Chapter One - Vanish
Boruto was having a really good day. He was smiling broadly as he walked down the streets of Konoha. Recently, Uncle Sasuke had accepted him as his student and he was training with him really hard so that he could show his old man his power.
Our power, Sarada would have chided were she here. Speaking of Sarada, Boruto wondered how she would feel about her dad choosing to train him, her teammate, instead of her. Would she be jealous?
Boruto quickly shook his head.
No, she said she wanted to be Hokage. She probably wants to walk down a different path from her father, so maybe she doesn't want to learn from him. Maybe.
Either way, she was going to find out sooner or later so it might as well be sooner.
He rounded the corner into an alley, taking a shortcut. He could easily have leapt across buildings to reach his destination but today he was in the mood to just walk. And besides, he wasn't in a hurry.
Come to think of it, this is where I first met Denki when I saved him from those bullies.
He smiled to himself.
Haven't seen him in a while.
In fact, he hasn't been seeing most of his other classmates a lot since they graduated, asides from Sarada and Mistuki.
We should arrange a get together once we clear these Exams. Ugh, the Chunin Exams. I almost forgot. I haven't submitted my application yet.
He hadn't wanted to participate at first, but thanks to old man Katasuke, and his teammates Mitsuki and Sarada, he decided to.
An image of his father sitting on the Hokage's desk flashed through his mind.
He raised a clenched fist as he walked, blue eyes sparkling with determination.
"I'm gonna show that old man my power, power that's one day gonna topp- ".
Boruto was cut off by something landing on his head. Or rather, someone's foot. That someone landed rather lightly though - so he didn't get his neck broken - then bounced off his head and landed a few feet in front of him.
Boruto rubbed his poor head where the person landed- that's gonna leave a mark - as he raised his head to see the culprit.
" Ow, ow, ow! What's wrong with you? What's the big idea, playing hopscotch on people's hea- "
He abruptly stopped when he saw his assailant.
They both stared at each other for a few seconds.
The person had a grey featureless mask on his face and wore a black hooded cloak, the hood drawn to cover his head and much of his mask. From what Boruto could make out from the mask, it was completely featureless. No animal or demonic designs that Konoha and Suna ANBU, respectively, supposedly liked to wear. There wasn't even slits for eyes.
How does he even see?
There was another thing. When he landed on Boruto's head and then on the ground, he hadn't made a sound. Had he not felt him landing on his head, he wouldn't have even known he was there. This was definitely a Shinobi, and no ordinary one. And by the looks of it he wasn't a Konoha ninja or some foreign tourist out sightseeing. This was an alley after all. That could only mean -
"Who are you? What are you doing here? Are you an enemy? "Boruto demanded, simultaneously pulling out a kunai from his weapons pouch.
The mysterious cloaked figure said nothing. He simply turned and ran.
"Oh no you don't," Boruto said, giving chase."You ain't getting off that easy. Believe it!"
The masked intruder was fast. It was all Boruto could do to not loose sight of him as he chased him through the alleyway. The intruder rounded a corner, Boruto still hot on his heels.
As he ran, he brought out a kunai and, without even turning, threw it over his shoulder straight at Boruto. He deflected it with his own kunai just in time to stop it from maiming his face.
Enemy. Definitely an enemy. That's one mystery solved.
The intruder came out of the alleyway, and quick as lightening, ran right across the more or less deserted street, and entered a building under construction that was on the opposite side.
Still, Boruto ran after him. As he came out of the alleyway and was making for the building, a voice called.
"Boruto? What are you doing?"
He turned his head sideways even as he ran towards the building. He saw a pale boy with blue hair, blue robes and dark pants running towards him. He had likely wondered what was up when he saw him running out of the alleyway and was now coming to inquire.
"Mitsuki? No time explain. I'm chasing this intruder -
"You just did though" Mitsuki informed him, as he steered himself to run in the same direction as Boruto.
"- and he ran into that building. I can't let'em escape."
As they were both about to enter the building, one of the construction workers, who had forgotten something and had come back to retrieve it, saw them. He was astonished, as he rounded a corner, to see two kids - genin, he supposed - barging into the building at top speed.
"Hey! What do you kids think you're doing?"he yelled, but they were already gone.
続け
"So, mind telling me what this intruder looks like?"
"Grey mask, black cloak... hooded cloak. Don't let your guard down. He's good."
