Ch. 3
Graduation Exams
Naruto woke up to the sun shining down on his face and he rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. It read 6:30 and Naruto shook himself awake and prepared himself for the coming day. He put on his mask and went out into the kitchen where he pulled out a cup of instant ramen and poured hot water into the cup. He put a book on top of it so the heat whould stay inside. He leaned up against the counter and started to reflect everything that had happened over the three years since he had arrived back in Konoha. The first becoming friends with Hinata.
-Flashback-
Naruto was sitting on the roof of the school, eating his lunch and fiddling around with his flute, to escape the rabid fangirls that would follow either him or Sasuke around. He put his lips to the flute to start playing when he heard movement from the stairs. "Who on the stairs?", he asked loudly.
There was a small squeak and someone who he wasn't expecting came into view. It was Hinata Hyugga who in his opinion was one of the strongest kunochi in his class but had a very bad self-confidence problem. "So, why are you following me, Hinata?"
She averted her eyes away from Naruto and kept her head down. "U-Um, I w-was just w-w-wondering where y-you eat lunch s-so I d-decided to follow y-you."
Naruto looked at her carefully and sensed no decit in her voice. "I see, Hinata. Since you are up here, would like to stay and listen to me play?" He motioned to his flute.
Hinata nodded and seated herself on the same bench Naruto was sitting. She hadn't noticed that Naruto had pulled down his mask to eat and was now preparing to play. Naruto put his lips to the flute and out came some melancholy music that Hinata was able to connect with. (think Sadness and Sorrow here) Hinata just closed her eyes and listened to the tune, swaying back and forth with the music. The music had stopped and when Hinata opened her eyes again, she saw Naruto had disappeared and there was a large crowd of fangirls who had heard his music and rushed up here to try and find him. Hinata then felt something in her lap and looked down to see the flute was there. On it there was a note attached. It said, "This was my first flute I got. Please take it as a sign of our friendship." Hinata stared at the note with a blush on her face.
-Flashback Ends-
Naruto smiled at that memory and wondered where Hinata had placed the flute. He noted again that the house was empty except for himself and reflected the day the Kenshin had left on his journey.
-Flashback-
Naruto was getting back from another day from the Academy and had arrived at the apartment when he and Kenshin lived. When he opened the door, he saw that Kenshin was wearing his traveling straw hat and was wearing his basket again. Naruto looked confusedly and asked, "Kenshin, where are you going?"
Kenshin turned around and looked at Naruto. "Naruto, it is time for me to move on again."
Naruto immediately rushed Kenshin and hugged his leg. "You can't go. I need you."
Kenshin removed Naruto from his leg and knelt down. "Look, Naruto. I know you don't want me to go but I have many more things to do and I can't do them here in Konoha."
Naruto looked at him with defiant eyes. "Then, take me with you." But he already knew the answer.
Kenshin sighed, "You know I can't do that, Naruto. You deserve a better life than living on the road with me."
Naruto conceded and looked up at him with teary eyes. Kenshin pulled him into a hug. He then stood up and hefted his basket. He went to the door and told Naruto, "On the counter, I have left several items for you. Two of them are swords, both different in their puropse. I will leave it up to you for which one to weild. The rest are scrolls in which I have recorded all I know about Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu style along with more advanced scrolls that hte Hokage had provided. I trust you will use them to their fullest pontential. The last scroll is something I asked the Hokage to put together with contains many of your hobbies and interests. I hope you do well, and I will be coming back to check up on how you are doing." With that said, Kenshin opened the door and walked out, leaving Naruto alone in the apartment.
-Flashback ends-
Since then, Naruto had trained non-stop since the day Kenshin left and he felt his skills were near Chunnin level if not hihger, but that was just a self evaluation so he couldn't be too sure. Unfornately during one of the training matched, he met face to face with his tenant.
-Flashback-
Naruto was sparring with his swords against shadow clones he had created while perusing through the scrolls that were left behind. He had managed to dispel all of his clones but one and was looking around to locate the last one. He was exhasted and was sweating profusely, and with his vision started to get hazy which would explain why he didn't raise his sword to block a frontal attack from the last clone. The clone swiped down in a diagonal and a line of blood formed from Naruto before a gush og blood started to flow. Naruto fell to the ground in a heap, thinking he was going to die right then and there and he blacked out.
