Chapter 150 - Arc 10 - Pre-ordered Hugs

Things are moving along and I am happy. While not the biggest chapter, I no less enjoyed this one a lot. Next week we can get into some more action, and the week after that I think Naruto's back? Some might say "why are you even doing this if they're all just going to win" to which I say, why do you read a comic book? It's about the journey and the developments along the way, not the obvious fact that I'm not killing off half the cast because it'd be funny.

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The moment Sakura sees the tower pop into vision, she runs for it. Their half a day trek around the area was super fun and very enlightening to the kind of world around her, but she couldn’t help but wonder how Ino and the others were doing the entire time. Samael might call it compulsion or obsessiveness but these are her friends on the line. Bolting through the hallways, she passes quite a few other nobles slacking off and not taking their game nearly as seriously as her. She supposes that makes sense, and is also a huge advantage for her, this is something she cares about whereas for them it’s just a chance to get a few temporary servants.

It almost seems dumb that she’s been so worried about it, merely on passion alone she has a huge advantage. That her friends are awesome doesn’t hurt their chances. Sasuke alone probably changes the odds in her favor and that’s before it’s considered that she knows his style enough she’s been able to curate abilities, equipment, and items just for him. No one else has that, for these nobles their game pieces are strangers.

So it’s with baited breath and no small amount of excitement that she arrives back at the game room, and finds herself recoiling in shock. “Welcome back.” The woman in front of her says, Saruka’s come to visit on her own. She’s never done that before, even with all their agreements to work together it’s always been Sakura stepping to her beat and going to visit her. She finds her heart racing in apprehension, is this a bad sign? Is she here to tell her that the entire party was wiped or something? She knew she shouldn’t have followed Samael, what if something happened and she missed it?

Samael takes a step to the side, giving the Dark Lord a nod of recognition. Sakura supposes a bow might be too much given their relationship, so she stands stock still and waits.

“You’ll be happy to know the team I was asked to take for you has almost completely won, so far without any casualties. I don’t expect any will occur moving forward either.” Saruka says, smiling a little at her with a twinkle in those vibrant hungry eyes, “I expected a blow out with the stats at hand but this is truly something else. They’re very talented and persistent people, and they lead me to believe that I made a great choice allying myself with you.”

“I am happy to hear that.” Sakura actually isn’t. Yes, it’s good to know they’re winning, but it hasn’t been that long. Tenten was actively arguing to try and spare rebels not too long ago. She knows Naruto’s not going on any massacres, so either Gaara’s taken the entire thing onto his back and is destroying the competition as some kind of demonic martyr, or a lot has changed in a very small period of time and she can’t help but feel like it’s her fault since she’s kind of responsible for all this.

Kakashi said her friends being softies was a good thing, has she ruined that? She’s slowly come to understand the merit of his words and it’d be a shame to ruin it just as she starts to understand the creep’s wisdom.

“I think it’s time we discuss what to do about their contracts.” Saruka says pointedly, tapping a clawed finger against her dark chestplate..

“Isn’t that up to you?” Sakura asks, “you’re the one who’s saving them, well, as much as anyone is saving anyone here.” She’d like to protest there being contracts at all, this whole thing is stupid, and despite the Dark Lands policy on slavery this is kind of slavery with extra steps. That Samael’s contract is going to be about hunting slavers doesn’t take away from that as much as she probably thinks it does, it just makes it hypocritical.

It’s better than most cases, it’s three months and presumably they’ll all gain valuable skills and experience in a new world from it, some of them are unlikely to even realize the state of their predicament or the real dark themes behind it but… It’s still a forced servitude they have no say in, where they’ll be at the mercy of whoever has them. It makes her skin crawl.

“Final say? Yes, it is very much up to me,” Saruka agrees with a very firm and serious expression on her pale features, “but they’re your friends, and I would like to maintain a positive relationship with you. I took them as a favor, I’m the Dark Lord, I’m not exactly in need of depressed servants…”

“So if I was to say, ‘give them back to Konoha’...” Sakura trails tellingly.

“I would refuse,” Saruka says with a glint in her eyes, “the Hokage isn’t a child, I’ve read up on him through reports my spies have delivered and he is a very talented, very capable, very powerful old man. He would assume my gift of his people back into his hands would be a political play. If I did not enter that negotiation with a motive, he would create one and it would almost guaranteed make me look conniving. He would expect I wanted a favor in return, and possibly work to undermine my efforts while worrying about future demands.”

“... Couldn’t you just make one?” Sakura asks, “if all you need is a motive, how about ice cream? Demand a lot of ice cream.”

“I could do something ridiculous like that,” Saruka allows herself a ‘dignified’ snort, “or I could wait until everyone is returning and send them home then and get credit for treating them well as a benevolent leader that lent aid to his people in need.”

