Uzumaki Nawawi: my idea with the title is, when Naruto saves Inari in wave, he says the hero is usually last to the fight, the title is meant to foreshadow that Naruto isn't what everybody thinks he is, so when he shows his true power and potential, it's as if the hero is arriving late to the fight.

Thanks so much to everybody that reviewed. Keep R&R.

Chapter 2: Graduation exam part 1

(6 years later)

The day started like every other day in Konoha. A warm breeze in the air as the sun rose over the Hokage monument, painting it in a brilliant orange colour. Some civilians could be seen opening up stores or delivering stock, but the majority of the populace was still asleep. One person who wasn't asleep though was a young blonde hair shinobi in training who goes by the name, Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto had been in the academy for 4 years now; he had already failed the graduation test twice, was the 'dead-last' of his class and was never supported in anything by either teachers or friends. To anybody that looked at his school record he looked like a total failure. What no body knew was that Naruto was the total opposite of all those things; he was by far from being a failure. Ever since his first day at the academy, when he was ridiculed by his teacher in front of his new classmates, Naruto had decided to hide his true strength and potential from any teacher/sensei that wouldn't show him respect or give him a chance to prove himself.

Over the last 4 years, he hid behind a mask of his own creation where he acted exuberant, brash and inattentive. He made it seem as if he was totally talent-less by purposely failing every single test, including his first two graduation tests. Naruto was none of these things though; in truth he had more potential than the village's 'precious Uchiha', and it continued to grow with every passing day.

Every morning, before sunrise, Naruto could be found at an abandoned shinobi training ground, formerly known as training ground 68. It was a small clearing in the middle of a woodland area; it had a small stream running along one edge, five extremely worn down training posts and a small, seemingly harmless cave. What people didn't know was that this cave held the key to Naruto's success. Within the cave were various hidden passage ways, one of which led to the room where Naruto currently was. It was a fairly large circular room; around 20 foot in diameter. It was dimly lit by a large number of candles, which stood in front of mirrors that reflected the light across the room. The walls were lined with well crafted, but obviously hand made shelves. The shelves were stacked with countless number of scrolls, kunai, shuriken and various other shinobi artefacts. Ever since the night were Naruto found the 'How to start off your shinobi career' book, he had taken time out of every day to search trash cans from various locations in Konoha to try to find anything that could be considered of use to the young Jinchuuriki. The things one could find was absolutely mind-blowing: ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu scrolls, a whole range of shinobi weaponry, ranging from the standard kunai to Bukijutsu (weapon techniques) scrolls, hiden (clan techniques) or kekkei genkai scrolls in the clan districts and sometimes fuinjutsu scrolls.

Over the past 6 years, Naruto had spent whatever time he had that wasn't spent in the academy, sleeping or searching the trash for more items of worth, learning whatever he could from the scrolls and practising. Obviously he couldn't learn any of the kekkei genkai techniques, but he could learn about them in case he fought someone with the ability to use them.

Naruto was sat in the middle of the room going over his morning collections. He had a surprisingly good haul today. He found a scroll for Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu (Fire release: Phoenix sage fire technique) a C-rank fire technique, Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu (Fire release: Dragon fire technique) another C-rank fire technique, Futon: Atsugai (Wind release: Pressure damage) a B-Rank wind technique, 30 still useable kunai, 40 shuriken, a reparable combat staff, a Bojutsu: Tsuga Endan (Staff technique: Piercing Fang Bullet) a B-Rank Staff technique and a fuinjutsu scroll on restriction seals. "Hmm, good haul today, it's been a long time since I found anything to do with fuinjutsu" said Naruto. He stood up and carried all the items to their new respected home, Naruto the catalogued where everything was and whether or not he had learnt it yet. After finishing, Naruto noticed he had and hour and a half until the academy started, which would leave him with an hour left to play with. At that very moment his stomach grumbled, so he decided to go shopping for some food.

As Naruto made his way out of the cave, he realised he hadn't activated his daily henge. Naruto stood there at a slightly taller than average 5 foot 3 inches, he wore a standard mesh armour shirt under a short sleeved dark orange trench coat with black flames at the bottom, black forearm protectors, ANBU style pants and black shinobi boots. This was not how he looked in public though, he activated his henge and transformed in a poof of smoke. Now standing were Naruto was, was a blonde haired boy, around 4 foot 10 inches height, wearing a 'kill me' orange and blue jumpsuit and blue shinobi sandals. This image is what Naruto used daily to help hide his true potential and power. The short height made him look ridiculously weak, and doesn't have a proper diet due to a ramen obsession. The jumpsuit made him look as if he was an attention seeker with no regard to a shinobi's key aspect, stealth.

