Note: This is based mostly on the Boruto manga since I've seen very little of the anime.
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"I'm so sick of this."
The words rang in Kawaki's ears for what seemed to be the millionth time since they arrived. Normally, he'd shoot back the reminder that it didn't matter how sick they were of it-- nothing was going to change just because they groaned and sighed about it.
He didn't, though. He didn't correct Wasabi for her miserable words. In fact, he couldn't. Not when they were all kneeling in front of such a freshly dug grave.
Tsuru Itoi. He hadn't been particularly close to the girl. In fact, he hadn't even spoken to the girl prior to their forced entry into the past. That had been nearly two months ago.
Two months of misery. Two months of having no idea how they'd found themselves in the warring state period, nor how to return home. Two months since he and Sarada had taken up the role of leaders. Two months of watching their allies fall, one after one...
There were five of them, now. Five bodies scattered across a time they didn't belong in. Five bodies they swore they would return to in the future, to give them a proper funeral in their true time...
Their first loss had been Denki Kaminarimon. Kawaki had seen his death coming from a mile away. He was simply too anxious. As much as he hated to think about it, he's seen himself in the younger boy. It wasn't his current self- no. It was him from years ago, back when he had still been anxious at the idea of raising complaints. Back when he'd willingly taken Jigan's accursed bat to the face time and time again.
Each time Denki had hesitated to bring forth his idea or shied away during a group debate, Kawaki had found himself demanding for the other to speak up. Denki had been getting better about speaking his mind.
Unfortunately, just as Kawaki had begun to wonder if he had been wrong about the younger teen's survival skills, the sheepish boy had gotten himself cornered. It had been almost two weeks in.
He was supposed to be gathering fruit. Kawaki had thought it would be a fairly simple task- that he wouldn't need back-up. The field Denki was supposed to go to wasn't that far away from their campsite at the time. Kawaki had thought he would be fine.
That wasn't the case. They had been too late to help him. He had already been gone when Kawaki sent Sumire to go check on him. He had been gone longer than originally planned, and she had been the first one to find out why. She had found him with an empty basket, a gaping hole in his chest. Sumire had been the first to cry, but definitely not the last.
Their ally was gone, and for what? A basket of fruit?
Though Kawaki didn't think he would ever be able to vocalize it, a small part of him had died that day. He had always pushed through hardships and dealt with whatever life threw at him, but never before had he felt the heavy weight of being responsible for another person's life.
He had sent Denki out to gather fruit alone. He had waited nearly twenty minutes past his return time to send someone to check on him. He had been pushing the younger teen to stick up for himself.
What if that was how it had happened? What if Denki had finally taken a stand and refused to give up the fruit? The idea left Kawaki's insides cold. Denki had died under his leadership. He had died in a field, his body left to lay there until someone found him, the hole in his chest bleeding at a leisurely pace.
The fact that his death had been quick should have been reassuring. It wasn't. His funeral had been a mess. No one felt comfortable looking at the body. Tears of confliction had fallen. People had spoken of how he was still with them in their hearts.
It was safe to say Kawaki hadn't sent anyone on a solo mission since. Not that Sarada would ever let him. She had been devastated. It had been obvious as she had pulled him off to the side that night, insisting that they needed to lay down some ground rules if they were going to survive.
Never go alone had been the first one.
Flee if you can had been the second.
Remember that your life was worth more than any supplies had been the third.
From there on, everyone had abided by these rules. They had done their best to stick to them. Unfortunately, sometimes these rules simply didn't fit.
Namida Suzumeno had been the first one to learn that.
She had done everything right. She had been with Houki, the two having been assigned watch duty over their special possessions. They'd been alone at the camp, cleaning up a bit when they'd been attacked by a trio of elder shinobi.
They had tried to run. They'd been followed.
They'd offered up the precious headbands they hadn't been able to bring themselves to destroy despite Sarada's warning of changing the past. The enemy had thrown them to the side.
These shinobi hadn't wanted their resources. They had wanted their lives.
It was something most of the others had issues understanding. Kawaki, unfortunately, knew the type well. He hadn't had to wrack his brain too hard when Houki gave his panicked explanation of what had happened.
Late at night, Namida's sound wave ability echoed in his nightmares. Her final attempt at drawing attention to her and Houki's attackers. He had heard it from miles away, where he'd been hunting with Mitsuki.
That was the second time they were too late to help their ally. This time, however, Kawaki was there to see the body as it gushed blood from every wound. Houki had been backed into a corner while the elder shinobi taunted him. She was being carelessly stepped over by her killers.
Kawaki had seen red.
Then they were gone.
He had barely noticed as Houki bawled over Namida's corpse, insisting Mitsuki try to heal her despite Mitsuki's eerily calm reminders that she was already dead. She had died the moment the enemy had decided to stick a kunai through her throat and pulled upwards.
Her funeral had involved just as much crying, though not all for the same reasons Denki's had.
These were tears of fury. Of rage. Of utter hatred.
Why were they stuck in a time that wasn't their own? Why did people have to be so cruel? Why couldn't they have been faster or stronger?
It had been barely three weeks and two people had died. More rules were added after that.
The fourth rule was to never own anything you couldn't carry with you.
The fifth had been to form groups of three.
The sixth had been to try to have a medical shinobi in each group.
Kawaki hated to enforce these rules. He had watched each of them break their shinobi headbands. Hako had to dispose of her rabbit. Enko's jutsu sleeves had to be burned. It was too much of a risk to have things that needed guarding. Besides, they were having trouble surviving by that point anyway. They couldn't risk being sentimental and keeping people on unnecessary missions.
