Boruto Light Novel 4

Part 3 (Boruto's Disappearance)

It wasn't until Sarada ran into Sumire after lunch that she realized something was wrong.

She and Cho-Cho had gone out souvenir shopping. They ended up buying more than they could comfortably carry, so they returned to the hotel to drop off their bags. Actually, the majority of the items were purchased by Cho-Cho. Sarada was just tagging along.

While Cho-Cho carried her bags up to her hotel room, Sarada sat in the lobby, interested in finding a new sight seeing destination. But just as she was about to open the pamphlet, a desperate voice called her from afar.

"Sarada!"

She turned around to find Sumire running towards her. It was unusual to see the calm and collected class prez in this much of a panic. Her facial expression alone told Sarada that whatever was wrong, it was urgent.

"What happened?" Sarada's expression indicated a puzzled concern.

"Boruto-kun is missing," she whispered close to Sarada's ear.

"Huh??!" Her eyes popped open in surprise for a mere moment. But when that moment ended, she swallowed down all of her shock.

Sumire went through the effort to make sure her voice was low enough that only Sarada could hear. It must have been something she wanted to keep under wraps. Sarada did her best to feign calmness as she listened to Sumire's story.

It seemed like after Boruto left that morning, he hadn't come back at all. Not even Denki and Shikadai knew where he was. Mitsuki, who was usually found somewhere near Boruto, was missing as well. Perhaps they'd gone missing together.

Judging by her conversation that morning, it was possible he was still out with Kagura somewhere. But Sarada didn't want to believe that he was irresponsible enough to go completely missing. It was true that she generally thought of him as a troublemaker. But at the same time, Boruto had a trustworthy and reasonable side as well.

"We should probably figure out what happened to him, shouldn't we..."

"Yeah," said Sumire, nodding her head in agreement.

Sarada hesitated. This was a foreign country... One that used to be at war with Konoha. Just yesterday, people tried to start a fight with them for that very reason. There were probably others with grudges against Konoha from their past doings.

It was true that Boruto was skilled. For an academy student, that was. But his range of abilities didn't extend beyond that. He could hold his own against other genin without a problem. But the people likely to hold grudges would be older. More experienced.

Should I let the teachers know in advance?

When she thought about it logically, that was her best option. Telling Shino or Anko sensei would ensure Boruto's safety. But... What if that wasn't the case?

She did trust Boruto, but it wasn't like she could completely rule out the possibility of him goofing off either.

"Let's try to do something about it from our end," said Sumire.

At first, Sarada couldn't read Sumire's intent.

"I'll deceive the teachers until you get back... So you should go look for Boruto-kun."

"W-Why?" Sarada stuttered. "If we're going to look for him, wouldn't it be better to have everyone else help us? Or more importantly, I think telling the teachers first would be..."

At her words, Sumire smiled lightly and shook her head. There was nothing about her expression that came off as strong, but Sarada could see strong will in her eyes.

"If we tell the teachers, the field trip will get canceled, won't it? I don't think Boruto-kun would want that..."

"That's true, but..."

She couldn't finish her sentence.

Sarada also felt the same way. Normally, she was the type of person who saw everything as black and white with no in between. She could make the best decision in a split second.

But for some reason, this situation was different. Likely because of the lack of knowledge she had on the subject. Not only was she unsure about the circumstances, she'd also never seen or experienced anything quite like this.

If it was a normal everyday life situation, she would have assumed Boruto was just goofing off and made an immediate decision about what to do. She'd even go as far as to say that correcting him came easy to her.

But now, everything was different.

A single erroneous choice could lead to fatal consequences depending on what was actually happening. She had to chose a path of caution. All of the thoughts swirled around in her head as she tried to chose.

"You know... I never brought this up before, but I was actually saved by Boruto-kun a little while ago."

"You mean when you took a break from school?"

Sumire nodded.

Sarada thought something like that had happened. Something that she was extremely grateful to Boruto for.

"Even if it's just a little bit, I'd like to repay him."

"...."

Sarada sensed the feelings of her friend. Sumire was sincere. There wasn't a hint of doubt in her voice. And after seeing her unwavering expression, Sarada bid her hesitation goodbye.

"Understood. I'll go look for him. But before I leave, let me say... I don't think Boruto saved you because he was expecting something in return."

"I know. This is just me being selfish."

After putting it like that, Sarada had no reason to refuse her. "If possible, make sure no one knows, huh..."

Sarada waved her hand as if to say, "you can leave the rest to me," and left the lobby to exit the hotel. On her way, she passed by Cho-Cho who was returning from dropping off her things.

"Huh? Sarada, where are you going?"

"Sorry. I'm going to go off on my own for a little while. In return, you can eat the potato chips I bought yesterday," she said, quickly walking away.

As her best friend, Cho-Cho understood Sarada without her having to give a direct explanation.

"Careful on your way out," she said with a light smile and wave.

And with that, Sarada left town in search of the missing Boruto...