Sakura Haruno The Gaming Addict, and Her Gamified Life [Naruto]

This one's odd. I wanted to do this side story like literally 8 months ago but because side stories are voted on, and it was apparently less interesting than I thought, it didn't get written until now. It's a little less vivid in my head than when I put it up so the writing might not be quite as warm, but I think it's still good. My beta basically had no complaints.
This was intended to introduce a few vague concepts which would come up later, and since we're not at the clocktower yet in public release, it still technically is, but it's way less.

I'm excited regardless to finally present... This.
Enjoy the side story! Patreon/Discord link: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree

---

"Oh, it's you." That'd normally be the sound of something important, but for Inoichi even the derision in the woman's tone is just another gust of wind as he passes. He's not even sure who that is, nor does he look to find out. "Fuck you!" He's not sure who that is either, "die screaming!" or that, it's really not that important.

He's visiting a prison, and he likely helped put a lot of these people in here. Konoha's ninja prison isn't designed for visitors of a non-professional manner, the people in here are too dangerous for any sort of comfortable civilian visitation and ninja would rather avoid looking like traitors by visiting those condemned within these walls. That's not to say they have no system for visiting, but it's deep within and based on the functionality of interrogation and a bit of brutal pragmatism.

Luckily for him, that's kind of exactly what he's here for. He walks familiar halls, ignores countless angry growls - while taking in their movements like any good ninja should - and soon enough he's standing in front of a big room that stings a little to the touch. There's a curse on this room, some kind of sealwork made to seem very ominous that completely nullifies exterior chakra usage. It'd be a serious problem if he wasn't here for a chat and was trying to pry into their mind, but then he can always drag them somewhere else if he changes his mind. Safety first. He schools his features and pushes the door open, ignoring the prick sent through his skin at the touch.
Inoichi's target is frowning at him in a very bored way the moment he enters, with his arms chained up and his body slumped over a big metal table. "Someone tipped you off." The blond interrogation specialist says with a grim expression, sunken cheeks, and a long black coat that trails behind him. The interrogation uniform is one that's specifically designed to be ominous yet effective, and he wears it well after years doing his best for his people. He's found a little bit of messiness in his hair works well for it, especially with the jagged ponytail trailing behind him and over the material.

"It had to be someone, they dragged me here," White hair carefully smoothed down and sharp eyes holding a playful undertone, Mizuki looks every bit as if it's just another day for him and not likely another review for if he gets out or spends yet another year past his sentence, "the list of people that would visit isn't exactly long…"

"Sure." Inoichi pretends to believe him, if nothing else to get this over with. There's nothing pleasant about this, so there's no reason to partake in any sort of pleasantries. He pulls a wooden chair from out in front of him, and leans over the metal table as he sits down. He crosses his hands in front of his face, resting his elbows on the table. The design is very odd, it seems to have even more powerful sealwork than the room itself but what it does or how it works is well beyond Inoichi's expertise. It's archaic though, markings he's never seen before - aside from other times viewing this table - are dug right into it. It's less a flat surface and more a hazard but it works and it holds stuff if you put it at the right angle.

This table makes him feel weak in a way the room simply doesn't, if he tried to use a Jutsu he'd probably pass out. Mizuki looks oddly fine, which tells him that the man has acclimated to this place, and probably did years ago. "I've never visited before." Inoichi points out, refuting his earlier statement a little but mostly just prompting him.

"I tried to kill your daughter," Mizuki reminds him, as if he'd forgotten, "I wouldn't visit me in your place either. Sorry about that." He has the gall to wear an awkward grimace, but then maybe he does have some remorse. It's been a long time. Still…

"I'm not sure how someone like you can be sorry about anything." Inoichi refutes him with a huff, "you were supposed to be out some time ago but everytime we're about to give the go, new evidence comes to light. You tortured children, Mizuki."

"I prepared them," The bastard shakes his head, his chains rattling as he throws his whole body into the motion, "I got overzealous, I regret that."

"You stabbed them." He growls at the prisoner.

"Very overzealous." Mizuki shrugs as if to say 'what do you want me to say?'

"Huahh…" Inoichi rubs his temple with three of his fingers. "Do you believe you deserve to be free after the lives you've ruined? I'd love to extend your sentence forever."

