Naruto sat sullenly at his desk in the academy, he wore standard shinobi style trousers and fish-net shirt, his forehead was taken up by a pair of goggles, so his brand new fore-head protector was relegated to hanging from his neck; it was graduation day (sort of) they'd done there tests last week, today was team announcements. It didn't matter, he thought, the nobodies would be put with the nobodies and the people that mattered would be put with the people that mattered. There were only nine spots open for a jonin sensei and there were eight 'important' people in the class this year. Sure he was overall top of the class, but only the most naïve would think that actually mattered. He, Naruto (No last name), was a nobody and he would be put with the other nobodies. He didn't have a chance.
As Iruka listed the team placements his suspicions were being confirmed. The clan-kids, no matter what their class score were all being put together. He sighed.
"Team 7" said Iruka. "Sasuke Uchiha, Fu Saratobi, Naruto"
Naruto looked up blinking, had he heard that right? He looked around, Sasuke was eyeing him speculatively. He quickly looked away from the Uchiha's unnerving gaze. He didn't have the sharingan yet, he told himself. He looked up at Fu, she was grinning, and the insect wings that had grown out of her back were buzzing furiously. He was pretty sure that meant she was happy. She caught his eye and gave him a thumbs up, he smiled weakly back at her before turning away. He'd been put on the same team as the Ward of the Hokage and the Uchiha clan heir. Maybe he had a chance after all.
Iruka had told every-one to wait for their jonin-sensei (In Naruto's opinion pretending like everyone was going to get a jonin-sensei was just mean). Several hours later, after everyone else had left with a jonin, they were still waiting. Fu was agitated, you could tell by the way she wouldn't stop pacing or cursing the unknown jonin. "This is ridicules, what the hell kind of jounin is this late? We've got the world's crappiest jonin. That's the only explanation."
"Err…actually." Began Naruto. Fu turned to glare at him. Naruto gulped but continued anyway "Well…you're the Hokages ward and Sasuke's the Uchiha clan heir."
Fu looked at him angrily "So?"
"Well, if he's confident enough to snub you two by being several hours late…it would indicate that he's very confident in his position, that there probably wouldn't be any reprisal…and for that to be true he would have to be a good jonin, one of the villages best probably." He didn't tell her that he had the benefit of hind-sight, he'd managed to get his hands on the list of jonin that were taking academy students this year. Only one of them had a record for being this late and he was the only-one who hadn't turned up.
Fu's expression changed as he finished his explanation, she sat back down looking thoughtful. She scrunched her face up and closed her eyes, which usually meant she was thinking really hard. Naruto thought she looked adorable. After a few seconds she opened her eyes and looked at him. "Or he's just really arrogant" she said.
"Or" said a voice that had come out of nowhere "He's both". Naruto looked up. There was a man standing on the ceiling, upside down, in full ninja garb, his mostly mask covered face was inches from his own. Naruto managed to stifle his yelp, but he did not manage to keep himself from falling from his chair. Fu stared for a second.
"HOW THE HELL LONG WERE YOU THERE ASSHOLE!?"
Naruto groaned and covered his ears, she had quite a pair of lungs on her he'd give her that. The Jonin, apparently completely unperturbed by Fu's outburst, lazily flipped down so he was standing on the floor. "Yo, I'm Kakashi" he said without a hint of enthusiasm or interest in his voice what so ever, he was holding a small orange book which he had not taken his eyes off of so far for the entire encounter. "Meet me at training ground three at 7 am tomorrow." There was an awkward silence as the three genin expected Kakashi to continue. "That is all" Kakashi turned to leave.
"Hey!" Fu shouted. "You're supposed to do introductions and…stuff" Kakashi turned back and stared at her for a few seconds.
"It won't matter" he said. "None of you will pass anyway" The three of them sat there silent for a second, even Sasuke widened his eyes for a fraction of a second and Fu looked like she was about to blow a gasket. 'They can't know' thought Naruto. He'd assumed the Hokage would tell Fu, and that the Uchiha Clan head would tell Sasuke. Apparently he was wrong.
"What are you talking about!? We already passed!" said Fu. Kakashi sighed.
"The Academy exam is the absolute minimum. Only thirty-three percent of the graduates will get a Jonin instructor, the rest of you…"
'…don't matter' thought Naruto.
"…the rest of you will get standardized military training. Tomorrows test is to see which one you'll get."
