Notes: Something that annoyed me about the Ghost Incident arc is how Toneri goes completely unnoticed because Boruto never mentions him. Granted, he has no way of knowing Toneri is important. Because he's an academy student and only civilians know less than them about potential threats to the village. Which makes it all the more necessary for Boruto to be willing to talk to adults who would know. Not that I would ever expect Boruto to ask an adult for help with anything he doesn't understand. Which is why it's not up to him this time.

Summary: Boruto was excited about his new Byakugan. He thought everyone else would be, too. Instead, they're all more fixated on the mystery man from his dream. But it's not like that guy matters at all, right?

Boruto and the Deferred Dream

A Naruto Oneshot by

Nate Grey (xman0123-at-aol-dot-com)

"I HAVE UNLOCKED MY BYAKUGAN!"

This was the joyous shout that greeted Uchiha Sakura's ears as she stepped into the Uzumaki house, followed by her daughter Sarada. They both glanced at each other uncertainly as Uzumaki Naruto met them in the entry way, an embarrassed smile on his face.

"Sorry about that," he muttered. "And thanks for coming so quickly. But like I told you, Boruto's pretty convinced."

Sakura frowned. "Apparently. But why did you call me? Couldn't Hinata just-?"

"Well, about that," Naruto interrupted, rubbing his head. "For all Boruto's claims, he hasn't actually been able to show it on command..."

Sakura blinked. "So you don't even know if he has the Byakugan?"

Naruto shushed her, glancing over his shoulder nervously. "Don't let him hear you say that. Anyway, since he can't actually prove it yet, but he refuses to accept that he might not have it, I was hoping you could take a look."

"At his eyes?" Sakura asked doubtfully.

"At his head," Naruto corrected.

Sakura stared at him blankly. "Naruto, that's... well..."

"Look, it's not like he's never lied about anything. But I've never seen him take a lie this far for this long before. He seems to genuinely believe what he's saying. But at this point, it's almost ten times more likely that he hit his head falling out of bed, and got confused."

Sakura sighed. "Okay, I'll take a look. But how are you going to explain why I'm examining him?"

With a straight face, Naruto replied, "Tell him that leaving the Byakugan on for an extended period can put a serious drain on his chakra, and you need to make sure he's not nearing the point of needing to be hospitalized for chakra exhaustion."

Sakura gaped at him, shook her head, and walked past him. "If he actually falls for that, maybe it's a good thing I'm already checking his head for injuries."

Naruto sighed, then suddenly noticed that Sarada was still standing in the entry way, staring up at him. "Uh, don't worry, Sarada. I'm sure Boruto is fine."

"What if he's telling the truth?" Sarada asked.

Naruto blinked. "About having the Byakugan? Well, it's not like it's a problem if he does. It might actually make things easier on all of us. But right now, I'm more concerned about if he doesn't have it and keeps saying he does. Because he either doesn't have it and is lying, or something happened that made him believe he has it. And we need to know which it is."

"Can I talk to him?" Sarada asked. "Maybe he'll say something to me that he hasn't said to anyone else yet."

Naruto shrugged. "Sure, go ahead. Just, um-"

"Don't tell him he doesn't have it? Got it."

Boruto didn't look injured. Well, not really. He looked deliriously happy, which perhaps could have been the result of a head injury, but at least he didn't look hurt.

Although he admitted he had fallen out of bed recently.

Sarada wasn't sure what to think as she watched her mother scan Boruto's head. It was a fairly non-invasive procedure: she was just coating her hands in green chakra and running them through his hair. The only impact this seemed to have on Boruto was to make his hair stick out in all directions. Which, combined with his already unnaturally wide smile, was not really giving Sarada the impression that he knew what he was talking about.

He hadn't been able to show her the Byakugan, either.

But she had heard Boruto lie before. At least, she had heard him blatantly lie before. This didn't seem like the same thing.

She believed that he believed that he was telling the truth.

Which was more than any adult had agreed to thus far. His mother at least wasn't saying outright that she didn't believe him, but she wouldn't commit to a straight answer one way or the other, and Sarada caught her sending him worried glances behind his back. Whether she was worried that he was lying or confused, it was hard to say.

But the aura of doubt surrounding Naruto was almost visible, and Boruto had clearly picked up on it, because he kept shooting his father dirty looks. Dirtier than the usual ones, anyway.

