(A/N) Welcome! This story is my response to Boruto, my own take on what a sequel to Naruto should have looked like, and I will do my damndest to avoid actively contradicting canon at any point. That said, if you notice any points where I did, or read anything you disagreed with, or have any feedback at all, I'd love to hear all of it! This is my only running fanfiction story, and I try to update it with 4-6k word chapters at least twice a week barring any personal or family issues.

Looking back on the days where we were all genin, it still surprises me how sure I was about what my path would be. I suppose all children must be like that, yet with the benefit of hindsight now, I can only see myself as a misguided fool. I had a dream of becoming one of the greatest shinobi, yet I made so many mistakes along the way, so many decisions that ended poorly, and lost so many people forever.

I suppose it's ironic that I spent so long chasing after that ideal of greatness, but now that I've reached that final goal of mine, I can safely way I'd trade it away to have back all the sacrifices I made. Then again, though, those came later, when the stakes were higher. At the very beginning, I was just a genin with no idea how important the choices I made really were... but then again, there was one choice I made that I will never regret.

- Kame Hakiara

Shinobi Union Registry Files (Genin) (Hidden Sand):

Date: 50 A4 (50 years after Fourth Shinobi World War)

Academy Exam Graduation Data: Kame Hakiara

Ninjutsu: A
- Notes: Multiple nature transformations and excellent grasp of basic jutsu

Genjutsu: C
- Notes: Able to dispel and cast, but only at a bare minimum level

Taijutsu: B
- Notes: Can hold his own against most other students, excellent aim with thrown weapons

Appearance: Normal height (5'5") and weight (110 lbs), built on the thin side, short and messy sandy-blond hair. Typically wears utilitarian and many-pocketed clothing underneath Sand genin vest.

Attitude: Shows definite desire to excel but troubling resistance to work with other students less skilled than he is. Never disrespectful to teachers or in front of them, but also demonstrates dismissive behavior towards majority of his classmates.

History: Comes from the Hakiara clan, which is relatively new to the Hidden Sand (only fourth generation residents), and migrated to the Sand from the Heat Devil Village partially through their war with the Hidden Leaf. Due to their traditions, Kame was raised in seclusion within the clan, though that meant isolation from other children, until he entered the academy. Immediately excelled due to extensive pre-academy training and natural drive, and graduated at the minimum age, fourteen.

"Kame Hakiara, pass with a score of ninety-eight out of a hundred," the teacher said, nodding to Kame as he walked down the row and towards the door. "It's been a pleasure teaching you."

"Thank you." Kame gave the man one last respectful nod, then exited through the side door out into the dirt ground of the academy's courtyard. Penned in on all four sides by the walls of the academy itself, the small yard was where he'd eaten most of his lunches for the last four years- but now, it was the site of his next test. All of the tables had been cleared away and benches moved to make room for a long line of targets and corresponding numbered spaces on the other side of the yard, each of which had five kunai and five shuriken laid on them.

Kame took his position on the number one at the furthest corner of the yard, testing the weight of the provided weapons to make sure they were standard issue. Two more tests, he thought to himself, and then I'm officially a genin of the Hidden Sand. The genjutsu test had been relatively simple- just releasing the illusory genjutsu that the instructor laid on him, which he'd done successfully. Next came the taijutsu test, which had been a little trickier but not particularly problematic, and then the written test on ninja history and chakra theory, which he'd finished first out of the class and with an excellent score to boot.

As more and more students filed out of the written test classroom, the weapons teacher, Nagano, dropped down into the courtyard and scanned the assembled applicants. Nagano was by all appearances a prototypical Sand shinobi, clad in standard durable clothing underneath his sand chunin vest. However, Kame had learned from experience over the last four years that the man demonstrated his loyalty through unusual mediums: high standards and tough love to anyone under his tutelage.

Suddenly, he felt an odd urge to look up and obeyed it, glancing towards a third-story window looking down on the courtyard. There he saw a flash of white and blue motion, but it was gone almost immediately and he was left mildly confused. Who would-

His curiosity was interrupted when, now that apparently everyone who would come out here, had, Nagano began barking out instructions: "Everyone listen up! This is your final exam for weapons use, and I think that you can probably figure out what it is based on what's sitting right in front of you." We're to demonstrate a minimum accuracy level, Kame reasoned, all traces of the white blur now gone from his mind. All the tests up to this point had been pass-or-fail and weeded out a few unskilled students each, so it stood to reason that this one would be the same. The targets on the far wall, perhaps ten meters away, were large wooden ones suspended by nails, each a meter wide and with three concentric circles around a bullseye.

