Graduation
Naruto was excited. Jumping around in excitement in fact. He was going to pass the exams this time! He just knew it!Then he could become the Hokage. Naruto drifted into dreamland, a smile on his face.
"Naruto! NARUTO!" Ino shouted, waving a perfectly manicured hand in front of Naruto's face.
"Eh?! What is it?" he asked.
"Did you master that clone technique?" she asked, curious.
"Yeah! It's awesome!" he cheered.
"I think Naruto might actually pass this time." Sasuke commented from the side.
"Sure, and Akamaru will fly." Kiba snickered.
Shikamaru dozed off in a nearby desk as Sumire tried to wake him up. Apparently, that was more interesting than talking to Naruto.
"Who's the Shodaime?" Sakura quizzed Hinata.
"Senju Hashirama. That's too easy Sakura. Everyone knows the order of the Hokages and their skills." Hinata answered.
"I bet fishcake doesn't." Sai laughed.
"I can too!" Naruto protested.
"Do it." Shino commanded, knowing just as well as everyone else that he couldn't do it.
"Ano, Let's see, Senju Hashirama, Senju Tobirama, Namikaze Minato-" he began.
"Wrong!" Sumire cut him off, after unsuccessfully trying to wake Shikamaru up.
"Naruto, it's Sarutobi Hiruzen then Namikaze Minato." Chouji corrected as he munched on his chips.
"Darn it! I forgot again!" Naruto moaned.
"Class, settle down! It's the day of the exams!" Iruka called. He had been much more kind to Naruto after he managed to weasel into Iruka's heart. Somehow, Naruto could do that to everyone.
"Shikamaru! Wake up!" Iruka called as he halfheartedly threw an eraser at Shikamaru's head. He had learned that no matter how he threw the eraser, Shikamaru refused to get hit.
"Troublesome." Shikamaru yawned as he caught the eraser and threw it back to Iruka. Mizuki, who was nearby frowned, such blatant disrespect was well, disrespectful.
"Now, we will proceed with the tests. Everyone, sit down!" the last comment was directed to Naruto who was so excited that he refused to sit down.
"Mizuki, please pass out the tests." Iruka commanded.
Mizuki scurried over to the table and began to pass the tests out. When he got to Naruto, he performed a slight genjutsu to vary the questions, but keep the answer choices the same. He smiled. That should keep Naruto from passing. He picked up his pace as he dropped test booklets on everyone's desks.
"Alright does everyone have a test?" Iruka asked when Mizuki made it back to the front of the classroom. A chorus of "yes" met his question.
"Then, the test begins! Remember you have an hour to do the questions." Iruka reminded them. Standing in the back, Mizuki smiled discreetly, now he was going to get that scroll!
Naruto looked at the list of questions on is test. There was so many it seemed. In reality, there were only twenty. Alright, first question, he thought. Who was the Shodaime Hokage? That's easy, Senju Hashirama.
Who was the Sandaime? Oh who was it again? Umm, Umm, Namikaze Naruto. The Hokage right now is the fourth.
And like that, he continued down the lists of questions. Some he got right, others he got wrong. Some of the ones he missed were the original questions, others were genjutsu- covered ones. Unfortunately for Mizuki, the answers that Naruto got wrong were the correct answers to the original questions. Too bad Mizuki doubted Naruto's luck. He didn't think Naruto could possibly miss all of his genjutsu covered questions and get the original ones correct.
An hour later, the bell chimed, just as Naruto put down his pencil. He knew he didn't do too well, but he would just have to wing it! He was never suited for books and paper tests. Iruka picked up Naruto's paper and raised an eyebrow, some of the questions were actually answered correctly! Naruto might actually pass this exam!
After putting the papers in a neat pile, Iruka led the kids outside. Time for the Taijutsu portion.
"Alright, each of you will fight Mizuki. You will fight each other. Mizuki will not fight to the fullest as we do not want any of you to be hurt. You are measured on how long you can stay in the ring, whoever can stay longest will receive thirty two points. Anyone with below ten points is considered to have failed this portion. No ninjutsu or genjutsu is allowed. Any questions?" Iruka asked. No one raised their hands.
"First up is Aburame Shino. Give me a second. " Iruka announced before going back into the classroom and taking out a clipboard, a piece of paper, a timer, and a pencil. Somebody had to right the times down, after all. Shino kicked and punched, dodging Mizuki's pulled back punches. He used the classic academy style, predictable and weak. Needless to say, he was out rather quickly.
Iruka pressed the stop button on the timer as soon as Shino was thrown out, four minutes and thirty eight seconds, not bad for a clan that specialized in long range attacks.
