24. Gut Worm

"Gwah!"

Boruto woke up with a gasp.

Ah. A dream. 

Please be a dream.

He jerked up. 

"Oh! You've come to!" A girl beside him exclaimed. 

He couldn't make out her face. He blinked and slowly it formed Sarada.

Mitsuki entered his compartment when he saw it. 

"I'm at... the hospital?"

It was wrong.

"Everyone was brought here. The Seventh protected all of you," explained Mitsuki. 

"I see...." 

Boruto blanked.

He shifted. "Mom?"

The blanket was flung off. "Himawari?"

In the next bed beside him was Hinata. 

"Mom... it's me! Can you hear me?" Cried Himawari holding her hand. 

"Hang in there, Hinata!" Yelled Sakura. Her palms forced in green healing chakra into her chest. 

Hinata stared unresponsive. 

"Mom?!" Boruto urgently ran to her.

"It's alright, Boruto. I'm helping her," Sakura comforted Boruto before he reached to any conclusions. 

"Mom? What happened to her?" He asked, scared.

"She... went up against them," said Sakura, frowning as she repaired her.

"What?!"

"She tried to stop them from abducting Naruto," her green eyes met his blue.

Quiet. 

"Boruto..."

Mitsuki worriedly called.

That snapped him out of it and he broke away into a run.

"Boruto!" They called from behind.

He escaped through the lobby strewn with injuries. 

The men in white.

Their strange attacks.

His father's back.

The sneer on Momoshiki's face.

Damn it!

He ran and ran. 

Past the gate. Past the shelters.

And he stumbled on a insulated box of medicines. Bottles of sealed medicines scattered over the hard ground.

His arm shielded him instinctively from the fall. 

The Ninja apparatus came into view.

It was still attached.

"Grrrrk!" He growled in anger. He furiously tugged it and flung it away. His rage choked him.

"Gaaaahk!!"

"Aaaraghk!"

He kneeled in the dust under the cloudy sky. No one approached him. 

............

Kakashi could feel a worm writhing in his guts. He knew something bad was gonna happen. Recently, things were so peaceful. The younger ones were running about directing the attendees to the stadium. 

Ah~

The Chunin exams. 

Welp.

None of his business now. 

He sipped his tea watching the crowd mill about. 

Idleness leads to moments of either daydreams or contemplation. Today, he contemplates.

Guy was kinda getting better at rock-paper-scissors. He needed to improve his dynamic vision or the score would change.

The rice at home was running low and the soysauce also needed a new bottle. Metal Lee broke it last time.

That lady there had really strong thighs. She was probably a farmer? Woah. She can carry three children on her shoulders so effortlessly. She can carry three sacks of rice too. 

Shikamaru probably will start balding soon like his father. Three children are hard to handle.

Fortunately, I didn't bald much with those three brats. 

The stupid one...

Kakashi frowned. The bad feeling was constant for a few days now.

But well....

Just in case... I should stay here.

Kakashi decided to not attend the Chunin exams. 

It was important, he knew. Boruto and Sarada and the rest were going to be performing. 

But. His. Gut. Worm. Said. No.

So.

No.

Cheers erupted. He could hear the faint commentary. 

This was his third glass. 

The hot tea wasn't drowning the worm. Instead, it was letting it swim gleefully, prodding at his intestines. It moistened its skin to twirl and twist away and rearrange everything. 

He felt it reach his chest and his heart tightened in fright, trying to escape its teeth. 

The worm grew longer, it's head beginning at his throat and tail winding along his digestive tract. 

And it nipped him. 

He got up. There was something wrong.

He noticed it. A mist. It was very faint. But it was a sunny day. 

"Come out. I know you're there."

Two shadows within his house winced. He tapped his glass lightly. They stood back. 

The mist entwined into threads that wove itself into a fabric of flesh and skin. 

Stood on the parapet, was a woman. She was colourless and half made. Kakashi almost gasped at the resemblance to Kaguya.

"What do you want?" 

He cut to the chase. Not many could get so close to the (former) Hokage without being noticed and those that did, were never upto any good. 

She parted her pale lips. "You don't know yet, do you?" She looked disappointed. Like the thing in front of her wasn't going according to her expectations. 

She sighed. And left in a mist. 

"Where do you think you're going?"

Before her face disappeared, a kunai sliced her cheek, giving colour to her face. 

She didn't bother answering and left like she never existed.

Kakashi couldn't feel her presence anymore. 

The worm, gleeful, now grew fangs and spikes; its mucus suffocated him. 

......

Kakashi couldn't reach to where Naruto was. It was too sudden. He and the two hidden guards searched everywhere for the woman. 

He knew, whatever happened, he needed to find her. Even if something happened at the Chunin site, she was priority for now. 

He regretted it half an hour later. Naruto, his successor, disappeared. Dead? Alive? He didn't know.

Suddenly, he found himself pulled back out of retirement. He was reigning Hokage again. 

Temporary Hokage.

He consoled himself.

