The Ultimate Weapon (Naruto Fanfic)

3-Graduating the Academy

It had been almost a year since Aoi had entered the academy. Though he had a stronger sense of language and words now, he still had trouble with emotion. He couldn't understand why girls would sigh as he walked past in the hall, or why the guys around would get dark looks in their eyes and clench their fists. Naruto would lead him around the school everyday until they would find a place to eat. If asked, he would deny it, but passing people that didn't stare at him angrily was nice.

Of course, Aoi's total lack of understanding in some things could be a problem. For a long while he was banned from practice fights in the academy. When he finally did get to fight, he was much too fast for the eye and the kid was on the ground unconcious within moments. It had been Kakashi that watched him that day, and the sharingan itself almost couldn't keep up with how fast he had moved. As it were, all the academy students looked in awe that the guy had seemingly just fallen face first into the dirt. Iruka tried to cover up his shock, telling two of the boys to take the third to the infirmary.

On one occasion, before Aoi had gotten the hang of chopsticks, they had eaten lunch with a few other boys from their class. Shikamaru, Kiba, and Choji looked at him oddly as the boy fumbled around, trying to eat his rice from the bento they had bought at the store. Eventually, when Aoi grew tired of trying, he just shoveled the food in with his hands. Choji joined him, seeing the sense in what he was doing. The others soon let them be, seeing there was no point. Aoi still prefers to eat that way even after he was able to use chopsticks.

Worst of all he did though, was largely because of Naruto. Every few weeks, Naruto would come up with some grandious prank, which involved the help of Aoi. From decorating the Hokage's office like a circus, to painting the windows on houses to make it seem like nighttime, even dressing the Hokage up like an octopus at one point. Don't ask them how, like good pranksters, they never revealed that secret. Aoi personally never understood the pranks, but he would do them anyways.

Now, the year in the academy was almost over, to be marked by one thing: the graduation exam. There was a small, fairly easy, written test before one by one the students were called in. Aoi now sat by Naruto, after Iruka had noticed Ino steadily scooting closer and closer to Aoi until she was practically in his lap. Aoi regarded Naruto curiously as he freaked out.

"What's wrong?" Aoi cocked his head. It had become a habit to do so with every question.

Naruto looked at Aoi. "Aren't you nervous at all? This is the moment we could either become ninja or be stuck here another year!"

"Nervous?" Aoi looked slightly confused, having picked up the expressions of others when they asked questions.

"I don't know how to explain... uh..." Naruto thought a moment. "It's like a tightening of the muscles in the stomach. You feel like you'll throw up and you start thinking of failure as the only option. Kinda like that?"

"I don't understand." Aoi stated bluntly and honestly.

Naruto sweatdropped, "Of course you don't." In all honesty, Naruto almost found the lack of understanding funny. He sobered when he thought of the cause though.

The door slid open, "Aoi! Follow me." Iruka turned and the blue haired boy followed him from the room.

Aoi, though he had no idea of emotion, felt a carefully hidden dark atmosphere when he entered the testing room. He didn't know why he felt that, having no clue that Mizuki was probably the cause with all the hate stored in his heart. Aoi just paused a little at the doorway before entering the room completely.

"Aoi, this is Mizuki-sensei. We would like to see you perform the clone jutsu." Iruka directed. Needing no other prompts Aoi made the necessary handsigns before a good 14 replicas stood behind him. "As expected. Good job Aoi, take a headband."