Himawari and Ino-Shika-Cho find out the truth, while the parents-to-be struggle with the sudden life changes in their own ways.

Boruto swallowed his heart that kept jumping into his throat along with the excess saliva that threatened to choke him. He knew Himawari had two ways of taking the news: either she was going to be ecstatic about the prospect of having two tiny toddlers to influence, or she'd use her byakugan against him and he'd be lucky to be awake before the babies arrived.

He couldn't help but worry what his little sister would think, and the fear that he let her down consumed him, dragging him down into the dark depths of a spiral until finally Hinata spoke up.

"Have you eaten anything today? Your cheeks have no color."

Sarada snuck a peek at him and nodded in agreement as they rounded the last corner before they arrived home.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine."

"Do you want to talk about it? Was it something Dad said? I know this isn't the most ideal situation, but I'm proud of you for how you handled it and we have time to really plan-"

"No." Boruto shook his head as they pushed open the door to the Uzumaki home. "I just really don't want to disappoint Hima."

"I was joking," Hinata replied carefully, "earlier, about what I said with her being disappointed. I don't think she'll be disappointed in you, Boruto."

"I just have this feeling that she's going to be so upset at me for… for messing up like this." He kicked his shoes off into the corner without bothering to straighten them, and beelined for the kitchen to pour himself some water. The last few days had been so long and he felt like he still had a long way to swim before reaching dry land again, and he couldn't stop his hands from shaking as he raised the glass to his lips.

Sarada and Hinata followed him into the kitchen, and his mother began to pull food out of the refrigerator while Sarada crossed her arms and leaned against the counter, continuing to stare wordlessly at him.

"Do you think you feel she's going to react that way because that's how you feel about yourself?" Hinata asked. "Because you're disappointed in yourself so you feel like that's the reaction you deserve?"

Because you're disappointed in yourself.

He looked back up at Sarada who was quietly sipping a cup of water she poured herself and regarding him with darkened, concerned eyes. Of course he was disappointed in himself. He got his best friend in this situation, he almost lost her forever, and now because of this she was going to have to stay inside for the next seven months when the village could use her strength. Yet here she was, still standing beside him.

Of course he felt he didn't deserve it, the grace he was being given, and thought back again to what Sasuke had said: When it came to family, he needed to act as quickly as possible and work as hard as he could. Did he really have what it took? Could he keep up that strength he showed in his father's office if he was shaking in fear of what his twelve-year-old sister would think?

Sarada seemed to reach into his mind and extract his deepest fears as she spoke directly to them. "It's Hima," she offered quietly. "She adores you. I've seen her put up with your shit more than any other person could. No offense." She smirked.

He shakily set the cup on the counter. "That's easy for you to say: she thinks you're perfect. Sarada Uchiha can do no wrong in her eyes." He rolled his eyes dramatically in a desperate attempt to crack the tension he knew was exuding.

Sarada laughed darkly and pushed his shoulder with hers. "I understand completely, but you realize I'm standing here because of you, right? My whole plan was different twenty-four hours ago." She flinched once, then smirked at him again. "I can't believe I'm complimenting you this much. Just stop overthinking it, you're already annoying me. Go back to being yourself, please."

"It's a part of growing up, Boruto. Facing things you don't want to." Hinata turned toward the teenagers and placed a light hand on her son's shoulder. "You should understand that by now."

The peculiar way his mother was staring at him hit him hard in the gut. Maybe he did know how to do that. He showed that just months ago with Kawaki afterall. Maybe true strength came from being scared and doing it anyway. But this journey was vastly different from the one he prepared for as a shinobi, he had to admit, and in his gut he'd still carry, for years after his children were born and began their own ascent and descent, the dark fear that he'd somehow still fuck it all up.

Himawari was days away from graduation and she could almost feel the cool, smooth metal and soft fabric of her awaiting headband on her fingertips.

Of course it was still locked away in a cabinet in Shino-sensei's office, but she was confident enough in her skills that she knew she'd pass the graduation exam on the first try, especially if she was able to use her byakugan that she had been busy training with, especially of late.

