Chapter 149: Sakura's Proprietary Oral Supplement
Snow peaks. Endless wind. A blizzard that never quite stopped.
The white shirt snapped against the tall man's frame. He stood at the mountain's summit and the cold didn't move him at all.
The brash, uncontainable energy he'd always carried — the war had ground it down. What was left on his face was stillness and cold.
"Brother..."
The man in white ninja gear, sunglasses on his nose, seven blades on his back, looked at the figure in front of him with something hesitant.
Killer Bee knew the Raikage as well as anyone in the world. And right now he found himself looking at his brother and feeling something faint and strange — like looking at a person he almost recognized.
"Bee." The Raikage's voice was still deep and powerful. But the drive behind it was gone. "Do you think this war was worth it?"
Killer Bee didn't answer. He didn't know how.
What he could sense was that the relentless, unstoppable forward momentum his brother had always carried — the force that had defined him since Bee was small — had been quietly worn away. And in its place was something heavy. Something Bee didn't have a word for.
Behind them both, Dodai watched. Something in his expression was quiet and satisfied.
Shi's death had been a loss. But it had produced this.
If Dodai could replay the moment — he would let it happen the same way again. One Shi, in exchange for the Raikage standing before him now.
Bee couldn't understand the weight. Dodai could.
Steadiness. The thing not even the Third Raikage had possessed.
The Raikage didn't wait for an answer. He turned and started down the mountain.
Something in the air still held his words.
"Tell Orochimaru. Tomorrow, the full assault. He shows up. Or he deals with the consequences."
Bee watched his brother's shape disappear.
He looked out through his sunglasses at the white expanse below.
Snow as far as anyone could see.
It's cold up here.
Dodai stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Bee. Keep doing what you do. The Raikage has been... carrying a great deal, these past weeks."
He leaned in close.
"Be careful of the Zetsu near the Raikage."
"If you get the opportunity—"
The wind picked up. The rest of the words dissolved into it.
No one noticed the small, unremarkable patch of ground in a far corner of the mountain. Two eyes, watching.
"My, my. That one's perceptive."
"Doesn't matter. He's going to die soon. We don't need people that smart around."
"What a shame. He was interesting."
A black-and-white face drifted up from the earth — two voices answering itself — and then sank back down without a trace.
The snow kept falling.
It moved across the clouds hanging over the Kumogakure camp, and it moved across the pink hair of a girl standing far below.
Sakura felt something she couldn't name. She looked, without meaning to, toward the distant mountain that jutted above the horizon — the same mountain where she'd fought the Two-Tails. Visible from almost anywhere in Frost Country.
A vague premonition settled behind her ribs.
She shook it off, picked up her medical kit, and walked into a nearby tent.
Mei Terumī's assigned quarters.
The morning after arriving at the Konoha camp, the woman had developed a fever. Swimming across open ocean and then spending an extended period in freezing wind — even considerable capability couldn't hold that off forever. Taijutsu specialists like Sakura and Tsunade were among the few ninja who were genuinely physically robust; most others, including people like Might Guy and even the Raikage, were still mortal in the ways that mattered. A bad enough fever shut anyone down.
Sakura pulled the tent flap open.
A figure on the cot. Horizontal.
She sat at the bedside and pressed a hand to Mei's forehead.
Hot enough to cook something.
She produced a thermometer from the kit.
"Open."
Mei, somewhere between awake and not, complied.
A pair of green eyes tracked Sakura with quiet curiosity.
She'd noticed the girl yesterday — sitting quietly between Jiraiya and Kakashi the entire meeting, never speaking. Probably some privileged kid with the right connections. Nobody sat that close to Jiraiya without having something going on.
Kirigakure's isolation meant their intelligence on the outside world was badly outdated. Mei had no information on Sakura whatsoever. As far as she knew, the girl with the pink hair and the medical kit was probably some official's daughter.
The thermometer came out.
With it, Sakura pulled a thin, translucent silver thread from Mei's mouth.
Mei's eyes shifted. A little awkward. Though — this was a child, probably around twelve or thirteen. She decided not to overthink it.
Sakura wiped it on the blanket.
Forty-two degrees.
Even her fever is operating at maximum capacity. Fitting for a future Mizukage.
A regular doctor, faced with a fever like this, would be reaching for intravenous medication and praying.
A medical ninja was a different category of problem-solver entirely.
Sakura's palm settled over Mei's forehead. Green chakra spread from her hand.
The moment the technique activated, Mei blinked.
She'd considered that the person with the medical kit might be a medical ninja. She hadn't prepared for what she was actually feeling.
The technique was immediately and obviously extraordinary. A cooling tide moved through her — like stepping out of a furnace into a cold room. The fever hadn't broken yet, but the sensation shifted enough that she could actually think.
Most of Kirigakure's medical corps wouldn't have cleared half this skill level.
"You're a medical ninja?"
She asked it somewhat drowsily.
Sakura looked at her with the expression of someone who has been asked whether water is wet.
