Chapter Three: Those Who Know

The party had progressed with great difficulty, after catching her bearings, Sakura had managed to make her way out of her room, and back down to the party. And along with her emotions, time continued to ebb and flow in an endless concoction of misery and the unending desire to avoid being the socialite she usually was.

It didn't help that the entire night was spent with Naruto and Hinata giving her looks, like they knew something that she didn't. It was driving her absolutely crazy. Which likely explained why she'd forced herself to pull them to the side, in an effort to make them talk.

"Everyone else is gone, and my parents aren't coming this way for a while. So why don't the two of you tell me why you've been looking at me weird all night."

She'd ended her party early for this. She hadn't even opened gifts before her guests. She'd open them later, and write them thank you notes. Naruto offered her one of his traditional wide smiles, a hand going to rub at the back of his neck as if he was sheepish about something. The blonde idiot.

"Well- uhm- " Hinata seemed at a loss for words, as if they hadn't been expecting to be called out. As if they hadn't expected her to know yet herself.

"Well?"

"Well- Ya see, Sakura-chan, Hinata and me are something special. Kinda like you and Sasuke."She was taken aback by the blonde's knowledge. How did he know Sasuke, she was under the impression that there was no one who knew Sasuke aside from herself and her parents.

"Which one of you-?"

Gods. Which one of them was the ethereal being among the two. Sakura couldn't imagine it being either of them, but Hinata slowly raised her hand a soft breeze filled the room, there were no open windows, and the door was closed. There was no source for the continuous soft breeze.

"I am, Goddess of the Wind, Air, and Sky."

"Yeah, she's the awesome one, I'm just the vessel for her power." Naruto shrugged, as if the normally hyperactive knucklehead was actually okay with being a tier off from the top rank. She was shocked, he must've really loved Hinata.

"Okay, but I'm confused."Sakura was smart, but not that smart. It was hard for her to get a mental grasp on exactly what was going on here. Hinata was a goddess. Okay. She knew they existed. Obviously, if time had a God, then there were likely others out there too. She still wasn't entirely sure. What did Naruto mean, by a vessel for a gods power. How did it work? She had so many questions, and in all honesty, the answers terrified her.

"Let me tell you a story, Sakura."The timid voice of Hinata greeted here next, and then the words continued to fall, in a surprisingly rhythmic unending cadence as she weaved the story to life with a mess of intricate words and beautiful sentences.

The dark haired girl spoke her story.

"In the beginning times. There were three Gods and two Goddess that presided over all, and while they had names of their own, they were known as the Kage. Above all in everything, eventually, it was seen that they held too much power. So each Kage, passed their lineage on, creating smaller demi-gods with various abilities beyond the original five.

Followers lined up, to offer themselves forward to the Gods, and Goddesses. Offering vessels to carry their children, to do their work and to give them the sons and daughters they wished for. However the first few children revealed a disasterous outcome. The realization that children should not have such power.

Thus the birth of the secondary bloodline, the keeper line. The keeper line was created to keep and protect the powers of the demi-gods, until they were too come of age. The first meeting of the Keeper and their God or Goddess was the moment that the power became available to them. That moment is the moment that the Keepers become an untapped well of power to the gods, and grant them the strength they'd been missing out on.

Though, that's not all. As the stories have said, and have always proven true. Upon a true awakening, the Keepers may also tap into the powers of their God or Goddess. Though very few have actually managed to achieve a full awakening. As it is the status of remembering not only your own memories but those of your god or goddess as well.

I have only known two of the course of my tenure as the Sky Goddess. You and Naruto."

Sakura was shocked. She did remember Sasuke's time alive. All of it, as well as her own, and it was tiring to think about. She was already exhausted, and the added strain of the world opening up before her was not helping in the slightest, and yet, she couldn't bring herself to deny the ring of the truth in her words.

"So how does one achieve a True Awakening?"

"In the cases that I have known, a True Awakening is only granted when the subject is of age, and are in possession of a collectum. Which is an object that collects the memories of those in association with it. In Naruto's case, it was the charm that he wears at his neck, just as it is with you. The necklace that you are wearing now, is Sasuke's Collectum. Every keeper he has ever known their memories lie within that, as well as your own and his own. As for how one triggers the opening of their Collectum, it is different for everyone, as I'm sure you didn't manage it in quite the way Naruto did."

"Yeah, probably not."Naruto spoke up, plopping down onto Sakura's bed, and falling back.

The next question Sakura asked slipped free without thought. "How do I find him?"

"That's going to be quite the challenge in and of itself. We don't know where, or when, he's disappeared too. That's why, I assume, he entrusted you with his Collectum. The only one who will be able to find out where he is hiding is you, the knowledge will be hidden away in his memories, or perhaps in your own. Once you find it, you have to find him. He is in grave danger."

Sakura turned her attention to Naruto who bolted up right, and stood with a burst of excitement as though he was going to burst at the seams if he didn't get to talk next.

"Yeah! And while you're searching for answers, we get to teach you how to defend yourself against the Time Stalkers! It'll be fun, Sakura-chan. Believe it!"

So she had to go through Sasuke's past and her own, to discover exactly where he'd hidden himself from whatever these Time Stalkers were. "What are those things anyway?"

"Oh, the Time Stalkers? They're basically the agents of evil working for the Snake God whose name we will not mention, after all. Names have power. What they want is to steal the power of all of the lesser gods for their leader. It's our job to stop them! Believe it!"

He was enthused. Sakura had to admire Naruto for his enthusiasm in situations like this. Even when things were looking horribly grim and quite terrifying, the blonde always managed to put a smile on her face. Either that or he made her want to hit him. Both of which were equally tempting at the moment.

The prospect of being trained to defeat those horrifying dog like beasts was not something that seemed to be an enjoyable idea. But who knew, maybe she'd enjoy it.

"Wait, so if they work for the Snake God, why do they look like dog dragons?"

"The Time Stalkers used to be guardians of time, Sakura. Seeking out impurities within time and erasing them so as to keep the timeline pure. They used to work beside Sasuke, until the Snake God used his hypnosis magic and forced them to sway their loyalty to his side."

So Sasuke was being hunted by those who had once been his allies? She shook her head. She didn't want to think about it.

At the moment she had bigger things to worry about.