Prime Chapter 17: Leave the Light On, a naruto fanfic

Hello! It's been a few months. In that time I had a baby, who was in the NICU for some breathing problems- sometimes life really does imitate art, I guess- but we're all healthy and I think I've got this whole motherhood thing down at least for now. So I can finally start focusing back on this and I'm so excited with where it's going!

It was hard for Sarada to catch the time that was quickly passing without getting whiplash, so she tried to take in every moment as it came without letting herself think too much about the future. Boruto and Sarada decided it would be best to keep their wedding plans to themselves for the time being, especially since they didn't actually have plans and had more urgent matters to attend to: Satoshi came home, and then Boruto started taking the suppression pills again, and then Itsumi continued to scream through the night, and then-

It just seemed to never end.

By the time she could look toward the future again, she was cleared by her mother to go back on missions and was now in the Hokage's office listening to Lord Seventh, Shikadai's dad, and her father discuss the best range of missions for her to go on; they didn't want to send her too far away in case of her falling into a trap as Boruto did while also ensuring they had enough people to send on the higher-ranked missions, but each had their own opinion on the best course of action without asking her what she wanted.

She sighed and let her mind wander back home where Boruto was wrangling the twins. The pills put him out of commission for a while, but he was back to himself now and yet Naruto had decided it would be best for him to stay home since he was more of a sitting duck in public than she was. Even after five weeks they still hadn't figured out how people found out about the twins- all their interrogations turned up empty so they were still being cautious about sending Boruto out without a pack of shinobi behind him. That obviously wasn't feasible, so instead he would be the doting stay-at-home dad while the world moved on around him.

Sarada finally got tired of listening to the men bicker. She opened her mouth to finally give her input, but as she started to bark out "Hey!", a soft knock sounded at the door.

"Come in," Naruto called out and shot a final glare at the others that clearly meant they weren't done with their conversation just yet.

"Ah, just the people I wanted to see."

"What the hell," Shikamaru muttered, but Naruto just beamed and stood to greet the raven-haired sannin standing in the doorway as though he had been expecting him all along.

Orochimaru, looking as young as he ever had, seemed to float across the room toward the bewildered group and within an instant was standing in front of them.

"Wow, what brings you all the way here?" Naruto asked, his eyes scanning the door behind the sannin. "Are you looking for Mitsuki? He's not out on a mission-"

"No, no, I'm not looking for him. I'm looking for his teammates actually, and I see one but was hoping the other may be able to join us?" His lips spread into a tightlipped smile but his face didn't offer any emotion. "Any chance he's available?"

Sarada had never grown to fear Orochimaru as the adults had, so she was less intrigued by his presence and more happy to see him. He was her teammate's parent after all. "Yeah, I can go grab him," she instantly replied and hopped off the side of Naruto's desk.

"Well, no, hang on," Sasuke said, throwing his arm out to block Sarada from walking past. Sarada noticed an even sharper edge to his tone than usual. "What do you want with these two?"

Orochimaru glanced thoughtfully between the four of them and finally gestured at a chair. "May I?"

"Please." Naruto sat behind his own desk and leaned his chin forward on his hand.

Orochimaru clasped his hands together and looked pointedly at Sarada. "First, congratulations," he said smoothly. "Mitsuki told me."

Sarada's eyebrows flew up in surprise. "Mitsuki," Sasuke hissed.

"It's okay, your secret is safe." Orochimaru held up a hand to calm a now-seething Sasuke. "He told me in relation to what has been happening. I haven't told a soul. You obviously don't need me or anyone else for that matter to tell you the danger your family may be in, which subsequently may affect all of the shinobi world. Mitsuki voiced his concerns for you, and since he loves you two so dearly, I came to offer my assistance."

"Assistance?" Sarada repeated.

Orochimaru nodded. "This was actually Mitsuki's idea. Being in danger, your children are going to have these added pressures. If they were to fall into the wrong hands, such as the Otsutsukis, the destruction would be catastrophic for more than just them there is no doubt. I would like to offer up a brother to Mitsuki of sorts, a teammate, to assist your children as they grow. He could live here with Mitsuki if you'd allow it," he added, nodding at Naruto, "and become the third to your duo when they become genin. Mitsuki's powers have come in handy to the Leaf over the years I have gathered, and truthfully…" He paused for a moment so his next words could sink in and looked pointedly into Sarada's eyes. "...I don't see anyone else being able to match the potential powers of your children."

