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

A week passes in relative silence.

Gaming during the day, trying to sleep during the night. It's difficult, incredibly difficult, and despite his orders not to train she does it anyway.

Strength has increased to 31, for reaching Genin Strength, you have unlocked the "Genin Strength" trait.

Genin Strength: You officially no longer tire from medium encumbrance, and when testing your strength against anyone below genin strength, you just win without a contest. Your state does not matter, winning is set to 1 and losing is set to 0.

Dexterity has increased to 29

Agility has increased to 29

Constitution has increased to 26

Charm has increased to 8

She exercises a good part of her day away in between gaming breaks, and takes special effort to exercise before bed so she can collapse into it exhausted and empty.

She learns to juggle.

She learns she can sprint around her city block, and no one questions a ninja running around.

She even intentionally runs into a few walls mid-sprint, for constitution and asks her father to help her spar so she doesn't fall completely behind her teammates. That was emotionally difficult, she'd never been hit by her father before and even in an intentional setting it felt really bad. He didn't seem to like it either, but she can't just fall behind.

She can't be abandoned.

Charm was harder.

"I bet you're talking like that because things are really hard right now, want to talk about it?"

She had to actually talk to shittalkers instead of telling them she did their mom last night.

"Are you okay? I know things are hard, but I'm a person too. I understand you."

Yes, she got these lines online instead of coming up with them herself, so they were worth less experience but… It helped. Charm 8 and she already feels like she understands what she did wrong a little better. She still thinks Kakashi was overboard, but she was antagonizing him. Nine? Just because she knew he wouldn't be there at seven didn't mean she wasn't intentionally calling him out without an explanation. She challenged him, and he responded with a jutsu.

That's what ninjas do. That's what they're taught to do. Ninjas aren't like civilians, when you don't have the tools to socially do something you have an alternate option, punch them in the face.

She still doesn't like it, and she definitely can't wait until the day she can deck him back, but that day isn't today.

It takes a week, but…

Chronically Underslept Trait, Lost. Debuffs on all statistical applications removed.

She wakes up on day seven to that message. It's a good message. She's not sure how strong the debuffs were, but she's happy to know they're gone. Her actual statistics haven't changed, so it must have been invisible.

And also this one.

Sleeping Skill Gained

At base proficiency, the Sleeping Skill increases the ease of getting to sleep, and shrinks the amount of sleep needed for a restore. You now awaken from a full rest with a reset state, meaning injuries, and debuffs, are removed upon waking no matter how severe.

HP and Chakra are set to max upon a reset.

A reset is accrued after a full 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep at this moment.

That's huge.

That one skill is so strong she spends over twenty minutes staring at it.

It doesn't say she grows limbs back, but it might as well say that. Chakra is set to max, really?

They're taught in the academy that your chakra pool is the effort of about three days of a slowly trickling force working its way into a pool. Unless you completely empty the pool like a dummy and accrue a debuff, you will get it all back within three days.

This means that she can use three days of chakra every day as long as she can get good sleep. This might be a real problem if she has to camp out behind enemy lines and has to sleep with one eye open, but in her daily life that means she's actually working on almost three times her normal capabilities.

While she's still limited by her chakra stat as to how much she can use in any one instance, her daily stamina overall just went up to incredible degrees.

All she has to do is get some sleep. Now if only she wasn't bad at that.

Genin strength is cool too, but auto-winning a situation in which she already won doesn't feel like a huge win. No longer tiring from medium encumbrance is huge, but she doesn't carry equipment at the moment so until she has the money to get equipment, she's screwed.

She has missed the last seven days of missions, so she's broke. She actually had to cancel her sub to FF14, which was painful but daddy Yoshi did say to cancel it when you need to, that it's not a job and it's okay.

It's time to take drastic measures. Further drastic measures, pausing her sub hurt her soul.

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"Fanclub, I call you all here today, because I need money." She hasn't used her status as leader in a while, and she can already tell they're thinking of replacing her. Being Sasuke's teammate is bad enough, the entire club relies on them having equal odds or it falls apart; being gone for over a week without so much as sending a text?

Scandalous.

They're all here, including Ino, that's helpful. Ino doesn't normally come to meetings, she's more an honorary member than an actual member. She finds their methods too severe, too creepy, and has said she all around despises whoever stole Sasuke's underwear that one time.

Sakura kinda agrees, actually, this facade has gone on too long.

