Sakura Haruno The Gaming Addict, and Her Gamified Life [Naruto]
- Thread starter Sendicard
- Start date
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
In the 22 chapters Gaara's been in this story, I have grown to respect my decision to include him this way as one of the best decisions I have made in the entire story.
I had doubts, I now have regrets I waited so long.
Yeah at a certain level of advancement you need to start developing Skills and Traits and whatnot to make training Stats more effective or make them effectively higher; a pretty decent pair would probably be Dynamic Tension and Biofeedback to raise STR and END respectively.
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
Maybe "out there" also includes the afterlife, you ever think of that?
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
Yeah, Sakura is being held back by her lack of skill search. She's coasting too much and isn't being challenged.
That will change, but the biggest milestone that matters that's been holding her back actually got hit very recently on the patreon. So within 7 weeks for you.
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Canon Side-Story: Escape Rope? Meditating with Gai
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
Spoilers, read the piece before the Author's note:
I try to avoid doing Sakura's failure. It can feel like nothing happened if she didn't accomplish her goal, and we have so little time in most chapters, that can just compound. But sometimes it's important for a main character to not immediately succeed, and I think a perfect subject to foil her has arrived.
Enjoy. Patreon/Discord link: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree
In theory, working on the Escape Rope idea is a great use of her time. The One-shot dungeon had multiple points where she would have liked the option to leave, even if she didn't take it, and if she had enough it's possible she could have offered some of the enemy a chance to escape. She hadn't thought of it at the time but the quest was apparently a lot more lenient than she realized. Three Genin escaped and all she lost was a little reputation gain. The lecture she got back home about chain of command, how she shouldn't have killed Fierro, and the idea of the escape rope combined in her head pretty heavily when she had time to play her switch and decompress under a warm blanket.
She slaughtered them, and that doesn't bother her, but what if she could have spared some? Sure she got lesser rewards for those that escaped but life isn't a game. She's not spiraling towards the next checkpoint and treating people like bags of EXP. She's okay with killing the enemy because it's what the mission entails, and it's what she's required, and she's been taught to think of the enemy like they're not people.
But she wasn't contracted to kill every genin in that dungeon, and her quest didn't have a penalty that would have stopped her from letting some go if she had the option, besides lesser rewards. Even excluding that logic, the option to leave if it turns out the boss is too crazy is something she just kind of wants to have. Which brings her to her current conundrum, how to even get the recipe for the escape rope? It's a conceptual item, it's not something she can just throw a few pieces of metal together for and it'll unlock. She knows because she tried, the rope and ladder over there by her crafting table - she bought it with some of her cut from managing Haku - are proof enough. But it's also obvious.
So her experimentation needs to take a different route. Dungeon items, she needs to figure out a dungeon item she can figure out the basic recipe for and recreate it. If she has a base, maybe she'll get a dungeon crafting skill and from there leveling it up might unlock the escape rope. Even if she doesn't get it today, the progression route could be massive.
The issue is that no matter how much she wracks her brain about it, she keeps circling back to the escape rope. It's like she's so focused on one thing that she can't open her brain and come up with anything else. "Is this what creatives call a block?" She ponders from bed, rolling over, "I have an idea."
"I know this was my idea but are you sure this is helpful?" Sakura asks, her hands on her thighs, her lower legs underneath her, her eyes closed and her breaths even. The grass underneath her feels nice, as does the air on her face.
"This would never work for a normal person." Gai's manly voice can be surprisingly calming after you get used to it. It's deep but enthusiastic, and easy to zone into when you're trying to be a little zen. "It can take years to properly learn how to escape yourself, but meditation is easy once you grasp it. My hope is that should you focus long enough your system will pick it up and give you the first level. From there…"
"Right." She remembers the goal in his words. It's just a little hard, because they've already been at this an hour and her brain doesn't like this kind of thing at all. She'd rather be training with Lee, but she can't clear her mind unless she figures this out. Plus, she heard meditation helps anger issues, and she wants Tenten to play games with her! "I know that, it's just…"
"If you stopped talking, you would have an easier time." He chides her, and she gives him a gentle nod. Focusing on where he is in her space, and then focusing on her breaths. They're heavy and the air is nice this time of year. There's fresh dew beneath her because they did this in the morning, she's technically still up from yesterday. A new expansion dropped and uh, they don't have team training today so…
It's hard, how is she supposed to calm the wandering thoughts when they never stop? Can she truly focus on just her breathing and feel what's around her when even that causes her to think about doing it?
