To all those who are reading this.

This is my third attempt at writing this story, and I must say that I hope the third time is the charm. I changed a lot, but I've also evolved as a writer. So, I hope you enjoy.

Normal Speech: Believe it!

Jutsu/Thoughts: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!

Inner Sakura: CHA! Sasuke will be mine!

Kyuubi Speech: Stupid humans, I am all-powerful!

Their One Passion is Discovered: Redux

The wind teased the trees with light tendrils of air as the sun hung high above Konoha. Most people were taking their lunch breaks, and even the Shinobi Academy was taking a break thanks to all of this nice weather. For the past few weeks it had rained almost every day, and needless to say, Konoha needed some time off from the rain. The students of the Academy were ecstatic that they could be outside for more than practical exercises. Even Uchiha Sasuke was relived that they wouldn't be inside all day for yet another round of Umino Irukas famously boring lessons. There were a few students who actually appreciated Iruka's effort, not that they would admit it. Hyuuga Hinata for instance, she listened to the lessons with a fervor and her scores were tied with only two people in their entire class, Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto.

Not that the class knew that Naruto was getting the highest scores along with the two kunoichi, he had asked Iruka to not advertise his scores, but today, Iruka drew the line.

"Naruto," He called out to the lunch area where the students sat. "I need to speak with you!"

Naruto was sitting beneath a shady tree with a book on his lap, his eyes pouring over the contents when Iruka called him. He put his book down and sighed, waving to Hinata as he walked past her. Her eyes widened and she couldn't help but smile back at the radiant boy. Naruto rolled his eyes at their sensei and ran over to him as fast as his legs would carry him. "What do you need Iruka-sensei? I was at a good part!"

Iruka motioned for Naruto to follow and the pair went inside, walking past a few instructors on their way to the classroom. Naruto scowled back at the looks on their faces as he slipped in quietly behind Iruka into the empty classroom. Iruka walked over to his desk and pulled out a random bunch of papers out of a stack that was on his desk.

"Naruto," Iruka began as he flipped through them, a hint of a smile etched onto his tanned face. "I just got done grading the test we took this morning."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "And?"

Iruka sighed. "You got the highest score in the class."

Naruto felt his eyes bulge when he heard those words. "R-really?" He stammered, trying to believe what his sensei had just said.

"Yes Naruto, really." Iruka declared as he handed it back to the blonde with a smile evident on his features.

"Wow." Naruto mouthed as he looked over the paper, none of his answers had a spot of red ink next to them and the essay he had written was riddled with comments about his insights. "I," He started. "I don't know what to say." He trailed off, reading over the glowing comments with a look of wonder on his face.

"I wanted to give you my projection for how you will do on the genin exam." Iruka stated, smiling at his young student. The essay had been about a famous battle during the Iwa-Konoha war that had posed the question of whether the Leaf should have tried to make a treaty before the chaotic end, or whether they should have simply destroyed the Stone Village afterwards. Naruto had a great amount of insight into the war, stating that it was wasteful and Iwagakure was being far too destructive for their own good. He gave a great deal of valid points on what else could have been done and put in some of his own ideas on what should have been done to preserve the peace.

"That essay, was simply fantastic! I had no idea how much you knew about that war, and yet you turned up facts and information that I would have had trouble uncovering, we didn't discuss half of the options that you presented in class, it was simply fascinating how you wrote that." Naruto blushed and shook his head.

"Aw, sensei, you're just saying that." He replied humbly, Iruka shook his head rapidly and sat down at his desk.

"Naruto, that was probably one of the best essays I've ever read, and probably one of the best that the Academy has had since these essays were actually posed to people. It's spectacular!" Iruka beamed at his student and sighed momentarily.

"I just wish you would let me tell the class about how well you did." Naruto scowled at his teacher.

"Sensei, if you announce it to everyone it will just cause me trouble later on." He sighed and shook his head at Iruka. "And anyways, you promised that you wouldn't show any of my work to the others."

"Naruto," Iruka scowled at his student in frustration. "It's not a bad thing to do well in school! In fact, your essay was good enough that I want to show it to the Hokage! It was absolutely brilliant and no matter what your peers say, it's not their job to say if it's good or not!" Iruka finished his rant with a sigh and Naruto jumped as the class bell rang.

