-1

This is my rebuttal from the failed Dark Destiny: Apocalypse project. I hope you all like this one, so please R&R.

Chapter 1: A shinobi's promise

"Ichi Nomake."

"Here."

"Tomuya Dentaishi."

"Here."

"Naruto Uzamaki."

"..."

"Naruto Uzamaki?"

The door burst open and in comes a thirteen year old Naruto Uzamaki, wearing his orange outfit, jacket open and a sucker in his mouth.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here."

"Naruto, where have you been?"

"Please Iruka-sensei, I'm really not in the mood now."

Before he could say anything else, Iruka had him by the ear.

"You're not in the mood? And what's with the wanna be jock look?"

"ow, ow, ow, ow."

"You stay after class. Now go to your seat."

The class by now was laughing, save for several distinct people.

One, Sasuke Uchiha sat staring intently at the blonde with his hands folded beneath his chin. Two, Shikamaru Naga stared out the window at clouds slowly moving in the sky. Shino Aburame sat, apparently sleep. He took his seat, next to the Raven haired Uchiha.

"Where were you?" The boy asked without even looking at the blonde.

"Someone...broke into my apartment while I was sleeping. I had to give a report of the perp."

"Who was it?"

"Still don't know-"

He was cut short as a piece of chalk was skillfully shot into the center of his forehead.

"NO TALKING IN CLASS!! Sasuke Uchiha, you stay after as well!"

Students laugh again.

Naruto rubbed his forehead and growled.

"I'm glad this is the last day we have in this academy."

"For me yeah, for you, not so sure."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Sasuke smirked but said nothing more. It was obvious that Sasuke knew something Naruto didn't.

A little later the class was dismissed and everyone left except for Naruto, Sasuke, and Shikamaru.

"Sasuke-kun, that baka is sorry he got you in trouble. If you want me to thrash him I can." A young Sakura Haruno stated as she began to walk away.

Sasuke just ignored her and waited for Iruka to address them.

"Shikamaru, you can go now but I want a parent teacher conference tomorrow."

"Aw man, what a drag..."

He slumps away with his hands in his pocket. Iruka turns to the last two.

"How many times do I have to tell you two to stop talking in class? I'd be surprised if either one of you actually pass the genin test tomorrow."

"GENIN TEST?" Naruto yelled out. He turned to Sasuke who had his eyes closed but held a smirk on his face.

"You knew?"

He just nodded. "I thought you would have figured out by now."

Naruto cursed Sasuke and shrunk into nothingness. "I am so screwed."

"Well despite everything, you've both shown very impressive skills and are actually tied for ranking number one in class. If you could just stay focused, you could both be chunin before you know it."

"There's one problem Iruka-sensei. He has the brain of a fruit fly-" Sasuke said.

"And he has the attention span of a dung beetle." Naruto finished.

Iruka sighed and dismissed the two. He smiled as they walked away. He knew what Naruto was going threw, and he knew what Sasuke had went threw. The fact that they found friends in each other was a miracle of itself, but at how close their bond was, it was all unbelievable. He looked down at the roster of students to see that Naruto and Sasuke were really ranked number one, and chuckled at who he saw was number two.

"Shikamaru Naga? Wow, the laziest students are my best students. What a world."

Naruto and Sasuke walked out towards the main part of the village.

"You could have at least hinted it or something."

"Come on. You heard what Iruka-sensei said. Me and you are number one in class so we should have no problem with tomorrows test."

He mumbled at Sasuke's calm words. That didn't help the fact that he knew nothing about a genin test.

"What do you think they're gonna have us do?" Naruto asked, still mad.

Sasuke just shrugged. "We'll find out when the time comes. See ya later."

He watched as Sasuke turned off and walked towards the abandoned Uchiha complex. He looked away, feeling sorry for his raven haired comrade. He sighed and began walking home.

Having been deep in thoughts, he didn't see the completely visible leg sticking out in front of him. He tripped and fell flat on his face.

"Ow…hey…"

He looked up but no one seemed to notice. However, he knew they had seen what happened, they just didn't care. Some people were still looking and laughing at him. He stood and began to dust the dirt off of him until someone came and knocked him down from behind. This time he scraped an elbow. He turned over, looking around again. People were now visibly laughing. He stood up and began to run.

