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Chapter 12
🕑 Added 2024-02-18 15:12:24 +0000 UTCSo because Patreon gives away the content for free if I don't have a boilerplate, because intelligent design is intelligent and nothing I say will change that.
Here you go, keystrokes, keystrokes, keystrokes.
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Kakashi has a lot of time to think about things while he’s injured. Some of those things are simple. Naruto probably knows about his condition by now - the Hokage was oddly vague about that - but Sasuke doesn’t, and Sakura probably doesn’t, and keeping it that way a little longer so they can bond before the truth comes out would be quite nice.
Then there’s the issue of if he doesn’t know, how would he reveal something like that? He’s holding so many things from his team, so many from Naruto, it’s hard to remember when he’s lying and when he’s not.
Then there’s that sword Sakura has. The Chaos Blade, or as it was called originally, Hunger. It’s easy for Sakura, an obsessed girl who’s afternoons have been about games since she first entered the academy, to have made the assumption that he got her a replica Chaos blade. It’s very easy for him to pretend that’s exactly what happened.
She’d be wrong, and he’d be lying, but it would be easy for those events to happen.
The reality is much more sinister. Zoning out while helping Tsunami with dinner, he can’t help but remember exactly how that sword came to be in Sakura’s hands. The sword the Chaos Blade was based on.
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“Junk.” He groaned, returning from the training ground with a grimace. He couldn’t help but judge the garbage in his hands. He’d taken this ‘sword’ from Sakura just a few moments ago, a slab of metal that should have been illegal to sell as a novelty, let alone call it a real sword. As a kenjutsu master, his pride was damaged beyond repair that this passed for craftsmanship in this day and age, and his irritation was enough to cause his fingers to grind in and bend the weapon without much thought. That was fine, returning it was never really going to happen, it’s not like he needed the money.
“Maybe a normal masterwork?” He rifled through his old sealed weapons with one grimace after another. Nothing really fits Sakura, and that’s saying something because the girl doesn’t have a lot to fit with. She’s a fresh genin trying out Kenjutsu for the first time, anything should work, but nothing felt right. With a sigh, he pried prying open a floor board. Lifting a box out, he pulled a very unique weapon from it. He looked it over, recoiling from its sheer shine just like the first time he saw it. Bright and light, Beacon, was an enchanted sword of blinding light and was said to increase a wielder’s natural luck and prosperity. It’d be good to give her something like that, any genin could use a little luck, especially one with lofty goals like killing Itachi Uchiha. She’d need luck just to not get murdered by the man well before she was strong enough to hold a torch.
He was just about to leave with Beacon, when he heard a crash downstairs. Living in his own home, and knowing damn well no one was invading it, he couldn’t help but set Beacon down and continue down the steps with Sakura’s slab of garbage pretending to be a weapon. He’d use it to beat the intruder to death if there really was someone brazen enough to break into Kakashi Hatake’s home on a random Monday afternoon. It’d be a much better use of it than anything else he could imagine, a blunt instrument meant to make a brutal point.
“Is that…” His eyes took in the room and found it to be mostly the same it had always been. A mostly empty place with a simple shrine committed to three people. His old teammate Obito, who had given him the very eye that rests deep inside his skull.
His old teammate Rin, who’d suffered a very gruesome fate in a way that still haunts his nightmares to this day.
Most importantly, at the center of the shrine, was a blond man with spiky hair and an unnervingly enthusiastic smile. Confident to a fault even when marching to his death, his old sensei, Minato Namikaze. What caught his attention in that moment was not the shrine itself, but what was mysteriously resting on top of it.
Hunger. It didn’t sound particularly special, in fact it sounded like Naruto after someone offered to buy him a bowl of ramen. Hunger was a rather obscure sword, a few games had made similar designs or based a weapon off its concept over the years, but it wasn’t famous.
The one time it was used, it’d killed everyone who could have made it famous.
That was before Kakashi killed the one using it, sealed it in a scroll, then threw it in a vault.
It’d driven a man to madness, turned him into a puppet, used his very life essence to drive his rotting corpse onwards to kill more, and more, and more, never satisfied, always devouring, never-endingly violent.
“How are you-” Without a moment more to think about it the sword moved.
The weapon launched itself out of its sheath and flew towards him like the spirits the shrine commemorated were forcing an issue with sharp edges. He didn’t move, he didn’t need to. He knew exactly where the sword was coming, and with awe, he watched as Hunger ripped Sakura’s junk out of his hand, and impaled it to his wall. It spurred to life, grinding the piece of crap all on its own as if given a blood sacrifice it hadn’t tasted in years.
