"Surely there is no greater price than the life of your beloved, but I've never had to pay that price". ~Hinata
Naruto did it; he survived all these years until today, Graduation day at The Academy. He made it through four years of Mizuki-teme, four years of Sasuke-teme, and four years of endless practice and studying to maintain a mid-level grade in his classes, although he was still dead last in shurikan and kunai practice, a far cry to his third place in book smarts and second place in stealth. And he certainly couldn't pass a jutsu test, which was why he was dreading today.
He could do the Henge okay, and his Kawarimi wasn't the best, but it would pass. No, what caught him every time was the Clone Jutsu, which he couldn't make a decent one to save his life, or pass finals, apparently.
But more on that later, for now Naruto wanted to dwell on the happy things of his Academy years. Such as how he'd managed to get Kyuubi to speak to him, and help him a minor degree more. Kyuubi thought his clone problem was probably something to do with his record-breaking chakra levels, where as making a clone took such a tiny amount, it was like trying to separate a single drop of water from an ocean.
In his off time, Naruto had read through a massive series of books on famous clans of each and every shinobi village, their bloodlines, and had actually discovered his own clan, the Uzumaki who hailed from Uzushiogakure, which had fallen in the Second Shinobi War to the combined efforts of Iwa, Kumo, and Kiri. They were famed for their Fuinjutsu skills, and Naruto had added that to his list of self-improvement.
Speaking of his list of self-improvement, he had made some progress on the first, second, and third things. He had learned about several Taijutsu styles, although none really fit him, so Naruto decided to develop his own style, something that would make the villagers acknowledge him surely.
Also, he had added Shikamaru, Choji, and Shino, to some minor part, to his friends list along with Hinata. Speaking of the bluenette, Naruto glanced to his side to see his female friend, and secret crush, looking away from him. As he turned back to glare at the back of Sasuke's head, Hinata glanced at him, blushing at the way his eyes caught the light.
Ever since he had helped her with the bullies all those years ago, the Hyuuga girl had held Naruto in high regards, developing a crush on the blonde, although he never seemed to notice. This may have been in some small part due to Hinata inability to assert herself and Naruto's thick head. As for why she never noticed he harbored the same feelings for her, maybe she never thought Naruto would return her feelings and waved off the glances as figments of her imagination.
But back to Naruto's inner turmoil. He had managed to pass the written portion of the Finals, along with the weapons practice, and he almost had the Taijutsu, but ultimately failed due to his lack of an actual style. So he had to pass the Jutsu portion, and he'd have passed the Finals, and be a fully-fledged shinobi of Konoha. Of course, that meant he'd have to pull something out of his arse if he wanted to get past the Clone Jutsu.
He heard his name called as he went to the front of the room, standing at attention in front of Iruka-sensei, his teacher, and Mizuki-teme, the teacher's assistant who had it in for Naruto. Holding the position for ten seconds, he stood relaxed as he mentally prepped himself.
Iruka raised his eyebrows. Since when has Naruto been able to sit still for more than five seconds, let alone stand at attention for ten seconds? Iruka wondered as he called out the name of the first required jutsu.
"Okay Naruto, show us the Henge." Iruka instructed; his pen at the ready at check or X the box next to each jutsu.
Naruto nodded, channeling the necessary chakra as a puff of smoke surrounded him, and as it blew away a child-like Naruto was standing there, along with a stuff fox tucked under one arm and sucking the thumb of his other hand as most of the female inhabitants of the room mentally 'aww'ed, Hinata resisting the urge to run down and squeeze the chibi version of Naruto to her chest.
Changing back, Naruto made the peace sign with one hand, the thumbs up with his other hand, loudly proclaiming his dream of becoming Hokage.
"Hn, as if the Dobe could be Hokage." Sasuke said, turning his attention to the window as he refused to look at Naruto, as if denying his existence. This infuriated Naruto as he jumped right into the next jutsu.
Throwing a water balloon up over his head, he used Kawarimi to switch places with Sasuke as the Uchiha was doused in orange paint, his only discernable feature being his onyx eyes on the now solid orange blob.
After asking Sasuke to resume his seat, the arrogant Uchiha snorting, switching clothes, all the girls, sans Hinata, blushed at a shirtless Sasuke. The Uchiha walked up to Naruto, telling him to 'get out of his seat'. When Naruto refused, Sasuke went to punch him, only for the blonde to pull another trick as he once again used the Kawarimi to switch places with another unsuspecting classmate, this time it was Sakura, who was knocked unconscious.
