Chapter II: Genin Exams

4 years later Naruto and Menma are now twelve.

"Alright class, today is the Genin Exam and this year's exam will be on bushin no jutsu. When I call your name please come to the room next door so that you can begin your test." Mizuki, one of the teachers of the class instructed.

"Man this is going to be such a troublesome test. Hey Naruto, Menma, what do you think." Shikamaru asked the young blond who now was wearing a white hoodie with a red spiral on the back black ninja pants and ninja boots, and the black haired boy who was wearing a blackhoodie with no sleeves his hood was down he had black fingerless gloves with metal on the knuckles so he could add chakra to them.

"I think the best think for the best thing for you to do is worry about yourself, Shikamaru. I mean for God's sake, the ground itself can move more than you move in a month." Naruto said as Menma chuckled.

"Smart-ass." Shikamaru mumbled to himself.

"Hey Sasu-gay." Naruto said.

"Arrghh! One of these days I'm gonna kill you dobe." Sasuke said.

"Next, Uzumaki Naruto."Mizuki called out.

"Okay Naruto the hokage asked me to give you and Menma a different test." Iruka said.

"Oh really?" Naruto as he raised his eyebrow.

"So instead of the usual test, you will be tested for each jutsu style. If you pass you will receive your headband, okay." Iruka explained.

"No prob." Naruto said.

"First up is genjutsu. All you have to do is show me a genjutsu technique." Iruka says.

Then suddenly Iruka found himself falling from the sky.

"Woahhhhhhhh! KAI! KAI!" Iruka said.

"That was amazing you guys. Alright, next up is ninjutsu, which should be easier since it is your strongest style." Iruka says after he recovered from the genjutsu.

Naruto does a seal and then vanishes in the wind and was instantly behind Iruka.

"Now Menma your test will be a little bit different. You will go up. First genjutsu."

As soon as he said that Iruka found himself walking through the village until a bunch of assassins started killing the civilians. Then it all just stopped and they went back to the real world.

'This kid's mind is scary.' Iruka thought.

"Next ninjutsu."

Menma then made a shadow clone. Iruka looked confused for a second when Menma pulled out a kunai and stabbed the clone. The clone blew up with an electric explosion.

Iruka eyes widened.

"You both pass."

'Not only did he master the Shunshin No Jutsu but he also create an elemental version of it? I knew they were was extremely talented in Ninjutsu but not this talented. And Both of them can use their Chakra affinities already' Iruka thought. He then sighed and turned around to meet Naruto and Menma, "Very good you two. Now, the last one is Taijutsu and all you have to do is fight me so I can see how well your Taijutsu is." Iruka explained.

Naruto and Menma nodded and while Iruka got into a traditional fighting stance, Naruto and Menma just put their hands in their pockets, confusing Iruka.

"Are you sure you want to stand like that, guys?" Iruka asked, grinning.

"I'm sure, sensei." Naruto replied with a somewhat cold, causing Iruka to flinch.

Iruka then charges toward Naruto and starts to throw a left punch but then was about to switch to a right punch when suddenly, Naruto grabbed his right arm to flip him into the air and into the ground.

"W...what happened? Naruto, how did you do that?" Iruka asked, confused at what his student did.

"It's simple, Iruka-sensei. I saw your right arm slightly move, indicating that you were going to attack with it instead and your first attack was a feint. Despite the speed and strength difference between the two of us, my ability to deduce your attack enabled me to react faster than you and thus counter you." Naruto explained, as if it wasn't such a big deal. Suddenly while Iruka was distracted Menma round house kicked him in the face.

'I forgot that not only is Naruto a smart-ass, he's also very intelligent.' Iruka thought.

"Well, I don't think I need to continue this test then. As of now, you are now a genin, Naruto and Menma." Iruka says as he gets back up. He then gets one of the headbands from the table in the room, and then gives it to Naruto and Menma, Naruto wraps it around his left arm. Menma puts it on his right shoulder.

AFTER EVERYONE TOOK THE EXAMS.

All of the would-be jounin sensei were in the office of the Hokage looking through his crystal ball at all of the rookies. Hiruzen looked at Asuma who had foregone the cigarettes due to the room being so crowded, "Is there any particular reason you asked for the addendum to your team Asuma?"

