A Fox and A Tanuki Chapter 6, a naruto fanfic

Hey all regular viewers update: IT'S OVER THRE THOUSAAAAAAAAAND! Seriously thanks everyone for all the positive encouragement! This is the longest chapter I've written so far at almost 7,000 words so I hope you enjoy, we finish off the academy in this chapter cause I'm really excited to get to the genin arc. I want to be clear at the start there has been a big time skip, to the last month of the academy.

Chapter review: last time we saw a few things, Naruto and Sasuke's rivalry, a touching moment between Shisui and Itachi, some camaraderie between Teuchi and Minato, and Naruto finally announcing his engagement to his fellow ninja-to-be.

Anyways let me know what ya think and as always enjoy!

Chapter 6 - Genin Exams Part 1

"Lord Fourth" Itachi asked "why are we here?" He looked around, it was a small flat area they found themselves in, there was a small lake off in a corner, but this part of Fire country was untouched by the people, which was surprising as it was only a few miles from the main road, which was three miles away from Konoha itself. Minato found a spot in the middle and chose to sit there, he closed his eyes letting memories wash his mind.

"Itachi, I'm the shadow of the Hidden Leaf Village, the brighter it burns, the longer I get. In other words the more successful Konoha grows the more work I have to put in to keep it effective. When you turn eighteen in a couple of weeks, you will be my shadow. Acting as my proxy, and as Hokage in an official capacity when I am unable to attend to the Leaf."

Itachi nodded, sitting beside Minato "I am aware of that Lord Fourth I-" Itachi looked down at the grass "I must admit I have my doubts."

Minato smiled "I understand" he stood up "when I was in your position Lord Third brought me here. I told him about my doubts, you're taking on the entire weight and burden of an entire village, Ninja two times, and in your case, three times your senior are going to be looking to you for orders and answers. It's a lot. The Third asked me a question that I'm going to ask you, do you doubt me, my judgement?"

Itachi stood up fast "of course not!" The young Uchiha shook his head, the very idea of the man he looked up to most being wrong was preposterous. "You chose me, and you believe in me, so I must be good enough for the task."

Minato pulled out his flask and took a swig "it doesn't matter how much I believe in you, if you think you're going to fail then somewhere down the road you're going to stumble and fall. And at some point no one is going to be there to help pick you up. The Leaf believes in it's comrades, and that our bonds with others strengthens us, And I believe in that."

"Yes it's the Will of Fire the Lord Third was known for."

"Correct, but it's a hard truth about this job that when it comes down to it, you stand at the forefront of an entire army. You must be the first in and the last out, and if someone falls on battle it should be you first. When you fall, and no one is there to help you, YOU need to be capable of picking yourself up, not for yourself, not for your pride, certainly not for victory but because it's what's best for your village. You're only as strong as the village you lead and...are you taking notes?"

Itachi looked up from his scribbling "oh ignore me please, keep talking."

"Just so you know, my answer to the Third's question was the same as yours. He challenged my resolve with a spar, so now I challenge you Itachi, do you have the resolve to take this task?"

Itachi put his notebook away and activated his sharingan "I accept your challenge Lord Fourth!"

"Good" Minato pulled out a kunai "you better not hold back when you come at me or this is going to be disappointingly short."

Itachi threw a shuriken, Minato jumped back. Itachi made the tiger sign and one shuriken became three, which became nine, which became thirty. Minato threw his kunai in front of Itachi, using the hiraishin to dodge his attack. Using the teleport as momentum Minato, crouched down and kicked at Itachi's chin but he dissolved into crows reappearing some distance away from Minato.

No words were exchanged, the two ran at each other, meeting in the middle a flurry of punches and kicks, backflips and dodges. Minato landed a palm thrust square in Itachi's chest, forming a small rasengan in his hand. "You know Itachi" Minato slammed his hand into the ground, forming a small crater but more importantly sending dust and debris flying away from him "the genjutsu was a neat trick." The Itachi he sent flying faded away and the real one reappeared to his right, lying on his back. "I should have known better than looking in your eyes."

