Five Years later

Naruto awoke with a smile on his face because today was the day that he had been waiting his whole life for, today was the day of the academy graduation exam.

He quickly got up and got dressed in his signature jumpsuit and took a look around his room at all the things that he had acquired in the five years and the memories they contained.

He looked at a picture of Iruka, Ami and himself that was sitting on his bedside table that Ayame had taken when Iruka had taken them to Ichiraku's. As he looked at it he thought back to how the three of them had developed their special friendship.

Flashback

During the first couple weeks of school Naruto and Ami noticed that whenever they did an assignment or an exercise they would score considerably lower than then their classmates.

They figured this out one day when Ami compared an assignment to Ino's and found that even though she had put some of the same answers as her she had gotten them wrong.

She brought this up to Naruto who quickly compared his paper to Shikamaru's seeing as he was the smartest person in class and found the he two was getting marked wrong on correct answers.

Ami picked up her paper and went to talk to Iruka about it, she walked up to his desk and asked in a respectful tone, "Excuse me Iruka-sensei but I think that you may have marked my assignment wrong because I got some answers that I know were correct wrong."

Iruka looked up at Ami with a hard look that scared her a little and said almost harshly, "I assure you that I have not made any mistakes in marking the assignments, now go back to your seat before I give you detention."

Ami looked at the ground sadly and began to walk back to her seat with tears welling up in her eyes as she sat back down next to Ino.

Ino had heard what Iruka had said to her and took Ami's hand in support and said encouragingly, "Its ok you don't have to cry I know you got those answers right because your one of the smartest girls in the whole class."

Ami looked at the other girl and gave her a small smile and said, "Thanks Ino you're a really great friend."

Naruto who had watched the whole thing was pissed, now he didn't mind if he didn't do so well on assignments because he hated to do them and never put that much effort in the first place. But he knew that Ami deserved those marks because she worked her heart out to do well in school, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it so he just sat at his chair and glared at Iruka.

Iruka had looked up to see Naruto glaring at him as if he was public enemy number one but had shrugged it off and kept working.

He didn't care if he scored them lower than the other students because to him they had taken one of the most important things away from him, his parents.

Now he knew that the kids had not actually killed his parents but he knew that what was sealed inside them had, the nine-tailed fox.

Even though the knowledge of the demon sealed inside of them was supposed to be kept from the general public some ninja had blabbed all those years ago and since then Iruka had held a secret hatred of the two siblings.

After the day was done Naruto, Ami and the gang exited the academy to find the Ino-Shika-Cho parents waiting for their kids as always.

Ino immediately ran up to her daddy and told him all about how Iruka was docking Ami and Naruto marks to which he frowned.

"Hm, I'll bring this up to the Hokage and see what he has to say about this," Inoichi said before disappearing in poof of smoke as the other made their ways home.

Inoichi appeared before the Hokage's office and walked up to the secretary and said, "I would like to speak to the Hokage please."

The secretary told him that it was ok for him to enter and Inoichi walked in and stood in front of the man known as 'The Professor.'

Sarutobi looked at the man that stood in front of him and asked, "Inoichi is there something that I can help you with?"

"Lord Third my daughter Ino informed me today that her instructor Iruka has been docking the Uzumaki siblings marks on questions that should have been marked as right, I believe that this is unfair and something should be done about it."

Sarutobi sighed deeply as Inoichi told him this information, he got from his chair and told him, "I'll go and have a talk with Iruka," before he Shunshined to academy leaving Inoichi behind in the office.

Iruka was just finishing marking papers when he heard a knock on his door, he looked up and was shocked to find the Third Hokage standing in his classroom

"Lord Hogake-sama what are you doing here? I wasn't expecting you to come until next week to look over the student's first month progress," Iruka said worriedly thinking something was wrong.

Sarutobi noticed this and said, "Don't worry Iruka I am still going to come here as planned, but what I'm here today for is to ask you why you are mismarking the Uzumaki siblings assignments."

Iruka hardened his gaze and said, "Because I don't believe those two 'demons' should be added to our ninja ranks."

