Many Naruto and Boruto fans have been wondering if there’s a connection between Sarada and Karin. Sakura has raised Sarada alone so far because Sasuke has traveled a lot, going on missions. Because of Sasuke’s absence, and Sakura’s intense work schedule, Sarada has been left on her own a lot of the time. After finding an old photograph of Sasuke and his Hebi teammates, she started questioning whether she was even related to Sakura. In this photograph, Karin is standing next to him, and she looks very similar to Sarada. This completely shocked the audience, and now the fans are questioning how this can be possible. Everyone has been wondering why does Sarada look like Karin and, something that was later revealed, why did their DNA match?
Even though Sarada and Karin look similar, it’s mostly because they wear the same type of glasses and have similar-looking hair. When Sarada arrived at Orochimaru’s hideout, she asked Suigetsu if he could test her DNA with Karin’s. He decided to help Sarada and took what he thought was Karin’s umbilical cord and tested it against Sarada’s. It was a perfect match, but not because Karin is Sarada’s biological mother, it was because Suigetsu actually took Sakura’s umbilical cord. Karin was the one who helped Sakura deliver Sarada, and she decided to keep her umbilical cord for sentimental reasons.
If you find this interesting so far, you should stick with us and keep reading to learn more about Karin’s connection to Sarada and how the whole situation unraveled.
Why does Sarada look like Karin?
After Naruto Shippuden was completed, a lot of the fans were surprised at some of the final pairings between the main characters of the series. Most of all, how Sakura and Sasuke ended up together even though their relationship was described as toxic and one-sided. It’s not even an issue of whether or not it would be believable for the two of them to end up together since Sakura has made her feelings quite clear since the beginning of the franchise.
Sasuke put everything aside for his revenge; he understood that if he wanted to face his older brother, he needed to get stronger quickly. This turned him down a very dark path, after which he found out the whole truth about the genocide of the Uchiha clan. He wasn’t able to process this new information fully and just went on another revenge path; this time, it was pointed toward Konoha.
The Great Shinobi War ended, and Sasuke was left with a lot of complicated baggage that he needed to face, and more than anything, he needed to repent for all he had done after he left Konoha. Somewhere during that time, Sasuke and Sakura started to date. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see them get closer to each other. Instead, we fast forward to the Boruto series, where everyone’s children start their time at the Shinobi Academy.
When we first meet Sarada’s character, we can see that she is a very bright and diligent student. She works very hard, and she’s driven by her ambition to become the best shinobi she can be. We also see that she is having a hard time spending a lot of time alone since Sakura has a very intense work schedule. Sarada often cooks a meal for both of them since she knows that Sakura will come home very tired.
She is, by all measures, responsible and aware of her circumstances. Ultimately, she does not want to make anything more difficult for her mother. She has never met her father and doesn’t understand why her mother won’t talk about him. All she knows is that he is always away on different top-secret missions. Because of this, Sarada started to fight with Sakura more, and after one big fight, Sakura demolished their home with her super strength.
The two of them moved to a new apartment, and that is where Sarada opened an old picture of her father, and when the full picture was revealed, she saw a woman standing next to him. This woman wore the same kind of glasses as she did and even looked somewhat similar to her. Sarada immediately started to question her heritage. When she confronted Sakura about this, she gave her the same passive reply, not giving her the full answer she desperately needed.
Sarada and her friend Cho-Cho found themselves in a similar situation; both believed their parents were lying about their heritage. The two of them joined Naruto on his way to meet Sasuke under the guise of wanting to bring him lunch sent by Hinata. Sarada was on her way to finally meet her father; when they arrived Cho-Cho needed to rest, so they stopped close to the meeting point. Sarada decided to go see Sasuke on her own; when she entered the abandoned building, Sasuke thought she was an enemy.
Sasuke attacked her, but he stopped his sword from hurting her once she yelled out to him. Sarada was shocked, and even after this, Sasuke treated her very coldly. When she started to ask him different questions, he avoided the answers, just like Sakura. This made Sarada even angrier, but soon after this, they were attacked by Uchiha clones. After they managed to fight them off, their next stop was to find Orochimaru’s hideout since they thought he would have more answers.
Why did Karin and Sarada’s DNA match?
Once they arrived at Orochimaru’s hideout, Sarada recognized Suigetsu from the old picture she had found. She pulled him aside when the rest followed Orochimaru and asked him if he recognized Karin from the picture. Suigetsu confirmed, after which Sarada asked if he could test her genes against hers to see if she was related to Karin.
Orochimaru had very advanced technology in the hideout, so Suigetsu used a machine to test Sarada as she asked. This is where the tricky part comes in; Suigetsu used an umbilical cord to test if Sarada was a match for Karin. He thought that the umbilical cord was Karin’s from birth, but this would later turn out to be false.
It was a perfect match when they tested the umbilical cord against Sarada’s genes. Sarada was left thinking that Karin was her biological mother. Later, we found out that Suigetsu tested Sakura’s umbilical cord, or rather Sarada’s, which is why it was a perfect match. Karin explained that she helped Sakura give birth to Sarada, and after it, she held on to the umbilical cord for sentimental reasons.
