Lost Chick (3)

"Dad, are you okay?" Boruto hurried back to the scene with Sarada.

"Ah, I'm fine. You two weren't hurt, were you?" Naruto replied.

Boruto pulled Sarada along with one hand as he leaped and darted across the treetops. He was no slower than Naruto had been earlier, leaving Sarada trailing behind him like a kite being dragged along.

"Yes, I was. My head's spinning," Sarada said dizzily.

After a brief rest, the three of them stopped on a patch of green grass. What surprised Naruto, though, was that despite the battle just now, Boruto had kept the lunchbox perfectly intact.

Protecting the lunchbox was my real intention. Saving Sarada was just incidental.

After eating their lunch, the three rested comfortably. The blue sky swayed with the wind, like the grass on the ground rolling in waves.

"What... kind of person is my dad?" Sarada asked softly.

"I heard he's as strong as Dad, but I always thought you were kind of lame!" Boruto mocked.

Naruto said, "Your dad is an outstanding person. Back when he was at the Shinobi World Academy, lots of female classmates had crushes on him, just like me."

Right, right, right.

"And he was very handsome, just like me. On top of that, his ninjutsu grades were always first place, just like me."

Boruto laughed and challenged him, "There can only be one first place, right? Were you two tied for first? I don't remember Principal Iruka saying that!"

Naruto looked a little embarrassed. "Hahaha, Teacher Iruka? Just the occasional joke... hahaha."

Having lost a bit of face, Naruto refused to be outdone. "But! He's aloof, arrogant, and sharp-tongued—the complete opposite of me!!"

Boruto thought that if he had a phone, he would definitely have recorded that.

Sarada's expression immediately darkened. Her face was full of disappointed melancholy, as though she had gained another burden of disillusionment. After all, the father a girl imagined was always supposed to be tall and dependable.

Along the way, Naruto thoughtfully comforted Sarada, gentle and attentive, just like the father she had imagined.

Meanwhile, Boruto traveled in silence. His Jōgan never stopped watching the slightest movement around them, guarding against an enemy ambush.

Ahead stood a small tower, a landmark-like structure and the place where Naruto had arranged to meet Sasuke.

The tower was already within sight. Sarada eagerly ran ahead, all the exhaustion in her body vanishing without a trace.

If I remembered right, this girl had been so tired earlier that she was practically about to collapse.

Naruto said, "Boruto, why don't you take a break? I really didn't expect you to have such great stamina. You barely even panted the whole way."

"No." Boruto shook his head. "Let's go see Uncle Sasuke first."

The two followed closely behind Sarada. Having entered the tower ahead of them, Sarada was emotional, unusually excited yet conflicted. Her eyes behind her glasses were already red. Aside from the tears streaming down her face, there were only those shining eyes.

Inside the hollow tower, it was dark and devoid of light. As Sarada breathed softly, her light footsteps tapped against the floor, drawing closer with a drip-drip sound.

Sarada turned around excitedly, wanting to see her father's true face. The newcomer had long, disheveled hair, and one exposed eye watched her coldly.

Just as she was about to step forward and acknowledge her father, Sasuke suddenly said, "I never thought you'd be able to find this place!"

Sarada froze where she stood. Faced with Sasuke's harsh, interrogative gaze, his eyes were like blades, ruthlessly cutting through the girl's fantasies.

Then Sasuke actually drew the Kusanagi Blade. Its cold gleaming edge looked sharp enough to cut hair, reflecting Sarada's face, filled with disappointment and collapse. Unable to believe it, she had never expected Sasuke to truly attack. Without hesitation, he drove the blade down, piercing the stone pillar behind her.

Trembling all over in fear, Sarada cried out softly, "Dad!"

Sasuke's right hand, poised to strike, suddenly stopped. Somewhat stunned, he asked, "You're... Sarada?"

"I see..."

"I recognized you as my dad at first glance..." Sarada said, her face full of grievance.