"I'm sure we can handle him together," Mitsuki assured him with a smile, though he kept his guard up.
Boruto looked around the building for any sign of the intruder. It looked like it was going to be a warehouse for it had quite a large area. There were hardly any rooms, that meant he was either hiding behind one of the dozens of building materials stacked in various places or behind one of the temporary pillars that were supporting the building.
"Let's split up, you go that way and I'll go this way,"Boruto whispered, pointing.
Mitsuki nodded and cautiously went leftward.
Boruto had hardly moved a few feet when he caught sight of the silhouette of a figure moving quickly, a little distance away from him, from one stack of building materials to another.
"Gotcha," he said under his breath, grinning. He wasn't going to let him escape.
He cautiously moved closer and then quickly glanced to his left to make sure Mitsuki wasn't watching. Satisfied, he made a hand seal with his right hand and then pointed it at the pile in the distance, just like he had seen Konohamaru sensei do a few days ago.
"Rasengan," he whispered and launched the rotating blue ball of chakra from the gauntlet wrapped around his arm, safely hidden beneath the the sleeves of his jacket.
And just like Konohamaru sensei's rasengan, it went way off course. It missed the stack and smashed through the central pillar that was supporting the building, smashed through yet another pillar and then hit the wall at the other side of the building, leaving a sizable crack, before dissipating.
'Uh-oh,' Boruto said as the first pillar came crashing down, right towards him. He jumped out of the way before he could be turned into a pancake.
The building was starting to collapse.
"Boruto, what happened?" Mitsuki asked, landing next to him.
He had no time to answer though, as the masked man had jumped out of his hiding place and was making straight for the wall adjacent the wall the damaged one. Before either boy could even move two feet he had run up the wall using chakra and escaped through the window.
"Hey, wait!" Boruto yelled and made as if to follow him, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"Leave him Boruto, lets get out of here before this whole building collapses on top of us."
Boruto glanced at the window and then looked back at Mitsuki. He nodded.
They both turned and ran for the door, which was closer, dodging falling pieces of wood, glass and metal. They had barely made it out of the building when the roof caved in.
They coughed as they inhaled a cloud of dust that was blown out through the doorway.
"Well, that was fun," Mitsuki stated plainly.
"He..." Boruto sat on the ground, panting "...got away though, and I accidentally destroyed the building. Think... " pant, pant "...anyone noticed?".
"Oh we certainly did notice. "
Both boys turned to see a man landing a few feet in front of them. Behind him two more shinobi with Konoha flak jackets also landed. He had a pale complexion and dark hair, and had a giant scroll strapped to his back. He crossed him arms.
'What were you boys doing in there?"he asked, raising an eyebrow interrogatively.
"U-Uncle Sai, w-well you see... " Boruto trailed off, scratching the back of his head nervously.
Sai put on his usual dollface-like fake smile.
"You two are coming with me," he said, sweetly.
続け
Sarada was a well behaved girl. She always followed the rules and did things by the book. When she sees any trouble that doesn't concern her she minds her own business and doesn't get herself involved. Unless of course, she was unfortunate enough to be in the company of a certain blonde idiot when it happens.
Honestly, Boruto has always been like this. Since the Academy. No, even before then he had always managed to drag her into one of his messes whenever they were together as little kids.
And now he's done it again. He even dragged Mitsuki along with him this time.
Sarada had hoped he would start acting more mature - even if it was just a little bit - after they had graduated from the Academy, but it looks like it was a tad too much to hope for.
She resisted the urge to cross her arms and snort.
He hasn't changed a bit.
Which is why they were currently in the Hokage's office facing an angry looking Lord Seventh.
"Honestly Boruto, what were you thinking? You destroyed a whole building. Why?" he asked, as he stared questioningly at his son.
Boruto stared back at his dad with a frown on his face. He still probably hadn't forgiven the man for ruining his kid sister's birthday party a few days ago. Sarada could sympathise with him. Her own father has never even attended any of her birthday parties. None that she could remember at least.
"Look, I already told you, it was an accident. I was chasing this intruder..."
"Intruder? What gave you the impression that the person you were chasing was an intruder?" Shikadai's dad, who was standing next to the Hokage's desk, asked.
"Well, he looked like a really shady character ."
"Shady how?"
