Hi! House hunting with a deadline sucks!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Naruto world. Except my oc's.

Chapter Four

Once their break was over, everyone was back in their seat in the classroom. The practical portion of the exams were, according to what Hakuku-oji had told him, a spar, and then the execution of what had become over the years to be known as the 'Academy Three'. The bunshin jutsu, the kawarimi jutsu, and the henge jutsu. These three jutsu, Minato knew, were always on the test. They would be easy enough.

The spar on the other hand…

Not that he was doubting his own ability. But all of these people had gone to school together for years, and knew each other's moves. Minato didn't know how any of them fought. Of course, he'd sparred quite a number of times with Toru, and a few other cousins… so he knew how someone taught the Academy katas fought… Sighing, he forced himself to pay attention as the sensei's called the class to attention.

"Alright, listen up!" Iruka ordered. "We'll be dividing you up into four groups for the spars. When I call your name, I'll also be assigning you a number. That number will determine which group you will be in. Each group will be taking the sparring practicals together, otherwise we'd be here well after all classes end. This will all be in alphabetical order. Alright, first up, Aburame Shino, group four. Akimichi Chouji, group three. Aoyama Seiji, group two…"

Minato listened attentively, noting that group one seemed to be made up solely of girls, and the other three groups were all boys. It made sense, there were more boys in the classroom than girls.

"Inuzuka Kiba, group two! Inuzuka Kiku, group one!"

People were starting to get excited, wondering who they'd be up against in the spars, and Iruka-sensei had to hush them every now and then.

"Nara Shikamaru, group three! Nonaka Kira, group one!"

Chouji looked glad that he was in Shikamaru's group, and Minato saw the Nara boy give his friend a lazy acknowledgement of the fact. Minato felt like he was on the edge of his seat, waiting to see what group he'd be in…

"Ozawa Taishiro, group four! Sarutobi Minato, group two!"

Minato froze at the sound of his name, and glanced over to Kiba, who was going to be in his group. The Inuzuka gave him a grin and a thumbs up, and Minato returned the grin, before returning his attention to Iruka-sensei.

"Uchiha Sasuke, group two! And finally, Uzumaki Naruto, group four!"

Iruka-sensei let the students buzz in excitement for a moment, before he hushed them. "Group one," he said, "you will be leaving with Amida-sensei. Right now, come on!"

The girls all got up and left with Amida-sensei. "Group two, you'll be with me. Group three, with Kaji-sensei. Group four, with Mizuki-sensei. Come on, chop chop!"

Minato stood from his seat, and followed Iruka-sensei, Kiba beside him and chattering excitedly. He was going over who it was he was going to get to fight, though naturally, Minato didn't recognise any of those names. Once outside, they saw that they were all going to be in the one area, just divided into their groups. Naruto waved over to them from where he stood in Mizuki-sensei's group, ignoring the sensei telling him to pay attention.

"Alright," Iruka-sensei spoke up then, "we've already sorted out the match-ups, which we are doing first. Now, the point of this exam is not to win, but to show us what you can do. Each of you will fight twice, that will give me a better idea of what you can do. If a match goes over two minutes, I'll call it a draw. To start things off… Kiba and Shohei, you're up first."

Kiba gave an enthusiastic grin, and stepped over to the space that had been set aside for the matches. The two bowed respectfully, then on Iruka-sensei's say so, they lunged. Kiba won the round, then two others took his place. Minato watched the spars eagerly, noting that they all showcased the Academy's basic katas, as well as their own style.

Finally, it was Minato's turn, and he stepped up to spar with a kid named Nobu. The two bowed, then Nobu immediately lunged at him. Minato evaded him easily, moving around him to strike from behind. Nobu turned, trying to accommodate for the sudden loss of his opponent, but Minato hit him in the side. Nobu let out a puff of air at that contact, then tried to have at Minato again, only for him to send him out of the 'ring' with a kick.

"Alright, winner is Minato, well done," Iruka-sensei said. "Alright, next!"

Minato went over to help Nobu up, who grinned up at him. "You're pretty fast!" he said as he stood, then winced. "And you hit real hard, too."