She and her friends had already been discussing the various ways they could wear it- wrapped around their arm, waist, maybe as a headband as she saw Aunt Sakura do in a picture- but she already decided that she was going to use it as the forehead protector the way it was always intended.

She was wrapped up in this fantasy as she returned home that evening, and she kicked her shoes off into the corner before scurrying into the kitchen to see what her mother had made for dinner, hoping she could show her what she had learned in sparring practice after school.

But instead of just her mother greeting her in the kitchen, she walked into the sight of Sarada and Boruto standing at the kitchen counter, their heads pushed together in a secret world that the youngest Uzumaki was used to seeing but had been missing since Sarada had been MIA the last few weeks.

She waved away her mother and brother, and immediately lunged toward the older girl, wrapping her arms around the girl's waist.

"Sarada!"

Hima had grown attached to Sarada in the previous years. She had always looked up to the Uchiha girl as the older sister she never had, but ever since she became a part of Boruto's team she had come around a lot more, and Hima sought her out more than once for advice on the academy, the dumb boys in her class, and even their jutsus.

After all, she was one of the only people she knew with a dojutsu who also didn't try to tell her what to do with hers.

"H-Hey, Hima."

Sarada's voice was thick with strain, and even though Himawari picked up on her distracted eyes, she ignored it it because of the excitement of seeing Sarada back in her home rushing through her; she had asked Boruto about it, once, but he dismissed her with the shake of her hand and walked out of the room without a word.

"I'm so glad you're here! Want to see what I've been working on?!" she cried.

Boruto threw Sarada a cautious look, but Sarada just gave the younger Uzumaki a tight lipped, encouraging smile.

"Sure-"

"Wait," Boruto said, a hand reaching out toward his sister, "Hima, can we talk to you about something first?"

"Can I just show you this really fast? I've gotten so much better at seeing chakra points! I want to practice." She rubbed her hands together like a fortune teller about to read her customers' fate.

Boruto shifted nervously from one leg to another. "Hima. It's important-"

But Himawari just ignored her older brother and stood back to give herself some room.

"What, are you scared I'm going to use my byakugan on you again?" she teased, her eyebrows fluttering in his direction before she narrowed her eyes at Sarada. "Because I'm not. I already promised Mom I wouldn't do that again unless I had a good reason. Okay, you first."

"Wait-"

But it was too late, and Himawari's eyes went almost white, veins bulging at the sides of her eyes and temples. "Ahhh, this is so cool!" she mused as her eyes lasered over Sarada's body. Most everyone's chakra points were the same, but she had noticed the differences in strengths of users the more she practiced looking at their points.

Sarada's were the same as most, no different from any of the other balls of light that lit up people's bodies like road signs announcing their chakra points. Himawari had always considered them pretty because they reminded her of festival lights, and she loved watching how they connected and flowed through people's bodies much like a coursing stream.

Okay, so maybe she didn't really need practice as much as she just liked using her byakugan in any way she could.

"Hey… Hima… Listen…"

However, as she continued to study her flow, something else caught her eye: Sarada's chakra wasn't moving like usual. It didn't flow in different directions through her body but instead appeared to mostly move toward one place in her body below her stomach and toward her…

Himawari's face must have dropped, giving something away, because Hinata quietly glided toward the door like she understood and announced, "I'll leave you three alone."

What was that?

Sarada's chakra pathways seemed to intersect there like a highway, twisting and turning toward two tiny shapes; it was like she was directly depositing a lot of chakra there for whatever reason, energy, like the points were feeding off it-

"Himawari…"

Were they tumors?

They could be tumors that fed off chakra, right? In which case Sarada should probably see a doctor-

But their shapes definitely looked familiar to her, and yet she couldn't place where she had seen something like that before.

"Hima, please can you stop?"

Boruto's voice wasn't what brought her back to herself, causing her to all at once deactivate her byakugan and take one large step backwards.