Naruto would be coming right back. Definitely. He's not dead. No.

Tsunade was there with him, barking orders. He along with Shikamaru convened with the remaining Kages and their aides and got a briefing from Sasuke. Red Earth. Momoshiki. Kinshi. Naruto. He delegated some orders and warnings to the people behind him, and sat at the head of the mismatch of tables, chairs and stools. 

Kaguya. 

Otsusuki Kaguya.

There were more. Four Otsusuki in total, including her. 

There could be an entire nation of them. 

The thought made him shudder. Kaguya herself was enough to kill him ten times over. And there were three more alive and present.

But he was glad. Sasuke told him Naruto was alive. His chakra was still connected to him. 

After the Kages rushed to leave after the briefing to remind some of their genin, Kakashi called Sasuke.

"There's one more Otsusuki. It's a woman. She might still be in Konoha."

Tsunade, Shikamaru and Sasuke were shocked. Kakashi couldn't tell the other Kages yet before consulting the three of them. 

"She doesn't sound like she was after Naruto like them. She came to me for some reason I don't know. With her ability, she could have easily gotten past me without being noticed but she spoke to me. I don't know what she was trying to convey."

He told them about her mist-like abilities that didn't seem to be an illusion technique. If it was an illusion, she wouldn't have bled by his kunai and leave her blood behind.

Shikamaru pondered over it.

"She might not be connected to them but have the same origins. Perhaps you know of something she wants."

The four of them decided to let Sasuke be in charge of rescuing Naruto and the three of them would secure Konoha from her. He left the room and made his was to the Server Room to pick up the deciphered scroll and the translations. He would be showing them to the Kages later at the Hokage's office and finalising a plan for Naruto's rescue.

Tsunade wasn't needed at the hospital or medics as there were no fatal injuries so she became Kakashi's temporary aide.

"Wait. Mist?"

Tsunade abruptly sat straight. 

Shikamaru and Kakashi met her eyes. 

"I saw it too."

!!!

"When?" Kakashi asked her. 

"A little more than a week ago. Both of you were going off somewhere together. I saw it following you. I thought it was a trick of the light or something irrelevant. "

Kakashi knew the exact moment she was talking about. 

That was when they were heading to the Record Room.

"Shit!"

Kakashi swore further under his breath. The record room must have already been intruded into by her long ago and they only found out now! What other places had she been while loitering around?

That woman definitely showed herself on purpose to Tsunade too just like to him. All of Konoha's information, it's secrets, were already compromised. 

Everything needed to be rearranged and reencrypted and re-everything! 

"Call over the Hyūgas. We might need them. And just in case, ask Sarada to take a look around the village using her Sharingan with Mitsuki." 

An ANBU agent appeared, bowed and left. 

He needed everyone searching. All kekkei genkai users would be needed to detect unusual chakras. 

He wished for the Inuzukas too but she thwarted even his own sensitive nose so it might be useless. 

While Tsunade took over his duties to shadow the Hokage, Shikamaru was freed up to talk to the ANBU corps and clans. They met up with Yamanaka Ino, and two Hyūgas along with the retired Hyūga Hiashi who Shikamaru sent over and headed over to the Barrier Chamber. 

This was the extremely secretive place where the barrier that endomed Konoha was controlled from.

Before coming over, the Hyūgas scanned everything from top to bottom, including their clothes, lungs and hair. 

There was no sign of foreign chakra or excess vapour. The two middle aged Hyūgas secured the path while Hiashi and Yamanaka Ino followed them into the Chamber. It was authorised for Hiashi to follow the Hokage here since he was a former clan head. 

The Barrier Team resided in a large chamber with two levels. Streams of something like water ran from the upper level into a large basin on the lower level. Above the basin sat a large sphere; the Sensing Barrier. In front of the sphere were four conical pillars in a square formation. Behind that was a stairway to the upper level, shielded by a large screen with the Barrier Team symbol on it leading to the upper level lounge area.

Hiashi scanned the entire place with his Byakugan and found traces of slight temperature differences in some of the walls and seals of the Barrier team. 

The representative of the Scientific Ninja Weapons Team, the five-person Interceptions Team with a permanent Hyūga member and the Sensing Division stood by shamefaced for not noticing an intruder at all. 

"The intruder is not here but she left deliberate traces on some of the seals," said Hiashi.

Yamanaka Ino gasped. Her hardwork in restructuring the whole area with the S.N.W.T. was all for naught. 

"It's gonna be a long day," thought Kakashi.

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Author's Thoughts in the process of writing:

My screen has become sticky with sweat after typing out 2k.

Events of this correspond with bits and pieces of Bo ch 6, Bo ep 8, and Plot B.

Ayo I'm getting bored writing plot B. That's gonna take another chappie. Maybe the next one? Time to switch to A. Yay. Next 2 chaps are A.

Was it Guy or Gai

I kinda like gut worm. 

My style is not gonna be fun to read on PC. I just realised I have grown into writing for mobile.

Do my readers like reading all the details and extra information, or no?