A little late, but here it is! Chapter 6, here and in person...text...aw, never mind you get it! Enjoy! If you feel the need to review, please do not hesitate to do so!

"So Shino," began Ino, "how exactly is Inojin doing at the academy?"

Shino shrugged a bit. "What do you want me to say? He's keeping up with the class, doing well. His kenjutsu is quite exceptional, especially with his own short sword."

Sai nodded. "Yes, I've been spending extra time with him working on his kenjutsu."

"But he needs to be more well-rounded, Sai!" said Ino, a little frustrated that her son was not at the top of the class.

Sai tried to calm his wife down while Shino continued. "Don't worry Ino," he said, "Inojin will be a fine ninja. He just needs to build up some self-confidence."

"Well," said Ino, "that's good to hear I guess."

"So Shino…" began Naruto, speaking a little naughtily, "why don't you tell us…who's at the top of the class?"

"Naruto!" exclaimed Hinata, a little flustered. "That's not an appropriate thing to ask."

"Come on, Shino!" coaxed Naruto, "tell me! The Hokage should know shouldn't he?"

"This is just going to be another excuse for a competition!" said Hinata.

"Who's competing with who!?" laughed Naruto, "I'm just interested to know about the next class of ninjas. I'm the one who assigns them missions, aren't I?"

Shino shook his head. He didn't exactly want to speak to fast, as he knew that anything he said could and would be used against him by the proud parents. Of course, he decided to try to ease his way out of it. Using every bit of his diplomacy, he tried to explain the complicated situation.

"Well," said Shino, "since there's still time before they graduate, all of the kids still have much room for improvement. We've only just introduced the basic ninjutsu and genjutsu release, so they still need some time to train in that before I have the liberty to say who is number one."

"Shino!" exclaimed Naruto, "that's a cop-out!"

"Actually Naruto," said Shikamaru who was leaning back on his chair with his arms creating a makeshift pillow. "I would say Shino's actually being quite reasonable."

Naruto pouted, "Yeah whatever."

"Look Naruto," said Shino, "if what you actually want to know is where Bolt ranks in all of this, I'm afraid of being too honest," said Shino. "I mean, Bolt is a very strong ninja, ranking pretty well in terms of kenjutsu and taijutsu and moderately good at introductory ninjutsu and genjutsu, but he can't…"

"He can't focus on anything?" Hinata finished, both asking a question and finishing Shino's sentence.

Naruto sighed. "Well, whatever."

"Don't look too depressed Naruto," smiled Sakura, "I think I remember a ninja who couldn't focus in class, and he became the Hokage."

Naruto smiled at his teammate. "Yeah! I mean, I know Bolt can be a great ninja, and actually, I think he also wants to be one. I'm just disappointed to see him act exactly how I did when I was his age."

The group laughed as they reminisced. "Yeah," laughed Tenten, "you were kind of a dick."

Everyone in the group just stared at Tenten for a while, trying to remember if there was ever a time when Tenten was experienced Naruto's antics as a child.

The Mist ninja pulled his blade, effectively decapitating Sarada. Bolt froze in fear at the sight of the attack, but suddenly, when what he thought was the girl's head hit the forest floor, it turned out to be a log.

"What's this?" said the ninja with a smirk, "a substitution?"

"What the…!" exclaimed Bolt as he realized that Sarada's body was just a collection of logs from around the forest.

Sarada jumped from a tree and appeared next to Bolt

"Sarada!" exclaimed Bolt, "are you okay? What was that?"

Sarada pushed back her glasses. "What's the matter, Bolt?" laughed Sarada, "ever heard of the substitution jutsu?"

Upon seeing Sarada's face alive and well, Bolt took a deep breath. "This is really happening, isn't it?" said Bolt, "A real ninja fight."

Sarada stood in silence for a while. "Yeah…it is."

Bolt smirked as well. "Well," he said, "that's all there is to it then."

Bolt pulled up his hand and focused his eyes into his palm.

"Come on…" he said to himself. "Come on…!"

Back in the Village, the adults were still talking about Bolt's studies at the academy and his growing up in home.

"Anyway," said Naruto, "what I was trying to say is that…even though I know that Bolt can be a great ninja…I have some concerns."

"What do you mean?" asked Lee.

"Well," said Naruto, "Bolt inherited a lot of chakra from me. And that's great! I'm really impressed that Bolt has so much chakra at his disposal. It's just that…"

Back in the battlefield, Bolt began to rush the Mist ninja, raising his hand to his side.

"Come on…" thought Bolt, "Come on…!"

As he ran forward, a small blue orb appeared in Bolt's hand. The Mist ninja, upon recognizing the attack, widened his eyes.

"It can't be…" he thought, "at his age?"

"Wow…" thought Sarada.

Within the same moment, Bolt jumped up in front of the ninja and lifted up his hand.

"Here I go!" Bolt shouted.

"What I mean…" said Naruto, kind of disappointed as his friends looked at him intently, "is that… even though Bolt has a lot of chakra and a lot of talent…he has no chakra control whatsoever…"

"RASENGA…!" Bolt shouted jumping the Mist ninja who had his sword covering his face.

As Bolt lowered his hand, the orb had completely dissipated. Leaving his bare hand on the side of the blade of the Ninja's sword.

"No!" he thought to himself. "Not now! Not now of all times!"

"What?" asked Shikamaru as Naruto spoke his mind?

"It's true…" said Hinata. "Naruto trains with Bolt sometimes, and Bolt still doesn't have the ability to use his chakra efficiently."

"When I taught him the Shadow Clone Technique," said Naruto, "sometimes he would summon one clone, and other times he would summon thousands, and sometimes…he wasn't able to summon any at all."

"Whoa," said Lee.

