Three • Uchiha Sarada

"Mom, when was this taken?" A five year old Sarada holds up the photograph with her tiny hands, pointing a finger at the male in the picture. It was a joint photo of her as a baby, along with her father and mother in their teenage days - probably sixteen to seventeen years old.

Sakura tied her long hair in a ponytail, facing her daughter with raised eyebrows. "Oh, your father..." She muttered in silence while staring at the photo of Sasuke; he was weating his usual serious face with brows slightly knitted together. It was a photo taken during his time with Team Taka.

"Mom?" Sarada called, noticing Sakura's distracted expression.

"Oh," she snapped out of her thoughts, smiling at the young child as she tapped the vacant spot beside her on the couch. "Sit here, Sarada."

The dark haired girl obediently followed, walking towards her, gripping the frame tighter. She settled down beside the pinkette, gesturing to the picture with confused eyes.

Sakura flashed her a grin. "Sarada," she pointed at Sasuke's photo. "This was taken years ago."

"Years ago?" Sarada furrowed her eyebrows. "What does daddy look like now?"

The pink headed kunoichi wrapped an arm around Sarada's shoulder, taking the frame from her hands. "Hmm. Well, let's see... your father is still very handsome. He's tall and you resemble him very much."

"R-Really?" Sarada's eyes flickered up to meet Sakura's emerald ones, a smile slowly creeping its way to her lips.

"Yup!" Sakura nodded eagerly. "You have the color of his hair and eyes."

The way Sarada's features lightened up sent a warm feeling to Sakura's heart. Moments later, however, her head fell down gloomily. Surprised by the sudden change of mood, Sakura tilted her head in confusion. "Sarada? What's wrong, dear?"

"It's just..." She bit her the insides of her cheek, hesitating to continue her statement. The pinkette noticed this almost instantly and rested a hand lightly on her hand, as if urging her to continue. "Why isn't he visiting us?" Sarada finally asked, voice laced with disappointment.

Sakura looked slightly taken aback for a split second. Clearly her throat, she looked troubled while formulating an answer in her head, picking a good choice of words to say. "He wants to visit us, Sarada, but he's busy right now. He's assigned to a very important mission. He's doing this for Konoha's sake, for the people in it and for us."

Sarada pressed her lips together, nodding her head in understanding. "I hope he comes home soon."

"Yes," Sakura's lips curled into a small smile as she ruffled the young Uchiha's hair. "Soon, dear."

It was exactly five in the morning when Sarada awoke from a deep slumber. She didn't usually rise at such an early time, but her attempt to sleep again was futile upon realizing that all of the sleepiness on her system just went out of the window.

Sarada silently swung her feet off the bed and grabbed her glasses from the side table. She decided to wash her face and brush her teeth downstairs first before putting the eyeglasses on, combing her hair afterwards with her fingers.

She already expected that breakfast was still not prepared, hence she decided to cook some food for her parents. However, she went to their bedroom first to check if her mother was already up.

She wasn't surprised to see them asleep, but she didn't miss the fact that Sasuke and Sakura's hands were intertwined. Sarada smiled in satisfaction.

. . .

"Breakfast?" Sakura walked in to the kitchen, her short pink hair swaying with every movement she made. "What's gotten into you today?"

Sarada shrugged. "Can't I just be useful?"

The pinkette mimicked her movement, getting a spare apron and putting it on. "I'll help you."

"It's just porridge, Mom. I can manage." The young Uchiha declined, taking three bowls and pouring the porridge on each container. "Where's Papa?"

Sakura glanced at her before she took the bowls and placed them on the table. She grabbed a spoon and decided to taste her daughter's porridge.

"Showering."

"You didn't come with him?"

Sakura almost choked on the food as different shades of red painted her face. "W-What! Sarada, why are you saying such things!" She brought the spoon down and sighed. It's either Naruto or Ino.

