Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything you recognize.

Title: Goal

Character: Uchiha Sarada, Uzumaki Boruto, Uzumaki Naruto, Mitsuki

Pairing: minor Sarada/Boruto

Rating: T (just to be safe)

Summary: Sarada's evolution and how she becomes the eight Hokage of Konoha one day.

Word count: 3267

"Mama, I want to be the Hokage one day."

It began as a child's dream. Wishful and simple.

Her father was always not home, with Sarada, with her mother. She had never seen him, not once, except through the picture kept on the shelf and even then, it was of his younger self. Mama said he was away on an important mission, that he was fighting to keep them safe, that he cared about them and loved them very much.

But Sarada didn't need to be safe. She just needed him home.

The other kids teased her constantly. She didn't care when they called her four-eyes, or weirdo, or monster-forehead. But she cared when they said she didn't have a father, because that was simply not true.

Uchiha Sarada had a father. He was just not here.

And she would make him. Once she became Hokage, she would order him to stay in the village every day, all the time.

The Hokage was the most powerful shinobi in the world. Surely, he couldn't defy the Hokage's order, could he?

"Hokage?" her mama said, an eyebrow quirking in amusement as she crouched down so their faces were level, "You want to be like Naruto-ojiichan then?"

Sarada shook her head fervently. "No. Even ojiichan couldn't keep papa in the village. But when I'm Hokage, I can."

A sort of sadness crossed her mama's face just then, the kind that Sarada couldn't fully grasp. Sakura's green eyes softened as she regarded her daughter. Then she held her hand up and Sarada could feel fingers tapping softly against her forehead.

"You don't need to be Hokage for papa to come home, Sara-chan. You just need to be yourself."

But Sarada was determined.

When she stood up in her seat and proclaimed to the entire class of eight-year-old that she would be the next Hokage one day, a kid burst out in laughter. It was not the kind of happy laughter that Himawari gave off whenever Sarada came over to play, nor was it the loving sound her mother made whenever Sarada gave her a kiss on the cheek and told her that she loved her.

It was the ugly, mocking kind, and it made Sarada went red in the face.

"Do you have a problem with that?" she growled, whirling around to face whoever had dared to make fun of her dream.

The girl sat two seats behind Sarada. Short brown hair, bright eyes and something close to a sneer on her face. Sarada had never seen her before, and she couldn't understand what she could possibly have done that could piss this girl off.

What was wrong with wanting to be the Hokage?

"Uchihas can't be Hokage. My mom says you people are full of hate. You'll ruin everything!" the girl retorted, standing up.

"Now, kids-"

"I'm not full of hate! Take that back!" Sarada's voice was close to a scream.

Why did this girl seem to hate her so much?

"Your uncle was a criminal, your precious daddy as well. He goes around, murdering-"

It took two of her classmates to pull Sarada off the girl. Shino-sensei gave them a detention and called their parents. The girl had a broken nose and black eyes and demanded that Sarada apologized to her.

She didn't. She did nothing wrong.

"My papa and uncle are not criminals," Sarada told her girl, with the kind of voice one used when stating simple facts of life such as the sun rose from the east and the sky was blue. "Someday, I'll be Hokage and you'll eat your words."

Mitsuki pissed her off.

Whenever someone questioned Sarada about it, she would say that he was too blunt and needed a filter, that he was obsessed with parentage, that his eyes reminded her of snakes and she didn't like snakes.

The real reason, one she refused to admit to anyone, was that she hated the way he dismissed her dream and not acknowledge her as someone that could one day become the Hokage. Not that he had told her in so many words, but Sarada wasn't Boruto. Meaning that she could read between the lines. Meaning that she understood what he thought about her.

And she hated it. She hated him.

All these little suggestions, these talk about how Boruto would be a good Hokage someday, because his dad was the Nanadaime and his grandfather was the Yondaime. Even though Sarada was the one expressing active interest in the position, while Boruto had never so much as uttered the words "I want to be Hokage" once.

Mitsuki was an idiot, she decided. An annoying idiot.

She wasn't happy when they were placed on the same team. It was easy enough avoiding him when they were in the Academy, but being teammates were different. It just meant that she would have to exercise extra self-restraint in order to not punch him to the next village whenever he made one of his comments.

It would seriously hinder her chance of becoming Hokage if she had a criminal record. And even though Sarada didn't really consider murdering annoying teammate as being illegal, the village's justice system had other ideas. So she just had to imagine the punching bag as Mitsuki and worked out her frustration whenever possible.

Then they had that mission. It was simple - aid relief for a village in the mountains suffering from landslide. They were helping with food distribution when a second wave occurred and the team got separated. Boruto with Konohamaru-sensei, and her with Mitsuki. They managed to clear the villagers in time, but then the ground beneath her feet gave way and Sarada was tumbling through thin air.

Until a pair of elongated arms wrapped themselves around her body, halting her mid-fall.

"You…saved me," was what she said, once she was pulled up and secured.

He cracked a wry smile. "You sound so surprised."

"I thought…don't you ha-not like me?"

