Me: Sooooooooo.. Here's the next chappie! XD Sorry for the suuuuuper late update! Just so many projects and tests and all that shiz... Anyway-

Joy: *enters while munching on Pocky* Hi ho, everyone! XD Nice to meet you all! XD

Me: Hey! Joy! I haven't even said-

Joy: So! How's life, everyone? Fine? Good! XD If everyone's happy, then I'm happy! *gets another Pocky and munches on it*

Me: Hey... Joooy... *evil aura* Can you just-

Joy: *grins happily, all together ignoring me* Finally I can do the disclaimer! Yaay! Meow! XD

Me: JOOOOOY! *Joy looked at me, surprized*

Joy: Oh. I didn't see you there... Oops.

Me: *facepalm* Anyway, as I was sayin-

Joy: *laughs and hands me a Pocky* Geez! I didn't know you wanted to have a Pocky! You should have told me a LOOONG time ago!

Me: *falls on the ground, anime style and I sweatdropped and facepalmed at the same time* ... Nevermind.

Joy: *blink blink blink* Okaay then! XD Here's the disclaimer!

Joy: JayTheCow sadly does not own Naruto because if she did, then... I'd be real! (Well, actually I am real, but, oh well) Anyway, Kishimoto-sensei owns Naruto. (I'd want to own him, though. Tee hee!)

ENJOY!

Recap:

"The Leaf Village should never be messed with. No harm shall befall on this village as long as I am alive. Remember that as you go to the other side." The boy stretched out his hand behind him as a black scythe materialized on the palm of his hand. Under the moonlight, each bend and curve of the scythe was pronounced. At that moment, the boy appeared like the true grim reaper, the bringer of death as he brandished the scythe. The leader shook in fear as he stared into those eyes as black as death, unable to move as he heard, saw, felt, and smelt his last…

"Sweet dreams, my friend."

CHAPTER 4

The next day in the Leaf Village…

3rd person POV

"Ugh… Where's Iruka-sensei?" Joy complained to no one in particular, her chin on the crook of her elbow as she rested her arms on the table.

She was in a classroom with two columns of five long tables. Each row is elevated so that the students at the back could see the teacher and the black board which is oddly clean probably because the class clown is not here. The teacher's supposed to be in front of the black board, but it seems like the teacher's not here. Mostly all the time, the class would be bored when the teacher's here, but now that he's not, they have no reason to be bored, which makes them more bored than ever.

Sitting in front of Joy are two boys, beside Joy's Shikamaru, And behind him is Aika who is beside a girl that oddly looks similar to Aika. At the table beside her sits a pink-haired girl and a silent-looking boy. In front of them is a long haired girl giggling over a onyx haired boy who obviously looked pissed. Among her classmates, one is missing.

"Nee, Shikamaru-kun!" she turned to her right, addressing him. Shikamaru was leaning backwards on his chair with his hands behind his head, eyes closed, and feet on the table.

"Trying to get an answer from him is useless, Joy-chan! Right, Akamaru?"

"Yip! Yip!"

A boy in front of Shikamaru snickered before the puppy on his head yipped, agreeing with his master. The boy has messy brown hair, sharp onyx black eyes with vertical slit-like pupils and noticeable canine teeth. He also has the distinct red fang markings of the Inuzuka clan on his cheeks. He wore dark grayish pants reaching to his calves and a gray, hooded fur-lined coat. He'd usually put his hood up, but as of now he isn't and he wears the Leaf ninja sandals.

On his head is a small puppy with white fur. Akamaru's eyes are usually closed and he has a dark brown nose, as well as dark brown patches on his ears and a dark outline around his mouth. His fur on top of his head is styled to somewhat resemble a Mohawk.

"Tsk. This is so troublesome. You guys are so noisy. Especially you, Kiba. Can't you guys see that someone is trying to sleep? Tsk. Even just explaining is such a waste of breath. And also a drag to boot." Shikamaru cracked open one eye and glared at them then closed his eyes after.

Behind Shikamaru, Aika was giggling at his usual attitude. If Shikamaru did hear it, he probably just ignored it.