Fu stood up and pointed at the Jonin. "Fine, I'll ace your stupid test!" Kakashi didn't bother replying. He disappeared in a puff of smoke and leaves.
"Stupid shunshin" she mumbled. "I can do that too." Sasuke got up and left. Fu shunshined away. Naruto left to, he could have shunshined, but unlike Fu he couldn't afford to waste his chakra when it wasn't needed.
Naruto arrived at three AM the next morning. If he wanted to stand a chance next to Fu and Sasuke then he needed prep time. Fortunately he wasn't going into this blind, when you used the same test over and over again word gets around, when he'd looked at the list of jonin candidates he'd asked former academy graduates what test the jonin's used, it had taken some cajoling and he hadn't been able to get information on every jonin's test, but Kakashi's had been easy, his previous 'students' were down right eager to give-away the tests secret: teamwork. Apparently Kakashi hadn't been soft on them when he told them they failed.
With four hours until the meeting time he got the lay of the land making sure he was familiar with the environment and set up a few traps, standard pitfalls, he doubted they would fool anyone, but they didn't cost him any chakra so why not? He waited until the very last minute he could to set-up Kawarami's. The Kawarami no jutsu was one of the basics taught in the academy, you had to cover an object -the closer to your own size the better- with a coat of your chakra, you could then, as long as you maintained the coat, switch with it by recalling your chakra. However maintaining the coat cost chakra, he could probably maintain about five or six kawarami's for two hours without trouble, he could probably maintain them for four hours at a stretch, assuming he'd still need enough chakra to fight afterword's. It was six O'clock now so he hopefully wouldn't need it for that long. He picked out the best spots and began preparing them, he smiled and brought out his secret weapon: flash tags, genin weren't supposed to know how to add explosive-type tags to their kawarami, but with a little trial and error (and sore eyes - even with the goggles he'd used) he'd managed to figure it out. It hadn't been difficult, normally to activate an explosive tag you run chakra though it, which started the chain reaction that would make the tag explode, however the chain reaction only worked after the chakra had left. On the kawarami log instead of running chakra through it you merely had to stick it to the log with the coat of chakra, when you switched, the chakra would return to you and the chain reaction would start. He made sure to add flash-tags to all of the kawaramis. Confident that he couldn't do anything more to prepare, he got in a change of clothes and cleaned up his face, he didn't want anyone to realize he'd been up since the early hours of the morning running around the training ground. After he'd finished cleaning himself up he went back to the clearing and sat-down waiting, just in time had arrived, he was walking warily to the clearing. Naruto smiled at him. Sasuke ignored him and sat-down. No niceties then. He was fine with that.
Later, Fu arrived. She was half-an hour late. Which was fine, because Kakashi hadn't arrived yet either. That was ok, he was sure Kakashi wouldn't be that late. Not late enough to interfere with his carefully prepared kawaramis. No of course not.
An hour passed. Fu was pacing, "Hey!" she yelled at the empty forest. "You'd better not just be out there watching us again." Sasuke hadn't moved an inch since he'd first sat down. Naruto was getting nervous. It was fine, he thought. He could still hold the kawaramis without significantly impacting his chakra reserves for a good half-hour. It would be fine.
Another Hour had passed. "Arrghhh! Screw you Kakashi!" Yelled Fu. Sasuke was still sitting quietly, although it looked a little more forced than usual. Naruto had become very nervous. He hoped the others didn't notice the beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.
Yet another hour passed. Fu had resorted to wildly punching and kicking the air around her in case Kakashi was invisible somewhere again. Sasuke was now visibly annoyed, either by Kakashi's lateness or Fu's antics. Naruto didn't notice any of this, because all of his attention was on maintaining his prepared kawaramis. At this point Kakashi shunshined in front of them. "Yo" He said. Naruto and Fu both looked at him with what could only be described as burning rage. Sasuke looked at him with what could only be described as mild annoyance. "Alright I'll explain the test…" Kakashi said while completely ignoring the auras of murderous intent coming from two of his students. It was fine thought Naruto who was getting more exhausted by the second, he just had to persuade the other two to work with him and Kakashi would end the test. He probably wouldn't even have to fight anyone. "It's really simple" said Kakashi "Three way fight, the winner gets me as their personal instructor." Naruto froze, this…was not the test he had prepared for. Kakashi looked directly at him with a sadistic eye-smile. "Start" He said. Sasuke shot off into the bushes, Fu and Naruto remained standing where they were, Fu out of defiance for Kakashi and Naruto because he was exhausted and still shocked. Kakashi shunshined away. Fu turned to Naruto and smiled.
