Graduation [Part-2]

Although Boruto was no professional in the tracking department, his skills for a pre-genin were impressive.

Kakashi, treating the test as 'easy' naturally left many trails. The young Uzumaki picked most of the clues and was steadily making progress on his way to catch Kakashi.

'Hmm...?'

Boruto's eyes swiftly scanned the surroundings, his gaze then locked on to a specific spot in the ground.

Nearing, he grazed his hands across the plain grass, there were stems embedded in the ground, indicating someone had stepped on it lately.

His eyes again shifted, spotting a broken branch to his left.

"East"

Boruto softly muttered before advancing.

His eyes occasionally searched for clues, Boruto finally concluded Kakashi was making the test as easy as possible for them.

Suddenly, Boruto stood in his tracks.

His eyes narrowed. A thin white line, so thin that it blended in with nature was inches away from his forehead.

Carefully stepping back after making sure there were no more traps, Boruto threw a rock on the wire.

Swoosh!

A barrage of Kunai appeared out of nowhere and struck on random spots, Boruto knelt down and inspected the Kunais.

'As expected, these things were dipped in poison, it's more likely to put the victim to sleep'

He stored 5-6 Kunais in his scroll and kept it, who knows, maybe it'd come in handy?

Kakashi wanted them to experience what it would like to be at mercy of their enemy, that was mainly the reason he coated the Kunais with paralyzing poison.

And a small-time interrogation, adding the cherry on top.

The other teachers were instructed the same, every one of the kids were strictly demanded a small piece of torture.

From there, they'd be able to pluck out the rough in the diamonds.

The method may seem a bit overboard, but it was necessary to rule out the weak, there was no need for burdens on a battlefield just because of terms like 'friends' or anything similar.

They were training Shinobi, not a bunch of clowns with no proper aim and weird fetishes.

Thus, while Boruto managed to avoid some traps laid by Kakashi, the other students weren't lucky or skillful enough to notice them.

Especially the female ones, they were too soft and naive to even consider the fact that their teachers would set traps for them.

While a bunch of cautious ones like Iwabe managed to avoid one or two... but that was it, they also fell for the traps like any other.

Almost half of the pre-genin were captured in the first 2 hours of the exam, and a quarter of them broke after a small session of interrogation.

It was truly a pity seeing so many talented kids messing up their future just for some temporary happiness.

Alas, some things are just fated.

'This kid'

Kakashi was genuinely impressed by the lad's knowledge and skills applied to track him, he obviously wasn't even near Kakashi's level when he was his age, but it was impressive nonetheless.

Sigh.

'...If you were born back then'

Kakashi got shivers from just imagining the amount of potential the kid would've been able to draw out if he were in the warring era.

That momentary slip-up was all Boruto needed to sense his Chakra signature.

Kakashi, realizing he exposed himself by such a rookie mistake shook his head in embarrassment.

Boruto swiftly launched a barrage of Kunais toward a bush, which, before getting hit by the Kunai produced white smoke.

The Kunai went through the smoke, no target was hit.

Boruto's senses suddenly went up, he quickly quickstepped to his right. The ground under where he previously stood shook and a hand came out of it, grabbing thin air.

But...

The young Uzumaki, without even his senses alerting him, got hit on his back by a powerful kick, he flew from the impact and hit his abdomen on a boulder.

Gritting his teeth in pain, Boruto quickly activates thunderclap impulse to enhance his physical capabilities and senses.

The sudden increase of power allowed him to narrowly dodge a fireball Justu that was sent right on his head.

Boruto drew in heavy breaths as he dodged attacks that he could not even see, his enemy was too fast and made unpredictable moves every now and then.

Kakashi was not playing around, he wanted to see how the kid would respond to his every move, soon he got his evaluation of the kid.

'Let's see... His instincts are very sharp, and he also seems to have made a Justu to make use of that sense, that's a plus point. Aside from that, his Taijutsu skills are on par with a high-Chunnin, Hiashi's done his job I guess... Boruto also doesn't seem like the rash type, he makes minimal movement and seems to preserve energy for unexpected situations, plus point for that.... But... I really can't blame him for this but he is unable to precisely predict my future moves, he lacks experience so I guess there's his negative point... and he isn't utilizing his limb's flexibility too... Also an effect of not having experience. I don't know anything about his Ninjutsu, I haven't given him any chances to use it anyways... Aside from that, I think I'll give him a solid A'

Boruto was being beaten black and blue by Kakashi whilst being evaluated, and after minutes of getting completely demolished, Boruto was given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to activate his Doujutsu for a split-second, and as he did.

In that small instance, Boruto, defying all laws and physics, was able to catch a glimpse of a silver bell, grazing past his fingers.

Without any hesitation, the young Uzumaki grabbed the bell.

Ting.

Kakashi's eyes slightly widened, he, after just blitzing past Boruto, stopped in his tracks to glance back.

The blond was standing upright with blood flowing under his nose, stained red over his clothes and knuckles, and dripping on the ground.

His right hand, however, was clenched so tight it was shaking, and inside his palm was the bell Kakashi held onto.

'How in the...'

"So, I win... right?"

Boruto slightly glanced back with his bloody face, despite the visible pain, on his face was a confident smirk that seems to mock Kakashi.

"Ha...Haha"

The former sixth Hokage chuckled, the kid really did it, didn't he? Kakashi had already decided to allow Boruto to graduate after his evaluation, never in his wildest dreams did he think the kid would snatch the ball, he didn't want to.... but, this kid...

'How did he do that? I didn't even see his hands move... What is happening?'

For the first time in years, Kakashi truly had no idea what method the other party used.

"Yeah. You pass, Boruto Uzumaki"

Kakashi gave him one last glance before heading back, Boruto, however, stood there.

His left hand slowly reached to his chest, clenching his clothes. He frowned as he looked at his hands.

'Why? Why do I feel so uncomfortable... This feeling, this feeling of losing... I don't like it one bit'

It was a weird experience for Boruto, aside from getting beaten up, there was nothing he could do except dodge, dodge, and more dodging.

The gap between their strengths, experience, the bitter taste of defeat, it was simply too disgusting and disturbing to him.

"I really don't like losing"

For the first time in Boruto's life, he was truly dissatisfied with his strength.

'Now I know what I want other than to just simply destroy and kill... I want to never experience this feeling again, I want to completely erase this feeling from my dictionary'

And on that day, Boruto found his second goal in life, and also his first true defeat.

______

A/N: Stones Plz