Graduation was only a day away, and Natsumi was excited! What better way to show it than to paint the Hokage Monument? Thanks to her self-proclaimed genius ninja skills, she managed to finish her masterpiece of doing a makeover to the stone faces before being spotted performing the misdeed. She was chased down by furious Chuunin ninjas but thanks to her years as a prankster, she easily hid from them. Just as she was gloating about it, Iruka got the drop on her.
"HEY, NATSUMI!" he screamed right next to her ear, making her scream in shock as she jumped away from him and landed unceremoniously on her bottom.
"What the hell are you doing, Iruka-sensei?" she grumbled.
"That's my line! What are you doing during my class time?" Instead of answering, Natsumi attempted to flee only to be tied up in a lot of rope as she was dragged all the way back to the Academy and back to class. "Listen Natsumi," Iruka started to lecture the captive girl. "The graduation test is tomorrow. Is this the time for you to be fooling around like this?" The response he got was her turning her head away childishly with a huff. That ticked him off enough that he felt justified to take out his anger on the rest of the class by forcing everyone to perform a review of the Henge.
A foxy grin appeared on Natsumi's face as she prepared a perfect retaliation against Iruka. She was technically doing the Henge but she would transform into an adult version of herself, only naked with white smoke covering the important parts. The plan was quickly banished from her mind as quickly as it was formed though. She remembered the time when she showed it to Hinata as a demonstration. She explained it was something to utterly defeat perverts with but instead of being impressed, a look of horror was plastered on Hinata's face.
***Flashback***
"Natsumi-chan, why... Why would you do something like this?" Hinata had never heard herself sound so loud before. Had she shouted when she saw just what Natsumi had done?
"H-Hinata-chan...?" Natsumi quickly dispelled the Henge, in shock that Hinata of all people had shouted at her. "W-What is it? Was it that bad?"
"Please, don't do this ever again, Natsumi-chan!" Hinata went up to her and gripped her arms in desperation for her friend. Natsumi was stunned when she saw Hinata nearly in tears. She felt her own heart shatter into pieces because she knew that she was the cause of them. "Don't you understand that you might grow up to look just like that? You're a girl, Natsumi-chan. If you show yourself like that, you could get assaulted! You could get..." Hinata trailed off for a moment. "Just, please, don't do this anymore, Natsumi-chan." Tears were now falling freely from her face. "Please..."
"Don't cry, Hinata-chan. I'm... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to make you cry. Please forgive me..." Natsumi was trembling really hard as she tried to hold back tears of her own. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt Hinata or make her cry. She felt like the biggest piece of scum on the planet. She almost nearly agreed with the rest of the villagers that she was indeed trash to be hated. She made the sweetest and kindest person she had ever known cry. She made her best friend cry. Once the tears dried, Hinata did not blame her. She just said she had gotten so worried because Natsumi was about to make a mistake that could haunt her for the rest of her life.
***End flashback***
Since that time, Natsumi vowed she would never do anything, or let anything, make Hinata cry with sorrow like that again. With a solemn face, she obediently performed the Henge without causing any trouble. The abrupt shift in her demeanor caught Iruka off-guard as he passed her demonstration. He almost ended the review right there when he saw Hinata whispering words of comfort to her as she gently held her hand.
Immediately after class ended, Iruka dragged Natsumi over to the Hokage Monument to clean up her mischief. Until she was done cleaning every speck of paint, she would not be allowed to return home. She retorted that no-one was waiting for her back home anyway as she grudgingly continued cleaning. Realizing he had used the wrong words, he made a flimsy apology by offering to treat her to ramen for dinner as he scratched his nose sheepishly. At the sound of that, Natsumi immediately brightened up and hastened her cleaning.
As promised, Iruka brought Natsumi to the Ichiraku ramen stand, her favorite place in the entire village. The Academy was also one of her favorite places to be in but for all the wrong reasons. To Iruka's utter dismay, the only reason she even liked that place was because Hinata was there. That was it. Iruka being there and her very small number of casual acquaintances were also part of that reason, but she mentioned it almost like an afterthought. Speaking of afterthoughts...
