The initial shock of the counsellor's assessment of their relationship had yet to pass by the time Naruto and Hinata returned home. They said nothing, for there was nothing really to say, or at least that they could think of. Both of them wanted to just toss the counsellor's diagnosis out the window and live in wedded bliss, but it was just about impossible now. It might take some time, but they were probably going to realize that they had been lying to each other and themselves, that this marriage wasn't even worth being called such.
They both went to familiar spots upon returning. Naruto went straight to the dining room table to read the nice tablecloth. Hinata went straight to the kitchen. And it didn't take long for her to start on her thing, as Naruto could hear the sounds coming from the kitchen. They were kitchen sounds, and the sound of her singing to herself.
She always did that. She always let herself get lost in her own little world. No matter what, whenever something went difficult, she would retreat to the kitchen, her knitting, and her own little world. It wasn't always this way, but he noticed that it was becoming more prominent lately. This was, he figured, just her way of dealing with a stressful situation.
And yet, he couldn't for the life of him understand how she could be so chipper in this situation, that their marriage had been a sham the whole time, at least to someone else. Thinking about it, he suspected that must be why Hinata appeared to take little care into the assessment; she probably didn't think that the counsellor's conclusion was worth thinking about. It was a thought that Naruto wanted to entertain himself, but the words "I hate people who lie to themselves" echoed in his thoughts again. It made him groan and rub his face.
He internally begged for Boruto to take the stupid train back, but remembered that said train would probably be delayed. They'd done well enough doing things the old-fashioned way… but then he remembered those missing-nin hiding out there somewhere. That didn't help matters at all.
What did genuinely matter was that, no matter how much he tried to sweep it under the rug, he knew, deep down, that things were not going to be the same. And yet he still felt the urge/need to get his marriage in order. The other scenario kept creeping into his mind, but he wouldn't say what it was, nor would he want to acknowledge the possibility.
He'd be in big trouble with the public if he so much as considered that option.
But although that option would only bring public scorn—he glanced at a tabloid newspaper declaring that there was 'TROUBLE IN HOKAGE'S HOUSE'—it wouldn't get him into legal trouble at all. Plus, he worried that jumping into that without thinking would lead to devastating consequences, especially for his family.
His family.
He sighed. Boruto already hated him. He kept trying to make it up to Boruto. But Boruto loved his mom more than his dad, and he didn't need another reason to hate him.
Well, until he could actually figure things out, there was no sense in keeping his thoughts to himself. He stood up, picked the tabloid up and threw it away. Then he went into the kitchen.
Hinata was busy, already working on dinner, with the pots and plates scattered about in an orderly manner. Yes, that was a good thing about her, which he appreciated, but watching her make dinner didn't ignite the spark that he wanted to feel. Instead, his expression remained neutral, and his chest felt nice and loose. Good for his heart, of course, after that sodium-heavy diet of his childhood, but not so much in the realms of love. He did chalk it up to the spark dwindling after years of familiarity, of course. He always got the same, tight-chested way with Sakura, but familiarity made that funny feeling go away after a while, replaced by easiness and comfort around her.
Wait, why was he thinking about Sakura?
He shook his head to clear his mind. He slipped, accidentally knocking a pan off the counter. It fell to the floor with a loud "CLANG". He hurriedly bent down and picked up the pan to put it back.
Hinata's only reaction was to turn her head towards him and then turn her head back to the task at hand. It concerned Naruto. Was she angry? Was she in denial?
He carefully entered the kitchen, so he couldn't disturb her, although he didn't fear her when she was interrupted—she could never be scary, even when she tried to put on the scary mom act to Boruto.
Scary mom act? He didn't remember her doing that while the kids were growing up. It only started with Boruto's discipline problems. And even then, she never was quite able to intimidate Naruto. Why? The simplest explanation was because Naruto knew that she never quite could intimidate an opponent back when they were ninjas. He certainly knew her well enough, but the counsellor's words kept echoing in his head, telling him that she'd been a parasitic feature in his life. He didn't want to believe that; he loved Hinata.
But what did he love about her? He loved her assertiveness? She never was assertive until the mission to save Hanabi. Why?
"Hinata?" He asked after finally gathering the guts to talk to her. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Naruto," she said, turning to smile at him with her eyes closed.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive," she answered. "It's just the counsellor's opinion, after all. We should get a second opinion."
