Chapter 7: Hokage for a Day
A thick heaviness pressed around Boruto. He slowly gained feeling in his limbs but a dull soreness made him want to go back to sleep to escape the throbbing ache. His body felt heavy and sore, like he had worked himself to exhaustion and hadn't gotten enough rest.
A warmth enveloped him and he rubbed his face against the smooth material. This blanket felt different from his bedsheets. It weighed heavily on his shoulders, though it wasn't that thick.
Boruto didn't want to open his eyes, but curiosity kept poking him until he gave in. He saw walls packed with shelves overflowing with books and scrolls. There was a stack of books beside his head and a jar of pens fanning out like a stiff potted plant. His head was resting on a desk covered in papers he didn't recognize.
"Where am I?" he wondered, lifting his head off the desk to take a better look around. He saw photos of past Hokages on the wall mounted above more bookshelves and a couch being used as a makeshift desk along a different wall. "I'm in the Hokage's office? Why?"
How did he get here? He couldn't remember. He was certain he went to sleep in his own bed last night. He remembered it clearly because his mother came in to wish him goodnight and scolded him for playing videogames when he should have been sleeping. Yes, he remembered that. He didn't remember leaving his room after she tucked him in and kissed him goodnight. He remembered being in bed with the lights off, snug under the blankets. The streetlights cast familiar shadows on his wall as he faced his small desk across from his bed which he had covered in ninja tools and a magazine featuring the latest games targeted towards children his age. He had the magazine opened to the page advertising the new game that wouldn't be released until the holidays. If he preordered it, he would get special promotional items, which he planned to ask his mother for in the morning. He had a presentation prepared and everything.
That was the last thing he had seen before closing his eyes to sleep.
Nothing out of the ordinary occurred. He had a normal day within the village. He had returned from a mission days ago and had been given the next two days off to recover. There were no visitors in the village he knew about and even if there were, he hadn't spoken to any of them. He stayed at home playing games and went to see friends after he grew bored. Everything was perfectly normal.
Did he sleepwalk here to ask his father about the new game he wanted? He never did that before. If so, where was he? His father should have been here, but he was alone.
"Ow. My body's so stiff," he complained. "Did I sleep here last night?"
He looked at his hands which looked different. They were bigger than he remembered and one hand was covered in bandages. This felt weird but they looked familiar. As did the sleeve his hands were poking out of. A white garment he had seen before was covering his arms and shoulders but left his chest exposed. This was the Hokage's jacket.
"Why am I wearing…?" Looking at his body, he realized more inconsistencies. These arms, this torso, these legs weren't his. "Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. Don't tell me…"
Boruto opened one drawer after another, trying to find a mirror. When he couldn't find one, he used the screen of the laptop half-covered by papers on the desk. The black screen was just reflective enough to show him his father's face.
He gasped and put his hands to his cheeks and Naruto's face mimicked his actions perfectly on the screen. He made faces and the image copied him. "You've got to be kidding," he said in his father's voice.
He was in his father's body.
Or was he? He could have just been transformed. Yes, of course. That must have been it. He transformed into his father. All he had to do was change back.
When he tried, it didn't work. Thinking he was stuck until he felt pain, Boruto stabbed his father's leg with a pen causing himself great pain but remaining unchanged. This wasn't a dream because he felt the pain. He wasn't under genjutsu and he wasn't transformed. This meant he really was in Naruto's body.
How did it happen? Why was this happening?
Before Boruto could succumb to panic, the door opened and he faced that direction.
Shikamaru came in, yawning. "Morning, Seventh… Get any sleep last night?"
"Shikamaru…"
"Slept here last night, huh? It was a late night for me, too. Had to assist a couple guys before going home after I said goodnight to you. After that I couldn't sleep much. Just one of those nights, I guess…"
"Shikamaru, it's me."
"Yeah, I know." Shikamaru moved some books aside so he could sit down on the couch. He lifted up one book, getting distracted. "I thought we put this back. Did the other one get replaced or did that order not come in yet?"
"Shikamaru, it's me. Boruto. I'm not Naruto."
Shikamaru looked at him with a raised brow. "You still asleep or something?"
"No, I'm really Boruto. I woke up in Dad's body for some reason. You gotta help me."
Shikamaru sat on the couch with the book in his lap. "Joke all you like, it's not going to get you out of this. We've got a full day ahead of us."
"No, I'm being serious."
"Good news is that the meeting this morning got canceled. The meeting set for this afternoon has been moved to after lunch, which means we're working through lunch. Goody."
