Happiness, excitement and joy were the emotions that were running highest throughout everyone. Parents congratulated their children on passing their tests and taking the next step towards the career that would take up the rest of their lives. Some parents even thanked the teachers on helping their children make it to the end of the academy and passing their final exams.
Amongst the happiness and jubilation however there was still one case of sadness, one lone boy who sat on a swing by himself, staring longingly at the scenes of happiness. This diminutive boy with blond hair, blue eyes and an orange jumpsuit had not succeeded where the rest of his class had. He was unable to produce a simple clone and for that reason he was not able to pass the exam to become a Genin.
The boy let out a heavy sigh as he watched the scene before him. He would love it if he had parents that would be proud of him if he had succeeded, or even supportive if he wasn't. Yet fate was not kind to him and he had been alone ever since he could remember, the only ones who ever seemed to take any interest in him being the Hokage and the owners of Ichiraku Ramen. Other than them no-one seemed to have nary a care nor concern about him.
"Hey Naruto" a voice spoke from behind the boy, Naruto turned slowly towards the owner of the voice, not exactly in the mood to do anything with his usual zest. When he turned around he was met with the face of one of his teachers, Mizuki. He had a sad and apologetic look upon his face. "I'm sorry you never passed the test today Naruto" Mizuki said as he placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "There's always next year though huh?" Mizuki asked encouragingly with a kind smile on his face towards Naruto.
Despite his current mood Naruto felt better after Mizuki's smile, it made him feel that not all was lost.
"I guess you're right Mizuki-Sensei, but next year everyone will be a year younger than me" Naruto spoke uncertainly as he looked down at the ground. He didn't want to be the only boy in the class that was a whole year older than everyone.
"Well you know…." Mizuki began as Naruto looked up to him expectantly. "…There is another way to pass the Genin test, a bonus test for extra credit" Mizuki explained. Naruto was interested and it showed as his entire posture had shifted from slouching to leaning closer to Mizuki in order to hear what he was saying.
"What you have to do is steal the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing from the Hokage's office and escape anyone that follows you" Mizuki said as Naruto processed the information, so all he had to do was steal a scroll from the Hokage's office and escape? That didn't sound too hard.
"Where is the Scroll sensei?" Naruto asked, hoping to narrow down the amount of places he'd have to look, the Hokage's office was huge after all, it had to accommodate for the mountains of paperwork that needed to be done. Mizuki smiled at Naruto's attempt to worm more information out of him.
"That would be cheating Naruto, you have to find it yourself with all the tools you have at your disposal" Mizuki said as he lifted his hand off of Naruto's shoulder and began to walk off. "Good luck Naruto, I hope you are able to pass this test" Mizuki spoke cheerfully. "Oh and before I forget don't tell anyone about this test, wouldn't want just anyone to think they could take this test would we?" Mizuki asked with a smile on his face again as he walked away.
Naruto stood up from his seat on the swing. He cast a glance at the happy scene outside of the academy with the families once more. Despite his longing for a family, he now had a way that he could finally become a Genin and he was not going to fail it this time. With that thought affirmed within his mind he set off home with the intent of getting whatever he would need to accomplish his goal. He began to walk away but was suddenly stopped by another familiar voice.
"Hey Naruto! Wait up!" called one of Naruto's other instructors. Naruto turned around to see Iruka looking at him apologetically too. "I'm sorry that you failed today Naruto, I didn't want to fail you but you didn't meet the minimum requirements and that can be dangerous in the life of a Shinobi" Iruka explained an was surprised when Naruto's face lit up.
"That's ok Sensei! I won't fail the next test, you can count on that!" Naruto proclaimed before he began to make his way back home. Iruka watched the back of Naruto as he disappeared from view with a smile. Haha it looks like we have another year together then Naruto Iruka thought to himself.
Later that night
"Whew! I forgot how good ANBU were, they almost had me for a while there!" Naruto joked out loud to no-one as he was the only one in the clearing. He didn't care though because once Mizuki and Iruka found out that he had managed to steal the scroll from right under the Hokage's nose then he was sure to pass this test and become a Genin for sure. He was grinning from ear to ear just thinking about it.
