Seven

(Still don't own Naruto or Boruto, just my own characters. Enjoy)

The month went by much faster than anyone would have expected and January was immediately replaced by February. It was a relatively cool Saturday morning and as usual Zeko was training with his mother but there was a small twist to their training for today. "You have to reach deeper for it Zeko-chan!" Yokano called out to her distracted son with such a chipper tone that anyone who couldn't see what was happening would have expected the least of the situation.

Zeko however was on the receiving end of the training and was dodging barrages of sand that his mother would keep sending his way. No matter how much he would use his own to push it back it didn't stop, he could tell his mother had a level of control over the sand that blew his clear away. "Maybe slow it down a little kaa-chan?!" The boy pleaded as more sand burst from the ground beneath his feet. His mother only laughed at his request as the sand started to form a giant pillar that started to shape and turn into what looked like, "A giant tail?" A tail with plates of sand running along it formed ahead of the boy and all of his energy vanished at the sheer size of the construct ahead of him.

Of course he didn't back down from the challenge of overcoming the monstrous tail and he sprung into action against it.

Zeko dodged the first swing that the massive tail tried and he quickly made his hand seals. "Doton: Doryūheki!" A sandstone wall sprouted from the ground to deflect a clump of sand that was still coming his way after the swing of the mighty tail, but this wall was slightly different than the boy's usual ones and had the face of a familiar demon tanuki on the front of it. The sandstone held fast against the wave of sand that crashed into it with what felt like all the force the desert could muster, and Zeko could only weave his hand seals and jump away from the wall once the sand finally covered and obliterated the construct.

"Sabaku sōsō!" Ordinarily hearing his mother's voice would allay Zeko's worries but at that moment he was just shy of terrified at hearing her call out her attack and that fear only grew when he turned to see that her eyes weren't their usual blue with white sclera, but now they were yellow stars that looked like the ones his eyes turned to except that they were a faded yellow instead of the vibrant yellow his took on and her sclera were black.

The avalanche of sand continued in its pursuit even as the boy molded chakra in his body for his next attack. 'Suiton: Mizurappa!' The wave of water Zeko spewed was larger than usual and collided with the sand to turn it into a slow sludge instead of a rushing desert. The tail came back and swiped downwards to crush Zeko beneath it, but the boy turned his wave of water towards it and slowed it down just enough to dodge in a wisp of sand and witness the spot he'd been get turned into a small crater.

Yokano looked at where the tail landed and as it raised she didn't see any sign of Zeko but her reflexes had her flare sand around her position and the sound of a boy grunting let her know where her son was. 'Actually snuck up on me, sneaky sneaky Zeko-chan.' She thought as she saw Zeko holding his side and breathing heavily, she figured that the boy got the very wind knocked out of him.

'I guess getting beat by girls is something I should get used to… Embarrassing.' Shukaku as usual was no help to the boy while he was injured.

Yokano held a hand over her mouth in shock at Zeko's fetal form and she immediately dropped every sand construct she had on the field, including the massive tail. She approached her son and knelt down to assess him while hoping she didn't go too far with her defense. "Zeko-chan are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?" She reached out and in that moment two things happened; one was that she felt her sand move behind her, and the second was that her sand caught her son's hand as it was in front of her. Once the shock passed Yokano was justifiably pissed and her smile showed this, and with such a wide grin and closed eyes she knew that Zeko was absolutely terrified for the second time that morning. "Zeko~chan!" The sing-song tone of voice she had betrayed all of her intent as her grin somehow managed to grow even larger to the point where her face looked like it would split apart.

The sound of cracking made the grown woman lose her focus and look down to see that the sand she was currently kneeling on was sinking some. In a split second a pair of hands breached the sand and pulled Yokano downwards. "Doton: Moguragakure no jutsu!" Zeko stood up with a grin of his own as his mother started to rise out of the sand. "You left yourself open kaa-chan. And I got you to get rid of the tail so I win!" Zeko raised his hands in celebration and left his guard completely down for the hard punch to his head that his mom delivered.

"Don't forget I take it easy on ya… If I wanted to break all your bones I could Zeko-chan, but you did ok overall. You still didn't draw out the tail." Yokano dusted sand off her black top and sat down. "When did you learn the sand clone?"

Zeko rubbed his head as he sat down across from his mother. "I haven't yet, tou-chan said I had too much chakra. He taught me the shadow clone instead." Yokano pondered and decided it was for the best that Zeko know the shadow clone technique for now. "How'd you do that weird eye thing kaa-chan? You felt different when you did it, sort of like Shuka-whatever."

