Hello everyone. Which at his point is not that many since my dumbass forgot to add in the characters when I had troubles uploading chapter one of this fic so yeah I suck any way let's get on with it.
The Keeper of Worlds: ICHIHIME FOR LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE! THERE IS A GOD AND HE LOVES MEEEEEEEEEEEEE! But in all seriousness I was never a Ichiruki fan I preferred renjiruki. But I always did like Orihime and when I saw episode 166 I was a full ichihime fan ever since. So I love it. Although I do wish that their relationship had more development on Ichigo's end. But unlike Naruhina I do feel that it was more natural and believable. Since One, Orihime at least got close enough for Ichigo to consider her a good friend. Two, Ichigo always seemed more willing to talk to Orihime about his own emotions and was more willing to open himself up to her more than the others. And Three, Ichigo treated Orihime differently than anyone else. How? Ichigo was always more gentle and thoughtful around Orihime thn the others and was always watching wat he said around her. Those are things that wasn't there with ichiruki that I cfelt made a romance between the two more believable. But at the same time Bleach isn't about romance any way so the fact that we don't see Ichigo realize that he may have feelings for Orihime isn't a bad thing. Which is the only reason I think that some people said this is one of the worst couples of all time.
Granted that is complete bullshit but whatever.
nine telled cherry blosom 28: I like your idea but I'll have to decline since it doesn't fit in with what I have planned so I'll have to pass but thanks anyway.
Warning long chapter ahead!
'Naruto' Thought/telepathy
"Sakura" Spoken Dialog
"Kushina" Flashback
"Kurama" Bijuu
Chapter 2 "Life moves on"
October 11, 1988 a.n
Hiruzen sat in a tent set up as a temporary hospital, in front of the bed that Kushina was in after she was moved from Minato's safe house. In his arms Hiruzen cradled the Infant Naruto who still slept soundly after all of the events of the previous night. Hiruzen looked at the infant in despair as he thought about the things Gamabunta told him, and how he was gonna tell Kushina. 'This is my fault. If only I had told them about the weakness in Kushina's seal sooner, none of this wouldn't have happened. Now Minato is…. Jiraiya's favorite student is….' He couldn't finish the thought. It was agonizing.
In less than half an hour the strongest of the tailed beasts brought them to their knees. In less than half an hour the Village Hidden in the Leaves lost its greatest hokage. In less than thirty minutes Naruto lost his farther in the first hour of his life. Hiruzen looked at the sleeping babe and felt like his heart would break. 'It's my fault that your father is dead. It's all my fault.' Hiruzen knew he had to be strong for the village, for Kushina, but for now while he could he would grieve for the young 24-year-old man whose death was on his hands.
Kushina felt herself stir in the uncomfortable bed as she began to open her eyes. Kushina sat up slowly as she looked around to see that she was in a tent and not the safe house she remembered herself in before she passed out. As she looked around the room she heard a loud shrill sob come from behind her and looked to see her baby laying in a simple crib behind her. Kushina got up on her wobbly legs desperately trying to steady herself before she made her way to her son.
Kushina made soft hushing noises as she picked up the baby and began to rock him gently. "Shhhhhhh its ok Naruto-kun, its ok mommy's here." Kushina held a gentle smile as her son began to calm down showing off his bright blue eyes to her amethyst ones. Kushina smiled at her son as she rubbed her forehead against his gently. "That's my big boy. Now you must be hungry aren't you? Let's fix that." Kushina said gently to her son as she sat on the side of her bed and began to breast feed her son. Kushina smiled ash she saw her son drinking from her bosom before her thoughts went to her husband. 'Where's Minato? He was right beside me when I gave birth.' She knew that Minato was excited as she was about the birth of their son, it was the one thing his was more proud of than any other.
But before she could continue she heard a knock on the frame of the large medical tent she was in. Kushina quickly covered her and Naruto with the blanket below her and beckoned for the person to come in. Kushina watched as Hiruzen walked inside the tent before he sat down in the seat he was sitting in before. "Good morning Kushina. It's good to see you up."
Kushina smiled as she bowed her head respectably to the old hokage. "Thank you Lord Hiruzen. Do you know where Minato is? I haven't seen him yet." Kushina's smile began to fade as she saw the hard gaze that Hiruzen held as he stared at her .
"That's exactly what I've come to talk about. Kushina last night after you gave birth there…..there was an accident." Kushina's breath hitched at the statement, her breath began to get short. Hiruzen knew that it was only going to get worse.
"What kind of accident ttebane? What happened to Minato? Where's my husband ttebane?" Kushina felt her voice getting louder before she stifled it.
Hiruzen cleared his throat as he fought to keep his composure. "Last night, The Nine tails escaped. And…. Minato died….sealing it away."
Kushina's breathing stopped. She felt as if her heart would sink into her stomach at any moment. "How ttebane?...What happened dattebane?" Kushina was frantic. Tears began to well up in hear eyes as she supported her feeding child.
Hiruzen looked down at his lap not being able to look Kushina in the eye. " He used the Reaper death seal." She broke. Kushina broke down as she began to sob in anguish.
Tears of salt rushed down her face as her anguished and pained sobs rang through the area for those around to hear. Hiruzen stared at her feeling unimaginable guilt. He wanted to comfort her but he couldn't. No matter what he thought of there was nothing that could make her grief go away.
Kushina felt like her life had ended. She just lost her husband of six years. Six years they had been married, six years they wanted a family. And right when they were on the verge of getting it everything came crashing down. Kushina felt lost. She didn't know what it was that she could do. How was she supposed to raise her son without his father? How was she supposed to teach him how to be a man when he grew up? How was she going to provide for the both of them on her own? She couldn't think of an answer for anything.
Kushina cried for twenty minutes straight before she began to calm down. As her tears stopped she looked up at the third hokage her amethyst eyes glowing red. "What happened to the Nine tailed fox dattebane? Please…..tell me Minato took it with him dattebane. Tell me he at least didn't die for nothing dattebane!" Hiruzen still couldn't look her in the eye as he spoke.
"He sealed it in your son Naruto." Hiruzen watched as Kushina let out a loud primal scream of anger and pain that scared her young son causing him to cry. Kushina quickly began to rock the boy to sleep. Once she was satisfied that Naruto was calm she looked Hiruzen in eye her anger visible and plain to see.
"Why!? I told him to never use that jutsu dattebane! What possessed him to use that DAMN jutsu dattebane?" Hiruzen couldn't blame her for being angry. The reaper death seal was a forbidden jutsu made by the Uzumaki clan. Kushina learned of the jutsu during one of her many journeys to reclaim the many artifacts, scrolls, and relics of her clan. Amongst the many jutsu she found was the forbidden jutsu the Reaper Death Seal. It gave the user the ability to summon the bringer of death known as the Reaper to seal anyone they wish deep within their belly for all eternity. But at the cost of the Reaper taking the users soul as payment, sealing the two seals within its stomach to battle for all eternity.
But Minato was always a genius. Minato modified the jutsu to instead of sealing the target within the reaper, instead seal it within anything of the users choosing. But even then it still came at a cost. The reaper as payment would devour the user's life ,killing them as soon as its job is done.
Kushina felt angrier at her husband than she ever felt before. She told him numerous times when she was teaching him the jutsu that he should never use it. But in the end she knew that he had no choice but to use it. 'Now my son is a Jinchuuriki. I never wanted my son to be a human prison to a giant monster.' Kushina knew the ramifications of the Nine Tails escaping. She knew that it would go on a rampage. And she knew that afterward that her son was going to have a hard life. 'No, hard is putting it lightly. Naruto is going to be put in danger.' She knew that people were going to want revenge. They were going to blame her baby for all the destruction that they went through. Kushina had a hard childhood growing up, but she never had to deal with the aftermath of a demon going on a rampage through her home before being sealed inside her.
Kushina looked up at Hiruzen her eyes filled with determination. "I'm going to protect my son." Hiruzen stared at her in surprise after the silence that went through the area. Kushina could see the surprise in the third hokage's eye's and began to elaborate. "Lord Hokage, we both know that Naruto is going to be in danger. I refuse to let anything happen to my son. I won't let the villagers hurt my son for something he didn't do. That's why… That's why effective immediately I'm retiring from active duty."
Hiruzen sighed in resignation knowing how stubborn Kushina could be when she wanted to be. "Ok. I'll take care of the paper work when I get back to the tower. But how will you take care of yourself?"
Kushina's eyes were still determined as she held her sleeping infant. "Well Minato and I have plenty of money saved up. So with retirement, and Minato's Life Insurance I should be fine for a while until I can figure something out." Kushina knew that she couldn't protect Naruto while away on missions. So even if it meant she had to give up her career as a ninja then so be it.
October 10, 1994 a.n
Today was the birthday of Six-year-old Naruto Uzumaki. But for Naruto he found his birthday was just as bad as it was good if not worse. Every year his mother would make him a big cake and treat him to as much ramen he could stomach at Ichiraku who always gave him a free bowl on his birthday. But if he wasn't in arm's length of his mother he found that he was quickly put in danger.
