Boruto made sure to get out of the carriage first and offered Sarada his hand. He escorted her inside as professionally as possible, despite the aching in his chest.
In the ballroom, there were enough people to make up a village. Rather than attempting to make conversation, he led Sarada to a long table with bountiful deserts and paused to get a plate.
A young boy approached and elbowed Boruto in the side. He seemed to be almost an entire head taller than the last time they met, but he still had the same odd hairstyle; a little poof for bangs with two small c shaped curls by his ears.
"Tento?!"
"Yo, Boruto! Did you get a girlfriend? She's pretty."
Boruto's nose twitched, but he ignored the oncoming feeling of jealousy. "This is Uchiha Sarada... You remember her right? She's my teammate."
Calling her nothing more than a teammate at this point was killing him on the inside. Especially with the way Tento was eyeing her.
"Hm. She's kind of my style..." Tento bowed in exaggeration. "May I have a dance, milady?"
Boruto expected Sarada to flat out decline, but when there was silence, he shifted his gaze to see her looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
"You know what Tento, on second thought, she's my date for tonight. So I'd prefer if you didn't try and steal her from me."
"Hm? Your date is she..." Tento leaned forward, his still small (at least, in comparison to Boruto) and round self taunting Boruto with his beady black eyes. "I bet you aren't brave enough to kiss her!"
Boruto sighed. "Tento, are you still into being a ninja?"
"I've been practicing throwing shuriken ever since that day! And I can throw it really good now. Come to the backyard with your date and maybe I'll give you a demonstration," he suggested, raising his eyebrows in Sarada's direction. "That being said Boruto, you dodged the question. If you can't kiss her right here and right now, then I have the right to take her to dance. All guys can kiss their date... Even adults."
"I don't see you with one," he sneered, but nevertheless, he knew the little redhead wasn't going to leave him alone until he did something. "Watch closely, Tento. I'll show you how a ninja kisses a girl."
Forming a plus sign with the mid-joints of his fingers, Boruto materialized a shadow clone. He leaned in and kissed both of Sarada's cheeks simultaneously, earning him a forehead flick. The real one didn't hurt. The other one dematerialized his shadow clone on impact.
Getting the hint, he pretended like he was in pain. "Ow! What did you do that for?" He rubbed at his head.
"Don't embarrass me in public!" Sarada moved onto the food. "Come on, let's just get something to eat and go home."
Tento was grinning. "Way better than the sexy types at home... And besides, you call that a kiss? Everyone knows that a real kiss is on the lips."
"Oh yeah?" Boruto leaned over the shortie. "Well then you'd also know that girls wear this stuff called lipstick, and if you kiss them while they're wearing it, it gets all over your face... Tastes pretty good though."
Tento blinked a few times. "How many girls have you kissed?"
Boruto smirked back. "Just that one." He looked over his shoulder at Sarada as she gathered some food and put it onto a plate. "But just so you know, that's a secret. My dad doesn't even know about it."
"Oh!" His eyes began to sparkle in a new light. "Forbidden love stories are always interesting... If that's the case, I'll be cheering you on, Boruto!"
"Hm," he smirked. "Good luck finding your own date for tonight, Tento!" He waved the Feudal Lord's son off and went back to Sarada's side.
"Did you really have to shadow clone kiss me?"
"I've always wanted to try it," he snickered, stealing a grape skewer off of her plate. "Hopefully no one else but him was paying close attention to who we were... Or else I'd be getting killed by Sasuke-san a bit too early."
She rolled her eyes. "Papa won't kill you... I don't think."
"Easy for you to say. Both my parents love you. And your dad already volunteered to kill me once. I don't think he'd have a problem killing me for you."
Sarada sighed. "Can we talk about less depressing topics while we're at a ball this fancy? And stop stealing my food! The same things are literally right there!"
"Ah, but then it wouldn't be fun to take it, now would it?" He smirked and stole a macaron from her plate.
"Boruto..."
"Yeah yeah, I'll stop," he laughed, enjoying himself a bit too much. "Hey Sarada... Do you think we should really dance? I mean... They might not be expecting us to do anything... And for the sake of appearances, it might be better if--"
A Tento look-a-like appeared behind them and cut him off. "Boruto!"
"Ah, you must be Tento's father." He bowed in greeting. "Nice to see you again, sir."
"No need to be so formal, you saved my son's life! I'm so glad to see you here as the representative for Konoha... And you must be Sasuke's daughter! I've heard great things about you."
Sarada smiled and lowered her head.
