Just something I had on my computer. Might never update, unless people really want it continued.
Naruto was incredibly excited! He was this close to graduating! He had beaten the Hokage and gotten the scroll! Now he just had to learn a single jutsu from it and he would be golden. He had been devastated when he had failed for the third time, but now he had a second chance.
Naruto was discouraged when he saw that the first jutsu on the scroll was yet another clone technique, but he decided to glance through the rest of the scroll just in case there was an easier one. Most of the techniques were insanely complicated with long explanations but this one seemed easy!
All he had to do was grab a piece of bark and draw on it with his kunai. Admittedly, he didn't really understand the kanji it used and drawing a circle and a star with its points slightly outside the circle seemed a little weird for a jutsu, but hey, it was something he could do! Even if he didn't actually know what it did.
Naruto went back to the scroll and checked to see if there was anything else he should do. Making the only hand seal necessary, he began pumping chakra into his drawing.
Naruto began to feel the jutsu pull on his chakra reserves. It was working! "Ahhh!" he screamed when it began to pull even harder. A blue fire had appeared in the air above his bark. "Fire! Did I do something wrong? How did it light on fire? Ahhh!"
Naruto tried to drop the technique so he could try again but realized he was stuck. The technique had a hold on him and it wasn't letting go.
"Shit!" He began to sweat as the jutsu took more and more chakra from him. This was ridiculous! He had never even been able to put this much chakra in any technique! It had always released itself after a certain amount.
The dust around Naruto's feet swirled and jumped as he gained a corona of chakra. Naruto was glowing from the amount of chakra being pushed into the jutsu and it seemed determined to take even more!
Naruto screamed loud and long as the chakra pouring out of his body started to ache. It felt like someone was trying to turn him inside out! What didn't realize was that what he was feeling was extreme chakra exhaustion resulting from using a jutsu and expending too much chakra. He didn't recognize the feeling since he had never felt even normal chakra exhaustion.
Naruto suddenly found a reserve he didn't know he had when his chakra switched from blue to orange. Even pulling unconsciously on the Kyuubi was barely enough. It kept Naruto alive, but it was pulling directly on the seal and filling a damaged and depleted chakra network with the most acidic chakra known to man!
Naruto wasn't even aware of his screams anymore. His entire world was a kaleidoscope of pain as he felt like he was burning, tearing apart, and having broken glass shoved through his blood at the same time.
Then it happened. The jutsu finally had the chakra necessary and completed itself. With a flare of light that could be seen at the Hokage Tower, the technique finalized the hole it had been burning in reality and Naruto simply vanished.
xxx
Somewhere…or nowhere. Depends on your point of view.
Naruto popped into this place in a very dramatic flare of energies and the sound of rushing wind. Of course, the drama was marred a bit by the fact he passed out cold from agony before he even finished materializing, but it was still very different from the normal in this place.
HMMM. I BRING HIM HERE AND HE CAN'T EVEN STAY AWAKE. SOME PEOPLE…
I WONDER WHY HE DID THAT? REGARDLESS, HE DID CALL ON ME SO I GUESS HE'S FREE GAME. THIS- THIS COULD BE FUN!
I WONDER WHAT YOUR FUTURES HOLD.
…WOW. YOU ARE COMPLETELY SCREWED. I HAVEN'T SEEN ODDS THIS BAD IN A WHILE. I'M A LITTLE SHOCKED YOU'RE EVEN ALIVE TODAY.
WELL, I'M GONNA HAVE FUN. IT MIGHT SUCK TO BE YOU THOUGH.
YOU NOW PLAY A CHOAS GAME MORTAL. PLAY WELL.
xxx
Naruto woke up and wished he hadn't. His entire body burned with pain and he had a migraine from the flash. He struggled to his feet with many complaints from his aching body.
"What happened? Did I mess the jutsu up?" Sudden pain wracked his body and wrecked his train of thought. His balance, already precarious, was ruined by the spike of pain and his face reacquainted itself with the ground.
