EPILOGUE
Twenty-Three Years Later
Ms. Tsunade closes the door to her classroom. "Good afternoon and welcome to senior chemistry." She walks to her desk, leans on the edge, and opens her class folder. "I appreciate you picking your own seats, but since this is my class, I make the seating arrangements . . . skills-wise and alphabetically."
Groans erupt from the students, the same sound that has greeted her on the first day of school for over thirty years at Konoha High.
"Inojin Yamanaka, take the first seat. Based on skills, your partner is Shikadai Nara." Down the list Mrs. Tsunade goes, students reluctantly sitting in their assigned seats next to their chemistry partners.
"Boruto Uchiha," Mrs. Tsunade says, pointing to the table behind Inojin.
The handsome young man with emerald eyes like his mother's and smoky black hair like his father's takes his assigned seat.
Mrs. Tsunade regards her new student over the glasses perched on her nose. "Mr. Uchiha, don't think this class will be a piece of cake because your parents got lucky and developed a medication to halt the progression of Alzheimer's. Your father never did finish my class and he flunked one of my tests, although I have a feeling your mother was the one who should have failed. But that just means I'll expect extra from you."
"Yes, ma'am."
Mrs. Tsunade looks down at her notebook. "Chōchō Akimichi, please take your seat next to Mr. Uchiha."
Mrs. Tsunade notices Chōchō blush as she sits on her stool and Boruto's cocky grin beside her. Maybe the tide was starting to shift after thirty years of teaching, but she wasn't taking any chances.
"And for those of you who want to start any trouble, I have a zero tolerance policy. . . ."