"He was wearing a mask and a dark cloak and was lurking around in a dark alley. Can't get any more shady than that." Boruto said. And then, as though he just remembered a minor detail, he added, "Oh, and he tried to kill me too."
At that, the seventh's eyes widened and he shot Shikadai's dad an urgent look, who nodded.
"What did this person look like Boruto? Was he targeting you?" Uncle Naruto all but demanded.
"N-No, I don't think so. He probably just attacked me because I was chasing him," Boruto answered, probably not sure how to react to his father's sudden show of genuine concern for his wellbeing.
"And? His appearance?" The Nara clan head pressed.
"He wore a dark cloak and a grey mask. There weren't any paintings or carvings on the mask. It was completely featureless. " her blonde teammate informed him.
"I see," he said stroking his beard in thought. "That information might prove useful. Thank you."
"Regardless," the Hokage began. He seemed to have recovered from his 'concerned papa bear' state and had returned to his 'work mode'. "It doesn't change the fact that, by your own confession, you were the one that was responsible for destroying that building, which was village property. But since, luckily for you two, it isn't privately owned, your punishment will be a little less severe."
"Wait, what? What do mean 'punishment,?" Boruto half yelled at his dad. Mitsuki simply remained silent.
"You aren't academy students anymore. You are official ninjas of the Leaf now. Don't think you can just get away with anything like before. As it is, a few days out of the village doing d-ranks might prove very good for you."
"So um, Lord Seventh," Sarada decided to speak up.
"Just 'Seventh' is fine Sarada. What is it?"
"I was wondering why I was called here, since I had nothing to do with the incident."
It wasn't like she was trying to make excuses for herself to save her from getting punished along with her teammates - they were a team after all, and they stuck together through thick and thin. It was just that she really wanted to have more time for her training, what with the upcoming Chunin Exams and all. It wouldn't do to waste time serving a punishment for a crime she didn't commit when she could be improving her skills. She was serious about her dream of becoming Hokage and getting promoted to Chunin was an important first step for her.
"Yeah, sorry about that," he said with a gentle smile. "You see Konohamaru's out on a mission and since this is his team and I need someone to keep an eye on two of his charges while they serve their punishment, I thought, who is better suited to do that than another member of Team Konohamaru. Sarada, you're the most reasonable person on the team. Boruto's too brash..."
"Hmph! And who do I get that from?"
"... and Mitsuki does whatever Boruto says. I want you to keep an eye on them for me and make sure they don't get themselves into any more trouble. That is, of course, if you feel up to it."
Sarada blushed a little from the small compliment she just got from her hero. She was torn between the desire to accept the request and live up to her hero's expectations, and the desire to stay and continue her training. Plus, her dad was now home and she wanted to spend as much of her free time with her parents as possible. But then again, this d-rank will probably only take them just a few days. They might even use those few days for more team building which will certainly be useful if they were going to pass the upcoming Chunin Exams. And she would have impressed her hero. Killing two birds with one stone. Her father would still be around when she got back from the mission- hopefully- so she didn't have much to loose.
The seventh looked at her expectantly.
"Plus, it will be a good opportunity for some team bonding ," he added, almost as though he had read her mind. He seemed quite keen on getting her join the boys so that they go together as a team.
She smiled and nodded.
"Okay, I accept sir."
"So basically, she's gonna be our baby sitter." Boruto said, still scowling at his dad.
"No, she's not going as a baby sitter Boruto, she's going as your teammate. Only this time, she'll be the one in charge." The seventh explained.
Boruto opened his mouth to give an impudent reply, but was cut off by Mitsuki, who had finally decided to speak.
"If I may sir, what kind of punishment are we serving away from the village?" He asked, addressing the Hokage.
"Yeah, about that," the seventh began, taking a scroll from the top of a stack of papers that were kept on the floor near his seat, hidden from view by his desk." It's actually a d-ranked mission as I mentioned before. You see, we've had reports that due to strong winds one stormy night, some of the houses over at Tsuchi- ku village, southwest of Konoha, have been damaged. You two are going to assist in rebuilding. By 'assist' I mean you're going to be doing most of the manual labour. A fitting punishment if I do say so myself."
He folded his arms, closed his eyes and nodded as he finished, looking quite pleased with himself for some reason. "Of course, you'll only be doing what you're physically capable of," he added.
"How long is it going to take though?" Sarada asked.