Himawari just thought Boruto was acting weird. Which he was. And she didn't need her own Byakugan to confirm that.

After a few minutes, the scan ended. Sakura told Boruto that she had found no problems with his chakra supply. Boruto nodded as if he had known that all along. Even thanked her for checking on him. Sakura gave him a smile that did not quite reach her eyes, and went into another room, presumably to confer with Boruto's parents.

"Did anything odd happen before you got it?" Sarada abruptly asked. "Like, maybe a bright flash of light, or the whole world turned a weird color?"

Boruto stared at her blankly. "I don't think it works that way."

Sarada barely resisted the urge to tell him that he possibly didn't know how it worked, period. "Were you really mad or happy at the time? Maybe it's tied to emotion?"

"Uh, I don't think so," Boruto murmured.

"Any odd thoughts that you wouldn't normally have?"

Boruto opened his mouth, paused, and then began scratching his head. "Well, now that you mention it, there is one thing, but I don't know if it counts as a thought, exactly."

"Great!" Sarada said, glad she had finally hit upon something that he hadn't instantly dismissed. "What was it?"

"There was this weird guy in my dream."

"What was weird about him?"

"The way he talked. The way he looked. The fact that I didn't know him. And that he knew about my eye. Pretty much everything was weird."

"Why didn't you mention this before?" Sarada asked. "It sounds like it's connected."

Boruto frowned. "I've got the Byakugan now! Who cares about that guy?"

"Your parents might. If I dreamed about a weird guy and then woke up with a doujutsu, my mom wouldn't stop hounding me until I'd told her everything I could remember."

Boruto waved her off. "So what? It's not like he gave me the Byakugan. I already had it and just had to awaken it."

"What if he helped you do that?"

"By talking to me? I doubt it."

Sarada scowled at him. "I think you should tell them about this."

"Not interested."

"You have something better to do?"

"Yeah, I do! Practice using my new Byakugan!" Boruto said at once.

"Well, here's a hint," Sarada said as she moved to leave the room. "Step one is turning it on."

Boruto scowled after her, then stared hard at the wall, trying to will his eye to activate. This lasted about a minute, when a firm hand grabbed his head and turned it.

"What's this about some weird guy in your dream?" Naruto demanded.

Boruto rolled his eyes. "Sarada's got a big mouth."

"A big, helpful one. What about the guy?"

"He's just some guy! What do you care?"

"I care a lot, especially if he's at all connected-"

"He's not!" Boruto snapped. "No one can give anyone else a Byakugan by talking to them!"

"For all you know, this guy who you care and know nothing about could be the Father of All Byakugan, and maybe he could give you one by talking to you. But we'll never know for sure until you start talking."

"There's nothing else to tell!"

"Well, describe him to me. Draw a picture. Anything."

"Fine, I'll be right back."

Ten minutes later, Boruto slammed a drawing against his father's chest.

Naruto took one look and knew right away: Himawari had clearly gotten all of the artistic talent. He wasn't even sure Boruto had drawn a person. "Okay, new plan. You're coming with me to a professional sketch artist."

"So now I have to waste even more time on this guy who doesn't matter?!"

"Father of All Byakugan," Naruto reminded his son.

Boruto glared at him. "Give me one good reason why I should do this!"

Naruto stared at him. "At different points in my life, people who were very important to me spoke to me in a dreamscape. Each time, it was extremely important information, and it changed my life for the better. You are not going to ignore this, Boruto."

"That's still not-"

"One of those times helped me defeat the man who almost killed your mother. Before she actually was your mother. I hope I don't have to explain why you should care about that."

Some of the annoyance melted out of Boruto's expression. "Fine, let's just get this over with..."

"You said a sketch artist!" Boruto protested an hour later.

Naruto gave him a curious look. "Sai is a sketch artist. If you know nothing else about him, I'd expect you to recall that much."

"Not him. I meant her!" Boruto jabbed his finger at the attractive blonde woman seated next to Sai, watching them with a cross between amusement and annoyance.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "She's his wife, she can hear and see you, her name is Ino, and she's the mother of one of your friends. You could at least pretend to be polite."

"If she's about to go into my head like I know she is, then she'll know I'm pretending!" Boruto hissed.

"I don't need to do that to know you're rude little brat," Ino said conversationally. "But I'll overlook it, since I know where you got it from."

Naruto shot her a look. "Can you do this or not?"

