Happy New Year!
One thing that nagged at Kakashi was the location. From what he knew, there was little public knowledge of the Hidden Time. It was doubtful that Boruto just happened upon it, even if that could be true, were he travelling cross-country. Boruto's business lied within Konoha. Kakashi didn't miss the way that his face contorted with something more complex and contradicting than uncertainty whenever the village was brought up. It was important to him. It meant something to him.
He grew up there.
Kakashi brushed the dust and rubble off of his pants and flak jacket, his eye shifting warily from one wall to the other, and he shuddered. Everything was cracked and crumbling and aged. This room held up better than most of what he saw on his descent, but it wasn't enough to quell the bubbling uncertainty sloshing around in his gut. Thoughts of the roof coming down on him were enough to turn him on his heel and make his way back out the front of the temple, and he was only relieved when there was no longer a roof over his head.
Kakashi eyed his summoning hand, mulling over the idea of bringing Pakkun to his aid. For how little chakra he required, Pakkun was an exceptionally useful summon. But Kakashi's chakra reserves had been so depleted that he lost consciousness, and while he had a pair of boys to find—one being a jinchuuriki with amazing chakra reserves, and the other—
The other carrying a creature that fed off of chakra.
His eye widened slightly, and then his shoulders sloped and he rubbed the back of his neck. He wanted to give his chakra more time to recover, figuring there was no rush because, for all that he was troublesome, Boruto didn't seem all that malicious. But now that he made the grim connection that the parasite just ran off with its ideal victim, it didn't seem he had that luxury.
Kakashi bit his thumb and pressed his fingers to the ground. In a billow of smoke appeared a small pug, staring up at Kakashi with half-lidded eyes.
Kakashi sighed, offering the hand Boruto had used to leech his chakra. "I have a scent for you to track."
"What, no hello?"
"I'm in a bit of a rush, if you don't mind."
Boruto was very wet.
In the grand scheme of things, following through the river for an extended period of time was a great way to keep the tracker nin from catching up with them. That didn't mean he had to like being drenched from the waist down—or the waist up, in fact, as his loving father took his first notable moment of distraction to shove him off his foothold and into the ice-cold water. When he surfaced, Naruto was rolling around in the dirt laughing—getting his scent everywhere .
That was his excuse when he dragged his old man right down into the river with him.
Boruto wrung out his jacket at the mouth of the cave and then tossed it aside, scrunching up his face at the splat it made as it hit the ground. His shirt was sticking uncomfortably to his skin and the white fabric was now a translucent beige that made him grimace. He felt gross, caked in mud and grime and whatever else might have washed onto him in the river.
He took one last look at the high-noon sky and all its picturesque blueness and clouds, mocking him for his lack of sleep and wish for it to just be night , and then turned back into the cave with his hands on his hips.
Dad was sitting cross-legged by the fire, the top of his orange jumpsuit shoved in the corner as he held up his hands to the open flame. And for all that they may as well have been fugitives at that point, he was smiling.
Boruto shook his head, but there was a tug at the corner of his mouth that he couldn't fully suppress. He sauntered over and dropped down across from Naruto, sitting as close to the fire as he could without the risk of a spark setting his hair alight.
"So," he started, lifting his own hands to feel the heat. "What's all this about?"
Naruto looked at him, raising a brow. "What'd'ya mean?"
Boruto rolled his eyes. "Don't gimme that. Why'd you come after me?"
"'Cause we're friends," Naruto stated, as though it were the dumbest question in the world. "And you looked scared."
Boruto pulled his mouth taut and averted his eyes to the flames. He buried the twinge of embarrassment he felt beneath a layer of who-cares-it's-only-Dad. The crackle and pop of fire filled the silence as he collected his thoughts. "I attacked you."
Naruto shrugged. "It's gonna take more than that to take out the future Hokage, y'know."
He twitched, stealing a glance at his father. He thought… but the more that he thought, the more he wanted to kick himself. Dad was never the type to hold a grudge. Dad had a temper, sure—like father, like son—but it was quickly abated and rarely lingered. How could he ever expect differently?
A soft chuckle rose up from Boruto's throat and he leaned back, propping himself up with his arms. "Figures," he muttered. "I, uh… I'm sorry. 'Bout what happened. I didn't mean to do that."
"I know," Naruto stated simply. "That's why I came to rescue you."
Boruto tilted his head. "Since when do I need rescuing?"
"No one ever gets away from Kakashi-sensei, y'know!" Naruto laughed, crossing his hands over his chest, his eyes closed and squinted. He looked weirdly fox-like. Mischievous. "No one but us!"
A slow grin stretched across Boruto's face. "Did you see the look on his face?"
"I was too busy runnin'."
"Old Man Kakashi was so surprised," Boruto stated, lowering further onto his elbows. "He didn't see you coming at all . And then, when I used the paralysis jutsu—"
"That was so cool! You gotta teach me that!"