"Depends. It might be four or five days, it might even take a week. It really depends on the extent of the damage and how smoothly the repairs go. According to the report, a pretty sizable portion of the little village's houses were damaged. They didn't specify the exact extent of damage though, so we can't tell for sure. Regardless though, no matter how much work their is, you can only stay there for as long as a week," the Hokage's adviser answered her question.
"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Boruto exclaimed. "A week? But what about the Chunin Exams?"
The seventh put on a little smile, no doubt on hearing his son had decided to participate in the exams. Then he dropped the smile and said, "You should have thought of that before you decided to play demolitionist."
He paused for a second and then continued.
"Speaking of, how exactly did you pull that off?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at Boruto."Did you learn a new jutsu?"
"Ah... well, you see..." Boruto trailed off, scratching the back of his head, suddenly looking quite uncomfortable.
Sarada came to his rescue.
"If so, wouldn't it be better if you waited till the exams to find out? He probably wants it to be a surprise."
"Yeah..., that makes sense. I guess you're right," said the seventh.
Boruto breathed a sigh of relief and gave her a small smile of appreciation.
He then cleared his throat." Ahem! So anyway, a week? Can't you make it a little bit shorter."He asked.
"Relax kid, you're going to have plenty of company," Shikadai's dad said. When Boruto raised an eyebrow in question, he added," Apparently you're love for mischief back when you were in the Academy was contagious."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Boruto enquired.
"Don't worry, you'll soon find out."
続け
As his son and his team-mates left, Naruto slumped in his chair and let out a heavy sigh.
"I don't know what to do with him, Shikamaru." he said to his advisor.
"Just give him some time,"Shikamaru advised."So what do you make of his story? About the this intruder?"
Naruto straightened himself once more and said, "Boruto never makes up stories about such things. If he says he's seen a suspicious looking person lurking around an alley then it's safe to say he's telling the truth, and we should be on our guards."
"You're right,"Shikamaru replied."What puzzles me though, is how such a person could have been moved about undetected by the ANBU. If they'd spotted him, they would have reported it by now."
"Well he must have entered the village legally through the gates, probably disguised as a tourist, cause if this wasn't the case, the barrier team would have detected anyone who tried to sneak into the village." Naruto provided.
"Let's not get too far ahead of selves though. There's no need to cause alarm since this might just be someone cosplaying as some cool character he's seen in the latest Kagemasa movie." Shikamaru said.
"Yeah you're right." said Naruto, then he paused for a second.
"So what's cosplay?"
"It's...never mind, it's too troublesome to explain, just go ask your son," Shikamaru said, shaking his hand in dismissal.
"I wish I could," Naruto replied with a sad smile."He's really upset with me right now cause I messed up Himawari's birthday, and I just don't know how to talk to him. Sasuke said he's just like I was at that age, but he's really nothing like me."
"You're right,"Shikamaru agreed with a smirk as he dropped the document he had been holding on the Hokage's desk." He's a lot less dumb than you were at that age."
"Well excuse me!" Naruto flared up with an almost comical expression. "You're not exactly one to talk. Shikadai's a lot less lazy than you were back then Mr 'I'm-too-lazy-to-move-a-pen-over-paper'."
They both stared at each other for two seconds. Then both burst into laughter.
Operation cheer-up-the-hokage. Successful.
続け
"I'm home," Boruto announced as he closed the door. Immediately his little sister came rushing out to greet him, all smiles.
"Welcome home big brother!"she greeted, wrapping her arms around him in a crushing hug.
"Hi Hima! How was your day."
"Okay!" she replied with a cute smile as she released him and watched him take off his sandals."Say! Say! You know, today I'm helping Mommy make dinner."
"Is that so?" he grinned at her, placing a hand on her head." My taste buds can't wait."
"Welcome home, Boruto," his mother greeted, suddenly appearing from a doorway. "How was you're training?"
"Fine Mom. And uh..., I'll be going on a mission out of the village tomorrow so I'll just go up to my room and prepare before dinner's ready." he informed her.
"That's fine but..., you were assigned a mission? Weren't you going to participate in the Chunin Exams? I thought all applicants were temporarily relived from missions until after the exams." Hinata asked, curiously eyeing her son. "Did something happened?"
"No, no it's nothing much really.
He laughed nervously as he quickly made his way upstairs before she could press the matter. He wasn't keen on letting his mother find out about his little screw up back in the warehouse. She could be really scary when she was mad.
