Chapter 2: Hidden Identities
Konoha Ninja Academy
In The Afternoon
"All right, settle down, settle down," Iruka called out over the din of students. When it was obvious he was being ignored, be paused to clear his throat and then used a special hand seal under his desk out of sight for his unique self-made jutsu.
The lighting dropped to pitch black in seconds and his head grew to inhuman proportions, lit by an unearthly glow and his voice boomed with the power of thunder as he screamed, "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP YOU BRATS!!"
Instant quiet, and everyone was at their desks.
Except for three.
It was a little odd, given two of the three, but Iruka could clearly see than Hyuuga Hinata, (perfect attendance record and only quiet one of the bunch), Uchiha Sasuke, (broody problem child that tried too hard in class to beat his older brother's reputation), and Uzumaki Naruto, (...), were late. The only one that normally was late was Uzumaki and the only reason he hadn't been thrown out was because his mother was the Headmistress for the Academy. At least, that's what Iruka used to think. Then he got a look at Naruto's test scores.
At one minute before the last bell rang, all three students came in, one after the other. Hinata first, immediately went to her desk at the back and quietly apologized for being late. Sasuke came in a few seconds later, scowled at the squealing fangirls, and took his usual spot by the window, which thankfully had been left vacant. Iruka remembered the last time someone had sat in Sasuke's seat. It had not been pretty.
Then finally one second just before the bell rang, Naruto stepped into the classroom and was technically on time. He laughed and gave a big over-the-top smile and near-shouted, "Heh, heh, heh, SORRY IRUKA-SENSEI! GUESS I'M STILL ON TIME FOR THE EXAMS, HUH?!"
Iruka winced, then reprimanded the blue-eyed blond, "Naruto, please, keep your voice down when inside. Take your seat, please."
"Oops, sorry again, Iruka-sensei," the prankster chuckled, and scurried over to his seat.
"Idiot," Kiba mocked. Akamaru yipped in agreement.
"Troublesome," Shikamaru mumbled, then turned over in his sleep. Choji was eating.
"Sasuke's sooo coooool coming in late like that!" Sakura and Ino crooned.
Hinata, Naruto, and Sasuke all sighed in exasperation, knowing the roles they had to play, at least until they were separated into their teams. Then they could begin to 'change' under whatever sensei they had and could stop pretending to be the quiet, arrogant Hyuuga princess, the class clown idiot, and the angst prince of brooding respectively. Unfortunately, until then, they had to play those roles to the hilt. Thankfully, today was the last day for each of them, and also for a few others too.
"Hey, Sakura-chan, wanna go on a date with..." Naruto started to ask the pink-haired girl as he sat down next to her.
"NO! For the seventeenth time already! No, I will not go out with you, Naruto-baka! And for your information, that's Sasuke's seat! Now scram!" the banshee shouted in his face. Silently, in a way no one but herself could hear, Sakura voiced her true thoughts, "Oh why can't I just say yes this once! Oh gawd, Naruto-sama is so friggin hott I want to just lick his entire body from toe to head! I'll be glad to graduate today, I've had just about all I can stand of mooning over the Prince of Brooding!! AND I AM GOING TO MAKE MY MOTHER F#%$*! PAY FOR MAKING ME IGNORE NARUTO-SAMA LIKE THIS AND GO FOR THE LOUSY SHOW-BOATING $#%^&%$#^ UCHIHA BEFORE SHE DIES!!!!"
Naruto looked wide-eyed and a bit scared at her, but he did not move. "Oh Kami, why does he have to look so darn cute when he's all wide-eyed like that. Even when he's scared-looking, he's hott!"
When she looked like she was about to hit him, he silently pointed to the front window seat, where Sasuke was already seated, appearing to brood by staring out the window.
"Eh?" Sakura whined out loud. "B-b-but Sasuke-kun...!" "Whew! Dodged that bullet!"
"Nyeh!" Ino stuck her tongue out at her rival, moving to the seat next to Sasuke, 'Hah! Beat that, Forehead! Now Sasuke-kun is all mine!' only to find Naruto already there next to the brooding prince. 'What the heck? How did he get past me and move from Sakura's seat to this one so fast?!'
