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Chapter II
Getting The Grade
Naruto eyes flew open mere seconds before his alarm was set to sound. Wasting no time he hit the snooze button and stretched out a yawn.
Today's the day He thought with determination. He jumped out of bed and began his daily routine of getting dressed, checking his weapons, and strapping the holsters loaded with said weapons to his leg. He then moved over to the mirror in his room to make sure everything looked as it should.
Nodding his approval to the reflection, he began stretching his right hand and quickly drew a Kunai from his holstier. He held it in a reverse grip, then put the weapon back, and drew it out again. After repeating the motions a few times, he once again smiled at himself and turned to leave his room.
Walking down the stairs, Naruto mentally prepared himself for the day ahead. This was the day he'd become a true shinobi of the Hidden Leaf, and a major milestone to accomplish his dream of succeeding his father as Hokage.
After coming down the stairs, Naruto turned into the kitchen to see his mom making breakfast.
"Morning Mom" He said offhand as he moved to take a seat at the table in the middle of the room.
"Morning Sweetie" Kushina said with her back to her son as she focused on cooking. "Go ahead and take a seat. It's almost finished."
"Where's dad?" Naruto asked while glancing at his father's empty spot.
.
"Something came up and he had to leave late last night. He wanted me to tell you good luck on your exam and that he'd do his best to meet you after you passed" Kushina explained, turning towards her son with a sad smile on her face. She knew how much today meant for her son and how much her husband had wanted to be here to see him off on the big day.
"That's the 3rd time this week." Naruto noted offhandedly." Is there something going on?"
"Who knows." Kushina said turning around with 2 plates full of food. "You know how things are dear, if anything happens, they come to get your father ya know. Even for the most minor of things."
"Yeah I know." Naruto replied quietly as his mom slid the plate of food in front of him.
"Hey now" Kushina said smiling as she sat across from her son. "You know your father wanted nothing more than to be here right now. You should've seen his face when they came for him, I thought he was going to throw that poor ANBU out the window."
Hearing this caused Naruto to chuckle and looked up at his mom. "Yeah, I wouldn't have wanted to be that guy."
"I don't think anyone would." She agreed while taking a bite of her eggs. "So what's your plan to graduate the exam?"
"Go in, do the best I can, and get the top score." Naruto said with a grin of his own. "I'm not gonna back down, this is the day I finally become a real ninja!"
"And to think it seems only yesterday that you were challenging your father to a fight over his kage title" His mom replied with a bigger smile on her face.
"I was 5 years old mom." He deadpanned. "Besides this is serious it's my first step to becoming a shinobi!"
"I know honey and both of us are really proud of you. Just promise you'll be careful, ok? We only have one of you ya know."
"Don't worry I'll be careful."
"And make sure to listen to your sensei."
"I will." Naruto affirmed as he grabbed some eggs.
"And dear." Kushina began, her tone suddenly dropping dangerously low.
"Huh" Naruto replied looking up and instantly felt his blood run cold at his mom's icy glare.
"Make sure to observe all the golden rules of the shinobi. Step out of line and you'll regret it. Understand?" She asked slowly, her hair raising slightly as if defying gravity.
"Y-yes M-ma'am." Naruto stuttered out, paralyzed at the sight of his mom's barely contained wraith.
"Great!" Kushina said flashing her teeth in a smile, all sense of danger gone. "Now you'd better start eating before your food gets cold." She said sweetly, her words causing Naruto to jump out of his daze. "If you don't eat fast, you're going to be late for the exam, and won't pass for sure ya know."
Shaking his head out of his daze, Naruto nodded and proceeded to eat his meal as quickly as possible, put away his plate, and waved goodbye to hiss mom while sprinting out the door.
Kushina stood up and watched her son's retreating figure with a sad smile. He really is growing up
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Konoha Ninja Academy
Naruto walked into the classroom where his final exam would be held, stopping at the doorway he smiled as the room remained mostly empty. Just the way the preferred it.