"Shikamaru, I'm serious," Boruto tried desperately to get him to listen. "I really am Boruto stuck in my dad's body."
"The concert arrangement has been moved up as well," Shikamaru continued as if he hadn't heard him. "The four members will be here at 10:30 and I've already arranged for them to meet you here. They have to have approval of the concert location and make sure everything's in order."
"Concert?" Boruto was now interested in something else. "What concert?"
"The one that's planned for the end of the month. We gotta get everything ready this week so tickets can be sold and get the hall ready. If that's where we're throwing this thing."
"Who's playing? What's the band called?"
Shikamaru yanked a clipboard out from between two books on the couch and flipped to the third page. "I never heard of them. Uh… Quad Sickles."
"Quad Sickles?" Boruto was excited. It was a relatively new band that was all the rage among his peers. The band consisted of four members and all their song featured some type of ninja weapon as inspiration. Even their band name was inspired by a weapon. "Does this mean I'll get to meet them?"
"Kinda have to if you got a meeting with them at 10:30 today. Their manager will also be there along with some other people to promote the concert."
His father did get to meet all kinds of people, including famous ones. Perhaps being stuck in Naruto's body wouldn't be so bad. Meeting the band would be the highlight of his day and would make all his friends jealous. Boruto decided to keep his mouth shut about his predicament for now and enjoy himself.
If only this stiffness would go away along with the lower back pain.
Boruto shoved all his paperwork aside when 10:30 rolled around to give the band his undivided attention. Unfortunately, it didn't go the way he thought it would. Instead of having one-on-one time with the band, mingling and talking about their work, the office was packed with people he did not know and barely had time to say hello to the band.
"Uh…?" Boruto glanced at Shikamaru when a man started speaking to him.
"The band's manager," Shikamaru told him.
"Ah. Nice to meet you."
"I'll be blunt," said the plump man in the suit. "We don't normally do concerts at shinobi villages. For one thing, it's remote and not a lot of people are allowed in from other places. But given your population, I think a concert here would be profitable. I just wanna know if people will show up. I'm not letting my band play for a meager crowd of only a hundred when I could have a concert hall sold out and packed to the brim with thousands. Are you sure having a concert here will be profitable?"
"Are you kidding?" Boruto said, smiling from ear to ear. "Your band's what's hot now. There's a ton of shinobi here who will pay through the nose to get tickets to see them perform here. Your band's amazing and all my… my son's friends would attend a local show. Having it other places is too hard for us to come see, but here? Have it here and you'll see just how popular they are, you know."
The manager looked pleased. "You talk a good talk, Hokage. And it seems to me that you like 'em, too."
"You bet I'm a fan."
"That's good. We can use that," said the manager. "If the band's popular with the Hokage, tons of people would want in. You like it, they like it. We'll make millions. I'll tell you want. Start promoting the concert and if tickets start selling, we'll do the gig. If only a few go, then we're pulling out."
"Oh, tickets will fly. Believe me."
The manager knocked on the edge of the Hokage's desk. "I'll hold you to that. You know what they say about size mattering. It's not just true for dates."
Shikamaru ran his hand down his face looking uncomfortable.
"Before you go, can I just have you guys sign a couple of things?" Boruto tried to shove some papers towards the band but their manager got in the way.
"There'll be plenty of time for that," he said. "We gotta make sure everything's in order first. Like where they're playing. Aesthetics are everything."
Boruto was a little confused by what that meant. "You mean like ambiance or something?"
"Of course! There's a difference between a prize pig and a hog, right?"
"Uh…" Boruto had no idea what the man was talking about.
"You're either going out with the beauty queen or her homely friend with a great personality, which leaves a lot to be desired in and of itself, if you know what I mean."
"I don't."
Shikamaru looked even more uncomfortable, holding his hand over his mouth as if to keep himself from dry heaving.
"We gotta have lights. We gotta have looks. We gotta have it." The manager used his arms to gesture, making Boruto jump back to keep from being smacked a few times. "You got it, right?"
"It?"
"The stage alone has to be a spectacle. Not to mention the lights and effects. For their big number, I want to set off fireworks. Cannons! You got a concert hall with an open roof, don't ya?"
"We could have the concert outside in the park or by the…"
"Outside? Like some cheap picnic or festival? Please! The building sets up for things to come. If the hall looks cheap, it'll take away from the whole experience. The last place they performed at had three tiers, wall-to-wall carpet and each step had those tiny lights, illuminating each step." He put an arm around Boruto's shoulders. "You got lights, right?"