The students went in one by one, most of them not lasting for more than two or three minutes at the most. There was an obvious advantage for being raised in a clan. Sasuke and Sai, as well as Kiba and Naruto were the highest scores in the boys seconds, Sasuke staying in the longest, ten minutes and thirteen seconds, using his clan's special style of taijutsu as well as his now fully matured sharingan. Sai was second best, tied with Kiba, they each stayed in exactly nine minutes. Maybe they were over by a few milliseconds, but Iruka didn't count that. Naruto stayed in incredibly long, considering the fact that Mizuki barely pulled any of his punches. He ducked and dodged and leaped and jumped, staying in the ring of a grand total of six minutes and twenty three seconds. Chouji stayed in mostly because of his weight, Mizuki's soft punches barely even hurt him at all. He stayed in just a little shorter than Shino, four minutes and twenty six seconds. If he hadn't been so busy eating, perhaps he would've stayed in longer. And of course, there was the ever lazy Shikamaru. He stayed in for the bare minimum amount of time, he estimated was considered a pass, exactly four minutes.
On the girls side, Hinata dominated the competition. Using her clans gentle fist and using her natural flexibility, she stayed in for a total of eight minutes and fifty four seconds, earning her fourth place in the entire class. The other girls were not so lucky, Ino and Sakura were probably best off. They had trained in taijutsu, knowing it was their weak spot. Too bad for them, it wasn't quite enough. Both of them only stayed for about half of Hinata's time, four minutes and twenty three seconds. Sumire, on the other hand, wasn't as lucky. She was short and hadn't been very well conditioned in taijutsu because of her age. She had only learnt half the academy moves and against a chunin, even a very weak and pulled back one, it was not useful. She only lasted two minutes and ten seconds because of her natural quickness, and somewhat toned dodging skills. She was the only one in the entire class that didn't manage to hurt Mizuki.
"Alright, that's the end of that portion. Now take a little break and we're onto the stealth portion. This time, it's a little different, we're mixing it up with the genjutsu portion." Iruka announced. The kids groaned, that would make it so much harder to pass. After a few minutes, Iruka led them to the edge of the forest near the Academy.
"Everyone, your test will be taken in here. You will be going in groups of three or four. You must stay in the forest and not get caught by the chunin there for ten minutes. Along the way, there will be genjutsu traps, and you'll have to get out of them. There is no ninjutsu allowed or any taijutsu, but you can use chakra. A red flare will shoot up when the ten minutes are over. Does everyone understand? You can get into groups now." Iruka instructed.
The clan heirs and their friends all made a beeline to Naruto, Sasuke or Kiba. They were in charge of the pranks that most chunins couldn't avoid. Many of Sasuke's fan girls also tried to get paired up with Sasuke, however, Sakura and Ino drove them off. They had small crushes on Sasuke, just a little, but they didn't let it show. If one of them chased Sasuke, the other would too and they didn't want to lose their friendship over a boy. In the end, Naruto was paired up with Sai, Ino and Sumire, Sasuke was paired up with Sakura and Shino, and Kiba had Shikamaru, Hinata, and Chouji on his team. They weren't perfect, but it was the best that they could do in five minutes.
" Alright, each of you will be given a team number." Iruka told them, holing out stickers. He went along the line and passed out the stickers.
Since all of their teams were near the end of the line, they were stuck waiting for the other teams to come out. Several of the teams before them hadn't passed and were thrown out earlier than the ten minute mark. Everyone was nervous in anticipation, the tension was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Finally, Iruka called up Naruto's team.
"Team seven, you're up!" he announced, giving Naruto a thumbs up and a reassuring smile. Naruto responded in kind, giving Iruka a hug before racing off to join his teammates.
They ran into the forest, immediately jumping onto the nearest tree.
"Be quiet and discreet." Sai warned them.
"I'll scout ahead. I can disable and sense the traps and if Sumire did it, she'd let off too much chakra." Ino volunteered. Her teammates nodded, Ino was the best choice.
" Yes, that's a good plan. Sai will be after you, Naruto after Sai and me at the end. That way Sai can dispel any genjutsu you miss, Naruto can look out for danger and I can keep the back safe and get myself out of any genjutsu. We can't risk Naruto in a genjutsu, he's our eyes and ears and I hate to admit it, but he's also our brain." Sumire planned out.
"Alright, then let's get into formation." Naruto agreed.
Several times, they had close calls. Once, both Ino and Sai missed the tell tale signs of a genjutsu. In the end, it had been Naruto who noticed it. How you ask? It was the same design as one of the genjutsu Kurenai had used during their shinobi classes. Of course, he also let out a flare of chakra. When the genjutsu dispelled, Naruto grabbed them and ran up the side of the tree into the leaves. The chunin who were proctoring the exams expected for them to either still be there or have ran away, they completely forgot to look above. When the area was cleared, they cautiously, skidded back down and left quietly. A minute later, one of the chunins saw a flash of dark blue from Sumire's skirt. The group held their breath as the chunin squinted and looked more closely. Finally he shook his head and passed it off as a blue bird. Sumire blushed as her teammates glared at her for almost giving them away. Later as they snuck through the dense canopy, the red flare shot up.
" Is it a genjutsu?" Sumire asked.
