Corpse Prince Naruto
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story
Quick AN this is my first time writing so this story has probably got a few mistakes so be easy with the flames yeah.
Rewrite An: From the combination of a review and an epiphany I have decided to rewrite the story, hopefully you'll all enjoy it.
Ch.00 Hate That Shatters Hope
The sun slowly dipped lower into the horizon as a cool wind blew through the chill afternoon. Outside the quiet Shinobi Academy of Konoha a young blonde sat on a wooden swing hanging from a lone tree near the academy gate silently gazing at the vibrant green grass slightly dyed an orange hue by the afternoon light. The streets of Konoha peeking from the entrance as the boy slowly swung back and forth on the swing.
Naruto Uzumaki was fourteen, a two-year senior to the rest of his class. After failing the graduation exam twice before he had returned for a third attempt, and after three months since the start of the year he had found that his newest class despised him as much as the last two, maybe even more. With the children's parents constantly whispering their hate for him into their ears. Every day he faced insults and abuse from the children and neglection from the instructors of the Academy.
'Well except for Mizuki-sensei.' The blonde thought fondly with a smile as he remembered the only instructor to actually treat him like a person. The silver-haired chunin had taken the extra time to teach Naruto what he hadn't had the chance to learn previously.
The man had even taken Naruto out for ramen when the blonde had done well in his lessons. Yes, Naruto was glad for Mizuki's acceptance in the sea of hate and ignorance that made up the boy's life.
"Oi Naruto-san what are you doing here?" a calm voice called out, a hint of humor in the words. With a slight start and a large grin Naruto turned to face the pre-mentioned Chunin. The man stood with a modest smile, several books held in his arms. There was no real reason for the question, Naruto had started waiting after classes for the chunin for a month now. But Naruto figured it was polite so answered the man.
"Nothin just thinkin." He supplied as he leapt off his perch and started to walk alongside the chunin. "Thinking about what?" the man probed only to be answered with silence and the chunin did not ask again, they simply walked quietly through the cool afternoon.
As Naruto's apartment complex came into sight the boy spoke up. "I was thinkin, Mizuki-sensei why does everybody treat me different?" The corner of Mizuki's lips dipped slightly at the topic and he gently ruffled the boy's hair. "Naruto this village is sadly filled with blind men and women and their too caught up in their hate and fear to realize how blind they are." Naruto stared up at Mizuki as they ascended the stairs, the cool breeze ruffling their clothes.
"Do you understand Naruto?" asked smiling kindly down at the blonde.
"Not really." Naruto said his voice quiet and void of its usual bluster, "But you and Ayame-nii and Teuchi-san and Sarutobi-jiji aren't blind like that right?"
"Right." Mizuki replied as the two came to a stop at Naruto's apartment door. "Thanks Mizuki-sensei" the blonde said grinning even as pangs of sadness stabbed at his heart at the thought of being alone again.
The moments spent with the few people in his life who cared were precious for every second to Naruto. They were the only respite for the pariah in the endless nightmare that was his life.
Suddenly Mizuki's hand shot out stopping the blonde's door before it could close, Naruto noticed that the chunin looked like he was struggling to decide something. After a few seconds the man closed his eyes and breathed deeply before finally looking at Naruto.
"Tell me Naruto I've noticed that you struggle with the lessons-" "It's not my fault" Naruto interrupted.
"Of course not." The chunin said quickly, "It's because of the blindness of the instructors and your hateful classmates, at this rate you'll never become a genin much less Hokage." A strange gleam had entered the chunin's eye but Naruto didn't notice.
The blonde felt like he couldn't breathe at Mizuki's words. The very thought that his goal, his dream was out of his reach left the blonde panicking. At the look of desperation on the boy's face Mizuki crouched down his hands tightly clasping Naruto's shoulders.
"But I talked to the Hokage about this problem and he decided to let you take the Advanced Genin Exam."
"Advanced Genin Exam?" curiosity bubbled in the blonde's eyes.
"It's a special exam in the form of a mission for students whose potential might be missed with the usual exam, or like in your case, having your potential sabotaged; if you pass you will become a Genin." Mizuki's explanation was hasty, like it had been made up on the spot. But the chance to escape the Academy and reach his dream left Naruto uncaring.
He listened eagerly as the chunin explained what he had to do.
The wind murmured through the empty streets left barren in the darkness of midnight. The moon covered by gray clouds swirling above. Through the silent darkness a figure moved, making no sound as it dashed from shadow to shadow. It's steps becoming rushed as it reached the forests of Konoha, and just before disappearing in the thick cover of trees a sliver of light pierced the clouds and illuminated wild blonde hair. Naruto moved through the trees with a quiet snicker, a large scroll strapped to his back. Behind him nothing in Konoha stirred, the young blonde had successfully taken the scroll without being seen.
Several hours later found Uzumaki Naruto dirty and tired, laying on his back looking up at the creeping giants of the sky that blocked out the black-blue sky of night. The forbidden scroll lay partly unrolled beneath one of the blonde's outstretched hands.
The popping crack of a twig snapping alerted Naruto that his exam instructor had arrived. The blonde was not surprised to see Mizuki walk from the shadows of the trees, he was surprised to see the chunin armed heavily. The large fuma shuriken glinting maliciously in the sparse light.
Naruto simply pushed that thought to the back of his mind and boisterously yelled, "I did it Mizuki-sensei I did it."
Mizuki's surprise at the blonde's proclamation was quickly hidden with a proud smile as his steps carried him silently over to the boy.
"That's great Naruto what one did you learn?" Mizuki came to a stop a few feet away from the blonde and a tension slowly settled over the small clearing the two where in.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." The blonde answered with pride.
This time Mizuki's shocked expression was not hidden, he had only heard slightly of the jounin level technique. But he still couldn't believe that the boy had learned it in the short period he had had.