"Phew…" Just a little more, there's a beetle nearby, wriggling around in the grass. That's distracting, what if it touches her? She's never been bothered by insects but she doesn't want them on her unless they're Shino's.
His insects are cool. They all got a little used to them when he was younger and had less control of them, they would just wander around the classroom and it was taboo to hurt them so, you just got used to one in your hair. Shino could probably keep one on her at all times and she'd never notice. "This is stupid, want to train?" She asks, noticing how Gai has already given up meditation and has at some point moved on to aggressive flexing.
"You should continue to practice this on your own time." He instructs, "you never know when this could be useful. But neglecting your body is also ill advised, let us run."
"I'll sit around and do nothing proactively the next time I end up in the hospital and can't do anything." She snorts at the thought, she'll be fine the moment she takes a nap, why would she be in a hospital long enough to learn this?
Still, she wishes she had learned it. She can't get everything on the first try, sadly. "What's an item you want specifically for if you're spelunking?" Sakura asks, getting up so she can stretch before the run.
"Chakra pills?" Gai suggests.
"Recovery items, maybe if I focused on the not so medical aspect of that concept."
So recovery items are a bust. Maybe she should just focus on the anger issues? Conceptual items are something she very much wants, but it's seeming like she's struggling on the main point somewhere.
She bets its mana. Looking at the rings she got from Fierro, she can't help but wish she had more control over and understanding of mana. That's something she fiercely needs, but she'll have to wait because there's no instructor for freaking mana around. She imagines once she has a use for mana it'll be a lot easier because she'll learn how to manipulate it. As is she's just kind of waffling about.
All this to say she's wasted pretty much all of today and is incredibly frustrated. So why isn't she mad? She didn't fix her anger issues with one hour with Gai, but maybe the experience gave her a slightly better perspective?
"Maybe today wasn't a total waste." She murmurs with a soft smile as she climbs onto her bed, and returns to practice. She won't learn it right now, she's come to terms with that, but maybe some time to think can help her more than she knows.
I try to avoid doing Sakura's failure. It can feel like nothing happened if she didn't accomplish her goal, and we have so little time in most chapters, that can just compound. But sometimes it's important for a main character to not immediately succeed, and I think a perfect subject to foil her has arrived.
Enjoy. Patreon/Discord link: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree
In theory, working on the Escape Rope idea is a great use of her time. The One-shot dungeon had multiple points where she would have liked the option to leave, even if she didn't take it, and if she had enough it's possible she could have offered some of the enemy a chance to escape. She hadn't thought of it at the time but the quest was apparently a lot more lenient than she realized. Three Genin escaped and all she lost was a little reputation gain. The lecture she got back home about chain of command, how she shouldn't have killed Fierro, and the idea of the escape rope combined in her head pretty heavily when she had time to play her switch and decompress under a warm blanket.
She slaughtered them, and that doesn't bother her, but what if she could have spared some? Sure she got lesser rewards for those that escaped but life isn't a game. She's not spiraling towards the next checkpoint and treating people like bags of EXP. She's okay with killing the enemy because it's what the mission entails, and it's what she's required, and she's been taught to think of the enemy like they're not people.
But she wasn't contracted to kill every genin in that dungeon, and her quest didn't have a penalty that would have stopped her from letting some go if she had the option, besides lesser rewards. Even excluding that logic, the option to leave if it turns out the boss is too crazy is something she just kind of wants to have. Which brings her to her current conundrum, how to even get the recipe for the escape rope? It's a conceptual item, it's not something she can just throw a few pieces of metal together for and it'll unlock. She knows because she tried, the rope and ladder over there by her crafting table - she bought it with some of her cut from managing Haku - are proof enough. But it's also obvious.
So her experimentation needs to take a different route. Dungeon items, she needs to figure out a dungeon item she can figure out the basic recipe for and recreate it. If she has a base, maybe she'll get a dungeon crafting skill and from there leveling it up might unlock the escape rope. Even if she doesn't get it today, the progression route could be massive.
The issue is that no matter how much she wracks her brain about it, she keeps circling back to the escape rope. It's like she's so focused on one thing that she can't open her brain and come up with anything else. "Is this what creatives call a block?" She ponders from bed, rolling over, "I have an idea."
"I know this was my idea but are you sure this is helpful?" Sakura asks, her hands on her thighs, her lower legs underneath her, her eyes closed and her breaths even. The grass underneath her feels nice, as does the air on her face.
