Naruto arrived at the Academy with ten minutes until eight, and quickly made his way to his old classroom to learn about his new team assignment and jounin sensei, and he could barely wait to get started. Arriving at the classroom before Iruka-sensei, Naruto simply walked in and headed to one of the back rows to just sit down and wait. He recognized most of the students already in the room as his fellow classmates, and there were growing mumbles from them all as he found and took his seat until someone had to say something.
"What are you doing here, Naruto ...this is only for those who passed," scolded Kiba as he stood from his seat and turned to glare at the shorter blond, while a few others grumbled in agreement and even Shikamaru lifted his head off his desk for a moment to look at Naruto and then listen to his answer.
"Those ninja observation skills are top notch Kiba," responded Naruto with a slight glare to the feral bully who often tried to ridicule or pick on Naruto, while patronizingly tapping his hitai-ate and otherwise ignoring the fanged boy with his canine companion on his head.
"How'd you get one of those ...they are only for those who passed the exam ...we all saw you fail ...who'd you steal it from?" argued back Kiba aggressively after several snickers were heard after Naruto's last comment, not liking to be shown up especially by the class dobe as he started walking towards Naruto threateningly.
"Iruka-sensei gave it to me after I passed," responded Naruto with a flat emotionless voice, which should have tipped everyone off that something was very different with the blond, and to stop antagonizing him, but Kiba was never known for his restraint or common sense.
"Bullshit," yelled Kiba as he finally reached Naruto's spot and made to reach for the hitai-ate on the blond's head, without paying any attention to the blond himself.
What happened next had every witness in the classroom stop immediately what they were doing and watch wide eyed as Naruto moved without warning or seemingly even seeing the movement. He easily avoided the outreached arm of Kiba by sliding underneath it and coming up behind the feral Inuzuka, grabbing his outreached arm at the wrist and quickly twisting it behind his back and forcing the older boy to bend over the desk he just vacated or risk having said arm snapped by the smaller blond. Naruto simply held the arm in that precarious position that any more movement would surely see it shatter before practically growling to the usually arrogant young Inuzuka.
"This is the only warning you will get Kiba ...leave me alone, I am done taking yours or anyone else's crap," replied Naruto in a flat voice that still carried with it a great deal of barely controlled anger.
It was of course to this scene that the final two members of the class showed up with their former teacher and sensei right behind them and causing the two immature girls to stop their ridiculous fight over sitting near Sasuke to stare at the strange scene. Naruto, saw the new arrivals and simply decided to cut his losses and released Kiba's arm right after giving it a small twinge so the boy knew how close he came to breaking it. The added shove of the feral boy back towards his own seat, and Naruto sitting back down without a word had most of the class staring with open mouthed shock at the blond, who they were just now realizing wasn't wearing his usual bright "kill me" orange jumpsuit or screaming at the top of his lungs about becoming Hokage.
"Stop trying to be cool like Sasuke, Naruto-baka!" yelled Sakura Haruno after she regained her equilibrium from the unusual scene, and glared at said blond before turning to the object of her affection and seemingly swooning before parking herself at the desk right next to the last Uchiha.
The other girl however, a fellow blond named Ino Yamanaka just continued to stare at Naruto as though she was seeing him for the first time, and something about him triggered a memory that she tried to hold onto but couldn't. Ignoring it as unimportant for now, she instead found a seat on Sasuke's other side and proceeded to stare lovingly at the emo avenger and forgetting all about her fellow blond classmate. The final arrival was also watching the scenes with Naruto very carefully, as he couldn't remember a time that his hyperactive knucklehead student had ever shown such skill or composure around others and hoped it was a permanent change.
"Settle down everyone," started Iruka as he stood at the front of the class with the team assignments written on a piece of paper in front of him, "I am going to read out the team assignments in one second, and afterwards you are going to be able to join your new teammates and wait to get picked up by your new jounin sensei."
"Iruka-sensei ...why is Naruto here ...he can't even make clones ...didn't he fail the exam?" came the question from a sneering Kiba, as he glared at Naruto, probably in retaliation for showing him up earlier.