"Yeah, we got lights." Boruto still wasn't sure what the man was talking about but if he wanted the building to have power, then he would make sure they had a place to perform. Most buildings had power anyway.
"Perfect. Now what I'm thinking for souvenirs and product placing…"
"That would be up to us, sir," said a woman in a suit standing in front of a group holding white posters and an easel.
"I'll leave it to you, then." The manager waved the band out the door before Boruto could say anything.
The woman wasted no time in getting right to work. The easel was set up and the posters were set on the lip in a specific order. "Since the band's known for its ninja tool-inspired songs and gimmicks, we figured the promotional trinkets should reflect the same. What you have here is the first design of a product in the works. It's a plushie holding a kunai. All our plushies will feature some kind of ninja tool. The specific animal remains to be determined. We were thinking of a crocodile, given its sharp teeth and tough skin. We could go another way."
She removed the top poster to show the one underneath depicting a lion holding a set of nunchucks. On another easel used for comparison, there was a poster of a rabbit holding a kunai.
"Bears are so overused so we present these alternatives. Rabbits are cuddly and popular with children, especially girls. And they would also go with the village theme."
"What village theme?" Boruto asked.
"Leaves." The woman pointed to the symbol of the village mounted on the wall. "Rabbits eat leaves."
Shikamaru smacked himself in the forehead.
"For fierceness and tenacity, we have a lion. Cuddly and gender neutral, we feel this animal will fit well, especially among shinobi."
"So…" Boruto looked at the two pictures. "These are mascots or something?"
"No. These are promotional items for the concert." The woman started going through posters at a rapid pace. "We also have hippos, dogs, lizards, hawks, giraffes, elephants and the latest option, Mr. Leaf."
Boruto felt something crack when he saw the drawing of a leaf with arms and legs holding a kunai and wearing sunglasses.
"Mr. Leaf?" Boruto repeated in disbelief.
"To go with the Leaf Village theme."
"Oy," Shikamaru moaned, almost dropping the pen in his hand.
"I don't think we'll be going with Mr. Leaf," Boruto told her.
"All these animals and you miss the obvious?" Shikamaru muttered.
The woman looked at him. "What animal would that be?"
Shikamaru looked at her with his head cocked. "A fox?"
She looked confused. "Why would we use a fox to represent the Leaf Village? Or having it wield a weapon of all things?"
Shikamaru buried his face in his hands and groaned.
"We can worry about that stuff later," Boruto said, fed up with all this. None of these plushies were interesting to him and he wanted to help advertise the concert. If they didn't sell tickets, the band wouldn't play.
Little did he know that choosing would take forty-five minutes of his time while they gave him options and variations of those options. He thought they would give him two to choose from and that would be the end of it. What should have taken two seconds became a half-hour of debate over where the posters should be placed in the village, how many should be printed, the size, the font, and even the display of information. Should the date of the concert go on the top or the bottom of the poster? Where should the band's name be featured: on the top or across the middle? What picture should be used for the poster?
Boruto held his head up with his hands as he sat at the Hokage's desk, finding what should have been a fun experience to be endless torture. Just how long was this going to drag on?
"We have these two options for the poster which were selected from the band's latest photo shoot." The woman pointed to two different easels with two different photos of the band. "Here we have them standing in a V formation which adds a nice depth to the poster. If we go with this one, our options for the advertisement are as follows…"
"Ugh…!" Boruto couldn't hold back his cry of disdain anymore.
The woman looked back at him, annoyed. "Am I boring you?"
Boruto tried to recover, wanting the band to play at the village. "No. It's just that I have another meeting in a few minutes and don't want to be late."
The woman pointed to the second photo option. "This one features the band in a block formation. Two standing and two bent down in front of them. Using this option, we have ample space to put the information at the top and bottom with empty space here on the side. However, we can get rid of the empty space by putting the concert date here and something on the other side so it's balanced."
"Ma'am, there is no information we can fill that space with," said a spectacled woman behind the easel. "All the information is either at the top or bottom."
"We can repeat the date to make sure it's seen," said a man.
"I don't want repetition in my poster," said the woman in the suit.
"What if we just put the date here and the location here?"
"No, that won't work."
"I know. Date here and… No, never mind."
"We could put the day here and the month here."
"Breaking it up like that would be too confusing and hard to read."
"Date here and time here. That could work."
"What if they do multiple shows?"
"Hm…"
Ready to pull his hair out, Boruto pointed at the other poster that was more finished and didn't cause this much debate. "That one. I pick that one for the promo poster. There. We're done."