"I can't think of any I've ruined," Green eyes flash with a little offense, "they were ninja children, not civilians. Are you pretending that better prepared ninja are somehow worse off? I get being barred from teaching but stuck here forever?"

Inoichi sighs deeply at that. He's not wrong, not completely, but the mental scars he's seen in Sakura and Naruto alone will probably never stop bothering him. There were others too, and likely many that weren't even documented. "The boy you tried to kill is doing well."

"That's good." Mizuki's half-smile, half-snide grin catches the blond off guard, but not enough for him to drop his professional composure. "If he went and got killed by someone else I'd be pretty disappointed."

"You intend to hurt him again?" Inoichi asks with a quirked brow, "that's quite the admission."

"No, I didn't mean it that way. Sorry." Mizuki's expression sours.

"Well, since you're being cooperative, I'm here to talk about the students-" Inoichi starts-

Only to be interrupted "-I've told you all everything I know about Naruto, how many times do I have to-" Mizuki stops when Inoichi holds his open palm up.

"The other students." Inoichi explains sternly.

"Oh, no one's ever wondered about them before… What did you want to know?" Mizuki's expression shifts into one of delight, he's eager to talk about this, which is probably better than the alternative.

"What was your intention? Was it just sick sadistic pleasure?" Inoichi asks as professionally as possible.

"Wha-no!" The man's eyes widen as he sits back, the chains rattling and holding him in place. "I was trying to make sure they'd be prepared for the next war. Don't tell me you forgot the last one…"

"I didn't." A little bristle of pain and memory is all Mizuki gets out of him.

"After the war ended, the curriculum shifted so hard into peace and looking good that suddenly proper doctrine wasn't taught anymore. Suddenly, it was okay if Genin flinched in the field when they took their first real hits, no one cared that we were sending them into a meat grinder with a fake smile." The prisoner growls with everything he can muster, an aggressive tint behind his tone,, "all I did was make sure someone was offering the other perspective. I mean, I get why that stuff was important all of a sudden but can you really say any of us would have survived the war if we were taught like they are today?"

"We're not at war, Mizuki." Inoichi points out.

"And when we are?" Green eyes stare pointedly, "or do you think that was the last one ever?"

"They'll have had time to grow." Mizuki's not the only one to feel like that, and he's not the only person Inoichi's had this conversation with. It's normally an excuse to be cruel, 'the good old days,' it's sad that they got through Academy screening but they've been better since Mizuki for a reason.

"Maybe I was wrong, but I was never disloyal." Mizuki school's his features.

Inoichi gives him a small raise of his brow in response, tapping his fingers together where they're folded in front of his face. "Really? You're in prison for a reason, Mizuki."

"Hating the Kyuubi for what it did to us doesn't make me a traitor, that's what loyalty should look like. Hating the enemy, doing what you can against it, working against it at every turn you can. I tried to kill the Kyuubi, but I would have never actually hurt Ino. She just happened to be there." Mizuki grunts out, rage flashing in his eyes. "The fact that he's an active duty ninja now and we're not all dead tells me that I was probably wrong about him."

"You think?" Inoichi would laugh if it wasn't for the weight of the grim situation.

"Being wrong doesn't make me disloyal, it makes me stupid. I didn't trust the fourth or his seal, can you honestly say you did? That there was never a single doubt?" The traitor grumbles and justifies himself. He looked into Ino's mind back then, Mizuki had come at her with murder in his eyes. That he's had years to rationalize and change the story doesn't change what happened. Mizuki snapped, the Kyuubi likely had very little to do with it. Still, he doesn't refute him, he switches topics.

"Sakura." Is all he says, and from the way Mizuki's expression lights up he hits a nail on the head for interesting topics Mizuki wants to talk about..

"She's incredible." It's the first time Inoichi's heard Sakura praised like that without a caveat, he sounds excited, hopeful, and it's a little disturbing. Inoichi's report will be written with stress on certain words. "Do you have a different opinion?"

"I find her to be a rather uncomfortable topic to think about." Inoichi explains, "you did things to her that broke her, you made her less of a person."

"What? No, not even a little." He actually has the gall to laugh. "Sakura was already like that from the first time I met her. Something was dead in her eyes the first day she entered the academy. I caught her looking around, noticing things no one else did. She understood something was wrong around her, an analytical part in her mind placed that things weren't right and she just grew from that. I did very little."