Not long after, he was on the ground for a third time. Someone had thrown a rather large rock and had hit him right in the stomach. He clutched his gut and curled into a ball as laughs echoed over him.

"Look at the demon!"

"What a wuss! It was just a rock!"

"Cursed monster."

He held back tears at the names. Demon and monster. They always called him that and he never understood why. They all treated him like crap. The only one's who didn't were the select few friends he had at the academy, Iruka, and the third hokage himself. He stood again and moved just in time as another rock flew at him. He was running again. He had to run. It was either run or be beaten. He as drawing closer to his apartment. The place that was supposed to be his safe haven. But there was a huge problem.

He slowed to an unsteady walk, looking up at his apartment, mouth wide open. The building, no, just one room, was burning, sending clouds of black smoke bellowing into the orange sky overhead. The flames danced, at the song of the many people who stood around smiling and laughing. A tear rolled down Naruto's cheek. Not at the fact that all his possessions were now gone, but because of the fact that a life had been taking in the manner. The third hokage had graciously given Naruto a companion. A small puppy, only two weeks ago. He had taken care of the puppy to the best of his ability, with the help of Sasuke and Kiba, who had a puppy of his own.

He dropped to his knees, the warmth of the flames dehydrating him, even from the distance. His tears were dripping onto the ground in front of him. He dug his nails into the ground so hard that his fingers began to bleed. No one even noticed him, they all were drawn to the flames. They didn't notice when his hair began to flutter slightly, or when the marks on his cheek began to darken. His eyes fluctuated between sapphire, violet, red, violet, and sapphire again. Then it all stopped when someone stepped next to him.

"Water Wall jutsu!" Was all Naruto heard before the heat began to disappear from the air.

He looked up at the person who had come to extinguish the flames. He had silver hair and from Naruto's position, one eye was covered by the leafs headband.

"Don't worry, I got him out." The man spoke, under what appeared to be a mask.

He was confused at the man's words until he saw next to the man the puppy he had been taking care of. It was hurt and lying on it's side, but Naruto could see that it was still breathing.

Naruto looked up to where the flames had been. Instead, a steady wall of water now engulfed the apartment. He had just noticed the cheers stop and the many glares aimed at the man standing over him, but more at himself. He shrunk a little, the stares of those around finally settling into him like hundreds of kunai.

The wall of water began to shrink until it was gone, and now only small lines of smoke rose into the air. The man looked down on Naruto with his one visible eye. He just stared, looking into Naruto's tear filled eyes. He blinked and looked away. The crowd in front of the apartment began to disperse. Seconds later, Iruka shows up in a whirl of leaves.

"Naruto, what happened, are you okay?"

"He's fine."

Iruka noticed the person standing next to Naruto and gave him thanks.

"Thank you Kakashi, we're really grateful for this. This means a lot-"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going to report this to the hokage. You should really take that dog to the hospital." The man was gone in seconds.

Iruka sighed and picked Naruto and the puppy up.

'Why would someone go this far?' He thought as he leaped away to the hospital.

"Thank you Iruka-sensei." Naruto whispered, tears still on his face.

"No. I'm sorry Naruto."

"It's not your fault. Besides, they only do it because they hate me. No big deal."

'No big deal?'

Iruka thought very little of it, but in honesty, it bugged him that Naruto would dismiss the situation like that. What was worse, was that Naruto didn't dismiss the situation since it never arose. All he cared about was the puppy.

The sun hung low in the sky, only visible as a half ball of light on top of rooftops. It wouldn't be long before the moon took it's place opposite the sky. Naruto and Iruka sat at a ramen stand, that was called Ichiraku's. He looked down into his bowl at the brown broth and lean noodles. All he thought of was the puppy. Iruka saw and stopped eating himself.

"Naruto, the puppy is gonna be okay. It just has to rest a few days is all."

"Hiro."

"Hm?"

"His name is Hiro."

Iruka saw tears forming in the blondes eyes again.

