"FAIL!"

Naruto scowled in response to those wretched words, releasing his jutsu. "Come on, Iruka-sensei," the boy whined, "It was close enough!"

But really, it wasn't. Naruto's henge-d form of Iruka was sorely grotesque. Iruka still shuddered remembering the imitation's drooped face. It was pale, sickly lumpy, and frankly on the verge of melting. The henge-d man didn't even look human anymore.

"Sorry," Iruka replied to the boy, and he honestly was sorry. Today was the Academy student's practical exam on their henge-no-jutsu. Just the other day they had their exam for the bushin-no-jutsu - both of which Naruto could not perform. The poor kid was failing his course with the probability of repeating the Academy program for yet another year. Iruka wished he could do more to help, but no amount of tutoring seemed to work for Naruto. With a shake of his head, Iruka shooed the boy back up to his desk, and turned back to the rest of the class to move on. "Yamanaka Ino, your turn."

...

As Iruka dismissed the children for the day, Naruto lingered behind in the classroom, shoulders hunched and head down. His sullen form tugged at Iruka's heart-strings.

"What's wrong, Naruto?" the chunin asked softly.

Naruto's head snapped up, eyes wide and pleading. "Gimme another chance!" Naruto wailed, "I have to be a ninja!"

Iruka only shook his head. "I'm sorry, Naruto, but an exam is an exam. You'll just have to work harder from now on."

"Sensei!" Naruto whined, dashing out directly in front of the brunet, hands held in a seal. "Look! Look at my henge!" In a poof of smoke, the sickly figure appeared once again. "He looks like you! Come on, tell me he looks like you. You can't fail me!"

The teacher amused the kid by giving courtesy look at the illusion once more. But still, no matter how hard he studied the henge for any sign of similarity, well ... there were none. It looked like him? Really, Naruto?

Honestly, Iruka was pretty sure his nose wasn't on his left cheek. He would've definitely noticed it if his eyes were on the verge of falling off. Not to mention those caterpillar think eyebrows. He was certain he wasn't that short either, and he had brown hair, not yellow.

Iruka patted the boy on his head consolingly. "Sorry Naruto, you fail. Better luck next time," he offered.

"PU-leeeesssssu, sensei!" Naruto begged, stretching out the word of all it was worth, "Give me another chance!"

Iruka was not impressed. "No."

"I'll prank you if you don't!"

A threat, was it? Iruka gave him his best I'm-a-teacher-and-I-threaten-you-not-the-other-way-around stare, but the boy wouldn't budge. He settled on another verbal "No."

"I won't prank you if you do!" Naruto tried once more.

Honestly, Naruto shouldn't even be pranking him in the first place. "No."

"If I fail it again this time, I promise I'll never, ever disobey in you class ever again," Naruto bargained.

"N-" well, that had it's merits…

"And I'll stop skipping your class?" Iruka's face looked thoughtful, and Naruto cheered internally. Just a little bit more! "And I'll stop sleeping in your class, or talk back to you!" Naruto finished off with wide puppy-dog eyes and an angelic smile.

Iruka was certain that look could be weaponized and used to stop war."Oh, alright," the chunin finally conceded. "But just this once, okay?"

Naruto nodded feverishly. "Yes, yes, bye sensei!" he cried, running of with his arms waving jubilantly at him.

"You better be able to perform it tomorrow!" Iruka called after him. The brunet shook his head at the retreating figure. As if Naruto could possibly learn henge in one day - he would've perfected it years ago instead of failing his courses every Academy term. But hey, in the end it was his win, so why argue with the kid? Besides, maybe that would teach Naruto to stop making impossible promises.

...

Naruto cursed himself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did he promise his sensei that? There was no way he could perfect the henge in one day! His henge skills were on par with his bushin skills - in other words, non-existent.

With an agonising cry, Naruto grabbed his head and ran off to the sunset in hopes of casting away his fret.

"Ow."

Naruto looked down, startled at the sudden voice. He wiggled the digits of his foot experimentally, feeling pain from having kicked something hard. "Sorry, toe."

"That was me, you dufus."

The blonde looked past his toe. "Oh, sorry Shikamaru."

The boy rolled his eyes and closed them again, "So troublesome."

Naruto glowered at the Nara. "And you're so lazy!" he shot back. Although... Shikamaru did pass his test, didn't he? Naruto grinned suddenly, hit with an idea. "Help me with my henge, Shikamaru!" Naruto demanded, grabbing the other boy's arm.

Shikamaru wigged it slightly, trying to get loose, before giving up entirely when it wouldn't bulge. "No."

"Aren't you my friend?"

"You're too troublesome to be my friend," was the only possible reply.

"Please?"

"Go away."

"Pleeeeeease."

"I'm trying to sleep."

"PULeeasee. Please, please, please, PULEEASE!" Naruto chanted loudly into the Nara's ear. When there was still no response, Naruot resorted to chanting along with the additional annoyance of shaking Shikamaru with every word.

"Fine!" Shikamaru finally relented, a steely glare on his face. He sighed a second later, already regretting the decision. He pushed off the annoying boy, "but only if you promise never to talk to me again after this."

Naruto cheered, "Alright! Believe it!"

"…somehow I don't believe you."

...

Hours later, Shikamaru faced palmed at yet another failed attempt at the henge-no-jutsu. "Tell me again why I'm teaching you?" he groaned into his hands

The inhuman form wobbled towards the boy. "Hey, it's only my thirtieth try! I'll get it right," the Naruto-thing scratched his head, "...eventually."

