Ever since their first coaching session with Konohamaru, Sarada had made a point to ensure she and Boruto were comfortable skating together. They practiced their laps around the rink so that it would be easy to eventually incorporate their lifts and throws. As such, Boruto touched her all the time on the ice, holding her hand and resting his hand on her waist.
Maybe it was because it happened so gradually, but Sarada didn't notice when Boruto's touching started bleeding out into everyday casual affection off the ice. It became so common for him to hug her or even put his arm around her when they walked, that she didn't even think about it anymore.
The affection made sense for Boruto, Sarada had seen him be touchy with so many others, but it didn't make sense why she really didn't mind or why she happily nestled under his arm as they walked out of the practice rink together.
It was another productive practice with them working on some basic throws. They were in the lobby of the ice complex discussing plans for their next practice when they ran into Sasuke, and Sarada remembered Boruto had a private coaching session with him that day.
"Hey, Papa!" Sarada called as he approached.
Sasuke didn't answer her greeting, instead, he lifted a suspicious brow. His dark gaze was fixed on Boruto's hand that draped over Sarada's shoulder. The moment she realized what her father was looking at she shoved Boruto away from her.
Thankfully, Boruto didn't seem to mind her rough treatment.
"I'm gonna go grab a quick drink before we get started," he said and Sasuke nodded his acknowledgment before Boruto jogged over to a nearby vending machine.
Sasuke's dark gaze turned back to his daughter, who was blushing and avoiding eye contact. "Since when are you two… involved?"
Her eyes widened as Sarada snapped her attention to her father. "We're not! Not anything beyond being figure skating partners!"
Sasuke pursed his lips and nodded. He didn't say anything but she knew he didn't believe her.
"No, I'm serious, Papa! That was nothing! It's not like we're together or anything!" Sarada rambled, her nervous voice betraying her.
Sasuke raised a brow at her overly aggressive denial. "It's fine if you are, I was just asking."
"Well, we're not! He's an idiot and a womanizer and I would never!"
His shoulders shook in a silent chuckle. "Okay, Peanut."
A blushing Sarada quickly dismissed herself as Boruto walked back over with a drink in hand, not interested in the further embarrassment this line of questioning could induce with Boruto around.
"I gotta go, bye!" she exclaimed as if she was in a hurry.
Boruto chuckled, watching her hasty retreat out the doors of the ice complex. That girl was so weird.
There was something about waking up early and having a nice stretch that always set a good tone for Boruto's day. That and the company wasn't half bad either.
He smiled to himself as he followed along with Sarada, stretching forward as she prattled on about their goals for that practice and the remainder of the week.
They had been working on their lifts every morning and Sarada's confidence and trust in him was growing enough that they would likely start practicing them on the ice in the next day or so.
After warming up and a few attempts, Sarada decided to record them on her phone so they could watch it back.
Boruto understood the idea conceptually, he had watched a lot of hockey game footage, picking apart each play, but he wasn't sure how much would be revealed in a video of their lift when they always do it in front of a mirror anyway.
Apparently, that was naive of him to think, because, after the first recorded attempt, Sarada had a comment for just about every frame of the forty-five-second video. He couldn't help but chuckle at her perfectionist tendencies.
Sarada stood holding her phone, all her attention focused on the images of Boruto lifting her, analyzing everything out loud for him to listen. Boruto stood behind her, peeking over her shoulder to watch while his hands rested on her hips.
Sarada paused the video, "see here, I think you need to turn your feet out a little more, and if you bend your knees slightly I think it'll make it easier."
Boruto found it funny how Sarada never had a problem with him touching her unless he threw in a lewd joke or mentioned it outright. It was just evidence to him that she was not as repelled by him as she liked to pretend.
Even so, he could never resist making her flustered.
"I can do whatever you like, Sarada," he purred, his lips ghosting over her ear.
With a nervous squeak, Sarada jumped out of his hold and turned around to send him a glare. Trying to not shiver at the way his warm breath sent chills down her spine.