"It's not something incurable," said Shino, "most of the kids aren't able to use their chakra completely efficiently yet."

"Yeah…" said Naruto, "but with that talent, I'm afraid he's just wasting it…It's not like I don't know it's fixable…it's just that Bolt doesn't want to take the time to work on it."

Hinata looked down sadly. She knew the truth. Bolt didn't want to work on his chakra control unless he had his father to train him. That's why he had been slacking with his ninja training recently.

The Mist ninja, seeing that Bolt's attempt at a rasengan had failed, grabbed Bolt by the neck and drew his little body close to his own.

"What's the big idea, kid?" said the ninja in a cheeky voice. "What're you trying to do, kill me? That wouldn't be very nice."

Bolt struggled to get out of the ninja's grasp, but found no way of breaking free.

"You know what they say, kid," laughed the ninja as he tightened his stranglehold, "an eye for an eye and all that…"

Bolt looked back to Himawari's lifeless body as it lay curled up on the side of the forest.

"Himawari…" thought Bolt as he continued to struggle. Thinking it was the end, he began to stop struggling, feeling the hold tighten more and more.

"Actually Sakura," said Shino as the conversation progressed. "Sarada is doing very well. And I'm sorry to say Naruto and Hinata, but Sarada's chakra control must be the most advanced of her age group."

"Well…" laughed Sakura as she changed the subject. "I know that I wasn't much of a help to all of you guys when we were kids…"

Sakura quickly lifted up her hand as she knew her friends were going to object.

"No," she admitted, "it's true. I wasn't able to do very much to help you all."

"But…" Sakura continued with a smirk, "don't think that I'm not able to teach my daughter right. Sarada has Sasuke's chakra. She's amazingly strong. And not only that, but I've made sure that her chakra control is top notch."

The rest of the adult snickered silently as they listened to Sakura toot her own horn.

"So…" said Sakura, "just because I wasn't able to do much for you all back then, don't think Sarada is going to be useless!"

"Fire Style!" came a voice from the trees, "Giant Fireball Jutsu!"

A huge ball of flames emerged from Sarada's mouth. The Mist ninja, surprised at the huge fireball emerging from such a little girl, jumped out of the way, letting go of Bolt as the hot flames burnt up the surround trees and grass like a flamethrower. Unable to breath out anymore flames, Sarada lowered her hand.

Bolt was on his hands and needs on the grass as Sarada quickly ran next to him.

"Bolt!" she said, "are you okay?"

Bolt was still shaken from the events preceding, believing that his life was almost over. Now seeing that he was free, he was still shaking.

"I…I…I don't know…" said Bolt, "I don't know if I can do it…I don't know if I'm strong enough…"

As Bolt shook, he heard Sarada give a quickly laugh and help him to his feet. Bolt looked at Sarada's face, surprised that she had laughed at his trauma.

"What's the matter," said Sarada with a smirk, "scaredy cat?"

"Okay…" said the Mist ninja, his voice starting to rise, "now I'm angry…I've been holding back a lot, since you're all just little kids, but I guess I've underestimated you all too much. With an attack like that, I have no doubt that you're an Uchiha."

Bolt raised an eyebrow and looked at Sarada. "An Uchiha?!" exclaimed Bolt, "you mean…you're the daughter of…"

Sarada shot Bolt a look that forced him to shut his mouth.

"You're his daughter alright…" smiled the ninja. "I guess I didn't see it until now."

Sarada's eyes widened. "You knew my Dad?"

The ninja nodded, but the smile disappeared from his face. "But don't think that I'm going to go easy on you.

The ninja lifted his sword and put it back on his back.

"In fact," he smiled as he moved his hands into a hand seal. "You could say there's some bad blood between us."

"Liquefy!" he suddenly exclaimed before he turned his body into water and splashed on the ground.

Bolt and Sarada, never before seeing such a ninjutsu, were surprised. Sarada lifted up a kunai to protect the two of them while Bolt still took some time to recover.

"Come on Bolt…" said Sarada, "snap out of it…I need your help on this one…"

Suddenly, out of the grass the body rematerialized under Himawari in a way that the Ninja was now holding Himawari in an arm and held the sword next to her still sleeping face.

Sarada gasped in shock and Bolt was suddenly perked up by the sudden threat on Himawari's life.

"Look kids…" said the ninja, "I don't want to kill anyone here…I may be the Second Coming of the Demon, but I don't want to kill a little girl. Especially not one as adorable as this one. So let's just be honest with ourselves. You can't beat me, so just leave me be and you'll get her back in a few days after the village pays me the ransom."

Bolt gulped and considered the ninja's words. It made sense…he was just a kid after all, would this be the wiser decision? Bolt was about to speak, when suddenly Sarada spoke up.

"We're not giving in!" she said in her angry, shrill voice. "I don't care if we die…we promised to protect her or die trying!"

The ninja raised his eyebrow in surprise. "Why? Why would you go so far? And just to save this girl?"

"Because…" said Sarada. She turned her head in a way that faced both Bolt and the kidnapper. "I never go back on my word…because that is my nindo…my ninja way."

Bolt looked at Sarada with wide eyes for a while as the girl gave him the closest thing she could give to a genuine smile. After looking into her face for a little while, Bolt smiled as well.

"Geez," said the Mist ninja, "if you kids keep throwing that cliché around, it's gonna lose its impact."

Bolt got up next to Sarada. "Thanks Sarada…" he said, "I needed that."

"Don't worry about it," she said in response, "I just hope you're ready to do something about it."

"Yeah," smiled Bolt, "but we're gonna have to think creatively on this one…"

"You got a plan?" said Sarada.

"I think so."

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. I sure enjoyed writing it! Chapter 7 coming soon.