Herself, the bounty hunter:
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Near the outskirts of a forest that connects two nations, in the hours preceding the coming dawn, a lone shinobi sleeps beneath a willow tree. He is restless in his dreams, fingers twitching beside his weapons, envisioning dangers beyond compare.
In the absence of warmth a slight chill fills the air, nipping at the skin with every breeze that passes by. The wind brushes against his cheeks and dances with the leaves above.
From one breath to the next, there is utter silence until -
Sakura curses, dropping any pretense of stealth when her target lashes out from underneath, the blade of his kunai slashing across her leg. She leaps to the side, carefully putting some distance between her and the weapon.
The waxing moonlight dances across the bounty's hollowed features, drawing unnatural shadows around the lines of his face.
"I knew something was off about this place," The man spits with a harsh tint to his voice. "Should've realized there was someone lurking about."
Sakura frowns, though the action is hidden, because her control isn't just good - it's perfect. It's the one thing she's clung on to since her genin days and, at one point, was the focus of her obsession.
"You're a sensor, aren't you," She says dully, already reconsidering this entire expedition because bingo books simply aren't good enough intel for higher ranked bounties. Her chakra seeps into her left leg, scrambling to patch up the open wound without the precision of her hands. "I hate everything.
"That info isn't entirely a secret," The man gives her a considering, wary look. He lets out a sharp laugh as the realization hits. "Oh, I get it. You're new, aren't you?"
Sakura blinks before shrugging at the question because yes, one year isn't exactly a long time in any sort of field. Being displaced into a new world left her with no contacts, no paper trail, and no sort of network to build off of. She went into the bounty hunting field blind and solo.
"It takes a lot of nerve for a greenhorn to go after someone like me," The man continues as he pulls out a dagger with severe, jagged edges. At the same time, Sakura slowly brings out her own tantō and raises it to the front. "Newbies like you get killed off in the end because they don't know what they're up against."
When silence remains, the man curls his lip and in the next heartbeat, seemingly appears right in front of Sakura's face.
Somewhat expecting this, Sakura raises her tantō just in time to catch the man's dagger, but the jagged edges leave an uneven balance between the two weapons. She jumps backward, pushing against the dagger for momentum and immediately swings forward again, a kunai in her other hand.
"You won't get far with that puny samurai sword," The man bites out as he swings his left hand erratically, the swipes to her sides precise but unpredictable. Sakura grits her teeth as the she shifts her body to different angles to avoid each swing. Adrenaline courses through her veins, numbing the pain from her thigh as she quickly moves again to the right.
When the man's dagger reaches for her neck in an upward motion, she grabs her chakra and immediately replaces her body with a leaf behind the man. The displacement causes the man to swiftly change directions to guide his dagger sideways as he turns, followed by his right fist.
Already shifting to a lower position, Sakura grabs the man's left wrist and gracelessly breaks it completely. Using the momentum to tug the man forward, she flings his struggling body to the floor while picking up his dropped dagger. Foot on his chest, she swings the weapon cleanly through his neck at a specific angle.
"Didn't need that puny sword in the end," She mutters, pulling out a homemade sealing scroll from her pack of supplies. Swiftly dumping the detached head into the seals written on the parchment, she forms a single hand seal before placing both hands onto the floor.
From the span of one breath to the next, the soft earth underneath consumes the man's remaining corpse and churns inward until all but dirt is left behind. Sakura clears out all signs of life from the man's temporary camp and picks up the weapons she had released during her body replacement jutsu.
"Well, this certainly could have gone worse, but it also should have gone better." She says to the dead of the night, as the moon hangs brightly above. Her fingers reach out for the somewhat healed wound, only to come across completely smooth skin.
Eyes widening, Sakura drops to the floor, barely noticing the morning dew seeping through her pants. Hands pushing past the rip from the bounty's kunai, she stares blankly at the unmarred, pale skin.
"A patch job like that would have left a thin scar at least," She murmurs, because Sakura may be good, great even, at healing herself consciously without a single touch, but this? Closing a deep wound in the midst of heavy conflict without a trace?
Did I miscalculate the proportions? Doubtful, considering how she can heal even blindfolded at this point, but she had been under a certain level of pressure. More distracted than stressed really, but it's the best explanation she's got right now.
And with that perturbing thought, Sakura runs west, exiting the Land of Hot Water and towards the Land of Mountain Streams.
The journey takes less than a week and Sakura reaches the border of Sawa no Kuni right before the sun begins to set. Moving through seemingly endless forests, she arrives at a small, inconspicuous cabin an hour later.