But dropping it before she can dismantle it from the inside would be irresponsible, so she's gotta take this opportunity to do that.

Sasuke deserves better than her just dropping it and letting some crazy run the club. She's managed to keep things largely safe, and contained. Largely, sometimes things get out of hand and while she'll accept that's partially her responsibility, she can't actually control every crazy girl twenty four hours a day so she doesn't feel too bad.

Ino looks really worried about her, but that changes very quickly when she actually looks at her face. Something about looking at her right now reassures Ino, and she suspects it's the lack of bags under her eyes.

Has Ino been that worried about her?

Has everyone been that worried about her?

"And because we're becoming adults, and some of us already are… I know some of you failed to become genin, but I believe in your persistence, your capabilities, and your perseverance."

Drafting up this simple speech took hours, which is more shameful than she'd like to admit.

But her parents are very against her and this club so asking them wasn't an option.

"I'd like to gather the funds to throw one last party, and then disband the club. We can't have harassing a person be a huge part of our identities as adults, and Sasuke has shown zero interest in any of us. Ever."

"That's not true, he looked at me that one time!" One girl shouts.

"He was looking in your general direction, Nemi." Sakura has to hold back the snark, make it sound pleasant. It's so hard. "Sasuke is anti-social, he's not interested in any of us. I think he's into mature women? Maybe we try again in a more, calm, collected manner in a few years." She suggests. "But for now, let's throw a party, and move on with our lives." Sakura feels really proud of herself.

Until the throwing starts.

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"That was really mature of you." Ino praises her, patting her shoulder while Sakura checks over the new shuriken cuts on her face with a mirror. They'll disappear tonight, she doesn't really care that much. It'll also be proof that she's not hallucinating. She'll finally have real, tangible proof that her abilities are real.

"Didn't work." Sakura points out.

"Sometimes it's the effort that counts." Ino shakes her head, leaning against her and dabbing one of her wounds with a cloth. It feels nice to be cared for.

By being removed from the Sasuke Fanclub, and being honest about your gaming with your team - at least kinda - you've officially lost the Double Life trait.

It has been replaced by Undercover Novice.

Undercover Novice: You receive bonuses to skill checks related to maintaining your cover when pretending to be part of an organization.

"I thought you were great." Ino continues. Sadly Ino's praise does not remove disappointment, but maybe enough of it from enough people will. "That organization has done terrible things to someone we care about, and trying to dismantle it was the right thing to do."

"I, don't even like Sasuke." Sakura admits, looking into Ino's cute eyes. They always struck her as so pretty, and the girl has the kindest smile. She looks so proud of her, it's rejuvenating.

"I know." Ino says. "Me neither."

"Wha-"

"We were kids." Ino actually giggles, shaking her head in amusement. "He's kind of a dick. Like, a cute, very noble, broody dick, but still a dick."

"Why pretend?" Sakura asks.

"Same as you." Ino says.

"To hide something?"

"Mmhmm."

Sakura doesn't ask what, she doesn't feel like she has that right.

"So are we friends again?"

"We never weren't." The hug from her bestie does warm her heart.

She hasn't been this awake while talking to Ino in actual years. It's so nice to actually feel the breeze, and feel her warmth.

"Thank you." Sakura sighs happily.

Like a great weight has flown away.

"Now about you needing money…" Ino trails. "What are you doing with all your money? It's not drugs is it?"

"I haven't been able to do missions." Sakura admits. "Kakashi gave me a private mission: learn to sleep. No missions means no pay."

"..." Ino stares at her.

"What?"

"Sakura, you're aware we get a salary for being Genin students under a sensei, right?" Ino asks. "It's to stop students from starving if their sensei decides to postpone missions for a couple weeks."

"I'm sorry, what?" Sakura instinctively salivates at the idea of money in her FF14 account, err, her pocket!

"Did you sleep through the Hokage's briefing on it?" Ino laughs.

"Yes."

Sakura hasn't been reflexively slapped by Ino in a while.

It feels nice.

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It's a lot of money.

Like, far more than D ranks pay. She has two paychecks to cash at once because they got a paycheck on day one and it's been a week. It's so much money, she's never held even remotely this much cash in her hands before.

It's supposed to be used for living expenses, equipment, rations for extended travel, supplies, and to ensure their sensei cannot put them into a situation in which they can't survive. Apparently Jonin used to do stuff like that, which means there are failsafes to prevent extreme sensei abuse.

