Rated M for Depiction of violent scenes.
"Words"- Quotes or speech.
'Words' - Thoughts.
"Words"- Kyuubi's voice.
Disclaimer- I Do Not own Naruto, because if I did I would be able to die in peace. Everything you read from now on may not be canon. Credit goes to Mashahi Kishimoto for his amazing manga.
Please review the story if you have the time, because your feedback helps me improve my story line somewhat. It's fine if you have something negative to say about the story, since I am really bad at writing and am bound to make mistakes. Flame me if you want, but do it so I could identify my mistakes.
I would really appreciate if you guys leave a review or feedback on my writing.
Sorry if you felt the chapter was rushed, I will be fixing mistakes whenever I get the time. Let me know about the mistakes.
Hope you guys like the story!
Chapter 1: To Protect What Is Precious
Iruka-sensei just announced the final test to everyone. Some of the students were shaking out of nervousness, some out of excitement. Some were too lazy to react upon the news, and some were making ruckus on one side of the room. This side of the room always gained most attention, since the calmest and the wildest person in the class were sitting next to each other. Sasuke on one hand was brooding over revenge, while trying to ignore the annoying fawning of Sakura and Ino, while Naruto was sweating buckets after hearing the topic for the final test. The topic considered to be the easiest in many years to be administered as graduation test in the academy, Bunshin(Clone) jutsu. But no matter how easy it was, Naruto could only see failure ahead of him, because every single attempt of his to create a bunshin in his life ended up with the creation of a deflated and mutilated form of the original body.
"Sasuke-Kun is going to be the best in this exam. And when he graduates I will be there with him in his team while you retake the class Ino-Pig." The pink-haired girl, Sakura was having the best day so far, considering she had perfected her Bunshin technique due to her low chakra reserves and high chakra control.
The fight didn't stay one-sided, since Ino managed to input her own cheeky remark to make herself proud, "Is that large forehead just for show-off? Because Sasuke-kun definitely seems annoyed at the thought of having you in the same team."
"Hn," that was the only answer they received from the brooding boy as they both stared at him for a good minute to receive his thoughts on the argument.
While the bickering continued, the room was brought to a silence as Iruka called Naruto into a different room for the test. Hinata in the back just kept twiddling her thumbs, too shy to wish her crush good luck, while on the other hand the rest of the class just ignored him. And being ignored wasn't exactly what the future Hokage liked the most, and this decided to gain attention from everyone in the easiest way he knew of, challenging the class idol Sasuke. "Oi Sasuke-teme, I am going to top this exam, don't end up failing cause I still need to beat your ass!"
Naruto had to reconsider whether the attention was worth the risk, especially after the two girls turned their red-glowing eyes towards him. "NA- RU- TO!" The girls spoke in unison, since their idol was being disrespected in front of them.
"You are never going to beat Sasuke-Kun"
"You are the dead last Naruto."
"You are going to fail the test first Naruto." At times like this, Sakura and Ino could even be called the best teammates since even their insults were in synch, as if their admiration for Sasuke-kun intertwined their souls
Naruto, who had his ears covered to save his eardrums from bursting, spoke up, "I will definitely pass it, Dattebayo-" His sentence was cut off since Iruka-sensei just had enough and decided to pull him by his ears to the testing room.
"That hurt Iruka-sensei!"
"What the girls were saying back there would hurt your brains more."
"You are right in fact, first time you said something intelligent."
"You know I am the one proctoring your test, don't you? That means that I Am Grading." Iruka said the last few words to hint the threat, which Naruto completely understood.
"I know you are grading it Iruka-sensei, because you are the coolest chunin ever, right?
"Now that's a lot better Naruto." Iruka said with a satisfied smile, which soon turned into a stoic expression, which meant business. "Naruto, for the test make a bunshin."
Naruto crossed his fingers, literally, into a hand sign and yelled out bunshin-jutsu while streaming chakra all around his body to create the Bunshin.
