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The Haruno clan is one filled with people with gifts, though most would not take their abilities as such. Some see spirits, some hear them. Some have visions. Some speak in strange tongues unfamiliar to anyone. Others speak in stranger tongues that many members of the clan can communicate in. Some make strange foods. Some wear strange clothes. Some know things about the natural world that no one had ever known prior.

Many members of the clan believed it to be the work of strange new kekkei genkai. They were not a clan of ninja, nor did they necessarily want to be one either. Furthermore, they wanted to avoid the costs associated with becoming a ninja. Beyond that, the abilities of the clan were too diverse to attribute it to one sole limit. Eventually they settled on it being a gift from the Gods. Since then, while they avoid using these gifts to kill, they do monetize their skills.

The clan is scattered across the Fire Country, with families of ten or so each opening up tea rooms. For a small fee, one could come into a quaint, plush room inviting conversation and relaxation. Plain white china cups are used and loose leaf tea that came from the small agricultural-based towns in Fire Country.

In a small town a few hours west of the bustling village of Kohana, holds one of the most popular tea rooms. The tea rooms are numerous, housed in a building that feels out of place in the small town of simple homes and bustling estates. For one, the building is tall, shooting up to three stories. For another, inside the various tea rooms are strange crystals, stones, jewellery, figurines, and books written in tongues those outside the clan could not understand.

Eliciting most of the popularity for the tea rooms is the clan's most popular diviner, Momo Haruno. Momo is barely ten years old with hair like summer peaches. Her father can see spirits. Her mother, before dying, was famed for being able to pick up on any emotion someone was feeling. Momo feels like she doesn't have a gift, aside from maybe manipulation and deception. Tea reading is an easy art with those skills. She hangs around on the first floor of the building with the intent of eavesdropping to discover personal information about the customers. Whatever information she gathers, she later incorporates it into the "psychic" tea reading. Then, she goes upstairs and puts on her dark green dress with the Haruno clan symbol, her green shawl to cover her hair, and a black mask her cousin Aki made for her and calls a masquerade mask.

(It was strange things like this, vernacular that some clan members understood or none at all that made them feel like perhaps something else was at a work, but they did not want to prod. They would not, for fear of realizing something they did not want to just yet).

As for the actual reading itself, it goes something like this:

After a cup of tea has been poured, she has the customer drink half. She then shakes the cup and any remaining liquid is drained off into the saucer. She then finds whatever image or pattern in the tea leaves in the cup and shoots off a reading that incorporates any information she found out while spying on her guests.

Then she makes her reading.

Sometimes she finds a bear (expect a long period of travel), a bouquet (expect a happy marriage), or an umbrella (expect annoyance or trouble your way). It's usually an educated guess, but her customers nonetheless buy it. They leave satisfied most of the time (sometimes for the hell of it, she gives them a "bad" reading). These were all readings that her cousins and aunts and uncles could have easily given with more veracity than she could possibly conjure up. Yet she was the most popular one out of all her family members and that was because of her real gift. She could actually see people's future, and past, too. But not in the leaves.

Customers flock to her because sometimes, only sometimes, she'll come face to face with someone that looks a little too familiar and gets a flash of something - a piece of what's to come, she learns later on - she babbles it out like a prophecy. Certain customers are shocked, others treat it like a joke. Because of the few of them, she suddenly became the most popular reader in Fire Country.

It nearly got her killed when she gave her first one to a man who smelled of rain, blood and alcohol. He returned a few months later reeking more of alcohol and blood than rain. He demanded she tell him more of his future, but she makes sure no vision comes. He would surely kill her if he heard it, so she bites her tongue until she tastes blood. He eventually grows bored and leaves her nearly dead. It takes her months to heal, and eventually all that is left to heal is a broken arm and a scabbing scar on her upper lip. Now that she could get back to her feet, she would be leaving in a few days to move in with her uncle and his wife in Kohana to ensure the man could not attack her again for her gift.

(Momo doesn't believe that she has a gift. She think it's more a curse, anyway).

Her uncle is named Kizashi and he is the first in their clan to be born without a gift. He eventually became a ninja and married a woman named Mebuki who was one, too. Momo's father tells her that he's the opposite of him: laid-back and enjoys telling awful jokes and puns. They look similar though, her father admits, with both having her grandfather's dark skin and her grandmother's red hair.

When he comes to pick Momo up outside of the small house she shares with her father, a large circle of family is surrounding her. There are aunts shoving lists of things she ought to send them when she's settled in, and younger cousins tugging at her shirt begging her to not leave. Eventually her cousin Arata slings his tawny arm around her and pulls her towards the awaiting couple. Ignoring the indignant squawks of their aunts, he smiles at the Kizashi and Mebuki and greets them. Soon after, her father joins the small half-circle.

They all exchange pleasantries, and at some point Mebuki jokingly asks her for a tea reading. Momo is not like her mother who can read people's emotions, but she can tell that at her uncle's pained look and Mebuki's confused one that the former was unaware about what happened. She obliges despite Arata's and Kizashi's protests. She brings Mebuki inside, sitting her down before getting some fresh tea ready. When it comes time to do the reading, she's tells Mebuki she sees an orchid. She's about to tell Mebuki something generic like to expect coming into some wealth in the near future until a vision seizes her. A child, little a girl fills her vision. She has a wide forehead and pink hair. She feels weak, she feels left behind by two figures Momo can't see. The girl feels alone. The girl grows stronger, but still feels so behind. Momo fights back the urge to spill out all the details regarding this child, nearly choking on her own tongue in the process. Her father makes a move towards her, but she regains her composure and waves him away.

Momo looks up at Mebuki and says, "You're pregnant, and you'll give birth in the spring." Then before she could stop herself she adds in, "Name her Sakura."


A/N: This was definitely inspired by the Clan of Samsara (go read it), the many incredible SI!OC fics, and the many Sakura-gets-strong fics out there.