15 Graduation
(How do you expect me to improve my story if you don't give me advice and suggestions????)
It has been one year since Naruto received the Helpful System. It was also a day before the academy graduation exams would take place.
Currently, Hiruzen was battling his worst enemy, paperwork. He hated it, he hated it more than the civilian council.
The Civilian Council was one hell of a burden. They were extremely corrupt. To them, money mattered more than the village's safety. Thankfully, the Shinobi Council wasn't a burden as they could take care of themselves without stepping out of line.
It was the Civilian Council who made Naruto's life hell. It was the Civilian Council who bribed the instructors in the academy to sabotage him. It was the Civilian Council who made it impossible for Konoha's economy to boom like it once did for a short period of time during Minato's reign. Hiruzen decided to abolish it one day. He was snapped out his dark thoughts by someone who walked into his office unannounced.
That person was Kakashi Hatake, famed as Kakashi of the Sharingan and Copy Ninja KakashI. He is one of Konoha's most talented ninja, regularly looked to for advice and leadership despite his personal dislike of responsibility.
Kakashi has spiky silver hair often oriented to his left-side, dark grey eyes and typically had a relaxed and lazy expression. During the Third Shinobi World War, his left eye was damaged, leaving a vertical scar from the injury.
The eye was shortly afterwards replaced with a Sharingan, which he covers with his forehead protector when he isn't using it. Since early childhood and near-constantly, he wears a mask that prevents most of his face from being visible.
Even his ninken have seen his face so sparingly that most of them don't remember what he looks like unmasked. Kakashi wears Konoha's standard infantry clothing: a flak jacket, dark blue pants, and a long-sleeve shirt.
He also wears fingerless gloves with metal plates on the backhand and is seen with a chain necklace underneath.
"Ah, Kakashi! How are you doing?" Hiruzen asked Kakashi with a smile on his face. Kakashi looked up at the Third Hokage with a lazy expression.
"Fortunately, I'm still lost on the road of life." Kakashi replied nonchalantly while putting the book he was reading away and into his shuriken holster.
The book Kakashi was reading was called Icha Icha Paradise. Icha Icha is a series of adult novels written by Jiraiya after the commercial failure of The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi.
The Icha Icha novels are based on Jiraiya's experiences in love, particularly his rejections by Tsunade, the Slug Sannin. Teenagers are often curious about the books' contents, prompting their parents and other adults to go to great lengths to keep the books away from them.
Icha Icha Paradise is the first in the series, written in three parts. Its plot is summarised as: 'The main character and heroine, both new to love, begin dating, and their eyes gradually open to grown-up love.'
Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at Kakashi's actions. Kakashi never puts the adult novel he was an avid fan of away even when talking to others.
'This must be serious then.' Hiruzen thought before Kakashi started speaking to him.
"Lord Third, I want a specific team. I have already chosen who the members of my team will be if they do pass the graduation exams." Kakashi request bluntly, not wanting to beat around the bush. Hiruzen was surprised but kept a calm front.
"Really? And who do you want in your team, Kakashi?" Hiruzen asked the jonin. Kakashi took out three pieces of paper and laid it out on Hiruzen's desk. Hiruzen read it and nodded.
"Alright Kakashi, It shall be done."
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"Fuck!" Naruto cursed as he blundered. Shikamaru chuckled before checkmating Naruto. Currently, they were playing Shogi with each other in class.
There was only three people in class, Naruto, Shikamaru and Choji. Naruto was used to the emptiness of the class due to him arriving early everyday.
Naruto had matured a lot. No longer was he the Prankster King from Hell. Instead, he was a storage scroll and exploding tag seller earning buckets of ryō everyday due to the quality of his products.
[Shogi: Lvl 30]
Naruto had gotten to a point where Shikamaru had to actually focus and think about his next moves carefully in order to not lose to the blonde. Naruto was still a little careless though.
The sliding door opened and Satsuki walked into the classroom. She made her way towards the trio of friends.
She sat beside Naruto. Satsuki sighed and shook her head after noticing the situation of the game. "You big idiot, why didn't you move that piece away when he was clearly threatening you with that piece?" Satsuki asked Naruto. Naruto chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head.
" Hehe! I was focusing on my own strategy that I forgot to be cautious. I'll win soon, Shika! Believe it!!" Naruto declared, making Shikamaru shrug.
If you are currently wondering why Satsuki the recluse was currently talking to the lazy genius like they were friends, that's because they are friends.
More like acquaintances because Satsuki only found the courage with help from Naruto to speak to Shikamaru weeks ago.