The woman looked at the other poster. "The V formation has your approval, Lord Hokage?"
"Yes, it does. Can we please move on?"
"As far as the design goes…"
"Ugh!"
"Band name here. Date here and ticket information here. Is that alright with you, Lord Hokage?"
"Yes!" Boruto declared loudly. "It's perfect. It meets my approval. Now get out!"
"In that case, can we please have your signature so that we can begin producing them for the-"
Boruto signed his father's name on the sheet of paper and pushed everyone out the door. "God, I had no idea that would be so tedious."
Shikamaru had been discreetly doing crossword puzzles during their design pitch and had nearly completed the whole thing.
"Seriously? You were doing puzzles that whole time?"
"When it turned into an hour, yes. I can do two things at once. Besides, that was mostly for you. I don't get a say. All I can do is advise."
Boruto's whole body ached but he hadn't done much of anything. "It's lunch time. I'm going to Thunder Burger."
"You can't," Shikamaru told him. "You have to do the prep work for the meeting coming up in half an hour. There's no time to go out for lunch."
"When do I eat?"
Shikamaru tossed a cup of ramen into his arms. "I'll boil the water."
Boruto banged his head against the small cup.
Since it was something he didn't understand and didn't have any interest in, Boruto tuned out most of the pre-work Shikamaru walked him through. Shikamaru had organized key notes into a notebook which he expected the Hokage to follow and refer to during the meeting. Boruto barely glanced at it. Seeing the massive pile of paperwork on the desk, Boruto started signing his father's name to the documents to lighten his load for later. He didn't understand why it took his father so long to complete something that just required a signature.
Shikamaru walked beside Boruto on their way to the meeting room. There was no way to get out of this.
"What's this meeting about anyway?" Boruto asked, figuring he may as well know now that they were on their way.
"Taxes," Shikamaru said simply. "That's the short of it."
"Taxes for what?"
"We're trying to decide whether or not to increase them in the village."
"That's obvious," said Boruto. "Nobody likes having their taxes go up, so don't raise them. Can't believe you need a meeting for that."
"Those taxes help pay for the village. Without them, we can't maintain the village."
"What do you mean you can't maintain…?"
Shikamaru held the door open for Boruto, shoving him inside. "I'll be right behind you. Just deal with it, ok?"
Boruto staggered into a room with a large oval table in the middle. For its size, Boruto expected more people to be present but there were only a handful of people he didn't know sitting spread out around the table which made it look even bigger. Some sat there with their arms crossed, looking annoyed, while others had notebooks and binders open on the table, giving him expectant looks.
"Is this everyone?" Boruto asked, looking around.
"We've been waiting for you, Lord Seventh."
That didn't answer his question, but he didn't really care.
He took a seat and as soon as he did, the meeting began. The woman at his right spoke quickly and sounded like she knew what she was talking about. Too bad Boruto didn't. He only managed to pick up a few things here and there. Before he could say anything, another person spoke up on his left, his voice firm and loud. Another one sounded concerned and a fourth sounded impatient. Boruto felt like he was being compressed into a tiny ball by the force of their words and relentless staring.
"We don't have to raise taxes," Boruto said desperately.
All but one person at the table looked outraged. The one person looked confused, however, as if they didn't understand what he was saying.
"How could we not?" asked an angry woman. "Just look at the cost of this alone. And then there's these."
"It would be impossible to maintain the upkeep for these things without a tax increase. We don't have the funds to pay for them ourselves," said an angry man.
"People don't want their taxes to go up, you know," said Boruto. "So, let's not do that."
"Tough!" said the same man. "I don't want mine to go up either but this is something we have to do."
"Repairs for the damaged playground from that shinobi battle have been postponed due to lack of funds. The children of the village have no place to play and the parents have been asking about when it will be fixed," said a woman.
"Not to mention the repairs to the wall that protects our village. The upkeep on that alone…"
"What about the Hokage building itself? It's stood here for years and it needs some patchwork. Plus, the materials needed for your research stuff, which I know nothing about."
"The school also needs materials for the students and teachers. It's not just repairs. They need materials for their lessons. It's the children's education. If we skimp on that…"
Boruto waved his hands in the air. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a second. Materials? Repairs? You guys don't need to increase taxes for that. Just have the village take care of it. The Hokage approves all that stuff anyway, right?"
"Where do you think the money comes from?" asked the angry man.
"The village?"
"And where does the village get it?"
Boruto shrugged.
"Taxes! Without them, the village would go broke and nothing would get done. We'd fall apart!"
