What's up everybody, thesaiyanjedi back with the latest chapter of "Shinachiku's Next Adventure."

This one ended up a lot shorter than the previous chapter was because, honestly, I didn't have as much ground to cover as I did last time. Although by the end, there will be some set up for a major twists we'll be getting into in the near future, so be ready for that.

So, with all that said, let's get to reading!


Chapter 7: Two Worlds, One Father

The train station of Konohagakure was bustling with dozens of people all either waiting for their trains to arrive or for their families and friends to disembark. Within the crowd were four people in particular. One was a thirty-six year old woman with short pink hair, a red dress and a violet diamond seal christened on her broad forehead. Beside her was a man her same age with moppy black hair and wearing a pair of blue pants and a black, long sleeve shirt with a green flak jacket over it. Standing close to him was another woman, one in a violet shirt and black pants and whom wore glasses, but her most distinctive trait was the state of her red hair, which was short and spiky on the right side, while longer and straight on the left side. The final person in the company, whom was standing very close to the pink haired lady, was a eight year old girl with equally pink hair in ponytails and blue eyes like her father's, she wore a light green shirt with the Uzumaki clan symbol on the back with a pair of khaki shorts.

"Mommy," the little girl asked, "is daddy's train coming in soon?"

"Yes Hanami sweetie," the girls mother assured her. "Daddy should be coming in any time now."

"You realize of course," the raven-haired man interrupted, "he might be in a bad mood after what happened with the trail—OW! What the big idea Karin?!"

The man's wife elbowed him in the gut. "Don't kill the mood you jerk."

The little girl's mother closed her eyes as she smiled at the scene. "It's okay Sasuke, I know how to handle him when he's like that."

"So do I," Sasuke answered back, his tone a bit more stern than hers.

"Sakura!" Karin pointed outwards to get her attention. "It looks like the train's coming in."

With a screeching hiss of the brakes, the locomotive came to a lat at the station. After a few moments, the doors opened and a the conductor's behest, passengers started filing out of the train and onto the platform, their families and baggage in tow.

The group looked through the crowd for any sign of whom they were waiting for, until, finally, Hanami took notice of a couple of familiar faces and pointed in their direction. "Mommy! Look! It's Shikamaru and Temari!"

The couple worked their way through the crowd once they saw Sakura and Hanami waving their arms in the air to get their attention. The two of them set their luggage down as they greeted their friends.

"Hey you two," Karin greeted them. "How was Suna?"

"It was fine," Temari answered. "Gaara and Kankurō are the same as ever."

Hanami looked around them with very visible confusion and worry. "W-Where's my daddy?"

Neither husband nor wife were comfortable answering the little girl's question, though to be fair, Temari hesitated out of concern for his family's feelings, whereas Shikamaru was reluctant because of how troublesome explaining everything was going to be.

"Umm..." Temari stammered.

"Uhhh..." Shikamaru groaned.

"Shikamaru?" Sakura asked, "where's Naruto?"

"...He's, uh...well..."

"Where is he Shikamaru?" Sakura tried asking more forcefully.

"We'll...he wasn't able to come back with us."

All four of them were shocked to hear that, especially the missing father's wife and daughter. Karin spoke for the lot of them. "What happened?"

"He said something suddenly came up—AH!"

He yelped when a short tempered Sakura literally grabbed him by his shirt and lifted him up in the air, her other fist drawn back in case she needed to punch his teeth in. "I'll ask again. WHERE...IS...NARUTO?!"

Temari found the nerve to step in and speak for them both. "Sakura listen, Naruto told us he needed to attend to some sudden business in the Land of Iron, so he told us both to go back without him."

Sakura calmed down enough to put Shikamaru back down, who straightened out his clothes in annoyance.

"M-My daddy's not coming home?" Hanami asked with a sad face.

"Oh no sweetie," Temari tried to reassure the girl. "your daddy will be home soon enough. He just had to make one more little stop to take care of some business and once he's done he'll be on the next train back home, you'll see."

Sasuke folded his arms. "What kind of business is he on exactly?"

"He wouldn't tell us," Shikamaru stated bluntly.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura questioned with understandable suspicion.

"All he said was that it was an urgent matter that had to deal with the chakra gems, top secret stuff. He changed his plans as soon as he got a call from your son."

"My oniichan?" Hanami asked.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Karin waved her hands in the air to stop this conversation. "Your telling us that Shinachiku asked Naruto not to come home?"

