Boruto's eyes blinked open to find an unfamiliar celling. "Huh… What happened… Mitsuki!"

Shooting up from a laying position brought a throbbing pain to his head. His spine ached from being lain on a wooden floor.

Sarada eyed him from atop a chair, heaving a laden sigh. "Stupid Boruto. Don't try to move so much after you've been knocked out."

"Sarada!" Boruto looked around. "Where are we?"

"My room."

"W… EHH?!"

"Keep your voice down," Sarada hissed. "Mama will be home soon. I doubt she'll be happy to find you here again."

Boruto hung his head for a moment before realizing the situation. "Mitsuki… What happened to Mitsuki? And that hooded guy? And wait… Why am I in your room?!"

"It couldn't be helped! This was the nearest hiding place… and I figured if mom got home, she could hold that guy off until you woke up. She's scary when she gets mad… As for Mitsuki and the hooded guy… They're probably still going at it… And Hebi hasn't shown up to stop it."

"Hebi… I guess from now on, the plan is commencing… Oi! Hebi, if you're there, show yourself and give us some—ow!"

Sarada clenched her fist in the air, her eyebrows cinched. "I just told you to keep your voice down, stupid!"

"Sorry…" Boruto looked down. He knew Sarada wasn't the type to act rashly. Neither was Mitsuki. Mitsuki must have had an opening to carry out the plan. All that was left was to wait for Hebi to show up and explain what was going on. After all, Hebi would have intervened if Mitsuki's life was in danger.

At a loss for what to do, Boruto looked around the room. "Oh!" He spotted the target Sarada used for shuriken practice with several scratches on it. "You still have that in here?"

"Huh? Still? Are you telling me you remember the layout of my room from when we were kids?"

"It hasn't changed much," said Boruto, looking around. "More than remembered, it's like my memory is just sort of coming back, ya know?"

Sarada sighed. "How can you be so carefree at a time like this?"

"Well, all we can do is wait for Hebi anyways, right," said Boruto, leaning back on his hands. "This was call caused by one of their people, so I'm sure they'll clean up their own mess."

Sarada shook her head. "I'm worried… What if that guy takes Mitsuki? What if he can't carry out the plan?"

"Then we'll just have to go get him back," said Boruto, his hands clenching into fists. Even if he was carrying out the plan, Mitsuki was an important member of their team. Boruto wasn't going to leave him behind. "That being said, it really is strange that Hebi hasn't shown up yet… It's not like I completed the mission or anything…"

"Hebi might be tracking Mitsuki to make sure nothing bad happens…" Sarada sighed. "All this for a stupid mission. Hebi probably won't try to take over the world if you don't complete it, and other people are targeting your life now Boruto. Why don't you just give up?"

"Well…" Boruto put his hands in his lap. "If I don't, Hebi can't go back to their dimension, right? What if they have a family… Or someone waiting for them? That, and they said their people have been waiting eight years for this. Which I find hard to believe…" He shivered. "Since I was that little…"

"Boruto, what is this mission?"

His cheeks tinged pink as he turned his head to the side. "I'm not allowed to tell you. And even if I was, I wouldn't."

"Fine," said Sarada, rolling her eyes. "I just hope Mitsuki isn't overexerting himself for this… Hebi will be able to fix him if something happens, right?"

"If…" Boruto shook his head. "No, Hebi will definitely be able to fix Mitsuki."

In that moment, a piece of paper slid under Sarada's door. Neither Boruto nor Sarada had noticed the approach of the person outside. Immediately, Sarada shot up and ran to the door, throwing it open.

But when she looked down the hallway, there was no one in sight.

Boruto, who had been milliseconds behind her, picked up the piece of paper on the floor. "Tis' I, Reginald."

Both sets of eyebrows in the room slowly began to furrow.

"Boruto, stop making jokes. This isn't the time."

"I'm reading the paper!"

Sarada ripped the piece of paper out of his hands and adjusted her glasses. Her eyebrows got lower. And lower. Until her hand began to shake with furry. "Who writes like this now a days! It's an attempt at old English riddled with grammar errors!"

Boruto took the paper back. "…From the looks of it, whoever Reginald is got… Hebi and Mitsuki?!"

"Maybe it's a lie," Sarada suggested, peering over his shoulder. "What does the rest say?"

"If we want them back, we're supposed to go to… the place dad fought Sasuke-san with a curse mark for the first time. How am I supposed to know where that is? More importantly, when did they fight?! And since when did Sasuke-san have a curse mark?!"

"Papa doesn't have a curse mark," said Sarada, shifting up her glasses. "I can tell you that much… But maybe the seventh fought with papa in the past?"

