Disclaimer: Hello everyone this is my first time writing a fanfic and hope it goes over well, do try to be a little patient with my grammar though as I'm working to improve it as I go. The basic plot will mostly follow canon with some changes here and there mostly to characters. Okay that's pretty much it. I do not own Naruto though feel like I should mention that.

New Game New Challenges

Chapter 1: Genin Exam

Naruto was staring out of the window wondering why he had to endure this eternal nightmare, oh how he hated this place, this damn detestable room always seemed to drain him of all energy and life that was characteristic of the hyperactive blonde. All he wanted was to be home so he could get some sleep and maybe plot a prank or two, play some games heck he even felt like doing some training, he already had a major prank in the works for a special occasion but it could always use more work and planning. Then his thoughts returned to the classroom around him, to his left was Sasuke uchiha and in Naruto's refined opinion of the world Sasuke was the biggest emo ever to exist and was currently brooding as per usual. To Naruto's right was some girl he never got to know but he could easily recognise the signs of her undying worship of Sasuke. He looked around the room taking note of his classmates and even though he had been here for nearly four years with them he had never really gotten to know any of them, he had tried earlier on but they always had some reason to just ignore him or just flat out insulted him and told him to go away. He decided to have a nap and wait for the day to be over so he could go back home.

"Naruto did you even pay attention to what I just said." The teacher at the front of the class asked knowing the answer.

"Eh, uuuhm sorry Iruka-sensei I was thinking about how to improve my studies." The blonde responded while bolting upright from his previously hunched over state. The entire class sweat-dropped at the barefaced lie "So what was it Iruka-sensei?"

"I was just telling the rest of my lovely students who listen to what I say that your genin exams will be taking place tomorrow." Iruka stated. 'And hopefully he won't fail this time. He deserves to be a ninja more than anyone else here.' "Why are you the only one whoever causes problems like this Naruto?"

"Really Iruka-sensei, I mean am I the only noticing Shikamaru asleep over there." The blonde stated pointing to the lazy-genius sat on the row behind him.

"SHIKAMARU WAKE UP!" The Nara slowly lifted his head rubbing sleep out of his eyes though somehow managing an accusing glare in Naruto's direction.

"Yeah, yeah troublesome exam, troublesome blonde can I go back to sleep now?" the Nara droned in an almost slur brought on by his sheer laziness.

"No you cannot, Shikamaru, Naruto both of you stay behind after class for detention." The pair groaned. "Glad you're so enthusiastic, you two will be cleaning the class room and I will be giving you a crash course on everything we've learned this year seeing as you both have the worst grades in the class." This caused the whole class to snicker at the two, though it wouldn't be the first time the two had been called back to stay after class.

"Dobe does anything Iruka-sensei ever goes into the thick head of yours anyway?" Sasuke questioned though everyone knew he didn't care for an answer as he quickly went back to brooding. This though caused naruto's face to turn a shade of red that combined with his neon blonde made his head resemble a small flame that looked about to turn into an inferno.

"Shut up teme or I'll be sure to plant my foot so far up your ass I'm sure you'll be able to taste the shit on the bottom of my boot" this caused quite a split reaction in the class room the guys for the most part found this to be hilarious as they always enjoyed Naruto and Sasuke's arguments. All the girls on the other hand leapt to the defence of their pale faced prince, well almost all as one girl sat in the corner twiddling her fingers and giggling at the whole situation.

"Will you kids please sit down and listen to me or I swear I will hold you all back a year regardless." Iruka yelled making full use of his patented big head jutsu.

Naruto and Shikamaru had indeed been forced to stay behind after class while Iruka lectured them both on the information they needed for the next day. There would be a written exam as well a taijutsu test where they would spar against a teacher of chunin level and would be required to last for 2 minutes without the aid of any jutsu. Then there would be a ninjutsu portion of the exam where they would be tested on the basic three ninjutsu taught in the academy (Kawarimi, Henge and finally a Bunshin jutsu).Naruto groaned at the news at the news that a working Bunshin jutsu would be required.

"Iruka-sensei is there no other jutsu that you can test me on you know I can't make clones to save my life."

"That's exactly the point Naruto, if you can't use a simple clone jutsu then how are we to expect you to survive in missions, I've told you this for the last two years yet you've made almost no progress with this jutsu." The teacher explained "Though I suppose I can lend you some pointers this evening before you head home. Though I have no fears about you passing Shikamaru I need you to know that you cannot continue to be as lazy as you are now when you join the shinobi ranks of our village."

"Troublesome, fine sensei I will try to be more productive but I make no promises about whether my efforts will be successful." Shikamaru droned then went to leave the room.

"Get back here you, the two of you are going to clean the class room and make sure it's spotless for tomorrow's exams. Naruto make sure to come find me when you are done." He said as he left the room to the two genin to be.

They got to work with Naruto doing the most cleaning as he couldn't wait for Iruka to maybe help him pass the exams this year. While Shikamaru was more than happy to let Naruto do the lion's share of the cleaning. Though Naruto didn't mind over the years he had gotten used to the situation, he and Shikamaru had been called back to clean so many times he had lost count and a sort of friendship had formed between the two with the Nara being one of the only ones to have ever treated Naruto with respect and not flat out insult or ignore him. Then he got an idea he'd never done this before with Shikamaru but figured if anyone would say yes it would be him. "Hey Shikamaru when I finish with Iruka –sensei you wanna come round mine and hang out, we can even go get some ramen?" The tiny blonde asked in desperate hope, though trying to seem as nonchalant as possible.

"Hmm maybe I don't know if my parents will be okay with me going out on the night before the genin exam though." Naruto almost looked shocked that someone would even consider hanging out with him after the years and years of rejection and scorn from the villagers.

"You could always just not tell them and let them know once you've passed, we both know how smart you are the only reason you have bad grades is because you're too lazy to answer the questions." Shikamaru frowned at that, Naruto had a point and he knew it what he didn't understand was how Naruto knew that about him.

"Naruto, how do you know that I only answer the necessary questions to pass?"

"Well I get so bored in class that I tend to just ended up watching everyone else in class, and yes I know that sounds weird but I know most of the mannerisms of everyone in class and I noticed that you are probably the smartest person in class and that has caused you to become lazy because you don't need to be taught most of the stuff we are because you either already know it or can figure it out for yourself." At first this shocked Shikamaru but as Naruto continued to talk he knew the boy had a point.

"Okay so if I get bored because I already know it then what excuse do you have?" 'How can he deduce all of this about me when it seems like he's just staring off into space in class or planning his next pranks?'

