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Chapter 99 - Arc 6 - Onward, To Suna! - Coming Home from Suna
🕑 Added 2024-10-26 22:09:01 +0000 UTCHeya, sorry about the late chapter and the side story. Depression hit me with the stick. I always prioritize quality over promptness, and while I understand that decision has probably cost me supporters over the months, uh, that's okay.
This was a fun chapter. I struggled a bit since the outline is over but, I got it.
I think Arc 7 will start on Monday. I shouldn't have to do a pause but there might be a point where I post a chapter a day or two late because I needed to research properly. I'll probably release the side story in a few hours it's in the "editing" phase, only holdup is my little brother wants to play a game for a few hours.
Enjoy the chapter!
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“They got her when she went to the bathroom.” Kakashi explains, patching the elder girl’s wounds. She’s wearing so much shame on her face, but she won’t stop looking at Sakura’s “They got her when she went to the bathroom.” Kakashi explains, patching the elder girl’s wounds. She’s wearing so much shame on her face, but she won’t stop looking at Sakura’s hand.
Personally, Sakura’s over it, but uh, she probably should bandage it. Or at least take the kunai out of it, shouldn’t she…
“How did you know?” Temari asks her, “they obviously wanted me to kill you, and then for me to die in the retaliation. You don’t even know me…” The downcast look on Temari’s face makes her feel a little guilty, which is an odd feeling when it’s about the other person trying to kill you. Feelings are stupid.
“I’m very smart.” Sakura gives her a fake beam that she’s pretty sure only partially manages to show on her face. She also waves her bloody hand away from Gaara, who is endlessly fussing over her. In reality she had an educated hunch that Temari was under a genjutsu, but uh, she’s not going to admit that. Gaara might not listen to her next time if he knows she might be lying about the enemy being possessed.
“Right, um, are you going to…” Temari’s stare at her bleeding hand only intensifies with every passing moment.
“It’ll be fine.” Sakura shrugs, “I’m going back to bed, wake me up in five.”
“But-”
“Oh right, yeah you probably want this.” Sakura dexterously removes the blade from her hand with a bit of a crunch to it, it must be in one of her bones, before she tosses the kunai by Temari’s feet, returning it to the sand with a wet thunk. “Byeeee!” She waves at the girl with her bloody hand, letting it flop a little as she makes her way towards the restful tent of restyness. She can’t help but notice an oddly sour look on Temari’s face as she leaves. The pain will probably return in a minute, since now that the kunai is removed combat is officially over. Hopefully she can be asleep before then.
Far more importantly, poor Temari, she’d probably feel bad in her place too but it’s not like they can undo it. Except oh wait, they can, it’ll be undone in about five hours! Why wait to comfort her when she can make it disappear!?
“What the hell is wrong with that girl?” Temari gulps, watching Sakura disappear into the tent with a monstrous wolf corpse and a frantic Gaara behind her. “Gaara tried to kill me to protect her.”
“Yeah, that’s gotta sting…” Sasuke hisses, bending over to pick up the discarded kunai, and puts it in his pouch. “It’s a collectible now.”
“Collectable?” Temari’s brow raises at him, her lips quirking to the side as her gaze lands firmly on him.
“Friendly Fire Kunai, it’s a thing. Forget it.” Sasuke shrugs, leaving her to ponder much while also disappearing into the tent.
“Got them.” Kakashi says suddenly appearing behind her with just enough presence to cause Temari to jump in surprise.
“Got what?” The spiky blonde haired girl asks. She looks to Kakashi and is struck with the realization that due to chain of command it makes perfect sense that Sakura might leave punishing her to someone else. She’s the mission escort, and Sakura is a genin, she can’t get away with beating the shit out of her.
But Kakashi can, Kakashi can make executive decisions for his village, and as long he didn’t permanently injure her it would likely be swept under the rug politically. Gaara would probably vouch that it was deserved or something, he was planning on turning her into a liquid earlier over that scary girl’s hand.
