Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ A Better Start ❯ A Better Test ( Chapter 6 )

Sorry for the reeeeaaaaalllyyy long wait. College sucks. Took up eight tenths of my time. The other two percent were from work and this new fad called `sleeping'.

Anyway, I was kinda disappointed to notice that I got even less reviews than from my shorter chapter over a longer time than my longer chapter did. Come on, you don't even have to say anything that is related to the story in a review. I just like knowing that you readers are real, instead of bots that are just there to spontaneously increase my view count. So I shall try to make this chapter even longer than the others, to see how you all respond.

Thousand Tailed Holy FlashFang: I am glad you liked it! You also have a really long pen name!

ApexPredator: Good, because you will see more of her once the story picks up later.

Kagenin: Sorry I couldn't update quick enough.

Thank you everyone that gave me ideas, your input is appreciated.

Another thing, this story actually won a story competition while I was on hiatus. Crazy, I know. So yeah, I feel good about my story. Speaking of story, let's get back to it!

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Last time on A Better Start Z!!!(Sorry, always wanted to do that)

Tsunade and her trusty apprentice and pet pig were walking up the winding stairs of the Hokage tower. After finally reaching the top, the group walked down the hall to the door that was labeled as the Hokage's. As soon as they entered they noticed that Jiraya was already in the office. “You had better have a good reason for calling me back here. You know I don't like to be in the village after what happened.”

The Sandaime nodded, his serious façade in place. “Good to see you too, Tsunade. The reason I called you both back to the village is quite simple. But let me ask you this, have either of you ever thought of teaching again? Full time?”

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Chapter 6

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The young trio had made it to the Academy without too much incident, but this morning wasn't without its own mishaps. Naruto had learned right off the bat that he should knock before he even reached for any of the doors inside his new residence. This was partially due to the fact that he was almost impaled with a hair brush when he walked into the bathroom, only to meet an enraged Mikoto in only a towel, having just gotten out of the shower and was about to do her hair. This lesson was also pounded into his skull even more when he had walked back into the bathroom a few minutes later to relieve himself, but was shocked to find that Kimiko was already in there, getting ready for her own daily shower.

Needless to say that he didn't get any breakfast and had to walk to class sporting a bright bred hand print on the side of his face, along with a black eye. Luckily for him. Though, he has a nifty healing ability that borders on regeneration so the marks were gone by the time they even reached the front gates of the Academy.

After reclining for a bit while they waited for their teacher to arrive each of the students went to their own groups and started up their usual daily conversations. There were exactly 6 of these groups in this class.

The first noticeable group was directly at the front row of class. This group consisted of two people: Manami Kimiko and Uchiha Mikoto. They were currently occupying themselves with a number of rounds of tick-tack-toe. Mikoto was currently in the lead with 3 wins and no losses, while Kimiko was understandably agitated by this fact.

The next group was even more noticeable, despite being in the very back of the room. This would be due to the fact that they were simply the loudest. This group consisted of the majority of the girls in the class, including Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura. They were currently doing what they do every day: try to take over the world……..I mean gossiping, yes gossiping let's call it that.

The next noticeable group only consisted of one person. Why is it a group then, you ask? That is because this person also has a dog with him that is making the same amount of noise, if not more so, as its human counterpart. They were playing a odd form of the game catch, with the boy, Kiba, bouncing the ball off the wall, floor and ceiling and having the dog, Akamaru, catching it before it could hit somebody. Both of them were shouting and barking respectively.

The next group was of similar size to the second group but was also less noisy than the third. This group held a majority of the males in the class, including the ever serious and all business Sousuke Sagara(1). Sousuke wasn't really talk to this group, they just all swarm around him and act as friends since he is listed as the top male in the class. The group majority was all talking about all of three things. Girls, fighting, and food. More specifically they were discussing who the best (looking) girl was in the soon to be graduating class. This discussion never seemed to have an ending, since each of the males had their own preferences and therefore couldn't decide. The second topic, fighting, seemed to revolve around the latest physical test that took place almost a week ago. The overall winner was Mikoto, having won the Kunoichi division and the accuracy tests hands down. Sousuke Had won the Shinobi division but had lost by two points in the accuracy test to Mikoto. Their last subject of food ranged from what they brought for lunch to what the best place for food is in Konoha.

