In which the Konoha children prepare for the end of the year.
O-O-O-O-O
"Just so you know, we will have our final exams next week," Iruka announced after they returned from lunch. "We will have the written exams throughout the week, then the physical benchmark test on Saturday morning."
Naruto beamed at his teacher, already excited at the prospect of showing off his skills.
"Benchmarks?" one of the boys asked, some kid with long brown hair Naruto had never talked to.
"The same as what we did at the beginning of the year," their teacher explained. "We want to see how much progress, if any, you've done over the past year. Once the exams are finished, we will have two weeks off for spring break. When we come back, that will be the start of your second year."
From the other side of the room, Naruto glared at Sasuke with a smirk on his face. He could tell that Sasuke could feel his gaze because the other boy tensed. Prepare to lose this time, jerk.
"Will the events be the same, Iruka-sensei?" a girl with blonde hair asked. I think her name is Ino?
Iruka nodded. "Yes. We expect to see at least some advancement in your skills. If we don't, it means you need to train more during your free time."
"So when is the test thingy, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked excitedly, leaning forward in his desk.
"Next Saturday," he answered. "We start at nine in the morning, so you all need to arrive on time, do you hear me?" He sent Naruto a pointed glare, but Naruto only shrugged with a smile.
"Yes, Iruka-sensei," the entire class responded.
Satisfied, Iruka went back to class, starting a lecture about chakra and how it worked. Naruto pretended to listen. On the inside, he could only think about how he would defeat Sasuke in the points total. I have to make my New Year's wish come true, ya know!
O-O-O-O-O
Hinata pushed her fingertips together and bit her lip as she turned her gaze back and forth between the two boys yelling in front of her.
Once they had left the Academy and gone to their familiar training area, Naruto and Sasuke had broken out into arguing. Both were shouting about how much better they would be than the other. While she stayed out of their rivalry, Hinata was beginning to wonder if she should speak up. She looked at their verbal fight as her frown deepened.
"You're going to lose, you hear me?" Naruto shouted. "I've been getting better and better and you're just a loser!"
Sasuke snorted. "Yeah right," he said. While his voice was quieter, his words were equally angry. "You can only beat me in a spar when you get lucky."
"Um... Naruto-kun? Sasuke-kun?" Hinata tried to interrupt, but the two boys brushed her aside as they glared daggers at each other.
"Prepare to lose, jerk!"
"Make me, loser!"
Hinata couldn't take it anymore. They had been going in circles since they left the Academy. Instead of their usual training, they had spent the last half-hour yelling at each other.
"Naruto-kun! Sasuke-kun!" she snapped, raising her voice for the first time.
At once, the two boys turned to her, frowns on their faces. She felt her face heat up but she refused to look away from them. I need to get them to stop fighting.
"Oh... um... it's just..." Despite her earlier conviction, she fidgeted. She swallowed and forced herself to speak as she kept her eyes focused on her training partners. "It's just that we're losing time arguing about something that hasn't happened yet," she said. "We haven't done any training today."
"Oh, yeah, sorry, Hinata-chan," Naruto said. Repentant, he scratched the back of his neck with a grin on his face.
"Hn," Sasuke grunted and looked away. While he didn't apologize, Hinata could tell that he felt chastened at her words.
"So... um... why don't we train some?" Hinata asked, trying to get the boys to focus.
"I guess it's not the worst idea," Sasuke admitted. Hinata felt her heart filling with hope.
"Yeah, but..." Naruto dashed her dreams as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and pondered her suggestion. "I don't want to train with this guy anymore, ya know! What if he copies my awesome techniques?"
Sasuke snorted. "I could say the same to you, loser."
To Hinata's dismay, another argument broke out, that time about stealing techniques. She huffed in exasperation and left the training grounds, frustrated. At this point, I might as well train alone.
"Wait, Hinata-chan, where are you going?" Naruto asked when he finally noticed her walking away, voice perplexed.