1 hour later
Naruto was sitting still on the swing by the tree. Another year, another failure. Another year of being laughed at. He watched as the other academy students were standing with their families, jumping in joy, holding their Leaf Headband with pride. Even during their pompous celebrations, they didn't miss out on insulting the blonde boy's failure in his ninja career so far. Some made fun of his skills, while others celebrated the fact that the family less boy was suffering by himself, saying he deserved it. He deserved it? What had he done to deserve such? He tries harder than anyone in his class, and he still can not do the Bunshin Jutsu. Was it his pranks that made them hate him? But he hadn't even started doing pranks when he was 5-6 years old, so why did they hate him back then? He just wanted a bit of attention, was it too much to ask? Sasuke didn't even want any attention and every girl would be fawning over him, villagers respecting him as if he was the future Hokage, while Naruto did all he could to only be ignored or hated. The world was truly unfair. His ambition of becoming the Hokage to gain acknowledgement from his people delayed another year. He knew he messed up the moment he yelled Bunshin Jutsu in the testing room. Instead of the mirror image of himself that he was supposed to see in the creation, he just saw a imitation of his body which had been malnourished for years after the soul of the body escaped. The "You Fail" statement was nothing unexpected after that turn, but what was unexpected however was Iruka's stubbornness in not passing Naruto and also Mizuki sensei pleas to pass Naruto. Even though Naruto was really sad at failing the test, Mizuki sensei's show of concern for him really made him happy. No matter how dumb he looked, he had matured ages ahead of others in many aspect. When one lives without anyone to care for them, they need to care for themselves. However his maturity came to no use when he gains something as valuable as care and concern. Not too many people cared for him, even his biggest fear is that there would be no one to cry for him if he dies one day, no one to remember him, he would become a nameless death in history. But seeing someone show concern over him takes away any sense of logic in his mind. He didn't care whether Mizuki sensei was the same person that always insulted him in classes, or never taught him jutsus during practices, all he cared about Mizuki was that he stood up for him, and that was all he could ask from anyone.
While he was thinking about the crappy day he was having, and how Sasuke might be boasting about his headband right now, he was brought out of his thoughts by someone tapping on his shoulders. "Naruto, what are you doing by yourself?"
"Oh, Mizuki-sensei, it's you. Nothing, just sitting by myself, looking at all of the others graduating and celebrating." The bitterness in his voice was clear. Naruto wasn't the type to complain about anything with pure hatred, because he would complain mostly out of annoyance or for fun. But now, it wasn't like those times when he would complain about being tied to a pole for painting the Hokage's face. He was really upset.
"Why don't we sit down in an nice and open space? Would be better than sitting in this bush, right?"
Naruto merely nodded and followed him to the top of a building. After a few minutes of soothing silence, Mizuki-sensei spoke up, "You know, Iruka-sensei is tough, but he is not against you."
"But why? Why only me?"
"He wants you to be strong , really strong. The ninja world is really dangerous, and a ninja can never leave for a mission knowing they will come back alive. Becoming a ninja means you take all the responsibility and risk upon yourself. And to go unprepared is nothing less than suicide."
Naruto looked surprised, he never thought about it, but it does make sense. "But still, I really wanted to pass this year, I don't want to get left back again."
"You know you could still pass."
Naruto rubbed his ears for a while and then spoke up, "It's funny, because I thought I heard you saying I could still pass."
"You heard it right, you could still pass."
Naruto's eyes came back to life, jumping up from the ground he began hyperventilating in excitement as he spoke up, "Really? You mean it? Why didn't anyone tell me? Wait, how can I pass?"
Mizuki-sensei gave out a small laugh ,"Slow down, slow down. Well no one told you this because you are only allowed to take this extra test once, if you fail you can never become a ninja again. Do you still want to take it? I mean you could wait a year you know."
"I will take it today! I will pass it and become a ninja, Dattebayo!"
"Alright, then let me tell you the rules for the test."
Nearly 4 in the morning:
"Ahh, I finally got it. I managed to make the clone. The hour's up, and I learned one Jutsu, I guess that should be enough for graduation." Naruto stopped talking to himself as he heard the bushes rattling, and he took out his kunai. Then he saw the figure approach, distress visible in his face. "Oh it's just you Iruka sensei. Why do you look like you saw a ghost sensei?"
