Chapter 4: Never An Average Day

(4 Years Later)

The inhabitants of Konoha were enjoying a rather peaceful and ordinary Thursday morning. That peacefulness was soon broken however by the loud and rather frequent swearing coming from one high-up apartment. Emerging from said apartment was a blonde haired boy who looked like he'd seen better days, and that wasn't an understatement.

Naruto ran out of his front door and down the stairs before stopping on the last one and looking down at himself.

"Damn it! My jacket!"

He turned to run back into earlier mentioned apartment and was followed by the sounds of what seemed to be a tornado ransacking the place. A minute later, he reappeared down the stairs, said jacket still not on his body, and immediately took off down the street.

"I swear if I ever catch that damn voodoo priestess, it's going to be lights out!"

The villagers, who were watching the spectacle in a trance like state, continued to watch the boy until he was out of sight down the street. After a brief moment, everyone continued on with their lives as if nothing had just happened.

It truly was an ordinary day in Konoha.

(At the academy)

Naruto trudged into the classroom with a miffed look on his face, expecting to be chewed out by Iruka for being late again. He was surprised to see however that Iruka wasn't inside the classroom. Neither was his assistant Mizuki. Letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding in, he began to make his way up the steps to his seat. His lateness however didn't go unnoticed by his fellow classmates.

"What's eating you, man?" Kiba asked with a smirk as Naruto took a seat next to him. He got a glare in response as Naruto decided to avoid answering his question. Kiba laughed and turned back over to Choji.

"So as I was saying, I heard that barbecue joint is hosting an all you can eat buffet until the the end week. We should definitely make plans to go there after graduation, right Akamaru?" Kiba said. Akamaru barked from his position on top of his head in response. Kiba was about to ask Choji did he hear him when he saw that he was drooling from the mouth with a spaced off look on his face.

"I'll take that as a yes…" He said with a sweatdrop. It was at this moment that Shikamaru's head shot up and he looked around the class frantically. After a moment he settled back down into his laying position, causing Kiba to sweatdrop even further.

"What the hell is wrong with you all today?" He asked. Shikamaru looked at him with one eye before replying.

"Usually Iruka-sensei would have told me to wake up by now. Where is he anyways?" Shikamaru said now fully sitting up. "Class should've started a long time ago."

"Maybe he's at home sleep? Sure wish I was…" Naruto mumbled with half lidded eyes. He stifled a yawn before leaning back in his chair, turning his head so that he was looking behind him upside down. He inadvertently caught eyes with Hinata as a result, who was sitting behind him.

"Goodmorning Hinata-chan!" He said flashing her a huge grin. Her face immediately started steaming and she quickly looked away to her side.

"G-goodmorning N-n-naruto-kun." she managed to stammer out. His grin grew wider before he righted himself in his chair and looked forward as the door to the classroom opened up. Mizuki walked in and looked up at the students surprisingly.

"Hey you guys, did Iruka-san step out or something?" He asked, looking around the classroom for his partner. Sakura turned away from talking to Sasuke to answer him.

"Goodmorning Mizuki-sensei. Actually, Iruka-sensei hasn't showed up at all today. We've been alone in here the whole time." She said, a worried look coming upon her face. "You don't know where he is either?"

"No idea, I told him yesterday that I would be coming in later today than usually, so he was supposed to come in earlier actually. Class should have started over thirty minutes ago." Mizuki replied with a frown. The entire class began to exchange looks at this news and kiba was the first to speak up.

"So? What are we going to do today then?" He asked, Akamaru barking for added effort. Mizuki scrunched up his face in thought before staring at the clock for a moment.

"Well, today was meant to only be a half day anyways for you guys to take your practice test for the exams...how about we just go outside for some light sparring?" He replied, snapping his fingers. The class erupted into cheers as they followed him out of the classroom. Naruto was a bit more hesitant in heading out.

