Hey everybody, thesaiyanjedi back with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's Next Adventure!"

I know, I fell behind again, but I hope you all enjoy this chapter. There's probably won't be a whole lot of action, per se, but it will definitely help push the plot along and there will be some high moments of tension in here. I hope you all enjoy it.

With that said, lets get to reading!

Chapter 4: Trials and Complications

"We're running out of time Gaara!"

"They'll be here Kankurō."

The puppet master with the violet face paint checked the clock hanging on the wall again. "They'd better, because the judge isn't going to wait on us forever."

The Kazekage and his brother were standing at Sunagakure train station waiting for the next train to come in from Konoha. After the catastrophe that had been reported on last train headed towards the Hidden Leaf Village, there was an understandable amount of trepidation about boarding another ride in or out of the village. But despite that, the Hokage could not order the trains shut down for the time being. Why? Because he needed to be at his scheduled rendezvous by afternoon the next day, and there was only one way to guarantee that he would make it in time.

And so the auburn haired leader of the Hidden Sand Village and his most trusted adviser and aid waited for the next train to come into the station...And then, with a mighty roar and a loud screeching of the brakes, the locomotive came to a halt as she pulled into the station.

"Finally!" Kankurō exclaimed.

The conductor ordered the doors opened as the passengers flied out of the train cars, all carrying their luggage and rushing to make sure they had gathered together with the rest of their families.

"Do you see them?"

"Not yet." Gaara shook his head at his brother's question, his eyes constantly darting back from car to car, looking for their guests.

And then, finally, he saw them. A man with blonde hair and wearing an orange sweatshirt, another man with a goatee and his dark hair tied up in a pineapple shaped ponytail, and a woman with sandy blonde hair tied up in four ponytails dressed in a dark purple kimono.

"Hey Gaara!"

Naruto waved his hand to his old friend to signal where he was. The two brothers immediately worked their way through the crowd to join up with their three guests.

"Long time no see sis."

"Same here Kankurō," Temari smiled. "Sorry if we're late."

"You were cutting it kind of close—"

"Kankurō!"

The middle child of the Sand Siblings corrected himself at his little brother's outburst. "B-But Gaara and I are all glad you made it."

"Well to be fair," Shikamaru butted in, "all that drama that happened with the last train to leave our village was a serious drag."

Naruto and Temari both frowned before the blonde spoke up. "Anyway, we still have time to go over our prosecution one more time before the trial starts, right?"

Kankurō folded his arms and smirked. "Why? Need to refresh that shitty memory of yours?"

The blonde cocked an eyebrow. "Dude, you brother and I have both been working on this case forever. I know these briefs backwards."

"So do the rest of us."

"What are you getting at?"

"That we have only thirty minutes until the trail starts and we need to spend that time rushing like hell to get to the courthouse instead of wasting our time talking!" He grabbed a hold of their luggage in equal rush. "Now come on! Let's find us a carriage and get out of here!"

The courtroom of Sunagakure was packed to the brim with jury, defendants and witnesses alike. All that was missing was the judge and the prosecution team, including Lord Kazekage himself. It had been a long, boring wait in a room that had faulty air conditioning in the infamous Suna heat. Suffice to say, people were starting to get restless.

...That is, all except for one person. That person was the defendant himself, Lord Sandosupai, former Elder of Sunagakure. The man was an older gentlemen with graying hair, tanned skin, and a smug, shit-eating grin. He was dressed in a formal suit and lounging back in his chair, seemingly with little concern for the serious trial that was about to come that would, for better or worse, seal his fate.

Suddenly, the doors to the courtroom burst open to allow the Kazekage, both of his siblings, his brother-in-law, and his friend the Hokage into the room.

"Gomen. Forgive us for running late."

Gaara's apology to his subjects was enough to renew the vigor in the jury's mind. Now that both their leader and the Hokage were here, with their team taking their seats, things could finally get underway.

"All rise. The Honorable Judge Nisigima presiding."

At the bailiff's call, everyone in the courtroom stood up. As they did so, Sandosupai turned to face his prosecutors, his smug expression never leaving his visage. "I figured the Hokage would use his time away from his village to take a vacation, go to a soccer match, things like that."

