The blue eyed reaper

A fight with a jonin

Boruto sighed in relief as he leaned against a tree for support. He had spent the better part of the day running through the forest as he headed east. There wasn't much to do while running through the wilderness. Just make sure you didn't trip on any stray roots or slick patches of dead leaves. That left a lot of time to think.

And a lot of time to plan. His father had obviously alerted the nearby cities about his disappearance, so he was going to have to be careful about being near other people. That meant he had to hold his transformation jutsu nearly all the time. That was going to be a pain.

Boruto's first thought had been to go further west. He was a good two days away from the border of the Land of Rivers, and from there, he could continue even further west and go to the Land of Wind and the Hidden Sand. He had always wanted to visit 'Uncle' Gaara's village.

But that was exactly the problem, his dad would have sent notice to the Kazekage that he was missing. For sure, guaranteed.

Uncle Gaara probably had ninja patrolling the borders just in case, anyway.

The Hidden Sand was the closest ally of the Hidden Leaf. The only people he didn't want to see more than his own ninja were those from the Hidden Sand.

The solution? Head east, he would have to double back and sneak around the Hidden Leaf, but there were miles and miles of nothing but forest after that, dotted by small, inconsequential villages. Too small to warrant a hawk from the Hokage about his missing son. Once he reached the coast, he could run across the bay to the Land of Whirlpools, and from there, barter passage to the Land of Water. Or he could try running there. It was risky. He could run out of chakra and be forced to swim the rest of the way in the frigid cold waters. Maybe the boat wasn't so bad. Boruto sighed. He'd decide what to do tomorrow.

"Boruto Uzumaki?" a voice called out from the forest.

Boruto stiffened and zeroed in on the bush he thought the voice was coming from. A few moments later, a ninja walked into the small clearing he was resting in. She was a tall, thin woman with long, shaggy black hair held back in a ponytail, and her eyes were a bewitching shade of maroon. Judging from her jacket, she must have been either a jōnin or chūnin.

Stay calm. He was just some country bumpkin camping in the forest. Boruto took a deep breath. "Sorry?" Boruto said, doing his best to sound confused.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Your transformation jutsu dropped, kid," she said.

Boruto looked down. The ground did seem a lot closer than it did in his disguise. He must have stopped channeling chakra into it while he was thinking. Boruto chuckled nervously.

"Well, fuck" said Boruto with a deadpan

"Look, kid, I'm just here to take you back to the village. The Hokage is worried about you," the woman said.

"Don't wanna," Boruto said glaring at her

The woman smirked. "You don't really have a choice, kid. I'm just following orders, and my orders were to take you back to the village if I found you," she said.

Boruto scrutinized her for a moment. "Do I know you? You look familiar," he asked.

"My name is Mirai Sarutobi," the woman, Mirai, said, slowly shifting into a taijutsu stance.

"Ah! You're Konohamaru's cousin! Right—" Boruto exclaimed.

Before Boruto could even finish his sentence, Mirai darted forward, reaching out to grab him. Boruto yelped in surprise and jumped backwards, only to back into a tree trunk and come to a stop.

"Sorry, kid," Mirai said, aiming a well placed punch at his chin.

Boruto saw the punch coming and slipped into a Gentle Fist stance. He deftly swatted away her strike, his palm barely touching her wrist. Mirai hissed and withdrew her arm. He imagine her wrist smarted like it had been stung by a bee, and not slapped away by some kid.