Dysphoria? No, wait, whatever that is feels personal.

Sakura loses focus; her jutsu ending in a puff of smoke. Ah, shit.

{Yeah, actually: now you mention it, it's a bit weird that more ninja don't do that.} Or maybe they do, and she just hadn't noticed?

Does she want to answer that? She maybe wants to answer that. At the very least the train of dangling references and Sakura's confusion about them will be annoying if she doesn't answer that.

{I'm trans. Or well. I don't know how the label updates now that I'm a weird inkblot sharing a body with a cis girl, but before I died I was a girl who'd been born in a masculine body and eventually realized she didn't like it.}

Oh. That can happen?

Sakura imagines being stuck in a boy's body—first imagining someone annoying like Naruto, but then someone cool like Sasuke, and… no, that still feels weird.

That seems… really unpleasant, actually?

{Wow, I'm so sorry! That sounds awful!}

{…Is that why you're ok with being this slime thing? Because you've had it worse before?} Is that worse?

Yeah, it honestly was really unpleasant.

{Thanks, it was. That's not why, but it might be a factor. Mostly it's that some people don't feel like they're supposed to be human, whether in part or completely. I've known people who wanted to have fox ears, or wings, or any number of other things. For me, what I most wanted was to be shapeshifting goop, because my taste as to how I wanted to look changed constantly, and frequently included inhuman features. I hadn't considered the idea of needing a host to live, but...}

There's another sense of a blush from Sable, like it's a bit embarrassed. {I'm not not into it.}

Oh, well that's good to…

Oh… Oh!

Thoughts of her initial contact with the creature flood Sakura's mind, and she's suddenly very aware that's she is definitely not the only one there who enjoyed that experience.

Uhm. Right. She's just not going to think about that too much right now. Even if she wants to? Yes.

…What were they talking about?

Yeah, Sable's embarrassed too. Transness, dysphoria, and weird transformations, she thinks, though they may be running out of topic there. Before that Sakura was telling her about ninjas and how she's training to be one?

Oh! Right!

{Right! So… that—} she says, pointing into the distance, towards Konoha {—is my village! Konohagakure: the village hidden in the leaves—or just "Hidden Leaf", for short. It's easily the best hidden village, and it's the biggest one in the Land of Fire—the country we're in right now.}

{The other most important villages are Hidden Rock in Earth country, Hidden Mist in Water, Hidden Sand in Wind, and Hidden Cloud in Lightning.}

{We're all technically at peace right now? But everybody knows the villages spy and steal from eachother all the time, so I'm not totally sure what that really means.}

Is there anything else she should be mentioning? Right, the actual village!

{Konoha is run by the Hokage—old man Sarutobi. He's in charge of most things in the village, but a lot of stuff in regards to us ninja is up to the Jounin Commander, and there's probably some other leader roles I'm forgetting, or don't know about.}
She winces, wishing she'd paid more attention when her mom was explaining this to her.

{I'm not actually a ninja yet—I'm in training until I graduate. I'm one of the best students in my class though, so I'm sure to pass and become a genin this year!}

{After that, I've heard we'll get put into small teams, with an older ninja to teach us? I can't wait to start learning some real ninjutsu.} I wonder if we'll get teamed up with Sasuke…

{Interesting. Sounds like a cold war situation, where they're officially at "peace" but still scrabbling for advantages over each other in case another war breaks out.}

It carefully files away all the facts Sakura shares about the villages, finding its memory works better than it used to, at least.

{Glad to hear you're a good student. If we're training to be a ninja, I'm glad I don't have to convince you of the merits of learning. Knowledge is power and all that. How do you think the village would react to finding out you've got a gloopy new headmate?}

Of course not! Learning is how we get stronger!

Right. How would the village react?

If she came home and told her parents, they'd… probably tell a medi-nin? Who would then tell the higher-ups, and…

and…

…Right. They'd probably think Sable was an infiltrator of some kind—or maybe a weird chakra beast—and remove it. If they even could.

Given what Sable said about her nature—and Sakura's pretty sure she believes Sable by now—that would… kill it.

Shit.

That would not be fun. {I'd appreciate it if you were careful, then, because that would be five to ten miserable minutes followed by a sudden stop. What can you tell me about sensory abilities in Konoha?}

Right. She can't let that happen.

{Most ninja shouldn't be able to notice you, but… a Hyuuga with the Byakugan could probably notice you immediately—and if you have a chakra system, an Uchiha with the Sharingan probably could, too.}

Her house isn't near the Uchiha or Hyuuga estates, but Sasuke Uchiha is in her class, and there's also that Hyuuga girl who follows Naruto around sometimes.

She might be able to avoid Sasuke noticing Sable—he doesn't pay much attention to Sakura anyway—but there's no way she can hide her from the Hyuuga girl.

Maybe she can ask Naruto about the Hyuuga girl, and get her alone? She seemed quiet, and a bit obsessed with Naruto, so maybe she can convince her not to say anything…

{I think I have a chakra system now that we've bonded, so we'll have to be careful about Sasuke. As for the Hyuuga girl, your plan sounds like a decent start. What's Naruto like? What else do we know about the girl? What's Sasuke like?}

{Sasuke's great! He's really cool, and he's probably the strongest ninja(-to-be) in my year!}

{…He's really serious, though. And I don't know him that well, so it might be hard to convince him to keep you a secret.}

{Naruto's a bit annoying, but he's really obsessed with me, so I'm at least pretty sure we can get him to help.}

She does feel a bit bad for him though: He's been flunking a lot of their tests lately, and some of the other students are even worse to him than they are to her.

{I haven't really interacted with the girl. I… can't even really remember her name.} Sakura winces—she really tries to be better about that sort of thing.

What does she know about her? She's a Hyuuga, which is one of the biggest clans in Leaf, so she might be a big deal? No, she doesn't really seem like it, though.
She's pretty quiet.
She seems to really like Naruto (not that he seems to notice), and… that might be all Sakura knows about her.

Hm. Hm hm hm. They need reasons for these kids to like them and help them. Sable's understanding of social dynamics unfolds in their shared mind. Three fundamental tricks there: people feel connected to people they do favors for, people appreciate people who help them, and people fundamentally long for connection to people who understand them. Trauma can get in the way of the third, especially, though.

{Recent events in the lives of Sasuke and Naruto, strengths and weaknesses, major focuses, things they need help with, things they lack? (I'd ask the same about the Hyuuga girl, but we won't be able to answer that until we talk to Naruto. And honestly Naruto may be what she wants, just based on what little you remember of her.)}

Right. Recent events, focuses; things they could help with.

Sasuke… well, he hasn't talked about it, but Sakura had heard that the Uchiha family compound was attacked not long ago.
She'd heard that there weren't many survivors, but nobody has really said much.

Sasuke's been really focused on training since then, which is… probably good?
Sakura knows she would want to get stronger if something like that happened to her family.

She's not entirely sure what she can do to help there, though.

Maybe she should move on to Naruto.