Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Yells and laughter were echoed throughout the streets of Konoha as a young, paint-covered blond-haired girl ran away from a couple of panting chunins, all of whom were glaring at the snickering girl. Spectators shook their head, grimacing as they watched the scene while others just glowered at the laughing girl. Others simply watched as the chunins jumped over the apartment buildings, running as fast as their legs could take them as they tried to grab hold on the sight of the disappearing laughing blond girl. Why were they chasing her? Well the answer to that question lay on the Hokage Mountain, where paint was splattered all over the faces.

"Catch me while you can, suckers!" The blond poke her tongue out at the chunins, grinning ear to ear as they glowered at her comments. The chunins opened their mouths to yell at the girl but blinked their eyes at the lack of sight of the girl. The chunins looked at each other, shaking their heads before splitting up to find the prankster.

The blonde herself was currently hiding behind one of the buildings. She was leaning against the wall, with one hand clutching her stomach and the other covering her mouth. Those chunins weren't a match for her skill! No one was a match for her skill in hiding! With that in mind, she chucked away the buckets of paint before smiling widely at her artwork.

"And they say that this couldn't be done!" She declared to herself. "Shows those idiots in class that I do know what I'm talking about when it comes to escaping the chunins of our village!"

"Oh really, Naru!" A man yelled from behind Naru's back. She stiffened at this sudden yells before turning around to look at the furious man, who now had his hands on his hips as he glared at her. Paling, she opened her mouth to say something to him, maybe an apology or some kind of retort but whatever she had to say was jumbled up when she saw his glare.

"So Iruka-sensei, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in lesson or something?" Naru asked, averting her eyes away from Iruka's glowering look. She chuckled nervously. "I mean ya got a couple of kids to teach, y'know?"

"Don't give me that comment! And the better question to ask is what are you doing here?"

"Well, I think that's pretty obvious," She stood up, twisted her body and was about to begin running but found that she couldn't because Iruka had grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. Crossing her arms, she scowled at him.

"I thought you would learn your lesson on pranking and running away by now," Iruka said, taking out a rope from his pocket. Naru raised her eyebrows at this before grimacing as the hard texture of the rope was snarled around her hands. She thought he would learn by now that no matter how many lectures he would give her, she wasn't going to stop her behavior. He should figure out by now she was a lost cause for not doing any more pranks or catching her every single time meant she would learn.

"By the way Naru, you're going to clean up the Hokage's face after school!"

"I know, Iruka-sensei."

It was a pity how she knew what her punishments were now. There was no more fun in trying to figure out what her punishment was going to be.

Oh well, at least she wasn't going back to the apartment till it was late at night.

The laughter and snickers of her classmates echoed in the classroom and the corridors as Iruka set her down on the floor. Rubbing her bounded hands, Naru looked down at the floor. She wasn't embarrassed for getting caught but she did have her temper rising at each laugh that was directed at her. If they continued to laugh at her then her temper was going to explode like an explosive tag and she wouldn't be sorry for the unfortunate bastard that was going to be the receiving end of her temper.

She looked around her classmates, all of whom were either smirking, snickering or glaring at her for what she did. Naru shook her head at them before sticking her tongue, causing the intensity of their glares to increase. She struggled to shrug her shoulders at them so she settled in giving them an easy-going smile. If they thought that she cared about what they thought of her then they were dead wrong because who would care about what a bunch of spoiled brats thought of her, huh?

"One hour! We had to chase you for one whole hour, Naru!" Iruka yelled as he glared at tied-up blond-haired girl. Naru simply crossed her legs, removed the smile on her face and replaced it with a glare that matched Iruka's glare. Everyone in the class rolled their eyes, shaking their heads as they waited to hear what Naru had to say to their sensei.

"Well that goes to show how you guys need to step up your game on catching me," Naru retorted. Iruka's eyebrows twitched at her words and he looked ready to strangle her for implying that the chunins of their village were horrible in their job, which they were. She couldn't count the number of times where the chunins had lost her so easily or lost their energy in just half an hour of chasing her.

