(Time skip - Five years later)

"Akara, breakfast is ready!" Naruto called as he dumped some eggs onto a plate and set it on the counter. Naruto had matured much physically over the years and now stood at 5'9". He had his diet of food that he didn't find and eat from the trash to blame for the height growth. His body was lean but the muscle he had was no joke as they flexed and rippled under his clothing. Many things where going to change today an his cloths were one of them. He had worn that hideous orange jumpsuit an larger sizes of it form when he was nine till now and today was the day he could finally stop wearing it. On him now was a skin tight black shirt that went up his neck a short ways and didn't have sleeves. He had a black jacket on a nearby chair that he wore over his shirt. It was an ordinary jacket with no markings on it anywhere and he left it open when he wore it. His pants were black Shinobi pants that went down to his black combat boots. He had his kunai pouch on his right leg and on his hands were black fingerless gloves. On the back of the gloves he had expertly sewn on the symbol of the leaf with silver thread. His hair was grown out somewhat and had finally given way to gravity and stopped spiking up, to his thanks. His whisker marks had faded somewhat and they went across his face in a way that only made him look even more handsome.

Akara entered the room and sat down at the table. She was eight now and stood at 3'7" and was about fifty pounds. Naruto theorized that she was born prematurely and that that was the cause of her being smaller then normal. Her white hair was like snow and went all the way down to about a quarter down on her thigh. She was currently wearing a white cloth sun dress that she wore when she went to sleep. He wore black pajama pants when he went to bed and didn't blame her that she didn't switch out of her pajamas right away since they were always comfortable. When she was ready for the day she would wear black combat boot, black Shinobi pants, a kunai pouch strapped on her right thigh, and on her hands were black fingerless gloves. For a shirt she wore a skin tight shirt that didn't go up the neck and didn't have sleeves. Over that she wore a black battle kimono that stopped at the middle of her thigh and had white trimmings.

"Thank you, Otou-san," she said in her normal quiet voice that had only a hint of tiredness in it.

"You're class are shortened today because of the graduation tests," Naruto said as he sat down and started to eat next to her.

"Are you going to finally start acting like yourself?"

"Mostly."

"Mostly?"

"I'm not truly myself until I can claim that your my daughter and I can only do that after I graduate and get put on a team. That way no one will try to hurt you or they will be charged with treason for attacking a Konoha Shinobi's family. I hope that stops them," He finished worriedly.

Akara nodded. She knew how much it meant for him to publicly tell people that she was his daughter, she wanted it just as much if not more. It was hard on her, acting like she didn't know her own father when she saw him at the academy.

The academy was something that bored her senseless, how did she wish that she had enough chakra to perform the Shadow Clone Jutsu but since she wasn't a walking chakra monster like her father she had to make due with what she had. She was the top of her class easily and it was already known that she would be the rookie of the year when she graduated. She had her Otou-san to thank for that. He had started training her at a young age, first with games that thought her important skills and then with actual training. She was eight and could perform the academy three easily, heck if they had early graduations anymore she would be graduating with her father just because of her smarts. Her Otou-san had started to teach himself years ago and he was currently at the intelligence of a Jonin. When he noticed that she was bored with the things that the academy was teaching her he had taken it upon himself to teach her everything he thought she would need to know, which was a lot. It was because of his teachings that she was able to perform complex calculations in her head, calculations that a Chunin would find hard. He had called her a protege once and she had told him the if she was a protege then he was a god because he knew far more than her when he was her age. Much of that knowledge was learn from his time on the street but he knew it none-the-less.

"I love you, Otou-san," she said quietly. She may not speak much but that was one thing she always said to her Otou-san when she had the chance.

"I love you too, Akara, more then you will ever know," he replied with his real smile. The soft one that he would wear when she had nightmares and would crawl into his bed when she was four.

-The Choice-

Naruto walked into the classroom and immediately all eyes were on him. The reason, he wasn't wearing his jumpsuit and his normal stupid grin. His face was set into a serious look that told anyone that he wasn't the same Naruto they once knew. He walked over to Shikamaru and sat down next to him and not in his usual spot next tot where Sakura always sat.

"You finally acting like yourself?" Shikamaru asked as he looked up from his bent over position. He had been trying to sleep when Naruto walked in. He had figured out that Naruto was acting stupid years ago but had promised to not tell anyone body saying that it would have been to 'troublesome.'

"Why not? Graduation is today and team selection is the week after that, sounds like as good time as any to me," Naruto said as he leaned back in his chair.

"Troublesome."

Naruto nodded at that and then closed his eyes as well and waited for the class to start. It was only a few minutes before he heard the sound of stomping feet. He wasn't surprised when he heard yelling soon after.