'Damn it,' he thought as he pushed himself up again, 'that hurt! I don't think I have the time to learn a jutsu before the end of the test! Am I really not going to be a ninja?'
Naruto felt a couple of tears leak as he thought of never fulfilling his dream. His thoughts kept spiraling into depression; I'll never be a ninja now! Hokage-jiji is going to be so disappointed! What am I going to do if I'm not a ninja? I don't know anything else.
Naruto never heard the person come behind him. He was so consumed with his thoughts; he never even felt the blade that killed him.
xxx
Jutsu Score
Taijutsu: 0
Genjutsu: 0
Ninjutsu: 0
Kenjutsu: 0
Fuinjutsu: 0
Jutsu Learned: 2
Jutsu Score: 20
Physical Statistics Score
Strength: 0
Speed: 0
Defense: 0
Endurance: 0
Health: 0
Physical Statistics Score: 0
Chakra Statistics Score
Chakra Reserves: 0
Chakra Control: 0
Chakra Regeneration: 0
Chakra Element: 0
Chakra Statistics Score: 0
Special Statistics Score
Intelligence Score: 0
Charisma Score: 0
Awareness Score: 0
Luck: 0
Special Statistics Score: 0
Score Subtotal: 20
Modifiers
Died in Tutorial (-1000)
Died a Civilian (-1000)
Died a Virgin (-2000)
Died Stupidly (-2000)
Died a Failure (-2500)
Oblivious (-500)
Fanboy (-1000)
Missions Failed 1 (-100)
Low Jutsu Score (-200)
No Physical Score (-2000)
No Chakra Score (-2000)
No Special Score (-2000)
Just Plain Suck (-10000)
Precious People
Hokage (Level: Grandparent)
Iruka (Level: Teacher)
(+200)
Subtotal: -26100
Karma
Positive Karma
No Hate: 2000
Endurance: 2000
Good Deeds 53: 53
Negative Karma
Pranks 697: 697
Karma Subscore: 3356 (Positive)
Modifier: Innocent (1x)
Karma Score: 3356 (Positive)
Score Total: -22724
Rank: Lamb to the Slaughter
Comment: You SUCK! Pathetic! Try again!
Negative Score! Dobe Naruto Available!
'WTF?!' Naruto stared at the giant glowing screen in front of him. 'Is this judgment?' He had thought that the afterlife was going to be more impressive than an empty room with a giant screen.
'Wow, my scores really do suck.' Naruto hadn't thought that his life had been quite that pathetic, but having it put in giant glowing letters sort of drove the point home.
He stood looking at his scores for a little longer before losing patience. "Okay, I get it! I sucked! Now what?" Naruto looked around but nothing happened.
'Am I stuck here? This would be a horrible eternity!' Naruto began to feel panic. The absolute worst punishment he could think of was having nothing to do except stare at a reminder of his failures!
"Come on! Just tell me what's next! Please?" Naruto was getting jittery just at the thought of being stuck here forever. The board flashed once then changed.
The Board now had a chibi version of Naruto laying at rest: I'ts eyes were closed and it was holding a single daisy. This was obviously a way of showing that he was dead. Beneath were three words.
Retry? Yes/No
"Retry? What the hell? I die and this is what I get? It feels like a rip off!" Naruto thought about it for a second. 'Then again, maybe I should be glad I'm getting reincarnated at all with my score!'
"Fine, yes I want to be reincarnated." With that the board flashed on Yes for a second before going blank. Just as Naruto was getting nervous, an opening appeared in the screen with an arrow pointing down at it.
"Can't even get decent service in the afterlife," Naruto grumbled as he walked toward the opening.
In the room beyond the screen large objects were lined up in rows. Naruto had no idea what they were because they were wrapped in massive black shrouds with chains wrapped around them and securely padlocked. 'Wow, somebody doesn't want those seen. I wonder if I can sneak a peek at it.' He considered the shrouds for a second before shrugging and giving into the temptation.
