Sarada, Himawari and Boruto were back at the house. The sky was darkening while they were just playing around in Boruto's house.
"I really should be going home Boruto." Sarada had been impatient when they got home and didn't find Boruto's Mom home. She had expected she would be able to go home when they got back.
"Yeah but I don't think you should go back with my Mom back there. I think we should wait for Mom." Boruto was reluctant. He had asked his Mom for Sarada, he thought that even if there wasn't much of a problem the adults could catch up.
"Boruto, I can see Dad." Himawari ran outside. Boruto didn't know when she had activated her Byakugan.
"Himawari wait for me." Boruto figured he could wait at the door.
"Lord Sixth?" Sarada abandoned the thought of going back home.
"Dad, Dad..." Himawari was really excited she had ran to the gate while Boruto and Sarada was at the door.
"Hey my little princess. How was your day?" Dad picked up Himawari, spinning her around.
"He he he.... I am not a little girl anymore?" Himawari said half protesting.
"Oh is that right?" Dad laughed in response. Carrying Himawari in one hand while going to the house.
"Yeah that's right and you should put me down?" Himawari said with a big smile on her face.
“My little princess is all grown up and doesn't want Dad to pick her up? Does that mean I can put you down and pick up your brother?" Dad had already come to the door. He put Himawari and picked up Boruto and Sarada.
"Hey Dad you can't just pick people up." Boruto protested as little as Himawari had protested.
"Um Lord Sixth, can you please put me down?" Sarada was embarrassed.
“Ehh… but I have to give you all those cuddles I saved up for Himawari. Who would've thought my little princess would be a big princess and not want her Dad to pick her up?” Dad said, feigning a sad expression.
“Ehh… but I never said anything about cuddles."
“Cuddles come with being carried by your Dad, don't they?” Dad asked Boruto and Sarada who he had already put down.
“Of course, Lord Sixth, that is what my Mom always said.” Sarada said, brushing off the embarrassment.
“Hmm… you guys are not tricking me right?”
Himawari knew everybody was joking. Boruto recognized the glint in her eyes. She probably wanted everyone to go along with the act so that she would feel less embarrassed.
“Nobody is tricking you.” Boruto said, almost smiling. “Dad picks up Mom too, right?”
“Hmm… in that case Dad, you can pick me up now?”
Himawari said with what she always said was a ‘princess-like’ expression. Dad picked her up and tickled her, collapsing her ‘princess-like’ expression.
"I am not just Lord Sixth. I am your uncle Sarada, you should relax." He came into the house. "Oh where's your Mom."
"Oh Mom went to see aunt Sakura." Boruto answered.
"Oh yeah. When did she go out?”
“She went out just after we got home.” Boruto answered Dad.
“Ok. I felt a disturbance in Hima’s Seal today. I wanna hear all about your training." Boruto and Himawari's dad said taking off his shoes putting Himawari down.
"Oh yeah Dad why are you so early today?" Himawari said. Boruto thought that maybe it was because of Himawari's seal.
"I finished looking at mission reports early, so I left the rest of the work to a shadow clone." Dad always looked at mission reports with his real body.
"Uncle Lord Sixth, did you sense our training?" Sarada was excited. Boruto thought she thought that his Dad was going to give them pointers.
"Not uncle Lord Sixth. Just uncle or uncle Naruto. I am always telling you that, aren't I?" He had already finished taking his shoes off. "And yeah I sensed you training, it seemed that my little princess had strained herself. You ok Hima?" He was looking at Himawari.
"Yeah I am fine. I didn't even feel anything until Boruto pointed it out."
"In that case I can't wait to hear all about it. Let's go out into the yard."
Boruto wanted to tell Dad about him spotting the red Chakra and ensuring Sarada's safety and about how he had calmed down Himawari.
They sat in the yard explaining how they had spared.
"So when I saw the red Chakra on Himawari's hand I immediately used body flicker and saved Sarada." Boruto was excitedly explaining their spar.
"No you didn't, I was never going to hurt Sarada." Himawari protested.
"No you didn't, I was never in any danger." Sarada protested.
"Oh looks like everyone was safe. You did good by not letting Sarada touch the Chakra. And it seems my little princess knows how to hold back. And congratulations on awakening your Sharingan Sarada." Dad was happy with their progress.
As Boruto, Sarada and Himawari were talking to Dad it had eventually approached sunset. As they were talking Mom came back.
"Boruto, Himawari, Mom is back!" Dad had said standing up and going into the front yard.
"Mom, Mom!!!" Himawari excitedly walked with Dad whose steps were a little faster than usual.
Boruto and Sarada both got up and walked a little slower. When the got to the front yard Mom was already holding Himawari up in a hug.