"He did more than simply pass the exam, ...he protected the village ...captured a traitor ...and saved my life," continued a proud Iruka to a now speechless class, giving a small bow to a stunned Naruto before pulling out his list and reading out the names. "Team 1 is …"
Naruto only somewhat paid attention to all the team assignments, as he was shocked by Iruka's honest and blunt admission and bow of thanks. He was then just listening for his own name to be called, and still somewhat embarrassed by the looks others were now occasionally sending him. Glancing around the room, he was reminded of some of his reading on the history and Clans of Konoha and how unusual it was that his Academy graduating class had so many heirs to those Clans and wondered if it would be important in the future.
"Team 7 is ...Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Naruto Uzumaki ...your jounin sensei is Kakashi Hatake," continued Iruka without pausing, despite the high pitched squeal of Sakura when she realized she was on her "true love's" team. Her scream drowned out the many groans from the other fangirls who now missed out on being with the last Uchiha, and Naruto slamming his head down into his desk knowing this team would be really difficult with the anti-social and arrogant Sasuke, and the useless fangirl Sakura whose only thing they had in common was their mutual dislike of their final teammate.
Iruka continued on with Team 8 that had Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame & Hinata Hyuga, under jounin Kurenai Yuhi, and Team 10 with Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, & Ino Yamanaka under the Hokage's son, Asuma Sarutobi. The rest of the teams were filled with generic graduates who at times showed maybe a skill or two in certain areas, but were never going to be great all around ninjas without some serious training and help. It made Naruto wonder if the teams were actually put together with the thought of keeping the stronger teams and Clan children together, or if they were put together for specific purposes like tracking or frontline fighters or some other factors came into play as well.
Naruto decided it probably didn't matter yet, as they were all starting out together at the bottom, it would be up to them to train and get stronger individually and as a team, and become one of those specific types of teams if that was what they were supposed to become. He wondered though, what was the purpose of his team, both he and Sasuke were frontline fighters while Sakura was anything but so maybe she was simply supposed to grow into a supporting long range role of medic nin or genjutsu specialist. Either way, he knew what his job now was ...to constantly work to get better and keep pushing himself until he was recognized as the greatest Hokage in the village's history.
Just because he decided to tone down his expressing of those desires, didn't mean the desire itself had disappeared in any way. Naruto was going to become the Hokage, he was going to prove to everyone that he is the best, he was going to change peoples minds about him, he was going to be a legend, and that started now. He was now a genin, out from under any civilian authority, and free to grow and live his life as he wanted. Ready and able to work hard and train himself into the ground until he earned the respect of his village and the Shinobi Nation.
His inner monologuing however had him miss most of Iruka's pep-talk about becoming ninja of the village, and what to expect and how to represent yourself and your village with pride. Naruto did catch the gist of it all, and was pleased when his teacher again affirmed how proud he was of everyone who made it this far. But then, jounin senseis started arriving and pulling their teams out one after another until only the three students of the new Team Seven remained behind with an exasperated Iruka.
"Well ...I am to report to the Mission Desk at noon, so I can't wait any longer for Kakashi-san to get here," spoke Iruka after waiting over a half an hour after the last team left with still no sign of the tardy sensei. "I'm sorry you three ...Kakashi has a bit of a reputation ...you may want to get comfortable," he finished before waving to the final three waiting students, ignoring the glaring Naruto for his laughter at their expense, "come find me later Naruto ...I think I owe you some dinner at Ichiraku's."
"Dattebayo!" cheered Naruto in excitement, his mind instantly going to dream about his beloved ramen while he happily waved goodbye to Iruka, and settled in to wait.
"Ugh ...is this guy ever going to show?" exploded Naruto fifteen minutes after Iruka left, his patience almost completely out now and just itching to get out there and continue training at least.
"Shut up Naruto-baka!" shouted Sakura in her high pitched wail that physically hurt Naruto's sensitive ears, that still hadn't fully recovered from his experiments with the Enhancement Jutsu and seemed to be getting even more sensitive as time went on.
"Hn," grunted Sasuke, though neither Sakura or Naruto understood what he was grunting at, both thinking that the Uchiha was just agreeing with them.
"Whatever ...I have better things to do than just sit here doing nothing," grumbled Naruto to himself as he got up and threw open the classroom window before going through the already very familiar cross hand seal and spawning 700 clones on the Academy grounds, and one clone sitting in the seat he just vacated.
