Boruto Light Novel 4

Part 3 (Hoshigake Shizuma)

"Erk!"

After taking a strong water style hit, Boruto tumbled backwards like a rag doll.

"This is what you get for believing in the pretend peace that surrounds this village... This is what it feels like to have your life taken away from you. High price to pay isn't it? Hokage's son..."

The smile on the man's face resembled that of a shark as he calmly stepped forward towards the beaten and bloodied Boruto.

Hoshigaki Shizuma. Related by blood to Hoshigaki Kisame: a fearsome ninja who served the fourth Mizukage, Yagura. He was a skilled ninja who once served as an instructor at Hidden Mist's Academy. Perhaps due to his origin, he believed strongly in the ideals present during the Bloody Mist era. It wasn't long before those ideals and behavior cost him his teaching position.

Now, he was standing in front of Boruto and Kagura, overwhelming them with strength and violence.

"There's no way that the guy who helped us yesterday would..."

"Hahaha! It would have been a waste to take your life in a place like that."

"Please stop this, Shizuma-san! What are you trying to do?!" Kagura cried out pathetically to his former teacher.

Shizuma took his time turning over his shoulder. "What am I trying to do? You should know that by now. I'm starting a war. Surely you know what that means don't you? The world is currently in a tense situation where anything could be the spark that starts the fire. If the Hokage's son dies while he's on our soil, that should be plenty to terminate any peace treaties and fan the flames."

"Are you insane...?!" Kagura was holding his breath, barely able to speak.

But Shizuma laughed. "You think I'm insane? Don't joke around, Kagura. The ones who are insane are you guys and the current Mizukage. Us shinobi carry out our missions and live for the rewards we reap... Like a soldier, so to speak."

"He's right. War is life!"

"Yeah! To war!"

Behind him, a man with a rather ugly looking face and another man that was over two meters tall shouted their agreeance. There were five shinobi total who seemed to resonate with Shizuma's ideals. Perhaps these were the people he was talking about when he spoke of the "new seven ninja swordsmen."

"Shizuma-san... I'm really thankful that you have covered for me all this time... So please rethink what you're doing. At the rate you're going, I'll have to get you arrested..."

"Arrest? Arrest huh. The one who will receive punishment isn't me... It'll be Chojuro. Won't it now, Kagura?"

"Huh?!"

"Chojuro uses assassins to eliminate his enemies. As evidence of that, our family's names aren't anywhere on that memorial monument. That includes yours too, Kagura. All he does is try to pretend like nothing is wrong. We're starting a war to quiet these people's troubled minds!"

"T-that being said... It's insanity for one shinobi to start a war on their own!"

"Gaining status as a shinobi has always been accomplished by any means necessary. That's how the Mist did things in the past, isn't it? You can't deny that. Can you now, Kagura? Especially not when you're the grandson of the fourth Mizukage!"

"That! That's..."

It was true. Kagura was the grandson of the very man whose ideals Shizuma and the others were chasing. Judging by the fact that Kagura desperately averted his eyes upon being confronted, he lost his ability to retort back.

"Have you forgotten already? When you take up your katana, you dye everything red with blood. Swallowed up by impulse, you even cut me down back in your academy days... That was the best."

At that, Kagura's expression crumpled in anguish. That incident was the very reason Kagura was terrified of wielding a Katana.

"But your great talents are waning. You're getting rusty. Such is the nature of peaceful times... If it was back in your academy days, you could have cut me down and saved that little brat..."

Shizuma pointed the tip of his blade at Boruto's neck. Boruto was all but beaten, unable to stand to his feet.

"Knock it off! I can't kill people!"

"Then bite down on your finger and watch me do it for you!"

Just as Shizuma's blade was about to come down on Boruto, Kagura cried out and fell to his knees in a dogeza.

"Please! I bed of you! Stop!"

Shizuma paused.

"Please... Don't do this! He's... Boruto is my friend..." With trembling hands, Kagura pulled out a single key. "Take this. It will give you access to the ninja blades... That's what you're after, isn't it?"

The blades Kagura illuded to were none other than the famous seven ninja swords, including the Hiramekarei. As Chojuro's right hand man, Kagura had the key to the vault where they were kept.

"So you do understand then..." Shizuma's lips stretched into a smile as if everything was going according to plan.

"D... Don't do it... Kagu—" The fallen Boruto choked the words out.

But Kagura interrupted him with a desperate plea. "In exchange! In exchange... Please... Please spare Boruto's life!"

"Kagura--!" He had no choice but to accept Kagura's resolve.

"Very well..." Shizuma smiled in an eerily peaceful manor. "Lift up your head, Kagura."

Kagura's complexion was like that of a corpse.

"That's right. That sounds good... I'll have you come with me for the time being. As both Yagura's grandson and a new member of the revived seven ninja swordsmen, that is."

"...As you wish." He stood to his feet like a puppet doll attached to its master's hand by strings.

"Stop! Don't join them!" Boruto yelled out.

But Kagura only shook his head, tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry Boruto... It seems like my blade isn't sharp enough to cut through the past... Nothing changes the fact that I'm the fourth Mizukage... Yagura's grandson."

The fog surrounding them was dyed an eerie blood-red. All seven people turned and slowly disappeared one by one as if being swallowed up by it. And finally... Kagura's form disappeared with them.

"Ur...g...h! Kagu... ra..." With that, Boruto who had been severely beaten, lost consciousness.