In all Tanaka Sakura's experience as a child caretaker, it was Suzuki Hitoshi's only daughter that was the most ... peculiar.
Suzuki Hitoshi is a rich traveling merchant, having the financial capability to hire the middle-aged caretaker, a month after his daughter's birth. Unfortunately, his wife passed within a few days after labor, and now Sakura has to fill in the child's maternal needs.
Sakura couldn't blame the mother, really. After all, the woman birthed six sons prior, and it's only a matter of time before her body gave out. This time's medical expertise can only do so much.
Suzuki Yua was the seventh and last child.
A lucky number, Sakura couldn't help but think to herself.
Despite the Suzuki family being big for a nuclear family, most, if not all, of them are unavailable due to their traveling business. They weren't home most of the time, and ultimately, Tanaka Sakura was the only constant within Suzuki Yua's life.
The young Suzuki was a quiet baby; only attracting attention when in need of milk, change of diaper, or water. Even at her teething stage, the child continued on without much fuss, as long as she has something to chew on. While Yua was indeed quiet, the Tanaka swore that the girl was the most active infant she's ever cared for—to the point of already mastering all basic motor functions at five months; crawling at six; standing, walking, and running at seven; and talking full sentences at nine months (though with inevitable speech impediments).
To Sakura's flattery, Yua's first word to her was "kaa-san". Although, she immediately discouraged the girl from calling her such, as she thinks her employer wouldn't be pleased with that development. She did settle with the alternative of "baa-san", though.
Curious, Sakura does wonder where the child learned that word, as she never did coach the child to call her such. As sad as it sounds, her charge shouldn't be able to recognize the words "kaa-san" nor "tou-san", as no one was cooing it to her, growing up. The child has yet to meet her own father.
Her brothers were no better.
It was after Suzuki Yua's first birthday, when Sakura realized the child was a once-in-a-century prodigy.
All Suzuki brothers sent their sister either story books or scrolls of poetry from their travels, obviously clueless of the capabilities of children of Yua's age. Or perhaps, they're already giving her a headstart for her role in the family business. Sakura didn't really know; all she knew was that their gifts lacked sentiments. Yua's father didn't send anything special at all.
Though, imagine the woman's surprise when she caught the one-year-old Suzuki invested on reading a book regarding common commodities within the Land of Wind of volume three-- the fact that it implied Yua finished the previous volumes baffled Sakura. She didn't think that reading bedtime stories to the child every night would be enough for her to be literate.
This gave the caretaker the initiative to help flourish her ward's talents. Sakura started by teaching Yua how to write.
When Sakura demonstrated how to write her full name, it was then she dumbly realized that Yua only knew of her name now; she was only addressed as "baa-san" the whole time. In her defense, it's not of tradition to introduce yourself to an infant, and it kind of slipped from her mind.
While it may be true that only a few common people, much less women, were literate, the Tanaka was one of the minority. Her role as a caretaker was more valuable because of this feat. However, with the Suzuki family being a borderline noble family, Sakura was sure that Yua would receive a more capable tutor at some point; she'd settle with just being her ward's headstart.
"Tanaka Sakura", the caretaker wrote in both katakana and kanji, emphasizing each stroke, then "Suzuki Yua". She would only teach kanji for the names, as Sakura has very limited kanji vocabulary.
When Sakura taught Yua the meaning of the kanji behind her first name, "Sakura", Yua looked at her in a new light--something of... detached familiarity; as if she's seeing someone else. Sakura found herself disturbed when the child's eyes looked older than they should, but a blink was enough to erase all traces of it. She convinced herself that it was only her own imagination, and moved on.
Sakura was her given name, simply because she was born in the month of spring, when cherry blossoms bloom. She has no physical features that can be compared to the flowers she shares her name with; she only sports graying brown hair, matched with brown eyes and sun-kissed skin. A common name for a common appearance.
