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In this chapter, we'll find out whether Boruto holds his promise to Naruto...

Chapter 3: Honesty

The next day, he met Sasuke at the training ground as usual. His butt still hurt, but hey, other things were about to hurt more, so he'd forget it soon enough.

"Morning sensei!"

"Sleep well?"

Boruto flashed back to his night lying on his tummy with a very sore ass, but decided to spare his sensei the details. He had asked Naruto not to give details of his punishment, so hopefully his sensei didn't know the embarrassing bits.

"Sure, I guess"

"I'm glad you took my advice and apologised to Naruto. But that stuff is between you and your dad, and our business here is on official Hokage orders. So it doesn't count, Boruto. I hope this isn't a surprise to you."

"No, dad made that clear too."

"Good. In that case I want you to start running, same as usual."

"Er, sensei, any chance we can talk again first?"

"Is this another ploy to find out how to end your punishment?"

"No. Actually, it's sort of the opposite."

Sasuke was intrigued.

"I'm listening."

"Okay so… basically it's that, er.."

"Boruto. I am not known for my patience."

"Sorry. Okay, so, I have to tell you something." Boruto took a deep breath, made eye contact and continued "I haven't been honest with you. When you asked me to learn the rasengan before accepting me as your student, the small one was mine, but the second… I used a scientific ninja tool to make the full rasengan."

Unable to bear Sasuke's intense gaze anymore, Boruto lowered his head.

"I am sorry I lied, sensei. I have no good excuse either, I really wanted to be your student and apparently, I was prepared to go to any lengths. I promise I won't ever lie to you again. Please forgive me."

Sasuke let the silence linger for a while, then put Boruto out of his misery at last.

"I already knew, Boruto."

"Huh?! How come you didn't say anything?"

"I am asking the questions here. Why did you lie? I get you wanted to be my student, but why not just work harder and improve your rasengan? What is pushing you to seek the easy way out?"

"That time, it was just that I knew you're often away on long missions and I had no idea how long you'd be in Konoha for. Plus, I thought training with you might help me in the Chuunin exams too. So I guess I just wanted to become your student as soon as possible…"

"Okay. I understand where you were coming from, but you should never lie to me about your abilities. Well, you shouldn't lie to me at all, but definitely not about abilities. Do you understand why that's so important?"

"You should know my true abilities so that… you know what to teach me?"

"Yes, but there's a more important reason. Think about missions - why does your sensei need to know what you're capable of by yourself?"

"Oh, it's so I don't get in trouble in missions, right? So you can protect me if I can't handle something." Boruto suddenly understood where this was going.

"Exactly right. I knew you couldn't do the full rasengan yourself, so I planned our fight against Momoshiki to make use of your smaller rasengan, knowing of its change in chakra nature making it vanish. I knew what you were capable of, which meant I didn't put you in a situation that you couldn't handle. If I had overestimated you in a fight like that, you would have died. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sensei. I'm sorry."

"I have my reasons why I didn't bring it up myself, which we can talk about later if you want, but for now, you should know that I have zero tolerance for lies. So I will have to give you extra punishment for this."

"Yeah, I get that" Boruto accepted, reluctantly. It was exhausting going from one punishment to another and he really wished it would end soon.

"I don't like to pry into family matters, but it would help me if I knew what Naruto's punishment was yesterday?"

"I… um. I'd rather not say"

It was true. It was bad enough he got a naked spanking over his dad's knee, but it would be so uncool for his sensei to know about it too.

"Fair enough, I won't insist. I was only asking to help you. I thought he may have spanked you, in which case you'd be too sore to get another one today, but as you don't want to tell me, you'll get it anyway regardless of whatever happened yesterday. Follow me."

Oh HELL no, another spanking? He could still feel his butt pulsating from the previous one. How on Earth can he get out of this without admitting the embarrassing details of yesterday's discipline?

"Hehe, er, Sasuke-san, hypothetically, if I WERE to have received a spanking yesterday, what would my punishment today be?" he asked nonchalantly.

Sasuke sighed. That was terrible acting.

"You wouldn't get one today. I'd wait a few days for you to recover before giving you the extra spanking. Hypothetically."

Boruto frowned. So the spanking was inevitable… Well, he had no intention of prolonging his suffering.

"Okay well, uh" he pouted. "This was all hypothetical so it doesn't matter anyway."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Drop the act, Boruto. It would be twice as painful today."

"That's fine, I'll take it."

"Why?"

"This past week was all punishments and apologies, continuously. And I get it, I really do, I understand I messed up. It's just, I really want it all to be over so I can move on and focus on my training. The last thing I want is to make it longer because I'm afraid of a bit of extra pain…"

Sasuke was intrigued by this development. Boruto, who got himself into this situation by taking the easy way out, was actively choosing the hard way so he could be forgiven faster and get back to being a ninja. Still looking for quick results, but by putting in more effort. Well, that's progress I suppose.

"Okay Boruto, we'll do it today. Come with me."

Boruto followed his sensei slightly deeper into the woods.

"Bend over that log" he ordered.

