You guys. We are so close to the biggest reveal in the history of reveals in this story. Thank you so much for your support throughout this story! I can't even believe I made it this far, but I don't think I would have if it wasn't for seeing how much people were enjoying it. So thank you!

Itachi slunk through the halls of the hospital, feeling both wildly out of place and like he deserved to be there since this visit could move him one step closer to cracking the code of what was going on.

He looked for the number to Inojin's room. He was there to learn more about what Cho Cho and Inojin saw that night to hopefully gain more knowledge about the nature of white zetsu in order to defeat it- how did Cho Cho and Inojin stay alive? What was the zetsu like? And hopefully with that knowledge he could truly learn what they were after and how to defeat it.

Kakashi's words haunted him all night. They don't want you...they're using you, he had said. He didn't believe they truly wanted them for their powers. Though Boruto and Sarada were strong shinobi and had every right to be in the Anbu, this faction was using them to get to their parents; they were just pawns to be used with the promise of success to reel them in. If the Akatsuki- or root, or white zetsu, whoever they truly were- had team seven in their grasp, they could manipulate them and use them to get to Naruto and Sasuke and complete their plan, whatever it was, that way. At least that was Kakashi's theory anyway. What could a team of thirteen year olds truly have to offer besides their lineage? They were only blank slates fresh for writing and manipulating as someone may please. The real prize was their parents, the true strong shinobi.

Itachi pushed open the door to Inojin's room softly to find him surprisingly sitting up in bed playing a handheld game. "Hey," Inojin said smoothly without looking up.

"Can I come in…?" he asked, unsure.

"Yeah, sure." Inojin put his game down in his lap. "What's up?"

"I didn't know if you'd be awake." Itachi was surprised at how much better he looked than he did on the floor of the tower the morning before. His sweating and lifeless face had gained some color back into it. "You look great though. How are you feeling?"

"Oh, you know, a little sore," Inojin admitted. "But overall I'm doing okay. Kind of sucks we're not allowed to be in the exams anymore." The second test was being held over the next three days and Inojin and Cho Cho were deemed too hurt to participate.

"I just wanted to ask some things about that night," he admitted, and perched gingerly in the chair next to his bed.

"Well, if you're here to find out what happened, I'm not really sure." Inojin shrugged. "The Anbu came trying to figure out the same thing. My mom was able to see that Chubs and I fought them off for a moment, but we didn't know anything more than that. I don't even know how we managed to live to be honest with you. It was like we weren't worth their time and they only needed us for our jutsu. After they took that, we weren't worth fighting anymore apparently and they left."

And they left. Itachi's mind whirled over the details. The white zetsu didn't want to waste time with those two because they weren't who they were after. They just needed them for their jutsu to come after the real focus: team seven. Team seven was who they wanted to attack all along. But why were they their focus? And why attack them to kill? What did he, Sarada, and Mitsuki have that the zetsu needed to kill for?

"So you don't have any memory of them?" Itachi continued. "Did they say anything to you?"

Inojin shook his head. "Not a word. It was so weird. I don't know what they wanted. Didn't you guys defeat them though? I heard they attacked you."

Itachi nodded slowly. "Yeah…"

"Maybe they are collecting jutsu," Inojin offered.

"But they tried to kill us," Itachi replied.

Inojin's eyes widened for a moment and he whistled out a breath. "Hm. That's crazy. Wonder what you got that we don't?" he joked. "You lucky bastards."

I'm starting to wonder the same thing. But he only chuckled softly as though it were a joke and ignored the heavy uncertainty now blanketing the room.

"Can I ask you a question?" Inojin asked suddenly.

"Yeah sure…" Fuck. Itachi's pulse quickened slightly; he didn't know why he was nervous, but with all the questions from Sarada the day before, he felt like everyone suspected him of something.

However, instead of spewing an accusation, Inojin just innocently held up his game and asked, "Are you still playing the new Kagemasa game? If you're done, can I borrow it? I think I'm going to be in here a while."

Itachi let out a real laugh this time; to Inojin they were just two regular friends with a regular life who just so happened to have been in an irregular circumstance. All in a day's work. He might as well play games to pass the time if he couldn't make chunin.

"Yeah!" He felt the worry deflate from his body, and in his new relief said, "I'll go get that for you right away."

