~ Authors Note ~
Part V
Geez, there are a lot of errors in my last chapter, I noticed them when I glanced through it, missing letters, wrong version of (their and there), an editors nightmare. I'll go back and fix the errors sometime soon. Last chapter hadn't gone exactly the way I initially intended, it strayed more to what the other character's are doing like Naruto, Sakura, Orochimaru, and even Kabuto. If you like seeing what's going on with them then I'll add that in other chapters, but if you prefer just Boruto's point of view then I can focus on that, answer that down below. Anyways be sure to favorite and comment below.
Also, I know I haven't posted in awhile, I was on a cruise for seven days, and add in the travel which was like two full days and parts of another two days so yeah... I went to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.
P.S. Flames are a waste of time, if you don't have anything nice/constructive to say, stop wasting my time and yours...
Nearing the halfway point between The Village Hidden in the Leaves and The Land of Fire, I feel waves of nervousness and anxiety rush over me. If I had to describe it, Id say it's like getting hit by a lightning bolt when you're a ninja. So like an grabbing an electric fence for a normal civilian back in the village. My muscles twitch expectantly, waiting for the moment when Orochimaru's extraction team comes for us.
Feeling someone's stare burning a hole through my back, I turn to catch Mitsuki's observant and snake-like gaze. A shiver runs up my spine, if there was a creepy eye contest, he'd rank second after his, father? mother? creator? Agh, whatever!
Sarada seems to notice his intense gaze too, slowing to walk beside me. Shooting Sarada a sideways glance, I can tell that she's thinking the same thing that I am. Mitsuki is suspicious of us. Or me at least, he was only glaring at my back after all. Pushing my concern to the back of my thoughts, I try to keep from acting suspicious. With the three of us being a team and working so closely together, Mitsuki would notice the minute I stopped acting like myself.
With each passing minute I grew more anxious, so did Sarada, I could feel it radiating from her. At every rustling of leaves and snapping of tree branches made us tense momentarily before we shook it off. There's not a chance in hell that Orochimaru would send anyone dumb enough to step on loose tree branches to extract the daughter of Sasuke Uchiha and the son of the Seventh Hokage.
"Is something wrong?" Mitsuki's voice smooth like silk, an ominous tinge underlying his words.
Well that certainly answers that question, he definitely knew something was up with both Sarada and me. Hell, he probably suspected we had some dealings with his father as well. He's as smart, if not smarter, than Sarada. I'm no idiot either, me and Sarada being on a similar line of intelligence, I just tend to keep mine hidden under and act of ignorance and mischief.
I didn't want people to know that I excelled on all my tests back at the academy, I worked my ass off to keep Mom from finding out that all I got were A's and how well I did in my ninja training. If I could've hide that, I would have. Ninja training isn't as easy to hide because our instructors actually see what we can and can't do and will bring it up, especially if they're close family friends like Shino-sensei.
After all, he was a part of Team 8 with Kiba Inuzuka and my mom, so hiding anything from her in that respect was hard enough. It's lucky that he never mentioned my actual grades to her. Whenever I got my grade check, I would have to rework it so the letter looked like another. Mostly D's because I though that maybe that would get Dad's—I mean, Lord Seventh's attention.
For the record, it didn't.
When that didn't get the results I wanted, I turned to high risk stunts and pranks to get his attention. Funny thing is, getting in trouble was the best option to get him to see me. Whenever I did well, he never bothered to show, when I would succeed in ninja training he never was there to congratulate me, and then all the birthday's he'd missed and I hadn't minded mine, I'd minded Himawari's.
The village saw me as someone who wasn't worthy to be the beloved Seventh Hokage's kid. I heard them whisper it enough times, how they'd glare like I was the scum of the earth. And then there were the whispers.
"What an embarrassment, I feel bad for the Hokage. He worked so hard to get that titled and here is his own son, degrading him."
"If that was my kid, I'd keep him locked away from the public's eye. He's far more trouble than he's worth, if the Lord Seventh hadn't grown up an orphan and all alone, I'm sure he'd get rid of him as soon as possible."
"Such a spoiled rotten brat! A disgrace to your father's name! How can a child of one of the greatest heroes in history be a horrid as you? Your father was such a nice and cheerful young man who worked hard at your age. Ha! If the Hokage himself knew of the son he would have, I'm sure he would have put off having offspring until he didn't have to worry about conceiving you."
A woman who lived in the Leaf Village all her life had told me that. I can still remember what I'd shouted back.
"Guess what you wrinkly old hag! I'm not my father and I'm never gonna be, and another thing, I never want to be the Hokage!"
That was the moment I realized I hated the title of Hokage. I was eight—almost nine—when that happened. The large woman had scoffed and rolled her eyes at me, like I was beneath her. It was then that I vowed to be better than my father, to surpass him and prove that I could be better than the great Seventh and hero of the Hidden Leaf Village. Now I think I'm just fooling myself.
