A/N: Well, I must warn all of you that this chapter was hell to write. But I made it to the 2k mark that I promised myself to get to. You can skip this chapter if you want, really but if you want to read it go ahead, im just telling you that I'm not really proud of this chapter is all. Please don't judge me to harshly.

Naruto stared at the page in front of him and sighed, it was going to be tough to get out of this one without serious casualties, in all of his life nothing scared him quite so much as this, in fact, that one piece of paper was the bane of his existence at the moment. What was this mysterious paper that held such terror for our intrepid hero? It was his report card from the Academy. The reason that he was terrified of it, because of the list of A's that had appeared on it this quarter in the skills category. His godparents were of the idea that the less an opponent knew about your real abilities the better, and this list of A's was unacceptable in his "Family".

"Care to explain what these are gaki?" The blonde haired sannin inquired as she held the slip of paper out for him to see, all but shoving it into his face, the disappointment in her tone was palpable, as if she knew that he was better at hiding his skills.

"I was tired." Came the mumbled response "the instructor was trying to embarrass me in front of the class again and I wanted to see the look on their faces if I just showed what I was capable of for a few weeks."

"So, in short" came a laugh from the right of Tsunade "the tadpole wanted to show off in front of his friends, he IS an Uzumaki after all, being unpredictable and rambunctious is in their nature. Even the greatest of ninja have their quirks." Jiraiya calmly took the paper out of Tsunade's hands and tore it up, "the three of us are testament enough for that huh?" he put his hand on her shoulder and pulled her gently away from Naruto. "What's with the shiny eyes kid?"

It was at this point that Orochimaru decided to get, uncomfortably close to Naruto, his inner scientist taking over in order to take stock of the situation. He peered into Naruto's eyes observing the changes that had occurred in them. "It seems to be an ocular change based on continuous chakra flow to the region, although the chakra flow is so minimal that it might be classified as a passive change not an active one."

Everyone, Naruto and zephyr included, stared at Orochimaru, who, despite never turning to human experimentation in order to extend his life, held a deep and unquenchable curiosity that led him to discover and document more and more things in his lifetime than even he could count. Naruto was the first to recover from the quickly spoken analysis, "um, how about again but in English this time?"

Orochimaru stepped back and grinned sheepishly, which on his face just made him look positively creepy. "I just meant that he just got what looks like a dojutsu is all."

"It is not just a dojutsu" came Zephyr's voice from beside Naruto causing all the sannin to jump back, and draw various weapons from various places on their respective bodies. Drawing Chakra from Naruto she materialized right next to the blonde Jinchuriki and introduced herself to the three legendary ninja. "My name is Zephyr, and I am another part of the Dojutsu's abilities, the wielder of this particular Dojutsu, the Reisei Shidaigan and I am but a part of the circle of elements."

The sannin took their time interrogating the new person in their midst, and they all talked long into the early hours of the morning, but, unfortunately the sun had to pop its head over the horizon and end their rendezvous, and it was time to exit the forest and enter the world of people much to his chagrin. Although it was his last day of the academy and that was a good thing, one way or another his was passing this test.

Later that same day

Naruto walked down the hallway towards his classroom, thankful that today would be the last day that he had to deal with the full class on a regular basis, even though he knew that he would be paired with two of them for the Genin cell that they would be assigned to after the test. The fact that he wouldn't have to do homework ever again was an elating feeling for the blonde, and although he knew that the road in front of him was going to be hard, he had faith in himself that he would be able to take on whatever came his way. Except for the fact that he was tired he would confidently say that he would get the best grades in his class on these final examinations, not to mention that all he had to do was use the basic three ninjutsu and with the Kage Bunshin under his belt he finally had the last hurdle to his graduation cleared.

As he entered the classroom he took note of everyone inside of it. Most of his classmates were inside already; Sasuke Uchiha sat in what was by most of the guys known as the "emo corner", Shikamaru Nara sat in an inconspicuous place somewhere in the middle of class, not close enough to be noticed nor far back enough to get labeled as a slacker, even though he really was, Kiba Inuzuka sat in a different place every day but was in the front row today, Choji Akimichi sat next to Shikamaru and, as per usual was devouring a bag of potato chips, Hinata Hyuga sat in the opposite corner as Sasuke, looking out the window at the beautiful spring day, neither Ino Yamanaka or Sakura Haruno had shown up yet, Naruto noticed and was thankful for that fact, and Shino Aburame was minding his own business, sitting almost equidistant from Hinata and Sasuke.

