Twisted

Princess

Boruto didn't really know why he did what he did. Maybe he was just looking for a challenge. Maybe he was irked by the fact that this girl didn't fall for him the second she looked at him smiling. Maybe it was because she didn't know his identity, and the thought of just being Boruto made him feel... Surprisingly good.

But he wasn't really expecting to want to hold her hand, to respectfully look away, and especially... He didn't expect to call her princess.

He knew in the back of his mind that he couldn't hide forever. That Shikamaru's stupid horse was bound to sniff him out eventually. He'd have to go back to the castle, become king, and chose a queen from amongst the many girls that attended the evening ball.

But for now, in this moment, he was doing the good deed of bringing a girl that knew nothing of the world out into it. Was it a good idea? Probably not. Was he going to do it anyway? Absolutely.

Everyone deserved a chance to look at the good things the world had to offer... Especially this little ball of gloom whose name was Sarada. But calling people by their name sparked feelings of closeness. And while she was already more than comfortable with his name... He couldn't allow himself to use hers.

She wouldn't be at that ball, and she already made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with marrying him. This was just... The start of an unlikely friendship that would dissolve in three days time when he was forced to become king.

And so, despite knowing this, he led her through the rock tunnel that connected her tower to the outside world.

He paused, just before the entrance, listening for horse noises. But hearing nothing, he moved the vines away and crept out into the forest. To him it was familiar. But again, he paused, letting her take it all in.

As she walked forward, Boruto slowly let go of her hand. Now that she was out... She probably wasn't going to run away until their three days of exploration were up.

"Let me know when you want to stop, or if you see anything that looks interesting."

"I didn't know..." She said, still lingering behind him. "I didn't know trees could be this inordinate..."

A half smile tugged at his lips. He wasn't going to ask for the definition, because he already had an idea of what it meant. Maybe in these three days he'd come back with a more expansive vocabulary.

"They really exist... All in one place."

He slowly continued forward, walking up and around to the other side of one so she wouldn't be scared to get closer to it. As he waited, on the other side of the tree, he started realizing he was taking in an appreciation for the little things he didn't really bother to stop and notice before.

In his lifetime of running through these woods, he'd probably stomped on hundreds of these white and yellow flowers with his boots. He'd run past hundreds of different species of trees, bushes, plants he didn't even know were there. And now that Sarada was taking them all in like they were the most fascinating things in the universe... He began to notice different patterns in the bark, the tiny holes in the leaves, branches that were just low enough to climb.

Suddenly, he had an idea.

"Hey gloomy, ever climbed a tree before?"

"Hm? Climbed?"

He found a tree with a decently low hanging branch and hoisted himself up. Then he leaned back against the trunk with his eyes on the canopy of leaves above him. "This has a pretty nice view too, ya know."

He didn't look down, but he could hear Sarada struggling to pull herself into the tree. Boruto slid his back down against the bark until he was crouching, and extended his arm with his chin still tilted upwards. "Here."