The fever must have gotten to her brain.
"Isn't that rather obvious?"
"Ah..."
Mei pulled the blanket up to cover half her face. Only her eyes and forehead were visible above it, watching Sakura with a slightly embarrassed expression.
"I meant — your technique is quite impressive..."
She's making puppy eyes at me.
Sakura's expression stayed neutral. Internally, she sighed.
What is this woman doing.
She's delirious. That's the explanation.
She's also very pretty. This is completely irrelevant. Stars and oceans. I have goals. They do not include this.
Deciding the temperature had come down enough, Sakura reached into the kit and produced a large white container with no label — taking up roughly half the kit's volume.
From it, she withdrew a single pill the size of a small fist.
Black.
Mei's eyes moved from the container to the pill.
That's... a pill?
Why is it that large? It's black. What's in it?
"Open."
Mei's instincts said no.
Her body, apparently convinced it was still following medical instructions, was faster than her instincts.
The pill was in her mouth before her brain had fully processed what was happening.
"MMMmmmmph—"
It was like being struck by lightning directly through the roof of her mouth.
Even with her fever partially numbing her taste, what hit her tongue was absolutely not something food should be able to do. Sour. Sweet. Bitter. Hot. Salty. Every register simultaneously, with an underlying texture like sand. Her entire tongue went partially numb within three seconds.
Mei's eyes rolled back.
She thrashed. Sakura's hand kept her from going anywhere.
Sakura, it should be noted, had one of her few genuine small pleasures in life: watching someone eat her soldier pills. They worked. Extraordinarily well. But the experience of consuming them was objectively terrible. There was something deeply satisfying about administering something that was both genuinely helpful and this dramatically unpleasant.
The more her patient fought it, the more interested Sakura became.
"It's fine, just swallow it, you'll feel better immediately!"
She held Mei down with cheerful efficiency, keeping the pill from being spit out, offering continuous encouraging commentary while Mei's body registered a variety of protests.
She had removed the licorice root from this batch. Not for any medical reason. Purely because.
Eventually, Mei stopped fighting.
Her green eyes were wet. Genuine tears. Helpless, undignified, and completely involuntary.
The thing had entered her body.
"Good girl."
Sakura gave her cheek an approving pat, removed herself from the situation, and climbed off.
Mei sat up, clenched her teeth, still tearing up, expression radiating a specific kind of affront.
"What did you just put in my mouth?"
She had prepared herself for a gentle, healing presence. A soft-spoken medical professional. Pink hair, nice face, clearly skilled — she'd projected a whole persona onto this child.
The reality was a tiny tyrant who had physically forced an unidentifiable black object into her mouth while she was sick in bed and unable to stop it.
And — she hadn't been able to stop it. She'd tried. She'd really tried.
How strong was this girl?
"Sakura's Proprietary Enhanced Soldier Pill."
Sakura held up the container.
"Would you like another? Guaranteed to cure everything. Flat and exhausted today? Take one and tomorrow you'll be pulling trees out by the roots."
Mei stared at her.
"One," she said with quiet intensity, "was more than enough."
She would die before eating a second one.
Sakura shrugged.
"Two together are actually more effective. But if you don't want one, that's fine."
She paused.
"You're mostly recovered anyway."
Mei blinked.
She... was?
She noticed it then. The heaviness that had been pressing her into the mattress all morning — it was mostly gone. She actually felt like she could sit up properly. She might even be hungry.
"Anyway, I'm heading out."
Sakura began collecting her things.
"Ah—"
Mei reached out instinctively to say something — and Sakura, halfway through the tent flap, spoke first without turning around.
"One more thing."
"Just so you know — I'm a boy."
And then she was gone.
Mei sat completely still.
...What.
She said what.
That was a boy?
THAT was a BOY?
That adorable, pink-haired, clearly-feminine—
Sakura walked away from the tent in an excellent mood.
She hadn't said anything wrong. If people wanted to reach their own conclusions, that was their business.
I identify as male, Sakura did not say to anyone who had not asked.
Pranking the future Fifth Mizukage while she was sick in bed was a low-effort form of entertainment, but it had produced proportional returns.
She'd considered doing the same to Tsunade at some point.
Then she'd reconsidered.
Tsunade was a warm and understanding person who had never done anything to deserve it, and Sakura had a conscience.
More practically — Tsunade could hit back.
On the other topic: she should really develop the soldier pill into a drinkable format. An oral suspension. That way even unconscious patients could benefit from it. And healthy ninja could carry it preventatively — it wouldn't kill anyone, it would rapidly restore chakra, and the stamina benefits were genuine.
For the entire Konoha military. Every ninja carrying a dose.
The reduction in casualties would be significant. Sakura was certain of it.
The taste issue was, objectively, irrelevant when the alternative was death.
She was doing a public service. Her heart was full of humanitarian intention.
She should test the liquid version on Sasuke and Naruto first.
And Kushina and Ino.
More test subjects meant better data. This was just science.
(Chapter End)
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