"…it all happened seventy-five years ago, when on my twenty-second birthday, I buried the person that I had loved most in this world," Lord Munenori began. "Manyū Kyōka. My mother."
Previously, Lord Munenori, the current patriarch, had explained that his mother had originally been the first wife of the former patriarch— also named Lord Munenori— but, unable to produce a viable male heir, the poor woman had been sent away as a peace offering to the Senju clan of the Forest. Senju Butsuma, finding her to his liking, had fathered a child with her: the withered old man standing before Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi now, the current patriarch.
"If I remember correctly," Kakashi said, a hint of scepticism in his eyes, "that's not quite what you told us before."
Lord Munenori had also lied when he had claimed that the former patriarch's second wife had borne him four children: Kyōka, Muneyuki, Kagefusa and Chifusa, Sakura's ancestor. In truth, all four of them were half-siblings sired by the former patriarch from three different women.
"I apologise for the lie," said Lord Munenori, the dry, wrinkled corners of his eyes growing damp. "I was… ashamed."
He cleared his throat.
"The truth is that the former patriarch's first wife was Manyū Kyōka's mother— in other words, my grandmother," he explained. "Due to Kyōka's… unhealthy obsession with her own father, it was decided that she would be sent away to the Senju clan. It was then that my mother caught the eye of the Senju clan leader… and subsequently gave birth to me."
It had all been planned. Under the guise of fostering friendship between their clans, the former patriarch had tasked his daughter with seducing the Senju clan leader and bringing back his seed, his excellent alien genetics, back to the village. Despite knowing of her twisted attraction towards him, and that asking such a thing of her would only hurt her feelings.
"I can see why you would be ashamed of her," said Kakashi thoughtfully, "but that doesn't explain why you would lie about Lady Kyōka being your half-sister rather than your mother."
Sakura's eyes widened in shock.
So that was why he had lied about such a seemingly trivial detail; something no outsider would ever pause to question or even bother to remember. Earlier, she had overheard the patriarch shouting at the Sphinx that he had killed Kagefusa, which meant…
"The answer is blood, isn't it?" said Sakura, aghast. "You murdered your own family! Am I wrong? You're kin-killer, and you didn't want anyone else to know!"
No matter the epoch, society, or race, there was no act more reviled than the murder of one's own blood. There was a reason the Uchiha clan had once been so feared and despised, as they used to be known for killing one another to awaken their eyes…
"You are indeed correct, Sakura-kun," said Lord Munenori, his hand trembling as he clasped the pommel of his sword. "I killed my aunt and uncle with my own two hands, using my inborn might as a son of the Senju clan. And I would have killed Lady Chifusa as well, had she not chosen that very night to defect."
Though technically Muneyuki and Kagefusa were his uncle and aunt through his mother Kyōka— their much older half-sister— Munenori was older than them by one and two years respectively.
Sakura wasn't entirely certain of the details, but as a bastard child of both the Manyū and Senju, it was clear that Lord Munenori's fellow clanmates would not have paid too much attention to his parentage upon his return from Senju lands. By presenting himself as his grandmother's bastard son— thus making him seem unrelated by blood to Muneyuki and Kagefusa— the sin of murdering them would have seemed that much lighter!
Acceptable for a Warring State Era clan's internal power struggle, at any rate.
"Why," asked Sasuke coldly.
"Because of the difference in treatment my mother and I received," Lord Munenori spat. "Though we possessed the blood of the Manyū clan's main family, we were met with suspicion and hatred, as if we were strangers, merely for having lived beyond the village. Yet despite everything, my mother continued to love that man; she never once hated him for treating her differently from her half-siblings. And when he died, she joined him in death."
That had been the moment Lord Munenori broke.
In their isolation, both amongst the Senju and the Manyū, his mother had been his entire world. When she died, he finally realised that all this time, he had been no more than an afterthought in his mother's mind. Though his father was Senju Butsuma, Manyū Kyōka had named him after her own father, and when he had died, she had committed suicide.
Shortly afterwards, when news spread of the death of the Manyū clan's patriarch, Chifusa seized the chance to flee the village she despised, and the Munamori survivors— along with the Uzumaki clan members they had hired— used the opportunity to strike at the heart of Manyū territory, sealing it away for ever…
…and that very night, Senju Munenori took the lives of his uncle and aunt. And in the resulting chaos of the sealing of the valley, he ended up becoming the Manyū's new patriarch through his overwhelming strength, becoming at last… Lord Manyū Munenori.
