Well, good news, I'm deciding to continue this book, it'll have a weekly update so sorry not sorry
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Minato was a very good Hokage, he did what must be done but still cared about his Shinobi, he couldn't protect Konoha himself after all, he made use of his Genin and Chunin for inside village repairs while half of the Jounin went out of the village while half remained inside the village like the Genin and Chunin. He did need to bluff the other villages on Konoha remaining the same so he used ROOT ninja as compensation for less Genin and Chunin outside of the village. But now, beside that he did what was necessary, as a dad, he had at least some bias for his child. So, the current situation he was in, that his son, none other than Uzumaki Naruto, was reported in his office
Not that he did any bad though. No, it was the exact opposite, Naruto had shown his Shadow Clone Jutsu to his teachers, albeit mistakenly, so now his teachers were asking for an early promotion along with Itachi. While he didn't care for Itachi as much as Naruto, he was still a at least a little biased to her since he was her godfather, credit to Kushina's friendship to Mikoto, but he was hard pressed because of the seemingly 'perfect' Shadow clone they both made, even the experienced Chunin couldn't tell the difference between them
"You HAVE to agree Yondaime-sama! They showed great potential during even the spars and Shuriken training! While they weren't perfect, they would be able to take out most, no scratch that, all Genin in the village and maybe even some Chunin!" The teacher tried to convince. Minato sighed and said "Like I've stated before, the only early graduates out of war are Kakashi! But I do see your point... As much as I hate this, make them take the graduation exam and put them on the same team, I'll send the third person and their teacher later via a Ninja, dismissed"
The satisfied Chunin went back to make his way to the academy, he still had his classes to teach after all, with a worried Minato left in his office, only Kami knows what his wife would do to him if she found out about Naruto's early graduation. As Shikaku would like to put it, what a troublesome situation. Nevertheless, it was sure he would die today
Scene Change
The Chunin teacher was happy, ecstatic even, since 2 of his students, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Itachi, were going to graduate early, even for prodigy standards, the only one who had graduated this early was Kakashi Hatake, now in ANBU black ops directly under the Hokage. Maybe they would go into the ops too? Who knows? Anyway, the exam proctor was a bit doubtful of their age but since they got permission from the Hokage, he proceeded nonetheless "Make 2 bunshin please, they can be of any form"
An excited Naruto nodded and made 2 Kage-Bunshin with a stoic Itachi doing the same, the proctor nodded and continued "Kawarimi with the logs before you when I give a signal" the 2 nodded and got ready by preparing their chakra, the Chunin whistled and a poof of smoke with the log now behind the 2 friends indicated that they did indeed switch places, the proctor now doubtful of his previous thought said finally "OK, finally, do the Henge no Jutsu, though its fine if you aren't able to do it" the 2 nodded and transformed, incidentally, into the same person, the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato "Very well, congratulations, you have passed! We just got a report on your written test and... Uchiha Itachi got a 90/100 and... Uzumaki Naruto... has a 31/100... and the passing score is 30" The man finished with a sigh. Naruto on the other hand was expecting a worse score of 10/100, he wanted to shout with glee but alas, things never go as you planned. The Ninja who was taking their exam just handed them their Hitai-ate and shooed them out of the classroom. Naruto asked "Hey Itachi, did he tell us where to go?"
"Yes Naruto. You should really pay attention to what they say" Itachi said with a sigh
With a chuckle and grin, he replied "Yeah but he was making such a boring speech I almost got knocked out by boredom".
Itachi just shook her head in disappointment and lead the way to the room where they would be assigned teams, they soon reached the place and entered it to find all the newly made Genin sitting the duo made their way to the back and sat uncharacteristically quiet for Naruto. A Jounin soon appeared and started announcing the teams, they didn't have to wait very long since the Jounin soon said "Team 2, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Itachi and Shinko Inari. Your Jounin sensei is Riko Nara" and continued with the others, while Naruto was obviously excited if him shaking and having a large goofy grin was a sign enough, Itachi on the other hand was puzzled 'Is it all right for 2 females to be on the same team? I thought Tou-san said the teams were always male-dominated... Hmm, I'll ask him about this later... better not mention Naruto'
She thought while referring to Fugaku as her father, while he was accepting to Naruto being her friend Fugaku, like any parent, was vary of him. If the blonde would lay even a small scratch on his daughter, the stern Uchiha would be watching him die pleasurably, not that it made him happy, no, torture was hated by him... But still, Itachi was important to him
Soon, before Itachi even noticed, the team assigning ended with a usual excited blonde beside her sighed in relief, now they would only have to wait for their se-
"Team 2, with me"
Well that was fast, good thing their teacher was a punctual woman. The 3 of them made their way to the woman and followed her out of the room, then to training ground 2. She sat on one of the 4 different logs placed before motioning them to sit down which they did. She said in a raspy voice "My name is Nara Riko, you may call me Riko-sensei, Sensei or Nara-sensei. My likes are sour things and sleep and I hate people who dislike any of the 2" to which Itachi visibly flinched, Riko took notice of this but continued nonetheless "lastly, I specialize in Shadow Binding Jutsu, stealth and I would say I'm a decent medic so if any of you need help with it, don't be afraid to ask me. Now, your turn"
"Huh?" the 3 of the asked with a tilt of their head
