No, it's totally tongue acrobatics. It's absolutely a vital form of ninja training. How else do you develop the muscles requires to spit senbon hard enough to pierce someone's flack jacket?
Sakura Haruno The Gaming Addict, and Her Gamified Life [Naruto]
- Thread starter Sendicard
- Start date
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
Orochimaru of course was a master of that technique
There is a strong trend in media for authors to think that a tragic backstory is enough to make a character sympathetic. As if having suffered is all the justification you need to horrifically mistreat people who had absolutely nothing to do with your suffering.
Charitable: TenTen is supposed to be 'Strong Independent Woman Who Don't Need No Sensei'.
Realistically: Masashi Kishimoto considers females to be support staff at best and cheerleaders at worst.
In either case she is more there to fill the numbers than to actually be part of the team.
I cannot help but feel a harmless sword is not doing its job.
I can well see why readers had issues with TenTen. Immediate murder attempt and baseless accusations because of something that was her fault makes her far more of a dick than Neji.
The two boys one girl team structure is intended to motivate the boys to perform by competing for her attention IIRC
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
Sakura's finally found someone who she can perfectly grind her physical stats with!
...As a workout buddy, not that.
However, if Lee develops his canon crush, Ino's going to be a bit annoyed I imagine.
I can't help but wonder if she had her sword out during that entire conversation... I'm too lazy to re-read and see if I missed her putting it away.
"I'm not even sure how to imagine that statement" I'm sure Ino would be happy to explain...or demonstrate
"I'm not even sure how to imagine that statement" I'm sure Ino would be happy to explain...or demonstrate
I was assuming it was a chakra control thing, but now I'm thinking he just headbuts the ground in a very controlled way.
Yeah, this is one of the major reasons I dropped the series. I got tired of the way he was treating Sakura. Though I don't really remember the details beyond her getting relegated to medical staff as it's been far too long since I watched it.
That's 'cause it's not about morality, the sympathy retcon is to make them less intimidating. If the character is genuinely unappealing, you're better off going all-in on the nihilistic evil.
It's kind of odd, seeing the warnings about readers not liking Tenten in this arc.
Sure, she made a mistake, people do that. Sure, she's doubling down in the aftermath of it, people do that too. She has strong opinions and is acting on them even when it may be unwise, but that's people. If it's just the conflict with protagonist-centric morality... well, I'd like to think better of people.
I do hope we'll get to see more than this note and the contrasting note of professionalism, but Tenten's already making a stronger impression than Haku and Zabuza did, in my opinion. I look forward to seeing where that goes.
Sure, she made a mistake, people do that. Sure, she's doubling down in the aftermath of it, people do that too. She has strong opinions and is acting on them even when it may be unwise, but that's people. If it's just the conflict with protagonist-centric morality... well, I'd like to think better of people.
I do hope we'll get to see more than this note and the contrasting note of professionalism, but Tenten's already making a stronger impression than Haku and Zabuza did, in my opinion. I look forward to seeing where that goes.
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
Oh no, it wasn't anything huge.
And I doubt it will be here either.
Don't you worry about that. She's just, not necessarily a great vibe for some time.
I think the Canon side story will basically fix the issue entirely. No one was like harassing me or anything, Patrons are actually incredibly polite people, I love them.
They just uh, opened my eyes to the fact that more insight was needed to be given.
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
Yeah, the side story definitely goes a long way to help with that. I can give a lot of slack to Tenten. She was this close from joining the orphan club via a DIY Demon Sword. Her being a bit trigger-happy and rude towards Sakura is understandable.
I don't know how much charm Sakura will need before she recognizes she really should apologize to Tenten for the unneeded trauma, but this is also a ninja deathworld. She may just save Tenten's life enough times to forgo the need to apologize if they go on enough dangerous missions. Heck, if she drags Team 3 into a dungeon, it could easily catapult their relationship to being friends purely on what kind of weapon drops Sakura's willing to give to Tenten.
Tenten would probably get along better once she realizes Sakura has no social skills and no sense of malice.
And THEN the weapon drops change things.
What if: Haku streamed: The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
Another week above $70, another What If.
