Well…here it is. A third and final part based around Part III of the Naruto series—specifically the "Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring" storyline. It was difficult to complete for obvious reasons and the question of "How to fit Sarada into a storyline where her mother is now a man and her father is still a man?" It feels mediocre to me, but hopefully you'll enjoy this true conclusion to "Cherry Blossom Boy" even a slight bit.

Disclaimer: Blu Rose doesn't own the Naruto series. She only owns this fic.

X-X-X

#1: Someone to Love

It had been years since the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War. Sakura could say that he finally reached the point that he had been dreaming of as a child, more or less. He was a powerful ninja, famous for his medical skill and monstrous strength. He'd survived a war and numerous missions that would've killed weaker ninja or forced them to reconsider their path in life. And he went even further than his young self had desired: he sought to improve to state of the medical system in Konoha and other ninja villages, especially in regards to the health of children. But there was still something missing from Sakura's life…

"Your love life is dead. You wanna know how dead? Its corpse has shriveled away into dust and had itself reincarnated, only to die at the drop of a pin!"

Sakura said nothing as he leafed through papers on various patients he had to see before the end of the day. He didn't even bother to give Ino a look of annoyance for bringing up this topic of berating—because he sure as hell wasn't concerned enough to make this a conversation. He could feel the intensity of her unsatisfied glare as she continued.

"So I seriously don't understand why you keep refusing to go on second dates with the girls I set you up with. They're all such wonderful people and they all say that things went swimmingly between you on your dates. Seriously, you're about as cold as Sasuke."

Once again, Sakura ignored her. He typed away on his computer, intending to finish the document in time. It wasn't as if he was cold with those women. He treated them nicely and, as Ino said, they were nice women. But there was simply no spark of interest—not even basic lust. Honestly, Sakura hadn't felt anything in the way of romance for a woman since his feelings for Ino when they were teens.

Too bad he realized what those feelings were only after her engagement to Sai.

"You need to get with the program, Sakura! Everyone we knew from the academy is either dating someone or engaged or married… Do you seriously want to wind up single forever like Tsunade-sama or that one Mizukage?"

"Well, people do like to call me the male Tsunade…" Sakura spoke for the first time since Ino's ranting had begun.

Ino frowned and put her hands on her hips. "I am serious here, Billboard Brow! Everybody needs somebody to love! I won't have you spend your days married to your work like some loser!"

Sakura frowned and finally looked up at Ino with a glare. "Hey, I'm contributing greatly to the village, thank you very much!"

"How about instead of thinking about what's good for others, you be a little bit selfish and think about what's good for you?" The blonde woman punctuated her statement with a poke to his forehead, right on its diamond-shaped seal, before stomping off in a mood. Suddenly, Sakura didn't want to continue his work and spent a good portion of his worktime brooding.

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#2: Baby

Karin wasn't exactly a close acquaintance of Sakura's. He knew a few things about her, though—information gleaned from others like her Uzumaki heritage, her abilities to sense chakra and heal others through by letting them bite her body, and her ties with Sasuke as one of his comrades. Honestly, Sakura could never forget her as the injured woman whose life Sasuke had wanted to throw away at some point because she'd been deemed useless. He hadn't seen her since the war and she disappeared somewhere with Orochimaru.

So imagine his surprise when Karin approached him on the streets of Konoha after years of not seeing each other with a baby in hand. "She's Sasuke's daughter," Karin explained.

"Huh?! Even Sasuke is…?!" Sakura immediately shut up. Naruto he could understand, but Sasuke had a more of a sex life than him? Even the few times they'd met before, he seemed like he had all the libido of a rock. "Ah. So you and Sasuke… Congratulations!" He said with a smile.

Karin gave a pained expression for a moment before her face returned to a neutral look. "She isn't mine. She's… Can we speak somewhere more private than this?"

So Sakura invited Karin to his home, where she told him everything. That little girl Karin was carrying around was apparently the result of an experiment by some madman or another—someone who had been working alongside of Orochimaru. In some genetic sense, she was Sasuke's daughter—or at the very least, she was related to him. Heaven knows why she had been created, but the moment Orochimaru found out, the creator ran off and left his experiment behind.

