Sakura Haruno

[Private, slightly hackable, strikes are totally illegible]

Another ball...

I should go. Ever since Celice left... I really let that get to me. It's been months since he vanished, and he's not even dead. He didn't leave through any fault of mine, and he didn't leave through any fault of his, and most of all, he's needed somewhere else anyway. This isn't anything like the time when Sasuke left K- DAMMIT that guy's gone spying in my journal before; I bet he'd do it again. I guess I can write about things I don't want him to know and then cross it out or rip it up or burn it. Even if I don't have the actual notes at hand, writing down everything I remember should help me retain it. I learned that back in the academy.

In any case, I need to get out and do something before. I might not be familiar with most of the people still here, but that's what I get for being such a hermit.

...I'll start talking to people after the ball, or during. If I start talking to someone all of a sudden, he'll probably think I'm trying to ask him out. Or her. I really don't want to run into another Heather or Yamato or anything like that.

[Open to everyone because she doesn't know about the private/hackable thing yet]

Facts

- This isn't Konoha.

- I don't have any idea where this is.

- I need to find out what's going on.

- I found a pack in the room I woke up in - it had my name on it, but I don't even recognize half the stuff in there. It looks like a med-nin's kit. A really good med-nin's kit. I hope I don't get in trouble over that... Other than that, it looks a lot like mine. It's too weird to not be a fake, but it's a really good fake. They even know what brand of you-know-what I use. It's kind of creepy.

- There are a lot of scared little kids running around. That can't be normal. I should try to find out what's going on there, too.

- I don't recognize anyone here. I think they're all civilians. Maybe I should hide my leaf plate.



- It's gone. I still have the headband, but the plate's missing. Shit. Shit shit shit. This is bad.

- I really need to find out what's going on.

((OOC: Sakura's twelve years old, and from shortly after the bridge arc. Despite the header icon, her hair's pretty darn long right now. She's currently hiding out on the roof of the Ari Apartments, but periodically leaving to sneak around town. Feel free to run into her any time.))

An event goes up and the whole place just fuckin' erupts. Would you guys quit hogging all the space?

I need it to angst over my vanished boyfriend as a shallow pretext to attract sympathy.

Wait, what's happening?

I wonder how fast it takes to make a full-body suit of armor.

And I'd almost gotten used to actual normality...

[Edit: A very short time after this post, the following announcement can be heard from like half the apartment.] HAAAAARUUUUUKOOOOOOOOOO

( Belated obligatory X-mas post )

((OOC: Backdated to noon-ish or so))

[There is a swan drifting serenely around the lake, honking crossly to itself.]

...No.

Celice...

His name isn't...

Why dammit why.

[Private, hackable]

It's getting colder... We never had weather like this in Konoha. I wish we didn't have weather like this here. It's too much like that damn nightmare. I'm trying not to dwell on it, but at least distracting myself will be easy with all this going on.

[Private, unhackable]

I had no idea this kind of thing came with that kind of side effect. I wonder if Erk will end up with a beard...

[/Private]

...Turkeys. Why turkeys? How is the local ecosystem even supporting all these birds? They're huge. According to my research, they commonly reach up to 100 cm. In short, there are large, hungry, nervous birds with beaks that reach up to the average person's waist running around. Sure, they aren't supposed to be carnivorous, but this island does not know the meaning of the phrase, "supposed to be". I suggest moving in groups for the duration of the swarm.

So cold.

Too cold to stop walking, too cold to shiver, almost too cold to draw breath.

Was she breathing? Was she walking?

...She'd fallen, at some point, somehow gotten herself back on her feet.

'Need to keep walking...'

Had it always been cold? Maybe. Probably. What else could there be? There was that one thing. But she couldn't think about that. Wouldn't think about that.

It was cold.

So cold.

((OOC: Sakura is staggering around outside, occasionally collapsing, twitching for a while, dying, and getting back up. Talking to her isn't going to get much coherent conversation, but you're welcome to try.))

[Private, very hard to hack.]

Now that's useful.

Complicated, too. Wish I'd remembered more than just the basics, but with luck, more will come with memory or reflex.

At least I managed to get down the more complex forms. I wonder if it would work on anyone else - I've never tested Celice or anyone outside my world for chakra pathways. I'm not even sure how to test for chakra pathways., aside from the obvious.

It could be unstable, though. It might actually...

[/Private]

[Filtered to Haruko]

Hey, Haruko - want to earn some money?

[/Filter]

[Filtered to friends (except Celice). Much easier to hack.]

Now that that's over with...

♥♥♥ ~FIVE~ ♥♥♥ ~DAYS~ ♥♥♥

I don't want to wear the same thing as last time, but something similar would be a good idea. Mobility won't be as much as an issue; either - I'm not about to run through the trees in formal dress; so I might as well change when I get there.

Maybe I'll wear some sort of hunter's garb on my way over; for the sake of the theme.

[/Private]

((Memories- %27 of %36))

Private; hackable.

WHY HAVE EVEN MY FANTASIES BECOME CORRUPT.

