[HOLD] Plain Sight

Chapter 5: The Graduation Exams Begin

He tried blocking out all of the chatter going on around him, but it was futile. Everyone was being too loud to be able to do that without physically plugging his ears. He did his best to try and ignore them anyway and turned his attention back to his task at hand: Finding his classroom. He needed as much of his other senses as he could get in order to succeed such a task.

Naruto had the academy memorized like the back of his hand, as he's been there for so long. But, much like his apartment, it was a lot different without actually being able to see it. It was frustrating really.

Nonetheless, he continued feeling along the walls until he counted just the right amount of doors and turns to his classroom. He heaved a sigh of relief as he felt he had counted the correct amount of doors down the corridor. Though, just to make sure he was in front of the correct classroom, he ran his hand over to the hinges and felt for the third one down.

He smiled lightly, a sense of accomplishment filling his chest, he had made it to the right class. There was a distinctive dent on the third hinge of the door, placed there from one of his many pranks. While sprinting out of the room with an angry Iruka on his tail, he'd run into the door on his way out, making the hinge of the door invert slightly. He was lucky he had such a thick skull, or else the impact could've seriously injured him. Not to mention he was around the age of seven when it happened.

"What are you doing,"—Naruto jolted, the voice broke his reminiscing—"it's weird to stroke a door hinge randomly." It was Shikamaru, Choji was obviously with him as there was random crunching a little bit behind of the main voice.

Naruto turned his head towards Shikamaru's voice, laughing awkwardly. He was lucky he had thought up of excuses for situations similar to this a little before he left his apartment. "I was thinking about the prank I pulled, y'know"—He pointed his thumb towards the door hinge—"the one that made that dent," He asked.

Shikamaru made a face. "Troublesome. Why are you wearing a sock around your eyes," Shikamaru pried. Choji stayed silent, opting to continue munching on his chips and observe.

Damn it! A sock? How is it even that long, I don't have any socks that long! Damn it Shikamaru, quit being nosey! Naruto thought. He quickly pulled out his excuse, "I'm training! I need to get stronger if I ever want to become Hokage one day!" He exclaimed this a little too loud and fast, a sure indicator to Shikamaru that it was a lie. He said nothing other than a dragged out "Right." Before walking past Naruto and into the classroom, he would pry no more—for now.

Naruto wiped a drop of sweat off of his forehead. That was more nerve-racking than I thought it would be...

With that, he stood up from where he ended up in a crouch and walked into the classroom, silently thanking Shikamaru for leaving the door open. 

Luck—so far—had been on his side, so he believed he could make it to his seat without issue. It was true, it only took him a minute and a half to make it to his seat. In the eyes of his classmates, that was a long time, but for him, that was an accomplishment as every other task he'd done so far had taken forever!

Finally, he could relax for a little bit before he had to take the te—

"Good morning, class," It was Iruka, "I hope you've all gotten yourselves ready for your exams. It'll determine whether or not you are made an official Genin of Konoha." He continued on with his pre-test script that explained all of the rules and instructions for the test. 

Inside, Naruto was freaking out. He hadn't had time to plan out how he was going to take the written portion of the test. It was going to be near to impossible to do since he had absolutely no experience with doing writing tasks blindly.