It's been 6 years and the students of the academy are all 11-12 years old, with their final exam coming up, which was broken into three parts : ninjutsu, taijutsu and a written assessment accommodated to their age group.
"The sweet morning sun…I honestly love going outside early, it gets me started for the day," Lu awoke, and with his little announcement to himself, he went for a walk to the library.
While looking through basic justu, two things caught his eye : A book on the Uchiha clan and a scroll on a justu. The book on the Uchiha clan was met with a frown from Lu, seeing as his friend, Sasuke became the last remaining member of the clan within the village after the massacre.
"Bubble Style : Creation , huh? It looks like a kekkei genkai. I could try it to see if I have a clan, but I highly doubt that," Lu muttered in mild amusement. After walking to the librarian and checking out the scroll, Lu went to an empty training field and began practicing. The instructions read : Go to a nearby water source, and if you have an affinity for water begin pulling a small amount of the water into a thin stream, relative to the size of a leaf". This mildly irritated Lu, because it meant he needed to know his affinities and he'd need high-genin levels of chakra control. He decided to duplicate the scroll with its instructions and return the original copy to the library.
"I'll come back to that later," he decided aloud,and he began walking to school.
Meanwhile, with Naruto…
"What time is it…?" Naruto yawned, before glancing at his alarm clock, which read : 6:54 A.M. Quickly, after realizing he'd be late if he didnt hurry up to school, he got dressed and ran out the door.
"Crap, I don't want Iruka-Sensei ripping into me for being late again," Naruto complained as he ran in an orange blur to the ninja academy, barely making it on time.
"Why is your sweater on backwards, Naruto? Did you forget how to dress yourself in all of your stupidity?" Sakura Haruno, known for griping Naruto, commented. A slight blush came across the blonde's face as he re-adjusted his sweater and took his seat.
Lu peered over a book down at Sakura and commented: "Ya know, being smart and having that extreme forehead won't make a difference in the eyes of the emo if you're gonna rip into one of the only people he gets along with, Sakura," a comment that was met with a glare from Sakura and a mild eye roll from Sasuke.
"Alright class, if you could take your seats, the first portion of your graduation exam will begin shortly," Mizuki, a childhood friend of Iruka and the classes' secondary instructor, began "After attendance is taken, Iruka will begin the timer. You have 30 minutes, use that time wisely.
Each question on the test was optimized to fit the overall average intellect of a fresh genin. Questions regarding sealing weapons into scrolls, basic shunshin technique foundations, and even history on the first hokage and his rival, Madara Uchiha were all included. Each question had been covered one way or another in the curriculum, therefore should have been extremely easy to most students.
"Done," Shikamaru raised his hand, only for it to slowly descend because he considered it a waste of energy to keep it in the air.
"Done," Sasuke raised his hand, patiently waiting for an instructor to come over and take his test.
At this point other students like Sakura Haruno, Shino Aburame, and Hinata Hyuga raised their hands. Meanwhile, Naruto struggled with each question.
"Ah what the hell, some of these questions were never gone over in class," Naruto mumbled.
Lu looked over at Naruto's paper, only to notice Naruto's questions were significantly harder. "Something's up…" he thought.
Instead of allowing Naruto to fail miserably, Lu called Iruka sensei over for an elaborate plan to get Iruka to get him to read his questions.
"Iruka sensei, I think my test is a little different from the school's curriculum. Is this the intended test for the genin graduate exam?" Lu pointed out. Just as planned, Iruka read his paper, then glanced at Naruto's only to notice the difference in questions.
Picking up on what Lu was insinuating, Iruka went to the front of the classes and announced : "Class, a slight change will be made in the grading order. Originally it was Mizuki for the exam, me for the ninjutsu testing, and both of us to oversee the taijutsu matches and shuriken. The order will now be flipped for the first two. With this I ask that you finish up your exams so I can grade them within 5 minutes."
A mild groan of discomfort could be heard throughout the room, but it quickly diminished within 10 seconds. The testing resumed, but Iruka still had his mind on Naruto's exam. "Just what could Mizuki be thinking? I know he resents Naruto for the kyuubi's attack on the village, but even I realize that boy isn't the fox that attacked our village 12 years ago… he's gone too far with this resentment," he wondered silently. After the five minutes were up, the ninjustu exam began and occurred in alphabetical order of last names. For students without a last name, their first name was in the alphabetical order instead. As Iruka graded tests, he noticed that Naruto actually answered roughly 58% of his questions correctly, and they weren't even in his grade level.
