Back home again after my semester. My finals just got over 3 days back. So nice to finally not be looking at the next deadline.

Summary

Secrets in the cavern. Paranoia and distrust. Major plays afoot, our blond protagonist needs to make a run for it. Will he be successful?

"Now boys, shall we talk info?" Neko beckons to the boys, gesturing for them to sit down.

Boruto cautiously sits, cross-legged, right at the edge of the shallow pond in the mighty cavern. Wonder where that stream comes from . . . Log for his part just continues to stand. His eyes are fixed solely on the woman splashing around water like a little girl.

Boruto has come down a little from being drunk on his senses. That's exceedingly loud, why is she hellbent on always making noise? He does his best to keep a neutral expression but his eyes still narrow a bit.

And then comes that monotone voice again, expressionless enough to convey her amusement, "Information the two of you will be giving me?"

Log's face hardens, "Why would we do that?"

Neko holds up a kunai, one with two short, bladed prongs to the side of the primary blade. It also had a wooden handle with a black ink scrawl on it. "Cuz I can destroy this priceless artifact. Something that would greatly help someone in your position ye? Uzumaki-san?"

"And what if I don't?" comes a strained voice. If that's Ji-san's kunai, it would be a bloody lifesaver. She ain't gonna destroy that for sure.

"I can always rat you out . . ."

Cloth flutters noisily in strong winds as Boruto lunges at the woman, nanjato being unsheathed from his back, swinging from his hip to her neck. Only to buckle to an unexpected stop against the golden chain that is arced across his blade's path. Chains? Where the fuck did that come from? These are his thoughts as his body ducks into a roll along his spine to avoid the two other chains trying to whip him in the head and stab him through the shoulder. He brings his blade to bear again as he exits the roll only to be violently thrown at the small pond so fast that he skims over the water to the other side. Futon: Daitoppa, didn't even see that coming. Don't want to get hit by whatever is next.

He scrambles back to his feet expectantly. Nothing comes.

"Information for the kunai," she calmly states again.

"That was not the deal Neko."

Was Log's voice always that deep and gruff?

"No, but neither was the kid. My deal with you stands, money for information . . . This kunai," she spins it balancing it on the tip of her finger, "Is my offer to the kid. I want some answers from him and I will be getting them one way or the other."

Boruto has his face set in stone. Can I trust her? Should I play along? What is the worst that could happen? A sell-out? Pointless, she can do that even without answers. Not sell the info? She promised to keep her word. Thoughts run rampant through the blond's mind. This is par for the course.

"Alright, ask your questions." the blond grits out.

"Well, shall we sit down first though?"

"No." Log is decisive.

The woman raises her hand placatively. "I think we got off to a rough start," she walks slowly towards the pair of boys, arms raised, fingers splayed, "I did get some thunder burger for you though," she slowly moves an arm toward Boruto, a poof and there is a brown paper bag in her hand. "Vanilla milkshake with cranberry mixed in?" she summons the contents into her other arm, "I wasn't completely sure, hope you like it."

"And how do we know it's not drugged?"

"Poisoned ye? Uzumaki-san, I get the paranoia, but dead bodies don't talk the last I checked."

"Alright, but not down here in this cavern." Boruto does not expect her to accept.

"Ok." Neko gives a small nod, "Follow me."

She walks off into the darkness, much quieter than before. Faint footsteps are their only trail, if they did wait for even a second longer, they would lose her. The information is vital, and the boys follow. Their twisting intestines knot tighter.

And yet again his sensei's teachings echo in his mind, "Boruto, yours is the body of a hunter-gatherer, not easy dinner. So, when your body is speaking, pay attention. It might be wrong, it may not, but, it will always be valuable." Over the few years since, that little piece of advice has saved his life more times than he would like to admit, it was the beginning of his grudging respect for his own body. Time to kill two birds with one stone. Need to check out those caverns, and need an escape plan if things go bottom-up. In the shadows behind Neko, behind Log, behind Boruto there is a distinctly noiseless pop of smoke, and another Boruto retreats into the shadows away from the rest of the group.

