"Freedom!" came the cry from the boy running on all fours, the puppy on his back clinging tightly to him as he ran off into the distance. The group behind him, either smiling after him, or seemingly embarrassed to be even distantly associated with him, followed as a much more leisurely pace.
"Baka," said Ino as she and Sakura walked together, their steps almost in perfect unison, and their stances similarly slouched, looking like they'd had their life force drained out of them.
"You said it. How does he have so much energy left?" asked Sakura, as she stretched her arms out, getting a rather satisfying series of pops from her fingers.
"He got every answer wrong, and just spent the time we were supposed to be testing playing with his puppy," said Hinata, as she came up on the pair. They then began the usual female game of comparing notes on the test, discussing who got what right and the like.
"I can't believe they remember all that. I barely remember what I wrote for my name," said Choji as he opened another bag of chips, stuffing a handful of them in his mouth as he walked.
"That's because you're giving up too soon. This was the last test before Kakashi's prize is handed out, and everyone else just stopped trying," said Naruto, as he and Heero walked together.
"Not like anyone is even close to Hinata, anyway. She's going to win this year's prize, but Itachi-kun said you can't win twice, and that means next year is all mine," proclaimed Sasuke, smirking at the others.
"This years isn't over yet. We have a chance. A slim one. If she got every answer wrong, and we got every answer right, on this test, one of us could get that training session," said Heero, pulling a sheet out marked with the points for the year, and with the additions and subtractions for the final.
"A troublesome thought. Do you really think she'd miss those questions just to give you two a chance?" asked Shikimaru as he brought up the rear.
"No, not really. But a one in a million chance, is still a chance," admitted Heero.
"See, we've still got it. Now, who's up for getting some of the best food in Konoha?" asked Naruto.
"Since when did my mom start cooking for you?" asked Choji between mouthfuls.
"He means that ramen place he likes so much. Sorry, but I've got better food waiting for me at home. Besides, Itachi and dad said I needed to go straight home after the test. Later Bakas!" shouted Sasuke, before leaping upwards onto a rooftop, and then running towards the Uchiha district.
"I am afraid my father made a similar request for me to report my expected results. If you're free tomorrow, however, I'll try to make some time," said Hinata, as she turned from the group at the next intersection, going towards her home.
"Likewise. Sometimes parents can be so troublesome," said the pineapple headed boy as he turned down the other road. Choji left next, followed by Ino and Sakura, who were going to the Yamanaka compound for post semester celebrations together.
"I see. My own progenitors have not made a similar request of myself. Would it be alright if I accept the invitation?" asked Shino, using his finger to push his glasses up his nose.
"Um, what?" asked Naruto.
"He means he doesn't have to rush home to his parents, and it would be a pleasure," said Heero, and Naruto nodded. Heero and Shino were...interesting. Heero never stood close to the kikai user, but he did seem to be one of the few who would talk to him regularly. The rest of the class either ignored him, or at most, involved him only when they were doing a group activity.
"Then let's go!" shouted Naruto, who bounded onto the nearby building. Heero and Shino looked at each other before following, Heero running along walls, while Shino just seemed to fly, his soles barely touching ground before leaping off again. With that sort of speed, the three of them made it to Ramen Ichiraku within moments, slamming into the seats by the counter one right after the other.
"Hey, Teuchi! You there?" cried out Naruto as he spun himself to a stop in his seat. The other two were much more gentle, slipping inside almost silently compared to the boy in bright orange.
"Heh, well hello Naruto, Heero, and...Shino, wasn't it?" asked the man behind the counter as he came out, holding a large bowl in his hands.
"Hai, Mr. Teuchi," said Shino, bowing his head a little towards the man.
"Excellent. Well, the broth is boiling now, so it'll be just a minute before I can bring out the noodles. So why don't we shoot the breeze a little first?" asked the man as he set the bowl down on the counter in front of him.
"Sure," said Naruto.
"I hear you boys just finished your first year at the Academy. All on your way to being fine Ninja then, huh?" he asked this with a smile, as he settled himself down onto a stool behind the counter, making him a good head taller than the boys.
"Indeed. One year of three completed. Two years remain until we can take the test for genin," said Shino.
