Sakura Haruno: She told me to bring bandages.]
[Naruto Uzumaki: ...]
[Naruto Uzumaki: That's intense.]
[Sakura Haruno: Yes. I know.]
[Sakura Haruno: It's exactly right.]
Pure Land
[First Hokage Hashirama Senju: LITTLE TSUNADE!! YOU DID IT!! YOU TOOK A STUDENT!! I'M SO PROUD!!]
[Tsunade: ...]
[Tsunade: I took an apprentice. That's different from---]
[First Hokage Hashirama Senju: YOU'RE GOING TO TEACH SOMEONE!! JUST LIKE I TAUGHT YOU AND TOBIRAMA TAUGHT YOU AND NOW YOU'RE TEACHING HER!! THE CYCLE CONTINUES!! HAHAHA!!]
[Tsunade: Grandfather. Please.]
[First Hokage Hashirama Senju: I'M JUST SAYING!!]
[Uzumaki Mito: He's been like this for twenty minutes. I apologize on his behalf.]
[Tsunade: Don't apologize. He's---]
She stopped.
She started a new message.
[Tsunade: He's not wrong.]
[First Hokage Hashirama Senju: !!!]
[Tsunade: Don't make a thing of it.]
[First Hokage Hashirama Senju: HAHAHA!! TOO LATE!! ALREADY A THING!! MITO, DID YOU SEE? SHE ADMITTED I'M NOT WRONG!!]
[Uzumaki Mito: I see, dear.]
[Tsunade: I'm closing this chat.]
[First Hokage Hashirama Senju: TSUNADE!! I LOVE YOU!! YOU'VE MADE AN OLD DEAD MAN VERY HAPPY!!]
[Tsunade: GRANDFATHER---]
[Uchiha Madara: Hashirama. Control yourself.]
[First Hokage Hashirama Senju: Madara!! She said I wasn't wrong!! She ADMITTED IT!!]
[Uchiha Madara: I heard. It was one sentence.]
[First Hokage Hashirama Senju: IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL SENTENCE!!]
[Uchiha Madara: ...]
[Uchiha Madara @Tsunade: Congratulations. The girl has good posture.]
Tsunade stared at that message.
The girl has good posture.
That was Madara Uchiha's version of a glowing endorsement.
She closed the chat.
Picked up her mission reports.
She was smiling slightly.
Just slightly.
It was not dignified.
She kept smiling.
Konoha --- Training Ground
Sakura arrived.
She put her bag down.
She started the bilateral split exercise with the Tsunade adjustment.
Twenty-second holds.
Slower right hemisphere.
First attempt: twenty-two seconds.
She reset.
Tried again.
Twenty-six.
Third try: thirty-one.
She reset again.
She thought about be here tomorrow at five.
About bring bandages.
About what five in the morning with Tsunade would look like.
She thought about the scroll saying currently twelve years old and largely unremarkable.
She ran the exercise again.
Forty-four seconds.
She noted it.
Reset.
She had things to catch up to.
She had better start now.
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