"Yeah."

Sasuke spoke up. "You're Naruto's adviser Shikamaru. Why would he, or Shinachiku, feel the need to keep secrets from you?"

The Nara shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea."

Sakura could feel her daughter tugging on her dress. "Mommy?"

The pinkette quickly kneeled down and brought her daughter into a hug. "Now, now, don't you worry sweetie. Temari's right, daddy's going to be home before you know it."

That was what she said out loud at least. Within her mind, the woman's thoughts were a lot less optimistic. 'Naruto...I don't know what you're getting into, but please come home. You don't understand what this is doing to your family...And Shina, I don't know what's going on, but please don't get yourself into any trouble...'


"...So, the last thing you remember is your dad—err, our dad—going into his Nine-Tailed Chakra Mode to save the village from whom exactly?"

"How should I know?! They were a couple of freaks with white skin, white robes, and at least one of them hand some weird hole in his hand that he used to absorb my jutsu. Oh, and they had my mom's Byakugan too."

Shinachiku continued questioning in suspicion. "What color was this guy's hair?"

Boruto answered, not knowing where this was going. "Pale-blue I think. Why?"

"Just asking. Did you notice anything else about this person's face?"

"Well, uh...he did have these weird flat, curved horn things on his head. They kind of looked like rabbit ears to me."

"And this hole you say you saw in his hand. Was there anything else you remember about it?"

Bolt was struggling to remember, but it was seriously becoming a blur to him. "Ah! I don't know! Maybe? I think there was some sort of red eye-looking thing in his hand, but I can't remember."

Shina's eyes widened slightly in suspicion. This kid's description was sounding awfully familiar to someone his parents had told him about long ago. A certain princess that they and his Uncle Sasuke all had to defeat together long ago, back during the end of the war.

'No, it couldn't be...'

"Hey kid," Bolt said, "Are you alright?"

"W-Wha?"

"You kind of looked like you were zoning out a bit."

"No, no I'm alright. Listen, lets get back on track again." Shina readjusted himself in his chair before continuing the interrogation. "So, you were saying that dad used Kurama's chakra to protect the village from this person with rabbit ear-like horns on his head, and that was the last thing you saw?"

Bolt suddenly started to feel a bit nervous. "Well, actually...the last thing I remember is dad smiling at me before some white light came over me. The next thing I knew I was in that cave with you people."

Shina just took it all in. "I see...And you can't remember anything else?"

"...No, nothing."

"..."

"Hey?! Are we done yet?!"

"Not quite. You said that you were part of a Genin team made up of you, Sarada, and Mitsuki?"

"Yeah, I told you that already."

"Who was your sensei?"

"Konohamaru Sarutobi."

Shinachiku nearly fell out of his chair in shock. "You've got to be kidding me?!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Konohamaru-sensei was my teacher too!"

"No way!"

"No joke!"

Bolt shifted his eyes around the room nervously. "This...This is just getting weird!"

"No kidding..."

There was about five seconds of silence until Bolt decided to take his turn to start asking some of his own questions. "So...you and Konohamaru-sensei huh?"

"Oh yeah," Shina answered. "He's been training me since I graduated from the Academy."

"Let me guess, you got mixed grades like I did, right?"

"No, no, I pretty much got straight As in almost everything."

Bolt sweat dropped. "What are you, some kind of genius?"

"No, no, just a really good study. I think I get it from my mom. Shino-sensei once told me I was one his brightest students back at the Academy."

"You sound like a huge nerd."

"Hey!"

"Just sayin'...Tell you the truth, some people back home kind of see me as some sort of prodigy too."

Shina understood. "Because your the Seventh Hokage's son and the Fourth Hokage's grandson."

Bolt nodded slightly. "Yeah..."

Shinachiku figured he ought to get back on track again. "So, what exactly were you doing right before this mysterious person attacked the village?"

"I was in the middle of the Chūnin Exams," Boruto explained. "I was in a tournament fight with Shikadai before it all startd."

"Did you win?"

"No," Bolt answered in what seemed to be a sour attitude. "I was about to win, but then my dad disqualified me and stripped me of all rank I had as a ninja."

Shina's was taken by surprise upon hearing that. "Why would dad do that?"

"He was ticked off at me all because I used this new invention made by the Science Ninja Weapons Team."

