Author's Note: I know it took me forever to write. I had tons of homework and marching band. Thanks for the support! Enjoy!
Sarada yawned quietly as she continued on her way to the training grounds. The sun had not fully risen yet and even though she went to bed early the previous night, the young kunoichi was still hopelessly tired. After she woke up, the girl noticed that her father was no where to be seen. "Hn, already slacking off Sasuke? He probably lied to me and left again. I wouldn't put it past him even though he has a squad now." The female Uchiha reached her destination within another minute. Her teammates had already arrived, appearing as if they'd only been waiting a short time. Each of the boys looked behind her to see if their leader was close by.
"Sarada," Mitsuki began groggily, "where is-?"
"Don't know, don't care," she interrupted flatly while stopping in front of the males.
Mitsuki held a surprised look at her rudeness, but immediately shut his mouth.
"Sorry, I'm not really a morning person," Sarada excused herself. The boys shared a glance prior to looking in opposite directions, stomachs growling in unison. Neither of them said another word about Sasuke's whereabouts. For the next half hour, the team watched the sunrise and ended up sitting down with irritated expressions. Before they knew it, twenty more minutes passed. Boruto hissed and laid down on the ground, quickly falling asleep. So they waited, and waited, and waited, then Boruto woke up, and they waited, and waited, and FINALLY...
... they waited some more.
By then, the three Genin had discarded their drowsy states, replacing it with sheer annoyance. Half of it was caused by their constantly growling stomachs, having skipped breakfast as Sasuke instructed.
Poof!
Sasuke appeared in front of them, eyeing his team curiously. He opened his mouth to speak, but a certain Uzumaki cut him off. "Where the heck have you been?! What was all that crap about meeting here at dawn?!"
Sasuke remained stoic. "I was taking care of an errand."
"And just how important was this 'errand' if it kept you from getting your butt down here?!" Boruto shouted in reply.
"Will you keep it down? You're starting to give me a headache with all your yelling. You're as loud as Naruto," Sasuke responded calmly.
The boy grumbled and crossed his arms, averting his gaze from the man.
"Can we begin whatever this 'team exercise' is?" Sarada questioned impatiently.
"Hn, I was getting to that," the elder Uchiha said, reaching into his pocket. The three Genin watched as he pulled two bells out, holding them up so they could have a better view. "Your task is for each of you to retrieve one of these bells from me."
"But there are only two," Mitsuki declared, clearly confused. His teammates shared the same expression.
A wide smirk settled itself upon Sasuke's lips. "Yes, that's because the one who fails to obtain a bell will be sent back to the Academy." That morning, he had been with Kakashi, asking questions on how to handle his team's first training exercise. Since none of them had told the children about their own experiences with the bells yet, the Hatake concluded it'd be best to follow his words form back then.
Sarada, Boruto, and Mitsuki gasped in unison. They were completely dumbstruck at this.
"But we graduated the Academy! Why would we be sent back?!" the blond male demanded with a frustrated tone.
Sasuke shrugged. "It'll only be one of you. Besides, this way we can remove the weakest link." He was doing his best to keep up the act. The Uchiha knew very well that his team was perfectly capable of figuring the trick out all on their own, but he wanted to toy with them a bit first. Then he saw the look on his daughter's face and almost blew it. Sarada was staring at the ground with a sorrowful expression. "Does Sarada think I believe she's the weakest?" Sasuke thought. "This little idea of yours to let her blow off some steam better work Kakashi." He quickly kept his thoughts hidden, attempting to hurry things along. "The rules are simple. You may use any sort of way you think necessary to retrieve a bell, even if that means going for the kill." He paused as the team gasped once more, pulling another object out of his bag. "When this timer goes off, that signals the end of the exercise. If all of you fail to obtain a bell, then the three of you get sent back to the Academy. One, other two go back. Got it?"
The Genin nodded with great determination. He started the timer while setting it down behind him and said "Go!". After Sasuke had fully whirled around to face them again, he raised an eyebrow. All of them were hidden, and really well by the looks of it. "I won't use my dojutsus against them. That wouldn't be fair and it'll ruin the fun." Sighing, he stood in place for a minute, attaching the bells to his pants.
