Chapter 143 - Arc 10 - The Game: "They're dumb!", Feeding the Dog

This is actually another example of why the once per week, super chapters are good.
I had a bad week. I've argued with my fiance, I've been way too obsessively drawn into Noita, I've had a lot of work to do. All in all my mental energy has been pretty low, but I was able to take a couple hours out of every day and write this chapter because it was just one chapter.
Then I was able to do the same and edit things, one scene at a time. I changed the order a scene is in to make more sense, I modified flavor text dozens of times, I even lovingly rewrote all of Gaara and Temari's dialogue because I didn't like the way it was sounding.

All in all, I'm pretty happy for the change. Gonna try and get the side stories out today too if I can manage it, or at least tomorrow depending on beta situation, he's got a life which is a plus if I'm honest. I am behind but I will catch up, and this chapter is a good example of that. 

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“Sakura, what do I do!? They’re dumb!” Rosalia being attached to her side isn’t new, that’s been their last day. To be fair, she’ll die if she leaves her sight so she understands. Still, she brings up a real issue.

“Yeah, it’s almost night time and they haven’t even started looking for a cabin,” Sakura notes aloud while looking down at the group of leaf genin Rosalia picked, “you read the script I gave you, right?”

“You were in the room!” The ringlet wearing blonde points out with a pouty expression that accentuates her puffy pink lips, she bets Ino would probably appreciate the look and aspires to make her pout like that once her best friend is back to see it. It doesn’t help she’s confused about what the girl is even pouty about, she misses her translator best friend so much she could cry.

“I was paying attention to Ino.” Sakura shrugs. She’s been watching all of them but Ino’s taken to this in a way that she finds is really interesting.

Karin isn’t doing anything - no surprise there - but the mindwalker has realized that her abilities aren’t great against monsters and has started playing spotter and tactician. She’s also playing hype man, and it’s really working for her. It seems so natural to jump and prance and shout happily. The enthusiasm is a little disturbing given the circumstances. Kakashi said it was a good thing that her friends aren’t as jaded as her, so what does it mean when whatever she’s done has somehow caused Ino to celebrate and cheer on bloody massacre?

They have three times the coins they should have, so Sakura’s putting cosmetics in the shop. They’re mostly there as a brag but like, Ino’ll look stylish and maybe Karin will calm down if she realizes they’re doing so well she’s throwing out fluffy coats.

“They probably haven’t realized the shadow monsters will be an issue later on. Don’t worry too much, I’m sure most of them will survive the first night since they are all together.” That’s another issue. Despite Rosalia giving the same orders to split up, they’re all together. It’s probably because they’re all Leaf Ninja and don’t want to abandon each-other in this confusing and trying time but it’s annoying.

The issue is that exp is split amongst everyone in the area and spawns aren’t higher just because there’s more of you. What this means is that half of them aren’t even level two yet and it’s approaching the first rest period. The second problem is that Rosalia is up against Akari’s team, which means… they might be fine, actually. “The enemy doesn’t even begin to comprehend people, she probably gave them impossible instructions. Her team might actually die without you doing anything.”

“I can’t just rely on that,” The smaller girl crosses her arms and huffs at her, “she could secretly be a mastermind, she has been a Dark Knight since before the current Dark Lord and Hero were even born. How is your team doing?”

“Well Ino and Chouji are-” Sakura begins-

“No, your team. The people assigned to you, not Samael’s team.” Only to find Rosalia grunting at her and dramatically stomping her foot.

“Oh, I have no idea.” Sakura admits with a chipper chirp.

“You haven’t checked?” Rosalia takes a step back, mouth falling open a little slack.

“Well, six of them literally want to kill me. They’re part of an alliance that actively wants me dead, and I was in the middle of hunting them down when uh… boom.” Sakura throws her hands up, and spreads them apart to mime the explosion.

She gets a confused nod from the girl.

“The other four are from some kind of bandit village? Look, I don’t think they deserve to die or anything, but I don’t owe them anything. They’re on their own, all my energy is going towards my actual friends.” Sakura spares just one look at her display to see they’re not dead yet before she looks back to Rosalia.

“Did you even do the announcement?” Rosalia asks, “I don’t remember you doing it.”

