"Bwahahahahahahaha!"
Naruto could not contain his mirth as he speed away from the Hokage's Tower. Who knew that Jiji was such a perv? Well, he certainly did now and that had added tons of new pranks he can pull on the old man. He continued to snicker as he crossed the threshold of the Village proper and began to enter the forest surrounding the village.
Today was certainly interesting for the blond. It was a crazy roller coaster of emotion and action, and most of it was rather...well, rather suckish. But still, he wouldn't let it bring him down! The Future Hokage was not going to let some bad day ruin his mood!
Well, that was after Mizuki-sensei revealed the extra credit he could do. Today was the Genin exam for the young ninja-to-be, and to be blunt, he bombed. Of course, it wasn't his fault! Who needed all that text stuff when you were a Ninja? He failed to see how important knowing about history or knowing all about the past Hokages (All he needed to know that all of them were Badass, except perhaps for Hokage-Jiji, who was a closet pervert, and he was going to be better then them all, Datteboyo!) when he was gonna fight other ninja? It wasn't like knowing the stuff was gonna make him better! What was he gonna do, bore the other ninja to death with history?
And who needed the Bushin no Jutsu? It was a stupid Jutsu anyway! It wasn't like they were real clones, just some stupid illusion! After all, he broke into the Hokage's tower, beat the Hokage, stole the scroll, and escaped without anyone seeing him! And he couldn't even make one!
"Hahahaha, I'm the best Ninja ever!" Naruto yelled grinning, hopping from branch to branch. He wasn't worried about anyone hearing him. He was sure that Jiji was still out cold, and it be a while before he had to worry about ninja being after him. Still moving, he reached to his back, making sure that the scroll he stolen was still attached firmly to him. It would be bad if he lost the damn thing before he could give it to Mizuki-Sensei! He needed to pass so he could become Hokage!
It was a few minutes later when he arrived at the clearing that Mizuki-Sensei told him to met him at. He looked around, and besides the small hut, did not see anything. He frowned, before shrugging. Oh well, It seemed like Sensei was late. Naruto could wait. He removed the scroll from his back before placing it on the ground in front of him. He then sat down, crossing his legs as he did so. Now all he had to do was wait for Mizuki-Sensei!
…
Naruto began tapping his finger on his leg, humming a little bit.
…
He sighed stretching his back, his arms straight up. He brought them down and began to slap his thighs like a drum.
…
quickly getting bored of that, Naruto's eye began to twitch.
…
"GAAAAAAHHHHHHH! WHERE IS MIZUKI-SENSEI!" Naruto screamed, quickly standing up in anger. He began pacing back and forth in front of the scroll, pranks ideas and obscenities quickly spewing from his mouth.
"And I will dump a bucket of orange paint on him and glue feathers to his head! And! I'll..." Naruto suddenly froze, his eyes wide. Slowly he turned to look at the scroll that was laying on the ground. Inch by inch, his mouth grew into a grin. His eyes sparkled with mischief, and with an evil chuckle, nearly launched himself at the scroll.
"I bet this scroll is full of awesome Jutsu! No way would they hide the scroll if it was full of boring crap!" he declared. He quickly opened the scroll, and his grin widened.
"Awesome! It is full of Jutsu!" he yelled in triumph. He settled himself down, getting as comfortable as he can on the ground, before reading the first Jutsu.
"...GAAAAAHHHHH! IT'S ANOTHER CLONE JUTSU!?" He yelled out in anguish. He threw his hands up to emphasize his frustration with finding another clone Jutsu. However, doing so he knocked the scroll that was laying on the ground and it quickly began to unfurl. Naruto sat there gobsmacked as the scroll quickly gained speed, rolling straight out of the clearing and into the forest.
Naruto watched it go, his eyes wide. His mouth had opened in disbelief and his arms had froze halfway between his body and head. The sound of unfurling paper continued for a few seconds before it was drowned out by the sounds of the forest. He stared at the paper that was left by the scroll.
"..."
"..."
Naruto jumped up with a yelp."CRAP! JIJI WILL KILL ME IF I RUIN THE SCROLL!" he screamed in fear of the Hokage's retribution. Naruto quickly began running after it, screaming as he left the clearing in chase.
Naruto quickly caught sight of the still unfurling scroll, and he was about to sigh in relief when he caught sight of what was ahead. He quickly muffled his scream with his hand. The ground quickly turned steeply downwards and at the very bottom was a small creek. As in running water. Something that paper and ink did not mix well with.
Jiji's face, scrunched and red with anger, entered his thoughts and with a cry of "COME BACK SCROLL!", began to run even faster after the wayward paper.
