As the mixed shades of twilight gave way to the brightness of dawn in Konohagakure no Sato, called either Konoha or (more formally) The Village Hidden in the Leaves, birds chirped, twittered, and trilled various light notes before they flew into the clear blue skies above the sprawl of wooden buildings and towers that filled the circular boundaries of the forest-enclosed town. The sun in particular was just beginning to come over the ridge of the Hokage Rock, where the four faces of the village's ninja leaders, the Hokage, were carved into the stone.

One of those birds passed over an apartment complex that was part of the "Orphan's Row", a housing complex that often saw use by the orphaned youth of Konoha once they turned sixteen or enrolled in the Konoha Ninja Academy. It alighted on the windowsill of Apartment 3F in Building 2 of the complex, the home of one Tayuya Otogawa. The red-headed twelve-year old had been up for an hour, taking the extra time to shower thoroughly, dry her hair, and eat a filling meal, all in preparation for the most important event of her budding career as a ninja—her graduation exam to become a Genin, the lowest ranking of ninja after leaving the Academy.

Once she finished attending to her hair and skin in her small bathroom, Tayuya crossed the hall to her bedroom and began to pull on her clothes—a round cap with bandages wrapped around the lower half, a tan shirt, black undershirt, and dark blue exercise shorts that went down past her knees. After that, she wrapped a black sash around her waist and tied it at her right hip, then slipped her feet into her sandals, slung her messenger bag over her shoulder, and stood in front of her bedroom mirror, looking over herself one last time.

"This is it, Tayuya," she said to herself, brown eyes narrowed as she spoke to her reflection in the mirror. "Today, you become a real ninja. Don't be afraid. You can do this. It's cake."

The words didn't echo in her room, but in her mind, as she left her apartment.

Within the half-hour, Tayuya arrived at classroom 3A of the Academy, where she'd spent the last four years of her life learning about becoming a ninja. Like the other rooms, 3A was an auditorium-styled classroom, with an adjoining chamber for testing purposes or sparring matches. In a stark reversal from normal classes, no one was seated in the middle or upper-level seats, and a lively buzz of conversation pervaded the air as the students discussed what the test could possibly be about—the snatches of conversation Tayuya heard ranged from "It can't be anything hard, just a few clones" to "What if we have to fight the Hokage?"

Some of that chatter died down as Tayuya walked inside; some of the girls looked directly at her while others watched from the corners of their eyes and kept their comments to themselves.

Well, mostly.

"Ugh, Rockface is here now," one of the girls whispered. "Why we had to get stuck with that ugly Iwa tomboy AND that idiot Naruto, I'll never know."

Though Tayuya didn't hear that, or the response of the other girls, she could tell that they were talking about her just from the feel of their eyes on her back, and voiced her displeasure by looking up at them and scowling ferociously, lifting her lip slightly to flash a canine at them. Her hair seemed to flare up in the back as she did so, and the results were magnified quite well—the girls shrank away from her even though they were sitting in the fifth row up.

Satisfied, Tayuya snorted to herself, chucked her bag into a seat in the front row, and settled into the seat right next to it, leaning back and closing her eyes. She wasn't about to let a case of the nerves work her into a corner, and doing anything else aside from what she was doing now would throw her off entirely.

"Hey, everybody! THE FUTURE HOKAGE IS HERE!"

Tayuya's right eye slowly, painfully, opened, and focused on the blonde shock of hair right in front of her.

…That jackass can't even give us five seconds of peace, can he?

'That jackass', better known as Naruto Uzumaki, was standing right in the middle of the room, his smile almost brighter than his orange, blue-shouldered jumpsuit. His bright blue eyes were closed tightly, as they usually were when he smiled, and the three whisker-like marks on each of his cheeks stretched outwards slightly. His arms were crossed tightly over his chest in an attempt to look bold and imperious; if he wasn't the shortest student in the entire graduating year, it might have been impressive.

Of course, since it wasn't, everyone (barring a certain girl with pupil-less, pale lavender eyes) ignored him, laughed at him, or pretended to ignore him outright. Since she wasn't looking upwards, Tayuya couldn't tell who said "Say whatever you wanna say, dead-last. You failed this test like two times already when you got the chance to take it, didn't you?"

"Yeah, well this time I've got it in the bag," the blond yelled. "I'll show all of you! No matter what, I'm passing that stupid test, TODAY, with flying colors! Believe it!"

Of course, it was right after this declaration that their teacher Iruka Umino, stepped out of the examination room, straightening his green flak jacket as he did. The hitai-ate, or forehead protector, that he wore was a mark of his status as a ninja; it consisted of a blue cloth with a metal plate at the center that had Konoha's spiral-shaped insignia etched onto it. He was a Chuunin, a ranking given only to Genin-level ninja that managed to pass the difficult Chuunin Exams; despite that honor, though, he didn't seem especially dangerous, with plain brown hair done into a topknot, slightly tanned skin, and warm brown eyes.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're getting ready to get this show on the road," Iruka said, clapping his hands together. "Don't delay, now, we want to get this over with as soon as we can."

Hearing his voice, Tayuya roused herself, focusing her once-passive gaze directly onto Iruka as he continued to speak.

"We'll call your names alphabetically, and you will only get one shot at this test. Don't beg for extra time or anything like that—you'll be here long enough considering that we can't release you until all of the classes are done testing, we don't want to compound that waiting time. You can leave the classroom when you're finished but you're not allowed to leave the Academy."

