Chapter 11:

"He'd been having a really rough day," Udon explained. "Apparently, the paperwork he finished yesterday got destroyed so he had to do them over again, chaos with meetings and files not going to the right place. Someone even torched his office today. Wouldn't say who did it or why, but it looks like he knows who's responsible."

Udon came in after the fact, so he had no idea what was going on but he took pity on Naruto. He really had been through a lot in one day. Naruto had even given him the day off so he could enjoy himself, so Udon felt bad that Naruto had to do so much work while he had fun with friends.

"I felt bad for the guy, so I gave him the chocolate Iwabe gave to me. Thought it might cheer him up."

The Genin looked at each other, then sprinted down the street towards the Hokage building.

"This is bad, this is bad, this is bad, this is bad," Shikadai kept repeating as he ran.

"The Hokage loves the village and everyone in it. He considers everyone family," said Sarada. "If that potion turns love to hate, what's he going to do to the village?"

Though he had his fair share of complaints, Boruto knew his father's devotion was undisputable. If Naruto's feelings suddenly changed, it spelled bad news for the entire village.

It wasn't just the position of power that posed a problem, it was the strength Naruto exhibited that everyone talked about which added to Boruto's fear.

What would his father be like if he became full of hate? Mitsuki was pretty scary when the potion took hold of him. Something told Boruto that he wouldn't want to be around to see his father half-crazy with hate and rage.

If he was as powerful as everyone claimed him to be, he could destroy the village and everyone in it.

What would he do to Hinata and Himawari? Sakura? Shikamaru?

Boruto and Shikadai were neck and neck as they raced to the Hokage building.

"What if he's already eaten it?" Inojin asked. "There's no way we can take him on by ourselves. Mitsuki was hard enough and he's a Genin like us."

"Isn't the Hokage still a Genin technically?"

"You know what I mean. He's the Hokage. He's an adult with tons of experience. If the poison is designed to amplify everything and if he's not thinking straight, what's he gonna be like? What's he gonna do to us?"

"He might not have eaten it yet. We've got to get there before he does."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You seriously don't remember anything?" Shikamaru asked Sai.

"I remember a few things but honestly the day's been kind of a blur," Sai confessed.

Shikamaru had come to Sai's home to interview him on what happened earlier that day, but he had no idea what Shikamaru was talking about. He was surprised to learn about the documents and as soon as he heard about the office, the first thing he did was ask if Naruto was alright.

"I felt off this afternoon, but now I'm ok. You think someone used genjutsu on me?"

Shikamaru assumed it was a form of genjutsu but now he wasn't sure.

Ino had come out to hear what they had to say and vouched for her husband, telling Shikamaru that he was behaving oddly but her son had a reasonable explanation for it.

"A love… poison?" Shikamaru repeated, wrinkling his nose. "I've never heard of that before."

"Apparently, it's supposed to turn love to hate. Inojin and his friends seemed to know a lot about it. They even gave Sai the cure and it seemed to reverse everything. I've been keeping an eye on him all day but there's been no relapse."

"I see." Shikamaru turned to Sai. "How do you feel now?"

"Fine," said Sai. "A little tired, actually. When I came to and everyone was staring at me, I actually felt like I had just finished up intense training."

"Really?"

"It's like I vented all my frustrations at once. Afterward, I felt tired and calm."

"Hmm." Shikamaru had to admit such a response would be normal of someone who just got finished throwing a huge tantrum. If Sai did unleash so much rage and energy, it would explain the calm tiredness he was feeling.

The idea of a love poison was still baffling, but it did make a lot of sense. What they had seen today all pointed to someone who was experiencing a lot of hate. If it was true that the poison transformed love to hate, it would explain why Sai would be so cruel to such a close friend.

"What did they use as an antidote?" asked Shikamaru.

"They used salt to counter the effects. Shikadai came up with it."

"Shikadai? So my son's involved. Figured, since you said Inojin's friends were helping out."

Sai gave Shikamaru a remorseful look. "Did I really do all that damage? I don't remember making any decision to do any of that stuff. I don't even remember feeling angry."

There was no point in taking this any further. As long as Sai was back to normal, Shikamaru considered the matter settled.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "You weren't yourself. And no one got seriously hurt. Glad you're ok."

Ino gave Sai's hand a squeeze. "Me, too."

Sai smiled.

He really was back to his old self.

Shikamaru turned away, thinking about what he should report. He had a feeling Naruto wouldn't hold a grudge over this. The rest of the people in the building would want an explanation for the damage but he wasn't about to throw Sai under the bus for something he couldn't even remember. It wasn't his fault anyway. He could just tell everyone it was just a minor accident and leave it at that.

On his way back to the building, he noticed Shikadai and his friends racing each other towards the same building. It didn't look like a fun race either. They looked terrified.

"What the hell?"

Naruto put the last paper into the folder and closed it, putting it on top of the pile on his desk. "Ten down, six to go."

He had just finished cleaning his office and immediately got to work filing out all the paperwork that remained intact. Every now and then he would find a stray piece of broken glass and would drop it into the trashcan.

