Sarada marched back into the castle. "Papa."

"Yes?"

"Call the ball off."

"Sarada?"

"The one you just kicked out." Sarada looked forward, walking past her father with a dead serious look in her eyes. "I want him." She needed him. To tell her how to get out of this accursed place and back to Konoha.

He laughed. "It's too late. He's the last person I'd let you marry... You'll have to go door to door to find him."

Sarada stood her ground. "So be it."

. . .

Boruto got home well before midnight. His father was there to greet him, saying he didn't care for flashy events too much after all.

"That being said, Cinder, did you get to dance with the princess?"

Boruto ducked his head. "...Yeah..."

"Oh! Lucky you! Wasn't she pretty?"

Pink dusted his cheeks. She was still Sarada. But he had to admit: she was gorgeous. He didn't remember Sarada's hands being that soft; He remembered them being callused over from fighting with kunai. He didn't remember her looking at him with eyes that were embarrassed, and playfully threatening; He only remembered her anger that would sometimes (very rarely) soften into a smile. He didn't remember her voice being sweet and almost seductive; He remembered it being annoying and whiny. And in that dress, she was even better looking than the girl he created with his oiroke no jutsu. Was that what she was going to be like in the future?

"I'll take that as a yes," said his father, grinning from ear to ear. "Be careful, her dad is a scary one... Her mom is too."

"Hey, dad," said Boruto, staring down at the mop and bucket on the floor. "Where's mom?"

"Your mother?" Naruto wore an old worn saddened expression. "She passed away shortly after you were born. Sakura-chan moved in to help me take care of you for a time since you were just a baby, but Sasuke... er, King Sasuke... wasn't very happy about that. It made him angry enough to forbid her from coming back to the castle altogether. I guess he was more possessive than we all thought," laughed Naruto nervously.

"I see..." He only hoped the regular Sasuke wouldn't do something like that. He couldn't picture Sakura cheating him, even if his mom were to die and Naruto was left all alone.

"You and Sarada used to play together as kids, but King Sasuke eventually locked her up in the castle too... And you've been separated ever since. That's also when Sakura-chan started treating us like garbage... We ended up taking in Mitsuki and Kawaki afterwards. They were abandoned, but now they have a home. Sakura-chan raised them to boss us around... But I guess it can't be helped. After all, she only wanted to prove to King Sasuke that she was still loyal to him. I'm glad you got the chance to see Sarada again."

Boruto looked down. What kind of a depressing story was this? His karma was gone, but he still didn't feel any better.

"Do you think Sasuke-san will ever forgive Sakura oba-san?"

Naruto laughed. "Cinder, it's King Sasuke and Queen Sakura. Make sure you don't mess up in front of them, or you'll get clobbered."

"...I already have."

"Oh," he chuckled, "right. I think they could patch things up with each other... Maybe."

"Alright," said Boruto, clenching his fist. "I'll do my best to make them reconcile before putting an end to all this."

"Hm?"

"Don't worry about it, cruddy old man."

"Hey! I'm not cruddy, or old!" Naruto retorted.

In that moment, Sakura burst through the door. "CINDER!"

Here we go again, thought Boruto, slumping his shoulders at the thought of getting clobbered.

"How dare you come to the ball?! As punishment for disobeying me, you and your father will be spending the night outside!"

"Outside?!" Boruto whined.

But Naruto only sighed in response. "Come on Cinder, it's not that bad. This isn't the first time," he said, putting a hand on his son's shoulder. "Let's just get this over with."

Boruto reluctantly followed his father, making a bed out of the leaves and shivering himself to sleep.

. . .

Sarada woke up the next morning, prepared to spend all day looking for Boruto. Her father refused to let her leave the castle, so she changed into a tunic and boots, climbed over the windowsill, and carefully jumped from ledge to ledge until she made it to the bottom.

However, as she reached the base of the wall, an awful pungent scent blasted her nostrils.

Gross. What on earth is that?

It was then that she heard a snort from a few yards away. The awful scent belonged to manure, and the snort belonged to a magnificent white horse.

She neared the creature, footsteps as silent as she could make them. It seemed as though no one else was in the area. I suppose they won't mind if I borrow this for a bit, she thought, gently running her nails through the short coarse fur at the base of the horse's neck.

When the animal didn't object to her pets, she grabbed ahold of its mane and heaved herself onto its back. I've never ridden a horse before... but I guess there's a first time for everything. Now. How do you make it go...

She struggled with it, trying to be gentle, but eventually getting frustrated and kicking her feet. The horse meandered forward. She kicked her feet again and nearly fell off. "Woahhh!"

It slowed down, slower than she could walk. "...Not very convenient, are you..."

The horse, as if it could understand her, shook its head and snorted.

"Maybe I'll just go by myself... I do have to go door to door, after all."