“What’s the difference between them now, or everyone later?” Sakura asks.

“How can I explain this,errr,” the woman bites her lip with a very sharp looking fang, “weirdly large amounts of kindness often provokes suspicion. Small amounts of kindness looks benevolent, large amounts of kindness looks like a trap. If I get some use out of them and then send them back talking about how well they were treated I’ll actually get more credit than if I just sent them back on their own for free having done nothing.”

“Uh-huh…” Sakura looks at her with eyes tilted with suspicion.

“So again, what do I do with them?” Saruka asks, “if I am to put them to work, what best to task them with that they will feel worked, but not overworked. I would also like them to be paid, meaning it has to be strenuous enough they would feel like they were being rewarded and not being given gifts, because the distrusting of blatant kindness problem exists on a smaller scale too and it would be annoying to have them eying every platter of food like it’s poison.”

“Naruto runs a cleaning service back home, Tenten runs a weapon shop with her dad, Lee is a pretty good personal trainer, Gaara’s a spoiled brat with a murder problem…” She lists off in thought. It’s harsh but he’s the Kazekage’s son and holy crap is that a lot of murder he’s told her about. “Neji’s so dedicated to training I’ve never seen him do anything else unless explicitly forced, it might be best to lend him to us for the tracking thing. Actually Hinata will probably cover that, and Shino, Kiba… uh… He can see through walls.”

“I will put him in security.” Saruka allows Sakura a break before she melts trying to overthink an answer for Neji.

“I don’t know the other five.” Sakura admits, “but Naruto makes a lot of really cute girl clones. Maybe do something with that? Army of maid clones?”

“I am going to ignore that you just said that in the context you said it in, because you know not what you say.” Saruka shakes her head, clearly thinking something is hilarious. “Thank you for the ideas, I will discuss with them the terms of their employment when they win. That gives me a good selection of ideas for starting negotiations. I can rig those roles to be open and in a desperate position so they feel comfortable arguing more favorable positions, so I don’t look like I’m giving them out of the goodness of my heart.”

“I just don’t get why that’s a problem…” Sakura trails.

“To be candid, I’m the fucking Dark Lord.” Saruka stresses with a clearly annoyed hiss in her tone, “if you take away the saving you and your people part, you have my people invading your land out of nowhere with an army at the gates. I can’t start a negotiation on that, not one which ends with me having allies anyway.” The woman throws a hand up, curls it into a fist, and then rests it against her forehead. “Let’s just say that the nicer I look, the more conniving I look. There is always a shoe dropping, and if I want to maintain a good relationship with people I have recently invaded, I need to look like I am clueless and totally didn’t mean to do that; not like I am about to turn the hellhounds of war on them at any given moment if they so much as displease my pet rat.”

“You have a pet rat?” Sakura asks, perking right up-

“No, I have a pet dog currently. One which I need to give back to you as soon as it’s safe to do so and the king isn’t looking over your shoulder for the slightest sign of weakness.” Saruka sighs longly.

“You have him?” Sakura gasps, “I’ve been wondering about that. Well, mourning that, I figured he probably exploded…”

“He did, I’m just that awesome.” The woman in pitch black plate boasts with a haughty chuckle, “he’s being pampered, don’t worry.”

“Thank you, but like, see? I don’t distrust you and that’s very nice of you, you’ve been really nice to me actually. Why do you want to appear weak to my Hokage?” Sakura points out with a long smile.

“You’re a teenage girl, not an old man whose entire career is built on distrust,” Saruka scolds her, “it is better to appear weak and be trusted than to appear strong and feared when starting out on a bad negotiation space. This is especially important if you want to receive hugs instead of arrows to the face. Appearing weak will not suddenly take away from my power, but it will make your people less scared. Your Hokage will still know how strong I actually am no matter how I present myself, and should my good will get taken advantage of too hard I may always show my real strength to make a point. But for now, starting negotiations, I must appear kind and naive, not conniving and generous.”

“I just don’t get it…” Sakura sighs, but walks around her to look at her board and happily report that everyone is still alive. This is going great at least, she seems to really understand this game.

“You don’t have to understand.” The woman reaches out and rubs Sakura’s head with the hand that was against her own forehead. It’s actually still in a fist so she grinds it into her scalp a little. “I am only even informing you because it is important you at least grasp that I am taking the poor hand on a lot of negotiations early on, on purpose. The last thing I need is you arguing on my behalf. I need allies, not people that think they are in danger.”

“Why would I do that?” Sakura asks, halfway between jumping away and just letting the head touches happen. There’s a lot of them in her life, both given and gotten. She’s unsure when that became the status quo. Is she even comfortable with Saruka giving her physical affection? Are they that close?

