When Sakura pushed aside the bushes in front of her, she found Naruto, Sasuke, and Karin by a river, along with the three Sound ninja tied up like rice dumplings.
Dosu Kinuta, Zaku, who could shatter rocks, and Kin.
"Sa...!"
The moment Naruto saw that familiar flash of pink, he instinctively ran toward Sakura. But halfway there, the words in his mouth stopped.
Before him stood the pink-haired girl, covered in blood.
"Sa-Sakura..."
Naruto's voice trembled.
In his memory, he had never seen the girl before him like this.
She had always been quiet and hardworking in her training.
How could she ever be so bloodied...
Even Sasuke, standing to the side, clenched his fists tightly as he stared at Sakura, pursing his lips and gritting his teeth without saying a word.
Only Karin clearly sensed that aside from having lost a large amount of Chakra, Sakura was not injured.
It was just that the Chakra within the mark on her forehead seemed to have decreased a little.
Following Naruto's gaze, Sakura looked down at her blood-soaked clothes and smiled reassuringly.
"This isn't my blood. It's the blood of the Summoning Beast my Senior Brother summoned. Don't worry."
Though it was a lie, it was a well-intentioned one.
"Huh?"
"Really?"
Naruto froze for a moment, then smiled again and leaned close to Sakura as he asked, "Then where's Sakura's Senior Brother?"
"He looked like someone you definitely shouldn't mess with."
Sakura merely eased his concerns.
"He exchanged a few moves with me and then left. If I could, I'd have liked to take him to meet the Third Hokage, but who knew he'd be so ungrateful that he just ran off."
Sakura put on a troubled expression.
Beating him into a cripple and tying him up before taking him to