"Game starts at 1:30," Naruto answered sarcastically. "More than enough time to put you away for life Sandy."

The judge came through the doors, dressed in full black robes, and took his seat at his podium. "Please be seated."

The people in the courtroom all took their seats again as the judge spoke once again. "I am the Honorable Judge Nisigima, and I would like to thank all of you in the jury for agreeing to take part in hearing this case. I realize that many of you have jobs or loved ones that you would much rather be spending your time with, but I want to remind you of the importance that you all have agreed to fulfill you duty as citizens of Sunagakure and as citizens of the Shinobi Union."

The judge paused before speaking again. "Today we hear the case of The Union v. Sandosupai. May the prosecution like to make their opening statement?"

There were some rumblings among the prosecution team before Gaara stood up. "Hai Your Honor." He faced the jury. "Ladies and gentlemen, today we are gathered to bring justice. Justice against a source of evil and corruption that has permeated the ranks of our beloved village. As all of you are aware, one year ago a great, terrible conspiracy was discovered to have infiltrated the ranks of Konoha. Not just that, but that exposure also brought to light hidden treachery within all five of the Great Hidden Villages, including Sunagakure. I myself was a victim of this conspiracy, my brother and I temporarily brainwashed into becoming puppets of the secret, terrorist society known as Taka. That secret society sought, and still seeks, to destroy our way of life from the inside, then to remake the world the way they want, under their domination, by using an assortment of ancient, powerful relics called chakra gems."

The Kazekage paused before continuing. "On that day, the forces of Taka launched a terrible attack on Konoha, a battle myself, my brother, my sister, and even my own daughter were all forced to take part in. On that day one of the leaders of Taka, one Uragi Rimonō, used one of these chakra gems to turn himself into a monster that nearly destroyed our ally's village...until the son of my dear friend, Naruto Uzumaki, was able to defeat him."

Naruto smiled in pride at Gaara's praise of his own son. It was too bad the boy could not be here to join them in this moment...

"Uragi is now serving the punishment he deserves, a life's sentence in Konoha's Strict Correctional Facility with no possibility of parole. But as I have said, Uragi was only one of Taka's leaders, namely their leader within Konoha. Such a massive operation as this would undoubtedly require multiple deep cover cells planted within the other four villages as well, and each would require a leader in a position of high political power to oversee it. A series of Internal Affairs investigations have already weeded out numerous Taka double agents among Suna's ranks, but someone had to be responsible for leading these traitors until Taka was brought out of the shadows."

Gaara looked directly at the defendant as he wrapped up his statement. "Jury, you will hear sworn testimony from eye witnesses and confessed accomplices that will tell you that this man..." He pointed at his old ally, "...Lord Sandosupai, former Elder of this village, is that leader of Taka in Sunagakure. Thank you, Your Honor, that is all."

Gaara took his seat, with Shikamaru whispering something into his ear.

"Does the defense have any statement that they would like to make?" the judge asked.

Sandosupai's lawyer stood up himself. "Hai Your Honor." He turned to the jury. "Ladies and gentlemen, you will indeed hear a great deal of testimony today, but I think you will all see that the prosecution's entire case is built upon a conspiracy to make my client the fall guy to cover up the grossly negligent standards set by Lord Kazekage himself and the rest of the Five Kages in keeping their ranks clean of influence from Taka and other corrupt organizations like them. We cannot forget that it was after the end of the Fourth Great Shinobi War that Taka began planting agents within our shinobi governments, and that was eighteen years ago. Eighteen years time and only after it was too late to prevent that battle that had occurred in Konoha did any of us even become away of Taka's existence. This is clearly an embarrassment that the leaders of the new Shinobi Union wish to cover up by finding a patsy to take the fall for their own mistakes in handling the corruption in their own ranks, and to be that fall guy, they have unfairly and ruthlessly singled out my client here. To allow this man to be convicted for such lies would be nothing less than a mockery of justice. I urge the jury not to let the false testimony you are about to hear sway you. Open your minds, listen to the facts, and you will find the truth. Thank you Your Honor, that concludes my statement."

