Remove ads

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

Reader mode
Remove ads
Chapter 105 - Arc 7 - We're Ready Kakashi, The Chunin Exams Start Now! - Sasuke Cares? New
  • Threadmarks
    • Here we are, finally starting the exams. It's been a long journey to the like 21st episode in canon. It's been a year, so based on that metric, we should be finishing the exams around next December.
    Woo! It's like finals but it never ends!

    Patreon just got 122, which was a status update chapter. Turns out I hadn't done one since like CH 80, gonna try to be better about that.
    Enjoy. Patreon/Discord link: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree

    Arriving at the location they were given by Kakashi, they're quick to enter and make their way up. Stepping up to the second floor, they arrive just in time to see someone standing over and lecturing two fallen Genin on the floor. "A Chunin is at the level of a unit leader. Mission failures, death of subordinates, it's all part of the responsibilities of a leader. A brat such as this a Chunin?" A man in front of a door sniffs at them in disgust, "what's so bad about weeding out those who won't pass?" This wouldn't be a big deal to them normally. Sakura would likely just walk past this in normal circumstances to avoid needless conflict, and her team would happily follow. Maybe Naruto would growl at them, wave his arms, make some kind of small show, but ultimately they would continue on their journey and leave the fighting Genin to their fates. This is a test, no one's going to die, and they have exams to get to.

    Thing is, who he's standing over and lecturing is an important variable. She can see the marks on them, and her blood boils with rage. Tenten and Lee are on the ground together, looking worse for wear. It strikes her as odd that someone could hurt Lee like that, but that reasoning leaves as fast as it arrives when she sees dirt on Tenten's cheek.

    In another world she might find it amusing. She'd wonder why this is happening; three oh one is on the second floor and there's no reason to fight here. She'd probably have Naruto send a clone upstairs to make sure there aren't two three oh ones or something. People make mistakes, she gets it, it'd be good to figure out which they need to go to in that event.

    In this world, she's much too preoccupied with openly growling at this guy that dared to hit Tenten. She imagines she sounds a bit like an Inuzuka right now, and the crowd that's accumulated around the scene moving a little away from her is probably fair. "Hey asshat!" She's already drawing her sword as she steps up to her friend, "I don't care what your intentions are, cut it out now."

    "Sakura, um, maybe we shouldn't-" Naruto places a hand on her shoulder-

    "Shush, Naruto, you wanna kick his ass too." Sakura's voice is dripping with a feral urge to maim and rip this man apart, she doesn't even look back at Naruto.

    "I do, but if we get disqualified it'll screw Sasuke over," Naruto says, "remember you gave that whole rant about being considerate of others?"

    She takes one look back at Sasuke, who shrugs and nods at her with the most 'take it or leave it' expression she has ever seen. It truly does not look like he cares either way. "Sasuke's on board." Sakura announces, pointing her black blade in front, the red sigils inscribed on it glowing with a little life as she readies herself to feed it. "Hit her again, I dare you, my life's been rather peaceful recently and my blade is suffering from depression. I wanna cheer it up."

    "Sakura, I don't think I need to be protected." Tenten says, grabbing her leg and forcing herself to her feet using her - until recently - pink friend as a support for the half a second it takes her to get upright and stretch. "Thank you though. Please stop drawing attention to me."

    "I was looking so cool though." Sakura grumbles to herself, a lot of the heat in her gaze dissipating as fast as it came. "Hunger's gonna be sad."

    "You totally looked cool, good girl," her weapon mistress friend pats her head, "now put away the sword, you're causing problems."

    "Aww…" The gentle sheathing of her 'son' is met only with the drama of Sasuke sighing and walking around them. Their eyes draw to the boy, who quickly begins walking up some stairs hidden to the side. "Oh." She sprints after him, Naruto quickly on her tail.

    "What the hell was that?" The two guys in front of the door ask the air.

    "That was Sakura Haruno. She's a little overprotective but she's good natured." Tenten answers him, as if they weren't just fighting. "She was totally kidding by the way, no reason to hold a grudge."

    "Uh… sure."

    Tenten, Lee, and Neji are quickly flowing up the stairs a moment later, distancing themselves from the crowd staring after them as quickly as possible. "I thought the goal was to not make a scene?" Neji asks Tenten as they trail up the steps.

    "It was either going to be me when she pulled out the sword, Lee when she swung, or them when they stopped her. You should know that the lay low plan was screwed the moment she arrived, you live with her." Tenten argues right back.

    "Fair enough…" Strangely enough, Lee is very silent and seems to be thinking hard about something.




    "You, Sasuke Uchiha!" There's a shout behind them, and Sakura turns just in time to catch Rock Lee of all people standing above them. The floor before them is flat, and this looks like a pretty good sparring room, which tells her that the timing of this is likely less coincidental and more incredibly planned.

    "No." Sakura argues with him before Sasuke can even fully turn and look towards her crazy friend. "We have to do the Chunin exams, we can't be getting into dumb fights. Gai and Kakashi are friends, you can arrange a spar at any time."

    "..."

    "..."

    Both Sasuke and Lee fixate their gazes on her. "What?" She asks just in time to preempt the furious flush that's spreading over her cheeks before she even gets what's going on.

    "You were just threatening to chop some guy up over hitting Tenten." Sasuke points out. "We didn't even see him hit her, he might not have, I don't think you get to talk here."

    "I just want to rough him up a little," Lee calls out to her, "no one will get disqualified or be unable to arrive. We still have half an hour."

    "You're sure?" Sakura asks Sasuke, her gaze tilting to the side, "you know you're going to lose right? I beat you in hand-to-hand spars all the time and Lee is so much stronger than me. I actually put your odds at zero."

    "I'm not going all out with you, and your abilities counter half-hearted attacks too well." Sasuke defends himself, "the last time I went all out, Kakashi freaked out on us, remember?"

    "Not sure I'd say freaked…" But he does have a point, they were criticized and told their teamwork sucked for weeks. If Sasuke's been holding back, she'd love to see what he can actually do. "You promise not to break him, Lee? I need him."

