I do not own Naruto and will not ever have the chance.

The Genin Exams

'The Genin Exams', thought Naruto. 'A whole lot of hype for a simple bunch of tests to see if we learned a little bit during the years in here. I'd rather be out doing more pranks for the Old Man.' Naruto yawned and hunched down further into his seat. Hinata had gotten him up way too early this morning to get ready for things. First, she had had him run around the village several times to wear him down. With his freakish stamina, he would be fine again after a good meal but Hinata had denied him his breakfast as well.

"You need to be worn down and tired when the exam time comes or you might be too nervous to properly control your chakra when the time for the bunshin jutsu comes around. If we run down your chakra levels before the final test it will be easier for you to get it right. You know the right amount of chakra you need to do that jutsu but when you're rested and at full strength you need maximum concentration to get it to work" Hinata had explained.

So two hours and twenty miles later, a tired and hungry Naruto sat in the classroom waiting for the first test. The written portion was still difficult for him but thanks to Hinata's help the past year, he had a much easier time than he did in his previous attempt. The ninjutsu test went just as easy for Naruto as the written test. He had to admit Hinata had been right about his nervousness and being so worn down kept his chakra from flaring too much when the time came for the bunshin. Instead of the five perfect clones he was aiming for he got three good ones and a partial sickly looking one. But the three good ones were enough for him to pass.

The genjutsu part was his worst subject. His skill at Academy genjutsu was nearly non-existent. He asked if he could use one of his own creations instead of the one that was normally used. The teachers took a moment to confer before allowing it. They would have to judge it more harshly than the standard one. Naruto grinned like a fox and used the same genjutsu he used in painting the Hokage Mountain. The teachers were impressed and gave him a passing grade.

Naruto went to lunch happier than he had ever been. His previous two attempts at passing the exam had never gone this well. He would finally get to participate into the taijutsu section of the Exam. Hinata had brought lunch for both of them since she had denied him his breakfast. It was not ramen but Naruto was too pumped up to care. He was still smiling when the class was escorted out into the schoolyard for the taijutsu testing and sparring competition.

All the classes attempting to graduate students this year were out in the yard. About sixty genin hopefuls in all had made it this far. Most of the girls were gathered around Inuzuka Kiba and were fawning over his brand new puppy. The boy had a large grin on his face as he explained that his mother had decided he was old enough to begin training in the family techniques and so had allowed Kiba to choose his first partner. The three month old puppy Kiba named Akamaru soaked in all the attention the girls focused on him until Iruka called the class into positions. Kiba set Akamaru off to the side and told him to watch closely.

The bleachers around the athletic field were full of parents, clan officials and plain spectators. Small groups of Chunnin from the Hokage's office were taking notes on each prospective genin. Roughly a dozen jonin were gathered together to one side looking over the students. Naruto overheard in the low murmur of conversation among the students that the jonin in the bleachers were going to be the senseis for the ones who graduated this term. Naruto looked over at the jonin and did not recognize any of them. The only two that stood out to him were two sitting next to each other. One was a dark haired red-eyed kunoichi in a strange white dress; the other one looked familiar somehow and reminded the blonde of Old Man Hokage.

The first round of testing consisted of just basic Academy taijutsu forms. A simple two-point system of bouts made up the test itself as they were judged on their ability to at least attack and defend. The second round was a free for all. Any style and method of fighting could be used to take out your opponent, ninjutsu was allowed. The only limiting factor was they could not use deadly techniques on their schoolmates. The open fighting was moved to a nearby training area with trees and bushes along the borders.

Hinata easily won the girl's division. Between her sense of confidence and her clan's taijutsu style, none of the other girls stood a chance. The only two girls who might have challenged her, Sakura and Ino, had taken each other out in a draw that had involved a lot of insults and degenerated into a wrestling match.

The boy's fights were much more impressive. The lone exception to that, Shikamaru and Shino had simply stood as each waited for the other to make the first move until the teachers disqualified them both. Choji and Kiba had ended up in a toe-to-toe brawl that left the poor Inuzuka boy looking like he had been mauled. He went and sat by Akamaru and simply soaked up the love the girls directed at the boy and his puppy. His ego did not allow him to see the love was directed at the puppy.

Naruto won his first bout by jumping around before attacking his opponent from the rear. He also used tricks he had learned in his clan pranks against his second opponent. He had a third round win over Choji by using a minor genjutsu of all the food in Choji's lunch having been laced with worms. Choji just began vomiting and forfeited the match. Naruto felt bad about using such a low tactic on a friend and gave Choji his only coupon for a free lunch at Ichiraku Ramen. Choji had too big a heart to remain mad at Naruto after that.

Sasuke merely went through his competition in his normal style; beat them down with a minimum of fuss. The final round of the mini tournament came down to Naruto versus Sasuke. The rival groups of fan girls lined up eagerly to see this fight to see which boy was better.

"I'm surprised a loser like you got this far" Sasuke called out as the boys faced off. "All your little tricks and traps won't work on an Uchiha. You actually need to fight but you still won't stand a chance against me. Just run away before you get hurt."