"Don't worry Naruto-kun." She said while getting into a fighting stance. "I'll kick your ass, I'll kick Sasuke's ass and I'll speak to my jiji and make sure you two get put on my team anyway." Anyone who didn't know her would think she was being sarcastic, but Naruto did know her and new she was being naively sincere.
"I appreciate that Fu but you realize I can't take it easy on you, right?"
"I wouldn't want you to." She said grinning.
"Umm…maybe we should team up on Sasuke first."
"No way!" she said "Ganging up on people is mean Naruto-kun"
"You realize he's planning to wait for us to fight so he can take out the winner while there tired."
"Well then there's a big flaw in his plan because I don't get tired!" At that she made a handseal and breathed out a fine, glittering gold dust, which exploded in a bright flash of light. Fortunately Naruto was used to dealing with bright flashes of light and had pulled his goggles over his eyes just in time. Fu went in to attack him with her Bo staff she had had strapped to her back, Naruto, not as dazed as he otherwise would have been, avoided her blow and hooked some steel wire around the end of the Bo staff, Fu used chakra to enhance her strength and tried to swing the staff, with Naruto now attached to the end of it, into the nearest tree, Naruto twisted his body to avoid the tree and kicked down on to the other end of the staff, forcing Fu to drop it, Naruto twisted again and landed perfectly next to the staff, Fu formed another handseal and the carvings on the staff glowed, a swarm of insects began coming out of either end, Naruto jumped towards Fu, her taijutsu was sloppy at best, engaging her in a hand to hand fight was his best chance to win, he went in for a right hook trying to take her down quickly before the insects swarmed him, she blocked and went in for a jab at his stomach, he grabbed her wrist before it could connect and put his other arm under her shoulder while tripping her with his leg, he used the leverage from the position to swing her to the ground, Fu struggled but she didn't have the physical strength to do anything from the position, Naruto slammed his knee down on her jaw, it would have knocked any other genin unconscious, but Fu had always been tough, she was merely dazed, by that time the swarm had caught up with him and he was forced to jump away to avoid the insects, Fu got up rubbing her jaw, and looked at Naruto, who had entered a defensive stance, "Nice hit" she said before picking up her staff and growing wings from her back. "But it's over now." She flew upwards into the sky, the insects began swarming to Naruto again, they weren't apart of her like an Aburame's were so she couldn't order them around as easily, she held her staff like a lance and flew at high speed towards him, he tried to avoid the insects but they managed to swarm him, Fu went to fly into him staff first while he was stunned…and flew straight through the swarm of insects without hitting anything. She stopped mid-air "What the h-"Naruto jumped out of a nearby tree and punched her straight in the jaw, the same part that he had kneed earlier. She fell, this time she did fall unconscious. He'd created a bunshin and sunshined into a tree while she was still dazed. Naruto sighed, he was exhausted, and thanks to the flash-tags he couldn't release any of his prepared kawarami without tipping Sasuke off that he had pre-prepared. If he had a chance he needed Sasuke to underesti- Sasuke dived out of the bushes going for Naruto's jaw with a flying kick, fortunately Naruto had good reflexes and dived to avoid Sasuke at the last second. Sasuke landed perfectly balanced and went forward fast using his advanced Uchiha style, Naruto defended as best he could, but Sasuke had been given more advanced taijutsu training by his clan (as well as a proper dojo to train in), the fact was that Sasuke's taijutsu was better than his own and they both knew it, Naruto ran deeper into the forest with Sasuke close on his heels, Sasuke began throwing Kunai aimed at his legs, Naruto dodged and weaved through the trees, avoiding the kunai.
"Do you really need to drag this out?" said Sasuke. "You can't win by running away."
Naruto stopped and turned to face Sasuke, his muscles were quivering and his chakra reserves were very low. He only had a couple of good moves left in him. Fortunately, that was all he needed. Sasuke smirked and closed in on him, he went to land a cross punch on Naruto's jaw, it appeared to hit…before the bunshin collapsed to reveal a log, Sasuke's eyes widened, the log exploded in a blinding flash of light, the real Naruto appeared behind the temporarily stunned Sasuke and delivered a crushing axe kick to the top of his head. Sasuke fell unconscious. He'd manoeuvred Sasuke close to one of his prepared kawarami so that he could move in for an attack as soon as Sasuke was stunned. It'd worked like a charm. He heard a slow clap coming from behind him. It was Kakashi. He glowered.