Shina knew exactly what his otherworldly counterpart was talking about. "You mean the Kote?"

"...Yeah. Dad figured out I was using it during the exams so he disqualified me."

At that, Shinachiku folded his arms and scowled at the boy. "In other words, you cheated."

That accusation got under Boruto's nerves. "Hey! Don't you go judging me! That Kensuke guy talked me into using it just to be his guinea pig! It wasn't my idea!"

"But you still agreed to it, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah, like you're so righteous! I bet you did the same damn thing when you took your Chūnin Exam, huh?!"

"Actually, I never had to take the Chūnin Exam. My dad gave me an honorary promotion after I helped save the entire village from the Taka invasion. That's also how I got promoted to captain of this squad."

Bolt felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance. "So you're just some spoiled brat who got where he was all because of dad, huh?!"

"Watch it kid!" Shina protested. "I earned everything I got. Just because I'm rich doesn't meant I'm—"

"Wait," Bolt interrupted in surprise. "You mean you're rich?"

"Well, yeah, sure," Shina confirmed matter-of-factly. "Aren't you?"

"No. My dad may be Hokage but we still don't make that much more money than anyone else in the village."

"You mean your dad never came into his inheritance?"

Bolt's face faulted the implications of that word. "What inheritance?"

"Well, my dad told me that after the war was over and he and my mom started dating, that Kakashi-sensei gave him my grandparents last will and testament. They left him 50,000,000 ryo and the three floor mansion they had built in secret just outside the village gates."

"M-M-Mansion...?"

"Sure." Shinachiku seemed confused by Boruto's utterly bewildered reaction. "Doesn't your family live in a mansion too?"

"...Shut up!"


As squadrons of Mist ninja arrived to investigate the reports of a disturbance at The Azure Dragon, Sugure and his team had quickly made it to the Harada Estate. The superman clad in the white uniform knew that it was only a matter of time before those elite ninja squads decided to double back to the estate, which meant that they needed to work fast before that happened...Not that any one of them could not easily deal with any opposition that came for them, they were measly human specks after all. Still, Sugure's genius mind concluded that avoiding another confrontation at this time would be for the best.

Sugure supervised as his six followers tore apart the house, room by room, searching for any sign of the prize they sought.

"Master!"

Sugure turned his head at the sound of his youngest follower's voice. "Yes Boi?"

"I've found it!"

Not saying another word, Sugure followed the trail of the yellow-clad superman's voice down the hallway. He came to a large room, one filled with beautiful paintings, valuable statuettes under glass, ancient-looking weaponry, and dozens of other rare valuable, many of which seemed to have serious historical value deserving of being maintained within a museum instead of in here, the private collection of a powerful crime lord.

'So this is Old Man Harada's private collection...Impressive I must admit.'

Sugure saw Boi standing in the back of the room. He was pointing above him to something that was hanging near the ceiling. There it was, with it's ancient katana blade still sharp after all these generations, it's hilt plated in gold and silver and ivory, and those seven holes that held the chakra gems of ancient legend. The blade itself was encased inside of an elegant and ancient scabbard, one covered in black leather and overlaid with gold and silver runes resembling the roots of the fabled God Tree and the powerful Shinju fruit that grew from it.

Sugure smirked, already able to tell that this time they got what they came for. "At last, the real Sword of Ōtsutsuki. Well done Boi."

The youngest of the supermen bowed in gratitude. "I live to serve, master."

The leader in white then did a giant leap up the ceiling as easily as a preschooler playing a game of jump rope. Just the barest of kicks, practically a tap from his big toe, had enough strength to rock the walls and shake the weapon loose, as well as all of the other relics the old man hung for display on his wall. Sugure caught the sword in the air and landed back on the ground with all the silence and control of a master ninja, microseconds before the other clatter on the wall fell to the floor with a loud crash and clang. there was nobody else inside the house save for the seven of them, so Sugure paid no mind whatsoever to the noise.

No, his attention was to the legendary weapon that he held within his hand right now. Unsheathing the sword, he held it out and examined it closely. Pressing his hands to the blade, he applied a fair amount of pressure and found that, unlike the replica that the old man had attempted to cheat him with earlier, this blade was much less fragile. Even with his strength, the blade would not give.

"It is written," Sugure recounted allowed, "that Princess Kaguya herself forged this blade from a meteorite the fell to the Earth long ago, before the forming of the Five Great Nations. The metal forged from that meteor is of a composition that defies anything the greatest smiths on this Earth can forge."

