Chapter 19:
Boruto paced his cell, expecting a guard to come release him any minute, but no one came. Hours passed and still no one came to the prison.
Clicking his tongue, Boruto sat on the ground next to Yuji's cell and waited there.
"These things take time," said Yuji. "Don't expect them to open the doors right away."
"Maybe the king thinks I'm too dangerous and won't let me out. What if he changed his mind?"
Yuji shook his head with a smile. "The king's not like that. He brags and flaunts his wealth and thinks highly of himself, but he doesn't go back on his word. The king can be reasoned with, if the right person does the talking."
Boruto looked at the ground, noticing little chips and cracks in the stone floor. One looked like a perfect lightning bolt and he wished more than anything to have a nice juicy Thunder Burger right about now. He was looking forward to a lot of things when he got out of the cell.
If things were taking this long, maybe there was a problem. Maybe Naruto agreed that Kai shouldn't be brought back and was trying to bargain. Maybe the king was still angry and didn't think Boruto deserved to leave the prison. The innocent victim had already forgiven Boruto, but the king might have been too petty to consider it.
The king might not have cared anymore and this was all about Kai.
"Why does the king care so much about Kai?" Boruto asked. A question he asked to both Yuji and the air around him. "The king talks about being able to replace people so easily, so why would he care about one person?"
"Depends on the person," said Yuji. "Take my job for example. I did it well, but I took twice as long as the others to get any kind of result. When Kai put me in here, I told him the king would never allow it because I was good at my job, but he told me the king cares more about speed than precision."
"That's dumb," said Boruto. "You need both."
"Well, that might be why the king never came to see me. I wanted to do my job right but I did take a while to do it. Lots of people criticized me for that but I did get results. The others were frowned upon for their pushiness and ignorance, but they still got results and got them faster. However, they didn't get as many positive results as I did, though I took twice as long to get them. They got half as many positive ones but in half the time it took me. So we averaged about the same."
"But the king liked them being faster, so it didn't matter."
Yuji sighed and rested his head on the bars of his cell. "We're just tools to the king. Someone like me can be easily replaced with the right schooling. Soldiers, too. A fallen soldier can be replaced by anyone able to hold a spear and make it through combat training. But there are people with talents that can't be taught in school. We have a ton of bakeries in the city but they all specialize in something different. We once held a contest to see who could make the best bread and there was a clear winner. They didn't do anything special, it seemed, and no one could duplicate their recipe, even when it was written out and distributed. There was something about the way this person made it that couldn't be replicated."
Boruto nodded. "I get that. Shinobi are trained to be able to fight and do things, but not everyone has the same skills. I can't track people that well, but others can. And then there's jutsu. That's not easily replaced if only a certain clan can do it. No one else can do it, even if they try teaching it. It's unique to them."
"Exactly," said Yuji. "I might be able to do really well in one aspect of my job, but others can do things I can't. And if someone's trained to do only one thing, it's easy to replace them. But there are people who have something unique about them that can't be replaced."
Boruto rotated his head to look at Yuji who sat beside him with only the bars keeping them separated. "You're saying Kai has something that can't be replaced?"
Yuji kept his head against the metal bars as he spoke. "I hadn't been hired yet when Kai came to live in the palace. I heard stories, though. Someone told me that years ago, the king was having trouble with something. He couldn't figure it out and neither could his scholars. No one could resolve the issue, except one. Kai showed up outside the city walls and saw the king and his men having issues and managed to resolve it at once. The king was so impressed, he invited Kai to live in the palace and work for him."
"What was the issue they couldn't resolve?" asked Boruto.
"I don't know. I just heard the story when I got hired years later. Kai is older than I am, of course. He's been in this palace a lot longer than I have. He's gotten one promotion after another and ascended to the position of the king's pet. I think he let the power go to his head, if you ask me and just about anybody else."
"Yeah." But something bothered Boruto. During their last confrontation, he learned that Kai didn't want the throne. He was content with being the king's lapdog which struck Boruto was odd. Why would someone go through so much trouble to please the king and gain power if not to usurp the throne? It seemed it was because Kai wanted all the benefits of being such high rank but none of the responsibility. He didn't want to rule, just please the king.
It wasn't impossible for such a thing to happen, but Boruto thought it was uncommon. Most people were driven by power and wanted more of it. He was having a hard time understanding why someone would set such a limit for themselves. Was it because Kai was actually responsible and knew he was unfit to rule? He didn't seem very responsible from Boruto's perspective.
There must have been a reason, but nothing made sense to Boruto. He might have been too hungry and tired to think at this point. The sooner he got out of here, the better.
Boruto looked at the door again, wondering what was taking so long.
