Second chapter is up! Didn't I tell you that some of it was pre-written? Another three or four chapters more to be proofread and edited before posting.

Enjoy!

He laughed the whole way to the Hokage tower.

"Shut up, already!" Naruto said, his face red up to his ears.

"Sorry, sorry…" Boruto said wiping his tears, but upon seeing how much he towered Naruto by again, he couldn't help it. He reached out and ruffled the other blond's hair. "Did I hurt your feewings?"

Both he and Sakura burst into laughter again. Kakashi looked absolutely mortified by this behaviour in the middle of the village and Sasuke was trying to stop himself from smirking and failed.

"AAARRRGHH!" Naruto slapped away Boruto's hand. "I'm gonna kill you!"

Boruto's face lost its mirth as Naruto lunged at him. The one who stopped the possible murder was Kakashi who held him put by keeping a firm grip on the shorter blond's collar. Perhaps he did go a bit too far with the teasing.

"Calm down, Naruto. Eventually you'll grow taller just like everyone else, so hold off on the unnecessary homicide. And we're already at the Hokage Tower so could you at least try to behave?"

Behave he did, but Naruto also sulked the rest of the way.

"Enter." A voice came once Kakashi had knocked on the old wooden door.

The Hokage tower only slightly resembled the one that Boruto remembered. The rest of the village was tiny and the buildings were underdeveloped. Konoha was a small patch of land compared to the one Boruto was used to living in. There didn't seem to be a train track in sight or any bus stops even. Did they have buses over here? The buildings didn't have more than a few stories and there weren't any game centres or arcades. This place was ancient.

When Boruto entered the Hokage's office, he realized that the Sandaime was ancient too.

"Is this the young man you wrote to me about?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked Kakashi. His right hand held up a note and the other held onto a smoking pipe.

And Boruto's concerns of it being ancient were confirmed. Nobody used notes in his time except for Sasuke. They had mobiles or tablets to help them out with that.

"Yes." Kakashi answered and glanced at Boruto accusingly. "He's already revealed a few secrets, both from the past and the future. I thought I'd let you decide on the consequences of his actions."

Boruto gulped audibly and looked at the third Hokage. Naruto wore a face that said it served him right.

"Boruto-kun, was it?" Hiruzen asked and after the blond nodded, continued. "May I ask, how did you get here? Time travel has been a relatively theoretical jutsu pondered on by many great seal masters of the late generation. To perform it requires purely natural chakra – universal energy if you may. I will not punish you for revealing a few secrets; I simply desire answers."

Boruto hesitated a moment. He was standing in front of a legend – 'The Professor', they called him. One of the smartest ninjas to have been born in Konoha – and quite frankly, the one who lasted the longest in the position.

"I… don't exactly have much of an idea of how it works, but I probably time travelled because of this thing." Boruto dug inside his trouser pocket and pulled out the Dekito.

Hiruzen gave the offending instrument his attention and examined it.

"It has a simple enough shape. Would you care to explain, Boruto-kun?"

"Uh… If I remember correctly, my father said that only an Uzumaki could activate this thing." As Boruto said this, he saw a foreign expression on the young face of the future seventh Hokage. "It was infested with filtered chakra… apparently and can allow the user to perform practically any jutsu. Dad said that it wasn't very stable in ninjutsu yet, but helps quite a lot with genjutsu and sealing."

"I see… and, did Naruto develop it?" Hiruzen asked.

"I suppose. He said that he got help from the TDDK though."

"TDDK?" This time, it was Sakura who spoke up.

"The Technology development department of Konoha."

"We don't have that."

"No, it was the Rokudaime's establishment." Boruto said lightly, and then realized that he'd given some more information away.

"Wait… how many hokage did you go through?" Sakura asked.

"Classified." Boruto stubbornly refused to glance at Kakashi. It could give him away and the last thing he wants to be known as is the ninja who knows nothing of discretion.

