2. The Graduation

"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball technique!", Numerous voices chorused as 12 fireballs launched towards Naruto, merging to form a gigantic ball of fire on the way.

"Shit! These idiots," Naruto groaned looking at the clones, "I told them to take it easy. It's graduation day for Kami's sake."

A red cloak of chakra covered him, his bright blue eyes turning red, his whisker-like birthmarks thickening and his nails elongating. He looked positively feral.

"Here goes nothing," He growled and extended his hand, the red chakra acting as an extension of his limb, forming a gigantic hand, catching the large fireball into it, blocking and dispelling it before it reached him.

He smirked seeing his tactic succeeding. The Kyuubi had been a great help to Naruto, ever since he met him last year. Though it has helped him escape Itachi's genjutsu and kept him wary of suspicious people, Naruto didn't know that it was Kyuubi's chakra that enabled him to do so, till last year.

Somehow, from the genjutsu Itachi had put him in, where the silhouettes of those dangerous shinobi who would be hunting him, were shown fighting the tailed beasts, not that Naruto knew that time, the Kyuubi had deduced it was him, they were hunting rather than Naruto. So it had watched over him and only pulled him to his mindscape last year when the Kyuubi had deemed him worthy enough to be in his presence. It was quite an interesting conversation filled with threats, intimidation, disbelief, acceptance and agreement. In return for access to Naruto's senses, the Kyuubi would allow Naruto to borrow his chakra. A deal that Naruto happily accepted. Making a deal with the beast who had killed his parents was indeed not easy, but Naruto had to an extent, sympathized with the fox. After all, it hadn't asked to be sealed within any of the jinchuriki. Naruto knew that he would have done the same thing, that is trying to escape, if knew he was going to be stuffed in a body not even the size of his nail, his freedom stripped for a long time if not forever.

His parents' identity was a whole other complete can of worms. He was the son of Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage and Uzumaki Kushina, the previous jimchuriki of the Kyuubi. He was the son of the two most important figures of Konoha, especially if the recently ended Third Shinobi War, was taken into mind. Though it wasn't easy to swallow, why he was kept in the dark regarding their identity, he understood why it had to be done. He could only imagine the number of Assassination and Kidnaping attempts, once it got out someone with the name Namikaze, was still alive. Thankfully, once he was done with his goal, he would be strong enough to be proudly recognised as a child of his parents. While there was a little glumness and heartbreak, at his father giving him such an ugly fate, he was still proud to be their child. Especially, when they had sacrificed their life to save his.

His thoughts on the matter were broken, as the brief taijutsu fray with his clones was broken, and he had to raise a hasty 'Suijenheki (Water Encampment wall)' to defend himself from five incoming 'Karyuendan (Dragon flame bomb)'. Not that it was enough. He was still hit with 3 of the B-rank fire techniques, with only an increase in the chakra of Kyuubi's cloak saving him from serious injury.

He stood up, stabilising the chakra beneath his foot to make sure he didn't sink into the lake they were having the spar on, his tailless Kyuubi cloak advancing to one tail cloak, with two ears and a tail of reddish-black chakra joining the cloak.

It wasn't really fair on his clones though. They weren't able to react to the enhanced speed of one tail Naruto as he blitzed, dispelling them with his kunai.

The remaining clones immediately called upon their own Kyuubi cloak, even though they could only summon the tailless one. One of them engaged him in taijutsu, kicking, punching and blocking all his attempts to dispel him.

"Fuuton: Shinkugyoku! (Wind Release: Vacuum sphere)", he heard a clone shooting the B-ranked technique at point-blank range. Naruto immediately used the seal-less Kawarimi to substitute himself with a nearby log, which burst into pieces as the lethal sphere hit it.

"Fuuton: Juha Reppusho! (Wind Release: Beast tearing gale palm)".

Naruto t'ched. What was it with the clones and lethal wind techniques? Going through his own hand seals, he released his own wind technique of the same rank, "Fuuton: Shinku Taigyoku! (Wind Release: Great Vacuum Sphere!)"

