The news that the Scroll of Sealing had been stolen and then recovered didn't make much of a splash in the village. The main reason was that having an important item stolen from the Hokage's office was hardly something to be proud of. No one who knew the details would spread the story. Another reason was consideration for Yakumo Kurama.
After all, she was only twelve years old, and she had been led astray. At the Kurama Clan's request, Minato decided not to hold it against her. What's more, Yakumo's talent for genjutsu had now caught his attention, and he had asked Tsunade to treat her.
Several months later, the students in Naruto Uzumaki's year finally arrived at the long-awaited graduation exam.
The Ninja Academy.
Unlike any other day, the entire Ninja Academy was unusually quiet, despite it being a Wednesday. There were no students on the playground, and no teachers' voices could be heard coming from the classrooms.
Yet the whole school was shrouded in a tense atmosphere.
The first part of the graduation exam was a written test. The exam covered knowledge taught in every grade at the Ninja Academy, making it broad in scope. Students needed a solid foundation to complete it successfully.
To prevent cheating, every student other than the candidates taking the exam had the day off. The empty classrooms were used as exam rooms.
There weren't many candidates, but there were plenty of classrooms, so each room held only a small number of students. They were also seated quite far apart.
Each exam room had two proctors, one at the front and one at the back, to watch the students as they worked.
At a window seat in one of the classrooms, Naruto Uzumaki gnawed on his pencil, his face scrunched up in misery.