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

"The next mission for Team 7 is, an errand to the neighboring town... to baby-sit the chief councilor's boy." She hears the Hokage speak, and while she cringes inside at yet another boring D rank mission, she can't deny that it's probably wise. It's only been a month since she and Sasuke put each-other in the hospital over a friendly spar, it's not like they can be trusted. Doesn't stop her from failing to hold in her disappointment in her air flow, but that's the price of being her.

"Enough! I want to do something exciting! We already did a C rank mission, remember, we can handle something like that!" Naruto shouts. His hand outstretches and points right to the Hokage.

"You fool, you're still bottom rookie, everyone moves up the ladder by gaining experience with simple missions!" Iruka of all people shouts, slamming his hands on the desk and standing right up to growl at them all in the instructor way he's known for.

Sadly for him, they're not his students anymore. They don't have to care, and she doesn't.

"But we've gotten experience, Sakura's not even wearing the same outfit anymore!" Naruto shouts. "That's development!"

She is in fact, not wearing the same outfit anymore. A fact that suddenly makes her rather self conscious as everyone looks at her. It's still pink, she wanted to keep that. Her bubblegum aesthetic is bright and happy and makes her feel good about herself when she looks in the mirror. But a long cloth almost skirt has been replaced with bright shorts and long armored mesh leggings. They came in fishnet or actual chainmail, and she figured fishnet was better because who the fuck wears chainmail openly as a design choice? Her shoes are of much higher quality, and her top, while still flowing over a little, has been changed to wear the Uzumaki, Uchiha, and Haruno crest in a triangle on her back and front.

She wasn't aware that the Uzumaki had a damn crest until she went to the library for a day with Naruto and he decided he wanted to learn about his past family. Apparently having a family now made him really want to know, so here she is, wearing the past sins and achievements of his family just like she does hers.

Her family crest? It's nothing special, it's a leaf with a carriage. They used to be merchants apparently, and when they switched over to ninjas to protect their home they kept the idea. She's vibrant, she's bubblegum, she's supportive of her teammates. A glance at Sasuke says he wants a better mission too. They've gotten so much better, and not just in skill. They've had an entire extra month of paychecks come in, and the quality of her gear has gotten a ton better if nothing else. There's not a single thing she wears today that she owned last month, besides her Chaos blade at her side.

She's found it actually does drain her life to use it. There's a lot of cool factors to it. Kakashi got her an actual magic sword, and by kami's word she intends to fucking use it!

"Naruto, let me enlighten you to the nature of missions." The Hokage says. "Requests pour into the village every day. They range from babysitting, to assassinations... A wide spectrum of requests are recorded on the request list-"

The Hokage continues explaining the rules of the universe to her teammate while she checks on her equipment, idly listens in on Naruto talk about his ramen order - she'll be joining him for it so it's kinda important - and thinks back on a conversation a couple weeks ago. It's technically rude to ignore the Hokage, but she already knows all this, and so should he actually since he passed the academy.

Team goals, Sasuke had said them so offhandedly, he expected her to know.

She didn't, and she was too afraid to ask and reveal that she'd slept through whatever lecture. It wasn't until she managed to corner Kakashi alone after training one day that she got an answer.

They're going to kill Itachi. She didn't know who that was, but they all agreed - her included - they'd help Sasuke murder some random dude. Naruto had probably misunderstood, she wasn't awake, and now they have an objective.

Looking into this man, they stand no chance. Sleeping or in full fighting gear, it doesn't matter to Itachi, the fight would go exactly the same. He would actually prefer they be ready for the fight because that'd be less walking from house to house.

But that's okay. Itachi's a missing nin, and without the help of a village, missing ninja don't tend to get better. They still can, they'll get stronger, and one day they'll kill a man she hadn't even heard of until not too long ago. It's sad she still has Sasuke Trivia Expert and not its enhanced version, but she's been talking to him more, she's been supportive, and she really thinks she's making ground.

She's been wrong about Sasuke for years. He's not an asshole.

He's an idiot hiding it by staying quiet. She has two idiots on her team, they're her idiots.

Hence the crest. That's the real reason she was assigned to this team, because she's an idiot too. At least social, and they're all supposed to become people together… Or at least one moderately functional person.

"Huh? Listen!" The Hokage shouts, while Naruto rambles about lunch.

And it occurs to her. No one was paying attention. Not even Kakashi. They might be in trouble.

"Maaaaan, you always lecture me, old man!" Naruto says. "But I'm not some little prankster like you think, we already did a C rank, give us a C rank! We didn't even need Kakashi's help."

"You destroyed an entire farm field." Kakashi points out.

"The farm field was attacking!" Naruto argues.

Sakura pulls a drink from her pouch, and has a sip. Fizzy and orange. Is it good? No, don't store soda in a flask, that's dumb. It makes her look distinguished though.

"Man, I'm gonna get scolded later for this." Kakashi sighs as he rubs the back of his head. Her gaze focuses on those fingers, she's found anytime he's doing something there's a secondary purpose. Kakashi never just does something. Her parents were right, he could probably teach her to breathe better.

