December 27th

CIL: i made a mistake, i posted the next chapter without posting this one, whoops, looks like i spoiled the plot for alot of you. may bad, i'll make sure it doesn't happen again.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Next student, Nishikon Kumo," Mizuki called from the open door of the examination room.

A student with a tarantula held firm to his back entered the room. The door closed and his fate was unknown to the other students.

"Man, this is killing me," Naruto said as he stretched. "When is my turn!?"

"I thought you couldn't do a decent clone, Naruto-kun," Kaben laughed. "I'll be okay, but what about you Hinata-chan?"

"I-I am sure I can manage, I have strength from both of you."

The sound of the door opening alerted all of the students. The boy with the spider on his back walked out with not a sign of happiness or displeasure. Mizuki called in the next student.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

"YEAH!" Naruto bolted through the crowds and even pushed Mizuki aside and entered the classroom.

"Ok Naruto. You are aware what you need to do, right? Make a working clone, and you can graduate." Mizuki sat down and held a paper and pencil, ready to mark his performance.

"Right." Naruto formed the hand signs and gathered his chakra, trying as hard as he could to make one decent clone.

After several moments of grunts and groans the signature smoke from a jutsu came forth. Waiting for the smoke to clear Naruto and his judges watched as to see if it worked. A few more seconds and the smoke was gone, revealing a perfect clone.

"Well done Naruto." Iruka-sensei marked something down on his paper. "Ok, you can go."

"YEAH!" Naruto high-fived his clone, an action which sparked a small gasp of surprised from his judges. "Oh, man this is awesome!"

"Yeah, we passed!"

"Let's go tell Hinata and Kaben" The two Naruto's rushed outside the class room, leaving the proctors in awe.

"Interesting...eh Iruka?"

"More like amazing. Do you think...?"

"No, he couldn't possibly have that kind of chakra. This must have just been a fluke."

"Right, let's call the next one in."

Naruto rushed and gave a big hug to his friends before announcing his exciting graduation. The blushing Hinata nearly turned white at Naruto's excited greeting. Kaben merely ripped him off her with a vine and gave him congratulations.

"So you managed to do it? And a solid one at that."

"Huh?" Naruto was confused. "What do you mean? Aren't they supposed to be solid?"

"No, merely illusions that interact with the physical environment. You used a Jounin level jutsu."

"Really? Wow, isn't that great Hinata?" Naruto looked over at his clone, whom seemed to have the dead girl limp in his hands.

"I don't know what happened? I didn't do a thing." The clone just looked dumfounded.

"I am sure she just got excited, give her a moment." Kaben was making sure she wasn't giving away any hints as to what she knew exactly had happened. She spotted the clone give her a hug, she fainted when it nearly pressed their lips together when it came in closer to rub their cheeks together.

"Kaben Ha," Mizumi called for the next student.

"Ok, time to plant the seeds of my excellence...no pun intended." Kaben laughed at her own joke.

Several students entered for the test, each passing. Soon it came time for Hinata to show her skills, after a few moments recovering from her embarrassing trauma. She entered the room with uneasy fear, knowing her jutsu's had not yet been worked on thoroughly enough. Hiashi-sama spent most of his time teaching her the family fighting style, Jyuuken. None of her time was spent molding chakra or practicing tactics. The watchful eyes of the examiners were not helping her confidence either. She haste fully made the signs and summoned her clone, knowing her haste was going to cost her. The clone was made, and her fate sealed. The clone was able to stand, but not much else; its mouth agape with drool running down her chin, her eyes blank without life, and the skin was pale. Iruka and Mizuki just stared with unease, not wanting to state its utter lack of [acceptance.

"Well, its fairly good," Mizuki said with a smile. "Considering it can still stand, it's close."

"But not good enough for a pass," Iruka stated harshly. "I can't make an exception to anyone."

Hinata sunk her head in disappointment, she left the class with a slump, her eyes holding back the tears.

The news wasn't verbally submitted to her friends, but from her defeated sobs they knew what had happened. Later in the day the graduates all huddled together outside the front of the academy with their parents and were all rewarded and congratulated. Kaben's parents took her back to the house for a ceremony of their own. Naruto was left to watch Hinata alone by a solitary tree. Looking on in sorrow at the graduates' happiness. He was about to take a step when Mizuki appeared in front of him.