He raised a brow. "The paralysis jutsu? What, you don't know it yet?"
"Nu-uh. I, er… I mean…" It was Naruto's turn to look away as he reached around to rub the back of his neck. "I don't know much. I've got my sexy jutsu—"
"Your what?"
"—and my shadow clones. I didn't… do well in the academy, I guess."
Boruto stared in open disbelief. How could the future Hokage not know such a simple jutsu? It was D-rank. Shouldn't he have been a child prodigy or something? One of those people who was born skilled, learned fast, and outclassed everyone around them? Though, the image of someone like that didn't mesh well with the image he had of Dad, young or old. This kid was all over the place, a bit of a mystery, with a thought process that only he could understand. And the old man? Well. He was a good-for-nothing who still had trouble getting himself out of bed in the morning. At least, Boruto thought that he still had trouble getting out of bed. The last time he went to wake his father up… when was that, exactly? It had to have been a while back; his father rarely ever came home anymore.
Boruto never asked to know much about his father's past. What did it matter to him what Dad was like growing up? Who cared if he was a prodigy or a good-for-nothing back then when he wasn't even there for them now? In a way, his lacking interest was a statement. Maybe his father never saw it that way. Maybe Dad didn't even notice. It didn't matter.
Dad was the Hokage first and a father second.
He was pulled out of his thoughts when he saw that grin on him, leaning in, and he leaned away. "...What?"
That look on Naruto's face did not scream 'benevolent Hokage.' That look promised trouble.
"Teach me," Naruto demanded, scooting closer. "You owe me for the rescue."
"I'm not—" He frowned and pushed himself back up. "Why did we run, anyway?"
"Kakashi-sensei was gonna take you back to Konoha, right?" Naruto answered the question with one of his own. He leaned over, snatching a branch off the cavern floor to roll the logs and stoke the fire. "You didn't want to go, so you shouldn't have to."
"Oh."
Simple logic. It suited Dad. In the moment, he'd been beyond confused. Kakashi seemed to understand the situation, to some extent. He was, at the very least, aware that the attacks were not of Boruto's own will and that he had little control in the moment. That was… good. It felt good . That whole time, he'd been worried they'd all see it as an attack on the village, see him as some sort of enemy to be dealt with accordingly. Kakashi showed him differently.
With that sort of support, he'd wondered why Dad rushed the old man and had them high-tail it out of there. Then again, Dad probably hadn't known what was going on—just saw a chance to help and took it.
Boruto lowered his head, shadowed his face behind his bangs and hid a smile.
Stupid old man.
He sucked in a breath, steeled himself, and faced forward. Naruto was in his direct line of sight. He held up his hand, palm facing out, to show the pin-prick dot of black ink ever-present on his palm. Naruto leaned in for a closer look, squinting, and he didn't need to say anything for his questions to be understood. Boruto figured that, after everything, Dad deserved at least some level of honesty. Especially as a victim. "This," he said, and hesitated, "is a curse mark. I think. I'm not sure."
Naruto made a sound of feigned understanding and reached out, poking the dot and eliciting an eyeroll. "From what?"
"I—" Boruto cleared his throat to suppress his embarrassment. There was no way that he was telling his father that he waltzed up to an ancient scroll and snatched it off its pedestal without a second thought like some sort of idiot. "That's not important! Point is, ever since I got it there's been this… thing sealed inside me, eating my chakra. A chakra beast."
"Chakra beast?" Naruto leaned back and crossed his arms again, his face scrunched up as he mulled that over in his head. "What's that?"
"Hell if I know!" His arm dropped to his side, fist balled and white-knuckled. "Problem is, it's not happy with just my chakra, so it tries to get it from other places. Like you and old man Kakashi. It uses me for that. What happened last night—I didn't want that. I promise."
Naruto hummed as though he was thinking it over, then nodded. "I believe you."
Well, that was easy.
It was like a weight was lifted from his shoulders and Boruto fell back, his back meeting the cool rock beneath him, and he watched the flickering flames light up the roof of the cave in an orange hue. It was hard to keep his eyes open. Suddenly he was reminded of how little sleep he'd gotten ever since arriving in this time, something that his body was all too eager to remind him of as his every limb melted into the ground like jelly.
"Hey, hey," Naruto's voice sounded far away, but Boruto wasn't out yet. He acknowledged Naruto with a short grunt. "I get why you left. But…"
"Mm?"
Naruto scooted closer, hovering above his half-asleep companion. "But Kakashi-sensei and old man Third'll listen if you explain things. They're not like the rest. And you can stay at my place. No strings attached."
Boruto let out a soft snort. "I don't need your pity." He said that, repressing the soft bubble of emotions that came with Dad's support.
"It's not pity," Naruto pouted, nudging the prone body with his foot and eliciting an annoyed groan. "I can relate, is all."
Boruto had half a mind to ask what he meant, but as he slipped away into sleep he just couldn't be bothered.
"Guys like us gotta stick together, y'know?"