"Wha—? How did...?" Ino started to ask, but Iruka stood up at the front of the class and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention before she could say anything. In the back, Hinata giggled to herself, having seen the whole thing.
"All right, settle down, settle down," Iruka called for order. Slowly, bit by bit the room quieted down.
"Now, today is the day of Final Exams. Those that pass will have the opportunity to go on and become ninja of Konoha, with the rank of genin under a jounin as your immediate supervisor and sensei. Among those that pass the exam today, we will also be dividing you up into three-man teams. Now, good luck to everyone."
Thus began the day of the Ninja Academy Exams.
First up, the written exams. Naruto read the questions and had already remembered the answers to each of them and was mentally going over what to put in the essay questions before the paper was even put down on his desk in the half a second it took Iruka to lay it in front of him. While he was handing out the rest, Naruto took out his pen and answered all the multiple choice questions before Iruka had put down the next person's test.
"Naruto," Iruka warned him, having seen Naruto try to peek at the questions as was expected of the class clown and Konoha's Number 2 Prankster. (They'd had an actual competition last year, he came in second, after his mother took first of course, while some white-skinned kid named Sai took third)
"Heh, sorry Iruka-sensei," Naruto blushed, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. He then waited until Iruka turned his back and was in no position to see him out of the corner of his eye before flipping the test back over and tackling the first, second and last essay questions. He finished the rest in between the moments he could be sure Iruka wasn't looking, making sure that it looked like he was only peeking each time.
When Iruka finally had passed out all the tests and made it back up to his desk at the front, he told the students to turn over their tests and begin. The only thing Naruto had left to do on his test was fill out his name. Which he did, and then spent the next hour 'fretting', running his fingers through his hair, making faces, and noises to make it look like he was having trouble answering the questions while covering his test to make it look as though he were discouraging cheaters, even while he 'covertly' glanced at his neighbors tests. He was actually just making sure nobody was looking to see that he had already completed all of his test.
After the hour finished, they turned in their tests to Iruka himself and were taken outside to the target range where they had a full examination in throwing weapons, as well as demonstrating they knew how to handle both shuriken and kunai before using them.
Naruto displayed a proficiency and expert handling that he had never shown before, which stunned most of the instructors, but made Iruka beam with pride. After the weapons exam, they were separated into boys and girls while the girls had their exam for kunoichi skills, the boys were tasked to demonstrate stealth and hiding techniques. Naruto only missed a single point while Sasuke got the perfect score.
Afterwards came the 'fun' part of the exam, the taijutsu portion.
Naruto briefly wondered how 'well' he should do in the mini-tournament between all the Academy students, both boys and girls. Of course it started out with boys versus boys and girls versus girls, but when it got down to the final six, they mixed and matched between the girls and the boys. The three boys were, of course Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Aburame Shino. The three girls were Hyuuga Hinata, Yamanaka Ino, and surprisingly Haruno Sakura.
First match, Shino versus Hinata.
"Ano... good luck, Shino-san," Hinata bowed to her opponent as they both entered the fighting ring.
Shino stood impassively, hands in his pockets, then shrugged and replied in a soft monotone, "Thank you. Do your best, Hinata-san."
She nodded back at him, then both assumed their taijutsu stances, having seen the other fight several times by this point, so there really was no point in holding back. Iruka hesitated for a moment, sensing the sudden change in atmosphere between the two students. Still, these were Academy Students, not even genin yet. Worst that could possibly happen is a few bruises and maybe a scrape or two. "Begin!" he called.
Hinata shot forward like a bolt out of a crossbow. Shino side-stepped and struck out with a mantis-chop to the back of her head. The instant before it would have landed, Hinata ducked down and bent backwards, spinning herself around in a pirouette so she was now behind the bug-user, yet still inside the circle. Shino felt her behind him, but there was little he could do, and though he tried to turn himself around so he could properly block, the most he could do was release a number of kikkai bugs and put his left arm between her palm strike and his back.
The bugs immediately began eating the girls chakra, latching onto her hands and arms, only to suddenly fall off, much the way flies were thrown away by a bug-zapper. Shino's arm was disabled from her Jūken strike, but Hinata also had to step back in order to get the kikkai bugs off of her. It was something the Hyuuga had developed a long time ago, though it was more meant as a deterrent for women against perverts than a defense against the Aburame jutsu. That was just a surprising bonus.