"Home," she said. She was almost surprised when her voice was full of anger, but she was too annoyed to care. "My time would be better spent training alone."
"Wait!" To her surprise, it was Sasuke who spoke out first and ran after her. She turned to him, a grimace on her face. What does he want now?
"Don't leave, Hinata-chan," Naruto begged, running to her side next to Sasuke.
"Yeah!" Sasuke added.
"I need your gentle fist style to practice dodging, ya know!" Naruto said, and Sasuke nodded. Hinata might have been more surprised about their agreement if she weren't so angry.
Her frown deepened. "Figure it out yourselves," she said. Without any other words, she left, walking in the direction back to the Hyuuga compound. Even without the Byakugan active, she could tell Sasuke and Naruto were gaping after her.
When she returned to the compound gates, she was greeted by Ko, guarding the entrance. "Hinata-sama," he asked, surprised. "You usually return later in the day. Did something happen?"
"Boys are stupid!" she answered with a scowl.
Ko took a step back. He opened his mouth as if to speak before closing it. Without any other words, he let her inside. She felt his gaze on her back as she walked toward her room.
She passed her father on the way. She nodded respectfully at him before continuing to her destination. However, when he saw the look on her face, he paused.
"Hinata?" he asked. Hinata turned around to meet her father's eyes. She tried to school her face into neutrality but the stupid argument between the two boys was still at the forefront of her mind.
"What is it, Father?" she asked, voice angry.
Her father raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay, Hinata? You seem upset."
Hinata bit her lip. She hadn't talked much to her father about her training with Naruto and Sasuke. Since the end of summer vacation, he hadn't taken her for training sessions either. Still, he's my father. Maybe I should tell him...
"Boys are stupid!" she declared, using the same words from earlier.
Her father raised a second eyebrow. "Why do you say that?" he asked after a few seconds of consideration.
"They only care about beating each other up instead of improving," she explained. "Sasuke-kun kept yelling about how he would get the top score. I just wanted to train!"
"You didn't do any training today?" he asked.
Hinata shook her head and looked at the ground, biting her lip. Ever since they had started sparring together, she had seen a large improvement in her skills. While she was still slower than both Naruto and Sasuke, she her throwing accuracy, endurance, and stamina had greatly improved.
"Would you..." her father began before pausing. She looked up at him. To her surprise, her father swallowed nervously before speaking his next words.
"What is it, Father?" she asked.
"Would you like to show me what you have been doing during your training sessions?" he asked.
Hinata blinked up at her father. She gaped at him as she absorbed his words. He had never asked her to show him her progress before. She smiled and nodded her head, her earlier mood fading.
"Of course, Father," she said. Without another word, they walked to the training dojo together. Hinata knew she still had a lot of work to do and a lot to improve. But for the moment, she wanted to show her father everything she had learned.
O-O-O-O-O
"Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked. He walked toward where Hinata sat alone near the front of the class. It was early in the morning and the only other student present was some boy wearing sunglasses.
She turned her gaze to him and Sasuke, who stood behind him, before looking away, an angry pout on her face. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and ignored both of them. Naruto shuffled his feet. Yeah, we probably deserve that.
"Hinata-chan?" he tried again as they walked to her side. "We're sorry."
"Sorry," Sasuke muttered.
She huffed and gave them her back.
"We should've just trained together yesterday, ya know," Naruto admitted. "We should've listened to you and you were right."
She continued to ignore them. He threw Sasuke a pleading glance, begging for help. Sasuke stepped forward, hands in his pockets.
"We've come to a decision," Sasuke said. "Until the benchmark tests are done, we will train on our own."
"Wait, alone?" Sasuke words got through to her and she spun around to look between him and Sasuke.
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, that way we won't argue about stealing techniques and junk, ya know. And we can prepare secret jutsu while we're alone too."
Hinata's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "So you decided this on your own?" she asked.
Naruto took a step back. "Well... sort of. If you want, you can still train with me."