"We'll see about that. Besides, you know a lot more than me about running away. Don't you Sasuke?" Naruto countered.

Sasuke growled deep in his throat as Naruto's taunt hit home. The fire had ruined his reputation as the number one guy in school. It was not his fault that he needed to make sure he got out of the building quickly. Sure he could have helped but he needed to get out of there for Konoha's benefit. He was an Uchiha, the elite of the Konoha. He could not risk being hurt before he could hunt down his brother and re-establish his clan.

Sasuke rushed at Naruto intending to end the fight quickly. The same move that won his bouts all through the Academy. He had this move down better than any other. The strike he made was perfect, his balance flawless. He held his stance for a second before he realized; he had not connected.

"Gee Sasuke, you gonna fight or you gonna just pose for photo ops after each move?" Naruto taunted. Sasuke frowned as the crowd all chuckled at the barb. He attacked the blonde again this time seeing how Naruto dodged and landed a blow to Naruto's shoulder. Naruto managed to roll with the hit and came up into the ready position Iruka had taught him. Sasuke kept pressing his attack while Naruto did more dodging than fighting. Finally, one miss left Sasuke over extended and Naruto countered with a jaw-shaking blow. The crowd all began talking excitedly. No one had ever hit Sasuke like that in a fight before.

Sasuke stepped back and chuckled, "That was your one free hit, dobe. You won't get anymore."

Naruto smirked, "Just you wait, teme. I'm full of surprises."

The fight went on after that with pure taijutsu for several minutes. Neither boy could land another solid hit on the other. Naruto was too good at evasion and Sasuke would not be fooled by Naruto's tricks. Then, Sasuke turned to weapons and ninjutsu. Sasuke began to launch attacks at Naruto from a distance. Naruto managed to avoid all the shuriken and kunai Sasuke hurled at him and Sasuke was getting frustrated. This fight was taking way too long for him to be comfortable. Sasuke realized that after all his easy wins at the Academy, he was not prepared for a long fight. His stamina was very low while Naruto seemed to have boundless energy.

The dark haired boy had not wanted to go into his vast array of fire jutsu since he was already tired and even a single fire jutsu would leave him out of chakra completely. A few more weapon attacks missing the blonde frustrated him further so Sasuke went for it. He made the hand signs and breathed deeply and sent his Grand Fireball jutsu at Naruto.

Naruto saw the hand signs being made and knew Sasuke was going for something big. He pulled off a substitution jutsu and was next to a nearby tree as the fireball filled the sparring field. Naruto just sat there at stared at the flames. His eyes went wider as the fire hung there over the field and he could not look away. His back seemed to explode in remembered pain; his eyes remained wide and stared at nothing as the flames dispersed. He was not moving as Sasuke looked around for the blonde boy before spotting the staring and shaking Naruto.

"Hn", Sasuke grunted as he sped over and elbowed Naruto in the face, knocking down the blonde. The pair landed in the bushes out of sight of the crowd. Looking at Naruto, he kicked the downed boy in the ribs several times and spat at him. "Just another loser crawling before the might of the Uchiha" he said quietly. The raven-haired boy grabbed Naruto by his jacket and dragged him out of the bushes and dropped Naruto onto the ground.

"Winner and rookie of the year is Uchiha Sasuke" Iruka announced.

A small crowd gathered around each of the boys. The ones near Naruto noticed him bent over holding his ribs with one arm and trying to scratch at his back with the other. The blond boy was also shaking badly. "It hurts, not again, please not again." Naruto whimpered repeatedly.

Hinata understood what was wrong when she got close enough. She wrapped her arms around Naruto and spoke soft comforting words into his ear, reminding him that he was not burnt again and that everything was fine.

Sasuke strolled over with his few fan-girls and suck ups in tow. "What's the matter, loser? Can't take a little fire?" At that remark, even the fan girls recoiled from Sasuke. Everyone recalled what Naruto had gone through nearly a year ago.

Sakura just stared at the raven-haired boy before saying quietly, "That was low, Sasuke, even for you." Sasuke just sneered and walked off into the school alone. His band of followers just looked at each other in silence before breaking up and heading inside, all using a different door than the Uchiha had used.

Watching from the second story window of the school, Sarutobi, Tsunade and Jiraiya were silent as they watched the last Uchiha walk into the building alone. "Now do you understand why I did not consider the boy for this project, Tsunade?' Sarutobi asked. Tsunade merely nodded.

"I am still not sure if I should go through with this, Sensei. But you have piqued my interest enough with these kids that for now, I am in."

Iruka smiled up at the thirty three students who graduated this term.

"For those of you I have taught in the past, you know who I am. For those of you I have not, I am Iruka. I would like to congratulate all of you on passing this year's genin exam. Many of you achieved high marks on your finals and that made it difficult to create balanced teams. Because of this, the Hokage has requested that teams be formed with different tactical and strategic ideas in mind. I will read off the squads and your respective senseis will come for you after lunch."

