A clutched Bee to him and nodded to Naruto, a complicated look in his eyes.
"Don't stop training, kid; I'll test you once more, and next time I won't underestimate you or act rashly."
With a sudden flash of lightning, he darted off and vanished.
Karin monitored the departure. Once the Raikage left her sensing range a minute later, she nodded, satisfied that he was honestly leaving and not planning something foolish, not that she thought he would, considering the circumstances.
Naruto walked over and pulled Karin into his side, a familiar comfort they had built over their years together. A moment later, they vanished, reappearing inside Koyuki's estate.
"I-is it over?" Koyuki asked, looking distraught and furious at the same time.
The man had barged into her country, threatened her, and wrecked the area. She was beyond enraged. As an ordinary person without shinobi strength, she could do little on the battlefield, but she still held immense political power. She resolved right then that the Land of Snow would never do business with Kumo. Knowing the other Daimyo were already wary of ninja villages, Koyuki planned to leverage this incident to put as large a dent in Kumo's reputation and economy as possible. Koyuki even briefly thought about hiring Konoha ninja to sabotage some of Kumo's business dealings, but cooler heads prevailed; she didn't wish to get Konoha into a conflict with Kumo if they weren't already in one for helping her.
"Yes, it's over. The Eight-tails host as well as the Fourth Raikage should already be out of your country and heading back to the Land of Lightning."
Naruto replied, seeing the emotions flash across her face. The actress's professional mask was gone; she was pissed, but to her credit, she hid it better than most. It'd be unlikely that anyone not a ninja or samurai would notice.
Koyuki and Sakura, who had been protecting Koyuki, were shocked.
"The Raikage was here? What happened to make him leave? He isn't known to be a very… understanding or cooperative individual."
She watched as Naruto rubbed the back of his head with an awkward expression.
"Aha, well, you see—" Naruto started, but Karin cut him off.
"Naruto threatened to kill him while holding a kunai to the back of his neck," Karin said with amusement. She remained close to Naruto's side, a detail Sakura definitely noticed, though the revelation itself took immediate priority.
"Naruto, you threatened a Kage of another village," Sakura said, rubbing her temples. She prayed this wouldn't blow up into a major international incident, hoping that, for once, the Raikage would just let matters end here.
Naruto's expression grew serious, his eyes turning hard and resolute. "If he causes any more trouble, I'll just teleport right to the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki's side. I'll either kidnap him or kill him with a much stronger Rasenshuriken than the one I hit him with earlier."
Naruto didn't actually want to resort to that. He hated the idea of killing another person who shared his same circumstances, but if the Raikage chose to be foolish, he would do what was necessary. It would even stall the Akatsuki's plans, forcing them to wait for the Eight-Tails to reform.
"Besides," Naruto added, his voice softening slightly, "he threatened Karin."
Sakura's expression softened instantly at that. On the inside, her Inner Sakura was giving a massive thumbs-up, fully supporting the two of them.
"Well, perhaps he had it coming then," Sakura said with a shrug. "We can't just let him threaten Konoha ninja just because he's a Kage. If he pushes it, I wouldn't mind joining you next time. I've yet to try the 5th breath in actual combat."
Naruto nodded in thanks. With Sakura watching his back, he felt confident in just about anything. Having experienced a bit of her terrifying strength for himself, Naruto could say for certain that in terms of raw power, Sakura was stronger than the Raikage. Since there were apparently higher levels to this Seven Heavenly Breaths technique of hers that she hadn't used against him, he was also confident that she wouldn't be helpless against the Raikage's speed. Whether she could break through his defense was another thing entirely. Still, Naruto had confidence that Sakura could manage to break through the lightning armor.
Sakura turned to Koyuki, her expression softening into a gentle smile.
"This is our first time meeting, and I wish it had been under better circumstances, but I'm afraid we have to go," Sakura said. "Will you be alright from here?"
Koyuki managed a small, reassuring smile, nodding as she reined in her lingering anger.
"Yes, I will be fine. My guards and advisors will handle the cleanup. Thank you, all three of you, for protecting my country and handling this before it escalated further."
Sakura nodded back, stepping closer to Naruto and placing a hand firmly on his shoulder. Karin, still pressed close to his side, mirrored the movement by gripping his other shoulder.
With a brief nod from Naruto, the three of them vanished instantly from the estate.
Reacting on instinct, Gai did a 180 and unleashed a fierce kick at the person who had just appeared behind him. Naruto ducked by a hair's breadth, the wind from the kick whistling just above his head.
"Gai-sensei, relax! It's Naruto," he called out.
Gai looked sheepish as his battle instincts calmed down.
"Ah, apologies, young Naruto! My instincts kicked in. I was actually just about to call for you. The Kazekage's older brother has been poisoned by one of the Akatsuki after trying to pursue them. Suna's healers have only been able to keep him from dying."
Sakura immediately stepped up, heading straight toward the room filled with shouts of agony. She bypassed the Suna medics who tried to block her path. Before they could interfere, an elderly woman held out her hand to stop them, watching the young woman with curious eyes.