Sadly she can't determine the reason for this action.

"Okay, fine!" The Hokage shouts with dignity only the hat could give.

"Huh?" It's not just Sakura.

Sasuke and Naruto all look up.

"If you insist, I'll have you do a C rank mission." The Hokage announces. "But it's gonna be terrible."

"I like terrible things." Sakura shrugs.

"Terrible does sound amusing at least." Sasuke agrees.

"Go terrible!" Naruto jumps in the air and throws a fist up.

"Gonna get scolded so much." Kakashi complains.

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They find their charge, passed out outside of a bar, covered in piss. It's not exactly a dignified place for him to be, but his mission is in an odd place. It's long term so it's a C rank, and there is some danger, but it's mostly just an easy but long mission. This means people capable of doing C rank missions have turned it down because they'd rather have something quicker, and those not capable of doing D ranks weren't assigned it.

They're officially an in-between.

"This is who we're guarding?" Sakura asks, kicking the man on the ground. He rolls over just in time to vomit in response. "Really, this is our reward?"

"He needs guarding." Kakashi shrugs.

"Looks like he really, really, needs guarding." Sasuke quips. "Does anyone know a quick trick to get sober?"

"He's doing it." Kakashi points. "He'll be sober in a bit."

"It looks like he's projectile vomiting." Naruto's face turns a little green at the statement, looking away.

"Exactly, he's sobering up." Kakashi says. "I have a friend inside I should meet with. Someone get him cleaned up while I do that."

Sakura groans and rolls her eyes while Kakashi disappears, leaving the hard work to them as always. "Come on Naruto, it's not the first time we've been tasked with taking care of a drunk person." Her hands land on the guy and pull him back so he's sitting up at least. The man burps, before emptying his guts a little more. "Clean him up real quick." She orders. She lets go to palms her face, while her teammate gets right to it. He's gotten incredible this past month.

But so has she.

It's been a month, and she doesn't even feel like the same person.

[Sakura Haruno

HP 96

Chakra 32

Strength 35

Constitution 32

Dexterity 36

Agility 35

Mental 94

Control 200

Charm 10]

She's worked her cute tush off every day. Spars that haven't ended up in the hospital, training with her gear, sleeping well, training with her sword, training with her practice sword.

Endless exercise, endless socializing - well for her at least it felt endless it was really more like a full conversation a day which is nuts - and so much more.

She hasn't had time to train techniques really, it's been fully the basics from sun up to sun down - and the odd game of course - and she feels better for it. She's also super happy they have a mission now and she gets to take a break. Her switch is held soundly in her pouch, and she's so excited she gets to use it!

She has gained a few traits and skills though.

She's happy about those.

[Genin Constitution

"Stand your ground, Sakura. You will not fall, you will not fail, you will hold until your bones turn to dust and your blood dries around you. Your feet will not move, your stance will not falter, and you will not die."

You take 1/2 damage from any attacks at Genin level, and do not take any damage from attacks below Genin level. This bonus applies before armor checks. Armor checks reduce both a flat damage and percentage now. [Positive] [Can be Upgraded]]

[Genin Agility

You are fast, fast enough to be paid for it. You're professionally fast.

You no longer need to speed up. You can go from still to top speed in an instant.[Positive] [Can be Upgraded]]

[Genin Chakra

You now possess the Chakra of a full fledged genin. You may now advance E and D rank techniques with enough practice, and you may learn C rank techniques without immediately passing out. You may also use chakra equipment. [Positive] [Can be Upgraded]]

Sadly she's still pretty far behind on Charm so she's not sure if there's a set bonus, but she's happy to be here so she doesn't have much to complain about there. The Constitution in particular makes her smile, and genin Chakra is really nice. Specifically, the part about equipment. Her Chaos Blade wasn't active until she got it, but holy hell is it active now.

She intends to use it on this mission.

[Kenjutsu Moderate

You officially know more than the basics of Kenjutsu, and you can show it off. The weapon flows in your hand naturally and instinctively, and you suffer bonuses in combat for holding your sword. You do a quarter damage to yourself in the event of a sword accident. You are dangerous.]

[Sleeping +

You find it easy to get to sleep, and need less sleep. You awaken from a full rest with a reset state, and gain minor buffs for the first few hours of being awake.

A Reset is Accrued after a full 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep.]

[Scan Minor

You may now access the full name and threat level of anyone you target and focus on for five seconds. If the target is famous, you may now access their bingo book entry mentally.]

[Gaming +

Reflex training and regular sessions have made you highly proficient in gaming. You improve at an incredible rate with any game you put your mind to. You couldn't go pro, but you could nip at their heels if you put in effort.]

It's not all amazing, but it is progress. Great progress.

Time to go kill Ita-wait, no, time to escort a drunk.

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[You are leaving the tutorial zone. Random Encounters will now spawn. The further you are from your official village, the more frequent and strong these may be.]

