I do not own Naruto that is the property of Masashi Kishimoto.

"I am big" God, biju, summon talking

"I am normal" Human talking

"You can't hear me inside my mind" Inner thoughts of a person

Well I hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day (if your country has it). And in honor of Valenine's Day I give you another chapter of a story about lies, betrayal, and death. Kind of Shakespearian when you think about it. Though I hope none of your Valentine's Day went like it.

By the way here are the current ages of the characters.

Naruto: 13

Rookie 9: 13 - 14

Ayame: 18

Setsuko Uchiha: 7 almost 8

Not 100% sure if I need to include Setsuko but why not.

First I want to thank everyone for reading this story. When I started I didn't think that it would become this popular so fast. As I write this it has 897 followers, 721 favorites, and 21 communities. So this is my thanking you for all of your interest and support. I hope that I continue to do right by you.

Second, this chapter is short but there is a reason. So please listen. It was as I was writing this that I noticed things that were interesting were past over while other more boring things went into detail. Now that didn't sound right so I went back over the big chapter and began to add details, well that didn't work - too long. So I looked at the chapter and decided there were great moments that needed detail, but a summary was no fun while the rehash of graduation is bleh, so I decided to split it up.

Now this led to the problem of where. Since I don't like having short chapters and I want to make every wait worthwhile. Finally, I decided to split it into four different parts: This chapter, the first exam, the second round, and the headband (title subject to change), with this chapter being the shortest.

Finally, I want to apologize if my writing hasn't been as up to standard as it usually is. I have had a rough time since the holidays and things are finally starting to settle over here, I actually wrote most of this back then. Currently I plan to go back and edit the last two chapters to make them better but if you have already read them, nothing is going to change plotwise.

Chapter 12: Graduation

Naruto sat in his classroom as he waited for the class to start so that the last day of the graduation tests could begin. The classroom once filled with dozens of students was now much sparser in its occupants. Some had dropped out over the years and had been placed with the ashigaru for a period of six years. But most had been dropped over the course of the last couple weeks as the graduation exams began, with those who failed to pass the exam to be one of the elite shinobi of the Land of Fire being assigned to the ninja forces outside of Konoha.

It was just as Iruka had warned at the beginning of the academy; there were severe consequences for those who did not pass the academy after the first two years, with the main consequence being conscription into the Land of Fire's ashigaru forces. If they were lucky, their family would have the money to pay off a government official or they would be noticed by a samurai or jounin and be taken as an apprentice.

Today would be the last day of the exams and Naruto was nervous, not about the test. Naruto knew that as Konoha's jinchuriki and the Uzumaki clan head passing the exam was a foregone conclusion. Konoha wanted their jinchuriki being trained for battle while the council wanted to finally be able to make deals with the Uzumaki clan and its businesses.

"Most likely to try and take advantage of my youth." Naruto thought in regards to the council.

He knew the council would be a threat. Not in the baying for his blood kind of manner. No the council was smarter and more shrewd than that. They would attempt to seize control of his clan or his businesses. Even marry one of their daughters so that they could control or just influence his vote. However Naruto had prepared for this day and only worked to increase his influence over the last two years since the Festival of the Sage.

First Naruto's relationship with the Uchiha clan was still strong as ever. Mikoto still acted as regent for his seat on the council and Sasuke, despite their differences when it came to being a shinobi was still a friend of his. It wasn't unusual for Naruto to eat dinner with the Uchiha clan at least once a week. He even helped teach the Uchiha children occasionally and was taught chakra control by Setsuna and Mikoto Uchiha. Sadly the clan never recovered from the Uchiha Incident. Their numbers remain low with most of the adult shinobi and kunoichi dead, and their influence is little; only their status as a founding clan and their history allowing the clan to keep their status as a major clan.

As for his ambitions, Naruto was still unsure if he would try to turn the Uchiha clan to his side. The Uchiha clan had a special spot in Naruto's heart, as they reminded him of how life used to be before he learned of Konoha's betrayal or his kaa-san's death. He wasn't sure if he could risk their lives for his ambition.

