Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Naruto sped through the forest, dark trees raced past him as he ran. In the daylight, these tall, proud trees would have been something grand and beautiful, but the dim glow of the moon twisted them into something menacing. It occurred to him, as he ran to wherever it was he was going, that he had no idea where he was, and couldn't recall how he got here. The endless parade of trees gave him nothing to work with, and so he came to the natural conclusion that he needed to climb up one to get his bearings. This was the plan his mind came up with, anyway, but as soon as he tried to put it into motion, he quickly found that the rest of him had other ideas. His body completely ignored his efforts to slow down or change course.
Puzzled, he gave another attempt at moving his body, this time with more force behind the effort, and again was met with a complete lack of response. It was bewildering, having his own body disobey him. It was as if someone had managed to mix the feeling of being bound by rope with that of being forced by gravity to jog down a steep hill. He made another frantic attempt to regain control of himself, and panic began to set in him when his body sped on as if he was no longer occupying it.
This must have been the work of an enemy ninja, Naruto quickly decided. Someone looking to take out the future Hokage had used a jutsu to make him come out here. Just ahead they stood waiting, with a kunai in hand and an evil gleam in their eye. Naruto threw himself into getting his legs to stop, or grabbing the trunk of a tree, or anything that could keep him from continuing on to what was surely his doom. It was no use, even his chakra was now out of his control. The steady crunch, crunch, crunch of leaves underfoot marked each step closer to a waiting death.
There was a sudden feeling of his leg catching against what was most likely a root, and as he stumbled he felt something bulky shift on his back. He couldn't turn his head to see what he was carrying, but as his body reach behind him to steady it, he was able to discern that it was very large and solid. What, exactly, was he carrying? The papery feel and rough shape of the thing reminded him of a scroll, but he'd never seen one as big as this thing felt. So maybe, Naruto reasoned, it was a special scroll that contained something top-secret and vital to Konoha. And that was why someone was forcing him to bring it out here!
Pride swelled briefly within him, but his continued trek through the dim forest quickly served to remind him that there wasn't anything he could do about it. With a new urgency, he tried again to take back control of his body. As before, there was no response. The fear that had been creeping up on him now gave way to outright panic. He was headed straight toward an enemy of the village, one powerful enough to steal his body from him, to give away important secrets, and there was nothing he could do to stop himself. Naruto strained with everything he had against his rouge limbs. He couldn't let this happen. He would not let himself be forced into betraying Konoha. He had to stop. Stop.
Stop.
And suddenly it seemed like his body listened. Naruto skidded to a halt, and bent over for a moment to catch his breath. However, even though he had finally stopped, the movements of his body were still not his own. Which could only mean he'd reached his destination. Had he been able to, Naruto would've been darting his head around to look for potential threats in the trees and getting ready for a fight. As it was though, all he could do was sit in his own head, and watch through unresponsive eyes as his body remained totally oblivious. Then, as if to spite him, his body pulled the scroll off his back and plopped down to the ground. He leaned back against a tree before, incredibly, his body began humming to itself.
This couldn't be real. It was like some sort of sick joke. He was now almost literally a sitting duck.
Yet just as he was bracing himself for the inevitable attack, he suddenly felt himself reaching for the scroll laying on the ground next to him. To Naruto's utter confusion, his body placed it in his lap and pulled it open.
"Hmm," he heard himself say as his eyes focused on the text. "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu..." he read aloud as his eyes passed over the words. He heard himself groan and his hand was brought up to rub the side of his face. "Man, why's it always gotta be clones?" The hand slid down his face, pulling at his cheek, and dropped heavily back to his side.
What was he supposed to make of this? His body was talking on it's own, with no input from him. Was this part of the jutsu's control, or had his body actually developed a mind of its own? Did it know that he was still in here with it?
"...catra use, dangerous, blah blah blah..." Naruto's body mumbled as it skimmed past a warning preceding the description of the jutsu. It was then, as whatever was controlling him began to read in earnest, that Naruto discovered that not being able to control the movements of his eyes was absolutely maddening. His gaze, focused straight ahead as it was during the trip, had kept him from truly noticing before. Here, though, as his eyes darted around the page, there was no avoiding it. He dearly wished to look up and see if someone was coming, but his eyes remained glued to the text. His body had decided they were going to read this scroll, and so that was what they were doing.
Though, now that he payed attention to the instructions in front of him, this jutsu didn't seem all that complicated. A diagram showed that it required only a single, if somewhat unusual, cross hand sign, and the written portion described it as nearly identical to the ordinary bunshin technique. The only difference seemed to be that extra effort and chakra were needed to make the clones solid.
