He was still drifting in the midst of nowhere. He was suspended in space, a bleak, endless void where time is but a hypothetical concept.
Fragments of times bygone flew past him. A young boy rushing towards his big brother, dropping his dinosaur plushy in the process. The big brother poking his young brother's forehead with his two fingers. The boy grew older; he is rushing into his house and into a scene full of blood. He is running away from something, someone. He is shielding another boy in an orange jacket from shards of sharp ice. He is fighting with that same boy.
A thunderous roar then cruelly, unsentimentally stripped all of this away from Boruto's sight.
His eyes flew open.
"You're awake," rang Sasuke's voice from the other side of the room. It sounded peculiarly hollow.
Boruto blinked again.
Where was he again?
"You're in my living quarters," Sasuke explained as he approached the boy.
It was a strangely ordinary place – a rather typical house, if Boruto had to admit, characterized by tatami mat flooring, sliding doors that seemed paper thin and wooden verandas. There seemed nothing particularly extravagant or grandiose about it.
"What the hell just happened?" Boruto murmured, confused.
"A lot of things, Boruto," Sasuke said, not giving away any details.
"Gee – that's a useful answer," Boruto said, frowning and rolling his eyes. "What did you do with me after you knocked me unconscious?"
"That's none of your concern."
"Of course it was! You hypnotised me for god's sake!" Boruto demanded, feeling annoyed.
He was met with silence.
"Hang on, weren't you going to use me to do something against Sarada?" Boruto pressed on as memories of what happened returned.
Still no reply.
"Answer me!" Boruto yelled, a feeling of range swirling within. The more he remembered about their encounter, the more displeased he was at his present condition.
"My, my there's no need to get so fired up about this," Sasuke said coolly and quietly. "If you insist… I tried to ransom your life with Sakura and Sarada when I intercepted them at the Kyuubi's secret location. Sakura refused to make concessions."
"What? Wait, so-"
"Yes. You heard it. She refused to save your life."
"No. I mean, Sarada – is she okay? Is she still alive? Did you do anything to both of the-"
"They're both still alive. Though they have failed in retrieving the Kyuubi; it has been relocated elsewhere. I banished them with the Susanoo," Sasuke explained, focusing his eyes onto a still reclining Boruto.
"Then… why am I still alive?"
Boruto thought he saw Sasuke's gaze waver.
"You don't need to know why."
"Of course I do! You don't have more 'plans' for me right? More-"
Sasuke's voice sounded strangely soft: "No. Not at all Boruto."
"Then why?!"
Sasuke closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Boruto thought he looked more vulnerable than his usual self, for there was the impression of a man traumatised by internal battles. He seemed paler, more exhausted.
"… You still haven't answered my question yet."
"I was… preoccupied with something else Boruto," Sasuke said as he slowly unravelled from his previous state of impotency.
"Okay?"
His father's words came back to him: he could have just killed you. Indeed, Boruto deduced, if Sasuke were really ransoming him and Sakura rejected the deal, it would be the logical conclusion for Sasuke to end his life. Then again, the guy in front of him was clearly deranged and ordinary laws of logic did not apply to anything surrounding Sasuke Uchiha, or so Boruto believed.
"I…" Sasuke's voice trailed again – there was something the man simply couldn't spit out.
"You couldn't kill me?" Boruto suggested.
"I never said that," Sasuke snorted.
Boruto knew he needed to find a way to extract the necessary information from Sasuke. He needed to find a way to abscond the place and reach his friends, whose whereabouts remain unknown to him. Yet, at the same time, he began to understand what his father meant about this Sasuke, an unredeemed, tormented and lonely man. Thinking about all the potential atrocities the man committed and the monstrous, tyrannical system he set up made Boruto retch and, also, boil with frustration, for Boruto had seen a better world and knew that alternatives were possible. Nonetheless, for the first time in this world, Boruto also felt an inexplicable and irresistible urge to feel pity for the deranged and damaged man in front of him.
