AN: Sufficient Velocity and Space Battles are super far ahead, and the Pa tre on is on CH 115. You can find the link on my profile if you wanna just get there.
I'ma update this more often than normal for a couple of weeks to catch it up, but you know, go elsewhere if you want the chapters now. FFN formatting is pissing me off something fierce.
"It's a rock." All this build up, all this time spent wondering what could possibly be in the scroll she got from the goblin encounter chest, and it's a shiny, oddly colored stone. To be fair, she hasn't actually thought about it that much, it's just been a long time since she got it so there's a lot of pressure.
Naruto got better at lockpicking for this, and got a lockpick out of the adventure, so it's not like it's a bad value for the stress she put on it. But, random encounters have been really rare. She's only gotten one this entire time because she spends most of her time in Konoha, they clearly don't happen during dungeons, and she's not particularly avid in seeking them out. She may see a few of them a year if she doesn't start drastically changing her behavior, assuming the first one wasn't a fluke, so having such weird loot is a let down.
The collector in her has to give the rock a chance though. "Where are you going?" Naruto asks, watching her put her travel coat on - she picked it up this morning, it's snazzy and pink and super pretty - "did you have something in mind for the rock?"
"Oh, right, you can't see it. Uhhh… Do you know what a geode is?" Sakura asks, looking back at him while fluffing her coat.
[Geode:
Rare
A rock is a rock, but this could be anything, it could even be a rock!
Crack this open]
Her brother stares at her with a confuzzled expression, his lips turning in weird ways. He doesn't want to tell her he doesn't know something, that's cute. "It's like a treasure chest but worse, and while this is really soft and I could probably crush it open with my bare hands, Tenten's far more likely to know what to do with it."
"So you got a treasure chest that had a sealing scroll in it that has a rock treasure chest in it?" Naruto asks.
"I know, it's almost like whatever's in charge of my power wasn't sure what to give me and delayed it too long and now it's awkward." Sakura does what's perfectly normal for her, she looks to the left and stares at an imaginary camera with a wide deadpan. It's good to get into that headspace sometimes, it helps her imagine how to coach Haku.
Learning how to use the tools here at Higurashi's to maintain her weapons is probably the best part of her new blacksmith skill. Working side by side with Tenten hopefully burns off a little of the animosity of the initial skill unlocking process, as the bun haired girl twitched for days. She has fun here though, Tenten's a nice friend and is always so supportive.
"Sakura, this is bullshit." Or maybe not.
Opening up the Geode, it turned out pretty nice.
[Goblin Knife Sharpening Stone
Rare, Reusable
Use this to sharpen any weapon with a sharp edge, giving it a 10 to all stat checks for the next encounter]
"I don't get the problem, it's just a really useful rock." Sakura points out, sliding it along Hunger and imagining the sword doing some wiggles inside. There's a glow to the edge of the black blade as the buff applies itself. It's a thick glowy orange that Naruto'd probably be super proud of.
"Well first, there's that you said my grindstone is only plus five." Tenten says, revealing to Sakura that maybe reading the menus out to Tenten isn't a great idea.
"It's five for like twenty battles though. And the sharpening stone doesn't stack, so like it's one or the other." Sakura lifts her sharpening stone, she's not sure why it's a knife sharpening stone when her katana works just fine. She's pretty sure if she used a normal kitchen knife sharpener on Hunger she'd destroy the poor thing, and it'd barely help if it did at all. Maybe she just doesn't know enough about the craft?
"All you have to do to apply it is rub it on your sword!" Tenten groans far more loudly than Sakura finds reasonable, palming her face and screaming into her hands.
"I think it's convenient." Sakura shrugs, pulling out Sasuke's new sword, and applying the buff. He'll love it the first time he uses it, which is the point.
"This is yours." She hasn't been to Sasuke's house since she tagged along with Naruto to clean it. She's not sure how Naruto got him back for that, but maybe he just overcharged him and called it a good deal. It's sad that she only has her perspective, sometimes she wants to know what everyone else is doing. She bets they have more exciting lives than her. It sucks, but at least she can tune into Haku streaming when on missions if she can find the time to get to a system with the internet.
