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A resounding “Cha!” was followed by several thunks, as glasses were set down onto whatever surfaces were available. One female started coughing, and while someone else patted them on the back. A few chuckles could be heard.Sarada stood silently outside the door to the living room, hand poised to open the door and join the others. ‘That’s right. Tonight, Mama was having a girls night with her friends.’ Sarada thought to herself. She had completely forgotten about it because Boruto had been especially exasperating today so it ended up completely slipping her mind till she got home. She’d thought about joining them because girls night was always fun, but her Mama’s yell startled her and made her pause in her approach.A gruff laugh sounded before someone said “Ha, I thought Konoha kunoichi were tougher than this. Seems like that’s only true on the battlefield.” That same person laughed again, but there was no menace in it nor in her words.“Oh please. I think you’re forgetting you’re one of us now.” Pointed out a voice that Sarada knew was Aunty Ino’s. Someone burped.The first person laughed once more. “Haha you’re right. Still, it’s only been three shots and she’s already coughing.” It took Sarada a minute before she realized that it was Shikadai’s mom that was speaking. ‘Come to think of it… She’s from Suna isn’t she…’Aunty Ino sighed, “You do have a point. Come on Hinata. You’ve got that ridiculous record at Ichiraku’s and yet you can’t hold a couple of shots?? Get it together girl.” She lightly admonished.Sarada realized they were drinking. She reconsidered interrupting them. She realized that when she was around, they were a lot more restrained around her. They probably thought she didn’t notice, but she did. They tended to keep the drinking to a minimum and they didn’t speak as freely when she was around.Sarada decided that she wasn’t going to interrupt. They were all so busy all the time that girls nights had become a rarer and rarer thing, and she didn’t want to make them have to restrain themselves on account of her.“It’s not really the same thing you know?” Another voice pointed out.“Thank you TenTen. I appreciate it, but they’re right. I can do better than this.” That was Aunty Hinata speaking.“You don’t have to push yourself just because the others say so Hinata.” Mama said pointedly. “You don’t have to prove anything to anyone.”“Right?? We’ve already proved ourselves and then some!” Tenten pointed out excitedly.“You’re damn right we have!” Aunty Ino said enthusiastically. Sarada heard what sounded like a fist hitting the table; she assumed it was Aunty Ino who had done it.“Sometimes it’s still unbelievable that we went through all that… the War and everything…” Sakura said wistfully. Someone Hmmm’ed in agreement. Things grew quiet and Sarada wished she could see everyone’s faces at the current moment.She was tempted to use her sharingan to see through the door, but she didn’t want her spike in chakra levels to alert them to her presence. This was the first time she’d heard any of the adults really mention the Fourth Shinobi War in any capacity outside of educational means.“Mah. This conversation took a depressing turn.” Grumbled Aunty Ino and Sarada silently agreed. The adults all seemed upset by the turn in the topic.“Yeah, it did.” Audibly agreed Tenten. “But shoutout to Sakura for helping to like basically save us all? You go girl!” She added.“Definitely! Thank you for saving us Sakura.” Hinata chimed in. The others each vocalized varying levels of agreement to that statement.Sarada chewed her lip in nervousness. She knew her parents had both played major roles in saving the world along with Lords Sixth and Seventh, but she didn’t know the details of what went down. She kind of hoped the not so sober women would go over what happened. She really wanted to know.Luck was not on her side as Aunty Ino chose this moment to resort to her old habit of teasing Sakura.“Leave it to Sakura. Of course, when she’s finally useful, the fate of the entire world is on the line.” Aunty Ino stated, laughing as she did so. Sarada didn’t need to be able to see through the door to know what kind of look her Mama was throwing Aunty Ino’s way. She’d watched the two banter on and off for basically her whole life, so she knows it goes.“Oh please Ino. You’re just mad that you got caught in the Infinite Tsukuyomi and not me.” Mama retorted back playfully.“Huh?? No way! You only didn’t get caught in it because you just happened to be near Sasuke when he shielded Naruto and himself from it!” Aunty Ino fired back.She heard Miss Temari mumble “here we go again” and Sarada softly snorted.“Excuse you??? If it wasn’t for me, Kaguya would have slipped out of the boys reach and you would still be stuck dreaming your life away!” Sakura nearly yelled back.Sarada had to bite back a groan. Mama and Aunty Ino were swiftly moving away from the banter area and into just straight up arguing realm.Tenten also seemed to realize this and quickly attempted to calm the two of them down. “Now, now you two. There’s no reason to be arguing like this. Yes, Sakura helped Sasuke and Naruto defeat Kaguya. Whether she was there to help by coincidence or not doesn’t matter. It’s done and over with.”Sarada heard the two women “Hmph” and knew they both had turned their heads in the opposite direction of the other one. She loved them both, but sometimes they really could be so childish.