"Sorry about that…" Minato said sheepishly, but Nobu waved it away.

"It's no problem," he said. "I wonder who I'll fight in the second round…?"

Oh, right, there was a second round. Minato hadn't exactly forgotten, but he had been rather preoccupied with the fights.

"Last fight for this round," Iruka called. "Sasuke and Seiji, you're up."

Minato watched the fight with interest. Naruto had mentioned (complained) earlier about how the Uchiha was really skilled. As the two before him fought, he couldn't really see any of this skill. Mostly, it was because Sasuke wasn't taking his opponent seriously, and indeed, the fight was over in less than ten seconds. Iruka-sensei sighed at that.

"Sasuke wins," he declared. "The next round is pretty much the same, but please, try not to have a ten second fight. We really do need to see how all of you go. Okay, take a ten minute break, then we'll start."

"That was pretty brutal," Kiba remarked to Seiji, who'd come over to where they were standing.

Seiji winced. "Fighting Sasuke's like that," he said. "Really, only you and Naruto are ever able to give him a real fight, and that's just cuz you two've got ridiculous stamina!"

"Nobu didn't last too long against Minato here," Kiba said. "Maybe he could take the Uchiha down?"

Seiji shrugged. "Maybe," he said. "But unless they're matched for the last round, we mightn't ever know."

Soon enough, Iruka-sensei called them over again. "Okay, this time, first up will be Yasuo and Genkei…"

The fights went on, and Kiba went up against his opponent, winning this match as well. Then Seiji and Nobu fought, both of them giving a good show this time. Then…

"Minato and Sasuke, you two are up now!"

"Go get 'im, Minato!" Kiba cheered as Minato went over.

Minato was wary as he bowed, which was a good thing, because as soon as Iruka-sensei said 'start', Sasuke was coming at him. He was fast, but so was Minato. When Sasuke lashed out with his right arm, Minato dodged under it and made to sweep Sasuke's legs out from under him. Sasuke leapt up to avoid the attack, a leg lashing out to follow through with a kick that Minato swiftly leaned back to dodge.

They danced, for lack of a better term, around one another, neither able to land a solid hit at first, but then Minato twisted mid manoeuvre, his leg kicking out and catching Sasuke in the gut. He let out a short 'oof' as part of the wind was knocked out of him, but recovered quickly, coming in with a counter of his own.

As his fist was headed straight for Minato's face, he was pretty sure he wasn't going to be able to dodge this one, but then some instinct in the back of his brain kicked in and he reached up to grab Sasuke's wrist, pulling the Uchiha off balance as he then practically threw him away from him. Sasuke stumbled ever so slightly then whirled around, ready to come at him again…

"That's enough!" Iruka-sensei called. "Time limit is up, the match is a draw."

Minato stepped back and straightened, and Sasuke reluctantly did the same. His expression was a tad angry, and Minato wondered why that was. Was it… because he didn't beat him? In any case, he deliberately turned away from him and made his way back over to Kiba, who was crowing at Minato's 'victory.'

"I didn't win," Minato said, frowning. "It was a tie."

"But you would have, I just know it!" Kiba told him, and Minato shrugged.

There were only two more matches after that, then they were led back inside. They were all sat down at their desks once more, then one by one (in random order, not alphabetically this time) they were called into the next room for the jutsu section of the test. Also, they were told that once this part was done, they could go home, returning the next day for their team assignments if they'd passed.

When Minato went in, it was to find Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei sitting at a desk with paperwork in front of them. Next to them was a neat pile of shiny new hitai-ate.

"Ah, Minato," Mizuki-sensei greeted with a smile. "If you would, the kawarimi, bunshin, and henge, in that order."

Minato nodded and proceeded to do so, forming the hand signs and moulding his chakra with ease. Once he was done, he looked over expectantly to the sensei's. They were both smiling.

"Congratulations, Minato!" Iruka-sensei said, standing and picking up a hitai-ate to hold out to him. "You are now officially a gennin of Konoha. Well done."

"Yes, well done," Mizuki-sensei repeated. "Don't forget to be here at the same time tomorrow for team assignments, alright?"

