"Am I pretty?" She can't help but ask herself while looking in the mirror. Dull eyes have turned colorful and vibrant, looking right back at her like little gems. The bags under her eyes are gone, her skin has cleaned up, even her forehead looks less big with giant bags no longer such a big part of her defining features. Her skin feels better cared for and the vibrance is back and alive. Yet somehow, she can't help but feel like the mirror is saying no. Pointing out the places where her lack of efforts have resulted in dead or dying parts. Like the mats in her hair, for instance.
"Should I start caring?" It's an odd question. She has no one she wants to impress. Making Ino compliment her looks would probably make her feel nice, but everyone else in her life either already thinks she's pretty or doesn't care in the least how she looks.
She could care for herself, and it might help her mood… "That's it, starting tomorrow, I'm gonna stop procrastinating and buy quality hair products if nothing else." She uses her brush for the first time in months, if not years, and finds she has her work cut out for her.
It's going to suck fixing that, but she likes her hair enough she'll spend the hours to fix it without removing it. It's pink!
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It turns out her Dexterity was low enough, and her constitution low enough, that spending three hours gently coaxing knots out of her hair without destroying it gave her a level in each.
Her Constitution is now 27 and her Dexterity is 31.
Here's the thing.
[Genin Dexterity
You officially no longer ever fail Academy Student Dexterity Checks.
You do not have to notice the dexterity check is required to pass it.
You do not have to make an attempt, your body will automatically react should it be a check that is considered positive to succeed, or negative to fail.
You can still intentionally fail, if the intentional failure is still an Academy Student Dexterity Check]
She's a fan of that. Trying it out in her bedroom she is officially significantly better with her kunai out of nowhere, and her sword feels more natural in her hands.
On the other hand, "Oh shit, it's ten."
Jumping out her window doesn't count as a Dexterity Check, that's Agility. Luckily, 29 is okay for a two story drop.
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"What'd I say about seven?" Kakashi asks her at the training ground. "Did you oversleep?"
"I was training my dexterity and performing self care." Sakura explains while standing rigid. "Please do not hit me."
"Why do you think I'm - oh right I said that didn't I." She can almost see a laugh, not that the mask shows much. "You know what, I am going to hit you."
She flinches instinctively, drawing her sword to deflect or block or maybe just not get hit in the face.
"With your teammates." Kakashi explains. "I'm going to hit you with your teammates. You're sparring before today's mission. Here." She finds a wooden sword suddenly appearing in her hands.
No, that's not accurate. It's more like she catches it out of nowhere without even knowing it was there. "And I'll take that." Kakashi uses the moment and her shock to take her crappy sword from her. "I'm going to go return this, since you clearly forgot. When I return in an hour with an actual sword, you better be worn out from your teammates' punches."
"Understood, Kakashi Sensei." She has to resist a salute, as he takes off whistling.
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The wind in her hair, her feet firmly on the ground, her wooden sword in her hands and her eyes fully focused on her raven haired teammate; Sakura is scared.
Her hands shake, her boots feel too loose, her new armored equipment feels too heavy and her tunnel vision is screaming at her internally.
He's better than her, she knows that. She wasn't here to set up traps, she doesn't have a plan, and she's entirely sure he can work around a wooden sword. She hasn't been training jutsu or taijutsu or even kenjutsu against real people so she has no idea how this is going to work. Her breathing is uneven, her heart is beating in her ears, and Sasuke just moved like a lightning bolt. Focus, think - she hears the slight crunch of a leaf behind her, and she moves automatically into the motion Kakashi made her memorize. Spinning on her heel and putting her wooden sword up to deflect behind her. She instinctively lowers the wooden blade just enough to match a kick that sends her skidding across the grass even without losing her stance. The force makes her hands throb, echoes and vibrations hitting her core through her bones.
"Good." Sasuke says, foot still outstretched, his dark eyes focused right on her emeralds. "You aren't as bad as back in the academy."
"I fear that I won't be impressing you for long." She huffs, trying to control her breathing and calm the shaking of her hands. She knows he sees it, why isn't he criticizing her?
"I don't care." He admits, lowering his foot and palming a kunai. He spins it with the ring in his fingers, giving it his attention over her. "You're improving. With our team goals, that's all that matters."