Itachi stood to his feet, shaking the dirt off of his shoulders "how did you know? I knew you would figure it out eventually, I thought I could land a critical blow first." Minato nodded to the shoulder he just shook, Itachi was surprised to find on his sleeve was a glowing seal, his hiraishin seal, but suddenly Minato was in front of him. The Hokage cracked Itachi in his jaw, sweeping his feet out from under him, the Rasengan in his other hand found contact with his abdomen, sending Itachi bouncing away from him.

"Almost everyone assumes that my seals operate on some kind of timer, that they'll go away after a set amount of time. The truth, a very well kept secret mind you, is that's not true. It only goes away if I release it. And since it's on you and not your genjutsu it was easy to sense when you were going to strike. " Minato walked over and offered Itachi his hand "you're good alright, but I-" The Itachi in front of him faded away and another Itachi came into existence behind him, holding a kunai to his throat. His sharingan had shifted to a six sided curved pinwheel with interlocking lines connecting all of the tips. "Ah a genjutsu on top of a genjutsu. Impressive. How did you know about my hiraishin?"

"I didn't know for sure, but I assumed as much and you Lord Fourth should know that the genjutsu of a regular Sharingan is more powerful than any normal genjutsu, and my Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan even stronger than that.

"Yeah, but there's a reason I was picked as the Fourth Hokage." Minato winked and poofed away in a cloud of smoke. Itachi looked around for the real one, wondering when he had swapped himself with a clone. The earth beneath him shook and before he could jump away a pair of hands shot up and grabbed his feet sinking him down to his neck, trapped within the ground.

Minato came up from beneath and smiled "to answer the obvious, I made the clone when you were distracted by the seal appearing on your shoulder, and when my clone teleported to you I teleported to one of the MANY seals littered through here, they're mementoes from my battle with the Third. Truce?" Itachi nodded and Minato pulled him out "you'll make a fine Kage one day."

"Lord Fourth if I may ask, is something wrong? I feel like something has been bothering you since you went over your reports yesterday."

"You've been spending too much time with me Itachi, yesterday Jiraiya's spies gave me some troubling news. There's been a coup in Iwa, it looks like Oonoki is the Tsuchikage again. He's called for a Kage summit in a few weeks. This morning I got letters from both Zabuza and Rasa, they'll be attending and it looks like A, the Raikage will be there as well. It's being held on the border of the Land of Iron, each Kage is allowed to take two body guards, ninja from surrounding villages will be their so no one side has the upper hand."

"Will I be accompanying you to this Lord Fourth?"

Minato shook his head "No, Yamamoto and Ibbiki will be accompanying me, and I'll have two full squads of Anbu Black Ops waiting just outside the village if Oonoki tries anything. You'll be my proxy while I'm away, and Kakashi and his squad will be guarding you, you'll do fine."

"But Lord Fifth, I thought Kakashi stepped down from the anbu to become a jonin sensei?"

"He will when the students graduate, until then he's all yours, come on let's go back to the village, Kami only knows it'd burn to the ground without us."

Two weeks later

"Ha!" "Hyah!" Ha!" Naruto stepped away from his training dummy, taking a deep breath and continued to do his katas with his zanpakuto. Beside him was a scroll given to him by Rasa, it detailed all the information that Suna had been able to acquire about zanpakutos. In the scroll, it stated that while every Zanpakuto looked different for every user each had three stages. First was the base stage, the scroll said his blade was resting right now, and to awaken it to the second stage, shikai, he'd need to utter a command phrase followed by it's name. But when he would learn his zanpakuto's name was up to the blade.

It also said that for those who mastered shikai, and trained and acquired a certain amount of strength he could attain bankai by saying his zanpakuto's full name. But again, Naruto didn't even know it's name, whether it was a he or she, or what's it's abilities were. According to Suna, they had studied many different forms of shikai, but only a few bankai. The abilities of Zanpakuto could be elemental in nature, use the spirit of the Zanpakuto to summon a creature as an ally or give the user a powerful technique.

