Shine like the Sun

For the exams, teams where, unsurprisingly, broken up. Each gennin was assigned a spot. There were a few rules, no cheating, obviously, silence, the usual. 

Before going to his seat, Karin bumped Naruto’s shoulder. 

“You’ll be fine Naru,” she whispered, “remember what sensei said, just don’t panic.”

He’d flashed her a smile, and with a deep breath, taken his seat. He was up front, seated between an Ame ninja and a Konoha ninja. Both dwarfed him in size, and were noticeably older than him.

Actually, Naruto thought, scanning the room once more, there were very few people his age. The Konoha teams who he’d noticed previously, the Oto ninja who’d attacked them and… two spots to his left, the redhead from Suna. Gaara. 

He eyed the other boy, itching to talk to him. As if sensing his gaze, Gaara’s eyes snapped towards him, then narrowed. 

Naruto sighed, and looked away. Now was obviously not the time. Haku was two rows back and to the right, Karin on the second to last row and directly behind him. 

Still, he turned a final time before the exam started to stare at his teammates. Karin smiled at him and stuck two thumbs up at him in encouragement. Haku’s face was impassive, but he signed him, 

good luck.

Before looking down at his exam paper. 

Naruto did the same, looking down at the paper he would have to turn around and face in a few minutes. He felt a bead of cold sweat run down his back. 

At some point in his first year in the ninja institute, Chiba-baasama had noticed that Naruto struggled more than usual with written texts. 

He was fine taking verbal cues, but he hated reading with a passion and his writing was atrocious. This was, they discovered, because he had something called ‘dyslexia’, which caused letters to move around on a page and him to change their order when reading and writing. 

He could do both… he just took longer than usual. He’d gotten better, and faster, once he started sealing, learning tricks to work around the moving letters. But that was different, because Naruto liked sealing, and he really really didn’t like exams. 

The proctors gave the room the signal to start. With a deep breath, Naruto turned the paper. 

There were ten questions, which wasn’t that bad, all considered. 

He read them. Then he re-read them. 

.

.

.

What. The. Fuuuuuck. 

He concluded. He had no idea what half of the questions were saying and no clue as to any of the answers.  

Slowly, but surely, and going completely against what sensei had said, he began to panic. 

To be honest, Naruto had no idea that any of the things asked on the exam where standard chunnin knowledge. Maybe in Konoha, but he didn’t think anyone in Uzushio cared about any of this shit. Kunai trajectories? International treaties during the 1st Shinobi war? 

There was a question specifically about medical care in the field, and he was sure Karin, at least, would know how to answer… and actually, Haku too. Haku would probably know most of the answers come to think of it, he thought glumly, because Haku knew all sorts of things.  

Konan-sensei had said neither she nor the village would care if they weren’t promoted, but to lose in the first test was kind of pathetic, he reasoned. 

And he'd hate to be the reason his teammates went down as well. 

His first thought was to cheat. Then he discarded that idea, because the rules had been pretty strict. And the proctors were sure to catch him. His best cheating technique was to peek at his neighbors tests, and he wasn’t too subtle a ninja for that to work out. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto could see that the Ame nin to his left looked about as stumped as he was, but the Konoha ninja seemed to be writing down thorough answers.

Maybe this test was asking standard chunnin knowledge, by Konoha standards.  

His next idea was to bank everything on the secret tenth question. 

He mulled that over for a while, but concluded that it would be irresponsible. There was no guarantee he would know that answer either, and chances were that the question was actually more difficult. And he’d still be letting his teammates down. 

He tried not to show his frustration, but his hand went up to his hair, tugging a strand as he thought furiously. Almost unconsciously, his eyes flickered to Gaara, wondering if the impassive Suna ninja was having any success. 

Gaara’s eyes were closed, he was sitting completely still, and making a half seal in front of his bowed head. It looked like dust was whirling slowly around him, but mostly, he looked like he was meditating. 

Which gave Naruto a third, but maybe not as stupid, idea. 

Actually, it was absolutely stupid, but at least he’d be doing something. 

And, well. He was a doer. And he didn’t have any other ideas at the moment. 

With an audible sigh that had the Konoha ninja give him a stinky side eye, Naruto rolled his shoulders, closed his eyes, and  copied the half seal. 

He concentrated. 

The easiest sense to block was sight. With his eyes closed, tiny flashes went off behind his eyelids, but they subsided after a couple of moments. 