Naruto wasn't particularly fond of Mizuki-sensei to say the least. Though he never outright did anything to him, Mizuki simply gave off bad vibes to him. Almost as if he could sense an evil intent flowing from him. It didn't help that he thought he occasionally saw him glaring in his direction at certain times. He chalked that one up to his imagination though.

They all came into the playground and formed a circle around a big space of open area. Mizuki went through attendance first before getting started with the exercise.

"Alright everyone, you know the rules. Nothing lethal, five minute time limit, and if I call the match, that's it." He shot a look at Naruto and Sasuke in particular on that last one. The two looked away sheepishly in response.

"Alright, first up is Kiba Inuzuka and Shikamaru Nara, come on up!"

Kiba ran into the middle of the circle with Akamaru following suit as soon as his name was called. After a few seconds, he was still the only one in the circle. Mizuki scratched his head before looking around.

"Shikamaru is here today right?" He said, checking over the attendance clipboard to confirm. A light cough caught his attention and he looked up to see Shino pointing towards a tree on the opposite side of the field. Underneath it was Shikamaru doing...well it was pretty obvious what he was doing. Mizuki sweat dropped before putting a check by his name.

"That's an F for the Nara...you can come back with the rest of the class now Kiba." He said, causing Kiba to double take.

"The hell? You mean I don't get to fight? The fuck is that!?" He exclaimed not moving from his spot.

"I don't know what 'that' you're talking about, but I do know that language of yours just caught you another detention." Mizuki replied with a smug look on his face. Kiba stood there with his mouth agape before slowly walking back over to the other kids. He took a stance next to Naruto, eyeing Mizuki intensely.

"I'm gonna' kill him Naruto. One of these days, I'm going to kill him." He said, causing Naruto to laugh nervously. Mizuki began to call out the rest of the names, and Naruto blacked out until he felt a slight shake on his shoulder. He looked up to see Shino looking down at him.

"Mizuki-sensei has called you up." he stated while returning his stare back to the field. Naruto slapped him on the back, eliciting a small grunt from the bug user.

"Thanks, Shino!" He replied, jumping up and heading out into the field. He looked over to see his opponents was one of the civilians sons. Karu was his name, Naruto remembered looking him over. He'd never really interacted with the boy but he did know that his father was not a very nice guy, to him at least. Mizuki looked between the two before putting his hands up.

"You two ready? Begin!" He said while jumping back.

Naruto slid into a low and spread out stance, watching as his opponent took up the basic academy form. The two eyed each other for a minute, before Naruto broke off into a sprint towards the boy. Karu braced himself for an attack, but was surprised when Naruto jumped directly over his head. With a flip he turned in mid air and landed directly behind Karu, and before he could react sent a kick directly into his back.

Karu yelped in pain as he lurched forward from the attack. He righted himself before turning around to throw a punch to Naruto, though his punch didn't connect as Naruto dropped underneath it before swiping at Karu's leg with his own. He fell, but righted himself by landing on his hands, kicking out his feet in the direction Naruto was facing. Once again, he was met with only air though.

He then felt a punch connect to his left jaw, then right, before finally Naruto hit him with an uppercut that sent him flying upwards. It was at this moment that Mizuki decided to step in and stop the match.

"Alright, that's enough!" He said, waving Naruto off. He went over to check on the other boy, who had a swollen jaw and trickle of blood flowing from his mouth. Naruto began to make his way back over to the field, stopping only to send Sasuke a quick wink as he passed by. Sasuke paid him no mind however, currently focusing on blocking out the fangirls trying to get his attention.

"Wow, Naruto has really gotten a lot better lately." Ino remarked, impressed by what see saw during the match.

"Yeah but he's still no match for you, right Sasuke-kun?" Sakura said dreamily, inching closer to where he was sitting. Sasuke grunted in response.