Sarada studied her father from the cover of a tree branch high above the ground surrounded by leaves and other branches. She glanced at the timer and then back at Sasuke, who was lying in the middle of the field with his hands behind his head, eyes closed. "Three minutes have passed and none of us have made a move. I have to get a bell. No way I'm gonna let Sasuke beat me out at this. It's going to be extremely difficult though. Hm... weird, I haven't even heard a rustle from the others." Just as she finished the thought, her obsidian orbs caught something moving in the grass. She squinted to see Mitsuki's arm slowly and noiselessly extending, aiming for a bell. After another couple of seconds, he scooted closer to the edge of the brush, his arm appearing to be at its limit. "No way! Can he really pull this off?!" Sarada thought as he made it to half a foot away from the bells.
Sasuke smirked and grabbed the boy's hand without opening his eyes. "An impressive technique. However, I've battled someone with this kind of ability before so I have my ways around it." With this, he stood and yanked an astonished Mitsuki towards him. The light-haired male flew out of his hiding spot and landed on his feet a short distance from Sasuke. He clearly hadn't been expecting this turn of events and settled into a defensive position, trying to come up with another strategy. After a moment of hesitation, he quickly made a hand sign and a clone appeared behind his opponent. Sasuke stood motionless as both of the Mitsukis' arms extended around him, linking as they met in the middle on either side of the man. The young boys moved with the same motions as they began to circle him, slowly at first but eventually increasing to a speed fast enough that made them seem like a blur.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes in curiosity while he watched the scene, not moving a muscle. "I wonder what he's planning. Guess I should keep on waiting and see what he does." Just as Sasuke finalized the thought, both of the Mitsukis vanished, leaving him alone in the field. The Uchiha's onyx and purple gaze widened in confusion. A gasp escaped his lips when multiple sharp objects pierced his torso. Blood came pooling in his mouth and trickled down his chin. The flabbergasted man slowly tilted his head down. His breath caught in his throat. Mitsuki, Sarada, and Boruto each held their own sword, all sticking through his chest. "What? How did-?" A smirk placed itself on his lips when Sasuke caught on. Putting his hands together, he formed a seal and his senses returned just in time to see the real Mitsuki lunging for a bell. The older male easily sidestepped him, kneeing the Genin in the gut. The pale boy rolled across the ground and struggled to breathe once he stopped. He glanced at Sasuke when he finally managed to scramble to his feet, clutching his stomach.
Sasuke chuckled as their gazes met. "You're very talented for your age. I never expected that any of you would know genjutsu, much less one of that caliber. It still needs a lot of work and I won't fall for it again since I know what to expect." His smirk grew wider. "Mitsuki's strategy was to go straight for the bells in a manner that he has to fight less, conserving energy and chakra. It's not a bad plan if you use it correctly. In his case, it was actually very decent."
"I thought he was gonna get a bell for a second there," Boruto thought, reminiscing in awe over what had recently taken place. His blue gaze landed on his male teammate. "Hm... Mitsuki looks like he's done for now. Might as well give him a break." A shiver of excitement traveled down his spine. "Now it's my time to shine and there's no way I'm gonna lose, Dattebasa! Let's do this!" He hopped down from his low spot in the trees and checked that he was still momentarily hidden. "All right Tou-chan, I hope this jutsu of yours will help me out." After his final thought, the boy raised his hands.
Multiple battle cries filled the area as both Sasuke and Mitsuki turned their heads to look in the direction of the noises. The Uchiha remained unfazed as five Borutos emerged from their hiding spots, rushing straight towards him in the open clearing. Mitsuki took the opportunity given by the interruption to escape into the woods and rethink his strategy. Sasuke was anchored to his spot as the boys continued to close the distance between them. "Since when can he make that many clones?" His mind returned to the present when the two clones at the ends of their line launched multiple shuriken at him. Sasuke dodged with little difficulty and witnessed another pair of the clones launch themselves directly at him. The couple that had thrown the shuriken joined in on the taijutsu battle with one lingering behind.
"That's more than likely the real one," Sasuke thought while blocking one of the copy's punches and delivering a kick in the gut to another, making it disappear with a cloud of smoke.
