Sakura sat nestled in the roots of a gnarled, ancient tree, its twisted limbs arching above her like skeletal arms. The bark bit into her back as she crouched between the unconscious bodies of her teammates, Naruto sprawled on her left, his chest rising and falling with erratic wheezes, and Sasuke curled to her right, his body hot with fever and twitching in unconscious pain. Blood had dried in sticky clumps in her hair, matting strands to her scalp, and grime streaked her cheeks. Her arms trembled with exhaustion as she dabbed a damp scrap of cloth across Naruto's bruised, dirt-smeared forehead. The cloth was cold, soaked from a nearby puddle, and the icy chill bit her fingertips, briefly jolting her from the fatigue threatening to consume her.

Then she turned to Sasuke. His breath came in short, shallow gasps, skin pale and glistening with sweat, while the cursed seal lay like a bruise against his neck; black, angry, and pulsing faintly with chakra. Just looking at it made her stomach twist. In this moment, Sakura felt crushed under the weight of responsibility. She was the only one left conscious, the only one capable of keeping them alive. Her own muscles screamed from strain, and every blink became heavier than the last. Her chakra reserves were nearly empty, barely a flicker left, the fragile remains of a civilian-born shinobi pushed to her limits. Still, she didn't sleep. She couldn't.

"Hang in there, you idiots," Sakura rasped, voice raw and dry. "Just... hold on." Her vision blurred again. Just for a second, she thought. Her head dipped forward. Then a rustle, her breath hitched and her hand went instinctively to the kunai pouch strapped to her thigh. There, just beyond the edge of their small clearing, leaves stirred low to the ground. Small. Quick. A blur of movement scurried through the underbrush. Too small for a human, a squirrel. Sakura exhaled sharply, her shoulders slumping with tension. A hysterical laugh nearly escaped her throat. "Just a squirrel," she muttered under her breath, wiping sweat from her brow.

The creature inched closer. Slowly. Too slowly. Not the erratic, nervous scampering of a wild animal. It moved with an eerie purpose like it was direct, almost controlled. Sakura's stomach turned. Her instincts screamed. "No." In one motion, she grabbed her kunai and hurled it with everything she had left. The blade cut through the air, whistling. Shhk! It found its mark. Screeeee- BOOM! The ground erupted beneath the squirrel in a violent explosion, the force of it blasting dirt, bark, and leaves into the air. Sakura barely had time to throw herself over Naruto and Sasuke, wrapping her arms around their bodies as the shockwave crashed over them. Heat seared her back. The ground trembled. Her ears rang, filled with a sharp, whining buzz.

When the dust began to settle, the clearing was blanketed in thick, choking smoke. Shards of scorched bark rained down, and the taste of ash filled her mouth. She opened her eyes, blinking through the haze. Her hands stung, scraped and bloody from the impact. Her heart pounded like a war drum, and her lungs fought for air thick with the scent of burned leaves and explosives. That wasn't just a squirrel, that was a trap. Sakura pushed herself up on shaking arms, every muscle burning with fatigue. Her pulse thundered in her ears as her gaze swept the darkness beyond the treeline. Her eyes were wide, alert, searching. They weren't alone. Someone was watching and wanted them dead.

She curled her fingers tighter around her kunai and shifted to shield her teammates again, back pressed against the roots of the tree. Her breath came in quiet, rapid bursts. The quiet was no longer peaceful, it was charged, tense, like the forest itself was holding its breath. Sakura was no longer just tired. They were being hunted.

She dragged Naruto's limp body closer to Sasuke, gritting her teeth as her arms burned with exhaustion. Every tug scraped her knees across the rough forest floor, but she didn't stop, no. Not until the three of them were huddled together beneath the sheltering root of the massive tree. Her own body formed a trembling shield around them, a barrier of flesh and will. The air was thick and acrid with the lingering scent of smoke and scorched wood from the earlier explosion. The ground beneath her was damp, pressed with footprints. Both hers, and the enemy's.

