The chunin exams were always an important event for every shinobi city, particularly since they had to be discontinued due to the War of Freedom and its post-clean-up and stabilization in politics and society, who returned to appreciation of shinobi showing their prowess. That year the chunin exams were hosted by Konoha and were steeped in controversy right from the beginning. Firstly, because of the unprecedented number of contestants, who were held back all those years, and secondly, because those contestants included all Lady Hokage's children. It would've been logical for them to participate in the exams hosted by another city, but time was not doing them any favors. To not have a chunin rank at nineteen was quite embarrassing for Sato, even if he has been fulfilling that role for years due to his skills and not favoritism, which, of course, was not distinguishable to the onlookers.

With their children competing, Sarada and Boruto had to remove themselves from the organization and judging of the exams, as had to do the whole Uzumaki-Uchiha clan, which amassed in one place for the first time in years since the elder triplets returned from their hiding/missions outside the Land of Fire. And they didn't return alone either, but with their girlfriends, one of which was an heiress to a powerful shinobi clan, thus their marriage would make Itachi and his Sharingan part of her clan. Sasuke and Sakura had no words of protest since the youngsters' union was clearly not a political marriage. Branching out was always dangerous, but they couldn't predict the future consequences of that decision at the moment, thus there was no point in making the two lovers suffer.

Sarada and Boruto did remove themselves from the exams, but Boruto couldn't stop worrying about his youngest son Zed. The boy was cocky and notorious for his pranks in his childhood, but, unfortunately, didn't grow out of his cockiness with age. Boruto was sure that his training under his father and attaining the Sage Mode would put the rest to his petite rivalry with his siblings because of him not having the Sharingan, but it'd only gotten worse. Boruto couldn't understand what he did wrong to get such an ungrateful jerk for a son, keeping asking himself if he was the same and made his dad suffer the same way.

The public was in the dark, but knowing his children as he did, Boruto knew the results of the exams before they even started – Sato will get the higher rank and Zed will not, mostly because of his immaturity. The girls were good shinobi and leaders, but it was too soon for them too. Boruto was sure, that it would be good for Zed to be taken down a few pegs, particularly by Sato, with whom Zed constantly competed, even if it was a one-sided fight. Thus, the chunin exams were giving Boruto a headache without his involvement in them. He didn't want something like that to put a wedge between his children. The whole problematic situation resembled the Curse of Hatred too much for the rivaling siblings' father. And that he could not allow.

The exams reached their final stage with the twin sisters eliminated during the fourth round of preliminary one-on-one fights after the second stage. There were only five rounds, so it was unclear if they were actually competing for the spot in the final round or clearing the way for their brothers. The girls were more smarts than brawn so they must've decided that they proved themselves enough during the previous exam stages to advance to the next rank during the next chunin exams. Also, going against either of their brothers was not something they desired to do. Thus Sato and Zed were both to participate in the final stage of the exams along with two Byakugan users – Himawari's older daughter and one of Hyuga Hanabi's twin sons. There were also other twelve competitors both from Konoha and other villages and lands.

So the fights were promising to be quite a spectacle. The same thought was shared by the betters and bets' collectors who didn't even try to be secretive about the whole process and were shouting out odds right at the back rows of the stadium. The most popular bid (and great hope for the spectators) was Sato and Zed's face-off.

The Uzumaki-Uchiha could not participate in the exams in any way, but they still were part of the audience, taking several rows since there were so many of them. Sarada noticed Koi fidgeting the whole time they were watching the fights, constantly throwing glances over her shoulder at her brothers (and their girlfriends? Because she was jealous?). She was sitting between Sakura and Sarada, but seemed to pull herself away from everybody else. Sarada was not sure, but her theory was Koi has started developing the same sensitivity towards chakras that her mother has and was feeling overwhelmed by the enormous power concentrated on a couple of benches. Sarada promised herself to bring the girl to Ino for training.

But until then, they could just talk.

"Can you walk with me for a bit, Koi?" Sarada asked the girl, who looked as if she wanted to bolt from the black-haired clan as far as possible after the break between the fights was announced.

"I don't want to waste your free time, Lady Eighth."

"It is I, who chooses how to spend my duty-free time, and I want to spend it with you, Koi, if you have time right now."

"I have no right to deny-"

"You do, but I prefer if you speak to me willingly, particularly since I want to discuss things of a deeply personal nature."

Koi frowned, clearly confused why the Hokage wanted to talk about anything personal with her, but got in step with the older woman. They followed the masses of the spectators, who rushed towards vendors to get a bite, but then turned to an empty street that led to a small enclosed park.

