It was a beautiful day for young Naruto, who was trudging through the forests of Konohagakure. He stopped when some ANBU agents fell out of the sky. (Or trees, whatever.)

"Hello?" Naruto peered at one of them. That looks like a cat mask, he decided.

"I've seen you with grandpa Hokage!" He exclaimed.

Naruto nudged them, poked them, and splashed cold water on their masks, but they didn't wake up. It was in these situations, he remembered, where people need to get to a hospital. Naruto tried to think of important buildings he knew where to get to – like hospitals – that weren't ramen stands.

He was still pondering his problem when another person fell out of the sky.

"Another one?" he mumbled.

Naruto ran over to tell them about the unconscious masked people. The newcomer was a young man with very normal features. Dark brown hair, black eyes like a lot of other young men in Konoha. He had a cool black and red jacket, though. Now that he thought about it, people didn't just fall out of the sky, and he should've been more cautious to approach the stranger.

"They're fine. They're just sleeping." The stranger told him, walking over. Phew, looks like he's not hostile.

"How do you know?" Naruto narrowed his eyes, "You're over there!"

The stranger stopped, slightly surprised.

"I can see them breathing." He replied and pointed at the chest of the Cat ANBU. "See?"

Naruto blinked. Concentrated. And then nodded, "Okay!"

"Anyways, enough about that." The stranger stepped over the ANBU towards him, and then continued, "You look a little lost, do you need someone to walk you home?"

"No." The young boy answered, surprised, "I'm fine."

Did the stranger not know he was the demon-brat?

"Uh, okay." The guy looked Naruto over, then decided, "I should accompany you through this forest anyways,"

What's up with this guy? Naruto thought.

"My name is... Mitsuki."

Naruto conveniently forgot about the fact that "Mitsuki" had suspiciously appeared at around the same time the masked people got knocked unconscious. He found a nice person!

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Why did you just fall out of the sky?"


Once Boruto got over the fact that his dad was a hyperactive, knuckleheaded six-year-old, he remembered about the ANBU he left behind. That was Yugao-sensei in that mask, too.

They'll be fine, he thought, looking back, animals don't come near shinobi.

He looked back at Naruto who was still walking animatedly about miso ramen, Hokage-jiji – ahh, that would be Sarutobi Hiruzen, right? – and the Yondaime, the "bestest" ninja ever.

How ironic, he thought, the guy who sealed the fox inside him is his hero. Oh well, he'll get to know the Kyuubi soon.

He thought back to the ANBU guards. There were only hidden guards there, no parental caretaker? Naruto is six. He was tiny. Blond, blue eyes, not enough baby fat, , seriously, tiny.

"-actually like shuriken more than kunai. They're like stars with four points, and kunai are stars but with only one points – point, I mean. Don't you think so? Right?"

Boruto's head snapped back to the kid, "Maybe. The shuriken was actually invented and used by samurai before shinobi, y'know. It only had combat uses. Kunai are much versatile."

"Versatile?"

"Um… flexible. You can do more stuff with it, like as a more general tool." Boruto answered, glancing backwards again.

"Shuriken are flexible." Naruto argued, "I replaced the cogs of the Main Academy clock with shuriken-"

"Did it work?"

"-and Iruka-sensei made me run twenty laps." The young boy grumbled. He got no sympathy from 'Mitsuki'. "Why do you know so much about ninja, anyways. Are you a ninja?"

Boruto dodged that question. "You messed up the cogs." He said, "I never did that. I stuck a printed image behind the glass to make it look like the time was permanently frozen on three-thirty PM."

"Wait," Naruto stopped walking, "You went to the Academy?"

Boruto cringed. Kids are supposed to be dumb.

"Not your Academy, a different one." Close enough. He started walking again.

"So… You are a ninja!" Naruto declared, scrambling to catch up.

"I thought Sakura-san said you were slow as a kid," Boruto muttered, looking at the sky. Wow, it was starting to darken already. Did his genjutsu on those ANBU fade yet?

"Slow? I outran a chunin the other day, y'know." Naruto exclaimed heatedly.

"I think she meant socially stunted from neglect and isolation, not slow," Boruto continued.

"Who's Sakura-san?"

Boruto blinked. Shit. Okay, okay.

