Just to let people know, this chapter, along with Chapter 1, has recently been altered from the original. There may still be grammar and spelling errors, but I will try to correct them as well. Any that I miss will be corrected during a story-wide grammar check at a later date.
Thanks to all the people who reviewed my story and posted. If anyone has any good ideas, feel free to post them and I'll see if I can incorporate at least a bit of it in the story. Keep on posting, guys! Here's the next chapter:
Chapter 2: Academy Years
It took a bit of convincing by Cole and even Shizune, but Tsunade decided to give Konoha one more shot and accepted Cole's offer to join the new clan: the Shinsei (新生) clan. Cole and Anko chose to keep their last names, but had indicated that any future offspring they had would bear their last name and the Shinsei name. Naruto did add the name, but kept it hidden for now. Until he became a ninja, the civilian council could cause problems for him should they find out that he was adopted through a loophole.
The scrolls that Naruto received were actually sealing scrolls containing numerous things which included not only the Uzumaki and Namikaze family jutsus, but also the wills of both clans. The Namikaze will stipulated that Naruto had to become a chunin before he was allowed access to the Namikaze fortune and the family jutsus, but it did allow Naruto immediate access to the Namikaze compound, which was more than big enough to house all of the current members.
When both ninja and civilian councils asked why the Namikaze compound was given to the Shinsei clan, Sarutobi told them that in Minato's will, he bequeathed the compound to the toad sannin. While true, the will also stated that a member of the Namikaze clan could claim the entire compound and the fortune if the person was either 16 or was a chunin.
The Uzumaki will, on the other hand, allowed Naruto immediate access to Kushina's life savings, which was not as vast as some of the bigger clans, but was still more than any civilian had by a long shot. Jiraiya himself owned quite a fortune due to his Icha Icha Paradise books, which were the most read books in the elemental countries (although it seemed that a lot of women despised the series, despite being perverted themselves).
In just three years, the Shinsei clan had gained the attention of village's major clans. While most of the clans welcomed the Shinsei clan with open arms, many members of the Uchiha clan were not very happy about it, while the civilian council looked to be indifferent about the new clan. In order to keep Danzo and the civilian Council from trying to destroy the clan simply just to make sure Naruto's life remained miserable, only a select few knew that Naruto was apart of the clan. This few included the current Shinsei members, Hokage, Kakashi, Hiashi, Itachi, and the original Ino-Shika-Cho.
For the past year, the Uchiha clan started to show signs of internal strife in the public eye. Granted, there always seemed to be disagreements within the clan by quite a few members, but most never really paid it any mind. That is, until the internal strife morphed into a civil cold war. Most non-members assumed that the cold war was due to difference of opinion in future leadership and to a certain degree, that was the case.
On one side was Fugaku Uchiha, the clan leader. On the outside, he showed respect to other clan leaders and the hokage, but in reality, he believed that the Uchiha clan should be the rulers of Konoha and was in favor of a coup to overthrow the current government and make the Uchiha clan the absolute authority in Konoha.
Itachi Uchiha, Faguku's oldest son and village prodigy, lead the other half, now known as the Uchiwa clan, who were against the coup. They believed that carrying through with such an act would not only lose the respect of most, if not all of the ninja and civilians, but would also weaken Konoha to the point where a few of the other ninja nations would take advantage of the coup and invade the village.
Jiraiya, knowing the requirements for graduation, was well aware that Naruto would not be able to obtain good enough chakra control in time to pull off a regular clone, so he taught him the shadow clone jutsu to eliminate that problem. The toad sannin taught the boy about what the shadow clone could do, including accelerated learning, but forbid him from using it to learn any jutsu that wasn't cleared by Jiraiya or his other family members until he became a genin. The toad sannin didn't want to risk the boy hurting himself from learning too much too fast since the shadow clone jutsu wasn't designed to be performed by a child, even if that child had insane chakra reserves.
Tsunade and Shizune were appalled and downright pissed that Naruto was denied basic education by civilian schools, public and private alike. Granted, he wasn't completely deprived of knowledge since he had a knack for picking up things around him, but he still lacked a complete education. However, once they found out that Jiraiya taught him the shadow clone jutsu, they saw an opportunity to get the boy caught up in basic studies. Thanks to the shadow clone, Naruto managed to learn 6 years worth of basic education in just six months.
Orochimaru felt that Naruto might very well have to alter his seal at some point, so the snake sannin got the boy started on basic sealing. During his studies, Naruto noticed that a few seal experts had experimented on other people. When he asked Orochimaru about it, the sannin told him in a strict tone that he was to never use other people for experiments. Orochimaru told him that if he wanted to experiment on something, he should use his shadow clones whenever possible. Naruto asked why he was so adamant about it.
FLASHBACK
"Naruto-kun...what you must understand is that while experimenting on other people may prevent injury to you personally, it will take you down a VERY dark road – a road that most people don't come back from. I, myself, was heading down that path at one point in my life." Orochimaru explained with an ashamed look on his face. It was obvious that he wasn't proud of his actions back then.
"What brought you back, Orochimaru-sensei?" Naruto asked.
"...I saw the future from a man during a mission that Sarutobi-sensei sent me on. In that future, I became an inhuman monster that took thousands of innocent lives...including the life of my own sensei." Orochimaru looked down in sadness. He had just started to experiment on felons, something most people won't have cared very much about, but they were human nevertheless.
"Once I saw that horrible future, I made a decision right then and there that it was not the path that I wanted to travel down. The first thing I did once I completed the mission was go to Sarutobi-sensei and tell him everything. While he was disappointed that I would try such a thing, he also told me that he was proud of me for owning up to my mistakes and reduced my punishment to a month of D-rank missions instead of imprisonment and expulsion from the shinobi corp."
Sealing is one of the most powerful jutsu types in the world. Use it to help you become strong, but don't let it corrupt you...or your loved ones could be the ones who pay the price."
Naruto nodded, but he still had something he wanted to ask. "I understand Orochimaru-sensei, but I have to ask...why do you hate the Uchiha clan so much?"
Orochimaru had a look of surprise on his face. 'Jiraiya was right...the boy is perceptive. This is a good thing. He has every right to know why I despise a lot of the Uchiha clan members. Minato-kun...Kushina-chan...you would be proud.'
"I don't hate all of them, Naruto-kun...but I will admit that I have absolutely little to no respect for a lot of their 'noblemen'." Orochimaru nearly spat out the last word. "As for why, it is because I've witnessed some of their members doing what I warned against you doing."
"...You don't mean..." Naruto whispered. Orochimaru nodded.
"Yes...they have experimented on others. What makes it so disturbing is that they didn't just experiment on inmates of the Konoha prison system..."
"You mean...our own shinobi?"
"...More than that." Orochimaru had to do everything he could for his voice not to crack.
"Oh Kami...the civilians." Orochimaru only nodded. The sannin didn't trust his voice at all.
"Does oji-san know about this?"
"Yes, he does. However, because of his position, he must trend carefully. Unless Jiraiya or myself obtain proof of wrongdoing, we can't touch them."