"I could do this," Naruto's body apparently agreed with him. His head bobbed up and down in a quick nod. "Yeah, this is easy. I can do this," it repeated as if to reassure itself. His body rolled the scroll back up, laid it against the tree, and stood.
His hands brushed dirt on his pant legs, before being raised up toward the sky in a stretch. Despite the situation, Naruto couldn't help feeling anxious about whether or not he would be able to pull this off. It might not have actually been him, but he found himself hoping for a success regardless. His eyes closed, a deep breath was taken, and then they snapped back open as his lips pulled backed in what he assumed was a grin. His hands came together, the first two fingers from each hand brought together in a cross, and Naruto felt his chakra come alive within him.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" his voice rang out through the still trees. His chakra flared up, coursed through his body, and then at once pulsed outward.
All of a sudden there was the feeling of a large, heavy, lumpy mass falling on him, and the image of the forest abruptly faded to black. Naruto instinctively thrashed about in a blind fit of panic, his body now deciding to obey him, and the thing on top of him also started moving. As he pushed up against the weight it rolled off of him, and he heard the sound of bedsprings being compressed next to him. His eyes flew open and in one swift movement he was on his knees facing the intruder.
Naruto had, by this point, been ready for most anything. An enemy shinobi or even the Old Man complete with robes and hat laying there would not have been a surprise. What was not expected, though, was to see himself looking up at him with his own blue eyes. There was a momentary pause as the two Narutos simply stared at each other, one wide eyed with his jaw hanging slack, the other tilting his head slightly in mild confusion, and then the original leaped from the bed.
"Who the hell are you!?" Naruto pointed at his duplicate. His voice came out unusually squeaky. The other Naruto sat up in a much more casual manner and scratched the back of his head.
"I'm Naruto," the duplicate stated.
"Wh- You really think I'm gonna believe that?" the first Naruto's eyes narrowed. "I wanna know for real. Who are you, and what're you doing in my house?" he demanded.
"I just told you!" the clone said, indignant. "I'm Naruto, you moron!"
"That doesn't even make any sense! How could-" Naruto paused as mid-sentence as he regarded his clone, before his gaze hardened. He grabbed the duplicate by his collar and pulled him up so they were face to face. "You're the bastard that took over my body!"
"No I'm not!" the clone denied hotly. "I didn't have nothing to do with that!" he grabbed Naruto's hands and pulled them off him. "'Sides," he said, glancing around the room. "I think that was a dream."
"Eh?"
"I mean, you did just get out of bed," the duplicate pointed out.
It was true that most of his dreams ended with him waking up in bed. Still, that hadn't been anything like his other dreams. The sight of trees rushing past, the smell of the forest, even the burning in his legs from the run were all still perfectly clear in his head. In fact, he wasn't even sure that he'd actually woken up. He'd been fully conscious and aware while in the dream, and that consciousness had simply continued into the real world. Naruto shook his head, and decided to return to the more urgent concern of the mirror image of himself sitting on his bed.
"But then what about you?" he asked, skepticism clear on his face.
"What about me?"
"Even if you're telling the truth, I still don't know who you are, and don't give me that crap about being me neither," Naruto added as the other opened his mouth. "You're not me, I'm me," he pointed to his chest.
"Well yeah but..." the clone trailed off as a thought occurred to him. Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "You remember at the end of the dream, you did that jutsu, right?"
"Yeah the clone jutsu, so-" It clicked in Naruto's head. "You mean you're a clone?"
"I guess so," the clone answered, not completely sure himself.
"But, wait," Naruto's eyes squinted shut. "You just said that was a dream, right? Then how come I learned a real jutsu from it?"
"Uh..." the clone didn't have an answer for that. His eyes squeezed shut to match the original's and his brow furrowed in thought.
"Maybe," he said after a few seconds, his face brightening. "We just made it up in our sleep 'cause we're super amazing geniuses like that!"
"That makes sense," the original Naruto conceded. "But I dunno, it still seems kinda fishy."
"Well," the clone began, exasperated. "How 'bout this: try ending the jutsu. If I'm really a clone I'll disappear, right?"
"Right," Naruto agreed, before something occurred to him. "But if I end it and you are a clone, doesn't that mean you'll, like, die or something?"
"I..." the clone was caught off guard. "I dunno," he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "I mean, I'm just a clone, but I feel real, y'know? So maybe we-" the clone moved to stand up, but his foot was tangled in the sheets. He tumbled over the bed, smacked his head against the floor, and popped out of existence like a big balloon. The real Naruto leaped back, and was left gawking the dissipating puff of smoke in front of him.
