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Chapter 95 - Arc 6 - Onward, To Suna! - Murderbunny
🕑 Added 2024-10-14 12:09:55 +0000 UTCThe fun thing about an outline is that I'm actually ahead for once.
Unfortunately, Friday's chapter is the end of the outline, turns out I had less than I thought and a good portion of what's left is 2AM rambles that don't make a whole lot of sense.
I think I have a few more chapters of ideas, but uh, Arc 6 might actually be so fast I don't pause before Arc 7 at all. Might even be in poor taste to call it an arc, hehe. Oh well.
As long as we all enjoy it, who really cares. I don't.
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Contemplating and in part arguing with Kakashi about Ino’s bullshit is mentally exhausting, and she soon finds herself on another walk with Gaara without even being aware she left the hotel. Her head’s not on straight, and being told she has to stay within the village isn’t helping things. It’s not that she blames Ino, she perfectly understands that her friend saw something that was deeply concerning and took what she figured was the appropriate action needed to protect her. It’s just, it was a little much?
Sure, when she saw Ino’s stats, a deep part of her wanted to lock Ino in a cage away from danger and throw away the key. Her very first mission outside of Konoha ended with them killing a vampire. She was injured in what should have been a career ending injury multiple times, and she only survived because of Naruto's nonsense and her own reality altering system. Seeing that Ino would have probably been taken out by the missing ninja that ambushed them on the way to Wave itself gave her what she would consider an understandable panic. She still panics when thinking about it, and she doesn’t think that’s weird. When you think of those important to you dying horrifically to preventable causes, panicking is the human response.
The world is a harsh place filled with uncaring monsters that would love to do horrible things to Ino before killing her and leaving her to rot in a ditch, and while with any other profession that might be an unreasonable concern built on paranoia, Ino happens to have the job of running towards the monsters. She doesn’t trust Ino’s team - as people they’re okay but as teammates they’re lazy too - and nothing would make her feel safer about it all than trapping Ino somewhere super safe and just letting time flow away. A few months of training might make her happy, but why not go years, or decades, maybe her system will let her grant immortality and then they’re going for centuries! She could turn Ino into a god with enough time, and protect her from everything!
But even if she could, she wouldn’t.
She could never do that to Ino, she couldn’t do that to anyone. Maybe it’s a little awkward to take the moral high ground when she very recently had to get a tutoring session on not immediately spearing her sword through the enemy as quickly and efficiently as possible when your commanding officer is right there, and they’re not armed or fighting back, but she’s never kidnapped anyone! She doesn’t plan to either - barring a mission - even her efforts in necromancy are planned as more of a recreational resurrection kinda thing, She has no intentions of trapping souls in any sort of horrific army, or using the power to usurp the will of anyone. Ethical recycling, that’s the goal, and the Inuzuka seem very keen on helping her with that, so that’s nice.
She’s glad she killed Fierro, how dare she… Now that she’s read the documents on how necromancy works, that bitch deserved it. Every zombie she killed was once a person, and that person was likely trapped deep within that flesh prison. Releasing every single one of those souls should have been the real goal of the dungeon, if she’d known she would have gone around making sure she got every single one.
The point is, if she can get her thoughts in a line for once in her life, that she feels betrayed. Ino hurt her a lot, and she’s not even sure how to broach the topic. What if Ino freaks out because Sakura didn’t learn some lesson she thinks she did, and it comes out in that conversation? Could their friendship survive this again? Are they even really friends, when Ino has this much power over her? Yes, obviously, that’s a dumb question.
But would they be if it happened again? And what’s to stop it? Ino thought she was doing the right thing, why wouldn’t she do it again?
“I hate this.” Sakura groans.
“I can kill it for you.” Gaara offers helpfully by her side.
“You don’t even know what I hate.” She glances at the eager boy, his eyes practically sparkle in excitement at the prospect of helping her.
“I don’t care, I just know that I can kill it.” And you know, Gaara’s mindset is oddly refreshing. It’s so simple, and she too, would like to kill her problems. Sadly she can’t, because her problem is Ino, and their weird dynamic, and she’d destroy the world before she laid a finger on her. Which answers most of her questions, actually. Yes, their friendship would survive, because she’s being melodramatic and she loves Ino very much. As family, or a really good friend, not the way Ino wants her to love her… Honestly, how much of a conflict of interest is that?
Can someone that loves you deem you unfit to go into danger? She’s so bringing that up to the Hokage. But first, she needs to bring it up to Ino. She needs to explain to Ino that even if she’s learned, even if she’s better, even if it was for the best, she can’t just kidnap her like that, it’s just not cool!
And that’s that, problem solved, thinking done. Now she just needs to kill something. “Hey uh, how do you normally solve your murder desires?” She asks, “they seem really strong.”
“I squish criminals,” he answers helpfully, “the way they twist between grains of sand feels nice.”
“Ah… And there’s enough of them we could hunt for some?” Sakura asks, “I really need to stop thinking for a few minutes, and if it’s doing your village some good…”
“Yes, there’s so many! Anyone who annoys me is committing a crime,” he explains, “mother says so.”