"Well Naruto, I know you're worried about Hiro, but he's in good hands right now. You don't want him to die do you? He has to be treated by professionals to get well. Isn't that what you want?"

"…"

"Don't worry. In two days, we'll go get the little guy alright?"

"Promise?"

"Promise, believe it."

His smile faded when he saw the blank stare on Naruto's face.

"What's wrong?"

"Iruka-sensei, that believe it thing was so corny."

"Corny? You wait, I'll have you using it all the time, believe it."

Naruto covered his ears with a face full of false fear.

"NOOO!! Then everyone will hate me for using such a corny catch phrase!"

Iruka laughs at the blonde as he shakes his head left and right. The owner came from the back and saw the two.

"Still not done Iruka?"

"No. Will you be closing up shop soon Teuchi?"

"No, no, take as long as you need. You too Naruto."

Naruto didn't hear him as he continued shaking his head from left to right, refusing to hear that catch phrase again.

"You know, we really should be going. Naruto has a big test to take tomorrow."

"He's taking the genin test?"

"That's right."

" Perfect. So is Ayame. Hopefully he could service the village and clear his name…" Teuchi says before turning around.

Without admitting it, Iruka wishes the same thing. Naruto finally uncovers his ears as he sees Iruka standing.

"Time to go already?"

"Yeah. You need to get some sleep before the test tomorrow."

"Oh yeah, the test…"

He stands to follow Iruka. One that wallowed in innocence was engulfed in the pity of sin. It wasn't enough, Iruka knew. There had to be something much more he could do for Naruto besides letting him stay with him for a few days. The bitterness that Naruto hid was surfacing on Iruka, feeling hatred towards the ones who had done horrible things to Naruto. He sighed as they reached his house. Naruto was looking down with his hands in his pockets while Iruka unlocked the door.

"Iruka-sensei…"

"Yes Naruto?"

"Do you think I'm a demon?"

"No…not at all! You're not a demon at all Naruto. Believe-"

"Okay, I get it."

Iruka smiled weakly. He stepped in and closed the door. Naruto walked over to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door, and grabbed some instant ramen. He knew where everything was since it wasn't the first time he had to stay with Iruka. From time to time, people had set stink bombs in his house or unleashed hoards of mice into the house. He was used to it so everything around the house seemed natural.

"Naruto…why didn't you eat at the stand?"

"I wasn't hungry."

"So I didn't have to waste my money?"

"Not really."

Iruka smacked Naruto in the back of the head with a fan.

"You little brat you should have said something!"

Naruto was squatting holding the back of his head.

"OW! Iruka-senseeeeiiii!" He whined.

"Stop whining! Eat, study, and then get to bed."

Naruto took the instant ramen and grumbled. He took his seat on the couch in the living room and crossed his legs. He flicked on the TV and started to eat.

Iruka sighed in exasperation. He flopped onto the recliner next to Naruto and watched TV as well. About twenty minutes later, they were both wide eyed and drooling. (Yes too much TV can do that to you.) Then the show went to a commercial. Iruka blinked and then looked at Naruto who was still drooling.

"Naruto? Naruto?"

He snapped his fingers. He continued to stare forward blankly. Then Iruka yelled at the top of his lungs.

"NARUTO!"

The blonde flew across the room and slammed into the wall.

"Iruka-sensei, why are you torturing me today?" He said as he flopped onto the floor.

"It's time to study."

"Uh…study what?"

"For…damn it, I left the scrolls at school."

He sighed, remembering someone telling him about the fire and then rushing to get Naruto. He had forgotten to grab his scrolls and the school was locked now.

"Come on Naruto, we need to ask the hokage to let us into the school."

"I…I don't think we should…" Naruto said looking nervously at the door.

"Why not-"

Iruka stopped. Of course Naruto didn't want to go. It was night, and that was when the villagers showed their true colors. Naruto had been hospitalized several times, all with doctors notes saying "incidents" that happened after 7:00 p.m.

"Naruto, I'll be right by your side, so nothing will happen to you."

"Believe it?"

"Yeah…believe it."

Iruka opens the door again. Naruto slowly and reluctantly follows close behind.

