AN; Hey! It's been a while, so you better get ready. This one's about twice as long as your average chapter. Please forgive any typos. Oh, and I'd advice you to watch Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 53 before reading this (although it isn't absolutely necessary or anything).

Sarada couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing.

The frowning boy from the old picture of her parents' old team that stood in her living room. The one she sees every time she enters her home.

The grinning boy, from the boys' totally childish card game cards - the rare ones - whose grin was so wide she always thought it must have hurt his cheeks to hold a grin that wide.

The boy that bore an uncanny resemblance to her childhood friend.

The boy who grew up to be the man she admired and regarded as an uncle, and in whose footsteps she aspired to follow.

That very same boy was, right now, on top of a tree, staring down at her with a goofy grin on his face.

"Hello! Earth to ladies. Haven't got all day ya know!" the boy called when he saw that they were both staring unblinkingly at him, none of them answering his question. "What's the matter, fox got your tongue?"

It was all Sarada could do not to activate her sharingan and double check to make extra sure this really wasn't some sort of illusion she was in.

All it would take now, would be the abrupt appearance of certain other people and Sarada would have seen it all.

And, as it turned out, had Sarada been like her best friend Chocho, then she would've definitely begun to think that the world really did revolve around her as, yet again, just as she had thought those thoughts, someone else suddenly landed right next to the blonde boy, on the tree branch, simultaneously bringing down a clenched fist on the boy's head. A female someone. That someone wore a red qipao dress and had short chin-length hair with protruding bangs. Short, pink chin-length hair to be precise. She seemed about the same age as her, and were those green eyes she had? The girl was a bit too high up on the tree for Sarada to know for sure..., but asides from that, the girl also...

Well in summary, it was someone with features Sarada was very, very familiar with.

"Naruto, you idiot! There's no way anyone would understand THAT sort of description," the pinkette vehemently admonished the orange clad boy who was now rubbing his poor head and going 'Ow, ow, ow!'

The girl then turned and smiled down at them.

"I'm so sorry. Please forgive my teammate's rudeness. We're actually looking for a red haired boy and his companions. You wouldn't have happened to see them pass by, would you?" she explained, just as two more people landed next to them. One at her right and the other at the blonde's left. A man with gravity defying, silver coloured hair, wearing an old fashioned (relative to them, anyway) green Konoha flak jacket and a dark-haired boy in dark blue and white. This boy also had protruding bangs.

He looked down at them with scrutiny in his onyx eyed gaze and then raised an eyebrow.

Shikadai, seeing that his onyx eyed companion still hadn't recovered from her shock, hastily answered the pinkette's question.

"W-we have actually. Seen a red haired boy like that, I mean. Although I don't know if he's your guy."

He gave them a crooked smile.

Sakura opened her mouth to ask which way they went, but Shikadai quickly pointed to the path they'd been taking and continued.

"Just follow this path until you get to a bush that leads to a clearing. That's were we saw them."

"Gotcha," the blonde boy said with a grin. He then turned to the dark haired boy and said, " Race ya, Sasuke!" before sprinting away in the aforementioned direction, leaping from branch to branch.

The other boy did not dignify this with a response but he nonetheless sprinted after the orange clad boy.

"H-hey, wait up, you guys!" the pinkette called after the boys. She then looked down at the two time travellers.

"Thanks very much for your help," she said politely, before she jumped after the boys. The silver haired man - whose entire face was covered with a mask save one eye - nodded down at them and gave them a closed eye smile. "Thanks for the help," he told them, before also leaping away.

続け

As they jumped with light steps from one tree branch to the other, Sakura glanced back for a few seconds.

Hmm. Weird.

"What's the matter Sakura?" Kakashi asked, coming up from behind her. He was eyeing her curiously.

"N-no, it's nothing really."

Waving her hands in front of her, she dismissed the question, just as they caught up with Naruto and Sasuke.

They kept on moving, in silence, from one tree branch to another with practiced ease until the orange clad boy broke the silence.

"But'chya know...," he began, as if picking up from a previous conversation, a serious expression on his face. "Those two back there..."

He abruptly stopped as he landed on the branch of a particular tree that was large enough to accommodate no less than five people. Sasuke who, for some reason, appeared to have been immersed in deep thought, landed next to him - and gave him a questioning look - then Sakura and also Kakashi followed suit.

He then folded his arms and scrunched up his face the way he did whenever he was in deep thought. He seemed to have forgotten about his impromptu race with Sasuke, for the moment.

"What about them, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, eyeing the boy curiously.

"Well, call me crazy but...,"

He paused for a moment and the others stared at him expectantly.

Did he get the feeling something was off about them, too? Sakura wondered.

Sasuke simply raised an eyebrow, feigning disinterest.

Silence fell between them as each of the other members of Team Seven waited in anticipation for what the blonde boy would say regarding a topic which they'd all suddenly developed varying degrees of interest in.

"... I think one of them was a guy. Believe it!"

!

The brighter members of Team Seven did a collective facefault.

Well, except for Sasuke. He simply facepalmed.

続け

"Say Shikadai."

So said Sarada as she watched the pink haired girl and the silver haired man leap from tree to tree, getting further and further away. The pinkette briefly glanced in their direction, before they both disappeared from sight.

"Yeah?"

"Tell me something."

"What?"

"Those were definitely mini versions of my parents right."

"Apparently, yeah."

"And the Sixth and Seventh too, right?"

"Them too."

