Kirigakure

Team Kakashi received orders to support the Mist Ninja at the same time.

Without wasting much time, after receiving the mission and making some simple preparations, Sakura Haruno and her two companions headed straight for the Land of Water.

Two afterward.

The Land of Water, the Kirigakure.

Having been there before, Sakura Haruno, along with her two teammates, traversed the Land of Water with practiced ease and arrived at Kirigakure.

Mei Terumi had been waiting for a long time at the waterfall arch bridge at the entrance.

"You arrived faster than I expected!" As soon as Sakura Haruno stopped, Mizukage came up to her, shook her hand, and said, "That's wonderful."

She looked a little tired, and didn't even realize that her usually carefully applied makeup was now flawed. She visibly relaxed when she saw Sakura Haruno appear.

"Mm." Sakura Haruno nodded, glanced behind her, and added, "The two behind me are my teammates."

As she spoke, Sasuke and Naruto appeared one after the other behind the girl.

Mizukage's gaze swept over the two boys, then looked behind them; the area was empty, clearly indicating that no one else would follow.

Are there only three people?

There were no medical-nin accompanying her... Her eyes flickered a few times, showing some disappointment, but she concealed it subtly.

"There are only three of us here this time," Sakura Haruno explained, noticing her gaze.

"Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki."

Although she didn't think Mei Terumi would be unaware of the Uchiha orphan and the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Sakura still gave the routine introduction.

"Nice to meet you." Mei Terumi carefully examined the two boys for a few moments, her gaze lingering on Sasuke for a while, before speaking softly.

What a handsome young man.

Normally, she'd probably tease this handsome guy with great interest. And the sunny, energetic orange-haired guy next to him was also a potential catch. Both of them had good backgrounds, strength, and character, perfectly matching her criteria for a partner, except for their age—but Mei Terumi considered herself a youthful and alluring beauty, so what was wrong with taking a bite out of younger men?

But Mizukage wasn't in the mood for that at all.

"Thank you for your hard work." She forced a smile. "Thank you for coming to help Kirigakure."

Please follow me.

Mizukage turned and left decisively, leading her guards Sakura Haruno's group into the village.

"How's it going?" Sakura Haruno asked as she followed closely behind.

"Not good." Mei Terumi, Earth Flow briskly ahead, glanced back at her and replied, "No, it should be terrible."

"We lost contact with another elite perception team yesterday, and we still haven't heard from them. They've likely been killed in action."

"In fact, we completely lost the ability to monitor that stormy sea area from the very beginning."

Lord Mizukage spoke gravely, his face etched with worry.

In that sea area, the Mist Ninja had previously deployed several reconnaissance teams. Chojuro's team was one of two elite teams. After receiving news of Chojuro's attack, Mei Terumi worried that the remaining teams would also encounter Akatsuki's enemies, so she cautiously withdrew them one by one, leaving only the last elite team.

They were strictly ordered to remain hidden, to only conduct surveillance, and to never engage the enemy; if they encountered any enemy personnel, they were to retreat immediately.

This naturally greatly reduces the efficiency of the search, even approaching zero. The Mist Ninja can only roughly know that the Three-Tails is still hiding in the storm and that the enemy has not succeeded. Other things, such as how many Akatsuki members have arrived, they still cannot determine.

Even so, the Mist Ninja suffered considerable losses, and one elite team even vanished silently at sea. A full day had passed since the agreed time, and they were still nowhere to be found, like cattle disappearing into the sea. Even the most optimistic person knew that things were in dire straits.

The Mist Ninja were already short-handed, and this mission resulted in the loss of many more, including valuable sensory ninjas. Mei Terumi's face darkened at the thought.

Besides the loss of personnel, an even more serious problem is that the Mist Ninja has lost control of affairs right on their doorstep.

"We're not even sure if Akatsuki has found the Tailed Beast," Mei Terumi sighed, her face showing utter exhaustion. "What we do know for sure is that they've at least sent Sasori and Kisame— "

Sakura Haruno frowned slightly and interrupted, "Impossible, Kisame is already dead!"

"Based on the current intelligence, Kisame's corpse was used by Sasori to make Human Puppet," the red-haired woman said with a look of disgust.

"Human Puppet?"

Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other, puzzled. "What's that?"

Sakura suddenly heard this word and felt a sense of déjà vu.

Her eyes darted around.

This strange word also awakened distant memories in her mind. It was a word she had heard from Scorpion a year ago during her battle with him.

He wanted to turn her into a "Human Puppet".

Sakura Haruno still vividly remembers Sasori's expression when he said those words. His clean and delicate face wore a pure smile, like the boy next door; but the look in his eyes was wicked and full of possessiveness, like a venomous snake that had spotted its prey, slippery, damp, and filled with greed and desire.

During the life-or-death struggle, she didn't have any particular feelings. But looking back, thinking about what it would be like to be made into a puppet, she felt a chill run down her spine.

"Disgusting stuff." Sakura Haruno curled her lip.

