He woke up with a groan and a splitting headache. The sunlight shone blindingly into his eyes, forcing him to cover his face with his arm. Not only his head but his entire body was aching with soreness as if he had gone through an awfully intense training session that left him immobile for hours on end. He stretched his leg, and a series of pops sounded out.
"W-what's going on?" He asked with a hoarse voice but received no answer other than the chirping of a few birds near him. "Dad?" He called out again and once again received no answer beyond the chirps of some birds. "Right … My eye reacted with that Kāma whatever thing Kawaki had. Is this what Dad warned me about?"
He sat up, feeling as if his body was jammed up and unable to move with the fluidity that he was used to as a ninja. His first instinct was to twist his torso as he stretched his spine, following that by stretching his limbs and neck as he finally got up to his feet. Around him, all he saw were trees and grass, which prompted him to jump up and mobilize his chakra to walk up a tree. The situation with his chakra was the same, feeling as if his tenketsu were jammed up and needed to be warmed up before they could fluidly work with his chakra.
It took him more than a few minutes before he had enough control to step up the tree and stand on its branch. It wasn't tall enough to increase his visibility by much, prompting him to jump around a few more trees until he climbed up a truly tall one and poked his head through the canopy of its leaves.
"I'm still in Konoha… but something seems off." On a closer look, he couldn't notice the prominent railway station of the train tracks going out of the village. The powerhouse was also missing, alongside the cell towers and some high-rise buildings.
"I've seen old Konoha in a photo before, and this looks nothing like that. That rules out Time Travel. What else could've happened? This is definitely not my Konoha. It's like someone came and removed some of the things I'm familiar with and replaced them … The chakra moving around also feels different. I'm inside, but they haven't detected me yet. Otherwise, they would've sent out scouts and found me by now. What should I do? Is this an illusion?"
The moment the thought came to him, he attempted to release the genjutsu by releasing his chakra with a shock to himself, but nothing changed.
[Boruto?]
"Dad!" He jumped excitedly, almost falling down from the tree. "Where the hell are you? What happened?"
[I can't hear you. Try to speak to me in your mind. I'm talking to you via telepathy.]
[Dad?]
[You're okay …] Naruto's voice sounded relieved. [Where are you right now?]
[Exactly where I disappeared from. But everything seems off. Konoha is all different. What happened? Am I in a genjutsu of some sort?]
[Patience. As long as you're okay. Try to get out of Konoha. Since the scouts haven't detected you, that means that your chakra might not have flagged their system just yet. I'm going to suppress your chakra to make sure it stays inside your body, making you seem exactly the same as a civilian.]
Boruto felt a sudden suction force from his hand that started absorbing whatever chakra was released from his body, trapping everything inside.
[It's that seal you gave me …]
[It's called the Dominion Mark. It is the reason I am still able to communicate with you right now. Now move out of Konoha; it's not safe for you.]
[What do you mean? If it's not safe, it's better for me to stay here, no? I can infiltrate and find out information about them from the inside. What's even going on? Was I sent to the future or something?]
[Boruto, listen to me. Leave Konoha. I will explain the situation to you on the way. This is not a game.]
Naruto's voice sounded weirdly compelling to Boruto, and he felt his feet moving before he even completely processed the words. He quickly made his way through the trees to reach the wall at the edge of the village.
[What's going on, Dad?]
[A little less than two months ago, your Aunt Ino had a unique experience. For more than a month, she was gone.]
[But—]
[Listen to me before you speak. The Ino you interacted with during that period of time could loosely be defined as an imposter. Ino was in the same place that you are right now. It is an alternate reality where you do not exist. It might seem like genjutsu at first, but it is as real as our reality.]
[I don't get it …]
[Think of our reality. Our past, present, and future. Imagine it as a straight line that begins at the start of existence and concludes when everything is destroyed. That string is a culmination of the decisions of each and every entity in our reality. Going from the most insignificant civilian who lives their life as an ordinary worker to the Hokage. Everyone's decisions culminate into a single reality, our reality. Now imagine if a single decision was made differently. If Hinata and I decided not to have another kid after you were born. In that case, that string would diverge from its defined path, creating another timeline. That string would diverge from our reality at the moment that Hinata and I decided not to have Himawari. In that reality, Himawari would not exist.]
[It's complicated, but I think I get it …]
[You will figure it out when you put some more thought into it. Ino found herself in an alternate reality parallel to ours. Here, I established a special program to revitalize the Uzumaki Clan after killing Sasuke in the Fourth Ninja War.]