"Guys. *munch munch* Stop bothering Shikamaru. *munch munch swallow*" A chubby boy holding a pack of chips told them off. He has spiky brown hair, swirl marks on his cheeks, and like the rest of his clan, he has a much more healthy physique than other ninjas. He wore brown shorts, a long white scarf, a short-sleeved green jacket over a white shirt with the Akimichi clan's kanji for food, 'shoku', on it. He wore small hoop earrings, and his legs and forearms were wrapped in bandages.

"Eating again, Choji? If you overdo it, you'll definitely get fa—" Kiba was silenced by Aika's reproachful stare. She had a great feeling that calling Choji 'fat' would be crossing the line.

"I-I think that Iruka-sensei is f-finding N-Naruto-kun…" A soft-spoken girl beside Aika stuttered. She has dark blue hair, fair skin, and white eyes with a tinge of lavender which were similar to Aika's since she also holds the Byakugan. She's part of the main branch; therefore, she's the cousin of Aika. Her hair is in a short, leveled hime-cut style above her forehead, with chin-length strands framing her face. She wore a cream-colored hooded jacket with a fire symbol on the upper right and left sleeves and fur around the cuffs and hem, with navy blue pants.

"Aah, talking about 'Naruto-kun' again today, are we, eh? Hinata?" Kiba smirked at Hinata's embarrassed expression.

"I-I was only a-answering the question t-that y -you guys didn't a-answer…" Hinata blushed furiously at Kiba's joke while playing with her thumbs. "I-It d-doesn't mean that… I-I… N-Naruto-k-kun…"

"Then why are you blushing?" Kiba grinned mischievously at Hinata right before a fluffy pencil case was chucked at his face. (A/N: Oh! I rhymed!) "Ow! What was that for?"

"Kiba-kun. It was funny at first but seriously. That's pushing it. You know how Hina-chan is. Why push it?" Aika sternly, but kindly, chided the mischievous boy. "And besides, my pencil case is soft. It doesn't hurt at all."

"Easy for you to say… I said I was kidding, Angel." Kiba said defiantly, crossing his arms while sticking out his tongue out as if saying, 'Yeah, yeah. I know. Sorry.'

"Geez… There goes the nickname again." Aika lightly blushed. "I told you guys to stop calling me that. Just when will you guys stop calling me 'Angel'?"

"We won't, Angel." Joy teased her, finally finding a distraction as to not worsen her boredom. "It is and will forever be your nickname."

Aika is the 'Angel' among the rookies, since, well, she's kind to everyone, though she could be pretty sly sometimes. She doesn't stop the others from having fun, but when it gets too out of hand, she tells them off.

Aika sighed, knowing it was hopeless to stop them from calling her the nickname, and saw a glimpse of a smirk from Shikamaru but before she could say anything, the door slid open with a sharp sound and in came their long-awaited sensei, Iruka, with Naruto in tow. Iruka has brown hair that he keeps in a ponytail, dark eyes and a scar across the bridge of his nose which he probably had since he was young. He wears the required Leaf ninja outfit with his forehead protector, flak jacket and sandals. Naruto was tied up with a thick rope so that he couldn't escape and was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Everyone looked at Iruka and saw that he was visibly pissed.

"I'm at the end of my rope, Naruto! You failed the graduation tests last time and the time before that. Tomorrow you've got another chance, and you're messing it up again!" Iruka lectured Naruto in front of the class while glaring at him.

"Hmph!" Naruto dismissed his sensei's warnings and looked to the side. Iruka got annoyed at Naruto's indifference so he did what he thought he should.

"Fine! Because you missed it, Naruto, everyone will review the transformation jutsu!" (A/N: Wow! I can't believe that I didn't notice that Iruka-sensei rhymed before now.)

"Whaaat?" Everyone whined, not wanting to review the jutsu and still in their bumming mode.

"Oh, Naru-kun…" Joy facepalmed. Of all the things… this is the worst.

"Sure… Leave it to Naruto to give us some trouble that we are very well happy without." Kiba shook his head and followed the line.

"Tsk! This is such a drag. I just wanna stay home and stare at the clouds. Who cares about this stupid test anyway?" Shikamaru scowled but followed nonetheless.

"But-but N-Naruto-kun's j-just—"Hinata started before Aika placed a hand on her shoulder, cutting her off gently.

