~"Sarada was right..."~

"What?" I stop walking and turn to look at the young Uzumaki.

"I'm just being stupid," He mumbled kicking another stone.

'Great, now I gotta deal with a moody teen on the way home.' I stared at Boruto.

"What are you going on about?" I folded my arms.

"You have friends right Ukai?" Boruto looked up at me.

"Yeah..." I raise an eyebrow.

"Why?" I ask.

"How long have you been friends?" He asked.

"Since childhood," I answer.

"Sarada told me friends don't last forever," The blonde dropped his head.

~"I don't ever wanna see you again Ukai!"~

"Especially now that everyone is getting ready for graduation," Boruto kicked another rock.

"You don't lose friends, you just see less of them after graduation, they get their own teams, training times, but you never lose the bond." I lecture the blonde.

"The few days before graduation are the worst because then everyone is rushing to learn as much as they can before the trials," I add.

"Speaking of which, why aren't you training?" I ask making Boruto stop to look at me.

"I don't have the Byakugan so Mom can't train me and Dad's never around so that doesn't happen either." He kicked another rock roughly after mentioning his Father.

"You know, you don't need to be taught, you just need to learn." I look down at the younger male.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He rolled his eyes.

"The day we first met Boruto, I took you down with nothing but Taijutsu, martial arts if you will," I begin.

"YEAH YEAH, YOU DON'T HAVE TO REMIND ME!" He huffed.

"MY POINT... I was out in the forests around various villages for, most of my life..." I look away.

"Yeah, I was pretty surprised Sarada had an older brother I'd never seen, what happened to you?" Boruto asked.

"That's... not important, what is, is that I was out there for 10 years with no one to lean on. No one to train me in any way, so I trained myself, I pushed myself, and now, I'm almost at the same level as my Father. So what it means is that you don't need to be taught to get good at something, you just need to learn how to do it and practice." I say.

"Really?" He asked me.

"Mmm-hmm, and you know Boruto if you're really worried about losing your friends, do something with all of them, the best way to keep bonds is by being there for them, have some fun," I add.

"But hey, don't worry about it now kid, go home, sleep on it," I run my hand over his head before walking off, placing both my hands in my pockets.

I left Boruto standing there, looking at the ground thinking before I turned a street and he was out of view.

________________________________________________________________________________

"So a camping trip huh?" Back to where we were a few weeks ago, sitting in Sarada's room as she packed for another trip.

"Yip," She said.

"And who came up with this great idea?" I ask smirking.

"Boruto... obviously," She sighed.

"Right," I nodded.

"You wouldn't happen to know why he suddenly wanted to do this with the class, would you?" She turned to me. Her hands on her hips.

"No idea," I blew one of my bangs out of my face.

"But I did happen to overhear, and I would like some of that eternal carp, should you catch the thing," I taunt my sister.

"I knew it!" She pointed at me.

"What?" I ask.

"I knew it was you who put this ridiculous idea that eating the eternal carp together would make our friendships last!" She got up in my face.

"And what would make you think that?" I ask smirking at her.

"I saw you two talking, and you've cozied up quite nicely to one another." She folded her arm.

"Sarada, he's afraid," I say seriously yet calmly, breaking the playful atmosphere.

"W-what?" She asks.

"He's afraid he's going to lose all of his academy friends after graduation, so he's trying to make as many memories as he can with the little time he has left," I explain.

"He's being st~" I cut her off.

"Stupid... yeah he said you said that, but listen Sarada, think about it, it's might sound stupid, but its understandable, well, for me at least." I sit next to her on her bed.

"You and he are probably going to end up on the same team after graduation, given your circumstance is similar to that of Father's and Lord Naruto's. So it will always sound stupid to you because you will always be together, but think about it, once in teams, you will see less of everyone else because of missions, training times and the like, don't you want to see Cho Cho as much as you can before that happens?" I ask.

"I guess," She whispered, looking down at her lap.

"Boruto is doing the same, just try to reassure him on this trip, I tried and seem to have gotten through, now he needs to hear it from a peer." I place my hand on her shoulder.

"Ok," Sarada said, nodding before looking up to me.

"You know, you should take your own advice, try and fix things with Uncle Yuto and Aunt Minka," Sarada turned to face me.

"That's different," I stand.

"How come?" She asked.

"You miss them don't you?" She asked.

"Of course I miss them, they were my best friends, and Yuto was like my brother I just... I wouldn't know what to say," I sigh looking back at her.

"Why don't you start with 'I'm sorry'?" Sarada said.

"To predictable, to overused, not something she'd expect from me." I brush off, looking out the window.

"But sometimes the smallest unexpected thing, no matter how big and expected the situation, always seems to makes things right," She smiled.

"..." I continued to stare out Sarada's window as she got up and walked over, hugging my side.

"Give it some time, anyway, I'm surprised Aunt Minka slapped you rather than ran up and hugged you when you got back." Sarada laughed, pulling away.

"She was never able to stay mad at you for long," She added, fixing her glasses before turning and walking away.

"Yeah," I think back to all the time I'd upset her and she'd forgive me.

I sighed, turning and following Sarada out of he room and down to the kitchen, where Mother greeted us with a warm smile and dinner. Sarada or myself usually make it because Mother gets home late, but on occasion, when Mother does make it home before us, she usually has one of her specials out that neither Sarada nor I can resist.