"Mom I am not a little girl anymore." Himawari said with the same complaint every day.
"I am sorry. You were running so fast towards me I just had to catch you." Mom said tickling Himawari. She walked up to door putting Himawari down and hugging Dad.
Boruto could have sworn that Mom had whispered something in dad's ear.
"Boruto and Sarada how did your training go when I was out?" Mom let go of Dad and walked up to Boruto and Sarada brushing both their heads with her hands.
"It was great, I saved Sarada using body flicker from Himawari's red Chakra." Boruto excitedly forgot about the details of the spar.
"No you didn't. I was never going to hurt Sarada. You keep saying that like my Chakra is some kind of monster or something." Himawari was actually a little upset this time.
"Yeah you didn't Boruto. I was perfectly safe. You shouldn't exaggerated." Sarada sounded annoyed.
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"Umm yeah sorry about that. Yeah um eh... Yeah so Himawari's Chakra was kinda red so I called off the spar." Boruto stumbled over his words.
"Didn't I call of the spar?" Himawari was confused.
"Yeah you just got me out of range of Himawari and calmed her down. Himawari called it off after she calmed down right?" Sarada also chimed in.
"Oh so you were sparing and Himawari lost control of her Chakra, so Boruto used body flicker to give Hima space and calmed her down?" Mom said almost completely following the whole thing.
"Yeah I felt like I could control my Chakra for I bit. I didn't even feel the Chakra going out of control. I thought I had it all under control." Himawari said with a disappointed tone, by then they were inside.
"Boruto, Himawari and Sarada would you like to go to Ichiraku today for some ramen?" Dad suddenly said.
"Yeah." Himawari excitedly said.
"Yeah." Sarada also said.
"But we had ramen for lunch?" Boruto confusedly asked both Sarada and Himawari.
"Yeah but we can have the Naruto topping." Himawari said.
"Oh I want the seaweed one." Sarada said a little more excited this time.
"...Ok." Boruto said dejected.
"Ok it's decided then. Let's go!" Dad said.
"Um... Eh Mrs Uzumaki what did mom say?" Sarada said before everyone got carried away.
"Oh yeah it was just a little problem with the baby, nothing major. Your Mom is the best medical Shinobi in that field so nothing can stump her. I think she should tell you about everything else I don't know much about the medical Ninjutsu involved." Mom said with a smile on her face.
"Oh yeah Mom are you coming with us? You never miss a day out to Ichiraku right?" Himawari said a little after.
"No I have to do some stuff at home. Go with your dad alright?" Mom said to Himawari.
"Yeah Mom is going to be a little busy, so let's go. We'll go by Sarada's place and drop her off afterwards. " Dad said after Mom had said.
Boruto felt like he was missing something, even when they put their shoes on and going to Ichiraku all the while talking about their day he felt like both his Mom and Dad were acting strange. He looked towards Himawari hoping that she didn't notice anything amiss and found her looking straight at him looking like she was on the verge of panicking.
'She must have been looking at me the whole time.' Boruto was now actually panicking himself. He tried to ignore Sarada hoping that she would forget along the way, but by the time they were halfway there he couldn't anymore. She had already seen him panicking.
Boruto signaled Sarada to slow down while dad and Himawari pulled ahead.
He built a mind palace in order to be quite. When he pointed at his forehead Sarada already had her Sharingan active.
"What was going on? Why were you acting like your mom and Lord Sixth were suspicious? I saw you when your mom was talking about my Mom you had this strange face? What was that all about?" Sarada listed all he questions immediately.
"Hey I don't know I just thought that Mom was acting weird is all and Dad acts weird all the time so I don't know what that was about. I just think they know some grown-up stuff that they aren't telling you or me." Boruto answered honestly.
"Then why did you panic when I looked at you?" Sarada was frantic.
"Hey I just thought that you thought Mom wasn't telling the truth." Boruto said digging a deeper hole.
"What made you think that, I was just looking at you, do you know something?" Sarada was actually panicking now.
"Hey, hey I don't know anything. I just think you should ask your mom if it is something small like Mom said?" Boruto tried to convince her that she could get all the answers from her Mom.
"Do you think something is wrong with my brother?" Sarada seemed like she was about to cry.
"Look I don't know. I just think that you really should ask your Mom. And besides there's always my Dad. Dad can do anything." Boruto tried to comfort Sarada.
Immediately after he said that he was back on the road and Sarada was looking forward wiping away tears at the corner of her eyes. She sped up and within a minute she was smiling again, though to Boruto the smile felt like a pinprick to the heart.
They were at Ichiraku's eating ramen. The sun was already setting. Dad had decided to regale them with his war stories.
