"Let me through, damn it!" Sakura cried, anguish gripping her voice as she shoved an ANBU operative aside and burst into the hospital ward where her mistress had been taken. "Lady Tsunade!"

"Easy there, let the girl through," said Shiranui Genma, resting a hand on his comrade Iwashi's shoulder as the man reached for his kunai. "That's the Fifth's disciple."

Sakura's breath caught in her throat as her gaze fell upon Tsunade's shrivelled arm, the only part of her intubated form left uncovered by the bed sheets. Her teacher's skin had gone grey and creased, and even her once-mountainous breasts lay sunken and deflated on her ribcage. This premature ageing was the cost of a single war's worth of overusing the Creation Rebirth Jutsu.

As a testament to her love for the village, Tsunade had traded away her own lifespan for the chance to deny death to those she had called comrades during the Second Shinobi World War. Nobody died on her watch!

Except for that one time.

And that other time.

"It's no use trying that," a familiar voice called from the corner of the room. "I know you're skilled, but this is far beyond anything your field medic training can handle. We doctors have already done all we can."

Sakura's fingers trembled as she froze midway through the Mystical Palms Jutsu.

Her eyes flicked to the tall, bespectacled man standing beside the three members of the Hokage Guard Platoon— Raidō, Genma, and Iwashi. It was the director of Konoha General Hospital, the same man who had often overseen her surgeries early in her training, whenever Tsunade had been occupied with other duties.

"How could this happen?" Sakura said hoarsely, pointing at the withered arm that jutted out from beneath the bedcovers. "It's barely been more than an hour since I last saw Lady Tsunade, and she's already gone and turned herself into Gon Freecss…"

"It was an assassination attempt by Iwagakure's Kamizuru clan, judging by all the venomous bees we found lying around at the scene," Genma replied uneasily, twirling a toothpick between his teeth. "The ANBU are already looking into it."

Sakura's heart rate accelerated just thinking about the creepy crawlies.

Insects again… this could only mean one thing: Danzō's Aburame lapdogs had used captured insects to stage a convincing false-flag attack. But to distract from what? That was the real question. Tsunade must have stumbled onto something major, forcing the cockroaches that feasted on the village's festering roots to step into the daylight…

"Iwagakure?" Sakura spat angrily. "Not likely."

"I asked to have you brought here because only you would know the extent of the damage the Lady Fifth inflicted upon herself with her kinjutsu," the hospital director said urgently. "Any information you can provide would help."

Sakura stilled her racing heart and stepped up to Tsunade's bedside, gently taking her hand in her own, while the fingers of her other hand brushed against the older woman's chest, sending investigatory chakra through her body. Though Manyū medical techniques were not as advanced as those of the current ninja world, they were pioneers in gynaecology. By feeling the pulsations (myakuhaku) through Tsunade's Nyūmyaku, Sakura could easily gauge her general condition.

"Lady Tsunade couldn't compound an antidote to the bee venom without access to her laboratory," Sakura muttered, half to herself, half to the doctor. "She relied on Creation Rebirth to forcefully endure the poison's effects and keep herself mobile to survive the initial ambush, but the jutsu did nothing to eliminate the toxins. The increased blood flow from her rapid regeneration spread the toxins throughout her body, where they bound with her at the cellular level, making it impossible to remove them entirely through ordinary means."

The hospital director nodded.

That had also been his conclusion: the Fifth Hokage had fallen into a coma as a result of overconsuming her chakra, thereby weakening her system and rendering herself further vulnerable to the toxins assailing her body.

"Manyū Style: Breast Purification!"

Without warning, Sakura karate-chopped the unconscious Tsunade, her hand phasing through the ribcage and emerging coated in black, sticky residue. The hospital director nodded appreciatively. As always, the young woman's poison-extracting technique was godlike… too bad she was terrible at explaining how it ought to be performed.

Sakura then took Tsunade's pulse a second time.