"Nice shot, Teme!" Naruto yelled from the front of the room, where he had resumed his place as he was mentally sweating. After managing to get the angry Uchiha under control, Iruka turned to Naruto, awaiting him to performing the Clone Jutsu, Mizuki watching Naruto contempt as he was crossing his fingers, wishing that Naruto would screw up.
Mizuki got his wish as smoke enveloped Naruto, only for two horrible clones to appear as sickly Naruto's with smoke rising from their heads before they puffed out of existence. Naruto bowed his head in shame, turning to look at Hinata, who chose that moment to look at Naruto. Both sides blushed before the intense stare which last maybe 2-3 seconds tops, became too much, and Hinata looked away. Naruto took this as a sign that Hinata was disappointed in him as he ran out of the room, tears stinging at the corners of his eyes, Mizuki grinning deviously as he offered to go after Naruto while the rest of the class completed the test.
Meanwhile, Naruto was outside, swinging in the single swing on the tree outside, trying to act like he wasn't torn up inside. Inside of his head, he could hear the Kyuubi complaining, while simultaneously assuring him that he couldn't help that he could perform something as pathetic as an illusionary clone. Naruto general tried to ignore the demon fox inside of him, but lately he had been getting better about helping him.
Hearing footsteps, he looked up into Mizuki-teme's face, which currently had a mask of care on it. Crouching down beside him, Mizuki looked at with sympathy, although Naruto had learned how to read people, a gift he'd picked up while trying to survive on his own, and using this skill, Naruto could tell that Mizuki wished he would disappear from the face of the Earth.
"Hey Naruto, don't let it get you down. Iruka can be a little strict sometimes, but you need to understand that he just wants the best for you. His parents were killed in the Kyuubi attack, and he hasn't had any family since then. I think, he may see a little bit of himself in you, both of you being orphans, and he wants you to show everyone that you can be exactly what you proclaim to be to everyone everyday." Mizuki said, his kind voice surprising Naruto as he thought that maybe Mizuki wasn't all that bad.
"So, how about I give you one more chance. It's a hard test using your applied stealth skills, but I think you can do it. If you decide to do it, I'll put in a good word with Iruka, and try and have him overturn his decision about you failing. All you have to do is…" Mizuki said, bending close to Naruto as he whispered into the younger blonde's ear, Naruto inner warnings going off, but his desperation to become a shinobi overrode them.
Later that night, a shadowy figure leapt across the rooftops of Konoha, a large scroll strapped to his back as he jumped over the wall surrounding Konoha. How he managed to escape the mass multitude of ANBU trying to catch him still amazed the Hokage, who was watching the whole thing through his magic crystal ball.
Landing in a large clearing, Naruto looked around, making sure that no one was within the vicinity as he dropped his guard, sitting down and unrolling the scroll to the first jutsu learned, which happened to be the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Luckily, he had spent the past years cramming a multitude of book reading into a single night and knew how to scan passages for the key phrases.
"Okay, so I make this hand seal, and let's see if it works." Naruto mumbled as he jumped to his feet, making a unique cross seal as a perfect copy of himself appeared next to him. Looking at it, he poked its face, the clone doing the same to Naruto before both leapt with joy at learning a physical clone jutsu, high-fiving each other in the process.
"Okay, let's move on, I still should have some time before anyone finds me, but just in case, clone, umm, me, go keep watch and dispel if you see anyone." Naruto said, sitting back down as he unrolled the scroll to the next entry while his clone nodded, leaping into the tree line as it began keeping watch, Naruto making several more clones which separated into a wide circle surrounding the clearing while he scanned the next entry.
Within five minutes, one of the clones dispelled as ordered, warning Naruto as he closed up the scroll, standing up as he appeared to lean on the scroll like a cane, as he began breathing heavily, faking exhaustion as Iruka landed in the clearing.
"Naruto! Do you know what you've done?" Iruka yelled, as he advanced on Naruto, who gave his signature grin and peace sign as several Shadow Clones landed in the clearing, backing Naruto up with their own peace signs and grins.