A long shadow cast across Naruto's sleeping body, his son hovering over him with a mischievous grin.
Boruto woke to the bright hues of sunset as they leeched their way into the cave. As his stomach twisted and complained, the last time he ate being at the ramen bar, he gathered his sleep-laden thoughts and checked their clothes. Dry as a bone. He was grateful for that as he slipped on his jacket, but his nose scrunched up at the feel of it. Dry, but not clean. Even after the little river dive they took, he stunk to high heaven.
All he wanted was a bath, a meal, and a day in bed playing video games.
Naruto was snoring, sprawled out unceremoniously across the cave floor, lying on his back. Some things never changed; Naruto then was a mirror image of the Naruto of decades later. It brought Boruto back to the good ol' days and he wanted nothing more than to be vindictive. But this wasn'tDad—not entirely—and he knew well enough to hold back any ideas of an unsavoury awakening. Even if the look on Naruto's face would have been worth it.
"Rise an' shine, Sunshine," he greeted loudly, tossing the top of Naruto's orange jumpsuit down onto the lump of sleeping genin. Naruto stirred and groaned, the fabric covering his face, and patted around until he found the end of it, pulling it off his head and glaring through squinted eyes. "Let's get a move on, Princess."
Naruto looked much too tired to care for the taunting, lurching upright like a zombie and staring vacantly at nothing. He blinked, slow and uncomprehending, and then scratched his head with a yawn.
Boruto rolled his eyes, nudging Naruto with his foot. "Up, up, up. We're burning daylight. I wanna be out and moving before we're left walking through the dark with a tracker nin on our trail."
"Mm?" Naruto's head turned slowly, finally registering the one talking to him. Dark circles made him look older than he was, tired in a way that confirmed for Boruto that this really was the Seventh Hokage that he knew. His old man always looked like he'd gone three weeks straight on caffeine and no sleep. "Where we goin' now?"
Boruto turned around in a flourish and wandered over to the mouth of the cave, looking out at the warm evening colours swathing the forest. He took a deep breath, if only to fill himself with some false sense of certainty. "Konoha."
Naruto blinked, finally awake enough to lift his arms, and he worked his hands around his jacket, fumbling to pull it over his arms. "I thought you didn't wanna go back."
"Yeah, well." Boruto leaned his forearm against the cave wall and smiled. He wouldn't say aloud that Naruto's support gave him courage, or that Kakashi's reaction gave him hope. He wouldn't, because both admissions held implications he rather not deal with at the moment. "Things change. I'm hungry."
The mention of food had Naruto whining as he wrapped his hands around his middle. "I could go for some Ichiraku…"
Boruto snickered. "You can't just eat ramen every day, y'know."
"But—"
"Tell you what," he interjected, spinning around to face Naruto, hands on his hips. "When we get back, I'll make us food. How's that sound?"
"You can cook?" Naruto looked skeptical.
Boruto stuck up his nose. "Not to brag or anything, but I'm pretty awesome at whatever I do." Of course, he couldn't say that he helped his mom with dinner sometimes, because as far as Naruto knew, he had no parents. Even Dad could cook—in the future, at least—and Boruto may or may not have picked a few things up from side-eyeing him on the occasions where he cooked for Mom, rare as they were in later years.
"Uh-huh." There was very loud disbelief in Naruto's voice. He dropped it there, though, and finally picked himself off the ground, looking just as much asleep as he was ten minutes ago. "Alright, 'm up…"
Boruto threw his fist into the air and marched forward. "Hell ya! Let's go!"
They started the long trek back to the village with a lot of one-sided chatter on Boruto's end—Naruto was still too tired to form coherent sentences, apparently. That was fine. Boruto was fine with filling the silence. He was used to it. More than that, though, was the desire to keep his father from thinking.
If Naruto thought too much, he'd want them to go back.
Boruto wasn't stupid. He knew that returning to Konoha wouldn't be as easy as walking unhindered through the front gates and signing in. He was well aware that Kakashi was tailing him long before the first chakra-draining incident, that important people had taken note of his presence in the village and gotten wary, and that he would have a lot of questions to answer if he planned on going back. He suspected that Kakashi witnessed the incident with Naruto, that he was watching all-the-while, and that he was reporting directly to the Hokage.
Boruto knew that when they made it to Konoha, he wouldn't be allowed to just go right back to Dad's apartment. But if he didn't return to Konoha, where would he go?
Konoha was his . His one-and-only, precious home. Time could never change that.
Being dragged back home by nin-dogs felt too much like losing so, at the very least, Boruto was going to go back on his own terms. Boruto Uzumaki didn't just lose. Not without a fight.
If nothing else, the kid was tenacious.
Kakashi was impressed, if a little annoyed, when they lost Boruto's scent at the river. It was hardly enough to shake him and Pakkun, of course, but it pained him to admit that it slowed them down. By noon, he was unamused. By evening, he was all sorts of done with the whole ordeal. On the brightside, his chakra made a full recovery. But this little game of cat and mouse was drawing on too long for his liking. They were catching up, though. Steadily.