"Or with me," Sasuke added.
Hinata looked between him and Sasuke, contemplating their words. To Naruto's relief, she smiled and nodded her head.
"Thank you, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun," she said. "But I think until the tests are done, I'll train some more with my father. He was happy with the progress I've made so far. He told me he would teach me new techniques, too."
New techniques? Naruto tried not to feel jealous. He forced a smile on his face instead. "So we'll all train alone then!" he said.
"Sure!" she said with a gentle smile.
"Are we still going to have lunch together?" Naruto asked. His heart began beating faster in fear as he waited for her answer
"Of course!" she said. A heavy weight lifted from Naruto's stomach. "Just no talking about the exams, okay?"
Naruto nodded furiously. After making Hinata mad the day before, he didn't want her to ever stop speaking to him again. Not talking about fighting seemed like an easy compromise.
O-O-O-O-O
"Well, kids, I guess it's almost time for the final results," Iruka said. He stared down at his clipboard and began to calculate the totals.
From across the arena, Naruto glared at Sasuke. Sasuke glared back. I won this time, ya know!
It was the end of the benchmark exams. They were faster, stronger, and more flexible than in their last attempt. However, the same as last time, Naruto and Sasuke had been almost evenly matched in all events. While Naruto had higher flexibility and endurance, Sasuke was still faster and stronger. In the end, it had come down to the sparring matches.
Naruto had hoped they would be paired up for their fights but that had not happened. Naruto had gone against Shikamaru instead. To his annoyance, the other boy had given up before Naruto even had the chance to enter the ring.
Sasuke, meanwhile, had been paired with Kiba. The other boy had been a worthy opponent. Kiba was fast, strong, and vicious, having amazing endurance. However, compared to Naruto, he was not as experienced. Sasuke had managed to take him down after a few minutes of fighting.
Hinata, to Naruto's joy, had also done very well. Slightly behind a girl named Ino, Hinata had done best out of all the kunoichi. She had surpassed most of the boys too, showing off her strength, speed, and agility without any issues.
In her fight, she had fought Sakura. To Naruto's shock, however, the pink-haired girl was weaker than he had imagined. Based on her perfect performance in their written exams, Naruto had expected her to be one of the strongest in their class. Instead, she had stood, uncertain, as she fought Hinata. Hinata had won in seconds, taking out Sakura without even using her Gentle Fist or Byakugan.
Sakura had looked at the edge of tears at the end of the match. Alone, she had stood by herself at the edge of the group, her bangs covering her eyes. Naruto had considered talking to her before getting called for his own match with Shikamaru.
"Is everybody listening?" Iruka asked, having finished counting the totals on his clipboard.
"Yes, Iruka-sensei," the class muttered, nodding their head, exhausted. They panted, some collapsing to the ground, to listen for the final results.
"Good, in that case..." Iruka cleared his throat before making the announcements. "In first place, we have..." Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other, narrowing their eyes. "Naruto Uzumaki, with 759 points out of a total of 1000! In second place-"
Naruto cheered, cutting off Iruka. He pointed a finger at Sasuke and smirked. "In your face, jerk!" he shouted. From across the arena, he saw Sasuke glowering and clenching his jaw in anger. Finally did better than you and you can't say I didn't!
Iruka cleared his throat again, more annoyed than before. "Naruto..." Naruto turned to look up at him, a grin still plastered on his face.
"Eh?"
"Let me finish," Iruka said. Despite his smile, Naruto felt a cold shiver run down his back. He felt the blood leaving his face and he bowed his head down in apology.
"Yes, sensei!" he shouted with his head down. "I'm sorry!"
Iruka hummed, accepting the apology. "Thank you, Naruto. Now, as I was saying, in second place, we have Sasuke Uchiha with 714 out of 1000 points. In third place, Kiba Inuzuka with 693 points. In fourth place, Ino Yamanaka with 685 points. In fifth place, Hinata Hyuuga with 681 points. In..."
