Chapter Text
Sakura agreed that Tsunade had done her best to prepare her for this, but even though her mentor had worked hard, no amount of training or work could have ever truly prepared her for the horrors of a Wizarding war. She had heard of Muggle wars, and their sky high death counts, injured soldiers and devastated lands. Wizarding wars were worse. Sakura worked hard at the Healers’ tent, treating injured or incapacitated soldiers, but they had yet to fill all their cots, simply because in a Wizarding war, the extremely lucky ones were injured. Everyone else died.
They’d been at this for a few months now, and upon checking her watch, Sakura realized that if things had been normal, she’d be boarding the Hogwarts Express. Instead she was heading to her tent after a grueling night shift, where two wizards had come in, both having been hit with a variety of curses that she worked hard to reverse.
Sakura trudged her way through the lines of identical tents, completely different from the time she walked through the lines of tents in the Quidditch World Cup. It seemed like a completely different time. Sakura eventually reached the one she shared with Hinata, Ino and Tenten and walked in. Due to everyone’s efforts, the inside of their temporary home was drastically different from the outside. Sakura’s undetectable extension charm had been the base of it all, allowing them all to have private rooms and bedrooms, a large living room for gatherings and a fully functional kitchen. The sun was just rising when Sakura threw herself in a comfortable armchair, courtesy of Hinata, who was extremely proficient at making incredibly comfortable furniture.
Sakura pulled out her watch, thinking of her boyfriend, who had been assigned to the front lines due to his extremely destructive power. He hadn’t made his way to the Healers’ tent, and his name wasn’t listed in the death list she had in her pocket. A benefit of being a Healer was her access to this crucial parchment that was linked to the list of dead wizards. She herself had to make additions to the list a few times, when someone died on her. Pulling it out, she glanced at the list again, lingering on a few names.
Hidan
Kisame
Akimichi Chouji
Inuzuka Kiba
Hyuuga Neji
Sakura remembered the night where Neji’s name showed up. Tenten had screamed in pain, showing more emotion than Sakura knew she had. That night she discovered that the girl had been in a relationship with him. Hinata cried with her, both girls mourning the man that had so much potential. Since that night, she hadn’t seen Tenten again. The girl went to the Frontlines and hadn’t returned yet.
Eventually Ino woke up and left her room, fully dressed. The blonde girl was working with the Potions and Herbology division to engage in biological warfare. Sakura had seen the results of the blonde’s work once, when someone spilled one of the potions on themselves. She understood why her friend had bags under her eyes and had lost some of that loud brashness. It must be difficult to use one’s knowledge to make weapons to kill others.
“Just got back from your shift?” Ino asked, making herself some coffee.
“Yeah. Didn’t want to sleep yet.”
“I see.”
Their conversations had also changed since the start of the war. No more bickering and teasing. Everyone was always tense and somber. Sakura got up from her spot and headed into her bathroom, intent on cleaning herself up before trying to get sleep.
The girl got around four hours of sleep before being interrupted by one of her alarms. She had set spells to warn her whenever someone that wasn’t expected showed up. Standing in their living room, looking haggard was Uchiha Itachi. Sakura watched as the normally cool and composed Uchiha was reduced to a tired, messy human.
“Sakura. We’ve suffered a massive blow this morning.Our enemy has dragons.”
Her heart clenched, knowing what was coming next.
“This is your formal assignment to the Frontlines. Our… Our Healer support has fallen and you’re her replacement.”
Sakura felt the tears come to her eyes immediately. She didn’t need to see the death list sitting in her pocket to know what name had been added to it. Her mentor had been the Healer support for the Frontlines. Sakura took a deep breath and wiped her tears, knowing that Tsunade wouldn’t want to be grieved until this whole mess was over. She extended a trembling hand to Itachi, receiving her new orders. She read the details on the parchment, and nodded to Itachi.
“I’ll see you then.”
He left her alone, with the paper telling her to report to Frontlines at 18:00. Sakura reached into her pocket and opened her death list, taking note of all the new names that had been added to it:
Senju Tsunade
Uzumaki Kushina
Jiraya
Sarutobi Asuma
Sakura felt awful for Naruto, who had lost his mother, aunt and uncle in the span of a few hours. She hoped he wouldn’t do anything rash and get himself killed. Sakura started to pack a few belongings, knowing that she wouldn’t get her safe, comfortable tent. She tried waiting for Ino, but the blonde didn’t show up, and Sakura left a note for her. With a silent crack, Sakura apparated out of there, headed towards the Frontlines.
When she arrived it was a mess. Suits of armor fighting each other, wizards throwing spells across a wide field, dragons rampaging about, killing men and women from both sides. She appeared right next to a exhausted Shikamaru, who almost fell out of his chair when he saw her.
“Sakura, thank god you’re here. You need to go to our makeshift Healer pavilion. There’s a lot of injured and Chiyo can’t handle them all herself.” Shikamaru pointed to a spot on his table, which Sakura noticed hosted a real-time map, showing the entire battlefield. She quickly noted where the pavilion was and ran there, not wasting any time with pleasantries.
It was a short, 5-minute dash to the pavilion, a small, unassuming tent that had a wide variety of protective spells around it. Sakura was quickly granted access by the guard at the door, and stepping inside the tent, she was hit by the groans of the injured and the smell of death. Steeling herself, Sakura made it to the elder that was bossing two Healers around.
“If they can make it to the tent in the main camp, tag them yellow. If they need immediate care, tag them red, if they cannot be treated, tag them black and give them something for it. The princess’ death shouldn’t have made you forget all your training!”