"That doesn't matter, but what are you doing here!"
"Oh I just finished learning 1 jutsu from this scroll so far. That should be enough to graduate right?"
"What do you mean Naruto?" Iruka could see from Naruto's face that he wasn't lying. He knew Naruto and caught him too many times during his pranks to know when he was lying, and certainly now Naruto wasn't lying.
"I had to learn a jutsu from the scroll to graduate, isn't that the secret exam?" Naruto was dearly praying that Iruka was just pretending to not know it, because he worked really hard to get that jutsu down. But the look on Iruka's face was starting to worry him a lot more now.
"Who told you that?"
Before Naruto could answer, the young chunin with white hair landed on a tree nearby. Iruka pushed Naruto away as several shurikens hit the spot where Naruto was moments ago. "I did" was the answer that came from the man.
"What's going on Mizuki sensei? Those pointy things are dangerous you know, I almost didn't notice your presence!"
"Naruto, Mizuki was using you to steal that scroll. Don't let that scroll fall into his hands, it could destroy the whole village."
"Naruto, you trust me don't you? Iruka stop lying to him!"
"Naruto, don't trust him he is lying!"
Between the two sides, Naruto didn't know what to do, who to trust, but then he heard Mizuki laughing, laughing like a maniac.
"You say I am lying, what about the whole village? The whole village has been lying to him, since his birth."
Iruka's eyes widened, as he knew exactly what Mizuki was talking about. "MIZUKI NO, that's a FORBIDDEN SECRET!"
Naruto couldn't but take the bait of wanting to listen to Mizuki as he started speaking, "You know why everyone hates you, ignores you?"
"Naruto, don't listen to him, he is lying!"
To Iruka's distress Naruto replied, "Why Mizuki- sen - sei?"
"Because the Nine-Tailed Beast is sealed inside of you. The thing that killed hundreds of people in this village is sealed inside of you, your existence brings them fear, trauma from the past. You know why Iruka doesn't pass you? Because his parents were killed by the Nine-Tailed Beast. But you can come with me, and destroy this village that made you suffer so much, for so long." Naruto and Iruka didn't say a single word during the whole time, Iruka sat there feeling bad for Naruto, while Naruto was shaking in anger, sadness and emotions he couldn't explain himself.
"I don't care about that, I wanted to be the Hokage of the village, not destroy it!"
"Well then I guess I will just have to take you by force." He crouched down on the branch to throw a windmill shuriken at Naruto.
Iruka was fast enough to push out of the way and catch the shuriken by the hole in the middle due to the huge size, but then to his dismay two other shurikens came flying from two opposite sides. Iruka yelled at Naruto to get down, which he did, dodging the first shuriken and then Iruka jumped in Naruto's way to catch the second shuriken. The second he took a breath to relax, he heard a *Puff* behind him and realized that the shuriken Naruto dodged was actually a henged ninja, who threw a barrage of Kunai at Naruto. There was no time to block or dodge. Naruto saw the Kunais coming his way, and having no way out, he closed his eyes out of fear. 'So this is how it ends huh?' His eyes were closed for a second or two, until he realized he didn't get hit, and relief washed over him. But right in front of him was Iruka, who shielded him from all the Kunais. "Naruto, *cough* run, right now."
As Naruto ran, Mizuki's men were about to go for Iruka, but Mizuki stopped them. "We have to get the scroll first, we don't care what happens to that dumbass, just get the Jinchuuriki and the scroll safely."
Naruto didn't look back. He ran and ran, climbed up the trees, jumping from branch to branch as fast he could until he heard a noise approaching him. He quickly dropped down to the ground to hide behind a tree. What he saw running above him was a henge of himself, and following him was Iruka. He knew Iruka was running into a trap at that time, so he was about to shout out, but it was too late. The Henge of Naruto stabbed a knife into Iruka's back.
"How did you know I wasn't the real Iruka?" The Iruka standing in the opening called out to the henge of Naruto. The real Naruto was now confused as hell as to what was going on, but he received his answer soon, as he heard two puffs.
