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

Once again I apologize for the delay, but this chapter was going to see a lot of my simultaneous running plot lines coming together, so I needed to think this chapter over before I put it out there. In addition to that, you are finally going to see some action involving at least one of our lead characters, so you can look forward to that.

So, with that said, lets get to reading!

Chapter 10: The Times They Are A-Changin', Part I

"MASTER!"

The doors to their secret hideout flung open as Boi sprang into his master's private quarters in a state of utter and complete panic.

Sugure was currently in a closed meeting with his two highest ranking officers, the twins. Geki stood at his right side and Burai at his left, a symbolic representation of the their place at their master's side.

"Boi," Sugure spoke. "This is a closed meeting. Please wait outside."

"Gomen master, but I have urgent news—"

"Boi!" Geki shouted. "The master gave you an order!"

"But Mei and I encountered a group of a group of bandits in the bar this afternoon. They said—"

"BOI!" Burai shouted even more sternly than his brother, walking up the youngest of their brotherhood with a knife drawn. "Get out of here before I cut off your—!"

"They spoke about finding one of the chakra gems!"

"Hold!"

Sugure held up his hand in silent gesture. Burai backed off and put his weapon away.

"Alright Boi, you have my attention son," the man in white spoke again more calmly. "Please, come here and tell us what exactly you and Mei encountered in the bar."

...

...

"Ugh!" the woman in pink complained. "I want a nice warm bath so bad right now!"

"We have our orders," the teenager in yellow told her. "Goushi told us specifically that the master wanted us to scope out this town for any traces of Taka or Union platoons and probe them for leads on the gems."

"Yeah, but we've ambushed and probed at least two dozen shinobi so far before erasing their memories. Can't we at least take a break for a little while?"

"Why do you think I found us this bar? Stop complaining and enjoy your drink."

Mei smirked as she picked up her glass. "At least I can enjoy a drink. Superior being on not, you're still too young to fool the bartender."

Boi huffed and turned his head while folding his arms in a very childlike manner...But as his head was turned he saw a bunch of bandits sitting at a nearby table. They were loud, rude, and obviously drunk off their rockers, but he could still make out what they were saying.

"Right, I say we slip this into the Mizukage's coffee and then hold him hostage with a knife to his throat," one of the bandits suggested as he held up a clearish red vial.

"Put that away you idiot!" one of the other bandits insisted. "You want somebody here to catch us with that stuff?!"

"Gentlemen, gentlemen," the leader of the bandits spoke. "We need not waste time with this debate. Look, one vial of this isn't going to get us far enough to make any real score. That's why I suggest we travel to Konoha and capture Lady Tsunade or that former apprentice of her's and force her to produce more of this stuff."

"But Shojoji," one of the bandits interjected, "Lady Tsunade only made an antidote to the serum, not the serum itself."

"If that old hag is smart enough to come up with an antidote to this stuff, then she's smart enough to make more of the stuff itself." Shojoji narrowed his eyes at his fellow missing nin. "Or does anybody else have any objections?"

None of the other bandits said a word as their leader continued. "Very good. I say we start heading for Konoha first thing tomorrow morning."

One of the other bandits dared to speak up next. "I do hope this plan works Shojoji, after all the work we put into paying our client."

"Let that rat Mizuki have his fun with his glowing orange jewel. We can settle perfectly fine with this here."

Boi's eyes widened at what he'd just heard. 'Glowing orange jewel?! Could it be?!'

"Boi?"

"SHH!" The young man silenced his comrade as he kept listening in.

What neither one of the two superhumans realized that they were not the only people in the bar listening in of this conversation. At another table, two rather rugged and unsavory looking ninja from the Hidden Mist Village were also paying close attention...

"You don't suppose it's true do you?" one of the bandits asked. "I mean, can that thing really turn back time?"

"Who cares?!" the most drunk of the bandits protested. "We've got it pretty good the way we are now, and if that Mizuki guy can go back and get rid of that Uzumaki bastard, then all the better to him!"

"We can talk about this later," Shojoji stated. "Right now lets just order one more round and then get out of here."

Having heard enough, Boi turned back to Mei. "Follow those men as soon as they leave."

"Why?"

"Because our master's life may depend on it..."

...

...

Sugure's fist clenched as Boi recounted his story. This was the absolute worst news he could have possibly heard right now!

