Naruto pushed himself to his feet grinning broadly, oh yes, Iruka was gonna pay for the joke earlier and for interrupting his time with Kyuubi-chan. He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again, the illusion of his kekkei genkai now in place, taking one last quick glance at Hinata he made his way to the sparring ring. Taijutsu was always one of his worst skills, next to genjutsu and anything that required patience, but with Kyuubi-chan's help he had finally got the academy style down and he was confident he would be able to kick Iruka-sensei's butt.

Iruka gulped softly as he saw the scheming grin on Naruto face, that grin never meant anything good, "Umm are you ready?" he asked shaking off his worry

Naruto nodded "Yeah, I'm good Iruka-sensei." he agreed rotating his arms to loosen them up and dropping into the usual academy style.

Iruka allowed himself a sigh of relief, Naruto was just using the academy style, he had been worried that he'd used his eyes to learn something more advanced "Ok, ready.... go!"

Naruto ran forward immediately opening with a flurry of kicks and punches that Iruka diverted or dodged. Iruka jumped back putting a little distance between them hoping her could get himself on the offensive, Naruto was good, for an academy student, his forms were still a little jerky the style obviously didn't suit the young ninja but he was fast. Based on what he had seen so far Iruka would place him on the upper end of average, but considering he had been near the bottom only a few months ago it was a spectacular improvement.

Closing the gap Iruka had created Naruto continued his offensive frowning as Iruka easily diverted his strikes and wove around all his attacks. Iruka grinned as he saw Naruto beginning to get frustrated and decided to rile him up further "Come on Naruto, your girlfriend did better than this." he teased.

Naruto smiled warmly and nodded "Yeah, she's awesome isn't she." he said softly, Iruka raised an eyebrow surprised, he really did like her didn't he?

Naruto struck out with a quick kick aimed at Iruka's knee but the Chûnin grinned and grabbed Naruto's leg "Got ya." he muttered twisting with the momentum of Naruto's kick and adding his own, wrenching Naruto off his feet and tossing him out of the arena. Iruka knew that he was showing off a little by winning that way but he didn't really mind, Naruto had already impressed him enough to pass this section of the exam and even if he hadn't landed a solid blow a few bruises stood testament to the force behind his attacks.

Naruto pushed his face out of the dirt spitting to clear his mouth of the horrible, lingering, taste "Ugh, I'll get you for that Iruka-sensei." he groused good naturedly

Iruka chuckled and nodded "Sure you will." he agreed before turning his attention to the rest of the class "So does anyone have any weapon skills they wish to display." he asked hoping none of them would be like that Ten-ten girl last year who had spend a full hour going through all her proficiencies with him. He nodded as around six hands went up and called the volunteers forward. Naruto trudged back over to Hinata's sleeping form, letting his bloodline fade as he went, and sat down rubbing the leg Iruka had tossed him by, it was slightly sore but the pain was fading quickly 'I guess this means more taijutsu practice?'

Kyuubi nodded 'Yeah, it does." she confirmed 'But you did very well.'

'Very well?' Naruto muttered 'He kicked my ass!'

'He's a Chûnin and you aren't even a ninja yet.' Kyuubi retorted

'Hmmph!' Naruto grunted 'I'll be a ninja in about an hour.'

'But you're not one now, are you.' Kyuubi pressed

Deflating, Naruto conceded to point 'No, not yet'

Kyuubi nodded 'Your speed was good and your strength, the only problem you had was the lack of reflexes, you simply haven't used the style long enough for it to be fluid.' she shrugged 'That and a more offensive style would suit you better.'

Naruto nodded a soft smile on his face as he basked in the praise he had craved for so many years, he knew the style didn't suit him but he hadn't seen anyone using a style he liked 'Ummm do you know any good styles that I could use?' he asked

Kyuubi gave a sigh and shook her head 'No, I thought we'd covered this. Me fox demon, you human. I never really learnt any human styles, at least I never learnt anything more than the very first forms.' She shrugged

Naruto slumped slightly and nodded 'Right, sorry.' he replied pausing for a second 'Didn't you say you could make me into a hanyou? Then I can use what you can teach me!'

Kyuubi frowned softly 'I can.' she agreed softly 'But I won't, not now, not yet.' she had to admit that the thought of a hanyou, or even full demon, Naruto certainly appealed much more to her the more she thought on it but he would almost definitely gain some more traits that would be hard to hide and would cause Naruto far more trouble than it was worth.

Naruto frowned 'Why not?' he questioned, Kyuubi was saved from having to answer as a soft groan from Hinata caught Naruto's attention and he turned his head to see her eyes fluttering as she slowly awoke "Hinata-chan." he grinned.

Hinata's eyes opened softly as she looked around her taking a moment to register her surroundings "Naruto-kun?" she muttered recognising his voice

"Yes?" Naruto answered

Hinata locked onto the source of the voice and hugged him fiercely "Naruto-kun!" she exclaimed happily hugging him tight as though afraid he would vanish if she let go. Naruto wrapped his arms around her frail form with a warm smile and absently rubbed her back in what he hoped was a caring way she was muttering something but he couldn't quite catch what so he strained his ears to listen to her whispered mantra "Thank you, thank you."