"Aw man," The young blonde groaned. "I left my book out there!" As the class rushed back into the room, Hinata walked over and handed Naruto his book.

"Ano, Naruto," She murmured, keeping her finger in-between the pages he had been reading before Iruka had called him in. "You left this outside."

"Thanks Hinata-chan!" Naruto grinned at the Hyuuga, who promptly began to turn bright red. "I'm glad you kept the page, cause otherwise it'd take forever to find where I was!" Hinata nodded quickly and the two made their way to their seats, which were conveniently located next to each other. As they were walking back, Iruka felt his eyebrows go up as he noticed the title. 'Astrodynamics and Aero physics, an Intermediate Guide' Iruka shook his head and grabbed the stack of papers off of his desk.

"Okay guys, I finished grading your papers." Iruka kept his face neutral as a few people groaned and some began to murmur excitedly. "First off, I'd like to say that we had three perfect scores this time."

This really got people going as the students began to mutter amongst themselves. Iruka held three of the tests in his hands and crossed his arms. "The people who did such excellent papers are Haruno Sakura," Some people started cheering or catcalling. "Hyuuga Hinata," There was a steady round of quiet applause. Iruka took a breath as he said the last name. "And Uzumaki Naruto." The room suddenly fell dead quiet, even people who hadn't really been paying attention turned themselves forward to stare at Naruto. Naruto felt his cheeks flush and he wished there was some kind of Doton jutsu that would swallow him right now. Sasuke glared at Naruto with a passion, he had taken a great deal of time out of his personal training to make that essay really good, and now Naruto was getting a perfect score?

"Narutos essay will also be published in the school library in the records of outstanding essays, one of the highest honors we can bestow." The room continued to stare at Naruto as Iruka tried to hurry his speech along, he could tell that Naruto was getting really uncomfortable with this, really quickly.

"Now, I'd like those three to come up and look over the papers and all of you to give them a round of applause." The three he had named slowly came forward, Sakura giving Hinata a quick smile and Naruto a curious look. Hinata tried to smile at Naruto, but the embarrassment on his face made her come up short. Naruto would have normally been ecstatic with joy, but now his face was a mask of humiliation. The class quickly began to applaud as the three bowed quickly to their fellow students. Sakura was still staring at Naruto curiously as the three went back to their seats, tests in hand.

"The rest of you," Iruka started once more. "Have got a lot of work to do! The final exam is in three days and if you want to do well, you're going to have to do much better than you did on these tests to get a good grade."

Naruto tried to sink lower in his seat, but at the rate he was going he was going to have to hide under his desk to avoid the stares of half the class. Thankfully, Iruka-sensei called their attention elsewhere. Hinata was glancing at his paper periodically and he handed it to her without saying anything. She tried to murmur a thank you but ended up looking down at the paper. Compared to hers, Naruto kept his answers fairly short, but they were detailed in some of the more complicated points. She couldn't stop herself from moving on to the essay that lay behind the short answer test, trying to read it without Naruto noticing. He was too busy reading his book to pay attention to anything else.

Hinata was enthralled as she read, absorbing each and every detail that Naruto lay before the reader, reveling in the words and phrases that he used to make everything seem so simple, yet she knew that it was complicated. Naruto had never been one to write things like this, and yet…she had a feeling that he hadn't been showing everyone what he was capable of. A few years ago, all he would pay attention to was Sakura, but in the last year or two he had become very interested in reading. Enough that everyone began to notice. People tried to make him tell them why he was reading so much, but most of the time it just resulted in Naruto ignoring them for his book.

Hinata jumped out of her reverie as the class began to pack their things up and leave. Naruto was putting his book mark in the book and didn't notice Hinata putting the essay back in his back pack. She murmured goodbye and he smiled at her as he walked out of the room. She felt her heart beat rapidly as she struggled to pack her things quickly. There would be a member of the Branch family outside to pick her up by now, and she didn't want to make them wait.