"It's possible… Should we even believe this in the first place? I don't think Hebi would get taken out that easily."

"Your right…" Sarada sighed. "Let's investigate first. If we figure out that papa really did have a curse mark and fought the seventh, we'll go towards that place… carefully."

"So… How are we going to find out where it is?"

"Asking either of our dad's directly would be a bad idea... They'll get suspicious. How about your mom?"

Boruto shook his head. "Mom doesn't really talk about the past that much. And every time I bring up anything about dad's past, she gets kind of sad. Either that or too embarrassed to talk… Plus, her eyes are scary. If she found out that we were doing something dangerous…" Boruto shivered.

Sarada's hand came up to her chin as she thought. "There has to be someone else we can ask…"

Silence ensued as the two concentrated.

Finally, Boruto plopped his fist down into his palm. "There's a picture in dad's office of the former team seven with their leader. If anyone would know whether or not they fought, it'd be old-man Kakashi."

"Oh, you're right. But the problem is… Where do we find him?"

"I'm sure he's in town somewhere. If we ask around enough, we'll find him!"

And so it was that Boruto and Sarada set out on an afternoon trip to find Kakashi.

"Excuse me ma'am, have you seen an older guy walking around with a black mask and grey hair?"

"You mean the sixth hokage?"

"Yeah! So you know him?"

The woman sighed. "To think, you're the seventh hokage's son… I haven't seen him around lately. But if you have business with him, he's usually reading manga near the academy, or off on some trip to the hot springs."

"Thanks ma'am! Have a nice day!"

With that Boruto, slipped away from the woman and jumped up on the rooftop to rendezvous with Sarada.

"Any luck," Sarada asked as she stood on the shingles. A gust of wind blew her bangs out from behind her ear.

Boruto glanced at her for a split second before averting his gaze in the direction of the academy. Her hair does not look soft. I am not going crazy. When he looked back, she was holding them in place behind her ear. He looked away again, pink dusting his cheeks."I haven't seen him… Hopefully he's not on a trip to the hot springs… An old woman told me he might be at the academy."

"The academy?"

"Yeah," replied Boruto, hopping causally from one rooftop to the next. "Apparently he likes to read manga there."

Sarada followed him, her arms out behind her back. "I'll check the rooftops, you check the training grounds."

One nod later, they went their separate ways.

After traversing several buildings and alleyways, Boruto came to the outdoor training grounds. He watched as the younger kids practiced throwing shuriken. Most of them were able to hit the logs but throwing more than one shuriken at a time seemed to be a challenge.

Heh, thought Boruto, maybe as their senior, I should give them a demonstration. But as he hopped from one rooftop to the next, something caught his eye. Three logs a bit further back, a stone memorial next to them. And finally, a visitor to that stone memorial. Old-man Kakashi!

He thought about telling Sarada first, but from the highpoint of her position, it was likely that she had already seen. Leaping over the regular training grounds, he headed into the woods.

Upon reaching Kakashi, Boruto grew quiet. He couldn't help but wonder who Kakashi was paying respects to, and what connection they had. But before he could think about it anymore, Kakashi stood up.

"Boruto, how long were you planning on staring at me?"

Boruto gulped and came out of hiding, his hands up. "Sharp as ever, old-man Kakashi."

"I told you to call me the sixth," he said, attempting to walk away.

"Hey, wait up! I have a question for you."

"I don't feel like answering," replied Kakashi, his hands in his pockets.

"But it's not a hard question! I just wanted to know how the old team seven was…"

"Ask your dad."

Boruto's face melted. "He's busy. And Sasuke-san is never around. And Sakura oba-san is busy treating sick people."

Kakashi sighed. Perhaps somewhere in his old and tattered heart, he felt a tinge of pity for the Hokage's neglected son. Because he turned around. "So? What is it you really want to ask?"

"I was just wondering," he said with a sheepish grin, "I talked to Sakura oba-san a few nights ago, and she said my dad and Sarada's dad used to fight. Is that true?"

"…Yes," replied Kakashi, "they still fight."

"Well, I mean, like, all out fight. You know, like with fists and kunai and ninjutsu and stuff."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. He would have to pay a visit to Sakura. "Well, I suppose if she told you that much, it wouldn't hurt to say yes… But keep in mind Boruto, no matter how much you dislike Sarada, trying to kill each other isn't the way to solve your emotional problems."

"Geh! They tried to kill each other?! I thought they were just rivals."

Kakashi peered down at Boruto. Then he heaved a sigh. "And Sarada," he said, throwing a kunai at a tree to earn a surprised yelp. "If you're going to track someone, at least try to make your footsteps silent."

