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Sarada was lying on her bed - exhausted from the training she had to endure with her father.
Sure, she still had a long way to go - and it was just the beginning. And she knew that if she aspired to become a Hokage one day, she had to be determined. But that can wait till tomorrow, she told herself. She needed this rest - so that she could train with the same vigour from the morning.
And she was so grateful that her father had willingly volunteered for this - she was glad that she could spend more and more time with her father now that he was not training Boruto.
Ah, Boruto.
Somehow this name creeps up into her mind every now and then. And once it gets stuck inside her head, it would take her ages to get that thought out of her brain.
She wondered how he was doing. She hadn’t seen him the whole day, apart from those two minutes when Sasuke had suggested that he should speak to Old man Kakashi. At that moment - she felt a little sad for depriving him the opportunity to train with his father.
And his thoughts had drained the last bit of energy in her body. She was no longer able to keep her eyelids open - and slowly but surely they closed down effortlessly. And she turned away from the window so that the moonlight did not disturb her.
She had almost fallen asleep when suddenly she heard a thud against the window pane.
Thud.
The first time - she shot her eyes open.
Thud.
This time she turned her body to the other side and saw the outline of a person banging the window. She quickly put on glasses and looked at the boy across the window.
Yup. It was him - those golden hair and deep blue eyes were glistening in the moonlight, she cannot make a mistake.
“Sarada, Let me in… ” she could hear faintly. She quickly slid-open the window.
“Boruto, what are you doing here?” she asked him quietly. A chilly breeze swept her hair and she got goosebumps all over her body. “Oh geez….” she continued, "Come inside - you’ll freeze to death, idiot!” , sliding the window further to allow him to enter.
Boruto carefully landed on Sarada’s bed on his knees - knowing very well that she would murder him if there were any footprints on her bed cover. He carefully took off his shoes and placed them beside the bed. After that he turned around to her with his usual smile.
“What are you doing here, Boruto?” she asked with her hands crossed.
“Umm….” Boruto hesitated, scratching the back of his neck, "I….I was just bored” he blurted out, "So I thought why not have a break?”
“Have a break? What are you doing anyway this late into the night?” - Sarada fired back.
“I was training, you know….” he replied after a long pause.
Sarada had a lot of words stuck in her mouth but she was unable to make any sentences with them.
“Training? Now?” - that’s all that she could manage.
“Yeah, Old man Kakashi taught me a new way to do the Rasengan. I’ve been trying to perfect it. I guess it’ll take some time to perfect.” - he sulked a little.
Sarada couldn’t do much but smile. Even after such a disastrous mission he’s somehow able to pick up the pieces and smile so effortlessly. It’s one of the traits Sarada likes about him. And it gives herself the courage to face the adversities. And the optimism in those blue eyes could hypnotise her for the whole day.
She was taken out of her thoughts from Boruto’s remarks, “Enough about me, tell me about your day.”
“Umm, yeah…. Not much really, me and papa trained till evening. I tried to improve my skills with the sharingan.”
“Ah, I see. I really wish we could’ve trained together, you know” - Boruto lamented.
“Well….” Sarada continued after a short pause, “We can always spar like we do often.”
Boruto replied with a light ‘yeah’ and went quiet for some time. She noticed how quickly his face sulked as he looked down - trying his best to fight with the emotions.
“What’s the matter? You were smiling a few moments back?” - she finally broke the silence. This isn’t normal, she thought.
“No…it’s just that….. I-I’m really worried about Mitsuki” - he finally said. He made himself comfortable by sitting on the edge of her bed - trying to avoid her face. Even Sarada was scared at the sudden thought of Mitsuki - who selflessly tried to save both of them - and ended up putting his own life to risk.
“Don’t worry”, she reassured, placing her hand over his shoulder, trying to console him, “I bet Oorichimaru will take good care of him.”
“Yeah, I hope so.” he managed to reply, placing his other palm over hers, lightly pressing for comfort. The room fell silent once again.
No one spoke much for some time. They just sat like that - each of them trying to come up with words - Sarada intently looking at their joined hands, And Boruto kept looking at the floor.
