Along the forest path, there is briefly a silver hole torn in the air, out of which a blackviolet puddle of goop falls to the ground. The silver portal promptly vanishes.

The goop was once a human, who had a very bad day. Holy shit, it got shot, it died, and now it's a puddle of goop in a forest!?!?

It squirms in place in confused panic, subtle streaks of color rippling across its surface.

Sakura starts, suddenly shocked awake from her thoughts. What is this thing?

Palming a kunai just in case, she leans in to get a better look.

Whatever it is, it writhes unhappily, then rolls away from Sakura as she approaches it, glooping along the dirt.

Sable does not want to listen to those instincts telling her to lunge for the cute human with the pointy thing; she wants to take her gloopy ass somewhere quiet to process the fact that she died.

Sakura grabs for the mass of goo, chakra-boosting her muscles faster as it tries to get away.

"Ohh no, you're not getting away from me that easily!"

She grabs ahold of the slimy substance, her feeling of victory nearly distracting her as—

Oh shit, those instincts cannot be ignored when it's in contact with a human. Fuuuuuuck. 

Thick, inky goop rushes up Sakura's arms, sensitizing her skin as it covers her, flowing into every pore as it stretches higher.

Oh, kami-

Is all she can think before the ability to form coherent thoughts leaves her, chased away by the overwhelming sensation of the inky sludge pouring over her skin—into every nook, cranny and pore as it rapidly shoots up her arm, across her chest and over the rest of her body.

The inky liquid flows across her in a caress, teasing every sensitive inch of skin, pouring into her nose and mouth, flooding her pussy and ass, wrapping around her limbs. It slips in behind her eyes, pours into her lungs, rushing into every fold.

The feeling is electric, brain-melting pleasure dancing across every nerve, overwhelming her senses with bliss.

Sakura tries to scream, but with her mouth and lungs flooded with liquid, the most she can do is moan silently into the inky blackness surrounding her.

She's never felt anything like this: The electric sensation flooding through her is so much. She'd masturbated a little before, but it never felt like this—and not everywhere! She can feel the intense, erotic pleasure in her mouth, her nose, her eyes—god, she can somehow feel the liquid entering her brain.

Her body shakes and spasms at the overwhelming sensations, her pussy clenching around nothing and everything as she loses herself to the most intense orgasm of her life.

She collapses to the ground in a pool of her own fluids, as consciousness finally leaves her and she falls into the even deeper blackness of sleep.

Flowing into Sakura is the most overwhelming pleasure of Sable's entire life before dying and becoming this. It seeps into every organ and cavity, filling Sakura completely, what's left of its mind collapsing in the haze of bliss as it bonds with her.

And then it, too, is spent. Whatever it is now, it may not be able to sleep, but it can enter a kind of torpor when sufficiently worn out.

…She slowly wakes, feeling as though she'd overdone it during training for the first time in months.

…Then bolts upright! What in the six paths was that!?

She looks down at herself, looking for any trace of the strange inky creature, but finding none.

Did it leave?

No, it did not. It would consider doing so, but it apparently needs to be bonded to a human to live now, and Sakura was reckless enough to stick her hand in it when it was trying to flee and give her an option other than being bonded to it.

It died once already. Wasn't fun.

Fuck.

It speaks into her mind, voice gentle and feminine, sounding a bit wrung out with recent events, but determinedly warm in spite of that.

{Hi. Quite the tangle we're in now, ain't it?}

Their thoughts spill across each other now, the inkblot's mind just as clear to Sakura as Sakura's is to the inkblot.

What the fuck!? Is she possessed?

Wait…
"Kai!"

Damn, no. She can still feel the presence in her mind. If this is a genjutsu, it's one she's too weak to break.

...Fine.

{Uhh… hi. What are you?}

Oh wow that feels funky. She's never had a chakra system before, presumably she learned the name for the weird energy from her new host's memories? Getting a disruption pulsed through Sakura's chakra coils spills into Sable's own, intertwined as they are now, and it feels weeeiiird.

{Yeah, I'm still here despite whatever you just did. I...}

There's an ice-cold hitch in Sable's mental voice, echoing faintly with lingering mute horror, before she continues.

{I was a human. Then I died—}

{—and apparently got turned into some kind of inky goop, and got dropped into another world. Call me Sable. Pronouns are... I guess a mix of she/her and it/its. I'm some kind of symbiote, now, meant to enhance and support my host, incapable of surviving without one.}

Well that's a convenient story. No, it might be telling the truth.

