Why Think Sarada Have 3 Tomoe In Manga But Not...

Heyo!

So, I’m glad that you sent me this ask for a number of reasons, but the primary reason is that it gives me an excuse to go on a tangent about Sarada’s Sharingan and the light novels. I will, however, answer your question first before I actually go on my tangent, out of respect for the ask. But, if you are interested, buckle up cause it’s gonna be a long one!

Okay, so, the anime and the manga are very far apart in terms of where they are in the story. While the anime is slowly catching up and is finally moving into the Kara arc, it is still way behind in comparison to the manga. The manga favors the main story line and doesn’t like to diverge into more detailed territory, instead relying on the anime and the light novels to supplement the story, provide the missing details, develop the characters, and expand on the off-screen activities of the characters. There are also a couple of one-shots out there by Kishimoto-Sensei, particularly one about Mitsuki that is amazing, that do this, as well. In the manga, they don’t discuss how and when Sarada acquired her 3 tomoe- which really bums me out- and they haven’t talked about it in the anime yet either. They also didn’t bother to show or explain how/ when Sarada trained with Sasuke to learn the Chidori. They just kinda threw it in there with little explanation, hoping that the fans would know to turn to other mediums, such as the light novels, for further clarification. I do not expect the manga to tell us about Sarada getting her 3 tomoe and it seems to me like they’re just retconning it into the story to keep the plot moving and hoping fans will just accept it as is. As I said, the anime is behind on the story, however, I do expect the anime to dive into Sarada gaining her 3 tomoe Sharingan in place of the manga, so I urge you to stay tuned for that.

Put simply, just by going off the manga alone, there really is no explanation as to how Sarada got her 3 tomoe and the anime isn’t caught up enough to explain it either. And this is where I tell you not to rely on the manga alone for the full story. The light novels are canon material, too, and they are a great place to start- if you can find them- to get more of the story than you would from the manga or even the anime. Particularly look into the Sasuke Sunrise light novel, the Parent and Child light novel, and the Sasuke Shinden light novel: The Teacher’s Star Pupil. Hopefully, that answers your question.

And, now, I’m gonna go on my tangent. We’re not gonna be given a direct explanation of Sarada getting her 3 tomoe in the manga. They’re gonna shove that off into the light novels and the anime, which I find completely disappointing because it would be great to see that development of her character in the manga, especially to see how the creators handle it. HOWEVER, I believe, 100%, that the manga will show us Sarada getting her Mangekyou Sharingan at the very least and it’s gonna be a major part of the story. I know other people think that she will get her Mangekyou Sharingan from Sasuke’s or Naruto’s deaths and I can see that as, maybe, a possibility considering the apparent direction the manga is going in and that they said it was gonna take on a darker tone, but I don’t agree with those predictions. I don’t think either of them are going to die anytime soon, if at all.

Sarada’s Sharingan awakened from love, not loss or hatred. It awakened out of her love for her parents (mostly Sasuke) and nothing anyone says will convince me otherwise. I honestly think that Sarada’s Mangekyou Sharingan will awaken out of her selfless love for someone she deeply cares about. Whether that turns out to be Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, Cho-Cho, Mitsuki, Kawaki, or Boruto is yet to be seen, although I do think it will be someone other than Sasuke and Sakura and I will explain my reasoning later. With that being said, I think it will awaken in one of three ways: either Sarada is going to be gravely injured protecting someone and realizing that she was so willing to do so out of her love for that person, someone she loves will be gravely injured in her presence or to protect her, and she will awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan out of pure love and desire to save/ protect that person, or the Village will be almost entirely destroyed in Pain-like fashion if the fight manages to spill back over into the Village and upon seeing the destruction her love and devotion to the Village, her devotion to the Will of Fire, will awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan. I also have a theory/ prediction of how her Mangekyou may awaken based on how the manga is laying things out, but I’ll explain that later, too.

To me, it doesn’t make sense to have the Mangekyou awaken out of loss due to the fact that it has long been established as being driven by her love. Sarada isn’t like the other Uchiha when it comes to her Sharingan. She isn’t bound by the Curse of Hatred and as such it has no effect on her Sharingan’s abilities. One of the light novels delves into this in a conversation between Sasuke and Sakura in which they talk about how caring and sensitive Sarada is, how observant and curious she is, and how she loves deeply. I don’t think you can suddenly change that facet of her because it is an important part of her personality which distinguishes her from the Uchiha before her in a way that breaks away from the established norm and defines her as her own person. You certainly can’t change that just so she can level up in a “believable way,” because that isn’t believable at all based on how her character has been established. For example, if they were to have Kawaki, in particular, kill Sasuke or Naruto or Sakura and Sarada was to hate him for it, thus introducing the Curse of Hatred to her, I think it would completely diminish her character by devaluing the fact that her growth is based on love, not hate. Of course, you could argue that she could develop from learning to forgive him for doing something like that and moving past the hate, but the relationship between Kawaki and Sarada isn’t built up enough to make that believable on top of the fact that Sarada isn’t a character who hates anyone in particular and suddenly putting that on her just to establish that she is someone who can overcome hate for love would literally be far too similar to Sasuke’s story and that’s not how this series is doing things. Sarada being a character devoid of hate and full of love is literally what sets her apart from the Uchiha before her, as I said, and introducing loss and hatred as a way to awaken her Mangekyou just doesn’t make any sense to me and seems like a complete and total retcon.