"That being said, it was a requirement on the invitation that the couple arriving knew how to ballroom dance... I can't say I expected someone of your age to show up!"
"Don't worry," Sarada smiled, taking Boruto's arm again. "We took lessons just for the occasion."
"Is that so?" His suit tie jiggled as he laughed. "Careful not to take the bubbly drinks from the waiters walking around, or you might find yourself a bit wobbly on the dance floor... And enjoy your night!"
As he walked away, Boruto lowered his voice. "A requirement? What did he mean?"
"Maybe there's some sort of event... I'm not sure." Sarada popped a cracker topped with dill infused havarti and bruschetta into her mouth. "I just know this food is delicious... I'm envious of Tento for getting to eat like this every day."
Boruto wrinkled his nose. "He's clearly taken an interest in you. Give him the dance he wants and maybe he'd invite you back to eat more."
"Jealous?"
"Only because you didn't refuse him like you usually do. What, do you actually have an interest in rich princes?"
"Hm... I suppose. But only ones that are blonde with blue eyes that go by the last name of Uzumaki and the first name of Boruto."
His eyes fell onto the red bow that pulled back her bangs. "You're insufferable."
"And here I thought I was complimenting you," she smiled, turning around to look up at him and make his heart do a weird thing.
Boruto cast his gaze to the ceiling. "The chandeliers in here sure are big."
"Makes you wonder what would happen if one crashed down. Do you think I could shannaro it hard enough to save everyone in the room?"
"Your saying your intrusive thoughts out loud again," he smirked, gaze wandering to the orchestra. "But if it falls, don't you dare try to stand in the middle and punch it... Or I'll probably end up in Momoshiki mode just to save you. Do you think they'll play any of the music from the game?"
"Maybe, but my guess is they'll play mostly Tchaikovsky... Or Strauss."
As he popped a second mini macaron into his mouth, this one baby blue and tasting slightly of butterfly pea tea, another guest approached them.
"Did you put in your request with the orchestra yet?"
"...Request?"
"You're the representatives from Konoha village, correct? Two young kids wearing white and red. Most of the gallery knows you... But it seems like it's your first time at one of these events. The orchestra musicians are highly skilled. They can play quite the array of pieces... If you suggest something, they might just have the music on hand. You are going to waltz later, correct? If you can't, it would be quite the embarrassment."
Sarada straightened her back. "We can." She slipped her gloved hand back into Boruto's arm. "Thank you for informing us about the ability to request music. Perhaps we'll show off a bit."
Boruto nudged her with his arm, but her smile only glared daggers at the man who had practically insulted them for being the youngest ones there.
The man shuffled himself away, and Sarada was back to her plate of food. "What do you want to dance to?"
"...I'll leave it up to you."
"It's likely that they'll know the Sleeping Beauty Waltz, given that it's by Tchaikovsky..."
"How do you know so much about music," he questioned, stealing a pudding desert in a wine glass. "I thought you didn't know any of the fairy tales?"
"I didn't," she replied. "But after we left the game... I did a lot of research on the movies and the books we played through."
He smiled at the tint of blush dusting her cheeks, and then turned to his desert. Rather than a pudding, it was more of a sweet milky crème flavored desert with layers of cherry blossom Jell-O. He was beginning to see why Sarada was enjoying the food so much.
"If that's the one you want, we should request it," he said, eyeing another couple approaching the musicians. "Someone else might ask for it before us."
"Even if we dance to the same piece, I think our waltz will be better..."
"You can't say that for sure," he laughed, smiling at her obvious confidence. "Although for being this young, I guess we have no choice but to stand out the most... You have a crumb on your face."
"Where?"
Boruto shot a quick glance left and right. And seeing as though the other guests were occupied with the food or conversation, he ducked his head and kissed the corner of her lips. "There."
Immediately flushing red, Sarada covered her mouth with one hand and hissed, "I-Idiot, what if someone saw?"
"I'm starting to care less and less," he smirked, offering his arm and leading her over to the orchestra, standing tall. "Tonight and only tonight, as representatives of Konoha village, I declare Uchiha Sarada my personal princess."
"...You have a little bit of lipstick on the corner of your mouth now."
His hand was on his face in a flash, rubbing at his skin. "Did I get it off?"
"Oh? What happened to your carefree attitude?"
"I can't go around with lipstick on my mouth. People are going to think I'm being indecent."
"And kissing me isn't?" She laughed, her hand squeezing his arm a smidge tighter and leaving her empty plate on a waiter's tray. "Let's just request our piece and show off, idiot Boruto."
"Alright..."