We'll Get Home, I Promise
Chapter 1: Familiar Yet Unfamiliar Territory
Within the walls of Konohagakure lied shinobi. Strong and respected beings who endured for the sake of others. That is what ninja strive to be. That is what they are meant to be.
Even in places that are far beyond the reaches of where they reside.
Walking down the streets of Konoha at night, a blonde teenage boy and a dark-haired spectacled girl were walking side by side.
These were Boruto Uzumaki, son of Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyūga, and Sarada Uchiha, daughter of Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno.
Boruto groaned with his bottom lip sticking out.
"What's with you?" Sarada asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nothing. Just the same old, same old. That old man is going for another late night." Boruto said with annoyance.
"He is the Hokage. He needs to prioritize his work." Sarada said.
"Over family?" Boruto questioned with irritation.
"That wasn't what I was going with. What I'm saying is, being Hokage isn't easy. It's the hardest job in the village. The Hokage needs to work extra hard to make sure everything is in order. Even if it means they have to work through the night so others can have a more pleasant morning." Sarada explained.
"… All that through paperwork… seriously?" Boruto questioned with a frown.
"Being Hokage isn't just about doing paperwork. There's more to it."
"Yeah, yeah. I get it, I get it." Boruto said with disinterest as he had his hands behind his head.
"I doubt you really do." Sarada said with a frown.
The two walked in silence for some time.
Boruto glanced over to Sarada, who just stared ahead. Not liking the silence, he decided to speak up.
"So… how's life at home?" Boruto asked.
"Hn. That's not like you to ask such a thing." Sarada said with a small smile, making Boruto turn his head away with a blush. "Well, since you're so curious. Things have been fine. Mom's been working late here and there. It may tire her out, but she feels fulfilled every time she works at the hospital. It gives her meaning."
"What about Sasuke-sensei? Got any word from him?" Boruto asked.
"Not really. Tou-chan doesn't really connect with us unless he's back in the village." Sarada's eyes softened. "Mom misses him… but she says she's gotten used to it. Him not being around."
"Huh?" Boruto blinked his eyes as he looked to Sarada with a bit of a surprised expression.
"I-it's nothing." Sarada tried waving it off, but a part of her was still sadly stuck on it. "Just sometimes I wish my mom didn't feel so lonely. Especially during the nights."
"Good grief. Where did this come from?" Boruto said with a minor uncomfortable smile.
"Sorry. It's just… seeing your mother so sad like that… a kind of sadness hidden behind a mask… just kind of hits you pretty hard, you know?" Sarada said looking down to her feet.
"Hmm~. I get ya, dattebasa." Boruto said as he thought of his mother. "I guess mothers do that to be strong. For others." Boruto thought to himself aloud.
"Hn." Sarada nodded in response.
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Meanwhile, outside the walls of the village within the forest, a swirling blue vortex opened up out of thin air and spat out a pair of young teenage boys. One of them landed on the ground safely while the other fell on his face. Both boys looked to have been a bit roughed up.
The one who landed on his feet was a young teenage boy with dark blue hair that had bangs over the forehead, locks of hair framing the sides of his head and some hair spiked at the back. He wore a cream long sleeve hooded jacket that stopped a bit pass his belt that also had patches of expresso brown colored cloth at the elbows and there was white colored fur at the bottom hem of the jacket and around the collar. The jacket also had the red and white uchiwa fan symbol printed on the back of it. He also wore a black short sleeved V-neck shirt underneath the jacket with a long sleeve fishnet shirt under that, a pair of dark pants, a belt wrapped around his waist with pouches attached all around it and on the left side of the buckle was an uchiwa fan and a yellow circle with red flame-like insignia within it, which was all hidden underneath his coat, white tape wrapped around his right thigh with a weapon holster wrapped around it as well, violet shinobi footwear that covered his calves/shins and stopped under his knees, a strap wrapped diagonally around his torso that had a sheathed chokuto attached to it with a red and white uchiwa fan insignia on it, black fingerless gloves that extended to his elbows and a Konoha hitai-ate wrapped around his left bicep. His most distinguishing feature were his eyes though.
His eyes were grey with black pupils.
The other teenage boy who was face first on the ground had blonde spiky hair that had two thirds of its spiked towards his left side while the remaining third was spiked towards his right, and he had bangs with them mostly over the left side of his forehead while over the right side his hair was parted so as to expose the right side of his forehead which was larger than the average person's forehead and he had a pair of emerald green eyes. He wore a light green jacket with a thick vertical white stripe over the chest area and wrapped around the biceps of the sleeves, along with a grey collar, grey cuffs at the ends of the sleeves and grey hem at the bottom of the jacket and a red swirl insignia on the back of it with a white ring surrounding it. He also wore a red shirt with a red swirl symbol in the center of it that was surrounded by a white ring to distinguish it from the rest of the warm colored shirt, grey pants, a pair of shinobi footwear that stopped at the halfway up his calves/shins, a belt that had several pouches attached to it with two of them having red cross insignias on them, meaning they contained medical items, along with a pair of tantō and wrapped around his forehead was a red Konoha hitai-ate. He also had a necklace wrapped around his neck that had a yin-yang pendant with both parts having separate written kanji on them. The white half had the kanji for Heaven '天', and the black half had the kanji for Earth '地球'.
The blonde groaned with his voice muffled from his face still being pressed against the ground.
He got off the ground, wiped away dirt from his face and dusted off leftover dirt from his clothes. He looked around his environment to see he and his companion were both in the forest.
"What the hell did that do? Was it some sort of teleportation jutsu?" The blonde asked.
"Seems that way… but you never know. Be on your guard." The grey eyed teen said.
The two leaped into the trees. They leaped to the top so they could get a view of the land.
"Look, Konoha! We're still home!" The blonde said. "Come on, Arata! Let's get back home!" The blonde said to the blue haired boy, Arata, before leaping towards Konoha.
"Shinachiku, wait." Arata said causing the blonde, Shinachiku, to look to him with a questioning expression. "Something doesn't feel right. My intuition is telling me that walking through the front door might not be the best option."
"Hmm? You sure?" Shinachiku questioned.
"Hn." Arata nodded in response as he made a hand sign, causing his jacket to change colors from yellow and brown to grey and dark grey.
"So, we sneak in? Man, that'll be fun to explain to kaa-chan." Shinachiku said with a pout.
The two advanced towards Konoha and when they made it, they found a way to sneak in. They calmly travelled through the streets but were on their guard.
"Arata."
"Hn?"
"I think I'm getting the same feeling as you did." Shinachiku said to his friend.
"Hn." Arata nodded in response.
"I just want to get home." Shinachiku said with a frown.
"I'll come with." Arata said, earning a nod from Shina.
.
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The two made it to a certain area and when they had gotten there, Shinachiku's eyes were wide, anime style, with his mouth agape while Arata had a stoic look on his face.
They were standing in front of a large house that was boarded up and did not look to be in good condition. It looked like it hadn't been in good condition in years.
"N-Nani?!" Shinachiku exclaimed with shock.
"It looks to be condemned." Arata said.
"B-But this is my home!" Shinachiku exclaimed as he started freaking out. "T-This is crazy! This can't be right, dattebaro!"
"Ikuzo." (Let's go) Arata said as he leaped away to the top of a building.
"Huh? O-Oi! Chotto matte!" (H-Hey! Wait a moment!) Shinachiku called out as he leaped after Arata.
.
.
The two made it to a historical area within Konoha.
The Uchiha Compound.
It was covered in weeds, along with dust and the structures were rotting away.
Arata and Shinachiku arrived at the spot where Arata's home was, which was where his father's original home was. Arata stayed silent while Shinachiku looked around.
"This feels like the right area, but it's all… in ruin." Shinachiku as he then looked to the nearby abandoned buildings. "So, this is what the place looked like before the reconstruction… it's so… empty…" Shinachiku said with a frown as he watched Arata take a couple of steps forward towards the main household.
Arata stopped in front of the door. He gently placed his hand on the door, recalling the many times he opened it up and announced that he was home, being welcomed by his mother, father and siblings.
'My home.' Arata thought. His expression was stoic, but he was feeling melancholic about the situation.
"Arata… we're not home… are we?" Shinachiku asked, but he had a feeling he already knew the answer to that question.
Arata took steps back away from the door, remaining silent for a moment.
"We need to go." Arata said.
"Where?"
.
.
At Konoha hospital, the lights were out as it was bedtime for the patients, but there were still doctors and nurses were working late just to make sure those patients were in stable condition.
Patrolling within and around the hospital were shinobi and members of the Konoha Military Police Force. Their duty was to makes sure no one got in to harm the patients or steal anything.
Arata and Shinachiku hid within the shadows, scouting the area.
"You remember where the records are?" Arata asked Shinachiku, who nodded in response. "Then lead the way."
Shinachiku gulped at the idea of invading the hospital.
'Kaa-chan… you're going to kill me for this if you find out, aren't you?' Shinachiku thought before he took point.
The pair snuck into the hospital walls, then into the hospital through a window Shinachiku identified as the office of the head doctor.
Shinachiku walked over to the desk of the head doctor's office. He opened a specific drawer and took out a pair of keeps attached to a red tag. Shina closed the drawer, but then he noticed a picture of a pink haired woman with a dark-haired girl around his age wearing glasses. Shinachiku had a frown as he blinked his somber eyes.
"Psst." Shinachiku looked to see Arata gesturing for him to follow.
Shinachiku followed Arata out the door as they sneaked through the halls. They managed to sneak by security as they headed for a certain area. The two made it to a door that said Records Room on it.
Shinachiku unlocked the door, allowing them both to sneak in.
"Everything is in alphabetical order." Shinachiku whispered, earning a nod from Arata.
The two scanned the records until they found the records labeled with the letter U. after scanning through them, Shinachiku took out a pair of folders. Each had the names 'Uchiha' and 'Uzumaki' written on them.
Shinachiku stared at the records with hesitation and a somber expression. He felt a hand gently placed upon his shoulder, making him look to see Arata looking at him calmly, but he could tell he was giving him much needed moral support. Shinachiku took in a deep breath through his nose before exhaling out his mouth. He nodded to Arata before looking back at the folders. His heart was beating so loudly that he could hear the rhythm within his ears.
Shinachiku grasped the edges of the Uzumaki folder and opened it.
When he did, their fears were confirmed.
Scanning through the folder, they found the name Uzumaki, Naruto with the name in the spouse box saying: Uzumaki, Hinata.
Shinachiku frowned as he looked at this.
Arata was silent and calm, but on the inside, he too was saddened by what he was seeing.
'Kaa-san.' Arata thought with a feint frown.
Shinachiku handed the Uzumaki folder to Arata, before opening the Uchiha folder. He scanned to the page of Uchiha, Sasuke where he found within the spouse box the name: Uchiha, Sakura. He scanned through it to find a photo and records of their daughter: Uchiha, Sarada.
'So that's who that girl was.' Shinachiku thought with a frown.
"Sarada Uchiha." Arata said as he looked to the records in Shinachiku's hands. He then looked to the folder in his hands to see a pair of records and pictures of two whiskered cheek children. "Boruto Uzumaki. Himawari Uzumaki."
"… So, it is true… we're not home." Shinachiku said with a depressed frown and hollow eyes.
"Yare yare." Arata said with his eyes closed. He took out a small camera from his pocket and took pictures of the files.
"Nani?" Shinachiku looked to Arata in confusion.
"Information on these counterparts will assist us in the future. Any information is good information." Arata said.
"I wish we didn't find out this information." Shinachiku said with a frown.
"Don't think like that." Arata said as he closed the Uzumaki folder and placed it back. He took the Uchiha folder from Shinachiku and took pictures of the files.
"This… this is like a bad dream, right?"
"I'm not so sure." Arata said as he flipped through the pages.
"Yeah… this is a bad dream. I overslept. K-Kaa-chan will wake me up. She'll yell at me any moment to wake up and join everyone for breakfast. Yeah… I know she will." Shinachiku said, slightly panicking with a desperate smile.
Arata stared at Shinachiku for a moment before closing his eyes.
"Shina… we have to go." Arata said as he closed the Uchiha folder.
"Oi, oi, Arata… don't you think it's weird. Our parents switched up and had different kids. What a nightmare, huh?" Shinachiku said with an anxious grin as he scratched the back of his head.
"Ikuzo." Arata simply said as he started heading out.
"O… oi… wait up." Shinachiku said as he hurried after Arata.
The two snuck their way back into the head doctor's office to return the key.
Shinachiku stared at the picture of Sakura with her daughter, bearing a frown.
"Kaa-chan… this is a nightmare." Shinachiku said.
"Shina, put back the key." Arata said as he grabbed onto the window, but Shinachiku didn't respond. "Shina." Arata spoke again, earning Shinachiku's attention. "Put the key back and let's get out of here."
"R-right." Shinachiku said with a nod as he then put back the key back inside of the drawer he had taken it from earlier.
"Let's get out of here." Arata said as he opened the window, scanned for any nearby patrol before jumping out.
Shinachiku looked to the picture of Sakura and her daughter one last time.
"Kaa-chan… if this is some sort of punishment for something I did… I'm sorry." Shinachiku said with teary eyes. He wiped them away before hurrying out the window.
.
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Shinachiku and Arata were leaping from building top to building top.
"This can't be real. None of this is real." Shinachiku said to himself. "O-Oi! This is a genjutsu, isn't it?" Shinachiku asked Arata, who was in front of him. Arata did not respond. "Y-yeah. This is a genjutsu. None of this is real." Shinachiku said with a smile as he stopped his leaping, causing Arata to stop and look to him. Shinachiku brought his hands together in a seal and yelled out "Kai!" But nothing happened. "Huh?" Shinachiku noticed he was still in the same spot, in the same situation. "K-Kai!" Shinachiku called out, but still nothing. "Kai! Kai! Kai!" Still nothing. "Dammit~."
"We shouldn't attract attention to ourselves." Arata said.
"Arata, how are you not freaked out by this?" Shinachiku asked with shock and slight annoyance.
"As far as I'm concerned, we are still on a mission. We don't have time for a breakdown." Arata said before resuming his building hopping.
"Tch. That guy." Shinachiku said with gritted teeth, before following. The two continued onward. "Where are we going anyway?"