The Nara took it well, and now they play Shogi every morning before class. Satsuki pushed Naruto a little.
"Move it, it's my turn." Satsuki demanded. Naruto rolled his eyes.
"If you wanna sit, sit here. It's much more comfortable." Naruto suggested while patting his lap. Satsuki looked at him with a shocked expression while her face was as red as a tomato.
"Wh-what?!" Satsuki shouted at him. Naruto shrugged.
"I'm only suggesting, no need to act on it." Naruto replied nonchalantly. If you're wondering why Naruto is acting like this, the answer is simple, Icha Icha showed him the truth.
'This asshole!! Trying to embarrass me!! I'll show you!!' Satsuki shouted in her mind as she exacted revenge by sitting down on Naruto's lap, making sure he got a good look of her butt as she did so.
Naruto's face instantly turned crimson. "Oi!! What did I just say, bastard?!" Naruto shouted, trying his best to not get hard down there so he won't get slapped in the face by Satsuki.
Satsuki smirked as she glared menacingly at him. "What's wrong, loser? Can't handle a woman like me? This can be considered training you know. Other villages will send kunoichi to seduce you and get info out of you. If you can't handle me, then what chance do you have against other women? " Satsuki asked while smirking evilly at him. Satsuki was so evil she purposely adjusted her seat a little, making Naruto's little warrior down there even more excited.
Shikamaru groaned while Choji looked away from the scene with an embarrassed blush on his face. "What a drag. I'm just glad that none of her shitty fanboys are here yet or else it'll be even more troublesome."
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" Take your seats everyone!! " Iruka ordered as everyone quickly sat down. Satsuki sat on the seat in front of Naruto with a triumphant smirk on her face while Naruto had a crimson red blush on his face.
"Good....everyone is here." Iruka whispered.
"Alright!! The graduation exams start now!! This exam will be held in several parts. The first will be a test of your academic knowledge. This will test if you have been paying attention to my lectures over the years, following that will be accuracy."
" You will be tested on your kunai and shuriken technique. Following that will be a test of your taijutsu. This will be a tournament style test in which you will spar with each other, your performance will be watched carefully and you will be graded based on your performance."
" Your parents have been invited to watch the tournament as well, so try not to goof around. We will break for lunch after that. Immediately after lunch has ended you will be tested on genjutsu and finally ninjutsu. Any questions?" Iruka asked the class.
" Iruka-sensei, does the winner of the tournament get extra credit for winning or no?" One civilian born student asked.
"No the winner will not receive extra credit for winning the tournament."
"Dang."
"No more questions? Good we will begin then."
The written test started. Naruto was handed a piece of paper by another instructor.
His name is Mizuki and he is Iruka's assistant instructor. Mizuki has white shoulder-length hair with a slight hint of blue to it and green eyes.
He wore the standard attire of the Konoha-nin before his defection, which included flak jacket and forehead protector that he wore like a bandanna.
Naruto is wary of Mizuki because he can sense the killer intent directed towards him whenever he and Mizuki are in the same room. He looked at the test paper handed to him and was baffled.
'What the fuck?! I don't know any of this! I thought Sakura-chan said that the test will include this year's syllabus.' Naruto looked at Shikamaru's paper. It was completely different and looked much easier to do.
Shikamaru looked at Naruto's test paper and raised a brow at it. His was completely different from Naruto's. He was sure Naruto couldn't even solve one of them.
"Quick Naruto, tell sensei you got the wrong paper before the test starts." Shikamaru warned. Naruto widened his eyes before raising his hand, gaining Iruka's attention.
"Iruka sensei! I got the wrong paper! It's different from the others!!" Naruto revealed. Iruka quickly went over and looked at Naruto's test paper.
"You're right Naruto. Wait a moment, I'll get you a new one." Iruka replied before going off to get the correct test paper for him.
After receiving the correct test paper from Iruka, Naruto quickly thanked Shikamaru who hummed back lazily. The written test started a gew minutes later.
While his students were working on their test papers. Iruka looked at the paper Naruto handed him. 'Only scientists could answer these questions. And why is there chakra on this paper! Could it be a Genjutsu?' Iruka thought while putting two fingers on the paper.
"Kai!" He whispered, disrupting the chakra flow on the paper. Iruka was right, there was a Genjutsu being casted on the test paper.
When the Genjutsu was reversed, it revealed that there was no test paper, only a blank one. Iruka narrowed his eyes and looked at Mizuki who was the one who handed Naruto the test paper.
"Mizuki, what is the meaning of this?"
To be continued...