Jumping out the window moments later to his lone clone in the classroom's shout of "traitor," he quickly led his clones around the building and over to the Academy training ground and obstacle course. He then started his physical exercises as he had his clones run through their own chakra control training in the surrounding trees, tired of waiting around doing nothing while he waited for his new sensei to arrive. He got in a good hour of training before he was alerted to the arrival of his sensei by the classroom clone dispelling, and learning of the five minute window he gave them to meet him on the roof.
Naruto took off like a shot as soon as the memory was processed and using his almost perfected tree climbing technique, ran straight up the outside of the Academy building until he reached the roof seconds before either of his teammates came through the door at the other end of the roof. Seeing the gravity defying silver hair of the man claiming to be his new sensei Kakashi Hatake was impressive, and watching said ninja as he sat on the edge of the roof reading an orange book, Naruto was impressed with the man's physique. He was tall and muscular (though not too bulky), and despite carrying himself as a lazy ass, Naruto could see his single eye not covered by his slanted hitai-ate taking in everything around him.
"So it's true ...that was a shadow clone in the classroom," spoke the tall veteran ninja as he looked at the blond ninja standing in front of him in surprise. He was a lot less orange and loud than he remembered from both personal observation and reading his file and records, and was really starting to look like someone Kakashi loved as a father figure and sensei.
"Um ...yeah," mumbled Naruto somewhat self-consciously, not sure if he was already in trouble with his new sensei for the perceived prank, even if that wasn't his intention, his reputation would demand it. "Sorry ...I just didn't know how long we were going to have to wait."
"So instead of staying with your teammates to meet your new sensei, you would rather train by yourself?" asked the older ninja with a bit of hardening in his lone visible eye, that let Naruto know that his answer here would be very important to his continued relationship with the silver haired jounin.
"Well ...I didn't want to train by myself ...but, I know Sasuke would never lower himself to listen to me or train with me on his own, and Sakura could care less about training all together unless Sasuke was involved ...you weren't there yet, and I was getting antsy and needed to let off some energy before I did something stupid," responded Naruto, slowly at first as he carefully chose his words, but getting quicker as he became more comfortable laying out everything he could think of. "I left a clone that would alert me the moment you arrived, and didn't leave the Academy grounds so I would be close by."
"Hmm, well reasoned," began Kakashi slowly, "but I am not sure how I like my cute little genins not wanting to train together or listen to one another. Doesn't sound like a very good team. In the future you should also ask before assuming that your teammates wouldn't want to train with you."
"Hn," grunted Sasuke, though nobody knew what exactly he was grunting about as the three others on the roof all looked at him waiting for him to elaborate ...they waited a while.
"O-kay," replied Kakashi after a minute of awkward silence, where they waited in vain for the last Uchiha to continue, "... let's try some introductions? You know ...likes, dislikes, dreams, and goals for your ninja career."
"Could you show us how?" asked a timid Sakura, having a hard time trying to understand what was going on, and what their new sensei wanted or was getting at with his questions of Naruto, and the blond's responses were rather cutting for the usually goofy and lovesick Naruto.
"Sure," replied the silver haired jounin with an eye smile that had all three genin looking at him in shock at how he does it. "My name is Kakashi Hatake, I have a lot of likes and dislikes, my dreams are not for your young ears, and my goal is to ...nevermind, not important."
Sakura looked at her sensei in open mouthed shock, they didn't learn a single thing about him other than his name, which they already knew before this. Turning to her two male teammates, she noticed that Naruto had a slight glare directed at their sensei, while Sasuke was so cool and seemingly ignoring everything around him. Sighing in happiness that she was now on his team, and was afforded the opportunity to watch her crush everyday, she couldn't be happier and didn't want anything to ruin this, and that included Naruto-baka.
"Pinky, why don't you go first," returned Kakashi with an eye smile at Sakura's frown and scowl at her nickname.
"Um ...I am Sakura Haruno," she started. "I like ...(the starry eyed stare and drool at the object of her affection left little to the imagination as to who she was referring), and I dislike Ino-pig and Naruto-baka, my dream is to … (again with the drooling stare at the last Uchiha, accompanied by a giggle this time), and my goal is to start a family (another drool filled stare that had Kakashi raising his eyebrows in shock at the overly obsessed fangirl)."
"You next broody," replied Kakashi with a shake of his head to clear it of the insanity that was his only female genin.
"Sasuke Uchiha," grunted out the last Uchiha unpleasantly, probably still suffering from internal convulsions from the fangirling he just witnessed. "I have no likes, and I dislike most things. My dream ...no, my goal is to kill a certain man and restore my Clan, and I won't be held back by others."
