We Can Always Try

What a drag already…

Boruto sighed, and tried to smile as he walked through the neon lights and lanterns of Konoha's backstreets. He was beginning to sound like Shikadai…

And he kind of felt like Shikadai, too — he walked the streets in the shadows, feeling grey amongst all the colour. Neon lights adorned buildings, spelling out words like pa-chi-n-ko and ra-bu. Lanterns made of burnished red paper and black enamelled wood hung from awnings. The streets smelled alive with the scent of spices, and suffered from the stench of sake in oden booths. Kids played with glowing, pixellated screens in their houses. Everyone had somewhere to go, or be.

Boruto did too — he had to get back to the Uzamaki household, to his mother and sister. Yet he'd just returned to Konoha off the back of an exhausting, lengthy mission, and for some reason the last thing he felt like dealing with was his mother's kind-hearted interest in how the mission went and his little sister's clinginess that inevitable followed him returning back home.

He sighed again. There's something wrong with me. Too long on the road, I guess. He'd had company — Sarada and Mitsuki — and journeying together in the face of mortal peril and having only them and themselves between them and death was an exhilarating way to live. But on coming back to the village… it left him empty.

He and Sarada and Mitsuki had all returned to the village so late that they'd parted ways instantly, each heading to their homes to collapse into bed. He'd hoped to get something to eat, but he was running late enough as it was.

'What a drag,' he murmured.

He slipped into a narrow gap between buildings, over a tiny bridge with red railings and trees shading the walkway.

'Yo. Boruto.'

Boruto whirled around to see Naruto sitting on the railing, with his usual smile. The golden glow of Sage Mode faded from his eyes.

'Ah, Dad… Mattaku, you scared me.'

'Nice to see you too.'

Boruto leaned against the railing, looking out over the scattered, blinking lights of the village. 'Am I talking to a Shadow Clone?'

'I've gotta come home and sleep sometime, y'know.'

'Eh. I guess.'

Then Boruto blinked, as Naruto held out a paper bag. 'What's the matter? Take it.'

Boruto took it and checked inside. 'Dinner? What mind reading jutsu have you been playing with…'

'Hey, I heard you were coming back from a mission. And good job, by the way; I got the reports from Konohamaru.'

Boruto rolled his eyes and rested his arms on the railing. 'I guess.' He came all the way out here… to see me? He opened up the bag more and pulled out a burger wrapped in paper.

Naruto laughed awkwardly, and fingered the fox whisker marks on his cheek. 'I almost got you ramen, but I figured it wouldn't go so well as take-out, and I figured I better get you something you actually wanted.'

'Hmph. Not bad.' Boruto scarfed down the food, chewing and swallowing quickly. 'But seriously — ramen is dead, all right, Dad? Get with the times; burgers are the future.'

'Oh?' Naruto smirked. 'You'll have to sell me on it.'

'You can't eat ramen on missions. You'd spill the burning-hot broth on yourself while tree-hopping. And you can't eat ramen while catching the train, either — the nori would blow away.'

Naruto raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. 'Have you been riding on top of the trains again?'

'Geh! …Well, either way.' Boruto smirked back and moved his finger back and forth like the ticking of a clock. 'Burgers are the future, and that's the end of it.'

'I think you're going to have to keep trying with that one.' Naruto slipped down from the railing, and Boruto crumpled the paper bag and tossed it into the garbage can in the street below. It landed hole-in-one. 'Want to head back?'

Boruto leaned against the railing and rested his arms on it, the railing digging into his back 'Yeah, I guess.'

Naruto tilted his head, trying to catch Boruto's eyes. '…Hey. Boruto?'

Boruto looked away, annoyed.

'Want to tell me about it?'

'I'm fine! Just… tired.'

'Like you're too tired to sleep and the last thing in the world you want to do is go home?'

Boruto stared at him. 'How… How did you… know?'

'Sage Mode.' Naruto laughed, and shook his head. 'No, I'm kidding.' He rested a hand on Boruto's shoulder and gently gave him a push, following behind. 'It happens to everyone. Post-mission fatigue.' They walked down the narrow red bridge, between splashes of light cast by lanterns, and Naruto continued. 'You leave for an extended period of time, and after being stimulated by danger day after day, you come back to, well… home. And sometimes it can feel boring.'

'But I shouldn't feel that way,' Boruto muttered. 'It's home, and… I feel like I don't want to talk to anyone, even Mom and Himawari.'

'And that's normal. After coming back from a mission, the adrenaline wears off; you're bone-tired, and after visiting other villages or even just living with your fellow squad members… sometimes home can feel dull. It's normal.'

Boruto's brow creased. 'But… I don't want to feel like this all the time. I don't want to feel like this at all.'

Naruto rested a hand on Boruto's shoulder, turning him to face him. 'I struggled with it too. Even when I became Hokage — it was a transition to go from being an active shinobi to suddenly holding down a desk job.'

Boruto smirked, and Naruto rolled his eyes, and smiled. 'Laugh all you want. But I did work out how to deal with the fatigue pretty quick.

'Ninja don't go on missions merely for the adrenaline rush or the opportunity to see new places. We go on missions to serve the people that we love, and to protect our villages. It's the homes and families that we love that make us do what we do, no matter how we feel about them when we're tired and sore and just about ready to call it quits.'

Naruto rested his hands on Boruto's shoulders. 'So when you're struggling, try and remember that it's because you care about your family, or your village, or whoever is important to you, that drives you to work so hard until you can't even hold a sensible conversation with those people.' His eyes creased with a smile. 'It's kind of crazy, isn't it?'

Boruto closed his eyes, and chuckled under his breath. 'Yeah. Kinda.'

'So?' They stepped out into the neon lights and lanterns and streets of Konoha. 'Wanna go home and collapse into bed and be and antisocial together?'

'Sounds great.' Boruto grinned; tapped his fingers together; summoned Shadow Clones, and blasted down the street yelling, 'Race you! Boruto Stream!'

'Oh yeah?!' And Naruto blasted after him, yelling, 'Naruto Cannon!'

'I'm going to win!'

'No, I am! Believe it!'

And they crashed onto the doorstep of their house, prompting an explosion of lights in the neighbours' houses, and they laughed until their sides ached.

The End

A/N: Reviews welcome, and thanks for reading!