CHAPTER TWO
Uzumaki Naruto knew that today was his lucky day. Even though he had tried to pass the test for the past few years, he had a good feeling about this time. Today was the day he would pass the genin test a year early.
At the end of every school year, the top children in the class were given the choice to attempt the genin exam. Although Naruto himself was not one of those top pupils, his teacher, Umino Iruka, let him have a go, simply to show him that he was not yet ready.
But today, Naruto would show everyone how powerful he was.
After a quick shower, he put on his usual orange outfit and headed to Ichiraku's for a celebration breakfast.
Ten minutes later, as he was eating his fifth bowl of miso ramen, he began to think about the upcoming test. He had been refining his skills over the past few weeks, and he only hoped they would be enough to get him through.
Every year the exam was the same, a short test in four areas of shinobi arts: ninjutsu, taijutsu, kunai and shuriken arts, and strategy. Luckily for Naruto, even though the test was harder, the participating academy students only had to pass three out of the four areas.
The taijutsu test was simple, and he had passed it twice before. All he had to do was lay ten hits on the examiner. Although it sounded rather easy, the examiner was a chuunin, and therefore had more experience than the potential genin.
Naruto however had no trouble with this test and he wasn't worried about it in the least. The second test, the shuriken test was slightly harder for him. He had a naturally bad aim, which never helped with those sorts of tests, and that was why he had been practicing every day for the past year. After accidentally come upon his class' best student, Uchiha Sasuke, practicing in the forest, Naruto had been putting himself through some of the exercises he had seen the young Uchiha do and he had improved greatly because of it. (Not that he would ever tell Sasuke that.)
Digging the correct change out of his pocket, he paid for his nine bowls of ramen and headed off for the academy. The thing he was most worried about in the upcoming exam was the ninjutsu test. Strategy was never his best subject, and in fact, he failed almost all of his written exams. But that had never really bothered him and he had simply ignored trying to up his intellect.
His ninjutsu skills however were what he had worked most on. All that was required for the test was to produce a perfect henge and at least three bunshins. Unfortunately for Naruto, those were his worst skills. Henge he could perform well enough to get him through, but if inspected closely with a kekkai genkai like the Sharingan or Byakugan he would be in a bit of trouble. It was bunshin though that bothered him.
Every time he attempted the technique his clones came out mutilated and useless. Although he could now create four distinct clones, they were all laughable and he knew they wouldn't be enough to pass the exam.
That was why he had gone to see the Hokage. He had explained the problem to the old man, more out of frustration than anything, and he was shocked when the old man told him he knew what was going wrong.
According to the Sandaime, he had much more chakra than anyone else his age, and the clones he created couldn't handle all the chakra. With this under his belt, Naruto asked if there were any other clone techniques that were able to handle such a large amount of chakra.
And that was how he had learnt Kage Bunshin. Old man Hokage had spent merely five minutes talking him through the process before he was able to create three clones. And three clones were all he needed to pass the ninjutsu test.
Due to his musings, Naruto was ten minutes late for the start of class. Even though the door didn't make a sound as he closed it behind him, the fact that everybody's attention had been at the front of the class, his quiet entrance didn't go as planned.
"NARUTO!"
Naruto flinched as Iruka yelled at him. "Gomen, sensei. I was busy having breakfast to celebrate my last day in the academy!"
Several people in the class laughed, which made him scowl in response. Iruka's face softened as he looked down at his favourite pupil.
"Whatever you say, Naruto. Just sit down." Naruto smiled and bounded up to his seat at the back of the room. Iruka turned back to the class and continued his speech. "As I was saying, today is an opportunity for some of you to graduate early. There are only four positions in this year's test, so we won't be able to test all of you." He looked specifically at Naruto. "Also, we will only be able to pass one of you. As a result, I don't want any of you who don't have enough skills to get upset if you don't pass. Please don't enter if you don't think you have enough skill, or if you think you still have more to learn."
With that, Iruka picked up the clipboard from his desk and continued. "Please come down to the front if you are considering taking the test."
Naruto jumped up out of his seat and bounded to the front of the class, followed by Uchiha Sasuke and Inuzuka Kiba. Iruka frowned slightly, having hoped that Naruto would get the hint, but he carried on anyway. "Is there no one else?"
Nobody moved so he led the three boys out of the room and into the testing area. There were two other chuunin there and Naruto recognised one of them as the chuunin who had tested him the year before.
"Now," Iruka began, "There are four stages to this exam, and you must pass three out of the four to have any chance of passing. The four stages are taijutsu, ninjutsu, projectile techniques, and strategy. You will take your tests with one of these chuunin, and you will be with them for the best part of the morning. Understood?"
