AN: And another one bites the dust. We are really steadily chewing through them now that we finally have the time, aren't we?
AtW: Aye. A pity school is entering another crunch phase. HOPEFULLY we can get another chapter out this coming week.
CW: Yeah, my college has also finally gotten its act together and are planning on opening up in the coming month. It will take some time to figure out how much that will affect our routine, but I doubt it will be by much.
AtW: Still, seems like things are clicking so let's hope this all goes well.
CW: Now then, onto the reading!
Suffering and Elegance - Chapter 3
Sakura
When Sasuke was declared the winner, Sakura felt a strange compulsion to run down to the arena.
That was normal, yes? She just wanted to go down there and congratulate her teammate and not so secret crush, right? Only this time, it wasn't Sasuke's cool aloof demeanor which drew her eye, but the crumpled form of her fellow genin. There was just something so… interesting about how he'd been beaten.
The signs his body showed.
Despite being beaten by Taijutsu, Sakura was sure that a normal person, especially someone of Sasuke's age, wouldn't be able to hit with so much strength. His muscles, trained and honed through years as they'd been, just did not pack the capacity to leave those marks on another human.
So why?
Why could he do that?
What made it possible?
Sakura knew the answer.
It was chakra of course.
So why was she questioning something as simple as that? She knew that chakra could be used for simple tasks like this. After spending days working on her chakra control and how to properly make it flow through her body, even she could perform feets beyond what was expected of a girl her age.
But that explanation felt… incomplete.
Unsatisfactory.
Where was the nuance, the detail?
Chakra was the energy of life which came from every cell of the body. That's what the texts she'd read at the academy said. It was basic knowledge that every shinobi should have before going out on the field. Yet, she couldn't help but resent the lack of detail those texts had and how little they actually taught her.
Energy from every cell was far too vague! Was it the direct conversion of calories to action? If so, how was the body not burned up from the heat released during such a process? Even then, how could a shinobi survive the forces generated by something as simple as wall clinging - after all, a normal human's skin would be ripped off their feet even if they could remain attached to such a surface.
Was there a way to quantify how much each cell produced energy?
And forget about something as metaphysical as the energy of the mind. How do you even go about quantifying something like that?
So many blanks. So much lack of understanding.
Normally, Sakura accepted what she was told. By her parents, her teachers, even what she read in books. Sure, they might not know the whole truth or have an agenda, such was simply the nature of Shinobi, but they weren't exactly out to mislead or lie to her. And now that she was actually sitting down and thinking about how the world had been presented to her, the kunoichi realized just how deeply unsatisfying so many explanations were.
Sakura wanted to examine the defeated genin's wounds. His bruises and broken bones and shattered limbs. She wanted to see them happen again, to compare how much force came from each blow, how much chakra was spent each time. There was so much to learn and the urge to jump into it with a reckless abandon felt alien. But not even the deepest, most confused part of her mind could reject one simple thought.
'I want to know more.'
"You doing okay, Sakura?" Naruto's voice broke her out of her reverie. "You spaced out for a little bit."
"Sorry." She looked away, cheeks heating in embarrassment. "Guess I'm just overthinking a couple things is all."
Or everyone else wasn't thinking enough.
"If you think so." Her silver haired sensei shrugged, looking over the top of his book of pornography.
"Come on, sensei! She's just getting pumped for the fights! When it's my turn you'll all be gawking just like that!" Naruto declared with the pure enthusiasm of a child eager to shatter the bones of his classmates.
And what was that about gawking?!
"I was not gawking, Naruto!" She rounded on him, jade eyes glaring bloody murder. "I was just appreciating our teammate's hard work."
"Huh. You didn't hit me that time." Naruto's words were soft, but his flinch at her shout made her feel… something. Something she didn't want to think about, so she wouldn't. That's a totally healthy coping strategy, at least if she were to go off the actions of the older shinobi.
So, crossing her eyes, the pink haired girl gave a huff and waited for Sasuke to take his place next to them.
"Hey brat. That was a good elbow. But did you have to maim a fellow Konoha genin?" Kakashi gave the approaching, and slightly injured, boy an annoyed look. "The other jounin are gonna complain to me about that."
"Hnn." His grunt told them exactly how much the last Uchiha cared.