-In Naruto's mindscape-
Naruto opened his eyes again and found himself surrounded by darkness. "Where the hell am I and why is there so much water in here?" Naruto indeed was knee high in some murky water. He observed his surrounding and he noted a giant cage and when he looked closer, there was a piece of paper that said "Seal". He moved closer to the cage and peered inside. He was greeted with the sight of a large sleeping fox and a small stream of what looked like red chakra moving from the fox and out of the cage. Naruto was confused at where he was and started to think of possible places, but couldn't come up with a answer. During his pondering, the fox had woken up and had situated itself right up against the bars of the cage looking down at Naruto. Naruto had felt a looming presense over him and when he turned around, he jumped back in a defensive stance.
"Well, it seems that my container hasn't been slacking in his training."
Naruto looked at the fox supiciously and asked, "Who are you and where are we, Fox-sama?"
The fox was suprised at his manner and answered. "I am the nine-tailed Fox, Kyubbi no Yoko, and we are in your mind."
Naruto almost paniced when he heard he was in front of perhaps the most powerful creature in the world but it did not explain why he was in his own mind. "Why am I in my own mind?"
"I believe it was because of that wound you received a couple minutes ago. You blacked out and are now currently in front of me. As for wound, I have healed it but I have decieded to leave a scar as a reminder to be more careful when you train."
"Are you a male or female fox?" asked Naruto. "Because in all the textbooks, I have read on you, they say you are male but I not sure as I look at you right now."
Kyubbi was thrown off by the bluntness of the question but decieded to tell Naruto anyways. "Well, you are the first person that didn't automatically assume that I was a male because of all the power that I had in my aresenal. I am a female and damn proud of it too. But its time for you to wake up now and we eventually talk again in the future."
Kyubbi then disappeared and Naruto felt himself being pulled out somewhere.
-Out in the real world-
Naruto woke and rubbed his head. "Damn, that was a odd dream. He scratched his chest and he felt a scar. He looked down that he had a scar that was healed but left a mark fro his right shoulder to his left waist. He only looked in wonder seeing how fast he healed and mentally thanked Kyubbi.
Somewhere in her cage, Kyubbi smiled at the thought.
-Flashback Ends-
Since that moment, Kyubbi had mad no effort to contact Naruto and no matter how hard Naruto tired, he couldn't reach Kyubbi. But he had become more careful in his training to avoid anymore serious accidents.
He noticed that 3 minutes had passed and pounced on his ramen devouring in less than 30 seconds and prepared himself to go do training. After 2 hours of various types of training, he went back to his apartment to clean up and prepare to go the Academy to participate in the Genin Exams, the exam that would determine who would become Genin, who would be held back, or dropped from the program. Naruto had ranked himself at the top of the class but he never showed his skills at the Academy and resorted to fighting and performing at a level much lower than what he was capable of. The results was his ranking was near the dead last of the Academy if not the dead last. He had recieved many taunts from Sasuke who had blamed his loss to Naruto as luck and that there was no way the dead last could ever beat the Uchiha prodigy.
Naruto put his mask back on and proceeded to the Academy. He arrived in the room and observed who was already in the room.
Shino Aburame, who was talking to a bug on his finger; Chouji Akimichi, who was eating a bag of potato chips; Shikamaru Nara, who was sitting next to Chouji with a bored expression; Hinata Hyugga, who was sitting nervously in her seat and trying to keep Kiba from putting his arm around her; Kiba Inuzuka and his dog Akamura, who was trying to put his arm around Hinata and asking her out on a date; and Sasuke Uchiha; who was brooding with a straight face. Naruto moved up the stairs and decided to sit next to Hinata. Kiba had noticed Naruto walking toward him and knew Naruto would try and sit down next to Hinata so he stood up and blocked Naruto path.
Naruto looked at Kiba who was in his way with a lazy eye. "May I ask why you are blocking my path?"
Kiba glared back at Naruto and said, "I know you want to sit next to Hinata but that too bad because I'm already sitting next to her."
"Oh really? Well, I'm going to show you how I'm going to sit next to Hinata." By now the whole class had heard what was going on and was looking to see what would happen.
"Oh yea smart guy? Show it to me." Kiba replied arrogantly.
Naruto smirked under his mask and knew his plan was already going to work but made no visible sign to show his victory. "Alright then, Kiba. I want you to stay right here and don't move a single step." Kiba being not too smart accepted what Naruto told him. Naruto then walked past Kiba and sat down in the chair that was previously occupied but Kiba himself. He looked at an enraged Kiba and siad, "And that is how you do it."