"Oh." Boruto hadn't understood that. He thought the village had plenty of money without knowing where it came from. Since it was always someone else's problem, he hadn't given it much thought. After all, whenever they damaged something at the school, he and his friends never had to pay for it. Not even Shino and he was responsible for them. The workers did it all and he figured it was because the school hired them to do it. Was he misinformed?
"The wall shows signs to cracking from age," a woman continued. "We need to patch it. To repair the damage, the village needs more money than it has in the vault, so we have to raise taxes."
"Same thing goes for the school. New desks to replace the ones that are falling apart, books and other supplies…"
"Hold on," said Boruto. "We can just have the teachers pay for that stuff. It's their job, isn't it?"
"On their salary?" asked a woman. "They won't have anything left to pay their rent or feed themselves. School supplies are expensive."
"Then… have the parents pay for it," Boruto reasoned. "They're only responsible for one kid, so they won't have to pay that much. That's a simple and easy solution."
"What about the parents who can't afford it? Or the ones who refuse because they think it's unfair? That system would be punishing the children who are innocent in all this. Just because of their parents' financial situation or sheer stubbornness, the child won't get the best education they can. It's setting them up for failure."
"Not to mention that the teacher may take it out on them, knowing they were the only one not to pay their share for one reason or another."
"We can't have the kid get kicked out of school for something their parents decided. The child has no say, no power. It wouldn't be right."
Boruto rubbed his head. "Alright, alright…" This was harder than it looked. Plus, these people jumped down his throat the second he made a suggestion.
"Face it, Lord Seventh. We have to raise taxes."
"Alright," said Boruto. He wanted to get out of here and away from all this stress. "Then take what you need for taxes. Whatever you need to do all this stuff."
Another woman stood up, nearly knocking her chair to the ground. "In order to do that, we'd have to increase it by ten percent to pay for all this. We'd have a revolt on our hands! The villagers won't stand for it."
"If it's for the good of the village…" began another.
"At the cost of living for these people? The village will be fine but the people will go broke!"
"We need a balance, Lord Seventh. We can't just take out however much we need without harming the villagers. We have to decide how much we should increase taxes in order to get work done and not impact the villagers too negatively."
Boruto couldn't stand much more of this. He thought he found a solution, but they complained about that, too. They were right, though. He didn't want to make the villagers go broke to maintain the village. This was their home but they had their own lives and families to support.
He had an idea. "What if we didn't raise taxes but asked for a donation?"
"A donation?"
"Are you serious?"
"Why not?" he asked. "We don't know who can afford what and charging everyone equally, even those not as well off as others, wouldn't seem fair. This way, people can pay what they can to help the village. If it's for their home, I'm sure they'd do it. They want to live in a nice place, right? I'm sure they'll shill out the money for it."
The people exchanged questioning looks.
"Lord Seventh," the woman nearest him said in a suspicious tone of voice. "Are you ill-prepared for this meeting or are you just incompetent? I mean, some of the things you're saying are…"
"What's the problem?" Boruto asked her. "You need the money for the village and these people live in it. Why wouldn't they want to help maintain it?"
"That's what the taxes are for," someone said further down the table.
"Yeah, but they don't know what their taxes are being used for. At least this way, they'll know what their money is going to. They can even choose how much they want to give for a cause they feel strongly about. People might even give more money than taxes would have taken out because they have the funds and the willingness to give towards something they believe in."
Fortunately, the people accepted this. Something in Boruto's speech convinced them. Only on a trail period, though. They agreed to the donation concept, but if they didn't get enough money for their causes, they were going to have to raise taxes. Boruto agreed and was relieved for it to be over.
"Your meeting about the bridge is up next," Shikamaru told him as they left the room. "He should be waiting outside your office."
"Another meeting?" Boruto was so tired of this. He was tired and angry and sore and it wasn't even two in the afternoon yet. He felt like he hadn't done much of anything but his body and mind felt like he had been doing constant work from the moment he got up.
"They wanted to give you options before you sign the paper for it," Shikamaru told him.
Sure enough, a man was waiting for them outside the office. He started talking about the project before they even entered the office. Boruto had to hold up his hand to stop him in order to get on the same page.
"The damaged footbridge, Lord Seventh," he clarified. "It's begun to crack from use and weather. A piece has already come off under the railing. Unfortunately, we can't all agree on how this should be handled."
"What's there not to agree on?" asked Boruto. "Just fix the thing."
"But how?" asked the man. "I suggest we tear down the bridge and build a new one that will last longer."