"Team goals?" She can't help but ask, racking her brain for when the hell that came up. It's not like she's been here every waking moment, but she has been here some while asleep, so she should know what he's talking about. The fact that he doesn't makes her nose scrunch, and she can't help but notice the eagerness to Sasuke's figure.
He's shaking too, but not out of fear.
Naruto shouts out for her. He's got a dozen gender altered clones with pigtails in cheerleading outfits cheering her on. It's cute and makes her blush, even if it's too stupid for her to give much attention. She can feel the way the air moves around her, he's going to move soon, and she needs to intercept it.
Now.
Her step forward and slash is just in time for him to dart towards her. Their distance was great, but he's incredibly fast, meaning that by the time her follow through is completed he's had to jump to the side entirely. A kunai is thrown at her side, and she deflects it without even looking at it. Her hands move on their own, the blade of her wooden sword catching the ring of the kunai as it passes. Her next move is instinctive too, she spins just enough to get a nice additional motion to the sword, and she uses that attack to send the kunai flying back at him just as he charges at her.
All around, she's not sure how badass that looked, but she really hopes Kakashi is secretly taping this so she can check.
Thunk
"Gah-"
Thud
Her blinking at his form on the ground is only as awkward as Naruto's cheering getting louder.
"What?" She can't help but ask, as he pushes himself off the dirt, a kunai embedded very seriously in his arm.
"That was awesome." Also not the feedback she was expecting. "How'd you use enough force to knock me over?"
"I ate my wheaties." She shrugs.
Just in time for him to glare at her and for the tone to shift in an instant.
He darts in and she is barely able to block one punch, block a second, and have to jump back before a kick would crush her ribs and send her out of the fight. Possibly the day. She's pretty sure Sasuke's not supposed to go that hard.
She's also pretty sure she pissed him off. Was that not okay?
Talk shit, get hit? She thought he'd appreciate the joke!
Another kick lands right where she just was, her body only barely dodging to the side and sending her onto the ground. Rolling over is just well timed enough to get out of the way of a downwards kick that breaks the ground and kicks up dirt. "Shit!"
Yeah she pissed him off.
She throws her sword up so she can use both her hands to push her up when she rolls over. She has to use all her strength, which sends her a little in the air, which means flipping to get her orientation correctly. She manages to catch her sword on its way down, but not in time to avoid a kick to the side of the head that sends her spinning. She tastes iron, a little copper, and far too much rage to control herself.
She's never been hit that hard before.
Not once.
Kakashi's definitely holding back, and that makes her more angry than it should.
She manages to stay standing after her feet touch the ground and skid, just barely, blinking bleary tears from her eyes and ignoring the sting just as his foot tries to imbed itself in her face again. She barely has time to adjust her footing, sidestepping the kick, and slam the sword into the bottom of his knee. It's enough to hear a crack, and more than enough to stun him.
He's better than her. That much is clear.
What he's not, is used to taking a hit.
She's learned to do that pretty well recently.
She takes his moment of being stunned to dart forward the small distance between his knee and his face, raising the sword, and smashing his nose with the handle of the sword.
The crunch she hears is definitely way too far for a spar, Kakashi's gonna be pissed.
In her defense, Sasuke started it. Hot blood splashes her face and covers her arm, and she can't help but feel really bad watching him squirm on the ground. He's leaking like a pissy octopus, and she can't help but look to Naruto for help.
"Sorry, Sasuke." She finds herself slurring, her own words half gargled. She reaches up, and she's bleeding a lot more than he is.
Her entire mouth is pouring.
"Kakashi's gonna be pissed." She groans. That's a tooth. Who the fuck kicks their teammate that hard?
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"Okay, now that we've all received medical attention." Kakashi glares at them with his domineering single eye, but she can't help but smile so brightly. Her smile'll be better tomorrow, she's sure, she's not looking forward to explaining how her tooth is back.
She doesn't care that she's got a big fang missing, she's super giddy. "Kicked Sasuke's ass." She is so proud of herself.
And oddly enough.
"You did." Sasuke is too. "Sorry about that, you surprised me."
"I noticed." She titters.
She was gonna spar Naruto next, but uh… Ow. She is sad she didn't gain any skill points from that, but she can't get something every time she swings a sword. She's sure she gained tons of experience towards Con, Agi, and Dex though.
"Sakura, here is a real sword." Kakashi says as he hands her something incredible.
The bright red tassel tips her off, as does the dark red scabbard. It's a rather plain design, but it's one she recognizes easily.
