The musty smell of the mansion is so familiar now that Sakura can't help but feel relieved that it'll be over soon. Three days they've been here, collecting, killing, walking, the grand majority of it has been walking if she's completely honest. This home is dreary, and she would have loved it if it had ended a day ago, but here she is, finally staring at the end gate to this horrific place and getting excited that soon she won't have to smell all this damned rotting flesh.
"I can't believe this." Observing the door brings about a dawning horror. It's massive, with a gold archway and a crescent top. She could probably punch through it with enough time and a willingness to destroy her hand, but she doesn't have to do that. Down lower on the door, there's hundreds of symbols, emblems, jewels, pictures of animals and even some just straight up shapes like a circle. Beneath each of those is a keyhole, and it's all Sakura has in her to take a breath before she makes a hand sign and more hers appear beside her. Well, kind of her, there's a few of them but they're not fully formed or properly physical. They get to work taking the keys out of her bag and inserting them one at a time, turning once fully in and making her proud with their coordination and cognitive functionality.
They needed every freaking key. Every single one. If she'd decided not to pick up any one of them they'd be trekking back hours if not days. It also means every single safe room was necessary after about five hours in.
"I thought you were crazy for holding onto all those." Tenten says, shaking her head while watching her poor excuse for water clones get the job done for them. They're nothing like Naruto's shadow clones, and they likely never will be, but Naruto's not around and she can't always depend on him to be there for her. It's not even his fault, reality just doesn't work that way and sometimes you need to stand on your own and have the capabilities you need. She also can't help but feel a little awkward using Chakra on a menial task when she's given Naruto so much crap about saving his infinite pool, but like, water clones aren't that expensive and her patience for this place ran out yesterday.
Naruto's not here to slave away, which makes her really appreciate both him and her own independence. Not to say there's anything wrong with relying on your team, just, she's not satisfied with Proto Water Clones level 3 and would like to become even more self-sufficient. Yes, level three. When they rested last night, Sakura, no longer having to prove anything, spent every drop of chakra she had practicing the jutsu until it was good enough to at least assist her with basic water jutsu and do menial labor like slotting in the ruby key into the ruby slot.
A proud smile slips over her lips at the thought that some people can't even do this. She didn't have instructors for this, she just did it, just like she'll do so much more once she has the time and opportunity to think uninterrupted.
Like that'll happen anytime soon, a girl can hope though.
"The only crazy I am for keeping keys is crazy smart. I'll never discard a key item as long as I live. I still have a piece of wood Inari handed me just in case it comes up when I go back to Wave."
"... What?" The lack of context must be too much for Tenten, but it's not her problem. She was open and clear with what she said.
"It's in my nightstand. It's a piece of wood, he asked me to hold it for him then never asked for it back." Sakura clarifies, just in case it helps, it clearly does not.
"Most of these keys were found near, if not in a safe room." Neji says, "It seems we truly were led here."
"You said it looks like the next step after us is an attack on official Fire Nation property, they want to attack the Daimyo next and test run the graveyards at the capital without intrusion from Ninjas," Sakura recites something Neji told her earlier today, "it makes sense they would lead us here, getting rid of us quickly is the only way anything like that is happening."
Neji nods thoughtfully, "the documents lead me to believe that the Dark Meister thinks that samurai would have a poor time dealing with a zombie force because their direct confrontation method plays well into the hands of mindless brutes."
"I doubt they'd be an actual threat to capital samurai, let alone the Daimyo's protection detail, but as Leaf Nin we kind of have to stop them don't we?" She asks.
"Yes, and they are aware of that, which means through this door is a trap." Neji confirms her suspicions, eyeing it thoughtfully. "Whatever happens, do not hold back. We cannot assume that the Dark Meistro is out of mana just because the zombies stopped after this morning."
Neji using gaming lingo has her giddy. He's losing his edge on her, slowly, maybe if she's lucky she'll have a gaming buddy when she gets back to Konoha.
