Years had passed since Edogawa Conan had been pulled away from a frantic chase. Years where he remembered nothing, where Uzumaki Naruto had been shunned by the other children for an event that only the adults remembered, that no one was allowed to speak of.

However, he hid an extraordinary intelligence behind his foolish façade. He read everything he could get his hands on, especially after joining the Academy. He even read what they kept from him, under a henge of course. He purposely failed the exam, twice, hiding behind a veneer of false stupidity.

~(Present Time-Ish)~

Naruto snickered as he painted another bright red swirl on the face of the Fourth Hokage, matching the one on the other side. He heard voices yelling from underneath the monument and bolted, leading the group of chunin and jounin on a merry chase around the village.

He soon found a place to hide, and his chasers dashed right past him. He moved out of his spot, but then froze.

"Narutoooo!" A familiar voice called from behind him. Naruto flinched slightly.

"Ah, Iruka-sensei," he laughed nervously. "How are you?" Iruka glared at him.

"You skipped class to do this?" Iruka asked, looming over Naruto and looking rather intimidating.

~(Time Skip)~

Naruto was tied up on the floor of the classroom. He winced at the accusing stares of his classmates, turning his head away slightly.

"Alright," said Iruka, clapping his hands to restore order to the classroom. "We're going to have a quiz on the henge technique." The entire class groaned and glared at Naruto. With much complaint and little fanfare, they lined up at the front of the class.

The students were of little note, transforming into Iruka and back. Then came Narutos turn. He had escaped from the ropes while Iruka was distracted with the other students, and now stood at the front of the classroom.

"Henge," he yelled, and transformed into... A heavily endowed 16 year old girl with sunny blonde hair pulled into pigtails. Iruka, along with most of the boys in the class, had blood burst from their noses.

When his sensei had recovered (not so much his classmates) Naruto leaned close to him.

"Do I pass, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked, a beaming, fox-like grin on his face.

"NO!" Iruka shouted in return, using a mild genjutsu to make his head look bigger than it was. Naruto just grinned, unrepentant.

~(Time Skip again)~

Naruto slid the soapy rag against the bright red swirl he had painted just a few hours before, grumbling quietly under his breath.

"You're not going anywhere until it's all clean," Iruka said, sitting on the Fourths spiky hair.

"'S'not like I have anywhere to be," Naruto muttered. Iruka looked at his young charge with an altered perspective.

"Naruto," he said quietly, making the blond look up at him curiously. "When you get this all cleaned up," he continued, knowing he was probably going to regret it later, "I'll take you for ramen."

Narutos eyes gleamed with excitement and he immediately redoubled his efforts. After around half an hour of furious scrubbing, the whole monument was clean, and the pair headed to a small ramen stand by the name of Ichiraku's.

~(Time Skip Jutsu, GO)~

"Iruka-sensei," Naruto began, making Iruka look up from his ramen with a 'hmm?'

"Could I try your, y'know, your hitai-ate?" Iruka chuckled softly, shaking his head.

"No, Naruto. I'm sorry, but you'll have to pass your exam first. This hitai-ate is a symbol of adulthood." Iruka said with a faint smile, which grew larger as Naruto pulled out the puppy dog eyes and whimpered.

~(There's a crapton of Time Skips)~

The exam. The only difference between a genin and an academy student. If gazes could make things spontaneously combust, the paper in front of Naruto would be so much ash as he stared intently at it, scratching down an answer in his surprisingly neat handwriting every few seconds.

"Time's up!" Iruka called from the front of the room, as his fellow teacher, Mizuki, collected the tests.

The students then filed out to wait in the hallway for their turn to do the practical half of the exam. Naruto nervously shuffled his feet slightly in the hall. He watched as student after student went in until his name was called. Naruto continued to get more and more nervous. He was one of the last few students that would go in.

Uchiha Sasuke was called. The golden boy of Narutos class, with a red stained past. His entire family killed by his own brother. The highest marks in class went to Sasuke, and he had a not-so-friendly rivalry with Naruto. He passed the practical with ease.

A couple more U names were called before the inevitable "Uzumaki Naruto". Said boy flinched slightly, but strode into the room with his head held high.

"Clone and a substitution." Iruka said simply, and Naruto gulped. Of all the things they could've picked, it had to be the one jutsu he just couldn't seem to master. He took a deep, calming breath, and moved through the hand signs carefully. A cloud of smoke came with the release of chakra and as it faded, three clones stood there.

Naruto grinned, since he seemed to have gotten it right for once. The clones only lasted a few seconds before disappearing, but apparently it was enough. Both Iruka and Mizuki sat, stunned, at Narutos success. He grinned and substituted with their desk.

"So, do I pass?" He asked, and his voice coming from right underneath their noses seemed to startle them out of the stunned fog that had taken over.

"Yes Naruto, you pass." Iruka said in a slightly hollow voice. Naruto leapt up with a shout of 'Yatta!' before grabbing a hitai-ate and darting out the door to the stunned glances of his classmates.

~(AN)~

I have no excuse for how late this is. :(