"Come on, this'll be faster."

Iruka leapt onto one of the buildings and kept going. Naruto followed behind but was much slower. They were making great progress, not many people were out anyway. By the time they made it to the Hokage tower stairs, only five minutes had passed.

"See, nothing happened at all."

"I guess…" Naruto said covering the kunai rip on the back of his pants.

They walked the rest of the way up the hill. Iruka spoke to the guards and was sent up.

"Alright Naruto, be patient. The hokage is a very busy man."

They entered his office to find him face first in paper work, snoring loudly.

"Sue looks busy to me." Naruto called.

Iruka's brow twitched. "LORD HOKAGE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" He screamed.

The third woke up instantly and began whacking Iruka in the back of the head with a fan.

"Don't you (whack) ever wake (whack) a sleeping (whack) Hokage up! (Whack, Whack, Whack.)"

A few minutes later he returned to his chair and took a serious demeanor.

"Now then, what do you want Iruka, I'm very busy."

"ARE NOT!" He called holding the pulsing lump on his head.

The third noticed Naruto and frowned.

"Naruto, I am truly sorry for what happened earlier today. I assure you those who are found responsible for this will pay dearly. I'm also funding for you a newly refurbished room."

"It doesn't matter sir. Hiro wasn't hurt."

"Your puppy?" The third looked questioningly at Naruto. Then he changed the subject.

"Iruka, what have you come for?"

"Um…Lord Hokage-sama, in the disruption of today's earlier events, I forgot to retrieve-"

"Iruka, Iruka. No formal talk, just come out with it."

Iruka sighed. "I left the test materials for tomorrow's genin test in the school building."

"I see. Fine, come along Iruka."

"Naruto, you stay here until we get back alright?"

"You don't have to tell me twice."

The third and Iruka leave the office. Naruto sighs as the room becomes silent. He stands on spot for a little before turning and looking at papers on the hokage's desk. He sat down in the hokage's chair and flipped threw more papers. Before he could find anything interesting, a knock came on the door. Naruot jumped out the chair and stumbled sideways. The doot opened.

"Um, sorry to disturb you-"

The person entered and saw Naruto on the ground.

"Little Naruto. What's up kid?"

"Uh…Mizuki-sensei."

"What're you doing in here?"

"I…I'm waiting for Iruka-sensei and Hokage-sama to return.

"Oh, I see." He thought to himself for a little bit.

"Hey Naurto, guess what."

"What?"

"You want to know a sure in way to pass the genin test tomorrow?"

"Of course! How?"

Mizuki looked back out the door to the hokage's room. He pulled his head back in and faced Naruto.

"There's a scroll at the shrine threw the western gates that holds techniques that are chunin level. If you could get that scroll, you would definitely become genin for sure."

"Alright! Thanks Mizuki-sensei!"

Naruto darted from the building, forgetting all about the night and the villagers.

He darted towards the western exit, bumping into people and knocking others down with out even glancing back. Then, just feet away from the western exit, Naruto slams head to head with another blonde.

"Ow…hey!" The other calls.

Naruto reels from the blow but sees the person in front of him reaching out towards him. He flinches as the hand touches his head.

"Are you okay?" The person ask. Naruto now realizes the person is a girl.

"I'm…fine. You?"

"I'm okay. My mom says I have a hard head." She says smiling slightly.

"By the way, I'm Ino. Ino Yamanaka. You're Naruto right?"

"Uhuh. We have class together."

"That's right. You're always hanging with Sasuke."

"That's me." He stood and helped her up.

"Where are you going in such a rush?" She asked picking up the flowers that Naruto just noticed.

"I'm…going to get a scroll."

"Isn't the scroll shop closed?"

"It's a special scroll."

"Oh, okay. Well, I'll see you tomorrow okay? I have to get home and study also."

"See ya."

Before the girl walked away, she handed him a flower.

"What's this for?"

"We're friends right? That's a friendship flower."

"Thanks." The girl blushed and walked away.

'Friends? She doesn't think…I'm a demon?'

Naruto smiled and continued on to the shrine.

Outside the village, Naruto began leaping from tree to tree, towards the shrine.

