Chapter 118 - Arc 8 - Forest of Quest: Hugging the Pain Away

I had fun with this one, and of course Shikamaru knows more than he should.
Damn Naras.

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“So you were involved in Sakura’s unique trait?” Shikamaru’s words make Ino’s heart race, but she was expecting this eventually so she’s prepared enough to not stumble in place. She made a promise, but she kept it too long and too hard. She should have asked Sakura if she could tell her team, she should have thought outside of herself. Now it’s too late, and her hitched breath tells even her just how much it’s been weighing on her chest.

She could have figured out a way to tell Sakura about the quest without alerting them, but a part of her wanted to have to tell them. They’re about to run into whatever Sakura needs saving from, and if they don’t have the ability to make an informed decision she’s directly betraying them. She couldn’t just lead her friends into a trap without telling them, that would be well beyond what she can allow herself, even for Sakura’s sake. Respecting someone means giving them the chance to say no, trusting someone to stand by your side means giving them the opportunity to leave. She’ll probably die if they leave her, but they are allowed to do it. A part of being friends is accepting that sometimes they won’t be there for you, they have their own trials and struggles and ambitions and you need to be willing to sacrifice for them too.

This is a bit of an extreme case, but the idea stands firm, it was to reveal it now or lead them into a trap.

For someone with a lot of focus on the mental aspect of the ninja arts, her own headspace has been shaky lately. Training night and day for this stupid quest has put her in an odd place she’s not sure how to reconcile. “You knew about it?” Ino asks her teammate and childhood friend without even looking at him. Her feet crunch some twigs underneath her, and she quickly realizes she’s a bit out of it. A leaf ninja should be able to swiftly flow through this forest like a shadow. Even Choji’s not snapping twigs.

“What unique trait?” Chouji asks, “I’m kinda confused, Shika.”

“Upon graduating, Sakura received a blessing from time.” Shikamaru explains dryly, as if it’s the most normal thing in the world and he’s inconvenienced for even having to mention it.

“I’m sorry, what?” She finds herself stumbling, and barely catches herself on a tree. It scrapes her palm, but a little pain isn’t important right now. She looks over her shoulder with wide eyes to see Shikamaru standing with a perplexed look on his face, his features slightly raised but his brows lowered. “Where the hell did you get that from?”

“My family keeps track of a lot of weird stuff, it’s a big part of our job.” The boy with the spiky hair behind her says, gripping the inside of his pants through his pockets and leaning against a tree himself, though for a very different reason. Ino’s trying not to fall over, he just finds supporting his own weight because he’s not going to put effort into talking and walking at the same time. “We’ve witnessed and recorded something similar happen twice before in history. My father wouldn’t give me any details on the first time, but the second time was with the fourth Hokage.”

“Does the Hokage know this?” Ino asks, wiping bleariness out of her eyes. How come she didn’t notice she could barely see? How out of it was she?

“I would imagine,” Shikamaru shrugs, “what the Hokage knows is above my paygrade.”

“That makes sense… So what happened with the fourth?” Ino asks with a shaky exhale.

“I said he told me but he was pretty stiff about that too.” Shikamaru sighs, looking up as if to skywatch, even if it’s only barely possible with how thick the barrier of leaves above them is., “One day the fourth was a lot stronger out of nowhere. My father said he was putting in effort but it’s like his efforts were being rewarded at an accelerated rate, and sometimes the man would just know things were going to happen that he shouldn’t.”

“And that tells you it’s time?” Ino asks.

“My father says it’s time, how would I have any ability to observe and make logical deductions on the fourth Hokage? He was dead before I could walk.”

“R-right.” Ino allows herself to just take in some air. When did she stop breathing properly?

“But this quest confirms it.” Shikamaru says, giving her a calculating look that has her pressing herself against the tree to try and get away, as silly as that is. “It’s telling you about something that’s going to happen, it’s even giving you a timeframe. This is why you’ve been working us so much harder? You got this a month ago?”

“A month and a half.” Ino shivers, he’s so stern sometimes. Leave it to Shikamaru to be mad at her for the first time in his life, and it’s about being made to work, not being lied to.

“And we have two days?” He asks with a glare. She nods for him a little pitifully. She does feel bad, it’s just, it was about Sakura? She promised. What is her word supposed to mean if she immediately turns around and blabs? She probably should have though, or at least she should have cleared it with Sakura long before this. She only didn’t because she was so busy hiding her overly aggressive, reckless training from the pinkette turned redhead that she wanted to avoid talking about the system at all. She wanted to avoid validating her suicidal training bullshit, and in turn she made a mess of her own headspace and lied to her team. “What a drag. Let’s get to it, if time says we need to get stronger, we get stronger. I bet it’s more naggy than Ma.”

“Can you explain this a little?” Chouji asks, “please?”

