Edit 5-6-10: Now with the line breaks eaten by this annoying website that won't even let me enter its name into the story without removing it.

Naruto sat on his bed, looking over a star chart. They'd just finished their training for the day and were falling into their usual routine. Three weeks had already passed since he'd joined the marines. And with just one to go until the exam, Naruto and Kiba had both been hard at work preparing to pass it.

It's not as if their basic training would be much help. He should have realized it from the name, but it was mostly just exercise, even if it had got a bit harder over time. Sure they mixed in a few things that were actually useful. Gun maintenance, steering ships, repairing leaks, and such. But he'd learned that most of the interesting stuff was saved until after they'd completed basic.

"Nose stuck in a book again?" Kiba asked. "You should come outside and do some real training with me."

"Believe me, I'd love to," Naruto replied. "But I'm already confident in my fighting ability. If I'm going to fail this exam it'll be the written portion. You could probably use to spend a little more time studying as well."

"I don't need to worry about that," Kiba said dismissively. "You do know that as long as you do exceptionally well on one portion of the exam, they'll pass you even if you totally bomb the other half right?"

"Really?" Naruto replied hopefully.

Most of this material was horribly dull, and he'd love nothing more than to throw out his books and go spend the last week sparring with Kiba instead. But as tempting as the idea sounded he quickly dismissed it.

"My father always used to tell me there's more to being a good officer than being able to fight," Naruto said firmly. "We might be able to pass the exam, but do you really want to be the type of officer who's only good at fighting? One that your subordinates can't rely on for anything else?"

"Man, no need to get all philosophical on me," Kiba said defensively. "I guess I can keep you company for one night."

Making good on his words, Kiba grabbed up a book on identifying edible plants that was sitting on the floor. Taking it over to his own bed he sat down and began to read. It wasn't long before he began to fidget.

"So how about that special training we're doing tomorrow?" Kiba asked. "Finally get to have some real fun, huh?"

"They didn't go into a lot of details," Naruto replied, "Just that it's some sort of naval combat simulation. You know anything else?"

"Yeah, I heard all about it from my sister," he answered, always happy to show off what he knew. "It's more a sort of a final test for the officer candidates. They give them a bunch of fresh recruits who aren't even done with basic training. Then they stick them on a ship and pit them against each other to judge how well they can lead their crew. For us it's mostly just a chance to enjoy ourselves."

"So do we get to fire the cannons at each other or what?" Naruto queried. "Because that sounds a bit dangerous."

"They have special paint balls for all the cannons and firearms," Kiba responded.

"Sounds fun," Naruto agreed. "I wonder who we'll get teamed up with."

Tashigi approached the area where she was told to meet her temporary crew and, sure enough, they had already gathered there. She was going to introduce herself, but held off when she saw a blond boy having a heated discussion with another recruit.

"You'll eat those words, Nezumi," the blond said angrily. "We're going to tear your team apart.

"I highly doubt that, Naruto," Nezumi replied smugly. "I noticed something odd about your group. The ten of you are the ten who received the lowest scores on the Officer Exam. Someone must really have it in for whoever is leading your group."

Tashigi felt like she'd just been kicked in the gut. She'd noticed she hadn't had the fairest treatment ever since she'd spilled hot coffee all over the commander's face. But he wouldn't deliberately try to make her fail out of officer training, would he?

"Then whoever they are is lucky you didn't take the exam," Naruto fired back. "It really would be hopeless if they had to deal with you."

"Please, I could have passed the exam with ease," Nezumi retorted. "Now I really have to be getting back to my own group. I look forward to seeing you squirm after we defeat you."

"This is group seven right?" Tashigi asked the remaining recruits, hoping that she'd somehow ended up in the wrong place.

"That's right," Naruto answered, destroying her last hope.

No, she couldn't just give up before she even tried. All of the recruits in front of her had at least hoped to be officers, having chosen to take the exam. So they couldn't be completely incompetent, could they?

"I'm Tashigi," she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. "I'll be in charge for the remainder of this exercise. Now let's all board the ship and get this started."

See, that wasn't so bad, all of them were following her and not even one had talked back. Climbing aboard she found the proctor already standing on the deck. He had them wait a few minutes before telling them to begin. As soon as he did, most of her crew began rushing for the cannons. This lead to a bit of confusion as there were ten of them only four cannons on the small ship.

