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There were houses, and houses, and more houses.
They were all empty, dusty, old, and unmaintained; long forgotten in history, too dirty and unethical to remember and teach the next generation.
Sarada walks through the abandoned streets, counting the number of houses she can see. Each house counts as at least one family. And they were all like her.
She finds a lake behind several very nice houses (for old homes) and she picks up small rocks and throws them into the blue lake.
The reflection of the sky wobbles when the stones hit the surface, trying to reach the other end of the lake.
She stays there for a while longer, wondering how she feels.
It's very morbid to be here, where clearly people used to live and now there's nothing even left. But on the other hand she feels comforted. It's her family history, and she likes this place.
She passes by a stone fence to one of the bigger households, and on it painted the Uchiha Clan crest.
The fan symbolizes the fire burning stronger inside of Uchihas.
Her father once explained quietly, a long time ago.
She looks at it, raising her shoulders. The only one carrying it now, is her back. However, there was a time and place, where there were others.
Now, this place is on the outskirts, forgotten and abandoned by the village.
Maybe her dad visits.
Does he remember living here?
Does he remember life in this ghost place?
"Why wouldn't you tell me?" Sarada whispers, glasses slipping down her nose and she doesn't bother pushing them back up. "You said I was the future, but I can't go further, if I don't know what's behind us."
With a mad desire to see her clan crest somewhere where the village will acknowledge it, she vows to always carry it, and to become Hokage one day – not just to prove herself, but to give life to this forgotten history. They'll carve her face up on the tallest, most important, mountain, and when they do she'll be wearing earrings with the Uchiha clan crest, and they'll hang right up there, and they won't be able to ignore it anymore.
That evening before returning home she makes another special order with Ten-Ten-San, and when she gets an estimated price she realizes she might only be able to afford one earring with her Genin salary.
Her wallet lighter than ever, she returns home to complain to her mother about the economy much to Sakura's confusion.
Her mother nods tiredly, pretending to understand, and falls asleep within five minutes of their meal onto her soup bowl, exhausted from working overtime because of Flu Season.
Sarada stares at her, as bubbles form from the snoring Sakure makes inside her soup.
Sarada sighs tiredly, helps her mom to bed, cleans up, and heads to bed for an early morning.
She dreams of empty spaces full of sounds of footsteps and chatter, and smells of food cooking, flowers, and a fire, growing bigger and bigger, and the sounds of hundreds of invisible people fanning it, breathing life to it.
Then they vanish, and the big fire becomes a tiny little flame.
It's going to die!
In a panic, Sarada runs as fast as she can, and grabs a fan. It's red and white. She fans hard, as hard as she can. But it's still dying.
All those people, and she's just going to let it die.
Ring Ring!
Her alarm clock rings off, and she's being pulled away from the little flame, desperate for air.
Than another fan swishes, as one real arm quickly sets the flame steady.
Ring Ring!
Sarada turns her head, at the tall man, clad in a long black cloak –
"You can't save it if you're not here!" Sarada yells, tears falling down her cheeks, as she sits up in her bed.
Ring Ring!
Sarada Uchiha turns off the alarm clock and numbly walks to the bathroom to brush her teeth, wondering how long it will be until she sees her father again this time around.
Sarada walks through the chilly fresh air of dawn, light on her feet and ready for a long day of hard training.
As she turns around, she hears footsteps, battle cries, and the swooshing sounds of kunais and shuriken being thrown.
It looks like someone beat her to it.
Curiously, she peeks through the trees – only to duck from a flying flurry of shuriken coming for her head.
"Who's there?!"
Sarada comes out of hiding, raising her brow at the purple hair girl.
"Oh, Sarada-chan. I'm sorry!"
"No, it's fine. Why are you training here?" Sarada walks up to her.
"Oh I found this place yesterday running patrol for the village, and thought it would be a good place to train. Is this where you usually train?" Sumire brushed her braid back, and straightened up from her fighting position.
"Well, somewhat." Sarada points at the monument stone, a ways up the hill. "It's sort of an Uchiha Clan spot."
Sumire blushes. "Oh – s-s-sorry!"
"…I said its fine. Do you want some company?"
It took thirty minutes for Sarada to realize that she only managed to keep up because Shuriken has been her specialty since the academy.
"You're good." Sarada admits, breathing hard.
Sumire rushes to deny it. "What?! Hahahah, no, I'm average – totally average!"
"No, you are. I don't know why you refuse to acknowledge it, but I barely kept up with you. You're good."
Sumire's usual fluster vanishes and she's hesitant. "I always wanted to try shuriken practice with you." She says shyly. "You looked like you'd keep up and some." She grins. "And you did."
So you knew you'd stand on equal footing? How long have you been leagues further than you let on?
Sarada suddenly realized Sumire is much more interesting than she appears to be.