"Is that true master?" Boi asked.

Sugure looked around the room and saw another item from the old man's collection. It looked like a tall statue of Hanzai Harada made of solid metal, which he could tell was not just any metal, but titanium.

"Let us find out."

Walking over to the statue, he unsheathed the sword and held it aloft. With all the stealth and lightning swiftness of an elite shinobi, he landed one clean cut through the statue. Seconds later, the old man's head fell clean off and rolled away.

Sheathing the blade once again. Sugure smirked. "It would appear the strength of this weapon are not exaggerated after all. And this is not even the beginning of its true power."

Boi was quick to piece together what his master was referring to. "The chakra gems."

"Indeed." Sugure tied the scabbard around himself as he continued explaining. "Whomever can recover all seven of the chakra gems and fit them into the slots on the scabbard of this blade will have access to all of their powers and be able to hold all of them without destroying themselves. Merely having such a weapon at your side can make you a god."

"No one is more deserving of such divinity than you master," Boi bowed in respect.

"I an already the personification of human perfection. With this..." he touched the scabbard with his hand. "...With this, I can truly be a god."

"And then we can finally remake the world the way it deserves to be. Yes master?"

"Indeed. Now come, we have what we came for. We need to leave before any authorities arrive."


In the far away Land of Iron, there was a lone figure making his way through the snow. It was cold as hell since, given where he was coming back from before this very unexpected detour came up, he hadn't exactly packed a sweater with him. Still he was a shinobi, probably the most famous shinobi in the world no less, so be damned in he was going to let the cold get the best of him.

The train this figure disembarked from unfortunately was far away and out of sight from the location where he was headed. This meant that he had no choice but to trek the rest of the way through the snow by foot.

'That's it! Before I leave I seriously need to remember to plant a Flying Thunder God kunai in Shina's HQ. No way I'm going through this crap again!'

Naruto walked through the white powder for another couple of miles, before he finally saw a trio of familiar mountains that that protruded from the rock like they were looming over any passers by. The mountains had icicles hanging down from their snowy peaks, giving the mountains the visage of pack of wolf heads.

'Good, I'm finally getting close then.'

About a mile of two from the mountains, Naruto at last saw the unassuming office building out in middle of nowhere. Relieved to finally be at his destination, he made his way over to the building and banged on the front door.

He waited...And waited...And waited...

"Hey!" Naruto shouted as he banged on the door again. "Open the door! It's freezing out here!"

Naruto was very irritated that he had to come all this way just to be stuck standing in the snow! 'Shina! Boy, if this is some kind of prank, so help me I'll—!"

As he was ranting inside his brain, he ended up pushing on the handle causing the door to open.

'...Oh...It was unlocked. Well...okay then...' Naruto had very large sweat drop appear on his head.

Stepping through the door in embarrassment, the Orange Hokage shook the snow off of his clothes and rubbed his chest and arms to warms his body back up. When he got feeling better he looked around to see that there was nobody around, just blank hallways.

"Hello?" He called out down the halls but no one came to see him. "Shina? Son? It's me, dad."

Figuring he was going to need to look around to find anyone to talk to. He proceeded to open a couple of doors to see is anyone was in, before he finally noticed a familiar looking boy with pale skin, white-blue hair and golden eyes.

"Oh, Lord Hokage," the boy quickly bowed in respect. "The captain informed me of your arrival. It is truly an honor to meet your acquaintance once again."

"Good to see you too Mitsuki," Naruto replied back. "But where is the rest of your team?"

"Most of them are in their rooms right now my Lord. Or at least Bōis and On'na are, probably busy making out I'd imagine."

Naruto sweat dropped in embarrassment again, but this time for totally different reasons. 'So blunt...Sage help us whenever this boy finally hits puberty.'

"Are you alright Lord Hogake?"

Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts and got himself serious again. "Fine, fine. Listen Mitsuki, I'm here under very important business and I need to know where I can find Shinachiku?"

"Certainly sir," Mitsuki said. "Is this regarding the boy we discovered in the cave in the Land of Lightning?"

"Yes. Now where is he and where is my son."

"Right this way my Lord. The captain has been interrogating him for several hours now."

"Alone?"

"Hi Lord Seventh, it was the captain's orders."

