Of Tales now and Long Ago

Of Ancestors and Pranks

Chapter SEVEN

"Welcome! Come in, come in."

Minato ushered Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura into the house of the previous Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. He and Kushina then followed.

"Yo, Ji-chan!" Naruto grinned. "Hi, Biwako ba-chan!"

Minato sighed and whacked the back of his son's head. He then turned to the other two. "Sarutobi-sama, Biwako-sama, this is Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura." He then introduced the Third and his wife to the two kids.

Sakura blinked up at the man, who smiled down kindly at her. "Shinobi no Kami..." She murmured. "That's one of the stories Senri-sama allowed into the compound." She said. "That's so cool! Even Senri-sama respected you! You must be a really strong ninja!"

Hiruzen chuckled and patted the girl's head.

Dinner was set up. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were allowed to sit in the living room with their share of the food while the adults sat around the table, talking in hushed, serious voices.

After a while, he knows Hiruzen appeared at the entrance of the living room. "Sakura-chan, can I talk to you?"

Sakura blinked in surprise while the two boys glanced at each other. Sakura got to her feet. She began making her way across the room when Inner's sharp voice made her loose her balance for just a second.

"He knows! Maybe not anything that should make us anymore careful than we are, he still knows something."

That was all her Inner said before she was gone. Sakura inwardly stiffened. What did he know?

Hiruzen led Sakura out of the room and into what she guessed was his office, or something. Minato was also there. He smiled at her and Sakura shyly smiled back.

"The Haruno clan."

Sakura looked up as the Third began to talk.

"They are the descendants of Kaguya, the mother of all shinobi. Am I right?"

Sakura stiffed. "How do you know this?" She asked, not really sure where this was going.

Hiruzen shook his head. "Don't be alarmed. I'm not going to tell you off for hiding this, or anything." He smiled. "It is just that there are a lot of direct descendants in Konoha." He looked at her.

"The Hyuga." Sakura murmured. "The Uchiha. The Senju. The Uzumaki..." Sakura didn't even realize that she had been mumbling under her breath until Hiruzen's chuckle brought her back.

"You seem to now a lot." Minato said.

Sakura brightened; this was one of the questioned she had a fake answer to. Well, it wasn't entirely fake.

"Yeah! Senri-sama often said that if none of the shinobi in this world had received training of any sort, we would be the most powerful, because of our Kekkei Genkai and stuff. But then he also said that there were other clans around the world that had received and passed down powers similar to ours."

"Powers?"

Sakura nodded. "The original dojutsu Kaguya-sama owned was the Byakugan." She relished at the hint of surprise in both men's eyes. "The Byakugan was passed down from Hamura-sama to the Hyuga. The first ever individual form of the Sharingan appeared in Indra, the Uchiha clan's ancestor."

Hiruzen smiled. "You really do know a lot."

Sakura grinned. "I loved the stories, cause they seemed so cool and stuff. We weren't allowed out of the compound, or even on ground level in general, and we weren't allowed to train or anything if we were heir candidates. However, we were allowed to read about legends and stories, especially those that were related to our ancestors." She turned to Hiruzen. "That's why it was really cool when we were told stories of you. It was forbidden for us to read anything without Senri-sama's permission."