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kelpiejz · 1 year

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Tradition - a SasuSakuSara oneshot

it’s been forever since I last used tumblr but hey, might as well use it again to post some SasuSaku fic, right?

Summary: Regardless of how many things have changed, the Gōkakyū no Jutsu remained the same.

You can also read this on Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47920651

Snake. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger.

Standing alone on the pier in the eerily empty former Uchiha District, Sakura ran through the hand signs that came to her as easily as breathing these days. Though it had been years since she had last used the jutsu, she had the habit of practising the signs whenever she felt particularly alone.

She hadn’t learned the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu here like her husband and so many others before him had, but she was no less capable of performing it. Just the thought of that training so many years ago made her heart clench with longing for her beloved, but she took a deep breath to push the thought from her mind and started the signs over again.

Snake. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger.

A massive ball of fire engulfed the air above a remote lake somewhere in Kusa, evaporating a few inches of water from the heat alone. Sakura stood next to Sasuke on the bank, still in awe of just how much control the man had over the signature element of his clan. Despite the massive size of the fireball that he had produced, it had never once threatened to light the dry grass just on the other side of the water.

“Did you get that?” Sasuke asked her calmly, glancing over at her with his mismatched eyes, seemingly almost studying her as he did so.

Her gaze met his after a moment and she frowned slightly. “The hand signs?”

“Aa.”

Though she wasn’t willing to admit it in the comfortable silence that had fallen over the two of them, Sakura had known those hand signs by heart for years. She had spent far too much of her childhood watching him to not be familiar with the jutsu that Sasuke had used more often than the Chidori back then. How could she have forgotten when it had felt like he had set her heart aflame with every ball of fire he had breathed in their genin days?

Despite her impeccable memory and knowledge of all things Sasuke, little genin Sakura had never put her knowledge of the hand signs to use. Something about trying to spit even a pitiful ball of fire had felt wrong somehow—like she would have been trying to intrude on something sacred. No, she had never tried to breathe fire like Sasuke, but that didn’t stop her from practising to weave them seamlessly on the off chance that Sasuke—in all of his 12-year-old genin glory—would ask to train with her and decide to teach her his treasured jutsu.

That had obviously never happened back then, but little genin Sakura would never have expected herself to be learning the jutsu from him over five years and a war later.

After taking a moment to ready herself, Sakura weaved the signs, moulded her chakra, and hoped that Sasuke couldn’t see her nervousness or the familiarity with which she moved her hands. As she reached tiger, she breathed in deeply and brought her right hand up to her mouth to help direct what would hopefully be a breath full of fire. The resulting fireball was nowhere near the size of Sasuke’s, but it was far better than what Sakura had expected from a first attempt. After it dissipated, she took a step back with a wide grin.

“I did it,” she said breathlessly, almost in disbelief. Fire was not her element—far from it, really—so she knew she would never have the proficiency that Sasuke had as a child, but she had done it anyway. Looking up at Sasuke for approval, she had to hold back her gasp when she saw a small yet genuine smile upon his face.

As if feeling the weight of her gaze, he turned to look at her. “Aa. You did.”

Sasuke was never a man of many words, but even still, Sakura could hear just how much pride he felt with those words alone. Her heart felt as if it might beat right out of her chest as she turned to him and impulsively wrapped her arms around his torso. If he was surprised by the action—one Sakura had only recently come to understand didn’t annoy him anywhere near as much as he pretended it did—he didn’t show it. Instead, his lone arm returned the gentle hug.

“That was better than my first attempt,” Sasuke said out of nowhere, surprising Sakura with how open he was today. “Back then, I could barely even call it a fireball.”

Raising a brow, Sakura frowned at him. “Sasuke-kun, weren’t you six when you first learned it, though?”

He nodded, and she had to muffle a laugh in the fabric of his travel cloak.

“Sasuke-kun, I know you’re trying to make me feel better about how small mine was, but comparing me to you at six years old doesn’t help much.”

He was silent for a moment, which wasn’t a surprise, but the vaguely upset-looking expression she saw on his face when she looked up tugged at her heartstrings. Shaking her head with a teasing grin, Sakura stepped back from the embrace and tried not to mourn the loss of his higher-than-average body heat in the cool evening air.

“Still,” she said, “all that means is that I have to practise more, right?”

Instead of answering, Sasuke silently gazed over the lake as if he was seeing someplace completely different instead. Knowing he was likely caught up in his memories, Sakura chose to stay quiet and wait for him to decide if he would tell her what was on his mind. She had learned over the years that Sasuke would only talk if he wanted to, so there was no point in pressing him. Instead, she ran through the signs again and tried tightening her control over her chakra now that she knew what a proper Gōkakyū was supposed to feel like.

As she breathed out more fire, Sakura noticed it was slightly larger than before. At least she was going in the right direction, even if it would take far more practice. Still, it wasn’t good enough, and Sakura prepared herself to weave the signs once more.

“Sakura.”

She stopped, letting her hands drop to her sides.

“Sasuke-kun?” Sakura asked, wondering what he wanted to say now. “Is everything okay?”

Slowly, he brought up his hand to gently brush his thumb over her lips. “Be careful. It’s easy to burn yourself before you’re used to doing Katon jutsu.”

His voice seemed deeper than before for some reason, and Sakura couldn’t restrain the butterflies that began fluttering uncontrollably in her gut. Sasuke was always so effortlessly intense in everything he did, and she would forever be weak to him. Feeling almost entranced by his concern, she didn’t look away from his eyes once as she swiped a finger—glowing green with healing chakra—across her mouth and cheeks where she knew there were light burns.

“Do you know the importance of this jutsu?” Sasuke asked as soon as he seemed satisfied with her newly healed face. Sakura could only shake her head, but noticed that Sasuke seemed stiffer than usual all of a sudden.

“The Gōkakyū…” His voice trailed off into silence as he seemed to almost be at war with himself over if he should say anything or not. After this long on the road together, Sakura knew better than to press him. If he couldn’t say it now, he would tell her when he felt the time was right.

Sasuke exhaled, though, and he closed his eyes as he kept talking. “In my clan, the Gōkakyū was a rite of passage. You weren’t a true Uchiha until you could perform it sufficiently.”

��No wonder Sasuke-kun was already so good with it by the time Team 7 was formed,’ Sakura thought. Being one of the only solid links to his clan he had left, she wouldn’t be surprised to find out that he had practised it until he dropped in the years following the massacre. But… something about his words made her thoughts race.