Across from her, Zaku, Dosu, and Kin stood like executioners, framed in the moonlight that barely filtered through the canopy. Their shadows stretched long and predatory across the forest floor. Their eyes gleamed with malicious amusement. Zaku's lip curled into a smirk. "You're shaking, little kunoichi," he sneered, his voice sharp and mocking. "Just hand over the scroll and crawl back to your village."

Sakura didn't move. Her legs locked up, leaden and unresponsive, though her knees quivered under the pressure. The cold sweat that dripped down her temple mixed with the blood caked to her skin. Her heart thundered so loudly she could barely hear them, and yet every word dug into her like a kunai to the chest.Inside her mind, Inner Sakura screamed like a battle cry, voice echoing through the fog of fear: "We can't give in! Not again! MOVE, Sakura! Fight!"

Her body still hesitated, frozen between instinct and paralysis. 'Dammit... I'm not strong enough. But I want to be.. No I need to be. This is life or death Sakura! Get a grip you're the only one still conscious.' She exhaled slowly, forcing the tremble from her limbs. Her eyes, bloodshot and wide, slowly narrowed into a focused stare. A new steel entered her spine as she pushed herself up just enough to face them. She smirked, even though her lips were cracked and dry. "Then come and try."

Dosu stepped forward, the dull glint of his metal gauntlet catching the faint light. "You're outnumbered and outclassed," he said, his voice disturbingly calm. Each step crunched fallen leaves and twigs beneath his sandals. "Step aside, girl."

"No," Sakura said, her voice like a blade drawn slowly from its sheath. It wavered at first, but steadied with every word. "You'll have to go through me." At this moment, Sakura felt the fear surge, like a constant tightness ready to collapse her lungs at any second, but she didn't back down. She wouldn't, not after all they had done for her, after Naruto's sacrifice, and after Sasuke's scream. She had sworn to protect Naruto and Sasuke, no matter what.

She clenched the handle of her kunai so tight her knuckles turned white, and with a flick of her wrist, she triggered the traps she had frantically laid in the minutes before and wires snapped. Kunai whistled through the air. Smoke bombs exploded into thick gray clouds, swallowing the clearing in haze. Spiked ropes hissed through the darkness like vipers.

Zaku snarled and stepped back, startled. "Tch, you think that's enough to stop us?!" The smog thickened, curling around their feet and choking the light, but Dosu didn't flinch. He raised his gauntlet arm with a slow, calculated menace. With a hum that vibrated in the air like the tuning of a string, he activated his amplifier and with a sudden, violent pulse erupted from the device, shattering the smoke with an invisible force. The soundwave ripped through the air, scattering the traps like dust. Metal snapped and trees groaned. Sakura staggered back, the pressure rattling her teeth and ringing in her ears. The smoke cleared.

Dosu stepped forward through the remnants like a wraith, unbothered and cold. "You're pathetic," he said flatly, as if stating a fact. "You don't even deserve to be a ninja."

Sakura flinched. The words hit harder than his soundwave ever could. Her hand faltered, the kunai slipping just slightly in her palm. Her chest tightened as the insult bloomed like poison. In that moment, every bitter memory came rushing back; Every time she had been protected, every moment she had stood behind Naruto or Sasuke while they bled for her. Every time someone said she wasn't strong enough, wasn't worthy, wasn't a real ninja.For a split second... She almost believed them, but beneath the pain, beneath the fear, something else stirred. A quiet, furious ember.

The Sound Trio advanced, shadows stretching like claws beneath the moonlight, the air thick with the stench of blood, smoke, and damp earth. Sakura's kunai trembled in her grip, but she stood firm, body coiled like a spring ready to snap, WHAM!

A blur of green streaked across the clearing, followed by a shockwave of force. Zaku, Kin, and Dosu were hurled backward like rag dolls, crashing into the underbrush in a flurry of snapping branches and startled gasps. Rock Lee stood where they had once been, a fierce gleam in his wide, determined eyes. His green jumpsuit was already scuffed from travel, his bandages fluttering with every subtle movement, but his posture radiated unwavering conviction.

