Sakura Haruno The Gaming Addict, And Her Gamified Life [Naruto]

She's practically vibrating when she arrives at the training ground at seven, it's the fateful Monday where she'll prove she really is wide eyed and bushy tailed and nothing can stop her. Which is odd, because before this gaming system she never woke up before noon without feeling like hell frozen over. The cuts on her face from kunai disappeared without medical treatment, which finally proved exactly what she suspected.

She's probably not crazy. There's always the possibility that the cuts are still there and she somehow hallucinated their disappearance, and no one's reacting to open bleeding wounds…

But that's absurd, and the most logical scenario is that she has gaming based super powers.

It's just what makes sense. She'll be doing a mission today, so she spent a good portion of yesterday deep diving back into Streets of Rogue. As a mission based, objective based rogue-lite with a focus on hardcore consequences and fast reaction times in chaos, she figures the refresher'll help in their hardcore missions. She also needed to remember how to get away from crazy nonsense in an emergency, because uh…

[Naruto Uzumaki

Threat Level: Flee On Sight Order, Grade 2]

She wishes she could say learning a new scan trait was a cause for celebration. Even if it's just "Scan Trainee" and all she can tell is someone's full name and threat level, it's an incredible proof of concept and that's awesome?

But uh, Her parents were considered medium, the chunin she passed on the way here were dangerous, and Kakashi who is here early to make sure she's okay and ready is uh…

[Kakashi Hatake

Threat Level: Incredibly Dangerous]

Remarkably less concerning than Naruto's.

What the actual fuck is with her new roommie that whatever's up with the world finds Naruto scarier than Kakashi?

It gets weirder, she visited the library on the way here. The only other Flee On Sight Order issued by the ninja villages was a Grade 1, as in the only person to ever be more terrifying than Naruto by law, was the Fourth Hokage.

Her genin teammate is only considered marginally less soul destroyingly, quake in your boots, piss yourself and pray for death terrifying; than the most dangerous man to have ever lived.

Minato Namikaze once killed three hundred men in one fight then announced his warm up was done.

Minato Namikaze single handedly turned the tides of a war by being so scary the enemy just didn't fight battles he was at.

Entire armies shit themselves and fled important strategic objectives at the mere sight of blonde hair and a strange kunai. The entire Yamanaka clan did better in the war because people were too nervous at the sight of them and their hair to think straight, giving them a strategic edge for the first twenty seconds of every engagement.

Minato Namikaze killed the fucking Kyuubi. She's not entirely sure the man died, it's a popular myth in the academy that he's just taking a nap because once you step that far outside the realm of human being you don't sleep in the same timestream as everyone else.

And as far as her new powers are concerned, she should treat them as basically the same person.

Death itself lives a room down from her, and a room away from where her parents sleep.

So no, she's not happy about Scan Trainee. It's either lying to her or almost everything she knows about the world is a lie.

Naruto's nice though, so surely that's not important.

Eheh… Heh…

Fuck.

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"Sakura, sword." Kakashi points at her hip. Pulling her away from the other two while they got to work did make her cheeks a little puffy with indignation. It singles her out, and makes her look like a slacker. She wanted to get right to working out with Naruto, and showing that she's gotten stronger.

Still, him taking notice of her new equipment is nice. "I thought I should get serious, and I figured, your bingo book entry mentions you used a sword so maybe you could teach me a few tricks?" Her smile is bright, her nose twitches, and she's pretty sure he sees right through her. She thinks swords are cool. He's totally going to tell her it's not a toy and make her return it.

She's waiting. Any moment now, anyyyy moment.

"I could." He agrees.

She finds herself startled enough to blink a few times, before taking a step back, then taking it forward again. "Really?"

"Kenjutsu is not to be taken lightly, so I'll need you to return that piece of scrap metal after today, but yes." He says, eying the piece at his side with his one good eye. "I have dozens of much higher quality blades lying around, and I'd rather you practice with a wooden sword anyway. It'll allow you to train with your teammates without worrying about holding back."

"Don't I need to learn the weight and stuff?" She asks.

"Yes, but as a ninja, learning to follow through is actually significantly more important than technique. Most of our fights are not resolved with a swift strike or a good parry, they're decided in a moment of distraction. Catching your opponent off guard is how you should always be fighting, it's your intent from moment one and you should never let it stop being your intent."

"All that to say…" She trails, scratching her cheek a little.

She gets it, and it makes sense, but that doesn't explain why she can't use a sword to train, which sucks, because swords are really freaking cool and swinging them in the wind was half of the point.

"If you train against your teammates with an actual sword, you'll learn to stop your strikes before they're hurt. That means you'll die." He manages to say that without sounding too sarcastic.

He is quite blunt though. She appreciates it. "Like, die, die. No respawning."