"Well it's just so boring I mean nothing Iruka-sensei ever mentions is ever interesting and I get all the stuff about chakra and how to kill people, but all the history about anything but the hokage's doesn't matter to me, and who really wants to learn mathematics about throwing a kunai and knowing what is inside soldier pills. I'm not going to be calculating in a fight and I never really need anything like soldier pills anyway." The blonde answered in a matter of fact way that Shikamaru couldn't think of a decent response.

"Then why are you so bad at taijutsu and jutsu then?" coming up with the only thing he could think of. 'If he can evade ANBU like everyone in the village knows he can then he must have some decent physical abilities and chakra capacity.

"No one here ever teaches me the forms for the academy taijutsu, something about it would just be a waste of time, so I have to rely on me being naturally stronger than most of us in class, though it still only gets me average grade in taijutsu. As for jutsu on a whole I have no idea, I can use Kawarimi perfectly and the Henge is pretty easy but I just cannot make clones that don't die as soon as they are created."

'How can they say it would be a waste to try and teach him if he is clearly stronger and faster than most of us just naturally, hmm troublesome.' it was then he noticed that Naruto had finished cleaning and was about to head out to find Iruka. "Naruto when you finish with Iruka come find me at the park and we'll go get some ramen and hang then."

"Heheh sure thing Shika, see you later." And with that he was gone to look for Iruka.

Naruto was bounding through the corridors of the school as fast as he could trying to find Iruka, he went into all the other classrooms but couldn't find the man who treated just like everyone else and for that was one of the few people Naruto actually respected, other than the hokage and the ANBU that would occasionally drive off the villagers when he was younger. Just as he remembered that the teachers normally hangout in that weird room on the ground floor of the academy and began to head there after turning a corner he barrelled face first into the scar faced teacher. "Hey Iruka-sensei I finished cleaning so can you help me with the clone technique now pleeeeaaaaase!" he asked almost activating the infamous puppy eyes no jutsu that some of the girls in the class had used to crush their fathers hopes so often in life.

"Yeah, yeah Naruto now please get off of me, I can barely breathe for you crushing me." 'if only he had this much enthusiasm when in class, I wouldn't even be bothered if he couldn't make a clone I'm sure he could make up for it in other subjects just like that weird guy clone did last year.' "Okay then Naruto come with me to the training field and we will try to figure out how come you can't make any clones, but don't tell anyone other than Shikamaru about this, I don't want any thinking I'm playing favourites here." So he dragged Naruto out to the training ground just behind the school building.

"So what do you want me to do Iruka-sensei?" Bouncing around as he was Iruka could barely make out the words coming from his mouth.

'Jeez how can anyone think this boy in front of me so eager for any sort of attention could possibly be the nine-tailed fox?' "Well you don't you start by trying the Bunshin jutsu like you normally would?"

Naruto stepped forward to be a little bit in front of Iruka so he could see everything he was doing. 'Okay focus I know I can make the clones and it doesn't matter if they look dead Iruka is here to help me fix that' he began to focus chakra within him and if you looked closely you could see the wind around swirling from the sheer energy the boy was utilizing.

"Woah, Woah Naruto stop, why on earth are you using so much chakra for that, I'm not surprised your clones always come out dead if your using that much chakra, hell I get the feeling you were using enough chakra there to make shadow clones." He almost slapped himself in the face revealing to Naruto the possibility that he may be able to use a B-rank kinjutsu.

"Shadow clones? Now they sound cool, please teach me Iruka-sensei please" Now perfectly activating the puppy dog eyes jutsu with such mastery even Ino would be jealous.

'God I can't resist this, wait kind of man am I that I'm falling to prey to this.' "I'm sorry Naruto but I don't know the shadow clone jutsu to you, it's a jounin level technique and is actually a Kinjutsu. So I wouldn't feel comfortable teaching it to you anyway." Iruka genuinely meant the apology and was determined to help Naruto pass more than ever. "Like I said the problem is you are simply using far, far too much chakra. Try using about a tenth of that amount"

"Okay I'll try but I normally just use as much as makes sense to me." He stepped back again and focused on his chakra this time and while it normally felt trying to control a storm that he would summon inside himself when needed he tried focussing on just taking a little bit at a time. "Bunshin No Jutsu" again two clones popped into existence still looking very ill but not quite collapsed this time. "See it just doesn't work Iruka sensei, they always die they suck, I suck. Stupid clones. Stupid jutsu never works for me works for everyone else though doesn't it."

"Naruto you are making progress at least these ones can stand up so shut up and keep practicing." They carried on like this for about ten minutes with the first few attempts creating less and less dishevelled looking clones, but after a few minutes of trying to tweak it Naruto just had to admit he couldn't use less chakra than he was now. "Naruto come here, place your hand on my shoulder and try to concentrate on the feeling of my chakra." The young blonde seemed confused but placed his hand on his sensei's shoulder. "Now tell me, can you feel my chakra, if you can't I'll tell you how to." The blonde tried to concentrate on the brief amounts of energy pulsing through his sensei but could only feel brief flashes.

"Sensei I can only feel the odd pulse of chakra from you." He stated annoyed

"Ha I'm surprised you can even do that Naruto, it normally takes people a while to be able to get that far. Alright the trick to it is to focus your own chakra onto the palm of your hand but not outwards, then when my chakra pulses past yours it should collide and vibrate. Now do that and try again."

Naruto tried concentrating as small amount of chakra he could to his palm then placed it on his sensei's shoulder. "Try to use less chakra Naruto, I know you're trying but if flare my chakra now it could damage one of us when our chakras collide." Naruto's face scrunched in concentration and he lowered his chakra flow to what Iruka deemed acceptable. "Okay that's good Naruto now I'm going to flare my chakra the necessary amount to create to Bunshin okay, so pay attention." He flared the correct amount then asked Naruto how much he though he used.

"Uh Iruka-sensei I barely felt that, I use more than ten times that amount and that's the least I can use." Iruka went over everything he was being told by the young blonde then got a idea.

"Okay then Naruto why don't you use as little chakra you can but instead of two why don't you use as many clones as you think I could make with that amount. Then we should be able to see if you can perform the jutsu" Before he had even spoke Naruto had performed the jutsu and there in the training ground there where roughly about thirty or forty perfectly healthy looking Naruto clones. 'Wow this kid has amazing chakra reserves to be able to make this much at once, he doesn't even look tired.'

"HAHA I did it Iruka-sensei look I did it, I can make clones now and I can pass right? I can't believe I never thought to just spread my chakra among the clones. You really are the best Iruka sensei." As he spoke the last part he nearly bowled Iruka over in a bear hug.

