Title: Stop…Restart It – Naruto

Fandom: Naruto

Characters: Sparrow, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura

Chapter: 4

Word Count: 2248

Warnings: again, bad pacing.
AN: I almost forgot to post this. I'm working on a few things. The Bleach/Breath of the Wild, a spin off, and of course my mini's and short stories that I plan on posting eventually. So we'll see how that goes.

For now, enjoy.


Two long days and several tests, meetings and lessons had been given to Naruto, preparing him for the mission to come and the tutoring that he was going to go through under Sparrow's careful eye. He had learned just why he couldn't create a clone and they had worked on fixing that for a good chunk of the weekend, along with some basic chakra exercises to control his excessive amount of it.

Sparrow had found that Naruto was much like his father, having told him that but not telling him who his father was, only that the man was dead. The ANBU did promise to tell one day but at the moment he wasn't able to tell him due to restrictions on Naruto's file. The blond had understood, surprisingly enough, and extracted the promise to be told when he turned 16 and came into majority.

At the moment, Naruto was sitting in one of the chairs, writing out his observations in small enough letters to give a sharp eyed Inuzuka a hard time understanding it. He was observing Sakura in what he was jokingly calling full fangirl mode. It was kind of horrifying the way she was sucking up to Sasuke and pissed off that Naruto was sitting next to him just because of the seating arrangements that Iruka kept for them. She kept looking over at him as the Uchiha next to him continued to ignore her with surprising ease.

"What are you doing, Naruto? Trying to look smart?" Sakura sneered suddenly, Naruto flicking blue eyes up at her before returning to what he was writing.

"Hardly. Just doing an exercise, that's all, Haruno," Naruto said before going back to his writing. Before Sparrow had walked into his life, he would have kept up his mask and fawned all over her, trying to get her attention, probably make a fool of himself before her. But his new tutor had told him to stop acting the fool whenever possible. Since he would pull pranks no matter how he acted, he was still allowed to do them but was to consider them training in stealth and getting away without getting caught.

Sparrow had made the addendum that Iruka did not count since the man had taught him.

Sakura reared back with a surprised look on her face, green eyes blinking several times as she stared at Naruto go back to once more writing, Sasuke raising an eyebrow at him. All the time that they had known him, they had only ever seen him as an over eager puppy if anything. It was shocking to see the way he was suddenly acting. It was as if he had taken a 360 turn for the good, or the bad depending on who you asked when it came to him.

Sasuke simply snorted and looked at Sakura with a dark glare. "Get lost. Class is about to start," he stated, getting a pout from the pink haired girl before she narrowed her eyes and stood, stalking off to her seat next to Ino who just smirked.

"Looks like Sasuke-kun doesn't want to be around you," Ino taunted as she leant onto her elbows, smirking heavily at her rival and friend. Naruto glanced over to the two of them before snorting and shaking his head, Sasuke taking a chance to glance at what Naruto was writing, amused at reading, 'The fangirl leaves, defeated and annoyed that once more she is unable to sit next to her prey of choice.'

"Funny, Uzumaki," he chuckled lowly under his breath, blue eyes coming to rest on him and gazing with a wary distrust that he could understand. He was loved by the village, spoiled rotten and he knew it, but he had no idea on how to change the fact that he was so spoiled or how to change his attitude. His life had changed after all with one overheard conversation only just a few days ago.

Naruto hummed softly and tapped his pen against the journal with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Yeah, whatever," he hummed finally, going back to his journal. He had noticed that with as much writing he had done, his lettering had become neater, easier to understand and his vocabulary had grown with how often he had to turn to the dictionary for the spelling of this word or that. His essay writing had started to come easier to him to since he was able to read better, finding it rather amazing that just writing and reading every day whenever he had a few moments.

Sparrow seemed to enjoy teasing him about his new found love for a good mystery novel. Naruto tended to use said book to smack his ANBU tutor, feeling comfortable enough to do so and not get attacked because of it. Their rather easy going relationship had worried Naruto until he had time to really think about it and figured that if the man tried something, Iruka would have his balls bronzed and mounted on his lawn.

Before they were removed of course.

Finishing up his writing, he flipped the journal closed and sat back, stretching with a grunt as Iruka slipped in and placed a large pile of papers down onto the desk as his silver haired co-teacher walked in with a smile on his face.

"Alright, everyone, sit down please," Iruka called, getting everyone to take their seats and grow quiet. "Today are the final two tests. The first half is the final written exam, which will be held until lunch, and then after lunch, we will do the physical exam. Please stay quiet, no cheating is allowed and if you're caught, you shall lose half of your grade," he stated, everyone shifting in place. "Now, we all know how these tests work."

Mizuki smirked and took the pile of papers from Iruka who just nodded to him and walked up one side of the classroom, handing over a pile of papers to the first student. As the papers were handed down and the large chunnin walked back to the front of the room, Naruto watched the man carefully, as he always did.

'Something just don't sit right with that man,' he thought before shaking his head and pulling a pencil out of an inner jacket pocket, sliding his pen into it instead. Once the class was given the go ahead, papers were flipped and the test started, Naruto amazed at how much easier it already was to understand what each question was asking.