The A-ranked techniques cancelled each other, creating a large explosion of wind, which dispelled all the clones that didn't have the chakra cloak.

It was Naruto's turn to offensive which he did almost lazily. Extending his hands and chakra tail towards his clones, he dispelled 3 more of them as they didn't expect the manoeuvre.

He didn't let up and launched the 'Fuuton: Fujin no Jutsu (Wind Release: Dust cloud technique)' and 'Katon: Goryuka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Dragon flame technique)' consecutively, creating a large explosion and dispelling everyone of his clones.

Or so he had thought. Unfortunately, the chance of Clones transmitting the memory while in combat was extremely low and Naruto learned it as the last three clones, he was sure they were the last three, jumped at him from under the water, their chakra cloaks dispelled in the last explosion. Unfortunately for them, it was the most anti-climatic end of the fight as Naruto once again extended the Kyuubi's chakra from the one-tail cloak to skewer them, ending the fight.

"Man, that was good!" Naruto said to himself as he dispelled the One-tail cloak while moving out of the river. Collecting his ninja tools, he left the clearing with a shunsin, knowing that he had to hurry if he wanted to arrive at the academy in time.

He was quite unaware of the pair of old eyes and a single greyish-black eye watching his 'training spar' through a crystal ball from the Hokage's office.

--X--

Kakashi was stunned. The boy, his sensei's son, was incredible. He knew that Naruto was the top performer in his class, but he never knew the difference between the strength Naruto and the rest of his class possessed. Hell, he was sure that even his twelve-year-old self wasn't as strong as Naruto was, and he was a jounin leading in 3rd shinobi war, had created an S-rank assassination technique and had Obito's gifted sharingan in his left eye socket.

The only one who might be close to that strength at that age would be Minato sensei, who had defeated a team of six Kumo jounins that kidnapped Kushina and Itachi, who was already an ANBU, under Kakashi's team Rho at 12.

"W-What! How is this possible, Hokage-sama? And was that Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto used?" Kakashi stumbled with his words and while it was funny for Hiruzen to see his usually calm and collected Elite jounin fumble with words, he understood it was a serious situation.

"Indeed, Kakashi-kun. It was the Kyuubi's chakra and as you saw he is efficient in using it, even though it is not at the extent of what Raikage's brother is said to be capable of. Thankfully, after consulting with Inoichi and Jiraiya, I was reassured that it didn't affect Naruto, either physically or physiologically. Minato-kun's seal makes sure of it, that the nine-tails can't be freed from the prison unless the 'key' is provided to Naruto. And the key is still in possession of Gerotora of Mount Myoboku," Hiruzen took a deep puff of his cigar, "It was surprising, though. As you know Naruto was absolutely abysmal, a dead-last, for the first year of his academy."

"How did it change then?" Kakashi questioned.

Taking another puff of smoke Hiruzen answered, "It all changed after Itachi massacred the Uchiha clan, leaving only young Sasuke as a survivor. After that day, Naruto wasn't seen for a week and the ANBU I assigned to watch over him informed that he had been inside his apartment all week long. After that, a large change was seen in Naruto's behaviour. He stopped trying to gain attention by pranking the village and became single-mindedly focused on training. What you see before is the result of four years of penance and hard work by Naruto. Sometimes, when he failed to master a technique, he would not return to his apartment for days, until he learned and mastered the particular technique to perfection. He also has had help in the form of Gai, Kurenai, Anko and even Danzo."

Kakashi bristled at the last name, even though he knew he shouldn't. He had seen Naruto using the Vacuum techniques just a few minutes ago and it was the old war hawk, who had created the particular technique.

Hiruzen still reassured Kakashi, "Thankfully, Naruto maintained his distance from Danzo, as if somehow he could sense the darkness inside him. Later, after talking with Naruto, we found out it was Kyuubi's chakra that gave him the ability to subconsciously sense negative emotions, which warned him off. The stronger version of this ability was seen in Uzumaki Mito, who was also the jinchuriki of Nine-tails, and there might be a chance that Naruto would be able to attain it after taking control of more of Kyuubi's chakra.

