We're Different. | The Other Uchiha ✓ (Boruto)

The Road Without a Map

- ☆ -

The mist clung low to the ground that morning, curling around the Academy training fields in slow, ghostly ribbons. The sun barely pierced through, leaving the village shrouded in a pale gray hush.

Y/n stood alone beneath the sparse shade of a tree, her breath rising faintly in the cold. 

She had finished her morning drills, but still she lingered, her hands loosely wrapped around the straps of her bag. As if waiting for something. Or someone.

The soft crunch of footsteps reached her ears.

She didn't turn right away. She already knew.

Sasuke came to a stop a few paces from her, his cloak stirring slightly with the breeze.

 He didn't speak at first. Simply stood there, silent and steady, as if choosing his words carefully.

Finally, "I have a mission," he said, voice low. "A long one."

Y/n glanced sideways at him, catching the line of tension carved into his jaw, the way his eyes stayed half-shadowed under the weight of something he hadn't said yet.

"And?" she asked, voice even.

He exhaled slowly, barely more than a breath. "I want you to come with me."

The words dropped between them like stones, heavy and undeniable.

Y/n turned her gaze fully toward him now, studying the way he stood, not commanding, not demanding, but offering. 

A rare thing from someone like him.

"Why me?" she asked quietly.

"You're strong," he answered without hesitation. "And... you need to see the world beyond this village."

He left it at that. No elaborate speeches. No promises.

Just a door left slightly open.

Y/n looked down at her hands, flexing them once. 

She thought of Mitsuki. Of her team. Of the quiet, lonely nights staring out over the Hokage Rock.

Of how sometimes even here, even surrounded by people, she still felt like a ghost.

She tightened her grip on the strap of her bag, grounding herself.

"When?" she asked.

"Tomorrow morning."

A heartbeat of silence passed between them.

Sasuke didn't push. He didn't coax. He simply waited.

Y/n lifted her head, met his eyes squarely, and said, almost too softly,

"Okay."

Sasuke gave the faintest inclination of his head, something like approval, or maybe understanding.

Then, without another word, he turned and disappeared back into the mist.

Y/n stood there for a long while after, staring into the place where he had vanished, the morning chill seeping deeper into her skin.

Tomorrow, everything would change.

And for once, she had chosen it.

- ☆ -

The morning mist clung low over the village grounds as Y/n adjusted the strap on her travel bag, her fingers trembling slightly despite herself.

Mitsuki stood beside her, his smile a little too soft, a little too knowing as he handed her a small wrapped bento.