Without Kage Bunshin

Chapter 1: I Refuse to Fail

What he was about to do would require him to swallow his pride in the meager skills that he had scraped together over the years. The same skills that he had spent countless hours, days, and years honing, but it was never enough, he would still fail. Despite all the grueling efforts, he could not pass the Genin Exam. Uzumaki Naruto had already failed twice and his third attempt was drawing near, but should he fail a third time there would be no more second chances. If he failed he could never be a shinobi, much less the greatest Hokage of all.

Taking a breath to steel his nerves, the orange clad boy swallowed his pride and opened the door to the almost abandoned classroom to do the one thing he had sworn never to do.

"Iruka sensei…" Naruto began.

The tanned teacher twitched for he had not noticed that he was no longer alone. He scratched his face near the horizontal scar over the bridge of his nose sheepishly, knowing that as a shinobi he should be aware of his surroundings at all times even here in Konoha. He glanced at the door to see one of his favorite, if unruly students. Iruka put his pen down and turned to face his student, glad to have an excuse not to grade papers for a short while. He gestured for Naruto to sit, given the child's uncharacteristically timid posture; he was clearly here to ask for something.

Naruto took a seat in the offered chair. "Iruka sensei… I need help." The student just barely managed to avoid stuttering in the act of swallowing his pride.

"Help with what?" Iruka asked. "Your grades?" He guessed. He opened one of the drawers in his desk and started rummaging around for his grade book.

"Yes, I mean no, I mean… Wait, what? What about my grades? I'm here 'cuz I'm probably going to fail the Exam again!"

Iruka had found what he was looking for in the grade book and gave Naruto a wry grin. "You done?" Naruto halted himself mid-tirade and nodded confusedly. Iruka showed him the grade book and pointed at the bottom row, the row depicting the grades Naruto had accumulated over the course of the semester. There were an uncomfortable number of zeroes shown. Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but Iruka cut him off. "As you can see, you have quite a few zeroes. It speaks highly of your skill that there are no failing grades among the assignments that you actually completed, but that does not make up for skipping so many assignments."

Naruto fumbled for words in his frustration before eventually managing to spit something out. "B-but I thought all that I had to do to become a Genin was pass the Genin Exam!"

Iruka frowned. "No Naruto, you have to graduate from this academy, and the Genin Exam is our final exam. The first time you took the Exam, you failed because you legitimately were not ready yet. Last time you decided that you no longer needed to show up to class except for test days. You would've needed to ace the Exam to have even the slightest chance of passing. If you're going to pass this year, Naruto, you will need to show up for class every day for the rest of the semester, you will need to do all of your homework, and you will need to study hard for the final exams."

"Oh, I got an idea! Is there any way to make up the work I missed when I was skipping?"

The scarred sensei shook his head, "No, I can't let you make up work that you missed during an unexcused absence, you know that."

Naruto had his eyes squinted shut in deep thought. "So it's still possible to pass?"

Iruka took a few seconds to crunch the numbers in his head. "Yes, but you will need every point you can get your hands on. No matter what, you'll be cutting it close."

"Yeah, I think I can do that. I can't afford to fail again. No, I refuse to fail again! I'm going to be Hokage someday! I can do this!" Naruto was running around and jumping and waving his arms like a loony, His confidence in himself had returned.

Iruka had dug a packet of papers out from somewhere in the depths of his desk. "Naruto. Naruto! Pay attention!" He cleared his throat. "This here is the study guide for the Genin Exam. It has every possible question that could be asked in the written portion of the Exam. I hand these out to the class one month prior to the end of school and you have neglected to attend class that day three semesters in a row! Here."

Naruto took the packet into his hands and held it carefully, as if it were more valuable than gold and more important to life than the nectar of the gods. He gingerly began to flip through the pages.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? It's full of blanks! It's longer than the entire Exam was too." The orange clad child glared at his sensei whose amused expression clearly held malevolent laughter.

"Well, I can't just give you the answers." Naruto's glare increased in intensity one hundred fold. "Also, I did say that it had every question that could possibly be asked of you. There is a map of Fire Country to be filled out, and a map of the world. There is a fill in the blanks of the Shinobi Code of Conduct, Several theoretical scenarios that have to have proper mission reports made for them, and several hundred multiple choice general knowledge that civilian high school students would be expected to know. That is the study guide for the entire theoretical portion of the Genin Exam. There is also the practical portion, but you've always done well on that with the exception of Ninjutsu."

Naruto looked at the packet and made his decision. "It'll be hard and boring, but I'm gonna do it! I will do this paperwork, I will come to class and I will study hard! I will pass the Exam and I will become a Genin! And then I will have finally made the first step on the path to Hokage!"

Iruka snorted, "Don't get ahead of yourself now, you still need to pass." The teacher grinned and looked his student in the eye. "Talk is cheap, so get to work."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

For Naruto the rest of the semester flew by. There was barely enough time for him to complete the packet he had been working on, and he didn't even have a chance to polish his Ninjutsu, or make one last hurrah for his career as a prankster before he settled down and became a shinobi. Those who were regular victims of Naruto's creativity had become twitchy and paranoid over the last few weeks, convinced that he had set up the prank to end all pranks. At first, the sight of Naruto working diligently at school had stopped the productivity of his classmates, some of which merely stared at the odd sight, while others claimed that this had to be an imposter. As the days and weeks passed by, this too settled down as the Academy students got used to the sight of Naruto doing class work with minimal complaint.