Naruto paused in thought. If this strange new kid was really saying the things Shina told him about over the phone, then he wasn't too comfortable allowing his only son to be speaking to this kid all on his own without any backup.

"Mitsuki," Naruto ordered. "Take me to my son's location at once."

"Hai Lord Seventh, "Mitsuki responded. "Right this way."

The boy led the Hokage down a couple of hallways until he at last came to a singular door. "They are both waiting for you inside my lord."

"Arigato," Naruto smiled as the boy took his leave.

The blonde stood there for only a moment. He had no idea who or what he was going to find behind that door. Who was this kid that Shina told him about? Was he some nutcase, or was it something more?

"Are you going to stand there or are you going to open the door?"

'Huh? That you Kurama?'

"You know of any other voices in your head kit?!"

'Pfft! Whatever! So, what do you think of all this?'

"I think that you came all this way just to be here and now you ought to stop being a pussy and open the damn door!"

'Jerk...'

Seeing no sense in delaying things any more, Naruto let out a sigh and knocked on the door.

"Come in," he heard someone say on the other side.

He opened the door to see that, indeed, his son was in there sitting in a chair. But in front of Shinachiku was another boy, one that looked shockingly similar to Naruto himself. He had blonde hair as both father and son did, but this boy's spiky look reminded Naruto very much of how he used to look back in his Genin years, with an ahoge sticking up in the back. He also shared Naruto's distinctive blue eyes, unlike Shina who inherited his green eyes from his mother. Those whisker marks, two on each cheek, so much like Naruto himself that it was terrifying! But it was something else, something else about the boy's face that stunned him the most. It looked so familiar...

The boy was wearing a black tracksuit with a red fire symbol on the left breast, a symbol that resembled a bolt on the back, and red stripes along the sides of his pants. Beneath his jacket, which was unzipped, Naruto could see that the boy had on a simple white T-shirt and also a bolt tied to a string around his neck, all this in addition to his Konoha forehead protector and his sandals.

But the most curious thing of all to Naruto was not what the boy looked like or how he was dressed, it was the position he was in. Shina and his squad had bound his arms and upper body in a straight jacket and had his legs shackled to the ground.

"DAD!"

Naruto did a double take. Why? Because both of these boys addressed him the exact same way, in one singular voice!

"What?!"

While Boruto appeared disappointed, Shinachiku got up out of his chair and waved his hands in the air to calm him down. "Easy! Easy dad! He's friendly."

The grown up blonde looked to the child blonde bound up before him. "He doesn't look like it."

Shina scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Well...He did try one escape attempt, so...yeah, had to take precautions."

Naruto looked at his son quizzically before turning his attention back to where it needed to be at the moment. The boy stared at him with some sort of longing, desperation even. He never took his eyes off of Naruto as he took the same chair that Shina he sat in earlier.

"What is your name?" Naruto asked simply.

"Dad?" Boruto responded incredulously. "Come on...stop kidding around—"

"Answer the question."

There was no anger in his voice, no raise in pitch, but the sternness and seriousness was unmistakable. Whether this man was Bolt's father or not, he had come a long way to see him and he was not joking around.

"B-Boruto Uzumaki," the boy answered. "That is my name."

Naruto's face didn't show a trace of emotion, but those who knew him best could easily recognize the he was taking this in very carefully.

"And who are your parents?"

"Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyūga."

The Seventh Hokage continued to study the boy, narrowing his eyes very slightly. "You do look an awful lot like I did at your age kid, I give you that much."

"Then you believe me?!" Bolt asked in excited optimism.

"No."

That enthusiasm faded immediately and was replaced with a heartbroken frown. "Dad...please..."

Naruto folded his arms. "Hinata is a close friend of mine, that's true, and I have great respect for her. But she isn't my wife. Sakura Haruno is."

"But—"

"And I don't take kindly to any insinuations that I might have ever cheated on my wife by some kid who tries to play some sick prank."

"But—"

"Nor do I take kindly to that kid suggesting that my friend Hinata cheated on my friend Kiba."

"But—"

"Nor do I condone that kid's pranks getting in the way of my son and his team's hard work of tracking down the remaining chakra gems, dragging me miles and miles away from work in doing it."

"But dad—"

"And besides...you say Hinata's your mother, but you clearly don't have the Byakugan."

"No, but my sister awakened hers."