The scroll, being inanimate, did not listen. And Naruto watched with dread as the scroll quickly approached the rushing water. As the scroll was ten feet from the bank, Naruto stopped chasing, and turned his head from the scene. He closed his eyes, and thought a silent prayer for mercy as he waited for the splash that was surely about to come.
When nothing happen a moment later, Naruto opened an eye and glanced towards the bank. He quickly opened his other eye and turned his head toward it. He took his time approaching, his mouth slowly opening with each step.
He stood on the bank looking down, where the scroll had ended. It seemed it had ran out of paper. The wood that was used to wrap the scroll was easily seen. Naruto looked to the creek, no more then three feet from the scroll and back.
"...he." he began. "...He..hehe...hehehehehe" Naruto began to smile all the while slowly laughing.
"hehehehehe-hahhahahahahaha~" Naruto's laughter quickly reached it's peak and Naruto fell to the ground, feeling almost delirious with relief.
Unfortunately, Naruto had landed with his hands first, which proceeded to meet with a particularly sharp rock that was halfway buried into the ground.
"HA-..." He froze mid laugh, as the pain slowly registered. "...YEEEEEEEEAAGGG!" He screamed, standing back up. He quickly waved his hand around, blood flying from the wound.
Most of it didn't go very far, mostly landing on his jumpsuit and the ground beneath him. However, one drop of blood flew a few inches before arcing down, landing on the scroll.
It had landed almost perfectly in the middle of a circle made almost entirely of words. The age of the ink was evident, being almost brown from the iron oxide within the ink. The blood slowly spread out as far as it was able. Slowly the blood began to disappear, being absorbed by the scroll. The ink seemed to be revitalized, slowly gaining it's original black color until it looked if it was freshly written. The ink changed again and began to glow a soft red. The ink began to move, slowly shrinking towards the center.
Naruto didn't notice, too busy cursing the rock that had cut his hand. He glared at the offending object, before giving it a kick for good measure. The rock quickly rolled into the creek before disappearing from sight. With a muttered curse, Naruto turned to his wound. It seemed the rock had carved a good gash in his hand when he landed on it. He knew that it was pretty bad, and if he was anyone else, would probably require a doctor to take a look at it.
However, he watch as the wound slowly healed before his eyes. The edge of the wound slowly inched in on itself, releasing a miniscule amount of smoke as it made it's way to the center of the wound. Within a few minutes the wound was closed and a minute after that, it was gone completely, leaving smooth skin. He opened and closed his palm and wasn't surprised when the pain that was present just a few minutes before was also missing.
It was like it never happened, Naruto mused. He shrugged slightly before turning back towards the clearing. He couldn't see it from the bank due to the elevation and the trees (it seem the scroll had somehow managed to miss every damn tree between the clearing and the creek), but Naruto guessed it was at least a hundred yards from where he first started.
Realizing something, Naruto blinked. He followed the scroll with his eyes, starting from the top of the incline towards the bank. He let out an impressed whistle.
"Wow, the scroll is bursting with Jutsu! It's too bad I can't learn them all right now." he pouted, (not that he would ever admit that he did, ever.) but then quickly grinned. "That's all right! When I become Hokage, I will learn every damn Jutsu in this..." he trailed off. Even when he was talking, he continued to look at the scroll. However, instead of seeing paper and ink like the rest of the scroll, at the very end laid a small black bag, slightly smaller then the palm of his hand. Attached to it was a note, however the parchment was very frayed.
Naruto blinked once, before squatting over the small bag. "Where the hell did you come from?" He asked. Lifting the note from the bag, he began to read it.
'ere removing this cautel from it's hold,
gather cater-cousins and kin.
it cannot be us'd unless a sufficient source of L
thou wilt take he'd as
once us'd the future will bewray itself.
"What the hell! who writes like this?" Naruto exclaimed in disbelief. Sure, the note was missing a few words, but the whole damn thing didn't make any sense! Naruto snorted as he tossed the note away, before turning his attention on the bag itself.
"What the hell is in this thing anyway?"
he picked up the bag, studying it closely. Even the bag had signs of aging. The string that held the bag shut was frayed, barely being more then a few threads in some places. The bag, made out of leather, was dry to the touch and cracks had form where the leather had bent.
The strangest thing was definitely what was inside of it. Whatever it was, it almost felt like it was...vibrating? Naruto really didn't know how to describe it. He was about to pull the string open when he realized.
"AHHH!Mizuki-Sensei could be here any minute and the scroll is all spread out! Crap, I gotta reroll it!" He quickly pocketed the bag in his kunai pouch, which was empty luckily. He stepped behind the wooden center of the roll and picked it up. Going as fast as he could without causing damage to the scroll, he began the arduous task of rolling it up.
When he was finished, a whole twenty minutes later, Naruto began training in earnest. He had no idea when Mizuki-Sensei would show up, so he needed every minute he can to master the Jutsu!