"What do you think about the fighters so far, Koi?" Sarada asked, settling on a stone bench under the trees.

Koi tentatively sat down onto the other end of the bench. "I've never seen anything like this before, Lady Eighth, so it is difficult for me to express any opinion."

"Then I'll ask something, you surely have an answer to. What made you decide to come to Konoha? Because from the way things were looking back then, Konoha was the last place you wanted to find yourself in."

The girl had the decency to blush from embarrassment. "Frankly… I had nowhere else to go. I thought, I'll strike on my own, become a mercenary or learn a trade, but with everybody seeing me as an enemy… and this hair doesn't allow me to just disappear in a crowd either. I was not planning on staying, you know. Since my whole world was turned upside down, I wanted to prove to myself that some things don't change. I believed that Sato wouldn't keep his word. I wanted to rub into his face his hypocrisy of treating me as an inferior fighter and then not following through with his promise. But the opposite happened – you all took me in, and he helped me… in so many ways…"

"So you think he has a chance to get into the finals?"

"Of course."

"Care to elaborate on your reasoning, Koi? I don't remember seeing such confidence even in Sato himself this morning."

"His fighting style is completely different from others'. When we first fought, I was shocked to see how economical his movements were. I was so used to flashy displays of jutsu with kote users. Even the guys in my militia liked to show off their new powerful nature releases or attacks that blew things up just for the sake of it. Sato was the complete opposite. Even with defense - all moves were perfectly precise, not a single useless movement. I still don't understand how he manages to concentrate to such a degree even with Sharingan. Today he fights the same way: he quickly finds the opponent's weak spots and targets them with deadly precision. He hasn't even broken a sweat after all those matches. Sato always thinks ten steps ahead."

"A worthy husband then?"

Sarada burst into laughing, seeing Koi's face turn redder than her hair. "What… what do you… mean?"

"You were sure, you would win that fight, weren't you? Because you didn't see any possibility in the representative of the Uzumaki-Uchiha clan to be a good, proper man to share life with? Because he was a shinobi?"

"I wasn't thinking about such things back then. I was just glad, that I could openly despise yet another man, who was after my hand. Well, technically, he didn't want me either. Which was even more painful, because I was to marry him either way."

"You do know that Sato volunteered, right?"

"He did?!"

"My son hasn't told you? Even after… the bleeding eye incident?"

"He didn't. He has been very stressed due to the exams."

Sarada was surprised by Koi shutting up so suddenly. Boruto told his wife about Koi's worded intentions and Sato's butchered-up proposal, so both parents assumed that the youngsters were finally on the right track, but their interactions didn't look any different from before after several weeks passed. Moreover… what could Sato be stressed about?

The spectators got what they craved – both Sato and Zed passed into the semifinals to fight each other. They were not disappointed, since Zed had enough forethought to start big and fast, since his older brother clearly had years of experience over him. Sato was a master of Lightning, Fire and Air releases while Zed was skilled in Lightning, Water and Air releases – very similar, but also opposite natures' combinations.

Zed's first strategy was to use fifty Shadow Clones, to overwhelm Sato's Sharingan, but the latter wasn't using it, as he was in all his previous fights.

"Take out your swords, you bastard! Don't you dare underestimate me!" came the roar from at least twenty Zed's mouths, because in addition no not activating his Sharingan, Sato only used jutsu attacks which was not his specialty apart from general taijutsu. Was it a consideration towards his little brother or indeed an insult to Zed's skills, could not be discerned. Still, after another onslaught from Zed, Sato did unsheathe his swords.

The fight went on, providing a great show, but there was no way to tell, who was having an upper hand. Although, it could still be seen that Zed was considerably more aggressive in his assault. He tried anything and everything to take his opponent down. And his opponent, in turn, only maintained a tight line of defense but was taking damage, which only encouraged the blond shinobi to push further.

Suddenly, Zed made a dozen clones appear and everybody rushed toward Sato. The spectators didn't understand much about the logic behind the maneuver, but at least ten people did and they were mortified, mostly because there was no possibility for them to stop Zed's move. Fortunately, Sato managed to block the burst of Chidori with crossed swords and redirect lighting into the ground but was still thrown into the wall, making it crack right to the top edge of the arena, bringing down chunks of concrete.

The public collectively held their breath, waiting for the judgment of the arbiter, or better yet, continuation. But there were others, whose feelings were not on the fight at all. Such as Koi, who was unconsciously squeezing Sarada's hand in worry, or the mother herself, who was praying for her elder child to get up.