He always tried to get to class a few minutes early every day so he could get the best seat and would have a few minutes of peace and quiet before everyone else arrived.
Sitting down at his usual spot in the middle row, he began contemplating his exams. In total there would be a written exam followed by taijutsu, kunai, shuriken, and genjutsu proficiency exams after which the final portion of the exam, ninjutsu, would begin. The ninjutsu portion would consist of 1-3 jutsu determined by the instructors the day of the exam and would count for 30% of the total test.
Everything should be a piece of cake except for Genjutsu. Still if I do good enough in the other tests it should average out pretty good. It'll all boil down to the ninjutsu portion
As he sat in his seat thinking, more students began streaming in. Luckily few if any seemed to notice or want to bother him; a fact he was eternally grateful for as he tried to plan a way to get top score.
"Hey" A male voice said drawing him from his thoughts, only to see Sasuke sitting down beside him.
"You ready to lose, loser" The raven hair challenged with a smirk.
"Just try to keep up Uchiha, I want you to look bad but not that bad." The blond countered with a grin of his own as they prepared for the exams to begin.
SLAM!
The load noise of the door behind caused all in the room to look back only to see a blond and pink haired girl attempting to go through the door at the same time; causing both to get stuck in the process.
"Back off Ino-pig, I got here first!" The pink haired girl screamed as he attempted to force her way through.
"Shut it billboard brow, I beat you by an entire toe! Move that massive forehead of yours out of the way and let me through!" Ino, who wore a purple skirt and held her hair in a ponytail, yelled back as she also attempted to force her own way in.
This continued for a few seconds until something eventually gave way and both girls suddenly fell through the door and unto the ground, only for them to jump up and start arguing again.
"You tripped me pig!"
"Are you sure you just didn't fall over that forehead of yours Billboard brow!"
"You fell to!"
"Only because you're a sore loser, but I'd expect nothing less from you Sakura Haruno."
"Oh yeah!" Sakura, who wore a rose collared dress, challenged getting into Ino's face.
"Yeah!" Ino countered pushing her head against Sakura's.
Its themNaruto shook his head drearily and mentally went over them as they continued insulting each other.
Sakura's easily the smartest girl in our class and has way better chakra control than I have. Other than that she comes from a clan of little note, and she's barely above average on anything else..
Ino Yamanaka's the future heir of a prominent ninja clan, she's an above average student when it comes to kunai and shuriken proficiency and is rumored to be learning about special poisons and jutsu belonging to her clan. Other than class I usually see her helping her mother run their clans flower shop near the main district.
Both are a handful and won't leave me alone, but at least they seem more interested in bothering each other than any of us. Suddenly as he watched the two girls fighting, Ino turned around…and looked down directly at him.
OOOOOOOOOOO
Ino's POV
Ino turned her back to Sakura in frustration, red faced, and arms crossed. Why can't Sakura just accept I'm the better kunoichi? You'd think with that forehead of hers sh-. Ino's thoughts were cut short as she caught sight of blue eyes looking up at her from across the room.
Score. Moving quickly past a still fuming Sakura, she made a beeline to Naruto only Sasuke sitting next to him.
Double Score Ino mentally squealed in delight as she stood over next to Naruto while Sasuke re-directed his attention to the wall on the opposite side of the room.
END OF INOS POV
OOOOOOO
"Hey there Naruto, Sasuke." Ino purred as she leaned against the desk where the two boys sat.
"Hn" Sasuke replied, not even moving an eye towards Ino's direction.
"Hey their Ino, what's up?" Naruto replied coolly as he moved to look towards her, his face showing no emotion as he talked.
"Oh nothing much, just thinking." Ino sweetly said with a predatory smile on her face.
"About what?" Naruto asked, while silently wishing he hadn't.
"This and that, say I just noticed there's any empty seat here." Ino said feigning shock as she pointed to the seat next to Naruto. "You wouldn't know if someone was already sitting here, would you Narrrruuuutttoooo." Ino purred as she drawled Naruto's name out several syllables longer than it should have been.