Naruto wondered what his would be, but his thoughts were interrupted, tiny shuriken made of sand bounced off of his forehead "ow, Gaara what was that for?"

Gaara, who was off to the side and had Hinata beside her, studying her own books didn't bother to look up as she answered "you were getting distracted again. You should come over here and study with me and Hinata. I've read those scrolls too, you won't learn its' name until it tells you."

"Ugh, what's the point of studying though? Seriously, the most useful part of those books are the spines, at least I can use that in a fight."

Gaara shook her head in disbelief "we graduate from the academy next week, what happens when you fight an opponent that you can't beat with just brute force?" She looked over to Hinata "seriously him, Kiba, Sasuke? They're all the same." Hinata giggled, but it was Gaara's monotonous voice and the way she talked that annoyed Naruto more than her actual words.

"I'll just have to be stronger, that's all" Gaara gave Naruto a pointed look until he let his shoulders sag. In a very defeated way he joined the duo and took a book offered to him by Hinata.

"Becoming genin is another step in your engagement though, isn't that exciting?"

Both teens blushed, while they had been okay with it at the start neither of them were very good with emotions. Off in a corner, hanging on a hammock, Sasuke chortled over a book he was reading "Come on Hinata, you know better than to ask Naruto that, he hardly knows what he wants to eat for dinner. That's why he always chooses ramen, it's easy."

"Hey I'll show you easy Duck!"

Sasuke let his book drop, in one swift motion he was on his feet "I told you to stop calling me that!" It was very well known that Sasuke hated that nickname, which was why only Naruto dared to keep calling him that.

Said blond grinned "Well then why don't get a new hair do? I'll stop calling you duck when you stop looking like one."

The argument between the two was cut off by the entrance of Kiba and Choji, who were holding many boxes of food. Kiba grinned "hey you two, keep it in your pants, lunch is here. Good idea letting Choji pick, this stuff smells amazing!"

The two started passing out the food, Naruto was the first to ask the obvious "um..so what did you guys do to Shikamaru, I thought he went with you?"

"Whah arr uou kaulking abowt?" Kiba asked with a mouth full of food.

Choji tossed him a napkin "swallow before you choke you know. Anyways Shikamaru followed us to the front gate, but didn't come with us. We figured he came inside."

Gaara sighed and swatted Naruto in the back of his head "hey! What was that for?!"

"For not listening to her dobe" Sasuke said, joining the group, "she told us earlier that Shikamaru was in the back yard, cloud watching. Did you get my order correct dog breath?"

Kiba growled "spicy bbq, yeah. I almost told them to get you yesterdays fish."

"Hey Kiba" Hinata asked quietly, "I noticed you didn't have Akamaru with you today, where is he?" She absolutely loved dogs, if not for her Father's strict rules about purity she would have already gotten herself her own ninken.

"Oh he has an appointment at the vets today, and he doesn't like it when I'm there, he gets embarrassed. So my sis is taking him . Hey speaking of siblings, Sasuke how's our new Shadow Kage doing? Itachi was appointed yesterday right?"

Sasuke smiled into his food "yeah the entire Uchiha clan had a huge celebration all night. They were honoring Itachi, but he spent that time helping me train. You hear that you blond idiot, I'm being trained by the future Fifth Hokage, so don't think you're still better than me."

Naruto opened his mouth to respond but was stopped by the appearance of Sakura and Ino who came in with at least eight bags on either of their arms. "hey all" Ino said "we're back from shopping did we miss anything?"

"Nah me and Choji just got back from getting the food, here's yours and Sakura's. So what did you get everyone?"

Sakura grinned and reached into a bag "Well you and Hinata are difficult to shop for you know, you're families each have their own taijutsu fighting style, so we went with jackets." She produced a grey jacket with a fur lined hood "This is yours Kiba, the hood is extra large so Akamaru can ride on top of your head if he gets low on stamina, it's supposed to be extra durable as well so it should be able to handle your families ninjutsu."

Sakura pulled out a pale cream colored jacket "Hinata this one is supposed to be lined like thermal underwear so it'll keep you warm while remaining flexible, plus the sleeves have these hidden compartments for kunai and it is totally adorable."