The lawyer took his seat next to his client, Sandosupai clearly pleased with his defense. On the side opposite them, however, Naruto and the others were very clearly unimpressed.

"Thank you gentlemen," the judge said. "Is the prosecution ready to call their first witness?"

Gaara stood up. "Hai Your Honor, I do believe we are..."

...

...

The trial was going longer than expected, but so far the evidence was very clearly siding in the prosecution's favor. Witnesses and accomplices were taking the stand all day and it was clear that Naruto and Gaara's team were having much more success getting them to slip up and reveal incriminating evidence than the defense was in spinning it in Sandosupai's favor.

Still, all that the jury had listened to so far was mere child's play. Now, at last, it was time for their star witness to make his case.

"Does the prosecution have any further witnesses?" the judge questioned.

Gaara, Kankurō, Temari and Shikamaru had all taken turns questioning the other witnesses. Now it was Naruto's turn as he stood up. "Hai Your Honor. I call Mr. Ogata to the stand."

From out of the jury box, a middle aged, slightly obese man stood up and walked towards the witness podium. The bailiff asked him to take the oaf, which he did. Naruto then proceeded with his questions.

"Mr. Ogata, are you acquainted with the defendant, Lord Sandosupai."

"Hai."

"And how would you describe your relationship with this man?"

"I was introduced to him through a third party and he asked for my help on a few B-rank missions in the past."

"I see...Mr. Ogata, is it not true that you were expelled from your shinobi ranks after Internal Affairs uncovered clear and undeniable evidence that you were a member of Taka?"

"Objection!" Sandosupai's lawyer protested.

"Overruled," the judge said. "Please answer the question sir."

Ogata sighed. '...H-Hai."

Naruto continued. "And is it not also true that after you were stripped of your rank, you then found yourself extra employment not only with Taka, but also working as added muscle for Hanzai Harada and his infamous Harada crime family?"

"Objection Your Honor!" the lawyer protested again. "The witness's alleged employment under Hanzai Harada is completely irrelevant to my client—"

"Overruled!" the judge shouted. "Please refrain from any further outbursts sir, or I will hold you in contempt of this court. Mr. Ogata, please answer the question."

Ogata threw up his hands in defeat. "Fine. I've got nothing to hide anyway. Yeah, I do some work for Harada on the side. Guy needs to pay the bills y'know."

The crowd chuckled at Ogata's joke, much to Sandosupai's pleasure and the Gaara and his family's annoyance.

Naruto shook his head at this man's completely out of place sense of arrogance. Needing to get to the point, he decided to just ask his next set of questions.

"Mr. Ogata," Naruto began, "Eight week ago you and two others appeared at the fire daimyō's inauguration ceremony armed with kunai and baseball bats where you disrupted the events by threatening and assaulting members of the crowd and causing such property damage as destroying official posters and banners of the Land of Fire's new daimyō Ikkyū Madoka. You and your accomplices stopped and apprehended by—"

"By your stuck up, goody good of a son and his joke of a team! Yeah! I get it Uzumaki! You don't have to rub it in how awesome your own kid is every chance you get!"

"Order!" the judge banged his gavel. "Mr. Ogata! Don't make me hold you in contempt as well!"

"G-Gomen Your Honor."

"Lord Hokage," the judge continued, "please finish your question."

"Hai. Mr. Ogata, after my son and his team apprehended you and your two accomplices, you were positively identified and your ties both to Taka and the Harada crime family were effectively confirmed...In the last couple of weeks however, a man named Noburo, former chief consultant for the Suna-Konoha Alliance and trustee to the Suna Elder's Council, both of which are organizations with ties to defendant Lord Sandosupai by the way, fell under investigation for misuse of power, aiding and abetting with the defendant, conspiracy against his own village of Sunagakure on behalf of Taka, and even for accepting bribes."

Naruto turned to the jury. "Now, you might be asking yourself: 'What do the charges labeled against Mr. Noburo have to do with either the witness or the defendant?'" He turned back to Ogata. "Because just a few weeks ago, Noburo agreed to turn in evidence against his good friend Sandosupai. And Noburo insisted that you," He pointed at the witness, "Mr. Ogata, acted as a go-between for him and Sandosupai."