But before she could demount, the horse kicked it into third gear and began cantering towards the town. Sarada nearly fell, but she tightly griped the horse's mane and leaned forward, eventually finding her balance and enjoying the ride.

The horse was rather obedient to her words, which she found to be odd, but in no time, they had established a system for nearing the doors. The horse would get close enough so that Sarada's foot could do the knocking, and back up a decent way before the inhabitants could answer.

But no matter how many doors she knocked on, Boruto wasn't there. In fact, no one even seemed to know that Boruto was living in their town. Everyone knew who she was, but not even the store owners had heard of his name.

Frustrated, Sarada decided to knock on one last door.

To her delight, Mitsuki opened it.

"Mitsuki!"

The older version of Mitsuki was taken aback. "Princess Sarada... You know who I am?"

"That's not important. Where's Boruto?"

"Boruto... I've never heard that name before."

Sarada blinked. "What do you mean?" Ahh. Right. This isn't our world, thought Sarada, frustrated at herself for forgetting. "Never mind. I'm looking for someone with blue eyes and blonde hair. He was at the ball last night. You must have seen him."

"Perhaps you're talking about Naruto. I'll go fetch him."

Sarada climbed off of the horse. If Naruto was here, that meant Boruto was likely there as well.

All of a sudden, Sakura appeared at the door. "Sarada-chan! Long time no see!"

"Mama?!"

Sakura froze. "You... You remember me?" Tears began to well up in her eyes as she threw her arms around her daughter. "I can't believe you remember me."

"...Of course I remember you... How could I forget." She smiled at her mother's warm embrace. "You're my mom."

"Do you think you could convince your papa to let me back into the castle?"

"...Papa won't let you into the castle?"

Sakura laughed nervously. "You see... There was a bit of a misunderstanding, and he thinks I'm cheating on him with Naruto."

There was no word to describe what Sarada was feeling, other than floored. "WITH THE SEVENTH?!"

"...The Seventh?"

"I mean, Naruto. Mama, explain."

"Well... I wanted to help raise Cinder... I owe a debt to Naruto and all... And after Hinata passed away..."

Suddenly, Sarada caught glimpse of two dirty heads of blonde hair in the back of the room. "Boruto!"

Both him and his father returned her gaze. "...Sarada?"

"Thank goodness, you're here! I've been looking everywhere for you! How do we get out of here?"

"Get out of here? What do you mean," asked Naruto, walking up beside Sakura.

Boruto blinked a few times. "Well... I think... We have to..." He blushed.

"Spit it out already! And what happened to you," Sarada added, looking at his shambled and homeless appearance.

"Ah... I slept outside," he said, yawning and itching away some of the dirt from his hair. "More importantly, we gotta help your dad and mom make up. Then I'll get us out of here."

"Do you really think that's important?" At this point, the other members who were being left out of the conversation were blatantly confused. But Sarada didn't care.

"Well," said Boruto, "If this is an alternate dimension and all, it'd be nice if everyone was happy."

"...Fine," said Sarada, crinkling her foul nose at the smell emanating from Boruto's body. "Take a shower and get dressed... I'll bring everyone else to the castle. You can ride a horse, right?"

"...I can try."

"Meet us there when you're ready... The rest of you, come with me. And you," she said to the horse, "thank you for all your help."

"...Did you just thank the horse?"

"Well, it can understand human speech," said Sarada, gently itching its chin. "If you don't understand riding it, you should try talking to it."

"...Alright?"

With that, the horse neighed happily, and Sarada set off.

. . .

Boruto showered, washing all of the dirt and grime off of himself. He shivered when he saw three bugs crawling on the side of the shower, likely from his own body. He was used to sleeping outside, but this... this was different.

When he was done showering, he wrapped a towel around his waist and came face to face with an old grey-haired ninja.

"Yo, Boruto!"

Boruto shivered. "Old-man Kakashi! Stop sneaking up on me! It's creepy!"

"You still don't have any clothes to see the princess, do you?"

"...No," he replied, "what about it?"

"I'll give you some."

Putting his hand on Boruto's head, Kakashi transformed the towel around Boruto's waist into white pants, and another towel on the wall into a princely blue tunic with long white ruffled sleeves. "Good luck, Cinder."

"I told you," said Boruto, opening the door to the bathroom. "My name isn't Cinder. It's Boruto."

With that, he mounted Sarada's horse and somehow managed to make his way to the castle.

. . .

Upon entry, he immediately noticed that Sakura had made up with Sasuke by the happy look on her face. Naruto was laughing, and even Mitsuki and Kawaki seemed to be enjoying themselves.

After they finally took notice of him, everyone but Sarada said "Cinder?!" in a shocked and surprised tone.

Sarada looked at Boruto. Then she looked at the rest of the group. "Cinder?"

The moment the words left Sarada's lips, the room disappeared, leaving only Boruto, Sarada, and Shikadai in a sea of emerald green. A message flashed above their heads.

"Congratulations. You have completed level one."