Call my name and save me from the dark

Just hopin' you may be somewhere a-walkin'After midnight, searchin' for me

A/n Title is from Walking after midnight by Patsy Cline, if anyone wants to know. Love it! It's featured in TMR Scorch Trials, where people might recognise it from.

We are now crossposted on Wattpad! FFNet is against me, and I've been kicked out of my account unfortunately. I'm trying to sort it. But my Wattpad is Olivetreeswood, if anyone's wondering! (Olivetreestastelikewood was too many characters apparently!)

POV: Konohamaru, Hinata, Boruto (lots for him today!)

The mission continued in dead silence.

Konohamaru could see how worried they all were. They were completing the mission, doing their job, but it was silent. They were all twelve year olds, for god's sake. They chattered, joked, laughed, barely focused. But now the mission seemed to be all they thought about. Talked about. Konohamaru knew why. No one wanted to focus on the other thing outside of the job. Boruto. Still missing. Konohamaru gritted his teeth. He missed the kid, he really did. The kid who called him Big Brother Konohamaru, who'd follow him around from the moment he could walk. Konohamaru had only been fifteen when Boruto was born, but he'd clung to that kid from the start. It felt... wrong, him not being around. He glanced at Hanabi from the corner of his eye. She looked shattered. He didn't blame her. She'd been out all night searching for Boruto, missed their night out because of it. Konohamaru remembered waiting at the bar, thinking he'd been stood up. That is, until he'd gotten a frantic call off Naruto, saying Boruto was missing. At that moment, Konohamaru had wished he'd been stood up. Anything but that.

He pulled at the scarf around his neck, swiping some of the rain off his forehead. It was still raining. Hadn't stopped for the last two days. It was frustrating. The rain had washed away what little evidence there might've been. Konohamaru just wanted Boruto home. Safe. He stared at Moegi, wondering if she really believed what she'd said earlier.

"He'll be back by the end of the week, trust me."

...

It was quiet, in the Uzumaki home.

And Hinata hated it.

It was wrong. She was used to the noise, her, Naruto and Himawari were all home - yet the silence was suffocating. No thundering footsteps across the landing, no slamming doors, no laughter or yelling. Just silence, interrupted only by the scratching of Himawari's pencils on notebook paper from the kitchen table, and Naruto's restless pacing. Hinata stared out the window, watching the rain dribble down the glass. She shut her eyes, trying to imagine it was still that night. That it was still Boruto's birthday, and he was still here. Upset, and waiting, but safe.

Safe. And. Sound.

She turned back to her daughter and husband. They hadn't let Himawari out of their sight. If it was against Naruto's standing as Hokage, there was no saying whether anyone might go after Himawari. Her daughter sat peacefully at the table, colouring in a drawing of a field of flowers.

She glanced at her husband. She wanted so desperately to blame him. Yell at him, that he should've come on time, that if he did Boruto wouldn't have left. But whenever she wanted to, she couldn't. She wasn't angry at him. She wasn't sure why. Naruto paced back and forth, flipping through a file, his coffee abandoned and cold on the counter. Dark circles marred his eyes, which were bloodshot. Likely similar to her own.

She stared at her cup of black tea, left on the side. She tended to prefer Jasmine, but she'd always drink it with Boruto, so she decided to save it.

For when he's back, she'd said.

'If, he's back', a little voice said in the back of her head.

Shut up. Shutupshutupshutupshutupshut-

"Hinata?"