Whatever she is, she doesn't seem to have hurt Sakura. If anything, the opposite—no, stop that, focus.
If she is telling the truth, that's horrible and Sakura should probably try to comfort her about it. And if it's lying, she may as well let it believe she trusts it.

{…Oh. That's a lot to deal with. I know the world is dangerous, and we have to be prepared to die anytime, but I'm sure actually experiencing it is a lot worse.}

{On the bright side, you're still alive?} No, she's clearly just been transformed against her will—that might be worse than death, and it's not a comforting reminder.

{Sorry, that probably didn't help.} What helps in this sort of situation? Distractions? Yeah, distractions.

{You said you're some kind of symbiote? That sounds interesting. I haven't met many, but I know a lot of the strongest ninja have powerful bloodlines. Maybe this is something like that?}

Oh no, she thinks she's still got private thoughts. Can't let that be, that'd be lying by omission.

{Yeah, experiencing it sucked. I definitely consider this weird goop life a bright side, though. Honestly I don't mind being what I am now, I just wish it'd come with some time to prepare myself, rather than sudden projectiles ending my previous life.}

There's a sense of a metaphorical deep breath, before Sable continues.

{Gotta correct an assumption though: neither you nor I have private thoughts anymore, so that little aside about letting me believe you trust me was very nearly as obvious as these more directed communications. Sorry.}

The moment the thought bleeds through to Sakura's mind, she winces internally. At least it'd told her - though she supposes she'd have noticed either way.

Well, assuming it's telling the truth that the thought-sharing goes both ways (and it feels like she is), it'll be really hard for either of them to lie to eachother.
That's… honestly a relief.

{Well, if you need some time to process, I think we can manage that. I'll need to be home before someone notices I'm missing, but we probably have a bit of time left before then. I can just sit quietly for a bit, if you'd like?}

{Honestly, I don't know that I'd get a lot out of quiet sitting at this point. My anxiety would just eat me. Probably I'll just have a few internal screams about being a living dead girl,} there's a faint sense of amusement to the phrasing, as though those three words are a song lyric or something back home, {interrupting my train of thought in some quiet moments. More trauma. Fun.}

It sighs harshly, then gives an impression of tired cheer. {But at least I'm alive to be traumatized about it, right? So tell me about this world, and about your village! You said there are ninja in this world? They were mostly myths and fiction back home.}

Right. She guesses that wouldn't help her much in that situation, either. Still, she feels bad that she can't do more to help.

Oh! A distraction! Her world? Sure, she can do that!

{I don't know what your world's stories about ninja were like—} Oh, now she does—that feels weird.
{—but shinobi in this world are the defenders of our hidden villages, and of our countries. I guess we also spy, steal, and occasionally surveil or assassinate our enemies, but that's probably not what I'll mostly be doing.}

{We train to use our chakra—} Oh, it doesn't know what that is? {—Our life-force—which everyone has—to perform special abilities, or ninjutsu.}

Are there any jutsu she can show Sable? Well, she had just been training her transformation jutsu, so that could work.

{Here, give me a second…}

Sakura finds a relatively-large puddle a ways down the forest path. It's been raining recently, so it doesn't take her long.

{Alright…}

Forming the hand seals, Sakura concentrates on the form she wants to take, and...

"Henge!"

In a puff of smoke, where there was once a short blonde kunoichi-in-training, now stands a slightly taller civilian girl with dark hair and a severe expression.

{I'm just a student, so I can't do anything really impressive, but I can at least manage this.} Unlike some of her classmates…

{Oooh, that's really cool! My old world didn't have chakra at all — at least not that anyone could tell — and so nothing like that was possible. I would've loved having that kind of trick, all my friends would've had to get used to me changing my hair and height and figure daily. At minimum. Not to mention the dysphoria relief it would've provided.}

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.

Right, Naruto!
Honestly, Sakura had forgotten to really think about what he wanted in any real depth, because… he seems pretty open about it?

Naruto wants to be strong—though she's never been very clear on why, beyond the obvious reasons.
He's been picking fights with Sasuke lately—either he has a problem with him or he just really needs a sparring partner.
Maybe she could offer? She does have better grades than him. Hey, if he pisses her off then, she'll even have an excuse to hit him!

He wants her attention, and she'd almost want to give it to him, except he's so damn obnoxious about it!

She's still nicer to him than most of their classmates, though.
…Actually, thinking about it, that last part is a bit weird. Why are they so mean to him?
It's not just their class, either: she's definitely seen other villagers giving him the cold shoulder out of nowhere, too.

…Maybe she should ask about it?