"I have to hurry! One of the clones is already down!" Boruto thought urgently. "Make that two!" he screamed to himself as another vanished. "Come on! I know that I can do this!" The Uzumaki had easily mastered the first step while he trained with his father. The second had proven to be more difficult for him, but he'd gotten close to completing it in his last training session with Naruto focusing only on this jutsu.
A single clone jumped on Sasuke's back while the other two lunged for the bells. The Uchiha grabbed one of the leaping clones by his leg and tossed him into a tree. He then gripped the one on his back by the wrist and slung him at the other. The clone lying against the tree vanished, followed by the two that collided with each other. All that was left was the Boruto that stayed back, the real one. Sasuke smirked when hew saw the intense look of concentration and his stance. "I see Naruto has been teaching you an advanced technique. However, what use is it to you at the moment if you haven't mastered it yet?"
Boruto looked up in surprise. His teeth were grinding together as he tried to focus on completing the jutsu. Beads of sweat rolled down the side of his face. The Uzumaki's sensei was frozen in place, apparently waiting to see if the boy would accomplish his goal. "I'm gonna get a bell no matter what!" Boruto shouted with determination. Suddenly, he gasped and his hands fell while he pushed off the ground and jumped away.
Sasuke stared at him in confusion. That's when he heard it. A whooshing sound mixed with a creaking noise filled his ears, followed by a strained grunt of perseverance. He whirled around in shock to see Sarada swinging an uprooted tree straight at him. He quickly drew his sword and sliced at the section barreling towards him. Part of the trunk hit the ground with a thunk.
Sarada lowered what was left of the tree to rest on the ground, her arms locked around the end. She slowly caught her breath and dropped her head in order to remove the sweat from her brow on one of the long arm protectors she wore.
Sasuke gazed at his daughter while lowering the sword. "Using your teammate as a distraction? That's a nice move and it caught me off guard. Nonetheless, you could've hurt him in the process. After I've seen it once, I won't fall for it again though. I will admit that I'm impressed with all three of you so far."
She heaved the tree up high enough to get a short running start and drop kick its base, sending it sailing in her father's direction.
She gasped, hearing a shredding sound and the next thing she knew, the tree had been split straight down the middle and separated into two halves. A low growl sounded in her throat when he sheathed his sword, the male's expression seemingly unfazed. Sarada reached back with her arm and punched the earth with a shout of determination. The ground in front of her shook violently and shattered at a quick pace.
Sasuke somersaulted high into the air to avoid the earthquake below him, pondering deeply. "Sarada's strength isn't nearly as good as Sakura's, but it's still quite impressive for someone her age." A bright flash of light brought him back to the present. A fireball was blazing towards him. It was bigger and faster than the last time he'd witnessed her perform the jutsu.
The female Uchiha chuckled in delight as the fireball hit its target. The laugh quickly morphed into a gasp of shock and disbelief when a charred log fell to the ground. "Substitution?!" She looked around in all directions. "I need to come up with another strategy." With this, she sped off into the cover of the trees.
Sasuke watched her retreat from his own hiding spot in some bushes. "They're a lot more skilled than Sakura, Naruto, and I when we participated in the bell test. I wonder if they'll figure out the purpose of this exercise without being told." He peered at the timer. "Plenty of time left. Maybe I should keep quiet and spy on them for now. I won't be as persistent as Kakashi was," he finished with a smirk.
"Are you crazy?!" Boruto angrily yelled at Sarada. "You could have killed me swinging that tree! Not only that, but you ruined my chance to get a bell!"
She folded her arms and snorted. "Standing like that, you looked more like you were constipated than trying to retrieve a bell."
Mitsuki's eyes nervously flickered back and forth between his two bickering teammates. "I don't think-"
"SHUT UP MITSUKI!" they commanded in unison.
The boy immediately closed his mouth.
Boruto groaned loudly, rubbing his temples. "What the heck is the point of this?! We graduated the Acadmey and got placed into teams! Now only two of us are gonna pass at most! There's no way we can get a bell! He's going easy on us and it's still impossible!"