It was the sudden recognition of where she had seen those little shapes before. A few years back, a friend at the academy held up a black-and-white photo with the same little shapes when she announced proudly "I'm going to be a big sister!" Himawari remembered cradling the picture in her palm and gently wished that she, too, would be granted a little brother or sister, but had been told by her mother with a gentle pat that, no, sorry, there wouldn't be another baby in the house. The accompanying disappointment and longing solidified the memory of seeing a fetus in an ultrasound picture.

Only this time it wasn't in a picture and she could see, actually see, a fetus. Two, actually. Little black eyes, tiny, almost microscopic fingers and toes and-

"Sarada." Her name escaped her lips and she pulled her eyes up to the Uchiha's who were staring at her with a gleam of guilt in them.

"Are you…"

Boruto stepped in front of Sarada. "This is what I wanted to talk to you about," he offered cautiously.

Himawari's eyes traveled to her brother's, and she instantly noticed how his face flushed red and his mouth settled into the same worried frown that Sarada wore.

How he stepped in front of the other girl like he was trying to protect her.

How he reached back and grabbed one of Sarada's hands and was now gently caressing it with his thumb.

"Sarada is pregnant?" The question blurted from her mouth before she could stop it, but she couldn't quite bring herself to ask the second half of the question.

Her brother nodded slowly. "Yeah… Yeah she is." He paused for a second with a shaky breath and she hesitated, waiting for him to confirm her questions. "And Hima?" he finally murmured. "You're going to be an aunt."

Himawari didn't move.

An aunt.

So maybe it wasn't the little brother or sister she wanted, but it was something. And if she was going to be an aunt then...

"You…"

But no. They were only seventeen. She was twelve, only five years behind, but she knew how young that still felt. It didn't matter if her brother had brought down her other bro- no, just Kawaki- and saved their father and their village, he was still only seventeen. He was still his immature self, albeit maybe a little more serious, but if she was only a few years off and didn't feel anywhere near ready to be a mother, then there's no way Boruto was ready. There was no way he could be a dad.

Right?

Not her goofy, sometimes overbearing, sometimes lackadaisical older brother.

"Me what?" he asked, nervously.

"You… You're going to be a dad?" She glanced up at Sarada next who was still hiding behind Boruto. "You're going to have a baby with Sarada?"

"Twins…" he offered weakly.

All at once Himawari felt her heart drop into her stomach and her thoughts were static, dizzying around in her head. She wanted to be excited, she wanted a little baby to follow her around, yet she didn't know what kind of reaction she should give, especially because from Boruto's pale face she gleaned this wasn't planned, so she said the only thing she thought could be true.

"Daddy's gonna kill you."

Boruto's eyes sank to the ground and he couldn't look his little sister in the eye anymore. "He already knows…"

"Does Mom know?!" She popped up, her head jerking toward the door. Surely he wouldn't be alive if their mother knew-

"Our parents know," he replied. "Sarada's too."

Now Himawari had extra reason to be surprised. "Wait, do they know you're the dad?" she whispered.

"Yeah... Why…"

"And Uncle Sasuke didn't kill you?!"

Boruto exhaled like he was holding his breath and grabbed onto the counter. "Are you not mad, Hima?" he asked with a sharp edge to his voice, like it could crack at any second.

"Mad? Why would I be mad?" Her eyes sparkled. She was going to be an aunt. "Should I be mad?"

"Well, I just thought that you'd be… y'know… disappointed or something…"

She observed her brothers' cheeks reddening again as he grumbled his response and considered her viewpoint.

"As long as you're happy, Boruto, I am too," she settled on and from his brightened response she knew she said the magic combination of words. "I mean...if this is what you want you should be happy, right?"

Boruto stared down at his little sister and swallowed a hard ball forming in the back of his throat.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I was so worried how you'd react," he whispered and reached down to hug her. After a moment he then unpeeled his sister from him and set both of his hands on her shoulders so he could look down seriously into her eyes. "But look at me: You can't tell anyone, okay? Do you promise?"

"Wait, what?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. "Why?"

"No one can know. We're not allowed to tell anyone- Dad's orders."

Himawari raised an eyebrow. "Why won't Daddy let you tell anyone?"