Entering through the front door, a tiny bells chimes brightly, announcing her presence to the cabin's owner.
"Well, well, well," A stout, middle-aged woman snorts, never taking her eyes off the knife in her hands. Large, scarred fingers carefully polish the knife's blade on an aging whetstone. "So you survived after all, girlie."
"I don't think 'surviving' is the right term," Sakura answers wryly, tossing her scroll to the woman. Without a pause to her motions, the woman catches the scroll and unravels it on the table, next to the whetstone. A flash of chakra unseals the head within and she grunts in approval.
"No blood - that's what I like about you," The woman says with a shake of her head. Heaving herself up, she reseals the head and trudges to the register at the other side of the store.
"Still, you're snatching these bounties up like a little monster," The bounty collector continues, packing the scroll away and pulling out several stacks of records. Sakura, meanwhile, trails along the store's presented wares, observing the rows of fishing hooks and rods. "This one's been on the market for half a decade now."
The woman signs several documents as she punches numbers into her calculator. With a whistle, she adds, "A-rank, fled from Ishigakure ten years ago. And you broke him like he was nothing, it seems."
Ignoring the narrowed eyes sent her way, Sakura makes a sound of acknowledgement, an ironic tilt to her head when she hears those words. It's near disorienting to have such backhanded praise directed towards her.
It hadn't been a concealed topic, the sheer gap between Sakura and her teammates. The disparity between her and literal legends had been a bitter pill to swallow. But now, sitting at a place of recognition, her chest remains as hollow as ever.
(There's nothing left to compare with, here in this empty past. Just unmarked faces and cold days in every season).
Sakura then shrugs, because not much in this world could compare to the likes of Madara and Kaguya. "He may have been misplaced on the ranking poll. Things like that happen often."
"Yeah, you're probably right about that," The collector answers, just a bit too quickly, and the rushed words confirm Sakura's suspicions. The woman stamps a sheet of paper and states, "Alright, girlie - I'll give you sixty percent."
Nearly scoffing at the number, Sakura shakes her head and answers firmly, "That's a nice joke, but I'll let you take twenty-five."
"You're crazy if you think I'm gonna give you that much," The woman retorts with a surly look. She pulls out an impressive set of hunting knives and lays them across the counter. "You've only been at it for a year and you're trying to bargain? Don't push your luck."
Stepping forward in complete silence, Sakura leans into the counter and hisses, "What's crazy is that you withheld information from me. This bounty was a sensor and you fucking knew it - knew it, and yet you still sent me out to grab him."
Keeping her voice low, Sakura tucks away any signs of killing intent and allows her words to speak for herself instead. "You sent me out on a dirty job and that's foul play."
"You can't prove that I knew," The bounty collector spits, her burly arms folding together across her chest. The tan, deep skin nearly blends in with her dirty, navy apron. "And you still got him, so what's the problem?"
"The problem," Sakura begins, a deep growl inside her throat, "Is that I can't use you as a reliable source of information anymore. I can take my business somewhere else, if that's what you're really trying to say."
"Now, now, that's not what I said," The woman says hastily, raising her hands up in defense. There is a short pause before she rubs the back of her neck and sighs deeply. "Look, that bounty? Yeah, he was a sensor. But I knew it wouldn't be a problem, I was just paid good money to keep that from you - "
"Hold on, someone paid you?" Sakura interrupts, a touch of incredulity tinting the edges of her voice. Alarm courses through her veins at the sudden implications. "To keep info from me? In hopes of what, the bounty finishing me off instead?"
"Something like that, I dunno," The woman shrugs, utterly unrepentant. "But hey, you survived and got the bounty, so it's a win-win for the both of us."
"Hilarious," Sakura mutters, unimpressed by the collector's conclusion. Her mind races to remember anyone who would have good reason to work against her. "Did you get a good look at his face? I can't remember leaving an impression on anyone in the area…"
Immediately, the woman snorts and answers, "You must be joking. I've got people coming in here every month asking for you."
"Wait, what?" Without her impeccable control, Sakura may have fallen. She blinks rapidly at the deteriorating situation and brings a hand to her forehead, grimacing, "Asking for me? In what way?"
"Well, not exactly you," The collector says, shining a set of knives laying on top of the counter. "No one's said your name - not that I would know, considering you've been so tight-lipped about it. But I've got questions about a girl in a mask; didn't seem to hold a grudge, but you know how it is."