He got up close to the witness and got straight to the point. "Mr. Ogata, can you confirm that you were indeed the middleman between Noburo and the defendant, and when you and your friends attacked the daimyō's inauguration, that you did so under the defendant's direct orders?"

Ogata smiled after a very light chuckle. "You win Lord Hokage. The Taka leader you're after, he's right here in this room."

Gaara, Kankurō, Shikamaru and Temari were all smiling in relief, and in Kankurō's case he was pumping his fist in a mildly enthusiastic victory.

Naruto himself, he was just smirking at Sandosupai, knowing full well that this scumbag was finally going to get what was coming to him...

"That's right. It was me! I'm the guy you want!"

Naurto snapped his head back in Ogata's direction in shock and the crowd burst into chuckling. The rest of Naruto's team were incredulous, and even a bit angry. Sandospai himself just kept on smiling.

Angrily, Naruto grabbed a document off of the table his team was sitting at and held it up. "I have a sworn statement, from you," He pointed his finger at Ogata with extra force, "that this man," He then turned around and pointed at the defendant. "Lord Sandosupai..." He put the document down and stared the old man down as he finished his statement, "...is the leader of Taka's deep cover cell in Sunagakure."

"Sandosupai?" Ogata asked mockingly. "He's just a fall guy. I'm the brains of the organization."

The jury broke out into laughter again, and this time it stung Naruto even worse. Shikamaru actually had his head in his hand in annoyance as Temari scowled at Ogata. Kankurō folded his arms in anger, while Gaara only sat there silently, staring.

"Order!" The judge banged his gavel again to calm the jury down.

Naruto, wiping his brow of sweat, approached the bench to speak directly to the judge. "Permission to treat the witness as hostile?"

"Hostile? I'll show you hostile!"

The jury all gasped in horror. Ogata had just pulled a long, really sharp knive out of his jacket! Naruto, however, was not going to be deterred, as he got over the shock in only a second and then grabbed hold of Ogata's wrist as he laid a powerful left hook straight into the witness's face!

The bailiff immediately came over to subdue Ogata and slap the handcuffs on him, and Naruto took the weapon he had taken from his hands and walked over to the defendant with it. "Basic steel, 8 1/2 inches, made in Kiri." Naruto shook his head. "My friend Tenten sells the best weapons out there. Word of advice: the next time you're crazy enough to try and kill a kage, Lord Sandosupai, I recommend you buy from Konoha."

Slamming the weapon down on the table, directly in front of the old man, Naruto then turned his head around when he heard the judge say to the bailiff "Get him out of here."

"But Your Honor, I wasn't done yet."

The carefree, almost oblivious and playful tone Naruto had used when he'd said that actually caused the jury to break into laughter and some of them even burst into applause. Shikamaru just shook his head in amusement; leave it to Naruto to know how to work a crowd.

The judge called the room to order again as the bailiff escorted Ogata out of the courtroom. In light of the drama that had just occurred, the judge decided to call for a short recess before continuing with the final phases of the trial.

'That's okay,' Naruto thought to himself triumphantly, 'I think we've got this thing in the bag already.'

During the recess, the prosecution team got to work talking about what had just occurred in there and how much good it could do them for the case...or not.

"We'll never be able to link the weapon to Sandosupai, so we won't be able to charge him," Shikamaru confessed.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Kankurō practically shouted.

"I wish I was. But we all know how hard it is to track a blade to its owner. Besides, Ogata never did confess that he was Sandosuai's middleman, so that still leaves a window of reasonable doubt."

"So you're saying that all of that does nothing for us?" Temari asked stunned.

"Maybe, maybe not, I can't say for certain if it will hold up in court or not. That's just how sucky the system works sometimes. But the fact that they're trying to kill us means that we're getting to them."

"I'm glad you're so pleased Shikamaru." Naruto said sarcastically. "Oh, I'm fine, by the way."

"Come on Naruto, you're a kage. If nobody wants to kill you, then you're not doing your job right."

The blonde's eyebrow twitched, "Thanks Kankurō."

"Even so," Gaara interjected, "We've made our case and we've called all of our witnesses. At this point its in the jury's hands."

Naruto nodded his head. "You're right. Come on, lets go get some coffee before we go back in."