"This is an odd shape." Sasuke takes her gift wrapping in both hands, holding out the long thin object while looking it over. It's a large square. She got it a luxury box for its luxury sheath and then wrapped it in luxury winter holiday paper. Okay, it's normal holiday paper, not luxury, but she wrapped it in like ten layers so it feels really sturdy and like she spent a lot on it. She also figured putting it in a lot of coverings would make it less obvious what it is, but Sasuke's confusion makes her slightly regret that decision.
Seeing him draw in a deep breath a moment later makes her regret it more.
"Wait-" She's too late, Sasuke's breath flows over it and flames tear through paper, burning the air and filling the room with smoke and ash.
"I didn't expect you to use that much paper." Sasuke admits, sitting in the dew covered grass outside his house while some specialized ninja work diligently behind them.
"You seem rather unconcerned about your house being on fire." Sakura points out dryly with a slightly tilted expression of amusement..
"When you're eight and your family's dead and their only legacy is fireballs, you cause a few fires a week." Sasuke shrugs, barely even looking at her as he speaks. His eyes are glued on the almost golden blade shining in his grip. Noblesse Oblige, a sword that gets stronger the more powerful someone's goals are. It feeds on convictions and noble intentions.
Naruto was a close second for her. His convictions are mostly met though. Naruto wanted a family, and to be Hokage, and the Hokage position is so far away. He doesn't talk about it a lot anymore either, since he's so happy all the time. He probably has other motivations but he hasn't spoken about them much, which is weird because he loves talking. She's being a bad sister, she should ask sometime.
Killing the slayer of your family before he can do it to anyone else? That's conviction, that's noble. It doesn't surprise her that the sword glows in his hands, or that its power is likely to rival Hunger's, at least when he's actively fighting Itachi. She gets the feeling the distance may vary when they're in a random dungeon killing giant spiders and other garbage, it's probably just a sword if he's feeling meh. She hopes it doesn't actually feed on convictions like Hunger does blood, if she just gave Sasuke weaponized depression she's going to feel terrible.
"I thought it'd be funny," Sakura finally answers his earlier, technically unspoken question, "wrapping it a lot, I figured because of the nice box it was in you'd have to cut into it really slowly and the idea of you having to use a blade to get to your blade made me giggle."
"Is it still funny?" Sasuke asks with a smirk that tells her, thankfully, that he's not that mad. She appreciates it, because she can tell it's forced. How long was he forcefully exaggerating his expressions for her, back when her charm was too low to notice properly? She'll tell him he can stop eventually, for now it's amusing.
"Yeah." Well, if Naruto didn't get him back for making them clean his house, she did just now.
Sometimes you have to be happy with what you experience, and let others be them… and burn down your teammate's house. Okay, maybe the moral got screwed up here somewhere.
"Konohamaru?" Sakura asks as she approaches her home, watching the boy stand in front of it with a big grin on his face. He's small. Well, he's always small, that's how small people work, but now she can't help but look at people his size a little differently. She's seen them with adorable horns, she can't go back.
Hunger save her.
"Hey, the boss' girl is here!" He spins on his heel, a blue scarf flowing behind him as he does. He gives her bright eyes and an even bigger grin. "Come to visit the boss?"
"Uh, sure." She decides not to refute him, she has no need to justify herself, her position, or her existence as 'not the boss' girl' to a kid. Doesn't mean she doesn't want to, just, you know, she's learning self control. "He should be out and about though, you'll only find Business Naruto and the twins around this time."
"The twins?" The boy asks, as the door opens. Two shining beacons of joy come running out with twintails - are they copying her at the moment? - and grab the boy. "What's happening!" He shouts, dragging his heels against the dirt as he's pulled by giggling phantoms into the house.
"Remember to take your shoes off!" She shouts after him, shaking her head and giving a happy sigh. She's so far from how she used to be.
That being said, she has to have a real conversation here in a few minutes.
It's about time she told her parents everything. It's going to suck, but the most they can do is lock her in her room and she's stuck here for two months anyway. They'll have to let her out for sessions with Ino at least.