Boruto and Sarada knew they didn't have much time thanks to their chat with Kakashi, so they decided to set out immediately. Their only preparations were grabbing the bare necessities and telling their parents (Boruto directly, Sarada with a note) that they were going on an overnight camping trip with Mitsuki.
As Sarada began leading the way to the place where she was deceived into thinking that Sakura was not her real mother, Boruto began to wish he had taken more than just a light jacket. The sun was setting, taking the warmth of its rays to the other side of the world and leaving them with nothing but a frosty chill.
I am a shinobi, Boruto said as he trailed behind Sarada, I am not cold. I am not cold. I am not- who am I kidding, I'm freezing.
"Sarada," he began, his subscapularis beginning to spasm in attempt to warm him up. "Can we stop and build a fire for a bit?"
"Jeez Boruto," said Sarada, her own shoulders shaking, "it's not that cold, we need to get to Orochimaru's as quickly as possible. Kakashi has probably already told the seventh."
"Yeah, but the way we phrased it, it sounded like Sakura oba-san sent us on a treasure hunt," Boruto replied, "I don't think my old man is going to chase after us. Especially not if we're working as a team. Kakashi might already be following us anyways."
"F-fine," said Sarada, rubbing her bare arms, "I guess we can stop. That being said, isn't it summer? Why is it so cold?"
"Who knows," replied Boruto, searching for a suitable place to build a fire. "Maybe Hebi is manipulating the weather."
"If Hebi could do that much, wouldn't they have shown up and given us some helpful information on Mitsuki by now," asked Sarada, picking up small sticks as she went. "That being said, if Kakashi really is close by, it might be better not to talk about Hebi."
"You're right," replied Boruto, his eyes finally setting on a small alcove underneath a fallen tree who's roots now provided suitable shelter. "But at the same time, if it isn't them, it must be the troublemaker. I don't understand why the troublemaker would turn the weather cold."
"Maybe to make us turn back," said Sarada, throwing the sticks down just outside the alcove that Boruto indicated.
"They were the one who invited us in the first place. More importantly, can you use a fire jutsu to light those sticks already? I'm freezing."
"Says the one who's wearing a jacket," retorted Sarada, forming the chakra concentration hand sign. Taking in a breath of air, a small, yet bright, puff of flame emitted from her mouth and set the twigs alight.
Boruto immediately crouched down and put his hands to the small fire, rubbing them together to build friction and warmth. "Finally…"
The glow illuminated both of their faces in the darkness, providing warmth in the eerily cold woods. The only sounds were the sounds of the wind rustling through the trees and the leaves crunching under Sarada's sandals as she shook.
Moving only his eyes, Boruto glanced at Sarada and noticed she was still cold enough to be crouched into a ball, her hands going back and forth over her trembling arms and legs. Meanwhile, he had completely stopped shivering.
After some consideration, Boruto slowly removed his jacket. He stood, walking the three steps needed to close the distance between him and Sarada's back. Then he draped the jacket over her shoulders.
Sarada's hands left her bare arms and gratefully tugged the cloth tighter around her neck. "Thanks," she managed to mumble, her eyes never leaving the fire.
He wanted to come up with some snarky comment about her not being able to bear with the cold, but the thing that took the most prevalence in his mind was, why does she seem so small from this angle?
Shaking his head, he took a seat next to her. "Hey, Sarada."
"Hmm?"
"What are we going to do if this guy actually captured Hebi? Should we tell Orochimaru to come with us and help us fight?"
"The note didn't say to go alone," replied Sarada. "I wouldn't mind telling him… But won't we get in trouble when we get back?"
"It's better than all of us ending up dead," said Boruto, tucking his chin into his arms.
After another brief silence, Sarada spoke up. "Boruto?"
"Hmm?"
"That day with Suzuno… Tell me what happened."
Boruto averted his gaze, a cold feeling creeping into his chest. "I don't want to."
"There might be some sort of clue to what's going on here that we're missing. Does the troublemaker really want us to come alone to wherever this place is? Or did they make it somewhere we wouldn't know on purpose? Hebi was afraid of getting the adults involved in this, weren't they?"
"Yeah," said Boruto with a small nod.
"Maybe asking Kakashi for the location was a part of the troublemaker's plan… It might be better not to ask Orochimaru for help after all. But how should we…"
As Sarada continued processing her thoughts out loud, Boruto slowly spaced out, his face contorted with discomfort. He knew Sarada was next to him, talking. But the image of her tattered body haunted his mind. "I…" He tried to form a sentence in response to her question. What did she say just now?
"Boruto?"
"Sorry… What were you talking about?"
