Forged Beyond

The Second Madara.

About 30 minutes before Edo-tensei was reversed

Sakura sprinted across the broken battlefield, dust kicking up under her feet. The ground was still trembling from the aftershock of the second meteor. All around her, shinobi groaned in pain, debris shifted, and smoke hung in the air like a thick curtain.

She spotted Gaara and Onoki finally pulling themselves out from the rubble, Gaara supported partially by his own sand as it lifted the weight off his back. Onoki looked worse-his cloak torn, blood dripping from a deep gash on his temple, and his breathing heavy.

"Medical team!" Sakura yelled at the top of her lungs, not slowing down.
"Take the injured and fall back to the medical camps! Get them out of the strike zone-NOW!"

Behind her, the remaining medics jolted into action, some limping, others half-carrying fallen shinobi. They started forming lines, grabbing who they could, dragging comrades out from under broken weapons, and hoisting them over their shoulders.

Sakura didn't stop running until she dropped to her knees beside Gaara and Onoki.

"Don't move," she said, already lighting up her hands with glowing green chakra. She quickly scanned their bodies-Gaara had internal damage, his chakra flow disrupted from strain, but nothing fatal. Onoki, on the other hand, was older, and the meteor impact had done more harm than his body could take without fast intervention.

"Stay still," she muttered to Onoki, who gave a faint nod, barely conscious. She placed one hand on his chest and another over a fractured rib. The warmth of her chakra surged into him, stabilizing his vitals.

Gaara was trying to sit up.
"You should rest," she said, not unkindly.
"There's no time," he answered, voice quiet but firm.
Sakura didn't argue-she just kept healing, moving from wound to wound with practiced hands.

A few meters away, Katsumi and Katsuyou's split bodies oozed across the field, wrapping themselves around torn flesh, stopping bleeding, stabilizing vitals. Even they were showing signs of exhaustion, their clones sluggish and flickering.

"Sakura-sama... your chakra is depleting," Katsumi's voice echoed in her ear, soft but urgent. "Katsuyou-sama and I rely on your chakra to heal others. Your chakra capacity is very low at this state. At this rate, we will both be unsummoned. Plus-during the second meteor-you transferred 80% of your chakra to me... to shield yourself and the surrounding shinobi."

Sakura didn't even get a chance to respond.

Poof.

Both Katsumi and Katsuyou vanished in a puff of smoke. The sudden silence left in their absence hit like a punch to the gut.

Sakura's knees buckled slightly, and she caught herself with one hand against her thigh, panting. Her chakra flow felt like a shallow river-barely trickling. Her vision blurred for a moment, her head pounding with strain. Every breath was effort.

Up ahead, Madara remained, untouched by the chaos he had just caused. Towering above on a raised slab of broken terrain, his eyes-sharpened with the Rinnegan-locked onto them like a hawk watching its prey.

Naruto jogged over to her, slowing only when he saw how drained she looked. His usual brightness was dulled, his cloak flickering with unstable chakra. He wasn't at full power either-not even close.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto said, coming to a stop beside her, hands on his hips, trying to keep his breathing steady. "Look over there."

She turned her head weakly, eyes narrowing through the dust.

A group of twenty medics was making their way onto the field-some limping, others carrying stretchers, all wearing the symbol of the Retrieve and Retreat squad. The elite backup force. Reinforcements.