I've been out of the Naruto fandom for years, since even before the original series ended, but a recent bout of random curiosity made me return to find out what had happened to the characters, and I started getting into Boruto: Naruto Next Generations. I'm especially loving the family bonding scenes and the adorable flames of youth that are Boruto and Sarada (with honourable mentions to Mitsuki, whom I also love). Do I ship it? You bet I do! This fic was born out of a desire for some BoruSara, as well as an interest in exploring the Sarada/Sasuke and Boruto/Naruto conflicts. The modern AU setting has forced me to change the details a bit, but I've tried to stay true to the spirit of the relationships. That said, I would totally appreciate any constructive criticism from anyone who feels I'm getting into OOC territory. To be honest, I'm kind of nervous about posting this because I'm not even up to date on all of Boruto, so I'm a little worried that I may just have made everyone OOC, but I was too excited about this little story to wait until I was caught up.

Just a note for anyone who is questioning the fact that my story summary painted Sasuke and Naruto as worst enemies: don't worry too much! Keep in mind that a) we're mostly getting the perspectives of Sarada and Boruto, who are total outsiders to that relationship, and b) there's room for development in the Sasuke/Naruto bond as well, which is also one I intend to give some attention to in this story. That's another relationship that's always been a favourite of mine, so I have no intention of making them fight to the death or anything like that, haha.

Disclaimer: Do I own any part of the Naruto or Boruto series? You bet I don't!

CHAPTER 1

Sarada Uchiha stared glumly at the elegantly framed certificate singling her out as the student with the highest GPA in her year, feeling bitter and defeated. The walls of her bedroom were decorated with a number of similar awards, but she wasn't even going to bother putting this one up. In fact, maybe she'd take down all the others. They had all proven to be useless to her, anyway.

It wasn't that she didn't value good grades or take pride in her ability to achieve them—she did. But she recognized that, practically, there was no real need to be at the top of the class every single time for every single assignment. No need, that is, unless you were trying to impress your father. Your father who happened to be Sasuke Uchiha: wealthy and powerful head of the Uchiha Corporation, brilliant and cutthroat businessman, notoriously intimidating, and officially impossible to impress.

After twenty-one years, it was time for her to face it: her strategy of being the perfect daughter to earn her illustrious father's attention and respect had failed spectacularly, possibly even backfired. After all her academic awards, extracurricular achievements, and filial submissiveness, he was as distant as ever: still going on long business trips that meant she didn't see or hear from him for months at a time, still cold and untalkative on the occasions when she did see him, still limiting himself to rare, stilted words of praise that were usually painstakingly coaxed out of him by blatantly leading questions from Sarada's mother. No degree of perfection was perfect enough for Sasuke Uchiha, apparently.

Either that, or he had simply gotten so used to her doing whatever he wanted regardless of how he treated her that he saw no reason to provide her with any sort of acknowledgment. In fact it was this latter explanation that she was banking on, because despite everything, she wasn't quite ready to give up entirely. Even if she wasn't the ideal Uchiha her father wanted, she was still definitely an Uchiha, and Uchihas weren't quitters. No—what she needed was a new approach.

So far, she had logically settled on this: if being perfect and obedient wasn't working, then maybe it was time to be imperfect and disobedient.

The question was, how? Rebellion didn't exactly come naturally after so many years of deference. And eager as she was to show her father that he couldn't expect blind obedience from her while offering nothing in return, she wasn't going to be completely irresponsible about it; she had no desire to do anything extreme enough to potentially negatively affect her life in the long term, such as flunk out of university or commit a crime. Nor did she plan to be juvenile and frankly embarrassing about it, either. She thought disdainfully of someone like Boruto Uzumaki, her long-time classmate who had spent much of his time in middle and high school pulling stupid pranks in a pathetically obvious bid for his own father's attention. She had always been above that sort of thing.