"And what happened then?" Geki questioned.

"Mei and I trailed the bandits back to their hideout and we interrogated them."

Burai shook his head in dismissal. "Those men were drunk. They probably made the whole thing up."

"No," Boi assured them. "Mei looked into all of their minds herself. Everything they were saying was the truth. This Mizuki person, whoever he is, has one of the chakra gems and he is heading towards Konoha right now. By the way..." he reached into his pocket and pulled out the two vials that he had recovered from the bandits and handed them to Geki. "Hare are the vials of serum that we 'appropriated' from them."

"AAAAHHHH!"

In a sudden fit of rage, Sugure picked up the table they were working at like it was a softball and hurled it across the room, causing it to smash and break apart as it left a hole in the wall.

That action caused a hushed silence to wash over everyone in the room, but the youngest of them, Boi, was the most terrified.

Taking a deep breath, Sugure recomposed himself and turned back to his youngest follower. "Boi?"

"H-Hai master?"

"You did the right thing bringing this to my attention. Where are those bandits now?"

"They gave us everything we needed to know, but then they were disrespectful to us. So we killed them all master."

"I see.." The man in white went into deep thought. "And did they give you any idea how far away Mizuki was from Konoha?"

"Their leader said that he was going to be walking the whole way. That was two days ago. I estimate him to be about a day away by now."

"..."

"Master?" Geki questioned his leader.

"Geki, Burai, you two are in charge until I get back."

"Get back?" Burai asked.

"Hai. I will deal with this myself..."

Naruto was is his office filing paperwork as usual. Even with all of the insanity of the last few days, he still had his responsibilities to his village that he needed to take care of. That was the price that you needed to pay to be the Hokage.

Sakura was back at her own job too. They were able to patch things up (mostly) and come to an understanding. There was still an understandable level of awkwardness that hung in the air between the two of them, what with Boruto and all, but they had worked it out and came to an understanding that they would work together with the others to figure out what to do about it. After all, they both came up with a fitting lie to explain things to her parents. He knew she hated to do it, but neither Hizashi nor Mebuki had access to this S-rank secret.

For Naruto's part, he found himself wondering what his real son was up to right now. Was he at the grounds training with Konohamaru? Was he keeping Hanami company? Was he on a date with Sarada?

And what about Boruto? The poor kid was being kept in quarantine this whole time and he felt bad for him...But the risk was too great. Nobody else could know that he was here, especially not—

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Come in," Naruto said.

The door opened and in stepped a young adult with long, dark brown hair that reached beyond the middle of his back and framed his face. The man had very fair skin and possessed the renowned kekki genki of his clan, a pair of dazzling white eyes with a slight tint of lavender to them. Rather than the traditional robes of his clan, he was dressed in standard Konohagakure attire with a flak jacket, and a Konoha Alliance's forehead protector. His demeanor was calm, confident, and mature, but still overall fairly serious.

The shinobi stood at attention. "Mission report, Lord Hokage."

"Hey Neji," Naruto said as he stood up. "I haven't see you in a couple of days."

"No Lord Seventh. My Jōnin squad had been out in the field for a month investigating the mission you've assigned to us, sir."

"I did?" It took a couple of seconds for the blonde's memory to come back. "Oh right, I did order that. Sorry, I kind of zoned out for a second there."

The recently resurrected Hyūga prodigy eyed his old friend and current leader suspiciously. "Are you all right Naruto?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I just..." He paused to find the right world for a moment. "...I've just had a lot on my mind for the last few days."

"Hmm...Well, I suppose Sandosupai's acquittal must have been a personal blow for you."

Naruto was happy to go along with his old friend's misinterpretation. After all, it was still true. "Well, the great thing about Taka is that they keep giving you second chances."

Neji smirked. "I suppose so."

With that moment of levity over with, Naruto got himself serious again. "Report, Neji."

"Lord Seventh," the Hyūga began, "We have investigated multiple leads into the reports of drugs spread throughout the Land of Fire that have been spiked with Taka's red chakra serum. We were successful in appropriating multiple shipments of the drugs and arrested the criminals responsible, but interrogation into them has revealed no apparent allegiance to Taka."

"Damn!" Naruto cursed. "Well, at least those drugs are off the street. I don't want to see another news story coming like what happened with that Shida kid a few weeks ago."