"Sakura," said Lord Munenori solemnly. "You are the last living member of my grandfather's bloodline, which I fought so hard to extinguish."
Sasuke's and Kakashi's fingers tightened around their weapons' grips.
"When I first saw you, I briefly considered ending your life then and there," he went on. "But after living amongst the Manyū for the last seventy years, I had come to realise that the warmth of family was what I had always wanted. I now have many daughters, a family I can call my own…"
The old man bowed deeply.
"Please, I beg you," he said, tears slipping down the furrows of his wrinkled face. "I know nothing of the world beyond this gods' miniature garden, and I cannot even be certain that you yourselves are not behind the monstrous creature now tearing through my village, and the outsiders who took my granddaughter. But I do know one thing: once I am gone, the Manyū will have no protector left to defend them."
He suddenly lunged at Sakura and seized her by the shoulders, and in a flash, Sasuke and Kakashi had their blades at his throat.
"In your blood runs the bloodline limit of the Manyū clan!" Lord Munenori shouted, ignoring the blood running down his neck. "You alone have the potential to lead the clan to greatness! Promise me you'll take care of them! Having known nothing but this world since their births, I can promise you they will never betray you!"
The old man's hoarse shouts attracted the attention of a few surviving kunoichi nearby. They listened to their patriarch begging the outsiders for help, even directly naming Sakura as his successor. Without even realising it, they had begun to cry as well.
"The two seals' cores are located in a secret room on the ground floor of the castle keep," Lord Munenori told Sasuke. "When I give the signal, release your summoned beast, and when Kagefusa comes for me, I will activate the seal."
He then turned to Sakura and gently pressed his sheathed sword into her hands.
"This is the Manyū clan's finest blade," he told her. "Used personally by the patriarchs of the Manyū clan throughout the ages."
In the original timeline, Chifusa had received this sword after her father's death.
"Oh, er…" said Sakura, feeling slightly awkward at receiving such a precious gift, particularly after going to such lengths to obtain her brand-new sword. "That's very kind of you, I suppose…"
Lord Munenori cleared his throat.
"I said, it's the patriarch's blade," he said pointedly. "Give it to whoever you end up marrying."
"Oh."
Having seemingly aged another ninety years, Lord Munenori strode through the devastation to the castle keep. He gave a sharp whistle, and Sasuke undid his summoning. Freed from the serpent's hold, the Sphinx yowled furiously, its hate-filled eyes locking onto the patriarch's frail form. Lord Munenori darted through the castle's double doors with surprising speed for his advanced age, and the Sphinx pounced upon the castle, reducing it to rubble within moments.
Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi and all the other Manyū clanswomen held their breaths in anticipation. One second passed, then two, three…
And then it was there.
A black orb appeared amongst the ruins, soundlessly swallowing everything in its path as it grew. Sensing danger, the Sphinx yelped in alarm and tried to remove its front paws from the wreckage, but the Uzumaki Fūinjutsu held it fast. The black sphere expanded until it fully encompassed the gigantic beast— and then, sensing no more living flesh or chakra around, it rapidly began receding, leaving nothing but a vast crater where the castle keep had once stood.
Sasuke stared at Naruto's sleeping form in shock. That's what Uzumaki clan members were capable of when they actually tried!? He'd never call him an idiot ever again! Uzumaki Fūinjutsu was scary!
"Perhaps that monster truly was this Kagefusa woman's resentment, come back to life," said Kakashi wisely. "May they all rest in peace, now…"
Silence fell over the courtyard.
Until the very end, Lord Munenori had never breathed a word to Sakura about her Munamori heritage, the true origin of the Breast Flow Kekkei Genkai. It seemed he had intended to keep that secret to his grave, so she would not turn against the Manyū for their crime of annihilating her great-great-grandmother's clan.
"Shit!" Sakura blurted out in dismay, pointing at the crater. "All of our things were in there! My curry rations! My spare clothes! My deluxe extra-light series of shuriken, specially designed for ease of throwing for kunoichi with delicate wrists!"
Incidentally, Chiriku had also been in there, though Sakura and the others wouldn't find out until later. When he'd noticed Lady Utatane's mysterious disappearance, the noble warrior monk had gone looking for her inside the castle, arguably the safest place around with a monster rampaging outside, only to get caught up in the Fūinjutsu.
Whoops.