"I will protect Sakura until my dying breath!" he declared boldly, chin lifted to the stars. His bowl-cut hair shimmered under the pale glow of the moon, absurd and poetic all at once. Sakura gasped, lips parted, relief flooded her chest like cool water, but with it came a sour twist of guilt. She hadn't wanted to be saved again... not after everything. And yet, here he was.

Dosu recovered with a grunt, his fingers twitching over his gauntlet. "Tch," he growled, stepping forward. "Then die with her." With a low hum, Dosu activated his Melody Arm and launched a deafening pulse of sound, the vibrations slicing through the air like invisible blades, but Lee moved. A blur again, his sandals barely touched the dirt before he gripped a thick tree root and tore it from the earth with a grunt. Bark shredded under his fingers. He twisted midair, using the root as a makeshift club, slamming it into the path of the incoming soundwave. BOOM! The impact echoed through the forest like a drumbeat, the vibration rippling through the ground beneath Sakura's knees. Lee turned, serious now. The gleam in his eyes had sharpened into fire.

"You attacked someone precious to me..." he said, voice low and vibrating with intensity. "That gives me no choice." In his mind, he saw Guy-sensei, arms crossed, eyes burning with pride: "The Front Lotus is not to be used lightly, Lee. Only when you must protect those dearest to you."

Lee's bandages began to unravel from his arms, fluttering in the breeze like trailing comets. Dirt scuffed his sandals. Leaves stirred violently from the sheer pressure rising around him. "This is worth it," he whispered. Then vanished. In a flicker, Lee reappeared behind Dosu, his form almost invisible from sheer speed. With a burst of chakra and raw strength, he grabbed Dosu and launched into the air, spinning like a cyclone wrapped in bandages and willpower. "Front Lotus!" Sakura's eyes widened as she followed their trajectory upward, heart hammering in sync with the rising spiral of movement. The wind howled and the branches bent. The sky seemed to hold its breath.

CRASH! But it didn't land cleanly. Zaku had made the ground soft underneath them, catching Dosu. The two of them tumbled, but Lee hit the earth hard, too hard. The sound of his body hitting the ground was sickening, like flesh and bone slamming into stone.

He didn't move. "Lee!" Sakura's scream caught in her throat. Her knees buckled. Her stomach turned cold.
He had used everything, his body, his heart, his life, to protect her.

Dosu rose slowly, bruised and panting, but alive. A crooked grin spread across his face. "You're fast," he admitted, voice rasping. "But this... is faster." He raised his gauntlet again. The metal glinted, bloodstained and sharp. A high-pitched hum began to build.

"Melody Arm: Sound Drill." The frequency surged forward, a blast of concentrated vibration. Lee's body convulsed from the hit, blood misting from his mouth as he collapsed completely, limbs limp and unresponsive. "You can't beat sound," Dosu said, stepping over the fallen leaf litter. His words sliced the air like a knife. "It's faster than muscle. Faster than thought itself."

Lee lay motionless, his bandages tangled around him like broken wings. His face was peaceful, even as pain etched into his body... and this time he didn't rise. Sakura's throat tightened. Her fingers curled into the dirt. She felt the terror return, but also something else: fury.

Naruto and Sasuke still hadn't stirred. Their chests barely rose and fell, breaths shallow and uneven. The air was thick, not just with tension, but with the smell of blood, smoke, and sweat. Sakura's limbs screamed in protest, trembling from sheer exhaustion, her knees buckling with each heartbeat. Nonetheless, she stood...Alone. Between her unconscious teammates and the advancing Sound-nin, but she didn't run.

