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Ash pale, paler than ever even when he was flat and could barely speak, shadow-bruises and sick-rust blood marking-
“Sakura- Sakura-chan he’s- he’s gone, you can’t-”
Sakura bared her teeth in a feral snarl she’d learned from her sensei without ever trying, and the next hands to touch her were smacked away with a sharp crack of bone giving way. Sakura might feel guilty for that later, but now she only turned on her knees, empty hands as dangerous as any weapon she could bring to bear, teeth bared in warning.
Naruto was the only one who didn’t fall back. He crouched beside her, sunny-sky eyes shadowed and pained and understanding.
Sakura didn’t strike him, but when his lashes fluttered in a blink she looked away.
“Don’t waste yourself, brat.” Tsunade said, swatting Sakura’s shoulder; she grit her teeth, irritation born in part of having these lessons at all when it had never been her choice.
No strength and no knowledge you can gain is ever wasted, pup - Kakashi-sensei’s words and a gentle brush of bony, callused fingers over her brow.
Sakura forced herself to steady and listened as Tsunade taught. Iryou jutsu was not Sakura’s choice, but she had the skill for it and it could save her life or the life of those she cared for - or was sworn to protect - one day, or even simply spare them pain.
“Don’t waste your strength,” Tsunade said, meeting Sakura’s gaze, her eyes briefly showing her age as her face never did. “Sometimes it’s too late, and you can fix the body - flesh and bone are easy - but the rest is gone. Don’t waste it.”
Sakura brushed a hand over Kakashi’s still chest. There wasn’t even the faintest beat of his strong heart, and barely a lingering flicker of raiton clinging to his rangy frame.
He looked . . . skinny, and small in a way he never had to Sakura’s eyes before. He wasn’t a big man, rangy and too-thin, but he’d cast a big shadow - his lean figure had always shaped something that meant safety and heart and strength to Sakura.
And now- now all that was. . .
Green bloomed around Sakura’s hands as a snarl caught in her throat, choking and heavy. She could feel the damage - bones broken, flesh torn, blood leached away, things that were easy enough to put right, all it took was control, determination, power.
Sakura poured energy into it, feeling the hurts knit together, ease away. The dullest of sparks lingered beneath her hands, and Sakura’s eyes burned. It was almost nothing to the controlled but wild rush of lightning it should have been - the faint crackle that accompanied the brush of Kakashi’s hand over her hair, held tight within himself; the prickling rush that guarded the compound that had become a second home to Sakura years ago.
Dark bites faded out of Sakura’s vision around the edges with a painful, pulsing spike, and she was vaguely aware she was swaying, though the brilliant green of the jutsu she was bringing to bear hadn’t faded.
She was pushing too much, she assessed dispassionately, running absent calculations over her reserves and the ache in her chakra coils. She chased the spark she could feel, deep in Kakashi’s heart.
His body was mended, that was easy enough, even if Sakura had never put the amount of practise into iryou jutsu as she’d been pushed to - never specialised. Not pushed by Kakashi-sensei, of course - Kakashi-sensei who had always only shrugged, hands in his pockets, and told Sakura to choose her own path, watching over her and guiding her as she did. Kakashi-sensei who had all but snarled away Ino’s father when he had wanted to investigate Sakura’s unusual mind, and tried recruiting her to Torture and Interrogation; Kakashi-sensei who had told Tsunade, Hokage, flatly that Sakura would remain his apprentice so long as it was what she chose, no matter how well-suited her chakra and control were to any other specialisation.
“You- You’ve been too stubborn to stay down no matter what all these years, I re- refuse to-” Sakura’s voice hurt as she forced it out, cracking and raw. “Get up, sensei!” she demanded, collapsing forwards over his lean chest, fingers curling into his shirt and his shredded vest. “I- I need you.”
“Sakura-chan.”
Sakura barely heard Naruto’s voice, barely felt the brush of his hand . . . but she felt the rush that stole breath and felt like the drag of razor wire over raw nerves. Sakura’s eyes snapped open wide and she twisted, looking up at Naruto again.
His eyes were dark and determined. That pained understanding was heady and-
Sakura took a breath - that hurt too - and pushed inside herself, accepting the raw, ragged, too much gift Naruto was giving her; sharing the near-boundless chakra he carried.
“Take it,” Naruto said softly, his fingers brushing her side, “if you can. . . I have it and more, take it.”
