Chapter 62 - Arc 4 - Brawling in the Streets: Laundry and Panick Attacks

Here ya'll go! On time, because I'm amazing.

Sakura gets a little bit of downtime, but when the universe gives to one, it takes from another.

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[4/20 Genin Killed]

[2/10 Chunin Killed]

The numbers themselves aren’t very high, which tells her this dungeon is nowhere near complete. Buuut, those are probably people, so complaining that they haven’t killed enough is probably the kind of tone deafness which’d really make Naruto and Sasuke squirm. It’s not that she’s frothing at the mouth in desire of violence for violence sake, but the people they’re trying to kill are themselves trying to kill a lot of people, mostly innocents, so it’d be nice if she could just be done with them already.

Frothing at the mouth in hopes of extreme violence is what Tenten’s doing. Her final slash on the Chunin that dared to stand in front of her proved that the drops aren’t necessarily based on the enemy. Whereas her opponent had dropped his sword, and she’s yet to get an off-theme drop, Tenten’s not having anything about logic and rules and reasonable drop tables.

“Look how pretty she is, Sakura look, look!” Sakura has to tilt herself to the side so she’s not staring down the length of an absolutely massive barrel.

[Tenten’s Dragunov SVD-63

Epic

Developed to provide long precision long-range engagement capabilities to ordinary troops, it now serves as a personal Fuck You button for Tenten Higurashi. Its scope has been modified for increased precision in a multitude of weather conditions, and it’s been magically reinforced so that normal use will never require significant repair. Can fire Magical 7.62 rounds, or normal 7.62 rounds without discrimination, well, except for all the discrimination flying down range.

Deals 200% bonus damage to targets not currently in active combat with Tenten.

Maybe don’t step in front of it ]

“I see it, Tenten, you can have that one too,” Not that she has a choice in the matter, it’s anointed specifically for her. Talk about getting lucky with her drops, “try for sneak attacks.”

Despite the fun moment with the rifle, she finds herself very exhausted. She needs a break, so it sucks she can’t just swap out with Lee. She’d love to do that for a day or two while she plays a game or learns some cool Taijutsu from Gai.

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“So I know Gai’s a legend, but is he that great a teacher?” Sakura asks, her clothes muddying a stream they found not too far out. Getting naked in front of Neji was a disturbing prospect for the three seconds it took Tenten to say ‘he’s seen you naked a hundred times, his eyes see through clothes.’

And you know, that probably shouldn’t be comforting, because it implies there is an entire clan of potentially perverted crazy people who can disable your ability to move at a touch, and honestly the more she thinks about it the more horrifying it is. Whatever goddess or god designed them definitely has a problem, and definitely leaned into their interests. Genetics just, aren’t normally that precise.

But it is comforting. There’s something weirdly nice about knowing someone’s seen you naked a hundred times in the last few days, and they still hate you. Like it’s so invigorating to know he’s not shallow like that. Everytime he glares at her has a new context to it, and she can appreciate it. There’s probably something wrong with her head, but she’ll take the victories she can get when it comes to this insane mission.

“I wouldn’t know.” Neji answers her question, the graceful bastard only needed a small dip to get clean, so he’s just waiting for them now. Tenten got covered after her axe went through that guy and Sakura, well, she’d rather not think about it. Neji doesn’t seem to have told Tenten about her little panic attack slash puddle creation mishap either which is such a nice saving grace. “He’s my sensei, but almost all of my training is done at the Hyuga compound. He seems very capable for Lee.”

“What about for you, Tenten?” Sakura looks to her other teammate, giving her a quizzical look while the girl awkwardly scratches at her cheek.

‘Uhh, well, I mostly train with weapons,” Tenten admits, “and he’s very good with them, don’t get me wrong. But he specializes in Taijutsu, so while he’s very good at teaching me how to use a new weapon, he’s not so great at teaching me the unique aspects of each weapon.”

“So why not get a dedicated teacher and train in only one or two weapons?” Sakura asks, “Is the shop so poor you can’t afford that?”

“Guh-we were having such a nice conversation,” Tenten huffs, leaving Sakura to wonder what she said wrong, “I don’t want to. Is that a good enough answer for you?”

“If it’ll make you less mad at me, it’s the best answer you could possibly give.” Sakura finds herself giving the irritable brunette a thumbs up.

She’s on such a hair trigger sometimes… A shop like that should easily be able to afford a tutor, what’s the issue? Is she right? Does Tenten secretly not have parents and totally runs the shop all on her own? That wouldn’t make a lot of sense given that’d mean the shop doesn’t function during missions, but then hiring someone else for those times would take a lot of money on its own and keeping the cover could prevent her from having the money for a tutor!

That’s complete nonsense, her brain informs her, but hey, it’d make Tenten more understandable.

