Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto...
You've heard of them, the people that inspire, that lead, those who perform amazing acts even if they aren't amazing themselves? Their known as heroes, and then of course there are the villains, those who more often than not rap themselves in a cloak of evil deeds.
The difference between these two are as the difference between night and day, they are good and evil, and they are as the sworn enemies of one another, or so history says.
Though I think you will find that the villains are harder to find than you thought they would be as the only big difference between heroes and villains are their choices. It's really only that simple, they can pick whichever path they wish, and many times this will also depend on their personality.
The bravest heroes could have turned into the worst of villains with just a small tweak in their personality, think of your own hero, all of his actions, tweak his personality and he who saved hundreds could kill thousands. Choices affect everything, people are constantly affecting those around them with their own choices which in turn makes everyone connected in a way, and all our lives our overlapping each others because of the choices being made. But, our story isn't about experiments testing how different people react under different circumstances; it's about one choice, the choice of the school teacher in fact, and how that choice affected whole nations.
The sky was black and the only light was that of a hellish red from the fires all over, lightning flashed through the sky but no rain came, the ground shook and the surrounding forest was ablaze, the cause? The Kyuubi no Kitsune, it was like a image from the very pit of hell itself, the demon was in the shape of a fox with nine tails, except it was fifty stories tall, when it stomped its paw earth quakes erupted, when it waved one of its tails tsunami's came from nowhere, or so the story's said.
The demon wasn't that powerful just with a swish or a step, but it was powerful, ridiculously powerful even, and all its attention was focused on one thing, Konohagakure, a shinobi village and one of the greatest in the lands, but even this great village couldn't stand against this hell spawn.
The Kyuubi caused a massive amount of mayhem as it slowly advanced towards the village but the shinobi stood against it and fought desperately to cease its advance each with only one resolve; to fight it and hold it off till the Yondaime Hokage could arrive.
And finally, on the outskirts of the village just when the shinobi where at the end of their rope a giant toad known as Gamabunta appeared, and riding it was the Yondaime Hokage, cheers erupted from the throat of every shinobi still alive as they steeled their resolve and turned once more to their enemy, the Hokage went through a complex series of hind signs and at the end a bright light temporarily blinded all around, when they managed to blink away the spots enough to see the toad, the Hokage, and the Kyuubi where nowhere in sight, that day was October 10nth, and it was the day a legend died and one was born.
The Kyuubi was not actually killed, it simply couldn't be killed, so Yondaime sealed it into a newborn baby called Uzumaki Naruto, however since the village was leaderless the Sandaime Hokage took back up the mantle of leadership and his first move was to inform the village about the sealing.
The village didn't take it quite as well as he had hoped, rather they immediately howled for the child's death, The Sandaime turned them down sternly and invoked a rule that those who didn't know weren't allowed to know less told by the Hokage himself, this mostly referred to the younger generation, and he put the penalty of death if someone chose to disregard the rule.
So the years past and Naruto grew up hated and despised by all, when he turned 8 he was allowed to enter the Ninja Academy, his training went poorly till the Sandaime assigned a chuunin by the name of Umino Iruka to the school, Iruka was a decent ninja but more importantly he didn't blame Naruto for being the jailer of the demon as many others.
Iruka began to train Naruto privately and Naruto's kill increased by leaps and bounds, in fact when the genin exams came around Naruto was more than ready. This is where our story truly begins, with yet another choice.
In Konoha, near the walls actually, was a rather rundown apartment building, not many people lived there, but one of those that did lived in room 213, one of the few rooms with a balcony and on the top floor making it only accessible by a stairway that led straight to the door.
The room itself was rather messy, dirt covered the walls whose tan paint was peeling revealing many colors underneath, the floor was mostly scuffed up hardware with a rug in the living room, there was dirty clothing strewn across the floor and over several pieces of furniture. Instant ramen cups were piled three feet high in some places in the kitchen and the sink was filled with dirty dishes, there were a few plants in the house but most of them were dying.
There was no master bedroom but there was a bed in the living room with a nightstand covered in scrolls and newspapers and an alarm clock, on the bed itself was a blond haired kid wearing a very strange sleeping cap and tangled up in the blankets. The blond was Naruto and he was snoring peacefully, that is until the alarm clock made a rather rude noise that many had come to hate. 'BEEP BEEP BEEP'
Naruto turned over so he was facing the wall and started snoring again, the alarm clock apparently didn't appreciate the ignoring of its purpose so it tried again. 'BEEP BEEP BEEP' this time Naruto rolled onto his back and covered his head with his pillow, the alarm clock tried once more. 'BEEP BEEP BE-'
It existence was suddenly ended as a fist crashed down on it, Naruto sat up groggy and rather annoyed, he yawned and was rubbing some crap out of his eye when he saw the time that was frozen on the screen of his now dead clock. "It's eight already?"