“It’ll be easier after we confirm something actually happens.” Shikamaru grunts out, and Chouji nods in reluctant acceptance.

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Sasuke’s wire wrapped Kunai is in his hands well before Sakura notices them, but that’s fine, she still senses their souls approaching well before they get to her. “Your observational skills are amazing.” She compliments, but avoids looking at him while doing so. Things have always been a little awkward between them, and she puts effort into not stirring the pot. At first it was the fanclub, then it was her getting stronger than him in ways, then it was her stupid system telling her that he wanted to continue his clan with her. There’s not a lot of ways to interpret that, he wants her to have his children someday.

How do you talk to someone who feels that way without thinking about it? She’s done her best to push it aside deep into the back of her mind like she does Ino’s feelings and Hunger’s slow but inevitable possession of her soul. She has a big box back there labeled ‘deal with it later’ and she’d like to never open it if she can help it, at least with Sasuke. The issue is that as long as she hasn’t dealt with it she feels a draw from it and awkwardly stumbles whenever she wants to compliment him. What if it comes off creepy, or stiff, or he takes it to mean too much?

But then on the other hand, never complimenting him will just make her look like she hates him, and that’s not a thing either. He’s her precious friend, one of her first if she’s perfectly honest. The fanclub really doesn’t count, most of them hated her. She’d like to connect with them though… “Soul Grasp completed.” She informs him as her mana finishes gripping around and dragging out the soul of the creature they just felled., her senses tell her that the trio behind them is getting very close. She decides to leave the opening move to Sasuke, her best move would cause a huge explosion and he specifically told her not to do that again during this test.

“Hey, we don’t want a fight.” She hears from behind her just before she turns around to greet them. Sasuke hasn’t moved so she’s sure they’re not attacking, which means she can focus on the soul in her grip instead of quickly snapping around and drawing her sword. Based on the headband on their head, they’re from Sound. She’s a little surprised to see Sound Genin directly like this. The Sound village is attending the Chunin exams for the first time this year so only a few were sent in the first place. She knew a few got into the second exam but the odds of meeting them so casually in the middle of the forest are a little off and she’s not sure how to reconcile that. Is this the system messing with her again?.

She doesn’t trust this is a coincidence at all. The trio of ninjas look a little gruff and rough and have quite a few scrapes. The forest is not doing them many favors, as seen by the little bit of blood leaking from that one guy's hands. She can see it pretty clearly, they have their hands up in the air in a disarming expression, so she chooses not to draw her sword on them yet. She pets the soul in her off hand with her pointer finger instead..

“Not fighting isn’t an option, we need your balls,” Sasuke says, “you should know that.” She has to avoid a snort as he spins a kunai in the air around his hand. He’s making it look like he can make the blade float. The reality is the wire attached to his finger is almost hair thin and reinforced with chakra, but it’s a very cool effect she’d compliment him on if not for what she just went over mentally. One compliment per session. Also, Ino said something about that once too. Two compliments is flirting? Or was it three? She’s not risking it.

“How about we trade some of them for information, and avoid the fight?” Their leader says, a bigger man that a game would normally say has more brawn than brains, but people don’t normally work that way. Exercise raises brain function, so stronger people are also smarter. Or at least they’re more capable of using what intelligence they do have. At what point is a buff considered the same as just having a statistic? “You’re leaf ninja, so you probably know who we’re looking for. Do either of you know anything about Sakura Haruno? She should be in this test.”

“I do.” Sasuke says, and she shoots him a glance. He’s clearly not about to give her up to strangers with strange motives right? That’d be very awkward. “Why are you asking?”

“We’re huge fans,” the Sound ninja says, “a while back she cleared out an entire rebel organization pretty much on her own, we heard it was crazy awesome!” Having a huge man laugh about her is a new experience, she’s not sure how to feel about that.

[Target Charm is below Chunin, They Are Lying]

Well that much was obvious, but just to make sure he feels the same she looks at Sasuke.

[Sasuke is extremely suspicious and feeling protective]

Well thank you, Sasuke.

“We’re the KSH, we’re a fanclub and we joined this exam to get a chance to meet her.” He explains with crossed arms and a big smile on his scratched up face. “So, have you met her?”

“She’s blonde, with twintails, has whiskers on her cheeks, and wears a stupid orange jumpsuit. You can’t miss her. You’ll find her that way, we ran into her about an hour ago.” Sasuke points in a direction not too far off of Naruto without blinking.

“Wow, thank you.” The leader reaches into a pouch at his side, and pulls out a small bag inside it. They toss it to Sasuke, and she can see her teammate question if he actually wants to catch it. His eyes come to life, pretty reds taking in the bag, analyzing it, and evidently finding it safe as he catches it a moment later.

She waves them off, and it isn’t until they’re gone from sight that he looks inside the bag. “Ten balls.” Sasuke says, “with that corpse you looted, we’re at a hundred.”

