Author's Corner:

Anyone else watch the end of Clear Card and is hopeful for a continuation? Me too!

Clear Card was basically what reminded me to work on this hahaha

I'm just... two years... late... rip...

Enjoy!

NINJA MASTER SAKURA

Written by MarLuna

+standard disclaimer applied

Summary

Sakura Haruno finds herself taking the place of Sakura Kinomoto as she falls into the world of Cardcaptors, finding herself forced to seal away the magical cards. But why are all the ninjas she knows in this world too? And why have they become the Clow Cards?

Seven. JUMP.

"Forehead, I think it's about time you cool it," Ino sagely came to talk to me one morning, which was weird for her of all people. I was in the midst of tying on my rollerblades, but this unexpected visit had me change right back out of them so I could walk with Ino to school. She was such a pain in the morning.

"What's wrong now? Am I becoming too good at catching Clow Cards?" I replied haughtily, quite proud at the strong six I had in my pockets. Too bad they were quick to ping and send me vibes of absolute refusal and denial. "Gosh guys, you guys suck!" I hissed to my pocket. I swear I could feel Deidei sticking out his tongues at me.

Ino crossed her arms. It was really odd seeing her so serious so early in the morning. Someone must have died. It was the only reason behind it all. Yeah. That was it. Why else would she be so out of character? Unless. Oh no. A fashion designer died? No more fashion for the fashionista? Oh woe is the world!

"You said no to becoming a magical girl," she paused dramatically, hands on her hips and suddenly blocking the road. I didn't mind because I didn't really care if we were late to school or not. "—but yet you had no problems flaunting your Clow Cards in the grocery store!" Oh. So she was serious because she was being petty.

"No one knows them at the supermarket."

"I do!"

"So?"

"I want to be recognized!"

"You're filming me, aren't you? Weren't you going to use that as a class project thing?"

"Yeah but it's not like anyone will believe me. They'll think it was all special effects! Technology today is scary advanced!"

She wasn't wrong. "Then how do we get anyone to believe it then?"

"Through the news!"

"I don't want anyone to know I created this mess that I'm cleaning up."

"You can wear a mask!"

"And look like some psycho… right…"

Shikamaru was surprisingly pinging at this time. I called out my wand and released him. He walked in tune with us, surprisingly staying quiet. Ino and I watched him in confusion. Didn't he want to become his human form so that he could talk to us? Didn't he want to join the conversation? What was with him?

I gave up on the odd quiet he was feeding us. "What's up, Shika?"

He shrugged and didn't say anything.

"Didn't you want to say anything?"

"How troublesome..."

I looked at Ino to see if she understood. She looked as baffled as I was. And then her eyebrows shot up and she scooted me over so she could get beside him. "You just did that so you didn't have to be in your card!"

Shika didn't respond. His face twitched though. She was right. He had timed his ping with our conversation so that I would release him thinking he would contribute. He actually had nothing to say. What a fiend! I feel so used!

Ino latched onto his ear and twisted. Shikamaru didn't fight back, because he knew that Ino didn't remember anything about being a ninja and it would therefore be an unfair battle that he would definitely win (and I absolutely would not condone it if he fought back), and crippled to the ground. Ino loomed threateningly over him. "If you want to be out here, you must contribute to the conversation. You have to help me convince Sakura to become a magical girl." My most excitable cards started pinging and pulsing at me, so much so that I got a migraine across my temples and through to my giant (I'm not admitting it!) forehead. I thought I was getting used to their pinging and I was getting more tolerant, but I can see now that that certainly wasn't the case. They were just getting worse. And now Ino excited them with the prospect of freedom if they can convince me to become a magical girl. Too bad I wasn't going to let them fall for her tricks!

"Hey!" I objected. The cards quieted. "They're my cards, so they should be helping me!"

"Please, forehead." She whipped her hair over her shoulder and into my face. I spat them out. "Do you not see me right now? I'm totally stronger than them. They'll totally obey me." She tugged on Shika's ear on purpose. But she wasn't looking at his face, so she didn't see that it actually didn't hurt him at all. He was simply playing along.

"Shadow. Go ahead." I didn't even have to say the second part, honestly. Shika, like me, was absolutely ready to prove her wrong at the second I allowed it. He slapped Ino's hand away and, while she flinched back, his shadow extended and easily caught hers. He stood so they were facing each other. He smirked. And then had himself do silly poses (a chicken, a monkey, the hokey-pokey dance, and so forth). "You see, pig," I continued, putting a hand over my mouth to hide the grin on my face. I had to look like the image of complete business if I wanted to be taken seriously. "You're mistaken. I'm actually in power here."

