The Incoming Storm

Hello and welcome to another one of my stories. As always, glad to have you here. I've had an idea for this story circulating around my brain for quite a while now but never got around to writing it. But I believe now is the time!

As with my other stories, this is AU. It doesn't follow canon or the established ninja world history. The relationship between Naruto and Hinata as well as the history of the ninja world is different in this story so as to fit the scenario I've got going here. In any case, I won't babble on any longer. I'll just let the first chapter speak for itself in introducing the story. Therefore, OFF WE GO!

Boruto Namikaze, a 7 year old boy was currently dashing through the bustling streets of the village at full speed. Classes had just ended and there was the weekend to look forward to. As such he energetically made his way through the shopping district until eventually he reached a small bakery amidst the plethora of stores. The sign above read "Himawari Bakery" complete with a sunflower design motif and an assortment of beautifully baked products on display below the front counter, the delicious aroma of which filled the air in the vicinity.

Rather than taking the backdoor Boruto jumped right over the counter and peaked through the door to the back of the store, announcing his presence to his mother. "Kaa-chan, I'm back."

Hinata, now 27 years of age looked over to her son and gave him one of her gentle smiles. "Welcome back! Can you take the counter for a bit? I'm almost done with this special order, so if there's a customer asking for a birthday cake, tell them I'm almost done."

"Sure, leave it to me." Boruto gave a quick reply before going over to deal with the stream customers currently outside.

Hinata ran the bakery by herself and given that she worked so hard to make ends meet for the two of them, Boruto helped out his mother after school or whenever he was free. It was a small business but with Hinata's baking prowess the place was quite popular amongst the villagers.

As Boruto finished serving a number of customers, a middle-aged woman who had ordered the birthday cake arrived at the store.

"Boruto-chan, helping out your mother as usual I see. You're quite the diligent son as always." She complimented the young boy. "Could you ask your mother if she's done with the birthday cake I ordered?"

"Sure, give me a second." Boruto answered before peeking through the back door once again. "Kaa-chan, the lady who ordered the cake is here."

"Yes, bringing it over right now." Hinata gently picked up the box which housed the cake and carried it over to the counter. "Here it is – the birthday cake as ordered."

The lady looked through the transparent top of the box and was amazed by the exquisitely decorated cake. It even had the name of her daughter embroidered on top as though it was a form of fancy calligraphy. It was clear that Hinata had put a great deal of effort behind this one cake.

"This looks absolutely beautiful. As always, you never disappoint Hinata-san. I'm sure my daughter will be ecstatic to see this." The woman said to Hinata as she handed over the payment.

Hinata graciously accepted. "It was my pleasure to be able to make your daughter's birthday cake. Please give her my greetings. I know how it feels to see your child grow up right in front of you so quickly."

"I will of course and once again thank you for the great work. I better head home quickly, my family's waiting. Take care of yourselves." The woman waved goodbye to the two at the shop and took her leave.

"Your cakes are so popular. Even my classmates are always telling me how they love them so much. It's a little embarrassing sometimes but it makes me happy too. I know better than anyone else how great they taste." Boruto praised his mother once they were by themselves.

"Is that so? Well I did make a little bit extra for you while baking that last cake. Want to have some?"

Boruto enthusiastically nodded at the offer. Although he got to try out his mother's baking a lot, he could never get enough of it. As he enjoyed some of the leftover cake, his mother cleaned up the rest of the shop.

"Since it's weekend tomorrow we can close up shop a little early today. That way the two of us can do something fun together. What do you say?" Hinata suggested to her son.

"Really? I'll help you clean up then!" Boruto was elated to hear of the idea. Even if it wasn't anything special, just being able to spend time playing with his mom made him happy. As such, with his help the two were able to close up the shop in no time and set off towards home.

