Naruto finally slowed down as the gates to the academy closed over head. He knew that only three people would be taking the graduation exam early today. And he knew two of them would pass. They were, after all, the heirs of Konoha's most powerful clans. Him? He knows his heritage. He knows what he harbors. He knows why everyone he meets looks at him the way they do. Of course, he is only six, but already at this age he has had to face the sobering reality that if it wasn't for some people respecting the memory of his father, and if it wasn't for the protection of Jiji and the current Hokage, Naruto would be treated much much worse than he already was. Not that he wasn't treated that bad now, but still the occasional light beating and the usual hearted glances by a large portion of the population still left him feeling slightly mistrustful of the teachers at the academy. Of course he knew he was being slightly paranoid and that only the loudest voices and actions are felt even if in reality they make up a small part of the population. Going hungry fewer times than he had expected had helped secure his still booming faith in humanity. And he never could think of an experience where the academy instructors had intentionally set out to harm him. They were letting him take the graduation exam after all. Assuming he passed, he was worried about team placements. He had a sinking feeling that he would be placed on the same team as the two clan heirs and while he would be thrilled to be on the same team as Itachi, he didn't want to drag him down. Itachi was already showing such promise, while him? He had barely passable skills, usually having to rely on trickery and cheating just to keep up with Itachi. Naruto sighed, seeing Itachi finally round the corner. He perked up pretty quickly, knowing that Itachi would use his infamous ability to sense when something was wrong with Naruto and call him out on it.
"Took you long enough!" Naruto called out at the irritated looking Itachi.
"You literally ruined a market place just so I wouldn't get here before you..." Itachi said slightly narrowing his eyes.
"No, I accidentally tripped in the market and fell into a stall that just so happened to halt your progress in getting to the academy," Naruto said with the most innocent tone he could muster.
Itachi sent one last look to the blonde and then walked into the academy with Naruto hot on his heels, Naruto yelling out "it's 8:27!"
**********
"Normally, you would be required to take a full length comprehensive written exam, but yours will be a slightly condensed version, due to obvious reasons," A man in the standard chunnin uniform of Konoha said to the three children in front of him. "In addition, normally we would only have you perform one of the three Jutsu taught in the academy, but you will all be required to perform all three Jutsus adequately. After that, we will conduct the taijutsu test. The average of these three exams will then be calculated, and as long as it is a passing grade, you will be minted as a genin," Iruka Umino finished with a small smile. "You may begin the written exam whenever you are ready!"
As the young chunnin finished his sentence, the sound of three pieces of paper flipping over could be heard. Naruto quickly looked over the test, knowing that this would be the easiest of the three exams to pass. And not just because uncle Jiraiya had "acquired" what was going to be on the test. Naruto slowly and deliberately filled in the exam, finishing in just under a half an hour. Looking up, he noticed that Itachi had already finished, as expected, he always was an incredibly fast test taker. What he wasn't expecting was the hyugga to still be fervently writing. Interesting. Naruto begin stretching out his arms, preparing for the upcoming toajutsu test. He remembered his breathing exercises that Uncle Jiraiya had taught him. He closed his eyes and brought his palms together, slowly breathing in and out. He could feel his chakra flow through his body. He concentrated it into his stomach, moving it around his body. He made it flow slow like molasses, filling up his legs. He concentrated on grabbing a hold of part of the chakra and trying to quickly fill up his upper torso, feeling it slightly cool his lungs. He pushed it out into his arms, feeing his fingertips tingle with a cooling sensation. He then brought the last bit of chakra up into his head. He could feel the tingling sensation of chakra fill his body. His body felt cold, but at peace with itself. He knew that using chakra in this way gave him no physical benefit but it did make him more in-tune with his chakra and better able to draw on it. That and it allowed him to feel calm. He looked up just as the clock reached the top of the hour, signaling that this part of the exam was over.
He drew in one last deep breath, letting the calming sensation wash over him once more. He stood up, watching Itachi and the hyugga do the same. Naruto had no doubt that Itachi had gotten the highest score, and even if she took longer, he was certain the heir did better. Naruto cringed while Iruka explained the rules to the next exam, knowing that of the three areas, tiajutsu was by far his worst area. At least he wasn't going first, as the proctors decided to go in alphabetical order. There was some commotion, as one of the two proctors, mizuki, knew that he would have to go twice, for the first and third test, leaving Naruto to only face Iruka. This was done in order to ensure a fair test.