Sarutobi sighed and said, "Iruka have you forgotten what I told all those years ago at the memorial stone?" Sarutobi then proceeded to remind Iruka of the lesson he had taught him.

"But they killed my parents!" Iruka replied lamely.

"NO THEY DID NOT," Sarutobi said with authority, "THE NINE TAILED FOX DID AND YOU ARE JUST TAKING OUT YOUR HATRED OF IT ON THEM."

Iruka looked down at the floor in shame, the Hokage was right he was so blinded by the fact the two children held the demon in them that he had overlooked what wonderful students they were.

"Your right Hokage-sama I have been blinded by the beliefs of the villagers and I should be ashamed of myself, now if you wanted to remove me as their instructor," but Sarutobi cut him off.

"No I don't want to remove you as their instructor because I believe that you are the best teacher for them, I just wanted to see what you were doing was foolish and I what I want you to do is to make things right." The old man smiled at him proud of him that he had learned his lesson.

Iruka smiled happy that his leader was not disappointed in him and said, "Okay I promise that I will treat them as fairly as I do the rest of the class."

And that he did, in the coming weeks after Sarutobi had come to see him Iruka started marking the Uzumaki's fairly and they had risen from near the bottom to the top 10 students.

Iruka also apologized for his actions saying that he was blinded and selfish and he hoped they could find it in themselves to forgive him, which they did but not after tricking him into taking them out for ramen.

Iruka at first thought this wasn't such a bad idea, until they got to ramen stand and the kids ordered 25 bowls of ramen each.

After they were done Iruka didn't even have a penny left in his wallet but after he saw the huge smiles on the kids' faces he realised that it was worth it.

This soon became a weekly thing where Iruka would take the two out to get their ramen fill and on one of these times Ayame had pulled out her camera and snapped a pic of the three happily eating their ramen together.

Flashback End

Naruto smiled as he remembered that first time Iruka had taken them to Ramen, "the look on his face was priceless."

It was then that Ami walked into the room and when she noticed her brother looking at the picture of Iruka and the two of them she smiled and said, "we've made a lot of good friends over the years haven't we?"

Naruto looked and sister and smiled back at her, she was wearing an off yellow kimono top with a black band around her waist with black shorts underneath and black leggings that went up to her mid thighs. "We sure have," he replied as he looked at another picture that was on his bedside table.

This picture depicted Naruto holding his hand in the seal of reconciliation with another boy. They both looked banged up and dirty but still they both had smiles on their face and Naruto thought back to the time that they met Ren Saki.

Flashback

It had been two months since the academy had started and Naruto and the gang were talking amongst themselves when a knock was heard on the classroom door.

Standing in the doorway was a boy that was a bit taller than Naruto with light skin, shaggy brown hair that fell to his emerald colored eyes, and a small smile on his face that made some of the girls swoon.

He was wearing a black shirt that had a design with a tiger lily on each arm, blue cargo pants, and black ninja sandals.

Iruka noticed the boy and addressed the class, "Class I would like to introduce you to our new student Ren Saki, he just moved here from Earth Country and I would like one of you to volunteer to help him catch up."

Many of the girls' hands shot up at this but Ino's was the fastest as she said excitedly, "I'll do it Iruka-sensei!"

"Well there we go, Ren go take a seat next to Ino and I'll start getting your work ready." Iruka told the boy.

Ren made his way over to Ino and took a seat and said with his soft and light voice, "well you know my name do you mind telling me yours?"

Ino blushed slightly at this and said, "My names Ino, and I think your eyes are beautiful," Ino's eyes opened wide as she realized that she had said that out loud.

Ren laughed at this and said, "Why thank you, and who is your friend over here who seems to be trying to avoid looking at me?"

Ino looked over and Ami and found her to be looking everywhere but Ren, she smirked, "This is my best friend Ami and don't worry she just get nervous around cute boys," Ino said while winking at him.

"No I don't!" Ami said embarrassed while she was blushing the same color as her hair.

Ren was amused by Ino's teasing and Ami's blush and said, "Well I hope that we can get all get along and be good friends."