"You think you're brave, huh?" Kin mocked, a cold smile curling her lips. "Let's see how long that lasts." She flicked her wrist. Senbon needles gleamed like silver fangs, whistling through the air fast, sharp and merciless. Sakura barely managed to move. One senbon sliced clean across her bicep, a thin line of blood welling up like dew, while another buried itself into her thigh. The pain was instant, white-hot and biting. She stumbled, the world spinning for a heartbeat. However, she stayed standing.

"Let me take a shot," Zaku said, cracking his knuckles with a smirk. Kin stepped aside, laughing. Zaku lunged forward, and his fist crashed into Sakura's gut with a sickening crunch. The wind was ripped from her lungs, a strangled gasp escaping her as she folded inward. But she didn't fall; she refused. "Still got fight, huh?" Zaku growled. He shoved her down and straddled her back, hot breath on her neck. She struggled, but his weight pinned her like an animal caught in a trap. "Then hold still." His fists rained down, once, twice. Each blow thundered in her skull, cracking like distant lightning. Her nose broke. Blood gushed, warm and metallic, sliding into her mouth. Her cheek split. Vision blurred. She raised her arms weakly, uselessly and desperately. Then, she bit him. Her teeth sank into his wrist with a savage snap, blood flooding her mouth, warm and coppery. Zaku howled in pain. "AGH! You little bitch!" He grabbed her by the scalp and slammed her head into the dirt then again, and again, and again. Her face scraped against stone and grit. Dirt forced its way between her teeth. Her fingernails clawed at the earth, splitting, tearing, cracking as she fought to hold on.

"You don't touch them," she hissed through the blood, her voice ragged. "You don't touch them...!" Her breath came in shallow, gasping bursts. But her hands never stopped moving, never stopped clawing, fighting. Her nails dug deep into Zaku's flesh, her strength primal, desperate, defiant. Her fingernails are embedded with dirt and cracking or coming off stung as they were in his flesh but she didn't care. She fought through the pain for them. She got out from under Zaku who was now seething in pain at the bite and she nails.

"You're starting to get on my nerves," Kin snapped. She darted forward, grabbed Sakura's blood-soaked hair, and yanked her head back hard enough to make her neck pop. Pain lit fire in her scalp, tears welling in her eyes. "You're so proud of your hair, aren't you?" Kin sneered. "So soft. So pretty..." She twisted the strands tighter. "You're just a little girl playing ninja. But you're weak. This is where it ends." Sakura whimpered, her vision swimming. Her scalp burned. Her skin stung. Blood dripped into her eyes, blurring everything. Then, her gaze shifted. Naruto, still, face bruised and slack. Sasuke, chest heaving, seal pulsing with a feverish glow. Lee, unmoving. No one was coming. Her fingers closed around something cold and familiar. Her kunai. Her vision narrowed and inside, something snapped. A cold fire, fierce and foreign, ignited in her chest. It pulsed through her veins, silencing the pain, sharpening her senses. Her lips curled into a feral snarl. She raised the blade. With a single, savage motion, Sakura sliced through her own hair. Kin stumbled back, stunned. Her grip loosened as strands of pink fluttered to the ground like sakura petals, falling silent and soft into the bloodstained dirt.

Sakura twisted, free now, and slammed her fist into Kin's face. Bone met flesh with a sickening crack. Kin's body flew backward, crashing into the trunk of a tree with a sharp grunt. Panting, bleeding, and shaking, Sakura stood tall. Her hair was uneven, wild, clinging to her blood-streaked cheeks. Her eyes blazed. "I'm not that little girl anymore," she said, voice hoarse but unshakable. Blood trickled from her mouth and down her chin. "I won't be weak. Not for anyone."

The ground rumbled. A pulse, faint at first. A breath beneath the earth. Not chakra and not a jutsu, this was something older, ancient even. The dirt beneath her feet cracked. Tiny fissures spiderwebbed outward, and from the split earth a golden glint emerged, catching the moonlight. Sakura's breath hitched. It was a hilt. Elegant and jagged, wrapped in etched bronze and obsidian. The shaft of a massive axe, half-buried in stone and soil. The weapon thrummed with energy, like a heartbeat. It sang in the air, a hum that reverberated in her bones. Her soul seemed to recognize it. Like it was calling her. She crawled forward, bloodied fingers dragging through the broken dirt, breath ragged. Her hand stretched toward the weapon, and the moment her fingertips brushed the handle, the world went still. Time collapsed, the wind froze, the stars stopped burning. All that remained was the axe and her.