The second to last group was the group that just sat there, staring into space, reading or eating. This group consisted mainly of Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Akimichi Chouji. Hinata sat in her chair next to Shino, quietly reading with the book close to her face. The only noticeable thing about this book was that it has a plain white slip cover on the top, if you looked closely enough you would see a orange tinge of the real cover show through. Chouji sat at his desk, happily munching trough his latest snack, a crisp bag of beef jerky. The last member of the group, Shino, sat at his desk. Not moving, not speaking, and probably not looking. No one could really tell whether he was awake or not due to his darker than black sunglasses that he wore all the time.

This brings us to the last and final group. The group that wasn't even awake, nor were they sitting/laying next to each other. They were three rows apart One of the members of this group was ever lazy Nara Shikamaru, this being the group that he always ended up in. The second member of the group is potentially the loudest person in the room. A blond haired, tanned skinned, singed jacket wearing prankster. Uzumaki Naruto was currently reclining in his chair asleep with his feet propped up on top of his desk, the same three person desk that Kimiko and Mikoto shared with him.

As soon as the time peice that hung just to the upper right of the door hit eight o'clock Umino Iruka stepped into the class with a large manila folder on top of his usual clip board. The class in it's entirety looked up or woke up to show that they didn't need to be yelled at. They had learned this trick after spending the last three years in the Academy with the man as their teacher. Each of the students noticed the absence of their usual teacher's aide, Mizuki. Mizuki had started working at the Academy around the start of their third year, so they were fairly used to his presence in the classroom.

Ahem “All right class. I have some bad news and some good news and some more bad news. First off, it is suspected that Mizuki has left the village for some unknown reason. But it is suspected that he was a spy, so be sure to keep a lookout for him, just in case.” He let the class murmur for a short minute, to get it out of their system. “Okay, that's enough. Now what I have in my hands here” he holds up the manila folder that he brought in with him, showing it to the class “is the continuation of the details pertaining to the Academy's new setup, which this class will be the guinea pigs for.”

The class didn't really get rowdy per se, but Iruka could tell that his class was hanging off of his every word. Even Shino and Sousuke were seemingly restless, and they were the hardest to read even for an experienced shinobi such as himself. He opened the folder and brought out a small packet of stapled paper.

“As I told you yesterday, the Academy is going to be boosting the curriculum. Including, but not limited to: special weapons training, higher level attack and defense Ninjutsu/Taijutsu/Genjutsu. You will learn shape and elemental manipulation of your chakra. As well as furthering your normal studies in here with me. Any questions?” Iruka paused to allow for his students to gather their thoughts and...“Yes, Sousuke?”

Sousuke Sagara stood from his chair, stiff as a board “I was wondering if we would have the opportunity to further our stealth, tracking or tips from other veterans to further our knowledge of field packing and other assorted tasks related to our chosen profession?”

Most of the other guys looked back at him, slightly amazed that he could fit that all into one breath, let alone one sentence. Meanwhile the majority of the females in the class swooned over his proficient and professional mannerisms. Iruka just nodded to him.

“Of course. I am sure that you could get one of your teachers to give you a few hints. And don't forget that I am here to teach you all as well. Just because I am going to be your only academic teacher doesn't mean I don't have a few tricks that I could show you all.” Iruka concluded “Any other questions?”

This time it was Naruto that raised his hand. “Yeah, so, like, when are we going to meet these new teachers anyway? Are they specialized and are we going to get assigned to them based on their specialties?”

This time everyone looked at Naruto like he had grown a second head. Kimiko, who sat directly to his left, gave him a `Nudge of Acknowledgment'. With Mikoto just eyeing him strangely, seemingly lost in thought and with him just happening to be in the direction of her stare. Naruto guessed that he just gained some brownie points with them, well Kimiko at least. He wasn't really sure in Mikoto's case.

