Another Not-so-Happy Birthday

Flashback

One year earlier:

Sarada clenched her fist. It was his birthday, but all he could think about was his dad. He had been looking forward to it all day, trying to hide it while running around like an excited moron. But she arrived at his house and saw that the seventh still wasn't there, a nagging feeling set into her chest. 

Doing her best not to show it, she responded to his quips as usual, watching as the excitedness and anticipation on his face slowly faded to masking frustration and misery with sarcasm as the day went on. Just when they had finished eating cake and the conversation was dropping off, their house phone rang. 

For a mere second, she saw his eyes sparkle. But when he heard the tone in Hinata's voice, it seemed as though he couldn't mask it anymore. He watched his bangs slowly cover his face as his head tilted down. His teeth silently grinded, his fists clenched. Dropping his expression before anyone else could notice, he excused himself and receded to his room.

"Well," said Mitsuki, standing up, "I guess I should be going. Thank you all for having me." With a polite smile, Mitsuki placed his birthday hat on the table and went to the door.

"Mitsuki!" Sarada called after him, running towards the door. 

"Hm?"

"Do you think... Maybe you could talk to him before you go?" Sarada asked, standing behind him with her fist curled over her chest. 

Mitsuki smiled. "I think you should be the one to do that, Sarada." 

She bit her lips. She knew how much it hurt. Did that even give her the right to say something? 

Hinata appeared behind her, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. "Sarada-chan... If you wouldn't mind..."

She looked hesitantly towards Boruto's mother, then to her own, who gave her a silent nod.

Gathering courage, she slowly walked up the stairs. But just before she opened the door, she hesitated. What was she supposed to say at a time like this? 

She looked back down, wishing she could somehow respect his privacy and go home. But the hopeful looks on the faces that awaited her were pressuring her into opening the door.

Squeezing her eyes shut along with her fist, she gently knocked three times. When there was no answer, she twisted the handle and slowly opened the door. 

"Boruto..."

He was leaned back in his gaming chair, not a light to be seen. It almost seemed as though he was crying. But when he tilted his head up and responded to her with his usual sarcasm, she knew he wasn't ok. 

"That's just how my stupid old man is," he said, his bangs hiding his face. "From the beginning, I wasn't really expecting anything anyway..." 

The obvious lie caused her to take a step forward. "I'm sure it was something unavoidable he had to take care of..." Her tone of voice was soft, but she knew her words weren't helping him. "I mean, he is the hokage and all..." 

"Ah right. Of course. The ever busy hokage-sama couldn't help but put one of his family member's birthdays on the back-burner...**" 

"You..." She trailed off. There was nothing more she could say, and she knew it. He probably didn't even want her pity. Comforting him would make him mad. That was the level of depressed he was. 

She had done what she could. But she knew nothing could excuse the absence of his father unless it was on the scale of stopping a war. 

Softly stepping backwards, she closed the door and leaned against it. 

She felt like she was going to cry. He was there. He was there, so why couldn't he come home? She understood. Both sides. There was hardly a birthday that she could remember celebrating with her father. And while it hurt... She forgave him because he was hardly ever there in the first place. She knew he was fulfilling an important duty. And so was the hokage... But... 

Why? For the entire day, couldn't he show his face at least once? Their house wasn't even five minutes away. He could make hundreds of shadow clones to do things for him. How important was this sudden business that made it so he couldn't come home?

She collected herself and descended the stairs, ignoring the forlorn looks of their parents and Boruto's little sister. 

"How is he?"

"He'll get over it eventually... But at least make sure the seventh doesn't come home without a birthday present." 

With that, she put on her shoes and walked out the door, hiding the tears that spilled over her cheeks. 

**Translating note: Not super important but ig kinda interesting

So I'm listening to the episode in Japanese and Boruto actually uses honorifics at the beginning of his sentence, and ends it in the roughest verb form he can use. Basically he goes from really sarcastically overly polite (saying "osiogashii" and calling Naruto "hokage-sama") to f u levels of rude ("shikatanee" instead of "shikata ga arimasen" which would continue the sarcasm).  

The rudeness is only in terms of Japanese culture, not necessarily in anime because most shounen protagonists have rough speech, including Boruto. But he didn't soften the ending with anything else, and the dragged out ee is kinda like sneering. 

That's why Sarada's response is kinda like dang this dude is depressed. And she says "anta," (not to be confused with "anata") which is the way you say "you" before scolding someone or before pointing out something about them (anta... Ikagennnishinasai!! (You... knock it off!!) or anta... saisho kara soko ni ita no ka?! (You... You've been there from the beginning?!) - they say this to Mitsuki a lot lol), but her expression and pose, and the fact that she just kinda trails off, and her voice is soft... it makes my heart hurt xD  

It's like... She wishes she could say something but she knows she can't. She wants to scold him for being childish and causing everyone else to worry about him but she knows what it's like not to have her own father there. And at the same time, she wants to comfort him but she's holding back because she isn't the one he wants it from. 

There isn't really a good translation for this entire conversation because English doesn't have the means to convey the word play going on here, since we usually say it like it is and don't have this whole culture of hiding our feelings and politeness levels in verb conjugations. But I tried xD