this is an AU, which will probably be spoiler-free from the manga. just some mentions of kawaki, maybe kara but probably not. if there are any spoilers, which i doubt there will be, i'll put a warning beforehand.
EDITED
Now, let's start with some Kakashi POV.
It fills his days, being a sensei again.
It's something he never knew he missed, or isn't sure he actually did. Maybe he just accepted Sakura's request because it came with a sense of familiarity.
Because the years pass, and the wars end and peace reigns, but that feeling—that sense of you-never-know-when-the-other-shoe-finally-drops—never actually goes away (with good reason, as it turns out). And why would it, when it's all you've ever known? Kakashi was born into it. Raised into it. Died in it, then resurrected in it again. And training someone, someone who not only wants to become Hokage, but also wants to protect their friends in case of another Otsutsuki attack—well, it reassured him in a particular sense.
Still, he wonders, what exactly pushed him to train Sarada, when he finally lived to see the day where he was free of all obligations. When he could finally make his own hours, read his Icha Icha books and and annoy Gai all he wanted.
(Okay, aside from his Hokage years, it wouldn't change a lot from what he's been doing since he left ANBU, but this time there would have been no silent urgency, no background noise in his head, telling him to get the fuck up and out of bed.)
Maybe it's not nostalgia, or simple stupidity. Maybe it's the simplest of reasons: good old guilt and the imaginary debt that results from it. The guilt of leaving Sakura to be trained by others, of having failed to keep Sasuke in Konoha, or the simple guilt that would inevitably invade his body at the refusal to do his duty and train yet another next generation kid.
And Sarada… She's everything Sakura should've been at her age, but far from what she was just a few years later.
When it comes to ninjutsu, at least.
"Try again," Kakashi says. "You have great chakra control, but it takes more than that to hold a jutsu."
Sarada huffs, but does as she is told. Learning the Chidori takes time, it took Sasuke one month to perfect it.
Sarada's hand starts to light up and crackle, the sound of a thousand birds filling the air (the sound of a thousand death and a thousand battles). He looks away, on reflex, when his new student's face starts to morph into Sasuke's.
She catches him in the act, and the jutsu increases briefly before it disappears with a deafening, teeth-grinding sound.
"How are you supposed to tell me how I can improve if you don't even pay attention to what I'm doing?" Sarada asks rhetorically.
"If you let such a benine thing distract you, I have to tell you; I'm not the problem here," Kakashi retorts. "Your focus is."
Sarada growls very lightly, considering her words. "Well, you have very feminine hips and you'll never be able to fix that."
That's another thing about Sarada; she's even better than Sasuke at making you feel like shit, because she actually puts in the effort. Fortunately, Kakashi has thick skin, hardened by war and loss but mostly years of teaching a traumatized Sasuke, a hormonal Sakura and a Naruto. Plus, he's never been one to care about the insults that were thrown at him, and seeing Sarada huff in irritation at his lack of reaction reminds him melancholically of Obito. An involuntary smile starts to grow on his lips.
He shakes the thoughts of his old teammate out of his mind. He's got another Uchiha to deal with and she deserves his full attention.
In the end, the practice goes as all others do:
He tells her how to do a jutsu. She struggles. She gives him some more gray hair. Then she does it, or just a little better.
Then. Then she looks at him, like she wants to say—no, ask something. But she never does, and that's when the worst parts of Sakura in her manifest, the parts Sakura had to cry, sweat, bleed and live without Team Seven for two years to get rid of.
Oh, Sarada, you really got the worst of your parents' genetics.
He tells her so one day, when she punches the ground so hard it breaks, after yet another failed attempt at Chidori. It's a crappy thing to say, and he mostly just said it to—bond, maybe? Is that what's missing from those sessions? Is that what compells him to keep coming back to the training grounds three times a week at the ass crack of dawn for a kid so insufferable she got an award for it in the Academy?
(Is he just trying to recreate the happiest times of his life with her?)
Anyway, it doesn't have the intended effect.
"And your hair looks like it's trying to escape from your face," she retorts.
Ah, that ability of her, to zero in to that one aspect of yourself you neglected to take care of today.
"It's funny, Sakura didn't like my hair either when she was your age."
"So you've had the same haircut for the past twenty years? ...Because you liked it so much?"
He chuckles at that. She's funny – no, she's brilliant. He really likes her.
Kakashi knows why they can't bond, as a sensei and his pupil. First of all, he was not Sarada's first choice for a sensei. Second, what silver lining she found in him from being the Rokudaime quickly stopped to matter when she met him. And third, he's too close to Sakura and Sasuke for her to really respect him. He heard her compare him to a 'weird, perverted uncle' to Boruto once.
