Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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"Ok, settle down everyone!" Iruka called out to the class. He'd had this class for 2 or so years and he knew there was a lot of promise in here. There were 4 standouts, but there were easily 10 that were far above the rest. What else do you expect from clan heirs?

The class took a little while to settle but eventually did so. The class was seated as it usually was. Naruto, in between Yugito and Sakura took the back seat in the middle row and in the seat next to them sat Shino, Hinata and Kiba. Towards the front sitting with her new boyfriend sat Ino, trying to get into Sasuke's lap. They'd been going out only for a few weeks but nothing was ever enough for her, Sasuke would always be at Naruto's looking for advice in how to deal with it. Just so happens he was the worst person for advice like that, something Sasuke had to learn the hard way, he didn't ever want to think of that day again.

Shikamaru and Chouji were on the seat on the other side of Naruto, Sakura and Yugito. The others of the class were also in their normal seats, sitting with their friends and who they hoped would become their teammates after they passed their exams.

Today was the genin exams where they would participate in 4 different exams to determine who passes and who fails. Naruto was confident in his ability; he hadn't been training hard for four years to flunk out in a genin exam.

The four years during the academy proved to be quite rewarding for Naruto. Not so much the time at the academy itself, but what would happen before and after he attended. He, Yugito and Anko had trained hard every morning with Minato and he was satisfied with their taijutsu after 2 years of the same thing, every morning. Other things he worked on was building speed and stamina, evasiveness and their jutsu knowledge. They each knew their affinity or affinities and tended to stick to their own strengths, but they did know some other elemental jutsu.

In his 'spare' time, something Naruto was severely lacking, he tried to work on the techniques that his father had left him in the box. So far he had managed to master the rasengan, and was working on adding elemental chakra to it. He was finding that putting wind based chakra into it was a lot easier than his water based chakra was. He had two affinities, wind elemental chakra form his father and water from his mother. They each helped out with their respective affinities.

The Hiraishin no jutsu however was just as hard, if not harder than it was made out to be. He had followed the advice his father had given him in the scroll and planned to develop his own variant of the technique. He had the idea he just didn't know how he was going to pull it off.

Training with Tsunade had proved more useful than he thought. Not only did she teach him all the medical ninjutsu she knew, but also her taijutsu style; pure and utter destruction. If he used the Kyuubi's chakra which he had learned to control to an extent, the results were even more devastating. His level in the medic field was somewhere higher than Shizune but lower than Tsunade. He needed a lot more experience before he was at her level.



Kakashi had mainly taught him ninjutsu, but also other skills that all ninja should have such as stealth, and assassination. Kakashi was a jutsu library only bested by the Sandaime Hokage. Not even the Namikaze library had as many jutsu as Kakashi knew. Kakashi insisted that Naruto master all the jutsu he learnt though so he could get the most out of it. It's better to master one than know five he told him. The chakra cost decreased and eventually he would be able to do it without calling the name out and reducing the amount of hand seals, something Naruto found quite appealing.

Yugito had done the same training as Naruto with Minato, and had also done a little bit with Anko and Kushina. She wasn't at the level that Naruto was at, but she was easily the second strongest in the class of students. She had developed her lightning and fire affinities quite well, the fire seemed to be her natural affinity and lightning she realised, she received from Nibi. While Kushina couldn't help her in those, she referred to the Namikaze library and Kakashi who had the same affinities and was willing to give her a hand when he could.

Slowly but surely Yugito's feelings for Naruto developed into something she was completely unfamiliar with. Nibi had mentioned something about 'love' but she didn't want to believe the demon. Naruto was a friend, a good friend and she didn't think there was any more. She had resolved herself to tell Kushina and see what she thought though..she just hadn't got around to it.

Sakura had been busy training also. Since she started the academy her father trained her in taijutsu, kenjutsu and ninjutsu. Her mother had been the one to teach her genjutsu, something she was quite good at. She hadn't found out her elemental affinity, Yamada thought she was a little young and had too low a reserve to be trying to develop it. Instead she opted to learn a range of techniques, some she was better at than others. She too was nowhere near Naruto's level but if she were to place herself she would put her at about fourth in the class.

