Chapter 89: Decision
They rested like this for a while.
After Hinata recovered some of her chakra, she activated her Byakugan and quickly found the tracks of Sasuke's group.
They were blocking the path of Gaara's group, facing off from a distance. A battle was on the verge of breaking out.
"I've found them. The fight hasn't started yet! Let's go, Sakura-chan, we need to hurry!"
Hinata stood up and said, but she noticed that Sakura hadn't moved and instead had a conflicted expression on her face, as if she wanted to say something but was holding back.
To describe it crudely, it wasn't the kind of conflict of being constipated, but the kind of conflict of finishing your business and realizing you didn't bring any paper.
"What's wrong?" Hinata asked cautiously.
She looked Sakura over from head to toe. On her face, her expression was strange, but she couldn't tell what it was. On her body, her clothes were intact, so she probably wasn't injured. Her feet?
During the battle just now, she had used the Monstrous Strength Technique, and her foot had smashed through the earth layer and gotten stuck in a pit. Sakura had been holding this posture ever since... A very unladylike and unpleasant image immediately popped into Hinata's mind. Did she step in something disgusting?
She activated her Byakugan again.
Pfft— The white-eyed girl let out an unkind laugh.
"Alright, alright, my shoe broke," or rather, it had shattered. The pink-haired girl was wearing the standard-issue ninja open-toed sandals. The quality was quite reliable, but the power of the pink-haired girl's Monstrous Strength Technique was too strong, and unlike Tsunade, she wasn't in the habit of protecting her shoes with chakra. As a result, she had shattered the shoe with one stomp.
Awkwardly pulling her foot out and washing the dust from between her toes, she stood on a mass of ultrapure water with her fair, bare feet.
After being reborn as a girl in her second life, the young Sakura found that her skin had become thinner. She actually blushed a little and her cheeks grew hot as she was being watched by Hinata.
While feeling shy, her heart was also bleeding. A Genin's allowance and mission income were not high. They were only issued one pair of ninja shoes each. Buying another pair would cost a lot of money. The poor young girl, Haruno Sakura (relative to the wealthy Sasuke), was already short on cash just from buying ninja tools...
(Note: The consumption rate of ninja tools is very high with frequent training.)
Normally, for missions with combat, she would be more careful. Sometimes she would just go barefoot; padding her feet with ultrapure water was actually much more convenient than wearing shoes. She had only worn them today because it was the Chunin Exams and she wanted to be a bit more formal...
The only comfort was that the Monstrous Strength Technique was only prone to breaking shoes, and had not yet reached the point of being prone to breaking clothes—if that could be considered a comfort.
The girl sighed, a conflicted look on her face as she looked down at her feet.
Her left shoe was fine, but should she still wear it? Do shoe stores sell single shoes?
"Of course they don't!" The pink-haired girl complained to herself. What a stupid question.
Bending down, she deftly took off her left shoe, her mind inexplicably thinking of a certain beautiful woman from an old tale.
She exchanged a look with Hinata—the latter had an expression of looking at an idiot. "Let's go!"
The girls leaped onto a tree branch and disappeared into the depths of the forest.
Hinata, who had not yet fully recovered her stamina, slowed them down. Before they set out, the battle hadn't started; by the time they arrived, the battle was already over.
Sakura had originally thought that the combination of Sasuke, Naruto, and Shikamaru should be able to defeat the Sand Trio, but she never expected it to be a draw.
Shikamaru was unconscious on the ground, Sasuke was exhausted, and Naruto was covered in wounds. However, the other side was not in a much better state. Gaara was lying flat on the ground. Kankuro's puppet was completely destroyed, and he and his sister only had the strength to stand. Considering Naruto's astonishing recovery ability, it was ultimately a small victory for the Konoha team.
Sakura first checked Shikamaru's injuries. His breathing was steady, and he wasn't seriously hurt. There was a faint trace of a light blue substance on the wound. It was clearly a type of poison unique to the Sand ninja. He was unconscious due to the poison.
No matter how high one's IQ is, it's impossible to account for everything.
There were two pieces of information Shikamaru didn't know: one was Kankuro's poison, and the other was that Gaara was a Jinchuriki. Perhaps his thinking was that it didn't matter if he was injured and couldn't fight; as long as he could command, it was fine. He never expected Kankuro to use poison, turning a small wound into a serious injury that caused him to fall unconscious. Even so, if Gaara had not been a Jinchuriki, his plan should have succeeded. In the end, it was Gaara who used the Feigning Sleep Technique to achieve a mutually destructive outcome.
Of course, with the arrival of Sakura and Hinata, the situation immediately shifted from a draw to an overwhelming advantage for the Konoha side.
"You've all worked hard. I'll take it from here!"
Sakura looked around, first nodding to Naruto and Sasuke, then turned her gaze to the Sand Trio.