She unsheathes a blade, admiring how it's practically glowing with blood red markings and glowing symbols all the way from its tip down to a little before the two handed handle. It requires her full grip, and she has to admire it with a few swings quicker than reason would dictate for such a big sword.
"Did you get me the chaos blade?" She can't help but ask, her cheeks hotter than a summer day, the flames spreading down her neck aggressively. "This is way too much…" She gulps, it looks so professional. It's not just custom made to fit an iconic weapon from an iconic game.
It looks master crafted, and she can feel its weight in her hand like it's an extension of herself. It feels good, really good. Incredible. "Why do you have this?"
She knows he didn't get it for her, she showed up with a sword yesterday and having a custom made blade of this quality would take weeks at the least. Months even?
"I have my ways." He winks at her with his one lone eye, and for once instead of annoyance at it she can't help but feel a little spark of worship. "Now you have it. Be careful, I hear it's thirsty."
"Haha, Kakashi…" She has to wipe away some tears that threaten to flow from her, for the second time today, though this time is very different. "I'll make you proud."
"I'm sure you will." He reaches out, and pats her, unable to miss the way she flinches even while smiling like a loon and holding his gift. "I should lay off on the smacks, huh." He decides quickly. "Ready for your second D rank mission?"
"You mean my first?" She jokes.
"Yes."
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"I was going to ask for a C rank mission, since you all did so well last time." Kakashi says, while holding out their D rank document for them. "But since I can't trust you to spar without ending up in the hospital, I don't want to know what happens when you fight bandits."
Sakura wishes that wasn't fair.
Unfortunately as she's learned a lot recently, reality doesn't work that way. "I defended myself." Sakura huffs, unable to look Kakashi in the eyes as she spouts some bullshit.
"I got a little carried away." She really doesn't like Sasuke being so agreeable.
Really scares her. "But she definitely broke my nose on purpose."
"I mean, yeah but…" Her cherry cheeks are not helpful to her level of portrayed confidence.
"So a D rank mission, so we can train in some teamwork and basic respect." Kakashi says. "It is only your second day as an actual team, it's understandable."
It's not. They fucked up, bad, and Kakashi is being really nice. She mopes in being in the wrong, and reads their mission.
"We need to open a pickle jar?" She asks. "A jar."
"It's a hard job." Kakashi says.
"So do we need to use a special technique or…" Naruto asks.
"Just a really tight jar." Kakashi denies. "It's enough of a pain that she paid for a D rank mission, so expect a fight."
"... A jar?" Sasuke agrees with them in the only way possible.
Pure befuddlement.
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"Do-do-dooo!" Kakashi is skipping behind them with all the childlike glee and wonder of Naruto in a candy store. He finds the concept of them coming all the way out here for a jar that exciting, that while they trudge like half dead corpses, he could not be happier without coming off cartoonish. He even has his own little jingle he keeps whistling and mumbling whenever they so much as look at him.
"This is ridiculous." Sasuke grunts, glaring at the air in front of them like it insulted him personally.
"I bet it's gonna be a really hard conquest." Naruto is ever optimistic. "I bet she has multiple jars, and each one is harder than the last. Like some kind of jar based trial."
"I wish I shared your enthusiasm." Is all she can say. "But that'd be illegal, since she clarified one jar."
"Not true." Kakashi says. "Lying about the mission details is not a crime."
"Wha-"
"It's to prevent forgetful old ladies and terrified people with bad memories from being punished, and to stop ninja from abandoning missions if things go a little off plan." Kakashi explains. "Mission details are to help you decide to do the mission, and to help you prepare for the mission. It's only a crime when the omitted or lied about detail changes the rank of the mission."
"Ah…" She can understand that, kind of.
Sounds kind of dumb though. Who buys a mission without being sure what the mission is?
"Part of your job on a mission is evaluating what you actually have to do, and determining if the mission is within the boundaries of that mission class." Kakashi continues cheerfully. "It's why you write reports. The village trusts you, you're its private ninja, the village doesn't trust them."
"Does that mean Anbu don't write reports?" Sakura asks.
"I hear they do-" Kakashi seems rather befuddled by everyone's immediately snickering, but continues anyway "- but only to ensure the Hokage and direct superiors share all that important information from the super important mission. The reports are burned quickly thereafter, to prevent identities from being leaked if the stack of paperwork is ever discovered."