"You ok Sasuke-kun?" Sakura's eyes quickly darted across the basic patch ups the medics had given her black haired teammate. "Does anything hurt? I noticed you were limping after you used the… chakra burst thing. I can fix your foot if the medics didn't take care of it!"
"Huh? How come you're a medic all of a second Sakura?" Naruto adopted a thinking pose. "Are you sure you don't have a bloodline or something? Because as nice as it is having a cute nurse on the team, I don't think that kind of thing happens without some horrific price having to be paid at some point."
"Because I ate my vegetables Naru-baka!" Sakura's response was easy, almost automatic. But she couldn't help but shoot a rather worried glance at her sensei.
Kakashi, of course, was absolutely no help.
"Ah, Sarah-chan, how rough of you!"
He was quite visibly buried back in his little orange book.
"Let's just be glad she helped us." Even though he was speaking quietly, and there was some sort of frustration in his stance, Sasuke still made his thoughts known. "And I'm fine. None of my injuries are serious."
And that was that. The still brooding young man turned to look at the giant screen as it began to spin again.
"Hell yeah! It's my time to shine!"
Naruto crowed in victory, so eager to get to his match that he didn't even bother to see who it was he was fighting. Leaping off the balcony, he hit the ground in a roll, sprang up to his feet, and then ran right over to the proctor. Shino, a dark haired, sung glasses wearing boy from the Aburame clan was far more sedate, calmly walking down the side of the fighting ring's wall.
Sakura could only sigh and rub her forehead.
Typical Naruto.
"Just you watch me! This is gonna be the best fight you'll ever see!"
And now Sakura felt like bashing his head in. Seriously, she was not gawking! She was analysing, learning more about being a better ninja, she was not… ogling her teammates like that knucklehead said!
"Doubtful. After three days of the previous test, none of us are in the best shape."
Shino, at least, seemed to take the blonde's exuberance in stride.
"And!? We're shinobi!" The whiskered genin practically yelled as he waved his finger as his former classmate. "Besides, Sasuke really kicked that older guy's ass. If he can do that, then I've got plenty of energy to go."
"You are aware that your teammate's opponent was just a few years older, yes?"
Tilting his head, the Aburame seemed genuinely confused by his opponent's over the top reactions.
"Yeah, I know right? He was practically as old as Kakashi and that guy's a grandpa!"
"I… see."
The entire Konoha delegation collective slapped their foreheads.
Well, Naruto wasn't wrong about the energy part. He certainly looked ready for a fight. But at the same time Shino wasn't wrong either and that gave her pause. They'd arrived a day earlier than planned and had time to rest, but Naruto shouldn't be as rested as he was, especially after going through that ordeal at the Forest.
Then there was that mark Orochimaru left on his stomach.
'Another mystery unsolved.'
Sakura was starting to hate not knowing things. Doubly so when it seemed apparent it might well get her and her teammates killed. Or worse, going by the face stealing psychopath with the monster snakes. He probably knew some horrid technique of perpetual torment.
'Weirdos like him always seem the type to collect things like that.'
Shivering, she wished she had a jacket and looked somewhat enviously over at the Hyuuga heiress. Just having an extra layer on hand seemed like it would be far more sensible.
By the time she turned back to the fight, such as it was, the two boys had finished their conversation. The proctor in particular looked annoyed about the whole affair, their discussion having gone on for a full five minutes at this point, but none of the other fighters were complaining. More time to rest, more time to scope out their competition, and more time to plan was always useful.
Though, the oddest thing had been happening and Sakura only now noticed it.
"Tch, stupid bugs! Look, it's been great catching up with you Shino, but I'm getting absolutely eaten alive over here! Youch!"
Naruto was practically swarming with small black beetles… and he'd been scratching and itching more than usual for the whole time.
'I really should get him a flea collar.'
"Sasuke." Her teammate looked over. "Can you follow that trail of bugs… there. Right between them."
There was a low grunt of acknowledgement and a small spike of energy, almost like static washing over the hair on her arms, and the pinkette knew the Uchiha had activated his bloodline.
"There are bugs… with chakra in them."
"Naruto's chakra?"
"...Yeah."