Kakashi couldn't believe that these two were the top shinobi and kunoichi in the graduating class, they both suffered serious delusions and they were going to get someone killed one day. An overly obsessed fangirl with no strength or skills or even the desire to train and become a ninja, and a brooding nutcase, who is most likely an undiagnosed psychopath with both an inferiority and superiority complex according to his Academy records. That neither of them value Naruto is a given after learning what he did, and made the blond kid's earlier declaration about not training together pretty accurate, and also Sasuke was going to have problems with any teammate or fellow ninja of the Leaf with an attitude like that.
"Okay blondie, you're up," continued Kakashi seemingly uninterested, but in fact very curious about the boy he was most looking forward to working with and getting to know as he reminded him so much of four of his most favorite people (Minato, Kushina, Rin & Obito).
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki," responded the blond genin more seriously than what anyone expected from the usual loud mouthed prankster, but still not without some of his original personality shining through. "I like training and ramen, especially Ichiraku's and dislike the three minutes it takes to heat instant ramen, and those who can't tell the difference between the kunai and the storage scroll it's sealed in. My dream and my goal is to be the greatest Hokage in Leaf's history and someday start a family."
Kakashi was mildly impressed with Naruto's introduction, he seemed much more mature and prepared for what was to come. Even his proclamation of wanting to become Hokage, was said so matter of factly, that it didn't seem like a childish boast, but the realistic goal he would do everything in his power to make happen. The part about the kunai and storage scroll said a lot about how he viewed his Biju burden, and spoke well of his continued good spirit and attitude towards others despite having every reason to hate the village that scorned him his whole life.
He actually found himself looking forward to training and working with Naruto, hoping to see more of his former friends in his new charge's actions and mannerisms, which were a perfect mix of all four of his deceased friends. He had the look of Minato, the mannerisms and verbal tics of Kushina, the burden of Rin and Kushina, and the attitude and openness of Obito. He really was a unique blend of traits and qualities, and Kakashi was actually finding himself excited to bring out the very best in one of his new students, and hoped they could get past their issues and work together.
The problem he now faced was really on how to get these three very different young genin to work together, because he already knew that he couldn't fail this team with the last Uchiha on it, and the true legacy of the Fourth. The Civilian and Shinobi Councils both were putting pressure on the Hokage to pass Sasuke Uchiha and get him onto the mission rotation as soon as possible. Maybe that is the real reason Naruto was included in Sasuke's team, both Councils would never risk the Uchiha just to continue blocking Uzumaki from advancing as was seemingly the case in the past.
"Okay, good," replied Kakashi to his young team of genin, "now, tomorrow we will have our first mission ...so you better prepare tonight."
"What kind of mission?" asked Naruto in excitement.
"Survival Exercises," responded the older jounin lazily, "with just the four of us."
"What kind of mission is that?" asked Naruto, thinking they would be doing something awesome.
"Didn't we do survival exercises at the Academy?" added Sakura softly.
"Oh, these aren't like the Academy survival exercises at all," answered Kakashi with a bit of an eye smile that did not seem nearly as friendly as any earlier ones he sent to his genin. "Only 33% passing rate, and all the failures get sent back to the Academy for another term."
"What!" shouted both Naruto and Sakura almost simultaneously, while Sasuke also looked on in surprise and a little uncertainty.
"But, we already graduated," continued Sakura. "What about the exams we just took to pass the Academy?"
"Those were just to weed out the hopeless cases," responded Kakashi with a bit of pleasure leaking through his voice as he crushed the three genin's hopes. "The ones that pass that test are just the ones who have the 'potential' to become genin. I'm the one who gets to decide whether the three of you actually pass or fail. Be at training ground seven by 5am tomorrow morning with all your gear and weapons ...and don't eat breakfast unless you want to throw it up."
With that, the jounin Kakashi disappeared with a shunshin in a poof of smoke that left leaves and three angry and/or worried potential genin behind. Sakura was terrified of another test, but hoped that her true love would win the day, and that her destiny to be with Sasuke would allow her to pass this test with ease. Sasuke was a bit worried about the test, only because it was another obstacle for him to get past on his bid to reach and surpass Itachi, and hoped his loser teammates didn't get in his way.