"On the other hand, some of you are complete idiots, so I'm gonna explain it anyway!" Nagano pointed towards the targets. "You sorry lot are to throw five consecutive shuriken towards those targets. If you can get at least three of them to stick in the inner ring, you pass, and if you can't, you fail! I can pass or fail you on my own, regardless of the rules, so if you're planning to slide by on a technicality then get a new plan."

The line of twenty or so students readied themselves to throw their shuriken, and on his shout of "Go!" the throws began. Kame steadied his breathing, assumed the stance that was well-written into his memory, and narrowed his vision in on the target before releasing with a flick of his wrist. The shuriken whizzed forward and sank into the very edge of the eight-inch-diameter bullseye. He readied another one, wound up, and repeated the process four more times, ending up with four bullseyes and one hit into the inner ring.

He then leaned back into the wall and waited as the other students made their own attempts, glancing around in boredom until he felt an urge to look up towards one of the windows looking down into the yard. Once he looked up there, he caught the faintest glimpse of a white form- but it was gone as soon as he noticed it, and his attention was brought back to earth by Nagano's shouting: "Alright, now if you're looking at your unsatisfactory performance and finally realizing just how useless you are, don't worry! You get one more chance, this time with the kunai!"

Kame picked up said kunai and grabbed it by the hilt, weighing it one more time before launching it towards the target. Once there, it stabbed point-first into the wood and sank in a centimeter, shaking free one of the less-secure shuriken. The next three kunai went much the same way, two more hitting the bullseye and one plunking into the inner ring. The last one, though, he got overconfident on and flung directly into one of his own shuriken, which it promptly bounced off of and missed the target completely.

Nagano strode over from his position behind the students to congratulate Kame: "Excellent! Exemplary work, Kame!" The teacher marked down the final results on a clipboard, continuing in a proud tone. "You pass the kunai and shuriken test with flying colors." Kame cracked a smile; he'd managed to perform significantly above the passing requirements with seven bullseyes, two inner-ring hits, and one that would have been a bullseye were it not for the shuriken in the way.

"Thank you, Nagano-sensei. May I move on to the next test?" He'd left some interesting experiments at his home, and the sooner he finished with the academy graduation exam the sooner he'd get to finish them.

"Actually, Kame, I'd like you to stay until the other students are finished. You can sit down over there for now." Nagano pointed towards one of the viewing benches behind the range and Kame complied, walking over to it and taking a seat. Well, I guess if I can't move on, I might as well check out some of my competition, he thought. Looking at the other students, the majority of them were clearly average, but a few were noticeably unable to complete the requirements. Which is weird, he thought, because historically ninja have been held to much higher standards at much earlier ages. In the decades of peace after the Fourth Shinobi World War, the ninja villages had less need of soldiers and so children had significantly more time to be... well, children. Kame, as well as most of his classmates, was now fourteen, the minimum age to graduate into a genin squad. The ninja before had to pass these tests at a much younger age, but most of my classmates can't even do very well with all those extra years, huh?

Although he could have named most of the students, there were a few that he didn't recognize by appearance- Due to the class system in the Hidden Sand, students were placed with different kids for each of their classes in order to keep familiarity with all of the other students but to prevent any close friendships (at least until the genin teams were established). Despite this, he'd developed a repartee with a few of the other students, namely Tetsute Hasagi and Rakuyo Kuyanari. They shared the projectiles class and as the top three performers they'd developed a healthy little competition that soon became a friendship. Kame, who hadn't had many friends growing up, had gravitated towards the other two hard workers in his classes, and soon they would meet after hours to practice their jutsu or even just talk. Tetsute's short brown hair and eyes did little to distract from his ever-present smirk, but the few people who took offense at his attitude had quickly learned their lesson and left the burly boy alone.