"Yes I didn't think it would work on the first try but yeah I will happily pass you with this I mean they are perfectly healthy clones. Well providing you can do the Henge and Kawarimi too Naruto?" he asked with a smile as broad as anyone in his class had ever seen before.

"You're the best Iruka-sensei, and don't worry I can do both just fine. Now I gotta go meet up with Shikamaru and go get some ramen. You're welcome to come along as well though."

"No its fine Naruto I'm glad you're making friends in the class. Even if it is a bit late, anyway have fun but don't you dare be late tomorrow or I swear I will make sure Teuchi bans you from miso for a month." He smirked at the jinchuuriki at the last point. As he seemed to nearly face vault at the threat.

"Okay, okay I will be there on time, not like I would miss it anyway now that I know I will pass and take my first step to becoming hokage and being the best ninja the world has ever seen." He started to run towards the closest park. "See ya tomorrow sensei." He called over his shoulder as he left.

'He might be an idiot but damn if I don't believe he will make everyone eat every word they ever said about him.' Then Iruka turned back towards the academy to finish his work for the day.

Public Park:

"Hey Shikamaru you ready to go then?" The orange clad storm that was Naruto yelled as he sprinted into the park to the tree the young Nara was laid under silently watching the clouds with his lids half closed.

"Troublesome. Hey Naruto how did it go with Iruka sensei then? Make any progress."

"Yeah I can do the clone jutsu almost perfectly now, though I have to make way too many for it to be stealthy." This brought a frown to Shikamaru's face.

'He couldn't make a healthy clone to save his life this morning, now he can do it perfectly and is making too many to be stealthy?' "What do you mean 'too many for it to be stealthy' I mean how many do you make five or six?" he asked still very much confused.

"Ha I wish try more like forty!" the Nara's jaw visibly dropped at this no genin to be should be able to make that many clones without being tired.

"Troublesome, put up or shut up." This was brought with a look of confusion from Naruto. This in turn caused Shikamaru to sigh. "It means prove it Naruto."

"Oh okay why didn't you just say so." And just as he finished the surrounding park was covered in smoke and revealing a sea of orange, blue and blonde. "Crap I made even more. Gotta learn to concentrate, but see what I meant by not stealthy at all." Shikamaru was used to strange things coming from a clan of well-respected ninja who could control shadows but even this caused him to stumble a bit at the herd of Naruto's in front of him. Then they popped out of existence to reveal the original with the biggest fox like grin Shikamaru had ever seen him produce.

"Okay you were right no stealth there, anyway let's go get this ramen you always go on about."

Bad mouthing his skill caused Naruto to frown but he quickly brightened up at the prospect of ramen. "Yeah let's I think I'm gonna waste away soon if I don't get any soon."

Ichiraku's ramen:

"Teuchi-jisan, Ayame-chan your number one customer needs his fix, oh and I brought a friend." Naruto yelled as he stepped into the ramen stall.

"Oh hi Naruto-kun we thought you were later than usual today, so who is your friend? He doesn't look very happy." Ayame said as she finished serving a customer.

"Oh that's just the way Shika looks, don't worry he's not an emo-teme like Sasuke." Naruto chuckled as he sat at the stool.

"Troublesome, hi I'm Shikamaru Nara nice to meet you. Naruto always talks about how good your ramen is." Shikamaru while not even fourteen yet couldn't help but notice the beauty of the young waitress and was surprised by the almost sisterly way she spoke to Naruto.

"Oh does he, well that's good he'd be screwed if we found out he was going somewhere else and bad mouthing the great taste of ramen" Teuchi warned poking his head round the corner of the kitchen though there was happy smile on his face.

"So how often do you actually come here Naruto?" Shikamaru asked trying to take his eyes off of Ayame for fear of her father with his rather large kitchen knife in his hands.

"Everyday" he responded in such a way that Shikamaru sweat-dropped. "Anyway I'm hungry, Ayame-chan can I get four miso ramen and two pork please I built up an appetite earlier." Suddenly Shikamaru was wondering why all the guys he was friends with ate so much.

"Just two beef for me please Ayame-san." He said lazily placing the menu down after taking a quick scan.

"Okay that will just be a minute Shika-kun, Naruto you will have to wait a bit longer to get all of yours." She strolled away happy to have her favourite customer making friends.

"So Shika when we've eaten wanna go back to mine and play games?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Games, how old are you Naruto I don't wanna play a board game, unless it's shogi then sure." Shikamaru said surprised by Naruto's immaturity, but hopeful for a game of shogi.

"Huh? No it's not a board game it's this cool computer based game I bought in the market off some weird merchant a few months ago. It's about warriors and wizards even ninja, it's really cool." Naruto defended his games with an almost religious belief backing him.

"Never heard of that type of thing before but it sounds interesting, not as fun as shogi but interesting none the less sure I'll come round Naruto." While this conversation was happening Ayame had placed one bowl in front of him and three in front of Naruto. Before Shikamaru could even managed to split his chopsticks Naruto had already devoured one bowl and was moving onto his next. "Troublesome."

Naruto's apartment:

Shikamaru had never been to this part of Konoha before. Everything was run down and it resembled more of a slum than the rest of the village. Shikamaru was curious he knew Naruto had some connection to the sandaime so was confused why he was made to live here. All the other orphans he knew got a stipend from the hokage as long as they were in the academy and could live closer to the ninja section of the village.

"Hey Naruto how come you live so far away from the academy, doesn't it take you too long to get there on time in the morning?" then he remembered the amount of times Naruto would turn up late.

"Well yeah it does, I used to live nearer the academy but the landlord upped the rent and this was the only place I could afford." Naruto shrugged and opened up the door to his small one bedroom apartment. Shikamaru frowned how could this be the only place he could afford? But he pushed those thoughts aside when he saw the state of Naruto's apartment, it looked like a storm of ramen and dirty clothes had blown through it. "Haha uh wait a minute and I'll clean up." Naruto then closed the door leaving Shikamaru outside. Shikamaru could hear Naruto frantically cleaning and the door flung open with a dishevelled but smiling Naruto stood there with his foxy grin. "Welcome to my casa de Naruto, it's not much but it's mine so I'm happy with it til I get enough to move out. Any way you want a drink or something and I'll turn the game on in a minute."

"Sure just water though." Shikamaru looked around the apartment looked like it was built over fifty years ago judging by the cracks in the walls and ceiling.

"Here you go, so wanna play?" Naruto pointed at the TV screen and fell onto the couch. "it's not that hard at first but it does get harder later on and seeing how much you like shogi, you might like the tactical side of it."

