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CH 20- The Dungeon's Final Form: No Escape
🕑 Added 2024-03-26 07:50:35 +0000 UTCThis chapter was fun to write, but fight scenes really drain me. Originally I had intended to have CH 20 done on Sunday and have it wrap up the entire arc, but I kind of ended up at like 4K with just dungeon.
I do have to give a warning, if you're not the kind of person that wants warnings feel free to just follow the link now.
Okay, so, this chapter isn't intended to trigger or go along with real mental health issues, but it does contain themes of powerful insecurity, self-harm, and a lack of self-value that plays into those.
I don't actually like giving warnings, I feel it detracts from the piece to inform you beforehand of what's about to be shown. But uh, a lot of people have felt exactly like Sakura does, albeit for different reasons, and I want them to come in with the understanding that they can go get a drink to break up the intensity, and their feelings are valid.
Have a good chapter.
The poll is closed, and it looks like CH 21 will wrap up Wave, while CH 22 will be a recap from Kakashi's POV.
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“So, let me get this straight.” Kakashi starts, staring the two of them down like a true military officer might after an especially ridiculous report. “You were approached by the enemy after eliminating the target, and have decided to adopt the enemy.”
“Yes, Kakashi-sensei,” Sakura nods happily, seeing nothing wrong with this even while being scolded, “one bishie obtained.”
“And you’re just okay with this.” Kakashi’s lone eye travels over her new business partner’s face. “This is not a ploy, act, or otherwise an attempt to infiltrate Konoha.”
“Konoha has a front door.” Haku reminds softly. “If I wanted to infiltrate Konoha, I would walk in.”
The staring match between them is rather intense, but Sakura’s too busy looking over the new contract they just wrote up to care that much. Her ability did get involved, helpfully giving her information on what each clause of the contract would do just before they signed it, and how to not get screwed over. It was pretty nice, if not incredibly blunt. The last hour of her life was spent sitting down with Haku and a pen, writing out contract after contract and scribbling them out over and over again as her system told her in no uncertain terms that this was a slave contract or that would do absolutely nothing.
Then there was the friendly reminder that Haku has a status called ‘oath breaker’ for leaving Zabuza’s side, and any contract entered into is about as useful as a pile of hundred-year-old textbooks. It told her this every single time Haku got ready to sign one of the drafts and wasn’t exactly useful for morale.
She’s just glad it was a helpful series of prompts and not an entirely new system. That would have been a bit much for her so recently frazzled brain. She’s also happy the system doesn’t enable her to enforce a contract magically or anything, as that would be terrifying in a way she’s just not ready to deal with. Murdering people through the veil is already enough for her head to spin and she’s not recovering from that realization anytime soon. Haku may think it’s a good thing, but the implications are severe. It means anytime she goes into a dungeon she might be murdering someone, and one of her friends could drop dead at any time from any other people with this power around. She’s yet to find evidence others exist, but if she does, she might have to kill them on the spot to stop random leaf deaths if they happen to be from an opposing village.
“Fine, but as you are not an official member of team seven, you are not authorized to guard the bridge builder,” Kakashi says with a sternness Sakura isn’t used to from him, “you will remain at the home guarding his family, or with Sakura at all times.”
“Understood.” Haku raises a hand and salutes him.
“Are we supposed to be doing that?” Sakura asks, “I don’t think I’ve ever saluted you. I’m going to start saluting you.”
“Please do not.” Kakashi’s forehead ticks.
“It sounds fun.”
“Do not.”
“I think I’d enjoy that.” Sakura beams.
“... I hope you don’t think my word is law on this matter,” Kakashi says, ignoring her and looking back to Haku, “the Hokage will decide what to do with you once we get to Konoha. He may even decide to turn you in for your bounty and give it to Sakura.”
“I have thought of that possibility,” Haku admits, standing tall, “I do not think that will be the case, Konoha is well known for being compassionate, and I am technically not a missing-nin.”
“Oh?”
“To be a missing-nin you have to be a ninja in the first place,” Haku explains, “I was taken in by Zabuza-sama well before I would have done that.”
