Chapter 141 - Arc 10 - The Game: Finally Understanding What's Going On

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So, people agreed pretty hard that I should just continue. Of 8 voters only 2 said they would like me to redo some stuff, and upon chatting with one of the two on Discord they said they could honestly go either way, and several people told me to just continue without actually voting. I had a couple people contact me to tell me that it's just a bad time financially for them and they will be back, and I think in general the loss of patrons is a mix of financial reasons, some normal loss (happens every month) and a few people just really not liking that we've left Konoha or that their favorite characters aren't in play.

One person said the arc was "to kill off everyone so I can introduce new characters" in the poll, which was a joke option I put. I thought it was pretty clear that we'll be getting our friends back, and I will probably make that clearer in the public edits to avoid anyone stressing over it. This is not a story where I kill a bunch of characters permanently because I think it's funny, it's never been that kind of story, the ultimate goal of this story has always been and always will be, to spread smiles. Tensions are temporary, at least largely. I thought "they'll all be back" was so obvious I've been freely talking about it in the Discord, like it's not even a spoiler. As a card game playing kid with freaky hair once said, "it's not a spoiler if it's obvious."

So here we are, Arc 10 is another mini-arc, the rules are explained properly and then the actual game starts next chapter and will have a few chapters but I don't plan to focus on it too much in the active sense. This story has always been about Sakura's perception, and I don't think playing through the entire thing would be very conductive to that. It's going to add context, and then we'll have some hugs as things wrap up, before we get to the contracts, which'll probably be Arc 11.

Anyway, thank you for your support, enjoy the start of Arc 10, which has much better vibes.

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Yesterday was good for her. She would go as far as to say yesterday was great. Rain clouds had managed to overcast her life for a bit there, but now the skies are sunny and she’s got a radiant smile. It feels a little bit like a Genjutsu, but circulating her Chakra proves to her that she is indeed smiling and has a real set of reasons to.

Samael needs to succeed, but otherwise everything is great. Who cares about the stupid game when the top players have her friends and have expressed protectiveness over her? They stood down the Hero and risked a slaughter yesterday, with time to sleep on it and realize it’s reality, how is she supposed to feel but good? All that talk about not picking a side or helping her was clearly just that, talk, some sort of political play to make her misconstrue reality. Why they wanted that, she doesn’t know, maybe she’ll get the answer out of Samael sometime, but for now she sits pretty knowing that the only obstacle between her and hugging Ino until they’re both blue is a few days of waiting.

Sitting at a conference table on the third floor, Sakura can’t help but look around at the other eight monster lords. It doesn’t matter that she’s only had an actual conversation with four of them and that this is incredibly awkward. That they were informed she was human yesterday and are all looking at her questioningly hardly even hits her mood. She does wonder why she was trying in the first place if their reactions to her cover being blown are awkward staring and nervous twitching.

More importantly than her is that Rosalia is tied up in the corner. She looks unamused, but no one is questioning her like they do her. Their lord has decided that Rosalia is to be protected, so they’ll fall in line. How many machinations and side plots are going on at any given time inside this room, she’s not sure, but they hardly matter to her at all. She has fifteen people to care about, that’s it, everything else is optional. Rosalia had wanted to stay hidden in Samael’s room but they couldn’t risk it, so there she sits, glaring at them while covered in ropes in the corner. Rosalia’s a political prisoner, and an awkward one since the King hasn’t cared enough to make demands for her return.

“This is our official strategy meeting. Over the next few hours you will all pick the remaining souls to lead in a game that has just been revealed.” Saruka finally starts the meeting, giving them all a glance that lingers for a second.

“Wait, you didn’t know?” Sakura asks, suddenly looking around at the shrugging forces of darkness. There’s a gray skinned girl with wispy silver hair and purple eyes giving her a much more direct expression, but Sakura can’t tell what it means for the life of her. “I thought people were just being mean to me by not explaining, we had no idea?”

“When a diplomatic game like this is hosted, picking first is considered such an advantage that the rules of the game are not decided until half have locked in their choices. As the Dark Lord and Hero cannot be trusted to decide themselves, it is left up to the World to create the terms of engagement,” Saruka explains, daring anyone to question why Sakura didn’t know this with a pointless glare around the room since everyone probably overheard the king yesterday, “simulated Hero Clash is the game the World decided on this time.”

Everyone else seems to know what that means, their sense of energy and enthusiasm spiking. They begin murmuring and plotting, but Sakura has to plead with her to continue explaining with her eyes. “When a Hero is chosen, he strengthens himself with small monsters and quickly becomes strong enough with his party to challenge the Dark Lord and her main retinue, this is a rule of the World and has been the case for hundreds of years. The issue is that sometimes the power of the Hero is split amongst a group of worthy people instead of just one. In this situation, the Hero cannot rise up and challenge me, they must kill each-other until only one remains so they can get the entire boon. Historically there were a few Heroes that decided to work together but those were always during times of peace, while we’re at war they cannot afford to split their power like that.”