"Tomorrow is the final exam of the Academy and you've failed the last two times!" Iruka yelled, causing Naru to glower at the reminder. "Idiot! This isn't the time to be causing trouble!"

"Trouble, me? Please, I don't cause trouble, I bring the joy back into the village!" Naru snapped, scowling. "Second of all, I failed for the last two times because of the fucking 'bunshin' jutsu! A jutsu everyone knows that is out of my fucking reach and one that is in my opinion practically useless! Why the hell do you make that exam worth sixty percent of our overall grade huh?"

There was silence in the classroom at her words. Everyone stared at the glowering blond-haired girl before looking at Iruka, who had his hands clenched and eyebrows twitching as he looked down at Naru. Normally, Naru enjoyed that people were staring at her like they were so surprised at her outburst but this time she wasn't happy. How could she be happy when Iruka had given her the reminder that she failed the exams for the last time?

"I don't make the rules, Naru!"

"Well you should protest about the stupidity of the rules!" Naru snapped. "I failed every single time because of that jutsu yet I can do brilliantly when it comes to the theory, taijutsu part of our exams! The rules should state that if a student pass in two out of the three portions of the exams then we passed! Not make seventy percent of our grades on ninjutsu!"

Iruka thinned his lips at her words. Naru twisted her head to look at her classmates, who all gave her looks that implied she was an idiot. If she weren't so tied-up, she would give them the middle finger and tell them that they shouldn't be so smug because none of them would be able to pass well because of the sixty percent on tomorrow's exam. Of course, she was tied-up! And those bastards couldn't be told off!

"Time for a 'henge no jutsu' test! Everyone lined up!"

Everyone groaned at his words before averting their furious gaze at Naru. In the blond's opinion, they all looked like as if they were hoping that the intensity of their glares would burn her up in guilt, which was pretty stupid. She didn't feel guilty because they all deserved it for glaring at her; also their glares weren't anything like the ones that she had seen from their parents.

"By the way, Iruka-sensei you need to untie me now! I can't line up without you untying me!" Naru said, holding up her tied up hands for everyone to see. Iruka sighed and untied the ropes of her hands. Naru rubbed her hands, grimacing at the sight of the rope marks that marked her hands before walking to the back of the line.

She smiled at the glares that the kids in front of her gave while ignoring the heated looks that was directed to her back. Their glares were like spark compared to the glares of Iruka, which always reminded her of roaring flames, hard and harsh but if looked closer then you could see the warmth in them. Naru sighed at these thoughts and took a step forward as Sasuke went forward for Iruka to test him.

"Good! Next up, Uzumaki Naru!"

"This is all your fault, Naru!" A girl from the back of the line yelled. Naru's eyebrows twitched and she turned her body around, scowling at everyone in the line. Her hands were on her hips, a position that everyone in the class knew was where she was going to yell or say something hurtful.

"Screw you! You deserve it for glaring at me and looking all high and mighty!" Naru lips turned into a smirk. "I bet you if that tomorrow exam wasn't seventy percent of our overall grade, you would fail because let us face it! You're no good in theory or taijutsu, all you got running for yourself is the bunshin jutsu!"

"Naru!"

"What? It's true, isn't it?" Iruka thinned his lips and gestured for her to come to the front of the classroom. She rolled her eyes and stood in front of her sensei, straightening her back before looking hard at him. What was the point of this? They both knew that this wasn't going to teach her a lesson or make her learn any manners.

With a sigh, Naru placed her hands into a Ram handseal and closed her eyes as she gathered as much chakra as she could. "Henge!"

Everyone waited in baited breath as they waited for the smoke to disappear. All of them leaned forward, some pushing each other forward while others grimaced, looking as if they had eaten something rotten. Almost all of the students grasped. Others blinked their eyes. A few even rubbed their eyes at the sight in front of them.

In front of them was a perfect replica of Iruka, from the scar of his face right down to his posture. A feat that almost everyone thought that she would never do in her life. They had been expecting her usual jokes, not her actually listening to their sensei about what he told her to do. This had to be some kind of twisted joke.