"I know it's pretty…um…" Aika paused, thinking of a word that's synonymous to irritating that would sound kind but failed. "Well, at least we could practice." She smiled positively at the others, who nodded, though hesitantly, knowing that their 'Angel' makes sense.

First came Sakura, a long pink-haired girl with green eyes and fair skin. She wore a body hugging dress with white circular designs, with a zipper, tight dark green shorts and blue ninja sandals.

"All right! Sakura here! Let's do it! Transform!" She announced with her loud, girly voice and did a hand sign. After the puff of smoke dissipated, she exactly copied Iruka then transformed back to herself.

"Good." With a clipboard on hand, Iruka nodded approvingly at her.

"I did it!" Sakura cheered with a smile on her face. 'Chaa! I kicked butt!' her inner Sakura shouted, on fire.

"Sasuke-kun, did you see that?" She immediately acted cute and looked at Sasuke, trying to impress him.

"Next. Sasuke Uchiha."

A blacked haired boy with blue tints on his hair came forward. He has onyx black eyes, bangs that hang on both sides of his face that roughly framed his cheeks and his hair is spiky in the back. (A/N: Doesn't it look so much like a duck butt?) To many girls, he's a handsome boy and a heartthrob. He wore a blue, short sleeved shirt with a raised collar and the Uchiha crest on the back, white arm warmers, white shorts and blue Leaf ninja sandals.

Silently, Sasuke transformed into Iruka and went back to his original form.

"Good." Iruka nodded again. "Next. Naruto Uzumaki."

"This is a total waste of time, Naruto." Shikamaru drawled from behind Naruto.

"We always pay for your screw-ups." A blue eyed and blonde haired girl scowled beside Shikamaru. Her blonde hair is in a ponytail with bangs covering the right side of her face. Her hair reaches down until her waist. She wore a short purple vest like blouse with a raised collar, a skirt that was cut off on the sides and bandage on her stomach and legs. She also wore purple and white elbow warmers.

"Like I care." Naruto grumbled, grumpy, and looked to the side and saw Joy give him two thumbs up.

'You can do it!' she mouthed at him.

He flashed her a smile, stood up in front of Iruka and smirked.

At the middle of the line, Hinata observed Naruto while blushing. She stood beside their most silent classmate, Shino Aburame. He has dark bushy brown hair, pale skin and he was the tallest in their class. He wears the same style of clothes as his clan: dark sunglasses and a sea-green jacket with a high, upturned collar.

'Naruto-kun…' Hinata thought to herself as she played with her fingers. 'Do your best!'

Naruto assumed a stance, emitting lots of chakra.

"Transform!"

Instead of another copy of Iruka-sensei, out came a naked older girl version of Naruto. As Joy saw this, she fell over in shock, Aika and the others suppressed their sighs.

'Oh, Naru-kun…' Joy shook her head wryly. 'I should have expected no less from you…'

"Gotcha! That's my sexy jutsu!" Naruto laughed at Iruka's pale face.

"Calm your stupid tricks! This is your last warning!" Iruka shouted at the trickster with tissue shoved up his nostrils because of the immense nosebleed he's currently suffering.

Little did they know, a silver blue haired ninja who appeared to be a 15 year old stood in the shadows watched their little skit.

"They appear as foolish as one another." The 15 year old mused to himself. "Well, at least it keeps things entertaining."

(time skip)

RIIIING!

"Class dismissed."

"T-tomorrow's the exam…" Hinata mumbled as the rookies made their way outside. "We all h-have to do our best tomorrow."

"Yeah!" Aika nodded. "We all have to pass this. Bumming around won't help, don't you think so, Shika-kun?"

"Don't drag me into this, Ai…" Shikamaru grumbled after seeing Aika's obvious accusation. "Tsk… Troublesome girl…"

At the corner of Joy's eye, she saw Iruka-sensei going towards the mountain Hokage faces with Naruto. She immediately turned her attention at the rookies.

"Haha! Who do you guys think we are?" She grinned at them as she waved goodbye to them. "Obviously we'll all do our best!"

"Where ya goin' Joy-chan?" Kiba questioned her and Akamaru, in turn, yipped.

"Ah… about that. Just, yeah… a few things to take care of." She jerked her thumb in a general direction.