"Orochimaru, I was wondering if…"
He spaced out again. No matter how much he forced the thought to go away, it kept flashing vividly in his brain. The taste of throw up. The fear of wondering whether or not her restoration was reality or fiction.
He tried to focus on the flames, dancing on the logs in front of him. He tried to listen to what Sarada was saying. But before he knew it, she had stopped talking again, and he was feeling nauseated. His eyes trailed desperately to her hand.
It was a simple solution really, but the minute Boruto discovered what his brain was trying to make him to as a means of comfort, he rejected it with all of his being. No, he thought, squeezing his eyes shut, no way am I holding her hand.
Just as he was about to stand up and go on a walk to clear his mind, he felt weight on his shoulder. A somewhat feathery sensation tickled his neck. "S-Sarada?"
"If you can't even focus on what I'm saying, how are we going to find Mitsuki?"
"I…"
"I'm alive and well, just so you know."
"But how did you—"
"Boruto," she said, adjusting her head on his shoulder, "we've known each other since we were kids. I can practically read your mind."
He suppressed the tightness in his throat. "Mmm." His eyes trailed to the dirt. Remembering Hebi's words, he tried to imagine watching Sarada putting her head on some other guy's shoulder and saying the same thing to them. If she threw me away for another guy… I guess I would be pretty jealous.
Suddenly, they heard a rustling in the woods. Immediately tensing, Boruto slid a kunai into one hand, the other in between Sarada and the noise.
He tried to sense the chakra in the surrounding area, but it was as though the thing that was there had suddenly vanished.
Heart pounding, Boruto swallowed, his eyes going back towards the fire. "Stopping for too long wasn't the best idea," he said, putting away the kunai. "Kakashi might have already caught up."
"Mmm." Sarada stood to her feet. "We can rest once we get there… There should be spare rooms outside of all of the labs."
Reluctantly, Boruto covered the fire with dirt. As he was kicking it, he felt the familiar weight of his jacket on his shoulders.
"I'm warm now, thanks."
He found himself averting his gaze, his heart beating faster for a different reason. Dang it, he thought, his cheeks reddening as he jumped up into a tree.
With that, they both continued making their way towards Orochimaru's lab, leaving behind both the embers of the fire and the strange noise.
It wasn't long before the area became shrouded in a dense fog.
"Hey, Sarada," whispered Boruto, "are you sure this is the right way?"
"How could I forget," she replied, looking around as though she were sensing the same thing he was. "I'm not lost… but…"
"It's cold," he said, this time looking around instead of shivering. "Too cold."
"You don't think… We're in the place where we're supposed to be?"
Suddenly, a voice that was neither Sarada's nor Boruto's came up from behind them. "Maybe not in the place you were thinking, but you are considerably closer to reaching your desired goal."
They both turned around immediately, but behind them was nothing. Boruto pivoted, his back pressing up against Sarada's.
"Don't worry," came a voice, this time to the side. "I don't want to kill you, and I don't wish for you to kill me. I'm only working to fulfill my master's dream."
"Can we talk this out," asked Sarada, stepping in front of Boruto. "If you really don't want to kill us, then we shouldn't have to fight each other."
"Unfortunately, it is my masters wish for me to fight you. And, it is far too late for you to escape…" The voice came considerably closer. Boruto caught a glimpse of the figure who was talking to them, but all he could make out was long black hair tied back into a bun and winter clothes.
"For I have already imprisoned you."
The fog cleared to reveal a prison of ice mirrors, the figure of the one talking to them now clear as crystal. It wasn't just one figure, it was several. Each one encased in their own mirror.
Boruto immediately mobilized three shadow clones, but as soon as they appeared, needles rained down from above. He winced as his shadow clones disappeared, two needles now sticking out of his arm.
"Dang it," he said, his eyes darting around. "Where's the real one?"
"Even if I could find her," said Sarada, her sharingan activated, "I doubt I could keep up with that speed… But maybe this will work."
"I should inform you," came the voice, throwing more needles at Sarada who managed to dodge the majority of them, but still got hit in the leg with two. "No matter how great the fire style jutsu, these mirrors will not melt.
Nevertheless, Sarada sucked in a large breath. "Katon: gokakyu no jutsu!"
The fireball raged around the enclosed space, but true to the ice ninja's word, the mirrors did not melt.
"I suppose you must be their kids after all. What a shame it is to have to kill you."
"Wait," said Boruto, pulling the needle out of his shoulder and standing in front of Sarada, "you know our parents?"
"I can only guess at your mothers… but as for your fathers, yes, I fought them in the past."