Boruto and Naruto arrived shortly afterward and pushed open the tower door. Seeing the scene unfold, Boruto roughly understood that Sarada awakening her Sharingan was now inevitable.

But Boruto still wanted to complain: You recognized him because you've seen photos of him. But even if Sasuke had seen you before, that was when you were little. Girls change so much as they grow up—how was he supposed to recognize you!!!

In the oppressive atmosphere, a girl who missed her father cried loudly to the father standing right before her, as though she wanted to pour out all the grievances she had endured over the past ten years.

In the end, Sarada could not help but ask expectantly, "Dad, where exactly have you been, and what have you been doing?"

Sasuke said, "It has nothing to do with you."

"?!!!" Sarada was completely dumbfounded. She only wanted an explanation. Even an excuse would have been fine—at least then she could believe he had been tied up with work.

Feeling upset, Sarada ran out of the room. Inside, Boruto said, "Isn't Uncle being too cold? Compared to the pain caused by losing family, isn't it more painful and sad when your family is still alive, yet you never get to see them?"

"They say love you can't obtain is the most despairing. What's the difference between companionship you never see, concern given coldly, and you simply not being there at all?"

Sasuke merely glanced at him, only to see Boruto looking back at him with a faintly mocking, indifferent expression. In that brief exchange of gazes, Sasuke seemed to see the shadow of Naruto's stubborn younger self in the boy.

Thus, the rebuke that had been about to leave his mouth became, "Children don't need to know about adults' work."

"Sure, sure." Boruto shook his head helplessly and walked out of the room.

"Your child?" Sasuke asked.

"Just a troublesome kid who likes mischief. Still, it would be fine to tell Sarada alone about it! The reason you don't return to the village."

The scenery outside the window stretched out like the sea, as though the sky and rooftops had merged into one, while the rooftops were ships along a moonlit coastline.

In Naruto's memories, he had also seen Sasuke off on the night before his departure. By then, the village had already begun to prosper, but Sasuke had needed to search for certain clues. Kaguya had nearly destroyed the world, and the existence capable of threatening her might have already been born by then.

When he left, Sasuke had said this, and he had silently carried it out with unwavering resolve, wandering the Shinobi World.

Naruto had also sighed sincerely. "After all, such great sacrifices were made to obtain this precious peace."

"This is also my journey of atonement," Sasuke said.

"Remember this: treat my mission as classified information known only to the higher-ups."

Naruto had wanted to persuade him further. After all, when someone was told nothing at all, it was actually... very painful.

"At least tell Sarada something."

"Knowing would only make her worry for nothing."

"Aren't you afraid she'll resent you?" Naruto had asked that, but Sasuke said, "Even so, I still believe the light of the future is more important."

Outside the room, Boruto silently watched Sarada curl into a ball, squatting with her arms wrapped around her legs, holding herself close. Her face was filled with sadness and... confusion.

"Well, Sarada, choosing to endure loneliness alone, wandering through this godforsaken wilderness, carrying out that so-called work of protecting the village—that alone is a kind of torment!"

Sarada paused, then turned back to watch Boruto slowly approach. The smile on his face no longer seemed so carefree. It carried a little more concern, just as it had when he said yesterday that he would accompany her to find her dad.

"He just has reasons that keep him from leaving. Choosing to endure loneliness alone and reject family affection doesn't mean he's heartless. On the contrary, it means the burden on his shoulders is too heavy—so heavy that he has no choice but to make himself heartless."

"Boruto..." Sarada called softly, curious as to why he knew so much.

"Ah, after you left yesterday, I kept using the Transformation Technique to gain access and looked up all the information on Uncle Sasuke."

Sarada: ...

Behind Boruto, Naruto had been sighing over how his son had grown up and become more sensible. But upon hearing that, the smile on his face instantly froze.

Good grief, what exactly have you been doing with my facial recognition?