"To the Hokage's personal library. Whatever we need might be written within one of the many scrolls within-"
"Arata! Look!" Shinachiku said, causing Arata to stop, earning his attention. "It's… it's your mom!" Shinachiku said pointing towards a window.
Arata looked towards the window to see Hinata placing hot meals in front of the whiskered children from the hospital records. Arata stared at her face with wide eyes.
'Kaa-san…' Arata thought feeling a twinge of pain in his heart as he saw Hinata sitting down and enjoying dinner with a pair of children. None of them were him. Arata had a stoic look upon his face, but if one were to pay closer attention, they could see the sadness in his eyes.
"Kai!" Shinachiku exclaimed, causing Arata to look to him. "Kai! Kai! Kai!"
"Shinachiku… it's not going to work." Arata said.
"Well how do you know?! You haven't tried it!" Shinachiku shouted with annoyance as a tick mark appeared on his forehead.
"If this was really your dream or if you are stuck in a genjutsu, don't you think you would have awakened by now?" Arata said, causing Shinachiku to flinch.
Shinachiku bit his bottom lip as he started getting teary eyed. Once wiping the tears away, he gained a more determined look upon his face.
"Well, what the hell are we waiting for?! Let's go to that library!" Shinachiku exclaimed as he rushed forward, taking the lead.
Arata spared one last glance to Hinata, seeing her talking to the children with a smile on her face. Arata brought his hand up and made a sign.
"Kai." Arata spoke… but nothing faded away. Arata grunted a bit with his lip quivering before he hurried up after Shinachiku.
.
.
The two made it to the Hokage Tower. They stood atop of a nearby building and scavenged the area.
"So, what exactly are we intending to find in the Hokage's library?" Shinachiku asked.
"We're attempting to retrace the enemy's steps." Arata answered.
"Huh?" Shinachiku tilted his head in confusion.
"Remember how the enemy achieved their goal. We follow their footsteps, and we'll probably find what we need to return home." Arata said.
"So, what was it that, that bastard took again?" Shinachiku asked.
"A forbidden scroll."
"Obviously." Shina said with a dull look.
"It's the first part to a map that will lead us to that tool that brought us here." Arata explained. "However, it's best not to get our hopes up. I should remind you that since this world is a bit different from our own, then there might be a chance that we won't find what we're looking for here."
Shinachiku's brow furrowed as he looked down to his now tightened fist.
"That won't stop us. We'll have to find another way back home then." Shinachiku said with a determined look.
"Hn." Arata agreed with a nod.
Shinachiku sighed as he and Arata looked back at the tower.
"That sure is odd. Usually, I'd spot more guards. You think this world just can't afford extra security?" Shinachiku wondered.
Arata closed his eyes for a moment, before opening them to reveal sharingan, but then suddenly the doujutsu's color turned from red to white, but still retained the three tomoes and veins started to bulge by the outer sides of Arata's eyes.
"The inside isn't as guarded as the tower at our home, but there are a number of guards. We can get to the Hokage's archives much easier than expected, so long as we keep on our toes and move swiftly." Arata explained.
"Sounds simple enough." Shinachiku said.
"We'll need cloaks though. If we're spotted, the last thing we need is for anyone to get a description of our appearances." Arata said as he closed his eyes.
"Especially given that our appearances, mainly yours, would be smoking gun powder here." Shinachiku said.
"Hn." Arata agreed with a nod as he opened his eyes to reveal his original grey ones.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Shinachiku said as he made the famous cross hand sign as a pair of clones of Shinachiku appeared.
Shinachiku nodded to them, who nodded in response before vanishing. After some time, the pair of clones returned with a pair of hooded cloaks they found and 'borrowed'. Once giving them to Shinachiku and Arata, they dispersed into puffs of smoke.
After putting their new cloaks on, Shinachiku lightly face palmed.
"What is it?" Arata asked.
"Heh. I'm so out of it that I forgot to use my tiny clone scrolls instead of wasting my chakra." Shinachiku said with a tired smile.
Arata placed his hand on Shinachiku's shoulder, giving him minor comfort.
Shinachiku nodded in response before the two put on their hoods.
"It's best to hold onto those scrolls anyway. You only have a couple so save them for emergencies." Arata said.
"Gotcha." Shinachiku said with a nod.
"One more thing. We need to take off our hitai-ates and hide them away." Arata said.
Shinachiku was shocked, but he understood. After a moment of hesitation, Shinachiku nodded. The two took off their hitai-ates, Shina's from off his forehead to reveal a marking at the center of his forehead in the form of a purple outline of a diamond, and Arata's from around his left bicep. The two looked to the hidden leaf symbols on them with soft eyes for a moment before putting them away. Once they put their hitai-ates in one of their pouches, they hurried off towards the Hokage Tower.
Once making it inside, they sneak around security to make their way towards their destination.
.
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The Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, sighed with relief as he stretched.
"Finally done." Naruto said with a tired smile. He got up from his seat, took his white cape and tied it around himself. "If I hurry, maybe I'll be able to get home before they finish dinner." Naruto said as he headed towards the door.
Walking out of his office, Naruto made his way down the hall, but stopped as he felt his instincts kick in.
Naruto closed his eyes as he gathered nature chakra, entering Sage Mode as orange pigments appeared around his. Naruto sighed as he opened his eyes to reveal a pair of golden toad eyes.
"So much for getting home on time."
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Shinachiku and Arata managed to sneak into the Hokage's archives.
It was like a huge library inside.
They walked deeper into the room, travelling towards a certain area.
"If I remember correctly, this way leads into the hall where the forbidden scrolls area is." Shinachiku said pointing down a certain aisle. Shinachiku reached into one of his pouches to take out a small notepad and a pen. He scribbled down onto a page to create a seal before ripping it out and giving it to Arata. "It'll be behind a door with a seal on it. This is the key." Shinachiku instructed.
Arata looked to the seal for a moment.
"You've been here enough times to unlock a complex seal that protects forbidden literature?" Arata questioned, surprised, but his expression remained stoic.
"I stop by here to read up on the seals every time I drop off lunch from home for tou-chan. I couldn't help myself but examine that particular seal." Shinachiku said with an embarrassed smile and rubbing the back of his head.
"Makes it easier." Arata said before he started walking down the aisle. "Keep watch. I'll try to get back as soon as I can."
Shinachiku turned away and started scanning around the room. However, after a few moments he got lost in his thoughts. He turned towards the hall Arata went down as he brushed his hand through his hair, causing his hood to come off to reveal his sunshine blonde locks. He had a pair of sad eyes that started to tear up. He closed them and bit his bottom lip. A pair of tears came down from his eyes.
"What are you doing here?" A voice so familiar to him spoke, causing Shinachiku's eyes to widen.
'Tou… tou-chan?' Shinachiku thought to himself as he sensed his father, or at least the version of his father, behind him.
Naruto had come in to find someone in the dark standing in the middle of the library. As he walked closer all he could see was the back of the young culprit.
"Answer me." Naruto said with a serious expression and tone. He then stopped as he noticed the silhouette of the person had blonde hair that looked kind of familiar. "Wait…" Naruto narrowed his eyes a bit. "Is that you… Boruto?" Naruto asked.
Shinachiku's lip quivered as he had a sad yet scared expression. He really wished he said 'Shinachiku' instead.
Naruto rubbed his chin.
'Weird… it feels like him, but at the same time different. His aura is familiar, but also oddly distinct.' Naruto thought to himself. "Boruto… if that's you… face your father, right now." Naruto ordered.
Shinachiku's eyes narrowed a bit with sadness as he hung his head a bit.
'I wish I could tou-chan… and it's Shina. Shinachiku. Not Boruto.' Shinachiku thought as he felt to be on the verge of tears.
Naruto was running thin on patience. He started walking closer towards the cloaked teen.
Shinachiku tightened his fists as he was feeling more and more scared with every footstep getting closer to him. Shinachiku noticed across from him, down the aisle, hiding behind a bookshelf was Arata, who showed a scroll in his hands. Arata nodded to Shinachiku, signaling that he found the scroll they were looking for.
Shinachiku perked up a bit, before he suddenly developed a determined expression.
'Right! I have to do this!' Shinachiku thought as he made a cross seal, creating duplicates of himself.
'Kage Bunshin.' Naruto thought as he stopped near the blonde boy.
'Forgive me, tou-chan.' Shinachiku thought as he and his clones put their hoods on.
The clones turned towards Naruto and pounced towards him.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the clones.
'Child's play.' Naruto thought as he readied to counter, but the hooded clones suddenly made a familiar seal. 'Wait, is that-'
'Oiroke no Jutsu!' (Sexy Technique) The clones suddenly transformed with a puff of smoke. Coming out of the smoke were multiple clones of a familiar pink haired woman with smoke covering their private areas. "Sakura Paradaisu." (Sakura Paradise) All the clones disguised as Sakura Haruno said in unison.
'NANDAYO?!' Naruto thought with wide anime eyes and jaw dropped.
'Of course, he would use that technique.' Arata thought with his expression still stoic.
All the Sakura clones gathered around Naruto, cuddling him and making sure he felt their goods while saying things to the comically shocked Naruto.
"Ah~, Naruto-kun~, aishite~." A Sakura clones said hugging his arms.
"I missed holding my Hokage-sama~." Another Sakura clone said holding his other arm and gently rubbing his whiskered cheek.
"I always feel so lonely without you in my arms~." A Sakura clone said with a smile and blush as she hugged Naruto around the waist.
"Naruto-kun~, never leave me~." A Sakura cloned said as she rested her head against his chest.
Naruto was making gagging noises as his eyes were greatly wide and his jaw extremely lowered. He felt a Sakura clone wrap her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his back.
"You work so hard, Naruto-kun. Just come back to me already. I'll cook you some ramen and then… we'll-go-to-bed." The Sakura clone cooed into Naruto's ear before suddenly kissing him on the cheek.
That did it.
Naruto's nose fired out blood as he started falling back.
'Boruto… who else could it be but you?! You Little Brat!' Naruto thought before falling to the floor, unconscious.
All the Sakura clones dispersed as the Shinachiku and Arata made a break for it.
'Sumenai, tou-chan!' Shinachiku thought before he and Arata ran out the room, leaving Naruto there on the floor, shaking with his mouth wide open and blood continued to pour out his nose.
Shinachiku and Arata jumped out a window and started leaping from building top to building top.
"Thank goodness using mom still works on him like that." Shinachiku said.
"It probably would have been more affective if you used my own mother." Arata said.
"Do I look like a man wanting a death wish? I'd hate to know what you'd do to me if I exposed you to that." Shinachiku said with a joking grin.
"Hn." Arata smirked as the two continued on.
The leaped from building to building until the made it over the wall.
Unfortunately, someone noticed them.
"Hey Stop!" A guard shouted as he saw the pair of cloak figures landed on the other side of the village walls and ran off into the forest. "Oi! Inform the Hokage! Two shinobi just fled on foot out of Konoha and into the forest!" The guard called out to another, who nodded and hurried off towards the Hokage tower.
Meanwhile, as the pair managed to get out of the village, Naruto regained consciousness and developed a pissed off expression.
"BORUTO!" Naruto shouted as he hopped to his feet and ran out of the room and jumped out the window, racing him to confront his son. "When I get my hands on you, you are going to wish you never knew those hand seals you little pervert!" Naruto shouted with gritted teeth.
"Hokage-sama!"
"Hmm?" Naruto stopped and turned to see a shinobi come up to him.
"Hokage-sama, we just detected two cloaked figures leap over the wall and run into the woods." The shinobi reported.
"Two?" Naruto questioned with a surprised expression, earning a nod from the guard. 'I only encountered one. Which means that wasn't Boruto. They took something from the library, and I have a feeling I know what kind of item they took.' Naruto thought with a glare. "Round up a search party and find those two. Hopefully they haven't gotten far." Naruto ordered.
"Hai, Hokage-sama." The guard said with a bow before hurrying off to get a search party.
Naruto hurried back to the Hokage Tower to see what might have been taken from the archives.
.
.
Shinobi were searching for the cloaked escapees within the forest.
They were looking intensively throughout the forest.
"Where did those two go?" A shinobi wondered.
Shinachiku and Arata were hiding in some bushes, scoping out the area.
"They're everywhere. We can't fight them or else we'll run the risk of being captured." Shinachiku whispered to Arata.
"Right. Just hang back. I'll handle this." Arata said.
The shinobi searched around the area to find their targets, but then suddenly one of them fell face first onto the ground.
"What in the-" the shinobi was interrupted when he felt something small pierce his neck, causing him to fall to the ground as well.
"They're around here! Spread-" The shinobi was interrupted from meeting the same fate as the other two.
One by one the shinobi were being taken down by Arata who blended perfectly into the shadows while move at a fast pace.
After a couple of moments, the shinobi in the area were dealt with.
"It's done." Arata said, signaling Shinachiku to come out of his hiding spot.
"They're still alive?" Shinachiku asked, earning a nod from Arata.
"Ikuzo." Arata said as he and Shinachiku hurried off. The pair arrived in an open area where there was a stream. "We're heading down stream. It'll lead us away from Konoha and hopefully to a more secluded spot." Arata explained, earning a nod from Shinachiku before they picked up the pace and followed the stream's current.
.
.
Within the Hokage's archives, Naruto examined a seal on a piece of paper he found pressed against the door that led into the forbidden scrolls.
"Hokage-sama."
Naruto turned to see Konohamaru.
"Konohamaru, thank you for coming." Naruto said to his old pseudo-apprentice.
"What happened here?" Konohamaru asked.
"A scroll was taken from the Forbidden Archives. Apparently, there were a pair of thieves that managed to bypass the sealed door that kept them locked away from the rest of the world. I checked through all of them and only one was taken. A scroll that was gifted to Konoha long ago from the Sarutobi clan's summoning animals, the Monkeys of Mt. Huaguo. I wish to talk to the Monkey King to see if he knows about any of this." Naruto explained.
"Understood." Konohamaru said before biting his thumb and going through the required seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu." Konohamaru slammed his palm against the ground, creating a cloud of smoke that summoned the Monkey King, Enma.
"Konohamaru, why have you summoned me?" Enma asked, before noticing Naruto. "Hokage-sama, was I summoned to assist you?"
"Yes, Monkey King. A pair of thieves have stolen an ancient forbidden scroll that your race gifted to Konoha to keep locked away. I was hoping that you would be able to identify what it was." Naruto explained.