He sat back in his chair and clasped his hands on his lap again.

"Yes," Sarada blurted instantly. She didn't need to think about it. If the kid would be anything like Mitsuki had been to her and Boruto, they would be the lucky ones to have him. "Yes."

"Whoa, I think this needs to be a discussion." Sasuke turned quickly around on her, warning streaking his voice.

"Why?" Sarada asked. "I'd love a second Mitsuki."

"I think Sasuke may be right," Naruto said. "We shouldn't rush into anything. It seems like a lot needs to be worked out..."

Sarada didn't know if it was her dwindling patience from lack of sleep or if she was actually done with her father and Lord Seventh dictating too much in her near future, but she couldn't hold back anymore. "Everything is always a discussion with you two!" she exploded, throwing her arms in the air in a huff. "Where I can go, where Boruto can go- these are my kids, our kids, and I think this could be a good thing for us so I am deciding that yes, we would love a teammate for the twins."

"Shouldn't Boruto also be here for this decision?" Sasuke asked. He stood tall above his daughter, a brick wall against her fury. He stared down at her completely unaffected and placed his hand on his hip.

"I know he'd feel the same way. Mitsuki is like our brother and I want my kids to have that too. He has taken care of us so many times, and his powers would be so beneficial to have. We don't even know what these kids will be like, but if how you all have been acting since I found out I was pregnant is any indication, they will probably surpass Boruto and me easily."

Sasuke just blinked at her and turned his attention back to Orochimaru.

"How do we know you're not just using this as a way to gain access to these children or other information in the village?" he asked.

"He'll stay with Mitsuki."

"How do we know you won't just outfit the child with something to gain that information?"

Orochimaru laughed softly. "Because if I wanted to do that," he said matter-of-factly, "I would have done that with Mitsuki."

"I understand your concern, Sasuke," he added. "I really do. I just wanted to bring it up in person. Nothing has to be done any time soon. I have all the code and research from developing Mitsuki so this child can be finished within months." He stood and nodded at Sarada. "The offer still stands. I'll leave the light on. Let Mitsuki know."

And just as quickly as he came he disappeared from the room, leaving the four of them alone.

"People can't be coming in and out of the village this easily, Naruto," Sasuke blurted as soon as he realized the sannin was gone. He slammed his hand down on Naruto's desk and leaned close to him as though trying to intimidate him. "Can we really afford to risk something like that at a time like this?"

"He's not just 'people,' Dad," Sarada argued. "Mr. Orochimaru was a Leaf shinobi and is a sannin!"

"Oh, Sarada, be reasonable." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Your dad just wants to make sure you're safe…" Naruto was rubbing his chin and staring past Sasuke at the door Orochimaru disappeared like he was waiting for him to come back. "Mitsuki has been an amazing shinobi and I don't think he'd do anything to put the village or especially Boruto and Sarada in danger…"

"Tch." Sasuke rolled his eyes again and straightened. "I think we all just need some time to think about this. I think we need to sleep on this. We will revisit this tomorrow." He then turned on his heel and sped toward the door without another look back at the others.

"Oh, Sasuke, be reasonable!" Naruto shot after him, but he was already gone.

"I don't think 'reasonable' is in his repertoire," Shikamaru deadpanned.

"It was seriously the weirdest thing," Sarada said, pacing the room she now shared with Boruto. She ran a hand through her hair and paused to listen for one of the babies, but once she determined she didn't actually hear them she continued her pacing. "I have never seen him act so...so...childishly?"

"Eh, I've heard my dad mention some shady shit that went down with them." Boruto spread himself out on their bed and tucked his arms behind his head. "Maybe he's just worried. You know your dad, he's a control freak sometimes. He's a lot like you in that way."

"I'm serious, Boruto, it was so weird."

"Try to let it go. They're our kids and we want this for them. What are they going to do, say no? We can just go behind their backs. It'll be fine, you have other things you need to worry about...like relaxing before your big mission!" A large grin spread over his face and he wagged his eyebrows at her.

Sarada bit her lip and finally sat down next to him. She had been trying to ignore the fact that she was leaving her kids for the first time. She had to admit that all this constant talk about the need to protect her made her feel more uneasy than she ever had been on any mission. For so long she had thought her biggest problem was talking herself into taking Boruto down if she ever needed to, and now the danger was targeting something even closer to her than Boruto, if that was even possible. She had built herself up as the perfect shinobi who could face anything and it was mildly frustrating that these children could come into their lives and wash away all semblance of logic and hardened emotions she had; logically she knew she had a job to do and an entire village to protect, but her heart almost ached with the thought of leaving two tiny creatures behind. How could her anxiety peak even thinking about not seeing them for a few days?