Her face was red in embarrassment. "Fine, forehead, just make it stop!" He was making her shake her butt in the air and waving it like he just didn't care.

I had her bow down to my feet a few times before I finally agreed to have Shadow stop.

"I guess that means we'll never get famous." Ino pouted as we continued on our way to school.

I would love to be famous, but that wasn't something possible for me. "Good."

After a few moments of quiet, Shikamaru piped up on the subject. "If we let civilians know about this, then we're putting them in danger. The news will go to the danger to get footage which will make them targets to the Clow Cards," he glanced at Ino, "and you know firsthand how difficult that kind of situation is. And then even mere regular citizens might rush to the scene, which also puts them in the way. They might even try to do your job for you." He looked pointedly at me at that point.

"Heck no, dattebayo!" Naruto launched himself out of my backpack and onto my head. "Sakura is the only Cardcaptor here! Only she's worthy! Only she can seal the cards!"

I fluffed up proudly. "That's right!"

"Forehead, there's nothing special about you specifically."

"Then why weren't you chosen then, huh, pig?"

"Please!" She scoffed. "You simply found your father's book! If anything, your father is the one that's worthy!"

Honestly, touché. I didn't think of that one. I looked up at Naruto for answers.

"Sakura's magic is what opened the book! Believe it!"

"Yeah, it was my magic!"

But Ino wasn't in the conversation anymore. She was looking away. I glanced over. There was a new shop in the neighborhood. But that wasn't what caught our attention. No. There were always new shops around here. It was something odd. Something green. Something like...

"Hello my youthful students!"

Might Gai.

"What are you doing here, sensei?" Ino asked as innocently as she could without flinching at the inside of the store. So many outfits. So many "youthful" outfits. I thought I was going to throw up.

"Ah! What a youthful question!" He struck a pose, a finger flying above his head. "You see kids, it has always been my dream to open up a store of my own!" Oh good lord. "Even as a young youthful fellow, I always dreamed that I would open up a shop and share my knowledge and tastes to the world!"

Ino held back a choking noise.

"But Gai-sensei," I quickly intervened before Ino was too obvious, "you work at the school with us. You're teaching the older students! You can't just stop mid-way to run this shop!"

"Ah, you're clever, Sakura! As to be expected of my rival's top student!" I fluffed up at Gai's compliment. Ino scoffed at me. I glared back at her. "I will be working this shop after hours of course! Meanwhile, I'll need to look for helpful youthful friends like yourselves"—oh, so he was going to hire Lee to help— "to help me out with running the shop while I am teaching!" Nevermind. Lee was also in school. Which sucked because I think only Lee would be the one to jump at the chance to work at a store that sold nothing but a million of green jumpsuits and heavy training weights. Goodness. Gai was going to have such a hard time finding someone.

An alarm suddenly rang from the inside of the store. "Ah!" Gai ran inside, turned off the noise, locked the door, and met us back outside. "That was my alarm to get to work! See you at school!" And, I kid you not, he suddenly burst off running so quickly that a puff of smoke lifted off behind him. It also meant we were definitely going to be late. But we have an excuse this time!

...and Ino ran to a nearby trashcan to puke. "So ugly." She moaned in horror.

I could say nothing but pat her bag. Same. Just. Same.

"Come on, pig." I tugged on her arm and practically dragged her along. "We can't be late."

"Urk!"

It took all the strength from me and Shikamaru to drag her through the streets and to school, and that was including his shadow control. If Ino was so destroyed and nauseated by Gai's outfits, I'd hate to think of how she would react if she saw what I wore on my day off. Thankfully, my tastes weren't as bad as Gai's, but I was pretty sure they were still pretty bad. Or so I was told by my brother. Who really knew when it came to him?

The rest of the day passed without any major event. There were no signs of a Clow Card or anything out of order, and the sun was out, so we had a good chance to take a breather. Ino had pulled me and the girls (Hinata and Tenten) into the nice, warm, soothing sun to relax.

"You know what we should do?"

"Sleep?"

"Get ice cream?"

"yes! You read my mind!"

"Jeez, you always want ice cream, pig."

"Am I wrong though?"

"No, it would be amazing."

"Right."