Okay, okay, it can work with this. Sasuke sounds like he's badly off about losing most or all of his family. He's hard to help, and hard to talk to, but they mostly don't need to help him right now, because his obsession will distract him from them just fine. It sounds like he's not going to care about much other than getting stronger, which, honestly, valid, but she'll need to see him to know for sure. Low risk, though.

Naruto... Hm. If he needs a sparring partner, honestly maybe they should just give him one. Maybe they can show him how to ask for attention in a less annoying way? Maybe he's teachable.

The majority of the class and the villagers being shitty to him, though, that's weird. That's concerning. Sable's curious about Naruto now. They should definitely talk to him. What sort of annoying are they dealing with here? 

{Mostly the "relatively-harmless pranks" variety, with a bit of "attention-seeking stunts" on the side.} Wow, she hadn't really thought about it in those terms before. Maybe he's more attention-motivated than she thought?

He's... honestly, he can't be that bad, if she's already basically giving him what he wants by just talking to him, right?

In that case…
{Should we head back into the village and see if we can find him tonight? That way, we can talk to that Hyuuga girl first thing tomorrow.}

{He sounds... lonely. Yeah, I think we should. Also, at some point we should put some time into getting used to what enhancements I can give you. I'm passively enhancing your body now, and I can do better — if more invasive — enhancements if I can eat some animals.}

Images flicker through their shared mind of shooting lines of web from her wrists, or improved strength and speed, or having a perfect internal compass, or enhanced vision.

{Oh, right!} She'd gotten so distracted by their problems that she had completely forgotten about the benefits of her new situation!

{We can probably try out the passive enhancements you've already been giving me on the way home, but we might still have time to try out some of the more extensive options before we leave.}

{The better stuff will take some time. I need to eat multiple samples of different types of animals for any given upgrade, and then spend an hour or two processing how those animals do what they do, in order to modify your body to be able to do whatever it is we're aiming for. So that stuff isn't a today thing unless you just wanna get the animals and let me work on figuring out the upgrades while you sleep.}

A brief pause, then, {Oh! Also! It's not like overeating is much of a concern for a ninja-in-training, given how calorically-intensive that kind of job is, but now that you have me it is categorically impossible to overeat. Everything over and above your body's caloric needs just goes to feed my stockpile of inky goop, which I can use for things like repairing your body if you're injured, among other useful things. Also I do have some caloric needs of my own.}

Hmm… it might be a bit late for that, tonight—it's getting dark out.

…That thing about overeating sounds… really helpful, actually.
She knows she shouldn't worry about it, with how much she exercises, but she still does.
She manages to usually eat enough, but it can sometimes be difficult, with that on her mind.

{Let's just try out the stuff you can do now, then. What other differences should I be looking for?}

Yeah, dieting as a ninja trainee sounds... honestly really dumb? Anyone who expects a ninja to be a delicate waif needs their head recalibrated. Ninja, just based on its instincts, should have a gymnast's or dancer's build: strong and lithe, wiry muscle that's built for agility and speed and precision. And none of that involves trying to eat less.

Anyway. {Current passive enhancements: base muscle strength is a bit higher, reflexes are a bit faster, stamina should be higher. I'm eating lactic acid build-up and repairing muscle and ligament tears in real-time, as long as I have the spare mass for it, and I can convert some of my mass to additional energy to keep you going if you run out. The more we eat, the better/longer I can do all of that, so start doubling or tripling your serving sizes. I may have some additional dietary needs of my own in this form, but we've got plenty of time to figure that out.}

Right.

If that means she has to eat more, that… might be difficult for her? It sounds kind of terrifying, actually.
Better to solve that problem now than later. She'll have to learn to fix that habit anyway, if she's going to be a kunoichi.
Yeah, but it's still going to be uncomfortable.

…Time to think about something else. Those enhancements sound nice?

{Does that thing about repairing muscles mean she can train faster?}
She remembers learning something about muscle gain coming from tearing and repairing your muscles.

Sable is maybe a little concerned about Sakura's relationship with food. She's going to help as best she can, though. {Yeah, we'll get you through the food struggles. Don't worry, Sakura. On the plus side, I can directly tell when you've eaten enough for your body's needs, so there's no guesswork there. And yes, you absolutely can train faster. Muscle improvements happen by acquiring micro-tears during exercise and healing back stronger, to simplify a bit, and I can do that healing immediately. All of this happens because I have absolute biological control over anyone I'm bonded to.}

Well that's something.