END FLASHBACK
Naruto had noticed that Orochimaru had a hard time with the end of that conversation. After talking with the snake sannin, Naruto did some research...and was horrified at what he found. Orochimaru had a little sister named Yukushi, who was a Konoha genin. What made it so terrible was that she had died during the 3rd shinobi war under the command of Jonin Takeo Uchiha, the clan's most aggressive jonin at the time.
It was no secret that Orochimaru was the master of the snake taijutsu style and had taught her that same style. The higher ups of the Uchiha clan were not happy that somebody was able to come up with a taijutsu to counter their sharingan and were even more upset that said style was passed down to someone else. What made Naruto suspicious was that genin were not suppose to be in a main assault force. She was the only genin in the Takeo Uchiha's whole battalion – and she was hand-picked by Takeo himself. After she supposedly died, Takeo claimed to have destroyed her body, but some people were suspicious since the battalion brought back an unmarked box – a box large enough to fit a human body in.
Orochimaru's sister wasn't the only unsolved case, either. Some other people, ranging from shinobi to civilian children, had gone missing over the years. While most of these cases were in fact dead ends, nearly all of these cases had a suspicious undertone. The civilian council simply shrugged it off, saying that the Uchiha clan was head of the police force and that it was their job to be the primary investigators of such crimes, but Naruto knew better. Why was it that every case had an Uchiha clansman report the person missing and not the person's loved ones? Also, why were the people in question reported missing in less than a 24-hour period?
Naruto chose to keep this piece of information to himself – mainly because it was in the hokage archives, a place he actually shouldn't even have access to. Granted, the old man would probably just scolded him and make him promise not to reveal this information to the public, but he wouldn't do anything more than that. However, there was another reason. Naruto knew that if the Uchiha clan were to get wind of him researching these cases, they may very well send an assassin after him.
Anko got the boy started on battle strategies and tactics by having him play her and the other clan members in shogi, go, chess, and even Risk. Anko noticed that while the boy definitely wasn't stupid, his common sense was still a little behind, so the snake apprentice got to work on that as well. Frankly, Anko was the only person willing to give Naruto 'the talk'.
Cole helped Naruto develop and control his electrical powers. He even taught Naruto a few of his own tricks that he used to help free Empire City about 11 years ago and defend his previous home, the Hidden Malstrom village. Cole told him that it was up to him to develop some of his own moves, but said that he would always give the boy advice when he needed it.
Cole wasn't quite ready to reveal what had happened when he talked to Kessler for the last time, but just like he did in Uzushiogakure, he put his knowledge of technology to good use. One of those uses was the construction of a power plant in Konoha. However, that was only the beginning. Kessler was literally the biggest information bank known to any civilization. Somehow, his future/alternate self had recorded every single piece of media that existed in his world.
While the ninja world already had TV, Cole uploaded every single movie/TV show to several news stations that were built right after the power plant was. This lead to several studios learning from these shows to produce new content in the same style as the originals, which were also aired regularly.
During a training exercise with the three sannin, Naruto took a hard hit to the head and was knocked unconscious. It was here that he officially met his tenant, the nine-tailed fox.
FLASHBACK
Naruto was in what seemed to be a large sewer system. The only difference was that it didn't smell at all and the water on the floor was exactly that – water, not sewage. He wondered down the corridor until he came to a giant cage. The boy also noticed that there was a piece of paper that kept the cage closed. It had the kanji for "seal". Naruto went to go inspect the seal and even reached up to the seal until he heard a booming, but calm voice.
"Don't touch, Kit. There's a reason that seal is there."
Naruto jumped back in surprise and saw a pair of red eyes look down at him. At first, the boy seemed a bit scared, but relaxed when he saw that the eyes held no malice, trickery, or any such action.
"W-Who are you and where am I?" Naruto stuttered. The creature inside the cage sighed and stepped into the light. It was a giant nine-tailed fox with red fur. Naruto's eyes went wide, realizing that this action alone by the fox answered his two questions.
"I see that my presence doesn't require me to answer a few of your questions." the fox stated. Naruto nodded dumbly at the statement before pulling himself together and then proceeded to glare at the fox.
"So...you're the reason everyone hates me." Naruto said in a low, but cold voice. "Do you...have ANY idea what I went through in my life? It's because of you that my life has been complete garbage!" Kyubi's eyes widened at the boy's response. Granted, it expected the boy to not be happy with his life before being saved, but it didn't expect its container to be this...bitter.
"Why did you attack our village? What the hell did we ever do to you? TELL ME!" Naruto screamed. His mask had finally come completely crashing down as the boy closed his eyes to prevent tears from pouring out. He didn't want to show weakness in front of a being that was considered the most powerful in the world of the living. Naruto was about to continue his rant, but stopped when he saw that instead of the large red-furred that he saw just a moment ago, a beautiful red-haired woman was there in its place. She looked sad and on the verge of tears.
"...Kit...I'm so sorry." the woman whispered. Naruto stood there, stunned. Where was the demon fox he saw a second ago?
"I am the nine-tailed fox, kit." Kyubi responded softly. "This is my human form. Believe it or not, I prefer this form over my demon form."
Naruto continued to stare at the beautiful looking women for a little bit before coming out of his stupor. "...You still haven't answered my question."
"...I see. So your father's worst fear did come to pass...that bastard Danzo really did spread all of those lies to the villagers." Kyubi sighed sadly. She saw that Naruto at least calmed down enough to allow her to explain her side of the story, so she continued, "Naruto-kun, your father may have been the one to seal me, but believe me, I hold nothing against him for doing so. To answer your question, the reason I attacked your village was because I wasn't given a choice in the matter."
"I was actually traveling across fire country, following up on information about a dimensional jutsu. I had heard that someone actually came to this dimension by said jutsu. I never did find out who that person was, but I digress. I was just 7 miles outside of Wave Country when I was ambushed by Konoha shinobi, but not just any Konoha shinobi – they were Uchiha shinobi. I asked what they wanted from me, thinking that my cover was still intact..." the vixen looked down in shame.
"...I couldn't have been more wrong. The leader looked at me with his sharingan activated, telling me that they would finally take control of Konoha and that I was going to help them...whether I wanted to or not. I lost complete control of my body after that...I believe you can fill in the rest."
Naruto was completely shocked at what he heard. Not only that, but for some reason, he could tell that she wasn't lying to him at all. In fact, she looked down right ashamed for foolishly lowering her guard thinking they didn't know who she was and in effect, put herself in the position to be controlled and used as a weapon of mass destruction. Despite that, Naruto realized one important fact: the Kyubi never had the intention of destroying Konoha, or any village for that matter. He then thought back to a moment ago when he screamed at her and instantly felt like he had just hit a puppy...or in this case, a kit.
"I'm sorry..." Naruto said softly, his eyes still looking down.
Kyubi saw the look on this face and smiled softly. "It's alright, Kit. Nobody else could have known that except your father." Her face then morphed in to a sad expression. "I just wish my carelessness didn't have to cost your father his life and you your happiness."
There was a moment of silence, but it wasn't really uncomfortable. It was more like a moment of silence that was given to a respected person who had just past away. After a moment, Naruto spoke.
"So, it was the Uchiha..." Naruto said in a half tired, but half angry tone. Kyubi looked at him with a somewhat confused look. Seeing the look on her face, Naruto sighed.
"Believe me, Kyubi-chan, the fact that the Uchiha are behind yet another problem in our village no longer surprises me. Don't worry, though. They aren't as strong as they used to be."