Naruto quickly peaked out of an alley looking around to see if anyone was around before running as fast as his tiny legs could take him. Naruto carried his backpack full of books, scrolls and homework from another day at the ninja academy to the bakery his mother owned for as long as he could remember. As Naruto ran for the safety of the bread and pastry filled business he was grabbed by his arm and thrown down into a dark alley. Naruto rubbed his back in pain as he felt tears well up in his eyes at the pain. He looked up tearfully at the person that threw him and found a group of men in jonin and chunin uniforms all staring down at him hatefully. Naruto backed up in terror as he saw the six men close in on him.
"What's wrong demon brat? Too scared to fight us without your mommy around?"
"Look at him. He looks like he's gonna piss himself. You guys see this? It's pathetic!"
Naruto felt his tears roll down his face in streams as he desperately clawed at the wall behind him trying to escape from the ninja. "Please…. I promise I didn't do anything. I….I can get my mom… to give you … some cupcakes… if you let me go…" Naruto got out through sobs before he was savagely kicked in his stomach by one of the Jonin.
"DO YOU THINK A BUNCH OF CUPCAKES ARE GONNA MAKE US FEEL BETTER?! I LOST MY BABY SISTER BECAUSE OF YOU! AND NOW YOUR GONNA PAY!" The man's hatred and grief boiled over. His sister was only six. And because of that demon she was crushed under the massive weight of his parents' home along with his father. He couldn't stand it. Why did he have to lose his father and sister while this demon got to walk around free?
Why did he have to lose everything while this monster got to go free as if it were innocent. It was infuriating. And now it was gonna pay. Finally he was going to have his vengeance.
Kushina smiled as she hummed a tune she heard on the radio earlier as she placed more pastries on the shelves of her bakery. Kushina worked hard to maintain this bakery. She opened it two years after she had Naruto and had to struggle to get it off of the ground but after four years she was finally able say her bakery was a success. Kushina looked up at the clock on the Wall in front of her and saw that it was four in the afternoon. She knew that Naruto got out of school at three thirty and should have been here twenty minutes ago. But with the way that the village treated him he instead had to go through backstreets and alleys that delayed him more than it should.
Usually she would go and walk her son to the bakery, but after many hours of begging she finally decided to let him walk on his own. Kushina walked out of the door to her bakery the bell ringing as she exited the building. As she stepped outside Kushina heard the faint sounds of a mob attack coming down the street with her well trained ears. Without a second thought Kushina ran toward the source of the sound hopping that she was wrong. But as she got to the alley the sounds were coming from her whole body froze.
On the ground she saw her son laying there with blood coming from the corner of his mouth and stomach, his lip busted, his blue eyes black, his limbs broken, and his golden blond hair covered in dirt and grime and long cuts all over his arms and chest from near evisceration. Kushina's anger and fear boiled over as she let forth the most killing intent she ever felt in her life. Golden chains shot from her back at blinding speeds as she directed them all to strike down the six-ninja trying to kill her son.
The chains struck home as they all wrapped around the groups bodies. Their limbs were quickly bound and restrained as well as their throats were tightly constricted. She viscously through them behind her crashing through the flower shop behind her behind her. At the moment Kushina didn't care what she destroyed as long as she caused them as much pain as humanly possible. And pain they would get.
Kushina disappeared in the blink of an eye appearing in an instant clutching one of their necks raising him into the air. The main quickly grasped at his throat in pain as he felt his airways being constricted. Kushina squeezed her fist harder wishing to break the man's neck. She heard one of the men run from the building back toward Naruto and shot a chain straight through his left knee wrapping the chin tightly around his leg before slamming him back on the ground in front of her.
The man went limp as she through the man in her grip at one of the other men before punching another hard enough in the face to crack his skull and punch him into a wall. She flew through a flurry of hand seals and inhaled a large amount of air before shooting it out with a swing of her head. "Wind Style: Vacuum Blast!" Crescent shaped blade of wind shot forth from her mouth and cut off the right arm of the fifth man in front of her off along with his right foot before she punched him hard in the chest sending him flying behind the counter in front of her.
Kushina took in another deep breath before shooting out the chakra laced wind at the last three as they began to stand up. "Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets!" Kushina shoot out wind bullets like a machine gun at the three. The wind bullets tore through there flesh narrowly missing all of their vitals. The six all laid on the ground bloody and bruised as she ran for her son in the alley behind her. She didn't stop to think about the shop she destroyed or the men she maimed. All she could think of was getting her baby to the hospital and finding the only medic she knew that would help her.
Kushina burst through the door of the rebuilt hospital kicking the doors open shocking the nurses, doctors and medics in the lobby. Kushina looked around franticly for her husband's old student before grabbing the nearest nurse and pulling her into her face. "Where's Rin Nohara ?!" Kushina shouted in the nurse's face her eyes blazing with fury. The nurse shivered in fear of the red-haired mother as she gripped the woman's collar even harder. "WHERE IS SHE?!"
The nurse jumped back in terror as she pointed to the stairs down the hall behind her. "Sh…she's upstairs in the n..n..n..n..n..nurse's office. Down the hall." Kushina dropped the woman and jumped down the hall. Kushina leaped from one wall to the other as she covered dozens of feet at a time not even thinking about running. As she got to the stairs she bounced from one wall to the other leaping over the stairs entirely as she raced down the hall to Rin. Once she found the Nurse's office area she raced down the hallway until she found Rin's office Kicking the door open shocking Rin and the patient she had with her.
Rin looked over at Kushina in shock looking away from Kakashi and his annual checkup. "Kushina? What are you…. Oh my God what happened to Naruto-kun?" Rin moved Kakashi off of the examination table as Kushina ran inside and laid Naruto on the table.
"Rin please help Naruto! Some ninja attacked Naruto on his way to my bakery from school! Please he needs help!" Kushina pleaded Rin as she nodded her head and turned to Kakashi.
"Kakashi head to the hokage's office and let him know what happened and get an anbu team to arrest the attackers." Kakashi nodded and ran out of the door toward the Hokage's office.
Rin quickly went about gathering the materials she needed operate on Naruto and placed them on the bench next to her. "Kushina I know your worried but you're going to have to step outside." Kushina looked at Rin in both frantic anger and shock.
"What are talking about dattebane? There's no way I'm going to leave now!"
Rin looked at Kushina with a hard and serious glare not intimidated by Kushina's rage. "Kushina, if you want Naruto to pull through then you're going to have to trust me and give me the space I need to operate. You may be a good ninja, but you aren't a medic. You'll only get in the way. If you want Naruto to make it, please wait outside." Kushina wanted to argue. She wanted to stay. She had to stay. But she knew that she couldn't.
"Ok." Kushina lowered her head and stepped out into the hallway as she waited in the hall. Rin closed the door behind her and flew through a series of hand signs activating her chakra scalpel. She ran the scalpel down Naruto's torn shirt tearing the ruined fabric in half. Rin gasped as she saw the lacerations being healed before her eyes, glowing a faint red as if they were burned away. She went through the hand signs for a healing jutsu and used it to examine his body.
"This isn't real." Rin felt shocked. She couldn't begin to understand what was happening. It was as if time was rewinding itself. Throughout Naruto's body his organs were rapidly repairing themselves, his bones were resetting, his blood was beginning to replenish itself. "This is beyond normal regeneration. This is on par with tales of the first hokage." Rin couldn't begin to fathom what was going on. Even Kushina never had regeneration like that. Rin began to go through the motions of placing an intravenous I.V filled with antibiotics into his arm and began to bandage his wounds, cleaning the massive amounts of blood off his body after cutting through the torn clothing.
She ran through the hand signs for the healing jutsu and saw that most of his organs were healed and that his bones were quickly resetting themselves. Rin quickly went to document what she had seen, vowing to get to the bottom of this strange phenomena.
Kushina paced back and forth in the hospital impatiently in front of Rin's office. Kushina was terrified. All that she saw was her son covered in blood. All she saw was her son laying on the ground dying. It felt like she could lose the only thing she had left. She never felt more afraid in her life. She felt more afraid for her son than she ever felt in her life. Kushina was zoned out in her own world. She never noticed the sound of the gruff old man calling out to her until she was turned around to see the hokage standing behind her looking worried.
"Oh, Lord hokage. I didn't notice you there. How are doing?" Hiruzen looked at the woman in worry his wrinkled face.
"I could ask you the same thing Kushina. Those men you fought barely managed to survive their injuries. Two of them have to be retired from active duty with permanent handicaps." Kushina's face furled up in anger at the mention of the six men that viciously attacked her son.
"Quite honestly if It wasn't for the fact that I could be charged with first degree manslaughter I would have killed the bastards for what they did to my baby. " Hiruzen let out a slight shiver at the killing intent he felt from the red-haired mother.
'Hell has no fury like a woman scorned.' Hiruzen thought as he cleared his throat as he began to get on topic. "Anyway. I've come to tell you that charges won't be filled against you for the destruction to the Yamanaka's flower shop that you destroyed. And charges are being filed against the ones that attacked little Naruto. You should be glad Inoichi was in the back of the shop and not Kuroha or I would be putting you behind bars as well." Kushina laughed nervously as she scratched the back of her head.
"Tell him I'll make it up to him later. He can have anything he wants from my bakery for two weeks on me." Hiruzen nodded agreeing to pass along the message. The two heard the door to Rin's office open revealing the 20-year old brunet woman.