She does idly wonder if she can respond-"Ow!"

"Reality is not a game." He scolds her, holding a wooden sword he got from who knows where. She didn't see it, but that's kind of cool. "You'll train with an actual sword for kata and technique, you'll use a wooden sword for sparring. Now, you're going to repeat these next six movements for the next three hours straight. Watch closely."

He takes a step back.

Takes hold of the hilt with both hands. Raises the sword, swings down until right around her thighs - a strike meant to bisect her but not go any further and waste movement -, he then spins on his heel and holds the blade up to block something that isn't there, before spinning around and slashing from left to right, before spinning the blade just enough to change its direction, and using his grip to completely switch directions for a slash just as damn fast as the first.

He jumps forward a little, pretends to clash with another blade, then throws a textbook kick meant to hit someone's hand, before following up with a full on slash from top right to bottom left.

"Am I supposed to take special meaning from any of that?" Sakura asks. "That looked cool and all but a little strange."

"No, none of that is important." He says sternly, looking directly into her eyes.

"Then why, um, Sensei?" She gulps.

"They are marginally complicated movements that would be useful to know how to do, set up so that you can tell how to flow between one and another. I don't care if you memorize those, or if you decide to go read a kenjutsu book and learn a bunch of basic techniques. What I do care about is that you can flow between a set of movements that are comprehensive and on the fly."

"I appreciate the importance, but why learn that before actual technique?" She asks.

"Because I don't have ten thousand hours with you, so I need to make sure you can actually learn Kenjutsu before I start. If you lack the flexibility to flow between a set of six movements interchangeably, every single thing I teach you is a waste of both our time. We'd both be better off just teaching you ninjutsu." He pats her shoulder. "Now get to work, I have a date with my dead friends."

His single eye makes a smile at her, before he poofs away like fainted pokemon porting back to its ball. There's even a red light, making Sakura vaguely suspicious for a second.

Luckily having slept recently gives her the clarity of mind to recognize that no, Kakashi is probably not the Hokage's favorite pokemon.

Well, time to get training and prove she can waste her time efficiently.

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It was not a waste.

First, Dexterity rose to 30, that's nice.

[Skill Learned: Kenjutsu Basic

You officially know the basics of Kenjutsu. The weapon flows in your hand in a way it didn't before, you no longer suffer as many negatives in combat for the awkwardness of a weapon you don't understand, and you do half damage to yourself in the event of a sword accident. You are no longer more dangerous to yourself than the enemy with a sword.]

Just the half damage to herself is incredible, but a few practice swings show that she just probably learned a few hundred hours of training in a few hours. She's still bad at this, but there's no way in hell that's natural. Thinking about that led her to the discovery that she has traits she isn't aware of.

[Trait Discovered: Chunin Mental

Learn skills below Chunin level at 10x the speed. (Does not apply to Traits or Stats)]

That's bullshit, she feels like a cheater.

She doesn't like cheating, but she can't get rid of the ability so there's not much she can do.

[Trait Discovered: Jonin Control

Perfect Control of Chakra Techniques below Jonin, once learned to at least Medium proficiency.]

That's probably worse.

But it's actually a pretty good time, now that she knows how to investigate skills and traits, to look into the skills and traits she doesn't have a description for and figure them out.

Laying in the grass, sweating a river. She's not pretty right now, but she at least needs to catch her breath before Kakashi shows up so he doesn't send her home before her first mission.

[Skills:

[Academy Taijutsu Style: You are significantly proficient in the Academy Taijutsu Style. The groundwork has been completed for you to learn other, still low complication, Taijutsu Styles much faster.]

[Studying: You possess a great capability to amass knowledge on a specific topic you are in search of. You know where to look, what's relevant, and understand a multitude of different study techniques.]

[Gaming: You are highly proficient in gaming, and improve significantly quicker than most at any game you put your mind to. You're naturally more skilled than most, and are successful at most gaming avenues. You couldn't go pro, but you could probably make a decent streaming career if this whole ninja thing doesn't work out.]

[Clone Technique: You are highly proficient in the E rank jutsu, Clones Technique. You do not currently possess the chakra capacity to evolve this technique.]

[Transformation Technique: You are highly proficient in the E rank jutsu, Transformation Technique. You do not currently possess the chakra capacity to evolve this technique.]

[Body Replacement Technique: You are highly proficient in the E rank jutsu, Body Replacement Technique. You do not currently possess the chakra capacity to evolve this technique.]

[Lying Badly: You are really bad at lying.]]