He admitted it wasn't a bad idea. But he could tell there was more underneath her reaction. "Are you positive?"
"Of course, I am," she insisted, turning to Naruto. But he could see that she was on the verge of tears and struggling to remain composed. Guilt immediately struck Naruto, and he moved to try to comfort her, but she moved away from him. He tried to consider what she was going through. She was doubtlessly conflicted about the whole thing, no matter how much she tried to deny the internal typhoon. "I love you. You love me." He knew that she was trying to sound confident, but he couldn't help but hear it like she was in denial.
"Hinata, we can get through this," he pleaded.
"We already have," she said.
"We can get a second opinion."
"We don't need one."
"But the counsellor—"
"Those clocks we got for our wedding," she said. "They represent our love. It's timeless." He could see the tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes.
"Yeah," he said. "Hinata, I really think we need to reconsider everything. Please, for the kids."
"We don't need to reconsider," she said.
"Yes, we do."
"NO!" she threw the spoon she was using into the boiling pot.
Both stayed quiet for several impossibly-long moments. Naruto had backed off, but he didn't look scared or anything, just surprised. He watched Hinata try to regather herself, as if she had things under control, but he didn't know for certain. She doubtlessly didn't want this marriage to end, after she'd tried so hard to win his affections. And then Naruto could see that the counsellor did in fact have a point, and he couldn't deny it. It wasn't about him, it was all about her. He did want her to be happy, no question, but maybe it shouldn't have been with him.
But he still would not consider that just yet, not while there was still a window of opportunity to save his marriage, and maybe rediscover why he fell for her.
She was conflicted, alright; torn between keeping up the façade of denial and lies. But deep down, she also feared that the seemingly idyllic life that she desired with the boy of her dreams was coming to an end.
The clocks kept ticking.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
"Agh, why can't we just get going already!?"
"Because we don't need to, Boruto!" Sarada sighed back.
"Shut up, I wanna get going!"
Team Konohamaru had finished up yet another long, tiring day of farm work. The sky remained overcast, but there was no chance of rain, much to Ryu's displeasure, for this meant that he'd need to use more irrigation water to care for his crops. But, as this was a smaller, livestock-oriented farm, that mattered little. Anyway, besides that, work went on as usual. Boruto buried himself, or at least tried to focus on the work at hand, which mainly required him to feed some of the animals, specifically, cows and pigs. He diligently ran in between both the barn and the pig stall, carrying both sets of feed under Freyja's proud, watchful eyes. She even rewarded him with a longer break, but after lunch.
But he couldn't quite get past the elephant in the room, and that was his parents' marriage counselling session set for the same day. He didn't tell anyone about it, but they already knew it was happening, in a sense giving him less of a need to talk about it. Like he wanted to. And although Freyja was proud to watch him gaining this apparent work ethic, she still felt sad for him, knowing that he was going through a lot. She even tried to console him, but he brushed her off. This would have drawn her ire on previous days, but it didn't this time. Instead, she sympathetically watched him continue to work, despite the inner typhoon he was going through.
"Alright kids, don't start anything now," Ryu lightly warned. "I can tell you kids are tired. You all worked really hard today, so I'll give you tomorrow off." Team Konohamaru cheered.
Ryu had also noticed Boruto's inner struggles, although that's not surprising, given how Boruto made it incredibly obvious, and he already knew about the marriage counselling. Still, he walked over to Boruto while he'd been carrying feed to the pig sty to help him. Boruto refused his offer. He didn't like it at all.
"Boruto, if you need to talk to someone, we're here to listen," he told him. Boruto scoffed and looked away.
"Thanks for everything," Konohamaru told Ryu. "When do you need us back?"
"You can come back in two days," Ryu answered. "That boy needs some time to recuperate." He pointed to Boruto.
As for Mitsuki, he'd walked up to Freyja as she was watching everything. He stared at her for a couple moments, looked away when he felt the situation's awkwardness, and then turned back to her. "You said you're from Fjordland," he said. It sounded like a statement. "I thought they used to be savages."
Freyja gasped a laugh, although she looked as if she was caught between being offended and not offended. She still re-gathered herself. "Times change," she said. "We've moved past that. We're an enlightened society now."