He decided to be more inquisitive, fully bearing in mind the delicate nature of this situation: "I saw what happened, Sasuke."
"I'd prefer you to address an adult with the appropriate honorifics," Sasuke commented, visibly irritated though – Boruto suspected – also half-joking.
"According to Dad, you never used it," Boruto shrugged, mildly jesting.
"Hn."
"Hypocrite."
"Hn."
"Anyways, let's not distract ourselves from the main point. When you knocked me out rather impolitely, I saw things. I saw, and correct me if I'm wrong, your memories," Boruto said, his tone growing more serious by the moment. "I saw what happened at the Valley of the End. I heard what you said to the dead body of my father, or at least the man who would have been my father in this world had you not ended his life. I know why – I know your reasoning behind everything, the philosophical underpinnings of your actions, Sasuke. And you're wrong."
Boruto paused for a second to rummage his thoughts through his mind, to organise them into coherent sentences and polemics against the man's beliefs. He then got up and stood in front of Sasuke.
Boruto resumed speaking: "What's tragic, Sasuke, is that you don't know just how wrong you are. You think fear is the only way to achieve peace; you've told me that. You believe humans, all of us, can only live in peace if we were repressed. That is, if our true nature, our liberties were restricted for our own good."
Boruto stopped again, debating whether to vent the ensuing words before deciding that they were essential, that they formed the crux of his argument: "You scorn upon any proposition that the good within all of us can also form solutions to our problems. Hope. Compassion. Love. Resilience. Faith. These were ideas that my father believed in – both in my world and yours. No, I don't resent you at all. On the contrary, I pity you. You shaped this world with your ideals, ideals that I don't think even you totally believed in. You knew you had compromised your integrity, engaged in reprehensible activities that subverted the happiness of many for a meagre consolation prize of what you call peace. But it is a fraught peace, a peace that leaves our hearts empty."
"Peace, kid, no matter how terrible it is, remains a thousand times more preferable to war. War is hell," Sasuke interjected, finally speaking up. "No, our world is hell and we are all demons that inhabit it. Naruto was naïve in believing the good of men and in believing that a simple heart to heart can win an enemy over and solve all the issues in the world." It was an obvious jab, Boruto could tell, for there was a tinge of scorn in Sasuke's last words. "Drop your efforts, kid. It's not going to work."
"But I've seen it!" Boruto rebutted. "I've seen how the good in all of us can help us create a better world. I've lived in it!"
"Oh?"
"No wars, no famines," Boruto declared vehemently. He was not going to back down on this. "Peace. Prosperity. The longest period of economic growth the continent has ever seen. New roads, railways, high-rise buildings, game arcades, libraries, hospitals, gyms and schools instead of weapons. Konoha expanded way beyond her past boundaries. What did the job was co-operation, not repression. You know what – take it, take them all. My memories. Look at them and I'll show you just what I mean."
"Do it, Sasuke. Use your Sharingan to look inside my mind, to observe every single event in my life, a life that is inextricably tied to a world borne out of my father's ideals," Boruto said as he got closer and closer to Sasuke, pushing himself into the man until he occupied Sasuke's entire view. He continued staring at the man, a fierce resolution shining in his eyes, the grandiosity of this gesture somewhat blemished by his rather stunted height. Sasuke seemed to have noticed this, demonstrating a resigned chuckle. He then smiled or rather grimaced.
Sasuke pushed Boruto away gently, attempting to appear as neutral as humanly possible: "Another time, kid. We've got to eat late breakfast. It's almost midday."
How queer.
Mitsuki watched Konohamaru and Saiken combine their efforts, merging their chakra together, fusing the Rasenshuriken with a tailed beast ball and then hurling it at the last remaining ANBU guards. Its collision with their bodies unleashed an awesome torrent, which – unfortunately – sent Mitsuki, his companions and quite possible everyone else –flying on their backs. A bright, unquenchable light erupted amidst the marshes before ultimately fading away, leaving behind only the dust of their enemies. It was wind release in its most brutal form.