"Natsumi, why did you vandalize such a place?" Iruka asked. He never asked about her pranks but this one seemed to hold some significance. "You know who the Hokages are, right?"
"Of course I do," she answered, pausing to finish her bowl of ramen, broth and all. "The Hokages were the number one ninjas of the village. I heard the Fourth was a hero who protected the village from a monster fox."
"Then why did you...?"
"Because I'm going to receive that title one day and become greater than any of them! Then, I'm going to make everyone in the village acknowledge me!" she declared with complete confidence. "By the way, Sensei, I have a favor to ask."
"You want seconds?"
"No, I want to try on that Konoha hitai-ate. Please?" she clapped her hands together in a small pleading manner.
"You mean this?" Iruka adjusted his hitai-ate he wore on his forehead. A stylized leaf was engraved onto the metal plate. It was the mark of Konoha. "Not a chance. This is proof you have graduated from the Academy and that you're a certified ninja. You'll get yours tomorrow when you graduate." He laughed when she pouted and called him stingy before ordering a second bowl in petty revenge.
***Break Line***
"We will now start the graduation exam," Iruka announced to the class. "If your name is called, go to the classroom next door. The test subject will be the Bunshin."
Natsumi clutched her head in panic. It was the one jutsu she was terrible at. Why couldn't it be the Henge? She would ace that one for sure!
"Natsumi-chan, are you okay?" Hinata whispered to her worriedly. She too knew about her problems with that particular jutsu. She also happened to know the cause of it too. If she looked at her with her Byakugan active, Natsumi would shine like a beacon to her due to the sheer amount of chakra she had.
During the times they practiced together for the Bunshin, Hinata could see with her naked eyes visible chakra swirling around Natsumi as she prepared to do the Bunshin. She would always tell her it was too much and if chakra had turned visible, it was guaranteed to be a failure. Trusting Hinata's words but pushing on anyway, Natsumi learned the hard way that she was right.
"What do I do, Hinata-chan? I don't want to fail!" Natsumi half-whined half-pleaded to Hinata.
"Calm down. If you see chakra around you, stop and try again. Don't give up. And if it still doesn't work, then make as many Bunshin as you can. I'm sure some of them will turn out correct," she gave some tips to maximize Natsumi's chances of graduating with her.
"That's why I really like you, Hinata-chan!" Natsumi scooted closer to Hinata and hugged her, rubbing her cheek with her own affectionately. Hinata involuntarily turned red but giggled nonetheless. It was Natsumi's way to show just how much she liked her. Hinata learned a long time ago that Natsumi did this whenever she felt Hinata had done something big for her. She found it endearingly cute though it was always embarrassing since Natsumi did not care if people saw them or not.
"If Natsumi would stop harassing Hinata, we can get this thing started," Iruka called them out. He chuckled silently as Hinata's face turned increasingly red and Natsumi shot him a grouchy look at his interruption.
***Break Line***
It was finally Natsumi's turn. As she glared with fierce determination at Iruka and Mizuki, his assistant for the graduation exam, she put her hands into the seal to focus her chakra and closed her eyes to block out any visual distractions. When she felt wind whipping around her, she snapped her eyes open to see chakra swirling around her.
"Shit!" she cursed and stopped focusing, causing her chakra to recede. 'Calm down, Uzumaki Natsumi! Remember what Hinata-chan said! Relax and try again. I need to use less chakra!' she mentally spurred herself on. Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, she tried again, and again. And again.
"We don't have all day, Natsumi! Are you going to show us your Bunshin or not?" Iruka asked impatiently.
"Ah, screw it!" Deciding there was no time to keep retrying, she used as little chakra as she could control to make as many Bunshin as she could. "Bunshin no Jutsu!" she called out the name of the jutsu. A huge burst of smoke erupted from her and when it cleared, there were about 50 clones, most of them looking ridiculous. However, three of them were perfect if a little discolored. "Yeah!" Natsumi cheered. Hinata's advice really did work!