"He's smarter than we give him credit for," Iruka conceded. With these numbers, Iruka estimated Naruto certainly could pass the regular exam, but it would have to wait because of Mizuki's actions.
During the ninjustu tests, the illusion shadow clone technique, transformation technique, and a leaf control test were all the center of focus. Other jutsu included basic storing and un-storing scroll seal jutsu. When Naruto's test began, he struggled with his shadow clones. The first one was a bone-skinny lanky version of him, the second was a shorter one, and his third one actually looked like him.
"Interesting, but he still failed this test," Mizuki smugly grinned. He began charting the results as a 0%, but a kunai flew past his pen.
"Whoops, my bad Mizuki sensei, I was just so excited that it slipped from my hand," Lu quipped. This caused a giggle from Hinata, who was intensely watching Mizuki sensei, a snicker from Sasuke, and a mild groan of annoyance from Sakura.
"Lu, you shouldn't have kunai in class in the first place, you could've hurt MY Sasuke-kun with it. Not that you could touch him, anyways," Sakura blurted.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes in response to her comment. "Please don't start this again," he grimly thought. Lu dismissed Sakura's outburst and waited for Naruto's test to resume. His results were a failed transformation of the third hokage (likely intentionally), a perfect copy of the fourth hokage, and a sexy justu instead of transforming into the first hokage, Hashirama Senju. Next, was Lu's test. Lu created two perfect clones of himself and he had his transformations down pat. Unsurprisingly, the same results followed with Sasuke, Shikamaru, and even Sakura. The rest of the students adequately transformed and cloned themselves. Their next test was for kunai and shuriken accuracy. It started off pretty boring until Naruto's portion began. Once he got his kunai and shuriken, he began thinking aloud.
"If I remember correctly, if I fling the kunai from between two knuckles, it should be easier to guide," he whispered to himself, a smile on his face. Once instructed to begin, Naruto threw two kunai at the target, one just above a bullseye and the other closer to the third ring (out of 5) on the target. After that, he flipped backwards to gain momentum and threw all five of his shruriken, each hitting in the hotspot of the target, and two were in a perfect bullseye.
"Phew," Naruto whistled. "I guess that training did pay off," he said, turning to face the crowd of students with a thumbs up and wide smile.
"Naruto Uzamaki pass," Mizuki announced begrudgingly. Next was Sasuke's test, which Sasuke almost passed with flying colors had it not been for a dull kunai given to him accidentally from Mizuki sensei. After Sasuke, each student averaged about 70% accuracy, passing the test. When it got to Lu's turn, he got the same score as Sasuke, for the exact same reason.
"Is it me, or is Mizuki sensei being extremely petty towards Lu and Sasuke," a random student pointed out. In response, a couple students silently nodded, and those who were perceptive enough to understand why silently noted the issue with Mizuki sensei. Once the taijustu matches began, Mizuki decided to oraganize a fight between Naruto and Sasuke.
"This'll take the demon brat out for sure," he thought. Lu could see the look of evil
satistfaction on his face and decided to call Iruka sensei over.
"Please watch out for anything Mizuki sensei tries. I believe he's trying to corrupt Naruto's match, for whatever reason," he whispered. Iruka did just that, and to both of their surprise, Mizuki did no such thing.
"Alright boys, I want a fair match. No weapons or justu are allowed, and no pressure point destroying attacks. I want you two to step into the arena (which was just a circle drawn in the field) and begin after doing the unison sign to eachother. Remember, the fight isn't over until a substantial injury has been noticed, a surrender occured, or your opponent leaves the arena." he instructed. Both Naruto and Sasuke wordlessly did as instructed and dashed back to the border of the arena.
"Something's off about Naruto," Ino began. "He almost looks as cool as Sasuke-kun does," she added. Hinata nodded in a flustered agreement and silently cheered for the blonde. Sakura huffed in defiance.
"AS IF, INO-PIG, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" Sakura excitedly shouted.
"Oh yeah? Well at least I'm not some five-headed loser," Ino teased back.
