Chapter 8: Secrets Beneath the Sunlight
Boruto sat on the gym floor, his face caught somewhere between confusion and disbelief. The bottle of spiced honey water in his hand had long since gone warm, but he hadn't moved in minutes.
Across from him, Naruto leaned against the wall, one leg bent, the other stretched, as calm as a monk meditating after a bowl of ramen.
"You… said Clark could be stronger than you?" Boruto finally croaked, like he'd just swallowed a kunai sideways.
Naruto simply nodded.
Boruto blinked. "Clark. Blue tights, cape, 'truth and justice' Clark?"
Naruto smiled gently. "Yep. The man could level planets without blinking. He's just too nice to ever try."
Boruto stared at the floor, the weight of that truth crashing into him like a rogue Rasengan.
It wasn't jealousy that twisted his stomach.
It was that creeping, familiar, unwelcome guest—inferiority.
How was he supposed to live up to that? His father wasn't just powerful—he was legendary. The kind of person people told stories about, carved into monuments, and compared everyone else to.
And now, Boruto had to live up to that.
He didn't realize he had asked the question aloud until Naruto sat up straighter.
"How?" Boruto whispered. "How do I even begin to live up to your name?"
There it was—raw, unfiltered, trembling like a leaf in the wind.
Naruto's smile faltered, and for a moment, the strongest man in the universe looked a little bit... guilty.
"That's my fault," he said quietly, ruffling his spiky blond hair in a rare show of self-reflection. "I should've guided you better. Not just trained you—but talked to you. About how hard it was for me too. About how scared I used to be. About the weight of being me."
Boruto looked up, startled.
"But listen, Boruto… you're already stronger than I was at your age."
Boruto's jaw nearly fell off.
"No, I mean it," Naruto said, chuckling at his son's expression. "When I was sixteen, even with Sage Mode, you'd have wiped the floor with me. One-sidedly. I had bigger chakra reserves, sure, but my control was worse, my strategies were dumb, and I had more guts than brains."
He grinned, eyes twinkling with pride and a hint of nostalgic pain.
"You, on the other hand, have my instinct, your mother's precision, and Master Sasuke's style. You're not a shadow walking behind me—you're blazing your own path."
Boruto felt something inside him shift. Like a door had been kicked open in his chest.
"So… I'm not a failure?" he asked, and hated how young his voice sounded.
"Of course not. You're just someone who needs to believe he's going to be great. The rest? We'll get there together. One step at a time."
Naruto stood and extended a hand.
"Starting with your next trial: Sage Mode."
Boruto blinked. "Wait. You're gonna teach me Sage Mode?"
"I'd be a pretty terrible dad if I didn't," Naruto said, smirking.
"Well, you were kinda terrible for a bit," Boruto muttered before grinning. "But I guess I can forgive you now."
They clasped hands, and for the first time in a long while, Boruto felt something stronger than doubt bloom in his heart.
Hope.
And somewhere, just beneath that…
Excitement.
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The smell of sweat, oil, and faint ozone lingered in the Uzumaki basement gym-turned-workshop, where Boruto stood with a rare glimmer in his eye—not the cocky smirk or daring flash, but something a little more… nerdy.
"Dad," he said, hesitating like he was confessing a secret crush. "Can we bring Katasuki here?"
Naruto looked up from a strange gadget that was humming gently in his hand. "Katasuki? You miss the lab?"
Boruto nodded, a bit sheepish. "I know it's not very ninja or whatever, but I… I love the tech. The drones, the jutsu scrolls, the armor, the gravity gloves—especially the flying swords. And the laser rifle. That was so cool."
He looked down at his hands. "They're all good… but they're not enough. I need better tech if I'm going to keep up with people like Clark."
There was a beat of silence.
Then Naruto burst out laughing.
Boruto blinked. "What—what's so funny?!"
Naruto wiped a tear from the corner of his eye and grinned wide.
"You think you're the first Uzumaki to fall in love with cool gadgets?"
He held up a hand, and from a storage seal on his wrist, summoned a gleaming scroll case etched with strange runes and blinking with tiny chakra lights.
"Boruto, I approved all of Katasuki's research projects. I even improved some of them. All the blueprints, prototypes, and future upgrades—they're in my head."
Boruto's jaw dropped. "You—you like gadgets?!"
Naruto leaned in, eyes sparkling mischievously.
"Of course I love gadgets! Do I look like Sasuke to you? All serious and broody with his cape blowing in the wind? Nah. I'm the guy who played video games in the Hokage office when no one was looking."
He nudged Boruto in the ribs. "You're a lot like me, kid. You've got my spark, my guts, and now you've got my toolbox. The only difference is—" he ruffled his son's hair, "—you don't have the darkness I had to deal with. That makes you better."
Boruto blinked, warmth spreading through his chest.
"So… you'll build me new gear?"
Naruto smirked. "Nope. You'll build it. I'll guide you, sure, but the next-gen tech ninja arsenal is gonna have your name stamped on it."
Boruto suddenly felt ten feet tall.
"Alright then," he said, fire in his eyes, "let's make the coolest gear this world—or any world—has ever seen."
Naruto chuckled. "Now that's my boy."
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Naruto and Hinata: Before the Superman Fight
The Uzumaki household was, for the first time in ages, quiet.