“... Ah, that’s messed up.” Sakura echoes what the hum around the table seems to say. She can understand the king a little more, if he had to kill his fellow heroes for what he deemed the greater good. It doesn’t make her like him, actually she’s thinking after Itachi they come here and rip the head off a king, but she does have a little understanding. It would be hard to get your heart back after you completely killed it.

“The Game will simulate this in a very sped up scale. Each team will be paired against a random team on the other side. They will have a week to power up and get ready to fight.”

“Wouldn’t that kill fifty percent of people?” Sakura asks, “there’s enough crystals for sixty six percent, right?”

“Correct.” Saruka gives her a pleased nod, “when the number of souls has been reduced to one twenty the game will be called, the resources will be allocated, and the remaining souls will be put into a vault for continued stasis until your world negotiates their resurrection.”

“So, wait…” Sakura bites her lip a little. She quickly finds the pressure on her lip helps alleviate some of her anxiety enough she can think for a moment. “The souls that die in the game won’t be destroyed?”

“... Why would you think that?” The Dark Lord’s brow raises in just the right way that Sakura finds her entire skin burns like a flaming tomato. “They are in my crystals, held in my device, encased in a layer of my protective power. The only way those souls are being destroyed is if I die before your world can negotiate enough resources that I can afford to resurrect them without instantly losing the war.”

“That would have been nice to know a few days ago.” Sakura grumbles under her breath, but she rubs her eyes and takes a long breath. Okay, she can work with this. Issue two, Kabuto. “There’s a soul in the king’s team named Kabuto, he should have the power to directly wipe any of the other teams. Is there any sort of balancer orr….”

“How would you know-” The drow to her side is silenced by a wave of Saruka’s hand. Funnily enough her glare says ‘we will talk later’ not ‘shut up.’ Sakura can pick up that much.

“There is a sort of balancer, though it’s not perfect. Everyone’s statistics will be reset to how they should be at level one. Potential is innate to the soul, and even with the incompatibility of otherworldly essence, I am sure that the World will do a fine job figuring out what those numbers should be before they’re boosted with a Hero fragment. If he managed to get to such a strength previously, I am sure his base stats will be quite high, and understanding what power is made of can greatly hasten one’s return to strength, but he will not be as strong as he was to start.”

Sakura can’t help but sigh in relief.

Yep, yesterday and today, great days.

She did sorta constript herself to a mysterious monster’s service that will likely result in her crossing the lands into enemy territory in the hopes of freeing the captured and executing slavers, but the king was honestly such an asshole to Rosalia while she was in her body that any doubts she had about Samael’s offer evaporated instantly.

Sometimes all you need to know to figure out who to trust is to look at someone behind closed doors when they don’t know you’re watching and find out who the enemy really is.

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The meeting went long, but Sakura got most of it. The game will be taking place in something called the drylands, which is basically like Suna. This does mean Suna ninja have a huge advantage, so Sakura advised everyone on who would likely do well in the climate, who would likely fail hard, and even pointed out some bad picks they should absolutely avoid. Unfortunately she doesn’t have any sort of encyclopedic knowledge on who was there, so she couldn’t answer every question but she can say with certainty that the monster half is a lot better off than they would have been without her. It helps most countries have their own naming conventions so picking up on the Suna ninja was just a matter of looking at their names.

Giving all this information away did break her cover pretty hard, but then anyone that didn’t know about her already probably needs the help. If she’s throwing her lot in with the monsters against the king, she’s going all in.

With that done, it takes her twenty minutes to get back to Samael’s room with Rosalia, and she’s eager to untie her. Just like yesterday, instead of scathing remarks the bright eyed shortie wears a very bright expression. “To think I’d manage a crush on someone that useful.”

“Err, I really need to lay off the good with kids trait if it’s starting to have effects like that.” Sakura pales, that’s so forward!

“I’m fourteen.” The blonde puffs out her cheeks as she blows away the cloth that was used to gag her.

“No you’re… what?” Sakura takes her in again. She’s so tiny.

There’s just no way. She doesn’t believe it for a second. Still, if she’s not lying, the extra years will probably help her as a manager in Sakura Country.

“My father died around the time I was supposed to supplement nutritionally using experience rich plants, and he spoiled me too much during childhood, so I sorta… didn’t bloom.” The girl excuses herself while puffing up her cheeks with indignation, “besides, don’t you know not to question a girl’s age? I said I’m fourteen, I’m fourteen.”

“Err, right.” It’s not like it matters. Sakura runs her hands through her red hair, and groans to herself. “Now that we know about the game, I can’t have your team losing. You managed to pick a fully Leaf team, and I’m already going to be tried for something stupid like desertion when I get home so I sort of need a ‘look at how many leaf ninja I saved’ display to save me.”

“That’s a problem, since I’m officially confined to non-public areas.” Rosalia points out, “I’ll probably die if I go out there and play. Also I’d be playing against one of the monsters, which’d screw over your side.”

“Yeah, at least as far as leaf ninja go I’m completely okay with that, I’m not a monster and if we’re lucky you’ll only eliminate ninja from Sound or something.” Sakura says pointedly, and sees a shine in Rosalia’s eyes despite not saying a lot that she could possibly interpret.