“So… why did you teach it to me?” Sakura asked slowly, unsure if she really wanted to know the answer to the question. Just being on this journey with him across the Elemental Nations was enough for her; she couldn’t afford to get her hopes up too much in case of any disappointment. However, in her peripheral vision, she saw Sasuke’s hand flinch almost as if he was holding back the urge to reach for her.

“Sakura… by teaching you this jutsu, you have proven that you can be a true Uchiha.”

‘Don’t get your hopes up, Sakura,’ she begged herself and her traitorous palpitating heart. ‘He can’t possibly mean—’

He took a shaky breath, but kept talking anyway. “I know the Uchiha name has been forever stained, and I would understand if you don’t want it attached to you because of the dangers to your reputation, but you are welcome to claim it as your own. Even if you don’t want it, I would not regret teaching the jutsu to you.”

Her eyes widened as she struggled to sort through all the thoughts blaring in her head. Out of all of them, though, only one made it out.

“Why?”

This time, Sasuke actually did reach for her hand and kept his gaze firmly locked on her hand in his. She had never truly realized just how small her hand was in comparison to his, but the warmth of his palm radiated into hers and something about it felt so right that she never wanted to let go again.

His grip tightened slightly, but not enough to be less than comfortable. “Because when I think of family, I think of you.”

Even though her heart warmed at his declaration, Sakura couldn’t help the instinctive and deeply rooted fear that followed it. Quietly, she had to voice it. “And what about Naruto?”

“What about him?” Sasuke almost seemed amused, as if there was something she wasn’t understanding, but the hint of a smile quickly vanished upon seeing the insecurity on her face.

“He isn’t… family? Even with all the Six Paths stuff from the war?”

Sasuke sighed and squeezed her hand gently. “Sakura, it’s not the same. He and I are connected, yes, but I never chose him like I’m choosing you. I never asked to be ‘soul brothers’ with the idiot.”

That… made sense, so Sakura nodded silently. Seeing that she was still feeling off about the whole thing, Sasuke released her hand and wrapped his arm around her back to pull her close to him. She could hear the accelerated beating of his heart even through his clothes, but she wasn’t expecting him to say anything else. However, Sasuke seemed intent on surprising her today.

“All my life, others have made decisions for me,” he began, his deep voice soothing Sakura’s turmoil even as he bared his emotions to her. “Every conclusion I thought I came to on my own, I discovered that I was manipulated into. Thinking I needed to kill my brother, wanting to destroy Konoha, even ending the war with Naruto. Despite that, despite everything, you are the only choice I’ve ever made that was entirely my own. Even if you don’t want my name or my clan to become yours because of how cursed it is, I just ask that you let me stay in your life as a close friend even if you no longer want me in any other way.”

She frowned, wanting to ask why he would ever think she would say no, why he would doubt her feelings even for a moment after so long. There were some universal truths in this world that would never change: the sky is blue, chakra flows through their coils, Naruto loves ramen, and Sakura loves Sasuke. Sakura Haruno had been loving Sasuke Uchiha for so long that she wasn’t sure she knew how to not love him. It was etched into her very soul, and if she had ever lost that love for him, she wasn’t sure she would even be the same person anymore.

As if understanding her question without her even asking it, Sasuke glanced at her with a serious yet vulnerable expression. “I’ve made too many choices for you before, and while I can’t regret the reasoning behind them, I can regret that I had to hurt you in my misguided attempts to keep you safe. But now, even if it could hurt me, I refuse to do that again. You deserve to have that choice too, Sakura.”

Wrapping her arms around Sasuke’s waist, Sakura finally found the willingness to speak amidst the overwhelming emotions crashing over her. She was feeling so much, too much, and while part of her heart hurt at the memories of the forest of death where the air was choked with purple miasma, the bench under a moon that bore witness to a desperate confession, the crater that remained of a hideout where she felt like she was drowning in a dark-eyed stare, the bridge where too many mistakes were made, the end of the world where she spilled her heart out once more, she remembered the good times too.

The classroom where she snuck glances at the boy who made her heart flutter, the training grounds where they learned what teamwork truly meant, the bridge where she cried and held him close, the exams where he complimented her talents, the ramen shop where they tried desperately to see the secrets hidden beneath a mask, the battlefield as hope arrived in an unexpected turn of fate, the strange realm with green skies where he caught her and she wondered if there was something deeper brewing in those eyes, the valley where he finally apologized in a voice she had never heard from him before, the gates where he poked her forehead and she truly allowed hope to bloom in her heart instead of repressing it to stay as a mere bud.

“I want it.” A pause. “All of it.”

He made no move to show he had heard her other than the minute tightening of his arm around her waist and a barely audible sigh of relief. After a moment, Sakura pulled herself away reluctantly, but looked over at him with a brilliant smile.

“Sasuke-kun, I hope you’re ready to give me more feedback on the jutsu; my Uchiha fire might never be as good as yours since fire isn’t one of my chakra natures, but I’ll be damned if it’s not up to your standards,” she stated as she began weaving the hand signs once more.

Snake. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger.

The sky was cloudy as Sasuke blew out his frustrations in the form of a long-lasting stream of fire over the lake he had practised on in his childhood. Sakura stood next to him, lips pursed, but she stayed silent and held their daughter closer to her chest. Sarada was still only a toddler, but the future was always uncertain.

The fire dissipated and Sasuke grimaced before blowing yet another one. If she wasn’t holding their baby girl, Sakura knew she would be right there next to him, adding her fire to his and filling all the gaps, complimenting each other the way they always had. But she couldn’t. They had both learned their lesson long ago—the world isn’t fair. The past few years had been almost idyllic in their simplicity with their small family in a humble home, but that would not last.

Sarada was only two, still far too young to understand why her father was upset or what it meant, but even she could tell that something was wrong. She whimpered and buried her face in her mother’s shoulder, making Sakura instinctively cradle her closer.

“Dear,” Sakura said when Sasuke finished evaporating more water from the lake, “are you feeling a bit better now?”

Sasuke sighed, a frown finding the familiar place on his face. “No, but I’ll be fine. I just wish the world would leave us alone.”

She understood far too well. In only a few short months, her husband would once again leave the gates of Konoha (and her and Sarada) behind to wander the world, even if for a different reason this time. Sasuke always had such a strong sense of duty, and when rumours about Kaguya and Zetsu re-emerged, Sakura had known from the moment the words had been uttered in that meeting that he would be the one to go. He was their best option, their only option, even if he would much rather focus on his new family.

Right after Sarada had been born, he had tearfully promised both her and their daughter that he would do anything to protect them. In all the years Sakura had known and loved Sasuke, that had probably been the most emotional declaration she had ever heard come from his lips, and she believed in it unconditionally. If protecting them meant leaving them for years on end, then he would do it without looking back.