"Well, I'll be off! See you guys tomorrow!"

Kiba raised his eyebrows questioningly before grinning and waving her good bye. "Okay, then. See ya Joy!"

"See you tomorrow, Joy-chan!" Hinata smiled.

"Bye-bye, Joy-chan!" Aika grinned and waved.

"*munch munch* See ya, Joy-chan! *munch*" Choji… munched.

"Yeah." Shikamaru nodded.

"Hn…" Sasuke slightly inclined his head.

"See you tomorrow, Joy-chaaaaaaaan!" Sakura and Ino had a fight on whoever said it louder.

"…" Shino just nodded.

"Hmm… I wonder why she was such in a hurry…?" Ino wondered while having a cat fight with Sakura, but after that sentence, Sakura paused as well.

Even though it doesn't show, Ino, Sakura, Aika, Hinata and Joy were good friends. Of course they would be. Girls should stick together. They only started drifting apart a bit because Sakura and Ino's competition sometimes go overboard that the only thing they do was bicker.

"Maybe she's off looking for Naruto, nee, Akamaru?" Akamaru yipped an affirmation. "You know, even though I've known her for years, sometimes, I just couldn't understand her."

"Obviously. She's still a girl, Kiba." Aika, Sakura and Ino deadpanned.

"J-just because s-she's mostly with you boys d-doesn't mean that she's n-not a girl…" Hinata mumbled softly but strongly. Silence immediately washed over them right after that statement. For a few seconds, nobody dared speak. And even if they did, they couldn't. Did Hinata just talk back? What happened to the shy and timid girl?

"Okay, okay. Enough of this. I'm definitely not going to watch you guys stare blankly into space. That's just a drag." Shikamaru yawned. "C'mon, Choji, Ai. Let's go."

But before they could walk any farther, they heard Sakura and Ino giggling.

"You and Angel go home together?" Both girls slyly smiled.

"Duh. What do you think?" Shikamaru turned to stare at them, irritation etched on his face. "And stop poking around other people's business. It's annoying."

"Um… See you guys." Aika blushed as Sakura and Ino grinned at her and after a few seconds, the others said their good byes and left for their homes.

With Joy (time skip)

1st person POV

"Naru-kun! There you are! I just knew I'd find you here!" I entered the ramen shop and sure enough, I found my best friend slurping on ramen.

"Oh, hey, Joy-chan!" Naruto grinned at me. "You totally missed it! Iruka-sensei treated me to some ramen! He just left a few moments before you arrived."

'Yeah. Some ramen.' I sweatdropped as I stared at the pile of finished ramen bowls in front of Naruto. By this time, Naruto just finished his last ramen bowl, so both of us waved goodbye to Teuchi-san and his daughter.

"So, what did I miss?" I asked him as we started walking.

"Iruka-sensei made me clean up the mess I did on the faces. The only reason why I did it quickly was because he was gonna treat me to ramen." I laughed. Of course Naruto would do anything for ramen. "Then, we talked about the Hokages. He also asked me why I wanted to vandalize the faces. I told him that I want to be the next Hokage.

"I want to be the best Hokage ever…" He gazed into my eyes seriously, as if searching for an answer. "Joy... do you think that I could do it?"

I gasped, taken aback. 'Naruto Uzumaki is asking for my opinion?'

'Well, of course he is!' I mentally slapped myself. 'He's my best friend, and I am his. Of course he'll ask for my opinion.'

I observed my best friend who was waiting for my answer. This is the other side of Naruto that no one has ever seen. And when I say no one, I mean no one. He wouldn't ever let anyone see this side of him, only to me he would. This is his unsure and vulnerable side. Whenever he had doubts, he'll always go to me, never anyone else.

"Oh, Naruto…" I hugged him tightly and grinned at him. "Of course you can do it! Whatever happened to your determined self?"

"You think so?" Naruto smiled at me, but it doesn't reach his eyes. It feels so horrible seeing him this down. It's like you kicked an innocent little puppy.

"Naru-kun! Toughen up!" I punched him lightly on the head. I have to cheer him up. Gloomy Naruto is not Naruto at all. "If you don't pull yourself back together, I will seriously never buy you ramen ever again!"