"Ok," said Boruto, but saw the look on Shikamaru's face and knew he needed to ask a follow-up question. "And if we do that, what are we looking at?"
"Well, we'd have to close off that area until the new one is built, which will impact traffic. Plus, the cost of materials…"
"Cost of materials?" Boruto repeated. "Can't you handle that yourself?"
Shikamaru leaned down to whisper to him, "The village provides the materials so the construction workers don't have to pay out of pocket."
"O… k." After the meeting about the taxes, Boruto was looking to save money for the sake of the people. "Is there a cheaper solution?"
"Well, some of my colleagues suggested that instead of tearing down the bridge and starting fresh that we simply patch the damaged area."
"Wouldn't that save time and materials?" Boruto asked.
"Technically, yes," said the man. "We'd need about a day to tear down the bridge. That way we can salvage any useable materials and won't have to use explosives which would damage whatever was salvageable and possibly injure someone. It is a footbridge. It would be a controlled explosion but there would still be risks. Doing it that way would also risk causing damage to the foundation, which would require more funds to…"
"And then you'd need time to build the bridge which would take weeks, right?" Boruto asked. "Weeks without use of that bridge and people having to take detours and all that. Just patch the thing and save time and money. Don't overcomplicate it."
"If that's what you think is best," said the man.
"In that case," Shikamaru said, pulling out a sheet of paper from his clipboard. "I need you to sign this."
Boruto reached for the paper with a pen in hand. As soon as he touched it, he felt Shikamaru pull the paper backwards.
"But I recommend we go the route of building a new bridge instead of patchwork."
"Time and money, Shikamaru." Boruto pulled the paper back towards himself. "And it's just that one area that's taken any damage."
"That we know of."
"They can just patch up anything that's damaged, you know. Don't make it more complicated."
Shikamaru cringed when he saw Boruto sign his father's name on the document.
Boruto tossed the pen down and sat back in his chair when the man left. "There. Problem solved."
There was so much paperwork and there seemed to be no end to it. Boruto kept looking at the clock on the wall, wondering how long he had been at this. It seemed as though the pile got higher as the clock's hands moved past each number. In an effort to get through this mountain, Boruto just started signing his father's name on every paper without reading it. Things were finally moving along.
He honestly didn't see a problem in doing this. No one in the village could do anything without Naruto's signature, which he thought was just idiotic. Why couldn't these people just do things for themselves? Why did they need the Hokage to give them approval?
If they needed a signature, then so be it.
"Next they'll need him to sign a paper for being allowed to use the bathroom," Boruto muttered to himself. "Oh, dear, there's no soap in the bathroom. I know. We can have the Hokage sign a paper giving us the ok to refill it. We're totally useless. We need him to tell us when to breathe. Gotta get it in writing."
Boruto shoved the last document aside, his wrist aching. He could barely make a fist without his fingers quivering. His whole body was aching. His back, his neck, his shoulders. Everything hurt. He wanted to go home and rest. Watch tv, play videogames. Anything other than work. Reading a book would have been too much after all this. He doubted his eyes would focus.
"Well, I'm done." Boruto stood up to go home.
The door opened and a woman came in with a fresh pile of papers that needed his signature.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Boruto moaned. "I was just about to go home."
"These need your approval, Lord Seventh. As soon as possible, please. The ones at the top of the pile can't make a move without your approval."
"Can't anybody make decisions on their own?" Boruto faced the desk and started signing as quickly as possible and handed the top documents back to the woman. "There. Deliver them to whoever and let me go home."
She handed him another piece of paper. "This one needs a cross signature confirming the approval for verification."
"You people are insane," Boruto said through a clenched jaw. "You actually need a signature of approval for a signature of approval? That's like… I don't know. That's like saying you want fried chicken for dinner, signing a paper for it and then having to sign again before they make the order. I said yes. What, now you want a yes for my yes?"
"It's just to confirm," the woman told him.
"You got my signature, don't you?"
"Just making sure."
"I sign something then you need me to sign something saying I signed something? Have me sign it once and be done with it. I'm so sick of this pointless, constant busywork!"
The woman shot him a look before leaving the office.
Boruto reached for the knob when another person entered the office with a file in their arms. "Lord Seventh, we need you to sign…"
"Forget it!" Boruto snapped. "I'm going home."
"Sir, you can't go home just yet. Please. We need you to sign these. It's for the construction order."
"I already signed the thing for the bridge repair."
"No, this is for the laborers and the survey corp."
"Huh?" This sounded like more pointless busywork.
