A/N: This chapter is shorter, but I don't feel anything else deserves to be in this chapter.
You guys have given me the most unbelievable support. I don't even know what to say, because I really don't deserve it. Thank you for all of your favourites and follows and reviews! They make me smile, and encourage me to write quicker – I'm not bribing you, but it's the truth. I don't want to let you guys down, you know?
I owe everything to Ekusukallybaa, my ideas man and amazing amazing AMAZING beta. Check him out.
Also, be warned. I told you to enjoy those chapters while they lasted...
Uzumaki
Chapter 3
Naruto spent the rest of his holiday living a loose schedule that varied between eating, sleeping, and training. On the Thursday, he had briefly considered contacting Satsuki for something else to do, but reminded himself that now she wasn't obliged to spend time with him, she would just kick him out of her apartment.
Or, she wouldn't be in. Though, for all training she did, he never saw her in the Training Grounds.
The Genin exam arrived too quickly, and the night before, as though he was sensing his fear, Mizuki invited Naruto out for ramen. The gesture was a welcome one.
The beef was wonderful and succulent, the noodles salty and perfect. Naruto couldn't fully appreciate the taste.
"How are you, Naruto?"
Slurping up one last noodle, Naruto grinned. "Great, Mizuki-sensei! The food's amazing! Thanks!"
He knew that wasn't really what Mizuki had meant. Naruto did his best to avoid letting on.
Mizuki smiled, eating a smaller bowl of noodles himself – slower. Their slurping was in unison, and Naruto ordered another bowl. Mizuki smiled into his food at Naruto's unprecedented eating speed, but said nothing.
"Are you prepared for your exam, Naruto?"
'As prepared as I can be...' "Yeah! Stop worrying, Mizuki-sensei. Are you prepared?"
His teacher laughed, the smile natural on his face. They ate for a while in silence, but the air was not thick.
"Naruto, if you're worried about your exam..."
Naruto sighed, pushing away his last bowl and cradling his stomach. "I... I dunno, Mizuki-sensei. I try, and I try, but I can't get the Bunshin down... I've tried for so long."
"I could teach you?" Mizuki offered, but Naruto shook his head.
"We only have one night... it's fine. I'm just gonna hope that the Bunshin technique doesn't come up!"
Naruto was laughing, but the sound screamed of emptiness. Mizuki gave him a sad look.
"Stupid. Don't leave it so last minute, next time."
'Didn't you want to ask me?'
"You're stupid, Mizuki-sensei!" Naruto huffed, staring into his food and folding his arms.
"Naruto... if you're struggling with chakra control, then tonight, I'll try and help you-"
"Really?! You're the best, Mizuki-sensei!"
"-only for a while, okay? Not too late! Oi!"
"Make me a bunshin."
Naruto hated bunshins, and his face fell. Mizuki laughed heartily, ruffling his hair and smiling.
"There's no need to look so miserable, Naruto."
"But there is," he whined. "I can't do this. I hate bunshins and I can't do them. It's not possible!"
"Why?" Mizuki asked.
Naruto pouted, pulling hands rigidly to his sides with a frustrated expression. "I don't know! But I can't! That's all there is to it!"
For the best part of an hour, Mizuki prodded about Naruto's hand, demanding he summon chakra and then stop; and then he came to a conclusion.
"You've got a humongous amount of chakra, Naruto. Huge."
Naruto blinked.
"Really? That's good, right?"
Mizuki smiled. "Yes, it is," he said. "But it means that using a tiny bit for something like the Bunshin no Jutsu is harder. Here, Naruto. I'll teach you something."
"Ooh! Ooh! Is it- is it cool? Like, a super cool jutsu?"
"Have you ever climbed a tree, Naruto?"
Hours later, Naruto had ascended to the first branch; his extremities ached- everywhere ached, his head span.. He'd done it – climbed a tree without his hands! Using chakra alone. His cheeks hurt from his smile. His smile that Mizuk was proud of him. Naruto had never felt so invigorated as when he had looked back at Mizuki to see his hopeful smile – no, proud! Encouraging and kind; Naruto had never felt so happy.
Naruto had never known the sensation of falling so well as then; after a few steps, he'd either repel himself from the bark, or slip down it. Most of the time, he was repelled; he'd never felt something so strange as being launched through the air every time he attempted to scale the tree.
The accomplishment warmed his heart, but not so much as Mizuki's pride. The way he ruffled his hair, pulling him to his chest and laughing heartily.
His Bunshin only looked a little less dead, but he tried to ignore that.
Naruto prayed with all his might that it would be anything but the Bunshin no Jutsu. He had resigned himself to the fact that it was physically impossible to produce one that wasn't pale or lifeless, but he had significantly improved them after honing his chakra control the night before.
He had all but mastered the henge and kawarimi; but Naruto stood by his word. The bunshin wasn't possible. Naruto tried, and failed every time. At first, he'd asked help from other students, who had tried to help. But Naruto had known that their problems with the technique hadn't been the same, as Mizuki had proven. Naruto had too much chakra. It was near impossible for him to siphon off a tiny amount for the Bunshin no Jutsu.
He entered the academy with a heart of lead.
"Today, the genin test will be on the bunshin."
Naruto pushed down vomit.
After everyone settled down, Iruka called students in one by one. Naruto stole a glance at Satsuki; her expression was bored. He imitated it. He was not nervous.
