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Under no circumstances, dire or not, was she to be seen.
That was the mantra that Sakura repeated to her head as she walked to the training grounds. Luckily, it was a relatively cool day in Konoha, and so when Sakura donned on a baggy jacket, not unlike the one that Hinata usually wore, she was able to walk along the path to the training grounds without catching any extra attention.
Despite her plan having gone smoothly so far, Sakura couldn't help the slight tremble in her gait as she went along, heart beating just as shakily in anticipation and dread. Who could have known this day would have actually come? And that she would actually follow through
It had started three months ago. Sakura had just gotten off her shift at the hospital, paycheck on the month in hand, window-shopping as usual when she suddenly found her eyes drawn to the video game store. As always, there was a large display there, bright letters and posters announcing the new game that had just come in. Usually, Sakura would have moved on by now, but this time she stopped to stare for a bit. Instead of some manly, buff main character shooting zombies, the poster displayed a woman—not just a woman, in fact, but a really, cool looking one. It wasn't that Sakura hadn't seen her share of pretty girl video game characters, but this woman looked regal, cool, efficient, and badass all in the one. And the best part? She had pink hair.
The rest was a blur, and on a adrenaline-filled whim, Sakura found herself walking in, buying the game, dropping by Naruto's place to steal the console (luckily he was on his own mission and wouldn't miss it), and before she knew it, she was in her own apartment playing the game.
Honestly, the gameplay had become a little repetitive after the first hours, but Sakura somehow found herself coming back to the game over and over. After her hours at the hospital, she found herself looking forward to a night of snuggling on her couch as she continued her adventure, playing as this awesome woman who saved the world—all while rocking pink hair.
It all came to an end when Naruto had come home, far too soon. Sakura by then had already beat the game and was going through the side-missions, but she didn't dare explain to Naruto why she would want to borrow his game system, so instead snuck back and returned it to its rightful place. But nonetheless, afterwards, sometimes Sakura would still long for the excited feeling she would get playing as the woman, performing flips in the air all the while shooting her enemies. That's when the idea suddenly entered her brain.
It took a total of three months; three months to grow her hair out, three months of learning how to sew clothes and then building up the funds to buy the material; three months of looking at references and planning. It all came down to today.
Today, Sakura Haruno was going to… cosplay as Lightning Farron.
She finally arrived at the training grounds. After checking to see when it was least crowded, she decided the best time to go was in the morning when it seemed like there was barely anyone. The sun in fact had barely begun to peak over the clouds.
For a moment, she stood still, unable to take off the cloak. Over the last three months, she had gone through all the arguments; what was she doing, she wasn't some kind of otaku who got this obsessed over characters, especially not to the point of dressing up as them and acting like them—but every time, she'd just tell herself that it didn't matter. She enjoyed this. And as long as no one else knew about it, it'd be all right.
Taking a deep breath, her hand reached for the zipper and before she could lose her nerve, Sakura took her jacket off. The cool early morning wind made her nervous, and she resisted the urge to look over shoulder, and instead reveled in the feeling of becoming her favourite video game character. She had even taken the time this morning to style her in the same style, slightly wavy and pushed to one side. As for the weapon, Sakura couldn't figure out how the projectile worked (the game called it a "gun", whatever that came from) and she didn't really do swordplay, so she didn't bother with that. Instead, Sakura had decided that she would imitate the character's acrobatic style of movement, all the while mixing her own fighting style.
And so, Sakura began her training as "Lighting". Going after the first target set up, she leapt forward and made her strike, before trying to flip back as casually as she had seen Lightning do, stumbling a bit as she did. She went at it again, this time the result only slightly less shaky. Time and time she tried again, and when finally, she got a result she wasn't too dissatisfied with, Sakura tried the attack again, this time trying to integrate her superhuman strength with the attack. The recoil ruined her backflip completely and didn't even land properly this time, rolling a bit as she hit the ground. Of course, how could she forget to calculate that into her movements?
An excited tingling was traveling all along her body as she picked herself, completely engulfing the pain from the scratches she got from her fall. It was a style that she wasn't used to, but she liked the challenge of it all; no, beyond challenging, this was fun.
She charged towards the target again.
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The training as Lightning soon become routine for Sakura. In the morning, before her shift at the hospital, she would don the outfit and would attempt her new style of fighting for a few hours. As more training sessions went on, she began to integrate more and more into the style she observed on the TV screen; first was her superhuman strength, second were projectiles to make for the odd weapon, and finally, she tried to add more lightning jutsus to her arsenal, as tribute to the character's name. After training, she'd quickly return to her apartment, take a shower and change into her regular working outfit, and rush towards the hospital, with no one knowing anything of her unique extra-curricular activities. If anyone noticed the extra bruises and scrapes she had accumulated, no one said anything.
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And then, all too quickly, someone found out.
To be specific, a blonde, loud-mouthed someone.
"Whoa crap, Sakura, what the hell are those moves? Wait no, hold up. What the hell are you wearing?"
Sakura stopped in her motions, heart clenched in absolute, gut-wrenching dread. Oh, she knew that voice far too well. Of course. Out of all people, of course, who else would be the one to find out her secret first. With slow and heavy movements, Sakura turned to greet the familiar face of Ino Yamanaka, who was in the process of checking out Sakura's from head to toe, mouth agape.
"Hey, pig. What's up?" Sakura said nonchalantly. Maybe if she played it cool, Ino wouldn't make … too big a deal out of it. She could be like Lightning, calm, level, unaffected by near anything.