Shino considered for several moments before sighing and bowed to the young heiress, then deliberately stepped outside the ring, signaling his forfeiture. Hinata smiled, understanding, and bowed back to her classmate, before turning to Iruka and bowing to him and then going back in line.
Iruka stood there, gaping, not sure if he was seeing things of if he'd suddenly gotten in way over his head. Hinata... Hyuuga Hinata got full marks, again, he noted. At this rate, depending mostly on how she did in the ninjutsu portion, she would be ranked as Top Kunoichi for the class, and depending on how well the boys did, possibly even Rookie of the Year!
"Uh, next up," he consulted his chart quickly and then called out the names, "Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke." After he heard the words leave his mouth, he did a double-take and rechecked the chart, then watched in utter confusion as the pink-haired, self-proclaimed #1 Sasuke Fangirl stepped into the ring opposite her popular crush. The confusion came about in that she wasn't squealing over being in front of 'Sasuke-kun' and even more so, given the girl's scores so far, if she won then that would put her in the #2 slot for Top Kunoichi. Yamanaka Ino was in the same situation he realized.
Iruka was honestly surprised to see how well Sakura was doing in the taijutsu portion of the test. The girl had never revealed herself to be particularly skilled, even in the matches up till now, she'd been rather violently bi-polar, being sweet and innocent sounding before and after the matches, but screaming out loud and throwing powerful punches and kicks that carried a lot of strength behind them when fighting.
Before Iruka could tell the two to begin, he felt a tugging on his sleeve and looked down to see Hinata standing there. "Uh, yes, Hinata-san?" he asked, thinking she just needed permission to go inside or something like that.
"Ano... Iruka-sensei," she hesitantly spoke, nervously twiddling her fingers, "would I be correct in assuming that Ino and Naruto have the next match, and then whoever wins that match will fight the winner of this one?"
Intrigued, but seeing no harm in answering, he just nodded his head, saying, "That's right. And if either one of the girls win, then you will fight them. If the boys win however, then I'll have them face off and you'll have to fight the winner of that bout to win the title of Rookie of the Year. Is there anything else, Hinata-san?"
"N-no, Iruka-sensei," the girl blushed and went back into line.
"Whenever you're ready, Iruka-sensei," Sasuke snapped at the instructor, impatient.
Iruka glared at the boy, suddenly irrationally wishing that Sakura would actually kick this arrogant boy's ass and teach him some humility. "Begin!"
"Hn," Sasuke scoffed, then got into his ready stance, though he really doubted he'd need it, or his Sharingan against this simpering fangirl. Probably all he'd really need to do would be to smile at her and she'd faint from joy or something like that.
Except Sakura did not scream, swoon, or act like a simpering fangirl at all. She got into the Academy Basic stance and seemed to be waiting for Sasuke to make the first move. He decided to go easy on her.
"Why don't you go ahead and give up, Haruno, save me the time so I can get on to my real fight," he said to her. He expected her to just squeal and bob her head up and down a few times before agreeing with him, so needless to say he was practically floored when he heard her shout at him instead, her face a mask of anger.
"LIKE HELL EMO-KING!!" she screamed, then charged, her fist thrown back for a punch.
"Huh?!" Sasuke was so surprised he almost didn't duck away in time.
"What's up with Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked from the sidelines.
"Ano... Sakura-san is... bi-polar," Hinata answered him.
"That explains a lot," Ino sniffed in disdain.
Sakura only had a single thought in her enraged mind as she continued the attack on Uchiha Sasuke, 'FINALLY!'
Sasuke was as scared as he'd ever been in his time at the Academy. It's one thing to fear fangirls for being fangirls! It's something else when those fangirls actually try and kill you! It was only thanks to his weekly training with Naruto and Hinata that he was able to overcome his shock and continue dodging the pink-haired girls attacks. Thankfully, those attacks were rather basic, even if they were performed with surprising strength and speed, there was none of the originality nor skill that he had grown used to facing in his friends.
Still, just because it wasn't hard did not make it easy as the girl proved to be surprisingly nimble herself.