Yua was her charge's name, simply because her father thought of a random common name on the spot. Sakura found it ironic that she's named "binding love and affection", yet received none of that from her own family.
The child expressed distaste at her own name, with the furrowing of her brows.
With confident strokes, the young Suzuki copied down Sakura's full name, before writing her own, much to the Tanaka's amazement. Due to baby fat and faulty motor skills, Yua's penmanship was kind of off, but was still legible. It was impressive for her first try.
However, while the child did correctly write Sakura's name, her own name was... uncertain.
There, Yua rightly wrote the katakana and kanji for "Suzuki", but instead of her given name "Yua", in place of it was a name Sakura didn't recognize.
Sakura read it aloud to the young Suzuki questionably, and her ward only nodded with a hum of satisfaction. It was then the woman realized that the child wanted to change her own name, and admittedly, the brunette found that the new name suited the young girl perfectly-- much better than "Yua".
They swore to each other to only address the child her new name within the discretion of their own privacy; even going as far to avoid calling her "Yua", unless necessary.
It was at age two when the young girl experienced her first fever, and coincidentally, her first nightmare-- the first of many, unfortunately, which worried the woman.
At the first week, there was a lot of screaming and crying in different time intervals late at night; it further emphasized the loneliness within the huge compound. Sakura checked each time to comfort the shaken child, while subconsciously taking note that she always catches her charge clutching her chest tightly, post-nightmare. There was even a time she caught a flicker of red from the peripherals of her vision, but she reassured herself that it was just a trick of the light. A thunderstorm was rumbling that night, after all.
At the second week, the fever was gone and the screaming stopped, but Sakura knew that the nightmares didn't, if the child's dark eyebags said anything. Tea-brewing at midnight then became a new part of her schedule for her young master.
At the third week, the young girl's healthy sleeping habits returned, much to the brunette's relief. It must be the aftereffects of the fever, she concluded.
Though, she couldn't help but be curious of what her ward could be having nightmares of.
At age three was when Sakura deemed her charge mature enough to explore the gardens of the Suzuki compound. In Sakura's honest opinion, the land was more of a field than a garden, seeing as how many willow trees lined around the property, with a small yet intricately designed bridge standing over the large koi pond in the middle of the land. It was a flaunt of wealth, she surmised.
The young Suzuki asked her if she could plant any plant within the garden; the caretaker complied, and made the seeds her ward requested available. Other than calligraphy, the girl found a new hobby: gardening. Sakura was actually invested watching the girl plant her greenery with such familiarity, even telling her fun facts about common plants that the woman didn't know of. Most of the young girl's plants were herbs, Sakura noted, along with the fact that the child's favorite flower is the red spiderlily.
While crows may be common within the Land of Grass, Sakura couldn't help but feel unsettled by their frequent appearance, ever since the young Suzuki was introduced to the garden. She often associated the animals to dark omens.
The only thing stopping her from placing a scarecrow in the middle of the garden was because of how friendly her ward treated the birds.
When her young master turned four, the girl's speech impediment was gone, and can speak a lot fluently than a four-year-old should. Additionally, the child could now write flawlessly with practiced precision, her calligraphy rivaling most adults' in terms of quality. The girl even went lengths to study kanji, when Sakura witnessed just how many vocabularies her charge is familiar with. The girl kept a collection of notebooks, because of this.
It was only natural for her ward to sport callouses from her hobbies, but Sakura swore that the skin on the girl's hands shouldn't be as thick as it is, as gardening and writing aren't that strenuous to earn such. The brunette even caught small outlines on the child's palms and knuckles that suspiciously seemed like healed cuts and scars-- injuries that she never saw heal, much less bleed. The girl often dodged her questions, and that was that.
Sakura made it a point to care for her charge's hands diligently with moisturizers and skin-softening salves, afterwards. The caretaker's attempts to smooth the young Suzuki's hands were proven to be ineffective, but she didn't have the heart to tell the girl to stop her hobbies.