Later that evening, Itachi lay in his bed wide awake as the third exam loomed in on his mind. In mere hours he would be facing off against Sarada again and they hadn't ended the night before on good terms. He still felt squeamish fighting his niece under false pretenses; he was lying about who he was, his strength, his abilities, and she was angry at him because she could sense it was all wrong. He didn't want to exacerbate it by fighting her. If anything, he needed to try one more time before the test began to make up with her. After that fight, who knew what could change between them; he felt like it was the beginning of a new turn in her and Boruto's friendship- whatever was left of it, thanks to him.

But more than the Sarada problem was the white zetsu threat. They were going to be there, watching. They hadn't heard from Root- or, as Itachi was flat out calling it to himself now, the Akatsuki- since the night of the first exam. They were attacked during the second exam and he had suspicions they were all connected, and it had been radio silence ever since. He had a sneaking feeling that Sarada was concerned about that as well, but he hadn't talked to her at all that day so he didn't truly know how she was feeling. Mitsuki had stopped by his house earlier that day to say he tried to meet up with her at the training grounds, but she said she wanted to be left alone; it seemed she had pushed them both out, and now Itachi didn't know what to do.

By the time the sun came up, the ball of nerves in his gut had dissipated only slightly. He was always good at drowning out the emotions to do what needed to be done, and now that he was staring down the next test, he felt more ready.

"Wow, big brother, I'm so excited for you!" Himawari stood at the bottom of the stairs and beamed up at him.

"Thanks," he said, and couldn't help but ruffle her hair before he sat down to put on his shoes.

Hinata came up behind him and handed him a water bottle. "How are you feeling?" she asked. "Ready?"

"Great! Feeling...confident," he lied.

They headed out. When they turned onto the street, Itachi wasn't surprised to see it lined with people. It seemed like everyone in the village was filtering their way to watch the last test.

"I have my bet on the Uchiha girl," Itachi picked up. His heart swelled with pride. That's my girl!

"No way," another said. "It's the Hokage's kid for sure." Itachi's first reaction was to want to knock both of them in the heads and politely say that his niece was for sure the strongest candidate for chunin in that duo, but he was instantly reminded that no, he couldn't do that nor say that...because he was the other candidate.

He didn't have any time to say goodbye to Hinata or Himawari before having to split off with the other opponents. The line of people streamed into the stadium, and Itachi found himself sucked in with the other genin or else be trapped in the rising crowd.

He had twenty minutes until the first fight started, and he needed to find her immediately so they could talk. Around him, other genin who passed the exam the day before were wandering around, giddily talking to the others from their villages. But he didn't have time to stop and talk to the other Leaf delegates. He flashed a smile at Iwabe who was walking over, then shook his head and motioned with his thumb that he couldn't pause.

He finally found Sarada in a corner talking down an excited but excessively stressed Metal. "You'll do great, Metal, there's no need to be worried," she was comforting. But when she looked up from patting his back to see Itachi standing a few feet away with his hands shoved into his pockets, her mouth immediately settled into a straight line. "Excuse me for a moment, Metal," she muttered and walked over.

"Were you looking for me?" she asked.

"Yeah…" Itachi admitted. "I feel like we didn't end things that well yesterday."

"I don't know what you want me to say right now that I haven't already said." She crossed her arms and her eyes seemed to challenge him. Come on. Change my mind, they seemed to say.

But obviously there was nothing he could say to disprove or prove her right. He was still stuck.

"You're lying to me," she said, "and I don't know why and I don't know about what, but something is going on. If you don't tell me I have no choice but to ignore you."

"But Sarada-"

She held her hand up. "I'm sorry, Boruto. Right now you're my opponent, not my friend. Right now I don't have time for this if we're just going to go round and round. We got nowhere yesterday, so unless you came here to confess something to me, we're done here."

Itachi didn't have the words to soothe the situation, only his lies, so he just blinked at her. Sarada barked a laugh in response. "See. We're done here." She smirked at him then turned to walk away.

"No, Sarada, please. We can't go on the field like this. We have to get past this-" He reached out to grab her arm. Please. Don't leave. I can't fight you like this.

"Get past this?" She spun around on him and tore her arm from his grip. "Boruto, how are we going to get past this if you don't trust me enough?" she seethed. "You say you're my best friend but how can we be if you don't tell the truth? This was about teamwork and you've completely given that up, that's clear to me now!" Sarada looked down at the arm Itachi had grabbed and rubbed it. "If we become chunin…" She paused as if unsure about her next words. "If we become chunin we may not even be on the same missions much. It doesn't seem like you even care about our team; we can't even function as a team if you're unwilling to trust me with whatever the hell is going on. You should know that you can trust me with anything."

