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Chapter 98 - Arc 6 - Onward, To Suna! - Worms in the Sand!
🕑 Added 2024-10-21 19:36:44 +0000 UTCThere are motherfuckin worms, in the motherfuckin Sand!
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Not getting any of her expected adventuring is truly disappointing. She was expecting Suna to be a great means of fun for her, and after so long sitting around doing nothing but training with Lee and Gai, taking classes, and practicing Necromancy, Sakura was ready for a grand adventure.
The reality of walking back to Konoha makes her pout. She really expected so much more out of this, and while it’s amazing that she made a friend, if all she wanted out of an adventure was to make a friend, she would have hunted down some more of the stray members of the fanclub. None of them but Ino and her made ninja so they’re probably all in need of a pick-me-up. It’s something she should probably do when she has free time. Maybe she can make cupcakes and cheer them all up with her cooking skill.
Sakura’s pouting is very physical, her lips down and her eyes full of sorrow. Gaara clearly notices and seems to be panicking a little while Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke do their best to ignore her. This pouting lasts exactly one hour, the walk home arduous but manageable with a traveling Jutsu they forced out of Kakashi to keep the heat from the sun away.
[Random Encounter Started: Sandworms]
In an instant the pout that feels permanent on her face is shattered and disintegrated. Her eyes light up at the message. It’s one she hasn’t seen for quite some time and she would kill to see it more often. It’s exactly what she wanted! There are worms in the sand! The sand has worms! “Sandy Worms!” She shouts, thrusting a fist into the air.
“Please tell me you don’t mean-” Temari’s words are cut off when the ground itself begins to shake, and the sand around them rumbles. Clouds are kicked up into the air in the distance, and there’s an ominous feeling that overtakes them.
Kankuro reaches for a case on his back, while Temari does the same with a metallic object, only to be stopped by Sakura holding up a hand to them. “Don’t get in the way, we’re your escorts, remember?”
“Gaara’s going to go.” Temari rolls her eyes at her, giving her a dry look that would send shivers through a normal girl.
Sakura doesn’t even notice it. “I can’t do anything about you ignoring the escort, but I still have to tell you I have it handled. It’s Leaf policy to die before letting harm befall the client.” She quickly unsheathes her sword, and feels a thrill flow through her at the touch. Hunger has felt rather abandoned as of late, sure she trains with it, but the last time she cut something down with him was easily two months ago. She can feel the excitement at the chance to spill blood flowing through its handle, and uses both hands to hold her favorite sword outwards. She takes a deep breath, and feels herself get picked up by sand despite her warning. Temari knows her brother well, she doubts his sister thinks of him as poorly as he thinks she does.
“If you die I will die, please don’t do that.” Temari grunts at her, and while Sakura does find that phrasing a bit weird, she supposed it is true that if the escorts fall the clients probably do too. She’s floating into the air a mere second later, feeling herself speed towards the worms before they’ve even fully surfaced like she’s some kind of superhero. A look to her side tells her Gaara’s right there, though that was obvious given the only reason she’d be floating is his sand.
A look down catches the humongous creatures blasting out of the underground and rocketing into the air to show off their truly wriggly height. They’re horrifyingly thick, huge segmented body parts writhe at the sight of them. “I think I’ve seen something like this in my mind before.” She says, looking down at the endless abyss inside of their gaping maws, and hundreds of rows of rocky blades that descend down seemingly infinitely. “I think I have an idea, cover me in sand, like a really thick and protective layer. Like you were going to kill me, but you know, don’t do that.”
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“I am disturbed by how well they’re working together.” Temari stares at the two children flying away towards giant worms exploding out of the sand.
“You said he’s crazy, right?” Naruto asks with a shrug, “it makes sense.”
“I didn’t say that.” Temari gulps smoothly.
“Yeah but you’ve implied it,” Naruto corners her before she can even really mount a defense for her brother, “Sakura’s our crazy, we’re as used to it as I’m sure you are.”