"Tactical side?" Shikamaru questioned the tactics involved in a game about warriors and mages.

"Yeah like sending out the warriors at the front to distract the enemy while you have the mages preparing a long range attack as well as having ninja's run a counter operation that you can use to disrupt the enemies moves and catch them from behind." Naruto elaborated while waiting for the game to load. Shikamaru sat patiently and was curious after Naruto's explanation about the game.

Naruto loaded up the game and after Naruto showing Shikamaru how to control his character he started playing and had to admit it was fun and he didn't have to move around or do much other than sit on the couch and twiddle his thumbs so he was happy.

"so let me get this straight you control how your character grows by applying skill points every time you level up, you can also get stronger by practicing certain skills and traits to make them stronger?" Naruto was glad Shikamaru had gotten into this he was scared it would be too childish for the pineapple headed boy.

"Yeah that's basically it, there are a few other ways but they don't really matter right now. You can't get access to those types of training until later in the game. So it seems like you're enjoying yourself with this I haven't heard you mutter troublesome very much." Naruto grinned at his new found friend. "Anyway do you know what happens tomorrow after we become genin, I mean your family are full of ninja so you probably know how it works right?"

"Yeah this thing is pretty fun and I don't need to move around or do much." He emphasised his point by stretching out and sinking lower into the old but admittedly comfortable couch. "About after the exams, all genins are separated into teams of three and assigned to a jounin-sensei. These teams tends to stay together for a long time, dad was part of the ino-shika-cho combination that where assigned to the same genin team and they still do missions together today, well sometimes they mostly stay inside the village now."

"Guess I should have paid more attention then, so who do you think will be on teams together?" He rubbed the back of his head feeling embarrassed for not knowing that.

Shikamaru took a few minutes to think about this by placing his hands in a sort of O-shaped hand seal.

"I guess seeing the success of our parents me Choji and Ino will be on the same team as each other, as for a jounin sensei for us I don't really know. I get the feeling that the higher ups will also want a tracking and infiltration team so will likely place Hinata, Kiba and Shino on the same teams for the effectiveness of the clan skills and bloodlines. Now the trickier part is who you will be placed on, seeing as you only really know the basic three academy jutsu but also have at least jounin level chakra reserves. You'll probably be given a jounin sensei that will either specialise you in a certain field or you just be generalised to be a jack of all trades ninja."

Naruto was stunned by the amount Shikamaru had thought about everything but at the same time it didn't really make much sense to him. "I don't know, just because your father's worked together well doesn't mean that you should be placed together, I mean you all have different personalities from your parents, well at least everyone but you and your dad, you almost seem like his clone sometimes."

Shikamaru just shrugged at the last statement though had to agree with Naruto on his points, he never was one to look too much into other people's personalities, whereas Naruto and his people watching hobby that he developed in class might make him a good judge of how people work together.

"Okay so how do you think the teams will be placed together?" Shikamaru was still playing the game through the conversation and while his attention was with Naruto he couldn't seem to pull himself away from it.

"Well you and Choji would be fine together being best friends and all, but Ino doesn't even seem like a ninja to me all she cares about are her looks and Sasuke, same with sakura for really. What you said about the tracking team makes sense, but why would you not split up the three trackers among three teams so that each team can if trained well become a tracking and infiltration team while still being combat ready. Honestly I have no idea who to place me with as I don't get on with anyone and same with Sasuke though he won't even try. Anyone else I don't really know." Naruto got up and walked to the kitchen and turned back to the newly obsessed gamer. "you want anything to eat or drink?"

"Sure food is good, what do you have?" He didn't even finish his sentence when he knew the answer 'ramen probably, troublesome. This game is so much fun, I'm starting to really get into the story as well, and I really hope they make it out of the city….. What the hell am I thinking?'

"Ramen and more ramen I don't really eat anything else." Naruto called back from the kitchen.

Shikamaru saved the game like Naruto told him then put the controller down. "Where's the bathroom?"

"Just to the left of the front door there." He said walking back in with two cups of instant ramen.

Hokage's office:

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the sandaime hokage was sitting in his office looking over the village he had been protecting for longer that he even remembered anymore he had seen wars peace and likely more than any other ninja alive today. He had seen his successor sacrifice his life to save the city and had taken office again. He needed to find another successor soon. He knew he could convince Jiraiya all he needed was to find someone to take over his spy network. He had a few ideas for that but in fairness to Jiraiya he would allow the man to judge the few ninja the hokage had selected. The reason for all of this was Naruto, Naruto uzumaki son of the Yondaime hokage, jailer of the nine tailed fox, and possible the biggest headache the aged hokage had ever endured. Though through all of his flaws the hokage loved the young uzumaki as if he were his own grandson, he took as much care of him as he could without deeming to be paying him favouritism when there were plenty of orphans after the kyuubi attacked Konoha.

The day he had retaken his office he swore to himself to find a successor when Naruto would enter the shinobi forces, but currently his two favoured choices were somewhere in the world doing god knows what with themselves. Jiraiya for all of his selflessness had lost so much on the kyuubi attack, he had lost his favoured student and practically his son, then he had to leave to maintain his spy network to make sure Konoha would be safe from outside forces. But somewhere along the way he had turned to boozing and whoring himself across the elemental nations.

The Sandaime's other student Tsunade Senju the world's greatest medic and the strongest kunoichi in the elemental nations. Has left Konoha long before the night of the kyuubi having lost too many of her loved ones in the village she ran taking one of the most promising kunoichi of the new generation with her. While tsunade herself had also taken to boozing her way across the elemental nations she would never lower herself to such perversion as Jiraiya.

The sandaime winced at the memory of the near crippled and broken state tsunade had left Jiraiya in when they were younger and she had caught him peeking on her while she bathed in one of the bath houses of Konoha.

No tsunade had taken to gambling and from all the stories and reports he had heard she had taken to it rather horrible becoming known as the legendary sucker throughout the elemental nations.

Naruto would be passing the exams tomorrow if his extra training with Iruka this afternoon was anything to go by and heading towards being a full-fledged ninja at full speed. He needed his two students back, and he needed them. He didn't really care which one would take the mantle of hokage from him both where accomplished shinobi and had experience leading men into battle and each had more than enough strength to stake claim to the title.

He turned to his desk and began writing a letter to his former student, recalling him back to the village. When he was finished he pulsed chakra from his knee into a sensor under his desk, immediately an ANBU appeared in the room, no smoke no noise he just seemed to fade into existence.

