Blonding

Chapter 11 : Father

"See? What'd I tell you! Easy as pie!"

"Yeah, yeah," Mitsuki stated with an eyeroll. "Don't get ahead of yourself so easily."

"Oh, puh-lease," Boruto scoffed, waving his hand in a conceited manner. "If the next test is anything like the last one, we'll be done by dinner time. I'm gonna have to find a spot in my closet for my chuunin vest..."

Sarada rolled her eyes as her teammate's voice tapered off in thought, knowing all too well that when he said 'spot in my closet', he actually meant 'spot on the floor in my room'.

She had to admit that the first test of the Chuunin Exams was relatively simple, compared to what she'd heard about in the past. But still, it was reasonably difficult, for one reason over most.

She still couldn't shake that nagging feeling in the back of her head that was urging her to do something to help her blond-haired teammate.

With a resigned sigh, she simply fell in line behind Boruto, while Mitsuki brought up the rear with a lazy gait.

The loudmouthed Uzumaki was putting on an air of contentment and ease as he walked, arms wrapped lackadaisically behind his neck, a bored expression mounted on his features like a simple henge.

To Sarada, it was nothing more than that. She had been around the boy for long enough to see through his own personal barriers - and it was painfully obvious that he was in sincere emotional pain.

A small sigh of relief escaped her lips. At least, through that, she knew that there was a chance that whatever relationship problems that Boruto was having with the Seventh - his father - weren't irreparable.

There was a chance.

Channeling her inner Haruno, Sarada vowed that she'd do whatever the hell she could to try and bring the two hardheaded blonds back together.

As she was about to open her mouth, Boruto beat her to it. "Alright guys, let's get this second test over with! I wanna sleep in my own bed tonight!"

With a sweatdrop, Sarada rolled her eyes at the rather... vivacious volume Boruto used for his proclamation. The slew of other genin candidates that were following them in a haste to the training grounds on the outskirts of town all narrowed their eyes at the Uzumaki's bombastic attitude, and Sarada knew - just knew - that they'd be paying for his words sooner rather than later.

"Would you can it!" she hollered, whacking him in the back of the head with the back of her hand. He flew forward in a grunt of surprise and angst, faceplanting rather comedically in the dirt with an "OOF!"

Sarada heard snickering from all around her, and gave a bit of a mischievous grin. Now that she had put her teammate back in his place, she had solidified their standing amongst the other genin present. They all knew now, whether they were aware of it or not, that Sarada had things under control, and that she could keep Boruto in check if need be.

Essentially, it was just a simple power ploy - one that was misfortunate for the blondie. No one ever said that Sarada couldn't channel her inner Uchiha as well. Hell, it was in her name.

Brushing aside the simple political maneuver, and the grumbles of pain and anger that she heard bubbling up from the confines of her teammate, she took the lead, charging forward towards the legendary "Forest of Death".