Chapter 8: Hokage for a Day part 2

Boruto opened his eyes and saw his desk with the magazine still open to the advertisement he wanted to show his mother. His bag was still on the floor by the window with all his ninja supplies. This was his room, just as he remembered it.

Thank goodness the nightmare was over. Everything was back to normal.

Boruto sat up only to find that he was taller than he should have been. He put his hands to his chest to feel his father's muscles and clothes under his palms.

Boruto wailed in aggravation and fell backwards onto the bed. "I'm still my old man?! How long is this going to last?! When will it end?!"

It was morning. He saw the sun filling his room with light and heard birds chirping outside. Time had passed. His mother must have been home by now.

Boruto got out of bed and went into the hall calling for her. "Mom? Mom! You home?" He went to his sister's room and called for her. "Hima? You there?" Her room was empty. Everything was exactly as it had been last night, which meant no one had returned.

Boruto went downstairs and checked the kitchen, hoping to find a sign of someone coming home while he slept. There was nothing. The same plate was in the sink, the same leftovers were in the fridge and the same vase sat on the table.

This was so strange. More than that. It was frightening. He couldn't find any trace of his family anywhere. It was as if they had vanished off the face of the earth. There were signs that they had been to the house yesterday, but where were they now? Boruto was getting scared.

Their shoes. Were they by the door last night? He couldn't remember. Boruto ran to the front door and discovered that they were gone. Only the rain and winter boots were left, stashed away in the cubby along the wall. On top of it was a pad of paper and a pen but there was no note explaining where they were.

If their shoes were gone, it meant they had left the house willingly.

Boruto ate some of his mother's leftovers for breakfast and waited for someone to come home. When no one did by the time he finished, Boruto left the house, hoping to try his luck again with Shikamaru. He didn't know what else to do or where to turn.

When he arrived at the office, Shikamaru was already there with a phone pressed to his ear with his shoulder while he struggled to write something on a piece of paper.

"Yes, sir. I understand, sir. It's not… Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We can arrange that for you at… What? Today? That's a little… Yes, I understand. No, not at all. Yes. Uh-huh." Shikamaru covered the receiver with his hand to speak to Boruto who was just getting in the door. "Where have you been?"

Boruto just stood there, stunned. He was too numb to take anything in. It felt like he was still half-asleep. He stood where he was and waited his turn, seeing how busy Shikamaru was.

"Huh? Yes, I understand. Yes, I agree. It is… Don't worry, we'll fix it. Sorry for the trouble. We'll… Hello?" Shikamaru hung up the phone and turned to Boruto. "Well, that's just great. And where have you been, Naruto?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, ignoring the fact that Shikamaru still thought he was Naruto.

"You're never this late coming in. I had to handle everything myself."

"Late?" Boruto looked at the clock on the wall. "It's only 9:15."

Shikamaru didn't bother arguing with more pressing matters to tend to. "We've got a problem."

"What now?" Boruto moaned.

"The construction team is all set to work on repairing the playground but there's no materials to work with. Didn't you sign the document yesterday?"

"Of course, I did. You saw me."

"Not the one giving the people the ok to work but the one about the supplier," Shikamaru told him. "They have no supplies because the company wasn't given the order form for what was needed and it wasn't delivered because they never got the ok from you to do it."

"For God's sake, can't anybody do anything on their own?" Boruto said, already in a bad mood. "If I gave the workers permission to work, then they can get the supplies they need."

"You have to inform the company supplier for that."

"The workers order their own stuff to work with. They don't need me to do that for them."

"Actually, you do," said Shikamaru. "Some of the materials are imported from other lands and order forms have to be filled out. We have some in storage but you have to give the ok to use them and signing off responsibility for the order for the workers."

"Are you saying I need to sign something giving the company permission to do whatever the workers say?" Boruto felt dizzy. It was such a roundabout way of doing things. "Can't they just do their jobs without me telling them it's ok? Why do they need me to tell them to get materials when it's a given?"

"Because it's the village that's under contract with them," Shikamaru explained, as if Boruto should already know this. "If this were a private project, like for someone's home, then yes, there's less involvement. But this is being done on the village. Public property is owned by us, in a way. They cannot get to work unless we give them the go, and they cannot get village supplies without certain documents being signed letting the company know that we're tapping into our warehouses to use these materials. They need to know where it's going and who's using it. The village has to sign off on all of this."

Boruto staggered from the onslaught of Shikamaru's circumlocution. He wanted the short version.