"Pass/Fail!" both instructors called out at the same time, Iruka the former. They looked at each other with confused looks at the opposing decisions. Natsumi's cheering stopped when she heard them.
"Mizuki-sensei?" Iruka questioned his assistant.
"Iruka-sensei, her movements and stamina are good, but if she has to make this mass of unusable Bunshin just to create a few proper ones, it would not be appropriate no matter what the situation," Mizuki explained. "I understand that everyone else has at least produced three perfect Bunshin. But with this many failures just for that three correct ones..."
"Hmm..." Iruka had to admit that Mizuki was right. Although Natsumi technically did make three proper Bunshin, the rest would be a major bother. His own judgement depended on if she could do it or not with no deeper meaning behind his conclusion. But as Mizuki had pointed out, it was perhaps a little too much to simply let it slide. After a bit of thought, he came to a decision. "This attempt will be overlooked. Natsumi, do it again."
"What? Why?" Natsumi demanded furiously. "I passed, didn't I? I heard what you said! Everyone else got three, so did I! Look!" she pointed to the three passable Bunshin. "Why do I have to do it again?"
"If I passed you with this, you'd only be creating trouble! Stop arguing with me and do it again! And no more stalling!" Iruka snapped. Seeing her grudgingly obey and dispelling all the Bunshin, he allowed her another try. "I want you to make seven Bunshin. If three of them are passable, then you pass."
"Bunshin no Jutsu!" Natsumi performed it again and the result this time was obvious to all. Only one was standing while the rest flopped to the ground like they had no bone structure. Even the one standing was completely white like someone had just dunked Natsumi completely in white paint.
"You fail."
***Break Line***
Hinata wanted to cry for her best friend. Natsumi was the only one who failed. Her guardian Kou was with her, so she could not go to her. Natsumi was sitting down at the swing with a broken look on her face. Hinata stared despairingly at her own hitai-ate she tied around her neck. If she had her way, she would have returned it to Iruka and stay behind another year with Natsumi. But alas, due to her clan name, she could not do such a thing. Her father was disappointed in her enough as it was. She could not afford to sully the Hyuuga name. Just before she was led away, she saw Mizuki discussing something with Natsumi.
Along the way back to her home, Hinata could almost feel herself regressing back to the time Natsumi was not around for her. If Natsumi was not a ninja with her, who would she look to for courage? Who could she draw strength from? Who would encourage her to do her best? Who would encourage her to keep fighting for her dreams? She already knew the answer to all those questions: No-one. Even if there was, she did not think it would be the same. It was selfish of her to think in this manner, but she could not help it. She only wanted Natsumi with her. She did not want anyone else taking her place.
"Natsumi-chan..." Hinata whimpered like she was her eight-year-old self all over again as tears dripped from her eyes.
'Hinata-sama... Does the presence of that child affect you that much?' Kou watched his ward discreetly from the corner of his eyes as she wept silently. His mood sunk like a rock as Hinata dragged her feet as they returned to the compound. It was only when they arrived that she dried her tears and acted like nothing was wrong as best as she could. Kou knew better, and he felt disheartened that Hinata would trust her honest feelings to her friend rather than her own family.
***Later that night***
Natsumi panted heavily as she rested at the designated location Mizuki told her about in one of the forests in the village. So far so good! She was acing this substitute graduation exam! All that was left was to learn a jutsu from the Scroll of Seals and show it to whichever teacher managed to find her and she would pass! Unfolding the scroll to see what the first jutsu she would learn first, it turned out to be the Tajuu Kage Bunshin. Natsumi groaned in frustration as her lucky roll came to a halt. She was tempted to skip to another jutsu but convinced herself that if she could not even do this jutsu, she had no right to move on to other most likely more difficult jutsu. She was all worn out by the time she managed to properly perform the jutsu. While taking a short breather, a shadow loomed over her. Looking up, she saw it was Iruka.