No one interrupted Iruka—their minds were all on the test now, even Naruto's.

"I'll start calling people in shortly. Be ready for anything."

With that, he withdrew, and everyone, nerves now fully engaged, sat up straight and stared at that door. A few moments later, Iruka called, "Akimichi Chouji!"

A rotund young man with red swirls on his cheeks stood up, finished off the bag of chips in his hand, and walked into the examination room. Everyone held their respective breaths until he returned, and even when he did, no one spoke—the tension was too thick for that. Chouji himself, though, seemed relatively calm as he held his blue-cloth forehead protectorand he stopped at his seat long enough to pick up the bag of chips he'd left behind before nodding to everyone and leaving.

Eventually, Iruka stuck his head out of the room again, and again, and again. Each time, the remaining students stiffened more and more; while the students that took the test did look relaxed once they came out of the room, with their forehead protectors on display in some form, they wouldn't say anything about the actual test to anyone except those that finished.

"Otogawa Tayuya!"

The sound of Iruka's voice jolted Tayuya out of her thoughts, and she stood up in one fluid motion, her back stiff and eyes rock-hard. Without hesitation, she crossed the front of the room, ignoring anyone that looked at her strangely, and entered the testing room.

Iruka and his silver-haired associate Mizuki sat behind a desk, waiting expectantly. When Tayuya was at last standing in front of them, they nodded, and Iruka said to her, "Tayuya, you have a very simple task today. I want you to make at least two convincing clones. If you can't, you fail."

If it wasn't for the fact that the two gentlemen were her teachers, Tayuya would have asked "Is this a goddamn joke?" Instead, she took a deep, calming breath, clearing her mind.

Then, she gathered her chakra and put her hands into motion.

'Ram, Snake, Tiger.'

The air around her shimmered, and she grinned widely, displaying sharp and fierce canines. "CLONE JUTSU!"

The shimmers became semi-tangible, forming into large, white clouds which soon dissipated, revealing three more Tayuyas standing on either side of the original.

"So, Iruka-sensei," began the one farthest to the left, "would you say…"

The one beside her smiled, and added, "…that we have more than satisfied…"

"…the conditions you set…" said the third.

"…in order to pass your test?" finished the one on the far right.

Iruka rubbed the dark scar that ran across the bridge of his nose and smiled. "You have. Congratulations, graduate."

All four Tayuyas nodded, shrinking their grins to smirks, before three of them vanished in the same clouds that had obscured their entrance and creation. When it cleared, the second Tayuya smirked confidently at the two teachers, and put her hands on her hips.

Mizuki took up one of the forehead protectors on the table and gave it to Tayuya with a smile. "Be proud, Tayuya. You've earned this."

"Thank you, Mizuki-sensei, Iruka-sensei," she replied, tying the forehead protector around her neck before bowing shortly to each man. "You took excellent care of me and I thank you for all that you have taught me."

Both men nodded in return, and Tayuya left the room, her shoulders squared firmly; she didn't need to be told not to tell anyone what the test was about. 'They'll just have to sweat it out,' she thought, smiling slyly.

When she returned to the room, she grabbed her bag and made for the hallway; she wasn't going to leave the grounds, as that wasn't allowed, but she wasn't going to stay in the room and deal with the pressure in the air. She didn't notice Naruto look at her with an oddly pensive light in his eyes before turning his attention back to the door, his eyes furrowed in concentration.

Even after testing ended several hours later, Tayuya was still occupying herself in her favorite place on the school campus—a tree in front of the school, with a swing attached to one of the limbs. Haunting music, touched with gentle overtones, flowed from atop the branch that the swing was attached to, flowed from Tayuya's trusty metal flute like a river. Of course, she stopped to take breaks between songs, but other than that, she'd been playing and playing.

Every now and then she looked down to her neck, seeing the back of her forehead protector, and smiled, a soft smile that she'd shown no one in the twelve years that she'd lived in the Leaf.

At times like this, she wished she could remember anything about her parents; all she had were pictures, two from their old passports and two from the portfolios compiled by the Leaf when her parents migrated from Iwagakure, the Village Hidden in the Stone, in the middle of September almost twelve years ago.

A little over a month afterward, Konoha was attacked by the giant, malevolent monster known as the Nine-Tailed Fox, and many people, including Otoya and Maya Otogawa, were killed in the beast's rampage, leaving Tayuya alone in the world.

'If you were here, Mother, Father, you would tell me if I was doing well…if I was making you proud. I don't know if you would approve of me becoming a ninja, but…it was the only thing I felt I could do.'

She stopped playing briefly and leaned against the tree, eyes closed.

'All I can do is to make my way in this village that you left me in. To make the most of this life that you gave me…and maybe, to protect people like you who couldn't protect yourselves. I hope you're proud of me, wherever you are.'

A sudden shift downwards of the branch caught Tayuya's attention; she sat up and looked over the edge of the branch to see a mop of blonde hair beneath her, rocking slowly on the swing. Knowing that it could be only one person ('Naruto'), she dropped from the tree and landed beside the class clown, intending to startle him. The ploy failed, as he barely even looked up to see who had so rudely crash-landed beside him before focusing his blank stare straight ahead again.

