Chapter 9: Suspicions

“Alright, alright, settle down everyone!” Nara Yoshino called out over the sea of giggling children. “Seiza or crisscross, by the time I reach zero! Three! Two!” Ino chose seiza next to Sakura. Fancy ladies always chose seiza. “One! Good job everyone.” Shikamaru’s mom was strict, but all of the kids seemed to love her. 

“Today we’ll be learning about famous Konoha nin! Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Sarutobi Hiruzen.” About two thirds of the hands went up. “Shikamaru! Raise your hand!” She barked. The class giggled. 

“Kiba-kun, who is Sarutobi Hiruzen?” Everyone put their hands back down. 

“Duh! He’s our Hokage! The coolest ninja in the village! His face is carved into the cliff!” Kiba half-yelled with excitement. 

“Very good Kiba. And can anyone tell me which of the four faces is his?” Yoshino looked over the sea of raised hands again. Ino felt bad for Sakura. She knew that her friend was smart but a lot of this stuff wasn’t as well known to civilian kids, and she was one of two civilians in the pre-school. Ino whispered in her ear, “the third one,” and Sakura raised her hand. 

“Sakura-kun!” Yoshino smiled warmly at her. 

“Uhm… the third one?” Sakura said tentatively. 

“Very good Sakura!” Sakura flushed a bit at the praise, and smiled at Ino. “He’s the third face, and our third hokage, which is why we call him the sandaime.” 

“Can anyone tell me about the fourth face carved in the cliff?” This was a more open-ended question, and so there weren’t as many hands up. Ino, of course, was one of them. “Chōji-kun, what can you tell us about the fourth face?” 

“He was the fourth Hokage; he died saving the village from the demon attack 5 years ago.” Chōji said quietly. 

“Yes Chōji, well done. The sixth-year anniversary of Minato Namikaze’s noble sacrifice is coming up in a month and a half. When he passed, the third Hokage took back up the mantle again.” 

“Now, has anyone ever heard of the Sannin?” Ino raised her hand and got called on. 

“They were three very strong Konoha nin who were students of the third Hokage. And Tsunade-sama is my favorite!” Ino added cheerfully. 

“Perfect Ino-kun! Yes, the three students of our Hokage were Jiraiya,” She paused and put up a picture on the board, “Orochimaru,” another picture, “and Senju Tsunade!” She put up the last picture, and as she stepped away Ino heard a gasp and felt Sakura freeze beside her. Glancing over she saw her best friend’s face was frozen in shock, eyes wide, staring at Tsunade. 

“Sakura!” Ino whispered. “What’s wrong?” 

“I-I only-“ Sakura started but Yoshino cleared her throat and glared at the two of them.

“Girls since you are so excited about the Sannin maybe you’d like to share what is so important it can’t wait?” She raised an eyebrow expectantly. Ino glanced at Sakura and knew she was going to be useless in this situation. 

“Sorry Nara-sensei,” Ino began respectfully, offering a tiny bow. “We just learned about how amazing Tsunade-sama is a couple days ago and got excited seeing her.” It was a pretty good lie. Ino knew how to get out of trouble when she needed to.  

“Such as?” Yoshino said, clearly unimpressed. 

Or maybe not. “Well I heard she’s the strongest ninja who ever lived!” Ino tried. 

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“What?! No way! She’d be Hokage if that was true!” Kiba yelled. 

“Kiba-kun! No talking out of turn.” Yoshino scolded. “What Ino was referring to, I believe, is Tsunade’s legendary strength, and by that, we mean literal strength, not overall level of ninja capabilities. And it is true! I myself have seen Tsunade-sama turn house-sized boulders into dust with a single kick. There are no known ninja who have mastered Tsunade’s taijutsu techniques, and so it may be true that Tsunade is the literal strongest ninja ever to live.” It wasn’t just the girls that let out oohs and ahhs of admiration. Kiba in particular looked starry-eyed. 

The lecture went on to describe the other two and the trio’s exploits, but Ino couldn’t help but focus on her friend. It must have been a dream she eventually decided. But she didn’t remember any dreams about a super-strength woman. Had Sakura hidden it from her? 

At recess she got her answer. The students were all in line and had to do a complicated hopscotch course. The boys had complained that civilian boys made fun of them for doing hopscotch for a while until a jonin by the name of Gai came and performed such ludicrous acts of physical fitness that Ino wasn’t sure if he was human. Gai informed the boys of the class that hopscotch was a fantastic way to increase agility, and despite being a bit dorky the class didn’t complain anymore after that. 

“What was with you in class after seeing Tsunade today?” Ino whispered. 

Sakura looked around before saying, “I just dreamt about her the last two nights. I was going to talk to you about it tonight at our sleepover.” 

“You know about Tsunade too? I can’t believe we’ve never talked about her! She’s so cool!” Ino said, while trying and failing to keep her excitement contained. “What’d you dream about? Her taking on a whole army by herself?” They had to pause while Ino did the hopscotch course. It was more than just paint or chalk on the ground. It involved jumping in and out of tires, and certain parts had specific footwork patterns that you had to do. 

“Soooo?” Ino said excitedly after they’d gotten back in line again. 

“Ino, you don’t get it!” Sakura whispered furiously, surprising her. “I have never heard of that woman in my life! I don’t think I’ve ever even seen her face before!” Her face showed anger, but Ino could tell it was coming from a place a fear. “And yet somehow my dream had her exact face in it!”

“Ok Sakura, I’m sorry, I just got excited is all.” She said placatingly. Sakura nodded, a grim expression on her face. “I bet that it’s one of those subconscious things.” Ino offered. “Like when going through the market maybe you picked up images of her in artwork that was for sale or something?” 

Sakura shook her head. “I don’t know Ino. It felt like I knew her. I knew some of the stuff we learned today, about the slug and her being a medic. How could I have known all that?” 

“You could have learned all that stuff a bunch of ways! I’ve been hearing stories about them for as long as I can remember!”

“Yeah well I’m not from an ancient ninja clan.” 

“Still, you could have seen all of that stuff in artwork. I remember seeing a painting of her in a medical outfit but my parents freaked out and covered my eyes and yelled at the person selling it.” 

“Huh.” Sakura and Ino both frowned, puzzling over the strange anecdote. 

“Whatever.” Sakura said after a moment. “You don’t have to believe me. But I know that there’s something wrong with me.” Her tone was despondent. 

“Stop it!” Ino said a bit too loudly, causing their neighbors to turn and look at them curiously. “There is nothing wrong with you!” Ino continued after staring down onlookers until they looked away. “I just wish you’d come talk to my parents with me! What if there’s some crazy mind jutsu thing going on! You remember learning about that last week, right? Someone could be messing with you!” 

“Ino what if they send me away!” Sakura’s eyes were shining suspiciously. “What if it’s not genjutsu and they think I’m crazy or something or they blame my parents and send them away?” She stopped suddenly and took a shaky breath. “They’re just. Dreams. Ino. They aren’t hurting anyone, I’m not hurting anyone, it’s fine.” Sakura turned away and did the exercise course again. 

 

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