The day after his birthday, Sarada went once to throw real shuriken with Boruto. She taught him a few tips and tricks. But every time she would hit the target and he missed, she would shrug and say something along the lines of, "I've just had more practice than you. Did you really expect to be better than me already?"

After that, he declared that he would practice alone until he was the better one.

But before that day came, Naruto replaced Kakashi as the hokage. Sarada thought Boruto would be happy to see his father as such an important figure. She thought maybe he would mature a little to protect his father's image. But instead, he caused even more trouble than before.

Cho-Cho invited her more persistently to join her and leave the stupid boys alone. And while Sarada was grateful for the company, a part of her longed to play ninja with them like they used to months before. She wanted to practice throwing shuriken with someone, even if that someone got frustrated at her skill.

Sometimes she would go on walks in places she knew Boruto liked to cause trouble, just to watch him get away with it. She knew the spots he went to sulk, and the places he went when he was on cloud nine. All from simply walking through the village and running into him.

But every so often, she would run into Naruto instead. Today was one of those days.

One of the Seventh's shadow clones stood before her, helping a woman carry a heavy load. "Yo, Sarada-chan! On a walk again today?"

"Hm? Ah. Yeah. Just wanted some fresh air."

Naruto smiled down at her. "How is Boruto doing? Are you still getting along?"

"Ah... Well, I guess so."

"Glad to hear it! He's been causing a lot of trouble lately..."

Sarada sighed. It was causing his father stress after all. With all Naruto did for the village, he didn't need to worry about Boruto playing pranks. So, from that day forward, Sarada made it her personal mission to go find him and stop him.

When she found him firing rocks at cats sitting on fences, she yelled at him for causing the neighbors trouble. When he launched himself on top of buildings and knocked down things that dangled from the edges of the rooves, she yelled at him for not being considerate.

One day after they had turned nine, she found him hunched under the window of her father's office.

"Boruto?"

"Shh," he hissed. "I'm listening..."

Sarada figured out the path that he took to get up on the roof and joined him. "What are you listening to?"

"Go away! You're going to ruin it."

Sarada crinkled her nose, but fell silent and listened nonetheless.

"This will be your first C rank mission. Handle it carefully!"

"Yes sir!"

Boruto smiled and jumped off the roof.

"Where are you going?" Sarada jumped after him. "You're not thinking of going on that mission, are you?"

"I'm just going to watch," he protested. "You don't have to get mad at me for that, ya know."

She sighed. "Boruto. Missions are for genin. You're too little to handle something like that."

"You don't know until I try!" He huffed and waited for the genin to exit the front of the office. "Talking all arrogant. As if you could do one yourself."

"I could do it, if I tried!"

"Oh yeah?" Boruto narrowed his eyes, beckoning her with challenge. "Then come with me and prove it."

. . .

Just like that, Sarada found herself sneaking after him. Her mind was telling her that this was a terrible idea. It was telling her to leave Boruto alone and let him get in trouble. But she didn't want to back down from the challenge. How hard could a C rank mission be anyways?

Boruto stopped abruptly in front of her, causing her to bump into his back. Instead of shouting at her, he put his hands up like he was guarding her and narrowed his eyes. Remembering his promise to protect her, she blushed and backed up. "What'd you stop for so suddenly? Idiot Boruto."

"They're going into the trees... We have to follow."

"This... This is getting too complicated. Let's go home," she whined, scared of getting stuck in the woods at night. If only her mother knew what she was doing... She would get in so much trouble.

"Come on scaredy-cat, we're gonna prove we can keep up... If you don't come, I'm leaving you behind." With that, he leapt into the trees.

"W-Wait!" She leapt after him without thinking. Then she looked over her shoulder. And on her next step, her foot slipped. "Kya!"

Before she could fall backwards, a hand firmly tugged at her wrist and pulled her back up. But perhaps he pulled a bit too hard, because she fell forward into him.

"W-What was that for?!"

"I-I saved you, idiot... Look where you're going next time!" He spun back around and leapt off the branch, his ears noticeably red.

Sarada covered the spot where his lips accidently bumped into hers. That didn't count as a kiss. Did it? It couldn't. She refused to give her first kiss to that idiot. With a huff, she pushed off the branch and followed after him.

When they finally caught up to the other ninja, Boruto put his hand out to stop her, making her run into him for the third time that day. "Will you stop doing-"

His hand covered her mouth. In the clearing below, the three genin and their sensei were surrounded by bandits. "This time I'll leave it up to you," said the jonin. "Try formation B! And don't worry, if something goes wrong, I'll interfere."

"Heh. Underestimating us, are you, shinobi brats?"

The clash began, kunai against kunai. Sarada watched with interest. Their movements. Their attack pattern. Their subtle hand signals. The way they weaved signs.

But when she looked over at Boruto, his eyes were sparkling. "Do you think we could go down there and join them?"

"Not a chance!" She held onto his wrist just to make sure he didn't try anything stupid.

But he yanked it away. "I think that's wind style!" He tried to mimic the hand signs, but nothing happened. "Hm... I wonder if I got it wrong?"

"Just don't do anything stupid!"

"Then what was the point of coming here? Come on Sarada, let's try to take out that guy in the back."

"Boruto wait!"

It was too late. He already leapt down and stood behind the fray. Sarada stood and watched from the tree, unsure of what to do. She didn't want to get scolded... But she also didn't want to watch him get hurt.

Suddenly, one of the bandits took notice of him. He hit his metal pole into the palm of his hand with an evil grin. Boruto punched the palm of his hand with his fist and lowered his chin.