CRACK! Naruto felt like he was floating for a second, right up until his impromptu flight ended with the wall.
Naruto laid spread eagle on the floor below the wall he had just become so intimately familiar with. "Right," he wheezed, "don't touch the chained stuff. Got it."
After a couple more minutes to get the world to stop spinning, Naruto pulled himself to his feet. He had to figure out where to go, preferably without touching any of the booby-trapped things.
Naruto looked around, but couldn't see anything thanks to the chained things in front of him. Shrugging he decided to walk until he found something interesting. As he walked, he realized that whatever was beneath the cloth had to be mildly human-shaped since some of them had bumps that looked like limbs under the cloth.
While it was mildly interesting to try to guess what could be under the chains and cloth, Naruto was getting really bored. Unfortunately, boredom translated to curiosity-inspired stupidity for him, so he decided to try an experiment. He knew that touching the cloth was bad, but could it be cut from a distance?
Naruto being Naruto, he tested it in the most immediate and risky way possible. He grabbed a kunai, one of only three he had on him, and whipped it at the cloth.
The cloth barely rippled when the kunai hit it. In a distinctly unnatural fashion the kunai sank into the cloth like it would in water until it was completely gone from view. Naruto stared at the spot where his kunai had vanished for a minute.
'Huh. Well, that was different anyway. That was a good kunai though.' With that thought Naruto turned to start his exploration again.
CRACK-BOOM
The moment Naruto lost sight of the object; it spit the kunai back at him. The good news was that it came back hilt first. The bad news was that it came back faster than it had been thrown. And charged with Raiton chakra.
WHAM
Naruto fought the floor with his head. It was a closer contest than one would expect but in the end the floor won.
"Ow." Naruto would have said more but he was preoccupied with feeling pain. Eventually he rolled over, more to get his abused nose off the ground than out of an actual desire to move. The ceiling seemed to swim with lights above him, so he decided to wait for the lights to go away before moving.
Naruto eventually realized that one of the light sources was either very persistent or real. Either way, it was something different so he decided to follow it. His headache was almost gone, so he didn't even think about the fact that everything else in the room that had been different had hurt him badly.
Naruto followed the light, but quickly realized it was much further away than he had first assumed. He had thought it would be a minute or so away, but had walked for at least ten and was just over half-way there.
Naruto finally arrived at the light, only to see that it was shining on a statue of some kind. It was a triumph of artistry: massive, detailed beyond belief, and painted so realistically you would almost expect it to start walking. The weird thing was that it looked like him. While he couldn't actually see all of the face thanks to the statue's size and how close together the statues were, the awesome orange jumpsuit was fairly distinctive.
"Okay, that's… creepy." Naruto was a little freaked out that someone had taken the time to make something quite this detailed about him. Still, it was a little cool that someone recognized his sheer awesomeness.
The statue was interesting, but it didn't really tell him what to do next! Naruto finally got fed up with the whole mess and kicked the statue as hard as he could. Any therapeutic benefit was lost with the pain in his foot. Naruto jumped and cursed for a second before noticing that an odd square of light was floating in front of his statue.
The light seemed almost solid like a piece of paper, but when he tried to poke it his hand just went through.
Naruto was more than a little freaked out by the impossible light, but it was still better than the endless chained things. There was even writing on it, though he couldn't figure out what the square actually was.
Character: Naruto Uzumaki
Unlocked Avatar
Available Avatar
Bunshin Tree
Standard Naruto
With generally lower than average base stats, this Avatar has a nasty trick: Kage Bunshin. Skillful use of this technique can turn the tide of any battle.
Use Avatar? Yes/No
Naruto stared at the words. They didn't seem to make any sense! What the he… huh. Now that he thought about it, maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to even think about that particular expression.