"Didn't you have child soldiers? Why do you keep talking about your army?"
"We don't have child soldiers," she answered. "Not anymore. Actually, we never had them, children just learned to fight from a young age. Our all-volunteer military only allows everyone over 17 now."
"Mitsuki, that wasn't necessary, or nice," Konohamaru said after catching wind of his questions. Mitsuki quizzically stared at him.
"The boy was curious," Freyja replied. "I'm happy to answer!"
"But we should still be going," said Konohamaru.
As this went on, the missing-nin who'd been off on the side for the past several chapters watched the departure taking place. Although they'd been tempted to attack the children for the past two weeks, they'd refrained from doing so. But now, the Hokage was having domestic issues that were quite obviously taking their toll on his bratty son. The group's leader held his hand up, but looking at Shiro, who'd recently gotten in trouble for being too rash, smiled. Shiro smiled back. Now was the perfect opportunity.
They turned back to the farm. They watched Team Konohamaru bid goodbye to the farmer and his wife for the day and depart. They watched them walk off, until they got to the trees, and then leapt into them. The outlaw ninjas hid from the Konoa ninjas and waited for them to pass by. Once they left, they turned around and immediately followed them.
But they made a mistake. Shiro, the rash ninja, broke a branch off and neglected to notice that it fell to the ground. It landed outside the farm, catching Freyja's attention. She looked up and saw the shadows of the outlaw ninjas. Immediately, her eyes narrowed. "Ryu," she said. "Get my sword, shield, horse and some farmhands."
"What's wrong?" Ryu asked.
"Someone is stalking them."
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Boruto had to put on a brave face while they jumped through the trees, not just because he was supposed to be a brave ninja, the Hokage's son, yadda, yadda, yadda, but because he could lose his balance and fall if he was distracted. But he was falling behind everyone else, so much that they had to stop every couple of trees so he could catch up. Each time they did, he glared at them, but wilted under Sarada's stronger glare. Konohamaru and Mitsuki didn't glare, but they were getting visibly impatient, and it only served to make Boruto glare back at them.
"Are you gonna keep us waiting?" Sarada accused.
"Then why don't I just go ahead!?" Boruto snapped back.
Before Sarada could say anything, Boruto jumped off to the first branch. She sighed, groaned, threw her hands up and rolled her eyes to the sky. Some people liked to compare her and Boruto to their mother and father respectively, but she didn't see it. Naruto had a reason to lash out. Boruto was just a brat. Sakura had a reason to come to respect Naruto. Sarada wondered if Boruto was even worthy of being a friend.
She let that thought go when Konohamaru and Mitsuki took off after Boruto. She wasn't going to fall behind those two! So she also took off.
Shortly later, the outlaw ninjas passed by the same tree. Freyja, riding a horse and leading some of the farmhands, passed by as well.
Team Konohamaru continued on, unaware of the oncoming threat. That was because an argument between Boruto and Sarada started. It went the way it usually went; Sarada insulted Boruto, calling him a 'brat', and Boruto complaining about Naruto being an awful father. Sarada of course reminded him that at least he had a father, and he shouldn't take that for granted, because Sasuke was a jerk. Boruto didn't have an answer for that, but he did tell her that all she did was derailing the argument.
Already getting tired of this argument, Boruto jumped ahead of them. But he was so focused on the front that he didn't bother to look up and see the outlaw ninjas trailing him from above. They'd gone to the upper branches a couple hundred meters behind so they could catch up and take them by surprise.
Without warning, he felt a hard kick to his back.
"BORUTO!" his teammates screamed. Three more ninjas dropped down from above and struck Konohamaru, Mitsuki and Sarada, sending all of them crashing to the ground. But they managed to catch themselves and land safely. But the other three ninjas landed with them, and started fighting them. They all tried to get to Boruto, but those outlaws moved them away from each other, and away from Boruto, most importantly.
Boruto did manage to land safely, but he found himself facing down a man with a Konoha symbol scratched out on his forehead protector.
"Who are you and what do you want!?" Boruto demanded. "Don't you know who I am!?"
"You're Boruto Uzumaki, the son of the Seventh Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki," the man answered. "My name is Jiro, I am a former ninja of Konoha myself, until your father had me expelled from the force!"
