Hey everyone, this story is meant to be my take on how the story could've gone after chapter the events of chapter 66 of Boruto manga so if you don't want spoilers or are not caught up to it I'd recommend you don't read any further.

Well with that warning out of the way I would like to clarify that I planned out this story shortly after the release of chapter 66 with no knowledge of what the future chapter (that being 67 - 69 as of me writing this) would be about. I thought about re-planning the story around the knowledge brought on by chapter 67 but in the end decided against it so just keep in mind that when you read. Disclaimers out of the way I'll be attempting to keep these updates weekly, this is intended to be a short 3 - 4 chapter story showcasing what could've happened after the end of chapter 66 so I hope you all enjoy.

Chapter One

Aftershock

Everything was moving in slow motion, as soon as he regained himself from Boruto pushing him away his first instinct was to reach him again as dread settled in the pit of his stomach. Whatever scenario he could come up with would still be far from the scene he now saw before his eyes as Kawaki all but pierced a hole straight through his son's chest.

His mind froze in shock and he stopped entirely as his vision narrowed in on Boruto's body as it fell limply to the ground.

Silence was the only thing between everyone at the scene for the few seconds that followed until Naruto finally kicked himself into gear and ran towards Boruto as he screamed his name, falling to his knees when he finally reached him while taking everything in. He wanted to believe that this was some sort of trick, there was no way this could be happening right?

He held onto his son's shoulders and shook him lightly as he called for him, begging him to wake up as the blood from the wound on the child's chest stained him.

Kawaki stood a short distance away watching the scene unfold as Naruto leaned down and lightly cradled Boruto's body, hugging it tightly against his chest. He looked down as he raised his hand that had now returned to normal, stained with Boruto's own blood.

He closed his fist in anger and suddenly felt his legs unable to support him, falling to his knees he closed his eyes as he took in a deep breath before turning his eyes to where Code stood, this would not be over as long as he was still around.

For his part Code simply watched the scene unfold, clicking his tongue in displeasure, this was certainly not the scenario he was hoping or expecting from this situation he had created. Boruto was the sole vessel for Momoshiki so if he was dead then there was no other Otsutsuki required for the ritual. Kawaki might still be a viable option seeing as he had enough Otsutsuki data in him but he was not the ideal candidate.

"Code"

Snapping out of his thoughts he paid attention to Eida's voice in his ear "Yeah?"

"Uchiha Sasuke is getting close, He might've felt the disturbance and is coming to check. You might want to think about your plan of action now"

Letting out a breath he turned back to the scene in front of him "Things have gotten somewhat complicated hm" he removed his hand from Shikamaru's neck, reaching behind him to create a new set of claw marks on the ground "I need to think, so you just stay put for a while won't you?"

Shikamaru half turned to try and look at Code just as his hand came down on the back of his neck and all he saw was the fading ground as he fell down.

Code brushed the dirt off his clothes before looking back in Kawaki's direction "And we'll be seeing again soon, Kawaki"

Before Kawaki himself could even respond, Code sank back into his claw marks, disappearing from the area entirely.

"Why…Kawaki"

Standing back up from where he was, Kawaki turned to look at Naruto where he was half looking at him while still cradling Boruto's body. He looked away,keeping his head down "I was our agreement. We agreed that this had to be done and he knew you wouldn't be able to"

Naruto turned back on Boruto, he knew Kawaki was right, he would never be able to kill his own son but…as he saw himself like this now he wondered if maybe he could've done more to prevent this outcome.

His eyes were glued to Boruto, attempting to bring back some of the life he knew, half waiting on him to just open his eyes again but the hole in his chest begged to tell another story.

He placed a shaking hand over his wound as it faintly began to glow green. He had learned the very basics of medical ninjutsu many years ago from Sakura, he'd been able to heal tiny cuts but was never able to get past that. Still, he felt like he had to at least try, he refused to simply stay there uselessly with the quickly cooling body of his son in his arms.

He didn't want to believe this was happening, he was supposed to be the one protecting him, and yet he found himself in a situation where Boruto had decided to sacrifice himself to keep him and the village safe by extinguishing the possibility of Momoshiki's reincarnation.

Naruto closed his eyes as he felt the sting of tears, he had promised that he would protect him, that he would do everything in his power to keep him safe…yet here he was.

