This chapter fic is a sequel to "It's a Promise" and "Perfect Balance." You can find both stories in my profile.

In this story, New Gen Team 7 is around 19-20 years old.

EDIT: This chapter was rewritten. I added and removed certain parts, but the plot remains the same. The writing style reflects my current writing style and flows better with the later chapters.

Beta read by: Tuvstarr's Lost Heart

I don't own Naruto or Boruto.

The sun was at its highest in the sky, casting vertical shadows along the ground. White, fluffy clouds passed with a gentle breeze as it caressed the leaves. Under a tall oak tree, two young men sat, eating their lunch in silence.

Mitsuki wasn't one to complain about having peace and quiet, however, he sensed the dark cloud looming over his teammate. "Boruto," he carefully called his friend out of his disgruntled thoughts. "Are you upset Sarada's not here?"

"I don't care if she's here or not," Boruto mumbled. He continued to eat the tamago his mother placed in his bento box.

"Ah, I see." There was a knowing smile on Mitsuki face. His gaze landed on the bento wrapped in a red cloth with the Uchiha insignia on the center. "It would be a shame if she didn't eat her food. Shishou took extra care in making hers." Mitsuki had brought Sarada's lunch with him after his morning medic training with Sakura.

Boruto glared at the Uchiha insignia on the bento. Mitsuki tilted his head to the side as he observed his teammate. He understood why the blond may feel that way. It wasn't like Sarada to be absent or even late for their team training. She was usually the punctual sort and stuck to her commitments. However, for the past months, she had been terribly busy.

The Five Kage Summit to be held in Sunagakure was fast approaching. The Hokage and all of the participants were growing more and more anxious with each passing day. There were materials and presentations to prepare on top of their usual responsibilities.

The two finished up their meal and agreed to wait a little bit more. If their missing teammate hasn't shown up in twenty more minutes, they would begin sparring instead.

Thirty minutes had passed, and Boruto was furious.

"She's such an idiot," he fumed. Rising to his feet, Boruto dusted himself off and eyed the small clearing. "Mitsuki, let's spar."

Mitsuki smiled and got up on his feet. "Alright. Would you mind if I tried a new poison on you? Shishou taught me how to make it, and I—"

"Yeah, yeah," Boruto cut him off. The blond's impatience was clear in his tone. "Just fight me!"

Mitsuki smiled. Things were working in his favor as he had just gained a willing guinea pig for his new poison. A sly smile graced his lips. This was going to be fun.

As Mitsuki expected, Boruto was being rash, taking out all of his anger on their spar. His movements were everywhere with no evident strategy. Of course, Mitsuki knew how cunning his teammate was. He didn't dare let his guard down. As soon as Mitsuki saw an opening he threw three kunai knives, followed up with two senbon, each coated with poison.

Boruto was able to dodge all of the kunai but was taken by surprise by the senbon. One grazed his cheek, the other cut quite deep into his thigh.

"Well, that's new," Boruto smirked. "But it didn't even hurt." He pulled the senbon out of his thigh and threw it on the ground.

Mitsuki smiled so wide that his eyes closed, and reminded his teammate, "you volunteered to try my new poison."

Boruto's eyes widened with fear. As if on cue, he fell to his side. The toxin was starting to take effect. He tried to get up on his feet, to push himself up and move... anything. His struggle was futile.

He was paralyzed.

What kind of high-level poison was Aunt Sakura teaching this bastard? That should be considered cheating!

Quickly Mitsuki formed a few hand signs and three white snakes launched towards his teammate from his right sleeve. They opened their mouths and spewed purple poisonous gas.

Boruto's eyes widened. Now he knew why he was named 'Boruto.' He was screwed.

The gas engulfed him and Boruto did his best to hold his breath. The snakes kept billowing out gas and when he ran out of air, the blond was forced to concede and breathe it in.

Once the gas disappeared Mitsuki found Boruto on the ground struggling to breathe. He leisurely approached his teammate and brought out a notepad. He started taking notes, jotting down the effects his poison would show.

Boruto was gasping for air and clawing at his chest. It felt worse than suffocation, a burning sensation quickly spreading throughout his torso.

"Hmm," Mitsuki sat crossed-legged next to Boruto's writhing form as he wrote, totally unfazed by his teammate's suffering. "Subject show signs of suffocation, immobilization, and-" he tickled Boruto. The blond flinched. "still reacts to stimulus." Mitsuki kept scribbling and pressed his index and middle finger to Boruto's wrist to count his heart rate. "Stop squirming, Boruto. I need your heart rate."

The poor blonde was thrashing around, hoping it would ease the pain, or at least help him catch his breath. It seemed Mitsuki had inherited some of his Parent's cruelty when it came to treating test-subjects.

Boruto was turning blue.

Mitsuki finished taking his heart rate and wrote it down on his notepad. "Good data," he mused to himself as he pulled out a syringe filled with a green liquid from his weapons' pouch. Mitsuki lifted Boruto's sleeve and administered the antidote into the vein in his arm.