"What's that supposed to mean!?"
"It means I will have my revenge on the Hokage, either directly or indirectly!"
"Wait, what!?"
Boruto had no time to react to Jiro's punches. The older ninja threw a barrage of them, forcing Boruto backwards towards a distant tree. The younger ninja fought back, blocking Jiro's strikes, and finally getting a reverse roundhouse kick off that threw Jiro off. However, he felt a sharp pain in his back, which made him stumble. He could see Jiro's satisfied smirk from a distance. It made him growl. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"
Two shadow clones materialized on his right and left. He held his right hand out for the one on that side to help him make a Rasengan. Once that was complete, he ran forward. The two shadow clones jumped off to the side and grabbed Jiro's arms, keeping him in place. Or so Boruto thought.
Jiro sweep-kicked both shadow clones off their feet. Both of them dissipated in clouds when they hit the ground. Boruto gasped, but he was too close to Jiro to stop. "RASENGAN!" he pushed the Rasengan at Jiro. It looked like he was going to get the older ninja.
But Jiro jumped up and dodged the attack at the last second. Boruto gasped once, then a second time when he felt Jiro kick him in the back. Boruto fell forward and hit the ground face-first.
"Is this what the Seventh's son is capable of!?" Jiro spat. "You should be aiming to be just like your father!"
"DON'T COMPARE ME TO HIM!" Boruto screamed as he got back up and punched Jiro. But his strike missed and Jiro jumped away.
"HANG ON, BORUTO!" Konohamaru called. Easier said than done, of course. Shiro, the Waves land ninja, had him bound with a stretching jutsu. Konohamaru struggled to break free from Shiro's stretched arm, but the grip was stronger than he anticipated. His arms were pinned at the sides. So much for using hiw Wrist Ninja Tool.
But he could still use his feet.
He jumped, vaulted off the nearest tree and flew in to kick Shiro's face in. The gambit paid off. Shiro's grip loosened and Konohamaru was able to take a scroll and put it in his Ninja Tool. A Rasengan materialized and he shot the energy ball at Shiro, who jumped away. Konohamaru landed, looked up and saw Shiro expanding his right hand. Konomaru gasped and jumped away just in time to avoid the massive fist that crashed into the ground. Konohamaru took the opportunity to run up to Shiro and punch him. Shiro blocked and countered, Konohamaru dodged the punch and kicked him again.
The loud crash momentarily distracted Mitsuki, and he didn't see long wooden beams coming towards him until it was almost too late. The ninja he fought made another Wood Style hand sign and placed his hand on one of the beams. The new beam shot out at Mitsuki, but barely missed. Mitsuki still grunted as he felt it graze his left arm. He gasped when he saw wooden kunai flying towards him, forcing him to extend his arm to grab at the ninja attacking him. He managed to get a grip on the man's wrists and he pulled him towards him. He was just about ready to kick the man when he kicked Mitsuki's lower jaw.
Stunned, Mitsuki stretched out to grab a branch and managed to catch it. But the ninja he was facing made another sign, pulled and broke it off. Mitsuki still managed to wrap his left arm around the branch and swung around to meet the ninja. He raised his fist and punched the ninja, but had to let go when he saw splinters exploding from the tree, forcing him to let go and twist his body around to miss them. When he looked he saw that it was not his opponent, but a Sarada punch. But this momentary distraction left him open and he felt the hard blow in his stomach.
Sarada couldn't worry about Mitsuki. Her opponent had jumped up in the air and was about to bring his sword down on her. The man fell to the ground. Sarada pulled her arm out of the busted tree trunk and jumped several meters away as the sword buried itself in the ground. This gave Sarada a chance. "CHAAAAAA!" She raised her fist, focused her chakra into that fist and threw another hard punch. She missed again, but swung around and reverse roundhouse kicked her opponent, who also wore a forehead protector with a crossed-out Leaf symbol.
The man rolled away and tried to pull his sword out of the ground. He struggled, for the sword was so deeply embedded that he could not get it out. Sarada saw her chance. She drew a kunai, raced towards the ninja and brought it down upon him!