"All rise!" the bailiff called. "The jury will now read their verdict."

Everyone in the court stood up and waited patiently as the foreman read the official verdict that the jury had decided upon.

"For the crimes including, but not limited to treason, conspiracy, and insurrection against the Village Hidden in the Sand, we the jury find the defendant, Lord Sandosupai..."

Naruto smiled. They'd done it. Their case was solid. The defense was weak. The moment had come. That scum Sandosupai was going to prison and Taka was one step closer to being vanquished once and for all!

"...Not guilty of all charges."

'WHAT?!'

Neither Naruto nor any or the others could believe what they'd just heard! How could they have—?! It didn't make any sense! How could they have possibly—?!

Naruto glanced over at Sandosupai, that stupid smug expression that had been on his face throughout his entire trial was wider than ever now that he was officially a free man...

'Wait! All day...That son of a bitch!'

"Thank you foreman. Very well then, this court finds the defendant cleared of all charges and will be released from prison immediately. This court is adjourned."

The judge slammed his gavel down one final time, and with that, it was all over. Justice had failed this day, and there was only one possible explanation...

"Don't feel too bad Uzumaki," Sandosupai said as he passed by the blonde on his way out the courtroom. "Maybe now you'll find the time to take a little vacation from the wife and kids while you're here. It's still not 1:30, maybe you can still make that soccer match."

Naruto could only glare with clenched fists as the old man walked out of the room with his legal team, a free man, laughing mockingly on his way out...

Gaara had to place a hand on his friend's shoulder as the five of them were left there, alone in the empty courtroom...

"AAAAGGGHHH!"

Naruto was pissed! Really pissed! So pissed that he actually threw a chair around his friend Gaara's office, like a child having a temper tantrum.

"Naruto!" Shikamaru shouted. "Calm down man!"

"Calm down? Calm down?! Months of hard work we all put into this case! We went over everything, everything with a fine toothed comb, went over the evidence until we were iron clad. The old man's defense was hardly treading water! And instead they just let him go free?!"

"Naruto," Temari tried to speak up, "I'm mad too, we all are. But throwing a fit isn't going to change anything. All we can do now is look back on the case and figure out where we went wrong—"

"Oh I can tell you exactly where we went wrong!" the blonde declared. "That bastard and his Taka buddies paid off the jury, that's what happened!"

"Dude," Kankurō said, "you don't know that."

"It's the only explanation that makes any sense."

"We cannot go before Judge Nisigima without proof of such a claim," Gaara stated dryly.

"And how do we know the judge wasn't bought tool?"

"We don't," Shikamaru said as he stood up and got in his friend's face. "But I do know one thing for sure, you need to calm the hell down so you can think this thing through like grown adult. Don't you dare make the mistake of thinking you're the only one here who's pissed off about this. Do you understand me?"

That talking down to from his own adviser was what Naruto finally needed to calm down and take a breath. "G-Gomen you guys. I'm sorry, I was just..."

"It's alright Naruto," Gaara told him. "There seems to be little more we can do about this tonight, and it's been a long day. I suggest the three of you find a hotel to sleep for the night before you catch your train back to Konoha tomorrow morning."

"That sounds like a plan to me," Temari agreed.

"Ditto," Shikamaru lazily agreed with his wife.

Naruto folded his arms. "Fine."

"By the way Naruto," Kankurō said, "how are things going with you and Sakura lately? I heard you two have another baby coming."

Naruto wasn't terribly excited to be talking about this, certainly after the big mess that went down at this house the night before, but he needed to say something. So, of course, he lied. "It's great. Sakura and I are doing fine. The baby's due in about six months."

"And Sakura is okay with you taking the train between here and Konoha after that massacre that happened yesterday?"

"Of course she not happy about it, but what choice did we have? None of us could have made it here overnight if we all came by foot."

"In speaking of that massacre," Gaara interrupted, "does Anbu have any leads on who those masked men might be? Are they more Taka agents?"

Naruto remembered his discussion with Sasuke yesterday. It was under his own orders that no one know what little they had learned from the only living eye witness. So, once again, he lied to them. "No, the trail went cold. We're still trying to find any leads we can."