“There’s no way she’s as bad as Gaara.” Temari quickly shakes her head, looking away from the quickly happening fight to take them all in. Their expressions brook not even the slightest excitement, they’re bored right now. How could anyone be bored when their teammate is trying to take colossal beasts alone? Worse than alone, with Gaara, he could snap and kill her at any moment! Then they’re all screwed!
“Doesn’t have to be, it’s the same type of crazy,” Sasuke cuts in suddenly, hands in his pockets, his dark gaze flowing to a red and glowy life as he takes in the fight in the distance, “you wouldn’t call ice cream and tomatoes the same, but you would call them both sweet.”
“You’d call tomatoes sweet?” Temari asks.
“Uh, guys, I’m pretty sure Gaara just covered your teammate in sand and then threw her into that giant worm’s mouth.” It’s Kankuro that speaks up, drawing all their attention.
“That was Sakura’s idea.” Kakashi says.
“How do you know?” Temari asks.
And she gets three simultaneous grunts from the unnatural redhead’s team.
“Boys…” Temari trails with extreme uncertainty.
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This is what she was talking about! She bought a freaking sand board for this kind of experience! Holding Hunger in her grip with both hands, she stabbed her katana into the side of the worm and started letting gravity have its fun with her. The sand armor is smashed and ground against her, but she pays it no mind, Gaara seems like a pretty trustable boy and she’s not about to start doubting him now.
It hurts, but she’s sure she’s hurting the creature she’s gliding into far worse, and the pain itself is only there in a mental status update kind of way because of one of her traits. The actual agony she’s sure she is in is just a later problem. She actually hasn’t gotten a real chance to experience that trait yet, so she’s happy to see it in action. She can’t see, but the potent scent of blood reaches her nostrils, and the constant movement tells her it’s convulsing around her. With every movement her enemy is getting more and more cut up by constantly smashing against her and her moving sword.
Why couldn’t Suna have a theme park ride designed after this in the central plaza? This is awesome! Sandboarding is lameeee! The kids would love it.
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“Grrkkkaaaaahhhh-” The scream from the colossal creature reaches all their ears at the same time. It’s powerful, blocking out a part of the sky while waving its entire body from side to side and thrashing itself to and fro. It has rapidly moved from trying to eat Sakura, to trying to spit her out, and it is finding her stuck in its throat like the world’s worst chicken bone.
“How come no one’s helping her?” Temari asks after a solid minute of this, sighing to herself.
“It’s a worm, and she’s got a protective Jinchuriki with her.” Kakashi says with a mild shifting of his mask, “he seems like a nice boy.”
The tenseness that takes over the Suna group cannot be understated, but the lack of reaction from the Konoha boys serves to put Temari on edge, and relax Kankuro’s nerves almost instantly. The odd boy looks at Naruto, who locks eyes with him for a long moment. Something is shared there, but Temari isn’t sure what, and she doesn’t intend to ask.
Everything is a bit much lately, and she’s sure if something needs to be said their sensei will say it one way or another.
No extra words are spoken, not even as the monster over there suddenly splits in half and the sun is blocked out with acidic blood that bubbles as it falls from the sky like an omnidirectional waterfall.
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“I got a stick.” Sakura seems so proud of herself, spinning a Y shaped rod above her head.
“It’s called a dowsing rod.” Kakashi explains, and she just nods. She knew that, obviously, it was in the item name. It’s an item used to divine the location of groundwater, minerals, underground places, or in this particular case, dungeons and secret passageways slash bases. It’s a secret area finder, basically, and she could not be happier with her loot.
There was also a ton of cash, but she gave that to Gaara as thanks for helping her. She then noticed him slip it into her bag, and she has now slipped it into Temari’s bag, and is waiting to see if the girl will keep it or return it, she’s fine with either way. As far as she’s concerned, she got her prize.
“Whether they work or not is highly up to debate.” Kakashi says.