Sarada, who had been feeling quite weak in the legs for a while, slumped to the ground as her legs literally let her down.

"So then... we really are in the past."

There was a part of her that hadn't wanted to believe that; despite the evidence they had been presented with earlier. But now, after seeing her parents like that, right in front of her eyes, she couldn't be in denial anymore.

"That's right. Luckily for us though, they left as quickly as they came. I just hope I haven't gone and changed some future event (or would that be a past event? So confusing!) by showing them the way the Sand Ninja went. I sorta just acted on impulse, you know. Just said whatever came to my mind that would make them leave," Shikadai said as he sat down next to her. "Hopefully, they really were supposed to meet up with mini Uncle Gara anyway, regardless of whether I had interfered or not. I really hope that's the case. Man, it was quite fortunate that we had removed any evidence of our links to the Hidden Leaf Village before they showed up."

Sarada nodded.

"No kidding," she said.

She had never been so grateful for her backpack - a gift she had gotten one day from grandma Mebuki - in her life. How weird would it have been if her father - or rather, his past self - or any of the others, for that matter - had seen the uchiwa symbol on her back.

It wasn't like she didn't want to speak with her parents' past selves or anything. Au contraire, she would have liked nothing better. She had so many questions for them; she had been curious about them for quite a long time afterall, and she even wanted to see what they had been capable of at her age - her father especially. And she had just gotten the perfect opportunity to satisfy all that curiosity. Had it not been for her state of shock earlier, then the more inquisitive part of Sarada would have been tempted to call out to them.

But the more sensible part of her also told her that any interaction she had with her parents' younger selves might have adverse effects on the future. On her home. On her real parents. That was a risk Sarada was definitely not willing to take.

Sarada frowned.

How frustrating! Everything's so complicated. A golden opportunity has practically just been shoved at my face and I can't very well go ahead and utilise it.

She sighed.

Time travel, huh.

Sure, she had wanted to know what her parents had been like when they were younger but this... was just...

"Ridiculous," Sarada muttered to herself.

"Huh, did you say something?" Shikadai inquired.

"Yeah, I was just wondering..." Sarada turned to him as she replied,"..., if the goal is to avoid coming in contact with people we know from the future, then isn't it a bit counterproductive to be heading for the Leaf? That place is sure to be absolutely crawling with them."

"That's true," said Shikadai, as he stood up and shoved his hands into his pockets. He then slowly began to walk towards the path that led out of the wilderness. "But Konoha, might as well be called 'Hidden Leaf City', for how large it is. As long as we actively try to avoid them, the chances of meeting a familiar face, much less striking a conversation with them, are very slim."

Sarada also stood up and strided over to him. They then fell in step as they started to walk down the path again.

"And besides," Shikadai continued. "We're only going to there in hopes of finding Boruto. If we meet up with him before that, they'd be no need for us to go to this timeline's Leaf at all."

"How are we even gonna get back home to our time anyway? Any bright ideas?" Sarada enquired.

Shikadai shrugged.

"None whatsoever. I haven't been able to come up with anything. But I do prefer to take things one at a time. Solve one problem before going to the next, while still keeping all the other problems in mind. We should concentrate on finding Boruto first, then we can plan how we're going to go about getting back home."

Sarada silently agreed. She then raised her head and gazed at a tree branch, on which there were two squirrels seemingly glaring at each other - one holding an acorn - a short distance away. It looked like a fight would ensue before long.

"Honestly though, at this point, the only way to get back to the future that I can think of is beating the necessary information out of the masked man," Sarada told him, as she watched the two squirrels fight over the acorn. "That is, of course, if he even has any intention of showing himself at all."

One of the squirrels - the one that hadn't been holding the acorn - emerged victorious and ran away with its prize. For some reason. Sarada thought it very likely that it was actually the original owner from which the acorn had been stolen.

"Still," she continued, as she watched the other squirrel give chase. "It won't hurt to be prudent. We shouldn't let our gaurds down, no matter what."

続け

Snap!

And thus another pen was broken between the mighty fingers of..., not the seventh Hokage, no this was in a totally different timeline altogether; the Fifth's actually.

Is there no end to this paperwork? A weary Tsunade wondered as she was handed her thirteenth pen by her patient (most of the time), yet assertive assistant.

She eyed the new stack of papers said assistant had just brought in and groaned.

"Are you trying to kill me Shizune?"

Honestly, the job of the Hokage was far more demanding than she had expected. In fact, she hardly ever had time to indulge in her hobbies anymore (she would sometimes sneak out of the office at night but Shizune, who always seemed to know where to find her, would track her down and be a total killjoy, promptly putting an end to her delight and dragging her back to the office).

Contrary to common belief, the most difficult part of being the leader of the village was not the fear of having to one day make the decision to sacrifice your life to protect the village and the lives of it's people. That was something that came naturally, really. No one wore the hat except that they were prepared to give up their lives, if need be, for the sake of their homeland and the prosperity of it's people.

Right, Sarutobi-sensei? Tsunade thought, smiling a bittersweet smile.

So no, the hardest part of being Hokage wasn't that. Not at all. It was something much, much worse, actually. It was every slacker's reckoning; every scrimshanker's worst nightmare; it was the paperwork! Oh, the paperwork!

Darn you, paperwork!

At least that was Tsunade's opinion.

"This was not what I signed up for when I agreed to become Hokage," she complained, though there was no real heat in those words. "Papers, papers. Sign this document, fill this form, read through that proposal. I'm seriously gonna grow old and wrinkly soon if this keeps up."

