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[It's the principle!! Okay!!]

People r-rank other people against each other all the time! [She must not have gone to any facsimile of high school. Boys always graded the girls, teachers graded the students, and the economy grades the graduates. It's a dog-eat-dog situation from start to finish.

But for once, Fukawa leaves well enough alone. It's not a fun conversation to have for the billionth time. She always hated trite pep talks, and the people here are twice as likely to give them than anyone back home.]

It helps that you have u-useful knowledge, at least. Who the hell needs a literary devotee in a world gone to shit?

（ literary devotee... it makes her think of jiraiya, and although she was never as close to him as naruto, there's a little pang of loss that thrums along her veins. ）

I think it's one of the most useful skills someone could have, especially in a place like this. Stories are hope and humanity and wonder. It's a way to hold back the night. Bring other people closer. Make them feel connected to something bigger than themselves. Humans have been telling them as long as we've had language. There's always value in that. Anyone can learn to fight or set a broken bone, but any sort of storytelling takes a skill that's harder to teach.

（ now that fukawa's... mostly settled, she directs her attention back to the girl, head canted curiously to one side. ）

What's your favourite genre?

[Fukawa is transfixed. The whole speech through she is reticent, unwavering in her gaze. Her jaw muscles clench.

No one's really said as much. She wanted to believe it. Claimed it several times herself. But desperate times had called for people of desperate measures, and no one had the time of day for a bespectacled bookworm. Much less one that came with so many wretched caveats.

At the close she looks to the water. Waits a moment before she speaks.]

I w-was a romance novelist. [A beat.] B-but not that trashy, pornographic kind. Proper literature.

Ah, really?

（ look she's... maybe read a trashy pornographic book or two (thanks again, jiraiya) but she's absolutely a sucker for romance, so she just lights up at this revelation. ）

Are any of your books here? Can I read one?

Uh — [For some reason the idea makes her squirm. Is it because they're naked? It's because they're naked.

Don't look at her tits, you imbecile!]

Y-yeah! They're at the library!

[She bites at her lip.]

B-but I bought copies f-for myself, too. I'll give them to you, if you're really that bored.

You think I need to be bored to read?

（ excuse you, she's a grade a nerd. sakura reads medical texts for fun. ）

Which one's your favourite?

You actually do it for fun? [Color her surprised.] Wow. M-most teenagers just complain about reading anything l-longer than a sloppy text message. They're all addicted to manga and TV and mind-numbing v-video games.

[But Sakura is Not Like Other Girls. Fukawa brightens some, smiling in spite of herself.]

Um, b-but, I suppose of everything published, my last book is probably the least painful. So Lingers the Ocean. It's, um, about f-fishermen.

Even the title sounds pretty.

（ she's gonna read the book, fukawa, and you can't stop her. ）

My first mission was to help a fishing village.

[ah...blushu. do not perceive how much this pleases her.]

Really? [Though she is quick to change gears now, being given a fresh inch to take a mile with.] Are you going to g-give me some details this time, or should I invent some for you?

It was pretty boring. We were just meant to escort someone building a bridge to protect him from bandits and the like. I guess you could invent something more interesting than that...

（ 'boring', she says, as if sasuke didn't almost die, as if naruto and kakashi hadn't been in danger, as if she'd done something more useful than standing on the sidelines gripping a knife in a sweat-drenched palm. she still has nightmares about finding sasuke's body pierced with senbon, lifeless and cold. ）

They don't give dangerous missions to the new genin.

[mighty fine ommissions you have there.]

Genin? ["Peasant?" It doesn't sound like work for peasant class. Their homes seemed to share a number of linguistic and national components, but applied in different ways. Japan by another name.] S-so...if you were hired to escort people, trained in both martial arts and medicine, and some magic crap...

[She gnaws on her lip, squinting at the rock bed.]

Something like a shinobi, maybe?

[Is she even talking to Sakura any longer?]

That's right.

