A\N: See told you they would get longer! :) I just wanted to let you guys know that italicized words are thoughts written in the point of view of the character. Also, btw, I still don't own Naruto or Boruto or any of their characters.

Ch. 3: The Discovery


Sai walked, silently, down the street, going over the night's events in his head, but he found that everything suddenly seemed... foggy.

He tried to focus, and think about what he knew. He knew that he had made a bunch of weird paintings, he knew that he didn't remember everything, but these were obvious, it was the less obvious things he worried about.

Things like, the fact that before he had woken up the voice was so loud he thought his head would explode, or that he remembered exactly what the voice had been saying. He also knew that rather than "go to sleep last night" the moment his head hit the pillow, he had blacked out. Most mysterious of all was that he didn't tell Ino any of this, quite the opposite in fact, he had lied to her face about it.

"It's just because she was already scared enough or- ahhhhhg!" Sai's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden sharp feeling. His hands flew to his head as pain overwhelmed his senses and, for the second time that night, he blacked out.


Sai walked down a pitch black corridor for what felt like hours. The only light coming from memories that, occasionally, would play on either side from him, then disappear. There was, however, only one memory he was concerned with, the one at the end of the hall, that had yet to disappear.

As he drew closer to it he began to realize that it was the only memory making noise, and it wasn't just any noise, it was the voice of the man he hated most. Sai broke into a run, and when he had the memory in his sight, even when he saw that it had a big lock on it, he didn't stop. He kept going and broke through, to the memory.

Sai was now living the memory, he had no idea where he was or when this had happened, this was probably attributable to the lock on the memory. He didn't have too much time to focus on that however, because he suddenly heard two men conversing, though, because he was hiding, he couldn't see them. Sai got the feeling that he wasn't supposed hear their conversation, so naturally, he listened in.

" ...He's coming along nicely, he should be the perfect vessel for you."
This man had a cold, harsh voice. Sai recognized it as the voice of his old boss.

"Good, as long as you hold up your end of the deal, I'll take care of mine."

This voice was much tougher and deep, it didn't even sound human.

"Emotionless idiot, doesn't even know what's coming to him."

That set off an alarm in Sai's mind.

"Emotionless... idiot?"

Suddenly the cold voiced man spoke again.

"I hoped you don't mind using that memory lock technique, we have an unwelcomed guest."

"Memory lock!?"

Sai realized what was happening too late. Suddenly a the raspy voiced, thing, showed up in front of Sai. Sai barely had enough time to notice that he looked exactly liken the picture he had drawn, before the memory ended.


Sai awoke on his knees, with his shoulders being shaken by a familiar, yellow haired face.

"Sai! Hey, Sai, wake up!"

A groan was the only indication Sai had the strength to give that he was alive.

"Geez, I thought you were dead!"

"That's pretty dumb considering you can sense chakra." Sai weakly responded.

"Yep he's fine." Naruto dryly responded to Sai's typical commentary, feeling less worried and much more offended.

Sai rolled his eyes and groaned, when he brought a hand to his head he realized how sweaty he was.

"Yeah, you were sweating like a madman, what's wrong?"

"Don't worry about it. I just need to get home."

"Maybe I should come with you, in case something happens again." Naruto seemed to really be worried that something would go wrong.

Sai considered Naruto's offer and decided that, while it would be nice to have someone to watch over him, he just needed to be alone to think.

"I'll be alright, but thanks." Sai have him a slight smile.

"Fine, but be careful and yell really loud before you pass out next time." The way Naruto said it sounded more like an order than a friendly suggestion.

"I certainly try, but question. Not that I'm complaining, but what are you doing out here?"

"Oh, uh, I fell asleep at the office again, I was just on my way home."

Naruto sheepishly put his hand behind his head. The story seemed to check out for Sai, but only because he was too tired to realized that they weren't anywhere near Naruto's house.

They parted ways and Sai's thoughts immediately drifted to the memories he'd seen.

I remember that Ino told me something about a weird looking memory after the Land of Silence, but I didn't really pay attention to it back then.
He regretted that.
The good news was that he, more or less, understood what was going on. The bad news was, what was going on. He remembered something that Danzo had said many times before, " An empty vessel is the easiest to fill." He just never thought he'd meant it in the literal sense.

He also never thought that Danzo would be back to ruin his life again.

Silly me for thinking things might be a little smoother, now that I've moved on from all that crud.

That's when something occurred to him, something so wonderful and beautiful that he was surprised he hasn't seen it before. He had indeed moved on from those years of his life, the proof was at home, probably worried sick waiting for him to come back. Despite his fatigue Sai found himself running, he had a home to get back to, and he had to do it now.