Then she straightened suddenly, adjusting her glasses on her face as she often did when she was thinking hard about something. Boruto Uzumaki. There could be some possibilities there…

Scooting over to her laptop where it sat on her desk, she typed in Boruto's name on Facebook. They weren't friends, but his page was largely public, so she could still see a number of photographs featuring familiar spiky blond hair and bright blue eyes. His current profile pic showed him grinning broadly next to a young man with unusual golden eyes and tousled whitish-blue hair—probably a new friend from college, since she didn't recognize him from their high school class.

What she didn't see as she skimmed through Boruto's albums were any photos of his father. Naruto Uzumaki headed the Hokage Corporation and was as famous and successful in the business world as Sasuke Uchiha, though she knew her father would be loath to admit it, thanks to the decades-long rivalry that had developed between the two of them back when they'd been students together. The fact that as working adults they now competed for many of the same deals, partnerships, and target markets had only intensified their antagonism over the years. Their hostility toward each other was by now so legendary, and somehow accepted, that they rarely even bothered to pretend to be civil to each other in public anymore. As a result, it had always been a kind of unspoken rule for Sarada that she was not to associate with Boruto, Naruto's son, even though they'd been in the same class for years.

Although she had accordingly avoided Boruto without complaint—not too difficult to do, as she'd found his immaturity, pettiness, and plain old loudness less than appealing—Sarada had always a felt a secret kinship of sorts with him, suspecting from his behaviour that they shared similar paternal conflicts. As a child and teen, Boruto had made no secret of the fact that he strongly resented his father (and to Sarada, who had some experience in these matters, it had been equally obvious that he desperately sought some kind of acknowledgment from him); hence the stupid pranks and his various other reckless misadventures. He had even clearly disliked being told how much he looked like his father, even though the striking resemblance was undeniable.

Now, she wondered if that evidently rocky relationship had improved at all in the three years since he'd come to university. Because if it hadn't, there was a chance Boruto Uzumaki might make an effective ally, and she was willing to set aside the Uchiha/Uzumaki feud in the name of a greater cause. Besides, it was her father's feud, and she was all about disobedience now.

Of course, a public Facebook profile was hardly going to give her all the information she needed to see if this was feasible. She didn't want to contact Boruto directly right away; it seemed a little crude somehow, and would be deeply humiliating if her assumptions turned out to be wrong. The thought of Boruto Uzumaki of all people laughing in her face left a sour taste in her mouth. But she wasn't the daughter of a brilliant business tactician for nothing. She'd subtly scope out the territory first, and go in for the kill only once she'd confirmed he was vulnerable.

Facebook was a good jumping-off point, at least. She focused on the golden-eyed guy who appeared more often than anyone else in Boruto's most recent photos—no doubt a close friend, possibly a roommate, and exactly the kind of in she needed. Mitsuki was his name, apparently, and his own page revealed him to be a biology student. Not much to go on just yet, but it was a start.

She unceremoniously dropped her highest GPA award in a desk drawer and closed it, done with lamenting failed strategies. If there anything she'd learned from her father—by example, not by personal teaching, because it wasn't like he'd ever taken the time to show her anything himself—it was that to get what you wanted, you had to be smart, persistent, and when necessary, devious.

Now he was going to find out just how much she'd taken that lesson to heart.

Sarada felt somehow vindicated when the mysterious Mitsuki turned out to be a surprisingly easy target, as if it were a sign that fate was on her side.

The initial clue about his studies in biology had led to the discovery that he worked as a research assistant in the laboratory of Professor Orochimaru, a senior biology prof at Konoha University who was well-known, and a figure of some controversy, for his cutting-edge medical experiments that tested the limits of the human body. Sarada knew vaguely of his work because he had at one point approached the Uchiha Corporation about a potential business deal involving some technology he was developing, but the talks had ultimately fallen through. Although some in the scientific community questioned his ethics, Orochimaru was still a highly regarded researcher and his lab held considerable prestige; this Mitsuki had to be a bright student in order to have earned a position there. The kind of student who would go to his professor's office hours, even during the summer.

