Work Text:
Uchiha Mitsuo was sitting next to his mother, listening to her monologue about how he shouldn’t pretend to be a ninja in their living room. The whole conversation started because she came to check on him and he was jumping around, pretending he was on a mission, just like his big sister.
“Mitsuo, are you listening to me?” asked Sakura, desperate for her son to understand every single word.
“Yes, mama,” answered Mitsuo, not really paying attention.
“You could hurt yourself by doing that, okay? And you could also break mama’s stuff! And that could hurt you as well.” She explained, with the same serious expression she used when she wanted to lecture him about something.
“Like you do when you get angry about things you don’t like?” he half smirked, making Sakura groan.
“Yes. But I’m an adult. And I can cure myself,” Sakura tried to sound as adult as possible.
“Well, if I get hurt you can always heal me, right?” He smiled proudly for thinking about that.
“What if I’m not around to heal you?”
“Then you should teach me how to heal myself!” He was excited about that possibility. “That way I will be fine.”
Sakura sighed, trying hard not to smile. She should be really happy that her baby boy wanted to follow her steps and learn about medical ninjutsu, but she couldn’t possibly agree with the logic of her five-year-old son, even though he made sense.
“I can’t do that, sweetie. You’re too young. Maybe when you get a little bit older, okay?”
Mitsuo started to complain when he heard a voice behind him. “Listen to your mother, Mitsuo, she’s right.”
“As usual.” Added Sakura, smiling to her husband.
“Papa!” Mitsuo ran to Sasuke, hugging his legs. “But why? You guys never teach me things. My friends already know a lot of stuff and I don’t know anything!”
“Like your mother said,” Sasuke started, picking his son up, “you’re way too young for that.”
Mitsuo looked away from both his parents, wanting them to know he didn’t like that situation at all, that he wasn’t pleased with their decision.
Sakura just looked at Sasuke, who was staring at the pink-haired boy in his arms. He sighed and glanced at her.
They had this conversation when Mitsuo started asking about “ninja stuff” and saying that he wanted to be like his mom, his dad, and his sister. They both agreed on teaching him a couple of jutsus when he was to attend the academy.
“Put me down!” Mitsuo demanded, clearly annoyed by the fact that his parents wouldn’t do what he wanted.
Sasuke did what he was told and watched his son walk away from the living room, about to climb the stairs. He shared a quick look with Sakura, who was mirroring his expression.
“Wait!” They both said at the same time, making their son stop at the first step.
“What?” he asked, his tone hopeful that his parents would change their minds.
Sakura sighed and said, “Maybe your father can teach you some shuriken jutsu while I assist?”
“You know shuriken jutsu, mama?” Mitsuo ran to her, screaming in excitement.
Sakura rolled her eyes and smiled, “Of course, honey.”
They moved on to the backyard, where the targets Sarada used to train with were positioned. Sasuke grabbed a couple of shurikens while Sakura helped Mitsuo with his posture.
Sasuke started to explain what he should do and how he should do it, quickly demonstrating the technique to his son. When the shurikens hit the target, Mitsuo cheered, asking if he could do it this time. Sasuke nodded and gave him two of them.
“Be careful, Mitsuo!” Sakura reminded before the pink-haired boy threw his shurikens at the target, just like Sasuke had taught him.
It wasn’t a surprise when the weapons hadn’t hit the target. But that didn’t stop Mitsuo.
It took him a while, but when he finally did it, he started to jump around, celebrating. Sakura and Sasuke both had proud expressions, smiling widely at their son’s achievement.
“Look, mama, I made it! Papa, can I do it one more―”
He was about to ask Sasuke to do it again when he saw his big sister watching them next to the fence.
“Nee-chan!” He yelled, running her way.
But before he could reach her, Sarada turned away and left the backyard. Her expression was cold and he didn’t understand at all why she would do something like that.
He stopped and looked back at his parents, who had confused expressions across their faces, just like his. “What happened to nee-chan?”
Sakura was the first one to come out of the weird atmosphere that had been formed around them.
“She’s just tired, sweetie. After all, she just came home from a three-week mission!” She smiled, reassuring Mitsuo that was the reason why Sarada ran out of there.