"Someone managed to break through the seal on the door?" Enma asked with shock, earning a nod from Naruto. "Show me." Enma requested. Naruto guided him and Konohamaru to the door that was now wide open. "Impossible! How?"
"With this." Naruto handed Enma the piece of paper with the seal that was used to unseal the door. "After a quick examination I deduced that this seal was made on the spot."
"Yes. This seal still seems fresh. I cannot believe it." Enma said.
"How impossible is it for someone to unseal this?" Konohamaru asked.
"It is an ancient seal made from an ancient seal master within my clan. Only the Hokage and a selected few, those being the Hiruzen's old advisors, thankfully excluding Danzo, were trusted with the seal. Did you get a good look at the thieves?"
"Just one. I didn't get his face, but I did see that he was a child and had blonde hair." Naruto answered.
"A child?!" Enma questioned as he and Konohamaru looked to Naruto with shock.
"Wait, boss, are you saying a child took an ancient forbidden scroll after unlocking a near unbreakable seal?" Konohamaru asked, shell-shocked the info.
"He also had a partner, but yeah."
"Hmm." Enma glared down at the paper seal in his hands.
"Do you think one of the elders assisted them?" Konohamaru asked.
"I doubt it. I can't think of a reason why Homura-san or Koharu-san would try something that could potentially harm Konoha." Naruto said.
"Then who else could break through this?" Konohamaru wondered.
"There is a possibility." Enma spoked, earning Naruto and Konohamaru's attention. "This seal was considered impenetrable for the longest time, until a certain select few managed to make a seal like this one, able to break it. Those people… were members of the Uzumaki clan."
"Nani?! You're saying an Uzumaki did this?" Konohamaru questioned with shock.
"It's possible." Enma said.
"But that's impossible. Only Naruto and his family are the only Uzumakis that exist." Konohamaru said.
"There's also Karin, but I doubt she'd ever do something like this. Besides, Sasuke's told me she isn't a fuinjutsu user, so I doubt she'd be behind this." Naruto said.
"Then it has to be someone else that isn't an Uzumaki." Konohamaru said with a serious expression.
"No." Naruto said, surprising Konohamaru. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he remembered the child and his use of the Kage Bunshin. Especially how many there were. "I'm sure that, that child was an Uzumaki." Naruto said with a frown, surprising Konohamaru more.
"Hokage-sama, show me what is missing." Enma requested.
Naruto showed the Monkey King to a rack of scrolls, all ranged accordingly to size starting from biggest to smallest, which started from the bottom with the biggest to the top where the smallest reside. There were seven scrolls that each had a kanji on them. A scroll was missing from the second rack from the top.
"I know what was taken." Enma said, earning Naruto and Konohamaru's utmost attention. "These scrolls are maps that lead to hidden dangerous treasures. Treasures that the Sage of Six Paths had hidden. As Monkey King I was given a bit of knowledge on these scrolls. Considering that the scroll that is missing is in between the one for time and matter, then that would mean what was stolen was the map that led to the treasure of space."
"Space? Like affecting the stars in the sky or something?" Konohamaru asked.
"No that would be Celestial. That map is still here. What I believe it means is affecting the continuum of things. Travel to any place in the blink of an eye and control the reality around a physical object or organic being." Enma clarified.
"We had a map that could lead to something that dangerous here?" Konohamaru questioned with shock.
"You now see the severity of this situation. If those two find that treasure, then lord knows what they plan on doing with it." Enma said.
Naruto narrowed his eyes.
"I'll have to make a call." Naruto said.
.
.
Shinachiku and Arata continued to run by the stream that after some time turned into a river.
"I can't believe this is happening. We're actually wanted by Konoha now." Shinachiku said.
"Hn." Arata nodded.
"Is that really the only answer you could give?" Shinachiku questioned with annoyance.
"Nothing else needs to be said." Arata said, causing Shinachiku to sigh.
"I can't believe it. I actually incapacitated tou-chan and now am branded a criminal. Kaa-chan would kill me if… well, you know." Shinachiku said. "So how long do we run?" Shinachiku asked.
"Until we're out of the Land of Fire's border." Arata answered.
"Seriously?"
"We committed theft of a forbidden item. They'll be sending as many shinobi as they can spare." Arata said.
The two continued to run for a while until they heard the sound of rushing water.
They picked up the pace to find it was a waterfall that leading into a valley that was in the form of a crater.
"Whoa." Shinachiku said.
"The Valley." Arata said.
"The Valley? You mean the Valley?" Shinachiku questioned, earning a nod from Arata. "Whoa… our dads did this much damage?"
"Across from this is the other end of the border." Arata said.
"It looks like it'll take half a day to go through this part. We'll travel halfway and then camp for the night." Shinachiku suggested.
"Agreed."
Shinachiku and Arata hurried down the Valley, or as it is more famously known as the Valley of the End.
.
.
Naruto waited atop of the Hokage Tower, looking up at the stars.
Normally this would bring him at peace, but after what had just happened, just looking at the endless sky just made him feel uneasy.
"Thanks for arriving as fast as you could." Naruto said as Sasuke appeared beside him.
"Had to. A child managed to get by you and steal a map to a forbidden treasure with a partner. You're losing your edge." Sasuke said.
"Shut up." Naruto said with annoyance as he extended the piece of paper with the seal on it to his old friend. "They were more capable than you think."
Sasuke took the paper seal in his hand and examined it.
"It's intricate." Sasuke said as he examined the seal. "This made by a child?"
"An Uzumaki." Naruto answered, surprising Sasuke.
"This is definitely not Boruto's doing. Definitely nothing Karin can accomplish."
"I need you to find these two. The best info I can give about the one I saw was that he was blonde with hair similar to mine used to be and he is able to create shadow clones." Naruto informed.
"Like you, huh?" Sasuke handed Naruto back the slip of paper. "And that's it? No other description on his features? No other jutsu?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto's cheeks suddenly reddened, and a trickle of blood came down his nose as he remembered the jutsu that took him down.
"No other." Naruto simply said as he tried wiping his nose faster than Sasuke could see. No need to tell your best friend/honorary brother that you fainted with shock after seeing multiple naked clones of his wife.
"I'll see what I can find." Sasuke said before he disappeared.
Naruto sighed as he rubbed his forehead. He then looked back at the seal on the slip of paper.
Whoever made this seal was pretty darn good. If he was an Uzumaki, then their clan's legacy truly lived on with him.
.
.
In the middle of the Valley, Shinachiku and Arata started to set up camp.
Well… more like setting traps to make sure they wouldn't be ambush while sleeping.
Shinachiku was placing slips of paper with seals on them in a large ring formation around the grassy area.
"Okay. Your turn." Shinachiku said after finishing setting the ring of seals. He backed up, letting Arata walk up to the last seal he placed.
Arata knelt down and placed his hands on the seals. His hands suddenly generated lightning, causing the seal he was touching to glow electric blue. The seal then created two streaks of lightning that ran against the ground to connect to the other seals beside it.
The ring of seals formed a ring of lightning as then the area within the ring formed a large seal that then generated a dome of lightning around them that instantly vanished along with the large seal and the paper seals, with the latter disintegrating once the technique was done.
Arata stood up from the ground, turned around and took a few steps backwards until he was out of the ring's range to see that Shinachiku had vanished. Arata gave a thumbs up before walking back into the invisible dome's range to see Shina again.
Shinachiku sighed as he and Arata walked over to the center of their hidden spot. They took off their cloaks and placed them neat against the ground before lying down on top of them. The two stared up at the stars with calm expressions.
"You're hoping when you open your eyes again that it turns out this was all a dream too?" Shinachiku asked, stilling looking up at the stars.
"Yes." Arata answered.
Shinachiku took a deep inhale through his nose then exhaled.
"Right now, I bet kaa-chan is destroying everything in the house after finding out that I'm on another world." Shinachiku said as he pictured his mother punching walls down and throwing everything that wasn't and was nailed down out their home.
"I can only imagine the heartbreak my hahaoya (mother) is feeling when learning the news." Arata said, thinking about his mother and seemingly endless tears she was shedding.
"Ā otoko (aw man), what troublesome sons we are. Giving our poor mothers so much stress." Shinachiku said with a mock smile and placing his hands behind his head.
"Let's pray that when we get back the worse we'll get are tugs on the ear." Arata said with his eyes closed and his own mock smile.
"Tch, you're lucky. Your mom is gentle. My mom puts her all into everything, especially ear pulling. I swear it feels like every time it happens, she's gonna rip my ear off." Shinachiku said rubbing his ears with a slightly amused smile.
"At least if that ever happens, she can heal it back up."
"Yeah, only to do it again."
The two laughed at the small joke. It's definitely what Sakura would say or do.
Shinachiku's eyes teared up a bit.
"No matter how much it'll hurt… after all this, I'd welcome it." Shinachiku said as his eyes shined with tears. Shinachiku wiped his newly made tears away as he continued to stare up at the stars. "It's what I deserve after breaking my promise." Shinachiku said.
Arata looked to him for a moment before looking up at the stars as well.
"Same with me." Arata said.
The two continued to star up at the stars for a while.
"Arata…"
"Hn?" Arata looked to Shinachiku, who developed a determined look.
Shinachiku turned his head to him before extending out his fist.
"I promise… we will get back home." Shinachiku said with pure determination in his voice and written across his face.
Arata stared at him for a moment before smiling and placing his fist against Shinachiku's.
"Right." Arata acknowledged with a nod.
Shinachiku grinned to him one more time before they brought their hands back and stared back up at the stars.
They continued to look up at the stars until they fell asleep.
.
.
Shinachiku opened his eyes to see the ceiling of his room. He sat up from his bed and looked around to see the white walls with posters of manga and film heroes like Kagemasa, a large bookshelf with reading material that was mainly about medical, sealing and even manga, usually ones about heroes.
Shina quickly got out of bed and hurried out the door. He rushed downstairs and made his way towards the kitchen to see his family.
His mother, Sakura, cooking dinner, his father, Naruto, sitting down with his little sister Hanami and the youngest of the group, his little brother Arashi.
Sakura was dressed in a sleeveless twin tail sleeveless red high-collar qipao that had a white zipper, the upper back of it being colored white with it extending to around the shoulders of the sleeveless qipao and white lining at the hem of it which was asymmetrical as it fell midway down the left leg and was cropped high over the right leg, revealing it in its entirety. The Uzumaki symbol with the Haruno symbol surrounding it was displayed on her back in the center where the red met the white at the upper back. She also wore a pair of lightly lilac pants that stopped a little pass her knees, long black compression sleeves that went from a little below her shoulders to halfway up her hands and a pair of ankle-strapped sandals.
Naruto was wearing a zip up long sleeve jacket that had the sleeves black with a pair of orange lines, one of each sleeve, about a few inches from the ends of them, the torso was colored orange with a black lines across the bottom hem and another above that with a line of orange separating the two, along with a long black line all the way up the zipper that stopped at the end of the high collar with steel buttons on either side of it and let us not forget the new and improved Uzumaki clan symbol, that being a red swirl with a white ring around it, placed proudly on the back of the jacket and on the side of the left sleeve where the bicep was. He also wore a pair of beige pants and black shinobi sandal boots that stopped halfway up his shins/calves. His right hand was also that of a black, robotic prosthetic one that extended halfway up the bicep.
Hanami, who practically looked like a clone of their mother if she had cerulean blue eyes and tanner skin, had her hair done up with a pair of pigtails as usual with a hair clip in the shape of a cherry petal. She was wearing a yellow short-sleeved shirt with a red sleeveless vest that exposed the midriff of her yellow shirt and printed on the back was her clan symbols, the red Uzumaki spiral surrounded the white Haruno ring, a pair of maroon colored short, a pair of skintight black shorts under her maroon ones and a pair of dark magenta shinobi sandals.
Arashi had spiky red hair and emerald, green eyes. He wore a short sleeve shirt that was yellow and blue with the blue covering the upper half where the shoulders and chest was and under that was yellow with vertical lines and yellow lining at the ends of the sleeves. He also wore a pair of cedar brown shorts and blue shinobi sandals.
"Ohayōgozaimasu, onii-chan (Good morning, big brother)!" Hanami greeted her brother with a wave and the classic Uzumaki grin.
"Yo, Shina. Sleep well?" Naruto greeted his son with a smile.
Arashi simply greeted his elder brother with a nod.
"Ah, Shina-chan, you're up. Breakfast is almost ready." Sakura said with a smile.
Shinachiku's eyes started to water as he looked to his family, before rushing over towards his mother.
"Kaa-chan!" Shinachiku exclaimed as he gave his mother a big hug.
"Shina-chan, what's with you? Did you have a nightmare?" Sakura asked as she gently hugged her son.
"Yeah. It was scary. You wouldn't believe it, but… but you're here… everyone's here. Kaa-chan… tou-chan… imouto… otouto… don't every leave." Shinachiku said with his eyes close as he let the tears fall. He waited for a response, but he got none. "Kaa-chan?" Shinachiku spoke up, only to suddenly feel his mother's form vanish.
Shinachiku's eyes opened up wide with shock as he saw nothing but particles of dust where his family once were, blowing away. Shinachiku was speechless with horror as his tears continued to pour uncontrollably.
He suddenly heard a giggle before his entire home was starting to break apart into dust.
"No… it can't…"
"Shina…"
Shinachiku turned around when he heard Arata's voice.
"Shina!"
Shinachiku hurried towards the voice which led him towards the hall where the door was.
"Shina!"
Arata's voice spoke as the door opened up to reveal blinding white light.
Shinachiku was hesitant to go forward, but when he turned back towards the kitchen to see it all gone, replaced by a dark void as more of his home was turning into dust. He decided to hell with it and ran towards the light.
Shinachiku bolted through the door as he was completely engulfed by bright light.
.
.
Shinachiku's eyes opened wide as he was greeted to the sight of the Sun, proudly up in the blue sky.
Shinachiku sat up to see Arata sitting in front of a fire with a pair of sticks cooking over it that had fish stabbed into them, two within each of them. Shinachiku blinked his eyes before looking around to see the same area they traveled through last night.
"It wasn't a dream then…" Shinachiku said with a frown.
"I'm sorry." Arata said.
"Don't be. It's neither of our faults that we're in this position." Shinachiku said as he stood up and walked over to Arata. He sat down next to him, staring at the fire, thinking about his family. The two stayed silent as they sat by the fire. After a while, Arata took both sticks and handed one to Shinachiku. "Arigatou." Shinachiku said with a soft smile.