    "I promise, we will both be able to get to room three oh one, Sakura!" Lee throws a green spandex and bandaged arm into the air, and she gulps in apprehension. His muscles look like they have muscles, and the skintight material does not try to hide that.

    "Your lack of confidence in me is rather hurtful." Sasuke drawls, coming directly out of a sigh. That's confusing, isn't it? She's always figured Sasuke was so self focused she couldn't hurt his feelings, but if he's somehow started caring about her opinion and she didn't notice, and she's downing on him like this, well, now she feels kinda guilty. Swirling emotion spread out from her core and quickly overwhelm her.

    She doesn't change her opinion, but she needs to recalibrate herself for a Sasuke that cares about what she thinks. "Go Sasuke!" She shouts instead, "kick his ass!"

    It looks like Lee got shot through the heart, but he'll live. Lee doesn't need her confidence, he can stand on his own. Sasuke has no one but them, and the entire world will know Lee's strength soon when he destroys the Chunin exam. She's absolutely sure he will, she's got supernatural abilities improving her stamina and capabilities and she can't hold up to him at all. She's pretty sure a full out fight between them would actually be her agreeing to a full out fight and then immediately waking up in the hospital with no memory of the in-between.

    "Ahem." Lee coughs into his fist, before stepping forward on the raised platform above the stairs down into the room. If she was explicitly asked she would have to admit he looks pretty cool up there, but no one is asking and she's not admitting anything for free. "Sasuke Uchiha, you're a genius the likes of which is only seen a few times a generation! You were rookie number one of your class, and I would like to test myself against you. I want to test out how effective my techniques will be against the descendant of the clan reputed for genius ninjas! And once I've defeated you, maybe Sakura will give up on you and go out with me!"

    "I um, I'm dating Ino not Sasuke." Sakura reminds with a shaky raise of her hand.

    "You are?" Naruto asks and she shoots him a glare that tries to transmit 'no' as hard as she can. He doesn't seem convinced. If she's going to continue using Ino as an excuse to get away from hurting Lee, maybe she should just make things official so everything's not so awkward? No, that'd hurt their relationship with expectations she's not ready for or up to meeting. Still, it's a thought. Ino would probably be very mad at her for thinking of dating her 'because it's easier' than because she wants to though, so it's a thought she'll keep to herself.

    "How could I forget, he's just so attractive I thought it must be him!" The boy slaps his fist into his open palm.

    "Should I be offended or complimented?" Sasuke asks, looking back to Sakura in clear hopes she can translate Lee for him.

    "How should I know?" Sakura asks him.

    The stoic boy nods, and readies himself into an expertly crafted combat stance that Sakura is forced to admire. She should have him teach her better technique, she does sort of brute force her way through their spars. Gai's training is very helpful but he hasn't taught her anything that refined looking and the distance is staggering. "Introduce yourself and let's fight, we don't have long." Sasuke glares at his new opponent with renewed heat.

    "Right, I am Rock Lee!" The fastest boy alive jumps over the railing and lands in front of them gracefully enough his landing barely makes a sound despite being from a high height. "I declare. You are absolutely no match for me, because among the leaf Genin, I am the strongest fighter in a fight that's not to the death!"

    "Why um, the caveat?" Sakura asks, and she isn't happy when all present company looks towards her like she's dumb. She gets what they're saying but there's no way in hell she's the strongest just because the fight is lethal, there are so many people not considered they don't even know about, and Neji can kill someone with a poke. A poke! That's not even getting into the Aburame and their nonsense.

    "I'll do it, ready yourself, we don't have the time to play so I'll start in top gear!" And before Sakura can blink, Sasuke is off sprinting across the floor at top speed. He's so much faster than when they spar, is he really holding back with her? Did she have the wrong idea entirely about how they match up as a group? That's so cool!

    "Go Sasuke!" She waves a hand in the air at him, not that he can see it. "Naruto, make cheerleaders now."

    "But-"

    "Do it!"

    The room behind the fight is filled with pom-pom wielding versions of her new little sister clones. The form has to feel pretty natural for him now so she doesn't question it for more than the instant it takes to be surprised he didn't summon buxom babe cheerleaders. Lee looks rather disheartened by the sheer spirit and vitality of Sasuke's new on the spot fanclub, but that feeling is quickly pushed away when Sasuke throws a punch towards his face and Lee has to dodge to the side at lightning speed. A kick flies over Sasuke's head as he ducks, and he finds his arms automatically raising to block another quick kick aimed for his face.

    Sasuke's sent skidding back on contact, sliding across the floor with enough force to kick up dust. He falls to the floor at the end of the movement, unable to keep his stance, only to rise back to his feet while panting less than a second later. "Your eyes." Lee says with a little sadness to his tone, "another doujutsu getting in the way."

    "You should be proud I felt the need to call upon my birthright." Sasuke says, and Sakura's gaze moves to him to see that he has in fact activated the Sharingan. The idiot, he should have activated it before the fight even started, she told him that Lee was bullshit! She doesn't chide him though, he needs her cheers more. He's going to lose this, and when he does, at least he'll know that they're on his side. "You can do it Sasuke!" She cups her hands together and shouts.

    He's off towards Lee again in an instant, his movements crisper and better timed. He's adapting well to the speed perception increase of his eyes, Kakashi must have helped him with it the last two months. He's yet to use his Sharingan during one of their spars, and somehow that fact slipped her mind. Probably because red eyes aren't remarkable to her so not seeing them doesn't mean much either. She's had glowing reds for a long time now, it's just an eye color.

    "Huh?" Sakura finds out that the Sharingan is worthless here a moment later when Lee starts battering Sasuke around like a ragdoll. It'd probably be different if Sasuke would train it against her, but she imagines Kakashi's enforced some kind of dumb rule out of fairness or something. She'll be scolding him about that later and making him use it against her, but for now, she watches in horror.

    Their movements are like lightning. They're so fast it's hard for her to track them and the fight even with all her mental stat, she'll need to figure out a skill for high speed movement tracking before she has to fight someone like Lee.

