A/N: Hello, guys! Thanks for every single review you've left me. It's incredible and I am so thankful. THANK YOU! What did you think of episode 476 and episode 477? It was breath-taking and really well-done. I can't wait for the finale next week. And if I didn't mention it already, this fanfiction will only be around 12 chapters long, almost like a manga volume. Enjoy this chapter!

SARADA: SPRING LIGHTNING

chapter four - Sharingan

Before Sarada knew it, she had been training with Tsunade for two weeks. Her taijutsu skills improved and she could gather a limited amount of chakra in her fist, but the hardest part and the one the young girl couldn't master was releasing it against a target. The Sannin hadn't expected her to be a prodigy and master it even faster than her mother, but it would've helped. They were delaying the new rescue missions until their kid was trained and ready to fight. A few more weeks after twelve whole years weren't going to make a big difference. Tsunade couldn't let herself hope... she didn't want to be disappointed...

Sarada dropped to her knees exhausted. She needed a moment to catch her breath. "Tsunade-san, I was wondering..."

"What?"

"What does Shannaro mean?"

The blonde Sannin's eyed lit up, wide and very blue. The corners of her mouth rose in a quick smile. The simple thought of Sakura Uchiha, her former student, made her grin. Her days with her fifteen years ago were such a joy. She was one hell of a motivated girl, doing her best to become more and more powerful, to make her dreams come true, to bring that idiot back... She could see the same kind of motivation in the young Uchiha's eyes, the determination to bring them back. If there was anybody who could do that, it was Sarada, not her, not Kakashi, not Naruto.

"You said that when we first trained. Shannaro. Does it mean anything?" Curiosity sparked in the kid's eyes.

"Yes. It's something Sakura used to say, doesn't have a real meaning. It's something of hers, though, and reminds me of some good old times," the woman answered.

"What?"

Tsunade clenched her fist and shoved it down against the hard ground. The earthquake produced made shivers go down Sarada's back as she jumped backwards, trying to avoid falling in the crevasses. The blonde woman laughed. "Find Sakura. Find Sasuke. Let them tell you."

It wasn't as easy as she wished it were.

The Sannin walked towards her, hit a tree with the heel of her shoe, sending hit flying towards the young girl, whose eyes had lit up, red and high and mighty. Sharingan... Naruto didn't tell me she got it, the woman thought. That small detail made a huge difference. "Sarada, pay attention. The Sharingan is called the Mirror Eye; its first and, in my opinion, most important function is copying." When she was sure she had the kid's attention, Tsunade loaded her fist again with a great amount of chakra and released it at once.

The girl's red eyes followed each moved.

"Your turn..."

Sarada clenched her fist. She wasn't sure whether she could manage to do it on the first try. Her body mirrored everything Tsunade had done, the same angles, the same tension between the muscles of her palm, the same target, and the same force. "Shannaro!"

She didn't make the tree blow up like her teacher did, but created a whole in it and in two more trees behind the first one. Neither she nor Tsunade believed at first.

Tsunade hadn't expected her to be a prodigy of some sort or to master the technique faster than anybody else before her mother, but the young Uchiha might have had some potential. The Sannin frowned as a feeling of deja vu made something itch somewhere in her chest. She had felt the same about Naruto the first time she'd met him; she had refused to give him a chance, no matter who he had been or what he'd claimed, believing his dreams of becoming a Hokage to be futile. In the end, she started believing in his dreams of becoming a Hokage too. And it filled her heart with joy, starting believing in the Sarada Uchiha's dreams of finding her family, starting believing in her.

She was their kid, after all. The greatest shinobi assets were mixed up between her genes: one of the strongest Kekkei Genkai from her father, enhanced chakra control from her mother, and brains from both. Perhaps, they all really had a chance...

"How was it, Tsunade-san? I think I did it," Sarada said, happiness and hope sparkling in her eyes as they returned to their usual black. If the girl ever doubted herself, all those thoughts left her and she was ready to keep going.

The blonde woman nodded. "It's a good start. Do it again with the Sharingan, then try without it." She omitted to tell her not to overexert herself on purpose, knowing the girl wouldn't listen. Anyways, she was there for Sarada if the kid needed help.

Looking over the girl's practice for the next few hours - the girl was doing better each time she tried - Tsunade thought about what were the next things they had to do. After training was over, she'd go to Naruto and Kakashi and ask the latter help Sarada with the Sharingan. She was the eye's only user left, beside her father, if he was still... The woman chased that thought away; Sasuke wasn't that stupid to die and let the poor kid alone and neither was Sakura. Kakashi had lost his Sharingan years ago, but then again he was the only one that could teach Sarada anything about it. Besides, he was anyways going to help her with a jutsu or two.

Before she had met Naruto, Tsunade used to have a habit of playing with her necklace, the one that had killed her brother and her boyfriend before the beginning of the world, and after she'd given it to the yellow-haired ninja she'd broken that habit. Even so, looking at Sarada Uchiha, she found her hand searching for the black stone that was once around her neck and was unable to realize why. The Sannin wondered whether it was a bad feeling... about more death... or a fuel for her hope that the girl could bring Sasuke and Sakura back.

"Shannaro," the young Uchiha yelled after a punch that made the ground crack and dust spread all around her. Before the day was over, she'd started saying it more and more, because it suited her. It was something of her mom's, something meant for her, just like the red eyes were things left by her dad's for her to use. They weren't there, but they were with her. They weren't there, but, oh, they were.