Chapter TWO

No matter how much Ibiki scowled, Sakura just wouldn't let him go.

Then again, he had learned from Kakashi that she couldn't exactly see him, so maybe that was why.

But wasn't she supposed to be able to see chakra? Then why couldn't she see his chakra boiling in annoyance?

"We should get going now." Kakashi decided. The last of the camping equipment had been put away, and everyone was just standing around, waiting for Kakashi to finish his current chapter.

Sakura was hanging from Ibiki's neck. Some nonexistent person had nominated Ibiki to carry the girl on the way back and no one seemed to have a problem with it.

"Ibiki?"

Sakura prodded.

Ibiki grunted.

Sakura just giggled and tightened her grip.


The moment they stepped into the village, people stopped what they were doing to stare at them. Well, more like, stare at Ibiki.

Sakura had fallen asleep sometime during their return trip and was now being carried by an reluctant Ibiki. The scarred man snarled at some random Chunin who dropped the scroll he had been reading, then proceeded to take the roof top to the Hokage's office.

The news of Ibiki carrying a child would spread like a wildfire.

The earlier he could get rid of her, the better, or so he told himself.


At Minato's office, Kakashi gave a brief report on what had happened.

The Hokage then turned to Ibiki, who gave a short version on how he had met the girl in the forest.

"The Haruno clan was wiped out a year or so ago." Kakashi said. "I was on the team that was sent out to investigate." The Haruno clan village had been located South East from Konoha, between the Fire country and the Water country. "We didn't find any survivors, just puppets left behind by the presumed attacker."

"There isn't much information available on the Haruno clan's chakra vision. We don't know how much they can see, and how much they can't see." Ibiki had said, albeit begrudgingly, on Sakura's behalf. "Someone's going to have to stick with her for a while."

Minato frowned for a second, before he nodded. "Very well. Konoha shall take in the girl." He smiled. "Kushina's always wanted a girl. I'm sure she'll agree to take in the girl for a while until she is either old enough to take care of herself, or until proper accommodations can be made."

Sakura chose that moment to wake up.

Ibiki sighed when the girl whacked him across the face when stretching. She blinked a few times, looking around curiously.

Her eyes widened and she looked around rapidly, as if she had just noticed where they were.

She struggled out of Ibiki's grasp, gasping when she landed in a heap on the floor. She patted at the ground curiously, then wobbly got to her feet. She grasped the sleeve of Ibiki's black coat, ignoring his futile attempts to yank it free.

"Where are we, Ibiki?"

"Konoha." Ibiki turned the girl around to face an amused looking Minato. "That's the Hokage."

Sakura blinked. "That's like, the leader of the village, right?"

Minato smiled. "Nice to meet you, Sakura-chan."

Sakura opened her mouth, then closed it again. After a few seconds, her face bloomed in a smile of her own. "Hi, Hokage-sama!"

Minato chuckled. "You'll be staying with me and my family until proper arrangements can be made, okay?"

Sakura frowned. "How 'bout Ibiki?'

Said man groaned.


After Sakura reluctantly said a good bye to a trying-to-act-pleased Ibiki, Minato took the girl by her hand and led her towards his house. Kushina and Naruto should both be home.

People stared even as they politely greeted their Hokage.

Sakura clung to Minato's side, not letting go.

Sakura could see the street because of the chakra trails left in layers due to the amount of people that walked over it ever since the village had first been made. After a while, even nonliving objects absorbed the chakra of their surroundings, and that made things a little easier.

Just a little, for it took a long time, and not everything in Konoha had been there for that long.

Minato opened the door, calling through it. "I'm home!"

There was a crash from within the house, followed by a "You're early!"

"Tou-chan!" A blur of chakra burst from the other side of the corridor, only for the person to freeze upon seeing her. "Who's that?"

Sakura tensed at the chakra rolling off the boy in waves.

"Naruto." Minato sighed.

Kushina walked into sight, eyeing Sakura curiously. "Who's this?"

Minato smiled. "This is Haruno Sakura." He told them. "She'll be staying with us for a while."

Kushina's eyes brightened, and she flew to the girl's side. "Oh my, she's cute." She smiled gently at the girl. "Hello. I'm Kushina."

Sakura wagged her fingers in Kushina's direction, knowing that the woman was smiling.

Smiling was where one changed their facial expression to show happiness.

She remembered hearing that somewhere, and offered a smile of her own.

Kushina straightened and she crossed her arms. "We'll see what Mikoto-chan'll say about this cutie pie joining us!"


"I'm Namikaze Naruto, dattebayo!" Naruto jumped and landed in front of Sakura, who flinched back a little before stepped forward.

"I'm Sakura." She said.

"Hey! We can be friends, 'ttebayo." Naruto grabbed her arm, pulling her towards the stairs. "I'll show her to the rooms, yeah?"

He didn't even wait for an response. The two vanished up into the rooms.

Minato sighed.

"You can stay here." Naruto announced, leading Sakura into the empty room beside his. "After this, I'll take you to the park. Sasuke-teme and I're meeting up and I'll introduce you!" He grinned. "We're entering the Academy next year, and I can't wait! I'm gonna be the best in our year, 'ttebayo!"

Sakura hummed, carefully using her chakra to inspect the room.

She took a deep breath and flicked her fingers. A faint wave soon hit her, and she redid this a few times until she had an absolute layout of the room in her mind.

Now she had a mental image of the room, which she had created by sensing the chakra that had been reflected back to her.