"Well yeah, but I had more of this years graduating class this morning Mizuki, so please just take Kuri-San and Itachi-San in taijutsu while I test Naruto-San!" The young chunnin snapped at his assistant teacher. Mizuki just glared and asked Kuri to come with him. Itachi stated after him for a few moments the turned to the two boys remaining. "I'll take Naruto-San with me to test him in one of the sparring rooms, so just wait here while Mizuki-Sensei test Kuri-San. Once he is done he will come back to test you," Iruka said while gesturing for Naruto to follow him. Walking towards the training room, Naruto couldn't help but think the reason Mizuki made such a big deal about not facing off against him was because he wanted a chance to hurt the demon that he was. Naruto slowly began to realize that maybe not everyone wanted him to become a ninja. Sure, he knew most people didn't like him, but he just assumed that as long as he kept to himself and they kept to themselves there would be no problems. Of course the occasional fight or act of vandalism was to be expected but for the most part, Naruto kept to those he viewed as friends. He knew wasn't a demon obviously. And if he was, well...then he must've been before he became a jinchuuriki, because he really hadn't changed that much, or at least nothing that couldn't be explained by maturity or things that have happened to him. But now, now that he was possibly moving up the ranks of the ninja hierarchy, maybe some people would actively try and stop him. Naruto suddenly had a gut feeling that something bad would happen by the end of the day. He was interrupted with his paranoid thoughts by Iruka announcing that they were in the dojo and would begin shortly.
"You know, even though you haven't been in my class for long, there is something about you Naruto-San, that reminds me so much of your father," Iruka said looking of into the distance.
"Y...you know my father?" Naruto sputtered out surprisingly.
"He was the one who promoted me to chunnin. Besides that I did a few missions with him. He was a great leader. I see a lot of him inside of you," Iruka said smiling down at the incredibly silent Namikaze.
"Iruka-Sensei...that means a lot to me," Naruto said holding back tears.
Iruka laughed. "You aren't a genin yet, it's okay to cry. It seems like just yesterday I was in you fathers office and he was giving me missions. I have complete confidence that you will be able to pass this test and become a strong leaf shinobi Naruto," Iruka gave a wide smile as he finished his little speech. "But that doesn't mean I will go easy on you, so get ready to fight!" Iruka called out as he got into a typical fighting stance.
Naruto nodded, quickly running his arm across his eyes and getting into the academy taijutsu stance. Iruka called out begin and with that, the second part of the genin graduation test had begun.
Naruto eyed Iruka warily, knowing that the older man would have a longer reach than him. He also knew that he would more than likely be faster than him, depending on how much he held back for the exam. Naruto was content to wait for Iruka to make the first move, as Naruto was better at dodging than attacking. He didn't that've to wait long, as Iruka rocketed forward at a slightly above average genin speed, with a fist raised. Naruto quickly dodged to the right, swinging his left foot around, in a half roundhouse. Iruka caught his foot and pushed it forward making Naruto stumble as his left leg continued the circular roundhouse kick pattern. Seeing that Iruka saw an opening, Naruto jumped into the air quickly using his right leg, and using the momentum of his left leg jumped back a few feet from Iruka.
"You are quite adept at dodging. Let's see how well you attack," Iruka said quickly closing the distance between the two. Swinging his left fist forward, Naruto weaved around it, pushing the arm away and quickly jabbing out with his left foot, while simoutanesly throwing a quick punch to the throat. Or that was the plan, while the punch did not make it to Iruka's throat, as he had blocked it, Naruto's foot found its way inside Iruka's guard. Quickly pressing his advantage, Naruto hooked Iruka's right leg, pulling it towards him while simoutanesly elbowing him in his left ribs, causing Iruka to fall backwards and land on his butt.
"Very impressive for a genin, Naruto-San, you soundly pass this part of the exam. My only advice is try to not sacrifice power for the sake of confusing your opponent like with what you did when you tried to hook my leg and jab me in the throat. While it worked in the case, it might not always end up like that," Iruka said smiling.
"Thank you Iruka-Sensei!" Naruto beamed, all worries about sabotage and his abilities compared to his friends forgotten.
"I'll walk you back to the waiting room, hopefully Mizuki-Sensei is close to being done with Kuri-San if not already testing Itachi-San. Take this time to rest for the ninjutsu part of the exam. Good job Naruto!" Iruka finished as he opened the door to where the written exam was held. The only other occupant of the room was Kuri Hyugga.
