Boruto laid exhausted in a ruined Konohagakure.
His village. His home. All annihilated to debris and dust.
Boruto bit his lower lip, hard enough to draw blood. A tremor passed over his body. He was trembling, trying to hold back his tears.
Rule number twenty-five: A Shinobi isn't allowed to cry.
"Why did things have to turn out like this?"
Karma left his body and he closed his eyes to the destroyed faces of the Hokage.
He opened them again inside his own mindscape, Momoshiki's face only an inch away from his own.
"Ah. Shit. Your face is the last thing I want too see right now." Boruto said in frustration, throwing an arm over his eyes to block the view.
"Are you giving up?" Momoshiki asked with a crossed arms.
"Like hell!"
"He's right you know. The age of the Ninja is over."
Boruto went silent for a moment before he opened his mouth to reply.
"Even so I still am a Ninja."
"Stubborn to the end." Momoshiki sighed in annoyance.
"You still like me anyway." Boruto said while getting up to a sitting position.
Momoshiki twitched. "Don't get cocky, human child. Be grateful that I am willing to lend you my help because I really hate that Isshiki."
"My name is Uzumaki Boruto. Just use my name already." Boruto replied with a smile.
"Open your eyes now. Time to wake up."
Boruto closed his eyes inside his mindscape and opened them again in the real world, once again seeing the destroyed faces of the Hokage.
There was a weight on his right hand that wasn't there before he closed his eyes.
Boruto lifted his right arm.
"Karasuki."
He still remembered. The turtle-like artefact belonging to the Ootsutsuki clan. He travelled to the past once, fighting Ootsutsuki Urashiki, protecting his dad, trying so hard to not make any changes in the past.
"Momoshiki-san summoned me here." The turtle spoke to him in it's usual formal tone.
"I see that you are as stuffy as ever." Boruto said while getting up to his feet.
He would be doing the opposite now. Change the past to influence a change in the future.
"I am ready. Take me to the past." Boruto said with a resolution reflected clearly in his blue eyes.
There was no Sasuke-san to accompany him to the past this time. His only companion would be the freeloader currently residing inside him.
"I am a better companion than Uchiha Sasuke!" Ootsutsuki Momoshiki shouted inside his mind.
"Whatever." Boruto gave the turtle enough chakra from Momoshiki to perform the time travel.
The turtle glowed yellow.
The yellow light encompassed Boruto and took him to Konohagakure of the past.
He was standing amidst the piles and rubble of the destroyed Konohagakure in one moment and he was floating in the time dimension in the next. He blinked once and he was falling from the sky to a damaged Konohagakure.
He twisted mid air and landed on his feet. Boruto blinked again. He looked to Karasuki with a questioning glance. "Did it fail?"
"The time travel is a complete success." Karasuki answered him.
Boruto looked around again. It looked like the village just suffered a major battle.
Tsunade-baachan's face, Kakashi-occhan's face, and his dad's face were all missing from the rock mountain.
He travelled even further from the last time, huh?
The sky suddenly darken and rain started to fall. The heaven was crying on this day.
"Today is the day of funeral for the Third Hokage." Karasuki informed him before going inside his poach, hiding and resting there.
The Third Hokage. Konohamaru-sensei's grandfather.
"What do you want to do now?" Momoshiki asked inside his mind.
"I want to stop Ootsutsuki Isshiki. I want to help Kawaki. I want to protect my family and friends. I want to protect Konoha."
Konoha. His home. His village. The place where his precious people live.
"I want to change the past. I want to save the future." His blue eyes shone with undeterred determination.
He could feel Momoshiki huffed inside his mind.
"Well, take your time."
Boruto smiled and took off his headband. Sasuke-san's old headband. The one with a slash on it.
It would do him no good if anyone saw it and misunderstood. He pocketed it before he started walking forwards.
A few days later, he bumped into the younger version of his dad infront of a ramen shop and he wondered.
Fate was truly a whimsical thing.
"Watch where you are going, you know! You shouldn't be standing around here all spaced out like that."
"That's my line!"
Holy shit. He was older than the current version of his dad.
"Wait a minute. I never see you in the village before. What business do you have here? The Chuunin Exam is already over." Naruto asked in confusion, not recognising the person standing infront of him.
Well, Uzumaki Boruto didn't exist in this timeline yet after all.
"I am a travelling performer, journeying from village to village." Boruto lied to his dad, using the exact same excuse that Sarada's dad used once in the past.
"A travelling performer?" Naruto asked while tilting his head.
Boruto took out a blue ball before throwing it upwards and made it exploded into a confetti with a snap of his fingers, once again using the same trick that his mentor used in the past.
"I am not as skilled as a Shinobi but I go around using a little Ninjutsu in my act." Boruto said with a smile.
A loud growl could suddenly be heard from their stomach. They looked towards their stomach at the same time before they laughed together in a sheepish manner.
"The ramen in Ichiraku is really good. How about we eat together here?" Naruto asked with a grin while holding his growling stomach.
"Sounds good." Boruto said while entering the tiny shop with the younger version of his dad.
According to Karasuki, his dad would leave the village with Jiraiya in a mission to find the Fifth Hokage today.
Boruto started to set his plan in a motion.