145Date: Post-Canonization
Pairing: SasuSaku
Prompt: Brothers
Title: The Sanctity of Siblings
Summary: Sarada has a habit of getting into things she shouldn't, but that's not always a bad thing.
Disclaimer: Naruto, not mine since 1999.
Author's Note I: Ugh. This took way too long to write and I'm not happy with it at all. But here it is, no refunds, returns, or exchanges.
Author's Note II: My first time writing from the POV of a five year old. Gods of fanfiction help me. I may have written her a little advanced for a five year old. I haven't been five in twenty years and I don't spend any time around kids, so sorry if this is way off. :/
At five years old, Uchiha Sarada is a precocious child. She has her mother's smarts and her father's instincts. She devours books and basic jutsu with ease, and is already climbing walls and producing small katons (strictly forbidden in the house).
She is also intensely curious.
She's discovered several of her father's weapons caches, and when she was three, she terrified Sakura half to death when she walked in to find Sarada prying open the scabard of Sasuke's unattended chokuto.
There was another incident where Sarada discovered Sakura's anatomy textbooks, and at a family dinner with Sakura's parents she attempted to recite the male and female reproductive organs. She butchered most of the words, but enough were recognizable enough to have Haruno Kizashi roaring with laughter and earning Sakura and Sasuke an hour-long lecture from Mebuki.
It's not that Sarada is michievious or ill-behaved, she just wants to know everything, and she wants to know it now. She wants to be as smart as her parents, and it's not her fault that there's so much to learn.
Sarada is bored. Her papa is in a meeting with the Hokage, and mama is busy in the kitchen. Normally she'd want to help, but Sakura is making sweets, and Sarada turns her nose up at those (like another certain Uchiha). She sighs and wanders through the house, searching for something to do until Sasuke gets home.
She pauses momentarily in front of the back door, wondering if she should try some more shuriken throwing practice. But it's starting to rain, and mama and papa don't like her to do that by herself, so she moves on.
Down the hallway, Sarada finds her room and inspects its contents with the intensity of Sakura performing a complex surgery. Her books have all been read and her dolls' hair brushed. Her toys have all been neatly put away and her clothes folded; there is nothing for her to straighten or clean, and she wrinkles her nose at the idea of making another mess only to clean it up again.
Sighing, she continues on down the hall. Her parents' room is the next closest, and she peeks inside just to satisfy herself that there's nothing to do in there. A peek turns into making sure Sakura is still bustling in the kitchen before quietly sliding the door closed behind her as she tiptoes into the room.
Sasuke and Sakura's room is Sarada's favorite room in the whole house. She can't help but admire it because it's so grown-up. The decor is mostly catered to Sasuke's taste (Sakura has the rest of the house). The bed covers and the curtains are a deep navy blue with white trim. Their clan crest is artfully emblazoned on the fabrics, and the room always smells of her mama's perfume and the deep forest scent that clings to her papa's clothes.
The first thing Sarada's eyes are drawn to is the picture on her mother's nightstand. A younger verion of her mother smiles between her father (she giggles because he always looks grumpy) and Uncle Naruto. Behind them, Grandpa Scarecrow winks.
Hugging the picture frame to her chest, Sarada climbs onto her parents' bed. Legs dangling over the side, she traces mama and papa's faces with her finger tip. A smile unconsciously lights up her face as she studies the old photograph over and over again.
Time passes, and by the time Sarada hears Sakura calling her name from the kitchen, the shadows of late afternoon are crawling across the hardwood floor. She carefully lowers herself to the floor and gently places the picture back on the nightstand.
"Coming!" she hollers, but as she starts walking toward the door, she spots the closet door sitting wide open. She's slept in the bed with her parents on many occasions, but she's never seen the inside of their closet. It's a private place, she's been told, and she doesn't want to disappoint her mama and papa so she's ignored the temptation.
The flame of curiosity ignites in her now. The door is just sitting there wide open, and nobody will know if she just takes a small peek inside. Glancing behind her to make sure the bedroom door is still closed, Sarada slowly inches toward the open closet.
The inside is bigger than she thought. The closet is a walk-in, and her parents' clothes hang on either side of the room, with boxes of various weaponry stacked on the floor beneath. Sarada peers inside the boxes, fascinated by weapons she's only seen in books. But just as she goes to lift one, she notices another door at the back of the closet.
Mama is calling her from the kitchen again, but her insatiable need to know what's behind the door is too great.
The door creeks slightly as she carefully slides it open. The adjacent room is small and sparsely furnished, with only a small table sitting against the back wall. Two vases, one on each end of the table, hold fresh flowers. Unlit, but obviously used, candles are arranged artfully around two large framed photographs.