Sakura approached without fear, and the old lady quickly dismissed the two shaking Healer girls, focusing her attention on Sakura.
“You must be the mini-princess. Don’t stand around waiting for my orders, you and I are equals here, get to work!”
Sakura nodded and immediately set herself to work.
Working in the frontlines was the worst thing she had ever done in her life. The addition of dragons caused many wizards with major burns, gashes and blunt traumas, causing internal bleeding. They lost half of the men that came in, despite everyone’s best efforts. Sakura couldn’t even sleep the first night, everyone working overtime to stabilize the impact of the first attack. Eventually, the influx of patients slowed down and Sakura was finally able to rest.
“You’re the girl my grandson loves, huh.” Chiyo approached Sakura, who had been resting her head on the cool table in front of her. The girl was too tired to do much but groan. “He chose well. You did good work today.” With a kind pat on the pinkette’s head, the elder woman head out. Sakura smiled for the first time in a long while.
Too tired to move, Sakura fell asleep on the chair, using the table as a pillow. When she woke up, the sun was already high in the sky. She sat up, feeling her muscles complaining about the position she slept in. Cranking her neck to the side, to get rid of a cramp, Sakura finally saw Gaara, sleeping in the chair next to her, looking incredibly uncomfortable. Seeing him alive and well made all her previous discomfort fade away and she watched him sleep. A loud explosion nearby startled both of them, waking him up. They stared at each other for a few seconds before he pulled her close for a warm hug. Sakura closed her eyes, basking in the comforting presence of her boyfriend and couldn’t hold back the tears anymore.
She cried silently, wetting his shirt, grieving the dead and lamenting those she couldn’t save. They stayed like that for a few minutes longer, until she recollected herself.
“You should have gone to bed in the woman’s tent. They have proper beds there.” He muttered, pushing a few strands of hair off her face.
“I was too tired.”
“You need to take care of yourself. You’re the one who can save us when we get here.”
“I know.”
“I have to go back soon. It’s almost my turn.”
“Don’t die.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
With a tender kiss he left her, and Sakura finally collected her things, heading for the women’s tent, searching for a warm shower. When she walked in, Chiyo was heading out, and the older woman told her to sleep some more after showering. Sakura was thankful and did just that. When she woke up, she saw Hinata sleeping in the cot next to hers. Sakura noticed that Hinata had lost weight and looked paler than usual.
“I hate this war…”
From there, a routine was created. Sakura and Chiyo alternated shifts at the Medical pavilion, providing emergency care to whoever needed it. When she could steal moments with her friends, she eagerly did, but it was hard to coordinate, for everyone was always exhausted. Days turned into weeks, which morphed into months, and the war kept raging on. The arrival of winter resulted in a tentative truce, the cold causing both sides to reduce their activities. However, when spring arrived, the war returned, more vicious than before.
It started to take a toll on everyone.
Gone were the small moments stolen around a campfire, gone were the infrequent times Sakura and Gaara could steal a few minutes together, even a few dear friends were gone, lost to the battle.
The war eventually came to a close on a fateful day of April. Orochimaru had joined the battlefield, locked in combat with the Minister of Magic. Sakura had been partaking in the battle then, to help out their thinned out numbers. She saw him fall and her heart clenched, praying she could do something to save him. When she reached him, Orochimaru set his eyes on her, and Sakura was forced to protect herself. She was thankful for Tsunade’s teachings, or she wouldn’t have lasted the minute Naruto and Pain needed to come to her rescue. Naruto was filled with rage, grieving the death of his father, and Pain had simply been interested in dueling Orochimaru. With the three of them together, they managed to forced the wizard to start a retreat, but he was stopped by Gaara and Shikamaru, who had already given orders to reposition their troops, cutting off any reinforcements the snake could have gotten. Outnumbered, he tried to surrender, but Pain didn’t give him an opportunity, killing him where he stood. The death of their leader caused such dissent that it was a matter of days before they too were cleaned out.
The war was declared ended, and they were left to pick up the pieces.
Sakura, Hinata and Ino all returned to Hogwarts, to take their NEWTs in May. Naruto, Gaara and Shikamaru were all offered positions as Aurors, by the new head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Uchiha Itachi. The three accepted and Itachi assigned Shikamaru as head of the Auror department.
Sasori and Deidara returned to London to open up a new artisan’s shop, where they sold artistic decorations for the modern Wizarding household. Konan was offered a position as a Hogwarts professor, which she refused, choosing to remain by her husband’s side. Pain succeeded in using the status as war hero to ascend to Minister of Magic, and his first act was to outlaw any sort of prejudice related to someone’s birth. Calling a muggleborn mudblood would result in a hefty fine and a year in Azkaban. Sakura approved of this wholeheartedly, even if she did think that nobody deserved Azkaban.
Her time as a War Healer allowed Sakura to bypass the training for Healer in St. Mungus and she was quickly instated as a full-time Healer. Hinata took over her clan, ousting her father as a secret Orochimaru supporter. She donated a large part of the clan fortune to several orphanages for war orphans as a means of making up for her father’s sins.
A service was held for those who fell in combat, and Sakura spent all of her time in front of Tsunade’s grave, sending her prayers to the woman who helped her become who she was today. Gaara stood by her side, offering his support, which she was grateful for.
As they walked side by side out of the somber cemetery, Sakura promised herself to make her mentor proud.
“Gaara, do you think we can do this? Life on our own, no professor, no commander, making our own decisions?”
“Together, yes.”