"We can't all use the cannons," a rather portly one announced, "So I'll take this one and some of you will have to find something else to do."

"That's not fair," another complained, "Why should you get to be the one to fire it?"

"Maybe we can all take turns," a third suggested.

Glancing nervously at the proctor, Tashigi realized she needed to get control of the situation fast. So she began selecting recruits at random and giving them tasks.

"You, take the helm. You, raise the anchor. You two, unfurl the sails. And you, climb up to the crow's nest and keep an eye out for the other ship."

"But I'm afraid of heights," the boy she'd selected as lookout complained. "I think I should just take a cannon instead."

"If you really are afraid of heights, now's as good a time as any to get over it," she replied angrily. "Now get up there. That's an order."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the two recruits she'd ordered to unfurl the sails doing just that and gasped.

"Wait!" she yelled to them "That hasn't been properly secured yet!"

But her words reached them too late, as the newly unfurled sail caught the wind. This rather forcefully swung the boom around knocking both of them over. Thankfully the blond from earlier had already jumped in and was securing it, because she had another crisis to deal with.

"Help! Get me down from here!" a voice cried out from above.

The boy she'd sent to the crow's nest was halfway up, eyes closed, and clinging to the ladder with all his might. At least he hadn't been lying about his fear of heights, she thought bitterly.

"Just take some deep breaths and climb back down," she said soothingly. "I changed my mind, you don't have to go up there."

"I'm not moving," he insisted stubbornly.

Tashigi continued to attempt to coax him down until she noticed that, despite all the time she'd wasting doing so, the ship still hadn't moved. Looking over at the anchor she saw it had yet to be raised, the recruit assigned that task still struggling with it. She hurried over to see what was wrong.

"I'm sorry, but it won't budge," the recruit declared when he saw her coming.

Walking up next to him, Tashigi released the locking mechanism which was still in place and the crank immediately began to turn under the boy's efforts.

"Sorry about that," he said sheepishly.

The ship finally began to pull away from dock, but her relief was short lived as she heard first one, and then a second cannon fire.

Tashigi rushed over to get a look at the other ship, mad that no one had announced its presence. She saw it off to the port side approaching rapidly. But it was still pretty far off.

"What did you fire the cannons for?" she berated them. "They're still way out of range."

But they wouldn't be for long. Judging by their course, they were trying to get in front of them. A wise decision considering the ship didn't have any front mounted cannons.

"Reload, quickly," she ordered, then turned to the helmsman. "Hard to starboard."

She wouldn't let them have their way so easily. She'd turn the ship parallel to their course and they could exchange shots until one of them 'sank'. She only hoped the port side cannons were reloaded in time. Or that's what she would if the ship were actually turning to starboard like she'd ordered.

"That's port!" she yelled at the helmsman. "No, don't switch directions now! It's too late for that, keeping turning to port. No! Port is the direction you were going the first time! Just turn left. You do know which way is left right?"

In the confusion, the other ship had positioned themselves directly in front of them, just as she'd hoped to avoid. It fired a pair of shots. One fell short, but the other slammed into the main mast, just above the still cowering recruit, painting it a bright shade of yellow.

The impact startled the recruit who lost his hold on the ladder and began to fall backwards. Tashigi ran beneath his path and succeeded in catching the boy, but lost her balance in the process. The two of them went sprawling, their spill sending them right into the stairwell and cartwheeling down below deck.

Her progress stopped by a wall, Tashigi quickly regained her senses and checked on the boy, seeming to have avoided anything but a few bruises herself.

"Are you injured?" she asked him.

"I think I'll be okay," he replied shakily.

Hurrying back up stairs she was dismayed to see a big splotch of purple paint right in the middle of the deck, indicating a second hit.

"Your main mast is destroyed, and your ship is sinking," the proctor announced. "What will you do?"

What could she do? It was too late to do anything. She was going to fail. The other ship was pulling up alongside them and ordering them to surrender. She supposed that was the only option she had. But before she could say anything the blond recruit from earlier spoke up.

"If our ship is sinking, then we'll just have to take theirs."

Not even waiting for her reply he ran to edge of the ship and leaped across to the other one. His actions served as a much needed wake-up call. Firming her resolve she turned to the crew.

"All hands to the life boats," she ordered. "I've got a ship to capture."

