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It had all started when he saw her try on that damn hokage cloak. She looked so full of life as she threw it over top of her outfit — a triumphant smirk plastered into the corners of her face. It suit her so perfectly, despite being way too big for her and probably not much like her style.
He knew how determined she was to make it her own. He witnessed firsthand just how dedicated she was to her goal of becoming hokage one day. She had stuck to everything she stood by — defending him when the entire world had turned against him, no matter what it cost her. If anyone could become hokage, it was her.
It was endearing, really. How something as simple as trying on the hokage cloak could light up her entire being in the blink of an eye. He’d learn to sew and hand stitch every single thread himself to make a cloak for her if she’d smile just like that whenever she wore it.
She had done a quick spin on her heels before turning to face her blond teammate.
“How do I look, Boruto?” She had pepped, completely unaware of the hold she had on Boruto’s heart. Expectant eyes looked up at him. Since when had he become so much taller than her?
Perfect.
He had cocked his head to the side, suppressing the swarm of emotions whirling in his head as he offered a small smirk. Cerulean eyes met her dark onyx.
“Master will have a heart attack if he sees you in my old man’s cloak,” he teased, reveling in the amused expression on Sarada’s face. He wasn’t exactly wrong. His Master and his father had always had a rather interesting relationship, not that he could really judge anymore. After all, he had one of those himself.
Sarada let out an unrestrained giggle which had Boruto suppressing the urge to freely smile. Nowadays he struggled with loosening up his personality and being his authentic self, having been on the run and subject to countless undesirable outcomes. But somehow, Sarada always managed to unintentionally rehash the authentically-boisterous Boruto that he’d left behind all those years ago.
“You’re not wrong. I should probably return this,” Sarada chuckled, holding up the ends of the cloak for herself to view. “Does it suit me at least?”
“Yeah.” Boruto had answered without missing a beat. His eyes softened at the view in front of him — at the Sarada that had without-complaint gotten him through thick and thin. He couldn’t even bring himself to suppress his smile any longer at the sight of her and what her future would hold. He needed her to know just how damn proud of her he was. Just how honoured he would be to become her right-hand man, if that was even still in the cards at this point in time. “You wear it like a true Uchiha.”
“A true Uchiha, huh? I like the sound of that,” she had smirked, suddenly inching closer to Boruto. “And who taught you about Uchihas?” She tilted her head in a tease.
“Master, of course.” Why was Sarada suddenly so close to him? Why did it matter?
“Uh huh,” Sarada had scoffed, shrugging off the hokage cloak and placing it back onto the chair. She raised an eyebrow skeptically “You’re telling me I didn’t teach you anything?”
Boruto lightly chuckled at that. “Hmm.” He scratched his chin, pretending to think. “Right, how could I forget? Sarada Uchiha taught me to never speak to an Uchiha within the first five minutes of them waking up unless you wanna witness grumpy—”
“Hey!” She lightly jabbed him in the chest. Well, lightly for her. Sarada was ridiculously and scarily really strong. Boruto honestly questioned how he’d survived her wrath thus far. “At least I actually get up! I recall having to shake you awake more times than I can count because you never get up on time!”
“Why would I need to worry about getting up on time when I have you to wake me up?” Boruto countered with a grin, only to be met with another slightly harsher jab to the chest. Would it be clinically sadistic of him to say that he rather enjoyed being jabbed in the chest by Sarada nowadays? The past him would probably ruthlessly disagree, but the current him felt differently. Their banter and playful teasing was proof of their closeness — of their relationship which was true, and undeniable, and ran as deep as relationships could go.
No doubt he’d never take anything like that for granted ever again.
“I won’t be around to wake you up forever, you know?” She snarked, unrelentingly putting her hands on her hips. “One day you’ll have a wife, and she’ll probably become fed up with your sleep-in tendencies and divorce you!”
A…..wife? Boruto hadn’t really thought about that sort of thing — because quite frankly, for the longest time he’d been convinced that he wouldn’t even get to live this long. But now that he was still able to live, he supposed that thinking about things like getting married and having kids or whatever wasn’t completely out of the question anymore.
He tried to envision the situation that Sarada had described. Sleeping next to his wife in his thirties, being slapped awake by her because slumber apparently wanted him way too badly. He’d only sleep in because he knew that she’d always be there to wake him up no matter what.
He didn’t tell Sarada that hers was the only face he could envision at the thought of waking up next to his wife.
“Nah, I don’t plan on getting married. Too much of a hassle, y’know?” He countered, letting the back of his head rest on his hands.
“Oh, me either. Probably.” She chuckled to herself. “Ah well, guess we’ll just stay single forever then, huh?” Just the slightest bit of pink hued as a small smile plastered on her face.
“Seems like it.”
Okay so maybe that was a bit of a lie. It had obviously not started when he saw her try on the hokage cloak. It seemed to go way deeper than that, but he was conflicted.
For the longest time, he had been so sure of what his feelings for her were. That they stemmed from pure comradery due to them being teammates as well as close friends. He had the instinct to protect her no matter what due to how long they’d known each other. They understood each other like the backs of their hands due to having spent so much time together throughout their lives — despite a three year gap. He didn’t doubt that he cared for her much more strongly than what your typical friendship would get you, surely that was normal?
But lately, he couldn’t help but wonder if somehow, somewhere, there was something more to it. He didn’t quite understand it himself, but something just felt different from what he’d originally deemed their relationship to be like. He really couldn’t pinpoint it though, as he didn’t have much of anything to compare it to.