[Traits:

[No Life Gamer: You put all of your efforts into gaming and you're still only a few steps above a filthy casual. You're who people on the internet joke about, and the worst part is they're not totally wrong. [Negative], [Can Be Worked Off by either Getting a Life or Becoming a Professional Gamer]]

[Sasuke Trivia Expert: You know everything you think there is to know about Sasuke. His style, his interests, his mannerisms, you even know what his toothpaste tastes like. But have you actually had a conversation with the boy? You should. [Neutral] [Can be Worked Off by either ignoring Sasuke for too long, or Upgraded by getting Sasuke's Trust to Friend]]

[Unnaturally Good Chakra Control: You're a freak of nature and no one is sure why. You have Jonin level chakra control as a Genin, and it's not because of hard work. [Positive], [Can be Upgraded through Hard Work]]

[Cram Study Master: Nothing says passing like shotgunning an energy drink and studying everything you need in the last thirty minutes before a test. You have shown an incredible proficiency to cram knowledge down your throat like a breakfast burrito, and gain big bonuses to last minute information gains. Events must be significant for this trait to take effect. [Positive]]

[Disappointment: A significant portion of the people in your life find you are not living up anywhere near to your potential. You're not impressive, you don't stand out, and you need a shower. [Negative] [Can be worked off through reputation gains and basic skills learnt]]

Now she's pretty sure she takes enough showers, but Disappointment still really hurts. Quite a few of her traits do. It's not where she wants to be in life, and it feels like before today she didn't even have the option to know what a screw up she is.

"That's probably the point." She jokes, while stabbing the air above her.

"Hehe, point."

Well, it's eleven and Kakashi isn't here yet so, time to go talk to Sasuke.

Maybe her skill is right, maybe she does need to be friendly to people.

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"Heya Sasuke, how's the training going?" She asks the boy who's currently doing some sort of exercise she doesn't know the name of. His legs are hanging over a branch on a tree at around his knees, and he's pulling himself up with his waist alone. At least, that's what it looks like. There could be chakra involved in some crazy way.

She's never seen him sweat before, but there's so much. It makes his shirt a little see through, and she has to look away with a blush. He of course sees that blush, which means she's already off to a great start.

"Same as yours, why?" He asks. Which is actually more acknowledgement than he gave her the entirety of the academy. "I can't help but notice your rabid pseudo-clan has gotten worse in the past day."

She winces instinctively at that. "I tried to disband the club." She admits. "They didn't like that."

"Too bad they didn't hurt you." He says aloofly.

"I'm sorry, what?" She blinks right up at his moving form. Forget the shirt, he's an asshole. Always remember Sakura, he is an asshole.

Naruto is death incarnate but Sasuke's a dick.

"Well, if they hurt you, we could both press charges." He explains. "You're a ninja, and the moment they're a violent organization, they're a violent organization that's targeting both of us."

"Harassment isn't enough?" She asks, very suddenly wishing her powers weren't real, if only for a moment. If she said they did attack her, evidence would be requested. She's pretty sure Ino's testimony would be enough, but then there's the question of where the damage went. She didn't go to the hospital, and her parents don't know medical jutsu, so…

"No, you can't actually harass a public figure in the same way you can a civilian. I'm the last Uchiha and a ninja, and you're a ninja, so we're both public figures. Violence is prohibited no matter what though, at least aside from training purposes."

"Ah." She stares a little slack jawed. "So you don't want me hurt?"

"Why would I?" He asks, continuing what looks like the hardest exercise, in the freaking world.

She is not happy to see that she'll be doing that someday. That looks like the worst thing ever.

"Ah, right. Sorry." She turns away and starts walking.

"Sorry for what?"

"Nothing!" He's not an asshole, apparently.

Her bad.

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She flows from movement to movement like a natural, the air moving for her, a little dance making her feel alive. Performing has always been something she's loved doing, and her traits were right, streamer was actually one of her back up plans if she failed the academy.

To have Kakashi's eyes on her while she uses her blade to perfectly portray the movements he told her to learn, in random orders that shift perfectly, is magical. If she wasn't so exhausted she'd be pretty sure she died and went to heaven. There's nothing in the world that could make this better.

"She learned really fast." Sasuke praises her to Kakashi. "It's all gibberish, but she learned it."

"It reminds me of some of your clanmates." Kakashi says. "I had to show her once and now it's rote."

"That'll be me one day." Sasuke points out.

"But not today." Kakashi pats him on the back, and for his credit, Sasuke nods to himself.

She genuinely managed to impress her sensei and teammate. If nothing else, it's probably credit towards working off Disappointment. The description doesn't say it has any real negatives to it, but she hella wants that off her sheet. It's a very sore point for her at the moment. "Today, Sakura's the Uchiha with the magic eyes."

"Wish I could argue." Sasuke says simply. Admiring her in a way she really didn't expect from him, ever. Why isn't he being a dick?

There are two universal facts she knew before today.

Naruto can eat a lot of Ramen, like an absurd amount, like too much god damn ramen.

