"S-Sakura-chan?"
Nothing.
"Saku-chan."
Still nothing.
Tenten and Hinata looked at each other helplessly. Tenten finally tried shoved a tissue in front of Sakura's face. "Saku-chan, you're actually drooling."
"H-Huh?" That broke Sakura's trance. She looked back at Tenten and Hinata, who were trying very hard to stifle their giggles, and turned a bright red when she looked back down at the slightly damp tissue.
"Wh-what are you looking at, Sakura-chan?" Hinata asked
"Nothing!" Sakura slammed her laptop closed.
Tenten raised her eyebrow with a sly grin, "Oh yeah? It's got nothing to do with the 'Uchiha-senpai rekts at basketball' thread on the forums? And that gif of Uchiha-senpai's abs?"
"Shut up! Shannaro!" Sakura turned an even darker shade of red as she swatted at Tenten with the pillow off her bed. Cackling, Tenten dodged out of the way, then ran to the other side of the table where Hinata was sitting and grabbed her like a human shield. Sakura chased after Tenten, still brandishing her pillow, but her last thwack accidentally hit Hinata full in the face instead.
Sakura stopped, immediately abashed. "Sorry, Hinata-chan. Are you okay?"
"I-I'm okay," Hinata blinked a bid dazedly as she sat back down in her chair. She tried to change the topic. "Wh-which forum thread?"
"Uchiha-senpai destroyed your cousin on the basketball court," Tenten, the instigator of the whole situation, peaked back out, and pulled it up on Hinata's laptop, "It's the third reply! Pretty sure Saku-chan got distracted by the gifs of his abs in the first post, though."
"Shut up," Sakura roughly nudged Tenten.
"They're nice abs!"
"I-I didn't know Neji-niisama could play Basketball," Hinata murmured, her brows crinkling. Neji had always been an excellent ping pong and golf player, but she'd never heard of him playing any contact sports.
"From the recording on his 1v1 against Uchiha-senpai, I don't think he can," Tenten snickered as she pressed play on the video for them to watch. None of them were basketball experts or anything, but the three of them had gone to enough intramural basketball games to be able to judge how this 1v1 match was going.
"Wow," Sakura watched with wide eyes, "Uchiha-senpai looks super hot when he's destroying someone on the court."
"Of course that's what you notice," Tenten rolled her eyes. Sakura nudged her again.
"I-I wonder what Neji-niisama said to anger Uchiha-senpai," Hinata murmured, "H-he looks very mad."
"From my vast experience-," Tenten started pompously, but was interrupted by Sakura's snort. Tenten glared at her, then continued, "- gleaned from many romance novels, dramas, and movies, thank you very much Saku-chan, Uchiha-senpai looks like he's avenging a love debt."
"A what now?" Sakura looked at her as if she was speaking a different language.
"A love debt," Tenten repeated herself, "You know, a grudge because of a romantic affair."
"Y-You think Neji-niisama and Uchiha-senpai were-," Hinata started. She looked intrigued by the idea.
"I was thinking more like Hyuuga-senpai made a move on the person Uchiha-senpai is interested in, but…," Tenten trailed off. She looked intrigued by the idea as well.
"No way!" Sakura waved her hands in the air, like she was trying to dispel the idea with her hands. Using her expert knowledge, she broke the analysis down for her roommates, "For one, Uchiha-senpai's never been interested in anyone before. For two, if he'd shown the slightest interest in pursuing anyone, it would be all over the forums, which it hasn't. And finally, no offense Hinata, but your cousin can't be Uchiha-senpai's type!"
"Why not?" Tenten protested, "They kind of have a similar icy-cold vibe going on, and they're both attractive. I could see it. It could work!"
"Nu-uh!" Sakura shook her head, "Hyuuga's such a bad…" She stopped before she blurted out what happened at lunch the day before and the heinous way Neji had breached her privacy. She didn't want to just bring it up in front of Hinata or Tenten like that; Hinata probably didn't know her family had ordered invasive background checks on them, and Sakura didn't want to affect their friendship by carelessly blurting it out.
"A bad what, Saku-chan?" Tenten prompted her.