"Hokage-sama, how may I serve." The black cloaked ANBU's voice was altered by his mask and made to sound more metallic and monotone in order to preserve his or her identity.

"Chameleon I need this letter taken to Jiraiya immediately, this is priority B, I expect this done by the end of the month, also tell him if he is not back in the village by the end of the next month then he will be labelled as a missing-nin." The ANBU nodded

"Hai hokage-sama, is there anything else?" The mask seemed to crush the emotion from the voice and replace it with nothing but obedience.

"Yes send in Boar's team in five minutes" Chameleon turned and again just faded back into nothingness.

The aged hokage began to write another letter this one would require a bit more subtlety but he would have no arguments and these two had been gone too long for his tastes.

A team of four ANBU appeared in front of his desk all from a leaf shunshin. "Hokage-sama, how may we serve?"

"Ah yes Boar, I have letter here that I need to be delivered to Tsunade Senju, I need it delivered by the end of the month. After she has read the message tell her she is to return to the village with the month, if she does not the rest of the Senju estate and wealth will be turned over to the village and she will be labelled as a missing-nin. Be careful though I do not know how she will respond with this though it will likely be violently, I suggest the member of your team with a decent amount of social skill do the talking, cat I believe you would do best with this task."

The cat masked ANBU held her position though under the mask, she was happy to have been singled out by the hokage, then she realised the full fury of one of the Sannin could be turned against her. She began to pale under the mask but held her position. "Hai hokage-sama, will there be anything else?" Boar questioned

"No that will be all." Dismissed the ANBU shunshinned away leaving nothing behind to note their presence was ever there. Sarutobi called for his secretary to fetch him the files on this year's graduating class of shinobi in order to think up team designations for tomorrow evening when he would meet with the jounin-sensei for this year. he would allow the jounin-sensei to make requests of him but he would not bow them, he would take all the information given to him and he would make the best decision possible so as to prevent any mistakes. He wasn't known as 'The Professor' purely for his extensive library jutsu.

He lit his pipe and leant forward to go through the files his assistant had placed in front of him before leaving.

Naruto's apartment:

"Well it's been fun Naruto but I best get home or my mother will kill me, such a troublesome woman can't be placated with logic or reason. Truly such a troublesome woman." Shikamaru groaned as he got up off the couch and headed towards the door.

"Yeah Shika it's been good, see you tomorrow try not to oversleep or I imagine your mother would be even more troublesome." Naruto laughed and gave a wave to his new friend and closed the door. He took a quick glance at the clock it was nearing elven in the evening. 'Guess I could play a bit more before I go to sleep'

The jinchuuriki dropped down onto the couch and started playing from where Shikamaru had left off. 'jeez the guy based his character entirely off himself, no strength no speed but such a high intelligence wisdom stat, guess some people just can't do anything to change what they like, I bet he ends up with a girl exactly like his mother.'

And so Naruto played til he fell asleep on the couch the controller resting on his stomach.

The sun filtered through the curtains to Naruto's apartment and the rays bounced off of the young blondes face waking him slowly from his almost baby-like slumber. 'Okay now that was a weird dream, I gotta stop playing the game so much before I go to bed.'

Naruto looked up at the clock that remained resting on the wall of the living room it was currently eight thirty in the morning, this gave him half an hour to get ready and be at the academy on time. Like a blonde bolt of lightning Naruto shot into the shower immediately washed everything he could with the closest thing he could get hands on. This resulted in relatively clean but wet hair but overall a pretty shoddy job, he was clean but even he wouldn't say so himself. He got dressed in his usual orange monstrosity and jumped out the window leaving his apartment behind as he bounced from rooftop to rooftop, all the while never noticing the video game and control being completely missing from his apartment. He bounced from rooftop to rooftop gaining more speed with every leap.

PING

A small blue window appeared in front of him. Naruto tried to move out of the way but this cause him to lose balance and crash face first into the side of building.

"Ugh what the fuck was that." He rubbed the back of his head while holding his nose and moving the broken snout back into place with a loud crack. He opened his eyes and the blue window was there in front of him. He scrunched his eyes to try and see through the tears that had formed after fixing his nose.

A skill has been created through a specific action.

As soon as he had finished reading the first window it disappeared being replaced with another.

PING

A skill to aid in movement and battle 'Free Running' has been created

Underneath that window a larger red window appeared.

Free running: [Passive] Lv1 ExP: 0.0%

Allows user to move with greater speed and agility

5% increase in base movement speed.

5% increase in base dexterity

"The hell is this, someone's messing with me, and this has to be one of those genjutsu things Iruka-sensei mentioned." Naruto tried to remember what he had been taught about genjutsu, he remembered something about cutting off his chakra supply then surging it. 'okay let's see if this works' he shut his chakra off as best he could then went ahead to surge his chakra throughout his body. Nothing happened the screen remained in front of him, silently pulsing as if demanding his attention.

"Why do these things look so much like alerts from the game last night?" He asked to no one in particular just thinking out loud like he was used to doing.

'I think Iruka said something about pain removing the effects of genjutsu' he reached up and bit into the crux of his hand with his elongated canines. He flinched and pulled his hand away, he could feel the blood running down his hand, running in between his fingers and dripping onto the ground.

Naruto looked up to find the red window pulsing in front of him remained. He read through it again wondering what the strange window was, it looked exactly like the alert windows from his game. Now that he looked closer it had a small X in the top right corner of the window, he reached forward and tentatively touched the X. The window disappeared. Leaving a confused Naruto stood in the alleyway.

Naruto shaking off the weirdness off the weirdness of what just happened and physically jumped when he remembered he was late for the genin exams. He quickly jumped from wall to wall in the alleyway and again sprinted towards the academy jumping from building to building, noting how it took less effort than before and he seemed to be moving slightly faster and more fluidly than before.

Konoha ninja academy classroom 4:

Iruka was currently reading off the class register at just gone nine am. "Sasuke Uchiha?"

"Hn"

Iruka would have sweat dropped at the lack of response from the last uchiha, if he hadn't been used to from every other day he had taught him

"Naruto Uzumaki?" he looked up and around the room and couldn't see and neon blonde or bright orange anywhere so assumed that Naruto was either late or just not coming.

'Please don't make me fail you for being late Naruto if you do I swear I will kill you.' Iruka swore to himself.

'Where the hell is the troublesome baka now?' Shikamaru thought while lazily slouching back in his chair.

Just as the Iruka was about to mark Naruto down as a fail the young blonde barrelled trhough the door knowing it off its hinges causing most in the room to both jump in surprise and then sweat-drop at his antics.