Ino reached into one of her bags and pulled out a few fuma shuriken and wire "we had to talk to Shikamaru for this one, but these are for you Sasuke, we figured you could use the wire to incorporate your fire style with thrown weapons!"

Sasuke took the fuma shuriken and a gleam entered his eyes "I already have an idea, hey Naruto I need a test dummy."

"Hah as if, what else do you have Ino?"

"Well this next one is for Choji, but it involves some clan secrets that I honestly shouldn't know about" Ino pulled out a dark green flak jacket "these are specially made for the Akimichi clan ninjutsu, and look at this" Ino pointed to the left side where there was a rectangular pocket. Choji seemed to understand and accepted it gratefully.

Ino looked around "We got this special fertilizer for Shino and his kikaichu, as creepy as they are, where did he go?"

Naruto took the bag from her "oh his dad came by, some big clan thing or something. I'll have a clone drop this off at his compound. Before you get to me and Gaara what did you get yourselves?"

"Oh" Sakura said "well half of these bags are clothes that me and Ino bought but she got herself some book on poisonous flowers and I got these books on chakra control. But what we are really excited for is what we got Gaara."

"Oh?" Gaara asked.

"Yes seriously Red" Ino said with an exasperated breath "you hardly talk about yourself or your interests so we had to do some deep thinking and we came up with this!" In the largest bag they pulled out a gourd that was half the size of Gaara's along with several smaller copies. "So I had my father do some research, apparently your uncle uses something like this, and the big one has seals on it that make it lighter so you can be more mobile in battle! Sakura the big nerd she is, did the math, with these you only lose three percent of the sand you normally carry."

Gaara looked at it for a second but smiled "thank you, both of you. I will cherish this." She walked over and began moving sand from one container.

"Finally we get to Naruto" Said Ino, "honestly what do you buy the most ethical child of a kage in existence? This!" Both girls pulled out a dark blue trench coat with short sleeves, on the bottom were teal colored flames, one arm held the Namikaze family crest, a three pointed tomoe connected by a spiral, and the other had the Uzumaki swirl on it.

"This looks like my dads...I love it!"

Just as Naruto was putting it on, Minato entered "Hey all...what's going on here? Naruto that looks awesome!"

Naruto grinned "thanks dad, you know we'll be taking the genin exams the day after tomorrow, and Sasuke and I thought we should do something to memorialize the occasion, and get something that will help mark are debut as ninja, so all the clan heirs, Sakura and myself pitched in. We let Sakura and Ino do the shopping because we wanted it fair and square with no discounts."

"Do I want to even know about the dent in my banking account?" Minato asked with a sweat drop "ah don't worry about it, if it's helping the next generation of ninja, then it's worth it. Anyways Naruto I'm here to tell Gaara, that her father is a few hours away, once he get's here we will be heading to meet the Mizukage tomorrow, then book it to the border. You behave while I'm away okay? If all everything goes well I should be back in time for your graduation."

"My father is coming here?" Gaara asked, it had been almost a full year since she had seen him.

"Yes Gaara, from our correspondence he seems very eager to see you."

Rasa embraced his daughter, happy to see her after such a long time, afterwards Gaara made sure to give her uncle a hug. "Hey you" Rasa said with a smile "Have you been good for Minato and the Leaf?"

"Yes father, I'm taking the graduation exams next week."

"So I heard, I also heard from Minato that your the favorite to take top female of your class! I'd expect nothing less of my daughter." Rasa looked over Gaara's shoulder, Naruto was standing at the door "hello Naruto, how's you Zanpakuto treating you?"

"It still hasn't told me it's name yet, but I'm learning at a good rate."

"Come Gaara, how about you give me a tour of Konoha? Show me your favorite spots while I'm here huh?"

Minato put a hand on Naruto's shoulders "I have Itachi handling my paperwork at the moment, how about it son, want to join them?"

"Awesome! Come on Gaara" without thinking about it Naruto ran ahead, grabbing her by the hand, missing the blush on her face.

