Disclaimer: Naruto and all associated characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto

Jutsu: Original (Translation)

Bijū/Summon Speaking

Bijū/Summon Thoughts

Naruto mental reply

! - dattebayo

edit 4/20/16

Chapter 9

The Sojourn of Youth

6 years later – Konoha Shinobi Academy

12 year old Naruto entered the classroom an hour early and sat near the back corner or the room, plopping down in the seat closest to the windows. He always arrived early to claim his spot in order to avoid as much confrontation with the civilian kids as possible.

Most of the people in the village still held disdain towards him, but their hatred had seemed to cool since he kept mostly to himself. Naruto had adopted a stoic and serious demeanor as time progressed, which he felt contributed to the change in the village's overall behavior.

If they saw the "damn Kyūbi brat" jumping for joy that would only fuel their anger, but if said Kyūbi brat was beneath their notice, most of the idiots would be capable of finally moving on past their grief. There were still clusters of idiots throughout the village who hated his very being with a passion, but the Kyūbi laws prevented any open hostilities against him.

He could still be cheery on occasion when he was with his close friends in a private setting. If they were anywhere in public, however, he would tone himself down so he could avoid attracting attention. While he would give a big grin and a laugh at a joke inside of his friend's home, that same joke in a restaurant would equate to a soft smile.

He had grown quite a bit over the past six years. He was now sitting at 5' even with the promise of even more growth. His golden yellow hair was still wildly spiky but he wore it a little bit longer than before and he now had two side bangs that hung down in front of his ears to frame his face. It was a shorter version of the style he had seen on a picture of the Yondaime, with thinner side bangs. His sapphire blue eyes were still large, but they were sharper than before and his whisker marks were a little more defined.

He still wore his precious orange coat with blue ¾ length pants and blue combat sandals. Sadly, his coat was to get replaced after today, as promised. He knew it didn't really match his impassive nature now, but he still loved orange with a passion and he would admit he had his stubborn streaks.

His relationship with Kurama, aka Kyūbi, had progressed by leaps and bounds once he entered the academy and begin training four years ago. Kurama had started helping him to identify the negative emotions he was sensing around him and he was now starting to become proficient at sensing the negative emotions between other people.

Kurama still mostly controlled that aspect of his senses, fortunately. He had handed control over to Naruto one morning when Naruto asked Kurama why he needed to control it. That was quite an interesting but overwhelming experience.

Interesting because he could tell that his neighbor's wife was pissed at her husband and her husband was lying to her about something. Overwhelming because he could also sense every bad thing that everyone was feeling throughout the village, at the same time.

After that event, Naruto was glad that Kurama had been controlling it. Kurama had been slowly handing control over to Naruto over the past 4 years and would officially hand control over to him if he graduates today.

Kurama had also improved his overall senses, gradually, over the years. Now he could see much further and was able to see in low light conditions. He could hear things clearer and from further away. Plus, he could smell things in such detail and follow them for some distance.

He still needed Kurama's help to identify most sounds and scents that he would pick up, and Kurama had to filter stronger sounds and scents so that Naruto wouldn't become overwhelmed by them. Kurama had been helping fine tune his control of those senses as well. He was getting better, but would still get caught off guard by his heightened senses from time to time.

Kurama had told him about his parents at the end of his second year at the academy, and what happened on the night of his birth. This had been the main reason his for his change in behavior over the years from cheery to stoic and serious.

Naruto now viewed most of the villagers with contempt. Kurama's constant degradation and disdain of humanity in general probably wasn't helping either, but he couldn't help it when the villagers held his father in such high regard but treated his son as some lesser being if not with outright hatred.

Learning the truth about his parents had also strained his relationship with the Hokage. Naruto was pissed at him for a few weeks but Kurama had helped him put things in perspective and eventually Naruto forgave the man. He still saw him as a grandfatherly figure, but Naruto no longer craved his attention like he did in the past. His guilt at deceiving the man about Kurama and other things had also lessened to a degree. He still didn't like lying to the man, but he no longer stressed out about it.

Naruto had been successful in keeping the knowledge about his contact with Kurama a secret. He had some tense meetings with the Hokage and Inoichi in the past two years when his attitude changed. With Kurama's help, he had been able to convince them that his changes in demeanor were just due to him growing up and his experiences at the academy.

If he had to mention Kurama for some reason, he would still refer to him as "the Kyūbi". It irked Naruto that they referred to Kurama as an object. Kurama was the one being he trusted completely and being able to sense his emotions proved to Naruto that he was more than just some "thing" instead of a sentient being.

Kurama, with some help from the Hokage, had greatly helped Naruto with his Fūinjutsu training. Naruto felt he was progressing nicely, even if some of his other skills had suffered for it at first. He was now able to make storage seals, gravity seals (for weight training), barrier seal tags, light seals, and he was in the early stages of explosive tags which would right now only created a blinding flash.