It occurred to him that he was being led in a circle. After the ruins, the boys put more distance between themselves and Konoha, but later dipped back around and were headed straight for it. He found their campground off the cliffs at the edge of the forest. Kakashi wasn't sure what their goals were, heading back to Konoha after sending him on a Sagedamn forest-wide scavenger hunt, but he wasn't complaining. If they wanted to make it that much easier for him to bring them home, so be it.
There was one concern that cropped up when he thought of bringing them back, though, and that was what to do about Boruto's little issue. The kid was right; it would be dangerous to keep him around people when he had no control over his curse. He was sure that something could be done about it, though. If they could seal the nine-tails, they could seal a parasite.
He just hoped this particular seal didn't claim lives.
"Boss," Pakkun called.
Kakashi's eye lifted lazily to the trees ahead of him. "I know."
They were close enough that he could scent them. This was good, but he made the mistake of being too trusting and sympathetic twice now and he wasn't about to go in with the same proffered hand he had before. He knew now how stupid that show of trust had been. Maybe he was getting soft over the years, because his time in ANBU taught him that even a child could be used as a weapon, that it didn't matter the age of his target and that he should never underestimate them. He let his guard down because one was Naruto, and the other looked like Naruto, and looked scared.
Minato, your son is turning out to be a real pain.
Kakashi observed from the trees. Below, two blond genin walked leisurely through the brush, looking similar enough that they could have been mistaken for twins. Boruto was leading the way, his hands behind his head and a grin on his face, no longer with that forlorn look he held onto all last night. Behind him, Naruto was dragging through the grass with a yawn.
"How much longer?" Naruto whined.
"A while ," Boruto replied, rolling his eyes. "You asked like ten minutes ago."
"But I'm hungry, y'know."
"And I haven't eaten since Ichiraku. We're genin—suck it up."
Kakashi withheld a sigh. Of course they were bickering. Naruto's complaints were nothing of a surprise. Naruto was Naruto. But Boruto seemed different, more sure-footed. Grounded. Last night, he'd been so worried and anxious that he may as well have curled up into a ball and shut out the world.
"Hey," Naruto called after some time, unaware of the shinobi hiding within the canopy of trees, "how's the thing?"
Automatically Boruto looked down at his hand, the same one he used to leech chakra, and wiggled his fingers. "Quiet. Hasn't said a damn word to me all day. Not hungry yet."
"And when it is? What's your plan?"
Boruto hummed, crossing his arms and furrowing his brow. "Mm… we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it."
Well. That was a very different approach from the one he took last night. A lot more reserved, a lot more confident. Were that his attitude before, they may have gotten somewhere. Somewhere that didn't include a cross-country trek across the Land of Fire.
Kakashi was not bitter.
"I'm not letting it do whatever it wants," Boruto continued, his fist clenched shut as he twisted to face Naruto, grinning. "Not without a fight."
That was a lot of certainty directed Naruto's way. He wondered where it came from, but seeing the way the kid was looking at Naruto, it wasn't hard to figure out. There was a distinct possibility that the boys were related in the future. No, Kakashi would place it closer to certainty. They looked alike, uncannily so. This wasn't a henge, at least that much was clear, and the similarities they shared were the kind only seen through family ties. Looks like that were no coincidence.
'Son' crossed his mind, but he quashed it. The Naruto he knew was twelve years old and he didn't want to think of that kid having kids of his own. It made Kakashi feel his age and then some.
He sighed, and for a moment Boruto's eyes met his. There was a discreet wave, one unknown to Naruto who was too busy being tired and miserable to take notice, and then the moment was over and Kakashi was left faintly amused.
Perceptive kid. If he knew that they were being watched that whole time and hadn't tried to retaliate, that meant Boruto had accepted what would happen when they arrived in Konoha. Naruto was a different matter entirely. Naruto was unaware. Undoubtedly.
This was a mess just waiting to happen.
It was dark by the time they arrived at Konoha's walls. The guard stationed there looked confusedly between the boys, his eyes wide and uncomprehending.
"Uh—" He tried to find his voice, pointing between them. "Two Narutos?"
"Boruto," the fugitive corrected with a grin, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Boru…" The guard snapped his fingers. "The kid from the other day!"
"You got it, Old Man."
"But how—"
The guard swallowed his words when met with the smiling eye of Kakashi Hatake as he arrived behind them in a whirl of wind and leaves. Rather than question it, he shut his mouth and allowed them entry without any interrogation. By that point, most of the villagers were aware of Kakashi's former ANBU status. They didn't question it when strange things happened around him. Even after his retirement from ANBU, his position close to the Hokage had people expecting those same sort of strange, secret missions to still be his domain. Two Narutos was hardly the strangest thing their minds could come up with.