Then she felt a hard blow to her stomach. She lost her breath once and a second time after the ninja elbowed her in the back. She landed face-first in the ground. Struggling to catch her breath, she got up on her elbows. Another blow to her back. This time, it was the man's foot pushing her down. Focusing her chakra into her arms, she pushed up, throwing him off her back. Now she had her chance, and punched him. But she saw something else that scared her.
Boruto was in big trouble. Jiro had taken out his shadow clones and Rasengan, and was still taunting him. Now he had the boy on the ropes, leaning against a tree trunk and struggling to fight back. He was covered in cuts, dirt and bruises. Jiro barely had a scratch on him.
"Is this the best you can do, boy!?" he snarled. "I fought your father once. You take after him more than you're willing to admit."
"SHUT UP!"
"Testy, are we?" he chuckled. "Give up, kid!"
"I never give up! That's my Ninja Way!"
"I told you," Jiro rolled his eyes. But he readied himself for Boruto's next attack.
Boruto screamed and ran forward, summoning a Rasengan. Jiro jumped out of the way as Boruto threw it and stepped behind him. He kicked him again. Boruto fell to the ground, but got right back up. He ran back towards Jiro, drawing a kunai. Jiro drew his own kunai and blocked Boruto's strike. They both struggled, pushing against each other for dominance. Finally, Jiro got his boot in between Boruto's leg, hooked his ankle and pulled it out from under him.
Boruto wore a bewildered expression for a moment, then he gasped as Jiro kicked him hard in the stomach. He felt a sharp pain in that area, and on the side. He was relieved when Jiro took his leg away, but it didn't last long.
Suddenly, he felt an agonizing pain shoot through his entire back. He could feel Jiro's foot in his back. He screamed. A flock of birds flew away. In his back, he could feel something snap and it didn't feel good at all. He fell face-first to the ground, his back in incredible agony. He tried to move, but the pain shot through his entire body whenever he tried. Worst of all, he could barely feel his legs.
Terror gripped him. He screamed again when Jiro pressed his foot down on the spot in his back where the pain was the worst. "Look at you," he heard Jiro taunt. "Helpless! You're no prodigy! At least not anymore!"
"BORUTO!" His teammates screamed. But the other three outlaws had them on the ropes, too. Shiro held Konohamaru above the ground, his stretched arm wrapped around him. Mitsuki was trapped int a wooden cage. And Sarada was also pinned to the ground, but getting close to getting up.
"Never send a boy to do a man's work!" Jiro taunted. He drew a kunai.
"TYYYYRRRRRRR!"
The woman's cry gave Team Konohamaru the opening they needed. Konohamaru himself was able to free his left arm from Shiro's loosened grip and used the shadow jutsu scroll he'd already put in his Ninja Tool. He touched a tree and the shadow spread from his hand down to Shiro, then to the other three ninjas. Sarada found her own opportunity and threw her opponent off her back. Lifting her glasses, she activated her sharingan, putting the opponent into a genjutsu. Mitsuki still needed help, but he stretched his arm out and punched his captor.
Freyja rode up, stopped her horse and jumped off. She pounded her sword on her shield. "Restrain the outlaws!" she ordered. "I'll go for the leader! TYR!" She led the charge of the farmhands.
Shiro let Konohamaru go and tried to run. But he was mostly motionless, and it gave Konohamaru the opening he needed to punch him, knocking him out. On Freyja's left-hand side, he ran in between the other ninjas towards Jiro. He drew his fist and punched him hard on the left cheek. Then Freyja bashed him with the metal dome in the middle of her shield.
"MITSUKI! NOW!"
Mitsuki reached out and wrapped his hand around Jiro's wrists. Konohamaru then pulled a rope out and finished the job on outlaw's wrist and ankles.
He sighed. But then he saw the shape Boruto was in. It wasn't pretty.
The farmhands dealt with the other ninjas, and they were soon all handled. But now they gathered around Boruto, who still lay on the ground on his stomach, writhing in agony.
"Boruto, are you alright?" Konohamaru asked.
"My back!" he strained.
"Can you move?"
Boruto tried, but screamed. "I can't—I can't feel my feet!"
"Don't move him!" Freyja shouted. "It is a back injury, I can tell. We cannot just move him."
"Then what are we gonna do!?" Sarada shouted.