“Them.” Kakashi repeats, not making a single move towards her, even as her nerves peak. “I had to tend to you while your Sensei found the enemy, but he failed to find them so I found them instead.”
“Ah… To think he would fail that easily.” Temari muses.
“He wasn’t trying.” Kakashi says. “Why would he care about someone targeting a Leaf Genin?”
“They used me.” She points out with a forlorn pout. “I feel gross.”
“They wouldn’t do it again, using the same trick twice on the same person is a good way to die,” Kakashi shrugs his shoulders, looking off back towards where he came from, “you’re safe.”
“You have an unbelievably high assumption of enemy competence.” Temari snarks at the scary man, regretting it a second later as reality catches up with her. She’s antagonizing him, she should not do that.
“They’re still alive.” He explains simply without even a twitch to his masked expression. “Well, they were. Some lessons are required for continued survival, so you can confirm they have those lessons by the fact that they are still alive. For example, you certainly learned to breathe at some point.”
“Ah… That does make sense.” She nods, well past the point of caring about random death. Who cares if their attackers are dead? In fact, she’s lived with Gaara almost her whole life, knowing the enemy was stomped into the ground is almost comforting in its familiarity. “You could have pumped them for information.”
“Our mission is to protect you.” Kakashi’s lone eye pointedly drags his gaze across her face, “there will be plenty of other chances to capture the attackers, this is twice in a week, there’ll be more. There is no reason to risk you for a recurring opportunity.”
“Thank you.” Temari’s expression twists into something almost admiring at the realization that she is not about to receive a beatdown. Just how soft is Konoha? She expected the Jonin to be bastards at least.
“For?” He asks.
“Answering. Suna Jonin don’t answer my questions, they just pass over me for Gaara.” The upturn of her lips turns almost wistful at the thought.
“I’m informative?” He questions her, before disappearing in a puff of smoke as suddenly as he arrived. She knows he’s still around though, because she can hear his hysterical laughter somewhere in the distance.
“I feel like I missed a joke.” Her pout is missed by everyone as they too have abandoned her for the tent.
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Arriving at Konoha is surprisingly cathartic for Sakura.
So much has happened the last few days. Well, okay, very little has actually happened but it was all super impactful! She’s realized she needs to have a very real conversation with Ino, she’s realized why she’s been so bored lately, she got a random encounter, she got a stick, she almost got assassinated - twice -, she was attacked while sand boarding, and she made a new friend! She may have made several new friends if Temari counts, but she gets the feeling she doesn’t. Temari’s reaction this morning to her waking up and stretching out with a perfectly okay hand was to start screaming.
That girl is traumatized. She gets the feeling she’s the cause of her newest nightmares, but uh, that’s not her fault. Temari got genjutsu’d, not her, the girl has to get her shit together before she starts blaming her.
Oh, and she stopped Gaara from brutally murdering his sister, that’s important too. It’s not something she should have had to do, but the alternative is that he saw his sister was trying to kill her and turned her into a paste.
And uh… This is preferable. “I think they want you to go with them.” Sakura says to the puppy at her side. No, not the undead one, “Gaara…”
“I don’t want to.” The boy says, looking very tired all of the sudden. He always looks tired though, perhaps that’s a part of his burden? He does feel like Naruto… actually, should they be okay with two of those in their village? Is that okay?
She has so many questions and no way to get any answers. It’s above her pay grade is probably the best way she can put it. “Well, I think you have to, for legal reasons? You’re not allowed into the merchant district yet so it’s not like I can let you stay at my house.”
He perks up at the idea, and then nods his head slowly and methodically. “I will fix that.” He says firmly.
She only has time to blink at him before he is off with his siblings, and Sakura is pretty sure that can’t end well at all. She’ll have to warn her parents at least, that might come up and Gaara’s apparently violent to everyone not her so, she doesn’t need them getting hurt for telling him no.
