What Will Be

Chapter 7

Sasuke tapped his foot impatiently, glaring at Naruto. "Can you quit it with the incessant pacing? It's driving me mad."

Naruto scowled at his husband. "Well forgive me for being just a bit anxious. After all, we're about to go on a S ranked mission with my 15 year old son."

Nevertheless, he stilled to a stop. Boruto blinked at his parents. "What?" Sasuke frowned. "Oh right. I didn't tell you." Naruto screeched with surprise. "You didn't even tell him?!"

Sasuke shrugged. "To be fair there wasn't really any time." Naruto screeched again, running around in circles and flailing his arms around. The older raven scowled. "Oh shut up you overdramatic idiot."

Boruto had to bite his lip to keep from a smile appearing. I'm so glad they haven't changed one bit. I was a bit worried they would become like my father and Sasuke- No. He shook his head. They don't exist anymore.

For some reason that thought brought a pang to his chest. Before he had any time to contemplate his feelings, a disgusted voice filled his ears.

"Naruto what the hell." Neji grimaced, and Gaara looked away to keep from laughing. The dramatic blonde stopped spinning, turning to look at their guests. He beamed. "Gaara! And Neji!"

Gaara gave Naruto a polite nod and grin, allowing the man to pull him into a hug. "Naruto. It's good to see you." Neji just scoffed, greeting Sasuke with a small box wrapped up with a bow.

"You'd think after he became Hokage he'd stop being so frivolous." Sasuke nodded in agreement. The two shared a mutual smirk at Naruto's squawk of protest behind them.

The raven glanced down at the box suspiciously. "What is this?" Neji cackled. "Open it and find out." With a frown, Sasuke complied. "What the hell is this?"

The brunette placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Art, Sasuke. It's art." Inside the box was a low quality picture of Sasuke from his genin days, legs crouched in a squat and head tilted to the side as if it were detached from his neck.

"Where did you get this?" Neji shrugged. "I have my secrets." Sasuke shot him a look, before quickly setting it on fire. "Screw you." Neji sighed wistfully. "If only."

The brunette laughed as Sasuke's face morphed into one of disgust.

"Um, hi?"

Neji blinked, having just noticed the other raven standing to his side. "Oh hey Boruto." Boruto smiled sheepishly. "Hey... Neko." Sasuke's eyes widened, and he turned to the side, smacking a hand over his mouth.

Neji scowled at Sasuke's muffled laugh. He turned back to Boruto, and if looks could kill, Boruto would have been chopped up and buried in 90 different places by now. "Um, is that not your name?"

Sasuke took a deep breath, containing himself. "Right. I forgot. Boruto, you and Neji never really talked back then, did you?" Boruto shook his head furiously, terrified eyes locked onto Neji's cold glare.

"Boruto, this is Neji. Neji, Boruto." He grinned. "The one who died." Neji blinked. "Ehh? So this is what you meant? Did past Boruto's consciousness get transferred to your son?"

Boruto winced. "Not... quite?"

The brunette glowered at the teen. "Shut up." "Yes sir." Boruto replied immediately.

Sasuke sighed. "I'll tell you on the way. Naruto!" He called out to where his husband was chattering away with Gaara. "Time to go!"

The blonde nodded eagerly, welcoming the familiar pre-mission rush. The four adults plus Boruto set off.

~*~

The group must have only traveled about one day before they stumbled across a hint.

Gaara frowned, staring down at the ground. "Naruto! Come here." The blonde ran over, looking around at his surroundings. "What is it?"

The redhead nodded to the ground. "Look. It's Hinata's bracelet." Naruto narrowed his eyes. That was the bracelet that Kiba wove for her with the flowers Akamaru collected. Preserving it with chakra, Hinata never took it off.

"Something must be really wrong for her to drop this." He and Sasuke shared a look. "Something that she can't handle by herself." Sasuke frowned, walking over and crouching down.

"Wait. Look." Naruto's eyes snapped to the bracelet in Sasuke's hands. The raven scowled. "Okari poison." Gaara leaned over. "How can you tell?"

Sasuke frowned. "Look how quickly the flowers are dying, as if the chakra was being sucked out of them." Naruto blinked. "But the flowers must have been exposed to the poison hours ago. How come it's just starting to drain now?"

It clicked in their heads at the exact same time. "Hinata." Naruto muttered. Sasuke nodded in agreement. "She must have used some counteragent jutsu connected to our chakra and designed to release as soon as it made contact with us."

Naruto stared in awe. "That's amazing. She must have been working with Sakura on the new project. Sakura seemed so excited when she told me about it." Neji frowned, activating his Byakugan.

"Sasuke, that isn't pure Okari poison. It's similar to the one Naruto was injected with back then, but there's a new component." He furrowed his brows. "It's chakra patterns follow those of a sedative. It's non-lethal, unlike the one Naruto had."

The blonde scowled. "What on Earth are these bastards trying to do?" Sasuke frowned, taking a closer look at the flowers. "This substance seems... familiar." Naruto tilted his head curiously.

Sasuke's eyes widened, Sharingan spinning wildly. "Naruto... This sedative is exactly like the one Orochimaru used on me when I first left the village."

"Ehh? How do you know?"

Sasuke scoffed. "I may have been emotionally constipated back then, but I wasn't an idiot. Of course I memorized every detail of what they drugged me with."

Gaara sighed. "Well I guess we know where our next stop is." Neji nodded, eyes burning with determination. Sasuke sighed. "Time to reunite with my former sensei."

Off to the side, Boruto's eyes widened. He had been listening with rapt attention ever since the name 'Orochimaru' was mentioned.

Orochimaru... He thought. He'll know what happened to Mitsuki.

Ah, so sorry for the delay! It's been quite a long time hasn't it? Those of you who have read Sass-suke already know, but I decided to finish that story before continuing this one, and I have! Finally! So sorry, but the good news is updates should be regular (every week) from now on!

Hope you enjoyed!