(They will reach heights together that our generation could never attain.)

The next day.

Before dawn, Boruto, who had barely slept all night, crawled out of bed. He hurriedly got dressed in three shakes, and ran downstairs as fast as he could.

However, at the entrance he saw his father sitting there quietly putting on his shoes.

The sun hadn't risen yet. In the gray morning light, Boruto watched his father's bent over back, and somehow felt a little heartache.

—Dad...you have to go to work this early? It's still more than two hours before my usual wake up time.

[I simply can't believe you are actually the son of the Seventh Hokage-sama.]

Boruto suddenly lowered his head again, his fists unconsciously clenching tight again.

"Boruto?" Suddenly, his back facing him, his father called out lightly, startling him, "...Uh?"

Naruto turned his head and looked at his fully armed son, confused.

"I... I couldn't sleep, going out for a walk!" Flustered, Boruto lowered his voice to explain, then grabbing his shoes, rushed out.

Going out for a walk... bringing shuriken and kunai?

Naruto watched his son run towards the training grounds, facing the morning light, and smiled.

So dishonest.

At this moment, Boruto was running on the still deserted streets, wondering why he had run, and came up with such a lame excuse.

However, now, he seemed to understand a little better Chitose’s words from yesterday...

Dad works so hard every day, yet I sleep in every day...

Shaking his head, Boruto ran ahead with confidence.

Starting today, I will work hard to become stronger. One day, I will defeat Uchiha Chitose and make sure he never looks down on me again!!

With a smile on his face, Boruto seemed to have already seen that beautiful future he imagined. Suddenly, he heard a faint sound and immediately stopped warily. Only then did he realize that he had unknowingly arrived at the training ground closest to the school.

—To say the closest... it was already at the outermost edge of the village.

He listened carefully. After a while, the sound of weapons continuously hitting targets came from Training Ground 3 nearby. Curious, Boruto wanted to see who would come here to practice even earlier than him. He tiptoed into the training ground and followed the sound.

Training Ground 3 was a rather old training ground in Konoha Village with many towering ancient trees growing here and fields set up for throwing practice. Without making a sound, Boruto got closer to the throwing range. Concealed by the thick tree trunks and bushes, he was not exposed, but for now he still couldn't see the person training early in the morning.

Finally, he came to the last tree, squatted down, peered over the tree trunk and carefully looked towards the field.

There was a huge rock there, with targets spread all over the ground around it and on the trees. A person wearing a black tight ninja uniform, weapon pouches tied to his thighs, anklets, and bandages wrapped around his forearms, wearing ordinary ninja shoes, was standing quietly in front of a rock twice his height.

Boruto held his breath.

—It's Uchiha Chitose.

Chitose had his back to Boruto, the Uchiha clan crest on his back extremely conspicuous.

—What's he trying to do?

Boruto wondered, and continued watching him.

Suddenly, Chitose moved.

He forcefully exerted strength, leaped high into the air, did a backwards somersault in midair, kunai held between his fingers, three in his left hand and four in his right. As his body started falling, he flipped over with his head facing downwards, both hands crossed in front of his chest.

After he had flipped over, Boruto saw his front. He had jumped very high, couldn’t see his face clearly, only felt a flash of red light.

Then, he spun in the air, his arms swiftly and neatly swinging out, sending the four kunai in his right hand towards four different directions at different heights and angles in quick succession. Whooshing sounds were heard, then Boruto saw Chitose immediately pass two of the kunai from his left hand to his right hand, then both hands swung from bottom to top towards both sides at the same time, sending the three kunai whistling towards three different directions from the lowered height during his descent, utilizing his falling momentum for an even faster speed than before, colliding with the previous three.

"Ding!"

"Ding!"

"Ding!"

Three clear metallic collision sounds were heard, tiny sparks appearing in the air. Of the first four thrown out, other than one that continued flying on its set trajectory, the other three collided with the later three, the six changing direction and flying towards different directions.

The sound of kunai hitting targets followed in quick succession. Chitose had already descended to three meters above the rock. He flipped over again, steadily landing on one knee on top of the rock.

All seven kunai, bullseye on target.