"Now when I actually do what people tell me to do, I get this reaction!" Naru said as soon as she released the jutsu, looking at her fellow classmates with annoyance. She smiled cheekily at her sensei. "Since I did this without one of my usual tricks, does it mean that I'm off the hook?"

"Nice try, Naru but it doesn't mean that you're not in trouble," Iruka said and this caused the blond-haired girl pouted at him. With a reluctant sigh, she nodded her head and crossed her arms before going back to her seat. She watched with boredom as Iruka kept calling on the next person while at the same time giving her the same disappointed look that she loathed to see.

Why does he keep giving her such looks? It wasn't completely bad that she did pranks or skipped lessons to do them. It was wrong but the alternatives were much more wore. If she didn't do pranks then she would suffocate. Pranking was her attempt of getting free from the cage called loneliness, to get rid of the mountain of anger and frustration that she had. If she didn't get rid of it, she was afraid that she would unleash it on someone.

To a person, who probably didn't deserve to be in the receiving end of her anger and when that happened, she would be no better than the people in this village who despised her.

Her musings were broken at the sound of the bell ringing, signaling to her that it was time to start her long-awaited punishment and to others that it was time to go back home to their loving parents. Putting her feet on the table, she watched blankly as the students scurried out of the classroom. Well most of them scurried, only one person didn't and that was Sasuke.

The guy was taking his own sweet time to go back home; if anything he was walking like a snail to the door. She looked up at the roof when Sasuke gave her a glare, ignoring the silent message that he sent her. It wasn't entirely her fault that Iruka had to test them again; he would have done it anyway if she hadn't gone and done what she did. Besides, the bastard had been provoking her into doing a prank.

How could she stand and watch as people showered him with compliments about how good he was.

"Naru!" Iruka said, putting his hands in her shoulder. Naru turned her head to look at her sensei, nodding her head and jumping off from her seat. He took a deep breath. "You're going to spend the whole of your detention cleaning up the mess that you made."

"I know. It's my responsibility because I was the one who did the prank, I was planning to do it anyway just not today."

"I'm afraid to ask but when were you planning to clean it?"

"Probably tomorrow after the exams were over," Naru admitted as the two of them walked out of the academy. "I would have done it today but since tomorrow were the exams, I would have need time to study…which is pretty useless since I know that if it weren't you who was going to make me clean the mess then it would be Hokage-ojisan."

"Naru, manners."

"Whatever Iruka-sensei," Naru put her hands into her pockets and turned to look at the paint-covered Hokage Mountain. "You sure I really have to clean all of that today? It's going to take such a long time to clean that paint! And you do realize that I've an exam tomorrow!"

"You should have considered that when you decided to paint the Hokage's Mountain, then," Iruka reprimanded. Naru scowled at this before keeping her head down when she saw that everyone in the streets were giving her cold looks. Why her? Why do these blasted villagers give her such cold, despising looks? What has she ever done to them? For as long as she had been alive, they had been giving her looks. Looks that told her that she didn't deserve to live, looks which told her she didn't have the right to walk with them.

Well, who wanted to walk with a bunch of people that treated kids like shit, huh?

They stopped walking when they reached the Hokage Mountain and for the first time since Iruka caught her, Naru looked up to see her handiwork. All four Hokages were painted in a way that she thought suited them. The First Hokage had trees painted on his face along with the sign of peace. The Second Hokage had been decorated with swirling waves and sand along with a wonderful shade of yellow for sunshine. The Third Hokage had been painted with blood pouring out his nose and a couple of appropriately dressed girls surrounding his cheeks, all of whom were giving winks to the pedestrians who bothered to look at them. The Fourth Hokage was probably the best one yet in her opinion.

She had highlighted just how feminine the man had looked, giving him longer eyelashes, putting a blush on his cheek and of course putting red paint on his lips. Naru had actually debated on whether to paint his lips pink or red but finally decided that she did need to give him some form of masculinity. A dead man did deserve to have some dignity didn't he?