"Look into my right eye for a bit, Naruto? I have a cool trick." He commanded in an asking tone. The familiar blue eyes of his father innocently stared at him.

Last ten seconds of memories. Delete. Delete.

"Mitsuki-san? I want to rest." Naruto asked, confused and dazed. He went over and sat under a tree, suddenly feeling exhausted. Boruto was about to join him, but sensed several alarmed chakra signatures from where the ANBU were. All of them were following Naruto's trail. Good, he was beginning to get worried that they got eaten somehow.

He took a last look at Naruto and prepared his Jougan.

Tack. Those bodyguards were really worried if he could hear them jumping from here. (Or at all, actually.)

Boruto gazed at Naruto, whose eyelids were already dropping, his head starting to nod. He looked so young and small.

In the next moment, Boruto was gone.

Mitsuki-san was nice, Naruto thought as he drifted to sleep. He was half aware that he was moving, because at some point someone had picked him up, and the questions of a worried Hokage floated around him. He never said goodbye though! Naruto realized.

The next morning, Naruto woke up his little apartment to the warm sunlight and chirping birds. The boy yawned, but suddenly froze mid-stretch. That was a good dream. He mourned.

Those thoughts were dashed, as, during breakfast, he noticed a scroll named 'Shuriken Handling Safety', on the windowsill.


"It's a genjutsu made pathway."

The current head of the Konoha T&I's Interrogation Department was reporting on his latest subject to his leader.

Sitting behind his desk, the Hokage rose from his forlorn contemplation of retirement, and told Yamanaka Tsumugi to clarify.

"As you know, Hokage-sama, the Hidden Leaf currently knows two ways to erase specific memories," said the frowning woman across from him, "Genjutsu, Sharingan-induced or not, and Yamanaka Clan Jutsu."

Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded, and his top interrogator elaborated,

"The Yamanaka method was made illegal and sealed away since our last Clan Head. Apart from us, no one currently alive should know of it, much less be capable of employing it."

"I also recall that it needs the victim to be unconscious for a long period of time." He enquired.

"Yes, sir."

"Naruto has not been out of a guard member's sight since his birth, until yesterday." Hiruzen revealed, "Even if you could plan and set the technique ahead of time, the perpetrator hasn't done that."

His subordinate minutely relaxed, and then indicated the file she had handed him earlier,

"The report from Hyuga Hiroto, on page 6, summarizes the most common genjutsu method of traumatizing the victim and repeatedly conditioning their minds to fear and repress select memories, ideas." Tsumugi explained.

This you could do in a matter of seconds, time which they definitely had.

"Though as the report says, Uzumaki Naruto shows no symptoms of any such procedure. His mind is perfectly fine, the transition from the time at which the memories start missing to when it ends so seamless and short it isn't noticeable to him, even though in our jutsu the sudden jump to a new location and conservation is strikingly obvious."

He kept skimming the report while she was talking. A bunch of the probable theories. Medicals terms. Most of it he'd need an explanation to fully understand. However, one thing did stick out-

"Tsumugi, wait a second." The Hokage ordered, his heart skipping a beat. The third paragraph on the next page - the medic-nin's file on Naruto.

The standard chakra pathway check shows a decreased supply on chakra being delivered to the patient's eyes. The usual reason for this is the introduction of a large amount of chakra to those pathways, resulting in a surplus, and causing the brain to redirect less chakra to the affected region in an effort to return it to normal levels of chakra concentration. The most common scenarios where this would be exposure to natural chakra-radiation from intensive jutsu, explosive tags, and more - as listed on the next page. The more serious scenarios would include direct medical-ninjutsu to the eyes, of which the patient has never received according to his records, and - something we were told specially mention by Yamanaka Tsumugi -

"Visual point genjutsu." Hiruzen breathed.

While Yamanaka Tsumugi might only guess it, Hiruzen knew it as a fact, that those types of genjutsu were dojutsu based. While specialists like Yuuhi Itsuki could probably point a finger at someone to cast an illusion on them, a matured Sharingan would do that with ease, seamlessly. And at this delicate time, too. Has Fugaku started to act?

If the T & I interrogator realized the implications behind this discovery, she didn't shown it. Her job was just to report her department's findings, not analyze and give counsel on them.