How am I supposed to surpass that? The great Seventh Hokage with the nine-tailed fox Kurama at his disposal in an instant. It was a futile effort on my part to believe that that was possible. Sasuke-sensei though, maybe through his teachings I would've been able to, but that's the problem right there, Sasuke-sensei is usually away from the village on special assignments.
He's not always around to teach me and he's the only one equal, if not more powerful due to Lord Seventh's lack of training and staying stuck in his stupid office all day, than my father. Half the time I wonder if he really would be happier if I hadn't existed, not that I've ever said that out loud of course. It's somethings that's gnawed at me since that old hag said to me all those years ago.
Immediately my body tenses at the sight of Konohamaru-sensei's rigid posture. His back as straight as a ramrod, fingers curled around the handle of a kunai that he seemingly pulled from thin air. He looks over his shoulder at us, his stern and emotionless expression giving us all the information we need.
Unknown ninja's are surrounding us, get ready.
Sarada and I don't bother to prepare, we already know who's here. Maybe not specifically who, but we know they must be Orochimaru's extraction team coming to retrieve us. It happens in an instant, so fast that I almost miss it. Saburo squeaks like a mouse, scurrying behind all of us, Mitsuki being the farthest one back and ducks down behind a large tree trunk.
Rolling my eyes, I sigh. What a loser, no wonder he had to have ninja's escort him. I wouldn't be surprised if he was afraid of his own shadow by this point, I mean seriously these ninja haven't done anything remotely terrifying yet.
There were three of them in total, the woman in the middle obviously the leader while her two male teammates flank her on either side. Her scarlet lips curl into a mocking smirk, her dark ocean blue hair falls just past her shoulders in jagged lengths, and she wears a short purple dress with black shorts underneath. Around her waist is her ninja headband with a long slash through the symbol.
A Konoha head band from the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
She's a rogue ninja from our village, well our soon-to-be former village anyways.
The man to her left was a whole head shorter than her with forest green hair with half his head was shaved down to a buzz cut and the rest of his hair thrown haphazardly over the right side of his skull. His lip was curled in a menacing smirk. One of his eyes, the left, was completely gray. He was blind in that one. He wore his slashed headband around his arm. The Village Hidden in the Sand.
Uncle Gaara's village, one that I haven't gotten to visit. It's always been a place that I wanted to go to, I'd asked Dad, I mean the Seventh, and he'd smiled that smile of his. The one that could convince you of anything and he'd said: "Sure kiddo, how about sometime next week?"
Of course that was another empty promise, one that never came true. Hell, the old bastard probably doesn't even remember me asking, that or he just ignored it and lied to get me the hell away from him. Wouldn't be a surprise there. Maybe that's why he's always 'working,' just so he can be as far away from me as physically possible. Shaking the thought off, I focus back the ninja that just arrived.
The final member of Orochimaru's extraction squad was a rouge ninja from the Hidden Cloud Village. He wore a black mask over his face, showing only his cold gray eyes. He was a big, bulky guy with broad shoulders and stood towering over the woman in the middle. He was the power in there team, that much is obvious, she's the brains, and the other is the distraction.
Konohamaru-sensei stood defensively between us and them, not that he knew the real reason they were here. Actually Sarada and I are in no real danger, we're being saved from the future. Albeit trading the possible future for the unknown path but details, details. I've never been one to sit around and contemplate the outcome of my actions, Sarada on the other hand...
"Who are you and why have you come?" Konohamaru-sensei has to shout over the hollowing winds and the rustling leaves of the trees surrounding us. Amusement flickers across the rogue ninja's faces.
The woman smirks. "I am Anzu and these two buffoons are old acquaintances of mine, this," she gestures to the giant. "is Tatsuo and the other," she gestures with her other hand to shorty, "is Kuro."
"And your purpose for being here?"
Anzu dips her head down a bit and laughs like she's embarrassed, even raising her hand to her mouth in attempt to cover up the sound. Then her posture goes rigid and her head shoots up like someone had strings were attached and yank from the other side. She glares at Konohamaru-sensei.
"I've come for the children, Orochimaru's orders," she smirks.
"What?" Konohamaru looks back at Sarada and me with wide, knowing eyes. Lord Seventh must have informed him about Sarada and my potential encounter with Orochimaru and warned him to be on lookout.
Anzu and her team spring into action just when Konohamaru turns back to face them. Mitsuki faces off with the Tatsuo and Kuro while Anzu heads right for out sensei. Dread rushes through me. I don't want Konohamaru-sensei to get hurt, he's like an uncle to me, or a longtime family friend who's basically family. However, I hate the idea of living in the shadow of our parents new next of kin even less.