Sakura mostly just kept up straight punches, though they came at about one and a half per second, rather than one every second and a half that one might normally expect from a girl of Sakura's age. Sasuke might normally have done the 'cool thing' and just dodged her punches by barely moving and letting them pass his head just by tilting it every which way, but her speed was no joke! He couldn't afford to be 'cool' if he didn't want to get hit!
Likewise with her defense, Sakura seemed to get small bursts of speed just before he would hit her whether with a punch or a kick, and she seemed to be an expert at skidding to the side. Sasuke was getting very annoyed.
"Damnit! Stand still so I can hit you!" he growled when his frustration got the better of him.
At the sidelines, Naruto groaned and covered his hand over his eyes.
"Sasuke-san seems to be having trouble," Hinata giggled, still twiddling her fingertips, though different from the way she normally did it.
"He's easy to surprise," Naruto commented to her. "He judges his opponent at a glance, Sharingan or not, and if they do anything that he didn't 'judge' they could do, his timing is thrown off and he gets frustrated very easily. I'm wondering if I should throw my fight with him or not."
"Ano... Sasuke-san would not survive if you did that, Naruto-kun," Hinata said in a dark tone, her eyes shadowed as she continued to twiddle her fingertips. Though from anyone else's perspective it looked like she was getting ready to strangle someone.
Ino, having listened in from behind them, slowly crept back, thinking, 'Weird... And creepy. Naruto sounds like he can beat Sasuke without any effort, he just doesn't want to show it. And Hinata... Creepy!'
Finally, Sasuke's training payed off as Sakura began to tire and her punches were getting softer and her dodges were just a hair bit slower. He managed to tag her as she tried to dodge to the side again, but he'd begun to anticipate that and faster than he'd moved so far, he attacked her from the side she was dodging to before she could react, slamming a roundhouse kick into her chin and sending her flying out of the ring. Iruka quickly checked on her to make sure she was all right. Once he'd confirmed that, he announced Sasuke the winner as Sakura was completely knocked out.
From the sidelines, Naruto and Hinata smirked as they grinned unrepentant at Sasuke. He scoffed at them, annoyed. They were the only ones that had noticed, it seemed, that in the instant before Sakura was knocked out, Sasuke's eyes had a red color in the pupils. He'd reverted back to his normal black eyes by the time Iruka called the match, so it was reasonable to assume only Naruto and Hinata had seen him use the Sharingan. He walked to the other side of the ring to avoid being teased by them.
"Next match is Yamanaka Ino and Uzumaki Naruto!" Iruka called, and the two blonds stepped forward without any hesitation.
"No way will I lose to the Dead Last!" Ino cried, triumphant.
"Uh, Ino..." Naruto said to her, acting a bit unnerved, "You do know that the Academy Tests judge the class ranking, right? The fact that I'm in the semi-finals of the Taijutsu portion means I'm not the Dead Last. Whoever did the worst on all portions of the exam is the Dead Last."
"Uh..." Ino was stunned, not prepared for the kind of comeback.
"Begin!" Iruka called.
Naruto was actually still debating what he should do for his match with Sasuke next round, though he certainly was not idle while he contemplated this. Ino, on the other hand, was already coming at him with the same moves Sakura had used, aka the Academy Taijutsu Basics, just slower and with less than half the strength behind them. Naruto, unlike Sasuke, could easily afford to do the 'cool' dodging thing and avoided attacking, though Ino did retreat out of his strike range just after completing her own attacks to avoid any counter-attacks.
Good, he thought, at least she isn't being stupid about this.
Then again, she is in the semi-finals too, so she must be pretty good, even if she wouldn't be able to beat him. That is, unless he allowed her to beat him. 'Hm,' he thought to himself, '4th place, huh? I never really wanted title Rookie of the Year, while Sasuke wants to show he can be as good as his brother is. If Hinata is going to face me, she all but said she is going to forfeit. So, either let Sasuke beat me and have him rub it in my face as the Top Three are made #1 Genin Team, or lose to Ino now and let her go on to be in the Top Three, probably losing to Sasuke and Hinata near killing him to be named Rookie of the Year. Her dad would like that. Grrr... Decisions, decisions! I HATE making decisions!' But just because he hated making them did not mean he wouldn't, and live with the consequences as well.