So, after looking up Orochimaru's office hours online, Sarada made sure to casually amble by the door at the right time, backpack slung over her shoulders so she looked like any other university student. She wandered patiently up and down the hallway just around the corner while keeping an eye on who was coming and going from the office.

When she had the good fortune to spot a familiar figure with bluish-white hair slip out, laptop tucked under his arm, she waited for him to turn the corner and darted smoothly up to him. "Hi."

"Hello," he replied affably, turning to her with a close-lipped smile. His manner was friendly enough, but something about him immediately put her on guard; maybe it was just their unusual colour, but his golden eyes seemed to gleam at her in a way that suggested he was both closely analyzing her and laughing at her.

She didn't let that throw off her own amiable act, however. "I noticed you just came out of Professor Orochimaru's office," she commented.

"Yes," he agreed pleasantly, but went no further than that. She tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ears, but his eyes didn't stray from hers to follow the movement. That was a bit of a relief; she'd been wondering if she should try flirting, but she could tell immediately that he wasn't the kind of guy that would work on. She was no good at it anyway.

"If you're a student of his, I was just wondering if I could ask you a few questions about him and his work," she said.

"You're a biology student?" His expression remained politely blank.

"Business," she corrected him; he'd know in a minute that she wasn't a bio major from her lack of knowledge, "but I'm interested in biology too. These days, the future of business lies in science, and vice versa."

"I see," he said, not sounding particularly interested, but to her surprise, he then continued the conversation himself. "My roommate is in the business program. I don't suppose you would happen to know him—Boruto Uzumaki?"

She couldn't believe her ears. Here he'd brought up the subject on his own, within two minutes of meeting her, without her having to wrestle anything out of him. "Boruto? Yes, kind of," she admitted, trying to hide her eagerness. "We might have had a class or two together. And we went to the same high school."

"Oh, really?" He perked up a little. "Who are you?"

"Sarada Uchiha."

"I've heard of you," he said thoughtfully. "You're very smart, apparently."

She resented that "apparently" a little—was he insinuating that he thought her intelligence was just a rumour?—but she forged on, not to be deterred from her goal. "Well, thank you. Anyway, about Orochimaru—"

"Are you sure you wouldn't prefer to talk about Boruto?" he interrupted her, still sounding perfectly serene.

That stopped her dead in her tracks. She hadn't told anyone about her plan! Had he literally read her mind? Was Orochimaru experimenting on his own students now, turning them into psychics?

"I don't mean to offend you," he went on smoothly, "it's just that this happens quite often."

"What does?" she asked, honestly confused.

"Women approach me to ask about Boruto," he replied. When she continued to stare at him, obviously not getting it, he clarified, "Because they're in love with him."

What the hell!? "I am not in love with Boruto," she exclaimed hotly, immediately abandoning all pretense of friendliness.

"I see," he said again, sounding no more interested than he'd been the first time he'd used the phrase. "In that case, goodbye."

With that, he gave her another smile, identical to the one he'd greeted her with, and kept on walking.

She was stunned by the sudden strange turn this conversation had taken, but not stunned enough to give up. "Mitsuki! Wait."

He turned around willingly enough. "You already know my name," he observed. "You must have done your research." Yes, she certainly had, but not for the reasons he thought!

In a desperate snap judgment, she decided to discard all subterfuge. Much as she disliked the idea of Boruto's roommate reporting back to him that Sarada Uchiha's daddy issues had risen to a level where she was asking for his help (she'd always planned on telling Boruto the truth from the start, but she didn't exactly want his entire social circle to know), it was a heck of a lot better than Boruto's roommate reporting back to him that Sarada Uchiha was in love with him. She still had some dignity.

"Listen." Hands on her hips, she marched up to Mitsuki with the steely, authoritative expression that told people she would make them understand whether they wanted to or not. He blinked down at her, looking genuinely startled for the first time. "I am interested in Boruto, but it has nothing to do with love."

"Then why?"

She sighed, really wishing the discussion hadn't come to this point. She still maintained that approaching Mitsuki first had been a good strategy; it was her execution that obviously needed work. "It's a long story."

