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Chapter 39: Arc 4, Brawling in the Streets
🕑 Added 2024-05-31 21:25:09 +0000 UTCThe move went surprisingly well, I'm happy, had time to get this done.
What I'm not happy about is all in all, even before I consider the taxes I'm late on - fuck me - I owe about $1600 on my credit card.
Oh well... Woe is me, the broke writer.
Enjoy the chapter!
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Her shower was quick, her packing was already done beforehand, all that was left was to give her parents a goodbye kiss, give Business Naruto a hug since she won’t see him for a while either, and hit the road.
Well, hit team three’s training field. She had Kakashi’s note in her kunai pouch, but somehow she doubts it’ll be needed. Hence, the kunai pouch. She’d never store anything actually important with all the sharp objects.
She arrives quickly after her shower, and climbs a tree so she can watch the team from what she assumes is perfect ninja cover. She’s quite proud of herself for finding a use for that stealth skill she got back in Wave. There's three boys to watch, one in green spandex, the other a powerful looking pretty boy Hyuuga, and one… she recognizes, she was wrong, there is a girl.
It’s just odd to see two clearly taijutsu focused male genin with a taijutsu focused male sensei, and then find a girl over there swinging blades around. It’s genre confusing, and very off putting.
It’s even more off putting once she places the girl. Tenten, the girl from the store. She’s actively fending off the Hyuuga pretty boy’s fanciful looking pokes of death with the side of a thick staff she’s swinging around like it’s as light as a feather.
She observes them for quite a while, watching spandex boy do what appears to be an endless amount of push ups if his current count of seven thousand, three hundred forty six, is to be believed. Tenten and the Hyuuga’s spar just wasn’t that interesting to watch, it was like paint drying the movie. Tenten stands no chance, and when she gets knocked on her ass, Sakura doesn’t even fake a clap because it was so obvious it was going to happen. Gentle fist is nonsense, and it’s obvious the taijutsu specialist sensei is going to teach the taijutsu specialist students better.
Basic math foretold that outcome, it just… didn’t interest her.
“Come out.” The pretty boy announces the moment Tenten is fully faltered, “your spying is becoming annoying.”
Dressed in her full combat outfit, she didn’t exactly expect to stay hidden for long, but it’s still annoying that it wasn’t actual detection that caught her and was instead cheating eyes. She wonders if there’s a level of the stealth skill she could get to before the Hyuuga couldn’t spot her. Does it alter reality like that, or just with meaningless affection scores and dungeons and stuff?
She sighs to herself regardless, the world isn’t fair sometimes… She’s an example of that.
Tenten looks very alert all the sudden, like she didn’t notice her, that makes her feel a little better. She jumps out of the trees with a flip, looking elegant as she falls - she imagines - and landing perfectly a little to the side of spandex boy.
“Holy shit!” Tenten’s immediate reaction to seeing her is to reflexively throw a kunai in her direction, which is probably not a great reflex given they’re about to go on a mission together. She knows it’s on seeing her, because she didn’t throw kunai upon finding out someone was there. She didn’t think she pissed the girl off that much…
No, it’s not one Kunai, her high mental lets her observe it and it becomes clear it’s three. Two are in the shadow of the other, and there’s a tag of some sort on the third. Well, she can’t risk the tag by just dodging, the boy next to her could get hurt by Tenten’s reckless nonsense. She’ll be sure to lecture her later. Right now… Her sword releases from its new sheath with a whirr like shing, the sound of a machine coming to life. She’d feel her eyes redden but unfortunately they never unreddened, what she can feel is her senses straighten, and her blood leave her to flood the blade for her next move.
It’s a technique she’s wanted to try out in real combat - well sorta - since she came up with it the other day - err stole it from a game - and mastered it in careful practice.
As she slashes towards the Kunai, she charges the blood with her Chakra, and uses the tree walking technique a little too powerfully while using the enhancement of the sword to increase the power of the initial kinetic force.
To put it simply, she slashes at the kunai early, and while her sword comes up short, her blood flows away from her like a crimson wave and rips right through the Kunai and the tag, splitting them all in two and causing them to harmlessly fall to the ground behind her in multiple parts.
