The academy exam

Weeks passed quickly, and Ryo repeated the training he was doing, but increasing their intensity. Squats, push-ups, running, chakra control training with the golden coin, and, of course, studying with the books. Ryo was never someone who enjoyed studying, but the content he had to read for the ninja academy exam was really basic, which left him relaxed up to that point.

Walking into his house after a long day of training, the boy took a shower. When he came out, ready and dressed, he could see his grandmother, Sora, sitting at the table with a good amount of hot, ready-to-eat food for them.

-- Grandma, you prepared all this. There was no need for so much food! --

Ryo said, but his eyes sparkled at the sight of so much food since he was really hungry. He quickly sat down to start eating.

Seeing this, Sora had a smile on her face and spoke, - Yes, I prepared everything you like to eat since you're starting at the academy tomorrow and won't be staying with me at home anymore.-

Noticing her words, he stopped, looking at her, and remembered that the ninjas who passed the academy exam received a small house with some money to start maturing quickly on their own in the world.

Dinner was calm, with his grandmother talking about a few things to young Ryo. Among them was that he couldn't come back here until he graduated from the academy, which would take a few more years, and also that he had to fully master the ninja art of the golden coin in the meantime. Ryo agreed with his grandmother, and after a long dinner, he went to bed.

The new day began, and Ryo got up early to do a series of warm-ups. It wasn't really training, considering that he had to perform well in the ninja academy entrance exams; he didn't want to strain his body unnecessarily.

Ryo bid farewell to his grandmother as he began to walk to the ninja academy. "I have to pass the test, but I can't stand out too much. This group of ninjas is from the anime already, so there will be many there who will be good. I have to be better than Sakura or Ino at least. Naruto doesn't count; he somehow gets through, maybe because he's a jinchuuriki."

Along the way, he pondered a few more things, such as Sasuke also being there. "What was Sasuke like before the massacre of his clan? He was possibly a normal child. I remember from the anime flashbacks, the clan massacre is supposed to happen in two years when he's 8 years old, if I'm not mistaken, so there are two years in the academy where he'll still be a proud Uchiha child."

From a distance, he could already see the academy, with numerous children already standing in front of the building as Ryo joined the crowd of kids. Looking around, he could see some familiar faces of the main characters, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, the famous Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Sakura, Sasuke, among others.

"Huh? Where's Naruto?" As this thought came, he could hear a loud voice causing a commotion further ahead in the crowd.

- Oh, come on, let me go! I can't waste my time with a test; just pass me already, I'm going to become Hokage! -

Hearing this, Ryo opened a slight smile followed by a sigh. "Ah, Naruto, if you knew what being a Hokage would be like, you wouldn't want to become one..." And then he walked further ahead, seeing a little boy being held by the collar while struggling. The one holding him was none other than Iruka-sensei.

- Don't make a mess at the exam entrance, Naruto. Behave, or we'll have to disqualify you right now! -

Hearing this, Naruto stopped moving and made an irritated face, but Iruka's threat had been effective, and after that, everything proceeded normally. Standing in front of those who were going to take the test, Iruka began to speak.

- I want everyone's attention, please! We'll start the test in a few minutes. First, I want to inform you about the first stage. Each one of you received a number during registration. -

As he spoke, three more ninjas appeared using the Shushin no jutsu, the rapid movement technique that Ryo always saw in the anime, where the ninjas turned into lines in the animation or manga and disappeared or reappeared.

- Each of the ninjas here will take a group to another location for the test to be conducted, -

Iruka continued. Meanwhile, the other three ninjas took a paper with a number written on it, something simple like One, Two, and Three. Ryo picked up his own paper, seeing that it had the number One on it.

"Number one then. I wonder what the numbers of the main characters are," he thought to himself.

He felt uneasy at this moment, not knowing if this would dictate the classrooms, but he calmed down after thinking that it probably had nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, when everyone started to approach the ninjas of each respective number in line, Ryo looked around.

"All the canon characters are in the same line as mine..." he observed, thinking further that if he did very well in the exams, he could take the place of one of the main characters in their classroom.

"Okay, let's go as I had planned, just average. I can't give my best and end up taking Naruto's place in the classroom, as he's clearly the worst student here, at least in terms of intelligence. I don't think he passed the written test... But old Hiruzen must have taken care of that, talking about the Will of Fire or something."

The children then followed the ninjas to a room that seemed to be a training area with a circular running track. The ninja stopped in the middle of the area and spoke.

- Alright, kids, the first test will be endurance. I want you to run five laps around the track without stopping. -

As he spoke, some children whom Ryo didn't know from the manga grumbled and others complained, but everyone started running. The track was 450 meters long, relatively okay in size, but five laps weren't something that normal children could handle.

While running, Ryo looked around to avoid getting ahead. He was in front of Choji and behind Sakura as they ran, roughly in the middle of the line of canon characters from the series, while those he didn't know started to fall to the ground or simply stopped running.

The responsible ninja made everyone run four more laps to weed out those who didn't have enough chakra for the run, and all who stopped running were sent out of the area.

- The next test will be a simple examination for you all. -

Following the ninja, everyone went to a room, which seemed to be a classroom. Of course, Ryo recognized it, and it was indeed a classroom. There were papers on the table with a pencil beside them.

- You have 30 minutes to finish the test, - the ninja said.

With that, everyone sat down and started the test. Ryo looked at the piece of paper, and there were questions ranging from mathematics to some written ones and such, nothing really complicated, but it could be for 6-year-old children.

"Division, multiplication, they're hitting hard in math. Nothing I can't answer, but I'll intentionally leave some questions blank. Getting 70% correct should be enough."

The thirty minutes passed quickly, and Ryo had finished the test long before. He looked at the paper as if he were thinking hard about how to solve the questions he had chosen to leave blank.

The papers were collected by the ninja on the spot and checked right there. It took about 15 minutes of silence and tension for the children in the room. In the end, the ninja let out a sigh as he sorted through a handful of papers, placing some to one side and others to the other side. The ninja thought as he looked at a specific paper before placing it in one of the piles.

"Naruto Uzumaki... He got almost all the questions wrong and even drew what would be him in the question asking for the names of the former Hokages."

The ninja put his hand on his face, letting out a long sigh and placing it in the pile of those who passed.

"Hokage-sama told me to pass Naruto if his physical exam was good, and it was excellent. The fox's chakra must help him with that a lot, even without him knowing how to use it."

After a few minutes, the responsible ninja announced those who had passed, and with that, a large part of the children left the place with a sad face, leaving only those who had passed in the room.

"Wait a minute... Everyone here is from Naruto's class," Ryo looked around and realized that they were indeed all from the same class, which relieved him. Ryo had really taken the place of one of the random students in the class to fill a spot.

The ninja exited the room, and then walked in the familiar figure to both Ryo and Naruto, Iruka-sensei.

- Congratulations to all of you for passing. My name is Iruka, and I'll be your sensei for the next few years, teaching you everything you need to become good ninjas in the future. -

He had a gentle smile on his face as he looked at everyone, especially Naruto, whom he didn't expect to pass. Nonetheless, he was happy that the young blonde boy had succeeded in the exams.