Sacrifices have to be made and this was another.
Slashing out at him, Anzu pushes her fierce attacks forward while Konohamaru manages to block everyone of her kunai blows with his own blade held tightly in his grasp. She lashes her leg out, knocking him back from her and putting a good distance between the two of them. Her fingers dance rhythmically, forming hand signs to quickly for my eyes to detect.
One deep breath, then...
"Fire Style: Blazing Inferno Jutsu!" she shouts, cupping her hands around her mouth in a small circle.
Fours strings of furious orange flames shoot from her and form a burning circle around Konohamaru-sensei. He's trapped behind a wall of fire, a barrier of scalding heat. Thick black smoke curls from the center of the circle around him, rising up and infiltrating the pure air above. He's coughing loudly, a hacking in his throat from the smoke that must be burning his lungs.
Turning, I see Kuro vanish to where that fat old guy we were escorting had hid like a coward.
I watched in silence, seeing the terror of Saburo's face when Kuro appeared before him. A grin so wicked that would scare some of our fellow genin's, but not me. That stupid grin doesn't scare me, not even a little.
Everything happens fast, Saburo being knocked unconscious and Konohamaru-sensei passing out from smoke inhalation. Before his eyes closed, I could see the questions in his eyes, the betrayal, and most of all, the confusion.
He didn't understand, hell, I don't understand.
I just, I don't to... ugh! whatever. Never mind, doesn't matter anyways.
Anzu immediately tenses up, looking behind her as though something, or someone, is coming. As Mitsuki falls face first in the dirt, I hear Anzu call from her team, one hand pressed against the comm unit in her ear.
"We've got company on the way ANBU from the Hidden Leaf that were stationed in the Land of Fire for reconnaissance for mercenaries in the area. They've noticed a disturbance in this sector, we need to move. Orochimaru says to leave his son, that there's no way we'll be able to get him back to base before he wakes up and causes more complications."
Turning to us she says, "Both of you, following behind us and try to keep a low profile, we still have a ways to go before we get to Orochimaru's base."
With that she and her team way off, Sarada followed immediately. Glancing back at our fallen comrades and the carnage of the fight, it makes me wonder if Sarada and I made the right choice or if we were acting like immature children. Probably a bit of the last one is included no matter the circumstance. Jumping from one tree to the next, I followed behind Anzu and her extraction team, staying beside Sarada.
Something was horribly wrong, that much Hinata knew. She could feel it, her mother-y instincts were going haywire and Boruto was right in the middle of it. Sasuke told her earlier that he'd stop by, it was getting late and she was starting to worry about him too. Himawari was already tucked under her covers in her pretty purple room, but she needed Sasuke now more than ever.
She needed to tell him about her bad feeling, he suspected something wasn't right with their children either. Naruto just had to send them on a mission outside the village right after everything that's happened instead of sending any other squad in the area. Fed up with waiting around for his arrival, Hinata stood up from the couch, fully prepared to find him herself.
As luck would have it, that instant the door to her house flew open and there in the doorway stood none other than Sasuke Uchiha in all his intimidating glory. His long cloak dragging at the floor, jet black hair the hid the Rinnegan behind it, and his cold onyx eyes that despite their closed off nature, were full of life and expressed everything she was feeling and more.
"Sasuke-kun, I was just about to go look for you," she says lamely. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid' she scold herself internally. They were a couple and she knew he was coming. That makes it sound like she didn't believe him when he said something. Like he wasn't trustworthy enough for her.
Noticing her dilemma, he ignores her comment and jumps straight to the point. "You feel it too right?"
Glancing back up, Hinata nods. She and Sasuke, for as different as they were from each other, they were very similar as well. Both quiet types who prefer the shadows and the solitude. While Naruto was loud and rambunctious, Sasuke was calm and collected. Like a pond that's hidden behind a forests brush. She just wanted to curl up next to him, rest her head on his shoulder, run a hand through his hair, and breath in his calming scent.
"Something happened with Boruto and Sarada. Dammit!" he growls, activating his Mangekyou Sharigan in his only revealed eye.
"We will need to talk to Naruto immediately. Maybe we can save them before things escalate," 'hopefully' she adds in her mind.
"That or he'll think we're paranoid..." Sasuke mumbles.
"Perhaps and if that's the case, then you and I will go retrieve them ourselves, Hokage be damned..." she blushes a bit at her own use of profanity. Maybe being around Sasuke so much wasn't such a good thing for her.
Sasuke smirks, slightly surprised by her use of profanity. "Then we'd better find the dobe before our idiot kids get themselves hurt."
With that Sasuke and Hinata rush towards Naruto and Sakura's apartment, Hinata already knowing the Himawari would awaken anytime soon.