Sarada ran from rooftop to rooftop, Boruto and Mitsuki on either side of her. Today, their mission was to find someone's lost cat.
While scanning surrounding area, Sarada noticed, out of the corner of her eye, a child about to fall off of the pier and into the river. Before she could get the words, "careful!" out of her mouth, Boruto was already pulling her back to safety.
The momentary flood of adrenaline that overtook her dissipated like a popped balloon.
Boruto smiled. Ruffled the little girl's hair. "That's dangerous, ya know! Trying to balance like that on the side beam... What would happen if a big scary fish jumped out of the river and tried to swallow you whole?"
The little girl who was nearly in tears before was now beside herself with laugher. "That won't happen!"
"You never know! This one time, I caught this huge carp with all of my friends. It was bigger than me!"
"Ehh? Really?"
Before the conversation could go on for too long, Sarada called after him. "Boruto, the mission!"
"Ah, my bad! I'm coming!"
But as he returned, Sarada felt a tinge of jealousy in her heart. If only she could be like that... Saving people without a second thought. Jumping into the action headfirst. She'd be more fit to be Hokage...
When she stopped and thought about it, it'd been a while since she was able to admire that part of him. The part of him that always selflessly saved others without a second thought.
It didn't matter whether he'd known them for 10 years or 10 minutes, Boruto would do anything to correct a misfortunate incident.
Back when they were in the academy, he saved Denki on the day of the entrance ceremony. He saved Cho-Cho from falling off the roof even though they were supposed to be on opposite teams. He saved Sumire from something... What it was, Sarada wasn't sure.
On their school trip, he saved Kagura from being abducted by Shizuma. He stood in front of her on the day Momoshiki nearly destroyed the town, and then went with her father to save his own. He went after Mitsuki from Iwagakure, even though it nearly cost him his title as a ninja and his life.
He, saved Tento at the cost of abandoning their first B rank mission. He, or rather, he and the seventh, saved Kawaki from Kaara, at the cost of his happy home life and the little time he had with his father. He saved her from Boro at the cost of his sanity. He saved the entire Village of the Mist, nearly at the cost of his life.
He was always going around saving people... And what was she doing? Struggling to make decisions in time... Trying to lead a team that was in disarray...
Sarada sighed.
They wandered the village for nearly an hour, but even with her sharingan, they couldn't find the missing cat.
"Maybe it went into the woods?" Boruto suggested, turning himself in that direction.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to check... Let's split up. Meet back at the gate in 10 minutes."
"Roger."
She continued forward, tired and weary from using her sharingan for a continuous extended period of time. And that was when something unexpected appeared in front of her.
A kunai.
With a bomb tag attached.
She put her arms up to shield herself, but it wasn't going to be enough. She didn't have the time to whip out a shuriken and deflect it. She was going to take the brunt of the explosion.
But just as she closed her eyes, a metallic "ping!" resounded in front of her. An arm changed her momentum mid air, rocketing her away from the flying kunai. And when the explosion went off, she was no longer anywhere near it.
"...Boruto?"
"Did you use your sharingan too much captain," he teased, poofing into a cloud of smoke.
At this point, she shouldn't have been surprised that one of his clones was trailing her. "Thanks..." Tapping the comm device on her ear, she relayed a message. "There's someone else here. Keep an eye out for kunai with bomb tags."
"Roger," said Mitsuki.
She didn't even have to ask to know Boruto was on his way over to her.
"Oi!"
Sure enough, there he was, dropping down out of the trees.
"Did you see anyone?"
"No," she replied, scanning the area. "I think... it's just..."
And with that, Sarada completely exhausted all of her chakra.
. . .
When she woke up, she was on a hospital bed. There were voices around her... Mitsuki and Boruto. Without opening her eyes, she listened.
"...selfless of you. That's why you're my sun."
"Still going on about the sun stuff, huh Mitsuki," Boruto sighed with a slight laugh. And then the room got quiet.
"Say, Boruto. You really have a knack for protecting people. How did you know that Sarada would accidentally set off a trap?"
"Mmm... Just a hunch. When she uses her sharingan for too long, she gets pretty tired. I figured I'd keep a clone on her just in case she passed out. Or found the cat, and in that case, I could snatch it first and steal all the glory."
Mitsuki smiled. "I see. You saved the little girl earlier too. Maybe you have a hero complex."
"Ha, what even is that?"
"It just means you end up as the hero in most situations... I think I'm going to go home and set out some food for Mikazuki. Are you going to stay with Sarada until she wakes up?"
There was a slight pause before Boruto replied. "Nah, her mom is here. She'll be fine. Ah, but I should probably let her know we're going home."
"I'll leave it to you then."
They both stood, exiting the room together. And when everything was silent, Sarada opened her eyes.
"Hero complex, huh..." She couldn't deny, Boruto certainly seemed to have one. But she wasn't expecting him to walk back in the room.
"Hm? Oh. You're awake."
"...Yo."
"We found the cat. Turns out it was in someone else's house. That little girl I saved earlier found it and tried to keep it as a pet even though it already had a collar... The mom was going crazy trying to find out who the owner was."
Sarada blinked a few times. "Hey Boruto."
"What?"
"What goes on in your mind when you save people?"
"...Huh?"
"I mean... What do you think about? Or do you think at all?"
He looked a bit confused, and then sat down on a nearby stool. "I mean... You just gotta do what you gotta do, ya know? Geh. It's hard to explain."
"Just with the little girl then."
"...Well... I was looking for small things, like the cat, and I saw her, and I thought she might fall, so I went over to warn her that it was dangerous, and by the time I got there she was falling so I just helped her up."
"A coincidence then..."
"I guess? Why do you wanna know about this anyways?"
"Because," she replied, a pout on her face. "I'm jealous."
To her surprise, his cheeks pinkened. "Jealous?"
"You're always saving people... It doesn't matter who they are. Denki, Cho-Cho, Sumire, me... You went after Tento even though you didn't really like him."
"I can't just let people die!"
"Well then what about me? I wouldn't have died and you sent a clone after me anyways just in case something happened. I'd never think to do something like that."
"...You're... Different."
Sarada blinked a few times. "Huh?"
"You're just different! I don't know. I don't even think when it comes to you. It's not coincidence or anything it just..." He averted his eyes, tucking his chin into the corner of his jacket. "It just happens."
If Sarada wasn't imagining things, the pink on his cheeks still hadn't gone away. She felt her own face heat up. "Oh."
"If you understand, that's fine. I'm leaving."
"W-Wait! Understand what?"
But all she got was a dismissive wave as he walked out the door.
I'm... Different?
It was those two words that led Sarada to have trouble falling asleep that night.