"In speaking of which," Neji remembered, "I remember that journalist blabbering to Konoha Tonight about Mizuki breaking out last year."

"Yeah," Naruto slumped. "The Elders and I were pretty pissed off about that, and even more pissed at those Anbu that spoke to him about it."

"And?"

"And what? It got out there, the old hags chewed my ass out about it, as usual, and now we need to concentrate of getting Mizuki behind bars again, on top of everything else on my never ending list of problems."

"You were the one who wouldn't shut up about how much you wanted to become the Hokage, you know."

Naruto chuckled. "I never took you as being one for making jokes."

"I wasn't, I was just stating the truth. This concludes my report, Lord Seventh."

"Very well old friend, you are dismissed."

"Hai."

As the Hyūga turned and was about to open the door, Naruto stood up and stopped him. "Hey Neji?"

He stopped and turned back around. "Yes?"

"Y'know, its really too bad that you and I haven't gotten the chance to spend must time together since, well, y'know..."

"Since I was resurrected by Taka and broke free of their mind control?"

"Yeah...that... Anyway, I was just wondering if, maybe when you had some free time, we could stop and get a drink or something? It'd be a good chance to catch up on old times."

"I have a lot of work that needs to be done Lord...But I do suppose that would be nice."

Naruto smiled. "Awesome."

Feeling comfortable, Neji walked back up to his friends desk. "I have to admit, it hasn't been easy to adjust to my new surroundings. I mean, I've been dead for seventeen years. Uncle, Hinata, Guy-sensei, Lee, Tenten, you...everyone else has grown up, but I'm still so young. I can tell I'm nowhere near as strong as I used to be either."

"Don't say that man, I hear you've been training your ass off every chance you get."

"Yes, but I can tell it's not enough. I'm seventeen years behind the rest of you. Your parents came back to life too, but they're both retired, and Master Jiraiya is one the Sannin. But me...I'm just a former Hyūga prodigy who's lost his edge."

The blonde scowled in annoyance. "Only with that kind of attitude you are."

"Excuse me?"

"What did I tell you a long time ago? I don't believe in any of that preordained destiny crap! You have the power to make your life whatever you want it to be! Look at me. People have told me my whole life the I would never become Hokage, that I would always be nothing but dead last. And look at me now."

Neji got a hold of himself again. "Yes, look at you now. Domo arigato Naruto."

"Any time old buddy."

Neji walked back to the door and opened it, but before leaving the office, he turned back around. "You know, its almost too bad that things didn't work out between you and Hinata. In another life the two of us could have been family."

As Neji finally left, those last few words sent a cold shiver up the Orange Hokage's spine. 'Yeah...me and Hinata...in another life...'

The creepy images of that family he almost could have had, and memories of that nightmare Sakura had told him about the other day, were discarded quickly enough when he sensed a familiar presence. "You might as well come inside. I can sense your smugness clear as day Pervy Sage."

The window opened and in stepped an old man with waist-length, spiky white hair that he kept tied back into a pony tail, with two shoulder-length bangs that framed the sides of his face. The red lines that ran down from his eyes made his identity unmistakable, as did the wart on the left side of his nose and the Gama tattoo on his left palm. The old man wore a horned forehead protector with the kanji for 'Oil', along with a green short shirt kimono and matching pants; under which was a mesh armor showing out of the sleeves and legs of his outfit. He also wore hand guards, a simple black belt, a pair of geta, a red haori with two simple yellow circles on each side, and a giant scroll on his back.

"Are you ever going to start calling me that?"

"Stop pestering me and Sakura about our love life to use as research for your next book, and I think about it." The blonde swiveled his chair to face his old master. "So what do you want?"

"Hey! That's no way for a student to address his master."

"Since when have you and I ever had the typical master-student relationship old man?"

"Touché." Taking a deep breath, the Sannin decided to get right to the point. "Naruto, I wanted to talk to you about what's going on between you and your wife."

"Hey! I just told you—!"

"No you fool! I was talking about the situation with you-know-who."

Naruto quickly realized what that meant, so he then stood up and made a series of hand signs. "SILENCING JUTSU!"

With the barrier in place, master and student were free to have open conversation and Naruto took a seat back at his desk.

"Naruto," Jiraiya started, "I know that this boy being here must be awkward for you two."

'That's putting it lightly,' the blonde rolled his eyes.