The assumed number three of the class was Uchiha Sasuke. While him and Naruto had received the same marks for everything, as in perfect, if the two were to have a spar, Sasuke would stand no chance. He had learnt of who Naruto was training with and decided that he would need to train just as hard so he didn't get left behind. He received training from his father and Itachi whenever he was available. The two of them were proud of Sasuke's progress, while nowhere near Itachi's level, he was certainly above average for his age group.

The rest of Naruto's friends had also trained with their clans but not as extensively as the four of them had. They were at a decent level for a genin and they were almost guaranteed to become a part of the three teams that would graduate and become real ninja. The only question that remained was, who of the 10 would be the one to miss out?

After the class had finally come to attention Iruka decided to proceed. "Right, we will now commence this year's genin exams. The exam will be divided into four parts."

This surprised the children. They all thought there was only three parts, they were all curious as to what the fourth was and why it was added.

"Quiet down!" Iruka called, it was at that moment that Mizuki, their other instructor walked into the room holding a stack of papers.



"Thank you. There will first be a written exam and you will have one hour to complete it. The next exam will be announced after this one is completed. There will be no cheating and if you are caught doing so you will be forced to leave immediately and have failed this portion of the exam. You must have passed 2 of the first 3 exams to proceed to the final exam." Iruka announced before taking half the stack of papers and handing them out to the class while Mizuki handed the rest out. The papers were handed out face down and all the students sat there eagerly awaiting the start, rather the end of the written test. Everyone knew that this was probably their weakest point.

Sakura was quite confident as was Naruto, Yugito, Sasuke and Shino. Shikamaru was his usual lazy self and was only going to answer enough to pass the exam before going to sleep. The rest of the class was sweating, worried that they would fail the exam.

Finally it came time for the exam to begin and the papers were overturned immediately. There was a lot of sighs of relief from the class when they realised that it wasn't as difficult as they thought it would be. The questions were related to the shinobi code and the general history of Konoha. There were also a few questions that asked what they would do in certain scenarios. The students quickly began writing down their answers, most of them confident that they would be able to pass it.

Naruto however, sat there in complete confusion. 'There's no way that anyone in this class could answer this….oh what the hell!? They rigged my test! This must have been Tsunade-sensei and Otou-sa!.'

He looked back down to his exam and sighed. He did know the answers; he just wished that he'd had the simple one like the rest of them.

He reread his questions.

Question 1: Identify the most critical points on a human body and label them on a diagram of a human body.

Question 2: If in a situation where one of your teammates is kidnapped during a mission, what would you do and does it comply with the shinobi code? If not, which guidelines would you be violating?
Justify your response.

The questions went on and on, ranging from medical related questions to predicting trajectory patterns for projectiles and a range of scenarios in which he had to find a solution for. This was something he wouldn't even expect as a chuunin exam paper. He knew they were testing him to see if he had picked up on what he had been taught and he was determined not to fail them. He quickly got to work, trying to be as accurate as possible.

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"Do you think he's figured it out yet?" Tsunade asked Minato. She, Minato, Kushina and Shizune were all sitting in the kitchen in the Namikaze main house talking about what they had done to sabotage Naruto's exams, to see if he had learnt everything he needed to.

Minato chuckled a little bit. "Yeah, I'd say he has. But knowing Naruto he'll just do it. You know he won't give up on something just because it's a little hard." He replied.



"I'm sure Naruto will pass the exams." Shizune said. She had helped teach Naruto and watched him surpass even her in the four years that he had been under Tsunade's wing. She was quite proud of him and knew that a genin exam, even if it was dodgy, wasn't going to be a problem for him.

"Of course not, I just want to see how he goes.." Kushina said. She was a little concerned that they were being a little harsh on her son and that he really would fail. She knew that he was one to rise to the occasion but they were certainly pushing it this time.

"We can, but not until the tournament at the end. I asked Iruka to set it up so I could see how all the students were going and if they were ready. We'll get to see him there." Minato said. The truth was, he just wanted to see how he and Yugito would fair up against the others his age group. He was confident that they would be stronger, he just wanted to know how much stronger.

"That is if he makes it.." Kushina said doubtfully.

"He will, he's our son, and if he doesn't pass that means he isn't ready." Minato replied sure of himself.

"Well I guess so.." Kushina said.

"Well, we should go and get Anko and Kurenai, I'm sure they'd like to see Naruto do his thing." Minato said as he stood up.

"I'm sure the two of them would like to see his thing." Tsunade replied 'innocently'.

"Tsunade!" Kushina exclaimed.