The female Uchiha had been pondering about the exercise ever since the rules were announced. What was the true purpose of it? Sarada exhaled sharply, earning curious stares from the boys. She began to laugh and shake her head repeatedly. "Of course. Why didn't I think of that sooner?"
"What are you talking about?" Boruto asked.
Sarada's laughing ceased, but a grin remained etched into her features. "The entire objective of this exercise. It's so simple. Think about it. Why would we be separated into teams only to have one of us go back? It make no sense, right?"
They shook their heads in response.
"As I said, we've been put into TEAMS."
Mitsuki snapped his fingers. "I understand now. Only having two bells is supposed to distract us from the main purpose. The reason we participate in the bell test is-"
"- TEAMWORK!" Boruto finished proudly, smacking his balled fist into his open hand. "That's it! All we have to do is use teamwork!"
"Okay, now what? What's our plan?" Mitsuki questioned.
"Huddle up!" Boruto said, motioning for them to come closer. The three Genin crowded around each other, listening to what the Uzumaki had to say. After they were done, all team members had their doubts.
Sarada sat down with her back leaning against a tree. "I'm not sure about this. Do you actually think it'll work?"
The blond shrugged. "No clue but it's worth a shot."
Mitsuki placed a hand under his chin. "I agree with Boruto. Sasuke-sensei said we can do this by any means necessary."
Boruto walked to where Sarada sat. "Besides, I ca-MPH!" He tripped over a tree root and fell. Sarada attempted to put her hands on the boy's chest in order to stop his fall, but failed to get them up in time. Instead, he landed right in her lap and...
... their lips were pressed together. Both Boruto and Sarada turned a dark shade of red and stared at each other with widened eyes. Neither bothered to move, frozen in place at the sudden contact. Mitsuki was also anchored to his spot, too shocked to even twitch. Nervous beads of sweat of sweat rolled down all three of the Genins' faces.
Sasuke halted in mid-stride and narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He looked in every direction at the environment surrounding him. "Hm... I have a sudden urge to harm Boruto... That little brat is definitely up to something... I better hurry." He began to walk once more, this time increasing his pace.
Boruto finally gained the willpower and confidence to move. He shakily inched away with his hands lingering on her shoulders, their lips separating. "S-Sorry..."
"Y-Yeah," Sarada replied hesitantly, trembling from shock under his grip. "Um... C-Can you get off me now?"
"Oh!" he stammered, noticing their awkward position. He stumbled away from her and stood up, casually dusting himself off. Sarada did the same and made it to her feet with slightly wobbling legs. The pair blushed when their eyes met. The Uchiha and Uzumaki immediately spun their heads in opposite directions, embarrassment radiating off of them.
Mitsuki scratched the back of his neck at the scene. "So, how will we lure him out into the open?" he inquired, trying to change the subject.
Aftwr a minute of considering the question and recovering from the mishap, Sarada gave a signature Uchiha smirk. "I think I have just the thing." She dug through her weapons pouch on her hip and eventually pulled out a bright red tomato.
"Why the heck do you have that in there?" Boruto questioned in disbelief. He also seemed to have regained his thoughts after the recent incident.
"Sasuke said not to eat breakfast this morning so I brought something to eat later in the day."
All three of their stomachs rumbled simultaneously. "I forgot about being hungry," the Uzumaki moaned. The others nodded in agreement. "Let's hurry up and do this so we can eat."
Uchiha Sasuke could not believe what he was seeing. There, in the center of the open field, lay a beautiful work of art. It was perhaps the most plump one he'd ever been fortunate enough to see. His mouth watered at the very sight of the masterpiece. Licking his lips fervently, the male Uchiha took a small and daring step forward. "I don't care if I'm in the middle of a team exercise. I need to eat that tomato now." He did his absolute best to maintain his look of composure while stalking towards the food item.
Boruto cackled and jumped out of his hiding spot, landing on his master's back. He locked his arms around the Uchiha's neck and continued to howl with satisfaction. "Wow Sasuke-sensei, you really are a sucker for tomatoes!"
"You little brat," Sasuke seethed. He proceeded to yank the boy by his shirt collar and throw him to the ground.