"Stop saying stuff like that!"
"I just said I'm happy to take your coaching advice!" Boruto defended innocently, but he couldn't resist the smirk that tugged on his lips. "Why? What did you think I was talking about?"
Sarada narrowed her eyes at him, he was always teasing her like this just to elicit a reaction. But even knowing that didn't stop the blush from spreading across her cheeks.
"Tsk, tsk, Sarada. You have such a dirty mind." Boruto crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head with mock reprimand.
Boruto was pretty tired after hockey practice, but he needed to rally because he had his figure skating practice with Sarada afterward. He stood in the locker room crowded with his team as he removed his practice pads and peeled off his sweaty shirt from underneath.
He had requested Sarada bring him a drink, but now he kind of wished he had asked for a full meal. Their practices were growing more intense, with the first half focused on honing their skills and the second half on running through the choreography.
Right now they were still marking a lot of the big tricks in their run-throughs, but Sarada was hoping they could add their lifts and throws in by the next time Konohamaru came to help them.
"Yo, Boruto!" Iwabe called from a few lockers over. "Do you have an extra sweat towel I could borrow?"
"Yeah, sure, there should be one in my bag," Boruto replied, gesturing to his big equipment duffle that sat on the bench behind him.
Boruto pulled on a clean shirt and slapped his cheeks to wake himself up. He needed to refocus and ready himself for his practice with Sarada. They were doing lifts on the ice that day, and though they had been nailing it every time they practiced at the ballet studio, it was nerve-wracking. One wrong move and Sarada could really get hurt.
He threw his deodorant back in his locker and reminded himself that he wasn't going to let that happen.
"What the fuck are these?!" Iwabe laughed and Boruto jerked his head in his friend's direction. Blue eyes widened as Iwabe held up one of his figure skates for the entire locker room to see. "Are these figure skates, Boruto?!"
Boruto scrambled over and tried to grab the offending skate, but Iwabe was quick and tossed it to Shikadai who inspected it with a teasing smile of his own.
"Yup, definitely figure skates," Shikadai confirmed, running his finger over the toe pick.
"Give it back!" Boruto shouted, but Shikadai tossed to another of their teammates across the room and now everyone was watching the scene unfold as an embarrassed and frantic Boruto tried to get his skate back from his snickering teammates.
"Damn Uzumaki, are you a closet figure skater?" The suggestion alone elicited a few hardy laughs. It felt like everyone was looking at him. Judging him.
"You guys! Quit giving him a hard time!" someone chimed in, standing up on the bench to get everyone's attention. "I mean, of course, Boruto is a figure skater, look how pretty he is!"
Another chorus of laughter rang through the locker room, the echo just continuing to mock him as Boruto finally snatched his skate back from one of his teammates and shoved it into his bag with an angry huff.
"Fuck off," Boruto growled. It wasn't like he could deny it, they were in his bag and they were his size. The only thing he could think to do was get out of there.
Hockey practice was over and he was so sick of all their ugly, snickering faces. He zipped up his bag and roughly threw it over his shoulder as he made his way toward the door.
"Hey Boruto, how do I look?" someone called, giving a mockery of a ballet turn with their hands above their head. "Could I be a figure skater like you?!"
More laughter followed him as he stormed out of the locker room and slammed the door behind him.
Sarada was waiting outside the locker room doors when Boruto came charging out. He spotted her immediately, snatched the pink sports drink she was holding, and grabbed her hand, dragging her along with an unnecessary amount of force.
"Whoa, Boruto! What's going on?" Sarada asked.
Concern filled her dark eyes when he didn't respond. Boruto was pretty outwardly expressive with his emotions, but seldom did he get genuinely angry.
"Slow down! Boruto! What happened?" She cried, stumbling to keep up with his pace. But he just continued marching out of the building in a blind rage, so annoyed that his so-called-friends put him on blast like that in front of the whole team.
"Boruto! You're hurting me!"
At that, he finally turned to look at Sarada, then down at their joined hands. He had her petite hand trapped in his furious, iron grip.
