Fist Bump

Naruto tapped his finger against his arm. He was restless and couldn't sit. The clock kept ticking and tocking.

Knock. Knock.

He was shocked out of his pacings.

Shikamaru came in.

Naruto pretended he was working on his laptop.

Would that go unnoticed by Shikamaru?

"They're not bad."

"What's not?"

"Don't give me that. I'm talking about Boruto and the others. They passed the second test."

"Oh really?"

Shikamaru smiled at Naruto's attempt to seem unbothered.

"See ya."

".... You came all the way here just to tell me that?"

"Well, it was important afterall." And he left.

Naruto dumbfoundedly watched him leave so casually.

"Ah, and I might as well tell you. Shikadai and the others passed too. We may very well get to see a match between our sons too."

He closed the door.

"....."

"..."

"Hell Yeah!" Naruto fist pumped the air.

...........

Naruto and Sasuke watched blocks of text flow down from Konoha's only supercomputer. It was mostly biological, provided by the fact it was run on special processed chakra. It kept matching and comparing various documents like clockwork.

This was the Server. The original Internet prototype.



"As far as deciphering this scroll, it's giving much more trouble than we anticipated."

"Yeah, it will take a good while longer. Damn, why'd we have ro go and find something so troublesome?"

It was definitely trouble. Sasuke had to fight two strange white people to retrieve this scroll from Kaguya's Castle. Even if it was troublesome, they had to decipher it as soon as possible.

Those white people... looked similar to Kaguya.

"Hmph. I'll be back."

"Sasuke..."

"I heard that you are helping out and training up my boy, is that right?"

"Did you hear that from Boruto?"

"No, from Konohamaru."

He wished he heard from Boruto though.

"...."

"I see."

"Perhaps it's all just like you said. 'The essence of ninja never changes'."

"That is what I believe."

.....

"Okaa-san, I'm home!"

Boruto hopped on one leg as he struggle to take of his boots.

Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat. Pat.

"Oof!"

"Onii- san, congratulations!"

Himawari ran and hung herself from Boruto's neck and wrapped her legs around him too like a monkey.

"Waaah! Hang on Hima! I only passed the second test. You're making too big of a deal out of it."

"Welcome home, Boruto."

"Was it fine, were you hurt?"

"I'm fine," Boruto placed Himawari back on her feet, "But I really am totally wired out! I'm heading to my room."

Hinata and Himawari child only watch him go upstairs. It was strange. Wasn't this the time to celebrate?

"I'm not hungry either so don't worry about dinner."

"Boruto?"

Slam!

Boruto flomped onto his bed.

He breathed out. The apparatus on his wrist felt heavy. On his arm. On his mind. On his heart.

Maybe, this was wrong? No. It was wrong. He knew it was.

Knock. Knock.

He jerked up a d pulled his sleeve down to cover his wrist. "I- I said I wasn't hungry, didn't I?"

"....What do you want?"

Kchak.

The doorknob turned.

Boruto's eyes widened.

It was Naruto.

"Tou-san."

"Yo..."

They stared at each other in uncomfortable silence.

"Erhm... you know..."

Naruto scratches his cheek not knowing how to proceed.

He fiddled with a photo frame on the desk.

"About that second test... I heard you passed."

".......Yeah...."

"..."

Naruto continued to stare intently at the photo in his hand as if it would say whatever he wanted to say for him.

"...What is it?"

"..."

"....If you dont need anything, could you please leave?"

He still didn't move his eyes from the photo in his hand.

"..."

"Good job..... You did well." He blurted out finally.

"...."

"See ya."

He wanted to escape.

"Did you come all the way here just to tell me that?"

"Well.... it's....it's important afterall....,"

"...Yeah... something really important."

"Ah and another thing..."

Naruto came closer to Boruto. He put out his fist.

"Don't go losing to Shikidai," He said with a big smile of encouragement. He waited for Boruto to respond back.

Boruto stared at the extended fist. He gripped his wrist tighter and didn't complete the fist bump.

He raised his head ro look at Naruto and put on a large crooked smile instead. "As if I would!"

Naruto could only smile back.

He best forward and touched his fist to Boruto's chest. It didn't matter if he didn't receive a fist bump. That meant he had to work harder in his own way.

"I'll be watching."

"See ya."

Creak. Clack!

"If that's all you wanted ro say, you could have sent me a message."

Boruto slowly gripped his shirt where his heart thumped furiously.

It felt like a shot through the chest when Naruto bumped him.

Just that tiny bit of contact was enough for them to forget all his grieviences.

He trembled a little.

"....."

"You- you damn geezer!"

He had to hold himself from smiling so wide. And he definitely wasn't at all tearing up.



He rolled back onto his bed and flopped around like a happy little fish.

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

Author's Note:

I'm done. 4010 words plus. (originally written as one mega chapter on wattpad but I broke it down into three for wn) I skipped school for this ;-;

Finally! The chunin exams part one and two done! I can finally get back to being creative! Tell me if you catch any mistakes cuz I'm not editing this today. Maybe some other day when I re read it to catch up.