Chapter Text
Boruto was chewing on an onigiri he had bought as a snack when a very suspicious black portal opened from the air above him, parallel to the ground. It wasn't unlike anything he'd seen before, because he could open portals with his karma and also had a teacher who used to use his Rinnegan as instant transport service until the day he unconsciously stabbed him in the-
Ahem, we don't talk about that anymore and besides, it wasn't even his fault to begin with. But anyway, It looked like a hole big enough for a human head to pass through. Startled, he dropped his food(poor onigiri) and drew out his sword in an instant, involuntarily falling into a battle stance.
And what he wasn't expecting was a furry little white ball emerging from the dark hole.
As it dropped on the ground and wriggled, he clenched his sword tighter around the hilt and slowly moved towards it. The thing slowly turned around and he noticed it was a rabbit. And as it opened its eyes, he took in a sharp breath. Byakugan? A rabbit with a byakugan!?
The animal tilted its head innocently at him, white eyes wide but he didn't dare let his guard down. An animal with byakugan was not normal at all and he had only seen one like this when that Urashiki-
Wait-
Oh.
Instantaneously, he lashed out his blade at it, aiming for the small thing’s neck, intending to split it into two. The animal let out a not-so-animalistic squeal and in an instant, a hole appeared on the ground and it was on top of the branch of the tree he was resting on, no doubt teleporting through its portal. And that further confirmed his suspicions.
“The Otsutsukis sent you here, didn't they? Or are you an Otsutsuki in the form of an animal? Looking at your disguise, you must be a dumb one, cuz rabbits here on earth don’t have byakugan, y’know.” His karma had spread out from it’s compressed state, glowing a pale blue. Rabbit or not, he wasn't going to go easy on anything with a byakugan. And the last time he had met an animal with one, he had ended up in the past with Sasuke san.
It's not like he wanted to go back in the past again to meet up with Sasuke san’s younger self or anything.
Glancing towards the furry thing, he frowned. Something told him it wasn't going to go the way he thought, but even if this turned out to be another trip to the past or a battle to death, he wasn't about to back off.
He was a shinobi after all.
Suddenly, the thing hopped down and further lowered its head, somehow making it look like an action out of respect. “I apologise for showing up uninterrupted, Otsutsuki sama.”
He quickly scanned his surroundings, searching for this said ‘Otsutsuki sama’, but on finding none, he bellowed again “Who the hell are you calling Otsutsuki here?”, anger was evident in his tone.
“Yourself,” it replied. The furball then lifted its head and pointed its snout at him, and for further emphasis, slowly lifted one of its front paws and pointed towards him, in a very human fashion. He would've deemed the action cute if he wasn't so sure it was somehow related to the Otsutsuki, and wasn't trying to kill it. No more Otsutsuki, rabbits or not, especially rabbits. Apparently, Kaguya, the final alien boss for the 4th shinobi war, was some rabbit goddess. And he's not dealing with any more of those aliens again. Okay, time to get serious.
His left hand did a series of one-handed signs and suddenly, bolts of lightning erupted from him and he vanished in a flash of pink. The rabbit hadn't finished the blink of its huge white eyes in surprise and by then, Boruto was already behind him, lashing out his sword in a clean crescent moon arc. Another portal opened below the still-surprised rabbit and it vanished into it then the black hole disappeared.
Damn it! That was so close! Boruto stomped his foot at the spot where the hole disappeared in frustration, not bothering to acknowledge that a few cracks were appearing below the ground due to the sheer force of his action. The ground shook and caused the nearby trees to shake a bit and the furball fell from one of them.
“Otsutsuki sama, I don't understand what I have done to upset you so much you decided to behead a noble device such as myself, but I would advise against you using myself as your practice dummy as I bring forth to you valuable intel and would like to have a few minutes to explain the situation.”
At that, Boruto lowered his sword in confusion, but still had his guard up. And that’s when the fact that the thing was calling him Otsutsuki completely dawned on him.
He was enraged now.
“I am Boruto, Uzumaki Boruto. And I would advise you not to call me an Otsutsuki unless you want to be beheaded.” He growled out.
The rabbit flinched but still took a step forward. “I scanned and verified your Otsutsuki status before coming in contact with you, and even if you're just a vessel, your aura is very potent. If it wasn't for your karma seal, then I would have mistaken you for a congenital Otsutsuki. But if you're really an Otsutsuki vessel, you should be possessed by your owner by now. May I ask, how are you still maintaining your consciousness?”
He chose not to answer the question because he didn't want to reveal he was taking rebirth control pills. So he stated aloud his hypothesis instead. “So you were searching for nearby Otsusukis and found the closest one to be me.”
It nodded affirmatively.
“I see. So who are you? And what on earth are you doing here?”
The thing blinked and stood firmer “I am Mochi, a patrol device created by Ōtsutsuki Kaguya to keep track of the proceedings on this planet. I noticed a strange phenomenon 17 years back and have been observing it for a while. It seems that an experimental jutsu Kaguya sama performed and deemed ineffective had been a success, and all it lacked for activation was a chakra boost, which was fulfilled when two humans performed a highly concentrated release at one of the nexus points.
Boruto was sceptical. Why would it tell him all of this? No, that he was complaining, it's just that it was all sounding a bit too convenient. An Otsutsuki device or whatever offering its identity and purpose willingly? It could even be a coverup for something big targeted at him. He couldn't sense any other signatures within the area, but it wouldn't matter because they could always suppress their signatures. But for now, he hoped this was the only thing that had come in search of him. He could always cut it down if it meant causing any harm, he wouldn't let anything get past this forest.
“Why are you telling me this instead of reporting this to one of your clan members?” He asked. He needed an explanation.
At that, the rabbit seemed to sulk a bit. It was getting a bit creepy at how accurately an animal can naturally imitate human gestures. Boruto shuddered a bit.
“Kaguya sama created me with the ability to travel through portals and detect cosmogonic abnormalities. But she had placed limiters on me so that I could not contact Otsutsukis outside of Earth since she was not on good terms with them during that time. But now that Kaguya sama is gone, I'm left with no choice but to rely on another Otsutsuki. And you seemed to have the strongest connection to my creator in terms of blood, chakra and DNA so I decided it would be best to report my findings to you.” The rabbit finished its report.
Surprisingly, he did not sense any ill intentions from the being, but he could be wrong too.
“So does that mean you mean no harm to us?”
“Not at all. Kaguya sama had taught me to love humans and protect them.”
“Really? But didn’t she hate humans?”
“That was after they betrayed her.”
Boruto’s expression softened. That was a good enough explanation. He kneeled, so he was at eye level with the creature “So, you said your name was Mochi, can I call you that from now?”
“Yes, you may.”
“Does that mean we’re friends now?”
Mochi blinked “I'm merely a device. There is no need for that, Otsu-Boruto sama”
Boruto chuckled, “You remind me of another one of your kind. His name was Karasuki and extremely polite just like you. I wonder what in the world happened to him.”
All of a sudden, the rabbit’s eyes widened impossibly wide and suddenly, the air around them dropped a few degrees and chills ran up Boruto’s spine. It felt as if a force was dragging him towards the direction of the northern hills.
“Boruto sama, its time. Please follow me.” Then mochi took off like a jet towards the direction in which he was feeling the pull.
“Wait, what in the hell just happened…”
Nevertheless, he decided to follow the creature. It might give him some clues regarding the otsusukis. He decided to follow the rabbit for now. Whatever may happen he was prepared for the worst.
He was Uzumaki Boruto after all.