Patreon went back up again, quite drastically, I really need to get Kofi setup they're taking like $70 from me at this point, fuck Patreon XD
This game is pretty cool, the devs are really responsive. I actually had a huge problem and one of the devs spent a good part of his night helping me fix it.
And one of the devs helped me test and confirm their RNG system is accurate just the other day, there's a lot of community interactivity and I love it.
Helps I no-lifed Runescape for a while there.
Here's a link to the game, if "singleplayer Runescape" has you at all interested.
$15 is a little expensive, but it's basically one month of a Runescape sub and you'll hella get more than one month of Runescape out of this game.
View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1189290/The_Black_Grimoire_Cursebreaker/
To be clear they have no idea I did this, and I'm not gonna tell them, so unless you go to their discord and inform them I'll get no credit.
"This is a new game I stumbled across, Sakura said I needed to try it for her so I could tell her what I think." Haku admits, showing off the game's EA screen on Steam, and scrolling through it. "It looks interesting, though I don't have the knowledge of the game it's based off of. She said it's something called Runescape?" He shrugs, and clicks purchase. It's cheap, and it was a request from Sakura so he's not about to deny her.
He's making enough money to pick up a game or two. It downloads quickly, and he spends the few moments it's downloading waving at chat and thanking someone named Iruka for the donation. Didn't Sakura mention him once? It seems he's got a lot of Sakura's old friends in his chat, that's nice, "it's nice to get to know you all." He truly means it, learning more about Sakura through her old companionships is one of the most exciting parts of getting to meet people.
Streaming is unfortunately quite region based, with the hidden villages only allowing streams like his outside of Fire country on a delay, so that they can shut it off if he says something wrong. Since everyone else gets a worse experience, they don't watch him as much as his neighbors do.
That's fine though, because he's at least allowed to stream outside of Fire country, a lot of people aren't, he had to apply and it was this whole thing which kept him quite occupied for a bit there. He even forgot to make Sakura dinner once! Luckily, her parents did it, he was truly worried until he found out. "Lightning and thunder, that's an interesting starting ambience. I like it." It seems the game has a bit of a prologue, he's a king? No gender choice or anything? That's fine, not every game needs that, but he takes note immediately, he prefers to be ambiguous even in games and female bodies tend to be better for that when they're not outfitting them in needless bikini.
The point and click nature of the game confuses him for a little, causing him to thumb his bottom lip and play around, but some helpful comments from people used to this 'Runescape' quickly help him. "Hmm, I have to decide who to side with, it seems this guy's a jerk so… I kind of want to craft, this game has crafting right? Maybe I should side with the loud guy, with the mines. Ore would be good for that right?"
It's a quick political intrigue intro that has him confused and it's a struggle, but soon he's in a battle and slaying foes with lots of number pop-ups. "They're not doing any damage to me, is it not supposed to be possible to lose this? I guess that makes sense, the battle is decided by random chance, it'd feel awkward if I was punished for bad luck during the intro of a game. Good choice, I think."
There's a lot to discover, but after battling, he wakes up in a graveyard. "I'm undead?" His eyes practically twinkle, "I'm reborn? That's so cool!" Everything in the past erased away like cold water, and risen to do the bidding of a new master?
Oh that's totally his kind of thing. "I might have to try this Runescape game so I can give this a better, more informed review, but I like this. I hope it's not too short."
Haku would play this game for over 50 hours before it was even released.
Patreon went back up again, quite drastically, I really need to get Kofi setup they're taking like $70 from me at this point, fuck Patreon XD
This game is pretty cool, the devs are really responsive. I actually had a huge problem and one of the devs spent a good part of his night helping me fix it.
And one of the devs helped me test and confirm their RNG system is accurate just the other day, there's a lot of community interactivity and I love it.
Helps I no-lifed Runescape for a while there.
Here's a link to the game, if "singleplayer Runescape" has you at all interested.
$15 is a little expensive, but it's basically one month of a Runescape sub and you'll hella get more than one month of Runescape out of this game.
