Chunin Exams, Begin!

Everyone had finished applying for the Chunin exams-even the reluctant ones. Konoha found itself witnessing all sorts of crazy acts by genin training on the streets and the training grounds. Some of them even earned money as a sideshow for putting up 'performances' in the name of training.

The streets were lined with vendors and decorated stalls taking advantage of this new influx of customers from all the other nations. Everyone put out their best to sell their wares and the stores that sold speciality products only found in Konoha had a steeply rising boom in sales by people buying souvenirs.

Konoha's stadium had to get some last minute expansion done to accommodate the great number of audience. The original estimate was half of what they had now.

En route to Konoha chugged along a train slowly over tracks that connected all nations all over the world. They were special, each joint made by the best chakra specific magnet conducting steel to propel the hulking carriages forward.

Three such consecutive carriages were completely empty save for one compartment in the middle carriage.

It was of course the privilege of the kage to reserve such luxury.

"We should be reaching Konoha soon."

"The Chunin exam starts tomorrow. You guys fired up and ready to go?"

Kankuro and his brother, Gaara, the Kazekage, sat crossed legged facing three genin of their village.

The masked genin spiritedly replied with a "Yessir!"

The blond girl beside him listened to music on her stylish headphones, loud enough for everyone seated there to hear it too.

"So as to not tarnish the name of our great father, we three shall obtain victory without fail." Shinki with his painted face and a fuzzy, black cloak stared seriously at the Kazekage.

Gaara had a small wry smile on his usually expressionless face. "You don't have to be so crazy about it Shinki... I'm not the one you should be worried about, it's the rivals from other villages that you haven't even met yet..."

"The other villages... won't be a problem." Shinki stated even more seriously.

Kankuro exchanged glances with Gaara and shrugged defeated by Shinki's uptightedness. He was way too serious about anything even remotely relating to Gaara.

"Well, no matter. In any case you three, make sure to rest well today."

"Yessir!"

Gaara looked forward to reaching Konoha soon.

.......

"Now! As of this moment! We will begin the Chunin selection exam!"

Shikamaru stood upon a stage and declared the start of the special event that graced the village that year.

All the candidates stood in rows at the exam site 'Venue B'. There were two cube framed structures covered in black cloth with the symbol of the Hidden Leaf on them.

"Everyone, now is the time to show of the fruits of your labour!"

He glanced at his son's team below him. Shikidai was yawning away. Chōchō was snacking away and Inojin was distracted by the packet of chips in her hand.

'Are these guys even trying?' Shikamaru worried.

Sarada, Boruto and Mitsuki were grouped together awaiting the beginning of the test. They felt the palpable pressure emitted from the shinobi standing near them. Everyone had an excitement bubbling in their bellies waiting for the time to showcase their abilities.

"We'll start with the first stage examination!" Sai said as he motioned to drop the black covers. They revealed two black backdrops with an X and an O painted in white ink.

"It will be a quiz with true or false questions. Circle for true, cross for false. If you believe it to be true, gather in a team of three and proceed to the circle stage."

"Here comes the question!" Sai raised his hand and dropped it down.

The screen behind him flickered and displayed a few words.

"In the fifth volume of 'Shinobi Strategist Detective' story, the ninja slogan introduced was– 'Speaking of the moon, the sun comes to mind; speaking of the mountains, the river comes to mind; speaking of the flowers, nectar comes to mind', is this true or false?"

Sarada tried to recall.

"I have no idea, Sarada do you know that series?"

"Yeah, pretty much. But I've only read upto volume four. I didn't know there was a fifth."

"Then I guess we're done for," said a cheeky Mitsuki.

"Oi! At least think for a bit, come on!"

"Boruto, which do you think my papa would choose?"

As for why this profound question was asked by Sarada, Sasuke's daughter, to Boruto– a person who only met Sasuke for the first time a few days prior to the exams–goes back to that day  Sasuke returned to the Hidden Leaf village.

...........

Sarada sat in a tree, relaxed as she watched Boruto attempting to explode a water balloon bare handed without squeezing it.

It was a task given by Konohamaru-sensei. Boruto had begged him to teach him his Dad's signature jutsu—the Rasengan. 