Then it dawned on Naruto that Mizuki had never told him where to go when he had managed to steal the scroll. Naruto figured that Mizuki would find him eventually so finally took the time to look at the scroll he had stolen. "Kage Bunshin, I hate clone Jutsu" Naruto complained as he saw the first Jutsu on the scroll, then on closer inspection noticed that the scroll contained a large number of complicated looking techniques. From some summoning technique called Edo Tensei to some Hiraishin technique. None of them made any sense to him however.
With some reluctance Naruto went back to the first technique that he had seen, it was the only one he could feasibly accomplish because he already knew how to make a clone, just not a very good one. Naruto started to look in depth into the Kage Bunshin and found that it was like a normal clone only you had to put more chakra into it.
What followed after was hours of practicing coming from Naruto. If his intelligence was ever in any question then there was no person that could ever deny Naruto's grit and determination, if he wanted something bad enough then he would do everything that he could to accomplish what he wanted.
Thus when Naruto finally collapsed to the ground with exhaustion and clouds of smoke billowing up from around him he had a self-satisfied smile on his face. With that smile Naruto's eyes closed and he was completely out for the count.
Once Naruto's body had hit the floor Mizuki made his move. Mizuki had arrived to where Naruto was hours ago but wanted to wait until Naruto was exhausted before he took the scroll from the brat. That way Naruto would be the one who had stolen the scroll and also the one who had given it away to enemies of the Leaf village; hence he would be seen as a traitor and a criminal. So Mizuki had waited for a few hours as Naruto tried and tried again to get the technique right. Mizuki had to hand it to the brat; he was a strong willed one at least, too bad that would go to waste in prison.
"Mizuki! What happened to Naruto?" Mizuki heard his fellow teacher ask him in a hurried voice off to his left. Mizuki turned to see that it was indeed Iruka that had come upon him just before he had done as he wanted. Thinking quick Mizuki responded.
"I don't know Iruka, I just got here to see Naruto collapse to the ground, I was about to retrieve the scroll when you came along" Mizuki answered and he did not miss the way that Iruka's face scrunched up in pain. Mizuki found it somewhat ironic that the embodiment of Iruka's hatred and sadness was also something that Iruka seemed to care about too.
Iruka felt horrible. Naruto had caused one of the greatest forms of treason that he possibly could have. He thought that the boy was going to be coming back to the academy for another year to try and pass the exam; it would be long but at least worth it in the end.
There was just something about this situation that did not make sense to Iruka. Naruto was maybe not the brightest child he had ever taught but he knew that there were some things that even he would not do, at least not without being misled at least. however the situation already explained itself, Naruto had stolen the forbidden scroll, whether he had been misled or not he would still need to be punished for doing what he had done.
"Iruka, you take Naruto to the Hokage, I'll get the scroll and bring it with me" Mizuki told Iruka. The scar faced Chunnin looked at Mizuki for a second longer than he would have normally and Mizuki thought that he might even have been found out. Then with a quick nod Iruka moved over to Naruto's prone form on the ground.
Iruka made to touch Naruto but as soon as his hand was mere inches away from the boy's body a venomous red chakra began to ooze out of his body, burning Iruka's hand upon contact. He retracted his hand quickly and shook it rapidly to cool it down. Mizuki who was on his way to pick up the scroll found his interest being dragged away and towards Naruto who was now getting to his hands and knees. The red malevolent chakra began to swirl around him and suddenly Naruto's head shot up and both Chunnin were able to see the wild look on Naruto's face.
"The seal has weakened! The Kyubi is trying to escape!" Iruka shouted. Mizuki knew an opportunity to run when he saw it and this opportunity was screaming at him in the face, yet when he turned around to claim the scroll and run he found it missing. Where is the scroll, it was there a moment ago! Mizuki yelled out in his mind.
His thoughts were cut short when a clawed hand missed his head by inches as he was able to dodge just in time, he was not however aware of the knee that followed and felt the force of a knee being implanted right into his back, sending him flying into a nearby tree.
"Naruto! Calm down, fight back, you are not a beast!" Iruka shouted at the boy which only seemed to attract its attention. Iruka saw those eyes, they were not even human any longer, his usual blue eyes had been replaced by malign red eyes with black slits as irises. Naruto grinned at Iruka before he leapt from where he was; in mid-air he crossed his fingers over each other. It can't be he couldn't have learned that! Iruka screamed out in his mind.