Just a second later, a flash of memory went off in his mind. It began with the stinging feeling of cracking his head against the floor, and he clutched his skull at the phantom pain. Then as the new memory focused in his mind, he was left with the bizarre experience of having two recollections the conversation he'd just had. One where he was himself, talking to the clone, and another where he was the clone talking to himself. Confused and disoriented, he stood there, hand on his head, for nearly a full minute as he tried to digest the foreign memories.
Well, at least now he could say with some certainty that the other Naruto really had been a bunshin. He frowned. It hadn't been a very good bunshin, though. One hit on the head and the thing goes up in a cloud of smoke. He couldn't even remember the amount of times he'd been hit on the head, though by now he was sure it was in the triple digits, and he was still here. It just wasn't right for anything made by him to die that easily. Though, the uneasy thought returned, if it was a clone, could it truly die? It had said that it felt like a real person, it certainly acted like a real person, yet when the the jutsu had dispelled he had gained all of its memories. Surely that meant that it was just a part of him, right? It had been, after all, made of chakra, and in that respect was no different from an ordinary bunshin.
Yet this clone had been alive in a way the normal ones hadn't. He'd never been able to actually talk to his regular bunshin. Granted, that was mostly because they didn't do much besides lay on the ground twitching, but still. Naruto turned away from the bed. What could he do, then? Should he just try to bring it back? Naruto looked down at his hands. Like everything else in that dream, he could recall quite clearly how to perform the jutsu. With a bit of hesitancy, Naruto brought his hands together into the cross-shaped seal. He had no way of knowing if this jutsu would work, if the first clone was just a fluke, or if he'd be bringing back the same clone even if it did work. But those questions would never be answered if he didn't go through with this, and so with that in mind he began to focus his chakra.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" his cried out as his chakra flared out from within him.
It was very abrupt, one moment there was nothing in front of him, and the next there were once again two Narutos in the apartment. Hands still held in the the seal, he stared apprehensively at the clone as it gazed right back at him.
"So?" Naruto asked, lowering his hands. "Did it work?"
"I'm not sure," the clone answered slowly with a frown. "How do I know if it worked or not?"
"Are you the same Naruto as the last guy?"
"Um, well," the clone began slowly, his eyes squinted shut as he mulled the question over. "I'm Naruto," he stated finally.
"Yeah, but are you the same Naruto?" Naruto pressed.
"I'm Naruto," the clone repeated.
Naruto sighed and rubbed his hands on his face. So it didn't work. Or it did. Who knew? Certainly not either one of him.
"Okay, fine," he said bringing his hands back down. "You're here now, and you're not going anywhere, got that? No tripping over your feet like a dumbass this time."
The clone scowled at the insult. "Like I need you telling me what to do," he spat. "And don't call me a dumbass. I'm you, so if I'm a dumbass you're a dumbass, dumbass."
Naruto glared at his copy, who was more than happy to return the dirty look. Neither was willing to back down, so they stood squaring off for a long moment. Then, the clones eyes happened to shift over to the wall behind him. As soon as they did, its defiant expression suddenly gave way to one of dawning horror.
"What?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at the copy. It didn't say anything, but only raised its hand to point behind him. Following its finger, he saw that it was pointing at his calendar.
"Yeah so wha-" Naruto began before it hit him. The genin test! He spun to the clock and felt a thrill of terror go through him as he read the time. He had to be at the academy in less than twenty minutes!
"Crap crap crap," Naruto panicked as he dashed to his closet. He nearly ripped the door off its hinges as he yanked it open, and began to dig through the pile of clothes on the floor. He managed to find a shirt that didn't smell too funny, along with his only pair of pants, and tore them from the pile. Tearing off his pajamas, he tossed them carelessly aside before throwing on his clothes. As he frantically dressed himself, his clone watched him curiously, and it wasn't until Naruto made for his shoes that it decided to speak up.
"Hey wait," it called. Naruto's head whipped around, toe-less shoe in hand.
"Huh?"
"What about me?" it asked. "What am I 'sposed to do?"
"I don't know," Naruto's attention was focused on not falling over as he tried to get his shoes on. "Stay here I guess."
The clone crossed his arms and stuck his lip out. "I don't wanna."
"What?" Naruto asked, caught off guard
"How come you get to go out and take tests and stuff?" the clone demanded. "I wanna go too."
"No," Naruto said.
"Why not?" the clone asked petulantly.