Sakura pulled a hair tie from her pouch, tying her hair up into a high ponytail before she analyzed the poison, quickly figuring out that Kankuro didn't have the time for them to come up with an antidote for this new blend of poison.
Pulling one of the new medical pens from her pouch, Sakura administered it under the shouts of the other medics. Still, Sakura wasn't worried about them, watching the thrashing Kankuro calm down significantly.
"Hold him down; this poison can't be so easily neutralized for long. I need to extract the poison manually."
Sakura ordered, the medics looking to Elder Chiyo for approval.
"Do as the young lady says, and be snappy about it; little Kankuro's life depends on it!"
Chiyo ordered, her eyes locked on Sakura as she organized the medics into groups and assigned them to tasks like fetching fresh water and holding the patient down.
'Just like that slug woman'
Chiyo thought with a hint of past grievances. Tsunade had been a thorn in her side in the wars, the woman always coming up with antidotes as fast as she could make poisons, a fact that made her envy and secretly admire her talent, not that she'd admit that to anyone, not even in the face of death.
The Sand medics scrambled into motion, pinned under Chiyo's sharp glare. Four of them threw their weight across Kankuro's limbs, bracing for the inevitable violent reaction.
Sakura didn't waste another heartbeat. She ignited her hands, the brilliant emerald glow of her medical chakra casting sharp shadows across the tense room. With a swift flick of her wrist, she formed a razor-thin chakra scalpel, slicing a neat incision directly over Kankuro's sternum.
She plunged her glowing palms forward.
Kankuro's eyes shot open, completely blank with agony as his spine arched off the table. The medics groaned under the sudden, immense strain of holding him down.
"Keep him still!" Sakura barked, her voice cutting through the panic.
She closed her eyes, entirely tuning out the chaos of the room. Her mind dove straight into Kankuro's circulatory system. Thanks to her medical pen, the rampaging toxins had been corralled into dense, sluggish clusters instead of tearing through his nervous system.
Using her microscopic chakra control, Sakura wove her energy around the heavy-metal poison like a magnetic net. Slowly, meticulously, she began to draw her hands upward.
A thick, undulating bubble of medicinal fluid rose from Kankuro's chest. Suspended inside the glowing green sphere was a foul, swirling sludge of deep, venomous purple.
Chiyo leaned closer, her breath catching. She had designed countless toxins herself, but watching a girl this young physically pull a lethal, customized formula directly out of a human bloodstream with such casual precision was nothing short of staggering.
With a sharp jerk, Sakura yanked the final cluster of poison free and slammed the floating sphere down into an empty metal basin. The concentrated toxin hissed violently against the metal, giving off a faint, acrid smoke.
Kankuro collapsed back onto the mattress, his fever instantly breaking as a long, clean breath escaped his lips.
Sakura wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead with her forearm, her sharp green eyes instantly shifting toward the basin. "The pen bought us the time to extract it," she said, her voice steady.
"I need that fresh water now. I have to break down this sample and brew the permanent antidote before the residual traces in his system reactivate."
A couple of medics rushed back in just in time with basins full of fresh water, bringing them over and setting them on the table to Sakura's right.
"Perfect. Leave them there and clear the space," Sakura directed, her voice leaving no room for argument.
The medics quickly backed up, watching in awe as the young Leaf ninja took complete control like she had done this countless times.
Sakura pulled a pair of sterile medical tongs and a clean glass beaker from her travel kit. With steady, practiced hands, she dipped into the metal basin, carefully scooping up a concentrated droplet of the venomous purple sludge she had just extracted. The moment she transferred it into the beaker, she added a measured splash of the fresh water, swirling the container in tight, rhythmic circles.
The dark liquid churned, separating into distinct, oily layers of deep violet and murky brown.
'Heavy metals,' Sakura analyzed mentally, her brow furrowing as she held the beaker up to the light. It's a multi-tiered compound meant to paralyze the respiratory system while attacking the blood cells.'
She looked over at the array of raw medicinal herbs the Sand village had gathered on the side tables. Her mind raced through the vast encyclopedia of botany and pharmacology that she identified with a glance.
"I need standard antidote bases number three and seven," Sakura called out, not looking up from her beaker. "The trace elements left in Kankuro's body will become immune to the medical pen's neutralizing agent in less than twenty minutes. If this antidote isn't synthesized and injected by then, his organs will begin to fail all over again."
"Yes!"
The medics replied in unison before they each rushed to complete a task, taking the time to organize themselves now that they could see Sakura's competence.
Guided by Sakura's absolute certainty, the Sand medics no longer stumbled over their own feet. One group dashed to the cabinets to pull the requested antidote bases, while another brought over a heavy stone mortar and pestle and placed it exactly where she needed it.
Sakura grabbed the ingredients the moment they landed on the table.
She didn't waste time weighing the herbs on a scale. Her hands could feel the exact amount of a root just by touching it. She threw the plants into the mortar, grinding them down with a rhythmic, blurring speed.
