A/N: I'm so sorry about my multiple faults. I really have to brush up on Naruto facts. Besides that, it takes me around 3 hours to write one miserable chapter. *sigh* I don't deny that I cry easily and that I'm not exactly a Naruto otaku, my sister is. With school, necessities and dealing with my super annoying sister, I might not update often.

Hitsugayatoshirou1220-Thanks so much! I didn't know that! I always sucked at history. Still do.

Azurealkaze- I honestly don't know… I'm just kinda winging it as much as I hate to admit it. And likewise.

Thanks you for reviewing (nyan). It got me out of depression because last time it stopped at 13. Unlucky. (I'm kind of superstitious.)

Chapter 4: Graduation Exams

'RIIIIIINNNNGGGG' Minato yelped as he tumbled out of bed, landing on the floor in a heap. He got up and nursed the bruise on his forehead, grumbling as he smashed the source of the annoying sound. He tossed the decimated alarm clock into the growing pile in the corner. 34 and counting. He was about to reach for the orange jumpsuit he always wore in public when he cursed as he remembered that his last one had been ripped to shreds by one of the monstrous excuses for animals in the Forest of Death.

He made a mental note to stock up on jumpsuits and sighed in defeat as he pulled on his training clothes, not having anything else to wear. Sighing again as he trudged to the bathroom to freshen himself up, he jolted as he passed his calendar, noticing that the day was marked out with a memo next to it stating that the Graduation Exams were on that day. He double checked his dead alarm clock and realised he had set it an hour late the night before. Arms and legs flailing, he scrambled into the bathroom.

He multi-tasked, vigorously brushing his teeth while splashing water on his face before rinsing his mouth and scrubbing at his face with enough strength to tear it off and drying it. He rushed into the living room and heaped his bowl with cereal, not having the time to cook and forcefully shovelled spoonful after spoonful into his mouth, doing an incredible imitation of a chipmunk. After miraculously swallowing the generous amount of cereal, he dashed out the window in a blur of black and yellow, hastily making his way towards the academy, all the while reading a book on sealing he had brought along. Minato barrelled into the classroom, barely arriving on time.

He slid into the seat beside Sasuke, not even winded from the run. Over the years they had grown quite close, but their relationship was far from that of best buds. He had, however, befriended Shikamaru, Hinata and Kiba besides Sasuke. Befriending Shikamaru also meant that Chouji had joined his circle of friends as well. The gang often hung out during lunch break but not so much Sasuke as the rest because he was always being overrun by fan girls. Minato chuckled, reminiscing his younger days when he too, had a fan club. Not that he liked being stalked 24/7 by a group of love sick girls. He sympathised with Sasuke but was secretly happy that they were chasing Sasuke and not him.

He ignored the curious stares he received from his classmates directed at his sudden change in attire and returned to perusing the book he had on hand. Not long after, Iruka made his appearance and started taking attendance. Just as he was nearing the middle of the class list, Ino and Sakura entered, fighting over their love interest as per normal. They were always at each other's necks and Minato was sure that once they reached the ends of their necks, they were going to butt heads. He sighed. He had been doing that a lot that day. Sighing, that is.

He had not gotten to know Sakura very well but he had always been willing to try. The only problem was that Sakura had brushed him off whenever he attempted making small talk. She might have thought he was hitting on her or something along those lines. She walked past him and took an empty seat in the front, clearly unhappy about not being able to sit next to her crush. "I'm sure you all know about the importance of these exams. This is your first step to becoming ninja…" Minato tuned out the rest of his sensei's incredibly long and boring speech. "So follow your heart and you will be lead on the right path." He ended.

"Did you get that last sentence out of a fortune cookie?" someone quipped.

"Actually, yes. Yes I did." Iruka deadpanned.

He called for silence as he handed out the test papers and sat at the desk as he observed the ongoing test. Minato took one glance and knew that he could have breezed through the test but calculated the amount of marks he would have needed to get an average score and attempted the test. He was nearing the end of the paper when a question caught his eye. 'What technique was the Yondaime Hokage most famous for?' he read. Minato chuckled inwardly, tickled by the irony of it all. 'Answering a question about myself? How odd.' He thought. He scribbled down his answer and advanced to the following question.

Upon completing the test, he laid down his pencil and just sat stock still, waiting as the minutes ticked by, only moving to hand up his test paper once the time was up. They all filed out the door to the training ground for the taijutsu component. They all had to land at least one hit on the instructor or last 3 minutes without forfeiting, getting knocked out, or thrown out of the ring. Minato observed his classmates' spars with disinterest, only watching them to note down their weaknesses and katas. Most of their taijutsu styles were sloppy versions of the academy taijutsu style.

Minato had the misfortune of being tested by Mizuki, who was one of many who held hostility towards him. The moment they started, Minato knew that his sensei was aiming to inflict as much damage as possible under the pretext of testing his taijutsu skills. Mizuki charged at his most hated student and brought his fist down in a left hook, only for his 'demonic' charge to dodge his attack, slip through his field of defence and deliver an uppercut that caused a ringing in his ears. Minato returned to his side of the field and said, "Do I pass sensei?" his face the very picture of innocence. Mizuki growled menacingly but corrected it into a very strained smile that looked more like a grimace and declared "Yes Naruto, you pass the taijutsu test."

