A/N: Hey, I know I've got other stories that needed working on but this idea was bugging me so here it is.
Naruto was running across the forest floor as fast as his frustratingly short legs would carry him. The weight of the scroll on his back seemed to increase with every step. The words of his sensei's wouldn't stop running through his head.
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"You see Naruto; everyone has been sneaking around behind your back and keeping secrets from you."
"What secrets?" Mizuki grinned at Naruto's desperate shout.
"Don't Mizuki! It's forbidden!" Iruka shouted, though it appeared to cause him some pain.
"Naruto, you are The Nine Tailed Fox!" He yelled while spinning his freakishly large shuriken, "Now DIE!"
Naruto struggled to get away but was rooted to his spot. A loud thud was heard as the weapon met flesh. Naruto felt drops od wetness hit his cheeks, tears, but not his. Iruka had shielded Naruto with his own body.
"Naruto, I know how you feel." Said the injured man, "You're all alone and it hurts inside. I could have been there for you more but I wasn't. I'm, Naruto!" Iruka yelled as Naruto faded into the distance.
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Naruto came to rest at the base of a tree just outside of a clearing, Huffing and puffing as he regained his breath.
Maybe I got away. He thought hopefully, but that, admittedly naïve hope was quickly dashed when he heard a very loud and un-ninja like poof sound, quickly followed by another one. An uncharacteristically observant question popped into Naruto's head when he wasn't paying attention. If ninja's are all about shadows and silence, why do their techniques make so much damn noise?
"Damn kid, how did you know I wasn't Iruka?"
"Because I am."
"You know Iruka, he's just gonna poor his rage into the scroll to gain power. He's a monster after all, it's what they do."
"You're right, that is what monsters do."
Naruto's eyes widened visibly, if anyone had been looking that is. So Iruka-sensei does think im the Kyuubi!
""But Naruto…"
"Just shut up Iruka." Mizuki interrupted, "I don't care about your point of view. I was gonna kill you last, but you've just gone and pissed me off." The man yelled twirling his second shuriken.
Rage filled Naruto. His first instinct was to jump out and kick the man's ass, but he hesitated. Why should I help Iruka-sensei when he thinks of me as a monster? I'll just let them fight it out and take on the weakened survivor, and then I'll just go from there. He simply watched from his place in the shadows as Mizuki drove the shuriken into Iruka's chest. If the man wasn't dead yet, he would be soon.
"Gahahahahahaha! Where's that Big Head Jutsu you were so proud of developing now, Iruka? No overly wise comebacks? No lectures of respect for the fallen? Not so self-righteous with a hunk of metal in your chest huh? Gahahahahaha!" Mizuki screamed psychotically. Naruto simply stepped out of the forest into the clearing.
Mizuke turned around at the sound of soft footsteps. What he saw was the village pariah forming a cross sign with his hands. "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu" Naruto muttered before thousands of silent naruto's appeared in a large cloud of smoke and a loud pop.
"Restrain him." Naruto muttered. All the shadow clones obeyed, acting with the efficiency of one mind with many bodies, they attacked, disarmed, and restrained the Chuunin.
Walking up to Iruka's body, Naruto saw that the man was still breathing. Looking up, the dying man saw a dead eyed Naruto, and gave him a grin.
"Don't give up on the world Naruto. I know you're not a monster, I should have been there for you more and I'm sorry. I wish, I could get you one last bowl of ramen, just to see that impish grin of yours, just one last time." The man said as he milked the last of breath from his lungs as his organs began to shut down and his body continued dying. Naruto's eyes filled with tears. This is not what he had expected, Iruka thought he was the Kyuubi; he thought he was just a monster. But here he was dying with a smile at the thought of seeing his own smile.
"Iruka-sensei? No don't go! I didn't mean it, don't go sensei please!" Naruto cried hysterically, kneeling in front of the corpse of his friend and shaking it. "Please." Naruto's voice had been reduced to a hoarse whisper.
A loud and slightly manic laugh echoed through the forest. "You were watching the whole time weren't you?" asked the silver haired Chuunin. He laughed harder. "Oh this is good; the demon allows the only one who cares about him die without lifting a finger to help him. You are a monster!"
Something inside Naruto snapped and he was filled with a strange clarity. Grabbing ahold of the ring in the middle of the Shuriken, Naruto jerked it out of Iruka's chest. Without the weapon pinning him to the tree, Iruka fell to the floor, smile still gracing his face. Turning slowly to Mizuki, Naruto smiled a malicious smile. Somehow, his teeth didn't fit in his mouth quite the same way as before but that thought was pushed back to the recesses of his mind as his grin intensified. Somehow, the smells of the forest seemed clearer and he could definitely smell the pale faced ninja wetting his pants.