"How do you feel about staying behind?" she asked in an attempt to change the subject.

Boruto's grin faded a little but he quickly recovered it and sat up. He grabbed Sarada's hand and pulled her onto his chest. "It's been a good break, y'know? And I've been reading some of those parenting books you have while you've been working with my dad and they'll be hitting some milestones soon that I don't want to miss. Did you know that they can start smiling socially as early as next week? I won't feel like I'm interacting with a brick wall anymore."

Sarada's heart panged when she thought about missing that but quickly tried to shake it again from her brain.

"Don't worry about me or them." He smiled and raised a hand to pat down her hair. "We'll be fine and right here waiting for you when you get back. Have fun."

But even Boruto didn't believe it was totally fine. As he paced the living room with Itsumi later that night to give Sarada the chance to sleep before her first day back to work, he did feel a pang of jealousy. Maybe it was true that he was the best out of anyone to calm Itsumi's near-constant cries, and maybe he did have a lot of fun making faces at them in hopes they'd finally crack a smile, but the reality was that this still wasn't what he pictured his life like at seventeen– no matter how much he loved his children.

So he plastered on a bright smile the next morning as Sarada turned hiked her backpack up and plopped a quick final kiss on the twins' heads.

"If all goes well I'll be back in less than two days."

"Yeah, we know, that's the sixth time you've said that today." He rolled his eyes.

He was already irritated from a lack of sleep. Unable to go on missions himself and spending the last few weeks inside the house, trying to re-balance his chakra levels, he was struggling to see how Sarada couldn't wait to be home. Deep down he knew, but in this moment he would have given anything to take her place and be out in front on a mission. Instead he just had to quickly throw a smile back on his face and cradle the twins closer.

Sarada took a deep breath and pulled open the door. "Okay then… bye."

"Bye, Mom!" Boruto sing-songed and jokingly shoved her hand from the doorknob before nudging her out the door. "Have fun!"

He watched her slowly walk up the path and they both waved to each other one last time when she reached the gate. As she rounded the corner, he instantly felt his heart drop. What was he going to do today? He was officially all alone for the first time with the babies for a long period of time, his status as Stay-at-Home-Dad solidified, and he had no idea what to do.

"Want a little break?" His mom's voice behind him made him jump. He turned to see her leaning against the wall behind him, a knowing smile on her face. "Go take a walk, train or something." She pushed herself upright and reached out for the twins. "Grandpa would love a visitor. I just got off the phone with Hanabi and she has the day off today."

He instantly dropped the babies in Hinata's arms, mildly surprised at his own knee-jerk reaction to wanting to leave the house, and shoved his feet into the closest pair of shoes before his mom could change her mind.

"Oh wait–" His mom's voice followed him as he pulled the door open again.

He cringed. So close. "...Yeah?"

"Can you actually stop by your dad's office with lunch? It would be easier for you to go now."

Boruto's body relaxed, still feeling the fabric of freedom in between his fingers. "Of course, Mom," he sighed, relieved.

Thirty seconds later he was out in the March sunshine, the first warm breeze of the year beckoning him off his property and into town. All he had to do was deliver this lunch to his dad and then he had the afternoon off. It wasn't quite as glamorous or important as what Sarada was doing on her mission, but at least he could start training again and keep up his strength for when he would eventually be allowed out again. Eventually. He tried not to bristle again at the stomach-turning, crushing thought that it would be a long while before he could leave the village again.

He was too preoccupied with staring up at the clear sky above him to notice Cho Cho heading his way. Cho Cho seemed distracted by something under her nail and didn't see him either until it was too late for either of them to avoid each other. Boruto cringed as she finally recognized him at the same time, stopping short just feet away. Her eyes rose to rove over his body but she didn't lift her head. Cho Cho was easy to read and the blonde could tell she was just as uncomfortable as he was. He assessed his surroundings to see if he could slip inside a store or dart down a side street, but there wasn't even a building he could scale– he was stuck.

They hadn't spoken to each other since Boruto's drinking binge weeks before. While Boruto had been trying to avoid her, she had done the same, beckoning Sarada to hang out without him around. He partially had also been occupied by tending to the twins and recovering emotionally and physically from seeing Kawaki and taking the suppression pills again, but he knew that was an excuse. He had been avoiding Ino-Shika-Cho out of embarrassment.

