The Written Exam

Shin followed Iruka into one of the academic classrooms to take the written paper test. Honestly, Shin somewhat was worried about it as he did not have such a vast academic background, but hey, this is the world of Naruto, so maybe it would be much easier...

They walked into the classroom with the tables and benches, whereas in front was a blackboard. Iruka told Shin to wait for a minute, whereas Iruka would take several paper documents to the classroom. He took a sheet of paper, saying, "Okay, Shin, this is the exam paper for the mercenary shinobi. It is somewhat hard, but hopefully, you can do it."

Shin then nodded, whereas Iruka gave a thumbs up to Shin. Iruka was a simple teacher and quite soft-hearted. He somewhat enjoyed Shin's seemingly good personality, and he'd love for Shin to be a shinobi, especially seeing Shin's combat ability firsthand. "Alright, the exam will begin now... timer is set at 30 minutes."

Shin was anxious as he looked at the paper. Thankfully, there were some questions that he felt like he could answer, so he wrote them down. However, many of them were things Shin had no idea what to do, such as deciphering codes, geometry, etc. He was sure at this stage, Shin would fail. He began to panic... and in his terror, he froze Iruka once more... He was attempting to do something weird. He tried to change the state of the paper in front of him.. who knows, maybe the paper would fill itself in...

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Anxiety ran straight across Shin's face as the paper would only begin disintegrating, and no answers were filled. 'Urgh! I guess since I'm the one making this paper, no matter how much I make the paper into the future, I would not be able to find the answer..' Shin said, slightly pained inside.

In another panic, Shin began to head over to Iruka's table and looked at some of the other documents Iruka was holding. He was hoping for the answer sheet... He kept searching and searching until...

Shin gave up. All of the documents had nothing to do with the exam. Shin sat down and unpaused Iruka.. and could only wait until the time went by..

*Tik Tok tik tok* Time passed, and Kai could only sit down and do nothing as he was depressed. 'Dammit, why do I have to do these tests!!!' Shin thought to himself.

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It was almost 30 minutes, but Iruka knew that giving him that extra minute doesn't look like it would help him. So Iruka said, "You can submit now if you want to."

Slightly sulking, Shin brought the test paper and handed it to Iruka. Iruka then chuckled and said, "Alright, I'll be checking it at the teacher's office, and I'll have it marked within 30 minutes. You can wait at the cafeteria over there... Watch the Kids play if you want."

Shin nodded, and he headed off to the cafeteria; he looked around the empty cafeteria and relaxed for a while, sitting down and looking at the surrounding. However, 15 minutes into his waiting, he could hear a large bell sound. A large amount of kids were coming out of their classroom and talking while heading off to the cafeteria. Shin was excited as he saw several figures of the Konoha eleven, such as Kiba, Ino, Choji and more, coming out of their classroom. Coincidentally, Ino saw Shin staring at her and.. gave a look of disgust at the fact that someone far older than her was staring at her.

Shin was slightly annoyed to see that but ignored it regardless. After the crowd of students left, he could only see one figure walking out of a classroom all alone. As most would have guessed, It was a goggled kid wearing an orange jacket and plain white clothes inside... He had whiskers on his face and looked sad; it was Naruto...

As was depicted in the manga, Shin could see that many were looking at Naruto in disgust, and it was quite upsetting to see that was to happen for an innocent kid.

Naruto was slouching, moving to sit on the bench next to Shin. Honestly, Shin is tempted to have a conversation with Naruto, however, he is quite hesitant... But you know what... screw it...

Shin came to the bench where Naruto was and talked to him. "Hey there, Kid."

The previously apparent sad-looking Naruto immediately changed his tone and face into one that looked to be cheerful and exciting. "Gah! Who are you, old man!" he said in a surprised tone as he didn't see Shin approaching him.

Shin slightly smiled at the sight, reconfirming that was Naruto's personality and said, "Hi! I'm just someone who's waiting on his test for mercenary shinobi of the leaf village."

"Mercenary Shinobi, huh! What's that?"

Shin answered, "It's basically a leaf shinobi but with fewer commitments than that of a regular leaf shinobi... Isn't that cool?"

"Why would you want to do that? My name is Naruto of the leaf! And one day, I'll be Hokage! Then everyone will acknowledge me and be friends with me, amirite old man!" He said out loud.

"Haha.. you know... someone once told me, you don't become Hokage to be acknowledged by everyone... The one who is acknowledged by everyone becomes the Hokage." Shin answered while saying, "Honestly, the man who quoted this is probably the one that I would consider the closest to being a great Hokage.."

Naruto, who was previously cheerful, showed his true self slightly, being upset. Naruto somewhat understood what Shin had said deep down; it's just that.. he needed hope that things might change for the better...

Shin saw this slightly pitying him and said, "But that's alright! I know your situation, and I'd be more than happy to be your friend if you want me to!"

Naruto looked at Shin as though Naruto saw a bright light and was slightly embarrassed, "What are you talking about, old man.." he said, with a noticeable smile that he couldn't hide.

Shin figured being friends with the main character wouldn't be such a bad thing to do as it's likely they can help Shin out in the far future...