“I left a small written card on the screen which said ‘get rekt noobs.’” Sakura taps her right index finger against her left hand in thought. “How do you think Ino’d look in bunny ears-”

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“That was terrible, we’re getting a cabin.” As much as she wanted to refuse to get one because Shikamaru genuinely might not leave it, the reality is that they don’t get to rest out here. Camping seemed like a good idea at first but Shikamaru can’t sleep if they want to avoid getting attacked by the shadow beings every thirty seconds, and since he obviously does need to sleep they had to set up defenses and actively fight every moment he was under.

Doable? Sure. Worth it? Not even a little bit. The shadow monsters don’t give any experience, so the fizzly creatures aren’t benefiting them to slay except for the odd coin they might drop. Maybe the coins have a lot of value? Right now they’re worthless weights they have to carry around and while Ino’ll admit she’s lacking a lot of burden since the training weights she’s become accustomed to wearing didn’t come with her, it can’t be denied that any decrease in mobility is bad when it lacks a purpose.

Chouji needs to conserve fighting strength since he’s their ace, Shikamaru needs to sleep the longest since he’s their major defense while out and about fighting and he needs to be alert, Karin’s fighting capability seems tied to the size of the stick she’s swinging around… basically, she spent the last five hours stabbing icky creatures in the face with sharp sticks and rocks and getting black goo all over her clothes so they could avoid a cabin, and she’s not doing it again. At least their outfits are already black so the ichor isn’t that noticeable. Her hair is a mess though, and she sniffles at the thought of Sakura seeing her like this… Except that girl would probably think it’s attractive because her priorities are actually backwards. Ino doesn’t know what to do with herself or Sakura, truly.

At least the sun is out. “I told you.” Shikamaru finally responds to her after almost ten full seconds of looking out at the sand and contemplating the world. Dying only seems to have made his slow and lethargic nature worse, which is a real shame because it made Chouji hyperactive. “I bet the other teams are taking showers right now.”

“Yeah, well… yeah…” Mistakes were made.
She should have listened to Shikamaru and Sakura, when did she start thinking she knows better than the two smartest people she knows? Probably when she died horrifically when blindly following them, if she had to take a guess. “How long do you think until we get weapons? Or actual clothes?”

“I think, about two hours.” Shikamaru says, looking to the sky and pointing.

Her eyes raise up to follow, “oh, yeah, probably.”

[Item Shop Unlocks in 1:58:47]

That’s not even an intelligence thing, she just didn’t think to look up. That’s so awkward, she looks like a complete idiot!

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Sasuke’s up and about at the crack of dawn, which isn’t unique to him but he is the only one doing stuff. Temari’s on Gaara time and Gaara time demands she be ready and awake the very moment light exists in the world, but she stays down and basks in the glory of not having a murderous little brother around to walk in and threaten her up.

Kankuro seems to have the same idea, so she’s more grateful than she can put into words that Sasuke seems oddly respectful of her beauty sleep when he clearly knows they’re all awake. He gets up silently, wanders around and does whatever he does without making a peep, and after a while he makes breakfast more quietly than she could ever manage. She’s not sure why anyone would train themselves to cook as quietly as possible, that just doesn’t seem like a necessary skill for anyone. Does he have especially rude roommates he’s haunted by or something? When he does finally interrupt their sleep - about two hours after dawn - it’s to trays of food. “Up.” He demands, plopping the trays down on their beds and wandering out the door like he was never there.

“Where do you think he learned that habit?” Temari can’t help but ask after a long, awkward moment of shared silence with her brother. He doesn’t look particularly happy, but how are they supposed to complain? The last time they had breakfast in bed was, well, never. At least she’s never gotten it, she’s had to cook every meal for as long as she has memories.

“Sakura,” Kankuro says as if he knows, sitting up and stretching his arms up with a groan, “she has the look of someone that doesn’t eat unless food is shoved into her mouth by force.”

“She made all the meals on our way to Konoha.” Temari points out, taking a long moment to breathe before sitting up herself. She looks down to take in the glorious meal before them, and grimaces hard. “And this is why, she got sick of being force fed garbage and realized she could head that off by cooking first.” All the food in the world, a full pantry, a full fridge, cooking tools and machines she’s never even heard of let alone used, and the boy made them some sort of ration sludge, it looks calorically dense, but then so does a ration brick. It’s black, and - “it just bubbled.”

