Chapter 214: Good Girl Sakura?
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It usually took people 3 days to reach the Sand from Leaf, and the other way around. However, Team Seven achieved the feat in less than a day. At the first light of the morning sun.
Learning that Kankuro, Kazelage's older brother, was poisoned and was on the verge of death, Sakura quickly stepped in to help. Even though her mental state wasn't the best, and she hadn't gotten much sleep in the last two nights, she couldn't let her team see her as a useless burden anymore.
Except for the slight skirmish with the old lady Chiyo, who mistook Kakashi for the White Fang of Konoha, the medical procedure was going smoothly in the far corner of the room. 'Smoothly", until now- just as Sakura lost her concentration when a particularly annoying bastard stepped into the room.
"Keogh!" Kankuro grunted, his eyes blunging open as a pained grunt left him.
'Shit, this is bad…' Sakura thought, blaming her fragile ego that had acted up once Neji Hyuga of all people entered this room.
"Now it's the White Fang of Konoha for sure! He even has the same long hair as that bastard!" Lady Chiyo, uncaring of the situation here, went to attack the long silver-haired Jounin, only to be head-butted by a cat that transformed into a huge black panther.
Oh God, what's happening?
Sakura quickly shook her head and went back to focus on her one job, paling as she watched Kankuro's condition grow worse each second.
—
"Grrr," Kurai stood between him and the knocked-out granny, Chiyo, growing at her with her deepened voice. "Stay away from him, you old granny who is too short to see Mt. Ta- aw!"
Neji flicked his finger on her forehead. "Kurai, don't cause trouble." He heard her grumble out and say that she was just 'protecting him', making him sigh as he tickled her under the chin, causing her to giggle out loud and shrink back to her normal size.
"Hey, Neji! Don't bully Kurai!" Tenten ran to the gasping Kurai, almost on the verge of losing consciousness from the lack of air. "Aww…"
Even Hanabi looked at Neji disapprovingly, but he didn't give a fuck. Rather he walked over to Chiyo.
He helped the old lady stand up from the ground, even as she glared at him. Neji apologised. "Sorry for what my summon did, and no I am not the White Fang you speak of. If you observe my hair carefully, you'd notice it's not actually white but made of silver-"
"Shut up, nerdy brat. And tsk, let me go." The woman pushed his hands away and stood up, rubbing her back. "Ugh, that rascal beast. My back…"
Neji smiled awkwardly and looked at her, turning on [Observe] to look at her Chakra Points too.
[Chiyo - Low Tier 8]
[CP: 6,200/6,250]
…Another proof that this world was bullshit. An old woman who couldn't even take a light hit from an over-large cat, yet was supposedly stormy enough to take down most heroes back in the MHA world. Though Neji couldn't help but wonder just how good her Puppeteer Jutsu was for her to be that strong.
Also, he thought anyone beyond Tier 8 was High Human, like All Might and Ujir, but that didn't seem to be the case here. Maybe All Might and Ujir were just special because of their respective Quirks. Or MHA world was just special like that.
"In any case," Neji turned to look at Kakashi, who raised a hand to wave at him, and Naruto who seemed overly joyed to see him.
"Hiya, Neji!"
[Naruto Uzumaki - Main Character - High Tier 7]
[CP: 508,400/511,400]
'A fucking 500k chakra points.' Neji waved back at Naruto. 'Jinchuurikis are bullshit.'
That's possibly not considering the full chakra of the Nine Tails' sealed within. In that case, the fact that Naruto was still only High Tier 7 even with that much chakra went to show how trashy of a Ninja Naruto was.
Moving on, he handed the scroll to Kakashi. "Team Neji reporting. Lady Hokage sent us to support you in your mission, especially because of… Naruto."
Naruto frowned at that, while Kakashi simply nodded. "That makes sense. Good to have you here, Neji."
[Kakashi Hatake - Peak Tier 8]
[CP: 4,708/5,114]
"I suppose." Neji agreed, his eyes landing on the book he was reading. "Oh, the new volume is out already? Damn, let me borrow it when you're done with it."
"No way." Kakashi didn't even haggle. "Get your own, you have the money. Naruto especially gifted me this."
"Hey, it's a hard find. You know that better than anyone. Icha Icha is too popular for us busy Ninjas to get a hand on it." Neji tried.
That book… It was actually really good. He had always wondered what was up with that Book back in his 1st life, however from the changed Neji Hyuga's memories, he could remember just how well written it was. Jiraiya really knew how to write and in what way to write to capture the heart of a reader.
