"Talk? About what?"
I was really not in the mood to "talk" right now. Especially with all the dirt and grime on me. Strangely enough, Gamer's Body included my clothing, which meant it was relatively unharmed, but it didn't incorporate anything like all the filth and sweat uncomfortably stuck to my body.
I needed a shower. And I needed it now.
"About you!" She pointed harshly at me. "You just changed all of a sudden! What's up with that?!" She gritted her teeth, eyes set up in a glare. I knew that when Ino got like this, there was no dissuading her from what she'd decided upon. Last time she was this determined was when we "broke off" our friendship. She hadn't talked to Sakura after that for a good six months, only recently coming into this "rivalry" dynamic.
I sighed. No avoiding it now. "Come on in, Ino. I'll explain everything, after a shower."
Well, not everything.
I was in a bit of a bad spot to be honest. I had to somehow explain an almost 180 degree turn from my previous personality. It wasn't gonna be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Still, I did want to try. I didn't just want to cut Ino out of my life entirely. From Sakura's memories she was a dear friend, and really, her only friend before Sasuke happened.
Ugh Sasuke. I rolled my eyes beneath the blindfold. Now where is this shampoo?
I reached around where I knew the shower rack was.
*CRASH!*
Oh, that's the body wash. I was sooooo thankful I had found a big enough sponge in my parent's bathroom. Just the thought of my hands on—
Blurg— Zen. Zen! ZEN!
Ahmmmmmmmm… No thoughts. Head empty. Where was I?
Right. The Sasuke debacle. I grabbed for what I hoped was the shampoo. Oh yup, that feels about right.
Aside from basically anything to do with the raven-haired emo, Ino was genuinely compassionate and kind, with a fierce spirit I hadn't seen in any of the other girls in the Academy.
She was relentless. In both the good and bad ways, so I knew her line of questioning was gonna be equally as harrowing.
Well, time to face the music.
Where are my clothes?
*CRASH!* Ow. Not there.
"Are you okay in there?" Ino called out from my room.
"Yeah! Doing great!"
*CRASH!*
"Are you sure? Should I come help you?" I heard footsteps coming towards the door.
"NO!"
I slammed the door shut with all my body weight, tripping on whatever I dropped in the process, almost face planting against the door.
*CRASH!*
-10HP!
I sighed.
The Blind Maneuvering (Passive) skill has leveled up!
Of course it did.
I'm going to have to find a more permanent solution for these things. I thought morosely.
We were sitting on my bed now, my hands busy getting my hair dry with a towel. There wasn't much of it anymore (compared to before), but it wouldn't do to stop taking care of it. In fact, it was almost kind of relaxing going through Sakura's (lengthy) hair care routine.
"So?" She asked, arms crossed, eyebrow raised.
"I told you already, Ino. We graduate in six months! I had to start taking it seriously sometime."
"But giving up on Sasuke!? What's wrong with you Sakura?!"
I gave her the side eye. "I thought you wanted to have Sasuke all for yourself?"
"I—I do! But—what happened, Sakura?"
I sighed, putting the towel down. Do I lie to her? Make up some story? I obviously can't give her the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but being facetious here feels wrong, somehow. I can't explain it, it just does.
"Sorry, I just realized that—That I don't wanna be just another girl you know?" From Ino's expression, I don't think she really got it. "Chasing after Sasuke is great and all, but I want to be more than that." I need to be more than that. "I wanna be the strongest kunoichi to ever live, and I can't do that wasting my time with a boy that doesn't want me."
I held her gaze, intent on making sure I got my point across. Ino didn't waver in the slightest. Finally, slowly, she started talking. "Oookay. I hear you."
I smiled, relieved. "Thank you Ino. To be honest," I stood up, looking for the volumizing mousse Sakura had in her room somewhere. Apparently, there's products for after washing and conditioning? The more you know I guess. "I'm going to need a lot more help than I want to admit, getting to where I need to be. I realized a few days ago I'm more behind than I thought."
"I can help! Just tell me what you need." She smiled, but I could tell she wasn't entirely convinced of my reasoning, but to be fair, I didn't really give her much.
I picked up the mousse, and worked on putting some of it in my hair. Ahh. "For right now, I'm just training. After the Academy I go to Training Ground 76 to train with Naruto. He's great for conditioning and sparring, but he doesn't know much, if ya get what I mean?"
She scrunched up her nose, and not in the cute way. "Why are you training with Naruto?" Careful now. "He's like, horrible at almost every subject!" ...Better.
I shrugged. "He needed a training partner, I needed a training partner. Seems pretty logical if you ask me."
She crossed her arms. "Well, you have me now! So consider that avenue checked!"
"Orrrr you could train with us? You'll be surprised how well Naruto can keep up." Although, that might say more about me than him.