"Yeahhhh…"

"Do you think there's a shop nearby that sells some?"

"Uh…"

"Let me check," Ino pushed herself on her elbows from laying on the grass and fished out her cell phone. Again. How in the heck was she allowed to have that? "There's one nearby, next to—" she froze, pulled a face, and looked like she was about to throw up again. It took me a moment, but it clicked. That was… not ideal.

I also pulled a face. "Rain check?"

Hinata looked confused as to why we suddenly changed ideas as soon as Ino checked her phone. It was suspicious indeed. "I-is there something the matter?"

Tenten took this as a challenge. "I'm curious now!" She bounded up and swiped the phone away from Ino before the girl could react. "It's next to a shop called 'Green and beautiful'?"

Ino gagged into her hand.

Tenten's eyebrows shot up.

"That's Gai-sensei's new shop." I clarified.

Hinata's face palled so much she looked like a ghost.

Tenten dropped Ino's phone into the grass like it was cursed.

Right?

They understood too.

"D-does it sell what I think it sells—" Tenten managed to choke out.

Ino nodded through the tears she was desperately fighting back. "They're so tacky…"

We had to take a moment to compose ourselves.

"The sad part is that that's the only good ice cream stop within reasonable walking distance." Tenten was swiping and pressing buttons on the phone. "We would have to take the bus to reach the next nearest one." We shook our heads in agreement that we did not like that option.

"Then… we risk it?" I asked, scared for our lives. Who knew what would happen to us if Gai happened to catch us. We would be forced to look at the outfits… or worse! Wear them!

"I-I'm sure it'll be f-fine!" Hinata tried to sound hopeful, but in this context, it only sounded dreadful. Ino shuddered. I gulped.

Alright.

Let's do this.

Like the strong resourceful women we were, we found some back routes to travel through to avoid going in front of Gai's shop. We arrived safely and took our time eating our ice cream. Although Ino and I had seen Gai's shop and were very willing to avoid it like the plague on our way back as well, the other two girls in our group were not thinking the same. They were too curious. They wanted to see it with their own eyes. That was fine and all, if it weren't for the fact that it was mortifying and could send innocents to the hospital with a mere glance. But hey, it was their funeral.

Once done our ice cream, we let the two girls go ahead and check it out for themselves.

Tenten quickly came back running. "Guys!"

"See? Told you it was bad." Ino grabbed Tenten's shoulder sympathetically. "Quick, let's go home before you get traumatized for good."

"Not that!" Tenten swatted her away. "Gai-sensei's shop got robbed!"

"…whose shop?"

"Gai-sensei's?"

"…and they stole?"

"His jumpsuits?"

We had to take a moment to stop Ino from laughing her face off. I was told that you could die from laughing too much, but I didn't think Ino would come so close to that by the idea of anyone else wanting Gai's clothes. It was indeed a ridiculous concept, but nothing to kill yourself laughing about.

….to be fair, though, I also laughed a while.

Ino just… couldn't stop. And boy, did I understand the feeling.

"You're sure?" I asked as Ino wheezed, catching her breath. She paused, thinking she was fine, and then let out a giggle. Nope. She was not fine. She snorted and then covered her mouth.

"Yeah, come look!" We ran back with her and went into the shop. Hinata was consoling a crying Gai-sensei, Lee was digging around everywhere looking for clues, and the shop was mostly empty. There were some jumpsuits here and there that were left, but, because we had seen the inside of the shop at the start of the day, we knew that this was not everything that was ordered to sell. The store was chalk full of clothes at the start of the day. This felt naked in comparison.

Ino's laughter had stopped at the sight. Now she looked angry. "What kind of idiot robbers are these?" She hissed. "Have they no style? They should be robbing better clothes than this… dump!" Thankfully, we were still at the door and only Tenten and I were hearing her. "These kinds of clothes doesn't deserve to be stolen!"

"Pig."

She glared at me.

I slapped her. (Don't try this at home, kids.)

Tenten and I managed to convince her to stay outside the shop while we talked to Gai-sensei.

"Such helpful, youthful students!" Gai cried. "My store's grand opening is tomorrow and I don't have my youthful merchandise to sell! This is a disaster!" He collapsed to his knees. Hinata knelt next to him and continued to rub his back. He grabbed her free hand and stared into her eyes with his own completely tear-stricken ones. "I really appreciate this kind gesture, my youthful students!"