"Hn." Arata nodded before he and Shinachiku started digging in.
"Any shinobi pass by?" Shinachiku asked.
Arata chewed on his fish as he stared into the fire.
.
.
In the middle of the night, Arata woke up after having a dream about his family.
Arata just sat there, alone, well not really, with his thoughts.
'Kaa-san… I'm sorry that I'm worrying you. Tou-san… I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to see that jutsu coming.' Arata closed his eyes as he thought about his family. His mother… his father… his siblings. 'Tsukia… keeps things in check until we get back home.'
Arata was silent as he sat there, hugging his knees.
After a while, he suddenly sensed a presence. He looked up, only for his eyes to widen in shock.
There traveling by was none other than Sasuke Uchiha.
'Tou-san.' Arata thought with shock and some fear.
Sasuke traveled down what used to be the Valley of End. He scanned through the area, feeling that perhaps the pair of thieves traveled down here.
Arata watched as this world's counterpart of his father was passing by their spot. He flinched a bit when he noticed Sasuke stop in place.
Sasuke stood silent for a second before turning his head to his left. He saw nothing, but he felt a sort of presence.
Arata narrowed his eyes. The seal may keep them hidden from view, but only from those out of the seal's range. Despite not being his actual father, Arata knew never to underestimate an Uchiha, especially Sasuke Uchiha.
Sasuke made a left and walked towards where he felt this strange presence.
Arata remained vigilant as he readied himself. Arata took something out of one of his pouches.
Sasuke continued to walk forward towards the strange presence he felt. Suddenly he heard someone rushing away making him turn to see someone rushing away with the hood of their grey jacket over their heads. Sasuke narrowed his eyes before he hurried off after the figure.
Arata watched Sasuke rush off.
Once he was a far enough distance, Arata sighed with relief. He reached into the pouch he reached into earlier and took out six small blue scrolls that have the kanji for clone on them.
'Six left.' Arata thought before clenching his hand into a fist. 'I better use them wisely.'
.
.
Arata stared at the fire for a moment as he remembered the close call.
"Just a few." Arata answered before taking another bite from his fish.
Shinachiku blinked his eyes. He stared at Arata for a moment before eating his fish.
"Well… the sooner we get this treasure, the sooner we can go home." Shinachiku said as he chewed on his fish.
"Hn." Arata nodded.
"Do you ever get tired of that response?" Shinachiku asked.
"No." Arata said before taking another bite.
"Then try saying something else." Shinachiku said with a smile.
Arata chewed a bit more and swallowed before responding.
"Yare yare." Arata said with his eyes closed.
"Tch. Other than that, dattebaro." Shinachiku said with a grin as he laughed, making Arata smile.
Once they were done with their breakfast, they put out the fire and put on their cloaks.
"I see you went back to your bright colors." Shinachiku said with a smile, referring to Arata's jacket which was back to its yellow and brown colors.
"I wouldn't call brown a bright color, but I figured there would be no point now. So long as we have these covering our person, there's no need to keep a muted palette." Arata explained.
"Plus, it reminds you of your mom." Shinachiku said, causing Arata's eyes to soften.
"Yes." Arata admitted with a small nod.
"Well, no worries. You'll get to see her real soon." Shinachiku said with a smile. "Well, let's get out of here. The Kakushi Dōmu no Jutsu (Hidden Dome Technique) won't last long. It's only good for twelve hours."
Arata nodded.
"I'll lead the way. I read the map before you woke up. So long as we keep moving, we'll make it to the next destination by nighttime." Arata said.
"Ā otoko~. This is going to be such a pain." Shinachiku said with a frown as he rubbed the back of his head.
"You're starting to sound like a Nara." Arata said as he put his head on.
"Psh, smartass." Shinachiku said as he put his hood on. "Well, hurry and lead the way. The longer we keep everyone waiting, the more and more they're getting pissed off."
Arata turned and hurried off with Shinachiku following him.
After they had left the Kakushi Dōmu, they hurried to travel out of the Valley.
Slithering to the top of a nearby stone was a purple snake. It stared at the pair of hooded figures, watching them hurried off into the distance with a hiss.
.
.
Naruto was going through his morning paperwork in his office. He tried going through them as efficiently as possible, but he was having a hard time concentrating as he couldn't rid his mind of the events last night.
Not only did a pair of thieves manage to steal a map to a forbidden treasure, but last night a group of Chunin and a pair of Jonin were taken down. The oddest thing from the report he read from Sakura, who thankfully he didn't have to meet face-to-face yet since the memory of last night was still very fresh in his mind, was that the shinobi did not earn any bruises or damage of any kind.
Apparently, they have been knocked out by pinpoint shot to their necks, which incapacitated them. Only a needle could accomplish it, but none were found, so it was possible that someone used a lightning jutsu on them.
Naruto stopped writing. He interlocked his hands together and leaned against the desk.
'A jutsu like that… and a sealing jutsu that was able to break a high-ranking seal… these two are tough.' Naruto thought to himself. 'Hate to say it… but maybe Sasuke is the only one who can come close to catching these two.'
Suddenly bursting through the door was none other than his son Boruto with his teammates, Sarada and Mitsuki, following.
"Oi! You better have a damn good explanation why you showed up late last night!" Boruto shouted as he stormed into his father's office.
"Boruto, behave yourself!" Sarada reprimanded her blonde teammate as she and her team stopped in front of the Hokage's desk. "Forgive us for the rude intrusion, Nanadaime-sama." Sarada apologized with a bow.
"Boruto, I don't have time for this right now." Naruto said.
"What? For your family?!" Boruto shouted with gritted teeth.
"If I had the time, I would have made it home last night, but something came up." Naruto said.
"What? More paperwork?" Boruto said with his arms crossed.
"No, but that would have been better than what happened last night." Naruto said.
"What did happen?" Sarada asked.
"A pair of suspicious individuals escaped Konoha last night." Mitsuki answered.
"What? Seriously? Who were they?" Boruto asked.
"We don't know, but we do know that they are pretty dangerous. They managed to take something important from Konoha." Naruto answered.
"What was it?"
"It's too delicate to explain, but if they find it, there could be big trouble for not just our village." Naruto said, shocking Team 7.
"Dammit… then send us and we'll take care of them!" Boruto requested.
"Can't do that." Naruto said shaking his head. "When I said these guys are dangerous, I mean it. They managed to take something that was protected behind a seal that was near impossible to break and they manage to send seventeen chunin and a pair of jonin to the hospital without laying a scratch on them." Naruto explained, shocking the three genin.
"Oh my God." Sarada said with shock.
"How? Genjutsu?" Mitsuki asked.
"We think it was a lightning style technique, but for one to be so refined is worrisome." Naruto said with a furrowed brow.
"More reason for us to go." Boruto said with new determination.
"Boruto, I think your father's right. These guys sound out of our league." Sarada said to her teammate as she put a hand on the blonde's shoulder.
"Oh, come on Sarada. We can handle anything, especially me. If I could beat Momoshiki, I'm sure I can take these guys." Boruto argued.
"Your father and mine helped you during that fight you idiot!" Sarada shouted with annoyance.
The sound of someone clearing their throat was heard making them all turn to see Konohamaru.
"Team 7, please step out. I need to discuss something confidential with Hokage-sama." Konohamaru ordered.
"Oh, come on, Konohamaru-onii-chan-" Sarada cleared her throat. "I mean, sensei." Boruto corrected himself.
"Now." Konohamaru ordered with a serious tone, which caused his students to react with surprise.
The three decided to listen to their sensei and walked out.
Konohamaru closed the door behind. After taking a few steps forward, he turned his head back to the door with narrowed eyes.
"Boruto!"
"I'm going!" Boruto shouted as he hurried off.
Konohamaru sighed, shaking his head before turning back to Naruto and walking up to his desk.
"Enma-sama, responded to you?" Naruto stated more than asked.
"Yeah. He explained what the treasure was. It's an ancient piece that can affect the continuum of space itself… but it can affect it to a degree that is beyond imagination." Konohamaru said, making Naruto's eyes narrow. "The treasure is called 'Sekai no Gētou~ei' (World's Gateway). It is said there is one in every world."
"Every world?"
"Yes. I'm afraid this tool has the ability to open dimensions to other worlds. Ones similar to our own in fact." Konohamaru explained, shocking Naruto.
Naruto sighed.
"Reminds me of the Gentei Tsukuyomi (Limited Moon Reader), if it wasn't a genjutsu." Naruto said with a frown.
"Excuse me?" Konohamaru questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Never mind. So, these thieves are aiming to take a relic that can allow them to hop into other dimensions?"
"Yes. It's possible they want to take it so they can escape this world. Either because they are sick of it, or they are wanted criminals who are in too deep." Konohamaru deduced. "However, there is some good news. Luckily the map they took only leads them to a second map, but once they acquire that one it will lead them to the treasure."
"Did Enma-sama tell you where the treasure is hidden?" Naruto asked.
"Yes. While we couldn't get the exact location, we do know that it was hidden within Kirigakure. Apparently before Kirigakure was built there was a village standing there before it, but it sank beneath the seas. Kirigakure was found and built over where the original village stood." Konohamaru then showed Naruto a strange monocle type stone. "Enma-sama handed me this. It is a lens that can uncover hidden messages around Kirigakure that can lead us to the buried city. Apparently when Kiri was constructed, the monkeys silently placed seals all over as clues in case the treasure needed to be attained. The seals are invisible to all, except ones with this type of lens or those with blood ties to the Ōtsutsuki clan." Konohamaru explained.
"Then let us go!" Boruto called out as he revealed himself at the window.
"Boruto!" Konohamaru shouted his student's name in shock and irritation.
"You said that only those with blood ties to the Ōtsutsuki clan can see them too." Boruto said as he hopped into his father's office. "Well guess who has an eye from that particular clan." Boruto said with a confident grin.
"Hmm. If they only have the map to another one, then that'll hopefully give us enough time to search for the treasure before they could reach Kiri." Naruto thought out loud as he rubbed his chin. "Alright. Team 7 will be sent to Kirigakure to acquire this relic before these thieves." Naruto announced.
"Alright!" Boruto cheered with a grin.
"But if you come across these thieves, only Konohamaru is allowed to engage them in battle. These two are skilled enough to handle a group of Chunin and Jonin, so it's best Konohamaru handles them while the rest of the team searches for the treasure." Naruto said.
"You can count on me, old man!" Boruto exclaimed with a grin and fist pump. "Hey, maybe Kagura can help out when we get there. Between Konohamaru-onii-chan and one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist, these guys won't stand a chance."
'Hopefully those two won't get there in time. Especially if Sasuke finds them.' Naruto thought to himself.
.
.
Shinachiku and Arata have been travelling for hours. They had not stopped moving since their departure from their camp.
Right now, they were travelling from treetop to treetop with Arata in the lead.
Shinachiku's stomach suddenly growled as he gained a hungry frown on his face.
"Crap. It's lunch time already." Shinachiku complained. "You think there's a village nearby where we could grab a bite to eat?"
"Hopefully we'll pass by a place." Arata said.
"Oi, Arata, you think if we try summoning, would it even work? I mean, we're not in our world so would they even appear?" Shinachiku asked, but then his stomach growled, making Shinachiku flinch with an embarrassed blush.
"I think your stomach wants you to think about what you're going to order instead." Arata said, making Shinachiku's blush to redden more as he held his stomach. "If we don't come across something in an hour, we'll have to hunt something. Just don't think about ramen in the meantime."
"I can't help myself. Ramen is so damn good~." Shinachiku said with a pout.
"Fine. Make yourself hungrier by the second then." Arata said, making Shinachiku whine with hunger. "Didn't you pack any Ramen Bars with you?"
"Well, yeah, but I don't know how long we'll be in this place. I want to ration them the best that I can." Shinachiku answered with a pout.
The continued to travel until they made it to edge of the forest where they came across a dirt road. They continued to travel down it and soon they noticed a village in the distance.
"A village! Finally! I hope they serve ramen!" Shinachiku cheered with a huge grin as he picked up the pace, leaving a dust cloud.
Luckily Arata was able to keep up with Shinachiku.
The two entered the village and looked around to find it as a moderately decent place.
Shinachiku moaned as he rubbed his stomach and licked his lips, looking around to find a place to eat. He got so impatient that he decided to walk up to a shop keep sweeping in front of the store.
"Excuse me, sir, do you know where I can find a place here that sells ramen?" Shinachiku asked.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, there's this yakiniku barbeque joint down this road on the left that sells ramen there." The older man answered.
"Sweet! Arigato yo!" Shinachiku thanked the older man with a grateful grin and wave as he ran off with Arata following.
The traveled down the road like the older man said until they came across the yakiniku barbeque restaurant.
Shinachiku ran in with Arata joining at a much calmer pace.
.
.
Shinachiku slurped up noodles from his fifth bowl of miso ramen with a huge smile on his face.
"That'll be enough. We need to conserve ryo." Arata said.
"Oh, wait, if we pay with our own money doesn't that mean our own home loses a couple ryo that they'll never see again?" Shinachiku asked.
"Who's going to miss a couple of ryo?" Arata said as he ate some meat from the grill.
"I guess." Shinachiku said before having more of his ramen. "Hey, you mind sharing some of that grilled meat?"
"You willing to spend a little more?" Arata asked, making Shinachiku pout before slurping up his ramen broth.
Once the two were done, they paid and walked out of the restaurant.
"Man, I miss Ichiraku ramen. I also miss having more than five bowls of ramen whenever I'm hungry." Shinachiku said with a grin as he patted his belly.
"That's more out of a gluttonous behavior. Five bowls will be more than enough to hold you over for our travels." Arata said.
"Yeah, yeah, I guess." Shinachiku said rubbing the back of his hooded head as they resumed their travel. Shinachiku's eyes softened. "Oi Arata… I'm starting to sound like my old man, aren't I?" Shinachiku asked with a soft sad smile on his faced.
Arata looked to Shina for a moment before responding with a 'hn' and a nod.
"Oi! This tea is too hot!" A voice shouted, earning Shinachiku and Arata's attention. "Are you trying to destroy my mouth?!" A burly man with black hair and five o'clock shadow shouted at a woman with a pink kimono.