She could tell I was willing to fight her on this. "Hah! Me? Training? I don't need that! I'm already a good enough kunoichi as it is. I could graduate right now if I wanted to." She flipped her hair for extra arrogance points.
Observe.
Name: Yamanaka Ino
Lvl. 11
Designation: Yamanaka Clan Heir
Occupation: Academy Student
HP: 3500
MP: 1400
Str: 11
Agi: 13
Cha: 24
Int: 17
Wis: 11
Luck: 8
Description: A daddy's girl from a rich clan, Ino has had pretty much everything handed to her since she could ask for it, except for a certain emotionally unavailable orphan. Having never been one to abandon a challenge, she doggedly seeks after Sasuke's affections. As Heir of her clan, she's trained in all the ways of cracking open and manipulating a mind.
Current state: Suspicious, haughty.
Ignoring the very illuminating description, taking a look at her stats provided a good picture of what she was actually capable of. It was good. To be fair I didn't have an overly strong frame of reference, but I knew one thing.
It wasn't enough.
In the manga, aside from doing well against some of the Edo Tensei in the Fourth War, she didn't really do much. Even against Kakuzu the first time, she just kind of stood around.
Which, if she didn't have plot armor, would easily mean her death. I wasn't going to rely on plot armor here, in an actual feeling, doing world, no matter how gamified it was.
"Ino, you're good and all, but you're not exactly game changing or anything."
That offended her, apparently. "Hey! You take that back! I'll have you know I'm number one kunoichi in our class!" She shoved a finger in my chest.
I smirked. "Nuh-uh. You probably couldn't even beat me now, never mind when we're ninja."
"Are you challenging me?" Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
My smirk turned into a grin. "Hell yeah."
"Fine. Last one to chuunin has to drink toilet water. A whole bucket full." Damn, Ino. I knew you went hard but.
Quest Initialized
[Side Quest]: Achieve the rank of chuunin before Yamanaka Ino does.
Description: You have questioned Ino's mettle, and she's not about to take it lying down. Challenge accepted, and she intends to win.
Success: 15,000 exp. Increased reputation with Yamanaka Ino.
Failure: Decreased reputation with Yamanaka Ino. Have to drink toilet water.
Accept?
Y/N
"You're on."
Y/N
She grinned back at me. "You'll regret that, Sakura."
"Make me."
She jumped on top of me, her hands reaching for my most ticklish parts. I shrieked, and went on the offensive.
"Oh you're getting it now!"
She ended up staying the night.
Iruka's face was priceless.
I wish I had a phone, so I could take a picture. Oh my God, I can't!
"How..?"
I was demonstrating my Konoha Standard Taijutsu to him, and since it gained quite a few levels in the dungeon, it must have looked like I was a next level prodigy.
The more levels it gave me, the more moves it taught me. To Iruka, it looked like I learned how to do a mid-air spinning block kick in a day by guessing or something.
To be fair, I didn't think I'd need any more teaching in the martial art if it was just going to feed the info directly into my brain.
"You could say I'm good like that."
Naruto pouted next to me. "Hey! No fair! You went training without me didn't you!" He pointed a finger at me.
"No." I said, with the most smug smile I had ever smiled. "Like I said. I'm good like that."
"Then I'm gonna learn like that too! Iruka-sensei! Teach me what she just did!"
Iruka's face, if it could, turned even weirder. I honestly couldn't describe it to you.
While Naruto was being taught by Iruka-sensei, I decided to make my way over to the library.
After talking to the rather bored chuunin at the desk I was directed to the Shinobi Archives. Basically, a long wall of scrolls on all the (non-classified) jutsu any ol' ninja was allowed to learn. I technically wasn't a ninja yet, so I couldn't access the higher levels, but they still let me in to learn so that's good.
Now where to start? I already learned some taijutsu. I could start on genjutsu? Maybe sealing?
Ah who am I kidding. I know what I want.
If there was one thing to look forward to in this ninja world it was creating major earthquakes and causing storms and fires. Ninjutsu was where it's at, and that's that on that.
So! I grabbed a random copy of one of the scrolls on ninjutsu and opened it.
"Earth Style: Gushing Rock Mountain Cannonball huh?" That's metal as all hell.
Scroll for: Earth Style: Gushing Rock Mountain Cannonball (rare)
Would you like to learn this technique?
Y/N
Wait. I can learn it? Just like that? No way. I pressed yes obviously.
Cannot learn technique.
Earth Style Mastery Lvl: 50 required.
That's a bummer. So I have to learn how to use the element first? In hindsight, that kind of made sense. So then, why did it ask? That's so stupid! What kind of redundant game design— You know what. You have gamer powers. You live in the ninja world. Your friend is the protagonist. You're a girl. There's weirder stuff to be worried about.