"Well of course not, everyone knows Sasuke-kun is the best in the class. And stop trying to scoot closer to him forehead, can't you see you're bothering him!" Ino replied, pushing Sakura back to where she was. This caused the two to burst into a yelling match, only furthering Sasuke's discomfort. Kiba looked at the sight in disgust, snorting as Naruto returned to his spot next to him.

"What I'd give to knock that ass on his...well ass." Kiba said as Naruto sat down on the ground. He was about to reply when Mizuki yelled out next two names.

"Sasuke, you'll be fighting with Kiba since he didn't go, come on!"

Naruto looked over to see Kiba with the biggest shit eating grin he could muster on his face. He hopped up and threw a few practice jabs to get ready.

"My ancestors must be smiling down upon me, because my prayers have been answered!" He said with Akamaru matching his enthusiasm. Choji looked up at him as he opened up another bag of chips.

"Why are you so bent on fighting Sasuke anyways?" He said before shoving a hand full of chips into his mouth. He offered some to Naruto, who gladly accepted.

"Isn't it obvious? Once I knock that broody emo down on his sorry ass, all the girls will flock to me! The true alpha! Man, I can't wait any longer!" He exclaimed, running out onto the field to meet Sasuke. Choji looked over at Naruto who watched the spectacle with a look of amusement.

"Does it really work that way?" He asked, getting a shrug from Naruto in return.

"I don't really know much about girls thought process. Seeing as Kiba think it's right though, I'm going to go on a limb and say it's probably not." He replied, looking over at the group of girls swooning over Sasuke. He sighed as he took note that Sakura was one of the main girls in action.

'What's it take for a guy to get some recognition around here? I just uppercutted a guy for heaven's sake!' Naruto thought with a frown as he watched his crush cheer for another man. He turned his attention back to the field to see the match had started and Kiba was firing up his trademark trash talk.

"Get ready to have that smug look wiped right off your face, cause I'm gonna' expose your sorry ass today!"

"Hn."

"Huh? What was that?"

"Hn."

"The hell does that mean?!"

"Hn."

"Oh, that's it!" And with that, Kiba charged straight towards Sasuke. He feigned a forward punch before quickly sliding to the right and throwing a right hook. Sasuke deflected it away before kicking underneath him with a sweeping motion.

Kiba jumped into the air and moved back to put some distance between the two, but Sasuke quickly closed in and began to throw a barrage of kicks and punches in his direction. After one in particular connected with his stomach, Kiba grabbed his arm with both hands, surprising Sasuke who couldn't break his grip. With a feral roar, he lifted Sasuke into the air and threw him upwards.

The crowd of students started to cheer at what was the most interesting fight they had witnessed today. Sasuke's fangirl section were particularly excited, yelling for him to 'wipe the floor with dog boy!'"

As Sasuke was coming down, Kiba rushed him and threw a punch directly into his stomach. This sent him spiralling into the ground, rolling to right himself only to be caught with a swift kick to the side when he did so. The crowd gasped as he was thrown to the other side of the ring. Never had Sasuke taken so much damage in a spar up to this point. As he got up from the ground, he glared over at Kiba who was smirking back down at him from the other side.

"Ready to admit defeat? I'll spare you the embarrassment if you call the match right now." He said looking down at him. Sasuke didn't reply, instead slowly getting up to his feet while looking at the ground.

Before Kiba could react, Sasuke disappeared in a burst of unexpected speed. The crowd gasped as for a moment everyone almost lost sight of him, until he seemingly reappeared directly in front Kiba. This time he opted for a kick into the abdomen, and angled it so that it lifted Kiba into air. He followed it up with a series of other kicks that further launched him upwards before finally grabbing his jacket and flinging him back down towards the ground, where he landed with a thud.

The crowd erupted into cheers, and even Naruto had to admit he was impressed with the move. Not that it was better than his upper cut combo, but still nice regardless. As Sasuke landed back on the field, Kiba slowly brought himself back upright, glaring daggers in the Uchiha's direction. He prepared to leap in for an attack again before Mizuki interrupted.

