Things As They Were (Naruto!Founders X Reader)

Ch 1: Cared and Taken

        In all Tanaka Sakura's experience as a child caretaker, it was Suzuki Hitoshi's only daughter that was the most ... peculiar.

Suzuki Hitoshi is a rich traveling merchant, having the financial capability to hire the middle-aged caretaker, a month after his daughter's birth. Unfortunately, his wife passed within a few days after labor, and now Sakura has to fill in the child's maternal needs.

Sakura couldn't blame the mother, really. After all, the woman birthed six sons prior, and it's only a matter of time before her body gave out. This time's medical expertise can only do so much.

Suzuki Yua was the seventh and last child.

A lucky number, Sakura couldn't help but think to herself.

Despite the Suzuki family being big for a nuclear family, most, if not all, of them are unavailable due to their traveling business. They weren't home most of the time, and ultimately, Tanaka Sakura was the only constant within Suzuki Yua's life.

The young Suzuki was a quiet baby; only attracting attention when in need of milk, change of diaper, or water. Even at her teething stage, the child continued on without much fuss, as long as she has something to chew on. While Yua was indeed quiet, the Tanaka swore that the girl was the most active infant she's ever cared for—to the point of already mastering all basic motor functions at five months; crawling at six; standing, walking, and running at seven; and talking full sentences at nine months (though with inevitable speech impediments).

To Sakura's flattery, Yua's first word to her was "kaa-san". Although, she immediately discouraged the girl from calling her such, as she thinks her employer wouldn't be pleased with that development. She did settle with the alternative of "baa-san", though.

Curious, Sakura does wonder where the child learned that word, as she never did coach the child to call her such. As sad as it sounds, her charge shouldn't be able to recognize the words "kaa-san" nor "tou-san", as no one was cooing it to her, growing up. The child has yet to meet her own father.

Her brothers were no better.

It was after Suzuki Yua's first birthday, when Sakura realized the child was a once-in-a-century prodigy.

All Suzuki brothers sent their sister either story books or scrolls of poetry from their travels, obviously clueless of the capabilities of children of Yua's age. Or perhaps, they're already giving her a headstart for her role in the family business. Sakura didn't really know; all she knew was that their gifts lacked sentiments. Yua's father didn't send anything special at all.

Though, imagine the woman's surprise when she caught the one-year-old Suzuki invested on reading a book regarding common commodities within the Land of Wind of volume three-- the fact that it implied Yua finished the previous volumes baffled Sakura. She didn't think that reading bedtime stories to the child every night would be enough for her to be literate.

This gave the caretaker the initiative to help flourish her ward's talents. Sakura started by teaching Yua how to write.

When Sakura demonstrated how to write her full name, it was then she dumbly realized that Yua only knew of her name now; she was only addressed as "baa-san" the whole time. In her defense, it's not of tradition to introduce yourself to an infant, and it kind of slipped from her mind.

While it may be true that only a few common people, much less women, were literate, the Tanaka was one of the minority. Her role as a caretaker was more valuable because of this feat. However, with the Suzuki family being a borderline noble family, Sakura was sure that Yua would receive a more capable tutor at some point; she'd settle with just being her ward's headstart.