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Rumors of war, of a breach in the decades-long peace between Konoha and Iwa, circulated among the elder jonin, in the dark corners of pubs, in the warning gazes of seasoned war veterans. Rumors which, while whispered fearfully and by few, might hold a kernel of truth. It was for this reason that Naruto and Shikamaru had stayed late into the night trying to decide Konoha’s next course of action. The clock hanging on the office wall – a present that Naruto’s son had engineered for fathers’ day two years ago – ticked by slowly, signaling the passing of one minute, two minutes, three, four…
After hours of back-and forth discussion, the large golden finger approached the two a.m. mark, and looking at it, Naruto decided that lest he wanted to go insane, he needed coffee, and he needed it now.
Another minute passed as the blonde shuffled toward the coffee maker down the hall, glad to get some for both himself and Shikamaru if only so he could move his cramping legs. One more minute passed as he returned into the office, handing one of the steaming cups to his assistant and advancing toward his desk. At that point, Naruto simply sat down upon the hard wood, swinging his legs as he stared tiredly into the steaming beverage.
It was in that precise instant that his son’s clock signaled two in the morning. Naruto paused to observe it for a moment. He didn’t enjoy his long office hours, but every time he glanced at the clock, he had to smile. It was a cut out from some spare chunk of cardboard, rather deftly cut for a six-year-old, actually, painted a navy blue and with glossy little glitters pasted all around it. The numbers were drawn with evident care in bold orange-red letters, and a pair of glittery yellow chopsticks functioned as the clock’s hands. They made a wonky sound every now and then which many had labeled as annoying, but Naruto wouldn’t have had it any other way.
He glanced toward Shikamaru, about to suggest they return to work, when the window was brusquely yanked open. Rain trickled inside as thunder roared in the distance and the window pane banged against the wall, but both Naruto and Shikamaru could only stare at the man who stood upon the window ledge. It was Kakashi, soaked to the bone and with wide eyes.
Naruto, who had dropped his coffee over his robes out of shock, seemed to realize none of this as he stared at Kakashi with alarm.
“Sensei? What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
Shikamaru moved to close the window as Kakashi dropped into the room. He seemed jittery and bone-tired all at once.
“Naruto,” Kakashi said hoarsely. “Boruto is missing.”
Naruto blinked.
“Boruto?” he repeated, as though in a trance. Of course not. His son was fine, right at home, in bed…
“What do you mean, missing?” Shikamaru pressed from beside him.
Kakashi ran a hand through his drenched grey hair. “I’ve searched everywhere. With this rain, I can barely track him, but I’m almost certain he’s gone.”
Naruto laughed hoarsely. “That’s not funny, sensei. I know your sense of humor sucks, but this is pushing it.” There was a moment where both he and Kakashi just stared at one another, but Kakashi’s expression remained unchanging – even as Naruto’s slowly morphed into horror.
“You’re telling the truth?!”
“Why should I lie?” Kakashi snapped in an uncharacteristic show of nerves. “Bourto's gone. Gone. I can’t find him.”
Naruto stilled, everything about him quiet except for his hand, which had started to shake. He didn’t know why Kakashi would look for his son of all people, but if he said he was missing, then he must be. “Sensei, are you certain? You’ve looked at home? At the school?”
“Everywhere,” Kakashi confirmed.
This statement was underlined by the banging door. Shikamaru had run out of the room – presumably to notify a search party. For a moment, Naruto and Kakashi just stood there. Naruto glanced at his son’s clock with the sparkly chopstick hands and saw that it was one minute past two. One minute. His entire world had been tilted off its axis in one minute… it felt unreal, it felt unfair. But he only allowed himself to feel for that one second, and the next, he broke out in a flurry of movement, jumping into the night as he summoned a myriad shadow clones.
Monday morning, most of the recon teams had returned – empty-handed. No dog had been able to pick up on Boruto’s scent, there were no signs of a struggle, no one had seen or heard anything, and the thunderstorm had erased any possible trail that they could’ve followed.
“Konoha hasn’t seen a thunderstorm like that in many years,” said Kakashi upon his return. He looked haggard an worn, weary in a way Naruto hadn't seen since the war. “If I had my sharingan, I would know for sure, but…” he’d paused, a heavy silence taking over the hokage’s office.