Looking over at him, Kame noticed his rival had managed two bullseyes. He held his breath as the boy lined up his final throw, but released it in a sigh when he noticed the stance and alignment. As expected, Tetsute, like him, got cocky on his final toss and missed the target completely- still easily passing, but not cracking Kame's accomplishment. He appeared to have the same conversation with the teacher and then walked over and sat down next to Kame.

"Hey, bro, guess who just got seven bullseyes and an inner circle?" Tetsute smirked and opened his arms wide in glory.

Kame laughed out loud. "Me. And I got two inner circles instead of one, so... you lose."

Tetsute's face fell and he narrowed his eyes. "Did you practice especially just to beat me?"

He stared suspiciously at his rival, but Kame kept his face bemused. "I don't need to practice especially to beat you."

"Ohh…" Rakuyo walked up from behind Kame, black ponytail bobbing as she stifled a laugh behind her hands. Her hazel-green eyes sparkled with amusement at the well-delivered insult. "You just gonna take that, Tetsute?"

Tetsute rolled his eyes, although there was a little glimmer of anger underneath at being humiliated in front of his schoolboy crush. "Whatever. I beat you at taijutsu, so we're even."

"Actually, I think I win this one, boys." Rakuyo held up ten fingers. "All bullseyes. Feel free to bow in adoration now." Kame raised an eyebrow and Tetsute mock-bowed before shaking his head.

He appeared to count something on his fingers and then said, "So that puts Rakuyo at the top with first place in weapons and second place in taijutsu, and me in second with first place in taijutsu and third place in weapons. How's it feel to be the weakest link, huh, Kame?"

"You're forgetting the written test. I got first, you second, and Rakuyo third; so now we're all tied up." Kame smiled. "I guess it all comes down to the ninjutsu test, huh?" Tetsute simply smiled and cracked his knuckles while Rakuyo stretched hers. "Well, may the best ninja wi-" Kame was cut off by Nagano's voice ringing out across the courtyard.

"Well, regardless of results, I'm proud of each and every one of you- not. If you failed here, have fun taking another year where I try my absolute hardest to keep you from sucking more. That means you; Naburo, Kekeno…" As the sensei listed off all of the failures, the usual suspects walked out, sulking or pretending not to care. All in all, Kame counted ten kids who were unable to pass, leaving ten more standing in the courtyard. However, the last of those ten names came as a mild surprise to Kame: "And Haku."

Haku? Kame searched his mind and couldn't remember a student named Haku. He knew most of his classmates' names by now, if not from seeing them then by hearing Tetsute or Rakuyo mention them. How did I miss a person? As he searched his mind, his question was answered as a tall girl in a worn purple coat strode up to the teacher and started arguing with him. Curious, he detached himself from his two friends and drifted over, eavesdropping unobtrusively.

When he got a good look at her, his heart skipped a beat. She was striking, prettier than he'd expected from the antisocial girl hiding in the corner, with purple hair, purple eyes, and pale skin, standing as all as he was. Her face was dejected as she talked at the teacher, getting more and more so as he got within earshot and listened closely.

Nagano's voice was stern. "I'm sorry Haku, but you simply did not meet the requirement."

"I… I don't… why won't you let me pass? I hit the target every time…"

"Haku, the purpose of this exercise was to show that you can land at least two shuriken or kunai into the inner circle of a target. You demonstrated that you can hit the outer circle of the target, but you simply don't have the-" Nagano's lecture was cut off as Haku talked over him.

"But you let Genji pass, and he didn't get it done either!"

"Genji has regularly passed all tests up to this point, and I'm confident that this time was just a fluke." Nagano sighed as the girl did something. Looking up, Kame saw that she was picking up a stray shuriken from the ground and getting into a ready stance. She lined up her throw, and Kame could already see that it wasn't going to hit. He stepped in right before she released and called out.

"Wait, stop." Nagano and Haku both looked back, the former annoyedly. Nagano's face changed as he recognized one of his star pupils, but Haku's eyes widened as she straightened up and turned to face him.

"Why… do you want to say something about me?" She seemed defensive and he made a mental note to watch how he talked to her.

"No, I'm here to help you pass. If you'd thrown the shuriken like that, you'd have missed the target completely." Kame explained, holding up his palm in a gesture of peace.