"Ah Rin good how is Naruto doing?" Hiruzen warmly greeted the young woman who bowed her head to the village leader.
"Hello Lord Hokage. Kushina you will be happy to hear that your son will be just fine. A good night's sleep and he'll be right as rain." Rin said with a smile before she was placed in a bone crushing bear hug by Kushina.
"Oh thank you Rin! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Kushina franticly repeated with increasing intensity. Rin's face began to turn varying shades of blue as her lungs were constricted.
"O….k…,Ku….shina….just….please…..let….me go." Kushina dropped Rin before she tried to run into the office to see her son but was stopped by Rin. "Kushina before you go we need to talk. The truth is I wasn't the one that healed Naruto. He healed himself before I could do anything."
Kushina looked at Rin as if she grew a second head. "What do you mean he healed himself? He was beaten within an inch of his life!" Rin nodded her head as she beckoned the two into the room behind her. As Hiruzen closed the door behind him he signaled a pair of anbu to guard the door before placing a silencing jutsu over the room.
"Ok Rin so what is it that you want to tell us?" Hiruzen asked the young woman as she decided to get to the point.
"Yes lord hokage. Naruto had very grave injuries. Mostly of which would have taken at least two or three medics to heal. But before I could proceed to administer treatment I saw that his wounds were already healing themselves. In five minutes most of his lacerations and bruises were healed, and his bones had already reset themselves and were in the process of restoring themselves. Logically Naruto should still be in intensive care, but now all he has are a couple of sprains. "
Hiruzen nodded his head as he stared at the unconscious boy in question who was now hooked up to a new iv bag filled with a series of pain killers and tranquilizers. "Are you sure it's not his genetics? Uzumaki are known for their healing abilities." Rin nodded her head as she pulled out multiple folders she retrieved from her files.
"Yes. While the village has only had two Uzumaki clan members, both of them were the Jinchuuriki of the Nine tailed Fox just like Naruto. And neither of them regenerated this fast. There was only one explanation that made sense so I examined Naruto's chakra signature and his dna and preliminary tests show that Naruto's body is twice as accepting to the nine tails chakra than the average person. His body is literally mixing and producing its chakra on its own. The only thing this could mean is that Naruto is developing a brand new kekkei genkai."
Kushina and Hiruzen both stared at Rin in shock at what the girl said. The thought was shocking and ludicrous. But it was also exciting. If Naruto was really developing a new kekkei genkai due to repeated exposure to the nine tails chakra than that meant that they could be on the verge of creating something as powerful as the sharingan. It means that they could possibly have an entire clan of ninja born with the Nine tails powers. It was something that had to be looked into.
"Are you sure Rin?" Kushina asked the medic who nodded her head affirming her claims.
"Yes. Naruto isn't just a Jinchuuriki. He's a Jinchuuriki that's the son of a Jinchuuriki. While Kushina was pregnant with Naruto, he would have been exposed to the nine tails chakra before he was born. Adapting to it during the most important stages of his bodies development causing a mutation in his gene pool that most likely activated after having the fox sealed into him by sensei years ago. Kekkei genkai all developed from a single mutation that was then spread through a person's lineage. Some of which were hypothesized to have origins with the Tailed beasts themselves." Rin said siting down at the desk in the office.
Hiruzen scratched his chin in contemplation as Kushina became more scared for her son. 'This can't be happening. It was bad enough when Minato sealed the fox in Naruto to begin with but now he has a kekkei genkai developing within him that can potentially match that of the most powerful kekkei genkai in the village. If those old farts on the council find out about this they won't hesitate to turn my baby into a living weapon. They'll use him as breading stock to create an army of super soldiers. They'll even use him as a political bargaining chip to bargain with other nations, marrying him off to the highest bidder. And I won't be able to stop them.' Kushina felt the stone in her heart that formed when she saw her son covered in blood. It was the same stone as when she found out about Minato's death.
It was just too much. Right when things seemed to be going good for her it seemed to all come crashing down. And they all seemed to come crashing down around her son. But luckily for her Hiruzen seemed to be thinking about the same thing she was. "If the members of the council find out about this Naruto will lose what freedom he has." Rin turned to the hokage with a worried look on her face that mirrored that of Kushina's.
"So what can we do then."
"In order to protect Naruto from the council Naruto is going to need the protection of a clan. Preferably a noble clan."
Kushina and Rin looked at the hokage stunned and baffled at the statement as they tried not the shout out the absurdity of the statement. "But Lord hokage. Naruto isn't in any clan, let alone a noble one!" Rin said in a loud whisper as she felt like her head was gonna explode with desperation.
Hiruzen just smiled at the worried women as he let out a small chuckle. "Oh but Naruto is a member of a clan. In fact it's probably just as revered as the Uchiha and Senju were." Rin looked at the hokage in confusion as it clicked in Kushina's head what he meant.
"You're talking about the Uzumaki clan." Hiruzen nodded his head his smile not leaving his old grizzled face.
"Exactly. While the Uzumaki clan isn't an actual clan in the leaf village it's an old ally of the village. Its well-known and had its own nobility before its fall. It won't take much to get the council to approve of it being inducted into the leaf village. But there will be a catch."
Kushina felt like she was given asylum for the second time after the fall of the whirlpool village. She wanted to shout, to dance, and kiss the old man but had to restrain herself. "What's the catch?"
"The Uzumaki clan is for all means a noble clan with a long history of dangerous and powerful jutsu. Jutsu that Kushina recovered and learned. That means that if it was inducted into the village. It would fall under the C.R.A."
"What's the C.R.A?" Rin asked as she looked around the room confused by the amount of politics this conversation was introducing.
Kushina sighed knowing exactly where this was going. "The C.R.A stands for the Clan Reconstruction Act. In the event that a clan of noble standing was reduced to endangerment or destruction the survivors would be forced to marry by the age of 18 in order to ensure that that they have an heir or they will either be forced to marry someone of the council's choosing or lose their clan rights. When I came to the Leaf village I was approached about rebuilding my clan but I declined since I didn't want to deal with the politics it would insure. But if I agree that means that Naruto will be forced to find himself a wife by the time he's 18." Hiruzen nodded at the explanation as he decided to continue.
"Exactly. Since Kushina has already been married and gave birth once that means that she would be exempt from the C.R.A. Naruto would not however." Hiruzen said as he looked over at Kushina silently asking what she was going to do.
Kushina closed her eyes in contemplation as she ran the options around in her head before she came to a conclusion. "Fine. If it will protect Naruto from those old farts than I'll do it." Hiruzen smiled at the women's determination and love for her son remembering fondly the little hellion she was as a child and seeing the woman she became.
"Good I'll take care of the paper work at my office. Come see me tomorrow to sign everything. Also your first council meeting starts at 3:00 in tomorrow." Kushina nodded as she saw the hokage turn to leave before processing what he said at the end.
"W…. wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! What do you mean "my first council meeting"? I thought the council was just you and those three old farts dattebane?" Hiruzen smiled mischievously not turning to face the stunned Kushina.
"It was till after the nine tails attack on the village there was so much work to be done in order to rebuild the village that the council and I decided to expand the council to all the clan heads in order to better coordinate with one another as well as spread out the responsibility. So with you being the matriarch of the Uzumaki clan that means your now one of those "old farts". So if you have any questions feel free to ask me latter. I have lots of work to do. And make sure to say hi to Naruto for me." Hiruzen said as he exited the room, his anbu following behind him.
Kushina grabbed her waist length hair and began to pull at the strands in frustration as Rin giggled behind her.
Naruto slowly opened his eyes to find that he was in an unfamiliar room filled with white walls and beeping equipment. Naruto felt soar all over as he sat there wondering why he was in the hospital till he remembered the ninja that attacked him. He screamed. Naruto began to viscously thrash in fear trying to disconnect himself from the IVs he was connected to. Naruto screamed for his mother over and over again. The word mom blaring through the hospital ward for all to hear, her name being shot from his mouth like a bullet desperately wishing for her to come and save him from the phantoms that haunted his mind.
And as if summoned by an angel his mother ran into the room grabbing him by the shoulders and holding him down desperately trying to calm the boy down. Tears rolled down his cheeks. Kushina hated to see her son like this. There was so much fear on his face, there was betrayal, there was desperation, and the face of a child whose innocence had been shattered. Kushina cursed the men that did this to her son. She cursed their names despite not knowing them yet cursed them all the same. Kushina wrapped her little boy in her arms and held him as tightly as she could as Naruto began to sob even harder.
Naruto held on to his mother with all the power he could summon from his little hands. He held onto her as if she was his lifeline in a vast sea drowning in the middle of nowhere. Kushina rested her head on top of her son's as he continued to cry, his longs not giving out. "Mommy…mommy…..I…I..I..was..s…..so…..scared." Naruto wailed through his sobs as his mother continued to hold him. Gently shushing the young boy desperately wanting him to calm down.
"It's ok Naruto. Mommy's here. I promise no one is ever going to hurt you ever again. I promise." Kushina said gently and lovingly to her son as she rubbed his hair with all the care a mother could give.
