Author's Note: Stuff is about to go down in Konoha! Bad stuff… REALLY bad stuff…
Chapter Six: Trials
"Daddy!" Boruto called. He ran to his father and hugged him tightly. "I passed the written portion!" he exclaimed. "Where's mommy and Himawari? I wanna tell them!"
Naruto patted the boy's back. "Congrats!" he said. "And your mom is probably with her own team!" He looked up to see Konohamaru. "I hear that Team Seven passed." He smiled at Haku and Sarada. "Did you have to cheat?"
"I didn't," Sarada announced proudly.
"Neither did I…" Haku grumbled.
"I did…" Boruto muttered sheepishly.
"That's okay! I'll have to tell you what happened during my exams!" Naruto said with a nod. Boruto groaned. "What? Are you sick of that story?"
"Yeah, yeah! Mommy let you cheat off her exam!"
"But I didn't take her answers," Naruto reminded him. "Who did you cheat off of?"
"I dunno… someone from the Sand Village…"
At the mention of the Sand Village, Naruto smiled. Gaara would be there for the final round and he was excited to see his friend again. "You should have cheated off of Shikadai…" Naruto said.
"I wanted to… but I couldn't find him…"
"That's okay! When is your team's match-up?"
"At noon!" Boruto answered.
"We're going to go check out the area where our fight will be," Konohamaru said. "It's in Training Field Three. Will you be there?"
Naruto nodded. "Good luck, you three. And thank you, Konohamaru!" The man nodded and ushered the team away so Naruto could mingle with the people and look at all the stands that had been set up for the festival. He had hoped to find Sasuke to get some answers, but locating him in this crowd would be hard, even with his shadow clones… Besides, he had to get to his son's match… and find Hinata to see how her team did…
"Sensei!" Naruto called when he finally spotted Kakashi in the mess. "Hey! Did you hear how Hinata's team did?"
Kakashi nodded. "Yep! They're moving on!"
"That's great!" Naruto said with a smile. "What time?"
"One…"
Naruto sighed. "Boruto's match is at noon… I don't know if he'll be finished before then… Mind if I send a shadow clone to watch?"
"They aren't your children, Naruto… Do what you have to."
Naruto smiled. "Have you seen Sasuke…?"
"No… but I imagine he'd be there to watch Sarada's match, so you'll probably see him there."
"True… Well, good luck, Kakashi! I'll try to get at least a clone to their match!" He waved and then ran off into the street to continue his walk around. After meeting up with Sai to check on security and finding out that they had not found any suspicious activity, Naruto started for the training field to watch Boruto's match.
The training fields were all set up like survival arenas with large obstacles and other environmental factors that kept the students from fighting completely in the open. Most of the match would not be seen by the spectators, but Naruto was sure that most of them didn't mind. It was the thought that counted. Naruto took a seat at the top of the bleacher-like seats.
There was a loud cheering when the teams were introduced. Team Seven was facing off with a team from the Cloud Village. Naruto spotted who must be the team's sensei as she stood nervously. Naruto leaned against the railing as the fight started. The teams scattered.
As Naruto watched the survival trial, he noticed that one of the members of the Cloud Village's team was a tracking ninja. His interest peaked since Boruto was also a tracking ninja and he was interested in watching them face off… But as he watched, he began to realize that the tracking ninja seemed to be getting confused. "Hmm…"
Naruto created a clone to take his place and he slipped off of the stands. He snuck into the area without being seen and disguised his chakra so the students could not detect him. He knew Sarada and Boruto's jutsu well… but he wasn't as familiar with Haku's… the boy was always quiet and Konohamaru usually never had answers when Naruto asked what he thought Haku's specialty was…
Naruto moved into a tree above the young shinobi to watch him work. Boruto and Sarada were keeping watch while Haku created three shadow clones, each resembling a teammate. Not bad… Naruto thought. The replicas were perfect… but he suddenly became disturbed. They were too perfect… and he could feel their chakra, which matched their human counterparts perfectly.
Naruto gripped the tree tightly as he watched Haku take a burn wound on his arm and replicate it on a clone's face to make it look injured. He can copy… Wounds… and chakra… Naruto suddenly had a horrible feeling that the child could also copy a scent… which would explain why they found no scent on the fox's body on his doorstep. Of course he was only mimicking these on Shadow clones, which were blank canvases… But a more experienced ninja could probably do that with living people… Or corpses… Naruto thought as his stomach turned to ice.
