Shifter
Prologue
In Konoha-
"Get back here!"
"Stop this instant!"
'Haha you'll never get me Dattebayo!" Naruto yells, sticking his tongue out at the two men chasing him, before darting around a corner. He ran straight into someone, sending all of the things that person was carrying into the air. He and the person he bumped into fell onto the ground. He quickly gets back onto his feet and sprints away.
"Oi! Get back here you little brat!"
He stops. That voice was from the street in front of him. He hears more yelling from the street behind him. So they think they've cornered him? He opens up his bag and gets out a scroll. He opens it and holds it up so it covers him completely. He goes over to the fence and waits.
Soon enough, four people run over, two from each side. They look around in confusion until one of them points to an nearby alleyway.
"He must have gone down there!"
After they all run down the alleyway, he rolls the scroll back up and puts it back into his bag.
"Easy as pie," he says grinning.
"So this is what you were doing Naruto," a man says, walking towards him.
"Iruka-sensei!" he yells, surprised. Then he starts smiling nervously. "Classes were today weren't they? Dattebayo.'
Iruka nods slowly.
"Sorry?"
Iruka sighs. Naruto saw Iruka's hand move and he felt someone hit the back of his neck. Then his world turned black.
When Naruto woke up, he saw that he was in a classroom. Iruka must have knocked him out again. All his classmates were snickering at him.
"So Naruto are you sorry?" Iruka asks him
Naruto just 'hmphs' and turns his head away to the side. He wasn't sorry that he missed a good portion of school. It wasn't his fault that he forgot! Besides the only other classmate who was nice to him moved away when he was 6.
Out of the corner of his eye he sees Iruka's eye twitch.
"All right!" Iruka yells, "because Naruto missed the last lesson, we're going to re-do it. So everyone get out your Math books."
Naruto, along with most of the class groaned. He hated Math ; it over complicated things. He spent the rest of the lesson trying to knock himself out by banging his head onto the table. Iruka had tied up his hands at feet.
At the end of the lesson all of the students had to answer a question to see if they had learned anything.
"This is all your fault Naruto!" a boy told him
"Yeah if you'd come in on time, we wouldn't have to review entire lessons."
Naruto just waved off all of their comments. Soon it was only him and Iruka left in the room.
"Come on Naruto let's go."
"But Iruka-sensei you didn't ask me a question"
"That's because you're going to go and scrub the paint off the Hokage statues while I watch."
He groaned
"But Iruka-sensei!"
"No buts now let's go."
Naruto groaned again and started to make his way to the hokage shrine with Iruka following suit.
"Come on Naruto! Scrub harder! Don't you want to go back home?"
Naruto stopped scrubbing and scoffed.
"Why should I? It's not like there's anyone waiting for me Dattebayo!"
That was true. He was a orphan. He didn't know anything about his parents apart from the fact that they died on the day he was born. October 10th, the same day the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked Konohagakure no Sato (More commonly known as the village hidden in the leaves.)
There was about a minute of silence until Iruka spoke again.
"Hey Naruto"
"Hm?"
"If you get your work done quick enough I'll treat you to Ramen."
A grin spreads across his face.
"Why didn't you say so before Dattebayo!"
And he starts to scrub twice as hard.
At the ramen store, Naruto happily slurps his seventh bowl of ramen while Iruka politely eats his second bowl.
"Hey Naruto?"
"Hm?"
"Why did you even paint the Hokage statues?"
"Because..." he puts his bowl down.
"Because?"
"Because the villagers always mess with my most precious items! So I thought why not mess with theirs Dattebayo!"
Iruka starts to chuckle
"So you did it for revenge?"
"Yes!"
Then he remembers about what he found when he was painting the statues.
"Iruka-sensei?"
"Yes Naruto?"
"When I was painting the statues, I found something that looked like the remains of a-"
Iruka covers his mouth.
"Not in here."
He nods his head and tries to say 'yes' but it comes out all muffled.
Iruka lets go and gets his wallet. He pays for the meals and walks out of the store, beckoning for Naruto to follow him. They walk in silence until they get to Naruto's house.
"Goodnight Naruto, don't fail the test tomorrow" Iruka says, already walking off. The test decided which school students would go to after the academy. It would be his third time.
