The Sun had yet to appear on the horizon, when Boruto and five other volunteers from the Konoha village departed to the Nation of Water, where they were to meet the other volunteers from different lands and nations. The mission was turning out to be the largest one since the last Shinobi War on its scale and number of participants. The reason for such efforts was a band of thieves and rapists, who were rapidly moving from one small settlement to another, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Since cooperation on such large scale was not the lands' strong suit, all attacks were considered either isolated incidents or a local problem.

The general pattern of the bandits, besides attacking the unprotected caravans, was to snatch young women, who were traveling or working alone, rape and then kill them. Some bodies were found, but the assumption was that the number of victims was considerably larger, taking into account all disappeared women during the last two years. The understanding that the perpetrators belonged to one group came only when three women from various locations managed to escape alive and describe the assailants who looked almost exactly the same in each case. From that point on, different groups of shinobi tried to track the gang, but only managed to discern a vague pattern of their preferred locations.

After lengthy discussions, the hokage decided to form a joint shinobi team that consisted of volunteer pairs from all the lands. Female/male pairs in which the girls would pose as bait and the guys will provide backup (of course, there were female shinobi who could easily provide backup as well, but things were complicated enough, thus a bit of a chauvinistic decision was made). So far the investigation revealed that the gang members were armed, dangerous, but incapable of using jutsu, so two shinobi seemed to be quite enough in case they encounter the bandits.

The volunteers were paired according to a draw and sent to designated areas to attempt to bait the rapists into kidnapping the girls, who could actually fight back. Boruto's first partner happened to be a younger girl from Konoha. Boruto recalled Mitsuki's words about him always treating Sarada not only as a teammate but as a girl, but the blond didn't exactly understand what his friend meant. Was he treating Maya also like a girl and not only as a teammate?

Yes, she was pretty, more to the cute side really. She posed as a herbalist who spent the majority of her time collecting herbs alone in remote locations. She wore modest clothes, but in a way to accentuate her female assets to be more tantalizing bait. Boruto's job was to shadow her at her outings, being completely invisible at all times, including during her interactions with people at the settlement and inn they were based at.

Sasuke-sensei taught them shadowing techniques and tricks in the second year of their training. Firstly, they practiced following him for Sasuke-sensei to point out all their mistakes. The one who held out the longest without revealing oneself got the shower first the next time they were lucky to sleep in an inn; although Boruto always gave his turn to Sarada anyway. Later, they trained by following each other. They were both sent on separate errands, either to the nearest village or for individual training, but one of them actually had to follow the other's movements and describe them in meticulous detail to their sensei. Boruto suspected Sasuke-sensei used Sharingan to see if they were lying, but he just dutifully fulfilled his assignments without asking any questions.

During those shadowing assignments, there were some uncomfortable moments, since Sarada used her supposed privacy during those solo errands to take a dip in a pond or a lake if it was on the way. Boruto always kept his eyes averted during her bathing, but that didn't mean that his brain couldn't create the imagery without seeing the real thing. Even if Boruto was certain his fantasies paled in comparison to Sarada's actual figure.

Coming back to Maya, whom he watched hours upon hours spending time on her knees while collecting herbs… Even if generally innocent, the vision was sexual as well which should've appealed to the rapists. And technically, to Boruto too, but there was not even a spark of curiosity. Boruto knew that Maya's and Sarada's figures were actually very similar, despite Sarada's attempts to hide her curves from him, but neither touching Maya (occasions he made as scarce as possible) nor looking at her elicited the feeling of being engulfed in flames he experienced with Sarada. One day, just for kicks, he imagined Sarada bending over to gather herbs instead of Maya and instantly banished the vision to the deepest pits of his mind. Although it returned to his dreams with a vengeance and haunted him for the following weeks.

After a fruitless month they returned to the Nation of Water to change partners and receive further instructions. The man in charge of the mission had not yet arrived so everybody else had an opportunity to relax and mingle. Boruto was quite content to sit by the fire and enjoy a warm drink with no interaction with other shinobi, but his personal bubble was burst by a guy whose forehead protector identified him as one from a village in the Land of Fire. His dark red hair and amount of metal in piercings and clothes decoration indicated that he did not belong to the quiet type.

"So what's up?" was the intruder's opening line.

"Nothing much. I am-"

"I know who you are, Uzumaki Boruto, Konoha hokage's son. Everybody here does. You can call me Koygi."