He found that the answers came to him quicker to now that he knew what the questions were asking. He could understand what they meant and what they wanted, and he could write out a proper answer. With it being Iruka who was grading the papers, he didn't have to worry about his answers mysteriously disappearing now.

After the test was done and handed in, Naruto found a private area to rest, waiting for lunch to be over with and for Sparrow to drop by as he promised. Pulling out a small scroll, he pulled out his bento and started to eat, taking his time in enjoying the meal that he had been able to make the night before, looking up from it when Sparrow dropped down next to him in the groove of trees that he had chosen as his hiding spot.

"Did the test go well?" the ANBU asked, getting a raised eyebrow from his student as he finished his bite.

"Well enough I suppose. We're doing the clones next," Naruto hummed before eating another bit of his lunch, shrugging with a smile dancing on his lips before it died. "Did you find out anything?" he asked.

"Yeah, some of it. It looks to be like it's one of three teachers, meaning that we have to wait until they approach you. Remember, Naruto, flunk that last test. I believe that it hinges on you doing so," Sparrow stated, Naruto nodding as he offered his bento, the man waving it off with a nod.

"I can do that. I'm still not the best and faking it won't be too hard," Naruto snorted, shaking his head with an amused smile on his lips.

"Only you, Naruto, only you," Sparrow snorted before disappearing with a rustle, having learned the first night to leave with some kind of sound so as to not startle the still skittish boy. Watching the man leave, Naruto hummed and finished his lunch, sealing the bento box back into the scroll before heading into class, taking his seat as he waited for the rest of the class to get there.

Mizuki looked up and smirked slightly as Naruto started to write in his journal, taking in the boy that was all alone and without a prayer. He knew that the blond child was going to fail and when he did it would leave a perfect opening for him to finally kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. He cleared his face and smiled pleasantly at Naruto when he looked up.

'Creepy fucker,' Naruto thought before noting just how creepy Mizuki was along with his wonderings as to why it was him who had to deal with the nin. Once Iruka stepped back into the classroom, the rest of the students started to trickle back in before Sasuke walked in with Ino and Sakura following after him like two puppy dogs, much to his annoyance. The younger male smirked and closed his journal, tucking it away as Iruka called the class to order.

"Now, we are going to do a basic cloning jutsu. To pass this test you must have at the least three viable clones that can act and look like you but do not have to be solid. Remember, this is a basic cloning jutsu," Iruka stated before disappearing into the testing room with Mizuki, the students waiting for their turn.

Hardly anyone was surprised that most of the class passed with near perfect results, Sasuke and Sakura landing in the top two spots for the test. Naruto waited patiently for his turn, writing in his journal and watching as his fellow students talked and bragged about how easy the tests were.

Naruto was amused by it all, his notes showing his feelings and thoughts about it all, including the upcoming mission. When he was called, he slid the journal into one pocket, letting his normal orange jacket hang open and head into the room, putting on his fool's mask.

"Uzumaki, Naruto. You know the drill," Mizuki said, chuckling softly as Naruto beamed brightly and nodded.

"Yep. You need three clones right?" he asked, rocking on his feet as he worked out how best to do this. He needed to fail this test after all, so two proper clones, with or without a third clone, wasn't going to work. Look like he was going to have to go with the original thought of making a clone that looked more like a knocked out corpse.

"That is right, Naruto-kun," Iruka said, shuffling the papers, the two catching eyes before Naruto beamed once more and nodded his head. The resulting clone was just as he had thought that overpowering it would result it. It was limp, lifeless and looked like it had been suckered punched in its nuts.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but you have failed," Iruka stated, playing his part well when the whining started about giving the blond boy another chance. After the fight and Mizuki acting like he really wanted to pass Naruto seeing as it was his third try at the test, the classes let out.

Mizuki found Naruto sitting in a tree, looking forlorn and playing with a well worn kunai that he was tapping against the palm of his hand. "Naruto-kun...are you alright?" he asked, landing on a branch next to him and applauding his ability to keep the disgust he felt for the fox out of his face and out of his tone.

"Yeah, I am, I guess," Naruto said, sounding rather forlorn. "I'm just tired of failing these tests time after time...It's just getting annoying." He huffed and ran a hand through his hair.

Mizuki smirked, eyes gleaming. "There is another way for you to get your hiate, Naruto-kun."

Naruto looked up at him and squinted as he asked, "Yeah?"

"Yes, indeed," Mizuki hummed as he leant forward, almost acting as if he was sharing a big secret. "There's a scroll in the Hokage's Tower that has a list of jutus that are some of the hardest to learn. If you can learn one, they would make you a genin and you wouldn't have to worry about taking any more classes or your place in the new teams," he continued, smiling sweetly at Naruto.

Naruto made sure to give him the wide eyed, innocent and awed at the thought. "Really?" he breathed, mentally rolling his eyes at the idiot that was before him.

"Yeah. You just have to borrow it first. It's part of this particular testing. If you can borrow it and learn the jutsu, you'll become a chunnin."

"Alright! I'll do it! Believe it!" Naruto cried out, jumping to his feet and flashing Mizuki a smile and a thumbs up before speeding off to hide his snickers from the idiot. He had a meeting with Sparrow, Iruka and the Hokage after all, especially since he now had the proof that it was Mizuki who was the traitor.