NOVEL NEXT Chapter 150: Sakura Gets Rug Pulled
Foreword:
The future depicted in the World of Tomorrow interlude is what I would consider a 'Bad End,' in Visual Novel terms. It's a future in which Sakura has given up, so to speak— it's the culmination of years of 'oh, I guess I'll let Naruto and Sasuke take care of things, and everything will turn out all right.'
In a way, she's content, but she's not ready for the battles that are to come. This makes her world a failure, which is why I left the interlude open-ended— it's not the 'True End.'
The Sakura of the present, who has only been in the shinobi world for less than a year, would never even consider becoming this breedable and remaining content with the status quo. She is still in her teenage years, which means that her current potential for growth is unlimited—the more special bloodlines she acquires and the earlier she obtains them, the deeper her foundations will be, as they'll grow along with her as she matures into a woman.
However, this is not something that the current Leaf Village wishes to see yet— it's true that the Leaf does require strong combatants, but it doesn't want young shinobi to grow too fast and escape the ties that bind.
While Tsunade is mostly against such a restrictive system, she's still Hokage. By restricting Sakura's growth, she's only doing her duty, which is to care for the village as a whole. She can't give out any preferential treatment, so please don't be too harsh on her!
(Tsunade might also not be ready to lose the title of bustiest kunoichi in all the Leaf— she's kind of petty like that, and she's prouder of her looks than she lets on.)
Sakura will have to juggle her duty towards the place she's chosen as her new home and her desire to stand proud as a kunoichi in her own right— this is what I believe would make for a compelling story.
So, please keep believing in Sakura, because her current future is limitless!
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"Nice lineup," Shikamaru complimented Sakura. "As expected from the girl who not only beat me in Shogi, but also completely crushed me at Go."
Sakura and her hastily assembled team of Genin had gathered in front of Konoha's gates, and she'd been performing a last-minute supply check, when Shikamaru and Chōji had decided to show up to the party completely out of the blue.
"I just went with my common sense," said Sakura casually.
Apart from the fact that he was good at board games, Sakura had never understood what exactly had made people consider Shikamaru extremely intelligent. Perhaps hindsight was 20/20, but his deductions and tactics had never really seemed all that impressive to her.
In her opinion, Asuma had made a mistake with the IQ test he'd administered to him— Shikamaru's IQ was supposedly 200, and that was ridiculously high. Sakura's own IQ was 140, and from what she'd seen of him, she didn't think Shikamaru was that much smarter than she was— her excuse for not performing better in school back on Earth was her gooning addiction, which consumed most of her brainpower!
"Are they all prepped to go?" Shikamaru then asked.
Sakura's Neji Recovery Mission lineup consisted of four members and one dog: Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru, who would sniff out Neji's scent trail with their Witcher senses, Rock Lee as the muscle to take down Neji, Sakura herself as the team leader, and Uchiha Sasuke to close the march.
"That's right," said Sakura impatiently. "And we were about to leave, so if you're almost done asking questions…?"
"Sorry to spring this on ya," said Shikamaru seriously, "but I'll be taking command of your team for my own mission— Hokage's orders."
Half an hour ago, while Sakura had still been running around, trying to get her hands on any stray Konoha 12 member she could find, something completely unexpected had happened— Orochimaru's last remaining spies in the Hidden Leaf had made off with Urashiki's eyes; from right under Tsunade's nose!
Two Jōnin had set off in pursuit, but by the time they'd caught up with the thieves, it had already been too late— the Sound Four, whom Orochimaru had charged with covering his retreat to the Land of Rice Paddies, had already appropriated the pair of Byakugan. They'd then thoroughly trounced the pursuing Jōnin by unleashing their Cursed Seals, and that was the current situation.
"You can't be serious," said Sakura in disbelief. "Genjutsu won't work on the Byakugan, and Neji could beat Lee and Sasuke with one hand tied behind his back! How exactly am I expected to capture him like this?"
Sasuke shot Sakura a dark look, while Rock Lee nodded. He had never once managed to beat Neji, and he had never tried using the Eight Inner Gates against him either.
"I'll also need to borrow your ninja tools— haven't had time to get some from my own stash," said Shikamaru lazily. "This is all pretty last minute, which is a total drag…"
Unfortunately for Shikamaru, Sakura didn't carry any weapons other than her sword— she just didn't believe in ninja tools. They were barely lethal as it was, and she possessed so much chakra that she was able to toss out low-level Ninjutsu like they were confetti, so she didn't really need them for distractions.
Besides, consumable items like kunai and shuriken cost money, and as a former gamer, Sakura believed in saving all her consumables for the final boss— not that yeeting sharp bits of metal at Kaguya would be likely to help against her!
"Thanks for nothing, I guess," Shikamaru grumbled. "Well, so long…"
"Sorry about that, Sakura," Chōji added. "Good luck with your mission…"
And just like that, Sakura was deprived of her hand-picked team. She wasn't a tracker by any means, so how was she supposed to find Neji without Akamaru's nose!?
'Who cares about luck!?' Inner Sakura shouted, angrily shaking her fist at the departing team's backs. 'Give me something useful!'
As always, the System had Sakura's back— and as always, it was being unhelpful.
Beep! Computing… Calculations complete! The Breast Diet Jutsu has been derived!
Requirements: Breast chakra from one female Akimichi clan member.
Current count: 0/1
Three pieces of tricolour dango; at least one of each colour (pink, white, green).
Current Count: 1533/3
The Breast Diet Jutsu is a sacrificial technique that throws away one's breasts in exchange for ultimate, albeit temporary, power. Consumed breast mass may be recovered by consuming food.
Sakura contained her urge to punch something and turned on her heel, leaving the gates behind her. While she wasn't a sensor, she did know two more among the Genin she knew…