Implausible Tales chapter 2

Slow, painful steps marched rhythmically down a muddied path. A black cloaked figure stumbled steadily down the murky road. The figures build suggested it was a man. A trail of blood poured from his form mixing with the mud behind him, creating a black tar-like liquid. The wind and rain whipped his cloak around, exposing the bare chest beneath the cloak and most of the injuries on his frame.

Visibly, there was a gash going down the length of his back, his left leg seemed to be gruesomely mangled by the way he seemed to avoid shifting his weight that way as best he could. His right arm hung down limply from its socket. His left arm seemed functional though as it held a piece of cloth tightly against the side of his abdomen where most of the blood seemed to be flowing out.

Those were just the visual injuries that could be seen from a distance. By the incredibly excruciating way the man was moving, there had to be a lot more. Despite the ungodly wind, making his task of simply walking that much harder, the man's hood remained on. His head hung lowly to the ground as if it would be too painful to even raise his chin. His attire alone said he had been through one hell of a fight. His black cloak was covered in rips and fissures of all kinds. His black ANBU style pants were also covered in holes. His left pant leg completely torn off at the knee, leaving everything below bare, including his muddied foot as he was missing his left sandal.

Each step incited a near scream of agonizing pain. His breathing was heavy and choppy as he shivered from the freezing water. Every movement of his body was hurting him, but he seemed to be a man with a clear destination in mind, and nothing seemed to be able to stop him from getting there. Except for that rock he hadn't seen that tripped him up.

His body landed flat in the muddied ground beneath him, slathering him in the brown substance. He laid there in that mud for what felt like forever, trying to catch his breath or just hoping someone would walk by and find him. Figuring he wasn't planning on dying here, he used his left arm to push himself up to his knees. He sat there, steadying himself again for what felt like forever. When he found the strength, he pushed off of that left arm until he was sitting back on his heels.

In doing so, his head flew back as if he had absolutely no control over his neck at the moment. His hood flew off with the sudden motion, letting free his muddied face and hair. His face stared straight up into the sky and slowly but surely, the water cleansed his visage, starting from his forehead. The water traveled down the length of his face, washing the fresh slab of muck and grime that settled there, exposing… whisker marks? Three on each cheek.

Soon, the water ran through his thick hair enough to finally reveal a few streaks of very bright blonde. No doubt now, anyone that saw him would know for certain that this man was Naruto Uzumaki, the vanished war hero of seven years. His eyes were closed in pure exhaustion, but they very slowly began to creak open, displaying his bright blues. He sighed, looking up at the grey clouds in interest, flinching every time a raindrop came near his eyes. With a bit of effort, he pulled his chin down enough to see the road ahead.

He began to chuckle when he could see the very top of those bright and beautiful green gates! Of course, his chuckle was accented by a glob of blood that spit out with it. With a renewed vigor, the blonde hero struggled to his feet, falling twice before he was successful. He stood there hunched over with his right arm dangling nearly to his feet. With a grunt of extreme effort, he forced himself to stand. His blue eyes locked onto the top of that gate with pure determination, and he took off as fast as he could… which was about as fast as he had been going, maybe just a bit faster.

He leaned his body forward a little more trying to get a little jog going, but as soon as he did, he met the muddied floor again. Getting to his feet, he scratched that idea and just hobbled the rest of the way there, or almost there. Close to fifty yards away from the gate, he fell again. This time, there was absolutely no muscle in his body that agreed to move.

He could see the gate guards post from where he was laying. As he had once done in his younger years, he attempted to use his chin to pull himself the rest of the way, but the mud wouldn't allow it. In a last ditch effort, he tried to call out to someone over the rain, but his voice came out as a hollow raspy cry for help that he doubted they heard.

He could feel his vision beginning to blur as his eyes began to roll around in his head. Naruto called out lowly one last time that was so weak he barely heard it himself. His vision returned to him for half a second and he could see two figure hop the counter of the guard post and sprint his way. Faintly, before he succumbed to unconsciousness, he heard, "It's… It's Naru-!"

