I do not own Naruto.
Chapter 8:
The day of exams began as a normal day. Naruto and Kitsumi were sitting in school, wondering what the exams were going to be. The first exam was obviously kunai throwing, as it was every year. The second exam was obviously Taijutsu in some form. The third exam was obviously a ninjutsu, but no one knew which. So they sat in silence, until Iruka, and another, unknown, man, who had white shoulder length hair, and also wore chuunnin clothing, walked in.
"As you all know, today is the day for final exams. Now, if you would all follow me and Mizumi-sensei to the practice area."
In the practice area, they began the first test. Students could take as many shiruken as they wanted, but they only had one opportunity to throw. The objective was to hit as many of the lethal targets on the body as possible. Mizuki held the basket with the kunai, and Iruka stood by to judge accuracy.
"First up: Aburame Shino." Shino took three kunai and hit all three of his targets exactly.
"Good. Next up: Akimichi Chouji." Chouji took three kunai and hit decently with two.
"Good. Next up: Haruno Sakura." Sakura also took three kunai and hit decently with two.
"Good. Next up: Hyuuga Hinata." Hinata took two kunai and hit exactly with both of them.
"Good Next up: Inuzuka Kiba." Kiba took three kunai but and managed to hit with two of them.
"Good. Next up: Naru Shikamaru." Shikamaru took a single kunai, but managed to hit two different spots.
"Good. Next up: Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke took four kunai and hit all four precisely.
"Good. Next up: Yamanaka Ino." Ino took three kunai and managed to decently with two.
"Good. Next up: Uzumaki Kitsumi." Kitsumi took four kunai, and managed to hit with all four, although only three were precise hits.
"Good. Next up: Uzumaki Naruto."
"Hey, there's only one kunai left. You should pick up some of the ones from the targets." Mizuki whispers in Naruto's ear as he gets the kunai.
"Nah, I'll just do this one." Naruto winks at Mizuki before going to the line. He throws four kunai, but three disapear before they hit the target, so only one hits. The hit is precise, although Naruto will need to make it up later.
"Ok, now the next test will take place in the taijutsu areas. No ninjutsu allowed. First match: Akimichi Chouji vs Yamanaka Ino" The fight was over quickly, as Chouji just pushed Ino backwards untill she fell out of the ring.
"Victor: Akimichi Chouji. Next match: Uzumaki Naruto vs Uchiha Sasuke." The fight was a long one. First, Sasuke charged Naruto in the same manner as their first fight. Naruto had improved since then, and jumped over his lunge. He returned and tried to push Sasuke out of the ring while he was low. Sasuke grabbed his hands and threw him past, but Naruto caught himself before he reached the edge. He charged back at Sasuke, and they exchanged punches and kicks for several minutes, before Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hand and threw him out of the ring.
"Victor: Uchiha Sasuke. Next match: Uzumaki Kitsumi vs Hyuuga Hinata." Kitsumi and Hinata faced off against eachother for a bit, both wary of the other's movement. Kitsumi made the first move, and puched at Hinata. Hinata blocked the punch, but it put her off balance. When Kitsumi swept Hinata's legs, she fell down easily.
"Victor: Uzumaki Kitsumi. Next match: Naru Shikamaru vs Aburame Shino."
"you always beat me in practice. I yield." Shino simply arched an eyebrow.
"Victor: Aburame Shino. Next match: Haruno Sakura vs Inuzuka Kiba." Kiba jumped into the air, to use his special taijutsu, getsuga. Sakura saw it coming, and simply sidestepped, letting Kiba fly into the ground past her.
"Victor Haruno Sakura. Next match: Akimichi Chouji vs Uchiha Sasuke." Chouji attempted to push Sasuke out of the ring, but at the last second, Sasuke reversed their position, so Chouji ended up stepping out.
"Victor Uchiha Sasuke. Next match: Aburame Shino vs Uzumaki Kitsumi." This match took the longest of any of the matches. Both Shino and Kitsumi were hesitant to attack the other, knowing that a single mistake would be the end. Eventually, Shino saw an opening in Kitsumi's gaurd, and began to attack. However, the opening was a feint, and Kitsumi easily blocked Shino's strike, and threw him to the ground.
