Afterword

The final result is 5: Sasuke first, Sakura second, proving that the Mitsudomoe is stronger than Ice Release.

Leisurely days always pass quickly.

After a few days of herding sheep, things changed.

First, the Third finally awoke, although his condition was still poor, his spirits were still relatively good.

The first thing the Third Hokage did upon awakening was to preside over the inauguration ceremony for the Fifth Hokage.

Looking at her master Princess Tsunade, who was beaming with pride and radiant with joy, and the old man Hiruzen Sarutobi beside her, who looked haggard and whose right sleeve was empty, Sakura felt a lot of emotions.

Regardless, since Tsunade became the Fifth Hokage, Sakura, as Tsunade's disciple, has also risen in status and become the Hokage's direct successor.

Well, in terms of its effect, it probably means that other people will look at her with more kindness.

And the occasional paranoia that popped up, such as "Will Danzo arrest me and brainwash me into becoming Root?"—a kind of "there are always treacherous people trying to harm me"—finally disappeared without a trace.

The biggest change probably came from herself: thanks to her outstanding performance in the Chunin Ninja Exams, she and Shikamaru became the only two ninjas among this year's Konoha examinees to be promoted to Chunin.

After receiving the Chunin symbolized their Chunin status, which they had no choice but to wear, Sakura treated everyone in Team Kakashi to a barbecue restaurant.

Still angry that they hadn't been promoted Chunin, the two channeled their grief into their appetite, eating Sakura until she was bankrupt—the girl felt heartbroken for a long time after returning home and looking at her empty piggy bank.

The two boys were still Chunin excuses for not being promoted to Chunin while they were eating. Sakura summarized their excuses in three sentences:

This audience is no good.

This year's judges are no good.

This opponent is no good.

When Naruto finished his sentence, Sakura gave him a sharp tap on the head. "So you think I'm no good? I should let you win, right?"

However, before Sakura could even enjoy the bullying life of Chunin against Genin, her Master Tsunade had officially become Hokage, finally remembered that she had a student, thus ending her happy life.

After the formal apprenticeship ceremony, Tsunade officially began teaching Sakura.

Specifically, it is like this:

He handed her several books, stacked higher than Sakura, and said, "After you've read them, I'll check them when I have time. If there are any problems, contact Shizune."

Tsunade meant that talent should be taught using talent-based methods; if you're going to learn Medical Ninjutsu, start by learning about the human body.

Of course, whether this completely laissez-faire teaching method is because Sakura is talented, or because Tsunade didn't have time to teach her and was busy making her first big impact as a new leader, remains to be seen.

In short, Tsunade is indeed extremely busy.

Unlike the original story, Tsunade here, due to her significant contributions during the Chunin Ninja Exams invasion and with the Third Hokage's backing, quickly consolidated most of the power and popular support, rather than being sidelined as in the original work.

This also means that Tsunade has to Tsunade the decisions. Taking charge of a village is an extremely difficult task, especially for a novice. Even with the Third Hokage as her advisor Jiraiya's help, she is too busy to teach her disciples.

So I simply assigned her a long-term task and told her to start learning on her own.

Sakura suddenly felt like she'd been tricked.

Fortunately, Shizune was very self-aware as a senior student and took over the task of providing initial guidance when she saw that Tsunade was quite busy.

I was tasked with highlighting key points for Sakura and then assessing her performance.

So during this period, Team 7's schedule was as follows: Kakashi guided Sasuke's training, Jiraiya guided Naruto's training, Shizune guided Sakura... in her studies.

Do you know what the most terrifying nightmare Sakura has ever had in her past and present lives combined is?

Encountering a ghost? Sorry, there are no ghosts in this world. It must be Genjutsu. Break it!

Being chased by monsters? Tyrannosaurus Rex, Alien, great white sharks? Sorry, I think Sakura should be afraid of these creatures instead...

No, no, no, these are nothing. Ever since Sakura grew up in her previous life, these dreams have stopped scaring her.

There's only one dream, from her past life to this one, that always wakes her up in a cold sweat.

That is--

I dreamt that I went back to my senior year of high school and had to take the college entrance exam again.

Every time, it scares her so much she jumps around like a deer! She's completely terrified.

So when the nightmare came true, and she found herself having to devour a mountain of books and take an exam, Sakura's expression was absolutely priceless.

Her face was deathly pale, her almond-shaped eyes wide open, her delicate eyebrows arched high, and she took the pile of books with hands that looked like they had Parkinson's disease...

It was like receiving a bomb with a lit fuse.

No, this really is a bomb! Sakura mourned for herself with a bitter face. It has completely destroyed my wonderful life!