“You too, huh?" Shikamaru questioned with resignation.
"What?" Naruto asked.
"That storm," Shikamaru elaborated, "it can't have been a natural occurrence.”
"What? Why would you say that? It could just be bad weather."
“The raikage has just lost his brother,” Kakashi replied slowly. “And now a thunderstorm wrecks our lands just as Boruto disappears. It’s very convenient, don’t you think?”
Naruto flinched. His friendship with Killer-B was widely-known, and, though the news of his death had been overshadowed by his son’s disappearance, they had been enough to deliver a finishing blow.
The rest of the room seemed to realize this at the same time, but it was too late. Kakashi had already broached the topic of B’s death, and the issue had to be addressed at some point… so Shikamaru took the plunge.
“Kakashi… you think the raikage’s behind the – kidnapping?” he asked quietly.
As former hokage, Kakashi’s accusation would bear an exceptional weight if he stated it outright, and as Naruto’s trusted former mentor, he was in a unique position to influence him even more. Probably realizing the same thing, Kakashi averted his eyes and looked out of the window. However, his point had already been made, the issue addressed, and Naruto wasn’t the only one Kakashi had influence over.
Next to him, Yamato took a step forward. He had recently been appointed head of the Exterior Intelligence-Gathering Anbu Division,the EIGAD for short, and as such was in a unique position to address the issue with the raikage. Awkwardly, Yamato coughed into his sleeve.
“I’m sorry, Naruto…” he began. “But from what I’ve heard, since B’s death a week ago, the raikage has been attempting to find a culprit. I’ve just received a missive from one of our spies…” The room at large tensed, as though preparing for bad news, though Naruto nodded at him, signaling for Yamato to continue. He sighed and forged on: “According to our source, the raikage isn’t taking B’s death well… or even remotely well. He’s channeling all of his grief into anger and aggression… and he seems convinced that the betrayal has come from… strong outside assassins. From an organized group, he said.”
There was a beat of silence.
“What do you – what do you mean?” questioned Naruto. “Yamato, are you trying to say that he thinks we did it?”
“Well…” Yamato scratched his head. “According to raikage-sama’s reasoning, we are the most likely candidates. He thinks that, as B is – was – the closest of the jinchuriki to being your equal, Naruto, we have an interest in getting rid of him.”
“But B’s my friend!” Naruto exclaimed.
Kakashi sighed. “That may be so, but the raikage just lost his brother, Naruto… he wants revenge.”
“So you think him kidnapping Naruto’s kid is that revenge?” Shikamaru questioned.
There was another pregnant pause where everyone looked at Kakashi. After almost a minute, he nodded slowly.
“There’s a very strong possibility,” Kakashi said at last. “First, the fact that Boruto’s kidnapping happened right after B’s death is already suspicious. Second: the storm. Lightning storms like the one we had are not common at all, and the fact that the raikage is known for his ability to summon them… well, it says a lot. Third: that there was such a storm on the day Boruto went missing, of all days… and the fact that it erased all chances of following his trail?” Kakashi looked around the room slowly. “Well, I think you know what they say. Once is happenstance, twice coincidence, but three times… is enemy action.”
Some minutes later, Yamato and a few other officials had exited the office, leaving Kakashi, Naruto and Shikamaru alone.
“Kakashi-sensei…” Naruto ventured after a bout of silence. “Can I ask you something?”
Worn and weary, Kakashi, who was propped against the wall, waved his hand in a ‘go ahead’ motion.
Naruto nodded. “I wanted to know… how did you know about Boruto’s disappearance?”
Kakashi sighed, looking out of the window. He remembered the day he’d first met Naruto’s son like it was yesterday. Kakashi wasn’t normally one for socializing, but even he had his moments. He’d dropped by Naruto’s place a few years back to attend a dinner party with his former team (which for one wasn’t being hosted at Ichiraku’s due to Naruto’s overwhelming fame) and that’s when he’d met the kid, who must’ve been around five at the time.
