AN: Youtube 'Just Died In Your Arms' by Hidden Citizens for chap. And the next one. :3

Also, since there's a sprinkle of some violence which will explode in this and the next part (4 of 5 chaps) I let myself attempt to turn up the BoruSara in this chunk. This story is categorized what it is for a reason.


A kunai drove into his hand and Boruto screamed.

A hand clamped over his mouth, muffling his cry. Reflexively, he wrenched himself away from its grip. But they weren't giving him a chance to escape further. His head was slammed forward, hitting the keyboard with fierce force. They were bigger than him, using their weight to topple him. In the corner of his eyes, he saw the glint of a blade, a tantō!

Struggling against their grip and upper hand, his thoughts raced. One, he was going to be cut to ribbons in a moment. Two: that was an Anbu's blade.

A professional assassin. Great.


IT'S THE FEAR

attraction


The thing about A-Rank missions, especially ones you had to practically beg to be allowed on? Don't be stupid, don't disobey direct orders, and especially don't get caught. Boruto, of course, found a way to do all three.

He came to, strange voices and smells swimming in the air. The smells, perhaps concrete and an oddly sweet and burnt scent. He shook his head groggily and groaned. He was...seated. Limbs...He couldn't move them. Reasons dodged him, floating there but out of his reach.

He had either been drugged or tased by the feeling. Probably tased. He threw his head back, eyes still closed. It was like there was a wall between him and his chakra.

Come on, man. Focus...

He pulled his arms only to meet a stinging resistance. Wire or zip tie, he mused. Each wrist was tied to a separate leg of the chair. Tightly enough to cut off the circulation in his hands. He blinked, trying to open his eyes so he could see. He only saw pitch black and upon focusing harder realized it was because he was blindfolded. Gagged as well so trying to communicate and talk his way out to the voices in the background wasn't an option.

Crap.

It came back to him slowly, in blurry little flashes. The mission: protect the previously inside man and get him to safety. If they failed they would lose the ring of drug traders and its influence would continue to spread. Lives would be lost. Their escort had very important names. Names they could use.

But it was a name that caused Boruto to get caught, here in the wee hours of the morning. A name plastered on a message meant for one of the ring's assassins: "The Hokage's Dog."

He had an idea who that target was and he wasn't going to wait for his team to get back to the village to take care of the people who would of by then have had plenty of time to move on. No one on the team had seen the imperative nature to check his lead out before finishing the current mission set before them. He did. So he had left on his own. And gotten himself caught. A stupid trap he wouldn't have triggered if he hadn't come alone. But he had.

These truths coming back to him through the thick fog he was floating in, he frowned under the gag. Something...There was something, another sound. Ticking like a heartbeat, but robotic to his ears.

A ticking sound. Right under his seat. Recognizing it, panic ebbed through him.

A bomb.

He groaned, twisting at his bonds that were keeping his hands apart so he could not form seals. Come on, come on!

The voices continued. A woman, one who wanted their escort dead. She spoke with a sinister confidence that made his skin crawl. Making her little demands. And the sound of Konohamaru, trying to regain control. To come to a meeting ground. Kinda hard to when one of his members was the one captured. And she knew how to use her hostage.

"You Konoha people operate in three to four man teams," she said. "And the great Konohamaru has a team all to himself, making it four members. The fourth member is to show themselves, hands to the back of their heads or I push the button and the blond brat's brains will decorate this place."

No, please don't do that.

He couldn't see his teacher, but he could practically imagine his facial expression as he called out for Sarada to show herself. So much for distraction. These people had done their research. Then again, Boruto only had the most friggin recognizable face around.

The entire mission, his life, was in utter jeopardy. And it was all his fault, but this was not the time to berate himself.

Footsteps. Sarada's. He could recognize them as she stomped reluctantly back to the group and its standoff. "Surrender him and we'll leave peacefully!" she hissed, anger filling the entire warehouse with its presence. Oh boy, she was ticked. Scared perhaps, but mostly ticked. The bomb was suddenly less threatening.