Sakura braced herself and forced her body to not only take in the sharp gale of Naruto’s offered chakra but transmute it, to bring it up and out as she had her own, pouring it into Kakashi, who could not be-
“You can’t.” Sakura told Kakashi, jaw aching as she clenched it again. “I won’t let you.”
Sakura hurt like bleeding out as she forced the chakra - her own, the borrowed - gifted - flood of it from Naruto - through herself and out, pouring it into Kakashi. She wasn’t sure how much it had been, or how long - Sakura’s focus was narrowed to Kakashi’s prone figure before her, cool and still beneath her hands, and the heat of Naruto’s hands, which had moved up to curl around her shoulders and might be all that was keeping her upright.
She refused to give up, though. Tsunade’s voice in her memory faded away. Sakura knew what she was doing, knew what she was risking; she’d calculated it even as she dredged up every bit of strength she had to pour into this.
Sakura yipped, startled more than hurt, as a ticklish spark of electricity rushed over her fingers and up, lacing around her wrist like a bracelet before dissipating. Her breath caught as her eyes snapped up to Kakashi’s face.
“Ka- Kakashi-sensei.” Sakura said, voice raw and unsteady.
“Kakashi-sensei?” Naruto echoed, a little shaky, his fingers flexing around Sakura’s shoulders.
Another flicker of lightning, raiton, and Sakura shoved with everything she had left, urging on the tiny fluttering spark deep in Kakashi’s chest.
He twitched, chest jerking as his jaw dropped open, and Sakura sobbed as he took a breath, the raiton blooming more strongly beneath her palms as she felt the first heady thump of Kakashi’s heart beating once more.
“Kakashi!” Sakura ignored the sharp-spike tingle of the raiton racing over her hands and lodging with a feeling like a stiletto blade in her wrists. She flung herself forwards thoughtlessly, only realising tears had sprung to her burning eyes and begun to spill over as she pressed her face against Kakashi’s painfully prominent collarbone.
“Pup?” Kakashi rasped, and Sakura keened, clutching at him and burying her face against his neck. A corner of her mind shrilled a warning to be careful of him, that he had been battered, bloodied, broken, but Sakura had mended those hurts.
One achingly familiar hand - shaky, but sure - came up across her hip and rested lightly on her back, stroking comfortingly.
“Kakashi-sensei.” Naruto sniffled almost in her ear, and Sakura realised he was crowding close but not quite there with them. “Sakura-chan you- you did-”
Kakashi shifted beneath Sakura and she jolted back a bit, unable to bring herself to release him, but allowing him space to move. He hauled himself up a little and Sakura could hear the sounds of shock behind her, the low mutters, but she didn’t care.
Kakashi rubbed her back again, keeping her close, and extended the other hand to rest on Naruto’s tousled hair as Sakura all but melted against her sensei, once more steady and warm and strong as he should be. He rumbled wordlessly, a deep sound that thrummed in his throat, and Sakura could see confusion on his face, shaded with a sharply analytical air as he glanced over the battlefield nearby.
Sakura reached out, a little less than steady herself, and tugged at Naruto by the sleeve. He hesitated, and Sakura yanked, hard. It was enough to bring Naruto almost crashing into her, and she hugged him hard as he let out a little yip of startlement.
“Thank you.” Sakura managed in his ear, and Naruto cuddled into her embrace, one arm curling around her back - tight and strong but careful the way Naruto had been ever since they were kids and he realised not everyone was as tough as he was. Sakura nudged her head against Naruto’s, a soft almost-croon of a sound picked up from Kakashi-sensei along with the growls catching in her throat. “Thank you.” she said again, though she knew Naruto loved Kakashi-sensei perhaps as dearly as Sakura did in his own way, for all he had not been so close for a long time.
“Sakura-chan . . . what. . . What did you do?”
Sakura snarled at the implications of the uneasy tone, fingers tightening on Naruto’s shoulder and curling into the ragged remnants of Kakashi’s shirt.
“Easy, pup.” Kakashi soothed, his arm around her tightening a little. Sakura ignored the questions from the comrades gathered behind her, tucking her head under Kakashi’s chin and holding on tight. She ached all over, her head spinning and her vision shading through bursts of grey-black and then blue-white in unpredictable patterns, and she was exhausted, but Kakashi was steady and breathing at her side, and she didn’t care what it had taken to ensure that.