#their friendship is such a breath of fresh air considering how bad Naruto was at

[palizinhas]

I love Emotional Crisis Gaiden Sarada, and I love Ambitious Future Hokage post-Gaiden Sarada, but there's something really fun about pre-Gaiden Sarada, tbh. Like, she doesn't actually care about being a ninja - she outright says she doesn't see what the big deal is in the start of Gaiden - but she's still this serious "honor student". It's cool.

[ramenandchill]

Character criticism

Today’s criticism: The entirety of the show Boruto

Hood day/night my children. How are you all? I hope you all are eating your veggies and drinking your water. I hope you all are taking care of yourselves to the best of your abilities and that your all doing well back home, wherever home may be.

Today, we’re going to be tackling the mess that is essentially the anime,Boruto. Basically why it’s not as good as it could be, and why it has potential. I even have an alternative plot for Boruto, and I thought I would share that with you all, my loves.

So first, let’s summarize what Boruto is;

Boruto:next generations is a spin-off show to the Naruto series. A series that once followed the life of Naruto Uzumaki and his fellow friends as growing shinobi, now follows his son Boruto Uzumaki and his friends, who are the next generation of ninja growing up in the shinobi world.

In depth: the setting takes place in a now peaceful shinobi world, where the 5 great nations are no longer at war or no longer have bad blood anymore. Naruto Uzumaki is now the 7th Hokage of Konoha, and Sasuke Uchiha serves as the shadow Hokage, protecting Konoha from the outside. Most of the Konoha 11 have children. These children are learning to be ninja, and are growing up to become extremely powerful each day.

Though this plot sounds very entertaining, it is far from that and the lazy writing shows through many parts of the Anime. Here are some problems I’ve encountered with the plot and characters itself.

1. The children are extremely overpowered- for one, the children in Boruto are too overpowered. One thing that was interesting about Naruto was that we got to grow with the kids and see them develop their powers. Though some were prodigies at a very young age, we got to see them develop even more and we realized that they weren’t too ultra powerful and that they could be beaten. Once we as the audience realized that our beloved Naruto characters were only kids who weren’t all prodigies, the suspense was amped up quite a lot. The chunin exams is a great example. In the forest of death, many of the genin weren’t too powerful, and we saw a lot of genin groups die in the forest of death. We even saw a Sannin, Orochimaru, sneak into the exams and bite Sasuke, which caused the main plot to kick off. A lot of the times, we weren’t sure that our faves would make it out of their life or death situations. But In Boruto, the suspense is not there. We know that most of the kids, especially the 3 main characters, Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki are all powerful. There’s no “if” they are gonna make it out. We also don’t get to see much hit or misses from the children. We don’t get to see their trial and error with learning their parents jutsus and developing their own so it’s hard to grow with them. Their powers ensure that they get out of most situations, and it takes away from the hard work their parents did to reach the level they are at. Their powers look rather more genetic (which I’m sure they mostly are), than actual hard work.

2. The next generation-another problem is that the kids are essentially carbon copies of their parents personalities. They aren’t their own selves, which very much annoys me. I rather see the kids be their own person, rather than adapt ALL parts of their parents personalities. I don’t mind the children having small parts of their parents incorporated into them, but Boruto really takes it to new heights. The personalities are more copy paste. Most of them act exactly how their parents do or once did. One of the few characters this probably doesn’t go for is Mitsuki, as he’s rather pleasant compared to his father, orochimaru.

3. The lack of screen time- this is a minor issue to me, but I don’t appreciate how a lot of the interesting characters like Sarada are glazed over. The other teams besides Team Konohamaru are usually not shown progressing as much, and are given the much shorter end of the stick than the main characters, which is rather annoying.

4. The Konoha 11- the Konoha 11 have been greased so badly. Their powers seem heavily downgraded, and their character designs look awful. A lot of them look like pedophiles and Shino looks like a can of bug spray. Their powers seem very light, compared to in the Naruto series. For example, Shino not being able to control his bugs and messing up, is a regular for the shows gag unfortunately. That’s so unnatural because we know Shino is very serious and calculated and careful, so that gag is not funny at all. Even Naruto, who’s a master at shadow clone jutsu, has reverted back to his childhood. His clones are ineffective but they do it as a gag, which is dumb. They have made some of the Konoha 11 a shell of there former selves, which frustrates me. They were so cool in shippuden and such, but now their once cool and mysterious powers are downgraded for laughs, which aren’t funny.