'At long last... my willful kunoichi.' The voice did not echo from within like Inner Sakura's, rather, it resonated through every bone, every breath, every drop of blood in her veins. It was low and radiant, like the hum of a temple bell in a silent forest. It carried not just sound, but feeling: divine certainty, unwavering protection, and the scorching wisdom of battle. Sakura gasped, her breath catching in her throat. This was not her. And yet... it was.'Do not be afraid, kunoichi... for you are my reincarnate. I am Sekhmet, Goddess of War and Healing. You have not run. You have not begged. Even broken, you choose to protect.' The words washed over her like molten gold. Her wounds, still open and bleeding, felt distant, her pain dulled, as though something greater than flesh was now holding her together.

Then she saw her. A figure began to form in front of her, woven from threads of light and heat. Translucent, but fierce. Majestic. Towering. Her feet hovered inches from the broken earth, wrapped in glowing golden sandals and her robes fluttered in a wind that did not touch the trees. She had sharp, regal brows, and violet markings like war paint streaked from her temples to her forehead, glowing faintly with ethereal flame. But what struck Sakura most wasn't the divine attire...it was the rose-pink hair, loose and wild, identical to her own, and the piercing emerald eyes that mirrored hers with terrifying clarity. She was... Sakura. Or rather, what Sakura could one day become; divine, boundless and unafraid. Her throat tightened with questions, but no words came.

'Sakura Haruno, I am now a part of you.' The goddess's voice softened. 'Your training begins soon. For now, I will wield the axe, Astra. Forgive me... for I must use your body.' Sakura could only nod. She did not resist. The goddess stepped forward and her glowing form phased into Sakura's, like ink dissolving into water. At the moment of contact, a shockwave of red and gold light exploded outward. Sakura's back arched violently. Her limbs lifted from the ground as pure chakra flooded her body, every muscle pulled taut with power not her own. Her heart thundered like a war drum, a steady, reverent beat that shook the dirt beneath her. The air thickened, humming with energy. The trees bent slightly as though bowing.

At this moment time resumed. Sakura floated inches above the ground, her hand gripping the massive golden axe now freed from the earth, Astra. It pulsed in her grasp like a living heart, ancient symbols glowing along its shaft and blade. It hummed with judgment, not rage, but a presence that weighed intent, not strength. The ground beneath her cracked. She landed with a quiet thud, but the earth rippled, as if gravity bent around her. Leaves spiraled upward, caught in the current of her energy. Her hair, short and blood-matted, now lifted gently in the breeze of her chakra. Her eyes glowed a vivid, verdant green, the whites nearly consumed by power. Yet they did not burn with madness. They burned with a new clarity, purpose, and resolve.

The Sound Trio froze. Dosu's gauntlet clicked and trembled, his fingers twitching without command. Kin took a single step back, her confidence draining like blood from a wound. Zaku opened his mouth to jeer, no sound came. Their breath caught as Sakura raised Astra. The axe gleamed beneath the moonlight, divine symmetry in forged steel, the golden edges shimmering with a holy fire. Runes along the head of the weapon glowed as though alive, whispering Sekhmet's script: truth, judgment, fury. "Do with my body as you will, Sekhmet. I can feel it... I'm not yet ready to wield this alone. But I trust you." Then, her eyes locked on the Sound trio.

"Leave." Sakura spoke, lips parted gently, her voice layered hers and Sekhmet's fused. Mortal and immortal. Soft and commanding. The word hit like thunder. Carried on two voices, one human, one godly, it shook the branches above. The very air grew heavier, as if the world itself listened. The Sound-nin moved anyway.