"Things weren't right? Can you expand on that?" Inoichi asks with a scratch of his clean shaven chin.

"Mnn, it's hard to explain. You ever feel like something happened but it clearly didn't? Or something is at the edge of your brain but you can't fully grasp it? At some point that became a lot of the world for me, stuff that everyone else accepted as normal felt out of place. The world shifted, and I seemed to be the only one who noticed… until her."

"What do you mean by that?" Inoichi dares to pry, "that the world shifted?"

"I first noticed it during the war." Mizuki explains, "Minato disappeared for months-"

"You will say his name with respect." Inoichi urges.

"I won't." Mizuki denies, "he deserted us."

Inoichi grits his teeth, glaring hard.

"He disappeared when we needed him for months, we contemplated replacing him and then one day out of nowhere he's back and everyone acts like he never left." Mizuki explains with a very dry tone. "You'll claim that didn't happen. That the people that died because he left us never existed-"

"Because it didn't, I don't know what you're talking about," Inoichi explains, "prison has done more damage to your brain than I thought." A part of him contemplates asking for permission to deep dive and scramble the man completely, mercy isn't on his mind, but if the man thinks he's telling the truth what would be the point?

"Exactly," Mizuki's head shifts in a little bit of a circle as he replies smugly, "I suddenly noticed a lot of strange things happening. Technological advancements from nowhere, magic made a greater appearance to the point where simple craftsmen had seen it, even the very work done to make this prison cell safe wouldn't have existed before that."

"This prison cell is advanced sealwork, it's not new." Inoichi counters.

"You'd think that…" Mizuki looks strangely confident as he looks around, "Sakura seemed to see it too. She didn't understand what it was but she immersed herself in the oddities, she seemed to have no interest in sealwork but I showed her something like this and suddenly it was the most interesting thing in the world. She couldn't get her head out of the technology, she understood somewhere deep that this stuff was important, whereas everyone else treated it like it was normal." The white haired man looks down at the table's etchings, "so I gave her private lessons. I replaced some of her textbooks with ones from the war, and I taught her to pay attention to only what mattered. I knew it'd come up again someday."

"You're insane." Inoichi's skin boils, he feels rage give his flesh a lava bath and clenches his fists. It takes everything he can to not do something he doesn't want to. Or worse, something he does want to but very much shouldn't. "Some brutal tutoring is one thing but those textbooks included segments about when it's tactically advantageous for the village for you to commit suicide, you gave a child an informative indoctrination textbook from her country telling her to die for C rank missions if that's what it takes to complete the objective."

"I covered the suicide bit by making sure she knew how important she was. I also gave her pain training, hands on tutoring, loyalty training, and made sure she knew that she was to be a savior to uplift her generation when the next war erupts. I taught her to ignore everything unnecessary and do what must be done because she was the only one that-" Mizuki's words are cut short, his eyes widening in surprise as Inoichi jumps over the table and tackles him to the ground. Chained down like he is, there's nothing he can do as a fist slams into his jaw, not that he could fight a Jonin on his best day. Even with the magic around them blocking Chakra there's still a massive physical difference.

The rage in Inoichi's eyes burns bright, his fists bear down again, and again, "shut up!" He doesn't let another word pass, grabbing Mizuki by the collar and smacking his head against the ground. "Do you have any idea how much pain you caused a little girl? Do you know just how much pain it's caused everyone around her? How many nights my daughter has gone to bed crying because Sakura doesn't seem to value her own life?" His hand lands on Mizuki's throat, and he squeezes, a big part of him knowing that this might happen again if he doesn't-

A hand lands on his shoulder, and he glares back to see a guard. A momentary flash of rage threatens to boil over, to Mizuki anyway, but the lack of available chakra and his own years of rationality training help him stop himself. "What's done is done." He grumbles, knowing the Hokage is going to have a field day with him after this.

"She was supposed to value herself above others." Mizuki grunts from the floor, "if she's lacking in confidence, something messed up."

"Yeah, it was when you didn't tell anyone and handed a little girl bookworm brainwashing material. Even if you did everything right and with the best intentions, leaving her to figure it out on her own would always be a disaster." Inoichi struggles to a stand, acknowledging just how much energy he expended right next to that table. "Thank you for stopping me." He nods to the guard that stopped him, as he makes his leave.