'Is that it?' He thought as he landed in front of a shrine of a golden eight armed man holding up a scroll wrapped in a green and gold rope.

Without a second thought he ran up to it and took it. Before he could take another step the shrine began to glow. The statue stood up and looked down on Naruto.

"Oh…crap."

The statue rose an arm and swung it down at Naruto. He was fast enough to dodge the arm, but didn't see the second, third, or fourth arm coming. They slammed into Naruto and sent him sliding over the ground. He jumped up to see the statue walking slowly towards him. He jumped back and threw kunai, but they all bounced off the metal beast.

Naruto was now panicking. He took out his only smoke grenade and burst it in front of him. The statue stopped. When the smoke cleared, Naruto was gone. He was in a tree, panting heavily. For some reason, he couldn't get more than two hundred feet away from the statue. He thought it was a curse, but remembered Iruka teaching about chakra barriers. He had to defeat the statue in order to leave.

'I know!'

Naruto removed the scroll from his back and opened it. He read the first jutsu.

'Shadow Clone Jutsu? It says Jonin rank! I thought he said it was for chunin. Ah well, looks simple enough.'

He began to form hand signs, and when he felt his chakra build up, he stopped.

'Okay, that's easy. What's next?'

He looked at the scroll once more. The next one read Kekei Genkai: Chakra Eye AKA Deltaigon. Note: This jutsu uses a substantial amount of chakra and puts the users vision in extreme strenuous exercise. Focus all chakra into the pupil of the eye and then focus on spinning it.

He knew why it was hard. Focusing all chakra in his body into his two eyes would not only be enough to blind him, but leave him exposed to attacks that can only be stopped by chakra. Not only that, but while using the kekei genkai, he wouldn't be able to use any other jutsus at all.

'If I only use it for a short period of time, I should be fine.'

Before he could look down to the third jutsu, the statue had delivered a powerful punch to the tree he was in. It shook and cracked at the base. He grabbed the scroll and leaped from the tree. He rolled the scroll while he was in the air.

"Alright, you overgrown ornament, let's get this over with."

He landed on the ground and rushed at the statue right away. He began doing hand signs.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Two Naruto's appeared next to the real one on both sides.

As the statue swung two of it's fist at one Naruto, the second had used its distraction to jump into the air. The third slid under the statue and kicked it in the back. The one in the air slammed its heel on top of the statues head. The real Naruto stood back seeing that the attacks had no effect. The statue spun around, hitting both clones and making them vanish in a puff of smoke.

As soon as the clones were gone, Naruto understood what they did. The statue was hallow, but the force that kept it from breaking was chakra.

'Only one more thing to do…'

"Deltaigon!"

Naruto instantly felt himself losing power in his arms and legs. He had to increase his strength to keep from falling over. His vision, however, become much clearer. Then as he focused on the statue, he could see blue lines flowing all throughout the beast. It looked like a picture that Iruka had shown Naruto, except with eight arms instead of two. It also looked like the statue wasn't moving at all. He noticed that the center of the beast, where the chakra was formed was dim. It's arms and legs held the most chakra. Abruptly, his vision returned to normal.

He staggered and vomited, his eyes seeming to be burning. He regained his stature as he heard the statue coming at him again. He jumped back while rubbing his eyes and thinking of what to do. Then it hit him.

"Shadow Clone jutsu!"

Both Naruto's ran towards the statue. Then the clone grabbed Naruto's arm and slung him forward. The move was so fast that the statue didn't have time to block. Naruto slammed his foot right into the statues center, releasing an unintentional burst of chakra as he did. At first, nothing happened. Seconds later, the statue began to crack where Naruto had made contact. The cracks spread and then the statue exploded.

He flopped to the ground panting. His eyes still burned slightly.

'So that's…a kekei genkai. I wonder if anyone else knows about that technique.'

He sat for a little longer, unaware of the approaching person.

"Good work Naruto. I didn't get to see the fight but I know you were just amazing."

Naruto turned and looked up at the person speaking to him.

"Mizuki-sensei, I found the scroll. Why didn't you tell me that statue would attack?"