Naruto found himself hurrying home just so he could finish the book, the whole prospect of physics fascinated him and he was secretly coming up with things that it could help him with. The knowledge of physics seemed to be most helpful when it involved throwing weapons, or the height of a jump, or even the strength behind a punch. He was careful as he hoped onto his apartment building roof to not make too much noise, the owner of the building was rather nasty to him last time he made too much noise hopping onto the building. He snatched a key from under the mat by the door to the building and slid it into the lock, opening the door for him to go inside. He slipped in, careful to lock the door behind him. He walked the remainder of the way to his apartment at a quick walk and threw his bag onto the couch. "I'm home!" He called, trying once more to not be loud. He felt himself sigh and he went over to the fridge to see if there was anything to eat. He made a face when he smelled the milk, he should probably get some soon before this one went bad. He jumped when the door to his apartment opened and a tall adult woman walked in.

She was dressed in a Western style, a bulky tan sweater over a pale blue skirt that didn't go down to her knees. She had light brown hair and her green eyes sparkled when she saw Naruto. "Welcome home Naruto-kun!" She walked over and hugged him. He hugged her back lightly and smiled at her.

"Hey Miyuki-chan!" He sounded delighted as she gave him a beaming grin. She grabbed his hand and examined him.

"How was school today?" She asked curiously, Naruto was usually jumping at the details of something they had learned that day, but today he was oddly quiet.

"Okay I guess," He commented, walking over to his couch and pulling his test out of his bag. "I got top score." He muttered, turning away looking embarrassed.

"That's awesome Naruto-kun!" Miyuki replied as she looked over the papers. "Grandmother will be so proud of you!" Naruto smiled at her and his eyes were oddly hopeful.

"Really?" He asked, trying to maintain a straight face. Miyuki nodded and grabbed his hand.

"Come on, you can join us for dinner!"

Naruto and Miyuki had known each other for three years now, the Sato family had moved in next door when they had arrived in Konoha and had sort of adopted him for their own. They were from a city in water country and knew nothing about why the villagers were so cruel to him. Miyukis grandmother, Kisa, was especially kind to him when he came over to welcome her. He'd seen other members of the apartment do that with their neighbors and since the Sato's weren't from Konoha, they welcomed him with open arms.

Miyuki opened the door to her families apartment and ran over to hug her grandfather, Momiji. Momiji had been a tailor on the islands they lived on before they moved to Konoha and he had made Naruto quite a few new sets of clothing. Some, were actually not orange for a change. He was an average sized man who had become bald with age, but his face glowed with the kind of wisdom that comes with age. He smiled at Naruto and gave him a tight one-armed hug.

"It's good to see you Naruto," He rumbled in his deep bass voice. Naruto grinned up at his foster grandfather and laughed.

"I missed you Grandpa." Momiji chuckled at Naruto and stepped back.

"I haven't seen you for a week and you already seem to have grown in size." Naruto grinned at Momiji and shook his head.

"Nah, you just forgot." Miyuki rolled her eyes at Naruto and ran over to greet her grandmother who had just stepped out of a side room.

Kisa Sato looked like your typical grandmother, with big glasses and curly silver white hair. She beamed at Naruto when she saw him. Naruto had become yet another grandchild to her and Momiji. She was one who couldn't understand the hatred that Konoha had against him. She had been the head librarian of the city they lived in before they moved to Konoha and within a year of their arrival she had become the new head librarian of Konoha. Miyuki thankfully, was taking her position next week so retirement was closer than she had dreamed of.

"It's good to see you Naruto," She gave him a hug and planted a slight kiss on his head. He blushed slightly when she did and Miyuki found herself giggling at Narutos facial expression.

"I," Naruto began, stumbling over the words. "I got a perfect score on the test we did yesterday." Kisa beamed at her adopted grandson and clapped her hands together.

"That's wonderful Naruto!" She chimed in her sweet, musical voice. Naruto grinned at her and felt his cheeks flush again.

"My essay is also being put in the Academy Hall of Fame. Iruka-sensei was even talking about having it submitted to the Hokage to go into the Shinobi reference library." The room was silent as he said this.

"That's," Kisa started, amazed by his words.

"That's awesome Naruto-kun!" Miyuki chanted as she went over to muss up his hair. Naruto groaned as she did, but laughed along with it.

"This is a great honor!" Kisa spoke, clasping her hands together compulsively. "We have to celebrate!" Momiji nodded and stood up, careful as he walked over to his wife.