"That's enough you two, times up!" he said, forcing Kiba to skid to a stop mid attack. He turned around and gave Mizuki a pleading look.

"Wait, hold on! Just give us two more minutes Mizuki-sensei, please!" He begged. Mizuki simply shook his head and called for everyone to head back into the classroom. Sasuke was soon swarmed by all of his fan girls who were going crazy over the last attack he pulled off. Kiba stood slack jawed in the middle of the field still, not even acknowledging Naruto and the others as they walked up to him.

"Good job out there Kiba, you actually gave Sasuke a run for his money." Choji said, patting him on the back. Kiba growled in response, kicking at the dirt below him.

"I just needed one more minute, one more! Now that he got that last attack in, that's all anyone's going to remember! Mizuki-sensei completely ruined my plans once again! One of these days, I swear…" He yelled as the group began to make their way back to the classroom.

"I doubt your 'plan' was going to bring much success in the first place, Kiba-san. Your logic had many flaws in it, and seemed to be spurred on more by wishful thinking than factual thinking." Shino replied. A small silence fell over the group before Kiba spoke again.

"I hate you all."

(Later that day)

News had finally got back to the classroom about what happened to Iruka in the morning. He had caught a case of the flu over the course of the week, and it got unexpectedly worse the night before. The class was relieved, as Naruto's stories of him getting kidnapped by enemy ninja or assassinated in his sleep had started to worry some of them.

Naruto and co were preparing to head home for the day when Mizuki called out for him to stay after class. Kiba sent him the sign of good luck as the rest of them headed out, leaving Naruto alone with him in the class.

"So what's up Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto asked feeling a little uncomfortable being alone in the classroom with him. This usually only happened when he was in trouble, and he couldn't think of anything he did as of late that would fit the criteria. Mizuki simply smiled in response as he leaned against Iruka's desk.

"Well this was originally something I was going to wait to talk with you about, but I feel like now is as good a time as any. How are you feeling about the upcoming exams we're about to take?" He asked, Naruto gulping in response. He figured he would do fine for the most part, but the one thing still holding him back was…

"I think I'll do just fine Mizuki-sensei…" He replied with a nervous smile and head scratch. Mizuki however didn't seemed convinced and only rose his eyebrow as an answer.

"Even on the clone part?" He asked, causing Naruto to go wide eyed. Mizuki laughed before getting up off the desk and walking over to Naruto.

"That's why I'm glad I caught you before hand. You've struggled with the clone technique ever since we first introduced it, so I knew it would be a problem for you on the test." He said, putting his hand on Naruto's head. "That's why I've got a small proposition for you."

Naruto's head perked up at this and he looked up at Mizuki with wide eyes.

"Proposition? What do you mean?" He asked, turning his head to the side in confusing. Mizuki smiled warmly at him before kneeling down so that they were eye level.

"Consider it an alternate assessment. It's something we give to kids who have the potential to be ninja but have something holding them back." He replied getting Naruto's full attention. "We had a kid last year who couldn't use chakra at all, but even he passed because he was able to complete an alternate assignment."

Naruto was practically jumping with excitement at this news. A way to pass without having to do that stupid clone technique? It was practically a dream come true!

"Well what's the assignment?! Are you going to test me now?! W-wait, I don't have all of my gear with me!" He replied excitedly, causing Mizuki to laugh in response.

"That's perfectly fine Naruto. With your skills, I doubt you'll have any problems with this assignment." He said with a sly grin forming over his face. "As for when, well why don't we go ahead and get it over with tonight? That way you'll already be set when the testing begins tomorrow. All you'll have to do is sit back and enjoy the show."

Naruto scratched his head as he looked over at the clock. The day was almost over, what type of test could he possibly have setup for now?

"Well, what's the test then?" he asked, squinting his eyes at his sensei. Mizuki's smile grew even wider as he stood back up to his full height.