Sato did get up. Slowly and with caution, but he did. He got free from the rubble and then dusted himself without much hurry. If it was expected from him to answer to the open provocation and rush into an attack of his own - Sato didn't. The surprise from such inaction was clear even on Zed's face. Sato stretched out his arms and separated his palms, resulting in a sparkling twirl of the Rasengan. There were a number of those exchanged during the duel since both sons mastered their father's and grandfather's technique with modifications of their own. But Sato didn't rush towards his opponent or threw the Rasengan anywhere, he just stood there while the ball of twirling chakra grew and grew, becoming larger than a meter in diameter.

And then something even more strange happened – Zed turned around and headed for the exit from the arena. The arbiter headed to stop him, but the blond just threw over his shoulder, "I yield," and left.

Sato bowed to the arbiter after throwing the Rasengan up in the air, where it dispersed in a shower of sparks, and also left the arena without a single word. And in total silence, since the audience was, firstly, shocked, but then outraged. The fight started strong and entertaining, but what happened in the end? Why even make that Rasengan, if there was no plan to attack with it?

The buzz of the crowd was noisy enough for nobody to hear Naruto say, "I thought, I'd feel such shame only once."

And Boruto's strained reply, "I am so sorry, father."

Since Sato and Zed's fight was the last of the day, the public started to disperse soon, actively discussing the seen and the not seen. Sarada and Boruto, however, had another agenda. Boruto wanted to find his youngest and get out of him, what the Hell was Zed thinking using something so dangerous on his own brother and say other non-flattering terms about his performance. Sarada was mostly worried about Sato's well-being.

They took to the roofs to speed up their movements, but it still took them considerable time to find their sons, and together no less. Boruto wanted to rush down to show Zed what's for, but Sarada made him stay on the building's edge, so they could listen in and, hopefully, understand better what actually happened in the arena.

Sato was lounging on the edge of the fountain's basin with Koi – who, of course, zeroed in on Sato's chakra much quicker than his parents – cleaned her sensei's face with a wet kerchief in a manner that left no doubt that the relationship was considerably more intimate.

"That was a dirty trick you pulled!" Zed spat, bursting onto the scene. "So the perfect Sato also breaks the rules for the win, ha? Blackmailing me with endangering the audience, now that's just a new low!"

"What are you on about?" Koi spat in return. "You almost killed him just to show off! You know, today was the last drop for me, so listen here and listen good," Koi stated with a clear threat. "I don't know much about true family and having siblings, but what you did today was despicable. Yes, everybody fights for the win, but don't you have no honor at all?! What you did to your cousin today… was horrific. She will stay in the hospital for days! Did you have to go out like that? Haven't you two grown up together? And look at Sato! He has broken ribs! And bruisers. And a gash on his forehead! And what dirty trick? You wanted him to blast you with that Rasengan to the other side of the city, leaving you half-dead? Then you would've been satisfied with your loss?"

"What loss?"

"This is the only thing you heard from everything I've said?! Why in the world would you think you had any chance against your elder brother?! The mere fact that he is four years older and has much more experience… You stayed in the mountains during the whole war! Even I have more fighting experience than you and I wasn't even at the front lines! You should've yielded right when your opponent was announced and saved everybody the shame, including yourself!"

"Who do you think you are to talk like this to-" whatever other hurtful words Zed wanted to spurt, stayed in his throat that felt very tangibly the cutting edge of Sato's sword.

"You say one more word or hurt Koi in any way and you are not my brother anymore."

Watching from the roof, Boruto and Sarada didn't know, who was more surprised by Sato's actions and no veiled threat, them, Zed or Koi.

"You'll disown your kin for a girl?"

"I hope that someday you will understand, Zed." Sato removed the sword, but there was still a small bleeding nick on his brother's throat. "You can lie to your friends about the scar… You are my brother and I love you, but I will not tolerate any disrespect to me or my wife. Also, you really shamed our family and clan today and grandfathers will not let it pass. Better prepare yourself."

"Wasn't cutting him a bit too much?" Koi asked, starting on her now healing duties when Zed stormed off. "Shouldn't you just talk things out?"

"Unfortunately, the only language Zed understands now is violence. He is very popular and well-liked by a certain crowd, he can make your life really difficult when you start taking missions. I can't protect you from that even after we get married."

"I don't need-"

"And I don't want to need to protect you. He'll calm down eventually. His wish to make his sensei proud simply clouded his judgment. He hasn't yet learned to choose his opponents with more care."

"Yeah… I'll never make that mistake again after meeting you. I would've never walked out of that fight alive if you were not… you."

"Nah, I was too distracted by your beauty to keep my mind on the duel."