"You know it's true. They way they look at him, always wanting to be around him. Anko still sneaks into his bed!" Tsunade replied. She did have a point.

Anko and Kurenai's feelings towards Naruto had changed a lot. He was no longer Anko's protector, or Kurenai's groom to be. The two of them had developed strong feelings for the boy. Kurenai thought it was a good thing considering she had to marry him anyway, but Anko thought it was wrong. She didn't think she should have feelings like that for someone 7 years younger than her. It felt right, but to everyone else it would seem wrong.

The two were close friends but had never discovered that they were both chasing the same guy.

"Well it may be true, but do you have to be so blunt about it?" Kushina asked.

Tsunade sat there in mock thought. "Yep!"

Kushina just shook her head and walked off with her husband. Tsunade laughed and followed them with Shizune by her side.

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"Pens down everyone!" Iruka announced to the class. The time allowed for the written test had ended and everyone, including Naruto all felt confident after it. They were glad that the theory was over and that the practical was about to begin.



"Mizuki will now collect all the test papers. After that has been done, everyone will move outside for the next three parts of the exams. The next exam that you will all do is an accuracy test. The rules and conditions will be explained when we move outside. Please sit there quietly until the test papers have been collected."

As soon as the last test paper was collected, the class erupted in noise. Everyone was asking how their friends went and how confident they all were with the upcoming exams.

At the back Naruto's table was in a discussion of their own.

"You didn't get the same exam as we did, did you?" Sakura asked Naruto. She got a quick glance at his paper when he turned it over and she immediately could tell that it was a harder exam than what she herself had received and became worried.

"Of course I got the same exam as you…why wouldn't I have?" Naruto lied. He didn't think there was a need to tell his friends about his dodgy exam papers. He knew who was responsible for it and he understood their reasoning. They had put a lot of time and effort into him and they wanted to make sure it was worth it.

"You're lying." Yugito said simply. Her feelings for Naruto weren't the only thing that changed. She also became a lot more confident and outgoing. "Yours was different than ours."

Everyone was starting to get up and leave for the next part of the exam. "Oh, look, we need to go. We don't want to be late." He said. He then got up and ran out the door before either of the girls could say anything more about it.

The two of them looked at each other and nodded.

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The children all filed out of the classroom and made their way to the academy training grounds. It was fairly small with a few trees and about 5 training posts. It wasn't meant for full out training.

"Listen up!" Iruka called out. "Each of you will get 5 kunai and 5 shuriken to throw at the targets. You need 7 of them to pass this portion of the exam. First of all can I have-"

Iruka was cut off when they noticed a bloody and beaten chuunin staggering over to the training grounds. He went to call out for help but it appeared as though his jaw was broken and he couldn't talk.

Iruka frantically turned to the students. "Sakura and Ami, go and get some help. Ask for medics or transport to a hospital! Go now!" he said.

"No need!" called out Naruto. This was what he had been training four years for. He had healed these types of injuries before and was confident he would be fine with it. "Sakura, I want you to go and get some towels or cloth to stop the bleeding. Yugito I want you to go and get some water so I clean the wounds and Iruka-sensei, keep everyone out of the way."

He quickly ran over to the man, well as quick as one could wearing weight and gravity seals. The other three, while a little shocked at how he just took charge, moved off to do what they were asked.



He went over to the man and carefully helped him down to the ground. He went through a few hand seals and formed a chakra scalpel. He cut off the man's shirt and jacket so he could properly diagnose the problem. After doing so he cancelled the technique and went through another set of hand seals. His hands were covered in a green hue and he went about healing the man.

He carefully pulled out bits of rocks and metal that was lodged into his wounds and went about repairing the ruptured veins and arteries before going to work on the skin tissue. He briefly looked up when he felt his face being wiped and saw Sakura wiping his sweat away. He smiled appreciatively at her before taking the towel and trying to wipe away the blood from his body to see if he had missed anything.

It took about 20 minutes before the man was healed and after he had double checked that the man would be alright he stood up. "He'll be fine, he'll still need to go to the hospital though. I'll need you to ask medics to come over with a stretcher and retrieve him."

"They're on their way." Yugito said. She figured that he would need some medics to retrieve the man when Naruto was done and sent for them already.

He smiled warmly at her. "Arigatou, Yugito-chan."

