Fateful Encounter Part 1

Planetary orbit, reconnaissance satellite…

The satellite over Konoha was currently on a recon mission. The facility however was more akin to a gigantic space station, with enough room to house a group of individuals onboard. Currently, it was a huge unmanned fortress in space, but that was about to change soon.

Agito just arrived at the facility in the most unconventional of ways and sealed the entrance shut behind him. He barely managed to take off the helmet of his space suit before collapsing on the ground, completely exhausted. In his hand was the three pronged kunai that he received from his father a long time ago.

"Man…teleporting from the moon to near Earth orbit practically ate up all my energy. I feel completely drained unlike ever before."

"Have I ever told you that you're practically insane!?" Agito's A.I. shouted in his head. "Using a railgun to fire that kunai on to the space station from the moon and teleporting here? What if something went wrong and you didn't make it? You'd literally be stranded in space with no one to save you out here."

"I didn't have any other options. There are no spaceships on the moon base and I don't have the ability to open up rifts in space-time like my parents. Regardless, I told you it was all going to be okay. I calculated everything meticulously, and my calculations are never wrong. But I got to admit…I didn't expect to be this wiped out afterwards." The young Uzumaki practically had to crawl all the way to the medical supplies unit, heaving for breath as he got there. He took out what appeared to be a small syringe and jabbed it in his neck. With one click of a button, the contents of the syringe were injected into his body. Agito stayed seated on the ground for a while, waiting for the effects of the drug to kick in. Sure enough, within just a few minutes he could feel his body being energized once again. Although nowhere near 100%, he was at least able to move around the space station.

At this point he took off the rest of his space suit. Inside he was wearing a simple orange shirt and black pants, with his signature black lab coat on top that extended all the way down to his knees. No matter where he went, Agito almost always wore his lab coat. He felt that was the one piece of clothing that gave him his identity.

The young Uzumaki headed straight for the control room, where he could have a satellite view of what was directly below. It was morning in Konoha and he could see the entirety of the village and even zoom into individual people for a closer view.

"Luna, did you manage to find out where my grandparents' house is?"

"Pointing towards it right now."

Sure enough, Agito was now looking at an overhead view of an average sized, yet cosy looking dual-storied house. The flowery decorations and the general tidiness of the front and back yards indicated that the people living there took very good care of the place. It wasn't anything extravagant, but it was certainly a place one could proudly call home. The young boy wanted to get down there as soon as possible, but his A.I. interrupted him in a serious tone, one that was unlike her.

"Master, I performed a standard scan of this station once we got here, but something seemed off about the security protocol of this place. So I decided to take a closer look at the contents of this facility and what I found is extremely worrying. Please urgently take a look at this."

A holographic map of the entire facility appeared before Agito and what he saw shocked him to his core.

"What the…!? Are those what I think they are!?"

"Indeed, this facility doesn't just house a reconnaissance satellite; it's loaded with multiple weapon systems." Luna explained. "Precision orbital beam strike capable of pinpointing single personnel targets. Kinetic rods, even one of which if deployed could destroy an entire shinobi village. And finally…a nuclear warhead ready to be dropped directly from orbit."

Agito was nearly lost for words. He didn't know how to process this information. "But why!? This is supposed to be a recon satellite. Why are there so many weapon systems onboard – ones that you'd see in a full on war satellite? Better yet, how did they manage to install all of these without me knowing? I was one of the lead scientists in the team that developed this facility. Its purpose was to survey the shinobi world and to study it closely. No one ever mentioned anything about installing weapon systems onboard. What the heck is going on?"

"It almost seems like someone is prepared to go to war with this."

"Who!? The samurai have no reason to go to war with the shinobi. They're allied with that crazy old man. Could this have been requested by him as a backup plan to destroy his enemies, even though he already has so much power? Luna, run a full scan on the weapons protocol on this facility. I need to get to the bottom of this."

"On it right now." It took the A.I. a few minutes, but it wasn't good news. "I'm sorry to say this, but I'm not allowed any kind of access over the weapon systems with my credentials. The encryption is also beyond my capabilities. It's too strong."

