Life as a single mother was difficult, and while there were lessons to be taken from speaking of her struggles with postpartum depression after Rinyūaru's birth, it was the one part of her story Sakura seldom spoke of.
It was personal. Meant for family. Words of comfort she could offer to her daughter, from one mother to another.
Besides, even after all these years, and knowing the science behind her depression, Sakura felt guilty for the funk she had sunk into. If not for Naruto and Sai, well, she was certain the Uchiha legacy would have ended with Sasuke.
Sakura chose to skip forward to Rinyūaru's decision to attend the academy.
"I never hid the truth of Rinyūaru's heritage from him. When my son decided to follow the path of a ninja, I sat him down and explained the great prejudice and expectations he would face, both as Sasuke's son, and an Uchiha."
Rinyūaru's expression was pensive upon exiting the Ninja Academy, a crisp white paper held firmly in one hand.
Sakura watched her son. The solemnness of the Uchiha clan seemed to be partially hereditary. His face was carefully blank, but Rinyūaru hadn't lived enough years to even name the emotions he was currently experiencing, let alone hide them from his mother.
She hadn't expected the young boy to be jumping for joy. Rinyūaru was very much his father's son in personality. Reserved and aloof. Rarely did his mother's fire make an appearance.
"I no longer wish to attend here, mother."
Sakura ruffled his pink locks. Thankfully his hair had darkened so it was more of a magenta color, and there were several spikes of black. She would never stand for other kids bullying her son over his two-toned hair, but she was grateful it wasn't as bright as hers.
"As you wish. Do you want umeboshi or daikon pickles with dinner tonight?"
Rinyūaru had no response ready for her, not having anticipated that his mother would so easily accept his decision to not attend the Ninja Academy. "Umeboshi. Are you not upset?"
"With pickled plums? Never," she laughed.
"Katayori-sensei said he wouldn't have me in his class. Said he wouldn't teach the village's next great traitor."
Motherhood had done wonders for Sakura's tempers. Had her teenage self heard those words she would have flown off in a rage. As it was, she pushed aside the flames of anger. Storming into this Katayori-sensei's classroom and shaking him like a ragdoll until he rescinded both his words and his attitude towards her son was a wonderful fantasy, but a fantasy nonetheless. As much as she would love to show him that he wasn't great, wasn't doing the village any favors by crushing a five—soon to be six as he constantly reminded her—year old's dream, reassuring her son was more important.
Besides, Sakura could get her revenge later, in subtler and undeniably petty ways.
"Your father may have left the village, but he wasn't a traitor."
Rinyūaru scoffed, fingers digging into the sleeves which bore the symbol of his father's clan. "Don't defend him, mother. Everyone knows what he did."
Everyone could go fuck themselves, was her less than charitable first thoughts. For all the Sasuke had abandoned the village, he hadn't done so with the intention of selling state secrets or other closely guarded knowledge like forbidden jutsu. Tsunade had honestly compared his departure to that of her fleeing Konoha in the wake of her brother's and lover's death. Widely different reasonings for leaving, but neither had any intentions of harming Konoha. Sasuke had only raised his blade when hunted down by Team Seven.
"Sasuke had a terrible way of showing he cared, but never doubt he did. Everything he did was for his family."
"Sasuke's past cast a rather large shadow, one Rinyūaru constantly struggled to accept. He loved a man he had never met because of his relation, and yet felt confined by his image and the accompanying expectations."
Sakura fondly recalled her son's first chuunin exam. It was within the village, thankfully, but the foreign shinobi had plenty to say about the next generation's last Uchiha. Her son, in spectacularly fashion, had deliberately failed in a grandiose way that proctors were still talking about, just to prove the world's expectations of him wrong.