"You're still in your PJ's for crying out loud," Leaning against a wall, Naruto tugged his second sandal over his foot and then headed for the door. "Just wait here, okay? I'll be back in a little while." The clone was having none of it, though, and followed after him.
"I'm going," it said, its tone final as it stared at him with his own stubborn eyes. Naruto didn't have time to stand there and argue with himself. He only had about fifteen minutes left before he'd be late.
"Fine," he relented. "But I'm not gonna wait for you if you can't keep up."
The clone gave a broad grin. "Yeah right. Bet I get there before you."
000
The clone managed to live up to his boast, but only just. It burst through the front doors of the ninja academy with its flesh and blood counterpart not half a step behind him. But there was no time for gloating, and they both barreled down the halls of the academy with a speed that could have peeled the paint from the walls. The door to their classroom shortly came into view and the clone charged at it with the real Naruto nipping at his heels. The bunshin reached the door first and threw it open as they both piled into the room. All of the genin hopefuls in the class spun their heads around at the sound of the door slamming open.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto called out from behind his bunshin. "I'm here!"
This was not the first time Naruto had done something unexpected or outrageous. Indeed, the whole experience of teaching the unruly boy was largely an exercise in testing one's capacity for surprise. So when two Narutos came bursting through the door, one still in his pajamas, Iruka hardly needed a second to collect himself.
"Alright, Naruto, explain," the chūnin instructor ordered.
Naruto grinned nervously, and rubbed the back of his head. He'd always been a glutton for attention, but now with everyone's eyes on him he felt oddly exposed. "Well, y'see, it's kinda a long story."
"Then give us a summary," Iruka replied with forced calm.
"Uh, okay," Naruto began hesitantly. "Well, I was having this dream-"
"A really weird messed up dream!" the clone interjected. Naruto shot it a glare.
"He asked me to tell it!" the original snapped. The bunshin gave him a sour look and turned away to sulk. "Right, so I was dreaming, and there was this jutsu and when I did the jutsu this guy fell on me!" he jerked his head at the clone.
"That wasn't me!" the bunshin disputed. "That was that other one! The dumbass who tripped!"
"But you and him are the same guy!" Naruto argued. "He was me, and you're me!"
"No," the clone denied. "That was a different you. I'm not the same you that he was."
"What!?" Naruto threw his hands up. "What the hell are you talking about? That doesn't even-"
"Naruto!" Iruka shouted. They both flinched and turned their attention back to their sensei. Iruka stalked up to them and gave a whithering glare to the properly dressed Naruto.
"What do you think you're trying to do, Naruto?" Iruka demanded, his voice carrying a familiar harshness.
"Huh?" Naruto, asked, confused. "I'm not trying to do anything."
"So, what? I'm just supposed to believe that nonsense story?" Iruka gave a disappointed shake of the head. "What's this really about? Did you think you could bluff your way through the exam? That if you got someone to henge as you I'd actually fall for it and let you pass? I thought you were better than that, Naruto."
"That's not-"
"Be quiet," Iruka snapped before turning on the second Naruto. "As for you, I don't know why you thought it was a good idea to do this, but you should know that sloppy henge isn't going to protect you," the clone began to protest, but Iruka's attention was already back on the real Naruto. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't fail you right now."
"What?" Naruto's eyes went wide. "But I wasn't trying cheat, I swear! I can prove it!"
"Just stop already," Iruka gave a tired sigh.
"No no, look," Naruto pleaded. "I'll make another one!" He quickly formed the seal and focused his chakra. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" he cried, praying that he actually was able to make more than one.
Thankfully, he found that he could, and a third Naruto popped into being right in front of him.
"See, see, see!" Naruto pointed at the second clone. "I told you I wasn't lying!"
Incredulous, Iruka bent down and reached out at the newly formed clone. His disbelief turned to outright shock as his fingers pressed against the solid bunshin's arm. It couldn't be true. There was just no way that an academy student should have been able to perform the Kage Bunshin. Yes, some exceptional students were able to perform jutsu that would normally be above their skill level. Legendary geniuses like Hatake Kakashi were by Naruto's age regularly performing jutsu that even grown adults struggled with. But in the case of this particular jutsu, talent was irrelevant. The enormous demands it placed on one's chakra supply were far beyond what any twelve-year-old boy should be capable of. Naruto was simply too young, his chakra too undeveloped for him to be able to use this sort of jutsu. Creating just one clone should have hospitalized him, but now here was a second one staring him in the face.