Iruka was about to erupt with anger when he saw how dirty and ragged Natsumi was. He listened as she bragged about how if she showed him a jutsu from the Scroll of Seals, he would allow her to graduate. Knowing nothing like that was in the Academy rules, he asked who told her such a thing. He was shocked when she named Mizuki as the one who told her such nonsense. Suddenly, his instincts warned him of an approaching attack. He quickly shoved Natsumi away and took several kunais in her place.
Mizuki expressed slight surprise that Iruka had been able to find the hidden location while Iruka just realized that Mizuki had tricked Natsumi into doing a crime for him. Natsumi looked between the two of them wildly, unsure of what was going on. Mizuki told her to hand the scroll over to him while Iruka told her not to even at the cost of her life as it contained forbidden jutsu within. He revealed that she was just being used for him to get a hold of it. Natsumi immediately went on high alert as she stared at Mizuki suspiciously. Mizuki played his suspicion off by saying Iruka was just scared of her possessing the scroll. Not knowing what was truth, she turned to Iruka for confirmation. Iruka demanded that Mizuki explain what he was trying to say and told her not to believe a word he said.
"I'll tell you the truth," Mizuki said.
"Idiot, stop!" Iruka was suddenly very panicked, causing Natsumi to get even more suspicious of him unnecessarily.
"A rule that was created after the incident 12 years ago," Mizuki continued on, ignoring Iruka's pleas. "A rule that you, Natsumi, were never meant to find out."
"Only me? What is that rule?" Natsumi asked desperately.
"It's the rule not to say that Natsumi is a monster fox."
"Huh?"
"In other words, you are the Kyuubi no Youko that killed Iruka's parents and destroyed the village. You've been deceived by the villagers all this time. Didn't you think it was weird for everyone to hate you so much? No-one's ever going to acknowledge you! Even Iruka hates you!" He watched with gleeful malice as Natsumi flared her chakra wildly as her emotions were in chaos. Taking advantage of her distress, he threw a gigantic shuriken meant to bifurcate her in half. That plan was foiled by Iruka protecting her using himself as a human shield.
"W-Why...?" Natsumi murmured out at Iruka.
"Because you're the same as me," he replied, trying his best to ignore the sheer pain to his spine where the shuriken had lodged itself. He revealed that after his parents died, no-one paid any attention to him. Being the bad student that he was, he screwed up a lot in class because he wanted everyone's attention. He failed to get any being a good student that he actually was, so he acted like an idiot. "It was tough... Right, Natsumi? You were lonely, right?" Iruka was freely shedding tears now as he could connect to Natsumi's painful upbringing. "But you have Hinata now. She saved you from that pain since the time you two became best friends. She acknowledged you. She has never hated you. I can't say the same for myself. It took me too long to be aware of you. For that, I'm sorry."
"Don't make me laugh!" Mizuki interrupted the touching moment between teacher and student with his mocking laughter. "Iruka has always hated you since you killed his parents! He just wants to take that scroll back."
That spurred Natsumi into action as she ran away from the both of them. Running as far as she could before having to stop and hide, she paused as she overheard the two teachers talking just in front of the tree she was hiding behind.
"What good is there in protecting the murderer of your parents?" she heard Mizuki ask.
"I'm not letting an idiot like you get that scroll," Iruka replied, not answering the question.
"You're the idiot. Natsumi is the same as me."
"The same as you?"
"Anything is possible with that scroll. There's no way that Natsumi, the monster fox, won't use its powers."
"Yeah, you're right." Natsumi was shocked that Iruka agreed. She had believed Iruka acknowledged her! How could he! "If she was a monster fox." She quickly retracted her thoughts as she listened more. "But Natsumi is different. She's an excellent student that I acknowledge. She's hardworking and earnest but clumsy. She knows the pain of others. Just look at what she has done for Hinata. I'm ashamed to admit it, but Hinata was the first, and the only one, to ever acknowledge Natsumi as her own person, long before I even did. She's no monster fox. She's Uzumaki Natsumi of Konoha!" Natsumi was in tears at the end of the touching speech. When she heard Mizuki threaten to kill both Iruka and Hinata, Natsumi knew it was no longer time for tears, but action. Springing an ambush, she nailed a perfect knee to Mizuki's chin, knocking him back and sending his weapon sailing off course.
