Mine to Take (A Boruto Love Story)

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE (FINAL)

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Grief never ends...but it changes. It's a passage, not a place to stay. Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith...it's the price of love.

Yuna gave a sigh of relief from letting go of the heavy box and took a moment to observe her surroundings. Ataru's room looked bare and alien–not at all like the warm, cheerful place it once was.

She went to the window and stared out, idly watching the kittens at play. Tama glanced up at her and smiled and Yuna waved.

She would return to work tomorrow, despite both Naruto and Boruto's advice to take more time off. The black haired kunoichi figured it would be better to bury herself in her work rather than drift around the apartment and slowly go insane.

It had been three days since she had returned from the Land of Diamonds but adjusting to normal life had not gotten any easier, mostly because it was a life without Ataru. She had a hard time making sense of her feelings. Though she'd told the police force about the events of that day, she hadn't told them everything. Nor had she told Boruto everything—how could she, when it barely made sense to her? She didn't tell them that in the moments after Ataru had died and she'd rushed to Boruto's side, she'd wept for them both. It seemed impossible that even as she relived the terror of those last hours with Ataru, she also remembered their rare happy moments together—how they'd laughed at private jokes or lounged peacefully on the couch together.

She didn't know how to reconcile these conflicting pieces of her past and the horror of what she'd just lived through.

Her father's strong, deep voice broke her out of her reverie. "Hey kiddo, how's it going in here?"

Yuna turned to face him. Even though she didn't meet his gaze, she could see him smiling at her.

"I just finished up actually," Yuna motioned to the boxes on the floor. "The boxes on the left are for donation and the ones on the right are to be disposed of."

He nodded. "I'll take care of it."

"Thanks Daddy." Then she gave her father's hand a gentle squeeze, before walking towards the door, but came to stop when he spoke.

"You haven't been able to look me in the eye since you got back. Why is that?"

Yuna squeezed her eyes shut. Guilt flooded her system as memories of that fateful night came back to haunt her when her father almost died.

She swallowed hard. "It's kind of hard to when it was my fault for you almost dying." Her voice shook. The taste of bile was thick in her mouth.

"Yuna..."

"If I had just done what Ataru had asked of me you would've never gotten hurt."

"Look at me, sweetheart." her father told her softly.

She paused briefly leaning against the doorway before turning to look at her father.

"Scars heal and fade over time." He pointed to the faint pink line across his throat. "This, this is nothing. So don't you dare feel guilty about this. All that matters now is that you're home safe and sound."

Yuna's lips trembled, and tears she couldn't suppress flooded her eyes.

"What Ataru had done to you was terrible, and there aren't words to describe how wicked and evil he was. But the best punishment you could ever give him is to be happy, to move forward with your life, to do all the things that you want to do. Because by feeling sorry for yourself, by holding onto the past and reliving it, that's only allowing him to steal more of your life away from you. And he doesn't deserve that. He doesn't deserve a single second more. He's gone. So, you need to be happy, and you need to move on with your life."