"Victor: Uzumaki Kitsumi. Next match: Haruno Sakura vs Uchiha Sasuke."
"I yield" Sakura didn't even walk into the ring.
"Victor: Uchiha Sasuke. Next match: Uzumaki Kitsumi vs Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke moved towards Kitsumi, thinking to take her down in a single attack. Kitsumi blocked the attack, and attempted to throw Sasuke to the floor. Sasuke simply used the motion to attempt to sweep out Kitsumi's legs. Kitsumi jumped over the attack, landed behind Sasuke, and pushedhim the rest of the way down.
"Victor Uzumaki Kitsumi. The Next test is the ninjutsu test. The ninjutsu will be the bunshin no jutsu.
"First: Aburame Shino" Shino performed the technique silently, producing four clones.
"Good. Second: Akimichi Chouji." Chouji produced four clones after saying the name.
"Good. Next: Haruno Sakura." Sakura created three clones without saying the name.
"Good. Next Hyuuga Hinata." Hinata produced four clones with the name
"Good. Next: Inuzuka Kiba." Kiba produced four clones with the name.
"Good. Next: Naru Shikamaru." Shikamaru produced three clones without the name, and barely even making the handsigns.
"Good. Next: Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke produced four clones without the name.
"Good. Next: Uzumaki Kitsumi." Kitsumi produced five clones without the name.
"Good. Next: Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto stepped foreward, said the name, and prduced only a single clone.
"Naruto, that was the worst performance on the test I've seen. I'm going to have to fail you." Iruka shook his head at Naruto, wondering what happened to him.
"Iruka-sensei, his movements and stamina are good, and he did replicate. Maybe we could pass him." Mizuki said.
"Everyone else produced at least three clones. Even though I know he can do better, we can't pass him based on that."
Later that day, Naruto and Kitsumi sat on a swing by the academy. Naruto had his face in his hands, and Kitsumi embraced him tightly.
"Hey sis? Why did I fail. I did everything right. I kept concentration on the kunai. Then I got paired up with Sasuke right at the beginning of the Taijutsu. Then for the clones, I thought I made five, but only one remained." Naruto sighted, "I'm not a failure am I?"
"No, you aren't a failure. You could easily do better than the others if you had the chance."
"Thanks sis."
"Hey, I have to go home and start dinner. Come back with me?"
"No, I want to sit here for a while longer. I'll be home." Naruto started to rock the swing back and forth slowly.
"Don't feel to bad ok?" and with that she head home. Meanwhile, a certain white haired sensei looked on from the academy door. After she left, he walked over.
"Hey, Naruto-kun. I came to tell you that there is still a way for you to pass the exams. We aren't supposed to tell students about it, but I felt really bad about today. Anyway, so all you have to do to pass, is to learn a technique from the scroll in the Hokage's office. Now, the scroll should be under his desk, its the really big one. When you I'll help you train to learn it, so meet me outside the west gate."
"Thanks Mizuki-sensei." Naruto ran off towards the Hokage's office. When he arrived, the Hokage was busy doing paperwork."
"Hello Naruto. What are you doing here today? And where is Kitsumi?" The old man asked patiently.
"Sorry old man, but I have to get the scroll to become a ninja. Henge no Jutsu." Naruto transformed into the same girl as he did on the first day, this time without the chuunin clothes. The Hokage suddenly was affected by a severe nosebleed, and fainted from bloodloss. Naruto quickly located the scroll, and fled out through the west gate.
Naruto opened the scroll, only to realize that he already knew one of the techniques, the Kagebunshin no jutsu. However, he had already taken the scroll, and decided to learn at least one technique from it. As he looked down the page, the next technique was called Kuchiose no jutsu, or summoning technique. From what Naruto could tell, there were two kinds of summonings. In Contract summonings, powerful animal spirits would create blood contracts with their summoners, and grant them power in battle. The other kind, seal summonings, allowed the user to call forth items with a certain seal placed upon them. The scroll specified that this was much different from sealing an item into paper, and spent a large amount of time going into the subtle differences, which Naruto skipped. Finally, he found the steps to performing the jutsu. The first step was to put a seal that was fairly simple, on an object. The second step, was to grasp the object by the seal, while it was still wet. The third step, as with all other jutsu, was to imagine the object, gather chakra, and release it.