    With one smack and kick after another, Lee systematically tears Sasuke apart right in front of his entire cheer squad, and she can't help but wonder why they didn't send Lee into the dungeon instead of Tenten. She gets that Tenten was awesome but like, what the hell!? This is nonsense!

    "That's right, my Technique is mere taijutsu, Sasuke!" A declaration from Lee is a little out of place for her, but maybe Sasuke said something she missed? She tilts her head in curiosity. "It's said that the Sharingan has the ability to spot all genjutsu, taijutsu, and ninjutsu. Make no mistake, the Sharingan reads all ninjutsu and genjutsu which require the principle of building up chakra and weaving signs and can most surely handle such jutsu. However, taijutsu is a little bit different."

    "What?" Sasuke asks, stammering a little while shuffling in place. He's trying to use the moment to get his bearings and get an understanding of what's even happening, and Sakura's tempted to get involved and stop this. Sasuke is needed on his feet in twenty minutes, she doesn't want to have to drag him in there!

    "Even if you can spot my movements with the Sharingan, your body is not equipped with the speed to respond to my taijutsu. You're much faster than I expected and I have had to try very hard for our short bout, but you simply cannot handle me. There's nothing you can do if your body cannot keep up with your eyes, face it, you lose." Lee crushes him with words alone, standing there like a monster in the open. She's not sure they could take him on like this if all three of them teamed up, she'd need to get lethal to - oh that might be what they meant earlier.

    Strangely enough, Sasuke looks back at her, and she manages to catch it just in time to smile brightly and give him two thumbs up. "You got this Sasuke!"

    "No I don't," he grunts, "but thank you, Sakura." His gaze flits right back to Lee as he stands tall, "I'm sorry, but my team needs me for this next part. We've agreed to tackle our hurdles together. Talk to your teacher about setting up another spar, I will prepare for next time with my whole team."

    "What?" She whispers to herself. She expected anything but that, and when Sasuke turns away from Lee and begins to walk towards them, she can't help the dismay showing on her face.

    "Come, Sakura, we have somewhere to be. Naruto get rid of these clones, that was so creepy." Sasuke shakes his head as he passes them. She falls in line without a question on autopilot while her brain tries to sort through her confusion. What just happened? Why did his personality change so drastically? She's completely sure that when they first graduated he would have tried to fight Lee until she had to drag his unconscious body into room three oh one and hoped it counted.

    "Stupid Sasuke, thinks he looks so cool." Naruto grumbles under his breath. "That Lee guy is something else."

    Yeah he is, but so is Sasuke, what just happened? Whatever it was, she's proud to call him her teammate.
     
    Last edited:
  • New
  • Threadmarks
    • thanks for the update!
    and this Sasuke finds a weakness in his combat techniques.
    cue him figuring out that lighting chakra can be used to go fast.
     
    I wonder if Sakura will ever find something in a dungeon to, if not fix Lee's chakra coils, at least make him resistant/immune to genjutsu? Seeing how that's his weakness, iirc.
     
    Chapter 106 - Arc 7 - We're Ready kakashi, The Chunin Exams Start Now! - Revealing Insights, Iruka's a bad teacher? New
  • Threadmarks
    • This chapter is very important, which is why I was kinda bothered to realize I'd fuckin butchered it in its original version.
    Whoops, at least it's fixed now. I was uh, at a very dark place when this chapter was originally written. Luckily there's probably only another week or two of that before I got my new meds and wow was that life changing.
    It was like the sun came up for the first time in years, I can't wait until the public gets to enjoy the version of my writing Patreon's been able to for the past month and a half or so.
    I'm gonna be honest, my eyes fought me on this and I kinda rewrote a lot of it so like, I'm expecting typos. I'm also expecting that weirdly autistic thing I do sometimes where I start the sentence midway through it for no fucking reason. I dunno, it's fuckin weird.
    It should be mostly better, I think it's better.
    I like it.

    Enjoy. Patreon/Discord link: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree
    Finding Kakashi in front of room three oh one, she's struck with an odd feeling that only gets a little more powerful with every moment that passes them by. He looks rather bored, his headband might even be pulled lower on his face than normal, and if she had to guess his expression without the chart she'd say he couldn't care less about what's going on in front of him and he's experiencing the world in slow motion. He always looks a little like that, so that's not surprising, but that he's here at all is enough to have her mind whirling. She doubts he's here to tell them they did a good job for coming to a 'mandatory' test, which means he has an actual reason to be here and is following through. Does he feel obligated to them? That'd be new, he put up a good show their first few weeks but for most of their time together he's been kind of aloof and lazy.

    That's not to say he's never tried, and to be fair it's probably partially her fault. At some point she realized she learns really well on her own so she cut out the part of her schedule that involves him and replaced it with physical training with Gai. Still, she wouldn't have made that discovery and cut him out if he was ever teaching her so who knows. If he put even half the effort he puts into screwing with them into teaching them new techniques, she'd be a Jonin by now.

    "You're all here, now you can formally register for the Chunin Exam. If one of you had decided not to come, you would have all been disqualified, that's what I meant by mandatory."

    "Why not just tell us that?" Sakura asks, "you knew we weren't going to skip it." Her foot stomps the floor below her with, and she feels good about how much vibration she causes to run through it into the immediate vicinity. It's well built, this entire facility is, but she's getting so much stronger that she can physically feel the difference in her abilities just by being a little petulant.

    "All three of you have a few reasons you might not have wanted to come. I did not want you to feel compelled if you decided those reasons were more important. And I knew you wouldn't come just because I said so." She shares a look at her two teammates, and can't help but notice they're just as confused as she is. What reasons?

    "I can't think of any for me." She points out, "Sasuke needs to advance in rank for his goals, and Naruto… huh, do you have any reasons, Naruto?"

    The boy looks away from them, hands resting in his pockets in a very Kakashi-like way, "there are more important things I could do with my chakra and time," he admits, "I almost didn't come."

    "What?" She blinks at her brother, what's that supposed to mean?