View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1189290/The_Black_Grimoire_Cursebreaker/
To be clear they have no idea I did this, and I'm not gonna tell them, so unless you go to their discord and inform them I'll get no credit.
"This is a new game I stumbled across, Sakura said I needed to try it for her so I could tell her what I think." Haku admits, showing off the game's EA screen on Steam, and scrolling through it. "It looks interesting, though I don't have the knowledge of the game it's based off of. She said it's something called Runescape?" He shrugs, and clicks purchase. It's cheap, and it was a request from Sakura so he's not about to deny her.
He's making enough money to pick up a game or two. It downloads quickly, and he spends the few moments it's downloading waving at chat and thanking someone named Iruka for the donation. Didn't Sakura mention him once? It seems he's got a lot of Sakura's old friends in his chat, that's nice, "it's nice to get to know you all." He truly means it, learning more about Sakura through her old companionships is one of the most exciting parts of getting to meet people.
Streaming is unfortunately quite region based, with the hidden villages only allowing streams like his outside of Fire country on a delay, so that they can shut it off if he says something wrong. Since everyone else gets a worse experience, they don't watch him as much as his neighbors do.
That's fine though, because he's at least allowed to stream outside of Fire country, a lot of people aren't, he had to apply and it was this whole thing which kept him quite occupied for a bit there. He even forgot to make Sakura dinner once! Luckily, her parents did it, he was truly worried until he found out. "Lightning and thunder, that's an interesting starting ambience. I like it." It seems the game has a bit of a prologue, he's a king? No gender choice or anything? That's fine, not every game needs that, but he takes note immediately, he prefers to be ambiguous even in games and female bodies tend to be better for that when they're not outfitting them in needless bikini.
The point and click nature of the game confuses him for a little, causing him to thumb his bottom lip and play around, but some helpful comments from people used to this 'Runescape' quickly help him. "Hmm, I have to decide who to side with, it seems this guy's a jerk so… I kind of want to craft, this game has crafting right? Maybe I should side with the loud guy, with the mines. Ore would be good for that right?"
It's a quick political intrigue intro that has him confused and it's a struggle, but soon he's in a battle and slaying foes with lots of number pop-ups. "They're not doing any damage to me, is it not supposed to be possible to lose this? I guess that makes sense, the battle is decided by random chance, it'd feel awkward if I was punished for bad luck during the intro of a game. Good choice, I think."
There's a lot to discover, but after battling, he wakes up in a graveyard. "I'm undead?" His eyes practically twinkle, "I'm reborn? That's so cool!" Everything in the past erased away like cold water, and risen to do the bidding of a new master?
Oh that's totally his kind of thing. "I might have to try this Runescape game so I can give this a better, more informed review, but I like this. I hope it's not too short."
Haku would play this game for over 50 hours before it was even released.
Chapter 40: Arc 4 - Brawling In The Streets: The Start of a Long Journey
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
Patreon got Chapter 60 today, which is astounding because it's nowhere near Arc 4s end.
I didn't realize starting out that Arc 4 would be so damn long.
Which is actually something important. Patreon is 20 chapters ahead, actually 20, it's nuts. I made a collection today, so that newbies who join the patreon aren't scrolling back months they can just click the button.
Also working on figuring out how to get the posts on site instead of requiring patrons to download a document, issue is Patreon formatting is terrible. Oh well, I'll figure it out.
In other news, this chapter is the start of a very long journey. Sakura will make mistakes, she'll make friends, and she'll fall in love (okay, probably not that last one.)
Wish her luck.
"So, you're in charge." Sakura can't help the incredulous expression that overtakes her - as she's recently learned is somewhat cute - face. Her finger points towards the Hyuuga pretty boy, but she can't believe what she just heard for a second. "You're actually being put in charge of this mission? I don't think my team could agree on a mission leader no matter what the stakes were. That includes Kakashi." Officially he's obviously the mission leader, he's the jonin sensei, but the reality is that he doesn't give a lot of direction at all. They can't count on him to actually lead anything, it's mostly them doing what they think is best individually.
The only thing they've really cooperated on was that dungeon, and even that was kind of just them all thinking it was a priority at the same time.
