Hinata's head snapped up a small watery smile on her face a few tears of relief leaking from her eyes, how could she have doubted her Naruto-kun, was her faith in him so small that something like this was too much?. Sniffing quietly and trying to recompose herself Hinata replied "I'd l..l..lo..love t..t..to." and sent the best glare she could muster at Ino, Naruto might not have quite cottoned on but both Hinata and Kyuubi had understood exactly what Ino had been trying to do. Inside Naruto's head Kyuubi grinned, the 'date' would occur after Naruto, and consequently Hinata, had found out about the CRA from Sarutobi, it was almost too perfect, her plan was working flawlessly.

Ino of course met Hinata's glare with one of her own, maybe this wouldn't be quite as easy as she had first thought but luckily from Hinata's worry it seemed that perhaps the two of them weren't as close as she had first thought. All she should need is one date with Naruto-kun, alone, and she had no doubt he would make the right choice and pick her. Naruto missed this small eye war between the two girls as he focused on Hinata's eyes, or more specifically the tears in her eyes "Hinata!" he exclaimed worriedly grabbing the Hyuuga heiress's shoulders "You're crying? What's wrong?" had he done something to make her cry?

Hinata shook her head softly even as her cheeks reddened at his touch her hand rising and wiping away the traitorous tears "N..no, I'm f..fi..f.. fine." she confirmed

Naruto gave her a long hard look his azure eyes boring into her pale lavender ones as though he would be able to see her thoughts if he looked hard enough "Are you sure?" he asked

Hinata couldn't muster any words to answer as she became lost in Naruto's eyes so merely nodded in reply. Naruto held her gaze for another few seconds, as if expecting her to admit what the problem had been. When no such response was forthcoming he merely nodded and turned his eyes back to Ino, who had been watching their interaction with a mix of jealousy and happiness, "So any ideas where we should go?" he asked

Ino shook her head softly "No, nothing springs to mind." she lied smoothly, she would let Naruto decide where to eat this time, then she could insist on a more romantic spot next time, without the Hyuuga interfering, she sent a glare at Hinata for good measure, on the ground he had picked this one. "Do you have any places you want to go?"

Naruto grinned broadly and Hinata shook her head softly "I.. iichiraku's?" she pre-empted Naruto's suggestion

Naruto beamed and bent down giving Hinata and kiss on the cheek "Of course!" he enthused "You can never go wrong with Ichiraku's!"

Ino raised an eyebrow and giggled softly "Are they paying you to advertise or something?"she asked mildly perturbed by Naruto's almost religious enthusiasm for a restaurant she hadn't even heard of. Of course this was Naruto and he was more energetic than most about almost everything, school work seemingly the only thing capable of sapping his boundless energy, but even for Naruto he was enthusiastic about this Ichiraku's place.

Naruto's brow creased in confusion "No, why?" he asked, Hinata hid a small giggle behind a hand at Ino's question

"You just seem to really like them." Ino offered weakly with a little shrug "I guess they do some good ramen then?"

Naruto nodded "Yeah, Ichiraku's does the best ramen!" he declared eagerly

Ino glanced in Hinata's direction silently asking the girl if Ichiraku's did, indeed, do decent ramen and Hinata offered a small nod of confirmation. The ramen there was amongst the best she had tasted, although admittedly she hadn't had much of the low class dish before she had gotten together with Naruto. "Alright then." Ino agreed with a nod "We'll meet a Ichiraku's tomorrow... One-ish?"

"One sounds good" Naruto agreed glancing at Hinata "You ok for one?"

Hinata considered her schedule for a moment, if had been a date with just Naruto-kun she would've been able to throw out any appointments she had but as it was Ino too she was less flexible, "Ummm o..o..one is ." she agreed

"Uzumaki, Naruto." Iruka's voice declared "Your turn."

Naruto nodded 'Wish me luck Kyuubi-chan.' he asked

Kyuubi giggled Naruto got the distinct impression she was smirking 'I thought you were so awsome that you didn't need luck?' she teased

Naruto resisted the urge to pout 'Meanie.' he huffed 'At lest Hinata-chan will do it properly.' he stuck his mental tongue out at Kyuubi and grinned at Hinata "Wish me luck Hinata-chan?" he asked holding her hands gently

Hinata gave a slight nod feeling her blush flaring into life when she met Naruto's intense gaze "G..g..good lu.. luck Naruto-kun." she muttered sincerely giving Naruto's hand a gentle, and hopefully reassuring, squeeze

"What no kiss?" this time Naruto did pout softly

'Oh is that all you wanted.' Kyuubi piped up 'You should've said!' Naruto heard a loud wet smooching noise in his head and blushed faintly as Kyuubi's gentle giggles reverberated through his skull .