It's unlikely Mizuki resulted in Sakura being more capable at all, what with him having her for only around two years. But the mental scars? Mental scars take ten seconds, two years is more than enough.

---

"I recommend everyone who was young and impressionable while Mizuki was a teacher be given a mental review, I'll perform it myself." Inoichi stands with his hands held together behind his back, his black coat pressed and freshly cleaned after he got blood on it in Mizuki's cell.

"We already did that after Itachi, which was after Mizuki if you recall. This is about Sakura?" The old man Hokage huffs his pipe, giving Inoichi quite the look. The nod he gets in return is dutiful, if not barren of much appreciable explanation. "If anyone else was messed up the way she is, it would have already been noticed. That kind of damage isn't subtle."

"I would still like to do the evaluations, I have reason to suspect he may have poisoned the lot of them with the wrong textbooks, war textbooks."

"I suspected as such myself, with Sakura in particular. A lot of the old textbooks are still in circulation for collectors, mostly among Jonin, so I did find it very possible she got a hold of one. It would explain some of her eccentricities.."

"And you didn't tell me?" Inoichi questions him before he can control himself, and grimaces after realizing what he did.

"Tell you what," Hiruzen asks with a little pull of his hat over his eyes, "that a genin in a house with ninja parents might have read a textbook they were likely given as children? Inoichi, be reasonable… I will cut you a deal, if you can find even one other student showing signs of sabotage quite like Sakura, I will allow you to do an evaluation on everyone."

"Thank you." With rage in his heart, Inoichi leaves to begin his search.

This one was requested by a $10 Patron, then voted on eventually.
The Village Arrest 2 months period has a lot of space to put cute things, and I'm happy to have been able to put something.
Enjoy the side story! Patreon/Discord link: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree

---

"No, that's bad." Yet another day bored and stuck at home, Sakura finds herself working on her drawing skills, which really means she's failing horrifically and grunting to herself. "Why can't I just gain a skill on this already?" She throws a magenta stained drawing in the trash after messing up another draft. There's not a lot to do on house arrest when she doesn't have classes or a meeting with Ino. She twirls the colored pencil in her fingers and wonders if there's any justification to pop in on any of her friends. "Maybe I should host another party? Ami seemed to like the last one, after she got over whatever was bothering her."

She taps her lips with the eraser and looks to her door a second before it bursts open and a blonde savior steps through in a pretty purple skirt and form fitting top meant to show off curves that Sakura can analytically acknowledge but she finds the real thought in her head is 'that can't be easy to move in.' "Why aren't you dressed?" Ino asks her, and Sakura blinks a few times, racking her brain for an answer to that question that isn't 'why would I be?'

"The Flower festival, dummy, we have to do our thing… We do this every year, Sakura." That does explain why Ino's hair is down and there's a sunflower half sticking out of it. She hadn't noticed until now but actively searching, it's fairly obvious.

"I suppose I should get dressed then, I'm sorry, I forgot." Sakura gives her an apologetic smile, only to watch Ino groan and throw her hands up.

"Every year and yet I'm surprised every single time!" She stomps one foot on the creaky floor and walks out the door.'

"I'll be down in ten minutes-" Sakura begins-

"If you spend any less than an hour getting ready we're not going!" Ino shouts as she stomps down the stairs, and Sakura ponders what she could possibly spend an hour on.

---

So twenty of the minutes were spent sitting around pretending to get ready while a screen lit up her face, but she did manage to fill the rest of the time showering, finding clean and nice pink clothes, braiding her own hair back - that probably takes longer for civilians, if they can do it alone at all - and finding just enough make-up in a care package Ino left her months ago to make herself look a little less pale. Which was an art project, and she may have learned something for her drawing later. She's just not very good at that, she wonders if skills require some base level of proficiency to be reached before they can activate? She feels like she's gotten better though, is she just that hopeless?

She should start grinding stickman drawings to see if that works.

"You look nice." Ino says, soft bare arm linked with hers as they wander towards their goal.