"But nevertheless," the old man continued, "do you really think that locking him up in an apartment this whole time is what's best for him?"

The blonde groaned. "First of all, Shikamaru made that decision, not me. Second of all, you know full well why it has to be this way."

"Yes, but do you think he understands? Would you have understood at his age?"

"...Where are you going with this?"

"I'm saying, maybe there is a better way to handle this?"

Naruto put his head in his hand. "You think I haven't been racking my brain about this? I'd like nothing better than for him to live a comfortable life here until we figure out how the get him back home. But if anybody finds out it would just cause problems that neither I, nor my family, nor the village need right now."

The Toad Sage folded his arms. "Putting the needs of the village ahead of his huh? From what I've been told, that's exactly what this boy hates about his father."

"If you don't have anything useful to say old man, I think you'd better go. I have work to do."

Jiraiya stood there for a moment before shaking his head in disappointment. Walking passed his former pupil, he went back to the window he'd come in through and stopped just long enough to say, "I was good talking to you again Naruto. Take good care of you son...both of them."

Naruto was about to retort before his old master leaped out the window. Feeling overwhelmed with grief, he found his mind drifting to the mysterious blonde haired boy with whiskers like his own. 'Bolt, I'm sorry, but you just don't understand what kind of trouble you could cause if anyone finds out who you are...'

Boruto was resting on the bed that had been provided for him. He got bored with what was on television so he just found himself staring up at the ceiling with his head on a pillow.

'Man, this sucks...'

The boy also found his mind drifting again, back to his home, back to his real family...

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Bolt's body shot up in alarm. That was the first sound from outside of the apartment that he'd heard all day. "Who's there?!"

"It's Sai," the voice on the other side said. "Lord Hokage sent me because he wanted to make sure you were fed."

The gears in the boy's minds began turning in earnest. "You sayin' you got me some food?"

"Hai."

"Are you alone?"

"Hai. Why?"

"No reason..."

"Just stay where you are, I'll unlock the door."

The boy's eyes darted back to the heavy paperweight he'd tried to break the window with earlier. Reacting quickly, he rushed over to the table it was sitting on and snatched, it, going right back to his spot on the bed and sitting back on it again.

"Okay, come in." His voice trying to sound as innocent as possible.

The door opened and Sai came in with a tray of food. Setting it down on the table he explained to the boy: "Alright, you have fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fried rice, barbecued carrots and we even threw in a cup of mochi ice cream for you. Oh, and a can of soda pop for you also."

Bolt got up from the bed to look at his meal. "Gee, that sure looks great. Thank you so much."

"Oh you are perfectly welcome. I will let the Hokage know that you enjoyed your—"

WHACK!

Sai was on the ground with a really hard blow to the head! Bolt had whacked him in with the paperweight. It was not enough to make the Anbu pass out, but that was why Bolt was on top of him in a heartbeat, before he had time to fully recover from such a precise blow. He leaped onto the pale skinned ninja and cupped his hands over his nose and mouth, cutting off his air. Despite Sai having the superior weight advantage, he was still dizzy and Bolt was using all of his strength to subdue him. Before too long, the lack of air was too much and the former Root ninja passed out on the floor.

Getting up, he took pity on the ninja. 'Sorry Sai, but I had no choice. Please don't tell Inojin about this.'

Rushing over to the door, he found that his hunch was right, Sai was waiting until he left to lock the door from the outside.

Not thinking twice, he rushed out the door slamming it shut and locked it himself, trapping the Anbu inside...What the boy did not know was that inside the apartment, said Anbu was melting all over the carpet into a gelatinous glob of black ink.

...

On top of a small building overlooking the streets of the city, the real Sai had been alerted to what had happened as soon as his ink clone dissolved, the clone's memories flooding back to him instantaneously. He knew that sending in a clone to feed the boy was a wise idea; even if it was an Anbu Black Op versus a mere Genin, there was no need to risk it.

Quickly pulling out his scroll and brush, he made a quick doodle followed by a few hand signs. "NINJA ART: SUPER BEAST IMITATING DRAWING!"

His drawing rose off of the page and came to life. It was a large eagle, one large enough to carry its creator's own weight.

"Alright," Sai said as he mounted the bird, "let's hurry and find the boy."

The ink eagle took to the skies as both it and it's creator peered down from above to scan the streets for any sign of Boruto. Reasoning that he could not have gotten too far from where his quarantine apartment was located, that was the path he searched first.