Gaara narrowed his eyes. He did not need to be able to read minds to guess that his friend was hiding something from him, but he chose to let it be...for now."

"Very well," he said. "I'll have arrangements made for you at a hotel so you three can rest for tonight. Get some sleep all of you, your train departs bright and early tomorrow."

"Arigato little brother," Temari bowed to her sibling.

"Dōitashimashite big sister," he said back.

As the three of them filed out of the Kazekage's office, Naruto found himself lost in thought. 'Jeez! I sure hope that Shinachiku's having much better luck than I am these days. I hope he hasn't run into any unexpected surprises...'

"...W-Wha? ...What did you say your name was?"

"Boruto. My friends call me Bolt for short."

Shinachiku was dumbstruck. He had never seen this kid before in his life, and now completely out of nowhere the kid shows up with the same last name as himself, looking so much like him that they could be mistaken for brothers. Where the heck did he come from? What was that insane vision he saw when he touched the chakra gem? Who was that voice he heard? What the hell was going on here?!

"Listen, I'm—AAH!"

Shinachiku didn't get the chance to finish, because the mysterious boy all of a sudden went into a rage and grabbed him by the shirt, throwing him down to the ground an then pulled out a kunai that he had pressed up against his throat.

"Where am I?!"

"I-I don't know how you—"

"WHERE AM I?!"

"Let him go!"

The mysterious blonde turned his head in the direction of the other voice. Looking to the others, he was shocked to see a familiar looking girl with black hair and red trimmed glasses, even though her manner of dress was much different and she herself appeared older than the teammate he knew.

"Sarada...? AAH!"

That was the distraction that Shinachiku needed. He wrestled himself out of the boy's grip and laid a right hook into his jaw. When the boy fell to the ground, Shina pinned him down, leaving him unable to move.

"Sunako! Restrain him!"

The Kazekage's daughter ran over to her captain, uncorking her gourd and allowing her sand to flow out. She hardened in around the boy's arms and legs, leaving him unable to move his limbs for any further attack or any attempt to escape.

Sarada, Mitsuki and Jōka came over their teammate's side to observe their mysterious captive for themselves. Naturally, they were all rather curious and quite confused.

"What should we do with him captain?"

Shinachiku was about to speak, but Jōka beat him to the punch. "I say we just leave him here. We don't owe him anything."

"Maybe we do?"

The others all turned to their captain in confusion. He elaborated, "I can't explain it...but I think there's more to this gem than we know...and somehow this kid is our key to figuring it all out."

"What are your orders then?" Sunako asked.

Shina looked down at the younger blonde, struggling with all his strength to beak free of his rock solid bonds but not able to when he cold not move his hands to cast any jutsu.

"Cover his eyes," the older blonde ordered. "We're taking him with us."

"What?" Jōka questioned. "You want us to take this kid back to base camp? But what if he's a spy?"

"Jōka does have a valid point captain," Mitsuki stated. "The circumstances of this child's arrival are unexplained and he did just attack you. It could be possible that his appearing in a cave where a chakra gem in hidden means that he is a Taka spy sent here to—"

"Mitsuki?"

The pale skinned boy with the white-blue hair, along with all of his teammates, looked down at their captive. He had a very confused and somewhat frustrated expressing on him, like he was all of a sudden seeing confused ciphers of people he knew from wherever it was that he came from.

Mitsuki raised his eyebrows in confusion himself. "Pardon me sir, but I do not believe you and I are acquainted."

"What are you talking about?" The boy that calls himself Boruto protested. "We've known each other since the Academy. We're on the same team together for Sage's sake!"

The boy traded looks with his captain before turning back to their captive. "I believe you have me confused with someone else. What village are you from?"

"From the Leaf Village of course! Just like you!"

"You're mistaken sir, I don't have a village I call home. My allegiance is only to the Shinobi Union as a whole, and to the Chakra Gem Recover Squad, and to Captain Shinachiku here."

Boruto was beyond lost. "What are you...?" He turned to the raven-haired girl that had distracted him earlier. "Sarada, what's going on? Where are we? Why do you and Mitsuki look taller all of a sudden?"

The Uchiha girl gasped in shock. "Y-You know my name?"

