Gambler of Feelings:
Chapter Nine
Shikadai, Boruto and Sarada were sitting on the club chairs next to each other in an uncomfortable silence. They started to do their mandatory club activities, but without Sumire the whole atmosphere was lacking something. Although it could be possible that it was because all three of them weren't in the best mood for different reasons.
Shikadai said a few words too much. He was painfully aware about it and tried to think about way to apologise Sumire for his harsh words. Considering how angry she got it won't be easy to resolve that issue with a simple apology. At the same time he wasn't willing to tell her too much about his past and private life. Sumire was prying today too much in that subject. No... She was probably prying into it from the moment where the girl, which he loved hurted both his and Boruto feelings.
What a drag. That was his primary thought when he came to that conclusion analysing Sumire anger. Miss Kakei was indeed a very troublesome women in her own way. It's just she doesn't know about it, or does she? Sometimes it wasn't that obvious what Sumire Kakei was thinking or feeling. Eh, he never seriously thought about her feelings in the past. She was just a Mitsuki fangirl who joined the club to get into his pants. However it was intially his first as well mistaken impression, since Sumire turned out to be a good female friend. Though he was hestitant to admit it to someone else, he screwed up by making her angry. Shikadai Nara scattered thoughts resulted in him being unusually quiet, so the tension between his childhood friend and this Uchiha stuck-up lady would be more disturbing for an innocent passerby.
When Sarada and Boruto finished talking about their bet the bad tension between them grew. It was an understandable silence. They needed to think about their strategy in order to learn more information from the note, which Sakura Uchiha sended to Naruto Uzumaki. First of all both Sarada and Boruto wanted to win this bet for the personal reasons, but at the same time know what's really going on between theirs parents.
They could gather from the Sakura Uchiha message that it wasn't the first time when she was meeting Naruto Uzumaki. In the end the words in it said:
'Meet me today at our usual place. Don't let Hinata or anybody know about it, you know what I mean, right? Anyway I'm counting on you!'
So it meant that they both at least were meeting with each other regularly. Though both Sarada and Boruto didn't know where this regular meetings are taking place. The most worrying part of this whole situation was that Sarada mother didn't wanted to let Hinata Uzumaki know about this meetings for some mysterious reasons.
Sarada bited corner of her lips, struggling to process this shocking information about her mother. Her doubts about the rumours, which she tried to denay didn't fade away. In fact it made them more valid with this type of development. She should calm down. It was just one stupid piece of paper. Nothing more.
Yeah, it was just a one stupid paper with a vauge information, but she could be sure that this note was written by her mother. That handwriting was too much similar to handwriting of Sakura Uchiha for it to be a mistake.
Calm down.
Sarada after this thought bottled up inside all her mixed feelings. It was something, which she always did and was the best at. Looking calm as well composed around everyone else.
Sarada Uchiha took a notebook, which contained the rules of the game played by her and Boruto. She narrowed her brows to concentrate. Here it goes!
Rule number one:
Our game as well bet will last one school year. After this period of time if any of us don't make any progress in discovering the truth we automatically reach a draw.
Rule number two:
The condition of winning this game is showing the second player, the evidence supporting discovered truth before mentioned time in the rule number one.
Rule number three:
To make things fair we will have an access to the same information considering mystery of this note.
Just a three rules? What Boruto Uzumaki is thinking?! There must be some sort a catch in this. Sarada send a suspicious stare to the blond who just answered her with a cocky smile.
For the first time in her life she felt like hating somebody else guts.
Chō-Chō Akimichi was walking besides Mitsuki and complaining about her beauty or life itself. However the most complaints were directed at all her friends for not responding on her phone calls. Mitsuki wanted just receive some pictures of a sleeping Boruto! He kept telling himself that for this he must endure a little bit more of Chō-Chō overwheliming presence.
"Are you listening, Mitsuki?" she asked with knowing it all tone.
"No." The Mitsuki response was apparently too honest. It was a miracle that he didn't get killed by any of his past girlfriends. At least not yet. Chō-Chō golden eyes showed that she felt pity for his future self and just continued babbling nonesense, which Mitsuki couldn't stand. But some sacrifices must be made if one wanted to obtain Boruto Uzumaki exclusive photos.
They were walking together for a while, until they reached their destination. Chō-Chō was excited and couldn't wait for showing up behind all of these ignorants who didn't picked-up her phone calls. She took a few photos of a sleeping Boruto from her bag and handed them over to Mitsuki.
"Here is your payment! I know that I'm awesome, so you don't need to thank me" she proudly said.
"Yeah, I will note that I don't need to thank you in the future as well if that's the case", responded with a big smile Mitsuki. He was just happy that's already possible to add next Boruto photos to his collection.
They went inside the school building and directed theirs steps to the clubroom.
Boruto due to the awkward atmosphere decided that for today they should finish theirs club activities and go home. He really couldn't stand that Shikadai was in a gloomy mood and miss perfect played on his nerves too much.
"We should tied it up for toda..." he didn't finish his words, since the door to the clubroom opened up with a big bang.
"Yoooo, why there is here such gloomy atmosphere? Where is Sumire? And why all of you didn't responded to my calls!?" shouted Chō-Chō, which would be for him in the normal circumstances annoying as hell.
"Calm down Chō-Chō. I did not respond to your calls, since my phone was smashed to pieces yesterday" said Sarada surprised to see her best friend. According to her source of information Chō-Chō should be on a family trip this entire week.
"SARADA, I missed you!" Chō-Chō stated and sat in the chair next to the little lady Uchiha.
