Chapter Text
The first thing Sakura feels as she drifts into a semi-conscious state is a slight pinching in her fingers and toes. Somehow, though her ability to produce any kind of cohesive thought seems to be floating uselessly around in her brain, she knows that this uncomfortable feeling in her appendages is a sign of damage to her chakra coils. If that’s the case, she also knows that trying to circulate healing chakra throughout her coils might do more harm than good right now. A feeling of panic creeps into her upon realizing that this pinching feeling is the only sense she has. She tries to pick up any hint of sound or smell but fails to get any sense of where she could be.
Alright, Sakura. Calm down. Panicking won’t help anything. Tsunade taught me better than this. Think. What could have caused this kind of damage? What’s the last thing I remember? Sakura thinks to herself, trying to force her mind to clear up even the littlest bit. I remember… fighting against ten-tails Madara with the rest of team seven. We were doing fine though, with Naruto and Sasuke’s new abilities. Come on Sakura, there’s no time for this. What else? There must have been something else.
An image of the longest white hair she’d ever seen flashes into her awareness. And to think I was once convinced I could win Sasuke over with my long glossy hair. I bet he’ll never date anyone with long hair after this. Sakura mentally rolls her eyes and thinks back on the image. Two blank looking pupil-less Byakugan eyes and one blood-red Rinne Sharingan, Kaguya must have done this to me.
Sakura strains to remember exactly what had happened to put her in such a weak state, but all she gets is a growing headache for her effort. As the pain grows, becoming more than just an inconvenience, she’s forced to stop thinking about the circumstances which led to her condition and start figuring out what kind of trouble it has put her in.
Her fingers are a good starting point since at least there’s some feeling in them, even if she knows that their level of discomfort is not a good sign. She twitches her fingers just enough to send the uncomfortable pinching up into her arms and continues stretching that feeling around her muscles until she’s regained feeling throughout her entire body.
I’m obviously not on the battlefield. Sakura concludes, feeling the familiar softness of cotton sheets beneath her aching limbs. I can’t even be in one of the nearby medical tents. The emergency cots we set up there are little more than thin cloth cots. They wouldn’t be near this comfortable. Was I moved to a hospital then? No… That can’t be right. Everyone was under the Infinite Tsukuyomi. I should definitely still be on the battlefield. Unless… Just how long have I been out?
“Sak-” She tenses, her muscles protesting at the added strain, as sound bursts into her eardrums, the sudden noise only making the sharp thrumming of her aching head worse. They must’ve noticed my stretching. Damn, that hurts. Can’t they just be quiet long enough for me to figure all of this out?
“Sakura-chan, are you with us?” She can tell it’s a different voice this time, though she’d barely heard the first one. They both sound vaguely familiar, yet she can’t quite remember who they are.
Sakura whimpers as the words drum into her head like some kind of sound jutsu and she quickly raises the heels of her palms to her temple, hoping to relieve some of the pain. She’d run a diagnostic jutsu if she wasn’t so worried about the damage to her chakra coils. If she’s right and somehow she was brought to the hospital, it’s better to let the nurses deal with her symptoms than risk worsening them by acting without thought. Medical ninja always make the worst patients, I’ve treated enough of them to know.
She clutches her head harder as the pain only seems to be getting worse. At first, she’d thought her body was simply unused to the sensory load of being awake. If she’s been unconscious for long enough to have ended up in a hospital, then of course her body would protest any change of pace.
But now Sakura can feel the waves of pain radiating from the center of her forehead. Panic once again courses through her veins as she moves her fingers towards the cause of her pain. What’s wrong with my Strength of a Hundred Seal?
Even through her pain, Sakura hears the hurried footsteps of two people enter the room, one who is clearly comfortable walking around the hospital wearing loudly clicking heels and the other wearing something with a much softer sole. A commanding voice echoes around her and the person with the softer sounding footsteps seems to push the two who had spoken to her earlier out of the room, leaving her alone with the two new arrivals.
Her arms are pulled quickly, yet gently to her sides and she fights against the tightening grasp until she feels a light touch that begins to exude soothing chakra into her system near the pained seal. Her whole body relaxes at the familiar feeling, almost leaning into her healer’s careful touch. There’s only one person whose medical ninjutsu feels like this.
“Tsu-” Sakura tries, coughing when her words get stuck in her throat. The hands that had been holding her down are removed and a few moments later she feels the edge of a glass on her lips. She drinks slowly, letting the cool water slide down her dry throat.
“Tsunade… Shishou…” Sakura tries again, her voice still capable of nothing more than a whisper.
Immediately, the soothing chakra stops flowing through her forehead and Sakura groans as the pain returns, though more bearable than before. Sakura wonders at the confusion that laces Tsunade’s voice as she orders the other person in the room, who at this point Sakura assumes must be a nurse, to leave. Shouldn’t Tsunade-sama sound more relieved or… concerned at least? And while she’s at it, shouldn’t she still be healing me, shannaro!
She blinks her eyes open slowly, allowing them to adjust to the light of the room. Finally, she’s able to open them fully and her eyes widen at her surroundings. The walls, old and faded yet clean, are the same as Sakura remembers from her time spent in the hospital as Tsunade’s apprentice. But this hospital was destroyed by Pein’s Shinra Tensei. This is…!