Ino frowned, it seemed like ten minutes, but Sumire could be right. Only one way to find out. Forming a triangle with a her fingers, Ino tried to dispel the jutsu, but the red flare was still shooting up.
" I guess it's real then." Sai remarked, starting to jump down. Suddenly, Naruto's arm shot out and grabbed him.
"That's a genjutsu, I know it is. The red flare that Iruka brought doesn't look like that when it's shot off. It's wider and goes lower. I used them once for my pranks as an activation signal to blow the roof and window of the Academy off. Someone used a double layered genjutsu." he explained.
"Kai!" Ino tried again, this time the flare disappeared.
"How did you know which type of flare Iruka brought?" Sumire asked curiously.
"Remember that time, I was late getting home? Well, Iruka-sensei asked me which one of the flares was most noticeable. He said it was a surprise for the class. I didn't know he meant for a test." Naruto explained.
"Oh so that's why. Makes sense." Sumire nodded.
After another two minutes or so, the real red flare shot up. This time Naruto didn't need to confirm it. It was obvious that was the flare, it was bright red, and relatively low, so that the kids waiting in line couldn't see it. The group headed out of the forest, happy that they passed.
They stood in line as Sasuke and Kiba's groups passed the test. Naruto was smiling so widely, that his cheeks ached, but he couldn't stop. He would actually pass the test!
On the side of the clearing, Mizuki was worried. The tests had been graded, and Naruto had just barely got the passing score, a seventy percent. Even if
Naruto failed the next test, he would still pass. This was bad. It seemed, he would have to steal the forbidden jutsu scroll himself.
"Next up is the ninjutsu test. Please line up. You will each perform one jutsu you learned outside of class and then do the Bunshin no jutsu. You must perform both to pass. You must also produce five clones." Iruka announced when they got back into the classroom.
Naruto smiled internally, there was no way he wasn't going to pass this test. The students went in and performed their jutsu. Many of the civilian children were at a severe disadvantage, there was no one to teach them any jutsu. Thus, most of them failed. Naruto was the first to go out of his group of friends. Taking a deep breath he performed a winds jutsu.
"Fuuton: Great Breakthrough!" Naruto yelled as he finished the hand signs. A large gust of wind came from his mouth and blew a hole in the wall. Iruka sighed, leave it to Naruto to use the most destructive technique. He would have to repair the wall later.
"That's fine, now how about a Bunshin no Jutsu?" Iruka asked, hoping that Naruto had practiced.
"Er, Can it be a variation?" Naruto asked.
"I suppose so."
"Alright! Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto commanded. As soon as the name was spoken, twenty clones appeared in the room, some hanging on the ceiling and others standing on the tables.
Iruka felt his eyes widen. Holy crap, just how much chakra did this kid have? he wondered.
"So did I pass?" Naruto asked his eyes shining.
"Yes. Here you go." Iruka said, handing Naruto a shiny forehead protector.
"Yes! I did it! Dattebayo!" Naruto cheered, jumping as he pumped his fist in the air.
Following Naruto, the rest of the group performed their jutsu. All of them created perfect clones as well as did their own techniques. Sasuke did the traditional Katon: Great Fireball through the hole in the wall Naruto created, Shino made a bug clone, and Kiba created another hole in the wall as he used fang over fang with Akamaru nearly falling out of the hole he created. Sai used his painting ninjutsu, Beast imitation to create small rats that bounded out of the paper, scaring most of the girls. Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji used their family's traditional techniques. Sakura and Hinata both used the Shadow shuriken no jutsu. Sakura used it because it was the only other jutsu she learned and Hinata used it because she couldn't learn any other jutsu. Sumire, like Sasuke and Naruto, used an elemental jutsu, Suiton: Hidden mist technique. The entire room was covered in fog when she was finished and took several minutes to clear up.
Truth to be told, the entire group had mastered their element manipulation, but they didn't know any jutsu that corresponded to their affinity. It was mostly because the clan heads had been unwilling to teach them any preferring to teach them the traditional clan techniques first and Naruto's scroll only had fuuton techniques on it. And because even though the ANBU were willing to help them master their affinities, they refused to teach them any jutsu, claiming that it would be too dangerous. Enough said about that, let's get back to the graduation.
They had all earned their headbands and were officially shinobi of Konoha. They couldn't be any happier. Cheering, they congratulated each other and waited for their parents to come. Well, in Naruto, Sumire, and Sai's case, they just waited for the other kids to leave. Mizuki, on the other hand was seething in anger, that demon brat passed! With a high score as well! he thought. He would just have to steal the scroll himself. With everyone celebrating, no one noticed as Mizuki snuck away to prepare to get the scroll.
Done with the Graduation! Naruto passed! Hooray! I hope my grammar's alright, this chapter was a little rushed. I'll be updating slower now, I think. And now the chapters have been edited, but I probably still missed stuff. II'll have another chapter done by tomorrow! Please review! Bye!