"You wanted her to pass with you so much, didn't you?"

Naruto was stunned for a moment, unable to reply.

"You're real good friends with her, I can see that. So maybe I can let you in on a little secret. An extra credit assignment for her..."

"Extra credit?!"

\/\/\/

"E-Extra credit?" Hinata seemed puzzled at Naruto's offer.

"Yeah. Mizuki-Sensei said so, he even has a place in mind where you can train in secret. Isn't that great?"

"Hardly believable to me. But then again, I'm a sceptic to everything," Kaben said with a laugh. "I say take it, he is our teacher, he'd know an extra credit assignment worthy of your talents."

"Well..." Hinata was hesitant. She could feel a small sense of danger in the air, or maybe Naruto just layed an SBD.

"Well then it's settled, Hinata is gonna join us as a ninja! I can't wait. Well, I gotta go, I'm going to go see if Sakura wants to have lunch with me, hehe." Naruto ran of with a large grin, leaving Hinata to watch him walk away.

"N-Naruto..." She sighed dejectedly, then looked over at Kaben. "Ever since Sasuke, that's when this all started."

"I can see why he'd be into her. He is attracted to the aspect of her name, and the small amount of beauty she has with it. She is named from a flower, yet to me, her name should be Rose, for it has thorns as cruel as her."

"Kaben!"

"Hey, you're the one that needs to be the lady, I call them as I see them. You're going to have to do a lot more to get his attention, Hinata-Chan. Hard work always pays off, nothing will be too much."

"I only hope that, at the very least, I will be on a team with one of you two..."

It would be later that day Naruto would infiltrate the treasury and steal the scroll of sealing, Mizuki would awaken Iruka, and the hunt for the girl would begin.

"Iruka-Sensei! Iruka-Sensei wake up!"

"What?" Iruka called from the other side of the door before he opened it.

"It's Naruto, he's stolen the sacred scroll!"

"You mean...The scroll of sealing!"

The third Hokage called every available hand to the tower and began instructing them on catching the plucky prankster.

"I want him alive, we can't kill him he's just a kid, but he will be severely punished if this is a prank of his! Go! Bring Naruto back here immediately!"

Mizuki ran straight for the area he and Naruto had earlier discussed to train in secret. Hinata would be waiting there for him as well. Iruka had taken to all of Naruto's hiding spots and even casual hangouts, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Where could he be?" He leapt off in ninja fashion, leaving only a blur where he last stood.

Hinata and Naruto were sitting at a nearby abandoned hut. Hinata had opened the scroll and began reading the text before her.

"Multi-Shadow clone Jutsu, Oh great. First one is my worst technique!" Behind her Naruto was reading over her shoulder at another jutsu.

"Black Art Ninjutsu? Unlock your inner spirit? It's all smudged and nearly unreadable. But I can make out the hand signs needed..."

The two practiced for hours, summoning chakra, attempting the jutsu. When they were both ready to call it a day, Iruka-Sensei showed up to break their spirits.

"Naruto!" Iruka stared him directly in the eyes. "You're going to pay for this prank!" Iruka struck him on the back of the neck, knocking the boy out.

"Wait! Iruka-Sensei, this is no prank!" Hinata pleaded with the man. "Mizuki-Sensei told him to take this scroll, he said if I were to learn a jutsu from this scroll you'd let me pass."

"Mizuki told him that?"

"That's right Iruka!" Mizuki was standing on a large branch behind him. He threw a swarm of kunai and pinned the man to the wall of the building. "To bad you couldn't figure that out on your own. Or is it that your eyes are blind cause of the lies you've had top tell to this poor girl?"

"Mizuki, what are you trying to do!"

"I'll tell you, I'm going to kill the Kyuubi No Kitsune!"

"What?" Hinata was slightly confused about this. "Mizuki-Sensei, why are you hurting Iruka-Sensei?"

"He's been lying to you Hinata. Everyone has, in this whole entire village."

"Lying..." "About what?"

"Mizuki, don't tell her! It's forbidden!"

"12 years ago this village was attacked by a demon fox, whom was defeated at the cost of the Fourth's life by sealing it inside an infant...YOU! Ever since that day a decree was made, no one was allowed to speak about what lay inside you. You're not allowed to know that the nine-tailed fox lives inside you! You are the nine-tailed fox!"