Kyubi giggled at being called 'chan'. "Why not? What happened?"
"The Uchiha clan heads wanted to overthrow our government and take over, but not all of its members liked the idea. The Uchiwa clan, who are former Uchiha members, were very unhappy that their kin would even entertain this idea and after hearing your side of it, I'm fairly certain that them controlling you planted the seeds for the current civil cold war that has broken out."
"A cold war? Hmm...I see. Who's the leader of the two factions?" Kyubi asked.
"Itachi Uchiwa, formally Uchiha, leads the Uchiwa clan, who are loyal to Konoha and Fugaku leads the Uchiha who are loyal to only their own clan." Naruto answered for her.
The vixen nodded. "We do have a bit more to talk about kit, but for now, go ahead and wake up. I sense that your teachers are worried about you."
END FLASHBACK
After that, Naruto told the three sannin what had transpired while he was out cold. To say they were surprised was an understatement. None of them, especially Orochimaru, were surprised nor happy that the Uchiha clan was behind yet another problem in their village. After talking it over, they all agreed to 'keep it in the family'. Should word get out that Naruto knew what really happened, Fugaku could send assassins after the boy.
Kyubi began to contact Naruto through his mind. When Naruto told the vixen about the scroll he received from his mother through the sandaime, she recognized a blood seal on the letter and told the boy to smear some of his blood on it. What appeared was a scroll containing his mother's personal taijutsu style. Kyubi told him that she herself was familiar with the style and offered to help Naruto learn it. When asked why, she told him that learning such a great taijutsu style was not very common and commented that regardless of what village you were in, the academy taijutsu simply wasn't that great.
From that point on, Kyubi began to teach him the 'Malstrom style'. What surprised Naruto was that one of the style's main advantages was unpredictable movement, much like the snake style that Orochimaru and Anko use. Another was that the style took complete advantage of Naruto's bloodline limit. If Naruto is able to touch one of the person's charka points, he could send a small electrical pulse through the body, allowing him to read the person's brain wave patterns. This allowed Naruto 'see' the person's every move for 20 seconds per touch.
The style's only drawback was that it didn't have much power, but power wasn't really needed. It was the ultimate defensive style and truth be told, most taijutsu specialist admitted that nearly anyone who goes up against a master of the Malstrom style could end up dead.
At last, it was time for Naruto to be enrolled into the Konoha Ninja Academy. His family members told him not to reveal his power unless he had to. When Naruto complained about the rule, Jiraiya simply told him to think of it as part of his training.
FLASHBACK
"Naruto, you are not to reveal most of your power unless absolutely necessary." Jiraiya instructed.
"Why, ero-sennin? I can understand if I were around foreigners, but my own classmates?" Naruto asked.
"Because deception is a ninja's best tool. Also, Sasuke Uchiha, Fugaku's youngest son, will be attending the academy this year as well...and unlike Itachi, he fully supports his father's ideals. I'm not sure if Sasuke has been told about you and Kyubi, but I'd rather not take chances. If nothing else, reveal as little as possible when Sasuke is present."
END FLASHBACK
The first year was the worst for Naruto. His instructors purposely ignored any questions that he had and sabotaged his tests, leaving him in last place despite his efforts. Unfortunately, most of the students picked up on this and started calling him 'dobe', 'deadlast', 'loser', and other derogatory names. Hinata, Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba were the only students who didn't join in on the name calling and actually felt sorry for the boy.
However, things did start to look up in his second year. Iruka was assigned to teach at the academy that year and had taken a liking to Naruto. From that point on, the sabotaged tests took a dramatic drop. Naruto still had to really work at some of the other tests given out by the other instructors just to barely pass, but every time Naruto took any of Iruka's tests, he earned himself a perfect score while most others seem to struggle. This didn't go unnoticed by Iruka and that's when the scarred chunin began to suspect that the boy's status as a jinchuriki was being used against him by the other instructors.
In year three, Iruka had finally become convinced that Naruto was being screwed over by his fellow chunin instructors and immediately told his family and the hokage. While there wasn't enough proof to send them to Ibiki, Anko, and/or Inoichi, it was enough to allow Iruka to administer all of Naruto's classwork and tests personally. That was when Naruto went from near deadlast to near the top of the class. Most of Naruto's classmates were unaware of this due to two factors: (1) He didn't take his tests with his classmates when it was an instructor other than Iruka giving it and (2) His somewhat hyper personality made most assume that he was clueless. Naruto was a bit hyper, yes, but very few people knew the truth: Naruto's intelligence was 2nd only to the Nara family. Orochimaru suggested that when the boy's powers started to manifest the night the Shinsei clan was born, his nervous system had made dramatic improvements. Because of his new powers, information not only travel much faster to the brain than before, but much more efficiently.
In Naruto's last year at the academy, his friends caught wind of his bloodline. Shikamaru and Choji always suspected that the boy was hiding his true abilities and decided to do some research. Both were in the library when they finally figured it out. Choji was looking through a book titled, "Villages of the Past" when he came across Uzugakure. Shikamaru remembered his father Shikaku telling him stories of the village. The book told that the Uzukage had a powerful bloodline limit, that allowed the leader to have complete control of electricity without having to use chakra, but the leader's name was never touched up on. Shikamaru had wondered why the name of the Uzukage was never mentioned in the book when he noticed that the book was written by a professor from Konoha University.
Suspecting a cover-up of sorts, the young Nara genius and the large Akimichi went to their fathers and asked why the name of the Uzukage seemed to be kept a secret. It was luck that the Sandaime was meeting with the two jonins that night. Deciding to take a chance, the Sandaime told the boys that Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's birth mother, was the Uzukage. Shikamaru and Choji were stunned at first, but recovered and promised not to reveal the secret to anyone who didn't know, with Shikamaru adding that it would be 'too troublesome' if the wrong people found out.
Kiba had found out in a similar way. When the dog boy asked if his mother knew Naruto's parents, Tsume told Kiba that she knew Kushina Uzumaki personally and told him all about her. After hearing his mother's story, Kiba went to the same library and, strangely enough, found the same book that Shikamaru and Choji had found a month earlier. Combined with some other information he found in the Inuzuka archives, Kiba put two and two together. He confronted Naruto with the information, who finally gave in and told him that he was correct.
That left Hinata. Over the last 3 and a half years, Naruto had been helping Hinata gain confidence in herself. At first, Hinata thought that she might have been in love with Naruto, but had realized that this was not the case. She did love him of course, but it was the kind of love one had for a sibling. She looked up to him so much that she started calling Naruto 'big brother'. Naruto, felling bad that she was the only person in his circle of friends that didn't know about his bloodline limit, decided that he could trust her with the secret. While she was a bit stunned upon hearing that, she did feel happy for him. Hinata was no longer the stuttering mess she was before entering the academy. She was still somewhat shy, but she never backed down when someone challenged her and was quite assertive.
Sasuke learned this lesson the hard way by challenging her to a taijutsu fight after finding out that she was in the running for rookie of the year. She beat him soundly, much to the surprise of everyone except Naruto, Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba (who secretly had a crush on the Hyuga heir). Ami and her two friends (toadies), who were members of Sasuke's fanclub, weren't to happy about the Uchiha's defeat and tried to bully the Hyuga, only to find themselves on the ground with the chakra points in their arms and legs closed up. At that point, Hinata was officially recognized as a top contender for ROTY.