The Hokage's condition had slightly ameliorated, but she wasn't out of the woods yet. Sakura could easily patch up cuts, bruises, set broken bones and so on, but damage at the cellular level this widespread was outside her expertise.

"Advanced cellular damage," Sakura began. "Why haven't you used…"

Her voice trailed off. That's right, she had completely forgotten.

Tsunade had never personally encountered Kabuto in this timeline, and so, she had never devised the Cell Activation Technique after witnessing his natural healing abilities. Nor would she ever have had reason to invent it, since Rock Lee had escaped the Chūnin Exams without sustaining lasting injuries. There was no way this director bloke would know this jutsu…

"Cellular damage, of course— how could I have possibly forgotten?" exclaimed the hospital director. "I recently heard from a colleague running a clinic in a nearby town that Doctor Shinnō is currently touring the Land of Fire. He should still be in the area!"

"Doctor Shinnō?" echoed Sakura. "The name rings a bell…"

"Shinnō-sensei is an incredibly famous and well-respected doctor, said to be unrivalled in treating rare and complex diseases," the director explained swiftly. "If there is one man in this world who could save Lady Fifth, it would surely be him!"

There was no time to lose.

Sakura quickly asked the director for his friend's address, then turned to Raidō, Genma, and Iwashi and growled, "Try to keep a better eye on Tsunade-sama this time, Hokage Guard Platoon, or I'll grind you into dust under my new boots."

Though it was hardly the time, Sakura couldn't resist showing off her new sandal boots, and the three men caught a good look at her soles as she sprinted away from them, down the corridor towards the stairs.

There was not a single second to waste; she had to find this Doctor Shinnō before she lost track of him and bring him back to the village before it was too late!

"Sakura," came Shikamaru's uncharacteristically cold voice from behind her, as she started down the stairs. "Wait just a second."

Sakura ignored him.

"Shadow Stitching Jutsu."

Tendrils of shadow sprang out from beneath her, wrapping around her ankles and wrists and locking down her movements. The shadows coiled and contorted, spinning Sakura around so that she faced Shikamaru.

"Shadow Imitation Jutsu."

The dark tentacles receded into Sakura's shadow, melding into one large pool of darkness that connected her feet to Shikamaru's. He could now force her to imitate his movements like a trained monkey.

"Capture complete," Shikamaru called out, his tone almost self-deprecating.

"You have exactly one second to let me go," Sakura growled. "One…"

"No can do," replied Shikamaru icily. "I was in the neighbouring room. I eavesdropped on your conversation with the hospital director, and I think we both know Iwagakure wasn't behind this— GAH!!"

A tsunami of chakra surged through Sakura's pathways, granting her supernatural strength. Struggling to restrain her might, Shikamaru's limbs audibly cracked, his arms and legs shaking wildly with the effort of keeping her from moving. The floor beneath Sakura exploded, collapsing into a small crater in an instant, cracks spiderwebbing outwards rapidly across the tiles.

"Damn it, just listen to me!" Shikamaru howled. "Stop!"

Pain lanced throughout his body.

Sakura was tearing him apart from the inside, starting with his bones and muscles! She was overpowering his Shadow Imitation Jutsu through nothing but sheer, brute force, but he had to hang on, no matter what. Upon seeing her eyes turn scarlet, he screwed his eyes shut, pushing the agony out of his mind.

"ASUMA-SENSEI'S DEAD!" he screamed, rage impregnating his voice. "HE'S DEAD!"

Sakura instantly ceased resisting.

"You're smart. I think you've figured out who's really behind all this, and it's not Iwa," said Shikamaru coldly. "I want revenge. Chōji and Ino want revenge, too. You can help us by telling me who's responsible."

There would be time for sobbing later, if he was still alive then. Fury was all that kept him moving now, and he would push on until that fire consumed him from within, until he was reduced to ashes.

"Shikamaru."

Upon hearing his name, Shikamaru cracked open an eye, and the last thing he saw before losing consciousness was Sakura's bare fist filling his vision. The moment he had seen her irises turn red, he had already lost.