This was the train of thought of Uzumaki Naruto as he waited his turn for the Practical Ninjutsu portion of the exam. He was confident in his ability to pass as he felt that the written portions of his exam had been passed, although probably not aced. As he was called to enter the testing room, Naruto suppressed a flicker a doubt before it entered his posture as he strode forwards although he did not have to as there were no longer any students remaining in the lecture hall. They had all already finished the exam and had returned with or without the forehead protector that denoted their newly acquired status as a shinobi of Konoha.

Naruto silently opened the door to the testing chamber, hoping to make a good first impression on the proctor. Upon entering the room, he took note of his surroundings, just as the texts said that he should. Across from him was an open window small enough that he would have been able to fit through a year ago. To his left there was a single wooden stool; to his right there was a large desk with two Chunin that he did not recognize seated behind. Both Chunin held a clipboard with a large stack of papers attached. Between them lay Naruto's objective; one of those half dozen headbands would be his.

The practical Ninjutsu portion of the Genin Exam consisted of adequate performance of three basic techniques, the Henge, Kawarimi, and Bunshin. The Henge is a simple illusion that allows the user to take the guise of another person. It is created by making a thin shell of chakra around yourself and molding it into the proper form. Naruto had spent years perfecting this technique as he immediately saw its many and varied applications in pranking. He had also gone on to modify the jutsu far beyond its original function, but that was neither here nor now. The proctors wanted to see a regular Henge, not his invaluable super Henge.

Naruto stood from the stool and casually made the requisite hand seals. In a plume of smoke he had transformed into one of the proctors, long, spiky, black hair and bandage across the bridge of his nose and all. He sat back down on the stool and attempted to match the Chunin's posture as best he could. Naruto did not make the mistake of speaking as he had yet to hear the voice of the man he had turned into and therefore could not mimic his speech patterns. Both proctors remained stone faced but marks were made on their clipboards.

The Kawarimi is an escape technique that allows its user to swap his or her body with a pre prepared object, typically a log of some sort. Once an object is marked, it is invisibly linked to its shinobi. Once needed, the shinobi will pull on the link and will switch places with the object. The sensation can be compared to the snapping of a bungee cord. Naruto is convinced that the Kawarimi is the wimpy way out of any sticky situation, but then again he has yet to be in a situation with more severe consequences than being publicly humiliated in front of the other students. The Genin-to-be does not like the technique, but he knows that one day it may be vital to his well being, and so he had dutifully practiced it over the years.

Again, the orange clad academy student stood from the stool. He made no hand seals and discretely tapped his heel against a leg of the stool. Naruto took several steps away from the stool and indicated that he was ready. The spiky haired proctor that Naruto had transformed into earlier stood up to the kid and attempted to make a grab. He was rewarded with a puff of smoke and a stool in hand. Naruto stood exactly where the stool once sat. The proctor nodded in approval and tossed the stool back to him. Once again, marks were made on the clipboards.

The Bunshin is supposed to be a simple technique, similar in execution to the Henge. A Bunshin is an incorporeal chakra construct in the image of its creator. It is created by producing a fine mist of chakra separate from the body and molding it into a thin film in your image Naruto knows that the Bunshin is supposed to be no more than a distraction, but he doesn't believe it would make a very good distraction since any halfway decent sensor would notice the flare of chakra. This opinion has nothing to do with his difficulties in performing the jutsu correctly, no siree.

Still standing from performing the Kawarimi, Naruto took a calming breath, and prayed to whatever deities were out there that we would perform a proper Bunshin this one time. He made the hand seals and announced the technique. In three plumes of smoke appeared three images of Naruto. They were the correct size and shape and had the correct features. They were pale skinned and pale clothed with blue lips. Naruto had conjured three clones that looked like they had been asphyxiated to death. Both proctors were clearly amused as they began to total up Naruto's score.

The boy in question was mortified. He had been so close, so close! He made three clones as required. They had only been off in color! He slumped onto the stool and began to sink into a depression. He was sure that he had failed and had ruined his last chance to become a shinobi of Konoha, his dream of Hokage forever beyond his grasp.

"Hey Uzumaki, get up and grab a headband, you're a shinobi now." Dazedly the newly minted Genin did as told. With forehead protector in hand he absently left the examination room.

He made it all the way to the hallway beyond the lecture hall before shouting in glee.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

So this is my first fanfic. The idea is that if Naruto passed the Genin exam on his own ability, and therefore does not get tricked into retrieving the forbidden scroll for Mizuki and not learning Kage Bunshin, how Naruto's story changes from there. However, rather than just passing out of dumb luck, here he has asked for help, and in return has obtained a study guide, which will cause other changes, such as some slight amount of rational intelligence occurring within Naruto every once in a while. I believe that learning Kage Bunshin so early in his career really stunted Naruto's growth as a ninja as all he had to do was throw a ton of clones at all of his problems, rather than coming up with something creative or skillful.

Please Read and Review

EbonyMoonBlade