"This would never work for a normal person." Gai's manly voice can be surprisingly calming after you get used to it. It's deep but enthusiastic, and easy to zone into when you're trying to be a little zen. "It can take years to properly learn how to escape yourself, but meditation is easy once you grasp it. My hope is that should you focus long enough your system will pick it up and give you the first level. From there…"
"Right." She remembers the goal in his words. It's just a little hard, because they've already been at this an hour and her brain doesn't like this kind of thing at all. She'd rather be training with Lee, but she can't clear her mind unless she figures this out. Plus, she heard meditation helps anger issues, and she wants Tenten to play games with her! "I know that, it's just…"
"If you stopped talking, you would have an easier time." He chides her, and she gives him a gentle nod. Focusing on where he is in her space, and then focusing on her breaths. They're heavy and the air is nice this time of year. There's fresh dew beneath her because they did this in the morning, she's technically still up from yesterday. A new expansion dropped and uh, they don't have team training today so…
It's hard, how is she supposed to calm the wandering thoughts when they never stop? Can she truly focus on just her breathing and feel what's around her when even that causes her to think about doing it?
"Phew…" Just a little more, there's a beetle nearby, wriggling around in the grass. That's distracting, what if it touches her? She's never been bothered by insects but she doesn't want them on her unless they're Shino's.
His insects are cool. They all got a little used to them when he was younger and had less control of them, they would just wander around the classroom and it was taboo to hurt them so, you just got used to one in your hair. Shino could probably keep one on her at all times and she'd never notice. "This is stupid, want to train?" She asks, noticing how Gai has already given up meditation and has at some point moved on to aggressive flexing.
"You should continue to practice this on your own time." He instructs, "you never know when this could be useful. But neglecting your body is also ill advised, let us run."
"I'll sit around and do nothing proactively the next time I end up in the hospital and can't do anything." She snorts at the thought, she'll be fine the moment she takes a nap, why would she be in a hospital long enough to learn this?
Still, she wishes she had learned it. She can't get everything on the first try, sadly. "What's an item you want specifically for if you're spelunking?" Sakura asks, getting up so she can stretch before the run.
"Chakra pills?" Gai suggests.
"Recovery items, maybe if I focused on the not so medical aspect of that concept."
| Failure: You need an alchemy lab to learn Alchemy, you may not use your kitchen |
She bets its mana. Looking at the rings she got from Fierro, she can't help but wish she had more control over and understanding of mana. That's something she fiercely needs, but she'll have to wait because there's no instructor for freaking mana around. She imagines once she has a use for mana it'll be a lot easier because she'll learn how to manipulate it. As is she's just kind of waffling about.
All this to say she's wasted pretty much all of today and is incredibly frustrated. So why isn't she mad? She didn't fix her anger issues with one hour with Gai, but maybe the experience gave her a slightly better perspective?
"Maybe today wasn't a total waste." She murmurs with a soft smile as she climbs onto her bed, and returns to practice. She won't learn it right now, she's come to terms with that, but maybe some time to think can help her more than she knows.
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
Yeah, sitting still and clearing the mind is very much the antithesis to this Sakura.
Though, a good meditation skill could lead to Sakura having an easier time with Nature Chakra and potentially becoming a Sage down the line, so it's definitely a path of training that would have big benefits later on.
...Though now I'm wondering what happens if she tries to mix her Mana and Chakra together.
Though, a good meditation skill could lead to Sakura having an easier time with Nature Chakra and potentially becoming a Sage down the line, so it's definitely a path of training that would have big benefits later on.
...Though now I'm wondering what happens if she tries to mix her Mana and Chakra together.
- Location
- Pale Blue Dot
Quick! Make sure not to ask anyone about an alchemy lab, and forget all about it! Also, don't check your civ builder for the option of building one.
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Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
She doesn't care about alchemy, she wanted to know if she could create a dungeon item crafting skill, and the idea to trigger it ended up trying to trigger alchemy instead.
Also creating crafting stations for herself in Wave achieves nothing, she's stuck in Konoha most of the time.
Until she gets the ability to move a lot more freely and without her sensei (Cough, Chunin, Cough) she can't do much of anything that requires her going elsewhere.
- Location
- Pale Blue Dot
Fair enough. Just seems like "making an alchemy lab or two in Wave and selling them in Konoha" might be an option. Possibly too small time to worry about, but potentially Very interesting for Konoha.
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
I plan to have a wave centric arc in the future, of which she will be setting up many such things, exploring the mechanics (finally) and possibly becoming a crafting magnate.
Currently though she has two big problems in the way.
