The Cherry Blossoms Bloom Brilliantly

A figure lay on the hospital bed, it was a lady in her late 30s whose formerly fair skin, having lost her vitality and vigor, had turned to an unhealthy pale tint.

The room was still except for the steady beeping of the heart rate monitor and the faint sounds of other hospital equipment running tirelessly to keep the patient alive.

The patient's wounds were covered with bandages on the head and abdomen, a long slash scar ran alongside her head, a gaping maw where a dreadful chunk of the abdomen was missing, her organs ruined and her internal injuries were inconceivable.

Not to mention an inspection of the thin bedsheet covering her from waist down would show that her right leg from was missing from knee down as the sheet rested directly on the bed from that point with nothing to prop it up . Her life only extended by the numerous tubes hooked up to machines substituting the functions of her ruined organs.

Slowly midnight came, and the patient's eyelids fluttered open having regained consciousness, she looked around the empty room, and except for the medical equipment and the cabinet, there was nobody and nothing around.

The makeshift hospital room was dark and slightly dusty, the glitter of the stars and the moonlight which should have poured into the room from the window were shrouded by dark clouds in the night sky.

No one is here huh?

She herself had sent the nurse away because she was the one who was the clearest about her current condition, a single nurse being present at all times in the room wouldn't make a difference at this point, still it was strange that the nurse assigned hadn't returned yet for the routine check up.

Well mysterious disappearances aren't exactly uncommon these days.

Not to mention the people she really wanted see were not here.

 She looked to her side, turning only her head, being careful not to move the rest of her body.

There was the only hospital bedside cabinet, it had a vase with wilting flowers the lone symbol of life amidst the desolation, a cherry blossom pendant, and 2 photo frames.

The 1st photo was of a silver haired shinobi, 2 boys and 1 girl, the boy with the black hair with a bluish tint being rather smug looking away from the camera and their team while the other boy in a orange and blue jacket with yellow blond hair looked extremely annoyed with him glaring at him, the girl with pink hair looked happy with a cute pose and the shinobi's face, however much not covered by his mask and shinobi headband(hitai-ate), looked quite helpless with the children.

The Team 7 photo.

The photo commemorating their shinobi team's formation alleviated some of the lady's loneliness and misery, but the 2nd photo filled her with heart-wrenching sorrow.

It was a family photo of a man, the lady, and their daughter, while this photo had helped her carry on even in the hardest times, but it now only served the purpose of intensifying her regrets, doubts, and despondency the constant companions of patients on deathbeds.

The lady sinking under the weight of self-doubt, despair and regret was Sakura Uchiha, the the once-celebrated kunoichi and strongest medic-nin whose glory was cut short now that she was half-dead on the bed.

Her husband was bound by his penance, which most of the time hurt her more than it did him, and her daughter was bound by her dreams. The paths chosen by both of them to walk on had led away from her no matter how much she tried to hold on to them.

Sarada, my beloved daughter.

Tears welled up in Sakura's eyes. Her daughter, strong and determined, pursuing her dream of becoming Hokage who would lead the whole village. A path that led her further apart from her mother in this time of crisis, leaving a gaping hole in Sakura's heart.

Sarada had visited but could not stay with her at this time, while she could understand there is no choice given the situation, nonetheless, in her last moments she was heartbroken, it made her wonder whether her choices in life were correct or not as she choked back a sob.

Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki were currently in peace negotiations with the other villages last time she heard about them or rather they trying to restart a negotiation after the last one was sabotaged.

How did it come to this?

Her mind obsessed over the causes which led to her and the world's current state.

It had become a bad habit after being stuck in a hospital bed and not being able to move an inch.

It didn't help that someone fucking killed Chojuro.....The Mist was always so unstable, the unrest in the Village of Clouds was nothing in comparison to it.

The Sixth Mizukage had been assassinated the day he had agreed to the negotiation and the depressed Mei Terumi had to come back into office.

Sasuke had rushed to the Mist for the enforcement of public order and had even swore to not spill a drop of blood doing so.

Rather ironic for a man who had once decided and planned to kill all Kages and subjugate the entire world.

Regardless it had been a long time since he had visited when she was first hospitalized due to that.

Should I have held on tighter or let go?

When everything is lost a person has just one seemingly pointless question-What if I had done something different?

Sakura's emerald green eyes had lost their lustre, despair had her in its clutches as she day by day wasted away spiritually and physically.

......Can't even feel my left leg anymore. When will it end ???