Dosu lunged first, his gauntlet shrieking with a banshee's wail, the air warping as the sonic attack surged forward like a living thing, but Sekhmet had already taken control. Sakura's body moved, not with hesitation or instinct, but with the precision of a goddess. Her fingers adjusted around Astra's hilt as though she'd wielded it for a hundred lifetimes. To the Sound Trio, she no longer looked like the beaten kunoichi they had toyed with, but something along the lines of a weapon wrapped in flesh.

WHHHHRRM! Astra spun in her grasp, a radiant blur of steel and divine chakra. One sweeping arc, BOOM, the pressure wave shattered the ground in front of her, sending dirt, rock, and leaves flying in every direction. Dosu didn't even scream. The force hurled him through the trees, his body slamming into a trunk with a grotesque crack. He slid down it, limp. "Dosu!" Zaku's shout cracked with rage and fear. He launched compressed sound blasts from both palms, the air whining with pressure as the chakra whirled violently through the clearing. They struck her head-on, but Sakura didn't flinch. She didn't even blink. Each of the blasts hit, but they didn't pierce. Her skin shimmered with a protective veil of golden chakra, Sekhmet's divine shield rippling like sunlight on water. Astra pulsed in response, as if insulted.

Sakura gritted her teeth and answered, dragging the axe upward in a vertical slash that cleaved the air in two, the resulting arc tore through Zaku's attack, bisecting it cleanly, the concussive force knocking him off his feet and slamming him into the earth. The air trembled. Kin turned to flee, in instinct, not strategy. Her eyes were wide with terror. But before her foot even lifted...Sekhmet was there. In a blink, she stood before Kin, face impassive, hair lifting gently in the wind of her chakra. "Too late." Her voice was a dual echo, both Sakura's and the goddess's overlapping in terrible harmony. She flipped Astra, grip reversed, and slammed the butt of the weapon into the earth with a sharp, definitive motion. BOOM. A ripple of force exploded outward, visible and tangible. Trees shuddered, branches cracked, the air snapped, and Kin was crushed to her knees, unable to move beneath the sheer weight of Sakura's empowered will.

Sakura's lip trembled, and though Sekhmet still moved her limbs, the voice that came next was hers: "I will never allow myself to be weak again."

Then, a stillness. Blood slicked her cheek, drying in streaks of copper against bruised skin. Astra hummed in her grip like a heart still beating after battle. Behind her, the bodies of Naruto, Sasuke, and Lee lay still, but they were alive. Safe. She turned, lifting her chin. To anyone else, it might've appeared that Sakura Haruno stood alone, a single kunoichi in the aftermath of divine fury, but she wasn't alone. Not anymore. She was no longer the girl who waited. No longer the shadow behind stronger teammates. She stood tall, not because someone had saved her, but because she had saved them. In her mind, Sekhmet whispered. Her chakra signature, and Astra's, vanished like a flame into ash, withdrawing gracefully as Sakura's body began to shake.

'This is just the beginning,' Sekhmet murmured, her voice wrapping around Sakura's soul like a mantle. 'You have not yet begun to bloom. I have so much to teach you...' The forest around them was scorched and broken, a circle of devastation radiating outward like a divine footprint. Smoke curled lazily in the warm air. Kin was unconscious in a tangled pile of brush. Dosu was unmoving, slumped and silent. Zaku wheezed, blood leaking from his nose, but awake. Sakura stood in the center of it all, shoulders trembling, fingers twitching as Astra's weight disappeared. Her legs buckled and the last of her strength was gone.

"Thank you... Sekhmet," she whispered, tears slipping silently down her dirt-streaked cheeks, falling to the cracked earth like dew. Then everything went dark, she collapsed.

✨ Author's Note ✨
Thank you for reading this far your support, comments, and theories would breathe so much life into this story. We're only just beginning, this goddess has only just stirred.

Until the next chapter...                                                                                                   

avisulov