They stood silently on the dock and even Sarada was quiet as she slowly drifted to sleep in her mother’s arms. Sasuke came to them and wrapped the two most important people in his life in his arm, pressing a gentle kiss to the crown of his daughter’s head and then to Sakura’s forehead right over her seal.

“Not on the mouth, dear?” she asked teasingly and Sasuke huffed out a soft laugh in response, shaking his head.

“You always say you don’t like the taste of smoke after Katon jutsu, my dearest wife,” he whispered just low enough to send a tingle down her spine that she fought to suppress. This was neither the time nor place for that.

Leaning in, Sakura kissed him anyway, savouring the way his lips moved against hers in the practised way they always did. “I’ll live with the taste of smoke. But there’s something else on your mind, isn’t there?”

Pressing their foreheads together, Sasuke looked her in the eyes. “How did you know?”

“I know you,” Sakura pointed out with a sad smile. “I’ve always known when something was wrong.”

Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes after looking down at Sarada with a longing glance.

“I don’t know how long I’ll have to be away, Sakura. I know that you’ll be fine—that we’ll be fine—but still…” His shoulders fell, showing her a far more vulnerable Sasuke Uchiha than he had been in years. “I’m going to miss important parts of Sarada’s life, even if I’ve already seen her start to walk and speak. By the time I can be home for good, or even just to visit, she might already be in the Academy if she wants to be a kunoichi.”

Remembering a conversation from years ago, Sakura understood what other milestone he was subtly referring to even without a direct mention. It pained her to even consider that he might be gone that long, but there was a very low chance that everything would resolve itself that quickly. After all, nothing was ever simple when Team 7 was involved.

“Dear, I couldn’t…” Sakura gasped, clutching Sarada slightly closer. “You should be the one to teach her that; my chakra natures aren’t even fire.”

“And?”

Sakura knew she was grasping at straws, trying to find an excuse to ensure that he would teach Sarada the Gōkakyū when the time was right. His father had taught him, so he should be the one to teach their daughter. He knew how to perform the jutsu to perfection, and Sakura was fully aware that no amount of practice on her part would ever bring her up to his level in this, at least.

“I’m not the one who should be doing this, Sasuke, it’s an Uchiha family tradition and—”

“Sakura.” When Sasuke spoke in that firm tone that left no room for argument, Sakura couldn’t help but be drawn into his gaze. “I understand. I want to teach her the jutsu myself too, but just in case I can’t be home in time, I want you to teach her. I don’t want her to be behind her classmates in the Academy, or for her to miss out on her birthright.”

Sakura nodded silently, knowing he had more to say. He never talked this much with anyone else, but they had found comfort in the silence between words that occasionally said more than they ever could.

“You have as much right to teach her as I do, remember? You’re as Uchiha as I am now.”

Though she said nothing in response, it was clear she understood. In an uncharacteristic attempt to lighten the mood, Sasuke stepped away and smirked. “Just promise me that Kakashi won’t try to teach her before either of us can. He probably copied it when we were genin.”

Sakura couldn’t help it anymore and laughed, knowing that Sasuke was likely exactly right. Unfortunately, the sudden noise woke Sarada from her nap and she began fussing. Sasuke reached for her, wordlessly asking to hold his daughter, and with the ease of over a year of practice, Sakura helped position her comfortably in his one-armed hold. Almost as if she was aware of the safety of her father’s embrace, the youngest Uchiha calmed instantly, grasping onto his clothes with her tiny hands and a murmur of ‘Papa’ as she settled.

With a tilt of his head, Sasuke gestured to the lake. “It’s all yours.”

Feeling lighter than she had before, Sakura walked to the edge of the dock, moulded her chakra precisely to bring out the heat she desired, and weaved the signs.

Snake. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger.

Uchiha fire bloomed over the lake like it belonged there, and in a way, it did. The smile hadn’t left Sakura’s face since they had arrived on the old dock, and she was glad she had hired a genin team to fix the wobbly boards only a month ago. Though the old Uchiha District was slowly being rebuilt and repurposed after Sasuke finally got around to signing the paperwork that had been sent to him by one of Sai’s ink birds while he was away for his mission, the dock hadn’t been deemed a priority. How the old one had never collapsed beneath the weight of their entire family before Sasuke left, Sakura didn’t know, but now it was more than strong enough to easily and safely hold the weight of an academy student and her mother.

“Did you see that, Mama? I did it!” Sarada cheered breathlessly once the fireball vanished, leaving only the residual humidity of the evaporated water. Just as expected, soot and light burns darkened her cheeks from wasted chakra use and an unskilled hand to direct the breath of fire, but it was all too simple for Sakura to heal them away with barely a thought.

Pulling her six-year-old daughter into a tight hug, Sakura grinned with the overwhelming pride she felt brimming inside her. “I knew you would be able to do it!”

Ever since Sakura had mentioned the tradition on her birthday, Sarada had been begging her mother to take her to the lake and teach her the jutsu. Just like any other mention or link to her father, Sarada latched onto it like it was a lifeline. Though they couldn’t make it out until a few weeks later due to a hectic schedule at the hospital, Sakura had managed to book an entire day off to dedicate to her beloved daughter. Despite that, deep down, Sakura wished that Sasuke had been here to see Sarada blow a fireball bigger than Sakura’s first attempt had been. He would be so, so proud of her.

Just like any true Uchiha, it felt as if Sarada was born to breathe flames from her lungs. It wouldn’t surprise Sakura one bit if her daughter was hailed as even more of a genius than Sasuke had been in their academy and genin days, at the rate she was soaking up any training like a sponge. That wasn’t even counting her currently dormant Sharingan, which made a touch of fear rise in Sakura’s gut. She could never forget just how often Sasuke had been targeted for his eyes throughout most of his life, and if anyone found out just how young Sarada had been when she had first awakened it…

Instinctively, Sakura hugged her slightly tighter and silently renewed the vow both she and Sasuke had made before he had left. He would protect them from outside Konoha’s walls, and she would protect them from within. Nobody would hurt their daughter if she could help it.

“Mama, you’re squishing me again!” Sarada groaned and Sakura released her from her grasp with the same light laugh as always. No matter how many times Sarada complained, they both knew that she found some manner of comfort in Sakura’s too-tight hugs; the girl would pout and mope if they were even slightly looser—exactly the way Sasuke had once told her he had moped in his childhood after Itachi wouldn’t have the time to train. She was truly her father’s daughter.

With a laugh, Sakura gently patted Sarada’s dark hair. “That was better than mine, you know? You really are my little genius.”