“Isn’t he from some rich clan? Shouldn’t this be way below his standards?” Kankuro asks, “what’s his whole family dead or something?”

“... Yeah, pretty sure.” Temari can’t help but wince as reality clicks into place for her.. Everyone knows about the Uchiha massacre, at least everyone who cares about geopolitics. She sort of has to care much to her chagrin which means she’s read countless documents on all the Leaf’s important events. It’s likely Gaara will become Kazekage some day and there’s no way he’s going to know how to be diplomatic which means that it’s up to her if she wants to save her village. Of all the roles forced on her, political adviser is both one she dreads, and is almost guaranteed to have. “Poor guy… I bet he eats this kind of stuff all the time at home.” She pokes it, and it makes a popping sound. “I’m throwing this away and making us all a real breakfast.” It suddenly occurs to her that Sasuke probably doesn’t have roommates, which really makes her question who he’s being quiet for.

“I’ll go see if I can take his from him before he eats it,” Kankuro grunts as he slips out of bed, “jeez, we were trying to betray these people a couple of weeks ago and now you want to mother him.”

“Well, with Gaara suddenly as docile as a scarab I have to get used to making my own decisions,” she shrugs, “I’m gonna mom him, why not? We’re probably stuck in the Leaf anyway, if they’ll have us, since I doubt Gaara’s ever leaving if he can help it. It’ll help if he doesn’t hate us.”

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For Naruto, waking up in a desert isn’t even something he hasn’t experienced before. He was subtly ordered by Kakashi to plant quite a few of his clones in Suna while they were there, and some of them have popped so at this point he’s accustomed to the desert heat and the sand beneath his feet first thing in the morning.

That doesn’t make dying and coming back anymore jarring. While Sakura or anyone too close to her would likely go on an internal monologue about death and rebirth and some philosophical quandary to be considered and discarded the moment something more important arrives, Naruto’s stoic for one of the first times in his life. He looks around and utilizes some of Sakura and Kakashi’s tactical advice, centering himself and getting an idea of what’s going on before he moves out. He sees Gaara, he sees team Gai, and five other random people he’s never met before. By the looks of their ages and builds they’re probably all from the exams, and he’s the first one conscious.

It takes two entire minutes for Gaara to rouse - he knows because he counted, just because he’s making better decisions doesn’t make waiting around any less painful - and in that time he’s tried to summon clones… and failed. His chakra responds here, but he has so little of it in comparison to normal that he’s not sure how to function. That’s his first sign that something strange is going on, the second arrives a few seconds after Gaara’s eyes open. “Mother’s gone missing.”

“Huh?” He looks over at the redhead from Suna and quirks himself a little sideways to make sure he’s aware he’s being talked to, “Did you sneak your mother into the exams?”

“No, it’s a metaphor… kind of.” The boy sits up and rubs his forehead as if he has a headache. “I hold a beast, just like you. Mine’s the Ichibi.”

“Kyuubi.” Naruto doesn’t hesitate to share with him, he would have done it earlier but Sakura sort of monopolized all of the dude’s time when they were in Suna and after they got to Konoha there was a lot to do. A clone felt like a disrespectful way to discuss such an important issue, and having it in front of Sakura felt distasteful. What if Sakura didn’t know about Gaara’s burden somehow? Sure she has that soul sensing thing and he thinks she can draw information about people out of thin air but some people just have crazy chakra and his biography might not mention it. The Kyuubi was his secret to tell her, Gaara’s burden is Gaara’s to tell.

“She’s missing.” Gaara explains, his black jumpsuit shifting with him. It looks very different from his mostly red and striking outfit from outside of here, Naruto’s glad his outfit wasn’t changed. Wait… aw man! A simple look down makes him regret questioning his happy illusion.

“They have genders?” Naruto can’t help but blink at the news, “next you’ll be telling me they have names.”

“I may have bad news for you.” Gaara’s dead tone sounds a little more mirthful than Naruto is used to from him, but he’s not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Shikaku is her name, yours likely has one too.”

“Ah…” He’s not looking, he’ll ask Sakura if it comes up, he bets she knows somehow. “You don’t seem very happy about her absence. If the Kyuubi’s gone, I’m excited.” He throws a fist up, grabbing his shoulder as he does.

