Notes: I feel that Sarada's backstory was rushed, because there are certain holes that aren't resolved. So this is my attempt to fill some of them. Which means this chapter follows the actual manga much more closely and has a much stronger basis in canon. Which in turn will make it far more difficult for some to accept. I ask that you read the ENTIRE story before jumping to incorrect (or even correct) conclusions.

Summary: Failure to recall if your husband wears glasses, after a decade of marriage, when ninety percent of his offense is doujutsu-based, is a big deal. Someone should have looked into that. This is what may happen if they don't.

Springtime for Sarada

A Naruto Fanfic by

Nate Grey (xman0123-at-aol-dot-com)

Chapter 4: Sleeper

Naruto would not approve. But Sakura was not going to be responsible for the future of Naruto's clan. She was not Naruto's wife. She wasn't guarding Naruto's secrets.

It had to be done. The mission was too important, and the risk that vital facts could leak, too great.

Sakura could not reveal what she could not remember. What she was not allowed to remember.

His mind made up, Sasuke raised his hand over the sleeping form of his wife. His Sharingan glowed and swirled into the Mangekyo Sharingan. "Forget," he whispered, and a second later, Sakura's breathing slowed as the order took hold.

"How could you be married to him and not know if he wore glasses?!" Sarada demanded.

"Sarada, that's-" Sakura began, but trailed off, unable to answer.

Sarada glared at her mother, shaking her head. "Are you even really married to him? Your whole relationship is strange!"

The yell was expected, but the speed with which Sakura pulverized the ground between them with a single punch caught them both off guard. They both stared at each other, the heated tension giving way to awkwardness and regret.

After a moment, Sakura apologized from the bottom of her heart, wincing as she noticed Sarada's tears. She did her best to explain Sasuke's important work that kept him away, without actually explaining it, of course. And for the moment, Sarada accepted the apology... but not the explanation, Sakura could tell.

And before either of them could make another move, the entire house cracked and collapsed. And then so did Sakura, landing face-first on the ground as her monstrous strength left her in the space of a second.

But even as Sarada rushed over to check on her mother, she could not help but say it.

And even as blackness began to eat away at Sakura's consciousness, she could not help but hear it.

"How could you not remember?"

Because I'm not allowed to...

"Remember."

Sakura gasped loudly and sat up straight in a bed that was not her own, only to find a Mangekyo Sharingin filling her vision.

"Tell me about the child."

Sakura could not resist the order. And in fact, she did not want to. She was a mother, after all, and fiercely pround of her child, with good reason. Of course she wanted to brag.

It wasn't like she ever got the change to brag to Sasuke. That would require both some form of contact between them and an active interest in Sarada's life on his part. And even Sakura, who could freely admit her own many failings as a parent, could not pretend that Sasuke was doing an adequate job as Sarada's father.

Nor could she pretend that Sasuke had not warned her that this might be the case one day. It was true enough that Sasuke wanted to revive his clan, but he had been willing to wait, and Sakura had not. It was perhaps the one time that Sasuke had given in to her will.

Sarada was not a mistake, or a regret. Neither was marrying Sasuke. And while Sakura was not so immature as to expect a fairy tale marriage, least of all from Sasuke, she had still hoped for more than she had. And it was not so much that Sasuke hadn't tried at all, as it was that he stuck to what he was best at. Which had never been raising a family. And Sakura hadn't expected him to suddenly become the best father in the world.

But she had hoped that he would at least be there to disappoint their daughter in person. Which sounded silly, but carried far more weight after a decade of not even that much.

At this point, the only other two adults who showed any considerable interest in Sarada were Shino, as her teacher, and Naruto, as her... well, as everyone's, Hokage. Shino was an old comrade, and Naruto was more of lovable brother who had grown into someone who was not a total mess. And anyone would assume they cared more than Sarada's own father did, because you could at least see them caring.

So when the misshapen man showed any interest in Sarada, deep down, Sakura was thrilled. She told him everything he could ever need to know about Sarada. She even gave him the baby pictures in her wallet, would not even notice they were missing because she would automatically replace them with identical spares once she returned home.

He could not help but smirk at the irony: he now knew more about Sarada than her own father did. Locating and identifying her later on would be child's play.

"Conceal," Shin ordered, pointing at Sakura, and she nodded slowly, her eyes empty and unseeing.

The next time they saw each other, Sakura knew nothing, and attacked him with full force. That was to be expected. She had been made to forget twice over. There was no way for her to know unless ordered, and Sasuke was not the type to realize that someone else's key had been in his lock.

And it had been easy to find out, what type of man Sasuke was. Shin only needed to see Sasuke's form in Sakura's mind, a black shadow with no obvious features, to know that.

But even though she had no memory of Shin, the impluse to stop attacking when his eye was fixed upon her remained embedded within her body, as did his previous order. She told herself that she was buying time to learn his motivations, but it was far simpler: he would not let her attack again until he was prepared for her.

"People often underestimate genjutsu, and because of that, the damage done by them can actually prove irreparable."

Kurenai paused to gauge the reactions of the students, and whe she saw the disbelief, was glad she'd agreed to Shino's request to be a guest lecturer for the day. "Many people can train their bodies to build a resistance against many ninjutsu and taijutsu attacks. The more times they are exposed to them, the more likely they will find a way to avoid taking the maximum amount of damage intended by an attacker."

Several students murmured their agreement.