Even whispering it was obvious that others could hear them. Kiba, for one, shot them a glare and Hinata had been fidgeting the whole time - like she couldn't decide whether to call out or not. But other than that, a few of the jounin had given the duo a look.
"I'm sorry Naruto, but even with your truly incredible reserves of strength… this fight is already over." And just like that, a buzzing, chittering, crawling mass of insects began to cover the floor of the area. Seemingly crawling out of every corner of the battlefield, they forced themselves to writhe in an unending mass - a living carpet of chitin.
Even the screeching of the things grew from a droning buzz to a wall of noise and sound that blotted out everything around them.
Sakura flinched, feeling her stomach roil as a particularly fat cockroach seemed to fly up the railing and hiss at her. She moved to skewer it with a kunai, palming the blade, only for Sasuke to grab her wrist and stop her.
"They're not real."
She turned to look at him, her green eyes meeting his swirling red.
"Understood." Swallowing, the kunoichi fought against the urge to vivisect the ugly little things and accepted her comrade's unspoken advice.
Putting her weapon aware, she ignored the ever growing walls of seemingly living vermin to watch as half a dozen clones of Shino seemingly grew out of the mass. Some of them carried kunai, some shuriken, one of them simply had two massive, waving arms made out of even more, particularly horrid insects.
"Eww, eww, eww, eww, eww, eww, eww, eww, eww, eww, eww!"
Down below, in the arena, their blonde… acquaintance was halfway trapped in his own shirt, desperately trying to pull that and his jacket off so he could shake more creepy crawlies out of them. However, in his haste to free himself of his top, he had gotten his head stuck, his arms tangled in the jacket, and was now prancing around in front of several dozen people half naked.
Somehow, that made the horror show and Shino's monotone hilarious instead of pants browning horrifying.
"I want to thank you Naruto." Every single clone spoke in unison. "Without your power, and your friendly conversation, I wouldn't have been able to gather the chakra to do this. So I'll give you one opportunity to withdraw… or I'll crush you like a human!"
None of this even reached the boy's ears, so caught up in his panic that he had now fallen over, buried under the carpet of insects, and began to scream and roll around. This, of course, led to him enjoying a mouthful of said bugs, and a once more awestruck audience, before suddenly stopping.
"He's saying something but I can't make it out."
Sasuke once again whispered to her, his eyes trained on the no longer panicking Naruto, and Sakura wondered if her teammate had finally figured out that this was at least in part an illusion.
"By the way, how much of all of this is real?"
Her return whisper got a thoughtful grunt.
"The clones… look solid. But they're definitely made of bugs. He replaced the one with the insect arms, that's actually some kind of wire with a few of those insects clinging to it. And I'm not sure this is an illusion per se."
That drew an interested glance from the newly engaged young woman.
"So, what, it's like a bunshin on a mass scale? A bending of light and sound?"
Shrugging, her less embarrassing companion didn't respond. Thankfully, any awkwardness was avoided when the blonde in question managed to leap to his feet and jabbed his finger at Shino.
"Hey! None of this is real! That's not fair, scaring me like that! But two can play at this game!"
Suddenly realizing that staring in shocked, dumbstruck incomprehension at the sheer nonsense of his opponent was a bad plan, the Aburame attempted to rush the blonde… who, as usual, pulled out his favorite mood with liberal abandon.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"
A truly massive cloud of smoke covered the arena, passing to reveal a hundred very smug Narutos staring down at a now suddenly very outnumbered seven Shinos. The loud warcry from a hundred throats shook the room, drowning out the chittering of the now seemingly powerless swarm.
Sakura had never given much thought to Naruto's signature technique.
She knew it was a variation of the standard clone jutsu they learned at the academy, only it produced clones that could interact physically with the world around them. Sakura distinctly remembered Naruting using it against their sensei and then against Zabuza. But now, looking at the massive number of them and the way they all moved independently… she was awed.
This wasn't at all like the clone jutsu she knew.
These weren't illusions or images conjured up by chakra.
Instead, each of the tracksuit clad blondes were real, physical replicas of her teammate.
Some hidden, deeply buried part of her seemed to screech in surprise at the idea of replicas made of pure energy. She knew the process of weaving chakra through hand seals, after all. But there was a newfound… admiration for a technique that her teammate used so easily and effortlessly.