"I wonder what 'Unlocked Avatar' means?" Naruto dove behind the nearest figure as the square in front of him flashed. He might not have been brilliant, but every other sudden change in this place had resulted in pain so he wasn't taking any chances.
When Naruto peeked back around the chains, he didn't see anything obviously different. He cautiously walked over to the square, only relaxing when he was in front of it with nothing trying to take his head off. The square now had new writing on it.
View Unlocked Avatars? Yes/No
'Eh, might as well, it can't hurt too much right?' With that (foolishly) optimistic thought Naruto braced himself then said yes.
The entire world suddenly twisted and warped around him! He caught flashes of the room changing itself with impossible shapes and unearthly geometry! Suddenly the world snapped back into focus around him with sudden stillness. The sudden changes were too much for him and he passed out from sheer vertigo.
Naruto woke up to a pounding in his head and feeling sick to his stomach. He didn't really know what had happened, but he knew he didn't want to do it again.
He got up and looked around at a changed room. In front of him were two statues that were fully painted with the lights on them. Behind them were more statues that were made with the same care and precision but were in gray stone instead of painted. If he looked hard he could see the chained figures far behind them.
The statue on Naruto's right was the one he had already seen, Standard Kage Bunshin. He was finally getting his first real look at it. It really looked just like him, jumpsuit, grin and all.
The statue on Naruto's left was a little different. It had the same orange jumpsuit, but it just didn't seem right. Its expression was the same, but its eyes were a dull blue instead of the bright blue of the original. Where the first statue was standing up straight, this one was slouching. The original was a little messy, but this one's jumpsuit was obviously ill kempt with rips, tears, and wrinkles everywhere.
Naruto fingered his kunai, wondering exactly what it would take to destroy this statue. He had actually half-drawn his weapons when he came to his senses. 'What am I DOING? I know not to attack stuff around here! Get a grip!' Shaking off the thoughts of destruction and mayhem that had been creeping into his mind, he decided to investigate this statue.
Naruto walked up to the statue, but nothing happened. No square, no words, there weren't even any attacks! Naruto stopped and thought for a second. The last time he had made the square appear he had kicked the statue. Maybe it had something to do with that?
Acting on his impulse, Naruto lightly kicked the base of the statue. There was a flash and the square appeared again. "Yeah!" Naruto cheered. Finally he was figuring this stupid place out!
Naruto calmed down after a second of dancing and started reading the square's information.
Character: Naruto Uzumaki
Unlocked Avatar
Available Avatar
Nerf Tree
Dobe Naruto
Requirements: Negative score
With its incredibly low base stats, this Avatar hits like a pillow and defends like it's made of toilet paper. It has the health of a mayfly and just about the same expected lifespan. Its worst stat though is its intelligence. If it were any stupider, it would be in a coma! This Avatar's sheer stupidity makes any around it wish to kill it. All of this has one upside: just surviving the tutorial guarantees a decent score. Only recommended for experienced players.
Use Avatar? Yes/No
"Wow. That really sucks." Naruto deadpanned. "No, I don't want to use the Avatar." As soon as Naruto said no, the square disappeared with another flash of light. "Okay, I think I've got this!"
Naruto decided to just go with things. He walked over to the right-hand statue and kicked it. When the square popped up, he read it through to make sure nothing had changed. Then he took a deep breath, gathered his courage, and spoke the word. "Yes."
For a second it didn't seem that anything had happened. Then the eyes of the statue lit up, before bathing the entire room with white light! The light flickered with a strobe effect between blinding white and total darkness.
"AHH!" Naruto screamed as he threw his hands up in front of his eyes. "What the crap?!" The flashes were so bright that he could still see the changes in the lighting even with his hands in front of his eyes, and his eyes closed.
Suddenly the flashes stopped. Naruto cautiously pulled his hands away from his eyes and gasped at what he saw. Nothing. Everything was pitch black, without so much as a speck of light to be seen. 'Have I gone blind? Crap!'
