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They found out the first time that Sakura touched one of Tsunade’s contracted slugs. It was purely by mistake, she hadn’t realized there was a slug on her desk and bumped it with an elbow.
“Oh!” She recoiled from the moist squish. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you!”
Natsuki, she later learned her name was, stretched her eyestalks out to get a better look at her. “Hold your hand out, child.” She ordered.
Sakura obeyed at once, laying her hand, palm-up, on the desk. Natsuki crawled onto her. She was about as big as an apple. She was cool at first but her body rapidly heated with chakra against her until she was as warm as a summer day.
“Tsunade.” Natsuki turned on her palm. “You will make this girl your heir.”
Sakura blinked.
Shizune blinked.
Tsunade blinked. She frowned. “What are you talking about, Natsuki?” She pushed back from her desk and crossed her legs.
“You must make this girl your heir. Take her to the Senju lands. Once you arrive there, summon Katsuyu. Add her to the wards. Invite your cousin. All will be made clear. Hurry!”
Tsunade raised an eyebrow but stood. “Shizune, call Cat to meet me at the Senju house, then take care of things here. Sakura, follow.” She strode out of the office, pulling her haori on as she went.
The Senju family crest rippled into place on her back, framed by her pigtails.
Sakura followed hurriedly, still holding Natsuki. She brought up her free hand to steady her, though she was sure it was unnecessary. Ninja slugs wouldn’t be dislodged unless they wanted to be, but she figured it was polite. Natsuki was oozing all over her hand and she grimaced as it began to trail down her arm.
“I don’t suppose you know what’s going on.” Tsunade frowned at her. She looked just as confused as Sakura, though she hid it well.
Sakura shook her head.
“Natsuki?” Tsunade asked.
Natsuki was bent over in Sakura’s hands, eyes closed.
“Hm.” Tsunade summoned another slug to her own hands as she walked. “Himari, hello.” She nodded politely. “Please let Katsuyu-sama know that I will be summoning her shortly on Natsuki’s request.”
Himari was much larger than Natsuki, the approximate size and shape of a ferret. “Oh?” She perked up and leaned towards Sakura and Natsuki.
Natsuki turned, eyestalks stretching out comically. “Himari! Feel this girl!” She demanded.
Sakura resigned herself to more slime and held her hand out.
Himari crawled onto her hand and up her forearm. After a moment, both of the two slugs bent down again, eyes closed. Then Himari shot upright and squealed . Then she vanished with a puff of smoke.
Sakura looked at Tsunade with wide eyes. Tsunade looked alarmed.
They both hurried.
When they reached the old Senju compound, there was an ANBU waiting there. His mask was tucked away but his gear was unmistakable. He bowed as they approached. “Hokage-sama.” He murmured, face impassive.
“Tenzo, sorry to drag you away from work.” Tsunade brushed past him on her way to the beautiful wooden gates. When they were closed, they formed the Senju crest in the center. Along with the Uchiha compound, it was one of the oldest clan lands in the village. Sakura had never been there before. It was home to dozens of houses built in and around some of the largest trees in the village. The trees were no doubt due to the Senju mokuton, as were the houses. Some of the houses looked like they were grown straight out of or into the bellies of the trees, no joints or corners or rough edges to be seen. The entire compound was empty, completely deserted.
It was like a ghost town.
Sakura shivered as she walked through the gates. The chakra making up the wards pressed in on her curiously. It was a little suffocating, how invasively they pressed against her.
Tsunade led them to the one house in the compound that looked like someone actually lived there, her house. On the porch, there was a bell. It was bronze, hanging from the edge of the roof of the porch.
“Natsuki said to add you to the wards.” Tsunade explained, making a few quick handsigns. The bell shimmered and gave off a faint blue glow. “Cut your finger and touch it.” She ordered.
Sakura looked down at the slug in her hands. “Excuse me, Natsuki-san.” She said politely.
Natsuki crawled off, onto Tsunade’s offered hand, grumbling something under her breath.
Sakura nicked her finger on a kunai and touched the rim of the bell.
The bell rang as if she’d hit it with a sledgehammer.
All at once, the chakra from the wards swirled around her and convirged in on her, attacking her on all sides and digging at her chakra.
She yelped and scrambled back, though it was coming at her from all sides.
An excited whoop split through the air with a wind sharp enough to cut. “There you are!” A disembodied voice whispered in her ear. The wind rushed around her in a vortex, fast enough to lift her toes off the ground.
“Tsunade!” She shrieked, flailing.
The chakra around her was digging into her chakra, shredding it away from her.
“Sakura!” Tsunade rushed forward and tried to grab her, but the wind surged, blowing her back and throwing Sakura higher. Only the wind didn’t stop there, it dragged her up and up, higher and higher, as her chakra was ripped away.
Then there was a ghostly laugh in her ear-- and she was falling. The last of her chakra was torn away by invisible hands.
