"Se-kun! Se-kun! Are you home? I'm sorry I didn't visit, Iruka made me wash the Hokage faces! Please don't be mad at me!" I heard Naruto from the other side of the front door.

Pausing the movie I was watching, I made sure I looked presentable in my oversized brown lounge sweater and grey sweatpants. I walked up to the front door, opening it with a smile, towering over Naruto's 5ft something while I was nearly 6ft. He smelled like Ichirakus, as I suspected he would after Iruka watched him wash the faces and took him out there as a treat.

"How could I be mad Naru-kun? You were busy, I understand that. Nothing to be sorry about."

Naruto looked so relieved, then went back to his happy self, "I'm glad you're okay! Believe it!"

I chuckled at his catchphrase. He asked what happened, and I explained the marks and my eye color to him. Naruto commented the marks looked like a cool tattoo when I pulled up my sleeve and sweater collar to show him.

"Thank you for checking up on me, Naruto. Though, it's pretty late. Don't want to be tired for graduation, are we?" I reminded Naruto.

At the sound of the word 'graduation', Naruto looked like he was filled with determination.

"For sure I'm going to pass this time! Believe it!"

"I believe that you will. Goodnight Naru-kun."

"G'night Se-kun!" Naruto called back, waving his hand from behind his shoulder down the hall. I closed the door and flopped on the couch, glancing at the clock to judge if I should continue the movie.

11:03pm.

Hm...maybe I should continue this later.

I looked for the remote and saw it was a few feet away from my reach. Leaning back, I groaned at the thought of getting up to get it.

I wish I could use the force...

I stopped at that thought.

Wait. What if...?

I focused on the TV remote, lifting my hand towards it.

When I was at the library, I haven't just studied the Fourth's jutsu, I looked at theories of jutsus as well. There was this one where you could move stuff with your chakra without actually touching it, like the force, but based off of puppet masters. Maybe...

Activating my chakra, I imagined the blue aura surrounding the item, grasping it. To my utter surprise, I saw it appear as though it was natural. A little giddy, I lost my grip on my chakra control and the aura faded. Realizing I had to focus, I made the aura surround the remote again. Imagining it move up a little, I lifted my hand a bit. The remote trembled in place.

Eyes wide, I tried again. The remote moved a little more. I got so excited, I accidentally sent too much chakra and made the remote fly and hit the wall. It shut off the TV in the process.

....

....Sitting there in surprised silence, not sure if I could believe what I just did. How did I do that? For puppet masters it takes so much practice, but I only did it in two minutes?

I shrug, rolling with it.

Feeling like I could try it on something else, I looked toward the simple vase that went with the apartment, focusing on it. I moved my hand towards it, the aura appearing once more. I moved my hand up, pouring in a nice amount of chakra and seeing it lift from its spot. Moving my hand to myself slowly, my chakra aura made the vase float towards me. I let it land on the end table gently.

With a sudden burst of excitement, I fist pumped the air in self accomplishment.... not realizing I still had my chakra connected to the vase.

SMASH!

"OH SHIT!"

I jumped from my seat, scrambling to get away from the falling pieces of vase. With a sigh, I started to clean up.

After I finished sweeping up all of the vase pieces, Naruto came knocking on the door again saying he heard a loud crash. I assured him it was just an accident. Satisfied with my answer, he left to his own apartment once again.

I decided by then it was time to hit the sack and turned off all of the lights, crashing on the bed, satisfied with what I had discovered.

----------------

I sat with Naruto in the usual classroom the next morning, dressed in some black pants and my brown oversized sweater since I didn't feel like being productive or stylish this morning. 

Suddenly remembering that the Hokage was watching, I glance to the upper left corner of the back of the room with a straight but knowing face, just long enough before I turned back to pay attention.

Iruka then came in and started explaining the finals to graduate the academy to become genin.

We would be called up one at a time to go into the next room to perform the clone jutsu. Turning to Naruto, I saw he was having his inner panic monologue. Iruka left the room with the first student, the tests beginning.

Nudging Naruto, he turned to me in confusion when he saw my concerned expression.

"I can tell you're nervous, but I'm sure you can do it, Naru-kun!"

"But it's my worst jutsu!" Naruto groaned, grasping at his spiky blonde hair.

"I believe in you, Naruto! You'll pass, I know you will," I smiled lazily as I leaned back, giving him a thumbs up. I tried to give off 'relax it's not a big deal' vibe, though I had to admit I was a little worried for myself. Tests are not my thing, you see.

The whiskered blonde looked to me again, stars in his eyes. He looked convinced.

"Yeah! I'll pass this year! Believe it!"

"I do, Naru-kun."

"Naruto! You're next!" A student called from the doorway, seeing a shiny new headband on their forehead. I waved to Naruto as he left for his turn. To pass time, I thought about the episode where Shino was given a poison that made him laugh. I put my head to the desk, hiding my snickers.

A few more names and more chatter went by and it was my turn to go and test. I got up and strode out of the room as boss as I could, walking into the next room.