"Xiao usually operates in pairs," she shook her head, trying to clear the nausea from her mind, and said, "So there should be another person there."

There might even be more than two people.

"Indeed." Mei Terumi took a deep breath. "We're pretty sure that at least one team was wiped out by another person... It's a pity they didn't leave behind enough clear information before cutting off contact. We still have some fragmented pieces of information they sent when they were attacked. You've dealt with most of Akatsuki's people; perhaps you could come over and help us analyze some things?"

She pointed in the direction of the intelligence analysis department and glanced at Sakura Haruno.

The latter nodded in agreement, "Of course, that's why I came here."

"But before that..." the girl rubbed her wrist and asked, "Where is the injured person? Shouldn't we go to the hospital first?"

"Huh?"

Mei Terumi paused, startled. She turned to look at Sakura Haruno, then suddenly remembered that Sakura was also a disciple of Tsunade, a renowned medical ninja. The girl's combat ninja traits were so pronounced that Mei Terumi had forgotten she was also a skilled medical-nin.

"Oh dear, I've really lost my mind." The woman rubbed her forehead and chuckled self-deprecatingly, "I actually forgot about that."

Then she smiled slightly, her mood brightening as if a sudden enlightenment had appeared after a period of darkness.

"Then let's go to the hospital first... I'm Chojuro on you, Sakura!"

This is the first piece of good news that Mei Terumi has heard in a long time.

Kirigakure Hospital.

It was a hospital, but it was really just two rows of low buildings with a crooked sign that read "Kirigakure Hospital," and the walls were very mottled.

During the Bloody Mist Village era, Kirigakure enacted many twisted rules. One was graduates killing each other, and another was the closure of the hospital—they considered this an act of weakness. Of course, the reasons behind this were complex and will not be discussed here. [Note]

It wasn't until Mei Terumi came to power that the hospital was re-established.

Just by looking at this old building with its sense of history, Sakura Haruno knew that it had witnessed many hardships in Kirigakure. She had no time to dwell on these things and followed Mei Terumi into the building, where she met Chojuro was fast asleep, in a private hospital room.

Breathing weakly, lacking vitality.

Sakura Haruno's palm glowed with chakra as she began using Medical Ninjutsu to examine Chakra 'Chojuro physical condition.

The dim blue light cast an unpredictable flicker of light on the girl's face, making her expression alternate between pale and flushed, giving her a somber look.

Mei Terumi frowned. Doctor Chojuro had already been out of danger, but judging from the girl's serious expression, the situation was probably not so optimistic.

"How was it?" Mizukage asked in a low voice after patiently waiting for the Chakra glow on the girl's hand to dissipate.

"A complete mess." Sakura Haruno shook her head, her expression grim. "Your doctors only know how to treat external injuries like fractures and tears; they haven't properly treated injuries to internal organs at all."

"This is a grade four rupture of the spleen, and they just used such a crude treatment method to get rid of it. Are they trying to remove the entire spleen...?" Sakura muttered for a long time, then turned around and saw that Mei Terumi looked completely bewildered and didn't understand what she was saying, so she stopped talking.

"Our doctors here only received a short training period in your village, so their skills are not yet proficient... there's nothing we can do about it."

She sighed.

"Okay, I understand." The girl shrugged, indicating she understood. "At least they stopped the bleeding."

"Luckily I arrived early. It's not too late for treatment now, and there won't be any permanent damage. After recovering, Chojuro can continue to be a ninja."

"I'm just glad he can be cured. I don't expect anything else... because Chojuro won't be a ninja anymore." Mei Terumi a bitter smile and shook her head.

Following her gaze, Sakura Haruno carefully lifted the blanket and saw the empty trouser leg under the sheet.

"..."

The girl fell silent.

Mei Terumi remained silent, and the atmosphere in the ward instantly became extremely heavy and oppressive.

After pondering for a while, Sakura Haruno suddenly raised her head and said in a deep voice, "It's not like there's absolutely no way."

"Is this... even possible? How do I do it?"

Mei Terumi asked the question with some skepticism.

Sakura Haruno smiled mysteriously, not giving a direct answer, but simply saying, "Of course it's possible. Leave it to me!"

Cloning and stem cell technologies can work miracles.

This wasn't the first time Sakura had done something like this. However, this time she planned to use it as an excuse to do something else, including guiding public opinion and changing the other people in Konoha's aversion to this technology.

The intricacies involved are best left unsaid to outsiders.

[Note: The story behind Kirigakure is quite intriguing. Specifically regarding the hospital section, the stated reason for its closure is this, but while hospitals can be closed, doctors don't disappear. So where did the medical-nin go? -- The truth is, these valuable public resources were divided up by the Mist Ninja clans, cough cough. This part is too complex to elaborate on and too easy to make connections. Let me clarify beforehand, the Hokage world is a fictional world conceived by Kishimoto, it has nothing to do with me, this content is not my secondary creation, Uncle J, please let me explain...!]