It's with her footsteps on the path that the warning appears. She has to look up from her Switch, and she dies in-game, but that's fine. Using a game mid-mission means she'll have to pause or blatantly drop it sometimes. She's a professional now, she won't miss things for the pause button.

She kinda wishes she'd missed this notification though. That's a terrible sign, but at least they're not going very far from the village. She can handle some basic Academy student level random encounters-

It's with a splash at her feet that her attention is drawn down. She's standing directly in a muddle puddle, and not one that's surface deep. It feels like it goes on forever, and only her skills and traits let her stand on the side of it and not get sucked deep in. "Ewww, I think there was something meaty in this." She rubs her foot a bit in the puddle, trying to wipe it off. "It's thick… Wait, it hasn't rained in…"

"Sakura, you're holding us up." Kakashi calls out to her.

"Right, sorry." She rushes after them.

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They come for her. She's not sure what she did to piss these two off, but after a bright and brilliant display where Kakashi totally gets caught off guard by something she noticed - yep, uh-huh, not hiding in the trees at all - a chain made of shuriken appears in mid air flying towards her. She knows, analytically, that it's attached to something, but all she can see is blade and she doesn't have time to think about it.

Her skills don't activate, so it's not Genin level. That doesn't stop Genin Agility. She goes from standing to back first in the dirt in less than a second, and the chain passes over her. Jumping to her feet, she jumps away from everyone else and finds it comes back for her. Naruto and Sasuke are guarding Tabini, or, uh, Takuno, or, no, their drunk. Naruto and Sasuke are watching their new drunk, so getting away from them while the fight is focusing on her is the correct move. So she jumps back, again, and again, and before long she's made enough distance to see the two monsters chasing her. She keeps up the distance for just long enough-

[Gozu and Meizu; Genin boss fight

Threat Level Moderately Dangerous]

She reads their bingo book entry in less than a second, her abilities really kicking into gear and letting her take in information like she's a savant. Their clawed gauntlets are poisoned, those chains can disconnect their links if needed, and both are specifically focused on fighting together.

She genuinely isn't that intimidated. It's not that they're weak. Despite the statement about it being a genin boss fight, she's sure they're chunin.

But they're also missing nin. They're defects, and they're in the wrong damn country.

She draws her sword, and charges.

"Idiot." She hears one chide her as they get close, planning to wrap around her and her sword and tear her to bits. Her sword glows a vibrant red, blood flowing from her hand and flowing up its sigils. The stench of copper fills the air in a way that once again gives away that Kakashi isn't dead. It should already smell like death, but it doesn't.

It smells like righteous fury. She goes right through the chain. Her sword doesn't even count it as a hit. The blood glows brighter as she moves onward, turning around to face them confidently as they realize their chain is dragging on the ground and slowing them down. Not a nick in her sword, just suddenly scared chunin mooks. She grins brightly, her bubblegum aesthetic playing very oddly with the bright red glow of a demonic blood sacrifice.

That doesn't stop them from charging. "Sasuke!" She shouts, and Meizu jumps to the sword to avoid a fireball.

She's not worried about it. It's a genin attack. She charges through the fireball without an ounce of hesitation. Flames at her heels, clothes igniting, sword catching the chakra and sucking some of it up as her blood turns to charcoal on her blade. He's not expecting her on the other side, still halfway through the air with wide eyes. "You crazy bi-" He doesn't get to finish her sentence.

Her sword replaces his vocal cords too quickly, and her grin becomes a blood stained one before his corpse parts hit the ground. Ninja fights are all about moments like that. Kenjutsu for a ninja isn't like a normal sword fight, it's about becoming an opportunity and cutting a path true and hidden. Her skin hurts, her clothing is a little worse for wear, but she's standing on her toes watching the remaining brother stare with wide eyes and an agape mouth at the still falling remains of what was once a person.

She takes a step towards him with a vicious grin, and finds he chases her in a blind fury. "Naruto." She orders, and he finds himself surrounded by a hundred clones in an instant.

A hundred clones which hold him down just long enough for her to drag her sword across the ground. It scrapes with every step, the man clawing clones left and right while she approaches, fear in his eyes fully realized as he grasps there's more clones than there is distance.

She lifts the sword at the held down man, her eyes glowing a bright red, and the world filled with lust for chaos sees a dark eclipse.

The sword drops.

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"I don't really know what that was about." Kakashi admits. "I felt for sure they were targeting Tazuna, but they wouldn't leave you alone."

"I'm too pretty to ignore." She excuses, knowing damn well it was a random encounter. "At least our charge is safe."

"We'll have to take a look when we get back to the village." Kakashi says. "Ask around and make sure you're not wanted somewhere for some reason."

"I can look." Sasuke offers.

A month ago she might have hugged him for offering genuine help out of nowhere. It's so out of character she'd want to make sure he still wasn't into her.

With that, Sakura mouths a silent apology to Tazuna for bringing her crazy into his life, and gets ready for a long journey. It should be fine from here though, right?

It's not like the encounters scale that quickly, it's only a couple days of walking.

She couldn't go anywhere if it scaled that rapidly. That'd be stupid.