"What?" Iruka said, stopping, confused. Just this morning Naruto couldn't make two half-decent clones, and now he had 11 surrounding him, and from the looks of things, they were even solid clones to boot. Spying the scroll beside Naruto, he connected the dots. "You managed to learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu? But that's a B-Rank Kinjutsu, it should be impossible for an Academy, no even a Genin, and most Chunin wouldn't be able to make more than one Shadow Clone at best." Iruka said, clearly confused.
"Yeah, but I have really massive reserves, that must be why I can't use the Clone Jutsu, huh Iruka-sensei? Anyways, I managed to get the scroll out without being caught, which means I pass, right?" Naruto said, and Iruka felt his heart drop. Naruto had no clue that what he had done was punishable by death, and he could end up being banished from the village for this act that many would view as treasonous.
"Who told you that Naruto? It isn't true, what ever they told you wasn't true, it was just a trap a trap to-" Iruka started, only to be interrupted by a second voice, belonging to a white-haired Chunin who was perched on a tree branch, a fuma shurikan in one hand, another attached to his back.
"Good job, Naruto. I knew you could do it, especially with your natural skill in stealth, it's almost uncanny, the way you mange to always evade the ANBU, like a fox escaping the baying hounds. Then again, that's to be expected from the-" Mizuki was cut off by Iruka, who threw several small shurikan at Mizuki, only for the white-haired Chunin to deflect the metal weapons with his fuma shurikan.
"No, don't tell him Mizuki, it's an S-Rank secret, punishable by death." Iruka warned as he pulled out a kunai, preparing to fight to defend his student. At the same time, Naruto realized that his initial sense of Mizuki had turned out to be correct, as well as that he was already aware of the secret the two teachers, well teacher and ex-teacher, were bantering over.
"Hey Naruto, do you remember 12 years ago, when the Kyuubi attacked and killed lots of the people of our village. The Yondaime fought it, but he couldn't kill it, so instead he sealed it into a little newborn. That's right, you're the Kyuubi, and now I'm going to kill both of you and take that scroll and deliver it to my contact in the Land of Rice." Mizuki said, and watched Naruto for any signs of mental breakdown. Naruto smirked, deciding to switch to his more fitting battle mask.
"What, you thought I wasn't aware of the fireball inside of me. Please, I've known about him for years, you think I couldn't make the connection when half the population refers to me as the 'The Demon Brat', really, I may be dense, but I do notice things. If you really wanted to shock me, how about you tell how you have the energy to attack us after screwing your mother all last night, oh wait, you don't have a mother because she gave you up for adoption." Naruto taunted, and followed up the performance by turning around and smacking his rear, Mizuki's face growing redder by the second.
"Why you little." Mizuki spit out between his gritted teeth as he hurled the fuma shurikan at Naruto, who managed to roll to the side as the fuma shurikan almost took off his head. Rising to his feet, he saw Iruka and Mizuki locked in combat, the two Chunnin evenly matched as they exchanged blows which were either blocked or dodged.
"Run Naruto, I'm holding him off. Get that scroll back to the village, hurry; I don't know how long I can hold him off before he comes after you." Iruka called out, and as he turned to glance at Naruto, who caught sight of the blonde's grin which was usually accompanied by a prank.
"What scroll? I never had a scroll." Naruto said, tapping on the scroll beside him, which was enveloped in smoke as instead of the Forbidden Scroll, a Naruto clone stood in its place. Just then, Naruto's grin grew. "Do you perhaps mean the scroll that my clone just dropped off at the Hokage Tower? Or should I say, I just dropped off." Naruto said, only to vanish in a puff of smoke at the exact moment a squadron of ANBU descended upon the clearing, one holding a katana to Mizuki's neck as he dropped his weapon.
Meanwhile, back at the Hokage Tower, Sarutobi was patting Naruto on the back for a job well done. That was one thing about Naruto, you never really knew how he was going to do it, but you knew he would.
"Thanks for teaching me the Shadow Clone Jutsu, Jiji, and that other jutsu too." Naruto said, looking at his adopted grandfather with admiration and love.
"Always glad to help, now then, I suppose you want me to let yo back into the shinobi program?" The Hokage asked, sitting down behind his desk, donning his Hokage face as Naruto dropped the wide grin, although his eyes were still lit up.
"Well, here's what I was thinking…" Naruto said, leaning forwards, writing on a sheet of paper as he slid it towards the Hokage, who laughed heartily, puffing on his pipe.
"I think that can be arranged, Naruto-kun." Sarutobi said, chuckling at Naruto's idea.