The Boruto series, according to Ikemoto-Sensei, is about the kids breaking away from inherent families bonds. It’s about them making their own way in life and not defining themselves based on the families they come from. They choose their own paths, create their own destinies, and are not defined by their inherited traits. Sarada, for example, is not defined by the Uchiha history. She isn’t bound by the Curse of Hatred like Sasuke was and like the overwhelming majority of the other Uchiha were- I give exception to Itachi here, in particular. She has fully embraced the Will of Fire and the connections that she has to others and her desire to become Hokage shows that. She is taking a different path from her family and making her mark in her own way. Boruto, likewise, is taking a different path from his family, too. While he tried desperately to gain Naruto’s recognition, he never wanted to be defined as the son of the Hokage. He wanted to be his own person and break away from the idea that he, like his father and grandfather before him, would become Hokage, which is why he admires Sasuke so much and wants to follow in his footsteps. In Kishimoto-Sensei’s Mitsuki story, we see him also work to establish his own path in life. None of them want to follow in their families footsteps and that’s an important aspect of the series to consider when you look at things like Sarada’s Sharingan.

Now, going back to what I said earlier, I don’t think Sarada will awaken her Mangekyou because of her love for her parents. I think we’ve reached a point in the series where it’s time for her love to be displayed towards someone else in the same way that it extends to her parents. We have seen her love for Sasuke (and Sakura) awakening her Sharingan and based on what I’ve read in the light novels, it develops further due to her love for Sasuke. And now I think we’re at a point in her development where her love for others needs to be displayed to further her development and put her on the path of understanding the importance of her connections to those around her and what that means for herself, as Naruto did. And I compare her to Naruto here in that to become Hokage, she needs to be recognized by the Village, as Naruto did before her. She needs to understand her connections to people outside of her family to truly recognize the importance of those connections in order to harness the desire to become strong enough to maintain those connections and to fight to protect everyone. If she doesn’t do so and show everyone in the Village that she has what it takes to protect them and bring them together, then she will never become Hokage. Just having the desire to do so isn’t enough. And that’s why I think her Mangekyou will awaken because of someone outside of her family. I honestly think her Mangekyou will awaken from love towards Naruto or Boruto. I say towards Naruto because we know the lengths he will go to protect the Village and if the fight returns to the Village, he is willing to risk everything to protect it, and if Sarada were to witness this it may awaken her Mangekyou in her love and admiration of Naruto as Hokage and her desire to want to help him and protect the Village. Now, that’s just a vague, rather un-thought-out idea that I’m not entirely committed to, but I could see it happening. Then, there is the possibility that it will awaken because of her love for Boruto and this is where my theory/ prediction based on how the manga is going comes into play.

So, remember way back when Sumire asked Sarada if she was bothered by other girls liking Boruto, if she liked Boruto herself, and Sumire admitting that she likes Boruto? Then Sarada gives her this weird look when they leave after denying she had feelings for Boruto and that she didn’t really care if other girls liked him? I think that’s setting us up to see Sarada realize that she does have feelings for Boruto. Now, remember when Boruto asked Sasuke to borrow his headband before the fight? Also, remember when Sasuke told Boruto that he and Naruto are willing to do anything, even die, to protect the Village? All of those things tie into my theory. Here’s how I think it’d play out: Sasuke and Naruto are beaten up pretty badly and are incapacitated, leaving Boruto the last one standing and unable to stop Jigen from returning to the Village. Jigen starts destroying the Village to find Kawaki and easily fights off everyone in his way before Boruto also returns to the Village to try and stop him, at the behest of Sasuke. Sarada’s still in the hospital, of course, but can hear what’s going on and decides that she’s gonna join the fight despite her injuries. At this point, you’ve got just about everyone mobilized to stop Jigen, which I think will lead to some character deaths that will also be important to the story. So, Jigen is stomping people left and right just as Sarada joins in the fight. Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki go all gung-ho and use their strongest abilities, including Sage Mode for Mitsuki (yay), and while they manage to injure Jigen, they’re nowhere near strong enough to stop him, especially because they are all injured at this point. Jigen’s getting ready to take them all out and either Boruto will get seriously injured protecting Sarada or vice versa, causing Sarada’s Mangekyou to awaken because of her desire to protect him, and I think she’ll later realize it’s because of deep feelings for Boruto that it awakens. Now, either Sarada is going to take full advantage of her new abilities and completely wreck Jigen or Boruto’s gonna go bananas and inflict some heavy damage on him- which might include Momoshiki-Boruto making another appearance. Then, you have Kawaki who can also hear what’s happening, escapes, and joins the fight and says that he’ll go with Jigen if he’ll stop attacking the Village and stop hurting his friends. Jigen agrees and as they’re leaving, Boruto tries to stop him and Kawaki retaliates, giving him his scar.

That’s my prediction of how things are gonna unfold and I’m willing to bet money that at least some of that happens, whether how I described it or not is yet to be seen, as I think the manga is leading up to it. But I also think this is the point where Sarada is going to awaken her Mangekyou Sharingan because it is definitely going to be the most emotional point of the story thus far and is a prime opportunity to have it awaken. And they better not waste this opportunity.

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, thank you for bearing with me and reading and thank you, anon, for the ask! I hope this all makes sense to everyone and you’re all as hype as I am for the coming chapters/ episodes!