“Really!?” Sarada exclaimed, eyes wide and glimmering with childish innocence. “Show me yours again, Mama!”

Of course, Sakura had gotten a lot more practice in the years since she had learned, but her hands flew through the familiar signs and she exhaled a plume of fire over the lake. Sarada giggled as the heat from the flames washed over them.

“Mama, that was bigger! See?” Sarada stumbled through the signs, her little hands still clumsy and unused to some of the more difficult ones to perform—like boar and horse. Her wrists didn’t yet have the flexibility they would acquire through training, and though Sakura had helped Sarada learn all the different signs on their own, she still had to learn how to fluidly switch between them.

Though the fireball wasn’t as big as the one her mother had just breathed, Sarada’s was still extremely impressive for her age. If this was what she was already capable of at only six years old, Sakura was almost afraid to imagine the kind of flames the girl would produce after she had more experience under her belt. It would come with time, and Sakura was certain that someday Sarada would truly master the jutsu like countless Uchiha clan members had before her, perhaps when Sasuke was back home with them to help her refine it.

Sarada giggled and grabbed onto Sakura’s hand, instantly putting a smile on her face and drawing her attention back to the little girl—her thoughts could wait when Sarada was so excited already. “Mama, we gotta do it together! It’ll be the biggest fireball!”

“Oh?” Sakura asked with a teasing smile and glance. “The biggest? Hmmm… maybe if we put our fireballs together, they might be as big as the ones I saw your dad make.”

Sarada’s jaw dropped in awe as she was practically vibrating in excitement. “Really!? Papa can make fireballs that big!?”

She nodded, remembering times from the war and their travels when Sasuke had made fireballs that likely would have made even Madara Uchiha proud. She had heard accounts of just how massive and devastating that attack had been right after the newly resurrected man had arrived on the battlefield of the 4th shinobi war, and knowing that her husband had reached that level was different than seeing it for herself. Of course, there were stories she couldn’t tell Sarada yet—ones she and Sasuke had unanimously decided would be best left until she was old enough to understand and until Sasuke was back to explain them himself—but she was always more than happy to talk about his feats and skills. If anything, they made the young girl even more excited at the prospect of seeing him again.

“That’s right,” she chuckled, “your dad is one of the strongest shinobi out there. Maybe if you ask really nicely, he’ll show you when he gets home.”

As if that had lit the metaphorical fire under their daughter, Sarada’s smile turned into a confident smirk that reminded Sakura far too much of Sasuke back when he was a genin and faced with a challenge he was confident he could overcome. Her heart clenched at the deluge of memories—Sarada looked so much like her father sometimes that the resemblance could make the distance between the divided parts of their family feel worse—but she would never deny their daughter anything.

“Let’s do it, Mama! I want to practise hard enough that we can make a fireball bigger than Papa’s together!”

And oh, wouldn’t that be a surprise for her husband when he eventually returned? Of course, it would take a long time for the two of them to ever match up to the two decades he had been practising the Gōkakyū, but Sakura knew that he would be touched and filled with pride if they even came close.

Crouching down next to Sarada, Sakura poked her daughter on the forehead with her index and middle fingers. She never had found out the entire story behind where this gesture had come from, other than the fact that it was something Itachi had done to Sasuke often when they were younger, but it had clearly meant a lot to Sasuke and she was more than happy to make sure their daughter associated it with an expression of affection in preparation for the inevitability of him poking her forehead after his return. If it was possible, Sarada’s grin widened even more as she laughed happily and put her soot-stained fingers over her forehead.

“Now let’s get practising, hm? That fireball isn’t going to happen overnight,” Sakura teased with a wry grin, relishing in Sarada’s joy. As much as her soul longed for Sasuke to be there with them, to be witnessing every moment of their daughter’s life alongside her, being able to show him the results of him putting his trust in her to carry on the family legacy would be a good backup option.

Sarada stood a bit too stiffly at the end of the dock, already breathing deeply and preparing to puff out her chest to take in as much air as fuel for the fire as she could. “Ready, Mama?”

“Always.”

As Sarada slowly formed the signs, Sakura matched her pace with pride blossoming in her heart.

Snake. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger.

Mother and daughter stood together on the dock, engulfing the lake in what must have seemed like a sea of flame, flickering with heat above the disturbed waters. They held the stream of fire for as long as they could before it tapered off, but it had been long enough to make them sweat from the heat and proximity alone. Standing up straight, Sakura smiled proudly down at her eleven-year-old daughter, knowing full well just how much work the girl had put into this jutsu.

“Did you see that!?” Sarada exclaimed, spinning quickly and running up to Sasuke, grabbing onto his only hand in her excitement. His visible eye was slightly widened and he almost seemed to be staring off into space, and Sakura had to resist the urge to giggle. It wasn’t often that she got to see her husband this surprised—the last time she could remember had been when she had casually told him she was pregnant over dinner and Sasuke had nearly choked after inhaling some rice.

After a moment, that gentle smile reserved for their family alone graced his lips and he bent down to look Sarada in the eye. “That was very well done, Sarada. Easily as good as I was at your age.”

Sakura hadn’t thought that the smile on their daughter’s face could get any wider, a common sentiment when it came to her husband and daughter, but it seemed she was mistaken as Sarada’s cheeks reddened in her glee. It had been a very emotionally chaotic few days for their family, especially considering the Shin Uchiha debacle, but she was glad that Sarada seemed to be even more comfortable with her place in their lives than ever.

Dragging her father to the end of the dock, Sarada gestured out over the lake. “Papa, you gotta show me yours! Mama told me stories of how good you are at the Gōkakyū, and I want to see you in action.”

“You saw me use the jutsu just the other day,” Sasuke said, though he seemed more amused than anything as he smiled fondly. Sakura assumed this must have happened before she had arrived to the fight, but couldn’t hold in the chuckle when Sarada shook her head. After all, there was one more thing her husband wasn’t aware of yet.

“C’mon, Papa, it’s not the same!” She protested, gesturing to the lake. “It has to be here.”

While this place had great importance to him due to his own childhood and the years of Uchiha tradition carried out here, the small wooden dock on the lake had become something special for Sakura and Sarada, too.

Every year since Sakura had taught Sarada the jutsu, the two had returned here for an entire day to sit on the end of the dock, to dip their feet in the cool water, and to tell stories. Sarada would talk about the academy, her friends, and her hopes for the future. Sakura would reminisce, teasing her daughter with anecdotes about when she was young and still drooling on her father’s empty sleeve. The morning would be spent peacefully, then they would eat a picnic lunch they had prepared together in the morning, and every year Sarada would ask her mother for stories about Sasuke.