She sighed "Well I figured that we should introduce ourselves and you would need an example so I started with my own introduction. God, this is such a drag, you all should have been smarter, I might fail you" though she said the last sentence in a whisper, all three 'Genin' heard her and stiffened 'Failed? what does that mean? Didn't we already pass the exam?'. They nonetheless continued, with Naruto being the first "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I like anyone who I have a bond with and Ramen! I dislike people who see me as the Hokage's son and not as Uzumaki Naruto! I don't like loners either, though I do try to change them at first... hmm... anyway! I specialize in Ninjutsu and Speed type attacks, I am trained by my dad after all" and with that, his introduction ended and Itachi started "Uchiha Itachi, I like sweet things and I dislike... not sweet things?" the Nara had her eyes shadowed so one couldn't tell what she was thinking, Itachi suddenly felt a shiver up her spine "A-anyway, my favorite is Dango and Poky, I specialize in Genjutsu and stealth"
Lastly, the only one remaining was the 3rd female in their team, Shinko Inari smiled "My name is Inari Shinko, my likes are cats and puppies, I dislike people who commit crimes to hurt people, I wish to be at least a decent medical kunoichi in the future. That's it I guess?" The Nara nodded and stood up "The test which you just took was just a trial to see if you were eligible for becoming a Ninja, the real test begins now. You see, Nara's go for smarts more than brawn. So, I had the courtesy of hiding 2 scrolls in different parts of this village, you will get 2 hour and 2 hints, 1 hint for a scroll each. You are to start from the forest at assigned positions so others don't know where you are, bring any 1 and you pass. The first hint is 'Crown of the village, only a few get this privilege, stoned faced and the second ace' and the second one is 'Men who vanished will be hailed as heroes. Their bodies never found but their names and our souls forever bound' Got it? Now, Uzumaki to behind that tree, Uchiha behind that rock and Inari behind the other tree. Got to your positions" the 3 nodded and went to their assigned places, Inari had 1 thought in her head 'I'm gonna fight one of the 2 prodigies... GOD HELP ME'
While Itachi was thinking 'So it's a recon mission with a danger of an unexpected enemy huh? Maybe I should go for the 1st one' and our friendly neighborhood blondie had a different topic in his mind as he made his way to the assigned place 'Hmm... what Ramen flavor should I eat in celebration? Hmm...'
As he decided a flavor, he heard a kunai fly past him and he jumped to the place with the easiest riddle. The face of the Nidaime, of course they were indicating him when they said 'Second Ace'. He wasn't THAT stupid with the Yondaime being his dad, Naruto was taught by him after all but... being he was Naruto, he still couldn't solve the 2nd riddle but the main issue was the time meaning he would have to cross Konoha in 30 minutes, people took at least an hour or 2 if they were walking so this should probably be easier... right?
Inari had solved the second riddle too and it was nearer than the Hokage monument so why not go there? The only problem would be 1 of her teammates encountering her and they would then have to fight but it would still be better than going all the way across Konoha and back in 30 minutes, she jumped up to the trees and started to cross the forest and to her destination, the Konoha Cemetery. she knew from the visits to her father that there was a blue rock type thing which had names of Ninja that lost their lives in action, if she remembered correctly, it was called the Memorial stone, pretty basic but hey, it was easy to remember. Now the only problem was Uchiha or Uzumaki crossing her path
Naruto found himself on top of the Shodaime's head and looked down at the top of Nidaime's head... where Itachi was... damn that girl for going for the distant one, now he would have to fight her but... Well, it's not that he didn't want to fight her, in fact he was itching to test himself against the stoic Uchiha but what if their Nara sensei had a loophole in it? He shouted "Hey Itachi, what if sensei has a loophole for us since Konoha prioritizes teamwork over almost everything? I don't know what it is but what if there is one?". Itachi had went deep into thought 'What if what he's saying if true? But this could very well be a ploy to distract me!' looking up, she saw that the Uzumaki hadn't moved from his spot so she continued thinking 'He hasn't moved so he's serious about this, what is it then? Hmm... what if we each have our hand on the scroll? Maybe then we will be accepted?'
She refocused on the blonde and showed him her ideas, he nodded and they went to do that with Itachi carrying the scroll. When they reached, they saw the Nara almost asleep but they were trained Ninjas so even Genin could know when who was asleep or not and the way she slept with an eye cracked a bit open gave her away, they both kept a hand on the scroll and gave it to their sensei who sighed "Only one can give it at a time" and they both stiffened, would they have to fight? No... Naruto's idea was spot on of having a loophole, it was Itachi whose idea was false and didn't work, she focused on what her sensei said and thought about it then it clicked, with only 5 minutes remaining and Inari standing behind them indicating she had already submitted her scroll, Itachi pulled the confused blonde into the forest and said "Make a Kage-Bunshin, make it transform into this scroll, we will exchange the scroll and she won't know which one is real so she will have to accept both" and Naruto smiled widely "They don't call you a genius for nothing Itachi!" and quickly did what she said, they took their scrolls and ran to their sensei and gave them to her, for the first time she smiled albeit lazily and said "You pass"
For those of you who wanted Itachi and Naruto to fight and see their skills... well too bad, if it makes you feel any better, I'll write them down here but only for Itachi, Naruto's will be in the next chapter
Itachi Info: -
Shuriken Jutsu (Including Kunai): Mid-High Chunin level
Kenjutsu (sword fighting): Mid-High Genin level (Still learning)
Genjutsu: High Genin to Low Chunin level
Taijutsu: Low-Mid Chunin level
Ninjutsu: High Genin level
Fuinjutsu: Low-Mid Genin level (Only learn basic sealing scrolls)
Chakra Natures: Wind, Fire
