Sakura
Everyone around her told her that Tsunade was her mother. By everyone, she meant the residents of Senju city. They would look at her uncomfortably, but tell her than she was her daughter nonetheless. When she'd ask where her father was, they'd say he was staying at the land of clouds as an ambassador.
Bullshit.
When she'd ask why she had pink hair, they'd say her grandmother's dad had pink hair. This, of course, was false (in other words, also bullshit). Asahi Uzumaki's hair was as fiery red as an Uzumaki's could get, and her father was not in the Cloud nation. He was in the Hyuuga prison cell, and as for her 'mother' Lady Tsunade's lover, he had been declared missing years before her birth, most likely lost in the countless heaps of bloody corpses from the war.
Despite the fact that the Senjus constantly tried to lie to her about her parentage, it was ironically Lady Tsunade herself that had told Sakura where she came from, but told her to refrain from telling anybody else about it, because that would lead to bloodshed, and they didn't need more of that than they already had. So, she kept her mouth shut, not that it helped with the sheer irritation she felt at the Senju clan for their ignorance and stupidity. How did they expect her, a girl with bubblegum pink hair and grass green eyes, to believe that a woman with blond hair and hazel eyes and a man with grey hair and greyer eyes were her parents? Very few people were honest with her, like her great-grandparents King Hashirama and Queen Mito, Lady Tsunade, and Lady Tsunade's advisor, Sir Jiraiya. They were the closest thing she had to family, really, so she didn't mind being considered Lady Tsunade's daughter all that much.
Sakura's early years were spent in the library, and she couldn't help but feel blessed at how organized, vast and aesthetically pleasing the Senju archive was. It was a tall, dome like structure, with oakwood shelves filled with books on three of the sides, and the fourth side being a large window with a lovely view of their garden lake. There was a raised platform with an antique couch for her to sit on for hours, with a matching coffee table in front of it. A golden chandelier hung on top, and right below it was a lovely little fountain. To top it all off, there were plant vases on the four corners, and vines hung from shelf to shelf.
Sakura would spend her afternoons trying to reach to the top shelves with the help of Queen, or as she called her early on, Granny Mito, and failing miserably. Then, she'd ask Granny Mito about Lady Tsunade, and Granny Mito would give her a vague answer, so she'd pout and wait for Hashirama Gramps to finish with his head-of-the-kingdom affairs, and ask him about her. Hashirama Gramps was the source of most of her information about Lady Tsunade, like how since she was the Heiress to the Senju kingdom, her title ought to have been Princess Tsunade, but how she renounced the title because she didn't like it, and chose to use the title of 'Lady' instead.
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"Now Sakura-chan, what do you so desperately want to know tonight?" He calmly asked, while pulling her onto his lap.
"I wanna know about Lady Tsunade!" She smiled as he acted surprised, covering his face with his mouth.
"I never would've guessed!" He said. Sakura giggled at that. This was their nightly routine, and despite the fact that he made this face every time, she couldn't help but laugh.
"Well firstly, no need to be so formal, just call her mom."
"But she isn't my mo-"
"Shhhhh!"
"Oh - sorry!"
"It's alright, just don't say that in front of others, okay?"
"Okay!" She smiled at him. Her Gramps was so great!
"Well, your mom is currently in the land of stone on an official mission meeting up with the Tsuchikage because of our newly formed alliance."
"Alliance?" She asked.
"Yes. An alliance is like when two people, or in our case, kingdoms come together to fight a common enemy." He explained.
"We're allianced to fight the Uchiha?" She asked. Hashirama's eyes widened. He seemed to be shocked enough to not correct her conjugation of alliance, or to realize that Granny Mito entered the room, gracefully drying her hair with a towel.
"What is it Hashirama?" She asked. He snapped out of his shocked state.
"She's asking if the Uchiha are our enemy, Mito." He said. Granny Mito hesitated, then shrugged and said "She was bound to find out someday, that day just happened to be today." She gave him a nod. He, for the first time, looked nervous.