-Streets of Konoha-

Boruto was walking through the market district on his way to the academy, no way to protect himself from the rain beating down on him. The conversation with his mother still fresh on his mind. He didn't get a chance to see her this morning as she was gone by the time he was fully aware of where he was. He really didn't want her to go back into the field. There were plenty of reasons.

For starters, she hasn't been in active combat for years. She hasn't even trained since Himawari got sick. What would she do if she came face to face with someone she couldn't beat? She would die, and then he would have nobody here for him. No one there for Himawari… That was a big reason as well. If his mother went back to the shinobi life, then who would be there for Himawari? Who was gonna be there if she… didn't make it. Who would tell him?

It was a very painful thing to think about, but when you've dealt with someone who's been in a hospital for that long, it was just something you had to be prepared for. It crossed his mind every second of every day. One night he could be woken up by his mother in tears, telling him his little sister didn't make it. God, it was hell. But, his mother said she was getting better, which is actually very surprising.

When Himawari was a baby, she was perfectly healthy. She was just like any other child. It wasn't until she turned two did she come down with this unexplainable condition. Not his aunt Sakura, or that old lady Tsunade who was alive at the time, could tell what was wrong with her. But, now all of a sudden she was getting better? It was unbelievable.

"Boruto!" yelled a familiar voice from the distance. He stopped and turned around to see Sarada jogging his way. "Didn't you hear me calling you? You idiot." She berated, bonking his head when she caught up.

Boruto just laughed and rubbed the bump beginning to form. "Sorry, Sarada. I was thinking…" he said, still as unusually quiet as he's been these past few days. She gave him a weird side glance before turning back towards the path.

"Uhuh… so, you ready for the quiz?" she asked him. Boruto's steps faltered momentarily. "You forgot didn't you." She stated in a knowing tone.

"No!" he said scratching the back of his head with an unconvincing smile. "I just don't want to fail this time! I'm nervous, ya know!" he said.

Sarada gave him a knowing smirk with a sarcastic 'mhm' in reply. She knew the blonde knucklehead all too well. It was in his nature to forget things like that. She looked over at him to see his expression shift back into that saddened expression of his. She's known him since they were little so it was a very unfitting look for the blonde. He was usually always smiling like an idiot most of the time, so this was unsettling. "Are you ok?" she asked him.

He nearly jumped hearing her voice. "o-Oh, yeah!" he said putting on that big cheeky smile of his. "Yeah I'm fine! Jus-… really trying to focus for this test is all." He drawled off.

Sarada of course knew he was lying but figured he didn't want to talk about whatever it was. So, she didn't push. Instead, she played along. "Look, don't worry about it. It's just a simple quiz. Five to ten questions tops. We covered everything yesterday, so just remember what I taught you."

He nodded his head. "…Yeah bu-…" his reply was stopped as some kind of commotion up ahead was splitting the crowd.

He and Sarada followed everyone else and stepped off to the side as an unusual sight came running through. Two gate guards were hauling a very injured looking man through the mud. His hood was up, but his cloak was being kicked up in their strides, giving everyone a very gruesome sight. Sarada winced as she watched him go by. Boruto on the other hand hadn't noticed. He was trying to get a look at the man's face, but he wasn't able to see much more than his chin.

When he passed, the crowd began to reform up ahead with a few people looking back at the sight, including Boruto. "Did you see that guy?" Sarada asked him rhetorically. "I wonder what happened." She said.

Boruto was still looking back until he could no longer see them. "…yeah…" he said lowly and turned to continue walking.

Sarada sighed. "Guess my mom is working late tonight." She remarked, thinking Boruto was listening. Instead, he was looking back in the direction that guy was running in curiosity. Eventually, he fell out of his stupor and the two continued their walk to the academy uninterrupted.

-At the Hospital-

Signing her name in like she always did, Hinata made small chat with Itsuo. "So." The brown haired receptionist said getting her attention. "How is little Hima doing?"