"Oi, what are you doing here just staring out into space?" Tayuya asked brusquely.

Naruto didn't respond to her question, and so she responded to his non-response by whacking him in the back of the head. "Hey, I'm talkin' to you! What happened, dammit? You look like your dog just died!"

"I failed," he mumbled in response, not meeting Tayuya's eyes as he barely rocked the swing back and forth. "I failed, again. Those stupid clones just…I just can't do them."

At one point Tayuya might have been tempted to snap at him, but his unusual sobriety gave her pause. She'd never seen him like this and while it was interesting, it was also very odd, almost unnervingly so.

"Am I really so stupid that I can't even make simple, easy clones? I mean, I can use the Transformation Jutsu easy, and it's not supposed to be harder than the Clone Jutsu. So why is it that I can't do it?!"

Tayuya had no answer to that. What he said made some sense in a twisted way, after all—both cloning and transforming were D-ranked techniques, and on top of that, his "sexy" variant of the Transformation Jutsu was more than enough proof that he was competent at using chakra. (It was good enough that Iruka's head had nearly been shot off of his shoulders by the stream of blood flowing from his nostrils when Naruto had used the "Sexy Jutsu" in class.) So why did he have such difficulty with simple clones? Was it a matter of fine control or just some sort of mental block he'd imposed on himself?

Naruto didn't bother to wait for an answer, though; he stood up and stared at the school, and then walked off, his gait unsure.

Tayuya watched him for a little bit, then sighed and shrugged, looking up towards the sky to get a rough gauge of the time. Seeing that the sun was slowly but surely moving westward, she decided to head out to the forest to keep practicing.

Mind set on her destination, and Naruto's problems long out of her thoughts, Tayuya set off with a brisk stride.

Konoha's forests, despite their density, were kept mostly clear of really dangerous animals, the only exception being a section that was used occasionally for the Chuunin Exams to promote Genin like Tayuya to the next level of shinobi duty. Because of how safe it was, finding a quiet spot to think was pretty easy, and Tayuya enjoyed taking advantage of that to practice her flute and unwind after a long day of classes.

Sitting in a tree branch again, but overlooking an empty glade this time, Tayuya spent over two hours going over various songs that she'd picked up but hadn't had time to run through since the review period for the graduation exams had started up. They were all popular songs that she'd picked up by ear and roughly transcribed onto spare pieces of paper; after running through a sheaf of papers for one song to refresh her memory, she'd play it a few times, getting the timing and the notes down, before switching to another song and focusing on that.

At the end of her session, right as she finished off one of her livelier pieces, and put her flute away, a rustling sound came from the brush nearby. Without hesitation, she drew a kunai knife and flung it toward the sound; a boy's yelp came from the woods not long afterward, and Naruto's mess of spiky blonde hair appeared where Tayuya's kunai had disappeared.

"Oi! Don't just throw this crap around however you want, you could put someone's eye out!" he shouted, staring angrily up at the tree branch. He held Tayuya's kunai in his right hand, throwing it to the ground as he let out an annoyed grunt. "Damn it, Tayuya-chan, you nearly got me below the belt...you don't do that to a guy..."

"Then don't go sneaking around in the woods like that, you idiot!" Tayuya retorted, jumping down from the tree to take her kunai back. After a moment, the rest of Naruto's statement caught up with her and she gave him a flat stare; he ignored it, focusing more on pulling himself out of the bushes—a task made more difficult by the large scroll on his back. "Anyway, what are you doing here?"

After getting his foot free, Naruto rolled his shoulders and grunted, tilting his head from side to side with a few audible cracks. Then, he grinned. "So, yeah. Turns out that Mizuki-sensei is pretty cool. He let me do a make-up for the test today. All I had to do was get this scroll from gramps' place and learn a jutsu from it. I distracted the guards in front of the room where they were keeping it, then slipped in and out in a flash! I had to bust my butt really hard, but I learned a technique from it—the Shadow Clone Jutsu! I had to practice a lot but I can do it perfectly now!"

Tayuya's eyes narrowed. The only person Naruto ever called gramps was the third Hokage and current leader of both the village and the shinobi forces, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the only place that really belonged to the Hokage was the Hokage Residence. Any scrolls stored in the Hokage Residence—under guard, no less—were definitely not meant to leave it. On top of that, she'd never heard of a teacher offering a makeup graduation exam in the history of the village. It all smelled fishy to her, and it looked like Naruto hadn't twigged to it at all.

Then, it clicked. "Wait a minute. Did you just say 'Shadow Clone Jutsu?'" Tayuya asked. "Naruto, that's...that's a forbidden technique! What the hell else is written on that scroll?"

Naruto shrugged. "I only looked at the first one really, but I think I saw something about some Eight Trigrams Sealing something or another on there? It seemed really complicated so I just learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu."

Tayuya had done a little bit of extracurricular study and so recognized the Eight Trigrams Sealing Technique when it was mentioned, but only as another forbidden jutsu that only the likes of the Fourth Hokage had ever been able to use. If it's listed on the same scroll as the Shadow Clone Jutsu, then there's no doubt...it's the Scroll of Seals. Naruto shouldn't have that scroll, and whatever Mizuki-sensei told him to get it for can't be good. This is really bad.

