At the very least the Intimidation Canes his Intimidation Cane Closet is full of are almost certainly not made out of torn-out Genin spines.
Sakura Haruno The Gaming Addict, and Her Gamified Life [Naruto]
- Thread starter Sendicard
- Start date
Yeah Hiruzen is a nice guy... he only uses jutsu like the spine-be-gone during war times.
I mean, that's a matter of perspective. And I don't know if you can blame the system when the bad stuff mostly happened because someone undermined the system?
It's just like in real life. Some rulers will be kind, some will be assholes.
I still maintain the opinion that centuries of war between all clans is worse than banding together and finding peace. Sure, that peace got interrupted three times but those wars didn't last for decades or devoured generation after generation.
The village gave kids the chance to grow up instead of being thrown into combat at 6 years old. It allowed people to support each other and cover each other's weaknesses. Working together for the common good is how you build a society, being a clan of isolationist murder wizards isn't.
Handing out the tailed beasts prevented war. When Konoha was new, no one had a biju. It wasn't until Madara forced Kurama to attack that one got sealed, which gave Konoha a decisive advantage over everyone else. The first Hokage then captured and distributed the other tailed beasts to even the playing field. Otherwise everyone else would have ganged up on Konoha, same as they later all attacked Uzushio.
Just because there were wars doesn't mean that the village system is bad. We didn't abandon democracy or republics just because those politics lead to two world wars, instead we installed safeguards that are meant to prevent this from happening again. You improve constantly, that's progress.
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...Okay. Here's the thing. On the one hand, I love democracy and I believe in progress as a thing over long periods of time - though it's often overlooked that cultures also can and have backslid into dictatorships, and even technological progress has at times encountered setbacks akin to the fall of Rome.
But people have different definitions of progress, and I think it's far too easy to dismiss the blood that oils the wheels of progress, and the people who define 'progress' with the elimination of entire groups of people. Danzo is hardly the first person to use nationalism toward awful means, and you only have to read up on the French Revolution and Napoleon, or Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution, or politics in the antebellum era prior to the US civil war, to understand that progress is not without winners and losers, and the winners are not all good and just, and the losers are not all bad and unjust, and democracy does not equal utopia.
Which also, you know, democracies have happily conducted genocide, and Konoha itself is a dictatorship anyway so...
But primarily I am deeply skeptical of those who expect the victims of progress to happily sacrifice themselves for 'the greater good'. History is full of atrocities that began in just such a way. And if such victims choose to fight back or reconsider a 'grand experiment', or oppose the majority, even violently, I sympathize, because a government which does not serve it's people can't expect their loyalty.
So I'm not saying the village system wasn't good for a lot of people. But VERY clearly it was bad for many others, including those who were hoping it would lead them somewhere better. As I said, when your clan goes from many to two or one or zero it's pretty dubious to call that any kind of improvement. And we encounter a LOT of people who are the last of their clan which joined a village in the Naruto canon storyline. But the village party line ignores this clear evidence to the contrary.
That said to bring it back to the story: I do not expect Sakura to do anything beyond hew to the village party line for now, though it may be that once she's REALLY strong she'll actually have some things to consider. And I look forward to more about her Wave game eventually.
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Naruto as the reactor/motive force, Neji as the sensors, Haku the skates...
Sendicard
Spreading Smiles
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
They joined a village for "peace" and then got butchered like cattle because they dissented with the regime.
Peaceful my ass.
I've heard that a few times, never read it personally.
Sadly Wave is on the backburner for a while but I do in fact plan for that system to come up, and in big ways, eventually.
Chapter 84 - Arc 5.6 - Hyuga Drama - Getting Used To It
Sendicard
Spreading Smiles
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
Started crossposting on another site recently, hope that works out. If it doesn't, oh well. My goal with this story is always to bring many smiles, including my own. If I can reach a whole new audience, even if it isn't profitable, why not? Boy am I desperate though, fingers crossed.
CH 84 is fun and serves as a break from the sorta heavy themes this story likes to throw around. One should always remember their roots. For me that's porn... but then next it's comedy, which is what I'm really remembering. Ya'll have a laugh, I did.
Enjoy. Patreon and Discord: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree
This isn't the first time she's taken a random guy into her home, but it is the first time that it wasn't her choice. It's a little awkward seeing Neji over there, eating the food Haku made for him and looking at her with gratitude filled eyes. Haku didn't do that, Haku never looked grateful. Haku still doesn't look grateful, and she prefers it that way. This is so awkward, and she's not even getting yelled at! If Neji's allowed, why was Haku a problem worth yelling at her for? Does she really have to lie and pretend she wanted him here?
It's not that she doesn't want him here, but she didn't before she saw the state he was in and when she thought her parents would be mad at her, how does she come to terms with that and accept his gratitude? Telling him the truth is a non-option, it'd change nothing but make him feel bad. The only reason to be honest would be to assuage her guilt, and she believes she's grown up enough since she became a ninja that she can hold her problems in for other people.
Haku's fawning over her as they eat dinner, Naruto and Business Naruto are eating from the same overstacked plate, and the two twin blonde girls he summoned are running around subsisting on snacks and sugar that her parents won't stop sneaking them when she's not looking. Which feels really, backwards, and also it's still Naruto so like what's the point of being stealthy? When they pop he'll learn it all anyway, and it's not like clones have to worry about their teeth or anything.
Then there's the question of why he has the blonde twins running around in the first place. Why does she suddenly have two clone sisters that act completely different from their two male counterparts?
It doesn't matter, she just shakes her head and enjoys her food. Some things aren't worth thinking about for any period of time, they're niggling thoughts and doubts and confusing metaphors and she's just above that now.
"So, what's up with the blonde hair?" Mebuki asks suddenly, pulling Sakura out of her thoughts. She has to look up to be sure she's even talking to her. It's been blonde for so long, and her mother has seen it so many times, asking now just feels foreign. Nothing's changed about it so…
"I just felt like it." Sakura admits.
"So it has nothing to do with Naruto?" Her mother asks, "it feels like it has to do with Naruto."
"I mean, maybe a little bit." She hadn't considered the possibility, but then she changed her whole outfit to be inclusive to a Clan neither of them had ever really heard about shortly before she did it, just because it had his name. Maybe he was a part in why she didn't protest the color Ino picked. "It wasn't my sole motivation, but I could see it."
"Should I change my hair?" Neji asks suddenly, "is that a thing here?"
Sakura can't help the red tinge that flows up her cheeks at the idea, he's already such a pretty boy, that'd be too much for her poor soul! She'd need to get him on a mic, and a camera in seconds, it'd be a managerial revolution! "Please do!" She can't help it, she tries to resist, but she shouts!
"Don't, she's being weird." Naruto decides to save Neji from her, the jerk.
"Are we still scheduled for later?" Haku asks Neji out of nowhere, and gets a subtle nod.
"What's later?" Sakura asks with a sudden apprehension and glorious glee.