Naruto followed the guard's eyes and jumped away when he spotted his instructor looming behind them. "Kakashi-sensei?!"
Boruto twisted around, met Kakashi's eye evenly and waved over his shoulder as he walked through the gates. "Yo. Guess it's about that time."
Kakashi followed behind, his hands in his pockets, and Naruto hurried to keep up. Once inside the village, he caught Boruto staring up at Hokage Tower.
"This way," Naruto directed, nodding left towards his apartment. "Hurry, I'm hungry!"
Boruto looked over with a smile and Naruto's face fell. He turned to Kakashi and sighed. "We should get going, huh?"
Naruto's shoulders slumped. "What'd'ya mean?" He looked from Boruto to his instructor and back again. "Kakashi-sensei? What's going on?"
Kakashi sighed and stretched. He placed a firm hand on Boruto's shoulder—there was hesitance there, a mild concern that there would be a repeat of the last time they came into contact, but nothing happened. "Your friend here has some business with Lord Third," he said simply, heavily, with all that implied.
"What?" Naruto fidgeted and forced a smile. "O-oh, um. He's just gonna to talk to old man Hokage?"
It was Boruto's time to sigh. He stepped forward, closing the distance between them, and poked Naruto's forehead. "I'll be back when I'm back, 'kay? Let's take a raincheck on dinner."
"...Fine."
Despite the word of agreement, it was pretty clear that Naruto felt anything but okay as he watched the jōnin walk off with his buddy. He stood there in the shrinking distance, his body stiff and hands white-knuckled at his sides. Kakashi caught the way Boruto glanced back, too, even if it came off a lot more concerned.
Boruto made his own way to the Hokage's office, headed straight for it. Kakashi didn't have to say a word. It was quiet as they walked and Kakashi almost pulled out the copy of Icha Icha that he had in his pocket but thought better of it.
"He's still standing there," Boruto observed, and Kakashi craned his neck around to see an orange and yellow speck shrinking into the distance. Boruto chuckled, the sound broken with uncertainty, his face lowered to the ground. "That stupid old man. This whole time he's been complaining 'bout how hungry he is. He should go eat already."
Kakashi hummed in acknowledgement, distinctly recalling the bell test and the way Naruto tried to steal lunch for himself. That was a selfish, dishonourable move if ever there was one. But there was more to it than that, and Naruto wasn't as selfish as he first appeared. He had grown since then, too, even if only a little.
"He's not going to, though, is he?"
Kakashi let out a soft snort. "It's doubtful."
"Really…" Boruto scratched his head, his steps slow and dragging as they came to stand before administration. His tone was somber and soft and Kakashi would have been fooled, had he not seen the ghost of a smile behind the kid's bangs. "What a stupid old man."
Hiruzen leaned back in his chair and twisted around to look out the window at the blackened sky. Night fell once again. In all honesty, he was surprised that Kakashi had yet to return with the unknown child that so resembled their young jinchuuriki. In his last report, Kakashi explained that Naruto had been assaulted during his watch and, in that time, this Boruto Uzumaki child fled the village. Actions like those spelled guilt, unfortunate as that may have been, and it seemed Iruka's suspicions were right on the mark.
According to Kakashi, Naruto was uninjured. This unknown child had drained his chakra—some, but not all. He stopped partway through of his own accord. It was relieving to hear, knowing just how large Naruto's chakra reserves were because of the nine-tails.
He shifted where he stood and sucked in a deep breath of smoke from his pipe as he stared out at the stars, mulling over this strange little mishap. If this were some poor attempt at enemy infiltration, he was going to have a new headache to deal with. They would have to interrogate him and Hiruzen very much hoped the boy's appearance was a henge, that they wouldn't have to subject a child to the Torture and Interrogation Force. Ibiki wouldn't be swayed to go easy on him just because of his age.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear. From the window, his eyes caught a blond head of hair below, washed out into a muted grey in the darkness. Kakashi stood to the boy's side and soon they disappeared behind the wall of the building. It was good to see that the boy wasn't bound or tied, though he had to question Kakashi's leniency.
The Third Hokage blew out a ring of smoke and grumbled to himself as he lowered into his chair. He retrieved his hat from where it had been discarded atop the desk and put it on. The moments of freedom he'd had in his thirty years of service always seemed so sparse. He looked forward to the day when someone else would take up the chair, when all of this would be their problem, and he could retire for good.
There was a knock at the door, cutting through his tranquil quiet, but before he could answer the door was flung open and on the other side stood a grinning blond, strutting in like he owned the place.
Hiruzen was getting to be too old for this.
Boruto Uzumaki looked left then right, his eyes following the pictures of previous Hokage framed on the wall, then reading the kanji on the desk. His hands were in his pockets, mirroring Kakashi who was looking very unimpressed behind him. Then, finally, he noticed Hiruzen. His eyes were large and wondering, something akin to confusion settling on his face, and then he grinned.