"Naruto?" Iruka's concern poured into his voice as his head turned to the real Naruto. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Eh?" Naruto tilted his head at the question. "Uh, yeah I guess."
"Are you sure?" Iruka pressed. "You don't feel dizzy or sick or anything like that?"
"No," Naruto answered slowly. "Well actually I feel pretty hungry, but that's 'cause I didn't have time for breakfast."
Because he didn't have time for breakfast. So Naruto had not only performed a jutsu that all reason said should have killed him, but just to push it into that extra level of absurdity, he'd done so on an empty stomach. It was like the boy was deliberately screwing with him, and knowing him that was a distinct possibility. Still, Iruka supposed, if there was anyone among his students capable of pulling this off, it would be Naruto. He was, after all, the only one with the deep well of the Kyūbi's chakra to draw on. Though the fact that the seal was apparently letting some of the demon's chakra though was worrying enough on its own, and in any case it didn't answer the question of where Naruto had learned to use such an advanced jutsu in the first place.
A rising tide of whispering and murmuring from his increasingly restless students brought him back to reality. Iruka stood and raised a hand to the class.
"Settle down, everyone," he called out. "Everyone just keep quiet and wait here for a few minutes. Naruto, come with me please," Iruka said as he started down to the front of the class. Naruto followed him without questioning or protest. Iruka had been just about to fail him a minute ago, so pressing his luck again seemed like a bad idea, even for him.
Iruka led him along with his two clones past the curious eyes of his fellow pupils, and into the side room that was to be used for the exam. As Iruka slid open the door, Mizuki glanced up from at them from his seat at the large desk against the wall. The silver-haired chūnin opened his mouth the greet him, but it died in his throat at the sight of the three Narutos that came in behind his colleague.
"Iruka?" Mizuki asked instead. "What's going on?"
"That's for Naruto to say," Iruka answered as he slid the door shut. He looked down at his most troublesome student and crossed his arms. "Alright, now tell us. Where exactly did you learn to use the Kage Bunshin?"
"What?" Mizuki's eyes went wide.
"Look for yourself," Iruka gestured at the shadows on the ground. Sure enough, each clone had its own shadow stretching out behind it.
"So?" Iruka asked again. "Can you explain for us?"
"I already told you, Iruka-sensei," Naruto said. "It was the dream."
Iruka wasn't buying it. "You're not going to stand there and tell me that you learned a B-rank jutsu in your sleep. Tell me the truth," he ordered.
"But that is the truth!" Naruto cried. Iruka gave a frustrated sigh.
"Look," he tried a gentler tone. "You're not in trouble, I just want to know how you managed to learn such an advanced jutsu so quickly. Did someone teach you it, or did you read about it somewhere or what?"
"Well in the dream there was a scroll..." Naruto started.
Iruka pinched the bridge of his scarred nose. "Why don't you want to tell me what actually happened?"
"I am," Naruto insisted. His eyes met Iruka's. "I'm telling you the truth, I swear."
Iruka was a trained shinobi. Part of that training involved telling when people were lying. Iruka couldn't rightly claim that he was some incredible genius at it, but he was no slouch either, and teaching Naruto for six years had given the chūnin plenty of time to familiarize himself with his tells. The way he shifted his eyes, the scratching at his head, he broadcast his dishonesty so egregiously, even for an academy student. So far, the little idiot hadn't gotten a single lie past him. Yet as their eyes met, Iruka could find no trace of one in Naruto. He believed what he said, and that was a problem.
"Okay," Iruka said. "Then why don't you tell me exactly what happened in this dream?"
"Sure thing, Iruka-sensei," Naruto replied cheerfully. "I was running thought this forest, and it was dark out-"
"Only it wasn't really you, 'cause your body wasn't doing what you told it," the fully dressed clone cut in.
"And you were carrying this huge scroll on your back," the pajama clad bunshin added. Naruto whipped his head to scowl at the disobedient clones.
"Hey hey hey! What did I tell you? I'm the one who's telling the story, okay? Stop interrupting me!" He shot them both a glare to drive the point home before turning back to his sensei.
"So, uh, anyway," Naruto continued as if nothing had happened. His clones both stuck their tongues out at him behind his back. "I had this scroll, and when I stopped I opened it and there was the jutsu on it and I did it and that's when I woke up," he finished in one breath.
"'Your body wasn't doing what you told it?'" concern crept back into Iruka's voice. "What do you mean by that?"
"Um," Naruto shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I couldn't control myself. I tried to make my body stop, but it just kept going on its own. It was really weird, like I was awake but," he grasped about for the right word. "Trapped, I guess."