"So Dad does that mean you actually died?" Himawari was shocked that she stopped eating for a while. Boruto and Sarada had studied the war in class but that had been an academic study in this case the narrative form was more interesting.
"Oh I don't actually know. It seems that most Jinchuriki die even if their Tailed Beast is put back inside them after extraction." Dad explained. He occasionally ate some noodles while answering their questions.
"But Lord Sixth I heard that your heart never stopped because of Mom?" Sarada was invested and seemed more calm now. She ate her ramen with ease.
"Yeah that's what your mom told me too, but I didn't feel anything during all that while. There was this pain first, then sinking and then I opened my eyes to the Sixth Paths Sage. I don't actually know if the Sage saved me, if it because of the power of Six Paths Senjutsu or if it was Kurama that brought me back." Dad answered. Himawari was a little scared and secretly so was Boruto and Sarada.
"Hey Dad you said that you don't know if the Sage Of Six Paths saved you or if Six Paths Senjutsu saved you, isn't that the same?" Boruto was confused by that detail. He was enjoying his ramen more that he wanted to admit.
"Yeah that's just the thing. I probably could have had learnt imperfect Six Paths Senjutsu due to being the Jinchuriki of all the Tailed Beasts as Obito gave me their Chakra or if not even after giving me Six Paths Senjutsu the Sage could have expected me to survive because of the Senjutsu alone. In the case of the Six Paths Sage saving me he could have pulled me from going to the pure land." Dad explained.
"Oh so Lord Sixth means either Six Paths Senjutsu itself saved you or the Sage saved you?" Sarada said seriously thinking through the events. She drank up some soup. She had again forgot what dad told her to call him.
"It not Lord Sixth it is either Uncle or Uncle Naruto. I just told you didn't I?" Dad mentioned it again.
"Eh... Umm yeah Uncle?" Sarada seemed uncomfortable saying it. She was probably going to default to Lord Sixth tomorrow as always.
"Oh yeah Dad what did you mean by Kurama Sensei saved you?" Boruto was confused as Dad had said that most Jinchuriki die without their Tailed Beast.
"Oh yeah that is hard to explain, I didn't understand it until I worked on the Gates with Guy Sensei. So the thinking is that a Jinchuriki and their Tailed Beasts are one being, so if the Tailed Beast is extracted the Jinchuriki becomes incomplete and die from that incompleteness. So if the Tailed Beast is then put back the Tailed Beast might have a choice on whether to complete that incompleteness or carve out a new space for themselves, or otherwise the seal might not be able to guide the Tailed Beast to the wound in the Jinchuriki. If the Tailed Beast wants to save it Jinchuriki it might close up that wound, but in any other case they both die. Well I discussed it with Kurama and he doesn't know too so it might be not be true." Dad paused eating to explain in detail. Boruto and Sarada were both glad they were in Guy Sensei's class so they could follow all that.
"Ok so sealing Tailed Beast inside Jinchuriki is bad all around?" Himawari's take away from all that was pretty simple. At this point all that was left in her bowl was the soup.
"Yeah of course, but in your case the seal is not to seal anything inside you but to make sure Kurama is protected if I am ever in danger. Kurama will protect you in my stead and you will protect Kurama from being controlled." Dad said reassuring Himawari preemptively. His bowl of ramen was all done. He ordered another one.
"Do you want another one Hima?" Dad asked as he was ordering another.
"Yeah." Himawari said finishing the soup quickly.
"So Lord... I mean Uncle, what happened after that?" Sarada wanted to keep listening to the war stories.
"Obito opened his Kamui and I got out. When I did, I sped to Madara and Guy Sensei's battle. I then kept Guy Sensei alive with Ying Yang Transformation and battled Madara shortly afterwards." Dad said digging into his new bowl.
"So how did you save Guy Sensei, he said there was some kind of seal on his heart?" Boruto said remembering class.
"Yeah I used Ying Yang Transformation to recreate the blood that he lost and to patch up his veins and the hole in his chest. The sealing I used for his Eight Gate."
Dad ended up talking about the war the whole night. Boruto and Sarada both ended up getting an extra bowl of ramen too. By the time they were done the lights had been lit up for a while in the village.
"Thanks again Ayame for the great food." Dad said getting up.
"Thanks Aunty Ayame." Boruto, Himawari and Sarada said.
"Thank you for eating here again Naruto... I mean Lord Sixth." Aunty Amaye slipped up showing her familiarity with Dad.
"It ok it's only me and the kids there's no need to be so formal he he he." Dad said laughing is good-naturedly.