“That may well work in your favor,” Kakashi says, “now go, having you here is a liability to our mission. Do not approach the bridge again, or I will consider you hostile.”
“Understood.” Haku salutes him again, and while he seems fine with that, Sakura notes he looks quite annoyed when she also does it. Oh well, they’re leaving anyway, he’ll forget by the next time he sees them. It makes her feel giddy!
What’s he gonna do, train her harder? She’s not worried.
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For Haku, sitting around in this dinky old home isn’t a bother. Today the boy has donned a purple skirt and gentle blouse, and is walking around barefoot enjoying the feeling of nicely laid hardwood beneath his toes. The people here are nice, that Tsunami woman made him a warm dinner and that Inari kid showed him all his progress in some game about some green guy with a sword. He hasn’t spent any time with the bridge builder, Kakashi going out of his way to ensure they’re nowhere near each other, but that’s okay.
Their mission is to protect him from Haku and Zabuza. It makes sense Haku isn’t allowed to help guard, even if he kind of wants to. It would allow all three team members to train while he accompanies Kakashi, and being of use to them would make him very happy.
“Haaah…” A cup of tea is nice, especially when it's made by someone else. The kind woman doesn’t seem to hold any ill will towards him, even though he was originally here to kill her father. He wonders if they told her, or if she’s just that forgiving. Maybe this whole area is forgiving. The heated liquid is like a warm welcome from the populace, and he can’t help but feel guilty about their goal here all over again. So many people were hurt by Gato, and if he was going to get disowned anyway, would it have been better for him to kill the shipping magnate quite a bit earlier?
How much pain did his pointless compliance cause to the very woman in front of him, or those without homes to rest in?
Haku clears his head with another sip. Tazuna’s safe, and Gato is dead, that’s all that matters.
“It’s too bad you’re smaller than me.” The woman speaks up, causing his trained and honed gaze to flicker to her. “I have a few dresses I think you’d look very pretty in.”
“Ah.” Haku nods slowly, softly, and everlastingly gently. “Thank you for your consideration. Am I to assume you gave the same offer to Sakura? All of her clothes were destroyed in a battle shortly before she came here.”
“Nope, she just stole mine.” The woman says. “Didn’t even ask, she’s ruined several sets of my clothes too, I hope she’s willing to reimburse me before she leaves.”
“You should mention it,” Haku says, “she’s a little odd, but she’s a good person. She might not realize she should if you don’t say anything, but she’ll be happy to pay you back if you do.”
“...” The woman cuts something over there, contemplating the world it should seem.
“I thought you already made dinner.” Haku points out.
“I make a second dinner for their team and my father when he gets home,” Tsunami explains, “they’d forget to eat if I didn’t. Especially that Sakura girl. The others’ll sneak something late at night but she’ll go to bed hungry if I don’t shove food in her face.”
“You think she’s habitually neglecting herself?” Haku asks, taking a sip of his drink with a soft smile. It is very good, or at least good for a humble household like this.
“I think she has a caring family at home and hasn’t thought of things like food, hygiene, and rest as important yet,” Tsunami says, “it’s not that concerning, a lot of teenagers are like that. It’s only an issue because she’s a ninja, and her team isn’t going to act like her parents.”
“Huh.” Haku stares into his cup, contemplating that. “I wonder if her village will let me come along with her on future missions, as her guardian.”
“You’d like that kind of thing?” Tsunami asks, turning to give the boy a raised brow.
“I would go as far as to say that kind of work is my place in life.” Haku says, pensively wondering how Zabuza will fare without him to wake him up on time every day, make sure he eats, and care for his wounds.
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“Sakura,” Haku greets his new contractual guardian the moment she arrives at home. The girl has wet hair littered with mud spots, one of her shoes is missing, and - “you smell.”
“Ah, um, well, yeah.” Sakura reaches back to scratch her head reminiscent of her teammate, they’re made for each other, and Haku can’t help but hold back an exasperated sigh. “Training is rough, I can’t be perfect all the time.”
“Will you be heading right for bed?” Haku asks.