"Why would you think that?" he blinked, looking flabbergasted.

Was he trying to play dumb?

"Why wouldn't I?" Sarada snapped, suddenly angry. All the feelings that she had been bottling up ever since Mitsuki moved to the village poured out. The words that she had wanted to say (had meant to, one day) escaped her mouth before she was aware of them. "You are always…always making fun of my dream. Saying Boruto will be the Hokage. Completely dismissing me, like I'm some weak little girl with a stupid, unrealistic goal because my papa is not the Nanadaime and my grandfather is not the Yondaime. And you wonder why I think you don't like me?"

There was a long stretch of silence between them, in which Sarada kept breathing in harshly and Mitsuki kept staring at her like he had never seen her before. He opened his mouth and snapped it shut, and then repeated the process several times. It was probably the first she had ever seen of him to be struggling for words.

"Well, say something!" Sarada had meant it to be a snap, but it came out sounding too much like a plea for her liking. Why would she want him to say anything? Was she afraid, perhaps, that his silence meant that what she had accused him of was true and her teammate really thought so low of her?

But she had always known it was true, wasn't it?

"I'm not…you…I mean…" Mitsuki stammered, before pinching the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh. "This is ridiculous. Sarada, you are an idiot-"

"-Excuse me?"

"-and I am, too, I guess," he continued, a soft, apologetic smile playing on his lips. "I never knew that you wanted to be Hokage. I just assumed-well, in hindsight, the things I said was pretty insensitive. I'm sorry about that. This is all a big misunderstanding."

She was skeptical at first. But then, she remembered that Mitsuki had only moved to Konoha recently and therefore, wasn't present when she stated her intention for the future. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't recall one incident in which she explicitly stated, in front of him, that she wanted to be Hokage.

She was an idiot.

"I don't think you are weak. You are one of the strongest people I know. Anyone who actually thinks so about you probably doesn't have a brain."

A blush crept onto her face at his compliment. But she decided that humor was the best way to go about in this situation and so she grinned, "You are not just saying that because you are afraid I would punch you, right?"

"Well, I do have good self-preservation instinct-ow, that hurts!"

"Guys, are you alright?"

"For the record, Sarada, I think you would make one hell of a Hokage one day."

Grinning so wide her face hurt probably wasn't the most appropriate thing to do while assisting in disaster-aid, but Sarada couldn't help it.

When Sarada was sixteen, she was a hairline away from dying.

The thought of dying itself wasn't that much of a surprise for her. She knew she would die somedays. Probably soon. Probably young. That was just one of the occupational hazards. Being a shinobi meant that she had less chance of surviving until forty than the civilian couples living in the apartment next to hers.

It was a fact. She accepted it.

It was just that…sixteen. She was still too young. She hadn't even had her first kiss. Heck, she hadn't even had sex and she was quite curious about how that would play out. All these mundane things she hadn't had the chance to try and probably never would.

But most of all, she hadn't even become Hokage yet.

"Oh shit, Sara-chan, shit!"

Funnily enough, none of those regrets were in her mind when she leaped forward and intercepted the blade that should have been for the Nanadaime. Nothing were in her mind at all, except for the thought that someone was attacking her Hokage and the village needed him and she would die rather than let that blade touch him.

And so she would. Die.

The poison was slowly numbing her body. Sarada couldn't feel the pain anymore. But her blood was still flowing.

"Someone get a medic! Now!"

Her vision was blurry. She was a head of golden hair. Naruto-ojiichan. He was the Hokage. He was the hope and dream of the village.

It wasn't so bad, she decided, if she couldn't live until the day she became his successor, if she couldn't try out all those mundane things that she wanted to. The hope and dream of Konoha was alive, because of her.

Wasn't that what Hokages did? Protect the village? She was protecting hers.

And so, somewhere down the line, it had changed from wanting her father to stay home, to dedicate her life protecting Konoha. She would be the sword, she would be the shield, and she would be everything else in between, whatever the people needed.

"You are not dying out on me, Sara-chan. That's an order."

Sarada smiled. Well, it wouldn't do to disobey direct order from her Hokage, now would it?

He threatened to break down her door. She didn't believe him at first, but then she remembered that he was Uzumaki Boruto and he was always, always serious with threats.

"I could report you for trespassing," she said in a flat voice as she opened the door. He was dirty and sweaty and still in his mission garb. He was bleeding in a couple of places as well and her voice was a tiny bit less flat as she told him, "Go to the hospital."

Black met blue for a split second. His eyes were blazing with so many emotions, and Sarada looked away before she could interpret each of them. She didn't want to, not right now.

"Like hell I am," he snapped and then pushed past her into the apartment, fury wafting off his body in waves. Sarada could haphazard a guess as to why. "What the fuck are you thinking, Sarada?"

He wasn't calling her Uchiha. This was serious.

"You have to be more specific than that," she didn't look at him as she replied, merely closing the door behind her and settled down onto the sofa with a kind of calmness she shouldn't be feeling.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about! Don't play dumb with me!"