"Sumire… How about we have breakfast, and we can try Taijutsu next?" Sarada smirks. "That is, if you think I could keep up."
Sumire grins, her purple eyes narrowing. "Well Metal could probably keep up better, but I'll give you a chance." She calls, despite knowing Sarada's question was rhetorical.
Sarada stretches, ready to go all out. "If I 'keep up' you're paying for food." The economy these days is outrageous, after all.
"Win one match, and we'll talk." Sumire replies, grinning sweetly.
"Hey hang on, where did the shy subconscious girl vanish to so quickly?" Sarada whistles.
"She's broke – Genin aren't paid much, you know." Sumire shrugs and Sarada remembers hearing something about the girl living all alone (probably hard to get by).
"Tell me about it."
"Unbelievable." Sarada announces, watching the very last of her money vanish. "I lost."
"You cheated."Sumire reminds her.
"I did no such thing." Sarada glares.
Sumire grins kindly, taking a smug bit of her meal. "Using ninjutsu during a purely taijutsu match is blatant cheating."
"My Kekki Genkai isn't a ninjutsu."
"You wouldn't have been allowed to use your sharingan during a taijutsu test in the academy, would you?"
"…"
"Right, like I said, you clearly cheated." Sumire hums as she slurps her cold drink.
"That wasn't bad, as far as morning training goes." Sarada admits.
Sumire grins. "Right. You don't shy from hard work, Sarada. Even if it's just training. We should do it again tomorrow – oh, only if you want, of course –"
"Sounds good."
Sumire grins. "That's great! Another free breakfast!"
Sarada rolls her eyes. "Oh how sweet, you're a dreamer."
Sumire chuckles and they eat, occasionally making mock-snide comments to each other.
"So your new skills, how do they fit with Team 15?" Sarada eventually asks, curious.
"My team knows, yes." Sumire says carefully. "My teammates are supportive, and they accepted me the way that I am, when they realized. It didn't take them very long, honestly." Sumire remembers, looking embarrassed.
Sarada debated whether to ask or not, but knew Sumire wasn't likely to give her a truthful answer. At least she's honest with her team.
"Ah, I guess sometimes I feel like Namida and Wasabi should be protected, so they can keep the more childish side of them." Sumire says, looking out the glass window contemplatively. "But once in a while their innocence makes it a bit hard… because I know being a shinobi is going to take that away from them too, sooner or later. It should've already, but we're in times of peace. Still, I'm not looking forward to being there to see it happen." Sumire grimaces.
"Mmh." Sarada nods, understanding – the same is true to a lot of their friends who they graduated the academy with.
"Sometimes I thought –" Sumire choughs and looks away.
"What?"
"It just seems like Mitsuki-kun has been in the same boat as me for a while."
Sarada blinks. "… I doubt it."
Mitsuki probably wanted to be there when it happened to Boruto – but he wasn't. And he didn't care enough when it happened to me, back at the academy when I went to find my father.
Unless that doesn't count.
"What do you consider innocence?" Sarada asks seriously.
Sumire looks troubled. "Sorry Sarada, but if you have to ask…"
"…Right."
Not long afterwards, they've finished eating and Sumire headed out to meet up with team 15 to head out to a mission.
Sarada's walking through the streets, wondering what to do with herself.
It sure feels like the village gave up on her, in a way.
Her teammates are both gone, and she hasn't heard anything about what she's supposed to be doing now.
She could always go off, find her own thing now that she's alone.
She could go to Fifth, or ask her mother to train her as an apprentice but she really doesn't want to be a medic-nin. She's grateful to the basic training her mother made sure she had, even beyond the academy's requirements, in the field. She knew her mother was worried that Sarada's life as a shinobi would be a dangerous one (like her own was) but Sarada knows that's not the road she wants to take.
Who else can she ask?
In a burst of wind Konohamaro appears before her.
"Sarada!" he calls, giving the impression that he's been solely focused on looking for her.
Sarada is unimpressed. "So glad you remember me after all. I've been worried for your memory, Sensei."
Konohamro-Sensei sighs. "Hey I've been tracking you all across the village, you know? Give me a break, Kora!" He pulls out a green scroll from his flak jacket. "You're summoned to a chat with Lord Seventh tomorrow, yeah? He'll go over what you'll be doing from now on." He hands it to her. "Make sure you're there; don't make me look bad Kora!"
Sarada scoffs.
I'm not the one who doesn't show up between us.
Konohamro-Sensei shivers. "Oi don't do that Sarada! You remind me of your dad back when he was scarier than he is now."
Like I care.
Sarada held back, because she's actually heard her father say that on multiple occasions to people he didn't think much of (namely Lord Sixth) and she'll never admit to her Sensei about how she used to say it to herself in the mirror to marvel at how uncanny she resembled him.
"Is that it?" Sarada asks at once.