"But depending on the person, genjutsu can have the exact opposite result. If the wrong person experiences a single genjutsu that is powerful enough, it could reduce natural resistance and leave them more vulnerable to even the weakest level of genjutsu. That is part of why there are so few genjutsu masters, aside from those born with an obvious talent for it. Simply practicing on the same person too often could have unforeseen results."

"Conceal."

It was the only warning Sarada got before the kunai slammed into the pillow, where her head had been only a second before. She scrambled off the bed, and stared in horror up at her mother, who lifted the kunai, turned empty eyes on her, and lunged.

"Conceal."

Hinata asked no questions when Naruto burst through the door with a blood-drenched Sarada clutched tightly in his arms. She didn't need to. Once they got Sarada into the bathroom and began scrubbing the blood off of her face and arms, Naruto simply started talking, unable to keep it to himself. Sarada made the whole thing easier by remaining largely motionless.

"There was a genjutsu on Sakura," Naruto murmured. "As near as I can tell, she was ordered to conceal everything about Sarada. I don't know when it was put on her, but it might even explain why Sakura was so dodgy anytime she was asked about when and where Sarada was born. I knew Sakura would be sensitive about giving birth while Sasuke was gone, and I wanted to ask. But she said Karin was with her the whole time and brought her back safe, and Sarada was born healthy. I didn't want to pry. I should have."

"The blood?" Hinata prompted.

Naruto grimaced. "The command... it evolved somehow, from hiding information about Sarada, to erasing her existence entirely. Sakura tried to kill Sarada. But she must have been resisting the order with everything she had, because if she'd put all her effort into carrying it out, I wouldn't have made it in time." He paused and shook his head. "No, I still didn't make it in time. When I got there, Sarada was trapped in her bedroom. Sakura had blocked the door from the inside, so I went through the window. Sakura was hugging Sarada... or trying to crush her, I'm still not sure. But she had dropped the kunai, and Sarada-"

"She told me to do it," Sarada said dully. "While I could. She said she'd rather die than kill me. So I picked up the kunai, and then she was hugging me, and there was so much blood-"

"You don't have to talk about it," Hinata interrupted.

"You're right," Sarada agreed, giving her an uneasy smile. "There's no need. I see it every time I close my eyes." She paused, staring closely at Hinata. "Um, can I ask you something?"

"Anything, dear," Hinata encouraged.

"I know it's not the same, but maybe you know how." Sarada pointed at her brand new Mangekyo Sharingan. "I'd really like to turn this off now, please."

Endnotes:

Sakura was obsessed with Sasuke for most of her life, yet claims she doesn't know if he wore glasses. There are only two possible explanations for this.

1) Sakura is horrible at lying to people she loves. There is evidence of this, given her love confession to Naruto, and her claim of leaving Konoha to join Sasuke. Neither believed the lie, so hopefully Sakura would learn from that and either never do it again, or get better at it. Though, she clearly didn't get better at it or learn from it, which makes this a weak excuse to me.

2) Sakura genuinely can't remember, due to genjutsu. Sasuke has used genjutsu on her before, so there is precedence for it. Although if Sasuke has truly changed, I fail to see how being unable to trust Sakura to keep her mouth shut is evidence of that change. The only way that would be acceptable is if Sakura asked him to do it.

So I must lean to the genjutsu answer, for the simple fact that there is no real reason to lie about Sasuke wearing glasses (though there is also no reason to conceal that with genjutsu). Whether he did or didn't, the fact that Sakura doesn't wear glasses would still imply that Karin had a greater chance of being Sarada's real mother either way. And of all the things to lie about in Sasuke's past, lack of headgear is a silly one.

I am sure some won't like the implication that Sasuke is behind Sakura's bad memory. But unless you want to blame poor storytelling, I can't imagine who else could be, without someone close to Sakura noticing and attempting to fix it. And since no rules ever apply to Sasuke, him having done it is the only case I can imagine where Naruto and Shizune and Ino see Sakura all the time, know something isn't right, and do nothing about it. The alternative is that they noticed something wrong, Sasuke wasn't responsible, and they failed to do everything in their power to get him to come home and at least try to fix it.

I credit Shin with forcing Sakura to hide all info on Sarada, even from Sarada herself. Yes, this could have been Sasuke as well, but there are again two reasons why I doubt that. First, Sasuke being responsible would require him to have far more interest in Sarada than he had shown in a decade, so it would be wildly out of character for him to be behind this. Second, the fact that Sasuke doesn't recognize Sarada when they are reunited, and very nearly attacks her, suggests that he has not been overly concerned with keeping track of her or how safe she is. Kaguya took priority even over that.

Shin, on the other hand, has far more sensible motivation. Keeping this information from Sarada eventually drives her to leave the village in search of Sasuke, which exposes her to Shin. By capturing her, he could use her for spare parts, or lure Sasuke into a trap. Assuming Sasuke would actually attempt to save her or could even be reached in a timely manner. And assuming Sarada had actually gained her Sharingan in the traditional way, failure to meet Sasuke, or failure to get answers from him, could have awakened it.

I actually do invite opinions and debates on this, because this is the only explanation I've been able to come up with that makes sense to me. I don't want to blame this on poor storytelling, I really don't. In part because I like Sarada way more than I do Boruto, but mostly because her backstory is way more interesting than Boruto's, and deserves to have had some serious thought invested in it.