4 - This is different...
Through Kaede, she learns many things. In fact, she learns so many things, that she quickly realizes something concerning but not concerning.
Kaede, as it turns out, has just turned 9 years old, is set to graduate from the academy next year, and is her family’s heir.
He is the Haruno Clan Heir.
Heir of what you may ask? The Haruno Ninshu shrines. Because, apparently in this world, the Harunos are not nomadic traders.
No, they are descendants of the monks who first learned Ninshu under the Sage of Six Paths (Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo but they don’t know his name because it’s been lost to time). Adorable Kaede has taken to strapping Sakura to his chest as he walks her through their various compound shrines and pavilions. He puts her to bed with folktales from the ancient era about the founding.
Their parents think it is delightful that he has taken his oath seriously.
Sakura just panics.
Because she did not just go back in time (she doesn’t even remember how or why), no, she’s been reborn in a completely new world. One where her civilian merchant clan is still well known, but as monks and priests. They have minor branches in all the elemental nations and in the hidden villages, but they stay out of shinobi and samurai politics to honor their vows unless it is wartime. The main location, however, is here in Konoha.
Now months old, Sakura takes in her kin. All have hair in varying shades of pink, none as light as her and her brother, mind you, but pink nonetheless. In fact, the only times someone isn’t pink is when they are the spouse of someone else. She hasn’t been introduced to the main prayer shrine at the front of the compound, where everyone in the village prays, but she can hear the bells tolling, prayers in the wind, and the solemn echoes of a clap.
Kaede, like all Haruno children, attends the academy to gain access to their chakra and learn control. Only a handful have actually graduated and become shinobi though. There are rules in place as to why, but her new brother hasn’t told her despite recognizing the intrigue in her spring-green eyes and undeniable pout. No, he just laughs and kisses her, admittedly adorable, apple cheeks and brags about her to his age mates within the clan.
Sakura spends several months like this. Passively, her chakra core has stabilized and grown from the subconscious meditation she’s done religiously since she was first 13. Idly watching her parents tend to the shrines, greeting family members she both knows and some she has never met before, napping on her brother’s chest, when she remembers something crucial.