Tangeled-『A Boruto Retelling』

Chapter 2

Sarada's pov

"This is it, Pascal!" I beamed, dusting off my skirts, admiring all the work I'd done. "Today's the day! I'm gonna ask him!"

Pascal raised a brow. I'd said the same thing yesterday and ended up chickening out after Madara had ended up being crankier than usual. But tomorrow was my birthday. It was now or never.

"I know I said the same thing yesterday, but..." I sighed, gazing at the painting of the glowing lights above the mantle I'd done the night before when Cranky had fallen asleep. My hand brushed against the drapes for a moment, before pulling them over the painting. "This is my last chance. I've never stepped outside, and my birthday is tomorrow. If I don't ask now..."

You never will. Pascal's response was clear. He knew as well as I did that all I'd ever wanted was to step into the sunlight, see the outside world for myself. Instead of reading about it or bombarding Madara with questions he was not particularly thrilled to answer. He'd always said the outside world was a cruel place, bent on taking evey once of light and beauty in this life and destroying it. But from what I knew....that just couldn't be true.

And now I was going to see for myself.

"Now..." I breathed. "It's time to wait for him to get back."

♡♡♡

Boruto's pov

I raced through the woods, Fujin and Raijin following close behind. We could hear the guards yelling and barking orders behind us—the occasional arrow reminding us of our fate if we were caught. It was exhilarating, but I couldn't allow myself to forget. There's one more thing....then I'm home free. Heh...

We ran through clusters of trees, a collage of wanted posters nailed unceremoniously into the pitted trunks. Familiar snarling faces of fellow thugs glared back at us, monstrous rewards printed beneath the faces. I smirked, passing them all by. Half of those guys are dead already. Wait until those idiot guards figure–

My eye caught on one of the posters dragging my attention to a cluster of posters nailed into a scraggly trunk. Boruto Uzamaki blazed across the top in bright red letters, my face scraped beneath it---

My face...except it wasn't. I ripped the poster off, my eyes scanning it furiously.

"No, no, no, this is really, really bad!" I groaned, panting.

Fujin and Raijin stopped to look back at me, their stupid faces contorted into looks of confusion.

"What is it?" Fujin asked slowly.

"They just can't get my nose right!" I shoved the poster into Fujin's face.

"Who cares?" Raijin shrugged. "I just want food—"

"Easy for you to say!" I glanced at the two stooges' posters. "You guys look great-"

"Hey! Get back here!"

The guards had caught up. We took off at top speed, weaving in and out of the woods as the calvary came up behind. I couldn't help but let my fingers glide to the satchel slung over my shoulder as I ran, my mind racing over how to get rid of—

"Hey big brother! Look!"

Raijin and I groaned as we saw what lay ahead of us, my sudden realization hitting me like shards of ice in my gut. The royal gaurd wasn't just chasing us....

They were leading us into a trap.

A cliff rose over all three sides of the forest, more trees visible over the top of the ledge. The guards had obviously known about it before hand, and there plan had been simple: drive us into the box canyon, leaving us trapped like mice before the claws of a cat. But where Fujin and Raijin saw the end of the line, I saw a golden opportunity.