Following after the reckless recruit, she jumped across to the other ship. The defenders had pulled out their guns and were attempting to get rid of single man boarding party. But he was weaving between them faster than she would have believed possible from a recruit, and not a single shot hit. Could he be using Soru? How could anyone who had even partially mastered one of the Rokushiki have failed the exam?

But Tashigi didn't have time to consider that further. When she'd landed, two of their opponents had redirected their guns at her. Pulling her wooden sword from where it was strapped to her side, she disarmed them before either could fire, then knocked both of them out with swift blows to the back of the neck.

She quickly took out a third recruit before finding herself lacking any opponents. The rest were lying unconscious on the ground, save for the Nezumi boy, who Naruto was holding in the air by the collar of his shirt. The boy's face already swelling from whatever treatment his tormentor had given him.

"I give up!" Nezumi cried frantically. "Have mercy! Please, someone stop him!"

"That's enough," the proctor ordered him.

Complying he set the other boy down, who scurried away to hide behind the proctor.

"Does this mean we won?" Naruto asked.

"Well they certainly don't look victorious to me," the marine replied, surveying the unconscious crew around him.

"Great," Naruto replied cheerfully, then turned to address her. "Nice, job over there Tashigi. Sorry you had such a lousy crew."

"It's not your fault, Naruto." she replied graciously. "And thank you. I owe you a huge favor for today."

She meant it too. He may have just saved her career.

The day of the exam had finally come. Naruto had hardly slept the night before and had shown up a full two hours early. But now he'd finished the written portion and let himself breath normally again. He thought he had done pretty well overall. He didn't know all the answers, but most of the had been pretty easy. And besides, Kiba had assured him you could completely fail the written portion as long as you aced the combat test.

So he'd informed them his specialty was unarmed combat when asked. Then he waited for his turn with the unarmed specialist. Kiba's name came up first, and he wished his friend good luck as he departed.

Not long after that, Naruto was called, so he left for his assigned room and walked up to the examiner. For some reason, the man had a bandage across his face and resting on his nose. Had he been injured earlier?

"I'm Lieutenant Kotetsu," the man told him. "You have a couple of minutes to stretch and warm up before we start."

"Thanks," Naruto replied, deciding to do just that, still being a bit stiff from two hours of test taking.

"You have some pretty impressive people in your group," Kotetsu told him conversationally as Naruto went through his routine. "There was a boy just a couple spots before you who fought like a wild animal. Almost caught me off guard coming at me so ferociously right from the start."

"You mean Kiba?" Naruto asked. "Because if he almost caught you flatfooted, you better make sure you're prepared for me. When he fights without his dog, he's not even a challenge."

"He fights with his dog?" Kotetsu asked dubiously. "You're pulling my leg. And don't worry about me, I'm pretty sure I can handle a few more recruits today. Just come at me whenever you're ready."

He couldn't say Naruto hadn't warned him. Now to see if he could rid him of that cocky attitude. Using his Soru, he circled around Kotetsu kicking the back of his knee. Naruto was satisfied to see his leg buckle, causing him began to fall backwards.

Grabbing his arm, Naruto gave him a little help and flipped him over so he was flat on his stomach. He then stood there grinning down in appreciation of his work.

"Man, they don't even warn me they're sending over a Rokushiki user," Kotetsu mumbled before lightly hopping back to his feet. "Now, let's try that again, hopefully with a little less of me humiliating myself."

Complying, Naruto charged in again, but found his examiner ready for his speed this time. What followed was the best match Naruto had had since he'd left Leaf Island. He was pleased to see that he was a little faster than his opponent, but found it difficult to capitalize on that fact as the man was very skilled at dodging or redirecting all his blows.

But he did keep the lieutenant on the defensive for the most part, and had been able to deal with the few counterattacks that had come his way. Deciding the match had gone on long enough, Naruto made ready to use his clones. He'd see how well he could defend against five attackers at once.

"Stop!" a voice ordered forcefully before he could summon them.

Naruto and Kotetsu both dropped their guard and turned to where Lieutenant-Commander Iruka had just called out to them from the doorway.

"Aww, but I almost had him, sir." Kotetsu complained.

"You're not here to beat him, you're here to test him," Iruka declared. "And you were supposed to finish that five minutes ago. So I came to see why you're holding everyone up."

"Sorry, sir," he apologized, "I guess I just got a bit carried away."

"Well I can see why," Iruka admitted, "I don't think there's any need for further deliberation. You pass, Naruto."