Rasa looked over at Minato "I'm glad they've become good friends."

"Yes the best of friends. When the engagement was announced I was worried it would affect their school life, there were more than a few hearts broken."

"Speaking of, have they started dating? I haven't given Gaara 'the talk' yet, and I am rather looking forward to putting the fear of Kami in your son."

Minato shook his head "no they haven't taken that step yet. But that's to be expected after all, they're only teenagers after all. How old were we when we finally made a move on our wives?"

"I guess you're right" both men started walking after their children "so tell me about this academy of yours. Gaara has written to me about a number of concerns involving the teaching staff."

Minato sighed "Yes both her and Naruto have come to me numerous times, some of the teachers don't see our children as up and coming ninja but rather the Biju inside of them. That's why I made their main instructor Iruka. He's strict but fair, there are others as well, but others I believe actively sabotage them. I try and root them out but because the academy has so many civilian students they fall under the civilian councils purview."

"I'll never understand why your civilian council has so much power in a ninja village."

"They're a relic from the First Hokage, I think he wanted to show that Konoha could be more than just a ninja village, which is really biting me in the ass."

"Can I assume you'll have something in place to assure that our children have a fair exam?"

"Iruka assures me that he has everything covered, and I trust him." They turned a corner, Naruto and Gaara had stopped in front of an Ice cream stand. "What have we here, Ice cream before dinner?"

"Come on dad please!?" Naruto begged on both hands and knees.

"Haha, okay okay just stand up. Beside you know that sea salt caramel is my weakness. Rasa?"

Rasa was staring at the menu with confusion "what is this ice cream?"

"What?!" Naruto asked "you've never heard of Ice cream? Oh my Kami you have to try some, how have you never had ice cream before ow! Gaara what was that for?"

Gaara quietly bit on her chocolate cone "because you need to think Naruto. Suna is in a desert, frozen stuff won't last very long there."

"Well doesn't the temperature drop to like negative one thousand at night, seems like it could last then."

"So your proposition is that everyone should eat frozen food at night, when it's coldest?"

"Well I mean they could...ugh! This makes my head hurt, dad?" NAruto looked to his father for assistance.

"Oh no, you dragged yourself into this mess, and as someone who says they're going to become a better Hokage than me, you should be able to get yourself out of this."

Rasa leaned down to look at Gaara's cone "tell me are these things as delectable as they seem?"

One Week Later

The academy class room was a tense one to say the least. Every student sat in quiet concentration. After all today was the day that they would try and become genin. The only ones talking, more like arguing were Sasuke and Naruto. "I bet you three hundred yen I take top male."

"Really Duck? I have five hundred yen I beat you by a mile!"

"I said to stop call me that!"

"And you have yet to get a hair cut!"

"I swear when we get to the taijutsu portion I'm going to kick your ass!"

"You and what army, your shuriken? Hah."

"Alright everyone" Iruka said coming into the classroom with Mizuki, holding a stack of paper, "now I know you're all excited, and just filled with anticipation, it is the big day. Some of you will fail, but I personally hope all of you succeed. So here's how this is going to go, there are four parts to the graduation exam, and each are worth 25% of your overall grade. We know everyone is unique, and that you all have your own specializations. Try your best but don't worry so much if there's a part your not good at. The first part is a written test, you have an hour to complete it."

Mizuki started passing the tests around "now don't get caught cheating, it'll be an immediate failure for this portion of the exam. These test are everything we've covered during your time in the academy. " Mizuki grinned, another teacher entered the room

"Iruka, hey I lost my answer sheet, do you mind if I make a quick copy of yours?"

As Iruka turned away from his class to find it, Mizuki slipped a different written exam to Gaara, and Naruto. But what he wasn't aware of was that Gaara had guessed that some one would try something. She had her head down, but her sand eye was floating a few feet above Mizuki where she could see everything clearly.

She lifted her head so her real eye could exam the test. Gaara herself had taken her studies very seriously, she was confident she could get a passing grade. But Naruto was a different matter. He wasn't stupid, far from it. But he was more of a battle field thinker than an academic thinker. If Mizuki were the one picking up the tests after the hour was up he could just as easily swap their tests out with ones meant for failure. She'd be damned if Naruto lost his chance for top male.