Their little disagreement was interrupted by a "Begin!" shouted from Mizuki. The crowd got silent, waiting for either student to make a move. The first move made was by Sasuke, surprisngly. "I'll finish this in one smooth motion," he thought. Naruto watched Sasuke's feet as he dashed towards him, ever so slightly changing direction. "The left," he thought, shifting his body to the right and dodging Sasuke's kick. This whiff was met by a kick of Naruto's own, straight to Sasuke's chest. Sasuke, in response to the kick, rolled once and sprung into the air. Naruto raised an arm, patiently waiting for Sasuke to attack. As Sasuke descesnded, he kicked a heel into Naruto's forearm, which was met with a shove from Naruto's arm, leading to Sasuke elegantly flipping backwards.
"Back to square one, huh?" Naruto commented, dusting off his jacket. He then threw it aside, and dashed at Sasuke.
"A diversion huh? That won't work on me," Sasuke smirked.
Instead of a mere cover-up, Naruto utilized his jacket to set up a feint into a right cross right at Sasuke's face. In response, Sasuke tripped Naruto because of the blonde's blunder in overstepping his punch. After tripping Naruto, he gave him a mean gut-shot, causing some blood to be coughed out of Naruto's mouth. Naruto flipped backwards three times and repositioned himself. "I've gotta take his legs out, then I could get the upper hand with a few strikes," he thought. Naruto dashed at Sasuke, chagring up a high-kick, which was intercepted by Sasuke's hand, followed up by a sweeping kick to Naruto's side. Naruto stood his ground, however, and retracted his leg to punch Sasuke in the side, which he succeeded in doing. "I've gotta hand it to the dobe, he's actually keeping up with me, granted I do have an upperhand," Sasuke acknowledged silently. In his moment of thoughtful hesitation, Naruto gave three quick strikes to Sasuke's leg, arm, and right shoulder. He followed up by going behind Sasuke, and kneeing him in the back twice, then kicking him off in the other direction. Sasuke quickly recovered, however, and swept Naruto to the ground, then stomping on his right hand once, before getting interrupted by Naruto catching his foot and bringing him in closer for a strong right hook to hit his face. Sasuke barely blocked it, but by the time he recovered, he noticed Naruto was no longer on the ground again.
"Sasuke-kun! ABOVE YOU!" Sakura blurted out.
In response to her shouting, Sasuke looked up and noticed Naruto's fist above his head, which he blocked by crossing his arms, then grabbed Naruto's airborne arm, slamming him into the ground just outside of the arena's border.
"Sasuke Uchiha is the winner," Mizuki announced, an ever so delicate grin riding his face.
The crowd was silent, then after a few seconds, students began clapping and cheering for both Naruto and Sasuke. After about a minute of cheering, each student had their bouts, the final one being between Lu and his opponent, Kiba Inuzuka.
"I wish I could've fought Naruto or Sasuke, but I guess this can be fun," he grumbled.
As both students walked to the arena, the typical instruction was given by Iruka, which Lu tuned out until…
"BEGIN!" Iruka shouted.
Being from a clan, Kiba had his own family taijustu style to follow. His style included swipes in clawing motions of a four-legged mammal, the mobility increased by using the running motions of a dog, and very strong kicks due to having to support such a flexible style. Kiba began by dashing straight at Lu, swiping in a cross motion at Lu's leg and chest, to which Lu jumped in the air, preparing to slam his foot straight into Kiba's head. Kiba noticed this, and blocked in yet another crossing motion, then following up by springing his feet into the air to catch Lu while he was airborne. Lu responded by spiraling his body to the left, preparing yet another airborne kick, this time being a spinning kick aimed at his oppenent's armpit.
"I've got to disable one of his arms to limit his mobility, he has super stable legs, so it'd be a waste of energy to attempt to disable either leg," Lu theorized. As he recovered from his last attack, Lu quiclky followed up by striking Kiba's right forearm, then his elbow.
"He should be in pain after that, there's no way he can consistently attack me with his arm in that condition," he speculated. To his surprise, Kiba recovered and sprang at Lu, to which Lu responded by side-stepping his opponent, leading to a ring-out.
"Yoiu know, Kiba, being desperate in a real battle could get you killed. In a situation where you have a disabled limb, it's best to change tatics and analyze your opponent's moveset to adapt quickly," Lu offered.
"I don't need your pity or your instruction, wannabe Sasuke," Kiba grunted, leaving the arena.
As everyone was leaving the academy grounds, Mizuki called Naruto over.
"Hey, Naruto-kun," he forced a smile. "I was overseeing your grades and it seems like you failed everything," Mizuki lied through his teeth. "...but don't worry, there's a secret exam you can take in order to veto your overall performance, but it's super hard. You think you're up to it?" Mizuki questioned.