Moreover, the child was developing a toned body, her refined muscles being layered by decreasing baby fat, underneath her expensive silk kimono. The woman was sure that other than her young master's sleeping time, she's with the girl every other time, unless doing small chores, but those chores weren't even that time-consuming. How her ward managed to build her body without Sakura's notice was beyond her. Then again, her brothers have similar builds, albeit later in age. The brunette convinced herself that it must be the family genes, in the end.
Though, Sakura couldn't help but worry, as she would want her ward to have top physical qualities to have the ability to choose her own husband, rather than being devalued and settle for who's available simply because of her body that's considered 'undesirable' for a lady. In this time, women do not usually marry out of love, but out of business to make connections for their family. Much to Sakura's dismay, that's probably what Suzuki Hitoshi would plan for his own daughter.
Sakura just hoped that the child's father isn't too negligent of his daughter to just give her to whomever has the best business deal, regardless the treatment the future husband would give the young Suzuki. The Tanaka may be old, but she does not desire the continuation of this era's tradition towards women.
At the young Suzuki's fifth birthday was when the girl met four out of six of her brothers for the first time.
Hideo, the youngest son with the age of sixteen; Kazue, the fifth son with the age of eighteen; Eiji, the second son with the age of twenty-six; and Daichi, the eldest son with the age of thirty.
"Onii-sama", their sister had called them, much to Sakura's surprise. Even her brothers expressed shock at how the five-year-old formally addressed them.
Sakura acknowledges that her charge is independent, polite, mildly aloof, and isn't really spoiled despite her lavish lifestyle. The child shows affection through the subtlest of ways, the Tanaka noticed. The girl tries to help out on compound chores (no matter how much Sakura insisted that she shouldn't); if she can, she will tend to her own needs, not wanting to bother the brunette with tedious tasks (again, she shouldn't); the girl would even invite the caretaker to share meals with her on the same table, if it's only the two of them (they both shouldn't, but well, no one's present to stop them).
However, the young Suzuki's traits doubled in intensity when it came to her brothers-- to the point she treated them as authority, rather than family. Sakura knew that her ward held no love for her older siblings, treating them as mere strangers that happened to live under the same roof as her. Still, they were family.
Selfishly, Sakura wanted her charge's unique subtle affections for herself; the absent and detached brothers don't deserve a sliver of it. At this point, Tanaka Sakura was the only family her ward recognized.
The four brothers were rather discomfited with how distant their only sister addressed them, and the youngest son voiced this concern out-- even wondering aloud why she treated them so stiffly, much to Sakura's exasperation at their obliviousness.
Then, like a switch, the child changed her way of approach to them-- casual, now calling them "nii-san". Too casual.
"Maah, maah, sorry if I acted too coldly. I just met you all, so I don't really know how I should treat brothers, as I didn't grow up with a single one... nii-san."
Sakura bit back a chuckle at both her charge's delivery of that statement, and the reaction of the brothers.
Daichi's and Kazue's faces bristled at their sister's sarcasm, but voiced no reprimands; the other two only seemed more uncomfortable at the presence of their youngest sibling.
They quieted their discomforts after that.
Inevitably, during the brothers' temporary stay, they regarded their baby sister's prodigal developments, and told stories of it to their father through letters: how the young Suzuki can read and write more than a thousand kanji; how she accurately memorized their geography; how she can eloquently speak with honeyed words which is desirable for a business-oriented family-- everything.
Daichi looked at his sister as an opportunity; Eiji and Hideo glared at her with envy; and Kazue was seemingly unaffected, as he has yet to see the prodigy's prowess to bear fruit.
Needless to say, the youngest Suzuki attracted her father's attention which she never craved.
At age six was when Sakura's ward finally met and saw her father, along with the rest of her siblings and their wives. Though there was a tag-along of the Sato clan head and his escorts, but still the whole Suzuki family was present in the compound-- a complete family dinner.