He saw something unreadable in her eyes as she looked back up into his. "I just want to help you and put this behind us, but I can't if you don't tell me anything. So I'll ask one more time… what the hell happened to your eyes?"

Itachi swallowed. He knew he was risking his relationship with Sarada but their lives depended on it; he risked his relationship to keep Sasuke alive. It's just like that, he tried to tell himself. "Nothing," he said quietly.

They locked eyes for a few more seconds, two teammates surrounded by other opponents and comrades busy with their own lives, but nothing else existed in that moment except their bond. Boruto and Sarada's, Sarada and Itachi's, he could see it all dangling delicately in the space between them. Finally, Sarada just nodded and shifted her bag further onto her shoulder. "Okay," she whispered. "Yep. We're done here."

"Sarada," he heard himself and the part of Boruto buried deep both squeak out. She was beginning to walk away, but stopped, still turned away from him.

"I'm giving this my all," she firmly announced. "You haven't been giving me one hundred percent for a long time." She held up one hand and lowered fingers as she counted off. "First, you were weird about our new missions. Then you kept my family history from me- even when you were with me when I asked my dad about my family." His memory flashed to when they both trained with Sasuke and Sasuke recanted stories about the past; he wouldn't answer Sarada's questions about their family directly. Itachi could feel his stomach tighten at the memory. "And now something happened to you and you won't tell me what. If you can't take our relationship seriously, then I have to give it my all, myself. Without you."

And with that she walked away before he had a chance to respond. Itachi stared after her at the Uchiha crest blazen into her back and couldn't help but wonder how he got there. He only wanted to fix their relationship, fix her relationship with Sasuke, be a better shinobi this time around. But he only found himself dug deeper in a hole, even if he knew he couldn't tell her the truth to get out of the hole. He knew deep down he should be alive, in the stands, watching her take on another opponent with his parents on one side of him and her parents on the other. In a perfect world he could really be Uncle Itachi, but in this one he was just her best friend who had mucked up their relationship. She had made it clear that the only way to fix it is by telling her the truth, but there was just no way he could do that. So here their relationship sat, hanging from the rafters, before their first test.

Somewhere a voice boomed over the stadium. "The test begins in three minutes with our first opponents, Boruto Uzumaki and Sarada Uchiha!"

That was his queue. "Good luck, Boruto!" someone behind him cried out. All around him his friends began to walk up, fist bumping him and slapping him on the back. This was it. Moment of truth.

He made his way down to the entrance and saw that Sarada had already neatly leapt onto the field and was now stretching. His legs mechanically pulled him onto the field.

Above them the crowd cheered. This must have been exciting, watching two teammates fight. Who would come out on top when they both theoretically knew each other's strengths and weaknesses better than anyone else? This was the fight of the entire test and the crowd couldn't wait to consume it.

The procter walked into the middle and stood between them.

"Good luck." Sarada's eyes were cold and hard but she smirked anyway.

Itachi swallowed. He couldn't fight her, not with his regular strength. He couldn't he couldn't he-

"BEGIN!"

Sarada and Itachi both leapt backwards before the other could make their first move. His mind calculated quickly. He knew that by using her sharingan she could see whatever he would potentially conjure up himself as an attack, but he still didn't feel right using anything against her. He decided the only way to get through this was to let her take him down in any capacity she felt necessary.

She could take all of her emotions out on him, spit her rage, and he'd absorb it all. Just like with her father. How easily he could put her in a genjutsu- if this was his previous sharingan, of course- and let her believe she was in charge. For now he had to take her blows and let her believe she was winning. He had to take it all just to control the narrative, the lies he had spun to her. He could take her pent up anger because he orchestrated it that way with his actions. Again.

He was in charge. Again.

It was his doings that caused this. Again.

And therefore he could take it all because it was for her own good, just as it was for Sasuke's own good to stay alive and get strong. Of course he knew now he should have gone about it differently, but with Sarada? As Boruto there weren't many other choices he could make differently; this was just the way it was. It was his fault she was this upset in the first place, but he couldn't change it the way she wanted, and so he deserved it and had to take it all.

Sarada came rushing at him and while he dodged, he allowed himself to lag a millisecond behind so she was able to land her punch. He crashed into the ground, the dirt rising around him. No. It wasn't rising. She just sent him flying into the cracking ground. He didn't allow himself to get up right away.

"You're holding back," she hissed above him.