Kiba became angry at Naruto and demanded that Naruto get out of his seat.
"Why should I move? You wanted to prove that I could take the seat from you and that what I did."
"You don't deserve to sit next to Hinata. Only I care about her."
"Oh really then? How much do you actually know about her? Do you know here favorite color? Favorite Food?" Naruto asked. Looking at Kiba's blank face, he got his answer. "That's what I thought." Kiba sent Naruto a dark look and went to a seat several rows back, muttering under his breath.
Hinata had whispered under her breath, "Thank you, Naruto."
"It was no problem, Hinata," Naruto whispered back. At that moment, several louds shrieks were heard and everyone turned and faced the doorway into the classroom. There was a blockade of a girl with bright pink hair and a girl with blonde hair who both had tried to reach the coveted seat right next to Sasuke Uchiha. The girls name were Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka and both were the biggest fangirls of Sasuke and both rushed to the coveted seat next to him. Sakura had reached first and made a loud annoucement with her victory over Ino. Naruto rolled his eyes in annoyance but no other reaction to the girl's foolishness. Iruka-sensei had appeared in the room and gave a speech about becoming a Genin and to wish them the best of luck on the test. He then explained that the test would take up two parts: a written exam and a ninjutsu exam that we observed by himself and an another teacher. He passed out the test and everyone began to work. After about 15 minutes, Iruka started to patrol the room and see the progress of his students and was throughly shocked when Naruto had gotten up from his desk and placed his test on the table. The eyes of all the students followed and most instantly came up with the conclusion, given Naruto was one of the dumbest students in class, he had just given up. After about another hour, all the tests had been handed in and the students were given a 1-hour break before the next half of their exam, where the written exam results would be posted after on the door.
Iruka sat down at his desk and proceeded to grade the tests. Most of the students had fulfilled what he had expected of them, with Saskura, Sasuke, Shino and Hinata being at the top of the class. What shocked Iruka was that Naruto had gotten a perfect score beating out Sakura and Sasuke for the top score. The one hour break soon finished and all the students expectantly looked to see their grades. Everyone was shocked to see that Naruto had gotten the best score out of the entire class and which Naruto acted neutral and sat down in his seat. The students sat down nervously all trying to stay calm and hope to perform their jutsus correctly. One by one, students were called into the seperate room and through the reactions after coming back, everyone was able to figure if the person had failed or passed. Soon enough, Naruto was called who happened to be the last person to take his test and he walked into the room. He saw Iruka and Mizuki who for some reason, Naruto did not trust.
"Okay, Naruto. I want you to perform Kawamari, Henge and create two working Bunshins.," Iruka read off his list.
Naruto nodded and formed a hand seal. "Kawamari!" A cloud of smoke erupted and he was replaced with a chair. He then formed another hand seal and yelled out, "Orioke no jutsu!" Another plume of smoke covered Naruto and when the smoke cleared, Iruka and Mizuki were met with a sight of a near naked girl who was wearing a mask but had thin smoke whisps that barely covered her female parts. To say the least, Iruka and Mizuki were out for a good ten minutes with blood leaking out of their nose. Too bad, when they had woken up, Naruto had gotten a very loud scream in his ear to never do it again or he would suffer the consequence. Iruka then calmed himself down and told Naruto to create two bunshins. Naruto did the hand seal and created two working bunshins. Iruka smiled widely at Naruto, handed him a Konoha hitate and said, "Congratualtion, Naruto. You have become a Genin."
Naruto bowed but asked, "Iruka-sensei, is it required that I have to wear my hitate?"
Iruka looked at him oddly, "Well, you have to wear it while you are doing missions outside the village but the rules don't say you have to wear it all the time."
Naruto bowed at Iruka. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei. You have taught me much over the three years as a student." And Naruto turned around, stowing his hitate in one of his pockets, and left the room. Iruka smiled at Naruto and was proud. Mizuki, however, was not happy that his plan had failed that would allow him to get the Forbidden Scroll and also kill the demon brat at the same time, but he would not allow something get in the way of his plans of getting the ultimate power from Orichmaru.