And Sasuke's a dick.

She's gonna have to buy Naruto Ramen to make sure she didn't warp dimensions in her sleep. Her poor paycheck…

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Her first mission is simple. It's also incredibly disappointing. Naruto made it sound awesome, like they were saving princesses and killing demons and conquering border territory.

As it turns out, Naruto is a much, much, much better liar than she is.

Her first mission is to pull weeds from a farmer's potato farm. Large green roots and tops stand up to about her knees, and she's pretty sure they're not supposed to. She's never seen a fresh potato plant, but she has eaten a potato, and these are huge.

These potatoes could probably end world hunger, if it was a big problem.

With chakra farming that issue kind of evaporated quite some time ago. Food bills are rather cheap, and there's so much excess that the needy have no problems. Most farmers pay their taxes in excess food which is routed right to orphan and homeless mouths.

At least here in fire country, these potatoes are more weird than useful. The strange part is that she's having problems finding actual weeds. "Naruto?" She asks, looking up to check with them all. Ten Narutos and not a single nod, just a lotta shakes and a pissy Sasuke. The boy looks like he's about to use a fire jutsu and torch the whole farm, but that'd likely end up with another unpaid D rank mission to find some way to compensate the man. Possibly several, since it's his livelihood and Konoha's reputation would be at stake. They might end up unpaid servants for years… Or at least until Sasuke got fed up with it and dropped enough money on the man to make his roof collapse from the weight alone.

The air is warm, it always is here in fire country, but she can't help but notice it's a little warmer than it probably should be. "Sasuke, nooo!" She shouts.

Earning herself an odd look from eleven genin - err, two, and nine clones.

"What?" Sasuke asks. His hands are still resting by his side, and one of his brows is raised rather high. "I thought you said you were awake?"

"I am, I just, it's hot." Sakura admits with a flush, one that steams across her cheeks and torments the bridge of her nose like molten iron. "I thought um, fire chakra."

"Why would there be fire-wholly crap!" Sakura for the first time in her life, witnesses Sasuke fall back and land on his tush with genuine fear in his eyes. In another setting she might clap. It's a hilarious sight, and Sasuke's superiority might genuinely be challenged if the now unofficial fanclub saw this. In another setting, in this one, she's terrified.

She whips out her janky sword that Kakashi will probably scold her for using, and jumps to cut a giant potato in half. Why? Because that potato is six feet tall and just shot flame breath at her teammate.

Why?

How?

Who cares? She's got her weapon half lodged in the monster from head to root, when her blade gets stuck, and she's already kind of got a grasp on what Kakashi meant about her weapon. "Shit." She jumps up in the air and kicks off of it, holding her weapon with both hands so that it flies away with her. A hasty flip is realized mid-air, and she lands just in time to realize she managed to cut into her leg during her kick.

It barely hurts, lucky her, another injury she'll have to explain tomorrow morning when it's missing. At least it doesn't seem very deep. "Naruto!" She shouts. "The potatoes are attacking, make like a thousand clones and get weeding!"

"Alrighty Sakura!"

The fact that such a simple statement is said with the deafening power of a stadium filled to the brim is good enough for her to book it towards Kakashi, at the farmer's house. A combat roll to the side - after being sure to put her weapon away to avoid mishap - is completed just in time to avoid a fireball that scorches the land and burns the devil crops.

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As it turns out, lying about what your mission entails is a crime.

It's also incredibly common, like, the main reason genin are required to have a higher up for any mission outside the direct confines of the village, common. Her first D rank is a C rank, she really hopes that's not indicative of a pattern or anything. A girl like her thrives off plans. Having nothing go according to them really bothers her in a way she can't quite describe. It's why she doesn't play a lot of team games, others add randomness she's just not very comfortable with.

MMOs and run and guns are one thing, but if teamwork is actually required she's probably trying it solo despite having a team, and even then, she's got her mic on to trash talk her bad teammates into submission.

Which is why she's doing just that tonight, playing a nice run and gun extraction shooter while enjoying the catered experience of the bayou. The thick swamps, the horrifying abominations, the sounds tickling her ears and the distant gunshots are identifiable because every single gun in this game has its own unique sound. If she liked teammates more she'd probably be really into this game. It's fun, it's gritty, it's got excellent sound design and her footsteps feel real.

As is, going solo kind of sucks. You never know when you're going to - "gaah, damn-it!" She groans as she's shown her death screen, nice and red and oh great she's being burned.

Her rando probably won't even revive her.

She grabs her energy drink while looking at just who killed her.

[Go-To-Bed-Sakura]

That's an odd screen name.

She looks at her hand, shakes the drink a little, and decides to put the rest in the fridge for the morning.

Best not to tempt fate.