Naruto: The Dojutsu Miracle

Failing Like a Pro

Time flew by and before Naruto knew it he and his siblings were being enrolled into the ninja academy. Neji was a year ahead of him and had quickly made a reputation of being a skilled prodigy. Hizashi was proud and everyone knew it.

Naruto himself had no problem handling school work and made his intelligence known. That was until he had discovered how the genin teams were set up. Apparently their teams were chosen for them and they had no say in it. That was a problem for Naruto since he had wanted to be teamed with Hinata and Sasuke. He worked well with them and was close with each of them.

He researched past teams and found two consistent set ups. The ino-shika-cho team and the team that that held the top female, top male, and deadlast. The second team seemed easy enough to manipulate in his favor with Hinata and Sasuke excelling in their classes so he started failing on purpose. He would skip classes every now and then and fall asleep during lessons. It wasn't like he was missing anything important. With all the lessons he took under the Hyūga's watch he was ahead of the majority of his classmates with the exception being Hinata, Shikamaru, Sasuke, and a pink haired girl whose name he couldn't recall. All he knew about her was that she was a walking library with how much she studied.

Soon Naruto's grades dropped. Hinata had expressed concern for his grades and Sasuke had outright threatened to tell their parents about it before Naruto explained to them why he was doing so poorly in the academy. They wanted to be teamed together as well so they chose to go along with his plan. Sasuke did question him on his position as class dead last.

"Why do you have to take the burden of being class deadlast? Your just as smart and skilled as I am if not better." Sasuke stated with his arms crossed.

"Sasuke I know you want to make your father proud and show him that your just as good as Itachi. I'm not about to get in the way of that." He explained.
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Naruto was resting in his room in the Hyūga compound when his caretaker, Tokuma, came by looking for him.

"Naruto-san your parents would like to speak to you.

"Parents? Parents as in-"

"All of them together." Tokuma said with a meaningful look in his eyes.

Naruto gulped. Could this be about his grades? He had known this was inevitably come up so he readied himself for the discussion and folled his caretaker.

There in the room sat Hizashi, Fugaku, and Mikoto.

Hizashi and Fugaku's stern faces didn't quite bother him, but rather Mikoto's face. He had never seen her so upset before.

"Naruto..."

"Uhhh hello" he replied hesitantly.

"Do you know why were all here?"

"I think I can make a guess."

"We received an update on your progress at the academy and we are all deeply disappointed." Said Fugaku, taking over the conversation.

Naruto bowed his head. The sense of shame floated through the room like heavy perfume.

"We knew it couldn't be because you were having trouble understanding the classwork. You've went over it enough already so if you were having trouble you would have spoken up about it long ago." Mikoto said.

"It couldn't be because of your teachers mishandling you either. We have talked to everyone one of your instructors on that matter and made sure that you were treated well.

"Why are you failing on purpose Naruto? What could you gain from that?"

"I-"

"Well?"

"It has to do with the genin teams."

"Explain." Hizashi ordered.

"After the graduation exam the same teams get made up like Ino-Shika-Cho. Another formation they always make consists of the top male, top female, and class dead last. We, as in the graduates, dont get a choice in what teams we will be put into and I want to make sure that I get teamed with Sasuke and Hinata. Sasuke easily tops everyone in the class aside from me and Hinata's only rival is Sakura who has book smarts, but has no good fighting skills. So that leaves me to take the place of dead last."

"Naruto-" Mikoto started.

"I do all my homework and pass my tests, just barely at least. Besides its not like it matters too much. Classwork doesn't get you anywhere when your in the middle of a real battle. And showing all my skills would give an advantage to others. I want to have the upper hand. I want to be unpredictable."

"Your only doing this to be on a team with your siblings?" Mikoto questioned.

"Yes!"

The adults turned to each other and started speaking in low tones before turning back to him.

"We'll let you keep up this farse of yours..." Fugaku started.

"Thank you thank you thank-."

"But you will stop skipping classes and stop sleeping through lessons." Hizashi finished.

"Yes sir."

"Also, you are grounded for the time being. The only times you you will leave the compound will be for school and school only. That means no ramen trips."

Naruto made a sound of protest.

"Oh is there something you'd like to say?" Asked Mikoto.

"No, nothing at all." Naruto grumbled.

"That's what I thought."

"You may go now." Hizashi said, waving him off.

And that was that.