Ino grinned. "Oh, sure. Since it's a very recent memory, it shouldn't take long to find."

"I'll do this on one condition," Boruto said to his father. "When she's done, you admit that I wasn't lying about the Byakugan!"

"What lie about the Byakugan?" Ino asked.

"Classified," Naruto said shortly.

Ino smirked. "Did you just lie about a lie about the Byakugan? No, don't tell me. I'll know for sure in a few minutes."

"We can start at any time," Sai said once he had arranged his scrolls, ink, and brushes the way he liked.

Ino pointed to Boruto, then to the chair waiting for him. "Trust me, it's worse for you, when you're a moving target."

Boruto reluctantly sat down, and tensed when Ino stared at him intently. "You're only looking for the dream, right?"

Ino snorted. "If you're lucky. Which you aren't."

Boruto tried to jump up. "You-!" He froze abruptly, then fell back into the chair with a blank look on his face.

The whole thing took all of ten minutes: five until Ino had enough information, one to download it all into Sai's head, and then four for Sai to produce a startling likeness on paper. Even Boruto had to admit that it hadn't been a waste of time... assuming he cared at all about this man in his dreams. Which he still didn't.

At least, not until Naruto took a look at Sai's drawing and went pale.

"Don't you dare try to tell me that the Father of All Byakugan is real," Boruto demanded.

Naruto cleared his throat. "Actually, he was very real. We just never called him that. But this isn't him."

"So you've told me who he isn't. How about who he is?"

"His name is Toneri. He's a member of the Otsutsuki clan."

Boruto blinked. "Wait, you really know him?!"

"To put it simply, yes. And now that I know it's him? I don't think you were lying. But the fact that you saw him at all means he is definitely connected. I doubt he would even appear to anyone who wasn't linked to the Byakugan. So you will give up on this baseless idea that he isn't involved, because I guarantee that he is."

"How do you know-?"

"A person with Hyuga blood dreaming of someone like Toneri, is almost like a person with Uchiha blood dreaming of Madara. You would be a fool to ignore it, and you are not a fool. At least, I'm not letting you be one this time."

Boruto bristled at that.

Naruto held up a hand. "Save it, we need to tell your mother about this. And your aunt. I'll let them decide if they want to tell you why."

If Boruto needed more convincing that Toneri couldn't be swept under the rug, it was seeing his mother's and aunt's reactions to the picture Sai had drawn.

Hinata immediately looked more disappointed than he could ever recall her looking.

Hanabi immediately smacked Boruto across the back of his head.

"What was that for?!" Boruto demanded.

"Did you actually think that because you don't know a person who appears in your dreams and tells you that you have a special power, that they don't matter?" Hanabi asked. "You believed the eye he talked about was important. Why didn't you think he was?"

Boruto glared at her, unable to give an answer.

"Could it be because you only cared about having the Byakugan?" Hanabi pressed.

"And what's wrong with that?!" Boruto snapped.

Hanabi raised a finger. "I can think of one person who didn't question where the power of his eyes came from. He's dead now, but before he died, he nearly killed your mother. So by your logic, if some totally random person just hands you a Byakugan, it's safe to take it, and you don't care where they got it from, or what happens after that?"

"I'd never do anything like that!"

"Who says you'd have a choice? What if there was a genjutsu on the eyes that you couldn't break? What if you didn't realize how much harm you were doing, because you didn't stop to think, because you were too excited about having a new power? You cannot be this naive! You are so blinded by your hunger for the Byakugan that you haven't even bothered to ask how we all know Toneri, or why his presence in your dream would be so alarming to us!"

"Okay, fine!" Boruto yelled. "Just tell me already!"

Hanabi glared at him. "I first met Toneri when he kidnapped me and stole my eyes."

Boruto gaped at her. "Wait! What?!"

"Before Toneri became an ally, which he is now," Naruto explained, "he was an enemy. Among his goals was to gain a Byakugan. So while it is very unlikely that he would give one to someone, it was extremely likely that he would take one from someone. You having one, and being completely unaware of who he was or what he might do, didn't exactly fill me with confidence. If he ever decided to go back to his old ways, you would be easy prey because, by your own admission, he was unimportant to you."

"And we haven't even gotten to the most important reason why Toneri might be a threat to you," Hanabi added. "He wanted to take your mother to the moon and marry her. If he had, either you and Himawari wouldn't exist, or you'd both be cold, unfeeling moon aliens. At best, Toneri is a powerful friend who wants to guide you, and at worst, he might be plotting to steal your eye and your mother. So the absolute worst thing you could do either way is ignore him, and not tell us that he contacted you."