The burly man had a naginata on his back and was with a group of men. They all were dressed in sleeveless shirts, baggy pants and sandals. They were possibly a rag tag group of bandits or mercenaries.
"I'm sorry! The last time you were here, you said my tea was too cold. I'm sorry if I heated it too much." The dark-haired woman with the pink kimono said with a worried look on her face, but then she was suddenly slapped across the face, sending her to the floor.
"Hey!" Shinachiku shouted with anger as he ran over with Arata following. "You don't hit a woman like that! She was just trying to give you good tea."
"Mind your own business brat! Besides, it was too hot!" The burly man shouted.
"Then you should have let it cool down." Arata said.
"Oh, a wise guy, aren't you?" The burly man said with a frown as he narrowed his eyes at Arata.
"Stirring up a scene like this just because you burned your mouth with some hot tea. Yare yare… very childish in my opinion." Arata said with a frown.
"Totally childish!" Shinachiku exclaimed with gritted teeth.
The burly man growled with rage, baring his teeth.
"You brats…" The burly man said as he grabbed the shaft of his naginata.
"Heh. These kids should have kept their mouths shut." A member of the group with spiky sienna brown hair said with a smirk.
"I'll Fry You!" The burly man shouted as he pulled out his naginata with the blade producing lightning. "Eat This!" He shouted as lightning shot from his naginata and towards Shinachiku, but when it got close Arata took out his chokuto and blocked the lightning attack with his blade, which absorbed the lightning and surrounded the blade. "Nani?!" The burly man shouted, but then suddenly Shinachiku appeared in front of him.
"Chanaro!" Shinachiku yelled out he slammed his fist into the burly man's stomach, causing his eyes to bulge right before he was sent flying across the street and slamming into the side of a building.
Everyone looked to the defeated man with their jaws dropped and eyes wide.
"Baka." Shinachiku said as he stood up straight.
"You bastard!" One of the men said as they readied their weapons, but faster than they could see, Arata unsheathed his chokuto and slashed at all, but one of them, causing them all to yell out in pain and fall to the floor.
The last remaining of the group, the spiky sienna brown hair one, screamed with horror as he took a step back looking down at his fellow ruffians, but then he noticed something.
"W-wait… there's no blood. They look like they were cut into, but there are no wounds. How?!" The last degenerate questioned with shock, confusion and fear.
"My friend's blade is unique. Don't worry. They're alive and well. Just unconscious." Shinachiku said as he walked over to the last remaining member of the group.
"You… You Little Shit!" The spiky haired hoodlum shouted as he took out his sword and sent a downward slash down to Shinachiku, but Shina simply brought his fist up, which met the blade of the sword, causing it to shatter into pieces, shocking everyone. The spiky haired man looked to his damaged weapon before dropping it and freaking out. "Ba… Bakemono!" (Monster!) The spiky haired man shouted, pointing at Shinachiku with fear.
Arata suddenly performed an atemi chop upon the man's neck, knocking him out.
Bystanders stared in shock and awe at the scene they had just witnessed.
Shinachiku walked over to the woman on the floor, scaring her a bit. Shinachiku knelt down and gently placed his hand on the cheek that was slapped.
The woman flinched with her eyes closed, but she suddenly felt the pain subsiding. In fact, she felt a tender, warm sensation around it as her cheek felt like it was becoming good as new. She opened her eyes to notice the boy's hand against her cheek was glowing green. He brought his hand back allowing her to put her hand against her cheek to finally realize it was all healed.
"All better?" Shinachiku asked, earning a nod from the woman. "Good." Shinachiku said with a smile as he stood up and offered his hand to the woman, who gladly took it, allowing the young man to lift her to her feet.
"Arigato." The woman said with a smile.
"Anyone have any rope?" Shinachiku asked any of the nearby villagers.
After finding some, Shinachiku and Arata tied up the men.
"Thanks for that. These guys stuck around way too long in this village." A bearded male villager said.
"I'm guessing this place has no shinobi to defend against these men, mainly their leader." Arata said.
"Yeah. No jutsu users around here, sadly."
"How come you never asked Konoha for help? I'm sure they'd be happy to send some shinobi for help." Shinachiku asked.
"Nobody is willing to leave since they're part of a bandit tribe that lives near this village." The male villager answered.
"Where?" Arata asked.
"Hmm?"
"Where is this tribe?"
"You two don't mean to go and fight them, do you?" A male teenage villager asked.
"Eh. We can handle them." Shinachiku said with a grin as he cracked his knuckles. "Just tell us where they are, and we'll send them packing."
"Hmm." The bearded male villager thought about it, until he figured that since they took care of these thugs, might as well give it a shot. "Fine. They're at the northeast side of this village."
"Gotcha! Let's go Ara-" Arata cleared his throat. "Uh, I mean partner." Shinachiku corrected himself before he and Arata leaped into the air and started hopping from rooftop to rooftop.
Unknown to the pair, up in the sky watching them with his incredible ocular jutsu was Sasuke, atop of his hawk summon, Garuda.
Shinachiku and Arata made it out of the village and travelled from treetop to treetop.
Following the directions they were given it wasn't long until they noticed an open area where a camp of bandits was.
"This'll be quick." Arata said as he took out smoke bombs while Shinachiku took out a pair of black fingerless gloves with metal studs on the knuckles of them and the back of the hand exposed. Arata threw them into the camp, causing bursts of large clouds of smoke that covered the area, shocking the tribe of bandits.
Shinachiku put on his gloves with a grin, before he jumped into smoke and brought his fingers into a cross sign.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Shinachiku exclaimed as several clones appeared with him in the smoke.
The sounds of impact and pained screams were heard within the smoke.
.
.
Shinachiku and Arata dropped off the bandits at village, tied up with the villagers putting them in prison wagons.
"Thanks for that. You did our village a big service." The bearded villager from earlier said with a smile.
"No problem. Anything to help." Shinachiku said with a grin and hands behind his head.
"We have to go." Arata said to Shinachiku. He turned to the villagers and gave them a small bow. "Stay safe." Arata said before he turned to walk away.
"Right! See you all later!" Shinachiku exclaimed as he hurried off to join Arata, giving the villagers one final wave, which they returned as they watched the young heroes hurry off towards their next destination.
"You're welcomed here anytime!" The bearded villager called out with a smile as everyone cheered and shouted out their goodbyes.
Shinachiku and Arata hurried their pace, hopping from branch to branch within the forest.
"We'll be at our destination by nightfall." Arata said.
"Can't believe how close this treasure is." Shinachiku said.
"It's not the treasure. The map said it leads to another map that shows the location of the actual relic." Arata explained.
"What?! Who makes a map that leads to a map that leads to treasure?!" Shinachiku exclaimed with annoyed anime eyes.
"Someone who wanted to make double sure that it wouldn't be easy to find." Arata said as he and Shinachiku continued, still unknowing of the fact that they were being followed.
.
.
For hours the two young, cloaked shinobi had travelled as the sky was now dark.
Shinachiku and Arata stopped at the edge of a cliff, looking down at a large body of water surrounded by a forest and another cliff across from the one they are on.
Arata opened the scroll and read some inscription at the bottom.
"It says that there is a cave under this lake, but it can only be accessed by putting the seals written at the bottom of this scroll into one singular one on a person's palm and place it against the surface of the water." Arata explained before handing the scroll to Shinachiku.
Shinachiku examined the seal pieces at the bottom of the scroll.
"Seems simple enough." Shinachiku said.
"You sure? The inscriptions also said that if done incorrectly, the result would be dire." Arata warned.
"Oi, have a little faith in me. When I say I'm going to accomplish something, I mean it. Besides, I'm an Uzumaki. These things are like puzzle games to us." Shinachiku said with a confident smile as he pocketed the scroll.
The two jumped down towards the water, landing atop of its surface and made their way towards the center of the lake.
Shinachiku took out the scroll again and examined the seal pieces at the bottom. After examining them thoroughly, Shinachiku handed the scroll back to Arata, before biting his thumb. He wrote the combination of seals upon his hand to make a whole new one on the palms of his hands and fingers. He slammed his hand against the surface of the water, causing a light blue glow to shine around Shina's hand which then expanded to reveal a light blue glowing seal that expanded throughout the entire body of water.
Out coming from the water in front of them was a stone structure with a door made of stone at the front of it with the same seal on it.
The giant seal on the water shrunk back into the center where it surrounded the stone entrance as the seal on the door of it glowed light blue. After a moment, the stone door opened with a rumble revealing a flight of stairs.
Shinachiku blinked his eyes in surprised before grinning.
"Told ya! Yatta!" Shinachiku said to Arata as he stood back up on his own two feet.
"Hn." Arata nodded with a smile.
"Well, let's go in." Shinachiku said as he took a few steps forward but stopped and turned to Arata to see he hadn't moved. "Doshta?" (What's up?) Shinachiku asked.
Arata tossed the scroll to Shinachiku.
"You go on ahead."
"Nani?" Shinachiku questioned with shock.
"The scroll said that within the caverns are various traps and doors that work via fuinjutsu. You're a fuinjutsu expert and with your use of clones, you can handle this part alone. I'd just slow you down." Arata explained.
"What? That's stupid! We work better as a team!" Shinachiku argued.
"Shinachiku, trust me. You have to be the one to go on from here. I'll hang back and keep this entrance guarded." Arata said in a calm yet serious manner.
"But… guarded?" Shinachiku questioned. After a moment, he realized what was up. "Arata-"
"Go." Arata ordered.
Shinachiku stared at Arata with a worried yet determined look. With a nod, Shinachiku turned and headed down the stairs that led to the caverns below.
Arata stayed silent, staring at the entrance in front of him. After a moment, he turned around to meet Sasuke, standing across from him.
"You knew I was following you both." Sasuke stated. "That's why you restrained yourself the best you could during battle. I'm surprised that you didn't tell your partner, so he'd do the same."
"Even if I did tell him, he'd still use those techniques. Just because someone was watching him doesn't mean he would refrain from using his techniques. Mainly when people are depending on him." Arata said.
"Hn." Sasuke said, closing his eyes for a moment. 'Sounds like someone I know.' Sasuke thought before opening his eyes again. "Who are you?" Sasuke asked, but Arata stayed silent. "I knew that would be pointless."
"Then why ask?" Arata asked.
"Was worth a shot after what I saw." Sasuke answered. "You two… aren't real criminals, are you?"
"We stole a piece of forbidden history." Arata stated.
"But your intentions aren't villainous, are they?" Sasuke asked. Arata stayed silent. "If you mean no harm, then turn yourselves in."
"I cannot do that."
"Why?"
"… I feel… it would cause more distress that way… for everyone." Arata confessed.
Sasuke stared at the boy for a few moments. This child. Though he could tell deep inside of him he was nervous, he had to give the young boy credit for remaining so reserved in both composure and when it came to his words.
The odd thing that intrigued Sasuke was that this boy was strangely… familiar. Whether it was his composure or attitude he was not sure, but something about this young man gave Sasuke an eerie feeling, as if this person he had just met was someone very close to him.
He was curious on who this young man was, but that will have to wait.
Both Sasuke and Arata grabbed the hilts of their chokutos. They slowly pulled out their blades, mimicking one another's movements, even to the point of their battle stances.
Sasuke blinked his eyes in surprise at the young man's battle stance being the exact same as his own.
This was getting a bit… unnerving.
Arata readied his stance and tightened his grip as he stared at his father's counterpart.
'I know technically our relationship, besides blood, is non-existent, but still… I'm sorry, tou-san.' Arata thought before he charged forward.
Sasuke simply stood in place as his opponent charged at him.
The two clashed blades, but Arata quickly bounced back as he tossed a kunai at Sasuke.
Sasuke blocked it with his chokuto but noticed a tag with a tag on it with a seal on it. The seal glowed silver as Sasuke felt a pull on his chokuto.
Arata pulled a near invisible wire that brought the tagged kunai back towards him.
Sasuke's chokuto, Kusanagi, was then pulled out of his hand and followed the tag.
Arata quickly brought his finger out at the right time to have his finger touch the seal with a bit of chakra, shutting it off, before he grabbed Kusanagi by the hilt. Arata landed upon the water with two chokutos in each hand.
Sasuke blinked his eyes before smirking.
"Not bad." Sasuke complimented. "I know you're not going to use that. Back in that village, when you used your blade, it did not cut those bandits, but the force behind it still injured them. Your chokuto uses the blunt side of its blade for battle. Able to harm others without leaving any sort of fatal wounds. Even though you could do the same with it, you won't be using my Kusanagi. You'd rather not take the chance."
Arata tightened the grip on Kusanagi. He flipped it in the air and grabbed another kunai with the same seal tag and tossed it away, causing Sasuke's chokuto to follow, but thanks to his superior speed, Sasuke grabbed the blade of his chokuto and used a small fire jutsu on the tagged kunai to burn away the seal.
Sasuke's hand bled from the feeling of the blade of Kusanagi cut into his hand. He stared at the hilt to notice a tag wrapped around the hilt.
"Not a bad strategy." Sasuke said, looking to Arata, revealing his sharingan. Sasuke flipped his chokuto up into the air as his hand suddenly sparked with lightning and in one swift motion, he ripped off the tag from the hilt and tossed it away as the lightning burned the tag away right as he grabbed the chokuto's hilt. "I'm not a sealing expert, but I'm willing to bet that the seal tag would have temporarily rendered my arm useless."
Arata lowered his head a bit.
He knew this battle would be challenging, impossible even seeing as this is still Sasuke Uchiha, but his goal wasn't to defeat him.
He just needed to buy time.
"You're not going to make this easy. I'll just have to finish this quickly then." Sasuke said as his sharingan shined.
Arata readied his chokuto as he ran forward.
He had to make sure that Sasuke didn't make the first move, or it will be the end.
Even though it's not really his style, he has to be the one on the offense. If he allows Sasuke to go on the attack, it'll be over.
Arata clashed his chokuto with Sasuke's. He sent several slashes that Sasuke effortlessly blocked, then he sent a roundhouse that Sasuke backed away from, but as he spun in place, he tossed another tag seal at Sasuke's feet.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes as he hurried to move back, but when the seal glowed white it burst with a large shockwave of wind, surprising Sasuke who gritted his teeth. Sasuke's sharingan noticed the cloaked boy going through hand seals.
"Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique) Arata screamed as he blew a large blast of fire at the wind shockwave, causing a large explosion of fire to engulf the area along with Sasuke.
Arata then made a one-handed bird seal as he concentrated his chakra around his body. He felt a small spark at the right shoulder. Arata quickly turned in time to block Sasuke's chokuto slash with his own, but the force behind it caused Arata to skid back.
Sasuke stared at the boy with new intrigue.
'So, he can use fire jutsu and lightning jutsu.' Sasuke thought to himself.
Arata quickly recomposed himself back into a battle stance. He steeled his gaze and tightened the grip around his hilt.
'Hurry as fast as you can Shina. I'm not sure how long until he decides to stop holding back.'
.
.
Shinachiku ran down the stairs as he made a clone seal, creating a pair of shadow clones to appear with him; one in front of him and another behind him. They continued to hurry down the stairs, until they felt a small rumble, most likely caused by an explosion.
"Arata…"
"We have to keep going. Kami, knows how long he'll be able to keep our pursuer busy." One of Shinachiku's clone said.
All three hurried down the stairs until the made it to the bottom, but suddenly the clone in the front was suddenly electrocuted by bolts of lightning that came from the walls.
It dispersed after it was shocked as Shina and his remaining clones had wide eyes. Shinachiku looked to the walls where the clone was electrocuted to notice a pair of seals, one on each of them.
Shinachiku created another clone, before taking out his notepad and wrote a pair of seals that he then ripped out and placed on the walls, causing a glow as the trap seals shattered apart.
"Child's play." Shinachiku said with a smirk.
"I'll take point." The newly made clone said as he walked forward, but after taking a few steps from the bottom of the stairs, a large seal appeared below the clone, before spikes made of earth shot out from it and stabbed the clone to death, causing it to disperse like the previous one before.
Shinachiku and his remaining clone stared ahead with wide eyes and gaped mouths, shocked by the second deadly trap, before frowning with tired expressions.
"This is gonna take a while." Shinachiku said with annoyance.
.
.
Arata continued to clash against Sasuke, slashing at him with his chokuto, but Sasuke was just effortlessly blocking them.
Arata was sweating, but not of fatigue, but because he was very nervous.
Sasuke was pretty close to deciding to stop playing around with this young man.
Arata had no choice. He wanted to refrain from using any lightning style techniques, because he knew his father, especially a counterpart of him, could counter it very effectively, but given the situation, he needed to do something quickly before Sasuke takes things serious enough to finish it all in one hit.
Arata delivered a couple more slashes that were blocked, before he leaped into the air and sent a dual kick, which Sasuke blocked with the flat side of his blade. Arata flew into the air, sheathing his chokuto, catching Sasuke's attention. He now was upside down in midair and quickly took out several shuriken, shocking Sasuke at the eerily familiar position, before tossing them at Uchiha.
Sasuke easily parried every one of the shuriken, but he noticed some electrical sparks with each one.
The shuriken that Sasuke parried were then struck by more shuriken tossed by the cloaked boy and after they were all a good distance from one another, they sparked with electricity before lightning suddenly shot from each and every one of them, striking one another, connecting them into a chain of electricity that form an electrical net around Sasuke.
Sasuke's eyes widened with shock at the technique and skill of this boy.
Arata had already landed upon the water and stood up straight, staring at Sasuke.
'Raiton: Inazuma Keimusho no Jutsu (Lightning Release: Lightning Prison Technique). My own personal technique. A near inescapable technique. At least on someone who isn't an expert on lightning jutsu. Even still, it can be a difficult obstacle for even them. Especially for someone like my chichioya (father).' Arata thought to himself.
Sasuke noticed how the jutsu worked. The shuriken he used were still spinning in the air, acting as the points that connected the lightning together.
Sasuke re-sheathed his chokuto and took out a kunai, encased it in lightning and threw it at a strong speed, striking one of the kunai, hoping to send it out of place to disrupt the jutsu's connection, but right before it made contact, lightning struck the tossed kunai which then shot another bolt of lightning towards Sasuke, striking him.
Sasuke had quickly summoned a Chidori to his hand, acting as a rod to absorb the lightning instead, but he was suddenly struck by more lightning from the rest of the shuriken.
Sasuke gritted his teeth in pain as he felt the lightning encase his body, harming it to a severe degree. Sasuke's left eyes suddenly glowed purple as he was forced to use one of his Six Paths techniques.
"Shinra Tensei!" Sasuke shouted as an invisible force shot from Sasuke, releasing an invisible dome of power that repelled the lightning and broke apart the jutsu, sending the shuriken flying far away.
Sasuke panted from both the harm brought to his body and the necessity of chakra he instantly used. More from the former than the latter. His body produced some steam from the burns brought upon his skin and clothing. He slowly stood back up to his feet and stared at the young man with a stern expression.
'An impressive technique. Acting as a prison and an attack at the same time. The shuriken worked as both the points that connected the lightning together and as an attack if disrupted, making what seemed like a weakness of disrupting one of their positions into a deadly trap. Attack one and it will fire back while sending signals to the rest to follow its lead.' Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the cloaked boy. 'This one… somehow I doubt he learned this technique from someone else.'
'Not a bad distraction. It may have been a few seconds, but every bit counts.' Arata thought as he readied himself for the next round.
"You're strong for your age. No one your age has ever forced me to use one of 'those' techniques. Especially in the first few minutes of a battle." Sasuke commented.
Arata tensed a bit, knowing things will be more difficult. He did a one-handed bird seal once again as he readied himself. He felt a spark in front of his hand seal, alerting him.
Sasuke appeared in front of Arata and clashed blades with him once more. Sasuke started sending slashes that were pushing back the young boy.
Arata quickly hopped back the chance he got, but Sasuke chased after him every time he hurried back. Arata quickly tossed a kunai with a seal tag like before. Sasuke easily dodged it, but right as the kunai passed him, the seal glowed bright. He noticed it, so he quickly put his chokuto back into scabbard, but even after he did, he felt a pull. However, he didn't feel his chokuto being pulled back, but his right shoulder and side.
'Nani?' Sasuke thought with surprise.
Arata quickly tossed several more kunai with magnetic tags attached to them pass Sasuke and once the tags glowed, Sasuke felt himself pulled back away from the cloaked boy.
'Got him!' Arata thought as he readied to make his hand seals.
'It's me! That jutsu didn't just attack me with lightning, it effected my body's electromagnetism and made me more magnetic!' Sasuke thought with gritted teeth. He noticed Arata go through several seals as he breathed in air. 'Dammit!'
"Katon: Karyū Tatsumaki!" (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Tornado) Arata shouted as he blew out a stream of fire in the shape of a dragon. The fire dragon charged and bit into Sasuke before spiraling around in a fast motion creating a rising tornado made of fire.
After a moment, Sasuke unleashed another Shinra Tensei that blew away the flames and Arata.
Arata flipped in the air and landed upon the water, skidding back some until he halted and stood up straight.
Sasuke panted as his body produced smoke and steam. He tightened his fist and furrowed his brows. He remained still for a few moments, but then he brought his hand up and aimed it at the cloaked young man.
Arata readied to move, but even when injured so badly, Sasuke was still the faster of the two to act.
"Banshō Ten'in!" Sasuke shouted as an invisible force pulled Arata towards Sasuke. Once close, Sasuke grabbed Arata by the collar and glared at him. Sasuke was able to see the boy's grey eyes.
'Dammit. I can't believe I pushed him to use his Rinnegan like this in such a short time.' Arata thought with gritted teeth.
"Who are you?" Sasuke questioned with narrowed eyes. He got no answer from the boy. "Hn. Alright then… I'll find out myself." Sasuke said as his sharingan shined blood red.
Arata's eyes widened with shock and fear as he felt himself being pulled from reality into a world of genjutsu. His emotions got the best of him as when he felt the pull, his own sharingan activated and shined blood red as well.
Sasuke's eyes widened in shock at seeing his opponent's own sharingan.
Arata quickly sent finger jabs at Sasuke's arm and shoulder before kicking him in the chest, managing to get out of his grasp and away from him.
Sasuke stared at the cloaked boy with a shocked expression, while Arata stood up with a frown on his face.
'Dammit. I screwed up.' Arata thought with self-disappointment.
Sasuke stared at the young man for a moment before he gained a serious expression. He then looked to his arm, feeling a twinge of pain and a strange sensation.
'Those jabs… I wonder…' Sasuke thought as he then brought his hand up and made a half-tiger hand seal as he tried sending his chakra through his arm, but felt his flow stop, unable to pass through certain points. 'I see… those jabs… were of the Jūken.' (Gentle Fist) Sasuke thought with narrowed eyes. He looked to the young man, keeping a straight face, but was astonished by what he no doubt had to be. 'I can't believe it…'
Arata brought up his chokuto as he furrowed his brow.
'Shinachiku… please hurry.'
.
.
Shinachiku panted with a pair of clones as they made it pass an entire large hallway filled with seal traps. Now the hallway was filled with paper seals attached to the walls, floor and ceiling.
"I can't believe it. All this in one hallway." A clone said with his hands on his knees.
"I mean I get they had to in order to protect this other map, but still, damn, 'ttebaro." The other clone said as he stood up straight with his fist brought up.
"Hopefully this is it." Shinachiku said as he stood up straight, staring at a door straight ahead. "If not for the seal traps this all literally would have been as simple as moving forward until the end."
"Let's hurry! We don't want to leave Arata hanging." One of the clones said with a pair of fist pumps.
"Hai." Shinachiku and the other clones said. Shinachiku examined the large door in front of him that had a large seal upon it. Shinachiku examined it. He rubbed his as he walked closer. He looked around it more thoroughly. He suddenly noticed ash at the bottom of his feet. He knelt down and wiped his fingers against the ash covered pavement. He brought it closer to his face, examining it. He blinked his eyes before looking back up at the seal. His eyes widened with shock and fear. "Holy shit…"
"What?" A clone asked.
"This seal… is meant to incinerate people into ash." Shinachiku said with shock and horror as he stood up from the ground.
"HUH?!" Both his clones shouted before looking down at the ground to see the ash.
"You mean these people-"
"Holy crap… this is sick!"
"A damn good seal." Shinachiku said as he took a step back. He narrowed his eyes as he looked to every corner of the seal. "It's intricate. I'm trying to get a grasp on it, but…"
"The seal seems okay on my end. At least around here." The clone on Shinachiku's right said pointing at certain parts of the seal.
"Hmm?" Shinachiku classic blinked his eyes in surprise and confusion.
"Same here. See?" The other clone on Shina's left said pointing at certain points of the seal on his end as well.
Shinachiku walked in front of the clone on the right, noticing what he was talking about. He then did the same on the other end and found what the clone on his left was talking about.
Shinachiku perked up as he realized what was up.
"That's it!" Shinachiku exclaimed said with a snap of his fingers, making his clones look to him.
Shinachiku quickly took out his notepad and pen and started quickly writing down a seal before tossing it at the door causing it to stick. Shina started writing more, throwing more paper seals at the door, forming a ring of seals.
"This is just like the ones for the entrance. Several seals formed into one large one! The only difference is I have to make several seals to form one giant one to break it apart!" Shinachiku exclaimed with determination.
"From the looks of it the only way this seal is going to work is if a lot of chakra is poured into it." The clone on Shinachiku's left said.
"Even if all three of us put our chakra together it won't work. Especially with how many clones you had to make to get through the hallway." The clone on Shina's right said with a frown and arms crossed.
"Then we'll have to rely on some of his help." Shinachiku said.
"You sure he'll be awake?" The clone on his left asked.
"It's either he helps, or we'll all turn to ash." Shinachiku said. He then closed his eyes and focused. The Shinachiku clones stared at their original with anticipation. Shinachiku remained still for some time, but after a while he opened his eyes. "Alright! Let's do this!" Shinachiku said with a look of pure determination.
"Right!" The clones said with a nod and the same determined expressions.
The three slammed their hands against the door and started sending their chakra into the seals on the door and ring of paper. The seal on the door glowed red while the seals on the papers glowed blue. The whole area shined red and blue.
Shinachiku gritted his teeth as he tried sending more chakra into the seals.
The door's seal glowed bright, causing more red light to envelope the area.
Suddenly a red lightning struck the Shinachiku clone on the original's right. The clone screamed as he suddenly disintegrated into ash.
"Damn!" The original Shinachiku cursed.
"Focus!" The remaining clone exclaimed.
The two sent more chakra as their palms started glowing gold, but it and the blue light started to grow weaker as the red seal took over more and more.
The remaining clone was struck with red lightning as well.
"Crap! It's up to you now!" The remaining clone shouted as he started disintegrating into ash. "Don't give up! Get back home! You promised Arata!" The clone said before disintegrating completely.
Shinachiku's eyes widened at his clone's last words. Shina gritted his teeth and glared ahead as more of the red light started to consume the area. Shinachiku's hands were starting to burn with the skin breaking apart. Shinachiku growled with his brow furrowed. He started thinking about his home, his family, and his friends.
His thoughts then went to last night. What he said to his best friend. What he promised.
"I promise… we will get back home."
That promise he made… the smiles he and Arata shared as they bumped fists…
That trust… He Refused To Break It!
"Dammit! I Swore! Oi! We're Not Going Out Like This! Help Me Out Here! GIVE ME MORE CHAKRA!" Shinachiku screamed as the iris of his eyes glowed gold. His hands burst with golden flames. He unleashed a loud battle cry as his hair raised up with golden flaming chakra surrounding him.
The blue seals suddenly glowed bright and turned gold, overtaking the red light as the hall now glowed gold.
Shinachiku continued to let out a loud determined yell as his whole body glowed gold and burst with gold flaming chakra.
.
.
Sasuke continued to clash with Arata with their blades, pushing him back while glaring at him. He sent a hard slash down at Arata, forcing him to block, but the force behind the attack was so strong that it pushed him down to one of his knees.
Arata gritted his teeth as he felt overpowered by his father's counterpart.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes down at Arata. He didn't know who exactly who this child was, but he was determined to find out.
Suddenly Sasuke's eyes widened as he felt… a very eerily familiar chakra source. One he fought against numerous times. Especially at the conclusion of the war.
Sasuke turned towards the entrance where he sensed the energy. A faint golden glow was illuminating from within the entrance.
'That… that chakra… it can't be…' Sasuke thought with an utterly shocked expression.