Haku's eyes became puzzled and confused for a brief moment, before hardening again. "I don't know why you want to help me, but please just leave me alone, I can handle this." With that, she lined up to throw again, aiming towards the target. Kame visualized the path her shuriken would take- it would go too low and hit the widened base of the wooden target, a good foot or two away from the actual bulls-eye.

She drew back, and he interjected once more: "Haku, stop." When she turned again, her cheeks were flaming and she bit her lip rather than respond, so Kame filled in the silence. "Okay, just get into your stance but don't throw." After a brief moment of stillness, she did as he said and dropped into a ready stance. He reached forward and moved her arm down a little bit, rolled her wrist back, and then backed up. "Okay, now try it."

Haku glanced back at him briefly, but like before seemed to lose her nerve and drop her gaze to the ground before turning around and throwing the kunai. This time, with the added control granted by a mobile wrist and the added power from a full arm extension, she was able to send the kunai streaking forward and plunging into the inner circle- admittedly only barely, and at an odd angle, but it was there alongside another two more of her kunai.

She smiled hesitantly, turning around and looking hopefully at Nagano, then gratefully towards Kame before striding off towards the ninjutsu testing classroom. Nagano opened his mouth but then appeared to think better of it, stopping himself, then shrugging and walking away. He muttered, "Well, she sure as hell isn't gonna pass the ninjutsu test, so she's someone else's problem now."

Kame blinked a few times, slightly confused as to why he'd just helped her. I've never really had an urge to help my classmates before, he thought, so why...? He was still lost in thought when Rakuyo ran up and slapped him on the back. "What's the big idea running off like that? Why are you messing with Kodoku?"

"No, I just… Kodoku? I thought her name was Haku." He craved more information.

"She's a weird one... are you sure that you don't remember her? I feel like we've definitely talked about her before. She's in my ninjutsu class and she can't even perform basic jutsu; I really don't understand what her problem is. She should've given up a long time ago, but..." Rakuyo trailed off briefly, then brightened up a bit. "Hey, have you heard of Might Guy?"

Kame remembered his research on all the greatest ninja of the modern age. Might Guy... he suddenly remembered who she was talking about: oh, yeah! Might Guy, wasn't he the one who fought and lost to Madara Uchiha after Madara absorbed the tentails? "Yeah, the Leaf's taijutsu master. His ninjutsu and genjutsu were nonexistent, though, so I wrote him off at first…"

Rakuyo laughed. "You'd think so, right? But he was recognized as strong by Madara himself and... Anyway, Haku reminds me of those stories, except her attitude isn't respectful or diligent enough to achieve anything near that level. Back when she first enrolled, she was decent at taijutsu, but pretty soon me and Tetsute showed her her place and now she's actually pretty pathetic. She doesn't even try to stand up for herself when people... anyway, I don't know what she expects is gonna happen in the ninjutsu test. Hey, wait a minute, how the hell did she even pass the genjutsu test!?" Rakuyo seemed annoyed.

Kame considered for a moment but then realized that they were late for the final test on ninjutsu. "Let's go, we don't want to fail by default."

"Heh, Tetsute would never let us hear the end of it." Rakuyo jogged off towards the classroom and he followed along, seeing that the location was the same stark classroom where they'd been learning and practicing their basic jutsu all year. They walked in and took the only two available seats, so Rakuyo ended up next to Tetsute and Kame was forced into the back, sharing a desk with Miriki Kosuki, the pretty-boy of their age group. The vain prick was examining his nails and occasionally shaking a length of perfectly-kept dark hair out of his bright blue eyes, completely ignoring him as he sat down. I can't believe Loverboy passed all of the tests leading up to this... Kame turned to glance at his classmate again, but was surprised to see that the Kosuki boy was looking at him intently. What is he-

His thoughts were cut off as the teacher looked around at all the students and then checked a list in his hands. "Alright, students, this is your final test before you get the chance to become genin, and I daresay it is also the most important! Ninja are best known, and for good reason, for their mastery of the ninjutsu style. Almost every rank chunin-or-higher ninja has a high level of mastery with several complex ninjutsu, but as new genin you are only expected to be able to perform a few basic ones. The one we'll be testing today is the clone jutsu!"

