Chapter 140- Arc 9 - The end of subterfuge, Sakura reveals herself!

The end of the Arc is here and a lot of moves are suddenly made, next chapter starts on a new tone. Tomorrow I'll be hosting a poll of sorts to see what people thought of this arc and see if it could be improved by a quick few weeks of redo or if any issues could probably just be fixed in the public release versions and I should move on.

I had a lot of fun, it's sad some people didn't.
I'll live, as will this story.

Enjoy the end of Arc 9

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Standing around the game table, Sakura can’t help but look at the others. Most of them are almost nondescript to her. They’re just NPCs in a world not her own and she doesn’t find she has the emotional energy to care about them at all.

At its core this whole event is helpful, possibly even friendly. This game is a ploy to trick the enemy into helping her resurrect the people she recklessly killed trying to get rid of Orochimaru. This is someone stronger stepping in to fix something she did, and doing their best to be impartial while they do it. The issue is that it’s impossible to not feel spiteful when people try to help you by doing their own thing without consulting you. What if her world had the power to trade? What if the Hokage could have given resources specifically for the Leaf Genin? If they’d thought to talk to her, if they considered her a real player at the table in the first place, she might not be watching nobles of another land decide the fate of her world’s people under some stupid war game subtext. At the very least if this did still happen, she would have felt more included and a lot less angry about it.

Adults always think they know best, and while Saruka probably expects her to be grateful, the only person here who’s treated her as a real person is Samael. She offered a solution with a cost, let Sakura make a decision, and while the deal itself is a little steep at least a deal was offered instead of forced. Saruka’s benevolent as far as she can tell, but watching the King and the Dark Lord make their picks, she can’t help but understand why Samael is considered the most disloyal of the Dark Knights. Samael respects people and their choices, and Saruka thinks she knows better. It’s her fault these people are dead and in a position to be gambled on - well actually it’s kind of Orochimaru’s - but it’s Saruka’s fault this is happening out of her control. There is no good guy here, it’s just a lot of gray and she’s a bit fed up with it.

Unlike what was predicted, the King skips right over Gaara and Naruto. In fact, as his eyes trace over their names on the list Sakura can see them fill with disgust. It only takes her a moment of looking to figure out why. They’re marked for the demonic influence invading their souls, he likely wants nothing to do with the taint of the tailed beasts. “You mock me by including souls like this.” The King asserts with a scoff, before moving on with sharp eyes and a hate filled twitch of his lips. He lists his picks off one after another, and Sakura slowly manages to release a breath she didn’t know she was holding when he chooses none of her friends. Their trick worked, her friends are safe. The only name she even recognizes in his list is Kabuto, which is interesting because it implies he was close enough to die horrifically. None of the Jonin or Chunin proctors that were probably around seem to be here, implying that as disastrous as it was movement techniques that become commonplace later on easily served well enough to allow all of the higher ups to escape.

Does that mean Kabuto was watching her?

“I cannot help but notice that your first knight is not here, did he finally take a rest?” The king mocks, looking up at the table and pointing out the lack of their ninth. Reaver’s still in Sakura Country, and Sakura can’t help but feel a little bad about that. He did say he would make it back before too long but what if he’s so late he loses his picks? Samael said he was a good guy, and he also needs to be the one to pick team Gai.

“He wishes I’d let him rest. He’s doing something important, he’ll be here soon.” Saruka answers back with a little kindness in her eyes. Sharp hunger sparkles with a false benevolence that adds tension to the air, Sakura’s not sure if she could cut it with a knife but even she can feel it...

That’s before she suddenly starts pointing at the list and making rapid-fire picks as if she already knew what she’d be choosing before they even got here. “Gaara of the Sand, Naruto Uzumaki, Rock Lee, Tenten Higurashi, Neji Hyuuga,” She taps the computer system setup on the table in front of them, and doesn’t even look at her as she chooses team Gai as if Sakura had specifically asked her to. The knowing look Saruka gives her makes her take a step back.