As if to prove him wrong a large group of Narutos with equally red eyes, only lacking the chakra cloak dove in towards him with obvious intent. The swarm of Narutos descended down upon Iruka. He was not a Chunnin for just any reason however as he formed hand seals quickly and slammed his hands onto the ground. "Earth Style: Mud Wall!" he called out as the earth around him began to mould into a wall directly in front of him and in the path or the Naruto swarm.
Iruka jumped back from his defence just in time as clawed hands then impaled through the mud wall he had created, the first few clones that had impaled themselves in the wall then acted as springboards for the following clones who then once again descended on Iruka much quicker than he had anticipated. The Naruto closest to him was the real one and he could tell this by the red cloak that was still enshrouding his body.
He was surprised when out of nowhere a foot then collided with Naruto's head and sent him off course and away from Iruka completely. Iruka looked up in shock to see that it had been Mizuki that had saved him from a grisly death. "Iruka, the Kyubi has taken over, there is no point in trying to appeal to Naruto anymore" Mizuki spoke slowly as he had yet to allow his anger at losing the scroll subside.
"You're wrong Mizuki, somewhere in there Naruto is trying to fight his way back, I just know it" Iruka said just as Naruto let loose a roar of anger. "It sounds like he is doing well then doesn't it?" Mizuki responded sarcastically before going through hand signs of his own. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!" Mizuki shouted as he fired a large fireball from his mouth at the now growling teenager.
Naruto easily leapt out of the way of the attack but was blindsided by Iruka who punched him in the stomach and sent him crashing down to the ground. Iruka had covered his fist in his Earth Style in order to make his punch harder. It did not seem like it worked however as the small crater that had been created was vacant of Naruto when the smoke cleared. Iruka found out why when Naruto was once again in front of him and aimed a punch at Iruka's face.
He managed to block it but the pain in his arm made it feel like his entire arm had pins and needles. Just then another fireball came screaming towards both of them. Naruto easily evaded it once again but Iruka was too slow to evade the attack that was coming from his 'ally'. Iruka waited for the pain to come from being burned but was surprised when he felt nothing but the same cool air on his skin and opened his eyes to find out why.
There stood a person fully covered by a black cloak and a long mane of red hair. Iruka could only tell these two features as he was looking at the persons back but from the size and shape of the person he knew that this was a man.
"It looks like the boy is getting out of control, don't worry, I'll handle this" the masculine voice of the man spoke without turning around. Iruka noticed that Naruto seemed to be looking at the man in fear, or at the very least he was wary of the new man that had entered.
"What are you talking about? He is a Jinchuriki!" Iruka tried to reason with the man, they would need the entire force of Konoha to subdue Naruto if he were to completely lose control, they needed that much last time. The man let loose a deep chuckle.
"Don't worry, you could say that I'm a bit of a beast tamer" The man laughed as he shrugged off the cloak and revealed what would look like any standard jonin or chunnin attire except his pants and shirt were black and the flak jacket, boots and gloves he wore were a deep maroon colour just like his mane of hair.
"That won't matter! He is the Jinchuriki of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox! He's too strong!" Iruka shouted at the back of the man, this time the man chuckled again but decided to turn around. That was when Iruka saw the mask on the man's face, it was midnight black with tiny slits for eye holes.
"Don't worry, I have that covered" the man responded before he looked towards the form of Naruto that had yet to move ever since he had entered the clearing. It was clear that Naruto was thinking before he went anywhere near this new man, there was just something about him the screamed dangerous. Iruka wondered what was going to happen before Naruto then roared once again and leapt towards the newcomer.
"Ah, I've done this eight times already and every time I have to fight, you'd have thought I might have learned by now" the man complained to himself before he readied himself for Naruto's attacks.
Hey guys I know this chapter is very short but it is a first chapter and it is also my first fic so I hope that you will let me get away with it haha, I don't know how often I will be able to update this, that is if anyone even likes it, but anyway I shall post this and hopefully some of you guys will like it and I'll try to have the next chapter up soon enough - Markossy