"Wait, Iruka-sensei!"
But Iruka has already walked off.
"Naruto Uzumaki"
Naruto gets up and walks over to the teacher's desk and hands his test paper to Mizuki-sensei, the TA, who was sitting next to Iruka.
Iruka smiles at him and mouths 'I know you've done well' whereas Mizuki smiles at him. But that smile felt fake...
He smiles back at both of them before he quickly goes back to his seat. While everyone else handed in their tests, Naruto thought about what Iruka had said the previous day.
"Not in here."
So was it important but no-one could know about it? Then how did Iruka know? And why was it in the shrine that anyone could visit? More importantly why was it in the the sacred statues shrine? Only Hokages are allowed to be statues there and what he found did look like a statue. But not even the villagers would try to destroy a statue ; that would disrespect the village and be considered treason. He used to hide in there a lot in there as a kid.
In the end he gave up and fell asleep, not noticing that Iruka and Mizuki were handing slips to the students, telling them what school they were going to...
"NARUTO!"
Naruto's eyes snapped open and he lifted his head up to see staring at him with a sad look on his face.
"Sorry I fell asleep sensei," he says sheepishly
"It's okay Naruto."
"So what'd I miss Dattebayo"
"Well you didn't really miss anything Naruto"
"Huh? What do you mean?!"
"Well..."
"You failed the test Naruto," Mizuki says, walking over to them.
Naruto felt his heart sink. That was the third time he failed his test and you only have three tries.
"So what's going to happen to me now?"
"You have to go back to the orphanage."
He stared at Mizuki in horror.
"But-"
"I'm sorry Naruto but you have to," Iruka cuts in, "I'll help you move your stuff."
Naruto doesn't look at Iruka. He tried so hard to complete that test so why couldn't they just pass him? Did he do something to the world when he was born? If he did then that would explain why he's been treated so badly in life.
"You are dismissed."
He gets up and is about to walk out when Iruka whispers into his ear. He nods and walks out of the building. He walks over to the nearby and sits down on it, watching all of his former classmates boast to their parents about what school they're going to and how many marks they got on the test. He spots two women in their early twenties pointing at him.
"I heard he's the only kid who didn't graduate in his class."
"Hmph, serves him right, it's all his fault-"
"Ssh! We're not supposed to talk about that!"
So the news spread that quickly then? He thinks back to what Iruka told him just 2 minutes ago.
'Meet me in the forest clearing at 8.'
"Sorry I forgot for a second and anyway, what kind of school would accept him anyway?"
"School for freaks."
Naruto quickly gets off the swing and sprints to his house. He never notices the tears pouring down his face nor did he notice Mizuki watching him with a sadistic smirk.
At 8pm Naruto waits in the forest clearing for Iruka. He was starting to doubt that Iruka was even coming ; Iruka's never late.
Maybe he meant 8 am?
A yell brought him out of his thoughts.
"Naruto run!"
Was that Iruka?
He looks in that direction and sees Iruka running towards him. There were several wounds - Oh Kami! were those gunshot wounds?- on his arms and legs.
"Iruka-sensei what's going on?"
"No time for explaining just run!"
Click. Woosh.
Iruka lets out a cry of pain as a bullet hits him in the back. He's crouching over Naruto who's staring at him in shock. Why would Iruka save him? Why? Forget that, who's even shooting?"
"You just won't stay down will you Iruka," a familiar voice says mockingly.
Naruto gasps in surprise as the person steps out into view.
"Mizuki-sensei! What are you doing?!"
MIzuki looks at him with hatred in his eyes.
"Well I was trying to kill your precious Iruka-sensei but now I'm going to kill Iruka and you."
Naruto gets out from underneath Iruka and Iruka slumps to the floor, groaning.
"What? Why would you want to kill us?"
"Because you're supernaturals"
"Super-what?!"
Mizuki starts to laugh.
"Well let's just say that supernaturals are freaks of nature. People who need to die."
Naruto frowns.
"I don't understand."
"Well Iruka," Mizuki points at Iruka, "Can store anything inside of him. And you," he points at Naruto, "are the Kyuubi no Kitsune."
Naruto feels the weight of the world fall onto his shoulders. So that's why the villagers hated him. They only saw him as the Kyuubi.