It had been a grand rule in her clan, to be always aware of her surroundings.

As a clan that had a different kind of sight, they needed to be able to adapt and use this advantage.

"You wanna go now?" Naruto asked.

Satisfied, she nodded shyly.


"Tou-chan! We're gonna go to the park!"

Minato sighed as he watched Naruto pull Sakura out of the house by her wrist.

He was slightly worried about the girl's sight problem, but he figured that that could wait until later.

She seemed to be able to see enough that she could avoid running into him on the way out.


"SASUKE-TEME!" Naruto bolted form Sakura's side, diving somewhere.

There was a snarl of annoyance before it was drowned out, and Sakura assumed that the boy Naruto was now sitting on was 'Sasuke'.

"Hn, Dobe."

"What did you say!"

Sasuke didn't reply, and Sakura saw his chakra shit and he was now looking at her. "What'd you want?" He asked.

Being an Uchiha, he was gifted (or cursed) with the good looking genes, and he was wary of every creature that was a part of the 'girl' species.

"Ah!" Naruto jumped to his feet and reached Sakura's side. "This is Sakura-chan! She'll be living in our house for a while." He scowled when Sasuke got to his feet. "And she's my friend!"

Sasuke scowled back. "Who's want a Dobe friend?" He asked, then turned to Sakura. "You can be my friend."

Sakura placed her hands on her hips. "I'm Ibiki's friend." She told them.

"Ibiki? Who's Ibiki?" Naruto asked, almost accusingly.

"Ibiki's my friend."

Sasuke scowled even deeper. "Well, we can be your...other friends." He finished lamely.

Sakura thought about this. "That's okay." She agreed.


Sakura looked up when she saw a familiar chakra walk through the street on the other side of the cluster of buildings behind her, closely followed by another person.

She got to her feet and widened her eyes to expand her sense.

The truth way, it didn't really help, but it did make her feel better.

She noted that Sasuke and Naruto were rolling around in what she had learnt was a 'sand pit'. She frowned, then turned back to the familiar chakra signature that was walking rapidly through the street.

She cloaked the her chakra signature to the point she was just about conscious of it and no one else would be able to sense it unless they were specifically looking for her's. Even that might be hard too.

She darted off after the flare of chakra. She sent out her chakra in small quantities, so that only she could see and sense it. They reflected images of the street back to her, and she used it to avoid most of the chakra-less obstacles. She ran past people, for they had chakra signature, and followed that one specific chakra trail left behind.

The chakra signature soon broke away from the crowd, and when Sakura spun around the corner, she saw a building looming up ahead.

She sent out another wave of chakra and noticed that there was some shapes carved into the wooden sign, but she didn't recognized is. Shrugging to herself, she darted towards the entrance.

Her smile widened when she sensed Ibiki's chakra from inside. It had stopped, and it seemed like he was talking so someone else.

Sakura marched into the building. She ignored the surprised flare of chakra coming from the person sitting at the entrance table. However, that attracted the attention of all the others in the vicinity, including Ibiki's

Said man groaned.

"Ibiki!" Sakura ran into the man.

"Sakura." Ibiki sighed and halfheartedly patted the girl's head. "What are you doing here?"

"I saw you." Sakura said. "From the park."

"But we were no where near the park." A very pale-haired blond spoke up.

Sakura recognized the man that had been walking with Ibiki.

"I know. I just saw you." She turned away form the confused man and smiled up at Ibiki. "I made other friends, you see?"

Ibiki hummed. "Yeah?"

"There's a Naruto and a Sasuke. You're my friend, so they're my other friends."

"I...see." No he did not see.

Sakura nodded, smile widening.

"And what are you doing here?" Ibiki asked. He could feel the looks of shock his subordinates were shooting him.

"I saw you." Sakura repeated, as if that was the answer to everything.

Ibiki sighed. "I see." No, he really did not see.


"So, what do you do here?" Sakura looked around the building. She could see chakra signatures littered in the underground layer of the structure. They were fluttering, as if in pain. She crouched down and fixed her gaze onto the floor.

To many, it looked like she was looking at the tiled ground. However, Ibiki knew she was looking right through it.

Ibiki placed a hand over the girl's eyes. "That's confidential." He told her.

Sakura wriggled away from Ibiki and crossed her hands. "Okay."

Ibiki rubbed above his eyebrows. "Does anyone know you're here?"

Sakura shrugged. "Sasuke and Naruto were messing around, and then I saw you, and I just followed you."

So, no.

Ibiki sighed.

He seemed to be doing that often these days.

"Come on, brat." Ibiki led a beaming Sakura out of the building.

Once Ibiki was gone, the T&I office burst into questions.

"What...was that?"


So, chapter one here!

Really, we've never gotten to much follows in one chapter! (119 at this moment in time)

If you haven't done so, check out our other stories, okay?

Also, our first ever Cross over (NARUTO x Harry Potter) is up! It's a side story to 'Of Tales Now and Long Ago', but we've tried to write it so it can stand alone...

Of Team Riki: At Hogwarts

Hired by Voldemort, Team Riki consisting of Itachi, Sakura, Neji and Shikamaru attend Hogwarts as spies and as weapons for the coming war. However, as they watch Harry Potter and his friends struggle against a seemingly unbeatable force, they are reminded of Konoha. This was supposed to be a mission, nothing emotional, but they begin to doubt if they are on the right side.

Do check it out!

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Darque 'n Raven