It was roughly twenty minutes before Sai finally got lucky and saw a familiar head of blonde as bright as his own friend running through the city streets in a desperate panic. The boy was in such a rush that he was bumping into dozens of people, irritating them all and he took no time to apologize. No, all that mattered to him was that he got to wherever he was headed.

Taking control of his ink bird, Sai commanded it to fly them both down to the street level. They needed to get ahead of the boy in order to cut him off.

Boruto kept running. He needed to find her. He didn't care what anybody else said or thought, he needed to find her!

But then he saw the giant black and white bird fly come down and cut him off right in the middle of the street. Onlookers couldn't help but take notice of the scene, even though they had no clue what any of it meant.

"You!" Bolt cried out in shock. "But I thought—?"

"That was an ink clone boy," Sai explained as he disembarked from his ink bird. "I made it just in case of a situation like this. Now come, lets get you back into quarantine before we make a scene—"

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Four puffs of smoke appeared around the boy, out of which came four clones identical to the boy himself. On the sidelines, the growing crowd of people started to watch in curiosity at the unexpected scene taking place.

'Damn,' Sai cursed. 'This is most unfortunate.'

"Boy," the pale ninja spoke aloud, 'don't do anything foolish. I am a Jōnin and a member of the Anbu Black Ops. You cannot win this—"

"AAAHHH!"

The real Boruto charged at Sai with a fury and was about to make contact. Sai was not daunted by this, until all of a sudden the boy leapt clean over the Jōnin's head out of nowhere.

'What?' Sai though to himself in shock. 'Such speed for his age...'

Bolt landed behind his would-be captor and attempted a kick at the adult's legs. Sai was quick enough to dodge...but he was not quick enough to dodge the sudden punch to the face that came from one of the boy's shadow clones, nor the punch to the gut that another clone dealt less just a microsecond later.

Sai got up off the ground as quick as he could, but he was still recovering from shock. 'Incredible. Such speed and agility for his age, and such natural usage of shadow clones. He must truly be his father's son...I'd better end this quickly.'

Whipping out his scroll, he hastily drew another sketch and brought it to life. It was a large lion-like creature that roared to life as it stalked it's prey.

'Crap!' Boruto cursed in his head. 'I don't have time for this! I've got to get out of here! Screw it!'

Running with his shadow clones at his side, Boruto dashed directly towards the rampaging beast. But then the clones got in front of him as the beast proceeded to leap upwards into the air, ink claws drawn. The clones each leapt up onto each outer, one on top of the other. The real Boruto was at the peak, and from that high vantage point, he jumped over the body of the beast as it was coming downwards and crushing the clones, causing them all to dissipate in puffs of smoke.

Sai himself was standing close enough to the action that Boruto was able to complete his plan. He flipped around in mid air over the adult ninja's form and grabbed a kunai from his belt. Turning around to face the galloping beast, he leaped aside of the strike in the knick of time and cut a deep gash straight across the beast's body. This caused the ink beast to roar in pain before it broke apart and turned into a lump of ink all over the street.

Sai was not about to allow the boy to utilize this momentary opening and was quick to attempt to incapacitate him as soon as his creation was destroyed. But to his shock, the boy was quick to counter him, blocking his arm with smooth, almost spiral moments, before settling into a fighting stance.

'That form,' Sai noted the boy stance. 'Of course, with his bloodline, he would have to received that style of training.'

But, unbeknownst to Sai, he was not the only one looking upon the scene. Amongst the crowd gathered on the streets, a skilled Jōnin shinobi was paying special attention to this mysterious boy's choice of form...as well as his suspiciously familiar appearance.

The boy came at Sai with flat footed posture and with his fist facing flat and straight out for solid, hard strikes. The Anbu was surprised how much effort he was needing to put into facing this mere Genin, but as he dodged, he also took note of something suspicious.

'Curious, he is clearly trained in the Gentle Fist fighting style, yet his eyes appear totally normal. Without the Byakugan, he is failing to properly target any of my tenketsu.'

Boruto kept up his Gentle Fist barrage and then, after a successful kick to the gut, the boy started gathering his chakra into his hands. Sai was stunned, he knew this technique well. It was very small by comparison, but it was undeniably the legendary jutsu invented by Lord Fourth Hokage himself and later mastered by his son.