"Someone might want to hurt them." Sarada spoke up this time. "It might be too dangerous right now, especially after what happened with-" She paused, remembering how difficult Kawaki's betrayal was on her. "So we just can't tell anyone right now unless they are close friends or family."

"So no one from school," Boruto ended. "Promise me."

Hima thought for a moment then ultimately decided it was in her best interest to listen so she nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I promise. Sooooo… Sarada, are you moving in?"

"Uh, what?" Sarada took an involuntary step backward, instantly flustered. "Uh, no, no, I don't think so. Why?"

Hima gave her the same mischievous grin that matched Boruto's when he set his determination to something. "Because this time next year I'll definitely be a chunin, so I can protect them myself!" Her grin widened and Boruto felt his heart finally melt back into his chest, and he couldn't stop himself from reaching out in relief to pull her into a hug again.

If even just one of his kids turned out to be like her, then he knew they'd be fine.

"Hima, you know you can't tell anybody, right? Boruto said that to you already?"

The three Uzumakis and Sarada sat down for dinner not long after, and Hinata needed to make sure that the youngest understood the rules.

"Yes."

"Your father will probably talk to you as well, do you understand?"

"Yes, I said yes already," she replied in a prepubescent huff. "Why do you keep asking me?"

Hinata was about to respond when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it," Boruto replied, and slid off his chair to get away from his mother rehashing the conversation.

He pulled back the door and immediately had to physically stop himself from slamming it closed again.

"Oh."

In front of him stood Shikadai and Inojin, awkwardly fidgeting, and at once the realization burst into him of how much had happened in the last few days. The last time he had seen them was minutes before he ran off back to the village in search of Sarada, and he knew that Konohamaru had probably left them with a half-hearted explanation of what had happened.

So now they stood at his door, two days yet a whole lifetime between them, looking for that explanation.

"Oh?" Inojin muttered with a tone of frost, while Shikadai boredly placed a hand in his pocket. "You bailed a mission and all you have to say is 'oh'?"

Boruto could read the mild irritation in his friends' faces and forced a grin onto his own to disarm the tension. "Nice to see you guys too!"

"Dude, what happened to you?" Shikadai asked. "Where did you go? We were going to come out to see you yesterday but my dad said no."

"I-I was sick."

"Sick. Uh-huh. Well, you look fine to me," the Nara replied, suspicion rising in his voice. The boys just stared at each other, the other two lasering over his body with something he could only describe as distrust and Boruto knew they were waiting for him to elaborate.

It wasn't like him to just leave a mission with no explanation and go radio silent, and he knew he owed them an explanation, but the front steps of his house wasn't the smartest place to get into it by any means. He looked over his shoulder toward the singing sound of laughter coming from the kitchen table and back to his friends.

"Okay, so I wasn't sick," he whispered.

"Ah, I knew it!" Inojin snapped. "Then where the hell did you go?"

"I can't explain it out here." Opening the door wider, he gestured with his head for them to follow him inside.

"Did you, like, kill somebody you weren't supposed to?" Inojin asked as they removed their shoes. "Why are you being so secretive?"

"Just a second," he muttered then turned toward the kitchen. He slid the door back an inch and plastered another smile to his face. "Hey, Mom, thanks for the food, really great as usual, but Inojin and Shikadai are here and I thought that maybe I could talk to them for a few minutes-"

His eyes instantly lasered onto Sarada, and he watched as she set her chopsticks down almost too carefully as though she was trying to keep from making any noise. He dragged her eyes up to his, trying to question silently whether or not she wanted The Conversation to happen with or without her since the others had no idea they had ever even been together.

But her gaze suddenly raised past his head, and the way her eyes widened let Boruto know his friends were standing behind him; mentally cursing them, he sighed and turned around.

The boys didn't even try to hide their shock at seeing Sarada seated at the Uzumaki table when days earlier she had been at Boruto's throat and then sent home from their mission. Inojin's mouth was shaped in a small 'o' as Shikadai put his hand in his pocket again, trying to look casual, but his locked limbs made his gesture appear too forced.