The 5th great shinobi war had begun, it had long been coming but nobody could have foreseen or guessed that even after seeing the cause and consequences of the 4th one, people would still fight and jump into another global conflict.

This one like its predecessor had a mysterious perpetrator or group of perpetrators you could say.

To start off, Konoha's decreasing power had been one of the main reason, even though they were not weak even then in comparison to other villages but having gotten increasingly weaker in such a short duration they appeared vulnerable, the doubts regarding the continued existence of Konoha's supremacy over the other villages in the near future had unfortunately been proved correct.

They had lost it all.

The increasing missing-nin, cults, terrorists, and organizations like Kara sowed discord across all the nations. Internal squabbles and incompetency of all the Daimyos had also been a factor.

Sakura's body could not help but tremble in anger despite the pain from doing so when thinking of the Daimyos living sheltered all their lives and not understanding the consequences of wars with their allies from the 4th ninja war.

The new fire nation Daimyo was reasonable but the others were not, remaining as ignorant as their predecessors & growing complacent in times of peace, some had even tried to use the war to regain their declining influence.

There is a high chance they were also manipulated.

The enemies were too many and different interest groups kept cropping up. Whether it was for power, money, or fame, the end result was the current conflict and its escalation.

With Kurama sacrificing himself, Kawaki then exiling Naruto and Hinata to another dimension in a self-centered effort to keep them from harm , and Sasuke losing his Rinnegan from a surprise attack, Konoha's fighting and political prowess had decreased significantly permanently in a short period of time before the start of the war.

They had formidable enemies like Code, Eida, and Daemon which were only the start of it. Even when they kept defeating stronger and stronger enemies like Isshiki and Momoshiki Otsutsuki, more enemies kept cropping up and the aftereffects of such conflicts were devastating as well, one being the current 5th shinobi war.

I can still remember the looks the other Kages gave to Shikamaru when the news of  the supposed death of Naruto and the defection of Sasuke with Boruto spread.

That was a dark time. The pillars of the new shinobi world had disappeared and the future seemed bleak.

Yet the younger generation had surprised them all, they had defeated Kara and exposed Kawaki's manipulation of everyone's memories using some godly shinjutsu.

......but there were sacrifices.....children shouldn't have had to sacrifice their lives no matter what.

The new Ino-Shika-Cho had been destroyed in a final gambit against the enemy and Amado's deception.

Though their sacrifice wasn't in vain.

Naruto and Sasuke returned just in time for the beginning of the war.

Even Kurama had remanifested in Himawari of all people.

Naruto was so happy even though Kurama had lost some of his memories.

The memory brought a momentary joy in the lady's heart.

It had seemed a positive turning point had come.

I still remember how optimistic everyone was when we received the messages for the Kage summit.

They had immediately sent out notices for negotiations which had positive feedback.

They were even planning a feast after the negotiations-the promise of which had halted the conflict in its infancy- but then the true misfortune came.

It was only a few days after the Kages had almost kicked off the 5th war.

It had happened like a light breath, an inaudible whisper in the ears of those held dear.

The world changed.

No one knew why a second sun and moon had appeared one day but everyone knew that it was the day chaos ensued across all lands.

Droughts and floods, earthquakes and landslides, long forgotten volcanoes erupting once again, their ash clouds blotting out the skies and choking every single living being unfortunate enough to live within 10000 yards in mere moments while the volcanic red formed new rivers replacing the old blue ones.

The living space had suddenly decreased by a quarter.

And thus the negotiations failed.

Konoha had been forced to reluctantly enter the war to defend its borders.

We would have won even then most probably if it weren't for them.

The Gods of Whispers had appeared or so they were called by a fearful few since no one could speak their names openly, even their very gaze would cause anyone pain beyond their comprehension much less fighting them.

Boruto called them something else though before disappearing.

Only Boruto, Sarada, Himawari, Hinata,  Naruto and Sasuke were able to fight them.

The Gods of Pu-

A searing pain struck her mind interrupting her thoughts, a grunt escaping her lips from the mere memory of  their name and when she had tried to fight them.

How could she defeat an enemy she couldn't set her eyes or hands upon.

Not to mention even now they couldn't figure out what had razed half of the shinobi world to the ground in a mere fortnight, were it the so-called Gods or was there someone else behind the scenes just like before.

Her gaze lastly fell on the pendant.

Dad......

