Chapter 19: Are you watching, dad?

It was bad. Like, really bad.

Sakura was running through the corridor while undressing herself. When she finally reached the dressing room, heads were already turning around, to see who had just passed by only in a bra and panties. At the dressing room, the woman slipped into her surgery gear.

A second woman came in and closed the buttons on the back of the suit.

"How is she holding herself up? Anything new," Sakura rushed through the door at the other end of the dressing room. There, she started washing her hands, disinfecting them

"She is stable, but if she doesn't get help now, she will lose her legs," the nurse answered, helping Sakura to put on the surgery gloves.

"Well, I shall not let her wait then, shall I?"

And Sakura entered the operating room.

Sarada was outside again. She had dried her tears with a tissue paper and cleaned her face. She wanted to watch the last fight, but was already too late. Kakashi told her what had happened and Sarada was actually happy she didn't see it:

The arena had been changed to a beach environment – not easy to fight on, but not too hard either. Chocho had put up quite a fight against the girl from Sunagakure. Though still not good enough. After watching Chocho try to bash her with the body inflating technique, Saeko had sighed and countered. The "fight" was over in seconds. With ease, she had caught Chocho's legs with her sand. Saeko had only brought a hand full, but like her father, Gaara of the desert, the girl infused the sand in the arena with her own, to control it at will. She had caught Chocho in the sand and asked her three times to surrender. But the proud Akimichi heiress didn't falter. In the end, Saeko used her sand and broke Chocho's legs several times. The battle ended with Chocho rendered unable to move, bleeding all over the sand, and Saeko trying not to vomit.

"Why would she puke," Sarada asked Kakashi as they both stood in the lodge her mother and the Yamanaka's had been in before. The former Hokage shrugged.

"Maybe she can't stand the sight of blood? Your mother is already downstairs, getting ready to do the surgery on Chocho's legs, right?"

Sarada nodded, "yeah, I just ran into her. She said I was awesome and started throwing away her clothing." She held up her mother's jeans, shirt and jacket, "I thought she might want it back later. I just wonder… she is usually very modest."

Kakashi nodded, "seems like it's really bad."

"Will she make it?"

Kakashi looked over to his pupil, "don't worry. There is no finer medic than your mother."

Finally they were done bringing back the clean surface of the arena. The platform was back too and the announcer had taken his place. He didn't look ready to perform though. Just like the crowd, he was still shocked from what he had seen.

"Well," he took another deep breath and dried some of his sweat with a white tissue, "wasn't this an amazing fight… Today's winners are: Sabakuno Tadashi, Sabakuno Saeko, Uchiha Sarada and Kadaj! Congratulations!"

The crowd kindly clapped. They were exhausted even after just the first day.

"Let's not prolong this, I know what you all want"-the viewers groaned in agony- "tomorrows fights will be:"

And like the day before, names flashed over the screens:

"The first fight will be: UZUMAKI BOLT VS HATTORI MORI!"

Sarada already heard Bolt inside her head: "This mothafucka is going doooooooooooooown!" She rolled her eyes.

"SAKERU IZURU VS NARA SHIKADAI!"

"MEIJO SETSUNA VS PRINCE SHIZUMASA!"

"HOUZUKI SUIHI VS CHITSUKI HAKUBA! And with this I wish you a wonderful night!"

Sarada took the announcer by his word. She bowed to her teacher and ran almost into Hanare on the way out. Waiting for her mother was pointless (depending on Chocho's condition Sakura would stay with her the whole night after the surgery or go home to her hotel). Therefore she headed straight to the part within the arena that held the participants' quarters. Luckily there weren't many people around as she reached her door. But right before she could open it, someone called out for her.

"Hey four-eyes!"

"Didn't I tell you to never call me that again," Sarada backed away from her door and faced Bolt.

The blonde boy was leaning on the wall, grinning at the girl, "I heard you won your match?"

"Yeah, what of it."

"You beat up a crying little boy?"

"He wasn't crying so much during the match. He… tried his best. What do you really want," Sarada sighed and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Bolt stood up straight, leaving his comfortable spot on the wall.

"You beat up your best friend and…" he licked his lips, "I wanted to catch you before and searched for you and… I heard what he said when you left his room."

Sarada looked to the ground, "what do you want? I'm tired and I don't have time for this. Why were you down there anyways?"

"I heard you won and… I wanted to congratulate you..?" The boy looked uncomfortable. "Hey I didn't want to hear that!"

"Why did you bring that up now," Sarada got angry, "it doesn't affect you! It's none of your business! Get lost!"

