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Not many people notice the little stress habits all shinobi acquire eventually, but Sarada's always been an exceptionally observant girl.
Konohamaru-sensei's eyebrows wriggle, sometimes, when he's upset. It's a tic he developed after watching Mitsuki rile Boruto up in their mid-teens, by singing songs that included 'tree' and 'kissing' and women much, much older than Boruto's mom.
The spasms this time are impressive.
The Rokudaime is tapping his foot to the beat of the facial brow movement, causing Sarada to question the meaning of her seventeen years of life.
Seventeen years.
Repeat that. Believe.
"So, let's go over this again. What was the last thing you saw in Konoha when you time-skipped? Are you sure you're not fourteen? Twelve? When's the last time you put goggles on your head?"
"Seventeen. And I'm Boruto," Sarada tries again. It's hopeless, and she's about to perform high treason if Kakashi-sama syncopates for another minute.
"E-excuse me," Konohamaru mutters hesitantly. "Um, why exactly was I called here? I-I just don't think time travel is a thing."
(Say it with more pride, Sensei! Sarada wants to shout, but she's unwilling to get herself into any more trouble.)
"I do," Kakashi-sama eye-smiles. "Explains why my breakfast is always cold by the time I eat. I slip into a different dimension to first drink tea with Obito."
While Sarada gawks on in horror and wonders if this is what retirement does to former Hokage, the interrogator nods, sympathetic.
"Think about it. Why in the world did Naruto-sama grow to become so strong, so fast? It's because his alternate timeline self traveled into the past, inhabiting his young body. And according to replacement theory, his younger self must reemerge as a cocoon in the alternative timeline, so that one Naruto exists per dimension. We call this phenomenon a visitation."
"I call it, I-need-a-vacation." Konohamaru gives Kakashi a withering stare. "Rokudaime. Please verify that it's Boruto, and I can drag my team back to prepare for the ceremony, already."
"Okay, okay. At what age did Naruto start being a competent ninja?" Kakashi fixes her with an uncharacteristically serious stare.
"I'm not going to answer the age thing, again." Her Uchiha stubbornness shines through.
"Answer," says the Rokudaime.
"Uh… at fifteen?" That's when Naruto-sama got from from his journey with the Great Toad Sage, Jiraiya, right?
Konohamaru intejects with much indignation. "No way, Boruto. Your father was cool way before then. I used to camp out in cardboard boxes just to fight him." He gets a wistful sort of look on his face, and the eyebrow spasms finally die.
That's-a-lie, Kakashi ANBU hand-signs to her. It's unclear. He may also have said: I-want-pie, depending on context.
Sarada in turn tries to transmit some sort of SOS signal to the Rokudaime with her eyes. While Konohamaru-sensei gets into a heated argument with the interrogator about the physics of quantum space travel, Sarada signs, quickly, also in ANBU hand code: It's-me-Sarada.
She's desperate at this point, and desperate times call for desperate measures.
It's to the Copy-Nin's credit that he doesn't bat an eyelash, just shrugs. "Well, he's not using genjutsu, nor ninjutsu," he declares with all of his former hokage authority.
Oh, thank kami.
But then Kakashi turns back to her, and actually sniggers, hand over the place where his mouth should be under the mask.
You-owe-me, he signs. Either that, or: Two-Posies.
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"Woah, Se—uh, Dad, what's u—I mean, did you get back okay?"
Uchiha Sasuke may have been Boruto's teacher once-upon-a-time, but nothing prepares Boruto for the look the man gives when he catches him in the crowd of people just outside the tents. Boruto thanks the heavens he didn't insist on the shadow clones plan with Sarada, because any clones would have disintegrated into smoke from just the force of that stare.
"Hn. Your mother said you came into the house this morning."
"Uh—yeah. I had to get some stuff."
Crud. Did Sarada get caught when she snuck out her dad's robes? That meant her mom saw Boruto in their house? Did her mom know about the switch? Did her mom tell her dad? No! Spare me. I'm too young to die! I didn't touch your daughter, I swear!
"She heard you when she was getting ready. You should have gone upstairs to greet your mother."
Oh. Oh thank kami. He cancels the thought that he needs to find Sarada immediately and hide his body from potential cremation by black Sharingan fire.
"Well, I'll see her here, so… uh, speaking of, is Mom coming to meet you now?"
Sasuke again looks at him a bit intensely. Then again, what else is new? Boruto will never tell, but the Uchicha constipation face, in his opinion, should be trademarked and classified as a kekkai genkai. It's certainly hereditary enough.
"Tenzo Yamato had some pain in his knee. She's checking him so he can give his speech congratulating that Dobe."
Ah, the old nickname for his father. Sensei is still sensei, unchanged. But Tenzo Yamato? That old geezer? Isn't he, like, loooong retired? Didn't they post him out in the boondocks?
It's then that a familiar pink-haired figure comes into view.
"Sarada! I just heard from Kakashi-sensei that you weren't feeling well? What's wrong? I thought you told me you had morning guard duty today. Sarada? Honey, your face… it's so red. I told you to not go out without sunscreen."
The fussing Sakura gives Boruto an idea of why Sarada moved out, and he's still at home, living (leeching) off his mom's cooking.
Boruto tries and fails to say something intelligent back. It sounds from Sakura's news that his partner-in-crime is in danger, and, being the reluctant hero he is (maybe that runs in his family, 'ttebasa), he's gonna go save her ass, no questions asked.
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Sasuke shifts his glance sideways to his wife.
"Say…"
"Yes?" Sakura chirps, always glad to have her husband back in the village, and perhaps even more glad to have some alone time.
"When did Sarada stop calling us Papa and Mama?"
She freezes momentarily, before a sly grin splits her face.
"Oh? You're not feeling abandoned are you, honey? Your little princess is growing up? You can cry on my shoulder, if you want."
The stricken expression on the man's face is enough.
"Hn."
He may take her up on that offer.
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tbc
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Suzu: as always, thanks so much for reading!