That still begs the question: how do I go about learning elemental stuff? If I remember right in the show, it was something to do with chakra paper? Now where do I find that?
Mmm. I could just ask.
"Umm. Sir." I did the best puppy eyes I could at the guy sitting at the desk. He didn't look up at me from his book. Rude! I practiced this! "Sir!" Now he looked up. "Can you tell me where I could find chakra paper?"
He put his head back into the pages. "Masashige Weapons Store."
"Thank you!"
Mmm. Quaint. I thought as I opened the door to the store. There weren't many other people here, since this was more of a specialist store apparently. It mostly did commissions or sold passion projects. Don't know why the guy directed me here just for some chakra paper.
"Hello, sir!" I exclaimed at the guy standing at the counter. He didn't react. What? Suddenly, a game window popped up.
Masashige Weapons Store
Buy
Sell
Upgrade
Customize
Engrave
Ryo: 15,800
Ain't this something. Found a place where I can sell stuff! That's usually how game characters make their money, right? What do I have to sell tho?
Sell
Ryo: 15,800
-Rabbit Foot Earring x2 | 200 ryo
-Mantle of Vitality (rare) | 3500 ryo
Back
As expected, can't sell the meat. That doesn't leave me with much. Kind of want to keep the mantle, just in case, but I already have the Earring in so I can sell those.
Sell
Ryo: 16,200
-Mantle of Vitality (rare) | 3500 ryo
Back
Progress.
Masashige Weapons Store
Buy
Sell
Upgrade
Customize
Engrave
Ryo: 16,200
Well, I probably can't upgrade, customize, or engrave anything. Don't have no weapons. Soooo
Buy
Ryo: 16,200
{Common}
-20x Kunai | 1000 ryo
-20x Shuriken | 1000 ryo
-Sealing Scroll | 3000 ryo
-50 ft. Ninja Wire | 1300 ryo
-Soldier Pill | 3000 ryo
-Explosive Tag | 2500 ryo
-Bo | 4000 ryo
-Tantou | 5000 ryo
-Chakra Paper | 2000 ryo
-General Antidote | 8000 ryo
{Uncommon} Required Lvl:20
{Rare} Required Lvl: 40
{Epic} Required Lvl: 70
Back
Not very extensive, huh. That's all basically nothing. Guess I'll just buy the Chakra Paper and go, I guess. Although now that I think on it, I really could use some kunai and shuriken. I didn't get to use any in the dungeon and I'd at least like to be prepared. It's also kind of strange they don't have armor, but you can sell armor. Maybe there's a separate shop for that?
I bought 20x Kunai, 20x Shuriken, and Chakra Paper to equal 4000 ryo in expense.
Productive, if nothing else. I exited out the window and left the shop. No one reacted to me standing there for a good minute, and no one reacted to me leaving, either. Creepy.
Anyway! I have chakra paper now! Let's find out what my nature is!
I took the chakra paper out of my inventory and held it in my hand. Now, pulse!
The chakra turned the paper soft, then wet, sagging in on itself. Water.
Coooool.
There were so many things you could do with water! Though it's probably going to be hard to pull off the initial techniques, since you need a water source. But! Gamer powers will probably make this easier for me. Trusty Gamer Powers! Coming to the rescue when I need it. Speaking of, where's my skill?
Oh right. I need to do something with a leaf? Might be better to do this somewhere else though.
Once at Training Ground 76, I grabbed a random leaf off the ground and pulsed my chakra through it. Nothing. About what I expected.
After about ten minutes of trying, the leaf turned a little wet at the tip. Victory!
With repeated actions, the skill: Elemental Jutsu: Water (Passive) was created.
Elemental Jutsu: Water (Passive) lvl.1: Allows for the use of water natured jutsu. Higher levels allow for more power, control, and jutsu. Modifier: -5%(+1 per lvl.) MP cost to Water Jutsu.
Ehehehehe. I'm going to have so much fun with this. Ehehehehehe
"Sakura-chan. What are you laughing at?"
"Eh?" I looked up. Oh it's just Naruto. "Nothing, nothing."
"Ooookayyy." He squinted at me. "Are you ready for training?"
I grinned. "I sure as hell am!"
Later that night I was sitting at my desk in my room, a whole bag of leaves in front of me. I had finished the homework in a jiffy, a perk of being Sakura, and thus had the rest of the night left to devote myself to leaves.
Though with my new skill, this should be easy. I was proven right about fifteen minutes after I started.
The Elemental Jutsu: Water (Passive) skill has leveled up!
And another fifteen minutes:
The Elemental Jutsu: Water (Passive) skill has leveled up!
It noticeably slowed after that, getting just one more level, but I still got some good results from it. I think in a few nights, I'll be ready for actual jutsu.
I can't wait.
A/N. For those of you who care, I RNG'd the chakra nature.