With a jolt of energy I didn't think he had (considering he was in the middle of a breakdown), he jumped to his feet, thrust his fists on his hips, and yelled out. "YOU YOUTHFUL CHILDREN ARE RIGHT, I MUSTN'T GIVE UP!" We hadn't said that but alright. "WE MUST FIND THE CRUEL CULPRIT THAT HAS STOLEN MY FINE JUMPSUITS!" Wait… we?

"YES GAI-SENSEI! I WILL HELP YOU! ALWAYS!" Lee chimed from his corner in the store.

We took a step back as they ran to each other and cried into each other's arms.

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

I swear I could hear Ino throwing up outside.

"Lee, Gai-sensei, you two will stay here and continue searching for clues of that robber." Tenten took advantage of the chaos to take charge. "And if the culprit comes back, you guys can catch him." They gave her two tearful thumbs up. "Hinata and I will search outside to the west and south of the shop, while Ino and Sakura search the north and east sides." We girls nodded back.

"I'd expect nothing less from my own youthful pupil!"

Tenten had the audacity to blush at the compliment.

Sadly, no matter how awesome Tenten and her plan was, we found nothing. I had even called out my Clow Cards to help dig out clues, but everything led us to dead ends (sometimes literally). There was nothing. No clues. No footprints. No trail. It was as if the robber had simply taken Gai's things and disappeared just like that. It was a very odd mystery and one we had no idea how to solve.

We eventually called it quits and went home for the night.

At least, that was what we told them.

"I didn't sense a Clow Card while I was in there," I told Naruto as I fixed his bow tie, "but we can never be too sure!"

"Believe it!"

Of course, Ino was nothing if not proud to costume us for the night. I had joked about wearing one of Gai's jumpsuits to lure out the robber and she nearly fainted at the idea. Instead, she had me in a very fluid dress with shorts underneath. It was sleeveless, black to camouflage us in the night, and had a hood to help with our disguise. Funnily enough, we were the ones that looked like robbers now too. Hopefully, no one catches us, we find the truth behind everything, and the mystery is solved.

We ran into the late night, dodging the extra random civilian that definitely should not be awake at this hour. They should be sleeping. These civilians were not making good life decisions (not that I was one to talk, really). Eventually, we made it back to the shop. I paused around the corner to make sure the area was clear and then tried the door.

Naruto froze on my shoulder. "I sense a Clow Card!"

"So it was a Clow Card!" I gasped, repeating his statement dramatically. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. Dang it Gai-sensei, reasonably locking his door from robbers!

I called out my wand. I shifted through the cards I had, trying to find a way to use them to unlock the door (definitely not Deidei… rip door…), when I spotted a shadow inside the store itself. That seemed impossible considering the door was locked shut, but we weren't about to argue. I ran back to my corner to hide as the doors opened. They ran outside, whatever was left of jumpsuits were in their arms as they bolted. I chased after them, and they seemed to have figured out that I was there as they picked up the speed. My small 10 year old body could not handle this robber's speed and they swiftly got out of reach. No way! But I was so good in gym class!

"Fly!" Deidei tossed me on his dragon as we went up. With this aerial view, it was the only way to keep track of our robber. We found them again soon enough and gave him chase from the air. Although the robber's path was random, we had to attack or this chase wasn't going to end. I summoned Yamato, hoping that we could somehow channel the aggressive fighting style he had used against me for this chase.

Yamato pulled roots from the ground to grab the robber, but it failed. He somehow was able to jump around to dodge them. Yamato created flying logs of wood that shot out to impale him but it was futile. The robber kept jumping around and dodging. He was almost like an impossible bunny to catch.

"Sorry Sakura," Yamato told me, "I need to be on the ground to have a better shot at him."

"I understand," I placed a hand on Deidei's shoulder. "Get us closer so we can do just that!"

"Let's go, yeah!" Deidara roared as he pulled us downwards into what felt like a swan dive. We went swiftly forward and very low. We were still a little over the buildings, but close enough that Yamato had better aim at this… hoppy robber.

Yamato readied his arms into wooden logs.

The robber turned their head to look at us while running.

He threw something at us. It caught us by surprise and whizzed by so fast that Deidei was startled enough to stop the dragon's pursuit. And that was what they wanted.

Then they jumped—YES JUMPED—to where we were, clearing the distance like it was nothing to be this high, and slaying the head of our dragon with a blue and ready kick.