"Yes, well, we're far superior to a rookie team, and I would appreciate it if you would recognize and respect that." The boy scoffs at her, putting up airs in a way that makes her feel somewhat gross just to be near. She didn't agree to have to put up with him, but it seems she has to anyway. She'll definitely be reporting his attitude to the Hokage in her mission report, maybe he'll care, maybe he won't, not her place to decide that. "Tenten doesn't like you, that already puts you on thin ice as far as I am concerned." He huffs at her, as if reading her mind.
She knew the Hyuuga had wrought iron poles up their poop chutes but she had no idea it was this bad. To say she's surprised would be, well, accurate is a pretty good word for it. It turns out the mission she's been assigned to is not going to be run by Gai Maito and his absolutely stunning smile, no, that's being relegated to Neji Hyuuga, the team's resident dick. "Yes Master, my apologies for daring to compare you to the likes of lowly me." She mocks him, rolling her eyes while they walk from the training grounds towards the front gate of Konoha. "I just meant, I thought your Jonin sensei would be leading."
"He will be around." Neji answers, a tick mark clearly appearing on his forehead at her reply. It's quite visible, and somewhat violent. He should maybe get that looked at. "He is taking the opportunity to observe while training his rusty stealth skills. By law, a superior officer does still need to be present whenever a mission is taken by genin that will leave the village proper."
"But he won't be doing anything." Sakura clarifies.
"He will not." Neji's at least willing to answer her. When she had originally started trying to ask questions, Tenten had hissed at her, and Lee - as she'd found out mini spandex was named - wouldn't stop blushing and looking away from her. It's kinda hard to answer her question when he's practically catatonic because she looked at him.
Months ago she would have had no idea what was going on, she'll admit a week ago she would have been confused, but finally reaching nineteen charm has done wonders. There's a lot of cool concepts that she wasn't aware of before that suddenly smacked themselves into her brain full force. Like how people's emotions on entirely different matters than what is currently happening can alter their reactions, or how someone is not necessarily talking about the thing they're currently talking about.
Basically, she's deciphered that this boy is in love with Tenten but feels bad about how his love is treating her. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the boy has chosen to check out. It's the honorable thing to do if she's fair. "And our mission is?" Sakura asks.
"Your sensei didn't even bother to tell you what we were going to be doing?" Neji growls.
"Oooh, yeah, I'm with you there, he's a dick." Sakura agrees with a nonchalant wave of her hand at the air itself, as if expecting it to respond in likeness. She can kind of imagine what a wind nod would look like. "My sensei wouldn't tell me what was going on if there was a reward for doing just that. I'm still not sure how many jars… mostly because instead of telling me he put the exact number in my closet and I'm not counting that. Still, answer given…"
"What are you prattling on about?" Neji looks back at her mid-stride, clearly he's not very happy with her. "Forget I asked, it is no matter. We are heading to a village by the name of Chokuri. It's been taken over by missing ninja and it is our job to get it back by any means necessary so they can start paying their taxes to the firelord again. This kind of thing happens a few times a year, genin and academy students from foreign lands decide the Leaf is weak and set up shop somewhere without much protection. As we've already discussed, our team is rotating leadership on low Bee rank missions to prepare for when we become chunin, and Gai Sensei will not be there to lead us."
"Ah…" She trails, "um, so wait, are we sure there won't be chunin or jonin? What do we do if we encounter some?"
"You can consider missing nin, on average, to be about half a rank lower than their rank would normally indicate, due to a lack of village resources to upkeep their training, and poor nutrition and breaks." Neji answers. "The four of us should have no issues if we encounter one or two chunin."
"And if there's more?" She asks.
"Gai sensei is still there." He reminds her. "He will get involved should anything, irrational, occur." Despite his condescending attitude, Sakura can't help but feel pretty great about actually having someone that explains things. It's kind of awesome if she were to admit it. Not that she would admit it, at least not to this asshole. "Besides, that is why we have back-up, so that there are four of us and not three. Gai Sensei wouldn't have said you were strong if you wouldn't be helpful."
If nothing else, he's very honest with his opinions. They seem rationally bound too, if a little presumptuous. "And uh, we're completely sure it's acceptable to just head out on this mission?" She asks.
