Chapter 5:
"talk" thought speak,"talk" normal talking, 'Thought' thinking
Hinata sighed, even with all the preparations Naruto still managed to nearly be late at his genin exam. She was really going to have to start training him up, it just wouldn't do for the future Hokage to leave the council waiting.
She snickered, how many times had Naruto and her left the council waiting while just lazing around or going snuggling, the face the council then made were just hilarious when they then finally did arrive and no matter how many times they did it, it still stayed funny.
Hinata snapped out of her thoughts when Iruka dropped the test paper in front of her. She looked in front of her at the test, yep the same old test, it was settling to find that at least some things didn't change by their interference.
With Naruto
'ah it's still so refreshing to see all the hate towards us, don't you think Kyu-chan. '
"I'm sorry" said Kyu
"Don't worry Kyu-chan, I know it wasn't your fault, not now and not before."
"But but…"
"No Kyu-chan, it isn't your fault that the villagers are idiots. Now what to do about this genjutsu on my test?"
"Well you could always break the genjutsu, answer the question corrects to be in the team of Hinata, in other words not be dead last. and then recast it."
"You're right, thanks."
And so naruto did just that, though he still made some mistakes,' don't want to get accused of cheating now would we, though traveling back in time might be kinda cheating, nahh'.
After the written portion of the exam was finally over, Iruka told them that the taijutsu wouldn't be tested today but would be graded over the entire course of the term. At this most of the class groaned, Sasuke's fan girls were squealing about how it didn't matter for Sasuke anyway because he was so cool that he would of course be first. After hearing this Naruto would've really liked to puke, what he ever saw in Sakura he never figured out.
"Well you probably saw her as your chance to be noticed after all, she is the most noticeable kunoichi in your class and also the most obnoxious one."
"Yeah yeah, you do know it was a rhetorical question right?"
"Of course but it is always so much fun to annoy you."
While naruto was having this conversation Iruka explained the target practise test. Each of them would get one shot, they would get 5 kunai and 15 shuriken, on the course there were 15 clearly visible targets, 5 well hidden ones and 5 fairly hidden ones. The object was to hit as many targets as you could, the hidden ones got you extra points and bull-eye got you even more.
The first in line was Shikamaru, predictably he just did the absolute minimum requirement meaning, hitting the 15 clearly visible targets somewhat right with 5 of them getting a kunai extra.
Next up was Shino, although naruto never really noticed the boy he did do fairly well, he got 17 targets, good enough not to be last but just in the middle but while doing this Naruto figured there was more to it than this, he knew that Shino knew where all the targets were, so then why not hit them all? And then it dawned on him, Kyu chuckled slightly in his mind that it took him long enough, Shino was deceiving everyone, deception, the greatest tool a ninja could use. However naruto did think that at 12 years old hiding so much was a bit paranoid but then again he himself was also hiding almost everything.
In the meantime Hinata, Sakura and a couple other random people had gone with Hinata being a nice median just like Shino.
Next up was the dog boy, Naruto didn't really have anything against him however if he tried anything on Hinata this time around dog boy would be dog girl.
Kiba did well on this training, he just like naruto was good at the practical but really sucked at theory. Kiba had found all the targets but his throws had been off target a bit.
Then last but not least before Naruto would be up, was Sasuke. Naruto expecting it this time, stuck his fingers in his ears before he would go deaf from all the squealing all his fan girls did.
Sasuke had apparently hit all 20 of them with only one just missing the bull-eye, though he did only hit the visible ones and the fairly hidden ones.
Sasuke smirked when he looked at Naruto while saying: "Beat that dobe."
Now if Naruto's memory served correctly, last time naruto had also hit everything but his accuracy had been worse.
Now if naruto had still been the inexperienced boy than he would have jumped at this opportunity to beat the teme but luckily he wasn't and a such could keep his anger in check. He did still do just a little bit worse than Sasuke but enough that Sasuke would feel the heat. He decided that he would do the same as last time only this time make it always a near miss of the bull-eye instead of somewhere in the 4 point circle like last time. Though he did 'accidently' hit one of the well hidden ones simply by seeming to miss one of the easier visible targets. But even with this bonus he had still
With al three other basic skills already covered, the only ones left now were genjutsu and ninjutsu. He knew he could ace the genjutsu thanks to the help of Kyu and her Kitsune Illusions although he didn't have to use them. It was after all just a henge and for old times' sake Naruto decided to reintroduce the 'Orioke no jutsu'. Needless to say Iruka was not amused and was also still blown backward.
The Last and Final test: Bunshin no jutsu, Naruto really hated what he was going to do, the look on Iruka's face when he failed naruto again it was almost too much for him to bear but he would persevere.