“But really, we have come a long way since our genin days.” Aunty Hinata mused, trying to diffuse the tension that was palpable even to Sarada.“Especially Sakura…” Aunty Ino mumbled under her breath.“Ino!” said Tenten.“No.” Mama cut her off. “She’s right. I was basically useless when I was a genin. I wasn’t any help to my teammates, and I was simply trailing after their backs.”“Hmmm. Oh yeah. You were like that, weren’t you? If I recall wasn’t your only concern being boy crazy?” Miss Temari stated, amused.“Agh. Let’s not remind me.” Mama groaned and there was a soft thud against the table.“Haha you’re so right! It was always Sasuke this, Sasuke that. I’m surprised you made it as far as you did in the chunin exams the first time.” Aunty Ino continued her teasing streak, completely ignoring Tenten's earlier peace making attempts.“You weren’t any better blondie. If I recall correctly, the moment their team stepped into the room for the first test you were all over Uchiha.” Miss Temari chided softly. There was a clink as some ice hit the edge of a glass when someone took a sip from their drink.“Blon-?! You’re also blonde you know!” Aunty Ino spluttered in response.“Oh? Hmmm.” Miss Temari answered nonplussed. She gave no other response to Ino's indignance.Sarada quietly stepped back away from the door as the voices from the other side of the door rose to a cacophony of cattiness. She decided she’d heard enough.She quickly retreated away from the door, turned and left the house, deeply in need of some fresh air. Once she was a good distance away from the house she stopped and stretched, breathing in the night air with her eyes closed.Exhaling, she opened her eyes and allowed herself to analyze what all she’d just heard. Kaguya… Infinite Tsukuyomi… Ino and Mama being boy crazy as genin??? Mama being useless?!Continuing at a brisk pace, she decided to look at each piece of information one at a time.She had no idea who this Kaguya person was. Based on the context of their conversation, she seemed to be the one that was behind the threat to all of humanity. Apparently, Mama, Papa and Lord Seventh all went up against her and defeated her.Okay, now the Infinite Tsukuyomi. She’d heard of that before. Not much but she remembered seeing it in a line in one of the texts she had read at the Academy. The Academy taught about the Fourth Shinobi War but it glossed over a lot of details, and she’d tried her best to fill in the gaps, but everything said pretty much the same thing, more or less.“The Fourth Shinobi War, the most dangerous of all the wars, was fought between the Allied Shinobi Forces and a group of rogue shinobi who went by the name of Akatsuki. Lasting two days, from the 8th of October till the 10th, the war claimed many lives from the Allied Shinobi Forces, but it also resulted in the complete annihilation of the Akatsuki.
The Akatsuki declared war against the world at the Five Kage Summit, and the Five Sitting Kage, as well as the Leader of the Land of Iron, decided to form what would come to be recognized as the Allied Shinobi Forces. All totaled the Allied Shinobi Forces amassed approximately 80,000 shinobi and samurai to fight against the forces of the Akatsuki.
For the majority of its active run, the Akatsuki operated as a small 10 man unit, more or less at varying times. However, for the war, the Akatsuki managed to clone one of their members and created an army of 100,000.
As the war raged on, the true intentions of the Akatsuki were revealed – they intended to trap the entire world under the Infinite Tsukuyomi, a jutsu that traps people in a permanent genjutsu for the rest of their lives. (Unless it is released by outside methods.) Much as the Allied Shinobi Forces tried to fight it, the Akatsuki prevailed in unleashing the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto were instrumental in bringing the war to a close by defeating the head of the Akatsuki, and were ultimately the ones who undid the Infinite Tsukuyomi that held the entire world captive.”So Mama hadn’t been caught in the genjutsu, and that’s because Papa protected her! But Aunty Ino said it was merely a coincidence that she happened to be there.Sarada tried not to deflate at that thought. She shook her head to get rid of any negative thoughts and continued trying to sort out the new information.Okay so next was… Aunty Ino and Mama were both boy crazy as genin. The thought was a funny one. She couldn’t really see her Mama going ga-ga over boys. Aunty Ino on the other hand… She chuckled, but the smile quickly left her face. Miss Temari said Aunty Ino was “all over the Uchiha”… That could only mean one person then.She knew the Uchiha clan had been massacred when Papa was just a child leaving him as the sole survivor, but nobody would say anything more than that about it. She narrowed her eyelids in annoyance. Keeping detailed information about major events from the general public seemed to be a thing that Konoha favorited. She remembered asking her Mama out of curiosity one time, why there weren't more details available about the War. A pained expression had momentarily taken place on her face before it disappeared and then she had told Sarada that 'it was to prevent others from getting same idea, and trying to copy and do the same awful things the Akatsuki had done.'She'd simply accepted it with a smile, since it made sense afterall, but right now she was just annoyed by the lack of knowledge