"A bad match," Sakura finished lamely, then quickly changed the topic. "Hey, since I'm done my History of Encryption homework, and you guys aren't doing much, do you guys want to learn how to gather materials in Way?"
Hinata and Tenten looked at each other, making Sakura a bit nervous, so she added, "C'mon, it's kind of rare I don't have to do couples missions with Meister, and you guys aren't playing with your static. How's that going, anyways?"
"I-It's going well," Hinata smiled shyly, thinking of Ramen-san and Wulf-san. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief when they both also opened their computers to join her in game, and more importantly, stopped talking about Hyuuga-senpai. She caught Hinata's smile and was relieved. Good to know I won't have to beat up Old Man and Wulf next time I see them.
"Same!" Tenten chirped. "We're cranking through missions like no-one's business, but I'd like to get more of the forging in. It's kind of expensive to just buy the raw materials."
"Don't do that! Gathering's easy, if a bit boring," Sakura started to explain the mechanic in-game as they all logged on, leading her friends to one of the more secluded herb patches and mines in a lower level area. Gathering in Way was basically a rhythm game with chakra, so it naturally grew with game progression - the more chakra and more precision a player could throw into an attempt, the more rare and valuable the material they could get to craft higher level potions. It was tedious, boring gameplay that Sakura actually found quite relaxing and easy.
"This is just like that cutesy dance game I was playing last week," Tenten hummed as she started gathering some metals, "Dammit! I missed again!"
Sakura had played Way for so long, she had the timing and levels of most gathering patches down pat, so she could gather without looking at her screen. She peered over at Hinata's screen while she gathered some herbs nearby, and let out a low whistle when she saw Hinata successfully farm an intermediate level herb.
"Looks like your byakugan training's been paying off," Sakura smiled.
"Y-Yes, Ramen-san has been very kindly meditating with me," Hinata smiled
Doesn't Old Man have the jinchuuriki bloodline limit? I'm pretty sure that means he can't increase his reserves or control any more. Before Sakura could wonder more, though, a message from Meister popped on her screen.
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: Sakura, come here
[Party] System: Sm1rkMeister has invited you to join the party. Type Y to join, type N to reject the invitation.
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: ?
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: Boss
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: Use the direct teleport skill
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: I'm with friends. OK if we all come?
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: Sure
[Party] SakuraBlossom: Y
[Party] Sm1rkMeister: Slow, 3SIL's otw with friends
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Where are you guys?
[Party] RollOutBoy: Roger
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: [Foot of the Sleeping Man Hills]
[Party] Beowulf69: Could use some more firepower anyways
[Party] OldRamenMan: 3SIL Hurry up!
"Do you guys want to try doing a special boss event?" Sakura asked. "Meister and his static invited us to one. It's not far, we can run there."
"Sure!" Tenten agreed. They left the gathering patch and followed Sakura to another area while Sakura also added them to the party.
"W-what's a special boss?" Hinata asked as their avatars ran.
"Essentially, a really tough monster that spawns randomly somewhere in the world and starts rampaging. Usually, it takes a team of 5-20 people to take it down, and it'll randomly grant a reward."
"Oh wow, since it's such a tough boss, it's gotta be a super impressive reward, right?"
"Sometimes. Sometimes it's crap and you can't give it away. I once fought a boss on my own and just managed to take it down, only to get Foot binding ribbons from an Old Crone. No attributes, no use - it was just a wardrobe item, and it's so gross to boot. I was so mad I nearly broke the table."
"A-actually, you did break the table… we just replaced it before you noticed."
Sakura stared at Hinata disbelievingly. Hinata and Tenten both were suppressing giggles.
Friends. Can't live with them, can't bury them in the backyard.
They arrived at the area that Meister had pinged on the map and the boss battle music came through their speakers. Tenten, in her eagerness, had already pulled out her weapons. RollOutBoy was tanking the boss and trying to keep him distracted, while Wulf, Akamaru, Meister, and Old Man were swiping at a quickly moving blur. When Sakura saw them, she realized exactly which boss they were fighting, so she yelled, "Wait!" to her roommates while typing quickly in chat.