"You don't say…" Koi replied, a flirty smile on her lips. "So about those ribs?"

"You want me to undress in public?"

"Most definitely not! How far can you walk, Sato?"

"Far enough."

Boruto and Sarada exchanged a knowing glance, seeing the similarities between them during their courting and Sato and Koi. Clearly, wherever they were going, healing was not the only activity on their minds. There were no fires to extinguish here, even if the situation with Zed needed a delicate approach. Both hoped that his hero, grandfather Naruto, takes that weight off their shoulders.

While Sarada and Boruto were eavesdropping, Sasuke was starting a conversation with an old teammate he hadn't seen in years.

"Should I consider you a threat, Suigetsu, since you used the cover of the chunin exams to sneak into Konoha? Or is this some kind of trap since you drew me out into this forest by stopping erasing your chakra?"

"So, still sharp, Sasuke, old man, or just paranoid?" Suigetsu asked back, while sitting in a meditative position on the ground, with which he demonstrated, or at least tried to, his peaceful intentions. His sword was nowhere to be seen too.

"What is the purpose of your visit? Am I right to assume you are alone?"

"I just came to see my girl. Just watch her from afar. I'll be out of Konoha in a week at most, so no need to worry."

Sasuke noticed Suigetsu's avoidance to talk about Karin, so he pushed the topic further. The girl needed her mother and not because her sensor's abilities were developing at a rapid pace. "You don't want to meet your daughter? And what does Karin have to say about your presence here?"

The relaxed expression was instantly gone from Suigetsu's face. "I left that ungrateful bitch! For good this time! More than thirty-five years I was beside her! Can you imagine that, Sasuke?! I was there when she was pining after you, when she treated me like shit, when we were in different hideouts, when she finally came to me to pretty much use me to get a stress release, nothing more. I let her. I let her do anything she wanted. It was me, who delivered the girl, you know. And if Karin said that they had a special bond with Sakura after Karin delivered her child, nothing seemed to change between us. The baby looked so ordinary… there was no hair and the eye color hasn't set yet. There were no distinguishing features at all.

"It took about six months for Karin to recover from childbirth, for which she blamed me obviously. There was a lot of shouting that led to the baby's crying that led to more yelling, which only proved how unfit we were to be parents. So we left the girl at an orphanage, still couldn't agree on the name even after six months, had another major row and split soon after. I thought that was it. I was even okay with it for a time. And then two years later she shows up on my doorstep, pretty much bangs my brains out and we are somehow back together again. It lasted for another three years and then another huge fight and she bails again. And the circle kept repeating every two years or so. And I am tired of it! Tired of being used and abused for her entertainment, tired of being bailed on. She doesn't want to know her daughter – fine! I can have my own wishes and life too, I am not going to continue this parasitic relationship. That's what I told her when I left this time. You should've seen her face… So worth it, I'm telling ya."

Sasuke watched Suigetsu, his former teammate, somewhat a friend to a degree, cackle rolling on the ground. Sasuke knew him well enough to hear the tears hidden behind the laughter. Tears of pain, of abandonment, of being used all his life and never truly cared for.

"And at which point in this parasitic relationship, you told Karin about your love for her?"

Suigetsu instantly fell silent. "Don't be absurd," he snarled, standing up, his whole body vibrating with a suppressed emotion, but it was unclear which one was it. "There is nothing even close to that between us."

"You sure about that? Why do you keep taking her in and why does she keep coming back to you? Surely, Karin could've found somebody else to use to fulfill her needs. But you are the only person in the world, who truly understands her and vice versa. You may argue, that I do not know much about love, but I know a lot about devotion and forgiveness. I also know what wasting precious time is. That precious time that could be spent with people, who care about you. You surely weren't brandishing your chakra for Karin to find her way back to you, were you?"

"What nonsense! We were both in hiding from Orochimaru, although at times, I hoped he would find me and drag me back into one of his hideous hideouts so Karin couldn't follow me there!"

Sasuke saw that it was a waste of time to bring Suigetsu out of the denial he has been living in for years. "Koi has an affinity for Water release. Don't you want to get to know her better? To teach her the techniques of your clan? There is going to be a celebratory dinner of the Uzumaki-Uchiha at the Hyuga's compound tomorrow after the finals. I think you should come. Meet everybody properly. Including your daughter."

"And what exactly are you celebrating? So sure that dark-haired grandson of yours will win tomorrow? He wasn't much during today's fights."

"Why don't you spar with him after dinner then? He is a considerably better swordsman than me."

"Great Uchiha Sasuke admits someone is better than him?! That I need to see."

Well, if such primitive bait reunites father and daughter…