Originally posted by: Werder
Sasuke and Sakura are good and smart - but that doesn't mean they were as good before the year they took the academy exam, which would mean soemthing like they didn't feel they were ready to take any exam before then.

In Naruto's case, he believes he's always good enough, which would mean he'd probably attempt the exam every chance he got. It seems you can take the exam any time you want seeing as there are several cases of exceptional ninjas of a young age. His classmates would think he's an idiot (because lets face it, he is) because they would've known he had taken the exam so many times, since they probably remained in the same class the whole time, beignthe same age group... make any sense?

You know in one of Sarutobi's flashbacks with the 1st and the 2nd - am I right in thinking he was made Hokage then (they say something like, "Tomorrow, you will be Hokage") and he looked pretty young, like about Naruto's age or slightly older??
umm... dont u think that sasuke to live up to his brother being such a great genius and wanting to kill his brother would've tried to take the exam soon too? and u said that mayb they were only smart that 1 year? that doesnt really make sense considering the fact that sakura's reputation is that shes book smart. 1 year doesnt really give u that reputation does it? then again it could...

and in the flash back, when u said sarutobi was only naruto's age...? i remembered it to be that he wuz much older than naruto. By lik at least 10 years or so.

this jus sparked a couple of questions in me... how come they chose a 3rd hokage wen the first was still alive? i mean wen the 1st and 2nd die and theres only 3rd choosing a 4th then wud be understandable but choosing a third while theres still 2 of them? and how come the 2nd hokage didnt look younger than the first? if anything he looked older... do hokages have to go to the next generation or cud i be to 1 above its own? finally, what if that wasnt a flash back but merely what he visualized of what the previous hokage's would've said to him to take up the responsibility of guarding the village?