"What about those early tests Mizuki was talking about? Couldn't we take those before the next semester, and then graduate this year?" asked Naruto.
"We could, but I doubt it would do us any good. If you do that, you'd be with those guys in E class, or maybe D class if you did it next year. Those guys are way better than us with jutsus," said Heero, remembering the times their class had been invited to look on the older students training.
They knew a few jutsus now, mostly sticking with the basic ones like kawarimi and henge, body replacement and disguise. Those had taken them months to master, but now, all of the kids in class, a good twenty-three of the original thirty-seven, could preform the techniques with some degree of regularity.
"Yeah, I saw that one guy, Hinata's brother or whatever, doing kawarimi five times in a row," admitted Naruto.
"Neji, and he is Hinata's cousin, and Hizashi's son," corrected Shino. Before more could be said, a loud ringing sound came from the back of the stand, causing Teuchi to rush back. When he got the water off the boil, he called out for the boys orders, and in a short amount of time, all three found bowls in front of them.
Speech stopped for a time as the trio ate, Teuchi smiling as the boys seemed to enjoy his ramen. It took them a few minutes to finish the food, Naruto slurping up the last bits of broth from his bowl, while Shino ate much more quietly, seemingly taking in the ramen a noodle at a time, leaving a few pieces on the counter, where his bugs ate it. Heero meanwhile ate with a more normal flare, not slurping it down, but just eating, finishing his off last, and setting the bowl in front of him.
"So, do you two truly believe you have a chance at acquiring the prize?" asked Shino, as he let the bugs crawl back up his sleeve, while Teuchi collected the bowls, taking them to the back to wash them out.
"It's possible. Not likely, but thanks to the studying Naruto and I have been doing, we've got the second and third highest scores in the class," said Heero. Most of the class had let their studies lag a bit, sometimes not turning in all the assignments, or just goofing off during tests. They all still fought their best during actual practice, either taijutsu or ninjutsu, but few of them felt the need to push themselves, with the prize being so far out of reach.
As such, Naruto and Heero, who still wanted that prize, worked for it. Heero studied every scrap of information he could, learning the names of all the Kages of every village, and able to rattle off the rice production of the Land of Grass with only a moments thought. His scores in such things proved his studying worth it, as he regularly came in second on tests of memory and knowledge, only losing out to the Hyuga heiress.
Naruto was the surprising one, though. He had a head for numbers that would have made anyone in the regular civilian school's envious. He could look at a word problem on a sheet, telling you where a target was, and what supplies you had, and come up with a plan of attack that maximized resources. Better, in the tests on practical traps, he'd been top of the class, even beating Hinata in that one.
Together, they'd maintained their status as two of the smarter students. Of course, their physical exams were a different story. Naruto was good with taijutsu, but his style left something to be desired. He could do each move of their studies individually well, chambering a kick perfectly, timing and executing a block that would stop even a powerful blow. It was bringing them together that he had trouble with, either failing to take advantage of openings, or worse, leaving himself open to a counter to any move he made. He had an advantage of stamina though, and rarely stayed down long, usually just throwing himself into the fight until his opponent fell down, exhausted.
Heero was a different story. He was sitting average with his taijutsu, able to regularly throw his opponents from the ring. But if it came to a full fight, when Hizashi let them all use their jutsus and family techniques, he almost always lost. Naruto at least powered through, either tanking hits that would fell any of his classmates, or letting them knock him around, then recovering quicker than they could. Heero failed at that, always. He could dodge decently, and was good with basic moves, but as soon as Hinata activated her Byakugan, or Ino started with that mind technique of her's, he was always down and out.
"Then I shall wish you both good luck," was all Shino said before casually strolling down the street towards his family compound. Naruto and Heero looked at each other at that point, then realized that Shino had failed to pay for his meal, as Teuchi asked for money. Both of them groaned at that, but paid out of their limited funds, before starting for home themselves. Once there, they trained a bit, watched some shows on TV about people in tight jumpsuits and hard helmets fighting obviously fake monsters, and then went to bed.