"Now it's classified…"

The Sandaime had seen it fit to interject over here. "Boruto-kun, can't you use the Dekito to go back to your own time?"

"I-I don't know." He stammered.

In all honesty, the blond didn't really want to go back. Who knew what his father would do to him? Nothing would change if he went back to his own time now. It wouldn't change his relationship with his father. If he stayed here, it would give him an opportunity to observe his father up close. They had a better chance of understanding each other, being so close in age.

But nobody here would accept his reasoning.

"Can you try?" Kakashi asked and Boruto knew he'd have to.

"Yeah, okay…"

Reluctantly, Boruto held the Dekito in his right hand and just like he did before, raised it above his head as if he would smash it. He closed his eyes and waited for the bright light to engulf him again. And kept on waiting.

"…."

"Nothing's happening." Naruto observed after a moment.

Boruto opened his eyes to find everyone staring at him.

"But… it worked before…" He reasoned. The sandaime shook his head.

"Maybe it's too early to try using this device again. Perhaps it needs to gather more chakra. We should let Hiashi take a look at it later."

"That's a good idea." Kakashi agreed. "For now, maybe we should let the kid rest. It's getting late, anyway. Naruto, he'll stay with you."

"Eh? Me?"

"Yes, you. He's your son. You take care of him."

Boruto looked at Naruto, and he knew that the disappointment for his father carried in them, because Naruto seemed a little stunned, looking at him.

"It's alright. I won't be much trouble. If you could just lend me some clothes though, that'd be good." He stated.

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed. "No… it wouldn't be any trouble. Why would you even say that?"

Boruto remained silent for a while. "No reason. So, are we gonna leave anytime soon or…?"

"You kids go home." Kakashi said. "I need to submit our reports."

The genin looked at each other before nodding and heading out of the room one by one. The hokage tower was so much older, but it looked almost exactly the same to the one back home, to Boruto. Perhaps it was the tower back home that was made to look exactly like this one.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan." Naruto said suddenly, the moment they had made their way out of the building. "I can't go on a date with you today."

Boruto blanched, because what the hell? His father had a crush on Sarada's mother! This was so not what he wanted to find out by going back in time! Thankfully, Sakura didn't seem to share his remorse.

"Why are you making it sound like we ever did?" She pulled a face. "Talk about gross."

'Feeling's mutual!' Boruto thought, sighing in relief.

Then she turned to look at the sole Uchiha, and seemed to grow red. Well, that wasn't as disturbing considering that they actually did end up getting married.

"Um, Sasuke-kun… are you free?" She asked, coyly.

"No." He immediately shut her down. "I have training to do, unlike you idiots."

He shifted his eyes to land on Boruto while Sakura's shoulders slumped. "And I'm not done with you. There are still questions I want answered."

Boruto stiffened, but didn't look away. For some reason, Sasuke seemed like a brute as a kid. He lacked the grace of his future self and he was a lot more… impatient.

"Whatever," Boruto shrugged. "I might not be of much help though. I know next to nothing about your family."

That seemed to catch the raven haired boy's attention. "You're saying I have a family?"

"Well, yeah. You don't really think that my dad was the only one to have a kid, did you? Almost everyone from your generation has one." Boruto said. "Your daughter's my teammate, and let me tell you, she's a lot less stuck up than you are. And that's saying something, because she's super stuck up."

Naruto sniggered at that and Sasuke narrowed his eyes. The blond raised an eyebrow provokingly and with that, they really might've started fighting, but Sakura interfered. Damn… Sasuke was just as bad as Naruto.

"That's enough." Sakura intervened. She also appeared to be a little upset at finding out about Sasuke having a daughter. Instead of saying so, though, she decided to end the conversation. "We should all just go home. If Kakashi-sensei found out about this, we'd all be in trouble."

Boruto stared a moment longer at Sasuke before nodding. "Yeah. That's a good idea. Come on, Naruto. Show me where you live."

