Chapter 5

Astral-Man! School sucks!

Mirokai-Yeah! Like, if you want to do something productive, just go on spring break! That's how we finished this chapter!

Gaara-Spring break is almost over, unfortunately, but we gave you something pretty good to read in the meantime.


It was a wonderful spring afternoon. The sun was warm, the breeze was cool, and the sound of birds chirping could be heard faintly from the forest. It was a school day, the day before final exams, in fact, so Sasuke had absolutely no idea why he was hanging from a rope suspended in front of the Hokage Monument holding a paint bucket whilst his best friend painted graffiti all over the Hokage faces.

Naruto's obnoxious laughter filled his ears as he dangled. He felt the paint brush Naruto was holding once again dip into the bucket in his hands. "Remind me again why we're up here?" He mumbled, listening to the murmur of the spectators below.

"Because," Naruto replied, "It's fun. That and it's sure to get Jiji's attention." He then turned to the crowd below, mumbling to Sasuke, "Cover your ears."

Then, in his loudest voice, he shouted, "LOSERS, WANNABES! You don't have what it takes to do something so low! We rule, you drool!" He then turned around and resumed painting. Sasuke sighed. 'We're going to get in so much trouble. . .'

Just on cue, a shout came from below them. "What do you think you're doing!? Naruto you idiot! Both of you get down from there and get back to class!"

"Crap, it's Iruka-sensei! We are so screwed!" Naruto said to Sasuke.

"It was your idea. All I did was get dragged along with it."

"Yeah right. You wanted to ditch class just as much as I did." Sasuke didn't reply, but Naruto did have a point. 'I was getting tired of Iruka-sensei's droning.'

L.+I.+N.+E.+B.+R.+E.+A.+K.

The were finally back in the classroom. Iruka had tied Naruto up with the very rope he had been using to suspend himself from the Monument. Sasuke was standing right behind him, Naruto leaning on his legs. Iruka stepped in front of them and began his lecture.

"Tomorrow all your classmates will pass the final and graduate from the ninja academy, but the last two times this day came around, you two flunked every course you'd taken! Sasuke I can understand to a certain degree, but you!?" Sasuke got the feeling Iruka was pointing at Naruto. "You choose now for your stupid tricks!? YOU MORON!" Sasuke heard Iruka sigh. He understood, Naruto could be a handful, even for him. 'And I live with the idiot.'

"Sasuke, he listens to you, why don't you ever try to stop him? Last I checked you actually have common sense." Iruka mumbled, his tone was that akin to a parent dealing with an unruly kid, and completely done with said child.

"Normally, yes. But he never listens to me when it comes to pranks. And also, last I checked I have a hard time navigating without him." Sasuke did his best to glare with the cloth he had tied over his eyes. "Do you honestly expect me to stop him if he threatens to leave me in the middle of who knows where?" Sasuke knew Naruto would never do that, and so did Iruka, but it was, to a certain extent, understandable. Iruka had known them since they were children, and understood that it was impossible to separate them, in good things, and in bad.

"Hmph." Iruka's footsteps moved, and he then told the entire class that because of them they'd be reviewing the art of transformation.

"WHAT!?"

"Thanks a lot guys!"

"This is all your fault!"

"Aw come on!"

L.+I.+N.+E.+B.+R.+E.+A.+K.

Half the class had already gone, and so far, so good. Most of the students had managed a perfect transformation of Iruka, but Sasuke was not so sure of himself. 'God dammit, I hate transformation.'

"Uchiha!" Iruka called, and Naruto gently pushed him forwards.

"Do your best, Sasuke. Remember the techniques we came up with."

Sasuke nodded, before trying his best to remember everything he knew about Iruka. Forming a slightly coherent picture in his mind. 'Come on. . .'

With a 'pop!' he transformed. There was silence, before Naruto started laughing. "S-Sasuke! It's black and white! And it barely looks like Iruka! Oh man that's funny!"

Iruka cleared his throat as Sasuke dispelled his apparently terrible henge. "Well, it was certainly better than last time. You got the anatomy right, and my height. But the color, and the details. . . ." He trailed off.

"I get it. It's hard to transform yourself into a perfect image of someone else when you can't see a damned thing." He shuffled to the side and sulked, leaning against the wall while he waited for Naruto.

"Uzumaki!"

"Here goes. . ." Naruto said. "Transform!"