Naruto who was sitting in the row behind the girls said to himself, "What's so great about this guy, he doesn't look so special."

"I don't know but it's too troublesome to think about," Shikamaru said surprising Naruto.

"Yea this guy doesn't look so tough I bet he's just a pretty boy ninja wannabe," said Kiba who in the past two months had joined Naruto's group of guy friends due to him and Naruto being pranksters.

In fact even Shino had become friends with the blond after one day at lunch he showed interest in his bugs and asked him to educate him on the subject.

Naruto in the end found it intriguing and boring but still asked the boy if he wanted to be friends with him to which he said nodded yes.

Ami had also made new friends with Sakura and Hinata after Ino had invited them all to a slumber party at her house.

After Iruka gave Ren his work to do the class then moved outside to do taijutsu spars where he asked, "Okay now who wants to volunteer to spar first with Ren so I can assess his skill?"

Nobody put their hands up until Naruto raised his hand and said, "I'll do it Iruka sensei."

"Excellent thank you Naruto, now if you two would enter the sparring circle," he directed the two boys.

As they entered the circle Naruto had a look of confidence on his face knowing that taijutsu was one of his strong points.

Ren still had his small smile while he put his hand into the seal of confrontation along with Naruto. When Iruka started the match his face hardened and the smile disappeared as he got into a brawler-like stance.

Naruto was the first to make a move as he charged Ren head on which turned out to be a huge mistake as Ren dodged over to right and delivered a powerful leg kick that swept Naruto off of his feet.

Ren was about to deliver an axe kick that would have ended the match but Naruto rolled out of the way just before it hit and got back to his feet before he could launch another attack.

"Wow he's fast I'll have to be more careful in how I plan out my attacks," Naruto thought to himself.

"So this guy isn't just a pretty boy," Kiba said to himself after seeing him dump Naruto to the ground so easily.

"Please be careful Naruto," Ami and Hinata said quietly to themselves.

"Wow," Ino said in awe at the display of power from Ren.

"This guy is strong but not as strong as Sasuke-kun," Sakura thought to herself.

"Hn," Sasuke said not really paying attention.

The rest of the class watched in awe as Naruto charged at Ren again.

Ren dodged to the left this time and threw another leg kick but Naruto jumped over it and threw a punch directly at Ren's face that connected and knocked him back a couple feet.

"Hm, you landed a punch on me that's impressive," Ren said with a smile.

"Oh I'm just getting warmed up, believe it!" Naruto said excitedly.

This time Ren was the one to charge as he threw an uppercut that was blocked and followed up with a spinning backfist that was also blocked.

Naruto then threw a knee into Ren's stomach that was partially blocked and before he could react Ren had thrown a left hook that connected with his right cheek that staggered him slightly.

For the next 10 minutes the rest of the class watched as the boys trading and blocking each other's blows neither one slowing down until they both suddenly stopped panting heavily staring each other down.

"This is the most fun I've had," Naruto said still breathing heavily.

"Yea, you're the first person who has ever given me a challenge," Ren said back him breathing just as heavily.

"Well how about we end this now?" Naruto said finally catching his breath.

Ren smiled, "alright then," he said getting ready for one last charge.

The two boys then charged at each other with their fists drawn back and as they got in range of each other they threw their punches with all of their remaining strength connecting at the same time resulting in both boys falling face first into the dirt.

The whole class was shocked that the spar had ended in a draw even though throughout the whole fight the two boys were evenly matched.

Iruka went to check on the two boys to find that they were still conscious and were only resting in the dirt both with happy grins on their faces.

The two boys then got up and looked at each other with looks of great respect for the other before smiling joining their hands in the seal of reconciliation to signify that they were still comrades.

This was when Ami snapped the picture of the two boys with the camera Ayame had given her so that she could document all the important times in their lives.

After that Naruto and Ren became really good friends who each considered the other their rival as they pushed each other to become better ninja, and every day afterwards Naruto and Ami would meet up with Ren and the three would walk to school together.