Unfortunately, it also made Naruto give up on his dream of being Hokage."

Kakashi understood why it would. With the amount of animosity, Naruto received even from those who didn't know about his 'jinchuriki status', it was inevitable.

"So what triggered the change in Naruto? You say that it all happened after the Uchiha massacre, but according to you, Naruto didn't leave his apartment for a week, that means he didn't know about the massacre,' Kakashi prompted.

Hiruzen exhaled the smoke through his nostrils and sighed, "A visit from Uchiha Itachi."

Kakashi gasped, "Why would Itachi go after Naruto?"

The Sandaime now knew why, after reading reports from Jiraiya about Akatsuki, but he couldn't really tell Kakshi, or it would blow Itachi's cover.

"We have no idea," Hiruzen conceded, "Naruto says he has no memory of him meeting Itachi and while there is a good chance that he is lying, we are unable to verify it. No Yamanka would be eager to mess with jinchuriki's mind and end as the dinner for the tailed-beast."

Kakashi thought about the information he was provided with and sighed, "As long as he isn't a deflection risk, I don't want two of them, I have no problem with the team. Though will it be a good idea, to place Naruto and Sasuke on one team, with how power-hungry both are, the difference in need behind power notwithstanding? Wasn't it a tradition to put Rookie of the Year and Kunoichi of the Year with the dead last? Which means it should be Naruto, Haruno Sakura along with the Inuzuka kid."

"No Naruto-Kun has no plan to defect. And while you are true, this time the format has been slightly changed with an Ino-Shika-Cho, interrogation and capture team, a tracker team and a heavy hitter team, for which Naruto and Sasuke will be needed. And with you being the only shinobi with sharingan, the council had been pushing for you to be Uchiha's jounin leader," Hiruzen explained taking another puff of smoke.

"All right. I will take them," Kakashi replied, making Hiruzen grin.

--X--

"I do look sharp," Naruto hummed to himself as he checked out his reflection in the mirror with his new clothes on. The red full-sleeved jacket with the Uzumaki swirl proudly displayed on the left breast, looked great especially paired with black shinobi pants. Unlike other shinobi who had two or more, he only had one bag striped to his right thigh for ninja tools, all thanks to his expertise in fuinjutsu. He was indeed proud of himself for coming so far in it, and that also without anyone to guide him on the subject.

Once, satisfied with his results, he left for the academy, using the body flicker to avoid being late.

--X--

He was confident that he would pass, he was strong enough to beat many of the jounins, and not passing the academy test wasn't even a question. And it was as easy as he thought.

The written test was not too hard. His clones had spent more than enough time in the library that he knew all the questions and answered most of them correctly. Sure there might be one or two missing, but as far as he knew, knowing the name of some very small village that wasn't even considered a village by three out of five great villages, wasn't going to make him stronger.

The test for marksmanship was also easy enough. He easily hit all of his targets with kunai and shuriken, even though the last Uchiha might have got extra credits for showing a fancy Uchiha clan shuriken jutsu move.

The taijutsu exam was also very easy. He beat up Mizuki with no small amount of glee, which only increased after seeing the gloomy expression on the face of the chunnin.

He easily impressed Iruka by showing off the sealless Kawarimi and Henge. Mizuki did try to cause trouble when he produced theKagebunshininstead of the regular bunshin, but he calmly stated that Mizuki would be welcome to take it up with Hokage and dismiss his graduation to gennin, later, but for now, he would be taking the hitaite.

Iruka intervened saying that there would be no need for that as any type of clone was perfectly acceptable for the exam, and he was a full-fledged shinobi without any doubt. Hell, Iruka even gave him extra credit for mastering such a tough jutsu. If only he knew about his complete strength. The negative emotions Mizuki was giving then were so intense that Naruto had to control himself from beating the bastardly chunnin up, once again.

Now he would have to wait for a week for his team and the jounin leader to be announced. He hoped he got a good sensei, who wouldn't hold him back. Not that it would matter. He had no intention of letting anyone stop him until he achieved his goal, which had somehow changed last year, to the extermination of Akatsuki.

--X--