"What?! Of course I know your name! You, me, Mitsuki, we're all on the same team! You and I have known each other for years!"

Sarada actually got offended all of a sudden. "I've never met you before in my life! You know nothing about me!"

"Yes I do!"

She folded her arms. "Prove it!"

The boy desperately tried to list off anything and everything he could come up with to prove himself. "You're name is Sarada. You love reading history and mystery books. You hate tomatoes and love foods that taste like black tea. You've lived your whole life in the Leaf Village and studied at the Academy—"

"Ah ha!" Sarada interrupted. "See I knew you were a fake! I hardly ever got to study at the Academy. I spent most of my training and studies wandering the world with my parents and their team."

The boy called Boruto looked like he'd just been told that two plus two equaled seven. What the hell kind of game was she playing with him? "What are you talking about? You told me you never even met your dad until last year!"

"Hey!" Shinachiku stepped in angrily. "Don't you dare call my girlfriend a liar!"

"Are you crazy! Sarada's not your girlfriend!"

"Yes!" the girl took the older blonde's hand frustratingly. "I am!"

The girl then planted a passionate kiss right there in front of everyone. The blonde was definitely surprised by it at first, but he quickly relaxed into it and returned the kiss with equal passion.

The younger blonde, however, could only look up at the scene with shock and horror! There she was, his friend, his teammate, his... She was kissing another guy! Some older blonde that he'd never met before!

The boy was mad. No, scratch that, he was fuming! Ever single urge in his body wanted to break free of his bonds and smash this guy's skull in!

"Hey! Get off of her! You'd better hope I don't get out of her or I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Shinachiku broke the kiss so he cold glare at his captive. "You can try if you want to kid, but if you do you'd risk being charged with assault of a captain of the Shinobi Union and the son of the Seventh Hokage himself."

That one sentence, that was all it took to instantly wipe away the boy's intense, passionate feelings of rage and replace it all with complete and total bewilderment. 'Seventh...? What to hell...? There's no way he...? But I'm...? He's...? This doesn't make any sense!'

"You're insane pal! You're not the Hokage's son!"

"And why do you say that?"

"BECAUSE I'M THE HOKAGE'S SON!"

Time came to a complete standstill. Nobody could breathe after what they'd just heard. Mitsuki and Sarada could only look on in suspicion (and pity) at their captive. Jōka reacted in over-exaggerated panic. Sarada gasped while covering her mouth in shock. But Shinachiku, he just stared, long and very hard at this boy.

His eye's narrowed, his fists clenched, as he asked, practically gritted out his next question. "Who is you father?"

The boy glared right back, with just as much anger, if not more. "Naruto Uzumaki, the Seventh Hokage...and the worst father in the history of fathers."

...

Shinachiku just stood there for about three solid seconds, his brain trying to process what he'd just heard. It was impossible to know what was going though the older blonde's mind in this bizarre and potentially life shattering moment...At least, until he made his feelings perfectly clear when he punched the boy right in the face, then gave him a perfectly timed blow to the back of the neck to knock him out cold!

"Captain?"

Shinachiku, his mind still reeling, turned back towards his team at the sound of Mitsuki's voice. He could read the confusion, concern and distress over all of their faces, especially Sarada's. None of them said a word, but he knew that they wanted an explanation...and so did he.

"I..." he began, "I don't want this kid out of our sight until we get to the bottom of this. We're taking him with us back to camp, and I want him under close supervision at all times and to be alerted the moment he wakes up. That's an order."

"Hai captain!" Mitsuki, Sunako and Jōka all agreed. Sunako manipulated her sand into a giant hand so that it could carry the boy's unconscious body as they made the trek back outside of the cave.

As the three of them started the trip back, Sarada stayed behind with her boyfriend to put her hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

He paused and took a deep breath to calm his nerves before answering. "Yeah, I'm good."

The Uchiha girl lowered her eyes before speaking again. "You don't...You don't really think—?"

"I don't know what to think Sarada. I don't know if this kid is crazy or if he's just confused or what the hell's going on. All I know is we need to know everything he knows if we want any chance of making sense of all this."

She nodded, "You're right. Come on, we'd better catch up to the others."