Naruto shook his head softly running a hand through her hair and placing a gentle kiss on her forehead "No need to thank me." he assured her but she continued to anyway. Eventually the two of them just lapsed back into a silence.

Iruka finished with the last of the weapons tests and nodded looking around the throng of students, satisfied that they were as clam as they were going to get "Alright everyone!" he announced "Let's go inside and we'll move to the ninjutsu and genjutsu part of the test." Turning smartly on his heels Iruka began to make his way back inside the class following on his heels.

Naruto groused softly as he pushed himself to his feet holding out his hand to help pull Hinata up, Hinata blushed and hesitated for a split second before accepting the proffered hand with a gentle smile. Naruto smiled as he wrapped his hand around hers, enjoying the smooth feeling of her skin against his rougher, calloused, hand, and pulled her to her feet "Come on lets go get our headbands!" he declared happily heading after the class tugging Hinata behind him.

As the class filed back into their room Iruka smiled as he walked over to Mizuki "You finished the marking?" he asked as he slid into his seat.

Mizuki nodded and gave a small smile in return "Yeah, not a bad crop this year."

Iruka shook his head and grinned absently rubbing a few of the bruises he'd gained from his various spars "Tell me about it." he took the sheets of paper and leafed through them doing a quick count to ensure none of them had gone missing and nodding as he found them all there "So how your mysterious headache" Iruka joked air quoting the final two words with a grin.

Mizuki shook his head "Fine, the quiet did it some good." he replied shooting a glare at the class "Of course it's staging a come back now." Iruka laughed once more and nodded turning his attention back to the class running through a quick series of hand signs under the table, the class falling almost perfectly silent save for the occasional mumble. "What are they seeing?" Mizuki asked

"The Hokage coming in to give a speech." Iruka replied with a shrug

"Huh? Is the old man coming here?" Naruto's voice rang across the classroom

"Naruto?!" Iruka exclaimed "You can hear us?"
Naruto blinked "Yeah, of course I can. Why? Shouldn't I be able to?" he asked confused, Iruka made the hand seals once again focusing the genjutsu on Naruto who had no visible reaction "Well?" Naruto pressed when there was no answer forthcoming.

Iruka and Mizuki's eyes widened "Well I think you pass the genjutsu exam." Iruka said stunned, the technique had had no affect on the boy, was the fox helping? Genjutsu was the fox's speciality after all.

"You used a genjutsu on me?" Naruto accused

Iruka nodded "Yeah, bit it didn't seem to have any affect." he frowned "Do you know why?"

Naruto blanched for a second, a grin then flashed across his face before it settled into a look of concentration "Umm I don't really know, I felt a weird tingly sensation in my eyes for a moment. Could that be it?" he asked aloud 'Hey Kyuubi-chan? Do you know why it didn't work?' he questioned

Iruka and Mizuki exchanged glances, they knew roughly what his eyes could do from a report the Hokage had circulated and it hadn't mentioned anything about immunity from genjutsu. Of course it did make sense, Naruto's kekkei genkai was obviously an ancestor of the Sharingan and that could see through genjutsu too. Both Chûnin filed the information away, Mizuki so he could use it against the little demon and Iruka so he could inform the Hokage of the new discovered ability. "So it was your eyes?" Iruka pushed wanting a confirmation from Naruto.

'Yeah, I do.' Kyuubi answered Naruto's question 'It's because of my youki in your system, genjutsu is the art of turning the opponents chakra against them using your own to direct their chakra to move as you will. But because of both the sheer quantity of chakra you contain and the additional power of my youki such a weak genjutsu would never work.' she paused 'And good save on the explanation.'

Naruto beamed at Kyuubi's praise "Yeah,it was." he agreed passing off his grin as happiness over discovering a new power his eyes held "That's so awesome!" he added enthusiastically wanting to reinforce that idea. 'So why won't weak genjutsu work, and what will work then?' he pressed Kyuubi.

'Well trying a low level genjutsu like that is like trying to divert a river with a single plank of wood. In order to make it affect you they will need to put a lot more chakra into the technique. Some S ranked genjutsu might be able to affect you but a small surge of youki will instantly break any genjutsu you do get placed under.'

Naruto's grin got even broader, he was almost totally immune to genjutsu! "So what now?" he asked

Iruka shrugged "Wait for the others to break out of the genjutsu." he instructed. Naruto nodded and leant back in his chair closing his eyes and communing with Kyuubi to pass the time, the two teachers shared another look before returning to watching the class smiling faintly as they felt surges of chakra from the few pupils that had already figured out they were in a genjutsu.