And just like last time Mizuki came up to Naruto and told him the same story and gave him the same bullshit make-up test. Naruto's acting skills were really tested cause inwardly Naruto was laughing his ass of at how stupid the test was, but then Kyu had to ruin his fun and remind him that he had believed it the first time. This reminder made Naruto pout though he had to agree with the fact that he used to be an idiot.
Later on, that same night just before the start of the mission, Hinata and Naruto had met up once again on top of the fourth's head.
"Don't forget to copy every scroll of the Hyuga library, there might be some interesting things in there, after all you might even be able to improve your own skills with it too."
"I know, see you soon Naruto-kun." and with a kiss they separated, Hinata back to the Hyuga compound to copy her families library while Naruto gave her a distraction in the means of stealing a top secret scroll.
Getting in was easy for naruto, hell he even did it when he had no formal training whatsoever. So now after having another few years of stealth experience, this should be a piece of cake. Of course that would be certainly be the case if it was any other building except the Namikaze compound but then again since he could just shut off the alarms there, it wasn't really a challenge.
However luck just wasn't with him, when he finally got the scroll he looked around and again just like last time, there stood the third Hokage.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" asked a perplexed Hokage.
"Héhé, sorry old man but I really want to graduate. 'Oiroke No Jutsu'"
Now Hokage, while one of the strongest Shinobi of the village was still a closet pervert, a huge closet pervert, so of course, with thanks to Naruto's extra experience, he got a nosebleed even huger than before.
After all his Oiroke no jutsu had been upgraded, his very informative cuddle session with both Hinata-chan and Kyu-chan and the honeymoon with Hinata, were just the beginning,. His older mind also had knowledge of just what perverted old men really like, especially after going through his tutelage of seals with Jiraya.
Creeping back out of the Hokage's Tower, he headed to the clearing just like last time. Once there he got out a prepared scroll and started copying it, made so much easier thanks to it having the exact same dimensions. After copying he began his reading who knew what other useful information was on it. After the first hour of really studying the scroll he learned a lot of interesting things about the Kage Bunshin. For example a kage bunshin is only so effective as the ingenuity of the creator. If 10 bunshin al did the same exercise exactly the same way then he wouldn't get anything out of it, except of course repeating something that one already knew how to do, to make it more efficient. Another fact, which came as a bigger shock for Naruto, was that apparently he had never really completely mastered the kage bunshin no jutsu. After all what the scroll described here was that the poofs of smoke he made were only there because he still wasted too much chakra for thing that didn't matter such as smoke or the fact that he couldn't decide just how much chakra a bunshin got, which apparently was possible. So Naruto decided that he better start practicing, he was so focused on his task that he never even noticed Hinata till she spoke up.
"Why are you practicing the kage bunshin again naruto kun?"
" Well apparently I've not really mastered it."
" What do you mean naruto-kun"
"Well you see, if we make them then we still have those poofs of smoke even when we don't want to, like when infiltrating but apparently those poofs mean that you still don't use the technique as you should. Those poofs of smoke are made with extra chakra that you put into it. This chakra is completely lost to your surroundings, so now I am trying to the kage bunshin without the poof, if I master this step than I can decide whether they phase in or poof in. Cause the poofs are sometimes handy certainly when you want to obscure yourself from view, though they do work both ways. "
"Oh," slightly disgruntled that even she had still unconsciously used too much chakra and created smoke, after all she used to only get 10 kage bunshin out without falling unconscious. Though now that she thought about it; a lot of techniques that the instructors used also never used much smoke, except the henge and then it was more to mask the illusion setting in.
"Okay, we should probably try to get this for all our techniques and were possible also reduce the seals to just one like you do with kage bunshin."
"What do you mean, there is only one seal necessary for the kage bunshin."
"No naruto-kun, it's pretty advanced, there are normally 10 seals."
"huh, but there's only one here."
"Naruto, roll up the scroll a bit."
"Huh?"
"You don't have the top of the scroll rolled out totally. And what did you say about it only being first part?"
"Well what do you know, figure that, "after rolling the scroll up the last bit, it was revealed that Naruto had indeed apparently only learned the difficult method," but back to the mastering of the jutsu, it also seems that you as creator of the bunshin, should be able to decide how just much chakra each bunshin gets and in which pattern they come out."
"And this is useful, how?"
"Well with more chakra the clones are more durable and last longer. and less chakra means less durable and shorter lifespan. Now if you can use less you can make more, and as to why learning this is handy, and if you could make a clone that could take more hits, then that could give you more time to prepare for a jutsu or something else right. Or imagine you only have enough chakra to make say 5 bunshin, when you've mastered this jutsu, you see the potential don't you."