He shrugged as he continued to rub his eyes when he froze as he remembered something. 'The exams start at 8:30…' Naruto leapt into action and was a blur in his apartment as he got dressed into his orange jumpsuit and blue goggles and grabbed two energy bars from his cupboard, it took him six minutes to accomplish this and he was out the door with a bar in his mouth and still pulling on his jacket.
He sprinted all the way to the academy and when he arrived he bolted into his classroom and practically collapsed onto his seat, when he finally got enough nerve to look up he noticed two things, the first was that everyone was staring at him but he pretty much ignored this as he was used to it, and the second was that he had made it with three minutes to go.
Naruto jumped into the air and cheered. "Yattah!" He then sat back in his chair looking extremely pleased with himself despite the many arched eyebrows in the room; everyone then went back to ignoring him and resumed talking.
Naruto barely managed to wait for Iruka to enter and start calling people into a side room to take the exam.
Naruto was one of the last and he was incredibly eager to finally complete the exam. Iruka looked a little upset as he addressed Naruto. "Naruto, almost all of your scores are high enough to become a genin," Naruto brightened up at that but his face fell as Iruka continued. "All you must do is successfully make two Bunshin."
Naruto frowned but nodded as he brought his hands into the ram sign. He began to concentrate his chakra and form it into shapes as he quickly made another sign before going back to ram while whispering the name of the jutsu. "Bunshin no Jutsu." There were two puffs of smoke and slowly the smoke dissipated revealing one perfectly normal clone but the other one looked a bit pale.
Naruto scratched the back of his head in embarrassment even though that was the best he had done with the jutsu, Mizuki, who was another teacher, looked to Iruka who also looked confused about what to do, Mizuki leaned over and whispered into Iruka's ear and Iruka nodded. "Good idea Mizuki. Naruto," Naruto perked up when his name was spoken. "Since this is an odd situation I shall take it up with the Hokage about whether you passed or not, he will have the last say in this. Okay?" Naruto grinned and nodded happily, he knew he had a fairly good chance of passing.
Naruto was sitting on a rooftop watching the sun going down as he awaited the final say on whether or not he would become a genin, he had a good feeling about it but still it made his stomach bubble up a bit as his excitement increased.
He didn't notice Mizuki till he sat next to him, he swiveled his head fast enough to pop one of the joints as he asked in a trembling voice. "Did I pass?"
Mizuki turned and grinned at Naruto. "No, but the Hokage has decided to give you a different test, if you complete this one than you become genin and you will be rated as genin of the year." Naruto leapt to his feet and was nearly back flipping around his sensei. "Whatcha' want me to do?" Mizuki's grin only got bigger.
Iruka was lying in bed unable to sleep, he was thinking about how excited Naruto was going to be when he told him tomorrow that the Hokage had decided to pass Naruto as he did make two clones though one was slightly paler than the other. 'Yep, Naruto probably going to be doing flips and dancing and all sorts of crazy things, in fact I bet that he wi-'
He was disturbed from his thoughts by someone banging on his door. 'Who could that be at this hour?' Iruka walked over to the door with a twitching hand but that disappeared when he opened it and saw Mizuki with a worried expression on his face.
"Mizuki?" Iruka asked being rather confused. "Naruto has stolen the Forbidden Jutsu Scroll!" Mizuki practically yelled as he was obviously in a hurry. Iruka nodded and his body went on auto pilot as he got dressed and went outside to begin looking for his student, one of his thoughts out of many was.
'Why the hell?'
'Well, that was easier than I thought it would be.'
Naruto thought as he started rolling the scroll back up, having learned the jutsu he needed. It was at that moment that a panting Iruka burst into the clearing, they were staring at each other for a few moments before Iruka pointed angrily at Naruto while yelling. "WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING STEALING THAT SCROLL?"
Naruto scratched the back of his as he grinned. "I completed the exam Iruka! Does that mean I get to become a genin now?"
Iruka stopped short and sputtered a bit before he managed to recover from the confusing question. "You already passed the exam, I told you I would talk about it to the Hokage, but why did you steal the scroll?"
Naruto cocked his head to the side as his face went from prideful to being confused. "Eh? I stole it because Mizuki-sensei told me about the Hokage's decision to let me try another exam."
Iruka's face turned from confused to understanding as what Naruto said ran through his mind. 'Mizuki, he's betrayed us?'