    "You said to prioritize my Chakra use, and Business Naruto explained to me what efficient application of resources means. The best way to spend my chakra while here in Konoha is to make clones that further the cleaning business, and send caravans to Wave to further boost the economy and manpower." He admits sheepishly, a little tinge of red to his cheeks, and despite her walking in front of him; he can't help but look further away from her.

    "How much have you done that?" She asks, looking at him in a new light, one that reveals so much. How long have his priorities been shifted completely to her? One might think the business is about him but it's clearly not. Last she checked he had enough money to indefinitely live with their Genin stipend providing for luxury, and they're not even charging him rent. These two facts led her to believe he's quickly stockpiled too much money for a Genin to spend.

    She's been under the impression that every extra Ryo he collects that doesn't immediately go into the business or something cool around the house goes directly into his savings. "I knew Wave was progressing too well…" She bites her lip when he refuses to answer her question. "Naruto… how much do you actually have saved up?"

    "Then there's that I'm not ready for this." Naruto continues despite her. His gaze looks around her like she doesn't exist, focusing on their teacher's lone eye. The man stands stoically and says nothing to her brother, letting him talk.. "I'm strong, sure, but Sakura has shown me that the ninja world doesn't rely on just strength. People will die in this exam, I might have to kill someone. I know I'll have to kill someone at some point, but shouldn't that be when I can return from the mission and get support from my family? I'm not ready to do that when I'll be stuck in the woods for who knows how long? Are you, Sasuke?"

    Her raven haired teammate sighs, and gives Naruto a look that transmits a message that Sakura genuinely can't see. They've developed a language of sorts in the time she wasn't with them, and she's clueless to what it all means. In part she's annoyed, but mostly she feels helpless.

    "You killed those bandits in Wave." Sakura points out, "sure they weren't real people but…"

    "It's different, Sakura." Sasuke explains with a remarkably soft tone.

    "Is it?" She has to think and at their nods, and for once her thought isn't centered around her. Or maybe it is, but it's directed at them in a way she'd like to do more.

    That's not just some filler statement, he really means that. To them there is a difference between killing some fake human shaped bandits and killing a real person. There shouldn't be, but there is. They never internalized the Academy teaching the way she did. For her the rules were the rules, and the rules say an enemy is not a person. The rules say an enemy is an object that threatens her life, threatens the life of her teammates, and threatens the village's goals. The difference between a civilian and an enemy is night and day. She could slaughter hundreds of those with hostile intentions while barely giving it any thought but if Konoha asked her to kill a civilian… She'd probably end up back in interrogation when she refused.

    If there isn't a difference for them, that means that everyone is a civilian to Naruto, everyone matters. Every life is precious, everyone deserves to see it through whether they stand in his way or not. To him, Inari and Hanabi and Meogi and Udon are the same as the rival Genin they will probably have to kill today or tomorrow or maybe the day after. The difference hardcoded into her from a young age doesn't exist for them, the distinction that makes everything so easy, is missing. How do her idiots function at all?!
    Is this what Kakashi meant when he said their judgment is supposed to feel good? That whatever broke inside her brian didn't break in them and that's a good thing?

    It doesn't feel like a good thing. It feels like they're going to go through so much pain that they don't have to, and that sucks. She's furious at the concept, and she wants to leave the exams to go kick the shit out of Iruka for not making sure they internalized the proper lessons like she did. How dare he?! She shoulda broken his damn arm when he found her in the woods!

    "I can't promise you won't have to kill someone in there." Sakura says, steeling her features and looking into Naruto's eyes with fierce determination. She lets her gaze linger there for a second before flickering her vision to meet Sasuke's. They both deserve to know what she thinks and feels, she needs to be open and honest with them if she's going to expect them to follow her into this. "But I can promise that I'll be there for you, and if it comes down to a choice of who does what must be done, you know that my blade fights for you…" She shakes her head at that, that's not open and honest, that's garbage. That's telling them to stand behind her while she does all the work, that's stupid.

    Sasuke won't respect that, and neither will Naruto. She forces herself to put on a confident smile that she barely feels, and shrugs her shoulders while meeting their dual gaze with intensity. "I will always fight for you. We don't have to do this if you don't want to. If you really don't feel ready, we can arrange your first kills on some real bandits and come back next time. Being a Genin isn't so bad, I could do it for another six months or even another year."

    She didn't realize that taking every real kill up to this point had such an impact on them. How much has she cost them? "No. We're here, let's do this." Naruto throws a fist into the air, shutting her down nonchalantly while Sasuke chuckles.

    "Let's go." Sasuke nods, only sparing her another glance before turning to face Kakashi with a real confident smile that puts hers to shame.

    "Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke… I'm glad you came." They can see his smile in his eye, it's more pronounced than most of his expressions up to this point and settles inside them well, "I'm proud of you all, standing together like this. You're ready for this, no matter what, I believe in you. Go prove it to everyone else that you're amazing."




    Standing in her plate armor stained red, her blood red hair flowing behind her dramatically, and her black sword sheathed confidently at her side, she looks much more like a samurai to the onlooking crowd than should ever be at a ninja exam. That's not what's important, what is important is that her teammates wince and freeze while she looks out at the other contestants. There's easily another hundred applicants here, maybe even more. "Is it gonna be a battle royale?" She gasps, "that's awesome! Naruto, we get to fight all these people!"

    Naruto looks rather ill all the sudden, maybe it's the conversation they literally just had, but it shouldn't be because she's clearly joking. There's no way the Chunin exams are that lethal, the villages would never have any ninja to field if every single person that came to the events was killed. That he'd take her seriously for even a second is ridiculous.

    It would be cool though.

    "I am excited too." A deep and gravelly voice says beside them.

    "What the-" Her whole team jumps, and her eyes dart to the side. Standing there at her side like he's always been there is Gaara, looking very happy to see her. His red hair is slicked back, which doesn't look great on him but the effort is nice. She appreciates normal effort from a boy who's idea of romance is trying to murder his sister for her. "When did you um…"

    "I've been here since you came in." How long ago was that?
    Does it matter?

