Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.

Chapter 4- Questions and answers

Sarada walked back to the kitchen slowly, the image of her father's soft eyes engrained in her head. She was so confused. If her father had any feelings at all towards her mother, then why had he not been part of their lives for so long? Why is Karin's name on her birth certificate under the name of her mother? She didn't even know when exactly her mother and her father had fallen in love. Sure she knew her mother's side of the story. About being aunt Ino's rival, but actually falling in love with him throughout their time as team mates and him falling in love with her, she had no idea how any of that happened.

Sarada loved to hear her mother tell that story because her mother hadn't started with loving her father. She loved the way her mother's eyes sparkled when she talks about their first mission with the bridge builder. She didn't like the sad look in her mother's eyes when she talks about the part where she had thought her father had died. Her mother's eyes would tear up as she talked about how she, for the first time, experienced the loss of someone important to her.

Her mother talked a lot about when they were young. But never about when they were older. She didn't know much about anything else other than the missions they went on. She doesn't know anything about her father's side of things either considering this was the first time she met him to her knowledge. But if Karin was her mother, how did she – Sarada - come to be?

Sarada closed her eyes and shook her head just as she entered the kitchen. The two members occupying the room didn't notice her as she stood at the door way, with their back turned towards her. Karin sat at the chair she was occupying before, and Suigetsu sat beside her, neither of them speaking and the room was filled with awkwardness.

"Hey, want to go for a walk?" Suigetsu asked Karin, still unaware of their audience.

"But Sakura…" Karin began worriedly, turning her head towards Suigetsu.

"She'll be fine. Sasuke said it was just exhaustion." Suigetsu said interrupting Karin. The room was silent for a few minutes before Suigetsu spoke again. "You are worrying for no reason. None of this is your doing." Suigetsu said lowering his voice Sarada almost didn't hear him. "Anyway, your worrying face makes your face even uglier, so stop it." Suigetsu added, his voice coming back to normal. Sarada almost choked as he said this, her black eyes widening a fraction at his words as well as his sudden change in tone.

"Shut up shark breath." Karin said, her eyes narrowing at Suigetsu, though Sarada saw the barely there smile that graced Karin's lips "You know what…" Karin began before leaning closer to his ear. All Sarada saw afterwards is Suigetsu's back as it tensed, and Karin's satisfied smirk.

"Oh come on. I didn't mean it." Suigetsu whined as Karin stood up, the smirk still on her face.

"Sasuke." Karin's mood changed immediately just as Sarada felt a presence behind her. Suigetsu's head also turned towards the door just as Sarada looked up to find her father standing behind her, her head craning up to look at his face.

Suddenly, Sarada was disturbingly aware of the many things that are a mystery to her about her father as he stood miles away from her. The thought of ever closing that distance between them and coming closer to him and learning amazing things about him seems depressingly farfetched to her small brain as he towered over her like the Hokage Mountain.

"We were thinking of going for a walk." Suigetsu said as he stood up, picking up the biggest sword Sarada had ever seen in her life that she now wondered how she had not noticed it before.

"Hn, you can be on your way now. You don't have to hang around here." Her father said, surprising Sarada with his blunt rudeness.

"Come on Sasuke. Is that how you treat old friends, seeing them after twelve years?" Suigetsu said as if not even bothered by her father's rude words. "Besides, we were thinking of visiting that cousin of Karin's, you know…the Hokage. We'll hang around for a little longer." Suigetsu finished as he took Karin's hand in his "…oh and the pale guy left. He said he'd let the Hokage know everything's fine." He added as he walked towards the door with Karin following behind.

"Hn." Her father said again just as Karin and Suigetsu walked out of the room waving at Sarada. It took Sarada a couple minutes to put Suigetsu's words together, then her eyes immediately widened.

"Wait…she's related to the seventh?!" she asked in surprise but they had already disappeared through the door.

"Hn, yeah." To her surprise her father is the one that answered and to add to that her heart almost beat out of her chest as she felt a large hand land on the top of her head. She was too shocked to react and before she knew it her father had already walked to the table and sat down. "Sarada. Come sit down" her father said surprising her even more, his voice still monotone.

The room was filled with a long silence after she sat down on the chair across from her father. They just simply stared at each other, Sarada sat on the chair with her back straight and her eyes curiously waiting for her father to say something. Her father sat with his chin resting on his interlaced fingers.

"How...how's school?" her father finally said awkwardly, his eyes straying from her for a moment before coming back to her. Clearly her father was attempting at small talk and his inability to do so both amused and angered her. But she thought of this as a good opportunity to get her questions answered and she feared she may not get a better chance at it again.

"Good. I'm the first in my class." She said proudly. It was one of her biggest accomplishments. She had been told many times that her parents were two of the brightest kids in the academy. She had worked her best to achieve this ranking to feel some kind of connection to her father…or at least she had thought so. But in the end, it didn't help at all to do anything of the sort. It at least made her mother smile happily so she didn't mind that it didn't fulfill its original purpose. "My turn." Sarada declared after a few seconds, making her father look at her questioningly, as he hadn't meant for her to say anything else at all.

"Your turn to do what?" he asked slowly, his voice sounding mildly amused.

"To ask a question." She said as if he should've already known it. "Why were you so close to the village when you ran into me?" she asked having been curious about it this whole time. If her father had come so close to the village, why hadn't he come to the village to see them? What reason could he possibly have for it?

Sasuke was relieved that her question had nothing to do with her existence. She was twelve years old and he highly doubted she would be able to understand everything about how she came to be, nor did he have any intention of explaining those things to her. He had to admit though, he wasn't the least bit upset about the events that had occurred over the last 24 hours. Even having this conversation, which he knew would soon take a turn for the worst, he didn't mind having. Talking to Sarada like this is something he never thought he would be able to do for a long time.

"I was supposed to be relaying some information to Naruto about my recent mission." He answered simply and honestly.

"Can't you do that from anywhere?" she asked, her dark eyes, which so much reminded Sasuke of his own eyes, sparkling with determination, which reminded Sasuke so much of her mother.

"I followed my enemy here." He answered as if he were being interrogated. He couldn't help the amusement he felt from watching his daughter question him like an interrogator. To Sasuke's surprise Sarada didn't ask any questions about her birth. He knew that's why she came looking for him because she had said so herself. She had mainly stuck to questions regarding his missions that she said 'kept him too busy to even visit his family.'

Having felt as though continuing to lie to her would be wrong, he had told her everything he is authorized to tell her about his missions. Starting from following the new enemy to watch their moves eleven years ago to finding out that the enemy planned to attack the village. She seems to understand everything he was saying with little to no further explanations from him. Sasuke noticed that she also seemed to lose the initial anger he noticed she had towards him. He knew that nothing would ever be able to make up for him not being there for her growing up, but if she understood why, maybe their relationship wouldn't be so rocky.

He was just starting to feel comfortable about the questions she was asking when she asked a question that he didn't know how to answer.

"When did you fall in love with mama?" as the question left her lips, her onyx orbs turned directly towards his own, sharp and unblinking. Staring at those eyes that demanded the truth from him, he didn't know which answer he should give to make her hate him the least.

"Sarada." Both their heads snapped towards the door as they heard the familiar voice, saving Sasuke even after all these years.

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