Chapter Text
Chapter 25
‘Fuck it’s not working!’ Sakura groaned, rolling onto her side as her barrier project stalled horrendously. ‘And here I thought I had a brilliant idea, why is fuinjutsu so complicated?!’ Sakura wanted to smash her head through a wall but settled for rolling around the floor of her room. She’d given herself a week to figure out how to make the seal to reinforce her skin and so far, she had a seal that could project chakra armor in the shape of her limb, however it was completely rigid, couldn’t overlap with itself so there would be rather major gaps in protection and it barely lasted a second with the amount of chakra it could pull from the surroundings before failing.
‘I’m going to need to talk to Arashi-san.’ Sakura realized and hoped the old man was still alive and willing to speak with her. ‘I have been gone for a month without explanation.’ She thought glumly and packed up her notes and scrolls before turning in for bed. The next morning she got up and headed to the Uzushio district where Arashi’s store was located. The place had been hit badly by the fighting, but wasn’t part of the city flattened by the boss summons, fortunately.
‘His shop looks open,’ Sakura thought, opening the door, which chimed thanks to a seal placed on the door frame and walked inside. Sure enough, Arashi Gin was still behind the counter, looking surprised and relieved to see her.
“Hey kid, heard you had a run in with the boogeyman.” He gave her a sympathetic smile, and Sakura returned it with a grateful one.
“Yeah, had to protect my team. It was worth it.” Sakura could see the difference between the show’s depiction of Sasuke and the boy she currently knew, even if her memories of the show were vague and growing ever more inaccurate with every change she made. “They’re kids you know?”
“So are you little miss,” Gin pointed out kindly and rested his chin on a hand as he watched her walk over. “I can tell something’s eating at you, what is it?”
Sakura quickly explained the problem she’d encountered and her ideas. Gin listened intently and interjected a few times for clarification before she finished. When Sakura was finally done talking, Gin got up and left before returning with a simple spherical barrier tag. He put it down on the counter and then looked over Sakura’s seal work.
“Barrier tags meet force with force, only drawing enough to remain visible unless something comes into contact with them. Aside from that spheres and simple shapes are easier to project and more complex shapes will suck chakra faster or require significantly more complex seals but you’ve already solved that, so good work.” Gin spoke mostly to himself, but he was loud enough for Sakura to easily follow along. “But you want to reinforce your body instead, along with your clothes which is different. It’s possible, one of Mito-sama’s guards used such a seal but its design has been lost.”
“So it’s possible but I’ll have to invent it from scratch?” Sakura asked and Gin hummed, looking over her work before smiling.
“Not entirely, I can give you a few pointers. One of the reasons Uzushiogakure was so feared was because the shinobi and civilians of the island could place multiple seals on the same object.” Gin explained, walking into his back room and retrieving a wakizashi. “Here, take a look.” The man offered the blade and Sakura looked it over with interest.
“It’s got a seal for wind, lightning and projection? It’s similar to a barrier but not quite.” Sakura could tell the blade was made from chakra conductive metal. It practically hummed with natural energy, drawn into it by the famous Uzumaki swirl. “It’s all humming at the same frequency.”
“Indeed, seals interfere with each other but if you can figure out how to synchronize them, then you can overlap them. Of course you’ll have to design the seals involved from the ground up to work together and I know your type, by the time you’re my age you’ll be so covered in ink, you might as well be a painting. Very common in old Uzu, not so much anymore though.” Gin gave her a sad look and shook his head. “You’ve definitely got the islands in you girl, I can see it in your hair and eyes. It’s nice, seeing one of us take up the old arts.”
“Oh, I didn’t know. Me and my parents don’t really talk.” Sakura replied and Gin nodded, a knowing look on his face.
“I know, they’re rather wealthy merchants and the scandal about their daughter running away from home to become a shinobi really made the rounds.” Gin replied and Sakura shrugged, not quite sure what to make of the fact that she’d caused a minor scandal. “I won’t lend you that sword but I can give you a few examples of overlapping seals and let you figure out the rest.”
“Thanks Gin-san,” Sakura gave the man a bright smile as he gathered up a few scrolls for her to study.