"Orochimaru thought it was best that she be raised by Sasuke considering her heritage. That's why it's important that I find him."

"…Well. That's…" Sakura honestly didn't know how to respond to that. Sasuke? A parent? Naruto was believable, but…would Sasuke accept a child that technically wasn't even sired by him? It would be a stretch for him to call her 'daughter' considering how she had been created. "I honestly don't know where Sasuke is. You'd have better luck checking in with the Rokudaime. I'm sure he'll come back eventually, so…how about I look after her until then? As a favor to Sasuke."

Karin's shocked expression was expected. Sakura didn't really know why he made the offer or why Karin readily accepted it—"Until Sasuke comes back!"—but he wanted this little girl. Maybe it was his recent experience tending to the minds and bodies of young children talking, but Sakura wanted to give this little girl a chance at a normal life and a happy family—even if it wasn't going to last forever.

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#3: A Name is Important

For a place as big as Konoha, word got around quickly that Sakura had begun to care for a child. A lot of people made assumptions about how he got her: a tawdry relationship, adoption, creating her with some sort of medical kinjutsu… But really, only a handful of people in the village knew the truth about the baby's origins, and Sakura liked it that way. The last thing the poor baby needed was to be hounded for being an Uchiha clan descendant and the result of an experiment. Besides, how would it look to his parents, who unsubtly hinted at their desire for at least one grandchild before their deaths, if they learned Sakura technically wasn't a parent?

But there was a more important issue at hand when it came to the child. She didn't have a name. Karin and the rest of Orochimaru's lot didn't think up of one to give her. A part of Sakura could understand. Naming a child was important. It was a job for the child's parent or parent figure, but Sasuke's communications had always been one-sided with no chance of reply from Konoha. And, of course, Sasuke knew nothing about his 'daughter'. When the parent was absent and unreachable, well…who else could name her but the next best thing: her caretaker?

So when Sakura finally grew tired of waiting and debating with himself, he gave the child a name. Her name was Sarada, Sasuke's opinion be damned. She certainly looked smart enough to be called that, and she seemed to like the name. Or maybe Sakura fooled himself into thinking that, because the baby girl seemed used to him calling her 'sweetheart'. Either way, a part of him felt like naming the child was the wrong thing to do. Giving her a name felt like proof that they were family now. That they had a bond. He never thought that someday, he might have to give her up.

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#4: A Mother Figure

Karin made it an odd habit to occasionally drop in on Sakura and Sarada every once in a while. It was usually every two months, but sometimes, she came around sooner than that. The redheaded woman always said she came because she wanted to make sure Sasuke's child was being taken care of, and so a good chunk of her visits were spent watching Sakura as he took care of Sarada and making comments about the environment she was being raised in. It felt like Karin had taken up the role of a social worker…or maybe something more amicably closer. Either way, Sakura grew to like her company.

"You know, with all your interest in Sarada, I'm very surprised," Sakura spoke as he began cleaning Sarada of the food that didn't quite make it into her mouth. "I would think that you would want to raise her yourself."

"What makes you think that?" Karin asked with a frown, narrowing her eyes and folding her arms across her chest.

"Well, I've heard that shark-toothed friend of yours say that you carry a torch for Sasuke, so I assumed…"

The redhead's eye twitched. "Huh?! You mean that idiot Suigetsu? You can't trust the words of morons like him!"

"But still, you're interested in Sarada's wellbeing. If that's the case, why not raise her yourself?" The anger faded from Karin's face as Sakura continued, "I know Orochimaru said that it's probably best for Sasuke to raise her, but I'm not exactly him. You could've just taken her back with you and raised her like your own."

"Because I'm not a mother figure." Karin looked away from Sakura, now looking uncomfortable.