"Hey," now it was Bolt's turn to get angry, "I just wanted to be a good friend and ask you if you are alright! What's wrong with that?"

"Timing Bolt! Timing," she hissed back.

"So do you like him?!"

"What the-"Sarada stopped midsentence.

It took them both a second to comprehend what Bolt had just asked. They had been talking about how Inojin had confessed he loved Sarada and the next minute Bolt had asked if she liked him back? Simultaneously, both of them turned tomato red, but it was Sarada, who regained her composure first.

"…what kind of level of stupid did you reach just now?! This question is so stupid, you should win an award for the most stupid question ever!"

"I just wanted to be a good friend that cares about you!"

"Thanks but no," she shouted at him, "I don't need your condolences now!" And with that, she opened the door to her room and slammed it shut, turning the key on the inside.

"I JUST WANTED TO BE NICE!" Bolt punched the door angrily and made his way down the corridor, to his own room.

The next morning came fast.

Bolt tried to avoid Sarada at all costs. He sent his roommate out first, looking out for the girl and did all he could to stay away from her. He had really just tried to be nice and messed up greatly. Without even knowing. Girls were so complicated…

Suddenly somebody tapped him lightly on the shoulder.

"Good morning Bolt," he turned around and met his mother's smiling face, "did you sleep well?"

"Morning mum," he mumbled, still lamenting over his choice of words the other day, "I'm ok…"

"I have lunch for you," Hinata pulled a small box out of her bag and handed it to him. The boy smiled, "are you going to watch me, mum? Where is dad?"

"Your dad is having a talk with your sister. You know, she is not happy with having graduated but not being an official genin yet. She threw a tantrum yesterday and now your dad is the one who will have to get her in line again," the mother explained, "he won't be watching… but I will! Isn't that great too?"

"Yeah… Yeah of course." Bolt had a hard time hiding his disappointment. Hadn't his dad just yesterday trained with him? Even if it had been just an hour, the boy wished he could have scheduled that hour for today. He wanted to show his dad what progress he had made in these last months.

The announcer went back on stage and welcomed the (still assembling) crowd back for day two.

"I gotta go mum. My fight's the first one," he gave his mother a kiss on the cheek and ran down the hallway, skipping over the stairs into the basement like a pro.

Hinata had reserved a seat in the public area. She would have felt very lonely in the actual lounge, that was reserved for her family and with this, she could join her old team members Shino and Kiba. Usually neither of them would have had time to watch the exams, but Kiba just had a very hard year:

First his best friend Akamaru died from a kidney failure and the man hadn't taken it lightly. Even for a ninja dog, Akamaru had lived a very long life, but finally losing him, hurt Kiba quite a lot. And when his cat loving girlfriend told him that everything had an end "even such a lame dog", Kiba lost it. After a month-long, harsh fight over how Akamaru had never been just a dog, he had separated from his girlfriend. It hadn't been pretty. The next what happened was, that Kiba started lamenting about how his life sucked.

He had lost his best friend, his girlfriend, he didn't have any kids and he hadn't become Hokage either. One morning Hinata had visited him and found an unshaven man, who smelled like he hadn't seen a shower in weeks and probably just recently spilled a beer over his bare chest, not caring that he was all sticky now.

That day, his old teammates decided to finally get him into a different mood. It had been their old teacher's idea to get cards for the chunin exams though.

He was now lingering in a plastic chair next to Shino.

"Wow you are finally here too," he glanced over at Hinata, who sat down on Shino's other side.

"Did I miss something out," she asked and smiled at him. But Kiba just took a sip from his beer can.

"Na it's just starting now… Let's see what your kid can do…"

Shino put a hand on Hinata's shoulder and shook his head. Hopeless.

Bolt was in position. He stood on the platform that would raise him into the arena in just a minute. Who his opponent was? He had no clue. But he could care less. Bolt was totally pumped for this fight!

Finally the platform began to rise, turning in itself. The sunlight blinded the boy and it took him a second to recognize where he was:

This time the arena was a mix of green to yellow marshlands, with open waters. Bolt knew that he had to be careful, since he could always sink in and stuff.

"What are you looking at," a voice from in front of him taunted. Bolt looked up and gazed upon his opponent. It was a boy, maybe a year younger than Bolt himself. He wore a Sunagakure headband, a hat and brown cloak. He opened two scrolls, making two figures pop out.

"Have you ever fought someone like me," he asked, packed the scrolls away and waved his hands. Suddenly the two figures started to move according to his hands. Bolt was impressed.