Naruto pulled his sobbing and tear stained face from his mother's chest looking her in her placid purple eyes with his reddened blue ones. "Mommy… why does the villagers hate me so much? Did I do something wrong? If so I promise I'll be good from now on! I'll be a good boy! Just please…make them stop! I promise I'll be good from now on! I promise I won't pull pranks on the village! I'll study hard! I'll eat my vegetables! I Promise I'll be the best son from now on. Just…please! Make them stop." Kushina couldn't take it anymore she wrapped her son in her arms as tightly as she could and broke down.
Kushina cried harder than she ever could. She wondered how people could hate and be so cruel to a small child as innocent as her son. The villagers always blamed her son for the things that was wrong with their home. They blamed Naruto for the loss of their family and friends. They always blamed Naruto. She couldn't take it anymore. Kushina cried with her son sharing his despair and letting out all the feelings she's been holding back for all these years.
October 11, 2000 a.n
The sun rose over the leaf village in a dazzling display of orange and red creating a beautiful display waking the villagers up from their slumber so they can begin their day much like a certain orange clad blonde. Naruto hung from the hokage mountain with his typical foxy grin on his face as he admired his work. Naruto laughed in earnest as he pulled out a walkie talkie he had in his pocket. "So mom how does it look?" From the top of a building a few hundred feet away Kushina smiled at her son's latest prank that took over three hours of work without being caught.
"It looks great sweetie. It's probably your best work yet." Kushina complimented as she looked over to her right to see what looked like a group of jonin and chunin ninja angrily approaching the blonde like a swarm of angry bees. Kushina chuckled in amusement as she looked down at her watch. 'Right on time and with five minutes to spare.' Kushina thought as she brought her walkie talkie back to her mouth. "Ok Naruto it's time for you to get to school or you'll be late again. Also you have anbu on your tail this time, try not to get caught this time." Kushina said in a jovial tone as she heard Naruto laugh in response.
"Wouldn't dream of it. See you mom I love you, bye." Naruto said quickly as the sounds of the angry ninja rang in her ear yelling for the blonde to stop. Kushina laughed in mirth as she watched her son weave his way avoiding the ninja with ease as usual.
Naruto laughed at the display as he outpaced the elder ninja trying to find him. He pulled out a hand full of smoke bomb and tossed them into air obscuring their vision. The three-ninja landed on the ground looking around for the blond-haired nuisance before jumping off in another direction. After the ninjas jumped off a camouflage blanket fell to the ground reveling the laughing blonde hiding against the fence. The now 12-year-old Naruto stood at 4'7 wearing an orange and blue jacket with a white collar, a white swirl with a tassel on the left side, and a red Uzumaki crest on the back. He also wore orange pants with a shuriken holster on his right knee, blue sandals, and a pair of green googles on his forehead. "Haha those losers still can't catch me!" Naruto laughed before being hit in the back of his head by someone taller than him.
"They can't but I can!" Naruto rubbed his head in pain before turning to see Iruka standing behind him not pleased in the least.
"Hi Iruka-sensei! Do like my work?" Naruto asked with a large smile on his face before he got another bonk on the head.
"No I do NOT! You graffitied the Hokage monument! This is highly disrespectful! What would your mother think of this?" Iruka yelled at the twelve-year-old in irritation as Naruto looked at him with a slightly dejected face.
"She was supervising." Iruka slapped himself in the face, face palming hard enough to leave a red mark.
"Oh dear merciful God….Naruto you're the heir to one of the five noble clans in the village. You have to set an example. How are people gonna take you seriously if you keep causing trouble like this?"
Naruto looked at Iruka and tilted his head slightly, his eyes closed like a confused fox pup. "But mom says that pranking is a good way to learn how to be a ninja." Naruto saw Iruka face pam again before he decided to give up.
"Fine just get to class. I don't want you being late again."
"I was late one time."
"Naruto you were late seven times." Iruka said with a calm dead pan as Naruto sighed.
"Fine I'll be there in a second." Naruto watched as Iruka walked off and began to wonder how the man kept finding him. He couldn't wrap his brain around it and decided to get to class before he was late again.
Naruto sat in his seat with a heavy sigh having had to run at top speed to get to school on time. After having had time to catch his breath Naruto looked around to see most of the class was either ignoring him or paying attention to his supposed to be best friend Sasuke. "I don't get it. Why does everyone always go gaga for Sasuke? He's the biggest jackass I know!" Naruto never did get along with the black haired Uchiha. Despite their moms being good friends the only thing they ever seamed to do was argue and fight. Mostly cause Sasuke always claimed he was better them him. Which he wasn't.
"Maybe because he's better looking than you are." Naruto looked behind him in irritation to see the smug look of Ino Yamanaka staring at him as if she won some sort of argument.
'Another kid of one of my mom's friends that I don't like.' Naruto always found that anytime he met a child of one of his mom's friends that he always ended up hating them. It happened with Ino, it happened with Kiba, and it sure as hell happened with Sasuke. He never did understand why since their parents were always nice to him. Especially Sasuke's mom Mikoto who used to give him cookies when he was little. The thought of Mikoto brought back unpleasant memories of things that happened to the woman years ago. But he wasn't able to think of those things now.
"Shut up Ino. I didn't ask you for your opinion." Naruto said as he looked at her with the hardest look he could. Which only served to make him look more comical to the platinum blonde.
"Very ungentlemanly. You know Naruto, your never gonna get a girlfriend if you keep acting like that. But if you apologize I might think of going on a date with you." Ino said with a consisted smile as she pushed her long pony tail up behind her in an attempt to look sexier than she physically could in the body of a twelve-year-old girl.
Naruto looked at the girl with annoyed irritation not liking it when she looked down on him. "Ino, no one wants to date your skanky ass!" Naruto said getting a chuckle out of some of the guys around and the ire of one platinum blond who felt veins popping on her forehead and her eyes blaze red with fiery anger and vengeance.
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?" Ino yelled in anger as she stood up from her seat ready to pounce on the blonde in front of her.
Naruto stood up as well looking the girl straight in the eye. "You heard me you blonde haired she-witch!"
"Alright that's it!" Ino yelled as she attempted to thrash the blonde in front of her only to be held back by Choji and Shikamaru sitting beside her. Sakura sat behind the blonde girl and shock her head while putting up a fake glare at the blonde-haired boy to hide her laughter. While most of her classmates hated the blonde Sakura didn't. While she wasn't particularly fond of him she did find him funny. She found that class was never boring when he was around. But she never let anyone know that since everyone seemed to not like him.
In fact no one liked him. And so not to stand out she always went with the crowd so she would fit in. But even so she always loved Naruto's pranks. While she would yell at him out loud she was always laughing on the inside. 'Especially that time he put habanero chili powder in Hiashi Hyuga's tea. I swear I couldn't feel my ribs I was laughing so hard.' But Sakura always kept these thoughts to herself. Otherwise she feared she would be just as much an outcast as him.
And this was how Sakura Haruno spent her days. Each day she did the things that she thought was expected from her, always caving and bending to the will and opinions of the group in an effort to please those around her. And each time she grew to loathe herself more and more. Including pretending to like a certain Uchiha that seemed to be the poster child for the leaf village. Sakura frowned at the thought of the Uchiha heir. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't understand why all the girls she knew liked the boy. 'So what if he's a good looking prodigy from a famous clan! He's the biggest prick I know!' But that could be her own personal bias speaking. After all Sakura tried to befriend the boy four years ago only to have him coldly tell her "I'm not interested in being your boyfriend now back off and let me train."
'I wasn't even trying to date that prick back then. I just thought he looked lonely.' Sakura thought bitterly as she saw her teacher Iruka Umino walk into the class and began to call for the class to settle down.
"All right class settle down. Now today is the day where you all take your final exams. Those of you that pass will become genin. Those that fail will have to wait till next year to take the test." Iruka said as he got silence from the group. "Now the test includes three parts. Part one is a written exam. Part two and three are demonstrations of your abilities to use two jutsu. The jutsu are the transformation jutsu, and the clone jutsu." Naruto felt his face go pale as the blood flowing through his tan cheeks rush from his face.
'Oh no not the clone jutsu! That's my worse jutsu!' Naruto thought in horror as he hopped that it wouldn't affect his chances to pass.
"And remember the final demonstration is worth fifty percent of your final grade. So I hope you all have been practicing the clone jutsu like I asked." And that was when Naruto knew he was sunk. He always sucked at the clone jutsu. No matter how hard he tried the clones he made were always horrible looking and lifeless. He didn't get it. Even his mom couldn't understand it. Sometimes Naruto really hated his life.
The written test went by quickly for the group of students. It was basic information. Things they all knew by heart. It was the main reason why the written portion was only worth 10 percent of their grade. Once their time ran out Iruka took the tests and had the group line up for their next exam. "Alright you all time for your transformation exam. Once I call your name come up and use the transformation jutsu."
The students nodded their heads as Iruka began calling them up to perform the Jutsu one after the other. Iruka looked on his list and called the next name "Sakura Haruno." Sakura eagerly stepped forward with her face adorned in an excited and confident smile. This was what she had been practicing so hard for. Sakura walked up in front of the class and brought her hands in the tiger sign and poofed into her teacher. Iruka smiled as he nodded his head in silent congratulations. Sakura turned around to the others happy about her accomplishment conscious about maintaining her image of a Sasuke fan girl.