Iruka began reading of names and Naruto slouched down in his seat, barely listening beyond noticing if his name was called. He was still upset about his freezing up and losing to the 'Uchiha-teme' a few days before. Hinata and others had told him it was all right and tried to make him feel better about it. Iruka treated him to ramen the night before and apologized for not knowing that Naruto had a problem with fire and promised to help the boy overcome it if he could. Naruto smiled at the offer and had actually eaten a decent amount after that. Naruto was glad to have true friends that actually cared for him.

"Team 7 under Hatake Kakashi; Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto thought he heard a low growl come from Akamaru and a slight buzz come from Shino. 'It seems I am not the only person to have a dislike for Uchiha-teme.'

"Team 10 under Sarutobi Asuma; Akimichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino. That concludes the assigned teams."

"Iruka-sensei, you didn't call me, Hinata-chan or Sakura." Naruto interrupted.

"Likely you're being sent back for being a loser" said Sasuke tossing in a quick jibe

"Actually Naruto, Hinata and Sakura have all been chosen for individual apprenticeships. I was getting to that when Naruto interrupted. I wasn't going to make a big deal about it but since you took the time for an insult I will read the entire message aloud. 'By order of the Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata and Haruno Sakura will report to the Hokage's office at 8 am tomorrow to receive special training and apprenticeships to Sannin Jiraiya, Mitarashi Anko and Sannin Senju Tsunade.' That is all. If you wish to, Naruto, Hinata and Sakura can leave. Good luck to everyone and I wish you all the best in your careers as ninja." Iruka smirked at Sasuke as he walked out.

'How the heck did the loser get an apprenticeship? I'm the one that should be getting the special treatment because I'm the one that needs it. I'm an Uchiha. I deserve it' Sasuke thought.

By the time Sasuke looked back up from his mental rant, the trio of future apprentices had already left the room. He scowled further and slouched down to begin his wait for his new sensei.

Naruto and Hinata were nearly to the exit when Sakura called out to them. "Could I talk to you two for a minute?"

Sakura looked down for a moment before losing her nerve. "I am not really sure how to say this. I'm sorry about the way Sasuke treated you the other day, Naruto. He shouldn't have said those things to you. I wasn't even nice to either of you most of the time. I want to apologize for that."

Naruto smiled a little bit. "Don't you worry about it, Sakura. It's not your fault he's a jerk. You only liked him for his pretty boy style. You never did anything really bad to Hinata or me. A few fan girl insults over the past year are just kid's stuff. We are going to be ninja now. If what Hinata-chan says is true, we are most likely going to be teammates since we are all going to be apprenticed to Sannin. We need to leave Academy stuff in the Academy."

Sakura blushed at Naruto's casual dismissal of all the verbal abuse she had hurled at him the past year. She could tell by his tone and demeanor that he truly meant what he said. "Thank you, Naruto. Thank you, Hinata. I guess I'll see you two tomorrow in the Hokage's office." Sakura smiled a bit and waved before turning to walk off.

Naruto turned to head off as well until Hinata poked Naruto in the ribs. She called out to Sakura. "Sakura, Naruto-kun and I were just going to check out a few things then head to lunch. Do you want to come with us?"

Sakura stopped and looked at the pair "You mean it?"

Naruto gave his foxy grin. "Of course, if Hinata-chan asks something, she means it."

Sakura turned slightly to look back at the door to the classroom. 'We need to leave Academy stuff in the Academy. Something that simple huh?' Sasuke was the focus of her Academy days. He had been everything she wanted for most of her time there. He had shaken her faith in him during the fire when he ran out on them. It had shattered when the raven haired boy had so brutally insulted someone who should have been seen as an equal. But he was the Academy. The future lay elsewhere and the people in it were giving her a chance to let the past remain in the past. "I would like that. Thank You both."

End Notes:

This ends my opening arc on this story. I am working on the next one but it will be a few weeks before I have it finished enough to begin posting. I like to have most of my story written out ahead of time to prevent me from posting bad material.

A few issues were asked in the reviews so I will address a few before signing off:

Hinata and Naruto were not using the familiar –kun and –chan until the end for two reasons. The main one is I am not great on writing dialogue so their speaking time was at a minimum. The other one is I did not see them becoming that close until after the initial chapters and eventually getting there at a time during the pranking. Also, both are still shy around each other in the romantic sense so they avoid saying those endearments in public.

ANBU is a highly competent organization, in spite of how I made them look in this. In a toe-to-toe fight between Naruto and ANBU, it would have been two hits. ANBU hitting Naruto and Naruto hitting the floor. I tried to mention in story the fact that the ANBU were hampered by the Hokage's orders but I might not have been clear enough. Naruto was simply running away and into prepared traps. The ANBU slowed down due to knowing there were traps and trying to avoid them when possible.

Yes, Sasuke is a pure jerk. Even in canon he is but people tend to overlook that simply because of who he is. In this story, people see in a dramatic fashion how much of one he is. Even if in the future people point to him as winning the Rookie of the Year as a fluke, he would deny it. He just sees himself as the best and that no one at his level can touch him. He will continue to be the major antagonist in the next arc.

The future holds many new things, as the story will avoid the Land of Waves arc. It will be touched upon but seeing as how things have changed in this AU, it will have a number of differences.

The Will Born in Fire will be back before the end of the month. [if all goes as planned

Edited and Reposted