"Why wouldn't it be?" He glares back at her.
"Well, uh, shouldn't we report my involvement to the Hokage?" She can't help but ask, a little nervous about it all.
"Your sensei will have already done that." He points out. "You should not worry about pointless things."
She is gonna worry, oh hell she's gonna worry. Kakashi, actually being helpful?
Legal requirement or not, she's willing to bet she gets taken into custody and interrogated when she gets back because she got labeled a missing ninja over Kakashi forgetting…
Well, no, probably not. But only because Kakashi will have been interrogated before that about where his ninja went, and he'll spill then to get out of the conversation.
Probably.
Hopefully.
Maybe.
"So, uh…" Naruto's more than a little unsure about this. It feels weird getting ice cream without Sakura, even if the chocolate flavor hits his tongue in a way he can't deny makes him very happy. "Sakura…"
"She needs time with other ninjas." Kakashi explains, slurping on some mint chocolate chip through his mask like some kind of monster. "You two are way too hard on her, she needs to understand that it's okay to be herself."
"We're not that bad…" Naruto looks at Sasuke, who shakes his head at him. Sasuke's got some vanilla, the boring bastard. He seems to be enjoying it though, maybe Naruto'll try it next time. "Are we?"
"You've made her feel guilty for being different." Kakashi explains.
"It's something I've been worried about." Sasuke speaks up, stunning Naruto for a long second. "She's brutal, and disturbing, but Wave got out of our hands very quickly. We likely wouldn't have survived if she was a different person. I don't know if she knows that we appreciate her."
"But…" Naruto ponders, looking into the soul of his ice cream. "I don't want her to feel bad, I just, she scares me. I don't want to be scared."
"That's part of learning to be a ninja." Kakashi says, "everyone worth fearing is valuable. If another ninja doesn't scare you, either your ego went to your head, or they're not fit to be a ninja."
"Wait, so I scare you?" Naruto asks.
"Nope." Kakashi shakes his head.
"You bastard." Naruto growls.
"Besides," Sasuke decides to continue out of nowhere, "if she is to kill Itachi with me, I'd prefer her as she is, not as she pretended to be back in the academy."
"That's true." Naruto sighs a little, remembering the deranged girl that passed by each day like a ghost. He remembers crushing on her quite hard, if only because she was able to hide her true self better than he ever could. Her mask was a hundred times better than his, and not because it was showing off some powerful fake emotion like he tried, but because it seemed so completely dead most days. He admired that, and felt like she was something to aspire to be.
Finding out it was because she never slept and was just really, really tired was a bit of a reality check that threw his brain for a loop the likes of which he'd never expected to be thrown. It was a weird reason to like someone in the first place, but now he's grown to like her for a hundred other reasons.
Too bad she's his sister now, he's not exactly sure how to deal with those feelings.
Or maybe it's a good thing she's his sister now. It kind of simplifies it all for him. She's not his love interest, she's his cute sister who's slowly becoming a person right before his eyes.
Not that he wouldn't mind it differently.
He shakes his head, and licks his ice cream.
"You're all going to undergo training to get used to people like Sakura." Kakashi says. "The next few weeks I'm going to treat you with the most killing intent you've ever felt, you'll be put in what feels like real life or death situations constantly until you grow to appreciate how she's handled them for you up until now, and you'll grow less sensitive so the chunin exams don't pose a threat."
"Do I need that?" Sasuke asks.
"If you want to have even the slightest chance of killing Itachi, yes." Kakashi affirms. "The training will start when we're done with our ice cream, and end when Sakura gets back. You'll be happier to see her than you've ever felt seeing anyone in your entire life."
I didn't realize starting out that Arc 4 would be so damn long.
Which is actually something important. Patreon is 20 chapters ahead, actually 20, it's nuts. I made a collection today, so that newbies who join the patreon aren't scrolling back months they can just click the button.
Also working on figuring out how to get the posts on site instead of requiring patrons to download a document, issue is Patreon formatting is terrible. Oh well, I'll figure it out.