"To be true, no! But who cares about that! You are a puppet user, aren't you? I know exactly how to deal with you," he grinned and jumped into the air.

The boy called Mori was the same: He had a cocky grin on his face and jumped backwards, "well let's see!"

Bolt studied the surroundings. There were some footholds that he could land on, as long as he remembered where exactly. To be true: Bolt had no clue about how to defeat a puppet user. But if he got a hold of him with his chains, he would be able to smash that Mori guy against the arena walls until he was unconscious, right? That should do the trick, Bolt thought and threw some kunai at the spots, to mark them.

However, that Mori guy was a lot tougher than Bolt had thought he would be. The puppeteer watched Bolt just as closely as Bolt had watched him. A move of his fingers sent the first puppet after Bolt. In a zick-zack course it followed after the blonde boy, shooting kunai from its spread open jaw.

Bolt avoided them with ease, waved a hand and sent a strong chain at the puppet. At first it got around it, but then Bolt caught it.

"Gotcha," he grinned and pulled the chain aside to face the puppeteer. But as I already stated: Mori wasn't stupid. He made waved his second hand, moved two fingers up and down, sending the other puppet at the blonde.

Bolt reacted immediately. He turned towards the second puppet, sure that the other one was unable to move and used his free hand, to shoot a second chain at the now attacking puppet, catching it too.

"Don't tell me that's it," Bolt yelled at his opponent, getting ready to destroy the puppets by bashing them at the arena walls, just like he had planned to do with Mori later on.

Mori though, was now grinning himself: "Yeah I'm totally done!" With a big movement he crossed his arms, making his hands into fists. Bolt didn't get at first what Mori had planned, but when his chains were shaking, he finally looked back at his captives:

They had started spinning rapidly. This wouldn't have done much, if they weren't already chained up tightly. Thanks to the rotation, the chains started to get coiled around the puppets.

At first Bolt's arms got stretched. When he couldn't stretch anymore without it hurting, the puppets came twisting at the blonde boy.

He was kind of in panic, sweating like crazy: what should he do? There was nothing in his head at the moment.

Outstanders might have said, that he could have simply dissolved the chains and jumped away, or he could have simply made the chains as long as needed. But Bolt was in panic, his head was a white paper – seemingly.

"Oh my gosh! OMYGOSH," he screamed in panic as the puppets were quickly closing in.

Mori was moving. His face showed a triumphing grin as the puppets finally reached the Uzumaki, crushing him in-between them.

"Hahahaha I won! I won this match," Mori yelled, absolutely sure of his victory. He held up his hands and waited for the sound barrier to be lifted, to claim his cheers. 'The victorious puppeteer of Sunagakure, who would win everything and make his hometown proud.' Yes, that sounded good in his mind.

But the barrier wasn't getting lifted.

"You know, this is kind of sad to look at," someone from behind him stated. Mori turned around.

Bolt was standing on a dry spot in between the swampy ground, playing around with one of his previously thrown kunai.

"How-how… how come you are standing there?!" Mori's mouth opened wide, his eyes almost popped out – he was speechless. What the heck happened there? Hadn't he just crushed his enemy with his puppets?

Yes his puppets! Mori waved his hands, but all that came up were two or three parts – Since Bolt hadn't been in between, the puppets had rushed right into each other, leaving only pieces.

"If this wasn't an exam," Bolt let the kunai fall to the ground, "I would actually pity you. Please give up now."

"The heck no," Mori stomped angrily on the ground, "what are you-"

Bolt hit Mori with his fist, making the other one fly backwards a little. Mori was quickly back on his feet, to repay Bolt with a kick. Bolt pulled up his leg and blocked. The blonde went back a step and did a kick himself.

They couldn't hear it, but the crowd was whispering in awe. The previous day, there had been some really good fights, but this one right now, was what they actually had been looking forward to: Plain and simple hand to hand combat. After a minute or so, the crowd got excited again. The people were cheering, clapping and some of them started to hit their drums.

Bolt didn't hear them, thanks to the protective shield. But he felt the enthusiasm of the crowd. He landed one final punch, Mori fell over, the clock beeped ten times, they lifted the protective shield-

Bolt had one his first battle.

The crowd was cheering, clapping and roaring. He put up his arms and took in his applause.

Did you see me dad, he thought, I'll go straight to the top!

End of Chapter 19

Hello my dear readers!

How are you doing? I hope you are well! Sorry for the delay, my projects are killing me right now.

