"Ok, don't panic. All I've gotta do is pass a test, that's it. It's just the final exam at the academy, nothing more. As long as I don't blank out on the written segment, show enough control in the demonstrative portion, and sit next to Sakura, Shikamaru, or Sasuke I should pass fine." The kunoichi-in-training murmured to herself while fixing her long blonde ponytail and making sure the trademark bang fell perfectly over her eye. But while she indulged in her vanity, the margin of error for being on time and NOT automatically failing was closing fast. Seconds later, a female voice could be heard "Hurry up Ino-chan, you don't want to be late!" Though disregarding her mother's voice as annoying, she glanced at the clock and let out a loud shriek, seeing she now had ten minutes to get to class, and it takes a solid fifteen minutes to get there with minimal interruptions.

Ino's mother was worried about her daughter being late and was about to remind her again when she saw a yellow and purple mass fly by hurriedly saying"thanksmomgottagoseeya!" She did all this completely forgetting the bento she left on the counter as a reward for passing.

Another kunoichi-in-training could be seen on the street on the way to the Academy, but this girl was moving at a much slower pace. Incidentally, she lived directly across from Ino, but was already three quarters of the way there, muttering about shinobi history, the lineage of Kages, and other small tidbits. She was completely hung up on the histories, protocol, and the rules of a shinobi, not the chakra and its uses. She knew all that and more thanks to her clans' ability.

Her clan prided itself not on a much-sought after Kekkei Genkai such as the Sharingan, nor on a deadly taijutsu form such as the gentle fist, not even a special clan justu similar to the Nara's shadow possession or the Akimichi body modification, no it was simply the superior understanding of chakra. To put it in rank, a five year old Haruno child had a better grasp on the rudimentary theory of chakra than an eight year old genin. At age seven, tree climbing was second nature. This gap of ability on widened as a fresh genin could give a chunin a good run for their money when water walking over a hot spring. Finally, an experienced Haruno chunin could often put a black ops member to shame in the projection, length and quality of genjutsu's and directing chakra to any part of their body, whether it be their hands, feet, or even abdomen to block physical attacks. This superiority in knowledge of chakra was often shown first-hand by pissed off female clan members. Many jonins and clan heads (Haishi included) had vivid and painful memories as a chunin getting a thorough beat-down after taunting over rank differences. It was also normal for a Haruno to be in the top 5 % in their class.

Sakura was no different. She shared the highest scores on written tests and chakra understanding with her crush and Shikamaru. On tests though, she had conflicts of interest. She wanted to do her best and pass with the highest score possible, but conversely, she didn't want to continue showing up her crush by appearing smarter and better than him in the vast majority of topics. She decided to take the middle path, do her best but "miss" one problem, then hope Sasuke makes a perfect score and realizes that Sakura was on par with him, leading to the mutual confession of love for eternity.

Ino was not the only person to cut it close regarding timeliness. Another blonde haired person was having difficulty motivating himself to seize the day. It took an alarm clock with large, bright, digital numbers accompanied by a sound akin to an air raid siren modified to sound less like impending doom and more like a typical beeping sound, yet still loud as hell. Slowly rousing from a fantasy involving him, Sakura, and ramen, our blue-eyed hero squinted at the clock, and after slowly completing some very complex equations involving the current time subtracted by the time of his exam, he flew about his small cramped apartment similar to Ino, but in a different manner. He quickly looked through his closet and views his three-styles of dress: two –or four- sets of mission clothes, two civilian outfits, and his "ninja clothes". His self-pep talk was similar to Ino's "All right, calm down. All I've gotta do is pass a test, that's it. It's just the final exam at the academy, third time running, nothing more. As long as I don't blank out on the written segment, and sit next to Sakura, I'm fine." But what he didn't go over was the demonstrative segment. He decided to just wing it and hope for the best.

It was finally time for the exam and the ninja hopefuls gathered at the entrance, each projecting their natural personalities regarding tests.

Sakura was calm, cool, and collected, confident in herself in passing this test.

Ino was hunched over and panting holding onto the wall for support with her hair flowing down her back and face and her ponytail loose threatening to blind her, having to run at full speed to the academy using every shortcut she could think of to get here.