"Not until I have the traitor you're protecting's head."

Konohamaru was clearly desperate under his forced calm tone. "We can't do that—please put it down."

"Give me his head, or I'll give you your kid back in pieces."

"You don't need to get your hands bloody..."

There was a scoff-like laugh. Boruto's heart raced at the sound, his arms positively straining against the wire now. A panicked moan was the only thing that escaped.

"They plenty are already. And it seems you underestimate me. You'll need an example."

Then she pushed the button just as he broke through his bonds.

_-xXx-_

He slammed his heel down, stomping their toes as he bashed his head back as hard as he could. Impact. Connecting with their chin, he ripped his hand from the impaling knife. Teeth gnashed together from the pain, but adrenaline kept him moving. He grabbed and swiped the blade at his attacker, only to be shoved forward, body crashing into the screens. A mess of sparks shot through the air.

He rolled away from the broken monitors, trying to escape from his disadvantaged position. To swing again, but he could only cry out as a boot stomped on his injured hand, the sensitive tissue of his hand stinging from the pressure.

Hissing, he grabbed at the ankle, pushing at it with all his might. Biting at their Achilles tendon. He was at an overwhelming position and they used this against him, coming down on him, fingers wrapping around this throat in one hand, and in the other there was a flash of silver, the flat blade swinging down on him in what would be a kill-shot.

He winced, eyes closing. There was no time!

"Shanoro!"

Suddenly the blade was thrown out of its trajectory with her shouted battle cry.

"Sarada!"

Like lightning she was bolting toward the figure, punching with all she had, all her chakra packed into powerful strikes. They flew, crashing into what was left of the desk. A bloodied blade flashed again as it flew from their hands. Screaming, she punched again before they could recover. Her fist shattered the mask from the impact. There was a scream, it didn't have time to finish before her fist came crashing down on its mouth.

The strike sent webs of cracks across the wall behind. From this crater, came a horrific choir of more cracking sounds . But they hadn't just come from the wall.

It was the sound of bone being crushed.

"You'd just kill for eyes, huh!?"

Boruto could only stand there, frozen rigidly as she punched away, relentlessly crushing the dead man's skull.

"Stop," he whispered breathlessly as something splatted to the side.

"My family!" she cried, bashing at the man again. "My friends!"

There was no longer a head, just a puddled mess of gore. Gore that was splattering on the wall and her.

"Sarada." He ran after her, grabbing her gory fist. "Stop!" It shook in his grasp, trembling forcibly, overcome by an angry grief. "He's dead already!"

She fell into him and began sobbing into his shirt. He could only sit there in a horrified daze, cradling her.

"He's gone Sarada," he whispered, fighting back a tremble. "It's done..."

"I couldn't lose you too," she cried. "Not again."

_-xXx-_

The remote button for the bomb was pushed, just as he broke through his bonds.

"Substitution!"

Splintered wood flew through the air with explosive heat as a crate took his place. But the bomb was bigger than he thought. Boruto found himself thrown backward by the explosive force, the room around him catching fire, the walls collapsing. Burying him on one side, and his team on the on the other.

Debris and smoke filled his lungs. Wheezing, he tugged on his collar, using it to try to cover his mouth. He had to get out or he would suffocate! But the room was completely enclosed, the exit blocked by toppled crates that were burning wildly.

But he had dealt with worse. He pushed his chakra into his hands and threw everything he could at the crumbled rock entrapping him in the inferno. Each time he opened his mouth to call out a jutsu, ash filled it but he continued to fight the fire, desperate to get out.

With one last push, he broke through, barely able to even see from all the smoke. Coughing, he fell forward and was caught by Mitsuki's outstretched hands.

"Ah! You're actually alive! Thank goodness you got out!"

He was pulled from the heat and thrown back a long distance away. Mitsuki's ability to stretch his limbs still weirded him out a little but he had never been so grateful for it until now. He wheezed, getting to his knees. To the side he could make out his sensei, holding the body of an unconscious woman over his shoulder, her hands and ankles now tied.

