Machines hummed softly beside the bed where Y/N lay motionless. Bandages wrapped tightly around his torso, dark poison marks spreading beneath them like cracks through glass. His breathing was shallow. Weak. Barely there.

Tsunade stood beside him with exhausted eyes, medical gloves stained faintly with blood. The overhead lights cast deep shadows beneath her eyes, aging her a decade in three days.

The image still haunted everyone. The ambush. The poisoned blade. Akari's scream. The attacker had lunged straight for her, blade coated in a poison designed to destroy chakra pathways.

Y/N moved instantly. One flicker step. One heartbeat. The blade meant for Akari pierced through him instead.

Even dying, he fought. Black flames erupted across the battlefield as Amaterasu consumed every remaining attacker. Witnesses later said Y/N looked less human and more like vengeance itself before collapsing into the blood-soaked ground.

Akari reached him first.

Nobody forgot the sound she made.

Naruto's breathing was uneven. His eyes — usually bright with stubborn hope — looked hollow.

Kakashi's visible eye narrowed slightly, his posture rigid in a way that betrayed more than he would ever admit aloud.

The heart monitor beeped steadily. Unchanging. Unaware.

For the first time since becoming Hokage... Tsunade looked afraid.