Sarada pressed her lips together, the first sign that she wasn't as put together as she wanted to. When she didn't offer him any answer, Boruto let out an angry hiss. "Fine, if you want to be stubborn, then I'll tell you! I came back from my mission, only to find out that my dad named you his successor and you declined. What the fuck was that? Better yet, who the fuck are you? You can't be Uchiha Sarada."

"You don't know anything," she said in a low voice. Her fingers were shaking and something was threatening to snap inside her, but she had to hold it together. She had to.

"I don't know anything?" he exploded, "I can't believe….You just…I've known you since I was born. Twenty-six years. All of my damn life! And here you are, telling me-"

"-you don't know what happened!" she shouted, cutting him off as she leaped up from the sofa, her body rigid. Her eyes were trained on a spot above his head, because she didn't dare look at him and see the disappointment that she knew was there. "You weren't there. You didn't know how…how I…I couldn't even…"

It was difficult to breath, and impossible to form any coherent words. Her mind whirled as images of her last mission were brought back. Everything had gone wrong. Minami was dead. Her friend, almost like a little sister, so young and full of hope.

'I'll be a teacher, senpai. The kids will call me sensei. Once I get back, I'll go straight to the Academy to apply.'

Minami never lived to see that dream come true.

All because of her. Sarada was the taichou. It was her responsibility to protect every single one of her subordinates and yet, she had failed them. She had failed Minami.

If she couldn't even protect one shinobi, how could anyone trust her to protect Konoha? How could she trust herself?

"Then tell me, please," his voice was soft and pleading. He was so close, his hands on her arms, anchoring her.

And she let herself break. She told him everything, in between gasping breath and salty tears. "I don't deserve to be Hokage. That's why I decline," she admitted at last. And she didn't know what she expected, probably for Boruto to agree with her, to tell her that she had made the right decision.

What she didn't expect, was anger lacing in his words as he said, "If that's what you really think, then Sarada, you're right. You don't deserve to be Hokage!"

"You-"

"No, you know what? You don't get to say anything, because you are sounding more and more like a fool," he snapped, "You are being a coward, that's what you are. That's what Minami would say if she was here right now."

"How dare you-"

"-shut up! I get it, you don't want to be responsible for the deaths of others. But we are shinobis, Sarada. We accept the risk when we put on our hitai-ite. Them…Minami, she knew what could happen and she didn't blame you for it. So why are you?

"After what happened, you are afraid. The pain, the loss…I feel it, too, you know. But running away isn't the solution. It's a move of a coward and…I don't…I don't fall in love with a coward. I fall in love with the future Hokage."

Her eyes widened as she took in the implication of his words.

I fall in love with the future Hokage.

Her heart was thumping inside her chest as her mind turn the words over and over again. She wondered if she had misheard him, if she had imagined the entire thing.

I fall in love with the future Hokage.

Her best friend was in love with her?

"Please look at me," he murmured.

And she did. His eyes were bluer than she had ever seen, a mixture of love, admiration and longing.

She didn't know what to say.

"Death…is inevitable, Sarada. You can't fight it and hope to win. But as Hokage, you can minimize our loss and make sure that our people live longer. If you run away now, then it would all be for naught. You can't give up that easily. That's not who you are.

"I know that you are good and honest and kind, even if you are a right pain sometimes," he grinned at that. "I know that you are one of the best Konoha had to offer. I know that you have a dream, and that you would never give up on that. If you are anything like the Uchiha Sarada that I know and love, then you will meet my dad first thing tomorrow, and you'll accept that position as his successor."

"But what if I fail?"

"You won't," he replied easily, with conviction and so much faith. "But if you do, I'll be there to catch you and help you stand up again."

Those were the last words they exchanged in a very, very long while.

The sky was still dark when she woke up. For a moment, she laid in her bed, unmoving, as she thought of what was awaiting her in a few hours.

It was inauguration day. When she went to bed tonight, she would be doing so as Konoha's eighth Hokage.

The Hachidaime.

She could scarcely believe it. More than once during the night, she had jerked awake, thinking that it was all a dream, only to be reminded that no, she really was going to become the next Hokage.

So much had changed in her life. She could recall the first time she told her mother of her dream, all those years ago, back when she was small and standing barefoot in the kitchen. Many kids dreamed of becoming the Hokage, but only a few could claim that they actually did.

Sarada was about to be one of those few.

What had started as wanting her father home had changed into something much bigger than herself. Her father was back in the village, permanently, not out of order but because he loved them - her mother, her siblings and her. He had told her, like her mother did long ago, that she didn't need to be the Hokage for him to stay.

"You are Uchiha Sarada. That's enough," he had said.

She believed him. Her dream was no longer about him, it was about her. To be the best that she could be. To serve the village with everything she had. To protect the village until her last breath.

It wouldn't be easy, but then again, nothing that was worth pursuing ever was.

In a few hours, the sun would rise and the villagers would be out on the street. And Sarada, she would be in her new hat and cape, swearing to dedicate her life to her new family of thousands.

"I present to you, the Hachidaime Hokage, Uchiha Sarada."

End.