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Chapter 32 - Melody of Hearts PT:1
🕑 Added 2024-05-07 20:35:42 +0000 UTCSo the arc will go a little longer than first expected, as there's a few scenes I need to add in to my plan, and I think Melody of Hearts might be 3 chapters instead of 2.
Either way, I've been planning this for a while and I hope you enjoy.
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Waking up this morning, Sakura had a plan of action she was ready to enact from word go. She was going to get back into research after her short breaks for other important matters like finding out about Naruto’s Kyuubi Diddled mom and cleaning Sasuke’s house - she hoped Naruto got him good by now, she’d have to ask about that - and she’d run out of excuses not to hit the books. It sucked though, everything she’s had to do for a while now has revolved around Wave and she didn’t even ask for this.
Technically any knowledge she gains can be applied elsewhere, she’s not dumb enough to think this is a one-off, she’ll surely take ownership of some other place or whatever god is playing with her wouldn’t have gone through the effort of making an entire system for it. It’s the first complex modification of her ability she’s seen, and she’s sure that has severe implications.
But holy shit does it suck!
It’s like her life revolves around them and she’s not even there anymore! You do one good deed and suddenly an entire country is your responsibility. No good deed gone unpunished, though maybe that’s being dramatic.
She looked longingly at her PC, and her consoles, and another thought hit her. Would they have had the money to adopt if she wasn’t always asking for the next-generation console right away, and all those cool games on release? What if she was one of those discount buyers that waited a year before asking? Probably not, but her parents had cut her off the moment she became a ninja and could buy them herself, so they were clearly a large strain on the finances. That hurt to think about, so she shook her head to clear her thoughts and took a breath before slipping out of her warm and cozy sheets.
They still smelled a little like the Naruto clone - Naruko - who had slept in them for a month. She decided that wasn’t a bad thing, the smell of her teammate and brother was comforting, and he wasn’t an unclean person so it probably didn’t make her smell worse for sleeping in it. She should still clean her sheets soon… Eventually it stops being comforting and cute and starts being really creepy, and the line isn’t well drawn it’s just there and you don’t know you crossed it until you did. It’s better to be safe with things like that.
All her plans were dashed the moment her feet hit the floor, which brings us to now.
[The Melody of Hearts Event is has started. A festival will be held tonight, and you need to decide which date to bring! Procuring a date will result in a bonus of +1000 affection for whoever you decide on, as well as a unique bonus depending on the date. Failing to procure a date will reduce your Charm by 5]
“Re-reduce my charm?” She squeaks. She’d just gotten it to, what, sixteen? She idly checks that. She’d be back so far, weeks of work vanished in seconds by an event she’s surprised by? “What the fuuuuuuuuu-”
To say her morning plans are ruined is a bit like saying her beavers are dead again.
They are, and you’re just being cruel for pointing it out. She’s not thinking about it, but she’ll be trying Rimworld soon. It won’t actually help her like she thinks it will, very different style of play, but she will find she enjoys it and that’ll make Kakashi annoyed when she forgets to sleep. That’s a later concern though, right now…
Sakura is looking through the list, hoping the rewards will make this a logic decision and therefore take it away. Like how in Remnant two a player’s first action upon finding the Ravager and the doe is to look it up, because like, duh. That’s also how she found out that the Ravager never stops talking, and tabbing out doesn’t mute him. He just repeats himself forever.
Mostly, looking through the list logically is to distract from the fact that if she didn’t make it about logic she’d be spending her entire morning under her bed, looking out and pinching anyone that comes to check on her while pretending to be her own emotional support monster from beneath. It doesn’t make a lot of sense but it makes her feel better.
First, the list itself.
[Naruto
Lee
Sasuke
Ino
The Third Hokage
Kakashi
Tenten
Hinata
Ami
Haku]
That’s not a big list, so it didn’t choose at random, which makes her really question why some of those options are on there.
Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Ino all make perfect sense if it’s doing it by the amount of time she’s spent around someone in her life while automatically excluding her parents. That doesn’t hold up though, she’s never met this Lee, she’s only spent about five minutes talking to Tenten - in fact she needs to get her damn sword - she fuckin hates Ami, she’s had a few passing conversations with Hinata, and she’s spent almost no time with the third.