The class broke down into whispering and muttering, but neither Kame nor Miriki were fazed by the announcement. Kame's clone jutsu was both reliable and convincing- he'd mastered it quickly and moved on to more challenging ones. He might even show off a little for this-

"Kame Hakiara! As the strongest ninjutsu user in the class, would you like to demonstrate?" The instructor looked at him and he smiled.

"Of course". He made his way down the aisle and to the front of the class.

"Feel free to use the jutsu whenever you'd like," The instructor directed him. Kame smiled and then made the correct hand signs before focusing his chakra. He felt the power whirl within him and ordered it, as directed by the hand signs, to form into being beside him. With perfect focus, he mirrored the chakra creation with his own chakra network and then released the jutsu. Standing beside him was an exact copy of himself, which he turned and shook hands with.

"Very good job, Kame, you may return. Full marks." The instructor marked his score down on the clipboard and gestured him to go back to his place, which he did, dismissing the clone and returning to his seat.

The other classmates all went, some creating imperfect clones but all of them at least managing something. The instructor graded harshly this year, refusing to give points to those who made clones that did not appear similar to themselves. Miriki walked up and made a perfect clone on his turn, as did Rakuyo and Tetsute. Kame couldn't wait to form a team with the latter two, as soon as everyone finished their testing. As the classroom of ten or so ninja students finished up, only Haku was left.

Her name was called and she walked up slowly, head hung, and he started when someone gently placed their hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Miriki looking at her sadly and speaking in a soft, unnecessarily harmonious voice: "She's not going to be able to do it. Not for lack of trying, but she's been incapable of it all year."

Kame frowned, turning back towards Haku's display. He looked on as she made the handsigns perfectly and channeled her chakra, but he didn't need any visual kekkeigenkai to see what was going on- she didn't have enough focus or chakra control, and the chakra she sent out to form the clone was simply dissipating. After a few seconds Tetsute laughed and he felt even worse. She responded by tilting her head downwards more and starting to straighten up.

Kame's impulse pushed him and before he knew what he was doing he flashed through several handsigns and sent out his own chakra beside her. He formed his chakra correctly and managed to cast two jutsu in perfect unison, which resulted in a figure appearing beside Haku out of nowhere. His combination clone and transformation jutsu made it look like she'd successfully, if a bit sloppily, made a clone of herself. He hadn't had her chakra network to work with, so it only looked somewhat like her, but another student had been passed despite making a clone that was far worse so Kame's should be up to par.

She jerked up and glanced beside her at the clone of herself, then looked around the room trying to mask her confusion. The instructor squinted at the clone and then at Haku, before looking up at the rest of the classroom, his eyes finally settling on Kame. He peered at Kame, and then at the clone, and then appeared to consider briefly, but Kame already knew the outcome. They would never fail their star pupil for something like this, and they probably didn't want to teach the crippled Haku for another year, so the logical outcome would be for them to simply let it go and pass her.

"Haku, you… pass. Go take your seat." She bit her lip again and darted back to her seat, so Kame dismissed the jutsu. Wait, he thought, what the hell did I just do? I barely even know her and now I'm helping her pass this test?

Miriki beside him whispered, "Hey dude, nice one! Although, why would you help her- do you even know her?" Kame shrugged and sat back in his chair. He was as confused as Miriki was about the matter. In fact, he was so focused on himself that he failed to notice Miriki's hands releasing a jutsu of his own.

"Alright, class, if you're still in this room, you've shown acceptable levels of competence in every basic aspect of shinobi arts. Congratulations! You may now all come and receive your headbands, and carved onto the back of the metal you'll find your ninja identification numbers. The first number in that long string of them is your team number, which is also the classroom you will go to to meet with your squadmates tomorrow. Once again, congratulations. As soon as you pick up your headband you are officially a Sand village genin." All six of the remaining students walked up to the teacher to receive their headbands one after the other, and Kame winced at the scorching glare that the teacher gave him on his turn.

The room cleared out very quickly, after which Kame met up with Rakuyo and Tetsute outside. They all wore their headbands on their foreheads with big smiles on their faces. "We did it!" They shared an awkward three-way high-five. Maybe it wasn't rare for students to graduate the academy on their first attempt, but it definitely wasn't a minor achievement. Although Kame had been confident that he'd pass while going into the test, it was still reassuring to know that he'd put the milestone behind him.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. "Uh, guys?" They turned and their faces fell somewhat as they saw the worried expression on his face.

