11 11. Clone Jutsu Exam

As the sun rose in the sky, Naruto woke up with smile, that nightmare no longer haunted him.

Waking up with a peace of mind and tranquility, he made some ramen and stretched, doing his routine of finger handstands he stayed in his house for an hour.

He normally woke up at 5 to finish all his daily needs before heading out, arriving at class, there was role call.

Due to the fight he had with his 'friends' he was isolated, even the normally mutual Shikamaru ignored him as he sat down and spoke with Choji.

Sakura walked into the classroom, seeing Naruto her face stung, grabbing the side of her face Naruto ruthlessly slapped she couldn't believe a boy would hit a woman.

Ino beside her looked at Naruto with some fear, seeing his lifeless eyes yesterday had haunted her, she even had a nightmare last night in which she had to be comforted by her parents.

As a divide was created, Naruto looked outside as he wondered when the class would start, however the atmosphere of the room changed as a person entered.

"Sasuke-kun?!" Sakura shouted as she ran to him.

"Sasuke-kun?!" Ino also shouted not wanting to lag behind Sakura.

As he entered the girls all surrounded him asking if he was fine, however sasuke was zoned out as he was only looking at Naruto who was staring outside.

Shikamaru looked at him and seeing where he was looking, he sighed, he knew sasuke was going to cause a commotion.

Sasuke pushed through the girls that surrounded him, approaching Naruto.

"Naruto, follow me outside" Sasuke said in a menacing tone, hearing him Ino was scared of what Naruto would do, however she steeled her resolve.

Naruto ignoring this fly continued looking outside, realising Naruto was ignoring him on purpose Sasuke slammed his fist on to Naruto's table shaking it.

Watching on the girls and some boys smirked, they didn't like how this demon fox was able to get education along with them. So seeing sasuke cause him trouble delighted them.

Sakura watched with a smile as she thought 'hmph Naruto you can't bully my Sasuke with me around!'.

A blue vein was starting to bulge out of Naruto's forehead, 'please…please leave me alone before I kill you' despite having a little voice inside him telling him to kill Sasuke he controlled himself and looked in his direction.

"Stop pestering me, loser", that's all Naruto said before turning away, Sasuke taken aback gritted his teeth but before he could continue Iruka walked in.

"Everyone take you're seats!", with that the kids sat down and looked to the front, Naruto also looked.

"Today, we will have a exam, it will be a practical exam so watch carefully on how you will be assessed".

"There is a jutsu called the Clone jutsu which in its name is a technique that creates a clone of you".

Iruka then displayed it as he crossed his fingers.

"Clone jutsu!", *poof*, and right next to him another clone appeared.

"Woowww" the kids watched as they had excited looks.

"If you kids aren't able to do the clone jutsu, you won't be able to graduate!", as that sentence was finished the class became quiet, the kids looked around at each other, seeing their reluctance, the initial excitement was gone.

Iruka smiled as he said "the exam will begin now, so stand in a line and wait for you're name to be called".

"Choji!".

Choji walked up as he put his crisp packet to the side and did the hand sign.

"Clone Jutsu!".

*poof* another Choji appeared beside him and Iruka smiled.

"Pass".

"Next… Shikamaru!".

After Choji walked back to his seat, Shikamaru walked out of the line.

"Clone Jutsu!", and the same as Choji another Shikamaru appeared.

"Pass".

"Ino!", she also did the clone jutsu.

"Pass".

"Hinata!".

"Pass!".

"Kiba".

"Pass".

"Shino".

"Pass".

"Sasuke", Sasuke then walked up coolly as the girls cheered for him extra loud.

Iruka smiled as he said "begin!".

Sasuke then crossed his fingers saying "Clone Jutsu!".

*poof*

Another Sasuke appeared with the same cold look, Ino and Sakura were drooling as both their minds had thought of the same thing, that they could each have one Sasuke for themselves.

After Sasuke, the rest of the class went and a majority passed but some still failed.

"Lastly, Naruto", Iruka then looked at Naruto as he walked down from his seat, he didn't bother going in line.

As he walked down the class watched him, Hinata although she was scared of Naruto still had a slight blush, Sasuke had flames of hatred in his eyes.

"Begin!".

Naruto then crossed his fingers as he said, "Clone Jutsu!".

*poof*

A clone appeared beside him, Iruka then smiled ever so slightly as he said.

"Pass".