続け
As Sarada entered her home, she made her way to the living room calling, "I'm home."
She was met with a sight that warmed her heart.
Her dad was seated on the couch studying some small map he was holding up with his one and only hand and her mom was sitting by his side, leaning against his left shoulder. She looked like she was sleeping - most likely tired out from her day at work in the hospital. She looked very peaceful.
It almost made Sarada feel bad about coming in when she did, for, at the sound of her voice her mother stirred and her father looked up from his map.
"Welcome back darling," her mother said with a small yawn, getting up from her place besides her husband. She patted Sarada's head as she walked past her.
"How was you're day?"
"Okay, I guess."
"Can you please be a sport and go buy some takeouts for dinner? I'm feeling too exhausted to cook."
"Sure, Okay," Sarada replied.
Sakura gave her a tired smile.
"Thank you so much. I'm gonna make sure I do as little work as possible tomorrow and come home early so that we can cook together 'kay. Tomorrow's a free day for you right."
'Yeah... about that," Sarada began, prompting Sakura to halt in her track and turn to face her.
"I'll be leaving the village for a few days. It's for a mission," she informed her parents.
"Naruto gave you a mission out of the village? I thought you were going to participate in the Chunin Exams," Sasuke said, a hint of surprise in his tone.
"Yes, I am. It's still a few weeks away though," she assured him.
Then she folded her arms.
"A certain idiot got himself and Mitsuki into trouble, so they were given a d-rank as punishment. I have to keep an eye on them so... "
Come to think of it, this wasn't the first time Boruto was responsible for destroying a building. It happened once before, back at the Academy when they had that 'Boys vs Girls' contest, and while, sure, everyone in the class was partly responsible, Sarada was sure Boruto's final act of recklessness was the last straw that broke the camel's back and you couldn't convince her otherwise.
"Boruto huh," her dad sighed while her mother added,"What did he do this time?"
Sarada turned to her mother with a grin.
"Well let's just say it'll be safer if the two of you stay far, far away from each other from now on, else the Leaf's buildings are gonna start getting demolished much faster than they can be rebuilt," she teased.
Sakura gave an exaggerated gasp while Sasuke looked as if he was struggling to suppress a smirk.
"Oh Sarada, that's so mean," Sakura said with a mock pout." I only destroyed three buildings... okay five, but it was all by accident."
"No wonder we had a hard time getting this place after that Shin incident," Sasuke supplied, folding his map on the table and then getting up, trying to pretend he wasn't aiding his daughter in teasing her." Landlords must really fear you."
"What? You too."
Sarada gave a small laugh.
"Oh, come on Mom. You know we're just teasing."
Sakura gave her a smile. She then clasped her hands together and announced,"Alright then! I've decided. "
"Decided what, exactly?" Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm gonna be cooking after all. "
Sasuke gave her a look of concern.
"I thought you said you were tired out."
"Oh don't worry, Dear," she dismissed with a wave of her hand. "It won't be that tiring since you're both helping.
"Eh?" both father and daughter exclaimed.
"Come on now," Sakura said, walking past Sarada, over to her husband. She linked her hand in his and pulled him towards the kitchen. "Since Sarada's leaving the village for a mission tomorrow, I want us to spend as much time together as a family as possible tonight. So we're eating and preparing the meal together."
Sarada just smiled and followed her parents to the kitchen.
続け
Boruto stared at the item he was currently holding. He was sitting on his bed packing some stuff he would be need on the mission.
Should I take this with me?
He didn't think he would be needing it on the mission but...
If I leave it here Mom might find it when she inevitably decides to tidy up my room while I'm gone. She might wonder what it is and ask Dad.
That was something he definitely wanted to avoid. His Dad would surely want to know why he has it and what he wants to use it for, and Boruto was certainly not looking forward to that.
So he decided to take it. He put it inside his bag and went on with his packing.
続け
The next morning Sarada came out of her room all set for her mission. She saw her mother by the door, probably heading for the hospital.
"Oh, good morning Sarada," Sakura greeted. You're heading out now too, huh. Good, now we can lock up."
"Good morning Mom," Sarada answered the greeting with a small smile. She then asked,"What do you mean 'lock up'? What about Dad?"
"He left a while ago. But he asked me to give you this," her mother answered, holding out something to Sarada.