The next day they found themselves in class, staring at the board as Itachi rambled on and on about the various things their tests had demonstrated. Namely that some of them just weren't cut out for the life of Ninjitsu, and asked, politely, that three of the remaining students leave. The three, some of the lowest scores in the class, did so, thanking Itachi for the year of study he had given them, with Itachi noting that while they might never be ninja, they were still citizens of the Leaf, and that came with a pride all its own.
"And now, I believe it is time to announce the winner of our little contest," said Itachi with a smile as he turned to face the remaining score of students. Beside him stood the board on which the points had been tallied. Hinata's of course, had the most, by far. Heero and Naruto were leading the pack behind her, with Sakura being behind them. In last place was, surprisingly, Shikamaru, who lost even to Kiba, who had one mark under his name for his third place spots during a math test which have the class had just skipped.
"Of course, this final, as I said before we started, will be worth ten points, which should tip the balance a bit," as he said this, everyone saw the paper he turned to first was Hinata's, and as predicted, he marked down all ten points for her, putting her well out of reach of any of her classmates.
"Well now, I suppose there isn't much use in marking down the rest of this. If you'd care to come out now?" he said this to the room at large, and every student looked around, wondering what he was talking about, only to all be surprised as a man just sort of appeared beside their teacher, reading from an odd colored book, and standing there like he had been there all along.
"So, did you find someone worthy to pass on my skills to, Itachi-kun?" asked the man in a sing-song voice, lowering the book as he spoke. Behind the book was a mask, obscuring his face. In fact, the only thing anyone could see of him was his eye, a thing of near black that pierced through the classroom, staring into their souls.
"I might have, Hinata, if you will come forward?" asked Itachi, and dutifully, the Hyuga heir rose from her seat and came to stand before her teacher, and the man running Anbu.
"Thank you, Sensei, but I must decline this honor. My father has insisted that, as the heir to the Hyuga clan, it would be improper of me to deny the learning of a great technique from Kakashi-san to my fellow students. He insists that I allow one of them to take this, and he will instead be instructing me over the break on one of our clan's great techniques," she said this all with a formal bow, showing respect to the two men, before walking up to her seat again, and then sitting down. The class, stunned for a moment, turned towards the two older men for direction.
"~sigh~And here I spent all night coming up with a list of techniques a Dojutsu user would find useful," said Kakashi, pulling out a piece of paper from a pocket on his vest. He then made a single handsign, and the paper, flew from his hand, and burst into spectacular multicolored flames, impressing the class, and distracting them as Itachi went back to the board, and pulled out the tests again, quickly going over them to tally up points in his head.
"Hmm, Kakashi?" he said at last, gesturing for the Anbu captain to come towards him. The teacher made a single handsign, and the two were suddenly encased in a white sphere, one that no sound could penetrate, and no eye could pierce, leaving the students to their own devices.
"Are you crazy?! They just offered you one of Kakashi's techniques, and you turn it down?" demanded Ino, spinning her her seat to face the white eyed girl.
"My father has said, and I will obey. Besides, he's not wrong. Our clan has many techniques that I don't know myself, and they'll be more easily incorporated into my Gentle Fist style than some random one that Kakashi happened to pick up on a mission," the matter of fact response got a few nods from the class, who all turned back towards each other. Everyone was just about to start wondering who would win the prize, when the white sphere popped like a soap bubble, and the two men looked towards the class.
"Heero, Naruto, would you two come up here?" asked Itachi, and the two boys turned back towards the class again, before Naruto bounded towards the front of the room, leaping over desks to come to a halt near where the teachers stood. Heero, either showing composure, or just not having the same boundless energy, took the steps down to the teacher's level, and then bowed towards him.
"Hai, sensei?" asked Heero.
"After a great deal of number crunching, it came to my attention that the two of you have tied for first place in the class room. Normally, I would now require you to do some form of competition to determine an overall winner, but Kakashi..." he left that hanging as he motioned for the one eyed man to continue.
"After much debate, a coin flip, I have decided that I can teach both of you one technique. Since it will take me most of the night to come up with a list of appropriate techniques though, I'll meet you at your house tomorrow, say around eight in the morning?" said the man, and both boys eagerly nodded, their heads swimming with fantasies of the abilities they would soon wield against their classmates, while everyone else in the room was staring daggers at them, for having swiped the prize at the last minute. All except Hinata, who wore a small smile on her face.