“Who are you, girl?” Tsunade says in a neutral tone meant to conceal her emotion. It might have worked if it had been almost anyone else. Yet, Sakura picks up on subtle hints of wariness in Tsunade’s voice. She’s leaned up against the windowsill with her arms crossed as if there’s nothing wrong with the world, but her forearm is flexed as if she’s digging her nails into her side. Sakura knows that means Tsunade is more than a little stressed.
Sakura turns her gaze away from her teacher to see if whatever injuries she’d sustained had somehow also made her unrecognizable. She freezes, noticing that her legs don’t even come close to reaching the end of the bed. Her hands, shaking with her newfound anxiety as she holds them up above her chest, are small and soft and lack any signs of her rigorous training. She’d grown to appreciate the callouses she’d acquired from learning to use Tsunade’s monster strength technique—being pretty means nothing if you can’t save your friends. Sakura is dismayed that these are the hands of a Sakura that has not yet learned that lesson.
Think, Sakura. There must be an explanation for all this. I seem to be in a much younger body, though it definitely seems like my own. This is definitely the old Konoha hospital, from before Pain’s attack on the village. So that means…
Sakura pales at the thought that she must be in the past.
“I’ll ask you one more time, kid,” Tsunade says, her clipped words bringing Sakura’s attention back towards her teacher. “Who are you?”
“I’m Sakura Haruno,” Sakura replies, trying to buy more time to think. Tsunade wasn’t in the village when I was this young. If this really is the past, and I’m in my younger body, then there’s no way Tsunade should be here.
“Alright, Sakura Haruno,” Tsunade replies, refusing to let go of her neutral appearance. Sakura sets her shoulders, though she winces a bit at the stiffness of her muscles, and resolves to do the same. “Care to fill me in on how an eight-year-old civilian girl with the chakra reserves of a cherry could possibly have unlocked the Strength of a Hundred Seal, which no one alive should know how to do except me? Or, how you knew who I was from only the feel of my healing chakra? You called me shishou, but I’d never even heard of you before this week.”
Oh. The seal. If it came with me into the past… It makes sense that Tsunade would’ve been called back to investigate. Especially if it seemed to be causing a small civilian girl to be out like this. I bet Shizune convinced her to come back for this. As far as I know, the Tsunade of this time didn’t want anything to do with the village.
Sakura gasps, clutching her head once again. The pain in her seal intensifying as if just the thought of it is enough to exacerbate whatever’s wrong with it. She clenches her eyes shut, wishing she knew the extent of the damage to her chakra coils so she could justify using medical ninjutsu to probe the seal. Luckily, Tsunade steps towards her, easing her pain once more with her chakra before she gives in to the urge to fall back into unconsciousness. With her added pain relief, Sakura is able to take a moment to think about what she should do now.
I don’t know how I got into this mess. And I don’t know if I’ll be able to get back to my own time. I really don’t think Tsunade will believe me if I tell her the truth, but there isn’t any good excuse for how my eight-year-old self would obtain the seal, either. However… Tsunade did give me some good information. This body is eight-years-old, which means…
“Can you call for Inoichi Yamanaka?” Sakura asks softly, still under the soothing effects of Tsunade’s healing. This time, Tsunade continues to pour healing chakra into Sakura, rather than pulling away from her at the sound of her voice.
“Inoichi Yama- How do you even know who that is?” Tsunade responds, sounding highly unimpressed, yet somehow equally as flustered. “Know what? Nevermind. I only came because no one else knows enough about the seal to deal with this mess. If you waste my time, I’ll just tell them to suppress your measly chakra and send you down to T&I. Then at least I don’t have to deal with you and I can leave this damn village again.”
Tsunade doesn’t miss the way Sakura’s eyes widen at the mention of T&I. Of course, she knows what that is as well. Tsunade grumbles internally.
“Just… Please, Tsunade-sama,” Sakura replies, a pleading edge to her tone. She opens her eyes again, widening her eyes even more to appear extra vulnerable. Tsunade would never admit to it, but she’s always been a sucker for a sad-looking child. If Naruto could convince her to get over herself enough to return the village after only knowing her for a week, surely I can convince her to do this one thing for me after knowing her for all these years, Shannaro! Even if she doesn’t know me at all. “I’ll tell you everything, but you won’t believe any of it. I trust Yamanaka-san. He should be able to prove to you that I’m not lying. I know he’ll come if you tell him it’s for me.”
Sakura relaxes as Tsunade gives her a look of consideration and shakes her head, which Sakura takes as a clear sign that she’d grant her request. She breathes out a sigh of relief before Tsunade taps her forehead lightly, sending her into a deep, painless sleep.
The slug sannin pinches her nose in annoyance, already anticipating the storm she’d just put herself in the middle of. I’ll have to look into her seal more once she wakes up again tomorrow. There’s obviously something wrong with it, but I can’t tell what it is. However… It seems like she’s more involved in this than her parents think. Hopefully, she’ll have more answers than questions. Damn it all. Why couldn’t I have run when I began winning at the slots? Or at least the second I saw Jiraiya’s ugly mug. Nothing good ever happens when he comes looking for me.
With a scowl and a growing desire for something strong enough to make her tipsy, Tsunade leaves the small pink-haired anomaly to her rest. I’d better go ask my old sensei if I can borrow Inoichi for a few hours.