Naruto was probably the only one of three with an idea of what was actually at stake, having failed to become a genin now for three terms, he knew that he wasn't going back to the Academy by any means. If that meant going all out and preparing for anything to ensure he passed, then his new sensei wouldn't know what hit him. He gave them all day and the night to prepare and even the training ground where the test would go down. Naruto, decided that it was about time he used his prankster mentality, and really tipped the scales in his favor and decided to head to the mentioned training ground early to get a feel for the terrain and start trapping the shit out of it in preparation.
He also thought about what Kakashi did tell them, and realized that he was trying to set them up to fail by recommending they not eat and have any energy for the test, hoping they would handicap themselves from the start. The other part that stuck out to Naruto, was the 5 am start time, this being earlier than most ninja teams began their day as most ninja did individual training in the morning before getting together with their teams. Naruto has been around the village enough at odd times to know that few missions started so early unless time sensitive, and wondered if his sensei was planning to be late as well again tomorrow as that would fit into the misdirection he seemed to provide for the rest of the 'instructions.'
If he was wrong, it shouldn't be a big deal for Naruto, as he has only ever thrown up food when it was completely rotten or spoiled and never from just overeating or over training. So, with those thoughts in mind, he started planning out how much time he had left until the test started tomorrow morning, and how many clones he wanted to put on this assignment versus continuing his training. Spawning the well over 800 clones now, he split them in half, and had one half continue the training schedule he had been operating under for the past few days before sending the remaining 400 clones to Training Ground 7 to first scout and then trap the hell out of it while he went back to his physical exercises after upping the training weights to the third setting.
Naruto was able to get in almost four hours of speed and weight training, and had worked himself back to his normal speed, despite still having the training weights set to the third setting. He thought about reducing the training weights so he could show off his greater speed, but thought it would probably be better to have that ace up his sleeve in case he needed something to tip the scales later, and wanted it to be a surprise the first time he went against Sasuke. Besides, getting his speed back to where it was in the Academy with the training weights on, was quite the feat of only three days of hard core clone training as most took weeks to get past the first setting.
Naruto was really starting to see how amazing and powerful his new shadow clone technique really was when he thought back to how far he progressed or grew in just these last three days versus the three previous terms of Academy instruction. He also realized, that he was actually helped greatly by the stupid fox sealed in him, as all his sore muscles were constantly being filled with Biju Chakra and refreshed and repaired from the over-working. This constant repairing of torn and sore muscles, actually made them grow back stronger and denser, and allowed for his body to recover from injuries and ridiculous levels of training much quicker than most and was a real benefit to the training method he had developed.
Realizing that it was nearing dinner time, he decided to spawn another round of 800 plus clones to reinforce both the others he already had training on their own and those trapping training ground seven in preparation for tomorrow's genin test. With that taken care of, he headed towards the Hokage's Tower and the Mission Desk, where Iruka said he was working this afternoon to take him up on his offer of free Ichiraku Ramen. It was as he was nearing the Mission Desk that he encountered his first glimpse of one of the other passing genin teams, as Kurenai Yuhi was leading her three young genin outside after seemingly finishing their first mission of their career based on the proud looks of accomplishment they all wore.
"H-Hello Naruto-kun," whispered a shy Hinata Hyuga as she saw the young blond boy she had crushed on for years in the Academy, which had both Kiba and Shino come to stops as they watched the usually loud mouthed Uzumaki approach them, both noticing the more confident and casual way he moved since the end of their Academy days not too long ago, and for Kiba, remembering the way the other boy had stood up for himself and put him in his place.
"Hi Hinata," greeted Naruto happily to the pale eyed Hyuga heiress. "Yuhi-san, Shino ...dog breath," he continued with nods to each of the other members of Team 8, until his greeting to Kiba resulted in said feral boy growling angrily and getting right up into Naruto's face, completely forgetting the thought he just had to show greater restraint in front of this particular young ninja.
"Any time ...Dead Last," sneered back Kiba threateningly, causing both Hinata and Kurenai to gasp at the tone and insult, but Naruto to simply tilt his head and continue to glare at Kiba until the other boy turned his head away in supplication, as the memory of earlier this morning played on a loop in front of his eyes and realized he didn't want to get shown up again.