In other news, this chapter is the start of a very long journey. Sakura will make mistakes, she'll make friends, and she'll fall in love (okay, probably not that last one.)
Wish her luck.
"So, you're in charge." Sakura can't help the incredulous expression that overtakes her - as she's recently learned is somewhat cute - face. Her finger points towards the Hyuuga pretty boy, but she can't believe what she just heard for a second. "You're actually being put in charge of this mission? I don't think my team could agree on a mission leader no matter what the stakes were. That includes Kakashi." Officially he's obviously the mission leader, he's the jonin sensei, but the reality is that he doesn't give a lot of direction at all. They can't count on him to actually lead anything, it's mostly them doing what they think is best individually.
The only thing they've really cooperated on was that dungeon, and even that was kind of just them all thinking it was a priority at the same time.
"Yes, well, we're far superior to a rookie team, and I would appreciate it if you would recognize and respect that." The boy scoffs at her, putting up airs in a way that makes her feel somewhat gross just to be near. She didn't agree to have to put up with him, but it seems she has to anyway. She'll definitely be reporting his attitude to the Hokage in her mission report, maybe he'll care, maybe he won't, not her place to decide that. "Tenten doesn't like you, that already puts you on thin ice as far as I am concerned." He huffs at her, as if reading her mind.
She knew the Hyuuga had wrought iron poles up their poop chutes but she had no idea it was this bad. To say she's surprised would be, well, accurate is a pretty good word for it. It turns out the mission she's been assigned to is not going to be run by Gai Maito and his absolutely stunning smile, no, that's being relegated to Neji Hyuuga, the team's resident dick. "Yes Master, my apologies for daring to compare you to the likes of lowly me." She mocks him, rolling her eyes while they walk from the training grounds towards the front gate of Konoha. "I just meant, I thought your Jonin sensei would be leading."
"He will be around." Neji answers, a tick mark clearly appearing on his forehead at her reply. It's quite visible, and somewhat violent. He should maybe get that looked at. "He is taking the opportunity to observe while training his rusty stealth skills. By law, a superior officer does still need to be present whenever a mission is taken by genin that will leave the village proper."
"But he won't be doing anything." Sakura clarifies.
"He will not." Neji's at least willing to answer her. When she had originally started trying to ask questions, Tenten had hissed at her, and Lee - as she'd found out mini spandex was named - wouldn't stop blushing and looking away from her. It's kinda hard to answer her question when he's practically catatonic because she looked at him.
Months ago she would have had no idea what was going on, she'll admit a week ago she would have been confused, but finally reaching nineteen charm has done wonders. There's a lot of cool concepts that she wasn't aware of before that suddenly smacked themselves into her brain full force. Like how people's emotions on entirely different matters than what is currently happening can alter their reactions, or how someone is not necessarily talking about the thing they're currently talking about.
Basically, she's deciphered that this boy is in love with Tenten but feels bad about how his love is treating her. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the boy has chosen to check out. It's the honorable thing to do if she's fair. "And our mission is?" Sakura asks.
"Your sensei didn't even bother to tell you what we were going to be doing?" Neji growls.
"Oooh, yeah, I'm with you there, he's a dick." Sakura agrees with a nonchalant wave of her hand at the air itself, as if expecting it to respond in likeness. She can kind of imagine what a wind nod would look like. "My sensei wouldn't tell me what was going on if there was a reward for doing just that. I'm still not sure how many jars… mostly because instead of telling me he put the exact number in my closet and I'm not counting that. Still, answer given…"
"What are you prattling on about?" Neji looks back at her mid-stride, clearly he's not very happy with her. "Forget I asked, it is no matter. We are heading to a village by the name of Chokuri. It's been taken over by missing ninja and it is our job to get it back by any means necessary so they can start paying their taxes to the firelord again. This kind of thing happens a few times a year, genin and academy students from foreign lands decide the Leaf is weak and set up shop somewhere without much protection. As we've already discussed, our team is rotating leadership on low Bee rank missions to prepare for when we become chunin, and Gai Sensei will not be there to lead us."
"Ah…" She trails, "um, so wait, are we sure there won't be chunin or jonin? What do we do if we encounter some?"
