Lessons of Experience
Chapter 5: Show and Tell
By: BukkakeNoJutsu
Disclaimer: Uzumaki Naruto is not my intellectual property. He's my muse.
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Naruto rocked back and forth on his heels barely able to contain his excitement.
The academy exams were about to start, and Naruto couldn't wait to begin.
Many of his classmates looked at him as a hyperactive weirdo wondering why he was so enthused.
"I am going to kick so much ass today they'll have to make me Hokage!" proclaimed Naruto proudly to a largely indifferent room.
Hyuuga Hinata silently cheered her crush on, and Akimichi Chouji and Inuzuka Kiba watched amused, but the others looked mostly annoyed or as if they could give a damn.
The blonde did not care in the slightest.
Naruto reflected on all the training he had to keep secret; how he bled and worked harder than he ever thought possible.
Just recently, San started to give him instructions on the basics of imbuing his knives with chakra. The old man explained that Naruto was lucky because he had a wind element alignment, meaning he could learn to manipulate the nature of his energy as a weapon to cut and pierce.
Just this morning, he had been fighting against San's kage bunshins so that he practice delivering fatal blows to a skilled human target, but fighting more than one evil old man was painful indeed.
Before Naruto left for the academy, San promised to pick up a new outfit for Naruto that contained some orange if the blonde tested well. Naruto didn't really need the extra incentive, but it would be welcomed, like a cherry atop a fudge sundae.
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Moving to the center of the room, the gray-haired instructor Mizuki spoke up, addressing all of the prospective genin.
"This year's exam will consist of two main parts, a jutsu portion where you demonstrate your mastery of henge, kawarimi, and bunshin, and a taijutsu portion where you demonstrate your proficiency in hand to hand combat."
The students quickly lined up to demonstrate their skills.
When Uchiha Sasuke's turn came around, he was cheered on by many of the girls in the class as he performed his techniques flawlessly. With a single handseal, the dark-haired boy created five bunshin, earning substantial praise from Mizuki and Iruka.
By the end, he looked quite pleased with himself.
A stream of students came and went, some succeeding and others failing.
It finally came to be Uzumaki Naruto's turn.
Umino Iruka sincerely hoped that his favorite student would be able to pass this time. The scarred chuunin knew that Naruto was a good kid who would do great things for the village one day.
Mizuki just watched impassively.
Naruto performed his kawarimi perfectly.
Iruka called out, "Naruto, henge into either myself or Mizuki."
Naruto did as he was asked and, with a poof of white smoke, transformed into a perfect copy of his favorite teacher.
Before Iruka could continue with the last, and most difficult, part of the jutsu exam, Naruto interrupted.
"Wait! I've got one more for extra credit…"
With another poof of smoke, the blonde examinee transformed into a cute, and busty, pony-tailed brunette. The attractive woman had a distinctive scar across the bridge of her dainty nose that did nothing to detract from her looks. She wore black, skin-tight short pants, with ninja sandals, and a standard chuunin vest. She wore nothing else underneath said vest.
The brunette licked her full lips, and sashayed towards the stunned chuunin. She slowly began to unzip her vest.
"Iruka-sensei, about that extra credit…"
The henge dispelled, leaving a smiling 12-year-old blonde boy.
"…do I get it?"
Naruto's antics received a good deal of laughter from the students in the room, much to the chagrin of a red-faced Iruka.
The chuunin sighed. It seemed that Naruto would always be a prankster at heart.
"Just create at least two bunshins, Naruto. That will be all."
Without the usage of any handseals, Naruto wordlessly created two perfect clones of himself.
Naruto noted that Mizuki looked vaguely irritated as if he just drank some sour milk.
Iruka was relieved and quite impressed.
"Great work, Naruto. You've improved a lot over this past year. You pass this portion of the exam."
Naruto cheered loudly.
Iruka was surprised even further as Naruto's clones cheered his accomplishment as well. They patted him on the back and shared a round of high-fives before being dispelled. Iruka gaped at the sight of Naruto's clones jostling his body. Those clones had flesh and blood bodies! The chuunin made a mental note to ask Naruto where he had learned such an advanced technique.
Umino Iruka was not the only one to notice the unusual features of Uzumaki Naruto's bunshins.
Uchiha Sasuke watched the blonde with clenched fists, his eyes narrowing.
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The students were led outside to the academy courtyard for the taijutsu part of their exam.
Here, Iruka addressed his students.
"You will be chosen, at random, to spar with another of your classmates. No weapons, or lethal attacks. You will fight until submission or knockout, or until five minutes has passed. We will interfere if a match becomes too one-sided."