Hinata. Meanwhile, flushed a deeper red as she glanced at the crowd, she was now intensely aware of, watching them. She couldn't kiss Naruto-kun in front of so many people... then again they had already seen them kiss a few times today, that particular thought brought her blush to yet higher levels as she swayed slightly on the spot the old spectre of fainting looming it's ugly face. She clenched her fists slightly, unintentionally squeezing Naruto's hand a little tighter, and fought back that urge leaning in she gave Naruto a soft kiss "G..g..ggg..good luck." she mumbled quietly.

Naruto smiled broadly at Hinata as she pulled back from the kiss and leant forward for another when he was cut off by a timely cough by Iruka "You coming, Naruto?" the teacher asked with a mix of annoyance and amusement.

Hinata eeped quietly her blush striving to turn redder still, with moderate success, when she realised Iruka had been watching her kiss Naruto. Naruto however merely gave a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of his head "Hehe, I almost forgot about that." he muttered shooting Hinata one last smile "Be right back." he promised. Ino had one final quick staring match with Hinata before turning and heading off with her friends, or at least those that had already received, or not received their headbands, she had gotten her date and she was pleased with that,even if there was going to be an annoying tag along to the date.

'Naruto.' Kyuubi spoke up as Naruto made his way into the classroom

'Hmmm, yes?' Naruto replied curious

'Good luck.' Kyuubi offered tenderly

Naruto smiled happily 'Thanks.' he replied as he stood before Iruka and Mizuki

Iruka shuffled his papers as he sat back down and glanced at the mark sheets his face falling slightly as he scanned the marks his favourite pupil had received, Mizuki however was working to prevent a smirk from spreading across his features. Naruto saw Iruka's face, his own grin fading noticeably as doubts plagued his mind. Iruka let out a soft sigh and shook his head "I'm sorry Naruto." he said sadly "I really am, but I can't pass you." Iruka's words sent Naruto into shock, he hadn't passed? Even with Kyuubi-chan's help.. he had failed her and Iruka-sensei and even Hinata-chan, she was counting on him to be in her team and to be there for her and now... and now he couldn't, because he was too damn stupid to even pass one fucking test!

Mizuki pushed the manic grin attempting to form on his face to a side and adopted a, badly, faked façade of pity "Surely we can pass the boy Iruka, I mean he only failed the written test, he passed everything else with flying colours." Naruto latched on to that tiny thread of hope and looked pleadingly at Iruka, too stunned to even notice Mizuki's poorly, for a ninja at least, concealed glee at his plight.

Iruka shook his head sadly giving another, heavier, sigh "I wish I could." he admitted "But we can't bend the rules for one person no matter what we feel. The best we can do is offer it up to the council for reconsideration, and we both know how that'll go." he made a face to show what he thought of the village council before turning a sympathetic gaze to the shell-shocked boy in front of him "I'm sorry Naruto." he offered lamely

So shocked was Naruto that it took him a moment to put his mask in place, shaking himself off he plastered a small grin onto his face and shrugged "Oh well, there's always next year." he offered before smirking "And you get to teach me for another whole year Iruka-sensei!" Inside his head Kyuubi was panicking she had felt his crushing shame and sadness when he had been informed that he had not made genin but now she felt slight happiness through the seal as thought what she knew to be a mask was real. It felt perfect and if she didn't know that Naruto definitely wasn't feeling that emotion she would've believed what their link was telling her, he must;ve learnt to fool their emotional link somehow, and that brought a whole host of terrifying new possibilities into her mind. What if she was doing more harm than good to her Naruto-kun, she had thought that his life had been improving since she had only felt minor, perfectly normal, negative emotions over the link since the little seal incident that had created it. But now she knew he was capable of fooling the link she couldn't be certain that he was indeed happy with his life, had he been unhappy all this time and merely projecting an aura of happiness through the link to fool her and make her happy? She growled in annoyance even as the tears welled in her eyes, all she wanted was for the man she loved to be happy, why did everything seem to strive to prevent him from being so? And why did Naruto just take it as though he deserved it, didn't he know it's ok to be just a little selfish sometimes!