"Naruto," Tayuya said, her voice quiet, "you need to put that back, right now. That's the Scroll of Seals. The techniques in there were sealed away by the First Hokage himself. There's no way an Academy student can learn any of them without dying, and even if you did, the Third would have to punish you for it."

Naruto looked up at her with surprise. "Huh? Why would Mizuki-sensei have me steal it and learn a technique from it for the makeup exam, then? And trust me, I definitely learned a jutsu out of it." He gestured to his sweaty brow and dirty clothes. "The clones are supposed to be solid, and I tried to spar with them for a little bit just to make sure. They got me pretty good a few times, knocked me to the ground too."

"There's never been a makeup exam offered before," Tayuya replied. Despite her frustration at how Naruto hadn't seemed to realize just how badly he'd been duped, she managed to keep her voice mostly under control so that he wouldn't tune her out. "You've failed the exam three times counting today, right? So why did Mizuki-sensei just offer it to you now? And why would he have you steal something straight out of the Hokage's house to pass? Doesn't that seem at all suspicious to you?"

Naruto shrugged, rolled the scroll up, and stood. "Maybe it only happens for people that fail a certain number of times in a certain amount of time, or something? Look, Tayuya-chan, if you're gonna just be a downer the whole time, go practice somewhere else so I can meet Mizuki-sensei. You did a good job playing How to go just now, but you're not quite there yet—"

"Don't call me Tayuya-chan, damn it," Tayuya replied sharply, cutting off the rest of his statement. "Look, Naruto. You're obviously not as stupid as people think you are if you got into the Hokage's house to steal the Scroll of Seals, so I'm asking you to put whatever brains you've got in that thick skull of yours to use. Assuming that the makeup exam is real, why would Mizuki have you come all the way out to the woods to hand over the scroll? There's something fishy about that, isn't there? Why not bring it back to the Academy, or put it back where you got it after it finished? Out here anything could happen to it. Or...even to you. It's too dangerous for just an examination."

The gears began to turn when Tayuya said that, as evidenced by the hard thoughtfulness that overtook Naruto's face. "I guess that makes sense, kind of...but then, what's he really after? Just the scroll?"

Tayuya's expression turned into an angry, pensive scowl. Either Mizuki wants to get a look at the scroll himself, or he knows someone that wants to. Either way, Naruto bringing it out here...it saves him the trouble of trying to get it himself, makes it easy to exchange without anyone knowing, and turns Naruto into a scapegoat. Especially since, considering that Mizuki is a Chuunin, he'd easily be able to overpower a simple student. Without a doubt...whatever he wants it for, he's going to get it by running over Naruto for it. That bastard!

"I don't know," Tayuya said aloud. "But whatever it is doesn't matter. Get the scroll back to Hokage-sama's place and lay low, or get caught on your way out, or something. If Mizuki figures you out, he might rat you out to cover his ass, especially if the scroll's still missing. With a setup like that he can just blame you for it going missing."

Naruto nodded and moved the scroll to his back again. His head was lowered at first, but after a while, he raised it, with a distinct bite of disappointment in his eyes. "...Man, this sucks. Right when I thought I could finally make it...In the end I never even got close. Even though you just said I'm not that stupid...you figured out almost the whole thing right away and I had to have it spelled out for me. I guess I'm dead-last until the end, huh?"

Tayuya let out an annoyed sigh from her nose and her mouth. Even though she'd been annoyed with Naruto's complete inability to recognize that something rotten was going on, she didn't want to see him just collapse on himself; it wouldn't help anyone, and she wasn't in the mood to deal with his angst. "Only as long as you keep telling yourself that. Look, you're not half bad at transformations, and even if your taijutsu is kind of half-assed, it's workable at least. If you figure out whatever's going on with your Clone Jutsu, then you can probably pass the exam next time, especially if you learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu. They're solid, and your chakra is divided between all of the clones, so if you've got enough control to make a bunch of those without killing yourself, you can do a regular clone no problem. Regardless, you're gonna have to deal with some tough crap if you really wanna be the Hokage."

"I already deal with tough crap, though," Naruto said bitterly, glaring at the ground. "The only adult that doesn't treat me like I'm total garbage is Iruka-sensei, and everyone else thinks I'm stupid. No one respects me and as much as I want to prove them wrong, I just..." His voice raised in volume as the frustration spilled out full force. "Stupid stuff is always holding me back, and I don't know why, and it sucks, and I hate it!"

Tayuya recognized that tone all too well. Though she wasn't as wildly unpopular as Naruto, she'd had to contend with her fair share of ostracism. Her surly disposition in addition to the fact that she was originally from Iwa had earned her the name "Rockface" as a child, and it followed her to this day. Most of the other girls in her class regarded her with scorn even though (or perhaps, because) she was easily the top female student in the class, and though she rarely let it show past her normal stony facade, the rejection did cut at her sometimes. What Naruto was expressing now was the same pain and frustration that she felt when she couldn't maintain her impassive mask. There was an emotional vulnerability on his face that didn't seem to fit the loud, obnoxious kid that was always saying he was going to be the Hokage.

Tayuya recognized it as the same look she would get on days when she was tired of people treating her like a freak, and for the first time, Tayuya realized that she and Naruto were really alike.