Arata quickly took the opportunity and pushed away Sasuke's blade. He rushed forward as electricity sparked around the fingers of his free hand. He sent several strikes with his fingers into Sasuke's torso and finished with a palm strike that sent him skidding back.
Sasuke gritted his teeth as he felt his body tremble. He fell on his knee as he not only felt his chakra pathways and organs ache, but also his muscles. The muscles in his torso felt like they were in knots and aching. Sasuke looked to Arata to see his hand generate a few sparks before vanishing as Arata exhaled.
'Jūken mixed with lightning release… deadly combo. I'm shocked such a style never existed before.' Sasuke thought as he tried getting back to his feet, but he stumbled a bit. 'I'm rather disappointed in myself. I should really stop underestimating people… like I stopped when it came to him.' Sasuke thought as he managed to stay on his feet.
Arata readied himself to go on the attack, but suddenly Sasuke Rinnegan shined purple as he suddenly vanished, shocking Arata before he suddenly felt weak as the world grew dark.
Sasuke panted as he had his hand out in a chopping motion. He performed an atemi chop to Arata's neck, rendering him unconscious.
'This boy… he wasn't half bad.' Sasuke thought as he stared down at the defeated young man. 'A treasure that alters the continuum of space itself… does that include space that is not of our own? Are you…' Sasuke knelt down, extending his hand towards the young man, but suddenly he noticed several shadows over him. His eyes looked up to see three of the other cloaked boy.
"Get Away From Him!" They all screamed as they had their fists cocked back. "CHANARO!" They all screamed as they dived down and slammed their fists where Sasuke stood, creating large splashes of water to rise up into the air as a small shockwave shot across the area.
Sasuke managed to leap back away from the attacks, flinching as he still felt his torso was in knots from the previous assault. From viewing the plumes of water, he could tell that if he took those hits in the injured state, he was currently then he would have been rendered unfit to continue.
The water splashed back into the lake itself, revealing a pair of clones ready in battle stances, while the third one was kneeling down with the other cloaked boy in his arms, healing him at the neck with healing jutsu as his hand was surrounded in green chakra.
Arata groaned as he started to awaken. He looked up to notice Shinachiku.
"Shina… suman." (Sorry) Arata apologized.
"No worries. Let me handle this. I got enough in me for one more seal." Shinachiku said with a smirk. He suddenly created another clone before helping Arata to his feet with his arm around his neck. "Keep an eye on him." Shinachiku said as he handed Arata to his clone.
"Right." Shina's clone said with a nod.
Shinachiku stood up straight as he and his clones took out one of the tantos around their belts.
Sasuke blinked his eyes as he noticed something.
'Those tantos… don't I have ones just like them?'
"Let's go!" Shinachiku cried out.
"Yossha!" His clones shouted out as they all rushed forward, except the one with Arata.
Sasuke readied himself the best he could with his chokuto out.
Shinachiku and his clones each did a single hand seal with their pinkies and thumbs raised while the rest of their fingers were closed against the palm.
"Fūton: Shinkūjin!" (Wind Release: Vacuum Blade) They called out before taking deep breaths then exhaling out chakra infused wind that surrounded the blades of their tantos.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he remembered that jutsu from his battle with Danzo.
The clones and caster all let out battle cries as they clashed with Sasuke. Sasuke easily parried and push them away, but they came at him with ferocity.
The Uchiha parried a slash and did a sweep kick to one clone, before blocking a slash that came from behind then sent a slash that sliced into the clone behind him as it then disappeared while the other one rolled away before meeting any sort of similar fate.
Shinachiku quickly did another cross-hand seal making several more clones, making a total of seven with himself making eight Shinachikus in total.
Sasuke was surprised that this one boy was able to make this many.
The clones each made their own Vacuum Blades before charging at Sasuke.
Sasuke clashed his sword with each of them, slicing and kicking them away. He sent a strong slash that sent several away before dispersing in smoke, but suddenly a clone came out from under the water ready to punch him. Sasuke leaped into the air, but when the clone sent the punch, though it missed contact, it sent a compacted force of wind out and clashed into Sasuke's torso, sending him flying upwards.
A clone met Sasuke up above and slammed his hand into Sasuke's back.
"Got him!" The clone shouted, before Sasuke spun in the air and kicked the clone away.
Sasuke soon landed upon the ground. He stood up with some blood going down the side of his lip.
Shinachiku stood across from Sasuke.
The two stared at one another with stern glares. They readied their blades.
Shinachiku bent his knees as he extended his tanto forward then gave a battle cry as he rushed forward. He and Sasuke clashed blades, but when they did, Shinachiku threw a paper tag down at Sasuke's feet, surprising the Uchiha who pushed his opponent away.
Shinachiku skidded back and when he came to a halt, he quickly made a hand seal.
"Jūryoku: Hiku!" (Gravity: Pull) Shinachiku called out as the seal below Sasuke glowed dark purple, then suddenly Sasuke was slammed into the ground by an invisible force.
Sasuke gritted his teeth as he tried to push himself up from the surface of the water, but the invisible gravitation force was too strong.
'Damn! To think… such a technique…' Sasuke glared up at the cloaked young boy as his clones vanished. He noticed the other one push off the remaining clone and walked up to the side of his partner. 'These two… really are powerful shinobi… for their age…' Sasuke thought as he felt his body start to sink into the water below.
"Did you get it?" Arata asked.
"Yeah. Got it in my pouch." Shinachiku answered.
"Then let's move." Arata said as he and Shinachiku hurried off.
Shinachiku kept the hand seal he was using before making sure that the seal he was using before was still in effect.
Sasuke grunted as he watched the two cloaked shinobi run off.
Once they made it into the forest, they turned back towards where Sasuke was as he was almost completely under the surface of the water with his face halfway sunken in.
"Kai!" Shinachiku called out.
The paper seal under Sasuke stopped glowing as the jutsu shut off.
Sasuke burst out from under the water taking in a deep breath. He panted as he managed to regain himself to kneel against the surface of the water. He panted as he turned towards the direction the boys left. Sasuke quickly bit his thumb and slammed his hand against the surface of the water, summoning an average sized hawk.
"A pair of young shinobi ran off that way. Followed them but keep your distance. I only want you to keep an eye on them, understand?" Sasuke ordered, earning a nod from the hawk before it took flight, heading towards the direction Sasuke pointed towards. Sasuke then made a few hand seals to summon once more, this time summoning Garuda. Sasuke slowly climbed atop of the large hawk before speaking. "We need to get back to Konoha."
Garuda let out a loud out a high pitch screech with his wingspan wide open before taking to the air.
.
.
Shinachiku and Arata hurried through the forest. For a long time, they kept running, making sure they were a good distance away.
They knew never to underestimate Sasuke Uchiha, even if he might be in an injured state.
Once making it far enough, Shinachiku panted a bit before he sighed with relief.
"Man… I can't believe it! We actually beat your dad!" Shinachiku exclaimed with a grin.
"A counterpart. He wasn't the man who raised me. My chichioya." Arata said, not facing Shinachiku. "And we only managed to achieve a win because he didn't know anything about us… but now he does. He knows what we can do… and who we are."
"Huh? I wouldn't go that far. I mean, yeah I made some clones and maybe healing you and those seals were a dead giveaway, but-"
"It's my fault." Arata spoke, confusing Shinachiku. Arata turned around, revealing an angered and disappointed expression. "My emotions had gotten the better of me. When he was pulling me into a genjutsu, I activated my own sharingan and used the Jūken on him. I gave us away. I'm sorry." Arata said with anger towards himself.
Shinachiku frowned. He gently placed a hand on Arata's shoulder.
"If you hadn't done something he would have found everything out. Better he only knows a little to give him a hunch instead of knowing the whole story." Shinachiku said with a sympathetic tone. "Besides you think I would have done any better? I probably would have been so worked up I'd yell out my classic catchphrase." Shinachiku joked with a grin.
Arata's eyes softened. He then let out a small chuckle.
"Which one?" Arata asked with a small smile making Shinachiku chuckle with a grin. "Even if he is just a counterpart, he still is the strongest Uchiha alive."
"Yeah. If anything, you did better than anyone else our age. Even better than a lot of people way older than us." Shinachiku said with a big Uzumaki grin.
"Hn." Arata nodded in response.
It was good to know he still had his closest friend by his side throughout all of this.
"Now let's see this map." Shinachiku said as he took out a new scroll from his pouch. It was blue in color. Shinachiku uncovered it to reveal another seal on the page. He bit his thumb and started writing a seal over it in blood. The ink and blood seals started to move and mix together to form new writing. "It pays to be an Uzumaki that's good at seals." Shinachiku said as he showed Arata the new writing.
They examined the map and noticed it was that of an island. Said to be a palace, but something seemed off.
"This area… I know this area…" Arata said as he reached into one of his own pouches taking out a small scroll. He unfurled it to reveal a map of the five great nations. "Look." Arata said.
Shinachiku looked to both maps with narrowed eyes.
"Is this…"
"Kirigakure. Or at least what stood before it." Arata answered.
"Nani?" Shinachiku questioned as he looked back to the map.
"It probably sank in ancient times before the founders built the village over it." Arata said.
"Great… how are we going to… hmm?" Shinachiku noticed another seal under some writing. He wrote another seal over it, causing a poof of smoke as then a strange monocle looking device appear. Shinachiku took it into his hand as he and Arata examined it. "A monocle? And it's made with some weird shiny blue stone." Shinachiku said narrowing his eyes as he examined it closer.
"It says this is the key that will lead us to the entrance of this sunken palace." Arata said, pointing to the writing at the bottom of the scroll.
"This thing?" Shinachiku questioned as he brought it to his left eyes to see right through, but he saw nothing special. Everything looked the same. "Hmm… guess it'll only work once we get there." Shinachiku said as he pulled it away.
"You should hold onto that." Arata said.
"Alright, but you take the map." Shinachiku said as he rolled up the scroll and gave it to Arata.
"Hn." Arata agreed with a nod as he took the map and pocketed it into his pouch while Shinachiku put the monocle in one of his own.
"Well, I guess we could travel a bit then camp somewhere. I just can't believe we're heading all the way over to Kiri." Shinachiku said as the two continued their journey. "When we get there, you think we might bump into Kagura?" Shinachiku asked.
"Let's hope not." Arata said making Shinachiku frown.
"… Right." Shinachiku said, not feeling up to fighting an old friend.
The two continued to travel, unbeknownst to the fact that they were being watched by a hawk up above, keeping its eye on the pair.
.
.
Meanwhile in another world, another Konoha, within another Hokage Tower there was a man meeting several people.
The man was a blonde with spiky hair that had some spiky bangs draped over the right side of his forehead, cerulean blue eyes and had whisker marks upon his cheeks that he had from birth; three on each cheek. He was dressed in a zip up long sleeve jacket that had the sleeves black with a pair of orange lines, one of each sleeve, about a few inches from the ends of them, the torso was colored orange with a black lines across the bottom hem and another above that with a line of orange separating the two, along with a long black line all the way up the zipper that stopped at the end of the high collar with steel buttons on either side of it and let us not forget the new and improved Uzumaki clan symbol, that being a red swirl with a white ring around it, placed proudly on the back of the jacket and on the side of the left sleeve where the bicep was. Over his jacket he wore a dark grey flak jacket and over that he wore a high collared, short sleeved long haori, similar to his father's own, but it was orange and decorated with black flames at the bottom of it and at the ends of its sleeves and it had a dark orange lining on along the inner parts of it and the collar, along with being closed in the front by a thin, dark orange rope with three crystal gems hanging off it and written down along the back of the haori were the kanji that spelled out Rokudaime Hokage (Sixth Fire Shadow) [六代目火影]. He also wore a pair of beige pants and black shinobi sandal boots that stopped halfway up his shins/calves. His right hand was also that of a black, robotic prosthetic one that extended halfway up the bicep. Oh, and of course, we can't forget his hitai-ate wrapped around his forehead, proudly adorning the village symbol of Konohagakure no Sato, with some of his bangs hanging over the right side of it but making sure not to cover an iota of the insignia.
This man was Naruto Uzumaki, the father of Shinachiku Uzumaki and he was the Rokudaime Hokage (Sixth Fire Shadow) of Konohagakure no Sato.
He was currently in a room with several scientists and shinobi. The scientists were doing research on an object hidden in the center of a pedestal with a glass dome over it.
Within the dome was a green frog with a blue jewel embedded in its back. The jewel's color was faded, and the frog looked weak, as if drained with wrinkles under its eyes.
The Hokage stared at the frog with a stoic expression.
One of the scientists there was Katasuke Tōno, who after a quick examination of notes, went up to the Hokage.
"Our 'patient' is still stable and has gained a little more of its strength back, but I'm afraid from our estimation it'll be a while before we could attempt any sort of travel to this separate dimension, Hokage-sama." Katasuke informed.
"So, we have to be patient…" Naruto stated more than questioned.
"With some help from the medical professionals, we can speed up the process with sessions of healing, but we could only do them for a brief time once a day. Half an hour then transition to a full hour a day. It won't be a speedy recovery, but it will help cut the time by a bit." Katasuke said.
"Anything to help get her back to full health." Naruto said. He took a deep breath through his nose then let out a sigh. "Keep me up to date, okay?"
"Hai, Hokage-sama." Katasuke said with a bow.
Naruto turned and headed out the door.
Naruto walked through the halls of the Hokage Tower until he made it to the roof of the building where someone was waiting for him.
The man had onyx-colored eyes and raven colored hair with bangs covered the left side of his face to hide his left eye and was spiked up a bit at the back near the bottom, but there were also white streaks of hair on the bangs covering his left eye and some white hair at the ends of the hair from the back where the hair met the neck. His left arm also had a black, robotic prosthetic that extended to halfway up the bicep like Naruto's right arm. He wore a long sleeved black high collared shirt with a dark blue vest over it, black pants with a purple belt, black shinobi sandals that stopped halfway up his shins/calves, a black cloak with purple lining and hanging from the left side of his belt was a Konoha hitai-ate with a deep horizontal gash across the Konoha symbol.
That person was his teammate and best friend, Sasuke Uchiha.
"Anything?" Sasuke asked without turning to Naruto.
"They said that with all the chakra stolen that it's going to be a while until she can help get them back. They're going to do brief healing sessions to help speed up the process." Naruto said with a frown as he stood beside his best friend. "Anything on your end about those bastards?"