You're already old though.

Shizune smiled at the woman who might as well have been her aunt.

And as if she'd read her thoughts, Tsunade shot her a piercing glare.

"Penny for your thoughts, Shizune," she said, now smiling a sweet smile and somehow managing to look quite menacing at the same time.

"No, no it's nothing. Ahaha...," Shizune quickly replied, chuckling nervously and waving a hand in from of her.

"Anyway," she decided to quickly change the topic. "Have either Shikamaru or Hinata brought the blood samples you requested from them earlier?"

Ah! Those two, huh. Theirs was quite an interesting case.

And that was one of the reasons why today was especially tiring for the Sannin.

Earlier that day, the head of the Hyuga clan had made an unannounced visit to the Hokage's office, claiming that his daughter had been in the middle of training, when she had suddenly started glowing; radiating a dim purple light from her body. He had then politely, DEMANDED that she right then examine the girl - who had been standing meekly, out in the hallway, by the door the whole time, waiting for permission to enter.

Who does that boy think he is anyway.

Needless to say, Tsunade had been less than pleased with his failed attempt at a sugar coated demand, what with him essentially asking her to leave whatever she was doing right then and attend to his own problem first, and all. The already touchy woman had been about to give the Hyuga patriarch a piece of her mind when Asuma had come in with his pineapple haired student, complaining that he had just bore witness to a rather bizarre phenomenon while having a nice, relaxing game of shogi with the boy. Apparently, the boy had, not long ago, suddenly started to radiate a faint blue light from his person.

Tsunade had immediately called in the shy girl and had then conducted a thorough examination of both kids. But she had found nothing wrong with either of them and had then assured both Asuma and Hiashi that they would be okay.

Tsunade was arguably the best medical ninja in the world. She was, in fact, a legend. Even experienced medics from as far as the Cloud sought her out for her medical prowess. So if she examined someone and said that they would fine, then they would be just that. Period.

Still, when the Hyuga clan head had still looked a bit sceptical, she asked the kids to bring in samples of their blood for examination later, just to be on the safe side. If there really was anything wrong with the two genin, then it had nothing to do with their chakra, anatomy or chakra pathways; Tsunade had made sure of that. Besides, Hinata was the daughter of the Hyuga clan head. If the phenomenon had been due to some sort of distortion in her chakra pathways, then the Hyuga would have detected it immediately, what with their creepy all seeing white eyes and all.

"No, not yet," she finally answered her assistant.

She then took a sip of her tea.

"It's quite a peculiar case though," she continued as she dropped the cup on her desk. "I've never seen or heard of anything like it. The're so many questions I want answers to. Like, why did it happen to just the two of them? Why didn't it affect any of their teammates? As far as I know, those two have no connection at all, asides from the fact that they were both classmates."

She raised her head and gave Asuma, who had been in the room the whole time, a questioning look. ( He had brought in a scroll with a request in it, a few moments ago, to the Hokage from the Sarutobi clan, and had been standing there all along, patiently waiting for her to read through it and give her reply).

"Do you and Kurenai take along your genin with you when the two of you spend time together or something?" she asked.

"N-no, no, of course not ma'am," Asuma stuttered, waving his hands in front of him, defensively.

He then cleared his throat.

"And besides, all we do is sit in the dango shop, sip some tea, enjoy some dumplings and reminisce about the good old days. Perfectly normal," he felt compelled to add, cheeks dusted a faint red.

"Hmph. Whatever. Anyway since Hinata and Shikamaru mostly have little to no contact with each other, I think it's safe to assume that whatever it is that caused them to glow like that is not contagious. In fact, I'm quite sure it's not a disease."

"Then..., ninjutsu? Some sort of seal perhaps?" Shizune suggested. "Like a cursed seal hidden somewhere on their bodies for example."

Tsunade shook her head.

"I found no sign of any such seal on their bodies. And their chakra flow was normal. As far as I could tell, their chakra wasn't being leached towards any particular point on their bodies, as would have been the case if they'd been branded with a curse mark."

She crossed her arms and leaned back against her chair.

"Well in any case..."

Just then a knock sounded at the door.

"Come in."

The door was flung open before before Tsunade could even close her mouth and in walked a purple haired woman in a raincoat.

"What is it, Anko?" the Hokage asked her old teammate's former student.

"I brought a progress report regarding the repairs ongoing at the Chunin Exams stadium," the Leaf's resident expert on venomous creepy - crawlies explained, waving a paper in her hand as she approached the Hokage's desk.

She gave her old classmate a nod as she walked passed him.

"And also, have you approved that request that was sent in earlier? The one about adding upgrades to the building?"

"Huh? What request?" Tsunade asked, confused.

"I believe it's in this stack over here, m'lady," Shizune said, tapping the stack of papers on the desk that Tsunade was yet to look into.

The female Sannin groaned. There had to been a hundred of them there, at least.

And then, another knock came from the door.

"What is now?" the Hokage frowned as Shizune gave the knocker permission to enter.

Then she smiled.

"Oh! It's you Tenten. Back from your mission already?"

続け

"Before you put them in the vase...," Ino was instructing, as she supervised Boruto's work.

She, Boruto and Shikamaru were currently in a room at the back of the flower shop, watering some of the flowers and preparing others for delivery. Choji was left behind the counter to receive the customers.

