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Outside, there are colorful banners hanging from the hill next to the Hokage memorial cliffs. From the vantage point of any villagers, there are cheerful pastel ribbons in the previous hokages' hair.

Mollified by the sight of his old man's face attached to hair of colorful waving ripples, Boruto scans the streets for Sarada. Instead of his perplexed female teammate, he gets a faceful of yowling, screeching fur.

"You ran away again?" he clucks.

Boruto untangles the suddenly purring mass of knotted fur and nauseating pink ribbon. The creature is a mangy demon, and he loves it. It's purring up a storm, shaking as it sheds all over his sister's clothes. It makes sense that the cat's soul recognizes him, even when he's trapped in its nemesis' body.

Sarada reappears from behind a garbage can. She takes one look at the positively domestic scene and goose bumps explode along her arms.

"Oh god, that cat again. It tried to scratch my face last time we did a D-rank mission. That was six years ago and this thing is still traumatizing new genin."

Indignant at the ill-wishes for the cat's longevity (but quite agreeing that the cat deserved at least a B-rating), Boruto deposits koneko-chan on the ground, where it mews unbecomingly, like a piteous giant hairball. Still, Sarada looks over, a tiny bit of longing in her eyes.

"Maybe it'll like me since I'm you?" she wonders.

"Better not. She knows your soul is super dark. You've been the one to actually catch her too many times for her to like you, in any incarnation."

Sarada huffs. "How would you know? This is my chance."

With that, she scoops up the scruffy old thing. It doesn't squirm, merely gets very quiet, until, claws extended, it makes two neat slashes on either side of Sarada's—er, Boruto's—face.

Bleeding profusely, the Uchiha neatly drops the cat and walks away in silence, ignoring Boruto's sad attempts at muffling his mirth.

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"My mom gave this cream to my dad at the chuunin exams, apparently."

"Oh."

Sarada turns pink. Or rather, Boruto's face gets bright under the quickly clotting scratch marks. Actual Boruto thumbs some more of the waxy substance on his own face before Sarada reaches out a hand to stop him.

"S-stop staring."

"What? You're super handsome as me."

She huffs. "I can do the rest myself, Narcissist."

Seeing the scabbing already underway, Boruto agrees. He gives another smear for good measure, though, and retreats before a snarling Sarada can hit him upside the head.

"Seriously, let's just go execute the plan. We're losing time."

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tbc