Mizuki froze as she spoke up, just loud enough that her voice carried over to Iruka "Mizuki-sensei, when did we go over this? I've been making A's all year, but I don't recall when we went over this question."

Mizuki turned around annoyed, and Iruka could see it on his face "let me see Gaara, well we went over this at the beginning of the year obviously. Now please I-"

"Here" Iruka said, ascending the stairs "let me take a look."

Mizuki tried to stop him "what, come on Iruka, I think I remember our own curriculum."

But it didn't work, Iruka stopped by Gaara "hold on a minute what is this? This isn't the exam we made last night."

By now the entire class was looking at them "oh would you look at that, we didn't go over this. I was wrong, this looks like chunin level material."

Iruka gave Mizuki a dirty look "here Gaara, this is the test you were supposed to get, what the...Mizuki how did Naruto get one as well?"

Naruto let out a sigh of relief, he saw the questions and just thought he was dumb. "Iruka I swear I have no idea how these got here, must have been a mistake."

Iruka sighed "anyways I'll pass the tests out, you go make sure the sparring grounds are up to snuff and ready okay? The rest of you may begin as soon as you get your paper."

Mizuki walked out of the class room just as annoyed, but he swore he'd take his revenge.

Gaara was a little concerned for Naruto though , 'he might still have trouble with some of these questions...well we were told not to get caught cheating, not that cheating wasn't allowed...'

Naruto jumped slightly as he felt something coarse travel up his pants. Looking down he saw a small trickle of sand making it's way up to his lap, it was a singular line of sand that connected to one of Gaara's mini gourds, that she kept on her right thigh. Positioned in such a way that Iruka couldn't see. It started moving in such a way that it started spelling out words 'Q1: A, Q2: C, Q3: Hiruzen Sarutobi, Q4: 435.'

'Sweet Gaara thanks for the assist!' Naruto grinned and swiftly started filling in the answers, Iruka smiled. He had a fair idea of what was going on but said nothing. It looked like Gaara alone had figured out the true meaning of this test. And it's not like he could SEE that she was cheating, well he could see her fingers moving rapidly but that could mean anything, right?

Mizuki chewed on his lips 'dammit' he though to himself. He needed the demons to fail at least two exams to be held back. With this cock up, the fox was sure to pass. But he had contingencies for the sand brat. After all the throwing section had it's own trick and the sparring section after that he could handle. But it would have been nice to hold them both back. At least this way he could deny the fox it's mate.

He straightened himself out as the students started approaching "ah hello everyone I hope you all did well on the written test. This here is the thrown weapons portion" he pointed to a bungle of ropes, swinging logs and targets behind him. "You will all be given ten kunai and twenty shuriken, and your goals are the targets. The static targets are worth five points, the logs ten points and the training dummies are worth twenty points . Be warned their are child size cut outs randomly strewn about, they have the ability to pop up at any time. If you hit one, it's minus twenty five points. You're goal is to get as many points as possible. If your weapon only grazes but doesn't stick it's worth half the points, Will start at the top of the list, Choji you're up."

So it was student's came and went, mos tof the heirs got passing marks. It wasn't until Gaara stepped up did things get interesting. There was a base line about thirty feet away, clear view. Kiba walked over to Naruto and grinned "it was almost too easy for me ya know. Their are people on either side of the course raising and lowering the children, they tend to get excited when doing I can smell them, it was easy for me to time."

"Well good for you Kiba, want to help me out?"

Kiba shook his head "no Naruto I'm telling you this because their going nuts right now, I think something is up."

Naruto narrowed his eyes, on the walk over here Gaara had informed him of Mizuki's trick. He had been aware of the instructors dislike of him and Gaara, But to think he'd stoop to this. He probably had friends helping him out too. Well it was too late for Gaara, she'd have to figure this out herself.

