.-.
Previously
"I see you've finally figured it out, Dear-chan." Shikahito's tone returned to a teasing older brother.
.-.
"Maru-kun!" Naruto yelled as he raced to catch up with the shadow user. The enthusiastic yell drew a few odd glances and glares from other pedestrians.
Shikamaru paused to let the energetic blond catch up with him. "Naruto." The lazy Nara greeted, and resumed walking.
"Ehehee. Ohayou Maru-kun." Naruto said in a quieter voice slowing to the pace of his friend. The blond child flashed a toothy grin to those giving him the flat stares as an apology for disturbing them. The glares he just brushed off.
Shikamaru just grunted, any other response would be out of the ordinary for the shadow user and tip the blond that something was wrong. The genius's thoughts drifting to the conversation he had with his brother last night. 'Tell Naru that I realised I like him?' Shikamaru glanced at his friend. Naruto was walking leisurely, eyes to the sky and arms behind his head. 'Nah, now is not the right time.'
The two of them made it to the academy with in a comfortable silence.
.-.
It was the first period of the day. Iruka was again droning on about different field formations. Iruka had taken into account the discussion he had with Naruto the previous night and was going to try a different approach with his two students. The two in question were sitting at the back with Chouji and Shino today. The four friends were quietly doing their own things. Shino and Chouji were paying attention and writing what he hoped were the notes for his class. Shikamaru was sleeping. Again. The scared teacher was annoyed, but brushed it off. He had no idea what to do with the lazy boy and how to motivate him to put in an effort, but he now knew yelling at that particular child would be of no use. Naruto was 'working', and that brought a little joy to Iruka's heart to see a child diligently at work. However, Kiba was nodding off, and that brought the irritation back twofold. To fix that little problem, the scarred chunnin threw the little piece of chalk he had in his hand at the Inuzuka's forehead. "KIBA! Pay attention."
Kiba was startled awake. There was enough momentum from the sleepy child when the shot hit him to tip him backwards and smack his head into the desk behind him. Many students snickered at his misfortune. Kiba whined and rubbed his head as he climbed back into his seat. "Hey! Why didn't you wake Shikamaru up?" realising he was the only one being scolded for sleeping.
Iruka shot a glare to the slumbering Nara and gave a defeated sighed. After talking with Naruto last night Iruka had come to the realisation that he had his attention on the wrong 'slackers' and had decided to leave the two alone. Kiba on the other hand… "He is a lost cause. Besides, his written test scores are higher than yours, I'm not worried about him passing his exams. You on the other hand are at risk of failing. Now, where was I?"
Kiba grumbled and turned his attention to the board after shooting a glare at the 'sleeping' Shikamaru.
During all the commotion Shikamaru had completely tuned everyone else out and slept through the noise. Naruto had only looked up from his work when he heard Kiba grumbling, not seeing anything worthy of his attention he went back to whatever he was working on.
.-.
Shikamaru didn't know what Naruto had said to their teacher the other night, but he was relishing the peace that he got during class. The scarred teacher didn't bother him much anymore and as thanks he decided to try a little harder on his next test.
Needless to say, Iruka was torn between crying tears of joy and frustration when he was grading the Nara's paper. Shikamaru's scores dd increase, which was the cause of Iruka's joy. Going from fifty-five percent to eighty would be considered great improvement for anyone else. But what frustrated the poor teacher was that the pineapple head was strategic in how and what he answered the paper. He had calculated the paper and only answered enough of the paper to get eighty percent. The rest was left blank.
.-.
The night before graduation exam, Tsunade and Jiraiya were going over some of Naruto's sealing work. The three were in the study with papers scattered all around them, due to the younger blonde's messy work habits. Though largely because his two guardians had shocked him when they came into call him for dinner making him jump a foot into the air, his papers following along.
"Brat, shouldn't we be going over your school work? You have the graduation exam tomorrow." Tsunade asked amused, putting aside the set of notes she was looking at.