"Sorry I'm late I tripped on the way here and hurt my hand" he said holding his bloodied but strangely healed hand up for Iruka to see.

"Just sit down Naruto, thankfully this is the last day I have to listen to your excuses."

Naruto walked up the aisle looking for a free seat he saw a few empty seats but he settled for the one directly in front of Shikamaru, ignoring the next to hinata. If he where to look closely he would have seen her drop her head a bit in disappointment.

"Jeez Naruto cut it close much?" all Naruto could do was rub the back of his head sheepishly and sit down.

Iruka went on to explain the rest of the day to the class, they would first have the written exam followed by the taijutsu exam and finally ending in the ninjutsu exam. Naruto for once listened attentively though he kept thinking about that strange that appeared on the way to the academy and what it could possible mean.

PING

"A quest has been created"

Quest alert:

Genin exam: pass the exam and become a ninja!

Naruto must pass the genin exam to become a ninja. Time limit 6 hours.

Completion award:

250 ExP and Genin status

Do you accept Yes or No?

Naruto nearly jumped out of his seat as another of the blue windows appeared in front of him, he was even more confused when no one else seemed to notice this in front of him. He looked around the room surprised to see everyone paying attention to the front where Iruka sensei was giving a speech about how he was proud to have taught each and every one of them. He returned his attention to the window and reached up to tap the yes button, as soon as he did the alert disappeared.

'Okay so no one else can see these things and they don't seem to be a genjutsu, I wonder what it meant by ExP, sounds like a levelling up system. Hmm sounds like I'm playing a game, if I did I'd probably have a status screen or something.' Almost as soon as he though status screen an orange alert window appeared in front of him again, this time he didn't jump but was just confused by what appeared in front of him.

Naruto Uzumaki: level 1

Age: 13

Strength: 9, Speed: 6, Defence: 6, Stamina: 12, Chakra: 24 (+255), Chakra control: 3, Endurance: 7, Intelligence: 5, Charisma: 9, Vitality: 10, Stealth: 10

Bijuu control: 0%

Naruto was literally left speechless at this and was left completely unaware to that the rest of the class had begun the written portion of the exam. He looked through his apparent stats surprised at them. 'Well this is definitely new, what the hell is Bijuu control?' disregarding the status window he closed it and began the exam in front of him, he knew some of it but not all he figured he'd answered enough of it correctly in order to pass the exam. He still had some time til the end of the exam and quickly took to his people watching again looking around the class to see how everyone was doing. Shikamaru was already asleep on his desk 'for god's sake Shika can you ever stay awake long enough to do anything more than the bare minimum. Choji was eating a bag of chips and seemed to be staring at his paper almost willing the answers into existence. Ino seemed to be working at a steady pace answering all the questions that she could without wasting time on ones sh0e couldn't. sakura was already done with her pen down and was currently staring dreamily at Sasuke, Sasuke on the other hand was going over everything again and again determined to get the highest score. Kiba had taken to the same method as Choji. Shino looked to be deep in thought as he was just staring at his paper occasionally writing something down.

Finally his eyes rested on hinata, he had always found the blue haired girl to be very pretty and she seemed to be polite and nice enough to everyone around her, he had tried talking to her a few times in the past but she had always just turned a shade of red that resembled a tomato, or she would just run away from him. She turned and caught his eye, neither turned to move away, Naruto just smiled slightly at her. 'Why is Naruto-kun smiling like that at me? Could he like me? No I'm just being silly again.' She smiled back causing the young blondes small smile to turn into a fully toothed smile which in turn caused hinata to turn such a deep shade of red she'd never turned before.

Iruka sat at his desk watching the two young genin to be's action and smiled. "Naruto concentrate on the exam!"

The blonde just scowled at his sensei before looking back to the paper before quickly going back to his people watching.

PING

A blue alert window appeared in front of his face again, 'god another one, I'm kind of glad no one else can see these the y would be so difficult to explain.'

A skill has been created through a specific action.

A skill to analyse and observe targets data and skills, 'Scan' has been created.

Scan [active] Lv1 ExP: 0.0

Shows target base statistics and skills as well as some personal information.

"Okay class after I collect the exam papers I want you to head down to the training field outside and wait there, you will be given the taijutsu examination in thirty minutes." He stated walking between the rows of seats and picking papers as he went.

Naruto stood and quickly went outside eager to see if this new 'skill' was real. He looked around eager to find a 'target' and quickly found Sasuke stood by the side of training field stood against a tree.

"Scan." Naruto said staring directly at the last uchiha.

Sasuke Uchiha: level 1

Age: 13

Strength: 7, Speed: 11, Defence: 6, Stamina: 7, Chakra: 11, Chakra control: 6, Endurance: 6, Intelligence: 7, Charisma: 4, Vitality: 7, Stealth: 8

Sasuke uchiha, last loyal uchiha (?) to Konoha, speed based taijutsu fighter.

'Oh this is good, this is very good.' Naruto rubbed his hands together at the implications of his new skill. He instantly began using his scan against everyone in the vicinity. No one had any noticeable skills other than the clan children that came through moments after, Shikamaru like Naruto thought had an intelligence stat that was far and away above everyone else, the same was to be said for Choji's strength. Though what surprised him the most was Sakura's insanely high chakra control compared to everyone else. He noted that he had the overall highest statistics compared to the others, though he knew he wasn't nearly the strongest with most of his statistics coming from his ridiculous chakra rating. He didn't know what the number in the brackets represented and was especially confused by the Bijuu control statistic as no one else seemed to have this.

PING

Scan's level goes up by one, more information on designated target available to user.

'Wow okay this thing is great, I have no idea what is going on but it seems like I've started to be part of a game. Hmm wonder if I should scan someone else then, see how much extra information is available.' He quickly turned and found Sasuke. "Scan"

Sasuke Uchiha: level 1

Age: 13

Strength: 7, Speed: 11, Defence: 6, Stamina: 7, Chakra: 11, Chakra control: 6, Endurance: 6, Intelligence: 7, Charisma: 4, Vitality: 7, Stealth: 8

Sasuke uchiha, last loyal uchiha (?) to Konoha, speed based taijutsu fighter, primary affinity Raiton.

"Huh so Sasuke has a lightening affinity, whatever that is." He muttered as Iruka had just appeared into the clearing.

"Okay class line up in alphabetical order and we will begin the taijutsu exam." Iruka commanded while pointing to the ring in the centre of the training field. "Alright you will be fighting against one of the instructors here at the academy; we have had seals placed on our body in order to lower our fighting abilities to that of mid-level genin for the duration of the spars. You all have to either defeat us or last for at least two minutes against us in order to pass. Okay starting from the left we will begin. Remember though this is purely taijutsu orientated and any jutsu used will account for a disqualification."

