Chapter Text
Sakura let out a soft sigh as there was a knock on the door. There was no question as to who that was; Hinata, and Naruto’s children - Boruto and Himawari. This meant that Naruto and Sasuke were late home, again. And after she had reminded Naruto that Hinata was bringing his children over today for their four days at the house. Sakura dropped the plate she was washing back into the water and went to answer the door.
Sarada flew down the stairs to fall in line behind her mother, her feet making minimal noise. Sasuke would be proud; Sakura would have to remember to tell him.
“Where’s Dad?” Boruto demanded the moment the door opened, looking up at Sakura and pouting. The eleven year old looked so much like Naruto when he was that age.
“Hello to you too, Boruto.” Sakura chided lightly as the boy pushed past to try to find his dad. After a polite hello, Himawari trailed after her brother but was stopped by Sarada. The two girls ran off together. Sakura was glad that the two girls had always gotten along so well.
Sakura smiled warmly at Hinata and the two shared a hug. “Are you going to stay for dinner? I haven’t even started anything yet, but I could.”
“Unfortunately I can’t; is Naruto here? I need to speak with him.”
Sakura checked her phone. No new messages. She wasn’t worried, but it meant that neither Sasuke or Naruto were close to being home. “No, I’m sorry. It doesn’t look like they’ll be home anytime soon either.”
Hinata sighed, and it looked as if the entire world had fallen on her shoulders. “I thought that might be the case. We had another argument about Boruto’s behavior at school, and he’s been avoiding me.” She pulled out a letter, neatly wrapped. “Could you give him this?”
“Of course.” Sakura took the letter and carefully placed it in one of her pouches. They said their goodbyes and Sakura went back to washing the dishes.
Boruto, having traversed the entirety of the family’s section of the Uchiha compound, came to stand in the doorway of the kitchen. “Dad isn’t here.” His tone was almost - although not quite - accusatory.
Sakura held back another sigh; it was too late in the day for this. “No, he isn’t. He’ll be home some time tonight. Come help me with the dishes.”
Boruto groaned, but trotted over and picked up the drying towel.
“Be sure to get those dry. Father doesn’t like it when the dishes are put away damp.” Sakura instructed, referring to Sasuke.
“Then maybe Father should dry them himself.” Boruto mumbled. Sakura barked out a laugh.
“That would be something, wouldn’t it?” She mused, her voice humor-ripe. Sasuke never did the dishes. He did other chores, of course, but had always hated doing the dishes.
They fell into a quiet rhythm for a while, the only noises being the clink of dishes and the distant sounds of the girls playing in another room. It occurred to Sakura that she hadn’t really spent any one on one time with her adopted son in a very long time. It was always the entire family, all six of them, or at least the girls tagging along in whatever activity they were doing. She thought of the letter Hinata had passed to her, and the comment about Boruto’s behavior at school. Whatever was going on, Naruto had been keeping her and Sasuke in the dark. It made Sakura’s stomach clench. Naruto wasn’t one to keep secrets, usually.
“So, how has school been?” Sakura finally asked as she scrubbed burnt rice off the bottom of a pan. She watched him out of the corner of her eye.
Boruto frowned, his entire body tensing; he was getting defensive. “It’s fine.” His tone was carefully neutral.
“That’s good. What’s your favorite subject this year?”
“I like the transformation jutsus.”
“Your dad was always fond of transformation jutsus-”
“Well, I’m not my dad!” Boruto yelled, slamming the plate he was drying onto the counter and shattering it. Pieces of ceramic flew across the counter and onto the floor.
They both stared at the pieces of broken plate in Boruto’s hand, a little shocked. The girls had stopped playing in the other room, and were obviously listening to see if there would be anymore yelling. Sakura was the first to recover, pulling her hands out of the water and rinsing them off. “Please, carefully, so as not to step on any broken pieces, go get the broom.” Boruto bolted out of the kitchen to grab it. The broken ceramic was easily wiped off the counter into the trash. When Boruto returned, Sakura had him sweep up the bits that had landed on the floor.
As he was dumping the ceramic into the bin, Boruto finally spoke up. “I’m sorry, Mother.” It was more than a mumble, but it was an apology, at least.
