Childhood

The Kidnapping

Tomorrow came and went. But Naruto was too busy to take a break and train Boruto and Sarada.

He even suggested that Boruto try and do it himself, telling him how awesome he was for learning the jutsu in such a short time, and that a genius like him should have no problem teaching Sarada. But Boruto already tried. He knew that it wasn't possible. If it wasn't his dad, it wouldn't work. 

After a few more attempts of begging his father and suffering the embarrassment of telling Sarada he wasn't coming today either, he finally gave up.

He thought Sarada was going to be angry, or even worse, make fun of him with that stupid mocking voice she used sometimes. But she didn't do any of that. 

She just put her hand on his shoulder and told him it was ok with a gentle smile. She understood. And somehow, that made him even more frustrated with his father. 

"Speaking of dads, is your dad coming home anytime soon?"

"Papa..." With that one singular word, Sarada seemed like she was going to cry. He decided not to ask anymore. Instead, he gently rested his hand on her head, and with one last forlorn look over his shoulder, he slowly walked away. 

As the weeks went by, Sarada started hanging around Cho-Cho even more. She called Boruto a stupid boy for learning his dad's secret transformation jutsu. That made him angry enough to avoid her for an entire week. Just when he thought they were finally understanding each other, she had to go and be mean to him again.

Shikadai eventually coaxed him out of his bad mood, saying that if Boruto was a stupid boy, so was he. After that, Boruto decided that Shikadai was his best friend. And he called Sarada a stupid girl right back.

With Boruto's shadow clones, they were evenly matched in playing ninja. And that made Sarada frustrated. Suddenly, Boruto found himself enjoying teasing her more than he wanted to be her friend. He teamed up with Shikadai and played pranks on the villagers right under her nose, only to see her shake her fist at him and give him the nickname 'stupid Boruto.'

One day when they were seven and a half, Boruto was hanging out with Shikadai when Cho-Cho ran up to them in a panic. Before talking, she stopped, panting. And that was when Boruto noticed. She wasn't holding potato chips. "Sarada got kidnapped!"

Boruto's heart dropped. Outwardly, he ignored it. Why should he pay attention to her when she had been nothing but rude to him lately? So what if she got kidnapped. Someone would bring her back.

Shikadai put down his console and turned to Cho-Cho. "Where? How?"

"They said something about her being an Uchiha, and her dad's special eyes... What should we do? The guys that took her looked strong."

At the mention of father's, Boruto decided he wanted to save her himself. To prove to his stupid dad that he was too good for his training. To prove that he had gotten stronger. To prove that Sarada didn't need her dad either. 

"Cho-Cho. Which way did they go?"

"I think we should tell our parents..."

The thought of her getting kidnapped because of something to do with her dad irked him to no end. Her dad never came home. It made her angry. It made her cry. And that made him mad. He wanted to punch something. And he might as well take it out on bad guys. "I'll go chase them."

"You can't fight them alone!" Cho-Cho crossed her arms. "They were big! And strong!"

"Fine, tell our parents. But I'm not going to sit around and wait for my dad who's too busy to even train us!" 

"Sounds like a pain... but I'll go with him," said Shikadai. "I just learned shadow paralysis jutsu... I can use it on any opponent, no matter how strong they are and stop their movement. Cho-Cho, you tell the first adult ninja you find to come help us."