As he looked around he noticed Haru and Rin Amaryllis getting into another argument about what plants were better for their family techniques, the Amaryllis clan was a relatively new clan to Konoha, and with their Kekkei Genkai the Shokuton (Plant Release), which although reminiscent of the long lost Mokuton was different in at least one significant way, instead of being able to grow any plant at any time like the First Hokage, their Jutsu revolved around using specially grown seeds and plants instead of any at all, nor were they able to restrain the chakra of tailed beasts. However, they had already proven themselves many times over, especially with their knowledge of rare plants and poisons. They both had the green eyes that were a symbol of their clan, Haru, the boy had bright red hair while his twin sister Rin had light blue hair the two of them both loved their plant techniques and were both considered to be the heirs of the Clan, as their father didn't much care for all the high and mighty firstborn bullshit that he saw in the Hyuga clan. The two argued as much as they agreed with each other but were inseparable and when the odds were against them they tended to show flawless teamwork.

The last classmate he saw was Yulia Yamanaka, she was one of the few serious female students in the class, the only other being Hinata, that didn't spend their time fawning over Sasuke, in fact, Yulia never even associated with the other kunoichi if she could help it especially Sakura and her cousin Ino. She wore her long blonde hair in the same traditional ponytail as the rest of her clan but that was where her similarities with her cousin ended. She wore dark blue pants and a t-shirt that, unlike her cousin, didn't leave her midriff uncovered. She was a rather aloof individual, but not to the point of being rude, she would talk to the other kunoichi if spoken to but usually preferred to be left alone. Naruto had respect for her because she didn't just follow the crowd and focused on her kunoichi training, especially because of her difficulty with the three basic ninjutsu, she, like him seemed to be unable to use the Bunshin technique and not for lack of trying either, it was as if her chakra just wouldn't listen to her when it came to the technique.

Naruto took an empty seat just as he heard two sets of footsteps rushing towards the classroom, and got ready to be bombarded by the shouts that were about to erupt in the classroom, he saw his other classmates do the same, covering their ears and such, he even saw Sasuke trying to sink even farther back into his "Emo corner" he heard Zephyr whisper into his ear "Why is everyone plugging their ears like some kind of sonic bomb is about to go off?" she inquired of Naruto from inside of his mind.

Naruto shook his head as it was the first time that Zephyr had communicated to him via their link instead of with her own voice, it sounded the same and he had experience with the pseudo telepathy from Kurama, the giant fox was usually asleep. "It's Ino and Sakura, the two loudest people in my class, and it seems like they decided to race to class again today." He replied mentally despite feeling a bit weird in doing so, plugging his own ears just before the two mentioned kunoichi burst into the room.

"I GOT HERE FIRST!" shouted the pink haired "kunoichi" racing to secure the seat next to Sasuke, being blocked by Ino as they struggled to get through the door at the same time as each other.

"No you didn't billboard brow, as if Sasuke would want to sit next to you anyways!" she proclaimed trying to push herself past Sakura, and succeeded only in pushing the both of them to the floor in a tangled heap.

Naruto looked over to where Yulia was watching the whole scene, grimacing as she saw what passed for Kunoichi these days, before returning to her quiet meditation most likely trying to remember how to do the clone Jutsu after all. The entire class went quiet as Iruka walked into the room with Mizuki right next to him.

"Ok class today Mizuki and I will be administering the test for you to become Genin, all you have to do is demonstrate the three academy techniques and we will hand you your headbands." The class started whispering to each other in excitement they were finally going to graduate and become ninja. No more troublesome homework, no more Iruka yelling at them to be quiet. Just them and ninja stuff.

"First up is…"

Sometime later.

Naruto walked up to the front of the class, he was one of the last people called to be tested and most of the class had either failed and gone home or had passed the class and done the same, preferring to get a good night's rest before being assigned to their teams the next day. As he walked up to the two teachers he readied himself, telling himself that the only thing he had to be afraid of was screwing up royally, so nothing really.

"Okay Naruto," spoke Iruka, "I would like you to perform the three techniques in any order you would like."

"Got it" Naruto formed the seal for the transformation technique he turned himself into a wooden chair, totally indistinguishable from any of the other similar chairs in the room, complete with carvings and gum underneath it to make it look even more like it belonged in the academy room. He then used the substitution technique to substitute himself with another one of the chairs in the room. And finally it was time to do the clone Jutsu. Naruto concentrated and formed the handsigns for the shadow clone justu and created a room full of himself, much to the surprise of his teachers, who numbly handed him his headband and let him leave the classroom, presumably because neither of them had any idea where the blonde had learned the Kage Bunshin, which was supposed to be a B rank forbidden Jutsu.

As they watched the blonde leave the room Iruka noticed that Mizuki stood up to leave himself. "Where are you off to in such a hurry Mizuki? We still have students waiting to be tested."

Mizuki, already halfway out the door, paused and turned to face the scar nosed Chunin. The look on his face was unmistakable, pure loathing and hatred oozed out from his visage as he resumed his exit. "Don't worry Iruka." He smirked as he left the room, "I'm just going to take care of something I should have a while ago. I won't be long."