Kankuro and Temari stood protectively in front of Gaara, their brows furrowed tightly, the bulging veins on their hands betraying their inner nervousness. The two of them were keenly aware that at this moment, their fate was no longer in their own hands. Only Gaara, lying on the ground, although his injuries were not light, had an exceptionally calm expression. The gloomy killing intent that had been deeply buried in his eyes seemed to be disappearing bit by bit.
Did Naruto's talk-no-jutsu activate again? Sakura wondered.
In fact, she didn't know that this was the last convincing use of Naruto's talk-no-jutsu in the entire story. Their similar experiences made Gaara naturally agree with Naruto's words and beliefs, and he was easily influenced by him. In the Shippuden that Sakura hadn't seen much of, Naruto's talk-no-jutsu had become something akin to forced brainwashing. To put it bluntly, it was Kishimoto force-feeding the audience shit. She complained about Naruto's talk-no-jutsu every day, but she didn't know that this was already considered the good version.
Should I kill them?
In the original story, Gaara was able to leave because both sides could no longer fight. Everyone had exhausted their strength, and there was no reason to kill each other, no need to risk their lives to test if the other side had a final trump card for a mutual kill. What's more, they were still a group of chuunibyou teenagers; it was normal for them to make decisions without much deep thought.
But now, the Konoha side could easily kill the Sand ninja.
Sakura knew Hinata's personality well. Killing would definitely be her last resort. She might suggest taking the three of them captive and bringing them back to the village, or even letting them go.
But Shikamaru was seriously injured and in urgent need of medical attention, and the battle in the village was still ongoing. So even letting them go was more rational than bringing them back to Konoha. Bringing back three prisoners was not as simple as bringing back three injured people.
Naruto and Sasuke had not seen much blood. They would also prefer a less bloody and cruel approach.
However, if Sakura felt it was necessary to kill them, then the other three would not likely object. After all, the Sand ninja were enemies. Once you become a ninja, you have to have a ninja's resolve. Being a "sweet white lotus" was very difficult in the Naruto world.
So, the lives and deaths of Gaara's trio were actually in Sakura's hands.
As the temporary captain of this squad, Sakura also took on the duty of making the decision without hesitation.
Considering it from a grand strategic perspective: killing the Jinchuriki meant that the Sand Village would lose its Tailed Beast. Having just lost their Kazekage and now losing their Tailed Beast, the balance of power between the great villages would be gone. The Sand's days would be very difficult from then on. There was a ninety percent or higher probability of them being invaded; it was even possible for their country and village to be destroyed. In that case, not only would Konoha lose a little brother who listened to them, but what was worse was that after fighting a great battle with the Sand and suffering heavy losses, the fruits of their victory would be snatched away by others. This situation was a bit like Britain and France during World War II. From this perspective, excessively weakening an ally was not a good thing and could even drag oneself down.
And, in the future, Gaara would become the new, pro-Konoha Kazekage. It would be a waste to execute him on the spot now.
From a personal consideration: Sakura herself didn't really care either way. She was very confident that in the future, she herself would be the strong one to rely on. She had no need or interest in relying on others. Of course, for her and her friends, having one more powerhouse as a friend was not a bad thing.
There was one last reason, which was to maintain the original plot and preserve her "prophet" advantage. However, with the butterfly effect, her destruction of the "plot" was becoming more and more drastic. Tsunade had returned to the village early, the Chunin Exams had changed greatly, and the so-called prophet advantage was already getting weaker and weaker, not to mention she didn't even know much about what happened in Shippuden. She had very little prophet advantage to begin with. And from her personal point of view, with her strength having grown to this extent, to still rely on a prophet advantage would be really a bit too "LOW."
So, has the decision been made? Sakura knew that the things she had considered in such a short period of time were definitely not comprehensive, and it was even possible that she had thought it all through completely wrong, but—
She had the qualification and the capital to be willful, didn't she?
Just like the First Hokage had willfully distributed the Tailed Beasts to the various villages—regardless of whether this decision was extremely foolish or extremely wise—because he was confident that all the Tailed Beasts combined could not beat him. Sakura believed that if it turned out in the future that she had made a mistake, then she would have the ability to correct this mistake with her own hands.
Sakura took a deep breath—
"Let them go... Sakura-chan," Naruto suddenly said. Although he was covered in wounds and looked tired, his expression was firmer than anyone else's.
Everyone present—the apprehensive Kankuro and Temari, the calmly accepting Gaara, Sasuke who was squatting on the ground and looking at the Sand ninja warily, Hinata who was taking care of Shikamaru, and the contemplative Sakura—were all stunned for a moment and turned to look at Naruto.
"Gaara... he's in pain because he's alone, not needed, not acknowledged... just like I used to be. So... I understand that feeling very well, but he will change. I believe in him... Let them go..."
Naruto's words were weak but full of power.
Sakura was silent.
The opinion of a teammate was, of course, very important. Not to mention that Naruto's decision was consistent with Sakura's.
And so, after a long delay, she finally spoke. "Naruto... since you believe in him, then I'll believe in you..."
Sakura turned to help Naruto up.
"You can go."
She said without looking back.
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