"Since it's the village that's being worked on, we have to give permission for the use of materials. We let the company supplier know that their resources are required and that there is a project going on so they know to expect a work form from the workers and can provide the supplies. You only gave the workers permission to work without telling the supplier that we need to use their materials. The workers can't work without supplies, so they're just standing there with nothing to do."

"Fine! I'll sign the damn paper so they can work."

"It'll be a day late, but ok." Shikamaru went through the pile to find the form.

That's when Boruto noticed how big it had grown from last night. "How the hell did it get so big in one night?!"

"You usually stay late to make sure it doesn't get this high," Shikamaru said as he handed him the form. "Also, there's some confusion about some of the papers you signed yesterday."

"Other than my own confusion, you mean?" Boruto asked, handing the paper back to Shikamaru.

"It seems you signed two different documents both promising a land reservation to two different parties. They both put in the request and you signed your name to both, so now they want to know who gets it."

Perhaps signing everything in the pile without reading them was a bad idea.

"You also signed a document approving a mission request without actually assigning any team to it. The file came back and they want you to pick a team."

"Are most of these document things that came back after I signed them?" Boruto asked, pointing at the pile.

"Among the ones they want confirmation on and ones with questions, yes."

Boruto buried his face in his hands.

"Also, there's another matter of-"

The door to the office burst open and the band from yesterday came storming in. A cannonade of angry words pushed Boruto against the front of his desk. "What's going on? What's the problem?"

"This is an outrage!" one of the band members screamed.

"I can't believe you would approve of something like this!" shouted another.

"What's wrong?" Boruto asked, shrinking away. "What'd I do?"

The band member pulled a poster from his pocket and held it at arm's length, allowing it to unfurl inches from Boruto's face. "Did you approve of this poster for the concert?"

Boruto saw the V formation in the center of the poster with the band's name at the top, the location and date in the middle and the advertisement information at the bottom in sharp lettering.

"Yeah…" Boruto said hesitantly. "What's wrong with it?"

"Are you joking? Just look at us!"

Boruto looked at the photo again. "What's wrong with it? You guys look great."

The member pointed to himself on the poster with a dark blue fingernail. "I'm off to one side! And these two are up front and center!"

"So?"

"So?!" he shouted. "You're saying they're more important than me?"

"Huh?"

The other band member stepped forward to complain. "They're in the front center and bigger than us. They're more eye-catching than we are. It suggests that they lead the band and we're just there. We deserve to be the same size so no one is more important than the other."

"I should be in the front center!" shouted the first. "These two should flank me!"

"Are you joking?" said a third. "Why should you be the biggest one on the poster? We're all in the band together."

"Yeah! If anything, it makes sense we were chosen to be in the middle. I wrote most of the songs."

"The hell you did! Our smash hit was written and performed by me!"

"We all performed it, idiot!"

"But I wrote it!"

"We wrote it, remember? You were stuck for a rhyme and I helped you."

"One word is not a collaboration! I wrote it!"

"Guys, guys!" Boruto cried over them. "We can fix the poster."

"You better!" snapped the first band member. "Because if you don't, we're not performing!"

"If you dare insinuate that any member is more important than another…"

"I never said you were. Everyone is awesome in the band and it wouldn't work without any one of you." Boruto dreaded the thought of him being responsible for breaking up the band. He had to make this right. "You're a great team and you got so many fans, you know. Why don't we just change the poster so you're all equal size in the center?"

Another band member snatched away the poster to bring something else to Boruto's attention. "Then you'll also address this, right? The words across my legs."

Boruto looked at the date of the concert printed across his legs in the poster. "Uh… What about it?"

"I'm a trend-setter," the member told him. "My pants are the height of fashion. I paid darn good money for them and I demand they been seen. Make sure my legs are not covered up."

"Uh, sure. No problem."

Shikamaru sighed, rubbing his temples. "Great. This will set us back even more."

Within the hour, the band's manager and the designers were in the office launching their own complaints about the poster.

"We were all set to start setting them up throughout the village but as soon as they came back from the printer's, the band threw a fix and we had to halt that. Now we have to make a whole new poster and get that printed and distributed throughout the village. That's less time for ticket sales!"

The manager and designer castigated each other unabashedly in front of Boruto and Shikamaru. The two let them have it out, waiting for them to pause for breath to problem-solve.

"We can't do that!" said the designer. "Having everyone in a straight line would disrupt the flow of the piece. We need eye-catching aesthetics, like I mentioned before. The band's really gotta pop on the page to get people's attention."

"Just make them all the same size so there's no fighting," Boruto told her. "And make sure nothing's covering up the one guy's pants. He wants people to see them."