“Ah, very good question Naruto, I'm glad you asked it. Yes, each of you will take a test today-“ he didn't get to finish his statement when the class erupted in groans “Oh don't be babies, it's just a test to see which specialization you are better suited for. For instance take Kiba and Akamaru. The Inuzuka clan is generally known for their tracking expertise and Kiba here has shown to be adept at using his skills to demonstrate his talent in the tracking field. Another example would be Hinata,” eep! “whose Byakugan would no doubt enable her to be in the tracking field as well. But with her chakra control, she could also specialize in medicine or Genjutsu.” The class gave a low `Oooooooohhhhhh”, showing that they understood.

“So as I was saying, we are going to take a test today to determine which of the fields that each of you would be best placed under. Just for you to know by the way, is that this is just a modified version of the graduation exam that you all would have had to take at the end of the current semester. Okay, were running out of time. I'll hand out the written portion of the tests so don't turn them over until I give the signal to start.”

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In a moderately lit room stood six people at attention in front of a large wooden desk. One other was currently sitting behind a desk, reclining back against the chair in which he resided. Behind the chair that the man sat in were three large windows placed close together giving a panoramic view of the city outside. The man in the large chair took the tobacco pipe out of his mouth and placed it on the edge of the ash tray at the corner of the desk, sighing.

“I could have sworn that I had told him to be here two hours ago, so that he would have been on time. Anyway, I can't go into the details of your assignment unless he is here for the briefing as well.” The others in the room all sighed as well, knowing the tardy habit of the only person to be absent for the meeting.

After ten more minutes of waiting a man pushed open the door and walked inside. The fact that he hadn't knocked didn't get passed any of the other occupants. The man quietly walked up to the end of the row of people in front of the desk, taking a relaxed stance.

“Sorry I'm late. You see the water pipes to my home had frozen over, so I couldn't take a shower. I went around to some friends places, asking if I could use theirs when-“

“That is enough Kakashi” spoke the ageing man behind the desk “Just make sure it doesn't happen again.” `Water pipes freezing? At the beginning of summer? In fire country?' Of course, nobody called him on his bluff, already knowing that it would be pointless and a waste of time.

“Now that you are all here I can get into the details of your latest mission, as I have already outlined to each of you the day before.” They each nodded. “As we speak Iruka is giving the students their various tests. I had him expand upon the graduation exam and use that for this purpose. Each of you have your own various skills that are valuable in the ninja world. You each are also the best with those skills that I could find within the village.” A tall…shapely woman snorted and mumbled `I wasn't even in the village…'

“You will all teach each of the students that pass, enabling each of them to be a better rounded ninja. While each of you are going to be teaching them all, you will also be given a small number of them that show promise in your given field of expertise. The schedule for each day shall be split into three parts. Every morning is the general education with Iruka, then is the teacher of the day's lessons, and last would be the specialized lessons. There will be rivalries that spark up, as planned, to motivate them because of this teaching schedule. I have drawn up a rough list of the things I expect you all to teach them generally and specifically. I don't mind if you expand on it though, so feel free to do so.” Sarutobi pointed to a small pile of papers at the front of his desk. Each of them stepped forward and took a page, reading it intently.

On the double sided paper was a list of their names, with a number of things listed under each of them. “I would suggest you each meet up later to discuss any order of the lessons or which days of the week you would like to do your general teaching. Tomorrow you will be assigned your groups based on their scores from today, so be sure to get to the Academy by eight thirty. This should allow Iruka to inform the students of their groups. Kakashi, be sure to be there on time. For your own safety if for no other reason.” The Hokage ended with an eerie smile.

Then the seven people left the room in their various ways, either through the door, the window or a quick Shunshin. The Hokage picked his pipe back up from its resting place and relit it, enjoying the relaxing tobacco smoke entering and exiting his lungs.

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The written test had gone exactly as expected: horribly. No matter how long he took on the questions nothing came to mind, unless it needed him to be imaginative, which he excelled at. Naruto sat on the grass of the small training field that resided behind the Academy building. The second test had started s short while ago, the accuracy test. It was the generic `HIT THE TARGET!' test that really was just a way to help out students that had trouble with the written exam, like him. So far only a few students were left to take the test, including him.