"You can consider missing nin, on average, to be about half a rank lower than their rank would normally indicate, due to a lack of village resources to upkeep their training, and poor nutrition and breaks." Neji answers. "The four of us should have no issues if we encounter one or two chunin."
"And if there's more?" She asks.
"Gai sensei is still there." He reminds her. "He will get involved should anything, irrational, occur." Despite his condescending attitude, Sakura can't help but feel pretty great about actually having someone that explains things. It's kind of awesome if she were to admit it. Not that she would admit it, at least not to this asshole. "Besides, that is why we have back-up, so that there are four of us and not three. Gai Sensei wouldn't have said you were strong if you wouldn't be helpful."
If nothing else, he's very honest with his opinions. They seem rationally bound too, if a little presumptuous. "And uh, we're completely sure it's acceptable to just head out on this mission?" She asks.
"Why wouldn't it be?" He glares back at her.
"Well, uh, shouldn't we report my involvement to the Hokage?" She can't help but ask, a little nervous about it all.
"Your sensei will have already done that." He points out. "You should not worry about pointless things."
She is gonna worry, oh hell she's gonna worry. Kakashi, actually being helpful?
Legal requirement or not, she's willing to bet she gets taken into custody and interrogated when she gets back because she got labeled a missing ninja over Kakashi forgetting…
Well, no, probably not. But only because Kakashi will have been interrogated before that about where his ninja went, and he'll spill then to get out of the conversation.
Probably.
Hopefully.
Maybe.
"So, uh…" Naruto's more than a little unsure about this. It feels weird getting ice cream without Sakura, even if the chocolate flavor hits his tongue in a way he can't deny makes him very happy. "Sakura…"
"She needs time with other ninjas." Kakashi explains, slurping on some mint chocolate chip through his mask like some kind of monster. "You two are way too hard on her, she needs to understand that it's okay to be herself."
"We're not that bad…" Naruto looks at Sasuke, who shakes his head at him. Sasuke's got some vanilla, the boring bastard. He seems to be enjoying it though, maybe Naruto'll try it next time. "Are we?"
"You've made her feel guilty for being different." Kakashi explains.
"It's something I've been worried about." Sasuke speaks up, stunning Naruto for a long second. "She's brutal, and disturbing, but Wave got out of our hands very quickly. We likely wouldn't have survived if she was a different person. I don't know if she knows that we appreciate her."
"But…" Naruto ponders, looking into the soul of his ice cream. "I don't want her to feel bad, I just, she scares me. I don't want to be scared."
"That's part of learning to be a ninja." Kakashi says, "everyone worth fearing is valuable. If another ninja doesn't scare you, either your ego went to your head, or they're not fit to be a ninja."
"Wait, so I scare you?" Naruto asks.
"Nope." Kakashi shakes his head.
"You bastard." Naruto growls.
"Besides," Sasuke decides to continue out of nowhere, "if she is to kill Itachi with me, I'd prefer her as she is, not as she pretended to be back in the academy."
"That's true." Naruto sighs a little, remembering the deranged girl that passed by each day like a ghost. He remembers crushing on her quite hard, if only because she was able to hide her true self better than he ever could. Her mask was a hundred times better than his, and not because it was showing off some powerful fake emotion like he tried, but because it seemed so completely dead most days. He admired that, and felt like she was something to aspire to be.
Finding out it was because she never slept and was just really, really tired was a bit of a reality check that threw his brain for a loop the likes of which he'd never expected to be thrown. It was a weird reason to like someone in the first place, but now he's grown to like her for a hundred other reasons.
Too bad she's his sister now, he's not exactly sure how to deal with those feelings.
Or maybe it's a good thing she's his sister now. It kind of simplifies it all for him. She's not his love interest, she's his cute sister who's slowly becoming a person right before his eyes.
Not that he wouldn't mind it differently.
He shakes his head, and licks his ice cream.
"You're all going to undergo training to get used to people like Sakura." Kakashi says. "The next few weeks I'm going to treat you with the most killing intent you've ever felt, you'll be put in what feels like real life or death situations constantly until you grow to appreciate how she's handled them for you up until now, and you'll grow less sensitive so the chunin exams don't pose a threat."