And then they started fighting the bug clones.
It was an utter brawl.
There was some finesse involved, obviously. Shino was a trained combatant and Naruto was experienced in his own form of acrobatic freestyle. But at the end of the day, neither had anything but numbers to throw at each other.
Shino had the quality.
Naruto had the quantity.
And while Shino's insect clones were able to maintain cohesion by feeding on Naruto's chakra, the blonde barely seemed winded as he jumped into the mayhem, making it impossible to tell him apart from his duplicates. Sakura certainly couldn't tell the difference.
A fact that frustrated her.
"Do you know which ones are real?" She turned to Sasuke.
"Only Shino. The amount of chakra his clones have fluctuates."
That made sense, they were just reshaped forms made of living beings.
"And Naruto?"
Sasuke shook his head.
"All clones have the same amount of chakra."
Fascinating!
To share equally so much chakra, while using enough chakra to create real physical constructs… the cost should have been staggering, more than a genin should have been able to produce. But Naruto didn't seem to stop as more puffs of smoke heralded the creation of more clones.
Even then, it was a close thing.
Naruto's clones broke more easily and didn't last as long as Shino's. But those clones definitely accumulated damage as the brawl progressed simply by being struck. It was a clash of fundamental approaches to combat and, if this was anything approaching a fair contest, then it might have been a rather illuminating exhibition. Instead, it was clear that the clan heir was vastly better trained and that the street child simply didn't care enough to quit throwing punches.
In the end, it was a battle of endurance. One of an odd kind of stubbornness as the two pre teens threw everything they had into the fight. It was also interesting to note exactly how they employed similar techniques, especially in the area of shurikenjutsu, in their own unique ways.
Shino and his clones formed a tight perimeter of defenses, fighting in almost perfect sync, relying on precision and their greater durability to overcome the sheer tide of bodies coming at them.
This was countered by Naruto's sheer press of numbers. Some of the clones threw kunai, some attacked from odd angles, and though it seemed Naruto could no longer safely use the chakra cling technique, he was still able to use the sheer number of clones to attack from odd and seemingly random angles.
Knowing he couldn't let his defenses waver for even a second, the Aburame used his formation to steadily drive towards a wall - likely to reduce the number of angles Naruto could approach from - but they also lacked the staying power of the blonde. To resolve the issue of his steadily dwindling reserves, Shino, the real one, would lash out with his "bug arms", capture a clone, and then use his kikaichu to drain it until the bunshin popped.
Seeing this, Naruto countered by loudly ordering his doppelgangers to assassinate any captured members of their legion. An almost comical scenario when friendly fire sometimes burst entire clumps of blondes.
Even then, little changed. One by one the bug clones were dragged out of formation and then unceremoniously smashed by clones wielding other clones transformed into giant fly swatters.
'I wonder if that makes this a hate crime.' Sakura truly wondered at the absurdity of the fight she was witnessing, And the sheer irony of one of the most improbable uses of shinobi techniques imaginable.
So, by the time the bug clones reached the walls, their numbers had been reduced to two.
All while a full fifty Narutos stood eager to keep fighting, no matter how the original was now literally swaying on his feet, barely able to keep shouting his challenges.
"Come on… guys… he's almost beat! Get 'em."
Sakura had a bad feeling.
Determination was all well and good, but Naruto was going beyond that and into the realm of stupidity, making more and more clones to throw at Shino regardless of his own ability to keep them coming. Obviously, he wasn't recovering much, if any, of that chakra, what with Shino's clones absorbing it.
'Come on, come on. Just hit him already.' She repeated the mantra, grips tightening over the rail as the blond got closer and closer to their bespectacled classmate.
He was close.
So close!
The final grind was brutal, as even the shadow clones seemed to carry their master's fatigue, barely allowing them to keep up what would be considered a sloppy attack by academy standards. Shino was hardly better, his previously unerring precision was replaced by shaking hands, limp strikes, and ever more poorly aimed projectiles. Seemingly aware that this was the final stretch, he collapsed his remaining clones, reabsorbed the kikaichu, and dropped the illusion in its entirety.
Now, there were thirty one boys standing in the arena.
One was black haired and straight backed. Exhausted, but with enough strength left not to show it. The rest had mops of spiky blonde hair and were supporting each other.
