Super Important AN: Due to a hilarious mess-up the raws of 96, 97, 98, 99, and 100 were posted. This has now been fixed, but you may have to go back and reread if you want the best experience. Though if you wanted the best experience you would be on SV so...

Regular AN: Sufficient Velocity and Space Battles are super far ahead, and the Pa tre on is on CH 129. You can find the link on my profile if you wanna just get there. You can even find side stories that aren't here!

"Hehe~" Konohamaru can't help but titter as they approach Naruto. It's a little odd crawling on the ground while working around the smaller bodies of three kids, but she worked that into the design of their construct so it's very workable. The first thing that came into play was making the rock believable. It's not a normal texture, she had to get a chisel and get working on making it rough and uneven. She had to use real rock for the outer layer, it just wasn't going to function at her crafting levels if she didn't. It took two days to make this, and in that time she leveled up [Carpentry] and [Stone Masonry] to level 2. Is stone masonry necessarily what she would have called that skill? Probably not, but she's not here to judge the system, she's here to craft a believable rock.

If she was going to question the system, the name of a skill would not be her start. There's been a lot of nonsense when this started, almost like it was making things from scratch and didn't truly understand the very interface it was trying to create.

There's wheels on the inside which help handle some of the weight, and platforms to make it so most of their movements are on a bar which helps steer it. It was mostly designed that way so that their movements don't ever have to be too drastic, because stomping on Moegi's feet was a real concern and she has no intentions of risking crippling a little girl for a more efficient design for a prank. The whole thing did have to be bigger than she wanted it to be, to accommodate her, but she wasn't spending two days on a moving art project and not getting into it. Well, that's not explicitly true. She had originally planned for Hanabi to take the center spot and use her Byakugan to see outside of the construct so they didn't have to have eye holes but the little Hyuga told her to eat grass. She's assuming 'eat grass' is a polite way of telling her to go away. It didn't feel very polite. Haku laughed though.

"He seems to have missed us." Sakura explains to them what she sees, "he's turning a corner, let's go right." Coordinating them is a little fun, and she's happy it worked out this way. They have tiny eye holes but it's not super clear, the only person with any real visibility is her, with a center spyglass worked into an uneven part of the top. It's complicated, and upside down, and she needs to learn more about mirrors so she can do it better next time, but it works and because it's make-shift as all hell it did completely fall to her to do it. Originally when she realized Hanabi wasn't going to do it, she wanted to figure out a way to make the kids a more central part of the prank, but with her current skills that just wasn't very possible.

Pushing on the bar and tilting their bodies, they slowly turn the corner. Her heart beats hard in her chest, and she's ready to spot him. She takes a deep breath as they turn the corner, and opens her eye wide to see-

Nothing.

"Uh… Sakura?" Konohamaru asks.
"Did he poof away?" Sakura asks, "oop!" She finds her body lurching forward with a sudden momentum from behind. She barely manages to catch herself so she doesn't completely crush the girl to her side, even if she still does manage to end up tangled in a mess of smaller limbs. She needs to figure out a fix for sudden movements from behind next time, got it.

"Rocks don't move!" She hears shouted from behind them, "that's so obvious! Who would make a photo-realistic vehicle and then forget that rocks don't move!? Why did I ask, Sakura's definitely behind this!"

"Crap, he got us, I'd expect that from my rival. Activate the bombs." Konohamaru says.

"That's so rude, what's that supposed to mean - wait, the bombs?" Sakura barely has time to process Konohamaru's words before her world is shaken by a loud bang that whites out her vision. A flash captures her, then another, and another. The ringing that takes her over is painful and abrupt, but the fear that grips her heart is so much more so.

"Ugh-ack-" Her hearing slowly comes back to the sound of her own coughing. A single hand reaches up to wipe the blackness from her eyes, only for her first blinks to make out that above her is a wall of smoke and flames. Her construct is on fire, that's fine but… "What the…"

That's all she has time for before it hits her that she was stuck in that box with actual children. "Shit." Rolling over, she's scooped them all into one pile and is checking them all over before she can even see. Her palms move quickly, activating First-Aid to assess conditions the best she can and maneuver over them. Naruto stops coughing, and then the smoke dissipates, in that order.

"We way overdid the gunpowder." Konohamaru gasps from beneath her palms. "We shouldn't have altered it for the new rock formation."

"You think? Why was there gunpowder?" Sakura allows her breaths to go towards words now that she's got confirmation no one was mulched. Their bodies seem very intact, just covered in thick soot, much like herself. Blinking away teary eyes and wiping some more black dust out of her gaze so she can see, she sighs in raspy relief. It seems superficial, some burnt clothes, a little singed hair, no one's even unconscious. The kids seem to find it funny, nevermind her panic and chilled blood. She should have checked Konohamaru's pockets for dumb stuff like that, this was on her. Maybe, she's not sure. It's not on Naruto, she's sure of that.

