Chapter 1: A long fall from grace.
"You're a failure as a ninja."
Boruto ran through the town, his mind was too far lost from reality to see the few people that had not gone to watch the Chunin Exam. The people who watched him run through the street, tears cascading down his face. He just wanted...needed to disappear for a bit. Someplace where he can be alone.
His distraught mind brought him to a forested training ground. He wasn't quite sure where he was. It wasn't a training ground he had been to before. The only thing left that told him that it was a training ground was a single cut log that stood in the middle of a diminishing clearing, the trees reclaiming what was once a sizable clearing, dirt worn from constant diligent footwork. Boruto bumped into the log in his stupor, staggering back a few steps but slinking past the log nonetheless. He soon found himself at the bed of a river that ran through the forest. In the rushing waters, Boruto could see his reflection. The ordeal had taken it's toll on him. His eyes were swollen and tired and the tears still haven't fully left his face even as he ran out of tears. But his eyes were drawn to his forehead. Where his ninja headband had once sat proudly was now bare. All because of his father.
"You're a failure as a ninja."
All because of this.
Boruto's hand gripped the kote under his sleeve. The tool that the man, Katasuke, had given him. Had manipulated him into using for him.
…
Boruto's hand dropped to his side again.
He wasn't manipulated to do anything. All Katasuke did was offer him power and he had taken it, enthusiastically, running rampant with a vigor that was all his own…
And now...he was no longer a ninja…
…
Boruto's hand reached into his sleeve and dismounted the kote. He glared at the river and raised his arm with the kote in it.
Because of this! Because of this thing he lost everything! He wasn't a ninja! He was a puppet! Son of the Hokage, disgraced child of the Uzumaki. The hero, his father. His father! All his work to catch up to him! To surpass him! All cast aside with a single wave of his negligent hand! All because he used something like this! This damn thing!
Boruto's hand swung forth to throw it into the river.
Yeah. He used it. But what is this going to do for him now?
His hand stalled in the air.
You lost everything because of this thing. Because you were rash. But what is throwing this all away going to do?
It was something painful! This damned thing that bastard Katasuke gave him! This thing that made him nothing more than a disgraced ninja and an advertisement for that scientist! He needed to cut it out of him! Remove the source that-
Doing that wasn't going to bring everything back.
Boruto fell to his knees, the kote rattling in his shivering hand.
Losing the kote wasn't going to bring anything back. Not his status of the ninja. Not the love of his family.
Losing it wasn't going to fix anything but it was his first step! The first step to regaining everything! To one day become a ninja again!
"You're a failure as a ninja."
...Did he even want to be a ninja anymore?
Boruto's hand fell to his side.
He had strived for so long to surpass his father as a great ninja. Now he wasn't even a ninja. If he was a failure...if he didn't deserve to be a ninja...if he was never going to surpass his father...maybe he shouldn't bother to become a ninja.
...What will you become then?
Boruto look down at his hands. At the kote.
…
No matter what he became he'll need strength to accomplish it. And as much harm as the kote had brought him...right now all it looked like was another tool...another part in the scheme of Katasuke. Like he was.
Boruto reached into his bag and took out a kunai. Carefully he placed the kunai to the side of the kote and scratched out a few letters.
Power wasn't evil. A sword is wielded by evil but the weapon itself can serve anybody. People were like that too. Maybe if he returned now he could still be a ninja. Maybe people would come to understand. That he was only as bad as this kote…
But the kote was bad. His father said so. The Hokage decreed it so. No, his father didn't say that. Konohamaru had a kote and he was still a ninja. His father simply didn't see it as a tool befitting a true ninja. That using it and relying on it would discourage ninjas from improving oneself.
It was a tool. But it wasn't part of a ninja's skill.
It wasn't just his father too. It was nothing more than a tool to someone else as well. Their own father. With his own child as an excuse, he sought to further his own name and reputation.
Boruto stopped and looked at his kote.
He was going to make this power his own.
On the side of his kote was written the name.
"We are Uzumaki. The spiral that brings everything together. No matter how far away we may drift, we carry the things we love and never let them go. That is who we are, Boruto. Remember that."
Zenshin Kakumei (Forward Revolution)
He wasn't going to take everything back. He was going to fill the empty future with something new.
Boruto slipped Zenshin Kakumei under his sleeve and stood up.
After all, he wasn't a ninja anymore.