Minato nodded, holding his precious hitai-ate to his chest. "Yes sensei," he said, and the two of them grinned.

"Go on, get out of here," Iruka-sensei told him. "I'm sure you have people you want to celebrate with."

Minato nodded, bowed, then rushed out the door.

OoOoO

Minato found Shikamaru and Chouji waiting outside.

"Hey," Shikamaru greeted him, then glanced at the headband in his hand. "You passed, I take it?"

Minato nodded, a slight grin appearing. "The two of you as well," he noted, then looked around. "Where's Naruto?"

"He hadn't been called in yet," Chouji said. "But Kiba was right behind us so he shouldn't be too long."

"Hey!" It was Kiba. "So you guys all passed, then? That's great. Shame about Naruto, though."

"What do you mean?" Shikamaru asked.

Kiba shrugged. "He failed," he said, and Minato felt a stab of sadness and pity. "I saw him head out towards that swing he likes. He looked pretty bummed out."

"Maybe we could do something to cheer him up?" Chouji asked.

"Mizuki-sensei was talking to him when I saw him," Kiba said. "I'm sure he'd want to be alone, anyways. He never did like it when people crowded him when he lost in spars, after all. And this is bigger than that…"

Minato looked back towards the Academy, he could sense Naruto, as well as Mizuki-sensei. They were headed towards the offices in the building, so Minato pulled away his senses and focused on the three boys in front of him.

"So, do you all want to come to our barbeque place?" Chouji offered. "Y'know, to celebrate getting our hitai-ate?"

"I'm in!" Kiba agreed enthusiastically.

"Sure, me too," Shikamaru agreed, then they all turned to Minato. "What about you, Minato?"

Before Minato could answer, a voice called, "Hey, Shikamaru, here you are."

They all looked over to see a taller, older version of Shikamaru saunter up to them, with two others behind him. Minato recognised their general appearances as a Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka.

"Tou-san," Shikamaru greeted. "Chouji just invited us to barbeque."

"Great idea, son!" the burly Akimichi declared. "So, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Naruto will be joining us then?"

"Uh…"

"This isn't Naruto, tou-san," Chouji said.

"Huh… So it isn't."

Minato was reminded that he and Naruto looked quite similar, enough for Chouji's father to mistake him for the other boy with a passing glance. And once it was pointed out, he suddenly found himself under the intense scrutiny of the three adults. Adults who, once they got a good look at him, reacted rather similar to when Kakashi-san had first seen him.

"Well now," the Yamanaka mused. "Er… Won't you introduce us to your friend?"

"His name's Sarutobi Minato," Kiba said. "Apparently he's been privately tutored from home."

"Sarutobi, 'ey?" Chouza mused, then grinned. "Well, you're certainly welcome to join us," he said.

"I… I'll have to ask Hakuku-oji," Minato said, a little uncertain on what his uncle would say.

"Well, go ask him," the elder Nara spoke up then. "He's right over there."

And indeed, when Minato looked, he saw his uncle looking around for him. When he spotted him, his eyes widened briefly, then he headed over. "Shikaku, Chouza, Inoichi," he greeted the three adults. "Good to see you."

"And you, Hakuku," Chouza greeted with a genuine smile. "My son has invited young Minato here to barbeque to celebrate graduating. Of course, you're welcome to join us as well."

Hakuku glanced down at Minato, who looked up and gave him his best 'can I please?' look. He sighed. "I suppose it would be alright," he said. "Now, or later for dinner?"

"Perhaps later for dinner," Chouza mused, looking down at his son. "Yes, that might be best. Do you know which barbeque place we'll be at?"

"Furuhata's?" Hakuku asked, and Chouza nodded. "We'll be there. Seven?"

"Six thirty," Shikaku spoke up. "That's usually when we go when we have the kids with us."

Hakuku nodded. "Alright, we'll see you then," he said. "Say goodbye, Minato, so we can go get ready for tonight."

Minato smiled at his new friends. "See you guys later," he said.

He received a round of 'byes', then followed his uncle off the Academy grounds.

Thanks for reading!