The blond male landed with a thud and a squishing sound coming from underneath his foot. He shifted his leg to discover the remains of the squashed tomato covering the grass and the bottom of his sandal. "Ew," he voiced in disgust.
Sasuke towered over the boy with an ominous glare. "Boruto," he growled. The older male caught the hushed sound of a hand approaching from behind. He dodged in time to see Mitsuki's hand shoot straight by the jingling bells, nearly brushing them. He twisted his head around once more as Boruto launched multiple kunai and shuriken at his waist where the pair of bells were located. Sasuke somersaulted backwards in order to gain some distance. The moment his feet skidded to a halt, someone shouted from behind the bewildered man. A fist nearly connected with Sasuke's nose as he pivoted on his heel to face the attacker. Just before it could, he vanished. Sarada's punch landed on the ground, causing another mini earthquake.
"So it seems they've figured out the purpose of the exercise," Sasuke thought with a smirk. "Looks like my team has passed. Nonetheless, I'd like to observe more of how they work together. It won't hurt to test them a little longer."
Boruto and Mitsuki caught up with Sarada and stood beside her, the Uzumaki in the middle. "We're keeping him on his toes guys! Let's do this together as a team!"
Sasuke hid his smile from view.
After an hour of the three Genin battling with their sensei, the training grounds were left with several markings of taijutsu and ninjutsu, half from Sasuke and the rest caused by his team. All three of the young shinobi had managed to graze the bells at least once each. However, they constantly failed to get a good grip and take them.
Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki regrouped and panted heavily, watching as Sasuke also breathed heavier than usual. "We have to hurry," Boruto announced urgently. "The timer is gonna go off soon. Okay, switch to Plan B guys!"
Mitsuki and Sarada nodded in acknowledgment and jogged to the edge of the trees, leaving the blue-eyed boy to stand alone. He formed the hand seal his father had shown him and the next instant, five Borutos stood in a line.
Sasuke finally caught his breath and frowned in thought. "Is he attempting the first strategy he used when he was alone? No, it has to be something else. The other two play a role in this."
One of the Borutos dashed forward and kicked at Sasuke's side. The Uchiha easily blocked and elbowed the boy's gut. He held his stomach, but stood his ground, quickly shifting back to an offensive stance. "So this is the real one. What sort of plan is this? The clones are just standing there." His thoughts were interrupted by a series of rapid kicks and punches from his student.
Mitsuki was about to finish adjusting his position. He grunted in pain at how far his arms were stretched. "Okay, I'm done."
Sarada nodded and hurried to where he was perched. She grimaced at the way his hands were gripping the first couple of trees at the edge of the woods. His arms ran from around there to thirty or so feet back until they absolutely refused to extend any longer. His feet were planted on the back of the trunks a yard above the ground. Boruto's plan had been to make a literal human slingshot. She carefully climbed into Mitsuki's lap and tried to put as little weight on her teammate as possible. "Look, the clones are beginning to attack."
"I can't hold up much longer," he breathed into her ear, grinding his teeth together in pain.
"All we have to do now is wait for them to move Sasuke in the right spot," she responded, trying to ease his worries. "They've almost got him there."
One by one the clones disappeared until only the original remained. Boruto smirked and threw a final punch, hoping Sasuke would dodge to the side. To his satisfaction, that was exactly what occurred.
"Now!" Sarada shouted, preparing for lift off.
Mitsuki removed his feet from the stumps without hesitation and they were off. Sarada flew away from him the moment he reached the edge. The light-haired male immediately released his hold on the trees and started to thoroughly massage his aching arms. He'd pushed well past his limit to stretch his limbs that far.
Meanwhile, Sarada flew towards Sasuke, a blur in the air.
Sasuke felt a rush of wind hit his side and curiously glanced in that general direction, flinching slightly as he did so. He raised an arm and caught his daughter's wrist, getting jerked back in the process by the speed she had been traveling. It took a massive amount of strength for him to redirect the blow so she ended up heading the way she had come from. Boruto, who was right in her path, screamed but was cut off when her fist connected with his abdomen. However, their flight didn't stop there. Mitsuki looked up just in time to see his teammates' bodies coming straight for him.