"Crash landing!" I screamed as we went down. A dragon without a head was just dead weight, after all. Thankfully, I didn't have to use any other cards to save me as Deidara caught me and gently put me on the ground before we landed. I glanced at Yamato—he landed on the ground on his feet like a cat, as if he was made to. The dragon crashed and blew to pieces behind us.

Gotta love being ninjas.

I looked wildly around for our robber.

He was in the distance, hopping from rooftop to rooftop, the jumpsuits in his arms flowing in the wind, mocking us. He disappeared into the night's sky.

We… failed.

"MY JUMPSUITS!"

Like we expected, Gai-sensei was a sopping mess the next morning as his shop was wiped clean of all articles of clothing.

"I'm sorry, Gai-sensei," for not catching your robber last night. I added in my thoughts. He would not approve if he heard that I had been pursuing this robber late last night.

"It was not your fault, my youthful student," he sighed dejectedly. "And I even stayed up here last night to catch them… yet I saw nothing! I feel asleep! I WILL RUN 100 LAPS AROUND THE SCHOOL YARD AS PUNISHMENT FOR MY NEGLIGENCE! YOSH!"

We had no time to intervene in his self-inflicted punishment as he wooshed past us. We sighed and went on our way back to school as well. There was nothing we could do now.

Except try again!

"Guys, we need a game plan." My cards were sitting around me on various objects around my room in our makeshift meeting. Naruto was pacing on my desk. "Yesterday completely threw us guard and we were unable to catch that card."

"If you guys had used me, we would've caught him!" Suigetsu hissed. "I would've totally done better than wood-for-brains!"

Yamato, target for Sui's anger, slowly turned his head towards the poor water nin. All lights disappeared from the room, except for the one under Yamato's face, lighting up crevasses that should not be there in the first place. He leaned uncomfortably close to Sui. "What was that?" He hissed.

Sui leaned away and said nothing.

"We would've been fine if my art hadn't been destroyed!" Deidara defended.

"Whose fault do you think that is?" Suigetsu happily took the bait, anything to get away from scary Yamato.

"Excuse me, yeah?"

"You heard me!"

"We should start by going over what we know." Shikamaru ignored the internal conflicts in the background.

"It's fast and likes to jump around a lot." I added.

"It has a really strong kick, yeah." Deidara added.

"It showed up at night." Yamato added. "And really likes Gai's shop."

"Is there anyone we know that may like Gai's things enough to steal the whole shop?"

"Other than Lee?" I shrugged. "There's no one."

Zaku shook his head at me. "It's Lee you dolt!"

….oh. That made sense.

"But he was helping us look for the robber!"

"They always return to the scene of the crime…"

Shikamaru shook his head. "Lee is not the type to steal. He's too honest and respectful."

Zaku groaned, "Who else could it be?"

I shook my head. We really had no idea. Even with our memories and a bunch of ninjas to consider, none of them really seemed like the jumping and kicking type. It was that, or all ninjas had to be considered because they could all use chakra to jump around and kick stuff. This mystery robber Clow Card was really a tough mystery to crack.

Either way, eventually through all the bickering, we made a plan to try to catch this foe and take them down.

"Fly!" Deidara and I went up into the skies high above. We waited above Gai-sensei's store, in the middle of the night. Of course, we didn't really expect the robber to return considering they took everything already, but it was worth giving it a try again. There could be something they had missed. Maybe the cash register? Who knew. But we were here. While waiting, I summoned Rain, who kept his hand on my shoulder so that I could see what he saw. We could see us, in the air, but we could also sense all the buildings and the slight change in them. Unfortunately, we could not see inside the buildings, so we had to figure out how to lure them out.

After waiting for them for way too long, I eventually told them to let me down. I went to the store and tried the door again. It was locked. I summoned Watery to slide through the cracks in the door and unlock it from that side of the door. He let me in and we wandered in the store slowly. There were no signs of anyone being here yet. It was dark and eerie, and obviously empty from the previous nights. We didn't turn on the lights, not wanting to alert anyone, and made our way to the back. If Gai-sensei was predictable, he'd have stayed the night here as well. The door was opened so we peered inside. There was a small window back there, the silver moon illuminating a small portion of the area. There was a sleeping bag on the floor along with a few bags that I assumed were Gai's… personal… belongings. Either way, Gai wasn't here. The shop was empty.

"Did Gai go home?" Suigetsu asked, trying to ease the tension.