The smoke cleared and Iruka was revealed to be Mizuki. The Henge of Naruto from the smoke spoke up, "I know you aren't Iruka because I am the real Iruka!" Iruka was sitting down on the ground with countless stab wounds on his back from before.
"Why are you trying to protect that beast? You know he is no different from that 9 tailed beast, just give him time and he will show his true nature as a beast."
"You are wrong, he isn't a beast and he will never be. He is just like me. He just wants a little attention, show of affection and caring from everyone. I always wanted to have someone to look up to after my parents died, and for him I will be that person he looks up to."
"You know I wanted to spare you, but you are getting on my nerves. Katashi, Kazuko! We could get the demon brat later, first kill this guy, he's just a nuisance."
Two other ninjas from before dropped down to the ground, and took out their kunais. "Why are you doing this Mizuki? You still have time to go back."
"I don't want to go back to that place. Ever since my parents died in the Kyuubi's attack no one cared for me. But now they will, when I take the scroll to Orochimaru-sama, he will give me power. Power brings wealth, and wealth brings everything. He will give me whatever I want, and as for the demon brat, I think Orochimaru-sama would appreciate a jinchuuriki as a gift, for his experiments that is."
The metals collided, sparks flying all over, as the three engaged in combat. "Naruto isn't a tool to be gifted to someone." Iruka ducked underneath a slash by Katashi, as Kazuko landed a kick on the crouched body of Iruka.
"All ninjas are tools, I am a tool, you are a tool, our parents were tools, and that demon brat is also a tool, nothing more." Iruka's body that was rolling towards Mizuki after receiving the kick, suddenly jumped up right in front of Mizuki. Mizuki took out his kunai and threw it at Iruka, as did the others from the back. Iruka's hand reached inches close to Mizuki's face when he was hit by all three Kunais at once. *Puff* Instead of seeing blood dripping, he saw the three Kunais splitting one windmill shuriken from three directions. Mizuki's eyes widened at this, 'Dammit Iruka, Kawarimi.' The only one in the forest at the moment carrying a windmill shuriken was Mizuki, so Iruka must have switched with that . Mizuki faced behind to look at where the Windmill Shuriken was before. Out of sheer instinct he tried to pull his head back to avoid the blade that was closing in on his face, only to realize it was too late. Only if he hadn't underestimated Iruka, he wouldn't have had to get his face sliced in half. He closed his eyes for a blink, but instead of having his face split open, only the top of his right eye was spliced, blood making his vision red.
Iruka missed the best chance to kill off Mizuki. His strategy was almost flawless. Pretty ironic that he was proud of the strategy in the fight that he was quite certain he would die in. His body had already given up, he couldn't extend his hands to slice Mizuki's face due to the stab wounds on his back. There was no way he could survive this attack. His mind began to run in circles, vision becoming dizzy. 'What am I doing again?' He tried hard to look through his eyes to see Mizuki holding his eyes in pain while Katashi and Kazuto were racing towards him with weapons ready. 'Oh, I came to save Naruto. I didn't even feel him moving in the least few minutes, he must still be in one place to avoid being detected. He is one tough bastard to find.' He let out a chuckle, thinking about all the times when he had to find him after his pranks. Time seemed to slow down a lot, the two ninjas slowly moving in closer to Iruka even though they were running. 'This is so uncool of me, getting beaten by these people. I gotta give him one good show at least.' The smirk on Iruka's face almost imitated that of Naruto's smirk after setting up the plans for his pranks. He learned a lot about strategies just by watching Naruto pranking everyone in the village. He had enough chakra for a few henges. The plan for his last show was set already. He took the Kunais in his hands, and Shurikens along with it.
"Live your life do that you'll have no regrets. No matter how hard, no matter how sad, if something is precious to you, protect it with both arms."
Everyone saw Iruka get up within fractions of a second. Iruka threw the shurikens at the two ninjas, while the two Kunais slipped and fell out of his hands. The two ninjas dodged the shurikens and aimed for his body, and once again another *puff* and the shuriken they just dodged changed into Iruka who kicked one of them round in the face. Iruka yelled at the top of his lungs, " Naruto ran away with the scroll Now!"
The other ninja who was still stating started to take a step towards the direction in which Naruto was hiding.
