I do not own any of the characters or ideas created by Kishimoto Masashi. However Sayo and my original story line belong to me.
Thanks for your suggestion 4DarkMirror6, it really helped me to alter the path to my story before running into any potential complications for the future sequels :)
Much like most of her nights, Sayo found herself in a places filled with dense white fog and clouds which seemed to enveloped her with every step forward she took. She knew these paraphernalia well...they contained the essence of the many thoughts which had accumulated over the course of her last three years of living. During the day they would grow and during the night she would work her way through each and every one of her issues.
These makeshift clouds predominately contained her musings on the fact that she had finally acquired the skill to read, and in being given the key to the gateway of knowledge, her desire to learn even more about the contents of all the books in the living room began to grow.
She wondered further and further into this mysterious world, the clearer she could hear her father's calm resonating voice murmuring words of comprehensible matters. Her heart felt warm as she kept hearing him repeat the many 'western classics' which he had read to her on that faithful day. She always known that something was missing in her life and seeing the significance of words in a book, she now understood that it was the art of knowing which she most desired to perfect. Something which was no doubt an affect of her prodigious nature which she wasn't yet aware of.
As Sayo drifted in a world of senseless clouds and pale lights, she found herself surrounded by books of countless amounts of shapes and sizes. The letters forming words and sentences flowed through her mind and she felt really and truly alive. Her father had finally granted her with the means of accessing knowledge, and ever since that faithful day when she had witnessed him reading the mysterious symbols on the page. Her mind her began to rapidly set to work...by building images of each and every single letter of the alphabet and formulating hundreds and hundreds of algorithms, which Sayo was sure were none other than words.
Then suddenly she woke up. Her entire body was aching and she felt as if she had undergone hours and hours of strenuous mind activity. And as she climbed out from the bed covers, she felt her head spin momentarily until after a few steps later when she finally realised what she was feeling hunger for...Then one flash of the bookcases in the living room entered her mind and she knew exactly what she wanted.
Within a few minutes she found herself standing on top of the staircase which would lead her down to the ground floor. Her heart had began to pound frantically, and she felt conflicted between her fear of making the descent and her eagerness to get to the place of books as quickly as it was possible. And before she could ponder on the matter any more, she began to slowly, very slowly make her way down each and every one of the steps. This journey down the stairs was almost as daring as when she had first started walking.
...
The moment that she had reached the bottom of the stairs, Sayo immediately recognised that there was not a single other person present on the ground floor(or so she thought). As she made her way through the corridor of the hours, her craving to ravage the bookcases was increasingly exponentially. Her past few nights had been plagued with the urge to enter the forbidden territory and explore the contents of all of those books which her father had spent so much time pondering over. And the closer she got to the living room, the more the image of the book flashed within her mind's eyes.
From the moment she entered the living room, she immediately turned her head to find the bookshelves which were running along the left hand wall. She quickly proceeded forward to the vast array of magnificent tomes and all her senses began to tingle with extreme excitement. And she promptly began to process and attempted to make sense of each and every one of the book titles.
She found the book called 'Western Classic Tales', and beside it she saw a book labelled as 'Japanese Folklore'. Yet the magnum opus which eventually caught her eyes was called 'The Founding of the Five Great Ninja Nations'.
Slowly she removed the seemingly antiquated text and within a few steps she found herself plodding over to the empty sofa.
Sayo found it incredibly strange how neither her father, mother or Shizune were present, but she relished in the opportunity to delve into the many books without any sort of social distraction.
Then without further a due she pulled open the large volume and nearly squealed when she heard the sound of slicing(as if she were peering into a book which had seemingly seemed to be long since forgotten by the other inhabitants of the house).
The first page she came across contained a column of elemental symbols under which was written the corresponding names of each nation and their respective kages.
At first Sayo strained to read the titles, but after roughly five minutes of pondering upon the matter, she was finally able to comprehend that these emblems represented the five great ninja nations.
She then proceeded onto the first page of the first chapter called simply: 'Origins'.
For the next fifteen minutes she found herself staring blankly at the text and after a while her eyes began to focus and her mind commenced the process of making sense of the words in front of her.
And then something clicked and everything made sense:
The death of the Sage of six paths brought about the calamity of the ninja world. Children were inducted into the shinobi world, only to lose their innocence and the lives many decades earlier than they should have. During the era of chaos shinobi and citizens alike were subjected to death and constant fear, until Hashirama Senju used his power of clan leader to enter into a truce with Madara Uchiha.
Together they found the hidden leaf village which later went onto encourage neighbouring nations to found their own hidden villages, and thus the five great nations were born.
...
Clutching firmly onto the massive paged medical journal, Tsunade pondered on her station within the hidden leaf village. Before that faithful day when she had chosen to abandon her birth village, she had been revered for many things. She had been the legendary kunochi of the shinobi world, the miracle healer on the battlefield and the granddaughter of the famous Shodaime hokage.
But now she had lost two of those impressive titles. Yet as she considered everything Jiraiya had done for her, she realised that to be worth to be the mother of his child, she would have to reclaimed the titles of kunochi and healer. And the best manner in which she could do this was by accepting the position of head medic which the hospital of Konoha had offered to her.