Boruto was not thrilled about the prospect, he hoped that in a such diverse group some anonymity would be preserved. He didn't want any special treatment. "So what's up with you, Koygi?"

"This gig has been quite boring so far. Anything happened on your end?"

"If it had, we wouldn't be sitting here."

"I am not talking about the mission, man… I am talking about the girl," Koygi whispered with clear subtext.

At least clear to him, because Boruto was not catching the meaning of the older shinobi. "What about Maya?"

"No honorifics and you are telling me that nothing happened? You did notice that she is into you, right? She and a whole bunch of chicks here. I just heard them gossiping about you in a corner."

Maya's feelings were news to Boruto. She was more to the shy side, but since she was from the same village, they had things to talk about. They had friendly enough conversations during the times they actually interacted, but Boruto didn't see any indicators of anything more than friendship. Not that he was looking… He did leave on this mission to put some distance between him and Sarada, not to see her or feel her presence during every moment. She wasn't physically present, but she kept creeping into his thoughts and dreams, not easing his torment. It should've been easier to be with another girl and not to be assaulted by all those feelings that were so dismissively thrown in his face by Sarada, but… Girls present at the current gathering, even if obviously attractive, didn't resonate with Boruto at all, since he couldn't help but compare them to the Uchiha heiress and they all came short.

During one of his private conversations with Sasuke-sensei that were no less if not more valuable than his training, Boruto asked his mentor why he stayed away from his family for such long periods of time if he truly loved them. Sasuke-sensei replied, that he did it for his family since even pardoned, he was still considered an outcast in Konoha and didn't want resentment to influence how Sarada and Aunt Sakura were treated. He also added that he had regretted that decision that led to him missing Sarada's childhood and life with his wife, whom he didn't deserve for all her unconditional devotion and support through the years. Sasuke-sensei surprised Boruto when he finished his confession with a piece of advice that if Boruto managed to find a woman of such integrity, he should never pass her over for whichever reason.

"You are still with us, mate?"

"Yeah-yeah, just some thoughts, Koygi."

"About Maya?" the redhead asked with a conspirational wink.

"Not at all. We are on an important mission, I don't understand why you insist on-"

"Where else one can hook up with chicks? We don't have anything else in life but one mission after the other. Your attitude is appalling, man! You are a chicks' magnet and you want to say that you won't try to score with any of them? Even if they are pretty much throwing themselves at ya?"

Ironically, the girl Boruto did want, had expressed quite clearly that she didn't want to have anything to do with him. "I have no such intentions. You can pass that on when you listen to their gossip next time."

"No need to be so defensive, man! Although you are an odd one. As are your sleeping habits, according to Maya."

"And what is so strange about the way I sleep?" Hopefully, it wasn't about Sarada's name escaping his lips.

"Putting a naked sword behind your back is a bit weird, don't you think? Since if one does put a sword to be ready during a sudden attack, one should put it where it is handy to pick up."

"It's just an old habit. Everybody has them, don't they?" Boruto definitely wasn't going to elaborate about how that habit came to be, however. While sleeping outside, Sasuke-sensei, Sarada, and Boruto generally slept around the fire, keeping watch in shifts. Boruto started putting his sword at his back so not to turn around to watch Sarada in her sleep, since only then she was calm, unguarded and couldn't turn away from him. Later, she also adopted a habit to sleep turning away from the fire, but Boruto decided not to take down that superficial barrier between them.

Boruto's next partner by the draw was Sadashi, a woman of twenty, who posed as a shamisen player. She was clearly a woman of experience and skill with the sword that was hidden in the instrument. She also clearly knew what she wanted and that was Boruto in her bed and not because of consideration for him not to sleep on the floor. Boruto politely refused, but soon understood it wouldn't be enough. Sadashi challenged herself to seduce him if he was not going to come willingly just as any other directly propositioned man would. Her continuous swinging her hips extra hard and making extremely suggestive movements while she was baiting the gang was one thing, but she didn't stop when they were alone either.

By the end of the first week, Boruto put his foot down – either she behaves like a proper shinobi or he requests a partner change, citing the exact reason for his wish. Obviously, Sadashi only saw his outburst as him breaking under pressure and only doubled her efforts. She finally understood that it was unwise to cross an angry Uzumaki, when she found herself trapped on the bed unable to leave it. A row insured that made Boruto lose his temper and blurt, "You will never be her!" without managing to restrain himself. After that Sadashi returned to fulfilling the mission and stopped bothering him.