It can’t be talking about actual love interests because, well, Kakashi, The third, Tenten, Ino, Hinata, Ami- maybe Lee’s a secret admirer but that’s highly unlikely as well. Kakashi and her have shared a few moments of banter but she has serious doubts he has any interest in her, the very thought makes her shiver a little in disgust. He’s probably shivering too from the implication alone, and he doesn’t even know why, poor guy.
She decides it doesn’t matter, there’s some logical puzzle here she’s not going to solve, and that’s okay. She’ll just assume it’s mostly random with some weighting, or her ability is trying to mess with her, both are valid. The five charm loss and randomly springing this on her somewhat aids the theory that it’s messing with her.
She gets a piece of paper, writes their names down, and before even looking at the rewards she removes a few options.
Kakashi, the Third, Ami. She hovers over Tenten, she was kind of rude to her, but that was one interaction, that’s not fair.
Okay, new list.
[Naruto
Lee
Sasuke
Ino
Tenten
Hinata
Haku]
That’s seven options, that’s already a lot easier. She’s not bringing Naruto because he’d get the wrong idea, same with Sasuke, which leaves her with five. Also, she’s not sure how much 1000 affection is but she’s not about to put that on two people that already want to start a clan with her. The mind-breaky nonsense of that has some unsavory implications she doesn’t want to see the outcome of.
And now, she can look at the damn rewards.
[Lee - +1 Str, Con, Agi
Ino - +3 Cha
Tenten - +3 Dex
Hinata - +1 Dex, +3 AGI, -1 Cha
Haku - +2 Dex, +1 CHA]
“Nope.” So Hinata’s stripped immediately, she can grind four stat points a lot easier than she can grind a charm. She’d rather die. Just no.
She doesn’t even know Lee, and those stats don’t look particularly enticing. That’s kinda how she feels about Tenten. That leaves her with just Ino and Haku, and if she’s honest, hitting Haku with a sudden surge of liking her sounds like a bad idea, the guy already acts as a house husband for her. Not intentionally, he’s just taken those duties for seemingly no reason, the least she needs is for him to start pursuing the other part of that.
“Ino then…” She taps her pencil on the paper, circling her childhood friend’s name, underlining it, twice, going over her name a little with her pencil to make the name a little fancier and bolder- she is procrastinating. She checks, and the event has another ten hours before it’s active.
She’s wasted a good portion of her morning on this already, most of it stunned in place and not moving because the embarrassment got to her so badly she blinked out of reality. She imagines she had steam coming out of her ears for a bit of that, she’s glad no one came into her room.
“Okay, Ino…” She rewrites the girl’s name a few dozen more times, idly chewing on the eraser of her pencil. “Damn-it.” She groans to herself, realizing she’s doing it again.
“I don’t wunna…” But that five charm loss, it’s too much.
Ino’ll understand, she won’t even have to explain it, that’s a huge plus. It’s the whole asking someone out on a date problem but without the embarrassment because she’ll just get it!
What’ll that thousand affection score do to someone who already loves her as a friend though? Is this an ethics issue? Is her ability forcing an ethics issue onto her first thing in the morning - well it’s like noon so maybe not but it’s morning for her! They didn’t have training today, or D ranks, so she had so many plans. Now it’s all ruined by ethics and threats of point losses and roasty cheeks. “Ino won’t be harmed.” She decides. It’ll probably just undo some of the loss from their recent absence in each other’s lives, that’d just set them back where they were. There’s nothing wrong with that, she decides, getting up to start selecting a date outfit.
“Crap.” She looks into her closet, and notices a huge problem. All of her dresses - besides Tsunami’s and she’s not getting back into that - are for when she was like eight. It’s all efficient combat outfits and loungewear.
“To the clothing shop.” She grumbles, knowing this is going to cost money. She could possibly ask Ino for a dress but that’d ruin the entire point of the dress! Another option is going in lounge because it’s just Ino, but a date has rules right? She doesn’t want to lose five charm because her ability hit her on a technicality for wearing loungewear.
If she’s honest, she’d rather wear full plate mail to hide her face!
Comments
Dopplerdee
This is going to go so badly.