"Whaaaaaaaaaat?" Naruto chased me around with a mischievous grin on his face. I guess he figured out that my taunt was only a ruse. I giggled, running away from him as we came near the river. "Heey! Come back here, Joy-chan!"

"Catch me if you can, Naru-kuun!" I stuck my tongue at him and stopped running when I came beside the river and looked back at him right when his foot decided to trip on a rock… Because of his clumsiness, he started rolling down… towards me.

"Gaah! Joy-chan! Get out of the waaaay—"

SPLASH!

Gah! The water was really cold! And the next thing I knew, I was staring up at Naruto's sky blue eyes, our noses barely touching. It was only a few seconds after when my mind registered the position we were in. Really awkward.

"Um… Naru-kun… You're heavy…"

"Ack! I-I'm s-sorry, J-Joy-c-chan!" Naruto jumped up and stuttered, a deep shade of red coloring his face. He sat cross legged on the river while lightly scratching his cheek, still blushing, as I propped myself up with my hands and sat down too. I clenched my hand on my chest, feeling my erratic heartbeat, when Naruto wasn't looking. 'It's beating so fast... Why in the world is it beating so fast?'

"Tsk, tsk, tsk… it's not raining yet we still got ourselves wet." I shook my head wryly, putting off the feeling. For now.

"Ehehe… yeah… It seems like it…"

"You are just so clumsy, you know that, Naru-kun?" I laughed, happy that I somehow made Naruto get out of his sadness.

"Yeah." Naruto laughed with me as we sat comfortably for a few minutes before Naruto broke the silence.

"Thank you… Joy-chan." I started to tell him that he didn't need to thank me but he cut me off. "No, Joy-chan.. I should thank you. You did so much for me… Now, you don't have to because from now on, you'll just have to leave everything to me! I'll make sure to do everything I could do for you, Joy-chan!"

…around the same time… with Aika

1st person POV

I sat on the tree just taking in the view. I was supposed to train and meditate but I just didn't feel it. So I made my way outside, found a perch on the branch of the tree and sat there. Right at that time, I was wearing a simple, loose-fitting robe with different colored trimmings, and an undershirt.

"Tomorrow's the exam…" I whispered to myself. "I hope everyone passes."

"That would definitely happen if everyone's ready." A bored voice spoke from below.

"Ack! Shika-kun!" I blushed, gasped and clutched my chest, clearly surprised. "Stop popping up at random times and then surprising me!"

"S'not my fault you get surprised easily." He shrugged, "Why are you up there anyway? You could fall… Troublesome girl."

I hopped from the branch and landed on the ground softly beside Shikamaru.

"I see you're finally doing your chores, Shika-kun." I stuck my tongue out at him and smiled, pertaining to his plastic bags on hand. Shikamaru sighed at my playful insult, not offended at all.

"Why are you called 'Angel'? You're never like an 'Angel' whenever I'm around…" Shikamaru grumbled. "Troublesome girl…"

"But… it's so fun teasing you, Shika-kun!" I pouted. "And besides, I'm not always kind, you know… I got angry at Kiba-kun today, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah…" Shikamaru rolled his eyes, and lifted the white plastic bags held by his hands. "Have to go home… such a drag… My mom made me buy stuff… had no choice. Mom could be scary sometimes."

He sighed exasperatedly, "And she knows it's the exams tomorrow and yet she still asks me to do these stuff… anyway, it's getting late. See you."

"Okay, then. See you tomorrow, Shika-kun!" I gave him my sweetest smile while blushing and hugged him. "You better pass tomorrow, Shika-kun!"

"Yeah. You better pass too…" Shikamaru, blushing, patted my head and smirked. "Troublesome girl…"

I detached myself from him and jumped up the tree branch then waved. "Goodnight! Sweet dreams!"

"Yeah." Shikamaru nodded. "You too." He turned his back to me and walked towards his house.

'I'm always like this when I'm around him... I'm so lucky that I was able to hide it at all.' I made a long sigh and looked up at the sky, trying to calm my thundering heart beat.

'Tomorrow's gonna be a long day…'

A/N: Please review! XD You know, it's just really simple to click the review button, so if you're not Shikamaru who's so lazy, click it. Pleaaaaaaaase leave kind reviews. Reviews help me know what you think of my story. So please. :