After a while of waiting Naruto's name was called, prompting him to go up to the firing line where he was given ten shuriken, kunai and senbon. After getting the signal from Iruka he launched the two fistfuls of shuriken he held at the five targets. Iruka marked something on his clipboard and nodded to him again. After doing this for both the kunai and senbon Naruto went up to the targets to inspect them and to retrieve the weapons. He thought he did rather good, maybe not as good as Mikoto or Sergeant Serious (AKA Sousuke), but he hoped for a high score.

After everyone had their chance Iruka led the class back to class. Only that it seemed to take forever to get up the stairs. `I don't remember there being this many floors in the Academy…'

`That is because there aren't. You got caught in a Genjutsu, along with the rest of the class.' From the way Kyuubi's voice sounded he guessed that she was tired, possibly still half asleep. `I'll help you out with this one, but we are going to have to seriously work on your Genjutsu skills.' Naruto could feel a small burst of warmth envelop his senses as Kyuubi released a pulse of energy throughout his body, breaking the hold that the illusion had on Naruto.

`Thanks for that.' Naruto…well…thanked, as he looked around himself finding a majority of his classmates still under the illusion lying on the grass. Iruka noticed him sitting up and gestured him to the other side of the field where the others that escaped the technique were sitting. He took a seat in the general vicinity of Mikoto, but not too close. “How long has this been going on?” he asked, trying to start up a conversation with the Uchiha.

Mikoto glanced at him “I don't know exactly how long I was under, but I would guess only two minutes or so total.” She was still brooding that she had been caught in it in the first place.

After what he guessed was the five minute mark Iruka released the rest of the class that hadn't managed to break free in time. With everyone back in the land of the conscious, Iruka led the students to the edge of the training field, where there was a line drawn in the ground with white chalk.

“Okay class, now it's time for your stealth and infiltration test. This one will probably take the longest since everyone has to give it a go. The objective is to enter the Academy and find an item of my choosing. I will give you the standard information you would get form such a mission, such as last known location and level of security. The item will be different for each of you, but the general difficulty will be the same. You must all start from behind the white line, and for the sake of making this go faster I will only give you 10 minutes to get in and out of the building without being noticed with the requested item. Everyone understand?” all thirty four students nodded. “Okay then, Shino is up first.”

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Naruto had been waiting for at least an hour. He had been going over the layout of the Academy with Kyuubi, to be sure he knew of every route and hiding spot. What he overheard from some of the other students that had gone already was that the entire Academy was rigged and had sentries patrolling the halls.

Heh. This would be a piece of cake, after all, all that pranking wasn't for nothing. He could sneak past ANBU and out run most Chunnin and hide from Jounin. This was right up his alley.

“Naruto! You're up!” Iruka called after sending Mikoto to go wait with the rest. Mikoto went towards the tree that Kimiko was resting against and sat down beside her, sharing in a light conversation about the test or something he guessed.

After getting up and heading towards Iruka he waited for his instructions. After small time of thinking Iruka addressed the young blond. “What I want you to get is the principals nameplate on his desk. It is almost the end of lunch so he should be coming back soon, so be quick. Beware of traps, sentries and cameras. For each you set off or get seen buy will affect your score. Ready?”

Naruto took a deep breath, already planning his route, before nodding. Iruka swung his arm down “Go!” and Naruto was off like a shot.

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Seven people sat around a table, each with a drink and a small snack.

One of the seven people that sat around the table had a full sized katana resting against the table, between his legs. He had brown hair that was mostly covered by his blue headband that enclosed the entire top of his head, with black baggy eyes and wearing the oh so stylish and common ninja attire of long baggy blue clothes with a green flak jacket. He looked sickly, with a drawn face and pale skin.

“Before we begin, I wanted to know if Tsunade-sama would be kind enough to give me a medical examination sometime soon?” he asked, with short coughs throughout the sentence.

The blond medic looked at him from behind her shot of sake. He seemed to be very ill, yet still on active duty, odd. If a medic finds something wrong with a patient it is procedure to keep them off duty until they are better. She deduced that they couldn't find anything wrong or they couldn't do anything about it. If that was so, then she might as well see what she could do, her medic pride wouldn't let her pass up a chance at finding something new to heal. “Sure, I don't see why not.”

