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Crackling sound belonging to that of a bonfire was heard from one point of the forest. Inside its dense row of trees, near its calming stream of water, stood a boy watching the river flow in silence. His gaze was almost blank, his mind was both present and absent at the same time.
“You’ve been staring for 15 minutes,” Sarada finally spoke, her hand supporting her cheek. “What? Have you calculated the speed of the water? Or have you counted how many rocks there were?” She continued, her voice sharp, much like her father.
Boruto let out a soft chuckle, “Well, at least, with that I can get a peace of mind.” His voice was soft, way too soft to Sarada who were used to hear his boisterous, loud, and annoying voice, yet there was also a tinge of playfulness, sadness, frustration, and confusion; all merged into one.
The Uchiha stayed quiet for a while as she watched Boruto’s figure from the back. Though his physique appeared stronger, his mind grew calmer as time went on under the tutelage of her father, but mentally he carried too much burden on his shoulder. All due to the cursed Otsutsuki hijacking his body. The threat trained him, honed his techniques to perfection in a short time, but also drained him. Konoha and the world spiraled into a never-ending chaos, people who were supposed to support each other were instead turning their backs from the very son of the Hokage himself, the hero who brought peace with his own hands.
All because of the fear created by the Otsutsuki.
Fear of Boruto wreaking havoc, fear of Otsutsuki’s plan finally set in motion, fear of Boruto’s capability to bring destruction to not only Konoha but the world when he lose control of his body, fear of Boruto causing harm to the Seventh Hokage, his own father. All those useless fears caused by an alien.
Sarada balled her fist tighter. ‘Boruto didn’t deserve this,’ she thought. She wanted to help, she had to, it was her duty as a friend, just like her father’s duty to support the Hokage.
“Your mind was goddamn noisy,” the sudden voice seeping into her hearings made Sarada’s onyx eyes changed its direction to meet Boruto’s blue ones. All Sarada could take from Boruto’s gaze was, for the lack of word, annoying.
‘There he goes again,’ she thought, feeling a tad bit relieved to see at least a small portion of her friend back. The Uchiha scoffed, her hands crossed in front of her chest before she responded to him with just the same snark.
“Thankfully, I am a good friend–,” her words were sadly cut off by a shocking sentence that came out from his friend’s mouth.
“Just say you are thinking about me and go,” Sarada fell into silence, both due to shock and being irritated. The way Boruto nonchalantly stated what was in his mind with his back still facing Sarada, making it difficult for her to read his feelings. Was he feeling mischievous? Was he being serious? Was he disgusted with this revelation? Which was it?
Sensing awkwardness started to form in the air, Sarada cleared her throat. “Anyways, didn’t you say practicing helped you clear your mind?” She asked, averting the focus to something else. It was not seen by Sarada, but Boruto formed a small smile on his face, silently feeling grateful for the care he got from his friend.
Boruto tucked his hands into his pocket, “Give me a break, would you?” He said as he turned around. He then continued his words as he started to walk closer to where Sarada sat herself down. “I just came back to Konoha after leaving it for 3 years. There’s no way memories didn’t start to gnaw at me like I was a dead animal to a vulture, no?”
Sarada gave him a hum before averting her gaze back to the river in front of her and let silence befell them once again. The two were accompanied by the crackling sound of bonfire, crickets, and sound of water hitting the stones with occassional sound of leaves being hit by the wind. Boruto was right, looking at the gentle stream of water while also keeping tune to other sounds do bring peace to the mind.
“Don’t you feel sleepy?” Boruto spoke again while resting his hands on his knee. With light emitted by the fire hitting his face, highlighting his features, Sarada was caught in awe with how much Boruto has matured. Be it in a sense of physical appearance or characteristics, Boruto had changed. Although, he got the soft feature of his own father, personality wise, he took on more of her father’s trait than his own, making him menacing when he did not utter any single word.