"I don't know." Naruto replied without any real emotion.
"Oh really?" Ino said feigning shock again. "What about you Sassukeee, do you know if anyone's sitting here?"
"Hn"
"Well I think I'll just sit here then, if it's ok with you Naruto." Ino said sweetly as she slowly moved her head closer to Naruto's.
As Ino moved closer, the young Namikaze briefly wondered if Sasuke would back him up if he told Ino their actually was someone already sitting there and he;d just forgotten.
No of course he wouldn't. Naruto mentally sighed.
"It's up to you, I don't care either way." Naruto eventually said, as Ino's head got even closer to his.
She's not gonna-
"Well in that case –" Ino said interrupting Naruto from his thoughts, only to be interrupted herself.
"Out of the way Pig!" Sakura shouted as she pushed Ino to the side and quickly sat in the disputed seat.
"Argh! What's the big idea forehead, I was sitting there!" Ino yelled, barley stopping herself from falling from the push.
"Oh really?" Sakura questioned innocently. "I just heard Naruto say nobody was sitting here, so you must be mistaken. Don't worry though there's still some seats left in the back."
"Why you-"
Ino's retort was cut off by the sound of the front door sliding open, and two shinobi entering the room. One of the shinobi had brown hair and carried a stack of papers, while the other had silver hair and carried a large scroll with them.
Naruto recognized the brown haired shinobi as Iruka, and the silver haired Shinobi as Mizuki. Both ninja had served as their teachers and now their proctors for the exam.
Saved by the bell. Naruto quietly breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the fight next to him had been averted.
He watched as both ninjas made their way to the front of the room, where Mizuki unrolled the scroll on top of the desk and released it's contents causing several headband protectors to materialize out of a puff of smoke. As Iruka laid his papers next to the protectors and turned to address the class.
"Good evening class" Iruka began in a tone clearly directed at Ino "If all of you would please take your seats, we would like to begin your final exam."
Ino glared at Sakura, who merely stuck out her tongue in response, and made her way to a seat further back in the class.
Once everyone had been seated, Iruka gave a speech about the importance of this step and what it meant for all the students. After he finished, Mizuki began handing out the papers for the written portion of the exam.
3 HOURS LATER
Naruto's POV
Naruto sat back in his seat. The exams had been tough but at long last they were down to the ninjutsu portion of the exam. As expected, he'd done well in everything with the exception of Genjutsu, which Sasuke got a perfect score in.
Everything's going to depend on what Jutsu we have to perform. Even a minor misstep's gonna cost me big time. Taking a breath to calm down, Naruto watched as Iruka moved to the front of the class to announce the jutsu's they would be tested on.
"Okay class today we have a special treat for you." Iruka said with a smile as all the students leaned forward in their seats. "Usually we like to test graduating students with 3 or even 4 jutsu; however, Mizuki and I have decided to do things differently this year."
Differently?
'We've decided that we'll only test on one jutsu this year. This jutsu will decide up to 30% of your final grade so make sure to give it your best effort. Now" Iruka pulled out a piece of paper and looked over its contents. "Today's exam will test your proficiency with" Iruka paused for effect. "The clone jutsu!"
Naruto's lips curled into a smile at the mention of his favorite technique, and felt a wave of relief rush over him.
The clone technique huh? Sorry Sasuke, this one's mine. He'd mastered that technique down to a T, there wasn't anyone better than him at it in the academy. From a young age, his chakra reserves were off the scales, to the point where he could make dozens, even hundreds, at once with no trouble at all. The only downside is that he had terrible control and could never make just one or two. When he tried they turned out terrible due to him putting to much chakra into it, but the more he made the easier it was.
Long as there's no limit set on the number of clones I can make, this ones in the bag.
"Now here are the rules" Iruka stated snapping Naruto out of his thoughts. "You must make at least 3 perfect clones to pass. Your score will depend on how many clones you make, their quality, and how long it takes you to make them. Your free to go over the 3 clones, but any deformations will count against you so be careful showing off. Me and Mizuki will go in the back room and begin calling students to do the jutsu. Please remain seated until your name is called. The results will be tallied once everyone has been tested."
