"You fail!" Iruka exclaimed with an irritated tic of his eyebrow while looking at the pathetic excuse for a clone Naruto summoned. Naruto opened his mouth to shout profanities at the man, but Mizuki cut him off before he could start. "Now, Iruka, I think we should pass him. He did make a clone after all," Mizuki spoke while throwing a wink over his shoulder at Naruto. Naruto beamed with a hopeful look in his eyes, waiting for Iruka's response.
Iruka looked indecisive, unsure if he should pass his favorite student or not. He sighed, "I-I'm sorry, Naruto. I can't pass you with that pathetic excuse for a clone. Better luck next year," he picked up his clipboard, that held the names of the passing students, and walked out of the door. Mizuki sighed and gave a smile in Naruto's direction as he followed Iruka out of the door.
Naruto's face scrunched up and his eyes glossed over with tears he refused to shed. He angrily stomped towards the window and opened it. After jumping out of the window and into the Shinobi Academy's yard, he walked to the lone swing with his head down and his shoulders hunched inwards. Sitting in the swing, he solemnly watched the graduates' parents enter the yard and start to congratulate their children.
"Did you hear?" a woman spoke quietly.
"I know, he's the only one who didn't pass," the other lady paused and a cruel smirk twisted her lips, "Serves him right, that no good dem-"
"Shh! We're not supposed to talk about that!"
Naruto stopped listening and closed his eyes. I don't know why i let them get to me. I should be used to this by now, he thought. His fists clenched around the ropes of the swing, It just… hurts.
Of course, it hurts, brat. You're just a human, a deep, gravelly voice spoke from the darkest part of his mind. Naruto scowled but decided to ignore it.
He sighed and started to leave the yard when he heard his name being called from behind him. "Naruto!" Mizuki paused to briefly catch his breath, "I'm glad I caught you before you left. I know that what Iruka did upset you, but I think I know of another way for you to pass." Naruto brightened up, he knew that he would pass!
"It's a secret test, that only certain students are allowed to take. Here, follow me. I'll tell you all about it," Mizuki said, and Naruto nodded enthusiastically. Mizuki plastered a smirk on his face and led Naruto away, though he had a devious gleam in his eyes.
- Timeskip -
Naruto was running. He was on all fours, jumping from tree to tree with the Scroll of Seals on his back. I can't believe I almost got caught by the Old Man, he paused his thoughts and shook his head, a small smirk on his lips, Thank God for my Sexy Jutsu and the Old Man's perverseness. Naruto jumped down into a clearing that had an old worn down shed towards the back of it.
Sitting down, Naruto unrolled the scroll. After briefly skimming it, Naruto's eyes went back to the first jutsu. It was called The Shadow Clone Jutsu. "Gah! I suck at clones!" Naruto yelled out into the night. Sighing, Naruto looked at the hand seals for the jutsu, not bothering to read the warning or uses. Standing, Naruto practiced the hand seals for a brief moment before repeating them, this time with chakra, and called out "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Naruto looked around, fully expecting something pathetic, and found himself staring at three duplicates. Naruto grinned, "Yes! I did it 'ttebayo!" He actually couldn't believe it, he never succeeded with the clone jutsu before and that was meant for academy kids, this was a kinjutsu. He shrugged it off, and turned back to the scroll, intent on learning more jutsus.
Naruto scanned the scroll again, this time something caught his eyes and made his breath hitch. Fuinjutsu: Uzumaki Adamantine Chains. "Uzumaki?" Naruto asked out loud, confused because the Old Man had said that there was no other Uzumakis. Wait, maybe I'm the last one…, he thought solemnly. He sighed, shook his head and started to read the jutsu. This jutsu molds the user's chakra into chains… yada yada yada, can pierce through almost anything. The user must be proficient in fuinjutsu, Naruto read silently, slightly skimming the text. He frowned, he had no idea what fuinjutsu was.
He sensed a familiar chakra approaching, Iruka-sensei's. Quickly memorizing the hand seals, Naruto rolled up the scroll and stood, waiting for Iruka to show up. Around twenty seconds later, Iruka jumped into the clearing, an angered look on his face. "Naruto! What are you thinking?" he shouted, practically spitting in Naruto's face. Naruto was confused, didn't Iruka-sensei know about the test?