This village they resided in was located at the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning. It was a relatively small place that was mostly outside the influence of ninjas, who were barely ever seen around this isolated region as it was quite far away from the ninja villages – the heart of the shinobi homelands. Hinata and Boruto lived in a small house just outside of the village, a fifteen minute walk by foot. This was mainly because the place was much cheaper to live in as compared to within the village and Hinata didn't mind it given their financially strenuous situation. Even though it wasn't the biggest or most extravagant of abodes, it was perfect for the small family of mother and son.

As they walked through the shopping district, Boruto's eyes fell upon a particular item in display through the glass windows of a store. It was a toy plane, rather big in size as well, complete with a remote control that would allow one to fly it around. The price tag on it however was equally as hefty.

Boruto had wanted such a remote controlled aircraft for quite a long time and as such looked at his mother with hopeful eyes. "Kaa-chan, can I have that?"

Hinata had seen him eyeing that particular toy for quite some time now and she wholeheartedly wanted to fulfil her son's wish, but given the price it was simply outside of her capability to buy it for him at this point in time. "I'm sorry son, but we're in a tight spot this month."

"But you said that last month as well." Boruto argued his case, feeling deflated.

"Boruto, you know our situation don't you? Given our house, bills and the cost of running the shop we're barely making by each month with what mama earns. We don't have a lot of money to be spending on frivolous expenses."

"You always say that. I wish for once you'd just give me something I want without making all these excuses." Boruto made one last comment on the matter before starting to walk off disappointed.

Her son's words pained Hinata because she was the type of mother who wanted to give her son the world if he so wished, but the reality of their situation made such a thing difficult. She worked incredibly hard by herself to make ends meet and indiscriminate spending was not a luxury they could afford.

Despite the small quibble, once the two exited the village Boruto returned to acting as cheerful as always. This was one of his good traits, the fact that he never remained hung up on any particular issue. As the two walked along the riverbank a little distance away from the village, Boruto talked to his mother about what he learned at school.

"Guess what our teacher taught us about in school today – SHINOBI!" From the tone of his voice, he seemed truly intrigued about the subject.

At first Hinata was a little perturbed by the topic but she quickly regained her composure. "Is that so? What exactly did they teach you?"

"We learned about the history of shinobi, about how a select few people in history were born with the special ability to manipulate the energy produced within their bodies, leading to their descendants becoming the shinobi as known today. They apparently have superhuman strengths and can even control fire, water, wind, earth and lightning with their powers. THAT'S SO COOL! I wish I could do that." Boruto explained excitedly before his expression took a slightly dejected turn. "But our teacher also said that even though they have all these powers, shinobi are bad people. That they are always fighting and innocent people are hurt because of it. But I don't know about that. If I had all these amazing powers I would use it to protect people, not hurt them."

"Your teacher is right Boruto. There is an old saying about how power corrupts people. The shinobi are a prime example of such. It is because they are so powerful that they are constantly at war with one another. There is no peace amongst them, only a cycle of hatred and revenge that never ends. And within that cycle, many innocent lives are destroyed due to their unbridled capabilities. Believe me son, I know power may seem enticing at first, but ultimately it can quite easily lead to one's downfall. You're better off being far away from the influence of the shinobi." Hinata explained to her son in detail, hoping he would understand even a little of her message.

However, Boruto seemed a bit unconvinced. Being a kid and not having ever been in contact with shinobi meant that he didn't quite understand the harshness of the reality surrounding them. Rather he was more engulfed in the power fantasy as were most kids his age.

This was all about to change though when Hinata suddenly sensed something within the forest. Boruto was surprised by his mother's sudden grasp as she pulled him along with herself behind a tree.

"Boruto, remain quite." He heard his mother whisper in a deadly serious tone unlike her usual self. But what caught him truly off guard was when he looked at his mother's face only to see the veins around her eyes bulged unlike he had ever seen before. He wondered what was going on but did not want to defy his mother's order right now given how she had a radically different aura about her than he was used to.

