The first time it happened Sarada was about three years old, while she played with a plush dinosaur the insisted wasn't hers.
"Of course it is.", Sakura persisted, "Naruto oji-chan bought it for you, remember?"
"No, oto-san bought it for me."
Uh?
Now, that was weird. Sakura acquired many habits since she became aware of her daughters existence. Around the final three months of her pregnancy she started eating tomatoes almost compulsively, leading her to avoid the thing like the plague after the whole thing was over; She constantly worried about the worst possible scenarios when it came to her daughter, although this could easily be just a result of motherhood taking it's place in her mind; and, while her husband insisted in teaching their baby daughter things like, "pardon me", "may I be excused", and, unintentionally "hn", Sakura would rather stick to the basics, "mama" and "papa". Which meant Sarada assumed those were their names.
Sakura tries to reason with her, "When did papa bought you dino-chan, Sarada?"
"Not papa. Oto-san. Papa wasn't there yet."
"Uh? Where was papa?"
Sarada shrugs.
"But then he was there. And I gave it to him." She continues, "Because he was a baby. Like Inojin." She went on, now seemingly lost in memories, "I loved him a lot. Papa."
Sakura looked at her daughter with a more than confused expression.
"Sarada..."
But the little girl wouldn't let her finish, now with a serious expression on her face, "Mama?"
"... Yeah?"
"Juice."
"Uh?"
She frowns in concentration, "May I please have juice?" And continued playing with the toy as if nothing happened.
"Ah... ok."
It happened again when Kakashi ojii-chan took her to walk by the outskirts of the village. As the current hokage, Kakashi wouldn't have, in thesis, time to do such thing. But, recently, the rokudaime had the brilliant idea of letting the chair in the hands of his hokage trainee. It was a good training, Naruto had good instincts when it came to things he didn't have experience, and if he didn't know what to do, he could easily just go bother Shikamaru. Besides it gave Kakashi time to memorize the last few pages of Icha Icha Paradise, and take walks with the newest Uchiha.
He should have gone straight to her house, but taking the longer route gave him time to share his embarrassing stories about her parents. As a four year old, Sarada couldn't quite retain all the information he gave to her, so he felt free to tell the same once he was done with what he knew. Always remembering another small, but still funny, thing his adorable little students had done with him around.
"Ojii-chan, look!"
He stopped halfway in his story about Condor, the ostrich that used bowties and pecked her papa and Naruto oji-chan. "Uh?"
But she was already running towards the pier. He walked to her in his usual easy pace, she was a smart girl and wouldn't try anything impulsive like jumping in the water. Now, had he been babysitting Boruto, that would've been a different story, and he would've definitely ran.
"Oto-san taught me the katon in here."
Kakashi frowned. That was weird even for his student. Was Sasuke already teaching his family coming of age jutsu to his little girl? The Uchiha patriarch never ceased to amaze him.
"I did it in the first time."
He offered her his traditional eye smile. "That's good, shows you're a prodigy."
"Being a prodigy is a very heavy weight to put on a child's shoulder. You shouldn't encourage that."
Kakashi watched her with one of his eyebrows up. Those were incredibly articulated phrases for a four year old, even for the daughter of his students.
Kakashi realizes then where they were. Walking over the Uchiha compound. After Pein's attack and the complete destruction of the village, the resources were thin, and Tsunade had to make difficult choices. Back that time the house complex had been empty for years, and it never seemed to attract any new villagers, even for free. Being the reason for fear of the dead, or respect for the once powerful clan, nobody wanted to live there. In any case, the vacant houses, and later, the rubbles covered in red and white fans, gave place to the village's progress and future. Now they walked over the past.
And then, Sarada went back to her usual self.
"Ojii-chan? Tell me about Condor again."
And it happened for the last time when papa took her to meet Nekobaa-san.
Papa is going to make a trip, was what mama said. Which was normal. Papa is a shinobi, and shinobis are always in missions. But mama said it with the same face she used when she asked if Sarada learned her lesson after she did something she shouldn't. So the little girl took it more seriously than before.
Since then the three of them had been spending more time together than before. Mama has come home from the hospital earlier and papa has sat to play with Sarada for longer. Papa has also been taking her everywhere, even if he's out only to buy more potatoes, or out to talk to the hokage. Every second together seemed precious.
One of these trips they shared took them to the old Uchiha arsenal and Nekobaa-san. The place hadn't changed much since the first time Sasuke saw it during his childhood, it felt nostalgic.
"We're opening a shop in Konoha and in Suna, but this one stays for as long as baa-san does." Tamaki smiles at them while walked them to the elder.
Sasuke nods as a sign he's listening. Meanwhile Sarada didn't worry about the lady's attention, chosing to focus in the group of cats that followed her since her papa gave some food to feed them.
"Sarada?" He called her, quite a few steps ahead, holding out his hand for her to take. "We'll see Nekobaa-san and then you can play with them."
She runs to him and holds his hand obediently, and, with Tamaki, they find the elder. Sasuke sits across her and shares one of his rare smiles as she offers him sakē, and he introduces her his daughter for the first time. Yes, he had married the pink haired kunoichi from his genin team. She had a satisfied look on her face as she heard it, having seen Sasuke for the last time in such a bad place had bothered her. The boy, now man, was like one of her grandkids, and Nekobaa was happy he had found peace again.
She smiled and offered the little girl the cat ears so she could communicate with the animals as the adults talked.
Not long after, Sarada comes back with one of the cats in her arms, after much deliberation on which one she would ask her father to adopt. The cat, comfortably unaware of his possible fate, enjoyed the heat coming from the child holding him.
"Papa, pleeeease."
He asks for the to approach with his only hand, she smiles and kneels next to him. Sasuke pokes her softly with two fingers on her forehead, "Maybe next time."
"Ah, many memories come to me with this Sasuke-san." Nekobaa smiles at them while Sarada pouts and lets the animal in her arms finally go. "You know, there's another thing I could give before you leave."
The Uchiha patriarch frowns with the commentary and waits for the elder to return with his daughter in his lap. Not much later she comes back holding what it looks like, an old book.
"It's the cat album!" Sarada announces leaving her dad's hold to meet the book.
"Aa." Nekobaa agrees as she sits next to them, "I wish I gave you the last time, but..." she shrugs, but he understands. Back then, maybe the book wouldn't be in the best hands.
"Papa, it's you!" She laughs and points at one of the pictures of Sasuke, around her age now, holding one of the ninja cats that wasn't fast enough to escape. He doesn't asks how she knew immediately that that was him when she never had been in touch with other pictures of him at that age. He decides she's very observant. "That was the last one you got that day. It was getting late and okaa-san said not to be long 'cause it was going to rain."
This time both the adults study her with their eyes.
"We ran home and even then we got caught in the rain. We sat under that tree for almost two hours, remember?"
"Sarada..."
"Okaa-san wasn't happy when we got the house all wet when we got there, and you got sick. Sorry."
The two older watched her in silence as she went on about the days that had happened decades before she was born.
"Papa?"
Sasuke faced her with watery eyes, "Yes?"
"I am very proud of you."