I had a plan.

The room was small, at the desk in front sat Iruka and Mizuki. Iruka had a friendly smile while Mizuki had a passive aggressive frown on his face. I stood in the middle of the room, facing the two senseis.

"Hello, Sebastian," Iruka greets.

"Let's get down to business," Mizuki smiled fakely, "make at least three clones for us."

I nodded with a poker face, and made the appropriate handsigns, activating my chakra as the class had practiced so many times, creating four clones of myself.

"Very good, Sebastian! Congratulations. Come get your headband," Mizuki waves me over.

As I went over, I muttered something under my breath.

"Hmm?" Mizuki inquired.

"Naru-kun didn't pass...did he?" When I asked, Iruka had a small frown as he shook his head. I made myself look crestfallen as he offered the headband to me. Staring at it in guilt was a little hard, but it looked like I had convinced Mizuki.

"There's always next year," Iruka said, trying to cheer me up.

"I just wish I could've helped him out more...y'know, as his best friend and all. It doesn't even feel right to go on without him," I made myself look so depressed, slowly taking the headband from Iruka-sensei.

Iruka reminded me to call in the next student as I left.

I walked out, making a very sad expression on my face. Out of the corner on my eye, Mizuki smiled mischievously.

Plan success.

I walked down the hall slowly, tying the headband around my right upper arm. As I passed the class I called out the name Iruka gave me to say their next.

Now, it was time to cheer my best friend up.

Knowing we could leave to celebrate the graduation with family and knowing Naruto would be out at the swing, I walked outside. I found Naruto at the swing, like I predicted, but I forgot about the very opinionated parents talking about Naruto. I sent the crowd a glare and kept walking.

Seeing Naruto like this in real time just made me so sad. But this time, I could do something about it.

I slowly walked over, slowing my pace until I stood right in front of the usually bright-eyed Naruto. He looked up with such a sad expression my heart just twisted into a couple of knots.

"...I didn't pass," Naruto whispered. I crouched down in front of him.

"I know," I said in a quiet voice. I held out my arms in a gesture for a hug. Naruto looked confused. I gestured again, a sad smile on my face. Slowly but surley, Naruto got up from the swing and kind of collapsed into my arms. I rubbed his back comfortably in silence, Naruto sitting there in absolute depression.

At that moment, I heard a voice from up in the tree.

"Pssst! Naruto! Sebastian!"

We both look up in the tree to see a friendly looking Mizuki.

"Mizuki-sensei...?" Naruto mumbled.

"I know a way you can pass," Mizuki smiled, "I know a way that'll make Iruka proud of both of you." I forged a look of surprise while Naruto gained some of his hope back.

"Really?" Naruto asked, a sparkle showing in his eye again.

"Yeah, but we can't talk here."

Naruto and I followed Mizuki-sensei to a more quiet place and he explained where the secret scroll was, and that if we could get it and learn something from it, Iruka would be so proud.

My best friend was all for it, while I just silently nodded, not giving anything away.

"Are you in, Sebastian?" Mizuki asked.

"...If it will help Naruto, then yes."

"Good," Mizuki nodded, "now, this is how it's going to go..."

---------------

It was sometime in the middle of the night, and Naruto had grabbed the scroll while I kept on the lookout. We both ran into the forest Mizuki told us about and we rested there.

"We did it!" Naruto panted, plopping down with the huge scroll in arms.

"Yeah," I wheezed, not in real good shape after the running and all of the stress of trying not to get caught.

"Let's see what's inside this thing, to see what would make Iruka-sensei the most proud!" Naruto exclaimed, flipping the scroll flap and rolling it open. I scooted over to sit next to him, reading the scroll carefully.

"Awh...everything looks so complicated!" Naruto groaned.

"It is a forbidden scroll," I muttered, rolling it out more so I could read for the shadow clone--ah!

"Hey, Naru-kun, look!" I pointed it out and Naruto leaned over to see.

"Oh! That's perfect!" Naruto shouted, reading from it. While he read the instructions, I looked for something I could learn. I skipped past the Fourth Hokage's teleportation jutsu, already having a fabricated fashion of it.

After some reading, I saw it. The Inner Control Jutsu. It's a neutral jutsu that doesn't need a specific nature. The jutsu ultimately uses the chakra inside ones body against them and can move the person...or steal the chakra from them. If too much chakra is removed, it could be deadly, thus it's in the forbidden scroll.

The instructions were simple and so easy to follow, I had it down mentally in about twenty minutes. Naruto practiced the Shadow Clone Jutsu while I studied the Inner Control Jutsu.

After about an hour, Naruto was panting and flat on his back, myself with my hands on my knees, gasping for much needed air. I used Naruto as a lab rat after I felt I was good enough on it, and I got it to work. It takes a lot out of me, but I didn't dare take chakra from Naruto. He was low on it already.

"Naruto! Sebastian!" Iruka called, and we both looked up to see Iruka-sensei land from tree hopping.