Realizing she had not given him any response, Sarada blurted out anything that was in her mind, “You’re awfully chatty today.” Okay, that came too harsh than she intended. It was clear that she was being groggy and embarassed. Great. Great. Now Boruto knew her feeling towards him.
The way Boruto stayed quiet after her response made Sarada turned her head, making their gaze met. ‘HAZUKASHII’ She internally yelled while staring at those blue eyes. ‘Please don’t comment on anything. Please don’t comment on anything. Please don’t comment on anything,’ she frantically prayed to the God, whichever there was, to make Boruto drop the topic and pretended it was just a cold breeze.
The pause was too frustrating to Sarada that she felt like mere seconds was hours, even months! “I was just responding to you and started a conversation twice. You call that chatty?” Boruto finally responded to Sarada, oblivious to the panic the girl just experienced.
“Yeah,” she replied with an awkward laugh that followed. You expect her to answer him with what? ‘Oh, no no no. I was just trying to cover my feelings’? Or ‘Yeah. You used to be noisy, but that was on brand I guess. Now, with that face, you being chatty didn’t fit you and my father’s teaching.’ AS IF she had the heart to say that. That did not fit the truth anyway.
Boruto squinted his eyes upon hearing her dejected answer. He felt rather suspicious about it, but decided to keep his mouth shut. If she chose to keep something as a secret, then so be it. The Uzumaki returned his gaze to the lit bonfire before his mind started to bother his peace again. It was unintentional, but he could only do little to appease his mind. Hence, rather than rejecting it, he preferred to accept whatever disturbance to his mind.
‘What was the counter of omnipotence?’ Was the first question that came to his mind. He took a glance to the stargazing Sarada before returning his gaze to the lit bonfire.
‘Right. Sarada was unaffected by the Omnipotence and so did Sumire,’ he thought. ‘Shikamaru-san had trouble trusting me, but he was diligently trying to. Master didn’t trust me, but chose to because Sarada told him so,’ Boruto’s train of thought continued as he recounted what had happened in the past. He remembered he and the shinobis of Konoha were chasing after Kawaki for hiding the Seventh Hokage, his father, before the situation suddenly turned upside down causing him and Kawaki to swap places.
‘Omnipotence,’ the word had been repeating inside his head for over 3 years as if it was the word to undo the spell. ‘Eida said that she had no control over the power, and its power granted someone’s wish which that someone had to be Kawaki. The two were also unaffected, but that was given. They were the ones who did this,’ Boruto thought as he brought his clasped hands under his chin.
‘Ruling out the doer of the Omnipotence, and those who were still trying to figure everything out, only Sarada and Sumire left,’ he concluded, his eyes still bore at the bonfire, ignoring what could happen for staring into such radiant light for so long in such close proximity. If his mother was here, he knew he would get a nasty scolding. Don’t get him wrong, he knew the consequences, but the only thing that could resemble his father who never stopped supporting him was fire.
Boruto let out a sigh. ‘What were the similarities between the two?’ He closed his eyes as he tried to recall the moments when he was with Sumire or Sarada in clarity. Sumire appeared a bit timid whereas Sarada… well, she behaved normally. The class rep only occasionally tried to talk to him, while on the contrary, Sarada talked to him more often, but he thought it was normal because they were in a team together. The hug Sarada gave? The one time Sumire talked to him first? That was because they had not met for 3 years, that did not count.
His hands tied tighter and his eyelids showed some wrinkles, signaling that he was thinking hard. He could not find any similarities between the two; only both are girls, that is, which made him frustrated. How would he expect to undo the Omnipotence if he himself did not know what could counter it? He promised to himself that the next encounter he has with Sarada or Sumire, he would be more attentive to the girls’ actions.
The 5 minutes of complete silence made Sarada averted her gaze to Boruto, feeling rather unused to how quiet Boruto had become. However, as soon as she noticed the wrinkles on his forehead and eyelids, Sarada decided to not bother him. ‘I wonder what he was thinking about,’ she thought as she pulled her jacket to cover her more properly. It was quite late at night, and way past her play time to top it off, yet here she was still out in the forest, and to make matters worse, she was with a fugitive.