…

{…"Absolute biological control"?}

That sounds… potentially scary. (And potentially hot)—Nope! Do not get turned on by the alien ink-monster having control over your body!

Sable may in fact also find that idea hot.

{I can essentially do anything I want to your body, rewrite it arbitrarily, reshape any part of it. Conveniently for your cute, reckless, inkblot-pouncing ass, I only want to reshape you in ways that make you happier and safer, because I'm a sap like that.} Sable shares the entirety of its feelings on the subject: Sakura is cute, endearing, decently clever, and someone Sable is already growing rather fond of. It feels pretty lucky to have her as a host rather than someone else, and wants to ensure she not just survives, but thrives.

Oh. Wow.

Those are some very intense feelings she's suddenly feeling.

…

Those are probably the right feelings for Sable to be feeling? She is all of those things.

Alright. Yeah.

She supposes she's starting to get a bit attached to Sable, too.
This is probably fine, actually?

Yeah, ok. Sakura can actually handle this.

Sakura tries sharing some of her own feelings back.
Sakura is actually really enjoying having Sable here, so far. Sable is clearly emotionally mature enough to be handling her end of this exchange without the emotional flailing Sakura is doing, and seems to care a lot for her already, and Sakura is starting to feel pretty lucky to have it in her head, too.

There, emotions! Sakura can handle emotions properly! Go her!

Ah, but Sable's cheating at the emotional maturity. It has the advantage of age, and even so it's still going to have a breakdown at some point. It's a mess, but it's an affectionate, fiercely protective mess, at least. No one is allowed to harm its cute little ninja-in-training.

It blushes internally a bit.

Right. Weren't they gonna gonna try taking the high-intensity route home?

Right! That they were.

Sakura begins making her way back to the village, taking a more circuitous route on her way than she did leaving. She vaults over and around the rocks and trees, occasionally swinging from a branch or around a trunk.

The feeling of her increased mobility is exhilarating, and she can barely restrain her excitement enough to keep quiet.

{Woah, this is incredible! It's like the first time I chakra-boosted all over again!}

She continues to run and vault in the general direction of home, her heart thrumming with excitement.

Sakura's excitement is contagious, and Sable's cheering along in their mind with every leap and swing. She pays careful attention to the route they take, gradually assembling a mental map of the forests around Konoha.

{This is so much fun!}

{It is!}

Sakura knows this area of the forests well, and as Sable builds her mental map, it can feel connections being pulled in from Sakura's more extensive memories.

As they begin to exit the forest and near the village, Sakura slows her pace, preparing to enter quietly.

While she isn't strictly forbidden from leaving the village unsupervised, the guards might be concerned or suspicious if they saw her, and might tell her parents when they noticed.

Someone is probably watching as she enters over the south outer wall, but whoever it is must have more important things to do than get a young kunoichi-in-training in trouble with her parents.

Sable watches very carefully as Sakura sneaks in, in case it can catch something Sakura saw but didn't notice. Hopefully any observers are more worried about other villages than wandering students.

This is far from the first time she's snuck in or out like this, so she isn't worried about being stopped. They probably want to encourage students to try this sort of thing, anyway.

As she quietly drops into the village, Sakura thinks on where she might find Naruto.

She never learned where he lives, but she's seen him on top of Hokage rock before, so he might be there. It's late enough now that he's probably not off pulling some prank, but hopefully not late enough yet for him to have gone home.

{Is there anything you can do to help me find Naruto? I'm hoping we can catch him while he's still out and about.}

{I should've thought of this earlier, but if we'd grabbed a bird, I could recreate it after eating it and have it scout for us. Other than scout animals, I'm limited to your senses until I learn chakra-based sensory abilities. The one big problem I can think of with animal scouts is they're another instance of me that a Hyuuga could happen to walk by.}

{Oh! Dang, that would have been useful.} They might have to try for one of those the next time they're out.

Still, it's probably right about the Hyuuga, so maybe it's best that they hadn't done that.

Sakura begins to make her way silently across the rooftops, towards Hokage rock.

Sable keeps watch as they go, tinkering in its mind with ways to maybe highlight points of interest in Sakura's view in the future. It's not sure if it can do that, but it would sure like to find out. It also pays attention to what chakra-boosting feels like, and what Sakura's chakra use feels like in general, so it can learn to use its own chakra.

{I'll try to think of a good way to keep one hidden. We might want to come up with some kind of cover story that explains any changes you want me to make, or abilities I give you, though. And something to explain any detectable signs of my presence, in case people happen to look closely at you or wonder where you picked up a healing factor.}