Sarada yelped as the kunai landed a mere centimeter from her shoe. She jumped down from the tree and came up beside Boruto.

"And," said Kakashi, looking at the two of them, "where's the third?"

"Ah… Mitsuki? Mitsuki didn't have an interest in this so he's at home."

"More importantly," continued Sarada before he could question it, "papa and the seventh tried to kill each other?"

"…That's not my story to tell. Come on, it's almost dinner time. You should hurry home or your mothers will be worried."

Boruto looked at Sarada. Sarada sighed. "We need to know about that story."

"And why is that," asked Kakashi, his eyes threatening the children.

"…We're just curious," said Boruto, beginning to break out in a sweat. "Nothing more, right Sarada?"

Sarada sighed. "Boruto, if we're going to get anywhere with this guy, we need to ask him. Otherwise he won't tell us."

"But that's—"

"Sixth. Do you know anything about the seventh fighting papa in a specific place?"

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "Why do you need to know?"

"We found a suspicious note," replied Sarada, "that said there was buried treasure in the place where papa fought the seventh for the first time."

Kakashi sighed. "Buried treasure, huh? If that's the case, it would be the academy. Or under some tree. And if there was buried treasure here, it would have been found a long time ago."

"Is there anywhere else? Anywhere they could have fought more seriously?"

"Boruto. Give up on this buried treasure and go home. I don't know who gave you that note but throw it away and don't think about it anymore."

"Please?" Boruto begged. "What if we let you come with us?"

Sarada nudged Boruto's arm, but he only put his hand out to still her. "You're free anyways aren't you old man?"

Kakashi sighed. "Isn't your team leader Konohamaru? Why not ask him?"

Boruto smirked. "Cuz Konohamaru doesn't know where to find it."

"Boruto. Where were you when you received the note?"

"…Sarada's room."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "Was Sakura home?"

"No."

Kakashi eyed Boruto out of the corner of his eye. "Was Sasuke there?"

"Of course not," replied Sarada, her hands on her hips. "Papa almost never comes home."

Kakashi sighed. "Can I see the note? There's something I want to confirm."

"We left it at home." Boruto casually stopped in the middle of the road. "Come on Sarada, let's go. We won't get anywhere with this guy. I'll just ask dad."

Kakashi towered over Boruto. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Why not?"

With a sigh, Kakashi turned back around. "I'm sure it's not exactly something he wants to remember. That being said, I'm not telling you either." Eyes closing as he smiled under his mask, Kakashi waved his hand. "If you'll excuse me, I have grown up things to do. Bye."

Kakashi vanished in front of Boruto's eyes. He let out a long sigh. "That was useless."

"It might have dug us further into a hole," replied Sarada, shaking her head. "Boruto, do you think there's anyone else we could ask?"

"Mmm… I know Mitsuki's parent has been alive for a while… He might know something. And Shikamaru might know something, but it seems like a pain to try asking him…"

"Orochimaru? You want to go to that creepy guy's place?" Sarada shivered.

"Hey, this is Mitsuki's parent you're talking about. Even if he does give me the creeps," said Boruto, rubbing his arms. "I guess it's worth a shot. Hebi hasn't shown up, and Mitsuki might be in trouble. Might as well give it a try."

. . .

The author was talking to Boruto about romance from afar when suddenly, a suspicious being appeared behind them.

"Who—"

"Kuchiose no jutsu."

In seconds, the author found their arms and legs ensnared by chains, a box closing around them. The floor opened up to reveal several gears. Their laptop fell and landed halfway on top of one of them. Glad I ridded myself of the ability to feel pain… But I thought we couldn't use Kuchiose since we don't have contracts with the creatures? I guess this isn't a creature… The author could only watch as the rest of their body was bound by wires.

"So? Who are you and what do you want with me? Why are you so against Boruto completing the mission?"

"Hm," the hooded figure replied. "I'm only on orders from the boss to keep you here for as long as I can… My boss wants to write her story more, you see? And her least favorite genre is romance. Can't you just give up and write yours another time?"

"I like the progression it's gone through. Thanks to your interference, it seems like Boruto is genuinely starting to fall for her. Sorry, but I'm not giving up halfway."

"Then struggle."

The hooded figure moved his fists and caused the gears to start moving just enough that the wires were digging into the author's skin. But they didn't flinch.

"Hm. It seems like you've already ridded yourself of pain… I have other business to attend to eventually. But until then, I'll be sitting here, watching you to make sure you don't try anything funny."

To the author's dismay, the hooded figure took out their laptop and sat.