Iruka gave a small smile glad to see Naruto had taken failure so well even as he groaned playfully and let his head fall against the desk "Mizuki, do me a favour and just put a kunai through my skull now." he grunted. As she watched the ease with which Naruto slid his mask on Kyuubi's breath caught in her throat as another terrible possibility slammed home before he had known about her Naruto had had some unguarded moments which he would let his real emotions show but with her their was she forcing him to keep his mask in place 24/7, was her very presence going to destroy the real Naruto and leave only the hollow happiness of his mask in it's place?

Naruto pouted "I'm not that bad." he grumbled as he made his way out of the classroom empty handed, neither Chûnin aware of how badly they had shattered the young boy's world. In the privacy of her room in Naruto's mind Kyuubi cried for the injustice of the world, and it's apparent grudge against one totally innocent man, her frustration and sadness drawing her into a light fitful sleep.

Naruto stepped out of the classroom and froze when he saw Hinata, his mask weakening for but a moment as thoughts of how he had let her down whirled through his mind, however he quickly shook his head and firmly fixed a smile on his face as he walked over "Miss me?" he grinned

Hinata turned and smiled warmly at Naruto, however her grin quickly faded once she got a good look at his face. She could clearly see something was wrong with his smile however she still couldn't quite put her finger on exactly what it was that was wrong about it but his eyes... his eyes were hollow mockeries of what they had been earlier, the determination and happiness she was used to dancing in his blue orbs gone replaced with some pathetic veil of happiness trying to disguise untold sadness and desperation, it sent a small shiver down her spine She frantically began to search for a reason for this sudden change in her boyfriend, boyfriend that thought still brought a blush to her cheeks, but she could think of only one reason, no... no.. it couldn't possibly be that, could it? Please god, tell me I'm wrong. She found her voice and finally spoke up hesitantly "Ummm N..n..Naruto-kun?" Naruto didn't speak but gave a small nod and a faint grunt to show he was listening "Where's your h.. hea.. headband?" Hinata asked gingerly praying with all her might that he was just hiding it somewhere, she almost wanted to activate her Byakugan to find out where he was hiding it.

Naruto gave a small mirthless chuckle "I don't have one." he stated plainly "I failed."

Hinata gasped her hands shooting up to cover her mouth "Oh, Naruto-kun." he whispered worriedly, she knew how much that headband meant to her boyfriend.

Naruto waved her worry off "Don't worry about it." he gave her an over enthusiastic thumbs up "I'll just take it again next year!" he smiled in a way that might have been reassuring if everything he said hadn't been giving off that weird wrong vibe to Hinata and if his eyes had reignited back to their usual state. "Anyway comon, let's go to my place." he grinned "We gotta celebrate you becoming a ninja after all!" His voice returned to normal and his eyes returned, although they seemed more tempered than usual, Naruto was honestly ecstatic for Hinata's success and he would be damned before he let the graduation meal he had made for the both of them go to waste merely because he had failed.

Hinata reddened and nodded slowly over the moon to see Naruto returning to his usual self "O..ok." she agreed, she would have to be careful not to do anything that might cause that dead eyed Naruto to return, she shivered slightly at the memory of those haunting eyes.

Naruto smiled and took Hinata's hand leading her out of the school taking a little bit of hope from the fact she hadn't left the moment he had told her he hadn't become a shinobi like she had. Hinata trailed behind Naruto blushing a very gentle red from the contact as she tried to think of ways to cheer him up after what must've been a very painful event, even if her refused to show that pain.

"Hey Naruto-san!" Mizuki called as he spotted his quarry leaving the school, he had been waiting a few minutes, excusing himself from the classroom using the guise of his hangover, in order to catch the blonde.

Naruto slowed to a stop "Mizuki-sensei?" he said "What is it?"

Mizuki gave a small smile "I need to talk to you privately, do you mind?" he directed his question at Hinata.

Hinata hesitated and looked at Naruto who smiled "Meet at my place?"

Hinata looked unsure, not wanting to leave Naruto alone so soon after his failing, but a, this time real, smile from Naruto convinced her otherwise "Just go on ahead I'll just be a moment." he reassured her, fishing his keys from his pocket and tossing them to her.