Or maybe he'll deny the interactions entirely and pretend he's never even heard of a game before. Whatever the case, she didn't teach him terms like mana, he just knew them, and things like that make his stuck up attitude a little less convincing.
She's sure he's a dick, and she's sure he's stuck up, and she's sure he's refined, but she's also sure he's rocking an RPG the moment they get home. Tenten on the other hand looks remarkably out of depth. She knows that games exist, and even seems to have a grasp on what's popular and what's not, and she clearly plays them as per their earlier discussion, but she lacks any sort of input into the mechanics discussion. Even for this dungeon she has seemed lost at every corner. She clearly doesn't play much, and certainly nothing complicated. Tenten probably follows a streamer or two instead, ooh, she wonders if Tenten follows Haku.
She somehow doubts her observations on these two are connected though, even if the thought of Neji playing something while Tenten acts as his Ino and comments has her mildly shipping it… Mildly, because Neji's an asshole and Tenten deserves better.
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"We're still in the dungeon, right?" She opens up her quest menu with a furrowing of her brows and a pouty frown that Ino would tease her about if she was here. The system still says the one-shot dungeon is active and that none of their objectives have been completed. It has her scratching her head.
As to why she's scratching her head, well…
"It seems so, but this is the village we are here for." Neji confirms it for her, as if she needed to be told that they're staring at exactly what they came here for. She remembers this walk from a few days ago, when they first got to the village. The dungeon has recreated the outside world, down to the details of the way they came in. Sakura can even see the inn they're staying at up ahead, it has the same oddly shaped door and the same dirty exterior. That being said, she sincerely doubts they'll find Lee or Gai there.
Walking around she can hear the crunch of rocky dirt beneath her feet, and her attention reminds her that the roadways into the village haven't been maintained or repaired in any recent time. It feels so real, so vivid, she can even taste the fresh air that comes with an inactive land away from the bustling streets of her home. It feels nice to smell and taste air that's not filled with rotting flesh, as their last three days have been, but the elation at such a small victory is very short lived. This place somehow manages to look even more desolate than the original village, and that gives a grand yet depressing indicator as to exactly what'll happen to the original if they don't succeed here.
It won't just be here either, they'll likely slaughter countless villages on their way to the Daimyo, and that can't be allowed. They have to stop this here, or, well they don't have a lot of options, at this point the exit is so far away that they'd have several days of walking back and she'd rather die trying. Maybe she should develop an escape ability for future dungeons, just in case, or maybe figure out crafting and make escape ropes? They're customary to almost every game, they have to exist.
"You know what this means, right?" Sakura asks as her feet land in front of the inn Lee's settled at, the one where she impaled that girl to a wall, and fought Neji, and most remarkably, the one with the odd doors. It's so stupid, doors should be frame fitting! "The dungeon has seen to it to provide us with an artificial playing field. We don't have to worry about destroying buildings, or livelihoods, or civilians, we can just destroy things with reckless abandon." Sakura doesn't pull her sword from its sheath, she has much better ideas. She lifts the Hammer Tenten lent her, and strikes it down on the inn door, watching its stupid structure cave way.
"Let's go!" She charges in without hesitation, looking for the first of the enemies, and already destroying property with a spinning strike that has her flowing through the place and undoing years of effort to maintain and build it like she finds construction a waste of time.
"Should we explain to her that we should still avoid damage just in case this uh, translates outside?" Tenten asks.
"No." Neji denies, "either we will see a civilian, and she will figure it out herself before too much damage is done, or we won't, and her method is correct." Tenten only requires one look at his serious expression to know she shouldn't argue with him.
That what he's serious about is property damage and cathartically watching Sakura break stuff for him, doesn't change that fact. "You should start too." He suggests, "The Hyuuga pride would not allow me to participate, but just between the two of us, she looks like she is having fun. You deserve it, after that nightmare."
"Yeah, I bet she is." Tenten's hands grip her hammer with both hands, "and I do, thanks." She takes a deep breath, and she charges in after Sakura.
Neji stands guard, ready at a moment's notice.
This is good, because he's dodging out of the way of a fireball from behind a mere second later.
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