She smiled sweetly back, something that Naruto absolutely loved about her. Her eyes squinted and she had the cutest little dimples.

"O..k.." Iruka said. He knew that Naruto was getting some training from Tsunade but didn't know just how good he was. The medics quickly came through the training ground with a stretcher in their hands. They talked to Naruto for a little bit before they placed the body on the stretcher and left.

Iruka cleared his throat to regain the attention of the class. "Now that is taken care of, we will continue on with the exam. If Aburame Shino would please step up and take these shuriken and kunai."

Shino scored 8 out of 10 and rejoined the group. The list went on and on until finally Iruka called out. "Namikaze Naruto…are you alright to do it Naruto?"

He was sitting down over to the side. While healing the man hadn't even scratched his reserves, he needed to take a slight rest anyway.

He stood up and nodded. "Yeah I'm right to go." He said before he walked over to Iruka and received his kunai and shuriken. Immediately he felt something off with them and when he examined one noticed that the weight and balance were off with them.

Naruto smirked. "Otou-san…how many more games are we going to play here?" Naruto called out seemingly to the middle of nowhere.

"Why what ever are you talking about son?" Minato replied as he appeared with Kushina, Tsunade, Shizune, Anko and Kurenai.

"Oh I wonder.." Naruto said. He smirked and lined up with the target ready to throw.

"Remember, son. What I told you."



"Yeah, yeah." He replied, he figured he knew what he was going on about. 'A ninja has to use what he has available to him heh..'

The rest of the class save Naruto's friends were in awe of Minato's appearance. 'Hokage-sama came to watch our exams!?' Most of them thought. Naruto's friends were quite used to his presence, especially Yugito, Sakura and Sasuke. They were still very aware of his power and respectful in his presence, but weren't as 'wowed' as the rest of the class.

He checked the wind and tried to find a new balance point for his equipment. He lined it up to where he thought he should for it to hit and threw all of the shuriken at once towards the target.

They all hit, but only two were in the centre. Sasuke sniggered knowing he could do better. He just didn't know about the faulty equipment.

He then lined up the kunai, again factoring in the new circumstances and threw them. Again they hit the target but this time they were all relatively close to the centre. He smirked victoriously and made his way back over to his friends.

He glanced over to his father and saw him nod in his direction and the others smile at him. He smiled back and rejoined his friends.

Everyone else went and everyone passed that section of the exams, it wasn't exactly a hard thing to do. However the only people who got all of them to hit was Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Yugito. So far the position of rookie of the year was a four-way tie.

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The ninjutsu part of the exam was next and it was something else that not many people had too many issues with. They were asked to perform the Henge no jutsu, Bunshin no jutsu and the Kawarimi.

They had to at least pull off two of the techniques successfully or they wouldn't graduate at all. Everyone was doing well enough with a few doing all three techniques properly but most only being able to complete the two.

"Namikaze Naruto." Iruka called out. He was willing to pass him just on his performance healing the chuunin, but he knew that Mizuki wouldn't feel the same. While he hadn't said anything about it, he knew that Mizuki had something against Naruto.

He stepped up in front of the class to do the techniques.

"Perform the Henge no jutsu. You must transform into a shuriken- wait what? Surely you can't do that. There must be a mistake."

"No mistake Iruka." Minato said. He wanted to see how good his son was and he was intending to mess with his exams every step of the way.

"I..see. Perform the Henge no jutsu, then the Kawarimi and then perform the Bunshin no jutsu and create at least 3 clones." Iruka sat back in his chair and waited for him to perform the techniques.



Naruto simply stood there and was preparing to do the technique when he felt a massive amount of killing intent being aimed straight at him. He looked over to his father who had his hands behind his back whistling innocently.

'A ninja has to deal with a range of circumstances and one must be able to calm himself down and perform rationally in all instances.' Another thing that his father had taught him since he had been training.

He nodded to himself and closed his eyes briefly. He created the Kage bunshin making two other clones. He opened his eyes and without making any hand seals he and his clones yelled out. "Bunshin no jutsu!" "Henge no jutsu!""Kawarimi!"

He figured that Sasuke would try show off by making as many clones as he could so he thought he would get in first. The whole field was literally covered in his clones and in his original spot lay a single shuriken and Iruka's table.

Everyone gasped in amazement but there were a few that sighed. Namely his parents, Tsunade, Shizune, Yugito, Kurenai and Anko. 'Show off' They all thought.