Jiraiya barked a laugh, "Relax Hime, our boy here will surely pass. Pretty sure we taught him most of the material ourselves, and that we may have taught ahead of the curriculum."
Naruto just shrugged. Rearranging the loose sheets and making the table somewhat neat again. "I will pass."
The toad sannin laughed, "Not aiming for rookie of the year?"
The little fishcake shrugged, "A ninja is supposed to be inconspicuous. Besides, that title does nothing in the real world."
Tsunade just nodded, "Only those that do not understand ninja with covet that title."
"It is also not rewarding to beat up someone that cannot fight me at full capacity." Naruto smirked.
The two sannins laughed harder at that. Many of the children from non-ninja families got big heads because many of the clan children did not use their full skill when fight the 'beginners'. The major clans usually taught their children to be modest, meaning not to beat up those without any training outright.
"A ninja's best skill, would be their ability to blend in and quietly complete the mission. Especially, at your age." The toad sage nodded in agreement. He couldn't agree more with that statement. With his reputation now, the white-haired man didn't really bother with being inconspicuous, not many were brave enough to challenge a sannin. Only the stupid or suicidal would. Even then, many would still underestimate him because of his age, or his perverted tendencies portray him as an idiot, thus making him sound as the weakest of the three.
"Well, if you feel so ready, how about sparing against me?"
Naruto just groaned and unsealed a flute from his desk. "Can't you just teach me a new song instead?"
.-.
The next morning there was a nervous energy filling the classroom. Many were fidgety and showing signs of stress. Many had dark circles under their eyes and still had their heads buried in text books because this exam would determine their fate.
In one back corner, the vibe was considerably less nervous. Shino was always calm. Shikamaru was his usual lazy self. Chouji would have been more nervous had his company been more nervous. Naruto was reading a book on song composing not at all bothered by the happenings around him. Sasuke was for once sitting with the group of friends because the nervous air his other classmates were emitting was irritating.
Iruka strolled into the room and shook his head in pity of the ones still stressing. "Good morning class." He greeted. A few especially tense students nearly jumped out of their skins in fright. The scarred teacher put on a kind smile, "I hope you are all ready for the final test today. So please, get to a seat and we will begin handing out the papers for the written test. Following the theory test we will have a ten-minute break then head to the fields for weapons, survival and taijutsu. We will break again for lunch and convene at one back at the fields for the jutsu test."
.-.
The theory test passed without much mishaps. Only one of the civilian kids got caught with notes on him. Contrary to what the wannabe ninjas thought, cheating was allowed. Just not painfully obvious attempts such as bringing notes hidden in your palm. They were training ninja not righteous knights in shining armor. Ninja were sneaky if the methods were deemed sneaky enough, for gennin at least, then the instructors saw no reason to call them out.
And that is how Kiba passed his theory test.
.-.
After the ten-minute break the class was ushered outside to the training fields. On one side had targets set up for the weapons portion, the other had an obstacle course set up. This was so that both test ran simultaneously to save time. Both portions were run by either retired shinobi, or those recovering from injuries.
The weapons part was straight forward. Hit as many targets with in the time limit.
The obstacle course saw the students running through a variety of traps while being chased by a chunnin in a given time. The aim was to avoid setting off as many traps as possible.
Both exams had hidden rules that were not outright told to the students. For example, the weapons exam gave you maximum points for hitting the bulls eye. Getting a perfect score earned you bonus points. Another way to get bonus points in this exam was to hit all the vital parts on the human shaped target.
.-.
The rules for this course were to avoid the traps and the pursuer, each trap set off deduct three point. Every time the candidate got caught would be subtract five points. After the five-minute mark, two points would be deducted. Each student had thirty points to start and ten minutes to complete the course. Everyone was given a minute head start.
Naruto was lined up the starting line of the obstacle course. This was the one exam that he would top. There was no way that the prank king would let someone else show him up in the field he was best known for.