"Take this bastard! RASENGAN!"

That was when something happened that was truly shocking. While Naruto was prone to charging head on with the technique in hand (save for its shuriken form), the boy instead chose to throw the jutsu at him like a softball...

...But then, while it was in velocity, the jutsu itself just disappeared before his eyes!

"What?!"

Sai had seen Naruto display many form of the Rasengan in all the years they'd known each other, but never had he seen the jutsu disappear before! And it was only because he was as familiar with the Rasengan as he was that he refused to take any chances and moved his body out of the calculated attack range.

However, by instinctively doing so, that caused the invisible jutsu to collide with a nearby building and explode upon impact, causing noticeable debris to fall and nearly injure a number of nearby civilians.

Boruto was stunned at what he'd just done. "Oh Sage! I'm sor—AGH!"

Boruto's statement was cut off when he sensed another presence approaching at full ninja speed. Sai was looking straight at the boy in that moment and that was when one more strange thing happened that he could not explain...

For a split second, Sai could have swore he saw something. Something strange in the boy's right eye. It looked featureless but the sclera darkened around the pupil.

'What...What kind of dōjutsu is that...?'

The boy's head turned, almost as though his eye was tracking something, something that the Anbu was not able to see.

"EIGHT TRIGRAMS: SIXTY-FOUR PALMS!"

The ninja watching the battle from the street had seen enough of the boy's abilities. Now he was ready to act. Using his clan's signature fighting style, the same style that the boy himself had been using, he was able the pinpoint the majority of the boy's chakra network and incapacitate it.

One final blow and it was all over. The boy's chakra was no longer available to him. The fight was done.

"Hey!" Boruto screamed. "Who the hell do you think you are?!"

The stranger stepped up the boy and pushed him rudely to the ground. "I am the one who should be asking that question. Where were you trained in the fighting style of the Hyūga clan?"

"I AM from the Hyūga clan!"

Something snapped in the mysterious ninja. He got so angry that he literally grabbed the boy and picked him up by his throat!

"Ghh! Let...me...go..."

"Neji!"

The prodigy of the Hyūga clan turned his head in the direction of his friend. "Explain this!" Neji demanded.

"I...I can't...N-Naruto's orders..."

Neji turned back to the boy and studied his face even closer. The resemblance to not one, but two people he knew so intimately only made his blood boil that much worse.

"You!" He yelled at the boy. "What is your name?!"

"B-B-Bor..."

"Answer me! What is your name?!"

"NEJI! STOP!"

Time froze around everyone and everything. Neji, Sai, the boy, they all turned in shock at the unexpected voice. For one of the three, it was exactly the voice he had been longing to hear for so long. For another of them, it was the worst possible voice that could have reared its head in that moment.

Standing there on the street was a beautiful woman in her mid thirties. The woman was fair skinned and had a head of dark blue hair and bangs cut to shoulder length. Her eyes were the same as Neji's, pale white with a tinge of lavender. She wore a maroon jacket with a dark purple shirt and a cream colored skirt with a pair of knee high ninja boots.

The woman looked deathly concerned about the scene before her. She had only just gotten there and there she was seeing her cousin threatening some poor boy...

Boruto felt his world go away and he nearly choked up at the sight of her. "Mom..."

The boy's voice was too quiet and strained for the woman to hear him, but Neji certainly did. His mind began racing, putting the pieces together in his head, but almost refusing to accept the obvious conclusion.

"You!" Neji screamed at the boy again. "You're coming with us!"

'Bolt, I'm sorry, but you just don't understand what kind of trouble you could cause if anyone finds out who you are...'

The door to the Hokage's office slammed open as a Leaf ninja burst in with a sense of dread in his voice. "Lord Seventh! We have an emergency!"

"What is it?"

"Reports are coming in that Captain Sai of the Anbu Black Ops has engaged in open battle with a Genin in the middle of the city and that the child somehow defeated him in battle sir!"

"WHAT?!"

"Yes sir! The reports claim that the boy was adept in using the Gentle Fist style of the Hyūga clan my lord. They also claim that the child knows how to use the Rasengan sir!"

"..."

"It's all over the news," the ninja went on. "The boy used the Rasengan and it caused an explosion in the middle of the city. Dozens of people nearly got hurt."

"...Is Captain Sai in control of the situation now?"