“Hey, can I get an examination too? Hehehe-ow! I was joking, just joking! Ya don't have ta' hit me!” Jiraya had been successfully silenced for a while.

“Cough, thank you. Now to get this over and done with. I think we should choose the days that we want do our teaching on.” The general answer to that was that they didn't really care what day that they had. “Okay…cough…then I will take Monday and we go clockwise around the table?” the others just shrugged, enjoying their food, book or rubbing a sore arm. They each quickly wrote down the order for the days so they could get this over with faster.

Monday: Hayate Gekkou

Tuesday: Kurenai Yuuhi

Wednesday: Asuma Sarutobi

Thursday: Anko Mitarashi

Friday: Kakashi Hatake

Saturday: Jiraiya Hideo(2)

Sunday: Tsunade Senju

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So far Naruto had make quick work of getting into the closest entrance to the principals office without being noticed. He was still approximately 100 yards away, with who knows how many traps that lay ahead of him. The entire bottom floor was like a grid, but with some of the passages were curved to meat others halfway. He stalked down the hall, passing doors and under windows. He noticed that at the next corner that he had to turn on had a camera in the top corner, swiveling slowly.

`Damn.' He crept as close to the edge as he dared, eying the camera warily. He still had about eight minutes left.

When the camera was facing the other way he leaned over and peaked around the corner. “Double damn.” he whispered to himself as he noticed that the entire next hallway was booby trapped with wired notes. `Any ideas? It would be too noticeable for a camera to suddenly go out, and it could probably take out some of the others. Less competition right?' he asked his tenant as he his back behind the wall from the camera.

He heard the queen hum for a moment. `I believe the best method would be to time it right and to make a run for it. The left side of the wires looks to be the best bet, since that area looked to have fewer wires than others.'

Naruto took another peek when it was safe again to be sure. `Yeah, I see the clearing on the side. That seems to be our best bet. ` He waited while the camera took another pass at the intersection and bolted from his hiding spot as soon as it was clear.

He dashed forward quickly and jumped through the first three wires, dove and rolled under another two and sprung up over the last wire. He snuck up to the last corner to his destination and peeked around, then checked his watch. Seven minutes left it seems, with no one in the hallway and no visible traps or cameras.

After sneaking up to the door Naruto peaked through the window and took note of everything in the room. No one inside, bookshelf on the left, desk in the center back with two chairs in front and a large filing cabinet on the right. Target in sight, exactly where Iruka said it would be. He checked the door for traps, and finding none entered the office. After quickly grabbing the nameplate he stuffed it into his jacket and headed for the door.

Tap, tap. `Shit, he's back!' Quickly going through his options he looked towards the window. Deciding that was best he soundlessly opened the window and hopped out. Thankfully it was the first floor so he didn't have anywhere to fall. He reached up and quickly closed the window, and not a moment too soon. Right when the window clicked shut the Principal opened his door and entered his office, seemingly finding nothing amiss.

Thanking his luck Naruto made his way around the building. Only to stop and hide around a corner. He listened carefully, and could hear the soft rustling of cloth. The finish line was still on the completely other side of the school so it wasn't one of his classmates or teacher. Perhaps another class? He took a quick look. `Nope! Crap.' Around the corner was a chunnin, just standing there looking bored and switching his weight from foot to foot. He was obviously one of the sentries that he had heard about.

He thought about trying to go around the other side of the building, but he was sure that there would be another sentry on the other side as well. Sneaking past would be really difficult too, seeing as there wasn't much to hide behind other than the corners of the building and some bushes that bordered the Academy walls.

`Why not try what you did in the fire? Clone and Substitution.' Came the helpful advice from his tenant.

Naruto thought about it for a moment. `Maybe, but those bushes have to be at least twenty feet away. I don't know If I have that kind of control over the Shadow clone yet.'

`Well you could always just try and see. If anything you could quickly dispel it to create a smoke screen and distract the enemy to sneak by.'

The decision took him all of two seconds to make, thinking that she was challenging him. He hasn't backed down from a challenge yet, so why start now?