There was a 'pop!' and then another long round of silence, before Iruka made a strange noise and seemed to fall to the floor, if the sound was anything to go off of. Naruto laughed. "You like that, Sensei? I call that my Sexy Jutsu!"

Sasuke facepalmed. "Naruto. . ."

It was just then that Iruka started yelling again.

L.+I.+N.+E.+B.+R.+E.+A.+K.

"Sasuke, you're cleaning bare rock again." Naruto mumbled, shifting his hands to a point that apparently had paint on it.

"Oops." he replied, totally not sorry. 'You're the one who got us into this mess, you idiot.'

"Neither of you are leaving until every drop of paint is gone." Iruka said. He was sitting above them.

"So!?" Naruto yelled. "It's not like we have anyone waiting at home for us!" Sasuke flinched. He hated it when Naruto brought up their crappy childhoods, but Naruto was always so touchy about it. Especially when it came to punishments.

They worked in silence for a few minutes, before Iruka cleared his throat. "Naruto, Sasuke. . ."

"Now what." Sasuke mumbled.

"Well, I was thinking. Once you two are done here, I, well, wouldn't mind taking you guys out for ramen, or something else."

Sasuke stopped scrubbing, he felt Naruto bump his arm and smiled.

"Alright! Talk about motivation! Right Sasuke?"

"Sure." he replied. 'It's not that bad once you get used to it.'

"Sasuke?"

"What?"

"You're cleaning bare rock again."

L.+I.+N.+E.+B.+R.+E.+A.+K.

They were finally done. It had taken five hours, and a lot of scrubbing, but together he and Naruto had managed to get all of the paint off of the Hokage Monument. It had gone dark quite a while ago, from Iruka's comments, though that didn't really matter to Sasuke. They were sitting at Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto on his second bowl of ramen, Sasuke on his first.

"Naruto," Iruka said, out of the blue.

"Hmm?"

"Why of all placed did you choose to deface that spot? You know who the Hokages are, and you want to be the Hokage when you get older, so why?"

"Because one day, when I become the Hokage, I'm gonna surpass everyone who came before me! No matter what! And then everyone will have to look up to me, instead of dissing me like they normally do."

"Really." Iruka said. He sounded slightly surprised, as if he had never thought of it that way. "What about you Sasuke? I don't think you've ever told me what you want to be."

"I don't know. Probably Naruto's bodyguard." Naruto apparently thought this was funny, though he had never laughed at him when they discussed this at home. 'Tch, think it's funny, do you?'

"Yeah right. I'd be protecting you!" Sasuke knew that tone, Naruto was just teasing. He raised his fist and promptly hit Naruto on the head. "Hey!"

"I can hit you just fine, eyes or no eyes, so don't think I won't be a good bodyguard."

"Fine. ." Naruto shifted. "By the way, Sensei, can you do me a favor?"

"What, another bowl of ramen?"

"No," he hesitated, which wasn't very like Naruto at all. "Can I try on your hitai-ate, pretty please?"

"What, this? No way, you'll get one of these when you become a full fledged shinobi."

"If we become full fledged shinobi." Sasuke added.

"Aw come on! Why do you always gotta be so pessimistic, Sasuke?" Naruto mumbled.

"Because it annoys you, why else?" he smirked, turning his head towards Naruto's voice.

"Fine, another bowl of ramen please, Sensei!"

"Alright."

"How can you eat that much, you idiot?"

P.+O.+V.+C.+H.+A.+N.+G.+E.

To say that he was nervous would be an understatement, Naruto was downright terrified. It was final exam day and just hoped he would manage to pass this time. Sasuke too, he would hate to be a shinobi and not have his best friend by his side. But Sasuke still had a lot of trouble with transformation jutsu and clone jutsu, so he was sure to fail. No matter what they tried, they still couldn't get Sasuke's stuff to hold color, or even form half the time. As Iruka walked into the room, Naruto watched Sasuke tense up and his head tilt forwards slightly. This was how Naruto could always tell if Sasuke was listening to something or not, namely him.

"Alright, for your final exam, you must each generate three clones. Wait here until your name is called, and then come next door."

Naruto put his head in his hands. 'Clones, why did it have to be clones!'

Next to him, Sasuke cursed. "This is not good, both of us suck at this technique. What are we gonna do?"

He didn't know. "Just try our hardest I guess. Maybe this time it will look better."

"Doubt it." Naruto loved Sasuke like a brother, he really did, but sometimes, Sasuke's attitude and pessimism got on his nerves.

L.+I.+N.+E.+B.+R.+E.+A.+K.