“Because you’re very loyal and I am doing a lot to help you.” Saruka grumbles out, and Sakura can’t help but flush at the thought that she’s been called out. “Your brother should be available to hug you within the next day or two. I will be heading out to where the creature connected to his soul is stored directly after this, so I can prepare the necessary ritual to recombine them upon their resurrection.”

“Is that really needed? I think he’d really like it if you just ate it or something…” Sakura trails tellingly.

“... That’s stupid, Sakura, yes it’s needed.” The woman actually laughs at her, it’s deep and foreboding, and that makes her feel dumb. “Wow, I’ll explain soul dynamics to you sometime later but for now just understand that yes, it is absolutely imperative that I connect the two upon resurrection, not just… eat it.”

“Can I eat it?” Samael asks.

“No, you can’t-oh my.” Saruka palms her face, “surrounded I am. Have fun with your games, I went ahead and wrote schematics for a water world shop item, just in case that fire happens again.” She points to Rosalia, who nods in petrified gratitude from where she’s hiding behind Sakura like a frozen pole. “Just add it in when you have the time, since you have to be the one to do that… Samael, please be kind to them once you have their contracts, I will be very angry with you should even one Konoha ninja perish under your command. I need these negotiations to go well, not have weapons aimed at us in retaliation for your recklessness.”

“Right, of course.” Samael rolls her eyes, and Sakura can’t help but wonder if she made the right deal here. Then again, if Samael’s lord is putting pressure on her to keep her friends safe, maybe it’ll be alright.

“I take my leave.” Saruka walks with purpose, disappearing out the doorway.

“Well that happened,” Sakura nods stiffly, “wow.”

“Good news, some of your friends are going to be revived soon,” Samael points out, “what are you going to do with them.”

“I dunno, go hunting maybe? They’ll want something other than the cafeteria gruel as their first meal.” Sakura sweat drops at the thought. “Though Naruto probably won’t eat the wildlife here if we have to hunt it ourselves so maybe I’ll see if I can get Saruka to open that portal to Wave we agreed on. It’s a little early but I bet she’d like to start sooner rather than later on the water and lumber trade she wanted. There’s a lot of fish there so we could skip that issue entirely if she’ll do me that favor.”

“I am also interested in trying non-sapient meat.” Samael admits with a thoughtful little tug upwards of her lips. “I am well past the level where the exp loss of a non-exp rich meal would cost me anything.”

“Count me in too, that sounds delightful.” Rosalia grabs Sakura’s left hand in both of hers, giving her a bit of a beam that she’s not sure how to interpret. “I am going to be stationed there, correct? It would behoove me to learn how to cook the main staple there early.”

“You could always come help us hunt slavers,” Samael suggests with a playful grin, “much better than helping administrate some small village.”

“I think I’ll take my chances with the fishing village, thank you,” The noble girl’s nose twitches, “the barbaric practices I am sure your efforts will use would stain me.” For the thousandth time, Sakura is stuck thinking about what Kakashi said, about friends being better off not-desensitized.

At the time when he said it she wanted to deck him for being unclear, but with every passing day she gets it a little more. It’s good that Rosalia doesn’t want to be involved, she’ll be happy and safe in Wave, there’s no need for her to lose her innocence. “I need her anyway, leave her be, Samael.” Sakura scolds the woman, not that there’s any heat to it.

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“Glad to know the areas are mirrored.” Temari grumbles as she steps through sand again. Technically this is nice, it’s terrain she’s used to and she can skip the stupid coat nonsense from the mountain top. Placing it in Sasuke’s pack, she does of course overheat a little remembering that she dumbly didn’t think about the cold and Sasuke thought ahead for her. It’s very embarrassing to be taken care of. It’s also incredibly nice, not so nice it doesn’t make her flush, but almost. There’s something that makes her feel warm inside about knowing that this boy has grown to care for her enough he’ll do something like that.

She’s not sure who’s getting mom’d anymore. Maybe the real momming is the mutual betterment they can share. She’s a few years older than him so it’d be awkward but if Kankuro could read her mind right now he’d tease her about crushing on him. That might not be entirely inaccurate, but she’d deny it. She’d probably crush on anyone that showed her kindness right now, there was even a few moments where she felt something for that cyclops after he actually explained things to her. It doesn’t mean anything, it’s not even worth thinking about, it’s just a sign that her life has been very poor up to this point.

She’ll endeavor to fix her priorities and who she surrounds herself with before she thinks of dating, and by that point who knows, maybe he’ll be an adult and she’ll see if they’re compatible. Until then, momming is an explicitly non-romantic action and - Kankuro get out of her head damn-it!

