In Your Own Hands

Chapter 2 - Genin Exams

The next day Naruto (still in his henge) was dressed in the orange monstrosity as he called it and went to the academy in person for the second time in his life. The plan was clear and easy - achieve the highest score possible. It would not move him up much in the class ranking, but Naruto made sure that it would move him to 2nd place from the end.

All this had several reasons - 1. He wanted to cause a heart attack to some people in the academy 2. He wanted to bring Sasuke down by peg or two 3. His goal was to break the previous record shared by Minato Namikaze, his father - the 4th Hokage, and Itachi Uchiha. The fourth and final reason was that he wanted to avoid being on the team with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, he had a number of problems with both of them.

Naruto was sure that Sasuke and Sakura would hold the titles of the best students in the class, and if he was the dead-last he would certainly be on the team with them so that they would be 'balanced'.

Naruto would not mind having Kakashi Hatake - his father's student, for Sensei, but since he was the only person who can teach Sasuke how to use his sharingan, with the exception of Sasuke's mother Mikoto, who by law must not be his sensei, that left Kakashi as the only choice. 

According to his estimations, he should end up in a team with Hinata Hyuuga and Shino Aburame. He was not exactly sure who their sensei would be, but according to his observations, his teacher should be Kurenai Yuuhi - one of his mother's students. Together they should be a tracking team. 

Which it is possible thanks to Hinata's byakugan, Shino's kikaichu, and the fact that Naruto is a sensor type, quite powerful one at that, and that he has a better sense of smell and hearing than the others (possibly on par with Inuzuka clan members), because he is a Jinchuuriki Kyuubi. Naruto let Hokage know about both of these things on purpose.

The blond came to class and saw that there were a total of 3 people in the class, including him. The first was Shikamaru Nara - one of Naruto's good friends who is extremely intelligent but as lazy as he is intelligent because according to him everything is 'troublesome'. His abilities in taijutsu and genjutsu are very limited, as he prefers fighting strategically from a distance using shadow jutsu of his clan. Which leaves him open to attacks due to the fact that during their usage he must be stationary, the same could be said about the time he is coming up with strategies, due to his laziness he is one of the worst students. 

Another was Choji Akimichi - Shikamaru's best friend and also Naruto's good friend, he is as he says big boned, this is part of his and his clans' fighting style. Unlike Shikamaru, Choji prefers close quarters combat with brute force and his clan jutsu, which increases the size and strength of parts of users body, their big disadvantage is that it makes the user clumsy and slow. His skills in genjutsu are very limited, academically he is somewhere in the middle of the class. 

The class was gradually filled with other people, including Shino Aburame, a socially isolated introvert, that people avoid because of the kikaichu he uses in combat, like the rest of his clan. His abilities outside of his clan jutsu are limited. Given that his clan prefers to fight at mid to long range, his taijutsu skills are very limited, the same could be said about his genjutsu. But he is a good strategist and like his clan he puts logic in the 1st place, academically he is the 2nd best student. His relationship with Naruto is neutral, they never really spoke much, but Naruto is certain that once he drops the 'mask', they will be able to talk quite well . 

Another person is Hinata Hyuga - who is extremely shy, her taijutsu Gentle Fist is pretty good, her skills in genjutsu and ninjutsu are limited, given that their clan uses them minimally, if at all (old generation thinks they are inferior to their Gentle Fist). Academically she is the 2nd best female student in class. Another fact is that he has a crush on Naruto about the size of a mountain, which he is aware of, but he does not feel the same way. She is too shy and meek for his liking, something Naruto guesses he has from his father, given how his mother was. He instead thinks of her as a sort of younger sister.