Hey guys sorry for the long wait on the update school and work took pretty much all of my time this past semester. Hopefully I can update a few more times before I go back for my spring term so I apologize again for the delay. I do not own Naruto or any characters in the story unless I decide to create an OC. Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoy the chapter
It was an early in the morning as Naruto and Tenten walked together towards the academy for the first time. They had agreed the night before to meet up at their old training field for a quick morning workout before setting out for the academy. The two walked in relative silence as they were both slightly nervous as they had never really interacted with anyone else besides each other in their own age group. As they approached the academy Naruto turned towards Tenten and saw the nervous expression on her face.
"It's going to be okay Ten-chan, we are a team so I always have your back!" Naruto exclaimed smiling at his closest friend.
Naruto Had elected to dress slightly more like his dad now with the long sleeve shirt and ninja pants both of which were black rather than his father's blue. The shirt had an orange Uzumaki swirl on the shoulder and the pants sported a single orange pin stripe down each side. His hair had now grown long enough that it framed his face much like his fathers did.
"Thanks Naru-kun, I'm just a little nervous and you're right we are a team so I'll always have your back too!" She said smiling electing to lean on Naruto slightly as they walked.
Tenten was now sporting a black sleeveless shirt with deep blue pants. The shirt had some blue designs on it as well as the blue trim while the pants had the black pin stripe down each side with some black trim. Her hair was in her usual buns as she continued to lean on Naruto as the made there way towards the academy.
"Good morning!" A tall man with a small scar on his face said to the pair causing them both to jump slightly "I'm Iruka Umino, I'll be your teach for your time here."
"Good morning sensei! I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto said with a smile.
"Good morning sensei. My name is Tenten." Tenten slightly nervous.
"Nice to meet both of you! Go ahead to the room to the left and you will be instructed on you placement." Iruka said pointing the two inside.
The two went inside and sat in a rather large auditorium type class room and took their seats towards the front of the room. It was still rather early so not many people were there. After a few minutes a pink haired girl approached the two and sat next to Tenten.
"Hi I'm Sakura Haruno! Nice to meet you!" Sakura said extending her hand towards Tenten.
"Hi, I'm Tenten." Tenten said taking the girls hand, "and this is Naruto!"
"Nice to meet you Sakura!" Naruto said happily.
"Wait aren't you the son of the Hokage!?" Sakura asked shocked.
"Yep!" Naruto said with a big grin.
"Hey Naruto I wanted to ask you why is it that you aren't a Namikaze? Isn't that your dad's clan?" Tenten mentally face-palming for never noticing this before.
"Mom passed away just after I was born and he wanted to do something to remember her by as she was the last of her clan." Naruto responded.
"So how do you two think you will do on the placement test?" Sakura asked.
"Pretty well me and Ten-chan are awesome ya know!" Naruto exclaimed earning a slight blush from Tenten.
"I've never really did any real training besides just what I read in books. My parents aren't ninja so I never really had the ability to train." Sakura said slightly abashed.
"I'm sure you'll do fine! Me and Ten-chan can help of course latter!" Naruto said happily.
"That would be awesome but are you sure that's okay?" Sakura asked.
"Yes, me and Naruto have been training together for a few years now and I'm sure it would be great if a few more people came to our training sessions!" Tenten said a little more excitedly.
As the trio were talking a few more people had come into the room. They observed the new comers and Sakura immediately perked up when she caught a glimpse of a particularly moody looking raven haired boy.
"Oh, He looks like a hottie!" Sakura exclaimed looked at the new addition to the room.
"Really? He looks more like a whiny kid to me." Tenten said matter-o-factly.
"You might be right Tenten but that is that Uchiha kid if I'm not mistaken, "Sauske I think his name is."
"Well I guess that explains the look on his face." Tenten said turning back to the other two.
Naruto was looking at Sauske with an intrigued expression. His dad had told him about the massacre of the Uchiha clan and how the younger brother of the perpetrator, Itachi, was Sauske. Naruto was curious what kind of ninja Sauske was going to be with the fact that his brother was such a prodigy but his mussing was cut short by Iruka entering the room.
"Good morning everyone! I am Iruka Umino and I will be you examiner and your instructor for you time here at the academy. Now in a moment I will pass out your written exams to gauge your understanding of the ninja arts. Once you have all finished with the exam we will then go outside to test you taijutsu and your shurikenjutsu. Once that is finished those who score well enough will then be tested on their jutsu knowledge and any other skills they may have learned before attending the academy." Iruka finished and looked at the kids to make sure every seemed to understand the process. After he felt like every seemed to be prepared he began handing out the test.