（ if she hadn't wanted fukawa to figure it out, she wouldn't have given her so many hints, it's not like she's particularly averse to lying. but she'd decided that maybe the girl was trustworthy after all. in a way, she's also keeping her word to naruto and sasuke by not directly telling her. ）

Ah?

[Slight pause.]

You admitted! Ha!

[Wait.]

Unless th-this is a clever diversion...

Hmm... you think?

（ oh, now she's just going to tease her mercilessly. sakura grins, wrinkling up her nose playfully. ）

[Squinting...she appears to believe this was a serious inquiry.]

Y-you're just messing with me, aren't you.

Well, consider it logically... after all, I do have all the skills you mentioned. And that's only what you've seen me do. Who knows what else I have at my disposal?

（ ooh, scary. ）

Telepathy?!

[Screams internally.]

Edited 2022-12-30 18:02 (UTC)

Oh no, you caught me!

（ she laughs, and dips one hand under the water, flicking droplets playfully in fukawa's general direction. ）

No, of course not telepathy. That'd be my best friend back home.

（ okay, so ino's family jutsu aren't quite telepathy, but... you know what? close enough. ）

Ghhwukh!

[AQUATIC ASSAULT. She flinches back and swats at the droplets with reflexes that can only be described as "unsalvageable".]

Don't do that!

[🤬❗❗❗

Anyway, she sulks a little but internally concedes that it was a stupid suggestion. If Sakura read her mind even once she'd probably have left her in jail.]

I'd h-hate to live in a place where things like that are possible. Aren't there enough problems in the world already?

[She sighs.]

I m-might be the only person here without some secret magical girl persona. None of that crap existed back home.

Does it bother you?

（ it's asked gently, as she sinks a little lower in the water. it isn't as if she's ashamed of having chakra — she's worked hard to be where and who she is, but she understands all too well the desperate fear of not being enough. strong enough, smart enough, good enough. it's easy to feel like you've been left behind when the people around you are predestined to power. ）

[Fukawa's head bobs back, affronted.]

Don't act ashamed all of a s-sudden! If you have a talent, own it!

[The entire conceit of her own school was acquiring and honing talent. You couldn't attend without being the best at what you did, regardless of what it was.

Granted that meant a lot of useless talents squeaked through. Who was going to hire the "Super High School Level Biker Gang Leader"? Or the Clairvoyant. Spare her.]

I j-just mean, it's hard enough to stay alive as it is. Once you st-start bringing in people who can crush boulders with their hands, or...o-or this one guy, he j-just—

[She makes a gesture both wild and weak, a complete bungling of ninjutsu.]

He just made this b-big hand appear in the air and it threw me! Right into a b-bush! What the hell am I supposed to do against something like that?

（ excuse her. a giant hand manifesting out of nowhere...?

she doesn't exactly have proof that fukawa is talking about sasuke, but there's a niggling certainty that's exactly who she means. who else in stygia can go around manifesting giant amorphous hands and who would throw a girl into a bush?

honestly.

sasuke fits pretty much all the bills. ）

That's pretty strange even by my standards... do you remember what he looked like...?

[She hesitates. It's one thing to rant, it's quite another to snitch. Especially when there might be consequences.]

You're not going to go after him, are you?

No, of course not.

（ excuse her, what sort of woman do you think she is!!!

don't answer that. ）

But it's probably a good idea to be aware of someone like that, don't you think?

[LOOK SHE BROKE INTO PRISON ALREADY WHAT ELSE WILL SHE DO?]

If you p-put it that way...

[Oof. She sighs and goes to adjust her glasses. Then thinks better of it, setting them aside on the rocks. They're accumulating fog, it's getting annoying to squint through. At least she's near-sighted.]

He was good-looking enough, if y-you're a total masochist. [Which she is. And under other circumstances she'd be singing deluded praises instead of doling out warnings.] Dark hair, but l-long in the front and sh-short in the back? He looked Japa— uh. Like us. Not Western? I d-don't know if your world has the same geography or whatever. [Her nose wrinkles.] I think he was wearing a navy top with a high collar. I don't know.

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