"You're wrong!" Iruka yells, getting onto his feet.
Naruto and Mizuki turn to look at him.
"Naruto isn't the Kyuubi! Stop filling his head with lies!"
Memories go through Naruto's head and he smiles. At least someone saw him as himself, not the nine tailed fox.
Mizuki growls at Iruka at shoots at him.
It was at that moment when time seemed to go in slow-motion for Naruto. As he ran in front of Iruka to stop the bullet, memories of him and Iruka eating ramen flash in his mind and he feels the air around his lower back start to solidify. He shuts his eyes and waits for the bullet to come.
But it never does.
He opens his eyes to see a red tail stopping the bullet.
"Naruto," Iruka whispers almost inaudibly, "You've done it."
Iruka sounded...proud. Why was he? Then Naruto realised.
"Don't fail the test"
So this was the test.
Mizuki starts to open fire at Naruto, who's tail deflects all the bullets with ease. After about two minutes Mizuki shooting at him, he hears the familiar click of an empty gun. One word escapes Mizuki's lips.
"...Shit..."
He starts to walk towards Mizuki, who drops the gun and tries to run away. The tail shoots out and grabs his former sensei by the ankle.
"No! Please!" Mizuki yells as the tail starts travelling up his body like a snake.
"You hurt my sensei," Naruto growls, "For that I'll kill you!"
The tip of the tail stabs Mizuki straight through the chest, killing the man instantly. Then the tail disappears. A sudden wave of exhaustion hits him and he starts to pant.
"Are you okay Naruto?" Iruka asks running over to him.
"Yeah...just tired and I should be asking you that Sensei."
Iruka chuckles
"I'm fine Naruto, I'll be completely healed in a couple of hours."
Naruto nods, yawning. Then he frowns.
"what are we going to do now sensei? Mizuki would have told the villagers by now and we'd be kicked out the village Dattebayo"
"That's the thing Naruto, you killed Mizuki."
He froze and stared at Iruka.
"I...killed him?"
Iruka sighed.
"It doesn't matter right now just go to to sleep."
He nods and lays onto the grass, his eyes already drooping.
"And what you saw at the Hokage shrine," Iruka says says just before Naruto drifted in unconsciousness, "were the remains of the Fourth Hokage's statue."
Iruka woke him up at dawn. When he was fully awake, Iruka told him to close his eyes.
"But why sensei?"
"Just do it"
He sighs and closes his eyes. Something is pushed into his hands.
"Now open them"
Naruto opens his eyes to see that he was holding a box. He grins and opens it. Inside were some clothes, a slip and a letter. The slip looked familiar...
"Wasn't that the test Dattebayo?"
Iruka nodded, smiling.
"Mizuki originally marked yours, so I re-marked it last night, check the score."
Naruto did as he was told.
"I GOT 55 OUT OF 70!?"
He was pretty everyone in Suna heard him but he didn't care.
Iruka just laughed.
Naruto then looked at the letter
Dear Naruto Uzumaki,
You have been selected to join Shinobi High, a boarding school in Uzushiogakure for men and women aged 12- 18. Good luck in your studies,
- Lord Hokage
P.S. I hope you like your new clothes because you are Not allowed to wear the tattered clothes to school.
Underneath the letter were some clothes. An orange hoodie with a white shirt underneath and a pair of cotton adjustable trousers to be exact.
"Why don't put it on."
Naruto nodded eagerly and ran off to put his outfit on.
When he came back, Iruka had a rucksack on and was standing near a tree.
"Come on let's go."
"To where Sensei?"
"Uzushiogakure"
He frowned.
"Are you sure? What if that tail things comes back Dattebayo?"
Shinobi High's a special kind of school. I'll tell you on the way there. Now come on."
And so they set off to Uzushiogakure, to go to Shinobi High. Naruto acted happy but inside several thoughts were running through his head.
What was that tail thing? How can he use it at will and more importantly:
Who was the fourth? And why was his statue taken down?
-End of Chapter-
Hi! This is my first attempt at an actual fanfic so if there's anything that needs improvement you can just let me know.
Also to clear any confusion, Naruto's power will be explained in another chapter chapter so please don't ask about it or Mizuki's death because that link with it.