He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his aching wrist. If these documents didn't need to be written by hand, he would have been done sooner. Even the ones already drawn up needed his signature so he couldn't automate everything.

He still had so much left to do. Six more files to get through and it was a little after four in the afternoon. It was hard to think.

Naruto looked at the box on the edge of his desk. Udon had given him some chocolate to make him feel better. He had a feeling Hinata was going to surprise him with some chocolate of her own tonight, but he wasn't sure he'd see it before midnight.

The pick-me-up was too tempting.

"I could use a little snack break. I need the energy to get through the rest of this stuff."

He reached over the papers to grab the box.

Holding it in his palm, he used his other hand to undo the ribbon binding it together. He lifted the top off the box, finding a small chocolate square with a pink heart on top.

It looked really good. He could taste the sweetness already.

He took the chocolate out of the box and brought it to his lips. It smelled really good.

Naruto opened his mouth.

The newly repaired doors came flying open and five Genin came tumbling inside, tripping over each other as they forced their way in.

"No!" they screamed, arms extended as if to grab his wrist. "Wait!"

Naruto froze, chocolate hovering in front of his open mouth. "Huh?"

Boruto stepped over his friends' backs to reach his father. He quickly snatched the chocolate from his hand and slammed it back into the box. Pressing it closed with both hands, Boruto fell to the floor in utter relief.

That was too close.

"What is going on?" Naruto asked, taking the words out of Shikamaru's mouth. His advisor had just arrived and was standing in the doorway above the children.

Boruto held up the box. "The chocolate in this contains a love poison. We just saved your ass."

"Poison?" Naruto was out of his seat. "How did that happen? Who did this?" He knew Udon wouldn't knowingly give him something poisonous. "Wait, what's a love poison?"

"If you eat it, it turns all your love to hate."

"How did that end up in that chocolate?" Naruto had to learn the source quickly to prevent any more from going in to circulation. If it was made by a company, it had to be shut down at once. If an individual made it, he had to find out who it was.

"It's… sort of a long story." Boruto didn't want to get Chocho into trouble. After all, it was an accident. This was the last of them, so he didn't see a reason to go into detail about it.

"It's my fault," Chocho confessed, stepping forward. "I made it on accident. I was trying to make a love potion but ended up making a love poison instead."

"Why?" Naruto asked gently. He didn't want to scold the girl who clearly felt bad enough as it was.

"I… I just…"

"No, it's our fault," Shikadai butted in, standing beside Chocho. "We pushed her to do this."

Chocho turned to stare at Shikadai in surprise. She never imagined he'd come forward like this.

"We rejected Chocho's kindness and made her feel unappreciated. We made her think we didn't care about her or her feelings."

Inojin went to stand beside his teammates. "It's true. It's only natural she'd try to make something that would force people to pay attention to her after we made her feel so bad. We basically told her that she didn't matter, even though that's not the case."

"We're just as responsible as she is," said Shikadai. "We caused this to happen. If we hadn't hurt her feelings and said those things, she wouldn't have had a reason to make that. And what she made was an accident anyway, so…"

Naruto's eyes passed from one to the next, slowly. They were standing shoulder to shoulder with each other, ready and willing to accept the blame equally in this. They were willing to stick up for each other while also admitting to their own faults.

"How many are there?" he asked.

"This is the only one left," said Boruto, still holding onto the box.

"It's true. There aren't anymore," said Shikadai. "We took care of them all and gave the antidote to anyone who ate it."

Naruto studied them for a moment then bowed his head. "Alright. That's great news."

"How much trouble are we in?" asked Inojin, hesitantly.

"None," he said, taking a seat. "You created a problem but then you fixed it and, instead of covering it up, you confessed. I don't think there's anything left we have to do about it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But I would like all the chocolate containing that love poison to be turned over to Shikamaru immediately so it can be properly destroyed."

Chocho dumped the contents of her bag onto the table and Boruto handed over the box in his hand. Shikamaru gathered them all and put them in a container for transport to make sure not a single piece would be mistaken for something else or lost.

"I'm really sorry," Chocho told Naruto. "I didn't mean it."

"It's ok," he said. "You owned up to your mistake and that's good. And who hasn't felt unappreciated at times? I'm sure tons of people have attempted to do the same thing. But now that you know what can happen, maybe you should find a different way to handle the situation."

She nodded. "I totally get it. Don't worry. And it's really cool of you to be so cool about it."

Naruto dismissed the group and they left the office.

As Shikadai was leaving, his father addressed him from the doorway. "That was pretty cool of you as well, Shikadai. Sticking up for your friend like that. And owning up to your share of the blame."

He shrugged. "Well, we did make her feel pretty rotten. It's only fair."

"Still. What you said back there in front of her and the Hokage… Very noble of you."

"Nah," he said, dismissively. "She's my teammate. I gotta work with these guys. It'd be troublesome if she was pissed at me."

Shikamaru grinned. "Fair enough."

They both played it cool but Shikamaru was still pleased with his son's action and Shikadai knew he had unintentionally hurt his friend's feelings and had to remedy that.

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