Chapter II: That's Not Normal
Sakura stared at the clock perched innocently on her nightstand. It was 11:32AM, Day Two.
She was still in Konoha. Sakura was not sure how she felt about this.
After some deliberation, she decided to go with 'hesitantly optimistic', mostly because she couldn't remember anything about her old life anyway, so there was really no point in being depressed about it.
Besides, she had other things to stress over. Like figuring out how she was going to cope with her new situation, since she had no idea where to start. Her first idea was to get out a notepad and write down everything she could remember about Naruto, in chronological order… except that was really hard to do when she considered how long the anime was, and how much she hadn't paid a lick of attention to.
For instance, she knew her team had already gone to the Land of Waves, and that the next plot point was... the Chunin Exams, maybe? But the anime hadn't exactly had a time table, and she hadn't ever cared enough to look up or even piece together a fan-based one, so for all she knew that was happening tomorrow... or in a couple of months.
Hopefully a couple of months, because she was kind of terrified and hadn't even tried using chakra yet.
Speaking of which...
Gathering her courage, Sakura closed her eyes, put her hands together in front of her, and...
...stood their awkwardly for a few seconds. Nothing was happening.
Okay, well. That was fine. Ninjutsu required hand seals, after all, which she knew none of. But still, she should be able to feel chakra or something, right? And she was sure that ninjas still did things like walk over water and over trees and.. whatever else ninjas did to show off... without having to use hand signs.
After trying a few more times (admittedly, not for very long), Sakura decided that maybe she should try getting more familiar with the layout of Konoha first. After all, she could probably make a convincing case of being too afraid to fight or use chakra if she cried enough and acted properly traumatized, but not remembering how to get to the grocery store or the Hokage's office was going to be a little harder to explain.
Konoha was bigger than she expected.
Sakura had been walking around for about an hour before she reached this conclusion. Maybe if she had put more thought into it, she wouldn't have been so surprised. From her very vague and mostly unhelpful recollections, Sakura knew that the real-her was from a much, much larger city, so if anything Konoha should have seemed smaller than expected, but, well...
...she had pictured Konoha as having, like 100 people in it. You know, a ramen shop, an adult bookstore, a few civilian districts... two or three classrooms, maybe 20 jonin... Obviously, that was an unrealistic expectation, but if there were really this many people living there, why did so few ninja get entered into, say, the chunin exams? Unless there were a lot more civilians than ninja, after all. But then again, wasn't Kohona supposed to be the military-central of the country (which was governed by civilians)? Or maybe everyone was secretly a ninja. Like her dad. Her dad was a genin, right? But he also had a day job, because really, who'd want to send a 40-year-old genin out on missions? That'd just be embarrassing.
Sakura was still lost in thought when she heard a voice that managed to both be familiar and deeply surreal at the same time.
"Sakura-chan!"
Sakura froze in her tracks. Slowly, she turned to look towards the direction of the voice. No, it wasn't... was it?
A bright orange blob with unruly blonde hair was running towards her, waving his arm frantically as he neared. "Hi, Sakura!"
She knew she was still staring at him like he was some kind of ghost and that her jaw hanging open, but she couldn't seem to do anything about it because—
Because oh god it's the titular character, what do I do?!
"What are you doing? I can't believe we got the week off... Kakashi-sensei just disappeared."
She was just about to respond (really, she was) when a thought struck her.
"We don't even have any missions... can you believe it?!" Naruto complained, folding his arms together grumpily.
What was she supposed to say? How would Sakura have responded?
"Um, Sakura? Helloooo?"
Oh God. What if he realized she wasn't Sakura?!
"Are you okay?" She saw Naruto tilt his head. "You don't seem like yourself today..."
OH GOD, HE WAS ONTO HER.
"Um, uh, I-I have to go!" Sakura stuttered. "Sorry, I'm really sorry, bye!"
With that, Sakura darted off, leaving a very confused Naruto in her wake. She heard him calling out, but she was too much of a chicken to turn back around, and really, if she was going to run away like a giant coward she might as well not half-ass it.
When she finally realized Naruto was not chasing after her, Sakura slowed down to a walk. Her heart was still racing, and people were looking at her funny, but otherwise nothing bad had happened... well, except for the fact that Naruto probably thought she was off her rocker. So that was great.
Okay, that was a one-time only thing. The next time I see someone I recognize, I will not freak out and I will have a ordinary conversation like an ordinary human being. I had no problem talking to Kakashi-sensei, after all.
Well, actually, she had stared at Kakashi like he was some kind of movie star, but he hadn't seemed to notice or care.
Okay, that wasn't a very good example. Still, the next time—
And just like that, another familiar blonde was practically bulldozing her way through civilians as she walked down the road, her two much-less-obtrusive teammates trailing after her.
Why was this happening to her now? Was everyone and their mother walking around town today or what?!
Frantically, Sakura looked around. Ino was still walking in her general direction, but the girl in question didn't seem to see her.
Okay, she could do this. She'd just wave at Ino and call her a Pig and say she had to go do some very important ninja-related activity, and then Ino would vouch for her being completely in character and definitely not another person trapped in Sakura's body, and everything would be a-okay.
Before Sakura could say anything, though, a man standing at a nearby vendor had blocked Ino's path. "Miss, do you have a few minutes?"
Ino stared at him intensely for several seconds, her expression very serious. And rather angry...
"Who the hell are you?"
"Oh, um," the civilian stammered. "I was just—"
"Are you a ninja?" Ino interrupted. She tapped her foot impatiently, and Sakura noticed that Shikamaru and Chouji had finally caught up with her. They both looked exhausted.