"Okay, so you've got a point there, so how do we stop the poof?"
"Well Hinata-chan I would love to explain but now you first have got to hide. Jiji will find me with his ball in a minute, you did get the copies of the Hyuga library right?" while making a shooing motion.
"Yes dear" said Hinata with a mock pout. Naruto was to kiss her quickly and then push her away.
"Time to put this show on the road" said Naruto to no one in particular. After which Naruto started to practice now using all ten hand seals instead of just the one.
After about an extra half hour Iruka finally found him." Naruto what were you thinking?"
"Hehe you found me and I only learned one technique too. But if I show you, that's enough to let me graduate right?" Asked Naruto with his big goofy smile, hoping to clue Iruka in, which didn't seem to work all that well. He was instead fixated upon just how much trouble Naruto was in.
"Naruto, how did you get that scroll?"
"Oh this? Mizuki sensei told all me about it and about this place too." said naruto still using his best acting, "he said that if I showed him a technique from this scroll, I'd finally be allowed to graduate, you know the special make-up test?" It was at this point that Mizuki arrived and immediately threw a couple of kunai at the duo.
Now if Naruto hadn't gone back in time then Iruka would be seriously wounded by the kunai as he jumped in front of Naruto, which was pretty odd considering his status in the former war, but since Naruto knew the kunai were coming as he had already sensed Mizuki, he simply pushed Iruka away while jumping away himself. Unfortunately, do to this unexpected push Iruka fell back with his legs swinging upward a little making a few kunai hit that instead of his torso. So since Iruka's leg still got kunai through it, he couldn't even think about making a run for it like last time.
"Hehe not bad demon brat, so why don't you give me that scroll now and I won't hurt you too badly. " Said Mizuki, giving up all attempts of deceit.
"Naruto run!" screamed Iruka. "Don't listen to him naruto and don't give him the scroll even if you die."
At this Mizuki chuckled, " naruto there's no point in you having it, I'll even tell you the truth about you."
"No don't!" screamed Iruka again
" Twelve years ago the fox never did die, it was sealed but shortly after it was sealed there was a rule made. You see the rule was to never be told to you"
"a rule, not told to me?" asked naruto still pretending to be a scared little boy.
"Yes the rule forbid anyone from saying to anyone who didn't know that the demon fox, the murderer of Iruka's parents and many more including the fourth, was you. So I'll kill you and my master will reward me handsomely."
Now naruto had enough and decided to completely go off the beaten path. " Oh that rule, sorry sensei but you really need to keep up with the time"
"huh?" asked Mizuki, with a confused look on his face, the same look that came over Iruka's.
" And you'll also really need to read your law book again, the rule stated to never tell anyone who didn't know about the fact that I have the fox sealed in me, just like Iruka sensei knows." this only aggravated Mizuki and startled Iruka.
"Don't lie you demon," now screamed Mizuki," now I'll kill you and be hailed as the hero who finally slayed the demon. Any last requests?"
"yeah did you make my test look so bad or did was it another instructor? Cause I know I had result to be better than at least Kiba."
" Yes that was all me, we couldn't have you graduating now could we, I knew you would fail the bunshin but just to be sure I hid your result with a genjutsu to show the wrong answers so that you would fail."
"Okay thought so, now seeing as you did break that little law, you die."
" As if you could" said a now laughing Mizuki.
" You're right I by my lonesome self can't, but," said naruto doing the seals for his kage bunshin no jutsu, while he also whispered, "Kage Bunshin no jutsu" making sure neither Mizuki or Iruka heard. So they formed, it wasn't perfect yet but at least there was a little bit less smoke than the previous time, and boy where there a lot of them. " we can. I really wouldn't have cared If you would have hurt me, I could have forgiven you. But you injured one of our precious people" said all the Naruto's together," so now we'll make you pay."
Now normally it would be just Naruto and his many, many kage bunshin beating Mizuki up. But they needed a back-up plan to get Hinata also involved so that they could get put on the same team in case his request was denied ,so they had decided that it would be her that brought down Mizuki for good. And so she mixed herself within the mass of clones, hiding her from both Mizuki as Iruka's view and then when she saw an opening permanently disabled his chakra, nearly killing him in the process. It didn't really matter, after all he was going to die for breaking the thirds law, but they didn't want kill him so she just disabled him while naruto also broke a few of his bones just for the heck of it after all Mizuki could know more stuff about Orochimaru.
After Hinata retreated to her hiding spot, Naruto dispatched his clones. " Hehe I went a little too far."
