Cherry Blossoms and Chakra Strings: Shinobi Chores

Two weeks later

When you think of a ninja, what image pops into your head? A protector, an assassin, maybe just someone with a headband and the ability to bend nature to their whim? All of the above?

Sakura had a special image come to mind when she thought of the word ninja, one inspired by her sensei and the kunoichi she one day hoped to be. A lone figure wielding a forest of glowing chakra strings, each connected to a puppet as intricate and powerful as what Sakura saw in her dreams. It was an image that drove her towards her goal, drove her to be the absolute best in her chosen field, and she doubted that it would change any time soon.

What was not included in this image, and indeed, in any image most people would have, was painting a fence a different shade of white because the previous shade was quote, ‘too bright for summer'.

“I don't even know what that means. How can a fence be too bright?” Sakura asked aloud as she dipped her brush back into the can of paint. It was about halfway empty now, the majority of its insides having been splattered across the several meter long wall of wood before her. And they were only halfway done.

Their sensei was off somewhere else, Sakura wasn’t really sure where. He apparently trusted them enough to take care of what amounted to chores by themselves.

Sakura sighed, wiping her forehead free of sweat. Now she understood why most people wore their hitai-ate on their head. She looked to the side, “Tsu, can't you make some clones or something so we can do this faster?”

A few feet away, Tsu shook her head, focusing on her own section of the fence, “Nope. Sensei says no clones on D-ranks. They're supposed to ‘build character’ or something, I don't know. You gotta do it yourself.”

Though she was still extremely moody, the Inuzuka’s mood was a marked improvement from what it had been a couple weeks ago. Those first few days, all Sakura could get from her was grunts and short sentences. She was glad to see her friend slowly returning to her normal self.

“Yeah well, the only thing I'm building is the sprain in my wrist from all this brushing.” Sakura groaned, “I thought being a ninja would be more fun! Why aren't we like, fighting bandits or protecting clients or something?”

“All genin must complete an allotted amount of D-rank missions before they are allowed to leave the village.” Hikari answered in Tsu's place. The Hyuga didn't take their eyes off of the fence, painting it in slow, methodical strokes, “I believe it's to allow the sensei proper time to train them and ensure they are ready for the dangers outside.”

“But that’s stupid! I don’t need training! I’m already strong enough to beat Tsu!”

Tsu gave her a sidelong glance, “So was Jin.”

That shut Sakura up. Her face fell and she turned back to her fence, not sure what to say to that. The three of them continued to paint in silence, only occasionally broken up by the sounds of their paint brushes bumping against the rims of their cans.

As the silence stretched, Sakura spared a look down towards Hikari, taking in the Hyuga’s nearly finished section of fence and comparing it to her own. She frowned at what she saw.

“Hey, Hikari. How are you doing this so much faster than us?” She called out to her friend. Hikari looked towards her, taking in Sakura’s fence which was barely even halfway finished. They tilted their head, before putting their paintbrush down and making their way over to Sakura.

Sakura moved out of the way as her friend crouched down right beside her. Hikari held a hand out and gently pulled her paintbrush from her hand, and Sakura didn’t resist, “There’s a trick to it. Let me show you. Watch my hands.”

Sakura did as instructed, watching the Hyuga’s pale hands drag the paintbrush along the sanded wood in front of them. The way they did it was methodical, clearly meant to cover the largest area with the littlest effort possible. Effortlessly efficient yet elegant. Just like the Hyuga doing the painting.

Sakura broke out of her silent admiration of her friend’s technique as Hikari held the brush out to her, “Here. Now you try.”

As Sakura took the brush from HIkari’s hand, their fingers brushed together, allowing her to feel the rigid calluses on her friend’s hand. Guess the Gentle Fist wasn’t quite as gentle as described. She gave Hikari an apologetic smile for the touch and thankfully, they seemed unbothered by it. She then turned to place her brush to the fence, doing her best to replicate what she had seen.

Hikari hummed in approval as she painted the fence in even strokes, “Good, just keep doing it like that. Remember not to let your brush dry out too much. Even coatings help the brush glide much easier.”

Sakura glanced at Hikari, “You’ve done this a lot, huh?”

Their pale eyes twinkled in amusement, “You aren’t the only one with hobbies, Sakura.”

Sakura giggled, turning back to the fence. Hikari stayed by her side, silently watching, which Sakura was fine with. It wasn’t like the Hyuga hadn’t already done more than their fair share of the work already.

“Tsu’s getting better.” Hikari said softly as Sakura continued painting with the new technique, “She still might bite your head off if you get on her nerves too much, but she isn’t as bad as she was before. I’m glad. I was worried she’d be in a slump for the rest of the year.”

Sakura nodded, “And you? How are you doing?”

Hikari exhaled softly, “I’m coping. Jin’s loss is still fresh, but I know I can’t dwell on it forever. I…” The Hyuga went silent for a moment, thinking to themselves. Sakura didn’t press, waiting patiently as they got their thoughts in order.