[Party] OldRamenMan: Hurry up and help, 3SIL
[Party] SakuraBlossom: You guys are fighting Happosai though
[Party] SakuraBlossom: We're not going to be much help
[Party] Beowulf69: Wut!? Y?
[Party] SakuraBlossom: If he's only fighting against male players, Happosai's attack is normal
[Party] SakuraBlossom: If he's only fighting against female players, it's ⅓ lower
[Party] SakuraBlossom: If he's fighting against a mixed gender group… his attack increases by 50%
[Party] SharpAndPonty: that's bull****
[Party] Beowulf69: That's actually kind of cool
[Party] Beowulf69: Does he have new dialogue?
[Party] Beowulf69: Smack him anyways, 3SIL.
Sakura sighed and clicked a couple of keys while she told Tenten, "Hang on, let me buff you with some extra condition duration. Do you have any poisoned senbon? Anything with slowing or good damage over time? Throw them at Happosai."
"Sure thing," Tenten grinned. She started quickly clicking and tapping at her keyboard.
"Hina-chan, can you do the Kaiten yet?" Sakura asked. "The spinning invincible sphere shield technique that Tenten mentioned a while ago."
"K-Kind of," Hinata bit her lip.
"How long?"
"O-only about 10 seconds, and only 5 times before I need more chakra," Hinata admitted, a bit ashamed. Tenten had mentioned that her teammate, who'd started when they had, could do it for 30 seconds at a time. Hinata was already feeling rather useless in this fight. Looking at how much dodging the boss was doing, she could already tell she wouldn't be much help since her taijutsu wasn't that fast yet.
"Good enough. Here," Sakura quickly transferred three advance chakra potions to her, "I'm going to rotate the guys in and out for buffs. I'm not a dedicated buffer, but I can give some with a cast time. When I say go, can you throw up a shield, in case the boss switches aggro?"
Hinata nodded.
[Party] SakuraBlossom: I'm going to buff over here once Sharp joins aggro and cripples
[Party] SakuraBlossom: Meister, Wulf, Old Man, and RollOut
[Party] SakuraBlossom: RollOut come a bit closer so I can heal first
[Party] RollOutBoy: Roger
"Got him!" Tenten cheered.
[Here] Happosai the Thief: Hohoho pretty girls eh?
[Here] Happosai the Thief: Not properly staying at home and obediently waiting for her man
[Here] Happosai the Thief: Instead, you're out here and fighting on the Way of the Ninja
[Here] Happosai the Thief: Why don't you join me?
[Here] Happosai the Thief: I guarantee you'll be satisfied
[Here] Happosai the Thief: In exchange for your panties!
"Oh ew," Tenten scowled, "What a gross old man. Kill him!" She punched the air
Sakura grinned at her enthusiasm as she healed.
[Party] Beowulf69: He dares to proposition 3SIL
[Party] Beowulf69: Destroy him!
[Party] OldRamenMan: Die!
[Party] SakuraBlossom: Sm1rk come here, I'll buff you
"Get ready!" Sakura told Hinata. Hinata only nodded tensely.
After a few hiccups in the beginning, Sakura and Hinata worked as a pretty effective team. They were in an area that scaled players down to a level 20 strength, so adding Tenten and her poisons into the fight, and the buffs and healing Sakura and Hinata managed to lay down, the seven of them managed to make short work of a hyper mobile boss with insane DPS pretty quickly.
"Whoo hoo!" Tenten cheered as RollOutBoy landed the KO Shot, literally by rolling over Happosai and flattening him. As the old pervert laid there, moaning and crying, a young girl in a red kungfu martial arts costume and a huge Panda appeared.
[Here] Ranma: Gotcha, ya **** pervert
[Here] Ranma: Thanks for your help
[Here] Ranma: C'mon, let's throw this guy back into the cave, pops
[Here] Ranma: You can keep whatever he stole
[Here] Ranma: Call it a reward
[Party] SharpandPointy: Whoohoo! What'd we get?
[Party] SakuraBlossom: GG, GJ all
[Party] Tournesola: That was quite fun!
[Party] Sm1rkMeister: Give the drop to Sakura - we would've failed without her healing
[Party] SakuraBlossom: We can just roll!
