Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto anime or manga. They belong to their respective owners.
"I should have known." she thought to herself, "I mean, what was I thinking?! He's the Hokage's son for heaven's sake!" She felt stupid to have had such feelings for him.
She let out a sigh and held back her tears as her heart broke into a million pieces as she held the letter in her hand. She had been harboring these thoughts, feelings or whatsoever since the past three years. She was now twenty-one. Prime of youth; her mom said.
She had thought maybe he'd feel the same way too. The way she always caught him staring at her, holding her gaze for some time as he did so. She had initially been afraid; of what, she didn't know. She had actually not been too friendly to him at first, but in her heart she silently prayed that she'd be able to tell her real feelings someday… That one time in their first year of college, when he walked over to her table in class, her friends who were talking about something stopped and looked at him. Her eyes stared back at his blue ones. For a while she forgot where she was and then he spoke up and cracked a joke or two, her friends laughed out loud. She'd never admit it out loud then but she had found it funny too. But she once again panicked realizing what she was about to do and trying to ignore him went on with her conversation with her friends. He had tried to say something when she had cut in and said "Am I talking to you?" She immediately regretted the words she didn't know that were coming out of her mouth.
After that incident she'd been meaning to tell him that she was terribly sorry, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to apologize. She had often stared at his way when he was not looking and poured her heart out, silently. She just could not gather enough courage to do that out loud. She always thought that she was a brave girl, she really was brave, but somehow she cowered whenever it came to her feelings. She had never been quite fond of revealing her true feelings. As she looked at the letter in her hand, her mind drifted off to a distant memory.
It was a physics practical class. He was in their group performing the same experiment. Somehow the readings he took were wrong. But she had performed the experiment again and took the correct readings. She didn't know him too well then. While she was sharing the experimental observation with others in the group he was chatting up with his friends in the other group. She didn't bother meddling in others' business and so she ignored that and went on taking further notes when he suddenly appeared behind her, pulled her by the hand. She noticed his hands were warm, compared to her cold ones. The difference in temperature was so distinct that she almost had a feeling that probably he was having a fever. But once again she ignored it and looked up to his eyes as he started to speak. He was saying something about the experimental readings, but she could only feel the growing warmth around her cheeks and neck. She knew that she was coloring up brightly and tried to shake it off by thinking about anything other than him or what she was currently feeling. They gradually forgot about the incident as time passed.
Every time he looked at her she felt it was like the first time. Once he had tried to talk to her about things in general, she had given curt short replies in return, fearing that she'd make her feelings known to him. She had almost come close to doing that in their second year of college. Going out of her way to help him out in the current troubling situation he was in.
He had asked her, "Why are you helping me out so much? Do you-"
She had cut him short and said, "Will you do yourself a favor and concentrate on the work at hand?"
As much as she had wanted to admit it, she couldn't, especially not until his problems were over.
Once during an incident she had felt that he couldn't care any less about her. To say that she was disappointed would be an understatement. She had stopped him, raised her voice at him, "You could've just asked me you know. And all those other times when you…" She had stopped short, astonished at her own words and quickly calmed herself and said, "I'm sorry. Please forget I said anything." She had run from there, tears running freely down her face.
They were far too different. He was a boisterous wave of energy, she was an introvert; he was always smiling, laughing; she only laughed when among her friends. He had a large number of friends, she had only a few. He was the soccer team captain she was the class's straight 'A' student. As much clichéd as it sounds but their story was very different than the others.
She held in her hands a letter addressed to her, scented white paper, and there was her name written on the envelope, 'Sarada Uchiha'.
"You are cordially invited to the engagement party of Boruto Uzumaki and…"
Her vision blurred because of her tears as she set aside the letter on her table.