Cold Fury
She got to her feet, legs unsteady and heart pounding in her ears. She didn’t care about the exhaustion she could feel hovering at the edge of her awareness, she didn’t care about the way Jiraiya’s shoulders were rigid as he leapt away. All she cared about was getting to him, getting to Kakashi. She heard someone say her name- likely Asuma trying to stop her, but she wouldn’t let him. She had to try. She had to try to help him. Tsunade wasn’t working on him, which meant that Sakura had to. Eyes glued to the unmoving form, the medic nin deposited herself directly next to her sensei. Shaking hands glowing softly with green healing chakra, she placed her hands on Kakashi’s forehead and above his heart, and held her breath, waiting to confirm her worst fears.
What met her full-of-life chakra was a still heart.
For a brief second, Sakura was sure her heart had stopped too. There was no fiercely crackling lightening chakra rising up to meet her own, no cheeky quip given as reassurance. The chunin plunged her chakra deeper, probing for the injury that killed her jonin sensei. Her heart jerked at the jigsaw puzzle that was once his pelvis, the wound that was still weeping blood on his scalp, the shattered ribs that were allowing blood to easily fill the lungs.
Deeper still, Sakura found the answer. It was so typical, so extremely Kakashi, that it almost didn’t surprise her. He had used up all his chakra like the self-sacrificing bastard he is. Was. Carefully, she pulled back her chakra from the cooling body in front of her. She wanted nothing more than to look at the masked man and pretend he was just another faceless victim in this atrocity, but she couldn’t. She wouldn’t allow herself to, because if she allowed herself to push this off, once the dust settled there would be a bigger breakdown waiting to happen.
Suddenly there was a plume of smoke that announced the arrival of several chakra signatures. Relief flooded the medic, immediately followed by worry and loss. Naruto was finally here. He would arrive ready to defend his precious people, only to find out one of them was already dead.
Distantly Sakura was aware of someone moving across from her. Looking up, she met warm brown eyes that were filled with the same pain that she felt. Asuma looked down at the corpse of one of his closest friends, and slumped his shoulders is defeat.
“Kurenai is pregnant. I was going to ask Kakashi to be the godfather,” the chain-smoker said in a low voice. The chunin looked at Asuma and she felt her heart break just a little bit more. A godchild. Maybe that would have helped pull Kakashi out of the self-loathing that anyone could see when they looked closely enough.
Sakura could feel Naruto’s chakra rising now. The sun-spot chakra was erratic with confusion and disbelief, reflecting its wielder’s state of mind. Informing Naruto of the loss was not something Sakura envied of the Toad Sage, but she knew the knucklehead would make his way over to their vigil. Instinctively, the chunin reached out and took Kakashi’s hand in her own, clutched it like it was the last thing connecting her to the surface of the planet, and allowed the tears to flow from her eyes. Pein had taken her home, taken her sensei, he would not take Naruto from her, she would not let him.
Sundrenched chakra was headed their way at a speed Sakura didn’t think Naruto possessed. There was a desperate edge that tipped it, much like how the medic imagined her own felt. She let her chakra call to Naruto’s like a beacon, and waited for the blond to leap onto the roof of the Hokage tower.
A flash of blond leapt up and over the edge of the roof, and stopped dead in his tracks. Mouth agape, eyes surrounded by what could only be the mark of a sage, and shaking hands greeted Sakura when she lifted her eyes to him. Behind him came Lord Jiraiya, who looked like he had just aged ten years. The older sage put his hand on Naruto’s shoulder and squeezed.
“Naruto-” Jiraiya started.
“I need to see him, let me see him!” The blond ripped away from his master, and surged over to Sakura’s side in a sweep of his new robes. Still clutching Kakashi’s hand, the chunin began to cry harder.
Naruto was quiet for a moment, and Sakura looked up to her only remaining teammate, the boy who inspired her in so many ways, and saw the disbelief in his eyes. The shock, the unrelenting pain, and then the anger. Sakura felt an answering tug deep in her chest, and her tears began to slow. They wouldn’t let Pein get away with this. Hardening her heart, she looked back to Asuma, who was watching the two of them with sorrow.
“He won’t get away with this. He was after me, and Kakashi-sensei paid the price.” Naruto’s voice was a low growl, and Sakura almost felt pity for the person he would turn his anger on. Almost.
Lord Jiraiya approached their small vigil with his mouth set in a grim line, and said “We won’t let him get away with it, Naruto. Kakashi is- was smart. He sacrificed himself to give us more information on the enemy. Let’s use that information to take him down.”
“With Lord Jiraiya and Kakashi’s combined efforts, we’ve learned a lot about the enemy,” Asuma said in a more hopeful voice. “Each Pein has a different ability, they share their eyesight, and the true Pein isn’t among them. If all of us work together we may just be able to beat him.” Sakura stared at the Third Hokage’s son and felt her spirit rise with the hope in his voice. He was right, they could do this.
Like a butterfly unfurling its wings for the first time, she felt a cold fury spread and settle deep in her bones. The medic welcomed it like an old friend, and felt it warm her chest. She was fire and chaos and fury trapped in the body of a ninja, and she would wield all the weapons she had to take down this man- for he was only a man, not the god he claimed to be.
Even if he was a so-called god, she would bring down the very world on top of the person who destroyed her home and killed her sensei.