Hinata's eyes almost filled with tears because of her memories of her time alone in the hut, all the cruelty in the school. This explained it, everything was because of something she couldn't control, a choice forced on her.

"And now, I'm going to kill you, and the whole village will be glad to be rid of you!" Mizuki spun a large shuriken with his hand and threw it at the young girl. Iruka cried out to her and launched himself in the path of the weapon. It lodged itself into his back, forcing him to cough out a small amount of blood.

"Run Hinata, get away from him!"

"Why not tell her about why you lied so much to her Iruka? Why you hate her so much? The fox killed your parents, why protect it?"

"Shut up! I don't hate you, I'm protecting you, now run!"

"You just want to keep the scroll yourself, and when you turn her in, they'll torture her and ask her what she was doing with it?. You sure you want to listen to him Hinata? Give me the scroll, and together we can take revenge on the village and the people who lied to you!"

Hinata was becoming more and more confused. She was almost crushing her temples trying to silence the voices in her head. In the blink of an eye she ran deeper into the woods, leaving Iruka to fall on the ground in pain.

"You saw that look in her eyes, didn't you? She's going to use that scroll to take revenge on the village, and then who knows what havoc she'll cause from there."

"No..." Iruka pulled the large star from his back and threw it with all his strength towards Mizuki. He dodged and the star took out several trees and branches behind him. "You're wrong, she's not like that. She has friends here, she won't destroy the village if it will put all of them in danger."

"Oh, such a fool. You think that really matters? She probably thinks they know and were lying too. Now, if you don't mind, I've got a scroll to get my hands on.

Hinata ran through the tree tops with great anger and speed. Tears filled her eyes and rage was flowing through her mind.

"Everyone, even my own family...that's why I was excluded. My pain is all from them...but...but then..." Images of Naruto and Kaben flashed before her eyes. She hid behind a large tree to take in all the memories of her friends. "Did they know? Did they care? Will they care? C-Could I really have met them...if I weren't this way? Am...Am...I lucky to have this gift...?"

A large thump and an impact from behind her alerted her. She sat holding the scroll protectively in her arms.

"Why do you protect her, Iruka!? She's nothing but a beast! And beasts are just raging animals, just like me. She'll pour all her rage into the scroll and destroy everything."

"Hmmph...you're right"

"What?! E-Even Iruka-Sensei?"

"That is how beasts are. But Hinata is different; she has friends, and friends who care for her. She's trying against all odds to become a ninja, and show everyone what she truly is: the Hyuuga heiress!"

"You really believe that dribble? Iruka, I was going to save you for later but I changed my mind. Your You're finished!"

Mizuki ran in, spinning his last star in his hands. He dashed at Iruka with full intent to kill. Hinata quickly bolted in and tackled Mizuki, forcing the star to fly off in another direction and catching Mizuki off guard.

"Keep your hands off him!" Hinata stood in front of Iruka, holding her fingers crossed, ready for a jutsu.

"Sneaky little bitch. I hope you're ready for your last moments on this earth."

"Go ahead! I'll kill you before you even touch me! SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

In the blink of an eye the entire section of the forest was covered with Hinata clones. Mizuki was without words, even his breath seemed to struggle to get out.

"If you're not going to throw the first punch, I will!" The Hinata clones all closed in with single minded blindness. Mizuki was unable to fight back against so many. The fight soon turned into a one sided beat down. Moments later, Mizuki lie on the ground, pummelled to an inch of unrecognising him.

"Sorry...maybe I went a little too hard on him..."

Iruka just smiled and chuckled painfully. "The shadow clone jutsu? You must have been practicing before I caught you..."

Hinata's shy laugh confirmed his suspicions. "Well, being that you saved my life, maybe we can work out something with the Hokage. After all it wasn't your idea to take the scroll"

Hinata worried still. "A-And...What of my father?"

"Well, he may already know. But I'll put in a good word, we'll make sure he can't do anything bad. Oh..." Iruka placed his hand on his headband. "I guess I can finally congratulate you. Mastering a jutsu like that, You [you pass, Hinata Hyuuga."

Hinata's face seemed to freeze, her joy was not present on her face, and her thoughts froze. She turned white and started to fall forward, she was exhuasted [exhausted, and the news was just to much for her.

Iruka just chuckled. "I guess I'll tell you tomorrow then..."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\