This is everything she's ever needed in life. She's tuned right into their stream. Neji and Haku are commentating together, she didn't even set it up!
Neji's so stiff, and his attempts to feel the mood just do not work, and yet somehow the appeal is off the charts. The two are jumping off each-other and their feel good vibes, it's a miracle on the screen! She doesn't think Neji would function on his own like this, but with the two of them, mwah. She's over the moon, she can't get much prouder. She's going to be manager of the year and her whole body shakes while seeing the stream, her feet kick, and she finds she's rolling over from side to side on her bed in uncontrollable excitement.
That Haku did this without talking to her means he's getting very into the streaming part of his day too, which makes her life so much better. She checks in on Wave while she watches them, and finds her owned land is thriving. Well, thriving as a phrase, it's not like they're a bustling community overfilling and in need of expansion lest resources and travelers start being turned away. It's very firmly functioning without deficit, anything they need but don't make, they're having effortlessly imported while making profits off their export, and they've built another statue of her. That last part isn't particularly important, but since it has a mustache she's pretty sure that Naruto's built it, which makes it worth appreciating.
One should always put effort into admiring work their sibling puts into messing with her. She'll tell him she loves it later, for now, Neji just deadpanned and said something to Haku in the most toneless voice possible, and she has to hold in the giggles.
It seems like running a city from the sky is a lot easier than an actual city builder, because the people have autonomy and horrific disasters aren't coming every week or so to try and mess up her day at any cost. That's not to say it's not complicated, and she's pretty sure she'd be failing horribly without the system to keep track of everything. If nothing else, she'd have to live in Wave so she could respond to things in a quick manner, which'd be a no-go situation.
Meeting him at the training ground for the first time in several weeks, Sakura can't help but notice how weird things are with just Sasuke. Naruto's not here yet, he's got business to deal with so Kakashi's letting him arrive an hour late. Which does mean this is the first time the two of them are together alone in possibly forever. "Sasuke." She nods slowly, looking deep into his eyes with her own sharp reds.
"You." He greets back with a nod of his own.
"..." The stare doesn't end, they just keep the moment going with a few odd breaths. He clearly expects her to give up, but she didn't do the Deep Dungeon solo and get her favorite title because she gives up easily!
"..." Which does mean they're trapped, eternally so. Naruto'll arrive eventually, that'll be nice, but she can't help it, something about his response really bothers her so she has to give in a little herself first.
"You?" She asks.
"Mmhmm, you." Sasuke agrees like nothing is wrong.
"Sasuke… What's my name?" She twitches a little.
And he stares, "do you not know your name?"
"Sasuke!" She snaps at him, a twitch in her toes making her wiggle them randomly, that's a lot of nervous energy she has no idea what to do with.
"No, that's my name." He points towards himself.
"What's my damn name!" She growls at him, already shaking a fist at him.
"I feel like that's something you should know." He rolls his eyes at her like the damned diva he is.
"You don't know my name!" She reaches up to touch her twin tails, there's no way in hell… There's just no way! Her expression changes quickly. "Just say it." A cheshire grin embodying her lips, taking it over like a cloak has fallen over her. She reaches down for her sword, feeling its confidence enter her, and make her gaze all the creepier.
"I'm not participating in whatever weirdness you have going on." He deadtones at her.
"What's my name, Sasuke? I was joking with Ino but now I'm sure of it, you remember my name because of my hair color!" Sakura shouts at him.
"And what color was that?" He teases her, he has to be teasing her. His smirk is shit eating, and he rolls his shoulders, "I know your name."
"You don't! You totally don't! Say it!" The bridge wobbles a little as she stomps on it.
"No." He says coolly.
"Prove you know my name!" She stalks over to him, getting right in his face.
"You're being ridiculous, so no." His hands rest in his pockets, and he shows he has no fear of her when he blows on her nose pointedly.
"Sparring time, now." He doesn't have the chance to get his hands out of his pockets before her fist has him flying off the bridge towards the water below.
"What's my name you bastard!" The landscape is destroyed, and her complaints fall on relatively deaf ears. The two of them have been going at each-other for about two hours now. Which brings Naruto and Kakashi to sitting up in a tree, watching them fight. Naruto's got a juice box, and Kakashi stole his second one so he too has a box of juicy goodness.
"Should we tell her that he totally knows?" Naruto asks.
"This is good anger management training." Kakashi shrugs, slurping obnoxiously.
"How?" Naruto asks him, gazing up at him with one shiny blue eye.
"Sakura's not going to get what she wants until she calms down and accepts that there's nothing she can do." Their sensei explains, watching as blades clash and another pit of dirt gets displaced. "Are you ready to do a mission to fix all this later?"
"Aww, why me?" Naruto grumbles, watching the idiots be idiots with a smile. It's great when it's not him.
"Because Sakura is barred from missions until she's been cleared by interrogation as safe to operate, and while I could make her do it unpaid, I feel like she'll learn better if she has to watch you suffer for her mistake," Kakashi shoots him a one eyed smile, "complain really loud for me when you do, okay?"
"Sure… He does know her name, right?" Naruto asks.
Kakashi shrugs.
CH 84 is fun and serves as a break from the sorta heavy themes this story likes to throw around. One should always remember their roots. For me that's porn... but then next it's comedy, which is what I'm really remembering. Ya'll have a laugh, I did.
Enjoy. Patreon and Discord: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree
This isn't the first time she's taken a random guy into her home, but it is the first time that it wasn't her choice. It's a little awkward seeing Neji over there, eating the food Haku made for him and looking at her with gratitude filled eyes. Haku didn't do that, Haku never looked grateful. Haku still doesn't look grateful, and she prefers it that way. This is so awkward, and she's not even getting yelled at! If Neji's allowed, why was Haku a problem worth yelling at her for? Does she really have to lie and pretend she wanted him here?
It's not that she doesn't want him here, but she didn't before she saw the state he was in and when she thought her parents would be mad at her, how does she come to terms with that and accept his gratitude? Telling him the truth is a non-option, it'd change nothing but make him feel bad. The only reason to be honest would be to assuage her guilt, and she believes she's grown up enough since she became a ninja that she can hold her problems in for other people.
Haku's fawning over her as they eat dinner, Naruto and Business Naruto are eating from the same overstacked plate, and the two twin blonde girls he summoned are running around subsisting on snacks and sugar that her parents won't stop sneaking them when she's not looking. Which feels really, backwards, and also it's still Naruto so like what's the point of being stealthy? When they pop he'll learn it all anyway, and it's not like clones have to worry about their teeth or anything.
Then there's the question of why he has the blonde twins running around in the first place. Why does she suddenly have two clone sisters that act completely different from their two male counterparts?
It doesn't matter, she just shakes her head and enjoys her food. Some things aren't worth thinking about for any period of time, they're niggling thoughts and doubts and confusing metaphors and she's just above that now.