"I made it first, Ino-pig!"

"No you didn't, Forehead!"

Leave it to Ino and Sakura to all the attention off of him when it was starting to get annouying. He listened with little interest to the two fight over the spot next to Sasuke and eventually Iruka-Sensei walked in and yelled, "Shut up and sit down, everyone!"

After everyone one was seated Iruka looked over the classroom and when he spotted Naruto, the new Naruto, he raised and eyebrow. He quickly concluded the change to the boy finally growing up and began his speech about the test.

Naruto tuned out the speech and only opened his eyes when the written test was placed on his desk. He looked at it for a second and then look over to a grinning Mizuki, the bastard had changed the Genin test with a Chunin test. Naruto smiled and shook his head, it wasn't like it mattered he could answer these questions easily enough, but he didn't trust Mizuki to grade his test correctly.

Naruto raised his hand slightly and when Iruka walked over he said, "Iruka-Sensei, I believe I was given the wrong test."

Iruka picked up the test and after looking at the first question he said, "I don't know how this happened but this is a Chunin test, Naruto. Hold on, I'll get you the Genin test." Asa Iruka walked over to his desk he missed Mizuki's irrate face and the smile that flashed onto Naruto's face.

Naruto finished the test with twenty minutes remaining, so he flipped it over ad laid his head down on it. Only a few seconds passed before Shikamaru took up the same position. The twenty minutes passed and everyone was hurded outside for the kunai-shuriken throwing test. Naruto sighed, yet another pathetically easy test for him to do. While they did raise the ages for the graduation, the Civilian Council never came up with what to teach the older students. Iruka took the time to teach them more history, math, and geography but Naruto thought that he should have used the time for teaching elemental manipulation, a new taijutsu, and, something that peaked Naruto's interest, sealing. Of course, he could perform all of these standard that he thought of but the rest in the class, besides maybe a few, didn't even know a taijutsu that wasn't the academy style.

The throwing test was rather simple, you were given eight kunai and eight skuriken and and asked to throw them as fast as you could at the targets. The targets had bull's eyes all over them in places that would be deemed lethal. Naurto never saw the point in the test, since the dummies weren't moving this only tested the throws when they are under the perfect conditions which never happened so the test really tested nothing at all. Naruto didn't blame Iruka for this though, he really did care for each of his students and really thought it would help them in their futures.

Naruto watched as Iruka called names and those who were called walk up and accept the weapons. They would then throw them, some at a rather good speed and others at a speed that a second year student could beat. He almost laughed when Shikamaru was called. The lazy bastard only threw five kunai and four shuriken before dropping the rest and while Naruto knew what he was doing, it was still funny none the less.

"Choji must apressiate how hard your working to make sure he's on your team," Naruto said when Shikamaru sat down next to him.

"This is all just troublesome. It's not like I need to, their probably going to put us on the same team as Ino to revive the Ino-Shika-Cho team."

Naruto nodded and turned his eyes back to the tests. From all the sudden squeals from the girls he knew that Sasuke Uchiha was up. Sasuke, that was one person that Naruto just didn't like. He could tolerate him, but then he could tolerate a lot thanks to the villagers. The boy just rubbed him the wrong way. He was broody, egotistical, and thought himself to be better then everyone because of his clan. While Itachi did slaughter much of the Uchiha clan, which he, Naruto, didn't fully believe, Itachi did leave Sasuke's mother and several others of his clan's people. The loss had to be hard but the brat didn't have to think he was the only one suffering.

As expected, Sasuke took top marks, missing a single bull's eyes by about a centimeter. Naruto sighed when his name was called and he walked over to get his weapons. He was cautious because it was Mizuki giving them to him and when he inspected them her found that they were unsharpned. After running his finger over each blade to feel the sharpness and quick calculation of how much force would be needed to penetrate the wood, Naruto swiped his hands toward the target and let the weapons fly. It was quiet as he walked back to his spot next to Shikamaru.

"Not a single one missed," Iruka said mistyfied before writing the score down.

"But, Iruka-Sensei, no one can beat Sasuke-kun, expecially the dobe," Sakura said.

Iruka looked at her and said, "You will call him by his name, Sakura, and as far as beating Sasuke, he clearly did." Before any other fangirls could complain Iruka held up his hand and said, "Time for the last test, everyone inside."