With his interest piqued, Naruto listened to the instructions Mizuki gave him, and later on that night he snuck to the hokage tower.
"With this I'm sure to become a genin," Naruto hummed in approval of his work. "But I wonder… Why would an exam be given to me without the hokage being informed? Gramps looked shocked when he saw me enter the hokage tower…" as the invisible cogs in Naruto's head turned, he'd realized something extremely important. "I think I know what's going on…" he began, only to be interrupted by the rustling of bushes behind him.
"I think I did too, Naruto," a familiar voice called out. Two of his classmates, Lu and Sasuke had emerged from the bushes and began walking towards Naruto.
"Hey, dobe, if you really want to be a hokage you've got to stop falling for stupid things like this," Sasuke lightly scolded.
"Well, since we're here, and you know what's up, how about we just go back to the hokage tower and return whatever you took," Lu offered.
"I was thinking that maybe-" Naruto started, as he began to reveal the scroll. "Maybe we can learn a thing or two from it?" he suggested.
"Fine, but if we get screwed out of the shinobi system, you'll never live to see the end of it," Sasuke acquiesced. Lu nodded, and the trio hopped into their own respective trees. After about five or so minutes of tree-hopping, the boys stopped at a clearing in the forest.
"This should be good enough," Lu said, dropping to the grass. The other two followed in pursuit. As they sat in the clearing, Naruto unrolled the scroll, revealing a justu on it.
"Multi-shadow clone justu? I think this could actually be my secret to learning shadow clones," Naruto thoughtfully mentioned. Upon reading the justu even more, Naruto saw that it was an S-class justu. "Why would something this simple be so high ranked?" he asked aloud.
"If you'd read the description, it says it splits the users' chakra into a physical clone that can give its memories back to the user after being dispelled," Lu pointed out.
"It also seems to have a high chakra requirement due to the chakra splitting property," Sasuke added. After thinking about it for a second, both Sasuke and Lu looked at eachother.
"What if…" Lu began. "...Naruto's issue with the academy's shadow clone justu is that he has too much chakra, and no genin could possibly hope to control all of that," Sasuke added.
In unison, they both exclaimed " Maybe you're one of the only people who could use this jutsu?!".
In a sort of childish excitement, the trio spent hours on testing the justu's properties on Naruto, discovering he could easily make 1000 clones, but the longer they stayed, the more memories he received, putting him in a state of shock.
"Maybe you could handle one or two clones through an entire day, somewhere between 4-10 for a couple hours, and easily deal with 12-18 clones for thirty minutes," Sasuke concldued after Naruto finished testing the jutsu. "Why you of all people, I have no clue as to how you have so much chakra, but you should be thankful for it, dobe," Sasuke sighed.
"Why should I be thankful for a jutsu like this? All it means is I have durable and reliable clones in a battle, nothing more," Naruto grumbled. Naruto's comment was met with an immediate facepalm from Lu and Sasuke.
"Don't you get it? This means you can learn just about anything you put your mind to in record time with clones," Lu pointed out.
"Honestly, you surprise us with everything you do. First, you come to school with adequate shuriken and kunai aim, extremely good taijtustu, and now we've discovered the super idiot also has insane charkra pools and a cheat-jutsu, only to not even recognize it," Sasuke grimmly commented.
"It's as if the sage of six paths blessed him, but took his brain and put it in a blender everytime he actually needed it," Lu added. In their little comedic complaint, the two were disturbed by the rustling of bushes, which Naruto also noticed.
"Well, well, well," Mizuki clapped. "The village's resident demon-brat is good for something… If you could just give me the scroll, I'll be on my way to obtain unforseeable power from Orochimaru-sama," Mizuki demanded. At the name "Orochimaru," Lu froze.
"What do you mean… "Orochimaru-Sama"?" Lu asked, preparing for the worst.
"It's just as I said, the snake sannin, Orochimaru, has given me a pathway to power if I successfully took the forbidden scroll," Mizuki gloated.
"This is unforgivable, you recognize this is a S-class treason right?" Lu questioned, rage creeping out of his voice. "You two, we need to stop him before this gets out of hand. Naruto, send a clone to the hokage tower and return the scroll, send another to wait on standby if we need backup. Sasuke, you're with me," Lu commanded.
Without any hesitation, Naruto did as asked, but instead of making a singular clone for backup, he made 100 clones waiting to attack Mizuki.