"Haah," he heard a sigh come from Naruto, as the blonde Main Character slipped a hand inside his bag. "What's wrong with you white-haired people? I know three of your kind, and all of them are perverts…"
'Said by the guy who peeks at the hot spring just to get a glance at a particular flat chest.'
Naruto then took out the same book Kakahi was reading, handing it over to Neji. "Here, I just happened to have another copy. Also, when did you become addicted to this, Neji?"
Neji accepted it carefully, deciding to forgive Naruto for the trouble he had caused him before, and simply put the book into his inventory. Only Kakashi raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't question him. These types of 'party tricks' weren't uncommon, and he just thought he was a bit too good with it.
"Arghh!" There was a scream from the corner of the room where Kankuro was being treated.
Everyone turned to find a panicked Sakura trying to help Kankuro, but clearly, it wasn't going well. Temari tried to run there, to see how her brother was doing, but Chiyo stopped her.
"Stop. You'd just distract that girl. Have some faith in her… she's that Tsunade's pupil, after all." Chiyo said, but Neji didn't buy it.
It's probably because of his presence that she lost her focus, so he decided to help her out once. Besides, Kankuro dying would cause useless complications for this mission anyway.
He and Kurai walked towards that corner, even as Chiyo tried to stop him, but he just gave her a reassuring nod. Old and annoying she might be, she was experienced enough to realise Neji had some cards on his sleeves.
And he did. He brought Kurai close to Kankuro's face, even as Sakura scowled at him.
[Sakura Haruno - Mid Tier 7]
[CP: 3,599/4,360]
[Image Here] (A/N: Let's assume the chest doesn't exist 💀)

Sakura was wearing a sleeveless red qipao dress that reached her upper thighs, whereafter light pink pants covered her till her knees. It was the same dress she wore in Boruto, except she didn't have the diamond in her head yet.
Sakura held back a grunt and glared at Neji. "What do you think you are-"
"Shush." Neji used his Telekinesis provided by [Lord's Eye] and sealed her lips, watching her squeal in her mouth before he nudged Kurai. "He's paralysed and poisoned. First use [Antidote] and then [Minor Heal]."
Kurai gave him an annoyed grunt but did as he asked. Kurai at first could only earn [Skills] that came from her race. However, once Neji's main system started to regain its true capabilities, her shared system also gained many new perks. Such as all her spells were considered as Skills now as well. So, she simply did a mental command and the spell, [Antidote] was activated from her skill arsenal.
"Mm…" Kankuro's closed eyes twitched, as his purple body started to regain its humane colour in a matter of seconds.
"H…how." Sakura worded out her surprise once Neji freed her mouth.
"Her racial abilities. Just think of it as one of the Hokage's slug summons."
"Oh… that makes sense." Sakura nodded in understanding. "Although the energy she is using is slightly different than the Great Slug, I suppose all Summons are different."
Neji patted her head, "Nice attention to details. Good girl."
"What…"
"Oh, my bad. Old habit." He quickly drew back his hand. "Anyway, Kurai, continue."
"Okay, Papa…" Kurai grumbled, but still cast the Minor Healing spell, watching the minor bruises on Kankuro's body vanish.
Sakura's face was burning, both in embarrassment at being treated like a little girl, causing her to remember the incident in the Onsen, and from shame that she was worse at healing than a grumpy cat.
'Tsk… he doesn't see me as a woman at all. No. No, that's not important.' She shook her head. Why did that even matter? She only wanted Sasuke to see her as a woman, any other man didn't matter.
"Ah… haah." Kankuro released a relieved sigh, sleeping soundly.
"Alright, it's done." Neji pulled Kurai to his embrace again, putting her on his shoulders.
"Good job, Kurai!"
"Yeah!"
Tenten and Hanabi encouraged the cat, stealing her from Neji's shoulders, much to the cat's annoyance, but she didn't push them away.
"I…" Temari walked towards Neji. "Thank you for saving my brother's life." She glanced at Kurai. "I probably should thank your cat as well, but she seems busy enough."
Neji waved it off. "It's fine. Don't sweat over it. Now, another of your brothers needs to be saved. If you don't mind, I think I and Kakashi's team would like to leave right away." He glanced at Kakashi. "Yeah?"
"Yes, that's for the better. Every second wasted is a second close to the Kazekage's death." Kakashi said, making Naruto's frown to himself as he nodded too.
"Yeah, we should leave."
Temari looked at Kakashi, about to open her mouth, before she stopped and looked at Neji. "Can I join you? I suppose you two teams will do a separate search, and I think I would be of help. I know this land like the back of my hand. And since Lady Chiyo would be guiding the other team, I can be…"
She looked at Neji hopefully but Neji looked reluctant, starting to hum. "Mmmh, I don't know, girl. You know, I am a Hyuga, right? I don't exactly need a guide. Heck, I even have my little cousin with me, and she's so good she recently replaced her older sister for the future position of the Clan Head."