1. Transportation. She needs a way to get from Konoha to Wave, and from Wave to Konoha, very quickly. This is important because she needs to check into Konoha frequently as she's an active duty ninja. If she can't check in, she can't get missions, respond to emergencies, or get paid. Now the internet is a thing in this story's AU, so a message could be sent like "Report to Hokage, Urgent" or "new mission for you"
But that doesn't help that the trip between Wave and Konoha is a couple of days by foot.
2. Rank. Genin just aren't allowed to go wander around doing whatever they want unsupervised. She could probably get around this by hiring her team using Wave's funds to like, patrol the place or something for like a week, but that'd hurt Wave's funding and/or waste their time. She'd like to just go alone.
Once those two are fulfilled, Sakura will proceed to spend more time in Wave, as is and has been planned for... What is Patreon on now, 110+?
Ninety chapters.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
Hmm...
wonder if summoning can be used?
Chapter 93 - Arc 6 - Onward, To Suna! - Outing with Gaara
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
Might have to go and reedit a lot of the story now that I'm on these new meds. I entered this chapter thinking "I'm actually really happy with the Arc 6 chapters, I doubt I have to do much." 40 minutes later, I've rewritten the wording of most sentences, and am furious.
We'll find out if I do something crazy like that. I don't super have the time, what with Arc 8, Forest of Quest starting on Patreon. Ch 114 is 3K words because I changed the way the format is done now.
For this Arc at least, Patreon chapters are 2400-2500 on average, but update Friday and Monday instead of Friday, Sunday, Monday. I think it's better.
Public chapters will continue to update at this rate until they start the Forest of Death, where they'll switch to that schedule to maintain the 7 week lead Patreon has.
Enjoy. Patreon/Discord link: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree
Sakura hasn't gotten a lot of chances to explore in her life. By the time she realized she might like to explore Konoha, she'd already been everywhere a small girl would ever want to go, mainly, her room and kitchen and school. Then, she was taken around by Ino, but she didn't even want to do that so it can't count as youthful and fun exploration. Wasting an opportunity due to immaturity is still lacking the opportunity, and while it sucks, she can safely say she's seen all the interesting parts in Konoha at some point and found them boring. She wouldn't mind retrying it, but how do you even re-experience everything? Maybe she should ask a tour guide and pretend to be from somewhere else.
In Wave, everything was too desolate to be fun. In the village they rescued from rebels, she spent most of her time there in a linear dungeon and before that, she was basically confined to one Inn and a few shops.
The forest is just forest, the leaves are just leaves, and the last two months in Konoha haven't helped matters. She wanted to explore Suna unhindered and free, and she didn't think there was anything wrong with that. She was happy to learn that they would be here for several days while the Suna Trio got their travel preparations completed, and ensured they were free to leave for the lengthy period of the Chunin exams. She's not really sure why they need so much time, but she imagines most of it is politics, and as the child of a random ninja that's really not her place to care.
There's even the possibility that the Suna trio don't actually need any time at all, and just wanted to give them the freedom to rest and take in the village, at which point, they're her heroes. Why question that?
So this is a downer. Just a massive, absolute, downer. She is so sad about everything happening here, and if she could go back in time and miss the meeting with Gaara so she could avoid this completely, she would do so in a heartbeat.
What's happening? Well… She's trying to explore, and there's a redheaded boy following her around looking like her long lost brother - due to her hair dye - and people won't stop running away from them! Someone even shouted 'there's two now!' Either she started smelling really bad in the last few hours and the both of them need a cleaning routine, or the people here absolutely hate this guy, and she doesn't have to flip a coin to figure it out. "What'd you do to them?" She sighs.
"Are they bothering you? I could kill them…" He mumbles almost shyly, how you shyly threaten to murder civilians in cold blood, she doesn't know.
"Nevermind, that answers that," much to her chagrin, it really does, "Please do not hurt anyone, or I will run very far away from you." Her threat does seem to cow the boy quite aggressively, he actually flinches in horror. When did she become a babysitter? Why is this happening? Isn't he her age?
So, shopping is out of the question. She is pretty sure Gaara is not going to leave her side the entire trip, in fact, Temari gave her money for the inconvenience, like that makes any sense at all! It's a lot of money too, like, way more than she's being paid for this mission.
So, whatever she wants to do for this week is going to include someone that no one wants around… Sightseeing with a proper tour guide is probably out of the question, what to do…
This is so cool, she takes it all back, Gaara's awesome. "Yep, right here, I can't believe you can just control sand like this! My earth jutsu suck!"
