I Do Not Own Naruto

Chapter 24

Sarada ran into the apartment just moments after Sakura had gotten dressed, and walked out of the bathroom leaving Sasuke in the shower.

"I kicked ass!" she declared with glee.

"Hello Sarada, and watch your language young lady," Sakura chided.

"Sorry mom," Sarada said gleefully as she hopped into her seat for super.

"How'd did it go aside from butt kicking?" Sakura asked as she mused Sarada's messy hair. Sasuke emerged from the bathroom then in his pants as he toweled his hair.

"Great! I took out the two Kiri genin with ease, it was boring, but Boruto almost screwed it all up, but somehow he pulled it altogether in the end," Sarada frowned at her words and Sakura sighed as Sasuke's own visible eye narrowed dangerously then.

"Dad! Dad! Did you hear! I passed to the final round!" Sarada spun in her chair and her eyes widened at the sight of her father's scarred chest. "How'd you get those!?" she gasped.

"Hm?" he looked confused and she pointed to his scars, he looked down then.

"Oh," he grunted and then shrugged as he walked into their room for a shirt again. Sakura chuckled at Sarada's baffled look and then she looked at the table.

"Mom? How did dad get all those scars?" she timidly asked.

"By fighting, your father's a fighter, the one on his ribs is curtesy of me, and his arm is your uncle Naruto's handy work, and the one on his abdomen was from Kakashi for some dispute they had shortly after the war. As to the rest… when he's ready he'll be willing to tell you Sarada. Now, about your examines…" Sakura trailed off. Immediately her daughter perked up and went into detailed story telling as she recounted the closed section of the examines. It appeared that Sarada had gotten into a fight with two of the Kiri genin, but between her chakra punches and her Sharingan she had literally knocked them off of the battle field.

Shikamaru had praised her personally for having accomplished this, and she had seen the Kumo genin pale as the three Kiri genin were carried out on stretchers. Sakura chuckled knowing that there was much to fear from Sarada, she may have looked the small and cute part but she was entirely her father's daughter and dangerous as they came.

Sasuke smirked with pride as she informed them she had knocked the two genin out of the battle field, and Sakura had laughed when she said it had Boruto and Mitsuki in fear at the sight of her victims. Sasuke was smiling maliciously like Sarada was; they both looked like tigers who had captured a dragon and were deciding the best way to kill it. If Sakura hadn't happened to be related to the two of them she'd have been cowering in fear.

"Is that all?" Sakura asked sweetly as she started clearing the table of dinner.

"Yup," Sarada grinned smugly.

"Congratulations," Sasuke poked her brow affectionately and she giggled with her delight. Uchihas were not big on affection, it literally took extremes for them to express anything in public, but in private, Sakura had come to know her daughter and husband to be very passionate about their interests.

"Hey, when I get to being a chūnin can I go on a mission with you dad? Please!" she pleaded.

"We'll see," he shrugged. It was no promise but it was not a rejection. He stood then. "I have to go," he said as he walked to the door.

"Really?" Sarada yawned.

"The scroll?" she asked.

"Aa, sleep well, there's more training to be done before the third round, I'll see you in the morning," he said as he walked out of the apartment. Sakura sighed when the door shut and looked to her exhausted daughter.

"Sarada, go shower and then I'll make us some coco and we'll watch your favorite movie before you go to bed," Sakura offered.

"Aa!" she beamed and yawned as she walked into the bathroom.

Smiling to herself she did the dishes quickly and had the coco going when she walked into her room and pulled on her lazy pajamas for hers' and Sarada's traditional movie night. Pulling up her hair she went to the kitchen and poured the coco then as she walked to the sitting area where the couch was and set up for herself and Sarada.

Sarada came out of the bathroom with a mass of wet ebony hair brushed back and her glasses were in her hand.

"Mama?"

"Yes?"

"When did papa realize he loved you?" Sarada asked as they sat on the couch. Sakura looked to her young daughter and sighed.

"Well, that is a long story and one best told when your father is not around to interrupt it," she mused, for Sasuke would censor the story and Sakura censored nothing for Sarada. If her daughter were to ask then Sakura gave Sarada the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And in asking her daughter would learn of Sasuke's dark past and Sakura was only going to tell it to Sarada if Sasuke was not around to interrupt to try to get her to loath him.

"Oh, but can you tell me when?" she asked.

"Yes, your father first told me he loved me five years into our marriage on the day Himawari was born just before he left us the first time to complete his mission," Sakura answered. Sarada blinked owlishly at her mother.

"Five years into your marriage?" she sputtered.

"Your father is not one to tell anyone anything," Sakura defended with a devious smile. "Also, he didn't know what love was. And one day when he's gone for a day I'll tell you all about it because Kami knows that is a story that will take an entire day to explain."

"I always thought dad loved you though?" Sarada sipped her coco.

"It's complicated," Sakura blatantly admitted. "Why are you interested in this now?"

"No reason, I just hear Shikamaru mention something to Shikadai as we were told we could go home," Sarada admitted with a yawn and Sakura hit play on the movie.

"Oh? And what was that?"

"Marry her, troublesome girls are always the best," Sarada said and Sakura choked on the coco not because it was scalding hot though, but at the thought of Shikamaru saying that about Sarada! He had only ever said that about Temari or Ino (though with Ino it was in a brotherly way).

"Ah Sasuke, glad you could join us!" Shikamaru clasped his shoulder and Sasuke blinked in shock at the warm welcome he was receiving when the rest of the village scorned him for simply being here. "Did you hear about what Sarada did?"