A sly smirk appeared across her face as she scanned the room which she had clambered into. It merely contained a table and a large window. Her daring smile was the result of her success in slipping into her husband's private space and staying there while he had taken over important paper work over the town hall. After all, Sayo's personal information had not be update since her birth.
Sayo...
Tsunade quickly slammed the book shut, as she felt her motherly instinct going wild. It had taken her nearly half an hour to realise that her daughter was awake and downstairs.
Damn it...the day Jiraiya trusts me to look after Sayo, is the day I chose to screw up.
Within a few seconds she had jumped to her feet and sprinted into the corridor, dragging the hefty tome after her. If anything did happen to the three year old Sayo, Tsunade didn't want Jiraiya to chew her out about entering into his own dedicated private space of the house.
She quickly shuffled along the side of the corridor, and it did not take long for her to see her little white haired princess curled up on the sofa pouring over a truly information intensive text. And her heart nearly stopped in it's tracks.
Isn't that 'The Founding of the Five Great Ninja Nations' book?
Tsunade was in utter awe. She knew that Jiraiya had introduced their daughter to the art of reading a few months ago, but she could not even believe to fathom how it was possible that Sayo was so easily reading and seemingly understanding the impressive tome in her hands.
The manner in which her face grows more and more serious by the minute, must mean that she comprehends all the words on the page...right?
As she continued to observe her silently, she began to contemplate on the possibility of her and Jiraiya's child being a prodigy of all talents.
If that were possible, then I'm sure Jiraiya would have said something...or is he scared?
She studied Sayo and quickly came to the conclusion that her husband was most likely worried that their daughter's incredible aptitude would be exploited by the shinobi population of Konoha.
"Mommy...?"
...
It had taken Tsunade a few seconds to realise that Sayo had called for her. And she opened the door and hurried in and kneeled down in front of her, hoping to promptly gain her attention.
She slowly closed the book slowly and she helped her infant daughter placed the tome to the side of the sofa. And then without further a due, she set about asking her little girl questions on her reading.
"Did you enjoy the it?"
Sayo spent some time thinking, until finding the right words to respond with:
"I found it quite informing"
Wow...if she is so composed now, when she's eighteen she'll be practically a princess.
Tsunade felt rather disappointed that Sayo was still reluctant to look her straight in the eye. But she didn't permit her insecurity around her daughter to render her to speechlessness.
"So what have you learnt"
It was at that second, even if it was a mere glance, that her brown eyes connected with those of her daughter and then she heard Sayo's serious response.
"The introductory chapter details the building of the five great nations being the result of my great grand father and the first great Uchiha leader"
Tsunade found herself absolutely stunned at how easily Sayo had realised that she had made the connection with Hashirama Senju being her great grandfather without even receiving any formal instruction for either her or Jiraiya on their clan's genealogy.
"And what of the five great ninja nations?" Tsunade had always sensed that Sayo was something far above average but her answers were proving to her that the very child she had once hoped to dispose of was turning into a full fledged genius.
Once again Sayo averted her eyes and spoke:
"The hidden leaf village or Konohagakure is lead by the hokage and is situated within the land of five. The hidden sand village or Sunagakure is in the protection of the Kazekage within the land of wind whilst Kumogakure has the hidden lightning village and the Raikage. Iwagakure and Kirigakure have the hidden stone and mist village and they are lead by the Tsuchikage and the Mizukage...and each one of the nations had been named after the five main ninja elemental styles"
Now Tsunade was becoming more and more convinced that Jiraiya was indeed scared of their child being revealed as a prodigy, but rather than shying away from Sayo's incredible intelligence she quickly took her hands into her own.
"Yes...you are very smart my dear"
It was at that moment that Sayo look up and finally after what seemed to be an eternity, mother and daughter remained still and staring at each other. They maintained eye contact and as the minutes speed by their faces both went soft and smiles appeared. This was perhaps the first time that the two of them were seeing each other, and regardless of the fact that Jiraiya had been their mediator for so long, they both knew that they would finally be able to take the step and perhaps forge a similar to relationship which Sayo had with her father.
"Thank...thank you" Sayo slight stutter was a clear indication that she was not accustomed to her intellect being so openly complemented.
"Are you hungry?"
"No" Sayo responded meekly without taking her eyes of her mother for even a second.
Tsunade smile turned to an affectionate smile.
"Do you need a diaper changer?"
What followed was a burrowed frown on Sayo's confused face, as she pulled her hands away.
Tsunade titled her head with puzzlement.
"Shouldn't...shouldn't we wait for Daddy to come home?"
Tsunade then took the initiative and reached forward to caress Sayo's silky face and felt her child relaxing.
"Come now...I am just as efficient at diaper changing as your father..."
Sayo's face soon betrayed her curiosity.
"Are you sure?" Sayo managed to murmur.
Tsunade let out a loud laugh.
"I am a medic and a woman and I can accommodate your needs just as adeptly as your Daddy...because after all I am your mother"
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