The attack continues for some distance, getting very close to Tenten before the pretty boy shifts his stance and slides in front of the shocked girl, poking and prodding it a hundred times a second until he’s splattered in harmless red. It’s steaming a little, which is odd, she doesn’t remember throwing fire chakra into that. It’s a good idea though, if nothing else it’ll help harden up the fluid by flash drying it. She’d rather do it with something a little more effective but the sword likes her kool-aid, what’s she gonna do about it?
“Errr, in my defense, she attacked first.” Sakura says.
Tenten has the decency to look sheepishly between them all, just in time for a much older, stronger, faster man to suddenly appear out of nowhere with a hearty laugh that causes her head to spin from the volume alone. Someone wasn’t taught to avoid pissing off a gamer girl with a headache… Actually, does she even qualify for that term anymore?
The headache just started too, mostly from his appearance, so maybe it doesn’t count either.
The man’s hand lands on the very irate boy’s shoulder, before he begins, “It looks like Neji will need a change of clothes, welcome Sakura, you’re our backup?” The man’s bowl cut hair has Sakura mesmerized. It’s technically a very efficient way for a ninja to do that. Her own hair is a little longer than it probably should be due to carelessness, Tenten’s is in buns but has to be quite a bit longer, and this Neji guy, well, he’d look like a girl if he did his hair differently and wore something cuter.
Yeah, all around, the jonin’s more sensible than them, it makes sense. The boy by her side has the same doo, so, you know, it’s a pragmatism over fashion virus. It explains the spandex they both wear too… unless they’re related?
“Backup?” Tenten asks. “Oh hell no, we’re not bringing miss possessed by a demon and happy about it on a mission specifically about killing people.” Tenten gets to her feet quickly, brushing Gai Maito, one of the strongest ninjas this village has ever seen, aside while stalking over to her. “Nu-uh, you go home. I’m refusing.”
“Now now, Tenten.” The older man says, “I happen to know that sword, it’s harmless in the hands of someone with enough youthful energy and good will.”
“Good will?” Tenten’s forehead visibly ticks.
“I’m a good girl.” Sakura grins.
“Your eyes are glowing with evil!” Tenten points accusingly.
“Haven’t grown horns yet.” The pinkette - now blonde from her recent adventures with Ino - shrugs. “I’m not the one randomly attacking people.”
“Oh, how about you piss the hell off?” Tenten groans, looking back at her sensei pleadingly.
“She’s coming along on the mission.” Gai says with certainty, and Tenten has to accept it, because Gai’ way of deflecting a jutsu is to punch it, and it works. “My eternal rival, Kakashi, has said she would be a great boon to young Neji here on this mission, and Kakashi’s not the type to lie.”
“He totally is.” Sakura can’t help but sweat drop, “but I do have a note from him.” She reaches into her pouch and pulls out the half shredded note no one cares about. Much to her surprise, no one cares.
“She’s killed before, so you won’t have to worry about her freezing up in battle.” Gai begins-
“I know she’s killed before!” Tenten grabs her hair and pulls a little, shouting an aggravated growl into the sky in frustration. “She came to the shop to get that sword looked at because it made killing too easy!”
“I didn’t say that.” Sakura mumbles softly to herself. Though, that’s technically not incredibly far off.
“She’s also very strong.” Gai backs her up, a compliment that makes her flushier than a tomato, mostly because hearing a compliment from someone that scary who hasn’t backhanded her casually - ahem, Kakashi, ahem - is just great for the ego. “My rival says she’s even killed a vampire before!”
“That’s so obviously a lie.” Tenten scowls.
“It was a team effort.” Sakura defends her team’s honor, “I just did the stabbing part, really couldn’t have done it without Naruto.”
“It’s final, Tenten.” The man throws a hand out, so he can clench his fist and give a lone thumbs up, a tooth twinkling for all to see with a charming smile that likely makes quite a few girls down at the bar swoon knowing what he can do with that body.
“The man does push-ups without hands, I’d just accept what he says.” Sakura advises. “I hear when he wants woman time he does acrobatics with his tongue. I’m not even sure how to imagine that statement, but I know it’s terrifying and when I told it Ino she almost passed out for some reason.”
All through this, the mini-spandex gai has continued to do pushups… Without pause.
For even a second. He’s fucking incredible.
Comments
Christopher Cummins
Neji certainly isn't. He is covered in blood and he is not amused.
Dopplerdee
Team Gai isn't ready for this bullshit.