Asuma smirked when all eyes fell on him, "Trying to put me on the spot huh dad? Alright I'll explain it afterwards."

XxX

Iruka continued listing off names on his clipboard, "Team 7 will be Akimichi Chouji, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. Your instructor will be Hatake Kakashi."

"Shannaro!" Sakura exclaimed after hearing her team, "Take that Ino-pig! True love conquerors all!"

Ino placed her cheek in her hand in a dejected fashion while Sakura continued to celebrate. Sakura turned to Sasuke with hearts in her eyes, "Now we'll be on the same team Sasuke-kun, isn't that great?"

"Hm." Was the stoic genin's response.

Naruto had to bite back a snort of laughter at that. It was clear that Sasuke cared so much about his predicament.

"Team 8 will be Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino with Yuhi Kurenai as your jounin sensei." Iruka said as the three young ninja mentioned all acknowledged that he had been heard. Team 9 is still in circulation so we'll move on to Team 10. Team 10 will be Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Menma Uzumaki, and Uzumaki Naruto with Sarutobi Asuma."

"Aww." Ino said as her head slumped onto the desk, "I've got a lazy bum, a pervert, and a classclown on my team... why me?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at Ino's words and kept his eyes on the hokage's notes, 'Why did he give me these? The only thing that's been useful so far was the one that told me we were going to be broken up into squads like all genin were. Other than that these have been a waste of time.'

"And that's all for now." Iruka concluded, "You will all be picked up by your respective jounin sensei after lunch. Until then get together with your team, get to know them, and one more time, good luck to all of you." Iruka spared the class one last glance before leaving the students on their own.

Naruto picked up his notes and stuck them inside of his jacket just as Ino came down from her seat behind him with her hands on her hips, "Alright, you, Menma and Shikamaru are coming with me."

"Troublesome." Shikamaru said being annoyed.

The blonde haired boy took a seat next to Shikamaru before breaking out a bag of chips that he began to snack on. Menma looked at a slightly fuming Ino.

'Ah, she's so pretty when she is angry.' Menma thought.

Shikamaru who had both of his eyes closed as he leaned back in his chair, "So I guess we're teammates now huh?" He said with a slight laugh, losing it when Ino glared at him.

XxX

"Alright it's pretty simple why I chose Naruto to round out the team instead of going with Chouji in the end." Asuma said, "While he's not really smart I think that Shikamaru is hiding a major brain somewhere so he'll be the intelligence. Ino is bossy enough to keep both of them in line. And Naruto is going to show more than enough effort during actual training to inspire the other two to improve. Besides, with a Nara to hold opponents in place I'm sure that the kid is going to have some knockout power to him sooner rather than later. Now, Naruto's brother Menma is practically a prodigy so I didn't see any reason not to chose him, and well since every other squad was full I took him."

Hiruzen sighed, "You know Kakashi wanted him for his own squad right?"

Asuma smirked and placed a cigarette in his mouth, "And where is he again?" All of the other jounin in the room snickered quietly when it was clear that he wasn't there at the time, "Oi, Kurenai!" The bearded man said when his cigarette was snatched from his mouth by a stunning raven-haired woman with striking red eyes.

Kurenai tossed the cigarette aside, "But to take both of them onto your team. Aren't you a bit concerned about the you-know-what?"

Asuma shrugged, "Why should I be? Has anyone ever even heard of any episodes taking place with those kids? Ever? At this point they might as well not even have it for all of the 'influence' it has over them. They're going to work out just fine on my team, I know they will."

Nodding at the points his son made, Hiruzen then gave a knowing smirk, "I believe Naruto-kun and Menma-kun is going to have a few surprises for you already in regards to his performance on your team."

"And that's why I wanted them." Asuma said before placing another cigarette in his mouth making sure to keep it away from Kurenai, "I mean, someone has to be the enthusiasm on my squad. I have a slacker, a loudmouth, a prodigy with a perverted side, and a powerful knucklehead, ... It actually sounds like fun to me." He sparked up his lighter, placing it under the cigarette to start smoking.