5. Naruto and sasuke- Naruto and Sasuke are horrible fathers. For people who should want to make the most of family because they never had any, they don’t even spend time with their kids, which is so dumb. Naruto does Hokage work, but nothing is stopping him from making shadow clones to do the work for him, so that he could spend time with his family. Sasuke is even worse to the point where seeing Sasuke triggers Saradas sharingan because of the overwhelming emotion she felt from seeing him for the first time in years(I also hate how Sarada just bonds with him after an episode. Their relationship would need mending and building considering how long sasukes been gone. He doesn’t know much about her, so he should learn steady over a period of time like how it is in real life). That’s awful. They could be there for their families but their not, which is so weird for characters of their backgrounds.

6. The plot itself- the plot itself drags on for very long and in my opinion isn’t interesting. The plot is constantly jumping. The Arcs aren’t that intruiging and follow benign story plots that could only possibly serve as filler. It takes so long to get to the main plot of Borutos story. Here’s a list of the 17(Yes,17) arcs that have occurred in Boruto so far;

I can tell you that a lot of these are pretty much anticlimactic and waste time. Some are cool to sit through, like the time travel arc or Kara Actuation, but some are like the War arc of shippuden. If something’s like the war arc of shippuden, I rather smell someone’s booty than watch that again. So please, you can even read the plots yourself, and find that they aren’t that captivating.

7.The Villains- last but not least, we have the very copy paste villains. Just recently we’ve gotten some newer villains with a new agenda but it won’t be a breath of fresh air for long. For example, we know that so many of the villains such as Momoshiki, have been just copy-pastes of Kaguya. Their a Naruto and Sasuke level threat which we know that both Naruto and Sasuke could beat them any time. I’m bored of seeing Naruto and Sasuke fight villains that we know they will beat anytime. And with the villains point- I bring to you why Boruto has potential. You see, the Kawaki arc(Kara arc) showed that Boruto could turn into a show about a rivalry, and we saw the clip of Kawaki and Boruto fighting at the very beginning of the series. This is cool that a character like Kawaki who is shown in the end to have a strong resentment towards the ninja world for making him what he is, eventually will try to go the mile to end the age of shinobi. We will have to wait for this, sadly and I wished they introduced this sooner.

Alt plot: my alt plot goes a bit like this. Let’s say that the peaceful world is not exactly completely peaceful. The 5 nations aren’t at war anymore but the smaller countries within them aren’t exactly that peaceful. There aren’t a lot of casualties at all, but some people are still a tad bit resentful.

Let’s say that some of the great nations have become docile. The New generation of kids no longer learn how to be ninjas. Instead they go to regular school and for those who would like to be ninjas, there is a fake kitty-program for them to take. It’s not serious enough for them, though. Jonin still go on message delivering missions. The Hokage is still there, all of that.

Now let’s say a character like Kawaki and an organization behind them, a small one, has been wronged by the shinobi world. They aren’t exactly like the Akatsuki, open with their deeds. However, they are internal threats like Danzo almost, who live within the village. Nobody suspects them because they pose as regular citizens in the lands that no longer practice the way of shinobi life as they once did.

Now let’s say this organization start taking out unsuspecting Jonin. One by one, 2 by 2, Jonin are turning up dead left and right. Nobody can really explain their deaths yet, but their deaths are really disturbing. Next, Anbus investigate, but some of them are even taken out too.

The Hokage and village are becoming restless once again. Then citizens start going missing and dying. This doesn’t just happen in Konoha though, this also happens in other nations. This can make a rift between the nations who think that the other nation is sabotaging them, which can influence bad blood again. These villains are tearing up the almost perfect world from the inside out. They bring back people like Kakashi, Yamato, Tsunade, Kurenai, Gai, basically everyone from the old days, and the Konoha 11 for their lines of defense.

People propose that the children should learn to be true shinobi. Some argue that they shouldn’t, but it is decided that the children should learn to protect themselves and their lands. So now, medical ninjitsu classes are taught, ninjitsu, chakra types, genjutsu. The ninja school is rehashed.

Sasuke comes back to the village and is asked if he’s seen anyone enter the village but the answer is no, which gives a clue.

Soon, the children graduate and learn important lessons about friendship and teamwork. We watch them work hard to learn and perfect their parents Jutsus. we watch the trial and error, but we watch them turn out great in the end. They can even have Boruto face off against this villain when he gets older.

