Author's Note: Hi, guys. *waves* Fair warning, I have only very recently gotten into this fandom, have only watched not read, and just have a lot of feels, particularly after this movie, and this is the result. I just spit it right out and am not sure how I feel about it, but I needed to write it, lol. I hope you enjoy it. More to come.

Fearless

The boy is fearless.

It's not surprising, but it is frustrating.

Sasuke has learned since beginning to train Boruto just how very lucky he has been with Sarada. He loves his daughter beyond words, but he hasn't the first clue how to tell her or even show her, and while he knows she greatly resents that, Sasuke also knows she understands it. They would have a much simpler and more difficult time of each other if they weren't so alike.

Sarada stopped asking questions – at least of him – when she was around six years old. Clever child.

"So," Boruto says, spraying breadcrumbs, "if we're all so close," and he knows they are, has grown up with Sarada, has never known a time when Sakura was not as much a mother to him as his own, "why aren't you ever here?"

Sasuke doesn't particularly understand it. A disciple should be duly intimidated by his teacher. He has remained as distant with Boruto, perhaps particularly so, as he has with anyone else. What seems to drive others away, or at least keep them where Sasuke wants them, seems only to attract this one. Challenge accepted. It's as infuriating as it ever was.

Sasuke sets down his chopsticks; a mistake, he realizes when Boruto's eyes follow the gesture, carefully tracking the attention paid to him. "That is complicated," is all he says to that.

"We got time," Boruto says, undeterred. "Lots to learn. Loootsa lunch breaks."

Sasuke shoots him a stern look, unimpressed. At this point, Sarada would have looked away, accustomed to doing everything right and fearful she had done something if not wrong, incorrect.

Boruto only grins.

"I mean," He takes another bite before he speaks rather than finishing one, "when was the last time you were home, before this?"

Home. Sasuke pokes at his noodles. "When your sister was born."

Boruto considers that. "Before that?"

"… When you were born."

Boruto raises his eyebrows.

"Sarada was not born in the village," he tells him before he can ask.

Boruto hums and doesn't yet take another bite, staring at the grass like he's offended by its very growth. He is hesitating for the first time today, which makes Sasuke very curious and very wary.

"You could stay this time," he says eventually, steady and straightforward once the thought is formed. "Move home. Be ANBU, maybe. Dad's always saying they-"

Something in Sasuke's face must stop him, though he doesn't know what. Hiding his expressions has become moot over the years; he often has to try harder to make one than to not. But he is surprised. Affected. And Boruto does know it. That the boy doesn't press the advantage is even more shocking. He waits, doesn't take it back, but doesn't continue.

Sasuke imagines the scenario Boruto presents, as he has many times. Come home. There has never been a time when the notion didn't inspire deep anger or deep sadness. Come home. Move back in with his family, such as it is. Climb back into Sakura's bed and still perfectly willing arms, for good. Hang a fan crest on their apartment wall, walk his daughter to the academy every morning on his way to the hokage tower. Advance to captain effortlessly, be by Naruto's side every day. Weekly dinners with their children and wives, holidays, graduations.

Torture them both.

Sasuke blinks, aware of emerging from a light level of meditative trance. Boruto is still staring at him. Sasuke looks away.

"Your father and I," he says, and he doesn't clear his throat, doesn't stop, but he does swallow, "agreed a long time ago that my remaining here for any extended period was… unwise."

It's the wrong thing to say. Boruto's face shuts down frighteningly fast.

"That's not fair," he says.

Sasuke should correct him. It is not a question of Sasuke's technical status or Naruto exerting his lordly powers. They agreed a long time ago that remaining together for any extended period was unwise, he should have said, because it was true, but honestly, he's already said more than he should have, not Sakura and I, your father and I, and Sarada is a clever child, but Boruto is a persistent one. They will make a fine team, and that will be something.

"Life is not fair, Boruto," he says. "It's best you learn that now and forgive others for accepting it."

Boruto wants to shout, he can tell, but he doesn't, because for reasons Sasuke still cannot comprehend, the boy respects him. He should be grateful. Grateful that Boruto will take the lessons from him that he will not take from his father. Instead, all he feels is the same terror he did when Sakura informed him she was pregnant, the day his daughter was born. He has spent his life running from being needed.

"Sarada misses you," Boruto says, and Sasuke starts. "She pretends she doesn't, but she does. Aunt Sakura doesn't even pretend. And my dad..." Boruto shakes his head. "He's different."

God help him, Sasuke should let that lie. "Different," he mutters.

"He's always takin' care of everybody," Boruto says. "Makes him..."

Sasuke doesn't have to ask what that makes him. Unobtainable. Removed. Heavy lies the crown. In hindsight, Sasuke would argue that his own sensei was more approachable than his wife's.

Boruto rips up a clump of grass and tosses it away. "He's here when you're here."

Because the boy is not looking at him, Sasuke is blessed with the opportunity to shut his eyes against that. He can take staying away. He can take this arrangement they've landed them all in. There is someone to carry on his name and the village is at a steady peace for the first time in years. Because their children are happy and their wives are happy. Naruto is supposed to be happy. Like always, Sasuke seems to be interfering with that no matter what he does, here or gone.

He's been home for over a month now. Too long. Long enough for everyone to grow accustomed to his presence. Long enough to grow too attached to this child, long enough to give into Sakura's advances more than once, long enough to fight alongside Naruto again. Long enough that not every look his daughter sends him is a glare.

Long enough that Naruto already expects him in his office at regular intervals and it has already come so close to getting them in trouble. When Sasuke brings him reports on his son, Naruto will invariably ask his advice on city matters, despite knowing how uncomfortable it makes Sasuke to contribute, and while he can't believe Naruto does it on purpose, it always requires Sasuke to come closer, to lean across the desk or more often Naruto's shoulder. Naruto only wants him to feel involved. Valued. But it's close enough to revel in his chakra, close enough to smell him. He wears aftershave now, but the rest is the same. It makes Sasuke lean closer before he realizes. Magnets.

Yesterday... yesterday. Sasuke hadn't realized how close he had brought himself and, apparently, neither had Naruto. He had turned his head to ask Sasuke about border patrols and. Well, there they were. Staring at each other for far longer than either of them should have allowed, and Sasuke had watched Naruto's eyes flick to his mouth, had watched him lick his lips, and why is it always you. Sasuke had straightened and excused himself without answering whatever question he'd been asked and Naruto had let him.

"You're gone when you're here, though," Boruto says, head cocked, smiling again when he sees he's startled him.

"I..." Sasuke says, and doesn't finish. I don't know how to be here. He hasn't known since he was a child younger than the one in front of him. Can't stop himself from expecting the bottom to drop out, always and whenever. Sarada is the one thing in this world he can call his own with certainty and he's making a mess of that, so afraid of teaching her to be as afraid as he is that he's no doubt achieving it.

Sasuke sets his bowl aside and sighs. Then he stands and straightens his robes. "Has anyone ever told you that you're too smart for your own good?"

Boruto's squints up at him through the dappled sunlight and his nose wrinkles. "Not really," he says.

Sasuke gives an undignified snort before he can stop himself. "They'll learn," he assures him. The hard way, no doubt. He smirks at him. "Care to learn how to teach them?"

Boruto grins, wide and excited, and bounds to his feet. "Believe it!" he calls over his shoulder as he jogs across the grounds to take position, and Sasuke sighs.

Yes. He's remained here far too long.