He did the required hand seals and concentrated on the area behind the bushes. He was concentrating so hard that Kyuubi wondered if the plant would suddenly burst into flame. But decided that it would work as a diversion too.

There was a quiet pop sound, causing the ninja sentry to look around a bit. Naruto concentrated again and formed a seal, and with a shimmer he was crouching behind the bushes. He let the clone dispel itself, making more noise that drew the ninjas attention and a cloud of smoke that obscured his vision for a moment.

Utilizing the enemies distraction Naruto sprinted out of the bush and behind the corner. He was glad that this side was closer to the bushes than the other, being only about ten feet away. He jogged with his body kept low as to keep from being seen from the windows that he passed by.

When he reached his final turn he paused and checked his watch. Four minutes left. He Checked the corner and saw his class facing the other direction, towards the other side of the building that he entered from. He snuck up behind Iruka, being extra careful knowing that it was usually he who found Naruto when he was in trouble.

When he was finally in position behind his teacher he poked him in the back, making him jump.

“Is this what ya wanted Iruka-sensei?” Iruka quickly swiveled around and saw Naruto standing there with the name plate in his hand. Looking at his watch Iruka made a note and smiled as he took the object and placing it on the table next to him with all the other items that the students retrieved.

“Very good Naruto, the best time yet in fact. Go have a seat and wait for the next test with the others.”

Naruto grinned and placed his hands behind his head as he sauntered over to Shikamaru, who was lounging back on the grass staring at the sky. After sitting down next to the resident genius Naruto started up a conversation. “So, what did you have to get?” he asked.

Shikamaru sighed and gave a short answer. “The red and yellow plunger from the third floor janitors' closet on the west side.” He didn't even look away from the clouds.

Naruto laughed a bit, finding it funny. “That must have been odd to carry on the way back. The name plate I had to get was small so I could stuff it in my shirt.”

Shikamaru still didn't look from the clouds. “It was troublesome.” That was the only reply needed to get his point across.

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The stealth test had lasted another half hour after Naruto had gone. It was now half way through the tracking test. The objective was to track a small cat that was released into the forest behind the Academy. What Iruka hadn't told them was that the cat was from hell, how else could you explain the terror that a can caused on a bunch of soon to be ninjas?

Kiba had just gotten back, holding the vile creature from its furry neck. Akamaru was laying on top of the boys head as usual, growling at the cat while it licked the blood from a small wound. Kiba hadn't gotten out of the conflict unscathed either, with three long scratches on his face.

After handing the cat from hell to Iruka Kiba went and sat in the shade, rubbing his aching face. After making a small note on his clip board Iruka called up the next sucker… I mean student. “ Manami Kimiko, your up!”

Kimiko walked up to Iruka, waiting for instruction. “Tora here gets a thirty second head start in front of you. The objective is to bring him back quickly but without doing him any damage. Ready?” He set Tora down, and the cat took off into the brush of the forest. After a small while Iruka brought his hand down “Go!”

Kimiko rushed off to find the pink ribbon wearing cat. It took her a full minute of running just to catch up to it, which amazed her since she thought she was pretty fast for her class. The brown and black striped cat was stalking through the bushes just ahead of her, staying in the cover of the brush.

Slowly stalking her pray she waited for a chance to nab it. “Here kitty kitty….” She spoke softly as to not startle the cat too much. Tora looked around until it saw her and slowly backed away. Kimiko followed just as slowly in a crouch, with her arms spread as if to give a hug. “Come here baby…I won't hurt you…”

The demon in disguise watched her for a moment before stopping and taking a whiff of the air. It crept closer, ever so cautious. Kimiko didn't move, waiting until the cat was rubbing up against her until she brought her had down to him slowly, letting him smell it. Deciding that she was safe the cat rubbed its head against her inner thigh.

Blushing slightly she reached down and picked the cat up and held him gently to her chest as she made her way back to the class. Tora was seemingly content to rub its head up against her, purring like she was catnip.