At that moment kunai came out of nowhere and pinned him to a nearby tree, Naruto froze as he stared at his teacher in shock as Iruka struggled to get free. At that moment an evil sounding chuckle came from the tree's catching both Iruka and Naruto's attention, and there in the trees Mizuki was sitting calmly with a large grin on his face, Iruka sent a glare at Mizuki but he had to ask the question no matter how cheesy it sounded. "Why? Why would you betray your friends and family like this?"
Mizuki chuckled slightly at this. "Ha, I only have one reason, power, I'm not getting any stronger here so I figured I could get some idiot to take the scroll and give it to me so I could learn all the jutsu and then sell the scroll allowing me to live like a prince for the rest of my life."
Iruka coughed up some blood before he went back to glaring. "Why Naruto?" Mizuki shrugged. "Well, I guess I figured I could kill the demon child before I left, oh that's right, he doesn't know yet."
Iruka blanched at that but before he could stop Mizuki he started coughing again, Naruto was looking worried about Iruka but also confused so he decided to ask. "Tell me what?"
Mizuki turned to him and looked straight into Naruto's eyes as he said. "The Yondaime never killed the Kyuubi, he could only seal it into a newborn," Naruto's face showed understanding as fear lit up his face, Mizuki chuckled at this. "That's right Naruto, YOU ARE THE KYUUBI!"
Naruto stumbled back but tripped and landed on his but still staring at Mizuki as tears started running down his face, Iruka finally stopped coughing and shouted at Naruto. "DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, NARUTO; YOU JUST HAVE THE KYUUBI IN YOU! YOU AREN'T A DEMON!"
Mizuki scowled darkly at Iruka before he got a very large shuriken off his back and started spinning it while laughing like a man possessed by his own demons he had created, Iruka started pulling out the kunai while preparing his own, after he had taken all of them out he took off at a full sprint while Mizuki flung his shuriken as hard as he could towards the immobile blond.
Naruto saw time go in slow motion as the shuriken came closer and closer, finally he closed his eyes accepting his fate but just moments later he heard the large clang of metal on metal, when he opened his eyes he saw Iruka standing in front of him holding two kunai which he had used in defending him, Iruka looked back and grinned at Naruto. "Don't worry."
He then turned to Mizuki with his resolve turned to steel while his face was set in stone, Mizuki glared at Iruka as he got out another shuriken that was bigger than his torso, Iruka snorted and charged at Mizuki both kunai at the ready while Mizuki jumped high in the air hoping to use gravity to his advantage. They met in a clash of steel and sparks as Iruka blocked the attack and pushed it to the side before trying to stab Mizuki in the chest but Mizuki just went to the side and spun in a full circle to swing at Iruka, this also failed when Iruka ducked and leg swept Mizuki before he back flipped away and landed in a ready position.
Mizuki swept his legs in a circle and used the momentum to fling himself up off the dirt and landed on his feet, they glared at each other before they once again clashed together performing many attacks and defending many.
However this time it was Mizuki to kick Iruka under the chin and send him flying, deciding not to let Iruka get back up he charged the down chuunin and spun his shuriken with a large grin on his face, he was right over Iruka when Iruka leapt up with the other shuriken that Mizuki had thrown and with a very clumsy swing he cut off Mizuki's left arm, Mizuki screamed in rage and pain as he shoved the shuriken into Iruka's chest before he kicked him in the face sending the poor chuunin flying into the underbrush.
Mizuki gripped his bloody stump as he turned to Naruto who was now crying openly as he looked to where Iruka had gone; Mizuki chuckled but this time it held no mirth. "Heh, Iruka's dead, you should be worried about yourself though."
Mizuki drew a kunai to drive his point home. "Cause now I'm gonna kill you."
Naruto only did one thing, he howled in rage as red chakra exploded from him, Mizuki froze in his steps as Naruto rose up and sent a glared laced with killer intent and chakra, he bared his teeth revealing that they were now turning into fangs while his small little scars now got three times as big and looked like they were fresh wounds caused by a wolf, his eyes were blood red to match the chakra around him and he said but one thing.
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"
He leapt at Mizuki who was now frozen in place, Naruto grabbed Mizuki's legs and pulled them apart with inhuman strength, however he was disappointed when instead of ripping the man in half it just pulled one of the legs of, Naruto growled in disappointment before he grabbed the rest of Mizuki's screaming body and began tearing it up like it was tissue paper, but Mizuki managed to ran his kunai into Naruto's head before he died.
Naruto howled in pain before he ripped out the kunai, he looked around as his wound started healing before he sprinted of in a random direction, not caring as his soul was racked with grief.