"I don't know where you came from kid, but you're not even a match for those genin. Hurry on home before your mommy-"

Boruto kicked him in the side of the head. He skillfully dodged the metal pole several times and landed a blow with his palm into the bandit's stomach.

Where on earth did he get all of this taijutsu training?!

When the bandit was knocked down, he summoned two shadow clones and sent them to the front, but both got taken out relatively easily.

"Now I'm mad," she heard the bandit say. "I was going easy on you because you're a kid... But now I see you're not just any kid." He scraped the pole in the grass and whipped it out towards Boruto's head.

Sarada couldn't bear to watch anymore. He was going to get hurt. She took a shuriken that she always carried around with her in case of emergencies and threw it, hitting the man square in the shoulder just before he could whack Boruto upside the head.

The man looked towards the trees, but Boruto used his special move and kicked him where it hurt. "Take that, old man!"

"Huh? What's a kid doing here?! Boruto?!"

"Ah, time to get out of here."

The jonin grabbed him by the back of the shirt. "I don't think so... Did you follow us?"

"I was wandering through the area, and-"

"Sure," he said with a sigh. "I'm a sensory type and I didn't even notice you sneak in... Maybe I should take another training course from Mrs. Ino. Ah! You, there in the trees!"

Sarada shifted backwards.

"Yes you! I can sense you. Come down here. You're with him, aren't you?"

The bandits were all but defeated by the genin team. She slowly and hesitantly leapt from the tree and hid behind Boruto.

"Hm. Uzumaki and Uchiha, always causing a disturbance in the village no matter who they are, huh? I'll have to report this matter to your parents. Never sneak off on a mission with genin again! This is a job for ninja only. If you want to become ninja so badly, enroll in the academy and learn properly!"

Boruto pouted. But Sarada was terrified. She wasn't used to getting scolded. That one time with Konohamaru as kids made her cry for a few days. This time, how long would she cry for? Weeks?

He was mad at her. He used her family's name. He said she was causing trouble. She couldn't cause trouble... Not for her mother who always took care of her even though she was busy with work. She couldn't disgrace her father's name.

Bowing her head as low as she could, she apologized. "I'm sorry!"

"You'd better be..." The jonin eyed the shuriken in the bandit's shoulder. "Is this yours?"

Sarada nodded.

He handed it back to her and sighed. "Come on. Let's go back to the village."

On the way back, Sarada did her best to hold back her tears. But it wasn't until the teacher's attention was distracted that Boruto leaned over. "Thanks," he whispered, fiddling awkwardly with his hands, "for throwing that shuriken. I would have gotten hurt if it wasn't for you."

"...Huh?" Her fear and embarrassment at getting in trouble slowly began to fade. Boruto may have been an idiot that got himself into trouble more often times than not. But he did usually say thank you and sorry. She supposed that was one of his good points.

Swallowing down the lump that had been working its way into her throat, she recalled throwing the shuriken. Maybe she would make a good ninja after all. And if she hadn't come... Boruto would have gotten hurt. Hearing him say that made her feel a lot less bad...

That was, until they got scolded by Naruto himself.

"What do you two think you were doing?! Do you have any idea how dangerous that could have been?"

"But we were just-"

"Boruto, quiet. You were the one that dragged Sarada into this, weren't you? I'm disappointed in you."

Boruto hung his head.

"I-" She began to refute Naruto's point, but Boruto started talking again.

"If you knew it was me all along, then why are you yelling at her?"

"Sarada knows better as well. She should have come to me if you were doing something dangerous... But she followed you instead."

Suddenly Sakura burst through the door. "You. Come with me."

Sarada bit her lip. She knew it was no use defying her mother like this. "Yes mama..." She turned around.

But before she left, she caught a glimpse of Boruto's face. It was darker than she had ever seen it. Angry. Remorseful. Every time he got caught playing a prank, he always laughed it off. But this time, he seemed scared. Or annoyed, even.

Sarada couldn't even reach out her hand in comfort. With one last look at him, she left and followed after her mother.

"What were you thinking," said Sakura once they were outside the door. "You could have gotten hurt again!"

"I just-"

"Don't try to blame Boruto for this, I know it wasn't all his fault."

"I wasn't! I... I just wanted to prove that I was smart... like papa..." She lowered her head as teers breeched the lids of her eyes. "Mama, where is papa? When is he coming home? Why has he been gone for so long?"

Sakura sighed and pulled her into a tight hug. Whenever she did this, it almost always took Sarada's breath away. "I can't breathe..."

"Sorry..." She released her. "It's just that I get so worried... You know you're me and your papa's precious treasure, right?"

"I know..." She lowered her head. "I'm sorry mama. I won't do it again."

"That's a good girl... If you really want to be a smart and capable ninja, I could hire a private tutor for you? How does that sound. Then you can learn and grow without getting into anything dangerous."

A private tutor. Sarada wasn't really sure what all it entailed, but if it got her one step closer to making her father proud, she would do it. "I'd like that."

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A/N

So during the part at the beginning (of the academy arc) when Boruto and Sarada almost kissed and Sarada stopped him with her foot and was like "That was close..." And Boruto was just like "Ah, my bad." It made me wonder why they didn't have much of a reaction xD

Usually, childhood friends or not, Japanese people would have a lot more of a problem with someone getting that close to their face, and it would be more of a "my bad" kinda thing.

That being said, I wrote that they accidentally kissed here because I thought maybe their nonchalant-ness was because an accident already happened and they were only going to cause a repeat of it xD

There's probably more about that in the first light novel... I'll have to see if I can get ahold of a copy and read it for y'all xD If I'm wrong I'll rewrite this lol