Before you read this, let me make one thing clear. This story is an abandoned story. This account is being used to archive my abandoned stories.
Furthermore, my active account is "Advent of Shadows."
1. The Night Everything Changed
Passing the Graduation Exams was supposed to be easy. That is what Naruto had always believed. And then, he had failed them… three times. He was sure that he would be able to handle it the third time. He had trained hard, but the Clone Jutsu remained beyond him, still. Unfortunately, it was required that he learn the jutsu to pass. His grades were not good enough for him to pass without passing the ninjutsu portion of the exams, after all.
And then, everything changed….
His teacher's chunin assistant, Mizuki, offered another way to become a genin. All he had to do was to sneak into the Hokage's Office, enter his personal library, take a specific scroll, and learn one jutsu from it. Mizuki even told him about a training ground where he could try to learn the jutsu.
With the aid of his Sexy Jutsu, Naruto had done well. He had caused the Third Hokage to enter a state of unconsciousness via bloody nose with little difficulty. Retrieving the scroll and getting to the training ground after that was child's play.
As soon as he reached the training ground, Naruto unrolled the scroll and looked at the first technique listed on it. The name was the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu.
'What in the hell does that do?' Naruto wondered before reading farther.
Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu
The Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu is simply the Shadow Clone Jutsu performed on a massive level. Rather than create a few solid clones like the Shadow Clone Jutsu does, the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu creates a few hundred. In addition, the hand sign used is the same.
Underneath that passage was a picture of a modified tiger hand sign that resembled a cross.
Keep in mind that the price for creating solid clones that can interact, bleed, and perform jutsu is the same in both jutsu. All Shadow Clones possess an equal amount of chakra as the user, so creating one hundred clones literally divides the user's chakra into one-hundredths. This jutsu is exceedingly dangerous for any that lack an abundance of chakra.
Essentially, the only difference between this and the basic Shadow Clone Jutsu is the amount of clones formed. In case one tries to learn this jutsu without first learning the Shadow Clone Jutsu, instructions for the Shadow Clone Jutsu are listed below. Simply mold more chakra for more clones. The larger the amount of chakra that is molded equals the more clones that will be created.
Naruto grinned at the realization that Shadow Clones were solid clones that could actually perform jutsu and interact with objects and people. He could already see plenty of uses with such a technique, especially since the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu would let him make hundreds of clones.
He eagerly began to read over the next part of the scroll and rolled the scroll back up once he finished.
Six hours later, Iruka Umino landed in the clearing. When he arrived, he was surprised to see Naruto sitting on the ground, panting with the Scroll of Sealing next to him. He looked like he had been working very hard.
"You're just in time, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto said with a grin as he stood up and put the scroll on his back. "I thought Mizuki-sensei would be here to test me though. Did you come instead?"
'What is he talking about?' Iruka thought, feeling worried. "Naruto, what am I testing you for?"
Naruto frowned. "Mizuki-sensei said if I learned a jutsu from this scroll, I'd graduate. Didn't he tell you?"
Iruka looked at Naruto in shock. He quickly figured out what was going on and pushed Naruto out of the way before turning to face a barrage of shuriken that threw him against the shed that Naruto had been sitting next to.
"You always were good at finding him, Iruka." Mizuki said as he appeared. He was in his chunin attire with a few large shuriken strapped to his back. "Now Naruto, give me the scroll."
"No, don't give him the scroll! You must never hand that scroll over to him, even if it's that or your life." Iruka said, grunting in pain. "That is the Scroll of Sealing, a scroll containing techniques that were forbidden for causing harm to the user or violating natural laws. Mizuki… he was trying to use you to get the scroll."
Naruto looked shocked at that.
"You should just hand it over. There's no point in your having it." Mizuki said. Then, he got an idea. "I'll tell you a truth that has been kept from you your entire life."
That immediately caught Iruka and Naruto's attention.
"No, don't! It's forbidden!" Iruka said.
"You know the fox attacked twelve years ago, right?" Mizuki asked, ignoring Iruka. He saw Naruto nod. "That very day, a rule was created that has been followed to this day. But… this rule was never meant to be revealed to you."
"What rule? What are you talking about?" Naruto asked, feeling even more confused than normal.