Naruto stopped listening. He turned his eyes back to Sasuke, who was scowling from the other side of the field, looking angrier than he ever had before. Naruto smirked at him. My New Year's wish came true already!
Giggling to himself, Naruto waited for Iruka to finish giving out the results. At his side, Hinata was smiling, glad to be among the top five students in the class. Meanwhile, Sasuke only had eyes for Naruto, glaring at him in fury.
As soon as Iruka finished talking, Sasuke ran to where Hinata and Naruto were standing. "What was that?" he shouted. "How could you have gotten a better score?"
Naruto smirked. "I guess I'm just better than you," he boasted. Sasuke grimaced in response.
"Um... Sasuke-kun..." Hinata began to say before she quieted. Nervous, she pushed the tips of her fingers together and looked down. "I... um... I will see you two soon. I have to tell my father about my results. Goodbye."
"Goodbye," Sasuke said without sparing her a glance.
"See you later, Hinata-chan!" Naruto yelled, a grin on his face. Relieved, Hinata ran away from the upcoming argument, not looking back.
"There is no way your score was that much higher than mine," Sasuke whined. "We were matched the entire time!"
He finally admitted we're at the same level! "Hey! I didn't make the scores! Iruka-sensei did! If you have a problem, ask him!"
Sasuke's eyes widened as he turned his gaze in search of their teacher. He found Iruka in seconds, as the man was returning to the classroom. Around them, the rest of the students were dispersing.
"Fine," Sasuke grunted. "I'll make Iruka-sensei check everything. There's no way you did that much better than me."
Naruto rolled his eyes but nodded his head in assent. "Fine. He's just going to tell you the same thing I did, ya know!" Sasuke is so stubborn.
With that, Sasuke began walking to their classroom. Naruto followed at his heels, hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face. You're just jealous cause I did better than you for once!
"Iruka-sensei!" Sasuke shouted as he stepped inside the classroom and headed toward Iruka's desk. "Why does Naruto have a higher point total than me?"
Seated at his desk, Iruka breathed out a heavy sigh before looking down at the two boys. "Is it really that important, Sasuke-kun? Can't this wait for when we come back?"
Sasuke shook his head furiously. "It can't!" he insisted. "I need to know why Naruto got first place instead of me!"
Iruka groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose in exasperation. He seemed to realize nothing could make Sasuke relent because he pulled out the clipboard from earlier. "All right, boys, I can check with you."
Sasuke nodded, satisfied for the moment. "What was it that made Naruto get ahead?" he asked. Naruto took a step closer, curious despite himself.
"Well, boys, when you have an event, you get a certain number of points depending on the challenge and your performance. For the sprint, for example, you can get a maximum of twenty points," he explained. "Based on your time, we calculated a score. Sasuke." He turned toward Sasuke. "You got seventeen points for the sprint while Naruto got sixteen."
Naruto nodded his head. Makes sense so far. At his side, Sasuke also appeared satisfied with the explanation. "So where did I do better?" Naruto asked. Standing with the results in front of them, Naruto was curious to learn more.
Iruka scanned the clipboard, checking through the different tasks from earlier. "Well, Naruto, you did better at anything that required a lot of endurance and flexibility. You were also quite talented with kunai. On the other hand, Sasuke got more points with tasks related to strength and speed."
Both Naruto and Sasuke nodded. We already knew that, Iruka-sensei.
"What was the tie-breaker?" Sasuke asked, taking a step closer to Iruka's desk. He peered over the clipboard to glare at the results.
Iruka sighed again. "The tie-breaker was the spar."
"Spar?" Naruto asked. He tilted his head to the side in confusion. But I didn't even fight anyone! At his side, Sasuke raised an eyebrow, seemingly just as confused as Naruto.
Iruka leaned back on his chair with a groan. "Spars are weighed a little differently," he began. "For the spars, every fight has a total of 100 points that are distributed between the two participants. Depending on their respective performances, we give a different quantity of points to one opponent over the other."