"All you have to do is grab a little something and hold onto it until tomorrow…"

(Several hours later)

Contrary to what many may think, Naruto was not as stupid as he seemed.

Sure, complex explanations and things that were overly difficult flew right over his head, but that's the case for basically every twelve year old that's not from the Nara clan. Naruto learned quickly at a young age that acting dumb only got you in bad situations, and bad situations for him were a lot worse than they were for others.

And so it was with this intelligence of his that he had the capability to ask himself this simple question.

'Why in the world am I doing this?'

He had managed to sneak himself into the Hokage's residence, that part was surprisingly easy enough. He had even managed to locate the room with the forbidden scroll and gain access to it. Again, a surprisingly easy feat to accomplish. So now he found himself in this room, staring at the scroll he was supposed to take in a blank state.

Robotically, he walked over to the large scroll and picked it up. He examined it from the outside and determined from it's sheer size that it must of held something of importance inside. So he decided to do something before taking the scroll out of its resting place.

He decided to open it.

Looking at the contents inside, Naruto's jaw dropped at the array of techniques that was present inside. He didn't even have a clue what a majority of these was! He continued reading to see if he could find anything interesting.

'Eight trigrams sealing...Edo Tensei...Dead demon consuming seal… what the hell is this stuff?' Naruto thought to himself, looking over the techniques on the scroll. The explanations for each of these jutsu's were long and drawn out so he didn't even bother trying to read them. He was about to close the scroll when he saw one technique with a relatively short explanation.

'Shadow Clone Jutsu? Oh great, another clone jutsu!' He thought looking over the technique's directions. It seemed rather simple enough, Naruto didn't see why it was placed with all these other difficult techniques. He stared at it for a moment before shrugging his shoulders.

'Why the hell not?'

He performed the one seal necessary and, not wanting to attract attention, whispered the name of the technique.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Naruto closed his eyes and prepared to hear the thud of a dead clone hitting the floor. When that never he came, he opened his eyes to see that nothing had happened. With a frown, he looked over technique again to see what he had did wrong.

'Let's see...Tiger seal...split chakra...use lots of it…'

He blinked before looking up from the scroll and rolling his neck.

"Use lot's of chakra? Say no more."

With that, he performed the seal and this time pumped a good amount of chakra into it. He heard a poof and looked over to his side to see an exact copy of himself in the same pose he was doing. They both stared at each other before a huge grin broke out over their faces.

"Hey, it worked! Sweet!" they said in unision.

Moving back to look at the scroll with his clone in tow, they both stared at it before Naruto looked up to address his...self.

"You know, these techniques seem pretty important to be in the hands of inexperienced academy students...you really think taking this would be apart of an assessment?" he asked, getting a contemplative look from his clone.

"I don't know, this whole thing seems pretty suspicious to me." The clone replied, shaking his head as the two continued to stare at the scroll. Naruto scrunched his face up in thought before moving to close the scroll.

The clone watched him as Naruto lifted the scroll up and put it on his back. He then turned and looked at his duplicate before grinning.

"Come on, we're going to pay someone a quick visit."

(The Hokage's office)

The third was just getting prepared to leave his office when he heard a knock on his door. He looked up in surprise, figuring no one else would be in the premises at this hour besides himself. He readied himself before answering.

"Come in."

The door slowly creaked opened, and to his further surprise it was Naruto who lightly made his way into the room. It was then that he noticed the large scroll on his back, along with the other version of him trailing behind. Eyeing the scroll and realizing what it was, his eyes widened as Naruto placed it next to his desk before narrowing as the boy looked back up to meet his gaze. He flinched under the harsh look as the third began to address him.

"Naruto. Explain. Now."

He flinched again before going into detail about how Mizuki told him of the alternate assignment he could do to graduate and how he gave him the instructions on how to get to the scroll. Hiruzen listened intently, his gaze softening more and more as the story went on.

"And so the more I thought about it, the more it seemed weird for me to be doing this. I didn't really know what to do, so I decided it would probably be best to bring the scroll back to you, old man." Naruto said, finishing off his story.