"The rule is that no one is allowed to talk about the fact that you are the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox." Mizuki said with a malicious grin.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked. From what he understood, the fox was massive. He simply could not understand how anyone could claim that he was the fox.
"Mizuki, stop it!" Iruka demanded.
"It means that you are the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that killed Iruka's parents and nearly destroyed the village." Mizuki answered. "You were sealed away by the very Hokage that you admire, and you were lied to all of your life. Didn't you find it odd how everyone hates you? Even Iruka is the same. He actually hates you." With that, Mizuki removed a giant shuriken from his back and began to spin it in his hand. He knew that with Naruto hearing that, he would not even realize what was going on until the shuriken hit him. "Nobody will ever accept you. In fact, they'll praise me for finishing the job that the Fourth Hokage started." As he spoke those words, he threw the shuriken at Naruto.
Moments before the shuriken struck the blond, Iruka appeared over him, taking the shuriken to the back as he leaned over Naruto.
"Why…?" Naruto asked, even more confused. If he was responsible for the deaths of Iruka's parents, then why would he save him?
"I'm sorry… if I had tried harder, maybe you wouldn't have been in so much pain…." Iruka said.
Naruto backed away and took off running through the forest at that point, earning a look of despair from Iruka.
"Naruto isn't the type to have a sudden change of heart. I'm sure that he will try to get revenge on the Leaf now." Mizuki said. "You saw those eyes earlier. They were the eyes of a demon."
"Naruto is not like that." Iruka said as he removed the shuriken from his back and threw it at Mizuki, who side stepped it.
"Well… that doesn't really matter. I'll just find him, kill him, and take the scroll. I'll be back to take care of you later." Mizuki said with a shrug as he began to move into the direction where Naruto had run off to.
Naruto was hiding behind a tree with the scroll when he heard Mizuki and Iruka land on the ground after a minor clash. It seemed that Iruka had transformed into him while Mizuki had transformed into Iruka. Neither one of them knew of Naruto's close proximity.
"You would even transform into what killed your parents to protect him?" Mizuki asked incredulously.
"I won't hand the scroll over to an idiot like you!" Iruka said. After all, letting Mizuki get it from Naruto would have been just as bad as handing it over personally.
"You're the idiot. Naruto and I are the same." Mizuki said with a humorless laugh.
"What are you talking about?" Iruka asked, caught off guard by Mizuki's words.
"If you use the skills in that scroll, then you can do whatever you want." Mizuki said simply. "There's no way that demon fox wouldn't try to use the power." he added confidently. It sounded like he was teaching a class, revealing basic facts.
"Yeah… the demon fox would do that… but Naruto is different. He is… one of my excellent students. He may not be the hardest worker, and he's clumsy… but he already knows what it is to feel pain in your heart. He isn't the demon fox. He is a member of the Hidden Leaf Village. He's Naruto Uzumaki!" Iruka declared with a fierce look in his eyes. His words surprised the hiding Naruto and the angry Mizuki.
Mizuki shook his head. "Iruka, I said I would take care of you later, but I'm changing my mind." He said as he pulled out his last shuriken. "Hurry up and die!" With that, he threw the giant shuriken at Iruka, who seemed resigned to his fate.
As Mizuki took a step forward and threw the shuriken, Naruto flew towards him and knocked him backwards with a kick.
"If you touch Iruka-sensei again… I'll kill you!" Naruto said as he leveled a glare at Mizuki with the scroll still on his back.
"You're such a fool. I'll kill you with a single hit." Mizuki stated as he began to push himself off of the ground.
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu" Naruto said as he formed the modified tiger hand sign.
In an instant, three hundred shadow clones formed around Mizuki, completely shocking him.
"What happened to killing me with a single hit?" Naruto said as he and all his clones cracked their knuckles. "Well, if you won't… then I'll just have to give you one hit from each of us."
Now, Mizuki was pretty good at taijutsu, but skill with taijutsu was a moot point when facing a mob of three hundred shadow clones. At least, it was when the practitioner of taijutsu was not a jonin.
Mizuki managed to dispel a handful of clones before they reached him, but he was soon knocked out by the mob as they punched him.