"... cut the stem at an angle of forty five degrees and add two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar to the water in the vase before putting in the flower. I know, I know," Boruto cut her off, as he started cutting off the stem of the rose he was holding.

Ino blinked, surprised.

"Well, you seem to know a thing or two about taking care of flowers. That's surprising. I definately wouldn't have marked you down as a flower lover."

"Yeah well, I'm not, really,...," he replied almost absentmindedly, as he placed the rose on the table in from of him and picked up the next flower.

He stared at it for a second. Then he gave a warm smile.

"...but my little sister really likes a certain type of flowers and I help her take care of them so..." he added without thinking.

He mentally kicked himself a second later when he saw Shikamaru - who was working on a table adjacent to theirs, back facing them - perk up the tiniest bit at this. He knew the boy had been suspicious of him right from the moment they had met.

"You have a sister?" the Nara inquired, without even turning to face them, trying to sound casual, the same time Ino asked, "What's she like?"

"Well..."

Boruto considered the past versions of his foster uncle and aunt; from the poorly disguised suspicious expression on Shikamaru's face - who had finally turned - to the genuinely curious look on Ino's.

He supposed it wouldn't hurt to tell them a thing or two about his baby sister. Nothing that would give away that he was actually from the future of course. Just a little hint. After all, he couldn't help boasting about his cute little sister.

"Uh... let's see..., hmm..., where to start. Well, she's a lot of things but to sum it all up I guess you could say she's like..., well..., this," he said as he held up the flower he was holding.

Shikamaru frowned, clearly confused. But Ino understood.

She smiled.

He was holding up a sunflower.

Oh I see. A vivacious, happy girl that radiates a warmth. She loves and respects him and he thinks the world of her. And when she loves, she loves passionately.

That was what Ino deduced.

Her smile grew wider.

"I see," she said. "She sounds like quite the sweet little girl. You must really love her."

Boruto nodded, staring at the sunflower. He still had that warm smile on his face.

Shikamaru on the other hand, was frowning. He knew nothing about flower language and was thus completely in the dark about what the boy meant.

Oh well. Shikamaru shrugged it off as irrelevant information. All that mattered was this new piece of information he'd found out; the boy had a sibling. Which further complicated things, considering the fact that there was a possibility of the boy having some sort of relationship to Naruto.

I'll just have to keep my eyes and ears open in case he lets something else slip, he decided as he, from the corner of his eyes, watched the boy he was now alone with, Ino having left the room to go check up on Choji at the counter. He was still gazing at the flower fondly, apparently completely lost in thought.

And Boruto was indeed lost in thought. He was thinking about a lot of things actually.

He thought about his sister, and how sad she had looked, that faithful day, at the very prospect of her daddy missing her birthday party.

He thought about himself, and how, with a grin on his face, he had assured her, promised her that their father would definitely make it to her birthday party. That there was no way he would prioritise his work over the happiness of his own daughter.

Then he grit his teeth as he thought about his father, and how the old man had promised him, man-to-man, that he would definitely attend the birthday party, only to blatantly break this promise, and prove to Boruto that he thought of him not as a man, but as a foolish little boy who wasn't worth keeping promises to. And worst of all, he made Himawari sad.

Stupid old man.

His anger then turned into sadness as he then thought of his mother and how heartbroken she had looked that day. Boruto hated seeing her upset, but he had been so angry that night that he had said some really hurtful words to her, which he now regretted.

By this point, pent-up emotions were beginning to resurface. He quickly placed the sunflower on the table before he could damage it, with how hard he was clenching his fist. He then took a deep breath.

Calm down Boruto, he told himself. This isn't the time for such depressing thoughts. Focus on the matter at hand. You'll properly apologise to Mom and deal with the old man once you get back. And you will get back home no matter what.

Thus he bottled up his emotions and donned a poker face, eye gazing briefly in Shikamaru's direction. The boy was busy filling some transparent flower vases with water and didn't seem to be watching him but Boruto was sure he had been observing his subtle mood swings and had just averted his eyes when he - Boruto - had looked in his direction.

Not that it mattered. As soon as he figured out his next course of action he was leaving anyway.

Truly, the only reason he let the mini version of Inojin's mom drag him all the way here in the first place was because he had no idea what to do about his situation and at least here he would have time to collect his thoughts and think of a plan while he worked. Had Boruto known of any way to locate Sarada and Shikadai and leave the past, then he douted even the legendary Ino-shika-cho trio would be able to stop him from escaping.

The past huh?

It was kinda weird meeting the child versions of people whom he'd always seen as 'the adults'.

Auntie Ino's younger self was more bossy, more demanding and in short, much more of a prima donna than she is (if that's even possible?), but she was still a good person at heart who obviously cared for her friends and, apparently, acted like a big sister to her teammates.

As for Shikamaru...

Well if there was ever a more bone-idle, lazier version of Shikadai, it was this guy. He was a total slacker and acted as if everything he did was done through a great deal effort and was 'such a drag', but Boruto knew that behind all that was a mind sharper than, well, a kunai.

And kid Uncle Choji was well..,

Shorter, I guess?

Honestly, the boy wasn't really that different from the man he will one day be. He was the same easy going and kindhearted person. Uncle Choji has always been an okay guy in Boruto's book. He was just about the only adult that didn't frown upon Boruto's tendency to eat nothing but different varieties of burger for breakfast, brunch, dinner and lunch, how could he not be okay?

続け

Shikamaru brought out a photograph and stared at it as he walked down the hallway towards the Hokage's office.