“I am of mixed feelings. A few weeks ago I would have welcomed it, but recently… we have gotten along. It feels somber.” Despite saying more nonsense than he’s seen Gaara speak full words since they met, Naruto can’t help but feel like maybe he can understand. If the Kyuubi suddenly started being helpful and nice, he too may quickly grow to consider the fox a member of his family. What does the past matter right now at this very moment, even if that past is atrocity and massacre. His family was likely killed in the Kyuubi massacre if the old man is to be believed, but it clearly wasn’t hatred that led the beast’s hand. If it was, there’d be more influence spreading between them. He would be like Gaara supposedly was, haunted by constant suggestions of violence and destruction.

He’s not cutting the fox any slack, screw that heartless beast, but if it decided to lend a hand and asked for bygones to be bygones? All he has against taking that offer is some stories he’s been told and actions that happened before he was even born. “I think I understand.” Naruto finally says, realizing he’s pulling a Sakura. He’s so used to having clones around so that at least one of them can silently agree to deal with things while the rest of them try to think.

That’s when a siren of some sort erupts from the sky. It’s enough to draw his attention upwards, and Gaara’s too. The groans from around reveal just how over the sleepy attitude floating around is, and Naruto can’t help but wonder if they’re all wondering the same things about suddenly being here. They don’t seem happy to be in a desert.

A black box appears in the sky, displaying a cryptic message about how they’re dead and will be competing for revival. Something about heroes is mentioned, it’s probably not that important. They’ve been put into some stupid player versus player game and Naruto’d rather have nothing of it. Sadly, he’s pretty sure he has to care all of the sudden. “That’s terrible.” Naruto grumbles.

“What is? I can’t read.” Three words shock Naruto to his core and draw all the attention he has. Even he could read despite what Sakura asserted. Maybe not well, but he could. What’s the Kazekage’s son doing being illiterate? Is that a joke? “Temari always reads things for me.” Gaara explains, “it was deemed that learning how to slaughter was more important when there were servants around.”

“That’s messed up. Are you sure you have to go back to Suna? Mom’ll expand the house, I promise, all we have to do is explain-” Naruto’s in the middle of starting off a recruitment speech when the screen up above suddenly flashes onto something else. It catches his eyes immediately, and he stops his likely fruitless attempts to converse with the quiet boy to stare up at it with a bit of bemusement.

In Sakura’s room there’s a drawing she’s been working on for months. She’s never been particularly creative, so it’s taken her a lot of effort but she’s gotten to that stage where she repeatedly throws the piece out and tries again when she finds something she didn’t do right. He thought the design was strange, magenta hair isn’t unheard of but it’s not the color of anyone they know very well, and the design of her plate mail didn’t fit anything a ninja should be wearing so he couldn’t get a good grip on why it was so important.

Now he understands. It’s not a drawing at all, it was her attempt to get an image right that she’d only seen once or twice, and she hyper obsessed like the oddity she is. She likely wanted to make sure she had it right before she showed the Hokage the image in Henge, but as far as he knows she hasn’t actually gotten a drawing skill so she’s been struggling very hard with it. The eyes that look down on them from the screen above are hungry, they’re feral and full of blood lust. They look almost identical to eyes that have haunted his dreams for years. It was easy to assume his hyperactive imagination was giving him strange images when he hadn’t seen something similar, but now that it’s clear what a monster’s eyes look like, he has the added context that the Kyuubi’s probably visiting his dreams. Why the beast is doing that, he has no idea, but he doesn’t like it.

“Hello and good morning~” The sky calls out in a sing-song voice, aided in playfulness by an overly enthusiastic wave of gauntlet-covered hands in front of her sizable form. The wave is drawn out and exaggerated immensely like it’s from a movie. “You’re very dead, but that’s okay, everyone dies eventually. The bright side is this time isn’t permanent, there’s no need to worry about spilled guts when they’ll be crawling back inside you momentarily! I only have a minute to talk to you by the rules so I’ll be quick, I need you to split up into three groups and go around grinding experience and coins. There are cabins if you get tired, but try not to spend too much time resting during the day.”