The Suzuki family didn't act like they hadn't seen each other for years, as they never did discuss each other's well-beings. Instead, the conversation revolved around the family's trades and travels, with the young Suzuki and the submissive wives (no doubt, from arranged marriages) simply listening in, only speaking when spoken to. The remaining two of the six sons didn't even bother introducing themselves to their sister.
The two family heads conversed and vented a lot of things-- especially about clan feuds that's been affecting business; particularly, the Senju and the Uchiha.
At the mention of those two clan names, something in the atmosphere shifted in a way Sakura couldn't explain. It was heavy and suffocating, and she's sure that the whole room could feel it-- the intent that makes you fear for your life. Everyone was affected, except for a certain Suzuki who remained calm during the whole ordeal, and as sudden as it appeared, it disappeared.
They immediately shifted the conversation towards marriages, afterwards, with none particularly sure what just happened.
During the casual chat regarding Hideo's betrothed, it eventually led to the discussion of Hitoshi's matchmaking for his daughter with the Sato clan, much to Sakura's dread. The woman then finally realized that this was no ordinary business/family dinner, but also a talk for future plans. It was too early, she worried.
The Suzuki and Sato patriarchs discussed about the youngest Suzuki being engaged with one of the Sato clan head's sons, along with moving her to the Sato compound at the Land of Fire, next year as a confirmation of their alliance. Sakura's charge would be cared, taught, and pampered by the Sato clan head's hand-picked servants and tutors, which-- much to the Tanaka's grief-- meant that she can't follow and look after her ward anymore.
Usually, Tanaka Sakura isn't attached to her assigned charges, but the young Suzuki was different, and it's not really hard to love the child.
Alas, it was only a matter of time before her job as the Suzuki's child caretaker would come to an end.
When the youngest Suzuki turned seven, Sakura had to greet her charge farewell, and shared one last hug before the girl's journey. The Sato patriarch sent the Sarutobi clan to escort and protect the traveling Suzukis and their belongings as good will, promising a hefty sum to the hired clan.
That was the last time Tanaka Sakura ever saw her ward, receiving news a day later that their party was ambushed, and that the youngest Suzuki was kidnapped. Much to their confusion, the unknown assailants did not ask for ransom.
The only silver lining within the situation was that no one was killed during the attack.
Silently grieving, Sakura packed her belongings from her personal room at the Suzuki compound, as she was no longer required to stay. She left later that day with a heavy heart.
However, during her trek back to her home village, a crow landed in front of her, with a roll of paper within its beak. When she continued to walk ahead, the bird approached her again, making her realize that it was actually addressing her. She's never heard of a crow being a messenger bird before.
Hesitantly, she approached the bird, picking the small paper from its beak. After doing so, the bird flew away. Sakura then unfurled the scroll, and she immediately recognized the eloquent handwriting on it.
"Thank you for everything, Sakura baa-san!
I'll be fine, I promise; so, don't worry.
Though, this is goodbye.
Take care!"
There, at the bottom of the parchment, signed the name only Sakura and the young Suzuki knew between themselves.
Somehow, Sakura has faith that the girl would keep her promise. Somehow, the girl managed to make crows do her bidding. Somehow, the seven-year-old staged her own kidnapping from trained shinobi. There are a lot of things Sakura can't explain, but if there's one thing she knows for certain, it's that her ward is smart.
The brunette absently thumbed the carved stone slung by her neck. Her charge gifted her the handmade necklace before the girl left.
The carving was that of a leaf with a spiral within it.
~*~*~
Wavelength: I deadass forgot my password at Wattpad and I'm so mAD. Also, what do you all think about the writing style of not using (Y/n), (e/c), etc.? Don't worry, the next chapter would be written in 2nd pov. This third pov is only a one time thing. If you guys would prefer for us to put (Y/n) instead of being vague, please do tell us.
miss chief: idk what to put here but uh, my workload is whack. also, the fact that the prologue is longer than the first chapter is also whack