Silly child, there is no test! the persistent dark voice in the back of his head came back. A feeling of foreboding overcame Naruto. "Iruka-sensei, isn't this part of the makeup test that Mizuki told me about?" he asked. A look of understanding overpassed Iruka's face, before he tackled Naruto to the ground, kunai embedding themselves in Iruka's back.
Naruto had heard the whistle of the kunai, his heightened hearing wasn't just for show, but Iruka reacted before he could dodge. "Sensei? Ar-are you okay?" Naruto asked in a concerned murmur, realizing that Mizuki betrayed him, and the village. "I-I'm fine, Naruto," Iruka grunted out, the pain in his back white hot.
"Well, what do we have here?" a taunting voice asked from the trees, Naruto recognized it as Mizuki's voice. Anger filled Naruto, this bastard had hurt Iruka-sensei! He was ready to wriggle out from under Iruka when Iruka stood but immediately fell to his knees. "Naruto, do you want to know why everyone hates you?" Mizuki asked, a sick and twisted smirk on his face.
"Mizuki, don't! It's forbidden!" a panicked Iruka shouted, ignoring the pain that had started to course through his veins. Naruto couldn't help it, he has been dying to know the reason he was hated for so long and the fact that to speak of it was forbidden intrigued him. "What do you mean 'it's forbidden'? Why does everyone hate me?" he asked.
"Kukukuku, everyone hates you because eleven years ago on October 10th, the Kyuubi was sealed into a newborn child by the Yondaime. Naruto, everyone hates you because that baby was you! You are the Kyuubi!" Mizuki yelled the last part, his own hate obvious.
Naruto froze thoughts of the glares, neglect, and abuse he was subjected to all his life. They all hate me because… they think that I'm the Kyuubi? That's so… stupid! I'm not the Kyuubi!, he thought, angrily. He was too lost in his thoughts to notice the fuma shuriken being aimed towards him, but last minute he was tackled by Iruka again. "Naruto, if you're gonna be a ninja, you need to be more observant," Iruka chuckled out and a few splatters of blood landed on Naruto's face.
"Iruka-sensei, why do you keep saving me? Don't you think I'm the Kyuubi, too?" Naruto asked, confused by the care Iruka continues to show him. He was aware that the Kyuubi killed Iruka's parents and was confused because he knew that he held a grudge against it, he always had a tone of anger in his voice when he spoke of the Kyuubi in the academy.
"No, Naruto. I know you're not the Kyuubi. And I'm will always save you as long as I possibly can because you and I are the same. I grew up as an orphan too, and I know the pain you go through everyday. I used to play pranks for acknowledgment too, and I always goofed off. But I'm sorry for not being there for you earlier," Iruka spoke sincerely, truth dripping from his words.
Naruto teared up, he had always thought of Iruka as a brother, but to hear him say how much he cared about him too, it made him emotional. "Naruto," Iruka's voice brought him out of his thoughts, "I need you to take the scroll and run, okay?" Naruto nodded and grabbed the scroll. He looked over his shoulder, mouthed a quick 'Be careful' and started to run as fast as he could.
Stopping behind a tree after running for five minutes, Naruto sensed Iruka and Mizuki's chakra approaching rapidly. When they stopped near where he was hiding, Naruto listened in on their conversation.
"Iruka, Iruka, Iruka… why don't you join me? I'm telling you, Naruto will join me for the power that the scroll holds. Monsters are all power-hungry," Mizuki said, smirking.
Iruka sighed, "You're right, that's what a monster would do," Naruto felt like sobbing then, because that meant Iruka only said all those sweet and kind words so he wouldn't turn against him, "But, Naruto isn't a monster. He's my precious student, who I see like a little brother."
The air in Naruto's lungs rushed out in the form of a quiet sigh of relief. Iruka thinks of me as his little brother?, he thought, tears of joy clouding his vision when he saw Mizuki try to kill his true sensei. Remembering all the damage Iruka took, and with the way he was unsteady on his feet, Naruto could tell that Iruka wouldn't survive another blow. He could tell that Iruka knew that as well because all he did was close his eyes and await the pain of the weapon. Naruto didn't think, he just acted on pure instinct. He rushed out and grabbed the fuma shuriken that was heading for Iruka.