The three of them nodded and Iruka continued. "Sasuke, you will go with Satari-san, and Kiba, you will go with Kagoma-san." The other chuunins walked away, Kiba and Sasuke following them. Iruka turned to the blonde boy in front of him.
"So, Naruto. Looks you're with me!"
:0:0:
Closing his eyes, he sighed as the world went into the friendly black that he was used to. Gripping the handle of the kunai he was meant to be using, Naruto listened carefully to his surroundings.
A twitch to his left and he let loose a kunai. Iruka was pleasantly pleased to see the kunai embed itself in the bull's eye of the target he had just thrown.
Moving targets were what Naruto had specifically asked for, and although a strange request, Iruka was willing to comply. And he was glad he did. The blonde was much more at home with moving targets than stationary ones, and his advancement to the next level was looking more possible than Iruka had originally thought.
Yet another kunai hit the centre, so Iruka decided to throw two at the same time. But again, Naruto hit the bull's eye, the same for the next go, and Iruka was soon out of targets.
"Well done, Naruto. It looks like you've passed this stage."
Naruto broke into a wide grin and opened his eyes. Iruka smiled at him and got into a loose taijutsu style. Naruto took this as his cue to commence the next stage, so he too dropped into a stance before charging his sensei.
While he was busy dodging Naruto's attacks, Iruka contemplated how much Naruto had improved. Although his first test, the strategy test had been abysmal, the boy had managed to hold out for 5 minutes more than he had in their last game of Go. Although that wasn't spectacular, and it was painfully obvious that Naruto hadn't even bothered to try and improve his IQ, Iruka still noticed it.
His improvement with his kunai and shuriken, and now his taijutsu, was more noticeable however, and the blonde had visibly been practicing. Dodging a kick to the head, Iruka was surprised when he felt a punch connect with his stomach.
Naruto was not one to miss an opportunity, and he followed up the punch with a two more and a kick to Iruka's leg.
'That's four to me.' He thought proudly, bouncing off a wall so he could get a better shot. 'Only six more to go.'
Iruka dodged Naruto's next punch and went into a roll as the blonde prepared a kick. What he didn't expect was for him to anticipate the roll and run behind him, at the same time taking two more hits.
'I better start taking him more seriously.' Iruka thought. Naruto was his most surprising student, and the determination he showed was rather compelling. He ducked under yet another wild punch before bringing his arm up to block the next kick.
A few moments later though, and it was all over. Naruto lay at the foot of a tree, rather exhausted but pleased that he had won. Iruka was nursing a sore arm and a stitch in his side.
Naruto had finished the stage with an impressive scissor kick to Iruka's left arm, catching him unawares long enough to get in a good punch to the gut. As soon as his ten hits were up, he broke into a massive grin before falling unceremoniously onto the ground in a tired heap.
Meanwhile, the Hokage was sitting in his office, contemplating the new genin teams. Earlier that morning, that year's academy leavers had taken the genin exam, with over twenty-seven passing. Hyuuga Neji had been named Rookie of the Year, and now they were all looking forward to being assigned teams.
The only problems were the three genin hopefuls from the year below. Inuzuka Kiba had never come across as a particular hopeful, and the fact that he had already failed two of the stages put him out of favour for an early promotion.
Uchiha Sasuke had performed well in all three of his tests, and Sarutobi had no doubt he would do well in the fourth. It was Uzumaki Naruto that was giving him problems.
Although his intelligence was nothing to be proud of, Naruto was not an idiot, as was obvious from the way he handled his second two stages. As he watched the fourth and final stage commence, Sarutobi took a long puff of his pipe before writing one more name on the paper in front of him.
:0:0:
"Now, Naruto, you know what comes next. I need three bunshins. Understood?"
"Um… Iruka-sensei. I can't do bunshins."
"Well then, I'm sorry Naruto. We can't continue this test."
"Wait," Iruka paused. "I said I can't do bunshins. Hokage-jiisan taught me something else."
"Something else?"
"Hai. Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"
There were several puffs of smoke and then there were six Narutos. Iruka blinked a few times before he broke out into a large grin. "I don't think I need to see your henge." The Narutos stared as he pulled out a forehead protector. "Congratulations, Naruto. I didn't think you could do it!"
Iruka laughed at Naruto's before the blonde released the jutsu. He tackled the smiling chuunin and then ran around the room with his new forehead protector.
AN: I don't know if I made Naruto too powerful. I don't think I did. I just wanted to make it seem like he knew what he was doing. Please review and tell me how I did. Thanks!
Bunshin - Clone
Kage Bunshin - Shadow Clone