Sakura didn’t know how many times she had told the stories of their times on Team 7 as genin, when they reunited during the war (though Sarada was unaware of how long they had been separated beforehand and assumed, in all her wide-eyed childish innocence that they had simply been fighting on different battlefields), and when he had caught her when she was completely drained. When lunch was over, they would pack up and return to the dock.

They would each silently think of their regrets, their worries, and their stressors from the past year before moving on instinct alone to weave the signs ingrained into their very souls. They would inhale, feeling the heat rise in their lungs until it was nearly overwhelming, and then they would expel the negative energy in the form of a purifying fire that tied them across an unknown distance to their wandering loved one. They would let the Uchiha fire cleanse everything, leaving them feeling rejuvenated and even more connected as family.

Sakura smiled, knowing that Sarada had wanted to bring her father here today of all days to show him this new tradition, and turned back to look out over the lake. With a fond sigh, Sasuke formed his one-handed seals and, with the ease of practice, created a truly massive fireball that—from where they were standing—blocked out the sun itself. Sarada’s eyes gleamed in excitement, an ear-splitting grin on her face as the intense heat vanished along with the fire.

“Papa,” she breathed quietly before turning to him, “that was awesome!”

His gaze seemed to warm further as he looked down at Sarada fondly. “Aa.”

Though Sakura knew Sasuke would likely deny it if anyone asked, the praise from his daughter clearly made him happy. It was such a relief to see him in such good spirits, especially after everything he (and they) had been through in recent and prior years. She was also fully aware that while his jutsu had been truly massive, it was carefully controlled to be impressive while simultaneously completely safe for them—something the Sasuke of years beforehand would never have done.

‘Yes,’ Sakura thought to herself, ‘fatherhood suits him much better than he expected it would.’

“We didn’t have time to make lunch, but that’s okay,” Sarada said suddenly. “The important part is the jutsu anyway, and we’re all here so we can finally do this right! Just… maybe make the fireball a bit smaller this time since we’re going to do it together.”

Sasuke’s brow furrowed as he glanced at Sakura in confusion, causing her to smile and laugh under her breath. Of course, to him, they had already done all that was necessary. Standing between them as she was, Sarada reached out and grabbed onto her parents’ hands before she and Sakura closed their eyes.

Narrating for her father’s sake, Sarada began to speak. “Papa, this is something Mama and I have been doing for years. Think back to all your worries and regrets from the past year—though you can think of ones from other years too since you haven’t done this as much as we have.”

Sakura felt a pang in her chest, knowing from many whispered conversations under the trees or in their bed just how many regrets her husband truly had. Perhaps this would be good for him, in a different way than his journey of redemption had been. It was different from the time they had come here before his departure, too. That time had been filled with frustration and hidden sorrow, while today was all about closure.

“Then, you mould your chakra, mixing the worries in with it. Turn all the bad feelings into fuel, and then we let the fire burn them away.”

From the feel of his chakra alone, Sakura could sense just how much pride Sasuke was feeling at that moment and she was sure that if she opened her eyes, she would see a genuine smile upon his lips. No one loved like the Uchiha, and he was surely overcome by those feelings. Their daughter wouldn’t be drawn toward the darkness the way he had been, and this exercise was just proof of it.

Sarada reluctantly let go of their hands, and the small family whispered under their breaths as they weaved the signs together.

Snake. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger.

They breathed in and, for a moment, everything seemed to still as they opened their eyes—crimson and viridian and lavender rings, all blazing with determination.

Then, the combined fire of the entire Uchiha clan blazed once more over the lake, cementing bonds and purging all regrets.

#sasuke x sakura #sasusaku #fanfic #sasusakusara #sasuke uchiha #sakura uchiha #sarada uchiha #sasuke and sakura #uchiha family #sasusaku fic #ss fic #vignettes #introspective

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evanescentdawn · 2 years

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in the small space of our kitchen, as soft sunlight swarms your silhouette, I breath

pairing(s): uchiha sarada & uchiha sasuke, uchiha sarada & uchiha sasuke & haruno sakura

tags: father-daughter relationship, fluff and humour, family feels, light angst, not compliant, one shot

rating: general audience

summary:

“Hey, Papa,” Sarada suddenly speaks up, “Why did you grow your hair like that?”

Papa looks confused by the question and Sarada clarifies, “I mean —” She gestures to the area around his left eye. “It’s a bit longer here.”

[READ HERE]

#naruto #sasusakusara #ssfam #uchiha sarada #uchiha sasuke #my writing #fic: in the small space of our kitchen #!!!! CANT BELIEVE I FINALLY WROTE AND FINISHED THIS

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uchiha-saradas · 1 year

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hello friends!

i’ve FINALLY finished writing the next chapter of my sarada centric fic, loss.

it is available to read both on wattpad and ao3. i will provide the wattpad link below. if you wish to read it on ao3, the link is on my pinned post.

please feel free to like, comment or share with your friends as any feedback would be much appreciated. PLEASE BE SURE TO READ THE WARNINGS!!!!

- maddie xx

#sakura uchiha #sarada uchiha #naruto #sakura haruno #borusara #naruto fanfiction #naruto shippuden #boruto uzumaki #boruto #fanfic #sasuke uchiha #uchiha sasuke #uchiha sarada #uchiha sakura #sasusaku fanfiction #sasusaku #pro sasusaku #sasusakusara

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theredconversegirl · 2 years

Note

hi! do you know any one shots or fics of sakura giving birth to sarada? i need sasusakusara fluff DESPERATELY

Hi nonny,

Thank you for stopping by! 💕

I do, and I just shared them in a new rec list. 😁 Here's the link:

Sarada’s Birth 🍅🌸🥗

Have a great weekend, enjoy the fics! 💜

Stay Safe,

xoxo

#theredconversegirl answers things #SasuSaku #sss fics #Sarada's Birth #ss fic rec list #theredconversegirl recommends

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laine-o · 4 years

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A Parting Gift

TRIGGER WARNING – major death, heavy angst, you have been warned. Please read this fic at your own risk or skip this if you are not comfortable with this kind of content.

———————————————

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

“MAMA!!!” Sarada screamed as she ran back.

This wasn’t supposed to be happening right now.

It was too sudden, only moments earlier, a man had infiltrated Sakura and Sarada’s hideout in the outskirts of Konoha territory, deep in the forest. Many enemies had been targeting the sharingan, forcing sixteen year-old Sarada and her mother into hiding. Sakura sensed the intruder as he had tripped a well-concealed trap. Sakura roused Sarada and quietly ordered her to escape. Sakura would deal with the intruder. Sarada had slipped away roughly a few hundred meters away when the first sounds of the scuffle broke out, leveling the land and the trees. The fighting shifted to an open clearing before all sounds stilled. Sakura had not yet caught up with Sarada when she was about a quarter mile away. Disobeying her mother’s orders, as Sarada sensed something was wrong, she turned around and headed back.