"I wouldn't say that. You'd probably be a lot like my mother. She's scary on the surface, but she can be quite loving…when she's not picking on me and criticizing me. Isn't that right, Sarada? Isn't Granny scary?" Sakura cooed to the baby girl before ticking her chin. Sarada's response was to give Sasuke a toothless smile.

"Not everyone's like you, you know."

Sakura looked over his shoulder at Karin, confusion written on his face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're very…nurturing. It's what makes you a good medic as well as a good parent."

Sakura snorted, but didn't reply. Whenever he remembered that his situation with Sarada was only temporary, it made him feel more like a babysitter than a parent. "Then may I ask why you're so interested in Sarada? If it's because of her relation to Sasuke, I won't judge."

Once again, Karin began to look upset. "What the hell is with you always jumping to Sasuke?! Why can't I just be worried about Sarada-chan's wellbeing?!"

Karin started muttering things under her breath while Sakura stared in amusement. After a while, he looked up at a clock on the wall and realized what time it was. "Oh, wow! I gotta get to the hospital for a meeting! Do you think you could look after Sarada while I'm gone?"

The redheaded woman looked shocked. "Excuse me?! I've got more important things to do than babysit for you!"

"It really won't take long! One or two hours at most…and you're the one who always says that being in Konoha gives you a break from Orochimaru and the rest of his gang. Surely it won't be so bad…"

"…Fine," Karin grunted as she folded her arms across her chest. "But I'm doing this for Sarada-chan, not you! And if something happens while you're gone—which it won't—I'll blame it on your poor insight as a parent!"

"See that? That's the sort of thing my mother says!" Sakura said with a smile as he patted Karin on the shoulder. Then he disappeared to get ready for work. When he happened to glance back into the kitchen area, he found Karin carrying Sarada with a look in her eyes that mixed loving and sadness.

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#5: Unrequited

A year passed and once again, rumors about Sakura began to fly among the populace of Konoha. This time, they were focused on him and Karin, whom he would often be seen in the company of—along with Sarada. Some people said they were dating and others said that Karin was Sarada's birthmother.

Once, Ino confronted him about these rumors out of worry for him. "You wanna marry a girl like that? I'm sure you think she's cute, but…I've heard rumors that she's pretty crazy. Like, needs mental help crazy. I mean, if I got stabbed by a guy I liked, even if I could grow to trust him again, I wouldn't fall in love with him again." But Sakura pointed out that he and Naruto were just as crazy back then, trying to save Sasuke despite his actions.

But he couldn't deny that he had felt some sort of attraction to Karin for a while. The keywords are 'for a while', because it didn't last for very long. It started once Karin had truly begun to warm up to Sakura and the excuse of coming to Konoha for Sarada's sake became less spoken. Then, for reasons that Sakura told himself were merely acts of mere kindness, he started inviting Karin to join him and Sarada for home-cooked meals: dinners, lunches, and the rare breakfasts. Then they started doing such things outside of the house, which naturally caught people's attention. That was when the rumors had started to fly, and when Karin told him as such about it after one visit—she'd been approached by Ino who unsubtly threatened the redhead about harming her should she break Sakura's heart—he surprised her by saying that he didn't really mind those rumors, but that he was sorry for Ino's protectiveness.

"To be honest, I think I could do far worse than a woman like you," Sakura remembered saying with a smile.

Karin blushed and narrowed her eyes, adjusting her glasses as she huffed, "Are— Are you flirting with me, Haruno?! With a child in the room?!"

"Maybe," the medic said with a nonchalant shrug before he returned to feeding Sarada.

"S-seriously?!"

"Why is it so surprising? You're a pretty woman. I'm sure you've been flirted with before."

"Stop that!" Karin growled, pointing a finger at him. "I don't know how the women in Konoha react to your smooth talking, but I'm not some simple woman who falls in love easily, okay?! Of all the nerve…!"

But despite her attitude about Sakura not minding the rumors, she made no attempt to force him to start announcing that they weren't a couple and her reactions had less loud denials and more sighs and head shaking. Then, after months of getting used to the hassle of being called Sakura's girlfriend, it happened. While they were alone together in Sakura's home, after Sarada had been put to sleep and the two of them had been drinking in celebration of a touch-and-go surgery at the hospital, words that they probably would've have in normal circumstances were shaken loose with the help of alcohol.