At that point Naruto stood up and actually grabbed the boy by his shirt. "Now listen to me kid! I don't know what kind of joke you're playing, but if you keep telling people that I cheated on my wife and had two kids with Hinata, mark my words I'm gonna—!"

"Dad."

Naruto stopped and turned his head to the source of the voice, his real son. "What is it Shina?"

"He might not be lying about any of this after all."

The elder blonde put the boy down and faced his son. "What are you talking about?"

Shina reached into his pocket and pulled out the prize he and his team had recovered from that cave. "He appeared as soon as we found this."

Naruto's eyes widened at the sight of it. "Is...is that...?"

Shinachiku smiled. "Yep. It took us a whole year, but we finally found another chakra gem."

Naruto looked at the gem, momentarily entranced by its violet radiance. "What does it have to do with the boy?"

Putting the gem back in his pocket, Shina signaled for his father to lean in, in order to speak more privately and to keep the truth from unfriendly ears. "Listen dad, there's something I have to tell you."

"What is it?"

"When I..." he paused to try and makes sense of what he himself needed to say next. "When I first touched this gem I had a...a vision of some kind."

"A vision?"

"I guess so. It was really weird."

"What did you see?"

"I...I saw crazy things. Like I was being catapulted into the rest of the universe of something. I saw so many colors, so many worlds, so many people I didn't recognize—"

"Shina!" Naruto stopped. "Calm down, you're not making sense."

"I know I'm not, but the thing is...I heard a voice speaking to me."

The father suddenly got very suspicious. "What kind of voice?"

"I..." Shinachiku struggled to remember his bizarre encounter. "I'm not sure who it was, but they started talking to me about how small I was, how little I understood in some kind of...vast multiverse."

Narut was starting to get very uncomfortable... "I see...Umm, son, I think you've been working too hard and ought to lie down—"

"The voice...It said to me...for every choice we make, a new world is created. One world where we made that choice, and another where we didn't. Some world are nearly identical to our own, others completely different in every way."

"Shina..."

"And...And the voice told me that sometimes that can mean a world where we choose one love over another..." The boy turned to his father like he was having some sort of an epiphany. "And when my vision was ending, I remember feeling a hand on my arm...and when it was all over, this kid was there holding the gem with me."

Naruto was starting to get deathly scarred at what his own son was about to tell him. "What...What are you trying to say?"

"Dad..." Shinachiku paused for just a moment to glance at the boy he had bound up before looking back to his father, almost in disbelief at what he himself was about to say. "What if this boy is your son with Aunt Hinata, in another universe?"

The father's eyes widened in shock. Time stood still, nobody in the room could say anything.

'This...This can't be real!' Naruto argued inside his mind. 'He can't...this kid...me and Hinata... No! No, this has to be a joke!'

"I'm not so sure about that Naruto."

'Kurama, don't tell me you believe any of this?'

"I'm not sure what I'm supposed to believe. That's why the smart thing for you to do is to actually talk to this boy and get some more answers out of him."

Naruto listened to the Nine-Tail's suggestion and, he had to admit, it was about the only logical thing they could do at this point. 'Fine. I have to keep interrogating him and get what I can of out of him.'

Looking back at the boy, he started to take pity on him for his current predicament. 'But if I'm going to get him to talk, then I'm going to need his trust.'

"Shina," Naruto said, "where are the keys to his restraints?"

Shinachiku reached into his jacket and pulled out a small ring of keys. "Here dad."

Taking the keys from his son, Naruto approached the boy, stopping in front of him and kneeling down. Boruto watched as the man he had hoped was his father all of a sudden inserted his keys into the restraints binding his legs and undoing the locks on his straight jacket.

Bolt stood back up again, finally, and looked up at the blonde Hokage in nervous anticipation...Until Naruto's smile turned into the warmest, most sincere and trustworthy one he could muster.

He put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Come on, let's have a talk."

Shinachiku watched from the sidelines as his father and his possible doppelganger from another world got to talking. He figured he would have to join them in just a moment, but for right now he looked back down at the violet chakra gem he held in his hand that might very well have started this whole mess in the first place.

'Who are you?' the boy asked inside his own mind. 'Why did you speak to me? Why are you doing all of this?'

Squeezing his hand around the gem, the boy closed his eyes and sighed. 'Sage help us all if this somehow gets any worse...'