Naruto freaked out until he saw a light appear in front of him. He watched it until the light resolved itself into the chibi form he had seen on the screen before. The chibi was struck by an intense beam of white light that lifted it up off the ground. When it was high enough, his chibi's eyes snapped open. The light settled it gently to its feet where the chibi looked its body over for a second before jumping up and down in obvious excitement.
Naruto stared at the spectacle with an open mouth. 'WTF? This place just seems to get more insane! What's this for anyway?'
Naruto's ruminations were cut off when he felt a tug on his navel. He flailed in panic at the sensation, getting even more desperate as the sensation became more insistent. His resistance eventually caused the force to stop trying to pull him. He relaxed and sighed in relief at seemingly dodging a bullet. A whistling noise he hadn't even noticed got much louder for a second before cutting off. He heard a whoosh of air before experiencing a feeling not dissimilar to being body checked by a mountain! For the last time that day he felt the whole world go dark.
xxx
Naruto was incredibly excited! He was this close to graduating! He had beaten the Hokage and gotten the scroll! Now all he had to do was find a nice quiet place to learn a new jutsu and- Wait, hadn't he done this already?
Naruto stumbled in his run through the forest as his memories caught up with him. He had preformed a jutsu, passed out, woken up, gotten killed, gone to his judgment, gotten told his entire life sucked, and then… came back?
'Okay, this is… weird. I might as well take advantage of the second chance though.' Naruto was about to head out to the clearing where he had been training before when a thought broke through. 'Wait, that was where I was killed before. I don't want to end up dead again so I had better figure out something else.'
"What else can I use for training? The academy is too close, and my apartment's too obvious. One of the training grounds? Nah, they have all of those patrols by the ANBU. If I'm found I'll fail." Naruto was thinking as hard as he ever had but was drawing a blank. "Crap, there isn't anywhere in town to do this."
Naruto's frustrated expression faded when inspiration struck. "Not in town, but I'd bet the House would be good!"
The House was obviously enough, a house. What made it special was that it had been built quite a ways away from the rest of Konoha. The person who had originally built it had been a reclusive ninja with paranoia. Considering that Konoha was a ninja village, being called paranoid was quite an accomplishment! When he died of old age (which might say something for paranoia) he didn't have any children or heirs, so his house became government property. They decided to use it as a training ground for hostage rescue and fighting inside a building instead of tearing it down.
Naruto was familiar with the House because one of the punishments for his pranks was cleaning up after a team had had a training session in there assuming, of course, that the House was still structurally sound. The place had actually had to be partially or fully rebuilt several times over the years, mostly because of overenthusiastic use of explosive tags or Katon jutsu.
With all of this in mind, Naruto began to run toward the House. After a good fifteen minutes at a dead run, Naruto found the House. He dropped to the ground and unrolled the scroll a little bit. He saw the Kage Bunshin technique first and was about to go past it again when he noticed a pale golden glow around the name.
'Okay, obviously SOMETHING wants me to learn this technique. Come to think of it, I haven't found another one that I can actually understand what it does, so this might be my best bet. The last one hurt like a mother too!' Naruto shook off the shivers from the remembered pain. He took one more look at the scroll before resigning himself to a long night of Kage Bunshin practice.
xxx
Iruka ran through the forest with a heavy heart. No good teacher liked to see any student fail, but to have a student turn his back on what had been taught was far worse.
In some ways he blamed himself for the situation. He could probably have done more to try to help Naruto when he saw him struggling. He should have taken a more active interest in the boy sooner, instead of letting the rumors and prejudice color his thoughts. Now the cheerful boy that he had eaten ramen with was probably going to die, and there was nothing Iruka could do to stop it.
He hoped he could find Naruto first so he wouldn't be summarily executed, but even if he did, Naruto would probably be imprisoned for life or even executed. It didn't matter that he was a child, treason was deadly serious. It was even more serious when it involved forbidden techniques.