Naruto took out a brush from school, and found a good sized rock which he could practice summoning. He painted a simple seal on rock, consisting of a circle divided into three parts. He then placed his hand on the rock, and waited for the ink to transfer. After both had dried, he began to practice the technique. At first, he could not move the rock at all, but as time passed, he learned to summon it. After a half hour of practice, he could summon the rock from the other side of the clearing, or about 10 metres.
"Hey, Naruto, what do you think your doing, stealing the forbidden scroll?" Iruka walked into the clearing and stood by Naruto.
"Aww man! I only had time to learn one jutsu. Oh well. So Iruka-sensei, can I graduate now?"
"What? Who told you that?" Iruka looked at Naruto oddly.
"Oh, Mizuki-sensei told me. He said that if I mastered a jutsu from this scroll, I could graduate."
"Why would Mizuki tell you--" Iruka was interrupted.
"Iruka-kun, I'm surprised you made it here before me. No matter, I'll just kill you both." Miuki stepped out onto a treebranch. And launched a large, four pointed shiruken at Naruto. However, Iruka jumped in front of the blow before it could land.
"Run Naruto, take the scroll and go back to the village." Iruka called out.
"Don't Naruto, he's just lying to you. He just wants you to help him. He thinks badly of you just like the other villagers."
"Thats not true Naruto." but Naruto had already run off into the bushes. Both Iruka and Mizuki dashed off.
A brief time later, Naruto took refuge against the trunk of a tree. He caught his breath, and prepared to begin running again, when he heard rustling from the other side of the tree.
"How did you know I wasn't Iruka?" Mizuki's voice called out.
"Because I'm Iruka." Iruka responded.
"Why are you letting the demon go anyway? He's the same demon that killed your parents, and he'll only use the forbidden techniques on the scroll."
"Yea, the demon would do that." Naruto gritted his teeth at the lack of faith, "but Naruto isn't the demon. He's one of my brightest students."
"Yeah, I know. Do you realize how hard it was to make him fail the exam. Its a good thing I learned to use senbons, in mist. I needed them to take out the kunai, and the clones." Mizuki sneered.
"What! You made me fail my ninja test!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs as he ran out from behind the tree.
"Ah there you are demon-brat." Mizuki turned around and launched another large shiruken at Naruto.
"Kuchiose no jutsu!" The rock appeared in Naruto's hand, and deflected the boomerang. Naruto threw it at Mizuki and rushed over to where, Iruka lay barely conscious.
Meanwhile, at their appartment, Kitsumi was worried. She had felt strange, since a little after she left Naruto earlier. The feelings had recently become much stronger, almost as if she could feel Naruto in pain. She decided to visit the site of sealing to see if she could get any idea. When she arrived, she found that Naruto was already there, waving her over to him.
"Hey, sis, I don't have time to explain, but I need you to try using this technique. you have to paint your hand like this first. Now while your body is doing that I'll explain the technique. First you have to think of me, with the same mark on my hand, holding onto Iruka-sensei like this. Kitsumi beheld the image of Naruto and Iruka. Then hold out your hand, while grabbing your wrist. with your other hand. Then you have to call out the name of the jutsu, kuchiose, and focus as much chakra as you can into it. By that time, Kitsumi had finished the writing, and began to preform the technique. It was weird, but the knowledge of the technique transfered much easier within the site of sealing.
"Kuchiose no jutsu!" Kitsumi focused all the chakra she could find into her hand. Still she could feel that it would not be enough. Desparately, she searched for more chakra. Suddenly, she found a source of chakra, as much as what she had already gathered, and brought it over. Her inner self at the site of sealing watched all of the chakra rush past, into her. The summoning jutsu finally went off. The last thing Kitsumi saw before she passed out was her brother and Iruka, his hand slipping away from hers.