Standing on top of a massive sand dune shaped more like an actual steep hill, she can look down and around. She watches the world expand around her and feels everything inside of her calm. It's a nice feeling and the board in her hands doesn't hurt. Narrow and straight, it's called a dune board, and normally sand isn't the best at getting speed so it's made more for durability than shooting through any sort of real stunts. It's for protecting children and giving them something to do outside when their parents won't let them play games.
Well not today! Today she and Gaara change the game. "Woo!" She attaches herself to the board with a bit of chakra under her feet and lets gravity take her. She can see Gaara's outstretched hand ensuring the sand stays just the way she needs to fly down the decline like a rocket. It's glorious, it's windy, and it's probably the coolest use of earth jutsu she's ever experienced.
Too bad it's not something any normal person could learn, Gaara's breaking the game and she's here for it. The wind soaring through her hair, the sand providing a gracious surface to glide down as fast as physically possible.
"Whoopsy crappity!" Reality kicks in and she finds herself shouting before she can properly adjust or even think of something normal to shout. She'd never admit to Kakashi, or Sasuke, or even Naruto really that she got so caught up in her thoughts that she managed to lose balance and faceplant into straight up sand on a board made for children. For as long as she lives that secret could go to the grave with her. Luckily she doesn't have to add another note to her crypt for future spelunkers to laugh at because a hand of sand comes out from below her and grabs her mid-air, providing a weirdly padded and soft surface.
It's a little embarrassing to have to be saved like this, but being a little embarrassed is a far cry from needing medical treatment because she slid face first through the blades of nature at top speed after coercing Gaara into making a tidal wave of sand for her to glide down and ignore gravity.
"Guh, I'm an idiot," She grumbles, "Thank you! You're awesome!"
The boy flushes at her praise, and it's enough to make his entire face light up like an ornament, she's beginning to think he doesn't get many smiles sent his way. It's kinda sad, she has no idea why he wouldn't have friends with how cool he is. Maybe if people were nicer, he wouldn't threaten random civilians for her. She'd probably threaten people for Ino if their immediate reaction to going on a walk with her was to flee.
It's not the same and she's kidding herself, but she can sort of see it. She was told before she even met him that he's temperamental, but she's really just not seeing that. If anything he's cute and docile, and giving her puppy looks at the slightest possibility she might not approve. Which is pretty weird, and once again, exactly how she treats Ino.
It's mid-way through another slide down a dune - this one natural and remarkably less steep - that she naturally finds herself reaching out and grasping something metal as it flies through the air. Then, also automatically, she deflects something else. She's glad she doesn't have to pay attention, at least until sand kicks off on its own and flies into the air just in time to block a giant gush of flame that was trying to take her face off. Gaara's outstretched hand is not missed, and she shoots him a quick look of praise.
"What is going on?" She kicks off her board, rolls across some sand that naturally hardens beneath her to give her better footing, and speeds across the custom terrain her new friend is making for her without even taking the time to appreciate it.
She's being attacked, that's definitely happening, and in her Suna clothes too! Why is she never in good equipment when she runs face first into enemies? "Hua!" She shouts as she gets around a barrier of sand, taking in her almost perfectly camouflaged enemy and tossing his kunai back at him with as much force as she can muster. He's in perfectly sandy robes and a mask that makes it hard to spot him even while standing right in front of him. She can't get any defining features, so maybe man is a bit presumptuous, but she's going with it until shown otherwise as he's a little tall.
She watches him barely catch the kunai thrown at him while she tries to close the distance, only for him to throw it back at her on her third step. She catches it naturally, and throws it back-
He catches it by the ring, and throws it back- She catches it naturally, and throws it back, only for him to add a second kunai to the mix.
"This is going nowhere!" She shouts, on the seventh round trip, finding a fourth blade entering the mix and having to stop and focus to actually get it right and not get hurt. At some point this left the territory of her reflexive trait and entered into the territory of an actual exercise in futility.
Before she even knows it she finds a minute has passed, and the two of them are trapped in what can only be considered a contender for the world's dumbest game. He can't make hand signs to cast a jutsu or do anything advanced because he has to keep this up or she'll get there and bash his face in.
And she can't approach because she needs everything she has to keep up with this horse shit. Even if she could find the time to make a water clone, it would probably die due to the sand and hot weather in like one second. She needs to research if clones are temperature resistant when she gets home, or more realistically in like ten minutes while this guy is recovering from her kicking him in the balls so hard he passes out.