Sasuke cringed at the sight of the three Genin crashing into a tree. The enormous oak tumbled to the earth, dust settling after the loud impact. The male Uchiha strode to where their unconscious forms lay next to the uprooted tree. He heard the timer go off somewhere in the distance. He scratched the back of his head and muttered to himself, "Maybe I took it a little too far..."
Sarada woke up with a pounding headache and realized her body was restrained, tied to something, a tree stump to be specific. Her teammates were also tied to separate stumps a few feet away. They soon regained their consciousness. She effortlessly severed the ropes with her superhuman strength and sank to the hard ground. Mitsuki's arms extended and untied his confinements from the back. That left Boruto, who was moaning in pain because of his stomach, to be the only one tied up. His teammates assisted him and carefully sat the boy down. He clutched his abdomen, trying to quell a growing sickness.
"That's the last time we listen to one of your plans." Sarada complained, rubbing her throbbing temples.
His only response was a delayed groan.
"So I see you're all awake now," Sasuke said. He was munching on food from a bento box, siting beside the monument for fallen shinobi.
None of the Genin replied, too busy staring with envy at the food.
"The good news is all of you passed."
They gasped in unison. "But-"
"It didn't matter if you retrieved the bells or not, only if you used teamwork. I was impressed with every one of you. You're more skilled than I presumed. I've taken what the best and worst skills you possess are and I'm planning to help you improve them later on."
"Do you really think we were good?" Boruto asked, seemingly over his sickness.
"Hn, yes. When Naruto, Sakura, and I took this test, we had no clue what the purpose of it was, nor did we care. In fact, we passed by accident. Pure luck."
The teens gazed at him expectantly, their eyes begging him to elaborate further, Sarada the most curious of all. Sasuke stared at them while taking another bite, wondering if he should go in detail about his own experience. Finally, he spoke. "Kakashi brought us here when we did this..." The man went on retell the events that took place during Team 7's bell test.
"Was my old man really that much of a wimp back then?" Boruto questioned in disbelief after Sasuke finished.
The male Uchiha nodded. "I put how awful and disgraceful he was in a nice way."
The Genin giggled quietly. Sasuke grinned along with them. He had told the parts he deemed embarrassing concerning himself or his wife's failures during the test in a fashion that made it sound like it wasn't too much of a big deal. With Naruto however, Sasuke showed no mercy, spending most of the time on how poorly he performed in the test. He sighed and looked up at the clear blue sky. "It's past noon. I've arranged for us to select our first mission the day after tomorrow, so we'll meet at the Hokage's office around ten in the morning."
"Awesome!" Boruto shouted gleefully. "I can't wait to go on missions!"
Sasuke smirked inwardly. "Wait until he figures out it's D-ranked..." He stood up. "You're dismissed."
Boruto and Mituski departed a moment later, chatting about places to eat.
Sarada frowned, knowing she had no option except to follow her father. She didn't have any money and had forgotten her set of house keys on the kitchen table.
"Sarada."
The girl stopped what she was doing and waited, not making any motion to turn around and face him.
"You did very well," Sasuke complimented hesitantly, struggling to find the right words.
"Thanks," she muttered indifferently. The young kunoichi stood by and stared at her feet, waiting for him to finish checking his bag.
They set out at a slow pace towards the Uchiha household.
"Sarada, I don't plan on leaving again."
She glanced at him through the corner of her eye, obviously labeling his words as lies. "Why do you have to leave at all?"
He sighed. "I can't tell you that right now."
"Hn," she grunted, "not like I haven't heard that before."
Another sigh. "I'll explain later, but not now."
"How soon?"
"I don't know."
"Of course," she muttered in irritation as she quickened her pace.
Sasuke stopped completely and watched as his daughter walked away. Finally, he forced himself to move once again and wondered how he could possibly fix the current situation. That's when Kakashi's advice came to mind.
"Hey Boruto, come down here for a minute please!" Naruto called from the kitchen table. He had wanted to do this ever since his son mastered the first step in the jutsu he'd been offering him lessons on. It was just out of curiosity and he only expected a slight improvement if that. Boruto had found his "motivation" and now maybe he'd actually put some effort into it.