"Sasuke was always an idiot. He never noticed when good girls noticed him…poured their hearts out to him. Or maybe he thought that their attraction to him was shallow. You were with him for a while… Were your feelings genuine affection?"

Karin was quiet for a moment before she downed the remaining wine in her glass. "We met when we were genin, during the Chunin Exam… He saved my life and disappeared…and I fell in love with him," she confessed. "And for years, I wished I could see him again…learn about him…get closer to him…" Her eyes had glazed over as she went over it all: meeting Sasuke again after he'd allied himself with Orochimaru, joining him on his quest for vengeance, almost getting killed by him… "At that point, I thought I wanted to give him up. Wanted to kill 'em, mess up that pretty face for what he did…but the moment he apologized, I turned to mush and went back to being a woman in love. It's stupid, isn't it? I wasn't even sure if he'd really changed his character then… And even after that, he never really looked at me the way he wanted to or smiled at me the way I wanted him to…"

"Sasuke was always an idiot," Sakura repeated. "I'm sure most men would kill to have a woman as forgiving as you. And pretty…and smart…"

"Men like you, Haruno?" Before Sakura could answer, Karin took off her glasses and stared at him. Her cheeks were tinged with a red hue, and Sakura couldn't tell if it was from the wine or something else. "When I was dying, you actually bothered to heal me. You hesitated to kill me. Me, a wanted criminal by association with Sasuke. That was nice… Why couldn't you have been the boy I saw that day…? I bet you would've stuck around to talk to me…" She brought her face closer to his, her expression strangely affectionate. "Then maybe this would've been my life instead of being stuck in that goddamn cave with those three idiots…waiting for Sasuke."

"…It could be your life, if you want," Sakura whispered before planting his lips on Karin's and proceeding to make out. The last thing he remembered was the sensation of her tongue wrestling with his own before he blacked out…

And Sakura woke up the next day in bed next to Karin, naked and headache-ridden. He should've been made with himself, or worried about the consequences of this accidental affair, but he wasn't. Maybe he was still a bit drunk from the night before, but he had been happy about what had happened—about his feelings being returned for a change.

But the happy feeling ended the moment Karin woke up and started spouting off how much she regretted this. "This was a mistake," the redhead had said as she began dressing quickly, caring little for how she looked. "This wasn't supposed to happen. This isn't how I'm supposed to feel…!"

Sakura watched her in confusion from under the covers. "What do you mean? Last night, you—"

"Last night was an alcohol-fueled bender!" Karin snapped as she glared at Sakura. But then her eyes suddenly softened and she seemed to regret her words. "The problem's not with you, Sakura," she spoke softly, using his first name for once. "It's me. I'm so messed up. I wanna move on, but I can't. I just can't.

Sakura's face hardened as he stared at the woman searching for her glasses, trying to avoid any more eye contact with him. "You're talking about Sasuke…" He couldn't control the anger bubbling up inside of him as he continued, "I don't understand what the hell is so hard about moving on from him! Even if he apologized for treating you like a thing he could throw away when you were of no use to him, even if he's changed his ways, you know that he'd never love you the way you want him to love you—the way I'm willing to love you if you'd just let go of him!"

Karin finally found her glasses and slipped them on before looking back at Sakura with a neutral expression. "I told you. I can't." She turned her back to him as she continued, "I don't think it's a good idea for me to come around here anymore."

"What about Sarada?"

"You've proven you can take care of her."

"What about me? Us? What we might be able to have together?"

Karin looked as if she were actually considering it, but then she shook her head. "…I'm sorry." Without another word, she left, and Sakura would never hear from her again.

Sakura blocked the redheaded woman out of his mind until years later, on the day he took Sarada to buy some proper glasses—it seemed that she had a bit of a vision problem. She wound up choosing a pair of glasses that reminded Sakura of the ones Karin had been wearing last he saw her. "Does it look good, Papa?" His little girl asked as she held onto the frames, prepared to take the glasses off the moment she heard a word against them.