“How is your reading coming along?” The man asked as he passed the scrolls over.
“Still rough but getting better since I’m reading every day. I’m so annoyed by it, I’m considering making a new writing system to simplify everything.” Sakura admitted and the man gave her an interested look.
“It would be nice if writing was a bit simpler,” Gin agreed and Sakura nodded vigorously before glancing around the shop.
“Can I have a barrier tag? Just the one.” Sakura asked and he picked on up from the rack and Sakura paid before putting it in her pouch. “Thanks.”
“No worries, going to retire soon anyways.” Gin chuckled and motioned for her to run along.
“That’ll be a sad day for those who don’t know how to make their own seals,” Sakura chirped, heading to the door and giving him a wave before taking to the rooftops. Returning to her house, she quickly put away her things and heard a knock on her door. Opening it, she saw the familiar mouse masked ANBU that she’d spoken to at Hanazono. “Hello again.”
“Your week is up, you will begin evaluation tomorrow night at 9pm. Training ground 44.” With that the ANBU vanished and Sakura quickly memorized the information before heading to the Hokage tower for the day. Opening the door to Tsunade’s office, she was greeted by the sight of the woman drinking while her shadow clone grumbled up a storm but did the paperwork diligently. Nearby Shizune was watching the scene with a strained smile.
“Hey brat, what kept you? You’re about five minutes later than normal.” Tsunade asked and Sakura quickly explained how she’d gone to a seal shop for some pointers. Tsunade listened, clearly interested by Sakura’s ideas and nodded when the girl finished. “Alright, I suppose I can overlook it just don’t end up like your accursed jounin-sensei.”
“He was more of a jounin minder who only occasionally did his job.” Sakura chimed in and Tsunade snorted, clearly amused and frustrated at the same time.
“I know what Hiruzen-sensei was thinking but that doesn’t mean he was right.” Tsunade let out a tired sigh and took a sip from her sake bottle. “Now, brat, you’re going to learn how to heal injuries starting today.”
“I have one more thing to tell you before we get into it, the ANBU situation, Nezumi showed up at my house.” Sakura informed the woman carefully and Tsunade waved off her concern.
“I looked into it, it’s legitimate. The ANBU commander doesn’t think you’ll pass the physical part of the evaluation but if you pass the mental part, he’s willing to fast track you once your combat skills are up to snuff.” Tsunade paused and then poked Sakura’s head. “However you’re my apprentice which means you won’t be loading up on missions until I’m done teaching you and even then until this village has an abundance of medics, you’ll probably only go on short duration missions.”
“Fair enough, so we were learning about healing injuries?” Sakura asked and Tsunade slapped the fish down on the table and quickly cut its side open.
“Yup, I know you’ve sent your clone to watch the hospital on the first day so you don’t need an example do you?” Tsunade asked, grinning at the girl who quickly made a shadow clone that wordlessly headed off to the hospital.
“Well, a refresher course is always welcome.” Sakura replied, slowly calling up her medical chakra and tried to heal the fish. Instead, she merely kept it from dying, its wound stubbornly open and bleeding. “Okay, this is going to be difficult isn’t it?”
“Very and once you’ve got this down, I’m going to make sure you know how to do everything properly. Consider this your last real test before you hit the books.” Tsunade smirked as Sakura groaned and got to observing the fish, trying without success until her clone popped, returning some chakra and a bunch of observations from the hospital.
‘This is going to be a nightmare, she’s making me reinvent a fucking jutsu from observation, without hand seals.’ Sakura didn’t know the name of the jutsu but she knew medics at the hospital used hand seals for what Tsunade was demanding she do without prior lessons. ‘Well, you don’t become legendary taking the standard approach.’ Sakura’s face shifted into a determined scowl and she got to work.
***
‘Knowing something is possible is entirely different than being able to pull it off.’ Sakura thought after an evening of training and studying. She’d failed to make progress on her seal work, she’d failed to heal the fish and now she was heading to an ANBU exam, likely proctored by a Root member, that she would also probably fail. ‘Oh well, I’ve had a good run, I’ve, um, I survived the chunin exam!’ Sakura thought cheerfully, wondering if she’d accomplished anything aside from spreading herself thin. Her shadow clone trick was helping and her constant use of chakra and meditation was improving her reserves but it was painfully slow going.