The point is, maturity is knowing when feelings aren’t real, and wow has she had a lot of fake feelings lately. Death screwed with her head, Gaara’s sudden awakening as a good boy has screwed with her head, Kankuro’s teasing has screwed with her head.

Hell, almost dying after being trapped in that genjutsu screwed with her head too. Sasuke doesn’t believe the genjutsu story, which raises even more questions. Why is he being nice to her if he thinks she genuinely tried to murder his teammate?

“You should get out of your head, we’re in enemy territory.” Sasuke says calmly and quietly, shocking her back to focus and reality.

“How’d you know I was uh-” She shakes the redness away from her nose.

“Sakura.” Sasuke says with his hands in his coat pockets, his mask is fitted so well it’s almost eerie. Sakura had his exact measurements when she added his items to his shop, they must have a very close relationship that Temari has no intentions of asking about. “It’d be easier to list times when she’s not spacing out than it would be to try and write down all the times she is. She walks around barely focused on reality, and that’s ignoring that half the time she is in reality her nose is facing towards a screen. Kakashi had to make a rule that she wasn’t allowed to use her handhelds when traveling through potentially hostile territory.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Temari points out, “what if you get snuck up on.”

“That is why Kakashi forbid it,” He nods thoughtfully, “I think the fact that a lot of her skills are automatic are the only reason she’s alive. At first when she told us about them I doubted her but… you can only watch her dodge or deflect something she had no idea was coming so many times before it’s pretty obvious she has some kind of magic going on.”

“That was obvious to me the moment she met Gaara.” Temari snorts, “five seconds in and Gaara’s trying to attach himself to her like a handbag. You know when I last got a hug from Gaara? Never. I have never been hugged by Gaara. I wasn’t even aware Shukaku would let that happen.”

“You must be jealous then,” Sasuke says, “explains the assassination attempt.”

“I was under- nevermind that, no. I was a little jealous at first but… Gaara seems happy. I want what’s best for my little brother.” She admits with a bit of a sheepish expression, and a waver of her heart that she admittedly doesn’t know how to deal with.

“I’m glad there’s at least one sibling that wants good things for their little brother.” Sasuke grumbles under his breath. “I have seen it go otherwise.”

With a sheepish internal eep, the sudden thought occurs to her that she’s talking about family troubles with the last Uchiha. Not her best moment. “I’m sorry-”

“Don’t be, I’m glad to hear it can be better,” Sasuke says, before suddenly pointing out into the distance, “smoke. Someone’s used a fire technique, or maybe a campfire. We should quiet down and approach using whatever cover we can find.”

“It’s almost night time.” Temari points out, pointing up at the sun’s far away and quickly fading existence. The now quite orange light of the soon to be night sky signalling its departure in a more telltale way than one could possibly signal anything else in the world. She has to admit this fake world has beautiful horizons, back home things always seemed so dull. It’s hard to appreciate the sun and its aesthetic when it’s trying to brutally murder you, but somehow this place’s sun is a lot less hostile even though it’s still a desert. “The shadow monsters will start amassing rapidly soon, we should probably focus on finding a cabin on this side instead of ambushing them and getting our position compromised by the fighting.”

“I actually planned for that.” He admits, reaching into his bag and quickly pulling out a black vial filled with a viscous liquid that almost looks like some kind of ashy tarry substance. “Based on the shop description, pouring this over our heads should make us invisible to them for a few hours.”

“You want me to stain these nice clothes, and this beautiful hair, with that.” Temari points, only to receive a blunt nod in return, “ugh, why do I even bother? Give me a vial.”

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“More grovelling.” Shikamaru knows better than to argue when Ino’s like this. So here he is, on his hands and knees, ‘apologizing’ for being trapped in a genjutsu they had no way of knowing was going to happen. Everyone else got away with just a simple apology but he’s the super genius so of course she wouldn’t just let it go. Pointing out that she’s being ridiculous would only be more of a pain than it’s worth sooo…

“It’s been over an hour, you should probably let him go?” Karin’s lack of confidence adds a question mark to almost anything assertive. Some would call it cute, he can’t help but find it annoying. Her lack of conviction isn’t going to convince anyone, it’s actually more likely to make things worse.

“Ehhh…” Ino actually appears to consider it, “when else am I going to get him to hold an exercise pose like this?”

“He’s resting on his knees, that’s not really exercise.” Karin points out.

“For Shika, that’s about two steps closer to one than I’ve ever seen without some serious motivation.” Ino laughs, “alright, you can get up. I officially forgive you for leaving me to die and forcing another nation’s ninja to save me.”

“That doesn’t sound like forgiveness-” Karin points out, only to stop when she sees Shikamaru shake his head at her.

“I think a lot of people would be a lot more mad, I’m probably the nicest person this could have happened to.” Ino says with a smirk, daring either of them to argue.