It happened after the granny Tsunade died. That was a major blow for Sarada, who was spending most of her time with her. Life was like going through a hazy motion. Her parents were busy as ever, but it was the first time in a long while she felt lonely. Because of granny, she almost forgot about this feeling. Sarada made her meals alone, ate them in complete silence, went to school, or stayed at home either reading or studying by herself. She was going out only for necessities, helping her take care of the house.

Chō-Chō tried her best to cheer her up too, even if she was sometimes insensitive. Sarada appreciated the gesture, but it wasn't something that filled the void in her daily life.

Going through these motions didn't take long to become her regular daily routine. Occasionally, her mom appeared at home to talk with her. It was rare and never lasted long.

Sarada lived on an autopilot with no sense of joy. Even hobbies she used to enjoy filled her with emptiness.

Everyone seemed to move on from granny's death, except her. They told her it's time to move on, but it was happening too fast for her liking. She already cried her eyes out, yet her heart felt so empty it hurt.

That change in her didn't get unnoticed amongst her peers. Sarada was difficult to approach before, however the maintained distance made her completely unapproachable now. Only Chō-Chō bothered talking to her. It was limited, because of her friend's family going on a lot of trips.

Like the silence before the storm, Sarada was bound to snap if that continued, so her dad visited during her birthday and gave her a notebook with following rules to help her out.

Rule number one:

Always maintain your poker face. In any situation, you find yourself in. Especially facing rumours, or being confronted by them. If you're Uchiha — you don't care about them.

Rule number two:

Idiots are idiots, but since you're the Uchiha, you can't be one.

Rule number 3:

When you have a goal to reach, you reach it, despite what others may think. Ah, and never lose to someone else. No matter what.

Rule number 4:

Looking for a boyfriend is prohibited. Focus on your dreams. Guys are just an unnecessary waste of space, as well as your time.

Those rules became her safety blanket, something constant and adopted to her new routine. Occupied her mind in a way of easing some of her pain. Sarada slowly functioned better, yet the void in her heart remained.

However, the change came when she looked into her granny's things along with a dairy. Suddenly Sarada had a goal to fulfil the dream of her deceased family member. She found herself enjoying a lot of games in a variety of genres. Cards, tabletop games, video games, name it all. The thrill of betting suddenly filled in the missing void she felt for so long.

Sarada loved the rush of adrenaline she felt while betting with others. She got so good she was nominated as the 'Gambling Queen' and attended Konoha's Gaming Tournament frequently.

It was becoming an important part of her life. More than anything else happening in it. Looking back, that was where her relationship with her mom deteriorated further. Sarada stopped spending time cooped inside at home, having enough of waiting for someone to come back. That meant not bumping into her mom when she was there at home.

Her parents were worried when she was going out late at night, but didn't have a heart to forbid her from doing so, considering the circumstances. Sarada messaged them when she was out and said she was doing alright in return. Part of her knew it was because they saw it as a sign of her feeling better after isolating herself from the world in the past couple of months.

Anyway, it happened on a day Sarada was out to take part in one of the smaller local card tournaments. On her way, she met a girl that was reading something tearing up inside of the building they held the tournament in. Her green eyes and wavy platinum blond hair stood out to her. It reminded Sarada of the forest, calm, yet in certain places dangerous to approach.

Despite her better judgement, Sarada walked towards the girl.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked, a hint of worry appearing on her face.

The girl looked up, now facing her directly, then hid the paper she was reading in her bag.

"Umm, yes I'm fine." She let out a nervous giggle, while her gaze occasionally drifted towards the bag she hid the crumpled paper in.

"You don't look fine. Do you want to lend my ear for a moment? I'll listen." Sarada said, and took a seat next to hers. She was curious why the girl desperately tried to hide the paper in her presence. It wasn't like she'd peek at what she had written inside. Even if the curiosity she felt was overwhelming. It was likely she'd attempt to do so if she'd throw her restraints from doing it.

"I'm dating someone very nice, but they're also very popular. Their fan club is…" The girl sighed.

"Hmm. Dealing with that must be a pain. Is that person worth it?" Sarada patted the girl on her back in a reassuring gesture, since she was slouching a bit, almost like she'd given up on something.

"Yes, I'm afraid he's too good for me." She shoved her hand inside of her bag and hesitantly passed up the crumpled paper to her. She was shaking.

Sarada nodded, taking it as permission to read the content.

That was the message inside of it:

Break up with him or we'll make your life hell.