"Girl! What—no, wait. Since when—no. Just," Ino stopped, unable to put her thoughts in words and continued to appraise Sakura's look. "Okay. Sakura… why have you been holding out this hot outfit?"
Sakura just gave her a look, not sure what to think. "What?"
"No, no, for real! Forehead, you are sexy in this! Why are you hiding this from the rest of the world and wearing that bland red thing everyday? And whatever the hell that lightning punch and flip thing you just did was—that was cool! Man, if I knew this was what you were doing… now, I better step up my game too." Ino stopped gushing for a moment, and a look of confusion came over her face. "Wait, what was I here for… oh! Yeah. We're gonna catch lunch tomorrow, you know, just the girls… or something. You should come. Okay, bye."
As Ino walked off, Sakura felt like a tornado had just rushed by her. Ino hadn't even laughed, no, she thought the outfit was cool? And liked the odd fighting style that Sakura had adopted?
Wait, Ino wasn't going to tell anyone, right?
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"INO," Sakura all but screamed into the phone. "What the hell did you do to all my clothes?"
"Burned them," the other girl responded cheerfully.
"What—No, Ino, those were my clothes! I know you think my fashion sense is horrid, but why would you burn my clothes?"
"God, Sakura, I just kidding. I'm just hiding them somewhere you'll never find. By tonight, that is. And besides, I didn't take all of your clothes. I left you a nice pair," Ino reassured.
And it all clicked. Of course, Ino would take drastic measures to make sure Sakura dressed up for their girl's night out. She couldn't be a normal best friend, who just came over and gave advice, no, Ino would actually hide the rest of her clothes.
With a sigh, Sakura, phone still held against her ear with her shoulder, went to check her closet again. "Fine, let's see what you left me—oh, fuck no."
Hanging in the corner in the empty closet was the Lightning cosplay. Sakura nearly hung up right there.
"Sakuraaaa. The world needs to see you in that outfit," Ino needled. "It'll be good for your self-esteem."
"Ino!" Sakura cried. "Do you even know where it's—no. I'm just going. Forget girl's time, I'll wash what I have on now for tomorrow. And we're going to have a nice long talk tomorrow, okay? Bye!"
And just as she was about to hang up the phone, she heard Ino's last whisper and froze.
"I'll tell everyone about you and Sai did."
Sakura stopped breathing for a second, and then slowly, calmly, put the phone back to her ear. "Ino," she said sweetly. "What are you talking about?"
The other girl's triumph was obvious. "You probably don't remember telling me, considering how hammered you were at the time, but you somehow began telling about this time when Sai had asked you to demonstrate—"
"You say a word and I'll kill you." And she wasn't kidding.
"I don't know," Ino responded loftily. "I just might get so drunk tonight that I won't have control of my facilities you know… some things just might.. well.. spill out…"
"Ino…" She would kill her with poison. No, a kunai. Not even, she'd used a damn spork and would force it into the other's neck and watch as she bled out…
"So, are you coming?" Ino's voice was practically spilling glee.
"Just you wait."
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With that last growl, Sakura slammed the phone down viciously.
When Sakura entered the establishment where Ino said they were gonna have lunch, she nearly cried out in horror. Tenten and Hinata were there, sitting with Ino, but she also saw Shino, Kiba, Lee, Neji, Naruto, Kakashi…
"Oh! Hey, Sakura! Over here!" Ino called, catching sight of her. Sakura came at her, about to reach for her kunai, and instead just managing a tight-lipped smile.
"Ino, did you invite our whole graduating class while you were at it?" Sakura hissed and tugging down nervously on the jacket that she had managed to find to cover her outfit.
"Hey, you know, just happened to run into people, and figured, hey, why not invite them you know, "Ino replied breezily. She looked over Sakura and narrowed her eyes. "You know, it's kind of hot in here, Sakura. You should take off that jacket."
For a moment, Sakura engaged in a staring contest with Ino, the woman practically smirking. Just try me, the blonde dared with her look. With one last sigh, Sakura slowly unzipped her jacket and took it off, along with her last vestige of pride. She nearly cringed as she felt Hinata and Tenten's eyes appraise her new look. She had gone with the hair as well, not feeling complete wearing the outfit without it. For a moment, they said and nothing and Sakura tried not to squirm too much under the heat of their gazes. And finally…
"Wow," Hinata breathed.
"Yeah, hot damn!" Tenten exclaimed. "Your new outfit is hot. Wait, did you make this yourself?"
Sakura could barely believe her ears. Were they honestly considering her cosplay as attractive? She was dressed up as a video game characters, for god's sake! How did they not see it? Were ninja outfits just that outlandish that this could be considered part of the norm?
Quickly she cast a look around the room and saw that the guys had also noticed her new outfit and were in fact… checking her out? Well, the ones that actually showed emotion on their face seemed to have a reaction. If Naruto and Kiba's appreciative looks were any indication, her outfit didn't even seem that weird. Only Shikamaru seemed to have a slightly odd look on his face, and even then, this was Shikamaru. More than once, Ino had confided to Sakura that she sometimes felt like Shikamaru batted for the other team.
"Not only that, but our Sakura has been working up a new style!" Ino announced to the girls. "This girl has been hiding a lot from us, you need to see it. She is smoking."
It was almost like a dream, the way the lunch passed. Eventually, the girls had moved on to other topics and Sakura forgot her initial discomfort, quickly forgetting her position as she joined in the conversation enthusiastically.
That is, until Shikamaru came to her at the close of the evening.
"And here I thought I was the only one to play video games in this group."
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note: Found this on my computer randomly. I don't even remember when I wrote this. Anyway, not going to continue this, just thought it was a fun idea.