Kurenai was then very quick to pull Kiba away from Naruto, and get in between the two young genin to diffuse any tension still lingering. Shino and Hinata were both watching wide eyed, as their third teammate tried picking a fight with a fellow classmate who seemed to have significantly changed very recently, as he wasn't the loudmouthed hothead he was even last week. Instead, Naruto was the calm one dictating the pace and seemingly unconcerned about Kiba completely, showing a level of confidence that neither Shino or Hinata had ever seen from the usually worst student in their class. Deciding that something serious had really changed with Naruto, they both promised to themselves that they would be looking into this change, and hopefully trying to get Kiba to back off as the Naruto they see now, isn't the same doormat he was just a few days ago.
"Sorry Uzumaki-san," placated Kurenai after a moment of staring down her feral genin and getting him to back off completely and hang his head like a kicked puppy. "We are going to be working on Kiba's temper and attitude a LOT over the next few weeks."
"You might also need help removing the Uchiha 'pole of arrogance' up his ass," mumbled Naruto quietly, but not nearly quiet enough to get passed Kurenai or Shino's bugs, causing them to both look at Naruto in shock for taunting Kiba some more and also giving a very telling statement about his own arrogant ass teammate. "Oh well ...see you all around. Bye Yuhi-san ...bye Shino ...bye Hinata ...congratulations on passing!"
With that, Naruto left the somewhat stunned Team 8 behind as he entered the Mission office by himself, ignoring the open mouthed stare of several others who were nearby and witnessed the recent confrontation. Many of them wondered about the many changes to Naruto, as he wasn't overly loud or obnoxious, but still rather argumentative and a little hot headed. Team 8 was probably analysing the encounter the most, as it involved one of their own, and his relationship with what most people assumed was a useless waste of space in Naruto, but who in fact had started to show real promise of late.
Naruto, was oblivious to the stares and whispers that followed him practically everywhere, primarily just out of habit, but even he could tell that a lot of the looks he was receiving over the last few days were starting to change especially among the ninja population. Where before he always saw raw hatred and/or total disgust in the eyes and faces of both the civilians and shinobi alike, now he was starting to recognize other looks of speculation, or even a few small nods of acknowledgement. He hoped that it signified a change in how the village saw him as a whole, but knew he would have a long way to go until he won the acceptance of the Leaf Village.
For now, he was content with his growing skills, new found maturity and intelligence, and beginning the career he always dreamed of and would worry about all the other things he couldn't completely control at a later point. He quickly found Iruka-sensei sitting at the same Mission Desk he often would watch his surrogate grandfather, the Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi operate out of during the days when he could get away from the paperwork in his office. Unfortunately, he also noticed that his favorite teacher was in the process of being yelled at by an overweight civilian demanding that somebody complete the D-Rank mission he requested of painting his fence.
"If the painting is pretty straight forward, and you don't mind me working on it ...I bet I can knock it out pretty quickly," interrupted Naruto as he approached the pair, and instantly had the yelling civilian turn towards him with a glare.
"You?" questioned the middle aged man with the small beady brown eyes, as he continued to glare at the young blond weighing his hatred of the Demon-child against his desire to get his fence painted. "If you can get it done before the sun rises tomorrow ...I will allow it."
"Great, just show my team where you need us," responded Naruto, who quickly formed a cross hand seal and spawned ten shadow clones, who were all lined up standing at attention, ready for orders. "Is that alright with you Iruka-sensei?"
"Sure Naruto, and thanks!" responded his former Academy teacher in somewhat stunned shock at seeing the usually hyperactive and obnoxious boy acting so mature and professional, and also really helping them out by taking that mission today.
So, with the ten Naruto clones following the older civilian man back to his house to paint his fence, the real Naruto turned to the still somewhat stunned Iruka and grinned wide, showing off his teeth. He was inordinately pleased with his last second idea, and that it helped out Iruka was even better, and now he would even be able to get a D-rank mission under his belt. He had always dreamed of elaborate and dangerous missions involving rescuing princesses or saving towns, but he had seen all the genin around the village always seemingly doing chores for the civilian population and knew that was the reality of a new genin.
"So, Iruka-sensei ...are you ready for some Ichiraku Ramen?" replied Naruto with a definite twinkle of anticipation in his sky blue eyes, as his mouth started to salivate in preparation.
"Hehe ...sure Naruto ...just give me a second to fill out this mission log, sign it, and turn it in before I can leave," responded Iruka with an amused grin as he was again shaking his head in shock and exasperation at the antics of his young blond friend, who really was the number one most unpredictable ninja, especially when ramen was a possible reward.