Naruto quickly got back to his seat with his head spinning. Who were Haku's parents…? Or his guardians? Or even mentor… Was this a skill, or a kekkei genkai? Or was this just something Haku could do…? Naruto quickly shoved that thought away. He just saw the boy do it, but not on flesh and bones… He knew he had to talk to Sai or Yamato about his theory, and then to Konohamaru about Haku's parents… He closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, Boruto…" he muttered. He was gone before he noticed that his son was watching him leave…
Naruto moved through the crowd. I should have left a clone… he thought. Boruto won't be happy when he notices that I've left… But what else could he do? This was more important than his son's match, as much as he hated to admit that… Naruto clenched his fists, but sighed with relief when he spotted Sai at the entrance to the arena. "Sai! We need a meeting as soon as you can with Yamato and Konohamaru… and try to find Shikamaru while you're at it, please…"
Sai nodded before vanishing without a sound. Naruto waited several moments before he too vanished, this time heading for his mansion, but when he arrived, it wasn't Sai, Shikamaru or Yamato waiting for him… It was Sasuke. "I thought you'd be watching Boruto's match," the Uchiha said.
"Yeah, well… something came up…" Naruto muttered. "Will you tell me what's going now…?"
Sasuke nodded slightly, then motioned Naruto to follow him inside. Naruto did and found himself being led deep down below the surface where the jail cells were kept. Once they were down below, Sasuke quickly made sure they hadn't been followed and he locked the main door, putting a seal on it so no one could listen either.
"Are all these precautions really needed…?" Naruto asked, but his question was never answered. Suddenly he was against the stone wall behind him. For a moment he was stunned. All the air had left his lungs, leaving him gasping, but Sasuke had his elbow in the Hokage's throat. Naruto struggled for a moment, unwilling to do anything to harm the Uchiha unless he was certain that his life was in danger. "Sas-…" Naruto gasped. He reached for a kunai, but it was knocked out of his hands.
"Shut up," Sasuke snapped. Naruto wanted to bring out the fox's chakra and put an end to this, but if Sasuke was truly serious, their fight could easily cause many deaths in the village before one of them subdued the other.
Naruto could see the edges of his vision fading, but before he passed out, Sasuke released him. The Hokage slid down onto the ground, coughing and gasping violently. "Idiot…" Sasuke muttered.
"What… is the matter… with you?!" Naruto gasped.
"You!" Sasuke snapped. "You have to fight back!"
Naruto blinked. "What…?" He messaged his throat as he stared up at the Uchiha.
"You can't just let things like that happen!"
"I would have fought back against anyone else!" Naruto defended. Was this whole ordeal so Sasuke could teach him to stand up for himself? He appreciated the concern, but this was a little much. "What's gotten in to you…? What's happening?"
"I… don't know…" Sasuke admitted. "I thought I had gotten in… but they don't trust me…"
"Who…? The Hyuuga?"
"No… The Tsuchi…"
"What? Sasuke!"
The Uchiha shook his head. "They're planning something, Naruto… Something big… But they found out that I was a double agent… I thought if I severed my ties with you for a while, they would calm down, but they still haven't let me back in…"
"So… you lured me down here to choke me so you would see if I was willing to defend myself…?" Naruto asked, not following the man's story. "And what are they planning? And when?"
"I don't know!" Sasuke snapped.
"We will double the guards for the arena then," Naruto said with a nod. "Did you happen to notice if any of them were part of the ANBU?"
Sasuke shook his head. "I'm pretty sure none of them were," he answered. "I never saw their faces, and their chakra signals had been blocked for meetings…"
Naruto nodded. He watched Sasuke head for the door. "Hey, Sasuke… Next time you want to teach me a lesson… just talk, okay…?" he said as he rubbed his throat.
Sasuke shook his head and left without answering. Naruto went upstairs to give the orders to Sai that they were to double the guards and comb every inch of the arena.
"Yes, Naruto-sama…" Sai said with a bow.
"Now," Naruto said once he explained why they had to double the guards, "I need to speak with you all about my son's teammate, Haku…"
"I can't believe he left" Boruto snapped as he kicked a rock. He was walking home after his team had been announced the winners. "'It was an emergency, Boruto-kun' he'll say…" the child groaned. He used a low=pitched voice to mimic his father's tone. "'I had no other choice! The village needed me!' he'll try to reason! Well, forget the village!" Boruto clenched his fists. He didn't mean it… deep down he knew his father was a very busy man, and he tried his best to balance being Hokage and being a father…
But it was times like this that Boruto resented his father, the title of Hokage and the village they all protected. Boruto went straight home. At least there he could lock himself in his room and not have to talk to anyone… But just as he stepped inside, he noticed that Kakashi, Shikamaru, and Yamato were all there. "Boruto!" Naruto called happily. "How did your match go?"
"We won… Not that you care…"
Naruto blinked. "Of course I care…! Something… came up… is all…"
"Of course something came up! Something always comes up!"
Naruto turned to his advisors… "It might be best if you left…"
"Why?" Boruto snapped. "You don't want them to know how much you fail as a father!"