I wanted to give Bolt some screentime! I mean, he almost didn't show up during the last few chapters! And well yes - he has gotten a lot stronger! He did not only get faster but also learned a new technique with Konohamaru's help. He already used it here - can you guess? His opponent was quite weak actually. He was in a team with Saeko - speaking of Saeko Sabakuno. This girl more or less did to Chocho what her father did to Lee in the first part of the Naruto manga. She is very strong and as some have already noticed: Bolt is her target... I like her already!
And yes, I gave Kiba and Shino more screentime than Hotaru, Ako and Momoka. But don't worry: Together with Konohamaru they will be in the next chapter!

Concerning chapter 2 and 3 of Naruto Gaiden: I really like Gaiden. It's quite different, but I like the way Kishimoto is trolling all his readers.
But I have one small request to make - please stop hating! I read tweets - hating on Hinata for having cut her hair short, how Bolt and Himawari are ugly... I don't know who the writers are. But hating on something, doesn't make your OTP happen. NaruSaku didn't happen, I'm sorry. But please don't hate on Kishimoto for it, or any of the other fans.
In the end (and the younger me is already hating me for writing this), Naruto is just a manga. It's a story. A fairytail. And it's not worth hurting other peoples feelings about it...

That's it from me this week!
Since my university projects are all coming to an end right now, there won't be a chapter on May the 21th! The story will resume on the 28th!
Sorry for this... I am already working on a summer special for you guys, to make it up to you!

Hope you are having a great weekend! After I just started watching Dragonball Kai, I should probably go back studying or I won't get anything done tonight...
Take care!

Your Usagi

Review Answers

Thank you all very much for the feedback! In freaking need it :3 You are awesome!

Guest A: Thank you very much for the kind review! Hope, you stay tuned for the next chapters! :3

Guest B: I feel honored. Thank you very much! I always give my best and honestly: I have not yet read any other new gen fics. I don't want to take away ideas from them and stufff . It's my pleasure to entertain you on a weekly basis! Thank you very much and I hope to see you soon again!

Rdk3: THX for the review! I actually suck at choreographing fights (Botl vs Mori is an example). I always have to listen to some awesome music and the choreography flows, but ooooh maaaaaaan - I want it to be awesome, but not too revealing... not an easy job :) Maybe a love triangle? Maybe not? The future... the future... is dark and full of spoilers... Oh I can Sarada in Naruto Gaiden understand! I was the same her age and therefore, I know almost exactly what she is going through. I just wonder why Sakura never told her daughter about the circumstances of her birth? My personal theory is, that the guy with the unhealty looking eye kidnapped pregnant Sakura and wanted to take the child for himself after it was born. Sasuke got to rescue her, but not after Sarada was already on the world - which would mean that Sarada hasn't been born in Konoha. But that's just me... Thanks again and I hope to see you soon!

Guest C: Naaaaah Sarada doesn't hate Inojin. She is just hurt and pissed. She is a girl, probably on her period and BOOM you got her slamming you against the wall. Like any other day ;) -just kidding- Thank you for coming back to my story! I am happy if you liked it! Hope to see you again sometime around here!

SoundlessWorld: Thank you for the review! I meant foot. Even though "food" would have been quite funny XDD With Inojin.. a young, desperate boy trying to fix the mess he made... poor guy . Sorry for the long wait for that match... But I want it to be awesome! I hope you liked this chapter too! Please stay tuned for teh next one! See you!

ropertfree72: I'd say Bolt did quite well, didn't he? ;) Thank you for the review!

818carlos: Thank you very much for the kind review! As I already said before: I suck at choreographing fights. But I wanted it to be cool and the version that came out, was the most obvious - but awesome one :D Thank you for the praise though. But I don't know what you mean with "wholesale stomp"... sorry . And as I already wrote you in a PM: Don't worry! Thank you very much for the review! I hope you stay tuned and actually: It's kind of a habbit of mine to answer the reviews... I think you guys deserve to get an answer! Your Usagi

streetplaa-cruz: aaaaand thanks to you I dug out my old Eminem CD's... I hope you were alright though! Thank you very much for the kind review! Hope to see you soon - Your Usagi

dark princess: Thanks for the review! I'm happy to read that you liked the chapter :3 I just hope it didn't hinder you in your daily life ;) To your question: The others didn't participate! Saeko and Tadashi are a year younger, they hadn't even graduated yet, and the Ino-Shika-Cho team's teacher didn't think they could handle the exam! Ako sent her team in because she was sure they could have made it - and they could have. But then there were these three shitheads... I should watch my language.. Sorry! I hope you stay tuned for the next chapter! Your Usagi