A birthday gift from her now-deceased father, who had died alongside her mother in the destruction of the village. The pendant was in the shape of a cherry blossom with its petals being made of small translucent pinkish crystals with silver metallic borders. Hot tears finally fell out of her eyes as she remembered their final moments together.

Her heart uttered a cry.

......I want to see you Dad, Mom. I don't want to be like this!

She had met them for the last time while going to her office as chief medical officer during the war but she did not think that the battle would reach so far behind the frontlines, she had to manage the work and treat the wounded who were sent back since most the ninjas were fighting on the frontlines, the enemies were too devious in their attacks going as far to lure and attack young inexperienced genins even before the war had even started. Many had stormed off to the frontlines to get revenge even though the enemy was so elusive, this left many places in the rear vulnerable hence she had to stay behind to organize and handle the situation.

Many had died in the sneak attacks especially with the recent advancement in scientific ninja tools, no one had expected that they had even planted bombs into the wounded allies and let them be recovered by the medics to deal even more damage to the rear lines. She had been dealing with a patient at the time of the ambush, just as one of the other medics had spread their chakra through another patient the first bomb were triggered, causing a chain explosion in the field hospital.

Sakura and quite a few had survived but many could not, just as she was coming to grips with the situation the enemies hiding in the rear began their attack.

They came at her relentlessly with no regard for their lives, trying to deal as much damage possible, her Creation Rebirth had saved her even after losing limbs multiple times from the barrage of attacks but she was soon overwhelmed saving people and defending herself, the reason for the attack to be so devastating was that the offspring organizations and cults of Kara, the terrorist organization whose goal was the creation of the Chakra Fruit and becoming inhuman god-like beings like the Otsutuki, had created chaos and sowed the seeds of discord among the nations.

Isshiki being killed by Naruto and Sasuke and the organization being dealt a huge amount of damage by the 5 hidden villages caused them to scatter among the lands and form various multitudes of cults and off-shoots resulting in lots of misunderstandings and distrust among the allied villages, all of this left them vulnerable when the final battle began and it turned into a war as it increased in scale and started including even the actual location of the Hidden Leaf and other hidden villages, at least whatever was left of them after that night.

She had to rush back without replenishing her Strength of a Hundred Seals, managing the situation of the battle-scarred hidden village, she was again attacked, and this time she couldn't unleash her full power because of civilians and the wounded being used as human shields.

Even a zombie eventually dies, she finally ran out of chakra while using Mitotic Regeneration: One Hundred Healings and was fatally injured in the attack that completely destroyed the village and even the Hokage monument.

Her parents had come out of retirement to help their little girl and their village. This sadly had resulted in them getting caught in the crossfire and dying, she could still recall how their corpses were stuck under the debris and she had been forced to leave them uncovered in the battle.

Maybe we will meet again soon.....

The fire in her heart slowly went out.

Konoha was destroyed, its residents massacred and their bodies desecrated in cult rituals, her parents had died and she was incapacitated by her injuries.

Ino, Tenten and the others have even stopped informing me of the current situation because of my condition, are they even alive?.....I feel so tired.

She almost knew nothing of the current status of the war and other hidden villages, but it was clear since no ill news is told to patients that it wasn't anything good. Not that it would make a difference for her since she couldn't even sit up.

Sakura at last focused on the pendant lying on the cabinet, wanting to recall her fond memories which seemed so far away she silently made a decision as she hooked her index finger and used the chakra scalpel technique.

*RIP*

The arm straps were cut effortlessly in a single moment by the flawless chakra blade formed by her .

Her left arm freed she did the same for her right after which she reached for the pendant, moving her entire body in the process ignoring the excruciating pain from such movement, the medical equipment beeped alarmingly as the connected tubes got yanked by her forceful movement.

Just a little more......

Her fingers barely reached the pendant's chain.

Damn it!!!!!!

She tensed every muscle in her body, well the few left that could still work and pushed against the bed reaching for the treasured keepsake.

Got it......

She at last held it in her hand which extended feebly from her bed but it granted none of the comfort she sought.

Pale fingers stroked the cold chain seeking something long lost.

She felt a strange serenity, her will to live and endure fading away but just before the last embers of her life faded away the tranquil room underwent a stupefying change.

Am I imagining things ?

She saw cherry blossom petals drifting in the wind all around her as she finally closed her eyes.

The cherry blossoms circled around the bed, gaining speed almost as if like a storm manifesting and then finally abruptly dispersed. The only thing different in the instant they had cleared was that the cherry blossom pendant had disappeared from her lifeless fingers.