"Uzumaki Naruto, into the testing room."
He was nervous as hell.
Naruto walked in, quietly, past his classmates – their gazes burned his back, their laughing sniggers and whispers burned his ears – and into the practice room.
He barely heard Iruka's request for three clones. Mizuki, at his side, smiled at him.
Naruto undoubtedly and entirely preferred Mizuki.
He tried; very honestly, he did. Naruto summoned as little chakra as he could, trying to form a bunshin, but it was like a pale, washed out balloon, collapsing the floor slowly but surely. The failure stung.
"I'm very sorry, Naruto, but..."
Naruto didn't care. He bit his lip, pushing back tears.
"Iruka... don't you think we should let him pass?"
Naruto blinked, bringing his gaze up from the floor. Mizuki had a gentle expression on his face.
"He did create one bunshin, to be fair," Mizuki said, half-smiling.
Naruto's heart became lighter, just for a moment.
Iruka sighed deeply. "Mizuki, you know I can't pass him for that. It's not even a decent bunshin. I'm sorry, Naruto, but you fail."
On his way out, Naruto tried to forget the sharp but welcoming gleam of the headbands on the table.
Satsuki saw Naruto leave the classroom, looking defeated and tearful.
She wanted to go up and yell at him. Yell at him for not trying hard enough, yell at him for not becoming a ninja.
But she didn't understand why she wanted to. So Satsuki didn't say anything at all.
Naruto had found himself, legs swinging, looking onto the village with Mizuki at his side.
"You know, Iruka didn't pass you because he wants you to be strong," Mizuki said.
The boy winced, biting the inside of his cheek.
"I mean it, Naruto." Mizuki leant back, wind brushing white strands of hair out of his face. "Being a ninja's hard, you know? Iruka doesn't want you to go into the ninja world unprepared. Neither do I."
Naruto cast his gaze downwards. "I know, but I really wanted to graduate this time."
"Well, I guess I have no choice but to tell you..."
An Oiroke no Jutsu later, Naruto was in the middle of the forest, a huge scroll laying in front of him.
"Naruto!"
He whipped his head around, and then smiled. "Mizuki-sensei!"
Mizuki strolled towards him, expression soft. He knelt down slightly, ruffling Naruto's hair. "How are you doing?"
"Great, Mizuki-sensei! I can finally do the Bunshin technique!" Naruto said, grinning widely. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Mizuki blinked, rubbing his eyes to see if he had double-vision as he looked around. The area was truly filled to the brim with orange, and he smiled.
"Naruto," he said. "That's... that's amazing! That jutsu..."
'That jutsu is an S-Rank...! Most jounin can only create three at most... but this kid... there's thousands!'
Naruto grinned, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Thanks, Mizuki-sensei!"
Mizuki smiled back, before his expression turned serious. "Naruto," he said. "I have to tell you the truth."
"What is it?"
Mizuki brushed his hair behind his ear. "I'm leaving this village tonight."
Naruto blinked. "Wha- why?"
"The truth is, Naruto... long ago, the Fourth Hokage sealed the Kyuubi away. But it was too powerful to destroy. Instead... he sealed it inside of you."
The young boy blinked, and then his jaw went slack, eyes widening. "M-Me? Inside of me? The... the Kyuubi?!"
"Yes." Mizuki stopped for a moment. "I'm... I'm sorry for all those years. Those years of people hating you for something you're not. Some people blame you for what the Kyuubi did."
"B-But! B-But I'd never-"
"I know."
Naruto's expression was tearful, and Mizuki shook his head, ruffling Naruto's hair once again.
"To tell the truth," Mizuki began, "I once hated you, too. I couldn't see past what was inside of you. But one day... I came to see it. You were just a child... everyone mistreated you. You never understood why... you had no love, no care. You were so alone.
"This village only wants you for the power within you. But they mistreat you... and tonight, I am escaping. And I want you to come with me."
"W... Where to?"
"Orochimaru-sama. He is a scientist, who long escaped Konoha himself. A genius. And I believe that within his village, you would be treated as not only a human being, but maybe a prince! Within Orochimaru-sama's territory, power is everything. That jutsu you just performed... it's the sign of a truly powerful shinobi, Naruto."
Mizuki's expression made Naruto feel warm like he never had.
'Does he really believe in me?'
"Come with me... this village is just holding you back! I would have escaped alone... but I don't want you to stay here, Naruto. All these years of abuse and terror... don't you want to escape?"
Naruto's heart pounded like a drum in his ears.
"Mizuki-sensei, I-"
In the years to come, Naruto would never forget the noise of lightning meeting flesh.
With a fast and brutal cut of light, Mizuki's chest was pierced by a gloved hand, shredded alveoli spattering Naruto's face as Mizuki took a wheezing gasp through his mangled lung.
His heart spluttered, his lungs coughed, and with a final, wet rasp, Mizuki's legs trembled and he slid off the man's arm like a sword from a sheath.
Even when the chunks of gore had been removed, Naruto could not clean himself of that day. He could not clean his eyes of the ANBU mask, he could not clean his lips of the shredded cells, nor his nose and tongue of the stench of death.
And he could never clean his heart of Mizuki, the man who'd cared, and never, ever, of his bloody corpse.
A/N: FATALITY.
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