"So, what's up with the blonde hair?" Mebuki asks suddenly, pulling Sakura out of her thoughts. She has to look up to be sure she's even talking to her. It's been blonde for so long, and her mother has seen it so many times, asking now just feels foreign. Nothing's changed about it so…
"I just felt like it." Sakura admits.
"So it has nothing to do with Naruto?" Her mother asks, "it feels like it has to do with Naruto."
"I mean, maybe a little bit." She hadn't considered the possibility, but then she changed her whole outfit to be inclusive to a Clan neither of them had ever really heard about shortly before she did it, just because it had his name. Maybe he was a part in why she didn't protest the color Ino picked. "It wasn't my sole motivation, but I could see it."
"Should I change my hair?" Neji asks suddenly, "is that a thing here?"
Sakura can't help the red tinge that flows up her cheeks at the idea, he's already such a pretty boy, that'd be too much for her poor soul! She'd need to get him on a mic, and a camera in seconds, it'd be a managerial revolution! "Please do!" She can't help it, she tries to resist, but she shouts!
"Don't, she's being weird." Naruto decides to save Neji from her, the jerk.
"Are we still scheduled for later?" Haku asks Neji out of nowhere, and gets a subtle nod.
"What's later?" Sakura asks with a sudden apprehension and glorious glee.
This is everything she's ever needed in life. She's tuned right into their stream. Neji and Haku are commentating together, she didn't even set it up!
Neji's so stiff, and his attempts to feel the mood just do not work, and yet somehow the appeal is off the charts. The two are jumping off each-other and their feel good vibes, it's a miracle on the screen! She doesn't think Neji would function on his own like this, but with the two of them, mwah. She's over the moon, she can't get much prouder. She's going to be manager of the year and her whole body shakes while seeing the stream, her feet kick, and she finds she's rolling over from side to side on her bed in uncontrollable excitement.
That Haku did this without talking to her means he's getting very into the streaming part of his day too, which makes her life so much better. She checks in on Wave while she watches them, and finds her owned land is thriving. Well, thriving as a phrase, it's not like they're a bustling community overfilling and in need of expansion lest resources and travelers start being turned away. It's very firmly functioning without deficit, anything they need but don't make, they're having effortlessly imported while making profits off their export, and they've built another statue of her. That last part isn't particularly important, but since it has a mustache she's pretty sure that Naruto's built it, which makes it worth appreciating.
One should always put effort into admiring work their sibling puts into messing with her. She'll tell him she loves it later, for now, Neji just deadpanned and said something to Haku in the most toneless voice possible, and she has to hold in the giggles.
It seems like running a city from the sky is a lot easier than an actual city builder, because the people have autonomy and horrific disasters aren't coming every week or so to try and mess up her day at any cost. That's not to say it's not complicated, and she's pretty sure she'd be failing horribly without the system to keep track of everything. If nothing else, she'd have to live in Wave so she could respond to things in a quick manner, which'd be a no-go situation.
Meeting him at the training ground for the first time in several weeks, Sakura can't help but notice how weird things are with just Sasuke. Naruto's not here yet, he's got business to deal with so Kakashi's letting him arrive an hour late. Which does mean this is the first time the two of them are together alone in possibly forever. "Sasuke." She nods slowly, looking deep into his eyes with her own sharp reds.
"You." He greets back with a nod of his own.
"..." The stare doesn't end, they just keep the moment going with a few odd breaths. He clearly expects her to give up, but she didn't do the Deep Dungeon solo and get her favorite title because she gives up easily!
"..." Which does mean they're trapped, eternally so. Naruto'll arrive eventually, that'll be nice, but she can't help it, something about his response really bothers her so she has to give in a little herself first.
"You?" She asks.
"Mmhmm, you." Sasuke agrees like nothing is wrong.
"Sasuke… What's my name?" She twitches a little.
And he stares, "do you not know your name?"
"Sasuke!" She snaps at him, a twitch in her toes making her wiggle them randomly, that's a lot of nervous energy she has no idea what to do with.
"No, that's my name." He points towards himself.
"What's my damn name!" She growls at him, already shaking a fist at him.
"I feel like that's something you should know." He rolls his eyes at her like the damned diva he is.
"You don't know my name!" She reaches up to touch her twin tails, there's no way in hell… There's just no way! Her expression changes quickly. "Just say it." A cheshire grin embodying her lips, taking it over like a cloak has fallen over her. She reaches down for her sword, feeling its confidence enter her, and make her gaze all the creepier.
"I'm not participating in whatever weirdness you have going on." He deadtones at her.
"What's my name, Sasuke? I was joking with Ino but now I'm sure of it, you remember my name because of my hair color!" Sakura shouts at him.
"And what color was that?" He teases her, he has to be teasing her. His smirk is shit eating, and he rolls his shoulders, "I know your name."
"You don't! You totally don't! Say it!" The bridge wobbles a little as she stomps on it.
"No." He says coolly.
"Prove you know my name!" She stalks over to him, getting right in his face.
"You're being ridiculous, so no." His hands rest in his pockets, and he shows he has no fear of her when he blows on her nose pointedly.
"Sparring time, now." He doesn't have the chance to get his hands out of his pockets before her fist has him flying off the bridge towards the water below.
"What's my name you bastard!" The landscape is destroyed, and her complaints fall on relatively deaf ears. The two of them have been going at each-other for about two hours now. Which brings Naruto and Kakashi to sitting up in a tree, watching them fight. Naruto's got a juice box, and Kakashi stole his second one so he too has a box of juicy goodness.
"Should we tell her that he totally knows?" Naruto asks.
"This is good anger management training." Kakashi shrugs, slurping obnoxiously.
"How?" Naruto asks him, gazing up at him with one shiny blue eye.
"Sakura's not going to get what she wants until she calms down and accepts that there's nothing she can do." Their sensei explains, watching as blades clash and another pit of dirt gets displaced. "Are you ready to do a mission to fix all this later?"
"Aww, why me?" Naruto grumbles, watching the idiots be idiots with a smile. It's great when it's not him.
"Because Sakura is barred from missions until she's been cleared by interrogation as safe to operate, and while I could make her do it unpaid, I feel like she'll learn better if she has to watch you suffer for her mistake," Kakashi shoots him a one eyed smile, "complain really loud for me when you do, okay?"
"Sure… He does know her name, right?" Naruto asks.
Kakashi shrugs.
God damn it, Sasuke. Also, I was not expecting the NeHa streaming show. Sakura's Home for Misfit Nin is now officially a thing! Pretty soon she'll need a compound of her own to fit her adopted family. And finally, Naruto's able to carry on a conversation with Kakashi without being bitch-slapped. Who knew?
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I hear she has a buddy who probably would be amenable to providing one.
It's not like he himself is using it.
I doubt he'll loan it to someone whose name he doesn't even know.
So...I often do this when a fic updates, so reading that so soon after having just done that was a little weird.
Chapter 85 - Arc 5.8 - Back In, Exploring Hunger - "Mom?"