"Aa, told us at dinner," he said uncertainly. Sasuke wasn't a social man, and he wasn't one who knew social pleasantries and aside from Kakashi, Juugo, and Naruto he did not have many friends. He had Sakura, but she was not only his best friend in the entire world (and if the dobe ever found that out he'd deny it), but she was his wife, lover, and mother of his child. But aside from them, he did not have 'friends', so he was confused as to Shikamaru's attitude towards him.

"Very impressive, even at twelve," Shikamaru mused.

"Aa," he grunted.

"You and Sakura must be very proud," Shikamaru beamed.

"I heard your son did well as well," Sasuke said as they walked the halls and he slowly felt himself relax with the laziest shinobi ever. Though he knew Shikamaru had changed in that regard he also couldn't forget the lazy child he had been.

"Yes, very well," Shikamaru beamed with pride. "He's got his mother's eyes and can plan well in the moment, but he's also a strategist like myself. Though it would be interesting to see Sarada and Shikadai go toe to toe, don't you think?" he asked.

"Aa," he grunted; for he didn't know if it'd be interesting or not; but he hoped Sarada was like Itachi and Sakura and could demolish her opponents without flinching or blinking or breaking a sweat. It was startling how much of Itachi he could see in her, she had so much of himself in her and Sakura's temper, but she was like his brother in thinking and how to work her problems. So, if she was like her uncle in any measure like he thought she was, and if Shikadai was a strategist like his father then there was going to be a good match between two very skilled children.

"Alright, now to business, welcome to the deciphering brain of the Ōtsutsuki text!" Shikamaru said as they entered a huge cavern like room with a large glowing ball above and streams of data pouring down into a pit.

"Impressive," he admitted.

"Yes, Ino helped us design it to be efficient, this is what the Intelligence Division fondly calls, the Brain," Shikamaru informed him. This made him think of what dobe jr. had told him earlier about computers and Sarada's information on cellphones, and it brought up another question he had about this new technology.

"What is an email?" Sasuke asked.

Shikamaru blinked then laughed, Sasuke scowled.

"Ah Kami, I forget you're not around for all of our new inventions and are behind the times, you still use messenger hawks," Shikamaru huffed out.

"It's reliable unlike that blasted cellphone!" he snarled out. He didn't admit he had set the annoying device aflame with Amaterasu.

"Well, Uchiha, an email is…"

Four hours of work later Sasuke found himself ready to leave and return home for some sleep, it was well past one in the morning and he had a six o'clock training session with Sarada on using her Sharingan before he would meet up with dobe jr. at ten in the morning for his training. It was only when the machine started spitting out nonsense that he frowned, now it was not making sense and it wasn't deciphering. Sighing he hit the 'reset' button Shikamaru had informed him of.

Sasuke looked around the brain and found himself to be completely alone and he looked up at the data pouring out of it as it worked to decipher the scroll he had stolen. It was the footsteps which alerted him to the coming of someone else. The chakra signature though was of dobe; the original and not a shadow clone.

"Is it going to take more time to decipher?" he asked, he didn't know if the scroll was near complete or not, he hadn't read it since the first attempt and even then it wasn't all that much.

"Sorry, looks like they hit a snag," Naruto said blandly.

"I see," he nodded. "I'll come back later," he decided. Probably tomorrow night when training and his family time was complete. Turning he left before he fell asleep where he stood.

"Sasuke," he stopped. "I heard you're training him."

"Did Boruto tell you that?" he inquired. The answer would reveal a lot to him, no matter what it was.

"No, Konohamaru did," Naruto admitted. Sasuke looked to the dobe then.

"I see," he growled. So the dobe and dobe jr. weren't on speaking terms. He would interrogate Naruto about this in the morning. After his time with Sarada but before he trained with Boruto. Perhaps he'd just do what Naruto did and send a shadow clone.

"Maybe you were right," Naruto sighed. "The soul of a shinobi remains the same." He sounded slightly hopeful and happy at this, Sasuke straightened up. Though Boruto was a cheater he would bear the punishment alone and when he was caught, Sasuke would not tell Naruto what his son was up to yet.

"I believe that to be true," he said stiffly and he left before he could punch the dobe for his obvious neglect towards his family. Sasuke would give his right arm to be near his family and yet he could be near them for good yet. And the dobe was here, he was home and he had his family home as well, and yet… and yet it appeared the dobe couldn't even be bothered with his family.

Sasuke left before he did something he'd regret later like throttling the dobe.

Walking home in the dark he walked into the apartment to find both his girls asleep, together, on the couch and the television screen to be blue. Turning off the television he activated his Sharingan as he lifted Sarada off her mother and took her to her room, tucking her in, she grumbled, and he kissed her brow before she turned over to her stomach then. Smirking he walked back to living area and found two mugs and her glasses on the table. Picking them all up he put the mugs in the sink, then he returned the glasses to Sarada's room before coming back for his wife. Again he used Susanoo's arm to lift her up and he carried her to their room again.

Once Sakura was tucked in, he peeled off his shirt and crawled into the bed beside her. She promptly scooted into his warmth as he draped his arm around her waist.

"Love you," she breathed as she slept and he smiled to himself as he let the contentment and sleep over take him.

No, I do not ship Boruto & Sarada; I actually can't unless there's major character development on Boruto's part. I like Sarada a lot, Boruto... not so much. However, I do like the Nara kid, and am completely onboard the ship of Shikadai & Sarada. I think they'd be a hell of a pair, and have enemies running scared, so don't expect Boruto & Sarada in this story or any of my stories unless he develops.

That's all for now folks.

Enjoy Dobe Jr. =)