“I’d say it’s alright, but I want you to understand that outbursts like that aren’t acceptable. Have you been doing this at school?”
Boruto turned bright red and groaned. “No!” He had obviously had a similar conversation before, “Like I’ve said a hundred times, I’ve only been hitting people when they’re mean to Sarada!” His cheeks puffed out and he crossed his arms, glaring at the floor.
And just like that, all of the pieces clicked into place. Naruto hadn’t said anything to Sakura and Sasuke because he hadn’t known how to tell them that Sarada was being bullied. He hadn’t wanted to punish Boruto for sticking up for his adopted sister, which is why he had been fighting with Hinata.
“I see.” Sakura finally responded, letting out a soft sigh. How to approach this, without stepping on Hinata and Naruto’s toes? Boruto was her son, but only through adoption, and Sakura had always deferred to his biological parents when it came to something this complicated. But Naruto and Hinata were fighting about this, and Boruto was obviously having some sort of issue with his dad. “How about this? You and I will go get barbeque for dinner, just the two of us, and we’ll talk about this - both how to deal with the people at school and your punishment for breaking a plate.”
Boruto frowned, finally looking up at her warily. “That doesn’t sound like a punishment.”
“It isn’t. We’re going to talk about stuff, because you need to learn how to deal with this as an adult. You’re going to be a full-fledged ninja soon. Now let’s finish the dishes while we wait for your fathers to get home.”
It wasn’t too much longer before Sakura’s phoned beeped, and the two men made it home - Naruto five minutes later than Sasuke.
The sun hung heavy over the treeline, and the birds had quieted for the evening. Sakura explained in shortened terms what she had planned with Boruto, passed Hinata’s note along, and left the two men to figure out dinner for themselves. Hopefully they could come up with something more nutritious than ramen.
Dinner with Boruto was enlightening; as Sakura had expected, Sarada was being bullied because of her family name. Sakura would have to be blind and deaf to hear the whispers that all Uchihas went crazy and evil, but she had naively hoped that the rumors wouldn’t affect her daughter. She was a little surprised to learn that Boruto was being bullied as well, despite his want to wave it off, but Himawari was not.
“She doesn’t hang out with us,” Boruto explained, “She barely even acknowledges me and Sarada at school. I mean, it’s easier because she’s not in the same class as us, but still! Even at lunch! I mean, I get it. She doesn’t wanna be picked on either, but it still sucks. And now she’s got it in her head that she’s a better ninja than me, all because Mom and Dad both give her super special ninja training because of her byakugan and don’t train me at all.”
Sakura frowned. “Naruto and your Mom haven’t been training you at all?”
Boruto shrugged. “They don’t have time,” he mumbled, “Dad’s got all his Hokage stuff going on, and Mom’s got her clan head stuff going on, and now they both have to make sure Himawari doesn’t murder anyone with her super special byakugan powers. And Dad’s been going on all those missions lately to who knows where.”
Sakura held back a sigh. She would really need to talk to Naruto about this. She understood he was busy, but he needed to make time for the family as well. Boruto wasn’t very good at making his needs known, but that was no excuse for his dad not to spend time with him.
In the meantime, she needed to do something to help her son.
“Well, how about a deal?”
“A deal?”
“Yes. If you promise not to hit anyone at school, I’ll teach you my super special ninja technique.”
Boruto lit up, “Yeah? Wait- But what about when people are mean to Sarada?”
“I’ll talk to you teacher about it. And I never said you couldn’t intimidate them, just couldn’t hit them.” Sakura clarified, “A good ninja avoids a fight whenever possible, so you could even treat it as working on becoming a better ninja.”
“They’re not scared of me now.” Boruto fired back, crossing his arms.
“The ninja training should help with that.” He’d get some training, some time with a parent, and a watchful eye over him; it seemed like a win-win to Sakura. “I can scare your Dad and Father.” It was a little bit of a fib; her husbands weren’t scared of her ninja abilities, per-se, but she could threaten them into doing their chores and the like.
Boruto appraised her for a moment, obviously mulling it over. “Alright. But we have to start right after dinner!”