It irked Kawaki to have to return to the village's team formation as well. He had split them in the beginning for a reason. It was dangerous to have mini-functions. If they grew too close, they might forget about the group as a whole. That had been his reasoning, at the time. Sarada had disillusioned him during their rule negotiations after the funeral.
He was the only one of them not on a team before they arrived in the warring states period. She had argued that this had influenced his choice to break the teams up- that he hadn't wanted to be left out.
He was ashamed to say that she might have been right. They had dropped the issue soon after, but he had finally given in and agreed on the three-man squad reformation.
There were sixteen of them left. Four healers. If they wanted each team to have a medical-nin, they couldn't have the old squads. Half of them would be in the old team seven alone.
Sarada had made the new teams. He had confirmed them.
Houki, Sumire, and Tsuru had been their scouting team. They had been put in charge of scouting out the areas around them in search of anything useful. Whether it be a new hunting ground or news of an on-coming battle they would need to avoid? Well, that depended on the day.
Shikadai, Hako, and Wasabi were in charge of gathering supplies. Weapons, food, water. Anything that they could use for the day. They brought back just enough, as to not tempt any attackers looking for said resources. Shikadai and Hako did most of the actual gathering, he knew. Not that it mattered too much-- Wasabi was mostly there for defense and healing purposes. If the two didn't complain, Kawaki wouldn't call her out on it.
Mitsuki had ended up with Iwabe and Enko. They, more often than not, got hunting missions. Iwabe and Enko were naturally cut out for it while Mitsuki had enough stealth to sneak up on a mouse. They usually came back with just enough meat.
They had only had one healer after that. Sarada.
It was decided that she would be on a two-man squad while one three-man squad went without one.
Boruto, Chocho, and Inojin were in charge of covering their tracks, with no healer insight. The three worked to make sure it seemed like they were never there. Sometimes it meant killing off anyone who saw them use a jutsu that hadn't yet been invented, sometimes it meant setting off explosions in the area opposite of where they would be resting.
Sarada would be on a three-man squad with Doushu and Renga. She focused on using whatever resources were available to understand where they were and what it would take to get back to their own time. They were in charge of keeping watch or creating the necessary distractions.
Finally, there were two people left. Kawaki and Metal Lee. The two were some of the stronger members of the group- Kawaki was confident they would be alright without a healer. Kawaki worked to keep order by assigning tasks and making sure everyone was back in time. Metal Lee moved between groups with his frankly impressive speed, making sure all was going well when they didn't have anything specific they needed to work on. When there wasn't anything else to be done, Kawaki would join the others where he was most needed.
It had been tiring to figure out, but beyond a bit of groaning, no one had objected. For that he was glad.
This had helped them for a while. They had found out more and more about the time period and place they were in. They'd yet to find any clues as to how to get home- but at least they were surviving and hopefully not changing too much.
Unfortunately, their lucky streak could only last so long. It ended a little over a month and a half after they arrived, when Sarada's snooping was discovered.
Of course it had to of been the Senju to find her.
He wasn't sure why she had insisted on digging through the Senju library so much. She had seemed convinced she'd find something in there, though she hadn't mentioned what exactly she was looking for thus far.
To think, she'd be so determined to rummage through their library after emphasizing time and time again that she'd read numerous books on the history of the lands. She'd even mentioned the supposedly famous Senju vs. Uchiha battles on multiple occasions.
It had been devastating. When they'd lost Denki and Namida, at least they had been able to give them proper burials. They'd both died fairly quickly.
The same could not be said for Doushu and Renga. Their corpses were mutilated. Holes littered their bodies. Cuts and bruises seemed to cover every inch of them. Worst of all, their eyes no longer rest in their sockets. Kawaki only knew this much because he had seen the Senju all but toss the corpses at the Uchiha's feet during one of their pre-battle arguments.
The only thing he and the scouting team had gotten out of that surveillance had been a reassurance that one of the research team had survived thus far. The Senju held Sarada's presence over them, ordering them to give up something or another if they wanted her back. When the Uchiha had claimed they were liars, pointing out that their clan had no missing girls, it had simply turned to war as per usual.
As Kawaki watched the bodies of their former allies roll off to the side, he could only will Sarada to survive this. He didn't want to bury a fifth person.
With this new information, Sumire felt they should ask the group as a whole what to do, the girl pushing at the idea of not leaving it up to one person. On the other hand, Mitsuki had put his trust in Kawaki, much to the elder teen's dismay. Then there was Tsuru. Tsuru wanted to sneak into the Senju compound and get her before they decided to quit torturing her for information and simply killed her.
Kawaki had decided to return to the camp, knowing they weren't prepared to perform a break-in with so little planning.
Tsuru had been upset. Kawaki remembered this now, looking at her corpse. A wave of utter pain washed through him as he thought of it. He should have seen it coming. She was always taking on more responsibility than was necessary. Kawaki remembered too late that she had sworn to avoid any more deaths during Namida's funeral.
He just wished he had noticed- had heard the sound of her sneaking out. Maybe then Hako wouldn't have had to pick her body out of a river.
Tsuru hadn't even made it to the Senju compound before being killed. Sarada was still gone, and now Tsuru had joined the others in the land of the dead.
"Rule Seven: If anyone attempts to capture you, fight to the death." the words left his mouth without thought, words quaking as he watched Tsuru's cold form. He didn't know how much more of this he could take.