[Party] Beowulf69: You sure you want to give it to 3SIL?
[Party] Beowulf69: Hehehe
[Party] SharpandPointy: Uh?
[Party] Beowulf69: Go on, give it to her
[Party] Beowulf69: lololololol
[Party] RollOutBoy: Uh, no, that's okay
[Party] SharpAndPointy: what?
[Party] Tournesola: What is it?
[Party] OldRamenMan: Nothing!
[Party] Tournesola: Oh….
[Party] Tournesola: We did so much work and didn't get any rewards?
[Party] Tournesola: That's a pity…
[Party] SharpAndPointy: pft these boss fights suck
[Party] OldRamenMan: urgh normally they're worth it!
[Party] OldRamenMan: Like a rare weapon or skill
[Party] Beowulf69: And sometimes they're ****
[Party] Beowulf69: Like this
[Party] Beowulf69: [DongFang Bubai's Knife]
[Party] Tournesola: Oh!
[Party] OldRamenMan: I can't believe you still have that
[Party] OldRamenMan: You know what it is, Sola?
"Wait, what is it?" Tenten demanded, looking over at Hinata, who was giggling hard.
"I-It's the knife of a famous swordsman from kungfu movies," Hinata told her, stifling her laughter, "H-He's a renown villain who learned his technique from the sunflower manual."
"So? A knife and a sword aren't the same thing?"
"M-Most people don't think about weapons like you, Tenten-chan. But yeah, I-In order to learn from the sunflower manual, the practitioner must first castrate themselves…"
"So everyone must've thought they were getting a legendary sword and instead they got the knife that he used to cut off his…" Tenten realized why the knife was famous and looked at her, horrified.
Nodding, Hinata started laughing even harder.
[Party] SharpandPointy: SHE JUST EXPLAINED IT TO ME
[Party] SharpandPointy: LOL
[Party] SharpandPointy: That's evil
[Party] SharpandPointy: But not really in line with the whole aesthetic of the game, right?
[Party] SharpandPointy: I thought this was a ninja game
[Party] SharpandPointy: But the chick that just popped up was totally a kungfu style martial arts model
[Party] RollOutBoy: Some random events bosses are crossover IPs for some of BLOOM Corp's other properties
[Party] RollOutBoy: Happosai is a crossover from Dreams of Jianghu
[Party] RollOutBoy: Which is a kungfu, wuxia based MMO
[Party] Tournesola: Oh that sounds interesting
[Party] SharpandPointy: Waitwaitwait
[Party] SharpandPointy: You still haven't answered the question though
[Party] SharpandPointy: What did we get this time?
[Party] RollOutBoy: …
[Party] OldRamenMan: …
[Party] Beowulf69: C'mon, just ping it
[Party] RollOutBoy: Fine
[Party] RollOutBoy: [Ranma's Boxers]
[Party] RollOutBoy: No attributes, no bonuses
[Party] RollOutBoy: It's not even a skin
[Party] Tournesola: Oh
[Party] SharpandPointy: …
[Party] RollOutBoy: lololololololol
[Party] RollOutBoy: Sm1rk, you wanna give your wife another guy's boxer shorts?
[Party] Sm1rkMeister: You're such a waste of healing
[Party] Tournesola: Wasn't Ranma the name of the girl who came to arrest the boss…?
[Party] OldRamenMan: Hey, is 3SIL upset?
[Party] OldRamenMan: Wulf's just being a butt, you can ignore him
[Party] RollOutBoy: Don't worry 3SIL, we're not actually going to give you the boxer shorts
[Party] Beowulf69: hey, the asshole said we should
[Party] Beowulf69: 3SIL?
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: Everything okay?
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: I can beat up the idiot for you if you want
"Saku-chan?" Tenten looked at her quizzically. It was only then she noticed that Sakura was zoned out a bit, staring at her screen. Tenten waved her hand in front of Sakura's face, snapping her out of it.
"Sorry," Sakura smiled sheepishly. She went back to the game and typed something cheekily.
[Party] SakuraBlossom: Having followed the path of the ninja for so many years, I have given up material desires.