"I see," Iruka stated. This was a problem, alright. It didn't take a great thinker to realize that what Naruto was describing hadn't been a dream at all. Iruka had only questioned him to find out who had been careless enough to allow such a dangerous technique to fall into the hands of an academy student. This, however, was quite a bit more serious than some irresponsible shinobi.
"Hey, Iruka-sensei?" Iruka blinked.
"What is it Naruto?"
"Well, uh," Naruto raised a hand to his spiky blond hair. "Does this mean that I passed?"
"Do you pass?" Iruka repeated the question with raised eyebrows.
"Like, because I can do this jutsu," Naruto elaborated. "The test was for us to do the bunshin jutsu, right? So if I can do this then doesn't that mean I pass?"
It was true that for Naruto to use a jutsu normally reserved for jōnin was incredibly impressive. Even Iruka's frankly optimistic expectations of the boy had been blown out of the water today. By all rights he'd more than earned his headband, but given the potential crisis that had come along with that jutsu, this just wasn't the time for it.
Iruka knelt and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "We'll worry about that later, but right now there's something we need to do, understand?"
"What d'you mean? I did the clone jutsu," Naruto's voice quavered. "So I should pass, right?"
"Listen," Iruka made to reassure his student. After failing the poor kid twice now, along with dozens of other students over the years, he should have been used to this. "I'm not saying you didn't pass," Naruto's face immediately brightened. "But we've got something more important to deal with."
"Like what?" Naruto queried.
"That dream you had. Don't you think there was something strange about it?"
"Kinda, yeah" Naruto admitted.
"Right," the chūnin nodded. "So, think about it. If you had a strange dream where you ran out into a forest against your will, carrying a scroll that had jutsu that you didn't know about written on it, what do you think that might mean?" Naruto frowned as the gears in his head turned.
"That it wasn't really a dream," he connected the dots. "That maybe it really did happen."
The suspicion had been at the back of his mind, little more a vague feeling that something hadn't been right about that dream. Now, with Iruka spelling it out for him, the true gravity of his situation finally dawned on him.
"Then that means I actually- Someone was really- Oh shit," panic flooded into the boy's voice as he began to pace around in small circle. "Oh shit."
"Naruto," Iruka said sharply. Naruto halted in his tracks. "I need you to stay calm. Panicking isn't going to help anybody. We're going to take care of this, okay?"
"Okay," he breathed. "So what're we gonna do?"
"We're going to go to the Hokage," Iruka replied. Something as serious as this demanded no less than the attention of the highest authority in the village. "He'll know what to do, don't worry."
Naruto gave a quick nod. "Alright."
"Mizuki," Iruka glanced over at his fellow teacher. "Can you take care of the exam for me while I'm gone?"
"Sure," Mizuki shrugged.
"Thanks," Iruka gave a small smile of gratitude and turned back to Naruto. "Alright, we'd better get going."
"Right," Naruto agreed. "Okay you two," he called to his two bunshin. "You heard him, get moving."
"Ah, Naruto," Iruka interrupted. "You can just dispel them, you know."
"But wont they die?" Naruto questioned.
Iruka quirked an eyebrow. How could he still be so ignorant about something as basic as the nature of clone jutsu? Hadn't anything gotten through to him in the last half decade? "They can't die. They're not actually alive."
"Hey!" one of the clones took offense at the perceived insult.
"They're a part of you, of your chakra, the same way that regular bunshin are," he continued, ignoring the clone's protest.
"You sure?" Naruto remained skeptical.
"Yes I'm sure," impatience edged Iruka's voice. "Now hurry up and get rid of them. We don't have time for this."
"If you say so, Iruka-sensei," Naruto said dubiously. He brought his hands up in a basic ram seal and called the bunshins' chakra back to himself. They both vanished with two small pops, leaving only a few curling wisps of smoke behind.
Freed of his trailing bunshin, Naruto followed his sensei back out into the class room. Iruka strode out to the front of the room to address his students.
"Listen up, everyone," he called out. "Something's come up and unfortunately I can't be here to administer the genin exam. Mizuki-sensei will take over for me while I'm gone. I want you all to behave yourselves and take this test seriously, understand?"
"Yes, Iruka-sensei," came dull monotone reply.
"Good," Iruka said, satisfied. "I'm sorry I wont be here to see you become genin, but I know you'll all make proud." With that, he waved Naruto over and started for the door.