"I am going to see how Itachi-San's test is going, we will be back shortly," Iruka called out as he went in the direction than Kuri originally went.
The two young genin hopefuls looked at each other unsure of what to say.
"So...did you, you know, do good in the taijutsu test?" Naruto was surprised to hear Kuri ask.
"Oh...yeah, yes of course. I was trained by Kakashi-Ni after all!" Naruto smiled as he rubbed the back of his head. "Did you do well?"
"Of course I did, I've been taught taijutsu ever since I could walk," Kuri said with a bitter tone.
"Well...it must've been awesome to have such a large clan to help you with learning everything!" Naruto said still beaming with that nervous smile he normally wore.
"Hm," Kuri grunted. "Odds are we will all be on the same team assuming we all pass,"
"You think? That would be nice. A team with two of konoha's strongest clan heirs would be really strong probably!" Naruto said.
"And the team with the son of the fourth..." Kuri said looking directly at Naruto.
"Oh yeah, that too hehe," he said running his head along the back of his head again.
"Are you nervous about the next part of the exam?" She asked fidgeting with her hands.
"Mm? Kinda, I'm better at ninjutsu than taijutsu, so I'm not to worried about this last part. Are you?"
"Yeah...my clan doesn't like to use ninjutsu, saying it detracts from the purity of the clan. That's why I barely know these academy ones," she said with a frown.
"Meh, I'm sure you'll do fine. You seem to really work hard to get the things you want done. And I don't really know a lot about your clan besides the obvious but just because they don't use ninjutsu doesn't mean you don't have to as well, you know?" Naruto said as Itachi walked back into the room.
"Congratulations, you have all passed the first two parts of the exam. This final part o the exam will require you to all perform the three ninjutsu taught to all academy students. Mizuki will take Kuri-San while I take Naruto-San again, and then whoever is done first will test Itachi-San. If you two could follow us..."Iruka explained as he began walking. The trip the this testing area was filled with a nervous silence.
"Okay Naruto-San, go ahead and try to relax and perform the Kawarimi no Jutsu. Assuming you successfully complete the jutsu by substituting yourself with the log in the corner of the room, just give us some sort of signal that you have changed places with the log. If you would like, also use the Henge technique on the log before you replace yourself with it. You know, kill two birds with one stone type of deal," Iruka smiled, holding up a clipboard.
Naruto sighed, feeling his chakra pool around him. The familiar warmth began in his stomach and spread out to his limbs. He pictured the log leaning against the wall. He picture his chakra forming around the log. He could see the aura around the log in his mind, and he focused the aura surrounding him to ebb out in a decently thick branch. He connected the branch to the log's aura. Naruto took a deep breath and made the appropriate hand sign to perform the Kawarimi no Jutsu. He could feel his body travel along the chakra branch and he could picture the log doing the same. As Naruto touched the ground he quickly pumped some chakra into the chakra link between himself and the log, using the appropriate hand sign to perform a henge on the log, turning the log in a perfect copy of himself.
Iruka whistled, "Wow very impressive Namikaze-san! The time it took to pool your chakra was a bit longer than normal but for someone your age and with your chakra pool, you did exceptionally!" Iruka praised the young boy. Naruto just shyly nodded his head and smiled.
"Now, all I need you to do is perform the Bunshin passably and you will be an official genin of the village," Iruka smiled, bringing up his clipboard.
Naruto smiled, quickly filling his body with chakra again. He knew his Bunshin would be the one jutsu that would hold him back if he didn't pass. He sighed and pooled his chakra into three areas around him. He made the hand sign and within a poof of smoke three copies of Naruto appeared around himself. Iruka gave an appraising look, quickly marking down any observations. "Well the heights are a little bit off and one of the clones has a few features distorted but all in all a fairly good Bunshin technique. Congratulations Naruto, you passed!" Iruka said pulling out a standard Konoha headband, and handing it to the blonde. Naruto smiled and quickly took the headband and tied it around his upper left arm.
"Thank you for your tutelage Iruka-sensei!" Naruto smiled and bowed down to the young chunin. Iruka gave the exuberant blonde a ruffle on his head and opened up the door to let him go back to the room where the written exam took place in. He made a quick note that Itachi was not in the room and left the blonde to his own devices as he left to go work on some paperwork the Hokage needed, Jiraiya would be pleased to hear his godson had passed.