She quickly finishes cleaning her clothes, knowing damn well that Neji’s about as interested as Lee is malicious, well, it’s nice. What with Naruto and Sasuke and Ino and Haku’s weird obsession, she was starting to think she was the main character in a simdate. The actual simdate event didn’t help with that.

She’s just so relieved! “Thank you, Neji!”

The boy seems very unamused by her thank you.

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“That’s enough, Gita.” Sitting on a throne made of bone, an ethereal flame sparking to life behind her, only to be snuffed out an instant later, their lord sits with a fist on her chin and an arm resting on someone else’s arm bone. “I understand why you’re being disobedient, but you will die if you leave now.”

Gita, standing with her boney spear held in one hand and pressed against the ground so hard it’s cracking, the blade of an old thigh sharpened and given a coating that turned it hard as steel and wreathed it in poison, bites her lip. “You understand nothing, if you did you would have had us ambush her immediately and put an end to that beast before it comes for us.”

Gita’s opinion isn’t just a voice in the crowd, it is the crowd. It’s an issue she’s had to deal with since the leaf ninja entered the village and killed all those weaklings. It’s not that Fierro doesn’t care, it hurts her just as much as it does them. They've been serving her for a while now and while using the dead as disposable tools is easy for her, the actual living breathing human beings that follow her around are a different matter.

But as deaths are starting to pile up, and they’ve made it through the damn trap mansion, time’s running out and that’s just adding to all this. “And lose more of you?” Her statement rings true, but she finds so much doubt in their eyes. It’s not her fault the leaf sent a savage. A Jonin was always a possibility, they knew that, but a Jonin would have killed them so fast they wouldn’t have had time for this. That was an acceptable outcome, at least no one would have had to suffer with the harrowing eyes they show her now. Were her ambitions ever worth those looks? How many second thoughts are required to make this okay? Does saving them all from their poverty stricken lives as outcasts even count as a good deed if they all die?

She holds all that in though, because she’s a leader, and, well, that’s what matters. That’s what has to matter for them to get through this. “They’ll be entering the catacombs soon, we’ll set an ambush for them there. No Genin, just the Chunin, there’s no way they can take eight of them at once in close quarters.”

“You mean to leave us out then?” Gita’s teeth clench. She’s as pretty as she is defiant, that frosty glare doesn’t suit her well at all, but what can one expect when your friends are dead? “It’s not just Maestro, we lost six of our friends in minutes, no one is willing to sit back and do nothing while we lose more, either you send us or we’ll go on our own.”

“You’ll die.” Fierro says, the words simple but so powerful they ring in the ear. Much to Fierro’s shame and fear, no one seems to care, and they filter out to go die a horrific and painful death against her commands. Should she change her plans, or keep the Chunin back for the ambush as expected? If they won’t listen to her, should she cover for them or let them fall?

More importantly, should she stop them? It’ll take magic power from her to stand against them, which is a precious and scarce resource at this point, but she can save their lives right now by summoning enough monsters to beat them to submission. The power rests at her fingertips, flaring to life uselessly. She could order the Chunin at her side to restrain them too, that’d save her magic.

What’s the point if they all die anyway, because she can’t protect them anymore?

What’s any of it matter, if she starts ordering them to fight each-other?

They all followed her willingly…

The Chunin are loyal, she thinks, they’ll stay, but that’s an issue on its own. It’d be better if a few of them ditched her and followed them, but then does that mean she should order them to do just that?

“I wasn’t born for leadership, I was born for science!” Her hand smacks a bone on her throne, and she’d be amused by the way the stuck together hand wiggles after she smacks it, if she wasn’t gripping her forehead in rage, “gruaaaaahhhhh! Fuck you!”

Who she’s even shouting at, she’s not sure, but whoever he is, he needs to go fuck himself.

Damn the leaf, she needs to think, hopefully before sixteen Genin walk into a shredder… No, that’s too generous, there’s no way every Genin is following Gita, some will just return to their chambers annoyed but not willing to jump the gun.

“But that makes it even worse!” Because at least some can escape if more go, but if only a few go they’ll surely all get torn to shreds, they can reduce casualties by sending more!

So she should send more intentionally - but then she’d be undermining her authority by giving in to what they want after telling them they’ll die and demanding they stay. But does she care about her authority? But then that very authority is the only reason she can keep them alive…

“May I suggest you send the rogues?” A voice at her side jumps her out of her stupor, and she finds her palm is on her chest, and her heart rate is higher than it has any right to be.

“Why?” She asks, eying him, her right hand, a man that’s been with her for so long. He stands so stoically, so powerfully, ready to enact her will no matter what. If only the Genin were like that.

“They wouldn’t win, but if they attacked at the right time they could give the weak ones a chance to escape.” His words are always so reassuring, and his fake smile warms her heart as much as a real one could.

“And since they’re already summoned, they won’t take mana, yeah,” she agrees, “I’ll send the rogues.”