Otokage

The Man Who Called Himself God

Thirteen months.

Thirteen months had swept by and she hadn't realized it.

Sakura took Otogakure by storm, spending the first six months making the biggest changes within the village. She built homes, clinics, schools, businesses—making the village begin to prosper. Slowly, the people's minimum wage began to rise and the average person could afford their own home and half food on the table every night, even having spare money to spend on the little temptations in life.

Shinobi were getting stronger each passing moment, it seemed. Sakura's new curriculum was approved and slightly altered by the Nadeshiko kunoichi as they taught incoming academy students. Those students were learning more, becoming more physically able, and acting more disciplined than they were before. And when they became genin, Sakura noted with pride that they were actually a tad bit stronger than the usual Konoha genin team. They were certainly stronger than hers.

The chuunin and jounin had also improved exceptionally over time. Their stat numbers steadily increased until they were up by five or six points, some even skyrocketing to improving up to ten or eleven! She truly and vigorously thanked the Jomae shinobi that stayed in her village for four months and trained her own to their truest potential. With such an increase in chuunin and jounin, that also meant an increase in the ANBU sector as well. In those thirteen months, she went from fifteen operatives to over one hundred fifty.

Sakura also learned that Otogakure was a genjutsu-inclined village. Many of her shinobi had an affinity for it, and those who knew they did fully utilized it in many creative ways. Once she learned that she had a genjutsu affinity of her own, she asked around to see if someone could help her raise her skill in it. Others utilized genjutsu through optical illusions, hypnotism, sight, or some form of sound through singing or instruments, but Sakura found that she could induce a genjutsu through skin-on-skin contact. It proved that it could work extremely well with her close-range combat style.

"You can activate a genjutsu with your hands?" Kabuto sighed. "Oh god. Please tell me you aren't going to use that on me so you can sneak off to get sake."

Sakura feigned hurt and placed a hand over her heart. "Why, I'd never!"

He stared at her for a long while before his eyes glinted dangerously. "How long have I been in this genjutsu?"

"Uh... thirty minutes now? Now look—"

Kabuto dispelled the illusion and stalked to Sakura's favorite bar. He threw open the door and glared around for that head of pink hair. The other patrons paid him no mind—this type of thing happened every now and again and they were far too used to it by now. Sakura spun around in her seat in shock.

"Thirty minutes?!" she cried. "How did you realize it in thirty minutes?! You beat your last record by almost an hour—GAH! I knew I should've put a clone instead! It worked last time!"

He grabbed her by the back of the shirt and dragged her back to the office. "You're seventeen. You're not even legal. Now do the rest of your work or I'll tell the vendors not to sell you mochi for the rest of the month."

Sakura pouted. "Fine, kaa-san."

Something in Kabuto changed when he decided to stay as her assistant. He no longer put on a fake smile whenever someone was around or kept his opinions to himself. Now, he openly voiced what he thought and incited many banters with the Otokage: something he never dared try with Orochimaru. Sakura also found that he was actually quite sarcastic at times and liked to poke fun at those who riled easily. He was certainly different from the person she thought he was, but he was being himself. And she was glad for that.