After a minute lost in thoughts and memories, Sakura smiled, "They make you look beautiful, honey."

X-X-X

#6: One Day

One day, for the first time in years, Sasuke returned to Konoha. And naturally, Sakura was nervous. He hadn't been able to keep in contact with the Uchiha—no one had—so he didn't know a thing about the 4-year old girl who shared his genes. Sakura had never once thought about what would happen when he learned of Sarada's existence. What if he didn't want her? Rejected her because the only thing that connected them was biology?

Or worse…what if he accepted her as his daughter and wanted to take Sarada away from him? After all these years, Sakura couldn't think of Sarada as anything but his daughter. And how would she react if she learned the person she'd been calling 'Papa' since she was a baby was practically no more than a babysitter? Sakura already felt his heart break at the thought of her face having an expression of hurt and betrayal.

So he wasn't prepared when Sasuke showed up on his doorstep. Sakura had to force a smile on his face as he greeted his childhood teammate, "Sasuke! It's nice to see you again after all this time! Uh, would you like to come in?" He didn't even give the man a chance to respond and ushered Sasuke in, leading him over to the couch before rushing off to prepare some tea for his guest. It gave Sakura time to think, to register what was probably going to happen, and to brace himself for heartbreak. Once that was all done, he went back to Sasuke with tea in hand, prepared to ease his way into the subject of Sarada. "Well, look at you. You've aged pretty gracefully, haven't you?"

But Sasuke just dove right in after taking a single sip of tea. "I came to see her. The girl, I mean."

"Her name is Sarada. I'm sure you may not care for the name, but…it's not like you were available for questioning and she couldn't go without a name forever." Sakura hadn't noticed when he began glaring at Sasuke, but he stopped in favor of sipping more green tea.

"Why would you need my permission? She isn't my child."

"Of course she's your child! Or at the least, she's your family! An Uchiha like you!"

"That may be, but I'm in no position to be taking care of a child," Sasuke explained as he put down his cup of tea while Sakura clenched his own. "I spend all of my time away from the village, travelling. I wouldn't be able to raise her properly."

"Then don't travel and stay in the village!"

"We both know that what I do is valuable to Konoha."

"And you don't think she might be valuable?!" Sakura snapped, cracking the cup in a bit of rage. "Ah, shit! Not one of the good cups…!"

Sasuke stared at Sakura while the latter checked the damage he'd caused. "Why do you care, anyway? From what I've been told, you've taken up being her father."

Sakura put down the cup and began to stare down sadly into its contents. "I never intended to. I was just going to take care of her until you got back… If anything, it's all your fault for deciding that your time was best spent wandering the continent instead of being here to take care of her."

They both fell silent. Sakura didn't know what Sasuke was thinking about, but he was thinking about how stupid he felt. He had wanted this: for Sasuke to not want to accept responsibility for Sarada and allow Sakura to keep living with her as his daughter. He didn't know why he was so upset over Sasuke practically refusing to change his ways for Sarada's sake. Sakura opened his mouth to say something, but they were interrupted by the sound of the door opening and a young voice calling out, "Papa! I'm home!" Then Sarada ran into the room, only to halt when she noticed Sasuke. They studied each other for a few seconds before Sarada remembered her manners and said, "Good afternoon, sir."

"Good afternoon," Sasuke repeated, still staring at Sarada.

"Um, Sarada!" Sakura spoke up, hoping to distract the young girl from the fact that Sasuke was looking at her for too long. "This is Uchiha Sasuke-san." That seemed to make Sarada look his way. "And you should know that he's—"

"A childhood friend of your father's," Sasuke interrupted, getting him an odd look from Sakura in the process. "What's your name?"

"S…Sarada," Sarada responded shyly.

"That's a pretty name." His statement made Sarada blush from embarrassment.

"Sarada, why don't you go up to your room?" Sakura asked. "Sasuke-san and I have to talk about some things."

