Puppet Master of Konoha
Chapter 4
Guess who's back?
Disclaimer: I still don't own anything.
The days and weeks passed quickly for Naruto. After his successful test of his fledgling control of the Kugutsu no Jutsu, Naruto had decided that the time was right to try and create a combat puppet of his own. With that in mind, Naruto had used his Henge disguise, to do some odd jobs around the village in exchange for money and supplies to start construction. Naruto also scoured the various Training Areas around the Village and managed to acquire a decent number of discarded Kunai and Shuriken that were only slightly blunt and rusted.
For the next few weeks, Naruto dedicated his free time to working on building his Puppet in his apartment and practicing his control of the technique on the toy he had kept around after its usage against Mizuki. The work was hard and the progress was slow, but years of setting up elaborate pranks, along with what he had learned in the Academy about rigging traps around a campsite, helped him with his work, and slowly but surely, the mess of parts and supplies began to form into a basic humanoid puppet.
As he worked on it, Naruto knew that just a standard puppet design wouldn't be badass enough to help him on his dream to become Hokage, so he tinkered with it and managed to add several hidden compartments in which he stored the various Kunai that he had picked up, and even installed a makeshift one-use Shuriken launcher along with several additional arms.
Because a multi-armed puppet wielding blades in each hand is awesome of course. He even managed to work in a spring-loaded hidden blade in each arm, though he was still working on getting them to retract afterwards.
As he worked, he also started to paint features and onto the puppet's body, giving it more distinctness as he worked. One day, after returning home from the Academy, he found the perfect name for his creation.
xXflashbackXx
It had been a rather hard day for Naruto. They had been given a bit of a free period during class for independent study due to most of the instructors being called away for an urgent Council meeting, and most of the class had gathered into small groups as they mingled and conversed with each other. Sadly though, whenever Naruto tried to join in, he was violently rebuffed, occasionally even shoved to the ground, or pushed aside, leaving him feeling empty inside.
Upon arriving home, he tried to busy himself with working on his puppet, but he couldn't get that feeling of loneliness out of his heart.
"Why doesn't anyone want to be my friend?" he asked the puppet as he worked on carving it a face, "You like me, right? I'm not that bad."
The puppet didn't respond of course, but its head slipped and bounced on the joint in a way that was reminiscent of a nod, making Naruto smile.
"Yeah," he said, "you're my friend. Believe it. In fact, I have the perfect name for you."
Picking up his kunai, he finished his work by adding a friendly smile onto the puppet's face, "Yūichi, my first friend."
xXflashback endXx
Time soon passed and before long, it was time for the Graduation Exams for the Shinobi Academy. The students were all quite excited to begin their Shinobi carriers, and the classroom was abuzz with conversation as Iruka walked in, forcing him to use his Big-Head Genjutsu to quiet things down.
"Now then," said Iruka, "as I'm sure you all are aware, today is the day of the Graduation Exams."
Inwardly, Iruka sighed as the class let out some eager mutterings. Unfortunately, the Civilian Council had managed to pass their motion to overhaul the graduation requirements for prospective Genin, meaning this year's exams were significantly easier and simpler than what had been in years prior. Most would see this as a way to easily increase the Shinobi population using the Civilian members, but as a seasoned Chunin who's seen the dangers of the battlefield, something like this would only serve to weaken their Shinobi forces by lowering the level of skills and proficiency needed to pass.
"Alright everyone," said Iruka as he gathered up a stack of papers, "you'll have one hour to work on the written portion of the Exam and then you'll each take turns being called into the next room to show us your Ninjutsu skill for the practical exam."
Iruka placed a timer on his desk as Mizuki handed out the test papers to the gathered students
Once Naruto got his exam, he quickly grabbed his pencil and flipped to the first page…and felt his spirits plummet as he didn't know the answers to any of these questions. Inwardly groaning, he tried his best to answer the questions on the exam, not noticing a small smile on Mizuki's face.
The silver-haired Chunin inwardly chuckled as he watched the blonde struggle. The subtle Genjutsu he had placed over Naruto's papers were ensuring that he was having a much harder time than the other students, and with what lay ahead in the practical, there was no chance that he would be able to pass. All exactly as he had been planning.
The hour seemed to take ages to pass from Naruto's point of view as the blonde teen tried to answer the questions on his test as best he could, and he was a mix of extremely relieved and utterly depressed when the alarm went off, signaling the end.
"Pencils down," called out Iruka, causing the students to place their writing implements down onto their desks, "now, we'll move on to the practical portion of the Graduation Exam. Here is how it's going to work: you will each be called forward into the next room for the practical assessment. When you are called up, you will place your exam sheet on the desk face down. Should any of you try to add to or modify your answers, I will know about it and you will receive a failing grade and a permanent black mark on your record. Now, let's begin with, Akimichi Choji."
The chubby heir to the Akimichi Clan swallowed nervously before shoving another mouthful of chips into his mouth and proceeded to bring his exam sheet to the front of the room before heading to the next room for his practical. One by one, Naruto's classmates were called forward, and one by one, they emerged with gleeful expressions on their faces and headbands bearing the Konoha Hie-ate on them. As he waited for his name to be called, Naruto's anxiety grew with every student that was called before him, until finally, it was his turn.