"Distributed between the two?" Sasuke repeated, voice sounding confused. "You mean..."
Iruka nodded his head. "Yes. Let's say that the spar ends in an equal draw. In that case, one opponent will receive 50 points while their opponent also receives 50. However, when one person is much better than the other, they may get 90 points while their opponent gets 10."
Naruto's pulse quickened as he thought of what that meant. "Wait... but what about Shikamaru?" he asked. "He gave up without fighting me, ya know!"
"In that case, we give all 100 points to the person who didn't give up. In this case, he gave all of his points to you."
"What!?" Naruto and Sasuke shouted simultaneously. They scowled at each other once they realized they had spoken at the same time.
"You mean I only got a higher total cause Shikamaru gave up?" Naruto continued. At his side, Sasuke looked as annoyed as he felt.
Iruka gave a long-suffering sigh before leaning further back on his chair. "Yes," he admitted. "Shikamaru's surrender was one of the main reasons why you got the top spot. Sasuke's fight with Kiba was more equal, so Sasuke got 61 points and Naruto 100.
"So without the fights, I got a higher score?" Sasuke asked. Iruka nodded in assent.
"And last year?" Naruto asked. He remembered being behind Sasuke by only three points. You mean I actually did better than him and I lost only cause Shikamaru was too lazy to fight!?
Iruka shrugged. "I don't remember the results from the top of my head right now," he said. "But I remember Naruto got something like 90 points in his match while Sasuke got 100. That's why the gap was so small last time."
Naruto and Sasuke took a step back, their previous gloating forgotten. You mean to tell me the only reason I won this time is cause of Shikamaru!? And last time Sasuke!? I'm gonna kill him!
Annoyed, Naruto and Sasuke shared conspiratorial glances. Angry, they said goodbye to Iruka and headed to the Uchiha compound, complaining.
O-O-O-O-O
On the first day back, Shikamaru lounged forward in his seat, pressing his forehead on the table. He yawned and waited for the class to begin. At his side, Chouji ate his potato chips, staring off into the distance and thinking of nothing. The class had yet to begin and only a boy wearing sunglasses was also there.
Then everyone else comes in and it gets troublesome.
He started to drift asleep. However, when he was on the edge of consciousness, two hands hit his desk, startling him awake. Annoyed, he looked up to stare at the faces of Naruto and Sasuke. He blinked.
Naruto looked furious, teeth bared and eyebrows furrowed. At his side, Sasuke's face remained composed, but an aura of fury and hate surrounded him. For some reason Shikamaru could not understand, they were looking at him as if he had done something wrong.
"What?" Shikamaru asked, not bothering to suppress a yawn.
"You gave up on the fight with me!" Naruto shouted, pointing a finger at him. At his side, Sasuke nodded. He seemed equally annoyed by Shikamaru's surrender for some reason.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow in confusion. "So?"
"I got more points because you gave up!" Naruto yelled, leaning forward until he was only a few inches away from Shikamaru's face. At his side, Sasuke nodded once more.
"Huh?"
"If you give up next time we fight, I'll make sure you never get easy missions when I'm Hokage!" Naruto threatened. With that, he walked away, Sasuke at his side.
Shikamaru stared at them in confusion. Did I do something?
He stared at Chouji at his side, but the other boy only shrugged and continued to eat. Shikamaru sighed and placed his forehead down on the desk again. Why is everything so troublesome?
O-O-O-O-O
A/N: Poor Shino just gets ignored. He doesn't even have a name. He's just "a boy wearing sunglasses."
This was going to be in the main story of "Through Your Door" until I realized it didn't have a lot of plot significance. I already wrote it though, so I thought, "Hey, might as well publish it!" So here it is! Hope you enjoyed the ride
If you still use Tumblr, my account is waffledogwrites
Updates for this story will be very sporadic. If you have any ideas of stuff to write, feel free to send me inspiration through the comments and/or through Tumblr. Thank you for reading!