Agito clicked his tongue in frustration, but soon a sideways smirk appeared on his face. "I see how this is. So first they put all these weapons of mass destruction onboard without ever informing me and now they encrypt it so not even I can access it. Seems like a challenge to me. Well then, consider your challenge ACCEPTED!"

Agito pulled out a lollipop from somewhere within his coat and sat down at the main frame in the control room in order to get to work, while sucking on his treat.

"Master, are you intending to-"

"Of course I am. There is no code I have not been able to crack. And I'm not about to be stopped now, no matter how complex it may be. Watch and learn how it's done my dear A.I."

Agito worked tirelessly for hours on end and it took nearly an entire day, but the next morning he finally got up from his chair with a satisfied smile across his face. "MISSION COMPLETE! I gotta give it to them. They did make it difficult to get through the encryption. It took me almost 24 hours straight, which is unheard of."

"You did it! That was amazing master. I still can't believe how you're able solve these problems at your age."

"As far as I can remember, ever since I was a kid I've had a pretty sharp mind, so much so that everyone around me started calling me a child genius. Personally I'm not sure what makes me any different, but I do know that my genetics are…special…because of my parents. Maybe that has something to do with it. I intend to find out soon. That's the reason why I'm out here in this foreign world." Agito was hopeful of one day finding out the secrets of his heritage. "In any case, I've hard-coded the controls of the weapon systems on to you, Luna."

"Wait, aren't these types of weapons supposed to be handled by A.I. specifically designed for the purpose war? I know you programmed to be special, but I'm still not sure I'm capable of handling such a huge responsibility."

"Don't fret it. I already made changes to your base code as necessary. Besides, you may be able to control them, but I ultimately have the executive command over all weapons. Without my express authorisation, none of them can be used."

"I don't know if that's much better. A 14 year old child with command over weapons of mass destruction…"

While the two were chatting casually thus far, Agito's voice turned deadly serious at this point. "I have no intentions of ever using these weapons. But I had to take control of them, because what I saw inside was worrying to say the least – the "Shinobi Extinction Protocol" as it's called. In the case of a cataclysmic event, those weapons were set to fire upon all major shinobi villages. I have no idea what this "event" is supposed to be that would trigger the protocol, but it would be devastating to say the least. Once I return back to the samurai world, I'll get to the bottom of this. But for now, I need to ensure that nothing happens to the shinobi world, for my own sake while I'm here and for theirs."

"I see…OH!" Suddenly there was a change in the tone of Luna's voice. "Master, your grandparents! I've been keeping an eye out on them as you told me to. They're currently outside by themselves in a pretty secluded place. This might be the perfect opportunity to meet them."

"Let me see." As Agito looked at the screen, sure enough he saw both of his grandparents standing in front of what appeared be some kind of a giant metal monument in the outskirts of the village. "You're right. This IS the perfect moment."

Agito pulled out his three pronged and grabbed his sword as well, his heart beating faster than it had ever before in excitement. "It's time to go greet my family!"

Earlier in the morning, Konoha – Uzumaki household…

It was Saturday, around 10:00 in the morning.

Hinata had just finished working in the garden in their backyard and was now headed into the house. She was in her early fifties, and even though she was on the tail end of her middle ages, there was an aura of elegance around her. Her choice of attire – a midnight blue kimono helped elevate that aura of traditional beauty, despite the passage of time.

She made her way upstairs and into the bedroom, finding her husband still sleeping in the most unflattering of positions – with his arms and legs spread out in all directions and part of the bed sheets falling off from the side of the bed. Hinata sighed at the sight. Despite also being in his 50s, the Hokage still slept as though he was a messy teenager.

Age definitely seemed to have caught up to Naruto a bit more. White hairs were visible towards the front of his head and there were slightly dark lines below his eyes. Despite his age, Naruto still retained some of his unruly behavioural traits. Hinata gently caressed his blonde hair in the hopes of gently waking him up, but to no avail. He was still out cold, now muttering intangible words with a huge grin on his face. It was kind of difficult for Hinata to wake up someone who was sleeping so peacefully, but they had plans and it was already getting late. Thus she decided to shake her husband awake with some force this time, knowing how much of a heavy sleeper he was.