The forest floor was littered deep with fallen leaves at this time of the year and with one quick thrust of her palm Hinata sent the leaves flying up into the air. She quickly ducked on to the ground with her son and the falling leaves covered their bodies entirely, hiding them from sight. Boruto could barely look outside from under their cover but he could clearly see his mother's index finger firmly placed over her lips, indicating him to remain absolutely quiet. At this point Boruto could tell the severity of the situation given his mother's demeanour and resolved to follow her every command. Both a feeling of anxiety and fear overtook him unlike ever before. It was almost as though his senses were going beyond what he thought possible. Soon they could hear the footsteps and the chatter of a group of four people who all appeared to be masked.

"Search the area thoroughly. We've received intelligence that the missing nin from eight years ago was spotted around here." The leader of the group said to the rest.

"But that information was from some really ambiguous source. I'm not sure if it's even reliable." His teammate argued his case.

"I think so too." Another one sounded his agreement. "We've been searching this area for the whole day and haven't found anything yet. I doubt she's around here."

"Why are we even searching for someone who went missing eight years ago? I get that she's important and all but after all these years what exactly is the point? She's probably defected to some other ninja village by now given her abilities. Why would she be living in the middle of nowhere like here?" The final member of the group added his concerns.

"Look, just stop all of your whining! This is the hokage's order and we need to follow as required." The leader ordered once again. "But I agree that we've been looking here for quite a while. We should move on to the next area. I'll contact the second search party to keep an eye out for anything we may have missed while they pass through here. Let's move!"

To Boruto's absolute shock he saw the four people jump up to several tree branches and leapt from tree to tree, disappearing within moments. Hinata on the other hand could see that another group was on its way here and as such did not want to wait around. Taking this chance to escape, she embraced her son tightly with both hands and dashed towards the river while carrying him.

"Hold your breath for as long as you can!" She advised her son and within moments the two were underwater.

It was a good thing that his mother had given him swimming lessons, so Boruto was pretty good at remaining underwater for long lengths of time. After swimming one very long stretch, Hinata resurfaced on the other side of the river with her son. The two gasped for air as they climbed out of the water and Hinata's eyes also returned to normal at this point.

"W-What's going on Kaa-chan?" Boruto asked his mother as soon as they had a moment to breathe.

"I'm sorry for all those sudden actions Boruto. We shouldn't waste any more time here. Plus you need to get changed before you catch a cold. I'll explain later so let's head home for now."

Given his mother's urgent tone Boruto couldn't do anything but nod. Thus the two walked at a fast pace for a few minutes until eventually they reached their house within the woods. Little did they know however that a shadow clone was hiding in the woods near their house in anticipation of their return. It disappeared instantly with a poof of smoke as soon as it caught first sight of them and before they could see it. Even though Hinata thought she had avoided the prying eyes of the shinobi search party, unbeknownst to her, one particular ninja – one with whom she had an extensive history was now aware of her presence. Even though she thought she had outrun her past, that past had now caught up to her once more.

Deep within the forest as the memories of his clone flowed back into him, a blonde haired man opened his cerulean blue eyes with a smile on his face.

"So you were here all along…Hinata. After all these years, I've finally found you!" He said while standing up. "And that boy with you, he must be our…"

A feeling unlike any other flowed through him for the very first time after seeing Boruto, and he wasted no time in making his next move. The skies were getting cloudy and a storm was coming. That storm's name was "Naruto Uzumaki".

There you have it - the first chapter and the introduction of our main characters. It's a relatively simple take on the ninja world without any tailed beasts or the complicated history, but the focus will be on Boruto finding out about his lineage and Hinata having to face up to her ninja past. As for Naruto, well you'll see over time the events that transpired that led to all of this. You can probably already take a few guesses at what may have happened. However I should mention that the point of this story is not to portray Naruto as the evil one.

In any case I would love to know your thoughts on the first chapter and if you liked the setting. That is all for now :)