"Do I need that?" Sasuke asks.
"If you want to have even the slightest chance of killing Itachi, yes." Kakashi affirms. "The training will start when we're done with our ice cream, and end when Sakura gets back. You'll be happier to see her than you've ever felt seeing anyone in your entire life."
Huh, now I wonder how Belri and Naruto would interact.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This is the most hilariously realistic take on the concept of "serious Naruto Shinobi soldiers" I've seen.
"Basically, she's deciphered that this boy is in love with Tenten" Lol. I knew there was no way she knew what was going on, but she almost had me doubting prior to this
"mostly because instead of telling me he put the exact number in my closet and I'm not counting that. Still, answer given…" Malicious compliance. The best kind of compliance.
"She's not his love interest, she's his cute sister who's slowly becoming a person right before his eyes." Hm, I wonder if this means he needs to be giving the shovel speech to Ino
"mostly because instead of telling me he put the exact number in my closet and I'm not counting that. Still, answer given…" Malicious compliance. The best kind of compliance.
"She's not his love interest, she's his cute sister who's slowly becoming a person right before his eyes." Hm, I wonder if this means he needs to be giving the shovel speech to Ino
The Shovel Speech - Naruto to Ino
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
"Ino, I have here a shovel." Naruto says, holding what barely counts as a shovel. In reality he couldn't find a shovel on short notice - there's surprisingly few of them in the hands of the populus, they're almost entirely owned by ninja - and he couldn't find the one Sakura gave him for their initial exam, so he had to make a clone and henge it into a shovel.
"You do." Ino agrees, looking him up and down, pondering his more formal clothes and - "oh, you're business Naruto!" She realizes, holding out a hand, and happily shaking his when he offers as well. "I haven't met you before, it's nice to meet Sakura's friends."
"Right, so I have here a shovel," he continues, as if nothing happened, securing his shovel back in both hands now that they're done shaking, "if anyone hurts Sakura, we're going to bury their house in cow shit from a nearby farm. You will also need a shovel."
"Business Naruto I don't, think this is how this conversation is supposed to go." Ino awkwardly trails, looking from shovel to boy, to shovel, then back to boy. "Aren't you supposed to make threats or something, as her brother?"
"Yes, threats, Mebuki told me to get a shovel and make threats," Naruto agrees instantly, "so I'm making them, as instructed, we're going to bury them in cow poop. Are you with me?"
"... Yeah, sure."
Yes, this is indeed a perfect example of the shovel speech. No notes.
Will he care? Absolutely.
Can he do anything about it? Absolutely not.
Plus sorting out genin is a job that the Hokage delegates to jonin. Gai is the one failing to cultivate maturity in Neji.
Yeah… which is why powerful ninja go off on months/years long training trips out in the wilderness. And why half the most dangerous people on the planet are missing nin.
Question is how many of them recognise propaganda when they are fed it.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
To be fair Akatsuki is an aberration that has the backing of an entire Hidden Village (Rain). And Orochimaru used their resources and his own encyclopedic knowledge to help set himself up with his own Hidden Village.
Going out to the wilderness is fine for training but staying out there between fights is bad for restocking on things like explosive tags and soldier pills, which your average missing nin doesn't know how to make. To say nothing of the lack of medic nin treatment between fights. If Zabuza had access to a proper medic, he would have recovered faster and Kakashi would have been screwed.
An 'on average' statement doesn't apply to everyone equally.
Last edited:
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
Obviously a missing nin strong enough to have the resources and backing to avoid the very issues that make missing nin worse, aren't going to be hit by those issues.
That's just a logical loop. Rich people don't care about speeding tickets, doesn't mean speeding tickets don't alter poor people's finances.
Thozmp
Gets my kicks above the waistline, Sunshine.
I like to think that Kakashi didn't bother being stealthy to do this. Just casually walking into the Haruno residence, maybe even waving to the parents, going to Sakura's room and just filling the closet with jars, blatant as can be. Whether Sakura was watching is unknown.