"Naruto come over here…, there's something I want give you. Close your eyes"
Naruto did knowing what was coming, "Congratulations on graduation. Good job, but now let's go see the Hokage."
"HAI, Iruka-sensei." said Naruto," can't wait to see the old man and show him.
While walking there, after bandaging Iruka's leg up of course, all the villagers glared at Naruto. Iruka seeing the glares just wondered how Naruto could stand it at his age, if it were him he would've broken long ago. It was also very lucky that none of them tried anything seeing, probably cause they saw Naruto had Iruka with him and that they were heading to the Hokage, a large part was hoping the Hokage finally rid them of this problem. They had heard about what the demon child had done and were looking forward to seeing him pay.
Finally arriving, Iruka sighed glad the obvious glares were gone. Naruto sighed as well, even though the obvious glares were gone he could still feel the glares given to him by the ANBU and secretaries, but ANBU at least masked it better and even a few saw him as he was supposed to be seen, a hero.
Arriving at the Hokage's office, Iruka stepped forward and they were let in and before Iruka's debriefing , Naruto gave back the scroll.
The debrief started with his report from how he went to the forest instead of searching through the village cause he didn't think Naruto would hide out in it. Then he told the whole scene from his perspective of how Mizuki told Naruto the truth, how Naruto pushed him away and how naruto beat the crap out of Mizuki and the he went on to how he had decided to graduate Naruto from the academy because of hearing about the genjutsu on the paper and him learning the kage bunshin.
"Thank you Iruka-san, you are dismissed" said the Hokage.
"Come on Naruto, I'll treat you to ramen." but before Naruto could comment, the Hokage interrupted: "Sorry Iruka-san but I need Naruto to give his report as well. You are dismissed."
Interpreting the implied command for what it was and to let the Hokage have some privacy, he left the office.
"So Naruto do tell me how it was that I saw miss Hyuga there as well, fighting alongside you?"
"What are you talking about Jiji?" said Naruto trying to stick to the plan of first asking and only then revealing Hinata's involvement when necessary.
"I know Hinata was there with you Naruto I saw her giving the blow that rendered Mizuki unconscious. Now tell me everything from the very beginning."
"Okay, it was earlier today, Hinata-chan was with me trying to cheer me up when Mizuki came along, so she hid. As she was hidden she overheard the talk between me and Mizuki', only she didn't take everything at face value, well neither did I especially since Mizuki wasn't nice to me until a month ago, so she told me she would help me. Don't really know why she'd want to help but still, she talked me into letting her help.
She first said that it was pretty unusual to have a back-up test and even more so when I had told her about my answers to my written test when she was trying to cheer me up. So she decided to take a look at it. It was so cool she could just look through everything and she noticed the genjutsu placed on my paper" said Naruto while acting like the annoyed little brat he used to be." After we knew something was up we decided to be extra careful and just in case something went wrong she would be there as back-up. Then I went and got the scroll while she went home to check in with her family, they have done the same thing every day."
"Every day?" asked the Hokage.
"Euhm, you know,… she said that?" asked Naruto full of hope that he would buy that.
"Come now Naruto what do you take me for?"
"Fine." Said Naruto deciding to let the plan go and improvising a little, "me and her have been training together for the exam. That's also why she came looking for me, we 've been training together and so she came to cheer me up."
"Okay, continue."
"So after splitting up, I came to the tower and stole the scroll while she went to her family. After breaking into the tower, I went to the field where Iruka found me where I then learned the kage bunshin in case what Mizuki said was true. Plus you gotta admit, would you've not learned from the scroll if you could've when you were my age?" explained Naruto, and hoping to get the Hokage to think of him as a kid who got duped and not a former Kage who won a war only to then go back in time to save everyone.
"So I then started reading , when Hinata finally returned she decided to hide in the bushes as back-up, just in case, which now seemed like a really good idea. Also she saw Iruka coming and it wouldn't do to be seen cause if it were true and it came out that I had help , he could still fail me. So she hid but when Iruka came and didn't react like how he should've had he been in the known, at that moment we both knew something wasn't right so she decided to stay hidden, so she could surprise Iruka or Mizuki if necessary. Then Mizuki arrived and I played the part of me being stupid idiot that I always was."
"Ah yes, you already knew about the rule, do tell me how you knew about that?"
"It really isn't that hard to figure out you know, a) all the villagers hate me
b) I have whiskers-like marks on my cheeks
c) I have a seal over half of my stomach
d) my birthday falls on the same day the Kyuubi attacked
and lastly but not in any way the least e) how could a Hokage ask from anyone to sacrifice their son for the ritual if he wouldn't do it himself. As such I would like to get all my property back."