"What?" They asked in unison.

"If they gave us our squad assignments, then that means we aren't choosing for ourselves, which means we might not be together…" He did his best to keep his voice hopeful, but in reality he was panicking a little bit. A ninja's squad was important, they'd be together for their entire careers and he didn't want to end up alone with two weirdos. He hadn't been present for the fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds' graduations, which meant that there was probably a large pool of possible ninja for him to end up on a team with.

He tried to remain confident despite the panic that he usually suffered when his larger plans went awry starting to set in. "No, I'm sure that they… Well, I mean, we can check." He pulled off his own headband, flipped it over, and looked at it. It read: "8. Well, did you guys get Eight?" He looked up hopefully at his only two friends, who slowly shook their heads.

"No, I got seven." Tetsute said apologetically.

"Hey! I got seven, too!" Rakuyo smiled at him. They high-fived again, elated to be on the same team after all. Kame tried to be happy for them.

"Wow, that's… really great, I guess…" He said sadly. They didn't even notice his suddenly depressed spirit and he walked away without another word. As he left the academy grounds, he noticed Haku walking off towards the wall of the city, head down and hands in her pockets. For some reason, there was very little memory about her- which was incredibly strange, given how amused Rakuyo had been by her. She talked about it like it was an inside joke between us...

Shaking his head to clear his mind, Kame made it home without a hitch, coming in and immediately setting some water to boil. Both his parents were Sand shinobi and were out on missions at the moment, leaving him to take care of himself. This wasn't an uncommon situation; after he'd turned eleven they'd recommitted to their jobs as Land of Wind border security. In fact, they'd earned enough repute to be in the reinforcement corps, a special squad that rapidly moved around the border constantly to counter shifting threats and situations.

Kame's earlier years had been fairly isolated, in the tradition of the Heat Devil Village. Children there were raised purely within the clan and trained from a young age, but due to their clan's relative lack of other people he'd been kept from all other children. His time had been filled with books and reading, and although he'd like to call it 'research', honesty demanded that he admit to himself that it was really just him obsessing over stories of famous ninja. He had very garbled memories of being resistant to ninja training at first, but that had all changed once he'd started to read accounts of historical ninja's exploits. Kame had fallen in love almost immediately with the tales of Gaara, Naruto, and Sasuke unleashing unbelievable powers to beat back terrible threats and save the world with their own hands.

From that point until the present day, his dream had been to become a household name like them. He didn't just want to be a ninja, he wanted to be one of the great ones. To blaze his own path, despite not having a kekkeigenkai or a tailed beast, and achieve the sort of lasting greatness that later generations would be learning about in their history classes. His parents had been glad to teach him until age eleven, at which point his parents had gotten their promotion and they'd started rapidly going all over the Land of Wind's border, shifting from town to town. That kind of constant movement wasn't the best for raising a child, much less a child trying to focus on their education, so they'd opted to leave him at home alone far more than most kids his age- which, to be fair, he didn't really mind. The peace and quiet gave him time to think and also to work on his paperbombs.

He'd found and decided a while ago that he had an affinity for the ninja tools, and quickly learned how to create and disarm them. Ever since, he'd been experimenting with different levels of power and area, along with trying to compress the runes for greater efficiency. So far, he'd managed to create not only an array of varyingly strong bombs, but also a few specialty ones like the flame-spreading one he'd dubbed a 'firebomb'. That one had required his fire release to work, but now it was a special edge in any fight he had- or will be, once I get into an actual fight. Due to the highly destructive nature of paperbombs, Kame had been ill-suited for the casual sparring matches that had been his only chance at fighting other shinobi so far.

He heard the water finish and made himself some instant noodles, taking them into his workshop and starting to experiment with trying to streamline the detonation process. Perhaps if he could infuse an air-based change of nature while creating the change in nature, the explosion would become more forceful and less damaging. A concussive bomb could prove very useful for both non-lethal uses and also as a way to move things around. Okay then, let's see what we can do with this, he thought as he dove in to work on using the new idea. As Kame's hands busied themselves with drawing up the paperbomb's seal, the familiar motions comforted him enough to bring his thoughts to a more positive tone: Whoever I end up with, I'm sure I can make it work.