‘I need to find a way to artificially get stronger. Orochimaru was the strongest of the Sannin despite being a nobody.’ Sakura knew that her life would not be easy. This was ninja hell and even being a hardened survivor of poverty, bigotry and violence wouldn’t be enough. To survive a world were humans could reshape the landscape as they fought, without nuclear weapons, meant becoming an equally absurd existence. There simply wasn’t a choice, she had to get stronger or she would die.
“You’re on time, good,” Nezumi’s toneless greeting pulled Sakura from her musings and she gave the man a nod. “Your examination will take two weeks. We will cover every skill an ANBU might need, first we are starting with stamina.” Nezumi stated before motioning for her to follow then taking off without another word.
‘Well that’s abrupt.’ Sakura thought, sealing away her weights and following behind the likely Root shinobi. They moved through the city before heading through a gate she wasn’t aware of, not stopping to check themselves out. ‘Okay, this isn’t suspicious at all but Tsunade said it checked out so…’ Sakura thought to herself, following the shinobi through the countryside and noticing he was slowly increasing the pace.
‘I’m going to have to ration my chakra very carefully.’ Sakura realized, doing her best to minimize exertion and keep up with Nezumi as they ran across Hi. Sweat poured down her neck and her pink hair was plastered to her forehead when they finally came to a halt. The sun was thoroughly up by now as they’d run all night and well into the following day. Sakura’s muscles ached and she was dehydrated despite constant sips from her canteen.
“Your physical stamina is poor.” Nezumi informed her without preamble. “Now, taijutsu.”
‘Fuck,’ Sakura ducked under the sudden punch, tapping her forehead against Nezumi and unleashing a burst of focused chakra. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as she could manage from her palms or feet but it still sent him staggering backwards long enough to store her canteen and get up her guard.
The following fight was completely lopsided as Nezumi tore Sakura apart. The man was winded from the run, but nowhere near Sakura’s utter exhaustion and chakra depletion. She ducked and parried, attaching chakra strings occasionally to forcibly pull him into punches but she lacked the strength and chakra to make them count and even with the advantage chakra strings provided, she still rarely hit.
The fight ended suddenly and violently as Nezumi accelerated, attacking her at much higher speeds than he had initially. Sakura carefully channeled chakra into her muscles and eyes to keep up but was quickly beaten senseless and knocked to the dirt.
“Your taijutsu is poor.” Nezumi stated mechanically before tossing her a pouch. “Food and water. Make camp, you will be graded.” Sakura had no idea how shinobi made camp and quickly looked to the sky and sniffed the air, searching for signs of rain. Finding none, she quickly set a few tripwire traps around them before putting up the false surroundings genjutsu and anchoring it with a seal so she wouldn’t drain her chakra any further. “Rudimentary, to be expected.”
‘No argument there, I’m not exactly used to sleeping outdoors.’ Sakura thought, eating her food slowly and wondering if they were actually going to sleep despite it being mid day. She was exhausted enough that she knew she’d sleep like a log but that wouldn’t be good for keeping a sane sleep schedule.
“Are we sleeping?” Sakura asked and Nezumi looked at her silently for several seconds.
“You may sleep.” Nezumi replied and Sakura just knew there was going to be tests involved.
‘Probably something insane like awareness while sleeping.’ Sakura thought, tucking herself into a sleeping bag in the shade and conking out.
Sakura did not wake up slowly but rather all at once as she felt chakra latch onto her and saw a terrifyingly familiar sight. A red sky spread overhead and black land surrounded her. She pulsed her chakra immediately, falling into a panic attack and watched the genjutsu shatter. Something within her mind shifted, distant thoughts nearly reached her but they felt muffled, deadened and muted. What did reach her was an all consuming wrath that demanded for her to rend flesh, crack bones and drink deeply of spilled blood.