"Well!" Iruka said, crossing his arms at her as he took a seat on the First Hokage's nose. "Are you going to start or not? I've all day but the same can't be said for you."

"I'll start now, Iruka-sensei!" Naru said, looking at the bucket and sponge with surprise. She hadn't even noticed that Iruka had already put the two things in front of her already. The man must have wanted her to start this as soon as she can because usually she had to get these things by herself.

Well that meant she had less work to do but meant that she had to spend more time on the Hokage's Mountain.

It took her nearly three hours, before she was able to finish the First, Second and Third Hokage's faces and was now on the Fourth Hokage's face, which was the one that she had spent the most work on. Naru hit her head against the Fourth Hokage's cheek, groaning at how sore her hands felt. The prank hadn't been worth this much pain and she would never use that stupid paint ever again! The next time she was going to use paint; she was going to use one that was easy to clean with!

At least then she wouldn't waste her time with it.

"I won't let you go until everything is as it was before!" Iruka reminded her. He had his hands crossed and his face is twisted into a scowl as he stared at her.

Naru rolled her eyes at him. "So? I don't care. No one is waiting for me at home, you know! When I get back home, I'll come home to an empty apartment and go study in my room for an exam, where I know if I passed then I won't have a parent to tell too!"

"Naru…"

The blonde scowled at the sympathetic look that Iruka was giving her. "Don't look at me like that! I don't want anyone to feel pity for me because I've no parents! I lived fine without having any parents! I'll dare say that my manners are better than some people in the class!"

"Naru, I don't feel pity for you," Naru raised her eyebrows, causing Iruka to rub the back of his neck and averted his eyes from the curious girl. "I was actually going to tell you that as soon as you finish cleaning off the monument that I'll buy you a bowl of ramen."

"Make it three bowls of ramen and I'll consider it," Naru said, smiling at him.

"One."

"Three."

"One."

"Three."

"One."

"One."

"Th-One, nice try Naru! It's one and that's final!"

"A girl can try, can't she?"

The chunin instructor laughed at her words, causing the blond-haired girl to smile. Maybe, this week wasn't really going to be the worse week of her life.

Iruka gaped and shook his head as he watched his blond-haired student ate a mouth-full of noodles, slurping while she did it. The other girls in his class would never eat like Naru but then again all of them cared about becoming thinner and tried insane ways of becoming thinner. It was actually quite refreshing to see that at least one of the girls in his class didn't care about becoming thinner or about her weight.

"Naru?"

Naru looked up from her bowl of ramen, her face dripping with soup and the sides of her mouth still had a little bit of ramen. She furrowed her eyebrows at him while she took a tissue paper from the counter, rubbing her mouth quite harshly as she stared at him. He didn't exactly blame her for looking curious, he had never gave her any looks like this before.

"Why did you do that to the Hokage Monument, huh? Don't you know who the Hokage are?"

Naru raised her eyebrows further. "Do I look like an idiot? Of course, I know who the hell they are! The Hokage is the leader of our village and are very well-known for being the strongest in the village…like the Third and the Fourth Hokage."

"Then why?"

"I just wanted to blow off some stream and maybe needed to remind the lovely villagers that they need to be aware of our surroundings," Naru admitted as she took another slurp of her food. "If they can't stop a twelve-year-old girl from defacing the Hokage Monument then you can bet your ass that there's something wrong…and well, one day I'll get the title of Hokage and I'm goanna surpass each one of them! If that happens then people will treat me with some fucking respect."

"Naru, language!"

Iruka raised his eyebrows when he saw the pouting expression on Naru's face before rubbing his eyes, hoping that he was imagining this. In all of his years of knowing this girl, she never once gave him this expression. He hadn't even realize just how big the girl's eyes could get or how she looked so innocent with her hurt expression.

"Iruka-sensei, I have a small favor to ask," Naru said as she clapped her two hands together.

Iruka furrowed his eyebrows. "What? You want another bowl of ramen?"