Both of them watched as Hanabi flinched at his words before awkwardly waving at them. Tamari snapped her head back at him.
"But-"
"But I suppose nobody hates the company of a beautiful young lady. Sure, tag along." Neji patted her shoulder, watching her smile.
"Alright. Also, I am older than you, but fine. I- I will go pack some weapons. Wait for me." She then ran out of the room, soon followed by Kakashi's team and Neji's team, except for Neji and Sakura who waited inside.
"...Why aren't you moving?" Sakura asked, looking at him nervously from her seated spot. She couldn't leave because he was standing just in her way.
Neji leaned over, coming face to face with her as he pulled up his blindfold just enough to reveal his eyes.
"...!"
Sakura's facial expression changed, a light blush appearing on her face, but she didn't look away.
"What is it…"
"I just wanted to apologise. You see, I happen to be able to sense emotions to a certain degree, so I knew the reason why you lost concentration while performing medical jutsu on Kankuro." as Neji said those words, Sakura blinked. "Hey, I am not a scum. You were annoying, so I just said some rude words. But I don't want you to die because you were distracted, you know. We will be working together on his mission, so forget about the Onsen incident and instead let's get along, okay?"
"..." Sakura was silent.
She couldn't know, but Neji was telling the truth. The second of the three starting skills of his [Voidmancer] class was [Dark Sense]. He could sense anything 'Dark' (a vague definition, in his opinion) which allowed him to sense negative emotions along with many other things to boot.
"Alright." Sakura said after a long thought, standing up. "I accept your apology. I also accept it was my fault for… always looking at you in a bad light. Thanks for taking the initiative to break the ice, you aren't as bad as I thought." she smiled at him.
"I guess so." Neji agreed, watching as she started to leave. She didn't know and he wasn't going to tell him that he forgave her two nights ago, when he watched her strike weird (and a few hot) poses in front of her mirror. That was adorable.
"Also," he said from behind her, causing her to turn back. "About the things I said regarding your body. It was a lie." He casually reached out and cupped her ass, feeling it nicely for five seconds before spanking it lightly. "You do have something very precious that most girls would feel jealous of. Don't feel so down."
Sakura, who had been petrified the moment he touched her ass, went as red as a tomato before throwing a fist at his face. "B-b-bastard! You really are a pervert!"
Neji dodged her punch and ran outside. "Watch your fist, my dear. I am not Naruto. Hit me now and you'd be hit later on, somewhere you would be too ashamed to show to anyone."
"Y…you!" Sakura yelled, running after him, even as she smiled softly. To her, this change of pace didn't feel so bad compared to Naruto just getting hit without protesting.
—--
After Kankuro woke up and confirmed that the kidnappers indeed were the Akatsuki, and amongst them, Sasori of the Red Sand was also present, the two Ninja teams led by the two white-haired playboys of Konoha decided to part ways.
They were to follow Gaara's scent, so Kakashi summoned his ninja dog Pakku, but Neji had Kurai on his side to be used in these types of situations. Cat she might be, she was still a divine beast, and a God of Death (weakened or not). Her sense of smell was stronger than that dog. Though Neji doubted he would need to bother Kurai at all with the existence of his [Dark Sense]. Surely, the Gedo Statue was "dark" enough for it to help him sense it.
They kept searching for the kidnapped boy, as minutes became hours.
—★—
Meanwhile,
Inside the dark cave where the Gedo Statue was located, and the Akatsuki members had "projected" their spirits, the Zetsu reported what he had seen around the area just awhile ago.
"So two Konoha teams." Sasori asked, irritated. "Tsk. Those annoying bastards."
"Don't worry, I will take them." One of the 'projections' said, but was soon replied by a grumble.
"No, I will do it. I have been irritated lately because of the Jinchuriki I am supposed to catch. I have to let out some steam."
"No." Another voice said. "You say Thunder Palm Neji and Copy Ninja Kakashi's team? I have beef with that Hyuga boy's former Jounin Sensei, let me take care of him. As for Kakashi, he would be an easy game for Itachi. Let us go."
"Pain" listened in cold silence as his subordinates contended amongst themselves before finally agreeing to let Itachi and Kisame go. Once decided, Pain used his Rinnegan to cast the [Shapeshifting Jutsu] on Itachi and Kisame, as 30% of their Chakra was spent creating "Clones" who should be able to quite easily shake off the Konoha Ninjas.
With that done, the Akatsuki continued with their relaxed job of tearing apart the Shukaku from Gaara's screaming body.
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