A/N: Okay, I get it already! Sheesh… I'll make the chapters longer -.- This means that chapters will take longer though. However, luckily for you guys, this week is a public holiday so this update is early. This extra effort, though, demands more reviews. More reviews... or shorter chapters. (Grins evilly)

Professional Ninja Skills for Idiots

Chapter 8

"Yo, Iruka-sensei!" a bright and cheery Naruto grinned, strolling into class and dropping his bag onto his usual seat in the front row with a clatter of old wood. There was a tangible atmosphere of nervousness in the class; a hint of a storm to come in the air, and a slight foreboding sensation that set everyone on edge. Naruto didn't sense any of that, though. The class was half-full, and everyone was huddled in small groups, whispering and comparing notes.

"Hmm, pretty early, aren't you?" Iruka smiling despite himself, and looking up from a pile of papers he was marking. "Guess even you think the Genin Exams are important." He forced a laugh. "Good luck."

"Of course, Iruka-sensei! The Genin Exams are…" Naruto paused. "What did you say?"

"The Genin Exams are today, Naruto! Or don't you remember me writing that on the blackboard yesterday in class?" Iruka asked, sighing at the look on Naruto's face – confused, embarrassed, and slightly pissed at himself. "You weren't paying attention, were you?"

"Uhh…" Come to think of it, Naruto did remember a faint imprint of Iruka-sensei screaming something at the noisy class and scribbling a quick note on the board which had caused everyone to shut up, but… "Umm… No. Heh, heh..." he gave a sheepish grin.

"Never mind, I just hope you pass…" Iruka looked up. "Naruto, I probably won't be grading you today. This year, the academy has a pretty large bunch of students – too large to be graded in the 8 hours this should only take, so the batch will be divided into two. Half will be under me, and half will be under Mizuki… If I'm not wrong, you're with him. I don't think you've met him before?"

Naruto had seen him before¸ actually. The blond ninja had quite often noticed the silver-haired Chuunin strolling around the academy, and the man had always smiled warmly at him. It was fortunate that it was someone like him grading him… if it had been one of the other teachers that would grade him, he would probably fail even if he'd been able to make a million bunshins.

"I've seen him before, and he seems pretty nice," Naruto commented, putting his hands behind his head. 'I didn't study, but I think I'm prepared…' "Anyway, you don't have to worry about me… I'll definitely be able to ace the test!" he boasted. Unfortunately, he couldn't wash away the butterflies in his stomach with bravado.

"Heh… Whatever you say," Iruka said, feeling slightly anxious for no particular reason. Naruto was right… he'd been improving steadily, but… Mizuki… there was just something Iruka felt around him…

Nah, it was just paranoia.

Probably.

Panting, Naruto flung himself to the side, narrowly avoiding a swarm of Kunai that flickered past him, slamming hard into the scented earth ground of the enclosed, dome-area he was in. The area was quite small, about 10 metres in diameter, covered with a sound-proof dome and dimly lit. Naruto was starting to find it harder and harder to dodge the projectiles flying at him with deadly speed, especially as he was running out of space to dodge to.

As far as Naruto could estimate, it had been 2 hours since he'd entered the first Exam, and Naruto was still in the Taijutsu section. He couldn't understand why the hell an examiner hadn't came to get him out yet, and he was starting to get DAMN PISSED!

Doing a quick flip and letting a trio of shuriken zip below his body, he let his eyes dart across to where his weights had been frantically discarded. He had quickly realized that if he kept his weights on, he would probably have been nailed to the wall, bleeding, in five minutes. 'Alright, they're still there,' he thought distractedly, dropping to the floor, then rolling quickly. The floor was littered with weapons already, and Naruto could barely find a clean spot - and the stream of sharp objects was still coming.

'I'm so gonna kill Iruka-sensei when I get out of this...' he growled mentally. 'It's easy!', he said. 'You'll breeze past it,' he said. My ass! I'm definitely faster than some of the other guys, and even they passed!' "Oh, crap!" he yelped, as he twisted in midair and arched his back just in time to evade a spear lancing below him. Even so, the sound of ripping cloth emerged, and the ground was soaked with dark red droplets of blood as the razor-sharpspearheadsliced through him like a hot knife through butter."Damn, that hurts!" he groaned, quickly doing a shoulder roll on the floor and wincing as his wounded back hit the ground.

