Betrayed and Broken, but not Hopeless

Most people thought of the desert as hot. And that was a true-during the day. But when the blazing sun was gone and night arrived, the sand cooled down.

There was a group of people in the dessert, ninjas from Konoha. One of them had blond hair, Boruto Uzumaki. He couldn't fall asleep, he didn't want to.

Boruto snuck off. He didn't go too far, as an attack from the people Mitsuki had been with was still possible. No, the people Mitsuki had joined. The people Mitsuki had betrayed Konoha for, had betrayed Boruto and Sarada for.

He gritted his teeth. Boruto was tired, but he had one thing he needed to do. He wouldn't run away from the deal he had made and the summon he had chosen.

He took out one of his kunai and made a small cut on his thumb. Boruto slammed his hand down on the ground, a black symbol spread out on top of the sand. He made sure to put a lot of chakra into it. His cut healed.

Garaga had been summoned. The snake was massive. The thick scales were a dark crimson and the size of dinner plates. The width of his body was comparable to that of a great redwood tree. There was white scar tissue over his right eye.

Framed against the size of the large snake, the blond boy was tiny. "Are you going to eat me?" Boruto asked.

The snaked looked down at the boy. His summoner was not a bright bouncing ball of optimism. The boy was someone who was barely holding the shreds of his shattered self together.

There would be no joy in eating him. No satisfaction.

"No," Garaga softly rumbled.

Boruto nodded. His outlined flickered.

Garaga could feel the light press of shoes on his scales. He then felt the weight settle.

Boruto sat on Garaga's head. It was a bold move.

Garaga was slightly nervous, but he refused to show it. This was the closest a human had been to him in years. The closest a human had been to his eyes since his old summoner had betrayed him.

Boruto placed a hand on the large cold scales beneath him. "Everyone has the ability to trust and betray," he commented. It was the truth, plain and simple. But the possibility of a double meaning wasn't lost on the snake.

Garaga's coils stiffened and he curled up tighter. His left eye strayed upwards. "What's your point?" He hissed.

"For us...we just ended up choosing the wrong person," Boruto argued, in a casual way. "We went through all that trouble and only got a face full of lighting in return." He snorted.

Garaga chuckled, a raspy echoing sound. He had opened his mouth wide, his white fangs stood out in the pale light of the moon. "Trust is for fools."

Boruto had been jostled by the snake's laughter and had rolled his eyes. Once Garaga stopped, he slid forward on his stomach, to the ridge above Garaga's open eye. His hands gently gripped onto the cold scales. He stared Garaga in the eye. "Trust is for the brave," he calmly countered.

Garaga hissed. "Are you a fool?" He questioned, mockingly. He had already made his thoughts on Boruto's foolishness rather clear.

"Are you a coward, Garaga?"

Garaga's eye narrowed slightly. "Careful where you tread, boy. Lest you get bitten," the snake warned.

"Do the brave not go where it is dangerous and needed?" Boruto asked with a frown. "Isn't a coward's response to adventure, that the danger's too great and so he turns down the challenge? Isn't the sign of a proud fool to think himself sooo wise and think only of the risk to himself? And the wise guy is humble and thinks of everybody?"

Garaga tilted his head sharply in response, annoyed.

Boruto almost fell off. He went over the ridge of scales backwards. He wedged his feet against Garaga's cheek and adjusted his grip on the eye ridge above. He quickly turned around, to face his summon.

"Am I wrong or am I right, Garaga?" Boruto demanded as he stared Garaga in the eye. The fire in him was back in full force. A burning sun that wished to make clear what clouds and the moon had left in shadows, in dark uncertainty. "I fear rejection, but I will not let one person break me. I refuse to. Mutual trust is worth the risk, Garaga! You thought that once too!"

With a rapid shake of the massive snake's head, Boruto fell. He landed on a thinner coil, near Garaga's tail. He was quickly surrounded by steep scaly walls.

"We have both been betrayed," Boruto acknowledged. "But I will not be broken because of the actions of someone else. And that, that's what makes our stances different."

The walls tightened and Boruto was stuck in a vise of red scales. He could still breathe.

"You fool," Garaga vehemently rebuked. "You would give another person the chance to stab you in the back?"

Boruto's eyebrows furrowed. His eyes narrowed. His lips thinned into a serious neutral line. "Yes. I will trust," he replied simply. He grinned, but there was an expression on his face that was half-sorrow and half-hopeful. "Because it means there's a chance that I will have someone by my side."

The walls receded. Garaga rearranged the rest of his coils nearby, loosely. He moved his head close to the ground and his right eye peered closely at Boruto. "You are a, you are a very strange human," he muttered with a mix of curiosity and annoyance. "But, I...I see your point." His mouth twisted into the snake's equivalent of a frown.

"Really?" Boruto grinned. "That's good." He sat down and stretched out on his back. The scales beneath leeched his warmth, but he didn't mind. It was better then laying in the sand.

Garaga seemed to sigh. He placed his head on top of one of his coils, to the left of Boruto's feet.

"The stars are nice tonight," Boruto commented.

Garaga did a weird snort, which is to say, a snake's equivalent of it. "The sky at night is always the same. The stars are always the same. There's not much special about them."

"They do change you know," Boruto protested. "And there are constellations and stuff. And lots of cool stories."

"Oh, yeah? Like what?" Garaga asked sardonically.

Boruto rolled his eyes. He thought of the stories of constellations he had been told. His dad loved to go stargazing and tell him and Himawari all about cool ancient warriors and awesome beasts. Boruto took a few seconds, but eventually settled on one, his favorite.

By the time he was finished, Boruto's eyes had started to droop closed. "Night Garaga," he muttered. After another moment, he drifted off to sleep.

A massive red scale snake stood watch over him.

A/N

I really want Garaga and Boruto to be good friends.

The question and theme of 'if trust is worth the possibility of betrayal' is one I find very interesting.

-Silver