Cake.
That night, the Uzumaki household was lively and boisterous. It was Himawari's birthday. The dining and living room was decorated with small streamers.
Naruto knocked on his door after a long day's and Boruto rushed opened it.
"Heh, it wasn't so hard now, was it?" He said with a smile.
"Otou-san!" Cheered Himawari from behind him.
The table was set down with everyone helping. A lavish spread of rotisserie chicken, fried tempura, and other baked delicacies stimulated their appetites. This time, Hinata brought out the special clay ware to increase the auspiciousness.
"Everything's ready!" Said Boruto.
Himawari, Hinata and Boruto sat down excitedly at their seats. "Okay, now time for the main highlight..."
"Bring in the cake!"
Naruto came slowly from the kitchen carrying a homemade birthday cake carefully with a silly grin on his face.
It was a frosted vanilla with strawberries and pretty candles lit atop it. Himawari shifted in her seat with anticipation and glimmering eyes.
The cake came closer to the dining table slowly.
Poof!
Naruto disappeared.
Splat!
The cake fell.
The room decended into silence as the three of them stared at the cake on the floor in the midst of disappearing smoke. The top layer of frosting slid down slowly as if mocking them.
"A shadow clone..." whispered Boruto finally. Himawari's eyes slowly became downcast.
He gritted his teeth and slammed the table and got up in anger.
"Boruto!" Yelled Hinata.
Boruto ignored her. He'd had enough. Why was it like this everytime?
"Boruto, stop!"
"What do you want?"
Naruto always ran around for everyone else. But what about them? What about his own family?
"Your father... he... he just needs to put the village's needs before his own. He's not neglecting you two on purpose, understand?" Hinata said the same words she kept repeating for the past year.
"No, I don't understand! Why even is Tou-san even the Hokage? All he does is sit at his desk all day acting all high and mighty! Anyone could do that!"
Hinata's eyes dejectedly glanced down.
"The Hokage plays a very important role in the village... from generation to generation, they've all played prominent parts in the lives of everyone in the village!"
"That means all those Hokage's kids all happily handed down from generation to generation this messed up situation! They say Grandpa was a Hokage too but when Tou- San was little, he was already dead, right? So he didn't get to experience all these 'fun' times ith his parents! See, you are much better not having a Hokage as a parent–"
Boruto was taken aback. Because Hinata began to cry. Her tears dripped down her face as she suppressed her emotions.
"I'm not arguing with you," she said quietly.
"It pains me too when your father misses important days like today. But in your situation, it's like night and day compared to what your father went through! He has always been there for you!"
He looked away from her face. "...It's not even about me... it's for Himawari."
".....Whatever."
He left the room to go upstairs as Himawari came up to comfort her mother.
..........................
Click.
Boruto opened the door beside his bedroom's. It was his father's study. The window was open causing the door to open on its own.
He entered the empty room. Framed pictures of them decorated the tables and shelves and scrawly drawings from their childhood days hung on the walls in remembrance of days they were whole as a family.
He picked up the only picture of them that didn't have Naruto in it. It was of his last birthday. His mother and Himawari smiled into the camera beside him in front of his vanilla frosting cake.
Fwoo.
The wind blew again and a small piece of orange fluttered. Boruto's eyes instantly drew to it.
His father's orange and blue jacket. The one he wore in his genin days. The one they found hiding in a box four years ago. Since then, it had always hung here in Naruto's office as a small memory.
He pulled it off the hanger.
"It's filthy..."
He glimpsed at the photo of Team Seven. There, Naruto soot with a disgruntled expression as Kakashi ruffled his hair.
His anger bubbled in his chest recalling the scene that just happened downstairs.
"This sucks!"
He flung the jacket out of the open window and seethed.
Ding dong!
'Could it be? It's Tou-san!'
He flew down the stairs, rushed to the door and threw out a surprise punch.
Whap!
His fist was caught in a big palm. But the person at the door wasn't Naruto.
"Eh? Ah! I'm sorry! I thought you were my Dad–" began explaining a flustered Boruto.
The man at the door was tall, dark haired and handsome. Half his face was concealed by his hair. He donned a black cape over a vest and had a sword hanging on his hips.
"You must be Naruto's son. Your name?"
"U-Uzumaki Boruto..." He replied nervously.
Hinata came from the kitchen to see who rung the bell. She exclaimed whe. She sae the man.
"Oh! If it isn't Sasuke-kun."
It had been years since she had seen him.
Boruto was shocked.
"Is Naruto home?" Sasuke went straight to the point.
"I think he's still at the Hokage's office."