she had on the subject. She quickly let her annoyance fall away though as she went back to thinking about the topics at hand.So, Mama liked Papa even when they were genin? That thought made her giggle and filled her with a sense of warmth. Which was quickly replaced by a sense of discomfort at the thought of Aunty Ino liking Papa. She squirmed a little at the thought. She couldn’t imagine anyone else as her Mama.So, last thing was… She didn’t want to think about this one. This one was much more unbelievable to her. She knew just how strong her Mama was. She had the strongest punch of anyone around. She was an incredible medical shinobi, one that rivaled (and some would say, surpassed) her teacher, the Legendary Sannin Tsunade. She had graduated at the top of the Academy, just like Papa had.So, the thought of her being useless was ludicrous to her. It was impossible. There was no way.She shook her head, not sure what to think. She let out a yell of frustration, annoyed at her lack of knowledge. She couldn’t ask her Mama, cause then she’d have to admit she’d been eavesdropping. She couldn’t ask Papa, he was away on that Mission he was always away on. She couldn’t ask Lord Seventh, he was always so busy with Hokage stuff, he barely spent time with Boruto. She’d feel guilty if she took away any of his time.Sighing, she realized she’d stopped walking.“It’s awful late to be having such deep thoughts.” A voice to the side of her mused, startling her. She immediately jumped into a defensive position out of reflex before she relaxed in embarrassment at who she saw.“Lord Sixth!!” She exclaimed in surprise, turning to face him. She took in his prone position on a wall, a book in his hand, reading it like it was the most normal thing in the world for a Hokage to be reading a book on a random wall outside at night.“I keep telling people the formality isn’t necessary…” he commented to no one in particular.Sarada opened her mouth to speak, but she wasn’t sure what to say so she closed it again. His words caught up with her though.“Deep thoughts??” She asked, confused.“For the past ten minutes you’ve been standing there grumbling and sighing, and you didn’t notice I was here at all till I spoke just now.” He pointed out, still staring at his book. She wasn’t sure if he was actually still reading it, or if he was just posturing.“Oh. I was…” She trailed off awkwardly, not knowing how to explain what was bothering her. Was it even appropriate for her to try and bother him with her worries? He was a Hokage after all.“Ah, I see then.” He stated as if her vague response answered his question. His tone hadn’t been sarcastic at all, but it was still clearly meant to be. She kept her mouth shut, not wanting to say anything to annoy him further.Sensing that his go-to tactic wasn’t working on her, he finally turned his head and looked at her. “So what is it that’s bothering you, little one?” He asked her.She was still hesitant to say anything because it simply didn’t feel appropriate to her, but then a thought occurred to her. Maybe she could talk with him about this anyway.“Lord Sixth,” she ignored the annoyed noise he made, “you were Mama’s teacher, right???” She asked him.Not sure where this was going, but slightly intrigued, he sat up and faced her, stowing his book away as he did so.“That was a thing I did once upon a time.” He noted with amusement. “Why do you ask?” He pinned her with a stare, and she tried not to squirm under his gaze.“Since you were her teacher, you’d know how she was as a genin, right?” She asked hesitantly. She still wasn’t sure how to phrase it without sounding rude.Kakashi merely raised an eyebrow and nodded at her in response, wondering why the young Uchiha was dragging out what she wanted to say.“Okay. So then, I wanted to ask whether… umm… about Mama… was she… ummm…” Sarada tripped over her words, and she wanted to kick herself for struggling so much. She was wasting Lord Sixth’s time because she couldn’t get the words out.“Can’t really answer a question I’m not asked.” Kakashi pointed out patiently, no sarcasm intended this time.She stopped and took a deep breath to steady herself. “H-how was Mama… as a genin? Was she… umm, as strong as she is now?” Sarada asked, still not able to bring herself to call Mama useless.“Ah, I see then.” Kakashi repeated. “Sakura as a genin, huh? Well now… How to phrase this…” Kakashi looked up the sky thinking over how to describe Sakura to her daughter.“Hmmm. If I had to say… She was quite annoying?” Kakashi answered, holding up a finger.Sarada’s eyes went wide as a saucer, and Kakashi almost considered taking his words back. Almost, but not quite. He had, after all, told Team 7 that his first impression of them had been that he didn’t like them. And he told them straight to their faces.“She was…annoying????” Sarada asked, confused. She knew Lord Sixth was blunt with his words, but she didn’t think he’d say such a disparaging thing about his own student. (LOL jokes on you Sarada)“Mmm.” Kakashi nodded. “She was only concerned about Sasuke and ignored her own training, and Naruto initially, because of it. She wasn’t a bad kunoichi. She had talent. She just wasted it for a while, before she came under Lady Tsunade’s tutelage.” He explained.Sarada felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. Her Mama, who put so much energy into her work that sometimes she forsook her own health, wasn’t focused on training because she was so concerned about Papa. The image of her Mama that she knows and the one being described to her weren’t matching up. At all.She felt herself sway a little bit and decided to take a seat in the bench next to Lord Sixth.