Chapter 7

Breakfast the next morning was the exact same as it had been yesterday. A glass of milk, fried eggs, toast, a few sausages, some little tomatoes and broccoli. He still didn't trust them, but at the same time Boruto had eaten his food yesterday and it had been fine.

But maybe that's what they want me to think? Maybe they're going to wait to poison it until they tricked me into thinking it's safe. But then they'd have to get that message to Boruto without me seeing them.

"Are you seriously not going to eat again?" Boruto asked, looking annoyed.

"Can I get you something else, Kawaki?" asked Mrs. Uzumaki

"It's alright, Kawaki." the Hokage said. "We're not going to poison you or hurt you or anything."

"That's what you want me to think!" he exclaimed.

I'll be fine. I got to eat last night.

His stomach growled in protest.

"But I helped." Himawari said quietly, looking sadly down at her plate.

Boruto glared at him for making his little sister upset. "Come on, you're making Hima cry!"

Not even Jigen or the goldfish salesman kept up their ruse this long. Maybe they really aren't going to poison me?

Tentatively, he picked up some of the rice and vegetables with his chopsticks and ate it. Himawari stared at him, waiting for his reaction with a hopeful look on her face.

"Wow, this is good!" he exclaimed. His home village was so isolated that it didn't sell vegetables it couldn't grow on its own, so he had never eaten tomatoes and broccoli.

"I'm glad you like it." Mrs. Uzumaki said, smiling warmly at him.

He avoided her uncomfortable expression and just continued eating. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Himawari grinning broadly.

Why's she so concerned if I like it or not?

He remembered waiting, terrified, of his father's reaction on the occasions in which he had to cook them both dinner. Usually his father had already eaten by the time he got home from chopping wood. He ended up eating half his plate and leaving the rest.

There. I got to eat breakfast and just in case it is poisoned, I didn't finish it.

"That's all you're going to eat? Don't you like mom's cooking?" Boruto asked, looking annoyed rather than concerned.

"Was it tasty?" Himawari asked hesitantly.

"It was good." He replied, ignoring Boruto and making Himawari smile.

"I'm glad you ate breakfast today, Kawaki." Mrs. Uzumaki said got up to start clearing away the dishes. He'd waited so long to start that everyone else had finished by now.

He just scowled at her as she picked up his and Himawari's plates to wash. Depending on how he felt in a few hours, he might eat the entire plate tomorrow.

Or should I skip it tomorrow? Now she knows if she waits, I'll eat it. But who would wait this long to interrogate someone? Clearly they aren't going to use force. They know Kara is coming. Maybe I will eat it all tomorrow.

After breakfast, the Hokage took him to buy a vase and made him pick one out himself. He'd had a flashback to the karma seal ritual. It was like the entire room faded away and suddenly he was trapped in the bag again high up in the air, helplessly suspended in the fluid, watching in horror as Jigen moved over to the huge vase below him.

In that moment, he had been so sure he was going to die, too. There were many times afterwards where he wished he had died instead. Or wished Code had gotten the karma instead of just a mutilated body. He would have loved to be Jigen's vessel instead of just another cyborg Inner. Then he could have fallen blissfully asleep for all eternity in the bag, or without the karma Jigen would have killed him for his insubordination.

He'd sat at the kitchen table staring at the new vase for a long time after they got back from Ichiraku Ramen. The Hokage had retreated to his office to do paperwork while Mrs. Uzumaki was reading at the kotatsu. Himawari was at school and Boruto was out training with his teacher and teammates. The snow from yesterday had begun to melt.

Why's it so important, anyways? A vase is just a vase. Boruto was mad at me so I bought her a new one. Why does he want me to fix the broken one? She doesn't seem to mind. I wish he would stop caring about stupid shit and start worrying about what matters, like getting rid of the karma.

He heard Boruto walking around in his room upstairs.

I'm still surprised Boruto's karma is from that Otsutsuki guy. And it didn't even require the ritual? Why?

For the second time since he got away from Kara, he willingly ate dinner with the Uzumaki family that night. They had made hot pot because it was still really cold outside, and both the adults seemed happy to see him eating. He ate and refilled his bowl until he couldn't possibly take another bite.

Why haven't they poisoned my food yet? Or accidentally poisoned one of their kids and needed to give them an antidote?