Shikamaru threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. "Are you even trying?"

"Yes!"

The lazy boy rubbed his face with his palms. "Do you know what you're doing wrong?"

"If I knew, I would've fixed it a long time ago!" Naruto whined. "My life's at sake here!" he stressed loudly

Shikamaru couldn't care less about that. Shikamaru ignored Naruto's words in favour of his own thoughts. "Alright then," the boy finally said, minutes later, "Do your sexy-no-jutsu."

"My- what? Why?"

Shikamaru sighed, "In case you haven't noticed, your famed sexy-no-jutsu is a form of henge. Clearly you're doing something right there."

"Huh." Naruto nodded, changing up his handseals. "Sexy-no-jutsu!" There was an explosion of smoke, and then a busty, sultry blonde appeared, winking and twirling her hair at the lounging boy in front of her. "Okay, done~" she crooned sweetly in her naked-glory.

Shikamaru merely closed his eyes. "Oh god," he groaned to himself, before hastily moving on. "Now do it again but focus on your hair especially. Change it brown."

"Okay!" Naruto formed the seals, "Sexy-no-jutsu!" In another poof, Naruko became a brunet. She squealed in delight, "Oh my god, look, look, Shikamaru, my hair's brown!" She lunged at the boy, boobs squashed against Shikamaru's face as she hugged him in thanks. "It's brown!"

"Okay," Shikamaru pushed the chesty Naruto away, glad no one walked by at that moment. It would've been too troublesome … well, more awkward than anything, to explain to his parents if they ever heard about it. He waves his hand to catch Naruto's attention, refusing to come into contact with her … with her chests again. "Now focus on your hair and eye colour at the same time, and do it again."

Naruto scrunched up his face in concentration. Hair, eyes… "Sexy-no-jutsu!" Immediately, Naruto could tell he was a brunette again. But as for his eyes... Naruto looked over at Shikamaru in anticipation. "Did it work, did it work?" he asked pointing at his eyes.

Shikamaru cracked an eye open from where he was half-asleep on the grass, focusing on where Naruto was pointing. "Yes, it's brown; good job." Naruto cheered, and Shikamaru had to hold up his foot to restrain Naruto from pouncing on him once more. "Now work on your gender," he closed his eyes; he did not want to see this, "then height, getting rid of your whisker marks, adding that scar over his nose, and whatever." Shikamaru nodded to himself. That should covered everything.

With that, Shikamaru closed his eyes and fell back asleep. Dealing with Naruto was a tiring thing.

Naruto, concentrating on his Iruka-henge, let the boy sleep. His henge was perfect! He had the hair down pat, as well as the eyes. If he continued on like this, he would perfect the henge-no-jutsu by tomorrow, no doubt about it!

Naruto rushed back to his apartment to practice some more. He sat on the toilet seat, lid down, staring closely at his own face. He face was practically pressed against the mirror to make sure the details of Iruka's face were perfect.

Henge-no-jutsu!

The half-Iruka face appeared! Yes!

As the sun slowly sank down the behind the row of past Hokages, Naruto, never moving from his spot, practiced all day long. His last sight as he slowly drifted off to slumber was the face of a flawless imitation of Iruka-sensei grinning toothily back at him.

...

The next day, Naruto practically skipped the whole way from his apartment building to his the Academy building. As usual, he was the last one to enter, but for once, he wasn't dreading what Iruka-sensei would do to him. For once, he would impress the teacher so much that Iruka would have to bow down before him, claiming Naruto truly was the best ninja in the world.

Naruto grinned cheekily to himself. And then everyone would love him - especially Sakura-chan - and Sasuke-teme would beg for his forgiveness for ever calling him a dobe.

Naruto grinned to himself as he flung the door to his classroom open.

"You're late!"

Naruto ignored his sensei's accusation. "You shouldn't worry about that, sensei!" he yelled back, "Because I just spent the whole night perfecting the henge-no-jutsu!"

"Ah?"

The blond pointed at Iruka, "If I can perform a perfect henge right here and now, you promise me you'll never call me late ever again, and bow down to me whenever I walk by?"

Iruka chuckled at the boy's antics. "How about I pass you on your practical?" he offered instead.

Naruto thought hard on the offer "Alright, I accept!" He dashed to the front of the class pointing at everyone watching, "You're all my witnesses!"

They, of course, ignored him.

"Are you ready, Naruto?" Iruka asked.

The boy nodded, "Get ready to witness the greatest ninja ever!" He closed his eyes. Naruto focused on the points his lazy friend went over with him.

Hair colour, check.

Eyes, check.

Gender, check.

Facial disfiguration, check.

Height, check.

Proportioned body, check.

Naruto opened his eyes full determination. "Henge!" Naruto yelled. Despite themselves, the class leaned in to see how much Naruto had actually improved. Iruka found himself doing the same.

In a puff of smoke, a second Iruka appeared. His face was perfect, his height was perfect, his hair was perfect! He even got the length of the scar correct! For once, it even looked healthy! He –

There was a shrill scream from the girls.

"NARUTO!" Iruka yelled.

Shikamaru closed his eyes. "Oops," he thought, feigning sleep, "I knew I forgot to tell him something."

It wasn't really his fault, you know. All Shikamaru wanted to do was finish teaching Naruto as quickly as possible. Besides, you'd think Naruto would've realized himself. After all, how hard was it to notice he wasn't wearing any clothes?