This was a common occurrence between the two of them by this point. Hikari needed someone to spill their feelings to and Tsu was still too prickly and her family was… Sakura wasn’t exactly sure actually, but she knew they weren’t on the best terms. That meant that the task fell to Sakura. She didn’t mind as much as she thought she would. She was glad that Hikari trusted her enough to tell her these things.

After a minute, Hikari spoke again, their voice barely audible, “I visited his grave yesterday.”

Sakura paused in her painting as the words registered, before continuing her task, “How did it go?”

Hikari smiled weakly, “Terrible. I didn’t know what to say. I just… stood there, staring at his gravestone, wondering what would have happened if I got to him in time. If I was faster, would he still be alive? Was it my fault?”

Sakura hadn’t been told the exact details of the mission, but she knew that Hikari felt some form of responsibility for what had happened. As team leader, they were technically the one calling the shots while Iwabi was away, and they believed that it was their fault that Jin had been overwhelmed like he had. Sakura had a feeling that wasn’t the case, but didn’t say anything just yet, letting the Hyuga vent their feelings in silence.

Hikari looked up at the sky, a pained expression coming over their face, “They never found his body, you know? The grave is completely empty. There isn’t even a casket underneath the headstone.”

Sakura didn’t know that, and her eyes widened in surprise as she looked at her friend, “They didn’t send anybody to retrieve it?”

Hikari laughed humorlessly, “Of course they didn’t. Jin was an orphan. His foster family couldn’t even pay for a D-rank mission, much less one requiring retrieving a body from hostile territory.” Their fists clenched, “He’s probably still out there. Just… lying in the dirt or tossed into whatever shallow grave they had the courtesy to dig for him.”

“That's…” Sakura didn’t know what to say.

“It’s fucking horrible is what it is.” Sakura and Hikari looked over to find Tsu had drawn closer to them as they conversed. She was staring at her unpainted section of fence with a stony expression on her face, and Sakura could tell by the set of her jaw that she was clenching her teeth, “If he was anyone else, they’d send a jonin to bring his body back. But because he was a clanless orphan, he was expendable. They didn’t even pay for the goddamn headstone.”

“The village already paid his family the allotted amount for the mission. Which we failed, I might add.” Hikari said, though they didn’t sound happy in the slightest either, “They can’t afford to cover all the expenses of every genin who dies in the field.”

“And that barely covered the funeral.” Tsu huffed, dipping her paintbrush into the bucket with more force than necessary. Paint splattered on the grass beside her feet, “If they really gave a shit, they’d send an anbu or something to get his body back. It would take a few hours for them, tops. And maybe they’d even wipe out those fucking bandits while they’re at it.”

Hikari didn’t say anything, but Sakura got the feeling that they silently agreed with Tsu’s words. They sighed quietly, turning back to Sakura and patting her on the shoulder.

“Come on, if we hurry, we can probably paint the rest before the hour is up. Maybe after this, we can pick up a fun mission.” Hikari tilted their head in thought, before shrugging, “Well maybe not fun. But at least one that’s not as boring.”

Sakura groaned but turned back to the fence to begin painting again. As Tsu stood and returned to their own section of the fence, she glanced at Tsu, finding the Inuzuka working in silence. Sakura bit her lip, before calling out to the other girl.

“Tsu?” Tsu looked at her, and Sakura was taken aback at the mix of emotions in her eyes. She swallowed lightly, giving her friend a reassuring look, “Maybe we could save up some money and get him back. It shouldn’t take too long between the two of us to pay for a B-rank at least, right? That should be enough to get his body back.”

Tsu snorted, “Longer than you’d think. And I’m way ahead of you, Sakura. There’s no way I’m just going to leave him out there. Inuzuka don’t abandon their friends, no matter what.”

“Well then I’ll help.” Sakura said stubbornly.

“I will as well.” Hikari chimed in, “We can all put a little bit aside every mission to pool together. We should be able to save much more if we do it that way.”

Tsu looked between them both with an unreadable expression on her face, before she nodded slowly, “Alright, let’s do it.”

Sakura and Hikari smiled at her agreement, before turning back to their respective fences. They continued painting in silence, each of them knowing that the sooner they got done with this mission, the sooner they could move on to the next, and hopefully more fun, one.

“Hey Sakura.” Sakura looked at Tsu who was stubbornly looking away from her, focusing on her brush, “Thanks.”