Mizuki grinned as he handed Gaara her kunai, or at least tried to, but Gaara shook her head "I'm sorry Mizuki-sensei I won't be using yours, I'll be using my own." Sand came out of the gourd on her back, twenty shuriken formed in an arc over her.

Mizuki snapped "hey I didn't say you could use ninjutsu!"

"But Mizuki-sensei, with this I can control how shrap my weapons are, how dense they are and how fast they can go, up to a degree. It's more trustworthy than shuriken used over and over again."

Mizuki was about to rebut this but Iruka stepped in I'll allow it, the same rules apply though."

"Iruka" Mizuki growled "the rules. We already have a ninjutsu exam."

"Some of which you've already broken Mizuki" Iruka said quietly having to get in his face just so he could hear it "besides" he said louder "this is already a high genin ability. Whenever you're ready Gaara go ahead."

Gaara lifted her hand, and threw it forward, all twenty shuriken launching at once, all heading towards the one swinging log. Just as it was about to hit, three children cut outs raised from the ground. But Gaara had been expecting it, she threw her other hand out, made fists, and threw both her hands to the left. All her shuriken, attached to her gourd by a thin line of sand, moved left with her motion.

There was a gasp, three had missed the training dummies behind the log, but every other one had hit fair and square. Iruka smiled "very good Gaara, nice reflexes. Gaara Sabaku three hundred and forty points, which puts her in first place, in front of Hinata by thirty points. Now on to your kunai young lady."

The rest of the class went by smoothly, Naruto having seen what they did to Gaara, decided to spread his point total as much ass possible. Of course it had nothing on Sasuke's score, who barely manage to get ten more points than Gaara. Next up was the sparring portion and in this also did Gaara managed to stand out, so to did another female but before that...

"Okay everyone" Mizuki said standing in a wide open field, many circles of chalk drawn on the ground "you're going to partner up with somebody and fight your best fight here. There is no point system here, only a winner and a loser which will be determined by who can push their opponent out of the circle first, everyone but Gaara find your partner."

No one was particularly surprised by this out come, by now everyone know of her 'bloodline' that made it impossible to fight Gaara at close quarters. Hell the only people who could get close to her without her automated defense going off was Naruto, and most surprisingly, Hinata. No one had expected Naruto's fiance and his biggest fangirl to become friends.

But what no one was expecting was for Hinata to raise her hands "Mizuki-sensei, Iruka-sensei I would like to spar with Gaara."

Both instructors looked at each other "Hinata, you know that defense is Gaara' specialty are you sure?"

Hinata nodded determination filling her eyes. "Yes sir, all I need is permission to use the Juken, my chakra, my shuriken, the clone technique, and my Byakugan."

Iruka looked over to Hinata's would be opponent "Well Gaara what do you say?"

Gaara looked at Hinata for a moment, trying to discern her reasoning "it's only fair, my defense uses a small portion of my chakra after all. I do not mind."

Iruka looked down at his clip board "okay here's how we will do this, Gaara we know your taijutsu skills are definitely genin level so you'll stick to primarily defense, Hinata you will win if you can score three hits on Gaara, is that fair?"

The entire class had formed a small semicircle around the 'ring' Gaara and Hinata entered, Iruka knew they would be more focused on this match than their own so he didn't try and stop them. Besides, he had seen the evil glint in Mizuki's eyes when he called Gaara out, and how he was stewing now. He didn't want to know what he had originally planned.

Iruka stood between the two girls, "begin!"

Gaara stood to one side, her arms crossed "why are you doing this Hinata?" The Hyuga girl didn't bother answering her, her Byakugan flared to life Gaara sighed and walked towards her, stopping in the center. "Fine, whatever it is you're trying to prove, go ahead and take your best shot."

Hinata ran towards Gaara, feigning a frontal assault, Gaara's shield sprang to life and Hinata jumped left, running in a circle, the sand had formed a semi complete sphere around Gaara Hinata knew that if she attacked any of the open spots, it would close before she reached out but she had come into this with a plan.

