They had just landed smoothly on the Residence's roof, when Katsuyu warned them to hurry.
"I'm not sure how much longer Sakura can keep it up", the slug said.
As fast as they could they carried the unconscious Rin inside, down the corridor, met halfway with Kakashi, who guided them along. They placed her on the bed, attached the machines, that Tenten previously had smuggled out of the hospital, to provide life-support under Katsuyu's guidance, while Sakura sat in one corner, cross-legged and deep in concentration.
As soon as they were done she opened her eyes, undid the seal her hands had formed.
"Did it work?", she asked slightly out of breath. She got to her feet, staggered as she went to Rin – immediately a number of hands were there to support her – to see if everything was in order.
It was. It had worked, she thought, they had made it in time. She smiled, wanted to compliment the others on their good work, but gray clouds already started to close in on her vision.
Sakura could not recall if she had ever felt this exhausted, and somewhere in the back of her head she remembered – she had always imagined it to be painful or at least unpleasant. Right now, however, it was the most beautiful experience; As if the world itself reached out for her with its ancient, eternal hands, wrapped her in a deep and dark embrace and whispered in her ear, everything was going to be fine, because now she could come home, where she belonged, where she could be nothing but herself – free and at peace and with no other purpose than to just be.

When Sakura regained consciousness all sense of peace and contentment was gone and forgotten. The only thing she now felt was cold, indescribably cold. She wasn't quite sure where she was, or how she had come to be here, a constant buzzing in her ears made it impossible to hear anything around her, the cold canceled out any sense for her surrounding. Sakura tried to move, but she could not even feel her arms or legs, couldn't even open her eyes. She tried to scream, but – like the rest of her body – her vocal cords too did not obey her.
Maybe, she wondered, this wasn't her body at all. Maybe she had died and now was nothing but a disembodied soul floating in endless nothingness.
No. This had to be her body. She felt her heart rate increase as panic took hold of her. For a short moment the adrenalin rushing through her veins allowed her to move, if only a little, to give a half strangled moan. Somewhere, faraway behind the veil of white noise, she heard someone say her name, felt hands placed on her shoulders. The touch's warmth soothed her, calmed her down until, eventually, she drifted back into a semiconscious state.