Ten minutes later Iruka took pity on the last few stragglers still caught in his genjutsu and released the technique, the wide eyed confusion on the faces of the newly freed students sending ripples of laughter through the rest of the class. After giving the more confused pupils a few moments to get reconnected to reality he clapped his hands for silence. After waiting the few seconds it took for the noise to actually peter out Iruka spoke up once more "Alright everyone, now we move on to the final part of the exam. The ninjutsu test." he paused for a moment letting his gaze pass over the class "When I call your name you will come forward and demonstrate your ability to perform the three academy jutsu, then you may perform up to two other jutsu as extra credit. If those jutsu are offensive in nature then we will take you out to the target range after the test to allow you to demonstrate it, do not use an offensive jutsu inside." he glowered at the class to reinforce his message "Is that clear."

A, disharmonous, chorus of "Yes sensei!" echoed back from the class

Iruka gave a satisfied nod "Alright; Aburame, Shino"

Naruto grinned as he turned his illusion on to watch the class perform, they might have some tricks worth learning and he'd rather have an excuse as to how he'd learnt it, "So, Hinata? Do you have any extra jutsu you're going to show Iruka-sensei?" he asked leaning back in his chair watching Shino's clone with only slight interest.

Hinata shook her head "N..n..no." she said softly

Naruto let his seat fall back into place and pouted "Me neither, my stupid sensei refused to teach me anything else."

'Oi!' Kyuubi huffed 'I told you we needed to work on the three academy jutsu, you know the ones you need to actually pass the exam.'

'Still!' Naruto protested 'You said you knew thousands of jutsu! Can't you teach me even one?!', Hinata giggling at the childish pout one his face when he had insulted this teacher of his... wait, teacher? She'd never seen Naruto with a teacher. He always trained alone... didn't he?

"Ummmm... Who is y..y..your t..teacher?" Hinata asked

Naruto swore profusely in his head, he'd said teacher?! Stupid, stupid! Wracking his brain he quickly searched for a get out clause "Iruka-sensei, of course!" he answered breathing a small sigh of relief when he saw the look of understanding flash across Hinata's face. 'Well can't you teach me even one of those thousand jutsu?'

Kyuubi gave a nervous chuckle, a habit she had somewhat picked up off Naruto, 'Ummm well I don't really know thousands of jutsu, I know of that many, but I don't really know how to use human jutsu. They aren't really designed to be used with youki so I never managed to use them.'

Naruto deflated and gave a disappointed groan causing Hinata to glance at him "W..what's wrong N..nnn Naruto-k..kun?" she asked

Naruto waved off her question "It's nothing, don't worry about it." he assured her with a grin however she still looked sceptical so he leant over and gave her a small peck on the cheek and another smile "Really, I'm fine." seeing Hinata accepting his reassurance now he turned his attention inwards once more 'So, how many jutsu do you know?'

Kyuubi hesitated 'Human jutsu? Not many, maybe ten, twelve, tops.' there was a pause and Naruto could almost feel her shrug 'But they're all S rank, there's no way you could use one without people asking questions we won't be able to answer, heck even practicing form most of them will level acres of forest.'

Naruto was practically drooling as he considered what kind of jutsu could level that much land whilst practicing 'You've got to teach me those!' he demanded

Kyuubi giggled and smiled softly glad that Naruto wasn't holding any resentment towards her for that little, well it hadn't exactly been a lie but she had deliberately worded the truth to make him believe something else. 'I will, when we find somewhere you can practice without getting caught.' she said

'Promise.' Naruto prompted eagerly

Kyuubi gave an unseen nod 'Promise.' she agreed, pausing for a moment before continuing a lusty leer on her face 'Of course you'll need to repay me... somehow.' she whispered huskily.

Naruto felt his face flush red and the heat of arousal stir around in his stomach 'Don't worry I will.' he agreed eagerly, that one almost always preceded the best make out sessions he had with Kyuubi-chan.

Kyuubi smiled 'Gooood' she purred 'I can't wait.'

Naruto nodded his agreement to Kyuubi's statement but didn't voice it, turning his attention back to the exam he focused on forcing his blush back down and quashing the fire Kyuubi's tone had lit in his belly. "You're next aren't you." he asked glancing at Hinata

"Yeah." Hinata mumbled taking deep breaths to calm herself before the exam she barely registered the question or her own response. However she couldn't ignore it when Naruto pulled her into a hug and planted a quick kiss on her lips.

He grinned as they separated "Your luck really helped me in my spar so I'm giving it back." he declared before leaning in and sneaking another kiss just as Iruka called her name "And there's my luck too, you know, just in case." his grin widened "Show them how awesome I know you are!" Hinata blushed red under Naruto's loud praise and felt his confidence buoying her up once again, her face setting into a determined frown as she walked down to the front of the class, despite his reassurances to the contrary she still felt she had let Naruto down somehow during her fight with Iruka and she would not fail him again! Ever! Iruka nodded "Alright Hinata, why don't you start with a... clone; we need at least three clones to pass."

Hinata nodded curtly "Ok." she replied with a firmness and confidence no-one, except Naruto, knew she possessed. She flashed through the hand seals and called five clones into being.

Iruka and Mizuki exchanged a glance, this was a side of Hinata they didn't know existed, well Iruka had seen it once before, during their spar earlier today. Iruka allowed a small serene smile to form on his face, Naruto really was helping Hinata overcome her shyness and self confidence issues.