Now it was the other boys' turn to say 'Oh.'

"Oh, hey, Sarada," Shikadai said, "feeling better?"

Busted.

"Much better," Sarada tried to say, but her voice caught in her throat. She and Boruto locked eyes for a moment, and Sarada found herself thankful for years of communicating silently during missions to avoid being caught by the enemy. They read each other's frantic eyes, no one saying anything for a few beats, until finally Boruto nodded once.

"Thank you so much, Aunt Hinata, for the dinner," Sarada announced, pushing back her chair and standing. "If the boys are here, I don't want to intrude anymore." She slid past them to the foyer, actively avoiding their eyes, where she reached down to grab her shoes.

"You know, I think I may go talk to Cho Cho if you guys are hanging out here. Know where I can find her?"

"You don't have to leave, Sarada," Shikadai assured, eyes shifting to his feet. He intently noticed the girl's almost jerky movements and recognized right away that she was just as uncomfortable as he was. Something wasn't right. "If we're interrupting something we can definitely go…"

"Nope, nope. I was just about to leave anyway. Do you know where she's at?" she repeated, a slight strain to her voice.

"Uh, I think she was looking for you actually. To see how you were feeling."

"Great! Thank you so much!" She didn't even turn to look at Boruto again, opting instead to just throw a half-smile in their direction before fluttering out the door and closing it quickly behind her.

Shikadai and Inojin stood silently as the echo of the shut door reverberated around them. No one dared make eye contact, but Shikadai could feel Boruto's eyes gently roving over him, daring him to speak.

"I have a feeling this is going to be a drag, but if you try to tell us that Sarada Uchiha is just randomly speaking to you again, I am going to beat the ever living shit out of you."

Sarada scurried down the back alleys toward Cho Cho's house, thankful for the setting sun that cast dark shadows over the building edges she followed. Somehow these last few days would just not end. Her mind sagged with an overload of emotions and information from even the last few hours, and she didn't want to have to go through with telling Cho Cho she was pregnant and answering the flurry of questions that were sure to come after.

But if Boruto was to tell the other two-thirds of the trio, which she knew he would just based on what she read in his eyes, then she knew she had no choice but to tell her tonight.

By the time she reached the Akimichi household, the sun had already set over the stone faces and she felt small in the total darkness as she knocked on the door.

Inside she could hear the scrape of a chair across the floor, then booming footsteps that grew louder as they drew closer. The door pulled back and she was instantly awash in the yellow glow of light from the front hall, and she squinted up at Choji to adjust her eyes.

"Sarada." His voice pitched up, genuinely surprised to see the girl at his door. "Cho Cho left to go to your house about a half hour ago. She said you were sick and had to be sent home from a mission. Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm doing a lot better." She fidgeted from one foot to the next, wishing she didn't have to face another adult; it was only a matter of time, she knew, before Shikamaru talked to him. "I wanted to come thank her for being so understanding that I had to leave…"

"Sarada?"

Sarada turned around to see Cho Cho's shadow at the end of the property. She bounded up to the girl on her front steps and threw her arms around her. "Are you okay?! No one was at your house when I was there and I got worried-"

Pushing Sarada back, she grabbed her shoulders and held her at arms length to observe her more closely. "God, you're paler than usual. What happened to you?! Did you know that Boruto bailed the next day too?"

Sarada tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and laughed nervously. "Yeah, that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Well why didn't you say so?!" She slid her hand from her shoulder and grabbed her by the wrist to pull her inside. "We'll be upstairs," she called to Choji and ran up the stairs with Sarada trailing behind.

"Tell me everything! Everyone was so worried about you. Are you still sick? I couldn't believe you'd even be out of the hospital. You should have seen yourself after you passed out!"

She shut and locked the door, a habit formed as a kid as though a lock could keep out prying ears, and threw herself down on her bed. She patted the spot next to her for Sarada to join, and Sarada timidly sat down on the edge, reaching over to grab one of Cho Cho's many pillows to place on her lap.

"I'll explain all of that, but what I'm about to tell you has to be kept completely between us. Okay?"