They learn from the oldest Shinobis and earn their powers, instead of just having them materialize them and genetically master them.

(p.s honestly Temari and Shikamaru should’ve had twins, one boy and one girl, have them both be smart but have one learn shadow possession and one learn wind style. The boy is obvi Shikadai who learns shadow possenion cuz that’s already cannon, and the girl Tomoe, could learn wind style from Temari. She doesn’t have to be a carbon copy, but she could still learn her mother’s craft.)

Thank you for coming to my ted talk my loves, and I’ll see you on the next episode of Character Critisims.

[quilfish-swan]

honey tea (naruto fanfic)

what’s up guys, ya’ll know i can’t shut up about itachi lately. i’m still a lil self-conscious about writing but i wrote this short fic for the naruto fandom inspired by this akatsuki fanfic by @ oceans-grey (please check it out). i’m happy with this. here it is.

Fandom: Naruto

Friendship: Konan & Itachi (platonic)

Rating: G

Tags: Akatsuki, 30-year-old Konan, 15-year-old Itachi, motherhood, bonding, Itachi’s illness, I literally just wanted someone to give Itachi a hug

Word count: 1614

Read it on Ao3 here :)

...

Honey Tea

It’s about three in the morning, she guesses, though with the moon obscured behind rain clouds, she can’t be sure.

It isn’t rare that Konan can’t sleep. On such lonely nights, she goes to the balcony to look out at the city. She enjoys the quiet, the gentle sound of rain on pavement and metal, the feel of it on her skin (a comfort of home). It’s always a welcome break from rowdy men and dangerous missions and bad dreams, and the cool air never fails to cleanse her lungs and mind.

Tonight, however, as she sets for her lookout spot, someone is already there.

Raspy, rattling coughs echo on steel walls, metallic and distorted.

She recognizes his chakra immediately from afar. But the way he’s kneeling, hunched over and gripping the railing and trembling so violently... She almost doesn’t believe it’s him until his slender frame and long black hair are right in front of her.

"Itachi? What are you doing out here?"

He finishes his bout of coughs and says, voice hoarse, "I didn't want—to wake anybody up."

Concern and compassion both flood her at the statement, and she kneels next to him. (Is this really the same boy who slaughtered his entire clan?) In the two years she’s known him, Itachi has always been strangely attentive to the wellbeing of the other members; it surprises her less now than it used to.

Long wet hair sticking to his skin obscures his face, but she sees clearly that the hand he’s using to cover his mouth is shiny with blood.

"Oh—Itachi." She places a hand on his back, which convulses with each additional cough. (Touch between most of the Akatsuki members isn’t common, certainly not between the two of them; her hand on his back was more of an instinct, she realizes, but she doesn’t remove it.) "What's happening to you?"

Between labored breaths he chokes, "I don't know—’s only happened—a few other times.”

After several more rounds, his breathing finally steadies, but he's still shaking. She bends to get a better look at him, and sees blood around the corners of his mouth, raindrops pulling red down his chin. He dabs at his own lips and grimaces.

"Come on," she says, rising to her feet. “Let’s go back inside.”

She gently lifts him, and he doesn’t protest. (His arms are thinner than she thought.) He leans on her, and as they walk back indoors, he asks, “Did I… wake you up?”

“Oh, no,” she assures him, “I couldn’t sleep.” He nods in understanding. "Let's clean you up,” she says and guides him towards the bathroom. “Wash your hands and face and sit in the bath for a little bit, you'll feel better.” She turns on the water and waits until it runs hot. “I’ll go make you some tea.”

"Thank you, Konan," he says as she leaves.

She doesn’t start on the tea right away; heating the water with her chakra will only take two minutes at most, and she wants to give Itachi enough time to calm down. His shirt had been soaked, so she retrieves some of Yahiko’s old clothes from her room that she still hasn’t been able to part with and leaves them outside the bathroom door.

She knocks once, lets him know they’re there for him, and retreats to the kitchen.

She isn't sure why she suddenly feels the need to help him. She knows he's capable, perhaps the most so in their group, despite his age; at just fifteen, his deadly skill and quiet maturity suggest complete independence. Still, she’s spent enough time in proximity to him to know that however serious and emotionless he may seem, he’s human, just like the rest of them. In fact, during his time with the Akatsuki, he’s revealed some admittedly cute and childish quirks, her personal favorite being his affinity for sweets.