"Ugh. That's nasty. Receiving it just because you date someone they like? Pitiful. How do you deal with this?" When she uttered those words, she put the paper in her pocket.

"I don't. It's not their first message, so some of this stuff has already happened."

"What's your name? Do you go to the same school by any chance? I'm Sarada."

"My name's Asami." Asami attempted to smile, but it was obvious the smile was forced. "Yes, I think we go to the same school. I recognise the uniform."

"Cool. Want me to chase off your bullies? Who are they, anyway?" Sarada suggested. It'd not be the first time she did it, either. After all, she dealt with people being cruel to Chō-Chō daily. Sometimes she made sure certain incidents that she dealt with wouldn't reach her ears, despite knowing her best friend could handle it herself.

"Girls belonging to Boruto's Uzumaki fan-club." Asami bit the lower part of her lips.

"Our school has a fan club dedicated to someone else? Talk about creepy. I assume Boruto is your boyfriend then. Does he know about this?" She gave it a serious thought before making an assumption and asking those questions. Sarada didn't know Boruto Uzumaki, but anyone could've made the connection with their school principal, solely based on the surname. It'd not be that surprising if he was famous, just like her, for both good and bad reasons.

"No… I've never told him and don't intend to," she muttered.

"Are you sure? Keeping it to yourself might not be the best idea. You don't want to do something you regret later." Sarada bitterly thought about the irony of her own advice. Wasn't that something she was doing herself? Who was she to judge anyone else for doing the same thing?

"Yes, I'm sure! I'll bear through it. Sarada, was it? Talking to you was actually refreshing. Would you mind if we did it again sometime?" Asami got up, her smile looking more genuine now compared to before. As if it lifted a weight from her shoulders.

"I don't mind at all. I guess I'll see you here very often from now on." She nodded in understanding and waved towards her to say goodbye once the blonde was approaching the exit.

Sarada didn't want to admit it, but she admired Asami's courage to keep her smile on, regardless of the pain she felt. She wasn't able to bring herself to smile for a long time now. In fact, this conversation was refreshing for her too, despite her not being that open about it as the girl she talked with.

That was her first meeting with Asami and just how she predicted it wasn't the last time they talked. The girl and Sarada met often to complain about their daily struggles, or the strategy Sarada was preparing for the upcoming Konoha's Game Tournament. In hindsight, she shouldn't mention the latter at all.

It happened a week before the Konoha's Gaming tournament was supposed to take place. Sarada met Asami at their usual place. Her new friend had visible bags under her eyes and dishevelled hair.

"You look like a scarecrow. Are you sure you're fine?" Sarada greeted her.

"Thank you for complimenting my appearance, Sarada. You're as chipper as usual this morning," she bit back with sarcasm. "I'm fine, by the way."

"You don't look fine to me."

"Same goes for you, doesn't it? Let's just drop it."

"If you say so."

Sarada tactfully dropped the subject. It was the usual ongoing conversation starter between them that always ended up like this. By this point in her life, Sarada saw and met up with Asami a lot more compared with Chō-Chō. Because her mom wasn't too happy about her indulging in the same hobby as granny, Sarada spent less time at home avoiding her.

"How's it going with those girls? Did you put them in their place already?" Sarada inquired.

"Yeah… You can say we settled on the compromise." Asami responded, looking up at the brightly lit lamp in the hallway. It was weird. Sarada should probably realise something was off with her right from the start — she didn't.

"That's great! Want to hear about my strategy for the Konoha's Gaming Tournament Contract Bridge Competition?" she asked her, knowing it was something Asami was very curious about.

"Contract Bridge? Isn't that the card game where you need to pair up with someone to play it? I heard it usually involves four players split into teams of two."

Sarada nodded in affirmation. Obviously, since it was a competition that required a partner to play with, the organisers made sure they signed an even number of people up for it. For this one, they'll randomly pair up the participants with each other once the tournament starts. It added an unknown element about who'd she be paired with for the rest of the tournament, though. That was their prevention method to reduce the possibility of cheating.

"Yeah. We're supposed to learn who'll we be paired up with during the tournament. After all, we can't send signals or talk with each other before the actual tournament, or establishing a pre-arranged method of communication with one another. I've no way to know if the person I'm partnered with will be good at the game, either." Sarada explained.

Contract Bridge was fun to play, largely because of the excitement in leaving everything to luck, besides using a solid strategy while bidding. A lot also depended on how well the person they pair you with was, but that was an unknown factor for everyone involved.

