Useless.
The word was a brand on Haruno Sakura's soul, seared into her by the freezing mist and the scent of blood. It was in the trembling of her hands as she clutched a kunai, her knuckles white. It was in the way her feet were rooted to the bridge, unable to move, unable to help.
Before her, within a horrifying dome of ice mirrors, her teammates were being systematically destroyed.
Naruto, usually a maelstrom of boundless energy, was pincushioned with senbon, his movements growing sluggish. Sasuke, the brilliant, untouchable Uchiha, was bleeding from a dozen wounds, his Sharingan spinning frantically as he tried to track the blindingly fast movements of their foe, Haku.
"I have to protect them!" The thought was a desperate scream in her mind, but her body wouldn't obey. Protect them? How? She was the weak link, the dead weight. She was the one who needed protecting. All she could do was stand guard over their client, Tazuna, and watch.
And then, it happened.
Naruto, down for the count, was about to take a fatal volley of senbon. In a flash of black and blue, Sasuke appeared in front of him, arms outstretched. The sickening thump-thump-thump of needles embedding in flesh echoed across the bridge.
Sakura's world went silent.
Sasuke's body, riddled with needles, swayed. A small, crimson-stained smile touched his lips. "Heh… my body… it just moved on its own…"
He collapsed.
A sound tore from Sakura's throat, a strangled, agonized thing that was half-grief, half-terror. The world tilted, the grey sky and the swirling mist blurring into a meaningless smear of color.
No. No no no no no…
This was her fault. If she had been stronger. If she had been faster. If she had been anything other than what she was.
An explosive wave of red chakra erupted from Naruto. The pressure was immense, a physical force that buckled the bridge and pushed the mist away. His eyes were no longer blue but a burning, feral red. The whiskers on his cheeks darkened, thickened, and a low, guttural growl replaced his voice.
"I'm… going to kill you!"
This wasn't Naruto. This was something else. Something ancient and full of hate.
Sakura's terror reached a crescendo. She was going to lose them both. Sasuke was gone, and Naruto was being consumed by a monster. This was the end. There was no right answer, no path forward.
Her mind fractured. In the abyss of her despair, a single, desperate wish formed, the last prayer of a dying soul.
Please. Someone. Show me a better way. A future where this doesn't happen.
And something answered.
[Life Simulation System Activated]
A cool, clinical blue window materialized in her vision, stark and alien against the chaotic scene.
[Threat Level: Kage. User Survival Probability: 0.01%. Teammate Survival Probability: 0%. Commencing Emergency Tutorial Simulation.]
[Goal: Survive the next five minutes.]
The world vanished.
The cold of the bridge was gone. The sounds of battle were gone. Sakura found herself floating in a void of pure information. Text scrolled past her mind's eye at an impossible speed.
[Simulating… based on current variables. User Action: Remain frozen in fear. Teammate #1 (Uzumaki Naruto): Enters initial Jinchuriki state. Power output exceeds opponent's control. Opponent (Haku): Overwhelmed. Employer (Zabuza Momochi): Intervenes to protect his asset…]
The void coalesced into reality, but it was… wrong. She was watching herself, a third-person observer to her own demise.
She saw her frozen form on the bridge. She saw Naruto's rampage—a whirlwind of red chakra that shattered Haku's ice mirrors with raw, uncontrolled power. Haku, shocked and battered, was caught off guard.
But then Zabuza was there, his massive blade cleaving the air. Kakashi-sensei intercepted, a flurry of lightning and steel. Their fight was on a completely different level, shaking the very foundations of the bridge.
The enraged Naruto, his mind gone, couldn't distinguish friend from foe. A swipe of his clawed hand sent a wave of malevolent chakra not at Haku, but at the battling Jonin. Kakashi was forced to dodge, leaving an opening.
Zabuza did not hesitate. The Executioner's Blade swung.
Sakura didn't see Kakashi-sensei die. She only saw the spray of blood and the way his single eye widened in shock before his body fell.
The bridge, damaged beyond repair by their cataclysmic battle, groaned. A huge fissure spiderwebbed under her feet. She screamed, a silent, simulated echo, as the section of the bridge she stood on with Tazuna gave way.
The fall was sickeningly real. The impact with the churning water below was a full-body shock of cold and force. Her last sensation was the crushing weight of concrete and water as a piece of the bridge followed her down, ending her simulated life in an instant of dark, silent pressure.
[Simulation Complete.]
[Time Elapsed: 2 minutes, 14 seconds.]
[Outcome: Failure.]
[User: Deceased.]
[Teammate #1 (Uzumaki Naruto): Subdued and captured by Zabuza after exhausting Kyuubi chakra.]
[Teammate #2 (Uchiha Sasuke): Deceased.]
[Team Leader (Hatake Kakashi): Deceased.]
[Analyzing performance… You died due to inaction and environmental collapse. However, the extreme emotional trauma of the simulation has tempered your chakra pathways.]
[Harvesting Echoes… Please select one reward.]
Two options appeared before her.
1. [Skill Mastery (Minor)]: Kunai Accuracy Up.
2. [Trait (Fragment)]: Minor Chakra Control Enhancement.
Her mind, still reeling from the phantom sensation of drowning, latched onto the second option. Control. She lacked control over everything: her emotions, her body, her chakra. The simulation had proved it.
She focused on it, and a warmth spread through her system, a feeling of deep, intrinsic understanding. It felt as if a fog in her mind had cleared, and the flow of energy within her body was suddenly as clear and distinct as a river on a map.
[Reward selected. Returning to reality.]
The world snapped back into place.
The air was just as cold. The roar from Naruto was just as loud. Sasuke's body lay still on the ground.
Not a single second had passed.
But everything was different. The memory of her death, of everyone's death, was branded onto her soul. It was no longer a possibility; it was a memory. A future she had already lived and died in.
Inaction leads to ruin.
The lesson from the simulation was absolute.
Her eyes, wide and shimmering with unshed tears, darted from Naruto's raging form to Sasuke's still one. The simulation showed her Naruto's grief would make him a monster. It was the shock of seeing Sasuke fall that had pushed him over the edge.
But… Sasuke wasn't dead. She knew he wasn't. Medically, a state of false death induced by senbon targeting non-vital points was possible. It was a long shot, but it was better than the certainty of failure she had just witnessed.
Naruto didn't know that. All he saw was his friend, dead at his feet.
I can't fight Haku. I can't fight Zabuza. But maybe… maybe I can stop this.
Her hand, which had been trembling, was now steady. Her fear was still there, a cold knot in her stomach, but it was overshadowed by the ghost of her own death. She had nothing left to lose.
With her newly enhanced chakra control, she channeled a minuscule, precise thread of energy to her fingers. She gripped the kunai, not as a weapon to be thrown at an enemy, but as a tool.
The simulation had taught her that Naruto's rage was the catalyst for their destruction.
So she had to stop the rage.
Ignoring Haku in his mirrors, ignoring the looming threat of Zabuza, Sakura drew her arm back. Her target wasn't the enemy.
It was Naruto.
With a sharp cry that was both a name and a plea, she threw the kunai. It didn't fly towards his heart or his head. With a precision she'd never possessed before, she aimed for the back of his shoulder, shallow enough to sting, to hurt, to be a shocking jolt of pain from an unexpected quarter. A shock to snap him out of his grief-induced trance before the Nine-Tails could fully take the driver's seat.
It was the single most dangerous, desperate, and calculated gamble of her life.
And it was the first choice she had ever made based not on what she thought she should do, but on a future she had already seen fail. The kunai spun through the air, a glint of steel against the grey mist, a tiny metal key intended to rewrite fate.