In a way, the whole thing was inspiring.
Watching them drag themselves forward, throwing wild punches and kicks, Shino taking glancing blows and trying to pop the nearly dead clones. Still, not a single one of them hesitated. Not in how they attacked, not in how they died, and not in how they kept pushing forward.
Ultimately, the battle ended like most schoolyard brawls did.
Two boys, rolling around on the ground, half heartedly trying to wrestle. Naruto actually managed to pin Shino a couple times, only for the Aburame to vomit bugs on him, or have his kikaichu bite the Uzumaki in rather… tender places.
Both were getting dirty, with the orphan using his elbows and knees and even once headbutting his opponent.
But the end came when, rearing back for a big strike, the blonde let out an uncomfortable whimper, half leapt up, and missed his strike entirely. Shino, taking advantage of the opening, grappled with the other boy, dragging him half way into a key lock. Naruto responded as best he could, rolling over onto his arm and preventing the completion of the hold.
And then neither moved.
Eventually, the proctor hopped down into the arena and, with a laugh that turned into a long, drawn out bout of coughing, managed to announce the result.
"Both genin have passed out… cuddled up together. This fight is a draw."
Sakura's eye twitched.
Once.
Twice.
Thrice.
Unfortunately, before she could make her displeasure loudly acknowledged by everyone present, a much louder voice exploded over her own as Lee's sensei posed on top of the railing, trails of tears running down his cheeks as he pointed down to the two unconscious genin.
"Do you see it, Lee?! The passion! The strength of spirit and body! The youthfulness! We are standing before a true incarnation of Youth!"
"Guy-sensei!"
Even more worrying was Lee, who'd fallen to his knees as he cried. Something akin to wonder glimmering on his eyes as tears fell down onto the floor. As if he'd just been shown a great revelation and reached enlightenment.
Sakura was… confused.
In many ways.
"Will you shut up about Youth, already?!"
Her fellow kunoichi, an older girl with her hair set on two buns, did them all a favor and pulled the two jumpsuits wearing maniacs away from the railing. Ears burning with the shame of being even tangentially connected to such a… expressive show of emotion.
"We must up our training, Lee!"
"Yes, Guy-sensei! Three hundred laps. No! Four hundred!"
Then to her bewilderment, the two of them started hugging.
"That is the spirit, Lee! Tomorrow I will buy you new training weights!"
This only seemed to incense her fellow kunoichi further.
"I said shut up already! You are being too loud!"
Feeling strangely thankful that Naruto preferred tracksuits, even if they were bright orange, the pink haired kunoichi took a moment to consider a change of clothing for herself.
Bright red shirts and pink hair were hardly stealthy after all.
But mostly she was just glad that no one was actually looking at her teammate. Because Naruto really did give it his all. Not to mention he was still slapped with that strange seal by the snake man. Sakura may have… reservations about how he constantly proposed to her - which was nothing at all how she thought about Sasuke, or so she told herself - but she appreciated his strength and his willingness to give anything he attempted his all. The kunoichi didn't think it would be right for people to tease him about this.
"Hnn." Sasuke's noise got her attention and, somehow, she thought she might have actually understood a little bit of what the noise said.
"You're disappointed?"
Sasuke took his turn looking surprised, opening his mouth to speak when the proctor announced the next two fighters.
"Hyuuga Hinata and Haruno Sakura, you're up!"
"Don't lose." Whatever her teammate was going to say was lost and he decided to simply give her a firm nod along with his words.
Sakura sighed, wishing she actually knew what she was about to get into.
"I'll do my best. After what Naruto just did… anything else would be insulting."
Walking down the stairs, it was all Sakura could do to try and come up with a plan.
She didn't know much of anything about Hinata beyond the fact that she was from a very prominent clan. Clan secrets weren't the kind of thing you discussed at the academy, even Ino never mentioned her family training back when they were friends. So, Hinata being the silent type meant there was never much of an opportunity to actually get to know her.
Primarily, her concerns were focused on the girl's lavender eyes. Lacking pupils, they were dull, almost even a little milky, but they still managed to convey nervousness.