Yes, Itachi Uchiha is human, and catching him in such a fragile moment was a much graver reminder.

As she brews the tea for them both, choosing herbs and roots known to help with sleep, she’s at a loss for what could be causing the boy to cough up blood. She gets the honey he likes from the cupboard. (She only hesitates for a moment, wondering if he should be having so much sugar in the middle of the night, but she eventually justifies it by telling herself it will soothe his throat.)

Whether he’d caught some disease on the road, or some other illness is starting to manifest symptoms, she has no idea.

She doesn’t add anything extra to her own cup.

Maybe fifteen minutes later she hears the bath water draining. She waits another minute or so before knocking on the door, the sweeter cup of tea in one hand. (Yahiko’s clothes are gone.)

"Itachi?"

"Just a minute."

Itachi opens the door, fresh clothes that haven’t been worn in over a decade now sticking to him. The shirt is too big for him. With his wet hair now out of his face, his round cheeks are exposed, and he appears even younger than he usually does. His black eyelashes are stuck together with water, and his gaze falls on a patch of tile.

He looks so tired.

"Here," she says, handing him the cup. "It has honey. For your throat," she adds with a wink, and he smiles.

“Thank you.”

(She's surprised at how readily he’s accepted her help tonight, as well as how good it feels to be there for someone.)

At the kitchen table, they drink in silence.

When both their cups are empty, Itachi speaks.

"Konan, would you mind not telling anyone about… my condition?"

Condition. An unusual word, but not an unusual request. Itachi has always been private about his personal life, and she wouldn’t be surprised if he knows more about his symptoms than he’d previously let on.

"I won't," she confirms. Her only close friend and confidant is Nagato, but if Itachi wants to keep this a secret, then she won’t even tell the one she trusts most.

"Kisame knows, but no one else." He adds hastily, “I’m fairly certain it’s not contagious. So no one else should be at risk.”

"I see." She considers asking for more details, but decides it would feel too much like prying. She settles on, “If you ever need anything, please ask me. I’m happy to… help you.”

"Thank you, Konan," he says. "And thank you for the tea, and the clothes. I feel much better."

She smiles. “Of course.” She rises from the table to take both their cups to the sink.

He gets up as well but doesn’t immediately move to return to his bedroom like she thought he might. 

The two of them stand awkwardly for several seconds. She thinks she sees his arm twitch, and an odd thought crosses her mind. Does he…?

"Itachi,” she ventures, “would you like a hug?”

His head snaps up, eyes wide. When he looks away, she’s worried she overstepped, but to her surprise, he nods shyly. 

She opens her arms. He willingly and wordlessly folds into her embrace.

Something like pride swirls in her chest—a feeling not foreign to her, but one that she’d almost forgotten. His chin rests on her shoulder, and she realizes for the first time that he’s taller than her now. (When had that happened?)

"You smell like my mom."

He says it so softly, and she isn’t prepared for it. It’s a strange thing to say, Itachi’s past considered, but the way he clutches at the back of her shirt a little more tightly almost makes her forget that. She doesn’t expect the stinging in her eyes that follows, and she blinks it away before it can amount to anything.

She says nothing, not knowing if sympathy is even the proper response. She just holds him for a while, hand on the back of his head. She's startled when he hiccups against her.

"Sorry," he says quickly, and pulls away, rubbing his eyes.

She knows he’s not the perfect machine that the world takes him for, but even so, she's astounded at his softness. Not once has she seen Itachi cry.

He’s just a child, she thinks, and her heart clenches. She suddenly wants to pull him back into an even tighter hug and tell him meaningless things like don’t cry and everything will be okay. And why? Is it the fact that the prospect of motherhood was extinguished from her future long ago? That sometimes, in the darkest hours of the early morning, she still aches for it? There was a time when starting a family of her own seemed within her reach, with Yahiko, in the better world the two of them and Nagato would build together. She still hopes for that better world, but she knows that even if it ever comes to be, she'll be childless. The fact doesn’t sting like it once did, but with Itachi against her shoulder, that grief returned afresh.

Perhaps neither of their lives had turned out the way they’d planned, she thinks, as she watches Itachi smear more tears from his cheeks.

“I need to sleep,” he says, and smiles weakly.