"Oh yesss," Cho Cho hissed, leaning closer to her. Her eyes shined with the promise of juicy gossip, but nothing running through her mind could prepare her for the actual truth.

Sarada took a deep breath. "So...I wasn't really sick. I mean, I was- I still am, I guess-" She could taste the familiar metallic flavor on her tongue but swallowed down the urge to vomit. "But. Uh. I'm...I'm pregnant."

Neither girl moved as Cho Cho stared at her, trying to judge if she was telling the truth.

"You're what?"

"Pregnant." Her voice was smaller this time and she clutched the pillow closer to her.

Cho Cho's eyes widened at the confession. She reveled in knowing key information others weren't privy to, and being teammates with Inojin and Shikadai meant that she never really reveled in the drama she craved, but this was more than even she could want.

"You're having a baby?!" she whisper-screamed.

Sarada just nodded. "Twins…"

"Oh my gods. So when you were throwing up…" Her eyes glazed over as she pieced together the events of the other night. "Was that morning sickness?"

Sarada nodded again, feeling like a bobblehead on display for all to gawk at.

Cho Cho shook her head in disbelief then leaned forward even more until her Sarada could feel her hot breath on her face. "So like… who's the dad?"

Sarada's face flushed from the close contact, feeling like her brain was being probed. "Come on, you're smarter than that…" she whispered back.

"No, really. Who?"

Sarada could see the genuinity in Cho Cho's face so she took another shaky breath. "Who else left the mission that night…"

All at once Cho Cho's face crumpled and a gasp escaped her parted lips as she hissed. "Mitsuki is the dad?!"

"No not Mitsuki, you idiot! Boruto!"

This time she gasped even louder.

"You fucked Boruto?!"

"Shhhh!" she cried, cramming a hand to her mouth. "You don't have to be so crude."

When she finally pulled away, Cho Cho's mouth was still agape. "Sarada Uchiha, you little slut." If there was anyone who never minced words, it was Cho Cho.

"I had no idea you guys had been doing anything," she hurried. "I mean, congrats for keeping that from me. Does he know you're pregnant?" Instantly her eyes bugged out again. "Wait, is that why he left to come after you? Because he knew his darling Sarada was with child and he wanted to be there?" She swooned, holding her hands to her heart, and stared longingly out her window. "Oh, how romantic!"

Sarada shook her head. "I found out the morning we left for that mission… That's when you had to get me from the bathroom. But he didn't find out until yesterday…"

"Oh my gosh. I mean he was so worried about you that I knew something happened, but I didn't ever think it would be this! How did he take it?! I can only imagine he freaked."

Sarada just shook her head again, saying, "He actually took it really well actually. I, uh-"

"Holy. Shit. Sarada, what are you going to do? Are you going to keep them? I mean, how does Boruto fit into this? You guys weren't even talking and now suddenly you're pregnant?" The questions poured out of her just like Sarada predicted, and she had to collect them all in her mind to keep them straight.

"I'm going to keep them," she confirmed. "Boruto… He was the one who actually convinced..." The memory swarmed in the front of her mind, of Boruto pacing her room and pleading with her, his eyes wet and hands shaking, and she swallowed it down hard. "Yeah. I'm keeping them."

"So how are you guys going to raise them? Are you guys finally going to get together or something? You're always at each other's throats so I guess I just never imagined that you guys would actually finally put it aside to fuck."

Sarada knew her cheeks must have flushed an answer because Cho Cho leaned forward to slap her shoulder. "Oh my gosh you like him!" she squealed. "I mean, I guess that was totally obvious but holy shit, you actually like Boruto."

"Well I wasn't having sex with him to just do it, you know!" But she still felt the need to hide her face that kept warming the longer Cho Cho lasered in on her. It was the truth of course- she liked him, more than liked him, but she didn't have any answers for Cho Cho. What were they? Where was this going?

"We haven't really talked about it, I guess," she confessed, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

"Well, what do you want? You're having his babies so he can't really be nothing to you, you know?"