As the teachers retreated to the back room they began calling students one after another until eventually Naruto heard his name called.
"Naruto Namikaze" Iruka yelled from the back room.
Naruto stood and walked down the stairs and through the door into the room. Closing the door behind him he looked over the room which was fairly small and only held a single desk behind which sat both of his teachers. To the right were shelves containing, what he assumed, where school supplies..
I know Sasuke can make around 19 clones easily, but if the proctors count off for flaws. Naruto calculated. Sasuke was great at this jutsu as well and the last thing he wanted was to lose due to arrogance.
"Ok Naruto whenever you're ready, you may begin your jutsu." Iruka said from behind the desk while Mizuki scratched off his name from the list of students who haven't performed the jutsu.
Nodding to his teachers, Naruto began weaving through hand signs.
Ninja art: Clone Jutsu! Blue chakra began to visibly swirl around him as the proctors looked on in shock.
Then one Naruto gave way to 2, then of those 4 more appeared, and continued to give way to more Naruto's as the jutsu continued to grow. Finally he ceased the jutsu only to find that 30 identical versions of himself were in the room with him.
Mizuki knocked his chair over as he stood up with widened eyes, while Iruka fell out of his chair before quickly standing up again. There were so many Naruto's in the room that they had begun to fuse into each other, due to them being made of simple light and the small size of the room itself.
How can an academy student have so much chakra? Iruka thought amazed at the sheer amount of chakra used as he examined each clone. They're all perfect to, I know that he's Lord Hokage and Lady Kushina's child but this is unbelievable!
After a few more seconds Iruka recovered, and coughed a few times before addressing Naruto again.
"Very good Naruto, you may release your jutsu and return outside. We'll have your final grades shortly." Iruka tried his best to sound professional as possible under the circumstances.
"Yes Iruka-sensei." Naruto said, giving his teacher a polite bow as he released his technique and returned to the classroom.
Walking back into the room he was met with several wide-eyed stares from his classmates; except for Sasuke who looked as if he had just seen his puppy die.
"What's going on?" Naruto whispered as he sat back down.
"You over did it." Sasuke replied simply.
"Overdid what?"
"Your jutsu." Sasuke said gesturing toward the door to the backroom. "You formed so many clones that they fused through the wall and got outside."
"Really" Naruto asked with a mixture of shock and curiosity, he wanted to use a decent amount of his chakra but didn't think he used that much. "How many?"
"I counted 15 and a half…plus an arm."
"Wow." Naruto stated in amazement, truthfully 45 clones was close to his record; though, to be fair he never really cared to see just how many he could produce at once. It just never came up.
"Yeah wow." Sasuke sighed
"Sasuke Uchiha" Iruka called from the back as Sasuke stood up.
"Good luck Uchiha." Naruto couldn't stop himself from smirking as Sasuke made his way down the steps.
"Don't get to cocky Namikaze, for all you know we could still be the Genjutsu portion of the exam." Sasuke noted with cool indifference.
"Very funny!" Naruto yelled as Sasuke walked into the room and closed the door behind him.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
As Naruto and the rest of the students filtered out of the academy, one thought was shared by many of them.
"It's finally over."
7 years of hard work had led to this moment, and as Naruto felt the cool metal of his new protector in his hand, he instantly knew it was worth it and more.
And I even got the high score to boot. He smiled at the thought, as he tied the headband to his forehead, so the village symbol rested above his eyes.
.
Suddenly Naruto felt his great mood wane. Looking around the courtyard, at all the parents congratulating or consoling their children made it that much harder to notice that his own mom and dad were nowhere to be found.
What's wrong with me? He shook his head to clear that train of thought. I'm a ninja now, I shouldn't be bothered by things like this. I already figured they wouldn't make it. It's their job to keep the village safe, it doesn't mean they don't care or anything like that. If they could have made they would have. He mentally repeated to try and get rid of this feeling in his gut. This is supposed to be the best day of my life, I can't spend it being sad.