He had also just started learning how to create seal arrays with his chakra, instead of requiring ink and paper, but he still needed to practice applying them to objects and people. Kurama wouldn't let him write any seals on his skin just yet since he needed a way to test them on living beings first, which Naruto wasn't too keen on.

There wasn't much he was learning in the Academy that Kurama could help him on anyways. Kurama didn't know any ninjutsu since he was a being of chakra that could simply manipulate it into any element or shape he desired.

The taijutsu that Kurama could show him was only useful for fox shaped beings with tails and wouldn't help Naruto at all at this time. Until he was capable of bonding with Kurama to the point that he could enter his bijū form, he wouldn't be capable of learning the most advanced moves Kurama had invented on his own. According to Kurama, it wasn't possible for him because he was too young to use that much of Kurama's chakra and he needed the key in order to open the seal and bond his chakra with Kurama's completely.

Kurama theorized that some of his taijutsu might be useful for when Naruto managed to manifest a chakra cloak with multiple tails, but he hadn't even had the chance to train using Kurama's chakra for fear of discovery.

Kurama estimated that his body could probably handle one tail worth for about 10 minutes before Naruto would start taking severe damage. While Kurama could heal that damage easily, it would still leave Naruto vulnerable afterward he dispersed the cloak. The only way to increase that would be to channel his chakra more often leading to the village going into a panic.

Really all he had to show for ninja skills from the academy was his Academy taijutsu style, bukijutsu, trap making, ninja tool usage, and basic knowledge he had learned from books the Hokage had given to him and quizzed him on.

He wasn't the greatest at taijutsu or bukijutsu because of all the sabotage attempts on his education during his first two years at the academy.

That bastard teacher had tried his best to screw Naruto over by putting genjutsu on him or his papers during quizzes and exams. If it wasn't for Kurama dispelling them, he would have failed on those tests badly. The bastard would still give him detention for stupid reasons or if he tried to defend himself against the civilian kids who tried to bully him.

The taijutsu instructor would constantly teach him the wrong katas and stances. This went on for a few months until one of his normal Sunday visits with the Hokage. The Hokage asked Naruto to show him what he had learned so far and Naruto started to display his taijutsu forms. His stances and katas were so wrong that they were completely unrecognizable to the Hokage. When Naruto showed the Hokage his notes and explained what the instructor showed him, the Hokage was furious.

When school started the next week, the class was introduced to a new taijutsu instructor and Naruto's scores began to improve in that area, with some help from Karasu.

The bukijutsu instructor would give him faulty and unbalanced shuriken and kunai to use, which would damage his accuracy tests badly. Karasu gave him two scrolls full of training shuriken and kunai to use once he had seen what the instructor was trying to do. After a few weeks of tutoring after class, Karasu had helped him improve enough that his final score wasn't affected.

Naruto reminisced about Karasu with those thoughts. Baku had suddenly been assigned to his Anbu guard in the middle of his first year, and Naruto never saw Karasu again. Naruto was quite saddened when he found out because Karasu would sometimes "play" hide and seek with him when he didn't have anyone to meet with for the day.

Naruto would "stumble" across his hiding location and look at him for a moment before Karasu would vanish and reappear somewhere else and Naruto would try to find him again, much to Neko's amusement.

While he was not as openly friendly as Neko, he still helped Naruto with his taijutsu and bukijutsu. Naruto knew he wouldn't have received a passing score that first year if it wasn't for him.

It took Naruto two years to correlate Karasu's disappearance with the Uchiha Incident. He hoped that Karasu was simply reassigned but when asked, the Hokage would just tell him he couldn't discuss Anbu secrets with him.

The last thing he had to remember Karasu by was a scroll he had found in his apartment the day Karasu disappeared. It had a note that told him to open the scroll on the day of his graduation test. Naruto eagerly opened the scroll this morning to reveal a note wishing him luck on his test, and a storage scroll full with live kunai, shuriken, and various ninja tools he would need. Neko would arrive that morning with a set of weapons for him to use as well, but Naruto decided to use the ones Karasu gave him instead.

Overall, Naruto placed 3rd below Sasuke Uchiha and Shino Aburame for the male students when the first two years came to an end. Last year, however, his ranking got worse. Naruto had trouble with the Henge no Jutsu (Transformation) for most of the year and outright failed to perform the Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone technique).

No matter what Naruto did his Bunshin always came out dead and pale looking. He practiced all throughout the year and during the break before this year started but he still couldn't Bunshin if his life depended on it. Because of that damn Bunshin, he had fallen in ranking to 4th place for the boys. Which meant that he was just above the dead last spot if you ignored the civilian kids.

The Hokage and Kurama had started him on chakra control exercises that he shouldn't have learned, yet, and it helped improve his Henge, but he still wasn't good enough to get the Bunshin down. Kurama said it would probably require high-level elemental chakra control exercises before he could manage a regular Bunshin.

Lucky for him, the Hokage had told him that he could use his seals for extra credit and still pass the exam today. If he scored high enough on all his other tests, his seals should provide him with more than enough points. He brought his brush set and some blank tags and scrolls just for that reason.