She said she wouldn’t help her. She said she had to figure things out herself. Yet here she is, picking five of her friends without a care, as if it was always her intention. Did she have to do anything at all? Would she have taken ten of her friends and told a Dark Knight to take the other five if she’d done nothing? Is she her ally or not? Why the subterfuge and confusion, why not just speak clearly and explain what’s going on?! Why pick Naruto and Sasuke when by her own admission, she planned to take them even if they failed? Sakura doesn’t get all this crap, she wishes she did, but she doesn’t. She probably never will. Some trick has been played on her, and she’s not sure she likes it but it feels like something good just happened so she shakes her head and accepts it.

Rosalia comes next, and strangely enough she somehow manages to pick exclusively leaf Genin. Every single name that comes out of the smaller girl’s mouth is someone she went to school with. They graduated before her, a lot of the grades are intermixed for different classes or projects, but she still recognizes them as names on the attendance chart that Iruka said at some point.

The sheet doesn’t say where they’re from. The system that governs this world supposedly provided the information on them all to Saruka when she agreed to help the souls she could, and it didn’t say anything about their alliance or political leanings, which makes Sakura’s eyes narrow as she wonders what could possibly be going on.

She isn’t given much time to wonder because Samael is next, and she gets right to listing every single name on the list Sakura gave her with a smirk aimed right towards the king. She hadn’t even told Samael about the ploy - she probably should have - does she know somehow? Her head hurts, it always hurts these days. Sakura’s eyes quickly focused on Rosalia and her father’s increasing glare. It seems he understands what happens immediately, his gaze focusing on Sakura with burning hatred that reflects in his shiny and nobly cold blue eyes. As much as she feels anxiety clawing at her skin, she doesn’t have time to wonder if name-dropping herself was a bad move because before Samael has even gotten to the fourth name on the list - Shikamaru - that rage held deep within turns into something calmer. As if he turned off a valve, the malice lingering in the air and making its way onto her tongue disappears.

His hand calmly lands on Rosalia’s head, but despite the coolness to his movements, Rosalia’s eyes rapidly fill with tears. The girl knows something’s up, knows she’s about to be punished, but she doesn’t know why or how. Sakura does know better though, she knows exactly what’s about to happen. She can feel souls, and while that feeling has been largely muted while in this tower there’s no mistaking something as powerful as the way his soul reinforces his hand. Magic is a lot more soul focused than Chakra, its practitioners give themselves away to her necromancy senses like a squirrel does a proximity alarm.

She has to make a decision, and she’s already made it yesterday when she made herself a target. What’s the harm, he’s already coming for her next. Her fingers come together for a Jutsu she knows how to do sealless in an attempt to supercharge it and her tooth bites into her cheek to trigger the pain requirement, before suddenly Rosalia’s where she was and she’s staring down the king with his hand on her head. The energy needed to move a person out of another’s grip is immense, but she doesn’t bother caring. She uses the residual glow of her eyes from her chakra acting up to meet his cold blue gaze and challenges him right here in front of everyone. She doesn’t get this politics stuff very much, but she does know he wouldn’t dare hurt her in front of Saruka, Samael, and Akari. If he wanted to fight them, he would have done so already. The fact that he’s even put up with this game and ploy shows just how much of a coward he really is behind the facade of boiling loathing.

That’s what she thinks, before she notices the magic in his hand is still rising, and his grip on her red hair is strengthening. “Release her.” The crackly words of a Skeleton making himself known behind her fill her with relief, the boney hand gripping the King’s wrist stops him for a moment. “Monsterkind can easily replace our nobles should this turn into a bloodbath, can the humans?”

Silence lingers for a long moment, and Sakura’s broiling anxieties worry that Reaver is standing alone here and will be quickly overruled, but the hand that lands on her shoulder a moment later tells her a lot about what’s going on here. A dark purple gauntlet, Saruka’s clawed fingers press into her shoulder a little as she gets ready to pull her away from it all.

“A turncoat from my own country working with monsters.” The king scoffs, and spits on her face, the hot fluid staining her large forehead with malice. He lets her go and returns to his perfect composure like he wasn’t about to kill his daughter in front of all of them on a whim, and like she wasn’t just saved by the monsters threatening to wage war in the game room.

