Chapter two: the silent student.
Sasuke has no idea what to make of the new comer, having been personally escorted to the test by their hokage himself speaks highly of how strong this kid must be. His first instinct as an 'Uchiha Elite' urges him to volunteer to be his opponent during the taijutsu portion of the test, pride and the famous Uchiha attitude demands he prove himself better than some wrapped up no name kid with an obvious fetish for leather.
With a quick predatory grin Sasuke steps from his musings to mentally prepare for the conflict. Oblivious to the glorious thoughts of combat Iruka begins explaining the first portion of the test while Mizuki walks the aisles handing out papers. "Okay everyone the first part of the graduation exam is a written test, don't bother trying to cheat off anyone else all of the tests have different questions." He says with a smirk seeing a couple students flinch.
"Iruka-sensei how is the new guy gonna write with his arms bound?" Kiba asks without raising his hand first thus earning an angry glare from Mizuki and a sigh from Iruka, they both had to admit though he brings up a good point. Hokage-sama expressed his orders in not undoing the binds holding the weapon in check. "Mizuki what do you think?" Iruka asks.
After placing the last test down the second instructor walks to his partner in knowledge and leans in to whisper. "We both know what he is and that he shouldn't even need to take these exams, let's just pass him from this part of the exam and move on with it." He suggests hoping his longtime friend listens to him for once.
With a resigned nod Iruka turns to the class. "Because of his unique condition and the order placed by Hokage-sama we will be excusing him from this portion of the exam, now everyone begin your test you have two hours!" He orders not allowing for any more distractions today.
The first exam went off without a hitch after that, the only distraction was the red covered Nine who spent the entirety staring ahead of him with an eyeless gaze, the only sounds being made were the soft breathing noises behind the mask.
After Mizuki went through the aisles and collected the papers he gave the rest of them a two hour break for lunch while they were graded, Iruka being the only one of them who had temporary control over the red clad teen, chose to lead him outside and had him stand by the biggest tree in the training area. Now there he stands eerily staring at nothingness, the act alone is enough to weird out a few of the 'would be' genin.
Although one out of the group seems braver than the rest, of course this student would be none other than Sasuke Uchiha the up and coming rookie of the year and last of the Uchiha clan. Said onyx color haired teen now stands directly in front of the bound human weapon, a look of self-importance etched across his features. "You must be strong, brought here by the hokage himself for the exams. Why weren't you enrolled into the academy like the rest of us?" He asks genuinely curious about something other than himself.
Nine's response of course is just the subtle sounds of breathing behind his half mask, the students outside enjoying their lunch currently sit away from the two and watch the show. Several moments pass before Sasuke frowns at the red teen. "You are to speak when an Uchiha talks you to dobe." He says growing irritated.
"You should leave him alone Sasuke-kun, didn't Iruka-sensei something about him being dangerous?" Sakura asks from a distance, truth be told the red clad teen kind of freaks her out. Her statement is met with an Uchiha like grunt, followed by Sasuke rising to poke the kid in the mask.
The term saved by the bell gains an actual meaning when the signal for lunch break to end goes off, Sasuke grins darkly at the bound teen before walking off with an aura of self-worth radiating from his form. As soon as Iruka went and got Nine from the grounds and brought him to the training rings across the field the second part of the exams could begin.
"Alright for the second portion you are going to be put into pairs, you will spar against your classmate until one of you is unconscious or gives up." Mizuki says earning eager looks from a majority of the class. Two students look more eager than the rest being Sasuke and Kiba, the reasoning for this is obvious to those who know them as lovers of combat or in Kiba's case violence in general.
"Alright you are to come forward as we call out names, the first match will be between Kiba Inuzuka and Shikamaru Nara!" Iruka calls over the group earning a woop and a howl from Kiba with his partner, and a tired sigh from Shikamaru.
"Iruka-Sensei I forfeit, there's no way I could win against someone as wild as Kiba without it being entirely too troublesome." The young slacker explains while lying on his back staring at the clouds in the sky as they gently float along. The surrounding students face-vault at the statement while the teachers all give him a deadpan look at his obvious laziness.
"Fine then, Kiba who would you like to fight?" Iruka asks wanting to get this whole thing moving already. With an animalistic smirk Kiba points to non-other than Nine, who can be seen just staring ahead of himself as usual.
"Are you sure about this Kiba?" Iruka asks while Mizuki has a small pitying expression on his face for the poor unsuspecting student. Kiba only nods with a very confident grin etched upon his face, surely the new guy can't be so strong with his arms tied down. At least that is what Kiba is currently thinking.
"Alright then, Nine come up here please." Iruka calls and like a dog to his current master, Naruto is beside the Chuunin instructor awaiting his next orders. "Nine you are to spar against Kiba, no lethal blows as you are only to subdue your opponent. He must be alive for you to pass this part of the exam, do you understand your orders?" Iruka orders/asks the red clad teen.
"Hai Iruka-sama." Naruto replies and turns to his target. Seeing this Iruka nods and steps off the fighting mat, "Alright begin!" Neither one of them made a starting move, the crowds of students practically sitting on the edge of their figurative seats at the suspense the fighters are causing. Deciding to make the first move, Kiba attempts to taunt the other into a rage. "What's wrong loser are you scared to fi—" That is as far as Kiba got before seeing the world around him quickly flip around before stopping at a clear view of the sky above. The only thing ruining a perfect view is that of the severe pain coursing through his solar plexus.