‘Right. Rather than sitting still, it would be better if I think about the mysterious Omnipotence,’ she thought, her gaze going upwards, to the moving leaves. ‘It must’ve been love, isn’t it? The cause and the counter?’ She did witness the time it happened, she knew her and Sumire’s feelings towards Boruto, and so did she know about Eida’s feeling towards Kawaki. It all tied into one: Love.
They all felt the same form of love towards Boruto and Kawaki respectively. ‘The Seventh Hokage and the First Lady must’ve felt the same. The only difference was they were trapped somewhere, hence unable to further solidify my suspicion,’ Sarada lightly tapped her foot to the ground, her habit when finding a possible answer to her questions.
The Uchiha’s onyx eyes moved to Boruto again which now seemed to have progressed and thought about something different. ‘There’s no way he completely disregards my hug and the extra attention Sumire gave him, right? Because if so, he was as oblivious as his father, then,’ it was far from a baseless assumption. She heard it herself from her parents that the Seventh Hokage had the worst case of being oblivious. Her mother told her that his wife, Hinata, had been chasing after him since they were 10 or something, but Naruto did not even bat an eye, he saw her only as a friend until they were around 20. Only when the Fourth Shinobi War ended had he finally started to think about love in a romantic sense.
While she was staring at Boruto, she noticed the familiar sword beside him. ‘That was papa’s,’ she melancholically thought. Sarada never thought she would lose him, thankfully not in a sense of the worst one. She had always missed her papa badly, but at least she knew her papa was doing a mission and will come back sooner or later, yet today, he was not doing anything but became a fodder to the Shinjus. That feeling sucks.
The girl could not afford looking at the sword nor the current wielder any longer. The two reminded her of her papa and their struggle so much that she could not stop her eyes from tearing up. Boruto had suffered enough pain. Though he may not show it, Sarada knew deep down this child must’ve been missing her family since their depart. Even more, he had a hard time keeping in touch with Himawari, his own little sister, due to her understandable memory alteration and the Konoha’s bounty on his head. Boruto had grown unfazed with any change, yet she knew when everything finally went back to normal, he would break. Sarada did not even realize she was tearing up until a bead of tears fell on her arm.
Sarada let out a chuckle, ‘Even when my gaze was elsewhere, my mind always found a way to go back to papa,’ she melancholically thought before a heavy sigh came. She gazed blankly at the stars scattered across the black canvas covering her world. She counted one, two, three mindlessly, until something came to her mind…
‘The thorn soul bulb,’ the two thought at the same time.
‘If Uncle Sasuke consumes the fruit, will it bring his left eye back?’ Boruto thought as he internally bit his nails, a habit he usually did whenever he was stressed out but got rid of while he was training under Sasuke. He felt terribly bad for unintentionally being the cause of his loss, reducing his capability by a significant amount. Though Boruto was sure his master was as strong as he was in his prime, and was okay with losing his Rinnegan, he still felt it was his fault. Thus, he felt a sense of responsibility to save him as soon as possible.
‘Though looking at it, it would be hard to do,’ as he recounted the power and agility of Hidari, his master’s Shinju. It was the exact replica of his master’s ability. The fact that he had a hard time reading his master’s movement back when he was training set him back by a mile now that he was basically facing him just a little stronger. The one time he was able to erase him into thin air, he needed his Uzuhiko to be charged almost full. Sure it was satisfying, but now he had showed his card to the Shinjus, there was absolutely no way he could use it again on the same opponent.
‘Or I could. With my Vanishing Rasengan multiplied by–’ Boruto shook his head. ‘No, that won’t do. I shouldn’t resort to that power, dammit!’ He internally yelled while unconsciously hitting his forehead with his fist, unintentionally earning Sarada’s attention.
“Yo, you okay?”