"Don't you dare lat another hand on my sensei, or I'll kill you!" Naruto spoke in a dark, and slightly demonic, voice. His blue eyes were slitted, but no one could really notice in the dark of the night. Mizuki gulped, audibly to Naruto's enhanced ears, and said "I'd like to see you try. I could kill you in one move."
Naruto shaped his hands into his new favorite hand seal, "Well, I throw it back at you, one thousand times worse!" he spoke in a loud voice that echoed around the small clearing that they were in, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Hundreds of Naruto's duplicates popped into existence, each one with a murderous look in their eyes. Mizuki gulped again and genuinely look afraid. Every Naruto in the area pounced, but only the real one noticed Iruka collapse onto his knees. "Sensei!" he shouted as he rushed through the hordes of himself. He kneeled down next to Iruka, steadying him by holding onto his shoulders. "Na-Naruto, you pa-pass. I'm so pr-proud of you," Iruka's voice was unsteady and he couldn't stop the blood from flowing out of his mouth.
"Sensei, what's wrong? The wounds weren't that bad were they?" Naruto asked, confused. He could barely smell the blood, so it must have clotted already. Why was his sensei acting like he was going to die? No… don't tell me he was…, Naruto thought, solemnly. "Naruto, I've been poisoned," Iruka muttered out between clenched teeth. That confirmed his suspicions.
"I don't have long left, Naruto. I-I'm sor-sorry, I should ha-have been there for you more," Iruka pulled Naruto into a hug, "Please, for-forgive me."
Naruto hugged him as softly as he could, though he wanted to squeeze Iruka to show how much he cared for him, "You're forgiven, Sensei." That was the last thing Iruka heard as he died in Naruto's arms.
Naruto let out the tears he has been holding in all day, those rude ladies, failing the exam, finding out he was the container of the Kyuubi, and Iruka dying has built up so many negative emotions. Too many for him to bottle up. He saw a haze of red and that was all he could see for several minutes. When he finally came to, he was standing over Mizuki's dead body. It was charred and the head was separated from his body. Naruto dimly noticed that it was across the clearing and that in his hand were some white hairs.
He deserved it, he tried to tell himself but he still felt nauseous. He released a shaky breath, grabbed the Scroll of Seals, and started heading to the Old Man's office, memorizing the way to the clearing.
When he arrived, there was jounin, chunin, and Anbu in the office. They parted a path for him, taking in his bloodied clothes and hardened eyes. He kneeled in front of the Hokage, "I would like to report two casualties, Hokage-sama."
The Hokage lit his pipe and relaxed in his chair, happy that his surrogate grandson was okay but sad that he had witnessed death at such a young age, "Go ahead Naruto."
Remembering the lesson on mission briefings, Naruto spoke "Chunin Iruka Umino was killed by Chunin Mizuki Fujita. Chunin Mizuki Fujita was killed by civilian Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto ignored the shocked gasps and mutters of demon brat.
The Hokage sat up at the last part, he was aware that they both had died, but had assumed that they had died in a battle to the death. "Dismissed, everyone but Naruto," after they all had left he opened his arms and gave Naruto a soft look, "Come here, my boy."
Naruto jumped up and practically tacked the old Hokage. He wasn't sure how long he sat there in the Hokage's arms just crying and the Hokage murmuring words of comfort to him. Eventually, though the Hokage had given him a headband, declaring him officially a ninja. He headed home, to his lonely apartment, and pondered his relationship to the Kyuubi. He had already realized the voice he occasionally hears was the Kyuubi, but he decided against telling the Hokage that he was aware of it, so he had no real answers.
As he stared at his whisker marks in the mirror, he felt a pull at the base of his neck. It wasn't unusual, but this time he knew it was the Kyuubi. So instead of ignoring it, he followed it. He woke up the next morning with a desire to chase a rabbit and the vow to never become the demon that he held, locked within his mind.