The flower festival is a formal event for a couple of days each year when a lot of the prettier flowers bloom in the green areas Konoha normally has sectioned off. For most people it's a time to visit, buy a pass, and spend the day wandering around and oohing and ahhing at all the local beauty. It's a tourist trap, and it makes anyone who deals with flowers quite a bit of money. Which is why for Ino and Sakura it's a little different. Ino helps run a flower shop. "Like always, this gate is just wide open." Sakura snickers, "isn't this a safety hazard?"

"The wildlife doesn't like leaving." Ino reminds her, "too much open air, not enough prey."

For the two of them, they take a trip to the Forest of Death and pick a bunch of rarer flowers for inventory and promotional purposes. They get all dressed up and then get what they can before something chases them out, and then they spend the rest of the day in the shop selling to people that want to buy flowers after they're done at the actual festival. The outfits are more for the shop part. She kind of wishes they did it backwards this year? She's pretty sure she could kill anything that tried to stop them this year so they could probably do this for way longer if Ino let her come in combat gear and change after.

"Well, let's go in." The pair prance on in like it's a second home. Sakura gets the feeling Ino would be mad if she made the suggestion that she actually go change and undo that 'hour' of work.

---

"That went poorly." Three baskets, that's all they managed before they were ambushed by a horde of snakes. "Why is it always snakes?" Ino asks.

"I dunno, maybe because they stick mostly to the ground and we're actively trying to get flowers?" Sakura laughs, sticking a band-aid on Ino's forehead where she scraped it running. A bell rings just as she uses a little bit of her spit to make sure it's properly sticking. "Customers!" She whispers excitedly, jumping up with the brightest smile she can manage and holding up one of the baskets. There's some kids coming through the glass door at the front, a little girl and a boy, followed shortly by an older man. "Free forest of death exclusive flower with any purchase of two thousand Ryo or more!"

"It's three thousand, Sakura, it's been three thousand for two years!" Ino grumbles from where she's patching her leg behind the counter.

"Free Forest of Death exclusive flower with any purchase of three thousand Ryo or more!" Sakura beams for them, and while the older man seems a little put off by her awkward smile, the kids jump and cheer at the idea of some special flower they wouldn't have seen out there at the festival.

---

The night sky is sparkly this time of night, the endless expanse above them something that Shikamaru is no doubt looking at right now, though his thoughts are likely very different. He's not laying right beside an Ino that won't stop looking at her every ten seconds when she 'probably' won't notice. "This was fun." Ino nudges her, "That one looks like a rose." The blonde smiles at her, before pointing up at a grouping of stars high up in the sky.

"It looks like a lot of flowers, Ino, plants all look the same." Sakura points out, shifting a little in place.

"They do not, you take that back." Ino giggles, rolling her eyes at her friend.

Laying on the roof to take in the stars at the end of the day seemed like a perfectly normal after work day thing when they were kids. Knowing that Ino likes her, she can't help but notice romantic connotations. "How often did you sneak in a little romance throughout our childhood?" She can't help but ask, looking at Ino and ignoring the stars she's seen thousands of times.

"Err-" The girl's flaming cheeks would have given it away even if Sakura was bluffing.

"It's fine, I've always liked these moments," Sakura shrugs, "but please just admit it's a date next time, hiding behind tradition is very awkward for me. I don't understand all this stuff and the more layers between reality and what I'm experiencing, the more lost and confused I am. It hurts when you know everyone else is seeing stuff you don't and they're not even bothering to explain it. It feels disconnected and lonely. I already have to deal with perceiving things so differently…"

"Well, that's what you get for being a genius, but… I'm sorry." Ino leans over to kiss her cheek, before thinking better of it. Sakura rolls her eyes in response. She doesn't mind giving Ino casual intimacies, their friendship has always involved them and Ino acting like they're forbidden now just makes things feel icky. She'd rather Ino go full ham and let her set boundaries when they matter, but maybe that's missing the point. She learned recently that intentions matter, and that black and white has started to gain color as she gains more charm and has more learning experiences. One day she'll probably learn that humoring Ino is a bad move. For now, she just likes to see her friend smile, so she leans over so Ino can get her cheek kiss.

"Don't apologize, apologizing means guilt." Sakura shakes her head at her with a soft and understanding smile. "I want you to do better, just like I'm trying to do. I'm not feeling guilty for every mistake I'm making, and you shouldn't either."

"Right… Sorry." Ino giggles.

"What did I just say-" Sakura scolds with a big smile of her own.