Kakashi remembered his surprise when, upon opening the door, he’d been greeted by a red-headed child with large, white eyes. They were the eyes of a Hyuga, though the messy hair reminded him very much of an Uzumaki. In fact, the odd combination nearly gave him a scare – it was very reminiscent of Nagato, the man behind Konoha’s destruction (and Kakashi’s death) many years ago. Despite his surprise, Kakashi hid it well, and simply nodded at the child, Boruto he had supposed, as his sister was too young to be standing already. The rest of the visit had been rather uneventful, though he’d caught the boy peering curiously at him from the hallway. His cherubic face had stayed with Kakashi long after that – something about him was just so eerily reminiscent of Nagato, so absolutely different from both of his parents…
The next time Kakashi had heard of Boruto had been about a year later. It was shortly after he had started attending the Academy, and Hinata had been worried because lately, he’d been staying out late, returning home when it was already dark out. This on itself wasn’t uncommon for ninja children, even at the age of six, but what had shaken Hinata was that she’d heard from the other mothers that none of them knew where Boruto was. She’d thought her son was playing with the other children, but their mothers had denied it. Day by day, Boruto disappeared (something apparently common for him) and no one knew a thing, even if he returned every night for dinner.
Understandably, Hinata wanted to find out where he went and what he did, but she had been a little too busy taking care of her demanding and volatile toddler to go looking around for Boruto, and Naruto was likewise very stressed with his duties as Hokage, so, feeling bad for them, Kakashi had offered to check in their stead. If he was honest, he was somewhat curious what the kid got up to as well.
He’d found Boruto sitting by a creek on the west side of the village, looking down at the fish swimming about with rapt attention.
Kakashi had crouched down next to him, not intentionally silent, though Boruto had bolted up in a fright once he’d noticed him.
“You’re the rokudaime!” he’d exclaimed.
Kakashi had nodded, somewhat surprised at being recognized by a six-year-old.
“Do you come here every day?” he’d asked Boruto.
Boruto had shrugged, turning back toward the fish. He didn’t answer, but Kakashi had gotten the feeling that he did. Without further fanfare, he’d herded the kid back home and delivered him to Hinata a few minutes later. She’d been grateful, if confused about Boruto’s whereabouts.
“He has a lot of trouble befriending the other children…” she’d confessed to Kakashi. “In the Academy, everyone expects him to be something special, to be like Naruto…”
“Naruto wasn’t a great student,” Kakashi had remarked.
“I know,” Hinata had said. “Boruto is just… well, he’s more like I was, I suppose.”
An image of a shy little Hinata twiddling her thumbs in a corner had popped into Kakashi’s mind.
“Maa… that’s certainly not a bad thing,” he’d settled on.
Hinata had smiled, but she’d looked sad. “No. But it’s bad for making friends.”
“You’d think that being the hokage’s son, a lot of people would want to be his friends,” Kakashi had commented.
It was then that Hinata sighed heavily. “I know. Sometimes I think Boruto knows too, so he rebuffs anyone who tries to butter him up. But he can’t find genuine connections either, and so… he’s alone.”
“Maa…” Kakashi scratched his head. “I’ll check on him if I see him around again, ne?”
Hinata’s resulting smile had only strengthened his resolve to do so.
After that, Kakashi had made a point of going to read by the lake Boruto usually frequented during the evenings. The kid had seemed somewhat startled at first, but eventually he always seemed to forget that Kakashi was there and began playing again.
Over the course of the next weeks, Kakashi had discovered that Boruto was a great storyteller, with an imagination like he’d seen in few. He made up all of these characters and backstories – for the different koi fish, for the sparrow that often stopped by the lake for a drink, or even for imaginary people Kakashi didn’t have a clue about. Boruto would just start telling the stories into the silence, sometimes acting as a narrator, others directly voicing the koi fish’s dialogues to one another.
It had been a bit odd at first, but to his surprise, Kakashi had discovered that he liked listening to the fanciful tales, and he’d found himself asking a question or two whenever Boruto fell silent.