“Oh!”

“After you succeed I’ll be sending you to my home. I’ll try to negotiate letting you go right to Sakura Country but if that doesn’t work, bringing home ten leaf Ninja should at least allow you to live there in luxury for the three to four months it takes for me to come home and get interrogated, and that time should also allow the contracts to expire without issue.” What she doesn’t say is that the Hokage will likely be pretty pissed that his ninja are serving other masters for several months. They’re probably all going through loyalty training the moment they get back, and not the fun kind.

She’s not looking forward to that. It’s worth it though, if she can save as many lives as she thinks she can. “As for the king, the games are supposed to happen simultaneously, so he shouldn’t be able to hurt you unless he wants to give up and let his team flounder.” Sakura points out.

“Uh, he has people?” Rosalia manages an awkward grimace, “we should push to have the game happen for me in the same room as the Dark Knights.”

“I’ll already be helping Samael, so maybe we can get you in with me?” Sakura sighs at that, it’s time to go ask the damn Dark Lord. It always goes back to her. She waits until Samael arrives to secure the room before taking off.

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“Yes.” She expected an argument, maybe some kind of political ploy, a request or a lecture.

She did not expect for Saruka to nod her head, smile at her, and tell her it’s perfectly okay to rig it so that Rosalia, Samael, and her are all in the same room.

“Why the tone change?” Sakura asks nervously, “you were making adamant statements against helping me the other day.”

“Are you under the impression I am unreasonable, or that your request is?” Saruka asks with her fingers intertwined in front of her, her elbows resting on her desk.

“Neither I just…” Sakura can’t help the way she deflates, this would have been so nice even yesterday.

“Right, Reaver came back and explained to me the situation on your side. He brought me documentation proving your legitimacy, he explained what he could of the politics in your world, and he apparently enjoyed himself quite a while with some of your women so I owe you an apology.”

“... How does a skeleton-”

“Let’s not go into detail,” Saruka holds up a hand to stop her, ”let’s just say seeds were sown and leave it at that. According to his report, you are a legitimate lord of a land that has more of the exact resources we need than my own high nobles possess. You should have chosen directly after the Dark Knights, and had I more time to consider and verify, or if you had been more clear about your position, you would have.”

“What did I leave out?” Sakura asks, “You told me you weren’t going to help me and didn’t believe me.” Sakura chooses not to point out that she had a lot of time, as far as she knows nothing said that she had to host the game today. Sure the portal leading here led to her partially covering things up with the game, but she could have said she was preparing for the future or something.

“The ocean,” The Dark Lord’s gauntlets clack together, “you left out the ocean.”

“I mean, it’s not like I own it…” Sakura trails.

“You own enough of it that should we set up proper trade, you’ll be one of the wealthiest people in my world within a year, without harming your resources.”

“Errr-”

“I do regret that you have gone and pissed off the king, I was hoping that by avoiding directly helping you in any open manner you would pass by largely unnoticed. That would allow you to integrate without a price on your head in the future,” The crowned monster gives her a sad smile, “had you not gone and done what you did, you could have likely used the funds to retire in the Light Lands and enjoy the lap of luxury. Instead you’ll be forced to comply with my domain, at least until he’s dethroned.”

“That’s fine…” She hadn’t intended to retire to this hellish land anyway, so what’s that matter? “So where does this put us?”

“You agree to at least set up preliminary trade as soon as your contract with Samael is completed, and I’ll do my best to make sure all fifteen of the names you have requested make it through. Consider my taking this Team Gai you mentioned to Samael as a showing of good faith.”

“And if I don’t agree you’ll sabotage them?” Sakura asks.

“Why do you keep assuming I’m a sadist?” The older woman growls, palming her eyes with her hands, “I will simply accept that the matter does not concern me and therefore not expend additional resources.”

“Sorry, where I’m from, you press every advantage you get. You said the people here would eat me alive if I offered something so I assumed it was very hostile here, was that an exaggeration?” Sakura asks with a bit of a wince. She messed up somewhere, she’s not sure where, but she’s willing to shrug the loss off. Yesterday and today have been great.

“Apparently.” Well, she’d like to say that’s enlightening but mostly, she just wishes Saruka had believed her from the start. She could have avoided all of this. She’s grown a little for the experience, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t rather it didn’t happen. There are much better ways to grow. She’ll take responsibility for blowing everyone up and forcing this game, but everything past that is gross incompetence as far as she’s concerned.

“So you’ll place Rosalia and Samael in the same room with me?” Sakura clarifies.

“Consider it done.” The woman waves the request off.

“And my position for picking?” Sakura asks.

“Does it matter? You got everyone you wanted on good teams.” Saruka asks with a tilt of her head to the side, and a peering gaze sternly focused on Sakura. “Simply make the agreement, and I will ensure that the five of your friends on my team succeed no matter what.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter, it just feels weird to go through all this effort and find that the issue is still completely out of my hands.” Sakura holds in a little growl, she also resists throwing her hands up in the air.

“That’s life sometimes.” Saruka shrugs, and honestly, Sakura gets it.

She wishes she didn’t though.