Hinata smiled for once at that question. "I'm not sure yet. She was doing better yesterday." She said somewhat happily. "Her doctor says she was getting better by the hour."

"Yay!" the girl said happily. "I am so happy for you!"

Hinata smiled at how excitable the sweet girl was. "Thank you." She said as they hugged from over the counter. "Hopefully she's even better today."

Itsuo handed her the clipboard with her rounds on it again. "Fingers crossed." She said holding up her hand to show it. Hinata smiled at her and nodded before leaving to do her job. Itsuo smiled as she watched her walk away. She was glad to see something finally going her way.

She watched her until she saw her pass the ER hall and head down the civilian treatment floor which is where she was assigned. When she could no longer see her, she picked her pen up and was a hair away from putting it to the form in front of her when hell broke loose and the two gate guards hauled in a very badly beaten man. "Oh my god!" she yelled.

"Get Doctor Haruno!" One of them said, rushing him straight towards the ER hall.

"o-Oh, ok!" Itsuo said in a panic hopping over her counter.

"And the Hokage!" the other one shouted out over his shoulder. Itsuo didn't question a thing. She ran down the halls of the hospital to do what she was told to do. She ran down the pregnancy wing in which she knew for sure Sakura had gone. She burst into the room with the most commotion and saw the pinkette at the receiving end of a child birth.

"Itsuo!" Sakura demanded, trying to stay focused and calm the patient down at the same time. "Whatever it is, it can wait!" she yelled out.

"No ma'am, I don't think it can!" Itsuo said urgently. Sakura looked over at her and noticed the panicked look in her eyes. She was never this serious which meant she must have seen something horrifying. Acting quickly, Sakura apologized to the patient and her husband at her bedside and handed the operation off to a doctor who was passing by outside.

Washing her hands as quickly as possible, she followed Itsuo down the hallway in a slow jog, asking her what happened. Itsuo's explanation came out as complete gibberish, but she got the gist of it. Someone was hurt, incredibly bad. When they made it back to the reception area, Sakura knew she made the right call when she saw the trail of mud, water, and blood leading down the hall of the ER, something she hasn't seen since the war. Acting quickly, she took off.

Itsuo left out the front of the building to fulfill the other task of getting the Hokage, for what reason? She had no idea, but there was no time for questions.

Sakura, ran as fast as she could in the heels she had on and had to push some of the surrounding nurses out of the way as they stood there blocking the door like they saw something amazing. "What the hell are you doing!?" she yelled at them. "This is no time fo-…" her breath caught in her throat when she finally got a look at what they were staring amazed at.

Laying on the operating table, in the dirtied, soaking flesh… was Naruto Uzumaki. "Na-…" she tried to get out stepping a little closer. When she was at his side, she rubbed his whiskered cheek just to check to see if he was real. With her shock dying down, she went full force into her doctor's mode, barking out orders to the stunned staff of nurses, demanding they prep the room for immediate surgery.

-Civilian patient wing-

Hinata was filling out yet another form, signing her name on the designated line and shoving it back into the basket next to the door. It was a strange feeling to be going to work for your last time. She just wondered what she was going to do at this point. Who would take care of Boruto when she had extended missions? She could possibly ask her father and Hanabi, but they had done so much for them already, she didn't want to seem so helpless.

Plus, there was a bit of conflict between her and her father when she told him she wouldn't divorce Naruto. In a way, Hiashi seemed to fall back into that disappointment he felt for the girl in her younger years. In his mind, she chose an unfaithful husband, as he believed that there was absolutely no one in the world who would be able to take Naruto that quietly. The only explanation was that he ran.

If it came to it, Hinata would have to humble herself before her father and accept whatever berating she received in order to get them to house Boruto. Hanabi would do it in a heartbeat, but her father was still the technical clan head since Hanabi wasn't old enough. If anything, she was sure Sakura and Sasuke would do it.

She stopped writing on the form in her hands when she thought she heard a distant echo of her call. It sounded incredibly urgent. When she heard nothing but silence for a few seconds, she figured it was just a figment of her imagination and went back to writing. Again, this time much more clear.