The whole process sounded long, but actually from when Chitose jumped to landing, it only took eight seconds.

Boruto was dumbstruck.

The continuous movements were completely natural and smooth, very swift yet powerful, clean and efficient, full of force and skill's aesthetic sense.

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As Chitose stood up, Boruto’s vision was also unconsciously focused on him. When he saw Chitose’s eyes, Boruto suddenly opened his eyes wide in shock.

Those originally pitch black pupils had turned blood red. Three black tomoe were slowly spinning in his eyes as Boruto stared, the spinning slowed down, eventually stopping, then the red and tomoe faded away, the pupils reverting to pitch black once more.

Boruto didn't know what had gotten into him that he just stared at Chitose like that, watched as he started throwing again with those no-longer blood red but originally pitch black eyes.

No longer was every throw a bullseye, at least half missed, and they no longer landed on the rock but fell onto the ground.

But Boruto had no urge to laugh at all. He just looked at him, standing up again and again, trying again and again.

Jumping up and falling down, up and down, over and over, endlessly repeating, as if it would never stop. More and more small cuts and bumps appeared on his face and hands. There was no telling how battered his body was under his clothes. Covered all over in dust, streams of muddy water flowed down his face from sweat washing away the gray-black mud. Mixed sweat and mud flowed over the wounds on his face, certainly extremely painful, yet Chitose seemed to not have noticed at all, letting the swollen, red and dirty wounds be as he didn't pause for even a moment to check.

So disheveled, if it were Boruto himself, he would have long given up. He was actually very confused in his heart, but also roughly guessed that Chitose’s initial success had something to do with those red eyes of his. Seeing the glaring discrepancy between his movements before and after, Boruto couldn’t help wondering - could he really succeed at that highly difficult maneuver again?

But Chitose tirelessly tried again and again, immediately getting up after falling down, picking up the thrown kunai time and time again. Sometimes he would stop and look up, recalling the sensation and deducing the timing and angles of throwing the kunai during his descent.

As if he had never considered failing. That kind of trying again and again seemed to clearly tell Boruto - Uchiha Chitose had never doubted that he could do this.

His face never revealed even a shred of discouraged or disappointed emotion.

Gradually, his aim improved. He no longer pathetically fell to the ground every time, but landed closer and closer to the center of the rock, standing more and more steadily each time.

The wounds continued to increase. Several red swollen bruises had appeared on his face, some had even turned purplish-black. His hands that braced his falls so as not to knock his head, adding more and more scrapes and bruises each time. But he continued holding the kunai to practice, as if the rough sword handles scraping his palms and fingers to the point of injury weren’t part of his own body. The cloth over his right elbow had already worn through, revealing the fair elbow underneath, later turning purplish-black.

But the only thing that didn't change was Chitose's eyes.

Remaining as bright as the beginning, without the slightest ripple or wavering from failure and injury - those stunningly beautiful eyes shining with a persistence and confidence that Boruto had never seen before.

Time slowly ticked by, Boruto didn't know how long he had watched, only knowing that Chitose's mistakes grew fewer and fewer, while his injuries increased. Until zero mistakes.

When he hit every target with movements identical to that first time, Chitose stood atop the great rock, deeply inhaling then slowly exhaling.

The corners of his lips raised in a breathtakingly brilliant smile that Boruto had never before seen on Chitose's face.

Chitose left, yet Boruto still crouched there maintaining his posture from before.

—He had actually succeeded...

In his mind, Chitose's smile replayed over and over. Although the boy was extremely disheveled, his entire face and body covered in mud and mottled bruises of purple, black and red, even the corner of his mouth bruised purple.

Yet Boruto simply felt that the Chitose like that, his whole body emitted a radiance Boruto had never seen before, seemingly glowing, to the point he couldn't tear his eyes away for even a moment.

Only one thought filled his mind.

Uchiha Chitose, was simply, incredibly, handsome.

***

Boruto had been rather distracted the whole morning.

He had originally felt very satisfied about getting up early to practice, even somewhat admired himself. But reality had suddenly slapped him hard.