In his private quarters, the CGRS member known as Jōkā was listening in on everything that was being said inside that room. He was not present for the conversation, but he did not need to be. Long ago, when this squad was first formed and the Union had first moved them into this secluded headquarters, he had taken the careful precaution to bug every single room in the entire building. There was literally nothing that happened in this place that Jōkā didn't know about...Nor the other side of the line which he was funneling the recording into.

Turning back to the laptop computer he had at his side, he typed a message on the screen: "Master, have you been listening to this?"

Jōkā waited for only a moment before a new line of text appeared on the screen. "Yes."

Smiling, Jōkā typed a one word reply. "Excellent."

Almost just as quickly, however, another response came on the screen. "Will this be a problem?"

Thinking for only a moment, the young ninja began typing again, never once turning his ears away from the transmission coming from his targets. "No master. Minor bump in the road. I've acted the fool to throw them off my trail and been planting false leads to the gems location for a year now. I know what I'm doing sir."

Another line. "And yet young Uzumaki has the gem now. And now he has a doppelganger."

Jōkā typed again. "As I said, minor bump in the road. It was one good lead they found in spite of me. Uzumaki got lucky. Once I learn what we need, it will be nothing I can't handle."

And then a final message. "He may not be his father, but he is still an Uzumaki. And now this other boy may be too. Don't underestimate them. END OF LINE."

And with that, the conversation was terminated. Jōkā may have still been listening to Naruto and this 'Boruto' kid's currently going discussion, but his master was not, or more likely, he still was, but he no longer wished to speak.

'I swear to you master," Jōkā thought to himself, 'soon the chakra gem will be back in our hands where it belongs, as will the next gem, whomever has it...Hail Taka...'


Deep in the woodlands of the Land of Fire, footsteps could be heard crumbling the ground and twigs that littered the floor. A team of three bandits, missing-nin from the various different hidden villages, came to stand in this place. All three of them were dress is typical black, neutral ninja attire and wore black headband that covered their entire hair and scalps. Their metal forehead protectors were all scratched out, symbolizing their missing-nin status.

The bandits were here on business. They were called to this location and waited with deteriorating patience for their associate to make his arrival.

"I see him," one of the bandits told his leader.

Approaching their location was a middle aged man with piercing green eyes and white, shoulder-length hair with a slight hint of blue to it, maintained in an unkempt style. The man was rather thin became much more muscular and well defined in build, the result of years of weight lifting and training inside of the Leaf Village's most secure prison facility. He was dressed in an opened black vest, tight black pants, and a dark brown belt with had a silver rectangular belt buckle.

The mysterious man stopped before the hooded ninja. "Do you have it?"

The leader of the bandits—a man with light-colored hair slicked back with a part on one side and a moustache and beard, dressed in a dark-colored ensemble underneath a lighter-colored one with a distinct pattern—stepped forward to greet their contact.

"Mizuki," the bandit leader addressed his contact.

"Shojoji," the contact addressed the bandit leader. "Do you have it?'

Shojoji reached into his pocket and pulled out the item that the former Leaf ninja sought...a small orange gem.

"You're lucky," Shojoji said. "This wasn't easy to come by. Had to search far and wide and finally had to kill some old archaeologist from the Land of Water to get it."

Smiling, Mizuki took the gem in his hand. "Well then, a deal is a deal."

Reaching into his own pocket, he pulled out two vials, one filled with a clearish red fluid, the other a clearish blue fluid. "Two vials of Taka's chakra suppression serum, as promised."

Shojoji took the vials and put them into his pocket. "Domo arigato Mizuki. These will serve us well."

"And this," Mizuki opened his palm and showcase the glowing orange gem, "will serve all of us very well."

Gazing into the gem's vermilion radiance, Mizuki became lost in his own private fantasies of revenge. 'You took away my future Naruto...Now, I'm getting mine back...by taking away yours...'


Well, there you have it. Two more chess pieces are on the table in this complicated web that is this story. Where will it all lead? ...Well, you'll just have to keep reading to find out.

Okay, I will say that this was a difficult chapter to pin down the structure of. Originally I did intend to have Sakura learn about what's going on in this chapter, but I could just never find a way that felt like it flowed right to me. That will be coming soon enough however...or will it?