She reached into her pouch and pulled out unique looking shuriken, they were smaller than standard issue, but the points where longer and more curved and instead of throwing them at Gaara, she threw them at an arc so they'd land right above Gaara's head. Right afterwards Hinata threw a smoke bomb down, covering herself, Gaara watched on with interest.

Out of the smoke came six Hinata, all forming around Gaara, before charging her. 'The clone technique huh? If my defenses didn't react on my own, it would be a good strategy but-' Gaara's thoughts were interrupted by a high pitch whistling sound coming from...'above? the shuriken?' She opened a small hole in her dome to see that ten shuriken had erupted in a blaze of fire 'shit!'

The hole closed, and Gaara could feel the impact of the thrown weapons 'wait' Gaara thought 'there were five clones a moment ago, where did the fifth one go?'

Again from above Gaara, he could feel Hinata coming, she went to move sand to reinforce the area but was surprised when her sand stayed still defy her will. 'Wait fire? She turned the outer part of my shell into glass!'

*SHATTERING SOUND*

Hinata descended from the top of the dome, the rest of her classed cheered, this was the closest anyone had gotten to her in a sparring match in her entire time in the academy. 'Just as I thought' Hinata said to herself ' Gaara's sand defense works in an area around her, I was right to assume I could get past it if I got close enough.'

Hinata grinned as she landed her first hit ever on the girl she saw as her rival, landing a strong blow on Gaara's shoulder, her second hit was a strong palm thrust into a leg sweep and her third hit was aimed for Gaara's face but stopped just short of it. "Stop!" Iruka called just as the blow was about to land. The whole class cheered for Hinata's victory.

"Hinata when did you learn fire manipulation?" Iruka asked.

"Oh um.." Hinata blushed from all the attention and praise, but Gaara stood up and looked her in her face which got everyone's attention.

"That was a good match" the redhead said offering the girl her hand "it was well planned and brilliantly executed. How long have you been thinking on it?"

Hinata grinned as she shook Gaara's hand "since second year, but it's still incomplete. It only worked this time because you weren't attacking. Everyone believes you're going to be top female, but I haven't given up yet."

The rest of the the class went through there one on ones, but the flashy show put on by Hinata spurred her classmates to higher heights as almost everyone tried to put on their best show for the instructors. The only fight that came close was the one between Sasuke and Naruto, which had to be called a tie for neither of the boys could definitively beat the other, and their match was almost thirty minutes. By the end it was just a pure slugfest.

But the last test was the ninjutsu test, which involved using the substitution jutsu, the henge jutsu and the clone jutsu, and right now Naruto was up to bat.

"Okay Naruto, you and Gaara are special exceptions to the clone jutsu for obvious reasons, we know you're more than proficient with the shadow clone so we'll go ahead and skip that. Right now I need you to use the substitution jutsu for us."

Naruto grinned, he had an idea "okay Iruka-sensei, hold on." Naruto made two shadow clones on either side of him then another one which quickly . He then bent over, folding his arms and putting his head on his wrists. Iruka was confused until Naruto was replaced with a sleeping Shikamaru who was caught by the shadow clones, so his sleep went undisturbed.

Both shadow clones grinned as Shikamaru was then gone and Naruto reappeared again, there was an audible thud followed by a loud "troublesome blonde" from outside the door.

"Very creative Naruto, now please show us a henge, whoever you want."

Naruto thought for a second "henge!" Naruto had turned himself into a perfect copy of his father.

"Perfect Naruto, it's my pleasure to say congratulations on passing the academy graduation test, please pick your head band."

Following his color scheme Naruto show a dark blue headband that he tied around is forehead. He just completed the first step in becoming the best Hokage ever!

WHEW! Finally, I didn't think I'd get this out in time, anyways that fight between Hinata was short but epic right? And well planned I have to say, ain't she full of surprises folks? Any whose, sorry if the ending fills rushed it was starting to get a tad bit to long for my comfort. But Naruto ahs made it to genin, and Mizuki's plans have been foiled again! QotC - when a story gets completed, what's your preferred wordcount? I like 'em long, so I have something to read for a while, so it's 100,000+ word stories for me.

And as always see ya next week!