"Well, yes, Sakura-chan. Technically, the Uchihas are our enemies." He said. His face looked contorted, like he really didn't want to have said it.
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Then what are they, not technically?" She asked. This time Granny Mito answered.
"What do you mean, Sakura-chan?"
"Well, Hashirama Gramps said technically they are our enemies, so what are they otherwise?" Sakura asked. She was curious now. Whenever she went to visit the quarters of the lower ranking Senjus, they would always be whispering about the Uchiha, calling them devils, and on the rare occasions when she went outside of Senju City, she would see strange little markings on everybody's houses, which Hashirama Gramps told her, were markings from a ritual they performed to attempt to ward off the Uchiha.
Mito pursed her lips at that. "There are a select few of the Uchiha who are very kind, like the matriarch, Mikoto. I suppose Shisui as well. But apart from that, they're bad news." She said.
"Bad news, why?"
"Well," Hashirama Gramps began, "they've done a lot of bad things."
"Why?"
"For power, mostly. They do it to achieve power, or to show that they have it."
"Why do they want it?"
"I don't know, frankly. There are a lot of things about the Uchiha that cannot be explained by anyone but them."
"Are they the reason why Uncle Nawaki went far far away?" She asked. Hashirama Gramps and Granny Mito's face became solemn, and she knew she had crossed a line.
"Sorry..." She mumbled.
"I-it's okay Sakura-chan." Granny Mito said. "And to answer your question, your uncle Nawaki didn't go away because of the Uchiha. He stepped on an explosive." Sakura gasped at that. Explosive were made to kill anyone within a five meter radius. It must've been so painful to go away like that!
"When'll La-" she looked at Hashirama "mom be back?"
"I don't know, Sakura-chan." He said, while tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She deflated a bit at his statement. She missed Lady Tsunade, no, mom so much, and hadn't had the chance to see her in months.
Stupid war.
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"When'll the war end, Granny Mito?" Sakura asked, as Mito tucked her into bed. She gave her a half-smile.
"I don't know, Sakura-chan." She said. Sakura snuggled into her bed, and grabbed her cat plushie. Sakura loved being tucked into bed by Granny Mito, and she was sure Granny Mito liked doing it too, because the maids would offer to do it, but she'd insist on doing it herself.
"Why don't you know?" She asked.
"Because it is not up to me or our kingdom to start or end the war. It'll happen when people like the Uchiha will stop attacking, and people like us will stop retaliating so violently."
"Why can't you stop ret-aliating so violently then?"
"So that the Uchiha don't think they've won."
"Why can't they think that?" Granny Mito sighed at the question. "Because they haven't won."
"Why can't you kill the Uchiha warriors then?"
"Because we know little about who's behind the attacks, in other words, we don't know who the 'warriors' are."
"Why can't you kill all the Uchiha then?"
"Because killing all the Uchiha won't be fair. Some of them are little kids your age, some haven't ever picked up a sword, some are old and frail and some are a victim of circumstance."
She stroked Sakura's cheek with her thumb.
"But its also not fair that Uncle Gramps Tobirama is-"
"Enough, Sakura." Granny Mito's voice carried a tone of finality , a clear sign (along with the removed suffix) that Sakura really should shut up.
"I'll answer your remaining questions tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay..." She answered. Granny Mito's eyes softened.
"You really are such an inquisitive girl, just like your mom." She mumbled. Sakura got the feeling that she wasn't talking about Lady Tsunade.
"Goodnight, Sakura-chan." She got up, curtly nodded to the maid who bowed down to her, and closed the door. Sakura closed her eyes then, in an attempt to sleep. She was satisfied with the answers she got for now, but her stomach was still bubbling with the need to know more about the Uchiha. By the way Granny Mito cut her off, Uncle Gramps Tobirama's imprisonment by the Uchiha was still a sore subject. At least she didn't try to hide that from her. She turned to her side, a sated smile on her lips. She was going to get her answers tomorrow.
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It was probably because of her shitty luck that 'tomorrow' never came.