"No sir. According to reports, Neji Hyūga has taken the boy into his own custody."

Naruto could feel a cold sweat go down his neck. 'Dammit!'

"Should we send a Jōnin squad to the scene sir? Perhaps get an identification on the child—?"

"No!" Naruto practically screamed in a rush. "No, that won't be necessary."

The Orange Hokage then turned to the window of his own office, the very same window that his master had used to go in and out of just a moment ago. "Inform Lady Shizune to hold all my appointments and calls for now until I get back."

"Where are you going my lord?"

"To deal with this myself..."

Shinachiku Uzumaki and Sarada Uchiha were coming off of their lunch date at a local takoyaki restaurant with full stomachs. Walking side by side, Sarada noticed something troubling about the boy's face.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Huh?" Shina was brought back out of his thoughts. "Oh, its nothing."

The Uchiha girl frowned. "You never were very good at lying to me."

He sighed. "I just have my mind on other things, that's all."

"You're thinking about him again, aren't you?"

"...Can you blame me?"

"I can when you and I are supposed to be on a date."

"Fine, fine. I just...Agh! I don't even know anymore."

Sarada looped her arm around his own and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Hey, no more of that. Just put that kid out of your mind and focus on you and me for right now. Besides, he's in quarantine now, so what's the worst that could happen?"

Shinachiku smiled. "Maybe you're right."

As the two kid kept walking they were oblivious to the world around them, so they were not aware of an adult man heading in their path wearing a hooded cloak.

"By the way," Shina spoke again, "where are Mitsuki and Muon anyway?"

"I think Mitsuki said something about paying a visit to the library."

"And Muon?" The boy then remembered who it was he was talking about. "Right, he didn't say any—OFH!"

But they did as soon as Shinachiku accidentally bumped into him, knocking the boy to the floor along with the girl that was on his arm, and the hooded man as well.

"Ouch!" Sarada said as she rubbed her now sore backside.

"Are you alright?" Shina asked her in concern.

"Yeah, I'm alright." She accepted her boyfriend's hand to help her back up again.

The two kids immediately went over to the stranger and offered their help.

"I'm so sorry about that sir," Shina apologized, offering up his hand to help the man up. "I'm usually a lot more alert than that. I don't know what came over me."

The man in the cloak got a look at the boy and then, out of nowhere, batted his hand away as though it were diseased. "Just watch where you're walking next time brat!"

Both of the kids were taken aback by that unexpected outburst. But as the man was getting back up, Shinachiku was able to get a glimpse of the man's face beneath his hood. The boy found himself staring at him. He had never seen this man before, but something about the way he looked seemed somehow familiar...

Sarada folded her arms as he walked away. "Jeez! What a jerk! It was just a mistake, no need to tear our heads off!"

Shina shook his head clear of distraction. "Yeah, yeah you're right."

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm alright. Come on, we'd better hurry if we're going to make it to that movie you wanted to see."

Just as they were starting to walk again, Shina suddenly heard an alert go off on his cell phone. Pulling it out of his pocket, he saw that he had gotten an email.

"What is it?" Sarada asked.

"It's from Jōkā."

"Huh? What does he want?"

"Let me see."

Shinachiku scrolled his eyes across his phone as he read his teammate's unusually lengthy message. Taking in what was being told to him, his eyes bulged wide. The realization of the identity of the man he had just bumped into had sent a shockwave of horror through his body.

"Sarada!" Shinachiku suddenly snapped into serious mode. "Get your phone out and call Mitsuki and Muon! Tell them both to drop what they're doing and to come and join us right now! Tell them that's an order!"

"Huh? But what about—?"

"There's no time! We need to find that guy we saw earlier and we need to find him fast!"

"Why?"

"Because he has the next chakra gem! And unless we catch up to him, my dad's life may be in terrible danger!"

...

...

Twenty minutes earlier...

Back in the Land of Iron, Jōkā was in his room working on his laptop computer. He was going over leads that his team, as well as his master's, had been scouring in relation to the location of the chakra gems.

It had only been a couple of days since the Seventh Hokage showed up at their base and he took both his son and the mysterious boy they'd found inside the cave back with him to Konohagakure.