"It was for training purposes. Now, give me the scroll Naruto."

"Huh? But-"

"GIVE IT NOW!"

Naruto was startled by Mizuki's outburst. He didn't move, unable to comprehend Mizuki's harsh yell.

"NO NARUTO!" Another voice rang out. He turned to his left to see Iruka landing in the clearing.

"Iruka, stay out of this."

"Mizuki, what are you doing, having Naruto get the forbidden scroll?"

"Forbidden? He told me it was a chunin scroll!"

"Chunin? No, Naruto that scroll contains information that if in the wrong hands could put this entire village in grave danger. But why Mizuki?"

"Oh shut up Iruka, you're too kind hearted for your own good. Or are you? You've been lying to the brat since he was born."

Naruto turned to Iruka.

"Lying to me? About what?"

"Naruto…I-"

"Go on. Tell him. Tell him about the how the fourth hokage sealed the nine-tailed demon inside of him."

Naruto's eyes dilated for a moment. He was wondering why when he used the Deltaigon, the bottom of his eye seemed to flicker with red chakra.

"The nine tails…is in me?"

"That's right kid. Why did you think everyone hated you? Because you are the vessel of the monster that destroyed this village and killed the greatest ninja the world had seen. Well, under lord Oroch-"

"STOP IT NOW MIZUKI! You've already gone too far!"

"Enough!" He pulled a large shuriken from behind his back.

"Give me the scroll and die!" He shouted throwing the shuriken at Naruto.

Naruto was still shocked, and the shuriken was hurtling right at him.

"NARUTO!" Iruka yelled.

The clearing grew silent. Naruto stared wide eyed up at the sky. Something was partially blocking his view.

"Iruka…sensei…"

Iruka was half way over Naruto, the shuriken sticking out of his back.

"Why…"

"Naruto…everything he's said is true. But don't begrudge the fourth. He was doing what was needed to protect the village, just like I'm doing what is needed to protect you. Not everyone hates you Naruto, and although Mizuki has spoken the truth, scum like him only make us good guys look bad." He said chuckling.

"Iruka…sensei."

Then Iruka rolled to the ground. Mizuki chuckled from up in the tree.

"Well, one down, one to go. No one can protect you now."

Naruto was standing on his feet. His face was tilted down so Mizuki couldn't see his face.

"No. No one can protect me now. But I don't need protection to beat scum like you. From this day on, I swear, as a shinobi-"

He looked strait at Mizuki with tears on his face and rage in his eyes.

"I will never let anyone save me from my own battles! A shinobi's promise! Believe it!"

"Yeah right, all talk kid!"

Mizuki threw the last giant shuriken at Naruto. Naruto jumped right up towards the shuriken while doing hand signs.

"Shadow clone jutsu!"

Two Naruto's appeared again. One was in front of him, the other above him. The first one tried to stop the shuriken, and succeeded as it slammed into his mid-section. It disappeared in a puff of smoke. Mizuki was startled by the action.

The last Naruto let the real one grab his leg and slung him towards Mizuki. Naruto slammed a fist into Mizuki's face, sending him flying into another tree, and before he could hit the ground, the last Naruto clone had delivered a kick to his back sending him into the air.

"This is it! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Five Narutos appeared in the air above Mizuki. All at once, they slammed their legs down on Mizuki, sending him crashing back down to the earth.

Now only one Naruto stood, right over Mizuki.

"Scum like you deserve to die." Naruto said, drawing a kunai. He rose it and before he could sling his arm down, Iruka caught it.

"No, Naruto." Was all he said.

Naruto glared at his mentor, but lowered his arm.

"Being a ninja, you will have to kill Naruto, but don't do it unnecessarily, that only leads to trouble."

"Alright Iruka-sensei."

Iruka smiled at Naruto.

'Hm. How much you've grown, and only in one short night. I see a bright future for you Naruto Uzamaki. Maybe even a future as Konoha's Hokage.'

Eh, it was much longer than I intended. Sorry. Also, let me say that no pairings in this story are permanent, for now. So any of you getting ideas and guessing how the story is going to turn out, I assure you, you're wrong. Lol.