It was a little strange, but he had found that the redhead had grown on him, despite the fact that Kakashi didn’t talk to him much – he just listened. Now he could understand a little better why the kid supposedly had no friends. Besides for the fact that Boruto looked nothing like his father (his resemblance to Nagato, however, was uncanny), he was very clumsy and not particularly fit – somewhat chubby even, though not alarmingly so. It was clear, however, that Boruto probably didn’t exactly excel at the ninja arts, and his tendency to space out wasn’t exactly ideal either for a world that valued efficiency and attention. He was a quiet kid, maybe a little too mature for his age, and, though Kakashi thought that the other children would enjoy his little stories as much as he did, he figured that Boruto was probably too shy to go sharing them with the class.
A year later, Kakashi had been invited to Naruto’s place again, this time to celebrate his own birthday. Naruto had insisted, and even though Kakashi had complained that he didn’t want to celebrate getting old, the blonde hadn’t listened. And so, he’d found himself sitting by Naruto’s table among his former teammates as the lot of them tried to peek beneath his mask. This time, Himawari (Naruto’s youngest), had already known how to walk and had done so the whole time. Apparently she and Boruto had already eaten, but this didn’t stop Himawari from barging into their lunch and loudly laughing as she attempted to tug Kakashi’s mask off or yank at Sakura’s hair. Behind Himawari, Boruto had appeared. At first, he’d looked a little embarrassed to be there, so unlike his sister that Kakashi found himself smiling. Eventually, he’d coaxed Himawari into playing a game with him so that she’d ‘leave the adults alone’.
Kakashi had caught the strange look upon Naruto’s face as he observed Boruto and he’d wondered, not for the first time, whether Naruto saw Nagato in him too.
They’d talked for a while in private, once the party was almost over. Kakashi had wanted to ask Naruto how he felt about his son’s resemblance to their former enemy, but he hadn’t known how to phrase the question delicately enough. He’d steered the conversation toward the kid and waited.
“I dunno…” Naruto had said. “Sometimes I don’t understand him. Boruto likes all these books and stuff that I never cared about when I was a kid. Sensei, he even likes to draw. And he’s always so quiet, it’s hard to know what he’s thinking, ya know?”
Kakashi nodded, somewhat surprised. When he was with Boruto, the boy was an authetic chatterbox. Didn’t he tell Naruto his stories too?
“And then there’s the Academy,” Naruto continued with a frown. “I remember how important it was to me that people there liked me. I pulled all these pranks to get their attention, I tried talking to everyone even when they rebuffed me loads of times… I always gave it my all in taijutsu training…” He sighed. “And Boruto’s just, well, odd, I guess? It’s like he doesn’t even want to be a ninja.”
“You sure?” Kakashi asked. He knew of Boruto’s clumsiness, and he could understand why it might lead to a dislike toward ninja skills. “Maybe you could try to train him?” Kakashi had offered, thinking that that might lead to Boruto appreciating ninja skills more. “Or Hinata could?”
“I dunno, sensei,” said Naruto, pursing his lips. “I tried offering to show him kunai throwing and he didn’t seem interested. I even offered to teach him the kage bunshin once!”
“Maa… maybe you could try to ease him into it?” Kakashi had asked. Trying to teach a seven-year-old the kage bunshin right off the bat didn’t seem like a smart choice, even if Boruto had very large chakra reserves.
“What’ddya mean?” Naruto asked. “I was trying to teach him something interesting!”
Somehow, Kakashi figured that Boruto would probably appreciate it more if Naruto had told him a fanciful tale about a jutsu and then offered to teach it.
“Well…” Kakashi said after a moment. “He’s clumsy, right? Ideally, I’d train him in taijutsu for a while every day in order to slowly increase his coordination. That way, he’d probably have an easier time keeping up with his classmates.”
“I guess,” said Naruto vaguely. “But I don’t have that kinda time, being hokage. I mean, I wish I did, but the long hours are already bad as is, and if I made shadow clones, I’d end up even more tired.”
“What about Hinata?” Kakashi asked.
“She’s busy with Himawari right now,” Naruto said. “Hima-chan is a real handful, ya know? It’s like she’s trying to make up for all the chaos that Boruto doesn’t create all on her own.”
Kakashi took the dismissal for what it was and changed the topic. He cared about Boruto, probably more than he should, and certainly more than he was comfortable with. Sometimes, Kakashi wondered whether Boruto even knew who he was other than the rokudaime. He was unfailingly polite, always addressing Kakashi as ‘Rokudaime-sama’ and nothing else. Kakashi had wanted to tell him to call him something else, but somehow he never found the right moment. After all, he didn’t interact a lot with the kid, just asking occasional questions about his stories or telling Boruto to go home when it got late. Sometimes, he wondered whether Boruto cared about him at all.