"So what happened to the freaking bell test?" said Naruto.
Kakashi shrugged. He was still reading that little orange book. "I heard about a little genin asking around about a few jonin, including me." He paused to turn a page. "Wasn't difficult to figure out what you were trying to do." He gave him that irritating eye-smile again. "Cute effort though." Naruto frowned.
"So what happens now? There's no way you're going to fail those two"
Kakashi put his hand over his heart. "My feelings are hurt, why would you assume I wasn't being honest?" He said, his tone mocking. Naruto glared at him.
"Stop playing with me, did I pass or not?" He said hotly. Kakashi leaned forward a little, looking at Naruto directly in the eyes.
"You just won what was essentially a two on one battle, tell me why you think I wouldn't pass you." He said, his tone had become serious for the first time since Naruto had met him. He looked down to the floor and clenched his fists.
"You said it yourself, only a third of the class passes. Exactly a third, every Year. And yet every year every team gets a jonin who gives them a test. Supposedly the jonin will pass or fail them based on this test." He paused. "But that can't be true, or else there wouldn't be exactly nine people passing every year, would there?" Kakashi didn't speak or move from his position. "Back during the rain of the second Hokage the academy worked differently, there was no second test, instead it was simply the students with the top nine highest scores got a jonin instructor. It seemed fair, except back then clan techniques factored into the scoring for the exam, it meant that clan kids had a huge advantage over everyone else. Enough civilians complained that they had to change it, the academy only scored you based on what you were taught at the academy and nothing else. The clans didn't like that, so at the same time they made another change, instead of the top nine scorers being automatically given jonin instructors, every team would take a test and it would be up to the individual jonin to decide whether they pass or fail. This isn't actually what happens though, in reality the jonins decide who's going to pass and who's going to fail before the tests have begun. It's the clan kids who always pass, no matter what their placement in class is. Shikamaru got the lowest overall score in class, he's also the son of the jonin commander. He's guaranteed a pass. I got the highest overall score in class and the only reason I might get a pass is because there happens to be eight clans kids this year, leaving a single spot open for someone else." Naruto finished. Kakashi leaned back a little looking upwards.
"It's depressing how many people don't realize that." said Kakashi. "We're told that if we work hard and follow the will of fire we'll grow powerful, but in reality 'hard work' is only a part of it." Kakashi looked at Naruto as if trying to decide something. " If you don't have a kekkai genkai, or secret clan techniques...it's difficult to become powerful...but that's not all, even normal techniques aren't taught freely, genin like you are only officially allowed to be taught up to D-ranks."Kakashi said, before disappearing and appearing again right behind Naruto. It hadn't been shunshin, Naruto realized, just raw speed. "If you want to get as fast as this..." He pulled up a sleeve to reveal a chakra weight "You need these...and the village doesn't hand them out to just any-one...Clan ninja, have an easier time being promoted thanks to their special techniques, which means they also have an easier time getting there hands on all the higher ranked normal techniques."
"Accumulative advantage." said Naruto.
"Exactly." Kakashi replied.
"So I'll never be able to compete with the clan kids?" said Naruto.
Kakashi gave him an odd look. "Never?" he said, he looked pointedly at the unconscious form of Sasuke. "You already can."
Naruto grimaced a little. "I only beat Sasuke because of the flash tags."
Kakashi smiled, an actual smile this time. "Genin aren't allowed to be sold flash tags." He said, his question implicit.
"I stole them." Naruto said, averting his eyes for a second.
"And you beat him" said Kakashi. "If you want to be able to compete with clan kids your going to have to work hard, that's a given, but your also going to have to play dirty; for example, eavesdropping on jonin instructors teaching their genin."
Naruto gulped a little. So he knew about that to.
"...or." Kakashi began lifting up his forehead protector "stealing your Uchiha team-mates eye." He finished lifting it up, a full blown sharingan was staring down at Naruto.
"Y-you can't possibly be suggesting..."
Kakashi, still smiling, pulled his fore-head protector back over his sharingan. "You pass Naruto, wake your team-mates up and tell them to meet here at seven AM tomorrow." And with that he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Naruto just stood there for a while. He must have been exaggerating to prove a point , thought Naruto. There was no way way he meant to literally tear out Sasukes eye's to get ahead. Or that he had done that with his own team-mate. Hopefully. But the point was clear, all of the not-quite legal things he had had to do were necessary to get ahead. He had to just keep doing what he had always done.