Growing Pains

Chapter 2: Age 13, Vocal Exercises

With the wind whirring in his ears, his blades held up high and ready to interfere in case the negotiations were to go south, Konohamaru observed the situation. Boruto, as usual, had taken the lead to resolve the situation without bloodshed. Desperately trying to talk the bandit into giving up and turning in before he got himself into an even bigger mess when the train they had been told to guard reached the end station, Boruto cupped his hands around his mouth-to compensate for the wind and make sure he was heard.

"Hey, listen. You're only making it worse for yourself," he tried to reason, "I know it looks like there's no turning back for you, but I swear we can fix it if you would jUST LET M—"

Konohamaru blinked. A quick glance at Boruto, his face said it all. Oh, man, this was going to be good.

Looking incredibly confused for a second, Boruto's face flushed. He cleared his throat and put his hands to his mouth again.

His teammates looked confused as well. Sarada lifted her eyebrow and Mitsuki cocked his head to the side, curious as to why Boruto's voice hitched. Their teammate was quite the chatterbox, always yelling and raising his voice to get his point across, but they had never seen him incline his voice this way...

Boruto opened his mouth to speak again. He almost had this guy. He wasn't bad, just a terribly lost soul who needed help. "If you put your weapons down we can woRK IT—"

Konohamaru snickered. Yeah, this was definitely one for the books.

Now even the thief had caught on to what was happening and a grin spread across his face.

"Got a problem there, kid?"

The blush on Boruto's face deepened and Konohamaru bit his lip to stop himself from laughing. Really, he shouldn't. If they could resolve this quickly and silently, then their employer wouldn't need to know of this small hiccup. Though, from what Konohamaru could tell, hiccups were occurring all over the place right now anyhow.

Boruto held on to his throat and looked at his sensei for help. The distress in his eyes was clear, and he obviously didn't know what to do. Konohamaru stood up straight, encouraging him to continue.

Nodding to his sensei, Boruto took a deep breath. "I said, if you put down your wEAP—" A welp slipped out, and his eyes widened to the size of small saucers as his voice went up in falsetto for the third time within a minute.

"Boruto, maybe this isn't a good moment to give him such a..." Mitsuki placed his finger on his lip, trying to think of a good word. When he got it, he smiled and continued, "squeaky voice."

Konohamaru's eyes bulged hearing Mitsuki's mild, completely unironical exhortation. This was not the right time and place to make fun of Boruto, but hearing Mitsuki roast him so thoroughly, he lost it. He tried to cover his laugh with a cough, but once he started he couldn't stop. Tears trickled down his cheeks as laughter rolled up through his chest. This was too good. Oh, did he feel sorry for the kid, but at the same time...

Sarada started with a giggle, but when she heard her sensei laugh, she couldn't help it. The thief was now laughing as well, holding on to his stomach. Boruto was so red in the face, he looked ready to explode.

Mitsuki, on the other hand, didn't join in on the fun. Instead, he took advantage of the thief's guard being down. He stretched his arm towards the thief and three white snakes launched out of the sleeve. One to disarm the thief, and the other two wrapping themselves around his body, binding him tightly until he tipped over.

Turning to Boruto, Mitsuki smiled gently. "Great tactic, Boruto! I would never have thought of using my voice to distract him. You are always so inventive. I admire that about you."

Even as he set to tie up the thief to have him neatly delivered to their employer, Konohamaru shook his head and hoped Mitsuki would never change. He honestly couldn't tell if Mitsuki was being sarcastic or not, but somehow that only made it better.

"Y-yeah, totally," Boruto tried to hide his shame by agreeing with his teammate, who only grinned in response. "It wasn't even hard, ya know?"

Sarada snickered again and placed her hands on her hips. "Really now, Boruto? Nothing strenuous at all?"

He stuck his tongue out at her and crossed his arms across his chest. "No. These missions are a piece of cake." He laced his hands behind his head. "We should be doing something more challenging."

"Like not cracking up in the middle of a mission?" Konohamaru grinned cheekily.

"Speak for yourself, Nii-san!" Boruto stomped on the roof of the train. "You were laughing the entire time!"

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.

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On the way home Konohamaru tossed a glance at the most rambunctious of his subordinates. Boruto hadn't said a word since the train, and it was getting worrisome. Lining up next to him, he gave him a nudge with his elbow. "Hey, you know nottalking ain't gonna solve anything," he started. "Come on now, chin up! We finished the mission, kore!" he continued when he was met with nothing but silence and a pout.

"Easy for you to say, Nii-san. You didn't have everybody laugh at you."

"Yeah, sorry about that, but it was pretty funny," he grinned, not overly remorseful. "I did warn you that it would happen a while ago though, remember? Did you ever talk to your dad about it?"

"No! And you said it would get deeper, not that I would sound like I had a frog in MY-" Boruto cut himself off when his voice pitched again, and Konohamaru ducked his head down a bit to hide his grin in his scarf.

"Uh, yeah...true. I did say that, didn't I? But really, it wasn't that bad," Konohamaru tried to cheer him up.

"You know. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, Iwabe started sounding funny a while ago, but I didn't realise I wouldn't be able to control it at all."

"Yeah...it's gonna be like that for a while. If it's any comfort, it happens to all of us. Moegi used to say I sounded like a girl all the time, and she had an absolute field day when Udon's and my voice started cracking, kore," Konohamaru laughed at the memory, hoping that admitting to his own awkward experiences would make the kid feel a bit better.

Boruto made a face in sympathy at the admission, Moegi-neechan could be absolutely ruthless. "How long?"

"Uh, it will happen a lot for a year or so, kore."

"A YEAR?!"

"...Or five." He immediately added something a bit more encouraging when he saw the dread in Boruto's eyes. But it settles eventually, promise! I can probably find a VCR or something so you can hear how I used to sound like."

Despite the assurance, Boruto looked horrified but still had it in him to throw a cheeky remark. "VCR? Wow, You really are old."

Konohamaru pursed his lips at Boruto. Here he was trying to make him feel better, and the ungrateful little brat... But the kid dropped the grin faster than he could think of a good comeback. Instead, he held onto his throat with both his hands and looked down at his sandals.

Talk about mood swings.

"It really isn't that bad!" Konohamaru raised his hands in front of him and laughed nervously, trying to cheer him up. "I mean, listen to me now. It doesn't crack anymore. You just have to wait it out."

"I guess..." Boruto pouted and looked away. "Does this mean I'm going to have a deep and cool voice like you, Nii-san?"

Having his student describe his voice as "deep and cool" made his cheeks flush by the tiniest bit. Konohamaru lightly scratched his cheek and smiled. "Uh, yeah, I guess so."

With that, Boruto grinned, seemingly forgetting all about the embarrassment from earlier.

"Yeah!" He cheered, pumping his fist in the air. "I'm gonna have a cool voICE!"

As his voice cracked, Konohamaru laughed. Boruto had a long way to go before growing into a man. Not just physically, but also emotionally. He cringed thinking about some of the other embarrassing things his own pubescent hormones had put him through. Watching his students go through it too made him feel sorry for them, but it was undeniably pretty darn funny too...