To The Future

Another Rescue Mission

Sakura tried to ignore the vertigo amd keep the contents of her stomach inside, as she travelled twenty years back in time along with Naruto, Shikamaru and Sasuke-kun. They arrived in a cave inside the Forest of Death, the only place in the village where surge massive surge of chakra would go unnoticed.

Technically, only Sakura would have been enough for the mission, since it wasn't as complicated as the one for saving Itachi-san, which involved sneaking around Zetsu, Obito, Sasuke and replacing Itachi-san's body with that a White Zetsu clone. But they still needed Naruto for the actual time travel, Shikamaru had to do something to prevent a time paradox, while Sasuke-kun wanted to come along and nobody wanted to tell him 'no'.

"All right then. Sakura, go to the cliff and wait there. Rescue Shisui only after Itachi is convinced he is dead. Naruto and Sasuke, both you have massive chakra reserves and can't mute them. You'll be immediately noticed by Itachi if you are near them. So, go roam the village or something. I'll go to the archives and write the note in Shisui's file for myself to discover." Shikamaru ordered them as soon as their heads stopped spinning.

"You got it, Shika. C'mon Sasuke let's spy on our younger selves." Naruto exclaimed obnoxiously, before sprinting away.

"Wait up, loser." Sasuke went after him, as Shikamaru too disappeared with a mumble of 'troublesome'.

"Sakura could tell that he was putting on a front to distract Sasuke. She hated that she couldn't be there for her husband when he'd watch the Uchiha clan, but her role was pivotal in the mission. She'd have to trust Naruto to take care of Sasuke.

She made her way to the cliff Itachi-san had told them about and proceeded to use Jiraiya-sama's spying jutsu to conceal herself and muted her chakra to almost negligible. She couldn't take chances when the sanctity of the timeline was at risk and she was hiding from Uchiha Itachi.

Soon enough, a pre-teen Itachi appeared on the cliff along with another teenage Uchiha with a missing eye. Sakura caught a snippet of conversation between them including Shisui telling Itachi to save the village and the Uchiha name. Then, he removed his other eye, gave it to Itachi and jumped down the cliff into the Naka river.

Even knowing this was going to happen didn't prepare Sakura to actually witness it. It was heartbreaking. She tried to control her tears as Itachi cut off a strangled cry of his best friends name. After what seemed like forever, but we're actually four minutes twenty seconds (Sakura timed it), Itachi finally left.

Sakura wasted no time in going after Shisui, hoping it wasn't too late. Thankfully, the currents were slow and she was easily able to run fast enough on the water to catch up to the unconscious boy. She carefully dragged him to the shore, sighing in relief in finding a pulse.

He was in the pretty bad shape. Poisoned with a haemotoxic venom, bleeding profusely from both eyes, lungs filled with water; he wouldn't have had any chance even Sakura was any other medic. Thankfully, Sakura was the best. She quickly started working, first clearing the lungs, which didn't take much time. The poison, on the other hand, was tricky. She would need the lab at the hospital to make an antidote, but Shisui needed to be further stabilized before he could be moved. Sakura was left with no choice but to slowly filter out the poison from his bloodstream.

She was halfway done when Shikamaru returned.

"How's he?" He asked sitting down next to her.

"He'll be all right." She answered.

"And you?"

"Fine."

Shikamaru simply stared.

Sakura sighed. "I saw him, you know, Itachi-san. He was just a kid."

"He was thirteen at the time of massacre." Shikamaru replied.

"This shouldn't have happened." She muttered.

"No, it shouldn't have."

Sakura was saved from continuing the conversation by the approaching chakra signature of Sasuke-kun and Naruto. Her heart sank on sensing the agitated rolling of her husband's chakra.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, Shikamaru! How's Shisui-san?" Naruto called out. Even he looked a bit down.

"He's stable." Sakura announced. "We can transfer him now. Rest of his treatment would be better done at the hospital."

"That's good." Sasuke-kun answered, distractedly.

"All right! That's great news!" Naruto fist pumped. "Let's go home then. Mission Accomplished Team Seven. And Shikamaru." He added belatedly.

Shikamaru just shrugged. "What a drag."