This time Neko leads them up a natural tunnel, along the banks of the stream feeding the pond in the cavern – it's a noticeable incline – so just how does the cavern not fill up? Long after being forsaken, Uzushion still harbors many secrets. This is just one of the many. They track each other just by sound until the ghostly pale blue lights flicker all along the cavern again. They are not ordered here, some are on the tips of stalactites and stalagmites, some in natural pits in the wall, and some in rolling distortions. It looks like a ghostly midnight sky devoid of clouds, welcoming, dark, and unknown – three things that usually do not go together.

Why does every part of this city have to be so haunting? Wait, city? Ruin? I mean there's a lot to this place, history, remnants, personality, it's almost living. Ahhh! I'm overthinking. Focus Boruto, focus.

A deep breath, an audible one. Another. Another. Silence.

"Here." Neko cuts off at one of the lefts, and the boys follow. "We need to pick up pace."

"You were pretty leisurely so far," returns the ashen elder almost immediately. His eyes haven't strayed from the masked woman for even a moment since she started splashing water in the pond. Ther almost certainly was a reason to dragging them all over Uzushio instead of just an under-the-table information delivery like usual.

"I have no clue how long the lights will last. Unless you'd like to potentially lose a crap ton of chakra again, it's better to get moving faster."

Her every last word reeks of bullshit. It's not like she just realized about chakra wastage, nor is it like she doesn't know this maze inside out considering how comfortably she's navigating. "Alright", the blond cuts in. He was supposed to call the shots on this, he was going to exercise that right now.

Neko turns and shoots off almost instantaneously, Boruto follows because his mother's taijutsu training played enough emphasis on tracking sudden and quick changes and responding to them. Log didn't keep up. He just brute-force caught up. He could afford to.

It's not a lot farther. Just down the manmade left and it opens up to a grove-side exit facing the entire Uzushio basin, dotted with reminders of destruction.

It's open here, even if there is an ambush, it shouldn't be too hard to run. Maybe I was overthinking stuff. Maybe she just wants answers and I can even get my hand on ji-san's kunai.

"Boruto!" Loud, urgent, not-monotone.

Everything goes white.

Meanwhile with the other Boruto,

So what the heck am I supposed to look into? Dumb question. Hollow sounds and escape routes. Why escape routes though, even if he dies, it's not going to matter much, I'll still get away. Well, not really, not yet anyways. The blond sighs, "Ah yes, enough with the stereotypical dramatized dumb clone thoughts."

Boruto has been putting a concerted effort to keep silent through the last few minutes spent returning to the cavern even though he is clearly alone. He had tailed the original group till they exited the caves. Never hurts to be a little paranoid, eh?

Tsichk, tsichk, footstep after soft footstep against the damp mud, tsichk, tsichk, tsachkk, tsichk.

Boruto pauses at the hollow sound again. He turns, kneeling to tap the cavern floor. Solid. A little to the side, solid. Solid. Solid. Wait, Solid? He lowers his head closer to the floor and knocks harder. Yep. Not solid. So, how to break through? He brushes aside dirt looking for a seam. Right. Like I'll see a seam in this darkness. Maybe I should make a cat-eye jutsu. Hehe. Stereotypical me, gotta focus.

He feels around, looking for some sort of trigger mechanism built into the floor, his search spreading out to include the nearby cavern wall. Some of those magic blue lights would be nice right now.

His search is fruitless.

He walks back over to the supposed hollow thinking about a plan. In one swift movement, he draws a kunai from his hip and slams it straight into the floor with his entire weight behind it, and the kunai buries itself harmlessly, just past the tip. Need to go deeper then. He forcefully pulls it out and slams it into the floor again. This time, it goes all the way up to the hilt.

Well, wind-natured chakra for the win.

Out comes the kunai to be holstered back at his hip. In go his fingers to get a good grip, and, he pulls up. Straight out of the floor comes an entire rectangular section. Sheesh, wasn't expecting that.

Hmmm. Let's see, scrolls. He walks around to the other side. It's literally a wooden bookshelf housed in the cavern floor with rock on the top. On the flip side, his stunt just cleaved two and a half scrolls into pieces. Can't fit all of this into my jacket, I'll just carry an uncut one.