This henge though was no ordinary henge. The standard henge is more of a genjutsu rather than ninjutsu, the user covers them-selves with a cloak of chakra which refracts the light changing one's appearance. Naruto's henge was different though since it was one of his creations, this henge was a true transformation, changing the user's mass, shape and even density into that of the person's or object, which means it isn't detectable as easily as the standard henge. He was able to fool high level shinobi with his new henge, as appose to only low level shinobi and civilians with the standard henge. He called it Shin henge.

Naruto also used henge for another reason than to downplay his strength. The other reason Naruto used henge was to fool the shopkeepers of Konoha. For some reason, the village seemed to hate him; shopkeepers would either refuse to serve him or would charge him triple the price for a third of the quality. But his use of the henge would allow him to disguise himself to be able to get normal rates for his food and supplies. His Shin henge would make sure that any shinobi run establishments, or shinobi in whatever store he visited wouldn't find him out.

And so with his hour planned out, Naruto set off towards the market sector.

(1 hour later)

Naruto's visit to the market sector had gone off without any trouble; his by now expert use of the Shin henge allowed him to get not only food for the week, but also, whatever shinobi supplies he didn't have in his hideout but needed for the graduation exam. Yes that's right, today was the day of Naruto's third attempt at the academy graduation exam, and this time, Naruto wasn't going to fail on purpose, this time Naruto would blow their minds.

Naruto was about 5 minutes away from the shinobi academy, and there was 20 minutes before the day and exam started. He reached the academy and headed towards the classroom of Umino Iruka. Iruka was the only teacher in the academy to ever attempt to improve Naruto and help him, all of the other had out right tried to sabotage his career. This was the reason he decided to try and pass this year, for Iruka's career as a teacher, the person who turned a hopeless and talent-less 'dead-last' into the Hokage. It would be Naruto's way of saying thank you.

After waiting for 10 minutes, it was time for the exams to start. The door to the classroom swung open, and in walked Umino Iruka followed closely by Mizuki. Mizuki was Iruka's assistant for the year, and like the majority of Konoha's population, he hated Naruto's guts. Naruto caught the glare sent his way from Mizuki. Naruto just returned the glare while leaking slight killing intent, only noticeable to Chuunin with it. Iruka stood up in front of the whole class. He quickly gave a nervous glance towards Naruto's direction, but what he saw surprised him. Naruto winked at him. 'Did Naruto just wink at me? Why? Does have that much confidence that he will pass? What are you up to Naruto?' thought Iruka. "Alright everyone listen up." Iruka told the class with some authority. "Now this is how the exams will work, first off you'll be taken outside, there you will demonstrate your ability in kunai and shuriken throwing; the test will be described in more detail once we're outside. Next you will demonstrate your ability in taijutsu; once again the test will be described in more detail when the time comes. After that we will test your ability in dispelling a genjutsu. After we're finished there, we'll head back inside where you will take a written examination. Finally we will test your ninjutsu and we'll be able to make a decision whether or not you graduate." explained Iruka. He waited to see if there were any questions. "Alright, let's head outside and get started shall we?" asked Iruka in a suggestive voice which was answered by a roar of excitement from the students.

The class was now standing outside, all facing Iruka and Mizuki. "Mizuki-san, why don't I explain this one, you can explain the taijutsu since you're the one that taught them." offered the scarred Chuunin.

"Good idea Iruka-san"

Iruka turned to face his students once again. "Alright, this is how the test will work. All of you will come up here one by one, you will through 5 kunai and 5 shuriken. There are 5 stumps, so 1 kunai and 1 shuriken for each stump. As you can see there are targets on the stumps, hit the outer white ring gets you 1 point, the blue middle ring gets you 2 points and the bull's eye gets you 3. We will mark down your score out of the possible maximum of 30. Does anybody have any questions?" asked Iruka. "Alright, first up is Akimichi Choji." announced Naruto.