XXXXX
DAY OF THE GENIN EXAM
"Naruto-kun, time to get up. Today's your genin exam!" came a female's voice. Naruto let out a yawn while rubbing his eyes. After he got the sleep out of his eyes, he looked up to see Shizune giving him a warm smile.
"Ok nee-chan, I'm up." Naruto mumbled although he still gave her a smile of his own. He truly loved having a surrogate older sister. It beats the hell out of waking up alone in his old apartment, that's for sure. He got out of bed and went towards the bathroom to get himself cleaned up.
After about 20 minutes, he came out of the bathroom dressed in and ready to go. He wore a short-sleeved teal underarmour shirt, a pair of black and teal camo pants and a pair of open shinobi boots that stopped midway up his legs. He wore a pair of fingerless gloves that covered up to a few inches below his elbows. After emerging from the bathroom, he smelled something good coming from the kitchen.
"Whatever you're cooking smells good, Kaa-chan!" Naruto half shouted.
"Thank you, Naru-chan! Now come and eat up. You'll need the energy for your exam." Tsunade called back in happy tone, obviously flattered by Naruto's compliment.
"In a minute, Kaa-san." Naruto blushed slightly with embarrassment at the nickname she had given him when he was younger.
Tsunade was hurt by the loss of her little brother Nawaki, but still decided to stay in the village...until the attack of Kyubi. After being told by Danzo that all members of the Namikaze family had died, the slug sannin couldn't take it anymore. In her own eyes, she believed that she failed her best friend Kushina when little Naruto was reported to have died because of the sealing. She left Konoha shortly after and had been in a depression with Shizune the only person she would allow into her personal life.
However, when she came back nearly 4 years ago to check in with Sarutobi as she was required to, she was shocked to learn that Naruto was still alive. She was also highly pissed when she found out how the boy had been treated by the villagers, Danzo, and the civilian council.
When Cole and her old teammate Orochimaru came to her with the offer to form a new clan, she was hesitant at first, but immediately agreed when they informed her that it was the only way to give Naruto a family since the civ. council made a law forbidding any Konoha-born ninjas to adopt him. After the clan was created, Tsunade was made clan head (Jiraiya and Orochimaru refused, believing that Tsunade was the most qualified to lead).
Naruto walked into the Kitchen and saw Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Cole sitting at the table. Tsunade herself was putting a good amount of food on the table, which included omelets, bacon, sausage, biscuits, and different kinds of fruit. Naruto gave a quick 'good morning' to his uncles/guardians and sat down.
"Ok, everyone – dig in." Tsunade said. Everyone muttered 'itadakimasu' before platting their food and eating. It was no secret that Tsunade was the best medic-nin in the village. What surprised people was that she was also an experienced and excellent cook. Orochimaru was also considered to be a great cook in Japanese style cooking while Cole himself was proficient in western style cooking.
Naruto lacks the experience of the other three, but knew more cooking styles which included Italian, Mexican, and even some Indian cuisine. Jiraiya wasn't that good at cooking, but was great at making different drinks – alcoholic or otherwise. Shizune had the best baking skills of the family. She had to hide anything chocolate-related less it got kidnapped by Naruto, who is a chocolate freak.
After Naruto finished eating, he cleaned his plate off in the sink and waved 'goodbye' as he took off towards the academy.
"You do know that Naruto-kun is going to destroy that exam, right?" Shizune mentioned.
Tsunade responded, "How can he not? He's stronger than any genin at his current level." She looked over to her two old teammates and noticed that they were deep in thought.
"Orochi, pervert...something wrong?" She asked with a hint of concern.
Even Shizune and Cole looked over and noticed their worried looks. "Yeah, what's the deal? You guys look like one of those Saints fans that saw Mike Ditka trade away his team's entire draft for that pothead of a running back." Cole added.
"...Did the old man say who was giving the exam?" Jiraiya asked. Tsunade and Cole shook their heads 'no'. Shizune, however, had a different answer.
"I heard that Mizuki, the academy's headmaster, will be overseeing the entire exam personally with Iruka as his assistant."
Jiraiya and Orochimaru froze. It was obvious to everyone that the two sannin didn't like what they just heard.
"Tsunade..." Orochimaru spoke up. "Jiraiya and I have been tailing the headmaster for a half a year now and we have reason to believe that he might be secretly employed by someone with a lot of money."
"I don't understand. Who and why would someone other than hokage-sama want to pay a chunin instructor?" Shizune asked.
"We don't know exactly who has hired him, but one thing is obvious..." Jiraiya said, turning to Orochimaru.
"...Whatever it is that they have asked him to do, they don't want it traced back to them." Orochimaru finished.
"...Shit."
Everyone looked over at Cole, who had a look of disgust on his face. "If that's the case, then I'm sure that whatever Mizuki has planned has something to do with at least one of the brats." the human lightning rod mused.
"Also, I've read up on Mizuki's past. His clan was on the verge of getting a seat in both the civilian and the shinobi council, a village first. However, most of his clan was wiped out during the Kyubi attack. Rumor has it that he was quite bitter about the disbanding of his clan since he didn't have enough members left."
At that bit of news, everyone paled as they all had one person on their mind.
'Naruto...'
XXXXX
NINJA ACADEMY
Naruto had arrived quite early and saw that the only students that arrived before him were Hinata, Choji, and Shikamaru – who was taking a nap. Hinata gave him a friendly wave and a 'hello Naruto-nee-san' while Choji stopped eating to greet the blond with a light slap on the back. Shikamaru woke up and gave Naruto a lazy wave before going back to his slumber. Choji just shrugged and went back to eating his bag of chips while Naruto and Hinata both sweat-dropped at the lazy Nara. 'He gets here earlier than most of us, yet he is the laziest in the class – go figure.'
"Don't blame him, kit; blame the family line. Nara men are traditionally lazy, but incredibly smart for whatever reason." Kyubi spoke up.
'I didn't wake you did I, Kyubi-chan?' Naruto mentally asked.
"Don't worry about it, kit. I want to see how you do today, anyway." Kyubi waved her hand.
Next to arrive was Kiba. Naruto gives the dog boy a pound and a dab and lightly scratches behind Akamaru's ears. Hinata gives Kiba a warm smile and waves to him, causing the Inuzuka to slightly blush, which didn't go unnoticed by Naruto. 'Kiba...just talk to her, man. She actually does like you and is waiting for you to make the first move.'
"Inuzuka men maybe loyal, but they can be so damn clueless sometimes..." Kyubi sighed.
Shino walked in without saying much, but when he saw Naruto, he gave him a respectable nod which Naruto returned. While Naruto wasn't as close to Shino as he was with his other friends, the two still had respect for one another, mainly since Naruto wasn't put off by him being a tenant for thousands of bugs. In fact, Naruto commented that he found his bugs interesting and even asked if it was alright to have a communicator bug placed on him in case the blond needed to talk with him.