"Let's take Naruto out to dinner Kisa," Kisa nodded rapidly at her husbands suggestion.

"Yes, let's go out! Where to Naruto, we can go anywhere you like." Naruto shuffled his feet together as they said that.

"Can we go to Ichiraku?" He asked, looking up hopefully.

"Of course we can Naruto." Kisa replied, giving her adopted grandson a beaming smile.

The dinner last night had been spectacular. Iruka-sensei had been there too and he celebrated along with the strange foster family. He had told Kisa all about Narutos essay and how impressed even the most, rude faculty members had had to admit it was good. Naruto looked down at his completed written final with pride as he walked to Irukas desk to place it in the empty pile. Sakura was right behind him, followed shortly by Hinata who gripped hers nervously. Iruka nodded at them and gave Naruto a small wink.

"For those of you who are done, I'll be leading you down to the Faculty lounge to conduct the practical exam." The whole class stirred, trying to be quiet about it but failing. Another teacher walked into the room and nodded at Iruka.

"I'll take over watching them, go ahead and take the prospective down to the exam room." Iruka nodded gratefully and the three followed after him quickly, all three nervous about how they would do in the final.

Iruka walked into the exam room and informed them that he would be one of the examiners and they would call them in when they were needed.

Naruto sat nervously, Hinata having just gone in. Sakura had come out and proudly displayed her headband to they other two. She gave Naruto a small smile and Hinata got a wide grin. Naruto snapped out of his reverie as soon as Hinata walked out, gripping her hitae-ate like her life depended on it. She gave Naruto a timid smile and looked as though she was about to say something, but opted out to walk away rapidly. Naruto stood nervously as Iruka called his name, stepping into the room as a wave of tension rolled over him. Iruka sat alongside another instructor named Mizuki, both were staring at Naruto with anticipation.

"Naruto, to graduate you need only perform the Art of the Doppelganger, or Bunshin no Jutsu." Iruka prompted, staring at Naruto as he spoke.

Mizuki nodded at Irukas instructions. "Don't be nervous Naruto, with your scores you should be able to pull this off."

Naruto felt himself nodding, but he felt as though he wasn't really in the same room as them. He was alone, staring at an army of armed Shinobi who were all out to get him, and it scared him to see that. He slowly formed the seals necessary and his voice was strangled as he spoke the words. "Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Smoke filled the room as the jutsu took effect, everyone in the room waited impatiently as the smoke began to clear.

Alongside Naruto lay two clones, but they looked nearly dead and Naruto was shaking with the effort he had put in. Iruka sighed and Naruto felt his heart break as he said the fateful words. "I'm sorry Naruto," He looked up sadly into the eyes of his student. "You fail."

Mizuki looked at Naruto sympathetically as Naruto felt his eyes drop to the floor. "Iruka, he did manage to make two Bunshin," Mizuki shrugged. "Maybe we should just pass him."

Iruka looked at the desk but remained firm. "No Mizuki, he had to create two passable clones and he failed to do that. If he can't perform in here, then how could he perform on the field?"

Mizuki looked away and Naruto could feel the man focusing on him.

"I'm sorry Naruto," Iruka stated. "Maybe next year."

Naruto nodded sadly and turned away from the two chunin. "Thanks anyway sensei."

Iruka sighed as Naruto left the room and Uchiha Sasuke walked in looking determined. I'm sorry Naruto, you have no idea how much I am.

The Sandaime Hokage stifled a yawn as the clock in his office chimed eleven, he was looking over a report made by the Academy that listed the names of the newly formed Genin. Iruka had told him that Naruto had failed to make a Bunshin, and therefore, had failed to pass. He sighed to himself quietly as he looked at the test scores. Naruto would have been at the academic top of his class, even topping Haruno Sakura by a few points. But until he could make a passable Bunshin, he would be forced to repeat the Academy until he could. Sarutobi knew that the Kyuubi was partially responsible for this. Naruto had never had a small enough amount of chakra to learn the control necessary to create a Bunshin.