"Sasuke did you see that? What do you think?" Sasuke turned his head away in an annoyed huff. Sakura felt a vein begin to throb in irritation as she gave a strained smile and a forced laugh while holding herself back from strangling the black haired Uchiha heir. 'I swear I hate this stuck-up jack ass! Shannaro!' Sakura thought visualizing herself wringing his neck as she went back in line with her other classmates.
Iruka went down the list as he came up to Naruto. "Naruto Uzumaki, you're up next." Naruto stood in line with his hands in his pockets annoyed at the dirty looks he was getting. On either side of him stood Ino and Shikamaru, the former still looking as if she would bite Naruto's head off, the latter looking sleepy and annoyed at the two blondes.
"Don't screw this up Naruto." Shikamaru said to the blond next to him as he walked out into the floor. The platinum blond haired girl next to him sneered as she saw the boy walk in front of her.
"Yeah we always end up having to pay for your screw ups!" Ino said in restrained fury. Naruto just flipped the girl bird behind him as he kept walking. From the corner of his eye he saw the cold white eyes of the Hyuga heiress viscously scowling at students around her. Naruto shivered at her cold stare as he stood in front of Iruka.
'Hinata's stare is probably scarier than my mom. It's kind of a shame. She would be cute if she smiled more.' But it would be a cold day in hell before Hinata "Snow woman" Hyuga smiled. Naruto slammed his hands into the tiger sign as he began to gather chakra. Like many of his other classmates a puff of smoke obscured him from his classmate's vision. Iruka watched in almost dull interest As Naruto performed the transformation jutsu he went on about grading Naruto's demonstration. The smoke quickly vanished and the class all felt as if they would have a heart attack.
The image they saw was not of a copy of their teacher but of a naked blond haired woman with large pigtails in her early to mid-twenties posing much like a pinup starlit. The only thing that kept the image from reaching the realms of full vulgarity was the tufts of steam covering the woman's breast and hips. The woman then gave a seductive wink as she spoke the name of the jutsu she used. "I call this my sexy jutsu." And in what felt like clockwork every male in the room fell to the ground with a massive nose blead including the lazy Shikamaru and the emo Sasuke. Every girl gave Naruto a deadly cold stare, their faces as red as the blood that flowed through their veins.
Naruto undid the transformation in a puff of smoke vigorously laughing it his teacher and male classmates. Naruto was doubled over as he held his stomach in pain from his hard laughter as a dark shadow surrounded him. Naruto looked up to see he was surrounded by the other half of his class and they were all giving him a look of pure murder. Naruto laughed nervously as he was grabbed by the arms by two of the girls as the rest preceded to beat the stuffing out of him calling him multiple variations of the phrase "Misogynist pig".
After one straight minute the girls dropped the thoroughly beaten Naruto on the ground and through him to the back of the class to wake up with the rest of the boys.
Iruka stood in front of the class with tissue stuffed up his nostrils. 'Damn that kid. How the hell did he manage to transform into that accurate of a woman? Now I look like an idiot in front of my students.' It was humiliating. He was supposed to be a role model. He was supposed to set a good example for his students. 'Now they all think I'm a giant pervert.' Iruka gazed over at the student that caused this and sighed. He would have yelled at the twelve-year-old but seeing the bruises and the black eyes he had decided that he already paid for his mistakes.
"Ok. Now it's time for the final part of your exam. This is by far the most important part of your exam. One at a timeeach of you will enter the next room and shall perform the clone jutsu. Those that succeed shall get one of the headbands behind me and become a full-fledged ninja." Naruto sat in his seat sweating up a storm. He was more nervous than he ever was before. This was his chance to finally become a ninja. The first step in his goal to prove to the villagers that he had what it takes to become hokage and gain their respect.
'I have to pass! I will pass! I'm the son of the fourth hokage! There's no way I'll fail dattebayo"!' Naruto thought in stubborn abandon. He had to pass. He couldn't afford to fail. He couldn't be the only one that failed. He had to pass no matter what. Soon one by one each of the students began to walk into the examination room and one by one they each came back with their own headbands. One by one Naruto watched as his classmates passed. And with each student he felt himself get more and more nervous.
Naruto sat there in his seat in nervous anticipation as he nervously bit into his nails. Naruto was more on edge than he ever felt before. "Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto jumped as his name was called. The students around him all laughed at the blonde's expense. Naruto lowered his face as he walked past the rows of students and into the examination room. Naruto looked around the room to see all five of the academies' teachers all sitting in front of him ready to judge his performance.
Naruto looked across the group of teachers to see that they were viably scowling at him. He looked at Iruka to see he was visibly impartial while Mizuki was sitting there with a small smile on his face like always when he saw the blonde. A smile that did seem to make him feel better. Naruto took a deep breath and went through the hand signs for the clone jutsu before he began to channel his chakra. Chakra surged and circled around Naruto as he summoned his chakra from his large stores of chakra.
'I have to pass. I can't afford not to pass. I'm the only one left. If I fail I'm gonna look like an idiot out there. I'm gonna pass. I will pass dattebayo!" Naruto fervently repeated over and over again hopping and wishing for just a single good clone. A large flash of chakra rang through the room blinding the teachers for a moment before a puff smoke rang through the air for what felt like minutes to the young blonde but was only moments for his judging. teachers. Naruto opened his eyes to see that Iruka looked disappointed, Mizuki had a face that looked to be genuinely sorry while the other three simply looked smug.
Naruto looked around him before he saw the clone he created. His clone was a shamble. It couldn't stand up properly so it had to lay slumped over. It's eyes where hollow white husks. Its skin, hair and cloths were all desaturated to the point of unrecognizability. Naruto felt his hopes shatter as he lowered his head in sadness. Iruka sighed at the sight. He hated to see Naruto like this. He wanted to see the blonde pass his exam. But for as much as he liked the blond he was still a teacher and had to be impartial when evaluating his students.
"I'm sorry Naruto. But I'm going to have to fail you." Iruka said somberly as he interlocked his fingers together. Naruto looked at Iruka with shock and despair as he saw his dream falling apart around him.
"But Iruka sensei I passed all my other tests! I've even did well on all my assignments and exorcises throughout the entire school year!" Naruto plead to Iruka in desperation. He couldn't fail now! He worked too hard to fail! But Iruka wasn't about to change his mind.
"All of that is true you have passed all your other assignments. But your final exam is worth forty percent of your grade. If you can't pass it you can't graduate." Naruto felt a pit grow in his stomach. Everything he ever hoped for was about to be taken away from him. All of his hard work was about to be made meaningless. He could see his hopes and dreams crashing down around him. He fought the urge to let his tears fall not wanting to look weak in front of the group of chunin.
Mizuki looked at Naruto with pity as he looked over at his comrade and fellow teacher. "Hey Iruka why don't we let him pass anyway?"
Naruto's head shot up like a viper striking someone that entered its personal space. His eyes shone with hope as he gazed at the man with a pleading look begging to be allowed to graduate.
"Mizuki we can't do that. It wouldn't be fair to the students that passed legitimately, nor would it be fair to Naruto who needs to rely on his own skill and not handouts from people." Iruka said standing by his decision. He knew that he agreed with Mizuki. He knew that out of all the students in his class Naruto was probably the one who worked the hardest.
He may have been a prankster and wasn't his best student when it came to academics. But he did know that Naruto was the hardest worker he has ever seen. And he was also the most dedicated. Mizuki looked at Iruka with a slight frown on his face knowing that Naruto was more than skilled enough to be a genin. "Oh come off it Iruka. We all know that the clone exam is useless. Out of all of the students in his grade Naruto has the most practical skill as well as combative skill as well. If I remember correctly in all of his training spars he beat every student in the class with the exception of Sasuke Uchiha."
Naruto frowned at the memory of how the Uchiha beat him. 'Fucking son of a bitch stole the paper bombs I was making and used them against me. I'm just glad they weren't that strong.' Naruto thought in anger at how the Uchiha slipped his own paper bombs on him in a spar and ignited them. In practice they were more like smoke bombs but they still cost him a victory on the smug jackass. 'How the hell did someone as nice as Auntie Mikoto give birth to that stuck-up jackass?!'
Iruka looked over at Mizuki in an annoyed huff having the teacher give him a legitimate argument against his decision. "Yes that is true but at the same time the rules state that he has to pass his exam to graduate. A rule created by the third hokage himself. Do you really want go against a rule that was created by the Hokage?" It was a low blow but Iruka knew it had to be done. For as much as he cared about the blond he wanted him to succeed off of his own merits more.
One by one all the other teachers agreed with Iruka's decision. One by one they all agreed with the verdict to fail the blonde-haired boy further crushing what hope he had. Naruto bowed his head in defeat as he turned around and exited the room. Once he was out of the examination rom he ran past all of his classmates not wanting them to see him cry. He ran faster than he thought he could out the door to his class room and straight out the door of the academy. He ran without thinking or without direction. He ran away from his failure and from the sneers and laughter he could still hear ringing from his ears from his classmates.