Cutting his gaze away from the crowd around him. Naruto moved away towards the west exit only to see Sasuke leaning against a tree next to a swing that swayed in the wind next to him.
"Nobody come to congratulate you either huh?" He asked Sasuke nonchalantly as he leaned on the same tree and gazed back at the crowd.
"Itachi and Shisui's on a mission, dad got called in early due to some border skirmish, and mom's acting clan head until he gets back so she can't leave the compound." Sasuke replied coolly, naming off anyone who would have met him outside. "What about yours?"
"My dad got called in this morning too, and I don't know where mom is." Naruto replied. "Though I think I'll stick around here for a few more minutes to see if she shows up."
"You don-"Sasuke began
"Namikaze!" An angry voice from inside the crowd yelled cutting off Sasuke in the process.
"Huh" Naruto turned to the sound in surprise at being called only to see a brown-haired boy around his age approaching him with a glare.
"Kenichi." Naruto greeted evenly.
Kenichi's from a clan of little note. I really don't know much about him other than he's always acted out and never stops pestering me. He's challenged me to everything from throwing weapons, to taijutsu, or even taking notes. Each time he's failed miserably and each time he always either accuses me of cheating or something else only to repeat the process in a week or two.
When he's not insulting my parents. That's what pisses off most about this jerk. Despite trying to stay cool, Naruto felt his eyes narrow as Kenichi stormed closer.
"Don't Kenichi me you stupid jerk." Kenichi spat trying to impersonate Naruto's voice.
"What's your problem now?" Naruto questioned while crossing his arms against his chest before adding. "Whatever it is, I didn't do it."
"My problem is you." Kenichi said pointing at Naruto. "You did this."
"You failed the exam." Naruto commented, finally realizing that Kenichi didn't have a headband protector on like most of his class did.
"Wow you actually noticed?" Kenichi said sarcastically. "Do you want to know why I failed?"
This won't end well. Sasuke thought silently while watching the scene unfold.
Keep calm Namikaze, don't let him ruin your day. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Naruto looked up at Kenichi and stared him right in the eye.
"Look Kenichi" Naruto raised a placating hand toward Kenichi. "I'm sorry you failed and everything, I really am, but you can take the exam next year. I'm sure you'll pass next time."
"I would have passed this time if it wasn't for your stupid old man!" Kenichi yelled, finally getting the attention of the remaining group of people in the process.
And that's one. Sasuke mentally counted.
"What was that?" Naruto stated, a bit of anger leaking out of his voice as he mentally dared Kenichi to repeat what he had said.
"You heard me!" Kenichi took a step closer as he continued to yell. "What, did your dad threaten the proctor's to give out that jutsu so you could pass? Or were you afraid of actually doing any work for yourself for a change?"
That's two. Sasuke continued to mentally count. I'll have to step in if this keeps up.
"Kenichi" Naruto voice was calm yet dangerous as anger seeped through every syllable. "I'm giving you a fair warning, shut up about my parents or I'm going to break your nose."
"Hey leave Naruto alone!" One of Naruto's other classmates yelled.
"Yeah, stop making a scene he didn't do anything wrong." Another yelled out as Kenichi started walkeg even closer to Naruto.
"Hey Naruto, let's get out of here. He isn't worth the time." Sasuke said trying to defuse the situation. "Kenichi may be a jerk, but he's an academy student so the law still views him like a civilian. Hitting him will only cause trouble, don't forget we're ninja's now." However, his words fell on deaf ears as Naruto uncrossed his arms and took a step forward as Kenichi got right into his face.
"Oh, so the proctors just randomly gave out a single jutsu, something that's almost never happens, and that jutsu just happens to be the one you're obviously the most skilled at?" Kenichi yelled ignoring everyone's protest.
Crap that's three.
"Naruto listen we sh—. " Sasuke began but was interrupted.