"Boruto is missing?" Sarada repeated. Mitsuki was standing behind her as they confronted the Uzumaki house's matriarch. They were standing outside the front door of the Uzumaki household.

"Yes…" She confirmed, looked absolutely exhausted. "My husband is busy right now. He said that he might be able to figure out what happened to him, but I'm afraid you won't be able to have one teammate for a while."

"…For how long?"

"I don't know, I'm sorry."

Sarada took Hinata's hands into her own. "Don't apologize. If there's anything I can do, please let me know."

"Yes, thank you." Boruto's mother smiled at her.

"But where could he have gone? Surely it would be faster if he sent out a few ninja to look for him, but I haven't seen anybody leave the village today." Mistuki said.

"It's rather complicated." Hinata admitted. "Naruto-kun believes that Boruto might have activated a complex space-time jutsu that altered where he could be. He's most probably not in this universe."

"Time travel?" Mitsuki pondered out loud before turning to Sarada. "Your father could probably help in this aspect, don't you think?"

"That's it!" Sarada exclaimed. "Surely, papa could help. Can't the Nanadaime contact him somehow? My father's eyes would probably help."

"I'm not very sure how good of an idea it would be to contact Sasuke-kun right now, but I will make sure to suggest it to Naruto-kun."

"Boruto is my friend, too. I'd like to help if I can." Mitsuki said seriously and Hinata nodded.

"I will let you both know when there is progress."

"This is where you live?" Boruto asked, his eyes comically wide. "It's a dump!"

"Its home." Naruto shrugged, as they entered his apartment. He switched on the lights. "I've had it since I was six years old."

"You've been staying here since you were six… alone?" Boruto had to skip over a few strewn ramen cups lying on the floor.

"It's cool." Naruto grinned. "I can stay up as late as I want, I can eat whatever I want, no one nags me about anything or tells me what to do. It's great!"

Naruto was talking about all the pros of living alone, but to Boruto they sounded like nothing but the words of what other kids must've said instead; like words he had said, not too long ago. Boruto's eyes softened as he looked around the room. His father had grown up around this. He knew that his dad was an orphan, but he never knew exactly how his father had lived. He'd made all sorts of insensitive comments about it back home.

Looking at this small apartment now, Boruto couldn't imagine what it must've been like growing up like that. Without a mother who cooked you warm meals and bandaged your wounds because you were careless, without a sibling who burdened you with their problems and helped ease your own or even without a father no matter how shitty he was, because you knew that in the end, he was there and that was a reassurance on its own.

And Naruto had none of them.

"First thing's first I guess." Boruto said crossing two fingers of one hand over two fingers of his other hand. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Two clones appeared and Naruto stared at all them with his eyebrows high above his eyes. Boruto grinned. "Let's get this place cleaned up!"

Naruto returned his grin with twice as much force when he registered the words. "Is that all you've got?" He teased, and then copied Boruto's hand movements. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Seven clones of Naruto appeared and gave Boruto identically smug grins. "I can actually make a lot more, you know."

Boruto sniffed. "Of course I know. Now, let's get to work. If you can finish this in under half an hour, I'll make both dinner and breakfast."

The other blond seemed to get even more excited by this challenge and a sparkle made its way into his eyes.

"Then put on your apron, 'cause you're gonna need it!" Naruto declared and his clones dispersed into different rooms to start cleaning up.

Boruto sighed and dispelled his clones before heading to the kitchen. His father was way too easy to handle at this age. As he entered the kitchen, where two of Naruto's clones were already busy washing the dishes and cleaning the floor, Boruto headed to the fridge and opened it.

His mouth hung open in horror. "Where are the vegetables?!"

And that's the end. Yes, not much is going on yet. This is really important to get out of the way before we start with the main story though.

Reviews are my fuel, so don't forget to leave a thought! (I know how many of you read and don't review)

Hina~~~