Konohamaru glared at him. "You're in serious trouble, mister."

"I know," he croaked. Man, that had been way too close a call. But everyone was safe, that was what mattered. But wait, something was missing.

"Where's Sarada?"

"Over there."

She was laid to the side, covered in ash and perspiration.

"She tried to rush after you," Mitsuki explained. "We thought you were a goner for sure. And she just...Well, that upset her a lot. She must have fainted, that or lost consciousness from being so close to the fire. She was hysterical."

Boruto felt something in him break as he looked down at her. It was not the explosion that hurt him.

It was the tears on her cheeks and knowing he had caused them. She had actually cried over him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I didn't mean to..."

_-xXx-_

He had told her that it was over.

It wasn't though. The Anbu had attacked Boruto to protect someone else. To finish the job. Meaning there were more targets... And with the computers destroyed, there was no chance to study exactly what had happened to this place. And no chance of interrogating the Anbu member for the answers.

Boruto sighed and closed his eyes, dropping his chin over her head, fingers stroking her hair. Her bangs swooped down, covering her tear-stricken face. After a few minutes, the sniffles became less frequent and she quiet. Deciding to find her composure back, she tucked her bangs behind her ear. "Your hand."

"It's numb now."

"You still need to wrap that."

Before he could protest, she was ripping the end of her shirt and wrapping the fabric around his hand. It wasn't long enough to tie in a knot, though, so she held onto it, biting her lip, a weary look in her eyes. "I'm sorry..."

"It's my fault for not being cautious and tuned to my surroundings. You know me, always rushing in. Thinking I got it by myself but I just get myself in trouble instead. But that doesn't matter now. I'll be fine."

"Boruto, look at it. This is serious."

"It's fine."

"No, it's not," she growled. "Don't forget who my mom is. I've seen what injuries like this can do."

"What about your ponytail?" he asked, giving in and holding the cloth for her. "Can we use that?"

She looked at him puzzledly. "I..." She reached up, patting her hair. It was down and the cord nowhere in sight.

"Nevermind. There should be a tape dispenser on the desk. Use that."

Unfortunately, the scuffle had rendered the desk into pieces and its contents thrown about. While she looked around for the tape, he took another gander at the piece of cloth from before. It hadn't come from the Anbu who had attacked them. The member wore a dark gray cloak. It hadn't come from Sasuke either.

"Did you find Kabuto?" he asked offhand.

"Not exactly."

"Do I want to know what you mean by that?"

"Probably not. But I can tell one thing. He's not on their side."

So, he was a victim too.

He put the cloth away, leaning his sore head against the wall.

"The Anbu are obviously in on this. But I think they're following orders from a head. I feel like that's who this fabric came from...I mean, we're talking about a guy who took out both the Byakugan and the Sharingan...Possibly. This scrap would have come from their cloak and the white chip from a mask. But why would they do something like this all of a sudden? Was it really to harvest the Sharingan? Why my family as well? It has to be a coup. But who'd be dumb enough to start one?"

"Perhaps goons of Danzo are still around after all," she answered from across the room, half hidden by the broken wood from the desk.

"Danzo? Who's that?"

"Geez, Bo. He doesn't tell anything about the skeletons in the closet, does he?"

He laughed bitterly. "Care to give me another history lesson?"

_-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-_

She had her arms around him so tight he was amazed she didn't break his ribcage. "Don't you ever do that again!"

"I won't," he said, eyes widened in surprise.

She was actually hugging him. True she was red in the face with anger but she was hugging him.

"I mean I only just about wet myself..." he laughed nervously.

"Just about" was being generous.

Giving pause to his situation, Boruto dared to let his hand wander around her waist, holding it.

She stiffened before pulling back from him. He was about to comment but was stopped at the sight of her pressing her hand to her eyes.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah. You just give me headaches."

It was a little after she had regained consciousness, practically right after it as the team continued to get itself situated. They were in the center of the city now, and she had seemed fine right after but...