"Yes, sir." Tsumugi evenly answered, "One way to do what the perpetrator did would be to convince the brain itself to erase the memory. It's similar to how fleeting, short-term memories are naturally forgotten. The chosen collection of memories would be diverted and fast-tracked to the pile of short-term memories eventually to be forgotten."

Damn.

"That would be an S-ranked genjutsu." Hiruzen said. He looked at the notes given to him. That would be a genjutsu beyond the Sharingan, actually. Damn. The old Hokage sorted through his vast knowledge of the shinobi world, his right hand massaging his forehead.

"You're dismissed." He told Tsumugi, and as soon as she left the room, he sagged down his chair.

Hiruzen knew of the existence of the Mangekyo. Would the more advanced Sharingan have this capability? Even if he knew the answer to that question, Hiruzen still didn't know anyone who possessed it. Would Danzo know? Even so, how much would Danzo tell him? How much should he reveal to Danzo, who he knew would use this information to sway the Council towards his ruthless campaign against the Uchiha?

There were too many questions surrounding this incident. According to the testimonies of the ANBU guards, they were all taken out - silently - within five seconds. Who, in the entire Fire Country, could do that without an enormous, damaging jutsu? Maybe like two people. Three when Minato was still alive. He could take out that whole park with some overkill technique, but he couldn't just delicately pluck enemy shinobi out of their trees like they were genin. There was probably some trick used, some unregistered Bloodline Limit. And who would do that and proceed to do absolutely nothing harmful to the young Jinchuuriki? The Hyuga medics confirmed that. Naruto's interrogation confirmed that, and the target even seemed like a nice person. The council meeting was in twenty minutes, Sage save him.

Think. Review. Hiruzen decided. According to Tsumugi's report, the individual in Naruto's memories was around sixteen years old, had the most common features in the Land of Fire, and from the sketch included, resembled his twenty-year-old son – Sarutobi Asuma. It was probably coincidence. Because as striking as this similarity is, Tsumugi and every other expert in on the investigation agreed that the appearance was due to a transformation jutsu. The features were too perfectly average, too unrecognizable for an S-Class shinobi who should have been recognized purely because of their caliber. At certain times the hair moved unnaturally against the wind. Any speech and personality from Naruto memories could have been faked, could have been a mask. Any shinobi who lived long enough can tell you.

Was he going to have to call Jiraiya back? This was for the Naruto's safety. And Danzo, who has been paranoid of the Uchiha since the Nidaime's time, will probably know about the genjutsu already. Dammit.


While Sarutobi Hiruzen gained at least three new stress lines in preparation for his council meeting, Boruto was sat analyzing a different report. The Uchiha Clan files.

He was in an inn at a hot spring town, not too far from the Leaf Village. He had chosen it because the hot water sooths his aching Karma mark. The town was smaller than Boruto remembered, and that made sense. The people were generally friendlier, though. He lounged on the bed of his room and perused the handwriting of his late sensei, Uchiha Sasuke.

Boruto had already got most of the details and knew the central players of the board. He was going to put his knowledge to use, because strategically speaking, loosing the Uchiha Clan was the biggest military loss in shinobi history since the Hidden Stone Village met Namikaze Minato. His teacher would grow up to be a happy kid with a childhood more similar to Boruto's.

He looked up from the latest file and exhaled shakily.

That was depressing, oh my god.

Boruto knew his sensei had a brother, but they never breached that topic, and he knew very little about the man. According to the reports in his hand, Uchiha Itachi's life was a shitshow. He tried to imagine what would happen if he or one of his friends were put in the same situation as Itachi was. He tried to imagine himself in his sensei's shoes, after the massacre. He would probably go desperate, slowly accumulating the beginnings of insanity, like Itachi definitely did.

Boruto grimaced, setting down the folder onto the tea table.

Again, brought up a question that he had asked himself at least ten times already during his reading of the clan files.

Should I just go and kill Danzo? Boruto thought, I mean, I know it won't fully solve the conflict and cause a whole mess of issues, but I feel like just going and stabbing Danzo.

He turned the page and saw a file on another Uchiha named Shisui of the Shunshin. Koto-Amatsukami. Nice. Wait-

"I feel like going and stabbing Danzo." Boruto didn't care if the entire inn had just heard that. "I feel like stabbing Danzo. NOW!"

He activated his right eye, and hopped into the portal it created.