~Kashin~

The next morning Mitsuki, Shikadai, Boruto, and I all cut school to survey the town for anyone on a rampage. We were perched on the clock tower, looking over the village. Boruto stood by the edge scanning the village streets intensely while Shikadai and I stood off to the side, Mitsuki sitting on one of the wall edges with his arm over his knee as we waited for the young Uzumaki to find something.

"So, you see anything yet?" Mitsuki asked.

"Not yet..." Boruto answered.

"Maybe you're trying too hard," Shikadai stated as he walked forward to stand beside Boruto.

"Listen, this eye of mine is the star of hope you know, there's no way I'm gonna let myself miss anything..." Boruto replied, continuing to look over the village.

I closed my eyes and placed a hand over my mouth as I yawned quietly. I won't lie... this was pretty boring. Just as I exhaled my yawn a loud screech overhead pulled our attention to a falcon flying around. It wasn't anything too interesting, but it was a nice distraction.

"We've been on the lookout all-day, so shouldn't we have seen the ghost at least once by now?" Mitsuki asked.

"You'd think so, but we are only keeping an eye on a small part of town, for all we know it could have hold of someone on the other end..." I comment.

"What is this ghost you keep talking about?" Shikadai asked.

"It's my name for that weird shadow," Boruto answered.

"Seriously... you couldn't come up with anything better than that?" Shikadai teased.

"What was that!?" Boruto growled with clenched teeth.

"No! What was that?" Shikadai pointed with wide eyes behind the Uzumaki to distract him.

"What!? Where!?"

'He fell for it...' I chuckled as Shikadai begins speaking again.

"Even if there aren't any incidents today there were seven this week,"

"Yeah, but in the beginning these cases were limited to academy grounds, as of late there have been far more scattered around the village..." I say shifting my weight onto my other foot.

"Is there something contagious going around... or is there something else behind this?" Mitsuki added.

"If it was a contagious bug don't you think everyone at the academy would have been affected..." I offer, shooting down the sickness idea.

"Right... anyway, if it was that simple I don't think our dads would be investigating this as well..." Shikadai nodded.

"That's why... we need to get to the bottom of this first," Boruto spoke strongly.

"Are you serious? The Hokage office has resources, kids like us, could never get our hands on, how are we supposed to win this race?" I narrow my eyes and raise an eyebrow at the blonde boy.

"We just will you know!" He replied stupidly.

I shut my eyes, cocking my head to the side stiffly before releasing a breath and leaning back against the ledge and shaking my head.

"Shikadai..." Boruto called out grabbing all of our attention.

"What is it? You find something?" Shikadai asked.

"I have dry eye..." Boruto turned and showed us his red eyes.

'You moron...' I smile, huffing a small chuckle.

The day ended pretty quickly after that, time just seemed to fly... though, that may just be because I fell asleep at one point. So once the sun had set, we kinda called it a day and headed home. Not that we minded, I was hungry and tired and ready to get back to my star-filled skies and hopelessly romantic yet tragic novels.

Upon arriving home, I was greeted with a dark and silent house, nothing but the chilling howl of wind from an open window sounding in my ears.

'He's still not home...'

Drawing a deep breath, I release it slowly as I make my way to the kitchen. I was no longer in the mood for anything, I just wanted to head to bed. I missed my father. Granted we never really did anything together, he was more like someone who was taking care of me till I got onto my own feet. But I felt funny when he wasn't around. So I lay awake by the light of a candle, reading till I could no longer keep my eyes open. It's an uncomfortable feeling... that ache that sets in your chest and makes it hard to swallow. I knew it meant I wanted to cry... god knows I've cried enough to be familiar with the feeling. But that didn't mean I was immune to it.

The next morning I wasn't feeling too high-spirited about wasting another day looking for some ghost. I'd much rather spend the day walking through the woods and settling under some tree by the lake. But I didn't have to worry about that... because once I'd made it to the Academy I was pulled into the teachers' conference room with Shino-Sensei. Mitsuki's absence letter wasn't exactly A-grade, and we were all busted. Boruto, Shikadai, and Mitsuki had all already been beaten down by Sensei. Guess it was my turn.

"What were you thinking Kashin? Sneaking out of school... Wondering the village like that. What would your father think?" Shino-Sensei scolded as he sat facing me with his arms crossed.

"..." I said nothing, keeping my head low and eyes on my knees.

"Haaaa... You're smart... and a decent student, so your grades won't be affected too badly by this but I should tell you not to go doing this again. You're a good kid Kashin, don't let Boruto influence you to do things you shouldn't." Sensei spoke, leaning forward slightly as he looked at me.

"Of course, forgive me," I close my eyes and bow my head further, clenching my hands on my knees.

"Uh... Yes well, just stay don't let him drag you into any more unnecessary trouble ok," Sensei finished and I was allowed to leave.

"Yes Sensei,"

As I left the room and slowly closed the door behind me, I let out a shaky breath and turned my head up to hold back the tears threatening to spill. I don't know what made me think that reprimand would be anything like the punishment I received in the old experiment facilities, but I had braced myself for the possibility nonetheless. It scares me sometimes... how much my old life still affects my life now.

"Kashin!"

Lowering my head I watched Boruto wave me over from his hiding spot around the corner.

"Hey how'd it go?" He asked as I approached, finding Mitsuki ans Shikadai standing beside him.

"Fine..." I played off.

"You and Mitsuki got off lucky, neither of your parents were here for it. My mom is so mean you know..." Shikadai commented, and I could still make out the red hand print on his cheek.

"Yes well... maybe what we did wasn't the best idea, and we should be glad all we got was a talking to..." I add, beginning to walk past my classmates toward our homeroom.

"Huh? Kashin..." I heard Boruto call to me but I ignored him, continuing to walk.