He, however, wasn’t buying it.
“But her face was sad when she looked at me!” He complained, tearing up. “Does she hate me?”
Sakura opened her mouth to deny it, but she was too astonished to answer.
“Of course not, Mitsuo.” It was Sasuke who answered. “Like your mother said, she’s just tired.” He walked up to his son, lowering on his level. “Sarada loves you.” And to tranquilize his son, he gave the pink-haired boy a small smile.
That did the trick. Seeing one of his father's rare smiles made him forget about the episode.
But Mitsuo’s worries came back when Sarada didn’t join them during dinner. Sakura had said that she was still tired from the mission and that she wanted to sleep some more. He didn’t argue, but that was bothering him a lot.
So the next day, when both his parents left the house and his sister was supposed to watch him, he decided to ask her something.
He was playing in his room with some toys while she was reading a book, so he took that opportunity and called her name.
“Yeah?” She didn’t look away from the book, so he just kept going.
“Can I ask you something, nee-chan?” He said, trying to sound as cool as he could about it.
“Sure,” she answered, this time putting the book aside.
“Do you like me?” He looked at his toys while he asked, not really wanting to receive another cold stare from her like the other day.
“What?” Sarada was completely shook by his question. She immediately jumped from his bed and sat by his side, putting a hand on his shoulder so he would look at her. “Why are you asking me that?”
Mitsuo stared at her. He had tears in his big, dark eyes. “Because… yesterday when you came home you looked at me like I did something bad to you. And you didn’t answer when I called.”
At this point, he was crying a little bit, so Sarada just pulled him closer to her, hugging him tightly.
“Mitsuo, don’t ever think that again! You’ve never done anything bad or wrong. You have no idea how much I love you. You’re my little brother and I would do anything for you. Seriously.” He looked at her like he didn’t believe her words, but when he saw that she was smiling the way she always smiled at him, he stopped crying.
“Okay,” he wiped the tears away. “But why you were so weird yesterday?”
“Well,” Sarada started, looking away. “It’s just… The reason I was sad was because I’ve never got to do that. When I was a kid, dad was away on a mission. And he didn’t come back until I was twelve. So mom was the only one I trained with. She’s the best, of course.” Sarada smiled. “But I missed that, you know? Can you imagine not having him around?” Mitsuo shook his head. “Well, he wasn’t here when I was a kid, so I didn’t train with him at all. He’s never taught me things like he’s doing to you, you know.” She admitted. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy that he’s here for you. That you can learn from both our parents. And I’m also really proud of you! If you want to, we can train together. I’ve always wanted to do that, but they wouldn’t let me because you’re young.” Sarada rolled her eyes at that and Mitsuo whined in clear agreement.
“I want you to train with me, nee-chan. Can we do that now?” He asked, smiling at her.
“Yep. Let’s do that!”
She grabbed him by the hand and they went to the backyard.
That’s how Sakura and Sasuke found them, training shuriken jutsu. They shared a smile, looking at the scene.
Sarada quickly noticed them, and then Mitsuo, who started to scream right away.
“Nee-chan is helping me to get better!” Mitsuo's grin was almost as big as his face.
“I’m glad.” Said Sasuke, looking from his son to his daughter, who was smiling as well.
“I said that I would have lunch with Chōchō so I’m leaving now.” She said to her parents. “Great work, Mitsuo. Let’s do it again when I get back!”
Mitsuo just nodded, watching his sister leave.
After lunch, he was coloring a book while Sasuke was sitting in the leaving room, watching over him.
“Papa,” Mitsuo called, and Sasuke looked at him, asking him to continue. “I asked nee-chan why she reacted like that yesterday.” He said like it was nothing.
“Really?” That got Sasuke’s full attention. “And what did she say?”
“That she was sad because you never trained with her when she was my age.” Mitsuo stopped coloring to talk to his dad. “She seemed really upset when she told me. She said that you were away on a mission. I think she gets that, but she’s sad anyway.” He went back to coloring. “I think you should talk to her to see if she wants you to train with her. Maybe that will make her happy.” Mitsuo gave him a smile.
