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Chapter 54 - Arc 4 - Brawling in the Streets: Was That Too Far?
🕑 Added 2024-07-05 23:30:40 +0000 UTCPoor Tenten.
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So magic exists, and abusing that fact quickly becomes the meat of the entire day. It seems all she needs to surpass her previous control of her custom made jutsu is to truly understand that the rules are optional. Even the rules she made are optional, all that’s required is a sufficient understanding of the effect she wants and she can make it happen with enough focus, determination, and control. Or, well, she’d like to say that, but “Rollout!” Spinning through a hallway of undead as a giant spiky ball of death is the best she can do with that knowledge right now. She’d originally followed the rules of jutsu she’d made and what her sheet said, that once it was formed there was nothing she could do, it was already in its natural state and it would last until it broke - rather quickly at that - and she’d have to make another.
This fact has stopped her from using this ability before now in practical scenarios. It wasn’t useful, what point is there in a crushing technique that explodes on impact, especially one that would likely explode inward since force would push it towards her when she smashed it against something away from her. Rollout was more dangerous than useful, and she needed to respect that by simply not using it.
Turns out that’s not how it works, that term on her skill, Fragile? It’s entirely able to be worked around by ignoring the nature of normal jutsu. If she keeps supplying it with chakra to reform it mid attack and reinforce it, it just keeps being a rolling ball of death destroying all in her path. Chakra creates a flame dragon, or a spear of wind, or some other form that’s really cool and theatrical and awesome, but these things aren’t meant to be modified after the fact. Chakra isn’t infinitely manipulatable, it does what it needs to and then you make it again.
Whether it’s because her ability is more magical than chakra based, or because chakra just doesn’t work the way she’s been led to believe, she’s not sure. Rigid rules might be completely flexible to the S rank ninjas of the world, maybe understanding their flexibility is a part of getting that strong and she’s less marching through untreaded ground and more rediscovering the overpowered wheel. Whatever the case, her realization that magic is real has led her down a rabbit hole which has resulted in her cleaving through hordes in seconds as a spike ball while Neji and Tenten trail behind her, waving flags around and saying ‘I helped!’
It’s exhausting, but she has time to rest in between excursions, the safe rooms allow them to read and talk and snack and rest. Like now.
“I’ve lost track of time.” Sakura says, plopping down into a chair next to a type writer and letting those two do what they want. They don’t need to stand guard anymore, because while in the ball she can exit the safe room slowly and just crush them to mulch underneath her. She rubs some sweat off her brow, she’s a little exhausted. Earth jutsu are harder for her than water, though she’s great with both. “What’s our progress?” She pulls out a notebook she found at the last safe room, and a pen from two safe rooms ago, and gets back to theory crafting just what she can do to modify her jutsu and techniques with the understanding that the rules work sideways for her.
It’s not abnormal for her to change her methodology to a new understanding. Fighting Vampire Gato changed her perspective on how Hunger worked. She doesn’t need to sacrifice her own blood if she can get her sword in someone else first. If Hunger relied on her, she would have died in front of Gato, instead she did a Revengeance on her way through him. It was awesome, if not something she hardly remembers since she was blind and dying from blood loss.
“It’s been eighteen hours, we’re in safe room thirty four.” Neji says. “If not for all these documents varying from room to room, I would be willing to say we are in a loop.”
“There was a warning that this would take multiple days.” Sakura sighs to herself, writing about another potential modification to her clone jutsu.
Mindwalker adjacent clones, something applying Ino’s insight let her make. They do not dispel until she forces them too, and can pass through objects freely without worry of popping, but she’s forced into a stupor when using them. The focus is next level and even with all her Mind and Control she’s not handling it well.
Illusionary clones, the normal Academy jutsu which leaves no shadow and makes no true sound. Attacks pass right through them, but upon being grabbed or being forced to phase through something for more than the split second it takes a kunai to pass through, they dispel. It has something to do with disrupting the chakra flow, and they can’t handle the strain.
What if she applied other concepts to it? What if she took the original illusionary clones and used her water? Could she make the water clone all on her own without someone teaching her?
“Are you seriously trying to make a new jutsu right now?” It’s Tenten’s voice which wakes her up from her focus, “Sakura, you’ll exhaust yourself.”
“We’re about to sleep.” Sakura points to Neji, who’s already unpacking sleeping bags from a seal. “I’ll get my chakra back while we rest.”
“I don’t know if they forgot to teach you this in the academy, but it takes days to fully recharge your chakra pools. We can’t afford that.” Despite a part of her understanding the older girl’s concern, most of her can’t help but find Tenten irritating. Where does she get off being condescending and patronizing?
“Ugh…” Sakura sighs to herself, before spinning her pen in her fingers while forcing a smile. She lifts her free hand up to be adjacent to the spinning pen-
And she moves, smashing them together.
Hot red splashes her face, as well as Tenten’s, and she can’t help but notice that said girl seems to be caught by surprise. “See?” Sakura prompts her, before she removes the pen from her hand, and waves her gushing palm around. She watches as the elder genin takes a step back and stares with wide shaking eyes. A hand lands on the bun haired girl’s mouth, and Sakura quirks a brow at her. With a decisive movement, she plops the pen back onto the desk, her blood dribbles onto the wood nicely like bright pink ink.