His question was answered a few days after his birthday when, to his surprise, Boruto showed up to the lake later than usual and carrying a notebook.
“Here you go, Rokudaime-sama,” he said, smiling at Kakashi giddily.
Kakashi looked at the notebook that was being thrust at him with surprise.
“Hm? What’s this?”
He opened it curiously and was greeted by large letters in a fanciful (if somewhat wobbly) script, which read: The Tale of the Koi World. He felt warmth in his gut as he passed a few more pages, leafing through the notebook and peering at the handwriting and drawings that accompanied the book.
“Is this for me?” he asked, barely believing it.
Boruto nodded matter-of-factly. “Happy belated birthday, Rokudaime-sama.”
Beneath his mask, Kakashi had felt his lips stretch into a toothy grin. He ruffled the kid’s hair and carefully pocketed the notebook.
“That’s Kakashi to you, Boruto.”
Boruto looked uncertain. “Kakashi-sama?” he tried to bargain.
Kakashi just chuckled. He knew there’d be no arguing with him – he was always too polite.
“How’d you even make this?” Kakashi asked after a moment, feeling suddenly self-conscious. “Do you even have a copy? I don’t want to take it from you. It must’ve been a lot of work.”
“I made it during class,” said Boruto sheepishly. “I started writing it around the time that we met, Kakashi-sama. That’s why I wanted to give it to you.” He looked at the notebook fondly. “And I’ve got a copy, but you got the original.”
After that, the bond between Kakashi and Boruto had become more tangible – or at least, to Kakashi it did. He remembered one time, it had started to rain and he’d helped the kid build a refugee out of straw and branches, as well as a rope. Another time, he’d shown Boruto how to fish, though the redhead had later insisted on putting all the fish back where they came from.
Kakashi had told himself that he was doing it to instill some much needed surviving skills into the kid. Boruto was slowly but surely advancing material in the Academy, and Kakashi sometimes found himself worrying about what would happen once he became a genin. He almost wished he could be a sensei again, as ironic as that thought felt, but he knew that he wasn’t the youngest anymore, and without the sharingan, he worried that he wouldn’t be strong enough.
He’d tried to train Boruto a little, in his own way. In his opinion, Kakashi had never been a good teacher, and he had no hopes of ever being one, but he wanted to nudge Boruto along if he could. After the Academy, he sometimes took the kid on hikes, others he tried to teach him the basics of chakra sensing and on a rare few occasions he offered to help him practice his taijutsu. Boruto didn’t seem to like talking about the Academy – it made him unhappy and quiet – so Kakashi avoided the topic if he could. Unfortunately, this meant that getting Boruto to go over what he was learning at the Academy was almost like pulling teeth. He did enjoy the long walks trough the forest Kakashi took him on, and his coordination was slowly but surely improving as well as his ability to recognize dangerous plants, edible mushrooms, medicinal herbs and anything else Kakashi thought to point out to him.
This is why, on the day that Boruto didn’t show up to visit him after the Academy, Kakashi felt that something was wrong. The only other day when Boruto had been late had been on Kakashi’s birthday last year. After a few hours of waiting, Kakashi had gone home, deciding to shrug it off. However, a feeling of unease had settled over him and wouldn’t leave him. It was storming outside, so Kakashi had figured that it was likely that Boruto had simply gone home. He told himself that it wasn’t his place to worry, that he should continue reading Icha Icha and mind his own business.
Around dinner time, however, he had caved.
Kakashi told himself that he was just going to check whether the kid was alright and leave it at that. Except, when he did, Boruto wasn’t alright or even there at all: he was gone.
Kakashi hadn’t wanted to intrude upon Naruto’s family so late at night – not when they all seemed so calm and tranquil. A part of him felt like it wasn’t his place to be skulking about, looking for Boruto. He had wanted to ask Hinata whether he was sleeping over at a friend’s house (as rare as the notion sounded) but a larger part of Kakashi was embarrassed and would rather solve the problem on his own. Being a renowned tracker, this had seemed entirely within his capabilities, so he’d summoned his ninken and got to work… except Boruto never appeared.