About an hour later the last test was picked up from a spiky haired boy in a mesh shirt who had fallen asleep around twenty minutes in and Iruka signaled for everyone to follow him outside. Iruka had all the students lined up against the academy wall as he called them one by one to spar him quickly to get a gauge on their taijutsu levels. Sakura was one of the first to go up and though she managed to hold her own slightly she did not do extremely well against the older chunin.
"That was horrible!" Sakura exclaimed now standing next to Tenten and Naruto.
"Don't beat yourself up over it! He has much more experience and you also had not real training up till this point so it's to be expected. As long as you work at it you will get better!" Tenten said patting the pinkette on the back
After her a shy looking girl with pupil-less was named Hinata was called up and she did slightly better than Sakura but she was too nervous to really try against Iruka. The sleepy spiky haired boy whose name was Shikamaru elected to not even try stating that he "was shit a taijutsu". After about 30 minutes Iruka had gone through most of the group.
"Uchiha Sauske!" Iruka stated prompting Sauske to move forward and take his stance.
The fight lasted for about two minutes as Sauske managed to hold his ground against the chunin in what looked like a draw causing many of the girls in the group to swoon over him.
"Oh wow he's really good! Fighting a chunin on even footing!" Sakura exclaimed.
"Iruka-Sensei is holding back on us." Naruto stated pointedly.
"Well obviously a chunin isn't going to go all out against a bunch of academy students Naruto." Tenten said calmly.
"Tenten!" Iruka stated prompting Tenten to step up and take her stance.
The spar lasted all of thirty seconds as before anyone but Naruto could really tell what was going on Iruka was face first in the ground with Tenten on his back with a wild grin on her face.
"You know sensei if you hold back too much you may end up getting roughed up a bit!" Tenten said smiling.
"Well done but I can't expect most academy students to move like that." Iruka said calmly as Tenten returned to her spot next to Naruto sharing a high five with him.
"Nice Ten-chan! I hope he doesn't hold back on me as much as he did with you. I would like a little challenge!" Naruto said happily.
"Yes he seems to be trying to fight on a mid gennin level in order to gauge our strength, which is smart given if he fought at his actual level he may very well injure quite a few people here." Tenten said thinking on her spar.
"Uzumaki Naruto!" Irkua stated as Naruto took his spot.
It took Naruto about 10 seconds to get behind Iruka and have him in a much similar situation that Tenten had him in.
"Impressive Naruto! We have quite a bit of talent this year I must say." Iruka said more to himself than Naruto.
Naruto gave a salute to Iruka while sporting his big fox grin and returned to his spot next to Tenten. As they began chatting with Sakura about how she could improve on her taijutsu Sauske was staring at the pair of them with rage in his eyes.
"No one is better than an Uchiha." He thought to himself as Iruka lead them towards the targets to test their shurikenjutsu.
Once they reached the targets each of them were told to throw ten shuriken and ten kunai, one at each of the ten targets. Naruto and Tenten both hit 20/20 with Naruto being slightly less accurate than Tenten due to him not being used to regular sized kunai. Sauske now fuming had managed 19/20 and could not understand how these two where so much better than him. Sakura managed a respectable 17/20 and tied with Hinata whilst Shikamaru hit 18/20 making them the top five.
"He missed those last two on purpose." Naruto stated as he watched Shikamaru walk back towards the line.
"Why would he do that?" Tenten asked looking at the boy curiously.
"Avoid too much attention I guess." Naruto responded as it was his best guess.
After everyone had finished this part of the exam everyone went back into the classroom and saw the results of the written exam on the board as Iruka began to write the scores from the other two exams next to their test scores.
Name Written score(x/100) Taijutsu (x/10) Shurikenjutsu(x/20)
1. Uzumaki Naruto 100/100 10/10 10/10
2. Tenten 100/100 10/10 10/10
3. Uchiha Sauske 87/100 9/10 9/10
4. Haruno Sakura 100/100 5/10 6/10
5. Nara Shikamaru 100/100 0/10 8/10
6. Hyuga Hinata 95/100 8/10 8/10
7. Yamanka Ino 94/100 7/10 7/10
8. Aburame Shino 93/100 7/10 7/10
9. Akimichi Choji 72/100 7/10 5/10
10. Inuzuka Kiba 62/100 8/10 6/10
"The students whose names are written on the board please stay here the rest of you may go for the day." Iruka said as most of the room emptied, "Well congratulations you all will now be tested on you further skills in order to place you into the academy. We will be doing this individually in the next room so as to avoid people not showing what they can do in order to avoid attention." Iruka finished looking at Shikamaru.
Iruka had them all line up in the order of their ranking and began calling them in the room one at a time. First up was Naruto who walked in and Iruka asked him to sit at the desk. He sat down at a desk across from a long table with a few people sitting at it. The first person was Iruka sitting at the left end of the table, next to him was a white haired man named Mizuki, Next to him sat his father, surprising Naruto greatly, and lastly next to his father was the Sandaime Hokage.
