Chapter 43: Game Over
Just as Naruto was sulking, a figure came barreling through the doorway of the mission office.
"Sakura-chan!"
A gust of perfumed air hit Sakura full in the face, and the next instant her arms were full of pale-blonde girl.
Ino clung to her, beaming.
"Sakura-chan, what have you been up to? You haven't come to see me at all~~"
Sakura patted her on the back, laughing softly.
"Ah, I've genuinely been a bit busy~~"
Off to the side, Asuma — who'd drawn Team Ten — was handing in his squad's mission report to Hiruzen. A C-rank. Just-completed.
Naruto saw the report change hands and stopped dead in his tracks.
"A C-rank?!"
Hearing that, Ino instantly disengaged from Sakura, planted herself in front of Naruto, and let her face spread into the most insufferable smug grin in the village.
"That's right~~"
"It was a C-rank, you know."
"Wellll? Jealous?"
She strolled right up and poked him in the forehead, cackling.
Naruto glared at her, mouth opening and closing — wanting to fire back, finding no ammunition.
Then his eyes flicked sideways. To Sasuke. To Sakura. And the corner of his mouth curled into a slow, deeply suspicious smile.
In that one moment, Naruto Uzumaki's IQ achieved liftoff.
"Sasuke's on my team."
Ino's smug grin froze on her face. She recovered fast, indignant.
"I just ran a C-rank!"
"Sakura-chan's on my team too."
???
Ino's eyes darted to Sakura in pure disbelief, begging for a denial.
Looking at her best friend's face — wearing the betrayed-by-everyone-she-loved expression — Sakura swallowed her laugh and admitted, a little helplessly:
"Yes. I really am on Naruto's team."
Pomf.
Ino dropped to her knees as if she'd taken an arrow straight through the heart, the color draining out of her face into a sickly ash gray.
"D-damn it..."
"Don't get cocky, Naruto. F-fine, Sakura-chan's on Team Seven."
"But my sensei is one of the legendary Twelve Guardian Ninja!"
She knew Asuma's pedigree, and she was reaching for whatever angle she had left.
"My teammate is Sasuke."
Naruto's normally expressive face had settled into a deeply unsettling little smile. Imagine the smuggest small child you've ever seen — that smile.
"I executed a C-RANK! C! RANK!"
Ino lunged in, snarling at point-blank range.
"My teammate is Sakura-chan."
Same unsettling smile. Unmoved.
"Me, Shikamaru, and Chōji are the most famous Ino-Shika-Chō trio in the whole village!"
Ino was about to lose it. Could this kid not run one different play?
"You're a pig~~"
Naruto was barely holding the smile in place over the laugh trying to crack it open.
Ino coughed up a metaphorical mouthful of blood.
D-damn this little gremlin!
She, the Yamanaka heiress, did not take this kind of abuse!
"The Ino-Shika-Chō formation has secret techniques passed down by all three clans! It is extremely powerful!"
She forced the rage back down her throat, chest heaving.
"Sasuke and Sakura-chan are both on my team."
Naruto's IQ had now fully transcended his physical form.
"D-DAMN it!"
"Will you STOP bringing up your teammates!"
She was about to combust.
"Oh — you're a pig~~"
GAME OVER.
The Yamanaka heiress's HP bar: emptied.
Winner of this match: Naruto Uzumaki!
"Alright, Naruto, stop bullying Ino."
Sakura crossed over and stroked her friend's pale-blonde hair consolingly. Honestly though — Ino, getting steamrolled by Naruto? That was a first.
"Sakura-chaaan~~~"
Ino flung herself into Sakura's arms in her most pitiful, heart-shattered pose.
Sakura looked down at the girl nuzzling into her for comfort and just smiled.
"Alright, alright. You've all had your fun. We need to get going."
Kakashi finally stepped in to wrap up the circus, scratching the back of his head.
As Team Seven peeled off, Ino bid Sakura and Sasuke a clingy, drawn-out farewell.
"Damn that Naruto!"
"If anything happens to Sakura-chan I'm holding you responsible!"
She stamped her foot at his retreating back — he'd flashed her one final victory smirk on the way out.
"Yeah, yeah, no need to tell me."
Naruto didn't even turn around, just waved over his shoulder.
Watching Team Seven vanish around the corner, Ino pursed her lips.
"Honestly. The little punk, acting all cool."
Beside her, Shikamaru watched the pink ponytail disappear, eyes thoughtful.
Sakura had graduated and made genin four years ago.
With her ability... how on earth was she still ranked as a genin now?
"BWAHAHAHA!"
The second they were out of the mission office, Naruto could not hold it in anymore and just howled.
"That look on Ino's face — I'm gonna die!"
"Naruto, really though."
"Ino's actually really easy to get along with..."
Sakura sighed at the blond gremlin marching beside her.
The truth was, his and Ino's personalities were uncannily similar in certain ways — like magnets with the same polarity, doomed to repel.
"Eh, but Sakura-chan, when you weren't around at the Academy, Ino used to pick on me all the time~~~"
Naruto put on his most pitiful face, and Sakura wisely chose to drop the subject.
The thing was, Ino hadn't been picking on him so much as teasing him. Ino knew Sakura looked out for Naruto, so she'd needled him here and there to keep him from feeling so alone — and as the heir of the Yamanaka clan, her social weight had quietly kept other less-considerate kids from picking on him for real.
But asking Naruto's brain to follow that thread? Probably a little ambitious.
"Anyway, anyway, let's move."
"Knock out this river job and Sensei will treat everyone to dinner~~~"
Kakashi smiled at his three little ducklings.
This generation's Ino-Shika-Chō trio had a surprisingly warm rapport with Naruto, didn't they...
"YES!"
"Kakashi-sensei is the BEST!"
Naruto cheered immediately.
Only Sasuke walked on in silence, one foot after the other.
If he kept doing missions like this, when was he ever going to get strong enough — strong enough to beat that man...
Watching Naruto and Sasuke roll up their pant legs and start picking trash out of the river one piece at a time, Sakura strolled forward and stopped right in front of them.
"Want to know why I picked this mission?"
She caught the twin looks of confusion and pointed down at her feet.
"SAKURA-CHAN!"
"You're standing on the water!"
Naruto yelped.
"Yep. And that's exactly why I picked this mission."
Sakura cut off Naruto's incoming volume spike, then turned her green eyes toward Sasuke, who was practically vibrating with curiosity but too proud to ask.
"All you have to do is gather chakra at the soles of your feet and keep the output steady and continuous. Once you can do that, you can walk on walls, up trees, on the surface of water — anywhere."
Sasuke hesitated, looking at the pink-haired girl in front of him.
"Why... are you telling me this?"
This was the kind of thing Kakashi was supposed to teach...
Hearing the question, Sakura gave him a smile, like the answer was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Because we're teammates."