"Uzumaki Naruto," Iruka called out, causing Naruto to quickly jump to his feet and follow the scarred Chunin into the Exam Room where Mizuki was waiting.
"Alright Naruto-kun," said Mizuki with a smile, "for this stage of the Exam we'll be testing you on the various Jutsu that you have learned here at the Academy. To start with, please show us a Kawarimi."
Naruto nodded and made several quick hand-seals as Mizuki picked up a piece of chalk from the desk and threw it with great precision, inwardly scowling behind a false smile as Naruto vanished in a poof of smoke and the chalk bounced off a log that appeared in his place, with the blonde leaning against the log he had substituted with.
"Excellent work, Naruto-kun," said Iruka as Mizuki's smile became a tad more brittle, "Good to see that you've been studying."
"Heh," chuckled Naruto, "well, we did make a deal, Iruka-sensei."
"That we did," chuckled Iruka before continuing with the exam, "next up, please show us the Henge no Jutsu…and I swear if you try to use your Oiroke variant, I will flunk you right now."
Naruto pouted at Iruka's comment but nevertheless nodded and made a Ram-seal with his hands, "Henge!"
A cloud of smoke enveloped Naruto, and when it cleared, a perfect replica of the Sandaime Hokage stood in his place, correct down to the last liver spot. There was even a smoking pipe in his grip and a familiar wise and fatherly smile on his face.
"Impressive," said Iruka, "excellent touch with the pipe."
"Thanks Iruka-sensei," said Naruto as he transformed back with a bright smile on his face.
"For the final part of the Practical Exam," said Mizuki, inwardly smirking as he had been waiting for this moment, with it being one of the main reasons he had agreed to push the Civilian Council's exam reforms forward, "we'll need to see you perform the Bunshin no Jutsu and create no fewer than two perfect copies, but no more than ten, as we don't want to overcrowd the room."
Naruto gulped upon hearing that. The Bunshin no Jutsu was always his weakest technique and one he had never been able to pull off successfully, even with the lessons on Chakra Control he had gotten from the book. Nevertheless, he clasped his hands together in the Ram-seal and channeled his Chakra like he had been taught in the Academy, shaping it like he had learned and releasing it, causing a large poof of smoke to engulf him.
Iruka and Mizuki waited on baited breath as the smoke slowly cleared, but when it did, Naruto was standing there…with three Bunshin slumped on the ground looking like they had gone through three straight days of one of Might Guy's workouts before doing an endurance run through Training Ground 44 with only the clothes on their backs.
Suffice it to say, they looked like crap.
"I…think I messed up, Iruka-sensei," said Naruto softly, "…may I try again?"
Mizuki forcibly clamped down on his emotions and managed to school his expression into a sympathetic smile as he looked down at the disheartened blonde. This was perfect! Everything had gone according to his plans. Subtly pushing the Civilian Council to put forward a motion to streamline the graduation exam so more of their children could become Shinobi, while also ensuring that one of these Jutsu requirements would be one that the Demon Brat would not be able to perform, and thus would fail.
Exactly as he intended. Now, on to the nest step…
"I'm sorry Naruto-kun," said Mizuki in a sympathetic tone, "but the testing criteria is very specific. To graduate, you must show an adequate level of proficiency in using the three core Jutsu that the Academy teaches."
"Maybe you can try again next year, Naruto-kun?" suggested Iruka, causing the boy to wilt before leaving the testing room.
xXsceneXx
Outside the Konoha Academy building, Naruto sat alone on a bench as he watched his classmates leave with their parents to go and celebrate their graduation. Inside, he felt a feeling of longing as he wished he could have what they had, friends, family, people to come home to. Sighing to himself, he decided to leave and see if ramen at Ichiraku's would cheer him up before tinkering with Yūichi back at his apartment. The puppet was almost ready for a test run with only a few bugs to work out of the design. Just as he was about to get up and leave, he heard someone walking up behind him, causing him to pause. Turning around, he saw Mizuki standing there with a kind and sympathetic smile on his face.
"How are you doing, Naruto-kun?" asked the Chunin as he sat on the bench next to the blonde.
"I've been better, Mizuki-sensei," said Naruto, "but it's ok. I can always try again next year…"
Mizuki hummed to himself, not having missed how Naruto trailed off morosely at the end of his sentence, "You know," he began, "there is a way to get a second chance at graduation, Naruto-kun."
"There is?" asked Naruto hopefully, "But why haven't I been told about this the previous years?"
Mizuki smirked inwardly. The brat was starting to take the bait he had laid out, but he'd have to play this carefully if he wanted to lure him into his honeyed trap.
"Well," he replied, "the offer is reserved for promising students who have shown significant potential, even though they failed the standard exam. Due to your marked improvement in the Academy coursework over the second half of the term, we've decided to extend that offer to you this year…if you're interested, that is?"
Naruto perked up as he processed this new information. Thanks to his agreement with Iruka-sensei, his hard work was finally paying off and he has the chance to graduate with his classmates.
"What do I have to do?"
Translation Note: Yūichi is written with the Kanji 友 (friend) and 一 (one), so it kinda translates to friend 1 or first friend.
I kept the Mizuki plot, because, for a future plot bit, I need Naruto to have the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, and this is an easy way for him to learn it.