She finally stops waving as she finishes talking which might be a record. It’s the kind of completely clueless action that brings a smile to his face from the sheer Sakura of it all. Little of what the woman said there was comforting, but her intentions seem benevolent which is something he can appreciate when he appears to have violently exploded recently. “If you could all get to level two or three that’d be great, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. The base stats of a few of you are so high that the rest of you can probably just hide behind them if you want. What else, uh-right!” She pokes her chin with the clawed gauntlet, only to clap her hands together a second later and form a very toothy smile. Her pitch rises from a deep resounding onslaught from the sky to something he might expect out of a girly singer. “Two of you will notice that you are missing something very important, do not worry. It will be returned to you after this, enjoy the vacation from your bonded one, I’m sure you need the rest. That is all, toodles!”

The screen turns off, and Gaara lets out an oddly choked but amused sound at his side. Naruto looks over to make sure he’s okay, but finds him with a big smile. “Toodles.”

“Just a made up word I imagine…” Naruto reaches up to scratch his head.

“It’s playful,” Gaara explains with his normal, toneless voice, “is comforting the right word?”

“No.” Naruto shakes his head, even if he kind of agrees.

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“When should I give you back?” Lord of Darkness, creature of sin, Dark Lord, all those are titles Saruka wears with pride. Despite that and all the pressure that comes with such grand prestige, sometimes she’s just a girl sitting in a plush chair and stares at a panting creature several times her size with a big slice of meat held up in her hands. She nibbles at her lip, unsure of what to do as she takes him in once again. He looks a little rough around the edges, which is understandable given when she pulled him from the exploded remains of Sakura’s battlefield, he’d been in terrible shape. It took a lot of mana to heal his wounds and by the time she felt comfortable handing him over Sakura had gone ahead and pissed off the king. Now he’ll probably get murdered if she hands him over, which means, “I guess I own a dog for now.” She throws the slab of meat up and watches the pet jump up to snap the meat out of the air.

As an undead summon the creature needs mana to survive, and while that is the only reason it’s still alive it also means she can’t just walk it into Sakura’s home and leave it there until further notice. The odds anyone else around has enough mana to sustain it or would even care to spend their life energy like that is very low and she’s not leaving a cute monster’s fate up to chance like that.

The moment it died and got resurrected it left the domain of life and entered the domain of monsters, meaning she’s this pup’s reigning lord just as much as she’s Reaver’s. If she just tossed it aside it’d curl up and die alone and afraid, and what kind of ruler of darkness would she be if she let that happen?

“Glrrruuuummmmmnnnn.” The somewhat fluffy creature gives her a roar of approval as her hand begins rubbing between its ears. She’s been able to spare enough mana to make it have its own warmth, which she takes great joy in taking in with her scritching fingertips. She should probably be doing something else, like paying attention to the game that’s going on in the corner of her room but it’s a lot less interesting than petting the dog. That Naruto boy’s base stats are easily three times anyone else’s on her team even without the beast attached to his soul, and the opponent she got paired with is a noble of a farming village from the human side with no combat or tactical experience. By the time they’re ready for the player versus player part, he’ll likely be able to solo half the enemy team if not demolish it completely.

Then there’s the fact that the trio Sakura suggested is dominating even without Naruto. In part it’s because that Rock Lee guy has a higher potential in strength and constitution than even she does, at least with the Hero fragment greatly enhancing his abilities. She’s glad he wasn’t born here… he might have actually been picked as a hero candidate if he was and she’d rather not fight anyone that enthusiastically adorkable. The power of a hero is almost directly correlated to just how much they embody the spirit of light, and he’s definitely a more fitting natural disaster than the current king.

Then there’s Gaara, who seems to have retained the creature connected to him’s ability to control sand. The game takes place in a desert so like…

All that to say, she’s not really paying much attention. They’ll be fine, she’ll do her job managing their equipment and money and shop tomorrow, but today, last she checked in Naruto was already level three and Lee was four. The average level is one per day for the first two days, then three per day after that, so… “Too bad for the enemy team… Wow you know, I bet you were adorable in life, we should get you clothes. Comfortable ones though, ones you like. Would you like that?”

“Glluuupp!” The way his massive tail wags makes her laugh, mostly because Sakura didn’t need to graft the tails together like that. She did it with care, not with practicality, it’s so cute!

She was like that once, before her father died.