"Hey," Cho Cho smoothly said, no emotion hiding in her voice.

"Hey."

"Haven't seen you out for a while."

Boruto cringed again. Of course she would draw attention to the fact he'd obviously been avoiding her.

"Uh, yeah. Kinda busy."

"Oh, yeah, playing housewife."

Housewife? He watched her smirk as she looked back at her nail and for some reason that made his blood instantly boil. Bitch. He usually gave Cho Cho much more understanding than this, but today he felt like she was judging him and he couldn't just brush it off. That she could stand there smirking like she knew what he was going through, like he was below her just because he couldn't go on missions– it clawed underneath his skin and dug in tight.

It was Cho Cho, and she probably didn't have any malicious intent behind the smirk, but he couldn't admit that today. He was in one of his moods and he didn't want to get out of it.

"You did good," the girl continued, noticing Boruto's unnatural silence. "They're…cute." She focused her attention on another nail.

"Yep." His voice fell flat.

"Well, you seem like you have somewhere to be," she sighed and nodded to the lunch in his hand. "So I won't keep you."

Boruto just nodded quickly at her before sauntering past, his eyes locked forward. He could feel her eyes turn with him.

"Hey, Boruto," she called after him. He paused mid-step and physically had to stop himself from bunching his fists.

"Call up Shikadai sometime. He misses you. He's been leading a lot of missions lately so he hasn't had a lot of time to come over and I'm sure he'd like to meet the fam sometime…"

"Yeah. Okay." He couldn't hide the annoyance in his voice so he just kept walking, feeling Cho Cho's eyes on him until he turned a corner.

A housewife? Is that what they were calling him now? That made it sound like he was choosing to sit and home and do nothing while Sarada carried the family. Well, not nothing... His mom had done way more than his dad for a few years, he thought anyway, with rounding up him and Himawari; he was sure they weren't easy, especially him. Hinata had an important job keeping the home maintained and sacrificed a lot for her kids, and he felt a faint pang of guilt about his first reaction to being called a housewife. But still. His anger superseded the guilt and he couldn't stop calling Cho Cho names in his head. Boruto knew the connotation of housewife, and it made him forget what forced his hand to start the suppression pills again, forget what a danger he could be without them and running outside the village walls.

He was still steaming when he found himself walking through his dad's office door without knocking.

Naruto and Sasuke looked up from their conversation, surprised to see that someone had walked in without knocking first. Boruto knew they more than likely felt his presence outside the door, but that his father still expected at least the bare minimum of manners where others were concerned.

"You good?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow.

His son wordlessly held up the bag in his hand.

"Oh, lunch. Thanks."

Boruto walked forward and dropped the lunch on the desk then silently backtracked toward the door without saying a word to the men. Sasuke was watching him half-amused.

"Hey, I haven't talked to you in a while," he called after his student.

He watched Boruto cringe before he turned around to face the adults.

"Uh, yeah. I heard you left the village again for a few weeks."

"Yeah, but I'm back for a few days."

Boruto and Sasuke stared at each other silently for a few seconds, the older man waiting for an update from Boruto about why he was so clearly on edge and the teen waiting to be dismissed.

"Cool, good talk," Boruto finally deadpanned after a few seconds of their standoff and turned back toward the exit.

"Come on, take a seat," Sasuke continued. "Are you actually busy today? How are you feeling on the pills?"

Boruto could feel the same heat begin to rise in his face again that he felt facing Cho Cho. Did no one think he did anything? "Yeah, I am actually busy today," he scoffed. "I'm going to go train with Hanabi for a bit. Sorry if that's a surprise."

Sasuke's face didn't change. "That's not a surprise. Why would it be a surprise?"

Boruto took a deep breath. He knew he was being snippy and Sasuke wasn't going to play into it. He needed to try to calm down before Sasuke– or worse, his dad– wouldn't take it anymore. He dragged his feet toward the desk and stopped behind the chair.

"What can I do for you gentlemen?" he asked, the last hint of sarcasm lacing his voice that he couldn't get rid of.

Sasuke blinked. "I genuinely just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Fine. Everything is fine."

"How are the babies? Still keeping you up at night? I heard Itsumi is quite the crier."

"Why, are you going to impart some bullshit advice to me about handling fatherhood?" he snapped before he could stop himself.

This time he could see Sasuke's eyebrows raise the slightest bit.