Iruka just smiled and formed a snake seal, "Boom." There were two *puff* noises and the two Kunais Iruka dropped earlier by 'accident' changed back into explosive tagged Kunais, which then blew up into a brilliant explosion, spraying all the dirt in the ground up in the atmosphere, making it impossible for them to track Naruto anymore. " Mission Successful."
With Naruto
He had been hiding behind the tree for minutes that seemed to be like hours. He didn't make a single noise because he realized that he could be discovered really easily even with a little bit of noise. But what he heard while hiding was worth the wait. Hearing Iruka-sensei defend him was something new to him, especially after being his prime subject for scolding the past year. And now to be honest he started looking up to Iruka as his role model. But he was getting more and more restless, setting Iruka being knocked around wasn't what he could enjoy the most. And then all of a sudden he yelled out to him to run. Naruto didn't hesitate to trust his new found role model. He got out of his hiding place to see one of the ninjas heading his way. He was about to panic, but then he saw the falling body of Iruka, a smile on his face as he said the word Boom. The explosion gathered all the dust on the ground and spread it into the air to block the ninjas from seeing Naruto's escape route. 'Iruka-sensei was so uncool before, and now he makes badass explosions infront of me without even looking at the explosions going off.' This isn't exactly what a person running for his life should be thinking of, but this was Naruto, the most unpredictable Konoha resident.
Naruto kept running to route in the forest that led into the village, and he looked at the explosion one more time. Katashi didn't make it alive out of the explosion, but the other one emerged twice as engaged as before. Mizuki was still struggling to patch up the eye that Iruka spilt open with his Kunai. Naruto told him to not look back, but for the first time in this battle he saw Iruka's back facing him, and the bloody mess that he was. He wouldn't make it out alive fighting those two. But Iruka sensei told him to keep going, and no matter what he would follow his word. He kept running again, not looking back.
With Iruka
Iruka's fear had reached its maximum when he saw Naruto looking back at him, and slowing down. But he felt a sense of relief seeing Naruto keep heading back to the village. 'Finally he listened to me once, still wish he had listened to me more often.' He brought his attention back to Kazuto who was heading in for the kill. Iruka didn't care about his own life at this point, all he needed was to stall for time for Naruto to make a safe escape back to the village. He tried his best to dodge, but his body simply couldn't take it anymore. The right side of his belly was slashed deeply, but without any weapons in his hand that was the best he could do. 'Well at least that was worth a try. Seems like this is where it ends. I wonder if Naruto thought I was cool. No, he must have, the explosion was really the best.' The ferocious Kunai strikes closing in on his heart and 'Bam.' Iruka's eyes popped open, now in fear, as he saw Naruto kick Kazuto in the face. "Naruto, what are you doing here! I told you to leave already, this isn't a fight you can win!"
"I'm done running, I can not just watch you getting beaten up for me. You still have to show me how to do that explosion, Dattebayo!" He saw Kazuto get up from the ground. "Oi, if you guys try to lay another hand on Iruka-sen-" . He couldn't finish as he heard a grunt from behind him. He turned back and there was Iruka. A giant windmill shuriken piercing his body from back to front. Blood gushing out from the entire area of the injury. Meanwhile Kazuto stabbed the kunai in Naruto's stomach.
"That felt so goood." Mizuki almost licked his own lips at the sight of Iruka dying, his pain of losing one eye long forgotten. The lifeless body fell to the floor with a loud thump, which was accompanied by another loud fit of laughter from Mizuki. But his laughter halted, as the air around him seemed more and more scarce. It took him all his strength in his body to keep himself from suffocating, but his legs gave up as he fell to the ground on his knees.
