The inferno and night sky melted into a rushing blur of black and orange as Sakura flickered from rooftop to rooftop, her feet scrabbling over loose tiles and her eyes fixed on Konoha General Hospital in the distance.
Bombs continued to rain down on the village around her as she pressed on, flickering madly towards her destination. The high explosives either burst in midair like fireworks when the Leaf's shinobi struck them down, or crashed into streets and houses below, flinging napalm in vicious sheets and igniting fresh infernos wherever they detonated.
The last of the houses before the hospital loomed ahead. Sakura leapt, aiming for a lamppost to spring off from, when the neighbourhood's lights blinked out all at once, plunging the street into sudden darkness.
"Whoa!" Sakura yelped in surprise.
It seemed Kakashi and Sasuke had managed to shut down the residential district's power grid, leaving only the commercial, administrative, and noble clans' districts to illuminate the night. Apart from the fires that had flared up all over the place, naturally.
Thanks to the flickering light spilling from the nearby fires, Sakura somehow managed to avoid clocking her head against the lamppost's crossbar, catching the metal bar instead and swinging herself into Senju Park ahead. She could see light filtering from the hospital's windows beyond the treeline; evidently, the building's emergency generators had already kicked in.
Sakura touched down and sprinted across the park, ignoring the pain in her chest as her breasts bounced heavily, feeling as though they might tear off altogether. Above, she caught sight of a squadron of gliders veering away from the neighbourhood that had been plunged into darkness, drawn towards the bright lights of the hospital…
"Eight Trigrams: Mountain Crusher!"
A lone figure launched herself from the hospital roof and intercepted the flying ninja, shattering their gliders with the shockwaves bursting from her palm. She circled above the hospital a few more times before coming to a halt and hovering over the street.
"Nice save, Hinata!" Sakura shouted at the top of her lungs.
Summoning chakra to her legs, Sakura flickered a few more times, bounding up the side of the hospital and landing on the roof. She bit her thumb, drawing blood, and was about to summon Katsuyu when cries of victory rose from below.
"They're turning back!"
Sakura squinted into the night.
Indeed, the faint outlines of the gliders appeared to be turning around and leaving the village's limits, heading southwards. The attack was over, and this unknown enemy had wasted their one and only chance of destroying the Hidden leaf, because now, they would be on the lookout for aerial attacks!
…
"There you are, Sakura-chan!" Kunieda-sensei exclaimed in relief, spotting Sakura descending the stairs from the roof. "More wounded are on the way, so we'll need all hands on deck! Come with me!"
Without waiting for an answer, the female doctor grabbed Sakura and dragged her to A&E on the ground floor, where doctors and Iryō-nin alike milled about between beds and makeshift cots, providing emergency care to the villagers who had been injured by the bombing.
"Anyone got any styptic?"
"We've run out of clean bandages, somebody fetch some more!"
"Punctured lung, make way!"
Sakura settled next to Ino, who'd also learned a bit of medical ninjutsu under Lady Tsunade, and wordlessly started healing the patients presented before her. A gust of wind rushed into the room as Hinata flew in, carrying an unconscious child in her arms.
"It's a good thing Team 7 brought back Doctor Shinnō and his disciple, huh?" Ino said, letting out a deep sigh as she took a brief pause to gather more chakra for her next patient. "I don't know how bad things would be without them. Between the two of them, they're treating as many injured as five of us…"
"Mhm," said Sakura, sweat beading down her temple as she laid her healing palms on yet another patient's fourth degree burns, their skin and muscles having nearly melted off the bone. "If only Lady Tsunade could wake up, though…"
Sakura had passed by Lady Tsunade's ward on the upper floor, but she'd found the room empty. She could only hope that her teacher had been moved somewhere safer.
"Karin, over here!" the hospital director's voice rang out. "A VIP needs your healing blood, immediately!"
Over the course of the night, Sakura lost count of the patients she had treated. Thanks to Lady Katsuyu's slime and its mild healing and anti-bacterial properties, Sakura was put in charge of those suffering the most horrific burns, and by the time the sun rose over the horizon, she had nearly driven herself to chakra exhaustion.
…
Sakura awoke on a hospital bed around noon, with no memory of ever falling asleep. A ticklish sensation drew her attention down there; lifting the bedcovers, she found Karin's head buried between her thighs, nose nuzzled against her crotch. The sleeping girl was tightly hugging Sakura's thick thighs, moistening her striped panties with her steady breaths.
"Onee-shama~" Karin mumbled in her sleep, drool spilling out of the corner of her mouth. "Hehe~ sho tashty~"
A shudder of pleasure ran down Sakura's spine as Karin gently nibbled on the thin fabric of her underwear and parts beyond. With some difficulty, Sakura extirpated herself from Karin's hold and slipped out of bed. After donating so much blood, the redhead deserved some rest, too.
"Hey, you," came a familiar voice. "You're finally awake. Master wants to speak with you."
Sakura looked up to see Amaru scowling at her, while Shinnō-sensei stood behind her, a faintly apologetic expression etched into his aged features.
"I'm sorry, but I happened to overhear some Leaf shinobi discussing where these flying ninjas might have come from," he explained, wringing his hands. "It just so happens that our next destination, before detouring to the Hidden Leaf, would have been Amaru's village down south, and I fear her hometown may have been attacked by these very same ninjas. Having witnessed your medical skill, I would be most grateful if I could enlist your help in treating the townspeople, should anything have happened to them…"
"Of course, I'd be honoured to help, especially after everything you've done for Lady Tsunade," said Sakura hesitantly. "But with this attack and the attempt on Lady Tsunade's life, I'm not sure if the higher-ups would let me go…"
If it were not for her lagging close-quarters combat ability, which prevented her from becoming a true elite all-rounder, Sakura would already have surpassed Kage level. It was not that her Kenjutsu was poor by any means, but her physical prowess had stalled owing to her reluctance to train her body as rigorously as Naruto or Sasuke had. Her eyes and reflexes were remarkable, and she could punch and kick quite hard, but that was about the extent of it.
Even so, she was certain she would be counted amongst the village's last line of defence— a shinobi akin to a tactical nuke— even though she was far from becoming a second Shisui of the Body Flicker.
"That's not a problem," Amaru scoffed. "Perhaps you're not as important as you think, since Shinnō-sensei has already obtained permission for you to accompany us! Not that I imagine we'd need your help, hmpf!"