Naruto began spinning the Shuriken, much the same way Mizuki had been doing earlier, and he began to laugh. A chuckle at first but soon it had reached the heights of insanity Mizuki had been touching moments before he was scared shitless. Looking Mizuki straight in the eyes, Naruto said, "Don't worry you're tough, I'm sure you'll live long enough to repent, don't disappoint me now sensei."
"Those eyes." Mizuki murmured, his eyes never leaving Naruto's. "THOSE EYES!" He screamed before more screams filled the forest, echoes of laughter ringing whenever the screams let up for a moment.
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Several hours later, the Anbu ninja sent to retrieve Naruto and the scroll showed up. Drawn by the screams and the sudden lack of after they had reverberated through the village and surrounding woods for a couple hours. What they found, none could have foreseen. At first sight, it appeared as though someone had taken red paint and just splashed it everywhere. Then the clouds moved out from in front of the moon, and the true horror showed itself. Iruka, on the ground in a puddle of his own blood was lying still. The rest of the clearing was died a deep crimson, with fleshy chunks spread out everywhere. One of the hardened Anbu lost their dinner all over the trunk of a tree only to find that he had puke only a couple inches away from a forearm and hand, like the arm had been detached at the elbow ans tossed into the forest. And in the middle of the clearing, sitting there, nursing a Kanoha ninja headband, with a dead look in his eyes, three feet from the head of a terrified Mizuki, the only part of him even recognizable, was Naruto, with a small smile on his face.
"Come on out Anbu. I did your job for you, don't you think you should at least show yourselves?" Naruto called. His tone sounded dangerously unstable and just plain creepy with that smile on his face. Raising his head, the Anbu swore as red slitted eyes with little to no visible emotion held within them were revealed. They all dropped to the ground in a circle around him, clearly ready to kill him if he attacked.
"There's some good little Anbu, now, I'm tired and want to go back to Konoha." Naruto said airily. The squad captain nodded and one Anbu with a tiger mask walked forward and cautiously handcuffed the young blonde. Naruto put up no struggle, but wore a thoughtful pout.
"So who wants to carry the head?"
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Sarutobi sighed. He was truly getting too old for this. After the Mizuki incident, He had been forced to postpone the Genin team formations due to not having the teacher who was supposed to run it, not alive any longer. His personal investigation had led him to the discovery that the whole thievery had been a plot by Mizuki and he had tricked Naruto into doing it for him. Several could testify to seeing Naruto and Mizuki talking to each other the day it happened, the same day Naruto had failed.
Following a hunch, Sarutobi entered the Genin exam room and, strolling over the hidden seal that happened to be under the desk, Sarutobi pushed chakra into the seal and thought of Naruto's test. A temporary genjutsu was cast on Sarutobi as it replayed the recorded time specified. Sarutobi watched as Naruto formed the seal and preformed the jutsu flawlessly, but his image fuzzed for a moment before refocusing with him and a terribly sickly looking clone. Rewinding and playing again, the recording fuzzed again at the exact same moment, when Naruto released the molded chakra.
As I thought, Mizuki was sabotaging Naruto's education for who knows how long. Oh Naruto, why am I only finding this out now? Sarutobi had noticed that Mizuki was the only one who hadn't fuzzed, meaning that he was the source for the small pulse of chakra that disrupted Naruto's jutsu.
One thing had led to another and Sarutobi soon found himself with full knowledge that not only was Naruto sabotaged for years, but he was punished harshly with detentions and other school sanctified reprimanding's for the mistakes he made because of the sabotages.
That was nearly a month ago and Sarutobi had spent all that time finding a new teacher, seeing how all the old ones had either been fired or worse, put on D-rank missions for the rest of their careers. Right now, he was on his way to the Anbu cell that the council had ordered him put in to "protect the citizens". Sarutobi had allowed it, if anything, to protect Naruto from the citizens.
Opening the door to the small five foot by five foot cell that was shrouded in darkness, revealed nothing to Sarutobi, at first. After a moment, red slitted eyes opened, almost glowing in the dark.
"Yes, Lord Hokage?" asked Naruto in a velvety smooth voice.
"Naruto, would you come with me please?"
"Yes sir, Lord Hokage." replied Naruto in the same voice.
"Naruto, what's wrong with you? You seem different." Sarutobi said concerned. Naruto walked out of the cell in the same ripped, bloody clothes he had been found in, but he had bags under his eye and an easy, almost confident smile on his face. His goggles sat on his forehead, scratched and ruined.
"Not different, just enlightened. I've realized what I am."
"And what is that?" asked Sarutobi frightfully. Naruto chuckled darkly.
"Oh Old Man, didn't you know? I'm a Monster."
A/N: Now I was planning on making this a one shot but if you guys want, i can continue it, just let me know if you do want me to. While I usually write for myself, I like to know that others actually read my stuff.
-W.O.E.