His smile died as a sickly expression came over her. Concerned, he reached for her forehead. "Sarada! You're hot!"

There was a pained moaned before she fell backward, collapsing in his arms. Konohamaru rushed toward the two, noticing her spell.

"What's wrong?" he exclaimed.

"I don't know," Boruto cried. "But she's burning up!"


At the nearest hospital, Boruto met with a pacing sensei. Konohamaru assured him that Sarada was fine, it had just been stress...But that was not was vexing him. Or rather, who.

"Your dad's gonna seriously kill me!" he exclaimed, collapsing into the waiting room chair. He leaned forward, pressing his face into his hands. "When he finds out about earlier..." Boruto rolled his eyes and sat in the chair beside him. Sarada would be with them in only a few minutes. Mitsuki was buying them drinks at the vending machine.

"I seriously thought I was going to lose you," the man moaned. "And he's totally going to tear me apart for endangering his son."

His father and Konohamaru had long been friends and went way back. Boruto suspected that's why he, the daughter of Naruto's best friend, and the mysterious but full-of-strange-potential Mitsuki had been assigned to the tutelage of the Third's grandson. By all expectations it had been the idea team. Or it was when Boruto didn't step out of line like he occasionally had the habit of doing. He just couldn't help himself sometimes.

Boruto scoffed. "It was my doing. You had nothing to do with it."

"I'm still this team's leader! I'm responsibl—"

"And I disobeyed, I'll admit that," he protested. "I went out on my own after you explicitly said to not to and I screwed up, okay? I just...I just thought there was a connection to Sasuke and I wanted to check it out. It was stupid. I'll accept the consequences of my actions."

"Ugh," the man said, fingers wrenching his scarf. "That's not gonna cool his temper, though. He may be busy a lot but he cares the world for you and when someone screws with his love ones, they're gonna be dancing with the power of a demon. I mean you know how powerful he is when he's syncing with Kurama..."

Brushing the sentimental comment to the side, Boruto smiled. The grin mischievous. "Actually, I don't even see why even has to find out. All that's important is that we not only got the escort to safety but one of the dealers captured. Pretty good, huh? We gotta get extra points for that. He doesn't have to know anything else."

Konohamaru sighed, shaking his head. "We'll talk about this later. For now, I want to get out of here as fast as possible. We're taking the train."

"Shouldn't we save Ryo and just walk—"

"Train," was the man's exasperated answer.

_-xXx-_

On train the time it took to get back home would be cut in half. They'd get there by the afternoon. He was exhausted and had planned to sleep through it. But stepping onto the cart, found his bicep seized in a harsh grip. She ushered him to the back and from there, hadn't let him out of her sight.

He had never seen her this ridiculously clingy before. Or angry. She sat across him, arms crossed, scowling. Her glasses flashed with the rising sun's light.

But yet he sensed a little something more too...

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "You know...I scared everyone earlier, but they aren't being overprotective like you are."

She puffed her cheeks. "And?"

"I think there's a reason for that. Isn't there?"

She glanced down. Sensing he had hit the nail, he leaned forward. "Sarada...Can we just cut the crap? We've been teammates for a while now. Konohamaru. Mitsuki. But with us, me, and you..."

Her cheeks warmed to a pink. "Boruto, I—"

"The truth is that you see me as more than just a teammate. More than just a friend." He stared at the floor as he followed up the silence with his confession. "I know I do. And I have for awhile now."

She didn't say anything, but her clutch on the armrest tightened noticeably.

"There's just something about saying it that's just...I dunno, you just don't. But today I almost lost that chance. You did too. Perhaps that's why instead of relief, you feel so angry with me. Tell me I'm wrong."

She struggled with her words and as the train passed under a tunnel, dimming the car, he inched closer to her.

"We really just gonna sit around and ignore continue to act otherwise? What if there isn't a tomorrow?"

"Bo..."

Light flashed from the window before being consumed by the dark tunnel.