When Mizuki fell to the ground unconscious, the shadow clones dispelled. Naruto turned to face Iruka with a small smile on his face at that point, but his smile did not last long.
Mizuki threw his shuriken before Naruto kicked him, and Iruka was unable to dodge it.
The shuriken was lodged into Iruka's abdomen, and the chunin was lying in a puddle of his own blood. The strangest thing of all was the fact that a small smile was on his face. It seemed to contradict everything, from his bloody flak jacket to the dead man's gaze that remained in his eyes.
Tears formed in Naruto's eyes as he realized that Iruka Umino, the first person to truly accept him for who he was, was dead.
Burning hatred could be seen underneath the tears as he turned to look at the unconscious Mizuki. Fists balled as his sides as he began to close the distance of a few feet that stood between him and the chunin traitor.
Dropping to his right knee, Naruto withdrew a kunai from the holster next to his shuriken holster and held it backhanded.
Rising it over his head, he began to bring it down, with every intention of plunging it into the traitor's throat.
His hand never came down with the kunai though. An iron grip appeared around his wrist and stopped his arm before he could take his revenge on the unconscious chunin.
"Naruto, please stop. You do not want to go down that path." Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, said as he held Naruto's wrist with his left hand.
The blond glanced at the old man next to him and saw that he was in his Hokage robes and four members of the ANBU Black Ops were a little ways behind him.
Naruto wanted nothing more than to kill Mizuki, but he knew that he could not manage such a feat. The Hokage was the most powerful shinobi in the village. Naruto knew that. He knew a great deal about the position of Hokage and the previous Hokage, after all. That was how he knew that even if he could get his hand free from the old man's grip, it would have been child's play for the Hokage to stop him before the kunai reached Mizuki.
He also had to consider the fact that Hiruzen Sarutobi had always been nice to him and treated him to ramen every year on his birthday. They were not as close as Naruto and Iruka had been, but the only others that Naruto had been close to at all were Teuchi and Ayame from the Ichiraku Ramen Stand.
Rising to his feet but not even attempting to remove his hand from the Hokage's grip, Naruto said, "I don't know if I can stop… I want to go down this path… he deserves to die."
Hiruzen instantly realized that the blond had misinterpreted him slightly. "I am not asking you to stop hating him. I could never ask something like that of you. You have every right to hate Mizuki. He used you and he killed Iruka. But… you must not go down the path of vengeance. Revenge is not the way. I promise you that he will pay for his crimes, but there is nothing to be gained by killing him."
"You're not going to execute him." Naruto stated, shocked at the realization.
"I did not say that." Hiruzen said firmly. "We must first determine that there is nothing to gain by leaving him alive. That means interrogation among other things. Suffice to say, that he will be executed once we have determined that there is nothing to be gained by leaving him alive."
"What if there is something to be gained by leaving him alive?" Naruto asked darkly.
"The only such thing would be something like information. Once we obtain it, he won't be worth keeping alive. I promise you that." Hiruzen said.
Though Naruto hated to admit it, the Hokage had a point. It was important that they figure out why Mizuki did what he did, after all. "Fine… I don't like it, but I can accept it."
"If I remove my hand, will you put the kunai up?" Hiruzen asked.
"Yeah… I will." Naruto said softly. As he spoke those words, the Hokage removed his hand from the blond's wrist, allowing Naruto to put the kunai back into its holster.
Reaching into his robes, the Hokage removed and withdrew a piece of metal. "I was in a hurry trying to get here, but I was able to grab this before I left my office. It is yours." As Naruto heard his words, the piece of metal was handed to him.
Taking it in his hands, Naruto quickly realized what it was. It was a plain piece of metal that had the leaf insignia carved into it. It was the metal of a forehead protector.
"But… I failed the Graduation Exams… and I failed to save Iruka-sensei." Naruto said softly, tears once again forming in his eyes.
"You snuck past all of my guards, prevented me from stopping you, stole the Scroll of Seals, learned a B-rank ninjutsu and an A-rank kinjutsu, and defeated a traitor of the village. From my perspective, you earned this more than any of your classmates." Hiruzen said firmly. "What would Iruka say if he saw you turning this down?"