"It only holds you back as much as you let it," she said, her voice gentler than it had been before. The shift in tone caused Naruto to blink and look at her as if she'd grown a second head. "People will say all kinds of crap to your face if they think they can get away with it. Either you let it keep you down or you prove them wrong. And I gotta admit, if there's anything you seemed like you were really good at, it was making sure that people knew you didn't give a damn about what they thought." She shook her head. "I should've known better considering all the crap people give me just for being from Iwa."

Naruto seemed to consider that for a moment, then nodded. Before he could speak, though, the crunch of footsteps on leaves and grass drew their attention to the eastern side of the glade, where Mizuki emerged with a large throwing star on his back.

"There you are, Naruto," he said. "And you have the scroll, good..." His pleased expression gradually faded as he realized that Tayuya was there too, and that both Naruto and Tayuya were looking at him a bit too warily for his comfort. "...Tayuya, what are you doing here?"

"I was practicing when Naruto came across me in the woods," Tayuya said, slightly shifting her body to defend her vitals and potentially run off. The lack of reaction on Mizuki's face told her that she would have, at most, one shot to either bring him down or run off. "Is something the matter?"

Mizuki shook his head and put on a strained smile. "No, nothing in particular. I just need a moment to speak with Naruto alone."

Tayuya shifted her eyes to Naruto, who was looking at Mizuki with a sharp stare and furrowed eyebrows. Naruto, don't tip your hand. You gotta take him by surprise.

To her surprise, Naruto smiled. "Good to see you, Mizuki-sensei. So...about that jutsu you wanted me to learn..." He extended the index and middle fingers of both hands, then crossed them with the right hand vertical and the left horizontal, keeping the right in front. "Shadow Clone Jutsu."

With a burst of smoke, eight other Narutos popped into existence around the clearing, causing both Tayuya and Mizuki to blink in shock. Unlike the regular clones that Naruto had tried to make, the Shadow Clones looked and moved like him, down to adjusting their goggles and carrying copies of the Scroll of Seals.

"Excellent job, Naruto," Mizuki said, though his voice carried a hint of something that put Naruto and Tayuya both on edge. "You pass. Now give me the scroll and we're done here."

Naruto tilted his head to the side for a moment, then shook his head. "Nah."

Suddenly, the Naruto copies all swarmed Mizuki; the real Naruto jumped into the trees, and Tayuya followed him, leaping up into the trees to follow as closely behind Naruto as speed would allow. Mizuki's angry swears and curses echoed behind them, but so too did several rapid popping sounds.

"Man, Mizuki-sensei is kind of a dumbass," Naruto said, taking only a moment to look back at Tayuya as he leaped to another tree branch. "He could've at least brought a fake forehead protectorto chuck at me and keep me distracted, right?"

Tayuya nodded, still clutching her flute. "Probably would've been smart, yeah. But seriously, Naruto, we're in some deep crap right now. Mizuki's gonna be after both of us now, and even though we outnumber him, he's a Chuunin. How are we gonna beat him?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed again as he moved forward. "Well, I know he saw which way we left, and by the sound of it he was already working his way through most of my Shadow Clones, so he'll try to catch up soon. I think I have a plan, though..."

Tayuya raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? Let's hear it, then."

True to Naruto's prediction, Mizuki did eventually fight through the Shadow Clones, and soon hared off in the same direction that Naruto and Tayuya had gone. Despite his anger and the bruises forming on his face as a result of being manhandled by Naruto's clones, he was still cool-headed enough to track their path through the woods, following the trail of bent branches and other small signs of where they'd passed through.

When I catch those brats I'll tear their throats out, he thought, wiping some blood from his lip during a long jump between branches. How did that idiot demon child even figure out that I was trying to deceive it? It must have been Otogawa's fault. That stupid Iwa brat's way too clever for her own good. He grunted in annoyance. On top of that, it managed to even figure out how to use a forbidden jutsu...at least it isn't good at anything else ninja-related or I'd be in real trouble. All I have to do is catch it by surprise in return and that's the end of it.

Eventually, he came to another, smaller clearing where Naruto was catching his breath; the Scroll of Seals was leaning up against a tree a few feet away. Since Mizuki was coming up from behind Naruto, he had no problem taking his shuriken and flinging it at the tree that the scroll was leaning on, jumping down and darting forward as it whistled through the air. Naruto turned around and squawked, ducking before he got hit by the weapon, but he wasn't fast enough to stop Mizuki from grabbing him by the throat.

"Now, Naruto, I was definitely impressed by your jutsu earlier, but demonstrating it on me wasn't the best way to prove your mastery," Mizuki said, his face splitting into a menacing leer. "I'll be taking the scroll as per our agreement, but I'm afraid you won't be graduating...or leaving this forest alive."

"What do you want the scroll for anyway?" Naruto asked, his voice raspy as he tried to talk around the grip Mizuki had on his throat. "The techniques?"

Mizuki's expression rapidly darkened as his grip tightened. "None of your business, demon fox brat. Now shut up and die."

Naruto wouldn't give up, though, and managed to kick Mizuki in the chest, forcing the Chuunin away from him and freeing him from Mizuki's grasp. After hitting the ground, Naruto took a moment to get some air, then stood up shakily and stared at Mizuki. "What did you just call me?"

"Demon fox brat," Mizuki said again, hocking a wad of spittle from his mouth as he glared at Naruto again. "Because that's really what you are. Allow me to spell it out for you, since it's only natural that you wouldn't have realized it, as stupid as you are. Your birthday, twelve years ago...what happened to this village on that day?"