Samael continues listing her friend’s names, before the bastard in front of her throws a white handkerchief into Sakura’s face. “Tell the rebels that they have successfully gotten one over on me today. Just understand this, when I find you outside of these walls, I will rip your intestines from your body with my bare hands and hang you with them as an example for your co-conspirators.”

If every eye in the entire room wasn’t already on her, she’s pretty sure that would have gotten her the remainder. She’s pulled back away from the Hero by Saruka, and she quickly finds Rosalia standing up on a chair and wiping Sakura’s face down with the cloth provided to her. The smaller girl is shaking from terror, but that doesn’t stop her from being kind to her in a situation she likely doesn’t understand at all. “That’s what you meant yesterday.” Sakura hears the blonde ringlets on legs mumble into her ear.

Sakura quickly tunes out the rest, watching the King for sudden movements and quickly moving to protect Rosalia with her body despite knowing she can’t do it forever. She doesn’t get to pick until tomorrow anyway, and all fifteen of her friends are secured. All that matters now is surviving herself.

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She expected Rosalia to throw accusations her way. She expected her to throw actual things at her. She expected hatred, tears, burning rage and that she’d have to knock her out, tie her up, and hold her hostage until Reaver was ready to escort her to Sakura Country. “That went poorly.” Was not the reaction she was expecting from someone who’s life she just ruined. Short blondes with button noses are so confusing, is this her curse?

She’s been so confused recently. She’s still confused, why did Rosalia pick nothing but leaf genin? What caused that? Was it just that she wanted to choose the youngest people and got lucky that a lot of the Genin that were there and young were leaf?

Actually, by that logic, it makes perfect sense. The Chunin exam was hosted in the leaf, if it was hosted in Suna she probably would have picked mostly if not purely Suna Genin for that exact reason. What village would pay to send their youngest ninja to go to someone else’s test? With one mystery solved, Samael having the perfect picks, Saruka having the rest, and the person who picked ten Leaf Genin suddenly having a lot of motivation to work with her? This is probably a better outcome than she could have rigged intentionally.

Sometimes plans just work, who knew.

Today’s a good day. She even woke up to an awesome system notification.

[Mind Transfer Jutsu Lvl 1

You may transfer your soul to the body of another temporarily. If your combined Mental and Charm stat is higher than theirs there is no chance of them resisting, but if it’s not they may struggle or even overpower you.

After 48 hours it may be hard to return to your body. Dying in their body will result in your soul passing on like normal. Chakra based damage may come with you when you return to your body.]

She wondered how exactly she would have actually learned the technique from first usage. She thought about the Hero system, wondered if it was secretly some kind of training device, but the reality was obvious and stared her in the face right before the Hero system in her traits menu.

Honorary Yamanaka, she may learn Yamanaka Skills with only half the normal penalty.

If it’s easy enough for her that one good usage could teach her the skill, she needs to have Ino teach her a lot more when they get through this and her best friend is returned to life.

It looks like if she can get all of Rosalia’s picks through, and Samael doesn’t lose anyone - she better not those are all her friends - she’ll have a force of twenty Shinobi to help her hunt down the slavers. All of them will be leaf, excluding Karin, Temari, and Kankuro, which means they’ll work better in forest environments. She’ll have to pass that information to Samael the first chance she gets. She hopes Saruka doesn’t do anything too awful to the five of her friends she picked, but she’s pretty sure the Dark Lord of all people knows the system enough that they should win the game, whatever it is. She’s a little annoyed no one has thought to explain the game to her yet, but maybe tomorrow will provide that information. She’s also a little more confident after today that something is going on and she’s just not socially aware enough to pick up on what. There was no reason she can tell for the Dark Knight and Dark Lord to stand in for her there, it would have been easy for them to pretend she must have snuck in and let him execute her to maintain momentary peace. She needs to do more reading and they need to be clearer with her. He knows she’s human because he can feel monsters, they know she’s human because they’ve been told, it would have been so easy to throw her under…

The game starts tomorrow and today’s already felt really long even if it’s been good. She’s going to the library, will read up on the game, look into some political interactions of the past in hopes of understanding her current allies and enemies a little better, and then she will tuck in. That’s that, that’s the rest of her day. Hopefully she doesn’t get brutally murdered on her way.

