A/N: I hope you are not bored with these short stories series (it did start with a lot of SasuSaku). But now I'll branch off to other ships/character stories! Please navigate around the chapters as you like (with your favourite characters). They are all individual stories so please don't feel restricted to jump around!

This is an alternate universe (or Boruto's 'Infinite Tsukuyomi'*) where Naruto is NOT the Hokage.

It also contains spoilers from the Chuunin Exams Arc of Boruto (Episode 51 to 66) so I highly recommend you to finish that arc prior to reading this!

*Infinite Tsukuyomi refers to a genjutsu that traps the whole world in an illusion.

You can hear a dad who's so proud of his son shouting from the audience "GO, BORUTO!" at the Chuunin exams when he versus Shikadai, and Shikamaru also does the same. The sons both facepalm at their embarrassing dads.

Hinata smiles at Naruto's gesture, thinking about that time when he also cheered for her during the Chuunin exams and he never changed throughout the years. She eventually joins Naruto and although Boruto was super embarrassed, both his parents gave him strength

Boruto thinks back of that time when Naruto taught him the kage bunshin no jutsu (shadow clone) and how he kept reminding Boruto to go pass his limits during training. He finally understood what his dad meant, he had to make more shadow clones if he wanted to win Shikadai.

'Aside from letting the clones attack, you can also use them to gather intel,' Boruto could hear his father's words at the back of his head. He used a smoke bomb as a diversion and made 7 clones - shikadai knew he could make 4 at max, or possibly 5 after improvement so he hid the other 3 substituted as shurikens and attacked with the other 4. However, Shikadai managed to trap all of them with his new skill. Boruto threw the other 3 (shurikens) towards Shikadai but he managed to dodge whilist holding his jutsu, but he didn't realise Boruto learnt a new skill from Sasuke, which is the curved shuriken. He knew he wasn't good enough as there wasn't much time to practice, so he improvised and turned his clone back just as soon as it took the turn. Shikadai wasn't expecting this at all so the clone managed to kick Shikadai at the back of his neck. When he fell, his jutsu came undone, leaving the rest of the clones free to attack him. They landed a few blows before Shikadai managed to use his wind style to blow them away and disappear.

"I'm not done yet...!" Shikadai grits his teeth. He was weakened by his lack of chakra and also Boruto's taijutsu earlier. But he wasn't going to give up yet. He could hear his mom shouting "Get up, Shikadai!" which made gave him strength to rise to his feet again.

Boruto didn't want to use his trump card till the finals but it looks like Shikadai was a worthy opponent. He took a glance at his dad who nodded. Sasuke was also in agreement. "Me too," Boruto grins at his best friend. Boruto made his rasengan on his dominant hand.

"I give up," Shikadai says.

Temari scoffed, looking at his son reminds her so much of a certain person she knows very well.

"Wha-?!" Boruto already threw his rasengan, although it looks like it has vanished.

Shikadai shrugs. "I don't think I'll have anything to counter that."

Boruto quickly rushed in front of Shikadai and took the blow. Boruto fell but Shikadai manages to catch him, though he was not expecting it so the both of them fell on their butt.

"What was that, are you okay, Boruto?!"

"Yeah, that was nothing dattebasa. You okay?" Boruto winks.

The both of the was pretty beaten up, though Boruto, by his own jutsu.

The winner is... Uzumaki Boruto!"

Naruto was smiling from ear to ear, well, Hinata too. he jumped up from his seat then went down to lift Boruto up and hailed his name with the crowd.

"Well done, Boruto!"

A/N: Contains spoilers in this note!

I really despised the way Boruto cheated in the Chuunin exams, so I decided to make one without him cheating. I could relate to how much Shikadai felt betrayed because of that, so here I made it in such a way that Boruto fought fairly with his best friend and even took the blow for him. And because Naruto isn't a hokage, he is a loving father who is able to have time for his children and actually taught Boruto the shadow clone jutsu. It was actually my first time writing a fight scene so I hope it's not too bad (laughs).