Chapter 24: Surprise

Boruto sat back in satisfaction. "Well? What did you think? Pretty chilling, right?"

His friends sat there staring at him with blank expressions.

"What?" said Boruto. "They resorted to cannibalism. Isn't that terrifying? Scary stuff, you know."

"And you had Lord Seventh be the one to do it?" asked Shikadai.

"It is pretty scary to think he would," said Inojin. "Considering how he is, it is out of character and, if Boruto was going for the shock factor, he certainly delivered."

"I think he just chose the Hokage for the role because he's mad at his old man."

"I did not," said Boruto. "I went for the shock factor, like Inojin said. It totally worked for the story, didn't it?"

Shikadai sighed. "I guess."

"What? What's wrong with my story?"

"Nothing," said Shikadai nonchalantly.

"What?" Boruto pressed angrily.

Rolling his eyes, Shikadai said, "That story was… How do I put this? Flawed."

"Flawed?"

"Well, it made no sense in some ways. It's like you couldn't decide what direction to take it."

"What? That's not true!"

"Like the thing on the mainland. While some parts made sense, the people in charge giving them a ship with supplies just didn't seem realistic to me. The animosity, maybe. People probably would behave like that with overpopulation, but the stuff about war…"

"What about it?"

"How did they have enough supplies for the ship with overpopulation and resources going to the war effort? That part seemed weird to me. Plus, there's flaws with the island they went to. Tons of flaws there."

"Such as?" Naruto asked, folding his arms.

"The stuff on the island didn't seem logical to me."

"Logical?"

"The animals you made up just seemed… I don't know, weird. You made really good scary creatures for them to face but how such beings could survive is a problem. The water being tainted was another issue you never addressed."

"According to the story, they're not sure how it got tainted but thought it had something to do with the animals," said Inojin.

"Which doesn't make sense to me."

"The people were guessing. It's possible that uneducated people on a tropical island would jump to conclusions because they don't know. Isn't that how old tales get started?"

"Boruto never said it was a tropical island," said Shikadai.

"It sounded like it could be."

"He never really said what kind of island it was. Which is another issue I'd like to address. The ecosystem of the island was in itself flawed. How could these creatures survive? And the mountain and caverns they went to. They were also flawed. I don't see how snow could exist inside a mountain. Snow comes from frozen rain. If they're inside a mountain…"

"And the plants and trees growing at the end," added Inojin. "How could they grow without light? You also never said how they were able to see things in the depths of the place. You mentioned some places being too dark to see, but wouldn't that be true for other places in there? They're away from the sun, after all."

"And how were those plants growing? And if that place was paradise, why didn't those explorers just stay there or get their people and go to that place instead of reporting what they found and staying in the village that was in constant danger?"

"I explained that," Boruto argued. "The trip was so dangerous, they didn't want to chance it."

"It seems to me like you were stuck on a reason," said Shikadai. "The girl knew all this stuff and knew how to navigate despite the fact that she had never been there before. How could she be that good based on notes and stories she heard from others? I still don't see why the explorers who reported back didn't just bring the people there."

"He did say it was dangerous," said Inojin. "The explorers probably didn't want to go back."

"But they'll make the journey to tell the people what they found? Go all that way and back and not bring them along? Seems like a waste to me."

"Maybe the people got too old to do it. Or what if they were attacked by one of those creatures and went to the village to report what they could before they succumbed to their injuries?"

"Making excuses for Boruto's story, Inojin?"

"No, I'm just saying…"

"It was still better than the one you told," Boruto snapped at Shikadai. "Mine had a more chilling ending than yours. And… I didn't try to freak people out with my shadow."

"You did it first," said Shikadai. "Having your clone pop out to scare us. Which didn't work, by the way."

"But I did inspirer you to try it yourself, huh?"

"I was just having fun."

"So was I," said Boruto. "And my story had such a chilling ending that I didn't need to try to freak you out."

"If you were going for the whole chilling thing, maybe you could have given the girl a name in your story so it would be a little more personal," suggested Inojin. "I get what you were going for, but I wasn't that attached to the character as much as I could have been."

Boruto was about to say something when the bushes beside them began to rustle. He stopped and looked that way.

"Very funny," said Shikadai, unamused. "After we just talked about how your other ploy didn't work and this story didn't need it. You're still trying to scare us?"

Boruto looked at Shikadai. "I'm not doing it. I thought you were. Like before."

"I'm not doing it."

The two looked at Inojin who got defensive. "Hey, I'm not doing it either."

"It's probably just an animal," offered Shikamaru, barely paying attention.

The rustling continued and the boys were on alert. They kept their eyes in one direction, waiting to see what popped out from the bushes. They stayed very quiet, listening. They held their breath when the rustling stopped and leaned towards that direction.

From behind, something jumped out with a roar, grabbing their shoulders. The three boys screamed and fell off their seats to the ground, frantically turning around to see what it was, their legs kicking the air.

"Hahahaha!" Naruto laughed hysterically, standing at their campsite. "Gotcha good!"

"Dad?!"

"Lord Seventh?"

Naruto stopped laughing long enough to explain what he was doing there. "I know how much this meant to you, Boruto, so I wrapped up and came over. I intended to come all along but I wanted to surprise you."

Boruto sat up where he was, his heart still pounding. "You did?"

"Yeah."

"I knew about it," said Shikamaru, studying the marshmallow he hovered over the fire. "I just didn't want to spoil it."

"And you, Dad?" asked Inojin.

"We didn't tell Sai because he's bad at keeping secrets," said Naruto.

"It's because there wasn't an opportunity to tell me," Sai clarified.

"I was waiting for a good scary story to pop out and scare you, but I got tired of waiting, so I jumped out now."

Boruto frowned. "Are you saying my stories suck?"

"I think he's saying all our stories suck," said Inojin.

"Nah, nah," said Naruto, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. "They were very good. I liked them. Very entertaining."

"Really?"

"Which one's your favorite?"

Naruto took a seat on one of the logs and grabbed a marshmallow. "How about I tell you one and then we can decide who had the best one?"

"What kinda story you got?" The boys all took their seats, interested.

Boruto sat right next to his father looking content just as he was interested in the story Naruto was about to tell.

Grinning, Naruto said, "Ok, boys. Let me show you how to tell a real campfire story."


The end!

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