Leave it to Cho Cho to ask the good questions: What did she want? She loved him now, but worry bubbled up in her gut now that she had to face it; they were great on missions, on the go, go, go, and had they admitted this was just like another mission. But how would their dynamic change after the babies came? After he grew busy with missions while she sat at home twiddling her thumbs? After life went back to complete normalcy, if it would ever be normal again? As with any shinobi's life, she assumed, she couldn't pinpoint down exactly what it would look like. She had her plan, of course, but even that had been sucked into a vacuum and blown back out until she couldn't even recognize it anymore. When she thought of her future now it was a black slate with fuzzy outlines of warm emotions. Boruto was there but...how?

"I..." Her mouth opened but the words stuck to the back of her throat. "I… I don't know what I want. Everything happened so fast."

She swallowed, her throat dry, as Boruto's face loomed in her mind. "I told him I loved him…"

Cho Cho's pupils widened again. "Hold up. You don't just like him, you actually told him you loved him?"

"Yeah…"

"Wow, this is really serious! Which, I mean, given the circumstances seems pretty obvious, I guess. So what the hell did he say to that?!"

Gripping the pillow tighter to her body, she squeaked, "...That he loves me too."

Cho Cho let out a squeal and pulled Sarada's hands from the pillow and into hers, laying them in between where they sat. This was better than anything she could have expected between the two. She had watched Sarada and Boruto grow together the last few years, their constant bickering and thinking they were out of sync, but Cho Cho knew better. Out of any of them she felt they were the strongest teammates in how they worked, as though they could read each other's minds and emotions, and even though they all had that to an extent in their team, she had always sworn they had something different; their teamwork had saved the village afterall. "You know what this means right?" she cried.

"No…"

"That you and Boruto are going to get married!"

Sarada's stomach flipped but she forced out a dark laugh. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

"Don't you realize how serious this is? It's been obvious that you two are meant to be but it actually happened. Maybe it's a little backwards in how you two have happened, but the important thing is that it finally did. And that's so beautiful in itself."

"Ugh, Cho Cho, don't suck me into your hopeless romantic crap." She threw the pillow at her and leaned back. "I came here just to tell you I was pregnant, okay? That's about the only thing I can plan on right now."

She grinned. "Yeah, pregnant with your best friend who you're in love with. Think what you want, Sarada, but call me when you need a bridesmaid." Raising her arms above her head, she sat up and stretched out like a cat then flashed Sarada a toothy smile. "Stop being so stubborn all the time. You already told him you loved him so make a move with what you really want."

Sarada sighed and allowed herself to stretch out the opposite way until her head was hanging off the end of the bed and stared out at the upside down room; it was the same dresser, the same closet, the same door, but from her angle the room looked like a brand new place. She realized with a start that it seemed to represent what her life felt like right now, with the same key players yet completely unrecognizable, and Cho Cho's talk had just flipped it around even further. Her heart clearly wanted one thing- her best friend- and wanted to forget the agony of not having him there, and she knew that's what Cho Cho's love-soaked talk was supposed to make her lean into.

But something about Cho Cho's excitement also unsettled something within her, another question that burrowed itself in her brain: Was she moving too fast?

"You fucked Sarada."

It was less of a question and more of a statement, a sentence punctuated with disbelief and slight disgust, a stench of a paper bomb hanging in the air that alerted people to danger.

"What? Is that so unbelievable that she'd ever sleep with someone like me?"

"Yes," Shikadai responded, montoned.

Inojin whistled low. "Your teammate? That's brave."

"Well, it is what it is, I guess," Shikadai said, raising his arms above his head and leaning back against Boruto's wall on his bed. "I can't believe her parents didn't kill you though. Or yours. If that was me, I'd be dead."

"Why does everyone keep saying that," Boruto muttered.

"Because her parents are terrifying, and so are yours. Plus you're the Hokage's son, you have expectations."

"Yeah, don't remind me." Boruto lowered his face to his knees, once again exhausted from his future prospects.

"So what now then?" Inojin asked. "How are you going to raise two kids? Is she, like, moving in or something?"

