Naruto: Cautious Ninja

Assuming that the entire length of paper contained explicit details on countless ninjutsu and techniques of a malicious nature, it made sense that somebody like Mizuki would want to get his hands on it to use for himself. There was no telling what kind of frightening and dangerous jutsu were contained within its chapters.

So, being the curious cat that he was, Naruto peeled it open to take a peek. Scanning over the opening section, the blonde blinked at the first jutsu that popped up, "Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?"

Reading the information on the technique and the hand seal specified, the scroll said that it was a jutsu that allowed the user to create multiple, solid copies of himself by splitting his chakra evenly between each copy. It also said it was dangerous for a fact that it could potentially kill the user if they didn't have enough chakra, which had Naruto rolling his eyes at. There was a whole bunch of other stuff too about shared learning experience, using it to confuse the enemies, tactical advantages, each clone being able to act independently and all that noise; all in all it was a pretty impressive technique.

In fact, Naruto was really tempted to learn it, feeling that this was probably the jutsu that could make up for his inability to produce a regular clone through the Bunshin no Jutsu.

He rolled the scroll up a second later and shrugged.

"Meh, I'll try it out another time. I'm pretty happy with just using my Jet Hand for now. Maybe I can mix it in with my other techniques and create some new combinations with it," he exclaimed while looking down at his hand and flexing it. Giving an affirmative nod, he then turned back to his previous issue lying across the trench in the ground and scratched his head. "So… what do I do with this piece of garbage?"

OOO

The next morning…

Naruto let out a very tired yawn that pretty much killed the silence of his classroom and drew a lot of attention from the surrounding students to him. The sheer volume of his exhausted call indicated how sleep-deprived he was, which had a lot of people scratching their heads over what could have happened last night that had him in such a state of exhaustion.

The jinchuriki however was not interested in telling anyone about the details. After he and Tayuya had managed to bag both Mizuki and his accomplices following the attempted theft of the Scroll of Seals, they then dragged all four perpetrators to the Hokage's office, dumped them right on the carpet, and informed Hiruzen of everything that had happened. The elder was indeed pleased to have the scroll back in his possession and even more so when he reviewed the kids' handiwork on the people responsible for the incident at the village's main entrance.

Having to put out a massive fire started by a bucket-load of explosive tags was not an easy thing to clean up.

Upon hearing their reports and everything they knew of the situation for himself, the Hokage congratulated them for a job well done and ordered all four collaborators to be processed. After this attempted breakout, he made sure to have the three kunoichi filed quickly and to be sent off to one of their other facilities outside of the village. Mizuki on the other hand would face questioning from Ibiki and serious punishment for his actions, before being sent off to prison.

It had been one hell of a night that Naruto and Tayuya both slept soundly over. But even with all their success…

"I still wasn't able to get any study-time in, damn it!" Naruto thought, glaring towards the front of the classroom with tired eyes.

As frustrated as he was, he couldn't help it. Whatever happened happened, and even though he wasn't able to catch up on any of his work from over the year, he was still able to fly through the written exam, and perform both of the jutsu required for him to graduate. With the Bunshin no Jutsu exam in full swing and Iruka calling up students one at a time to the classroom next door, this left Naruto waiting with baited breath for his results to be delivered.

Within minutes of the beginning of the Bunshin trials, Naruto was soon the only one left sitting in the room. He slumped over his desk exhaustedly and continued to wait. After all, he promised Iruka that he would.

Just as it seemed like he was going to be left out of the grand finale and the graduation ceremony, the opening and closing of the classroom door at the bottom of the stands caught Naruto's attention. Roused from his state of semi-consciousness, the boy looked up to see Iruka making his entrance to the room. The Chunin, wearing his usual stare of indifference, took to the stairs and approached Naruto's row, where he then moved into the one in front before coming to stand before the jinchuriki.

Naruto blinked when he met the serious scowl of his teacher.

"S-Sensei?"

Oh God. Did he fail? Was this firm expression on his instructor's face an indication that he had failed all of his exams? The man wasn't carrying any extra headbands, papers, awards or trophies with him, only his clipboard. A feeling of dread quickly began to well up inside Naruto when he received no response from the scarred Chunin, and rested his head in his hands in shock.

"Oh no…"

"Naruto," Iruka spoke up suddenly, catching the child's attention again. When the jinchuriki's eyes locked onto him, the instructor smiled. "Close your eyes."

Curious, the boy did as he was asked. He felt the pressure around his head from his goggles removed and replaced by something else, something that lacked the elasticity of the eyewear's bands, the discomfort from its lens pieces and the familiarity of its placement. Once Iruka had finished doing whatever it was he had set out to do, the man stepped back and grinned.

"Now go ahead and open them."

When Naruto did, the boy gazed up at his teacher in surprise when he saw the man was no longer wearing his headband. With his goggles dangling from his teacher's hand, the Chunin nodded happily to the jinchuriki when he quickly realized what must have happened.

"Congratulations. You graduate."

Suddenly, Naruto seemed to forget how tired he really was.

A new light unexpectedly filled the room when, without warning, Iruka was tackled by his student leaping over his desk to hug him. It happened so fast and so suddenly that the instructor had no idea if it was the glare of the sun from outside or the smile on his student's face that blinded him.

Either way, it was a bright day for both of them…

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