#penjira

Some Sakura-love.

Sasuke initially wanted Sakura to go back home out of concern for her safety, but later admits that it’s a “big plus” having her around to help with his mission. She turns out to be crucial indeed.

Sakura bets with gambler Penjira to acquire the key he holds to a basement they need to infiltrate. Sasuke plans to use genjutsu on Penjira and cheat the game, but hearing this, Sakura says “aw, that sucks, you’re going to cheat.” Sasuke looks at her, amazed.

Sakura reminds him she’s the favourite student of Tsunade. She knows a thing or two about gambling. (Sasuke: but isn’t she terrible at gambling though sidhdijdiddj)

Sasuke acquiesces anyway. Sakura plays with Penjira. The game involves a lot of memorisation, so Penjira gives Sakura the role list, to help her since neither she nor Sasuke know the game. She gives it a read and then returns it. Penjira urges her to keep it, since she’s a newbie to the game. But Sakura says she already memorised it all, which amazes Penjira.

During the bet, Penjira notes that there is something different about Dr. Sakura. She’s clearly not the soft, kind-hearted doctor they know, but rather like a determined, fierce woman now.

Penjira notes that Sakura so far has been the only doctor in that prison to ever treat them as human beings. That she has already captured the hearts of all the prisoners. In comparison, the director overworked and treated them inhumanely.

Prisoners “had hope ever since Sakura arrived” in the prison.

Sakura is able to gain a rough understanding of a building’s structure using chakra; she finds a hidden room that way. This technique is apparently exclusive to Sakura, since it requires moving chakra through inorganic materials, something that requires perfect control.

Sakura also cracks the case regarding the astronomical map in the basement, by analysing the constellations in the book and ordering them by month. Sasuke is said to be “sincerely impressed.” Sasuke wasn’t much help there at all.

Sakura uses henge to pretend to be the messenger of the Prime Minister and meets with Zansur, buying Sasuke time to sleuth around.

She figures out the connection of the constellations to the zodiacs to really mean jutsu signs in a particular order.

She fights the beasts one after another to give prisoners time to escape the facility, all while having just been poisoned and trapped in the collapsed lab prior.