Shikamaru slouched with his hands in his pockets muttering over this being troublesome.

A portly but cheerful Choji, smiling at Shikamaru's grumbling and working on his fourth bag of chips in two hours.

Sasuke, his far away eyes slightly unfocused remembering not test answers, but memories of his brother and the massacre he was forced to watch.

Shino simply had his hands in his pockets, emitting the buzz of his kikai colonies and his natural "weird-ness" aura.

A cocky and loud Kiba conversing with Akamaru on how easy this test was and how they wouldn't even need to cheat.

A grinning and exuberant Naruto clothed in his "ninja clothes" which in reality was an orange monstrosity. He gave off a naïve but confident aura, certain he would pass this time around. But, like his "ninja clothes" as anything but, so was his inner confidence level. He was actually terrified of failing again for the third year running and being held back again.

Finally a shy, quiet girl with her eyes divided between the ground and Naruto's confident smile when he wasn't looking.

Shortly, the door was unlocked and the hopeful children took a seat, some "strategically sat" near crushes or someone to cheat off of and pass.

Ino took a seat next to Shikamaru, reasoning that although she'd MUCH rather sit next to her Sasuke-kun, she still needed to pass, and siphoning answers from Shikamaru was a guaranteed pass. Sakura managed to sit two spaces away from Sasuke-kun, but the blonde idiot beat her to sitting directly next to him. Hinata, true to her shy nature, took the seat in the top right-hand corner of the room, where she could somewhat hide but observe her Naruto-kun with no trouble. Shikamaru took the first seat available and let out a huge sigh full of exhaustion, as if just moving a few yards was a marathon in itself.

After Iruka had arrived and watched his students sit down, he inwardly smiled at the varied responses to having to take this test. He was especially amused at Naruto's visage of confidence. Start!

Immediately, the sound of pencils tapping against wood and parchment filled the air as Iruka watched all of his students for cheating, just in case someone felt above the rules. He was of the belief that none of his precious students would ever think of needing to risk their entire careers on a simple test. He couldn't be more wrong.

Many of his students felt the need to cheat. Ino sucked Shikamaru dry on every question except the last one due to time restrictions. Hinata liberated some of the harder answers from Sakura, while the orange-clad boy failed to cheat off of Sakura and only managed a few answers off Sasuke before he noticed Iruka's gaze sliding towards him. The rest of the questions he comes up with more "creative" answers, ones that although complete bullshit, sounded close to being in the ball-park of near the possible answer.

After all the papers had been graded, the results came and Iruka voiced who passed from best score to worst "Sakura Haruno and Shikamaru Nara both have perfect scores. The rest are Hinata, Sasuke, Ino, Choji, Shino, kiba,…" During this run-down on names, Naruto had failed to hear his name once and believed to be gone as failed. When he began listening again he heard "and the last passing grade goes to Naruto Uzumaki." "Yatta! I passed, I passed! I pas… Ow!" Naruto had begun to dance in his seat earning a smile from Hinata and a quick and painful smack on the back of his head by an annoyed Sakura. Sakura had hoped to miss one to get the same grade as Sasuke, but somewhere along the line had entered "Test Mode" where she attempted to answer each and every question correctly and thoroughly.

"Next is the demonstrative segment, if all the applicants will follow me please?" Iruka said leading away from the desks and towards a hallway with one sliding door in front of them. "Now, when called, you will each enter this room and perform a justu of our choosing. We will start with the highest grade first, if you could come in with me Sakura?" Iruka explained with a smile. He led her into the room and introduced her to her three chunin proctors: A hyuga, Iruka, and a third nameless chunin.

*small time-skip*

"Naruto Uzumaki?" Terrified and shaking, the said boy entered the room and awaited his proctors command. He noticed with interest that the Hyuga on the far right was looking- no, glaring- at him with the standard hatred that he got everywhere else. This in itself wasn't interesting; it was how the veins around his eyes became so prominent and idly wondered if Hinata could do that.

"Please demonstrate the Bunshin with multiple copies." Naruto visibly paled, this was his worst technique! Still he closed his eyes, formed the sign, put all of his chakra into it and with a poof, a useless clone appeared. He opened one eye then looked at the proctors hopefully…YOU FAIL!