Hinata nodded and gave Naruto's hand a quick squeeze, wordlessly giving Naruto her support, before continuing her walk out of the school, Naruto watching her retreating figure, his eyes drifting to her hips and ass for a moment before he tore them away with a blush, cursing Icha-Icha and Kyuubi-chan, their pervyness was rubbing off on him, and faced Mizuki again "What is it sensei?"

Mizuki gave Naruto a small grin "I'm sure you'll be happy to hear this, but I just remembered an old test for those who failed the academy exam."

Naruto perked up instantly "What is it?" he all but demanded

Mizuki gave a, none to friendly, chuckle, this was working perfectly the little demon was falling right into his trap. "Well, it's an old test and a bit of a long shot." he explained "But for tonight only the Hokage will have a forbidden scroll" he air quoted forbidden scroll as he spoke it "hidden in his office, this scroll will be full of jutsu, your goal in this test is to get that scroll and learn one of the techniques contained within then bring it to the old foresters hut just outside Konoha, you know the one?"

Naruto thought about it for a second before nodding "Yeah." he chirped

Mizuki grinned predatorily "Gooood, now you mustn't get caught trying to take the scroll and you must have it at the hut by midnight and have a technique ready to demonstrate to me, you got that." Naruto nodded enthusiastically making Mizuki's grin grow slightly "Alright then I'll see you at midnight." he paused for a moment "Oh, and one last thing. This test is top secret so don't tell anyone about it, got it, not a word or you fail automatically."

Naruto nodded a huge smile on his face, he had another chance! "Got it! Thanks Mizuki-sensei, you're the best!"

Mizuki gave a chuckle "I know." he preened "Now off you go, you have some planning to do." he shooed the excited young boy away, now he just needed to wait and let the little brat do the dirty work for him.

Naruto nodded and raced off homewards his mind working a mile a minute, he already knew the Hokage tower like the back of his hand and knew from experience he could navigate a fair portion of it blindfolded. And Mizuki-sensei had told him this scroll would be in the old man's office casting his mind back to the many many times he had visited Sarutobi over his life, and ignoring the stinging pain of betraying thoughts of that man still carried, he remembered once or twice the old man had showed him a large scroll that was kept in a hidden safe behind the large picture of Konoha on the east wall of his office, what had he called it?... Ah! The forbidden scroll! Perfect! Naruto grinned but that grin quickly morphed into a. frown once he put them in context of the test he now had knowledge of, something wasn't right here. Had the old man been purposely showing him where the forbidden scroll was hidden so that he could pass this test, did he have so little confidence in Naruto's abilities that he felt it necessary to help him pass the make up exam in such a way? In the past Naruto would have definitely said no, but with the knowledge that Sarutobi knew who his mother was, at the very least, and had refused to tell him such he could no longer be sure of the old man's integrity. Of course there was also the option that Mizuki had lied to him about the test... No! No. This was his one and only chance to make everything right again he wouldn't waste it on some stupid niggling doubt. He would take this test and he would pass damn it! These thoughts had carried him all the way to his house and he had been standing outside his door for almost a full minute too lost in thought to go inside. Shaking his head to clear out all the useless debate he put his plans for tonight to one side, for now he would focus on Hinata's victory.

Yo everyone, just wanted to let you know I've started a side project of a jutsu library so if you have any made up jutsu you would like me to have please feel free to send them, if I end up using them then I'll be sure to credit you ;D. Also if you want to see what I have let me know. It's not much yet, around 35-40ish jutsu, but it's a start. Below I'm sticking a little exerpt about how chakra works and the combination elements I will be using in this story:

Fusion Elements:

Water + Earth: Wood Release (Mokuton)

Water + Wind: Ice Release (Hyoton)

Earth + Fire: Lava Release (Yoton)

Earth + Air: Crystal Release (Shoton)

Fire + Air: Lightning Release (Raiton)

Fire + Water: Blood Release (Chiton)

The fusion elements require the user to have powerful chakra and strong natural affinities for both the requisite base elements, as chakra natures are determined by a person's lineage, or to be more precise their demonic ancestors, it is often thought that fusion elements are carried by a bloodline but this is not the case. However often-times when a person capable of using a fusion element appears their chakra is so entwined that they find it difficult to separate their chakra into its base elements meaning that, for example, a wood user would not necessarily be any good at earth and water manipulation. Because of the abundance of lightning users it is generally considered to be a base element however it is not and the large number of users is explained by the presence of a large family of lightning demons that ruled what it now the land of lightning.