But, the aged Hokage knew that his hands were tied, there was nothing he could do to help Naruto. The young shinobi in training reminded him so much of his student, Jiraya. The Toad Sanin had been the worst in his class as well, but he had become one of the strongest shinobi that the village had ever produced. Sarutobi snapped out of his reverie as a window suddenly slid open near his office. The guards had gone home a few hours ago, leaving the venerable Hokage by himself. He slid out of his seat and without a sound jogged through the hallway to find Naruto looking through a pile of scrolls.

The blond was oblivious to him as he continued to dig through the scrolls and finally pull out the one that Sarutobi would have never let anyone see. The scroll of the past Hokages. Naruto chuckled quietly with laughter as he stood up and tied the scroll to his back. "Now I can definitely pass, stupid Mizuki-sensei."

"Well, well Naruto…" Naruto froze as the Hokages voice floated into his ears. "I didn't expect you to be here this late, or at all for that matter." He was about to respond when Naruto turned around and gave him a very determined look.

"Jii-san, I can't tell you why I'm here, but it's for a good reason." Naruto stated as he placed his hands into a seal. "Sorry I have to do this but, Henge no jutsu!"

The Hokage coughed as smoke filled the room and there suddenly appeared a…beautiful woman. But she wasn't just beautiful, she had long blond hair. That, and she was naked, except for the smoke that seemed to cover her more, private areas. The Hokage felt a blood vessel pop in his brain as he stared at the beautiful, nearly naked woman standing before him. The world suddenly went black as a stream of blood shot from his nose and sent him rocketing from the room.

Naruto cackled as he hopped out the window into the woods by Hokage Tower. The scroll was wrapped tightly in a belt that was attached to his back and as he hoped, he wondered what kind of jutsu were in the scroll that he had taken for Mizuki-sensei. Maybe it was some ultra special secret technique that was really awesome! Naruto knew that Mizuki was playing him, teachers weren't supposed to ask their students to steal for them, but he knew that if Mizuki wanted the scroll this bad, then he definitely had to find out what was inside of it. He found a quiet spot near the center of the forest and opened the scroll carefully, shaking with uncontainable excitement over what was inside.

He groaned when he saw that the first jutsu was in fact, a Bunshin jutsu. He groaned and rolled his eyes, and then he reluctantly began reading, and reading.

Irukas eyes snapped open as a sharp rap echoed through his house. He groaned when he saw the clock, it was only two in the morning, and he had class to teach tomorrow. He walked over to the window in his bedroom and was shocked when he saw Mizuki sitting outside the window.

"Naruto has stolen the Hokages secret scroll!" He cried as Irukas eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

"What!" Iruka grabbed his uniform and began to pull it on, he had to find Naruto! Why had he even taken the secret scroll anyway?

"Why would he do that?" He snarled to himself. Mizuki was still there and heard him apparently.

"I'm not sure, you know how upset he was when he failed the exam." Mizuki murmured. Iruka sighed to himself and shook his head.

He empathized with Naruto in a certain respect. He had grown up without a family, they had all been killed in the Kyuubi attack. He knew about Narutos secret, and the fact that he took everything the villagers threw at him with a smile made him feel for him even more. As he charged into the forest near Hokage Tower, he knew that he had to do whatever possible to help him. Naruto was a companion to him, a friend that he deeply valued. No matter what any one of the villagers said, he believed that Naruto would one day become Hokage, if he ever got control of his chakra. It was only a matter of time.

Naruto fell to the ground, reading about all of those jutsu had left his head spinning, but he could remember each and every detail that he had absorbed.

Naruto stood and carefully tied the scroll to his back, forming the seal for the Bunshin he wanted to form.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He felt the chakra flow free from his body and a burst of smoke appeared around him. Two Bunshin lay on either side of him, looking as sickly and pale as the ones he had made this morning for the test. He groaned in frustration and tried to remember the text.

It had said that the jutsu would require a large amount of chakra so Naruto smirked to himself as he formed the seal. He could do a lot of chakra; Naruto yelled out as chakra flooded into his body and then suddenly flew from his body. Smoke poured from around him and he gaped as he saw the fact that twenty clones stood around him, each with the same expressions on their faces.

"Whoa." That was the only word Naruto could muster. The clones started talking amongst themselves and Naruto blinked. Bunshin couldn't do that, could they?