His fingers inexplicably wandered to her face. She equally inexplicably didn't push them away. Their eyes locked as he leaned closer to her, and after a blur of heat and the clatter of the tracks, he felt himself take the dive and kissed her. And a dizzying moment later, she kissed him back, arms slowly wrapping themselves around him.

There were no more words, just motion, rushing them on as they kissed. Maybe there should have been. Maybe they were being young and reckless. But neither cared.

The train barreled on.

_-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-_

They couldn't rest in the security room forever. Knowing this, Boruto shifted, half-asleep. They were both huddled together in the room, the door barricaded.

"We need to go," he said quietly.

Her head was resting on his shoulder, her hands wrapped around his injured hand, both holding it out of personal need, and medical, keeping pressure on it.

"Where? Everywhere we go, they've been to. They killed our parents...They're on a whole different level, one we can't match in this condition."

"We've dealt and handled non-humans before, we can handle this..."

She laughed darkly. "Can we? Look at our moms. Your sister. We don't even know who the enemy is."

"We know enough." He sat up, ignoring the throbbing that came with the motion. Something in his ribcage felt loose. "And there's gonna be more of them if that guy who attacked me is with the Anbu."

Her hold on him tightened as she scooted up. "Boruto, think about it! They gouged out all of the Shin clones' eyes—It's just so sick!"

"I know it is."

"If they took their eyes...Then they're going to come after me next." She had said it through gritted teeth, her eyes squeezed shut, the skin between her eyebrows bunched up. "And my dad...I can handle the Anbu, but my dad? I don't even think your dad could. And no one beats him. Bo...They're going to kill me next."

He had never seen her so scared. Neither of them were ready for this or had asked for it to be pushed on them. But they couldn't afford to throw the towel in without even trying. "They won't get you," he growled. "I won't let the Anbu, your dad, or anyone else touch you or your eyes. I swear that on my life."

It was this declaration that she scooted from him, a forlorn look on her face. "You can still get out of this, get out of the village and go to the Kazekage, or someone else who can help, But you have to leave now. And you have to leave me behind...I'll buy you time."

The implication stung.

"No. There's no time to get outside help like that. Our only chance is to take care of it ourselves. We stay together, and we get out of this alive. Find the head, take it out and destroy every single one of the eyes they took so they can't be used against the village. We're the only ones who can. The only ones we know we can trust."

She smiled grimly. "There's going to be no talking you out of it, is there?"

"No."

"Boruto Uzumaki," she whispered. "I'm going to be the death of you."

_-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-_

Boruto wouldn't tell her this but he suspected that the mask of the Anbu she crushed into pieces could have been a clue. According to her, there was the Anbu, which as the son of the Hokage he had grown familiar with, and then the Anbu Roots who had once operated under Danzo, who her father had killed in the past. Thought to be extinct. Could they be resurging back?

Naruto's words again rang in his mind. We need to call for help. Not the Anbu yet, just Sakura.

Having seen the sword wound, had his father suspected them from the start? Or just had he just been naturally cautious because of how little they knew? It could have just been the latter. There really was no telling.

Especially with the mask in crumbs. He glanced to Sarada's red-smeared fist with a grim sense of awe. She was powerful. But that power had come at a price. Her chakra was near exhausted. Oddly enough, it hadn't been so high in the first place, but he could just chalk that up to being because the mission they had so shortly come back from. Then there was his dominant hand, which was useless. They both knew this, it didn't help urge them to be in any hurry to walk into another fight.

And if the masterminds behind the assaults had gone after not only the Hokage but the Sharingan as well...Like she had guessed, she was the next prime target. He got angry just at the thought. The thought that there were people out there so power-hungry that they would tear the sight from a fellow human being, rendering them blind and powerless in the shinobi world. They had in the past, and they had today, and it made him sick to his stomach.

The image of the Shin clones, lifeless and void of their eyes...

"We move now," he said. They were going to come for them anyway, so they might as well get to them first. With this resolution, they left their temporary sanctuary.

Yes, they were seriously doing this and there was no going back.