When she finally made it back Iruka looked surprised to see that she didn't have the usual battle scars from encountering Tora. Kimiko handed the cat back to Iruka, which tried to jump out of his arms and back to her, and headed over to a where Mikoto sat staring at nothing in particular.

When she settled herself down she offered up some valuable advice. “The cat's a perv and likes to be held gently.” Mikoto looked at her oddly, finding the thought of a perverted cat strange before nodding.

Kimiko sat back against the tree and decided to take s short nap, only to be woken up a while later by a loud scream of “AAAAUUUGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!” resounding from the forest. Looking to her side she saw that Mikoto sat beside her once again, but was slightly dusty showing that she had taken the test already and not been attacked by the cat.

Seeing that Kimiko had woken up and was looking at her Mikoto took it upon herself to try to explain the situation in the forest. “Naruto.” Kimiko `Ooohh'-ed and laid back down, understanding immediately that Naruto would do something stupid like grabbing it by the tail.

A minute later Naruto stepped out of the forest with the car in a bear hug, struggling to keep it in his hold. Quickly giving the struggling cat to Iruka Naruto walked over to the girls and collapsed against the tree, mumbling. “Stupid frickin creature from hell…the pink bow throws you off into think it's all tame and crap…..” the mumbling continued. But the two girls also noticed something else; Naruto's face looked like a small grid was drawn on his face with a red marker.

The entire class also seemed to notice this and all started to laugh. “Shut up! I still brought it back faster than most of you anyway!” Naruto yelled to the crowd.

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The class had just finished with their Taijutsu test, which was really just a number of short spars. There was a time limit and a restriction on weapons and techniques. With seventeen matches that were limited to only two minutes this test passed quickly.

Now the class were sitting back in their seats in their classroom. But something bothered them, all of the wire traps seemed to have disappeared along with the cameras. The Infiltration test was barely over an hour ago, and there were five floors to disarm. That was incredibly fast, even for ninja standards.

Iruka stood before the class once again, holding his clip board under one arm. “Now it's time for the final test. I will lead you each one by one into an empty classroom where I will have you perform the three basic techniques as I request them. Based on this score and all of the other test scores of today I will determine if you pass or not. If you do pass then I will give you a badge” he pulls out a metal badge shaped in a six pointed start with a blue Leaf symbol engraved into the metal. “that was provided to me by the Hokage. The color of the badge signifies that you would have been accepted into the new training program. After today make sure to have the badge visible somewhere on your person.”

The class murmured for minute, then quieted down. “Yamanaka Ino, you're first. Follow me.” Ino got up from her seat and followed Iruka out of the classroom.

Naruto looked at the two sitting beside him. “How do you think you've done so far?”

Mikoto snorted. “I am an Uchiha, a bunch of tests will not hold me back.”

Kimiko rolled her eyes. “She means that she did fine. I feel the same. You?”

Naruto scratched the back of his head. “I've done pretty good on the practical exams, but my written test was pretty lousy. I don't know how much that will hurt my score since Iruka won't tell us anything about our scores.”

Mikoto looked at him again. “Don't forget that we have to do the clone technique next, that has been your worst skill since we started school.”

Naruto grinned. “Nah, I got something up my sleeve for that. She helped me with it the other day.” Naruto whispered the last part so only the two girls could hear him. Both of their eyes widened slightly, realizing who he was talking about. Kimiko was the first to ask, in a whisper.

“It's not anything bad is it? The old man told us about her, but she is still a demon.” Naruto heard his tenant snort in his mind. `I am a spirit, a manifestation of elements, not a demon!'

“Um, not quite. She's just a spirit given form, not a demon.” By now five people had left to take their final test. “Anyway, I got this test in the bag. Don't worry about it.”

“Naruto!” Iruka called from the hallway, guiding the young blond to the testing room.

“Who said I was worried…?” mumbled our resident Uchiha, making Kimiko laugh.

“You and I both know that you do, just like you worry about me…You do worry about me right?” But Mikoto said nothing, and the fact that she didn't deny it either mad Kimiko smile all the more.

-----

Once the two entered the room Iruka sat behind a small folding table with rows of the badges on top, as well as pages of what Naruto guessed to be the grade of each student. As soon as Iruka was situated and pulled out a small stack of paper that had Naruto's name printed on the top he addressed his student.