His sense of smell was sharper than most, but that too, was easy to tune out. The wooden desk he was sitting at had a good, tangy feel to it, and his own smell, his clothing slightly salty, his skin and sweat, familiar. The rest fell way.  

Next was sound- as he concentrated it intensified around him for a moment, the shuffling papers, the mumbles, the scratching of pencils against paper. He breathed in. 

He breathed out. 

He could hear his own heartbeat, and he foccused on that, and the evenness of his breath. 

In. 

thump. thump. thump. 

Out. 

thump. thump. 

thump. 

thump. 

The darkness in his mind became a tunnel, at the end, a spot of light. The light became bigger and bigger as time passed, and eventually, it enveloped him. 

He opened his eyes. 

Of course, he didn’t, not really. 

It was a projection of himself, a mental image. He was in his mind, or the space were his spirit resided. Soul. Whatever. 

The Kyuubi’s cage loomed before him, bars 20 feet tall, thicker than his torso. 

Chiba baa-sama had told him of the Kyuubi on the day of his 7th birthday, that first one with her and his family, the anniversary of his mothers and fathers death. It had caused him conflicting feelings, anger, sadness, resentment… so he’d pushed it all away, and ignored the knowledge, until it had literally reared its head and he’d been unable to ignore it ever after. 

He’d been 10, diving for pearls with fishermen, years away from any mistrust and revulsion from people who didn’t know him, and on the third dive down, a ninja, orange hair, yellow eyes, no hitae-ate, a diving contraption that fueled air scraped to his back had grabbed him, and held him down so he couldn’t surface. 

He’d panicked of course, but the other boy, older, bigger, already a ninja, held him down. 

And that’s how he’d thought he’d die. Alone, underwater… a voice laughing. 

He blacked out. 

It didn’t occur to him until he’d woken up on a skerry, covered in blood, smelling it too and seeing a frenzy of sharks devouring the body that the ninja couldn’t have possibly been laughing underwater. 

He’d cried himself to sleep, and woke up to Nagato-nii and a searching group. After that… well. No one had told him, but he wasn’t stupid, and he put two and two together. The ninja had been sent to assassinate him, and though he wore no hitae-ate, but Naruto knew he must have been from Konoha. He’d wondered, then, why it had taken so long. It had been 4 years by then since he’d left the hidden leaf. Then he wondered if this was simply the first who’d made it as far as to confront him. 

The Kyuubi had taken over because of his panic, after he’d blacked out. Animals avoided him for close to a week, and though he knew, logically, he shouldn’t feel bad about the death of a ninja sent to kill him… he did. And the lack of control scared him. It was one of his worst memories.

Since then, he’d begun meditating, strengthening his minds cape. Fortunately, his cousin Honoka had arrived at the village around that time, the best of the remaining Uzumaki seal masters, and she’d taught him how to access the space where he was now. 

She was his teacher in all things seals, and she’d accompanied him more than once to “visit” the chakra demon. But years of infrequent visits meant he’d established some sort of bond with the beast. It had stopped trying to murder him with claws and tails through the bars every time he appeared, at least. 

Some days the giant fox was almost cordial. 

From deep inside the cage he could feel the malevolent chakra, and out came its voice. 

brat.

“Er.” said Naruto. 

He wasn’t actually sure what he wanted to do. Though the Kyuubi was millennia old, he doubted it actually knew the answer to cryptograms and medial shuuriken velocity. 

Even if it did, Naruto was unsure how to ask the bijuu to help him cheat on a test. It seemed risky, stupid, and… pedestrian, to a certain point, when confronted with the beast. Who even knew how the Konoha ninja would react if by some mistake he started pouring out red chakra. 

But two years visiting the cage had taught one thing about the bijuu: the Kyuubi had an ego, and he liked to be flattered. 

The Kyuubi was also privy to all his thoughts and actions, when he wanted to. Thankfully, it didn’t always, or even most of the time, care about his host, and so preferred to sleep, or hibernate, or brood, deep within him. 

Which meant Naruto has no idea if the Kyuubi was even aware of his current situation, and therefore… where to begin on his strange quest. 

“So!” He began, trying to sound cheerful, "I need your help! Only…not traditional sense.” He decided to say. 

At the end of the day, he wasn’t really a strategy guy. He preferred to wing it, and there was no way to truly prepare for Kyuubi in any case. There came a rumbling laughter from the darkness. 

you don’t want chakra. 