It actually wasn't that long a story, at least not the heavily abridged version she gave him while cornering him against the wall of the biology department hallway so he couldn't leave until she was sure he believed her. And he listened very attentively, his slightly hypnotic eyes closing every minute or so and then reopening slowly, as if to carefully absorb what he was hearing. Well, either that or he was falling asleep listening to her; he wasn't exactly easy to read.

"...and that's why I just need some basic information from you, about his relationship status and such, to find out whether Boruto would be a good candidate for this," she finally finished, oddly relieved now that it was out in the open. Deceit didn't really suit her.

"In essence, you want to use my friend for your petty revenge," he summarized. Somehow, the way he said it so matter-of-factly—there was no judgmental inflection in his voice—made it seem all the more condemnatory.

She bristled at the derogatory description—after twenty-one years of doing what she was told, this rebellion was not petty—but she wasn't going to get into the emotional details with this guy, and she couldn't exactly deny it. "Well," she said through clenched teeth, "in essence, yes."

For a minute he just looked at her with that sly golden gaze, face totally unreadable, and she resisted the urge to squirm. (Uchihas did not squirm.) Was he gearing up to ream her out for trying to drag his friend into her family drama? So far he seemed like the laid-back, calm type, but those ones were always the scariest when they snapped...

Then he suddenly smiled, eyes crinkling. Unlike his previous smiles, she thought this one might actually be sincere.

"How interesting. I think you and Boruto would make a good couple," he said brightly. "I'll help. What do you want to know?"

To tell the truth, Boruto had always had a certain curiosity about the sole Uchiha heiress, although he had never thought it worth the trouble to pursue, given what was sure to be an explosively negative reaction from his father and the fact that she herself seemed unlikely to welcome any friendly overtures. She had an untouchable air to her, with her uptight and assertive demeanour, her academic prowess, and of course her status as the daughter of a very powerful man. Perhaps she wasn't quite as intimidating as her cutthroat businessman of a father, but she had a strong presence nonetheless.

It was a little exhilarating, he had to admit, to have all that fierce attention focused on him, her piercing black eyes fixed on him and nothing else behind those distinctive red-rimmed glasses.

Maybe that was why he was still here listening to her proposition, instead of running the other way like any sane person should have.

He'd received a rather cryptic text from his roommate earlier that afternoon, asking him to meet later at a small, uncrowded cafe near campus. When he'd shown up and taken a seat at a table for two, however, he'd been joined a couple of minutes later not by Mitsuki but by Sarada Uchiha. She'd settled gracefully onto the opposite seat and given him a curt hello, to which he had somewhat rudely replied, "Sarada? Uh, I'm kind of waiting for someone, so…"

She had proceeded to inform him in a businesslike manner that he'd actually been waiting for her, which made no sense, and had then launched into a positively surreal speech about his dad, her dad, and dating, giving him no opportunity for interruptions. He'd had to pinch himself several times under the table to make sure he wasn't asleep and dreaming.

When she was finally through, he only had about a million questions. He wasn't sure where to start. For that matter, he wasn't even sure this person was really Sarada Uchiha and not some lunatic impostor somehow wearing her face and voice. Not that he claimed to know her well, but based on what he did know, this was totally out of character for her.

"So, what you're saying is," he summed up incredulously, "you think we should start dating just to piss off our dads."

"Correct," she said crisply. "It's a solid setup. We're both single so we have no other commitments, it's summer so we have time to spend going on dates, we both have reason to want to get back at our fathers, and said fathers conveniently despise each other, which means any relationship between us is sure to upset them."

He stared at her. "Okay, first of all, what makes you so sure I'm single, and why would you think I would want to actively piss off my dad?"

"I did my research," she said simply. When he raised an eyebrow at her, she specified, "I talked to your roommate."

"Mitsuki?" He tried to picture how a conversation between prim Sarada and his eccentric roommate, on the subject of him, would go. His imagination drew a blank. "When? What did he say?"

