A/N: Wow, you made it to the third chapter! Wonderful! I have a reward for you, if you've only ever read AToIT on FF. I include interlude chapters where I give the POV of another character, be it in universe or in some other circumstance. For instance, I have an interlude of Sakura traveling to the canon universe but it's entirely written from Sasuke's POV. I've been lazy-writing a version where AToIT Sakura gets to the 4th war with Madara, murd/suic. him, and travels to the canon universe and tries to put everyone in therapy.

So my reward to you is this: leave a review of a character and a universe (canon, au, AToIT, butterfly effect, etc.) that you want to see and I might just write it! Any interlude chapters will have "Interlude: [Character]" in the chapter title, for easy skipping should anyone want to do so.

Previously on A Treatise on Interdimensional Travel:

Sakura goes to school. She's sorted into a class full of clan kids and she takes it to mean that the odds are stacked against her. She becomes friends with Shino over their shared interest in ecology.

In this chapter we begin to get a little worldbuilding as to how the Leaf formed without the Senju and Uchiha breaching the divides between their families.

After lunch was the first history lesson.

Clan children made pinched faces at the promise of a boring two hours. They likely already knew Leaf's history. Sakura didn't. She didn't know enough. She couldn't possibly know enough, as voracious as she was for foundation. She needed ground to stand upon. And here, so cheerfully given, was the solution.

"The Hatake were originally a samurai clan – the Minamoto clan – from the Land of Iron. From what historians have gathered, the Minamoto were banished from Iron after the usurping of the local nobles and the consequent destabilization of the Daimyo's power. Though samurai code would dictate the Minamoto take their lives as recompense for their failure to protect the Daimyo, they suffered a fate worse than death."

Sakura felt her heart thud. This had never happened Before. The Hatake had been samurai Before, yes, but they became simple farmers when their clan migrated to the Leaf. Now they were shinobi. How could the skills have possibly transferred over? Had the Minamoto clan utilized chakra? Furthermore, had the Minamoto clan utilized subterfuge? And, if they had, did that open the possibility that they had destabilized the Iron Daimyo on purpose?

She hadn't missed, either, that Iruka had said nothing about protecting the nobles that had been slaughtered. Had the nobles been so awful? Or, conversely, was it simply that the Minamoto clan had been indentured by the Daimyo to protect the root of his power? Could it be that the Minamoto clan failed only because the Daimyo's grip on Iron Country faltered?

"Shame. They were expressly forbidden to follow the samurai code of honor. Quoting the clan head Minamoto Shizue, 'We had failed so thoroughly as to lose any right to call ourselves samurai. We thus forfeit our code, our honor, and our name. We may as well be peasants.' This is when they took the name 'Hatake', to reflect their dedication to Shizue's words.

"Following their banishment, the Hatake traveled through what is now known as Ishigakure and Amegakure to reach Fire Country, where the land was more arable. While they fully intended for an agricultural lifestyle, they had other things in store for them.

"Upon arriving in Fire Country, they were beset by an Inuzuka patrol. The patrol, having spotted the blades of the Hatake, ran back to his clan to warn everyone of warriors closing in. It's believed that, had the Inuzuka not faced rising illiteracy, the patrol's warning would have been heeded. The Inuzuka would have taken up arms against the immigrants and chased them out of the territory."

Sakura swallowed harshly. Down in the second row, the sole Inuzuka sat straight. Pride radiated off of her.

"The Inuzuka clan head, Tatsuko, had a dilemma. Should she be proactive and attack the armed Hatake, or should she welcome them on the chance that they might be literate?"

Literacy? A village founded on literacy? That was unheard of from shinobi. Sakura corrected herself: perhaps, it was simply unheard of to her.

"She knew next to nothing about the skills of the Hatake, had at least two of her own members out of fighting condition, dwindling food stores, and worse yet was the fact that the newer generation's skills were diminishing. Tatsuko made her decision: she met the Hatake personally."

The clan head was a tall woman with hands the size of a ninken's paw. She sat against a boulder and sharpened her blade with gloomy eyes. She was called Shizue by her clan members.

Tatsuko, hidden in the trees, observed the mountain-sized woman with a conflicted frown. Something was off about these Hatake. Now, make no mistake, Tatsuko had met other clans before. She'd been three years old the last time the Inuzuka had traded with the Uchiha. That'd been before the Uchiha and Senju war began. She met regularly with the Aburame and the Yamanaka. But these immigrants were different.

They smelled of wolves.

Aomaru, Tatsuko's partner, sighed quietly at her hesitation. She'd already made up her mind. What was the use of stalling?

She shifted on the branch and unclenched her jaw. Her gaze swept back to Shizue, only to find the woman meeting her eyes.

"Finally decided to say something, huh?" Shizue called with a smirk. "I almost mistook you as a leaf for how still you were."

"Tch." Tatsuko had been caught, and that meant she'd no element of surprise. These people made her hackles rise.

Shizue set down her sharpening block with a tilt of her head. Another of her clan looked between Tatsuko and Shizue and snorted.

"Not again," someone murmured.

"Damn it, Shizue-dono's found something interesting," said someone else.

Tatsuko dropped to the dirt, Aomaru following. Immediately, the entire gathering's eyes were on Aomaru. She fought not to snarl. She couldn't blame them for focusing on her partner; he was a massive hound. Anyone with sense would find that threatening. "You're in our territory. Explain yourselves."