“Kakashi-sensei?” Naruto questioned. Kakashi jerked, glancing away from the window. “I was asking you how you knew about Boruto’s disappearance, sensei. Hinata said she put him to bed that night, so how did you–?”
“She put him to bed? Are you certain?”
“Yes, why?”
Kakashi rubbed his temples, wondering how to word his concern. He wasn’t even sure whether Naruto and Hinata were aware of how much time he used to spend with their kid.
“Boruto usually goes to the place where I read after school,” Kakashi said at last. He hadn't shown up that day, and yet Hinata remembered putting him to bed? That didn't bode well for Boruto's kidnappers' skill level. They must've tricked even Hinata.
“Huh. Really?” Naruto questioned. “He always said you were cool, but I never knew he stalked you.”
Kakashi pinched his nose, uncomfortable. “He doesn’t… stalk me, Naruto. The point is, Boruto was missing on Thursday.”
Both Naruto and Shikamaru’s eyebrows rose.
“And you pieced together that he was missing based on just that?” Shikamaru questioned skeptically.
Kakashi scratched his head, somewhat embarrassed. “It was a deviation from the pattern. I didn’t think anything was amiss…” he told them, “but I went to check on him on my way home seeing as it was on the way…” well, details, “and found his bed empty. It worried me, which is why I started looking for him.”
“He could’ve just been staying over at a friend’s house,” Shikamaru said, seeming confused.
“Boruto doesn’t have friends,” Kakashi deadpanned.
Both Naruto and Shikamaru stared at him.
“What do you mean?” Naruto said after a moment.
Now it was Kakashi’s turn to stare. He didn’t know?
“Maa… well, as far as I know, he doesn’t have friends. Hinata-chan told me once.”
Naruto frowned. “But that was when he started the Academy, three years ago – he never mentioned being alone since then. He even said he had a friend.”
“He did?” questioned Kakashi, feeling happy for the kid and sad at the same time. "Ah. I wasn't aware."
“Did he mention who this friend was?” Shikamaru cut in. “Maybe we could ask him – or her, I guess – some questions.”
Naruto scratched his head again, looking down. “He didn’t… at least, he didn’t tell me who his friend was. Maybe Hinata knows?”
Hinata didn’t know. She knew of Boruto’s friend as well, but she didn’t know who they were. Kakashi would’ve been mad at them for not asking if it weren’t because he knew Boruto and his cagey ways. The kid never talked about the Academy if he could help it. In their desperation, they had turned toward the only other readily available information source:
“Do you know anything about nii-san’s friend?” Hinata asked her daughter, shaking Kakashi out of his thoughts.
“Un!” Himawari exclaimed. “Nii-san told me about him.”
“And what did he say?” Naruto pressed. Around Himawari, Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru and even Kakashi found themselves leaning in.
Himawari shrugged. “He said he’s very cool.”
“He? So it’s a boy?”
“I think so…” said Himawari.
“What else?” Hinata questioned. “Did he mention his name?”
Himawari pouted. “Ummm… I don’t remember. Maybe.”
“Can you try to remember?” Naruto implored. “Maybe what he looks like or his hobbies? Boruto only has so many classmates.”
Himawari hummed thoughtfully. “He likes books and he listens to nii-san’s stories.”
Kakashi felt his blood freeze in that moment. It wasn’t… him they were talking about, right? For a moment there, he’d felt hope that perhaps this friend of Boruto’s could provide some helpful hint… but if it really was just him, then there was no point. He considered speaking up, saying that he was Boruto’s mystery friend, but decided not to in the end. It didn’t have to be him necessarily, and he’d feel silly speaking up – wrong somehow. Kakashi was starting to suspect that he knew Naruto’s kid better than Naruto himself did, and something about that thought sat wrong with him. It felt a little like a betrayal, and he wasn’t sure how Naruto would react, especially now that Boruto had gone missing. He decided that, should he be able to, he’d avoid mentioning his bond to Boruto.