Kakashi had never been a particularly superstitious man. He believed in the true supernatural ridiculousness that permeated his world. He wanted to believe his team had gone to a happy afterlife of some sort, he had incredible respect for the dead, but it was not the fear of reprisal that caused him to spend hours of his day mourning those he had lost.
It was regret, and guilt that led those actions. Guilt at still being alive, while they rotted and disappeared.
But that?
“Yes, Sensei.” He bowed to the shrine, before grabbing Hunger, and going out to quickly get a new custom sheath made for it. If he was giving her Hunger, it’d need to look a little more like something from a game so she’d get excited and treat it with respect.
He’d also need to play with the sword a little to make sure the effects it had weren’t instantaneous or prone to actually take Sakura over. It’d overtaken a civilian, but at her age he was definitely capable of resisting a low level demon sword. She should be too, right?
Then he’d be watching her, to make sure the weapon didn’t destroy her anyway. He wouldn’t take his eyes off her for quite some time, ensuring she remained human in a way its previous owner simply hadn’t.
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[Gato Tower Dungeon, Level Recommendation: 20
Level of current party: 18
Please ensure you are on level and have equivalent quality gear that is in top condition. There will be no leaving to rest once you have entered.]
“You guys seeing that?” Sakura asks. “I mean I assume no but-”
“Yes.” It’s Sasuke’s voice that cuts through her doubts and makes her gawk.
“You mean like, the thing right, not the odd cave in front of us?”
“I mean the level notifier.” Sasuke says. “We’re eighteen.”
“I feel like we should be above eighteen.” Naruto says. “In the games Sakura and I have been playing, you reach level twenty in a couple of hours. We’ve trained our whole lives.”
Sakura chooses not to point out that she has not trained her whole life, unless training meant scaling buildings in Assassin's creed and stomping out Ganon like an old man needing to be taught the same damn lesson all over again. Not for the first time, she feels like a cheater. She shouldn’t be standing on their level, Naruto shouldn’t be jealous, Kakashi shouldn’t be giving her one-on-one training and Sasuke should be their team leader.
Doubts boil up until they’re an ephemeral layer of skin covering hers.
Sasuke’s hand on her shoulder snaps her out of it, and a simple nod from him calms her nerves.
It’s normal to feel a little overwhelmed from time to time, she knows that.
They need to get stronger. “I don’t think we’re ready.” She says. “Looks like we really need to train. If we can complete this before he attacks, we never have to worry about Zabuza.”
“Can we?” Sasuke asks. “Naruto’s right, we’ve trained our whole lives. Even if we assume levels are gained with similar efforts and there’s no sense of scaling to make matters harder.” Sakura chooses not to cut in that there probably is a rather significant one. “That’s still an eleven percent difference we’d have to gain in, what, a week?”
As surprised as she is to see him use math, it’s rather overtaken by the fact that it was incredibly unnecessary. Sasuke using math for no reason? She instinctively tries to break a genjutsu, and gives an awkward titter when Sasuke glares at her.
“Getting stronger is the easy part.” Naruto says. “We just have to push ourselves like we never have before.”
“Easy for you to say.” Sasuke scoffs. “There was an entire year in the academy where I set up a bed in the training field because I didn’t have the energy to get home each night.”
There’s that guilt. She doesn’t belong in this position. She’s never done anything close to that. Well, not because of training.
“See, that’s where you made your first mistake, one we won’t make here,” Naruto quips. “you slept.”
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“Get to work making the race track, Sakura.” Kakashi orders her, as he begins giving the boys some quick one-on -one training to make up for a bit of her personal time. She finds it hard to complain, she’s gotten a lot of his attention since they got here while they’ve mostly been forced to climb a tree for hours on end. While it’s very good for their chakra control, she can’t help the nagging guilt that seeps into her blood while she works.
It’s hard work, using a lot of chakra she’d really rather not have parted with so early in the day. Despite the task draining her quickly, it’s very easy to watch them while she works, which she finds herself very grateful for. It looks like simple repetitive motion training, teaching them both how to run in place and correcting their running forms by making them try it again and again until he’s satisfied. What they could get out of that, she’s not sure, but he’s the jonin not her. She’s just a genin who lucked into some absolute nonsense. The fact that said nonsense makes her happy and stronger and shatters the laws of the universe under her foot like it’s nothing only serves to accentuate the difference between them.
If Kakashi had gotten this ability, as a true genius, Konoha would own the world by now.
Oh well, it’s her ability and she won’t be giving it up. There’s no point to thinking of what ifs, not when they have so little time to get stronger.