"What about the written portion?" Naruto asked.

He realizing he should be pleased, but he was a bit unprepared to be so casually told of his success.

"I'll inform you of how you did later," Iruka promised, "But as I'm sure he'll be happy to tell you, Kotetsu may only be a lieutenant, but he'd one of the strongest lieutenants in the force. We certainly don't expect anyone fresh out of basic training to be able to fight evenly with him."

"I wouldn't say it was evenly matched," Kotetsu interjected, "You didn't expect me to go all out on a recruit did you, sir?"

"Hey, I didn't even use my secret weapon," Naruto countered, "You wouldn't have stood a chance if I had."

"You two can debate this later," Iruka told them, "We've held up the next examinee long enough. Congratulations again, Naruto."

Naruto left the room with a huge grin. One that he seemed to have almost perpetually for the rest of the day. It also nearly drove Kiba to murder him, at least until several hours later when it was confirmed that he too had passed.

Jiraiya sat nursing his drink. Garp was sitting beside him in the tavern they were frequenting rapidly making his way through a mound of food.. Watching his fellow Vice-Admiral eating obscene quantities of food was not how he'd planned to spend this evening. But Garp had invited him, and he rarely took no for an answer. Usually didn't even seem to hear you say the word.

"You know that blond kid who wanted to join the marines?" Garp asked without even bothering to swallow his current mouthful of food first.

"Yeah," Jiraiya replied, interest piqued.

"He just passed the Officer Exam," Garp continued, pausing his eating in a rare nod to courtesy. "And you know that thing with the ship they do?"

"The thing with the ship they do?" Jiraiya parroted. "We're in the marines, you know. You're going to have to be a bit more specific."

"You know, the test," Garp replied, "Where they fight each other with paint and stuff."

"Ah, that," Jiraiya nodded sagely.

"Well I hear the kid jumped himself onto the other ship and beat up the crew himself," Garp informed him. "That is how to win that with style. I'm really starting to like that boy."

"That's certainly interesting," Jiraiya conceded, "but beating up a dozen or so fresh recruits isn't exactly an awe inspiring feat."

"They also say he knows Soru," Garp added.

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at that piece of intel.

"You know he reminds me of someone," he told Garp, "But I can't figure out who."

Not that he'd really bothered to think about it since he'd last seen the boy. Honestly he'd been more interested in why Garp was being so evasive about his grandson. He hadn't even been able to get more out of him than his name. And considering how bad Garp was at keeping a secret there had to be something to it.

"That's probably because he's Minato's boy," Garp explained.

"Minato had a kid?!" Jiraiya shouted drawing disapproving glances from those around him.

"Does everyone I know secretly have children?" Jiraiya asked more calmly.

"I've decided I'm going to train him," Garp declared, ignoring his questions. "And not that pointless stuff they'll do at the academy. Real training."

"While I agree giving him some extra training is a good idea, maybe I should do it. Your training tends to be a bit excessive. And I did know his father better than you."

"You can't have him," Garp replied stubbornly. "I saw him first."

"Actually, I saw him first," Jiraiya corrected.

"Really? I guess I forgot," Garp answered before bursting out into laughter and taking another bite of food.

"But you still can't have him," Garp insisted, once again not seeming to care his mouth was otherwise occupied with chewing.

Jiraiya decided to cave. When Garp got like this, there was no point arguing with him. He just hoped Minato's son survived his attention. Minato's son. The notion still seemed so strange. Even if he was younger than he looked, he would have been at least a few years old when Minato died.

So why hadn't he ever mentioned him? He'd never even heard Minato mention a girl he had his eyes on. Maybe he didn't know he was a father? A plausible explanation, even if it seemed to go against Minato's character. But his gut told him there was more to it than that.

Jiraiya didn't like secrets. And between this one and Garp's grandson he now he had two of them to gnaw away at him. He'd have to do something about that.

AN

In case anyone didn't recognize the name, Tashigi is the girl with the sword who works with Smoker. The one who looks like Zoro's dead girlfriend. Also, Kotetsu is a Chuunin from Naruto. He's an unimportant character whose name I had to look up, and don't expect to see him again. It was just a minor part that I figured might as well be another Naruto cameo.

Not much else to say for this chapter except for the standard groveling for reviews and reminder that, yes, I actually like criticism, if you have any to offer.