Wave Becomes Sakura Country

Another canon side story is here.
Poll will be up for $10 patrons for the next one in a bit, since I am behind those polls just go right out.

Enjoy the side story and thank you for your support.

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The crowds around him are loud with murmurs, a ridiculous statement yet true nonetheless. Hundreds of people stand shocked and frozen in place around town, and not a single person dares move or blink for fear that they’ll miss whatever insanity is about to happen. Their world appears to be one of Inari’s games, or something similar. The sky above them stares back at them with a silver plaque flying high. It defies gravity and asserts itself with glowing white words that shine down on them. There’s nothing to do but gawk and point.

[Lord Sakura has revealed herself as the deed holder to Wave, worship at her feet]

The words are a little preposterous, there’s not a lot of people that are actually going to worship a teenage girl - though there are some strange people in robes that hang around the statue in the center of town - but the very existence of the words says so much more than the text literally does. Genjutsu exists, surely, but even a carpenter like Tazuna knows damn well that the cost to use one on a crowd this big would be ridiculous. It was laid out to him when he purchased the mission from Konoha, as drunk as he was when he made the purchase he still remembers the pamphlet. Casting a Genjutsu on an entire village, no, most likely the entire small country, is outside of even an S rank mission.

There is the possibility that the people around him are fake and this is very singularly targeted Genjutsu, but what’s the point of that? He’d just ask later and people would stare at him funny.

No, regardless of how much he would like to laugh and have a drink and not think of the implications at all, the sky has told them the truth. Reality is a lie, and they should kneel before a deity in human skin, their hero Sakura Haruno. “I regret being kind of mean to her.” He hears at his side, and his gaze takes in his beautiful daughter Tsunami, standing with a hand on her hip and a gobsmacked expression on her face. She shakes her head slightly and scoffs a little, “Inari’s never going to let us hear the end of this.”

“You knew it was her,” He points out, “you said as much when the statue was being replaced.”

“I was joking… Eh, regret being mean to her is a strong wording. She deserved it, I just hope she’s not spiteful. I regret it if she’s spiteful.”

“You know she’s not.” He waves at the sky, reaching up as if he can touch the message if he stands just a little taller. The sound of some of the children doing the same but jumping while they’re at it does bring a smile to his face. “She hasn’t requested you do anything weird, or done anything to you and she’s been in control this entire time.”

“Processing that right now,” She grunts at him, “give me time.”

“I don’t think time is what we need, let’s act.” He allows his hand to fall, before taking hers and leading her. They suddenly have somewhere to be.

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The town hall is one he crafted from his own hands and he’ll admit he’s rather proud of it. The wood is treated well, it doesn’t make much sound even when it’s stepped on by the hundred plus people here, and as far as Tazuna can tell the statue of Sakura in the corner isn’t in bad taste. He had been a little suspicious when that had been requested. It’s a lot smaller than the one in the center of town and it’s made of wood instead of anything more expensive but it looks nice and more lifelike for the trade-off. It’s painted and looks exactly like she did when she came back and announced Gato was dead… Minus the gore. Also there’s a cape, that was at the request of the children, they wanted their heroes to be depicted with capes.

Even ignoring this whole lordship deal which he would love to get some more details on, she is the Hero of Wave. Her and her team saved them quite directly, there’s another statue of Naruto and Sasuke around but hers is more pressing. He’s not the head of the town, that’s apparently Sakura, but he is of high standing and that means it’s him up front reading off what a cute girl wrote for him about thirty seconds ago. That cute girl is his daughter, she’s so sweet when she’s not growling at pink haired girls about stealing her clothes.

“As you have all just witnessed, something nonsensical has occurred. The sky has spoken, and a Lord Sakura has announced herself. I don’t think we have to try very hard to figure out who that might be.” His eyes shift right to that statue, it has red eyes, it was Inari’s suggestion. He wanted to show off the demon inside of her, saying that it’s what she gave into to save them. He’s not sure what narrative the boy has going on in his head but it’s true that Sakura probably was shining red and colored crimson when she slayed Gato so, why hide their savior’s true form? It’s a little grimm but Inari thought it was, to quote, ‘badass.’ “As we do not have a ruling noble of any sort, our small island nation needs to decide what to do about this. Waiting for her seems inadvisable, she hasn’t been here for months.”

“How do we know that wasn’t some ninja devil magic?” Someone asks from the crowd.

“It wasn’t, that’s just not possible from what Konoha told me. A Genjutsu of this caliber would require a lot of high class ninjas,” It’s really all he can say, they’ll take his word for it or they won’t and when it comes to ‘ninja devil magic’ there’s not much else to it, “we are not important enough for a large scale attack.”

Murmurs of discontent hit his ears, but no one argues that much. They’re an economical burden at best, how a Genin is handling this he doesn’t know. From what the mission pay of D and C ranks probably are - and he has a good idea from when he hired them - they don’t make all that much in comparison to the costs here. “We need to work under the assumption that what we have seen is real, because if we don’t, we’ll be unable to work at all. Simple folk like us aren’t cut out for that kind of discernment, let’s just worry about the sky message.”

He can’t help but feel a little satisfied at how everyone settles down. Even if his words are true these people were so filled with despair just a short while ago that they would have never listened to him. He also understands their instinctual desire to dismiss any good news as false. Even while hiring ninja from Konoha he had no real faith it would work out. It was a last ditch effort and gamble that paid off more than he could ever have imagined. In his wildest dreams, he was dead at this point. He’d even paid someone to sneak Tsunami and Inari out of Wave if the worst happened, and he probably should have done it himself and started over elsewhere now that he has a clear enough mind to think about it.

Maybe it’s a good thing he was in too dark a place to see other options. “We need to figure out what we are to do about this.”

“Why not just change our names to Sakura country and double the size of the statue?” Someone suggests from the crowd.

He finds himself rolling his eyes and holding back a scoff, “that’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard-”

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The plans to make the statue bigger will have to be put on hold, but the banner announcing this as Sakura country is already being decorated in town square by most of the children, and they’ve already put in an order for cherry blossom trees to place in the center of town and the direct outskirts.

“That’s so dumb.” Tazuna chuckles to himself.

His daughter pats his shoulder with a look of understanding. “Sometimes people need dumb things.” Tsunami answers, “Sakura came off a little dumb but here we are, it’s a good thing.”

“Ain't that the truth. Go Sakura Country!” He throws a fish up into the air, and the children cheer along with him.