Sarada raised an eyebrow. "What I mean is - you didn't come with him downstairs?" She asked, knowing that her parents had their own bathroom upstairs.

"O-Oh," Embarrassment was suddenly painted across the pinkette's face as she tried to compose herself. "Uh, no. He's showering upstairs."

"Mom, why do you look so flushed?"

"I'm not! Shut up!"

Sarada laughed lightly. Teasing her was definitely the best.

. . .

"How are you feeling, Konohamaru-sensei?"

Sprawled on the hospital bed was no other than their team leader, Sarutobi Konohamaru. He had a few bandages on his arms and legs, some on his face as well to cover the bruises.

"Better, actually," he replied with a grin. "Where's Boruto?"

Sarada dropped the basket of fruits on the side table while Mitsuki leaned on the wall, arms crossed over his chest. "Doing his usual pranks, of course." The pale boy replied nonchalantly.

The jounin sighed. "That kid..."

He suddenly felt a wave of nostalgia hitting him. He didn't fail to remember his Naruto-nii-chan doing all sort of things for the village to acknowledge him. In the current generation, however, Boruto pulls those stunts not to gain the recognition of the villagers but to get the attention of just one man - his father.

"How about you, Sarada? I heard your father visited?" Konohamaru smiled, turning to the young Uchiha.

Sarada nodded happily. "He's staying for another week, Sensei."

"That's good to hear. Maybe it's really for the best that I got injured, I mean, we don't have missions right now and you can bond with Sasuke-san." He chuckled.

Sarada shook her head. "Don't say that." She grabbed an apple from the basket and offered it to her teacher. "Recover soon, Konohamaru-sensei."

. . .

After catching up with their teacher, Mitsuki and Sarada decided to go after saying goodbye to Konohamaru. They found out that he's going to stay in the hospital for a few days again, which means they won't be getting any missions soon and probably just focus on training.

"Are we going to train today?" Sarada inquired while walking out of the building with Mitsuki. She wanted to meet up with her mother but Shizune informed her that she was currently on duty.

"Do you-" Before Mitsuki could finish, a familiar voice called the young Uchiha, interrupting their conversation.

"Chocho," Sarada pushed her glasses up and saw the female Akimichi, looking at her while eating some chips. She ran towards her, however Mitsuki continued to walk in a slower pace behind.

"Hey, what's up?" She reached her spot and smiled.

Chocho tightly held her bag of chips and grabbed Sarada's wrist with the other hand. "I've got to tell you something! Let's go!"

"Yeah, but Mitsuki and I-"

"We're going to train, Chocho," The pale boy finally caught up, his voice in its usual calm tone that somehow irked the tan-skinned genin.

A frown ran across Chocho's face in distaste. "Um, yeah, it's girl talk. You can train with Sarada later, alright?" She replied in a matter-of-fact tone, but Sarada immediately detected the irritation in her voice.

Mitsuki shrugged, curling his lips up as he turned to his teammate. "Then I'll see you later, Sarada."

"Alright then..." Sarada hesitantly agreed, watching him turn his back and walked to the opposite side.

"Hmph... that know-it-all smart ass never fails to get into my nerves..." Chocho mumbled to herself.

Sarada stared at her in amusement, placing her hands on her hips. "You dislike him that much?"

"More than you can actually imagine," she rolled her eyes and munched on a few chips. "But we do have something to talk about, though."

The two of them began to walk side by side, away from the hospital. "What's so important that you actually had to come here? And how did you know I'm even here?"

"I didn't plan to come here. I was just strolling around."

"Oh." Sarada nodded. It was understandable. Chocho wasn't like Boruto, who was always pumped and excited. She was more like Shikadai - hard to motivate and quite lazy. "Anyway, what did you want to talk about?"

Chocho looked at her and cupped a hand beside her mouth, leaning a bit to Sarada. "This is a secret, but I heard that the Chunin exams are near."