He immediately let go, and she retracted her hand quickly, tucking it against her chest as if to protect it from him. "Boruto… what's going on? What's got you so worked up?" Sarada asked, brow furrowed with worry.
Boruto ran a hand down his face with a heavy sigh. "It's nothing, I'll get over it."
She took a tentative step closer, then another until she stood directly in front of him. He finally met her gaze and gave her a forced smile that she wasn't buying. Sarada knew he wasn't going to talk about it, so she offered comfort in the only other way she could think of.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a warm hug. Boruto hesitated for a moment, but then melted into her embrace, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her tight against him.
"We're gonna go kick some ass at our practice, and then you'll feel better, okay?"
"Okay," he whispered as he nuzzled into her neck.
Boruto made an effort to have dinner at his parents' house at least once a week. Mostly to see his mom and Himawari, since his dad was always so busy with his games, practices, traveling, doing events, or those ridiculous ramen commercials for his sponsor.
That night just so happened to be one of the nights his dad could actually be home.
The Uzumaki family sat around the dinner table, passing around Hinata's home-cooked dishes and filling up their plates. The room was full of laughter and their usual chit chat about the happenings of that week.
Himawari bragged about how her latest piece was chosen to be shown in an art exhibition the following month and Boruto was fielding questions about his studies and hockey and his friends, which were all the norm.
But then Naruto brought up the last thing Boruto expected.
"So when were you going to tell us about this figure skating competition?" his father asked with a raised brow.
After his momentary shock wore off, Boruto shot an accusatory glare at his little sister. "What the hell, Himawari?!"
"I didn't say anything, I swear!" she quickly defended.
"Whoa, whoa! What's with the yelling?" Naruto said, his hands up in mock surrender. It was apparent that his son had intentionally hidden this from him, but Naruto hadn't imagined he would get so worked up at the mention of it.
"Oh my god," Boruto muttered. All the anger and embarrassment he felt after practice bubbled to the surface as he ran his hands through his hair. "I got so much shit from my team earlier today, I don't want to hear it from you too!" he spat at his father.
"Boruto!" Hinata chided, confused at her son's unwarranted aggression.
"That's why you didn't tell us? You thought... I would disapprove?" Naruto asked. His expression morphed into something much softer, almost hurt, and Hinata grabbed his hand to comfort him.
With a groan, Boruto rested his head on the dinner table. He couldn't bear to look at his family at that moment. "All you care about is hockey," Boruto mumbled. "This just gets in the way of that, right?"
There was a heavy silence in the air before Naruto spoke up.
"All I care about is you, Boruto."
He peeked up from the table to see the sincerity in his father's blue eyes. "Sure, I love seeing you playing hockey at my alma mater, but it's not like I would be mad if you didn't. Me and your mom would support you no matter what you want to do."
Boruto averted his gaze back down to the food on his plate, suddenly feeling guilty and embarrassed for his outburst.
"How'd you find out?" he muttered. Not that it really mattered anymore.
"Sasuke asked me if we were going to your competition, though he wasn't that surprised to discover I had no clue what he was talking about. He told me that you've been spending all this time learning to figure skate just so you could help Sarada when she really needed someone. And… I just wanted you to know that I think you're a really good friend."
Boruto was silent as he absorbed his father's words. His dad didn't think it was a totally lame waste of time?
Were his worries about his dad's judgment and disapproval really all just baseless fears?!
Boruto felt an overwhelming wave of relief wash over him, especially because he found he liked figure skating more and more as the days progressed. Plus, he was getting good at it. He didn't want to be ashamed of something he enjoyed.
"I promise I didn't bring it up to give you a hard time," Naruto continued. "I just wanted you to know that your mom and I would love to be there to cheer you on, if you'll let us."
A/N: thanks so much for reading! and a special thanks to all those who have been consistently leaving comments! I always look forward to hearing from you! I hope you all enjoyed this handful of scenes, let me know which one was your favorite!