Sakura blinked in surprise, before smiling softly, “No problem.”

~~~

Okay, so D-ranks might have been the new bane of Sakura’s existence, but she would admit there was at least one upside to the extremely boring chores that she was forced to do.

Sakura looked down at her wallet for the fourth time in the last half-hour, grinning happily as she saw the thousands of ryo she had managed to make in just a few hours worth of labor. It wasn’t much, but it was a nice chunk of change when compared to what she normally got for doing chores at home, even with what she had put towards the pool to get Jin back.

As she made her way towards her home, her eyes caught something off to the side and she stopped in her tracks, debating with herself. Eventually, she shrugged, making her way towards the dango shop that had caught her attention. It had been a while since she had anything sweet, and she deserved a reward for all of her hard work today. Maybe she’d get Hanami something too.

The bell over the door dinged as she made her way inside, before immediately heading over to the counter to order. Since she had a bit of money to spare and more importantly, a stable source of income, she decided to splurge just a little bit and ordered a dozen sticks instead of the usual three. She could share them with her whole family.

As she pulled her wallet out and paid, Sakura froze as a familiar voice called out to her from behind, “Oi, pinkie. Long time no see.”

Sakura turned slowly and gulped as she was met with a familiar purple-haired woman standing just a few feet behind her, chewing angrily on a stick of dango. Amber eyes stared her down, like a cat eyeing a field mouse. Not wanting to show weakness - she had a feeling that would be a really bad idea in front of this woman - Sakura did her best not to be intimidated, giving her a smile, “Oh, hey! Uh… Anko, right? How have you been?”

Anko smiled, and Sakura didn’t like the look of it one bit, “It’s been great, pinkie, But I can’t help but wonder why a certain pink-haired brat hasn’t been caught trying to sneak into my work yet.” She tilted her head, chewing on her dango thoughtfully, “You wouldn’t happen to know what’s been keeping her occupied for so long? Do you think she caught a cold?”

Sakura sweated as Anko stared her down, “Uh, maybe she just forgot? People are super busy these days, you know? A-And graduation just happened so maybe she was focusing on preparing for that instead of trying something that might get her court marshaled by the Hokage or her best friend’s dad?”

Anko nodded slowly, “I guess that’s a possibility. It’s too bad though, T&I has been chock full of people to play with these past few weeks so I’ve had the chance to test out quite a few of my more experimental poisons on those sad sacks. They would have been useful test subjects for a student of mine.” She hummed, “The ones who don’t have any useful information are my favorite. They’re expendable, you see? So I don’t have to hold back.”

Sakura shivered at the look in Anko’s eyes as she said that, “That’s… cool. Hey uh, if that pink-haired girl wanted to apologize for totally not forgetting about you and focusing on her training, how would she go about doing that?”

Anko hummed, popping another stick of dango in her mouth, “Well I guess she’d have to buy me a lot of dango, to start. You can’t apologize without some sort of treat. And she’ll also have to show me that she hasn’t been slacking off in her poison training.”

Sakura eyed the crazy woman, not liking the sound of that, “And uh, how is she gonna do that?”

Anko flicked her wrist and Sakura only had a second to process the silvery blur heading towards her face before her hand snapped out on reflex, snatching the object out of the air. She blinked, looking down at her newly acquired senbon in confusion. It was coated in something, a pale blue substance that slicked the metal surface just enough to make it gleam in the light.

“Good catch, pinkie.” Sakura looked up to find Anko grinning at her, “And to answer your question, her job will be to replicate the poison on that senbon. It’s a fun little concoction I made myself so she won’t be able to find it in any scrolls or books so that means no cheating.”

The pinkette's eyes widened at the information. She threw a poison-coated senbon at her face!? This woman was crazier than Sakura thought!

Sakura studied the senbon in her hand warily, trying to identify what it was covered in. The substance was oddly greasy, slick like oil, and its color was unique too. Few things in the wild were blue, and Sakura could count on one hand the amount of said things that were poisonous enough to interest the woman in front of her.

“And what do I get out of this?” She finally asked, looking up at the jonin challengingly. “Recreating a poison from an amount this tiny seems like a lot of work for no pay. It’ll take weeks, if it's even possible at all.”

“What do you get out of it?” Anko seemed amused, “Well for one, you get a brand new poison, an Anko Mitarashi original. Not many people can say they’ve got some of my personal shit in their arsenal. And if you’re lucky, I might throw in a little surprise on top of that, depending on how much you impress me.”

A surprise? Sakura wasn’t sure she wanted anything to do with whatever a surprise from this woman would entail.

Still, the pinkette had a hard time turning away from an academic challenge like this. Especially one that pertained to her chosen field. Sakura ran her finger along the senbon, her mind already going through the vast list of poisonous ingredients she already had knowledge of. She came up blank, and that only made her more curious.

“Alright. I agree.”

Anko’s grin widened massively at her words, slinging an arm around the girl’s neck and pulling her in. Sakura yelped as she was squished against the woman’s torso, shifting in embarrassment and discomfort as something round and soft pressed against the top of her head, “Good to hear! Now about that other part of my demand. I was thinking I’d do a Sampler’s Course and maybe two of the mitarashi dango too. Oh! And also…”

As Anko continued listing off the different types of dango she wanted Sakura to buy for her, the pinkette’s wallet screamed out in preemptive pain, and Sakura let out a sad sigh.

She was about to be broke again, wasn’t she?