Exiting the classroom with Naruto in tow, Iruka made down the halls of the academy for the administrative wing. When he'd gotten up this morning, his biggest concern for the day was the likelihood that Naruto would yet again fail the exam. The unavoidable truth was that Naruto was getting too old for the academy. His first two failed attempts at making genin hadn't been any cause for concern. Exceptional, or merely confident students were allowed to take the genin exam early, and so of course Naruto had done so without a second thought. It hadn't worked out, but there was no harm in trying. After six years in the academy, however, Naruto had reached the end of the line. Everyone in his class was expected to pass, and those that didn't would have to find a different calling.
Yet he had just proven that he was more than qualified. It would have been a relief, if only the circumstances surrounding his newfound ability hadn't been so dire. Someone had used Naruto, taken control of the boy while he slept in order to do their bidding. Given exactly what the boy had described in his dream, it was likely that some critical piece of intelligence had been stolen, and evidently no one had found out about it until just now. Added to all that was the chilling possibility that Naruto was now compromised. Whatever jutsu had been used on him might still be controlling him in some subtle way, or perhaps it was laying dormant, waiting for some trigger to once again rob him of his body.
As they turned a corner, the door of the Hokage's office came into view. Thick and heavy, it contrasted sharply with the thin sliding doors used everywhere else in the building. Slouched beside the entrance at a cramped chair, the door guard glanced up from his book.
"Need something?"
"Uh, well I know it's sudden but I need to see the Hokage," Iruka said. He leaned over and in a lower voice added, "It's about Naruto."
"That so," the tokubetsu jōnin glanced over at Iruka's charge. Usually it was next to impossible to see the Hokage on such short notice. His time was stretched thin as it was without unannounced interruptions, but over the years the phrase "It's about Naruto" had become something of a code to bypass the normal rules. "Well, I suppose Hokage-sama isn't too busy right now. Go ahead."
Iruka said a word of thanks and headed in.
He opened the door to find the old Kage sitting ready with his hands clasped on his desk. Sarutobi gazed at the two of them with clear, alert eyes belonging to a much younger man.
"Iruka," he greeted. The chūnin bowed.
"Hokage-sama," Iruka answered as he rose. "I apologize for disturbing you, but something's come up."
"It's not a problem," the Hokage waved him off. "I had an inkling that you two might show up," his gaze flicked to Naruto.
"You did?" Iruka's eyebrows went up. Sarutobi gave a short nod.
"Ah, Naruto, could you wait outside?" he directed his attention to the blond student. "I'd like to speak with Iruka in private."
"Eh!? No way!" Naruto objected. "I wanna hear too!"
"Naruto," Iruka admonished. "Hokage-sama just told you to do something. You want to be a shinobi, right? Then that means listening to instructions."
"But that's not fair," Naruto pouted. "This is about me, ain't it? Why do I have to stand outside while you guys say stuff about me behind my back?"
"It will only be for a minute," the Hokage reasoned. "I just want to hear was Iruka has to say first."
Naruto gave Sarutobi a sour look, but only grumbled to himself as he turned and opened the door. Iruka frowned at the sight of the usually insubordinate Naruto obediently marching out. The brat never followed his orders with so little fuss.
"So," Sarutobi said once the door slammed shut. "I suppose this has something to do with the Kage Bunshin Naruto summoned in his sleep this morning?"
Ah, so that was the true reason for having him out of the room. The dishonesty didn't sit right with Iruka, but really it was for the best that Naruto didn't know about the ANBU team tasked with watching over him.
"Yes," Iruka nodded. "But there's more to it."
"I'd assumed so," the Hokage reached for his pipe. There never seemed to be any good news concerning Naruto. Whether it was some prank he'd pulled, or a report on his failing grades, or even the repeated complaints from so-called concerned citizens about the "demon child" running loose in the village, hearing the name of Minato's son almost always heralded a headache. "What is it, then?" he asked wearily.
"Well," Iruka began. "When Naruto came to the class with a Kage Bunshin I was, of course, suspicious. So I questioned him about it, and he told me that he learned the jutsu in a dream."
"And you believe that he's being honest?"
"He seemed to be, anyway," Iruka answered. "He's not a good liar, I'm sure you know, but he didn't look dishonest."
Sarutobi tapped out a measure of tobacco from a small tin into his pipe. A small breath of flame was all he needed to have it lit and clouding the air with its pleasant smoke.
"A dream that teaches jutsu..." the Hokage took a long draw of the pipe as a well-worn crease formed between his brows. "I wish I had something like that when I was his age."
"Uh, the thing is, Hokage-sama," Iruka ignored the tickling in his throat from the smoke. "He told me what his dream was, and I don't think he was even asleep last night."