"5 more minutes…." Naruto pulled out the oldest request in the book.

"It's already 10 dear. Time to get out of bed."

"It's the weekend. Let me sleep a bit longer. In fact…why don't you join me?" Without any warning, Naruto grabbed his wife's hand and pulled her under the bed sheets with him.

Although Hinata squirmed around a bit, Naruto wasn't about to let her go.

"Come on now, not this again. Breakfast is ready and it'll get cold if we wait too long."

"I don't mind it cold. I just want to rest a bit more, and what better way than to have you here with me?"

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata called out in a somewhat strict voice. Despite their age, Hinata never stopped addressing her husband in the same endearing way she did when they were just children. It sounded odd to others, but to them it was a small token of the bond they had forged over decades of their relationship.

Naruto loosened up his grip at those words. He knew that in the rare occasions his wife said his name so seriously, she meant business.

"Our plan for this morning…I've already prepared the flowers."

Naruto sat up almost instantly as he remembered what his wife was talking about. This was something that meant the world to both of them. "Yeah, I just remembered. Sorry, I'll get refreshed and meet you downstairs."

Thus, Hinata headed downstairs and served up breakfast, while Naruto got changed and joined her shortly. The two sat down to have food and indulge in their usual morning chatter.

"Where's Hima?" Naruto asked while taking a bite out of his toast.

"Come now, have you forgotten already? She left for Myoboku just the other day. She'll be spending some time there training with the toads."

"Ah, darn it. Yeah I just remembered. Man, what is happening with my memory lately? I guess all the work is really getting to me, or perhaps old age is catching up to me slowly."

"You're in your fifties. I wouldn't call it that old."

"Yeah, well, in any case, can't we just call her back already? I feel like she's spending more time with the toads nowadays than with us. Is this some kind of conspiracy? Like, is she finally entering her rebellious phase that every parent talks about? Is she going to start hating me now?" Naruto looked genuinely worried as he mulled over those questions.

"You're overthinking it. Hima's in her early twenties – she's well past the teenage rebellious years that you're referring to; not that she was ever rebellious to begin with. Plus she seems to genuinely love spending time with her toad friends. I mean, you're the one who introduced her to them. I think it's a good thing, especially given her status in the village and all."

"I guess I just miss her when she's not around. She's my little baby after all."

Hinata giggled at her husband's genuine admission. "You know, one of these days she'll have to get married and be off to start her own family. What will you do then?"

Naruto slammed the table so hard that he nearly sent the plates flying in all directions. "I SWEAR, if some flunky tries to make a pass on my precious little daughter, I will BREAK him in half!"

There was fire in her husband's eyes and Hinata was relatively certain that he wasn't quite joking either.

"If anyone wants my daughter, they will have to pry her off my cold, lifeless hands. We're gonna be doing this the old school way, like how I did the same with your father in order to marry you. None of this modern day, fall in love and live happily ever after BS. There's gonna be war, blood and tears if anyone even looks at my precious baby funny."

"Except you didn't do any of that. My father happily gave my hand to you in marriage."

"Eh, really? I swear I whipped the old man's ass all the way around Konoha and back for me to prove that I was worthy of his daughter."

"No, no, he didn't do that because he wasn't crazy. Now can we please calm down and finish our breakfast so that we can head out?" Hinata requested in a strict tone.

Instantly Naruto sat back down and got back to eating. "Okay honey, as you wish."

Once they finished their breakfast, Hinata picked up the bouquet of flowers that she prepared earlier and the pair headed out to their destination. It was on the riverbank towards the outskirts of the village – a beautiful prairie surrounded by nature on all sides, with the sounds of birds and the aroma of flowers filling the air. In the midst of it all stood a large rectangular metallic monument, one that was here to commemorate all the shinobi that had fallen in the line of duty for the sake of this village. The names of those individual were chiselled into the metal monument for generations to remember. Amidst the many names was the one that Naruto and Hinata were here for in particular – Boruto Uzumaki.