Sendicard
Spreading Smiles
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
107 arrived on patreon a bit ago, there's always something cool about "fun times with Gaara"
They're at the entrance to the Chunin Exam and making a scene, this time a much worse one than canon. I'm laughing pretty hard.
People fuckin loved this chapter on Patreon, so you know, hopefully you do too.
Have a good time. Patreon and Discord: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree
"Why did I have to bring my sword?" Sakura asks, her palms down on her black sword, the red sigils glowing brighter at her touch as if it's responding to her. It's been doing that for a while, she kinda just figured it was the same thing as her eyes, cosmetic but not doing anything in particular.
"Because daddy was very confused by my report." Ino explains, the natural blonde is currently massaging Sakura's shoulders as an excuse to get close to her. Sakura's not completely sure why she bothers, they're about to be going into her head, doesn't get much closer than that.
"What about it?" Sakura asks, it feels weird, but Ino said it'd help her calm down and make all this easier. She's not sure how much she needs to calm down, Hunger is very docile, as always recently. She's not sure anything was truly caused by her sword in her last mission, besides maybe attacking Neji, and that's debatable. She has anger issues she needs to work on, she's actively doing that. She spent a big part of yesterday trying to make friends so she could vent to more people and therefore feel her anger less. That's how that works, right?
"That it didn't show up," Ino explains eagerly, "he said that if the sword was what Kakashi said it was, it should be in the forefront of your mind. Even without being nearby, its infection should be in there, half of Kakashi's consenting to having you interrogated like this was to make sure the sword wasn't doing too much damage, and yet, it's nowhere."
"... Kakashi consented to having me interrogated?" Sakura whines, "seriously?"
"Yeah, he's a jerk…" Ino grumbles to herself, "whatever the case is, we need to find Hunger's place inside your mind. That'll be easier to do with the sword here and in your grasp, since we're going to try and jump right to it."
"I thought we needed to explore more surface memories." Sakura points out with a sensitive grunt. Ino's hands are nice.
"Well, we figured out you for sure weren't being manipulated, harmed, and you weren't about to go treasonous, so if we can confirm the sword isn't causing too much damage we should be able to have you back to taking missions in about two months."
"Two… months?" Sakura looks back at her, squinting at her in indignant irritation, "why would this take that long?"
"Because no one wants you killing yourself mid-mission and now we're concerned." Her best friend pouts at her.
"I'm not suicidal, I promise!" Jeez, where was this when she was in school? Did they suddenly change standards drastically while she was off killing rebels?
"Technically, not wanting to live isn't the same as wanting to die, but they're largely considered the same thing when people are trying to kill you. What if you have a bad moment and decide not to dodge?" Ino scolds her with a fierce glare that makes her shrink a bit.
"Ino, I swear-"
"Shh…" Ino kisses her cheek from behind, stopping the rubbing with her hands so she can use them to hug her close, "self worth is important, Sakura, take my word for it, okay?" Ino's getting real touchy feely recently, she probably should rebuke her, but it feels nice to have a friend's warmth caring for her. She'll figure out all that crap later, Ino knows they're not in a relationship, that's good enough for now. It's not like she can even be mad at her when she's said nothing about it. For the moment, she decides, she'll consider it an expansion pack on basic friendly intimacy. As long as Ino doesn't push any boundaries, she can pretend everything's the same as it's always been…
"... Fine." This is blown out of proportion, massively, she has no desire to die, she's definitely not suicidal, and wasting resources on her instead of someone who actually needs help feels like a huge waste. Buuut, it's Ino asking, and it's not like she can get out of this by complaining.
She'll still get Genin stipend pay, and Naruto has his business, this shouldn't be too bad… Doing the math, it seems like she'll be allowed to go on missions again shortly before the upcoming Chunin exams, so that's nice. All in all, she tried to cut a fellow Genin in half, there are worse punishments than an overdoing of mental health check-ups. It's not like they're barring her from training, they'll still get stronger together as a team.
There is no entrance, no bedroom, no strange memory surfing or core prodding. Sakura opens her eyes to see a giant metal door. It's a deep red and an intoxicating black, the dark textures bump out and create little pictures here and there of their adventures.
Yes, theirs, her sword and her have made memories and they're all here on this door in one way or another. The handle is a set of boney hands which respond when she places her own in between them. They cling onto her and begin to pull her through. She has the presence of mind to grab Ino with her free hand before she's fully moved through the clearly less than tangible door, and her friend's beam almost puts her at ease.
Almost, the wet feeling at her feet and the splash as she takes her first step make it pretty clear that this room is not making jokes. She doesn't have to look down to see it, she's stepped in a blood pool enough times. At this point, it's not even concerning anymore. Maybe that's her trait about not caring about having blood on her, because Ino looks incredibly bothered. Still, concerning or not, the fact that Ino is disturbed bothers her more than her words can convey. The weighty feeling and warmth on her toes is actually kind of nice if she has to give her input, which she does, it's her brain.
The room has four stone walls that rise about a dozen times her height before stopping. The ceiling is bare and without design, that is until it converges on a singular point at the top where a ray of light is coming through. The light is crooked, angling down until it shines on a point at the center of it all. Stone steps rise out of the crimson pool and lead to a small platform where a sword rests in some burning grass. How long has it been burning? Probably forever.
She takes a deep breath, and drags Ino along after her. "Eek!" Her head snaps back to see Ino's leg grabbed by a pale hand coming out of the 'water'. She pulls her out of its grip, just in time to see one grab her own foot. She crushes it beneath her free heel, and continues to move on. "Sakura, these are probably people you've killed!"
"Then they can stay dead." Sakura finds herself growling while pulling her best friend along. She makes her way forward without a care in the world beyond ensuring Ino gets out of this and onto dry land as quickly as possible. A kick here, a slam there, she shatters bones and knocks her previous foes away without pause. The harsh sounds of hands splashing out of the water and being kicked aside fill the room with a slightly disturbing melody that she could probably enjoy listening to as a game soundtrack.
That is until they step onto the small stairs, and the world around them becomes incredibly silent. She reaches for her sword in front of her, only to feel the air shift, and the need to step back overcome her. She should meet the steps she came up with as she tries to step down, but she finds solid ground surprising her. The platform they're on is expanding to cover the horrific below now that they've made it into the most inner place. Support above the bloody madness is what her sword means to her, or perhaps what she means to her sword. She's not sure about all the fuzzy details, that's really more Ino's thing, but she does know the shimmering light Hunger is giving off isn't normal.
That is until the blade poofs into smoke.
"Sakura why-guk-it's in my face!"
"Does your sensei not do that to you?" Sakura asks, pulling Ino away from it, "just don't breathe in."
"No, my sensei doesn't gas bomb me for the fun of it, what is wrong with Kakashi?" She doesn't answer, but that's fine because Ino doesn't expect her to. The smoke is fading, and as it clears, they get a good look at her sword in a very different form. Standing a little over four feet, with blond hair done back in a ponytail and shimmering strands that frame his face, a boy stands in an incredibly pink Hakama. It straight up sparkles, flashing Sakura with its potent adorableness. The top is more samurai, but she can't help but notice a converging three crested grouping right at upper chest level, the Haruno, Uzumaki, and Uchiha crest in particular. Atop his head are pink horns, growing out and forward before curving back and ending in sharp points.