As for his other relationships, they too seemed to be going well. Naruto's unofficial deal with the Aburame clan to sell their silk in the other countries had proven profitable and allowed him to make further inroads to a possible alliance, at least in the matters of the council. As it was, the political alliance between the Aburame and Uzumaki clan would become official after today.

Naruto still wasn't sure about the Hyuga clan as Hinata despite her confidence seemed to be falling out of favor with the clan's leadership and may well lose her status as clan heiress. It seemed that since she was now more confident and an able fighter, she became more vocal in her beliefs about ending the Caged Bird Seal that was put on the branch members of her clan, a position that most of the Hyuga leadership opposed. Hiashi's position on this seemed to be unknown; however Naruto had heard from his sources that a drunk Hyuga of the branch family had managed to say that the leadership of the clan was not as stable as it once was.

Naruto was currently hoping to get a hold of the Caged Bird Seal so that he could find a way to undo it if necessary. The idea of the branch family being loyal to him was appealing. Though a darker part of his mind thought of the chaos a branch family uprising could cause. There was a possibility of another Uchiha Incident if he did it correctly. Naruto was currently content to observe in this case, especially since he didn't yet have the seal.

Another relationship that he had was with the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi clans. These had been improved since his conversation with Ino had turned their friendship, into something else. Naruto didn't exactly know what to call his relationship with Ino. They were friends, but they danced around each other, since they knew both had the mentality of a Clan Wars era shinobi. They would trade with each other, Ino giving him knowledge of antidotes while Naruto gave some knowledge about seals. But he didn't know how to classify a friendship between two people of the old ninja mentality. They were however closer than before.

However Ino's newfound closeness with him had finally allowed him to get the possibility of an alliance with the Yamanaka clan. Naruto's possible alliance with the Yamanaka clan led to Shikamaru testing his strategic ability with a game of shogi. During the game Naruto managed to challenge Shikamaru before he eventually lost, however his strategic ability seemed to meet the approval of the Nara clan. The result of this game made it so that Naruto now had a chance of getting a possible alliance with the Nara clan. Naruto also received a shogi partner in Shikarmaru, though the two did play other strategy games as well. Finally, Naruto managed to get neutrality out of the Akimichi clan, though bad blood still remained amongst some of the clan's higher ups. Naruto noted that until some of the power in the Akimichi changed hands it was unlikely that he would ever receive more than their neutrality.

Unfortunately while Naruto was able to secure and enhance most of his clan relationships, Naruto still made an enemy in the Inuzuka clan. Naruto did not always get along with Kiba, in fact his mannerisms seemed to get on the wild Inuzuka's nerves. Kiba being the clan head's son had a direct line to Tsume whose wild nature also had little love for the way Naruto held himself. It didn't help that her dog, Kuromaru, didn't like him. For Tsume that was enough for her not to trust Naruto. Apparently Kuromaru had great taste in her mind since he didn't like Danzo or Hiashi, the militaristic councilor and a man who enslaves part of his family.

However Naruto wasn't just working on his political relationships, he was also improving his spy network and economic standing. Naruto now controlled most of the criminal underground in the Land of Fire while maintaining a thriving business. Naruto had also begun to establish himself in River Country, Grass Country, the Land of Waterfalls, and the Land of Rice, while also building upon his mother's connections in the Land of Hotsprings and the Land of Frost.

Currently Naruto was struggling to make inroads into the major lands of Lightning, Wind, and Earth, only succeeding in setting up some small black markets and information trades. The Land of Tea was also turning out to be a problem as the current criminal structure had influence with the ruling government and were fighting every advance he made.

This increase in the territory his influence covered unfortunately caused him some problems. The main problem he had was communication. It had become difficult to pass messages and coordinate his actions. This actually led to one of his greatest failures. The lack of communication had caused trouble and had allowed one of his lieutenants to go rogue. The end result had been him hiring a band of mercenaries and framing a band of bandits for the destruction of the entire town. To solve this problem he had since had Scry Seals installed throughout his businesses and many underground bases as well as taking to raising falcons; which had the dual benefit of allowing him to send personal messages as well as being a respected hobby of the royals of the Land of Fire.

Another problem was that while clan business was a respected right of the Land of Fire, it was suspicious to leave the country too often. For now he could control his transactions and businesses with the use of his scry seals and the surprise personal message from his falcons, but later he will have to visit some of these locations in person. Naruto had already begun to look into how he was going to manipulate the mission distribution office.