Mrs. Uzumaki rounded them all up to go grocery shopping after breakfast the next morning. Once again, he finished only half his plate.

If nothing happens again, maybe it really will be safe to just eat whatever they give me.

"Why do I have to go?" he asked as he reluctantly sat down and put his shoes on in the genkan. "You already went, didn't you?"

"I wanted to let you pick out some things for yourself, that's all." She replied.

"And he's going along to play bodyguard?" he asked, gesturing at the Hokage who was also putting his shoes and jacket on.

"Yeah, that's right." The Hokage replied. "I'm just worried, we both are."

But I told them starvation won't kill me.

He just scoffed and followed them out the door. Just like last time, they kept getting stopped and greeted along the way to the grocery store, the same Yamazaki Konbini in the yellow building that the Hokage had pointed out before.

"Welcome!" a clerk called out to them as they walked in.

It was much smaller than the clothing store had been, consisting of only a handful of aisles with a refrigerated section along one wall and a variety of services he didn't recognize on the other. Mrs. Uzumaki grabbed a cart and turned back to him.

"You can grab whatever you want, Kawaki." she said. "It's fine if you don't feel comfortable eating with us at every meal, but I want to make sure you have other things you can pick out to eat instead."

Huh. Really?

"What's the budget?" he asked, uncertain. He wasn't about to turn down the opportunity to make a stash of safe food. He hadn't been able to at Kara, but at home with his dad it had been how he survived going days in a row with only breakfast and a bamboo flask of water.

"Don't worry about the money." The Hokage answered.

"Okay." He replied.

He turned around and wandered down the first aisle he found, with Mr. and Mrs. Uzumaki following closely behind. He'd never been to a grocery store like this and turned loose to just buy whatever. His father had always sent him on errands to get something specific like alcohol, rice, or vegetables. Because so much of what he earned went straight to buying his dad's alcohol, he had to catch fish for the both of them and ask the baker for bread crusts to hide from his father so he would have enough to eat.

The grocery store in his home village didn't have nearly the variety that this one had, though. He picked out more ramen, rice crackers and onigiri as well as some packaged sandwiches and a few small bags of chips to try. He'd seen Boruto eating chips often enough to be curious about them. The Hokage had suggested that he tried some red bean paste filled pancakes and bread rolls so he ended up throwing them in the cart, too. The taiyaki from earlier was really good, after all.

If his situation wasn't what it was, he might have felt guilty about all the spending. But as it were, he was their prisoner so he didn't give a damn.

Maybe they'll give up if I start costing them too much money. Then I can run.

"I'll remember to buy you some more next time I go to the store, okay?" Mrs. Uzumaki told him as they were walking out of the store.

He just looked at her quizzically. "Sure, you do that."

Can people really keep up a charade this long?

He ate one of the sandwiches and a bag of chips when he got home and then when lunch came a few hours later, Mrs. Uzumaki made them all cup ramen. The Hokage went straight back to his office upstairs afterwards to do paperwork, meaning he had to spend the day in the living-dining room with Mrs. Uzumaki. She was knitting at the kotatsu and he had reluctantly sought out its warmth and sat down with her. The house was just as cold as Kara's headquarters with the weather like this.

Boruto came home from training not long after lunch. "I'm home!"

"Welcome home, Boruto!" Mrs. Uzumaki replied, walking into the genkan to greet him at the door as he took off his shoes. "Did you eat lunch already?"

"Yeah, we went to Kaminari Burger after training." Boruto replied.

Boruto settled down in the living-dining room at the kotatsu to play his video game for the rest of the afternoon. Eventually, his teammates Sarada and Mitsuki came over because Sarada wanted to spy on him. He got dragged out with the rest of them to watch Boruto train with his father.\

It was quite the experience watching them train like that. Since when was training so easy going and lighthearted? Boruto was never once in danger and didn't even seriously get hurt while he was fighting his dad.

After Boruto finally landed a hit on his dad using the karma, the Hokage caught his fist and used it to flip him over. Boruto wasted time complaining about it hurting instead of getting up and reacting but instead of punishing him for his mistakes, the Hokage simply let the fight end there as Boruto's karma deactivated. He didn't make him reactivate it and try again or hit him for messing up or anything.

And then, they signaled the end of the short training session with the unison sign.