He had been sitting on the hokage monument for longer than he’d realized as he heard a familiar voice behind him.
“Something wrong?” A strong voice that he recognized all too well asked.
“Master?” Boruto replied, as Sasuke walked closer to the blond. When he gave him an expectant look, Boruto replied: “Um, I wouldn’t say wrong but….”
“But?”
“Would it be alright if I asked you something?” Maybe confiding in someone like Sasuke would help him. After all, Sasuke was experienced in a lot of things, this included.
“You know you’re free to ask me what you’d like,” Sasuke replied, eyeing his student.
“Right…” Boruto let out a feigned chuckle. “So um, how do you know when you’re in love? How did you know, Master?” He gulped while waiting for his response. This was never the sort of thing that they talked about.
After a brief silence, Sasuke spoke. “Well, I would say it depends on the person and the kind of relationship. Everyone feels and experiences things differently.” He answered honestly. This wasn’t the kind of advice that Sasuke had been prepared to offer, but he had said that Boruto could ask whatever he liked, and he was a man of his word. “Honestly, this is probably a subject that my wife could offer better advice on, but it really does depend.” Boruto continued to listen attentively.
“There’s no set way to know if you’re in love or not. If you are, it’ll be reflected in each and every action of yours. It’ll become part of your entire being until you’re overwhelmed by how much you feel for that person, in the best way possible.” He paused, thinking of what to say next as this kind of advice really wasn’t his forte. Looking back, he probably didn’t hold much qualifications to speak on this matter anyway.
“You asked how I knew, but I don’t think I can properly answer that. It was always something I knew was there in the back of my head, but I refused to acknowledge it due to being so dead-set on my goals at the time. So I wouldn’t say I had a moment of realization, per-say — but rather a moment of acceptance for what I felt. I understood what it was that I really wanted, which was a home to come back to.”
“Until next time.”
“Oh…okay,” Boruto replied, still feeling unsure about himself. While that was a rather heartwarming story and all, it didn’t exactly help Boruto piece together his feelings. It’s just….something that you know is in the back of your head that you have to accept? “It’ll become part of your entire being until you’re overwhelmed by how much you feel for that person, in the best way possible.”
God, that didn’t not sound like Boruto.
“I’d say that your father on the other hand most definitely experienced a moment of realization, simply due to how dense he is.” Sasuke had a slight smirk present on his face. “It took him being under the impression that he no longer had a chance with your mother for him to realize that he did in fact, love her.”
“So did he get his chance?” Boruto heard himself ask.
“Well, I’m inclined to say yes, considering the fact that you exist.”
“Right.” Boruto had heard the story of their parents' love drama plenty of times before — mainly from Hinata. As amusing as it was to hear about how stupid his dad was when it came to love, now he couldn’t help but feel equally as stupid.
It took his father thinking that he no longer had a chance with his mother to realize. What would Boruto do if Sarada were to find someone else? If some other guy were to confess their love to her, and she actually accepted and was ready to start a life with them.
His mouth fell ajar uncomfortably.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his student, studying him. “You’ve fallen for someone.”
Boruto’s head immediately jerked upward. “What!? When did I say that!?” He shrieked, as he hadn’t intended on filling Sasuke in that much.
“You want me to believe that you’re just asking me about love for no reason?” He tilted his head, seemingly having Boruto all figured out in a sense that he did not appreciate.
Well, he should’ve known that there was no fooling his master. No point in denying it now.
“That’s not impossible, but I don’t…..I’m not sure if it’s—”
“You’re not sure if you’re in love?” Sasuke cut off, to which Boruto nodded. He looked at the blond in a way that seemed to be a mix of condescension and understanding. Boruto tensed in abashedness.
“Well….yeah.” He scratched the back of his neck in uncertainty. “I mean, I know that I care about her a lot, maybe more than anyone else. I feel at my best when I’m around her, and I want to protect her forever, but….is that….”
Sasuke placed his sole hand on his hip. “Think a bit harder, Boruto. Why are you still contemplating this?”
“What?”
“I think you already know the answer, otherwise you wouldn’t have asked me.” Boruto’s head turned to face his master, who was now standing right next to where he was sitting. A gust of wind overtook them, taking a toll on both of their hair. “Am I right, Boruto?”
Boruto didn’t reply, instead blinking twice in question of if he was hearing his master correctly.
“But I….”
“When you become the hokage, I’ll be your right-hand man! I’ll guard you well!”
“I…..”
“You may be a lot of things, but I know you’re not a liar, Boruto.”
“.......”
“I think that you two would make a good couple.”
“Would not!”
“Tell her I’ll be back for sure, so she doesn’t need to worry about a thing.”
“You’re late, stupid Boruto.”
“Sorry, I’m home now.”
“Oh.”
Oh.
He could feel the heat rise to his cheeks, making any gust of wind totally meaningless. Sasuke merely scoffed, turning around to leave Boruto in his confuzzled thoughts. Before leaving, he paused in his tracks, slightly turning his head to face Boruto. The wind was now blowing his cape back and forth, causing quite the racket.
“You better not keep my daughter waiting. Otherwise she’ll simply move on and well, if that happens, there’s nothing I can do. Seems that you’re more perceptive than your father, at least.” He disappeared in a flash before Boruto could process his words.
“....Wait what!?”
He knew. For how long had he known!?
Boruto fell backward against the monument, laying there as he stared into the patronizing sky. He relented with a frustrated sigh, finally relaxing.
“Uchihas know too much.”