Overdue Reunions (A Boruto Fanfiction) || DISCONTINUED

Chapter 4: Alive

After asking a few more questions that were carefully evaded, their conversation went on a much safer turn. It was fun, actually. To have everyone in one table, exchanging stories and everything.

After all that, everyone went back to their places. Minato and Kushina led the trio to their shared room. 

Boruto looked at his sleeping team mates. It was well past midnight but he couldn't sleep. No, not after meeting his grandparents. He felt, in a way, guilty. It feels like he didn't just steal the scroll, he also stole all these moments. The moments that should belong to his old man.

His dad should be the one here, not him. His dad should be the one meeting the parents he hadn't come to know. His dad should have been the one eating dinner with his parents and getting to know them. And yet, here he was, doing everything that his old man deserved to be doing.

The blond Uzumaki stood from his bed and made his way out of the room and to the front porch of the house. He sat out there, hugging his legs and his chin atop his knees. It was quiet except for the occasional chirping of the cricket. He looked up to the starlit sky and sighed.

After everything that's happened so far, he was thankful he got to meet his grandparents, happy even. But he just wished that his dad was here to share the joy. Despite everything, a kid just wants his dad.

Speaking of his dad, him and his mom were probably worried out of their minds. He missed them.

"Couldn't sleep?"

Boruto turned around to the source of the voice. The red-haired kunoichi that was his to-be grandmother sat next to him. 

"I couldn't," he whispered.

She nodded. "Well, would you like to tell me what's on your mind?"

He looked at her for a few seconds, trying to think of the things to say because there was so much he wanted to say but nothing was coming out. Kushina then put her arm around him and put his head on her shoulder. "It's alright," she said.

"I don't deserve to be here," he said.  "Dad should be here."

"Well, you are here and there's nothing you can do about it, dattebane. And didn't you say your dad'll be coming?" he nodded in response. "Then just wait for it, I can't wait to meet him too."

"I just--" he choked out. "I just miss him, we never really got to bond much after he became Hokage, dattebasa. I love him, I really do, he is my dad after all and I really love him and I'm proud that he achieved his dreams  but I just miss my dad. People always say that he had a rough childhood and I understand that he had a really hard time but does that mean that I'm not allowed to be hurt because I didn't have to go through what he did? I have him and I'm thankful for that but most of the time, it's like he's not even there."

At this point, tears were welling up in the boy's eyes but he refused to cry. He was used to his dad being gone for most of the time, always stuck in his office. He was used to it, but it still hurt.

Kushina was stroking the boy's hair in an effort to comfort him but what exactly did Boruto mean by his dad having a hard childhood? What exactly happened in the future? She already had her suspicions when he said that he was glad to finally meet her and Minato. She needed to know what happened, but right now, she had to help her grandson.

 "It's okay, just because your pain isn't the same as his, it doesn't make it any less there. You are allowed to feel hurt so don't compare it with other's because people will always have it worse but it doesn't make anything we feel any less valid, dattebane. I know your dad must love you."

Boruto, who was hugging his grandmother, answered with a muffled voice. "I know he does, when he forgot Himiwari's birthday, I was so mad at him but I forgave him, we were already trying to fix our relationship in the past few days before I got here and I just want us to be okay again, dattebasa."