Hiruzen sighed as he leaned back in his chair and put his hands over his face. If what Naruto had told him was true, which judging by his tone and cadence while telling the story it was, then Mizuki would need to be dealt with. However he did need some form of confirmation.

"Naruto-kun," he said sitting back up right in his chair. "You stated that you would meet up with Mizuki-san later tonight to give him the scroll, correct?" He asked, getting a nod in response.

"I would like you to go to this meeting spot and wait for Mizuki-san to come as you originally were going too." He said prompting Naruto to scratch his head.

"So this was an actual alternate assessment after all?" He asked as the Hokage got up to stare out the window.

"No, my boy, it was not. I believe Mizuki was planning to use you for his own personal gain, and likely hoped to have you take the fall." He replied, Naruto staring at him in shock. He turned around and gave the boy a warm smile, which seemed to calm him down from the mini panic attack he was having.

"So what's going on, are we going to setup a trap for him or something?" Naruto asked moving to grab the scroll from the desk. Hiruzen smiled before signaling for his standby Anbu to head out.

"You are correct, Naruto-kun."

(Village outskirts)

By the time Naruto got to the meeting area, news had broken out that the forbidden scroll had been stolen and a manhunt had broken out to find the culprit. Hiruzen assured Naruto that nothing would happen to him, and to continue on with the plan as usually. And so he was sitting in the forest, waiting for Mizuki to show up.

He was just starting to become a little bored when he heard slight rustling coming from the trees to the right of him. He prepared to put the plan into action when he saw it that it wasn't Mizuki emerging, but Iruka.

"Iruka-sensei!" he yelled, catching the attention of the brown haired man who turned to face him.

"Naruto! What the hell do you think you're doing!" He yelled in between coughs as he slowly made his way over. "You've got the entire village looking for you!"

"I'm helping the Hokage out with an important assignment!" Naruto replied, grinning up at Iruka. The older man frowned down at Naruto before pressing the issue further.

"What do you mean you're helping the Hokage?" He asked as Naruto stood up to address him.

"Well we're going to set up a trap and cap-"

Naruto stopped speaking however when his ears picked up the sound of something coming towards them. Without thinking, he tackled Iruka to ground as a Fuma shuriken came soaring over their head. The looked up too see Mizuki standing in a tree above them. Naruto growled at the sight of him while Iruka looked on in shock.

"Mizuki-san! What's going on here!" he said as he stood up and positioned himself in front of Naruto. Mizuki dropped down to the ground and began to slowly make his way towards them, pulling out another Fuma shuriken.

"Looks like the Kyuubi brat couldn't pull off the heist without getting caught after all. Pity, although now I get to deal with you as well Iruka so I guess it's not so bad, yeah?" He said as he pulled another giant shuriken off of his back. Iruka was about to tell Naruto to run when said boy unexpectedly burst in front of him.

"You're the one who's going to be getting dealt with! You fell right for our trap!" Naruto exclaimed, getting both shocked looks from Iruka and Mizuki. Before either one could respond, five Anbu appeared and circled around Mizuki, forcing him to drop his weapon before apprehending him.

"H-hey! What's going on here?! What are you doing?!" He screamed trying to break free from their restraints.

"You've been placed under investigation for treason and conspiring on Konoha's secrets. You are to come with us." An Anbu in a boar masked said emotionlessly. Mizuki looked at him with a ludicrous stare that was soon replaced with rage.

"What are you talking about?! I didn't take anything, it was the Kyuubi boy! You can clearly see him in possession of the scroll, arrest him!" He yelled, further struggling under his restraints. Before he could continue however, a swift hit to his neck rendered him unconscious as they took him away. The Anbu in the boar masked stayed behind and went over to where Naruto and Iruka were standing.

"The Hokage has requested your presence after the completion of this mission." He said addressing Naruto before turning to Iruka. "You should come as well."