-Outside the Academy-
Naruto was walking out of the Academy when he saw glares and heard whispering directed in hs direction. He picked up small parts like "thank goodness they didn't let that demon become a ninja..." and other remarks were whispered by the parents of two students who had graduated. Naruto threw them a glare and they immediatley looked away, pretending not knowing what they were talking about. 'Cowards. They when they think they are safe, but the instant danger comes along, thye ran away and feign innocence thye nothing happened. Naruto was thinking of going to do some more training when he was approached by Hinata. "Did you pass, Naruto-kun?" Naruto gave her a smile that she could barely distinguish through the mask and a thumbs up. Hinata smiled back but asked, "Why arn't you wearing your hitate?"
"Becasue, the less people that know I am a shinobi now, the better. It gives me an element of suprise if someone decides to attack me."
At that moment, Hiashi Hyugga had appeared to hear about the results of the exam and to pick up his daughter. "So, Hinata, did you pass?" Hinata nodded her head. "Good. It was expected of someone from the Hyugga to pass with any trouble." His then saw Naruto. "Any who may you be, boy?"
"My name is Naruto Himura Uzumaki and it nice to meet the father of Hinata." He bowed respectfully to Hiashi. "May I please know your name?"
Hiashi was suprised to see someone so young with such manners. "My name is Hiashi and it was nice to meet you, Naruto. And now if you would excuse me, I must escort my daughter home." And he turned around motioning for Hinata to follow him. Hinata said a silent good bye and waved and Naruto did the same back. Naruto then walked back to his apartment to retrieve his equipment to resume his training.
-Later that night-
Naruto was training in the forest when he heard movement. He decided to investigate and after running for a short distance, he saw Mizuki with a large scroll tied to his back and decided to see waht it was. He pulled out a scroll that was designed the Third for him and pulled out a bow and pulled back the string. A arrow that was sealed in a minute scroll on the bow appeared and Naruto took careful aim and shot his arrow. His arrow cut cleanly through the rope holding the scroll to Mizuki's back. Naruto dashed forward and snatched the scroll from the air and disapperaed before Mizuki had even realized he no longer had the scroll.
Mizuki who had sucessfully stolen the forbidden scroll which was patheticly easy which involved taping a porno magazine in the Hokage's face and having him pass out from the blood loss. He grinned knowing he would escape with the scrolland be given power. He had ran for several minutes before he realized the scroll on his back was gone. He outwardly cursed and quickly turned around to locate the lost scroll.
Naruto had mangaed to get a large distance away from Mizuki and was resting up against a tree, catching his breath. He let his eyes wander over the the forbidden scroll and decided it was too much of a chance it let it pass by. He broke the seal holding the scroll together and started to peruse it.
-An hour later-
Iruka was searching the forest for whoever could have possibly stolen the forbidden scroll when he glanced in a random direction and saw Naruto looking at the scroll. He silently snuck up and pulled out a kunai to be prepared for anything. He walked forward and saw Naruto reading the forbidden scroll. "Naruto, are you the one who stole the scroll?"
Naruto looked up from his reading and said, "Does it look like I stole the scroll? If I had, I would of have been long gone from by now. I had stopped the real person from getting away from the scroll and had decided to end this person knowing they would turn back to get the forbidden scroll back.
"Just who is the person who stole the scroll?" Iruka inquired.
"Why don't you ask him, seeing as he is about thirty seconds away from our position?" A haggard looking Mizuki had finally located the forbidden scroll only to find it in the hands of the Kyubbi brat and Iruka. He pointed accusingly at Naruto and said, "Iruka, you have to help me. The Kyubbi brat stole the forbidden scroll and was about to escape when I had stopped him. He told me he was going to use the scroll to exact revenge on Konoha."
Naruto's eyes had narrowed at that point and stood up. "You expect Iruka to believe those lies that are being spewed from your mouth? I'm going to fix that problem right now." He pulled out his training sword and pointed it at Mizuki. He stood in a defensive position, waiting to see what Mizuki would do first. Mizuki then ran in a full circle attempting to get around Naruto but Naruto moved to cut him off and pulled back his arm to slice at Mizuki. Mizuki then pulled out a large amount of shuriken and kunai and threw them in Naruto's direction. Naruto instantly pulled out two kunai, one in each hand, to defend himself but saw the weapons were not aimed at him. He turned around and yelled, "Iruka-sensei, watch out!!!" Iruka who was in a daze at what was happening, shook hmself awake and was barely able to block any of the weapons thus results of cuts and weapons sticking on him. Mizuki who saw Naruto was distracted pulled up behind and with a kunai in hand started to drive it downward. Though Naruto had not sensed the attack, Iruka had seen it and made a hand seal. Naruto had felt an attack coming from behind but turned around to see Iruka had kicked him away, take a kunai to the right side of his chest and it was starting to bleed.