"Don't you dare lay a finger on Iruka-sensei or Hinata-chan! I'll kill you if you do!" Natsumi snarled.
"Talk while you can. I'll finish a kid like you in a flash," Mizuki was not phased by the threat.
"You can try, jerk. I'll return a thousand times more damage back to you," she said as she positioned her fingers into the seal for her latest jutsu.
"Why don't you try it, monster fox!"
Iruka recognized the seal for the Kage Bunshin and right before his eyes, close to a hundred Kage Bunshin came into existence. They all taunted Mizuki to attack them but if he was not coming, then they would. Then came the beat down of a lifetime for Mizuki that lasted hours until the sun rose. Mizuki was left black and blue all over as Natsumi scratched the back of her head sheepishly as she wondered if she went a bit too far. Iruka looked at her in a new light as she asked if he was alright. This time, he really did believe that Natsumi just might be able to surpass all the previous Hokages.
"Natsumi, come here for a second. I want to give you something," Iruka called her over. "Close your eyes. This is a surprise." Natsumi flinched when she felt his arms go around her neck before something settled around it. "Okay, now you can open them." She opened her eyes and saw Iruka missing his hitai-ate. "Congratulations. You graduate," Iruka beamed proudly at her. Stunned in silence, she moved her gaze down and saw his hitai-ate around her neck. He knew how defensive she was about her hair so he did not tie it around her forehead. "All right, let's celebrate. I'll treat you to ramen!" He was taken aback when she dived towards him with a hug, inadvertently slamming his injured back to the trunk of the tree he was resting against.
Iruka may not have been the best role model for Natsumi, but he was extremely proud of her. He had ultimately failed her in the name of fair judgement but he was trying to look out for her safety unlike Mizuki who wanted her to fail for his evil plots. At the end of the day though, he reversed his own decision to allow Natsumi to pursue her lifelong dream of being Hokage. All that was left for him was to watch her grow into the ninja she aspired to be.
***End of Chapter***
Differences
The Oiroke no Jutsu.
Canon: Naruto uses it to prank Iruka during the Henge review.
My version: I had Natsumi show off the Oiroke no Jutsu to Hinata as I believe even Naruto would show off a new jutsu to impress a best friend. But, since Natsumi and Hinata are both girls and the latter more aware of certain things, Hinata is horrified that Natsumi would do such a degrading thing even for a prank. Showing herself like that might tempt unnecessary attention of the worst kind especially since she is already a female, hence Hinata's outburst.
The graduation exam.
Canon: Iruka fails Naruto for producing a single crappy Bunshin. Mizuki tries to convince him otherwise but Iruka would not allow Naruto to pass. It is also Naruto's third attempt at passing.
My version: Natsumi gets advice from Hinata on help with the Bunshin and while she does give valuable advice, it almost allows Natsumi to pass if not for Mizuki's decision to fail her with convincing words to Iruka. This is Natsumi's first attempt as she has no reason to want to pass early due to Hinata's presence.
The theft of the Scroll of Seals.
Canon: Iruka admits he should have helped Naruto sooner instead of waiting so long as he can identify with the pain of being an orphan.
My version: The same as canon, but Iruka gives most of the credit to Hinata as he knows Natsumi's pain was greatly relieved thanks to her.
Extra Scene: Just a little original piece, showing the emotional stress Hinata undergoes when she fears that Natsumi will be separated from her as she will be serving as a ninja while Natsumi will be stuck for another year at the Academy.
***Break Line***
It's basically Episode One but there are plenty of differences. From the reviews so far, I feel I am keeping on track and doing a good job. So thanks a lot, you guys! I hope I do not let you down with future chapters!