“Well yeah, I -woah, what are you doing?” Sakura asks as her arm is grabbed, and she’s dragged across the house with quick efficiency. Haku’s done this before, and it shows, not a wasted step needed because he knows exactly where he’s going. “Hey, that’s-” Sakura groans as she’s led into a bathroom. The bath is already drawn, and the steam hits her face in a way that makes her skin tingle nicely. “Haku?”
“Get in.” Haku is already starting on her clothes, working on -
“Hey, I can undress myself!” Sakura eeps, jumping to the side with a face so red it feels like the boy poured magma on her.
“Are you sure?” It’s the lack of malice or ulterior motives in Haku’s eyes that does it for Sakura.
“Yes, go away!” Pushing him out the door is all she can do before the simmering red face takes over and she slides down the door to the floor, her back against the wood and her hands palming her cheeks. “What have I gotten myself into?” She groans. “That was so weird!”
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“Why is Gato undead?” It’s pretty disturbing, watching the man that was so scary before, point at them with a rotted bony finger and summon a horde of shambling undead. “Sasuke you think you can um…”
“On it.” He shoots a fireball at the horde. Their burning corpses fill the air with a putrid smell, but they’re pretty easy to clear out, nothing like the last time, and the key zombie Gato drops fits into the safe just fine.
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[Zombie-Zombie-Gato]
“He’s a Zombie Zombie now?” Sakura sighs, staring at the horror show without a head that wobbles around in the boss chamber.
“Well we have killed him twice.” Naruto points out. “That’d make him double undead, right?”
“I don’t like that that’s a thing,” Sakura grumbles, “like, really? Do you think he’s stronger now?”
“I bet he’s fire-resistant,” Sasuke says. “Let’s try it.”
He was not.
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[Zombie-Zombie-Zombie-Gato]
“Dude…” Naruto grunts. “Why is he red?”
“He doesn’t even really have a body.” Sakura points out. “Bone armor too, that’s crazy.”
The creature in front of them is red and almost spectral. Bone spikes stick out of him in every direction, armor plating covering every part of his body in a way that sends waves of dread down their spines. The previous two Gato have been a joke. Summoning a horde of undead may be a terrifying concept in a game, but when they all have ranged weapons and jutsu, it’s kind of pathetic.
This one changes that. “Should we leave?” Naruto asks.
“We can’t leave.” Sasuke points out.
“What if I made a hundred clones and cleared the rocks?” Naruto asks and finds the silent, unknowing group doesn’t answer him.
“He can’t be that much harder,” Sakura points out, “he’s still dead. He’s just a zombie zombie zombie now.”
“You say that but he looks intense.” Sasuke says.
“Well, we’ll never know unless we try.” With a wreath of lightning chakra around her sword, Sakura rushes in.
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“That was stupid.” Standing over the corpse of their bubbling, melting foe getting eaten by the ground in much the same way as someone from Resident Evil 5, she can’t help but feel cheated.
It was intense, it was scary, she would even go as far as to call it very difficult, but there is no sense of accomplishment. They killed him again, and next time he’ll be here as a zombie-zombie-zombie, and as terrifying as that is, it feels dull. “We got another key.” Naruto points out, holding their fourth prize.
“That was a lot more difficult than the other two zombie Gato.” Sasuke groans, kicking the red bubbling corpse.
“Well, he actually fought back, and his zombies were fast and strong this time.” Sakura says with a lengthy sigh. “Next time will probably be as hard if not harder than the first boss fight since it’ll be the final challenge.”
“What do you think is in that safe?” Naruto asks.
“Something stupid,” Sakura says, “it’s supposed to recover Wave so it’s probably not just money… Let's not be hasty. We should train before we come back here for the fifth fight.”
“We’ve been training.” Sasuke grunts.
“Yeah but like, for a while,” Sakura explains, “we’ve been doing a run every day, and the bridge isn’t finished yet so we’re rushing through it with afternoon energy because someone has to watch the bridge during the day. We can hold off.”
“Why not just bring Haku?” Sasuke asks. It’s not the first time he’s brought it up, but it is the first time she hasn’t shrugged him off. She contemplates it, visibly bothered and willing up the words she needs to say.