"They've gone into hiding." Sasuke said.
"I'm shocked." Naruto said, not all that surprised.
"No doubt they're trying to get ahold on this power properly. They must have hidden themselves in a place sealed off from the rest of the world." Sasuke said.
Naruto's brows furrowed and his fist tightened as he felt immense rage.
'Bastards… if I ever get my hands on them.' Naruto thought with immense inner fury.
"How's Sakura holding up?" Sasuke asked, causing Naruto to sigh.
"She's… definitely been better." Naruto said with a frown. "And Hinata?"
"Same." Sasuke simply responded.
"Figures." Naruto said as his eyes softened and shoulders slumped. "I'm going to head home. Give Hinata-chan my regards." Naruto said before shushined away.
Sasuke eyes softened before he gave a delayed 'hn'. He pushed away his bangs to reveal a special eyepatch over his left eyes. A purple seal suddenly appeared and glowed on it right before Sasuke teleported away.
.
.
Sasuke made it to his home at the Uchiha compound almost instantaneously.
Needing the power of the Rinnegan for a simple quick trip to his home was majorly unnecessary on a logical standpoint, but he didn't care. He felt he needed to be here as quickly as he could.
He entered, took off his sandals and cloak. He made his way inside and headed for the backyard.
When he made it towards the door that let out towards the backyard, he noticed a young girl there.
She had raven colored hair and onyx colored eyes like him, C cup breasts, and long hair that stopped below her upper back with a pair of long strands framing the sides of her face and her hair was designed in a hime cut at the end of her long hair and for her bangs, but on the right side of her forehead there were a pair of bangs that were regular spiky bangs like her father's and there were spike locks at the sides of the bottom of her long hair. She wore a pink zip-up turtleneck with the Uchiha symbol on the back of it, a sleeveless inner turtleneck crop top under it that exposed her midriff, black women's shorts, a black pair of thigh high leg warmers and a pair of black fingerless gloves that extended halfway up her forearms.
His second eldest child and eldest daughter, Tsukia Uchiha.
Tsukia was staring at an older woman sitting outside seiza position on the walkway, staring out at the backyard.
The woman was beautiful with long dark blue hair that was in the form of a hime-cut and stopped at her waistline, and she had featureless white eyes. She wore a white kimono with dark blue lining, a dark blue obi belt wrapped around her midriff, a design of dandelions over the left breast of the kimono and on the back was an outline of a flower in for of a dandelion with a yellow circle in the center that had the Uchiha symbol printed on it. She also had a gypsophila, or better known as baby's-breath, flower attached to the right side of her hair.
This woman was Hinata Hyūga, or legally known as Hinata Uchiha, wife of Sasuke Uchiha and mother of the next era of Uchiha.
'Kaa-san…' Tsukia looked to her mother with sad eyes and a frown. She then felt a hand on her shoulder making her turn to see her father. "Tou-san."
"Why don't you get to bed? I'll take over from here." Sasuke said to his daughter.
Tsukia's shoulders slumped a bit as she stared at her father for a moment, but then she nodded.
"Hai." Tsukia said before walking back into the house to head to bed.
"Tsukia." Sasuke spoke his eldest daughter's name making her stop and turn to him. "How are you holding up?" Sasuke asked with concern.
Tsukia looked to the floor for a moment thinking about her brother and friend.
"I'm… worried… but I know my brother and Shina-kun. They would never be defeated so easily." Tsukia said as she gained a look of determination that displayed a strong will within. "Wherever they are, I know they're giving it their all to return. I know they'll keep holding themselves up until we're together again." Tsukia said with pure belief in her words.
"Hn. Good to hear." Sasuke said with a nod. He was very proud of her daughter, never losing hope and faith in her brother and friend.
"Oyasumi, chichioya (Goodnight, father)." Tsukia wished her father goodnight with a bow before resuming her trip to her bedroom.
Sasuke eyes softened as he had a small smile on his face, but once he turned to Hinata he gained a small frown. He walked over to her left and sat down next to his wife.
Sasuke saw that her expression was stoic, but deep down, staring into her pale white eyes he could see a hint of pain hidden deep within.
"Anything?" Hinata asked without facing her husband.
"Naruto said that it's possible for the relic to gain its power back, but it will need time to recharge on its own. However, they are planning to help speed the process a bit, but it will still take time for it to completely heal." Sasuke informed.
"I see." Hinata simply said as she continued to stare ahead with a stoic expression.
Sasuke's eyes softened with sadness. He knew Hinata only got like this when she was extremely upset. Sasuke brought up his right hand a bit, intending to place it on her shoulder, but he wasn't sure if it would be enough or even helpful at this time.
"They'll be fine." Hinata said, making Sasuke raise an eyebrow. "Naruto-kun and Sakura-san have trained Shina-kun to be a reliable shinobi and an exceptional medic. If anything happens, he'll be right there helping our son… even then Arata-kun is strong. Not a day goes by where he doesn't train any chance he gets." Hinata said.
"Hn." Sasuke agreed with a nod. "We trained him well."
"Yes… we did." Hinata said as he eyes finally softened and shimmered as a sign of preparing to shed tears.
Sasuke frowned, feeling a twinge of pain at seeing her saddened. He brought his right arm up and wrapped it around his wife, who leaned into him and rested her head on his shoulder.
The two stayed there in silence with Hinata letting her tears fall and grace down her cheeks.
Sasuke remained strong for the both of them, but Hinata could tell that deep down he was just as pained as she was. Perhaps even more, if it was possible.
They were sad… but they knew their child would remain strong until he returned home, back to their family, waiting with open arms.
.
.
Naruto walked down the streets of Konoha with a calm demeanor, but his eyes were somber.
His thoughts were filled with memories of his son.
His birth, his first steps, his first word, his first outburst which, wow, could a kid yell up a storm, but I guess with a father like Naruto and a mother like Sakura that was to be expected.
All his precious memories with his son…
Naruto's lips tightened with his brow furrowed and his fists clenched. His eyes shimmered, threatening to spill tears.
Before he knew it, he was home.
A two-story home that was wide with a large backyard and a beautiful garden in the front. On the door was the Uzumaki symbol and near the door on the steps of the porch were a pair of statues, one of a toad sitting lotus style with a hand up and the other a family of foxes with a father, a mother and three kits in front of them.
Naruto used his keys and entered his home.
"Tadaima." (I'm home) Naruto said, but all the lights were off with no one in sight. He sighed as he had a feeling this is what he was going to be welcomed to.
Naruto took off his haori and flak jacket and hung them on a coat hanger where a long doctor's coat with the kanji for doctor [医] on the back with a thin red circle surrounding it and an arm band with the Haruno symbol encasing a red Uzumaki insignia within it wrapped around the left bicep and embroidered on the left breast pocket was the name Sakura Uzumaki-Haruno in gold thread.
Naruto's eyes softened as he thought of how his wife was handling things. When she first found out, the house did not look as good as it did. He had to call in a favor from Yamato.
After taking off his footwear, he headed upstairs. He walked by his eldest son's room, taking a moment to look at the door before turning away and continuing down the hall. He stopped by his youngest child's door and peaked inside only to see he wasn't in bed.
He made his way over to his only daughter's room and peaked inside, which calmed him down as he saw his youngest son, Arashi, sleeping with his older sister, Hanami, in her bed.
Naruto calmly walked in without making a sound, heading towards the bed.
Hanami was hugging Arashi which put a soft smile on Naruto's face. He gently caressed their heads with his fingers brushing against their hair, before he planted a pair of gentle kisses upon their foreheads.
Naruto quietly walked out of the room and gently closed the door but decided to leave a bit of a crack for the two just in case.
He walked down the hall towards his and Sakura's room.
Walking in, Naruto found Sakura sitting in a chair, lying her head onto her arms which were against the surface of a desk.
Naruto walked over to notice a picture of their family lying on the desk with one of Sakura's hands on the frame. His eyes softened as he looked to Shinachiku's grinning face. Naruto looked to his wife with somber eyes. No doubt she had been crying before he arrived.
Naruto gently shook Sakura a bit, causing her to groan until she cracked open her eyes to see her husband looking down on her with a soft smile.
"Hey." Naruto greeted.
"Hey." Sakura greeted him back with a tired tone.
"How are holding up?" Naruto asked.
"Terribly." Sakura answered.
"Yeah, me too." Naruto admitted with a small frown.
"Did they say anything?" Sakura asked.
"It's… going to be a while." Naruto admitted, causing Sakura's eyes to somber up. "They said that she'll need time to charge back up to full health. With some healing sessions the process will hopefully be quicker and by then-"
"I get it. I'm sure they'll talk to me about it tomorrow." Sakura said.
"Hmm." Naruto nodded in response.
Sakura sat up a bit, but still felt tired.
Naruto suddenly started to pick her up gently and now carried her to their bed, bridal style. Normally Sakura would complain about being carried like this out of the blue, but she was too out of it emotionally to even care. Naruto laid her down on her side of the bed, took off his gloves followed by his flak jacket then his orange and black jacket to reveal his white t-shirt, and finally he took off his hitai-ate, letting his bangs fall over his forehead, except for a minor portion at the left end of his forehead, before lying right down next to his wife and bringing her into his embrace.
Sakura dug herself deeper into Naruto's embrace, feeling his head resting into her neck. Sakura's eyes were dull, feeling immense sadness. Her eyes looked over to a picture on the wall of the family in front of the academy celebrating Shinachiku's achievement of becoming an official genin.
"My baby… my little Shina-chan…" Sakura whispered with a melancholic tone as her eyes started to tear up.
"Sakura-chan… I promise we'll get him back." Naruto said to her with equally sad eyes. "And you know how I am with-"
"I know. Uzumakis never break a promise." Sakura said with her eyes closed. She grabbed Naruto's left hand and brought it to her lips, kissing it. "That's what I love about our family." Sakura said with shimmering teary eyes before she resigned herself to sleep.
Naruto gently tightened his embrace around her.
'I know you'll be safe until we get you back, Shina. You're my son after all.' Naruto closed his eyes as he thought of his son. He then thought of Shinachiku and Arata, then of both of their families reuniting once again. 'Until then… keep each other safe, Shina, Arata.'
End of Chapter 1
This story was inspired by Dotchi13's Boruto visits The Shinachiku Series.
I enjoy it. Its chapters are short, but I enjoy reading each one of them and it just inspired me to make my own version. As you could see, I want it to be pretty action oriented, but I will make Shinachiku and Arata interact with those of the Boruto universe, and maybe have bits and pieces of their world come into Boruto's universe.
Now I might as well explain some things, mainly the characters.
Everyone knows, at least those who are or for some reason keep to date with the NaruSaku fandom, who Shinachiku, Hanami and Arashi are. Although I will say that the character designs I use, or I guess described/picture, for this story are from PumiiH, who does very lovely artwork. In my opinion he makes the definitive NaruSaku family art designs. If anyone wants to see his artwork, he has a tumblr and deviantart account with numerous Naruto material. Or you can look them up on Google Images like I do. He, or she, is really talented.
Arata's design is actually based on an existing design of another OC character, admittedly I made a minor tweak or two, named Sanada Uchiha. Not to be confused with Sarada Uchiha, the daughter of Sasuke and Sakura. Sanada Uchiha is a SasuHina child OC who does have some artwork. You can check it on Google Images by typing in his name or look up his creator xCluBearx on deviantart. In my opinion, he is the definitive SasuHina child, at least in design, especially his ocular jutsu.
I know that Masashi Kishimoto has already stated that if an Uchiha and a Hyūga ever had a child then that child would have one sharingan eye and one byakugan, which I will not ignore, especially for future chapters about Arata's family, but I loved the idea of the eyes that Sanada has, which start off as sharingan as his Uchiha bloodline is a little bit stronger, but can go beyond that by transforming into a whole new dojutsu that somehow is both a sharingan and a byakugan, but is also something more!
The design of Sanada Uchiha is made by xCluBearx, who made a 12- & 16-year-old version of the character and all the data is on deviantart.
However even though I like Sanada, I decided to change up his personality a smidge, because I got the feeling Sanada is a lot like his father, more than his mother, and I wanted a calm balance with his personality which can be explored more in future chapters.
So, with a few tweaks to his personality and one minor change, or possibly more, to his outfit, I made Arata Uchiha, whose first name means New/Fresh.
Also, even though I only had her in this story briefly I should add that Tsukia Uchiha's design is inspired/based on Tsubaki Uchiha (yeah, I know, not much of a difference in name) made by GalaxyFoxtrot, but I made several differences to the design.
So yeah, I guess you could say when it came to the kids, I wasn't that imaginative and just used already existing designs made by other people, but if I wanted to make my own version of Uchiha kids, I would, in fact I already have the other ones looks planned out in my head that are not based on other people's OCs. Well except for one, but hey! That's fanfiction!
Write what you want, but still give credit where credit is due.
It's not that I couldn't come up with a few designs myself, it's that I feel that those designs I use for this story are in my opinion what those pairings' children would look like.
I got to admit too, I'm on the fence of what kind of English dub voice would I hear coming out of Shinachiku and Arata.
I like the idea for one of their voices to be Josuke Higashikata's from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable. That being Billy Kametz.
I originally thought Arata's, but then with how emotional yet calm Josuke could sound I was thinking Shinachiku's would have been a perfect fit. I suppose the English voice actor for Makoto Sunakawa from Ore Monogatari! (My Love Story!) would work. I love that series.
The person who voiced him is Austin Tindle, better known as the voice of Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul. So far, he sounds perfect with his calm, monotone delivery that can actually sound intense when he yells.
I figured those two voices would work as to both distinguish from Naruto and Sasuke's English voice actors (Maile Flanagan and Yuri Lowenthal) yet still sound like voices that you'd expect from the sons of Naruto and Sasuke.
Anyway, this was something I felt like writing. Mainly for fun. I've already written seven additional chapters, but I'm going to release them weekly instead of all together so people will have a proper fill of the story. At least, for the first few chapters. So, I hope you enjoy what I was writing for fun. I want to know the feedback for these two characters and their interactions in this story to see if people would like to see them in other stories. Hopefully so.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm gonna go work on some of my other already existing stories. I already had enough fun focusing mainly on this story, so I'm gonna stop neglecting the others. Once more, thank you for your time.
So, until next time…
Takeshi1225, Out!