Boruto was still choking and gasping desperately for air. His vision was starting to blur. He was so going to kill Mitsuki after the antidote had taken effect.

A figure emerged out of the bushes.

Boruto's vision slowly came into focus with the antidote working its way through his system. As recognition struck him, he pointed an accusing finger at the figure and started choking out expletives.

Sarada's long hair was disheveled, her clothes were wrinkled, and dark circles under her eyes were evident. Her shoulders were slightly slumped as she rubbed her eye. It looked like she hadn't slept in days.

Mitsuki's hands were glowing green, continuously assessing Boruto's body as the antidote was taking effect. He sensed his teammate's chakra and greeted her without looking up. "Hi there, Sarada."

The young Uchiha yawned and greeted them both with a tired, "Hello." She didn't even look bothered that Boruto was still writhing on the ground.

Doesn't anyone care about my well being here? Despite his lack of breath, Boruto still had the energy to express his disdain over her uncaring attitude to their late teammate.

"You should go eat first," Mitsuki said calmly to Sarada as he kept his hand, glowing with green medical chakra on Boruto's chest, while the other continued to scribble notes. "Your bento is over there," he motioned with a nod towards the package on the ground.

"Yes, yes," Sarada drawled and walked over to the tree. "Thanks."

Sarada ate her lunch with gusto, accompanied by the lively atmosphere provided by her Teammates who were having a minor disagreement of the basic rules of sparring. Boruto was yelling at Mitsuki for nearly killing him, while Mitsuki merely shrugged and reminded him that he had agreed to it in the first place. Boruto puffed in frustration and turned to Sarada to scold her for being late and never having time for her team.

Sitting under a tree with her friends was a nice change of pace; finally being out of that stuffy office. With her resting on the grass, breathing in the fresh air-all the parameters were present to put Sarada in a good mood, but that was abruptly disrupted when she caught the nonsense spewing out of Boruto's mouth.

"You won 'cause I was caught off-guard!" Boruto exclaimed defensively. "I'm still the strongest here."

"What nonsense are you talking about now?" Sarada deadpanned. She hadn't witnessed the whole spar between Boruto and Mitsuki but the shade of blue on Boruto's face definitely argued for him dying of suffocation. Mitsuki, on the other hand, was calmly taking notes. It was clear as day who had won.

"Boruto said he could beat you even if you weren't fatigued," Mitsuki bluntly supplied.

She snapped. "What?"

Boruto laced his fingers behind his head. "You've been stuck up in that office for so long without training. I bet you don't even know how to throw a shuriken properly anymore."

The chopsticks in Sarada's right hand snapped in half. No one dared to insult her like that. Especially if it was about her shuriken jutsu. It was one of her specialties.

"Fight me!" she challenged him.

Boruto scoffed. "As if. You're obviously super tired. Even if I agreed not to use my kekkei genkai, I would still win." As if that wasn't enough, he added slyly, "even if you were in top condition, I would still win."

Mitsuki could feel Sarada's chakra flaring and screaming bloody murder. He knew well that Boruto was baiting her to do something rash. It often worked and the results were never good. Mitsuki had to do something to calm her before things went south. However, before he could try to placate her the kunoichi sprang to her feet and pulled Boruto up by the collar.

His blue eyes met her Sharingan. "You're not going to win," she declared. "Fight me."

Boruto laughed. "Wanna bet?" His eyes glinted with mischief.

Mitsuki smiled. So they were doing this again.

He took her silence as a cue to go on. "If you win, I'll admit you're the strongest. I also won't bother you for a week." He paused. She was still fuming but listening. "But if I win, you take me to the Five Kage Summit in Sunagakure as your official bodyguard."

Mitsuki's eyes grew wide. Even he was surprised with how stupid the bet was. "That doesn't sound like a fair—"

Sarada was seeing red. Her Uchiha pride took over. "YOU'RE ON!"

Boruto smirked. Gotcha.

Mitsuki cringed as he watched his two teammates spar. Sarada was blowing fireball after fireball, and releasing lightning-style techniques. He knew well that Sarada didn't have much endurance, to begin with, but her fatigue would have cut it in half, at the very least. Boruto, on the other hand, had the most endurance in their whole team. His chakra reserves were fairly big but on the other hand, they were also partially depleted from his earlier spar with Mitsuki.

His gaze followed Boruto, nimbly dodging every fireball thrown his way. Mitsuki made sure to note that the antidote had served its purpose satisfactory if he had recovered that fast.

Mitsuki gaped in surprise when he saw Sarada do the hand-seals for her father's technique—Chidori. He had every confidence in Sarada's chakra control, however, when taking into her current state of fatigue, this one might just kill her—literally.

Even Boruto looked surprised. He knew well when to refrain from using that particular technique. "Oi! What do you think you're doing?" The panic was rising in his voice.

Sarada strained to keep the lightning in her hand at bay. The sound of a thousand birds' chirping was deafening, and the light and heat lighting emitted was getting harder and harder to contain. She could be rash, but she wasn't stupid.