Forcing his head up, Kiba manages to see Nine standing directly where the dog user was at the start of the fight with a leg extended at a kick. Coughing up a bit of blood at the sight Kiba finally loses his grip on consciousness and passes out in the grass nearly fifteen meters away from the fighting mat.
Both of the teachers seeing this with slack jawed expressions matching the rest of the students decide to call the match. "Winner, Nine!" Mizuki calls out to a crowd stunned in the silence. Without a word spoken Naruto returns to his spot in the crowd and awaits his next set of orders. By this point Iruka has made his way to the downed Inuzuka heir to make sure he is still among the living and thankfully he is.
"Mizuki can you take Kiba to the infirmary please?" Iruka asks while handing the limp boy to his assistant, Mizuki nods and leaves the training ground in a swirl of leaves. Turning back to the still silent students Iruka calls the next two for their combat exam. "Chouji and Sasuke come forward!"
One hour later.
All of the students now sit back in their classroom for the last part of the exam, everyone has wounds of some type or another covering their forms from the last part. Ino sports a busted lip and a black eye from her fight with Sakura who has dried blood on her upper lip from a broken nose. Kiba has a large bruise forming on his chest and several cracked ribs underneath his jacket, Shikamaru having been forced to fight with a civilian boy had no noticeable marks on his skin being one of the very few not to be hit.
Sasuke has some bandages around his forehead after taking a vicious head-butt from Chouji who along with a swollen cheek also has bandages around his head in a similar place to the broody Uchiha heir. Shino has no visible marks from his fight with Hinata who actually won their fight in record time thanks to her family's taijutsu style.
Overall every one of them minus Naruto is in some level of pain as can be heard by a chorus of moans and groans. Seeing all of this makes it hard for Iruka not to laugh at his students, right now he couldn't be any prouder of his class unless they all managed to pass. Speaking of which now is the time for the final test for the Genin exams before handing out headbands.
"Okay quiet down everyone and let me explain the final part of the exam." Iruka says with a slightly raised tone of voice than usual to ensure they all hear him clearly. "Now this last part will be the most important test for you all therefor it will make up the largest percentage of your overall scores. If you cannot pass all aspects of this test you will not become a genin this year and will have to stay for another year."
"To start us off, Nine come to the front of the class." Iruka orders and in only a few moments Naruto is before him staring ahead like he has pretty much the entire day. "Alright Nine, perform a henge." Iruka orders. With a small burst of chakra Naruto turns into a perfect copy of Iruka shocking everyone since they all made the assumption that he can't see anything when they first saw the eyeless mask.
"G-Great job, now substitute yourself with something in the room." He orders and without a single wasted second smoke covers the two spots Naruto and Iruka stood, when the smoke finally vanishes the classroom is greeted to the sight of still two Irukas' standing in the room. It is now that Naruto drops his henge now standing exactly where Iruka was and vice versa.
"Now perform a bunshin of your choice." With a poof of smoke seven exact copies of the red clad teen stand in attention with the original, Iruka walks up to one of them and places a hand on its chest to clarify it is indeed a solid clone. "Shadow clones, a high ranked jutsu good job Nine you pass you may return to your se—" Iruka stops talking seeing as Naruto left the classroom the moment he was told he passed.
'Well that can't be good…might as well get on with the tests I need a drink.' Iruka thinks to himself with an audible sigh. The rest of the class stare wide eyed at the abruptness of Nine's departure from the classroom. Unknown to the rest a pair of dull golden almost brown eyes followed his every step out of the room, a gaze filled with curiosity and a need to know more about the so called 'Nine'.
ANBU headquarters minutes later.
As per his master's instructions the moment Naruto heard he passed he made his way back to home base to rest and await his next orders, Now Naruto calmly walks the halls of the anbu HQ occasionally passing a masked shinobi here and there all of which immediately got out of Naruto's way either out of fear or an odd sort of respect.
Reaching the lower levels Naruto stops in front of a guarded steel door, the only guard on duty at the time being a purple haired cat masked anbu. Yugao Uzuki, kenjutsu master and sword mistress of Konoha wears a sorrowful expression undetectable beneath her mask, she knew Nine when he was younger and still had free will.
Ever since that incident caused by the villagers she along with several other Jounin have been trying to persuade the hokage to return him to the happy ball of sunshine they all knew and cared for, of course every plea and request was only ever met with sad silence or complete dismissal all together.
So now here he stands, waiting for her to open the door to his cell and chain him up like a rowdy pet that had beaten into submission by his owners. The thought is enough to bring her to tears every time she sees him but her shinobi side wouldn't allow it until she is off duty, so with a large amount of regret in her posture she opens up the cell for Nine to enter.
Without missing a beat Naruto enters the room and drops to his knees like countless times before, with a series of swift handsigns from Yugao the chains hanging limply along the walls spring to life and hook onto Nine's restraints holding him down with the only freedom of movement being his head. With one last glance in his direction the female anbu member closes the door to his cell and locks all fourteen locks keeping the door impenetrable.