The teacher who took over their class last year, Iruka Umino, seemed to be a kind man in contrast with the large scar across his nose. He treated Naruto with indifference, for the most part. His assistant was Mizuki Shin, whom Naruto regarded with suspicion because he had always sensed something negative from him last year but this year he didn't sense anything from him at all. He couldn't be sure if he had simply shifted his opinion or if Kurama had blocked his emotions for a reason.

Naruto knew that Kurama would test his senses on occasion, to make sure he kept up with his observational skills, but he wasn't certain if Mizuki was planning anything negative towards him since he never acted strangely around him.

His attention was drawn to the front of the class when Iruka arrived and called for everyone's attention. The room had filled with the remaining students while he was reminiscing and all that was left was the introduction and attendance.

"Good Morning, class! Welcome to the graduation exam for the Shinobi Academy for Groups A through D. I will begin with attendance, please respond when you hear your name called." Iruka said.

"Aburame, Shino," Iruka said.

"Present," Shino replied.

Naruto's first interaction with Shino had been strange, to say the least, but during his first year at the academy, Shino had approached him during recess one day and apologized for his behavior. Naruto didn't sense any fear or disdain from him so he accepted the apology and while they weren't exactly friends, they treated each other with mutual respect which was fine with Naruto.

"Akimichi, Choji"

"Here sensei," Choji replied.

Naruto's relationship with Choji was friendly. He would hang out with Choji and Shikamaru on the weekends, sometimes, and either join Shikamaru on his cloud watching, or go to the all you can eat special at Yakiniku-Q with Choji.

Occasionally, he would even convince them to play ninja for a few hours. Sometimes when the class was really boring, or in Naruto's case the teachers were being particularly malicious, he would skip class with Shikamaru and Choji.

"Haruno, Sakura"

"Here Iruka-sensei." the rabid pink haired banshee replied.

Naruto was particularly amused by the name Kurama had given her. His introduction to Sakura had been really bad and his relationship with her was worse. Naruto sensed nothing but hatred and loathing from her towards him.

The reason for it all? The so-called smartest kunoichi didn't even question her mother at all when she was told that Naruto, at the tender age of 6, had made her father disappear during the Kyūbi festival. While her mother had been careful not to reveal his jinchūriki status, she had made this elaborate story, placing all the blame on Naruto, about how her daddy dearest had vanished without a trace.

Naruto was hurt at first by the accusations, but no matter how he tried to convince her that he had never even met her father, Sakura refused to believe him and would constantly belittle him and insult him whenever she could.

He eventually just started to avoid her by the start of the second year.

"Hyūga, Hinata"

"Here sensei," Hinata replied.

Hinata was friendly to Naruto if a little shy.

Naruto was naturally inclined towards her since she had regularly beat out Sakura for the top kunoichi spot. It pleased him to see Sakura get all worked up when the scores were posted. It was fun to watch Hinata wipe the floor with Sakura or Ino during taijutsu spars, but he also recognized that she would probably beat him pretty badly as well. Hinata was really good with her family style.

He didn't get to interact with her too often because she was always escorted to and from the Hyūga compound by the Branch slaves (as Naruto called them).

When they had group projects or ran into each other in class or during recess, she was always cordial to him. She had mentioned, once, that the book he had given her on her birthday was still her favorite present to date, much to his surprise. Apparently the scrolls that had come with them had some rare knowledge and the book held her late mother's favorite flower.

"Inuzuka, Kiba"

"Here!" Kiba replied.

Kiba was a casualty of the Sakura club it seemed. While Naruto did not sense outright hatred from him, he sensed disdain and aggression for some reason. Kurama had hinted that it was an emotion that revolved around how dogs worked in groups but Naruto couldn't understand why that would matter so much.

Kiba, who had been friendly with Naruto since Hinata's party, began to mock and tease him after the start of the second year at the academy. Once the new taijutsu teacher came in and Karasu began to help him during practice, he started to become capable of going toe to toe with Kiba during a sparring match. After that, Kiba became hostile towards him. He would also tease and mock him about his problems with Bunshin and Henge.

Interestingly enough, Akamaru would still come up to Naruto on odd occasions for a pat on the head. Usually, when Kiba was too distracted to notice, but sometimes Akamaru would come over to him when Kiba was watching as if he wanted to piss him off. It seemed whatever emotion regarding dogs Kurama was talking about didn't apply to the actual dog itself.

A few groups of civilian children were called on for attendance. Naruto would be surprised if they passed. Half the civilian kids dropped out after last year and there were only a dozen or so of them left in their group. The rabid pink haired banshee being the most capable of them.

"Nara, Shikamaru"

"Here sensei," Shikamaru replied.

Shikamaru still regularly defeated him at shogi, but Naruto would occasionally beat him. He even started to use his thinking pose against Naruto more. Shikamaru would have probably beaten him in ranking if he didn't skip out on class or sleep through most of it.