Realistically, he'll tire out before her, what with Gaara likely willing to protect her screw ups, or one of them will mess up and she'll use the chance to get in close and change the pace, but… Actually, speaking of Gaara. "Gaara help! Why aren't you helping? You've spent the whole day trying to please me and now I'm actually being attacked and you're standing there!" He is! He totally is! He is just watching this with a mopey expression.
"You said I can't hurt anyone." He explains.
"Wha, no I, wait…" Yes she did, she totally did do that. Obviously contextually speaking that's irrelevant. Even an idiot would be able to piece together- unless-
"There's no way in hell you're socially dumber than I am! Help me, I promise it's okay!" The weird thing is that everyone in Suna she's seen so far recognizes this Gaara guy instantly. They flee from him, they care about his existence, he is the most important person in their world because as far as they're concerned they want him as far away from them as possible and paying attention is the only way to make sure he's not lurking in the corner like a spider. There will likely be parades while he is in Konoha. She is now imagining Gaara in a spider costume, lurking in a shop keep corner and making faces at people that pass.
This guy attacking her is different, he doesn't even seem to know who Gaara is.
Which tells her so many things, like that they're not native Suna, and that he's an idiot who didn't do any recon before this.. At least she can interrogate him after they're done.
She's seen one of his sand hands flow from the ground before, one of them caught her earlier and it was very gentle. It didn't feel very much like sand should. She was expecting coarse blades or fine grains scratching her at the force and speed it wrapped her, but she got a comfortable cushion packed together with care.
Watching a hand come up from the ground and grab her opponent is a juxtaposition on her previous experience, because it's suddenly revealed to her that the technique isn't meant to be nice and it's definitely not meant to be comforting. That hand wasn't designed to save her, that was a modification made on the spot when he panicked about her wellbeing. The true purpose of that hand is to crush people, to eviscerate them, and in this case; to turn them into liquid. So many things are put into perspective in an instant, like how much Gaara must care for her - an oddity given they just met - and why his sister seemed so freaked out that he's clinging to her.
She watches what was an enemy and is now mush soak into the sand and disappear, and she gets the feeling this isn't the first time that's happened recently.
She needs a shower.
Yep.
We'll find out if I do something crazy like that. I don't super have the time, what with Arc 8, Forest of Quest starting on Patreon. Ch 114 is 3K words because I changed the way the format is done now.
For this Arc at least, Patreon chapters are 2400-2500 on average, but update Friday and Monday instead of Friday, Sunday, Monday. I think it's better.
Public chapters will continue to update at this rate until they start the Forest of Death, where they'll switch to that schedule to maintain the 7 week lead Patreon has.
Enjoy. Patreon/Discord link: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree
Sakura hasn't gotten a lot of chances to explore in her life. By the time she realized she might like to explore Konoha, she'd already been everywhere a small girl would ever want to go, mainly, her room and kitchen and school. Then, she was taken around by Ino, but she didn't even want to do that so it can't count as youthful and fun exploration. Wasting an opportunity due to immaturity is still lacking the opportunity, and while it sucks, she can safely say she's seen all the interesting parts in Konoha at some point and found them boring. She wouldn't mind retrying it, but how do you even re-experience everything? Maybe she should ask a tour guide and pretend to be from somewhere else.
In Wave, everything was too desolate to be fun. In the village they rescued from rebels, she spent most of her time there in a linear dungeon and before that, she was basically confined to one Inn and a few shops.
The forest is just forest, the leaves are just leaves, and the last two months in Konoha haven't helped matters. She wanted to explore Suna unhindered and free, and she didn't think there was anything wrong with that. She was happy to learn that they would be here for several days while the Suna Trio got their travel preparations completed, and ensured they were free to leave for the lengthy period of the Chunin exams. She's not really sure why they need so much time, but she imagines most of it is politics, and as the child of a random ninja that's really not her place to care.
There's even the possibility that the Suna trio don't actually need any time at all, and just wanted to give them the freedom to rest and take in the village, at which point, they're her heroes. Why question that?
So this is a downer. Just a massive, absolute, downer. She is so sad about everything happening here, and if she could go back in time and miss the meeting with Gaara so she could avoid this completely, she would do so in a heartbeat.
What's happening? Well… She's trying to explore, and there's a redheaded boy following her around looking like her long lost brother - due to her hair dye - and people won't stop running away from them! Someone even shouted 'there's two now!' Either she started smelling really bad in the last few hours and the both of them need a cleaning routine, or the people here absolutely hate this guy, and she doesn't have to flip a coin to figure it out. "What'd you do to them?" She sighs.