The sound of angry screaming within Zeko's mind was only matched by the sound of his mother's own snickers at the response said tanuki would have. "Well it took a lot of teamwork from him to learn it, and it was really useful during the Fifth Great Ninja war." Zeko blinked twice once his mom finished her sentence and confusion was practically written across his face.

"Uh kaa-chan…" He started.

"Hm?" Yokano was giving a genuine and calming smile as opposed to her wicked and malicious one.

"We learned that the war ended twenty five years ago…" Yokano tilted her head and raised a brow at the incomplete sentence. "And tou-chan was too young to fight in it…"

"Hai. Akira was too young at the time, he was just four years old after all."

The gears in Zeko's mind only turned even more once he started trying to figure out the solution to this problem with the information he had but he decided to take the easiest route he could and ask directly. "Kaa-chan how old-" He took another blow to his head for his rude question.

"That isn't something you ask a lady!" Yokano's scarlet hair was flowing with the wind while Zeko rubbed his head again, his mother calmed herself down shortly. "But as of November thirteenth of last year, I'm forty-eight."

'Chotto matte.'

Pieces that had been coming together completely shattered in wake of this new information and Zeko was stuck trying to process it all. The boy remembered his father's age immediately and realized that his mother's didn't match. "Tou-chan's only twenty-eight! You're twenty years older than him?!"

Yokano nodded and stood up with the same nonchalant smile on her face. "And I don't look a day over twenty-two! You're lucky to have us as your parents Zeko-chan, you'll look young way longer than a lot of people."

Zeko was having trouble processing the fact that his father was so much younger than his mother to the point where he didn't even hear her speaking to him. 'Didn't you know how old she was?!'

'Brat my sense of time isn't like yours, a year feels like a day to me. She always told me she was twenty-five!' Even the tanuki had no idea that Zeko's mom had it going on in terms of looking so young despite her age.

"Well can I learn how to do what you did?" The boy asked excitedly.

Yokano rubbed his white hair before she answered. "Heh, ya need to figure out how to draw out his regular chakra before you can do what I can."

A cold wind blew through the dunes they were in and it made Yokano look around in trepidation, however her son managed to pick up what was making her uncomfortable. "Kaa-chan… something's coming our way."

The second the words left the boy's mouth, sand rose to his left and his mother's right and senbon impacted it once it was up. Ten shinobi in white masks flickered into their view and surrounded them. One of them was holding a wooden urn with the kanji for "One" written on it. "So jinchūriki, you ready for round two?" The voice was clearly female despite her muscular appearance.

"Zeko stay by me." Zeko pulled out two kunai and held one by his chest with his magnetism. The standoff was tense, and the slightest movement was all there needed to be for someone to attack… A hand twitched.

A volley of senbon went right for the mother and son pair but the sand came to their defense and caught each needle. Zeko felt metal move closer and he turned to deflect a hand with his kunai. The offending shinobi grunted and swept a leg beneath Zeko's but the boy sent his free kunai directly at his enemy's neck and watched them dodge, that gave him enough time to flip to his hands and feet. 'Don't be scared and don't hesitate.' He dodged a tanto and slashed along the arm holding it, blood drenched the sand and gave Zeko an opening. "Sabaku kyū." The leg of the shinobi was wrapped in the tainted sand and lowered into the ground until they were eye level with Zeko.

The boy clenched his kunai and resolved himself to finish the job but in that second he broke the rule he recited and hesitated, so he didn't dodge the blade that was coming for him. Zeko felt the side of his head and felt something warm coming from it. He looked at his hand and saw that there was red liquid on it. 'Blood? They made you bleed! You gonna let them get away with it?!' Shukaku roared from within the boy's mind and there was only one response Zeko could think of in that moment

"No…" Zeko lunged past another tanto swing and slid his kunai across the throat of the worm that hurt him. He didn't even have time to look at the bleeding form of the half trapped person since another volley of senbon came his way but his mom raised a wall of thin sandstone to defend him this time, he looked around and saw that his first actual kill only took ten seconds give or take.

Yokano weaved the ram and horse signs then clapped her hands together, "Ryūsa bakuryū!" The ground shook as a wave of sand exploded towards the few shinobi in front of her. Zeko watched the whole thing occur in slow motion, as if time itself slowed down at the magnitude of the technique his mother just pulled off. The shinobi in front of the two broke apart from their circular formation to avoid the crashing wave of sand that kept shifting to catch any of them.