Shizue stood. Sage, she was tall. She, too, zeroed in on the ninken. With effort, she pulled her gaze back to Tatsuko. All trace of wary humor (for that's what it was) vanished.

"What is your name?" Shizue demanded. Her voice had roughened.

This wasn't a normal introduction, no, but the significance to Shizue wasn't felt by Tatsuko; she'd no earthly idea why Shizue's attitude changed.

"Inuzuka Tatsuko—"

In the back of the gathered clan were the unarmed – which included children, though most of them carried wooden swords. It was from that section that a young boy of maybe ten summers leapt up and—

And howled.

(Howled how Tatsuko's grandmother used to do when there was a healthy birth. Howled how her father used to when he laughed.)

Yes, it was a different dialect, but… Tatsuko shivered. She stumbled at the force of it. Something beautiful. And now, now it was a joyous sound gaining traction in the children.

"Cousin!" they said.

And from the adults, an elated grin.

"Cousin," Shizue called, softer, regaining Tatsuko's attention. "We… have not met family in a very long time. It'd bring us no greater pleasure than to fight alongside you."

This was bigger than an alliance, wasn't it? Tatsuko didn't want to get in over her head, but the howls had gotten to her.

Before their jutsu, before their senses, before their ninken, Inuzuka were known for their debilitating loyalty. And hell, these fools had just come in from nowhere and declared themselves family. Tatsuko scrubbed at her jaw with one hand and wove her other through Aomaru's fur. She shot a wry grin at Shizue. What the hell was she supposed to do about that?

How could she lie to herself and tell them otherwise?

"It's said that the Inuzuka brought the Hatake into their territory. They taught the disgraced samurai the way of shinobi."

"Sensei!" cried the Yamanaka. "Is that why there're wolves in the Inuzuka kennels?"

"Raise your hand if you have a question in the future, Yamanaka-san," Iruka sighed. "But yes, that is indeed why."

Sakura leaned forward and rose her hand.

"Yes?"

"How does the village work into this?"

"I'm glad you asked. It would be a year after the Hatake came that the first blueprints of the Leaf were drawn. Funnily enough, it had originally been a plan for a library…"

Tatsuko pinched the bridge of her nose. Shizue, damn her, grinned shamelessly.

"Walk me through this again."

"Well," Shizue drawled, like the asshole she was, "you are aware of the library plans, no?"

"Yes," Tatsuko hissed, "yes, I'm fucking aware of the library plans."

"Since there's been such an influx of books, we thought to build a library. But then we looked at the houses and saw that the wood was old and that forty of them desperately need repairs to last the winter."

"I'm following."

"So." Shizue's grin widened a fraction, a sure sign that she was going to piss Tatsuko off. "A village. One with new houses, a wall border, a library, and a med-center building instead of a medic's tent."

Tatsuko threw a scroll at Shizue's head. "And you only thought now to tell me?! Bastard!"

Shizue easily dodged the projectile. Her grin smoothed into something softer. "I know you're overworked already, so I thought to get started on this before bothering you on it. You're going to say yes anyway." Shizue produced three scrolls from her sleeve and set them on the desk. "That's why I went ahead and got the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi to join our village."

Tatsuko ran a hand down her face as she read the three official decrees of the other clan heads. "Fuck you. When did you even do this?"

From her other sleeve Shizue produced three more scrolls. "Around the same time that I got these from the Uchiha, Aburame, and Hyuga."

Tatsuko leapt over the desk to attack her meddling cousin. Shizue danced out of reach with a snort. How could a woman that tall be so nimble?! Tatsuko snarled.

"GET BACK HERE SO I CAN STRANGLE YOU!"

"Most of the diplomacy was assigned to the Hatake, as were the blueprints. Meanwhile, the Inuzuka handled construction alongside the Akimichi. Most of the bricks that you see in the Hokage Tower were fired by the Uchiha's fire release. The Aburame's knowledge of ecology allowed us to weave tree roots into bridges and grow our own food. So on and so forth."

Iruka continued his lecture, turning to the long line of Fire Daimyos. It was uninteresting as it was mostly the same as it had been Before. Given this slack, Sakura mulled over what she had learned.

Sakura could picture it. The Hatake and the Inuzuka, meeting the wary and historically burnt (snubbed) Uchiha. See, the commonality between shinobi families is this: the most powerful are often those with hearts on their sleeves. And no one could accuse the Hatake nor the Inuzuka of doing anything by halves. Is it any wonder that these canines, this pack, took one look at the specific brand of loyalty from Uchiha and did what canines did best? There was a reason that wolves hunted in numbers. There was a reason.

Sakura looked at this with the critical perspective that had landed her in trouble far too many times and thought.

A/N:

me lifting up the hatake and inuzuka: i just think they're neat :)

I gave the Hatake's samurai background a little more influence on the Leaf. Also, three cheers for the Senju joining late and not trying to "optimistically" bring about the formation of a military dictatorship. honestly what was hashirama thinking. "Oh, boy, I sure do hate child soldiers. You know what kind of structure would definitely not inevitably lead to corruption or abuse of power or the eventual creation of more child soldiers? A dictatorship :)))) I'm Hashirama there's no way I can be wrong! I'm the tree boy!"