She took it and stared at it curiously. It was a piece of paper that had some fuinjutsu seal shaped somewhat like the Uchiha symbol on it. Or at least she thought it was a fuinjutsu seal.
"What's this?" she decided to ask.
Her mother shrugged.
"No idea. He said he was going to tell you when you came back from your mission though. He also said to always keep it with you no matter what."
Sarada nodded and inserted the paper into her weapons pouch.
"Anyway, just be careful okay," Sakura advised.
Sarada resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"Oh mom, stop worrying. It's only a d-rank you know."
"I don't know. Those out-of-village low ranked missions have a bad habit of quickly turning into into full-blown A-ranks," the Uchiha matriarch replied holding her chin and smiling knowingly. "But I know better than anyone that you can take care of yourself, so..."
She reached out with her arm and gave her daughter the signature Uchiha forehead poke.
"Good luck."
Sarada smiled, blushing lightly. She said goodbye and departed.
As she walked down the street towards the village gate she let her mind drift into thoughts. She thought about various things, one of them being her father. Sarada wondered why her father's left eye was different. She'd seen one or two pictures of him when he was younger and he didn't seem to have possessed that weird purple eye, so apparently he wasn't born with it. Granted, she'd seen him deactivate the eye at will, so it might be that he had simply chose not activate it each time he was to take a picture, but somehow she was certain that wasn't the case. So how did he come to posses it? She could easily just ask the man, but Sarada had learned that when it came to matters concerning his past, her father was as tight-lipped as one could get.
And her mom? Well, she was able to keep the details of her dad's secret mission, well, a secret, for almost ten years even though she - Sarada - had hounded her for the reason for her father's absence from their lives every other day.
I'm certainly not getting anything out of her.
She groaned internally.
Why do they have to be so secretive about their past. She loved her parents dearly, but if they weren't going to tell her anything, she was going to find out herself sooner or later. This, she promised herself.
The Aun gates were, by now, in sight. She sighted a few people waiting there. One of them was Mitsuki and the others were...
"Shikadai!? Inojin!? What are you two doing here?" she exclaimed in surprised, as she approached them.
"Were going to Tsuchi-ku too," Shikadai answered her, hands in pockets. He had on his usual laid-back demenor. "Morning, by the way."
"Good morning, Sarada," Mitsuki greeted, with his typical closed eye smile.
"It seems we're not the only ones that got in trouble yesterday," he explained.
"Oh, so that's what Mr Shikamaru meant," Sarada realized.
"So where's Chocho?" she asked, turning her head from side to side.
"Not here yet. Busy packing some 'emergency food supply', no doubt," Inojin told her.
"Let's just hope she doesn't take too long. The sooner we get to that village and finish our jobs, the sooner I can come home and nap all day," said Shikadai. "Oh, there's Boruto."
Sure enough there was the blue eyed blonde, running up to them.
"Sorry... I'm... late," he said, when he finally reached them, out of breath from running so fast.
"So, what are you guys doing here," he asked his two childhood friends.
続け
Chocho arrived half an hour later with a backpack chock full of 'supplies' and the small group of genin soon departed.
They chose to walk instead of run . It was no big deal; even if they arrived at their destination late, they weren't supposed to start their work till the next day anyway - best to save some energy - so they took their sweet time.
"Remind me again why we're not taking a train to this... village," Boruto asked, when they had walked a fair distance away from the Leaf.
"Because, there are no train tracks that lead to Tsuchi-ku," Sarada told him. "Not even anywhere close to it. It's a pretty isolated village, according to the scroll the seventh gave me."
"We go right," said Shikadai, as they came to a fork in the road. He, like Sarada, had also received the details of the mission.
"I studied the map to Tsuchi-ku last night and memorized all the shortest routes. It was such a drag, but it would be more troublesome if we get lost on the way or take too long getting there. For an 'isolated village' it sure has quite a few paths you can take to get there," he explained as they went right.
Chocho and Sarada walked a few paces ahead of the boys, chatting.
"So what did you guys do anyway? Why are you also being punished?" Boruto asked.
"We're not talking about that," Shikadai simply answered, dismissing the question.
Boruto opened his mouth to give a retort, but Inojin cut him off.
"Isn't it ironic though, that your dads are the ones punishing us?" he asked.
Both Boruto and and Shikadai eyed him questioningly.
