Chapter 219: A Family Resemblance

Sasuke pulled Boruto into an alley off Konoha's main street.

Boruto waited until no one followed before speaking.

"That was the wife of the Four-and-a-Half Hokage. Why does she look almost the same in our time?"

"If Tonbo hears you use that title, he may play a trick on you," Sasuke said. "He takes good care of his family and uses chakra to maintain their health. Ayame's appearance may be preserved through something similar to the Fifth Hokage's technique."

"Why dislike the title? He was Hokage. Students at the Academy call him that."

Boruto knew Tonbo Tobitake as a hero of the Fourth Shinobi World War and the founder of Battlefield Simulation training. The history lessons said less about the personality that made Sasuke sound so weary.

To Boruto, the old man belonged to institutions: war records, Academy methods, and the bureau that classified modern shinobi work. Sasuke remembered the younger Tonbo who teased allies, manipulated enemies, and treated family as the center of every long plan. The same person could preserve a life with careful chakra and make a child regret one careless title.

"Four-and-a-Half means Acting Hokage, not an official one," Sasuke said. "Would you want people to remember your greatest office as half a title?"

Boruto imagined a face that never reached the Hokage Rock and understood.

"He retired from the front lines and moved into logistics and development. In our era, call him Director. He considers that title more important."

Director named the work Tonbo had chosen after surrendering temporary political power. It placed his pride in what he built rather than the crisis that once put him behind the Hokage's desk.

"Deputy Director."

Sasuke looked at him. "After we stop Urashiki, you may try correcting him yourself."

Boruto scratched his head. He had met Tonbo only a few times and did not want to become the target of one of the old man's pranks.

They spent the next hours moving through Konoha and collecting the date from public conversation. Naruto was preparing for his first Chūnin Examination finals. Young Sasuke was twelve, nearly thirteen.

No rumor, alarm, or chakra trace suggested that Urashiki had appeared.

Sasuke checked the routes around Naruto's district and the places where an outsider might observe the village without approaching a gate. Boruto watched faces in the crowds for the pale skin and strange clothing of an Ōtsutsuki. Ordinary exam visitors filled every likely hiding place, but none carried the presence they sought.

"Could he be hiding somewhere else?" Boruto asked.

"Karasuki's time travel has a limit," Sasuke said. "Once its energy recovers, it should return everyone. The greater danger is that my attack disrupted the passage and placed Urashiki at a different point in space-time."

If so, Sasuke and Boruto could not stop him here. Urashiki might have arrived earlier or later in the past, alone with a younger Naruto and a village that knew nothing about the Ōtsutsuki.

Karasuki needed time to recover the energy used in transit. That limit meant the three travelers could not remain scattered forever, but it did not tell Sasuke when or where the return would collect them. A difference of days in their arrival might give Urashiki all the time required to strike.

"Will our future change?" Boruto asked. "Could I disappear before Mom ever gives birth to me?"

The thought chilled him.

"There were powerful shinobi now too, weren't there? Could they defeat him?"

Boruto wanted Sasuke to name someone and end the fear. Hiruzen, Jiraiya, or Tonbo might be strong enough. None would understand Urashiki's time travel, dōjutsu, or purpose before the first attack revealed them.

"Perhaps. Time remains poorly understood. This may be one history we can alter, a separate branch, or a path in which our actions have already occurred. Konoha possesses strong shinobi, but without knowledge of Urashiki's abilities, they would begin at a severe disadvantage."

That uncertainty was why they had followed him. Hope in an unknown defender was not enough.

Boruto forced himself to think about the target. "Urashiki wants the Nine-Tails' chakra. If we stay near Dad, he eventually has to come to us."

Sasuke approved the reasoning. "Naruto should be training with Jiraiya. We find him."

Naruto walked toward home while repeating summoning seals with his fingers.

"Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram. Summon a great toad."

The same sequence kept producing tadpoles and small toads with incomplete legs. He could not understand why Jiraiya's version called something enormous while his barely filled both hands.

Naruto repeated the seals in the air, checking each finger. The shapes were correct. The result suggested either his chakra control remained wrong or the toads themselves had decided to mock him. He swore he would master the summoning before the finals and use it to defeat every opponent, Sasuke included.

Movement near his apartment caught his attention.

A tall man and a blond boy crouched in the side alley, speaking quietly.

Naruto transformed into an ordinary passerby and approached on silent feet. For the first time, his Academy lessons felt like the skills of an intelligence shinobi rather than another test Iruka expected him to fail.

He altered his clothes, face, and posture, then chose a route that kept crates between him and the alley. The success excited him enough that he nearly moved too fast. Slowing down felt more difficult than the transformation.

"He has not returned," Boruto said.

"He is probably training," Sasuke answered.

"What was Dad like at this age?"

"A loud troublemaker who used pranks to make people look at him."

Boruto laughed. "Childish."

Naruto listened in confusion. They stood outside his home and described someone who sounded suspiciously like him. That could not mean him. He was twelve and had no son. Besides, Tonbo had once called him a good student.

He repeated that final defense twice. A troublemaker used pranks without purpose. Naruto's pranks had always possessed the important purpose of making people notice him, which surely made the description inaccurate.

The voices stopped.

Naruto peered around the corner. The alley was empty.

Relief and pride arrived together. He had approached, listened, and escaped notice.

No instructor had guided him, and no teammate had supplied the method. Naruto had selected a disguise, controlled his steps, and gathered fragments of a conversation. Even without understanding them, he felt briefly like the intelligence shinobi he wanted others to believe he could become.

"Hello, little troublemaker," said a voice behind him.

Naruto spun.

The two travelers stood there. The younger had blond hair, blue eyes, and three cheek marks upon each side of his face.

Naruto released his transformation and pulled a small mirror from his tool pouch. He compared his reflection with Boruto, then repeated the comparison as if the resemblance might disappear.

Boruto held his breath. Had his father recognized him from a face alone? Was young Naruto secretly clever enough to solve time travel in an alley?

Sasuke knew better. Naruto had reached a conclusion, but probably not the right one.

Naruto pointed at Boruto.

"Are you my father's illegitimate son?"

He stepped closer, inspecting the hair, eyes, cheek marks, and age.

Minato had died before Naruto knew him. No one had ever supplied a complete account of his life. An unmentioned child suddenly seemed not only possible but exciting.

The stranger's age complicated the idea, but Naruto's imagination solved that by refusing to calculate too carefully. Perhaps Minato had met someone during a mission. Perhaps the boy had grown up in another country and only now learned the truth. Every gap in Naruto's family history became evidence once he wanted Boruto to fill it.

Naruto's thoughts raced toward the remaining question.

If Boruto was his half brother, who was the mother?