“You should go home, your mom will come looking for you,” the two spoke almost at the same time, but between them, only Sarada was curious about what the other said.
“Huh?”
“Go home,” Boruto repeated, his blue eyes finally came into view once again in front of the contrasting light of the fire.
“Wh- why?” Sarada’s eyebrow furrowed as she looked at Boruto, speechless by the sudden order from her friend, a firm one even. She understood that Boruto did not want Sarada to be seen as his accomplice by people of Konoha, but– did he sense someone nearby?
“Just go home, Sarada. No reason,” Boruto repeated, unintentionally answering Sarada’s question. Honestly, it did not come out as something mystical like psychic power or anything, he was just staring at her frantically whipping her head left and right which made him assume that she must have been thinking that he sensed someone. He guessed if he let it go even longer, her Sharingan might get activated without she even realizing it.
Sarada clicked her tongue, “Now you’re for real chatty,” she said with a slight pout. “Plus annoying, but you’ve been one,” she quickly added, which made Boruto slightly lift one of his eyebrows that it was barely visible.
“So you were lying?” He replied and DAMN! Sarada felt the terrible need to rip her hair out. It felt like she was talking to her stoic yet feelers father. ‘Was this what mama felt when she was talking to papa? Or are they normal?’ She thought as she unconsciously put on a weird expression upon hearing his question, an awkward smile with a twitching eye if you often watch some TV shows.
Boruto squinted his eyes and spoke what was on his mind seeing the weird reaction Sarada gave. “If you won’t go home alone, I’ll walk–”
“WAIT!” Sarada yelled suddenly, making her own body flinched and reflexively covering her mouth while Boruto calmly shut his mouth. His gaze bore into Sarada, waiting patiently for whatever that came after her sudden scream. The girl, however, felt groggy after unconsciously yelling, but decided to quickly put aside her embarrassment to continue her word.
“Why do you think the ‘Papa’s shinju’ is chasing after me?” A question Boruto never thought about. The Uzumaki shut his eyes, trying to come up with an answer. He knew Sarada was someone Uncle Sasuke loved dearly, but so does Aunt Sakura. However, if he said it was because of love, did that mean Moegi sensei loved Konohamaru sensei?
“Hey, talk to me Boruto,” Sarada’s voice woke him up from his reverie. He stared at her for a couple of seconds before finally opening his mouth.
“Initially I thought it was someone they love, but I don’t know whether Moegi sensei liked Konohamaru sensei or not. It wasn’t like there’s only one type of love anyway,” he took a slight pause. He knew Sarada could take a guess what he was about to say, but he kept going anyway. “Take your father for example. If this was about romantic feelings, it should’ve been Aunt Sakura, right? Not you.”
“You thought it was love, huh,” Sarada responded as she nodded her head.
“Or people who’re close to them,” he stated again, changing his mind in matter of seconds. “But that wasn’t viable either. There are many people who are close to them. Not only you to your father, not only Konohamaru sensei to Moegi sensei, and so on, and so forth.”
Sarada hummed, understanding Boruto’s guesses. It was not totally wrong, but could not be said to be correct either, since neither of them knew the current goal of the Shinjus nor its power. “I thought it was the last person they think about before they’re trapped in the tree,” Sarada stated her guess without being asked as she crossed her hands in front of her chest. Her onyx eyes caught her friend nodding his head a couple of times with a hum that followed.
“That might be,” he curtly responded. “Now that we’re done discussing it, you should go home,” he continued as he get up from his seat whereas Sarada, in her shocked state, could only stare at Boruto’s towering figure.
“Tsk. Why are you so obsessed with sending me home,” the Uchiha sulked as she stood up. A short silence befell them before Sarada put a faint smile, silently sending reassurance to Boruto. “Then, till next time,” she added before she turned her heel to head home.
“Till next time,” the Uzumaki bid goodbye to his friend with a voice barely above whisper as his vision no longer catched the back of Sarada.