Chapter 97: Kurotsuchi's Galaxy-Brain Social Skills
Out of the Hokage Tower at last. Sakura rolled her shoulders and felt her spine decompress.
Kurotsuchi glanced sideways at Sakura's figure.
Specifically, at the chest area.
She looked back down at herself.
Yes. Winning.
A satisfied smile spread across her face.
"What are you smiling at?"
Sakura looked at her with mild suspicion.
"Heh, nevermind! So — what's fun to do in Konoha?"
Kurotsuchi threw an arm around Sakura's shoulders like they'd known each other for years.
"Go have fun yourself. I have things to do."
Sakura shrugged her off. She'd managed to escape the meeting — the obvious move was to get to the Senju clan archives immediately. She should probably let Tsunade know first, but still.
"Huh?"
"What do you mean? We left together."
"What happened to reading the room? You're just going to ditch me?"
Kurotsuchi tightened her arm around Sakura's shoulders with the energy of someone who had decided this was happening and no amount of resistance would change that.
Sakura looked at the arm draped over her and arrived at a conclusion.
This girl and Naruto would get along terrifyingly well.
"Sakura. Why don't you show our guest around?"
A voice behind them. Both girls turned.
Homura Mitokado, stepping out of the building, regarded them with the mild expression of a man who had just accomplished something and was allowing himself a moment of quiet satisfaction.
Sakura looked at him and suppressed the urge to sigh.
There'd been a time when she'd assumed Homura was just a stubborn old obstructionist. A few years of occasional encounters had revised that assessment considerably. He was sharp, clear-eyed, and when he decided something was a good idea, he made sure it happened.
"See?" Kurotsuchi lit up. "Your own elder said so."
She grabbed Sakura's wrist and simply started walking with her.
Homura watched them go, adjusted his glasses, and allowed himself a moment of mild smugness.
Konoha and Iwagakure, now allied. If the next generation develops even a working familiarity with each other, it saves considerable time when joint operations become necessary — as they inevitably will.
The Tsuchikage's granddaughter, hosted by the Hokage's disciple. Diplomatically appropriate. Strategically sensible.
Everything is built on interests, of course. But interests can produce genuine things.
Sakura walked with her arms folded, watching Kurotsuchi peer into every shop and stall they passed.
What is there to see? A few snack streets, a market, some taverns. Not exactly a metropolis.
"Sakura!"
Something beige and clingy hit her from behind and attached itself.
"Ino?"
Sakura looked over her shoulder at the girl now hanging off her back, surprised.
"That expression — am I not welcome?" Ino settled her chin on Sakura's shoulder with mild reproach.
The sight of Ino making herself at home on her back made Sakura think, involuntarily, of Karin.
Did Ino pick that up from watching Karin, or was this always latent in her?
"No, I'm just surprised. I thought you were minding the shop."
Ino's mother ran a flower shop. Ino helped out sometimes.
Sakura poked her cheek.
"Suspicious~~~"
Ino studied her with narrowed eyes.
Sakura was almost never just out. If she wasn't on a mission she was training. Spontaneous street appearances were essentially unheard of.
"Hey, Sakura — try this!"
Before Ino could begin her interrogation, a deep red shape emerged from a dango shop down the street, carrying a box of skewers.
Kurotsuchi had, apparently, already completed a full lap of the area and found the important locations.
The craftsmanship here is genuinely superior to Iwa's dango. This is not a debate. This is a fact.
!!!
Ino's expression cracked.
She'd barely processed the red one who wouldn't stop hanging off Sakura, and now there was a flying rock-girl too?
"Hey — who's this?"
"Isn't this the one you one-shotted? The weakling?"
Kurotsuchi looked at the person draped over Sakura's back, thought about it, and placed her — the girl who'd been eliminated by Sakura in the prelims.
"Excuse me?!"
"What are you doing here?"
Ino detached from Sakura's back like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"Why wouldn't I be here?"
Kurotsuchi registered the reaction and something gleeful flickered in her eyes.
"Sakura came out specially to keep me company~~~"
She leaned into Ino's space wearing an expression designed specifically to provoke.
"As if! You're just some Iwa village—"
Ino turned to Sakura for confirmation, already smirking.
"Sakura, back me up."
Sakura looked at Ino with genuine regret and nodded.
"I knew it, there's no way Sakura would—"
"Ino. Iwa is going to be our ally now."
The triumphant expression froze on Ino's face.
...What?
What did she just say?
A sudden overwhelming sense of being targeted by the universe washed over Ino Yamanaka.
Naruto the blond menace — just there, always.
Karin the red octopus — also just there.
And now apparently a flying rock-girl was joining the roster.
"The alliance announcement will probably circulate in the next couple of days."
Ino looked like she might cry.
Sakura was the Hokage's disciple. She didn't joke about things like this.
This is real. This is actually happening.
Sensing total victory, Kurotsuchi threw her arm around Ino's shoulders with a grin that could only be described as shameless.
"Hey — as a fellow comrade under the banner of Empress Kurotsuchi."
"Shouldn't the Yamanaka clan heiress show a little hospitality?"
"Like, say, buying me dinner?"
Sakura had revised her diagnosis.
Kurotsuchi wasn't just a natural social animal. She was operating on a fundamentally different plane. One second she was needling Ino into a fight, the next she was shamelessly asking that same person to pay for her meal.
Most people couldn't do that with a straight face.
"Tch — who said anything about buying dinner for some tomboy?!"
Ino glared at her.
Akimichi Yakiniku Restaurant
"Truly, the Yamanaka heir is something else. So generous!"
"Cheers — I'll drink to that. Do as you like!"
Kurotsuchi raised her glass of orange juice and drained it in one go.
"Ha. Know who you're talking to."
"Though I'll admit — you're actually not terrible."
Ino matched her, throwing back her own glass without blinking.
Sakura sat with her cheek resting on her hand, wearing the expression of a dead fish, watching two girls who had been at each other's throats sixty seconds ago now acting like old friends who'd been separated for years.
Ino just got sold and she's helping count the money.
(End of Chapter)