With that, he collected the scroll before disappearing in a poof of smoke, leaving Iruka and Naruto alone. Naruto threw his arms behind his head and flashed a smile at Iruka.

"Pretty cool ordeal, huh Iruka-sensei?" he said as Iruka simply stared down at him.

"Naruto, would you mind filling me in on everything that just transpired?" Iruka asked, feeling completely left out of the loop. Naruto gladly obliged and told Iruka about how Mizuki had tried to trick him into stealing the forbidden scroll and his decision to go to the Hokage first. Iruka listened quietly the entire time before finally speaking up.

"You learned the shadow clone jutsu that quickly? Could you show me?" He asked getting a nod from Naruto in response. He performed the seal and instantly a solid copy of himself appeared next to him, Iruka reaching out to touch him for clarification. Naruto dispelled the clone, looking back up at Iruka with his grin still intact.

"Pretty cool, huh Iruka-sensei?" Naruto said. Iruka simply stared at him blankly, at a lost of words for the story he just heard. His blank face was soon replaced with a grin as well as he pulled Naruto into a semi embrace by his head.

"Honestly, you are the most troublesome, danger attracting, unnecessarily difficult student I have ever had the privilege to teach. With that said, you're also the one that I'm most proud to have spent my time teaching. What you manage to do today Naruto was nothing short of extraordinary." He said giving the boy a warm smile.

"Geez Iruka-sensei, I don't know whether to be flattered or insulted." Naruto replied, though the blush on his face gave away his true feelings. Iruka laughed before rubbing his head affectionately.

"Come on, let's not leave the Hokage waiting."

(Hokage's office)

Having being explained the results of the mission three times, with a rather embellished one coming from Naruto, the third Hokage found himself sitting in his office with Iruka and Naruto still to the opposite of him.

"Naruto-kun, I can't thank you enough for the service you have done to this village. Your work allowed us to catch a traitor in our midst and prevented our secrets from being leaked to possible enemies. The entire village is in your debt." Hiruzen said while smiling, getting Naruto to blush for the second time today.

"I would have preferred if you used your head at first and came straight to the Hokage after your conversation with Mizuki, but I understand that we still have work to do with you on that." Iruka teased getting a deadpan stare from Naruto in return. Hiruzen laughed before standing up from his desk and walking around to the others.

"Well, with all that has transpired tonight, I believe it's time we retire to our homes. It's already well into the next day's morning." The Hokage said, causing Naruto to go wide eyed and stare at the clock.

"Oh crap! I still have exams tomorrow! Or today rather..." He said with streams of tears going down his face. Before he could get to distraught however, Iruka began to speak.

"I don't think that will be a concern for you, Naruto." Iruka replied reaching behind his head to untie his headband. "Close your eyes."

Naruto scrunched his face up before doing what he was told. He felt something go around his head, and he really hoped it was what he thought it was. Opening his eyes, he saw both the Hokage and Iruka smiling at him. Going wide eyed, he reached up to touch his forehead but instead was meet with cold steel.

"Congratulations Naruto, you're officially a certified shinobi of Konoha. I take it you have no problems with this Hokage-sama?" Iruka asked. Hiruzen simply shook his head, watching as tears began to trail down Naruto's face.

"Y-you mean I…" Naruto started but couldn't continue as he began to get get choked up. He wiped his eyes before running to embrace both Iruka and Hiruzen in a hug.

"I won't let you two down, I promise! I'm going to be the greatest ninja who ever lived!" He said burying his face in the Hokage's robes. The two looked at each other before Hiruzen turned back to the boy and returned the embrace.

"I have no doubt that you will be, Naruto-kun."

A/N: Anddddd book it! I know I said team placements would come this time, but this chapter went on a little longer than I expected and I felt like that was a good place to leave off on. The real fun starts next time, and you can't tell, but i'm rubbing my hands together like Birdman behind my screen currently.