Finally Naruto had continued his work in the Land of Water, manipulating both sides of the war as if they were puppets through use of the information he managed to accumulate. During which he had gained a hatred for a man named Zabuza Momochi who had managed an attempt on the Mizukage's life. If Zabuza had succeeded then the war would have been over and Naruto's attempt at controlling a war would be over. To make matters worse for Naruto, a powerful woman called Mei Terumi had also begun to make headway in the war, even surviving the battle he arranged through an 'information leak' to the Mizukage. It did not help that the daimyo of the Land of Water had finally quelled most of the rebellions amongst the islands and was beginning to divert samurai in support of Mei.

He was tempted to bring Akatsuki in to kill her, but such a move was costly and only the daimyo could afford such a move. Since he had thrown his lot in with her, it would only reveal that there was another player in their war. No he would instead try to have Yagura's forces kill her lieutenants. Perhaps the death of the man known as Ao would cripple her momentum. Either way it did not seem like Naruto would have long to silently seize control of more of the country.

As Naruto continued to wait for the next exam he allowed a small smile onto his face. He was ready for the ninja world. Come the council, the Hokage, or even the Daimyo, he was ready. He had the money and power to influence the civilians, the support of multiple clans, and his own spy network. He was ready to swim with the big fish.

It was as Naruto thought these thoughts that he began to recall the tests he had already taken for graduation.

Alright and that is a wrap. So sorry about the information dump but this was the best place to split the chapter. And for indulging me here is a short preview of the first exam - original version (before split and details were added).

As for the tests thus far, they had been particularly vigorous. During the first week of the exams the students were told only to bring their weapon pouches to class before they were blindfolded and taken into one of the forests of Konoha. There they were told that they would be camping for a week. To make it more difficult, the students would have to avoid enemy patrols, in the forms of unbiased chunin who would fight at a genin level. Finally the students were given the option of attacking enemy supply lines to get more food and water, but the teachers warned that the difficulty would be increased every time a student successfully raided them. Finally the students were also allowed to make alliances or even attack the camps of their fellow student.

So I hope you could see why I wanted to embellish this test rather than doing the same old graduation. Anyway I hope to see you soon, well write for you soon. Which will actually be soon for once with life settling down.

On the subject of pairings, I will write my current thoughts and you can help me narrow them down if you notice something I didn't. Since this is my first story and my flag ship story I really want the pairing to be perfect. So here are my current thoughts. Keep in mind it most likely will be a single pairing (not sure if I can do multiple romances).

Konoha girls - most if not all are discounted. Ino, Ayame

Kumo girls - they are also out (Kumo kidnapped his mom and attacked the Land of Whirlpools, yeah Naruto doesn't like Kumo)

Iwa Girls - also unlikely, even though I love a good KurotsuchixNaruto story (can't think of a way it works here outside of forcing it with politics)

Kiri girls - are definitely out (Naruto is helping both the rebels and Yagura - I don't think girls like Mei would like that)

Uzumaki - I could go OC, Karin, Kushina

Filler girls - surprisingly some of them are doable with the story

Reviewer request - Kaguya (I actually like the idea, not sure how it would work, but I like it, I'm just not sure if it works with this story)

Quick add on.

I forgot Suna girls - This is possible (especially with the history I am giving the Land of Sand) Temari, one the suna filler girls

So that limits most possibilities and as the story progresses more of the available girls will be knocked off. This could actually provide a logical opening for a KushinaxNaruto but if it happens it won't happen until by canon timeline (not my timeline) sometime during Naruto's training trip with Jiraiya (this training trip will not happen).

I'm actually looking forward to Naruto meeting Haku now. A glance into the consequences of his actions. Imagine the internal conflict.

Anyway once more you have been a great audience. Remember to drop a review. Once again if you have questions, I answer my reviews quite commonly as well as my PMs. If enough people ask I will just write the answer with the next chapter.

Oh, just a personal curiosity to my foreign readers. I'm not sure if you have Valentine's Day, so my question is - Do you have a holiday like Valentine's Day? (I think Japan has White Day and Valentine's Day)