Naruto, the 4th member of Team 7

The Graduation Exam

"We will now begin the graduation exam." Iruka sensei announced to the class. "When your name is called, come to the classroom next door where the exam will be conducted. The jutsu being tested is the clone jutsu!" he instructed us.

I let out a sigh of relief internally. The clone jutsu, that's pretty easy, I've done that many times now. I'm definitely going to pass!

After instructing us on what to do, Iruka sensei called out the first student and they left the classroom together.

The classroom was quiet, but the atmosphere was tense, everyone was nervous of how they would do.

But there was one person who seemed to be even more nervous, that was Naruto, who was sitting next to me.

He doesn't seem to be freaking out actually, maybe he isn't confident enough with this jutsu?

"You'll be fine, Naruto." I told him softly which made him look up at me. I gave him a small smile "You'll pass if you believe in yourself." I told him what my parents always told me, while it's true that Naruto always causes us trouble and not many of us are fond of him. But I think he's actually a pretty fun person to be with, that is, when he's not causing trouble of course, so naturally I wouldn't want him to fail the 3rd time.

He looked at me for a moment before smiling. "Thanks Akiko chan, let's pass and become ninja together!" he then turned away and faced the front of the class, the smile disappearing from his face.

It was a long while before someone called my name. I looked up to see Ino at the door, looking at me.

Well, here goes nothing. I got up and exited the classroom.

"Did you pass?" I aksed Ino as I closed the door.

"Mochiron!" (Of course!) Ino beamed as she showed me her forehead protector proudly. "Ganbatte, Akiko!" she wished me before walking down the hallway.

I walked towards the classroom next door and knocked on the door.

"Come in."

I took a deep breath before opening the door and entering the classroom. I saw Iruka sensei and another man with white shoulder-length hair with a slight hint of blue sitting at a table in front of the room. On the table laid the forehead protectors that would be given to us immediately once we passed the test.

"Hi Akiko, as I mentioned before, all you have to do is to perform the Clone Jutsu. Whenever you're ready." Iruka sensei greeted me once I stood in front of them.

I nodded and performed the jutsu. "Bunshin no jutsu!"

There was a puff of smoke and a perfect clone of me was standing next to me.

Both Iruka sensei and the man smiled at me as they wrote something down on their sheet.

"Omedetou, Akiko. You passed!" Iruka sensei smiled at me as he handed me my forehead protector.

I couldn't hold back my smile as I took it from him and bowed towards them. "Arigatou, sensei!"

"Could you ask Kenta to come in?" the man next to Iruka sensei told me and I nodded.

After I called Kenta, I quickly went outside. As expected, there was a huge crowd outside the main entrance. They consisted of parents and their children who has successfully graduated. Everyone was happy and cheering and congratulating one another.

I tried to walk through the crowd, searching for where Sasuke could be as we promised that we would wait for each other outside the academy since we had no family. But it was hard as I got stopped multiple times by my friends and their parents who wanted to know if I had passed.

While I was walking through the crowd, I heard a few girls talking softly.

"Look over there, it's that kid."

"I heard he failed the exams. I think he's the only one who failed."

"Well, it serves him right."

By the way they were talking, I already had an idea who they were talking about, I looked towards the direction they're facing to find out I was right.

They were talking about Naruto. He was sitting on the swing in front of the academy, looking really sad and alone.

Oh no, he failed again? That would make this his 3rd time wouldn't it?

I hesitated wondering if I should ask him out for dinner. I know that he's an orphan as well, so he must be lonely too, having no one to comfort him.

Just as I was about to walk over to Naruto, I felt someone grab my wrist, I looked up to see Sasuke as he navigated us out of the crowd.

"Did you pass?" he asked curtly.

"I did, did you?" to which he responded by showing me his forehead protector.

"What were you looking at?" he asked me.

"Oh, I heard Naruto failed, so I was wondering if I should invite him to have dinner with us."

"Tch," Sasuke scoffed. "Why bother, he failed. That's nothing to celebrate about, and why would you want to invite him. He's annoying."

"Datte, he's an orphan like us too Sasuke. No one should be alone, no matter if they passed or failed."

That seemed to make Sasuke quiet, I took it as he's not disagreeing to the idea.

I quickly turned towards the swing only to find it empty. Naruto had left without anyone noticing.

Sasuke having noticed it too turned around to leave. "Yakiniku tonight at 7?"

"Yeah... okay." I told him as I continued to look at the swing, wondering where had Naruto gone off to.

Hey guys, I just wanted to apologize as I had originally uploaded this chapter and the last chapter as one chapter, which resulted in it being a huge chunk. So I broke it up into 2 now.

I got carried away whilst typing out the chapter. So this isn't an update, really sorry to those who thought it was only to see that it's the same thing!

Ima need to control myself to not make the chapters so long >w<.

Thanks for reading!