Boruto was quick to obey, humiliating as it was. He bent over the log so his knees and elbows were in the grass, and his butt was raised up in the air. Sasuke kneeled next to him, and took off his belt.

"You will receive 10 swats with my belt for lying, and one for each day that you kept the lie. 25 in total. Are you ready?"

Boruto nodded timidly.

Sasuke doubled his belt and brought it down on Boruto's already sore butt, then paused to assess the response from his idiot apprentice. Boruto screamed and jolted forward on impulse, but willed himself to remain still and accept the rest of his punishment.

That must've hurt him a lot more than I intended, Sasuke thought. Good thing he let the boy keep his trousers on. Damn it dobe, did you have to be this thorough? Well, he definitely won't lie to me again, that's for sure.

Sasuke gave Boruto 19 more swats in quick succession, each one slightly lower on his butt than the previous, leading to complete coverage of what he was sure was now a welted, deep red butt under those trousers. Boruto screamed on each hit and had been sobbing since number 4, but managed to keep himself still. He literally asked for his spanking to be today, so he wouldn't allow himself to complain.

Punctuating each word with another hit, Sasuke continued "Never *CRACK* lie *CRACK* to *CRACK* me *CRACK* again! *CRACK*"

"AAAH OW I'm s-sorry!"

"It's okay. You can get up now."

He put his belt back on, but Boruto still hadn't moved.

"Hey…" Sasuke placed his hand on the small of Boruto's back, rubbing slowly. "It's alright Boruto, I forgive you. You can get up now."

Boruto tried to stop crying and look somewhat presentable before getting off the log and kneeling next to Sasuke, but it didn't go so well. He was still a shaking, sniffling mess.

"I'm sorry…"

"Yeah, you said. It's okay, just don't do it again, alright?"

"Y-yeah…"

Boruto was still sobbing quietly, and Sasuke was unsure what to do. He had limited experience comforting crying children. After a few seconds when he saw no evidence of Boruto feeling better, he enveloped him in a one-armed embrace. It was a little awkward, but he really did mean to comfort his student. Eventually, Boruto managed to recompose himself and broke the hug.

"Sensei, I'm… I'm sorry I'm such a bad student."

"You're not a bad student. Why do you say that?"

"Well I've only been your student for 2 weeks and you had to spend most of this time punishing me for being a cheating idiot. I know this isn't what you had hoped for when you agreed to be my teacher. I've really had a terrible start…"

"You're focusing on the wrong things. You made mistakes, that much is true, but in the last two weeks you also helped me rescue your dad from an evil god, and dealt the killing blow to said evil god. In comparison, cheating in a children's exam is surely not such a big deal?"

Boruto considered this.

"True, but I had help."

"There's nothing wrong with getting help. We're here to help you achieve your potential, then pass the torch on to you. It's how this works."

Sasuke paused a second, then continued "I'm not telling you all this so you can get cocky again – it's important to think back on your mistakes and atone for them, but it's just as important to celebrate your victories. And Boruto… I don't regret accepting you as my student, if that's what's on your mind."

Boruto smiled timidly. It had been on his mind…

"Did you want to know why I didn't say anything when I realised that rasengan isn't yours?"

"Yeah, I still wonder that. Have you known all along?"

Sasuke nodded. "The scientific ninja tool was visible, dummy. And the chakra signature of a rasengan is completely different coming from your own chakra network than from the tool. So yes, I've known all along. I didn't say anything for a few reasons… Firstly, I don't mind having a student who can use these tools. Like it or not, they're part of the future of shinobi, and when used correctly they can be very powerful. Think of a kunai – using it against enemy ninjas is fine, but using it against a civilian is completely inappropriate. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah…"

"Second reason, you reminded me of my young self. I was also doing everything I could to get power. Unfortunately, I sought power for the wrong reasons, and from the wrong person, which led me down a really dark path that I spent most of my life since then atoning for. I will tell you the full story sometime. I let your lie slip because I thought at least if you seek power from me, I can help you avoid the mistakes I made."

Boruto was listening attentively. His dad did say that his sensei had stories he needed to hear… He didn't want to pry, but very much looked forward to the time Sasuke would share his full story with him.

"Finally… I had hoped there would come a time when you trusted me enough to tell me the truth yourself. I'm glad that time came, Boruto" Sasuke smiled slightly, which sent an extra jolt of guilt through Boruto.

"Sensei, er… you should know that dad made me promise I'd tell you the truth when I told him about it yesterday."

"Fair enough, well I appreciate the honesty. Did Naruto say when you had to tell me?"

"No actually…"

Sasuke was amused. Boruto hadn't realised that he just needed a small external push to do what he felt he needed to do anyway. "Okay, you can still have some of the credit then."

"Heh, thanks sensei!" Boruto scratched his head. He looked so much like Naruto it was almost uncanny.

"Don't mention it. Right, shall we get back to business then?"

Boruto remembered he still had most of his punishment left to get through and looked all gloomy again.

"Relax. I'll give you a break from running today, which your butt will appreciate. Start doing pushups."

"Yessir!"

Each stupid push up got Boruto closer to his atonement, so he was all for it.

What is next in Boruto's atonement, now that he came clean to everyone? To be continued...