Next to enter were Kin Tsuchi and her sister Tayuya Tsuchi. Naruto wasn't as close to them as he was with some of his other friends, but they were both cool in his book. For one thing, they were the only girls other than Hinata who weren't part of Sasuke's fan club. Ironically, Sasuke seemed interested in both girls, but Kin outright ignored him and Tayuya simply shot him down with her sharp tongue and colorful vocabulary, something that always cracked the blond and his friends up.
Other students started to file into the classroom, including members of the Sasuke Uchiha fan club. Naruto noticed one of the members and mentally scowled.
'Ami.'
While most of the students were ignorant of Naruto's tenant, he suspected that Ami may actually know about the fox since she was one of the few to actually call him a 'demon'. While the majority of the class didn't think very highly of Naruto, mainly due to the blond hiding his true power, they would sometimes give Ami a questioning look as if to ask 'Why do you call him that?'.
She would only respond by saying that she couldn't tell them, but had a 'good' reason for calling the boy such a horrible putdown. However, that wasn't the main reason he despised her so much. Ami was a bully – and her constant target was Sakura, one of the girls he has a crush on. It sadden him that she had a crush on...
He heard some of the girls scream...and palmed his face. 'Speak of the devil...'
"I don't think Yami herself is going to react very well to your insult, kit." Kyubi half joked.
Sasuke, the heir to the Uchiha clan, had walked into the classroom to the delight of his fangirls and to the displeasure of everyone else. Even Hinata, who was known to be a sweetheart, had a look of annoyance at his arrival. He simply gave a 'Hn' as he walked past them. He was about to sit down when he noticed Naruto. He gave the blond an arrogant smirk.
"Why'd youbother showing up, loser? You're a lock to fail this exam. At least if you hadn't come, nobody would have a chance to laugh at you." Sasuke mocked. Naruto clinched his fist at the insult and was about to say something, when he felt someone lightly grab his shoulder. It was Shikamaru.
"Calm down, Naruto. He's doing that on purpose and you know it." the Nara whispered only loud enough for the blond to hear although Kiba and Akamaru also picked up on it due to their enhanced senses as well as Hinata, due to her being able to read lips and slightly nodded in agreement. They were getting quite tired of Sasuke taking verbal pot shots at the jinchuriki and getting away with it.
"Listen to your Nara friend, kit. The little shit isn't worth it...yet." Kyubi said.
"Got nothing to say, dobe?" Sasuke said, trying to goud him once more. Naruto simply glared at him before sitting down in his seat. Sasuke, thinking he had won, smirked and sat down in his own seat. His fangirls swooned.
"Sasuke-kun is soooo cool!"
"Yeah, Sasuke-kun, put that loser in his place!"
"You're the best, Sasuke-kun!"
"Dear Kami, please make it stop." Kyubi groaned/begged.
'You took the words right out of my mouth' Naruto responded.
Their praises were cut short when a loud noise came from the doorway. Everyone looked to see two girls come flying through the doorway.
"Ha! I win, billboard brow! Looks like I get to sit next to Sasuke-kun!"
"Like hell you won, pig! Sasuke-kun is mine!"
"Hey Sakura-chan, Ino-chan." Naruto attempted to greet them only for them to spin around and glare at him like he had insulted them somehow.
"What the hell do you want, loser!" both girls shouted at him.
"I just wanted to say hi, that's all." Naruto responded with a smile, but his friends knew that it was a fake smile. Inwardly, Naruto was hurt by their response.
"Well don't! Sasuke-kun might think I'm a loser if I actually talk to one." Sakura sneered as she walked to the seat on the left of where the Uchiha heir was sitting. This time his mask dropped, revealing a look of hurt in his eyes.
'Naruto-kun...' Kyubi thought sadly.
Even Ino, who was about to say something rude of her own, saw the look on his face and for some reason, felt a small pang of guilt. She choose not to say anything rude to him and sit in the seat to Sasuke's right. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt bad for yelling at the blond for no reason other than him just trying to be friendly.
Iruka and Mizuki both entered the room to find the students chatting up a storm. Iruka cleared his throat to get their attention. The students continued talking.
"Okay class, quiet down." Iruka spoke up. They still hadn't notice the chunin instructor. Mizuki had a somewhat bored look on his face, but then noticed the tick marks that were starting to show up on Iruka's head. 'Uh oh...here it comes...' the headmaster thought as he calmly reached into one of his vest pockets, pulled out a pair of ear plugs, and insert them into each ear.
Out of all of the students, only Naruto and his friends actually noticed Iruka doing some hand signs and did the same thing Mizuki did and put on pairs of earplugs of their own. Naruto mentally began counting down. '5...4...3...2...1...'
"SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP, YOU BRATS!" shouted a big-head Iruka. Everyone in the class instantly stopped talking to see a very annoyed scarred chunin standing at the front of the class.
"...I like that jutsu.' Kyubi commented with a grin.
'You would...' Naruto thought dryly.
"...Thank you." Iruka calmly said and continued, "As you all know, your genin exam is today. I will be your junior examiner and Headmaster Mizuki here will be your senior examiner. Your test is made up of two parts; a written test and a jutsu test. The written test is not mandatory to pass since the purpose of that test is to help determine where you are ranked among the graduating class, which is one of the factors in team placement. You must, however, pass the jutsu test in order to qualify as a genin of Konoha."
As Iruka finished, Mizuki stepped forward. "As Iruka-san mentioned, I will be your senior examiner today. We will be conducting the written test first. Each of the exam papers already have your name on them so when I call your name, come and receive your test. All of your answers must be in pen. Iruka will be watching to make sure that you're eyes aren't tempted to...wonder. Should you be caught 'wondering', you will fail this part of the genin exam and will automatically be out of the running for 'Rookie-of-the-Year'. You may begin when you return to your seat with your paper."
With that, the lavender-haired chunin began calling the students up one-by-one to receive their test paper. Naruto was finally called up to receive his test, but halfway back to his seat, he noticed something odd; while some of the questions were normal questions that genins were expected to know, a good amount of the questions on his paper were questions he recognized as ones found on the chunin exam. A couple of the questions were even jonin level. Naruto was about to speak up, but was cut off by Mizuki.
"There will be no talking or questions during this exam."
Naruto frowned a bit, but tried again to talk. "But Mizuki-sensei, my t-"
"I said no talking, Uzumaki." Mizuki said in a raised voice. "If you had any questions, you should have asked before I began calling your names. One more word and you will fail this part of the exam. Now go sit down."
Naruto didn't say anything, but his facial expression showed that he was not happy about being blown off without even hearing what he had to say. While some people, including Sasuke and his fangirls snickered (funny how they didn't get caught), Hinata, Choji, and Kiba frowned at Mizuki.
Even Iruka didn't look pleased about Mizuki's attitude towards one of his favorite students. 'What's your problem, Mizuki? You could have at least let him ask his question...'. Shino remained quite, but his bugs were telling him that Mizuki's attitude towards the blond ran deeper than it should. Inside Naruto, Kyubi narrowed her eyes. 'I smell bullshit...and eight-tails isn't anywhere in sight.'
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes in suspicion. 'Mizuki-sensei made no bones about scolding Naruto, but ignored Sasuke and his fangirls when they could clearly be heard snickering. Something's going on...and I get the feeling that it's going to be a pain-in-the-ass.' He then caught a glimpse of Naruto's test paper and paled. 'The hell? More than half of those questions are chunin-level questions...wait..I even see one or two jonin level questions! What the hell is going on?'