"Boruto-kun…" Naruto whispered. "I'm sorry…"
"No you aren't!" Boruto snapped. He knew he was being unreasonable… but this was something he had been preparing for months… and his father couldn't even take a couple hours of his life to watch him.
"Boruto… please…" Naruto reached out to put a hand on his son's shoulder, but Boruto pulled away. "Boruto…"
"Why did you even have kids?" the child questioned. "The village is your family, isn't it?" Boruto looked at his father… How could he hurt his dad like he had hurt him…? He remembered the many tales he had been told throughout his life about his father and the village… and some were not as happy as others… and while he never fully understood why the village hated his father when he was young, he knew it was still a sensitive spot… He just didn't know how sensitive… "If this is how you treat your family, no wonder you were alone as a child!"
Boruto didn't see the hand that struck him across the face. He didn't even feel the initial hit at first… All he knew was that one second he was standing and the next, he was on the floor, holding his face. He was shocked… Naruto had never hit either of them… At least not like that. Boruto suffered his fair share of bonks to the head, but he had never been slapped by his father like that. Boruto looked up at Naruto, who was staring down at him with horror in his eyes. Kakashi had his hand on Naruto's shoulder and Yamato hand his hand on the hilt of a Kunai.
"Boruto… I…" Naruto stuttered as he reached down towards his son. Boruto moved away and got to his feet. When Naruto tried to touch him again, the boy pulled away violently.
"Don't touch me!" the boy snapped.
"Boruto… I'm sorry…"
"Leave me alone! I hate you!" That stunned Naruto enough that the child could flee upstairs. Boruto slammed the door to his bedroom behind him and locked it before jumping into his bed. His face stung, but it didn't hurt nearly as bad as the look in his father's eyes when he heard that his son hated him…
Sai was in charge of getting the ANBU teams ready for that morning. It was around four in the morning, a couple hours before daybreak. The man slid out of bed, silent as a cat. He went to his son's room first, opening the door to check on the boy. Inojin was sound asleep, prepared for their matches later. Sai made a note to make sure he was assigned in a place where he could watch his son.
Without making a sound, the ANBU captain vanished into the night to meet the guard. When he arrived at the compound, it was deathly silent… which was odd, considering they always had teams coming in and out during the Chuunin exams… Sai didn't like where this was going… He started for the main house of the compound where the ANBU received their missions… He had told them the night before that he would be there at this time… someone should be there…
But when he opened the door, he found that there was no one there… "Hello…?" he called, but there was no answer. Sai reached for the tanto that was strapped to his back before continuing into the building. All was quiet… Sai opened another door that led into the back of the building and gasped. Two bodies lay sprawled on the ground, their fresh blood pooling around them.
Sai spun and unsheathed his sword. He was quick to get his back to the wall so that no one could sneak up on him. What's going on…? He thought. It was still too quiet and he didn't like it. He stepped forward, trying to keep his eyes and ears out for anything…
But he didn't even feel the attack when it came... he was out before he even hit the ground…
Naruto didn't sleep that night… He couldn't believe that he had hit Boruto… and he couldn't believe that his son had said he hated him… The sun was just rising and Naruto chose to slip out before anyone in the house was awake… He had to meet Sai at the arena anyway to get their report…
Naruto walked silently through the mostly deserted streets of the village. I'll… make it up to him… somehow… he thought. He had to make this right… at the very least, he couldn't fail as a father… He's a teenager, Naruto reasoned. He would have many falling outs with Boruto before the boy was fully grown…
While his thoughts didn't comfort him, Naruto still stood tall when he made it to the arena. There he was joined by three ANBU. They bowed respectfully. "Where is Sai…?" Naruto asked.
"He is busy," the first answered. "He sent us to tell you that everything has been searched and no one will enter this area without first being searched…"
"Good… but I'd really like to speak with Sai," Naruto said. With everything that was happening in the village, he wanted his information directly from the ones he knew he could trust.
"We will find him, then, Hokage-sama…" The three vanished without a sound and Naruto walked onto the field. Though this was not the same arena he had fought Neji, the memories flooded back… It was the first time he had really stood in front of the village and they hadn't looked at him with anger and hatred… Naruto wanted Boruto to have a similar memory associated with this place.
"I'll make it up to him…" he repeated.
"I thought I might find you here…"
Naruto turned and smiled. "Hey, Iruka-sensei…" he greeted.
"It's a good day for an exam, huh?"
"I hope so…" Naruto wanted to tell his teacher what he had done… or what was going on behind the scenes that they were so desperately trying to cover up… but how could he…? How could he start…?
"You know… back then… I didn't pass you because I knew you had potential that needed to be realized," Iruka said, trying to break the silence.
Naruto smiled. "Really…? I thought it was because you hated me…"
"How could I hate you?" Iruka teased. "You were just the most annoying student I ever had to deal with…"
"Yeah, well, now your annoying student is Hokage… and a father!"