That didn't, however, help Boruto to escape Koygi at the summit after the second month.

"So there is a girl, ha?"

"Has my personal life turned into some kind of personal entertainment for you?" Boruto asked with a tired sigh. It added to his frustration that Sadashi must've shared her discoveries with the girls and they turned it into another round of gossip and now everyone was in on it.

"Well, I've had no action for two months, and I mean no action of any kind, so the guy needs to keep himself excited somehow."

"Frankly, I can interpret that as a challenge, you know."

"Please do, a friendly spar never hurt anyone. Moreover, some people are already doing it. I have some bets placed."

At least Boruto had to agree with Koygi on that matter. There was no harm in stretching muscles in a couple of fights. Young Uzumaki followed his challenger to an improvised arena where fighting and betting were in full swing. The arena was rather small, so it didn't allow for the usage of large-scale destruction jutsu. General consensus was that the fights were to be conducted in old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat. Blood and gore were not a particularly sophisticated way for proper shinobi to fight, but what can one do - the masses craved entertainment.

The plan of the said masses was far from the friendly spar – it was a full-out tournament. Almost everybody participated thus making twenty pairs of combatants. The bookies wrote stakes like crazy so it was not exactly clear, who will be the overall winner – the finalist or the one who managed to predict he or she would get there.

Boruto's competitive streak reared its ugly head, but he managed to suppress it after looking at the shinobi around him. During their training, Sasuke-sensei arranged for them to spar with others in different villages, but they were generally at least of their age group if usually of greater skill they could learn from. But at that moment Boruto was surrounded be people generally older, some even twice as much, who most probably participated in the last war alongside his father. There were only three of the guys close to him in age including Koygi. Boruto didn't want to shame his family and his father, who would most probably hear about his success rate in this impromptu tournament, but he also didn't want to disrespect his elders since his youth gave him the advantage of speed and stamina, although it was not enough against their experience.

Whatever Boruto expected from his 'spar' with Koygi, it was not a no-holds-barred brawl. The guy went full throttle right from the get-go, but the prodigy of Konoha was not planning to be eliminated in the first round. So despite the best efforts of the red-head, he lost the challenge he himself issued. At least when they parted in the arena there seemed to be no hard feelings.

Boruto's second opponent was a gaunt shinobi, who possessed a surprising amount of strength for such constitution. It took young Uzumaki close to thirty minutes to subdue him into yielding and he himself walked away with a considerable amount of bruises. Seeing his arms black and blue made Boruto's heart clench in a much stronger pain caused by missing Sarada's healing touch. Missing her period.

The next challenger was a girl, who seemed somewhat familiar to Boruto, but he just couldn't place her anywhere. She belonged to the village in the Nation of Water, but they visited it on numerous occasions and their paths could've crossed at any time. What was completely unexpected, was her clear killing intent towards the blond, which manifested in vicious attacks Boruto barely managed to divert.

"Have I offended you in some way when we met before? I am sorry, but I don't even remember you," he managed to squeeze in between punches.

"Oh, you don't remember, ha?! Typical man's attitude! As in letting the girls bet on who will be the first to get you in bed! Does Sarada know you are a cheating bastard?!"

The shock of hearing Sarada's name was so great, Boruto missed a head kick that, as a result, send him sprawling on the ground. That hadn't happened to him since… well, since Sarada sent him flying during one of their sparring matches two years ago. One of their last ones. He got up almost instantly, this time fueled not by the wish to win, but by rage brought up by the not only ridiculous but hurtful accusation.

"What are you on about?!" he asked, finally remembering the girl's identity. She was one of the girls Sarada befriended during their travels. She had a bunch of such girlfriends from different lands, with whom she messaged when she was in range of modern ways of communication. They rarely met in real life so Boruto, even vaguely, remembered their names, but not their appearance. The one, currently beating the crap out of him, was Kara if he was not mistaken. He finally managed to stop the onslaught, by getting her in a deadlock.

"First of all, you girls are crazy by messing around like that," he hissed, trying to hold the squirming woman in place. "Secondly, I haven't cheated on Sarada if betting is going in the first place, or is Sadashi bragging about her success?"