XxX

Ino had pretty much demanded that they all leave the classroom for lunch. Shikamaru thought it better to go along with it that argue about something he didn't care about, Menma went along with him on that, and Naruto just didn't care at the moment. He was too excited thinking about the things they were going to do after their jounin showed up after lunch. They all ended up sitting outside on an awning next to the main Academy building.

Ino was eating her lunch quietly as she looked over her teammates deep in thought.

'I'm not terribly unfamiliar with Shikamaru seeing as how both of our fathers were teammates and good friends. His grades and overall performance in the Academy were average to say the least. He was always asleep in class, even after Iruka woke him up multiple times a day. Lazy bum. then there was also Naruto. He wasn't weak in fact he was easily one of the top 5 strongest in the academy, but he was so immature and such a...classclown. Then there was Menma sure he was powerful but he was no where near as cool as Sasuke. Plus there was the fact that he was a pervert. Okay maybe I'm over exaggerating his perverted-ness but he is always reading that disgusting book what was it called? 'Icha Icha-something' can't remember damn it! Then there was the simple fact that whenever Naruto and Menma were together nothing went right.' The blonde girl thought.

Naruto wasn't even eating, he didn't have lunch with him anyway, he was simply grinning madly about finally being a ninja. He had his own team and a cool high-class jounin to teach him how to kick even more ass. Maybe he even had techniques that were as cool as the one Iruka taught him. He didn't mind his team too much, Shikamaru was an alright guy, He worked really well with Menma, and Ino was bossy but it wasn't anything he couldn't deal with he was certain.

Shikamaru wasn't really thinking about either of his teammates at all. He knew enough about Ino to know that she was going to be troublesome, but he knew how to handle her. Naruto on the other hand was just going to flat out be troublesome. Nothing he did or could think of would change or lessen that so there was no need to waste the effort trying to deal with it. He was more concerned with Chouji on Team 7. He hoped his old buddy would be alright on that team, but then again Chouji was strong. He knew he would be fine.

"Alright." Ino stood up, "I need our team to blow everyone else's out of the water, especially Forehead Girl's team."

Naruto nodded fervently in agreement, "Yeah, I need to wipe that superior look off of Sasuke-teme's face anyway. Don't worry, I'm right there with you Ino."

Ino glared at him, confusing him. Why was she upset? All he did was agree with her, "Baka, you can't beat Sasuke-kun. He's the best genin in the entire village."

She really hadn't been exposed to very many real ninja had she? Well he hadn't either until just this week. Naruto snorted, "My ass he is. I've met some of the other genin in this village. If Sasuke-teme can beat those guys here and now I'll eat my sandles."

Ino fumed at Naruto's claims of Sasuke's false superiority while Shikamaru sighed, "Ino isn't that counter-intuitive to what you just said? You just said to beat Team 7. Well Sasuke is on Team 7, so you're getting mad at Naruto for agreeing with you. But then again I don't know why I care, this whole thing is troublesome."

Menma looked up from his book, then continued as he blushed and giggled at what he was reading.

"Hey, you want a chip?" Shikamaru offered

Menma noticed he was talking to him and smiled at Shikamaru, "Thanks Shikamaru!" Menma reached in and grabbed a few before Shikamaru gave some to Naruto as well. All three boys were seated and munching on chips while Ino was crying over her rotten luck.

Menma grinned at her, "It'll be fine Ino. Stop worrying about it. I'm sure Shikamaru isn't as lazy as he seems when something important actually happens."

The girl had to admit, he was right. He did graduate just like everyone else did after all, "And what about you? He might be able to get himself up for when big stuff happens" Ino replied, running a hand through her light blonde locks.

"What about me? I graduated at one of the top in the class." Menma answered.

"I'm not talking about your strength, listen you can't even stop reading that book for more then 5 seconds." Ino said.

The black haired boy looked her for a moment and replied with "Reading is good for you." And then he continued reading with a blush on his face from what he just read.

Naruto and Shikamaru were holding back a laugh from Menma's response and at a now fuming Ino.

'This going to be fun' Shikamaru thought with a smirk on his face.