When Boruto ran close, Kakashi's arm shot out to hold the boy at a distance. Boruto pouted but didn't fight the hand on his shoulder, and then his grin was back, and he looked so much like Naruto in that moment that it was damn-near unsettling. "Hey, Grandpa Third."
That, even more so.
Hiruzen's eyes narrowed and he propped his elbows atop his desk, his fingers interlocking as he considered the child that stood before him. After surviving three world wars and heading Konoha for somewhere over three decades (at some point, the years started to blend together, and he could only hope that this wouldn't still be going on at the end of his days), it took a lot to surprise him, and even more to get him to show that surprise on his face. This wasn't enough—not for the latter—but the same could not be said for young Kakashi.
"I'll assume you're Boruto Uzumaki," he breathed, and his eyes flickered down to his pipe but he resisted the urge to grab it. "You've been causing quite a stir these past few days."
"I got that impression," Boruto stated, and there was something smug to his voice that set him apart from young Naruto. Not that Naruto wasn't overconfident in his own right, but Naruto's confidence compensated for his own insecurities. Boruto's felt genuine. "Sorry about that. Really. Didn't mean to have your guys all throwing a fit over me."
"I've been hearing things," Hiruzen stated, analyzing, catching it when Boruto's grin wavered. "A little bird told me that your left hand absorbs chakra."
There it was. The grin was gone and Boruto wrenched his shoulder free of Kakashi's hand. He closed the distance between them with slow, even strides this time, rather than rushing over again and setting everyone on edge. He held up his hand, his palm facing outwards, and Hiruzen studied the black mark that he found there.
"It's this," he said. "A curse. I think. Or some sort of seal. There are more markings like this when I use my chakra. They spread."
Hiruzen looked past the boy to Kakashi, who nodded.
"I've seen it," Kakashi confirmed.
"Look: I'll answer all your questions." Boruto pulled his hand back, shoving it into his pocket and scuffing his shoe against the floorboards. "I'll tell you. But only you."
The implication was far from subtle and Hiruzen was amused, if nothing else. He cast his gaze to the jōnin on standby and nodded. Kakashi didn't hesitate to bow and step out of the room, leaving the Hokage and the boy alone in the office. Kakashi would no doubt be waiting there on the other side of the door. That was fine. He trusted Kakashi not to eavesdrop; that man was nothing if not loyal.
Boruto was less trusting. He cast a wary gaze at the door, eyeing it, but seemed satisfied as minutes of silence passed. His eyes went back to the Hokage portraits, softening a little. "We have the same one at my house," he said simply, "of Grandpa Fourth."
Hiruzen followed his eyes to the portraits. Minato was the last one, the Hokage with the shortest run. Hiruzen had lived long enough to know that the Hokage seat had a high turnover rate and low mortality. Knowing that, it was tiring to know just how long he'd held his position for. Never a day went by where he didn't wish it was Minato there instead of him, but he was an old fool for holding on to a long-dead dream.
"You seem very familiar with the Fourth Hokage," he observed, if only to get the boy talking. Boruto seemed hesitant.
"Well, not like I ever met him. But he's always been there, y'know?"
Boruto's head swivelled around, pouting when he didn't see a chair in sight, and he moved over to lean against the wall. His clothes were caked with mud and stained by grass. There was a tear in his jacket, his hair was a mess, and he looked like he hadn't seen a shower in weeks. Moreover, he looked tired. Kakashi's hunt must have taken its toll on him.
"Enough," Hiruzen stated, closing his eyes. "I would like answers."
Boruto snorted. "Where to start?"
"Your name, for one," Hiruzen pressed. "And why you're currying favour with Konoha's jinchuuriki."
"Jinchuuriki?" Boruto echoed, his brow raised. "That's… I know I've heard that word. Wait, hold on. I got this."
Hiruzen sighed and leaned back into his chair, finally giving in and grabbing hold of his pipe. This was turning into a very long, unhelpful conversation. "The human container for which a tailed beast is sealed."
Boruto's face lit up. He hit his fist against his palm as understanding hit. "Oh! You mean Dad!"
Hiruzen stared at the boy a long while before taking a very long, warranted drag from his pipe.
"Er…" The boy rubbed the back of his neck. "Naruto. You mean Naruto, right? Crap, okay. I really gotta start from the beginning. Okay."
At the very least, Hiruzen was optimistic. Surely they were getting somewhere. That there confirmed that this Boruto child was indeed well aware of what Naruto was. He would consider it progress, if not for that one, horrible word that sat heavy on the Hokage's mind, a prelude into the mess that was about to spill from this boy's lips. He braced himself.
"You won't believe me," Boruto assured. "But I'm going to say it anyway. I'm from the future."
"You're correct," Hiruzen affirmed, not skipping a beat, "I don't. Convince me."
Boruto pouted and crossed his arms, looking around the room as though there were answers hidden in plain sight. When that failed, he pushed off the wall and stood, back straight and eyes forward, and recited like a mantra, "My name is Boruto Uzumaki. I'm a genin from Konoha, from the time of the Seventh Hokage. C'mon, Gramps. I know you see it. Who do I look like to you?"