Who was he kidding? As much as he tried his attempt at healing would never be good enough to heal such a wound, probably even someone as skilled as Sakura would have trouble with it.

His jaw tightened in anger as tears began to flow down his face, tightly hugging his son's body against him in impotence "I'm sorry…Boruto"

~ o ~

He was jumping from branch to branch as fast as his legs would take him, Ino had contacted him while he was home and explained the situation, he was halfway out the village before she even finished explaining everything. Long and short of it was that Code had appeared, Kawaki had ran away and Boruto had gone after him. She mentioned Naruto and Shikamaru going after them but with an enemy of unknown power that was only rumored to be stronger than Jigen he could not just sit and wait everything out.

Once some distance outside the village he finally sensed Naruto's chakra, jumping from tree to tree he got mentally ready for another hard fight.

Nothing could've prepared him for the scene that was in front of him when he finally reached the clearing. Landing down from the trees to where everyone was, he noted that the terrain itself was scarred with the signs of a large-scale battle, Shikamaru was knocked out on the ground and Kawaki was standing off to the side some distance away.

Despite the destruction and the apparent lack of an enemy on sight, what called his attention the most was Naruto where he was on the ground cradling Boruto's body against him, a hole through his chest.

Was this Code? Ino had said he was here but it would make no sense that his goal would be to kill Boruto since from the intel they had he would need him if he were to continue Isshiki's plans.

Quickly taking another glance and taking in his surroundings he noted how Kawaki was simply standing some distance away, his hand stained with blood. Could he have…?

A part deep inside of him began to fill with anger, confused as to why he would kill Boruto until something in him finally clicked.

He remembered the last conversation he had with Boruto before the last fight with Isshiki, his resolve to do what was right and what was necessary. Another scene flashed in his mind to the moment Boruto held a kunai to his throat with the threat of killing himself to save him and Naruto.

If he was reading the situation properly then Boruto had probably spoken to Kawaki beforehand and they made a plan in case things went out of control again.

"Sasuke!"

Turning back to look at Naruto he mentally shook himself, taking a few steps closer to his lifelong friend "What happened here?"

"I'll explain later, call Sakura or anyone from the medical corps please!"

"I can't"

"What do you mean you can't?!"

"We're out of range of the village's sensory net, we can't contact them unless someone from the barrier corps manages to reach us"

"There has to be a way, something we can do, anything!"

Sasuke took a deep breath, he had more experience with handling the death of loved ones first hand, not that it made it any easier with time and the loss of one's child was a pain he would rather never experience. Even still losing Boruto was still painful even to him, he was his only student, son to his best friend and teammate to his own daughter. To say that this scene wasn't hurting him would be a lie but he knew that it was still nothing compared to what Naruto was feeling, the gods knew that if he were in Naruto's place he could easily slip back to his older self in a spiral of never ending darkness.

Both said nothing for a few seconds, Naruto could read the pain and sorrow in Sasuke's own eyes as they shared a look, knowing that as much as he wanted to call for help there was no way to do it.

His attention snapped when Sasuke's eyes broke contact with him suddenly and looked down at Boruto, following his gaze his breath caught in his throat as he saw that the previously gaping hole in his son's chest was mending itself.

The previously gaping hole was starting to close with a dark pattern, as if an extension of the Karma itself was expanding and regenerating over his wound, the blood had stopped and the hole was being healed right before their disbelieving eyes as everyone stared in stunned silence at the scene unfolding before them.

~ o ~

Everything was covered in darkness, he wasn't sure where he was or what had happened. The last thing he remembered was chasing after Kawaki and fighting Code. He somehow grasped control of Momoshiki's power until an acute pain in his chest stopped him and everything went dark again but…there was something else, he knew he was forgetting something…

Oh, that's right, Momoshiki took over once again and he stopped him long enough for Kawaki to kill him.

He stood up and looked around, there was a dull ache in his chest which didn't really come as a surprise all things considered. Still, he had no idea where he was…was this the afterlife?

The previously dull pain grew stronger then and he clutched his chest as a voice echoed in the darkness of his surroundings. "No, not yet you little brat. You can't die when you are trapped by a fate as strong as yours"

The voice laughed and the sound echoed more as he fell to the ground, the pain in his chest still intensifying until he struggled for breath.