Naruto returned the glare with equal anger. "The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked and killed a bunch of people. The Fourth Hokage stopped it. What's your point?"

Mizuki let out a harsh laugh. "You really are an idiot. The Nine-Tails is calamity made flesh, a tailed beast. You can't just kill things like that. They have to be sealed away into living beings. And the Fourth Hokage, for whatever reason...chose you as the lucky brat to host it." He shook his head and pointed at Naruto's stomach. "Twelve years down the line, the two of you have been together for so long that you and it are one and the same! So all the blood of the innocents that died on that day? It's all on your hands! That's why no adult in this village likes you! You're just a murderous little pile of shit that won't curl up and die!"

Naruto stepped back, shaking his head in disbelief as his eyes widened. Taking advantage of the boy's distraction, Mizuki stepped in and grabbed him by the throat again, squeezing harder this time.

"Now, shut up and don't struggle, brat," Mizuki whispered, his eyes gleaming with sadistic joy. "It'll pass soon enough."

Right as he applied the fatal amount of pressure, Naruto's skin seemed to soften before the boy himself disappeared in a puff of smoke that blinded Mizuki. In that moment, he realized that he'd been duped by another one of the Shadow Clones.

He didn't get to react overmuch to it, though, as he heard Naruto's voice echo throughout the forest in an angry snarl. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

The sounds of several dozen footsteps surged up around Mizuki shortly after Naruto called out the move's name; by the time the smoke cleared and he could see again, Mizuki was surrounded by at least fifty clones of Naruto, all of whom swarmed him immediately with fists and feet flying.

Mizuki was unconscious before five seconds passed, and the real Naruto and Tayuya came out of hiding from the bushes they'd been hiding in, behind the tree where Mizuki's shuriken was now firmly embedded. As Naruto's clones backed off of Mizuki's downed form, Naruto himself looked at Mizuki with a hard frown. Tayuya saw this and pursed her lips, trying to think of something to say, but stopped when she heard someone else's feet thudding against one of the branches above them. Both her head and Naruto's swiveled toward the sound, but they both relaxed when they saw that it was just Iruka, who was surveying Naruto's clones with a blank stare on his face.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei," Naruto said, waving cheerfully. "You missed the party!"

As if he'd heard Naruto's voice for the first time ever, Iruka looked down at Naruto and Tayuya, still completely flabbergasted. "Naruto, Tayuya...what the hell is going on here? Where's the Scroll of Seals, and what's Mizuki doing knocked out in the middle of all these clones?"

"Well, Naruto was the one that stole the scroll from the Hokage Residence," Tayuya said. She did her best to ignore the dirty looks that she got from Naruto's fifty-plus pairs of eyes after she said that, and shrugged her shoulders. "Mizuki told him that if he took the scroll, learned a jutsu from it, and gave the scroll to Mizuki, he'd be allowed to graduate—and, well, he learned it all right."

"These are all Shadow Clones," the original Naruto said, thumping his chest with pride. "Solid enough to take a hit and perfectly indistinguishable from the real, handsome me. Pretty cool, huh?"

As he managed to regain his senses, Iruka nodded slowly, surveying the other Narutos once again as they noogied and pushed each other around, actually disturbing the leaves and grass under their feet in a way that regular clones couldn't. Iruka knew that Naruto was a troublemaker, but he also knew that Tayuya wouldn't have said what she said if it wasn't the truth; she didn't have a reputation for lying, and despite Naruto's air of nonchalance, Iruka knew Naruto well enough to know when he was lying or not. Eventually, he nodded, and faced Naruto and Tayuya once again. "It's a bit unorthodox, but it definitely shows that you've got the skill to graduate," he said, smiling proudly at Naruto. "So, I think that despite the circumstances, following Mizuki's lead is a pretty good idea. Close your eyes, Naruto."

Naruto did so immediately, and Tayuya smiled softly as Iruka took off his own forehead protector and tied it around Naruto's forehead.

"Congratulations, graduate," Iruka said, and Naruto opened his eyes, breaking out into an awed grin as he reached up and touched the forehead protector. As he did, his shadow clones dissipated, and his eyes went out of focus for a second before sharpening again.

"Whoa," Naruto muttered, shaking his head. "That was weird. It feels like I just saw Iruka-sensei put the forehead protector on me from like five billion different angles."

"Shadow Clones are special in that the user receives the memories of any clone that dissipates," Iruka said, ruffling Naruto's head. "Don't think too hard about it. Unless the memories are really vivid, they won't bother you that much."

Hesitantly, Naruto nodded, then paused again and put a hand to the base of his throat as he spared a sidelong glance at Mizuki. Iruka followed his gaze, but Naruto spoke up before Iruka could say anything. "Iruka-sensei, I need to ask you something. Do you know...what really happened to the Nine-Tailed Fox when it attacked the village twelve years ago? Mizuki...he said something, and...well, I know he's a liar and a traitor, but...what he said didn't seem like something he just made up."

The remains of Iruka's pleased smile gradually faded at that question, and he looked to the side for a moment before sighing and closing his eyes. When he opened them again, a weariness overtook his body, but his voice stayed measured and calm. "What did he tell you?"