At about halfway done with the replication of the Academy race track, Sakura can’t help but fall over and gasp for air. Three times her chakra in one day, and yet she can only do half. It’s stupid how much she can feel it inside her, how exhausted she is from such a simple action.
She finds herself fading, and accepts the nap for what it is. She’s with her team, she’s safe.
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When she awakens, it’s to the team still working, and a notification about six hours having passed. The sky is a lot darker, but that’s not important. She gets back to her knees, and gets to work. Kakashi barely gives her a glance in her direction to approve of her actions, telling her she’s doing the right thing with an eye smile.
She’s only mostly exhausted when she finishes the track, which is odd because she really had only done exactly half before. Then again, she’d done a bunch of training before the goblins, so maybe the training plus the random encounter had tired her out more than she’d realized.
Whatever the case, it’s while she’s catching her breath and drinking from her flask that Kakashi approaches her. “Sakura.” He greets, a glint of seriousness in his eyes. “Are you ready to do something forbidden?”
“Not now Kakashi, wait a few years at least.”
“Wha-no.” Seeing her Sensei clap his hand over his face and grip the bridge of his nose is totally worth it. She can see an exasperated face appear beside his head, like she needed the help or something. “I don’t like that that’s your answer to that, but I’m going to move on because I only have so much energy in a day.”
She snickers out loud, at least letting him in on the fact that it was a joke. She can make those, she promises! “There are very specific rules on how hard a jonin can work their genin. These rules were put into place because clan era shinobi sometimes worked their students to actual death. They’d call them weak, and move on. It only took a few times before the reigning Hokage had to make a ruling.”
“Sounds dumb.” She says.
“It was, but clan era shinobi were a very different kind of insane.” Kakashi explains patiently. “You have to understand that In a ninja village, for every rule that sounds dumb, it was created because in its absence someone died. Normally that someone was a genin or academy student.”
“Yeesh.” She plops back, pouring some of the water on her face to cool her hot skin. Chakra exercise is still exercise, and boy does it suck. She hates it so much.
“I’m going to ignore the law while we’re outside of the village.” Kakashi says. “I’m going to work you so hard, anyone else would die. You won’t get strong enough in time unless I do.”
“I’m not gonna like what you say next, am I?” She asks, looking at the training field and already having a pretty good idea of what he’s about to say.
“Nope, but I don’t really care.” Kakashi admits. “You’ll be learning the lightning training jutsu while running the track with Naruto. You will be trying to outlast him.”
“That’s impossible.” She shrugs.
“I didn’t ask.” His ominous statement lingers in the air. “When you pass out, Sasuke will take your place until he needs rest. You’ll cut the affinity training and carry Sasuke as if he’s a wounded teammate while running, shortly before you run out of Chakra.”
“... Kakashi, that’s absolutely insane.” She deadpans from her place on the ground.
“Didn’t ask, get up and go!” It’s with that, that he does several hand seals and a nimble and bright lightning whip appears in his hand. It drips towards the ground, but the message is clear. Run or get the crop.
“Oh, screw you.”
“Less whine, more run!” The first whip hurts enough she doesn’t learn what the second feels like.
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The lightning jutsu is a subtle jutsu to try and use lightning to alter the nervous system and accelerate its function enough to increase awareness. It’s incredibly taxing, and just not that effective for long term engagements, but is helping her get the gist of lightning chakra.
Sakura had originally asked if fucking with her nervous system is a good idea, and Kakashi waved it off, asking her what the worst that could happen would be. He’d told her to take a nap if she collapsed, unable to move, like that wasn’t already what she was going to do.
Naruto’s naturally faster than her, but she’s getting the hang of lightning chakra somewhat quick and is capable of using it for a lengthy period of almost ten minutes. Using it allows her to keep up with him pretty handily. “You’re getting faster.” Naruto compliments her.
“I’m cheating.” She reminds, biting her lip hard to ignore a twinge of pain caused by a misfire from her jutsu. Talking makes it hard to concentrate on jutsu this complicated, at least without a real affinity. “It doesn’t really count.”
“We’re all cheating in our own ways, Sakura.” Naruto says, a knowing glint in his eyes. She recognizes that expression despite her relative difficulty with stuff like that. Guilt, it’s the same thing she’s been feeling about getting so strong. She can’t figure out what he has to feel guilty about though, it’s not like whatever makes him so dangerous is something he controls. If it was, they wouldn’t have been level eighteen at the dungeon, because she’s pretty sure anyone ranked ‘run away’ is above level twenty on their own.