The last test was to perform the Academy Three and it made Naruto want to actully hit something. They raised graduation ages but they didn't even raise the standards that they had. It was so stupid that it was funny. Naruto laid his head down as the names called. He had no fear of this test because with the chakra control he gained from training at such an early age he had done each of the Academy Three on his first try, Henge he already knew, and it only took him a days werth of dedication the master the three. His definition of master was to perform the jutsu without hand seals faster then he could with hand seals. It was a high standard but perfectly possably once you get used to the flow of the chakra during the jutsu. After that you simple mimic the flow and there you have it. Of course, it does take time to get used to doing it without hand seals but once you get the hang of it you can go faster and faster until it can be done in a split second.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto got up and walked into the room that the final test was being performed in and saw Iruka and Mizuka sitting behind a desk.

"Alright, Naruto," Iruka said, "perform a Henge."

Naruto used the hand seals, why show all his secrets, Dog-Boar-Tiger, "Henge." After a poof of smoke standing in Naruto's place was a perfect representative of Iruka.

"Very good," Iruka said and Naruto stopped the henge. "Now use a Kawarimi no Jutsu with that log set up there, he pointed to a log that was leaning against the far wall.

Naruto again went through the hand seals and called the jutsu and after a poof of smoke the log was in his place.

"Good and now to the last one. Please make three seperate Bunshin and good luck, Naruto," Iruka said with hope on his face.

Naruto had pretended to have trouble with the jutsu from the day it was taught in class but he was acting then and this time was different. He went throw the hands seals and when he called the jutsu three poofs of smoke appeared around him. When the smoke went away there were three perfect Bunshin waiting.

Iruka smiled widly and said, "Great job, Naruto, you passed!"

"Thanks, Iruka-Sensei," Naruto said as the clones disapeared and he grabbed a black clothed hitae-ate. He looked at it for a moment before asking, "Would it be alright if I got this put into the back of my glove?"

"Well, you would have to have it cut to size but I don't see any problem in it," Iruka answered.

Naruto nodded and walked out of the room. He heard all of th etlking stop when he walked back into the classroom and when they didn't see a hitae-ate on him Kiba yelled, "Typical the dobe didn't pass!"

Naruto just gave him a glance before he raised his hand that was holding the hitae-ate and then sat down next to Shikamaru. Iruka and Mizuki walked in a few minutes later and after a long speech by Iruka they were told that team selection would be in one week at eight in the morning. Naruto walked out of the building and saw all of the adults waiting for their kids. His heart twinged a bit, not because he wanted someone to be waiting for him but because he couldn't wait to be in their places waiting for Akara to come out with a hitae-ate on.

He walked past the crowd and shrugged off the comments that he heard from them. He want home immidiatly and when he finally walked into the kitchen he smiled when he saw Akara reading a scroll while sitting on the leather sofa. He was still amazed and saddened be how mature she was for her age and if she wasn't his daughter and was taller he would swear that she was his age. He didn't know quiet when she started to become so mature but he did know when it started. that day still scared the hell out of him and he shook his to get rid of the thought.

The sound from him shaking his head alerted Akara of his presance and she didn't look away from her scroll as she said, "I kind of want to go to Ichiraku's."

He smiled, "Did you want to celibrate?"

She nodded as she rolled the scroll up and placed it on the coffee table. She stood up with a grace that defide her age and walked over to Naruto. She gave his a tight hug and said, "It may have been a simple test, but I'm proud of you Otou-san."

He laughed slightly as he hugged her back and said, "If I wasn't your Otou-san I would have said that you were being sacastic. Thank you, Akara."

-The Choice-

Naruto didn't have a henge on as he and Akara got seated at the ramen bar. He had come here a lot when he was younger and trusted Teuchi and Ayame with not only his life but the life of his daughter, that was quiet a bit of trust. They were also the only ones, not including the Third and Inu, that he had ever told about Akara.

"Naruto, Akara, what brings you two here?" Ayame asked as she walked over from the other side of the bar. They was no one else in the bar at the moment.

"Well, I graduated from the academy today and Akara thought we should celebrate and wanted to come here," Naruto said with a smile. He knew the reason she wanted to come here. He liked ramen but it wasn't his favorite meal to have, no the reason she had said this place was because they had loved one here that would congradulate him for his passing.

"Did you? Good job Naruto!" Ayame said and ran around the bar to give him a hug.

"What's this I hear about graduating?" Teuchi asked as he walked out from the back.

"Otou-san, Naruto graduated form the academy today," Ayame said.

Teuchi smiled and said, "Well then, I guess you can eat on the houe today, you two."

Naruto bowed his head and after saying thnk you he ordered some food. Akara orderd after him and soon the time was passed with talking a laughter.

-The Choice-

"Damn, I can't believe he passed," Mizuki yelled as he hit another tree. "Now, who can I get to steal the scroll? Wait, if I told him... yeah that'll work."