CHAPTER 1
WITH INTEREST
BORUTO UZUMAKI
The Leaf Village had seen peace for a long time. And sure, that made my old man happy, but for me, it was just flat out boring. Sure there were classes and lessons, and I got to learn a lot, improve techniques, training, etc. But it was just really... lame. So that's kind of why I said yes. Sarada and Inojin were talking and I just happened to overhear. They were both talking about the Hokage council meeting thing coming up tonight, that's what they said, but from that, my brain instantly thought: LET'S SNEAK INTO MY DAD'S OFFICE.
While that might seem like a great idea for your average idiot, I really don't suggest it now. Anyway, after lots of persuading I got Inojin to join me. As soon as the meeting got started we headed up to my old man's office. He always forgets to lock it, but right as we were headed into the office. I heard: "Psst!" I turned and sure enough, the rule following goody goody Sarada had actually showed up. She would deny it, but she does enjoy the occasional rule breaking.
So we snuck into his office. It's always a mess in there, people always pester my dad to clean it up, but that pretty much means nothing. So we tiptoed over the random scrolls and books, we had to be super quiet since the Hokage council meeting was happening right under us. Sarada was busy digging through cabinets looking for cool jutsus, and I was fascinated with a really cool ultra decorative scroll that was stuck on a shelf on my dad's wall, right behind his desk.
Inojin nodded at me and I hoisted him onto my shoulders. After almost falling down a couple of times, I regained my balance and Inojin reached forward for the scroll. But he reached too far and I lost my balance. I fell backwards and Inojin fell with me.
We fell with a huge thud, and for a moment complete and utter stillness fell over us. We waited for a second but then heard the voices continue downstairs. They didn't' suspect anything. Thank God. Inojin pulled his leg out from under me and we crept over to the interesting looking scroll. Sarada sent me an angry glare: YOU BAKA.
It was covered in swirly designs that were constantly moving. It was like the scroll was alive. I touched it and felt like the scroll shivered in response. I looked over at Sarada who knelt next to us as we unrolled it. The paper was old, the edges were falling apart. But when we unrolled it, the entire scroll was blank. No words, no symbols or drawings. There wasn't a single drop of ink.
I sighed, "Damn it! I really wanted for there to be something awesome in there!"
"Shh!!!" Sarada shushed me.
But then I touched the scroll smoothing it out. I looked closer to make sure that there wasn't any writing. But then I shrugged and stood with the others. But as soon as I did, the scroll began to pulse with gold light.
"Whoa..." Inojin awed. He stepped closer to it.
"Wait." Sarada said, looking closer at it. "Get away from it. We shouldn't be in here."
"Hey." We all whipped around. Standing in the door was Shikadai his hand still resting on the doorframe. "What are you doing in here?"
"Shikadai-" I started but Sarada tugged on my arm,
"Look at it!" The scroll pulsed even brighter.
"What the hell?" I knelt. Then the room started to shake, and I vaguely remember Shikadai running in to pull me away from it, but it was too late. Everyone blacked out.
"Who the hell are these kids?" I felt someone touch my cheek, I cringed my eyes still closed. I blinked a couple times before I could see. My head was pounding. I looked to my right, and saw Sarada, her glasses laid on the ground next to her, one of the lenses was shattered. Inojin was collapsed ontop of me, and Shikadai's arm was laid across Sarada's neck. We had landed in a pile. But it wasn't them that needed my immediate attention.
Standing in front of me was a boy probably about my age, 12. He had spiky blonde hair and had a leaf headband strapped across his forehead. But immediately when I recognized who he was, I knew that something was seriously wrong.
"Hey, who are you?" The kid said. Sarada stirred next to me, throwing Shikadai's arm off of her brushing herself off. But she was frozen just like me. At least, for a moment. In a second she slapped her hand over my mouth.
"Hi, we're just lost. Um, we come froma neighborhood pretty far from here. We got beat up by a bunch of bandits on our way there."
"Mhmmgh. Aaaghin bhuhngh. Ssrdaaa!!!" I said under her hand.
"I'm sorry, my friend here is retarded, he doesn't know what he's saying." Sarada apologized. I protested,
"Mnhgh, bhngh Ssda negh!"