I think that was... Sasuke... as a girl... with another girl. And... I got off on it?! THIS IS NOT RIGHT. Okay, focus, focus, Sasuke's a guy, my memories are just all weird, that other girl... must have been a guy too.

...So those two hot blond guys must have been girls before. No wonder I cracked the little twit upside the head. Hokage's daughter or not...

...Guh. Now I've gone and reminded myself of Naruto's stupid Sexy no Jutsu routine. Why did I do that?! I hope I forget all this, but just in case...

IMPORTANT NOTE TO SELF: As a girl, Naruto actually looks like an ugly, flat-chested tomboy. Okay, so she was twelve, but no way she'd ever grow up to look like that.

And. This is so weird... Ino and I were rivals. It... officially started over... On some level, I cannot believe I am actually writing this.

We were fighting over a girl.

She was... really cool and skilled and good-looking.

Her name was No way

Whatever. She grew up to be a total bitch. I'm over her.

Celice is much...

...Great, I remember seeing her naked. As a her. And making out with her. As a her. Haruko would have a field day with this.

...I wonder if he remembers making out with me as a guy.

...

...I wonder if that Renge guy takes doujinshi commissions.

((Memories: 25% of 36%.))

Oh shit I really need to get this down.

Sorry, Haruko except not really.

((Memories: 22% of 33%, 1% for memory of poison-identification/extraction technique. Sakura's going to be frantically writing down notes for the rest of the day. She will respond to any interruption with extreme rage, and there is a chair jammed under the doorknob to prevent her horrible horrible roommate from entering. This is now totally invalid except for the part about the chair.

EDIT: Anyone anywhere near the second floor with working eardrums has probably heard several very long, loud and girly shrieks.))

I don't know who they are yet, but I've gotten too close to the truth. Any day now, I expect to be silenced. But I won't go that easy.

Remember:

1. Any one of us could be one of them.

2. Don't trust anyone. This goes double for the crazy bitch with the guitar. You know the one. She's with them.

3. Most importantly, if not already infected, wear as much metal as possible.

They'll soon know my location. I can't afford to stay in one place for much longer. Haruno, over and out.

((OOC: Subtract about... $30 for metal foil. Yeah. She bought... a lot of it. >>))

What's with this? Roughly one out every six residents is exhibiting abnormal behavior. One out of every six - unusually low. If it's deviated from the pattern once, then it might do so again - will this end when the week is up?

Another deviant... a similar case... connected with the melons? Are they the key to unlocking this puzzle?

[[Private, hard to hack]

Could this be a plot by the island to prevent a certain thing from succeeding? Perhaps it feels that we've become too accustomed to the patterns.

I ran a few days worth of tests on the samples of red-shelled melon I collected - both fruit and rind were indistinguishable from that of an ordinary melon.

I also collected some scraps from the green, blue, and rainbow remains in the fields. Dammit, so much for my moment of glory. I'll break this one here if it takes me a lifetime! So far, the results have been the same for them.

[Filtered to friends]

It looks like that theory about the melons causing memories to return is correct.

[Private, hackable]

( Memories... (%21 of %33) )

First that... that woman puts me in that kind of situation, then she goes after my stuff when I'm unconscious...

GYAH I NEED TO GO HIT SOMETHING. Let's see how unbreakable those melons really are...


EDIT: Heh~ Not all that unbreakable, are they?

If anyone needs me, I'll be in the lab, analyzing melons.

( Cut for rambling. )
[/Private]

Hey, has anyone else noticed the over-sized insect wandering around? It can't be natural; otherwise it couldn't support its own weight with those legs.

Unless it's named Gin or Erk, it isn't a new resident, and with all the people on the upper floors, a nest of those things couldn't have gone unnoticed for long. In addition, it's pretty clumsy, like it's new to walking six legs.

Assuming that it used to be something else, there's two possibilities: Either someone's been experimenting on the local wildlife (I'm ruling out official laboratory work for now; but I'll double-check as soon as possible), or that thing's one of the residents.

U-ugh... What a nightmare.

...Wha...? My voice... this isn't-

That's... that's me over there! Then who-

...What the hell?!

...Well. It smells high-quality, but I'm wary about eating things without knowing where they came from. Last time I spent a week with guy parts. And to add insult to injury, I was still too messed up from the tournament to even try... Uh. Forget it.

Right. I'm off to the lab. I want to know what exactly these things can do (and preferably how, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one) before they start doing it for once.

((OOC: For the sake of posterity, Sakura's water-coloring flower is a sprig of Yamazakura, surprise surprise. I just spent about an hour researching flowers and tea, because I am a dork like this. Oh, yeah. The tea? Is a very nice Matcha.

Memory Gain: At 16% of 28% - she's remembered a bit more about Tsunade's training of the herbal variety, but also remembers that it is kinda a top-secret ninja thing, so she's being paranoid about it.))

((OOC: Oh, right. Um, despite what my AIM message may say, I'll be back tomorrow afternoon, along with Mokona, Sakura, and Raven. Barbeque and family call.))

EDIT: Thank you, Ethan.