"Well, no," The man laughed. "I work at that jewelry stand,"—he gestured behind him—"and I was wondering—"
"If you're not a ninja, then why are you bothering me?" Ino glared. "I don't have time for ordinary people."
The salesman—apparently having no idea how to react to that kind of statement—opted to just stare at her awkwardly until Ino rolled her eyes and stalked off.
...straight towards Sakura, who, of course, stared up at her like a deer caught in headlights.
"What are you looking at?" Ino demanded.
And just like that, her courage shriveled up and died.
"N-nothing, no one! I was just, um..." Sakura's eye caught sight of a nearby building. "I just remembered I left something at the library! Sorry, I have to go, bye!"
On second thought, maybe she'd try proving that she hadn't suddenly developed crippling social anxiety tomorrow...
A half-hour later, Sakura had managed to convince herself that she had intended to go to the library all along. After all, what better place was there to learn about ninjas?
Yes, Sakura nodded sagely to herself, this was a most logical destination. However...
She sighed, looking dejectedly down at the stack of books in front of her. Konoha's history books were, unfortunately, the most boring pieces of literature ever written. It's like they weren't even trying. And where were the books telling her what Sakura's favorite food was supposed to be, and whether or not filler episodes counted as canon?
After some more fruitless skimming, Sakura decided that the young adult section might be more helpful. After all, history books for children would be a lot easier to understand and only covered general information, right?
Sakura grabbed a few promising titles off the shelf and was about ready to check out (because all things considered, she did not want be caught reading children's history books in the middle of the library) when she passed a header reading, "Manga."
What? Konoha had manga?
Well, Sakura thought, That makes sense. After all, Kakashi reads that Icha Icha series all the time, so of course they'd have other kinds of fiction.
Curiously, Sakura approached the aisle and scanned through the rows. The familiar cover-styles were oddly comforting, and Sakura found herself reaching out for the first volume of one of the larger series' available.
"Majou Shoujo-nin! Secret Guardian of the Land of Lava..."
Mariko Shiga was just a 15-year-old girl from a merchant family in a small village. Her life was ordinary, until one day she found herself attacked by a band of thieves and saved by Kenji, a mysterious missing-nin. After discovering she possesses a rare bloodline ability that could change the fate of the country, Mariko finds her life turned upside down. Torn between her newfound ninja heritage and her old life, Mariko must preserve the life she knows and protect the town she grew up in from the ravages of civil war. With both new and old allies, Mariko must act as an ordinary girl by day, while fighting to save her country by night under the identity of Majou Shoujo-nin!
Hmm, interesting...
"Here's your order!" Ayame smiled at her, gently sliding a bowl of ramen towards Sakura.
Sakura nodded politely at the girl in thanks before allowing her gaze to drift back to the manga in her hands. She was already on the 5th volume, and although the summary had been cheesy, Majou Shoujo-nin turned out to be fairly entertaining.
Somewhere in her bag were two history books. Sakura figured she had done her part by checking them out. Really, her day had been incredibly stressful so far, and she was due for a well-deserved break.
Besides, it's not like reading Majou Shoujo-nin was completely useless.
I mean, Sakura reasoned, think about how much I'm learning about Konoha's culture. After all, popular entertainment says a lot about societal values and common, um...
"...understand how everything we have to do ends up being so boring," Ino complained.
Ino again?!
Whipping her head up, she saw that Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji had taken seats at the far side of the bar.
Sakura panicked. She hadn't even touched her ramen yet.
"Our teacher didn't even teach us anything today. I thought we were supposed to be ninja," Ino continued, glaring heatedly at the counter.
Next to her, Chouji cleared his throat. "W-well... I mean, we can't new learn stuff every day. You've been really angry these past two days... Maybe you should—"
"Shut up!"
Sakura quivered in her seat. Maybe if she just put her head down and quietly ate her ramen, nobody would notice she was there.
She heard Shikamaru sigh to himself. "We're genin, I don't know what you expect. You have to start with the basics."
"I don't have time for the basics," Ino's glare somehow managed to become even fiercer when it was leveled on Shikamaru. Slamming her fist down on the counter, she said, "If that Asuma guy's not going to teach us anything interesting, then I'm just not going to go to trainings."
There was a beat of silence. Chouji looked too frightened to say anything, while Shikamaru's put-out expression screamed, 'Business as usual.'
"You can't be a ninja without a jonin instructor," Shikamaru pointed out.
"Then I'm just going to have to find a new teacher!"
"You can't just get a new jonin teacher, Ino..." Shikamaru explained, far more patiently than Sakura would have expected. "It doesn't work like that. Even if you begged the Hokage, there's no way—"
"What the hell is a Hokage?"
Chouji spluttered out a series of half-formed words that Sakura couldn't understand. She appreciated the sentiment, though.
Okay, now I'm really confused.
"The Hokage's the person in charge of a hidden village..." Shikamaru sighed.
Ino wrinkled her nose. "Person in charge, huh?"
..Shikamaru didn't really think Ino was that stupid, did he?
"Yep," Shikamaru said, taking a sip of water.
Okay, apparently he did.
Ino didn't respond right away. Suddenly, she snapped her fingers together, and turned to Shikamaru excitedly. "Oooooh, you're talking about that blonde lady with the huge knockers, aren't you?"
Sakura froze. Blonde what now?
Was... was she talking about Tsunade?!
This elicited another deep sigh from the strangely and utterly unphased Shikamaru. "I really have no idea what you're talking about."
But Sakura did.
"Ino." Sakura had made her way across the table and was clutching the blonde's shirt. "I need to talk to you. Alone."