    "Ah, well um, cool. It's good to see you." She swoops in for a hug, if nothing else to end the awkwardness that has taken over her.

    "They're glaring at you, do you want me to kill them?" Gaara's question lingers in the air for a second, and she looks over to see that pretty much the entire exam is in fact glaring at her. She leaves the hug to stand proud, and pat Gaara's shoulder.

    "No, please don't. I feel like that would cause an incident." Nevermind that Naruto and Sasuke would probably never forgive her if she set him on a wave of people like a flowing nightmare when she had the power to stop it. She needs to learn to be more considerate to her teammates, that means not letting the violence happen needlessly when words will work.

    "Sakura, you're here!" Then there's that her friends are here, sifting through the crowd.

    "Don't hurt her, she's very important to me." Is the only thing Sakura has the time to say before she's aggressively jumped at by a very enthusiastic blonde. Sakura moves with the momentum of being tackled and finds herself admiring how her friend's ponytail flows behind her with every movement. She's holding her best friend up with both of her arms, spinning, and meeting Ino's bright smile with one of her own. "Ino! I haven't seen you in a while!"

    "I know, you hid in the woods!" Ino laughs melodically while still held aloft in the air. Sakura finds her friend is a little too light, and a simple look down reveals that Gaara's helping her with a floating bed of sand. He's such a good friend, and so is she. As an act of good friendship she will make an active effort to not tell Ino that the sand she's halfway floating on is covered in corpse matter. "I tried to find you like ten times until Haku told me to stop bothering. He said you were fine and would come out eventually…"

    "Since when do you do what Haku says?" She finds she's quickly dropping Ino - Gaara's got her - so she can wrap her arms around her shoulders instead, and pull her deep into a hug. "I'm so glad to see you, I guess your team got in too huh? How do Shikamaru and Choji feel about this?"

    "I had to force them." Ino admits with a little bit of a girly giggle that doesn't fit the setting too well.

    "Ah, that tracks." It seems Ino's teacher was upfront with them about it being a failure if they don't all come. Either that or Ino just figured it out and was forceful enough to make them comply.
     
  • New
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 107 - Arc 7 - We're Ready Kakashi, The Chunin Exams Start Now! - Making a scene in front of everyone New
  • Threadmarks
    • We really start into the exam chapters. The 1st exam took a little longer than I wanted but in my defense, it was long in canon too.
    I had fun at least, lots of fun.

    Patreon got Ch 123 today. My patrons are awesome and deserve it, and it moves along several plots and disturbs the Jonin. Any good chapter should disturb the Jonin though so, no worries there.
    I had a few people return, which is always great. Part of having a community like I do is that I get to know the people who interact on Patreon and in the discord, and it's always a great feeling when I see one of them pop back in for the month.
    I get to wave, smile, and see them enjoy the handcrafted chapters with a glimmer of delight in my eyes.
    Enjoy. Patreon/Discord link: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree


    "Why are you taking this?" Shikamaru asks, his footsteps taking him over to the grouping that's now starting to amass at the front of the classroom. Choji's shortly behind him with a bag of potato chips, a special Akimichi brand too, they make the best snacks and product placement is important for big events like this. Even if he didn't like the chips he would probably be eating them here to get lots of sales from all the onlookers. "I thought you agreed with us and didn't like doing needlessly troublesome things."

    "This isn't needless, I want to do this." Sakura answers swiftly, finally working to set Ino down with a look to Gaara who quickly and decisively takes the hint to help drop her. "There's a lot I can get done with Chunin status, and it's not like I have anything better to do besides study. I've felt kinda cooped up recently and I'm pretty excited to have the opportunity to go around and kick ass for once. You know I got scolded for a kill I didn't even do on my last mission? Here I'll get praised, especially if I actually do it. Hear that Gaara? No kill stealing, find your own enemies." The redhead beside Sakura nods understandingly at her.

    "Being cooped up is good, Sakura." Shikamaru sighs to himself, before shaking his head towards the floor. "It means you don't have to do anything. And killing is hopefully avoidable, that'd be a real drag…"

    "I hadn't thought of it like that… Ooh, you shoulda come and made a fort with me in the woods! I bet you would have loved that." Sakura beams, finally letting go of Ino to wave a hand up in the air at him, her hand quickly moving from side to side in front of her smiling face. She'd look incredibly innocent for a second if not for the glowing red eyes, "we should make camping plans sometime! You can bring your whole team, yes that does mean you Ino." She looks to Ino to make sure she knows she's invited and not feeling left out.

    "I'll think about it." The quieter boy groans. His forehead protector is wrapped around his arm for some reason, which Sakura can't help but quickly try to decipher. He knows these things aren't for show right? They're meant to protect your skull from a stray kunai. She taps the one atop her head, she kinda wishes she'd gotten a helmet now that she thinks about it, she guesses Haku thought she'd look better without it when he ordered the equipment and she just never thought about it to get one herself. A helmet would block some of her senses though so maybe it's for the best. She quickly maneuvers her thoughts elsewhere, lest she get self conscious about not thinking of putting the protector elsewhere so she could wear a helmet.

    "Ah, it's the idiot trio!" Naruto gasps as they stop talking.

    "That's not…" Shikamaru groans.

    "I'd beat you senseless for that but Kakashi already did it plenty." Ino snickers. "That's probably why your brain doesn't work, you got medical attention from an actual hospital after all that, right?"

    "Ah, idiot duo, sorry. Habit." Naruto scratches the back of his head at the blonde girl's chiding.

    Sakura's eyes catch Hinata, Kiba, and Shino as they approach, focusing in on them just in time to hear Hinata talk. "H-hello!" Hinata's breath hitches on her first letter. Sakura's never seen her stutter, but hitching like that is pretty normal for her. It's like she loses confidence at the start of her sentence and then locks in immediately after through sheer grit and force of will. She appreciates the Hyuga heiress being able to do stuff like that, it must take a lot out of her. She's never been so outgoing she'd struggle through when her voice wasn't working very well, if that happened to her she'd probably just run away and live in the woods for a bit or something.