King Nita left the two shinobi in the throne room for two hours before sending a servant to relocate them. When they asked for more details, the servant just explained what his orders were and couldn't tell them anything else. They were taken to the foyer and made to wait once again. Shikamaru didn't mind waiting because it gave him more time to think of a way out of the situation and for Naruto to keep things quiet.
Though their discussion yielded a plan with minimal downsides, Shikamaru knew it was risky. The only thing working in their favor was the fact that the king, while knowing what shinobi were capable of, lacked understanding of their abilities and limitations.
Going with Naruto's plan meant using his fox fire to create an illusion of Kai regaining human form before their eyes. The king probably wouldn't notice the difference between fox fire and jutsu. Shikamaru, however, knew this was part of the gamble. The king was cautious, knowing a lot of what a ninja could do. This meant there was a chance the king would know something was wrong. Naruto was relying completely on the king's lack of understanding, thinking the king would either assume it was jutsu or some kind of magic they discovered.
If the king was fooled, believing that this was the result of something they uncovered, there was a chance he would try to duplicate it. When he couldn't, he would come to believe that he had been tricked.
Naruto thought that using an illusion of Kai taking off would solve all this. While they chased the illusion, the real donkey Kai would be hidden by a second illusion which they would then take to the shrine to be cured for real and brought back to the kingdom.
Everything relied on everyone doing exactly as Naruto intended, but Shikamaru knew how unpredictable the king could be. Able to read him to a point, Shikamaru knew there were high risks involved. Boruto alone discovered that people didn't always do things in exactly the same way and thought they would when he pulled that stunt earlier.
What if the guards didn't chase the illusion? What if they bumped into the camouflaged donkey while trying to go after the illusion? Naruto had been trained to use fox magic, but he was out of practice. Not only that, but he hadn't been practicing as long as they have. He wasn't skilled enough to fool all five senses as they could.
For him to try pulling off something of this caliber right now in front of so many witnesses was almost as reckless as what Boruto had attempted.
"It's alright, Shikamaru," Naruto said quietly, standing far away from the king's priceless décor. "I practiced on the train ride over here. I think I can manage."
Shikamaru groaned.
"I know we've been over this countless times, but this may be our best shot. You said every mission has risks."
"I know what I said. But something about this doesn't sit right with me."
"You think it's a bad plan, I know."
"No," said Shikamaru with a shake of his head. "It's risky, but not a bad plan. It's better than what we've been doing. But…"
"What is it?"
Shikamaru kept his eyes on the sparkling floor. "Something just feels… off."
The two straightened up when they saw the king coming their way, flanked by two guards. A servant came and opened the main doors. The king then waved to Naruto and Shikamaru to follow.
They entered the public street, the king riding in a palanquin carried by four soldiers while everyone else walked. The citizens hurried aside to make way for their ruler, some waving to the king as he passed by while others just stood and watched, this being a rare and special sight to behold.
Naruto quickened his pace to reach the open window of the palanquin to speak to the king. "I thought you refused to go anywhere."
"Outside my kingdom, of course."
"Then where are we going?"
"To where Kai has been kept all this time. A donkey is unfit for my splendid palace."
Naruto slowed his pace to walk behind the palanquin with a frown on his face.
They left the city gate and went past the docks, up a short road to an open area where the men lowered the palanquin and the king stepped out. He walked a short distance then stopped and waited for Naruto and Shikamaru to join him. He told them where to stand and they obeyed.
Several minutes passed before Naruto asked where the donkey was.
"Just a moment," said the king. "We're still waiting for someone."
Just as he said this another man appeared from behind the warehouses and stood in front of the king and shinobi. Shikamaru glared at the newcomer, recognizing him as the nobleman from the other city.
The man smiled politely at them and kept his distance. He was alone, no servants accompanying him. "I do hope this won't be a waste of my time, Your Majesty. I have been waiting."
"You'll get what you want." The king raised his arm and the two guards who had followed him out the door of his palace approached with a tethered donkey, fussing and braying.
The nobleman chuckled at the sight. "So this is Kai transformed? I must say it is rather fitting."
Shikamaru blinked, surprised to discover that he could understand the donkey as if they spoke the same language. No doubt, this was part of his cat transformation. Naruto, also being transformed, wasn't surprised in the slightest.
The donkey recognized the man and didn't think too highly of him, as it turned out. However, the donkey didn't comment on the nobleman's words, leading both shinobi to wonder if Kai could understand them in this form.
The donkey was brought between the king, the noble and Naruto. Now that it was no longer being pulled, the donkey stopped fussing and remained where it was.
The nobleman sneered at the donkey before looking at the king. "You Majesty, I look forward to seeing Kai's return. Thank you in advance for that. But I have to wonder if this was a wasted trip."