"And he's great at both." Iruka said.
Naruto bowed his head. "I don't feel like I'm doing a great job with either one…"
"Did you and Boruto have a fight?" Iruka asked. Naruto nodded. "You two wouldn't love each other without a fight here and there… You see yourself in him, and you try too hard to protect him, Naruto…"
"I don't want him to ever feel what I had to feel as a child," Naruto defended.
"And he won't… because he has you! He doesn't have just a stone carving to look at and love… or hate… You're giving him a better life than you had just by being there for him… to love, to hate… or argue with or hug… Naruto… I wasn't there for you like I should have been when you were a child…"
"That's not true!" Naruto protested. "If it weren't for you… I might have listened to Mizuki all those years ago… I might have ended up like Obito… You all saved me… And I just want to repay that somehow."
Iruka patted Naruto on the back and smiled. "You repay me every day. Stop being so hard on yourself, Naruto. Everyone makes mistakes."
Naruto sighed and smiled. "Thanks, Iruka-sensei…"
"You are most welcome, Naruto! Now… After all this settles down, how about I take you out for ramen, huh? Just like old times!"
Naruto laughed. "You always knew how to cheer me up!"
"You aren't that hard to cheer up, Naruto-kun…" Iruka teased. Something caught his eye and he looked up. "Well… Looks like your team is here." Iruka motioned to the team of ANBU returning.
Naruto sighed. "Back to reality…" he grumbled. He turned to his ANBU as they bowed. "Sai isn't with you," Naruto noted. But this time someone else was. The boy removed his mask. "Kai…?"
"Yes, sir. Sai-san understood your concerns, but he truly is busy at the compound… I told him that you and I spoke, and you might feel comfortable getting the report from me…" The boy handed the letter to Naruto, who took it gently. It was Sai's handwriting and his scrolls, all telling Naruto that everything had been cleared and ready for the exams. "Thank you," Naruto said. "You are all dismissed."
Naruto stood as people began filing in and taking their seats. When the arena started getting too full, the Hokage went back to the entrance to keep out of sight. He had a speech prepared this time, but he would make sure to keep it quick… Everyone was here to see their villagers fight, not to hear the Hokage speak.
When the children began arriving, Naruto looked around for Boruto… He wanted to at least wish the poor child good luck, but he was nowhere to be found. "Sarada! Have you seen Boruto…?"
"No… Sorry…" the girl answered. "I figured he had come here with you…"
"No… Thanks, though… What about Haku…?"
"He's not here either, Hokage-sama…" Sarada answered. "But neither one of them would miss their match, right?"
"No, I doubt it!" Naruto said, trying to smile so he wouldn't frighten the girl. Finally, his son entered the holding area. "Boruto!" Naruto called, but the child went right over to Sarada to speak with her, followed quickly by Haku. "Boruto…"
I'll talk to him after the speech… Naruto thought.
"Alright," Iruka called. "It's time to go out."
The kids all lined up with their teammates to be led out. Naruto took his place in the front and put on a smile. He could at least try to look happy for everyone. As the progression stepped out, applause erupted from the arena. Naruto's smile became more genuine. He could imagine that most of the kids behind him were not used to being the center of such attention.
Naruto led the group until they stood in the center of the arena where a platform was set up with a microphone. Naruto stepped up. "The Chuunin Exams are a time-honored tradition in our great nations!" he began. "It is not only a time for the villages to showcase their finest students, it is also a time to relish in the hope of a bright future! These young shinobi behind me hold the future in their hands!"
The cheers and applause grew louder. Naruto waited until they died down before continuing. "We come together in this time of peace and prosperity for the Ninja Nations to not only partake in this festival, but to remind ourselves why we now live in peace! Years ago I stood here with my own peers, who would all grow up to give their lives to their villages and who all fought to achieve the world we live in today! These fine Shinobi have a hard task before them, but as my generation surpassed the previous, this generation shall surpass the ones before them!" Again the arena broke into loud cheers. Naruto resisted the urge to look behind him. He had hoped that Boruto knew that message was for him as well.
Something moved in the corner of Naruto's eye and he turned slightly. One of the black hooded ANBU were moving from their position. Naruto tracked his progress to the closest ANBU… He never lost his smile and played off his silence as just waiting for the crowd's excitement to die down some before continuing. Naruto was just about to move when the ANBU returned to their positions.
"Now!" Naruto continued. "The moment you've all been waiting for! The first match of the day is-…"
The words never came. Naruto realized a second too late what the ANBU were doing… Naruto spun to face the children just in time for the world to fall apart around him…
Author's note: Who needs an update schedule…? A lot happened in this chapter… but it's actually one of my shortest… odd… Anyway… cliffhanger!