Alright, I think I owe you an apology. (A pretty short one, hopefully.) If you're the type of person who hates A/Ns before a chapter, you can just skip this. I won't mind. :)
I'VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH and I'm so, so, so sorry for being temporarily dormant in the publication of this story. These past few months have been incredibly busy for me, added on to the fact that I was sick during the block of time I had originally set aside to finish the final chapters of Lovestruck. I was just in China, and also I have CM testing for Level 10 piano coming up in a week and a half, which means 4 hours of piano practice a day :(
In all honesty, I've just been stressed and tired during this time and every time I try to write I end up writing another chapter for my other account, oops . But after this mini-hiatus (involving a lot of Naruto-watching and caffeine-ingesting), I'm back and (hopefully) ready to start again.
Plus, I've also pre-written some other chapters, including an omake and maybe a sequel ;)
On a completely separate note, I watched episode 444 of Shippuuden and then I was like WHAT 'cuz Neji was supposed to be dead, Minato and Kushina were supposed to be dead, and Sasuke just looked like he was wearing his clothes from the original Naruto anime. Seriously, that surprised me the most. And then I was like BRUH YOU RAN AWAY ONCE STOP TRYING TO DO IT AGAIN AND MAKE NARUTO SHIPPUUDEN FUCKING 500 EPISODES LONGER THAN IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE JUST 'CUZ YOU CAN'T FOLLOW THE DAMN RULES
*snorts* bitch.
"So we just got into this mess because Shikadai had a crush on Mitsuki?" Sarada blurted out. She was furious - at Shikadai, at Boruto for being so naive, at Mitsuki for existing, at Chocho for telling her, and especially at herself, for falling in love with Boruto and getting herself tangled in the strings of Shikadai's twisted plans.
Boruto snorted. "Looks like it."
"I'm not done!" Chocho snapped, but she held her composure and let out a long breath. "This is where it gets wrong. Like, really wrong."
"Wrong as in inappropriate or wrong as in not right?" Inojin questioned.
"Does it matter?" Sarada hissed at the blond. "Let her finish before interrogating her on her vocabulary choice!"
Shikadai snarled back. "Oh, and the daughter of the great Sasuke Uchiha can interrupt people without getting reprimanded? How close-minded can you be?"
"Me? Close-minded?" The raven could barely contain herself. "You're the one who laid out this stupid plan just so you could go flirt with some guy! Half of us are probably in trouble by our parents now because we're all stuck here listening to your bullshit!"
"Excuse me? Who's the one following Boruto around like a lovesick puppy? The world would probably be a way better place if you were dead instead of screwing everything up like the goody two-shoes you are!"
Sarada scoffed. "Oh, so I'm screwing everything up? You were willing to kill me when I got in the way of your little plan! You weren't even doing anything heroic, Shikadai - you're just an attention whore who doesn't know when you've crossed the line!"
Shikadai stalked towards the Uchiha. "What," she growled, "did you call me?"
"I called you a whore," Sarada shot back. "Yeah. That's right."
"Can you guys just calm down?" Boruto begged, but Shikadai cut him off.
"How dare you!" the Nara screeched, lunging towards Sarada. "You are a fat, ugly, possessive little bitch, Sarada Uchiha! I'm going to tear you apart!" As she spoke, she pulled out a kunai and slashed forward, blinded by her own hatred.
"STOP!" Boruto jumped forward, preventing Shikadai's kunai from hitting Sarada. "Stay away from her, Shikadai!"
Shikadai screamed, trying to claw Boruto out of the way. "LET ME AT HER OR I SWEAR TO GOD, UZUMAKI BORUTO!"
"You did so much damage, and you still want to kill?" Sarada pushed Boruto out of the way. "Over a boy? I knew you were shallow, but I didn't think you'd try to kill me in order to get what you want!"
Just as Sarada screamed those words, a blur flashed between her and Shikadai. The next thing she knew, someone was grabbing her neck in a headlock, knocking her glasses off.
Through blurred vision, she could vaguely make out Boruto getting hit in the head and slumping to the ground, unconscious. Shikadai was held in the same position as her, while four ninja cornered Inojin and Chocho.
Too late, Sarada flared her Sharingan, but she could see nothing as her captor forced a bag over her head. "This one has kekkei genkai, hm?" A rough voice murmured near the top of her head. "Perfect."
The Uchiha could hear Chocho's screams and sounds of blood splashing against concrete before she blacked out.
When Sarada awoke, she was tied in a chair with a kunai pressed against her throat.
She glared up at the masked man who was handling the weapon. "What do you think you're doing?" she hissed.
The man didn't answer, but he pushed kunai further into her neck, which she guessed was an answer in itself. She could feel the blade start to slice into the delicate skin.
Ignoring the kunai, Sarada looked around. She, along with Shikadai, Boruto, Chocho, and Inojin, were inside a dark room, all tied to chairs with various ninja standing behind them. She scoffed, though that earned her a more insistent nudge with the kunai.
This was... an interesting situation.
Only Shikadai was conscious besides her. She noticed Sarada staring at her, and sent a death glare that pretty much said: If I wasn't tied up, you'd be on the ground with a knife at your throat by now.
Sarada silently glared back, you're acting like I don't have one on my neck right now.
Their glaring contest was interrupted when a hidden screen on one of the blank walls flickered to life after a few moments of static. Their captors nudged Inojin, Boruto, and Chocho awake. Inojin blinked once and let out a very girly scream, which was silenced by the ninja behind him practically shoving a shuriken down his mouth.
Chocho was crying, silent tears streaming down her plump face, while Boruto just looked bewildered.
"Listen, Konoha genin," an unknown figure with a voice like gravel appeared on the screen. "You are here for military purposes. We will be holding you for ransom from Konohagakure."
Sarada really wanted to laugh out loud. This was the dumbest kidnapping plot ever. Why would you tell your victims exactly what they were doing, stupidly thinking, hey, let's tell these kids why they're here, trusting that they won't sneak out in the middle of the night because they're totally not capable of that and telling their village what their enemies were plotting?
"That isn't all, Uchiha Sarada," the person rumbled, and Sarada's default response was to glare at the screen. "How do you know my name?" she challenged.
The figure actually laughed then - a really loud, really painful-to-listen-to laugh. "We took you for one reason and one reason only. You are the only ninja left in the world with the kekkei genkai of Sharingan."
Boom! Sasuke's dead. *evil smile*
tbh, I love how this chapter pretty much turned from a teenage drama into a hostage scene. Actually, that's pretty much the whole story.
My beta reader read the entire thing and then at the end she was like "So you just casually killed one of the most important characters in Naruto in your author's note?"
Sorry.
~Snow