Cho-Cho walked up to Sakura in the packed gymnasium. Sakura was sitting next to Ino on one of the bleachers and seemed to be enjoying her time with the blonde. Cho-Cho smiled at herself seeing the two women. They really were best friends it seemed.

Sakura and Ino stopped talking and laughing with one another once they saw Cho-Cho standing to the side of them. Cho-Cho did her best to not be there for too long since the bleachers were getting packed, and she wanted to join Inojin and Shikadai over in the corner.

"Sarada said she would be here but I can't find her." Sakura and Ino both had confused looks on their faces and they exchanged looks with one another. Cho-Cho felt some heat rising to her cheeks, unsure if she did something wrong.

"Um," Sakura started. "Didn't she tell you? She's training for the second annual Chunin exams. She hasn't been home these past three weeks."

Now it was Cho-Cho's turn to be confused. She walked to her friends thinking that wasn't right since her and Sarada had been going to the movies each week. It wouldn't make sense for Sarada to lie like that.

Inojin patted the seat next to him a bit excited to see Boruto in action. Cho-Cho didn't like being lied to and she hoped her best friend, Sarada, had a good explanation.

Sarada came out from the locker room along with her 'brother'. They walked to the bleachers that sat on the out of bounds of the floor. They were leaned against the wall of the bleachers so as the crowd could look down and see them.

They already knew who was fighting who first. The match was to go by quickly since both girls knew the only competition was Boruto. Metal would be a good fight but he wasn't nearly as good as the blond boy.

The announcer came to the center of the floor and introduced himself. He stated the rules of the competition. One's goal was to either knock their appointment out of bounds or knock them out, or submit them.

As the games started, as predicted, the boys were no match for Sarada and Tsubaki, it wasn't until Metal became paired with Tsubaki that the fun began.

"GO BAKI!" Cho-Cho yelled. Tsubaki looked up and a faint blush came to her cheeks. It was new for her to have someone route for her. A smile came to her face. She was ready to fight.

"Baki," Metal said as he got into his fighting stance. His feet spread apart, one foot in front of the other, his hands up over his face, and balled into fist. "Nice to meet you finally."

Baki placed his hand on his sword and nodded his head to his opponent. "Like wise."

The whistle blew and click! Baki dashed toward Metal with a slash he was barely able to get out of. The sword ended up getting one of his orange socks instead. Not being able to land a punch on the jet black hair boy, Metal found himself short of options.

Baki continued to slash his chakra at Metal. As he dodged Baki's attacks, Baki wanted to get the right moment where he could come in and close the distant. Prior to training with her 'father', like most samurai, Baki was a distance fighter but no more, at least not at the moment.

He ran forward to Metal and jumped into the air. He slammed his sword down, allowing a gust of chakra to slice toward Metal. Metal rolled out the way but Baki appeared behind him and used the butt of his sword to hit Metal in the cheek. With such force, Metal found himself rolling on the floor. He stopped himself just in time. It wasn't enough because Baki landed in front of him with such grace, he swore he seen it before. Baki didn't give him time to think, he kicked the black hair boy in the face, spilling blood from his mouth.

Metal quickly jumped up and attempted to land a kick on Baki, but the boy blocked it with his sword. He grabbed Metal's leg and brought the boy face down onto the hard gym floor. Crack! The boy's nose came into contact with the floor; it was broken.

Sakura and Ino watched and as Sakura turned to look at Rock Lee, he was quiet as he stood with his arms folded watching his son. She wondered who he married. They never met his wife, if he even had one. Either way, the man was completely different than as a kid. He was no longer loud and screaming about youth. He was much more quiet and rarely ever seen to be honest.

Metal was to his feet and threw a punch to Baki. He grabbed it and broke Metal's arm. A piercing scream roared throughout the gymnasium, just as Baki slid to the floor and did a sliding kick, knocking Metal on his butt. He held the point of his sword to Metal's face.

The announcer came into the bounds and declared Baki as the winner. The crowd roared from witnessing such an intense fight while the medical ninja attended to Metal's needs.

Baki bowed and walked to the bench. He sat next to his brother, Saku, who waited patiently for his turn.

When Baki looked into the crowd, he saw Shenki looking at him, his cheeks pink. He went back to watching the competition.

The competition continued on until it was Saku's turn to fight Boruto. Both boys walked to the center of the bounds. The announcer stood between them and introduced the two boys to the crowd. It was then Saku noticed his mother was present and sitting with her best friend. He also noticed Hinata was present with both Himawari and Kawaki.

Saku was aware Boruto and Kawaki were getting along a lot better now. They were even sparring more and more with one another. There were times when Saku felt Boruto didn't even notice Sarada and Mitsuki were still his teammates. Maybe once everything subsided with the Ostuski Clan, things would get back to normal...or not.

It was time to begin the fight.