Boruto Light Novel 4

Part 3 (Him)

It was nearing late afternoon when Sarada met him.

She was wandering around Hidden Mist Village, searching for Kagura's whereabouts. In order to find Boruto, she figured it would be faster to ask Kagura since they were together that morning. Of course, the quickest way would have been to ask the Mizukage directly. But he might tell Shino or Anko about it, and if he did that... Sumire's wishes would be in vain.

Sarada checked every place she could think of, but after a lot of searching and zero leads, she was at a loss for what to do. Darkness was threatening to close the curtain on the day, but there was still no sign of Boruto.

"Just now... Was that..." Sarada felt a strange sense of dissonance at the sudden voice that entered her ears. "...A low groan?"

Whoever made the sound was clearly in pain. It wasn't Boruto. But it was someone who she knew...

Whose voice is that?

It wasn't exactly someone she knew well. But still, her ninja instincts told her that it was a voice she'd heard recently.

"Is he this way?" she wondered aloud, turning down a back alleyway. It was much darker than the street she was on before, and there weren't really any people.

She cautiously continued in the direction of the voice. It seemed like it was coming from the gaps in between buildings.

"...You're!"

Sarada remembered who the man was all right. It was the same delinquent who they had a run-in with just the day before: Hachiya.

"Uggghhh..." Hachiya groaned. His level of injury was pretty bad. As she looked at the trail of blood behind him, she realized he must have crawled over to the spot he was in.

"Why are you... all beat up??!"

"A... Konoha's..."

If she left him alone, he'd probably die. Sarada took out her emergency medic pack that she carried around just in case someone needed quick first aid.

"This might hurt, but I'm not going to listen to any complaints."

She knew how to use medical ninjutsu, but she wasn't very good at it. She couldn't treat the injury as neatly as she would have liked. But despite her novice medic abilities, Hachiya was in a state where he would die if she left him be.

"Urgh... a... Sorry..."

"What on earth happened to you?" she asked as she treated his wounds.

Hachiya on the other hand seemed perplexed about his own situation.

"What, is it something you can't say?"

"T-That is..."

It was clear that he was in a completely different state than yesterday. He was like a crow with sunken tail feathers that had all of the pride beaten out of him.

"Sorry... Someone tricked me... And then that guy... The Hokage's little brat..."

Those were words Sarada couldn't ignore. "Boruto?! What happened?!"

"I never thought he woulda done something like that... Please, you gotta forgive me..."

Pausing her medical ninjutsu, Sarada gripped Hachiya's collar. Before she knew it, her eyes were glowing red, sharingan activated. "Tell me what happened. Now!"

With a frightened tone of voice, Hachiya began to speak.