“I guess so.” She decides not to pursue that line of questioning. Naruto probably doesn’t even really know about whatever it is, he’d have surely explained to try and impress her by now. Far more important, is Sasuke panting and exhaustedly sprawled out in the middle of the track. She disengages the lightning jutsu to swoop down and scoop him up as she passes. “Having fun, Sasuke?” She asks.
“Naruto’s exhausting.” He says from her back. The first time he’d taken the indignance with quite some difficulty, now he lays there and waits without much to say. You can only be yelled into compliance by Kakashi so many times before you just do what the crazy guy with the whip says. “How is he still running?”
“He really doesn’t have to sleep, I guess.” Sakura shrugs, knowing she’s falling behind her blond teammate, but also knowing there’s really not much she can do about it. Sasuke isn’t a heavy enough load to slow her down, but she hopes it still trains strength. Without the lightning coursing through her body, she has no chance of keeping up with Naruto. It’s just not possible and Kakashi accepts it so she’s certainly going to.
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When it’s not running laps, it’s running up and down trees as fast as possible. When it’s not running at all, it’s push ups, it’s crunches, it’s weight lifting using Naruto clones as dumbbells. She’s not really sure how they have his weight being constructs and all, but she’s not about to question another teammate’s bullshit when her own is so prevalent.
Naruto supposedly sleeps during some of her rests, but she doesn’t see it, and she can’t help but let her mind wander. While Naruto and Sasuke are working within reasonable limits given by Kakashi, the two have a lot more stamina than her. They actually spend a few hours working at a time before the man uses what little he knows of medical ninjutsu to heal them.
The issue is, that’s not actually a lot. He’s an offensive ninja first, and his support level is far below average for a jonin. He’s still better than most chunin though, which leaves Sasuke receiving a lot of attention and Naruto almost none.
There’s a reason Sasuke’s almost always begrudgingly smooshed into the dirt somewhere whenever she wakes up.
She only tends to get a half an hour to an hour of this all out crazy training before she is taking a nap. Kakashi says it’s still more efficient than what the boys are doing, because she’s fully healing in between training sessions while they are very much still hurting from before and pushing themselves less.
It doesn’t really matter what he says, - besides the obvious - it only matters what her ability thinks. She’s not sure yet, she kind of wants to see all the training through and then check.
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Sakura stumbles into Inari’s room, panting and holding the door. “You winning, kid?” She asks, watching the boy play her gameboy. He does in fact seem to be getting better, and he’s immersed too. It takes him a second to realize she’s there and jump up. “Oh, Sakura! You’re alive!”
“Well, duh.” She snickers, holding back a deep breath that seeks to push itself into her lungs. It turns out there is a limit to how much she can grind in a short period abusing the sleep before it argues with her. This time, she only woke up with half her stamina and chakra restored.
She can’t really complain though. Three days of straight training, she’s not actually sure how many training sessions it was but basic math says it was around ten. Even the most strenuous of missions should be completed before ten freaking cycles in a row. Then there’s the possibility that they lied to her about how long it was to make her feel better, and it was twenty or thirty cycles or something.
With that announcement, and having finally gained the lightning proto-affinity, Kakashi finally let her go. Everyone is kinda happy about that, Kakashi included. It was getting kind of ridiculous.
She collapses next to the kid, hugging him close while idly watching the game over his shoulder. He’d moved on to one of the other cartridges, and she’s much too tired to pay much actual attention to it. Someone warm that isn’t her training buddy is more than enough to try to lull her off to sleep again. Nope, she decides, now’s the perfect chance to check how much stronger she’s gotten. “You’re really taken to the gameboy.” She says, “I’ll have to come visit and bring you a real gaming system some time after we save this island.”
He says nothing at that, simply frowning. She knows he wants to warn her to run away, whatever this Gato did to this kid must have been rather personal. His grandfather asked him a lot when he told him to keep his mouth shut. It’s not actually necessary, now that everyone on the team is aware of the real situation, but she’s not about to disrupt the peace by announcing that. A ninja’s secrets are also their power.
First, her stats.
[Sakura Haruno
HP 120
Chakra 40
Strength 41
Constitution 40
Dexterity 38
Agility 43
Mental 98
Control 215
Charm 12]
She can’t help but be impressed by her new statistics. Even for the hell she just went through, that’s an absurd boost, and for the fiftieth time she kind of wishes she could check the statistics of her teammates to make sure they are getting stronger too. She’d hate to find out she’s sapping their gains or something through cosmic scales.
Most importantly though, are the skill and Trait changes.
[Clone Technique Intermediate: You are extremely proficient in the E rank jutsu, Clone Technique. You do not currently possess the chakra capacity to evolve this technique.]