After everyone else had gone with about half the class being able to last the few minutes needed to survive and only one or two being able to actually defeat the instructors, Naruto stepped up to fight Iruka after Sasuke had beaten Mizuki with 3 seconds to go.

Naruto chuckled nervously "Can't I fight Mizuki Iruka-sensei, that looked really easy." Mizuki just glared at him and Iruka just brushed it off.

Iruka stood in the ring and settled into the basic stance of the academy. "You ready Naruto?"

"Hmm gimme a second gotta stretch first." 'Scan' Iruka's information popped in front of Naruto while he stretched out, it showed him to be stronger than Naruto in every way other than chakra levels. 'Seems he hasn't got great stamina or speed guess I can aim for that' he thought as he settled into the free form brawler stance that he'd taught himself.

Iruka almost dead-panned 'what the hell kind of stance is that! Has Mizuki even taught him anything while he's been here at the academy?

Just as Mizuki called for the fight to begin Naruto dashed at Iruka throwing a haymaker with his right as he did Iruka went to block but Naruto pulled back slightly and using the momentum rolled under his guard and swung with his left to hit the inside of iruka's knee. Iruka lifted his leg and hopped backwards out of Naruto's range. Naruto expecting this happen dashed forward again with a strong right. Iruka this time went to intercept Naruto catching him under the chin with a palm strike this lifted Naruto off the ground and sent him skidding. "Really Naruto you can't do the same thing over and over again in battle." Naruto turned and spat blood out of his mouth and grinned at Iruka. He lifted himself up and again dashed towards Iruka, Iruka having enough dashed into Narutos guard and sent a side kick into his ribs, or he would have had Naruto not slid down beneath his legs and grabbing the scarred Chunin's ankle as he did swung round it to kick him in the back of the knee causing him to buckle forward where Naruto proceeded to land a right hook with all his weight into the iruka's side. Iruka winced feeling the force Naruto had put behind the blow.

'Oww it may be an unorthodox fighting style but it's slipped through my guard a few times and that hit had more force than the rest of the class except Choji could ever produce.' "Naruto you won't beat me with body shot's you should have gone for the win in that situation."

Iruka took the offensive this time rushing at Naruto who simply stood still and when Iruka went for a high kick to the blonde's temple simply allowed himself to fall backwards into a roll and once his feet had planted on the ground used his legs as a spring and launched himself full force into the same ribs he had bruised with his earlier blow. This took Iruka off his feet and the chunin knew one of his ribs was cracked. He rolled back to his feet finding Naruto upon him once again, he had been a teacher for a long time and so wasn't up to the same levels as most chunin. He was having hard time breathing after Naruto's body check but he sidestepped a straight forward punch from Naruto and brought his knee up into his gut, he then went to perform a hammer blow to his back.

"Time, Naruto you pass." Iruka's fists where inches away from Naruto's back but the chunin simply bent down and picked him up off the floor and dusting the dirt off of his shoulders smiling proudly at the young blonde.

"Naruto well done you certainly have an unorthodox style but it did the trick I'm gonna be feeling that side for a while for sure." Naruto just grinned and rubbed the back of his head again. He knew that if his teacher was low on stamina then he would only need to whittle him down with body blows and he would cave, Naruto knew with his lack of reach and speed he had next to no chance of defeating Iruka in a straight fight so had to bring him down to his level by attacking his legs, it had worked almost perfectly. But the chunin was more experienced than him and his blows still lacked the power needed to take him out.

PING

'Oh god what is it this time? I don't think I can handle more of this today.

A skill has been created through a specific action.

Taijutsu style [Kazenokami no nagare] has been created.

Kazenokami no nagare [passive] Lv1 ExP: 0.0

Flowing taijutsu style that uses great flexibility agility to evade and move but strong and heavy blows to strike.

5% increase in physical attack speed and damage.

'Okay now these sound pretty damn cool, wind god flow, I can get used to that. Didn't think some movements I made up on the fly would really work like this but I'm not going to complain.' He went and stood with the rest of his class after he quickly closed the window.

Sasuke had a frown on his face the entire way though Naruto's exam with Iruka. 'How the hell did the Dobe move like that, it didn't make sense he seemed to move around Iruka-sensei like a calm breeze but the power behind his hits was more than I could produce against Mizuki-sensei. Oh well it's no problem to me, he's still far too slow to even touch me. And he was about to lose that fight anyway.'

"Saved by the bell, when will you learn Dobe?" Sasuke smirked getting a laugh from the girls and some guys in the class.

"Shut up emo-teme, seriously keep your opinions to yourself, god knows I do." Naruto's tone was neutral but he was one more comment away from blowing up at someone.

"You can't talk to Sasuke-kun like that you baka! I'm surprised you are even allowed into the academy." Sakura had decided to weigh in with her oh so important opinion.

"Really you're surprised at me, tell me sakura have you done anything other than follow Sasuke around like a lost puppy ever since you got to the academy, even though it's clearly obvious the teme is only interested in dudes. No the only thing you're good for would be your book smarts and let's see how long they last you in the real world, my guess is you freeze up and die on your first real mission. Hell I bet the teme would be happy about it, one less harpy constantly trying to get in his pants."

Everyone was shocked sure Naruto was a dick to people who pissed him off but he never flat out tore people apart like that before. Sasuke was close to hitting him for the gay comments and sakura looked half ready to explode and the other half was tearing up.

"Shut up and get back inside class, Naruto try not to hurt anyone else's feeling on the way either." Iruka yelled still holding his rubs gingerly.

Back inside the class room Naruto had sat with Shikamaru on his left with Hinata on his right. The girl looked like she was about to faint from the proximity she was to her crush. "Hey Shika how did a lazy ass like you get through the taijutsu exam anyway wouldn't it have been far too troublesome for you?"

"He just ran away til the time lapsed, wasn't that big of a deal really." Choji had sat down on the other side of Shikamaru. The two had been friends since they could remember.

"Sorry if I don't have the strength to just knock the guy out Choji, anyway I passed and that's all that matters." Naruto had to agree with Shika though he was surprised at how strong Choji was.

"Gotta say you where awesome out there Choji, didn't realise you could hit so damn hard, remind me never to piss you off big guy." Naruto turned to Hinata, he knew she was the only girl in class that didn't adore Sasuke and that was always a plus, though she was ridiculously shy and wouldn't talk to anyone unless they spoke first. "You were great as well hinata, I wish I could move the way you do, I've never seen someone's hand move that fast before, and how did you make the teachers arms just stop moving like that?"