"Are they bothering you? I could kill them…" He mumbles almost shyly, how you shyly threaten to murder civilians in cold blood, she doesn't know.
"Nevermind, that answers that," much to her chagrin, it really does, "Please do not hurt anyone, or I will run very far away from you." Her threat does seem to cow the boy quite aggressively, he actually flinches in horror. When did she become a babysitter? Why is this happening? Isn't he her age?
So, shopping is out of the question. She is pretty sure Gaara is not going to leave her side the entire trip, in fact, Temari gave her money for the inconvenience, like that makes any sense at all! It's a lot of money too, like, way more than she's being paid for this mission.
So, whatever she wants to do for this week is going to include someone that no one wants around… Sightseeing with a proper tour guide is probably out of the question, what to do…
This is so cool, she takes it all back, Gaara's awesome. "Yep, right here, I can't believe you can just control sand like this! My earth jutsu suck!"
Standing on top of a massive sand dune shaped more like an actual steep hill, she can look down and around. She watches the world expand around her and feels everything inside of her calm. It's a nice feeling and the board in her hands doesn't hurt. Narrow and straight, it's called a dune board, and normally sand isn't the best at getting speed so it's made more for durability than shooting through any sort of real stunts. It's for protecting children and giving them something to do outside when their parents won't let them play games.
Well not today! Today she and Gaara change the game. "Woo!" She attaches herself to the board with a bit of chakra under her feet and lets gravity take her. She can see Gaara's outstretched hand ensuring the sand stays just the way she needs to fly down the decline like a rocket. It's glorious, it's windy, and it's probably the coolest use of earth jutsu she's ever experienced.
Too bad it's not something any normal person could learn, Gaara's breaking the game and she's here for it. The wind soaring through her hair, the sand providing a gracious surface to glide down as fast as physically possible.
"Whoopsy crappity!" Reality kicks in and she finds herself shouting before she can properly adjust or even think of something normal to shout. She'd never admit to Kakashi, or Sasuke, or even Naruto really that she got so caught up in her thoughts that she managed to lose balance and faceplant into straight up sand on a board made for children. For as long as she lives that secret could go to the grave with her. Luckily she doesn't have to add another note to her crypt for future spelunkers to laugh at because a hand of sand comes out from below her and grabs her mid-air, providing a weirdly padded and soft surface.
It's a little embarrassing to have to be saved like this, but being a little embarrassed is a far cry from needing medical treatment because she slid face first through the blades of nature at top speed after coercing Gaara into making a tidal wave of sand for her to glide down and ignore gravity.
"Guh, I'm an idiot," She grumbles, "Thank you! You're awesome!"
The boy flushes at her praise, and it's enough to make his entire face light up like an ornament, she's beginning to think he doesn't get many smiles sent his way. It's kinda sad, she has no idea why he wouldn't have friends with how cool he is. Maybe if people were nicer, he wouldn't threaten random civilians for her. She'd probably threaten people for Ino if their immediate reaction to going on a walk with her was to flee.
It's not the same and she's kidding herself, but she can sort of see it. She was told before she even met him that he's temperamental, but she's really just not seeing that. If anything he's cute and docile, and giving her puppy looks at the slightest possibility she might not approve. Which is pretty weird, and once again, exactly how she treats Ino.
It's mid-way through another slide down a dune - this one natural and remarkably less steep - that she naturally finds herself reaching out and grasping something metal as it flies through the air. Then, also automatically, she deflects something else. She's glad she doesn't have to pay attention, at least until sand kicks off on its own and flies into the air just in time to block a giant gush of flame that was trying to take her face off. Gaara's outstretched hand is not missed, and she shoots him a quick look of praise.
"What is going on?" She kicks off her board, rolls across some sand that naturally hardens beneath her to give her better footing, and speeds across the custom terrain her new friend is making for her without even taking the time to appreciate it.
She's being attacked, that's definitely happening, and in her Suna clothes too! Why is she never in good equipment when she runs face first into enemies? "Hua!" She shouts as she gets around a barrier of sand, taking in her almost perfectly camouflaged enemy and tossing his kunai back at him with as much force as she can muster. He's in perfectly sandy robes and a mask that makes it hard to spot him even while standing right in front of him. She can't get any defining features, so maybe man is a bit presumptuous, but she's going with it until shown otherwise as he's a little tall.