Flashback End

Naruto smiled as he remembered that spar like it was yesterday and the amount of pain he was in the next day.

"You two knuckleheads really went all out in that fight didn't you?" Ami said to her brother with a smile.

Naruto chuckled and said, "Yea I think we really just wanted to test our limits on each other more than anything."

Ami smiled at that and looked at the last picture Naruto had on his bedside table, it was pic of both of them with huge smiles on their faces sitting behind a large birthday cake from the surprise birthday party their friends had thrown for them.

Flashback

A year had passed since the academy had started and all the students were progressing nicely.

It was a cool autumn day in the village as the leaves were starting to turn orange and fall off the trees, Ino had been sitting outside with the rest of the gang as they were all eating their lunches when a thought that had been bugging her entered her mind.

"Ami when is your birthday? I just realised that even though we've known each other for a year that you have never told us your birthday," Ino asked her redheaded friend.

"Oh…yea I guess I haven't…Its October 10," she replied rather sadly.

Ino noticed this and said, "That's next week isn't it? So what are you guys going to do for your party?"

Ami looked at Naruto sadly and Naruto said, "Probably nothing…we've never had a real birthday party."

This shocked the group as they all looked at each other and Ino asked, "But what did you do last year?"

"Nothing really we were just sitting at the apartment until Iruka showed up and took us out for some birthday ramen," Naruto said sighing.

Naruto didn't tell them that they were also hiding from the villagers because if they ever went out on their birthday they would chase them down like they do every year.

Iruka then called the students back inside because lunch break was over so Naruto and Ami got up and started to walk back inside.

The rest were about to follow after them until Ino stopped in front of them and said, "Hey guys are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

She was met by silence from the group, she sweat dropped and said, "What I mean is that I want to throw a surprise birthday party for those two."

The rest of the group went ohhh and nodded now seeing what she met and they all agreed to meet after school to plan the party.

The group then set to work the rest of the week to prepare for the Uzumaki surprise party.

They had agreed to have the party at Choji's house because they would have enough room to fit everybody and his family would be in charge of food since they were the best at cooking.

Shikamaru and his dad were in charge of decorations because they could use their strategic minds to design the perfect layout.

Ino, Sakura and Hinata would be in charge of getting Ami's gifts while Ren, Kiba, and Shino would get Naruto's.

The week went by rather quickly and the day of the party had finally arrived, it was also on a weekend so there was no school and Naruto and Ami were just sitting at home waiting for this dreaded to day to finally end.

Ino was making her way over to the apartment when she saw Ren turn onto the same street she ran up to him and said, "Hey Ren where you going?"

"I'm just on my way to Naruto and Ami's to pick them up for the party why?" he replied back to her.

Ino was puzzled they had all agreed that she was going to pick them up for the party but she didn't question it as she liked being in the his company.

They soon arrived at the apartment and Ino knocked on the door and they waited for it to be answered. After five minutes of waiting she knocked again saying, "Naruto, Ami it's Ino and Ren open the door."

A couple of seconds later the door opened to a confused Naruto who said, "Uh hey guys what are you doing here?"

"We came to ask you if you wanted to come hang out with us at Choji's, everyone is going to be there and we were thinking about maybe playing soccer or something." Ren told the confused boy.

"Yea so you wanna come?" Ino asked with a smile.

Naruto frowned and said, "Well I don't know guys we…" he was cut off by Ino.

"We are not taking no for an answer buster! Now get dressed and bring your butts out here." Ino said annoyed.

Naruto not wanting to deal with a pissed off Ino quickly got dressed, dragged Ami out of the apartment and locked the door before departing for Choji's house.

They made it to Choji's house about five minutes later and Ino could hardly contain her excitement that in just a few seconds the big surprise was going to happen.

Naruto and Ami reached the door first so Naruto knocked on the door and waited to be let inside, ten minutes later Naruto was about to give up when Ino said, "they're probably in the backyard let's just go inside."

Naruto was hesitant about the idea at first but went with it any way and opened the door. When they stepped inside all the lights were turned off which Naruto and Ami found strange but they continued on anyway.