"Sorry about him." Sarada fake smiled. "He's just an idiot. You know?" That was it. I licked her hand. Instantly she let go of my face.
"EW!!!" She screamed wiping her hand on her pants. "You're disgusting Boruto."
"I couldn't breathe!" I lied. "You're..." I said looking up at the kid.
"SHUT UP!!!" Sarada screamed, wrestling me to the ground. "JUST SHUT UP!!!" She leaned forward so only I could hear. "You need to be quiet for now, we need to figure this out. Don't tell him anything."
"But he's-"
"Shut up!" She whisper yelled.
She got off of me and fake smiled at him again. "I'm sorry, could you show me were the Academy is?"
"Oh sure." The guy said a highly confused look on his face. "Are you new students?"
"Um, yeah." I said playing along.
"What's your name?"
"Boruto Uz-" Sarada kicked me really, really hard. "Agh!" I said clutching my shin. "Uzkai!" I yelped. "My name is Boruto Uzkai."
"Um...okay...." The kid said looking even more confused. "You guys are weird. But my name is Naruto Uzumaki. I'm going to be Hokage one day!" I resisted the urge to say, 'I know. You're my good for nothing dad when he was my age.' Sarada made sure I said nothing by giving me another harsh glare.
"My name is Sarada Nime. Nice to meet you." She extended her hand and they shook.
"Umm..." Naruto looked down. "Are your friends okay?"
"Yeah, they just got beat up real bad."
"Yeah, but...they don't have any bruises....?"
"They hit us over the heads. Hang on, I'll get them up. I need to talk to them for a second too. Just sit tight." Sarada gave me a meaningful glance: Don't screw this up, or I will fill your bed with bees. Or at least that's what I think it said.
She grabbed Shikadai and Inojin and half dragged them behind some trees.
"Where are you guys from?" Naruto said.
"Um...the Land of Rice Patties."
"Oh, we haven't had many shinobi from there lately."
"Yeah, we just got here." I said awkwardly. Thank God I'm a good liar.
"Sorry about the bad welcome. Unfortunately the crime rate isn't so great around here. Just wait til I'm Hokage. I'll show them!" Yeah no kidding. I almost muttered.
"So are you a shinobi?" I made lame small talk waiting for Sarada. Of course I already knew the answer.
"Yeah! I'm about to take my 3rd test of the Chunin Exams....You know...my friend, Shikamaru...he looks alot like your friend, with the ponytail."
"Huh." Well duh, he's his dad. I started praying that Sarada was almost done. In this moment, I am so happy that she's smarter than me. I saw Shikadai head peek around the corner of the tree, and his eyes grew wide.
Now, there are only 5 heads on the Hokage Monument. I couldn't help but imagine that this is what it was like when my old man grew up. Or even more, that this twerp actually IS my old man.
Thankfully before things could become any more awkward Sarada, Inojin, and Shikadai came out from behind the tree. I almost sighed. Sarada straightened her glasses. "We've had a really long day, we have to go and find our sensei before we can go back home, could you please point to where the Academy is."
The roads and paths around the Leaf had changed hugely. Sure everything looked generally the same, but the details were totally different. Buildings were shorter, and roads were rougher, everything was in different places except for the Hokage Monument.
"Uh sure." My dad pointed towards to Hokage Monument. "It's not far. Just go in that direction and you can't miss it."
"Thanks." Sarada grabbed my arm and yanked me away from Naruto. It's so strange, my old man, he's actually...a pretty normal kid.
Inojin dragged behind, unable to stop staring. "Wait..." He said. "Does that mean, I can go and hang out with my mom?!"
Sarada huffed. "Technically, yes. But you can't, if you do, there's no telling what might happen to us when we make it make to the future." She sighed again. "Believe me, there's nothing I want more than to see my dad. But really, we just can't risk that. Just now, that could have changed everything if this baka-" She stabbed me in the ribs, "had just flat out told him that he was his son. Baka!"
This time I didn't really have a comeback. I really could have messed things up back there.
"Well now what happens?"
"We have to figure out how to get back. But until then, I think we should find a place to stay."
"Are you forgetting? We don't have any money! What are we supposed to do, just hobo around all day?!"
"I'll figure it out!" Sarada insisted, pushing up her glasses. "You all just need to shut up and let me think!"
