A beginning redone-

Naruto dove behind the trunk of a large tree as shuriken rained down from the limbs overhead. Their aim...was his life apparently. The thirteen year old ninja academy failure flinched as he heard them bury themselves in the tree trunk at his back with a terrifying thud.

His heart hammering in his chest as his arms tightened around the sacred scroll in his arms. His thoughts both frightened and bitter. He reflected on what a fool he had been to trust Mizuki's word about what would happen if he stole the scared scroll from the Hokage's home.

"Come out, come out wherever you are-" Mizuki said in a sing song voice that was far too close for Naruto's comfort. Gnashing his teeth in frustration his blue eyes probed the darkness around him while attempting to remain as eerily still as he could so that he didn't accidentally give himself away.

"Oh come on Naruto... Don't you want to prove yourself and fight me? You could be the hero that you always wanted to be." Mizuki coaxed.

Naruto had to put a hand over his mouth to stifle the sound of an animalistic growl that threatened to bubble up and escape his lips. Which would have been bad if Mizuki had heard it since it would mean that the man would have found him.

It got quiet after that. Aside from the sound of the wind rustling the leaves in the tree's overhead. And after a few minutes, Naruto began to think that Mizuki had left. Though that didn't exactly make sense considering that he still had the sacred scroll in his grasp.

And Mizuki had already made it more than clear that he would kill him for it. So then why- He heard someone's startled yelp and felt icy slivers of dread creep up and wrap their fingers around his center. Right in the vicinity of his heart.

Oh no. He thought in a panic as the smell of freshly spilt blood reached his nose mere seconds before a body was dropped from the tree limbs above him.

The body hit the ground with a dull sound that made him flinch for a second before he chanced looking at it. There mere inches in front of him in an awkward tangle of limbs, lay Iruka-sensei.

His other, nicer academy teacher.

Dread morphed into all out panic as he noted the state that the man was in. Dislocated arm, a broken hand and leg, various slash and stab wounds. Mostly shallow and non life threatening but due to the sheer number of them- it looked as if Mizuki was attempting to torture Iruka by keeping him too injured and weak to fight any further.

If he suffered any more wounds... Iruka-sensei would die.

"Well Naruto. Are you going to come out of your hiding place and face me or are you going to let Iruka die?" Mizuki spoke from somewhere close by in the shadows.

Biting his bottom lip hard enough to taste blood, Naruto quickly weighed his options. Step out and face Mizuki- which would almost certainly lead to his death. Or let the man kill his sensei and do nothing.

Dying meant that he would never achieve his dream of being Hokage and being acknowledged by the village as something more than the riff raff they thought him to be.

Living while his sensei died right in front of him... Especially after the way he had begun to treat him a bit more kindly.

That wasn't the sort of thing that the boy could live with for the rest of his life. After all, he'd be proven to be unworthy of his dream if he let a fellow shinobi die without at least trying to help him.

And with that firmly in mind, Naruto took a moment to pull a small scroll from his weapon's pouch at his hip and sealed the sacred scroll into it to protect it from Mizuki and then placed it among the tree roots and carefully covered it with leaves and then took a deep breath and then stepped out into the open while simultaneously pulling a kunai with a paper bomb attached to it and moved a bit further past Iruka as the man slowly began to stir a bit and cracked open an eye just in time to see him pass.

He had no definite plan as far as dealing with Mizuki was concerned.

The kunai with the paper bomb attached was all he could think of to use to save Iruka. All he had to do was get Mizuki close enough and then...it'd be bye-bye baddie.

Of course that meant that he may loose his life as well. But he was hoping that any damage that he sustained would heal since he usually tended to heal very quickly anyways.

Either way, live or die, it would be on his terms. Protecting someone that mattered to him. And in the end- this was a fate that Naruto felt he would not regret.

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Inside of Naruto- the nine tailed fox watched it's jailer in morbid fascination as the boy managed to dodge a sneak attack from the enemy and began to counter. He knew the thoughts going through the boy's mind. He could hear them all so clearly.

The boy would likely die this night.

And if he did... The demon would die as well.

Thankfully, or unthankfully- however one wished to put it. The demon had no aspirations for a noble death. He would live. If not within the boy- then in another that could carry his power.

Accessing his ancient memory, the nine tailed demon fox found a forbidden jutsu that would call to him someone able to carry him. Thus keeping him alive long enough to pass from his current jailer to the next.

And not a damn moment too soon either since the second he activated the jutsu- Mizuki managed to get close enough to nearly cut the boy in half, spraying his blood across the forest floor as his insides spilled out and his scream of pain died down to a grim sounding laugh as an loud explosion rocked the forest.

Further separating Naruto's body and scattering some of his internal organs while incinerating Mizuki on the spot.