"You just said that he was telling the truth," the Hokage gave a small frown.
"I believe that he thinks he's telling the truth," Iruka explained. "As he told it, he dreamed of carrying a large scroll into a forest," the chūnin took a breath. "And that he wasn't in control of his body while he was doing this."
Sarutobi took another draw on his pipe, longer than the last. He let it out slowly in a sigh and focused his gaze to meet Iruka's.
"What do you suppose this means?" he asked, despite already knowing what the instructor was going to say.
"It means that someone used Naruto," Iruka's voice burned with barely contained fury. Now that he spoke it out loud, the chūnin couldn't help but seethe at the thought. "They used him to steal something important to Konoha."
This did not garner the expected reaction from the Hokage. Rather than mirror Iruka's outrage or show surprise, he merely took another draw on his pipe.
"The ANBU team didn't report anything out of the ordinary, except of course for the Kage Bunshin," he rubbed his chin. "They certainly didn't say anything about him going into any forest."
"They might've been fooled," Iruka said quickly. "Someone could've been standing in for him during the night."
"It's possible," Sarutobi agreed. "But these are ANBU we're talking about, Iruka. There aren't many people who could get away with something like that."
"But they do exist, Hokage-sama, and if someone like that has infiltrated the village then that just makes things more serious."
The Hokage sighed again and rubbed his temple. There was the headache, right on time. "You may be right, but before we do anything, I'd like to hear the story directly from Naruto. Go ahead and let him in."
The Hokage's tone didn't seem appropriately urgent to Iruka, but it wasn't his place to say anything about it. So, with nothing more than a "Yes, Hokage-sama," he turned and opened the door.
Of course, Naruto had been leaning with his ear pressed against the door in a futile effort to hear their voices through the thick wood, and so when it swung open he tumbled face first into the room.
"Oww!" he groaned clutching his nose. "What'd you do that for? I coulda broken it!"
"Just get up," his sensei growled irritably and pulled his student to his feet by the collar.
"Naruto," Sarutobi began as Iruka shut door. "I understand that you had an unusual dream last night. Could you describe it for me?"
"Okay," Naruto said. "I was running through this forest, with this huge scroll on my back-"
"And you couldn't control yourself, correct?" Sarutobi cut in.
"Yeah, it was really messed up. Like, I wanted to make myself stop, but I just couldn't. I couldn't even move my eyes," Naruto shuddered at the memory.
"What happened next?" Sarutobi prodded. "You looked into the scroll, yes?"
"Yeah, and that's where I learned the jutsu."
"And it was Kage Bunshin?" the Hokage questioned.
"Right," Naruto agreed, but after a moment's reflection corrected himself. "Actually, it wasn't exactly Kage Bunshin. That's what I used in the dream, but on the scroll it was called Tajū Kage Bunshin."
"Tajū.." Sarutobi repeated, a rare look of shock crossing his features. A large scroll with a kinjutsu like Tajū Kage Bunshin written on it could only describe one thing: the Scroll of Seals. That scroll contained within it some of the most powerful and dangerous techniques ever created. Its theft would be nothing less than an utter catastrophe for Konoha. "Both of you, listen carefully. You two are to go back to your classroom and stay there. Naruto, you are not to leave this building until you are given permission, do you understand?"
"But-"
"Do you understand?" the fierceness in the Old Man's eyes struck Naruto like a whip. The boy's mouth snapped shut and he nodded meekly.
"Iruka, stay with Naruto and keep watch over him. If he tries to leave, stop him."
"Of course, Hokage-sama."
Satisfied, the Hokage dismissed them. He waited until the door shut behind Iruka, and then gave a heaving sigh as soon as it was. The aged shinobi rubbed his temples in an effort to soothe the pounding in his skull. When Naruto's ANBU guard had reported that the boy had used a jōnin's technique, and had done so in his sleep, Sarutobi had known that the new day was going to be a troubling one. Although, if he'd known exactly how troubling, he might've been tempted to head back to the Tower and spend the rest of the day napping. But he was here now, in the Hokage's office, wearing the Hokage's hat as he'd done for too many years, and he wasn't about to leave when his village needed him.
Sarutobi stood, his worn joints crackling as he did, and made for the door.
AN: So if there was anyone out there wondering where this went, the long and short of it is that my computer died and took all my drafts with it. Backing up your files? What's that? I considered abandoning this, but ultimately I decided to rewrite and make it, you know, good this time. Or at least better. Maybe. I hope.
Anyway, read, review, like, follow, print it out and frame it on your wall. Whatever you feel is best.