[SASUKE SARUTOBI POV]

Today was the day.

I got up early and freshened myself up, I had brushed my teeth, shaved my head and taken a shower two hours before I had to set out for school. The old lady made a joke about how I was only acting like a student on the day I'd graduate but I was too nervous for jokes.

I closed myself off in my room and stared at myself in the mirror, getting a good look before commencing my final practice.

"Clone Jutsu!" I murmured out quietly as I weaved the necessary hand signs. Jutsus could be done silently but since a large chunk of any Jutsu's strength came from the caster's will, speaking it out could elevate its quality.

Plus it sounds freaking cool!

*POOMF*

Six clones of me appeared around me in a circle, I inspected them each with a discerning eye and made sure that there weren't any mistakes, nothing less than perfection would pass.

And perfect they were.

I did the other two academy Jutsu and made sure that there were no issues, I knew that this would be the case beforehand as well, I just wanted to be sure.

'Tch.' I noticed that my head was getting sweaty out of nervousness so I grabbed a towel and wiped it after making sure the door was locked, if Aoki walked in on me polishing my head he'd never let me hear the end of it.

Hmph. That brat was too much sometimes. As his senior, he dares to disrespect me way too much! If only I could win a few spars I could teach him a lesson for real...

I shook my head with a smile as I regained some seriousness, I couldn't afford to make jokes today.

'In a few hours... I'll be a Ninja... just like they were.'

I looked at a picture frame, in it were two people I did not recognise, wisps of memories floated about in my head that told me I should know them, but I did not.

The only inheritance I got from either of them was what lay in the room, including the room itself. Just like me, Tomo had raised my father as well.

He began his journey as a Ninja on the very floor I was standing on.

'I guess I'm following in his footsteps.' I thought, making a dumb joke. I think hanging out with Aoki is making me more lame.

Perhaps the similarity between me and my parents is one of the reasons why Tomo held onto me so tightly at times, it was suffocating but also somehow sweet. I knew that she was one of the few people who cared about me in this world.

Dad and Ma would be thankful to her I think.

'I hope I make you guys proud...'

My reminiscing was broken by a small shuffle coming from outside, I peeked out my window to see Aoki returning from his morning run holding another cabbage.

Really... he's too much.

[AOKI POV]

'These bitches got nothing on me...'

'What's there to worry about? Nothing... obviously...'

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I jumped up and down to calm my nerves, I hadn't managed to sleep so I went on an early morning run, there were a few people who tried to get my attention for some chit-chat but I had to wave them off for another day, I was way too fucking excited.

Only one managed to get my attention, the cabbage vendor I'd meet occasionally on my morning route had hounded me down to thank me. The middle-aged man had managed to get a date for the weekend and felt that he had to thank me, which he did with a free cabbage.

I got inside the house; Tomo tried to land a joke or two but I was too nervous to reciprocate any further than with a thin-lipped smile. She had changed considerably since Sasuke ran out of the house, I think she figured that holding onto the boy too tight might make him pull further from her grasp.

I'm sure she still wasn't happy about our choices, but the constant disapproval had toned down quite a bit.

The kids were all behaving, it seemed they could tell the importance this day held... only a couple of hours until I faced the most pivotal moment of my life since being reborn.

I should brush my teeth first though.

-----

I walked into the classroom, which was seemingly submerged in a sea of silence.

Usually, it'd be bursting with conversations, with screams bouncing off the walls and children running about as they tried to use up their excess energy before the teacher walked in, but today, there wasn't as much as a peep from even the loudest kids.

The majority of the class had applied for early graduation, but chances are that only a handful would make it.

There were only a few that looked unaffected.

Yakumi had a light smile on his face as stared out the window, almost comically, a breeze ruffled his hair, exaggerating his relaxed demeanour. His easygoing smile wasn't for no reason, his graduation was all but set in stone. Top marks in Jutsus and academia, the only stain in his records were the Taijutsu matches between him and me.

Yami was taking a nap, he had positioned himself in the back of the classroom where he was basking in the sunlight, the Nara had told me that the small breeze from Yakumi's window heightened his nap experience to another level. He would get up early and come to school so he could nap for longer, apparently his parents nagging him made school a much better place to relax.

The only other student that didn't look nervous was Ryoma, he was staring at the blackboard with his index finger all the way up his nose, picking for gold.

'Never change bud.' I thought, smiling at how Ryoma's uncaring nature seemed to spread out to the rest of the class and ease their worries slightly.

There was a small scramble when the boy took a booger out of his nose and flicked it toward a small group of kids, but everyone who stood up to brawl with Ryoma froze in place as the door opened, revealing Jinbei's stoic figure.

Everyone shot back to their seats other than one girl, it seemed that Ryoma had hit her chair with his "missile" so she stood around her desk awkwardly as Jinbei reached the centre of the classroom and began to speak.

"As all of you should know, the first of three attempts you all have to graduate this year is today." The teacher scanned the classroom with his eyes, accounting for all his students before continuing.

Jinbei silently weaved a few hand signs and with a light cloud of smoke, a clone that looked exactly like him came to life.

The teacher cleared his throat to draw attention back from the clone to himself, "If your application to graduate early was accepted, follow my clone outside in an orderly line. The rest of you stay in your seats."

'Here we go...'

Almost half the class stood up and followed the clone out of the classroom, a few kids began whispering to each other to ease their nerves but a glare from Jinbei's clone made them shut up. The teacher could be scary at times, but this felt excessive; I guessed that this was part of the test and kept my head down until we reached our destination.

Eventually, we reached a gymnasium that I had never been to before, in it were lots of amenities that made the rest of the kids gawk as they looked around. The thing which all of our eyes gravitated to were the chairs spread around the gym's floor, each with a desk at their front which had a piece of paper laid on top.

Other than us, a few other groups of children were herded in by other teachers, who I can only assume were clones. After waiting for some more time, a small group of Ninjas with a serious expression clutching notepads made their way into the room.

They looked at all of us with ill-constrained ire, I felt that my class in particular was looked down upon by a bit.

'This is nothing like what Naruto went through, early graduation seems a hell of a lot more serious.'

The way in which the Ninjas treated us combined with Jinbei's glare from before made me suspect that something was up, I could tell that my classmates had been greatly affected by it. Even Ryoma who normally doesn't let anything bother him was fidgeting with the hem of his shirt and glancing around nervously.

"LISTEN UP!" one of the Ninjas shouted.

The kids around me almost jumped in surprise as they rocketed their heads towards the Ninja, rapt in attention.

"YOU ALL HAVE TEN MINUTES TO COMPLETE ONE OF THE TESTS, TIME STARTED 5 SECONDS AGO."

'...'

'HUH?!'