Sarada quickly neared the scene of the battle, a feeling of dread mounting in her heart.

Then she saw it.

The glinting blade descended from the sky swiftly impaling Sakura’s chest, through her body. Despite not piercing Sakura’s heart, the chakra-charged weapon disrupted and distorted the regularly beating rhythm of the cardiac muscle.

Sakura’s figure suddenly stalled. It was like slow motion in Sarada’s eyes. Whoever this rogue ninja was, from what Sarada’s sharingan could see from the distance, possessed the sharingan, but the chakra surrounding his eyes seemed different from “natural” Uchiha chakra. There were only three true sharingan left in the world: her father, Sasuke Uchiha’s, singular sharingan and her own paired set. Hers were the only ones still with their original owner.

Tears blurred Sarada’s vision as she watched her beloved, but powerful mother struggle against the blade as she mustered her strength. Blood flew out of Sakura’s mouth as she coughed violently. Sarada continued to race towards her mother, but she was still too far away to help. Oh, if only she could teleport like her father!

“GET BACK SARADA!” Sakura roared, byakugou flaring to life and snaking around her body. The wound partially closed to seal off the blood flow for a few precious minutes. Sakura reached forward, grabbed the blade protruding from her chest, pulled and sank it deeper into her chest, through her body, surging forward towards her attacker. Fist raised. Charged.

“MAMA STOP! Just get away from him!” Sarada cried out desperately.

“NO! They’re not taking you! They will not have your eyes! Not on my life! And not on your father’s! SHANAAROOOOOO!!!”

A final yank on the blade propelled Sakura forward. The glowing fist connected. It was the hardest chakra-enhanced strike Sarada had ever witnessed from her mother. A shockwave radiated from the point of contact, catching Sarada off guard, knocking her off her feet. Sarada flew backwards, slammed into ground, the wind knocked out of her lungs. The last thing she saw was the rogue shinobi flying away from the contact, the last thing she heard was a loud reverberating crack as her mother’s opponent plummeted into the ground from the impact. The ground split open and boulders, debris and dust hurled into the air.

In the next second, the rocks driven upward by the explosive impact of her mother’s chakra-charged fist, rained down

As the dust cleared and settled, Sarada slowly got up, frantically scanning the vicinity for her mother. She spotted her mother lying on the ground a few yards away, sword jutting from her chest, with her characteristic pink hair, blood-stained, in the epicenter of the battle that took place.

Sarada raced to her mother’s side and kneeled down, clutching Sakura’s hand.

“No, this can’t be happening, not you too.” Sarada whispered, feeling for a pulse that was erratic and faint, weakly beating.

“Sarada, look at me,” Sakura’s voice whispered, hoarse, but tender. Sad, but proud and confident.

“No. No. No.” the tears fell from Sarada’s eyes and onto her glasses, obscuring her vision.

“Mama, you can fix this, you have the byakugou, I have byakugou, we can do it! We can summon Katsuyu-sama,” Sarada begged, knowing that her plea was empty.

“No sweetie, you need to keep storing chakra for your byakugou, it’s not ready yet. Something about that blade’s chakra upset the rhythm of my heart. I can already tell it can’t be reset without withdrawing the invading chakra, resetting the network and hours of surgery that Katsuyu-sama alone cannot perform. I would need a top medic team and Shizune-san to operate on me. From my brief analysis, this isn’t an injury to heal, it’s a disturbance, my wounds and heart would heal physically but the rhythm would still be incorrect and slowly kill me before I made it back. This enemy clearly knew who they were dealing with, and he also knew where to find us. Our location must have been betrayed and I think he must have once crossed paths with your Papa. But at least they won’t take your eyes. You’re safe, my love.”

“I can’t lose you too, papa is gone already.” Sarada didn’t realize, but her sharingan was spinning erratically, already changing due to the loss of the greatest love of her life, her mother.

“Two sharingan transformations in one year…and a new one at that...” Sakura murmured. “Sweet child, listen to me, while we still have time, I need you to come closer to me and close your eyes.”

“I can’t, I want to see your last moments.” Sarada vigorously shook her head.

“Just do it,” Sakura whispered urgently. “I’m not sure if this will work, but I need to try.”

Sarada looked at her mother in wonder, “what is—“

“Hurry!”

Sarada complied and snapped her eyes shut, leaning in, though the tears were still freely flowing. Sakura pushed Sarada’s glasses aside and gently touched her eyelids. Warmth emanated from Sakura’s hands. The soothing chakra flowed into Sarada’s eyes, but something else akin to power and rejuvenation did as well. This chakra felt different than usual from healing chakra, Sarada gathered, but could not figure out what her mother was trying to do.

After a few minutes. Sakura’s hands left Sarada’s eyelids. Slowly, the hands moved to remove Sarada’s glasses.

“Open your eyes, Sarada.”

“But I can’t see without my glasses.”

“It’s okay, I think you can.”

Sarada slowly opened her eyes and looked at her mother’s green ones. The byakugou seal had disappeared from Sakura’s forehead. Sarada gasped in realization. Her vision was clear and sharp. Sarada quickly looked around her, at the dead rogue ninja corpse, to the destroyed clearing, and back at her mother.

“You really do look so much like your father without those glasses.” Sakura chuckled weakly and ever so lovingly. Taking a shaky and deep breath, “it looks like my forbidden jutsu worked.”

“What did—?”

“I imbued your sharingan with my byakugou seal. Effectively, I also repaired the genetic mutation in your eyes that caused myopia. I’ve been secretly working on this jutsu because I didn’t want you to go blind from the mangekyou sharingan that awakened when your father died. The infusion of byakugou was essentially to grant you the properties of eternal mangekyou sharingan, in theory, so that you can use your eyes freely. The amount of chakra contained in my seal is now within your eyes and will, for the rest of your life, continually heal the damage inflicted from using the mangekyou. You have no sibling to donate sharingan eyes to you, so with my jutsu, the blindness that would have occurred from using your mangekyou, will not happen to you, I made sure of it. I was saving this jutsu for the day I no longer needed my byakugou seal,” Sakura, paused, a dry cough escaping from her lips. “Darling, you need to find who stole your father’s eyes and reclaim them. The clue lies within this man’s body. You must have noticed too, he had mutated his own eyes to sharingan eyes. They are not the original. They must have gotten the DNA from your father’s eyes.”

