bubblegum princess

chapter seventy two

⭒˚‧ ︵‿⭒ཐིཋྀ ཐིཋྀ⭒‿︵ ‧˚⭒
welcome to the final show;
A FIGHT BETWEEN
TWO INTERTWINED SOULS !
⭒˚‧ ︵‿⭒ཐིཋྀ ཐིཋྀ⭒‿︵ ‧˚⭒

𝞋𝞎

Sakura didn't know what else to do.

Her hands—so used to saving lives—now trembled uselessly on her lap. Her white coat was stained with blood, and her chakra reserves were dangerously low.

She could barely keep her eyes open.

Every breath felt like a weight. The hospital, once buzzing with urgency, had quieted to the rhythm of monitors and the low hum of fluorescent lights.

It had been an hour and a half.

An hour and a half since Seiren was brought in—barely breathing, blood spilling from her nose, her chakra flickering like a candle in a storm.

An hour and a half of pumping chakra into her body, of fighting to keep her tethered to life.

And now... she sat there.

Collapsed against the wall beside Seiren's bed, arms heavy, fingers still twitching like they hadn't registered it was over. Or at least—stable.

For now.

Everything outside that room was chaos. Konoha was barely standing. The Hokage—was missing. Abducted. Taken by two monsters bearing the cursed name of the Ōtsutsuki. The village was breaking, and so was she.

And the one responsible for her daughter's condition? Gone. Vanished like a coward.

Sakura turned her head toward the hospital bed.

Seiren looked so small. So fragile. Her skin was pale, her lips chapped. Monitors beeped steadily, but the sound did nothing to soothe her.

A needle was stuck in the girl's arm, connected to an IV dripping medication slowly. Bandages were wrapped around her torso, around her head. Dried blood still clung to the edges of her hairline.

She looked... broken.

And Sakura couldn't bear it.

She leaned her head back against the cold wall, her eyes closing briefly. Her whole body ached. Her chakra was spent. Her heart... even more so.

Her baby almost died.

The realization hit her like a kunai to the chest. She had seen death. Been face to face with it more times than she could count. But this?

Watching her daughter tremble and gasp for air, not knowing if the next breath would be her last? It was unlike anything she'd ever known.

Tears welled up again, silent and hot as they slid down her cheeks.

What if she didn't make it? What if I had been just a second too late? What if Naruto was never coming back? What if everything just... ends here?

Her fingers clenched into fists on her lap.

And still... she stayed.

Sakura Haruno, the strongest medical-nin of her generation, sat on the floor like a mother with nothing left but hope. Hope that Seiren would open her eyes.

Hope that Naruto would come back safe. Hope that Sasuke was still out there, hunting those bastards.

And hope—just a small, fragile hope—that the world wouldn't take her daughter away.

Not like this.

"Sakura."

The voice was quiet—gravelly, low—but it cut through the fog of her exhaustion like a kunai. Her head lifted slowly, her body feeling like it weighed a thousand pounds.