“This test will show your creativity and your skill with the three basic techniques. I will grade them separately if you want, but you can get a bonus if you chain them together.” Naruto nodded.

“But I have a quick question first. Does the clone technique have to be the illusion?” Iruka looked confused by the question.

“Well I suppose it doesn't have to be as long as you can create the same results. We had a student last year that just used an afterimage instead of a clone, so I guess it's fine.”

Naruto grinned and formed four hand signs. Four poofs later and there was now four grinning Naruto's standing before the desk. One of the Naruto's was holding a badge in its open hand.

Iruka looked down at the table and saw that one of the badges had been switched for an eraser. `He must have done the switch while the clouds blocked my view. “Nicely done Naruto, but you still have to perform the Transformation technique.” Naruto only grinned wider. “And no `Sexy Jutsu' crap. This is serious.”

“Oh, but I am serious Iruka-sensei.” came Naruto's voice, only none of the Naruto's in front of him had moved their mouths. He looked down at the eraser incredulously. It couldn't be…

Poof. There sat Naruto, at the edge of the table where the eraser had been, grinning like the others. Only for all of them to burst into a cloud of smoke.

When the room cleared there were only two people in the room. Only now one was a woman, a woman wearing absolutely nothing and only covered by the residual smoke sitting at the edge of the table and leaning towards the young teacher. Blood ran down the teachers' nose as he scrambled to search for tissue.

“Hehehe, I just couldn't resist. But I did show I could do all of the techniques before my little prank.” Naruto apologized when he was back looking like himself.

Iruka sat with two wads of tissue stuck in his nose and glared at the blond, but he couldn't deny the fact that he had performed splendidly. “Looking at your other scores, the only thing you did bad at was the written portion. Even though that test is graded as half your score you made up for it with all the others. Congratulations Naruto, and welcome to the program.”

Naruto continued to grin and rubbed the back of his neck. “I knew that written test was worth a lot. I'm glad that I kick ass at everything else!”

Iruka chuckled at his students self confidence. “Now that you have the badge you can go out to the front of the Academy and wait for your friends if you want, but you're free to go. Don't forget to be here tomorrow to be placed in your group.”

Naruto left the room and headed to the front of the Academy, where he spotted Ino leaning against the building near the entrance. He looked around, but didn't spot anyone else. “Hey Ino, anyone else pass yet?”

Ino looked at him from her spot on the wall and shook her head. “No, everyone else that came out failed. It's just us blonds so far.”

Naruto chuckled at the weak joke at the end and went to sit on the swing over to the side.

A few minutes later Mikoto came out of the Academy with a badge in her left hand. She saw the two blonds and walked over to one. “No one else passed yet?” was her single question.

Naruto shrugged. “Nope, just us.” They settled into a short bit of silence as they waited for everyone to come out. They watched as seven more people walked out with their heads low, having obviously failed. Followed by Sousuke Sagara who walked to the outer gates and leaned back against them. All three noticed that he had the badge already stuck to the front of his uniform.

The next person to come out was a smiling Kimiko. She held up her badge as she quickly came over to her two current housemates. The blond and the redhead gave each other a high five while Mikoto stood there. Kimiko wrapped her arm around her female friends shoulders and shook her a bit, getting the girl to react. “Fine, fine…” as she held up her hand as all three of them high fived again.

Around five in the afternoon all of the people that had passed were in the courtyard of the Academy, congratulating each other. Except of course Shino, Mikoto and Sousuke who all stood back and watched the small groups excitement. But all of them were there, the group that would be later called the `Rooky Eleven', and be the ones to raise the bar in standards for a fresh Genin.

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Whoo! My longest chapter yet! Over 7,000 words!

Yes I added Sousuke from FMP. I plan to have some of his adventures show up throughout the story for comedy relief or plot development. So pay attention to him later on.

I don't know what Jiraiya's last name is so I gave him one. Hideo=splendid man. Which I found to be a funny name if I gave it to him.

Don't forget to review. The more you review, the more you remind me to write the next chapter!

-Dshadodragon