"Achoo!" A plume of smoke drifted into the air as Sun-Dance furiously rubbed her nose against the fur of her right foreleg, before she angrily kicked the dust covered scroll away from her. "Ugh, why does everything have to be so dusty? I hate dust. Always gets stuck in my nose… Naru, what scroll are we looking for again?"

"It's called The Scroll of the Forbidden Seal." The blonde mumbled as he dug through a few scrolls across the room. Dust caked nearly everything in the room and it flew into the air with every moved scroll. Sun frowned at Naruto as he seemed completely unaffected by it.

"Achoo!" Sun sniffled a bit, scrunching her snout in disdain, before turning back to dig through the next pile of scrolls. "Tell me again, why are we steal-"

"Borrowing!"

"Fine, 'borrowing' a scroll from the Hokage? He didn't seem too happy that we were he-Achoo! Here." She sniffed again before glaring at the latest dust-covered scroll to make her sneeze. She huffed, then moved to the center of the room, defiantly sitting down with another huff and glaring at her brother when he started giggling at her. "What? I hate dust."

"Whatever." He giggled harder when all she did was stick her tongue out at him and look away with a huff. "We're borrowing a scroll because it's going to help me pass and become a ninja and make mama proud. That's why." He gave her a beaming smile before turning back around to continue searching.

Sun shook her head but with a sisterly smile upon her snout. It instantly turned back into a glare when Naruto haphazardly tossed a scroll behind himself, making Sun sneeze again from the dust that flew into her face. "Achoo!"

"You got to admit though," the blonde chuckled, peering over his shoulder. "Seeing all that blood comically shoot from his nose was really funny."

"You're right. It was pretty funny." They both giggled at the memory, before Naruto threw his arms above his head with a shout of triumph. He pulled a scroll off the shelf in front of him and Sun shook her head again, this time with slight irritation, when it turned out to be one of the largest scrolls in the room. Sun had suggested looking at the largest ones first, but Naruto had claimed they should look at all of them at once to save time. Obviously, if the blonde had listened to her, they wouldn't have stayed in the room for so long, and her nose would've been saved from all the sneezing. Instead of mentioning this fact, Sun just sighed at her brother then moved to help the blonde secure the scroll to his back. "Can we leave now? All this dust is irri- Achoo! Irritating my nose."

"Yeah, let's get out of here." They were undisturbed on the way back out, and they even passed by the Hokage's still prone form where he still laid upon the ground. This, of course, caused another giggling fit from the two as they walked and it wasn't until the sun was high in the sky that they finally arrived at the clearing Mizuki had mentioned. While Sun settled down against a comfortable tree root, Naruto sat himself down in the clearing's center, unfurling the scroll as he did and balancing it across his thighs. He scanned the first few words then groaned in frustration, startling Sun who glance worriedly at him.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu? Why does the first jutsu have to be the one thing I'm bad at?"

Sun smiled and giggled to herself as she laid her head across her front paws to watch her brother practice. She understands why he'd want to do this, but she wasn't sure he should've 'borrowed' such an important looking scroll. If anything, she wishes Moon-Fang or Sasuke had run into them so she'd at least have another pair of eyes to watch over the blonde and the unfamiliar trees. She's just glad she had found him when she did so he wasn't alone now.


Once she had been sure all her pups were safe inside the academy, and seeing as she didn't have a mission today, Shadow had made her way back to the Uchiha mansion. She settled herself down in the library, cuddling into one of the large, plush chairs placed around the room with a book she hadn't read through yet, and stayed there for nearly two hours before her nerves got the best of her.

Shadow knew, with complete certainty, that both Naruto and Sasuke would pass their graduation exam, and that Sun-Dance and Moon-Fang would pass their companions test the following week. But, even with all her certainty, Shadow couldn't help but feel worried. And, even though it was captivating and enjoyable, her current book wasn't distracting enough to keep her from picking at the arm of the chair in her worry.

When she had finally realized the extent of the damage she was doing to the poor chair, she had given up reading and started tidying up the mansion. Cleaning has always been a great distraction when she doesn't want to really think about anything. And cleaning seemed to work for some time, but after she had finished cleaning the mansion for the third time, she gave up once again and turned to her second-best distraction: baking.

It's nearing noon and the entire kitchen is covered in sweets and desserts. No counter was spared, either having ingredients or finished foods, covering every available inch. The fridge was filled to the brim with chilling desserts and the stoves' continuous use has made the large room warmer than usual. The oven was currently turned off as Shadow worked a new batch of dough across one of the counters. Stripes of flour were smeared across her cheeks and forehead and a new one was smudged across her nose as she rubbed her arm across her face to rid herself of few drops of sweat sliding down her forehead.

