A/N: Thanks again and again for all the love! It means so much to me. Sorry for the delay! Just a quick mention that, as you might've notice, the point-of-view changes from one sub-chapter and sometimes from one paragraph to another. This is how I write it and how I believe this story works. Bear with me! Thanks for understanding! Please follow this story further and enjoy this chapter!


SARADA: Spring Lightning

chapter three - Shannaro

"You'll have to train a lot, ya know?"

Sarada nodded.

The next day, he brought her to some place in the woods, a training spot. Three pillars of rotten wood stood before them, memories full of joy and nostalgia coming back to Naruto as he went closer. The wind was blowing, throwing leaves straight to Sarada's face. They circles around her then flew to some other place, disappearing in sight. It was then that she noticed they weren't alone.

Before the two proudly a blonde-haired woman, a large front facing them, and a purple rhombus on her forehead. When Sarada thought better she remembered she'd learnt about that once, about the Byakugou, the Strength of a Hundred Seal, the technique to store great amounts of chakra over long periods of time, and she'd learnt about the one who created and perfected it... the Legendary Sannin Tsunade, granddaughter of the First Hokage, distantly-related to Lord Seventh... Tsunade...

"I almost thought you wouldn't be coming... Naruto" she started. Despite her youthful appearence, her voice was shaking, like an old woman's. Calculating in her mind, the young Uchiha realized that Tsunade must've been over seventy. She looked well, though, ready to break a mountain in two. "So this is the girl..."

Naruto lowered his head in a nod. "I'm counting on you, Tsunade-baa-chan..."

"Wait! You're not training me," the young girl turned to him.

He shook his head. "No, I've work at the Office. Believe it, though, there's nobody better than Tsunade-baa-chan to help you with all this. Train with her, Sarada, and surpass her. You'd be the second to do that..." Naruto forced a smile... What he'd just said hurt him a bit, remembering... all those memories were so full of joy and nostalgia...

"Who was the first?"

"Sakura..." Tsunade answered, her mouth in a thin smile.


"Jeez," Sarada yelled. It's been less than an hour since Tsunade had first launched an attack at her. She was trying to give her an example of how the chakra-fueled taijutsu worked, like she must've done with her mother years before. Even so, two or three trees nearly fell on her, the ground under her cracked in small pieces and one punch nearly hit her in the stomach.

Tsunade was gasping between attacks; she was getting older, apparently.

"You see what I'm trying to do, focusing the chakra in one point and releasing it at once with the fist? Concentrate."

But it wasn't that easy from the first try, the woman should've realized. Even so, Sakura had mastered it within months, her daughter had to do it faster. The look of determination in the girl's eyes proved that. It was hard without the walk-through that Tsunade's given the pink-haired kunoichi fifteen years ago, it was hard skipping over the stages they've both gone through to master the technique. But there was no time. For some reason there was no time to lose. Twelve years had passed and Naruto, that idiot, couldn't wait a few more months... But he must've been just as impatient as the young girl to find those two.

Tsunade figured out that they've disappeared after Sakura'd stopped sending messages to Konoha. She randomly caught a discussion between Kakashi and Naruto months after the last letter, weeks after the raven-haired baby appeared at the Uzumaki's - she had also been one of the very few who had known everyhing from the beginning, given her important status to the village and her caring nature towards her pink-haired former student. It'd always been a thing between her, the Uzumakis, Kakashi and Nara Shikamaru.

Sarada couldn't do it... at first. She couldn't break any tree or make any crack in the ground, she could barely hit in the right spot, her dexterity lower than the blonde woman had expected. Even so... Even so... Tsunade could sense chakra gathering in the girl's hand. It wasn't much, but it was the start of something. It took her years to do it. And Sakura couldn't do it either... Tsunade's always had this belief, that Sakura's child, especially with that Uchiha, would be some sort of prodigy. It confirmed it.


"Jeez."

It must've hurt the tree as well, just as badly as pain shot through her arm.

"Don't say Jeez. It doesn't suit you, ya know," a blonde-haired ninja started, coming out of the woods. Naruto wouldn't admit but he'd been watching for some time. Sarada was working hard...

"What does, ya know? I've no idea, believe it!" Sarada replied, the corners of her mouth rising in a quick smile, as she pointed out Lord Seventh's own phrases. Having thought of him as family for so many years, she'd grown used to it and was extremely happy she didn't get one too, unlike Boruto...

Naruto laughed. "Usuratonkachi..." There was both happiness and sadness in that word...

Sarada frowned. "What?"

He shook his head. That wasn't right either. That thing was not even for Sakura-chan. It was something between him and Sasuke, the connection, the friendship, the rivalry, the brotherhood. Usuratonkachi... Sasuke'd always had his dorky and weird ways of expressing something. Sakura and Kakashi-sensei had realized it from the beginning, but it took Naruto a while to do that too. The forehead poke he'd often do to Sakura, that was that bastard's way of telling her important things. Calling him Usuratonkachi, being that thin hammer, it was Sasuke's way of acknowledging Naruto as his comrade, rival, friend and almost... brother. What a bastard, to leave so soon... And leave his kid behind... And leave him behind...

Tsunade shrugged. "I don't have time for that. I'm meeting you tomorrow, same hour." Her plans for the next day involved some medical-nin. It was perhaps the best way to teach the young girl how to focus chakra to one point in her body and, besides, no matter how much the woman wished it wasn't, it might prove necessary sometime later... She had a feeling, the feeling she hadn't felt in such a long while, that the ending of it all... wasn't going to be good at all... It'd be as if reality would bend and what that Uchiha girl'd known her entire life will disappear... Not a good feeling, not a bad feeling, just a mixed-blessing.

Both the Orange Hokage and the raven-haired genin looked at her.

She turned around on her heels and left. "Shannaro..." Tsunade added as she parted. She's Sakura's daughter. Seems just perfect. Shannaro...