The Fourth Wall

Chapter 1: The Mission

Authors.

Everyone knows the definition of a fanfiction author... You may even be one yourself. Authors can create scenarios from their minds. They do their best to mimic the personalities, worlds, and scenery around their targeted characters, providing the public with an entertaining story.

But what if they could actually enter their chosen world? What if they didn't have to create everything from scratch, but simply observe and record? 

In this story, characters are alive, even when they're not on screen. And authors are not just people who create, but also people who observe.

Outside of the anime in what is called "the shadow," authors have free reign to come and go as they please... They can use their laptops to record and create. They can interact with the characters and give them missions. 

But not without certain rules and regulations. 

1) An author must never directly manipulate a character's actions or emotions.

2) An author must never write a main character out of existence.

3) An author must not create anything unfamiliar to the character's world.

4)  An author may not exist in the world while an anime is being aired. Regardless of whether their story is finished, they must erase all memories, leaving the characters the same as the public last saw them.

5) In the case of two authors entering the same point in the story at the same time, whoever's main character completes their mission first will earn the rights to the work... And the story will end, taking the character's memories with it. 

Failure to comply by these rules will eject the author from the cannon universe, forcing them to write every line of text themselves. To create character dialogue instead of watching it happen...

One goal. One purpose. One mission. All they needed was to hook Uzumaki Boruto on the prospects of their desire, and the rest would go swimmingly. 

Or so they thought.

.  .  .

Using the cover of the shadows, the author spied into the window of the local burger shop from across the street. The dim glow of a laptop screen illuminated their face as they typed a line of text into a word document. Immediately, their appearance shifted to that of a Konoha local that seemed neither feminine nor masculine.

It wasn't their plan to involve themselves in the story, but rather, to watch and record as the mission they gave to the Hokage's son unfolded. The less details everyone else knew, the better.

Looking as casual as an introvert could, they entered into the restaurant and purchased a meal, sitting down at a nearby table to wait for the moment of truth.

"When are we going to go on an S-rank mission?" Boruto whined, sliding his plastic tray onto the table.

"S-rank is reserved for Jonin. We won't be taking on something like that anytime soon," sighed Sarada. "Especially not with someone who would use scientific ninja tools to cheat during the Chunin exams on our team. Despite you saving the world and all... People are still pretty mad about that incident."

Immediately pouting, Boruto retorted back a half-sarcastic, "sorry."

"Boruto." Mitsuki stared for a moment, yellow eyes gleaming. "Let's do our best in the next Chunin exam. Then we can climb our way to Jonin status and take on S-rank missions."