Everyone was quiet. But then I got an idea.
"Why don't we borrow money from our parents?" Shikadai narrowed his eyes.
"But you don't mean to borrow. You mean to steal."
"Well it would hardly count! We could pay them back in the future anyway! We're their kids, if they knew, wouldn't they want to help out?!" Sarada continued to say nothing.
"What are you suggesting? That we just go and rob them?"
"Well...yeah!"
"We shouldn't..." Sarada murmured, thinking hard.
"Well do you have a better idea?!!" Silence fell over us. We didn't have any money here in the past, none of us brought anything sufficient enough to buy a room in an inn for the night. So I couldn't think of anything else...
"We'll pay them back in the future...with interest!" Inojin said trying to persuade Sarada.
She sighed, cleaning off her glasses. "Fine, we will but with interest. But do any of us actually know where their parents keep their money?!"
Silence fell again, Shikamaru kicked up some gravel. Slowly, I raised my hand. "I kinda do."
My dad really needs to learn how to lock doors, if I thought he was a slob in the future...this is WAY worse. He left his windows open, his doors unlocked...even his refrigerator was left hanging open. Milk was spilled across the table. Past eaten ramen bowl containers were scattered across the couch. A kunai was sticking into the wall. Sarada stood guard outside the door, and Shikadai and Inojin were both looking out the window to make sure that Naruto wouldn't get here before I found it.
He should put his money in something less conspicuous. Honestly, a giant green frog pouch with it's lips zipped closed...it really sticks out. It was sitting on his dresser, with one of it's arms dipping into the opened underwear drawer. Wrinkling my nose in disgust, I picked it up.
The frog was surprisingly heavy. I almost felt bad, stealing from my old man. Seeing how he was living off of cheap ramen, he really valued his money, and was probably saving it for something. I shook it off, there wasn't time to feel sorry, besides he's a terrible father, I shouldn't even have to pay him back in the first place. I stuck the frog in my pocket, feeling it's weight press up against my leg.
"Boruto, please tell me you've found it!" Sarada said exasperated from behind the door.
"Yup, we're good, this should be enough." As I turned to leave, I was tempted to leave a note telling my dad to clean up his place. But Sarada said any interaction wasn't a good idea, so I rolled my eyes and joined her outside. Shikadai and Inojin followed.
"Now we've just got to find an inn." Looking out over the totally changed village...I knew that this was going to take a while...
It was dark by the time we found a reasonable inn. It turned out that my dad had saved several thousand yen, and we were able to buy 2 rooms, one for Inojin and Sarada and one for Shikadai and myself. Why Inojin gets to be it the same room as Sarada...I have no idea. Why should I care anyway.
We all met up in Sarada's room to talk about today. My head was still pounding with questions. How on earth did we get here? How are we supposed to get back?! Anyway, we all sat cross legged and stared at Sarada for answers.
"Well...?" Shikadai said. "You insist on being bossy, so...tell me you at least know what happened?!"
"I have some idea!" Sarada said sharply, crossing her arms. "That scroll that we touched. It probably had some hidden transportation jutsu, and it was up on that shelf for a reason. When Inojin and the baka over here-" she said gesturing to me, "fell on the floor, it probably activated it. When Boruto touched it...it must have started the jutsu. It sucked everyone within a 15 foot radius into the scroll and into this time period."
"....well....yeah. And what else?" Shikadai said, rubbing his temples.
"It's a forbidden jutsu, that can effectively...make time go backwards..." Sarada pushed her glasses up her nose. "My assumption is that the only way to get back is to either find the scroll in this time period, or find someone who wrote the scroll in the first place."
"Well!" I said collapsing backwards, exhaustedly. "THIS FRIGGIN' SUCKS!!!"
END OF CHAPTER 1
So....what do you think?! I really enjoyed writing it! So do you have any ideas for titles? As soon as I've got a good one, I'll put it on Wattpad. Sorry about Boruto's retarded swears. I ship them so hard! Anyway...if you liked this, let me know, and I'll get to work on the next chapter immediately! I've got a plot, a theme, a cast, and a complex world! It's gonna be friggin' great! Also, the Sharno thing...should I have Sarada do that? Ooooooh, there's gonna be combat in the next one! Get ready!