"Very good Naruto. You have passed all three of your exams and are eligible for the fourth part. Congratulations."

Naruto nodded and undid all his clones. He made his way over to his friends. Sasuke snickered in his direction but didn't show him any form of congratulations. His other friends all congratulated him; he then wished Yugito good luck as she made her way up to the front.

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Again everyone seemed to pass the exam with good results and it turned out that everyone was eligible for the last part of the exam.

"This year a fourth part to your examination has been added, it was by the request of Hokage-sama that this was done. There will be a knock-out tournament in which everyone will compete. Every one of you has passed the exams and will receive your hitai-ate at the conclusion of the tournament. This was added to assist in making selections for teams to see whose skills will work well together."

There were murmurs of excitement from the children all wanting to have a fight with their peers and come out victorious. They all quieted down when Minato took a step forward. "That's right, in order to make sure we have teams that will work out, I personally would like to evaluate all of your skills. The best way for that is to pit you up in battle. It is my belief that success will only come with teamwork so if you are placed on an appropriate team to begin with it makes the process a lot easier. I will be personally refereeing these matches so without further adieu let them begin."

Iruka pulled out a piece of paper and said. "On this is the draw for the tournament. If you lose you are immediately knocked out and will stand to the side and watch the rest of the matches. There will be no killing here today and your match will be interfered with when we believe it to be over. This is not a fight against your enemy, this is a spar against your peers and you will treat it as such. Now come and see your draw."



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The tournament had progressed as expected. Naruto hadn't had to face any of his friends but everyone he did hadn't even stepped in the ring. They knew that Naruto was too strong for them.

It was down to the semi-finals. It was going to be Naruto against Yugito and Sakura against Sasuke.

"Namikaze Naruto and Nii Yugito. Would the both of you come forward please." Minato called. He had been impressed by the fights so far and knew what teams he wanted. However, this was the fight that he had been waiting for since the start of it. He knew who would win but he wanted to see just how far they had come.

They both appeared in front of Minato and bowed to him before bowing to each other. "Good luck Yugito-chan." Naruto said as he got into his made up taijutsu style.

"The same to you Naruto-kun." Yugito said as she too got into her made up stance. The faced each other and waited for Minato to start the match.

Minato stood there and smirked at the final test he had for Naruto. "Yugito, undo your seals." He said simply.

They both rolled up their sleeves but before they could do anything Minato said. "Naruto, what are you doing?"

"I'm undoing- oh what? You expect me to go up against her with those seals still on!?"

Minato grinned. "Of course. She's had to battle and you haven't, I think it's only fair." Of course that wasn't his only reason but almost everyone else seemed to buy it, not that many of them knew what they were talking about.

Naruto grunted in annoyance and Yugito spared him an apologetic look as she undid her seals.

"Don't hold back, either of you." Minato said. He wanted to see how they would both go fighting at their best. They nodded back to him and faced him. "I ask that everyone viewing stands back for this fight. Move right back!"

They all did as they were told thinking it was for the best.

"Namikaze Naruto vs. Nii Yugito. Hajime." He jumped backwards and watched on from a distance.

Over in the distance the others watched on eagerly. They were looking forward to this fight.

Kurenai and Anko were a little worried, they knew they didn't have to be but they still didn't want him to get hurt.

His mother was also a little worried, she knew what Minato wanted to see and wasn't happy about it. But she was also a little interested to see how far the two had come and she knew that they would only find out if they went up against each other.

Iruka stood with the rest of the students well aware that this wasn't going to be like the rest of the fights. There was no way this was going to be a fight between two rookie genin skilled ninja.



Naruto and Yugito just looked at each other. They didn't want to hurt the other but they both knew they would be insulted if the other went soft on them. As soon as Minato had left they both charged forward, Yugito a little faster than Naruto.

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"What's that over there?" A blonde girl asked the group she was travelling with.

"I'm not sure, but it feels like Yugito and Naruto. Let's go investigate." Her red head insomniac of a brother replied. The others in the group nodded as they made their way to where they felt their friends.

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That's the end! I originally was going to have this chapter finish the exams but I thought I'd leave you all hanging. The more reviews, the faster I'll update it. Otherwise there may not be an update until after the weekend.

Also, should I change the story to a Naruto/someone rather having it blank. If so, who do you think it should be?

Well, read and review. Ja ne.