Gentle cheeks, shiny red eyes, the palest complexion in the world, and pointy ears.
She's staring at- "Sakura, why does your sword look like a little boy?" Well, Ino has the gist.
"Uh, well, I'm Good with Kids." Sakura explains quickly, "maybe I'm infantilizing it? It's clearly based on me, the blond hair is because of my dye, the crest is because of my outfit, the pink is, well obvious…"
"Mother?" The sword asks with a soft voice, taking a step towards them.
"Mother-seriously, Sakura, it's a sword!"
"I didn't call it son! How is this reflecting on me?" Sakura defends herself with a wave of her hand and an incredibly awkward smile. It's nice to be recognized, she takes good care of her sword.
"It's in your head!" Ino shouts at her, "okay, yeah, this report is going to be long and suck a lot."
"Mother, is that you?" The sword boy continues his trek towards them, largely unnoticed.
"Don't ignore him." Ino sighs, long and pained, she's in some kind of agony Sakura doesn't understand but she's pretty sure she can't protect her from this one. Inoichi warned of this, some things would hurt Ino regardless of what she did.
"Uh, hey, Hunger… Interesting design you have." Sakura gulps, she's twelve, she's not ready for this! Someone save her, preferably an adult! Errr, an adult that's not one of the ones in her life! Her mother'd try to adopt it, her father'd probably do the same, Kakashi'd give bad advice about stabbing her problems probably, and Iruka'd tell her to figure it out! And Inoichi, oh, well, Inoichi led to this mess.
"It's based on you." He explains what she already said with what looks like a fake smile, but the mood chart by his head tells her it's genuine. The sharp teeth and uncanny valley effect going on just fills her with dread. "Thank you for coming to visit me." His words are accompanied by a full out beam, toothy and sharp but oh so genuine. Her sword is very happy to see her. This is very concerning.
They're at the entrance to the Chunin Exam and making a scene, this time a much worse one than canon. I'm laughing pretty hard.
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"Why did I have to bring my sword?" Sakura asks, her palms down on her black sword, the red sigils glowing brighter at her touch as if it's responding to her. It's been doing that for a while, she kinda just figured it was the same thing as her eyes, cosmetic but not doing anything in particular.
"Because daddy was very confused by my report." Ino explains, the natural blonde is currently massaging Sakura's shoulders as an excuse to get close to her. Sakura's not completely sure why she bothers, they're about to be going into her head, doesn't get much closer than that.
"What about it?" Sakura asks, it feels weird, but Ino said it'd help her calm down and make all this easier. She's not sure how much she needs to calm down, Hunger is very docile, as always recently. She's not sure anything was truly caused by her sword in her last mission, besides maybe attacking Neji, and that's debatable. She has anger issues she needs to work on, she's actively doing that. She spent a big part of yesterday trying to make friends so she could vent to more people and therefore feel her anger less. That's how that works, right?
"That it didn't show up," Ino explains eagerly, "he said that if the sword was what Kakashi said it was, it should be in the forefront of your mind. Even without being nearby, its infection should be in there, half of Kakashi's consenting to having you interrogated like this was to make sure the sword wasn't doing too much damage, and yet, it's nowhere."
"... Kakashi consented to having me interrogated?" Sakura whines, "seriously?"
"Yeah, he's a jerk…" Ino grumbles to herself, "whatever the case is, we need to find Hunger's place inside your mind. That'll be easier to do with the sword here and in your grasp, since we're going to try and jump right to it."
"I thought we needed to explore more surface memories." Sakura points out with a sensitive grunt. Ino's hands are nice.
"Well, we figured out you for sure weren't being manipulated, harmed, and you weren't about to go treasonous, so if we can confirm the sword isn't causing too much damage we should be able to have you back to taking missions in about two months."
"Two… months?" Sakura looks back at her, squinting at her in indignant irritation, "why would this take that long?"
"Because no one wants you killing yourself mid-mission and now we're concerned." Her best friend pouts at her.
"I'm not suicidal, I promise!" Jeez, where was this when she was in school? Did they suddenly change standards drastically while she was off killing rebels?
"Technically, not wanting to live isn't the same as wanting to die, but they're largely considered the same thing when people are trying to kill you. What if you have a bad moment and decide not to dodge?" Ino scolds her with a fierce glare that makes her shrink a bit.
"Ino, I swear-"
"Shh…" Ino kisses her cheek from behind, stopping the rubbing with her hands so she can use them to hug her close, "self worth is important, Sakura, take my word for it, okay?" Ino's getting real touchy feely recently, she probably should rebuke her, but it feels nice to have a friend's warmth caring for her. She'll figure out all that crap later, Ino knows they're not in a relationship, that's good enough for now. It's not like she can even be mad at her when she's said nothing about it. For the moment, she decides, she'll consider it an expansion pack on basic friendly intimacy. As long as Ino doesn't push any boundaries, she can pretend everything's the same as it's always been…
"... Fine." This is blown out of proportion, massively, she has no desire to die, she's definitely not suicidal, and wasting resources on her instead of someone who actually needs help feels like a huge waste. Buuut, it's Ino asking, and it's not like she can get out of this by complaining.
She'll still get Genin stipend pay, and Naruto has his business, this shouldn't be too bad… Doing the math, it seems like she'll be allowed to go on missions again shortly before the upcoming Chunin exams, so that's nice. All in all, she tried to cut a fellow Genin in half, there are worse punishments than an overdoing of mental health check-ups. It's not like they're barring her from training, they'll still get stronger together as a team.
There is no entrance, no bedroom, no strange memory surfing or core prodding. Sakura opens her eyes to see a giant metal door. It's a deep red and an intoxicating black, the dark textures bump out and create little pictures here and there of their adventures.
Yes, theirs, her sword and her have made memories and they're all here on this door in one way or another. The handle is a set of boney hands which respond when she places her own in between them. They cling onto her and begin to pull her through. She has the presence of mind to grab Ino with her free hand before she's fully moved through the clearly less than tangible door, and her friend's beam almost puts her at ease.
Almost, the wet feeling at her feet and the splash as she takes her first step make it pretty clear that this room is not making jokes. She doesn't have to look down to see it, she's stepped in a blood pool enough times. At this point, it's not even concerning anymore. Maybe that's her trait about not caring about having blood on her, because Ino looks incredibly bothered. Still, concerning or not, the fact that Ino is disturbed bothers her more than her words can convey. The weighty feeling and warmth on her toes is actually kind of nice if she has to give her input, which she does, it's her brain.
The room has four stone walls that rise about a dozen times her height before stopping. The ceiling is bare and without design, that is until it converges on a singular point at the top where a ray of light is coming through. The light is crooked, angling down until it shines on a point at the center of it all. Stone steps rise out of the crimson pool and lead to a small platform where a sword rests in some burning grass. How long has it been burning? Probably forever.