The three shinobi regrouped and weaved the same hand signs as the wall of sand came closer to them, "Suiton: Suijinheki!" They somehow spat water through their masks and it formed a wall of fluid ahead of them that clashed with the sand flow. The sludge fell to the ground but Yokano only smirked at the attackers, her hands flew through seals until she landed on the bird sign and blew a volley of air bullets ahead of her.

The masked shinobi leapt backwards to dodge the air bullets but their ankles were caught in the very sand they were on, the advice that the child they'd tried to capture gave was coming back to them. The air bullets hit them directly and heavily dented the flak jackets they were wearing.

Zeko stopped a barrage of senbon with his magnetism and sent them back at the pair that launched them, of course they dodged the needles with only some effort. One of the two clasped their hands into the tiger seal and inhaled, "Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu!" They launched a giant fireball through their mask somehow and Zeko weaved his own seals to counter the oncoming blaze.

"Doton: Doryūheki." The ball of fire hit the wall of sandstone directly at the face of the monster tanuki, some of the wall splintered off but most of it held strong against the heat. Zeko's eyes darted to the urn on his left and he saw the muscular woman rapidly weaving hand seals but he had to dodge the kunai aimed for his side and couldn't figure out what jutsu was being prepared. Zeko finally looked to see a spiritual hand emerge from the wooden urn and race toward his mother but his wall of sandstone was breached and his arm was pinned then he was on his knees with another masked shinobi at his side, they drove their elbow towards his head but he raised his arm and managed to hold back theirs. "Kaa-" They clamped their hand over his face and cut him off but Zeko leaned back, tossed his kunai and used his foot to drive it under his captor's jaw. "Kaa-chan!" Yokano turned her head in time to see the hand grab her stomach and twist, however only her son could see it pull a red, marble sized orb out of her and retreat back to the urn.

Zeko was at her side in the blink of an eye and saw that she looked tired to say the least. "C-Change of plans Zeko, you need to go find your father right now." Yokano was struggling to speak even as the shinobi moved in closer towards the pair. Zeko tried to object but he was sent flying past the circular formation right as they prepared another senbon volley. Zeko turned his head and saw his mother holding up both her arms and willing sand to protect her from the projectiles, her hair was flared and her blue eyes were locked onto his own. "Go Zeko!" She yelled at him.

Zeko hurried to his feet and followed his instincts to find his father and he ran, he ran to where his subconscious told him to go even as he heard the sounds of the fight growing more quiet in the distance.

He finally managed to see the form of his father clad in his blue vest and tan pants slamming Toshiki into the sand ferociously. "Zeko? Aren't you supposed to be training?" He looked his son in the eyes and his expression darkened. "Where's your mother?"

Zeko looked around and saw that he'd been running for a while based on the position of the sun. "Kaa-chan's in trouble! The guys with masks came back!" Akira picked him up without a word. "Is she gonna be ok?"

"If she is then good and if she's not then they better hope their wounds are fatal. Let's go." Akira practically became a bolt of lightning once he started moving, his skin crackled as electricity coated him. In no time the pair found themselves at the scene of the fight but there was no fighting, the only thing Zeko saw were the figures of five masked shinobi standing over a figure on the ground. He blacked out then but the last thing he saw before it happened was the bright red that contrasted the sand where the figure was.

Ripping and tearing was all that could be heard, there was some screaming but not enough to be cared for by the monster causing it. It swung its massive right arm and broke a person's spine then grabbed them and took a chunk out of them with its enlarged teeth. Someone tried to chop the arm off with their blade but the sand it was made of stopped it before it could even go in, and they were next to be crushed with that very arm. A spectral hand reached out at the beast but it shed the sand and covered itself in a red cloak of chakra, its teeth shrunk back to normal and it tore through the dune in its way and shattered the wooden urn in front of its final victim and from the urn a marble sized orb fell out. Another victim tried to slice into the monster but its blade was caught with a bare hand, blood came from the palm of the monster but it was not fazed. The masked person went for a kick to the monster's face but this only lead to them being bit on the tibia and dragged to the ground, the monster ripped the leg off with its mouth alone and its victim's screams only served to egg it on. It grabbed the person's arm and pulled it from its socket... and body, then grabbed them by the neck and slammed them into the sand.

