#bsweek19

Sitting on a bench while enjoying the warm sunlight, made Boruto think about his past. His reasons?

The idea of harbouring the feelings for his childhood friend. To be more specific, he was wondering about the concept of childhood friends itself.

The relationship that he shared with Sarada felt different in every possible way from friendship. At first, Boruto was annoyed by her serious attitude and not being so outgoing, just like him.

Both he and Sarada were feeling forced to befriend each other by their parents. Apparently, they shared the same opinion within that time frame of their life. Well, it couldn't be helped. Two-three years old toddlers were the set of troublemakers and source of arguments. Well, not all toddlers but he and Sarada.

Before entering the ninja academy, he started to go out with boys around his age rather than hanging out with Sarada. His dad received the honour of being one of the most respected positions in the village. The attention he got from dad gradually was disappearing.

Yet, he still craved for that lost attention to more than anything else in his life.

Academy years were a mixture of bad and positive emotions. First meeting with Denki, fighting Iwabe, Mitsuki transferring from the sound village to Konoha, and finally seeing the real actor of Kagemasa action movies needs to go on diet.

“You're many things, but I know you're no liar,” said Sarada while saving him the first time. Throughout the years these words still make him feel glad. Perhaps, it was already the point where he started to think that being Sarada friend isn't bad. There were many moments they shared, but those words always stuck somehow as the first thing he remembered about her.

However, would they be close as they are without ending up in the same genin squad? Boruto had his own insecurities and doubts about this question.

Without team seven his life would turn out differently. He would be unable to understand his current teammates, ignore their pain. After all, he always based his actions on selfish desires when he was twelve years old.

And then came chunin exams.

In a way, it was the most painful and scary part of his past. He cheated on the exam just to get his father attention. Hear him cheering for him, or at least show support in another area of his development that wouldn't include fighting. The consequences of betraying his friends still made him guilty. Sarada being worried about his well-being in a way saved him from constant guilt-tripping.

Amount of apology letters he sent to Shikadai reached insanely large number. Until his best friend explained clearly to him that, these letters are a 'drag', Boruto was writing them every day. They settled for resolving that issue with a real fair match.

It didn't stop Boruto from experiencing overwhelming guilt because of his past actions.

Speaking about the past few days Boruto noticed all of his friends went through a change, at least some of them. Sarada changed too. To the point, he wasn't unable to label her as just a friend. Every time she looked with this soft gaze, the way she adjusted her glasses or was standing near, made him overly self-aware she's beautiful. The image of Sarada always appeared in his head when he felt miserable.

Are these feelings just friendship? What if going out of their current comfort zone is a bad decision to make? In the worst-case destroys any shard of positive feelings they have for each other. These hidden fears to take things further down made him a real coward, eh?

"What are you doing here?" He could swear he heard real Sarada's voice. Must be just his imagination. "Boruto, wake up!" she shook him gently.

“I am awake, ya know? Just thinking with closed eyes,” he responded as soon he realised the real Sarada was shaking his body to wake him up. Boruto saved himself from embarrassment by calling his 'childhood friend' a fragment of his stupid fantasy.

“Let me guess, you're blaming yourself again.”  Well, she wasn't that far off from the truth. He actually was feeling charmed by her voice. Ah, until she spoke up Boruto wasn't aware how much he missed her company in causal conversations like this one.

“I am that easy to see through? That's not good my senses are starting to get dull,” he joked. Still, with his eyes closed, he visualized Sarada showing to him one of her soft expressions. It was hard to describe what this feeling did to mess with his thoughts.

“Oh, really? I don't think that's the case. Did you forget? Sharingan and Byakugan can see through the hidden feelings people have.”

“That's kinda scary, ya know. At least if you can prove it,” he laughed for a while. “Wait... You're serious now, aren't you?”

From the ominous atmosphere, Boruto realised he really screwed up by not taking Sarada's words seriously. He opened his eyes in the case he really needs to run in an attempt to save his life.

"I am. Showing you proof won't be a problem. Can you see Sumire talking with Kawaki over there?" Sarada pointed towards the shopping district. His adoptive brother was surrounded by a bunch of fangirls, but he seemed to focus just on talking with the class rep.

"Yeah. They are just talking. Dad appointed the class rep as Kawaki's personal mechanic not too long ago.“ Boruto never intended to doubt his adoptive brother words from the moment he lost an arm protecting his younger sister, Himawari.

”You say that because you're not a neutral party like me. Sumire looked really tense and on guard searching for something. She didn't notice Kawaki was there surrounded by his fan club until he spoke to her. When she turned around her shoulders relaxed." 

The little details Sarada noticed from their spot on the bench were crazy. To him, it looked just like the obligatory exchange. After all, the class rep was responsible for ensuring Kawaki mechanical hand works without any problems.

“Alright, alright, I get your point, ya know? It completely flew out of my head that you learned how to read body language. Sharingan is surely powerful." Boruto admitted his defeat and smiled when Sarada did her winning pose she practised in the past few days.

”You are no match for me! Now confess why you were thinking about the past,“ she gave him a command.

”To be honest I was thinking about the concept of a labelling people as 'childhood friends', ya know?“ he started being aware that Sarada directed her gaze towards him. "Do you think of me as just annoying childhood friend, Sarada?” he asked.

Sarada was silent and sat down next to him. Like the answer, she intended to give him needed to be carefully planned out in order to not hurt his feelings. Boruto, even thought she's aware of his hidden fears like she experienced them herself.

“No. I'm pretty sure I feel something more towards you. Whether it'll work, or not is a different matter. However, you'll remain my childhood friend no matter what the future holds. Isn't that the concept of childhood friends label in the first place?” So that was her answer. It's a relief that she had similar feelings about the subject.

"I'm pretty sure I feel something more towards you too, ya know? Should we see if it'll work out then?" he suggested. Maybe it wasn't the most romantic way to ask a girl out. Boruto felt that causal way of asking is possible due to him feeling comfortable around her and wasn't possible if in her place was another girl.

“Yes, we totally should try.” This day couldn't end with a better resolution than Sarada's agreement.

“Meet me tomorrow here at six pm then. Throughout past years we've always worked through to improve our changing relationships. This time is no different, so let's take it slow and work through the change over the next years."

Sarada's smile told him it was the best answer he could give. When he's together with her, even his hidden fear of sudden change disappears into thin air.