Visiting a local blacksmith and a few other ninja shops - to be professional and responsible - nets her a traveling pack, an armored mesh undershirt, a freaking sword because swords are cool, and enough kunai to kill a hundred Naruto clones. She also now has a chain mesh netting on her legs, which draws a few eyes to them. It's nice to be appreciated for being professional… She hopes that's the case anyway. Freaking maybe perverts…

She doesn't have the money to put in a special order to make the sword look like any famous blades from her favorite games, but to be fair she doesn't actually know how to use a sword right now so getting all decked out in cool loot would just be a waste of money anyway. For now, the sword will hang by her side and on her wall until she can convince Kakashi to teach her how to use it.

Who knows, maybe he'll tell her she's an idiot and make her return it. It wouldn't be the first time he's called her out in recent times. Well, recently this week, he's done it zero… It's thinking about her team wistfully when she remembers something. Looking down at her paycheck, she can't help but think about how uncomfortable Naruto looked at doing a mission unpaid. For her, it was whatever. One day of pay means nothing to her.

Sasuke's rich, so it means nothing to him either.

But to Naruto, it looked like he was told to eat glass.

"I should go check on him."

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Finding out where her teammate lives was surprisingly easy. She had to formally tell Kakashi she'd be there at training tomorrow anyway, so asking him about Naruto was just a simple extra line. The man stared at her sword with a questioning gaze, but decided not to ask about it.

Standing in front of Naruto's home, she's actually pretty surprised. It's okay.

She kinda figured he'd have painted it orange or something, but maybe his parents are very strict about the home life.

Knocking on the door, she's met with a grouchy Naruto.

"I said I'd have it when I get my next stipend you-Sakura?"

His eyes light up from pissed to happy and practically glowing the moment he sees her.

She's never seen him with that kind of face.

Looking behind him, she sees clothes stacked all over the place, dirty dishes, it looks like he hasn't dusted in actual years…

"Naruto…" Sakura begins.

"Why is your home this dirty?"

"Well, um, I uh-"

"No, Naruto." She places a hand on his shoulder, and spins him around to look at what she can see from the damn doorway. She can already smell mildew, and she's sure there's mold out of sight. "Why."

"Well I don't really know how to clean." He admits.

"... Why not?"

It turns out Naruto's an orphan in an overpriced home he moved to because he was annoying his neighbors with his boisterous attitude and loud training at all hours of the night and he was evicted.

She lives in a six bedroom house her parents purchased when young and in love because her parents genuinely thought they would have five kids, and then only had her.

It's not a hard math equation.

"Mom, Naruto's moving in."

Announcing this at dinner may have been a bad idea.

Their faces are mixed, to say the least.

"Okay, let me rephrase that." She takes a deep breath.

"Naruto lacks basic life skills, lives beyond his means, has no parents, is my teammate, and we have enough extra rooms to move my entire team in. What is the correct answer?"

"Ah…" Her mother takes a sip of her drink. A very long sip, super long.

"Honey, moving a boy in suddenly is uh…" Her father tries. "You have no idea why this is a problem, do you?"

"Nope." She admits.

"..." Her parents share a look.

A very lengthy look.

Woo, matter settled! She praises herself for a job well done.

No rebuttal means she wins!

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She's not exactly sure what his neighbors complained about. Naruto is actually very quiet in his room, and sticks to himself. Maybe he learned the lesson but too late at his old place? Or, maybe he's just older and smarter now.

That is before the whole family gets together and teaches him how to do laundry, how to clean his room, how to dust, and many other essential important factors he needs training on.

It was difficult at first, but once she explained it's like training but for his life instead of his fists, he got really behind it. Watching him bond with her mother over small things like how to clean was really heartwarming.

Watching him create a hundred clones and suddenly clean their house to such a degree that the three of them can only stare in awe is a very different experience.

Phenomenal, might be a good word.

"Sakura." Her mother says suddenly. "Naruto's moving in."

"I know." Sakura nods slowly. "He already did."

"Can he move in again?" Her father asks.

"Probably, he's got clones…" Sakura trails, watching as their kitchen goes from normal to sparkling in seconds, and a roving band of house cleaners passionately turns the environment into something out of a fantasy novel. "He could make so much money as a cleaning service."

"The world will be cleaner." Sakura's mother agrees. "We have made the world cleaner on this day."

"Let the prophecy be fulfilled." Her father croaks.

"So it has been foreseen, so it shall be." Sakura finishes.

"Holy shit."