His face flushed as he remembered Hima's own question on the subject. "I don't know, we haven't gotten that far yet. I just...want to be there, I guess."

Taking note of Boruto's reddened cheeks, Shikadai chuckled and kicked him gently in the leg. "Man, you have it baaaaad."

Boruto's head shot up and he kicked back harder to send Shikadai flying off the end of his bed. "What?! No I don't!" he cried.

"Someone certainly is defensive," Inojin teased.

"I'd assume you have feelings for her if you got this far," Shikadai added and sat up from the floor to look thoughtfully up at him. "It's okay. You can admit it."

"I… I mean yeah, I guess. I mean of course. Of course I do. This is a big deal, you know?" He sighed as another pulse of exhaustion shot through him. "It's overwhelming...to say the least."

"Well, I know you two will figure it out. You always do."

"It's not just that though," he admitted. "We met with my dad tonight and he gave us all these stupid fucking rules…" He counted off Naruto's rules on his fingers, starting with Sarada staying on bed rest and ending with her giving birth on a lockdown. "They all seem to think that something bad will happen to them."

"I mean the village was attacked last year," Shikadai reminded him, "and things just started to get back to normal. People definitely have it out for you still and Kawaki is still alive; he's in custody, but he's still alive. It's a fairly simple concept, going after your enemy's family, and your dad's the Hokage so...yeah. Definitely more of a reason to keep it all hush-hush."

Boruto sighed. "I just don't want to be told what to do; I want to do this my way."

"And your way would be...what?"

Boruto just blinked at him, not having an answer. Again he felt rootless, a floating boat along a lake with no real trajectory. He just knew he wanted to be in charge of his children.

Shikadai continued. "Your dad's right, you know, and you said yourself this is a pretty big deal. I don't care if you saved the village: for once in your life please just listen to your dad's rules."

He didn't know how to articulate it, but it wasn't the rules that were bogging him down- it was the danger behind those rules, the need for them in the first place, that he wanted to push against.

"So I guess don't say anything." He changed the subject. "Please. We're all sworn to secrecy on this."

"Yeah, man, of course we won't tell anyone. We promise."

Shikadai then pushed himself off the floor and held his fist out for him to bump with his, a smile playing on the edge of his lips. "But hey? Congratulations, man. We should've led in with that."

"T-Thanks…"

"And I hope you and Sarada figure out what you want to do. Girls are troublesome, but damn, if that woman can't whip you into shape."

A laugh ripped through Boruto, and for the first time all night his muscles truly relaxed as he and his friends laughed like they were kids again, the only worry being homework and another round of Shinobi Bout.

Inojin was the first one to stop laughing, and while the other two came down from their high he looked around Boruto's room at the pictures hanging on his wall: team seven's official picture, him and Sarada as kids, their group of friends wearing their chunin vests after being declared chunins. He noticed a theme in every one.

"You love her, don't you," he pointed out quietly.

Boruto breathed out, trying to catch his breath. "Yeah, dude. I really, really do."

Sasuke and Naruto watched the sun set on top of his office, a bottle of sake sitting between them. Sasuke took another sip while Naruto down his cup then poured another.

"I was thinking," Sasuke said, placing his cup gingerly on the ground, "about what Boruto said. Him coming with me to find more intel."

"Hm?"

"We know the Otsutsukis are still a threat… and I found more from Kaguya as you know… Maybe he should come with me now."

"Now?" Naruto asked. "What do you mean 'now'?"

"Like tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?! But what about Sarada?"

"What about Sarada?" Sasuke's voice was low in his chest.

"Well shouldn't they have time to, you know, plan a little? He's the dad so he should probably be involved, right?"

"She has Sakura. And your wife."

Naruto sighed, remembering how quickly Sasuke took off after Sarada's birth. To him it was always business, and he'd rather sacrifice quality time and relationships if it meant he was protecting the people he loved. He knew that drive was still inside him now, that itch to make sure he was vigilant at all costs against whatever threatened his livelihood.

"Sure, Sasuke," he finally settled on. "He's your student."