"Uchiha, Sasuke."

"Here" Sasuke replied.

Naruto was neutral toward Sasuke. He sensed a lot of anger and hatred from Sasuke, but it was never directed at him so he just left him alone.

He couldn't feel too surprised that he was full of anger and hatred. When your clan was reported to be wiped out by your own brother, leaving you alive only to be tormented with a sophisticated genjutsu that replayed the killings for three days. Naruto felt that Sasuke had a right to be pissed.

Sasuke actually reminded him a lot about how Kurama was filled with hate when he first met him. Naruto would never let Kurama hear that thought unless he wanted to another rant about the damn Uchiha and their eyes. Kurama really hated any Uchiha and he couldn't blame him since it was two different Uchiha that had screwed him over.

"Uzumaki, Naruto"

"Here sensei," Naruto called out.

"Yamanaka, Ino"

"I'm here," Ino called out.

His first meeting with Ino had been bad, but after Hinata's party, Ino had started to show up on Saturdays and had at least been polite to him. That changed after the Academy started when Sakura revealed her sob story. Ino was Sakura's best friend and immediately took Sakura's side.

She eventually had a falling out with Sakura over Sasuke, and hadn't really bothered Naruto anymore, but she also hadn't apologized. Naruto just ignored her for the most part.

"Okay, that concludes roll call for today. The first part of the graduation exam is being handed out by Mizuki right now when I say start, you will have one hour to complete as much of the test as you can. Any talking or other disturbance during this time will be viewed as an attempt at cheating and you will be disqualified." Iruka said.

"Once you feel you have completed your test, raise your hand and Mizuki or I will come by and collect your exam. You will then proceed to the target range and wait for the bukijutsu exam. You may not practice any throwing at this time. The targets are fresh so we will notice." Iruka said.

Mizuki quickly handed out the papers to everyone and then moved to the back of the classroom to observe.

"Okay everyone, the test starts now," Iruka said as he started a timer.

Naruto went through his test and was feeling pretty confident. He hadn't run into anything that required him to pause and think for a long time. He had always scored really well on written exams and quizzes. Naruto completed his test shortly after Shino did. They both raised their hands for Iruka to come claim their exams.

Once that was done, they both walked out towards the target range. Without a word Shino went off towards a nearby tree and sat down at the base. Naruto spotted Shikamaru laid out on one of the hay bales used to catch stray shuriken and kunai.

'Probably cloud watching' Naruto thought. He moved over to sit next to him and pulled out his notebook to start working on some Reverse Gravity seal arrays he was attempting to create.

One of the lessons he had found in the fūinjutsu book he bought long ago were techniques on reversing and linking seals together. He didn't really have any seals he could attempt to link, just yet, so that just left him with attempting to reverse a seal. Sensor seals, privacy seals, security seals were beyond his range of talents at the moment and those were the ones that were most commonly linked.

Shikamaru looked over and saw Naruto scribbling away in his notebook. "What are you up to, Naruto?"

"Huh?" Naruto looked up from his notebook and saw Shikamaru looking at him.

"I asked, what are you are up to?" Shikamaru repeated.

"Oh sorry," Naruto said sheepishly, "I have been working on reversing a gravity seal to see if I could make objects less affected by gravity in some way."

"Ah. No wonder you didn't hear me." Shikamaru replied before turning his gaze back up to the sky. "You always seem to zone out when you're working on your crazy seals."

Naruto chuckled "Yea. It's funny how circular your thoughts can get when you're working on seals. Maybe that's why all seals have a circular pattern to them to some degree." Naruto said with a shrug, "Here I am working on reversing a seal while I'm thinking about the theory behind linking two seals together and then eventually reversing them. If it works, I could do some really interesting things."

"What kind of things were you thinking about?" Shikamaru asked. Shikamaru found some of the concepts Naruto described regarding fūinjutsu intriguing. He didn't feel like going through all the work of writing and testing, but the theories were always fun to analyze.

"Well. If I can finish the explosive tags, then I should have the foundation I need to create chakra storage seals, since explosive tags are like lesser chakra storage seals." Naruto explained as he continued to scrawl in his notebook, "I can then combine a chakra storage seal with barrier seal tags, so that I could apply tags to an area to create a barrier and instead of having to feed my chakra to the tags manually, the barrier tag could draw the chakra off the storage seal instead." Naruto replied.

"That makes sense, but how would reversing that work?" Shikamaru said as he pondered the possible changes that could come from what Naruto described.

"I am thinking that it would create an area that would drain someone's chakra to act as a chakra draining prison." Naruto said excitedly then he frowned as he thought about it more. "Or it could cause a chakra draining chain reaction and suck the chakra out of everything in the area. That could be really bad if it used the chakra it sucked out to keep expanding." Naruto hummed as he considered the ramifications of such a seal. "Theoretically, it could continue to grow until there was no more chakra left in the world."

Shikamaru shook his head. "Kami. Fūinjutsu really is troublesome."