The small black leather bag within his Kunai pouch laid forgotten, and because of the events that followed, Mizuki's betrayal, the near death of Iruka, and the revelation of his status as Jinchuriki, all thoughts of the small bag left his mind completely.
/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/
…
…
RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRI-
THACK
Naruto slowly brought his stretched arm back to him. He continued to lay on his bed, sleepily staring at the wall he awoke to. He continued to do so until his brain managed to restart. He sat up, letting out a yawn as he did so. He absentmindedly scratched his head.
Naruto then moved his legs off the bed, and with a little effort, stood up and made his way to the bathroom.
Conscious thought came back to him while brushing his teeth. He grinned, removing the brush from his mouth. He quickly spat into the sink and rinsed his mouth. After, he thrust his hand into the air.
"All right! Today's the day I get my Team!" He laughed happily. "First I'll get my Team, then I begin my journey to Hokage!" he cheered. With renewed effort, Naruto began preparing for the day. As he quickly stripped of his sleep clothes and stepped into the shower he let his mind wander to the events over the last couple days.
It was a pretty big shock to find out that the demon that attacked Konoha was stuck in your gut. It was both horrible and relieving to find out. Horrible because he had a literal monster in him. Relieving because now he know why the village hated him.
He rinsed the shampoo from his hair, before reaching for the soap.
It wasn't all bad though. According to Hokage-Jiji, he was a hero. It was because of him that Konoha was still standing and wasn't just a hole in the ground. And even though people hated him, he still had a few people that liked him, Kyubi and all.
He smiled, thinking of Iruka-Sensei and Hokage-Jiji. They both knew about the demon, and they both still accepted him. He was pretty sure that Teuchi-Jiji and Ayame-Nee San knew as well, but he didn't want to bring it up in case they didn't know. Just knowing that there people out there that care for him made him feel giddy. Hokage-Jiji even said that he had the potential to be a great Shinobi because of the demon!
He turned off the water in the shower and stepped out. He reached for the towel that was hanging and began drying off.
Thinking of Hokage-Jiji, his mind wandered to his newest rival and friend. He had at first thought Konohamaru was kind of a brat. He took advantage of his fame as the grandson of the Hokage, and was willing to cut corners to become Hokage (As if. No way you can become Hokage if you don't work your absolute hardest to become one.). However, Konohamaru was actually a pretty cool kid. He was willing to work at least. And he couldn't fault the kid for having a closet pervert for a teacher that spouted ridiculous things like shortcuts to becoming Hokage.
Naruto had already dressed himself, and with one last attachment of his Kunai pouch (It was empty right now, but he gotta look like a Ninja if he was gonna be one!), was ready to go.
After checking his plant, , he exited his apartment. He grinned and with a yell of "HERE I
COME, DATTEBOYO!" Naruto took off.
/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/
Hiruzen took a deep puff on his pipe. It had been a stressful few days for the aging Kage and he was doing everything short of alcohol to take the stress off of him. Mizuki's betryal, while not shocking, was very troubling. He didn't have any evidence, but he had a deep suspicion that Orochimaru was the one pulling the strings behind that incident. It seemed the kind of thing that he would do. Hiruzen knew Orochimaru, and he knew that Orochimaru would love to get his hand on the forbidden techniques within the scroll.
However, it was just as likely that Mizuki was working for no one but himself. The other villages and even some missing-nin would pay handsomely for such knowledge, if they didn't just kill Mizuki outright and take the scroll from his dead body. However, Hiruzen doubted that Mizuki was working by himself.
Mizuki did not have the capability to plan out such a scheme. At first, the plan was brilliant. They had cornered Naruto, who had just failed, and was desperate to pass to become the Shinobi of his dream. They could have gone after anyone who had failed the exam. There was plenty to choose from, and all of them with better marks than Naruto. Why go after the dead last of the class? Because they knew of his fondness for the boy, and they eagerly exploited it.
It had been a long standing issue to his Anbu within the tower to ignore the boy. Hiruzen knew Naruto so well that the idea of even indirectly harming the village was abhorrent to Naruto. So when he felt Naruto's presence within the tower, he had been merely curious.
What happen next was embarrassing. Naruto had managed to knock him out. Using a Henge. Of course, that henge was a very beautiful and very naked women, and forgive him for his old age as the sudden appearance of such a beauty had been more then he could take, and if word ever leaked out of the tower that he was knocked out by such a perverted technique and the fact that it wasn't even a genin who did it, he would never be able to live it down...
Anyway, Naruto managed to get away with the scroll and into the forest without being chased. It was at this point the plan started to lose it brilliance. Mizuki was not there waiting for Naruto. In fact, Mizuki didn't get there until Iruka did, nearly hours later.