"No…can I try your headband?" Naru asked, widening her eyes and giving him a pleading expression that he wondered if this was really his student. He touched his headband, feeling the shabby cloth as memories of his ninja life rushed through his mind. He shook his head at his thoughts and looked back at his wide-eyed student.

He adjusted his headband, smiling when he saw that it caught the light of the lamp and then stared at his student. "No, this is what you get after you graduate and this is a symbol that you've come to age, Naru and maybe you'll get yours tomorrow."

"I knew those books and rumors about looking wide-eyed and innocent was wrong! Big eyes and a teary expression is just a shit compared to just saying what you want!" Naru grumbled, crossing her arms. Shaking his head, Iruka watched as the blond-haired girl went back in putting the red bandana back around her head. He should have realized that the blonde had been planning to ask from the very beginning.

"You need to work on your language, Naru and act a little bit more ladylike when you're eating your food," Iruka said as Naru put her head on the table with a small frown that decorated her face.

"Sure and all the girls in the class will finally grow some brains and realize that their lovely idol doesn't give a damn about them. That means it ain't going to happen."

Iruka simply shook his head before ordering another bowl of ramen for Naru, who perked up at hearing this. His heart lightened when he saw Naru giving him a full-blown grin and found himself smiling widely when she told him that he was the best sensei in the world.

Naru's stomach was doing summersaults as she waited for Iruka to start telling them what the exam would be based on. She prayed that if there was such thing called Kami then that the jutsu wouldn't be bunshin but the other two jutsus they had been taught. Anything except the bunshin jutsu would be fine. She would even go for the stupid log jutsu over the clone jutsu. At least then she had a way better chance of passing.

No, she shouldn't be thinking about this.

Glancing around, Naru searched someone in her table whom she could talk to. Her lips curled in a frown when she saw that on her right were a couple of fangirls and scowled when she saw that Sasuke was sitting right beside her. Why her? Why not some guy whom she could actually get along with, huh? Now she had actually had to choose between fangirls or Sasuke? When really, it shouldn't be a contest.

"So teme, are you nervous about the final exams?" Naru asked, breaking the silence in the table. From the corner of her eye, she could make up the interest from the fangirls along with their anger that she was talking to their crush and idol. Maybe, it hadn't been a good idea for her to talk to Sasuke and talk to one of the fangirls instead.

But then, she would have to listen to how cool Sasuke was and she wasn't in the mood to hear his supposed brilliance.

"Hn."

"Why must you always speak in the language of bastard?" Naru complained, shaking her head at him. "Do you know how annoying it is to translate it?"

The raven-haired boy ignored her, looking straight at the blackboard where Iruka was now standing. Naru crossed her arms, stuck out her tongue and turned her attention to her favorite sensei, who now had the attention of every student in the class. It felt weird taking the exams with people her age for once and not with the older students, it was like eating ramen every single day, unusual but not unheard of.

She would know that well because she did eat ramen every single day.

"When you're called into the room, you'll have to do the bunshin no jutsu in order to graduate," Iruka announced. Immediately, students whispered to each other about how easy it was going to be while others simply stared at the whiskered-blond at the front of the class. Naru slammed her head against the hard wood table at this announcement. Her heart was breaking into tiny pieces at this and any hope that she had of passing was slowly dwindling into just a little spark, which was so very different from roaring flames that she had felt when she first woke up.

Maybe this time it would be different, maybe this time she could pass.

Oh who was she kidding? She was going to fail this time!

"Uzumaki Naru!"

Iruka's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and Naru suddenly realized that nearly everyone in the room had a headband around their forehead. She silently groaned at this. It seemed like this year she was going to be the unfortunate person to fail this exam. The blonde looked at Iruka, who was waiting patiently by the door and with a reluctant sigh, she stood up to follow him.

Naru could feel the burning gazes of her classmates as she walked out of the classroom and into her own personal hell. Their stares were horrible and mocking, reminding her that those kids who didn't even really think about becoming a ninja had passed while she, who desperately wanted to become a ninja, would fail. She should be optimistic about it but optimism didn't solve her problem and no amount of training she did help her in her problem.