"Yeah it still hard to believe you used to come here as a kid saying you will be the Hokage and now you are the Hokage and come with kids that would have been your age back then." Aunty Amaye smiled in response.
"Yeah that was a while ago. Say hello to Teuchi for me. And tell him to get better soon." Dad said saying goodbye.
"I'll do that. You look after yourself too Naruto and don't let that Hokage job stop you from coming over." Aunty Amaye said her goodbyes.
Boruto, Himawari and their Dad were walking Sarada home. Everybody was satisfied with the noodles they had for dinner.
"So Umm... Uncle does having Six Paths Senjutsu really mean you can become a skilled medic immediately?" Sarada revived the war stories conversation.
"Not really. It is more like a kind of enlightenment, a feeling like everything in the make up of heaven and earth can be understood. When I got it it felt like I could just reach out and restore anything in the world that was out of place. Well now I think any of my friends would find it hard to stay hurt when I am around." Dad gave a confusing explanation as he always did when explaining Six Paths.
"Oh yeah Dad I was wondering if I could learn the Eight Inner Gates?" Boruto said out of nowhere.
"Ehh but you where learning Senjutsu from dad and Kurama Sensei?" Himawari was more suprised than Dad seemed to be.
"Yeah Boruto I don't think that's a good idea." Sarada chimed in.
"I don't know. Why do you wanna learn the Eight Inner Gates anyway?" Dad seemed to want to understand.
"Probably because he thinks its cool." Himawari said before he could say.
"Yeah he probably wants to be the coolest Ninja to ever live or something he he." Sarada exaggerated knowing that was part of the reason.
"I do think it cool, but that's not the reason." Boruto felt so at ease at that moment that their teasing didn't bother him as much as it could have.
"Eh so you think Senjutsu is less cool than the Eight Gates?" Dad said in fake sadness.
Boruto debated immediately saying yes but he held back.
"No I just think it could help me learn Six Paths Senjutsu. I don't think I'll have enough Chakra to learn Six Paths Senjutsu anytime soon so if I could use the Eight Gates that would help me a lot." Boruto said filled with hope.
"Boruto, I told you before didn't I. Senjutsu is about understanding, if you can't understand with your Chakra right now what make you think more Chakra will help. On top of that I know you understand some of the stuff Kurama has been teaching you. I don't understand why you are giving up in this situation?" Dad seemed more serious than usual.
"I am not giving up!!" Boruto answered back feeling interrogated.
"Hhm... In that case let's make a deal. If you can get into Sage mode and become Chunin I will ask Guy Sensei and Kakashi Sensei to help you in opening the Eight Inner Gates." Dad knew how much he liked Kakashi Sensei. He was more forgiving when he proclaimed he wasn't giving up.
"What about me Dad?" Himawari didn't want to be left out.
"So uhm for my little princess I don't think you can learn Sage Arts with your Chakra so unstable." Dad said trying to be comforting.
"... But Boruto gets to do Eight Gates stuff even though he is supposed to learn Six Paths?" Himawari seemed to really want to do her own thing.
"You are right. In that cat starting tomorrow I'll teach you the Rasengan." Dad gave her something cool to look forward to.
Boruto wanted to learn too but he couldn't ask after Dad just gave her that promise.
"Oh yeah Sarada if you ever wanna learn Sage Arts I'll teach you." Dad said to Sarada who had been quite for a while.
"Umm Lord Sixth what do you mean?" Sarada didn't expect to be called.
"You know your Mom wants to use her Strength of a Hundred Seals as a core to somehow learn Six Paths, that's why we were working on the Base Transformation Seals. If we could condense them your Mom could use them to create some kind of Seal that could accumulate Six Paths Senjutsu like the Strength of a Hundred Seals does with Chakra." Dad said.
"I'll talk to Mom... Uncle." Sarada said after a while.
The walked for a while going to Sarada's place. Along the way they talked a while about school and Boruto and Sarada's graduation. After a while they had gotten to her gate.
"Say hello to your Mom. I gotta get home with Boruto and Himawari so I can't risk coming." Dad said to Sarada saying goodbye.
"Good night Sarada." Boruto and Himawari said. Himawari was getting sleepy at this point.
"Good night Lord Sixth, good night Boruto and Himawari." Sarada said.
"Sarada I am your uncle. Don't worry about your Mom, no matter what kind of problem she has I would have to pull together all the resources of the village to solve it. She is a cornerstone of the village, her problems are the village's problems and therefore the Hokage's problems, Ok?" Dad said. It seemed that he had always known about Sarada's distress.
"... Thanks Uncle?" Sarada said looking a bit more relaxed. When she got to her door they went home.
Himawari and Boruto went to sleep almost immediately after getting home.