Sakura shot out of her sleeping bag with a roar, ignoring her exhausted body and immediately falling upon the person whose chakra matched the genjutsu signature. The sky overhead was dark with stars twinkling across it as her first blow missed. Still Sakura didn’t relent, whipping a barrage of explosive tagged shuriken towards the mouse masked bastard who she need to kill. The explosions rocked the forest and Sakura’s teeth chattered with excitement as she followed the nin’s chakra, hunting him with murderous glee.
Sakura cycled her chakra through her muscles in the same patterns she’d seen in countless body flickers and shot forward, heedless of the danger. She immediately overshot her target and skid through a patch of bushes but it didn’t matter, she had her opponent’s back and she threw a barrage of shuriken at it. Nezumi jumped over the wall of flying steel and kicked off a tree, rocketing towards her and engaging her with his tanto.
Deranged laughter ripped from Sakura’s mouth as she ran through a quick set of hand seals before spewing out a ball of fire straight at Nezumi who was forced to substitute. Sakura took a step to follow the nin and staggered, realizing she was nearing chakra depletion and immediately used another kai, making sure she wasn’t still trapped in a genjutsu.
With exhaustion, came calm and Sakura eyed Nezumi who was watching her from the branches of one of Hi’s massive trees. The ANBU dropped down and sheathed his tanto, walking over and coming to a stop just out of her reach.
“Sleep awareness, poor. Ability to break genjutsu, acceptable. Reaction to trauma triggers, acceptable. Over all combat ability while exposed to trauma, acceptable. Lack of situational awareness after exposure to trauma, unacceptable.” Nezumi rattled off the list of what he’d been testing and Sakura slowly caught her breath, ripping open a ration bar and devouring it. “Follow.”
With that they broke into another run that had to cover at least half the country as the night bled away and the sun quickly dawned. Once again, Sakura was barely standing and nearly fell from the trees several times as they moved, however she kept up as best she could.
“Do you ever need to sleep or rest?” Sakura asked in between gasps of air when Nezumi finally let her set up camp once more.
“Only when injured or suffering chakra exhaustion.” Nezumi replied and Sakura forced water down her throat despite the nausea clawing at her insides.
“That’d be nice,” Sakura mused, not getting a response as she unrolled her sleeping bag and settled in. She fell asleep quickly enough, though she slept poorly. When morning came, Nezumi continued to put her through the ringer, testing ninjutsu, genjutsu, chakra control and how she handled stress. He forced her to run every night until her muscles screamed and she was forced to use her chakra just to sooth the pain, running it through her limbs in the way Hiruzen had taught her and helping them heal as she slept.
After a full week of hell, Nezumi changed tactics and they ended up in a city where Sakura had to pass as a civilian for the full week and survive. It didn’t take long for her to find her way to the city’s red light district and charm her way into waiting tables at a seedier restaurant that would actually hire an unaccompanied minor. The place was bustling and the clients didn’t seem aware of the concept of keeping their hands to themselves but Sakura survived, putting on a false facade of embarrassed nervousness and shyly ducking away from people as they tried to grab her.
She could have played it differently, thrown punches or even acted as if she invited it, but she didn’t want to draw attention, didn’t want to appear memorable and simply slipped out of the city when the week ended. Meeting up with Nezumi on the road, she was once again pressed into a grueling endurance race before being given her performance review, which was acceptable in social interactions.
The last day was spent being quizzed and tested as they ran. Sakura was forced to talk and run simultaneously which rapidly ate into her stamina but she did her best. Her answers went over well and when they finally dropped back into the village, Nezumi had only one last task for her, break pursuit and then hide. It was realistic, since she was exhausted mentally and physically but between her sensing, perfect chakra control and careful application of false surroundings and seals, she eventually broke contact with Nezumi and hid as he searched for her.
‘Please tell me I did well.’ Sakura thought, keeping her chakra muted to the same level as the air around her. It was difficult, forcing her to concentrate constantly but she either succeeded or Nezumi simply ran out of time as the ANBU broke off and left. ‘Okay, let’s wait an hour just to be sure then head home.’ Sakura thought, doing exactly that before collapsing into her apartment, sore everywhere and exhausted. She didn’t even make it to her bed before collapsing and promptly fell asleep on the floor.