"Yeah, I need to go but I'll try to make it tomorrow, in case you need me at the meeting." He nods at her and flickers out of sight quickly.
Sarada eyes the green scrolls. She looks through it briefly, then shoves it in her tool bag attached to her low hip and heads out to the hospital to go visit her friend.
It turns out Cho-Cho has finally been released from the hospital, along with the entire Akimichi clan members*, so Sarada went with her to the hamburger restaurant for lunch.
"Ehhhhhh?! Konohamro-Sensei is too much! I can't believe you didn't take that scroll and shove it up his -!"
"You're too loud. It's fine; at least tomorrow I'll have some instructions."
"Yeah but it's ridiculous that they just leave a genin up in the air like that for so long! And it's not like you can make a scene with Seventh – so really you should've gotten it off your chest and shouted at Konohamro some."
"You're logic strangely makes sense." Sarada blinks. "I must be hungrier than I though."
Cho-Cho tosses her long hair behind her shoulder and glares at Sarada. "Excuse me but this beautiful young woman thinks you can go shove it yourself!"
They both place their orders and sit down at a boot.
"You're ordering two salads?" Sarada asks, noticing.
"I don't know, I guess I'm trying to eat healthy now." Cho-Cho sighs. "My parents talked to me about using that secret jutsu to get thin like that, they said it wasn't good for my body to keep doing it. I love myself, but sometimes the way people look at me… I guess I can't be skinny anyways, because then I'll be a weak ninja – all the Akimiji ninja's are big. But I could be a little less big…Oh, whatever!" Cho-Cho stuffs her mouth with a tomato, blushing.
"I'm happy you'll be healthier Cho-Cho, you haven't been eating well since we've been little. I hope you'll achieve what you're hoping for from this." Sarada grins, without meaning to.
Cho-Cho got a sly grin on her face that told Sarada she's going to be teased.
"You're worried about me, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I guess I'd prefer it if my friend lived long as a healthy person."
Cho-Cho grumbles. "Takin the fun out of teasing you."
"So no more Potato Chips?" Sarada chuckles, thinking of her friend's trade mark.
"Of course I'll still be eating Potato Chips! This is just a during-meals thing." Cho-Cho says, looking appalled.
She's definitely not going to drop weight.
"You know, I think you'll drop more weight if you train more – that way the time spent training you also wouldn't spend eating."
Cho-Cho looks reluctant.
"And I don't know that all Akimiji have to be fat. You could still be big, if we replaced that fat with muscles."
Cho-Cho blinks. "Did you just call me fat?"
"Come on, Cho-Cho – I'm offering this seriously. I don't think you'll be skinner but you'll be so much more in control of your body, and you'll be healthy."
"I… I guess. But I barely show up for the training I already got." She huffs her brown pony tail up in frustration.
"I'll do it with you, I don't mind. This way you have to show up."
"Urghh!" Cho-Cho leans backwards. "Why are you being so supportive right now?"
"You're my friend."
"Urghhh!"
"So?"
"I'll obviously do it!" Cho-Cho whines. "Also –"
"Yes?"
"Thank you."
Sarada nods politely, and the two eat lunch.
When they've finished Cho-Cho leaves in a jug, late for training with her team and Sarada is left to acknowledge the fact that she's got nothing to do.
She walks again, planning to go practice her ninjutsu before it gets dark, when she hears the weirdest noises.
"Eeeerg!"
"Eeeeeeeerg!"
"Geeeeeeeeeeeeer!"
"Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrr!"
Sarada crosses the street, leaving the houses and heading towards the main forest.
"Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg!"
"Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg!"
"That's the spirit Metal!" Lee-San, the village jonin calls, grabbing unto a branch one handed and pushing himself up and down, praising Metal for keeping up.
"Yes!"
Sarada watches them, and realizes Metal copies his father's noises of excitement, trying to impress him.
"Oh, what are you doing there?" Lee-San notices Sarada.
"Sarada-Chan?" Metal looks.
"I –"
I was just leaving.
"I have no one to train with."
Lee is quietly appraising her.
Metal's eyes widen and he looks up at his dad. "Papa can she join us?"
"Sarada-Chan, right?" Lee asks.
Sarada nods once, embarrassed.
"I would like to test your spirit of youth. In order to train with us, you'll first need to train with us for a week without quitting, and I won't take it easy on you!"
Sarada blinks. "So I can train with you?"
"No! You must first train with us before I accept you training with us!" Lee calls grandly.
"That's great Sarada-Chan! A test of will power!" Metal's eyes are shining.
Sarada makes up her mind and shrugs, heading over and prepares for the worst.
"I've got will power."
"Excellent! Let's start off easy – 400 pushups!" Lee calls.
"Yes!" Metal cheers and joins Sarada without hesitation.
At least it's productive (though sadistic).
* If you're wondering what happened there, it'll be mentioned in Part 2 ch 2
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