Day and night he practiced and practiced desperately almost making the training grounds his home. Day and night, day and night.

She watched during g her free time as he finally made the water balloon explode from the inside. And then a rubber ball. And then his final task, the Rasengan itself.

That day he rushed to show Sasuke the fruits of his efforts.

They stood in front of a shrine boulder as Boruto took his time to create the one thing that would make Sasuke accept him as his disciple.

He concentrated hard as the air between his palm vibrated at a high frequency.

Sasuke observed his efforts. And one thing he noticed was  Boruto's dirty and dusty jacket. It no longer looked new.

Phweeeeee!

Boruto finally condensed his rasengan. It whirled in his palms, a floating piece of destruction. But–

"It's rather small isn't it?"

"You can hardly call that a rasengan."

Boruto gritted his teeth. An unknown rage erupted. He had tried so hard.

"However –"

"Grr. Aaaagh!" Boruto swund his palm and flung away that marble sized ball of chakra. It travelled a bit before fizzling out in mid air.

He stomped away furiously holding back the sting in his eyes.

Sasuke was left alone.

Tap.

"You're strict as ever, Daddy."

Sarada landed in front of him from the tree tops.

"I doubt you know much about Boruto so I'll fill you in. The hardworking personality is completely out of character for him, you know?"

It was the truth. Boruto never worked hard. If there was an easy way to do something, he would do it, even if he had to resort to cheats. Things came easy to him anyways. He was, afterall, a prodigy. And people like him, never put their entire self into anything. Much like the author of this fanfiction which is why she's writing this instead of doing her homework.

"The fact that he's come this far is a miracle in and of itself! Do you understand? Hey!"

"You're jumping to conclusions. "

"Eh?"

"I never said it was bad. I was thinking of taking him in as my disciple. "

Sarada was overjoyed.

Sasuke glanced in the direction Boruto threw his Rasengan. Much further than the spot the rasengan had disappeared, was a tree trunk with its bark shredded to bits.

Sasuke smirked. This new disciple of his did something even his father never had done. 

......................

Sarada knew Boruto was accepted by Sasuke. He came by a day later to tell her about it.

"Well?"

"Huh? Well, if I had to say, I think Uncle Sasuke would choose X for false. Because he's not the honest or obedient type."

"But why are you asking that all of a sudden?"

It was a very random question.

"Because I will walk a different path than my papa and become Hokage!"

"So we're going with the true, huh?" Mitsuki confirmed.

They both stated running to the frame with the O backdrop.

"Hey, wait up!"

All the contestants had made their choices.

"It appears everyone has split up. Those 'incorrect' A.K.A the 'failures' will be marked black and be eliminated," Sai said.

The screen behind him changed to an X and an O overlapping.

"The correct answer is–" He raised his hand.

And the answer flashed open. 

X. And O.

Both.

"Eh?"

Pssh!

The ground beneath them opened. Everyone fell through the torn membrane.

"!?"

"Uwaaaaaaa!" Some shinobi screamed.

Splash! Splash!

A pool of ink.

Within a split second, many were eliminated. And a select few, within those few milliseconds made their decision.

Don't get marked black.

Mitsuki saved himself by stretching his arm to hold the edge of the pit.

Boruto continued to fall. 'Wrong answer? Is this where it ends?' He closed his eyes expecting to hit the surface of inky blackness.

But he didn't. His waist was pulled hard and he came to a jerking stop. "Oof!"

Sarada pulled out some wired and cast it out to catch Boruto with one hand while the other outstretched to grab onto Mitsuki's other hand.

Boruto was centimeters away from elimination.

"Graaah. It's ink!"

"Ugh!" The shinobi drenched in the pool complained.

Boruto opened his eyes and looked at them.

"Over there is... the X side?"

The two pools were connected.

"The choice between true and false probably meant nothing," Shinki said as he hovered in a casing of black particles with his teammates.

"The quiz was nonsense from the beginning," explained Sarada, "I knew it, there was no fifth volume."

Shikidai had latched onto the  pit wall with a kunai and supported this two teammates from falling single handedly using his Shadow technique. Chōchō still had her hands full with chips.