"I'm coming," the younger male said from the top of the stairs. "What's up Tou-chan?" he asked while claiming a seat.
"Here," Naruto said, placing a few papers stapled together where Boruto sat at the opposite end of the table. Then, he took a single sheet and put it beside the packet.
"What's all this?" Boruto inquired while he studied the papers. "It looks like one of the tests I barely passed."
"That's because it is."
"Why did you give it to me?"
"I want you to take it again."
"What?! I'm exhausted! I was gonna go to bed early tonight! Why are you making me take a test?!" After he came home, Boruto had told his parents and sister all about the bell test and they'd been excited to learn that his team passed.
Naruto grinned. "I just want to make sure of something. Now, the same rules you had when you first took it will apply this time. Fifty questions. One hour to answer them. Start."
Boruto grumbled and cursed under his breath. Reluctantly, he picked up a pencil and read the first question.
Sakura threw her hands up, earning a sigh of annoyance from her husband. She could care less at the moment. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"
"Because I knew you'd overreact," Sasuke stated matter of factly.
"Well it's obvious you can't handle it yourself. If you're not going to tell her now, you need to let her know why."
"How do I do that?"
"Ugh! Men are so hopelessly clueless!" Sakura growled while stomping to the last step on the staircase. "Sarada!"
"What do you need Kaa-chan?"
"Just come down here for a second!" She made her way back into the living room where Sasuke stood. Their daughter had locked herself in her room the minute she entered the house, only opening it to tell Sakura about the bell test.
"What are you doing Sakura?" he questioned while eyeing his wife curiously. He was actually a bit nervous.
"You'll see."
Sarada poked her head through the doorway. "What is it Kaa-chan?" Her eyes landed on Sasuke and she frowned.
"Both of you sit on the couch."
"But-"
"Sit!"
They were on the piece of furniture in less than a second, not uttering a word.
"I realize that you're both frustrated with one another and continuously avoid each other. I also know that you don't have anything to do tomorrow. That's why you're going to spend the entire day together. You're getting out of the house when I head to work and you're not coming back until the sun sets. If you think it'll be easy to go your separate ways then discard that thought right now. I'm going to be watching."
"I thought you said you had to work," Sarada contradicted in protest.
Sakura smirked. "I have my ways."
"But-!"
"No buts! You're spending the whole day together tomorrow and that's final!" With this, Sakura exited the room.
The two Uchihas silently glimpsed at each other.
"Uh, good night," Sasuke said awkwardly, getting up and heading for the stairs.
"Hn," she grunted standing and going towards her own room.
The girl closed her door and plopped down on the bed, staring out a window. She scratched her head and brought her hand back down. It stopped when her fingers brushed against her lips. She blushed as the thought of the accidental kiss earlier that day replayed in her mind. Even though it hadn't been a real one, it was actually, in her own words, quite pleasant. A small smile settled on her features as she drifted off into sleep.
"I'm done," Boruto said quietly while handing the test to Naruto.
"Okay. Thanks for doing this. Now you can go to bed."
Without another word, the teen trotted upstairs, taking two at a time.
The Hokage peered at the clock. "He finished in only thirty-five minutes. The usual time is fifty minutes." He then began to grade his son's test. It didn't take very long because every single answer was correct. Naruto even checked it a second time just to be sure. He was definitely shocked. "Boruto, how long have you been this... smart?" he pondered.
Meanwhile upstairs, Boruto rolled on his back, closing his blue eyes. He wondered why his father wanted him to take that dumb test again. The boy knew for a fact he answered every single one correctly. Even the supposed "trick" questions were simple to him. "Oh well," he thought, yawning. He remembered an event that had taken place during the bell test and traced his lips with one thumb. Grinning, Boruto sighed happily and fell asleep shortly afterwards. In truth, he was glad he tripped over that tree root.
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed! I'll try and write the next chapter as soon as I can. Oh, and by the way, I'm thinking about a sequel to this story if all goes well. We're not close to done with this one though so I won't give you a little idea of what it's about yet. It'd probably have to include spoilers for this one so that's partly why I'm holding off on a summary. Thanks for the support! Please review!