Sarada huffed and puffed up her cheeks cutely. "Okay…"

As she marched upstairs against her will, Sakura kept an eye on her. The moment he heard her door close, he felt it was safe to glare at Sasuke and hiss, "What was that?! I was all prepared to tell her—!"

Sasuke stood up abruptly. "Thank you for the tea, but I have to be leaving soon."

Sakura got up and grabbed Sasuke's sleeve, his closed fist brushing up against the stump of his arm. "Are you kidding me?! You just drop in without warning and then you leave without saying a thing to Sarada?!"

"Sarada doesn't need to think that I'm her father when you're the one who's been raising her." Sasuke looked back at Sakura. "It isn't as if I don't want to take care of her, you know. I simply can't." The answer had caused Sakura to loosen his grip on his sleeve and allow Sasuke to walk towards the door. "She looks well. Make sure she stays that way." When he was halfway out, he looked at Sakura once more. "I'll come to see her when I can."

"…Okay," was all Sakura could say before Sasuke closed the door behind him. Then Sakura collapsed onto the couch and sighed before burying his face into his hands. So, was that it? No, that couldn't be it. Sasuke showed he had at least some interest in Sarada's life. Was that a sign that maybe he'd decide to come and take her one day? One day…who knew? Either way, it was a thought that filled Sakura with dread and a bit of happiness to know that Sasuke at least cared.

X-X-X

#7: Questions and Lies

Sakura was used to Sarada being inquisitive, especially about herself. She'd often asked questions about her mother and mother's family, and Sakura would be forced to lie for the sake of keeping his daughter content and blissfully unaware of the truth that he wasn't her biological father and that her real father was unsure if he even wanted to be a parent to her. But he dreaded the thought that she possibly inherited the Sharingan. He couldn't very well lie away how she inherited the kekkei genkai of a clan who was murdered while he was still a child and its only survivor was male.

But the day came in a way he wasn't expecting.

"Tell me the truth: am I adopted?" Sarada asked one day while Sakura was busy hanging laundry outside.

The pink-haired man flinched a bit, but didn't give his daughter the chance of seeing his surprise. "What on earth are you talking about? You should be preparing for your exam, not asking silly questions," he said as he continued hanging laundry.

"I'm serious."

"If this is about some kid teasing you—"

"I went to check the clan records and didn't find my name anywhere under the Haruno clan. I found it under the Uchiha clan." Sakura froze and refused to look back at Sarada. She continued, "I would've asked if Mom was an Uchiha, but I don't know if you'd even tell the truth or not!"

"You're my daughter! That is the truth!"

"Then tell me why I'm listed as an Uchiha!"

Sakura took a deep breath and turned around to look at Sarada. She was upset, no doubt about it. "…Your mother was an Uchiha, but she did some bad things. A lot of the Uchiha clan did…bad things. That's why there's nothing left of her and…why I don't like to talk about her much. Okay?" Sakura forced himself to fake a smile. "So can we just put that behind us?"

Sarada didn't seem satisfied. She frowned and narrowed her eyes in a manner that reminded him of Sasuke before walking away. Sakura had a feeling that this situation wouldn't have been let go easily. Now he'd have to wait for the inevitable argument that would result from this and put up with the unnatural coldness that Sarada would likely express towards him.

X-X-X

#8: Bad Parenting

Upon realizing that Sarada had run away from Konoha, Sakura began to consider himself a bad parent. Sure, she'd left under the pretense of delivering lunch to Naruto and assisting her friend Chou-Chou with some personal mission, but Sakura knew the truth behind it all. She'd left to see Sasuke—the only other living Uchiha who was going to meet up with Naruto, according to Shikamaru. Never mind how Sasuke would react to meeting her again after all this time, or how Sarada would react if Sasuke actually bothered to admit how they were related.

