Chapter 10: Sai's Story

"And that's the end of my story," Sai finished.

Boruto blinked, staring up at him. He hadn't even noticed his hotdog was completely charred, having held it over the fire too long.

"That's it?" he asked, sounding disappointed. "That's how it ends?"

"Yes," Sai answered. "That's how it ends."

"But how do I change back? How did it happen? What about Dad? There's so many unanswered questions."

Sai smiled. "It's more frightening when you don't have the answers, isn't it?"

"You sure you just couldn't come up with any?" Inojin asked, inspecting his perfectly cooked hotdog.

Shikadai scoffed. "That story wasn't scary. I thought you were going to tell a scary one."

"I agree with Shikadai," said Boruto. "It wasn't scary."

Sai looked at him in surprise. "It wasn't? Being trapped in someone else's body with no way out and having to live their life while having little to no understanding of it isn't scary? The fear of running the village into the ground isn't scary? Or having all those people upset at you and no one believing you when you try to tell them the truth? Being erased and having to live as someone else and take over their responsibilities?"

Boruto shrugged. "As awful as that sounds, I think we have different definitions of what's scary."

Sai exhaled and looked at Shikamaru. "Well, I think it would be pretty frightening. Especially if nobody believed you. They still expect you to do someone else's job with no training and no clue what you're doing and knowing that if you mess up, you'd be impacting a lot of lives."

"I thought it was a good shot," Shikamaru told him. "It is potentially scary. Just a different kind of scary."

"The scariest part was the fact that it didn't have an ending," said Boruto. "You're just going to leave it at that with no resolution?"

"That's the scary part," Sai argued. "You're trapped in your father's body with no known way out. He doesn't come back, you don't exist and you have to live as your father for the rest of your life."

"I guess that is pretty scary," said Shikadai. "Being trapped like that and being erased. Spooky."

Sai looked pleased.

"Though the scariest part for me was the fact that I didn't understand some of those words you used."

"Yeah," said Boruto. "What's 'solipsism'?"

"The notion that one's own thoughts are the only truth," Shikamaru defined. "You see that a lot in arrogant people."

Sai took a canteen from his waist and unscrewed the top. "Who's next?" he asked before taking a sip. He tried his hand at storytelling but it didn't seem to go over well, judging from the boys' reactions. He wanted someone else to tell a story to get some of the attention off his.

"Have you had enough time to think of one yet, Inojin?" Shikadai asked.

With his mouth full of hotdog, Inojin looked up with uncertain eyes. "Well… I'm still thinking."

"Ok. Then who wants to go?" Boruto looked at Shikadai. "How about you?"

"Me? I don't really have one. Not yet."

"Then think of one. And make it scary."

"Enlighten me," said Sai. "What is your definition of a scary story? Maybe if we knew, we could come up with one to your liking."

"It's gotta have things like monsters or zombies or weapon-wielding lunatics…"

"Or ghosts," added Shikadai.

"Yeah, or ghosts. Ghost stories are very popular for campfire stories."

"Monsters? Zombies?" Sai raised his brow. "Aren't those the same?"

"No!" the three boys said at once.

"Alright," Sai said, raising his hands in a placating gesture.

Shikadai smirked. "Well…" he said slowly, rotating a hotdog over the fire. "I do have one story. A ghost story. Based on a real mission from years ago."

"Is it about you?" Boruto asked, thinking Shikadai was going to make himself the main character of his tale.

Shikadai glared defensively at him. "No." He looked at the hotdog roasting over the firepit. "It's a mission my dad went on years ago."

Shikamaru raised his brow. "Oh?"

"Yeah," he said. "That one."

Shikamaru nodded his head up and down slowly in understanding. "Oh. That one."

Boruto looked from father to son. "What? What one? What?"

"Go ahead and tell the story, Shikadai," Shikamaru said with a smile. "I think it'll be prefect."

"Alright," said Shikadai, pulling his hotdog away from the flames so he could tell the tale and not have it burn. "This story's about a lost treasure that takes place at a haunted castle."