"A few days ago. He just answered my basic questions on the current state of your life and relationships. Among other things, he confirmed that you're single with no current objects of romantic interest, and that you've resented your father for years for prioritizing work over his family and hypocritically criticizing you for doing the same kinds of things he did when he was younger. And he agreed to help me set this up."

Right—he suddenly remembered that he'd been supposed to meet Mitsuki here, a fact that his shock had temporarily pushed out of his mind. Well, that explained that. But not why Mitsuki, who wasn't even a particularly talkative person normally, would discuss Boruto's personal life with Sarada Uchiha of all people.

"Why would he do any of this?" Note to self: start watching what you say around your roommate. The guy obviously listened carefully and was apparently willing to share what he heard with anyone who asked.

"I have no idea," she admitted readily, "but he volunteered it all quite willingly, once I told him what my goal was. He did seem a bit...strange. Maybe you should rethink your choice of roommates."

"Hey, Mitsuki's my friend," Boruto protested, instinctively defending him despite not being too thrilled with him either at the moment.

She shrugged in easy acceptance. "The company you keep is your business. I can assure you that as your girlfriend, I won't try to interfere in your private affairs."

"Uh, isn't 'interfering in each other's private affairs' kind of the definition of dating?"

"I suppose, if you're genuinely interested in the person," she allowed. "But for us, it would be a business arrangement. The whole point of this is that I'm not interested in you for you. I'm interested in you for who your father is."

That actually kind of stung, even though she'd been clear about it from the start. It wasn't the first time someone had approached him just because he was Naruto Uzumaki's son. At least she was totally upfront about it.

Boruto pictured what his old man's face would look like if he found out his son was dating Sarada Uchiha. Okay, he could see where she was coming from; that might be kind of satisfying. Then he pictured what Sasuke Uchiha's face would look like if he found out his daughter was dating Boruto Uzumaki. That seemed like it might be less satisfying; there was a distinct possibility the guy might actually have him assassinated.

"It would be very low-demand and low-risk," Sarada was saying matter-of-factly. "All we'd have to do is go out in public together every now and then so the news of our relationship gets back to our parents."

"Low-risk?" Boruto echoed doubtfully. "No offense, but have you met your father? He's literally famous for being scary."

His cowardice earned him a look of cutting disdain. "What do you think he's going to do, have you assassinated?"

"I don't know, is that something he's done to your boyfriends in the past?" he shot back, only half-jokingly.

She sighed and pursed her lips. "Look, I can't force you to cooperate. If you're so against it, you don't have to do it, obviously. But if you're at all interested in getting your dad's attention to show him once and for all that you're not going to live your life by his rules, then you're passing up a great opportunity."

She rested her folded hands on the table in front of her and looked at him expectantly, waiting for his final answer.

He considered it, considered her. He'd never been close to Sarada, but after having gone to school with her for most of his life, he'd seen enough of her to know that, unlike him, she didn't do anything recklessly. When she took a risk, it was because she'd examined it from all angles, eliminated all other possibilities, and decided it was one hundred percent worth it, no regrets. So if Sarada Uchiha thought this crazy, very un-Sarada-Uchiha-like plan could succeed...well, she probably knew better than he did, not that he'd ever admit that to her.

He took a deep breath. "Fine, I'm in."

An approving spark in her gaze, she held out her hand to shake. He took it, finding her grip strong and self-assured.

"So, what should I call you?" he asked casually. At her quizzical look, he suggested, "Babycakes? Snookums? Honeybunch? Snugglemuffin?"

When those keen eyes of hers narrowed in a glare, he leaned back in his seat and grinned.

This might actually turn out to be pretty fun.

A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope I managed to retain your interest through all the exposition. Please let me know how you think I did with the characterization, the modernization, and everything else!

Also: I feel I should warn you that I have a pretty bad track record with finishing multi-chapter stories. But, I already have quite a few future scenes written out, and I don't plan to make this fic hugely long and ambitious, so I have high hopes for this one.