"Just what are you trying to say Kenichi?" Naruto asked with narrowed eyes.
"I'm saying that you're nothing more than a pathetic brat who relies on mommy and daddy to fight all your battles for you. You couldn't even pass the final exam without bringing dadd-"
Despite his anger, Naruto had to admit he was impressed that Kenichi stayed conscious after that left hook he gave him.
His fist had solidly connected on the boys nose instantly causing blood to come out and land on Naruto's shirt as Kenichi's body slid away before stopping several feet from where he initially stood. He remained on the ground but groaning noises could be heard indicating he remained conscious.
"Get up." Naruto commanded as he slowly walked towards Kenichi's fallen body. He wouldn't hit a man while he's down, but Kenichi had to get up eventually and he had plenty of time to kill. "I warned you this would happen but you didn't listen, you never liste-.
This time Naruto suddenly found himself face first on the ground as someone took the palm of their hand and shoved his face into the dirt.
"What?" Naruto questioned, his shock momentarily snapping him out of his anger.
"And I told you what would happen if you hit him, you never listen either." Sasuke held Naruto firmly in place while kicking himself for not doing something sooner. He knew this was going to happen the moment Kenichi walked up, Naruto was a good guy but he always seemed to wear his emotions on his sleeve. All it took was for someone to press the right buttons, and the Namikaze would lose his cool.
"Sasuke" Naruto said as he picked his head up just enough to glare at Kenichi's fallen form that had begun to stir." You better not let me go. Or else I'm going to turn Kenichi black and blue."
"Idiot" He replied as he saw ninja from the academy run outside to see what was going on.
Definitely not going to end well. Sasuke mentally deadpanned. He got off Naruto just as two ninja approached, and took both Naruto and Kenichi inside the academy.
He never even noticed the person walking up behind him.
END CHAPTER
ANBU EMERGENCY DISPATCH
14th Year of the Fourth Fire Shadow
We've received reports that several of our spies have been compromised within the Land of Lightning. Shortly after receiving the initial report, our forces on the Fire-Hot Water border came under attack by a force of unidentified shinobi. These attacks came suddenly with no advance warning from either our agents in the Land of Hot Water, nor our scouts operating along the border. Both ANBU and border patrol unit's initially sustained losses, but have since regrouped and have forced the enemy's attack to a halt.
Initial reports detail the enemy as trained ninja who wear neither identifying headbands nor flak jackets; however, latest reports suggest the enemy is using tactics and jutsu that coincide to those of the Hidden Cloud Village. We believe the enemy is continually being re-enforced via unknown means, and re-enforcements may be required to force the enemy back once and for all.
Our latest estimate holds the enemy's number at around 150 ; however, due to the wide area of the attacks, lack of identifiers to positively identify combatants , or the ability to accurately tally possible enemy reinforcements; we have no way to verify that number at this time. Our front lines are currently holding; however, a continual attack may allow a few of the enemy force to breach through our defenses and infiltrate deeper within the Land of Fire. As such, I am officially requesting shinobi re-enforcements of no less than 50 shinobi of Chunin rank or higher to serve as a reserve force to fill any additional holes that may open in our front lines. I believe these additional forces will allow us to fully secure the border, and to repulse any future attacks for a sustained period of time.
Additionally I request orders on what course of action should be taken after these attacks are repulsed, and whether or not we have clearance to track our enemy to their place of origin with the purpose of locating and neutralizing any forward operating bases they may have set up inside the Land of Hot Water to launch these attacks.
I also must regrettably inform you that Jonin Kiza Tousen, the Jonin in charge of all regular shinobi patrol units along the Fire-Hot Water border, has been deemed MIA. In accordance with regulations, I have taken full command over all Leaf Village assets located inside the combat zone and will retain this authority until such time as the situation has been resolved and a replacement for Tousen named.
ANBU Captain Hawk
Received at 3:45am
AUTHORS NOTES
As always please read, review and above all enjoy.
Guardian's Blade out!