This is still my first fanfic _.

R&R greatly appreciated!

This is an extremely short chapter, but the next one will appear soon enough.

The loud buzzing of the alarm clock awoke an extremely annoyed genin. Naruto groaned as he sat up in his small, cozy bed. He adjusted his blue fuzzy nightcap and stretched his arms, yawning loudly.

Stealing a glance at the infernal device that had woken him up, which at the time said 7:00, he relaxed. An hour. Plenty of time.

He dropped onto the wooden floor, wincing immediately at the sudden change of temperature between the warm bed and the freezing floors. Jumping slightly, he quickly dashed into the bathroom, where he took a comforting shower.

He ripped the covering off of a container of instant ramen, and filled the cup to the brim with water. He popped the mixture into the microwave, and let it run for 3 minutes. Naruto changed, and then picked up his hitai-ate, which denoted him as a true shinobi of Konoha. Proudly, he wrapped the hitai-ate rather carefully around his forehead.

Naruto had decided to wear something different today instead of his traditional orange jumpsuit. He was wearing a sleeveless blue thin shirt. It had a long stripe going from the front to the back that curved, turned and made a gigantic, connected, complicated yet brilliant design. He was wearing long, rather wide pants that fit around him snugly. They were black, and flowed easily, allowed him to move freely.

Naruto snapped the buckles of various pouches, such as his kunai and shuriken pouches, on himself.

He admired his new look in a nearby mirror. He tightened the knot on the back of his hitai-ate as the microwave beeped audibly, noting that the ramen was done. Quickly, Naruto swiped a pair of chopsticks from next to his sink, and then began busily consuming the ramen in large slurps.

When he was done, he took another look at the alarm clock. '7:45', he thought. '15 minutes to get back to the Academy – I can make it.' He burst out of the door of his apartment, and dashed towards the designated meeting point, his excitement levels reaching new heights.

He ran by many of the villagers of Konoha, each giving him cold, hard stares. They glared at his hitai-ate, their expressions showing clearly their thoughts.

'How did a demon ever become a ninja?' 'I thought the last mob took care of the brat.' 'Go wreak havoc in another village, bastard!'

Naruto inwardly shivered involuntarily. He wondered to himself, how could be stay so strong and happy with so much hate piled on him? As he ran, he thought about his. Maybe he was getting used to it. Maybe he was getting stronger emotionally. Maybe he felt that if he radiated pure happiness, others would catch on. I mean, how do you get rid of darkness? By adding light.

He reached the roof just in the nick of time. He burst through the door that led to the Academy roof right as the clock next to the patiently waiting Kurenai and the other two genin went off, telling everyone that it was now 8:00.

Ino and Kurenai gawked at his new look. Ino just looked at Naruto strangely, trying to figure out what went on in his blond head. Kurenai inwardly admitted slightly that the new look fit him rather well.

Shikamaru smirked. He gazed upwards at the clear skies of Konoha. "Troublesome blondes…", he muttered, causing Ino to give him a hard look. Naruto, of course, just grinned.

Feeling the tension rise within her genin team, Kurenai quickly started. "Hello squad 8. Basically, for this examination, there are 3 bells. Each one of you wants to get your hands on one before the clock hits noon."

There was an awkward silence, before Naruto popped in. "Kurenai-sensei, where are the bells, exactly?"

Kurenai smiled slightly. "Follow me", she said, gesturing.

They went down, off the roof, and walked for the better part of a half hour until they reached a large forest.

"I've hid the bells within this forest.", she said smugly. "I've placed a few traps here and there, and when I see fit, I myself may do something."

The genin nodded. "You can start now…", she said, and the 3 dashed into the forest, each in their own separate directions. 'Let's see if they ever figure out what they're supposed to do…', she thought.

Naruto was speeding past trees, using his Kage Bunshin to help him scout around for the bells. After searching for about an hour, one of the clones dispelled to tell him that he had found one of the bells. Following the directions from the dispelled Kage Bunshin, he saw an amazingly gargantuan tree. Hanging from one of the uppermost branches, was the bell, which was dangling on a string, wrapped and knotted tightly around the branch.

Naruto pondered for a couple moments, before smirking. 'Is that all?' He drew a kunai from his kunai pouch, and threw it right at the string, hoping to cut it to make the bell fall right into his open hands.

But of course, there were complications. The tree was so tall that even with Naruto channeling tremendous amounts of chakra into his muscles to improve the height of his throw, he was unable to reach the branch the bell was on.

Growling, Naruto decided to climb. He wrapped the fingers of his left hand around a smaller stump of a branch in reach, and then dug his feet into small grooves in the tree's trunk. Naruto began his long journey up.