She takes a deep breath, and drags Ino along after her. "Eek!" Her head snaps back to see Ino's leg grabbed by a pale hand coming out of the 'water'. She pulls her out of its grip, just in time to see one grab her own foot. She crushes it beneath her free heel, and continues to move on. "Sakura, these are probably people you've killed!"
"Then they can stay dead." Sakura finds herself growling while pulling her best friend along. She makes her way forward without a care in the world beyond ensuring Ino gets out of this and onto dry land as quickly as possible. A kick here, a slam there, she shatters bones and knocks her previous foes away without pause. The harsh sounds of hands splashing out of the water and being kicked aside fill the room with a slightly disturbing melody that she could probably enjoy listening to as a game soundtrack.
That is until they step onto the small stairs, and the world around them becomes incredibly silent. She reaches for her sword in front of her, only to feel the air shift, and the need to step back overcome her. She should meet the steps she came up with as she tries to step down, but she finds solid ground surprising her. The platform they're on is expanding to cover the horrific below now that they've made it into the most inner place. Support above the bloody madness is what her sword means to her, or perhaps what she means to her sword. She's not sure about all the fuzzy details, that's really more Ino's thing, but she does know the shimmering light Hunger is giving off isn't normal.
That is until the blade poofs into smoke.
"Sakura why-guk-it's in my face!"
"Does your sensei not do that to you?" Sakura asks, pulling Ino away from it, "just don't breathe in."
"No, my sensei doesn't gas bomb me for the fun of it, what is wrong with Kakashi?" She doesn't answer, but that's fine because Ino doesn't expect her to. The smoke is fading, and as it clears, they get a good look at her sword in a very different form. Standing a little over four feet, with blond hair done back in a ponytail and shimmering strands that frame his face, a boy stands in an incredibly pink Hakama. It straight up sparkles, flashing Sakura with its potent adorableness. The top is more samurai, but she can't help but notice a converging three crested grouping right at upper chest level, the Haruno, Uzumaki, and Uchiha crest in particular. Atop his head are pink horns, growing out and forward before curving back and ending in sharp points.
Gentle cheeks, shiny red eyes, the palest complexion in the world, and pointy ears.
She's staring at- "Sakura, why does your sword look like a little boy?" Well, Ino has the gist.
"Uh, well, I'm Good with Kids." Sakura explains quickly, "maybe I'm infantilizing it? It's clearly based on me, the blond hair is because of my dye, the crest is because of my outfit, the pink is, well obvious…"
"Mother?" The sword asks with a soft voice, taking a step towards them.
"Mother-seriously, Sakura, it's a sword!"
"I didn't call it son! How is this reflecting on me?" Sakura defends herself with a wave of her hand and an incredibly awkward smile. It's nice to be recognized, she takes good care of her sword.
"It's in your head!" Ino shouts at her, "okay, yeah, this report is going to be long and suck a lot."
"Mother, is that you?" The sword boy continues his trek towards them, largely unnoticed.
"Don't ignore him." Ino sighs, long and pained, she's in some kind of agony Sakura doesn't understand but she's pretty sure she can't protect her from this one. Inoichi warned of this, some things would hurt Ino regardless of what she did.
"Uh, hey, Hunger… Interesting design you have." Sakura gulps, she's twelve, she's not ready for this! Someone save her, preferably an adult! Errr, an adult that's not one of the ones in her life! Her mother'd try to adopt it, her father'd probably do the same, Kakashi'd give bad advice about stabbing her problems probably, and Iruka'd tell her to figure it out! And Inoichi, oh, well, Inoichi led to this mess.
"It's based on you." He explains what she already said with what looks like a fake smile, but the mood chart by his head tells her it's genuine. The sharp teeth and uncanny valley effect going on just fills her with dread. "Thank you for coming to visit me." His words are accompanied by a full out beam, toothy and sharp but oh so genuine. Her sword is very happy to see her. This is very concerning.
Ino: "Sakura, level with me. Does your SWORD have a tragic shonen backstory?"
Sakura: "I don't think so. Maybe? Is being a cursed sword tragic?"
Ino: "Either you need more therapy, or REALITY does."
Sakura: "I don't think so. Maybe? Is being a cursed sword tragic?"
Ino: "Either you need more therapy, or REALITY does."
Jokes on Ino. Sakura is rewriting reality as she goes.
Evaunit02mark1
S-s-smell the Prey, S-s-start the Hunt.
Oh Hunger is a baby, that's not a problem.
Every sword spirit has to start somewhere and Fi has shown if raised properly they can do their job for centuries, and through multiple separate timelines.
Besides having your murderous sword turn into a real boy is even better, now the village gets a semi-immortal killer for free.
Can't argue with a bargain like that when you're a murderous dictator overseeing a village full of assassins.
If you do then you're just ungrateful is what you are.
Every sword spirit has to start somewhere and Fi has shown if raised properly they can do their job for centuries, and through multiple separate timelines.
Besides having your murderous sword turn into a real boy is even better, now the village gets a semi-immortal killer for free.
Can't argue with a bargain like that when you're a murderous dictator overseeing a village full of assassins.
If you do then you're just ungrateful is what you are.
Polling worst, yet constructive way to say it possible in Ino's report: "Kakashi gave Sakura a son by accident."
It doubles as a way for Kakashi to finally catch up with all his friends in ANBU. After all, they'll want to have a talk with him.
Yes, but what about Gai-sensei?
Well it's not for free but it's not them paying the costs.
Chapter 86 - Arc 5.8 - Back In, Exploring Hunger - A Direction Obtained, Forward
Sendicard
Spreading Smiles
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
This is one of those parts I mentioned before about how this arc has an odd out of order pacing. If this wasn't a fanfiction and I was getting it ready for publishing, I would 100% put the next part of Hunger directly in front of this one, but at the time I didn't have a good concept for what I was gonna do and did a weird sub-chapter setup and split the pieces oddly. You can actually feel that I was a little lost in the pacing, and while I recovered well and made it work, it's pretty easy to see. But that's a me problem, your only job is to be entertained and I'm pretty sure it does a good enough job letting you do that. I'm not like, unhappy with how it is, I just think it could have been structured and ordered better. Writer perfectionism is a real thing, but sometimes when you have a schedule and you need to write 4 pieces this week, and do your job, you're a little lost and gotta figure shit out.
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When she woke up this morning she really wasn't expecting to be sitting in a circle, right around eternally flaming grass, surrounded by a pool of blood, and playing rhythm game with her sword and Ino. Well, that's what it feels like. He claps her hand, she claps Ino's hand, Ino claps his hand, and they do it in sequence without any room for repetition. Sometimes the grass explodes into a puff of smoke randomly, and they swap ways to spice things up. It's been going on for like five minutes now and while it's incredibly awkward for her, she can't help but agree it is slightly stimulating. If nothing else she's been allowed the chance to take in the environment without being overly concerned about the fact that her sword is so chummy, and it's not like she's a stranger to repetitive and pointless games.