[You killed him?]
[I that reality, yes. That specific revitalization program allows me to marry multiple women.]
[Damn, Dad. You're a pervert, huh?]
[Under those circumstances, you were never really born in this reality. The kids that my alternate version has with Hinata's alternate version are completely different. For one, all of them have red hair. I assume that a technique was used to amplify the Uzumaki genes in his kids, which made sure that every kid he had was born with very dominant Uzumaki features.]
[And Aunt Ino spent a month here? Is she a part of your harem as well?]
[Not mine. The alternate version of me.]
[That's such a mouthful, Dad. Did she cheat on Uncle Sai? He's been in Suna for so long. She was probably lonely, no? Did she even get any attention, though? You probably don't have enough time to pay attention to all of your wives here. Then again, if you are so focused on revitalizing your clan, you probably took the initiative to take her to bed.]
[As expected of my pervert son who modeled his sexy jutsu after his Aunt.]
Boruto's eyes widened to the point where he stumbled on a branch, almost falling down.
[What the hell are you talking about?!] He asked in a panic.
[Don't act innocent, brat. I'm the progenitor of that technique. The hairstyle and face are both taken from Hanabi. I wouldn't be surprised if you had peeked at her to get the full template.]
[You're slandering me!]
[It's not slander if it's the truth.]
[Please don't tell Hanabi-nee-chan. She will murder me, Dad. It's not my fault that people are so susceptible to her beauty. That jutsu has saved me so many times.]
[Your secret is safe with me. I am well aware of how effective that technique is with its surprise factor. Just make sure to find an alternative version as well. I found my inspiration from adult magazines, you could try them as well.]
[Too much information, Dad. How about we get back to the conversation we were having?]
Boruto didn't realize it, but the panic that had slowly begun to set in his heart had largely dissipated after bantering with Naruto about the Sexy Jutsu.
[Since you don't exist in this reality but are related to Naruto, there is no telling how they might respond to your existence. That is why your first order of business is to get out of there without being detected.]
[How–how did she come back? Aunt Ino.]
[…I'll be honest with you, Boruto. She got lucky. No one knows this, and I'm going to keep it that way. But someone intervened in her situation. I am not going to have any contact with that person for the foreseeable future.]
[Does that mean that I'm stuck here?] The reality hadn't yet hit Boruto, but when he finished his sentence, a thump in his chest made him lose balance again. He couldn't recover and ended up falling face-first into the trees.
[It's more complicated than that, son. You can return, but it will take a few years. Calm down.]
Boruto didn't respond to Naruto's words.
[Stand up, dammit. I can connect to you. That means I can bring you back home. Get back up. You are my son, not some fool who will give up at the first sign of adversity. You are brave and strong. The first thing you did when waking up in an unfamiliar place wasn't to panic or freeze up. You thought about your options. You adapted. I'm proud of you. Get up and get out of Konoha.]
[My bad …] Boruto needed some time to recover as the sudden panic attack left him immobile. Naruto's words certainly helped significantly in calming him down.
[No problem, son. Grab that Truth-Seeker Orb.] With Naruto's words, Boruto saw a black sphere materialize above the seal on the back of his hand. He instinctively grabbed it, and it wrapped around his hand before taking him up into the air.
"Woah!" He widened his eyes, tightly holding the orb with both hands.
[You will return to us, that is a definite thing. But the circumstances of your return aren't the most peaceful, Boruto. You will be staying there for a while, and you need to get strong. Very strong.]
[What's going on, Dad? How will I come back home?]
[Ino's event happened because our two strings are on a collision course. They are supposed to be parallel and never to intersect after the point of creation. But the event of two realities merging is called an Incursion. The entity who helped bring Ino back is the one who told me all this.]
[So what happens with this Incursion thingy?]
[One of the realities is devoured by the other, or both of them are destroyed.]
[What?!] Boruto would've fallen again if not for the Truth-Seeker Orb wrapped around his arm.
[Exactly. That is the point where you will be able to return home. When both realities collide.]
***
If you like the story, follow it and leave a review and whatever else, it motivates me a lot. I try not to leave any mistakes in the chapters, but if you find something glaring, let me know, and I'll try to fix it.
If you want to support me, check out my Patréon. I post advanced chapters there and do weekly polls to decide the stories that I will be posting for the week. No pressure though, I'm eventually going to post my content publicly regardless.
www.patrèon.com/addyctive
(Replace the è with e)