As Minato's evaluation was last, they all gathered backing the classroom for the ninjutsu portion. Minato flipped open his book and read until he heard his name being called. He strolled towards the door without a care in the world, and disappeared through the door. Mizuki was planning on using the 'demon brat' as a scapegoat for his plan on stealing the Forbidden Scroll, but what he did not count on was 'Naruto' passing the exam so his plans were shot straight to hell. He silently fumed as he watched 'Naruto' collect a headband from Iruka and tie it around his neck before ambling out of the room, blithe. As the students took the test one by one, Minato occupied himself by reading his book, occasionally looking up to congratulate his friends and to chat with them.

Eventually, they had gone through all the students and by some miracle, every single student had passed. After they were released, Minato shunshin'd to the forest he had been using as a training ground. His detection and tracking skills had gotten better from his time spent in the Forest of Death and was now using a regular forest as a training ground.

He arrived at the grounds and immediately set about running laps around the perimeter of the forest and did basic warm ups before creating Kage Bunshin and proceeded to spar with them. He preferred these to wooden training dummies if he couldn't get a sparring partner because they kept him on his toes and allowed him to improve past his current level. Even though they dispelled with each blow, an abundance of them working against him proved to be a challenge.

As he was getting started on ninjutsu practise, he noticed a dark shape flitting through the canopy. Being as curious as he was, he followed after the figure, dead set on finding out who this person was and where he was heading to. Coming into a clearing, a sliver of light filtered through the canopy, revealing a mop of silvery grey hair, a Chunnin flak jacket and a giant scroll strapped to the figure's back.

Minato recognised the scroll as the Forbidden Scroll. After all, he had been the keeper of it when he had been in office. He launched himself down onto the figure, delivering a heel drop and ripping the scroll of his/her person. The clouds parted, revealing an irate Mizuki. Minato stared in disbelief. Was this the level the academy teachers were stooping to now? Before either of them could move, Iruka flew out of the brush and tackled Minato to the ground, rolling along the ground in a tangle of flailing limbs.

Mizuki took the opportunity to launch a giant shuriken at them as they struggled to recover from the tumble. Sensing the danger, Iruka threw himself out in front of 'Naruto', acting as a human shield. Minato had sensed the shuriken as well and when he saw his sensei throw himself out in front of him, he reacted immediately by throwing his sensei to the ground and whipping out a kunai to block the incoming object in one fluid motion. Iruka stood protectively over his charge, steeling himself for the pain that was to come but the only thing he felt was a rough shove and the sound of metal clashing against metal. He opened his eyes to see his student standing over him, a tri-pronged kunai grasped in both hands, deflecting the large shuriken.

There was a fire in his eyes that he had never seen in his charge before and his eyes bugged when he registered what his student was gripping in his hands. "How- Where did you get that? I thought that weapon was exclusively for the Yondaime's use!" he asked, baffled. He heard his charge cursing under his breath before engaging Mizuki in battle. Minato cursed and made a mental note to keep his normal kunai on his person while training. His troublesome teacher was learning way too much for comfort.

He directed his attention to Mizuki, not knowing where he was going to take the scroll, but considered him a traitor for attempting to harm his comrades. He dashed towards Mizuki and engaged him in battle, the two exchanging fast and furious blows. Iruka stared at them from the ground before snapping out of it and flaring his chakra to attract attention.

"Do you know why…the villagers… hate you?" Mizuki said between blows.

"Yes" Minato deadpanned, jabbing at Mizuki with his elbow.

Mizuki growled, his trump card for gaining the upper hand gone. After a few minutes of a stalemate, Minato decided to step things up a bit and began throwing punches faster than before. Mizuki landed on a branch and pulled out a vial, gulping down the contents. His form began to change until he looked more like a tiger humanoid rather than a homosapien. Minato sensed the sudden dramatic increase in his opponent's chakra and decided not to pull any more punches.

Gripping the pendant on his choker, he felt the now familiar warmth spreading through his body and opened his eyes, pulling out a host of tri-pronged kunai. He looked over to Mizuki who seemed to have gone mad, a deranged look sparking in his eyes. The solution Mizuki had consumed had caused his chakra, strength, everything, to skyrocket, but his conscience seemed to be the price. He was now no more than an overpowered zombie.

Iruka's jaw had long since dropped and was staring at the spectacle, wondering if he was hallucinating. Mizuki had turned into a tiger like THING, his student turned into the Yondaime, Naruto-Yondaime disappeared and sliced Mizuki Tiger's head off and was now heading towards him. Either the world was going crazy or he was going insane.

Minato had forgot all about the unwilling spectator and could've smacked himself on the forehead. He made his way to Iruka, intending to get Iruka to keep all that he saw a secret. He kneeled down and became level with his ex-sensei.

"Please, keep this a secret," he requested.

"What was that just now?" Iruka choked out, still shell shocked.

"It is whatever you make of it but right now I am begging you to keep this a secret. For your student." And with those that cryptic message, he departed, vanishing into the night.

Sarutobi was sitting in his office, crying over his shattered scrying orb. One of the Gennin teams had come in with Tora earlier that day and Tora had knocked over his crystal ball while escaping. Meanwhile, Minato was lying in his bed, relieved to be in his original form, pondering the fact that another knew his secret. Current headcount: 2.

A/N: Sorry this chapter will be crappy coz I was rushing. Correct my mistakes please. Thanks.