One second he was on his back in the darkness gasping for air, the next he suddenly felt his body's weight once more as air filled his lungs.

There was a muffled voice, the sensation of a cold breeze suddenly brought him to his senses as he felt his eyelids lessen their weight. Blinking several times to clear his vision he found himself looking up at his dad, blue eyes that mimicked his own stared back wide with shock and disbelief "B-Boruto…?"

Taking a few seconds to analyze his surroundings he was suddenly pulled into a tight embrace as his father's relief was clearly tangible after believing him to be dead. He couldn't help but ask himself just why was he still alive, how was he alive?

The voice he had heard before waking up…had that been Momoshiki? Was he the one that brought him back?

His eyes scanned his surroundings until they finally landed on Sasuke standing next to them, a little farther away was Kawaki, also staring back at him in disbelief. His eyes travelled down and noticed the blood on his hand which meant that he had indeed gone through with their plan, he had killed him…and still he was brought back for some unknown purpose.

He feels his dad's hands on his shoulders as he pulls him away from him, his eyes were glassy which were a clear sign that he'd been crying at some point earlier, after the relief came the scolding for being reckless but he couldn't find it in him to argue back or answer at all. He had made up his mind for death, found his resolve and laid everything down to protect those he loved and everyone in the village from the imminent threat that was Momoshiki's revival through his Karma.

Taking his eyes away from his father he lands on Sasuke, there was a knowing look in his eyes that he recognized, he had probably guessed what had happened and he understood his motives and reasoning but Boruto himself knew that if it came down to it again his sensei would not be able to bring himself to kill him, this was also why he could only ask this of Kawaki.

Sasuke understood his intentions well, he knew how Boruto felt about his Karma and the extraction progress, the fears he harbored about hurting the people he cared for. The intended sacrifice had been meant as a last resort plan to tie up the loose ends and keep the village and everyone safe from what he could do.

After all of this he didn't know if Boruto would even want to return to the village considering that Momoshiki had taken over yet again even after he had been taking the pills that supposedly would prevent these sort of things from happening again.

And it was with that thought in mind and a sigh of defeat that he turned serious eyes on Boruto as he stretched his hand down and hapled both father and son to their feet. "Boruto" the boy slowly turned in his direction "Are you sure about what you wanted to do?"

It took him a couple seconds as he processed the question, finally catching up on the fact that Sasuke had quickly caught up to what he had wanted to achieve.

With a sigh he simply nodded before speaking "As long as Momoshiki is inside of me and these kinds of situations are a threat then it's dangerous to everyone. If it hadn't been for Kawaki's intervention then I…I would've probably killed dad"

Sasuke nodded, understanding "Are you really willing to go through with the choice you made?"

While this conversation was going on Naruto kept switching between both of them, attempting to decipher what was going on and why they were being so cryptic. Eventually he understood and his face immediately turned to Sasuke "Oi Sasuke, what are you planning to do?"

Sasuke didn't answer as he closed his eyes with a sigh, the next time he turned to face Naruto the blond had less than a second to react as his blue eyes met a pool of crimson. Naruto fell to the ground, unconscious, Kawaki began to make his way towards them in alarm until he too fell to the ground the instant the Uchiha turned his eye on him.

Boruto exchanged glances between the two of them before turning to Sasuke "What did you do?"

"When they wake up the most recent memory they'll have is of your death, they'll have no recollection of your revival which…we need to discuss"

Boruto looked down at his chest, where there had once been a hole now remained a permanent extension of the Karma like the one on his hand "I…I don't know what happened, or why…"

Sasuke looked down at Naruto "They will most likely believe that Code took your body after they passed out. They'll want to go after him immediately no doubt"

"Well…what now?"

"I'll take you somewhere where you'll be able to remain hidden until the dust settles, after that I'll personally train you to control this power of yours"

"What about my pills? I had been taking them since they were slowing down the Karma extraction and I still need them"

"I'll take care of that, don't worry about it" with that said Sasuke turned away and began to walk off "Come, we need to start moving before reinforcements arrive and find us, more importantly you"

"Will it be fine to leave them here though? We're in the middle of the forest"

"They'll be fine, it won't be long before the team that was following me arrives and takes them back to the village"

With apprehension still clutching his chest Boruto turned to follow Sasuke, muttering an apology under his breath "Mom, Hima…dad…I'm sorry"