It’s no secret that Sasuke hasn’t been there for his daughter Sarada (or his wife Sakura) in Boruto, but how Sarada uses her Sharingan in battle shows the negative affects Sasuke’s absences have had on her – especially on the battlefield.
From chapter 2, Boruto made it evidently clear that Sasuke was rarely there for his family by showing how excited both Sakura and Sarada get whenever the legendary ninja shows up. Later on, Sarada even confesses to her fellow teammates how she always gets frustrated with Boruto because of the gripes he has with his father since his complaints are nothing compared to what she experiences with her dad. In fact, Sarada even goes so far as to say that she sometimes imagines what it would be like to have Naruto for a father.
But the ways in which Sasuke’s absences have been affecting Sarada’s fighting capabilities are alluded to in Boruto chapters 41 and 42 by creator and supervisor Masashi Kishimoto, artist Mikio Ikemoto and scriptwriter Ukyo Kodachi. When battling Kara’s inner Boro, Sarada’s teammate and Orochimaru’s son Mitsuki asks Sarada to use her Sharingan on some of Boro’s Dark Mist that he had captured to learn the true nature of Boro’s abilities. Later in the same battle, Kawaki realizes that Boro must be powered by a core that’s hidden somewhere on his body and instructs Sarada to use her Sharingan to find the core’s location so they can destroy it.
Sasuke Never Taught Sarada How to Use the Sharingan
It’s clear that Sarada possesses the Sharingan in Boruto because it was passed down to her from her father. As a wielder and master of the Sharingan, Sasuke undoubtedly has the means to instruct anyone in its usage and would have done so with Sarada had he been present in her life. Sarada has already proven herself to be a sharp fighter, so if she had been properly tutored in the art of the Sharingan, Sarada wouldn’t have to be told to use Sharingan, she would have known to attempt this automatically. The fact that Kawaki himself suggests that Sarada tap into her Sharingan adds insult to injury because he had never heard of it kekkei genkai before Mitsuki brought it up and yet had already been able to deduce how it could help them after only having learned about it just a few minutes before. Of course, Sarada succeeds both times, but it’s no thanks to her father.
Interestingly, at the end of chapter 42, Sarada successfully unleashes the Chidori in battle, a jutsu that requires the Sharingan and whose only known users include Sasuke and Kakashi. Could she have learned it from Kakashi? Possibly. But Sarada says to herself that only she has been practicing the Chidori, so it’s likely she has been trying to master the jutsu on her own. Some fans could therefore point to the fact that Sarada failing to think of using Sharingan is not the product of her father’s absence. But it’s likely that because Sasuke hasn’t been there, Sarada has only been able to practice one aspect of Sharingan at a time, and she apparently chose to focus on using Sharingan to help her master Chidori, rather than unlock its more nuanced uses. It’s telling that Boruto, who’s able to identify the Chidori as Sasuke’s technique, only wonders how Sarada could have learned it, not when Sasuke taught it to her, further proving how she is always alone and must learn to unlock the secrets of her father’s clan without him.
There’s a reason Sasuke is among Naruto’s most controversial characters, and unfortunately the sequel series did nothing to alleviate that. Boruto proves that Sasuke never deserved Sakura with how much of a poor father he is to Sarada.