A grim smile made its way on Naruto's face as he spoke. "He'd probably call me an idiot and tell me to take it." He placed the piece of metal in his pocket at that point. "I… I'm sorry that I stole the scroll. If I hadn't done it, then Iruka-sensei would still be alive."
"You obeyed one of your teachers. I cannot fault you for that." Hiruzen said as he shook his head. He did not believe that any apologies were necessary. "If you had not stolen it, Mizuki likely would have waited until I was out of my office and would have stolen it himself. I can only imagine what would have happened as a result of such actions. If he had managed to get out of the village with the scroll… the results would have been disastrous. Imagine the consequences of another village or a rogue ninja gaining all of our forbidden jutsu."
Closing his eyes, Naruto shuddered. He was not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he knew that such a thing would have been disastrous for the village.
"Iruka was a good man, and I can understand your sorrow. Do not live in the past though. You must live in the present and look to the future." Hiruzen said sympathetically.
Naruto nodded slowly, reluctance clear in his eyes. "Old Man, why did he save me from Mizuki? The fox that killed his parents is inside me, right?"
"That's right. The Fourth Hokage sealed the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox inside of you. He did it to save the village." Hiruzen said as he looked towards Iruka's corpse. "I don't think it mattered to Iruka though. He saved you because he carried the Will of Fire, as do you. It wasn't just a duty or responsibility to him, though. Can't you tell? He died with a smile on his face… the kind of smile that you have when you are proud of your student. He did not die immediately. He no doubt saw you use the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu."
Naruto's eyes widened at that revelation.
"Now, I want you to come with me. I believe that it would be a good idea to discuss everything that happened in detail. I can't exactly have you telling your friends that you became a genin after being set up for stealing the Scroll of Sealing by Mizuki, who ended up killing Iruka." Hiruzen said. He quickly flash a few hand signals immediately after he spoke, causing two of the ANBU to pick up Iruka's body while the others picked up Mizuki.
Naruto arrived at his apartment three hours later.
He had not expected to spend three hours with the Hokage following what he would address as the 'Mizuki Incident.' That day had not turned out anything like he had expected though, so it was not that much of a surprise.
Hiruzen had asked Naruto to write down everything that had happened from the Graduation Exams to him trying to kill Mizuki while he was unconscious.
After receiving what would be filed as the report for the Mizuki Incident, Hiruzen had given Naruto the cover story that would be used to explain Iruka's death and his graduation.
It had been rather simple really. Iruka had given Naruto a make-up exam after the Graduation Exams were over. Later on that day, Iruka came across Mizuki leaving the village with a scroll containing forbidden jutsu of the village. Iruka and Mizuki fought at that point, and the former sustained fatal injuries while the latter was merely incapacitated. ANBU Black Ops arrived moments after Iruka died.
Though the cover story was not too complicated, cover stories were often rather simple. As it was, Naruto's graduation, Iruka's death, and Mizuki's betrayal were all explained.
In addition to all of that, Naruto was told that he was not to use the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu without receiving permission from his jonin-sensei. The reason behind this, Hiruzen said, was that explaining Naruto's possession of a kinjutsu was a bit more difficult. The Shadow Clone Jutsu, on the other hand, was simply a B-rank ninjutsu that was not as difficult to explain him knowing. It was amazing how, despite the fact that the two jutsu were basically the same, one was easy to explain knowing and the other was difficult to explain knowing.
Their meeting had ended on a rather sad note, just as it began. It was Iruka's wish to be cremated, like his parents. Thus, there would be no funeral. Naruto did not know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing for him. On one hand, he would not have to be reminded of Iruka's death by a big event. On the other hand, Iruka's death seemed to pass without anyone taking notice.
He shook his head at the last thought. He was sure that his classmates would talk about what they had heard about Iruka's death when they went to Genin Orientation a few days later.
Looking out his window, Naruto shed a silent tear as memories of his sensei surfaced. Fate, he thought, was a cruel mistress. She took his parents away from him the day that he was born, and then she took away the person that he had come to see as an older brother right after he saw how Iruka truly felt about him.
"I'll make you proud, Iruka-sensei." Naruto promised as he looked at the stars in the sky. "I'll become the greatest Hokage, just like I always told you I would."