'The bases will neutralize the heavy metal bonding,' she thought, calculating the chemical reactions in real-time. 'But I need an active binding agent to wash it completely out of his system.'
"Pass me the distilled water and a sterile syringe!" she ordered, pouring the crushed herbal paste directly into the beaker with the raw poison sample to watch the chemical reaction.
The mixture bubbled, turning from a deep purple to a cloudy, neutral blue. The heavy-metal compounds were breaking down.
Elder Chiyo stepped closer, her sharp eyes fixed on the fluid. A rare, profound silence hung over the old woman. She knew how Sasori thought. She knew the genius of his craftsmanship. For a Leaf village girl to completely dissect and counter a toxin created by her own genius Grandson in under twenty minutes using standard outpost supplies was a feat she hadn't expected ever to see, well aware that the talent her Grandson showed in every ninja art surpassed her own.
"The antidote is stable," Sakura announced, drawing the blue liquid up into a syringe. She turned back to the bed, her eyes locking onto Kankuro's pale face. "Get ready. This is going to shock his system."
Kankuro flinched, his fingers gripping the bedsheets as the medicine hit his system. A sharp shiver ran through him, his teeth clicking together while the monitors briefly beeped in a wild panic before settling back into a slow, steady rhythm.
Right before their eyes, the deathly purple color faded from his skin. He let out a long, ragged sigh, but instead of going limp, his eyelids fluttered open. His glazed eyes scanned the room before locking onto Sakura.
With a weak, trembling effort, he forced his hand up and cracked open his fist. Inside his palm was a torn scrap of dark cloth.
"From... the enemy," Kankuro croaked, his voice barely a whisper. "Use it... to find Gaara."
As soon as the cloth left his fingers, his strength completely gave out. He sank deep into the pillows, his eyes closing as he fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
Sakura carefully picked up the fabric and pulled the empty syringe free. "He's stable," she announced, her voice calm as she looked over the resting Sand ninja. "The poison is gone, but his body took a heavy toll. He needs absolute rest now."
Walking over to the basin of fresh water, she thoroughly washed her hands. Once finished, she pulled the hair tie from her high ponytail, letting her hair fall back into place. She slipped the tie securely into her pouch and turned around, immediately meeting the proud, bright smiles of Naruto and Karin waiting by the doorway.
"I guess it's time for Kakashi's pack to shine."
Guy brought out the scroll, smeared a trace of Kakashi's blood across the surface, and channeled his chakra into the paper. A massive cloud of white smoke erupted in the middle of the room, clearing to reveal the eight ninken shaking out their fur.
"Hey, Guy," Pakkun said, stepping forward from the pack and looking around the medical bay. "What's the emergency? Where's Kakashi?"
Guy knelt to their eye level, his tone serious. "Kakashi is busy and will join us later. The Akatsuki have captured the Kazekage, and we are working against the clock."
Sakura stepped up beside Guy and held out her hand, presenting the torn scrap of dark fabric. "We need you to track the scent on this cloth. It came directly off one of the kidnappers."
Pakkun trotted over and buried his snout into the fabric. The other dogs huddled close behind him, taking deep sniffs of the fibers.
"Smells like old wood, copper, and dried herbs," Pakkun muttered, sneezing once before his eyes sharpened. "But the trail is distinct. It heads out into the desert. We can lock onto this easily."
"Great, then we leave first thing in the morning; everyone get your rest; we leave before the sun even touches the sand."
Guy ordered, looking to Chiyo as she walked up to them.
The old woman stopped a few paces away, her gaze shifting between the piece of fabric in Sakura's hand and the pack of ninken at their feet. The bitter expression she usually wore had softened into something unreadable.
"You Leaf ninja certainly don't waste any time," Chiyo said, her voice quiet but sharp. She adjusted her sleeves, her eyes finally settling on Guy's serious face. "I will be joining you at dawn. I have a debt to settle with the one who left that cloth behind."
"Understood," Guy agreed with a firm nod. "We would be honored to have you on this mission, Elder Chiyo."
Chiyo gave a slight grunt in response before turning toward one of the Sand medics standing nearby. "Koji!" she called out.
A young medic stepped forward quickly, bowing his head. "Yes, Lady Chiyo?"
"Show these Konoha ninja to the guest quarters so they can get some proper rest," she ordered, gesturing toward the door. "And make it snappy. They need to be ready by dawn."
"Right away," Koji replied, gesturing for the Leaf team to follow him out of the medical bay.
As the group began to move, Pakkun looked up at Guy and Sakura. "Alright, we're heading out now to scout the trail," the small dog said, his pack gathering around him. "We'll track this scent and find exactly where those Akatsuki took Gaara. See you at sunrise."
With a sudden rustle, the eight ninken bounded out through an open window and disappeared into the darkening desert night.
- Chapter End -
This chapter was just Sakura's time to shine, as she didn't get much action watching over Koyuki. I felt here would be a good place to do that, very similar to the canon, but I feel it still holds weight; she'll have her chance later as well.
2.9k chapter, I just kept going.