"Hey, boss!" One of them yelled. Naruto pointed at himself and raised an eyebrow in question.

"Yeah you, idiot!" Another one yelled. Naruto knew this was totally weird, it was like he was talking to himself, but not really.

"What?" Naruto sniped back, irritated at the clones attitude. It was cool to have copies of himself, but, these guys were just plain old rude.

"What are we doing here exactly?" The first one asked, tilting his head to the side. Naruto frowned slightly and shrugged.

"Working on the jutsu so Iruka-sensei will pass me!" He finally responded, trying to see if that made sense. He knew that Mizuki-teme was playing him, but he wasn't sure what he wanted with the scroll. There had been some pretty awesome jutsu in their though!

Naruto grinned suddenly. There had been a jutsu that had gone along with Kage Bunshin that sounded totally awesome. Bunshin Bakuha, it said that he was just supposed to make one clone, with a lot of chakra and then it would explode. Naruto formed a few of the seals and shouted out the name.

"Bunshin Bakuha!" The chakra that came with it was draining even for him and he could feel himself begin to sweat as the clone stood before him. It looked pretty pale though, Naruto thought that it looked ready to die.

"Are you okay?" He asked, feeling awkward as he did. It was almost as weird as talking to himself.

"Y-yeah…" The clone murmured. Naruto was worried about what would happen if the clone disappeared.

"Naruto!" Naruto jumped as his name was called by an all too familiar voice. Iruka was standing behind him looking at the clones around him with a mixture of shock and confusion.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted, he grinned at his sensei proudly and motioned at the clones.

"Mizuki-sensei told me if I could steal the scroll from the tower and actually do one of the jutsu he would let me get my hitae-ate!" Iruka stared at Naruto in confusion.

"Mizuki said-" Iruka grabbed Naruto and hurled him out of the way as a fuuma-shuriken landed in Irukas back. Naruto cried out in shock as Mizuki cackled with evil glee from a tree.

"Aw, Iruka, you blocked a shuriken against that monster, how sad." Mizuki sneered as he gave the small group a cruel glare.

"Mi-Mizuki!" Iruka snarled as he turned around, hunched over from the shuriken. "What are you doing? Why did you tell Naruto to steal the Hokages scroll?"

Mizuki chuckled and shook his head. "Silly Iruka, you have no idea of the power that scroll possesses. My employer wants it quite badly and I wanted to make sure I got a piece of the power before they did. The demon boy was really quite useful in stealing it."

"Mizuki, don't say another word!" Iruka snarled as he tried to stand in a fighting position.

"What's he talking about Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked, frightened by his sensei's voice. Mizuki practically howled with laughter this time.

"He doesn't want you to know what you really are Naruto!" Mizukis face lit up with a strange, disturbing look. "He doesn't want you to know that twelve years ago, the Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon, was turned into a little boy at the cost of our dear Yondaimes life! You know who that boy is," Mizuki chuckled. "You!"

Iruka turned to see Narutos eyes widen in horror. He tried to say something, he tried to tell him it was a lie, but it was too late. Naruto turned before either of them could say anything and fled. Mizuki chuckled as the clones ran off too. The sad thing was, he couldn't tell which was which.

"Well Iruka, I'll see you later!" Mizuki leapt off into the direction of one of the Narutos.

Iruka turned and followed as soon as Mizuki had left, tailing after Naruto.

Naruto ran through the trees, unsure of what to believe. The villagers, the reason they hated him, was because he was a demon. The reason his entire life was miserable was because the Fourth Hokage had made him into a human. He was the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

He turned to see Iruka trailing after him.

"Naruto, give me the scroll!" He shouted, looking around frantically. "Mizuki won't be able to catch me!" Naruto gave Iruka a skeptical look and charged forward, hitting Iruka in a full on tackle. The transformation suddenly became undone as Iruka became Mizuki.

"How did you figure it out demon boy?" Mizuki sneered, hurling a kunai at Narutos head.

Naruto cried out as the kunai stabbed into his chest and Mizuki screamed as an explosion filled the area.