"Impossible!" she wailed. "A flat, boring piece with everyone stagnate on the page… Where's the allure? The eye-catching flow that draws you in? Do you know anything about design, Lord Seventh?"

"I know more about it than I do fashion and I'm stuck trying to make a guy's expensive pants stand out or he won't play." Boruto couldn't believe he was having this conversation. "Just make it happen. Everyone's the same size in the center and no one's pants are covered. That's all you gotta do."

"Oh, this is such a travesty!" the woman wailed dramatically. "I'm surrounded by uncultured know-nothings! No one understands true art."

"We're a day behind on the posters going to print which means one less day to get tickets out for the public," said the manager. "I told you that this would be a trial basis. If we don't sell enough, the band pulls out. Every day counts."

"I get that," Boruto told him through his teeth.

The door flew open and two people came rushing inside. One was a shinobi and the other was a construction worker with a bandana around his head. "Lord Seventh! The footbridge just collapsed!"

"What? Was anyone hurt?"

"Just some minor injuries to the workers. We were patching the damage just like you said and it just started falling apart. The more we tried covering the cracks and filling the holes, the more started to break until it just… boom!"

Shikamaru gave Boruto a sidewards glance, frowning. He had warned Boruto that it would probably be best to build a new one but he went for the cheap and fast route.

"Th- that's fine," Boruto said, trying to keep everyone calm. "We can just make a new bridge. Had I known it was in that bad of shape…"

"But, Lord Seventh, we're not sure if we have enough materials to build a whole new bridge and make repairs on the other projects we have going on. The playground was scheduled to be done today as well but none of those guys are doing anything. Looks like it will have to be postponed. Unless you think the bridge can wait."

"No, fix the bridge first."

"There's still the matter of supplies. And the budget."

Boruto threw out any answer that came to mind. "Ask villagers for donations to help raise money for a new bridge."

"Lord Seventh, where would we hold these donations? We have to make perpetrations to make sure people know about it. Should we have them put a story on the news about it?"

"It'll take time to raise money, unless we collect a set amount per capita."

Boruto shook his head at the man. "I don't know what that means."

"It means per person," Shikamaru informed him.

"Oh. Well, if it gets you the money faster…"

"Yes, it would," Shikamaru told him out of the corner of his mouth. "As would taxes, which is basically what that is."

Boruto looked at him in surprise. "It is?"

"Simplified, it is. Gathering a set amount per person is the basic idea behind taxes."

"How else would we pay for the bridge?" asked the shinobi beside the worker. "Or the playground?"

"Then there's repairs for the wall protecting the village, maintenance on the building…"

"Ok, I get it!" Boruto snapped. "Just get started on the stuff you need to do."

"But what are we doing?" asked the shinobi. "We can't work on the bridge without materials and there's no money in the budget for that. Are we supposed to build anyway and hope for a loan? They won't give us the supplies for free, even if it is for the good of the village."

"And the donation thing," said the worker. "Are we going to just begin work and hope the money collected will pay for it?"

"How will we let people know about the donation? Get on the news? We need time to arrange it. Printing it in the paper might help but not everyone reads them. Should we put up flyers? What are we doing, Lord Seventh?"

Boruto could feel his sanity begin to wane as a vacuous torrid of stress and hopelessness began to swallow him where he was. Their voices became a jumble of nonsensical noise which only his own heartbeat could muffle. He could not take the stress. His limbs were going numb and all he could see was the ground which looked like it was resting atop a swelling current. He felt unsteady.

"Enough! Stop it! Everyone just shut up!" he bellowed and the room quieted. Chest heaving with rage, Boruto took charge and pointed to each person in the room. "You, work on the poster. Fix it as we discussed. You, once the band approves, post them throughout the village. Store windows, by registers, game shops, candy stores, restaurants, along the wall and entrance to the park. Even the weapons shop. That should be a good start. You, clean up the collapsed bridge and make sure the injured are taken care of. If it collapsed that easily, assume nothing is salvageable. You, notify the supplier and tell them to reserve all the materials you need for the bridge. I'll handle the rest. Now get out!"

Boruto had to physically push the people out of the office who were too stunned to move on their own. Once in the hallway, Boruto slammed the doors shut and dragged the couch in front of it to keep anyone else from getting in.

Shikamaru watched Boruto's outburst without a word and sat against the side of the desk. "You know, there is a simple solution to this. We can try to convince the band to do a benefit concert where the proceeds go towards building a new footbridge. We can discuss it with their manager and the band. We can get on television and advertise both at once. Ticket sales will soar and word about the bridge will get out, and the money…"

"I can't do this," Boruto said into the couch cushion as he slumped to the floor, resting his head on the seat.