The Hokage sized the boy up, even though he didn't really need to in order to know what Boruto was getting at. The face was all Naruto, a face of trouble hidden beneath bright blue eyes. "It could be a henge."
"You know it's not." Boruto rolled his eyes and sauntered up to the desk, shaking free of his jacket. The material crumpled to the floor in a heap, revealing a not-so-white short sleeved shirt and bare arms. "If I were using chakra, the mark would light up."
"Show me." It was a formality; Boruto was obviously planning to do just that.
Three hand signs later and a Boruto clone appeared through a puff of smoke. The clone remained unchanged, but the effect on the original was instantaneous; glowing white-blue markings spread across Boruto's left arm, up to and around to the back of his neck, and the brat stuck up his nose.
"See?" He huffed, folding his arms one over the other and standing tall, daring the Hokage to challenge him. "And the moment I stop," the cloned poofed away, the markings faded into a dull black, and then receded, "they go away. This is me, Gramps. Like it or not."
Hiruzen remained mildly unconvinced, partially because of his own inflexibility and partially because he presumed that if this was a ploy by one of the other hidden villages to get to the jinchuuriki, they would have thought of every angle to make the story the most convincing that it could be.
Boruto noticed, if the scowl was anything to go by. "Look," he said, placing a hand atop the desk, "you don't have to believe me. But I said I'd be upfront with you so I will. You're the Hokage, after all… If I can't tell you, then I can't tell anybody. I know I ran, but… man, you know, it's been areally confusing few days and I can't keep doing everything by myself. I'm getting nowhere . I can swallow my pride and admit when I need help."
They locked eyes, Hiruzen waited for the boy to look away, to flinch, to give some tell that he was lying, but when there were none, he nodded and motioned for Boruto to continue.
"Naruto's my old man," he stated bluntly, and even though Hiruzen knew that was what he had been insinuating, it still floored him. "The Seventh Hokage. Don't get me wrong—he's still a good-for-nothing layabout. I always catch him eating ramen in his office."
Seventh. Hiruzen sucked in a breath and turned to the four portraits lined on the wall. "Seventh," he repeated, rasping out a chuckle and shaking his head. "And who are you insinuating is the Fifth?"
"You can probably answer that yourself."
Tsunade.
"And the Sixth?"
Boruto hunched his shoulders conspiratorially and pressed one finger to his lips, pointing to the door with his other hand. "Shhh."
The Hokage stared, a little dumbfounded as he looked past the child to the door where Kakashi was undoubtedly keeping guard on the other side. He could see it; the boy was sharp and skilled, a genius in his own right, but perhaps lacking the ambition needed to carry out the job—ambition that Naruto held in spades, even now at twelve years old.
Hiruzen hated himself for considering that the child may have been telling the truth.
Boruto frowned. The lighthearted amusement was gone from his face. "I messed up," he confessed. His voice was soft, quiet, betraying the self-assured nature he'd displayed up until that point. There was something else there, something edging on self-reproach. "Put simply, I did something stupid on a mission. My team was sent to retrieve a scroll from an excavation site, and I, um…"
Those words were laced with remorse, the kind that could not be faked.
"I'm so stupid ," he hissed, scuffing his shoe against the floor. Then the words just started flowing from his lips like water. "I grabbed an artifact. A scroll. I didn't think it could have countermeasures against theft on it. I don't know what I was thinking. But then I grab it, and the ink just—it justleeches onto me —and suddenly I'm in the past, Dad's shorter than me, and—and the village is entirely different. I mean, even the damn ramen bar! My house isn't even built yet. Dad's living in this little hole-in-the-wall and he's so stupid sometimes but he's there, and that's enough, even when it isn't, and—"
Hiruzen held up a hand and instantly Boruto clammed up.
He heaved a sigh and rubbed his temple in a vague attempt at offsetting the headache bleeding into his brain from the fast-talking time traveller standing there in his office. That was a lot to take in, whether he believed it or not, and it was becoming apparent that Boruto was trying to confide in him. He wondered if they happened to be close in the future, or if he was even still kicking by then. Likely not; he was getting on in years and even if he survived every war that he faced, he wasn't immortal. That meant that this boy was confiding in a stranger. He had nowhere else to turn.
"Let's say I take your word for it," Hiruzen started, fiddling with the pipe in his hand. "Why go to Naruto? Any interaction you make will likely impact the future you claim you're from."
"He came to me ," Boruto defended. It sounded about as childish as expected. "He was just there, suddenly, and he dragged me to get ramen, then Iruka was there… Then when I left he followed me . Like an idiot. After I took his chakra."
"Which brings me to my next point of concern." He let the words hang there and waited expectantly.
"It's the seal," Boruto grumbled, raising his hand to back up his words. "Or… curse. Or whatever. Jinchuuriki contain tailed beasts inside their bodies, right? With seals."