Boruto looked away, frustration and shame passing over his face. He jumped slightly when his mother suddenly hugged him.

"It's not all Boruto's fault," Hinata said. "He had no way of knowing who Toneri was." She paused and squeezed him tightly. "But he should have mentioned any stranger who knew about his eye, since they could have been an enemy. I am willing to trust that Toneri means us no harm this time. We parted on far better terms than we first met. But I expect to be informed if he ever makes contact again, for any reason. Is that clear, Boruto?"

"Yeah, kaa-chan," Boruto muttered.

Boruto opened his eyes a week later to find himself in a familiar dreamscape.

"Uzumaki Boruto. I have come to-"

"You totally suck, you know that?!" Boruto shouted.

Toneri blinked.

"What the hell was all that crap with kaa-chan and Hanabi nee-chan?! And how the hell do you know about my eye, anyway?! AND STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM KAA-CHAN!"

Toneri blinked again, severing the connection, and shook his head as Boruto vanished. "That was unpleasant. But he seemed confident enough. Perhaps he already knows of the descending gods I wished to warn him about? Well, I'm sure he'll be fine..."

"That jerk Toneri called," Boruto muttered at breakfast the following day.

Hinata frowned. "What did he want?"

"To be a jerk? He didn't really say anything."

"He called you from the moon, to say nothing?" Hinata asked doubtfully.

Boruto grimaced. "Yeah... well... he's a weirdo, who knows why he does anything he does?"

"And you're sure you didn't interrupt him, or do anything that would prevent him from delivering a message?"

"Come on, kaa-chan! You really think I'd do that, after everything that happened?"

"I suppose not," Hinata admitted slowly. "And if it was truly important, surely he would call again..."

Toneri cleared his throat. "As I was saying, the descend-"

"Can't believe you kidnapped Hanabi nee-chan," Boruto muttered.

"This is the sixth time, please let me finish!"

The End.

Endnotes:

So this is how I think everyone could have found out that Toneri was in contact with Boruto. Since Boruto can't be depended on to inform anyone, so thank goodness for Sarada. And before anyone accuses me of it: Boruto is not stupid. He's a fairly smart kid who often behaves stupidly (think Sakura at the same age any time she saw Sasuke). Which isn't that surprising, given his age. However, given the amount of responsibility he both demands and is expected to handle, that sort of immaturity could easily be lethal to him or someone else. At the end of the day, he is an academy student, and there are lots of ways for them to die. Even as a genin, fighting an Otsutsuki (and I'm sure he'd never heard of them prior) would normally be a surefire way for him to die, if not for plot armor.

There's a list of people who arguably spoke to Naruto in a dreamscape, or at least in a state other than holding a conversation out in the physical world where others could hear or take part in it. For the purposes of this story, the few I have in mind are Itachi, Minato, and Kushina. All very important and life-changing. In fact, if there's any dreamscape conversation Naruto had that wasn't important, I can't think of one. But even if only those three mattered, they mattered so much where the idea of ignoring or refusing to discuss a dream because you don't recognize the person in it, is silly.

I am almost ready to assume that Boruto is unfamiliar with any clan jutsu that he hasn't seen in class, so I'm no longer sure he would know what Yamanaka are known for this early, with Inojin taking more after Sai. On the other hand, I can see Ino threatening her child or someone else's with going into their head to find out if they're lying, and Boruto seems a likely target for that.

I would expect Hanabi to be harsher than Hinata on this matter, in part because she got the worst treatment from Toneri. In the anime, Hanabi basically told Boruto (rather stupidly, in my opinion) "you need to handle this on your own". Which is the last thing a kid who already refuses to ask for help needs to hear. But it also suggests she has a great deal of faith in him. And so she would be even more disappointed in him for not mentioning Toneri. To her credit, she did say Boruto could ask her for help, but I wish she had made him give up that secret.

I find it very disturbing that Toneri possessed early knowledge of the two Otsutsuki that attacked in the movie. Because even if he had shared that info, Boruto being too focused on himself would mean Konoha would never get the warning. Seeing how the village was caught off guard in the movie, and Boruto was both too busy cheating and never told anyone about Toneri, it's much easier to imagine that scenario.