"Huh? You can't strategize with your partner beforehand?" Asami tilted her head in confusion.

Sarada shook her head. "The signalling and communication with your partner during the game is considered cheating, so is viewing the opponent's cards on their side of a board, or marking them."

"Oh. I didn't know that was the case."

"I'm not surprised you didn't know." Sarada paused for a moment, taking a sip from her water bottle she brought today for their meeting. "After all, it always takes time to learn rules for beginners. Your team takes part in the Shogi Tournament section, right? I'm pretty sure the rules of Contract Bridge are the last thing on your mind."

"Yeah, they do. My boyfriend is confident that with the help of my best friend we'll have victory in the bag, at least with Shogi, but I'm not so sure about it. We're signed up to take part in other sections too. It could be too many for them to handle." Asami ran her fingers through her hair, while trying to appear focused on their conversation. Sarada knew she was nervous, but couldn't pinpoint why.

"I see. What's the real issue then? I doubt the Shogi tournament is what you're really worried about." The best tactic to know the problem was cutting through the pleasantries and addressing it head on.

"Some girl from Boruto's fan club discovered we talk to each other. Apparently, you made one member upset."

Sarada tried to recall any incidents that would make her directly involved with those fangirls, but couldn't remember any significant encounter at all. She didn't pay any attention to most of her classmates, let alone some random girl that wasn't affecting her life at all. Many people claimed she made them upset just by existing, whatever that meant. It's no wonder they just blended for her together into a forgettable blur. However, she didn't bump into anyone significant lately. Her memory wasn't that bad. That meant the girl Asami mentioned held a long-lasting grudge, probably over something stupid.

"I've no recollection of that at all." She shrugged it off.

"Really?" Asami raised her eyebrow, completely still.

"Yes. You worry too much. I can handle anything with enough willpower."

"Only by yourself?"

"Of course. It's the way I always do things, anyway. What's the point of changing it now?" That was the truth. Aside from occasionally bumping into her mom at home, Sarada lived and handled most of the important matters by herself. Sometimes she even did the tasks her mom was too busy to do because of her work.

"If you say so… Hey, Sarada?" Asami's voice trembled slightly.

"Yeah?"

"About the tournament…"

"What about it?" As far as Sarada was concerned, they've already discussed most of their worries about it with each other.

"Whatever happens during it, no hard feelings, okay?"

There were signs something was wrong, but Sarada brushed them off. After all, it was just Asami, she always was nervous in front of her.

"Sure, but what do you mean by that?"

"Haha… It's just my pessimism getting to me. Don't worry about it. Let's talk again sometime, okay?"

They talked with each other for a while longer and then bid their farewells. Sarada had her suspicions, but let them slide in favour of her own agenda.

"No hard feelings, huh? I don't know if that'll be possible."

It was the last time they talked with each other on friendly terms.

The buzz of the crowd and high adrenaline tension was one of the main things Sarada remembered fondly during the Konoha's Gaming tournament. They escorted her out to the hallway that had various monitors recording what's happening inside of the main building hanging on the walls. She herself was about to enter the main building and bumped into someone with blond hair and light blue eyes eerily looking similar to Naruto Uzumaki — their school principal. The boy muttered a quick apology towards her. It was clear he didn't pay any attention to her presence. Sarada wouldn't normally pay him any attention either, but he matched the description of Asami's boyfriend and the girl itself was on her mind because of their last conversation.

Everything else was hazy. That was, until the moment they accused her of cheating during the tournament.

"I swear I saw her marking her cards and peeking at the cards opposite players had!" The group of the girls with Asami in lead pointed at her to the tournament supervisor.

"I didn't cheat!" Sarada weakly protested. She doesn't remember how the entire day led to that moment, but it did.

The crowd of people booed at her.

"Cheater!"

"She stained the honour of her partner in the tournament!"

"Gambling Queen? More like a dirty cheater! I bet all her wins were because she cheated."

"Disqualify her, disqualify her!"

Sarada could only stand frozen in place. The supervisor inspected her cards and one of them was marked! But she didn't mark any of her cards. How's that possible?! In a moment of clarity, she looked directly at someone she considered a friend just a mere week ago.

"I see. She wasn't my friend. She betrayed me just because of a stupid grudge one of those fangirls had. But how did she know which card deck would be mine?" Sarada thought bitterly.

The worst part? She knew Asami had planned to do it after their last conversation, but she let her, hoping that this incident would override nasty rumours about her mom she heard recently.