As she started walking back out of the cave, Shinachiku stood where he was for a few seconds longer. He was looking down at his own hand, or more accurately, he was looking at the small, violet gem that he was holding in his hand.

'What kind of door have I opened here...?'

Well, on that ominous note, I think this is good place to end this chapter.

Okay, so this one ended up being more about Naruto's story line concerning the trial than it was about picking up on the Boruto cliffhanger from last time. I kind of felt I needed to pay that off after all of the build up I had given this trial in my previous work.

Yes, for those of you who haven't read it yet, I encourage you to please do me a favor and read another story I wrote called "Konoha Tonight," which serves as a prequel to this story and sets up a lot of story elements that will come into effect in this story. Think of it sort of as the viral marketing campaign for "Shinachiku's Next Adventure." In that story, I do a lot of talking about this pending trial and why it was so important, so if anybody was confused or lost of some of the details in here, I encourage you to give that story a read to give you a better idea of what is going on.

The trial scene itself was very directly influenced by one of the early scenes in "The Dark Knight." The trial of Sandosupai is structurally very similar to the trial of Sal Maroni, with Sandosupai as Maroni and Naruto, essentially, in the Harvey Dent role. There is even an attempted assassination by the witness that Naruto stops with his famous left hook (you know, the same left hook that he knocked out Neji with way back in the day).

The defendant himself, Sandosupai, is a literal translation of "sand traitor" in Japanese; not very subtle I know, but then again this character himself isn't exactly subtle either.

The witness, Ogata, was named after one of the main characters from the original 1954 Godzilla (or Gojira if you prefer). He was the young male lead in the movie that was the navy man that the female lead, Emiko, was secretly dating behind the back of her arranged fiance, Dr. Serizawa. If by some chance you have never seen the original film, please do yourself a favor and go seek it out, especially the original Japanese cut. The Raymond Burr version is good too, but the Japanese version is a film classic and one of the greatest monster movies ever made. Godzilla himself is the most blatantly metaphorical and menacing he's ever been, coming across as a pure force of nature and a living metaphor for the atomic bomb, and, despite obviously just being a man in a suit, he looks rather scary in black and white.

The judge I named Nisigima, a name I got from a supporting character in the new Digimon Adventure tri films, the first of which I have recently seen in dubbed form and I eagerly await the other films to come out as well, me being a huge Digimon fan in my youth, especially for the original Adventure season (not as much 02, especially not that damn epilogue, but I digress...)

I do plan on bringing Sandosupai back for some use later on, hence why he wins the trial here by, allegedly, either buying off or intimidating the jury. Mainly though, it was something that would seriously piss Naruto off. I want a parallel that saw both father and son, for different reasons, loosing their temper and becoming somehow physically destructive in an almost childish manner by the end of the chapter, with Naruto trashing Gaara's office and with Shinachiku punching his other dimensional double in the face.

In speaking of which, I kind of feel like the Shinachiku and Boruto stuff speaks for itself here. I well get more into the compare and contrast stuff as these two get to interact more later on, but for right now, this was meant to be the awkward, confusing first meeting. To Bolt's defense, he does have reason to be very confused by all of this. The two friends he has on his team are both very different than he remembers them and the girl that he obviously is being set up to have a crush on in his own world is in this world dating some guy he's never met before. And before anybody asks, no, there will not be a love triangle between Shinachiku, Boruto and Sarada in this story, just a lot of awkwardness.

Funny story, I was at one point going to do some kind of scene where the group needs to make an escape through the jungle to get to safety, say from attacking natives of animals or something, like the end of the opening of Raiders of the Lost Arc. But as I was writing the chapter, that didn't seem to fit the flow of the storytelling, so I instead chose to just cut it off here. Consider it a deleted scene if you wish. I also considered cutting the scene to the song 'Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses...then I saw that terrible trailer to the new Jumanji movie that's coming out. Yikes! I changed my mind after that, and frankly, I admit that it would have been the most obvious and cliché song choice possible. I think the band said they're tired of so many people using the song anyway.

I think that's all I have for this one. I thank you all for reading this chapter, and I hope you all enjoyed it.

Until next time, see ya!