Her musing was broken when she caught sight of Iruka sitting in the worn-down chair alongside his assistant Mizuki. In front of them was a table filled with a few more shiny headbands, beautiful in their gleam and reminded her of her goal. This was the next step. If she wanted to become Hokage, if she wanted people to treat her with some respect then she must pass this exam. She needed to pass this exam to get to the next step.

"You know what to do, Naru."

The blond-haired girl nodded her head and began producing the hand-seals needed for the jutsu. She could feel her chakra waving as she tried to put enough chakra into the jutsu and she knew from there that this was going to end badly for her. Horribly was even a better word to describe it. She closed her eyes, waving her hand as a cloud of smoke was produced.

When the smoke disappeared, she turned to look at her creation and groaned. The clone that she produced looked nauseating with its pale face, disgruntled body and the fact that it was lying down on the floor looking dead with no pupils and everything. Naru didn't even need to turn around to face Iruka to know that he was displeased. All she needed was that blasted clone to tell her what he was going to say to her.

"You fail, Naru!"

"Iruka, this is her third time and she did create a clone," Mizuki said, staring at the disgusting clone. Naru looked wide-eyed at this and thinned her lips, looking at Iruka and then to Mizuki with curiosity. "We could let her pass."

"No way, Mizuki," Iruka said, shaking his hand at his suggestion. "All the others produce three clones and Naru only created one and it was a useless one."

"That's putting it nicely," Naru muttered, looking at her clone in disgust.

"I can't let her pass."

Naru didn't know why her heart broke at his words or why she felt like punching someone. She had been expecting this from the moment he announced that the jutsu was the bunshin no jutsu. She shouldn't feel like her world had ended or punch Iruka for saying this. The man was only doing his job through that didn't mean she didn't want to yell at him for doing this to her or yell at the examiner board for this.

But what could she do, Iruka's words are law and she knew that this was his final decision.

"I knew this was going to happen, you mentioned the bunshin no jutsu," Naru informed them, looking blankly at the two men who were still debating on what to do with her. "So there's no point in debating on this because let's face it, that clone was pitiful."

"Naru…"

The blonde turned around, unable to face the expression on Iruka's face. She knew a stronger person would face his stare but she was afraid of breaking down in front of him and the last thing, she wanted to do was breakdown. A breakdown meant being emotional, being emotional meant you spilled your secrets and all those things and the last thing she wanted was to be emotional.

The smiling faces of her classmates taunted her of her failures, reminded her that no matter how good you were in taijutsu or in theory work, it was the ninjutsu portion of the exam that would actually set you apart from the others. Naru tightened her grip on the swing at this thought before gazing at each one of her classmates that passed. Her throat constricted as she listened to the praises the kids got from their parents.

These exams were unfair and cruel. Why should they judge a person by their clones, huh? Why not by the other parts of the exam? What was the point of learning taijutsu or even the theory work if the clones were just going to determine their future? She couldn't understand why those examiners always picked that stupid technique. When would they actually use it, huh? Any scenario she had, told her that enemies would pick up on the deceit.

"Hey that kid…" a woman whispered, glancing at her with endless hatred that just made Naru want to go back to her apartment and curl into a small bad, screaming about the crap that she had to go through.

"Yeah, that's 'the kid' and she's the only one who failed," her friend whispered, curling her lips in disgust. Naru strengthened her grip on the swing and gave a smile at the two women. Showing her sadness would give them more ammo to use against her, something she didn't want to happen. She didn't want to walk through the streets, seeing those self-satisfied smirks of the villagers.

"Well that's a good thing."

"She shouldn't become a shinobi."

Naru gazed out at the smiling faces of the students when they said this, biting her lips to stop the incoming tears that threatened to come out of her eyes. What right did these people had to say this? Those women didn't even know her yet they based their decision on that stupid exam. They should see their own children's behavior before making that judgment, especially if they had daughters. She had worked so goddamn hard to pass while their daughters who barely did any work in their lives, passed.