He feels like a real person, talks like a real person, he even looks like a real person, sans the horns. He's based on her, she got that right, but why is he so much smaller? Why not take on her age if he's going to be following her patterns, and why call her mom and not sister? She'd be okay with another brother, but mom is a bit much.
It seems to be wearing on Ino, but this entire thing has been wearing on Ino. She's not about to speak up if Ino's not, this could be so much worse. She's savoring the good vibes for once, it's nice. "How long are we going to waste time like this?" The young boy asks. "I want to show mom the red room."
"I thought we were doing this because you wanted to." Sakura says.
"I was playing along." Ino pipes in awkwardly.
"Huh." He smacks his lips together.
"We should stop then." Sakura says, clapping Ino's hand, only for her to continue the train.
"Yep." Hunger nods.
"Just another minute, it's relaxing." Ino reveals that this is probably totally her fault.
"Well, we figured that out." Sakura says. Escaping was easy, they just waved at the boy and walked out, he even parted the red sea for them and waved them off. Which brings them back to her clubhouse with Ino, otherwise known as the interrogation cell. They never did figure out what the 'red room' was but if she's fully one hundred percent honest, the very idea of going anywhere else with him terrifies her. What if it's some room meant to possess her, or worse, what if he gets younger somehow and she has to take care of him in some kind of illusionary headspace?
"How did that answer anything?" Ino asks, "I have more questions than before we started!" The natural blonde throws her hand up, "do you have any idea how messed up that was?"
"It wasn't," Sakura takes a guess, and based on the frown on Ino's features, she's wrong, "we figured it out though! He's not messing with my head because he likes me, simple."
"Why does your demon sword have an avatar, Sakura," Ino grumbles, huffing at her with crossed arms, "either you created one for it, terrifying, or it's infected your head and made one itself, which is probably worse. It liking you is the tip of a very unsturdy iceberg."
"Probably worse?" Sakura asks.
"... Yeah, I need to make my report to daddy. You should go back to whatever it is you were doing before this." Ino's never looked so tired, it's very sad. Her best friend is so drained just from an hour with her and her sword. They used to spend entire days cuddled up in her bed, her best friend watching her play her gameboy and commenting on the adorable sprites. Now that she thinks about it, she probably should have seen the crush a lot sooner.
At least this time she knows whatever the problem is, it isn't her fault, it's Kakashi's. She can feel good about that. Screw Kakashi, that's just a rule of life. "How's the uh, system doing?"
"System?" Ino asks her, looking up from where she's already started writing that report.
"The thing that happened after you touched the core." Sakura explains, swiping to bring up her own windows, even though Ino likely can't see them.
"Core? Uhhh-oh, right!" The girl startles on her own, jumping in her seat, "I haven't had a lot of chances to explore it. We wanted to keep it a secret, remember? So I can't use it with my team, and I can't use it in the private clan training grounds, I'm pretty much only allowed to look at it in my room after a day of training. Nothing's changed so, I guess it's doing whatever it is it's doing."
"That's too bad." She'd seen quite a few stat gains almost immediately after she got the system, but then she'd also been a little obsessive and had a lot more clear weaknesses than Ino does. Maybe she's not trying, but whatever the case, it seems it won't be a miracle cure for weakness like it was for her.
"I think it's fine, I'll explore with it more formally when I get a good chance." Ino says, "I want to see if it'll let me learn a new skill like it does you, I'll be practicing poisons with it soon."
"Ah, well um, good luck with that." Sakura gives her a thumbs up, and accepts her clearance to leave. She wants to get back to what she was doing anyway, that being making paper airplanes to throw into Haku's room during streams so that he has some ambience. She's a great manager, she swears!
"Are you a good boy? Is that why you don't hurt me?" Sakura can't help but rub down her sword with some polish, sitting on her bed in her room. Contemplating the reality of what she saw earlier today leaves her troubled, after-all having the avatar of a demon sword in a room of the damned covered in blood and corpse parts in your head is troublesome. "Why did you hurt Tenten then? Or any of those other people. That can't really be you, but then what if it is? What's a sword doing with a personality anyway?" Disgruntled is one way to put it, but really she's just sad. If he's alive in there, does he want to talk? He said he was happy she visited, does that mean he's conscious and alive all the time she's not there? Is her sword lonely? It'd really put a spin on wanting to make her stab people if he's lonely, that's just interacting with people. She's pretty sure Naruto did something similar for a while? Causing problems to get attention?
She has so many questions, she wishes her system would just put things into perspective for her.
Well it couldn't get any clearer than that, she needs to train with her sword and get to know it better, it's the only way! At least this way she has a goal in mind, she can work with a goal in mind.
"Gai." Standing in a field, the older man is proud of his place across from her. Running through one tricky movement at a time, she finds it's hard to keep up with him even when he's being rather slow to intentionally give her a chance to catch up.
"Sakura." His acknowledgement of her existence makes her question why she said his name in the first place, only for the memory to ram right back into her when the kata loop resets and he makes her do a damn frontflip into a kick.
"This is ridiculous, when am I going to use anything like this?" She grunts, huffing hard and pushing herself anyway.
"You'll find that a good taijutsu foundation will get you farther in life than anything else, even a good solid mind." He mixes the order up intentionally, forcing her to adjust on the fly lest she get hit in the face by an out of place fist. It's disorienting, but she finds the need to focus hard on her surroundings a pleasant change from her recent life.
"Is that official advice?" She asks, "work myself to the bone learning how to fist fight and ignore my mental woes?"
"Your youthful journey to health is admirable, I've been observing it since you first learned to sleep, Kakashi was quite flustered." Gai says firmly, "you are an incredible young woman, Sakura, but you have much to improve, and you'll find that while working on your headspace will take you everywhere you want to go, that journey will never end. You'll need skills and power to stay alive, or your efforts will be meaningless."
"I don't get it." She gulps.
"These two months you have been barred from missions are not a burden. You have far to climb, and climb you must. Let us claw our way towards the sky, and when we're face to face with the moon, we shall punch it in the face." Kakashi might be right, Gai's crazy, but he's her kind of crazy. He's the kind of crazy that makes sense to her, he's not the kind of crazy that gives her a freaking demon sword or teaches her how to make her own jutsu by explaining the theory before abandoning her.
"Can't wait to punch the moon in the face." She agrees with a smile, getting down to continue the next set, a series of punches and deflections for when you're on your knees or your leg is injured.
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When she woke up this morning she really wasn't expecting to be sitting in a circle, right around eternally flaming grass, surrounded by a pool of blood, and playing rhythm game with her sword and Ino. Well, that's what it feels like. He claps her hand, she claps Ino's hand, Ino claps his hand, and they do it in sequence without any room for repetition. Sometimes the grass explodes into a puff of smoke randomly, and they swap ways to spice things up. It's been going on for like five minutes now and while it's incredibly awkward for her, she can't help but agree it is slightly stimulating. If nothing else she's been allowed the chance to take in the environment without being overly concerned about the fact that her sword is so chummy, and it's not like she's a stranger to repetitive and pointless games.