"The failures will be marked black and eliminated. Basically he's saying, 'Don't turn black!' "

Inojin who was hanging by his butt attached to Shikidai's shadow sighed. "Indeed, seems like a test Dad would come up with."

Everyone regrouped back at the stage. The blackened ones  sat dejected at the back and the rest stood in the front.

Sai began explaining the purpose of the test.

"Some of you, upon seeing the pool of ink, merely accepted you made a wrong choice and let yourselves plunge into the blackness,"

"Pushovers like you have no place among the Chunin. Ti's exam's true quiz was the second choice to make. The decision you make when you feel cornered. 'To give up' or 'not to give up'!"

"Those who did not fall into the pool of ink were 'correct'! And with this, the first stage of the Chunin exams is finished!"

"Yes! We did it!" The shinobi cheered.

Boruto... did not. He knew. At that moment, he had given up. If it wasn't for Sarada....He clutched his right wrist with his other arm.

A shinobi jounin with glares observed him. He spoke into a small microphone. "He managed to pass on his own..."

..........

That evening, Boruto laid on his bed thinking. Turning his head, he stared at the little device on his desk. It was the ninja apparatus.

He had accepted it. That day, when Sasuke rejected him.

...........

Boruto sulked all the way through the streets. Sasuke's unspoken rejection made him fume in anger. Even sprinting all the way to the market did nothing to calm him down.

He passed under a large billboard featuring the singer B and his new Enya concert.

Whump.

Boruto bumped into someone.

"Oh, Young master? Is there a problem?" It was Katasuke.

Boruto peered through the reinforced glass as the Jonin carried out tests with the ninja apparatus prototypes.

"Well that's just terrible," Katasuke looked empathetic, "If that's the case, then I'm sure our research would prove useful to your... predicament. "

"Both coolly, and smartly,"

"Producing exceedingly potent results while expending very little effort."

He pulled up his sleeve to reveal an apparatus. It dispensed the one Jutsu Boruto so desperately wanted to accomplish.

Katasuke, despite being a non-shinobi, held up a fully formed Rasengan enticingly in front of Boruto. It illuminated their faces with its cool blue flow as it swirled in a perfect sphere.

"Such should be the form of ninjas in the future too. Don't you think so too?" Katasuke said with a smirk. It widened as he observed Boruto's entranced reaction.

The big fish was caught.

He handed a device to Boruto and spoke like a devil's whisper, "Now shall we pick the perfect special move for you?"

Sasuke wasn't expecting Boruto to come back.

And he certainly wasn't expecting Boruto to show him a full rasengan.

"You managed to improve that much in just a day..."

He knew. Boruto was cheating. He asked just to probe.

"Heh. My talent is on a completely different level that that old man of mine!"

"..."

He stared at Boruto's smug expression. It was an arrogance cultivated for a long time deeply entrenched in his character.

Even if he had to cheat, huh?

"You are certainly different from Naruto."

"I didn't want to think so though. "

He turned his back to Boruto.

"Huh? Anyway to our talk from before, are you going to make me your disciple now?" Boruto shifted his weight to one leg and continued to maintain the Rasengan.

Sasuke paused in his steps.

"Fine."

"I'll make you my disciple."

............

Boruto stared at that device that helped him get Sasuke's approval.

Ding!

His computer beside it dinged showing an email.

Congratulations on passing the first examination!

Do your best on the next one too.

–From Dad.

Boruto read this rare email. He had to smile. His father was paying attention to him. He knew what was happening.

Then he forcefully dropped his smile. "Through email... couldn't even be bothered to send a shadow clone... shitty Dad..."

Naruto hit send and breathed out a sigh of relief. He was nervous whole composing the email. Boruto and him were in an awkward cold war since Himawari's birthday.

Just writing those two sentences took a lot of courage. If Shikamaru hadn't encouraged him, maybe he wouldn't have sent one at all. He wouldn't have known what to do in the first place.

This email was sort of an attempt to reduce the awkwardness between them as well as to genuinely praise him for passing.

He leaned back into his office chair wiping the sweat that trickled down his forehead.

....