"Hnnn..." That was only response, which Boruto could hear coming from Sarada mouth. Did Chō-Chō decided that miss perfection is her best friend and didn't care about her opinion in that regard at all?
"Mitsuki, I thought that you didn't plan to come for a club meeting today" muttered annoyed Shikadai. He wanted already to go home and stop thinking about unnecessary things.
"That was the plan until I received a call from that delusional girl", he pointed a finger in the direction where Chō-Chō was sitting.
"What a drag" answered Shikadai.
"Yeah, I'm glad that you both came and all, but we actually finished for today, ya'll know?" Boruto claimed a little bit mad that Chō-Chō took away the whole attention, which should be focused on him.
"What?! Already, but I didn't catched up with anyone! Sarada tell something!" Chō-Chō pouted like a small child. Sarada just rolled her eyes.
"Something, are you happy?" Boruto snorted hearing Sarada comment. That girl was playing on his nerves in every possible aspect.
Chō-Chō just happily nodded and it seemed she was satisfied with Sarada answer, but she narrowed her brows when she noticed that Shikadai was unusually silent and any of them didn't answer where was Sumire.
"Seriously, where is Sumire? Shouldn't she be here as well?" Chō-Chō tried to steer the conversation in the interesting her topic. Mitsuki reaction showed that he was curious as well, so if there was a need for it he would provide her with a back-up.
"..." Shikadai averted his emerald eyes, which were glinting with a hint of a sadness and anger.
"She went home earlier." Boruto saved Shikadai from telling the truth, even though he himself wasn't knowing the real reason for it.
"She was troublesome today" added Nara and his statement closed the subject. Mitsuki seemed to be suspecting that something else was going on, but didn't bother to ask. Chō-Chō after a little chat with Sarada decided to go home as well, so they all felt relief when she stopped her questions.
And so this club meeting officially ended.
Sarada was walking alone until she started to hear meowing in the nearby alley. She decided to follow it, since she wasn't in the right mood to sit alone at home during the evening. The load of unexcepted information and remebering all these rumours about her mother were destroying her daily rhythm. One step, two steps, three steps... She stopped counting a while ago, but it helped calm down her inner feelings.
When she turned to her right, she noticed a little siamese kitten. The kitten had a blue like sky eyes and this feature reminded her of someone else she met just yesterday. But unlike that person the little kittens were much more adorable. Sarada crouched down to see how the little kitten would react to her presence.
"Meeeeoww." The kitten cried, came closer to her and started to rub his head against her leg.
"Meow, meow..." Sarada responded to a kitten in that manner, even if she knew that this form of response didn't have any sense. She started to slowly move her hand in order to pat the kitten, but her action was interrupted by annoying chuckle coming from behind her back.
"So little miss perfection is liking animals? Ya'll know, it would be interesting to tell everyone at our school about this sudden discovery. High and mighty lady Sarada has a soft spot for the animals! I bet that all of yours admirers would appreciate that information" teased her Boruto Uzumaki. That guy appeared in her life just yesterday, but still managed to show up near her a lot lately. What the hell was with that?! Some sort of a curse where a person which you can't stand will be everywhere you go?
"Eh, what are you doing here?" she asked trying to hide her embrassment in being caught at this actual moment.
"This alley is a really comfortable shortucut to my house. I should be the one who is asking what are you doing here?" his response made Sarada feeling like she was doing something wrong.
"Is that so? Good for you, I think."
After her words Boruto took a few steps to show up in front of her and crouched down as well. Sarada could see in his blue eyes a spark of amusement.
"Hey, hey what with that reaction miss meow, meow. I'm just worried about you. You shouldn't walk alone in the shady alley, ya'll know?" His words as usual pissed her off.
"I don't need anyone to worry about me" she pouted, but then came to a sudden realization. Why she pouted in front of him in the first place? It wasn't like her, it wasn't like her at all.
She could see his surprise at her reaction, since his blue eyes widened and after it he smiled. His face looked more handsome with a smile, but Sarada was too busy panicking about the fact she let out unnecessary and petty emotion.
"Are you sure about that? No matter how strong you are it is nice to have someone worrying about your well being." Boruto smile didn't disappear, but it was more annoying than anything he did thus far.
"You're really annoying." It was probably the most honest and best words, which described Boruto Uzumaki existence in her opinion.
"O-ho! So I'm annoying to you lady meow, meow?" he started tease her too much about her personal feelings and worst of all still felt amused by this situation.
"Yeah, you are!" Sarada shouted, stood up and started running in the direction of her house. She couldn't stand anymore his presence, so it was for her a logical course of action.
Boruto looked in the direction where she gone into a bit longer, but a little smirk was visible on his face. He met Sarada on his way home completely by accident. After all they all went in opposite directions when the club meeting ended. However it was at least a valuable meeting for him.
"I see, so you're more of a scaredy kitten than a clod hearted person, eh? That's interesting in some way. Yeah, it will be fun trying to make you my friend." Boruto muttered this words to himself, stood up and left the alley. The only sound which stayed was a constant meowing of a bunch of stray cats.
AN:
Hello everyone here is the next chapter of GoF! I know I said chapter eight was my favourite so far, but chapter nine has my one of favourite fluffy moments between Boruto and Sarada so yeahh... You can easy see that nine is my lucky number. x'DD Why the kitten/cats appeared in the chapter nine? Since they have a nine lives! Okay, I will stop myself and my terrible puns.
Yours clumsy author Karinrumi ;)