    A quick look behind Hinata reveals team Gai did in fact get here first despite the distractions and slow downs. Neji's over there watching them, while Tenten and Lee are trying to do anything but look at them. She quickly waves to her roommie, and then focuses back on Hinata. She was half expecting to see Haku for some reason, since she's seeing literally everyone else, but that'd be absurd. He's not even allowed to be a ninja yet, let alone try to get a promotion to Chunin without a team. Though she hears the Hokage was so generous and easygoing in their first meeting that she wouldn't be surprised to find out he has special treatment.

    "I'm glad you made it, Hinata." Sakura greets while Naruto continues fighting with the 'idiot trio' and Gaara latches onto her side like it's the place to be. She can't help but be comforted by his presence, it's nice and warm and they are about to be in danger so she can be forgiven for enjoying having a protective shield around her. Too bad they'll have to separate soon. She hopes he can stay in Konoha a little bit after the exams, she'd love to introduce him to Ino more formally and maybe watch some movies together on the couch as a trio. "Kiba too, I see you brought Akamaru." The puppy barks in greeting as he's noticed, sitting atop Kiba's head with an enthusiastic wagging of his tail.

    "I see you didn't bring your dog," Kiba says with a thoughtful frown which immediately grabs her attention, "you didn't think he'd be useful?"

    "I figured he'd draw too much attention, I plan to bring him into the next part of the exams though." Sakura explains, "you'll get to see him, probably. I don't know if we will meet up during the rest of the exams."

    "I look forward to it." Kiba grins. Hinata quickly swerves around her to go fuss over Naruto, who's still arguing somewhat loudly, and Sakura bumps fists with Kiba. "How far do you think we can go? All nine rookie genin are here." Good for Hinata, she hopes that girl can make headway sometime, she needs more friends and so does Naruto. Maybe she can push them together sometime, what's a sister for besides helping her brother make friends? She's clearly good at it, everyone seems to love her even when she's not trying.

    She's not sure when she became good at making friends, maybe it's really just a matter of being friendly? She understands that a lot of girls can't be nearly as friendly as her, they have to worry about their safety, especially around ninja guys. She is strong enough she doesn't have to worry about that around anyone but Lee, and she's pretty sure Lee'd be bashing skulls in for her, he's not a problem. He's an anti-problem, a solution? Lee's a guy problem solution.

    "I'll be making it all the way to the end of this, you?" Sakura smirks.

    "You betcha, nothing can take me down." The wild haired boy smirks right back at her, sharp teeth and even sharper gaze focused on her. "We should work together if the chance arrives."

    "I'll look for you if I can." She agrees evenly with him, "unless it's competition, then I'll actively avoid you. No need to take our own village out of the fight."

    "That's what I'm thinking." The boy looks at Sasuke, "Are you sure your team agrees? He's glaring at me."

    "He glares at everyone." Sakura shrugs.

    "Well, if it comes down to fighting him, we'll win." Kiba grins with all his teeth, "we won't lose to the likes of those two."

    "Unfortunately, you'd have to get through me." Sakura points out, her hand landing on her sword "and I have the means to reattach your limbs when I'm done with you, so I won't hesitate to take them off."

    "Wha-but-um-" Watching everyone but Gaara take a large step away from her is a feeling, for sure, she kinda wishes she knew what causes stuff like that. "You too, Sasuke?" She asks, looking at the boy who suddenly looks quite disturbed. "Too far?"

    "Way too far…" Naruto gulps.

    "I thought it was eloquent." Gaara's words of approval only help reinforce just how bad that must've been.

    "Sorry…"

    "And now I know what to talk about at our next session." Ino claps to herself in the background, she's so wholesome. It's nice to have her best friend rooting for her.

    "You should be a little quieter." A voice catches their attention, and her gaze moves to a silver haired man approaching them. He's covered in mostly purple, and has glasses on which is odd. Konoha is pretty good at eye transplants, he shouldn't have eye problems as a ninja.


    Kabuto Yakushi; Special Jonin Solo Elite
    That's unsettling. There's technically two different displays her Scan ability gives her. One that's mainly meant for allies and normal people, it gives her a good idea of how dangerous they are, tells her a bit about them, and even provides some info on their bounty book entry if they have one.

    Then there's one which is for bosses, and those that are very specifically only meant to be enemies. It's not perfect, Haku also appeared as a boss fight at one point and that worked out pretty well, so it's not conclusive and she's not about to go making accusations over bad data, but it's pretty indicative that something's wrong.

    The problem that really catches her eyes is the rank of the boss fight. This Chunin exam participant doesn't just rank as a Special Jonin - a rank given to those that are technically Jonin in one or more but not all categories - he ranks as a solo elite.

    That means two or three, maybe even four Special Jonin should be required to beat him.
    They'll die, they'll really die. Why is he here? What the hell?

    Spy? Spy. Definitely a spy. But for which country? He has a leaf headband so she bets it's not the leaf! Does it matter? She'll alert someone when she can, for now, there's no reason to think he wants to hurt them. Well besides her system giving her an enemy card for him. That's concerning right? Haku should not be her standard, Haku's awesome and unique and probably the only enemy card she'll ever get that's friendly. Maybe she should report him directly to Ibiki, but when is she going to see Ibiki? He just seems like the perfect person for this kind of concern.

    "You guys are the 'rookie nine' fresh out of the academy, right?" The man keeps talking despite her obviously conflicted expression. Hopefully he doesn't grasp she's onto him, but then his gaze is focused on her so he clearly does! Shit, shit, shit, shittt! "Carrying on like that with cute faces… man…This isn't a field tri-" He's cut off when Gaara's sand spills out, and flares towards him.

    "Gaara no!" She tackles the redheaded boy, making the sand fall to the ground. The special jonin has already backpedaled right into the crowd before she looks up. "That woulda been bad…" She groans from atop the boy on the ground.

    And now every single person is staring at them for an entirely new reason, including his siblings who have complicated expressions about something they're not bothering to share, "shit."