Naruto stared down Iruka and Mizuki, sweat trailing down his cheeks. He glanced at the hitai-ates on the table in front of him, and swallowed. Sasuke had already gone, and failed. He was waiting outside the room for Naruto. 'Here goes nothing!'

He put his hands together and concentrated. He could feel his chakra flowing inside of him. He tried to harness it, form a perfect clone. "Behold, a perfect double!" The tell-tale 'pop!' resounded throughout the room, and when he glance over, he saw. . . .

A half dead, transparent, one measly little clone on the floor, not even fully formed.

Iruka looked at him like he was an idiot. Naruto gulped and chewed one of his nails. They stared at each other for a few seconds before, "YOU FAIL!"

Naruto sighed in defeat and stomped his foot, "Ah come on!" But before he left the room, Mizuki spoke up.

"Iruka, this is his third time, Sasuke's as well, and they did both manage to conjure up another self this time, even if they were a little flawed. What if we just give them a break and-"

He was cut off as Iruka sighed and said, "The answer is no, Mizuki. Every student is supposed to generate three clones. Naruto only produced one, and a very poor one at that. And while Sasuke managed three, they were still black and white. With all due respect, neither of them warrant a passing grade."

L.+I.+N.+E.+B.+R.+E.+A.+K.

Naruto and Sasuke sat under the tree in the Academy's front yard, Naruto on the swing, Sasuke leaning against the trunk. In the long run, neither of them had passed. Naruto glanced at his friend, taking in the slumped shoulders, the crossed arms, and the frown on his face. If Naruto could see his eyes, he could bet that they would look just as, if not more dead than they normally did. A while back, when they were around eight, Naruto had suggested Sasuke cover his eyes, mostly because they were creepy, and for some odd reason Sasuke refused to close them. Now, he wouldn't mind seeing that blank gaze, even if no one stared back at him.

Listening to the other kids and their parents only made him feel worse.

"Great job, son! Your old man is proud!"

"So now, we're all adults!"

"Congratulations graduate! Tonight, mom's gonna cook up a feast!"

It didn't help that some of the other kids and parents were talking about them, how they had failed, weren't even supposed to be alive, how they shouldn't be shinobi, etc. Well, most of those comments had been directed at him, yes, but still.

"Let's go, Sasuke." Naruto stood up, grabbed Sasuke's offered hand, and they both vanished.

L.+I.+N.+E.+B.+R.++E.+A.+K.

They were halfway home, when Sasuke suddenly froze and turned, pulling on Naruto so he stopped.

"Naruto, Sasuke?"

"Mizuki-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed. What did Mizuki want with them?

"Come on, you two, I just want to talk."

"Oh, alright."

Mizuki led them to the front porch of his home, and they sat down. They sat there for a while before Mizuki started talking. "Iruka's a really serious guy, his parents died when he was young, so everything he's accomplished he did by himself, with a lot of hard work and discipline."

"And what does this have to do with us?" Sasuke asked, crossing his arms and tilting his head to the side, a sign that he didn't want to listen.

"Yeah! What does this have to do with us?"

"So," Mizuki continued, "You two remind him of himself. More specifically, you do, Naruto."

"What?"

"He thinks he's helping you to grow strong. Try to give the guy a break, can't you understand where he's coming from? From one orphen to another?"

"But," He just couldn't help the sad feeling in his heart. "I really wanted to graduate. ."

"We both did, Naruto." Sasuke said, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder after a bit of fumbling. He turned his head towards the blonde and smiled. "I guess it's just not right, again. . ."

"Well then, I guess there's no choice, I'll have to tell you."

"Tell us, about what?" Naruto mumbled, confused.

"It's a secret I've been keeping for a long time. You see," Mizuki began, "There's this scroll that has techniques in it in the Hokage building. If you each learn one of the techniques from the scroll, Iruka will have to let you graduate."

L.+I.+N.+E.+B.+R.+E.+A.+K.

"Iruka!"

"What is it?" asked said person, opening his door, and putting his hands on his hips.

"It's Naruto and Sasuke, I'm afraid. Somehow they've found out about and stolen the secret manuscript!"


Mirokai-Ahahahaha! GET CLIFF HANGERED SUCKERS!

Astral-Finally! We managed to finish! That took a long time to write. Apologies for the cliff hanger, it was Miro's idea.

Gaara-Please tell us what you think. No review limit this time. That was only for the beginning of the fanfic. But we would still like reviews. See you next time.