The young Uchiha raised an eyebrow upon hearing her statement. "And where did you hear that?"

"Well, Dad was called in the Hokage's office and I was supposed to come with him but I went a little late." She removed her hand from her face and resumed to eat. "When I was about to knock, I heard Shikadai's father talking to the Seventh about it. He said that it's going to be near."

"Shikadai's father, Nara Shikamaru..." Sarada muttered silently. "He's the Seventh's assistant."

Chocho nodded. "Yeah. When I came back home, I found out that Dad was already back and he probably doesn't know about the exams."

"Did you tell the others about this?"

"Nope, they'll probably announce it soon anyway." She replied with certainty.

Sarada pressed her lips together, shooting her a side glance. "You told me about it, though."

"Well I figured that you might want to train to prepare," Chocho shrugged. "I mean, you're an Uchiha and you're naturally skilled, but your Dad came back and I thought it could be cool if he sees you in the exams."

Sarada was surprised to hear her friend's words. Yeah, it could be nice that he can watch her. But he won't stay in the village for long, so can he see her in the exams and even train her for it?

"Is this even girl talk?" Sarada chuckled.

"Nah, I just wanted to shoo Mitsuki away."

. . .

Sarada spent the entire day with Chocho. Just talking, strolling around the village and listening to the young Akimichi's ramblings. It's been quite a while since the two of them spent hours together, due to the fact that they have been both busy with their own respective teams and missions.

When Sarada came home after sunset, she immediately saw her father rushing out from their house.

"Papa?" Sarada called. "Where are you going?"

Sasuke shot her a side glance before opening the front door. "I'll get your mom from work."

"Oh," a grin formed on her lips. "I'll prepare dinner then."

He stared at her with his charcoal eyes for a few seconds. She immediately got what's in his mind and waved her hand defensively. "Don't worry, I won't burn up the kitchen, if that's what you're worried about."

"I'm going, then." Sasuke nodded, walking out of the house.

Sarada smiled and marched towards the kitchen. If she wasn't mistaken, Sasuke was helping the Seventh with some of his work the entire morning and afternoon. She was, in all honesty, glad that he wasn't forgetting to pick her mother up from her job.

She began to make some dinner in silence. She wasn't used to it, since Sakura was always the one who cooked for them, and sometimes they eat out. Nevertheless, she does know Sasuke's favorite food. She never asked her mom about it, but Sakura would always talk about how she enjoys making omusubi with okaka and tomatoes. Sarada figured that Sakura made that kind of dish for Sasuke in the past - which she found honestly sweet and heart-warming. It was just an assumption but she hoped she was right.

So when they came back, Sarada proudly showcased her home-made dish.

"Hmm," Sakura looked around the house before sitting on one of the chairs in the dining room. "Glad you didn't burn up the kitchen, honey."

"Yeah, yeah," Sarada rolled her eyes playfully while she watched her father sit beside Sakura. "I made your favorite, Papa!"

The young Uchiha pushed the plate closer to Sasuke. The two adults immediately had their eyes on the food and Sakura couldn't help but let a smile grace her lips.

Sasuke, like the usual, didn't show any sort of new emotions, but the pinkette didn't miss the way his eyes softened. She knew he appreciated their daughter's efforts and truthfully, he just proved that Sarada was as thoughtful as his wife.

"Well, let's eat." Sakura grinned.

"Itadakimasu!"

. . .

A/N;

Uchiha family picture during Sarada's childhood days in case you haven't read Naruto Gaiden -

And I have no idea what omusubi is but yeah we all know Sasuke loves tomatoes

How's the story so far? Hope it isn't too boring. I know this chapter isn't that well-written and detailed (nothing much happened lol), but I'll make it up on the next update. We'll get to the exciting parts soon! Please leave a comment!

(It might take me a while to update again bc I'm currently busy with my junior highschool life lol it's so stressful. Next update will have feels! *wink wonk)