[Party] Beowulf69: Oiiiiiiiiiiii
[Party] Beowulf69: Here we all were thinking we offended you
[Party] Beowulf69: but instead you come up with this high falutin bull****
[Party] OldRamenMan: She kind of sounds like Sm1rk when he's trying to piss people off
[Party] SharpandPointy: Like husband like wife?
[Party] Sm1rkMeister: Hn
[Party] RollOutBoy: Everything okay, 3SIL?
[Party] SakuraBlossom: Oh yeah
[Party] SakuraBlossom: I was just thinking about something
[Party] SakuraBlossom: Happosai's dialogue gave me an idea
[Party] OldRamenMan: for what?
[Party] SharpandPointy: That ****ing degenerate?
[Party] SakuraBlossom: Well
[Party] SakuraBlossom: Why don't we enter the [Found True Love on the Way of the Ninja] Video Competition?
[Party] Beowulf69: What kind of idea can that weirdo give you?
[Party] Sm1rkMeister: What's your idea, MDW?
[Party] SakuraBlossom: Well it starts with a girl who meets a mute boy in an orphanage and falls in love
[Party] SakuraBlossom: But just before they had the courage to confess, bandits attack...
As Sakura spun out a tale of revenge, hijinks, love and tragedy in the party chat, Hinata and Tenten looked at her with some incredulity. This is our roommate, the steady and studious scholarship student? She sounds like she's watched too many soap operas! Tenten had to admit though, it was an interesting story. It was just a lot. Still...
[Party] SakuraBlossom: holding his lover's body, he jumps off the cliff to atone
[Party] SakuraBlossom: So, what do you think?
[Party] SakuraBlossom: It's just an idea
[Party] SakuraBlossom: We don't have to if you guys think it'll be too much work
[Party] SakuraBlossom: Or it's too silly
[Party] Sm1rkMeister: Let's do it
[Party] SharpandPointy: This sounds hilarious, I'm in
[Party] OldRamenMan: I'm down!
[Party] Tournesola: This sounds fun
[Party] RollOutBoy: Might as well
[Party] Beowulf69: Hey, don't leave me out!
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: Are you sure?
[Party] Sm1rkMeister: I don't have to say very much, I get to fight you and beat up the idiots
[Party] Sm1rkMeister: Sounds fun
[Couple] SakuraBlossom: You totally did that on purpose
[Party] SharpandPointy: pfffffffft
[Couple] Sm1rkMeister: hn ;alknmf
"Sakura-chan, your husband is hilarious," Tenten grinned.
"H-he's quite unrestrained," Hinata added. Sakura just rolled her eyes at the both of them.
[Party] SharpandPointy: I want to be the blacksmith bystander who tells the avenger where to find the Black Lily!
[Party] Tournesola: Does that make me the orphanage director that dies?
The three of them waited for a while for a response, but the four other avatars on-screen just stood there. After a while, a new status appeared over their heads. Tenten hovered over it and read the flavour text: "This player is idle and may not respond to messages."
Puzzled, she asked in chat.
[Party] SharpandPointy: Guys?
Still no response.
[Party] SharpandPointy: Are you guys still there?
[Party] RollOutBoy: sorry
[Party] RollOutBoy: 2V1 IRL PVP
[Party] RollOutBoy: to decide the who the idiots are
They must live together, Sakura realized with an internal snicker, judging from his last message, Meister just got jumped. Before she could make a joke about placing bets for the winner though, Meister was already back.
[Party] Sm1rkMeister: Wulf and Old Man are the idiots
AN: Huehuehue I wonder what kind of story Sakura spun out? ;)
This is a pretty cameo heavy episode, all things considered. Anyone else grow up with Ranma 1/2 or am I dating myself? I read it way back when, when I got fed up with Inuyasha back in the day when that was still ongoing. There's another cameo that sharp-eyed novel readers will have noticed as well ;) Extended ANs in the tumblr per usual (in a couple hours). Also, for those of you who are still keeping track: 21 (that's why chapters have been a bit slower than I like). Thank you to Reglee for a stellar Beta job as always, and as always, comments, reviews, kudos, favourites, bookmarks, and well wishes tied to butterfly legs always make my day. Thanks for stopping by, stay healthy, and see you soon!