Tuesday morning came, and Naruto and Shikamaru had decided to interrogate Boruto’s classmates in hopes of gaining some sort of insight. The whole endeavor seemed rather pointless to Kakashi – Boruto had clearly been kidnapped – but Naruto had insisted that maybe there was some kind of hint to be found. Both Kakashi and Shikamaru had seen his insistence for what it was, a last prayer, a last attempt, a last hope to find something – anything, and so, Kakashi had kept quiet about his reservations, and Shikamaru had backed Naruto, stating that they should exhaust every source and possibility before giving up.
Naruto had balked at his wording, exclaiming that he would never give up, that he had sent even more troupes to look for Boruto, and that not giving up was his ninja way.
Kakashi had spoken up then, stating that he wished to be there as well when they questioned Boruto’s classmates.
Naruto had just nodded, appearing relieved. He seemed to think that Kakashi was trying to support him with his presence, and Kakashi felt another stab of irrational guilt. He wasn’t doing this to support Naruto, but rather because he couldn’t not be involved. It was then that Shikamaru had looked at him curiously, his head cocked to the side. Kakashi wondered what he was thinking, whether he had guessed at Kakashi’s bond with Boruto.
In the end, it didn’t matter.
They started with Shikamaru’s son first – Nara Shigeru.
“Boruto?” Shigeru questioned. “Yeah, he sits next to me in class…? Why are you asking me about him?”
“He’s missing,” Naruto said in a dull voice.
“Oh,” said Shigeru simply.
There was a moment of silence.
“I thought he was sick,” the young Nara ventured after a moment.
“No,” said Naruto. “Do you know anything else? Did Boruto tell you anything?”
Shigeru looked at his lap and shrugged uncomfortably. “No…” he said. “We don’t really talk much. I’m sorry.”
“Boruto?” Uchiha Sakiya, Sakura and Sasuke’s daughter, parroted. “No. I mean… I figured he had the flu.”
“He’s been missing.”
“Oh… oh, wow, I’m so sorry. I can try to ask around,” Sakiya had offered hesitantly.
“Hasn’t he told you anything?” Shikamaru tried. “I mean, your parents are friends. Don’t you ever talk with him?”
Sakiya squirmed in her seat; she seemed uncomfortable, looking at Naruto out of the corner of her eye. “No. I’m sorry.”
“I think you should go away while we question them,” Kakashi told Naruto eventually. “Or at least make sure you aren’t recognized. This office and formal setting is making those kids uncomfortable.”
Shikamaru nodded. “He’s right, Naruto. We should probably try to question the kids one on one.” He turned toward Kakashi. “I think you should do it.”
“Me?” asked Kakashi confusedly. “Wouldn’t you be a better candidate though?”
Shikamaru shook his head. Kakashi didn’t entirely follow his reasoning. He wasn’t particularly eager to be the one asking the questions, but in the end it didn’t matter if he could help.
Both Naruto and Shikamaru walked behind him, cloaked under a concealment genjutsu, as Kakashi strode out into the sunlight, looking around for Boruto’s classmates. He’d memorized the lot of them earlier, so pinpointing his next target was easy.
The Yamanaka twins, Inoue and Ine, were holding court in the middle of the playground when Kakashi approached. They had both been sitting upon a wooden bench, and Kakashi plopped down next to them. He was under a hengue that made him look like one of the other kids, and he executed his arrival so naturally that he didn’t doubt they all believed him, even if they were weirded out by his sudden appearance. All eyes turned toward him, even Shikamaru and Naruto’s, who lingered behind Kakashi, still concealed.
“Yo,” Kakashi said.
“Yo,” said one of the Yamanaka twins. “Who’re you?”
“I’m Akio,” Kakashi told her unhelpfully. “Mind if I sit here?”
“Ah,” said the girl. “That’s cool. I’m Ine.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?” the twin next to her exclaimed. “I’m Ine. That lazy-bum right there is Inoue!”
The two began bickering. Kakashi sighed, glancing around and wondering how he was going to go about this. A bunch of other kids were seated around the bench. He could see an Akimichi, a boy with white hair from Boruto’s class and three others. Then he spotted Sakiya and Shigeru approaching in the distance and he immediately knew that he wouldn’t have to do anything. It was likely that they’d broach the topic of Boruto’s disappearance on their own after being questioned like that.