The start signal went, and the little blond took off into the obstacle course. After a minute a retired chunnin, looking to be in his forties followed the path that Naruto had taken. Since Naruto had gone in there had been no noise. At the two-minute mark there was a surprised yell and then silence again. This made the examiners nervous, because that yell sounded like it had come from their fellow examiner.
Just after the four-minute mark Naruto strolled out of the course, not a hair out of place, supporting the examiner that had followed him in. The poor soul was sporting a limp and large bump on his forehead, and dripping wet.
'How the hell did he get wet?!" was the thought of the other examiners. The course was not by any body of water, and was meant to stimulate a situation where one was being chased by enemy forces.
"Full marks, plus full extra points." The poor man grumbled to his colleges, not wanting to elaborate on what had happened in the forest. Really it was just his luck to draw the short straw when choosing who would follow the pranking brat into this exam. He was planning to head to the nearest bar and drink himself stupid after this assignment, he really needed a drink. Getting outsmarted by an academy student! 'Yome-san would not let me live this down. On the plus note, this is a student that is known to routinely drive many chunnin AND jounin mad with his escape tactics after his pranks. I'm not the only one with this shame.'
The other examiners didn't question him, no one wanted to know the horrors he had faced during his short time in there. One even sympathetically pat his shoulder as he took his comrade from the blond to get medical attention.
.-.
The weapons portion went off without much drama. Though one kid managed to stab himself while trying to pull off a showy move when pulling a kunai out of his pouch…
Surprisingly, for the instructors at least, Shikamaru got almost full marks in the weapon throwing. The lazy genius just muttered a 'troublesome' at the incredulous stares coming from his peers and teachers as he walk off the testing area into the shade to wait his turn for the traps course.
.-.
"You pass! Great job Naruto." Iruka exclaimed, happy with the blonde's performance. The Uzumaki had managed to show the kawarimi and henge to high standards (only using one hand seal) and was able to perform an advanced clone. For an academy student to even create one working mizu bushin was amazing. The little blond had created two functional clones. Totalled with all the other parts of the exam, Naruto had safely passed, finishing closer to the top of the class with the extra points from the traps course and now with his jutsu performance.
Happily receiving his hitaiate from his favourite teacher, Naruto bounded out of the space set up for the jutsu portions and raced into the arms of Shizune who was waiting for him at the entrance of the school.
"Nee-chan! I passed!" Naruto said proudly.
The mednin laughed and hugged the happy teen. Not caring for the weird looks some of the civilian families were casting the pair. The pseudo siblings long used to brushing off the negative looks.
"Let's go and celebrate Naru-chan." Shizune said still laughing and tugging on the boy's hands to lead him away from the nasty stares.
.-.
"Nee-chan, this is not the way home." Naruto said as he followed his big sister through the village. They were now walking closer to the edge of the village, with the scenery getting more forested.
"Mmn, yes. The Nara clan have invited a few of us to have the graduation celebration at their clan compound. I believe that there was two or three of their members in your class this time." Shinzune said smiling at the younger boy.
"Ah." Naruto nodded in acknowledgement. There was now a noticeable bounce in the boy's steps.
The trek to the deer handlers' compound was short and they arrived in no time. There was laughter and fireflies flying through the air. There was a band playing, and the little fishcake's eyes lit up at the sight of the various instruments. He was about to wonder off to the band when Yoshino caught up to the pair of siblings. "Naru-kun! Congratulations!"
"Yoshino-san!" Shizune bowed to the Nara matriarch.
Naruto bowed as well. "Thank you Yoshino-obasan."
"Well now we are waiting on Ino-chan and the celebrations will be in full swing." Yoshino beamed. "Enjoy yourselves. Especially you Naru-kun. This is all about the graduates after all." With that the happy Nara mother left to attend to some other matters for the party.
A few other Naras, Akimichis and Yamanakas had noticed the pair and come up to congratulate the blond. In turn the blond congratulated those of his class. Though he was being distracted by the band, through the many greetings and conversations Naruto made his way closer to the stage.
"I thought I'd find you around here." Shikamaru drawled coming up behind Naruto.