"Ugh, Boruto, stop," his father warned. "You can't just burst in here and start being rude."

"No." Sasuke's voice stayed cool and even. "No advice. Just wanted to catch up."

"Okay, Sasuke, let's catch up," Boruto replied, and sat down in the chair, crossing a leg over his knee. He leaned his chin forward on his fist and stared up at Sasuke dramatically, his eyes wide like he wanted to hang onto his sensei's every word. "What do you want to talk about?"

Sasuke raised one eyebrow, still refusing to match Boruto's sarcasm. "How are you feeling?" he asked calmly again.

"Oh, what? Since I started the pills that drain me and make me feel like shit? And I can't go out on missions?" He felt like he was having an out-of-body experience. He could see himself losing control again and knew he shouldn't be taking out his frustrations of the day on Sasuke, but his mouth just kept spewing more icicles and he couldn't stop it. He needed to stop but it felt good to let out his frustrations. But on the other hand it was embarrassing. Neither had done anything other than being here while he was working through his bad mood.

"You asked for this, Boruto," Naruto piped in, confused. "You asked for the pills. Why are you acting like this?"

"You would've told me I had to take the pills anyway!"

"What are you talking about? Where is all of this coming from?"

"How about you update me, Dad? Sasuke? You wanted to catch up!"

The two adults turned their heads to look at each other, wholeheartedly confused. What are you doing? Boruto hissed at himself, but again he couldn't shove down the heat continuing to rise and realized at this point he was too far gone.

"I'm confused," Sasuke replied blandly. "Did I miss something?"

"Is this about Sarada or something?" Naruto asked. "You've been absolutely fine about the pills until right now. If you're starting to feel a little jealous that you can't go out, that doesn't mean you can go around treating people like this. Grow up."

"Oh, okay, so you want me to grow up but not actually make decisions for myself."

Naruto huffed. "Oh my gods, Boruto, stop with the riddles. What is your problem?"

"I know about Mr. Orochomaru's visit. Sarada told me about it. You were just going to let me walk out of here without talking about it with me?"

"Well, you very much looked like you wanted to walk out of here, so yeah," Sasuke said.

"That's a lie because you wanted to 'catch up' but not talk about anything of importance. You didn't want to bring it up because you already decided that Orochumaru making a teammate for the twins wasn't going to happen."

Sasuke sighed. "Fine, let's talk about it. I'll go first: You haven't thought through this and you don't understand what this could do–"

"So I 'don't understand' according to you but I understand enough to give up my powers because they could destroy you all?" Boruto leaned forward, this time serious. "Hmm… So I'm a child but I'm stronger than you all? Can I be treated like an adult? Or is it only when it's convenient to you, and the rest of the time I'm a child who doesn't 'understand' and can't make his own decisions?"

"I think that's an unfair assumption of what we are saying," Sasuke replied.

"So tell me what you're saying, Sasuke." His blue eyes bore into Sasuke's black one.

"You haven't been around as long and don't understand certain dynamics. This could get people involved who shouldn't be involved. We need to shrink our circle to need-to-know only, and Orochimaru is not need-to-know."

Boruto scoffed. "People sure as hell treated me like I understood those dynamics when I saved the goddamn village. I am an adult. I have kids and it's my responsibility to protect them and make choices that are best for them, and I think this would be best for them. And so does Sarada!" He stood up and walked up to Sasuke until they were face to face; Sasuke noticed he had gotten taller since their travels only over a month before.

"The prophecy also says that Naruto and I need to oversee–"

"Fuck the prophecy!" Boruto spat. "What are you not getting from this?! Whether you like it or not we are making the decision for our children. We are adults, and we are getting married and–"

Sasuke's face remained calm against Boruto's outburst until the last sentence; he couldn't stop his eyes from narrowing at the boy and Boruto immediately caught it, his face now hot for a new reason. Boruto's first instinct was to smirk at finally bringing Sasuke down to his level, but then he immediately realized what he said to do that. He gulped.

"Oh. You're getting married? This is the first I've heard of this."

"Well… I mean… I'm just saying we're adults…" Should he backtrack?

Sasuke nodded along. "Uh huh."

"Are you serious?" Naruto cut in. "Have you really discussed getting married?"

Boruto scoffed and sat back down. "So what if we have?" he asked. "That's not what we're talking about right now."

"Don't you think you're a little young–"

"This is what I'm saying! You were barely twenty when you married Mom. I'm about to be eighteen. I've done more than most people my age. We can't make basic choices for our lives?"