Ino was beginning to get tired and Naruto still had not thrown a single attack at her this entire time. It was clear to everybody that he was just playing with her. Iruka wondered when his 'lil bro' had gotten so good. Ino was sweating by now and began to wonder if maybe Naruto really wasn't just blowing smoke earlier.
Finally, they stopped moving, Naruto on the opposite side of the ring from Ino, who was panting and sweating, looked like she'd barely be able to stay on her feet for much longer. Naruto considered again, then shrugged, thinking, 'Ah to hell with saving face. I was going to stop pretending after graduating anyway!'
Suddenly, Naruto blurred to Ino's eyes, one second several feet away, an eyeblink later, right in front of her with a his hand raised, the pinky finger held back by his thumb. Then he flicked his pinky finger at her bandaged stomach and it felt like that time she when she was six years old and fell from the swing set on the playground and fell on the monkey bars, knocking the wind out of her for the rest of the day. This was actually worse as it sent her flying out of the ring, over the crowd of spectators and into a mudpool next to the building.
Naruto winced. He really needed to work on his aim. "Eh, sorry Ino-chan!" he called.
Ino would be pissed if she could actually breathe. Nothing was broken, just severely bruised, but it was more the realization that Naruto was WAY more than he appeared to be! Forget revenge for humiliating her, if it had been Sakura, that was one thing, but what had just happened...
Ino slowly got to her feet, covered in mud and gasping for painful lungfuls of breath, staring through the parting crowd at her opponent, who Iruka was only now declaring the winner. She grasped her chest in pain, wincing as she finally made it to her feet. She saw Naruto just standing there, not even sweating, grinning wide and sheepishly scratching the back of his head in apparent embarrassment.
He was not what he appeared to be.
That scared her. That scared her a lot!
The idea formed in her head and her body was already acting even as she made the decision to go ahead and do it, though there was a tiny voice at the back of her mind, nagging her that it was not a good idea and that she shouldn't do it no matter what! Obviously, she ignored that tiny voice.
"Shintenshin no jutsu (Mind Body Switch Technique)!" she formed the seal, centering it on Naruto's head. She saw his eyes widen and then she was taken by the technique and her next view was from his perspective as his eyes saw her body slump suddenly.
"Now then, what are you Uzumaki Naruto?" Ino telepathically thought as she took control of his body.
"Wha-Ino! No! The match is over! You can't use ninjutsu outside of a match! Get out of Naruto's body right now!" she heard Iruka scream. The really weird thing was that she heard a lot more than just him, and the crowd of students, and the people in the school, in the street, in the building three blocks from here, in the Hokage Tower, in the training grounds, at the Village Wall, and...
'ENOUGH!!' a mental voice cried out that barely sounded human to the invading mind.
'Whu... What is this? What are you? No one can hear this well! Or feel this! Or this! And... Oh my god! Your parents are the Hokage and Kushina-kouchou!' Ino was stunned. Then she was thrown out.
To everyone else, they saw Ino slump and Naruto change his posture, but not really say anything. Then Iruka very quickly realized what had just happened and started shouting at 'Ino' in Naruto's body, who seemed to be ignoring him. Then the blond-haired blue-eyed boy's face scrunched up with a sudden anger and he shouted out loud in his own voice, "ENOUGH!!" Then he slammed his head forward like he was bowing or about to headbutt someone, in the next instant, Ino's body straightened so fast that it was like she'd really been headbutted, enough to send her back into the mud.
Everyone was stunned, not sure what to make of this strange event. Naruto was suddenly gasping and clutching his head, but what no one could see was that his eyes were a burning red. Literally, as the ground at his feet, where he was staring, scorched black and began to melt where there was stone.
When he finally had himself under control, breathing heavily and sweating as bad as anybody else now, Naruto turned to the teacher and asked, "I-Iruka-sensei? I... I think I'd like to forfeit the rest of the match. I... I need to rest after... after whatever that was just now."
"That was Ino using a technique she should not have, after the match was decided," Iruka informed him, turning angrily to the insensate girl. "I should disqualify her for trying something like that..."