He had made it about a quarter way up, and he had a determined look in his eye. 'I'm definitely going to pass this exam!' He continued his climb, when he felt a slight resistance on his forehead that suddenly went away. Naruto came to a horrible realization. There had been a barely visible string, and Naruto's forehead had broken it. That could mean only one thing. 'Shiiit…', he thought. He felt multiple sharp objects plunge into his back, and he barely stifled a yelp of pain.

'I can't get deterred by something as small as this!'. He kept going upwards. After a couple more moments of easy climbing, his left foot, desperately trying to find a foot hold, pressed down on a lever concealed as a branch. Naruto winced as more needles smashed into his back and legs.

As Naruto continued his ascension, he was continually barraged with needles, the occasional blunt mace, and false footholds.

He found a place where he could relax for a moment. Looking at his distance from the ground and the distance from the bell, he estimated that he was about half way. Kurenai, looking at him, concealed in a genjutsu, flinched each time he triggered another trap.

'Good thing', she mused, cringing as another wave of needles impaled her student, 'I decided on using senbons for the traps, and not actual kunai… I wouldn't want my students dying on me. Although he's slightly dumb for still going even though he's hitting almost every trap I set on that tree' She giggled slightly. 'I have to admit, he's persistent.'

Naruto was about to reach upwards, when he stopped his hand just in time. His hand was centimeters away from snapping a small wire, that was plainly visible from the sunlight boring down on it. Naruto smiled knowingly. He was getting better at this. Or so he thought. He reached just over that wire which ended up tripping a different, smaller wire placed sneakily right beyond the first.

'Goddamnit!', he cursed inwardly, as a large rock smashed into his hand. The sudden pain relinquished his grasp. Instinctively, Naruto's unhurt hand flew to his kunai pouch, and in one swift movement, drew a kunai and plunged it into the tree, and then hung onto the kunai for dear life. Unfortunately, he had not stabbed with enough force, and he and the kunai fell a good 100 meters, where he would have fallen unconscious if he had not fallen into a bush.

'I can't fail this test!', he cried. 'I wonder how Shikamaru and Ino are doing.'

Somewhere in the middle of the forest, Shikamaru groaned. "What a drag… something doesn't feel right…". Lying 50 feet away from him, was a bell, just plain lying on the ground. Shikamaru looked closer, and saw an intricate web of trip wires and traps just waiting for a reckless person to get caught.

Shikamaru sighed. 'Troublesome.'

From Ino's place, she wasn't faring much better. She was dangling upside down by her left ankle, trying to free herself from a rope that was holding her up. There was a giant crater in the ground, that was mostly concealed by a boulder. The part that wasn't concealed showed that underneath the boulder, was the bell. She sighed, and then continued sawing away at her constraints with a kunai. She had tried earlier, unsuccessfully to get at the bell – by reaching under the boulder, by trying to break or move the boulder, etc.

It was 11:30. 30 minutes remained in the genin test. Naruto was close to finishing freeing himself from ninja wire that was pinning him to a tree. He was thinking darkly, 'If Shikamaru were here he'd know what to do… the lazy bastard genius…'… when suddenly an idea dawned on him. 'I should go talk to Shikamaru and Ino!'

He finished freeing himself and dashed around, this time searching for Shikamaru and Ino with himself and his Kage Bunshin.

Finally giving them all the message, they were all gathered in the place right outside of the forest, where they'd all started. It was 11:45.

"Naruto, you may be right.", Shikamaru said slowly. "The bell I was going at was impossible to get at by myself. Every time I was going to advance, there always seemed to be a trip wire. If there were multiple people, they would be able to figure out quickly where the wires were."

Ino pondered. "My bell would be simple to get if you could get rid of the boulder. That would be possible with the combined effort of multiple people."

Naruto took their thoughts into account. "I'm starting to think this test was made for us all to work together."

Their discussion was rudely interrupted by a loud ringing sound. The genin team groaned. Time was up.

"Yeesh, we all failed…", Naruto began, feeling downcast.

"On the contrary", the genin team jumped at the sound of their sensei's voice. They spun 360 degrees, attempting to find the source, but failed. "You all passed." A genjutsu dropped, and their sensei was beaming proudly at them.

"Y-y-you were watching the whole time?", Ino stuttered.

"We passed?", Naruto said, disbelieving.

"Of course. The test was to test whether you could work as a team. You guys, at the end, figured out the meaning of the test. While you didn't physically acquire the bells, you did know how to continue."

Giving a loud whoop of joy, Naruto jumped high. He pumped his fist in the air after promptly high fiving Shikamaru, who had a relieved expression on his face.

Ino herself was feeling a sense of pride.

Kurenai gave them a short genuine smile, before resuming acting serious.