"It better not be," the king said in Naruto's direction.
The nobleman took notice of the gaze and smirked haughtily in Naruto's direction. "Then the shinobi has acquired something to remedy this."
"We shall see." The king gestured for Naruto to approach the donkey. "Proceed."
Taking a deep breath, Naruto stepped forward and bent down in front of the donkey. Taking a blank scroll from his pocket, Naruto unrolled it on the ground to pretend it was the scroll doing most of the work, though it was all a meaningless prop.
Breathing in again, Naruto wove a couple of hand signs without using any chakra to better his performance. He put one hand atop the blank scroll and the other he held in front of himself, palm facing the snout of the donkey.
Green and blue flames flickered to life in front of his palm and flew to the donkey who began to change. Hooves became hands and the tail vanished.
Naruto hoped obtaining Kai's physical description would be enough to pull this off. Seeing a person for himself and getting their description from others impacted the accuracy of the illusion, same as any transformation. It was all about the details. Something he didn't have a lot of.
Shikamaru watched Naruto's performance with a nagging feeling that something was wrong. It couldn't have been the cat in him, but his shinobi intuition.
Why had he thought this was a gamble? For the obvious reasons. The shortage of information, the king, Boruto, the village, everything involved. Every mission was like this in some way, however. No matter the risks, Shikamaru was always confident in his plans, even having backups in case someone did something unpredictable. So why didn't he feel confident now?
Flawed plan? Everything has some flaws to it on the battlefield. Lack of information? Often times he didn't have a lot to go on during missions and had to make do. Even that was a gamble.
Dealing with people he didn't know very well was almost always a factor and got a lot of shinobi caught or killed. Every leader ran their kingdom differently, but this king was odd. Most of what he did was understandable but his reasonability proved quite vexing and strange.
Usually when people wanted something, they were open to compromise, but not him. When the choices were for him to have his way by doing it their way or not and get nothing, he demanded they find another way to do what he wanted. There were plenty of unreasonable people he had to deal with in his life but this king was at the top of the list.
If they didn't want to bend, it was either because they were stupid, stubborn or had something to lose.
They recently discovered that the king didn't even want Kai to be cured. It was the nobleman. Which made sense for why he waited so long to contact them for help. Why he said anyone could be replaced then posed the opposite.
Before the king seemed willing to negotiate but now… Shikamaru believed it was either on account of anger, desperation or both. It couldn't have been because of Boruto anymore. The nobleman must have been blackmailing the king or promised him something he desperately wanted.
Which only made Shikamaru more confused. Not the king's motivation but the nobleman's.
The nobleman said he was among the many who hated Kai and wanted him to pay. That being a donkey would have suited many just fine, but he wanted Kai to change back. He said he wanted him to pay as a human, but that didn't make sense to Shikamaru. Even those who wished revenge on Kai were fine to learn that he was a donkey now and went on with their lives. Humans could be petty and immature, but it seemed that even they didn't have any qualms with this situation.
The nobleman said that Kai had information he wanted and that was why he needed Kai to return to human form. That made sense to a point.
Once Kai returned to human form, did he really think Kai would willingly give him information? The two clearly didn't like each other. If the nobleman tortured Kai, he would give him false information just to end the suffering. That was why Naruto and Shikamaru didn't believe it was a reliable method and found it barbaric.
Information, though… If Kai had been coming to the nobleman's city for the king's trade deals, why get the information now? Couldn't he have gotten it any time back then? And if not, what made now any different? If Kai didn't talk then, he wouldn't now. The nobleman had no right to capture Kai and make him talk, either. This was the king's land.
The biggest thing troubling Shikamaru was the location.
The king was adamant that they go nowhere, even if it were the only option. That if Kai were to be changed back, it had to be done in front of him. Why? Why was that so important?
It had to be done in front of them.
If they truly cared about the person's condition, it didn't matter where they had to go to get results. If Shikamaru's son were afflicted with a disease, he would take Shikadai wherever he needed to go to get cured.
They weren't willing to do that. Stubbornness had to have a limit. If they really cared about curing Kai, it didn't matter where they had to go if that was the cure.
Shikamaru's eyes went wide.
Which meant…
"Naruto, stop!"
In the middle of the illusion, Naruto frozen and turned to look over his shoulder at Shikamaru.
"This was never about changing Kai back!"
Naruto's fox fire waned, his concentration shifting. "Huh?"
The nobleman's mouth curved upward like a crescent moon. "Only a spirit can change him back."
Naruto's eyes went wide at those words and spun around to look at the nobleman.
The nobleman took a circular mirror from his vest and pointed it in their direction.