Hey guys.

So I finally came around to watch Boruto, and needless to say it gave me the inspiration to write this fic. This was initially part of a bigger fic that I was writing, but then I thought about it and felt that the theme of this scene deserved its own entry. As such this is pretty light stuff. Not much, really. I dunno if I will finish that other larger fic (also a oneshot), time will tell (EDIT: Chapter 2 is the complete fic, go check it out).

As per usual with my fics with characters of the new generation, this one is set in the future when Boruto and Sarada are teenagers. Here they're supposed to be 15 or 16.

Anyway, here it is. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masashi and stuff, you know the drill by now.

-o-

It wasn't long past noon. This mission was being pretty easy so far. Too easy even. He didn't understand why a Jounin like his partner had taken a C-rank mission to do. C-ranks were for Chuunins and Genins, not Jounins. You could argue that a 4-man team of 3 Genins with a Jounin as their leader would count as a mission for the Jounin, but of course that wasn't the case here. His partner, as the captain for the mission, had free reign to choose up to 3 other shinobi to accompany her. However, she had only chosen him. She reasoned that he was the strongest Chuunin in the village and as such he would suffice for this C-rank mission. He didn't disagree, but he still found it weird.

The mission was pretty simple, they were to investigate a series of robberies in a small village in the Land of Fire and capture the culprits. Nothing too complicated about it. Of course, the first thing they had set out to do was interrogate the civilians in the area to hopefully get information about the robbers. That's what they had just done. However, he had done almost nothing. Figuring out patterns in stuff like investigating robberies wasn't his thing. Once they were done with the interrogations, his partner told him to go to the outskirts of the small village. There, they found what looked like a table and a few seats made out of stone.

"Here's the map of the area." Sarada opened a large piece of paper and put it down on the stone. She pointed to a straight line in the map, indicative of the village's main road "This is where most of the robberies took place." She then pointed to a spot north the road, a residential area "And this is where the robbers were sighted in one of the nights."

"Hmm…" Boruto nodded as he continued looking at Sarada explaining her train of thought.

"The robberies were reported at 11PM, and the robbers were sighted half an hour later." She said as she traced the likely path the robbers took with her finger "Assuming the worst-case scenario, that they are rogue shinobi, there are three ways they could've gotten from the main road to that residential area in that amount of time. But…" she traced a different path "This way it's the least likely one for them to be seen. It should've been the logical choice. But they managed to be spotted by civilians, so I don't think they went that way. And this one…" she traced yet another path "Has too much open space. You wouldn't want to have to run across such a big clearing. Meaning that this…" she came back to the first path she had traced "Is probably the way they went." She looked from the map up to Boruto "Do you agree?"

"Hmm?" Boruto looked back at her and didn't manage anything but to give a puzzled look. He hadn't heard to most of what she explained, all he knew is that she thought the robbers went one way. And for him, that was good enough.

"Hey, Boruto…" she called "Take this seriously, will you? I'm a Jounin, you know? It'd be really lame if I didn't manage to get this mission complete." She knew that Boruto wouldn't pay any attention to the investigation. He probably wasn't even interested in the mission either, he probably only came because she asked "If you didn't want to come, you could've said so…"

"That's not it." Boruto replied, she kept looking at him. He returned her look "I'm just not good at this investigation thing…"

She sighed and straightened herself "That is why you're not a Jounin yet. You need to get better at these things if you want to progress as a shinobi." She wasn't lying. This was pretty much the only skill Boruto was lacking to become a Jounin. He was really powerful in battle, he even knew 4 chakra natures and was adept at using the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist despite not using the Byakugan, atop of knowing the Rasengan and having created his own variation of it. He was also not a bad leader, not the best but certainly feasible and knew to take the right decisions when the situation called for it. But a Jounin was also expected to take a lot of solo missions and investigating was a really important skill for that.

"My goal doesn't involve progressing by myself." Boruto said, surprising Sarada "Right now I don't need to become a Jounin."

"What? Why?" Sarada asked "What is your goal?"

"I already told you, didn't I?" he said "My goal is to be your guard."

"Eh?" suddenly Sarada felt her cheeks heating up a little. It was true, he had said that he'd become her guard and provide her support on her quest to become Hokage. He hadn't forgotten… She felt… happy to know that. She looked at him, he was avoiding eye contact with her. She was glad to know he was a bit embarrassed to admit that "Ah… is that so…?"

He stopped avoiding her gaze and looked her square in the eye "I don't need to be on the same level as you, being just a bit behind is good enough. When you become an ANBU, I'll become a Jounin. And when you become Hokage, I'll become an ANBU. My job is to support you, not to overtake you. I'll be there to advise you and to protect you whenever you need me to. That is my goal."

"Boruto…" she looked at the blond Chuunin. He was looking at her with determination, he meant what he had just said. It was a promise he was making. He was making the promise that he'd always be at her side to help her. That thought was, somehow, comforting… She felt her cheeks heating up again, but she felt really happy now. She beamed a smile at her partner, and she got the response she wanted, he smiled back. She wished she could stay like this forever…

But instead Boruto took out a kunai and jumped at her. Surprised, she ducked and he passed over her. She heard a clang and Boruto landed just behind her, his back facing hers. That's when she realized, he hadn't jumped at her, he had jumped at the kunai that was aimed at her. She pulled herself together and stood up, staying back-to-back with Boruto. She took out her own kunai and gave a deep breath, calming herself down. Of course, the reason she had chosen this place to analyse the information they had been given was because it was the closest place to the likely location of the robbers' hideout. That way the confrontation would be inevitable.

"How many are there?" Boruto whispered. He looked around, apart from the path which he and Sarada had come in, they were surrounded by trees. The attackers were hidden. Sarada was right in assuming they were shinobi. That kunai was aimed right at her neck. That kind of aim could only have come from a shinobi. He was glad he had noticed it.

"Going by what was told to us by the villagers, there should be four of them here…" Sarada whispered back. She inspected the scenery. The attackers were hidden in the trees, she had to be ready for anything "And another one back at their hideout standing guard. We should take them out and get the location of the hideout from them."

"Seems your worst-case scenario turned out to be true…" Boruto cracked a smile "Let's do this, shall we?"

The confident sound of Boruto's voice didn't fail to put a smile on her face. She knew that these shinobi weren't going to be a challenge, but that wasn't the reason she was smiling. Right now Boruto literally had her back. That thought alone was enough to fill her with confidence, she was just as confident as he was "Yes!"

-o-

That was it! Thanks for reading!

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