Before Naruto could continue expanding on that line of thought, Iruka came outside with Mizuki behind him and announced that the bukijutsu exam was about to begin.

Naruto stood and stretched himself out to loosen up a bit. He wasn't terrible at bukijutsu, but he needed to do better than he normally did to try and make up for his lack of Bunshin. He was sure he could pull off the max needed on taijutsu.

"Okay. Everyone line up!" Iruka said in a commanding tone. "When I call your name, come up and present your live weapons for inspection." Iruka gestured towards Mizuki before laying out the rules of the test. "You will throw five kunai followed by ten shuriken. The center of each target will be three points, the middle ring will be worth two points, and the outer ring will be worth one point. Missing the target completely will cause two points to be subtracted."

Naruto observed as the rest of the class went through their test and saw that, for the most part, everyone performed how they had throughout the year. He wasn't too surprised as there is only so far you can progress when it comes to throwing kunai and shuriken.

Naruto's name was called and he stepped forward.

"Please present your live weapons for inspection Naruto," Iruka asked.

Naruto reached down to his kunai holster on his thigh and channeled chakra into the storage seal on the outside to make 5 kunai appear. He set the kunai down on the table and then activated the seal on his shuriken pouch on his back, revealing 10 shuriken which he set down on the table.

"Did the Hokage give these to you?" Iruka asked, genuinely curious since the weapons were high quality and appeared to be specially made.

"No, sensei. One of my Anbu guards gave them to me for the test." Naruto said

"Okay, Naruto. Go ahead and start when you're ready." Iruka said. Inwardly Iruka was a little jealous since regular shinobi can't purchase Anbu level weapons without permission.

Naruto took a calming breath and focused on the targets.

He picked up his first two kunai and threw them at the first two targets watching them hit dead center. He picked up the next two and threw them. The third kunai went wide a little and hit the middle ring of the third target while the fourth kunai he threw hit the fourth target in the center. He picked up the last kunai and threw it at the final target watching as it hit the center as well.

So far, he was on track to beat his average.

"Very nice, Naruto." Iruka praised, "Now ready your shuriken while the next targets are prepared," Iruka stated.

Mizuki had collected his kunai and replaced the targets with fresh ones. After studying the kunai Naruto used, to ensure there was no cheating involved, he handed them back to Naruto who resealed them into his kunai holster in one move.

"Okay, Naruto. Now remember, the maximum number of shuriken allowed to hit each target is three." Iruka reminded before adding," You can throw as many volleys as you like, however. Go ahead and start when ready."

Naruto decided to launch his shuriken in two volleys of three and two volleys of two.

The first volley of three struck the center of the target in a nice cluster. The second volley of three, however, spread much further resulting in one hitting the outer ring while the other two hit the center and the middle respectively.

Naruto sighed to himself. It would all come down to the final two volleys. He could still get a much higher score than average if these last two volleys hit dead center.

He heard someone make some snide comments about him, but he was too focused on the targets to pay attention to what they were saying.

He launched the final two volleys simultaneously and almost let a smile reach his face when all four hit their targets dead center. When doing a mental calculation, he was shocked to realize that he had scored second place.

"Looks like you got lucky this time, loser, but you better hope I don't get you for the taijutsu test or I'm gonna kick your ass!" Kiba shouted.

"Yea! That's right! Know your place!" Sakura taunted. "Everyone knows that an orphan bastard like you can't compare to Sasuke-kun."

There were some murmurs and laughter from the group at Sakura's comment. Naruto just scowled at them and collected his shuriken when Mizuki handed them to him.

Sasuke didn't say anything but he noticed that Naruto was only two points shy of his score. It also looked like he used the same kind of shuriken and kunai that Itachi used to have specially made. He would have to examine them closer if he could, and question Naruto about them. It wasn't possible to get those kunai or shuriken in the village anymore since they were made by an Uchiha weapon smith.

"Hey! That's enough you two, be silent or I'll disqualify you right now." Iruka reprimanded them before turning to Naruto, "You did well, Naruto, a big improvement from your usual average for a score of 41," Iruka commented.

"Thank you, Iruka-sensei." Naruto replied and went back into line.

"Alright class, everyone proceeds to the gymnasium. There we will have the final two tests of the graduation exam," Iruka announced once Ino finished her test.

The class moved over to the gym and stood in a circle around the taijutsu ring. The taijutsu ring was a slightly padded circular mat with a large white rope surrounding it. The ring was about 15 feet in diameter to ensure that the students had some room to move but were still forced to remain in close range, for the most part.

"Now remember class, this test isn't measured on if you win or not. Instead, we will be counting points for successful hits landed and overall defenses." Iruka explained, "Moving outside of the ring of your own volition will result in disqualification. If you are thrown or knocked out of the ring you will have points deducted." Iruka's tone became sterner. "Remember, this is a spar against future comrades so any strikes against soft vital targets like eyes, throat, or groin will result in disqualification. No special clan moves are allowed. The match will last for two minutes or until a disqualification."

