Boruto: Sacrifices

Chapter 4. Unwanted

Nara Shikadai had many reasons to be proud of himself. He had a sharp mind, he was a close-to-excellent shinobi, he was among the two who made it out of his generation as chuunins... There really weren't many things on earth that would surprise him.

Well... at least that was the case until today.

The boy opened his eyes a crack when he heard a soft hiss next to his ear. What he saw made him jump awake almost immediately as a startled exclaim left his lips.

The white snake's golden eyes just followed him casually as it hissed once more. Shikadai was quick to realize where (or well, from whom) the snake came from... not that it helped things much.

"How did you even get into the house?" he asked, knowing full well this was a stupid question - the animal, as far as he knew, wasn't a summoning snake after all.

The snake did reply anyway, although the voice he was hearing was definitely Mitsuki's. "Shikadai. Meet me in the training grounds in fifteen minutes. This matter is urgent."

The boy glanced at the clock. He groaned as he rubbed his eyes, was he even serious now?! "Dammit Mitsuki, it's way too early for your shenanigans..."

"I have urgent business to take care of before seven thirty," the snake continued in Mitsuki's voice. "And I need your help."

The Nara boy sighed, did he even have a choice...? "Man, what a drag..." he mumbled as he kicked the bedsheets away from his body and got up to get dressed.

...

Suffice it to say that he wasn't exactly impressed when he arrived at the training grounds in the designated time and... his friend was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh come on," he whined, rolling his eyes before raising his voice. "You know, it's common courtesy to be at the place of meeting before the person you're supposed to meet!"

"Who said I'm not here?"

And with that Mitsuki appeared... hanging upside down from a tree using only his stretched arm, making Shikadai jump.

"You really need to stop doing that."

The blue haired boy let out a low chuckle as he dropped to the floor. "I guess old habits do die hard."

"So what's up, Mitsuki? What is it that you needed to drag me here in the dead of the morning?"

And just like that his friend's face became serious... dead serious. "I will tell, but first I need your word on something. No matter what you see here today, no matter where we go, you won't tell a soul. Not until I say so."

The black haired boy felt sweat dripping down the side of his cheek - why was he so serious and secretive all of a sudden...? Not that he definitely wasn't accustomed to this weird behavior of Mitsuki, mainly back from their academy days, but... either with the lingering effects of the clans' meeting from yesterday or something else, he was suddenly a little on guard. Really, what was it that couldn't have waited for a better hour of the day? "Mitsuki..."

"I will explain everything later. But we need to finish these all before we meet Konohamaru-sensei." the boy supplied in terms of an explanation.

Cautious still, but also curious on what would come out of this... Shikadai finally nodded. "Alright. I won't tell anyone."

...

What the boy didn't expect to find himself in was a... thrift store.

"What... are we doing here?"

The shop was nothing big, at least when compared to the newly growing shops all around Konoha. What they specialized in seemed to be handicraft, wooden items, various in shapes and sizes. While they all looked very good and nice, Shikadai was at a loss as to why Mitsuki brought him to this particular shop.