Only Time Can Tell

MONSTER

CHAPTER 11

MONSTER

BORUTO UZUMAKI

I was probably the most excited to leave. I'm tired of just sitting here, staring at him, counting his breaths, checking on Sarada and Sakura, it's boring as hell. I was packed to leave in less than an hour. Sai gave us some money to get supplies for during the trip, and after tooling around a few shops I was already heading back to the hospital. Unfortunately, this is the part where things get screwed up.

"Yo!" I hear someone say behind me. I turn and feel like running away. "You're that kid!" It's Naruto, and he's in hot pursuit of me.

"Dude, what do you want?"

"I'm checking in on you. Since you're my...whatever." Naruto said awkwardly.

"There's nothing to check in on!" I said walking faster.

"No, I heard something happened to old me." Naruto said keeping my pace. "Didn't he collapse or something. Is he okay?"

"Yeah, whatever."

"What are you doing with that stuff?" Naruto said poking at my grocery bag. It was filled with first aid, a water filter, and a bunch of candy bars.

"We're leaving."

"Where?"

"None of your damn business."

"Ha." Naruto laughed jumping in front of me. "I think that it damn well is my business."

"I beg to differ."

"Man, what is your deal?!"

"How is this any of your business?!" I shouted at him.

"You're my kid! This involves myself! The older version of myself anyway. I think I should have the right to know what's going on."

"I should have never told you anything." I muttered to myself. Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, sulking, continuing to walk at fast pace with me. "We're leaving soon, and you won't have to deal with us again."

Naruto grabbed my arm. "Let go of me, you asshole!" I tried to yank away but he didn't let go.

"Where are you going?" Naruto asked, still not letting go of my arm.

"Like I said," I yanked my arm away from him. "None of your business. You're not coming." Once I got him to let go, I took off, running as fast as I could, dropping chocolate bars all the way, as far as I could get away from him.

I was slumped outside Sai's room. He was busy packing, as soon as he was finished, we were supposed to leave. Sarada was busy saying goodbye to her mother, which I personally see as pointless, seeing how she's unconscious and all. I heard the door creak open.

"Ready to go?" Sai said, his face wavering.

"Yeah, where's Inojin?"

Sai didn't respond immediately. "Where's Sarada? Is she still with Sakura?"

"Yeah..." I decided to ignore that he avoided my question. "She said that she'd be out soon."

"Alright. Where's Neji then? He's our guide after all."

"He's outside the hospital waiting. The nurses said it was okay for him to come, we just can't travel as fast, his leg is still healing."

"I see. We should still be back in a week."

"Yeah." Sai seemed kind of absent, like he was only able to respond halfway, his thoughts were somewhere else. "Uh...I'll go wait with Neji if you'll wait for Sarada."

"Sure." Sai said, his eyes glazed over.

"You're okay, right?" I said turning back for a moment.

"Yeah." Sai said mustering a smile. That smile was fake. There was pain in his eyes. I turned and walked away quickly. I knew that whatever was bothering Sai, I wouldn't be of any help. I marched down the hallway and opened the door to the outside closing it behind me quietly. Neji was leaned up against the hospital looking hard at something in the distance with a look of disgust on his face.

"What?"

"You can just see Naruto's house from here. You have to look hard but it's there." I followed his line of sight and saw something that almost made me feel bad.

Just peeking out from behind a tree was the wall of a poorly kept up home. Scrawled on the wall were huge black letters spelling out the word: MONSTER. Standing in front of it was my dad, scrubbing as hard as he could to get it off.

"Who did that?"

"Who knows?" Neji scoffed. "It could have been anyone."

I stood in silence, watching my dad struggle to scrub the paint off his house, with no one to help him. I thought back to my own house...no one would dare do that, no matter what the circumstances. No one would ever call my dad a monster.

The door opened and Sai and Sakura stepped through it. "Are we all ready to go?" I nodded. I wanted to get out of here. As far as I could get from the monster. "Neji." Sai said turning to him. "Are you comfortable with completing this mission?"

"Yes."

"Even though leaving the village without permission will mark you as a rogue Ninja?" I hadn't realized that. Without permission from the Hokage, Neji will-

"Yes." Neji said without hesitation. "Though they may not understand it, what I am doing now is helping the village, in the future anyway. The me in the future would want me to."

"Very well." Sai said. His last words caught at something in my chest. There was no Neji in the future. Neji had died, and he doesn't even know that. And I know that it's not my place to tell him.

So we head off, barely pausing once we reached the Gates. I saw Neji turn around, surveying the land behind him, saying goodbye to his home, I realized. If the Leaf discovers that Neji had left the village without clearance from the Hokage...his home might no longer welcome him. Neji was already a better shinobi than I.

I couldn't get the image of my father's house out of my head. I knew his sob story already. I knew that he was hated by the village that he loved. That everywhere he went suspicious eyes followed him. The thing inside of him was the same thing that killed his own father. I knew that my shitty old man had baggage, but seeing it...it was different somehow.

My dad lives alone. He feeds himself. Gets himself to school. He has to do everything himself. At home, my mom makes me lunches with help from Himawari, I always get a big welcome home from Hima. I rarely have to struggle all by myself. My dad and I are different.

And for that, I am grateful.