"Good job!" Konohamaru bellowed, holding his right palm up for a high five. Saiken returned it with a wet slap that accidentally knocked the man over and drenched him in sticky slime.
"Whoops!" gasped Saiken mildly apologetically.
"Hey Mitsuki, want a high five from this guy?" Konohamaru asked.
"Uh… I'll pass, but thanks for your kind offer," Mitsuki said curtly.
Everyone else burst out laughing. They were relieved, psychologically liberated after hours and hours of combat. Saiken was free.
They did it.
Mitsuki personally wondered how their other Hi no Ishi counterparts fared. They had, for the past few days, avoided all communication for fear of interception. Perhaps he could only hope for the best.
In the midst of the Land of Earth, corpses of men and women belonging to the Hi no Ishi insurgency were engulfed in torrents of lava, which licked away their skin and internals upon contact until only their bare bones remained. Even that was consumed too, eventually.
The unit tasked with retrieving the Yonbi had initially succeeded in subduing the regime's ANBU guard units and in extracting the tailed beast from its sealed location. Yet a misstep, the sparing of an enemy ANBU's life, led to a jutsu being cast that caused Son Goku to spiral out of control and embark on a rampage. It lost all consciousness, being immersed in a haze of fury and insanity.
No lives were spared.
"Run Chocho!" Choji bellowed at his daughter as his enlarged, yet weakened, body towered over their enemies. He was maimed by merciless torrents of kunai and pierced with hooks held by the enemy ANBU. They were jostling over control, with the ANBU pulling Choji towards them and the man fighting back with vigorous desperation. The corpses of his friends and allies lay around him, lifeless, and off to a better place, he supposed.
Chocho, for the first time since many missions, was paralysed with shock and fear and a mélange of emotions. She struggled to register what was occurring right before her eyes. She was going to lose her father. The only blood-related family she had. She had lost companions in missions before but never this. She wanted to collapse onto the floor in defeat and cry.
"Go! I won't be able to hold them off any longer! GO!" Choji yelled as he took a swipe at the ANBU below him. He plucked one off the ground, one that was headed towards his daughter, and was immediately struck by a seething ball of fire right in the middle of his belly. It seared his flesh, yet the pain was nothing compared to the agony and horror over the prospect of his daughter's survival.
"Father…" Chocho felt her feet shift, just a little. She was regaining her senses.
"RUN!"
Chocho bolted, channelling all of what remained of her chakra into her legs. She tried to toss everything else out of her mind. Yet just as she was running out of sight, she turned around, taking one last look at her father, who was still battling the surrounding ANBU.
His eyes met hers and he seemed to mouth three words.
It was only when Chocho had reached the safety of Hi no Ishi's nearest base in the Land of Lightning that she realised what he was trying to say.
I love you.
They were in the harbour and about to embark on a ship departing for the mainland.
That was when Mitsuki spotted the scroll. It was stationed awkwardly amidst a stock of a fisherman's tools, right beneath a pile of fishhooks.
"Konohamaru-sensei?" Mitsuki approached the man.
"You can drop the latter honorific, Mitsuki," Konohamaru said cheerfully.
"Can you excuse me for a moment? I need to get something," Mitsuki enquired respectfully.
"No problem – be quick though, or else we'll leave without you!" Konohamaru joked.
They ate in silence in Sasuke's kitchen.
It seemed to last for eternity.
It was a bacon and eggs sandwich, made rather deliciously, Boruto had to concede. Yet whatever pleasure he gained from consuming the food was dissipated by the sheer awkwardness and discomfort permeating through the room. Sasuke seemed reluctant to initiate any conversation, avoiding any excess human interaction with Boruto and focusing on his food. Eye contact was made minimal between the two.
Boruto kept his gaze fixed on his plate, toying with small bits of crumbs and bacon that fell from his sandwich. From time to time, he would shoot a nervous glance at the man before him, who then, or so Boruto suspected, would deliberately look as if he were preoccupied with something else.