The scene I am probably most proud of in this chapter was the back and forth between Shinachiku and Boruto. We learn from this scene that Bolt was sucked into Shinachiku's universe right after he saw his father the last time before walking up in the hospital after Momoshiku and Kinshiki's attack on the Leaf Village...Yes, I will admit it here, as much as I didn't want to, I did feel an obligation to watch the Boruto movie before beginning this story. It wasn't out of desire, but out of writer's necessity. Anyway, if you've seen that movie, there is a moment where Bolt hears Sasuke's voice in his head as Naruto turns to smile at him while in Nine-Tailed Chakra Mode, then Bolt screams "DAD!" and the screen goes white. That is the point where Bolt is plucked from his own universe and brought into Shinachiku's.

On a writer's note, it was awfully amusing some of the back and forth the two boys got to share, particularly when Bolt had to eat crow upon hearing that Shina's family is rich, lives in three-floor mansion, how Shina himself was promoted to Chūnin without needing to take the exam, and even got to meet his grandparents. Also, Bolt finally got called out for cheating during his own Chūnin Exam. Again, if you've ever seen the movie or read the Boruto manga, you know what I'm taking about.

We got one more scene with our villains as they finally got the relic they were looking for. So now they have the scroll about he Four Guardian Best and the sword that can hold all seven chakra gems. What could their master plan be? And yes, as the Chakra Gems were very obviously inspired by the Infinity Gems, so too was the Sword of Ōtsutsuki obvious inspired by the Infinity Gauntlet, I just changed it from a metal glove to a weapon so as to not make the THAT much of a ripoff!

The scene where Naruto meets both for the first time was a surprisingly difficult scene for me to write and even now I'm not sure if I did the best job of it. Oh well, there's still plenty more to come before this story is over, so hopefully things will tense up as we go along.

There were two big pot twists at the end of this chapter, the first of which was the reveal of Jōkā's true allegiance. Those of you who have read "Konoha Tonight," the exposition prequel to this story, you might remember that in one of those episodes it was hinted that some people had suspected Mitsuki of actually being a Taka agent planted within Shina's squad to secretly stagger their efforts. That was always intended as a red herring on my part. As a mysterious character and, SPOILER. the genetic "son" of Orochimaru, I figured it made sense for him to be someone that people might not fully trust, but that was always just to lure you away from the real mole.

I have to say though, I didn't fully have it decided on it being Jōkā at first, but as I wrote the fist couple of chapters, the character clearly underwhelmed some of my readers and, frankly, I was disappointed in how he came across myself. It was really thanks to my friend samuraipanda85 for his comments on the character. He had said he hoped Jōkā would die and get redemption for his rather useless character...I decided from that comment that I might be much more interesting to reveal that his idiot persona was actually just an act and that he was a traitor intentionally sabotaging them this whole time. So panda, I know this isn't what you originally had in mind, but I hope you liked it nevertheless.

On a side note, the message board dialogue that Jōkā shares with Taka's leader was inspired by a bonus feature on the Blu-ray for "Tron: Legacy." On that Blu-ray there is a short film called "Flynn Lives: The Next Day," which follows up on the immediate aftermath of the film and both recounts and closes the door on the "Flynn Lives" ARG creates to promote the film. After "The Next Day" ends, there are then a series of three-digit codes you can enter to get additional Easter egg content. In one of these Easter eggs, there is a online conversation between what appears to be Ed Dilinger Jr. (Cilian Murphy's character) and his father (in the voice of the Master Control Program (MCP) from the original "Tron"). The two share very similar dialogue, even closing out on the famous "END OF LINE." This whole Easter egg has long been suspected to be set up for a third Tron film...which I honestly can't keep track of whether Disney has any intention of making anymore...

The second plot twist revealed in this chapter is that I bring back Mizuki, the traitorous Leaf ninja that Naruto and Iruka defeat in the very first chapter and episode of "Naruto," and reveal that he has gotten his hands on another chakra gem. Those of you who have read "Naruto and Sakura's Twelfth Anniversary" will remember that a pair of archaeologists discovered the Time Gem, well now these bandits (the Mujina Bandits from the Boruto manga, another little Easter egg) have killed them and stolen it to give to Mizuki in exchange for some of Taka's serum which has gotten out into the free world. All of this, again, I had set up in "Konoha Tonight."

So, what does Mizuki plan to do now that he has a chakra gem that can control time? And how could it impact our heroes as this story unfolds? We'll start finding out the answers to these questions, and more, as we get into future chapters. But that will have to wait for another day. For now, thank you all for reading, and I hope to see you all again for the next one.

Until next time, see ya!