It was the same feeling of death from 12 years ago when his parents died, he looked up to see the boy shaking, hands formed into a fist so tight that his nails dug into his own hands to draw blood that dripped down to the ground. The stab wound on his belly burning steam and instantly healing the wound. A red shroud shroud of chakra covered the whole body of Naruto. His fingers elongated into claws, and his whisker marks on his cheeks darkened into thick lines. But the fear of death was extremely lessened when he formed the tiger seal with his hands. 'Good thing he didn't turn into the Kyuubi. His clone technique is the worst, he can not dream of beating us with tha-' His thought process stopped, as he saw the whole forest turn to orange, as far as his eyes went all he saw was orange. The real Naruto looked at Kazuto and Mizuki and said, "I Will Rip You To Shreds." That was all they heard before Kazuto who was closest to Naruto got a punch to the face. A small boy shouldn't be able to hit with a power of a bulldozer, but he did. First punch and his jaw broken, second punch from the back and his broken jaw hits the ground along with him, third kick and his ribs broken, a kick to the belly as another clone held him up and he felt his internals burst open, and it kept going, over and over again, until his bones were nothing more than dust, less blood left inside of his body as was on the knuckles and sandals of Narutos. But he would have been happy if that was all, because he never would have thought that the claws in Narutos' hands would be used to rip out his guts, shred his skin over and over until his bare muscles were exposed to the air. And Mizuki saw all this wide eyed. He saw his life flash before him, as he reached for his pocket, and a fist closed in on his face. The moment he placed his hands in pocket, he was sent flying with a broken jaw as he received on the other side by countless more Naruto's to break his bones. Bearing through the torture of flurry of punches and kicks in mere seconds, he pulled out a round pill from his pocket, a soldier pill. 'He might have the Kyuubi, but I am a chunin! I will kill him myself, if not now but sometime. I will take everything has like he took from me.' He saw a claw closing into his face, as he did a substitute jutsu to switch with a Naruto, which became decimated to a smoke after receiving the stab wound from the claw. Mizuki landed right next to the forbidden scroll. 'He is a failure afterall, there is no way he can match me in terms of jutsu.' He picked up the scroll and turned to run, but then was reminded why he was trapped in the forest in the first place, there were Naruto's all over the forest. Once again he had Narutos swarming all over him. But using the chakra from his soldier pill, he managed to fend off most of them by using his jutsus. He then realized there was no way for him to win. His soldier pill's chakra was running out, and after that he would be left with nothing but death. But what else could he do? There were thousands of Naruto, and there is no way he could destroy them all. If he could kill the real Naruto then maybe the clones would disappear too, but they were more than impossible to differentiate from one another. Wait, there was no way to differentiate one Naruto from the other, so if he became Naruto no one could find him in that swarm! He made the seals for the henge and he yelled out "Henge no Jutsu!" But the moment he was going through the transformation, the scroll on his back was pulled out by one of the Naruto's. He saw the scroll slipping out of his reach every instant. He would never get it if it gets out of his hands now. If he could not get the scroll, he would have to compromise with the least he could get. He pulled out his hand fast and holding the end of the paper of the scroll he ripped apart a portion of the scroll, and henged it to hide it in his sleeve. And the next moment he was gone. He became another Naruto in the swarm.
All the Narutos began panicking, screaming in fury, destroying each other to find Mizuki, but no results. Naruto dispelled all the clones. Had it not been the heavy influence of the Kyuubi at the moment he would have knocked out from the headache formed because of dispelling all the clones at the same time. He started scratching his head in anger, disappointment, and hatred. He started punching the trees to dust, howling in pain as his arms bled and healed itself, splinters splitting open his fists as the muscles knotted back into place instantly. "I couldn't save Iruka-sensei." He closed his eyes and started punching all around him. "I couldn't save the scroll from him. I am so useless." He was losing consciousness, as all he could see was red around. But then everything stopped, he was held by a strong pair of arms.
"Idiot, who told you that you were useless?"
"I couldn't save Iruka-sensei. I couldn't even do anything to stop that bastard Mizuki." Naruto replied without even opening his eyes to look at the man holding him.
"You mastered an A rank jutsu in an hour, you have the scroll right there, so what are you talking about? You did well. And guess what, I am standing right in front of you."
Naruto opened his eyes, and the tears in his eyes could tell how happy he was to see Iruka.
"Naruto, you know you could be a great ninja if you try. You should study more *cough*, and you know ninjas don't wear orange. And, let me think , ninjas should always eat proper food, and listen to their Hokage. And remember you are not a tool Naruto, you are the future Hokage, you can live your life however you want.-" He was stopped short in his speech as Naruto cut him off.
