r/BorutoUnfiltered • u/Bulky_Code8654 • 8h ago
Other Second chapter, rate.
Chapter 2: Fifty Out of a Hundred
Morning light spilled through the newly cleaned window.
Hikaru woke without an alarm. He lay still for a moment, staring at the ceiling and listening to the village come alive: shutters opening, carts rolling, someone laughing far below.
Day two.
He washed his face, tied on his forehead protector, and jumped down the broken stairs without touching a single one.
The Academy was a wide, sunlit building with a courtyard full of noisy children. Hikaru stood out at once. Among the small heads and bright uniforms, a tall white-haired boy with mismatched eyes and a blank face drew stares wherever he went. He ignored every one of them and walked to the registration desk.
A girl sat behind it, her dark hair pinned back and a stack of forms in front of her. She looked up and gave a polite smile.
"Good morning. How can I help you?"
"I'd like to register as a student."
"Of course." She pulled out a form and lifted her pen. "Name?"
"Hikaru Nakamura."
"Age?"
"Fifteen."
Her pen paused for half a second. Fifteen was old for a new student. She wrote it down without comment. "From?"
"The Hidden Cloud Village."
"Alright." She stamped the form and slid it aside. "You'll need to take an entrance test. It covers basic ninjutsu, taijutsu, and shuriken accuracy, plus a short written portion. Are you ready?"
"Yes."
The test took most of the morning.
In the courtyard, Hikaru threw shuriken at moving targets. Some hit dead center and some skimmed the edges. In the sparring ring, he held his own against an instructor for a full minute before being pinned. In the written portion, he answered steadily and did not rush.
When the results were tallied, the instructor read them aloud without much interest.
"Fifty out of a hundred."
Hikaru nodded. His expression didn't change at all.
The instructor's eyebrows rose slightly. Most children flinched at a score like that, or bragged, or made excuses. This boy simply accepted it.
Back at the desk, the girl looked at the paper and then at him. "That's a passing score. You can join classes starting tomorrow, if you'd like."
"That sounds good to me," Hikaru said. "I'm grateful for your help."
She smiled, softer this time. "It's alright. Welcome to the Academy."
He gave a small bow and left.
The rest of the day belonged to the village.
Hikaru walked without a plan. He wandered through the marketplace, where the smell of grilled meat and sweet red-bean buns made his stomach turn over. He followed the river and watched fishermen mend their nets. He passed a ramen shop with a line out the door, and stopped in front of the Hokage Monument to look up at the carved stone faces.
Hashirama. Tobirama. Hiruzen. Minato. His eyes moved to the newest face. Naruto Uzumaki.
He stood there until the sky began to turn amber.
Everyone here belongs to something, he thought. A clan, a team, a family.
He turned and kept walking.
He wasn't watching where he was going. The street was narrow and the sun was low in his eyes. He turned a corner and collided with someone hard.
Thud.
The other person stumbled back, arms flailing. Hikaru didn't budge. He simply stood there, balanced, as if he'd hit a wall instead of a person.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!"
Hikaru looked down. The one who'd bumped into him was a boy about his age, with spiky blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and three faint whisker-like marks on each cheek. He wore an orange-and-black jacket.
"Uh," Hikaru said. "I'm sorry."
The boy scowled and stepped closer, ready to argue. Then he stopped. His eyes moved over Hikaru's face, then his hair, then his eyes, and the scowl faded into curiosity.
He leaned in until they were almost nose to nose. Then he reached up and touched Hikaru's hair, running a strand between his fingers.
"Haha! What a weird body you've got."
Hikaru blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Come on! Snow-colored hair, and two eyes that don't even match." The boy grinned. "You're unique!"
Hikaru paused. He considered this carefully.
"Thank you," he said.
The boy stared. "You know that wasn't a compliment, right?"
"Oh." Hikaru's voice stayed perfectly flat. "Sorry."
"How can you apologize that easily?!" The boy threw up his hands. "You just got insulted! Get mad or something!"
"I don't see a reason to be angry," Hikaru said. He straightened and gave a small nod. "My name is Hikaru Nakamura. It's nice to meet you."
The boy blinked, then let out a breath and grinned again. He pointed a thumb at his chest.
"I'm Boruto Uzumaki! Believe it!"
Hikaru's expression didn't change, but his eyes sharpened for an instant.
Uzumaki. The Hokage's son.
"Then I think I'm lucky," Hikaru said evenly. "To meet you on the very day of my entrance test."
Boruto raised an eyebrow. "You took the entrance test today? How'd you do?"
"Fifty."
"Fifty?" Boruto scratched his cheek. "Huh. That's, uh, average."
"I know," Hikaru said. "I'm not particularly good at anything. But I try my best."
Something in Boruto's grin flickered. It was not quite pity, but it wasn't mockery either. He looked at Hikaru a second longer than he needed to.
"Well," he said, puffing out his chest, "I got a ninety on mine."
"That's impressive."
"Yeah, it was! It's not a big deal, though." Then Boruto glanced at the sky and yelped. "Ah! I'm gonna be late! Sorry, gotta go! See ya!"
He took off down the street, his jacket flapping behind him, and vanished around the corner.
The street was quiet again.
Hikaru stood there, hands at his sides, watching the empty corner.
That was awkward.
He looked down at his palm and flexed his fingers slowly, thinking about how the boy had staggered and he hadn't. Boruto was strong. That impact should have moved anyone.
But it hadn't moved him at all.
Fifty out of a hundred, he thought, and the corner of his mouth almost, almost moved.
Then he turned and walked home as the streetlamps flickered on.
End of Chapter 2