“Yeah well, this one works.” Sakura says firmly, tapping it against the ground and taking note of the way the world flashes green for her for a second. There’s a worm tunnel that-way, but they’re not going near that and killing two giant worms is more than enough for her for one day. It’s probably disrespectful that her system has gamified a tool people use with genuine faith, but then it gamified sleep so she’s not going to start asking the hard questions; she’d never stop asking if she did.
Speaking of sleep. “When do we lie down?”
“The day just started.” Kakashi teases her.
“Guuuuhhh!”
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A full day of travel, not even a chance to get a proper bath after getting covered in worm, and Sakura wakes up to a message that is totally different from the normal one telling her she’s gotten restful sleep.
[Unable to rest when there are enemies nearby]
This message is terrifying for a few reasons. Firstly, because she’s never seen it before. On its own, that’s not the craziest thing. New systems pop up all the time, and she’s not about to start getting freaked out every time a new popup arrives to inform her that she’s being whisked away on a new adventure. Everything has been so tame recently that she kind of appreciates the newness. It’s exciting.
Besides, with just her knowledge of games, she’d assume it’s an oversensitive tracker. She’s spent more than a few hours of real life time trying to find the enemy stuck in a wall somewhere when trying to rest in a game. Given that Kakashi is also here and she knows for a fact that Kakashi doesn’t sleep when out in the field with them, it’d be very easy to just assume this was nothing and roll over. The term ‘tomorrow’s problem’ exists pretty much exclusively for this kind of thing, and she’s tired.
But unfortunately, the second reason exists, mainly, she’s slept in a dungeon before while enemies were actively trying to bash in the door. Which means this is the exact opposite of how it is in normal games, it’s incredibly lacking in sensitivity, which means; she only has about one second to react.
Her eyes flash open just as her hand is taken over by her dexterity trait, slashing out automatically. She pushes her all into the sudden movement, aiding her natural abilities with as much effort as she can on so little warning because who knows what the hell is happening and she’s not betting this is a low level check. There’s a splashing sound that easily drowns out the tearing of flesh, and she’s very unhappy to find that there’s blood in her eyes.
The pain flaring up from her hand catches up with her an instant later, telling her something’s attacked her and done damage even before she’s managed to blink the red out of her gaze. Luckily for her, her trait kicks in a moment later and it’s gone. Twice in one day, who says live combat testing opportunities don’t come often? She’s happy to report it’s a pretty awesome trait. Just enough pain to act as a warning, not enough pain to be distracting.
Metal meets her vision, that and the sharp gleaming blade of a kunai in the dark. It’s sticking right through her hand and only her other arm crossed below her wrist joint helps her keep the blade at bay from her throat. Her attacker is desperately trying to push it down and overpower her, every single point of strength she’s ever ground out feels worth it all the sudden just for this one clash and her continued survival. The splatter drips down her forehead and nose, making quite the mess, but she has bigger issues to worry about, like the girl above her bearing down.
“Temari?” She asks, further blinking the fluid out of her gaze just as growls fill the tent. That startles everyone awake, but the powerful roar shakes their core within the next instant. They’ve woken up the undead dog. Something else catches her attention though, something she’s sure she’d have missed if it wasn’t for her high mind and all her training in situations just like this one. She may have even missed it if the pain was active, getting in the way of cognitive function. The blonde girl above her is terrified. Her face is scrunched up in horror, her eyes are dilated, her gaze is far away and her actions are pushing her all into this like her life depends on it.
As far as she knows, she hasn’t done anything to elicit that reaction, which implies - “Wait! Don’t kill her!” She shouts as loudly as she can, just in time to witness a pillar of sand erupt around her. It destroys a part of the tent in its quest to paint the surroundings in the elder girl’s blood, and she’s pretty sure her shout is the only reason she didn’t just witness Gaara kill his sister. “She’s in a Genjutsu, someone get Kakashi, there’s intruders!”
Comments
Defracto
Gaara's found the spice!
Christopher Cummins
Sasuke's probably my favorite straight man.
Dopplerdee
Sasuke being the sane one will never not be funny.