"Oi Iruka-sensei, I know you are saying this to help me out, but we could do that later. You still owe me ramen don't you?"
Iruka laughed a little, after all the things that happened that day Naruto could still remember his promise to feed him ramen. But it was a bit too late for that. "You know Naruto, I would loved to do that, *cough* *spits out blood* but your hand is halfway into my belly right now."
Naruto's eyes widened in shock, as he finally realized what the warm feeling was that he felt in his hand. When he had no control over himself, Iruka hugged him and at the heat of the moment he stabbed Iruka with his bare claws which now had retreated to fingers as his anger was all drained. He took out his hand to hear a large grunt of pain from Iruka, as he saw blood quickly flowing out of the wound. Naruto immediately took off his orange jacket and wrapped it around his belly to stop the bleeding. "Ahh, I probably should have told you not to take your hand out I guess."
How Iruka managed to talk so normally with a falling hole in his stomach was being Naruto, but Naruto's hyperventilation was evidence that he was once again running through a bout of self guilt, and had no idea how to save his sensei. " Iruka sensei why didn't you tell me about that wound earlier!"
"Wouldn't have helped much even if I did."
"Whatever, hold on tight, and which way is the hospital?"
By now the noise of the anbus running around in a perimeter around the location was clear to both Naruto and Iruka. "There's no point of taking me to the hospital."
"I don't care, I'm taking you there, they will save you,I know it."
"Naruto if you run with me, I'll just bleed faster to death."
"Those Anbus there, they could help. They are good at all sorts of stuff aren't they? "
"They came here to make sure the Kyuubi doesn't escape, nothing more. They are afraid to even take a step in this place."
"There has to be a way, I know there has to be a way."
Iruka took Naruto's head in both of his hands and forced him to look straight in the eye. "Naruto, Listen to me for Once!" Seeing he had Naruto's attention he said, " Naruto I know you don't like it, but there's no way I can survive this. So please listen to me I'm begging you." Naruto just closed his eyes, trying his best to accept things as it is, to listen to teacher's lecture seriously die once. "That's better. Naruto you told me you want to be the Hokage, do you still want to be the Hokage?"
"Yes Iruka sensei."
"Good. So you know what a Hokage does?"
"The Hokage protects the village and its people." His voice was about to break down. All these months he hasn't answered a single question that Iruka asked him in class, and now he finally decides to answer his questions when he is dying.
"What qualities would allow you to protect others?"
"I would need to be strong."
"Remember that Naruto. Become stronger, and you will be able to protect those close to you. You have a scary mind you know, your traps caught me more often than real traps that were meant to kill. You should use your brain along with your strength. I know with your brain and hardwork you will become the Hokage someday."
"B- But you wouldn't even be there to see me become the Hokage, Iruka-sensei."
"Who told you Dummy? Close your eyes for a second." Naruto did as asked. Iruka slipped the headband from his head, and gently tied it around Naruto's forehead. He tucked away the stray locks of his hair behind the headband. "Now that you are a ninja, as long as you carry around this headband I will be there with you, to see you become the Hokage and the most amazing one." By now all the dams in Naruto's eyes opened as his face flooded with his tears, and he hugged Iruka tightly. Iruka didn't really mind it even though it was painful as hell. "Crying is so uncool you know."
"Iruka-sensei, you still owe me ramen you know." That was the last thing Naruto managed to say to him, as he heard no reply from him. The smile never faded from Iruka's face, even when he was dead. He wanted someone to care for him, look up to him ,ever since his parents died. He finally found the person who cared for him the most right before dying. On the other hand Naruto also wanted someone to care for him. But the man he thought cared for him the most betrayed him, and the man that cared for him the most died right in front his eyes.
He stayed in the same place hugging Iruka for close to half an hour until his tears dried up. He saw the Anbus closing in on the location. One of the Anbus picked up the scroll to see the scroll missing a portion from the end. Before they could ask him about what happened to it, Naruto answered, "Mizuki took the portion with the Re-Animation jutsu." Naruto had no idea how he knew it because he was all the way in the middle of the forest when Mizuki took it, but unknown to Naruto was that shadow clones could send information back to the original body.