A very insistent knock at the front door made her throw flour onto the ground as she turned towards the sound. One of her brows rose in curiosity, head tilting to the side slightly, as she found a relatively clean towel to wipe the flour from her hands and face. Shadow made sure everything was covered or put away before making her way towards the door. Another knock vibrated off the wood just as she entered the main hall.

"Yes?" She called as she slid the door open, her other brow rising in surprise at the sight on the front step. "Iruka?"

"Thank…Thank goodness you're home!" the teacher's breathing was greatly labored, as if he had just run a marathon, and he looked very worried, if maybe just a bit agitated, as he leaned heavily against the doorframe. Another man stood behind Iruka, silver hair falling into his face as he leaned against his knees, out of breath as well.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"It's Naruto."

"What's happened to him? Where is he? Where's my pup?" She demanded, shoving her way into the man's personal bubble with a growl. This forced Iruka to lean back and away from her bared teeth. Neither answered quick enough so she slammed the door shut before pushing the two men out of the way and nearly knocking over the one with silver hair. A large puff of smoke left the men in a coughing fit before they realized what happened and quickly took off after the loping wolf.

"He… He stole a for-forbidden scroll from… from the Hokage's mansion earlier this a-afternoon." Iruka panted out, he had sprinted all the way over to the Uchiha mansion from the academy and running after the large wolf back towards the building, wasn't helping the ache in his side any.

"We believe he did so as a prank in a way to act out for not passing the exam."

Shadow stopped so suddenly that both men fell over her tail as it whacked them in the knees, landing in a heap upon the ground. She shoved her snout into the silver-haired man's face and growled, fangs snapping together as she spoke.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Th-This is Mizuki, Shadow. He's the teacher who a-accompanied me during the graduation exams today." Iruka stood up, taking an unconscious step backwards as he helped the other man up.

"He could be the Hokage for all I care. My son is better than pranks and how dare you suggest otherwise. I know my pup wouldn't steal because of a failure, so either someone's framing my son or someone put the crazy thought into his head. And when I find out who, I'm going to rip their head off."

Shadow smirked slightly when both men paled before sharing wide-eyed glances with each other. She huffed as she turned to jump up on a nearby building; her paws only touching the roof for a split second before she propelled herself to the next, and across the village to the closest gate. Once Shadow had scaled the high arch, she quickly glanced about the rooves and alleyways of the nearby buildings. She only stayed put long enough to make sure Naruto was not in the area, before she was launching herself from the gate to the closest rooftop. This continued as she made her way to the opposite gate and then finally to the Main Gate.

Shadow was out of breath, so much so that she couldn't stop her tongue lolling out of her mouth with each pant, as she climbed the last few feet to reach the peak of the grand archway known as the Main Gate. She laid herself down upon the stone, giving her paws and legs a bit of a rest, as she peered down the main road and at the surrounding buildings. And, as she suspected, her blonde son was nowhere in sight.

"Where could you be, my Little Fox?" Shadow sighed. She stretched her limbs, spreading her toes out, and grunted slightly at the resounding pops of her joints. She stood with a shake of her fur and readied herself to leap from the gate towards the Hokage's mansion, but stopped when she spotted to forms zigzagging, from shop to shop, down the main road.

"Hmm?" Shadow's ears perked a bit and her head tilted slightly to the side, as she watched them approach. Narrowing her eyes let her see the figures clearer, but she still had no idea who they could be. Shadow adjusted her stance, curling in more and tucking her tail to her back, she leapt downwards. She flipped through the air several times before she uncurled and braced for impact. She landed with a loud thud, kicking up an impressive cloud of dust.

Startled shouts came from a few feet away and Shadow's ears perked up as she instantly recognized those voices. Some of the tension left her shoulders as the dust settled around her.

"Ack!" Sasuke jumped and nearly fell over as Shadow nudged his arm with her wet nose. He furiously rubbed at his arm, out of habit, as he sent her a confused look. "Shadow-san?"

"Ma?" Moon gave her an equally confused look as he nudged his head against the side of her neck I greeting.

"Sasuke. Moon-Fang." Shadow greeted back. "I don't know what you two are up to, but have either of you seen Naruto?"


Author's Note

Well, this chapter wasn't finished by Christmas, or even New Year's for that matter, but at least it's still January, right? :)

Next chapter is going to be about Naruto showing off his new skills and possibly the assigning of ninja teams. We'll have to see.

And on that note, I'm sure the original teams are going to be slightly mixed up in my story for some reason or other, so if anyone has any request for which teams they'd like to see the Genin 9 in, let me know in a review and I'll see what I can do.

Until next time.

TTFN

Taric