[Boruto AU]

i.

Boruto's fourteen when he leaves the village to travel with Sasuke. He's fourteen, a chunin, when he practically begs Sasuke to take him with him.

Sasuke had only looked at him when he asked and questioned him if he was sure about traveling with him.

Boruto can still remember himself nodding his head so eagerly that he felt it felt at risk of falling off.

His mom, his sister, and surprisingly his dad too are all there to see him off. Sarada and her mom are there too but they're mostly paying attention to Sasuke and from the corner of his eye Boruto can see Sakura giving a quick kiss to Sasuke when Sarada looked away to search for something in her bag.

Seeing that, Boruto feels like he's intruding on something incredibly private.

ii.

The two of them have been traveling together for about a week and a half when Boruto finally asks about training.

He already knows different techniques and Wind Style Justus but he doesn't want to build upon them any further, no, he wants to learn more.

They don't start off immediately. Sasuke hasn't trained him anything physically since they've left Konoha. Instead when they can, the two of them would sit in the shade of a tree and Sasuke would teach Boruto about the origin of different clans and Shinobi history.

Boruto has stopped questioning Sasuke's teaching methods long ago. He knows that Sasuke doesn't do anything without reason and so he trusts in his teacher's method.

Boruto misses Konoha. It's only been a week and a half but he misses Konoha so much. His mom, his sister, hell he even misses his dad.

He doesn't know how Sasuke does it, staying away from everyone must be hard on him.

"Hey, Uncle," Boruto softly speaks out.

They're just walking in the woods, his lessons are done and when he feels Sasuke's eyes on him he continues, "How do you do it?"

"You'll have to be more specific," he hears Sasuke say.

Boruto stops, his eyes don't look up from the ground they've been focused on for the past while. "Don't you miss them?"

He's suddenly even more homesick and now asking Sasuke about this makes of think of Sarada too.

"Aa," Sasuke sighs. "I do."

"So how do you deal with it?" Boruto wonders. "How do you not get lonely or homesick or—"

"You don't," Sasuke answered, he's no longer looking at Boruto, but to the trees and the plants all around him, his mismatched eyes slowly taking everything in. "You don't. I'm protecting Konoha, I'm protecting them, and knowing that they're safe and sound is enough for me."

For as long as Boruto has traveled with Sasuke, he has never once sent a messenger hawk or some kind of letter to his wife or Sarada. Sasuke had said that they couldn't, it was too risky.

"But can't you protect them from the inside? Can't you visit or send letters? What about—"

"Sakura's strong, she can take care of herself if need be," Sasuke states. "Sarada is of Uchiha bloodline, and as strong as she is, there will always be someone willing to do whatever it takes to get their hands on the sharingan."

Boruto stays quiet. Sarada. He misses her too.

"There are just some things that can't be done if you want the people you love to stay safe." Boruto hears Sasuke whisper.

This isn't about redemption, this is about love, Boruto thinks and suddenly he finds that he can understand the way his Uncle does things a little bit better.

iii.

Sasuke's chokutō, Boruto remembers, is known as the Sword of Kusanagi, the literal meaning of it being the Grass-Mowing Sword, but it's also known as the Snake Sword. It's long almost reaching his mid-chest when he makes the blade stand up. The blade is so sharp, so thin, that Boruto can see why it's name translates to Grass-Mowing Sword, when he holds the sword he can practically feel the blade slicing the air even as it stays still and he can only imagine what it'd be like to swipe at the grass.

Sasuke first teaches him different positions in which to hold the sword. He doesn't teach Boruto how to swing or wield it just yet.

"Hey, Uncle?"

"Hm." Sasuke nudges Boruto's feet just a little bit more and the sword in Boruto's hand shifts ever so slightly as his teacher fixes his position.

Sasuke's different from most of his academy teachers. He's patient and blunt and makes sure you understand every little detail of what you're doing from the origin and history of it to the techniques used and how to wield it in the most efficient way possible.

Did you ever teach Sarada, Boruto wants to say. "How do you know when you love someone?"

Boruto's been thinking a lot about it lately. He misses his mom and sister and dare he say it his old man too.

He's also been thinking about all his friends, Iwabee, Denki, Shikadai, and for some reason he's been thinking about Sarada too. Maybe it's because of how he's been traveling with Sasuke, but lately he's also been seeing how his Uncle and Sarada share certain characteristics and differ in others and it makes him miss her.

"It depends."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what I just said." Right because Uncle Sasuke doesn't like wasting words. "It's different for everyone," Sasuke explains.

"What was it like for you?" Boruto knows that Sarada's mom had always been in love with Sasuke, but he's never actually heard about Sasuke's side. "When did you realize it?"

"The first time was as a kid. The second was when I was sixteen and realized I loved Sakura," Sasuke answers and damn compared to what Boruto's heard about Sarada's mom, Sasuke took a lot longer.

Boruto notices the faraway look that his Uncle has in his eyes, well he can't technically see Sasuke's left eye but he can see the right eye and the look in them makes Boruto stop questioning Sasuke.

What he didn't expect was Sasuke to continue. "I fell in love again when I was nineteen."

Sarada, Boruto realizes is that love, but then he wonders who was it that Sasuke loved as a child.

Boruto listens carefully to Sasuke as he talks. "Sometimes you don't even realize when you fall."

iv.

With every passing day. Boruto learns more about Sasuke. Sure Boruto knows things about Sasuke even before he decided to tag along with Sasuke, but now he's learning even more.

Boruto knows that Sasuke always feeds stray animals and he means always.

Boruto learns that Sasuke keeps two photos of Sarada in his coat pocket, one of her as a child and the other is more recent. There's also a photo of Sakura in the pocket opposite.

Boruto knows that on the days that Sasuke teaches him about clan history it means that Sasuke misses his family. Sasuke once told him that in the Uchiha clan learning the fireball jutsu is a coming-of-age ceremony and that he had taught Sarada it.

Boruto learns that the Sasuke's heart is divided into three parts. The first is small and reserved for the people close to him, his clan and friends, Boruto learns later on as they travel more. The second and third parts are evenly
split, one is held by someone Boruto only knows as the someone from his Uncle's childhood, Itachi, Boruto remembers his name. And the other is held purely by Sakura and Sarada.

~~~~
Written by arahabaki