If anyone didn't deserve to pass, it was those people who didn't work a day in their lives. What did they know of suffering, huh? What did they know about surviving? Those kids had a golden spoon in their mouth since the moment they were born. If anything, they were the ones who didn't deserve to become shinobis.

The harsh words of those women and the gleaming headbands of her classmate just made her want to throw something at them. Made her want to yell at them that they didn't deserve it. This wasn't something she wanted to do. If she was going to avoid it then she need to stop looking at them. Naru nodded her head and was about to leave when she felt a presence behind her. Turning her head around, Naru noticed that it was Mizuki standing behind her. "Naru, why don't you come with me for a bit?"

She knew something was up but she didn't say anything, instead she nodded her head and went with him. Curiosity had always been her weakness and this was no different.

It was already dark when Naru weaved her way through the Hokage tower. Rumors say that the Hokage tower was the best-guarded place, a testimony that Naru knew was true from the amount of times she had tried to do something to the tower. However after number of attempts, she learnt the safe way into the tower but it wasn't easy. If that was the case then the Hokage would be dead by now but she did know how to undo a seal or at least fool a seal.

Naru grabbed hold of the Hokage office's window and jumped through the gap, landing clumsily on the floor, releasing the jutsu of the guard that she had transformed into. She could do the henge perfectly and could sneak into a well-guarded place yet Iruka wouldn't pass her because of a jutsu. How stupid was that? How many people could claim that they could do this? Not many that was for sure.

She grimaced. She was even starting to sound bitter even in her own mind.

A side door appeared and the Third Hokage appeared.

"What do you think you're doing at my office at this hour, Naru?"

Naru laughed. "Funny story…"

Naru crossed her legs as she sat down in the grass near the shack that Mizuki had told her to wait. She clutched the scroll as she read the jutsu, drawing circles in the grass as she did so. The first jutsu she read and practiced had been the one jutsu that she hated. The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Surprisingly, she had been able to get the hang of it rather quickly and produce a lot of clones, compared to the bunshin no jutsu.

The blonde blinked her eyes when Iruka appeared, looking quite pissed and unhappy to see her. Well it seemed her plan was all for nothing. She tilted her head, glancing around the woods if she could make out Mizuki but saw it was only Iruka. She cursed under her breath. The plan was going to get ruined.

"It seemed you found me," Naru said, rubbing the back of her head. "I've only learned one jutsu."

Iruka frowned at her response and gazed at the bruises on her hands and faces. "You look all worn down, what are you doing here?"

"Never mind that, I'm going to try an amazing jutsu!" Naru smiled brightly at Iruka. "If I can do it, can you please let me graduate?"

Iruka looked wide-eyed at her request before staring numbly at her and then to scroll, looking quite amazed that she had been practicing the whole time. She groaned, feeling the bruises of her back and arms. Practicing that jutsu really had done a number on her.

"Naru, who told you that," Iruka demanded.

"Mizuki-sensei of course, he told me about the scroll and the place too! He told me if I showed you this skill then I'll graduate!"

That was when Mizuki decided to show up. Naru saw him in time but it was Iruka who noticed him first but only when the kunai flew out of the tree. The blonde ducked. Iruka didn't seem to realize that his student had good reflexes and tried to shield her. Naru's eyes widened when she saw that her sensei had been hit but relaxed when she saw that it was his flex vest that took most of the damage.

"Iruka-sensei!" She really didn't want anything bad to happen to her sensei.

Mizuki jumped out of the tree. "Give me the scroll, Naru!"

"Mizuki-sensei?" Naru tilted her head. "What's going on, here?"

"Naru! Whatever happens, don't give him the scroll!" Iruka yelled as he took out the kunai from his vest. "That's a dangerous scroll that has forbidden ninjutsu written in it! Mizuki used you to get his hands on it!"

"Naru, there's no point of you having it," Mizuki smiled darkly, "I'll tell you the truth."