The class had been given 15 minutes at the start of the morning to rest and recuperate, and to meditate about their upcoming trials. Following that, the academy had been divided up into two groups, which had then been led to separate tests.

Naruto's group had been led to a vast field of dome after dome. About one-third of the students had gone into them first, and had emerged about half an hour later, red-faced and gasping. Then, another third had gone in, followed by the last third, which Naruto had been in.

Chouji had been in the first third, and had come out slightly wounded but otherwise fine; and Naruto knew he was a lot faster than him!

Finally, the hail of weapons stopped. An opening in the dome emerged, and the resulting flood of harsh light made Naruto curse, wince, and lift a hand to his face.

"Naruto?"

"Yeah, what is it? Have I passed?" Naruto gasped, falling to his knees. Sweat poured down his face, his clothes sticky and clinging to his body. "Dammit, tell me I've passed this part!" he snapped,a cold dread sweeping over him when the examiner failed to respond.

"Naruto... I'm sorry. You... didn't pass, and you won't pass any of the others."

"But... but how!" Naruto's frame sagged, and he practically collapsed onto the floor."Why!" His eyes locked gazes with the silver-haired man in front of him, a fierce lock of gazes. "Mizuki-sensei... how come I didn't pass!"

Mizuki sighed, walking over and crouching. "Naruto... I have to tell you this. I got orders from my superiors... not to let you pass, no matter how you did."

"WHAT!" Naruto yelled, anger fueling his exhausted body in a boost of adrenaline. He slammed a fist on the floor, not even wincing when the impact occured. His eyes were heavy with frustration, grief and resignation. He'd always knew thiscould happen, but... "So I can't pass? Even... even if I stayed in there for a day and didn't get a scratch?"

Sadly, Mizuki shook his head.

"And... and the others?"

"They're already at the Ninjutsu section. I don't think you'll be able to catch up. If I'd let you out before now... I would probably have been demoted."

"Why're you telling me this?" Naruto finally asked, looking up. A defeated look was on his face, but the streak of stubbornness and determination that had kept him going had re-emerged. "If you want me to give up, mister, you've got another thing coming! One day, I'm gonna be Hokage - and if it takes me ten years to get to Genin and another twenty to get to Jounin, I will get there!" At the end of his statement, Naruto really felt much better. Proclaiming his goal usually did that to him.

"Make you give up? Oh, nothing like that," Mizuki gave a silvery little laugh. "It's just that, Naruto, I was impressed by you. And I want to give you a second chance. Even if it gets me in trouble, Naruto, I want you to know that I'm on your side. If you can accomplish a mission, I'll give you your forehead protector, Naruto - and at that time, no one will be able to deny you that," Mizuki said smoothly, a compassionate look on his face.

"Really?" Some dredge of hope began to seep back into his eyes. "Sure, anything! Just name it, Mizuki-sensei! I promise I'll do it!"

"Well... you see, there's a scroll in the Hokage's Office... and there are lots of traps, but if you use this Jutsu, I think you'll be able to get past..." Mizuki smiled, a sudden nasty, spite-filled expression that Naruto failed to see, and the two conversed for a long time in the sunny clearing marred from perfection by globe after globe of dome-shaped spheres. The sun shone, and the wind blew, and Mizuki grinned to himself.

Anko glared around furiously. The cacophony of the wild did nothing to sooth her - rather, it put her on edge. The wind had a bite to it that made her feel uneasy...

And that damn brat was twenty minutes late!

She gave up, grumbling about incompetant blonds and stabbing a Kunai into a tree trunk with such viciousness that the blade sunk in to the hilt, as the cracking sound of bark crumbling snapped out like a whip into the air.

Naruto would pay for making her wait.

Oh yes, he would pay. She cackled evilly as she leapt into a tree branch. It would be so fun to torment him...

And to think, she could call it training. A happy smile crossed her face.

Iruka was worried. Evening had settled upon the quiet village of Konohagakure,

It was four hours after the end of the exam. All the students had gone home, tired but triumphant... the whole batch had passed, or so it seemed...

But Iruka realized, with a sinking feeling as he peered and tried to catch a glimpse of the blond through the crowd of proud and anxious parents and whooping children, that Naruto was missing.

Had he passed?

Had he failed, and gone... somewhere? Had he run away?

No, he couldn't have. Iruka knew Naruto in a way not even the Third did... the boy might mope around for a while, but he loved Konoha. That was what had first made Iruka try to be nice to Naruto. Naruto would not be able to bear being separate with the village he loved so much, just because of some exam. Not to mention if he left, he would never ever eat Ichiraku's Ramen again.

