Finishing the Prototypes.

"What do you mean people can use it as a throwaway body once they know how to use domains!?" Sakura was the first one to ask since it was her prosthetic idea that was being used to make this.

"Exactly that, you can put jutsus into the circuits I carved so that once you inhabit the prosthetic puppet body by shifting your spiritual energies into it using a jutsu you use those jutsus freely if you provide the right kind of chakra."

"What is all that about dying then?" Sakura asked confused, since none of it felt dangerous.

"I'm not talking about modifying your body like Sasori and converting your body into a prosthetic one. But actual body transfer. I use a seal to trap your spiritual energy and create a false anchor of sorts for the world to think you have a new body, so it attaches you to this new prosthetic body. It's like the Hirshin jutsu that teleports you using a seal."

"Oh, but still how will people die if they use that? Won't the old anchor on your body remain? Isn't that how Hirashin works? You use a seal that separates you from your body and once your spiritual energy appears in another place the world teleports you to that location?"

"Correct. But in my case, you aren't moving with the body. So essentially you are going to subject your body to true death because you already have an anchor in the prosthetic puppet body. Meaning the chakra pathways will start the decay when you separate so you won't have a body to come back to."

"...what the hell." Tsunade was the one to comment since she knew exactly what Megumi was talking about as she'd delved into domains before, while everyone else stayed silent.

"What did you mean by if you know how to use domains you can use it as a throwaway?"

"If you know how to use domains, you can leave your body in one so that it isn't subject to dying and can be frozen in time so that you can come back to it whenever you want or when your prosthetic body is destroyed."

Everyone kept silent as if contemplating if Megumi should be allowed to stay alone from now on, with the crazy ideas he had in his head it wouldn't be farfetched if someday he said he could live without a body soon.

"Genius right!?" Megumi said with a proud expression expecting praises.

"...*sigh* Mom, I'm staying home tomorrow. I know if I don't he'll start doing something stupid again. Please handle my share of manufacturing the prosthetics for tomorrow."

"Alright."

"What!? Why is no one praising me!? Isn't it awesome!?"

"...why did you even make that thing?" Tsunade asked causing a weird sinister smile to form on Megumi's face.

"Hehehehe~ to bring two of the most needed people into the world…hehe- *gwak*!"

*BANG*

Before he realized what'd happened he found a hand slammed into his face.

"Don't make such weird expressions," Tsunade said shivering a little.

Megumi rubbed his face in annoyance but suddenly lit up, "Tsuna-nee! That was one! One of five done!"

Tsunade and Sakura froze since they hadn't thought about this but they also couldn't argue and after a quick glance at each other they decided to make sure to be a little bit harder on the other tries.

A shiver passed down Megumi's spine so he sought to change the topic for now.

"By the way, Tsuna-nee, I had a question I wanted to ask."

"What is it?"

"Why aren't there any shinobi fighting tournaments?"

"What?"

"I mean like for fun, why aren't there friendly tournaments for shinobi to participate in? Wouldn't that bolster people's enthusiasm for shinobi?"

"I...I don't really know. I think it was just because of the wars, no one ever had the time to do such a thing. But would it really be fun? Wouldn't people get scared when they see what shinobi are actually capable of?"

"Nah, my continent had people fighting each other too, generally for a prize in the end, and people had loads of fun watching them. Of course, a few of the fights were scripted to give it a sense of drama but people enjoyed both, the dramatic fights and also the real bare-knuckle fights that carried a risk of real injuries."

"Hmm…I'll see what I can do about that. The Hokage should probably agree to it since it'll bolster more people to become shinobi but I can't really say anything for sure."

"That's alright, I just thought that late on we could even broadcast the fights using the Grimoires and a camera to everyone around the world so more people can compete and enjoy in it. Like imagine each village sending a team of their own fighters to represent them or something like that."

"....it sounds fun. And it'll probably even help quell some of the dissatisfaction people have with each other at times. I'll see what I can do, don't worry."

"Okie!"

The dinner soon concluded and everyone left to sleep after Tsunade said she didn't have any more news about the war currently. But she warned everyone to stay ready, even if everything seemed to be alright on the surface of things, it most likely was not.

Deep into the night, as soon as Megumi felt Sakura was asleep, he raised the blanket quietly and attempted to slip out of the bed.

The key word being attempted, because before he could leave, Sakura was already sitting on him after having pushed him back into the bed, holding his hands above him to reduce his resistance.

Her eyes glared at Megumi with anger and annoyance like she'd expected this.

"You really thought you could leave so easily?" Sakura whispered, yet Megumi could feel she was angry with him.

"I thought you'd just teleport away so I was waiting, but who'd think you'd try to slip out and underestimate me so much."

Megumi blushed after Sakura pointed out the obvious and felt stupid for not having teleported directly to his experimental room and became shy after getting caught so easily.

Megumi tried to free himself but Sakura only held on tighter as she asked, "Why are you so intent on doing this?"

Looking at the serious tone with which Sakura asked Megumi knew only a serious answer would satisfy her so he told her the real reason.