Naru stared at Mizuki with confusion. "What do ya mean the truth?"

Iruka's eyes widened and his face was turning pale as a ghost. The blonde frowned, rubbing her head before looking at Mizuki who had a self-satisfied smirk on his face. What the hell was going on? She thought that things would be simpler then this but everything was going out of order. The only thing that was supposed to be out of order was her! Not this!

"Don't Mizuki!" Iruka yelled, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Twelve years ago, the Kyuubi attacked this village and you and every other kid in this village was told that the Fourth Hokage had killed it but that's wrong."

"It isn't true?" Naru frowned.

"Since that day, a rule was created for this village."

"What rule?"

"This rule wasn't meant to be told to you," Mizuki said, smiling.

"Not to me? What the hell is this rule?"

She found herself shaking when she heard Mizuki's dark laughter and frozen in the spot when his eyes gave her look that told her that this was a horrible rule, a rule that would changed her entire life. "The rule is that nobody is allowed to talk about the fact that you're the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

"Right and I'm the fairy godmother! I'm not the fucking Kyuubi!"

"What?" Iruka and Mizuki hadn't been expecting this comment. They gazed at the blond-haired girl, who had an ugly scowl on her face as she stared at the man in questioned. Her eyes held fury that would make any sane man cower, which was Mizuki did. He cowered in fear as the blonde stalked towards him.

Naru clenched her hands into a fist. "I kinda picked on that a while ago. When a person gets lonely, they start to read and they start to question things. The Kyuubi is a demon, how the fuck was a mortal going to kill one, huh? It sounds badass and all but also sounds like a load of bull. So I read on the ways of defeating a demon…one of them was jinchuuriki."

Iruka looked at her in shock and she shrugged her shoulder. "I read their accounts and everything, the way they're treated is the way I'm being treated so that was my first hint. People calling me secretly the fox brat yeah, another clue but the final nail to the coffin was my birthday. I was born on the same day that stupid fox attacked."

She would have said more if it weren't for the fact that the Anbu appeared, restraining a shocked Mizuki. Naru scowled at the two Anbu, who shot her what appeared to be an apologetic look before taking the man away. She smiled happily, waving her hand as the man was staring at her shock. She glanced at Iruka and shrugged her shoulder.

"Oh yeah, I should show you the technique!" Naru said, snapping the man out of his thoughts.

Iruka stared at her in confusion but his confusion was soon evaporated when Naru produced a Kage Bunshin that looked exactly like her. He glanced at the clone and then to her before looking at her clone again. He shook his head, looking as if he had given up on figuring out what was happening. She didn't blame him. It had been a really tiring day for him…and for her.

"You can do the Kage Bunshin."

"Yup," Naru confirmed.

"Good job, Naru," said one of the Anbu, holding out his hand for her to give him the scroll. She eyed him wearily before reluctantly giving him the scroll. "Now let's return that scroll to the Hokage."

"Do we have to?"

"Naru!"

"Oh all right!"

"So let me see if I got this right, Naru," Iruka said, taking a sip of his ramen. "Mizuki told you that if you want to graduate then you have to take the scroll but you never believed him because he never seemed like a nice guy to you," she nodded her head, grinning. "So you sneaked into the Hokage tower as a guard to tell the Hokage about this," she again nodded. "He then allowed you to set up a trap and allowed you to learn one jutsu from the scroll."

"Sounds unbelievable, right?"

"You then waited for Mizuki on the spot he told you to wait, and studied the scroll as you did so," she tilted her head and nodded before slurping on her ramen. "You mastered the jutsu in a couple of hours and waited for Mizuki to come." She nodded her head. "That's where I came in. Also, the Hokage promised to make you a genin if you made sure that nothing went wrong. Did I miss anything?'

"Yeah, how the Hokage agreed with me about the stupidity of the exam!"

"I don't make the rules, Naru! Still good job!" Iruka complimented.

"And that's why I say that the exams are stupid!"

"You'll never change."

"You bet your ass, I won't change."

A/N: Please tell me what you think