Sasuke was immediately taken aback by what his son had just said. Although he knew Sarada had every reason to feel like that, he didn’t expect that to be how she truly felt at this point, since she’s never told him anything on the matter.
Later that day, when Sakura was making dinner with Mitsuo’s help, Sasuke knocked on his daughter door.
“Come in.”
“Can we talk?” He asked when he entered her bedroom and saw that she was lying in her bed, with her phone in hands.
“Sure.” She sat immediately, a little bit nervous by her father’s sudden question.
Sasuke sat on the chair next to her desk and looked straight at her. “Mitsuo’s told me the reason you left the backyard yesterday.” Sarada opened her mouth, but nothing came out, so Sasuke continued. “I understand that you feel this way, and I since the day I came back I imagined that would be an issue between us. However, I don’t understand why you never said anything about it.”
“Well,” Sarada bit her lip, looking down. “You being back made me so happy, and I could see how mom was happy too, and that was enough for me. When you decided to train Boruto instead of me, all I could think about was that I should be grateful that you were finally home, so tried to forget all about that.” She looked at his dark eye. “Seeing you and mom with Mitsuo yesterday… All those feelings came back. But I’m not jealous or anything. I’m just glad that he doesn’t have to go through the same things that I did because you weren’t here.” She knew that those words would hurt him, but she didn’t care.
At that moment, she was being honest, and she wanted him to feel the pain that she had felt because he wasn't there for her when she was little. Even though he was looking at her with the same expression as before, she was aware that she’d achieved her goal.
“Sarada,” her father started. “I’m truly sorry for not being here when you needed me. The reason why I didn’t train you was because I thought you didn’t need me to. You were so great― you are so great. I know that I don’t say this often, but your mother has done an amazing job on raising you and teaching you how to be strong and a skilled kunoichi. When I saw what you could do I just thought that I couldn’t possibly make you any better. I obviously made a mistake, because I should’ve spent that time with you.”
A lone tear rolled down her cheek and she wiped it right away.
“You’re damn right you should have.” That was all she said.
“Guys,” Sakura yelled from downstairs. “Dinner is ready. I’m not calling you a second time!”
Sarada was up in a second, ready to leave the room, but Sasuke immediately pulled her his way and hugged her.
“I’m so proud of you.” He stated. “Never forget that.”
Sarada just nodded, stepping aside and making her way to the dining room.
Mitsuo wanted Sarada to read him a story, so he went to her bedroom. She was already in bed, but since she was awake, he jumped on it and handed her one of the new books Kakashi gave him.
“Can you read it to me so I can sleep?”
“Yeah, sure,” she said, giving him some space so he could lay next to her.
When he got under the covers, she adjusted herself so she could read the book and still be comfortable next to her little brother.
When she was in the middle of the book, he asked her, “Nee-chan, did papa talk to you?”
Sarada stopped reading. “Yeah, why?”
“Well, I told him to.” He said, proudly. “I knew that you were sad and I thought that maybe you guys should train with each other.” He smiled brightly like he was some kind of genius.
Sarada let out a soft laugh. “Thanks, Mitsuo. After dinner, he asked if I wanted to spar tomorrow.”
“And what did you say?” asked Mitsuo, more excited than he should be. “Can I watch?”
“I said no.”
Mitsuo smiled faded. “Nee-chan! How could you do that? I was trying to make you happy!”
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” Sarada told him the truth. “Of course I said yes. I’m going to kick his ass tomorrow, you’ll see.”
“Nee-chan!” He said, cheerfully. And then recalled, “You said a bad word.”
“It’s not like you’ll tell mom and dad, right?” She started to tickle him.
“If you don’t stop tickling me I will!”
Sarada laughed and stopped it, going back to the book.
“Well, shall we finish the story then?” She asked.
“Yes!”
She started reading again, and soon Mitsuo fell asleep. She didn’t notice until she finished the book, putting it aside. She turned down the lamp on her nightstand and pulled the covers up so that they wouldn’t be cold in the middle of the night.
She fell asleep with a smile on her lips, thinking about how lucky she was to have that precious human being as her little brother.