The Hokage was stunned." Wwwhat, hhhow?"
"How did I figure it out?" asked Naruto,
The Hokage just nodded.
"Well I have yellow hair, blue eyes. There aren't many people with that then add that I look almost identical to the fourth. After that add on the other fact that I was chosen to house the Kyuubi. It was very likely that I was his son and now you just confirmed it." Said Naruto with his proud megawatt smile.
Here he was the strongest ninja in Konoha being conned into admitting something he didn't want to admit. Trying to hope Naruto would just leave it at that, he told him to continue.
"After that I used the kage bunshin and kinda kicked the crap out of Mizuki, but thanks to Hinata it was so much easier, thanks to her he got his chakra shut off and so I could just beat him up if he had had his chakra. it would have been as Shikamaru oh so nicely put it 'troublesome'. After I beat him up with the help of Hinata and she went into hiding again, after that we came here. And that's about the gist of it."
"Okay well then I'll guess I should congratulate you on a mission well done. You can go."
"Actually, I do have some requests. One since you no longer have to hide the fact that I am his son, I want the Namikaze compound key."
"Well since this is yours, I guess I should give it to you. But I must implore you to keep this secret, you know the reasons right?"
"Yeah, if this gets out, I could quickly become bingo number one of Iwa with a kill on sight order."
"Okay just as long if you know the risk. What's the other request?"
" Well since you already saw Hinata-chan, this will be easier, I want her and me to be on the same team."
"Sorry Naruto, but the teams are already made and the team of Hinata was designed to be trackers. And then your team would be equal, having the tops with the dead last to compensate."
"But I'm not the dead last, I gather information better than anyone in the year, and having the furball inside me does give me some benefits." "sorry dear, everyone still sees you as the big bad boogeyman, even if you're a woman and quite nice."
"It's alright dear, I understand."
"Are there any other benefits that you know about?"
"Not that I know at the moment, expect that my healing properties are incredible but I don't think that would be all, after all it does seem that it's quite controversial for it to let me die" "and after all I wouldn't want that cute tush of yours to be hurt and I can't even imagine what Hinata-chan would do to me." thought Kyu with a shudder.
At that Naruto had to try hard not to snicker, the Kyuubi, the monstrous demon fox, was scared of a 12 going on 20 year old little girl.
"So what are these benefits that you know of?"
" Quite simple, I can hear extra low frequencies, like the humming of the bugs in Shino's body, just as proof, he already has two colonies in him, but only uses one in class. Next my eyesight ranges about 1.5 farther than an average Shinobi any farther than that and then it's only if the target isn't moving. But the best part of this is that I have perfect night vision. If you don't believe me than just move through the room while it's completely dark in here and I'll still be able to spot you, not really see your colors only shades of gray and the outline but then again that's more than enough in our world isn't it. And then third but not the least, I can smell a living person a couple of miles away depending on wind and apparently I can smell dead people up to 30 miles away( 48 km) something to do with foxes being scavengers. So now that your point is moot, you will change the teams right?"
"I'm sorry Naruto but they have already been made."
"Okay you asked for it, if you don't put me on the team with Hinata I will tell all ANBU and Jonin about your secret stash."
"Y-y-you wouldn't, not my sake." said a now thoroughly shocked and very frightened Hokage.
"Oh but I meant the other stash. "
" Y-y-you're bluffing?" asked a hoping Hokage.
"I did steal the secret scroll but then that only takes about a minute and you were out for at least half an hour so don't push me. And why are you so against this?"
"Well, it would cause trouble with the Hyuga, you know how they think about you, you on the same team with their heir would just be asking for it."
"Oh but that won't be a problem, if all goes according to plan tomorrow, Hinata Hyuga won't exist anymore."
"What do you mean, Naruto, what are you up to?"
"Oh I won't do anything, if everything goes to plan."
"Naruto!"
"Sorry old man got to go, ramen is waiting, and don't forget to switch the teams after all, Kiba is really dead last, just ask Iruka-sensei, and tell him that that shot wasn't an accident."
At this Naruto quickly left and headed to Ichiraku's Ramen after all Iruka still had to treat him for graduation. Kinda ironic that Naruto was going to see Iruka before the Hokage but still used the old man to pass along a mission.
As Naruto was out of the question the Hokage just sighed and started on figuring out just how to deal with the teams now that Naruto wasn't dead last anymore, all the while muttering:" I'm getting too old for this shit."
And so the evening ended with Naruto eating nearly all of Iruka's end of the exams premium after picking him up from the hospital.