A smaller student raised a hand, asking nervously, "Do we need to win to pass?"
"No not at all. Just make a good showing, and you'll do fine. Good luck to you all."
Names were called, and students made a good impression or did not.
Soon, only two names were left.
Mizuki, holding a clipboard, rattled off the last two names,
"Uchiha Sasuke…"
The academy instructor almost sneered.
"…and Uzumaki Naruto."
Iruka was a little concerned hearing that the top academy student would fight against someone with the worst grades.
Cheers arose from Sasuke's fans.
Yamanaka Ino remarked, "This is not even going to be fair. Sasuke'll cream him."
Haruno Sakura yelled, "Kick his ass, Sasuke-kun."
Since it was later in the day, some parents had shown up by this time to watch the matches. Many of them cheered loudly for the last Uchiha. Some, like Inuzuka Tsume, inwardly cheered for the jinchuuriki because they were fans of underdog victories, but hardly anyone voiced their support publicly.
Sasuke spoke to his opponent like he did to most of his peers, condescendingly.
"Are we going to start or not?"
Naruto met his opponent in the center of the courtyard set aside as the examination area.
"Any final words, Dead Last?"
Unbeknownst to all, Naruto had learned much more than fighting from San. He also became fairly well versed in the fine art of swearing. On special occasions, like this one, he would grace the world with his knowledge.
Naruto gave Sasuke his most cheerful smile.
"Go suck a spiked cock, Sasuke-chan."
The blonde flipped off his opponent while still maintaining his cheerful visage.
The people in the audience who were paying attention were treated to the rare sight of an angrily flushed Uchiha Sasuke.
Nara Shikamaru groaned. This would not end well at all.
Mizuki yelled, "Begin!" before back peddling out of the way of an impending bloodbath.
Sasuke rushed at his opponent, intent on taking him apart piece by piece.
Everything went wrong.
The blonde dodged his fastest of strikes, by the narrowest of margins. Naruto was so close, but the Uchiha, time after time, failed to tag him. It was like trying to fight the wind.
Sasuke grew frustrated, yelling, "Fight back, god damn it!"
Naruto smiled a wicked smile, and complied. He simply did his best impression of San.
Sasuke launched a powerful right punch towards the annoying blonde's jaw, but Naruto blended with the movement, moving slightly to the side with a subtle parry with his left hand. He countered simultaneously with his right. It was a smooth movement, as if they had been choreographing a dance together all their lives.
To any outside observers, it looked like Sasuke had simply dived face-first onto Naruto's fingers. In reality, the blonde countered with a simple eye jab to the Uchiha's right eye socket, causing the dark-haired boy's eyes to water and his vision to blur.
It was all too fast how the blonde followed up his initial counter by sweeping his opponent off his feet, grasping his opponent by the neck, and then slamming the back of his head on the ground, using the momentum of Sasuke's fall and gravity viciously. Naruto spun quickly, stomping on Sasuke's groin hard, as if he would win a prize if he popped something.
The blonde even managed a series of kicks to floored vomiting boy's ribs before Mizuki got over his surprise enough to end the match.
The onlookers were shocked into complete silence, Sasuke's fan girls not able to process what happened.
Akimichi Chouji dropped the potato chip he was about to eat.
Even, Hinata flinched at the viciousness of Naruto's match.
Kiba cheered, not having seen a beat down that severe since, well, ever.
Iruka pulled Naruto to the side.
"Did you know that if you messed up with the eye jab, you could have blinded him permanently, Naruto?"
The blonde smiled and answered, "Yep," placing his hands behind his head.
"Sometimes, I just don't know what to do with you," exclaimed the scarred chuunin in exasperation, throwing his hands up in the air.
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In the end, Naruto received his Hitai-ite proudly while Sasuke Uchiha hobbled forward, clutching his abused groin, to get his. He tried to glare at Naruto, but the best he could manage was a pained grimace.
Naruto noticed one of the first year students, a spiky brown haired kid Giichi, about to burst into tears because he failed the exams.
Knowing the pain of this particular failure, Naruto went to comfort him, only to be beaten to the punch by Mizuki.
"Wow, Mizuki-sensei not being a dick. Now I've seen everything," thought the whiskered boy.
Iruka treated his student to a well-deserved meal at Ichiraku's ramen, and, about to inquire about the skills the blonde displayed at the exams, was interrupted by a fellow chuunin.
"Iruka we're on high alert. Apparently someone had stolen the forbidden scroll of seals. We need your help."
Iruka excused himself, and sped off to find the culprit.
Naruto trailed behind, out of sight.
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End Chapter 5
C&C welcome