In the classroom Sakura looked at the door that she saw Naruto run out of in slight sadness and sympathy for the blonde. She could see the tears rolling down his cheeks as he ran out the door leaving a slight sting in her stomach. Sakura never liked seeing people sad or hurt. She found that she was far too sensitive and empathetic for it. 'I've never seen Naruto so sad before. Whenever he's not in some kind of fight with Sasuke, Ino or Kiba he always seems so happy. Being a ninja must mean the world to him.' Sakura looked at the headband she got for passing her exam in her hand deeply frowning at the reflective surface of the metal with the leaf symbol etched into its surface.
'Naruto deserves this more than I do. I may be smarter than him, but he could beat me ten times out of ten.' Sakura thought as she felt someone elbow her in the ribs. Sakura looked up to see Ino standing there grinning while pointing at the door.
"Looks like Naruto isn't as great as he says he is after all." The comment was cocky and full of condescension. Sakura quickly put up a fake and equally arrogant smile on her face as she pushed back some of the back length pink hairs that framed her face.
"I know right! Naruto is such a loser! He really out to get the message already." Ino smiled as she laughed at her pink haired best friend's comment. Sakura felt the pit in her stomach grow bigger with every word she said. She knew what she was saying was wrong. If her parents heard her talking like she was she knew that they would be angry. If her tutor at the hospital heard her she knew without a doubt she wouldn't hold back from giving her a thorough verbal beat down. But even so the thought of being alone scared her more than she could fathom. She never wanted to be alone again.
But even so she still felt her inner self-loathing grow with every beat of her heart.
Naruto sat there on a water tower above the hospital staring down at the many villagers walking back and forth. It was sunset now and he had been there for hours letting out his despair in peace. The roof of the hospital was gated up and was high enough for most people to not see him. It was the perfect place to let out his grief. But now he no longer had anymore tears to shed. Naruto sat on top of the water tower his arms wrapped around his knees hugging them to his chest as he laid his head on top of his knees.
"I failed. After all of the hard work I did I failed. How am I supposed to face people know? How do I tell my mom that I was the only person to fail the exit exam? Mom worked with my hours after she closed up shop to help me with my training. She even taught me how to use wind chakra after I found out Sasuke could use fire jutsu simply because I asked her."
Naruto turned his head to his right as he gazed at the statue of his father that he had painted hours ago that was now clean. Most likely thanks to one of his mom's water clones. 'Dad, what am I supposed to do?' Naruto never knew his father. He saw pictures of him around the house and his mother would always tell him stories about him when he was little. He especially loved the one where his father saved his mother from some cloud ninja. It was his favorite story of all.
He always heard about how his father was a genius ever since he was a kid and wondered what he would do in the situations that he was in. He would wonder "Would he have some secret strategy?" "Did he have some secret method or jutsu that could solve all of his problems?" So he would ask his mother. But every time he asked her she would always tell him the same thing. "Keep trying and never give up." It was always the same advice over and over again. Now Naruto was wondering if it actually worked.
Naruto continued to rummage through his own thoughts when he felt a hand on is shoulder. He turned his head to see Mizuki giving him a soft, reassuring smile. "Mizuki-sensei? What are you doing here?"
Mizuki sat down next to the boy on the water tower as he gazed at the village bellow him. "I was gonna ask you the same thing. Your mom is worried sick about you. After you ran out of school your mom was looking for you. When we told her you ran off she nearly had a fit." Mizuki chuckled as he remembered the 36-year-old woman's reaction. "She had the biggest fit I've ever seen. She went from angry fury to scarred silly to obsessed overprotective mother in less than three seconds."
Naruto couldn't help but laugh at the description knowing it was probably right. "Yeah that sounds about right." Ever since he went to the hospital six his mother was always worried about him and was very overprotective. But he never felt that smothered by her. She remined him of a mother grizzly bear. Highly protective and a very ready to defend her cub at a moment's notice. "I don't know how I'm supposed to face her now. She went through all that work to help me train and in the end I just failed."
Mizuki watched as the large smile was wiped of the blondes face and was replaced with a sad look of defeat. "You know. If you want to pass I know another way you can do it." At that moment it felt like time froze for the blonde. He looked at Mizuki with shock. He felt as if his stomach would twist itself to the point of implosion. He felt hesitation well up and clog his throat like bile rising from the pit of stomach overwhelming his senses. But the strongest of alll was desperation. He wanted to pass and be a ninja. He wanted to make his mom proud of him.
He wanted to be a great ninja like his father more than anything in the world. And so like a drowning child reaching out for a life preserver he reached out for the shred of hope he was given. "What do I have to do?" It came out in no louder than a whisper but it was clear for the both of them to hear.
Mizuki smiled as he stood up and turned to the blonde-haired pre-teen who was gazing at him as if he was an immaculate being sent down from heaven to solve his dilemmas. "Ok its really simple. In the hokage tower there's a scroll. Inside are most powerful jutsu the village has ever created. It's called the scroll of sealing. All you have to do is get the scroll and learn one jutsu from it. If you can do it in one night you'll pass."
Naruto felt hope fill and well up in his being. He was excited. He was more excited than he was ever in his whole life. It was simple. It would be the easiest test he ever did. All he had to do was take a scroll out of the hokage tower and learn one jutsu. Naruto got up and quickly hugged the man as tightly as he could and thanking him as quickly as he could. Mizuki laughed and slightly pushed him away.
"It's ok Naruto. But you have to keep this secret. You can't tell anybody. Not even your mom ok." Naruto nodded his head franticly with all the enthusiasm and innocence of a small child. Naruto agreed before jumping off back to his home for the night.
It was midnight as Naruto stood in his room in his regular orange jump suit. When he got home his mother hit him as hard as she could over the head for running off in the middle of class before bringing him into a bone crushing bear hug. He made sure that he had all of his gear before he opened the sliding door to his room and walked out onto the balcony on the top floor of his house closing and locking it after him and jumping out into the darkness.
Iruka laid on his bed staring up at the sealing as his thoughts kept going back to Naruto. He kept seeing his distraught face as he told him that he failed his exam. He knew that he had to. He knew that it was the right thing to do but, it still didn't mean that he liked it. He wanted Naruto to succeed. He wanted him to be great. So he pushed him. He pushed him as far as he possibly could. He saw potential in Naruto. Potential very few people saw. But in the end it didn't stop him from feeling like a horrible person. But before he could continue his thoughts he heard a series of loud knocks on his apartment door. He got up from his bed and walked to his front door.
As he opened his door he saw a chunin standing in full deployment gear. "What's going on?" It was weird. The only time ninjas were sent on missions after midnight were in times of war. And it made even less sense since he was a teacher and didn't go on mission's anymore. The ninja looked at him with a solemn face as hard as stone his eyes boiling over with rage and furry.
"The scroll of sealing was stolen…..by Naruto Uzumaki."
Rin was shocked. She stood next to Kakashi who was reading his Make out paradise book in front of the hokage tower both in their jonin uniform. At the age of 26 Rin's hair was now down to her shoulder blades with shoulder-length strands that framed both sides of her face. She had no bangs so her for head was easily visible. She had a slender but feminine build that oozed of feminine charm with her strong muscles hidden beneath her soft fair skin. Her face still retains her purple face markings but was now much longer and less round then it was as a twelve year chunin and ended in a sharp, short, and pronounced chin.
"Naruto's not a thief. Yes he's a troublemaker and Kushina encourages his pranks way too much but he's not a thief!" Rin was always close to Naruto. She used to babysit him when he was young and played with him when he was child. Even if his playing involved pit fall traps, rope snares, and large buckets of Ice water being dumped on her head. But she still loved him like the younger brother she never had. No matter how bad things got for him she would always stick up for the blonde. But this didn't make any sense.
"I agree." Kakashi said in his dull droll as he flipped to the next page of the book he's read five times already. "It's not in his mo. Naruto's pranks all revolve around his desire for people to notice him and acknowledge his skill as a ninja. It's about personal glory. Harming others, self-gratification, and personal gain has anything to do with it."
Rin nodded her head in agreement at the analysis. It was something she told Kushina about when Naruto first started to act out as a child and started to pull pranks. She told her that helping him in his pranks or at least telling him that he did them well could help alleviate some of these feelings. If not he may begin to grow a large inferiority complex. "So why would he do something like this?" Rin looked at Kakashi's visible right eye to see that he was looking at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Better question. Who told him that the scroll existed?" Rin knew he was right. Anyone not of chunin rank or higher wasn't supposed to know about the scroll. Taking it was a capital offence punishable by death. She knew that there was no way that Kushina would ever put Naruto up to this. She may have been a crazy prankster but she always put Naruto's safety above everything. Including not letting him do anything dangerous.
But she was halted from her musing as she saw the third Hokage walk in front of the group and silence there murmuring. "I know what you are all thinking. I know that many of you are angry and want Naruto to suffer retribution for his actions. But I alone will deliver judgement on him so go. Find Naruto and bring him to me at once!" The group of Ninja all gave off a resounding chorus of affirmation as they all disappeared in the blink of an eye. The force of their jumps creating a large gust of wind that kicked up Hiruzen's Hokage robes.
Naruto sat on the forest floor smiling like a cheesier cat as he unfurled the scroll. He sat in front of one of his dad's old safe houses. His mom had cleaned them all out years ago so he decided to turn one into his own personal hideout and store house filled with enough cloths, food and equipment to let him disappear for at least a week. It would be more but it didn't have electricity so he couldn't hold any perishable food and his mom was very meticulous about making sure Naruto didn't spend a lot of money.