A few seconds later all the lights turned on and they heard a big "Surprise!" which made them jump back in fear as they thought they were being attacked.

What they found instead was all of their friends, Inoichi, Shikaku, Choza, Iruka, Ayame, and even the third Hokage all smiling and clapping as they stood in the living room with a banner that said, "Happy Birthday Naruto and Ami."

Naruto and Ami stood there in shock for a few minutes as the realisation hit them that their friends had thrown them a surprise birthday party. Tears of joy started rolling down their faces as they walked up to the crowd saying, "T-thank you."

Everyone smiled at that and so the group moved outside to start playing a game of Soccer.

After a couple of hours the game ended and everyone moved back inside so that the two siblings could open their presents.

Once everyone was seated down the two Uzumaki's started opening their presents, Naruto's first present was from Kiba and it was a new ninja pouch complete with shuriken, kunai, and smoke bombs.

Ami's first gift was from Sakura and it was a brand new black silk ribbon for her hair which she was extremely happy about.

Naruto's next gift was from Shino and it was a book about all the different bugs in fire country and although Naruto wasn't too excited about it still thanked Shino for his kindness.

Ami opened her gift from Hinata and found that it was a flower pressing kit and smiled knowing that they could now both press flowers together.

Naruto opened his gift from Ren and it was a new set of chakra weights for training, he smiled thinking about how would they further increase his training.

Ami's gift from Ino was a new green sundress to which she squealed in delight.

Choji gave Naruto a recipe book for ramen and a weeks' worth of coupons to Ichiraku's.

Shikamaru gave Naruto a new Shogi set saying that he should also be training his brain and not just his body.

The rest of the adults all gave the two money and told them to spend it on useful things instead of just ramen.

After the presents were done everyone started to move into the dining room when Hinata pulled Naruto aside and said, "N-naruto-kun I g-got you something too."

She then pulled out a small nicely wrapped box and gave it to him, he carefully unwrapped the box and it revealed a necklace necklace that was in the shape of a burning flame.

Naruto looked at the necklace in awe at its beauty design and asked, "What does this mean Hinata?"

Hinata smiled and said, "I-It d-depicts the w-will of f-fire and i-it is the belief that if a l-leaf shinobi possesses it t-that it will give them s-strength to overcome i-impossible odds and that they w-will protect the village and e-everyone in it with their lives."

Naruto eyes widened slightly as he said, "do you really believe I have that Hinata?"

Hinata nodded confidently and said, "Y-yes I do, a-and I believe that o-one day you will achieve y-your goal and become H-Hokage."

Naruto was stunned for a few seconds not knowing what to say to her before he reached out, wrapped his arms around her and hugged her while whispering in her ear, "Thank you for believing in me hime."

This made Hinata blush furiously as she fought the urge to faint right there in his arms, when he finally let go put the necklace on and said to her with a smile, "come on lets go have some cake."

She smiled back at him and nodded as they followed the others into the kitchen.

Naruto sat down next to Ami at one end of the table as everyone else was at the other end waiting for Choza to bring in the cake.

Choza then brought in the cake and sat it down in front of the birthday boy and girl, the cake read in intricately decorated letters, "Happy Birthday Naruto and Ami."

"Now make a wish and blow out the candles," Ino said happily.

The two thought over what they were going to wish for a second before they blew out all eight candles on each side of the cake.

"So what you guys wish for?" Kiba asked the two siblings.

Naruto and Ami both looked at each other and smiled their big foxy grins while saying, "If we tell then you then our wish won't come true baka!"

Everyone began to laugh and this was when Ayame snapped the picture of the two with Ami's camera knowing that this was the one birthday that they would remember for the rest of their lives.

Flashback End

Naruto smiled, "That still is the greatest birthday ever," he said while putting his hand over the necklace Hinata gave him.

Ami smiled back, "yea it was, so if you're done reminiscing we have an exam to ace," she confidently.

"Yea let's do this," Naruto said pumping his fist in the air.

The two then made their way out of the apartment and on their way to go meet Ren so they could finally take their first step into becoming real ninja.