“Why would you, what the hell is wrong with you?” The weaponmaster slams her foot into the floor, “I just said we can’t afford that kind of reckless action!”
“This is proof,” Sakura says, going through the effort of unsealing the first aid kit she’d found pre-dungeon, and bandaging her hand swiftly and simply, “tomorrow when we wake up, you’ll find this wound completely gone and my chakra reserves completely restored, I will then explain myself. Until then, discussing this is fruitless.” With that, Sakura allows herself an excited wiggle and gets right back to her notebook, picking up her bleeding pen and drawing with a sweet new color. “Didn’t Neji say to just trust me?”
“Right, because I’m getting so much sleep after seeing you do that with a smile.” Tenten grumbles, but a signal from Neji has her wandering over to her sleeping bag to climb in.
Good, she needs time to think.
Today has been eye opening. She just has to remember to actually get to sleep or she won’t be able to prove anything. Magic is real, and there’s so much to do with that knowledge!
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“You could have bit your lip or something.” Tenten fusses over Sakura’s hand first thing in the morning. It went ‘welcome to the living’ then ‘show me your hand’, in that order with no time for play or quirky conversation.
Unwrapping the bandages and discarding them in a conveniently provided waste bin is simple, convincing Tenten to give her back her damn hand is another thing entirely.
“Neji, did I overdo it?” Sakura can’t help but ask, a neutral third party is important for matters like this.
“You did.” Well screw you too Neji. “Tenten is not accustomed to watching comrades hurt themselves to prove a point. You truly concerned her with your actions.”
“Oh… sorry.” Didn’t Naruto and Sasuke say something similar once? But this was such a small injury, why does it matter? “I guess I’m still trying to understand others. To me, my injuries will disappear when I sleep, so they don’t matter.”
“Pain still hurts.” Tenten says, intertwining their fingers together and pressing her palm against Sakura’s. She makes her feel her grip, and squeezes her in just the right way to draw her gaze to where she feels every touch. “You shouldn’t smile when you’re in pain, and you shouldn’t cause it yourself. You didn’t even ask me to believe you first, you just jumped right to doubting me and hurting yourself. Neji’s my teammate, weird blood lines are normal for me.”
“There is nothing weird about the Byakugan.” Neji huffs.
“You keep telling yourself that, Mr. pervy eyes.” Tenten smirks, looking back at him, and smiling a little brighter at her joke when he crosses his arms and gives them an indignant glare that could wilt flowers.
“Good news is I figured out the water clone last night.” Sakura says, stretching out with the one hand Tenten doesn’t have, pushing it up well above her head.
“You what? You can make water clones now?” Tenten’s sudden stark focus is a bit frightening, but Sakura breathes through it and reminds herself that talking to people with too much energy isn’t a chore, it’s something she wants to do and isn’t scary at all. Excitement is exciting, not terrifying, now if only she believed that a little more…
“Clone, I can make a water clone. It doesn’t look like me, it doesn’t have my equipment, and it dispells upon hitting anything which I feel like it’s not supposed to do. But… I can do it. I just need to work on it.”
[Proto-Water Clone Level 1] was a skill she got last night, so if she grinds it up she can get it high enough level it becomes normal, right? She can probably create any skill like that.
She’s been too focused on reality, and hasn’t tried to move past it before this. That was dumb, she’s better than that. If she can do anything she wants to, well, she should get started doing just that. She’s been too caught up in the systems presented to her, like she was expecting a tutorial, and never looked past it. She’s supposed to be smart, so, well, now she has to be smart.
“Ready to get going?” Sakura asks, “I’m sure you’ve read all the documents.”
“I have.” Neji says, nodding to her assertively. “I have also been taking these documents for later reference, in the event Konoha wants them with my report.”
“Do yourself a favor and pass them into the Hokage directly, Chunin don’t need this crap.” Sakura warns.
“Ah, A rank secret, right…” Neji looks a little ill at the reminder. “You should read through some of this yourself, it’s remarkable. Fierro is very strange, it’s possible they’re not even from this world.”
“What makes you say that?” Sakura asks him, giving him a slightly tilted head and a focused gaze with half closed eyes.
“The notes mention wanting to go home many times, and even cite going home as the reason for experimenting with the plane between life and death. It’s possible this entire escapade is because someone died and was forced here. It’s only natural they’d want to travel back the same way.” He explains, pulling a few papers from his pack, and putting them back when Sakura shakes her head and waves them away.
“Wouldn’t they not have a body back where they came from then? They’d be researching suicide.” Sakura points out.
“Wanting to rest where you belong is not that abnormal a whim.” Neji says, and decides to let implications lie where they’ve landed.
Sakura doesn’t feel the need to stir it up any further.
All she knows is that’s not a normal whim at all, and Neji might need to talk to Sasuke’s guy too.
Comments
Dopplerdee
Mizuki really fucked Sakura up didn't he?