“We’re making progress. Though I think we should accelerate that process soon, maybe spend a good part of tomorrow hunting balls?” She suggests and gets an accepting nod from Sasuke. “So uh, that means Kill Sakura Haruno, right?”

“I think so.” He agrees with her cooly.

“Well, at least we know it’s the three rebels that got away that started whatever organization screwed me over in Suna.” That still pisses her off, she could have found a Suna dungeon! “But, how did they get strong enough to hire foreign ninjas to invade the exams after me? And why Sound? Aren’t they new and poorly established?”

“Those two facts are likely connected, they were probably cheaper,” Sasuke explains, “we should get back to Naruto, we need to confirm their motives before we take action.”

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“Hey, Naruto…” She raises a hand as she approaches. He’s not in his hole in the tree, he’s sitting out in the grass, moping with strongly downturned features that break her heart a little.

Much like Sasuke, the system told her that Naruto wants to continue his clan with her one day, but it’s very different. She’s pretty sure Naruto skipped the classes that would explain what that means, whereas Sasuke probably got an A Plus. Naruto did read that anatomy book she had in her room but that was well after she got the trait informing her of his intentions. As far as she knows Naruto just thinks she’s family and wants that to continue, which she can get behind. Not in that way, just in general, she would like to be a part of the lives of his children as their aunt and continue to be a part of his family long into the future. She’s actually looking forward to nieces and nephews, she loves kids. “You look sad.”

“A clone found someone being torn apart by a giant monkey, the screams are still bouncing around in my head,” he explains glumly with a sour expression that twists her heart a little, “it tried to stop it and popped, by the time more clones got there the poor girl was um…”

“Ah.” She kneels down in front of him and wipes some tears out of his eyes with her thumb. “That must have been disturbing, I’m sorry you saw that. Did you get their balls?”

“Sakura!” Sasuke scolds her, making her blink up at him in confusion.

“What? It’s a valid question! He’s safe, scared, and I’m gonna hug him better but I need to know.” She huffs at Sasuke, but sees no willingness to back down in his eyes. Fine, she’ll forget about the objective, whatever.

“I’ll go get the balls, you be a sister.” Sasuke jumps away a second later, presumably following a clone that caught onto his statement since he’d have no idea where the corpse is otherwise. She does as he says, sitting on the ground and pulling Naruto into her lap. She wraps her arms around his waist, rests her face on his shoulder, and squeezes him while he sniffles.

She squeezes him harder when those sobs become a bit louder. “We signed up to see death,” She says, “was it that scary?”

“Sakura… She looked a lot like you.” He mumbles, and she’s not sure how to react to that..

“I can understand why that would bother you.” She can, just not this much. Kakashi said this is a good thing though, even if it causes him pain, being allowed this much innocence means she’s doing a good job of keeping him safe.

[Naruto is heavily distraught]

No shit. Tell her how to make it better! Stupid system.

At least she knows how to give a hug now.

[Congratulations, you have obtained the Hugging Skill

Hugging: You may now spread warmth and transmit soothing feelings with your hold.]

Nevermind, thank you system!

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Now possessing a hundred thirty five balls, and a calmed down Naruto, she can’t help but smile. The boy is still a little bothered, and she’s sure he will be for weeks, but maybe he can grow from this. What matters to her is that he’s not crying anymore and that he should be fine until their mom can show off her skills and make him feel better for real.

“There’s an organization called the KSH that’s after me-” She begins.

“Kill Sakura Haruno, seriously?” Naruto asks. She still hasn’t let him go, but she’s waited until Sasuke got back and now through the counting and discussion and stuff, it’s time the thing on her mind comes up! She’s also happy to see he’s picking up on abbreviations and stuff better, he had no idea how to turn letters into words before they started gaming together.

“Maybe. We gave them the description of your primary female clone - not the twins - and we want you to go find them. They might just be fans, but I doubt it since I caught them lying. If they are fans I’ll reveal myself, but I think they’re uh, probably here to stab me until I stop moving.”

Why is he sobbing again!?

“Sakura.” Sasuke huffs at her.

“Right, sorry, poor choice of words.” She realizes with a look towards the grumpy boy and his red eyes. That makes sense, she’s happy the understanding is there, she just wishes the context was easier to apply, maybe a little more instinctive? She worries that even if her charm gets to Ino’s, she’ll still have to manually call on it for it to be of any use. Maybe she can train herself to be better with tact? A skill would be great.

What is life if not an expenditure of constant effort to keep the ones you love safe and happy?

“Can you send her in that direction?” She tilts her head, and lets Sasuke actually point for her. She doesn’t want to take her arms away from Naruto, especially after she just reminded him.

“Sure.” Naruto puts his fingers together, and Naruko runs away into the distance.

She’s not sure why they chose that name, but it felt right.