Mizuki smashed through at least three trees before he came to a stop. He was covered in small burns and he couldn't feel his fingers. He wanted to know how in the name of hell that demon had learned how to make exploding clones. He leapt out of the way as Iruka came charging forward, a kunai gripped in each hand. Mizuki pulled out two of his own kunai and blocked a slash from the right. "I guess the demon can actually make clones now." Iruka snarled wordlessly and began to parry blows with Mizuki.

Right slash, block, left slash, block, counter, dodge. The pattern varied every other step, both chunin trying their hardest to stop/kill the other. Mizuki cried out in triumph as he landed a glancing blow across Irukas shoulder, causing Iruka to drop the kunai in that hand.

"Why do you care so much Iruka?" Mizuki called out as he stepped away from a retaliatory blow. "That demon destroyed everything you valued, your home, your family." He cackled in evil glee. "So why are you even trying to protect him?"

Iruka screamed as Mizuki stabbed him in the leg, and then followed through with the other kunai into his left shoulder. He collapsed onto the ground and struggled to pull himself up.

"B-because," Iruka sputtered. "I've watched Naruto every day since I began teaching at the Academy, he's struggled for everything he has and people keep trying to knock him down." Iruka bowed his head and he could feel tears welling up in his eyes. "I understand his pain, his loneliness. I understand how he would never harm a person needlessly, how he would never do anything cruel to anyone. I understand that he is a

great shinobi, and a great student. I believe in him Mizuki. I don't think he's a monster." Iruka looked up, and Mizuki stepped back from the intensity in his eyes. "I think you're the only monster in this forest tonight. Taking advantage of a child. I will never let you harm Naruto!"

Mizuki chuckled darkly and drew out a third kunai. "Then Iruka, I guess you're going to die by the hands of a monster." He brought the kunai down, only to get a brace of shuriken embedded into his arm. He turned to see Naruto standing there, a determined expression that Mizuki had never seen before on his face.

"You mess with Iruka-sensei," Naruto growled in a cold voice. "And you mess with me."

Iruka shook his head frantically and tried to stand.

"Naruto, get away from here! He's beyond your level!" Naruto heard the pleading in his voice but shook his head, he gave Iruka a small smile as two of his clones grabbed his sensei and carried him away. Mizuki looked around, shocked as a few more clones emerged, each one armed with handfuls of kunai and shuriken.

"Get ready Mizuki-teme! I won't let you hurt my precious person!" Naruto shouted, forming a seal.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Mizuki screamed as the woods suddenly filled themselves with Bunshin.

They all chuckled as Naruto stepped forward. "Get ready Mizuki," He snarled, his voice brimming with venom as he spoke. "CHARGE!"

Mizuki couldn't stop screaming as a rain of Bunshin came down on him. The entire village of Konoha jumped at the sound.

Iruka was amazed as the Naruto clones who had taken care of him helped him to his feet. Mizuki lay in the middle of the forest floor, unconscious and clearly thrown through the ringer. Naruto stood next to him, panting and clearly exhausted from the amount of chakra he had used. Iruka smiled and stepped forward.

"Naruto, that was amazing!" Naruto smiled at him and looked down at the forest floor.

"Do you really think so sensei?" He murmured as Iruka looked him up and down.

"I do, Naruto." He smiled and bent down on one knee. "Close your eyes Naruto,"

Naruto obeyed, closing his eyes. It seemed to take forever but, Iruka finally said the words. "It's okay to open them now."

Naruto opened them, and was confused when he saw that Iruka no longer was wearing his headband.

"Congratulations, Uzumaki Naruto, Genin of Konoha." Iruka gave him a beaming smile and Naruto felt his jaw drop as he felt the cool metal on his forehead.

Naruto screamed with glee and tackled Iruka into a hug. "Yatta!"

From the crystal ball in his office, the Sandaime smiled wistfully. "Well done Naruto," He murmured to himself. Naruto had managed to make a true friend, and he had a feeling that they would always stay that way. "You accomplished what you desired in a single night, and a person cares about you in a way that you've never felt before. Maybe someday," The Sandaime sighed as he looked at a portrait of the Yondaime on his wall. "Someday, you will become a great Hokage."

I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this! I also hope that you like the changes that I made.

It might take me a while, but I will get the next chapter up eventually. We'll see how life works for a while.

Yours,

Isran Darkstrider