He looked at some other test papers randomly, careful not to get caught by a watching Iruka. Shikamaru frowned. 'Nobody else has that kind of test. Why does only Naruto have questions that hard?' He then saw Sasuke's test...and had to keep himself from growling in anger.
'You've got to be kidding me! His test already has the answers filled out for him! He then caught Mizuki looking exclusively at Sasuke with a knowing wink. Sasuke looked back at him with a ghost of a grin. The lavender haired instructor then looked over towards Naruto and grinned evilly, which Naruto didn't seem to notice. 'That troublesome bastard! He's giving Sasuke a pass while screwing Naruto over!'
Naruto himself was starting to suspect that Mizuki had something against him. 'He hasn't called me a demon or anything of that nature, but he has never really been that nice to me, either.' He looked down at his test paper. 'Something stinks. I mean, yeah, I know the answers to these questions, but that still doesn't...' Naruto froze for a minute and mentally went back to what he has just thought about. A moment later, a grin slowly form on his face.
'Maybe it's time I showed people that I'm not the dumbass loser they think I am...and I know just how to prove it.'
His eyes then gave off a barely noticeable glow as he began writing in the answers. He then glanced over ever so slightly to see Sasuke's paper. While a part of him was angry that the Uchiha was getting a free pass, the other part, which won out, was wearing a shit-eating grin. It's going to be fun watching the reactions of all of his doubters.
Shikamaru glanced at Naruto and was surprised to see the blond give off a devious grin. His eyes widened slightly when he saw Naruto's eyes glow ever so slightly before the lazy Nara smirked. 'So...he's using THAT jutsu. Watching the aftermath is going to be even more entertaining than watching clouds.'
After 45 minutes had passed, Mizuki stood up and announced, "Alright class, pens down. This portion of the genin exam is finished. There will be a break before the next part of the exam. Use it however you wish. Dismissed."
The students got up and headed off in random directions ranging from the throwing range to the cafeteria. As the last student left, Iruka walked up to Mizuki.
"What was that all about?" Iruka inquired with a slight stern look.
"What was what about? Mizuki feigned ignorance.
"You reprimanding Naruto like that. There was no harm in him asking a question." Iruka stated.
"That isn't the point, Iruka. The other students needed to concentrate. He should have asked while he was still at my desk. I know that you care about him on a personal level, but he needs to learn how to take care of himself." Mizuki said and walked out of the room with the test papers under his arm.
'Needs to learn how to take care of himself? He's been doing that for more than half of his life. I dare say he's better prepared to deal with the real world than over half of the shinobi in our village, let alone all of these students.' Iruka narrowed his eyes, unwilling to accept the senior examiner's explanation.
XXXXX
NINJA ACADEMY - HEADMASTER'S OFFICE
Mizuki was in his office, grading the written exams that the students just finished.
"That was almost too easy." he said to himself. He managed to not only pass the Uchiha heir, but also fail the demon brat by giving him a much harder written exam instead. What made his plan so seemingly fool-proof was that the Sandaime only requested the scores, not the exam papers themselves.
Granted, he had to archive them, but if someone came looking, he could always claim that it must have gotten lost in his stack of paperwork, something that most clan/village leaders can understand since they have to put up with that never-ending battle on a daily basis. Mizuki scowled a little. Oh, how he HATED paperwork. When he came to Sasuke's test paper, he simply put it in a file marked 'Sasuke Uchiha' and filed it away in a metal cabinet next to his desk.
'My employer will be pleased when he learns that my mission was successful.' he inwardly chuckled in a dark tone. He kept grading papers until he finally got to Naruto's paper. 'Now let's see how badly the demon faired-' His thought process came to a screeching halt when he saw the blond's test paper.
"I...Impossible!" he nearly yelled. Mizuki looked at the paper, absolutely stunned. Every single question had an answer to it, but that wasn't what shocked the headmaster. Naruto had answered almost every single question correctly.
'Damnit!' Mizuki mentally screamed. 'I can't just put this in his folder!' Mizuki started looking around for an idea. His eyes landed on a nearly blank genin test paper with only one answered question and the name 'Akido Homoki' written on it.
'Akido-san's paper will do. Besides, that brat really isn't cut out to be a ninja anyway with his total lack of courage; he can't even do a henge or a substitution jutsu so he will likely fail the genin exam, anyway. The best part is that his parents aren't even shinobi and don't expect him to pass. Nobody is going to even consider looking at his records and notice that his test paper is missing.'
The chunin grinned darkly and did a few hand seals. The ink on the paper came alive and pooled itself. After a few seconds, the pool of ink spread back out and formed the words 'Naruto Uzumaki' at the top right corner of the paper. He then crumpled up Naruto's real test paper and tossed it in the garbage.
Mizuki then went back to grading the rest of the papers. As he finished grading the last paper, he looked up at the clock. 'It's almost time for the 2nd part of the exam.' He got up and walked out the door. He never noticed that someone else was in the room with him, hiding in the shadows.
XXXXX
"Alright class," Iruka spoke. "This will be the final part of your exam. When we call your name, you are to go to the next room where Mizuki-san and myself will ask you to perform three jutsus: henge, substitution, and the clone jutsu. Keep in mind that you must pass this part of the exam in order to be accepted into the Konoha ninja corp. Now, Shino Aburame, you're up..."
One by one, the students went in to take their genin exam and each had come out with a headband, signaling that they had become genin. Naruto's friends passed with no problems whatsoever. Sasuke himself also passed with little trouble.
Surprisingly enough, all of Sasuke's fangirls passed even though the majority barely passed since some of the them didn't perform the jutsus perfectly. Ino and Sakura were the only two out of the fangirls that performed the jutsus flawlessly.
Iruka popped his head into the class filled with waiting students and announced the next person, "Naruto Uzumaki, you're up." Naruto nodded and began to make his way to the next room as his friends all wished him luck. He was almost to the front of the room when Sasuke stopped him.
"I'm going to enjoy watching you fail." Sasuke whispered so that only Naruto could hear. Naruto ignored the Uchiha and continued towards the next room for his test, but Inside Naruto, Kyubi wasn't happy.
"Just one more reason why I hate that fucking clan." the demon vixen frowned.
'I'm not too wild about them either. No wonder half of them split off from the main clan and are now called the 'Uchiwa' clan. They couldn't stand those jackasses, either. At least the Uchiwa clan actually like me.' Naruto agreed with his resident demon vixen.
As Naruto entered the next room, he saw Iruka, who gave him a smile, and Mizuki, who seemed to have a look of indifference, but the blond knew better. Mizuki was trying to hide his emotions; and based on the way Mizuki was acting towards the jinchuriki today, the boy suspected that Mizuki was like the civilians in the village when it came to him. Naruto took note of the table to their right, which had a few headbands still sitting there.
"Alright, Naruto..." Iruka began, getting the boy's attention. "For the first jutsu, I want you to perform a henge. You may henge into anything that you like, so long as we know what we are looking at. In order for the henge to be satisfactory, it must be at least 88% accurate. Should there be any missed detail, you will be deducted a 2% penalty for small mistakes, such as jewelry placement, hair color, etc, and a 5% penalty for bigger mistakes such as height and body shape. You may start when ready."