Every week without fail, Naruto and Hinata would visit this memorial site in order to honour and remember their beloved, long lost son. Hinata would hand-grow her own flowers with the utmost care and love throughout the week and bring them with her as a gift for their son. This week was no different. But as she placed the bouquet below the monument alongside the many others left here by the loved ones of those that had also made the ultimate sacrifice for the village, Hinata broke down into tears. Naruto crouched down next to his wife and engulfed her in a gentle embrace, tears welling up in his eyes as well.

This was a recurring sight. No matter how many times they visited this place, no matter how many years passed, the pain of this monumental loss never seemed to fade away. It was said that time healed all wounds, but this was one wound that never seemed to heal…until now.

The couple snapped on to their feet instantaneously as they felt something drop behind them, their ninja senses at full effect. As they turned to look, they found an all too familiar three pronged kunai planted in the ground a distance away. Within moments, there was a flash of yellow and once the pair opened their eyes once more, they found a person now stood there next to the kunai – a blonde haired young boy in a distinct black labcoat, with a sword almost as large as himself floating behind him in its scabbard.

There was something so very special about him. Beyond the three pronged kunai that he held, the boy seemed so familiar. Yet the next moment something unbelievable happened.

The child tapped one of his temples with his index finger and his normally black irises turned a pure white, while the veins around his eyes bulged in response – a clear proof of his Byakugan. At the same time, he seemed to be charging up his powers through gritted teeth, as a dark red aura started to surround his entire body and the air itself getting hotter in response.

Naruto and Hinata were in shock. The dark red aura, the pure white eyes – those were clear signatures of the powers granted by the Uzumaki and Hyuga bloodlines. It was almost like they were in a way staring at mirror images of themselves in this child. But who exactly was he? How could there exist someone with that particular combination of bloodlines? As far as anybody knew, their children – Boruto and Himawari were the only two individuals that shared the Uzumaki and Hyuga genetics. Yet who exactly was this mysterious child?

Before either one could contemplate those truly puzzling questions, the young boy dashed towards them while unsheathing his sword.

"ADVANCING ON YOUR POSITION!"

Next time, Naruto and Hinata finally learn the truth about Boruto and meet their grandchild. How do you see Naruto and Hinata to react to their grandchild? I'm curious.

As with Agito, I'm looking forward to writing his interactions with his grandparents. With them he'll finally be able to get the one thing he's missed out on for so long - a proper family. I also want to introduce a few sci-fi elements to the story, with the focus still being on the shinobi. I feel it's a natural progression for the overall world to become more technologically advanced given the large time skip of 20+ years since the story started.

Anyway, let's reply to a couple of interesting comments I saw over the past few chapters:

UAI: Don't give me ideas man. That child from last chapter wasn't supposed to be a key central figure, but after that comment, I may just have to make him the new protagonist of the story and name him "Emiya". I kid...but man do I love Shirou's story though.

NarHina: You know what, I agree with a lot of what you're saying. But I'll say this - there'll be more to Boruto as he comes face to face with each of his family members. Himawari in particular should be interesting, and his own son of course.

theeyethatwatchesoverall: Thanks. In a lot of ways, the original reunion of Naruto and Hinata's story ended a while ago, which was my original vision. The part where we are at right now is almost like a sequel to the original.

MrAwesome8: I honestly have not been following the new Boruto series. I kind of stopped with the series after the original manga ended, so I don't really have any idea of what is happening with the new series. Whatever I'm writing here is just purely my own imagination.

bluefish1945: When I first started writing the story, I eventually wanted Boruto to become the main "antagonist", although I use that word loosely. It's kind of poetic to me that he was there all along as the mediator between his parents, but eventually its his relationship with his parents that gets shattered.

That is all I have for now. Hope you enjoyed and as always, I'd love to know your thoughts. Until next time, take care.