“’sup,” said Shigeru, sounding disinterested as he plopped down on the bench.
Sakiya marched on behind him, clearly lost in thought. In that moment, she looked a lot like Sakura, Kakashi thought, though the broody aura about her was all Sasuke. Sakiya plopped down on the ground in front of the bench, facing the twins and Kakashi.
The Yamanaka twins stopped their bickering and glanced at the newcomers.
“Hey guys,” said Ine. “What was that about? Why’d you get called away?”
“We got called to the hokage’s office,” Shigeru remarked, sounding spooked.
“Yeah, they all looked so serious,” Sakiya said. “It was super intimidating… but kinda cool.”
“Well what did he want?” Inoue questioned.
“Apparently Baka-Boruto’s missing,” Sakiya explained. “They wanted to know if we know anything.”
“Seriously?” the Akimichi exclaimed.
“Yeah…” Shigeru confirmed. “Looks like he wasn’t playing sick after all.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Missing, as in a bad kind of missing?” one of the other girls asked.
Shigeru shrugged. “What other definition is there?”
The girl shuffled around uncomfortably.
“What do you think anyone would want with that oddball though?” another kid questioned.
“Are you stupid?” Sakiya said. “He’s the hokage’s son. That alone makes him useful.”
“The only thing that makes him useful,” the same kid from earlier remarked with a snicker. A few others joined him in their laughter.
Sakiya pursed her lips. “Shut up, Takeshi. I bet if you got missing, you wouldn’t want us to be laughing.”
“But you said it yourself, Sakiya,” Takeshi cajoled. “This is Baka-Boruto we’re talking about!” He snickered again. “Besides, I’m such a good ninja that I’d never go missing in the first place.”
“Yeah,” another kid rejoined. “I bet he got lost in the forest while he was being weird again.”
“I’ll take you up on that bet,” laughed Takeshi. “Five ryo says Baka-Boruto will be back by next week once his daddy fetches him. Maybe he won’t be so fat anymore!”
“Hey, who’re you calling fat?” the Akimichi, who was distinctly chubbier than Boruto, interrupted.
“You!” Takeshi said, “and Baka-Boruto! I mean, he’s lucky. He’ll be able to survive in the forest without food for longer, haha!”
Shigeru sighed. “You idiot. If he’s still missing and they’re asking us about it, then it obviously means they’ve already looked at all the obvious spots. He’s not in the forest.”
“Yeah!” Sakiya shouted, knocking Takeshi over the head with her fist. “And don’t you dare say anything rude to hokage-sama, ya hear me? He’s probably super stressed already, he doesn’t need you putting your foot in your mouth on top of that, Takeshi-Baka!”
Takeshi clutched his head in pain. “Geez, Sakiya, it was just a bet!”
“Saki’s right,” Ine pipped up. “Baka-Boruto’s a klutz, but at least he’s quiet.”
“Unlike you, Takeshi!” Inoue completed, pointing at Takeshi.
“He’s a weirdo!” Takeshi defended, looking distraught. “C’mon guys, why are you all acting like you like him all of a sudden? This is Baka-Boruto we’re talking about!”
A few of the children snickered again, though the twins, Shigeru and Sakiya didn’t.
“I don’t have to like him,” said Sakiya. “But you’re being mean and he just got lost. That’s not nice, Takeshi.”
“What, Sakiya?” taunted Takeshi. “Don’t tell me he’s your boyfriend?”
“He’s not!” Sakiya exclaimed, going red. “I just don’t like what you’re saying! Mom told me it’s mean!”
“But it’s the truth,” Takeshi interrupted. “Isn’t it? It would be better if Baka-Boruto didn’t even come back. Face it: he’s an embarrassment for hokage-sama and…”
At this point, Naruto revealed himself.
Sakiya was the first who spotted him: she stared at him with shock, her mouth agape. Slowly, the rest of the children began to turn around as well until all of them had equal expressions of shock and horror plastered upon their faces.
“Boruto will never be an embarrassment,” Naruto said fiercely, his expression intense, eyes pained, teeth clenched and yaw taut. “Never,” he repeated, glaring straight at Takeshi. “Do you understand?”
Takeshi burst into tears.