"It's fun. And, the future depends on it." Megumi explained.

*sigh* "I thought so." Sakura loosened her grip on Megumi's hands and collapsed on top of him.

"I don't like it." She complained childishly as she hugged Megumi tighter. "I don't like you suffering to help other people."

"It's not suffering if it's out of compassion."

"Hmpf. You're not getting out of this by twisting words."

"..."

"Then help me." Megumi said causing Sakura to freeze for a moment and look up at him with eyes that were intent on seeing through him.

"...I have too much to work with already."

"...I'll handle them along with you."

"...ok." Sakura nodded after nestling herself into Megumi's shoulder.

"Can't we start now?"

"No. I took a leave for tomorrow. So it's alright if we both do it together later. I want to spend more time with you like this. I feel like it'll only get rarer for us to do this."

"...I will make sure it doesn't."

"Promise?"

"Who named the word Promise? Doesn't it sound like Pro-miss? Like are you a professional at missing the mark? I'll do you better, I'll marry you if I fail to keep it up."

"...?" Sakura's brain fell into confusion as soon as she heard the words 'Marry you.' But then as it analyzed the rest of the sentence she realized Megumi was just teasing her and started to lightly bash his chest. "You're teasing me!"

"How can I not when you look so cute!"

"Hmpf. I'm cute, but you're not cute at all."

"I thought girls liked bad boys."

"...don't tease me too much, or I'll become a bad girl."

"Haha! You didn't reject it!"

"HNN~NN~N~N~N~" Whimpering into Megumi's shoulder as she suddenly vanished away into their mindscape, Megumi followed as he caught her by wrapping his hands around her waist and both collapsed onto the grassy fields teasing each other further until they burst out laughing and they ended under the Sakura tree Sakura had created.

"Pretty isn't it?" Megumi asked.

"Yes. I remember the days I used to spend as much free time as I could get trying to fill all the gaps in it."

"Oh? What filled them?"

"You. I don't think I remember taking my mind off you, even for a minute. Even when I was hating Danzo, a corner of me would always remember you."

"I see." Megumi responded as Sakura turned to look at him, only to realize he was never talking about the tree in the first place since he was never looking at it.

"...you're a fool."

"At least I'm yours."

"At least you're mine."

Cuddling with each other, they soon fell asleep since it was already the middle of the night, and taking and laughing with each other had only relaxed their nerves that had become tense due to the war brimming over the horizon.

Both Sakura and Megumi woke up earlier than usual as they had the best sleep of their lives yet.

"So what are you doing?"

"First I need you to finish the puppets then we can test them with the help of the people they are built for."

"Who?"

"Well first complete them! No need to ruin surprises!"

"Arghh! Fine! But don't ask me next time I do something like this!"

"Hey! No fair! You haven't told me what you're making for my birthday gift anyway!"

"...that's literally a surprise!"

"...anyway, tell me if any of the circuits I carved were in the wrong place, I took care not to make mistakes, but I might've made some."

"Ok."

Sakura stepped up to the already open puppet body and began scanning all over the circuits Megumi had etched into the wood.

"There are a few mistakes, but nothing around the tenketsu that will hold fire in this one."

"Oh! Tell me which parts are wrong I'll change them while you check the othe-"

"-No! I'll do all the carving work from now on. You're barred from touching anything that is related to carving!" Sakura almost shouted but kept her voice low and turned her anger into a mama bear glare.

"...ok."

Moving to the next prosthetic puppet, Sakura did the same thing and opened it to scan all the pathways and began making a note of all the mistakes she found.

After she was done, she bgan imbibing them with all the fire nature properties in tenketsus she could think of and took a short break that was fueled by Megumi bringing her lemon juice and waving a paper fan to keep her cool.

"Nice juice."

"Thanks, mom used to make it."

"Mo- oh." Sakura looked at Megumi with a shocked expression for the first time since she'd met him like she was seeing a new man altogether in front of her.

"Why're you staring at me like that?!"

"Are you ok?"

"Yes. I am. Why would you think I'm not?"

Sakura still looked worried but after drinking her juice she gave Megumi a warm hug and thought of something else she could give Megumi during his birthday, something that was personal only to him and probably her since she'd marry him.

"Give me those tools, I'll carve the rest of the pathways properly. And then polish the newly carved pathways."

"We can polish together at least! That's just painting with a brush! It won't hurt me!" Megumi pleaded.

"*sigh* Alright, but only as long as I let you! If I see you straining your hand I'll ask Tsunade-sensei to increase the number of times she can hit you!"

"....sure." Megumi deadpanned.

They worked together to finish the remaining tasks and once they were done, Megumi's eyes began to shine like stars.

"Wanna see who is going to use them?" Megumi asked Sakura in with some tease to his tone.

"Of course! What? You think I did all this work to still be left in suspense!?"

"Alright, hold my hand, we'll go there directly!"

Holding Megumi's hands tight since teleporting still felt nauseating to Sakura without Universal Sage Mode, both Megumi and Sakura vanished along with the puppets as they appeared on an entirely different continent altogether.

-------------------------

Thank you for reading!

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