(He took it as a compliment. Kakashi treasures any similarities he shares with Lord Jiraiya).
It doesn't help that even after a whole month, Sarada still doesn't learn Chidori.
There are a multitude of reasons; Sasuke trained everyday, whereas Sarada only half as much. Her father also had the pressure of the chuunin exams and a murderous Gaara on his mind. The times were different, everything felt more urgent. And Sarada's goal just doesn't compare to twelve year old Sasuke's when it comes to giving you tunnel vision.
But somehow, Kakashi still blames himself. And even though, on the thirtieth day, Sarada stalks off angrily muttering angry words about his 'child-bearing hips,' Kakashi knows she'd rather blame herself too.
Things change the day right after.
Sarada comes for an impromptu training session and something's obviously playing on her mind, as her jutsu gets less and less precise.
She stops, after her fifth attempt, and sits next to the tree Kakashi's leaning against.
And for a while, they're content. Genuinely enjoying each other's silent company as Kakashi realizes she is more like him than he gave her credit for. He eventually slides down the trunc and pulls open his favorite Icha Icha book.
They've never done this—like this—before, every break taken had a purpose; let you brain breathe, hydrate some more, massage your hands. This, is purely and unadulteratedly purposeless.
Isn't it? Or won't you prove me wrong, Sarada? Everything you do has a purpose. You're so much like your father, more than you'll ever know.
She breaks the silence eventually.
"Reading porn, again?"
"It's erotic litterature."
"That's what I said."
Then it's silent again.
Come on, Sarada, say what's on your mind. You're not the only one going crazy, here.
"What was it like for you," Sarada asks, "to have the Sharingan?"
So many feelings. So few words.
"Like, something I had to honor. Something, less like a burden, and more like a whole new perspective on life."
She doesn't ask him to elaborate. "Oh."
"What about you?"
She rolls her eyes and says, "I'm an Uchiha," like that's supposed to explain it all. But there's a sharpness to her tone that betrays an old frustration. Like 'I'm an Uchiha' is the answer she thinks she's supposed to give, but she doesn't really believe in or understands what it stands for. He wonders how many times people have answered her questions with 'You're an Uchiha' when she was still naive and curious.
"I know."
She takes an audible breath through her nose and closes her eyes. A signal, informing him that she's about to tell him something she's never told anyone before. He closes his book around his index finger.
"…Like something I don't deserve and should never have gotten. Sometimes I feel like my eyes control me more than I control them. I don't...understand, them. And nobody wants to help me understand."
He gets that.
"I get that." It's not just about the eyes. "I'll help you."
"What was it like, losing the eye?"
She's not one to dwell, is she?
"Both like a weight being lifted off of my shoulders, and like an impending sense of doom," he replies, and she looks at him weirdly. "You had to be there."
"I see you got over it though," she says, pointing with her nose at his left eye. "You gotta stop stealing other people's eyeballs, man."
He thinks about antagonizing her like she does him, telling her Naruto's a better medic ninja than her mom because he's the one who restored his entire eye mid-battle. But he likes the amused grin on her face, and he doesn't want to see it replaced with her usual annoyed glare.
"Actually, I grew this one myself." Kakashi says, and Sarada honest-to-god laughs.
She laughs, and it feels like a victory.
They end their break and start training again. And maybe it's the intense training finally bearing fruit, or it's their bonding session, or the fact that Sarada finally opened up about her insecurities concerning a power she pretends to control completely... or maybe it's all of the above.
But Sarada ends the day with a new, fully mastered jounin rank jutsu.
Kakashi calls out her name as she leaves. She turns around.
"Some months have thirty one days, you know!"
She frowns in confusion at first, until the meaning of his words hits her; her faces relaxes and she holds up two fingers in victory while giving him her biggest, proudest smile. Kakashi takes a mental picture of her in this exact moment.
A/N: thank you for reading! i wrote this about a year ago putting absolutely no effort and i thought it was time i revised it bc i liked the concept.
Also, i feel like the stupidest person on earth rn bc i'm not sure the last part is comprehensible. kakashi tells sarada that some months have 31 days bc sasuke learned the chidori in one month and sarada thought she missed that imaginary deadline after the 30th day. or maybe i'm stupid for explaining and you're rolling your eyes behind your screen.
so, this fic is mostly about the Uchihas and Kakashi, but Naruto and Boruto will play their part too. Sarada is a little different here. a little. but these changes come from psychological consequences i feel the manga neglected as a result of some aspects of her childhood.
this chapter purposefully had missing scenes, to keep a singular pov. next one will be from either Sarada's or Sakura's, and will fill in the blanks... if i get around to writing it.
as you've read, I've barely scratched the surface of everything that the characters are dealing with. tell me what you think?