Hinata let out a small squeak when Naruto had turned to talk to her. "Thank you Uzumaki-san, your fight was very impressive as well. I've never seen such a taijutsu style though."

Naruto chuckled in embarrassment. "Hehe thanks Hinata, I just made up as I went along I figured it would work better against Iruka-sensei seeing as he didn't have much stamina left after fighting his share of the class. And you don't have to call me Uzumaki-san just Naruto is fine Hinata-chan." The Hyuuga girl nearly erupted from the blush that crossed her face.

Iruka and Mizuki walked into the classroom to let the class know about the ninjutsu portion of the exam. "Okay class in order to graduate you'll have to do the Bunshin no jutsu, Kawarimi no jutsu and the Henge no jutsu. When your name is called make your way to the room next door. Akimichi Choji you're up first." Choji quickly ate the rest of his bag of chips and made his way down and out of the class.

Naruto began to fidget nervously in his seat he knew he could do the Henge and Kawarimi perfectly but he still had his doubts about the Bunshin. 'Calm down Naruto Iruka said I would do fine; I know I can do this.' Hinata was called next and she nearly flew out of her chair as her name was called. "Good luck Hinata-chan!" Naruto called as she made her way down to the front, she froze as he called her name but strengthened her resolve to do well for her crush.

After the rest of the class had gone it was just after Sasuke had been called Naruto was just as impatient as ever and had taken to looking more closely at the status screen he had found earlier and remembering the stats of others he had seen. 'okay so I seem to have a ridiculous amount of chakra for my age, though Iruka said the same thing yesterday but I also happen to have terrible chakra control, and I need 250 ExP to level up, which just happens to be the amount I will gain if I finish this 'quest'.'

He decided to experiment and called out 'Equipment Select' this had brought up another orange window with a picture of Naruto in the centre with smaller windows branching out from his torso, legs, arms, hands, head and feet. He also appeared to have 2 possible weapon slots and finally a supplementary weapon slot. The main two weapon slots where obviously empty though the supplementary weapon slot was currently being occupied by a kunai pouch with 8 kunai in and 20 shuriken, training standard. His body and legs where equipped with his orange jumpsuit that the window had taken to calling his orange jumpsuit 'The Monstrosity'

The Monstrosity, -3 to all stats, +5 to visibility, equip to legs and torso.

'Wow this game thingy really seems to hate my jumpsuit, but orange is awesome. It's clearly the best colour. Guess I'll have to get new clothes tomorrow.'

As Iruka walked in he closed the windows he had open. "Okay Naruto come on through."

Naruto walked into the room next to their regular classroom to find Iruka and Mizuki sat next to each other behind a desk at the front of the class. "Okay Naruto begin by switching with the log here by using the Kawarimi." Naruto ran through the required hand seals fairly quickly then focussed his chakra onto the log in front of him and was instantly swapped with the log, leaving a puff of smoke in his previous location leaving a puff of smoke to disguise the log. All in all it was a reasonable well performed Kawarimi.

"Well done Naruto the speed of replacement was well done though I believe you could work on the speed at which you go through the hand signs. Pass." Naruto beamed a smile at Iruka.

"Okay Naruto now Henge into one of the Hokage's your choice." Naruto promptly transformed into a carbon copy of the fourth hokage he turned and flashed a smile at the two proctors waiting for their decision. "Well I can't find anything to fault in your transformation; it seems perfect in every way. Henge passed as well" The Yondaime hokage just smiled and turned back into Naruto. Both men gave a small gasp as they noticed the similarities between the two but pushed it to the back of their minds.

"Alright Naruto time for the final test, perform the Bunshin no jutsu please." Mizuki had to hide a smirk knowing that Naruto would only fail this jutsu. He needed the boy to fail in order for his plan to work.

Naruto calmed himself and searched inside for his chakra. He imagined tearing off the smallest piece he could to use for the Bunshin no jutsu, he flashed through the hand signs moulding the chakra needed.

"Bunshin No Jutsu" eight perfectly healthy Narutos popped into existence. "Hey Iruka-sensei, we pass right!" the clones all yelled in unison." Mizuki had to visible restrain himself from frowning at this. Iruka couldn't help but smile proudly at the young blonde.

"Yes Naruto you pass, now come here and collect your headband so we can officially recognise you as a ninja of Konoha." Naruto bounced over to the two teachers alm0ost snatching the headband from iruka's hands and wrapped it around his head removing his goggles beforehand. "Naruto come back here tomorrow at 10:00 am to get your team assignments. Okay, good see you tomorrow Naruto."

Naruto bolted out of the door at near break neck speeds heading straight for Ichiraku's to get some food and share the good news.

PING

Quest completed: Genin exam

Rewards: 250 ExP, Konoha headband and genin status.

Naruto was instantly stopped in his tracks by the appearance og the quest completion window. 'Guess this is what will happen whenever I finish a quest.' Just as he closed the quest complete window, another window appeared.

Level up: level 2 obtained

+10 stat points to allocate.

'Stat points to allocate?' Naruto was confused for a second for a second before knowing instantly what to do. "Status Screen" Naruto took a second to reacquaint himself with his stats. 'Okay so it's clear I need to up my control seeing as how I have to resort to so many clones. Guess I could also up my intelligence to match up with the rest of my stats to make me a bit more well-rounded.'

He looked at the window and applied four points to intelligence and chakra control, leaving them at nine and seven respectively. 'Okay this leaves another two points left over. Hmm I suppose I could always use more speed.' He applied the last two points to speed bringing it up to eight. He took a second to make sure that's what he wanted then hit confirm. The screen turned into two bright green lights and one smaller dimmer green light, the lights pulsed slightly then flew down the genin' throat. He felt a pulse go through his head while another seemed to run through all the muscles in his body followed finally by a tightening sensation coming from the inside of his body which he assumed to be from his chakra coils. He stumbled slightly then stood upright.

"Okay so that was new, wonder if I'm actually smarter and faster. Not sure how to check my control or smarts though." Naruto walked forward and opened the door seeing the rest of his class being picked up and congratulated by their parents. He walked through the crowd sending and a smile towards Shikamaru and Hinata respectively.

He then jumped up to the nearest rooftop and headed towards Ichiraku's ready to spread the good news and eat some of god's gift.

Okay so that was the first chapter of my first story out the way, feel free to review. Constructive would be preferable but nice colourful insults never go down the wrong way.

Smogged Troll