Standing on her tiptoes, Sarada examines each photograph, both of them in black and white. The one on the right shows a young man in his very early teens with long, dark hair pulled back, and deep tracks beneath his eyes. He looks so serious, and Sarada wonders what he was thinking about.
The second picture shows a family. The boy from the other photo is there, standing off to the right with furrowed brows. A beautiful woman with the same dark hair and eyes stands center frame. Her eyes are kind, and she looks happy to be standing amongst her family. A man, obviously her husband, stands by the left edge of the frame, looking bored. And between them...
"Sarada."
Startled, Sarada jumps a foot into the air. Nervously, she turns around to face her papa. She's been caught red-handed where she's not supposed to be, and now she's in trouble. Her nose scrunches in dismay. She hates disappointing her papa.
But Sasuke doesn't say anything. He kneels down in front of her and pulls her in for a hug, and Sarada buries her face in the dark fabric of his cloak. She feels his chest rise and fall in a sigh, and she looks up as he gingerly lifts the framed photo of the young man. The grim line of his mouth tightens as he studies it.
"Papa? Who's that?" Sarada's fear of punishment vanishes as she sees the look on papa's face. He looks so sad, and she's never seen her papa sad before. It's a long moment before he finally answers.
"My older brother."
Sarada blinks. "Brother? You mean like how Boruto is Himawari-chan's brother?"
He nods. Sarada's forehead creases in perplexion. "But...how come I haven't met him?"
Sasuke's sigh is audible this time, and he stands, lifting her into his arms. He gazes at her with serious eyes, like she's a grown-up. Sarada waits with baited breath to hear about papa's brother.
But they are interrupted by Sakura's calls.
"Sarada? Sasuke-kun?"
Sasuke responds with a "hn," and Sakura peeks her head into the closet. "Dinner's ready, what are you two doing in here?" She frowns at Sarada.
"Papa's gonna tell me about his brother." Even though she's shaking with anticipation on the inside, Sarada manages to keep a solemn expression.
Sakura glances at Sasuke with alarm, but he shakes his head. "She should know. Not all of it, but enough." Sakura purses her lips at this, but doesn't argue. Even though she helps to carry the weight of it, it's still his decision to make.
An hour later, the small Uchiha family sits together on the closet floor. Sakura's fingers are laced through Sasuke's, occasionally squeezing his hand and offering him silent reassurance. Sarada sits in his lap, trying to make sense of what she's just been told.
"So...Uncle Itachi did a lot of bad things. Does that make him a bad man?" She frowns, glasses sliding down her tiny nose.
Sakura gently pushes the glasses back up the bridge of her nose. "No, honey. Everything your uncle did, he did out of love for your papa. He had to make a lot of very difficult and horrible choices, but his heart was always pure."
Sarada accepts this, nodding in relief. Papa has been silent since he finished telling Itachi's tale, lost in the memories of his brother. "Papa?" Sasuke turns tired obsidian eyes to his daughter.
"Do you think Uncle Itachi would have liked me?" She bites her lip, afraid of the answer. But Sasuke smiles tiredly at her, reaching up to ruffle her hair. "He would have loved you. Your mother and I would probably never see you, he'd want to spend all of his time with you and teach you everything about being a shinobi."
Sakura has to turn away with tears in her eyes. Sasuke squeezes her hand. The small Uchiha family sits in silence for a few moments. Sarada squeezes in between her mama and papa, concentrating hard on an idea. Finally, she takes each of their free hands in hers.
"I have an idea," she announces. After making sure her parents are paying attention, she continues, "I think I should have a brother. And I also think we should name him after Uncle Itachi."
Seeing the nonplussed expressions on their faces, Sarada hastens to reassure them. "I'll take real good care of him! I'll always protect him and I'll teach him everything he needs to know, so you guys won't have to do a thing!"
She looks at them so earnestly that Sakura and Sasuke can't help but laugh. "Sweetheart," Sakura pulls her in for a hug, "even if we have another baby, there's no guarantee it would be a boy. You might end up with a sister." Sarada pouts stubbornly.
Chuckling, Sasuke pulls his girls against his chest. "Well, I'm willing to try," he says with a mischevious grin at his wife, who blushes furiously.
"You really mean it?!" Sarada bounces up and down in excitement. "Uncle Itachi would just love it, I know he would!"
Sakura laughs and plants a kiss on her nose. "Alright, let's try for little Itachi."
Author's Note: Thank you guys so much for being patient with me. I struggled a lot with this one, and got depressed because I wasn't able to finish it in a reasonable timeline. So I wrote other little things to try to get my mojo back. This one isn't anywhere near my best, but hopefully some of you will find it cute. I'm still absolutely planning on finishing these, so don't despair too much. I really don't think it will take me that long between prompts again. And HOLY COW 100 REVIEWS. I am floored. Thank you, every one of you, for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following. I hope it has been as worth it for you as it has been for me.