Someone was calling her. She listened for it again and heard it from down the hall where she had come. "Hinata!" At that, one of the nurses came bursting from around the corner completely out of breath. Hinata was already jogging her way, figuring her services were needed.

"What happened?" she asked, hoping it was nothing serious. The girl was too tired to even speak as they ran down the hall, she just hyperventilated and pointed further down the hall where she had come. Hinata grew nervous but continued running regardless. When they made it back to the front of the hospital room, she was shocked by the amount of murky liquid covering the floor leading to the ER. She was almost sure that's where they were going until the girl, instead, passed that hall and ran down the chakra treatment hall.

In curiosity, Hinata looked down the ER hall to see a very strange sight. It was Kakashi running down the hall towards the room crowded with curious spectators. She was interested, but grew worried when the doctor turned down the chakra treatment hall. The hall Himawari was in.

Now fairly sure she knew the emergency, she took off passing the nurse up in a dead sprint. Fear encasing her heart completely. What could've happened? She was doing so well. Maybe she had a bad episode or something, or maybe she was just… gone… God, please don't let that be it.

Making it up the two flights of stairs and to her room, Hinata halted with her hand on the knob. She stared at the wood, contemplating if she were ready to see what was behind that door… Even if she wasn't dead, Hinata couldn't fathom the idea of her getting worse. She couldn't handle that. Mustering up the strength she had left, she opened the door to a sight she truly wasn't prepared to see.

"Mommy!" yelled Himawari as she jumped up and down on the bed. She took a few prep jumps before she hopped to her butt on the edge of the bed and bounced off. Charging, she threw her head into Hinata's abdomen.

Hinata was completely speechless. She had to be dreaming. Did Himawari really just jump on the bed? Did she really just run up to her? Last week she couldn't even walk! Cautiously, she activated her Byakugan and looked through the little girl's chakra system. It was flowing so naturally. So normally. "Himawari… how…" she whispered aloud staring at her body in confusion as she bounced up and down.

"Mommy! I'm all better now!" she yelled out striking a pose. "Does that mean I can go home?"

Hinata couldn't find any words to say at the moment. It was unbelievable. "Himawari." Said the nurse that finally caught up with her. "Let's get you some lunch first ok?" she asked. Himawari nodded with a smile and took the nurses hand as they walked out into the hall, leaving Hinata as stunned as ever kneeling in that spot. She was stunned because of her daughter yeah, but…

"Mommy? You coming?" Himawari asked from the doorway. Hinata stood up, her Byakugan still activated, and she was staring at the wall. Her heart was racing faster than it ever has. Without another word to the two of them, she scooted passed them out the door and ran.

-ER room-

Kakashi was standing off to the side watching Sakura work diligently on Naruto's injuries. He was in worse shape than Kakashi has ever seen him, injury wise of course. His body however had to be the best example of male physical fitness he had ever seen. Kakashi never would have guessed the boy would change his eating habits, regardless of where he was.

Slashes and bruises covered most of his form. Cutting his pants off, he had bones protruding from his left leg. It was a gruesome sight to see. Sakura was clearly getting very frustrated as her staff ran around like they were confused. Kakashi took some initiative and began assisting in directing them about.

When the flow of everything returned to professionality, Kakashi stared at his long lost student. He watched him convulse in pain every few seconds. "Oh my…" Sakura said drawing his attention.

Kakashi walked over to the other side of Naruto's bedside. "What is it?" He asked her.

"His… his bones are so... dense…" she said as he watched her try and snap one of his bones back in place. She was putting a lot of effort into it. Sakura Haruno.. was putting so much effort into it. A woman who could literally change the landscape with a flick of her finger was struggling immensely. "It won't… it won't go in." she said wiping her sweat on a towel off to the side.

"…What do you mean?" he asked.

"His bone won't..." she said trying once more with a grunt of effort. "Won't snap in!" she yelled using all of her strength, finally snapping it back in. Exhaling the breath she held, "Ugh, never mind."