That left Shikadai in charge while their captain was away. Normally Sarada was the second in command, but she chose to go back to the Leaf Village with her boyfriend...No surprise there. Before he left, Shinachiku had requested two additional members of the squad to accompany them in case of an emergency that required back up. Jōkā had eagerly volunteered himself, since it would have allowed him to remain close to both the strange boy and, more importantly, to the chakra gem they'd recovered. But instead Shinachiku chose to take that weird albino Mitsuki and that creepy mute Muon with him instead...Sweet Sage Jōkā hated those two!

Forced to maintain his cover, the double agent pretended to humbly accept his captain's decision. But that meant that the most useful thing he could do for his master was to carefully go over all of his leads for any more clues to some of the other gems.

That was what he was doing when he all of a sudden got a transmission on his laptop from his master.

"Are you alone?"

Double checking that his door was locked and that there was nothing else suspicious going on around him, he typed "Yes."

The message appeared on the screen. "I have received a report from two of our agents from the Hidden Mist Village. They claim to have overheard a group of bandits in a bar bragging about finding one of the chakra gems. They said they sold it to someone in exchange for two vials of our serum."

This alarmed the young spy instantly. He hastily began typing. "Do we have proof to confirm these claims? Did the agents interrogate the bandits?"

After a moment, more text appeared. "No. The bandits were found murdered at their own hideout. Those responsible are unknown."

'Fuck!' The Chūnin cursed inside his head before typing again. "What do we know about the person they sold the gem to?"

More text appeared. "His name is Mizuki, a former ninja from Konohagakure. He was arrested and stripped of rank after an act of treachery by him was thwarted by Naruto Uzumaki."

"Does that mean what I think it means master?"

"Yes, and that is why he must be stopped."

"What do you mean? Without Uzumaki, that will make things so much easier."

"Or it could change things so much that Taka will never exist, you fool!"

Jōkā stared at his computer for a moment before typing again. "Where is Mizuki now?"

More text appeared. "Our reports say he is heading to Konoha. He should have arrived in the village by now. Neither you or I can reach him in time."

"So then what do we do?"

"That boy you and your squad found in that cave. You said he appeared after you found the violet chakra gem? And that he claims to be Uzumaki's son from another world?"

"Yes."

There was a long pause before the mysterious master replied again. "Then listen to me very carefully..."

At Konoha train station, passengers were disembarking. They were gathering their luggage and exiting the train to go to the platform to meet with their loved ones.

Among the crowd was a mysterious stranger wearing a white outfit with a white robe.

'I must find him. The fate of the new order depends upon it...'

Oh boy, this is getting intense! As I said, everything is starting to come together now, and the end result of the next chapter will change everything...in more ways than one.

As far as pop culture references, nothing much to talk about here. But I would like to say that I had to do my research in choreographing the Boruto vs Sai battle. Going off of his Narutopedia page, Boruto actually is a really strong fighter for his age, and he has a few unique abilities that I knew I could (and ought to) take advantage of in this story. The reason I chose Sai for this fight is because I needed somebody we knew was a strong and formidable ninja for him to face and I felt that to go with Naruto, Sasuke or Sakura would have been too much.

Also in this chapter, I wanted to bring back Neji and Jiraiya and give them something to do, particularly Neji. I wanted to get into his head a bit and wrestle with my notion that, since he has been dead for so long in this timeline, he doesn't feel he is at the top of his game like he was during the series leading up to the war. Also, given his obvious relationship to Boruto, whom the boy never got to meet in his own timeline, I found him to be a great opportunity here.

I also got into Naruto's head a bit more and gave another hint that the last year of dealing with Taka and now all the stress of having Boruto around was getting to him. That was why he seemed a lot ruder to Jiraiya than he probably intended to.

I also surprised myself as I wrote this chapter, as I paid off my revelation of Jōkā being a Taka double agent in a way I did not even know about going into it. I originally had in mind for that to pay it off in another way, but as I realized I needed a way for Shinachiku to get this information, I realized that this was a great opportunity.

Yep! Boruto got what he wanted and has found Hinata...This can't be good! Especially if Neji is putting the pieces together already!

So yes, not only is Mizuki inside the village now, but so too is Sugure! If you been keeping track of the story so far, you might be able to figure out why he cares so much about stopping Mizuki's plans, and really, I think it's pretty obvious. Yes, our main villain is finally in our main character's home. Will that lead to disaster, or something else? Well, you'll have to come back for Part II to find out!

Until next time, see ya!