    "Shit?" Gaara asks.

    "Shit." She confirms.
     
    Last edited:
  • New
  • Threadmarks
    • So let's see. Gaara turned into a friend, his siblings will follow his lead and Kabuto has been unmasked. The invasion already lost two important elements and they don't even know about it. What's next? Sakura will look at the Kazekage and get "Orochimaru, Sannin, Solo Elite"? Although simply informing Ibiki and other jonin about Kabuto will hopefully raise the general alert level enough that Hayate might not get killed off by Baki this time around. Also, Kabuto wouldn't be around for a secret meeting anymore.

    I like how Sakura is accidently stopping the invasion without even knowing she's doing it. ^^
     
    Daemion said:
    So let's see. Gaara turned into a friend, his siblings will follow his lead and Kabuto has been unmasked. The invasion already lost two important elements and they don't even know about it. What's next? Sakura will look at the Kazekage and get "Orochimaru, Sannin, Solo Elite"? Although simply informing Ibiki and other jonin about Kabuto will hopefully raise the general alert level enough that Hayate might not get killed off by Baki this time around. Also, Kabuto wouldn't be around for a secret meeting anymore.

    I like how Sakura is accidently stopping the invasion without even knowing she's doing it. ^^
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    There's stuff Sakura is accidentally doing that she's not even aware she's doing, which fuck up canon problems.
    Patreon actually just learned about one of them so that's only 7 weeks from here.
     
    Chapter 108 - Arc 7 - We're Ready Kakashi, The Chunin Exams Start Now! - Ibiki arrives just in time, they're saved! New
  • Threadmarks
    • Another chapter that needed a serious fix up. I think I was at like literally my worst depressive spiral in years when I wrote this chapter originally, and I'm super glad I got to go back and edit it now. 500 words added, almost every description or flavortext slightly modified or rewritten.
    If you're from the Patreon and you just check in when chapters update, reread this chapter. It'll be in my recommendations when I release the Patreon changelog, I just don't think the old chapter has a lot of merit in comparison.
    As always when I modify a chapter this much, I genuinely expect more typos. Funny how that works, editing causes more typos than initial typing, but it is a thing. I've given it several look overs, and if you spot anything genuinely immersion breaking feel free to point it out. But I uh, don't need to hear about 30 issues with paragraph 12-B, thank you.

    Enjoy. Patreon/Discord link: Sendicard/WitchAtTheEnd | Linktree

    There are so many onlooking eyes that clearly want to test them, or maybe just beat them senseless, that she isn't sure she's going to manage to stop Gaara from mulching large parts of the exam. She's sure the pure bloodlust he put forward when trying to rip Kabuto apart is a big part of why it feels like a thousand daggers are aimed directly towards them, but it's probably also that same bloodlust which has stopped things from becoming a brawl within the first breath. No one wants to start a fight they're not sure they can win, especially not when the end result is that someone ends up smeared along the walls like a new wallpaper.

    Well, saying no one would take that risk without knowing is probably untrue, but anyone like that would likely have died by now if they were willing to jump to their demise so easily so it's safe to say that the odds someone like that is here are low. Not zero, just, she doesn't have to account for statistical anomalies like that in her general thoughts. Kakashi's right, you can deduce some lessons were learned by your enemy by the very fact that they're still around.

    Her hand lands on her sword and she takes a stance the moment she's on her feet. Being on the floor from tackling Gaara was not her preferred place to be when the entire room looked at her, but it's fine now, no one moved. She readies herself to get slashing if people charge her, but inwardly hopes - among twisting spirals of anxiety - that no one does, mostly for Naruto's sake. There's a little fear of being overwhelmed and torn apart but with two protective Jinchuriki by her side, the worry is somewhat understandably muted.

    The hope is, holding a blade and staring out at them with her glowing red eyes and maliciously toothy smile should intimidate people long enough for her to get away from this free. There's no way they're not being watched, and the village obviously doesn't want something crazy happening, which means…

    Any second now, it has to happen-
    "Silence, Degenerates!" She sighs in relief when a puff of smoke suddenly engulfs the area at the front of the room and draws all eyes there and away from her.

    If things had gone another minute, who knows, but she could cry at the appearance of the enemy, er, allies, this Chunin exam is hosted here so the proctors are allies. She actually recognizes the man who appears at the front of the room in front of a chalkboard, Ibiki Morino. He's backed by a group of very professional looking leaf ninja with military-esque outfits inspired by a game maybe? She's just not sure, well the games had to get the idea from somewhere. Is there somewhere that uses outfits like that regularly? Do they? She wasn't paying a particularly large amount of attention back when they went over the ninja wars in class, and even if she was paying attention it wouldn't have been to anyone's outfits. Ino would know, but she won't remember to ask her. Oh well, that's one mystery never to be solved. Her whimsical mind creates a lot of those, she's used to it. The trick is to forget quickly so she doesn't find herself lying awake at night wondering.

    She swallows her disappointment, and instead gets inspired while staring at all those freaking pockets on their outfits. They're everywhere! A woman needs pockets like those!

    As if to intentionally stand out, the proctor - Ibiki - is wearing a coat that makes her see stars. Black and sleek with huge pockets that she could probably fit her whole Switch into, she finds herself gawking at just how cool it is. The coat leads the eyes up to his collar, and from there his scarred and burnt face. His disfigured features are incredibly striking and tell of the misery he's been through for Konoha, and while they're not remarkable for her anymore, she can tell without looking at anyone else what the general consensus is. Ibiki stands there with his sliced up face and intimidating stature, more scars than fresh skin, and he holds himself with confident pride at every battle scar. If given the chance to go back in time, Ibiki would do it all again and would glare at anyone who dared to feel pity for him.

    She sees him every Saturday on her way to meet Ino - or she did back when it was mandatory, now if she's lucky she never has to go there again regardless of Ino's earlier enthusiasm - but when she first met him she was terrified; of the medical standards that led to a face that messed up.