'Oh man I can't believe it was so easy to take this thing! Am I amazing or what?' With all the pranks he pulls in broad daylight Naruto became very adept in stealth. It was the first thing his mom taught him about how to be a ninja. "Have a plan, get in, get out, and don't be seen." These were the foundations of good prankster, and of a good ninja. Naruto laid the scroll on the ground and unrolled it to the first jutsu written on it.
"Ok. The first jutsu is the….Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu? Damnit! It's my worst Jutsu. I hate this jutsu!" Naruto ran his fingers through his hair in frustration at the predicament he found himself in. He had to master a jutsu in this scroll but he sucked at this jutsu. He went through the scroll again and got more and more frustrated seeing that every jutsu got more and more complex and began to sound like gibberish to him. Getting frustrated he rolled up the scroll back to the Shadow clone jutsu and began to read through it.
As he read through it he noticed that this clone jutsu seemed to use far more chakra than the one taught at the academy. He didn't understand why but he figured that he would find out later and wing it. Standing up on his feet he punched his right hand into his left palm in a show of determination an excited foxy grin appearing on his face. "Alright time to master this jutsu."
Iruka raced through the forest outside of the village he had been searching in for close to four hours now and so far no one had found Naruto. He cursed under his breath. 'Why does Naruto have to be so damn good at hiding?' Iruka always questioned why Naruto was so good at hiding. If he didn't know better he would think that Naruto was some form of natural born predator hunting for his next prey. 'But with his situation that may be true.' Iruka shook the thoughts off and continued his search. He had to find him. He couldn't let anyone else get to Naruto before he did. It was the only way to make sure Naruto was safe.
If anyone but him found him they would surely kill him. Although Kakashi Hatake seemed to be friendly enough around Naruto. But he didn't exactly know what sort of relationship they had. But even so. He couldn't depend on a man he knew little about to protect Naruto. He had to do it himself. Iruka came over to a small clearing in the forest and in front of him was a small wooden cabin. He landed on the forest floor and slowly walked around to the front of the cabin to see a very tired and happy Naruto laying on the ground, the opened scroll laying next to him. The sound of feet crushing dried leaves and twigs reached Naruto's ears from behind him.
Naruto turned to see Iruka walking up to him seeming slightly tired and out of breath. Naruto got up from his spot on the ground grabbing the scroll before rolling it back up and walking up to Iruka. "Hey Iruka-sensei! I didn't expect to see you this early. I thought I would have to go see you in the morning to do the makeup exam!" Naruto said happily seeing the situation as a case of good fortune.
Iruka looked at Naruto in confusion that the blonde didn't seem to pick up on, his large innocent smile not faltering. Iruka looked over the boy quickly and saw that his hands and certain parts of his cloths were covered in chakra burns. His posture was relaxed and at ease. He wasn't acting like a thief caught red handed but a normal student talking to his teacher. "Makeup exam?" the words left his mouth as he tried to piece things together. 'Something's not right.'
Naruto nodded his head vigorously his eyes shining with innocent excitement. "Yeah the makeup exam! Mizuki-sensei told me about it! He said that all I had to do was learn a jutsu from the scroll Gramps keeps in his secret storage room in the tower. He said that I had to get it after night time though. I don't know why but Mizuki-sensei's always been nice to me so I knew it had to be the truth! Why else would you be here Iruka sensei! I just finished mastering one of the scrolls jutsu just like he asked. No all I have to do is show you and I get to be a ninja dattebayo!"
Iruka looked at Naruto in shock as he felt a pit form deep in his stomach. It didn't take him long to understand what had happened. Mizuki had tricked Naruto into stealing the scroll. Naruto was never a liar. He may have been a troublemaker but he would never lie. Not even if his life depended on it. Iruka knelt down in front of Naruto and placed his hands on Naruto's shoulders and held them in a firm grip making the blonde look his teacher in the eye to see the serious look he was getting.
"Naruto I want you to listen to me. Mizuki has lied to you. There is no makeup exam." Naruto looked shocked. He looked as if his small world was breaking. He couldn't believe it. Mizuki was always nice to him. When all the other teachers were mean to him Mizuki always took up for him. Helped him with his school work, and gave him advice whenever he needed it. He wanted it to be a lie but the sinister laughter he heard from above him told him it was truth.
"Well it looks like I was too slow. I was hoping to get here first so that I could turn Naruto over to the Hokage." Iruka stood up in front of the blonde glaring at the white haired male.
"Mizuki. Why did you lie to Naruto? You know that taking the scroll of sealing is a capital offence! What were you thinking?!" Iruka yelled up at his fellow teacher who stood there on the tree branch above them in his chunin uniform and two large shuriken on his back. Mizuki smiled a sickening smile that seemed as vile and slimy as the devil himself.
"For power and revenge." Iruka and Naruto stood there speechless as Mizuki continued to talk. "I want revenge for what that thing did to me, my family, my friends, and the village twelve years ago." Iruka looked behind him to see that Naruto was shocked to his core. He was shaking like a leaf. His eyes were as wide as diner plates, and tears were beginning to pour down his face. Naruto was afraid. Iruka remembered the indecent that happened six years ago when Naruto left school and was attacked on his way home. While Naruto never showed any sign of the event having an effect on him Iruka knew that it may have traumatized him, and it appeared that he was right.
"Naruto never killed anyone and you know it! Besides Naruto was born twelve years ago." Iruka yelled knowing that if he didn't stop Mizuki that he may break the boy for life.
"But you're wrong Iruka. Naruto isn't some innocent twelve-year-old. He's not even human! Naruto don't you ever wonder why the villagers hate you? Why parents don't let you around their kids? And the true reason you have a new kekkei genkai? Well I'll tell you. It's because you are the nine-tailed fox!" Naruto felt his world shatter into thousands of pieces. He felt cold and numb like ice. He felt betrayed, he felt anguish, but most of all he felt despair.
Naruto backed away slowly his tears never stopped falling down his cheeks as he shook his head in pain gripping his short blond hair as tightly as possible. Mizuki took pleasure in the pain he had inflicted onto Naruto as Iruka glared at him as hard as he could. Iruka was about to attack Mizuki in anger but stopped when he felt an intense heat. He turned and saw deep bloody orange chakra radiating off of the pained blond haired boy. He wailed in sorrow and pain as he repeated no over and over again before screaming in anguish letting out a flood of malevolent chakra.
The chakra was like fire. It burned everything that touched it. The grass around him turned black, and insects turned into nothing but bits of burnt carbon. "Naruto?" Iruka had never seen chakra like this before. Nor had he seen Naruto in a state like this. He didn't know what to do. All he knew was that Naruto was more afraid than he ever had been.
"That's it. Reveal your true form, Show the world what you truly are so that we can kill you like the beast you are!" Mizuki yelled in sadistic glee drawing Iruka's enraged gaze back toward him. "That's enough out of you!" Iruka leaped at the white haired ninja his right arm pulled back to punch the man in the face but caught nothing but air. Mizuki leapt over Iruka before savagely kicking him in the face back to the ground.
Mizuki landed back on his tree branch and removed one of the large shuriken on his back and began to spin the large throwing star as fast as he could, taking aim at the glowing blonde before letting it fly. The distraught Naruto paid no head to the incoming projectile aiming to decapitate him before he was pushed onto the ground by Iruka. Naruto stared at the man in shock his tears still falling down his cheeks in shock and saw that he was stabbed in his left shoulder blade. "Iruka…sensei…..why?"
Iruka gave Naruto a strained smile as he struggled to push himself up and off of the blonde. "Its…because…you're my student." Iruka winced in pain as he continued to look Naruto in the eye. "Naruto….you are not the nine tails. You may have a demon inside you….but you are NOT a demon. You are one of my precious students. And I would rather die than let anyone harm you." Naruto's tears continued to flow down his cheeks but this time it wasn't because of anguish and sadness. But of happiness. Mizuki sneered in disgust at the display and removed his last shuriken and prepared to launch it at the blonde. He jumped down from his position over them and began to walk up to them.
"Time to die. Nine tailed brat!" But before he could complete the throw he was knocked back by a fist flying into his face. He rubbed his broken nose before looking up to see the blonde with his fist outstretched his eyes filled with anger, orange chakra still wafting off him like flames.
"I swear, if you dare touch my sensei...I'll kill you." Killing intent wafted off of Naruto like the wisps of orange chakra surrounding his body. Iruka gazed at Naruto in shock at the speed that he moved at. He moved faster than he could see moving in an orange blur when he punched Mizuki clear across the field.
'In fact his chakra seems thicker.' Iruka watched as the chakra as if being fed by Naruto' Anger began to grow like flames being fanned by the wind. Mizuki rose up from his lying position looking angrier than he originally was. He watched as Naruto make a cross shaped hand sign with his right and left middle and index fingers his eyes still radiating with murderous intent.
"You think you can beat me brat! Even if you are the nine tails I'm still more experienced and skilled than you are!" Mizuki quickly let his last large shuriken fly toward the glowing boy only to watch him disappear in the blink of an eye before reappearing high in the air. He focused his chakra his hands still in the cross hand sign as he yelled the name of his jutsu.
