Chapter 12

Arriving at the hokage mountain with the third hokage a distance away, Mebuki saw her daughter performing the clone technique. 'Sakura? what is she doing here?'. She was surprised to see her daughter there and wondered why her daughter would be at that spot. She stood and watched as her daughter performed the clone perfectly as an academy student, even going as far as creating two clones easily.

Next, she watched her daughter transform into her almost flawlessly and for a while she was quite proud of her daughter until she saw her doing those weird dances. She really wanted to go over there and smack that silly girl for messing around.

Just as she was about to move, she was stopped by Hiruzen, "Wait a bit. She looks to be preparing for something. Let us wait just a bit longer." As such Mebuki swallowed her embarrassment and waited.

'If this does not lead to anything proper, she will receive the smacking of a lifetime.'. They continued to watch as Sakura undid the transformation. That was when they saw something interesting.

"She actually performed the body flicker." Hiruzen had his mouth open. He was right; the daughter really was just like the mother. Of course, as the Hokage he knew very well academy students did not have access to D-rank jutsus like the body flicker. Even as newly promoted genin, they were not allowed to practice it till their trainer and teacher deemed them ready. How did she even get her hands on it?

'That decides it. I must find a way to make them stay no matter what!' Hiruzen thought to himself. He really could not afford to let them go. He hid his now glowing eyes underneath his hokage hat as he began to quickly think of a few ways to get them to return. She had made up her mind to leave and that was exactly what she would do; He could not change that. If so then the next best thing would be to get them to promise to return.

"She is slow, and she fell on her face. Weak. No stamina." As the third hokage was racking his brains for an optimal plan, Mebuki judged her daughter with a stern face. She had already switched to her teacher mode.

"Don't you think you are being too hard on her. She is still an academy student after all." Hiruzen came to Sakura's rescue. Regardless, this was probably the first time practicing the jutsu and although not perfect she performed it.

Not long after they saw Sakura move 12 meters. It seemed the girl was improving. For a few hours they stood and watched as Sakura moved about with the body flicker. It was amazing. She was still slow in the eyes of the Hokage and Haruno Mebuki but it did not change the fact that they just witnessed Sakura begin with falling on her face to moving about smoothly, at the level of an academy student of course. It seemed she had even found a way to move with the minimal amount of chakra. This was terrifying talent.

From their position it looked like she was trying to get rid of the puff of smoke that came with the jutsu. 'I must have her. As a child, it should be easy to manipulate her with her sense of home. No matter what, if I cannot have her mother, I must have the daughter.'. Hiruzen's body shook slightly when he thought about it.

They both watched Sakura tire herself out on one knee as she panted trying to catch her breath with a wide grin on her face. She finally sat down after finally catching her breath when they saw her mood suddenly became somewhat somber looking out towards the village smiling occasionally.

"Look at her Mebuki, do you really have the heart to take her away from the village she loves. From the looks of it, it seems she knows she will never return here, and it looks to me she is quite sad it. Are u really going to take her home and friends from her?" He held his breath as he made his final attempt to convince the mother. If it did not work then he could only take the risk and approach Sakura.

Mebuki stared at her daughter for a while before she spoke, "One year. We shall return before her year group graduates." She turned and flickered away from her spot right after saying that. Hiruzen smiled lightly after Mibuki left.

"It seems even the heavens are helping me.". Finally, he was ecstatic. This was a very good thing for him. Since he received the guarantee from Mebuki to return before their graduation then that would be easier for him. It would be easier to convince Sakura since she was just a child. He smiled and looked at Sakura before flickering away as well.

[Another chapter. Enjoy. Just to put it out there. I have completed what I feel is book 1 of this fanfic and almost done with book 2, with book 3 being the beginning of the chunin arc. So more chapters to be released. More on P atreon.com/carljoe if you want to read ahead. Thanks to everyone. Vote powerstones for releases over the weekends.]