Naruto whipped his head towards his friend. "DEAR!" was the excited yell which was promptly followed by a tackle hug throwing the taller boy off balance and onto the ground.
The loud yell attracted a few surprised stares from those standing nearby. Their shock turned into laughter when they realised what was happening.
"Troublesome blond. Get off!" Shikamaru grumbled, embarrassed.
"Congratulations Dear!" Naruto mumbled into Shikamaru's chest before getting off the boy.
"Congratulations Naru." Shikamaru said getting up. "Which one caught your interest?" Shikamaru asked knowing his friend was interested in the instruments on stage.
Naruto's eyes sparkled. It was not often that Naruto got to hear the Nara band play. There were many instruments on the stage, from flutes, to guitars and drums. What set them apart from regular instruments was that these were Nara instruments, they were all fashioned out of deer hind or antlers, so the sounds were not like typical instruments. "Is that a flute?" Naruto motioned to what he thought was a flute. The instrument was obviously made out of an antler. The musician playing it was blowing it from one end, but unlike a flute which was one straight reed, this one branched out. The player was moving one hand over both branches and the sound was quite deep.
"Yea. Nana-san is playing a flute." Shhikamaru muttered, a soft indulgent look appearing on his face as he watched the entranced expression of his friend.
The two stood by each other and enjoyed the company and music together until an Akamichi announced that it was time to eat.
Shikaku made a short speech and dinner was served.
Somehow or another Naruto managed to convince Tsunade to let him stay the night.
.-.
The two were sleeping in Shikamaru's room, as usual, but Naruto had restless sleep. It was still dark when the younger boy woke. Not feeling comfortable the blue-eyed boy kicked of his sheets and tossed and turned. Still unable to fall back to sleep Naruto worried his lower lip for a bit before deciding to climb into Shikamaru's bed.
Decision made, he crawled under the sheets and quietly lay next to his friend, trying not to disturb him. However, he forgot that his friend was a light sleeper, he was just very good at faking it.
"Naru?" Shikamaru asked, voice hoarse with sleep.
Naruto cuddled into his side, "Can't sleep."
Shikamaru shifted a bit so that the smaller boy could get comfortable. The two lay side by side, with Naruto trying not to fidget. It took five minutes before Shikamaru got irritated. Sitting up and rubbing his eyes Shikamaru grumbled, "What is the matter?"
Naruto sat up as well and placed a hand over his stomach. "I'm worried."
The movement was telling. Shikamaru was smart, and while they never really talked about it apart from the one-time Naruto had mentioned his burden a few years ago on his birthday as an explanation as to why they never went to the festival, Shikamaru understood his friend very well.
Slinging an arm around Naruto's shoulders Shikamaru pulled the blond into a one arm hug. He put his other hand over the hand on Naruto's stomach. "I'm sure everything will be alright Naruto. Besides, we will be starting with D-ranks. Ninety-five percent of those don't even leave the village proper. It is highly unlikely that we will get serious trouble in the village."
Naruto didn't look at his friend, but he nodded.
Shikamaru sighed, seeing that his words hadn't really comforted his friend. "Naru. Look. You were chosen for a reason. The fourth believed that you could protect us. I believe that you can protect us. You will not willing let the fix cause trouble. You are strong in your own right."
Naruto looked at the lazy boy, eyes brimming with tears. "Thank you. For believing in me." He whispered.
Shikamaru smiled and let go of the blond to pull something out from under his bed. It was a guitar fashioned out of deer hind. "Would you like to listen?"
Naruto hastily wiped his eyes and nodded.
"Lie down." Shikamaru instructed.
Naruto did as asked, eager to listen to his friend play. He didn't question if he COULD, he had that much faith in Shikamaru.
The Nara began to strum a lullaby. The tune soft and slow, going well with the sound of the instrument. The melody slowly lulled Naruto to sleep.
.-.
TBC
Sorry for the late update!
Tried to make this chapter a bit longer than usual to make up for it.
Not quite happy with the party scene, though it was meant as a filler.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it.
Happy holidays!