"Multi shadow clone jutsu!" In a matter of moments the sky was filled with clones of the orange clad ninja as half of the clones each grabbed one of their counterpart and threw them down at chunin the clones flying down like missiles their clenched fists held out ready to strike Mizuki the second they were in range. Mizuki franticly jumped back and forth hoping to dodge the human projectiles as they all crashed into the ground around him causing a smoke screen to appear all around him blocking his vision.
He looked around him hoping to find the boy but was slammed back as two clones rammed their heels into Mizuki's face in a flying jump kick sending him backward into another batch of clones who sent him flying with a group uppercut. As Mizuki was rising in the air He painfully opened his eyes to see three clones slam their fists into his gut forcing him back down into the ground hard enough to kick up dirt and create a small crater. Mizuki struggled to his feet only barley making it to his knees before he looked up to see twenty Narutos standing in front of him.
The twenty Naruto's each went through a string of hand signs causing strong winds to whip up. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The twenty Naruto's said in unison as they threw their hands forward firing a massive wave of swirling hurricane-force wind at Mizuki slamming into him with the force of a freight train and sending him through numerous trees until the winds died down. As Naruto dismissed his clones Iruka stood there in awe at what he witnessed. It should have been impossible. There should have been no way that an academy student could beat a chunin instructor. Yet it happened.
There should have been no way that an academy student should been able to use a forbidden A rank ninjutsu yet right in front of his eyes it did. Before he could comment on the battle he saw two shadows land in front of him and Naruto. Iruka tensed up as he tried to get up to his feet before he fell back on his stomach. He watched as the wo walk into the light of them moon and sighed in relief at the two faces he saw. He watched as Rin sprint to Iruka's side and begin to heal his injured back. Kakashi walked up to Naruto and began to survey the surrounding area.
'This is the place we picked up that large wind jutsu came from.' Kakashi saw the toppled trees, the burned and scorched earth as well as the barley conscious Mizuki. Kakashi turned back to Iruka already suspecting who was responsible for the state of the area. "Tell me Iruka Naruto was the one that beat Mizuki didn't he?" Rin and Iruka looked at ?Kakashi in mild shock at having guessed who beat the chunin instructor while the twelve-year-old blonde smiled with a wide foxy grin.
Rin looked at Kakashi before looking at her adoptive younger brother. "Naruto-kun? But Kakashi that's impossible he hasn't even graduated yet!" Naruto turned to Rin folding his arms with a large childish pout on his face. "But nee-san I did beat him I can prove it with my new jutsu!" Naruto said in in displeasure as he crossed his fingers. "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Once again Naruto summoned thirty clones around them. Rin's eyes widened as she saw that she along with Iruka and Kakashi were surrounded by Narutos.
Kakashi looked equally surprised at the sight before him. Very few people could use the shadow clone jutsu let alone create over thirty clones.
"I see. Well than I have to say to say good work to you. That's quite the accomplishment." Naruto smiled at the compliment as Rin finished healing Iruka's back and helped him up to his feet. Rin starred in shock as she touched one of the Narutos seeing that they were indeed solid. Iruka looked at Naruto in pride as he walked over to the blonde and kneeled in front of him.
"Naruto close your eyes." Naruto looked at Iruka in confusion before he relented. Kakashi and Rin looked at the two in curiosity as Iruka took off the boy's goggles and replaced them with the headband he had on his own head. Iruka smiled as he told Naruto to open his eyes. Naruto stared in confusion not seeing anything different before he noticed that Iruka wasn't wearing his headband and his googles felt oddly thin, soft, and heavy around his forehead. He felt his forehead and felt that he was wearing a leaf village armored headband. Iruka smiled at the boy in front of him in pride seeing no reason for him to be held back anymore.
"Congratulations! You passed!" Naruto's eyes widened in shock before he jumped up into the air shouting in joy all around the field like a hyper kangaroo. Rin and Kakashi both sweat dropped at the boy's antics as Kakashi looked over toward Iruka.
"So what was the situation here?"
"Mizuki tricked Naruto into stealing the scroll of sealing by telling him it was a part of some kind of secret makeup exam. He wanted to use the situation to steal the scroll and force the hokage to have Naruto killed. The only thing Naruto was doing when I found him was practicing the shadow clone jutsu." Kakashi nodded as he extended his hand and caught the jumping Naruto by the top of his head and brought him to look him in the eye.
"Ok Now that we have that settled. I'm going to need you to come with me to smooth this out with the hokage. Afterward we're going to take you home and explain this to your mother." Naruto's expression quickly faded into of horror and fear as he thought about the retribution his mother would have against him. He tried to escape by using a substitution but was grabbed by his right ankle by Rin in her right hand who proceeded to drag him off toward the hokage tower while Kakashi grabbed the scroll under his and began their trek to the hokage tower with Iruka following behind with an exasperated look.
Kushina rubbed her eyes in a sleepy haze as she walked up to her front door in a long knee length white tee shirt she got from Minato and her hair placed in a ponytail. It was five in the morning when she was woken up from her sleep by the loud knocking on her door. Once she reached the door to see Kakashi along with Rin and Iruka standing with Naruto in their ninja gear. Kushina looked confused as she stared at her son who refused to look her in the eye. "What's going on here?" Kushina asked still in a sleepy haze. She had to open her bakery in two hours so she needed her sleep.
Iruka held a firm grip on Naruto so he wouldn't escape as Kakashi decided to take the initiative. "You see Kushina it appears that Naruto snuck out tonight and stole the scroll of sealing." It only took Kushina a second to process the information before all feelings of sleepiness were forgotten before she grabbed her son by his color and proceeded to viscously shake the boy in anger and proceeded to yell at the boy for his stupidity and recklessness at the dangers of his actions before punching him on the top of his head as hard as she could.
The three adults watched in silence before Rin held up her hand to get Kushina's attention. "Now Kushina I know you may be mad but it wasn't Naruto's fault. His teacher Mizuki tricked him into doing it. So Lord hokage won't put him on trial. " Rin said as a sly smile made its way onto her face. "Nor will he revoke his graduation." Kushina looked at Rin in confusion before she looked at her now very dizzy and motion sick son to see that he was wearing a leaf village headband. Kushina gasped in shock as she looked at the three in shock and awe.
"But he failed yesterday. How did he graduate?" Iruka cleared his throat as a small smile made its way onto his face as well.
"Well Kushina Naruto managed to learn and master the multi shadow clone jutsu from the scroll and defeated Mizuki in battle one on one. And, it just so happens that I haven't turned in my grades yet." Kushina slowly processed information before a large smile came on her face before she hugged her son as tightly as she could in a crushing bear hug.
"Oh sweetheart I'm so proud of you! My little baby is finally a full-fledged ninja!" Kushina shouted in glee as she continued to cut off Naruto's air supply while swing him around like a rag doll.
Naruto's face began to turn blue as he felt consciousness begin to leave him before he felt his mom stop squeezing him and felt sweet oxygen fill his lungs once again. "This is great Naruto! You and I are gonna celebrate! All you can eat dinner at Ichiraku ramen! My treat!" Kushina said with her wide fox like smile that she passed on to her son. Naruto also smiled a large smile of his own his eyes beaming at the thought of an all he could eat Ichiraku dinner.
"Really?" Kushina nodded her head as she gave a small fist pump as she gripped her bicep on her raised arm.
"You bet! Tonight You and I are gonna eat like kings!" Naruto jumped into the air and shouted in joy paying no head to the numerous amounts of people that were trying to sleep.
Ok how did you all like that? I have to say that this took the most out of me but I think that it came out pretty good. All things considered although I did feel like a dick multiple times during this especially for that gang scene when Naruto was a kid. I wanted to cry during that while screaming "NOOOOOOOO! Leave the baby alone! He's just a babbyyyyyyyyyyyy!" But yeah. As you can see things are already different. Kurama now has a much bigger effect on Naruto's development that will come up latter in the story, Sakura doesn't like Sasuke in this since he was a dick to her, and Hinata is an ice queen. Now the fact that Sakura's doesn't like Sasuke I feel isn't that unlikely since Sakura is very smart so I think that if Sasuke showed her that he wasn't interested early than she wouldn't have bothered. And because of this Ino and Sakura never had their falling out. Now usually when writers have Sakura not like Sasuke at the start of the story they instead have her like Naruto instead. I'm not going to do that since its lazy and that's not fun. But the fact that she doesn't like Sasuke wasn't there simply for the sake of having her like Naruto. I do plan on having it come back into the story but not for a long while. Since honestly Sakura liking Sasuke doesn't remove the possibility of Narusaku since logically Sakura should have gotten over him well into shippuden but whatever.
Another thing of note is my treatment on Sakura's thoughts. In most fanfictions Sakura basically has a split personality that's basically exists as its own entity in "INNER SAKURA". The thing about this is that Inner Sakura isn't a separate personality but Sakura's TRUE personality shown in a visual form. Its Sakura's real thoughts on a situation in contrast to what she actually says out loud. Also My view and treatment of Sakura is similar to my views on Kallen in my code geass fanfic. If Kallen is saber than Sakura is Rin. Only not as arrogant and commanding and nerdier and not as socially reassured. So expect her to play a major role in the story. So with that said I'm going to edit this and take a break before starting on the next chapter of power rangers ninjetti.