So where in the world was he?

"Wow, for such a perverted old man, his tower is actually pretty easy to get into," Naruto mused quietly to himself, thinking about the Jutsu Mizuki had taught him. It was really impressive - he'd never thought of using half-seals for miniscule effects, or double seals for extra powerful ones. He contemplated this and triedperforming the horse seal, breaking it off half-way - his hand muscles cramped, unused to the odd movements.

Using seals had, over time, become second-nature to him - but learning new ones was still a pain, and while the half-horse seal was basically just the horse seal incompleted, he was so used to performing the complete one that he kept fouling up.

Getting into the Hokage's Tower itself was easy - it was open 24 hours daily, for ninjas would sometimes return from their missions with crucial information the Hokage needed to hear. Luckily for Naruto, the clerks and attendants on the first floor weren't ninjas, and so didn't notice him.

Naruto wasn't particularly stealthy, but after he had taken off his weights for a quick reprieve for showering and the like, he had realized that he would need to control his strength after accidentally crushing his shower-head while trying to adjust it.

This need had expressed itself more urgently when he had exited his shower, and ripped his towel in two while attempting to dry himself. Furious, he had jerked his door off its hinges, hit his face with his hand and sighed, and went to get a cup of water, only to cut his hand when he squeezed the glass too tightly and had it explode in a burst of sharp shards.

As such, learning to control his strength (when he didn't want it) had the fortunate side effect of getting him to be more stealthy, which came in very handy in pranks and sneaking into places where he wasn't wanted.

Sticking to the wall, in the shadows, he padded silently to the stairs, waited for the clerk to write something in his notebook, then quickly dashed up the stairs. The stairs could only be assessed through the building, but was actually outside it - in the form of a continuing staircase that reached the end of the tower before doubling back. Each 'turn' represented one story, and Naruto gulped in apprehension as his gaze was tilted up, up, up... to the very top.

"Oh well... it's now or never," he said grimly with determination. Sprinting up the stairs two at a time, he barely looked at the stairs, trusting himself to be able to see it out the corner of his eyes. Instead, he focused hard to pierce the darkness of the night, careful to duck beneath the railings the moment he saw any ninjas approach too close.

The wind rushed past his face, and he barely noticed the faint burning that had started to be generated in his limbs. He had left the weights behind, sitting on his bed - he thought he might need his full power for this, and didn't relish the thought of having to escape by jumping down twelve stories with eighty pounds attached to his body.

"Alright... now, to use Mizuki-sensei's Jutsu..." Naruto concentrated, his hands flickering through the monkey, bird and tiger seals. "Akarui Me no Jutsu!" he cried softly.

"Whoa... nifty! This Jutsu kicks ass!"Naruto cheered quietly. Despite the wide corridor being unlit, to him, everything was as if it was daylight.

Not to mention, he could see tons of glowy lines that he assumed were trap lines. Carefully stepping over, between and under them, he made his way to the Hokage's door after an excruciating 10 minutes. "Damn, stupid paranoid old man," he grumbled, reaching the door. "I'd better pass that damn exam..."

As he reached the door, though, his eyes began to hurt. Terribly.

"What the hell? This... ungh," he groaned. It felt as if tiny needles were stabbing at the back of his eyeballs. "O-ow... Ahh... Kai!" he quickly yelled, heedless of stealth anymore. He just wanted the pain to stop."Shit, what was in that damn Jutsu?" Rubbing his eyes frantically, he gasped a sigh of relief as the pain slowly faded away.

Then his world exploded into agony, and he screamed.

A/N: Alright. Long enough? God. Review, dammit. You guys all owe me one. Wow, I'm so glad I take Japanese classes... they're really helping with the Jutsu thing, but damn, I wish the dictionary I was using was back up. (-.-) Oh well. I was originally planning to do something like Seeing Eyes (miero me?) but that seemed a little strange... I didn't want to use Miemasu either, so... oh well.

Jutsus:
Akarui Me (pronounced Ah-ka-ru-i Meh) no Jutsu: Bright Eyes Technique

Interestingly enough, Konohagakure actually means Hidden Leaf, and not Hidden Leaf Village. Making a guess, I'd say that Konoha is Leaf, and Gakure is Hidden.

On a side note, I now utterly hate Bittorrent.