“Yes,” she agrees gently, and sighs, still fighting the urge to comfort him. “Me, too.”

He’s fully turned away from her now. “Goodnight, Konan. Thank you, again.”

“Goodnight, Itachi.”

-

In the morning, she finds Yahiko's clothes folded neatly outside her door.

Neither she nor Itachi mentions the events of the night before, but when she sees him at breakfast and their eyes meet, she notices the barest hint of a smile.

...

thank you for reading!!! on ao3 you can see which specific details were inspired by the other work.

love ya’ll

[karinrumi]

Gambler of Feelings - Chapter 19

With trembling hands, she opened the blue box that belonged to her mom to look into what's inside. Pretty stationery was sticking out. 

Multiple letters.  

Some of them were empty, some of them were scribbled all over with her mom's favourite black pen. But that meant the note Boruto found three months ago was real. Sarada couldn't deny evidence she held in her hands. No, she should calm down. It's not like she knows what's written in them, right? For all, she knows the rumours she heard could be baseless, and her mom is a friend of Boruto's father. Their parents seemed to know each other for some reason. All of that could be just her being unnecessarily paranoid.

Dear Naruto

Meet me today at our usual place. Don't let Hinata or anybody know about it, you know what I mean, right? Anyway, I'm counting on you!

Sakura Uchiha

Sarada recognised the words written in the first letter she took out. That was the same one Boruto pulled out three months ago and based their bet on it. She decided to ignore Boruto was peeking out from behind her shoulder since he was an involved party just like her. 

 Dear Sakura 

Got it! I will promise to arrive on time, believe it! Are you sure you're alright without Sasuke around? I can always call him to come back for you, ya know. 

 Naruto 

  "Call back for dad? What for?" Sarada wondered out aloud.

"Maybe my dad, your mom and dad formed the love triangle in the past? Wouldn't surprise me, really." Boruto chimed in jokingly. 

"Shush. There's more," she said, curious to see the entire exchange. 

 Dear Naruto 

I am sorry Hinata heard those stupid rumours. I went to explain to her everything personally.  I cannot blame her for that considering all three of us were in an open-relationship before because I wanted to make my current husband jealous. We all made stupid things when we were teenagers, right?

Thank you for keeping your promise. And no. You don't need to call Sasuke. We're not teenagers anymore focus on your family, okay? 

Sakura

"I was right, ya know! In some way. The love triangle part happened with your mom and my parents. Isn't that awkward?" 

Sarada was too shocked by obtaining this information behind her mom's back. She expected many things. That maybe her mom had a secret romance with Boruto's father, that maybe there's the hidden reason why she's so upset when she hears about the dream Sarada and her grandma shared. Not that Boruto's parents and her mom were in the poly-relationship as teenagers! 

"It is awkward," she responded, still shocked by the things she recently learned about her mother. 

Sarada felt incredibly bad for not asking her mom about everything in person and snooping around her stuff. But who could blame her? It wasn't Sarada's fault that her mom had a bad habit of hiding the family past.  

It hurt she always needed to discover events hidden from her by herself.  Sarada hated her family was so-secretive sometimes. Both mama and papa supposedly did it to spare her feelings, but it had an opposite effect. 

 Dear Sakura 

Guilt-tripping again, eh? We all did stupid things as a teenagers, but I don't think the whole experience was negative. We are where we are because of it, right? Besides, it looks like my son is getting along with your daughter well. Both you and Hinata should meet up and explain everything to each other. I have a feeling we all meet soon considering our children are friends, ya know? We can talk about granny death in detail in person later, got it? I feel bad hiding our small letter exchange from Hinata. I don't want to make her angry.

Naruto

Sarada slid the letters to their respective envelopes and looked at Boruto to relax. "Let's stop reading these letters. I am feeling bad about reading our parents' private correspondence." 

"I am shocked about some things written in here too. Mom never mentioned to me anything she did as a teenager, even if I asked her a few times." Boruto added still staring at her small collection of books

"Are you interested in borrowing a book from me?" she questioned him.

"Ahh, no. I just like how neatly those books are put." That was the weakest excuse Sarada heard coming from Boruto. Something was up, and she never had a chance to ask what was bothering him. Consumed by her own feelings, she decided to move that subject for later. However,  they were alone in her room now, so that's her only chance to ask him what's up straight up. 

"Hey, what's wrong? You space out a lot lately. Are you feeling alright?" She didn't try to sound incredibly worried, but lack-of-communication with other people for so long made it an impossible task.  