Why? Why wait so long? Why not be there before Naruto even arrived? Mizuki had finished teaching at the academy that day and had no other responsibilities later. It would have been easy to get into the forest, claiming he was going to train or something along those lines, and be there when Naruto got there. After he dealt with Naruto, Mizuki could have had hours of a head start to the nearest border.
So why wasn't he there?
It wasn't so he could get Naruto in trouble. That would be stupid at best and downright suicidal at worst. Naruto would have been captured, and after a bit of interrogating would lead right back to Mizuki who told him about the scroll in the first place. It would have been all risk and no reward.
It left one option. Mizuki wanted the scroll. So again, why wasn't he there before Naruto?
Hirzuen could only speculate.
The most likely and most troubling was the plan came from someone else. Mizuki was told to use Naruto to steal the scroll, but Mizuki doubted Naruto could do it. He couldn't ignore whoever ordered him so he set the plan in motion, and the prepared himself to flee. After all, his cover was about about to be blown and he wasn't going to stick around. However once Hirzuen ordered the search for Naruto and the Scroll, Mizuki must of heard and realized he could grab the scroll before running. It was just unlucky for Mizuki that Iruka was there first and that Naruto and Iruka had such a strong bond.
This meant a few things. First, that there was another agent, perhaps multiple, all at higher levels within the village. While his affection for the boy was not exactly uncommon knowledge, it was still information that Mizuki had no means of knowing.
Second, whoever it was feeding Mizuki info was familiar with the tower, and by extension, the academy as well. There was no way a chunin such as Mizuki would know the location of the scroll within the tower, and since the tower was right next to the academy, it wasn't much of a stretch for the agent to know about the academy.
And third, Whoever Mizuki worked for had probably been given much intel on the young students that went there. It was always good to know about future enemies and if they worked their cards right, could sell the information to others.
Of course as of right now that was all speculation, and until TI was done, Hiruzen wouldn't know for sure.
Hiruzen let out a sigh, and took another drag on his pipe. More and more frequently it seemed, that Hiruzen felt he was too weary to be Hokage. It was a stressful jobs at the best of times and in moments where he had to deal with potential leaks and other unpleasant business... well... it almost didn't seem worth it.
A knock on his door removed him from his musings. He straighten himself, and schooled his face. It wouldn't do to worry any of the ninja underneath him with his worries, the Anbu within his room not withstanding.
"Come in." Hiruzen ordered. The door opened quickly and within the frame stood one of the tower's Ninja. Hiruzen always tried to remember the name of all the ninja within the tower. The ninja bowed.
"Hokage-sama." the ninja greeted.
A smie graced Hiruzen's lips.
"Ah, Hiro-kun. I trust everyone is ready?"
The Ninja, now Hiro, nodded with a slight smile on his pleased face.
"Yes, Hokage-sama. The Jounin are waiting in meeting room 4." Hiro bowed once again, the stepped out into the hall and closed the door. Hiruzen chuckled slightly, his spirits somewhat uplifted. It always amused him to see people pleased when Hiruzen remembered their name. It was a political lesson taught to him long ago by his sensei, that people tend to be more willing to do what you wanted if you remembered them.
As he gathered what he needed for the meeting, his mind turned to the meeting's focus. The Academy was ready to graduate more genin from it's ranks. It was time for Team assignments.
He pulled open the drawer that contain one of his most valuable and useful tools. Within it laid a small crystal orb. If anyone else saw it, they'd assume it was no different from what a fortune teller would use. However this orb was a key part to the way Hiruzen keep order within the village.
The orb allowed him to use the Tōmegane no Jutsu. Basically, Hirzuen would focus on a chakra signature and then matched it's pattern. It would then show what that person was currently doing. Of course it was much more complex and has a lot of limitations, but for what he did it was perfect.
One of the few guilty pleasures he truly indulged in was watching the academy students. Their struggles, their triumphs, their friendship and rivalries, and most of all their innocence, really revitalized the old Kage.
It reminded him the reason why he accepted the hat in the first place. His generation and the two generations after had seen much bloodshed in their lifetimes. The three shinobi world wars had taken their toll on them, leaving many of the shinobi and their family bitter, cynical, angry, or some combination of the three. For some they had been broken by the wars, and were trying to recover. Some remain broken, a former shadow of themselves.
He sincerely hoped that this group of ninja would never have to deal what their predacesors had to deal with.
Some might call it wishful thinking. Some might call it naïve (dangerously so). Either way, It was Hiruzen's wish that this generation remained innocent. Well, innocent as ninja who haven't seen war can be.
He had gathered everything he need from the office, and with a signal to the Anbu commander within the office, left.
It was time to show the Jounin their future squads.