But that actually opened a whole new can of worms.

What if Gai was the true target of the robber!

I ran out of the store, wildly mentioning for Dei to come back down. I climbed onto the dragon and swiftly grabbed Nagato's hands. I felt my mind expand, taking in the pitter-patter and the map of the area through the area near us. I dug and searched, looking for a house that made sense for Gai to live. The man was unpredictable, so he could be living in the mountains for all we knew.

"Found him!" At the edge of the rain, barely noticeable, someone was leaving a house. However, through the rain, although they looked normal, I could feel the power of the Clow Card within them. "Over there!" I guided the team all the way over to where I could see him. He was running. There was something in his arms. I let go of Nagato to see what he was holding—more jumpsuits. He had stolen directly from Gai's house! What was with this crazy guy!

This time we did not give chase. That seemed to be our mistake last time, going crazy with our pursuit. This time, we were going to wait and wait until they tire out. That, or until they reveal their hoarding cave. We followed slowly as they went into the forest. That interfered with a lot of the rain's visibility, but we were catching glimpses here and there of them, so we were still capable of pursuit. Eventually though we lost all traces of them so we were forced to enter as well, but we went on foot just to be sure. If I wanted to use Woody in this forest, he needed to be on foot and feel the earth.

I heard a ping from one of my un-summoned cards. I heard the trees moving before I saw it. A figure was swiftly jumping this way. Looking by their body language, their aim was me.

Bring it!

"Windy! Watery!" Although they refused to admit it, having these two work together to create an ice battlefield was genius. Thank you Shikamaru! The two boys flew out from their cards, staying in their fluid forms so they could fly around and shift, and enveloped as many of the area as they could. They twirled around each other, giving and sharing as much power as they could. The robber-Card had thought that I had aimed for him and jumped aside to dodge, and then realized too late that the area was iced completely.

"You can't jump if you can't get a good grip!" I cackled as I ran forward. Robber-Card attempted to jump away but slipped and fell. That gave me enough time to grab onto them.

Their second attempt though.

I wasn't as lucky.

They jumped up into the air.

And by jumped.

I mean they jumped.

So high up into the sky that the forest was just a little dot when I looked down.

I could breathe the clouds.

The moon was just out of reach.

Were we almost as high as planes.

I couldn't scream we had gone so fast upwards.

Looking up though, almost as if in slow motion, my hand reached.

Grabbed the hood of the robber.

And pulled it off.

I recognized who they were.

And was confused.

We fell just as fast as we went up.

My hands let go of the sweater.

He went down faster than I did.

"Woody!" I called before I got the impact from the ground. The call wasn't to save me though. By the time that I would be saved, the robber could escape even with the slippery ice. The call was to create a cage of wood before robber-Card landed, caging him in before he could get another jump in.

I bounced as I landed into Deidara's clay dragon. Although generally soft and malleable, the speed of my fall made me smack into it and bounce right off. I fell onto the icy forest floor with an 'oof!' then a yelp as I slid and spun in uncontrollable circles on the ice. I eventually stopped, but I was really dizzy and needed a moment for the world to make sense again.

"I don't understand…" I said as I neared our captive in the wooden cave. "How could you steal from yourself Gai-sensei?"

Gai's eyes were clouded. He was possessed.

"Maybe, even though he's possessed, he still loves his leotards enough to steal them from himself?"

"Maybe he secretly wants to keep them all to himself?" I laughed, before I finally took Gai out of his misery and sealed him into a card. The sight of his card made me cringe. It was him in the pose he once did in front of me and Team 7 before. Hip out, arm up, chest out, and other arm's hand's fingers circling his right eye. His "I am here!" or turtle pose, as I like to call it, as he was on a turtle the first time I witnessed it. The ribbon under his image wrote "The Jump". Yeah. I guess that made sense. Gai was really strong when it came to his legs and taijutsu.

"WONDERFUL JOB YOUTHFUL SAKURA!"

So maybe releasing him again to talk to him was a bad idea.

"I CAN NOW THINK CLEARLY!" He then pouted. "Though I can't believe I was the one to blame for stealing my own jumpsuits… IN THE NAME OF YOUTH, I WILL RUN ONE THOUSAND LAPS AROUND THIS FOREST TO REDEEM MYSELF!"

I called him back before he could inflict such torture on himself.

I signed his card.

Another card cleared!

(The next day, his shop magically disappeared and no one remembered it ever being there.)