"Oh, and a few have been asking about the missing ninja from Mist," The woman adds, setting a raised eyebrow on Sakura. "You sure you know nothing about that Shirane? He disappeared off the radar almost a year and a half ago."
With pressed lips, Sakura rests a casual hand in her pockets and shakes her head.
"Never heard of him," She answers, lying just as she had the year before. The sprout of new information gnaws at her chest and, eager to change the topic, she half-jokes, "But no mention of my tantō? It's my best feature."
"Everyone and their grandma knows you're shit at the sword," The bounty collector snaps back with a bark of laughter. "Good enough for rookies, but you're not fooling anyone with two eyes."
Sakura shrugs. "Fair enough."
"You should quit while you're at it," The woman continues, wiping her rag on the side of her apron. "It's catching the attention of the big ones, and you know how I hate that."
With a sharp breath in, Sakura shakes her head in protest. "What? I can't do that - I'm barely living off what I earned before."
"Yeah, well, you're not doing so hot in the field," The collector answers with a snort. "You didn't even bring in that other bounty a few months ago. You may be good, girlie, but you're not finding them fast enough."
Sakura sighs, unsure and unwilling to tell the woman how that last bounty had led her to Iwagakure. In return for the information, she had let the boy go under certain conditions.
Still, she slumps forward at the words because it's entirely too true. She's not the best at tracking - her skillset is far too heavy-handed and not focused on speed or stealth. The basics of concealing her chakra she has down to a science, but beyond those skills?
"That's the downside of wandering all about, isn't it?" She says quietly. No defense, no protection, no security - she's gambling it all on the open road. "They've got me on all sides."
"What, you didn't realize that coming in?" The woman says, dismissive as she inspects one knife in particular with a curved hook. "Do yourself and better yet, do me a favor by disappearing. I've been getting unwanted traffic all cause you decided to blaze through the market without a second thought."
"I didn't know you could get fired from bounty hunting," Sakura says under her breath as she despairs at her bleeding wallet. "I'm broke as hell - what am I supposed to do then?"
"That's not my problem," The collector answers without looking up from her weapons. "Just don't come back and we'll all be happy: you, me, and the grunts looking for you."
"So they sent thugs out to look for me? That's a little better," Sakura murmurs, because at least she only warrants attention from the lower levels. Confident that this is all the information she'll ever get out of the woman, she pulls out a kunai and slams it into the counter's polished wood.
With a pleasant, diplomatic smile and a healthy dose of killing intent, Sakura says sweetly, "Now, how about you make it up to me by giving me eighty percent?"
At the woman's sneer, Sakura digs her kunai a little deeper, causing heavy cracks to appear along the wood.
"You owe me," Sakura creases her eyes and twists the kunai, widening the gap within the wood to split into parts. "If I'm going to have to switch jobs because you couldn't keep your fucking mouth shut, that's that least you can do."
"I owe you nothing," The woman snaps, hands trembling slightly as they clench around her knives. "All I did was my job."
"I wonder if you'll still be saying that when people start talking about how the northern sector is taking dirty bribes for a low price," Sakura bites out, emphasizing the words with an impatient tap of her heel. In response, the earth rumbles, forcing the ground to shake violently for a brief moment. "So give me that eighty percent, or I'll take it from you."
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(Soon after, Sakura leaves the quaint cabin with light feet and several pounds heavier, full of cold, hard cash. Waving a hand, she bids the area farewell and returns east, firmly deciding that some sort of plan must be made in response to these alarming news.
Of course, that will only happen once she gets the vacation she so clearly, desperately fucking needs).
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no big notes this time, but lots of mentions to previous chapters, which will be pretty important later on
- this is a pretty late chapter for it, but still, a Merry Christmas to anyone who celebrates it! And a happy holidays for everyone else - hopefully the new years will go well for you all.
- i'm pretty excited about this week, as I'm hoping to update "if the shoe fits" several more times *fingers crossed* as well as some other stories, while also posting new ones! I haven't posted something that isn't a one-shot in years, so keep your eyes peeled if you're interested.
- finally, this chapter, though not as eventful, is the starting point for a new sort of arc. Of course, we'll get into more detail in the next chapter, but we get to see the growing consequences of Sakura's actions - not just through the lens of others, but gradually it'll become more and more apparent.
I've thoroughly enjoyed seeing what you all can come up with - the conspiracy theories are going strong, and I'd love to see how far you guys think Sakura's actions can really go.
As always, thank you for the love and support!
-SE