"No, but-"

"There is 'no but' about it. Now yield, because I am really angry right now and you can get seriously hurt."

"You can't control your emotions? Are you a shinobi?!"

"Not where Sarada is concerned."

Wherever Kara thought it was beneath her to fight someone, who lacked such basic shinobi skill or she was truly afraid of Boruto's wrath, but she yielded the fight.

"On the other note, how can one cheat on someone he is not even together with?" Boruto asked, when they were far enough from the arena and nobody could overhear their conversation that touched upon personal matters.

"What nonsense! Aren't you dating?" Kara asked shocked. It seemed that to her some universal truth has been denied.

"How could you possibly come to that conclusion? When we met you some months ago I and Sarada were barely talking!"

"What about those longing gazes when the other wasn't looking or the way you were always protecting her on that mission, and you were always together and stuff. I thought you were dating in secret because of Sarada's strict father, hiding your feelings and so on."

"No, we are not dating, Kara." Boruto hoped his disappointment did not seep into his words.

"Pfft! Still utter nonsense!"

Young Uzumaki left Kara with her opinion that couldn't be changed despite the naked facts to the opposite.

…..

The news of the impromptu tournament made quite a splash in the nearby villages. The mission captain had been delayed, so shinobi had at least another couple of days on their hands. And what better way to spend them than to show off their skill and bet on the skills of others? The villages' inhabitants had the same idea, so various vendors and spectators gathered around the arena to marvel at the shinobi's skills with weapons and make money through gambling or selling goods.

The previous day Boruto got into the finals which was one on two because of the number of participating people, but lost to two much more experienced men. He was standing near the vendors' carts contemplating the strategy for that day's fights, when who but Koygi found him.

"Oh Boruto, my man, you made me one rich guy yesterday. Here is some for you too, a show of my gratitude," the redhead declared, shoving a roll of banknotes into Boruto's hands, who instantly tossed it back.

"Did you coerce me to the arena just to make money off me?"

"It was to have some fun, but when you tossed me on my arse, I saw a golden opportunity and took it. Fight well today too, okay? Although, today is guys against girls. Common, don't be all high and mighty, at least take the money to buy something for that girl of yours."

That suggestion was the first time Boruto agreed with Koygi. He has never gifted anything to Sarada. No matter her rejection, he could still do something pleasant for her. After all, she did heal him more times than he could count.

As if by predestination, they were standing by a jewelry vendor and Boruto saw hair clips and a pendant with ruby red stones that would complement Sarada perfectly. And they surely need money for the Uchiha boys…

"Deal, I'll take the money, but I will take forty percent of anything you win from betting on me today."

"Oh? Feeling confident?"

"Not particularly, but I will try my best not to shame my sensei."

"Deal. So red… suits brunettes well," Koygi commented on Boruto's purchase.

"You just can't help yourself, don't you? But yes, she does have black hair, but those stones are the same color as her eyes."

"She has red eyes?! Now I seriously don't want to know!"

They reached the arena to see that the fights have already started. The current contestants were circling each other clashing their weapons in between long pauses. Their inaction already started a booing wave from the spectators.

"Since you are on all the gossip around here," Boruto began, after observing the fighters for some time, "what do you know about those two?"

"They are from different lands, that's all I know."

"Not a couple then?"

"Why in the world?!"

"Because, Koygi, he is holding back and she is frustrated by it."

"How do you know?"

"Because she is pouting the same way, Sarada did when we sparred. I mean, you usually go 75% during sparring, right? But I always took down even more not to injure her, but she had none of it. Accused me of coddling her and so on. Of course, she is crazy strong and her hits are always more powerful the more I hold back. But I just couldn't… Never will be able to fight her. That guy has also gotten an unfortunate draw to fight the girl he clearly cares for."

"Wait… the girl you are forsaking all the hotties on this mission for, who has red eyes, is Uchiha Sarada? Have you gotten hit too hard on the head at some point?!"

Another wave of anger started to rise from the bottom of Boruto's gut. People surely tried his patience lately. "And what is wrong with her?" he asked in an even tone that, hopefully, didn't betray his inner turmoil.

"Her dad is crazy, man! All Uchiha are!"