It was one of the photographs that had been requested by the Hokage. Sai, who had entrusted them to him, had immediately returned to the search operation, without even stopping to see the Hokage.

It showed a complete overhead picture of the large wide-area circular seal that was, presumably, used to kidnap the children. It still hadn't faded completely save for some small patches of the Sanskrit writing here and there.

Now why would Naruto want us to retake all five seals... at the same time. There's obviously a connection between them since they were most likely placed by the kidnapper and his goons but...

Shikamaru sighed.

Well, I'll find out soon enough, I suppose, he thought as he knocked the door of the Hokage office twice before turning the handle and opening the door with an '...I'm coming in.'

...only to be slapped lightly on the face by a light breeze and some..., leaves.

His was just in time to see a silhouette disappearing in the middle of a swirl of foliage that then proceeded to slowly descend to the ground, forming a leafy mess on the floor.

Shikamaru's eyebrow twitched.

That guy. He must think this is funny. Thinks he's paying me back for that one time during that mission a while ago. Well played Rou, well played.

He hadn't told the old ANBU operative about the disappearance of the children. He trusted the man completely, but he wasn't part of the search operation and he reasoned that the less people knew about the issue, the better. Shikamaru supposed he probably just came in to deliver some sort of message to the Hokage.

Speaking of the Hokage...

Shikamaru raised his head from the floor and faced foward.

Naruto was there, pacing around the room.

"Shikamaru?" he said, inquisitively, as the man entered.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I ran into Sai on the way here and he gave me the items. He went as quickly as he came though. "

"Yeah. Sai's really working hard, isn't he," Naruto commented, with a soft smile, as he returned to his desk.

"So... the photographs?" he then enquired solemnly.

"Right here."

Shikamaru placed the photo he had been holding on the Hokage's desk, then pulled out another from his weapons' pouch and also placed it on the table.

"So. You gonna explain why you had them retake the photos now?" Shikamaru asked.

"Sure."

Still looking solemn Naruto put his hand under the desk and pulled out five photographs - the old ones that had been brought in earlier that day - and arranged them in a row in front of him. He then took the new photographs on the desk - including the ones that had actually just been brought in by the ANBU agent; five total -and also arranged them in a row in front of the old ones.

"Take a look at this. What difference can you make out between row A..." he tapped the first row consisting of the older photographs with a finger, "...and B?"

Shikamaru leaned foward and considered the photographs.

What could Naruto possibly be wanting him to notice?

First, he stared at row A intently checking each photograph for anything unusual.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

He then shifted his gaze to row B, and immediately exclaimed.

"Ah!"

"I see," he continued as he began stroking his beard.

"What exactly is it, that you see?"

As Naruto enquired, Shikamaru tapped a finger on one of the old photographs and began talking.

"The seals in the photographs of row A are - obviously- of the same type, but some of them seem to have faded more than others. Whereas the seals in row B look exactly alike, having the same completely faded points on the exact same location within their circular area. It almost seems like all five photographs are just copies of one another. But..., that can't be right. Judging by the topography of the soil on the ground of the locations marked by each seal in the photographs; some of them have a lot of grass within them, some only at the periphery and no grass in some at all, there's no doubt that all five of them are at different locations...,"

Naruto, still looking solemn, simply nodded as he listened to Shikamaru.

" ...And there's no way Sai would just submit copies of the same photograph anyway, and neither would the ANBU. But what does this mean?"

"Simple. It means that all five seals were activated at the exact same time..., by the same person," Naruto replied.

"What? But all of them are several kilometres apart. What makes you think all five of them were activated simultaneously, by a single shinobi? And for what reason would anyone do such a thing?"

"Listen, Shikamaru, there are different types of seals that are used in fuinjutsu and other related jutsu, but generally - based on their level of persistence - they can be classified into two; those that disappear immediately after they've served their function - space - time ninjutsu seals, like the Technique Formulae (術式) of the summoning jutsu, for instance - and those that are persistent and never disappear until they're forcefully removed - like Orochimaru's Curse Marks."

Naruto paused, took in a deep breath, and then continued.

"These seals, however - which are obviously Technique Formulae (術式, jutsu-shiki), similar to those left behind by a summoning technique...," he tapped one of the photographs on the desk. " ... don't seem to fit into either category. They are fading away, but at a very slow rate which is quite uncommon for seals... nowadays, at least."

"Nowadays?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto nodded.

"Yeah. I once read in one of the old Uzumaki clan records..."

Had this been a less serious situation, Shikamaru would have been inclined to tease Naruto about how funny the prospect of him sitting down and reading anything voluntarily was. However right now, given the situation, the thought didn't even cross his mind.

"... about the origin of the Art of Seals (封法), which, as you know, encompasses Sealing Techniques (封印術, Fuinjutsu) Summoning Techniques (口寄せの術, Kuchiyose no jutsu), Unsealing Techniques (封印術・解, Fūinjutsu: Kai) Sealing Barriers (封印結界, Fūin Kekkai) and the likes. Well, its only one version out of the many versions of the story out there, all of which have quite a few diverging tales, but there are certain aspects in which they all concur. I'm not gonna go into that in detail right now, but it seems that in the earliest days of shinobi, the earliest seals that were invented were the type that didn't disappear at all, even after serving their respective functions. It was a problem since that meant that shinobi - who naturally like to conceal themselves and their activities - might as well be leaving sign boards saying ' We've Been Here, Ya Know! ', whenever there was any need to use a particular seal anywhere. That problem didn't last for too long though. Desperation is the mother of innovation and invention, as they say. It's said that two powerful clans brought together all their skilled shinobi that specialized in the new art, and together they deviced a solution to the problem.