"You may all have passed, but your life as a shinobi has just begun. You have gone through many hardships in your lives up to this point, but from here on in it just gets harder. You won't be able to make it if you don't work hard and slack off."

Shikamaru groaned. More work? He became a ninja to avoid work!

"I want you guys to meet me in our normal place, the roof of the Academy, tomorrow morning at 0800 again, and we will commence our training." Kurenai said.

The team just beamed, and then saluted their sensei and ran off.

For lunch, Naruto went to the only plausible place for lunch in his view – Ichiraku Ramen! As he slurped up his 20th bowl of miso ramen, he thought about his performance during the genin exam. To put it simply, he was slightly disappointed in himself.

He thought about how he was unable to dodge the senbon, and the blunt objects. He thought about how he had fallen just because of a small pain.

Later that night, in a nameless shinobi bar in the middle of Konoha, the jounin senseis were meeting and discussing their new teams.

"I was slightly disappointed.", Asuma said, fiddling with his beard stubble. "The Inuzuka brat was extremely easy to anger. It was kind of hilarious how easily I was able to draw him out of his hiding spot and fight him in a one on one taijutsu match. But using the Aburame's calmness and the Hyuuga's expertise in the jyuuken, they were able to take one of the bells."

Kiba was lying on the ground in an obscure position, watching his sensei carefully. Asuma was spit shining his trench knives, whistling a jolly tune. There were 2 bells attached to his belt.

(flashback to an even earlier time)

"For this genin exam, I want you guys to try and take one of these bells.", Asuma stated, watching the expressions on his team's faces."

"But A-A-Asuma-sensei", Hinata pointed out, "there are only 2 bells, and 3 of us!"

Asuma grinned. Fell right for it.

"Of course. One of you isn't going to get a bell. One of you is going to fail."

Shino looked at him warily, searching Asuma's grin for any hints. He adjusted his glasses, and stared upwards in thought.

(end flashback)

"Wow these genin are worse than last year.", he said loudly, enunciating each syllable, already aware that Kiba was watching him in the shadows. "I mean, that Inuzuka kid, even. I thought he had some potential, but it looks like he's too chicken to - …"

He was cut off by a wave of kunai flying from Kiba's hiding spot. Asuma easily dodged and blocked the surprise attack, and wasn't surprised when Kiba and his dog Akamaru charged him, the former's face completely red with anger.

"You're going to take back what you said before!", he shouted angrily, before throwing a messy punch, which Asuma dodged easily. Asuma twirled around expertly, using his leg to knock Kiba off balance before he slid behind Kiba, and shoved him forcefully onto the ground. Akamaru attempted to save his master, but Asuma just parried Akamaru's attacks with his trench knife.

"Just as expected", Kakashi said slowly, fiddling with a shuriken. "The Uchiha was brash and rude. He acted like he was the king of world." The other jounins nodded. "He did show some potential, however. He was able to use a fireball jutsu, showing above average chakra control and reserves. The Haruno kid basically fell apart because of a simple genjutsu of her Sasuke-kun getting hurt." Kurenai shook her head in distaste. Being incapacitated by a simple genjutsu was one thing. If it was all because of her fangirlness, that was another. "The Akimichi kid, however, was pretty strong and also showed potential. He was cool and calm until I called him fat." The jounins chuckled, and Iruka winced, knowing how touchy Chouji was about the subject.

"All of the kids on my squad did rather well.", Kurenai said. The other senseis scoffed and choked on their sake in surprise.

"All?", Kakashi inquired. Kurenai nodded. "Including the Uzumaki? The dead last?"

Kurenai smirked. "In fact, it was Naruto who figured out the meaning of the test."

Kakashi was at a loss for words. The senseis' jaws dropped.

"Kakashi, I see a fly buzzing in your mouth.", Kurenai teased, grinning as Kakashi promptly closed his mouth and hmmphed. He was unhappy by the fact that his team was outdone by Kurenai's team – which had the dead last, no less.

Not to be outdone in this duel of words, Kakashi countered. "You sure you didn't help them? You did show an interest in the Uzumaki brat in the classroom." He smirked knowingly at the redness on Kurenai's face.

"S-shut up." She said quickly, both remembering the awkward thing that happened that day. The other senseis looked at them, confused.

"Oh you don't know? Well it was about 2 hours af-…", Kakashi began, but was silenced by a genjutsu from Kurenai. Kakashi promptly fell unconscious.

The senseis looked, shocked at Kurenai, who was extremely red with embarrassment as well as anger.

Kurenai grinned, her redness fading back to her normal face. "Oh – it's nothing."

The other senseis nodded, continuing their conversation as Kakashi kept drooling on the ground and mumbling something about being attacked by animated dango.