She watches him barely catch the kunai thrown at him while she tries to close the distance, only for him to throw it back at her on her third step. She catches it naturally, and throws it back-
He catches it by the ring, and throws it back- She catches it naturally, and throws it back, only for him to add a second kunai to the mix.
"This is going nowhere!" She shouts, on the seventh round trip, finding a fourth blade entering the mix and having to stop and focus to actually get it right and not get hurt. At some point this left the territory of her reflexive trait and entered into the territory of an actual exercise in futility.
Before she even knows it she finds a minute has passed, and the two of them are trapped in what can only be considered a contender for the world's dumbest game. He can't make hand signs to cast a jutsu or do anything advanced because he has to keep this up or she'll get there and bash his face in.
And she can't approach because she needs everything she has to keep up with this horse shit. Even if she could find the time to make a water clone, it would probably die due to the sand and hot weather in like one second. She needs to research if clones are temperature resistant when she gets home, or more realistically in like ten minutes while this guy is recovering from her kicking him in the balls so hard he passes out.
Realistically, he'll tire out before her, what with Gaara likely willing to protect her screw ups, or one of them will mess up and she'll use the chance to get in close and change the pace, but… Actually, speaking of Gaara. "Gaara help! Why aren't you helping? You've spent the whole day trying to please me and now I'm actually being attacked and you're standing there!" He is! He totally is! He is just watching this with a mopey expression.
"You said I can't hurt anyone." He explains.
"Wha, no I, wait…" Yes she did, she totally did do that. Obviously contextually speaking that's irrelevant. Even an idiot would be able to piece together- unless-
"There's no way in hell you're socially dumber than I am! Help me, I promise it's okay!" The weird thing is that everyone in Suna she's seen so far recognizes this Gaara guy instantly. They flee from him, they care about his existence, he is the most important person in their world because as far as they're concerned they want him as far away from them as possible and paying attention is the only way to make sure he's not lurking in the corner like a spider. There will likely be parades while he is in Konoha. She is now imagining Gaara in a spider costume, lurking in a shop keep corner and making faces at people that pass.
This guy attacking her is different, he doesn't even seem to know who Gaara is.
Which tells her so many things, like that they're not native Suna, and that he's an idiot who didn't do any recon before this.. At least she can interrogate him after they're done.
She's seen one of his sand hands flow from the ground before, one of them caught her earlier and it was very gentle. It didn't feel very much like sand should. She was expecting coarse blades or fine grains scratching her at the force and speed it wrapped her, but she got a comfortable cushion packed together with care.
Watching a hand come up from the ground and grab her opponent is a juxtaposition on her previous experience, because it's suddenly revealed to her that the technique isn't meant to be nice and it's definitely not meant to be comforting. That hand wasn't designed to save her, that was a modification made on the spot when he panicked about her wellbeing. The true purpose of that hand is to crush people, to eviscerate them, and in this case; to turn them into liquid. So many things are put into perspective in an instant, like how much Gaara must care for her - an oddity given they just met - and why his sister seemed so freaked out that he's clinging to her.
She watches what was an enemy and is now mush soak into the sand and disappear, and she gets the feeling this isn't the first time that's happened recently.
She needs a shower.
Yep.
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Welcome to Gaara's Wide World of Sand, bad guys. Free dirt naps for everyone! With actual dirt!
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I feel like i have seen this kinda relationship for them before, but I have no idea where. It's great though.
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
Uh, don't you need to tell Gaara to capture if you're going to do that? Or is she way better at necromancy than I thought?
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
She uh, didn't realize Gaara's default is kill.
Because her default isn't even kill, and everyone reacts to her very similarly. Well, not quite, but they give her a stigma so she thought maybe he was dramatic and they were exaggerating.
When he turned to a liquid she had a realization.
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
I don't think that sand works like that? Like if anything I'm pretty sure that that would harden sand.
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
The gentleness is Gaara controlling it.
The padding is in fact it being harder so it's not a bunch of blades, and again he's controlling it.
If you've ever tripped at the beach, you can very easily tear yourself open. It's like little rocks. It being harder and more compact together is not a bad thing.
Everything past that... speculation, Iunno, never had someone create a giant hand of sand and grab me before.
The way you wrote it made it seem like it was being softened by the deaths it caused rather then intentionally to avoid such a thing.
Also he might be able to fluidize his sand but that usually requires air.
Sendicard
Writer of Sakura
- Location
- New Mexico, USA
- Pronouns
- YouPick
Well, how would you suggest I change the line?
I can edit all 4 versions in 2 minutes.