"Ironic, how?" Boruto inquired.
"Well, Mom told me that when they were in the Academy, your dads - along with Uncle Choji and Kiba - always got in trouble with the senseis because they would ditch class," Inojin informed him.
"Really?" Shikadai raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I can totally picture my old man doing that, but the seventh too?"
Boruto snickered." You're just saying that because you don't know him like I do."
How much do I even know about him? Boruto thought to himself.
"What you need to know now isn't the current Naruto, but the Naruto who made it this far."
That was what his master had told him not long ago. He still wasn't sure what he really meant though.
"Say, are you guys taking the Chunin Exams?" Mitsuki - who had been quiet up until then - asked the two clan heirs.
"Yeah we are," Inojin answered.
"We didn't want to participate in those troublesome exams, but our moms threatened us with..." Shikadai began.
Both his and Inojin's faces darkened.
"Okay, we're not talking about that either."
Ahead of them Chocho, who had heard the last part of their conversation sniggered. She turned to give a witty remark when...
A body flickered into existence right in front of her. One moment she was facing Shikadai and the next; all she saw was a grey mask, a dark cloak, shinobi sandals and toes.
Then, everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
The owner of the aforementioned features brought a hand out of his cloak bringing with it a kunai attached to a yellow paper tag.
The boys' and Chocho's eyes widened even as they made to bend down and kick against the ground to leap backwards to safety.
Sarada turned her head to see what was going on.
All of this happened almost simultaneously.
The newcomer threw the kunai at the ground as the genin all leapt backwards. ( Why am I always attacked every time I set foot out of the village? This is starting to become a trend. Honestly, I'm too gorgeous for my own good, Chocho thought to herself as she jumped). The yellow tag exploded with a boom! and released a cloud of pink smoke that covered a much larger area than smoke from a single explosive tag should have. It completely engulfed all of the genin. Visibility two paces ahead of each them was , it wasn't sleeping gas and it didn't seem to be toxic.
Several things happened all at once.
Just as he landed, Shikadai got a kick to the back that hurled him forward.
Inojin got sucker punched in the jaw with such force that he was sent flying a few feet away.
Sarada narrowly dodged a kunai that suddenly pierced through the smoke - heading right for her head - thanks to her sharingan. She could here the grunts and yelps of some of her friends. Does this mean there's more than one enemy?
Chocho got a kick to the gut that had her stumbling backwards.
Mitsuki who had leapt quite a fair distance away from their attacker quickly weaved some hand signs ending with the bird seal.
Wind style : Breakthrough.
He gathered chakra in his stomach and expelled it as a gust of wind which blew away some of the smoke.
"Wind style: Breakthrough!" he heard an adult voice announce ( That's probably the ANBU that was, no doubt, sent by the seventh to ensure that we make it to Tsuchi-ku safely, Mitsuki thought) before releasing the same technique, further dispersing more of the smoke.
The ANBU operative landed next to him.
"You alright?" he asked as he reached for his sword.
"Yeah," Mitsuki murmured as his eyes surveyed the battleground. They widened at what he saw.
A seal, marked by formations of jutsu formulae - sort of like that of a summoning's - forming a circle had appeared on the ground covering a wide area and stopping a few feet from his and the ANBU's location. Some of his friend were within it's radius - it appeared as though their feet were stuck to the ground - and one of them was Boruto! In the middle of the circle crouched the masked man - or woman? - quickly weaving a series of hand signs.
Instantly, Mitsuki stretched his arms towards Boruto, even as the ANBU agent threw some kunai at the cloaked man. Neither of them dared to venture into the circle.
The masked man seemed to have finished weaving his hand signs though, as he then slammed his hands on the ground - right in the middle of the seal - and with that the seal glowed a light green light and he disappeared with a poof just when one of the ANBU's kunai was inches away from his head.
He wasn't the only one though; everyone that was within the radius of the seal disappeared, without even leaving a cloud of smoke behind. Everyone, including Boruto. And just as Mitsuki's hand had almost reached his outstretched arm too. Right in front of his eyes, his 'sun', along with some of his other friends, winked out of existence.
They simply vanished.
休止
AN - Hello guys, that was chapter one, please forgive any typos or mistakes. How was it? Do you think I should continue with the story?
Reviews, constructive criticism and corrections would be greatly appreciated.
See ya!