We're not going into the how right now, but just know that, eventually, they found a way to make a seal disappear after it has done it's job. They'd disappear, but very slowly..."

Shikamaru, who had started to wonder why they were having an impromptu history lesson, now began to understand what Naruto was getting at.

" ...over time. This might be seen by us nowadays, as inefficient, but to them it was a giant leap forward, one that would eventually lead to all shinobi being able to use summoning seals and the likes, that would disappear- almost instantly, nowadays - without us giving it a second thought. In fact, that has been the case even since the time of the first Hokage and Madara - the Warring States Era."

"That still doesn't answer my previous question though. What makes you think the seals weren't placed where they are by five different shinobi, but a single one instead?" Shikamaru reiterated his question.

"Well for one thing, there hasn't been any report of any missing persons, asides from Boruto and the others, from Konoha or any of the nearby villages - I checked, ya know," the Hokage replied. "That means that those three were the only ones that were kidnapped using one of those seals. And they were taking only one, out of the five paths. Why would someone, much less four someones activate - presumably - a teleportation seal on four different paths when there's no one there to teleport away? It'd be the same as announcing that they'd been there and that's just plane illogical."

It'd be even more illogical for a single person to do it though, Shikamaru thought before speaking.

"So you think that that one masked person sent four shadow clones to those other locations? Not everyone can sustain clones that move long distances away from the original, like you, you know?"

"You're right. But that's not what he used."

When Shikamaru raised an eyebrow in question, the Seventh raised one of the photographs and continued.

"Now that we've established that this is some sort of ancient seal, I think I get how it works - not its function - just the mechanism behind it. Most likely, this is what has been quite crudely named a 'Concurrently Acting Seal' (同時封, doujifu)."

"A 'Concurrently Acting Seal'?"

"Yeah," Naruto responded, as he stood up from his seat and walked to the window. He placed a hand on the windowpane and gazed outside at his village as he continued.

"Weird name aside, it's a type of sealing technique where you...'

He raised his index finger.

"One - Make copies of the same seal..."

Then he also raised his index finger.

"Two - mark different locations with them and...

He now held up three fingers.

"Three - conceal them. By 'conceal', I mean they'll be invisible to the naked eye unless activated. Well, such a feature isn't that uncommon really. The're plenty of other seals that can be concealed - made hidden until they're activated. Like my Tetragram Seal for example...,"

Naruto subconsciously touched his stomach as he spoke.

"...But what's really unique about this particular type of seal, is that activating one seal automatically activates all the others at exactly the same time."

"I see," Shikamaru said as a thought came to his mind. He subconsciously stroke his beard. "So the culprit had no way of knowing which of the five paths the kids would take to Tsuchi-ku. So he marked all five of them and waited to see which they'd take. Then, when they'd walked right over one of the marked locations, he ambushed them and activated the seal, the side effect of which being that he also activated all the other seals on the other four paths."

Shikamaru's paused for a second and his eyes widened as a dreadful realization came to mind.

"But that would mean ..."

"That's right," Naruto said as he turned to face his assistant, a very grim expression on his face. "This person went through all the trouble of learning some ancient sealing technique, marking five different paths with that seal and leaving evidence of his crime in the process, just to get his hands on three genin that have only just recently graduated from the Academy. This, coupled with the fact that he was so skilled that he was able to avoid being detected by the ANBU operative who was discreetly following them, whilst he also shadowed them.

Shikamaru, this is no ordinary case of kidnapping for ransom. Something else is going on, and somehow Boruto, Shikadai and Sarada have been caught in the middle of it."

As he finished talking, Naruto raised his hand in front of his face, forming the seal of confrontation, and closed his eyes.

"In that case..."

続け

Somewhere within the village two clones of the blonde haired man were kindly helping out an old lady like any Good Samaritan would; one carrying her on his back, while the other held her handbag. The one holding the bag, who had been wearing a closed eye smile on his face, suddenly frowned.

"Here," he told his lookalike, and handed him the handbag before...

Poof!

He disappeared.

Elsewhere, at a certain railway construction site, the seventh Hokage,who had been looking over the plans with one of the engineers (and shouting words of encouragement to the workers, from time to time) suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving the confused workers wondering what on earth was going on.

"And what are your thoughts concerning the upcoming Chunin Exams, Lord Seventh?" the smartly dressed presenter displayed on the large screen in the middle of a busy street in Konoha, asked with a smile.

"Well...," the hero of the Fourth Great Ninja War, sitting across her began, a wide grin on his face, only for him to suddenly drop the grin and don a serious expression.

"Please, excuse me," he said, before vanishing, leaving only a cloud of smoke as proof of his prior existence.

This lead the villagers watching the live broadcast to start chattering amongst themselves, as they voiced their concern to each other, even as the presenter, with an obviously forced smile, went, "...um, ah... It seems Lord Hokage has some important matter to attend to... As the leader of the hiddsn leaf village, he's quite the busy man. But don't touch that remote. Stay tuned for our special..."

And just like that more and more of the Hokage's clones disappeared all around the village, albeit not all of them.

Back at the the Hokage's office, Naruto now also raised his left hand and formed the hand sign for his trademark technique.

Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu.

Smoke momentarily filled the office and when it dispersed, nine Naruto lookalikes stood there, all wearing grim expressions.

"...we have to counteract. Believe it!"

続け

"That is all that I know."

A light wind blew his light blue hair southward as he sat on top of the third of the seven Great Stone Faces, staring down at the village that he now called home.

Atop his shoulder was a small white snake, hissing very close to his cheek. This might have unsettled some, and even caused others a cardiac attack, but to him it was as natural as holding a telephone to one's ear.

"So. Will you be able to help?" he said, apparently to no one in particular as there was not a single soul together with him on top of the rock. Those that he usually hanged out with there we're now all gone afterall.

He kept silent till after about a minute when the snake on his shoulder stopped hissing in his ear.

"I see. Okay, I'll be a little bit more patient. But please hurry it up."

He stood, slowly walked to the edge of the rockface and jumped down.

続け

"Thanks for all your help! Make sure you look where you're going next time you turn round a corner, okay."

"Yeah, okay, thanks for the advise," Boruto, by the door of the flower shop, ready to leave, said this to Ino, who was at the counter waving him goodbye. "Well, See ya!"

He didn't really mean that, of course. Boruto was just being courteous. He would actually rather not see her again - not this version of her at least. Not that there was anything wrong with the girl. He just simply wanted to leave this world as quickly as possible, so that he could see his family and friends again and also settle things with his dad.

"Now then. Where do I go," Boruto wondered out loud as he took a few steps away from the shop.

He looked left, then right..., and then left again. Not because he was trying to adhere to some sort of ninja traffic rule, mind you. No, it was because in that direction, he had just spotted something dreadful and unfortunately for him, that something - or rather someone had also just spotted him.

Busted! Just great.

From a distance too close to be regarded far and too far to be regarded close, a brown haired girl, who wore her hair in two Chinese style buns, stood there pointing at him.

To her left, she was supporting a boy, who had his left arm around her shoulders. He had shiny black bowl cut hair and VERY thick eyebrows. (Yes! Boruto could see that all the way from where he was). The boy was holding a crutch with his right hand, while his bandaged right leg was raised, and he was wearing hospital clothing. Why on earth he was walking around the village like that was a mystery to Boruto.

To her right, stood another boy, with long brown hair and white shirt with brown shorts. It wasn't someone Boruto had ever met before but it was definitely someone he knew of and had seen had seen pictures of. It was someone his mother always spoke warmly of.

No way!

The boy gave him one look... before running towards him at top speed!

Pretty sure he isn't dashing towards me to give me a nice, warm welcome-to-the-past hug, Boruto thought as he turned tail and ran in the opposite direction.

Ms. Tenten must have spilled the beans.

"Boruto wait!"

He heard Tenten shout from behind him. But he didn't wait, if anything, he ran even faster.

He ran down the street and rounded a corner, running towards a more crowded street - a shopping district probably. He briefly glanced back, only to find that the brown haired boy was still hot on his trail.

"Tch."

Still, he was pretty glad it wasn't Metal's old man chasing him right now. If, at this age, he was anything near as fast as Metal, then Boruto had no illusion of outrunning him.

He seemed kind of wrecked though. I wonder why? Ugh.

He shook his head.

Worry about that later, Boruto. Right now you need to focus on escaping.

Anyway, thankfully, his pursuer wasn't Lee, so he had a chance. Or at least that was what he thought.

As he steadily approached the more crowded area of the street, he grinned.

He suddenly fell to the ground and slid inbetween the legs of a random boy - a civilian, probably - making a victory pose for some reason.

He jumped up the wall of a building on the right side of the street.

He kicked against the wall to propel himself into the air and further away, and landed on the back of some middle aged guy - who just happened to have crounched down to fasten his sandals and just happened to be well built - and used it as leverage to propel himself even further.

'HEY!'

'So sorry, ya know!'

He landed in front of some bald old fellow pulling along a cart full of melons.

He jumped over said old timer and his cargo, flipping upsidedown midair to get a good view of what was behind him. Convinced that he'd escaped his pursuer's line of sight, even if momentarily, he grinned and formed the hand sign to his signature technique as he landed.

And then Boruto demonstrated why many people back home considered him a genius.

He swiftly made a shadow clone, and then formed another hand sign and transformed himself into the brown haired civilian boy from earlier. Then, both he and his clone took off in different directions; him walking swiftly but not running, whilst his clone ran away at top speed. And all before you could say, 'Believe it'!

That oughta fool'im.

He thought this, as he rounded a corner, hands in pockets, trying to blend in with the crowed. And people thought his frequent Limited Edition Thunder Burger Dash! across the village taught him nothing. Ha!

Both he and his clone grinned to themselves like idiots as they went their separate ways.

Speaking of his clone, it too rounded a corner, at top speed and stopped just short of colliding with some purple eyed, purple haired girl he'd never seen before, who was holding - believe it or not - a flower vase!

Well, he actually grabbed hold of her shoulders and, using them as support, flipped over her head and landed in a crouch behind her, to be more accurate.

He raised a hand as he stood up and waved 'Sorry!' to the girl - who had turned with a surprised look on her face - as he continued running. The fact that she was able to recover from her shock so quickly and even turn around to stare after him should have led Boruto to suspect that she'd had some form of ninja training, no matter how minimal. That is, if his mind wasn't already preoccupied with other thoughts.

'N-Naruto!'