    They have the ability to fix a face like it's nothing, there's really no reason he should be scarred up like that unless there was a point where village resources were spread so thin they couldn't do anything at all for cosmetics. Injuries like that are a lot harder to fix once they're healed, and he probably chose not to invest the time and care into it at that point because it makes his job easier, but damn was the implication that there was that big of an issue in the first place somewhat world shaking for her. Ninjas are the most important asset a village has, their appearance is very important too because a damaged ninja implies mistakes and weakness. To allow someone as important as Ibiki to be permanently damaged and to let it stay for so long that going back and fixing it is basically out of the question, has so much terrifying implication behind it that she was genuinely shaken.

    It shook her up so much she took a class on the ninja wars to really figure all that out, and the implications were horrifying. The world she'd been led to believe via teacher narrative was proven false in an instant. Sure, she always had a feeling that the Academy's propaganda about the leaf being the bestest foreverest in history and nothing really ever threatened them was an exaggeration meant for school children, but she never thought it was a straight up lie. To the Academy's credit, it didn't explicitly deny the trials the Leaf has gone through. They went over the wars just like they should have, but they were always taught from the perspective of victors that were never truly worried about losing. They would win, they always won, and the losses were merely everyday incidents that were sad but were quickly moved on from.

    Classes actually meant for adults did not sugar coat it. Kakashi's seen hell. Ibiki's seen hell. More people in their contacts list died than lived, and for the first time, she understood and felt bad for Kakashi. Up until she asked him to teach her something and he showed up two hours late with ice cream and asked why she was waiting around when it wasn't normal training time, having completely forgotten her request in the first place and stumbled across her by chance. She felt a lot less bad for him then.

    Still, the harrowing reality is that if events like that happened once, they can happen again. The leaf being strong and powerful and unending has always been a foundation of her life and education, and the brutal nature taught to her was in her perception something that everyone was taught. The basic idea being that sacrifice is needed to keep the leaf strong and that sacrifice should be made by the village's enemies whenever possible.

    If nothing else, his face made her take a great look at what she knows and realize she's taken a lot of things for granted. She's vowed to ensure Wave is never in a situation like that if she can do anything at all to stop it. She'll discover new mechanics and bend the rules and destroy everything in front of her for a single person if it means such events never have to happen again. Wave is hers, Konoha is hers - although by a different definition of the word hers - and the people are precious to her.

    She's not heartless, she's proactive and pragmatic, she will not allow her people to suffer that way ever again, even if it means finding the options menu and activating peaceful mode.

    Despite the way he's shaken her in the past, seeing Ibiki now is comforting. A familiar face, even one pretending to be a cool badass like he is now, sets her at ease. Ibiki will not let the entire chunin exam nominee pool charge her and Gaara on a whim; Naruto is saved from having to watch a massacre, and the person in charge of their test is a friend.

    "I'm Ibiki Morino, Proctor for the first test of the Chunin exam." She has to try her hardest not to wave at the man, but she does pull it off. Even she has some tact, that'd be way too much. Friends don't undermine their friend's attempts to look cool by lacking self control, friends do their best to support awesome moments and attempts. Sakura pulls off a shiver of fright and points dramatically at his head as if her world is shattered. She hopes he appreciates it, her mouth is even held open in mock horror. She sees his lip twitch up ever so slightly, and hopes no one else noticed it.

    "There will be no battles, competitions, or otherwise without the proctor's say so." His eyes are right on her and Gaara, and she gets the feeling they're in trouble. She tries to disappear behind Gaara. This doesn't work very well, they are both very similar sizes and she's in armor while he is not which means she's actually bigger than him. She's been exposed and the proctor has his gaze focused on her, what does she even do about that!? "Even if you get permission, actions that could lead to the death of an opponent will not be permitted."

    Why is he piercing Gaara to get to her with his gaze? She's not crazy! There's so many more dangerous people here and he knows she means well! Maybe it's not what she thinks and he has some other reason for focusing on her? "Any pig that screws with me will be disqualified immediately. Got it?" His gaze finally leaves her to roll over the entire crowd, getting collective gasps out of them. The weight of his efforts is tremendous, she can feel the entire room shaking from all the unsteady feet.

    So if no one is allowed to kill, why does everyone talk about this exam like it's a death fest? Does he just mean for this part of the exam, or? Has she been lied to? She feels like she's been lied to. She hates being lied to. Someone's lied, either right now or before, and she can't help but cross her arms and puff out her cheeks in indignant annoyance. What's a girl have to do to get a straight answer? Why is no one honest with her? That pretest nonsense from Kakashi was so mean! Why would he lie to her like that too? The test really was at the time he specified, he tricked her! Too many adults lying to her recently for sure.

    There will be a reckoning. She will get vengeance for the lies!

    "This exam looks to be easy." She hears from someone in the crowd, and she's a little too distracted right now to look. It's very uncharacteristic of the standards she has set for herself, and she'll apologize to herself later during self care. For now, she's glaring at Ibiki because he's probably lying to her! "Now then, we will start the first test of the Chunin Exam. Turn in your applications, take one of these numbers, and sit in the seat matching that number. After that we will hand out the papers for the written test."

    Naruto begins to scream, and she's pretty sure she gets why. Any real test should be on keyboard, paper is so old and weird for a test mainly meant for teenagers. She'd scream too if she wasn't so annoyed. She might scream anyway.
    She opens her mouth-

    And finds Sasuke's hand lands on her chin and pushes her mouth shut. "Bad Sakura." Sasuke says coolly, shaking his head at her. Naruto got to do it, why can't she? That's so unfair! She kicks her foot against the floor and pouts at him, he's so mean to her. Why does everyone single her out these days? It didn't used to be like that. It used to be that she faded into a crowd and no one even knew her name but Ino.

    "But…" She reaches out and pokes Sasuke's cheek, "there, now I touched you without permission." The boy shakes his head at her, and Gaara helpfully reaches over and pokes him too. He's so wholesome, that's it, it's official, she loves every moment with Gaara.
     
  • New
  • Threadmarks
    • Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top