He feels like a real person, talks like a real person, he even looks like a real person, sans the horns. He's based on her, she got that right, but why is he so much smaller? Why not take on her age if he's going to be following her patterns, and why call her mom and not sister? She'd be okay with another brother, but mom is a bit much.
It seems to be wearing on Ino, but this entire thing has been wearing on Ino. She's not about to speak up if Ino's not, this could be so much worse. She's savoring the good vibes for once, it's nice. "How long are we going to waste time like this?" The young boy asks. "I want to show mom the red room."
"I thought we were doing this because you wanted to." Sakura says.
"I was playing along." Ino pipes in awkwardly.
"Huh." He smacks his lips together.
"We should stop then." Sakura says, clapping Ino's hand, only for her to continue the train.
"Yep." Hunger nods.
"Just another minute, it's relaxing." Ino reveals that this is probably totally her fault.
"Well, we figured that out." Sakura says. Escaping was easy, they just waved at the boy and walked out, he even parted the red sea for them and waved them off. Which brings them back to her clubhouse with Ino, otherwise known as the interrogation cell. They never did figure out what the 'red room' was but if she's fully one hundred percent honest, the very idea of going anywhere else with him terrifies her. What if it's some room meant to possess her, or worse, what if he gets younger somehow and she has to take care of him in some kind of illusionary headspace?
"How did that answer anything?" Ino asks, "I have more questions than before we started!" The natural blonde throws her hand up, "do you have any idea how messed up that was?"
"It wasn't," Sakura takes a guess, and based on the frown on Ino's features, she's wrong, "we figured it out though! He's not messing with my head because he likes me, simple."
"Why does your demon sword have an avatar, Sakura," Ino grumbles, huffing at her with crossed arms, "either you created one for it, terrifying, or it's infected your head and made one itself, which is probably worse. It liking you is the tip of a very unsturdy iceberg."
"Probably worse?" Sakura asks.
"... Yeah, I need to make my report to daddy. You should go back to whatever it is you were doing before this." Ino's never looked so tired, it's very sad. Her best friend is so drained just from an hour with her and her sword. They used to spend entire days cuddled up in her bed, her best friend watching her play her gameboy and commenting on the adorable sprites. Now that she thinks about it, she probably should have seen the crush a lot sooner.
At least this time she knows whatever the problem is, it isn't her fault, it's Kakashi's. She can feel good about that. Screw Kakashi, that's just a rule of life. "How's the uh, system doing?"
"System?" Ino asks her, looking up from where she's already started writing that report.
"The thing that happened after you touched the core." Sakura explains, swiping to bring up her own windows, even though Ino likely can't see them.
"Core? Uhhh-oh, right!" The girl startles on her own, jumping in her seat, "I haven't had a lot of chances to explore it. We wanted to keep it a secret, remember? So I can't use it with my team, and I can't use it in the private clan training grounds, I'm pretty much only allowed to look at it in my room after a day of training. Nothing's changed so, I guess it's doing whatever it is it's doing."
"That's too bad." She'd seen quite a few stat gains almost immediately after she got the system, but then she'd also been a little obsessive and had a lot more clear weaknesses than Ino does. Maybe she's not trying, but whatever the case, it seems it won't be a miracle cure for weakness like it was for her.
"I think it's fine, I'll explore with it more formally when I get a good chance." Ino says, "I want to see if it'll let me learn a new skill like it does you, I'll be practicing poisons with it soon."
"Ah, well um, good luck with that." Sakura gives her a thumbs up, and accepts her clearance to leave. She wants to get back to what she was doing anyway, that being making paper airplanes to throw into Haku's room during streams so that he has some ambience. She's a great manager, she swears!
"Are you a good boy? Is that why you don't hurt me?" Sakura can't help but rub down her sword with some polish, sitting on her bed in her room. Contemplating the reality of what she saw earlier today leaves her troubled, after-all having the avatar of a demon sword in a room of the damned covered in blood and corpse parts in your head is troublesome. "Why did you hurt Tenten then? Or any of those other people. That can't really be you, but then what if it is? What's a sword doing with a personality anyway?" Disgruntled is one way to put it, but really she's just sad. If he's alive in there, does he want to talk? He said he was happy she visited, does that mean he's conscious and alive all the time she's not there? Is her sword lonely? It'd really put a spin on wanting to make her stab people if he's lonely, that's just interacting with people. She's pretty sure Naruto did something similar for a while? Causing problems to get attention?
She has so many questions, she wishes her system would just put things into perspective for her.
| Quest Alert - Hunger? Boy? Girl? Sword? Description: You've dived deep inside yourself and found a safety bastion for your sword, but is it your image of your sword, or the sword's infection you found. You have a couple of months before you can go back into combat, train hard and figure out your sword more deeply. Condition: [0/1 Hunger Awakening] Reward: Hunger Specific Trait |
Well it couldn't get any clearer than that, she needs to train with her sword and get to know it better, it's the only way! At least this way she has a goal in mind, she can work with a goal in mind.
"Gai." Standing in a field, the older man is proud of his place across from her. Running through one tricky movement at a time, she finds it's hard to keep up with him even when he's being rather slow to intentionally give her a chance to catch up.
"Sakura." His acknowledgement of her existence makes her question why she said his name in the first place, only for the memory to ram right back into her when the kata loop resets and he makes her do a damn frontflip into a kick.
"This is ridiculous, when am I going to use anything like this?" She grunts, huffing hard and pushing herself anyway.
"You'll find that a good taijutsu foundation will get you farther in life than anything else, even a good solid mind." He mixes the order up intentionally, forcing her to adjust on the fly lest she get hit in the face by an out of place fist. It's disorienting, but she finds the need to focus hard on her surroundings a pleasant change from her recent life.
"Is that official advice?" She asks, "work myself to the bone learning how to fist fight and ignore my mental woes?"
"Your youthful journey to health is admirable, I've been observing it since you first learned to sleep, Kakashi was quite flustered." Gai says firmly, "you are an incredible young woman, Sakura, but you have much to improve, and you'll find that while working on your headspace will take you everywhere you want to go, that journey will never end. You'll need skills and power to stay alive, or your efforts will be meaningless."
"I don't get it." She gulps.
"These two months you have been barred from missions are not a burden. You have far to climb, and climb you must. Let us claw our way towards the sky, and when we're face to face with the moon, we shall punch it in the face." Kakashi might be right, Gai's crazy, but he's her kind of crazy. He's the kind of crazy that makes sense to her, he's not the kind of crazy that gives her a freaking demon sword or teaches her how to make her own jutsu by explaining the theory before abandoning her.
"Can't wait to punch the moon in the face." She agrees with a smile, getting down to continue the next set, a series of punches and deflections for when you're on your knees or your leg is injured.