“Mah mah. No reason to feel discouraged. She’s come a long way and has become a top-class shinobi. Honestly, she’s someone I don’t want to get on the bad side of.” He joked.His words didn’t really make it to Sarada’s ears. She just stared blankly at the ground. “So it’s true then…” she murmured.Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the despondent genin. “What’s true?” He asked.She didn’t lift her head or make any visible movement at all. “It’s true that she was useless as a genin…” Sarada heard herself distantly saying the words finally. She felt so dejected at the moment.Kakashi took in what she said and turned her reaction over in his head for a few moments.“If I had to say one way or another, then yes she was.” He continued before her mood became any worse than it was. “But so was Naruto.” He laughed at that one. “Truthfully, Naruto was much more useless than she was. But Sarada.” He said, trying to draw her attention to him.She hesitated before she drew her gaze to his. “Sarada. Many shinobi can probably be called ‘useless’ during their genin days.” He’d held up his fingers and made the quotes motion to emphasize ‘useless’.“Sure, it’s great if Shinobi hit the ground running from their Academy days and are amazing from the get-go, but the truth is, that’s not usually the case.”Sarada sat there quietly for a few minutes mulling over his words. Kakashi, sensing she was thinking about what he’d said, pulled his book back out, giving her the time she needed.Certainly, there was truth in what Lord Sixth had said. Denki wasn’t amazingly skilled as a shinobi, but he's shown progress over his time at the Academy. And he was getting better every day. Maybe she was so used to her team being so capable, between herself and Boruto and Mitsuki, that she was overestimating the average ability level of genin?But, he had said that Lord Seventh had been even more useless than her Mama. The seemed less likely than her Mama being useless at all. After, he was Lord Seventh! The Hero of the Fourth Shinobi War! One of the most powerful shinobi alive!Rather than being reassured, she was even more confused now! It must have shown on her face because Kakashi spoke up once more.“I get it must be confusing, seeing the Sakura that you know and hearing her called useless, but you have to remember, that’s not who she is anymore. She’s a capable shinobi and a good mother.” Kakashi told her reassuringly.This was true, and the thought of her amazingly talented mother brought a smile to her face. “Thank you Lord Sixth.” She told him gratefully, as she stood up. “I feel better than I did before.”“Mah, mah. No need to mention it. You’re too young to be worrying about such things. Just enjoy your life.” Kakashi said, but he laid back down and resumed reading his book. Recognizing the conversation as over and done with, she bowed at him, before taking her leave.She wasn’t yet ready to return home, so she continued her wanderings. She walked through the marketplace, that even though it was this late at night, was still bustling, even at this time of night. For a moment she wondered how different the place was from when Mama had been her age. Smiling, she continued onward, heading towards one of the many parks in the village.The hustle and bustle of the busy streets died away, as the chirping of the wildlife took over. She lost track of time, walking in circles in the park, just taking in and enjoying the sounds of the park at night.It was kind of funny to think that a place as populated as Konoha now was, that there were places in public that people could go to be alone.Or not. She retracted the thought almost the same instant she thought it because someone in a cloak was coming up the pathway opposite of her. She decided to ignore them and continue on her way. The night was silent and she’d had enough interaction with others for the day.Luck really wasn’t with her today as at the exact moment that she and the cloaked stranger were parallel with each other, the stranger laughed. She stopped and turned to stare at them, startled. There didn’t seem to be anything obvious that they were laughing at, so she was confused.The stranger also stopped, although they didn’t turn to face her. She stared at the side of their hood, wondering what was up.“Ah. Unanswered questions are quite the aggravation. Knowledge is power, and it is quite deadly to be ignorant.” The stranger stated mysteriously. She wasn't sure if he was talking to her, or to no one in particular.“Excuse me?” Sarada asked the stranger, who merely laughed in response.The next thing she knew the stranger’s hands were a flurry of movement as they formed hand-signs. Before Sarada could put distance between the stranger and herself, the man had his hand on her face. She saw a flash of light and she lost all of her strength. She tried to fight whatever he had done to her, but her body wouldn’t obey her command. She felt herself fading fast. It seemed like all the sound in the world had gone mute. Her body felt heavy. She thought she was falling but she couldn’t be sure. Her vision was slowly blurring out to black.The last thing she was able to make out before her vision faded to black was reading the stranger’s lips.“Enjoy the power trip.”