He then turned to the class as he said "with that the exam is over, for all those that have failed, you will have to retake this test until you pass, remember you have to learn this otherwise you won't be able to graduate!".

"Class is over!, you next mini test is outside, we will be testing you're cooperation".

He then lead the kids over to the field as there were teachers already there. Iruka then put them into teams as Naruto was put into a team with Ino, Hinata and Choji.

Shikamaru was with Sasuke, Sakura and Kiba, Sakura had a grin as she tried speaking to sasuke, Ino watching fruitier her teeth.

"Sasuke-kun let's work together as a team!", but sasuke ignored her.

Shikamaru put his hands behind his back as he said "what a drag".

Iruka then clapped his hands as he explained what was happening.

"The reason you all are in a team is too see you're cooperation, so you will be going through the forest and work together to find scrolls whilst also engaging in a spat with you fellow classmates!".

"Remember to work as a team, if one of you're team members find the scroll and you didn't work as a team, I'll count it as fail".

Iruka then walked to the side as it began, Naruto looked around at his teammates as Ino and Hinata we're reluctant to look at him.

Choji was eating his food as he looked around, "oh they already started guys let's go get the scroll!"

Naruto made his way towards the forest, Hinata and Ino hesitated but seeing Choji catch up to Naruto they ran after them.

Scouting around the forest Naruto had found some scrolls already so he looked at his teammates saying "if we want to pass one of you will have to go get it, I'll watch your backs".

Hinata voluntarily raised her hands "I-I'm good at taijustu so I should be able to get the scroll".

"Ok, then the rest of us will cover for you", Naruto then told what Ino and Choji had to do with both of them nodding, as he explained Ino looked into his eyes however the lifeless eyes she saw a few days ago was not there.

'Did I hallucinate?'.

After the strategy was formed, they all ran towards their first scroll, the came across a team of four, Naruto had left them to Choji as planned, running after Hinata.

She was able to get the first scroll so they moved on, after an hour of fighting and eliminating the other contestants, Naruto's team gathered 5 scrolls.

The only team that remained was Sasuke's team.

Naruto knew this so he had already told Ino to take on Sakura whilst Hinata fought against Kiba.

Naruto didn't have much faith in Choji as he was up against Shikamaru and his intelligence. "Now, they'll push us, however we'll take them by surprise by setting up a trap prior to them arriving."

Naruto then set up a booby trap and then jumped atop a tree as he gave the signal to hide.

He then heard Kiba shouting.

"Where are you!", he heard ruffling as a white dog sprinted out, however Naruto stayed patient as Kiba came closer to the trap.

"If he falls for the trap freeing up Hinata to team up on Shikamaru would work".

Kiba then foolishly ran into the trap as the rope tightened around his dog's leg lifting both of them up.

"Ahhh!", Sasuke and Shikamaru seeing this swore, "shit! We fell for a trap".

Naruto then jumped down along with his teammates as they engaged them.

"Follow the plan" Naruto said as he ran towards Sasuke, Sasuke also ran towards him with Shikamaru hesitating before running towards Choji.

However Hinata engaged him, realising this wouldn't be easy he backed away to distance himself.

On the other side of the battlefield Naruto engaged Sasuke, exchanging blows Naruto realised Sasuke improved quite a bit since their last fight.

However it still wasn't enough as Naruto blocked all his attempts, Sasuke although improved instantly realised it wasn't enough.

This further angered him as he put more power into his punches and kicks, at the back of the battlefield Ino and Sakura fought whilst arguing about Sasuke.

"Hmph, I spoke to sasuke the whole day, he definitely likes me more than you".

"No he doesn't you lair, I know you didn't speak to him!".

The teachers supervising watched with amusement.

"This battle is quite good, as this two teams are the most promising!", the other teachers also nodded as they put their attention back on to the fight.

Behind them, secretly the Anbu's watched Naruto and his progress, the noted eveything he did.

Naruto knew this, so he showed the least amount of his abilities, he matched Sasuke's new abilities as he soundly beat him after 10 mintues of fighting.

He then stole the scroll that Shikamaru was hiding.

After witnessing this the teachers appeared as they announced the mini test was over. They then announced the result.

"First: Team 4, Naruto, Hinata, Ino and Choji."

"Second: Team 2, Sasuke, Kiba, Sakura and Shikamaru."

They then continued to announce the top ten.

After the announcement, Naruto packed his bag as he walked out, his team wanted to say goodbye, but seeing his face they refrained from it.

"Class over! See you tomorrow!".