"Naruto, do you know any jutsu?" Iruka asked.
"Yes, I am also proficient in kenjutsu and chakra control." Naruto stated.
"Would you mine demonstrating one of your jutsu for us?" Iruka asked
Naruto thought for a moment and then decided to ask.
"Is there a particular jutsu that you would like to see or will any do?" Naruto asked.
"How does the clone jutsu sound?" Iruka asked receiving a grimace from Naruto.
"If I may interject, Naruto is unable to perform a simple clone jutsu, however some time ago I did teach him a replacement. Naruto I know I told you not to use that jutsu until you entered the academy well now would be the time." Minato said with a smile.
"Hai!" Naruto responded forming his hands into the cross seal, "Kage bunshin no jutsu!"
Five solid Naruto appeared in the room as the other men in the roomed looked rather impressed. Naruto dismissed the clones and returned to his seat.
"Alright Naruto I do think we have seen enough, Now you have the choice of advancing directly to a gennin team or going through one term of the academy before being placed the choice is yours." Iruka said plainly.
"I will stay for a term." Naruto respond in a similar tone.
"Very well, you have done amazing on this exam I can't wait to see what you do, I will see you tomorrow Naruto." Iruka said signaling him out of another door that led to the outside of the academy where he sat and waited for Tenten to finish.
Once Tenten finished they began to banter as they waited for the rest of the class to finish up. Sakura had to stay a year in order to strengthen her physical abilities and chakra, Shikamaru would be graduating with Tenten and Naruto, Hintata would be staying for a year, Sauske would be staying for a year along with the rest of those who were in the top ten. Though when they asked Sauske he seemed to think he would be getting out sooner than the rest of them for whatever reason so they elected not to mention they would be getting out sooner than him. The two of them decided to spend the rest of the day training and began to walk away when they heard Sakura's voice behind them.
"Are you guys going train?" She asked timidly.
"Yes we are actually would you like to join us?" Tenten responded with a smile.
"Yes please I feel like I'm so behind on the practical stuff I was really hoping you guys could help." She stated running up to walk with them.
The trio spent the remainder of the day going through basic taijutsu stances and techniques with Sakura as they also simply got more acquainted with each other and the three became rather fast friends.
"You really shouldn't waste too much time on that Sauske fellow, He seems to be the type who thinks he's better than everyone simply because he is in a clan." Naruto sated as he was sparing with Sakura again in order to show her some of here errors.
"I suppose you're right but I think we should at least get to know him. He is going to be our fellow leaf ninja after all." Sakura stated as the other two simply shrugged unable to really argue that point.
"So I see our little protégé has a little harem going on dose he!? He makes me so proud Minato!" A rather boisterous voice came from nowhere that scared Sakura while Tenten and Naruto turned red though Tenten was more angry than embarrassed.
"Shut UP Jiraiya-Sensei!" The pair shouted in unison at the older man approaching the trio.
"Why always so hostile you to I'm only joking!" Jiraiya said putting his hands up in defense, "Congratulations of the Exam by the way!"
"Thanks Sensei!" Naruto and Tenten said in unison again which was starting to freak Sakura out a bit.
"Yes you two really showed how far you have come though I can sense the both of you were holding back, why?" Minato asked as he walked up next to Jiraiya.
"Well we wanted to make sure they would let us stay so we tried not to show too much so we wouldn't get forced into a team straight away!" Naruto said as Tenten nodded in agreement.
Sakura was stunned. Not only had these two blown the test out the water like it was nothing, they were still holding back?
"Just how strong are you two?!" Sakura burst out covering her mouth quickly as she began to redden.
"I would put them around low chunin level if you gauged them as a team, individually though they are both around high gennin." Minato responded calmly
"How are they so strong before they even step foot in the academy?" Sakura asked still a little embarrassed.
"They trained, hard and long for two years. They didn't get their by chance they worked at it and that worked has paid off and as long as they don't slack off I can see them climbing to the top very quickly." Minato responded.
"So dad, Can you teach me Hirashin now that I'm in the academy!?" Naruto asked excitedly.
"Not yet Naruto be patient, I'll make a deal work hard and improve your control learn a few more jutsu and when you become a chunin I will teach it to you." Minato said ruffing his sons hair.
"Alright fine! Jiraiya-sensei, Can you give me and Tenten a few more new Jutsu to learn?" Naruto asked.
"Sure thing kid!" Jiraiya responded happily.
And there you have it! Sorry for the long wait guys I've been swamped here lately and I'm finally getting time to sit a write without having to worry about school (at least for a little while.) I hope you all enjoyed this Chapter please let me know what you think and also who yall think I should put as Naruto and Tenten's Team mate. I know it looks like it leading towards Sakura but I'm not sure if she would fit with their mechanics. Let me know down below until next time!