Sunlight dances through the leaves as Sarada leans back against the tree and passes the water bottle over to her father. They had just finished a training session and stray shurikens and wire strings littered the surrounding ground. Papa has been teaching her to harness and channel lightning chakra through the tools. Progress was slow going—she isn't the prodigy her father or Uncle Kakashi was, but she has inherited both her parents' determination and penchant for hard work.
As they sit side by side eating the delicious bentos prepared by Mama, Sarada tries to think of the best way to approach her intended conversation.
Her father wasn't a man of many words, and most people wouldn't hesitate to call him cold or unfeeling. But she wasn't so easily fooled. She has seen the way he looks at Mama when he thinks no one is watching, and how he listens to her and Mama's endless chatter sincerely and without complaint and remembers even the most insignificant details. The way he feeds the stray cats around the village and overpays the elderly vendors in the markets struggling to keep up with the modern supermarket chains. Or when he took in Boruto as his pupil, when her teammate felt neglected by his father.
And most of all, she sees it in the way he risks his life for the sake of others and their village.
No, her father was a kind man, who—from what she has learned from Mama and Lord Seventh—feels too much rather than too little.
Besides, she finds that he tends to be in a much more open and sharing mood after a training session—or whenever Mama was near him.
Gathering her courage, she begins, "Papa, you and Mama were in the same class in the academy, and then in the same genin team, right?"
"Hn," her father nods in reply.
"Did you love her straight away?" she asks with a small hopeful voice, prompting him to face her, his eyebrows rising slightly at the unexpected question.
Sarada has always longed to hear her parents' love story. While she has heard bits and pieces from her mother over the years, her father's side was a complete mystery to her. She has often wondered what drew him to her mother. She can think of a hundred things off the top of her head—like her gentle smiles that never fail to make Sarada feel at peace, the lovingly packed bentos always filled with mouth-watering foods, her dedication to her patients and the village, the astonishing power of her fists and even her bone-crushing hugs laced with love and care.
So when her father answers, "No," matter-of-factly, Sarada deflates. She should have known better. It was too much to expect a romantic monologue like in the movies Chouchou likes to drag her to; where the protagonists sweep the objects of their affections off their feet with grand, passionate speeches—often in the rain for some inane reason.
"She crept up on me," he continues a moment later, and the soft content smile that graces his face was better than all the lofty romantic declarations on-screen.
After all, their feelings were truly connected.
A/N: A very short fluffy drabble inspired by a line said by Finnick in The Hunger Games trilogy. I thought it fit well with Sasuke and SS.
I love the idea of exploring SS from other people's POV. I'm tempted to write another drabble from someone else's POV but not sure who tbh.
I'm a newbie to writing, so I would appreciate any and all feedback 😊