"It's nothing serious," he paused and directed his gaze at her. "Sarada, you have something you want to do in the future, right? Why you want to pursue that dream?"  

"To make my grandma's wish come true. It's the only thing that was left to me after she died. You can think it's stupid, but I've never moved on after her death. I feel like making our dream come true can give me a sense of closure." Granny death has shaken her pretty hard. When Sarada thought about this, it was around that time she stopped talking to other people besides Chō-Chō.  She only spoke with her club members and teachers afterwards. Rest of the students were afraid of her, or just not noticed she exist.  

"That's an awesome dream, ya know! Personally, I don't know what to do in the future, or with myself after I graduate. All the talks about plans for the future just makes me feel pressured, and in the end, I am unable to choose the path I want to walk on. The whole too-cool-for school act just paints me as a popular troublemaker, " he sighed, sharing his worries with her as if it was the most natural thing to do.

Sarada wanted to embrace him, tell him it's alright, and she'll help him find the dream he wanted to pursue. That people will stop seeing him as a troublemaker sooner or later. Like she did and has fallen in love with him.

Would he like to hear it from her? Boruto was popular at school, a lot of girls confessed to him daily. There's no way she could compare to them. Although, he's kind Boruto was way out of her league. 

"There's some time for you to think before we graduate, or you can always accept the position of my future assistant! I need a lot of help if I want to pursue my dream too," she said. It wasn't what she really wanted to do, but Sarada hoped her words cheered him up. Just like he always did it for her, even without knowing about it. 

"Thank you, Sarada," his smile came back, and she drowned in his beautiful blue eyes again. She needed to redo the Uchiha family training from the scratch. Staying composed around Boruto was starting to get harder for her as of lately.  

・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・  

Boruto felt like a heavy burden left him. He spent so much on creating his 'cool'  persona, so he rarely talked about his worries. Most of the time, people didn't take him for the type that would be serious about the future.  That's why being near Sarada was like the breath of the fresh air. 

"Glad to help you," Sarada said, the concern still visible on her face. It's probably the first time he was cheered up by a person that wasn't his family member nowadays. 

"By the way... Are you sure it's okay for me to be in your room for so long?"  Boruto pointed out, feeling suddenly self-conscious of what he was implying. 

"Yes? Is there something wrong with my room?" she tilted her head in the way she always did when he said something that was confusing to her.  

Sarada was the type of girl that interacted more with books than people. He shouldn't be surprised she didn't catch on his implications, or that he enjoyed teasing her to see how dense she can be.  Her reddening cheeks every time he called her 'Lady, Meow, Meow'  were adorable to see.   

"Not at all, ya know! I like how neatly you lined up the books, but I think I've told you that already?"  He needed to distract her somehow and just have fun. Having a fun time with Sarada helped him a lot recently. 

"Oh, no, no, no, no! This is a disaster!" she shouted, pointing at the box where the letters they read were inside. They weren't allowed to take this box, not to mention see the content inside.  

"Don't panic, Sarada! I have a great idea about what to do with this small issue. You don't have to worry about anything, ya know," he reassured her. His idea wasn't that dangerous.   

"I don't like how smug you look right now. I think you came up with the idea I won't like."   

"Where is your sense of adventure? Jumping out from the window in your room and hiding the box outside isn't that bad. I'll catch you, kay?" Boruto had too much fun seeing how an expression on Sarada face turned from annoyed to terrified.  

"Are you crazy?! There's no way I am jumping out of my window!" she shrieked out. Was he that much of a bully when he liked spending time with his friends? The answer was a resounding 'yes'.   

"Don't worry, I am reasonably crazy," he decided to smile, hoping that he can put his plan into action. 

Before Sarada had a chance, he ran up to her and snatched her into his arms. He gave her the box with the letters too when he was close to the window. Luckily for him, it was open, so climbing up on the windowsill wasn't that big of a problem. Faster than lighting, he jumped through the window still securely holding Sarada that let out the loudest scream in the entire history of their friendship. Just like Boruto predicted they landed safely nearby some trees. He decided to hold Sarada in his arms longer, considering how pale she was after the sudden jumping. 

"See? I told you I am reasonably crazy." Boruto knew he played with fire here. However, it was so amusing to see the new expressions Sarada showed to him lately.  