"Why are you involved in this?!" Naruto points at her, "Sakuraaaa! Rocks don't move!"

"But they were so cute, and this idea was so adorable..." Sakura points out, coughing again, and using her First-Aid skill again to make one final check on Konohamaru. The boy most certainly took most of the blast. He seems fine, it's just scary and she's not ready to calm down yet.

"They blew themselves up, Sakura, explosives and kids aren't cute!" Naruto seems legitimately mad at her. At least they agree on this, kids shouldn't explode.

"In my defense, I didn't know." She rasps, patting Konohamaru's chest and then rolling him over to make sure he's not hiding horrific burns.

"How would you not know!?" It's a good question, one she'd appreciate if he'd ask quieter. They already set off a bomb, half of Konoha is probably watching her manhandle the Hokage's grandson.

"Clearly, I was blindsided by three kids asking me for help." If Hanabi had been included, her day would have been made... Nah, that's a lie, her day was already made. But then Hanabi would probably have warned her about the gunpowder! Darn stick in the mud!

"They wanna play Ninja, you're invited." Sakura coughs again, exhaling black smoke directly. Her vision is still pretty hazy, she hopes she didn't suffer lung damage. Then again, what's it matter, it'll be fine tomorrow. She changes that thought to 'hope they didn't suffer lung damage'.

"Hospital first." Naruto growls under his breath, and she can't help but agree with him.
It's a sad day when Naruto's the voice of reason. At least it's not Sasuke again.

"Woosh!" The hospital is very understanding, probably because the person who blew everyone up is the Hokage's grandson and she imagines you get a lot of leeway in your shenanigans when you have that kind of credibility. She wouldn't call Konohamaru a spoiled brat, especially not when he's around Naruto, but the difference in treatment is night and day. She walked into a hospital with a bunch of six year olds with burns, covered in soot, and all he had to do was say 'I did it' to get her out of trouble.
Though, maybe she's thinking about it too positively. The Hokage will probably have plenty to say to her during their next meeting, maybe this is just everyone taking pity on her? She has definitively decided this wasn't her fault, how was she supposed to know he had gunpowder!? Tenten has limited access to the stuff and she works at an official forge!

Maybe she can use Konohamaru's connections to get Tenten better materials, it'd help her a lot in the long run. Whatever the case, once they're out of the hospital, playing ninja with the kids is fun. Watching Naruto be himself is also fun. She gets to forget about her woes and concerns and just run, jump, and chase after a bunch of kids like she's not a paid killer. Also, unlike when running and jumping and chasing after Lee, she's not sweating ryo and passing out in the dirt half the time.
Her favorite part is something Konohamaru added to the game of 'Ninja' where you occasionally break from the fun and do some old lady favors, because 'that's what ninja do.' It's so cute and sweet and gives her a lot of time to recover between rounds. The fact that they're supposed to do it stealthily and as dramatically as possible only serves to add many more reasons to laugh during their downtime.

Three hours of playing Ninja and there's not a single regrettable incident, just a lot of fixed stuff and happy ladies, that is until Konohamaru manages to run face first into a dark and broody figure. Her legs take her towards the conflict as fast as she can, but she still only manages to arrive just as Konohamaru is lifted into the air by a strong fist, the man he managed to anger holding him up by his shirt. It's a harrowing scene, one about to become very violent if she has anything to say about it. She'll kill them for touching the boy during a friendly game, or she would, if she didn't happen to notice something about the figure. "Oh hey, how are you two doing?" She waves her left arm high, her right stopping halfway through drawing her sword.

It's the boy with the ears built into his hood, him and Temari! The guy takes one look at her, before dropping Konohamaru and walking away. "Nope, not today."

"What are you - oh, it's Sakura." Temari's nose twitches, and Sakura's not really sure what she did to deserve an attitude, she thought they bonded.

"Where's Gaara?" Sakura asks, "I haven't seen him the last couple of days."

"He's been given orders to lay low until the exams, you'll see him then." Temari says, one of her hands flopping to the side, her fingers outstretched at an angle. Sakura is pretty sure she's supposed to interpret the motion as sass. "I'm sure he'll be in your business plenty."

"You make it sound bad," Sakura pouts at her, maybe she's wrong and they don't see him as their brother after-all, "come along Konohamaru, Ninjas go this way!" And before long she's leading them through the streets in a totally different direction.

The best part about playing Ninja is all the smiles, there's no reason to worry about all this now. So Gaara's siblings have an attitude today, whatever. Konohamaru and his two friends Udon and Moegi are more important… Is that their name? Uhhh…

She still sucks at that. She knows his name sounds like food. Udon? Oopon? Ramen? It's not Ramen.