"It's just… Marriage. Wow." Naruto looked bewildered. He glanced over at Sasuke but he had turned his head to face the wall, refusing to look at either Uzumaki. "I guess I should have seen that coming."

"What? Did you think we were just going to stay in the house for the rest of our lives raising our kids?"

As Boruto continued talking, each word pumped him with more confidence. There obviously weren't concrete plans of marriage because there just wasn't any time to talk about that, but their dads didn't need to know that. They needed to think they were adults ready to take on their own lives.

"I guess we just didn't think it would be… So soon," Naruto finished.

"When were you planning to, um." Sasuke swallowed hard like he was trying to not throw up. Boruto had never seen him this way before. One minute he was cool and levelheaded like usual and now he was practically falling over himself. He couldn't even look at Boruto.

"When were we planning to get married?" Boruto asked, a playful hint to his voice. "Is that what you're trying to ask?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and continued boring his glare into the Hokage's portraits on the wall. Boruto could see him staring specifically at his grandfather. "Yes," he finally said.

"Oh, um." His brain wound through his memories to try to catch any date but came up empty. They never even mentioned a season. "Summer," he suddenly blurted. "We wanted to get married this summer."

Finally Sasuke looked over at Naruto. The men said nothing as they searched each other's eyes.

"That's a little soon, don't you think?" Naruto asked and held up a hand when Boruto began to protest. "I didn't mean because you're young! That's soon for anyone planning a wedding."

"You and Mom planned your wedding in three months. She told me."

Naruto blinked. "I guess we did," he said faintly.

"So it's settled. We're getting married this summer, moving out, and Orochimaru is going to start on a teammate for the twins." He pushed on the arms of the chair to stand and walked up to Sasuke again. Sasuke tilted his head up to give himself more height and stared down at the boy over his nose.

"Remember when you found out Sarada was pregnant and you came to my house? And you told me if I want something to go get it? And to make decisions for my family?"

They stared silently for a moment and he could see Sasuke's mind working. "Yeah."

"Well, this is me doing that." He turned back around and started for the door. "See you at the wedding!"

His chest puffed up with elation and pride as he closed the door behind him.

So he did it; he found the one way to disarm Sasuke. Talk about marrying his daughter.

Hanabi fanned herself as she tilted her head up toward the sun. This was the perfect day off: first warm day of the year, her dad wasn't bothering her, she had the whole day to do whatever she wanted to do with absolutely no interruptions–

"BIG SIS!"

Her eyes popped open as the sound of feet came into earshot. Boruto. She sighed. So much for her perfect day.

Her nephew launched himself through the doorway and sprinted across the grass to where she was sitting.

"Hi, Boruto," she said flatly.

"Do you have some time?" he asked enthusiastically. "My mom said you were off today."

"To train?"

"No, actually not to train…" He looked at her sheepishly and she could see some red creeping up into his cheeks. "I think I kind of messed up and I need advice."

"Um, no." Hanabi picked up her sunglasses and placed them on her face. "Sorry. Bye."

"Please, Big Sis! Pleeeeeease. For your favorite nephew?" He cupped his hands together in begging and pouted. "I need girl advice. And you're kind of the only girl I really know who can give it."

Hanabi's lips curled into a mischievous smile and she tilted her sunglasses down so she could peer over them at Boruto. "Hmmm, girl advice! Juicy. Lay it on me."

"Um, but first there's some good news and bad news, you know?"

"Uh… I guess… Tell me the bad news first?"

"So, the bad news is that I told my dad and Sasuke and that Sarada and I are getting married."

Hanabi's eyes widened and she leaped to throw her arms around Boruto. "Married?" she screeched. "How is that bad news?! Why is this the first I'm hearing of this?! Congratulations!"

Boruto slipped himself out of her grip and ran a hand through his hair. "So it's the bad news because it's a lie. I mean, it's not totally a lie," he babbled. "I mean, we want to get married. It's just that we haven't talked about any plans, and then I told Dad that I was getting married, and then they started asking me questions about when, but the only reason I said that was because I was getting really worked up because they're always treating me like a kid and making decisions for us–"

"Whoa, Boruto, take a breath."

He slowed down. "-My dad and Sasuke are always trying to make decisions for us and it was pissing me off, and I was already in a bad mood, so I just kind of slipped that we're planning on getting married. But when Sarada finds out she is going to be so pissed. She's back to work and I don't want to add to her stressors. We want to someday, but it's not like we really talked about it."