Behind her, a shadow clone popped and landed a blow of its own on her. Be on guard, he wanted to instruct her. Itachi allowed himself to stand. This was going to be harder than he thought but he could manage; afterall, he orchestrated his death in that dance between him and Sasuke. What was one fight in the chunin exam?

But last time he could be mostly himself and use his skills; in this exam he had to land a few to not seem suspicious but hold back his own skills to allow her to win. It was much more of a delicate dance.

Sarada flew back at him and he knew he had to make one more effort to attack before letting her have the upperhand for good. "Wind style: gale palm," he heard himself yell out, and without thinking he clasped his hands together. The jutsu blew Sarada backwards, but she knelt forward to tighten her body, then dug her toes into the ground to stop herself.

She came running back at full force and knocked him again with her fist. Where did you get this strength he wondered as he flew through the air. Sarada came running after him. "Come on," she hissed at him. "Show me your eyes. What are you hiding? Why won't you give it your all?" She hit him again. "Are you trying to insult me by letting me win?" Another kick. He flew backwards and this time he didn't get up because not because he didn't want to, but because he almost couldn't.

"I-I'm not-" he gurgled.

"I know you better than that!" Another kick. "Why do you keep pretending I'm stupid? You're the idiot, remember?!"

He looked up at her and could see something behind the rage in her eyes. Something else. Something rooted in pain that wasn't there before.

"It was supposed to be us forever!" Another punch. "You said...you said you wanted us all to be friends forever! And I believed it!" Kick. Itachi could taste the tang of blood in his mouth. She continued to blurt out her emotions as she released that energy on him in every blow.

"You made me see that I could trust you! That maybe you weren't so bad, even if sometimes you do really idiotic things! We made the best team! And now I feel like I don't even know you!"

Itachi swung around to kick her. She landed in the dirt but immediately bounced back to relay more of her pent-up anger on him. This time her punch set him back into the ground.

"I want to help you! So why do you keep lying?" She stood over top of him as he lay buried in the dirt, staring up with hooded eyes back at her. There was the pain again in her eyes. "I'm giving my all for our missions, for our village, for us. And still you taunt me by not even fighting back!"

Get up, Itachi told himself. Boruto was strong but he was no match for her taijutsu. He shakily stood. His mind whispered something about lightning style, but it wouldn't put anything forward. She had him.

"We were supposed to do everything together but you broke all trust. Genin. Chunin. The Anbu. Everything. Together. Always."

Always. A different edge tinged her voice, one Itachi hadn't heard before. Was she...no. No it couldn't be. Was she maybe in love with Boruto…?

She looked away before she had an opportunity to probe her eyes deeper. He shakily stood again.

"I'm-" he sputtered.

Above them, the crowd's energy crackled a little differently than it did before; they sounded displeased. He clearly wasn't performing to expectations. This must look wrong; he had to perform as Boruto just a little more.

He could feel his body moving on its own as it fought on the offense again, trying to back Sarada into a wall. This was the last of his energy.

"No matter-" Kick. She blocked him and countered; he blocked her foot and backflipped away. "What-" She came at him this time. "You choose to do-" Another kick to the face. Blood gushed his mouth. "I will-" Sarada spun in the air with one final blow. "Love you always."

Itachi fell backwards, slamming his head into the wall. That was it. She did it. She won. The crowd's volume jumped to piercing levels.

As the proctor came over to announce Sarada's victory, Itachi looked wearily up into the stands. Out of all the screaming people, his eyes locked onto only one.

Above them all, higher than even Naruto and the other kages, stood Sasuke. It was too far of a distance to tell completely, but he could swear he was staring past even his daughter and into his eyes. Itachi wanted to raise a hand to wave- not to anyone else in the stands, just to Sasuke- but before he had a chance to move even a muscle, his brother turned and walked away.

Sasuke nodded to the Anbu at the front gates and hopped onto the roof of the stadium. He had just arrived back in the village, and needed to talk to Naruto and get to Boruto as soon as possible. Inside he could hear the roar of the crowd which tipped him off to a battle already having begun. As he rounded the corner, he looked below at the field. Instantly his eyes lasered onto the Uchiha crest far below: Sarada was fighting. He had arrived too late.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. He had to stop himself from jumping onto the field when he instantly recognized the shock of bright blonde hair she was dominating. Boruto. She was fighting Boruto. She could be fighting a zetsu.

