What Will Be

Chapter 41

Orochimaru didn't speak. Boruto, however, wanted answers. Teeth chattering, he asked Mitsuki what he meant.

The albino boy didn't spare him a glance, eyes trained cautiously on his parent. "You were planning on using Log and me as tools from the very start. Build me up so I can break Konoha down. Even... when you told me to find my sun."

Mitsuki gulped. "What was going to happen to us once you'd achieved your goal?"

Orochimaru sighed, finally speaking. "You weren't supposed to find out like this. You two were supposed to grow up strong so you could protect yourself. But I suppose I didn't do a good enough job of training you mentally."

He glared. "You let yourself be swayed by sweet words and bright smiles. Mitsuki, there will never be a place for people like us in this world. You and your friends can delude yourself all you want, but the fact is that these people you trust so much will turn against you the moment you mess up. I was trying to protect you two from that."

Boruto scowled, unable to keep quiet any longer. "You're a criminal! Don't act as if you're anything like Mitsuki."

That was the wrong choice. Orochimaru looked down at him as if he were a mere bug he would love to squash beneath his feet. "Really? And what, exactly, do you consider a criminal?"

Boruto sputtered. "Someone who kills and hurts people."

Orochimaru laughed. "Your parents have hurt and killed countless people. Didn't your father leave Konoha for the sole purpose of killing someone? Didn't he end up hurting thousands of people in the process? You idolize him so much, yet he doesn't even have an excuse like your Hokage of doing it to protect people."

Boruto opened his mouth, but Orochimaru beat him to it. "You think your mother hasn't killed before? She has killed, tortured, done it all. But does that make her a bad person? Not to you. But to someone else? Someone on the receiving end? Someone like Mitsuki?"

Both boys tensed up. Boruto knew Mistuki still didn't trust her, or his parents for that matter, but he... he... he had really been only thinking of himself, hadn't he?

"You people have such a narrow mind. The only reason Sasuke isn't a criminal, as you call me, is because your Hokage made it so. Otherwise, he would be just like me. Is it fair to call me a criminal just because I don't have someone politically powerful backing me up?"

"But- but you're killing people. For your own benefit, to gain immortality!"

Orochimaru hummed. "You're right. But if it were someone else, say... a close friend of the Hokage... like the Shikamaru kid, it would be called science, wouldn't it? Killing innocents be damned."

"D-Dad wouldn't permit anything like that."

"Ah... but would the council? If they thought it would benefit them?"

Boruto couldn't refute anything he said, and it disgusted him. Despite his wracking his brain for a comeback, nothing came out of his mouth to defend his friends and his family. Orochimaru seemed done with the conversation.

He turned to Mitsuki again, "See? I only want the best for you. I don't care what these outsiders assume about me or my research, but you have to understand I never wanted to hurt you."

Mitsuki closed his eyes. He took a deep breath. "You... are just like them."

The man narrowed his eyes. "What."

"You're doing exactly what they are. What they did in the past. You all just do whatever the hell you want and use carefully crafted half-truths and excuses to condone your actions. None of you take into account the tragedy and devastation you cause."

Mitsuki gulped. "Leave. I don't want to see you right now, or anytime in the near future. Please, parent. If you truly love me, let me make my own choices."

Orochimaru sighed. "Fine. If you survive the attack, my door will always be open." The boys watched as the man left, his cloak fluttering in the wind.

Once out of sight, Boruto turned to Mitsuki. "Boy, that was a nerve-racking encounter huh?" Silence met his ears. "So, uh. You want to go see Akio now?"

Mitsuki nodded. "Alone." He finally, finally, turned to meet Boruto's eyes. "I need some time to think. And I believe you do as well."

Boruto gulped, scratching at the back of his head. "Right. Right. Yea of course."

He stared sadly at Mitsuki's back as the other boy left. He was right. He did have a lot to think about.

But just then a red spark flew past his cheek, and when he reached out to slap at it, his hand burned. Millions of identical ashes flew from behind him, and Boruto could barely turn around in time to see the blinding flash of white following the explosion.

The sound reached his ears a split second later, and his knees nearly buckled from the pressure.

Hands came up to cover his ears, yet still, the ground felt like it trembled from the force of the sound. Or maybe it was trembling from the blast. Boruto couldn't tell.

He couldn't register anything but the ringing in his ears as his mind briefly stopped working. He looked down at his hands to see blood and vaguely took in the huge chunk of concrete he had blocked on pure reflex.

By the time his senses cleared, the blast was over, and the smoke weighed heavily in the air. Finally, he could see, and he looked around to be met with the sight of panicked civilians and ninjas.

And then he saw where the blast had come from. The hospital. Dad.