Daylight

A/N: Welcome to the final chapter of 'Daylight'. Thank you for reading this far. Thank you for your votes and lovely comments. Thank you. <3

This final chapter aims to show snapshots of the Uchiha family life - it is heavily based upon the Boruto anime and official Sasuke novels. If you are unfamiliar with them, then I still hope this flows well. May you start reading, and allow the words to drift you away... enjoy!

The sky transcended through days and nights as easily as the world transitioned through seasons, leaving no soul behind and ensuring every being was captured within its glow. Feet pitter-pattered across hallways like the rain settling on leaves and the ground, nourishing everything it touched. And just like the rain, his wife and daughter's presence would slide through every slightest crack, nourishing the heart of a man whose harshest winters was well behind him as he enjoined in the festivities that spring brought. No matter the season, Spring was everywhere. Spring was the blooming of the flowers his wife would buy him when he came home from a mission. Spring was the sun breaking out as his daughter called him, "Papa!" with a wide grin. Spring was the chattering of birds as a family of three shared stories through dinner. Spring was the previous day's rain that faded into memory as moments were forever ingrained into hearts as minds as pink and two blacks laughed, smiled and huffed in amusement. Spring was carried by both cherry-pink and scarlet, wherever they wafted, serenity would follow.

But a part of that spring was almost lost, fading away, closing its eyes to summer and welcoming the dreary windows to autumn when his scarlet spring returned from a mission unconscious. Nights were spent holding his daughter's hands as he looked upon his wife tiring herself out from doing whatever she could to ensure both Sarada and Boruto did not have long-lasting effects from their battle. He stays with them, and pulls over a hospital blanket on his wife when she eventually tires herself out. When sleep has fully overcome her, he takes her home and places her into their bed. He undresses her and dresses her again in her nightgown, he brushes her hair and puts aside her headband. He lathers her nightly routine of her cream onto her hands and he ensures she has food to wake up to. With each passing second, dawn bleeds into the sky, signalling the birth of a new day, and just for a few hours, he leaves again. Intent on gathering what information he can on the 'Kara' group that has surfaced, his intel gathering resumes, before he takes himself back to Konoha where he is needed most for the village - and for his family.

It is midday when he visits her in her spacious office as he comes bearing lunch with her, complete with her favourite anmitsu.

"How is she?" he asks her as she scribbles down notes and works her way through her stacks of papers seated on her desk. Her brows are furrowed in concentration and she does not look up as she answers, "I've stabilised her, and she's awake. But there is a possibility her left eye could suffer from long-lasting effects." He notices how she bites down on her lower lip as her pen works erratically along the paper. With every scratch of pen against parchment, Sasuke loses his thoughts back to the time when Sarada suffered from optical issues because of him, for his carelessness and abrupt actions. Sasuke's thoughts spirals and they drown out Sakura's next words of, "But nothing serious showed up on her physical examinations, so that's one less thing to be worried about."

He is convinced that Sarada's current suffering is due to the mistakes that he had made so long ago, and so it is up to him to make that right again. His attention is needed at the Hokage's Office, but he has a few words to depart with before he takes his leave.

"And you? How are you, Sakura?" he asks. At this the sound of pen against paper stops, and a sigh escapes her lips.

"It's... It's been so tough, Sasuke-kun," her voice wavers and her lips tremble as she speaks his name. "My little baby... Sara-chan. To think that if her- if Mitsuki wasn't there, then- I don't know what I would have done." Her head escapes into the gap made between her arms as she sheds her fears. He strokes her hair, hoping she would find some sort of comfort in it. A few moments pass before she lifts her head up and wipes her tears away. "But I need to stay strong. And thanks to you, I've managed to do that." She manages a weak smile that she shares as she looks up at him.