The months after his talk with the Hokage were mostly spent with Iruka. The man continued to come to Tsuna's place at least two or three times a week after classes. They ate together, Iruka helped him with his homework or they just sat around and talked. The more time he spend with Iruka, the more Tsuna began to understand why his primary flame type was Mist. The man blended in, everywhere Tsuna saw him, he merged into the situation as if he had always been there. He was friendly with everyone and everyone seemed to like him. He kept a low profile, not even ranking very high in the hierarchy but Iruka was smart, he could see that calculating glint in the man's eye when Iruka thought no one was looking. Iruka also sparred with him and the man was a lot stronger than Tsuna had ever suspected as Naruto.
The scrolls Yamanaka-sensei had given him were helpful. They didn't contain any information he hadn't known, but they did explain some of the stuff he had already known. Basic stuff; about the different flame types, which types were more common than others, how the bonds between elements and their sky grew, why such bonds were necessary… That kind of stuff. Still, they would come in handy should he one day have to explain why yes, the orange flames were called Sky flames and the blue ones were called Rain flames. People might declare him crazy if he said he had named flames after water… Now he could blame the scrolls.
Tsuna still hadn't made much leeway with his chakra, but Iruka had assured him he didn't need it to pass the graduation exam. After all, so had Iruka told him, the year before another genin had passed and he wasn't able to use chakra at all. Tsuna knew it might be cowardly, but he was relieved. Even with the bond between Iruka and him, he still didn't feel brave enough to delve into that ageing mass of hurt he could feel inside him. Until now, he had been doing his best to ignore the issue and he was happy he could continue to do so. At least for now.
Iruka reassured Tsuna he would help him train and study for the exam if the boy showed him he would take his learning seriously this time. By not taking the ninjutsu test, Tsuna would need to pass the other four tests and pass them with a pass rate of at least 75%.
Genjutsu turned out to be easy. He wasn't sure how well he'd do against more advanced genjutsu, but he had spent enough time around manipulative Mists (Cough*Mukuro*cough) not to be led astray by an illusion of this calibre.
Taijutsu wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. As Naruto, he hadn't studied any real katas, but he had been training up his body and his stamina. Even if he mostly used it to run away from other shinobi after a prank, the fact that he managed to lose his pursuers most of the time was a good sign. Not many people could say they outran chuunin while still in the Academy, and while wearing orange at that.
He had also finally gotten around to buying some new clothes. People still stared, but he had taken Iruka-sensei with him and the villagers hadn't dared to comment. He now wore an outfit that reminded him strongly of what he had worn when he was thrown into the future in his original life. A white and orange sweater and dark cargo pants. He hadn't been able to convince Iruka to let him buy boots, so he was still stuck with sandals.
He remembered Reborn's 'training' and recreating that training was disturbingly easy in this crazy village. He had heavily debated with himself, but in the end, and after calling himself crazy multiple times, he had climbed the first cliff he could find. Which, coincidentally or not, happened to be the Hokage monument. It had taken him hours, but he managed to get to the top without dying, so he counted it as a success. He still wasn't sure why no one had interfered, but at this point in time he didn't know that Konoha was used to crazy training tactics.