The opponent he had sworn to surpass, Uchiha Chitose, had gotten up even earlier than him and desperately trained himself a hundred times harder.

After Chitose left, Boruto tried the maneuver he had just done. Having watched for so long, he naturally had every move firmly memorized.

But couldn't do it at all. Just the jump height, Boruto felt his own was nowhere near Chitose's. When it came time to throw the kunai, there was no way he could send out four with one hand like Chitose, let alone to four different directions. Subsequently, switching kunai between both hands, his movements were also extremely clumsy. In the end, not only did the kunai not collide as planned, too focused on throwing the kunai he almost smashed face down hard onto the ground.

Luckily his body was rather thickset, nothing serious. But his palms and face that braced his fall got scraped, the wounds burning hot.

Other than that one kunai thrown without collision that landed relatively near a target, the other six went tens of thousands of miles off target.

—Total failure.

Boruto stood blankly in front of the rock for some time, then stubbornly tried again. But not once succeeded. As far as he was concerned there was no progress at all. His elbow knocked into the rock mid-air, badly bruising a large area. Boruto hugged his arm in pain, teeth gnashing, yet before his eyes he couldn't help remembering vividly every move Chitose had made.

The injuries on his body, so much more severe than his own. In his life up till now, Boruto had never experienced such a deep feeling of his own insignificance and powerlessness, clumsiness and childishness, even... fragility and weakness.

What...defeating Uchiha Chitose and such.

Dejected, he stood up and stepped towards the exit, cradling his arm.

"Giving up already?" In the silent training ground, a familiar voice suddenly sounded.

Shocked, Boruto immediately spun around. Flustered, he hastened to explain to his father of unknown origin, "I, I, I'm not—! Speaking of which Dad why are you here?"

Naruto did not reply. His deep blue eyes were severe, looking at his son before him.

He had failed a few times, was quite dirty, but compared to the almost pathetically disheveled and seriously battered Uchiha Chitose who had left not long ago, he didn't know how much better off.

Naruto deeply sighed.

Boruto's heart instantly tightened.

"I thought you would get some stimulation and even learnings from Chitose. Come what may, you should have picked up something." He walked closer. Looking at his son who had already lowered his head, his tone rather grim, "Boruto, Chitose can do that maneuver but you can't. Ask yourself, have you put in the same kind of effort as Chitose?"

Boruto's breathing abruptly stalled. Apparently remembering those injuries on Chitose's body far more severe than his.

"Boruto, you have to understand, the existence of powerful opponents isn't terrifying. He pressures you, but at the same time also becomes your motivation to grow. Didn't you want Chitose to acknowledge you? Simply as Uzumaki Boruto?" Bending down, Naruto looked straight into his son's eyes, full of sincerity.

Boruto's eyes lit up, but soon darkened as he averted his gaze.

He was too weak. Never before had he felt so deeply that he was too weak, inferior to Uchiha Chitose in both talent and hard work. But...he didn't want to give up.

Boruto's competitive nature compelled him to not want to give up like this. Remembering Chitose's barely emotionally interested gaze, he gritted his teeth once more. Didn't want to give up... no matter what didn't want to just give up. Didn't want to be looked at by him like that again, didn't want—

—didn’t want to be thought of as weak by this person... the first person who thought him inadequate! He didn't care about anyone else, but absolutely not Uchiha Chitose!!

No matter the cost, he would show him that he, Uzumaki Boruto, was no weakling!!

Seeing his son's gaze firm with resolve, even firmer than the unwillingness from yesterday, Naruto knew that he had succeeded. In a man's life, it was such a fortuitous thing to have a destined rival, but also the best of confidantes who understood you most of all. They would come to mutually motivate one another, together reaching heights that their older generation could not attain.

He anticipated it fervently.

Finally patting his son on the shoulder, he turned to leave.

"Success never comes easily, Boruto. Without matching Chitose’s efforts... No, without surpassing him by several fold, even dozens of fold, hundreds of fold, you can never catch up to him. He will also never turn back to look at you lagging behind."

"Do your utmost to chase him, Boruto." His words full of motivation and expectations continued echoing by Boruto's ears long after the golden-haired Hokage vanished in a flash.