Kiba started to complain about that rule but was quickly silenced by Iruka's glare before he could finish his sentence.

Ino raised her hand and spoke when Iruka acknowledged her. "Does this mean that Hinata can't use her Jūken?"

"Hinata's Jūken is a taijutsu style, but she is not allowed to use any chakra enhancing techniques," Iruka replied.

"If there are no more questions, we will begin," Iruka stated.

Naruto stood in his trademark pose, eyes closed, arms crossed over his chest, and a slight frown on his face as he waited for his turn. He didn't need to observe the other students in their matches. The only one he would need to worry about was his own. He could easily sense any danger flying his way without looking.

Getting either Kiba or Sasuke would not be ideal, but the chances were high that he would draw one of them since they were around the same level of skill. He could only hope to draw Shino or Shikamaru to inflate his score a little bit.

"The next two to spar are Akimichi, Choji, and Uzumaki, Naruto," Mizuki announced.

Naruto entered the ring opposite of Choji. Choji was really good at taijutsu, but he tended to go easy on his friends. As they eyed each other waiting for Mizuki start the fight, he could tell that Choji just wanted to land his required points, block what was necessary and call it a day. Naruto decided he was not adverse to that idea. He wouldn't go all out if Choji didn't want to.

Mizuki called the match to start and Choji entered his pose and waited.

'Okay looks like I have to start' Naruto thought.

Naruto advanced on Choji and threw a straight left jab, followed by a right cross, then a left hook to the body. Choji easily blocked the jab and the cross but he let the hook land to counter with a quick left jab to Naruto's head.

Choji tried to follow up with a right hook to Naruto's ribs. Naruto pivoted towards the hook to parry with a low block using his right forearm then flipped his forearm up to land a back fist strike to Choji's head. Choji's head rocked back slightly and Naruto followed up with a left hook to Choji's head.

Choji stumbled from the strike but managed recover enough to stop Naruto from continuing the assault with a thrust kick, that Naruto was able to block. The force of the thrust kick still sent him back a few feet due to Choji's overwhelming strength. Even though he wasn't trying his hardest, Choji was just naturally stronger and his larger mass added to the strength of his attacks.

Naruto and Choji both reset for a moment and studied each other. Naruto had to guess that they probably still had, at least, a minute left to fight.

Choji decided to charge in with a right cross. Naruto stepped slightly forward to his right and parried Choji's arm to the left with his right hand before he struck Choji with a left hook to his abdomen. Naruto slid partially behind Choji's left arm then pivoted his body to throw a right cross to his face. As Naruto tried to follow with another left jab, Choji deflected the strike and grabbed his arm before Naruto could pull it back. Choji then pivoted while slinging Naruto's arm over his shoulder and threw Naruto over his shoulder. Naruto hit the ground a slid a few inches slightly winded.

Naruto rolled out of the way before Choji could move in to kick him. The roll had created enough distance for Naruto to slowly get up with his back to Choji to lure him in. Choji took the bait and rushed in again and once he was in range, Naruto performed a back kick with his right foot into Choji's chest. He quickly followed with a roundhouse kick to Choji's head with his left foot. He finished the combo with a spinning hook kick. Choji staggered for a bit then reset his stance and gave Naruto a stern look.

'I guess I'm starting to piss him off, I better block the rest and let him hit me some more if he doesn't decide to just fuck me up right now.' Naruto thought.

Naruto gave a slight smile and nodded to Choji letting him know that he was backing off to let Choji gain more points.

Naruto then charged in with a telegraphed right hook to allow Choji to throw him again, and then took a few kicks to the ribs before he rolled back onto his hands to block the next kick. Naruto then kicked out with his legs to get back on his feet. He then threw a jab which Choji blocked and countered with a right hook to Naruto's ribs.

Naruto winced a little at the force. 'Yea he's a little mad but not pissed, luckily.'

Choji continued his assault by landing a few hooks to his ribs, then going for a hook to Naruto's face, which Naruto ducked then pushed Choji to get him off center and stepped back to resettle his stance. Before Choji could charge in again, Mizuki called time over. Naruto and Choji fist bumped and nodded to each other before they left the ring to rest.

Naruto felt he did pretty well and the content look on Choji's face, as he pulled out his trademark chips and started munching away, told Naruto that Choji was satisfied with how it went.

Naruto returned to his stoic pose as he waited for the last of the matches to finish themselves.

Soon the last match was called and Mizuki announced that there was a short break before the final test while Iruka finished tallying the written test scores.

Naruto simply went to lean back against the wall closest to the exam room as he waited. Choji, Shikamaru, and Shino sat around Naruto and talked about some of the matches that they watched.

"Your match with Naruto seemed to be quite even, considering that you are a taijutsu specialist," Shino commented to Choji.

"Yea. Naruto is pretty good, but he is also my friend and I don't like to fight my friends. I didn't need to go all out to pass anyway and I'm sure Naruto didn't either." Choji replied.