Naruto saw another Anbu coming towards Iruka's body to pick it up, but the growl from Naruto made him take a step back. " Don't you dare touch him."
" You don't have the authority to order us." Anbu was a rank given to the elites in the village, whose minds were supposed to calmer than a monk. But when the person in question was Naruto,the Jinchuuriki, Anbus and civilians alike didn't stop from showing aggression.
"You don't have the right to touch him after you watched him die from a distance like a coward."
Civilian or not the Anbu didn't care, why was the Jinchuriki talking down to them especially after he owes them for all the damage the Kyuubi had done to the village. As the Anbu was about to take out his Kunai, when his hand was stopped halfway. "Yamato-san, you shouldn't stop me now, that brat just started by stealing the scroll. It is only a matter of time he does something bigger."
"I don't care about that. He was manipulated to do so, just like Mizuki manipulated us to think that Naruto was guilty at first. And he is right, while I wasn't here all you guys did was watch the chunin die. Quite shameful if you ask me."
Being insulted by a senior Anbu wasn't the thing that thrilled the impulsive Anbu. But he didn't really want a demotion by creating a scene, so he let go of the matter. He looked back to see that Naruto was walking out of the forest, Iruka's dead body in his hands.
30 minutes later by the graveyard
Naruto layed Iruka's body on the green grass a while ago, and since then all he did was stare at Iruka's peaceful face. The Hokage jumped into the clearing next to Naruto. After not finding a way to approach him he just stood there quietly. Before he could speak, Naruto cut him off, "So what happens to me now?"
"Well you are a ninja now since your teacher decided to pass you Naruto-kun. You are supposed to meet in your academy in by 6:30 so you have about 30 minutes left to go there to see your teammates." Naruto absorbed all the information, not bothering to ask anything about the team meeting. 'After all the thought that I had to put into choosing the team for him, he didn't even seem interested in it. Seems like he did change a lot.'
"What happens to Iruka-sensei?"
"He will be buried here for now. His funeral will be held soon."
"What happened to Iruka-sensei?"
Sarutobi's eyes widened at hearing that. Naruto already knew there would a cover story for the whole event. Naruto truly did learn a lot, and one of the first things he learned in the last few hours was to not trust. "A group of rogue ninjas invaded the village in disguise of merchants, and when Iruka was doing late night work in the academy he found that were trying to steal the forbidden scroll. He alerted other ninjas, and managed to stop the bandits from getting the scroll, even though he died from fatal injuries."
Naruto just nodded hearing the full story. "Alright then Hokage-sama, I will leave for the meeting right away."
Hiruzen Sarutobi watched him walk further and further away, until he faded away from his vision. It did hurt a little, the smile now gone from Naruto's face that used to light up his day all the time. Hokage-sama was something that he didn't wish to be called by, at least by Naruto, he much preferred his usual Hokage-jiji that everyone thought was disrespectful. But he knew that was a sign of Naruto's trust and now he had lost it. 'What else could I have expected after lying to him all these years?'
With Naruto:
Naruto kept walking through the marketplace, the glares finally making sense. He would have much preferred to have been confused and sad rather than the feeling of irritation he has now that he knows the reason for the glares. Over the last few hours, he ate himself up over what to do now that Iruka-sensei is dead. How can he honor his death? What has his death taught? He kept walking forward with this questions in mind.
'Become stronger to protect who are precious to you.'
Naruto took off the headband that Iruka gave him, and stared at it while walking through the crowd that split up like the Red Sea in front of Moses to avoid contact with the demon brat.
'Your sensei will always be watching over you.'
He looked up from the headband to see door of the academy. He entered the room, as he put on his headband. He saw in front of him in the class were all the students that graduated, and a few ninjas, and the substitute academy teacher. Some of those were showing pure hatred through their eyes, while some showed something akin to pity. But teacher, ninja or students, all they received was a cold glare from Naruto.
'Trust no one.'
'Betray no one.'
' Live the life that would give value to Iruka-sensei's teachings & sacrifice.'