"Do you know where they fought for the first time? When Sasuke-san had a curse mark?"
The figure paused. "As much as they risked their lives to save each other… I can't imagine them fighting. Nor do I have any knowledge of a curse mark… Even if I did, telling you would make no difference. Unfortunately, I have to kill you here."
The figure threw three needles from different directions. Boruto dodged the first two, but the third was in his blind spot. Sarada launched her arm forward just in time, taking the hit so that Boruto's vitals weren't stabbed.
"Sarada?!"
"Oi, stupid Boruto," she said, leaving the needle in her arm as she readied a fighting stance. "I'll keep her attention. I might not be able to keep up with her speed, but I can see the path of the needles. In the meantime, try aiming for the gaps in between the mirrors. I'll make sure you're able to get out. And when you do, destroy at least one of them with your Rasengan."
"But if I do that, you'll be—"
"Hebi should come back. You haven't completed the mission yet, right?"
"…No…"
"Then I'll just get revived later. Not that I have any plans of dying," said Sarada, jumping out of the way of a few more needles. "But right now, our goal should be stopping the troublemaker. Not fighting this person. You trust me, don't you?"
"…Yeah…"
"Then close your eyes."
Boruto took the hint. "I guess I have no choice…" But he also knew she needed an opening. "I trust you, but I'm not leaving until I try a few things first!" With that, three doubles of Boruto appeared, darting in different directions. His real self materialized a Rasengan, but before he could throw it, his arm got pierced by a needle, disrupting the flow of chakra and ending the swirling motion.
"Boruto," said Sarada, continuing to dodge as she weaved the signs for the lightning ball jutsu. "Save your chakra for when you're outside!"
"…Fine! You'd better not die on me!" Boruto rushed for the nearest gap in between the mirrors. But the figure easily threw enough needles in his direction to put his legs out of commission. Sarada tried to throw shuriken to deflect them, but she wasn't fast enough.
"Boruto!"
"I'm fine," he said, struggling to pick himself up off the ground. "Can you predict her movements with your sharingan?"
"I'm marking her with my eyes as best as I can."
"You've been saying her quite a lot," said the masked figure, throwing needles from several directions at once, "but I am a boy, you know. I ought to at least tell you that much. My name is Haku."
"Haku was it," said Sarada with a grimace. She dodged several of the needles and avoided them hitting her vitals, but two managed to impale her right arm and three more hit her legs, one directly in her left knee. Struggling but still standing, Sarada smirked. "You ought to know that you've already lost."
"…I've lost nothing," replied Haku, eyeing where Boruto's limp body used to be on the ground. But it was no longer there. "Curse you, stupid brat!"
With that, two more needles came hurling straight for Sarada's eyes. But she narrowly dodged and in a loud voice yelled, "Boruto! Now!"
Boruto, who had successfully escaped the ice mirror prison with the help of Sarada's genjutsu, was now aiming a Rasengan straight for the mirror that contained the real Haku, which also happened to be the mirror that Sarada was staring at.
Haku noticed this and tried to move to a different mirror, but Sarada had already predicted his escape route. Three shuriken were awaiting him as he went from one mirror to another, piercing his shoulder, his left flank, and his left thigh.
"Sarada!" Boruto ran through the gap in the mirrors. He quickly did a once over of her wounds and noticed that while she would have trouble walking, her life wasn't in danger. Despite that knowledge, his chest still felt tight and uncomfortable.
Kneeling down, he gently helped her up from her good side, taking her wrist in his other hand as he pulled her arm around his shoulder.
The mirrors melted. Haku lay back in the snow, wounds hardly bleeding. It seemed as though he had given up the will to fight. With a bit of laughter, Haku looked over at Boruto. "You remind me of your fathers… Perhaps being revived was worth it."
"…Revived?" Boruto took a needle out of his shoulder and threw it to the ground, glancing over at Sarada to make sure she wasn't mortally wounded before returning his gaze to Haku. "What do you mean?"
"A strange man came along and revived me, giving me a mission to stall you. This is the second time… The man you're looking for is the man who found my body and removed the binding seal. I won't take orders from anyone but Zabuza-san. Please, put me out of my misery. I no longer want to be alive. There is no purpose to my existence…"
"I don't want to kill you either," said Sarada, pulling the remaining needles out of her body as she grimaced with pain. "Please, we're looking for our friend. Once we find him, you'll be able to rest in peace. Do you know where the man is who revived you?"
"I… I'm not sure…"
Suddenly, a new voice joined the group. "Haku... Or should I even call you that?"
Boruto's head jerked around. "Old man Kakashi?!"