Naruto bit his lip, but after a moment, managed to reply. "He said that the Fourth Hokage sealed the Nine-Tails inside of me, and that it and me were...the same now."

Iruka's face maintained its neutral passivity for a few moments longer before he shook his head. "Of course he'd twist it that way just to spite you. But to think he was so bitter this whole time…." He looked to Tayuya. "Now, this isn't something that you should go around telling anyone, Tayuya. You either, Naruto. Technically, I shouldn't even be doing this, but Mizuki told you half the truth just to hurt your feelings and I'm not going to let you walk away from here without you knowing how he lied to you. You two will have to keep this to yourselves, all right?"

Naruto nodded, as did Tayuya, and Iruka took another breath before continuing.

"You do have the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside of you, there's no doubt about that," Iruka said. "However...you, without a doubt, are not the Fox itself. I saw it rampaging through Konoha twelve years ago with my own eyes, and I saw it kill my parents. All that malignant hatred it carried, I have never once seen in you, Naruto. You are not the Nine-Tails in any way, shape, or form. You are Naruto Uzumaki, a Genin of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. You're a goofball, a knucklehead, and as much of a clown as I was when I was your age, probably for the same reasons that I was. Even though people hate you for what was sealed inside of you, I know that in spite of it, you can become great." He smiled again, as if simply saying all of this had unburdened him. "One day, I fully expect to see you wearing the Hokage's hat."

Iruka's honesty slowly but surely cleared the lingering doubt on Naruto's face, and after a moment, the blonde boy's usual energetic grin returned to his face. "You'd better believe it, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka's smile widened. "Trust me, I do. Now, let's get the Scroll of Seals and Mizuki back to the village. You should hopefully get out of any punishments that might come your way from stealing the scroll, but if anyone gives you a hard time, I'll cover you and Tayuya. After everything is taken care of...what say we all get some ramen? My treat."

"Hell yeah!" Naruto shouted, adjusting the scroll and turning toward the village. "Let's go!"

In the Hokage Residence, Hiruzen Sarutobi leaned back with a smile, absently rubbing at his nose; when Naruto had broken in to take the Scroll of Seals, he'd run afoul of the Hokage, and used his Sexy Jutsu to...distract Hiruzen. The Third Hokage was no spring chicken anymore, as evidenced by his graying hair and goatee, the liver spots on his face, and the three long lines reaching down his face on top of the wrinkles that age had given him, but even he had a weakness for pretty girls, especially when they were as naked as Naruto's Sexy Jutsu form.

After cleaning up his intense nosebleed, Hiruzen had set about dispatching ninja to find Naruto and the Scroll of Seals, then withdrew to his office and used the Telescope Jutsu in concert with a crystal ball to track Naruto's presence; something about what the boy had been up to struck him as something more than just a prank, and he wanted to be certain as to what Naruto's motives were before administering a punishment.

In the process, he'd seen everything that transpired, from Naruto's exhaustive training with the Shadow Clones to his meeting with Tayuya, their confrontation with Mizuki, and Iruka's ultimate affirmation of Naruto's humanity and potential.

The old man allowed himself a tired smile, his eyes shaded by the brim of his triangular red-and-white hat that marked him as the Hokage. Though he had laid down the laws forbidding other ninja of speaking about what exactly had happened to the Nine-Tailed Fox, he agreed with Iruka's logic for sharing the truth of the matter with Naruto even if Tayuya wound up finding out about the sealing as well.

"They're all kindred spirits, in a sense," Hiruzen said to himself. "All three of them lost parents because of the Nine-Tails...and while Naruto and Iruka hid their pain with jokes and pranks, Tayuya did the opposite. And yet here they are...in spite of their shared loss, they're making their way forward." He stood up, grunting slightly as some of his joints popped and cracked. "Iruka's right, I can't exactly punish Naruto too badly for what happened considering that he rooted out a traitor to the village in the process of stealing the scroll…I'm sure some of the others won't be happy, but it's a good thing I'm the one that makes the rules."

As he left his office, Hiruzen took one last look at the crystal ball, and smiled. "As for you, Naruto, Tayuya...I look forward to seeing how you grow."

A few hours later, Naruto and Tayuya were making their way back to their apartments; as it turned out, they lived in the same apartment complex, save for the fact that Naruto was in Building 1 while Tayuya was in Building 2. Iruka, true to his word, had treated them both to ramen, though Naruto's immense appetite nearly broke the poor man's wallet; Tayuya, for her part, had exercised significantly more restraint, eating two bowls to Naruto's ten.

In the end, the Hokage hadn't had much to say to them, and had been willing to let Naruto go without a punishment for stealing the Scroll of Seals—but only because Naruto had defeated Mizuki. After that meeting, they went for food with Iruka, and things progressed from there, leaving them where they were now.

They hadn't talked much the whole time, mostly because Naruto had actually been a bit winded from all his Shadow Clone practice and running through the woods, and Iruka had seemed to sense that Naruto was still processing the truth about the Nine-Tails. Tayuya had her suspicions as well, and kept her peace as Naruto covered his nervousness by nattering on about how he was going to brag about learning his cool jutsu to the other graduates the next time they all met.

They kept walking in silence until Naruto eventually spoke up, his voice oddly quiet. "Hey, Tayuya-chan."