Not a training drone buzzed, not a chakra pulse hummed, and not a single rasengan had been launched through a window in at least three hours.
That, in itself, was a minor miracle.
High above the ground, on a cushioned mat laid over the tiled roof of their new home, Naruto and Hinata basked in the rare tranquility like two cats in a sunbeam. Birds chirped somewhere near the blooming peach tree, and small animals peeked curiously from the edges of the yard, drawn by the subtle hum of life energy radiating from the house like gentle music.
Hinata, graceful and serene, wore a white bikini that looked unfairly divine in the afternoon light, and Naruto… well, Naruto was trying very hard not to get distracted.
Spoiler: he was failing miserably.
Wrapped around her like ivy on a favored tree, Naruto tightened his hold slightly, sighing in satisfaction as her head rested gently against his chest. For someone capable of cracking mountains and distorting space-time, this was the kind of power he actually lived for.
"What are you thinking about?" Hinata asked softly, her voice like velvet across his skin.
Naruto blinked. He could lie. Say something clever. Maybe quote a poem like Kakashi would. But honesty had always been his strongest suit, even if he wore it with a crooked grin.
"You," he said simply, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "And how I missed the feeling of your warmth."
She smiled, a soft, knowing smile, and bopped his nose. "Still sweet after all these years."
He laughed, rubbing the tip of his nose. "Also… I might've been thinking about how not to kill the kids during their next training session."
Hinata let out a gentle laugh, and for a moment Naruto swore the flowers below bloomed brighter. She knew exactly what he meant. After all, this was a man whose casual stretch once caused an earthquake.
"I have a few ideas," she said. "There's these games we played back home."
Naruto raised a brow. "Teaching through games? Genius."
"I am a mother of two overpowered shinobi children," she replied with a wink. "And you've been gone a while, Mr. Hokage."
That hit home a little more than he expected, and she saw the flicker in his eyes.
"I know," Naruto murmured. "You carried so much on your own. Raising them. Training them. Protecting them… even me."
Hinata didn't speak, only pulled herself closer. Her fingers gently traced a pattern on his chest.
"But I'm here now," he whispered. "And I'm not letting go again."
There was a silence that wasn't empty—it was full. Of love, of memory, of all the unspoken promises that didn't need words.
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Hinata lay curled beside Naruto, the sunlight weaving threads of gold through her long, midnight hair. Her lavender eyes shimmered with curiosity and concern, and Naruto—sun-touched and eternally chaotic—had that familiar look on his face. The one he wore when something serious was brewing in his usually ramen-soaked brain.
She paused, catching the shift in his eyes. Serious now. Distant.
He didn't speak right away. Instead, Naruto leaned in, kissed her forehead, and wrapped her tightly in his arms. For a moment, nothing existed except the rhythm of their breathing and the softness of their shared silence.
"I'm sorry," he murmured, eyes fixed on the expanse of endless blue above them. "I didn't tell you sooner… because I didn't want to worry you."
Hinata's expression didn't change. She merely waited, trusting him to continue.
"I'll die soon if I don't change my genetic makeup."
The words were blunt, like kunai on glass, and yet he spoke them without fear.
"I've pushed past every limit of our species. My body's only still alive because of my regeneration. But it's breaking. Slowly. Quietly. And if I don't act… I won't be around much longer."
Hinata closed her eyes. She had suspected. Her Byakugan saw more than light and movement—it saw the truth behind smiles. And Naruto had been smiling a little too much lately.
"You have a solution," she said at last, a whisper wrapped in strength.
Naruto nodded. "Becoming an Otsutsuki. My DNA is a close match—we're their descendants, after all. If I assimilate that power, I might extend my life. Grow stronger. Stabilize everything."
"And the cost?" she asked, already knowing.
He didn't hesitate. "Their minds. Their pride. Their cruelty. I might become something… else. That's what scares me. Not dying—but becoming one of them."
For a long moment, the air was heavy, like the hush before a storm. Then Hinata shifted, placing her hand gently over his, right above her stomach. Her skin was soft, but her grip firm—unyielding.
"You won't fall," she said. "I won't let you."
Naruto stared at her, emotions flickering behind his eyes like candlelight. Then he laughed—soft and warm—and finally allowed himself to relax.
"I know," he said, his fingers trailing her waist. "I'll rest for now. I'll heal. And then I'll work on it. But while I'm still me…"
His hands wandered further with mischievous intent.
"Hyaa!" Hinata let out a squeak of surprise as his fingers found a particularly sensitive spot.
Naruto grinned, eyes twinkling like a boy who'd just stolen cookies before dinner.
But just as things were about to turn delightfully scandalous, a ripple of dread crawled up Naruto's spine like cold rain down the back of his shirt.
He froze.
"Oh no."
Hinata blinked. "What is it?"
"Boruto's doing something extremely dumb."
The golden energy in his eyes flared as he felt it—panic, fear, pride, recklessness—all wrapped up in a single, Boruto-sized headache.
"I'm going to kill him," Naruto muttered, his voice dangerously calm as reality trembled around them.
Hinata giggled, already standing. "I'll ready some food. You bring back the idiot."
Naruto vanished in a flicker of golden light, leaving behind only a whisper and the echo of her laughter.
"Boys."