"No, don't Iruka-sensei," Naruto stopped him. "Whatever... that was, it wasn't Ino's technique. It was... something else, something... threw her out of my mind. I don't know what it was, but... I need to rest."
Hinata was instantly by Naruto's side, almost glaring at Iruka as though he were the cause for her friend's pain. Iruka, startled more by Naruto's words than the Hyuuga girl's glare, decided to let the matter drop for now and marked down the scores, putting the final three that hadn't fought yet as having a tie. It was clear that with Naruto forfeiting, Hinata would as well, not wishing to leave his side. Without a final match, they all got an equal score. It would make things interesting, that's for sure.
Surprisingly, Sasuke did not make a big fuss when this was announced as Iruka called all the students back inside for the final portion of the Academy Exams. Ino was given time to clean herself up, though she kept staring at Naruto in awe, a look she normally reserved for Sasuke.
"Aw... crud," Naruto grumbled when he saw the looks.
"What is it Naruto-kun?" Hinata quietly asked as they walked inside.
"Ino knows," he whispered back to her, just as quiet. The white-eyed girl's eyes went wide. He quickly clarified, "About Mom and Dad. Especially about Dad." Hinata's eyes became less wide, but she also let slip a word that her father would be horrified to hear her utter.
"So, not about...?" she then made a single gesture rather than say anything else.
He shook his head, then shrugged. "I'm not sure. The clues were there, but my close-to-surface thoughts were about this morning, and before I met you and Sasuke, I was having breakfast with my parents. Before she got to... that, I... or maybe, You Know Who, kicked her out."
Hinata's eyes went wide again.
"So how's it feel to no longer be the Dead Last?" Sasuke asked, coming up on the other side of them.
"Pretty good so far," Naruto admitted, grinning from ear to ear. "How's it feel to still be Rookie of the Year? Same as ever?"
"I wouldn't know," Sasuke smirked back at him, then at Hinata. "Because we didn't get to fight and I didn't get to beat Hinata, all three of us got the exact same score in the Taijutsu portion, and we tied or averaged out in all the other portions. All that remains is the ninjutsu portion and the three of us can pass that without any difficulty whatsoever. In the end, there may not even be a Rookie of the Year."
"Oh, I wouldn't say anything just yet," Naruto sheepishly countered. "I still can't do the Bunshin no jutsu to save my life! Although I wouldn't really need to in most cases..."
"What are you talking about, you know plenty of Bunshin jutsu!" Sasuke exclaimed.
"Yeah, I just mastered the Kage Bunshin no jutsu for my last birthday," Naruto proudly admitted. "But I still can't do the Bunshin no jutsu. At all."
"You mean you can't... do the regular clone... at all?" Sasuke asked, stunned. "Wow."
"Yeah, weird huh?"
"Try messed up," Sasuke snapped at him. "You're the only person alive that I know that does things backwards! You learn advanced ninjutsu first and then backpedal! You learn every type of Bunshin jutsu that exists, but can't do the Academy standard. You learn three different types of transformation techniques; shapeshift, illusion, and standard, in that order! You say you learned an impossible version of the Kawarimi no jutsu that switches you with your opponent after they've thrown an attack at you, then you learned the standard! It's messed up!"
"Naruto-kun is a hard worker," Hinata commented.
"He's a fre—urk!" Sasuke was saying something and then stopped when Hinata ruthlessly jabbed him with a Jūken strike to the back, which paralyzed his entire body for three full seconds before letting him collapse to the floor and pass out from lack of oxygen to the brain, thanks to his heart stopping for three full seconds.
"Eh, heheheh, you're scary when you do that, Hinata-chan," Naruto uncomfortably stepped away from the paralyzed Uchiha.
"Hm, seems that I finally got that move right," she commented to herself, looking at her hand.
"Uhm... should we drag him to the class room?" Naruto wondered out loud, looking down at the prone form of Sasuke. Hinata shrugged, then calmly reached down, and began to drag the poor boy by his ankle up two flights of stairs to the class room where the Ninjutsu portion of the Exam would be held. Naruto looked on pitifully, feeling sympathy for his male best friend as he followed behind them.
TBC...