He then proceeds to push the shelf back into the earth. It slides smoothly in. Now, that's precision craftsmanship.

Now, about that emergency exit . . . He brings his hands into a familiar cross summoning about a dozen more kage bunshin and settles down against the cavern wall as his clones head out to map this cave system. This place was huge, if his earlier batch of clones had anything concrete, they would have dispelled, and he would have their memories. None of that has happened yet.

Back with Neko,

The moment things go white, Boruto instinctually leans forwards and pushes off with chakra. It saves him from the jagged rocks running over the place he was standing. It isn't the best course of action though, as he rushes into a kunai that embeds itself deep into his shoulder.

Shoulders numbing. Probably paralyzing. Gotta get distance. With his ears ringing and his vision only clearing up a little, his orientation and balance were completely off. Can't afford to mess up. Cave. It was the one place he could get to fast without messing up, the tunnels were straight behind him, so he twists, almost falls, and sets off flying with another chakra-powered boost. He swings his nanjato in front of him through the short dash and Neko has to sidestep the slash keeping her from stopping him.

The blond runs down the cave and crashes into the cave wall. Log. What about Log? He'll just have to take care of himself. He had a heads up, should be fine. His shoulder is burning and his vision is almost clear, his ears are still ringing, and his balance is passable.

Crack. Fuck, there goes my rib. He keeps moving even after getting whacked straight into the wall. Fucking Neko. Fucking chains. Fucking backstabbing bitch. Each breath shoots exquisite pain through his torso. Log must have taken most of the ambush group, he better fuck their asses. Blondie side-steps another chain strike while running and has to deal with tiny rocks pelting his already hurting ribs.

Is that my clone? The blond quickly shoots hand signs at the clone looking his way and turns to erect an earthen wall, before dashing left, away from the pond.

The wall doesn't longer than a second, he expected that. Neko turns right, running after the clone following his instructions. He's bought himself time to escape. He yanks the kunai out of his shoulder and slows down as he calms his breathing. He is noticeably aware of his slowing heart rate – it'll keep the paralyzing toxin from spreading too fast. He takes slow, silent, and measured steps looking for an exit.

A few minutes later, the lights come on, and that blue starred sky only signals his shortening escape time when he gets a rush of memories and relief floods his system. About damn time, got an escape route, and it's right up ahead too.

He abandons all stealth and runs, it's not like Neko is going to give him much time anyways.

Up along the stream. Across the water. Right, down an unlit tunnel. Up a ladder. A chakra-enhanced push with a bloody hand and the stone overhead doesn't move. You've gotta be kidding me. A small spiral in red lights up overhead before the rock subtly moves upward. Boruto notices and pushes again, this time it's only as heavy as a paperweight. The Uzumaki crest and seals huh? He quickly climbs out and settles the rectangular stone back in place, it seamlessly sits level with the floor, after a second you wouldn't know it existed.

He's inside someone's house, the ruins of one anyways. Damn. That was close. Need to find Log and leave, and it's such a nice day too he thinks looking up at the starry sky through the broken roof as he walks out. Actually, no, need to kill them all, won't be able to stay undercover for much longer if they get out. Can't deal with the Gokage kill order now either. The darkness will help. Reduced visibility. Better assassination and escape.

The blond's lips are set in a resolute line as he stands still. Completely still. By his feet is another small red spiral.

Move damn it. Ehhhh! Moveee! Kami!

"Not bad Uzumaki, to escape an ambush half-blind and deaf. Pull of such a magnificent feint and somehow find an exit from that underground maze . . ." There's a lot of tonality in her voice, but it's still unmistakably Neko, "Only to get caught in a seal, in Uzushio of all places . . ." She pauses, "I'm not sure whether to commend your escape or cry at your carelessness."

It all ends with a quick chop to the neck. All Boruto knows now is black.

Kudo, comment, and share!

What do you think Neko wants with the blond? What is Log doing? What about the clone and his comments about the original dying not being of any consequence? Let me hear your thoughts and theories down in the comments.