The girl, who seemed to be just about his age, exclaimed with a tone that sounded somewhere between surprise and exasperation.

Wow! That was close. This is the second time. I'm really gonna get past dad into a lot of trouble if this keeps up, Boruto mused almost passively, without so much as a hint of a guilty conscience, as he continued his sprint.

Meanwhile, convinced he'd given his pursuer the slip, real Boruto's swift pace had turned into a casual stroll. Still, he was eager to slip into the closest alleyway he could find to hide until he was a hundred percent certain that the danger had passed, just in case, as it wasn't like he could keep up his transformation for too long.

So that was Uncle Neji, huh. He seems much more grim in person than he looks in the pictures. I wonder why Mom has such a high opinion of his skills, considering I just gave him the slip so easily.

Boruto thought this as he walked into an alley and casually leaned against one of its walls, hands still in pockets.

I'm sure Hima would have loved to meet him though.

Thinking of his little sister made his heart ache.

He sighed and raised his head to look up at the sky.

"So anyway..."

What do I do now? What's my next move?

He scratched his head as he thought.

Well, let's see... first of all, I've gotta ditch this old relic of a village, then find Sarada and Shikadai, then find that masked dude...,

He cracked his knuckles.

...and make him take us back to our time! But first things first...

He pushed against the wall he was leaning on and walked to the adjacent one. He stared up at the top.

I bet I can get a good view of the entire village from up there. Once I spot the gates I'll ...

Then Boruto felt it.

The air behind him. The back of his neck was hit by a light breeze as the air behind him displaced the way it did when someone used a body flicker.

!

He immediately turned, swinging his right arm in a chop. His assailant casually blocked the attack - almost boredly, even.

Boruto then spun on the ball of his right foot and sent a kick with his left leg which was also effortlessly blocked.

Frustrated, he then proceeded to assault the newcomer with a volley of kicks and punches - aimed at every weak spot on the body that he knew - all of which were either parried or blocked, without the person even moving an inch from his position. His opponent was considerably taller than he was, such that by the time he had thrown the final futile punch, aimed at the bearded man's head, Boruto was midair and upside down.

He was immediately assaulted by a sense of deja vu, as the man caught hold of his arm and an opposing leg and twirled him into an upright position and facing the wall, twisting Boruto's arms behind him as he held him up.

"Ow, ow, ow. Okay, time out! TIME OUT!

Ignoring Boruto's pleas, the man - clad in what looked to him like an old fashioned Konoha flak jacket - then proceeded to roughly pin him to the wall, still not allowing Boruto's feet to touch the ground.

In short, he was summarily defeated.

He grit his teeth in frustration as he desperately tried to free his arms behind him, only to have them twisted even harder.

"OW!"

He heard the sound of someone landing behind him and his capture. That someone slowly walked a few steps towards them and stopped.

"How foolish, intruder. Did you honestly believe that you could escape from these eyes."

Although Boruto couldn't see it, the owner of the voice crossed his arms, and glared at him with his activated all-seeing white eyes.

"You caught him! Way to go Asuna. You too kid, great job," Boruto heard a woman's voice -which sounded oddly familiar - say.

When did she even get here?

That was the last thought he had before he felt a sharp pain behind his neck. His vision sudddenly became blurry.

And then he saw black.

休止

AN - Whew! Finally finished. This is the longest chapter I've written so far. Close to nine thousand words.

I know it's been quite a while since I've updated and I do feel bad about that, but there was no helping it. In our Sessional Exams, you get evaluated on everything you've covered for the whole year, and not just a single semester, and that includes all lectures, practicals, assignments..., and don't get me started on the oral tests. In short, people with an average intellect like me have to be constantly studying, else risk failing and getting kicked out of the faculty. Sigh. But on the flip side, I've had time to think of lots of ideas that I'd like to include in this story. Not the ending - I've already decided on that right from day one - but rather what lies between that and chapter one. I still haven't written those exams yet, by the way. But worry not. Since my last update, not a day has passed by without me thinking of this story and I'd like you to know that I'm committed to seeing it through till the end, as long as I'm allowed to. But enough about me...

In Japanese Flower Language (hanakotoba), the sunflower represents 'respect, passionate love and radiance'. Hopefully, Ino's deduction about Hima makes more sense now.

Regarding the history of the 'Art of Seals'.That was just me taking liberties, in case you hadn't noticed. Also, the name 'Concurrently Acting Seals' and collectively calling all those techniques the 'Art of Seals' was also my doing and not from the main story (I mean, you can obviously tell that from how cheesy it sounds so...).

Also, there was actually one more section I'd wanted to include, but the chapter was getting way too long. It's about the purple haired girl Boruto ran into.

Boruto NNG Episode 82 review (spoiler)

-Hmm. So the culprit was Ohnoki all along. I gotta admit, that took me by surprise.

Finally, take this as my apology for not updating for so long;

Did you know:

One of the new Shinden (2018) novels is currently being translated by Shadly over on Tumblr. I've also just read a few chapters but from what I've read, it was really good. Better than I expected! Here's the link;

post/176440715528/shikamaru-shinden-chapter-1

Please respect the author and do not copy or repost his (or her) work without his (or her) permission. Don't plagiarize.

Word Count: 8931 words.

Chapter Completed: 20th November, 2018 or thereabout

Chapter Published: 27th November, 2018

Please don't forget to review the chapter, and also tell me what you think about the story so far.

And that's it from me. Until the next update.

Bye!

StraightPath.