[Tree Walking: You have learned the ins and outs of walking on trees, walls, people’s weapons and various cave structures. Learn how to do it on Water to Evolve the Skill]
[Novice Short Blade: You have started on the path of the short blade. Self taught and without much training besides what you needed to pass the Academy’s not so strict criteria, you are very unlikely to cut yourself but earn little other benefit. Gain a 25% to Dexterity while trying to deflect with a short blade. ]
[Novice Throwing Weapons: You have started on the path of the throwing weapon. Self taught and without much training besides what you needed to pass the Academy’s not so strict criteria, you are very unlikely to cut yourself but earn little other benefit. Gain a 25% to Dexterity while trying to land a blow from short range with a throwing weapon.]
[Novice Stealth: You are learning how to sneak up on an enemy, and your academy days have made your footsteps light and bouncy. You can now see basic sight lines, and are aware of how much noise you’re making while trying to stealth.]
[Novice Crossbow: You can shoot a crossbow, and you’re willing to kill with it. You aim 25% faster and deal 25% more damage with a crossbow as long as you’re in an advantageous situation.]
Reviewing them all, she can’t help but feel her head spin a little. That’s so much, and it’s all technically useful. She’s not sure what crap it’s talking about the Academy, they required her to get quite proficient with kunai, though nowhere near as proficient as Sasuke. He had clan techniques though, so that’s not exactly a fair comparison.
Tree walking will have to be evolved the first chance she gets, sight lines are ridiculous enough to make her roll her eyes, but it’s the crossbow skill that has her gaping enough Inari looks over questioningly. “You’re just really surprising me with your new skills.” She manages to lie. Not convincingly, but enough a little boy doesn’t question her.
It’s not an incredible ability or anything, she has no intentions of using a crossbow and she isn’t even aware of what it would consider an advantageous situation. It’s just, crossbows aren’t used by Shinobi because they have a set strength. Academy student or Jonin, a shot to the face from a crossbow will do the exact same amount of damage. It’s a stable weapon without any influence from the user besides its aim. Many of her skills have had a phantasmal, fantasy effect on her. Her sword does less damage to her, her armor is calced in a strange way, she can smash into a tree and not care about the damage.
This is the first ability that directly influences someone else. It has implications, and she’s not sure she likes them.
She shakes that off, before getting to her traits.
[Sasuke’s Close Confidant: An Upgrade from Sasuke Trivia Expert, you’ve officially earned enough of Sasuke’s trust to be considered his friend. Romantic options are enabled, and the effects of teamwork are greatly increased while interacting with him. You’re at the top of the list for ‘people he wouldn’t mind rebuilding his clan with someday.’ It’s a very short list.]
She barely has time to gag a little before she realizes something.
The next trait is Neck Snapper, not Disappointment. She looks at the traits list over three times, it’s gone. She is no longer a disappointment, and while it doesn’t have any tangible benefits, it makes her kick her feet and squee like one of Sasuke’s fangirls after he did something broody. Inari shoots her another questioning gaze, and she points to the game. He’s suspicious, and she doesn’t really care. She’s not a disappointment!
[Neck Snapper: Deal 300% damage when attacking from behind while undetected by the target. Caution, do not use it against allies, they will die.]
No shit. She glares at the screen, she’s not an idiot. She has ninety eight Mental, which is a lot. Chunin rank mental, her traits have told her. With a shake of her head, she moves on.
[Sister to a Fox: The Prankster of Konoha has been likened to a sneaky little fox many times, and just like a sneaky little fox, you’ve gone and earned its loyalty so it’ll stick by your side until the day you die. Romantic options are enabled, and the effects of teamwork are greatly increased while interacting with him. You’re at the top of the list for ‘people he wouldn’t mind rebuilding his clan with someday.’ It’s a short list, but it’s longer than Sasuke’s!]
Okay, so both her teammates want to do lewd things to her someday. That really makes all that getting sweaty and running around with them kinda awkward. It also raises questions about Naruto having a clan.
Luckily it’s not her problem right now! She’ll revisit the idea when she hits that phase of girlhood where she’s fawning over every guy with chiseled abs. Everyone of her ex-classmates except Ino appear to have hit that stage a year ago, so she’s not actually sure she will hit it. Either way, she has something much more interesting to focus on, traits.
Or, she wishes she did. The remaining new stuff is just her Academy Student Charm and her affinities. Water Affinity and Earth reached level two, proto-fire and lightning are still on one.
She closes her eyes at that, saying screw it.
She’ll nap next to the kid, he probably hasn’t had a sleep over since all this Gato business, he probably won’t mind.