Something in the back of her mind seemed… boggled. How was she able to see with eyes like those? Once more, she saw something that violated the fundamental laws of biology. Of how physical constructs like eyes actually functioned, how the pupil, and iris, and the optical nerves interacted.
But by the same token, she already knew the answer.
Hinata was from a clan. Therefore it must be something related to a bloodline.
The answer felt dry.
How would that help her win? All Sakura knew was that those eyes were different from Sasukes. Something about… improved vision, but that was probably wrong. She doubted that Hinata could actually see at all, not how humans normally did at least, and that there were undoubtedly mechanics related to chakra and processing and interpreting light.
Questions! Questions! Questions!
Why did she have so many questions?!
Why were her answers so dreadfully simple?
Why were her fingers twitching and itching and already reaching for one of the scalpels she'd hidden on her person?
'I need to focus!'
Shaking away her stray thoughts, Sakura focused on the fight at hand. What did she know about Hinata? She wasn't particularly talkative. But her grades back at the Academy had been on the higher end, as to be expected of a clan heiress. She'd seen her spar a few times in class, but never saw any hint of what she could do as a shinobi.
No special jutsu or noteworthy skills.
She did know she had helped Naruto cheat back in the first part of the exams.
Which explained why she looked so… distracted. It must have been hard to be torn between rooting for her own teammate and someone she helped. That both of them got knocked out of the run must have felt anti climatic.
'Could I use that? Distract her somehow? Or even play on her feelings for Naruto?'
That seemed like the obvious thing to do. To manipulate the girl into doing what seemed like the kind thing, the "right" thing. They were both kunoichi, after all, and preying upon the other girl's weaker will was only logical and natural. Sakura felt her mouth open automatically, a few choice playground memories coming to the fore as she instinctively considered what words would peel her opponent's psyche apart without so much as a punch thrown.
And so she bit her own tongue.
'No! I refuse to do something so horrid!'
"Hello Hinata, I'm glad to see you made it through the Forest."
Self loathing reared its ugly head and Sakura bowed, trying to force a smile as the two girls stood across from each other - both having calmly walked into the arena.
"Uh… um… th-thank you. And I'm glad your team made it through too!"
With a wan smile, the pink haired kunoichi nodded.
"Are you two ready to fight?"
The coughing proctor questioned them, obviously eager to keep things moving considering how the last fight had ended. Sakura gave a firm nod, running through her list of options while Hinata gave a much less firm response.
In the end, the genin ruled out any lethal options. The easiest solution being to just jam a knife into the other girl's throat - surprise would net her a quick victory. But that was simply unacceptable. Even as flashes of what she did to the sound genin raced through her mind, she refused to consider anything even similar.
Gritting her teeth, she settled for copying Sasuke and Naruto both.
Probably. Maybe. Hopefully.
"Then fight!"
Every other battle before her there had been at least some talking, some sizing up of the other fighter before they clashed. Sakura didn't have the luxury of stroking her ego and she'd already ruled out a psychological assault.
So she didn't sit around like Bakakashi with her nose buried in a porn book!
Her stance was textbook perfect, sliding her foot forward, she brought her weight up and around, pivoting on the spot, and aimed her kick straight at Hinata's face.
To increase her chance of a knockout blow she pumped as much chakra as she could into her hips, her right knee, and her left leg muscles. Aiming the top of her right foot, straight at the other girl's jaw, Sakura couldn't help but shout as she unleashed the single most devastating kick in her life.
"Shannaro!"
Squeaking, Hinata went flying back, tumbling over herself, and smacked into the floor with enough force to wind her.
However, it wasn't a knockout blow that was landed. Instead, with two scraped and bruised arms, one looking like it might have a fracture or small break, it was a sobbing, hiccuping, crying, and definitely confused little girl lying on the ground.
Mostly it was shock, at least from how Hinata rapidly seemed to be calming down.
Sakura couldn't help but grin.
'At least this should be an excellent opportunity to gather combat data.'
There was fear in those eyes. Hesitation and weakness and a simple lack of what to do. Hinata glanced up and her sensei, Kurenai, if Sakura remembered correctly, who looked ready to jump in to defend her student. Instead, the pink haired girl cursed herself as a bit of that self loathing reared its ugly head again.
"Hey, Hinata, you're not gonna disappoint Naruto, are you?"