She only didn't expect it'd hurt her so badly.

The booing was getting worse with time. She could barely breathe. It wasn't happening; it wasn't happening…

"Sarada Uchiha and her partner are disqualified for cheating!" An announcement she had never planned to hear at all. Then a continuation of it rang. "Because of certain complications, there'll be a twenty-minute break before we resume the specific tournament sections."

Sarada was out in the hallway again, in a daze. The reality of the situation that happened sinking inside of her mind. That betrayal from Asami stung, and she felt like she was living on autopilot again.

Then she witnessed something peculiar. The same guy she bumped into cried and was running away from her former friend. They weren't friends anymore, right?

"B-Boruto wait, I can explain!" Asami was just behind him trying to catch up.

"Don't bother! It's over between us," he shouted back in anger.

Sarada wanted to grab Asami and call her a traitor to her face, but after witnessing what was happening, she lost her remaining strength to do so. What was even the point?

"Boruto Uzumaki, huh? I see I'm not the only one that had it rough today." She whispered and came back home.

After this incident, Sarada stopped taking part in other tournaments and didn't touch any of her games. She lost contact with Asami and lived like a machine.

Something has changed, though. When she arrived at school, she noticed Boruto Uzumaki was in a class next to hers. She saw him a lot from afar and the more she observed him, the more similarities between their situations appeared. Of course, she'd not dared to approach him on purpose. He was there during the tournament in which they announced her to be a dirty cheater and avoiding him was something natural, right? Besides, he possessed qualities that were annoying to her, so she tried to ignore his presence altogether. Keyword — tried to. The common ground she'd found about them made him impossible to ignore. Her gaze drifted towards him whenever it was possible.

However, it was those exact similarities that made her desperately avoid him in the first place. Especially now, with the rumours swirling around her mom was cheating on her dad and some students saying:

"I'd not be surprised if her mom did cheat. Her daughter did, didn't she? Her mom would be just like her daughter then."

Sarada held herself back from not punching them and was calling Chō-Chō to discuss the rumours. Imagine her surprise when she ran into Boruto Uzumaki — she tried to avoid so hard by accident. She was bitter and upset and the smashed to pieces phone didn't help with improving her mood, so she lashed out at him and didn't face him heads on due to fear he'd remember her.

"Does that answer your questions, Boruto?" Sarada asked, trying to avoid his gaze. "That's how I know Asami and to be clear, I didn't tell this story to anyone else except for you."

"Thank you, Sarada." Boruto smiled at her and used his hand to ruffle her hair.

"You don't need to. Like I said before, I knew it'd come up eventually, and I'd need to clear it up." She stood up to showcase bravery, but was terrified it'd make Boruto reject her in the end, even if he agreed to try dating her.

"Hey, I wasn't done yet! Your hair is so soft and fun to touch," he complained and she stuck out her tongue at him.

"Who ever said I was playing a fair game to win your heart?" She teased him and enjoyed seeing the tips of his ears being red.

"Stop teasing me! Today we're using your date idea, but the next one is on me!" He screamed in his embarrassment.

Sarada's face lightened up. "Does that mean there'll be next time?"

He slowly was riding towards her on his skates, his head nearby her ear:

"No, it means you want the next time to happen, isn't that right?" he gently whispered and kissed her on her cheek, then distanced himself from her.

"W-wha?" Was he flirting back? Sarada touched her cheek, dumbstruck. She knew he already had prior experience in a relationship, even if it wasn't the greatest one, but the weight of that knowledge dawned on her with more power.

Boruto winked at her, and she felt like the burning fire inside of her was melting her somehow.

"Let's have some fun, Sarada! I'll make sure you're safe, while we race each other back home!" Boruto gestured for her to come over with a big grin, and so she did.

It wasn't how she imagined they'd start dating, but here they were, although whether Boruto will love her back was something that remained unknown. The chance she got was enough for now, but why was her heart so uncertain about her decision?

AN:

Hello, everyone!

Chapter 23 is here. It was supposed to be the August chapter, but I got busy. I've planned for Sarada to know Boruto from the start, even before she bumped into him. I'm pretty sure there are some slight hints in the previous chapters too, haha. My entire schedule routine changed, so with that change my update schedule needs serious revision, haha.

I was so nervous about this flashback. I'm so proud of this chapter too! GoF isn't perfect by any means, but it holds a lot of meaning in my heart for me as the story, so I always try my best.

Anyways, with that being said, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter.

Sincerely yours, Karinrumi :)