Sarada’s trembling lips kissed her mother’s forehead. “I will find them—promise. Thank you... I-I love you ma-ma--,” Sarada’s voice broke.

“I’m going to join your father soon,” Sakura said softly, reaching up to touch Sarada’s face, tenderly stroking her cheek. “You are destined to be the first Uchiha to become hokage. Bring peace and love we are still sorely missing back to the world. I know you can do it, you’re such a brave and smart girl. I’ve... always loved you so much before you even existed... be strong, my love.”

Sakura’s face broke into a last brilliant and radiant smile as she reached up with two fingers and poked Sarada’s forehead one last time.

With the loss of the byakugou seal, a few more harsh breaths, Sakura’s hand grew limp and slowly fell away from Sarada’s face. Those beautiful green eyes once so full of life and vivacity, glazed over, their light extinguished forever.

Sarada crumbled. She bent over her mother’s body and screamed, wailed and cried like her heart had shattered into a million pieces.

Sarada cried until she no longer had any tears left. As the last wracking sobs left her body, Sarada steeled herself and slowly rose to her feet, resolving to return her mother’s body to Konohagakure and lay her mother to rest next to her father’s grave. Biting her thumb, Sarada quickly drew a seal and summoned Katsuyu. Somberly, the slug bowed down to honor her late great master with a brief moment of silence. Sarada choked back sobs that threatened to tear out of her throat once more.

“Katsuyu-sama, please transport the rogue ninja’s body back to Konoha for investigation. I will follow with my mother’s body.”

“As you wish, Lady Sarada.”

Gathering herself, Sarada activated her newly transformed sharingan and cast Susanoo. This time, it was perfect because of her mother’s parting gift. Reaching down with Susanoo, Sarada removed the sword from and lifted her mother’s body, cradling her. Slowly she turned in the direction of Konoha village, to head back and inform the village that the last of the neo-sannin, her mother, had been killed in action.

———————————————

Closing thoughts: Hey everyone, thanks for reading! I am so sorry for that. I would be lying to all of you if I said I didn’t tear up while writing this. This hurt me so much. But I had this idea for a long time (this has been sitting in my drafts for over a year now) of a workaround for Sarada’s eternal mangekyou sharingan given she lacks siblings in canon. I have always hesitated to post this because of the major character death(s) (if we include Sasuke’s and Naruto’s) and I didn’t want anyone getting angry at me ^^;

I definitely made up more than a few plot points to get the fic going, but the main purpose of this fic was to just explore the idea of how Sarada would receive a work-around to the eternal mangekyou sharingan and for me, the idea was from Sakura developing a forbidden jutsu behind the scenes to treat Sarada’s vision permanently and Sakura administering the treatment on her deathbed. I also just really wanted to explore the emotions that would have occurred in such a scene, and some of these quotes have already been in my mind for some time. I could see this potentially being a multichap fic with how it is set-up with loose-ends and it would be Sarada-centric as she tries and tracks down who is behind the killings of the neo-sannin and getting Sasuke’s eyes back, but I am going to leave this as a standalone one-shot fic.

Also feel free to yell at me if I didn’t tag this correctly, but I do believe it counts as a SasuSaku and SasuSakuSara fic.

#sasusaku fic #sasusaku fanfiction #sasusakusara fic #sarada uchiha #sasusaku #mywriting #my writing #laine-o writes

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whiskeywinter89 · 2 years

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Seeking SasuSaku fic recommendations

Saw this wonderful work by ceejss and while I'm aware that this is apparently an actual scene from sasuke retsuden I need more

I would love to know of any fic where Sasuke shows a caring and protective side, especially if he helps heal/save her.

#naruto #naruto shippuden #sasuke retsuden #sasuke uchiha #uchiha sasuke #pro sasusaku #sasusaku #sasusakusara #pro sakura uchiha #sakura uchiha #sakura #pro sakura haruno #sakura haruno #sasuke x sakura #sasusaku fic #jonin team 7 #genin team 7 #genin days #team 7 naruto

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habekida · 2 years

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Em caso de inspiração, me credite ♡

#capa simples #capa de spirit #capa clean #naruto #capa de fic #sasusakusara #sasori #sasuke #sasusaku #sarada

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airashisakura · 3 years

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For @ssskmonth Prompt used: Favorite food

Present

A/N: Major spoilers warnings for those who don’t follow Boruto Manga. After chapter 55 events.

Part 1

Part 2

FFN | AO3

Sarada scrunched her nose in irritation. The rice porridge she had been trying to cook didn’t taste right. Frustrated, she dropped the ladle on the granite slab. A few minutes before she had tasted it, and it lacked salt. She was so sure that she had sprinkled in the right amount, and now she couldn’t understand how that could ruin the taste.

I never have trouble with this recipe! She cried in frustration. And why is it happening TODAY of all days?

It was a simple recipe that she knew how to cook. Perhaps it was things around her that distracted her.

She twisted the knob of the burner with much more force than required, turning off the stove. She dropped the lid over the pot forcefully and cringed at the sharp metallic sound.

The start of the day had been good for her. Like every year, this birthday also started with the sight of her mother grinning widely. It was a bit too early, however.

Her mother had given her a squishing hug as she wished her birthday, and like every year, she giggled and returned her mother’s embrace. Everything around her could change, but maybe this routine never would.

Perhaps it could. She was no longer a child who hid behind her mother when she was afraid to face something. She had been on her fair share of missions and was beginning to grasp the essence of shinobi life. She was a kunoichi now, and she had confronted the death of her comrades. She had accepted this ugly truth, but watching her father recuperate had made things worse for her. Sitting beside her unconscious father in the hospital had almost given her a taste of what it felt like to lose someone close.

Trying not to concentrate on her thoughts, she padded towards the refrigerator. She tried to occupy her mind with how to fix the porridge. One thing she could do to balance the salt was to add more rice to porridge. She sighed in relief when she spotted a bowl of rice in one of the cabinets.

She turned on the stove again, adding the rice and water to adjust its consistency and let it boil.

She tapped her fingers on the granite slab, eyeing the bubbling water. With nothing to do at the moment, her mind wandered off to her teammate.

She reached for other ingredients and measured in each carefully. While she was stirring the porridge, she realised that with her team on suspension from missions, she hadn’t seen Boruto lately. Boruto seemed to be doing fine, but she had realised she was wrong when Shikadai pointed out that of all people, Boruto was the one who’d been affected most by the incident.

Maybe I’ll call him up, Sarada thought while she cracked eggs into a bowl.