"I'm done," Sasuke announced brusquely and promptly walked out of the room.
"Hey!" Boruto yelled, feeling surprised at his own outburst. "Where do you think you're going?!"
"Work."
"Wait, so you're heading off to the Hokage's office?"
"No. I have an office in this place. I can't exactly leave you unsupervised, can I?" Sasuke said matter-of-factly, turning around to address Boruto. "Don't even think of running away."
"I know, I'm not stupid," Boruto muttered begrudgingly.
"Don't forget you're alive because of me," Sasuke lectured with a tinge of scorn. "Try to show a little… appreciation."
"Right" – the monosyllabic response.
"Good."
"But seriously, what do you want with me?" Boruto couldn't help but ask.
"You are a conceited one aren't you? What makes you think I want anything in particular from you?" Sasuke said, mildly chuckling.
"Oh come on!" Boruto said as he stood up and strode towards Sasuke. He pressed closer and closer to the man, causing Sasuke to frown.
"May I ask, why this sudden invasion of my private space?"
"You're one to talk about private spaces and privacy, considering how you literally stalked me and entered my living quarters without my permission and well, greeted me while I was still in my bath towel!" Boruto rebutted indignantly.
"That's different."
"Hypocrite."
"What a loser."
"Just do it," Boruto said as he forced his gaze onto Sasuke's eyes, like he was (ironically) challenging the man to a staring contest. "You know what I mean."
"No. And remember, you're only alive because of me," Sasuke threatened. "Now, why don't you grab a book, sit in my office and read quietly?"
"I don't do reading."
"That was an order, not an option."
Boruto yawned for the umpteenth time. It had only been an hour, but he was practically being slaughtered by boredom.
Sasuke, meanwhile, was still fixated on his death, dealing assiduously with his papers.
"Hey Sasuke!" Boruto called out to the man in an attempt to feign blatant disrespect. "Whatcha doing?"
The man seemed to take no notice.
Okay, Boruto conceded internally, I must be really bored.
"Hey Sasuke! Hey! Hey! Answer me!" Boruto yelled again, finding this gimmick slightly more entertaining than that dumb book he was reading.
"What?" Sasuke said as he looked up, visibly irritated.
"Uh… You wanna go out for a walk?" Boruto stumbled a little.
"No."
"You know, back to what I was telling you about my world… It's actually really nice there. The five elemental nations really did manage to make peace with each other; they formed the Shinobi Union and have been holding annual Gokage summits. Things are much calmer in the smaller villages too. Heck, they've even cracked down on a lot of illegal mercenary activity and gladiatorial combat. My dad became Hokage and married mum and had me and Himawari. Loads of people lived. And you-"
"Boruto," Sasuke interrupted the boy and stopped writing. "Please remain silent."
"-you ended up marrying Sakura, you know?" Boruto paused, hoping to gauge for a reaction from the man before him.
There was no reply.
"Aren't you going to respond to that?"
"Boruto, for the last time, I'm working," Sasuke scowled, the annoyance even more obviously displayed. "And if you don't shut up, I'll knock you out."
"How kind of you," Boruto snorted.
"You're behaving like a pestering brat and for the last time, about that other world of yours: I. Don't. Care," Sasuke said, enunciating his words strongly. There was a hint of menace and the atmosphere of the room darkened, though only slightly, for Sasuke seemed to resume his indifferent calmness a split second later.
Boruto sighed: "Can you at least not keep me locked in here like some naughty schoolboy on detention?"
Not a single word.
This sure was tortuous.
A/N: Sorry for this short chapter and late update. I really have no excuses.
Please leave your thoughts about this chapter in the reviews!
Also, I'd like to again offer my thanks to all my followers and reviewers. This story has reached 100 follows - a first for me! :D
Next chapter: Sakura and Sarada wake up & Unpleasant truths are finally unearthed
Edit: Someone has, rightly, pointed out that Chouza is Chocho's granddad.. that error is now corrected.