Naruto nodded and thought for a moment. His eyes lit up and reached into one of his pants pockets, pulling out what looked to be a standard storage scroll. 'He knows how to seal things?' both chunin thought. Naruto opened the scroll and began to pump some chakra into it. Seconds later, a magazine 'poofed' into existence. Both instructors gave the blond a questioning look, wondering what he was up to. Naruto tossed them the magazine. Iruka raised an eyebrow at the name of the magazine. 'Star Wars: New Essential Guide to Characters?'
"Turn to page 157." Naruto instructed.
Once he saw that Iruka had found the correct page, Naruto put his hands into the ram seal and called out, "Henge!" A puff of smoke engulfed the blond for a few seconds. When it cleared, standing there was a figure dressed in all black with a cape and some weird looking panel with buttons on its chest. The figure also seemed to have a strange looking helmet that was also black with a glossy finish. In its right hand was a strange metal cylinder.
"How's this, Iruka-sensei?" the figure asked in a deep, robotic monotoned voice. Iruka simply gawked while Mizuki inwardly scowled. The demon brat was getting ever so close to graduating. If the boy became a genin, he would be out of his reach.
"You just couldn't resist, could you?" Naruto heard Kyubi sigh in his mind.
'Hey, be glad I didn't transform into Jabba the Hutt.' Naruto mentally responded.
"...Don't even joke like that, kit." Kyubi slightly paled. She may like the Star Wars series, but the one thing that she hated was Jabba the Hut himself. It was bad enough that he was gross looking. He was a womanizer to boot.
"...Excellent job, Naruto. Based on the picture in this magazine you gave me, your henge is 100% accurate. Hinata was the only other student with a perfect henge. Strangely enough, she did the same thing you did and transformed into a person from a magazine." Iruka said.
"Who did she henge into?" Naruto asked out of curiosity.
"Some guy named 'The Rock'." was Iruka's reply, causing Naruto to mentally burst out laughing.
"Can you blame her, kit? He is rather yummy looking..." Kyubi commented with a slightly lecherous grin on her face. Naruto mentally sweat-dropped.
'Kyubi-chan, you're a pervert; you know that, right?' Naruto deadpanned.
"So? At least I'm woman enough to admit it. Unlike some of those other little girls in your class." lazily shot back.
Naruto mentally sighed and shook his head. Deciding not to get too far into such a debate, he refocused on the exam. "What's next, sensei?
"Next up is substitution. I want you to swap places with anything in this room. You either do it or you don't – simple as that. You may start when you are ready." Iruka instructed.
Naruto again went into thought as he scanned the room. Upon spotting a sink in the corner, his faced formed a mischievous grin. Iruka had a slightly worried look on his face. 'Uh oh. He only gets that look when he's about to pull a prank on someone.' Kyubi also grinned, as she read the blond's mind. Granted, the prank was simple, but it would get the point across.
Naruto took out yet another scroll and unsealed an un-inflated balloon. He then walked over to the sink and filled it up with water. He then walked back in front of the two chunin instructors.
"Okay, I'm ready." Naruto announced and then tossed the water balloon straight up in the air. Before the two chunin could even ask, Naruto began doing hand seals and was engulfed in a small smoke screen. Iruka was about to say say something when he heard a familiar voice next to him.
"So this is what it's like to be a chunin instructor..."
Iruka turned towards the sound of the voice and was shocked to see Naruto leaning back in Mizuki's chair with his feet on the table.
"Naruto! What are you doing th-" Iruka started to say, but was cut off when Naruto held up a hand, then pointed towards the spot where he was a second ago. Iruka's jaw dropped. Standing in the spot that the blond had previously occupied was Mizuki, who looked confused as all get out. Iruka was about to say something else when Naruto held up his hand again.
"I'm not done yet, sensei. Keep watching." Naruto grinned mischievously. Iruka did indeed keep watching while Mizuki was still slightly annoyed at being used as a substitution. He was about to ask why they kept staring at him until...
SPLASH!
The water balloon that Naruto had tossed into the air earlier finally came down...on Mizuki's head. Naruto fell out of the chair he was sitting in and burst out laughing. Iruka gave Naruto a slightly stern look, but if anyone were to look closely enough, they would notice the ghost of a smile on the scarred chunin's lips as Iruka was doing his best not crack up himself.
'...Unbelievable...it should be almost impossible for an academy student to actually swap with another person...and to top it all off, he thought far enough ahead to actually do something to the person he swapped with. Naruto...you just might become the first student to go from dead last to rookie-of-the-year candidate.'
"Good one, kit. I have to admit...that was well thought out. Simple, but well thought out. Had this been a real ninja battle, that fool would be dead." Kyubi praised.
Iruka then noticed that Mizuki was about ready to blow his top and moved to calm him down.
"Calm down, Mizuki. Granted, it was a bit immature, but it also showed that Naruto understands the concept of not only getting out of harms way, but also to put your enemies into it as well. Quite frankly, there aren't that many academy students who think that far ahead using the substitution jutsu, let alone swap with an actual person."
"...fine, I'll let it go since you do make a good point." Mizuki slightly growled. As much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't fail Naruto for being innovative. 'Damnit! So far, he's done everything right. I may have to resort to killing the demon brat before team placement if he ends up passing the clone test.'
Mizuki quickly calmed himself down. He not only didn't want the brat to know what was going on, but to a much lesser degree, Iruka as well. He knew that Iruka actually liked the boy and would more than likely report anything suspicious to the hokage.
"Now then, let's move on to your final test, Uzumaki-san." Mizuki continued. "For this last test, you are to make at least two clones using the clone jutsu. You may begin when ready...and NO SHINANIGANS this time, please."
Naruto nodded. "No problem, Mizuki-sensei. I just wanted to get one last prank in before I become genin. I sure as hell won't have time to do them with my duties as a ninja."
Iruka was a bit worried. 'He never was able to learn how to do this jutsu...not with his chakra reserves. I hope he was able to improve his control enough to perform it.'
The look of worry turned into confusion as he saw Naruto make a hand seal that he knew wasn't the clone jutsu. His confusion then turned to disbelief when he heard Naruto shout:
"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"
Standing behind Naruto were 4 carbon copies of the blond, who all said 'Hi'. For an added effect, one of the clones came over and tapped Iruka on the shoulder.
"Does this work?" the clone asked. Iruka's jaw dropped completely on his desk. 'He actually knows the shadow clone jutsu? How did he learn that? The only people who can do that jutsu without many issues are hokage-sama, Kakashi, and Jiraiya-sama!'
Iruka continued to stare for a moment more before his face morphed into a grin. "Of course, Naruto. That was more than satisfactory. Go ahead and take a headband from the table over there."
Mizuki was absolutely livid. 'No! The brat was able to actually create shadow clones! When the hell did he learn to use that? What do I do now?' Mizuki thought. After a moment, a very evil thought crossed his mind. He quickly hid his predatory grin and put on a serious face.
"Hold it." Mizuki stopped the boy before he could touch one of the headbands on the desk. "I'm afraid that I can't award you the title of genin."