However, she felt like he had been ignoring her, and decided not to call him while she gathered the chopsticks and started beating the eggs.

She had mixed feelings regarding Boruto. Although she understood it wasn’t Boruto’s fault at all, every time she saw her father’s injuries, she couldn’t control the anger that surfaced. She tried to shake off the feeling as she poured the beaten eggs into the porridge. She didn’t want to blame Boruto for what had happened.

After closing the lid on the pot again, she buried her face into her palms, leaning against the counter. She really hated this cycle — understanding Boruto’s helplessness and then ending up holding a grudge against him. No matter how hard she didn’t want to think about it, the thought of what havoc he might cause when he lost control of his body again dreaded her. She knew Boruto was now a potential threat. What if she had to do something in future herself?

She was too confused to think straight. With a sigh, she removed the lid to see if it was done. Satisfied with the consistency, she sprinkled in some spring onion and reached for a bowl to pour some for her father.

Sarada knocked lightly on the door, announcing her presence to her father. Although it had been routine for a few days, she waited till her father responded. A small smile adorned her face when she heard him ask her to come in.

She realized she rarely had any time with Sasuke like this. They usually trained together or ate dinner when he came back from his mission. She never had felt his day-to-day presence as such.

She pushed the door open. She tried to suppress her excitement, but she didn’t have to work hard when she saw her father reading a scroll.

“Didn’t mama tell you not to strain your eye?” Sarada asked him, pretending to be offended.

She kept the tray on the bed-side table and heard the scroll falling on the bed with a light thud.

Sarada fidgeted on her foot sheepishly, waiting for her father to wish her a happy birthday. She looked around the room, trying not to be obvious. The silence stretched, and it became a bit uncomfortable, so she asked him.

“How are you feeling today?”

"Better," Sasuke nodded, his voice as reserved as always.

Sarada adjusted her glasses, and scrutinized her father's face. He didn't look any better than he had the previous days. Although her mother assured her there was nothing to worry about, she sensed that her father wasn’t doing well.

She wasn't quite sure if her father was sad or if he really was better. Sometimes she was really amazed by how her mother managed to read behind her father’s stoic mask.

His long absence from her life made her sad because she knew Uchiha Sasuke only in two ways — one when he was happy and proud of her, and the other when he was indifferent and unattached with his surroundings. She didn’t know much about her father, and maybe her father didn’t know much about her.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked, patting his hand on the side beside him and gesturing for her to sit.

Sarada plopped on the bed beside him; and replied, “Boruto.”

He listened with a rapt attention as Sarada recounted her concerns and could only wonder when his little Sarada, who hardly could make coherent sentences when he had left for his mission, had grown up. He had missed so many years and so many things, he realized.

Sarada frowned when she asked him, “Papa, do you think anything is going to happen to Boruto?”

Sasuke knew what she was talking about, but didn’t interrupt her.

“Since he is a potential danger now,” she explained.

Sasuke sighed, closing his eyes, partly in relief and partly agitated. “Don’t worry about that. This isn’t the old Konoha. The present council doesn’t take any harsh measures.”

Sarada gave him a perplexed look, and Sasuke realised what he had said. However, he didn't falter, and waited for her next question.

“What about old Konoha?”

“A lot,” he paused and thought about whether to complete his sentence.

“About the old system.”

About that unforgivable system that ran on blood and filthy tricks.

“About the old councilors.”

About those insensitive bureaucrats who didn’t think twice before ordering a thirteen-year-old to butcher his own clan and family.

“And about our clan.”

About the family I once had.

Sarada was thrown off by his sudden straightforwardness. He had always measured the amount of information he fed her and had always dismissed her when she pried much about the clan and the doujutsu. She couldn’t help but feel a little awkward, and she didn’t know how to react until she noticed.

“The food,” she squeaked. Sarada touched the bowl and wailed, “Oh no! It turned cold.”

It reminded him of Sakura, and he smirked before he said, “Ah, but I can eat.”

“You sure? I can go and reheat if you say so,” Sarada said as she set a low table on the bed and placed the bowl there.

Sasuke nodded, and murmured, “Itadakimasu.”

He took a spoonful of porridge, and asked her, “Did you cook this?”

Sarada nodded eagerly. “Mama had to leave early for the hospital today, but it isn’t like mama’s, though,” she pouted. “I messed up while adding salt.”

“No, it’s fine,” Sasuke lied. The porridge was too watery with a lot of rice, and it tasted disbalanced.

He wondered again when his daughter had grown up so much. Although he knew they were shinobi and they were supposed to, he couldn’t shake off the image of the tiny girl born to them years ago, and the shiny big black orbs that had stared at him when he had held her in his arm for the first time.

Sasuke took a few more bites of food and decided to break the silence, “What do you want for your birthday?”

“Eh?” Sarada blushed, although she tried hard not to overreact.

So Papa remembered.

She grinned harder and nodded her head, saying, “Nothing. You being at home is more than enough for me.”

But when the words slipped, she realised perhaps her reply wasn’t apt. Some unfortunate events making him stay home wasn’t what she wanted.

“I didn’t mean that way,” she reprimanded herself. “This is the first time you’re home on my birthday and...”

She didn’t know how to explain further, looking at the ground.

As far as she could remember in her childhood, Sasuke had never been home for her birthdays except a few years during which she didn’t have a clear memory.

Sasuke again took a spoonful of porridge and said, “Aah,” and smiled lightly and added, “maybe training?”

“You know mama won’t be a bit happy about this?” Sarada deadpanned.

Sasuke scoffed and after a second, both were laughing.

It was the first time she had seen her father so unguarded. She had made many memories, spent precious time with her father, and learned a lot, but this Sasuke was an entirely new one to her. For that moment, she stopped blaming all the wrong things that had happened to her, to her father, and to her family and cherished the moment. Seeing him so casual, she decided to say something she had been thinking about.

“I’m sorry. I had always resented you because you couldn’t live with us. I wondered why you had to go on a mission for so long.”

Sasuke was a little taken aback at the moment. Years of sacrifice had created a large mass of guilt inside him. However, Sakura always supported him, but he knew he owed an apology from Sarada for his absence. He wasn’t sure how. Words weren't his way, and he was too overwhelmed to say anything after what her daughter said.

Sarada smiled widely, and added, “Thank you for protecting us, Papa”.

“Aah.”

(Since chapter 55 was released in March, I assumed it to be around Sarada's birthday)

Part 3

#ssm21 #ssm2021 #ssm21d12 #ss fic #uchiha sasuke #uchiha sarada #haruno sakura #sasusaku #SasuSakuSara #SSS #and yes! I'm late again.

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