"The survey corporation want to confirm that the area in question isn't own by another company or person before they start building. If it is on owned land, we can't build or make repairs. Not without the owner's say."
"It's a footbridge. No one owns the land near there."
"This is just to confirm that. Otherwise, the people can't begin work."
Boruto snatched the paper away and signed it. "There."
"This is for the workers to begin in the morning."
"They can just start."
"Not without your signature on this. Just because you signed for the project approval doesn't mean they were given the ok to begin work. They can't begin until you…"
Boruto snatched the paper from him and signed it just as he had the first one.
"Also, this one is about the playground repairs. There's enough funding in the budget but we need…"
Boruto signed that one as well and handed it back.
"As far as the playground…"
"Forget it! I've had enough. I'm going home! Anything else can wait until tomorrow. I'm done."
"Lord Seventh…"
"I'm done!" Boruto stormed out of the office, tired and cranky. He wouldn't take anymore. He just wanted to go home, have dinner and get some sleep.
"Lord Seventh, I've been meaning to talk to you." As soon as he stepped outside, he was swarmed by people. Some were shinobi and others were regular villagers. They bombarded him with questions and comments and requests and praise. They followed him no matter where he went. Another group moved towards him and pushed him back towards the Hokage building, all speaking quickly and at once, making it impossible to understand.
Before he knew it, he was back in the building he just left. It was no use. They wouldn't let him leave.
Shinobi and villagers alike threw request after request at him, talking over each other until it became a jumble of noise. Boruto couldn't hear himself speak as he tried to calm the crowd. Even when he shouted, no one heard him.
"Enough! I can't take it!"
No one was listening. If anything, they called out their demands louder.
In desperation, Boruto created a shadow clone of his father and took off out the window, leaving his doppelganger to the mercy of the crowd. He ran as far and as fast as he could from the building. He heard someone shout for the Hokage and he hid anywhere he could. He didn't want attention. Any attention. He just wanted to go home.
His clone ended up popping and he soon found himself being chased by those people at the office. Some cut off his path, shouting demands. Others just followed him, calling his title and their wants.
"For crying out loud, don't you people ever go home?" Boruto hid in a tree but was easily found by shinobi and given papers to fill out and listened to reports from those working on the latest research project.
Boruto gave up. No one would leave him alone.
It was long past dinner when they finally left, but a new pile of work remained in the office.
"I'm going home," Shikamaru announced. "See you in the morning. You'll probably be here, though."
Naruto stayed late to make a dent in all this work but Boruto wasn't that dedicated.
"Shikamaru, wait."
He stopped at the door and turned.
"Shikamaru, I'm not the Hokage. I'm Boruto."
"Uh-huh," he replied flatly. "Goodnight."
"Wait! I'm not messing around. I'm serious!"
Shikamaru closed the door and left.
Boruto fell to his knees and stared at the ground. "What can I do? No one believes me."
There had to be a way out of this. He didn't want to be stuck as his father for the rest of his life. He didn't know how he ended up like this in the first place.
"So pitiful," came a sinister voice Boruto did not know.
He looked around the empty office. "Who said that?"
"I see. So you can hear me."
Boruto couldn't see anyone. It sounded almost like the voice was coming from inside his head.
"Who's there?" Boruto asked timidly, thinking he had finally cracked from stress. "Who are you?"
"Come on. You don't know? You've only heard about me from Naruto I don't know how many times."
Boruto turned around and as he did, the room disappeared and he was in a dark void with the face of a giant fox glaring down at him. Boruto was so frightened by it that he fell backwards.
"It makes sense that you and I can communicate now that you share your father's body with me."
"Are you… Kuruma?"
The giant fox growled at him. "I have to say, it's nice to speak with someone other than Naruto but I'm not the most social of beasts. I also cannot say what will happen to either of us if things remain unchanged."
Boruto stood up. "How did I get like this? Why am I inside my dad's body? What can I do to fix this? Do you know what happened?"
"I don't," said the giant fox. "All I can say is that I became aware of the change at some point in the evening. I've been asleep all this time and don't know when or what exactly took place."
"Can you fix this?"
"What do I look like to you?" the fox snarled at him. "How can I fix what I do not understand? Without knowing what took place, there is nothing I can do. You must sort this out on your own."
"How can I?" Boruto asked. "Nobody believes me."
"You spoke to one person," the fox told him.
"How would you know Shikamaru was the only guy I told if you were asleep all this time?" Boruto asked, crossing his arms.