"Everyone has a hard day, Naruto. We can salvage this. I can get in touch with…"

"I can't do this," Boruto started to cry. "I just can't."

Unprepared for this sudden display of sorrow, Shikamaru stopped speaking and stared, uncomfortable at Naruto's back.

"I can't do this, Shikamaru," Boruto cried. "I can't take it anymore."

Shikamaru took a couple steps closer to Boruto while maintaining a comfortable distance between them. "It's alright, Naruto. You're just overworked. I could tell something was off with you but I just figured…"

"No, you don't understand," Boruto told him as tears ran down his cheeks. "I told you. I'm not Naruto. I'm Boruto."

Shikamaru slowly nodded his head. "Ok. That's fine."

Rage overtook Boruto and he wiped away his tears, standing up. "What is so hard about this for you to understand? I keep telling you, I'm Boruto! Stop dismissing me!"

Shikamaru just stared at him. "And I said ok. If you're Boruto, that's fine."

What was happening here? Boruto didn't understand what this was. Shikamaru didn't seem alarmed or skeptical. He seemed to hesitantly accept this, which wasn't what Boruto was expecting nor what he wanted. Was it that Shikamaru wasn't understanding or that he just didn't care?

"Shikamaru, I'm serious. I'm Boruto."

"That's fine. You can be whoever you want."

Boruto jumped in place, on the verge of a childish temper tantrum. "Stop dismissing me! Stop ignoring me or pretending or I don't know what you're doing. Just help me! I don't want to be Naruto anymore! I want to be me! My dad's more cut out for this than I am and I just can't take it anymore."

"The Fourth was decent at this but I'm sure he had his stresses about the job, too."

Boruto was beside himself with confusion and anger. "What does the Fourth Hokage have to do with all this?"

"You just said that your dad was more cut out for this than you were."

"Yes! My dad! As in Naruto! I keep telling you, I'm not Naruto! I am Boruto! Why is this so hard for you to understand?!"

"And I told you that if you want to change your name, then that's fine."

Boruto stopped and gave Shikamaru a scrupulous look. "What did you say?"

"That if you want to change your name…"

"I'm not changing my name," Boruto told him, feeling as if he were on the verge of insanity. "Are you just not getting what I'm trying to say or what? I'm not Naruto. I'm Boruto. I'm stuck in Naruto's body. I don't know how to make this any clearer."

Shikamaru raised his brow but remained calm. "If this is a case of split-personality or something, I can't help you. I can advise you to see a doctor but other than that…"

What was he talking about?

"Shikamaru, I'm Boruto. I'm stuck in Naruto's body. I'm Naruto's son. Do I really have to spell this out for you? I thought you were smart enough to figure this out. Naruto's my dad and I'm stuck in his body. Do you understand that?"

Keeping his eyebrow raised, Shikamaru spoke slowly. "Boruto? Naruto's son?"

"Yes! Yes! Finally, you get it."

Shikamaru maintained eye contact as he spoke. "Naruto doesn't have a son."

His brain lagging from the shock, it took Boruto a minute to actually comprehend what Shikamaru had just told him. "… What?"

"Naruto doesn't have a son," he repeated.

Boruto had to keep himself from panicking. "St- stop messing around. Of course, he does. I'm his first born."

"Naruto only has one kid. A daughter named Himawari."

"She's my little sister. Come on, Shikamaru. Your son and I are friends. So's Inojin. Shikamaru, it's me."

Shikamaru just stared at him without a word. He clearly didn't believe him.

Boruto's eyes fell on the desk. "I'll prove it. I know Dad keeps a picture of us at his desk. I'll show you."

Boruto began to open drawers and push papers aside, desperate to find the photo. Shikamaru walked over to the desk and said in an almost casual tone, "If this is some sort of psychotic break, then…" Boruto couldn't tell if Shikamaru was actually concerned or joking around like a school student to his best friend.

"Ah-ha!" Boruto's fingers closed around a framed photograph and thrust it to Shikamaru. "Proof! I told you he has a son. There I am with my whole family. Read it and weep."

Shikamaru looked at the photo and raised his brow again. "That's you with your wife and kid, just like I said. No son."

"Huh?!" Boruto took the photo back and looked at it. His whole body went cold when he saw only three people in the frame, a big empty void in front of Naruto where Boruto should have been standing. It was as if he had been erased from existence. "That's… not possible."

"Not helping your case, Naruto, or whatever you want to be called."

The pat Shikamaru gave him on the back couldn't have been more patronizing.