Immediately, she cut the jutsu. The sudden halt in her chakra flow sent a sharp pain through her arm up to her heart, and down into her stomach. She released a short scream of agony before falling to the ground and blacking out.

Mitsuki ran to her, hands already glowing with healing chakra. He scanned her arm and heart for damages and sighed in relief when he found nothing life-threatening. She had just disrupted her chakra networks and blown off a few strands—nothing he could not easily fix.

Boruto hovered behind him, speechless. After Mitsuki had finished healing some of her cuts and bruises, Boruto carried her on his back and brought her home.

Boruto looked back to see Sarada was still fast asleep on his back. His lips tugged upwards for the slightest bit before he faced forward again and let out a sigh. Honestly, she was just too stubborn for her own good. After a few more steps, her house came into view. Instead of coming through the front door, Boruto sneaked around the house. Sure walking in through the door might have been less conspicuous, but he didn't want to call the attention of any nosey neighbors, besides, he always visited her through her window. He held on tight to Sarada, pumped chakra to his legs, and jumped up to her balcony.

He slid into her room and carefully placed her down on her bed. Boruto took a few moments to look at her face before leaving. When he turned around, he nearly jumped out of his skin. Sakura was standing by the door, a worried look on her face. Boruto scratched the back of his neck and smiled nervously. He was just thankful it wasn't his Sensei who caught him in Sarada's room. Boruto explained what had happened to her as he watched Sakura walk closer to her daughter.

Sakura scanned her daughter for any damages. When she found that Sarada was just fatigued, she smiled in relief. Her daughter was okay, and her apprentice was getting better and better. She thanked Boruto, and with that, he jumped out of Sarada's balcony and into the night.

The next day, Boruto came early before his morning ANBU training to check on her. He felt her chakra from outside her window. Noticing it being steady, he assumed she was still asleep and went onto his training.

He spoke to Inojin, asking if he was one of the units that were assigned to go to Sand to accompany the hokage. Inojin said he would, but he wasn't sure what or who he would be assigned to.

"Why do you ask?"

"I'm going," Boruto grinned. "I'll be Sarada's personal bodyguard."

Inojin was surprised. "Eeeh? But having you there would be an added security risk."

"I can handle it," Boruto scoffed. He hated it whenever his status as the hokage's son would garner him special treatment. "Besides, Sarada's a nervous wreck when she's stressed."

A sly smile spread on Inojin's pale face. "Are you sure it isn't because you would miss her if she went and you stayed in Konoha?"

"WH-WHAT?" Boruto exclaimed. His face was starting to turn red. "Of course not! If anything, I'm doing her a favor."

Inojin wiggled his blond eyebrows. "Or maybe you just want to keep an eye on her in case someone takes a fancy to her while she's there?"

Boruto hated whenever Inojin teased him. Mostly because Inojin always knew what to say to make him blush.

Inojin laughed at Boruto's pitiful red face. He had his fill of laughs while Boruto glared at him. Eventually, he mellowed down. "Are you sure, though?" He asked, suddenly all business like. "It would look bad if Sarada had a bodyguard when the Hokage didn't even bother to have one." He scratched the back of his head as he trailed off, "Uncle Shikamaru doesn't really count as a bodyguard, but more of an aide…"

"That old man can take care of himself!" Boruto grimaced. "Besides, Sarada will be placing in a special request. That old geezer can't say no to her."

(At the Hokage Tower)

"No."

Naruto's blunt rejection stabbed her like a kunai. Sarada's head was bowed the entire time she told the hokage her story. She was deeply embarrassed that she'd agreed to such a foolish bet.

"Please, Hokage-sama," she asked quietly again. "I know it's my fault, and that it was stupid of me to agree, but I can't go back on my word either."

Naruto massaged his temples. His son was up to no good again. "I know that," he sighed exasperatedly.

Sarada hung her head in shame and bit her lower lip.

Naruto didn't like seeing her so sad, and he didn't have the heart to reject her either. He finally gave in. "Alright."

Sarada's eyes snapped up. "Really?"

"Fine, fine" Naruto said. "Just make sure he doesn't get into trouble, and file all the paperwork needed."

As Sarada walked home that day, she recalled her conversation with her master. A warm and happy feeling bloomed in Sarada's chest. She easily pinpointed that she was happy because the Hokage had granted her request. However, her thoughts kept going back to Boruto, and how relieved and comforted she felt that she would see his stupid face around during the Summit.

A/N: This story is my comeback to writing after a long hiatus, and I thought it deserved a little more tender love and care. Hence the rewrite with the help of my darling beta-reader, Tuvstarr's Lost Heart. Thank you so much, love! You're such a life saver.

"Functions and Feelings" was meant to be a series of one-shots but it just kept on growing. Thank you so much for reading and your continuous support. I am eternally grateful.

Please do leave me a review and let me know what your favorite part in the chapter was. Mine was Mitsuki poisoning Boruto for the sake of science!