"You are a moron! I thought I will die and you'll drop me down at the last minute!" The tears streamed down her cheeks. Damn. He didn't want for her to cry.  

"I am sorry. But isn't this whole experience valuable? Now we know that when we're jumping through the windows, I won't ever let you down!" he said, gently putting Sarada on the ground and giving her a head pat to calm her down.  

"Let's hide the box somewhere. I didn't survive this whole ordeal for it to turn out to be useless!" Uh-oh, he made her angry, or maybe not? Maybe she likes him more than she admits and his words made her embarrassed. Ha! In his dreams.  

"Yeah, let's hide it."   

And so they did, the box that gained the nickname of 'I cannot believe we jumped through my window'  from pretty shook Sarada because of Boruto executing his crazy idea.  

"I don't understand why you have fangirls with that type of character," Sarada muttered, the night sky reflecting her beauty.  

"Because I am great. Though, I don't care about fangirls opinions that much." Boruto cared just about the opinion of people that were close to him, he just left it unsaid unable to tell her such cheesy words.    

"I thought so before too. That I don't care about the opinion of strangers, but by meeting you, I very soon discovered I lied to myself." Sarada's confessing something so personal wasn't a usual occurrence. 

Boruto strangely didn't feel surprised by her sudden talkative mood. They both put it aside but were equally shocked by their parents hiding so many things written in those letters.  Sliding into friendship mode they had, delayed the matters they had eventually face head-on. Like having an honest conversation with the family members, finding something he wants to do in the future, supporting Sarada, overcoming his fears towards the commitments in romantic relationships... All of this was honestly overwhelming and tiring.  

Maybe that's why he wanted for Sarada to open-up to him so badly. He needed a person he can freely open up to without consuming him fear that his trust will be betrayed. Boruto knew his friends had his back, but his friendship with Shikadai and the rest of the group didn't feel the same after his break-up with Asami. Well, an exception was Mitsuki that joined the club after those events.  

He was hopeless, wasn't he? Allowing for this irrational fear to get in the way of his friendship with Sarada. How could she open-up and trust him when he couldn't do it in return? Running away from his problems by jumping through the window together with Sarada cannot solve anything. She was right, he really was a moron.  

"You lied to yourself? Really? What made you realise you were lying to yourself?" he asked, hiding his own inner struggle.  

"Boruto, you know? Once I asked myself about the meaning of feelings." Sarada hands were shaking when she averted her eyes from him. "I was thinking it wasn't worth it. Acting on something unreliable as emotions... But I-I...," her sudden outburst didn't finish yet.  

She looked preoccupied to convey what she means to him without lying. Boruto couldn't help but feel glad about it. That she wanted to be honest with him of all people in her life.  

At the same time, a pang of guilt hit him when listening to her words. Isn't that something he wanted? For her to open up to him and not holding any punches? But what if she bottled so many things inside he wasn't aware of until now? What if she hates him for being a bad friend? Does Sarada really think her personal feelings won't matter to him, or anyone else?  

His heart ached.  

"I was taught by you to be honest with how I really feel and to act based on those emotions. Stop lying to myself I don't feel them. Being straightforward is something I admire about you." Her smile was like a wave that washed away all of his worries.   

"Hey, Sarada?" Boruto longed to say these words to her for a long time. His cheeks heated up, hearing she admired him for being reckless. Gathering the courage to say something so cheesy wasn't like him at all! 

"Yes?" 

"Can we stand next to each other a little longer? I am glad out of all the people I've met you're my friend." Just a little while longer he wanted to savour the moment, where the feeling of peacefulness, remained in his heart. 

"Sure, I am glad out of all the people I've met you ended up as my friend too."  

Sarada's answer filled him with an unknown source of happiness. He didn't mind they will probably get a solid scolding from everything they did today from their parents.   He wanted to stay here with her just a little longer, since having her by his side felt like he could face anything he worried about head-on.  That feeling of blissfulness was the reason he realised he wanted to protect her. 

This realisation made that peaceful moment more special to him. God, he really was an idiot. But that's a secret he doesn't plan to tell anyone anytime soon.

・・・・★・・・・★ ・・・・  

AN: Hello, everyone! 

This chapter is dedicated to all of my readers. ;) I cannot believe we're on the chapter nineteen. Soon we enter the round number of twenty! Thank you for your support now and in the future.

Your Clumsy Author - Karinrumi ;)