“Ah… Nevermind. That’s not true when you’re in the leaf by the way, don’t uh, kill random civilians in the Leaf.” His brain hurts her, but she’s not arguing with him. It’s so weird, one moment he’s all docile and the next she’s wondering how she’s even managing to stay alive while breathing the same air as him. She’s never seen or heard of anything like it, it’s insane!
Who do you even ask for advice about something like that? It’s not like Naruto, or Sasuke, or Kakashi would have any ideas.
Actually, Kakashi might, he’s done some crazy things.
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“There is no way you just asked me that.” Kakashi says flatly, staring her down. Her trip went well, but eventually she had to return to her room and send Gaara home.
“It’s a real question.” Her lips turn down, and she nibbles them faintly, her nose quirking to the side. “I must have worded it weirdly. What do you do when something cute and docile, is also a raging psycho with a sadistic urge for random violence?” She explains, framing a box in both hands, and then pulling them apart while making ‘whoosh’ and ‘pfftooom’ sounds. “Like it’s docile, until it’s not. I have no idea how to deal with him, he’s interesting to talk to and then out of nowhere it’s just, ‘I’m gonna stab something.’”
“You mean shred?” Kakashi asks, “as in sand? Not a sword.”
“Yeah, shred, not sure why I said stab. I just, I really don’t get him…” Sakura trails, pushing her fingers together in front of her chest.
“I’m going to need you to ask Sasuke.” Kakashi nods to her, “definitely do that.”
“Uhhh, okay.” She shrugs, she’s not sure why Sasuke would have the answer but who is she to question Kakashi and his infinite wisdom? He’s only wrong like, half the time.
“I just don’t get it.” She mumbles around her sandwich. Talking to Gaara is oddly nice, he’s quiet most of the time, and when he does talk it’s normally to offer help. That she doesn’t want his help is kinda beside the point. “They all just laughed at me, no one offered any help. Don’t hurt them.” That she has to end her complaint like that is probably indicative that she shouldn’t be venting to Gaara, but uh, he’s there and her teammates laughed at her.
“Sasuke just made me look in a mirror while laughing, what’s that supposed to tell -ooooh, I get it…” She looks into the distance, like the world has unlocked, or maybe new shaders have loaded in. “That’s some new context, wow. Did not know they saw me like that. I feel like someone could have said something. Not exactly fair, I’m not that bad… But then I guess you probably don’t think you’re that bad either.”
“Are you sure you just weren’t listening?” Gaara of all people asks, “people have to repeat things a lot sometimes, because Mother talks over them.”
“Ah…” Yeah, it’s possible she talks over people with her internal thoughts. It’s not intentional but, well, she’s been trying to work on it. If nothing else, being aware that people see her as a murderbunny will help her conversation with Ino. She’ll take anything she can get when it comes to repairing and maintaining her best friendship, even if she thinks the comparison is absolutely an exaggeration.
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“Hey, Ino, I was going over reports.” Inoichi wanders through his house with paperwork all the time, it’s not remarkable, but it is remarkable for him to talk to her while doing it. She looks up from her efforts to knit on the couch. Why knitting? Well, it seems that Sakura’s system fades when she gets further away, and not a little bit. She can barely see the box at all, and the last two hours haven’t even resulted in the most basic skill.
It was a good set of tools to test with. “Yeah?” She asks, tilting her head to take her daddy’s bewildered expression.
“It says here that you signed off on Sakura’s temporary suspension.” Inoichi says.
“I did.” Ino nods in agreement.
“As in, only you.” He says pointedly, “it doesn’t mention my agreement after looking at your assessment, or Ibiki’s referral, or Anko’s notes on just how good a little chill time could be for her, or even the Hokage advising that some time to learn non-combat skills could be very important for her development.”
“... You mean to say the official paperwork that was delivered to her just says that I made her stay home?” Ino asks, her hands dropping the needles to come together in front of her chest, she finds her fingers are a bit sweaty. “As in like, that I can just do that at any time, and no one else has to contribute?”
“Uh-huh.” Her father says, passing her the report.
“Uh, you don’t think she’s read it, do you?” She gulps, looking down at it. Sakura has been acting odd lately, but she kinda thought that was just what happens when you’re forced to confront your demons. The progress has been pretty impressive, but was it real progress or did Sakura just want to please her? This complicates things, but even if it’s fake, she’ll have to find a different method. It’s not like she can do that again, Sakura’ll probably murder them both if she’s forced to sit around any longer.
“So, good luck with that conversation, I’m going to be anywhere else.” Her father pats her head, the jerk, before fully sprinting away like his life depends on it. Unfortunately for him he’s nowhere near far enough away to escape the blood curdling scream she lets out a few moments later.
At least Sakura’ll probably understand, right? She’s smart, she wouldn’t make any weird assumptions.
Comments
Christopher Cummins
This story.
Lol
What happens if you leave your Sakura charging overnight?
Dopplerdee
Itatchi left his charging and look what happened!
Christopher Cummins
Disclaimer: Sasuke is under no obligation to be helpful, as long as he is laughing he is happy. Do not leave your Sasuke charging overnight, or accidental lightning may occur.
Dopplerdee
Oh Ino, she'll make weird assumptions BECAUSE she's smart. Also Sasuke that was funny but not that helpful.