With the paperwork done, the unusual pair headed to Ichiraku's stand for a well deserved dinner and chance for the two to catch up and chat about everything that has been happening in the last few days since the Mizuki incident. After sitting down and placing their orders, Naruto quickly launched into everything he had been doing since leaving Iruka-sensei to go to the hospital on the night of Mizuki's defection, including the tons of training he had been getting in. Iruka was beyond impressed when listening to everything his young student had been up to, and couldn't believe how much of a game changer the shadow clone technique would end up being for the young genin.
He promised after dinner to give Naruto some help and pointers on the Echolocation jutsu, as well as the Sensory Enhancement one that he couldn't seem to get exactly right. He also promised to review the camping survival suite of jutsu, to make sure Naruto wasn't missing anything regarding that suite of jutsus, and show him a few others he might like to learn and incorporate into his arsenal. Naruto was easily convinced of Iruka-sensei's greatness and couldn't wait to get started learning new jutsu, or perfecting the ones he was struggling with.
So after they finished their meals, they headed to the abandoned training ground near his apartment where he had been doing most of his clone training, and Iruka got his first look at a Naruto clone training session. To say he was shocked to see the organization, and just the numbers of Naruto clones running around training was a complete understatement. But, after looking over all the different areas of training clones, he was beyond convinced that Naruto was both ready for his help, but also that his goal of becoming a Hokage was a LOT closer than he thought this morning.
For the next hour, Iruka went through all the jutsu Naruto was learning to ensure he was doing everything correct, and also to check his work and verify that he really was ready for the next stage in his training. His survival camping skills were rated as top notch, with him only needing experience now, and his trap skills continued to impress even jounin level opponents. His henge and replacement were both superb, with his added physical transformation blowing Iruka's mind when Naruto demonstrated it for him, and also told him how he was using that transformation to get his shopping done much easier and cheaper.
His shadow clone was at ridiculous levels, and even his basic bunshin clone was starting to form almost looking as he was supposed to, a real testament to Naruto's continued training in chakra control. That was also a real surprise for the Academy teacher, as he watched his three day old genin fight shadow clones among the treetops without a single slip or misstep really showing how far his chakra control had come. The echolocation jutsu was next, and Naruto demonstrated it for Iruka, who was able to easily see where his student struggled and knew he could help.
It was a familiar jutsu for the former ANBU Dolphin, who used the echolocation jutsu himself to develop into one of the best non-Inuzuka trackers and sensors in Konoha, and the reason he was recruited into ANBU during his Chunin days. It also tipped Naruto off as to how his former teacher was always able to find him when few others ever could, and he insisted the older man show him everything he could about being a sensor. That led to the Sensory Enhancement jutsu, which Iruka was able to explain and work on with Naruto until he could successfully pull chakra into his ears, nose, and eyes to increase the sensitivity each organ had, which felt a little confusing and disorienting at first but got easier to understand the more he used it.
Iruka was so proud of everything Naruto was capable of already performing, and what he was able to learn on the fly after just a few attempts to show and demonstrate all the parts to it. Likewise, once they finished with everything Naruto already knew about or was at least working on, Iruka decided to show his young student a few others he thought might be helpful. The Rope Escape technique and the Temporary Paralysis Techniques were E and D-rank techniques respectively, and Naruto was able to quickly pick them both up enough to start really practicing them on his own later.
He did however draw the line when Naruto asked about learning the Body Flicker technique or Shunshin, made famous by Sushui Uchiha in the Third Great Shinobi War. He promised him that if he was still interested in a few weeks, that Iruka would gladly show him the very helpful technique and that maybe next time they got together they could spar some too. Despite having been in ANBU years earlier, Iruka had not practiced much over the last five years of working in the Academy, and a lot of his skills had atrophied considerably and he could use the workout after only an hour trying to train with Naruto left him winded and needing a break.
When the pair finally said their goodbye's outside of Naruto's apartment, it was nearing 9pm, and Naruto was turning in a little early to make sure he got plenty of rest before his genin test with Kakashi tomorrow morning. Before going to sleep, he started dispelling all the clones he had setting up the traps in Training Ground 7, so he knew what to expect and where everything was, leaving several dozen to continue scouting the training ground all night to ensure nobody came in and messed with his preparations ...tomorrow he was taking down a jounin.