“Good boy.” She reaches over to pat her actual puppy, huge as it might be, and is happy to find it is just where she wants it to be without even having to look or instruct it. There was an odd period shortly in where the nameless monster would wander around and scare people. The Inuzuka were very helpful during that trying time, mostly teaching her how to train it before someone shot the poor doggo with a fireball.
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A quick talk with her parents, a hug from Business Naruto and the twins, and a pep talk later from Business Naruto of all people, and she is standing outside of Ino’s house. She has much to contemplate, and she does all of it standing here. There was always the chance Ino was on a mission, but there was only one way to find out and now that she’s outside of her house she can feel Ino’s soul inside. Only one way to find out is actually something the suit wearing Naruto said, that she can only find out the answer if she actively seeks it out. He’s getting smart, she uh, does have to break it to him that she has to kill him sometime though. She’s getting the feeling Naruto’s not ever going to pop him and she’s getting super worried about it.
She can break it to him over lunch. Maybe.
Every step she takes towards Ino’s house is a little painful, and has been for about half the walk here. That she’s standing outside of her house doesn’t change that, her legs don’t want to move at all. Getting closer to Ino comes with the reality in which she might say or do something wrong and suddenly she’s stuck at home again. But that’s anxiety, and Ino’s her friend. She just needs to explain why it hurts, and she’ll never do it again. Probably.
But what if it’s not anxiety? It’s a legitimate issue, and she is a rational person. She wouldn’t ever want to walk towards a threat, but is that how she wants to view her best friend? Two months of regular sessions and her brain did stop protecting Ino from her, but it didn’t ever stop protecting Ino in general. So as deep as the betrayal feels, her core doesn’t seem to think it’s a big deal.
Feelings are complicated.
She takes a deep breath and forces herself through the flower shop door. The smell hits her first, floral - obviously - and overpowering. Great care is put into a flower shop so that the pieces on display do not clash particularly hard. This does mean certain flowers need to be fully wrapped instead of out and about letting off their scents, and that some aren’t even on display and are instead represented by pictures. She imagines a world in which you could press a button or something and get a quick scent, that would probably help a lot, but their advanced technology focused mostly on the visual and sound parts of the senses so she got video games instead.
It’s a good trade, in her opinion. At least, she’s always assumed that’s why the Yamanaka flower shop is set up the way it is. She should research flower shops sometime, it’s very important to her friend and she’s been so busy researching stuff that’s important to her that she’s never bothered to be a good friend in that way.
Her charm is helping her discover herself and others, sure, but it’s also making her seriously question Ino’s tastes for being into her. She’s always been a selfish, self centered girl. Even her best intentions have in some way revolved around her. For instance, why did she think she had to start the Sasuke fanclub to protect Ino? Ino could protect herself just fine. Ino could have run the club!
And, she’s doing it again. A clap of her hands against her cheeks to center herself is all the noise she needs to make, before the man behind the counter runs out back. “Wait here!”
“That’s weird.” She ponders. Sure, she’s Sakura, Ino’s bestie, but uh, she could be here to buy flowers. Would it even be reasonable to go get Ino if she was? Making her wait could cost them a sale. There’s also a non-zero chance Ino gives her the flowers for free, which is just not a great business model. She’s not waiting long, she has just enough time to sigh before a blur comes right towards her as quick as lightning. Her body instinctively moves to deflect it, her trait activating, but she moves her hand out of the way instead. “Oop-” She gasps as she’s sent backwards, landing on her back.
“I’m so sorry! It wasn’t me!” That’s an odd greeting to someone that just came back from a mission, but she rubs her friend’s back in the most comforting way she can manage regardless. It’s a bit odd to see the blonde girl crying on top of her but hey, Ino’s been the comfort pillow for her many times so…
“Uh, okay?” She gulps, this is so awkward! “What wasn’t you?”
Comments
Lol
Wait are you telling me Kakashi isn't the worst at keeping his students in the loop? Temari is in a lot of trouble then.
Christopher Cummins
It's a collectable.
Dopplerdee
Sasuke collecting the Kunai is great.