The room went deathly silent. Naruto's face gave way to several emotions ranging from shock to confusion...and finally anger. He couldn't put into words how pissed he was...so Kyubi did it for him.
"What?" the demon vixen hissed inside his head.
Iruka was also shocked, but recovered fast enough to respond before Naruto could voice some choice words.
"What are you talking about, Mizuki? He performed the clone jutsu just like we asked him to." Iruka said with a frown on his face.
"No he didn't, Iruka. He did a Shadow clone jutsu. The test requires him to do a standard clone jutsu." Mizuki responded. Iruka just stared at the headmaster like he had grown a second head. 'Since when did it matter what KIND of clone was created? I've never heard of such a rule before.'
"THAT'S BULLSHIT! WHAT KIND OF FUCKING SHIT IS THIS BASTARD TRYING TO PULL?" Kyubi screamed.
Naruto narrowed his eyes when he saw Mizuki flashed a quick and extremely small smirk that he knew all too well, but decided not to act on it at this time.
Iruka didn't like the ruling, but still made an attempt to get Naruto promoted like he should. "...Well then, why don't we just allow him to perform the 'correct' clone jutsu, then?" Iruka suggested only for Mizuki to responded somewhat harshly.
"No! He didn't do it correctly and that's my final decision."
Naruto tightened his fists, nearly drawing blood. Iruka was quite unhappy about the whole situation, but was powerless to do anything about it. He turned to the blond with sad look.
"...I...I'm sorry, Naruto. Since he's the headmaster, he has the final say." His mind, however, was saying something else. 'Although I sure as hell think that this is bullshit.' He thought, unaware that he had the same thoughts as a certain nine-tailed vixen demoness.
"...It's ok, Iruka-sensei. I'll just have to try again next year." Naruto barely said above a whisper. He turned and slowly made his way to the door.
Iruka had a worried and sad look on his face. 'Naruto...'
"..." Kyubi said nothing, but it was obvious that the vixen was absolutely pissed.
Mizuki held a neutral expression, but inside he was laughing like a maniac. He had finally succeeded in failing the demon. 'Now that the demon is out of the way, I can concentrate on the other task my employer charged me with. Still, stealing the forbidden scroll won't be a walk in the park. I need to be fast enough to outrun the ANBU long enough for me to...' Then it struck him. 'Wait...the demon brat always was able to outrun the ANBU. In fact, the only person to ever catch him was Iruka. Hmm...the demon may still be of some use to me...'
XXXXX
Naruto sat on his swing outside, looking on in sadness as he saw his fellow classmates get hugs and congratulations from friends and loved ones. A large part of him was not only angry, but suspicious as well. Jiraiya taught him the shadow clone jutsu, with the Sandaime's permission, for several purposes – including the genin exam. Couple with the fact that Mizuki tried too hard to hide his emotions towards the boy and it was obvious that something was wrong. It baffled him...until after failing the exam. That ghost of a smirk on Mizuki's face finally clicked.
'So...he really is just like the villagers...'
"So you noticed it too, eh?" came Kyubi's voice. Naruto gave her a mental nod.
"If it wasn't obvious enough from that bullshit he pulled back in the test room, it's pretty obvious now that Mizuki intended to fail you...one way or another."
One comment from Sasuke was what got the blond thinking that something wasn't stirring the kool-aid.
FLASHBACK
'So, dobe...how does it feel to be the only student in academy history dumb enough to make the wrong kind of clone during the genin exam?'
END FLASHBACK
At first, the statement nearly caused the blond to try and strangle the pompous Uchiha, but logic made the eleventh hour save and had forced him to simply push pass Sasuke without saying a word.
'None of his fangirls knew how I failed, which is normal since test information is considered classified. So how the hell does the teme know how I failed the test?' There were only two people who knew: Iruka and Mizuki.
He immediately ruled Iruka out for three reasons: (1) the scarred chunin always helped him with his studies and always stuck up for him out in public. (2) He was very much against Mizuki's decision at the genin exam, and (3) The chunin had left right after Naruto's test due to a summons by the hokage.
That left Mizuki.
Naruto wasn't stupid. He was certain that Mizuki had somehow let the information slip to Sasuke, but how? 'Mizuki never made contact with the teme while with the other students. So how did he...' Naruto mentally froze and went back over what he just said in his mind. After a moment, he mentally growled, which didn't go unnoticed by Kyubi. 'Sasuke was the last student to take the exam.'
"You're learning..." Kyubi remarked.
'I'm not stupid, you know.' Naruto thought dryly.
"Not anymore."
'...point taken, but enough about that. Something needs to be done about this.'
"I agree. I think we should go tell...wait...strike that. Mizuki is walking up from behind you." Kyubi informed.
'I don't care what direction he's walking from. As far as I'm concerned, he's walking into a beatdown.' Naruto thought darkly.
"Cool it, kit; He's a chunin. Besides, he doesn't have a weapon at the ready and I don't sense any killing intent. Let's see what he wants first. He just might do something to incriminate himself. Activate that eye jutsu of yours, but keep the visual quality at a minimum. You haven't mastered the technique enough to go at a higher quality without your eyes glowing." Naruto gave the vixen a mental nod and turned around to face the last person he wanted to see without giving away too much of his real opinion of the headmaster.
"What do you want, Mizuki-sensei? Naruto asked in a low voice.
"Naruto...I would like to apologize for the way a acted in the testing room." Mizuki said in a not-so-obvious fake apologetic tone. However, it wasn't enough to fool the blond. 'He's up to something...'
"I agree. Be on guard, kit." Kyubi warned. Naruto gave her a quick 'yes ma'am' before mentally turning his attention back to Mizuki.
"I realize that because of your large chakra capacity, it would have been impossible to make a regular clone. That's why I've decided to give you a second chance." Mizuki offered.
"Second chance?" Naruto echoed. He heard Kyubi mumbling 'bullshit' and quietly agreed.
"Yes. The shadow clone jutsu isn't a jutsu that you can find just anywhere...outside the forbidden scroll." Mizuki pointed out with a smile that Naruto knew was a cover for a smirk.
"For your...make up exam, I want you to go and get the scroll the jutsu is located in. Once you do that, I want you to meet me in the back woods of the Uchiha compound. I will be waiting with your headband. By the way, please don't tell anyone about this test. I don't want to spend a lot of time trying to explain to some parents why their kids weren't given this type of test when they failed. So, do you accept this make-up exam?" Mizuki asked.
Naruto thought about asking why he wanted the forbidden scroll, but thought better of it. It wouldn't do for Mizuki to think that he was smarter than he lead on. That didn't keep him from forming his own opinions.
"Sure thing, Mizuki-sensei! I'll have that forbidden scroll for you tonight and you'll be forking over that headband to me!" Naruto said with faux enthusiasm.
"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to attend before we meet tonight." Mizuki said and walked back into the academy building. As soon as the chunin was out of sight, Naruto's fake smile dropped and was replaced with a frown.
'If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's trying to get me to commit treason.' Naruto thought, narrowing his eyes at the departing Mizuki.
"Ding Ding Ding. We have a winner." Kyubi said. "So, what do you want to do about this?"
'Jiji needs to know about this, NOW. Most jonin aren't allowed anywhere near that scroll, let alone a chunin. From there, we can come up with a plan to catch his ass in the act.'