The fighters were still majorly just circling each other, making thrusts with their weapons from time to time, but Boruto has reached his boiling point. He grabbed onto the neckband of Koygi's tunic hard enough to immobilize him and whizzed into his ear, softly enough so nobody could hear them, but with considerable menace to get his point across, "I tolerated your messing around yesterday, but there are some lines one shouldn't cross. Uchiha Sasuke is the strongest shinobi alive and I have the greatest honor of having him as my sensei, so any insult to the Uchiha is a direct challenge to me. So if you do not apologize right now, it will give me great pleasure to drag you into the nearby forest and demonstrate the result of my training without referees, limitations or spectators."

"Chill, mate… I am sorry, okay? Sheesh… Use that killing intent on your opponent instead of me."

"My opponent doesn't deserve it as you do."

"You Leaf shinobi are sure hardcore, Uzumaki."

Boruto didn't grace Koygi's remark with a response. During his lifetime, the Uzumaki and the Uchiha have been extremely close. His and Sarada's competitiveness stemmed from the same attitude of their fathers, but later mellowed into friendship just as it did with the older generation. Well, considerably more than friendship on Boruto's side. When they returned to Konoha, when they were sixteen, he had a very interesting talk with his little sister, who wasn't that little anymore and already had a boyfriend. Himawari made a curious statement one evening: the man she was going to marry, would marry into the Uzumaki clan, because Boruto would marry Sarada and thus join the Uchiha clan so it could continue. Boruto didn't contradict his sister, who spoke with conviction about the decision made long ago. Didn't, because it felt right. In no way did it seem like an arranged marriage for the benefit of the clans. Boruto had ultimate respect for Sasuke-san and Sakura-san, he treated them as part of his family, that's why Koygi's insults struck a nerve.

And Sarada… He was ready to abandon his clan for her, but hokage, who had families, have been unsuccessful in having a fulfilling personal life so far. Hokage's duty is to the nation and the town, and Sarada was dead set on being chosen for that position. Both had to make a lot of sacrifices for that, and Boruto accepted his, but it still hurt as if his heart was pierced with a dozen of shurikens and Sarada had a devilish aim with those.

Boruto took up the sword only five years ago, so he did not hope to go further than the first round, but somehow managed to get to the third round, but lost to the wielder of double sword technique. Sasuke-sensei asked him recently, if he wanted to expand his technique, but Boruto refused, and not only because of respect for his sensei (he could accomplish with one hand what some couldn't do with two), who would have to find his student another master, but young Uzumaki preferred to leave one hand free during a fight. He could always train further at a later date.

….

Finally, after the three-day-long delay, the captain of the mission appeared with the news that caused the said delay. There were another four victims clearly by the same perpetrators so the shinobi were divided into groups of seven and sent to surround the area to finally corner the gang. The group in which Boruto was included was lucky to more or less stumble onto the gang's hideout. But they turned quite unlucky when the bandits activated booby traps along the cliff when the shinobi confronted them. Four shinobi ended up being buried under the rocks and the gang, which consisted of at least twelve men was eager to scatter, but couldn't just leave without grabbing the loot.

Boruto ended up with his leg caught up between two boulders, disabling him from following his team members, who managed to sneak behind the guards, who were distracted by the triggered rock fall. Said guards quickly understood what was happening and rushed towards the cave to provide the needed backup. Boruto had several choices: free his leg and get into the caves or create clones, who could assist his teammates instead of him, but both of those choices took too much time, because the bandits would reach the caves faster, overwhelming the odds for the shinobi inside. Fighting in such close quarters and in an unstable landscape was even more dangerous than having an opponent with larger forces. So technically, Boruto's only right choice was to stop the perps from getting inside the mountain. And fast. Which meant hitting all eight of them in one swoop. Luckily, they were heavily armed, sporting if not a sword then a dagger or both. A quick seal and ten lightning bolts zapped from his fingers and circled around the weapons, sending their owners to the ground in convulsions.

Boruto didn't like to use that jutsu since it was his very recent creation and he didn't yet have complete control over it. Hopefully, none of the gang members was dead. He will never forgive himself for taking a life, at least of a human being, evil gods and other supernatural beings were another story. After releasing his leg from the confines of the boulders' sandwich, Boruto proceeded to tie up the closest bandit and then went to help his teammates to get out from under the rocks after others reappeared from the caves with their own prisoners.

The mission was pretty much over. Uzumaki Boruto was returning home. But to what? Another rejection or?..