"Do ninjas need to read so many books?" she asked cautiously. Tsunade nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Although she was a top student in her past life and didn't find studying difficult, the tedious and uninspiring process of not seeing progress was truly painful. This was different from her usual training. First, her training in Ninjutsu and Chakra had been ingrained in her life for ten years, becoming as natural as eating and breathing, and she didn't find it tedious. Second, with her talent, she could see progress immediately with a little practice, unlike knowledge, which only yielded progress and rewards after great effort, and learning only superficially was more harmful than helpful.

That's true, but Ying had long thought she had moved beyond simply acquiring knowledge from books and had reached the point of obtaining truth through practice. However, medicine and biology... she hadn't studied medicine or biology in her previous life, so she had to start learning from scratch.

Thinking it over carefully, learning Medical Ninjutsu and medicine from Tsunade would be beneficial to me, as the new Ninjutsu I wanted to develop seemed to require this knowledge as an aid.

Therefore, I must force myself to study diligently.

I feel like I'll never see the sun rise again, Sakura thought as she sat at her desk, forcing herself to cram into these thick tomes.

Whether she could see the sun tomorrow or not, she couldn't see it now: the books she borrowed from the library were piled so high that they had long since blocked all the light coming through the window.

Although the book Tsunade gave her was thick, most of the content consisted of examples and illustrations. It was written in a very simple and easy-to-understand style, taking into account that most ninjas didn't have high academic scores. In other words, it was long, tedious, and not in-depth. The only advantage was that even illiterate people could learn Medical Ninjutsu by copying its examples. In fact, Tsunade's original intention was just to have Sakura learn Medical Ninjutsu first, not to have her become a great physician.

The prevailing atmosphere in the Shinobi World has always been this: an overemphasis on practice while neglecting theory, possessing skill but lacking principles. Most Ninjutsu only need to know how to use Ninjutsu, then develop the techniques to their peak, without paying attention to why Ninjutsu is the way it is. Only those who aspire to create their own Ninjutsu will want to delve into the principles behind Ninjutsu, such as Orochimaru and Sakura Haruno. And these people are often considered heretics.

This idea isn't entirely unreasonable. Those who research how to make guns can't defeat those who research how to use them. After so many years of chaos and conflict in the Shinobi World, those who researched gun making left behind guns, but were killed by those skilled in using them. In this climate, everyone naturally considers those who researched gun making to be fools.

As a transmigrator, Sakura is truly an anomaly: she inherently understands that both "skill" and "way" are indispensable.

Since I'll need this knowledge for my development in the next few years, I should try to learn as much as possible for the sake of my future and my life.

So the girl went to the library and the information desk (the latter was open to her because she had become a disciple of the Hokage), and borrowed as many books as possible, whether related or not—from "Anatomy: From System to Region" to "Germany Orthopedics." She used the superpower she had awakened during her university years—the ability to master a course in ten minutes—and, under Shizune's guidance, went through all the books as much as possible.

Of course, this doesn't mean she has fully mastered the knowledge. She just went through it once and learned some basics, established an overall framework, focused on studying the main parts, and knew which book to look for answers to when she encountered problems in the future, and how to conduct in-depth research.

The assessment was surprisingly easy, so easy that it was almost an insult to the girl's hard work over the past few months.

It seems that Shizune's assessment of Sakura's required knowledge level was based on her ability as a "talented ninja." It's worth noting that most ninjas are "not very good" at reading, and even "talented ninjas" are only "not very good" at it. As for Sakura, in her previous life in a country that primarily assessed academic ability, her talent was considered top-tier...

The days that followed were relatively uneventful. After overcoming the difficult beginning, Sakura's study journey got on track. She returned most of the borrowed books after reading them or finding them useless, keeping only a few for further study.

Congratulations! The books on the desk have finally been shortened, allowing Sakura to see the sun again.

Perhaps due to some recent insights from her reading, one evening during dinner, Sakura suddenly suggested to her mother in this life. "Why don't you give me another little sister?"

Ms. Mebuki Haruno (this is the name of Sakura's mother as designated in the Book of Formations; Sakura's father's name is Kizashi Haruno) paused, then shook her head with a smile, "You're already so grown up!" She rejected Sakura's suggestion. Sakura didn't say anything more.

Secondly, Sakura silently returned yet another useless book to the library.

While the girl was studying, Konoha was also quietly undergoing changes.

As the wounds gradually healed, Konoha, having welcomed a new Hokage, returned to peace from the turmoil and became even more vibrant.

After being closed for several weeks, the accumulated tasks had piled up like a mountain, and Konoha had reopened its task system, getting back on track.

Team 7, Team Kakashi, reunited from their individual training sessions and began a new mission—a cycle of training (learning).