“I don’t want to.” Is what she ends up with.
“You don’t… want to.” Sasuke stares quite dumbfounded.
“This is our team,” Sakura explains, “I don’t want to call in outside help and cheat our way to victory. Completing this dungeon was our first big accomplishment as a team, why taint it when I don’t have to?”
“This isn’t about us, it’s about Wave.” Sasuke reminds.
“And I’ll ask Haku if we don’t feel confident before we leave.” Sakura relents. “But Wave is already recovering, kinda, now that lower-cost shipping is allowed. No one’s starving to death, it’s not urgent.”
“Ahhh-” Naruto lifts a finger.
“No one who wouldn’t starve to death anyway.” Sakura rolls her eyes. “I’m not going to fix the homeless problem by opening that safe. Every civilization turns its backs on some people, it sucks but nothing in our power is going to change that. Not, just by fighting one battle…” Her expression falls a bit as she talks as if she doesn’t want to believe her own words. “And if we’re that worried about it, Naruto can distribute some soup or something with clones.”
“That’s not a bad idea.” Naruto says. It does little to help the pit in her stomach, but her convictions are solid. Haku is Wave’s enemy, and making him fight their battle for them will only tempt the boy to run off with whatever the prize is when they have access to it. And what right would she have to say Haku doesn’t have a right to the prize if they only defeat the final fight because they were there?
It’s not just about team seven, it’s about Wave.
She just hopes she’s doing what’s best for everyone, and not speaking hollow words that never quite settled inside.
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[Proto-Wind Affinity Level 1 Obtained]
It’s enough to make her cry. Two days of sitting around doing nothing but training wind, and she has it. She finally has it. She can finally be a movie ninja intern! She can still only create a gust of wind from her hands, and even then her control over it’s only enough to ruffle her hair or shake her clothes, and it’s kind of expensive so she’s unlikely to find it worth overcharging it with chakra to try and pull off some sudden but costly gambit.
But she officially has all five affinities, three of which only in the barest sense but still! Rushing to meet Kakashi on the bridge and show off isn’t even the first thought she has, because that would imply thinking. One moment she’s practicing water walking while trying to create a gust, the next moment she’s on the bridge seeking out her mentor and ignoring a catcall. It’s a little awkward for a grown man to do stuff like that, but it’s not her fault their mothers never taught them better, and she’s not about to play that part and teach them either. New hires are all over the place, meaning with Gato gone more are willing to help with the bridge, which should speed all this up. She just moves on and finds her damned sensei among the honorable men, perverts, and jerks, if only she was completely sure which he is.
Finding him reading porn instead of watching Tazuna doesn’t fill her with confidence either way.
“Kakashi!” She jumps in place when he notices her, lifting a palm and sending up a miniature gale that blows her hair out of her face and sends some dirt off her bangs to the bridge below. “Look!”
“You did it.” He says, eying the bridge more than her for a second before his eye focuses on her palm. “In less than a month you’ve accomplished something almost no one else has ever done.”
“Well, it’s only proto-affinity.” Sakura points out, her free hand scratching her cheek. “It’s not like I’ve mastered anything.”
“I doubt all the jealous Jonin are going to care very much about the difference between a proto-affinity and a real affinity.” He says. “Technically to be a jonin of the leaf you have to be able to perform at least one elemental jutsu of every type, showing an understanding of each chakra manifestation, even if only at its most preliminary level. But Jonin is a title for those in their twenties and thirties, and very few of them would claim to have even the most basic affinity in even four of them, let alone all five.”
“But they can do it.” She points out.
“With five to six times the chakra and ten to fifteen years of practice, yes.” Kakashi appears to be trying to get something across to her that’s just not clicking with her.
As is life. “So you’ll show me how to make my own jutsu now?” She asks.
“Tonight, after Tazuna has gone to bed.” Kakashi nods to her, “get some rest, you’ll need all the chakra you can get.” Get at least six hours, is the clear message there.
Comments
Dopplerdee
Ouch. Baby Naruto got hurt.