"While the taijutsu test is a good part of the final graduation score, the points that you can gain in there are really small, so even going all out won't gain you any advantage overall," Naruto replied.

"True. Only throwing someone out of the ring would seem to have a significant impact overall. If the opponent was deliberately attempting to reduce your score for malicious reasons, that would be their best opportunity." Shino responded.

"I'm probably gonna have to use some of my clan jutsu for extra credit to make up for it. That sparring match was just troublesome." Shikamaru said.

"Yea. You got a really bad draw getting Kiba there, Shika." Choji agreed.

Naruto opened his eyes when he heard that and looked over to Shikamaru. "I wasn't watching the fight, what happened? Naruto asked.

"Nothing deliberate, if that's what you are thinking, but I did get thrown out of the ring twice. It was just bad positioning on my part." Shikamaru shook his head. "My mother will be upset that I had to use extra credit to pass."

"I doubt you would need it, Shikamaru. You know you probably got a perfect score on the written test and your score on the bukijutsu test wasn't much lower than mine or Sasuke. Even if you lost some points on taijutsu, you should still pass with the Academy three." Naruto said.

"What about you Naruto? Did you finally get the Bunshin down?" Choji asked worriedly.

"No. I still can't make a damn Bunshin. Hokage-jiji said that I have too large of a chakra reserve to do a regular Bunshin. I will have to rely on the extra credit scores to pass since the Bunshin is so heavily weighted in the final score." Naruto explained.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru added.

"What are you going to do the extra credit?" Choji was concerned.

Naruto was a good friend who had never made fun of his weight and always included him when they wanted to play ninja. All the other kids didn't want Choji on their team besides Shikamaru.

Naruto looked at Choji with a soft smile. "Don't worry Choji, Hokage-jiji assured me that fūinjutsu seals give more extra credit than any other clan jutsu since it is so rare to see an Academy student proficient in them. I have three that I can make easily if needed."

When Naruto saw Choji relax at his response he started to look around the room. Sakura and Ino were trying to cling to Sasuke and Kiba was talking with a few of the civilian kids.

Naruto noticed that Kiba kept glancing at him and narrowed his eyes. He reached out with this senses and noticed the usual disdain for himself from the other kids but Kiba's aggression was gone. He would usually sense Kiba's aggression anytime his attention was focused on him even if it was only for a brief moment, like when he was glancing at him right now. For some reason, however, that aggression was absent.

Before Naruto could ponder the situation longer, Iruka and Mizuki entered the room. Mizuki walked into the smaller gym room that was usually used by the younger kids while Iruka got all the students attention.

"Okay everyone! I will call you into the next room and you will display the Henge, Bunshin, and Kawarimi (Replacement). At that time you will be also offered the opportunity to display any special clan skills to earn extra credit, if necessary, to make up for any deficiencies that usually arise from more specialized clans." Iruka said.

Iruka called Shino into the room first and followed after him. As Naruto expected, all the clan kids walked out with their hitai-ate. For the civilian kids, 19 out of 32 managed to pass which eliminated two different groups of students.

Finally, he was called into the room, and surprisingly, there were no snide comments from anyone. He entered the room and waited for instruction.

"Okay. Naruto, please perform the Henge," Iruka asked.

Naruto henged into a perfect copy of the Sandaime. It only made sense since he was the one that Naruto spent the most time around. He would have loved to see the look on their faces if he had henged into Kurama but that would only cause a lot of problems for him.

"Perfect. Now we would like you to replace yourself with the log in the corner with Kawarimi," Iruka said.

Naruto replaced himself with the log in the corner and then replaced himself back afterward.

"Very good. Now please create two Bunshin clones." Iruka requested.

Naruto knew he was gonna fail, and believed Iruka knew that too but made an attempt anyways.

Naruto poured the least amount of chakra he could, but he ended up with 4 dead looking clones on the ground. Naruto just shook his head.

"Well, now. That's too bad Naruto." Iruka said sadly, "I know that your chakra levels are too large, so can you show us anything else for extra credit?"

"Yes. I can create a storage scroll, a gravity seal, a barrier seal, and a light seal." Naruto said.

Iruka and Mizuki looked shocked at that news. A Genin level shinobi knowing one of those seals would be more than impressive. Knowing something as complex as a gravity seal on top of that was almost unheard of.

"I'm uncertain how you could display a gravity seal without placing it on one of us or an object we would have to touch, and no offense, but I don't feel comfortable with testing a seal that complicated by an academy student," Iruka said.

"I'm not offended at all Iruka-sensei. I know, very well, the dangers around an environmental manipulation seal like the gravity seal." Naruto said

"Okay. Well, we can only allow two extra credit jutsu, so I will ask that you show us the barrier seal and the storage scroll. Please present the items you will use to create the seals for inspection" Iruka said.

Naruto unsealed his fūinjutsu kit, a blank scroll, and a sheet of tag paper. He placed them on the table in front of Mizuki and Iruka who examined each piece carefully then gave him to go ahead to start.