His ears perked as he heard odd noises just a little ways away. It could be one of the other searchers, but he didn't think there was supposed to be anyone else searching around here. Also, if any fully trained ninja was making that much noise on a mission, they deserved to be busted back to the academy for sheer incompetence!
He quickly recognized where he was when he saw the marks on the trees around him. The only place regularly used for training around here was the House. With that thought he burst into the clearing.
Naruto was lying on the ground when he heard Iruka arrive. He scrambled to his feet and said, "Wow, Iruka-sensei! I didn't think anyone would find me this quickly! I still managed to pass though!"
Iruka was about to lambaste his idiot student when Naruto's words registered. Pass? Pass what?
"Naruto, what are you talking about?"
"The special test that Mizuki-sensei told me about! He said that if I managed to get this scroll out of Hokage-jiji's office and learn a jutsu from it before anyone found me, I could be a genin!"
Iruka froze, remembering certain reports on why Mizuki had been taken out of the active ninja. The pieces of the puzzle came together for him just as he heard the distinctive buzz of a massive shuriken.
"Down Naruto!" Iruka screamed as he jumped on top of him. He barely managed to cover Naruto's body with his own before the shuriken found its target.
Naruto's eyes widened as he saw his teacher take a hit to his back from the shuriken. Before his mind could catch up with what had happened Mizuki revealed himself and said, "Damn, not quite a kill like I wanted. Oh well, time enough for that later."
Mizuki smirked as he heard Iruka groan in pain before turning to Naruto. "Give me the scroll Naruto."
"Don't give him the scroll!" Iruka yelled. "He's a traitor, just trying to use you to get the scroll! Get away!"
Mizuki sneered at the prey he had thought he had disabled, "Don't listen to him Naruto. I may be your only chance now. After all, you know that you're hated by everyone in town. Do you know why they hate you? Why even Iruka hates you?"
Mizuki smirked at the sight of Naruto's widening eyes and rapt attention. He was about to continue when Iruka interrupted, "No Mizuki! It's forbidden! Don't!" Iruka began to struggle to get to his feet.
"Ha! See Naruto?" Mizuki cried, pointing at Iruka's struggle. "Even now he doesn't want you to know! He would do anything to shut me up!"
Iruka tried even harder, but his legs still weren't working properly after the near impromptu back surgery from the giant shuriken. "NOOO!"
"You are the reason for his parents' deaths," Mizuki's smile became even crueler and his expression took a sadistic cast as he delivered the finishing blow, "Naruto, you are the Kyuubi!"
With that declaration, years of wondering crystallized into certainty in Naruto's mind. He flashed back through the half heard insults, the parents pulling their children away, and the sheer loneliness that he had felt. In the end it was just too much. He had to get away. He ran into the forest, hoping to find a place to hide and process the revelation.
Mizuki smirked as he saw the jinchuriki run into the forest. "Now all I have to do is hunt him down and get that scroll back. Don't worry though," he leered at Iruka, "I'll be back for you later. No witnesses, you know?"
Iruka watched Mizuki run off into the forest to play search and destroy with his least favorite ex-student. 'Just survive Naruto! Just a couple of minutes and I can be there to help!'
xxx
Naruto ran along the trees as quickly as he could with the forbidden scroll tied to his back. Panic and confusion were writ large across his face. Iruka caught up to him and shouted, "Give me the scroll Naruto! I'll draw Mizuki off!"
Naruto glanced over at where Iruka bounded beside him. He nodded wordlessly and jumped closer. Iruka got ready to catch the scroll, but was completely unprepared when Naruto body-slammed him right out of the branches!
"How-" Iruka gasped in pain on the ground where he had skidded to a stop, "How did you know I wasn't Iruka?" With that the characteristic poof and cloud of smoke rose as Mizuki's Henge dispersed.
'Naruto' opened his eyes from the tree he was leaning against. "Because," the smoke rose from his Henge, "I'm Iruka!"