It said. Naruto took a metaphorical seat in front of the cage, crosslegged. 

He conjured a replica of the test, not exact of course, but as close as he could remember without an eidetic memory and shit reading comprehension.  

“I need your help answering some questions. For a test”

A huge, red eye opens and peers out at him from the darkness. 

a test. 

The Kyuubi’s voice sounds flat. 

“yeah! a ninja test… and, well, I thought maybe, you being so old and all, might know some of the answers?”

The Kyuubi shifted.

Sometimes, brat, your idiocy surprises even me. And I’ve seen you be quite idiotic. I’m sure if you think of it a moment longer, you will discover the hidden truth of the exam. 

So he was aware. 

He stayed quiet a moment longer, then said, “I don’t get it.” because here, at least, he didn't have to pretend to be smarter or quieter than he really was. 

If there was one person…being? That Naruto didn't care to impress, and couldn’t even if he wanted to, it was the monster sealed within his stomach. 

think. 

“Think about what.” snapped Naruto. Frustrated and no longer with any inclination to hide it. 

The Kyuubi sighed, and took a step into the light. It folded its paws in front of itself, a few tails swishing in and out of view, and propped his head over one of its paws, closing its eyes. 

Naruto felt his frown deepen, but the beast hasn’t insulted him too terribly yet, so… 

what where the exam instructions again.

Naruto fired them off. 

How many times can’t you be caught? 

"But I already know that I would be caught! I don’t know how to cheat off of tests” he whined. “Now if the test was how to skip school…” he muttered

So just cheat once. 

Came the voice. Snapping him out of a fantasy in which the test was actually how fast can you get out of the classroom without being caught. He’d ace that test. 

Then he actually though about what the bijuu was saying. 

“Wait, why are you helping me? you haven’t even tried to swipe at me once or say mean shit about my mom!” The Kyuubi swiped at Naruto, more in response to his words than for any other reason. Naruto didn't even lean back to avoid it. The non existent wind ruffled his hair with the speed of the passing tail. 

It looked fluffy and soft. 

One of Naruto’s less explainable urges was that one day, he’d like to run his fingers through the monster fox’s fur. It was sure to motivate the Kyuubi to finally break out, but there it was.  

I can feel Shukaku’s brat close. And you I know you. You want to… engage him. I felt your curiosity before. I want to see how this plays out brat. 

“Shukaku?" asked Naruto.

Shukaku is the Ichibi. 

When you are ready to confront him, I will lend you my chakra. 

Naruto stood up, surprised. "But why?” he said again. 

You know why even though you hide it behind walls of self servitude. I am the STRONGEST, boy. 

It must be demonstrated, every now and again. 

People should fear my power. 

With a deep breath Naruto’s world swirled back into darkness, the slitted eyes of the Kyuubi the last thing to disappear. Slowly, he regained the sense of his body. He flexed his fingers, and opens his eyes. 

Well then. 

He had a plan, now, at least. 

He picked up his pencil and started tapping it against the desk, wondering how to go about cheating, now that he knew he had to. 

And then, because Naruto’s teammates where the best, before his eyes, one of Haku’s mirrors, no bigger than an inch, materializes on top of his paper, Haku’s neat, small writing skratched into the ice in shorthand, giving him each answer. 

Naruto grinned. 

He’d kiss Haku as soon as this stupid exam was over. That was so cool. 

It took him a while to memorize the answers, he had to read and reread every one two or three times, and many of them didn’t make sense, despite being in a language he understood. The theory was too advanced for him, too technical. When he was finally sure he could replicate the answers, he touched the mirror and spiked a tiny (by his standards) amount of chakra into it, and the mirror dissolved into mist.  

So cool. 

The exam passed quickly after that. He’d barely had time to write in the last answer before the exam proctor with the scared face was calling them to attention and threatening them with failure should they fail the last question. 

Naruto didn’t even twitch in fear. 

He had Haku, and Karin, and, surprisingly, apparently, even the Kyuubi was feeling generous. He’d take anything they threw at him and conquer it. 

It was almost a let down to know it had been a test of courage. 

But the first exam was over, and he’d passed. 

He’d passed!

Naruto’s eyes drifted to Gaara, once more. 

Shukaku he thought. 

He wondered if the Kyuubi had a name like that. He resolved to ask, the next time he visited. 

Maybe.