Hanabi nodded as she listened. "Well," she said when Boruto finally snapped his lips together, "why don't you just take this as your sign to start planning? And how do you know she'll find out you even said something to your dads?"

"Because it's my dad." He wrinkled his nose. "Of course he'll say something."

"Hm, fair enough."

"What do I do?" he groaned. "I have already really messed up the last few weeks and I finally need to make things right with Sarada."

Hanabi propped her arms behind her and leaned back on her hands. "Well, my first piece of advice is run because that girl is probably going to whoop your ass if she has to hear it from your dad. What's the good news?"

"Well… The good news is I guess if she doesn't get too mad I get to marry her."

"Sarada, can you stay back a second?"

The Hokage's voice sounded peculiar as he dismissed her underlings. They had already debriefed him and given him the scrolls they were required to retrieve from another village. It went even smoother than they were expecting with her at the lead, so what could he want?

"Sure, what can I do for you?" she asked, walking slowly back toward his desk as the door closed behind her.

"I just wanted to inform you that we're going ahead with Orochimaru and creating a teammate for the twins."

"Wow, that's great!" she cried. "What changed your mind?"

He smiled warmly at her. "Boruto."

She couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her cheeks. Of course it was Boruto. She should have known; he always knew what to say. "That's wonderful."

"And let me know when you need the time off as you plan, okay?" He picked up a stack of papers and began shuffling through them.

Her smile dropped. "Excuse me, sir? Plan for what?"

"Your wedding," Naruto said matter-of-factly.

"My wedding?" she repeated.

"Yeah, Boruto told your dad and me. Congratulations. I didn't realize you were planning on getting married so soon!"

So soon? Sarada suddenly felt faint. What the hell had Boruto been up to for the last forty-eight hours? What wedding? They hadn't even discussed it again since the night she had to save him from the bar. She knew she wanted to marry him but…what was he telling people?

"Oh. Yeah. Hey, um, I think I need to lie down for a bit. Kind of tiring to be back out after so long. But I'll talk to you more in the morning? And I can come back tomorrow if you need more help again?"

"Of course!" He was still beaming. "Have a great night!"

By the time Sarada walked in the Uzumaki house, she had her entire argument set out. But the card with her name by the door and rose petals scattered over the foyer leading into the kitchen stole it from her mind.

"Hello?" she called out, trampling over the petals as she made her way to the kitchen.

"Hi! You're home!" Boruto was standing next to the table, an entire candle-lit dinner laid out before him. He swiftly walked over to her and pecked her cheek before thrusting a glass of water into her hand. "Come on in, take a seat!"

"What is all of this?" she asked, bewildered.

"I made all your favorites." He placed a hand on her lower back and ushered her forward to a chair. "Come on, sit, sit! I figured you'd do so well on your mission and would be home today."

Sarada looked around at the spread on the table. Two candles and a bouquet of roses– that she suspected came from the Yamanaka shop– were flanked by various bowls and plates. That dinner must have taken hours.

"How did you…"

"My mom took the kids while Hima and I made it. Do you like it?"

She gingerly picked up her rice bowl. "Yeah… But why?"

"Why not? To show you how much I care and love you and appreciate all you're doing!"

He took a seat next to her and flashed his disarming smile. She loved that smile. But she also knew that smile and when he usually used it. She sighed and put down the bowl again.

"What did you do, Boruto?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" he asked, but she could tell he was feigning ignorance.

"Why does your dad think we're getting married?"

Instantly, his cheeks reddened. She stared him down for a few seconds, her harsh gaze reminding him of Sasuke's; he knew it well. "I knew he'd say something," Boruto grumbled.

"Ugh, Boruto, come on, I just got home," she whined. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes. "I didn't want to come home to something like this."

"I'm sorry, I did this whole dinner to hopefully cushion it. I was hoping I could tell you before he did. I don't want you to be mad."

"I'm not mad I'm just… tired. This year has been exhausting." She sounded deflated, defeated. After a moment she sat back up. "Why did you tell them that? We didn't have any plans any time soon."

"I'm sorry. I was in a bad mood and just kind of spilled everything out. It was only supposed to be a side comment."

"You can't say things like that without consulting me," she sighed.

"Does this apology dinner make up for it?" He tried to smile again and raised his glass to his lips.