With each passing time - the moonlight seemed to illuminate their faces. Boruto had a huge pain in his heart and held him responsible for all this mess. Their team is now unable to take missions and one of them is in a critical state. He never knew that things would go this bad. And although he tried his best to deal with the problem - his mind would end up winding over the same thought from time to time. He came to Sarada specifically to ease his mind - yet he was still not able to get those thoughts out.
“I’m sorry”, he finally said.
“Huh?” Sarada blurted, fixating her look at his face once again.
Boruto turned his body to now face her, his eyes carrying all the agony and pent-up feelings he had held with himself since the fight.
“I’m sorry. For everything….. It’s because of me that everything has gone downhill. It’s because of me that our teammate is battling for life…. “
“Boruto….” -that’s all that she could manage.
“No, it’s the truth.” - he protested. His eyes started to get a little watery and so was Sarada’s.
“Don’t say stupid things, idiot” - the last part was just a mere whisper.
Now Boruto again looked back at the ground, “When….. When I saw you lying on the ground, unconscious, I felt….. useless. I couldn’t save you from his onslaught, and that… that eats me up.”
Cold tears fell down from Sarada’s cheeks as he heard him continue, “I had promised you to stay beside you when you’ll become the Hokage, but if…. If I-I can’t protect you in situations like these - how can you trust me in the future?”
“SHUT UP!!” she screamed and engulfed him into a hug, burying her face into his chest. She’s heard enough. Her tears made his shirt wet. Boruto also brought his hands over her back- rubbing circles over her back to comfort her.
Sarada slowly released her grip, her cheeks blushed because of her sudden attack over him. Boruto wiped the tears off her cheeks - which made her blush even more.
When the air felt a lot lighter than before, she finally spoke facing him, “ It’s not your fault, or even mine. We aren’t prepared as a team to fight Deepa yet. It’s the reason why we promised to get stronger right?”
“But…. I just can’t get this thought out of my head? What can I do?”
“Just don’t think about it, idiot. '' she replied, she extended her hand to place it over his, “I don’t think any ill of you. Neither will Mitsuki, I believe it. You’re just an idiot, MY idiot. Why would you think like that in the first place?”
“I’m sorry.” - he apologised, although this time it came up in a much more congenial tone. His grip tightened a little to give her some reassurance and she returned his gesture with a small smirk on her lips.
They stayed like that for a moment, before Boruto said, “Yeah thanks. I really needed this talk.”
“Anytime” , she replied with a smile.
“Alright then, I guess I’ll head out now. Thanks again.” he said as he again got onto his knees.
“You’re leaving? To where?” Sarada asked.
“Back to training.” he said giddily.
“Now?” she questioned in a tone of astonishment. “ It’s midnight, idiot. Take some rest.”
“No. I still need to train. I’ve got to get strong and I can’t bother to waste much time.” - his eyes showed the same determination as his words.
“So coming to my house was a waste of time, huh” - Sarada grumbled.
Boruto tried to justify, waving both of his hands to convey his innocence.
“Oh no no captain, it’s not like that, I meant-”
“It’s alright, I was just kidding” - her lips lit up with a mischievous smile.
Boruto had a huge sigh of relief, “God, you really are something…”
Sarada didn’t protest much. She blushed a little bit again - but she was happy that he was back on track - and she was happy how much he wanted to take care of her and Mitsuki. As Boruto opened the window to leave, Sarada called him again, “Boruto…”
He turned his head to face her again - blue eyes meeting onyx ones. Sarada shifted her gaze between his eyes and his lips. She thought of making a move - but then stopped. Mama and papa are downstairs - more importantly still awake. She didn’t want to fall into any trouble. Now’s not the time, she told herself. Instead she engulfed Boruto into another hug, wrapping her arms around him and he did the same.
“Take care” - she whispered into his ears.
“You too.” - he replied.
They untangled themselves - although both of them hated doing so, the time had come for Boruto to leave. He couldn’t afford to spend any more time away from training. Sarada saw through the window as he jumped from one roof to another, gliding away until the small speck of blue chakra disappeared into the woods of the hills.
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