Kakashi looked at the injuries strangely, and he wondered something. "Why isn't he healing?" he asked her.

Sakura just shook her head. "I uh… I don't know… his seal is still there though so…" she said looking down at it. Kakashi nodded and assisted in the smaller injuries he could handle or simply supplying chakra for Sakura. They worked in silence for a few seconds until the door was nearly busted off its hinges.

Hinata burst in with one of the guards adamantly trying to hold her back. She simply shoved passed him and began yelling out pleas to let her in. Sakura was working diligently on removing his transplanted arm, which was hanging down within the skin of his arm like a mushy piece of sausage, and prepping another to take its place. The commotion of Hinata trying to get in was distracting her. With a frustrated sigh she stopped and walked over to the dark haired girl.

Hinata was still trying to claw her way over to Naruto until Sakura stepped in front of her. "Hinata! Hina-! Mrrgh.." she growled, "Hinata!" she yelled, trying to get her attention. "Hinata! Listen to me!" she yelled shaking her. "I cannot work with you in here! If you want me to save his life, then get out." She said accenting those last two words. Hinata's eyes just looked passed her.

She could see Naruto's face knotted in pain. She wanted to plead her case to let her stay, but Kakashi came over and escorted her out. Sakura breathed a sigh of relief and got back to work.

-Market district- four hours later

Boruto and Shikadai were sitting at a booth in their favorite burger shop. They had just gotten out of the academy and he said he would buy Boruto something. Shikadai was complaining about how much his mom nagged on a daily basis.

"I'm telling you." He said chewing his burger. "She just lives to complain, and when she can't find something to complain about, she will literally make something out of nothing."

Boruto took a bite of his burger. "Really?" he asked. "Your mom seemed nice when I met her."

Shikadai nodded. "Yeah, well. She's not always bad." He said taking another bite. "What's your mom like? I've never met her."

Boruto shrugged. "She's just kind of… busy I guess… Always tired."

Shikadai nodded at that. "Man, I couldn't imagine. My mom is just usually always at home."

"Yeah it's completely different at my place… usually I'm the only one there." Boruto replied, staring at his cup. Now they were treading in some very dangerous territory. Shikadai should have kept family out of it completely. Somehow they ended up here.

He was at a loss of words at this point. He wasn't sure what to say. "Yeah uh… well. Take it from me that seems like it'd be fun."

Boruto chuckled and drank the rest of his soda. When he finished, he slid out the booth. "Hey, thanks Shikadai." He said gathering the trash from the table. "I've got to go see my sister."

"Ok, later Boruto." He said pulling out his game.

-At the Hospital-

Boruto walked into the lobby and noticed how empty the place seemed. His mom's friend Itsuo wasn't even at the desk like she usually was. He headed towards the hall he knew to be where Himawari was. On the way he nearly passed by the ER hall, but stopped momentarily when he saw that the room at the end of the hall was crowded with people. Curious, but not enough to go investigate, he continued on his way.

Of course he had a hunch it was the man from this morning. It had to be, who else was coming into the hospital that banged up? On his way to his sister's room, he actually thought back to the guy. He couldn't see much, but under his cloak, he could clearly see the man was completely ripped. Meaning he had to be a shinobi. He couldn't see a headband, which is what he was looking for, but no one gets that fit as a simple civilian, hell, neither do most shinobi.

His visible injuries looked very painful even from a distance. Boruto doubted the man would even live. It would be a story to hear of how he got those injuries if he did though. Better than those stupid super hero stories.

"Boruto!" Yelled Himawari rushing into her brother's stomach, shocking him to the core.

He stopped for a whole second. Was… Himawari running?... And yelling!? He quickly pulled her off of him and kneeled in front of her. "Himawari!" he yelled with a quickly growing smile. "You're ok!" he yelled pulling her to his chest again. Himawari chuckled and wrapped his head up with a smile.

"Ugh, Boruto! You're crushing me." She said in a false struggle, falling limp in his arms. He quickly loosened his grip, thinking he really hurt her.