Mizuki's eyes were slitted from fury at once again being thwarted. "Damn it Iruka! You're always in my way! Why do you even defend that demon anyway?"
Iruka glared at Mizuki in response, "Naruto isn't a demon!"
"Ha!" Mizuki scoffed. "Did you see those eyes? Those were the eyes of an animal! Even I could see that he would do anything to survive! Those were the eyes of a rabid animal. And it's just a kindness to put a rabid animal down!"
"You're wrong!" Iruka growled at his childhood friend, "Naruto is a good kid! He's not the fox! I've seen him enough to know that! He is my precious student and I will defend him! Even if I have to die to do it."
Mizuki shook his head in false sorrow, "I can see you're not going to be reasonable about this. You know I was planning on letting you live, well, a little longer anyway, but if you're only going to be in my way, it's time for you to die!" With that he began to spin the giant shuriken above his head. "Goodbye Iruka!"
Iruka closed his eyes and made peace with the fact that he was going to die. Surprisingly, the next sound wasn't the buzzing of the shuriken coming to take his life, but a crash and a curse. He opened his eyes to see an orange jumpsuit in front of him.
Naruto stood in front of his teacher, finally secure in the knowledge that he meant something to Iruka. "Mizuki, if you even think about laying a finger on Iruka-sensei, I'll kill you!"
Mizuki was a little surprised with the killing intent Naruto was bleeding but put it down to the demon. "Yeah right!" he barked. "This is perfect! Iruka's down and I can slaughter you with one hand! I'll finish this and be on my way!"
"Not gonna happen!" Naruto brought his hands together in a seal, "Get a taste of this! Kage Bunshin!"
Mizuki just smirked, thinking that there was no way an academy student could have enough chakra to use the technique. He paled though as he looked around and saw an ocean of orange around him.
Naruto smirked at the gob smacked expression on his former teacher's face. "I thought you said you'd slaughter me? If you're not going to come to me, I'll come get you!"
With that the beat down commenced on the traitorous teacher. Mizuki dispelled the first couple of clones, but fell before the sheer weight of numbers. 'That's not fair!' was his last, whining thought before unconsciousness took him.
Naruto had thoroughly enjoyed beating the stuffing out of one of his teachers, a recurring fantasy of his, but decided it was time to get back to business. "Heh," he laughed, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "guess I got a little carried away there huh?"
Iruka looked up at his student. Naruto had just done something completely impossible and barely seemed winded from it! It might have had something to do with the fox, but Naruto didn't seem possessed. He examined Naruto for a second longer before relaxing against the tree he was propped against. "Come here Naruto."
Naruto came with trepidation, not certain if he was about to be punished. "Bend down and close your eyes please."
Naruto gulped but obeyed. To his surprise, he didn't get smacked on the head or anything. Instead he felt a piece of cloth on his forehead. He looked at Iruka in utter shock as he felt the distinctive metal plate of a ninja headband.
"I think we can consider stopping a traitor to the Leaf and saving my life enough extra credit to allow you to graduate." Iruka smiled at the expressions crossing Naruto's face before continuing, "Congratulations Naruto! You're a ninja now!"
Naruto tried to speak, to say how happy he was, but found that for once he had no real words. Instead he just launched himself at Iruka for a bear hug.
"Oww!" Iruka yelled. "Watch the back!" Seeing Naruto wasn't really paying attention he just resigned himself to a little excitement induced pain. 'Naruto, one of these days you're going to be great. I can feel it,' Iruka thought as he started to get up to head back to the village.
xxx
In the village an old man smiled at his crystal ball. 'I knew you could do it Naruto. You might have this old hat yet. Besides,' the Hokage thought with a mental chuckle, 'watching your reaction to paperwork would make it worth it all.'
Okay, I'm looking for a Beta. If anybody knows a good one, with both a sense of humor and willing to keep me motivated, please send me a PM.
On my other story, I'm having a difficult time with the next chapter, but I hope to have it done by the end of the week.