Naruto didn't pay any attention to how the others did except for a select few. Naruto went over towards the tree in the yard and took a seat in the shade under the tree. He sat in the lotus position and started to feel out his chakra, he moved it around his body, speeding it up and slowing it down, directing and re-directing the flow.

He was brought out of his musings however when he heard a name he'd been waiting for, "Hyuuga Hinata.", he stood up and walked over to Hinata. He raised his hand, and put it on her shoulder, leaned forward and whispered in her ear, "Good luck Hinata, I know you can do it". Hinata's face had gone bright red with blush and was about to thank Naruto when the screeching voice of a certain pink haired girl. "Naruto-baka, what did you do to Hinata-san. If you've said anything perverted I'll kill you." stated Sakrua. Naruto turned to face Sakura. "Three things I would like to say Sakura-san." The emphasis on the san honorific was clear for everybody. "First," he said while raising his right index finger, "I was only offering my support to Hinata-chan" once again the emphasis was clear "and saying that I believed she could do it. Secondly," he raised his middle finger, "I'm a growing boy, going through puberty and my hormones are racing. If I had said anything perverted, it should be totally normal, no need for death threats. Finally," he raised his ring finger, "if you're trying to get your 'Sasuke-kun' with that voice of yours, it's defiantly working since it's causing everybody else's eardrums to burst. Next time do us all a favour; ask me quietly and in a civilised manor, not by showing off the volume of your lungs." Naruto finished and walked away. Everybody present was shacked into silence by the way Naruto had spoken to Sakura, well when I say everyone, one emo-brooder stayed emotionless.

Hinata had ended up with an impressive score of 27, 7 bull's eyes and 3 blue. Naruto congratulated Hinata, to which Hinata stuttered a "Thank you". Naruto then went back to his musings until the name of Uchiha Sasuke was announced, which meant Naruto was next afterward. The smug Uchiha got up and threw the same score as Hinata, 27, 8 bull's eyes 2 blue and 1 red, much to his disappointment at tieing with a Hyuuga.

"Uzumaki Naruto." announced Iruka. Naruto stood up and walked over towards the five stumps. He reached into his holster and retrieved the required amount of Kunai and shuriken. It was total silence, all eyes were on him. In a blur of orange, Naruto flicked out the kunai and shuriken in quick succession. 10 loud thuds rang across the small yard, when everybody turned their attention towards the stumps, to say they were shacked was an understatement. 10 bull's eyes. Nobody dared talk, only some pupils trying to dispel some form of genjutsu that didn't exist. When the silence was broken, everybody was shacked to see who; it was Hinata congratulating Naruto on his performance.

After the end of the first test, the current 'rookie of the year' was Naruto, followed by both Sasuke and Hinata in second.

The instructor quickly moved on to the next test, taijutsu. Mizuki stood in front of everybody and announced the exam. "Each of you will be set up with a sparring partner at total random through this electronic board. When two names are called, you will take your places at the middle of the sparring circle and wait until we ask you to start. Iruka-san and I will judge you on your taijutsu, so even if you loose, you can still get a good score. The winner of the spar will be either the last one in the circle or the last one able to continue. Remember this is a taijutsu spar, you are allowed to use any taijutsu you know as long as they aren't crippling or life threatening. Does anybody have any questions? Good, now the first two are … Hyuuga Hinata vs Kagayaki Sutaa." announced Mizuki. The fight was totally one-sided; Hinata won and got once again an impressive score of 28 out of 30.

Sasuke faced Nara Shikamaru, once again a one-sided affair, awarding the Uchiha 27, which lead to a fuming emo-king.

At the end of the spars, only two students were left, Inuzuka Kiba, the only boy able to keep up with Sasuke in a taijutsu spar thanks to his clan's style, and Uzumaki Naruto, the boy whose' style resembled a drunken brawler.

"Hey look Akamaru, looks like we got an easy fight." Boasted an over ego Inuzuka. Naruto just ignored the comment and took his place in the middle of the ring, and so did Kiba.

"Alright boys, remember the rules, no crippling, stop when we tell you. Both fighters ready?" Both boys nodded, one with seriousness while the other was smug. Both placed their hands in the 'seal of Confrontation'. "Alright … Hajime!"

Cliff hanger! The next chapter will be the rest of the graduation exam and the Mizuki incident. R&R.