The beast turned and focused its red eyes towards a calming voice, it was there in a blur. The figure on the ground was talking to it, he couldn't make out what they were saying but he was being calmed by the voice alone. It held his right hand to their chest and said something that calmed him down. He could see that his cloak was burning the figure but they didn't care, they still spoke as if they were perfectly fine. The only words the monster could make out were the last ones spoken. "My little demon." The figure spoke.

A blast of wind struck the monster from behind and when it turned to roar in fury it saw a muscular woman being taken down by a familiar man. The monster looked back at the figure on the ground and froze…

It's hand, his hand, his- his claws were bloody.

Their chest, her chest, her neck, she was-

It was, it was an accident… He didn't mean to-

Zeko came to and was being held by Akira, but the boy shook and started to cry; one because of the blood on his hands, and two because of the image of Yokano that was burned into his mind.

OST- Sadness and Sorrow

The funeral was held the very next day, Zeko was clad in a black cloak as opposed to his usual white, his father had a black long sleeve on sans vest. The boy could recognize most of the faces there. Touka and her mother, Toshiki and his family, and the twins and their parents were where the familiar faces ended however. There was a family of three that Zeko didn't know but the red of what he assumed was their daughter's hair only served as a reminder of-

His attempt at holding himself together failed and he cried… He cried even as his father stood by his side, why couldn't he be like him? Akira was clearly sad, he wanted to cry just as much as his son but he at least could hold it in, but Zeko was breaking apart like sugar in water.

He could even see Touka and Erumi sniffling while they stood beside their parents. Yuno was struggling to hold back her own tears, one could see a few slowly trailing down her face. The unknown family mostly seemed unaffected but that was only the two parents while their daughter was also crying softly.

"You always annoyed the hell outta me Yoka-chan but I know that's just how you showed you cared." Yuno was straining to hold her emotions back as the black casket was lowered into the ground, and Touka could only set the bouquet of white flowers beside the headstone.

Toshiki, for all of his mass and imposing figure, also wept as the casket lowered. "You always did thank me for getting you with her Akira-san. Never thought I'd see the day when-" He stopped himself in lieu of letting a few more tears fall.

The funeral went on and eventually the group dispersed save for Akira who stayed to talk to the family that Zeko didn't know, Zeko immediately went home and face planted onto his bed. He laid there for hours and was undisturbed by anything, even as his father finally returned and opened his door he didn't move a muscle to even cry.

That same night Zeko finally decided to move from his position and change into clothes he would sleep in. 'Hey kid…' His mental roommate spoke. 'I'm not good with things like this, but I want you to know that it hurts me too. I was with your mom longer than anybody else and believe me when I say she was really different.'

Zeko couldn't find it in himself to speak, he could only cry even more as Shukaku spoke about what he no longer had. Zeko looked at his hand and looked at the mirror and saw his black eyes staring back at him. He strained and watched them change from pitch black, to bright red with two comma-like marks in each iris. 'It looks like you have some questions about your heritage to ask Akira.' Zeko stared at those eyes and was mesmerized even as tears poured from them. He didn't know what Shukaku meant but he'd ask when he didn't feel like- Like his chest hurt so badly that he just wanted to sleep forever. 'Like I said, I'm no good at this shit. But I'm here to talk if you want brat.' He stared at his red eyes until he saw a glint of light and looked to see the red orb that came from... On his dresser. He picked it up and looked at it closely with his heightened vision and saw that it was covered in small ridges. 'It's a chakra core, the last of what she had of mine I think. I'll teach you how to absorb it later but right now you should get some rest.'

The boy worked his way into his bed and started crying even more, what happened only flashed through his head more as he stared at his ceiling. With another strain he noticed that his vision returned to normal and that his eyes must have done the same. "Thank you Shukaku." He closed his eyes and turned onto his side, dousing his pillow in the process. Zeko could clearly hear his father breaking down in his bedroom, of course the man would have the strength to keep himself together unlike his son who not only couldn't hold it in... But was the very cause of why they were like this.

The demon tanuki himself decided to rest even though he wasn't tired, he figured that his host needed sleep now more than ever so he sucked it up and decided to go to sleep despite not being tired.

'Goodnight kid.'

Even now he didn't know why but Zeko opened his eyes and looked at his alarm clock to see that it was only a minute past midnight, he stopped crying if even just for a moment to think and let out a very sad laugh. "Happy eighth birthday to me..."

Author's notes: Can't have a good protagonist with both his parents alive right? Yeah I did not enjoy writing this but it was a necessary evil. Comment or don't, follow or don't. See ya next time.