"Correct," Hiruzen nodded.
Boruto rubbed the back of his neck. "Well… it's like that. But instead of a tailed beast, it's this thing that eats chakra. When it's hungry it takes control of me. Then it takes chakra from wherever it can get it. Dad, then Kakashi. It's quiet now, but I don't know when it'll wake up again. That's… why I wanted to come to you."
He raised an eyebrow.
"If anyone would know what to do, it would be the Hokage, right?"
Hiruzen snorted and shook his head. Simple logic. The situation surrounding that logic was anything but, though. He tapped his fingers against the side of his pipe as he thought. If, by chance, Boruto was being honest with him, it wouldn't change the fact that he was a threat. But an unwilling chakra drain was very different from a willing one. If it was something he couldn't help, they could work with it.
"Chakra is everywhere," he muttered after a time, meeting the boy's eyes. "Most living things carry it, to some degree. Humans are far from the only source. Nature chakra is plentiful, for example."
Boruto blinked and then his face lit up and he was practically vibrating in place. "Then—"
"Senjutsu is not so simple to learn. It takes years to master. There are steep prerequisites to learning it, and it comes with a lot of risks," he sighed. "Furthermore, you're young. A genin. You don't have the experience necessary to take that step. You're untrained and untested and in your current state, the likelihood of you succeeding in becoming a senjutsu practitioner is slim. It's not a short-term solution."
Boruto visibly deflated with a level of despair that was damn near palpable. He crumpled inward and lowered himself, picking his dirt-covered jacket up off the floor. "Oh," he said simply, sliding his arms into his sleeves. "Well that… sucks." He chuckled but there was no humour to it. "Guess I won't be allowed to go back to Dad's place, huh?"
Hiruzen closed his eyes and cursed himself, cursed the fact that he was still Hokage in a world where he was coming to believe claims that a cursed time traveller had come from the future with a chakra-eating beast sealed within him, and cursed the fact that a part of him genuinely wanted to help.
If for no other reason than to get this problem out of his office.
"It so happens that I'm well acquainted with a seal master," he continued. "I'll send word to him. At the very least, he may be able to break down the seal already placed on you to give us a starting point towards understanding just what this is."
Boruto lifted his head, the corners of his mouth curling upward. "You think he could change the seal?"
"Who's to say?"
It was times like those that he wished Minato were still around. That boy would have had a field day with a problem like this. The problem was more complex than Boruto seemed to realize. Ordinarily, curses did one thing . Chakra drain was very much something that Hiruzen could see a curse being rigged up to do. If the opponent—or in this case, the thief—had no chakra to work with, it neutralized the threat. But according to Boruto, there was more to it than that; it wasn't just a curse mark draining his chakra, but a living thing, perhaps a manifestation of chakra similar to the tailed beasts, feeding off chakra. That sounded less like a curse and more like the kind of fuinjutsu used to seal the nine-tails. Then, to top it all off, time travel . The whole story was falling apart, yet the absurdity just made it feel more believable. If this were another village's attempt at infiltrating Konoha, it was horribly thought out. He thought better of the other villages' intellect.
Beyond it all, Boruto had Naruto's eyes. Honest eyes. Hiruzen had known those eyes for twelve years now and no matter what form they took, they were always sincere.
"Grandpa Third?"
He snorted. Even Naruto didn't call him that. "Is there more?"
"Until the seal guy comes… I mean, how do we deal…" Boruto's eyes were downcast to the floor. "I can't go back to Dad's place, can I?"
Hiruzen placed his pipe atop the desk and his hands came together, musing the thought. A chakra-eater staying alone with a jinchuuriki was probably the worst possible situation they could put themselves in. "What would you do if the beast got 'hungry,' as you put it?"
"I dunno, I just…" He balled his hands into fists. "I promised to make him dinner."
He stared at the boy, long and hard, and shook his head. He was getting too old for this. "Extreme chakra exhaustion can be lethal," he stated firmly. "Until you can convince me that you have the situation under control, I can't allow you to go around unsupervised."
Boruto's brow furrowed, but he was resigned. He came here knowing that was the likely result. In that way, perhaps that was how he differed from Naruto. Naruto wouldn't have accepted it so easily. "I understand."
Hiruzen was getting way too old for this nonsense.
"Kakashi," he called, his voice loud and carrying over the room. The door opened.
"You called, Lord Third?"
"Send word to Tenzō," he commanded, watching the way Boruto looked at him then, with a slow-forming realization. "I have an assignment for him."
He expected the surprise, but not the way Boruto jumped the desk and wrapped him up in a tight hug.
"You are the best Grandpa ever and I dare anyone to say otherwise."
Hiruzen sighed, rolled his eyes and waved off the confusion Kakashi sent his way. He awkwardly patted the child's back, far too tired to push Boruto off of him.
He was getting soft in his old age.
Adieu~