"Never mind how I know that!" the fox snapped. "It's obvious to me that you have been along for the ride all this time, otherwise you would have made more of a fuss than you did."
Boruto dropped his head with a sigh. This giant fox was right. He should have been making more of a fuss than he was but he didn't see the point. In truth, the main reason was so that he could guarantee the band he liked would play at the village. He wanted to meet them, but things didn't go the way he had planned.
"Wait," said Boruto, a thought occurring to him. "If I'm here… then… where's my dad?"
"You didn't think to question that earlier?" asked the fox, sounding annoyed.
"I just thought I was in his body while he slept or something." Boruto's thoughts kept spinning. "But if that's the case, then what happened to me? If I'm in dad's body, does that mean he's in my body?"
"Don't you think you should check?" the fox asked him.
"How could I with all these people asking me to do stuff?" Boruto said, gesturing behind himself with his arm.
"Well, that's not really my problem, now is it? Figure this out."
In an instant, Boruto was back in the office and the fox was nowhere in sight. He had never come face-to-face with that fox before. It was unnerving to think that such a thing was living inside his father's body.
Nonetheless, the fox had given Boruto the idea to go home to figure out what had happened to his own body. If he and his father had simply switched places, then this might be easier to resolve. Either way, he had to find out what happened.
To avoid running into anyone else in the building, Boruto went out the window like before and used the buildings to travel. It was dark and easy to move without being seen. Most of the villagers had gone home for the evening or were inside brightly lit buildings for a drink.
Boruto went straight to his house and stood in front of the door. Any intention he had of going straight inside were postponed as a new thought entered his mind.
He wondered how this would be perceived by his mother and sister. Would they believe him? If Naruto was in his body, did they already know? Perhaps not, otherwise they would have come to the office to report this. If his body were just lying there comatose, had his mother taken him to the hospital? Was he still in bed and she just decided to leave him alone?
There was only one way to know for sure.
Boruto opened the door which swung open easily. It was unlocked as usual. His mother must have been expecting him. "Hello? I'm home," he called into the quiet house.
The lights were on in the kitchen and by the main door. Someone must have been home and they expected him to come home, it seemed. Boruto took off his father's shoes and entered the house. "Mom? Hima? Dad?"
He went into the kitchen first but found that no one was there. The sink had only one dish in it, waiting to be washed. The rest were on the drying rack. The table was clear of everything but a small vase of flowers. The tv was off and the magazines were put away in a neat stack. His mother had definitely been at work.
He opened the fridge and found leftovers neatly placed on a shelf, wrapped in plastic film. This wasn't here last night, which meant she had cooked today. If these were remnants of dinner, then it meant Hinata had eaten dinner with Himawari and put away the rest. This indicated that she wasn't worried or preoccupied with another matter. Everything was normal.
A normal day? Did that mean she hadn't noticed anything was wrong with her son?
"Mom?" Boruto went up the stairs to the second level. "Mom?"
He couldn't find her anywhere. He went to his sister's room but it was empty. Her bed was freshly made and her drawings were on her desk, meaning that she had been working on them during the day and had yet to clean up.
Now for the moment of truth. Boruto went to his bedroom and turned on the light. Taking a deep breath, he looked at the bed against the wall next to the window.
It was empty.
Empty? What did this mean? Was it possible that he had entered his father body and mind? He didn't know of anything that could do that, even jutsu. Could that explain his situation?
If that were the case, where was his family? Perhaps his mother had found him lying there and brought him to the hospital, just as he thought she might in that situation? No, if that were the case, she wouldn't have carried on with her day as normal. Dinner was freshly made. She would never have done that if she were concerned or caring for her comatose son.
Everything in the house pointed to a normal day. There was nothing to indicate that his mother or sister were aware of the situation.
In that case, where were they? Where was he?
"Did Dad run off in my body or something? No, he would have told Mom. Unless he wanted a free day and pretended to be me. That would be so like him." Boruto leaned his back against the doorframe. "This doesn't make any sense. Where are they?"
Perhaps they went to his grandfather's house. They did that from time to time. They should have been back by now. Should he go there and see for himself? Should he stay here and wait? Where else could he look?
Boruto sat down on his bed and tried to think. Maybe if he just stayed here, everything would return to normal. If he stayed in the place he last remembered being, he would wake up in his own body again. Yes, that seemed logical.
He was too tired to think of another solution. Boruto collapsed on his bed and closed his eyes, grateful to have a chance to rest. He hoped he would be back in his own body tomorrow. He couldn't wait to wake up from this nightmare.