As far as Sakura was concerned, all of this could have been avoided if he had been honest with Sarada in the first place. He'd lied to his darling daughter about her family history, made up a dead mother for her, tried to ignore the traits she inherited from Sasuke and the truths that she had dug up… After all of the lies, would she forgive him and still call him 'Papa'? Or would she deem Sakura unworthy of her love and abandon him for Sasuke? He probably deserved that if it happened.

He couldn't stand the thought of something awful happening to Sarada because he was too cowardly to tell the truth to her. So Sakura left the village as well, hoping to catch up to the girls before they met up with Sasuke. If the truth had to come out, he wanted it to be from his own mouth. At least then, Sakura could feel a bit better about being honest.

But just as he came across the group—Sarada, Chou-Chou, Naruto and Sasuke—he was taken away from them by a man called Shin Uchiha—or more precisely, one of his clones. To a man like him, his own flesh and blood clones were nothing more than organ donors and tools to take advantage of. To Shin Uchiha, children were no more than the result of a natural impulse to ensure one's genetics survive. Compared to such a man, Sakura felt like a saint, because he never saw Sarada as just a means to continue his family's name or an Uchiha destined to make her forefathers proud. She was simply his daughter, whom he wanted to love and protect even if she no longer loved him the same way after today…

X-X-X

#9: Papa

Who cared if they stopped an Uchiha-obsessed madman and culled an uprising of poor, confused clones with no sense of self by giving them a home and a chance of a happy life? Well, okay, Sakura cared. But he was a bit too worried about the damage that had been done to his family of two. Sarada had figured out that she wasn't his daughter and had an interest in Sasuke—her biological father who could teach her what it meant to be an Uchiha. Perhaps it was for the best. Sakura figured it would've had to happen eventually, just not like this.

Why didn't he just tell her the truth from the beginning? Or at least part of it—the part about her being adopted? Of course he knew why he did it in the first place. It sounded like Sasuke didn't want her, and no child should feel unwanted by their parent. If she chose to stop seeing him as her father, he'd understand. He'd hate it, but he'd understand.

He'd been sitting on the couch at home, stewing in his self-hatred and sadness when he heard the door close. Sarada soon came into his view, her expression unreadable. Sasuke had taken Sarada off somewhere 'to talk' about something—probably her paternity and her heritage and something else associated with familial bonding. Sakura stared at his daughter for a few seconds before saying, "So…what did Sasuke want to talk about with you…if you don't mind my asking?" Did she mind now? Had his identity as simply her guardian made him unworthy of her feelings and thoughts?

"We talked about me. Our relationship. You." Sarada gave her answers almost mechanically. "Sasu— I mean…Father said he still had to leave the village again. But he promised to come back. He even said he'd be willing to teach me some jutsu when he got back. He…" Sarada bowed her head a little, smiling. "He wants us to be closer."

"That's good! That's what you've always wanted, right? I'm happy for you, Sarada." He really was. He was happy that Sasuke had an interest in being a parent to her. But it also hurt Sakura's heart to know that Sasuke and Sarada had a mutual desire to become more like a father and daughter. It was only a matter of time until he was pushed out of the Uchiha family picture. "I suppose you'll be stuck with me until he comes back, huh?"

Sarada pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I assumed you'd want to move in with him as soon as possible."

"…Wh-WHAT?! You…want me to move out?!" Sarada shouted. "Is it because I ran away from the village?!"

"Of course not! I just assumed that you would prefer your father's company to mine."

"That's just stupid, Papa." The term of endearment Sarada spoke brought Sakura's attention back onto her. The dark-haired girl frowned. "You're…my father, too. I remembered that when I thought something bad had happened to you. Papa…could you ever forgive—" Sakura practically jumped off the couch to embrace her. "GAH! Too tight, too tight!"

"Of course I forgive you. Do you forgive me for lying all these years?"

"…Mm-hm."

Sakura sniffled. He felt tears welling up in his eyes, but he didn't move to wipe them away. He hugged Sarada closer to him, and he eventually felt her arms being wrapped around his body. He kissed her forehead and smiled. "So, you have two fathers… I hope no one takes that the wrong way," he laughed. He was simply happy that he hadn't lost his daughter after all.