That's it?

His training never ended until Jigen finally let him pass out instead of forcing him to get back up with threats of further injury or death.

"Get up, now. If you can't master that, you're of no worth to me."

Jigen had been right about one thing. He was worthless and he had nothing and he had no one. No one would give a damn if he died, not even Jigen.

"It would be a pain to have to kill you and go find another."

Even with the karma, Kawaki had only been of limited value to him. Training never ended until Jigen allowed it to end, and if Jigen had given up on him then that would have meant his death right then and there. Sometimes he'd purposely egged him on, partially out of frustration and partially in hopes he'd just kill him and get it over with. He'd rather die in training than let him possess him someday. Unfortunately, Jigen made it abundantly clear that as much as he was replaceable, that was a very undesirable option once he showed promise with starting to master his karma. The only good part about the training with Jigen was that it was his only outlet for all the stress in his life.

That training with Boruto and the Hokage was more like a game than anything else. It was like they were fighting as equals, not as teacher and student.

In the end, he anxiously asked the Hokage about his training with Boruto. He didn't want to just sit around and wait for Kara to come and he also wanted a way to to vent his frustration with life. That led to a spar with Boruto later the next day after breakfast. He'd actually eaten breakfast that day, too. Not all of it, but most of it. He had been just a few bites away from cleaning his plate when he admitted he was too full to finish it.

Unfortunately, Delta came to retrieve him. He'd been surprised when the Hokage fought her to protect not just his own kids, but himself as well.

Really? For me? He's fighting for me? Like I'm – like I'm his son, too?

No one had ever protected him before, not without expecting anything in return, let alone at the risk of their own life. Hell, his dad happily gave him away despite all his hard work to try to be good enough for him in exchange for alcohol money. He didn't know what happened with his mom, but his dad had always said she dumped him on his dad's doorstep and left the village when he was a toddler. Jigen and the goldfish salesman both tried to trick him so they could use him for their own gain, and he'd been naïve enough to trust Jigen.

He had expected the Hokage to turn him over to Delta to protect himself and his kids, but in the end he fought and risked his life to protect all three of them. Including him. Like he was one of them. So without really even thinking about it, he had rushed forward to shield the Hokage and Himawari. He told Boruto it was because without the Hokage they were doomed, but really his body had just moved of its own accord. He hadn't been thinking, he just acted.

In the end, Delta's attack cost him his dominant arm that he preferred to use in fights. He'd have to relearn how to fight without it, now. He'd surprised himself for a moment, but as he laid in the hospital bed after visiting hours were done thinking about it, honestly he was starting to trust the Uzumaki family. He was starting to like his life here in the village. It was much, much preferable to going back to Kara and being beaten and starved within an inch of his life every single day. If they wanted to poison him so they could move him and interrogated him, they'd wasted too many opportunities for it already.

Maybe they didn't mean it that much when they said they wanted me for intel. Shikamaru might prefer that option, but the Hokage doesn't and he's the leader. As long as Shikamaru doesn't take over, I'm safe, and even then I could probably absorb his paralyzing shadow technique.

When he lost his arm, the Hokage even made more work for himself by using his own chakra to attach the prosthetic for him.

So chakra is binding force, huh? And even after all this I still have it, too?

Maybe he would take Lord Hokage up on his offer to learn ninjutsu after all. Lord Hokage had used it to help beat Delta, and he'd always been afraid of her, so it could be a pretty powerful weapon if he could learn how to use it. And fix the vase for Boruto so he would stop being mad at him and actually work with him.

Author's Note: Please leave a review and let me know what you think! Two important things to note, though!

I made some minor edits to all of the previous chapters before I finished this one. I did this for two reasons. One, so everything falls in line with his anime canon life at Kara. Two, in order to hopefully develop his character a bit better and make his journey from the prologue to here make sense and hopefully not feel rushed. I wanted to take it slow because he's never once been cared for like a kid should his entire life, and he was betrayed twice, so of course he's slow to trust people. I don't recall adding any new scenes or anything big like that.

Also, I don't intend to follow the anime's plot too closely. If I post an anime plot related chapter beyond this initial setup phase, I'll let you know. Honestly I just want Kawaki to have a family and a normal life at the moment, but who knows if that'll change as the anime progresses.