"I see. Sorry for the interruption," he turned and briskly walked away.
'That-that must be... Dad's former rival! So friggin cool!' Thought Boruto in awe.
-----------------------------------------
Hokage's Office:
Crash!
"Sigh... I've really messed up this time..."
Shikamaru barged into the room panicked hearing the crash. "What's wrong?!"
"Shikamaru..."
Naruto had a small blackout and collapsed onto the floor of the Hokage office. All his shadow clones within the village released themselves when he lost control of his body.
And the most important one too.
The Chunin exams, arrival of the Kages for the Summit, emails, emails, emails... he bit of more than he could chew by using shadow clones twenty four seven to do it all all at once.
When the first clone dissipated, it's memories came rushing back which caused him a lapse in concentration. And that caused the rest of the clones to get released too. And then that caused all of their collective memories to rush into his head in bulk which overwhelmed him and so, he ended up in this situation.
Some of the clones had been manifested for more than a year due to the workload and had a lot of information and experiences stored within them.
"Go get home and sleep, Naruto. I'll finish up here," said Shikamaru as he helped up Naruto from the floor.
It was almost time for the lights in Konoha homes to go off. Naruto drank some glucose solution Shikamaru got him and tidied the last of the scattered papers on his desk.
Just as he placed it down, his reflexes kicked in and he grabbed the object flying at him. It was a scroll.
Sasuke leaned against the door jamb. "A souvenir from Kaguya's castle."
"Sasuke!"
He had last met Sasuke three or four or five months ago. This was the first time he came back to report ro him so soon.
"I see... I can't understand any of it but," said Naruto as he scanned through the scroll," it's definimaki g me feel uneasy. "
"My Sharingan can't decipher it either."
"Guess this means I'll have to put off going home to catch some sleep. I'll pass this along to the code breakers," Naruto stroked his chin devoid of any beard.
"One more thing," Sasuke placed an orange cloth on Naruto's desk.
"My jacket! Why do you have it?"
"It picked it up on the way here."
Naruto was confused. "I see?"
"I ran into your kid," he said with a small smirk, "he's the spitting image of you when you were that age."
Naruto had a wistful smile. "He's nothing like me at all, he's far more similar to you."
Sasuke was sceptical.
"Actually he's different from you too," Naruto stroked the torn and frayed bits of his old jacket, "His clothes are always...so clean....like they're brand new."
"Heh.... Guys like us.... Maybe we're dinosaurs now?" His wistful smile deepened.
Sasuke observed the complicated emotions flitting over Naruto's face. "Far from it. The true nature of a ninja never shifts no matter how the tides change."
"Are you implying Boruto has more in common with us than I think?"
"Heh heh," Naruto chuckled, "I sure as hell don't see it."
"Hah, you numbskull," Sasuke insulted him right at his face giving no care that he was in the presence of the Hokage.
Sasuke walked down the empty streets on his way to his home where Sakura and Sarada were.
Swsssshh!
Two shuriken came aiming for his back. He instantly shunshined out of the way.
Boruto ran out from behind the lamp post he was hiding behind.
'Where did he go?'
Fwip. Thud!
Sasuke flickered behind him and tripped him by hitting his ankle with his foot. Boruto fell sideways onto his elbow.
"Ow!"
Sasuke didn't say a word and just stared him down.
"You're so cool! Hey, you were my Dad's rival,right?" Borutosaidas he dusted his sleeve.
'I see. Brand new, huh?' Thought sauske as he observed Boruto's clothes.
"Let me– let me be your disciple!" Blurted Boruto, "I have to defeat someone at any and at all costs!"
"Let you be my disciple, you say?"
"Yeah!"
Boruto's determined expression superimposed onto Naruto's face in his memories. The same eyes, frown, cheeks and even his posture with fists clenched by his side.
He must have felt nostalgic when he found himself saying, "So tell me, can you make a Rasengan?"
.....................
"Hey, Usuratonkachi."
"Eh? You're still here?" Naruto said surprised. He just left and now he comes back. How many times does he want to make the same sort of entrance?
"Regarding that scroll, I found two strange people at the place where I found it."
..........................
Author's Note:
The next chapter will be hard to write. But I'm determined to finish the entire Chunin exams within the next chapter so I can advance my plot and get back to Kakashi. The Chunin exams will probably be from Sarada's point of view because I'm bored of writing in third person. I don't like phrases like 'he said' or 'she said'. Also, I find the current Boruto a bit lacking compared to her. I hope this shift will be fun to write afterall, fun is the only reason I'm actually writing this :) Also, can you guess which part of this chapter will be used for plot hole coverage?