"Right." Sakura teases, "that makes sense, you totally just figured that out and heard about it."
"I did." He defends. "I heard that with my own ears."
None of them decide to finish that sentence, specifically the part about how it was from the Hokage when learning about his new job.
"How many is a C rank?" Sakura asks.
"How many what?" Kakashi asks.
"How many jars before it's a C rank?" She continues.
"..."
"It's my job to evaluate, how many jars, Kakashi?"
Their sensei dead sprints away, causing them to run after him shouting "How many jars!"
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Things make a lot more sense once they get to the house. They're met outside by an older lady with hair so gray it's white, enough wrinkles to make a tree look smooth, and a cane that she's putting most of her weight on. The house behind her is massive, and shows off a lot of wealth, wealth that Sakura can't find the 'how' for. This isn't a farm, it's really outside town so there's no way she's a merchant, and there's no evidence of hired employees or family anywhere around. In fact, if there were hired employees - implicating some business - she likely wouldn't have hired them.
All this to say, an old lady alone in the woods with a lot of money hired them for something simple.
That makes sense, that's what a D rank is supposed to be.
Sakura finds herself equal parts disappointed, and relieved. No flaming potatoes today. They chased her for a while, Naruto was not efficient at stopping their onslaught and Sasuke's fire was meaningless.
Following the woman in, she's clearly not hiring them just for a social moment as she leads them right to this demon jar. The jar of no-opening, the enchanted Plus three jar of never release. Some use glue, some use friction, and some use magic.
What'll it be? No one knows!
She does, it's friction. But she could be wrong! And that idea is very exciting. Naruto jumps right at the jar, while she tries to calm the customer with her potent social skills. "So, where are your kids?"
"Dead." She rolled a nat one! She did it everybody!
"Dead as in, err, to you? Like-"
"Eaten alive by ferocious beasts." The woman says quickly while someone bangs the jar around behind her. The objective was to open the jar, not shatter it, but the client isn't speaking up so it's not her job to stop them.
"Well that's just sad." Low charm or not, she's pretty sure this one isn't her fault, just bad luck. So she gives a sheepish laugh, rubs the back of her now smooth hair as of this morning, and cringes when she hears a glass thunk and kunai tear through flesh. She spins on a dime to see Naruto bent over on the floor out of breath and laughing at the last Uchiha like he just saw the funniest thing ever.
She gets why. "Sasuke, why?" She observes the now bleeding boy, observes his arm, observes the exact same spot she stabbed him earlier and notes the exact same kunai is embedded there again. He should probably throw that one away, it's the friendly fire Kunai.
She then stares at the undefeated jar that just assaulted him with his own kunai.
"I thought the kunai ring would shatter the glass." He admits, blade still stuck in his arm. To his credit, he barely seems to notice it. "Naruto, wasn't getting it."
"Naruto, go clean Sasuke up in wherever this woman's bathroom is." She orders, and doesn't think much of it when they both run off. Kakashi has his eye on her, but that's okay. She's been the limelight of his attention a lot recently.
"Please do not sword the jar." Kakashi feels the need to say as she approaches it.
"I'm not stupid, Kakashi." She snickers, while immediately moving onto Plan B. She settles her fingers on the jar, and gets a faint quirk of Kakashi's fierce gaze when the lid begins to spin. She barely has to channel her chakra at all, isn't even sure how she's doing it until she takes a moment to pay attention and feel it flowing around.
Click.
Pop.
She lifts the jar up, admiring how her chakra has it stuck to her fingers, and smiles brightly as the old lady claps for her.
"Now I can eat my pickles!"
It's a dumb victory, she can't say she's proud of herself, or that she made a significant impact on anyone's life. But she did figure out a new technique.
She can now provide downward force, magnetic force, and swirling force with her chakra, and it really only took a few seconds to figure out all three. Two Hundred Control is no joke.
Now if only she knew how to explain that to Kakashi without sounding actively crazy.
Shit.
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[Chaos Blade
Epic
A blade that gets stronger the more awake and alive the user is.
It feeds off its users strength, meaning prolonged use could result in untimely demise.
Should be used with furious badassness, and excessive caution.
It's thirsty.]
[Friendly Fire Kunai
Uncommon
Some say this Kunai thirsts for blood, but it's actually just owned by a moron.]