That’s her plan of action at least, but she takes exactly one step out of her room before she spots the king standing across the hall, leaning against a wall with his bright and shiny blue eyes focused on her with a death glare.

Nevermind, Rosalia and her will be spending the night in Samael’s room if she’ll have them, surely he won’t make a move while he’s with her. Screw this.

“You’re not going to do anything weird, are you?” Sakura asks, bundled up and surrounded by blankets in her own toasty cocoon. A part of her worries that the spider lady might eat her or something if she’s wrapped up and constrained like this, but this blanket is incredible and Samael is demonstrably her ally. That Rosalia’s in a very similar situation beside her on the bed does appease her worries a little. The stressed girl looks very exhausted even in her sleep. Today was hard on her, and for once Sakura understands someone else’s feelings without having to think about it.

“What are you even insinuating?” Samael asks from where she is doing kata with a flaming sword on the other side of the room, the glow provides a sort of night light and the way the flame flickers gives her a light show at the same time, “what does your culture find weird in this instance?”

“I dunno.” Sakura admits, watching the flames with a hint of joy. They’re so pretty, she should have brought Hunger with her to show off. “That’s just something mom always told me, that boys always do weird stuff when you sleep over and you have a boys name so…”

“What are you more afraid of, the king breaking into your room and slitting your throat in your sleep, or me doing some undefined thing your mother whispered about because my name isn’t conventionally feminine?” The woman asks, swiping her blade through the air in some kind of circular motion, it creates a little bit of a flame whirlwind, Sakura’s sure it’d look very awesome outside in the open air. Samael has to control the fire and simmer it down indoors, and not just because of her and the bed and limited space, the books all over the place are important too. They’re very valuable here, and Saruka would probably make quite the fuss if Samael lit them all on fire.

“Err, good point, that was probably insensitive of me anyway.” Sakura hides her face in the pillow. Surely if it was that important her mother would have been more specific, and she is the one imposing… “So um, this organization I agreed to help with. How soon after the game do you think we’ll be moving out? And how likely is the King to find me once we leave and enter the field?”

“Probably about a week, and it’s very unlikely he finds you anywhere but here. He can sense monsters, not people, as long as your nature stays mostly human and you keep your head down he’ll probably never find you again after you leave this tower.”

“Ah… do you think it was the wrong thing to do, making myself a target like that?” Sakura asks, thinking back to how everyone looked at her. An entire faction will likely be gunning for her, the first to get a dagger through her heart will gain favor from their king. A lot of the monsters likely know she’s human now too, just how many enemies did she make today? The thought has her sweating with pale skin.

“Do I think it was wrong to stop a young girl’s head being gruesomely ripped off in front of an audience? Some questions are stupid and not worth an answer, Sakura, don’t listen to whoever told you otherwise.”

“Ah… that’s fair.” She still can’t believe that almost happened. To his own daughter! She’s pretty sure this event isn’t even that important, it was less about the value lost and more about making an example in front of his people. “How gruesome?”

“He’s not exactly known for being quick and subtle, I imagine the screaming would have lasted at least half a minute.” Samael explains before with a flicker of her hand to the side, the flames disappear and Sakura finds herself staring into pitch blackness. It’s only for a moment before the sword erupts once again, but in that moment she finds herself taking note of the move. It’d only be useful at night, but forcing the enemy’s eyes to adjust to the light from your sword only to snuff it out before striking is the kind of trickery Kakashi would approve of.

“And you didn’t stop him because…” Sakura asks.

“You did before I could.” Sakura will just have to accept that answer, even if a part of her knows it’s not the explicit truth. They would likely have stood there and done nothing, the enemy side loses a noble and they don’t start a death battle with the Hero in the middle of a room with his allies. Then again, they almost started one to protect her today so maybe she’s being too negative. It’s impossible to be positive about choices made for her, especially when the adults are being cryptic. Are they friends, neutral, or enemies? She wishes someone besides Samael would have the gall to just tell her.