"Oh no. Hima.. i-I'm.." he said looking at her.

She straightened up and began laughing as she ran back into her room, jumping into her hospital bed. Boruto followed her in, intent on catching her until he saw his mom asleep on the chair. "Mom?" he called out to her, but she just wiggled in her seat a little and fell back to sleep.

"Mommy has been here all day." Himawari said, hopping to readjust her positioning on her bed, gesturing for him to sit with her. Boruto raised an eyebrow towards his sleeping mother. He figured she'd be working at this point. Crawling into Himawari's bed, he sat next to her as she pulled a sketching pad from the basket on the side. Crudely drawn in crayon was a picture of all of them. A picture of their family she had drawn a while back.

Boruto watched as she began to draw another figure. "What are you doing?" he asked her curiously.

"I'm adding daddy to the picture." She said as if it were obvious.

Boruto held back a sigh. He tried to explain this to her every time she brought it up. "Hima… we don't… Dad's not coming back." He said simply, deciding not to sugar coat it anymore.

"I know Boru." She said in a deadpan look. "He's already here."

Boruto looked at her, figuring she didn't understand. "n-.. No Hima. He's not here. And he'll never be here." He explained.

"He is here Boruto." She said.

Boruto shook his head. "No Hima-.."

"Mommy told me!" she yelled out cutting him off. Boruto looked at Himawari then over to his mother who was still asleep. He didn't know what to say at this point. "She said we can't see him yet, because he's hurt really badly." She said.

Boruto's heart stopped at that. It… couldn't be… He stared at the door. His mind traveled back to that man he saw in the street. The bloodied man who was hurt… 'really badly'. It couldn't possibly be. He looked back over to Hinata who was still asleep. "Hey… Hima… come with me for a second." He said getting out of the bed.

"Ok." She quipped, crawling out of the bed. Boruto grabbed her hand and walked her out of the room and down the elevator back to the first floor. He walked down the hallway and stopped when they got to the end, hearing someone coming. He could recognize the voice as his aunt Sakura. He whispered to Himawari really quickly to not say anything and she nodded. They backed against the wall and waited for her and whoever she was talking with to leave. When they were gone, Boruto tugged her along, down the hall of the ER.

Quickly, as to not get caught, the two followed the faint trail of dirt along the ground. When they made it to their destination, Boruto looked down the hall once more before creaking the door open. He ushered Himawari inside first before stepping in himself and shutting the door.

Himawari was looking at the man on the bed. He was covered in bandages on most of his body parts including both legs, his right arm, around his entire torso, and around his head. Regardless of all of that, there was absolutely no mistaking. "He looks like you Boru…" Himawari pointed out, mainly looking at the whisker marks on his cheeks.

Boruto was absolutely speechless at this point. What could he say? He was in the face of his father. There was no mistaking it. Should he feel joy? Anger? What would be a correct emotion to have? Confusion is what he was feeling at this point. Where had he been to get injuries like this? What was he doing? Was he on some kind of mission? God, there were so many questions and he had half a mind to wake him up and get the answers.

In his rage filled thoughts, he didn't notice Himawari already at his bedside. "Hima!" he whispered harshly. She put her hand on his cheek and felt a shiver run down her spine.

Boruto walked over to her and pulled her hand away before she woke him up. "Boru… he feels… so good." She said rubbing his cheek again. Boruto just watched her rub his cheek. They both jumped back in fear when his body jerked to life and his eyes shot open. His body began convulsing and he looked around in a panic.

Before the two could kick their shock of the situation, their aunt Sakura and uncle Sasuke burst into the room, demanding to know what they were doing in there. Sasuke passed the two and ran over to Naruto and calmed him down. Naruto looked around desperately until his eyes locked onto a pair of blues much like his own. And a tuft of blonde as bright as his.

As Sakura ushered the two out of the room, Boruto looked back at the man struggling on the table through the gap between Sakura pushing him out and the door. He could see nothing but a bandaged hand reaching out at him.