Then--
What felt like a supernova of chakra exploded out from her chest, rushing out to fill her body. There was too much of it, her chakra coils and small reserves overflowed almost immediately. Pure chakra poured off of her body, making her glow blue as it surged freely from every tenketsu in her body. She was still falling. She was going to hit the ground hard enough to hurt.
She threw her hands out to protect her head.
Wood exploded out of her palms, shooting towards the ground. It whipped and billowed underneath her until there was a giant hand forming from wood reaching up to catch her. She landed in the giant palm with a yelp. The hand cradled her.
Then Tsunade was beside her. “Sakura, you’re going to burn your chakra coils! Funnel all of this chakra away into your seal!” Tsunade barked.
Sakura’s entire body was already tingling. She obeyed, focusing the rampant chakra to funnel into the unformed seal on her forehead. It rushed to obey her direction with an ease that she’d never known before.
“I’ve been waiting for you to come back, brother.” The voice whispered in her ear.
“Who’s there?” Sakura asked, looking around. Even with her attention divided like this, the excess chakra rushing out of her continued to pour neatly into her forehead. “Was that you?” She asked Tenzo, who was crouched on the side of the hand with wide eyes.
“They can’t hear me.” The unknown voice whispered in her other ear.
She whipped her head around. No one was there.
“Sakura, what do you hear?” Tsunade asked. Her hands were glowing green as she ran them over Sakura’s chest, keeping a perfect distance of three inches between her palm and Sakura’s clothes.
“I hear a voice.” She said. “It said… it was waiting for me to come back.”
“Good. Tell Tsunade that her great-uncle says hello.”
Sakura frowned. “And your great-uncle says hello.” She reported.
Tsunade stared at her, mouth dropping open. The light around her hands flickered out.
There was a ghostly laugh in her ear.
Sakura blinked. No way. Was she talking to-- “Tobirama?”
“You always were smart, brother. Welcome home.”
“He keeps calling me his brother, but I’m not… I’m not Hashirama.” She said. She looked at Tsunade with confusion.
Tsunade just continued to stare at her.
“Do you understand now?” Natsuki spoke up from Tsunade’s shoulder. “Hashirama has been reincarnated into you!”
Sakura stared. “Me?” She squeaked.
“You have the mokuton.” Tenzo spoke up. “And his chakra. This place, the wards, it recognized you. So did Tobirama-sama’s spirit.”
“No way, I’m not the first hokage! I’m-- I’m just a civilian-born genin!” She protested.
“Are you calling me a liar, little sister?” Tobirama whispered in her ear.
She slapped at it. “Stop that! It tickles!” She snapped.
Another one of those creepy, ghostly laughs was dropped deliberately in her other ear and she shivered.
“Hey!”
“Gods.” Tsunade groaned, standing. “I need a drink. Sakura, take us down.”
Sakura hurried over to her side and gasped when she looked over the side of the hand. They had to be sixty feet high. “What-- I don’t know how!”
Tenzo laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Your chakra is inside the wood. You just need to shape it, like you would shape your chakra when activating a jutsu.” He advised.
She took a deep breath. This was crazy. All of this was crazy. Any moment now, she was going to wake up at home. She knelt down and pressed both hands against the wood. She reached out a bit of her chakra-- and wasn’t that interesting? Her chakra felt different. It was still hers, but it was warmer, stronger than it normally was. She had called up a small cord, but what came out was the tiniest thread imaginable. She knew, intuitively, that though this thread was gossamer thin, it was incredibly strong. Somehow, she’d jumped to the top few percentiles of chakra control in a matter of minutes. She pressed the tiny thread out and it connected to the mass of chakra stretching through the wood. She considered for a moment before imagining that the hand was lowering them, and flexed her chakra to imitate the motion.
The hand dropped, faster than she’d intended, and stopped with a jerk just above the ground. Sakura felt like she’d left her stomach behind.
Tsunade stepped off the hand straight onto her porch and slammed her front door open.
Tenzo was the one staring at her now.
Sakura hurriedly stepped off the hand and onto blessedly solid ground.
“I think I’m going to join her for that drink.” Tenzo announced as he followed Tsunade.
Sakura blinked after them. “What about me?” She asked.
“I’d join them too, except I can’t drink in this form.” Tobirama noted from somewhere behind her shoulder. Better than in her ear.
Sakura huffed. “Is that all grown-ups do?” She demanded.
Tobirama paused for a moment. “Unfortunately, no.”
She groaned and then jumped when she felt something slithering up her leg. It was a green tree sprout.
“Ah, they’re responding to your agitation. That used to happen to you when I’d win in a fight.” Tobirama informed her gleefully.
“You’re not helping!” She hissed at him before slapping her hand over her mouth. She’d been bickering with the second hokage.
Tobirama just laughed at her.