We're Different. | The Other Uchiha ✓ (Boruto)

Where the Light Touches

The tea had long since gone cold.

In the dim belly of Kara's home, warm light filtered through a lattice of high windows, casting pale geometric patterns across the smooth obsidian floor. 

Eida sat cross-legged at the center of the room, her eyes glowing with a muted violet light, irises twitching as her Senrigan searched the world beyond. 

Her expression twisted further with every silent second.

"Tch." She huffed, slamming her heel lightly against the marble. "It's still not working. I can't sense him. I can't hear him. I can't see him."

The tension rippled through the silence like a stone dropped into deep water. 

Y/n, seated on the low couch nearby with a half-full porcelain cup balanced between her fingers, kept her voice even.

"When did it start?" she asked. She didn't look up right away, just swirled the tea absently in its cup, watching the cold ripples slide along the rim. "The disappearance."

Eida blinked, still staring at the invisible beyond. "Almost two years ago," she muttered. "First, just Boruto. But now, it's everyone around him. He's shielding them somehow. Suppressing his chakra, maybe masking theirs. It's like he vanished completely. Like a ghost."

The name struck something in Y/n. 

She glanced sideways, masking the flicker of recognition with a blink, but the moment snagged in her voice, just a hair too late when she said, "It's fine."

Eida's head turned sharply. Y/n didn't flinch. Instead, she brought the teacup to her lips, but she didn't drink.

Across the room, Code leaned forward from his spot at the far table, where a thick spread of parchment lay in cryptic coils. 

His expression hadn't changed, still calm, unreadable, that cruel glint of vision always tucked behind his eyes, but when he finally spoke, the command was unmistakable.

"Then we act first."

Eida raised an eyebrow, mildly intrigued. Y/n set the teacup down without a sound.

"If the Senrigan is blind," Code continued, "we don't wait to be seen. We move. We retrieve the scroll."

Y/n tilted her head slightly. "Jigen's scroll?"

"The one he never explained." Code's tone was dry, but his eyes flicked between the two girls with clarity now, like he was laying down pieces on a board no one else could see. "The hideout no one but he had access to. There's something in it. Something about the Tree. About the Otsutsuki plan. We need to know."

"So this is a salvage mission," Eida said, resting her chin in her palm. "Scavenging the ghosts of a dead man."

"Not ghosts," Code replied. "Maps."

He stood, stretching slightly. 

The leather straps wrapped around his wrist shifted with him, glinting faintly in the dim light. "We leave tonight. The coordinates are locked. We'll use the belt."

Y/n gave a slight nod, reaching for her gloves without a word. 

Her pulse had settled, but that brief hitch, the moment his name was spoken, still echoed faintly in her ribs.

Boruto had vanished from the map. But the shadow of him still haunted the room.

And now, it was time to chase ghosts.

- ☆ -

The wind brushed dry leaves along the edge of the Konoha gate, but none of them spoke of home.