Mizuki's head dipped and his face became shadowed as his body trembled. "That's right I shouldn't be so surprised." he whispered so quietly it was almost lost in the silent night.
"Yeah cause I am gonna be the next Hokage right?" Naruto said cheerfully trying to ignore the prickling in the back of his mind.
"Oh no no no nothing like that I shouldn't be suprised because your a demon." Mizuki said simply a small smile on his face.
Naruto's smile faltered. "W-what.." suddenly the chunin's foot shot out slamming into the boy's face, sending him rolling backwards across the grass. Naruto's hands quickly cupped his face where blood had started to pour from the obviously broken nose.
The blonde looked up at Mizuki, his eyes wide with hurt. The chunin had picked the scroll from the where it layed and rolled it back up, pulling a scroll from his side he sealed the Forbidden Scroll into it before placing it back all the while still smiling the same smile.
The small boy's mind whirled as time seemed to lapse for an instant and everything froze. 'This...this isn't Mizuki-sensei...a genjutsu.' Naruto's hands came together forming the ram seal before his chakra surged as he tried desperatly to banish the smiling form of his beloved teacher.
His attempt only served to widen the smile on the man's face. "I am completely real, if anything was a lie it was the me before." In a flourish of movement one of the large shuriken was suddenly cutting the air as it sped towards the shocked boy.
Naruto turned, tried to get away from the spinning metal. He was too slow, and in a scream of pain the fuma shuriken sawed his right arm off sending it sailing through the night air with a spurt of blood. He fell to his knees as the shuriken continued on its path into the enclosing forest, his only remaining arm tightly clutching the bloody flesh of the torn shoulder.
It was difficult to breathe and he felt like he might suffocate until he realized he was still screaming. He hadn't noticed the chunin close the short distance between them until the man slammed his knee into the boy's face and stars exploded behind Naruto's eyes. The blow sent the blonde rolling across the grass again.
The chunin pinned Naruto to stop any attempted escape, one knee digging into the boy's stomache and the other knee on his arm. "You have no idea how disgusting it was to act like the loving teacher to shit like you." he whispered the smile still on his face, "But I had to when I noticed how Iruka was acting I realized that he might actually start liking you if things went on like they were."
"W-why..." The blonde choked out in a pained cry, "W-what d-did I do?" Tears poured down the sides of the boy's face.
"What did you do, you're the fucking Kyuubi no Kitsune a thousand life-times of torture isn't enough for your sins." the chunin spit his hand clamping onto the boys throat and a kunai gripped in the other. He stabbed the kunai into the boy's chest several times before twisting the blade and dragging it up towards the boys throat stopping just below it. Naruto twisted and struggled leaving the wound even worse. His hand clawing at the grass and dirt trying to escape the knee that pinned it.
Mizuki noticed and sneered before taking the kunai and slamming it into the flesh below the elbow, Naruto's scream filled the quiet night. The chunin leaned over the boy's face looking into his face as he smiled, "I hated every moment that I spent with, but you know...", he started to drag the kunia down the arm moving his knee as he reached the wrist. An agonized scream tore it's way from the blonde, "...Your screams make it all worth it." the chunin chuckled smiling in dark glee.
He pulled the kunai free before slamming it into Naruto's hand, nailing to the earth. He pulled another one from a kuani pouch at his side, "I always hated your face the most." Mizuki laughed as Naruto's eyes widened and then the chunin was slashing wildly at his face. Easily splitting flesh the chunin carved a bloody mask into the once childish features of the blonde, one of the mad cuts blinding one of the weeping blue eyes.
Breathing heavily Mizuki rose slowly as he stared down at the gore with a blood-splattered face. The body of the once cheerful blonde was trembled with each breath the boy took, the grass beneath the two was now stained in the Acadmey student's blood as was most of the chunin. Slipping a tanto from the sheathe hanging low on his back the silver-haired chunin pointed the blade at Naruto's body.
"Just die already and go back to hell demon." Mizuki stepped forward and drove the sword past bone and into the bloody blonde's lung. Yanking the blade free he flicked the crimson red from it's edge, he turned and leapt into the shadows of the forest.
As Naruto lay on the red carpet of blood stained grass, chokin as his lung slowly filled with his blood the last words of Mizuki echoed through his head. How different they were to the words he had spoke to Naruto earlier. 'The only one that was blind was me' the boy thought as his mind danced from memory to memory of the times he spent with the chunin. Naruto felt like he was falling, as if the entire earth had melted away leaving him in the cold darkness. His moments of agony slowly turned to moments of numbness and he closed his eye to enjoy the moment of blissfull nothing, he didn't notice when the ebbing flow of darkness stole him away to unconsciousness.
Withen the deep reaches of Naruto Uzumaki's mind a force of malicious evil growled behind a massive gate constructed of giant metal bars. In the center a simple paper tag rested, the kanji 'Seal' written in the middle, the sound echoed around the large chamber slightly submergered, the water flowing as it pleased past the bars. Dark red, glowing eyes that left the mind haunted with a glance peered from the shroud of darkness that hid the rest of the figure's features.
"How pathetic this worm is, for it to be my cage is insulting." A deep baritone voice barked out at nothing, "When I finally shatter this damned seal I will enjoy it all the more knowing this weak ningen will be torn apart." A dark chuckle chased the words before the eyes narrowed into slits.
"Until then I refuse to let myself die because of this idiots mistakes!" The voice roared behind the bars, from behind the bars a cloud of red energy slithered out. Swirling and moving forward like a living mist it moved out across the water and up the worn stone walls of the chamber, seeping into the cracks in the stone. The room shook and the water churned as more of the energy rolled out from behind the bars, filling the room in blinding red, struggling to mend the broken flesh of the beings container.