Sarada rolled her eyes but picked up her chopsticks. He was cute, there was no denying that, flashing his apologetic puppy eyes at her. She wanted to be mad, but she mostly wanted to be because it was overwhelming. A wedding was just one more thing on their plate when they still worried about their safety. How could they plan a celebration for the rest of their lives together as though they didn't realistically also have to plan for an attack on their lives?

"Telling we're getting married though worked," he continued, wagging his eyebrows. "It got them to agree to a little brother for Mitsuki."

"Did it now." She looked skeptical.

"Yeah! So you're welcome. It's a win for us and getting our way, which you wanted in case you forgot while you were busy being mad at me."

Sarada sighed again. "Fine. So it worked."

"And…" Boruto paused for a second, remembering Hanabi's words. "We could take this as a sign. Maybe we could just get married. You know, if we wanted to. Or whatever," he tacked on at the end.

A small smile began to peak on the edge of her lips and she took a sip from her glass to hide it. "Yeah. If we wanted to. Your dad did say to tell him dates. He probably would have to take off work. And my dad should know so he could be in town."

"Yeah. So we could plan the date. For them of course, so they can take off work."

"Of course," Sarada repeated.

Her heart skipped a beat as they both sipped their water silently and stared sheepishly at each other under their eyelashes. He knew how to completely disarm her. He had a special skill of angering people and cooling them off a few minutes later to throw them off his case. He used that on her more than almost anyone, but she also had to admit that's what she loved about him. She was caught in that spell yet as frustrated she could get with him, she didn't want it to break.

"So it's settled then," he said, "we wedding plan."

"Yeah…"

His grin grew even wider and he reached out with his glass to toast hers. "To forever," he announced.

Sarada clinked her glass against his. Her stomach somersaulted. "To forever."

"How did we get here?"

Naruto's voice, soft and drunk with awe, broke the silence between him and Sasuke. The two men sat across from each other in the dim light of Uzumaki living room, each holding one of their new family members, Naruto with Itsumi and Sasuke and Satoshi. Sasuke had just popped home for the night to relay information and check in, and ended up debriefing at Naruto's to finally hold his grandchildren.

"Hm?"

"I mean, you couldn't have thought this would be a part of our life, do you?" Naruto laughed, staring down at Itsumi who had finally whimpered herself to sleep. Her brother lay silently in comparison, unaffected by her crying. "That one day we'd be grandparents? To the same kids?"

Sasuke scoffed. "No. I can definitely say that never crossed my mind."

"But was it worth it?"

Something in his voice made Sasuke glance up; the men locked eyes for a moment until Sasuke quickly broke it to look back down at the baby in his arms.

"After everything, y'know?" Naruto continued. "How many times it could have been the end, after everything we've been through, and it just ended up here? Do you think it was worth it?"

Another moment of silence passed between them. Worth it? Sasuke wondered. The pain? The uncertainty? "Yeah," he finally replied. "Yeah. It was worth it."

A grin broke out onto the Hokage's face. "It really was, wasn't it. I mean just a few years ago we didn't know if we'd be alive, or if Boruto would be…well...you know. I know this isn't exactly the life we wished for them, but it turned out fine. Way better than fine."

"How did we get here?"

Naruto's voice, soft and drunk with awe, broke the silence between him and Sasuke. The two men sat across from each other in the dim light of Uzumaki living room, each holding one of their new family members, Naruto with Itsumi and Sasuke and Satoshi. With Sasuke being in and out of the village so much, this was the first time he could truly sit down to hold his grandchildren.

"Hm?"

Sasuke scoffed. "No. I can definitely say that never crossed my mind."

"But was it worth it?"

Something in his voice made Sasuke glance up; the men locked eyes for a moment until Sasuke quickly broke it to look back down at the baby in his arms.

"After everything, y'know?" Naruto continued. "How many times it could have been the end, after everything we've been through, and it just ended up here? Do you think it was worth it?"

Another moment of silence passed between them. Worth it? Sasuke wondered. The pain? The uncertainty? "Yeah," he finally replied. "Yeah. It was worth it."

Life had never been easy for Sasuke; it was always unexpected and leaving him whiplashed. He thought he could expect the unexpected by now. He never thought he'd even get this far with a family or something to really, truly, and honestly love. It still hit him hard some days that he even had Sarada, and now she had her own kids. Even the one he was holding looked just like her, and also himself he supposed. He felt his heart soften for a moment then allowed himself to say the words that filled up his mind and soul before he could stop himself.

"If I had to go through this with anyone, I'm really glad it's you."