Naruto opened the scroll and applied ink to his brush. He tapped to get the excess ink off and held his sleeve with his left hand. He rapidly drew the seal array with the brush then placed the brush on the holder. While the scroll was drying he moved it off to the side and placed the tag paper in front of him. He drew 4 three directional barrier seal arrays and let them dry off while he cleaned his brush off and capped the ink. He resealed his kit and waited for the scroll and the tags to finish drying.

Mizuki was looking at the seal on the storage scroll and was pissed. He couldn't believe the damn Kyūbi brat was capable of such a feat. He had always wanted to become a fūinjutsu expert and had tried hard to learn it, but all his teachers gave up on him when his seals continually backfired. He tried to learn using books and scrolls on his own, but he almost killed himself twice before giving up.

The fact that the Hokage openly looked out for this brat is the main reason why Mizuki had planned to betray the village. He lost his whole family during the Kyūbi attack and believed that the brat should have simply been locked away or killed. He had been passed over for promotion repeatedly and then stuck in the Academy with a bunch of snot-nosed kids that he couldn't stand.

Luckily for him, Orochimaru approached him with a plan to acquire the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing in exchange for a higher rank as an Oto shinobi and a sizable amount of ryō. A spy for Orochimaru had already taken the Forbidden scroll last night and left an elaborate genjutsu that was due to dispel after 24 hours. The spy then left the scroll in a dead drop location which Mizuki picked up early this morning.

Mizuki's role was to use a seal Orochimaru provided to instantly copy the scroll. Next he was supposed to set up someone important to get caught with the real scroll so that Konoha would unwittingly execute an innocent person. Meanwhile, everyone would think the real scroll was safe again while he spirited away the copy.

He had hidden the real scroll in a storage seal taped underneath the Kyūbi brat's desk. While he was supposed to frame someone important, he figured killing the Kyūbi brat was more worthwhile and Orochimaru wouldn't care because he would have all the information from the scroll.

He would frame the Kyūbi brat and kill him claiming self-defense. The scroll would be recovered and when the heat died down, Mizuki would be gone from this cursed village.

Iruka, on the other hand, was suspicious that someone else was teaching the boy. While he didn't hate Naruto, he wasn't close to him either. Before Naruto had started the second part of the 4-year program the Hokage had pulled Iruka aside and told him to watch for any strange behavior from him or if he had seemed to receive any extra training outside the norm.

Seeing that the boy knew something as complex as a gravity seal made Iruka believe that someone was giving him extra training. He also believed that it was dangerous that the jinchūriki was learning fūinjutsu, but not because he thought the Kyūbi was involved in any way. Mainly he was suspicious that an unsupervised child had been fiddling with a highly dangerous school of jutsu that might lead to the seal failing inadvertently.

"Okay, Naruto, if you think the tags are ready, we have completed our examination of them as well, please display the barrier tag seals," Iruka instructed.

Naruto separated the individual barrier tags and set them on the ground in a square around him. Once he was certain the tags were lined up properly channeled his chakra to his hands and slammed them down on the front right and left tags. A line of kanji shot out from the left side of the tag and the bottom of the tag, connecting to the front left and back right tags.

As soon as the lines of kanji hit the back right tag and the front left tag, lines of kanji shout out of the right side and the bottom side of the front left tag while lines of kanji shout out of the left and top side of the back right tag.

Finally, lines of kanji shot out of the back left tag out of the top and right side of the tag. All four tags lit up even brighter before lines of kanji shot upwards and met each other directly above Naruto's head. The lines dissipated leaving a faint blue glowing pyramid around him. The whole process took about 3 seconds for the barrier to form.

Naruto sat kneeling inside the pyramid-shaped barrier with his hands channeling chakra into the front tags. His hands were covered by the barrier so they were not vulnerable to attack.

"You can throw something or touch it if you like, Iruka-sensei. The barrier will remain active until I stop channeling chakra." Naruto said confidently.

Iruka was too dumbfounded to reply, but Mizuki did not hesitate to chuck one of the training shuriken at the barrier above Naruto's head. Iruka walked up and tapped the barrier a few times before he told Naruto that he would get credit towards graduating for it.

Next, Iruka took the storage scroll and examined it again. "Go ahead and seal an item into this scroll and then remove it three times," Iruka said.

Naruto took out a kunai and seal in into the scroll, then he unsealed it. He repeated the process two more times as instructed. Iruka then tested the scroll a few times as well before he simply nodded his head and marked him down for more extra credit.

"Alright, Naruto, after looking over your scores and adding the extra credit you have successfully graduated. Congratulations!" Iruka said with a smile. "You are most likely going to end up ranked 3rd due to the value of two successful seals," Iruka added while handing Naruto his hitai-ate.

"Thank you. Iruka-sensei, Mizuki-sensei." Naruto said with a bow.

Naruto tied his hitai-ate on and walked out of the room with a small smile on his face. He had done much better than he expected, overall, and he owed a lot of his success to Kurama.