Tayuya stopped walking and looked at Naruto with a neutral expression, doing her best to avoid her "resting stoneface"; she'd gotten so used to wearing a bored expression or a scowl around other people that she occasionally let it take her face even when she didn't mean to. "What is it, Naruto?"

"...Thanks," he said, stopping as well. "For helping me out with Mizuki, and, uh...for not freaking out about the big fuzzball. I kinda can't believe it myself, and I've been trying really hard to keep it together too, y'know?" His expression grew more thoughtful and troubled, creasing his face with a frown. "I dunno why the Fourth picked me to be the host for it, and...well, that bothers me. Was it because I was the only baby around? Did he not have the time to figure out something else, or blow it up, or something?"

"He's probably the only one that could answer that question, to be honest," Tayuya said. "Though, since Hokage-sama was around for that, maybe he could answer that question for you if you asked him to. As for me not freaking out, well…." She let out a breath, and marshaled her thoughts on the subject as quickly as she could before speaking. "I'm not gonna lie to you. When Mizuki said that, I did get a little nervous. But, well...it's like Iruka-sensei said. You're you—obnoxious, kind of a meathead, and stupidly stubborn...and apparently carrying a buttload of chakra since you were making so many Shadow Clones and didn't die. The only thing that connects you to the Nine-Tails are those dumb looking whiskers on your face. Other than that and the fact that you've got a mass of demon chakra in your belly, you're just like anyone else, and there's no point in me acting like you're not. We've both been outsiders in our own way and I've already wasted enough time treating you the same way that a lot of people have treated me for long enough."

After a moment of blank shock, Naruto quickly recomposed himself and let out a genuine smile. "So, then. We're buds, right? Birds of a feather and all that stuff."

Tayuya shrugged a shoulder. "I...guess, yeah, if you wanna call it that. You're a klutz and kind of dense, but you think pretty quick on your feet and you work hard. Even if you're annoying sometimes you're not that bad of a guy."

Naruto's grin grew wider. "So, then, buddy...you know any songs by Raiko, by any chance? I know I was razzing you earlier about How to go, but really, it sounded good. I wanna hear what else you can do."

Despite herself, Tayuya cracked a smile, and pulled her flute from her bag. "As it so happens, I do know one." She looked up at the evening sky, feeling a sense of serenity from the sparkling stars, and closed her eyes, raising her flute to her lips as her memory of the notes flowed from her mind and into her fingers.

Moments later, the first few notes of a song simply called ALIVE floated on the wind, echoing through the night.

Flutist, Jinchuuriki, Prodigy: Team 7's Rhapsody

A Naruto Fanfiction

Written by Zero-Sennin

First Song: Graduation March

Whew. Been wanting to do this one for a while, but I kind of had to get back into the spirit of Naruto to make it work. It's been in the wings for a while now, but only recently was I able to sit down and really get it together.

A few things of note: I tried out a slightly different tone than what I usually write with this time. The goal with this story (and a potential continuation) would be to spend most parts of the chapter "alongside" one specific character (in this case, Tayuya took the lion's share of the time). When things are focused on one character, the narration doesn't focus on anything that they don't notice. Most of the time I go for a third-person omniscient point of view, so this is a little new and kind of challenging; it does have the side effect of helping to keep the narrative focused, though, since I can't talk about things that the main viewpoint character of the chapter wouldn't know about (such as Naruto's conversation with Mizuki or Naruto running into Hiruzen while stealing the Scroll of Seals).

In FJP, Tayuya replaces Sakura, who still exists in this continuity but whose location I currently won't share. This alone will change the dynamics of Team 7 a bit, mostly because Tayuya isn't the type to moon over anyone, but there are some other things I have planned for a potential continuation that will hopefully make things feel kind of unique. Her (made-up for this story) last name, Otogawa, is written with the characters for "sound" and "river", which I felt was appropriate considering her skill with a flute, while her parents' names (also made up for this story) come from a Kamen Rider series where music was an important part of the narrative. Similarly, the titles of the songs that Tayuya plays in this chapter are actual real-world songs, though "ALIVE" in particular has special meaning to the Naruto franchise as a whole.

Jutsu naming convention in a future continuation would be pretty straightforward: most of the time I'd use the English translations from either the anime or the VIZ manga; original jutsu would have a segment at the end of the chapter that provides the English translation and the Japanese one that I based the English translation on.

After I post the next chapter of Stand and Vampire (which I'm still working on, promise, it's just taking a little while to iron some things out), I'll be running another poll. Since Azure is on hiatus for the time being, I'm thinking about running another series in tandem with Stand and Vampire instead. This story and Substitute School: Second Semester are the two candidates for that position, but I want to wait until I can inform people who exclusively follow Stand and Vampire of the poll, and I don't like to post empty chapters that say "hey, vote for this thing that's totally unrelated to what you're waiting for!" on any currently-running stories. If you want to share your opinion before the poll opens, feel free to send me a PM or briefly mention it in a review.

As a last note, I beg all people writing Naruto fanfiction to stop treating the word "teme" like an honorific (-chan, -san, -kun, and so on). It's just a really rude way of saying "you" in Japanese. (In other words, it's not "Sasuke-teme", but "Sasuke, temee...", which is basically just saying "Sasuke, you [jerk, asshole, bastard, prick, whatever insulting thing you'd like to think of]...").

I hope you all enjoyed this first chapter. See you soon with Stand and Vampire.

~ZS