"Get something we can carry him on," said Konohamaru. "Some of that wood?" He pointed at the remnants of the wood that the one ninja used.
"NO!" Freyja shouted. "That will not work!"
"Do you know what to do?" Sarada asked.
"I have seen spinal injuries from horse falls," she said. "This is similar." Boruto writhed in pain. "Don't move!"
"If it's a spinal injury, we're in trouble," said Konohamaru. "We don't have much time. Keep his neck in position. I'm going to send a flare." He stood up and took out a scroll from his pack. He raised his arm up and shot the scroll into the air. It exploded into a cloud of red dust.
Far away, a Konoha guard saw the flare and called for assistance.
Fifteen agonizing minutes passed. They were able to carefully get Boruto on his back and keep his neck steady without causing more pain. But the longer they had to wait, the scarier the situation became. Boruto still couldn't feel his feet. Konohamaru did his best to keep Boruto calm, and asked Sarada to help alleviate the pain he must have been in. But in the back of his mind, he feared for the boy's long-term prognosis. This could be a potentially-crippling injury if they didn't get treated and fast.
He was beyond relieved when the paramedics arrived. They stabilized Boruto and put him in a cart they brought with them. Freyja mounted her horse and rode in front, but kept enough distance so that the cart could go without her holding it back. The farmhands meanwhile, carried the four outlaw ninjas.
Soon they were at Konoha's gate, greeted by a crowd of onlookers and ninjas. The cart driver angrily growled. "MOVE IT!" he shouted, "WE HAVE AN INJURED GENIN!"
The crowd gasped. The ninjas struggled to break up the crowd, but they pushed against them. Sarada stepped forward and pushed some of the crowd out of the way, and Freyja helped, using her shield to do so, but apologized for doing so.
"MOVE IT!" Sarada shouted.
Another commotion started and quickly spread. No one liked what it sounded like, and they were right to not like it.
The Hokage was running up to them, accompanied by Shikamaru Nara. "What's going on here!? Everyone, get out of the way!" he shouted. He turned to look at the scene unfolding, and his eyes widened when he spotted Sarada at the front.
His face immediately turned pale. "Oh, no."
He rushed over to the cart and screamed when he saw Boruto laying in the cart bed, still restrained, and looking in absolute agony.
"BORUTO!"
"Lord Hokage, he's injured!" Konohamaru shouted, not to sound obvious, but to remind him that time was of utmost importance.
"Well, then get everyone moving!" he shouted, immediately getting the hint. "MY SON IS INJURED!"
"Dad?" Boruto weakly asked. This drew Naruto's attention.
"Hang on!" he said. "We're getting you to the hospital!"
On the side, two women, both early-middle aged, watched this intently. One of them was deeply concerned, the other was not. This other one clenched her fist and her jaw, as if trying not to speak out of turn. However, the Hokage's concern for his son appeared to be grating on her, and she snapped.
"SO NOW YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT YOUR SON!?" she shouted. The Hogake jumped up and spun around to look at her, then back to Boruto. "What about my son!? You sent him on a mission when he was 12 years old! And now he's dead! You're only concerned about children when they're yours! What happened to fixing the system!?"
"Don't speak to the Hokage like that!" one of the ninjas spat, raising a hand at her.
"WAIT!" Naruto held his hand up. The crowd gasped and fell silent. They could see that Naruto's eyes were still wide from shock, but there was a bit more there. Realization. "She's right. I've failed. But we have to get him to the hospital!
"And when we get there, there's only one doctor I want working on my son; Sakura Uchiha!"
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Okay, real sorry it took me so long to update the fic. The last couple of weeks have been super busy for me at home and at work, so I had a hard time getting the energy to write. I have been able to write other stuff, of course, but things don't always go as planned. I'm just glad I was able to finish this pivotal chapter, where we finally get an action scene! But what about Boruto!?
As much as I hate the next generation, I still have to be fair to everyone. And I'm also sorry for doing this Boruto. I also expect to get some angry reviews from people telling me that Boruto's stronger than this. Just remember, this is fanfiction. I'm taking a couple liberties here. I still appreciate the constructive comments. I don't appreciate it when someone flames me just because I get a couple things wrong. I don't claim to be an expert on everything Nardo/Burrito. Never have.
Still, I hope you enjoyed this! Please review!