Mizuki cursed, "Iruka, why the hell do you defend the demon? He killed your parents and I know you hated the Kyubbi. So why do you defend such scum?" He looked at Naruto. "That's right, Naruto. You are the nine-tailed fox and you killed Iruka's parents and despite him saying how good you are in class, it was all a charade becasue deep down, he hates you, the Kyubbi." Naruto ignored the comment of being the Kyubbi but the part of Iruka stung deep in his soul because he had trusted Iruka and made him a close person. But now, he didn't know what to do with Iruka.
Iruka spoke in ragged gasps, "It may be true that I hate the Kyubbi..." Naruto's eyes widened at that and was ready to run away "... but Naruto is not the Kyubbi. He is a proud shinobi of Konoha and I'm proud to have called him my student."
"Save me the garbage, Iruka. You always were a soft shinobi. Now, I'm just going to kill you off, then Naruto and take the forbidden scroll." Mizuki approached Iruka slowly and Iruka tired to move but the wounds on his chest and legs prevented him from moving without losing more blood. Mizuki stopped in front of Iruka, "Now, Die" And he brought his kunai down again to finish Iruka. Iruka closed his eyes and waited fot the finishing blow but it never came. He opened his eyes again and saw Naruto, covered in a red chakra and if his eyes were fooling him, fox ears and a fox tail.
-Naruto a few moments back-
He had seen Iruka take the kunai to his body and was moved to help but hestitated when Mizuki started talking. He almost ran away when Iruka started to talk but stopped when he heard Iruka's revelation. He stood rooted to the spot and closed his eyes. Kyubbi, if you can hear me, I want you to give me power so I can protect Iruka. Somewhere in Naruto's mind, Kyubbi responded. 'I will give you chakra, along with fox senses to help you. Use it wisely.' Naruto felt a surge of chakra and his features became more fox-like and he grew fox ears and a fox tail.
Time to pay, Mizuki for hurting Iruka-sensei. Naruto had dashed forward and gave a vicious jumping kick to Mizuki's face effectively knocking him to the ground. Mizuki looked up from his downed position and saw Naruto's chakra and new features. "So, it seems you have decided to reveal your true colors now. Come forward, so I can kill you and become a hero for this village."
Naruto looked at his with eyes of disdain. "Even when backed into a corner, you still spew trash from your mouth." Mizuki laughed deriversly, "Ha, I'm a Chunnin and you are just a Genin. How do you expect to beat me? I would beat you in one punch."
Naruto eyed narrowed, "I'm glad you asked, Mizuki. This is how I'm going to beat you." He put his hands in the ram seal and said, "TAJUU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!!" (Mass shadow clones technique) There a massive amount of smoke clouds and a hundreds of red chakra Naruto's filled the forest. "Ready to recieve you punishment, Mizuki?" Mizuki could only shake in fear at what would happen. THe orginal Naruto swept his hand forward and all the Narutos jumped forward with fists or clawed extended.
-After a very short beating-
A bloodied and bruised Mizuki laid on the forest floor and Naruto rushed to Iruka to help with his wound. Iruka though had already stemmed the flow of blood and was walking shakily to Naruto and stumbled forward. Naruto caught him and said, "Come on, Iruka-sensei, let's get you to the hospital." Iruka just nodded his head and allowed Naruto to help him. Before they left the clearing, Naruto grabbed a flare from one of Iruka's pockets and fired into the air alerting the shinboi who were still searching for the forbidden scroll to converge on the site. THey met with the site of an unsealed forbidden scroll and a disfigured traitor to Konoha.
So far, so good. My rewrite is actually going well in my opinion but I will leave that up to the reader. Please Review. A big cookie for whoever reviews. Anything is fair game but if you don't like explain and will try to improve my story.
If you guys are wondering, why Naruto has yet to wield a sword, is because though he had recieved training, he hasn't chosen the sword he will wield which should be in the next chapter.
Next Chapter: Teams are formed and the Test for Genin.