His brain instantly whirled into motions and laid out all possibilities: Tell Naruto and risk compromising the rest of the exams. He had no proof that Boruto was a white zetsu, although he was 99% sure and would bet his right arm on it. This plan could cause more commotion. By disrupting the third exam that would tip people off that something is wrong, and he already knew he couldn't let Naruto know the extent to why he needed to stop it. If he took Boruto out of the exams, he would have to explain himself and he couldn't do that to Naruto; he couldn't let Naruto know that he suspected Boruto was a white zetsu. He needed to still take care of this on his own.

The second option was to allow the test to play out and snatch Boruto before he could infiltrate back into the stadium. His daughter seemed to have it taken care of and clearly had him backed into a corner. And would a white zetsu come out now, with all the kages sitting here? Certainly whoever it was working for wouldn't have stuck it in this situation for it to end up acting that reckless? If it made it this far, why act out now and end it?

He squeezed the bar in front of him until his knuckles turned white. The rage in his stomach knowing his daughter could be battling an enemy he thought he destroyed was almost too much to handle. He traveled the world for a decade so she could live in peace, so he could keep her safe, and this still happened, no matter what he did to try to stop it.

Suddenly, it appeared that Sarada knocked Boruto into the ground for the last time. As Boruto's head hit the wall and the crowd cheered, his head raised, and for a second Sasuke could swear he was staring directly into his eyes. Not Naruto's, his own father's, his.

Almost like Boruto was challenging him.

Sasuke forced himself to turn away. It was time. He had to get to Boruto.

Itachi limped off the field. Though he knew he looked in bad shape, he knew he had taken worse beatings than this one. He entered the hallway leading back into the stadium and slumped against the cool concrete wall for a moment. It soothed his body's aches and burns he now wore on his skin like medals.

"Boruto," a deep voice called from the shadows at the end of the hallway.

His body instantly lurched toward it as though it was the cool water he so desperately sought out after this battle. Sasuke. It was Sasuke.

"I thought...you were gone…" he said quietly.

"I told Sarada I wouldn't miss it," Sasuke admitted.

"You must be proud...she won. Where is she? Did you see her?"

"You're actually who I'm looking for."

"Me?" Itachi asked, genuinely surprised. He stopped walking.

"Yes. I thought we could go train a little. Or at least talk," Sasuke offered matter-of-factly.

"Talk?" He couldn't say no to it, of course. Though it was strange he wanted to spend time with him over his daughter who just won, how could he say no to time with his brother?

"You don't want to see Sarada?" he clarified.

"I'll see her later." Sasuke gripped Itachi's shoulders and pulled him upright, a little too hard he noted. "Right now I just need to talk to you."

The two rounded the corner to see daylight begin to peek in. At the end of the hall, the light illuminating her edges like an angel, was Sarada gulping down water. She looked up and almost dropped her bottle.

"Dad…?" she said softly as she recognized the figures in front of her. Her eyes roamed over her dad and Boruto, and Itachi could see her mind calculating what the cause of why her father would be with him over her at that moment. After she just won her first battle. After she just proved herself capable.

"Congratulations, Sarada," Sasuke said shortly. "I'll see you when I get home, okay?"

And he turned the corner before they could pass her, Itachi at his heels. They left Sarada alone staring after them.

"Should we take Sarada with us?" he offered.

"No, I need to talk to you alone." Sasuke was briskly walking now, away from the stadium and the middle of the village.

"Where exactly…?" Itachi asked. He didn't feel uneasy even though he had to admit this was out of the ordinary; he trusted his brother with all of his being, of course, and had no reason to consider it any further.

"I thought we'd go to the training field to talk for a bit," Sasuke admitted. "It's quieter."

He was expecting Sasuke to say something else, anything, but he remained silent for the rest of the walk to the Uchiha training grounds.

When they arrived, Sasuke immediately took out two shuriken. "Train?" he asked, running his fingers over the sharp edges. "Just to start building up your strength again? You should get right back in it."

Itachi noted that it sounded like a thinly veiled lie, but he had no reason not to believe that, no reason to think his brother suspected him of being anything else but Boruto Uzumaki.

Both Uchihas spun their arms back to throw at the same time, and the weapons whizzed through their air before landing perfectly in their targets.

"Go get them?" Sasuke asked innocently.

And still Itachi had no reason to believe anything was wrong. He dragged himself across the field to retrieve the shuriken. It was only when he felt the sharp point of a sword in his back that he began to suspect something was wrong.

"You're not Boruto," Sasuke hissed in his ear. "Tell me who you are or I will kill you."