I do not own Naruto in any format, this is fanfiction only.
Naruto was kind of surprised to see that he was actually not counted wrong for every single question Mizuki asked him, and what's more they were grade appropriate questions. Naruto knew better than to hope the Hokage did something like have a discussion about his grading practices with Mizuki. He knew if anything this was just to throw off any suspicion of him being unfair.
The second year proved to be as boring as the first. He simply looked and behaved as if they asked him to watch paint dry. Iruka finally had enough and decided to ask him which part of his class he actually was excited about. Naruto did not even wait a second when he said practical skills.
The days pretty much were as the previous year. The only thing was that now Mizuki was asking him normal questions, except that they were now correctly marked as wrong since the questions were worded in such a way it was impossible to answer correctly since the correct answer was always a wrong answer.
Sasuke avoided him to the point of not even looking at this, Kiba volunteered to be his sparring partner every single time and he lost every single time. It was clear to everyone that he was still holding a grudge about what happened the last year where he ended up kissing Sasuke.
Sakura continued her very much established practice of ridiculing and insulting Naruto at every single opportunity. Yugao took a much more relaxed approach of observing him, she just decided to observe him while being a good friend to him. Hinata secretly wanted to beat her skull in since to her she was trying to steal someone that was hers and hers alone.
Ino stopped her attempts at belittling Naruto and instead chose to ignore him. This was not done out of consideration for him rather it was done for her own survival. Hinata had truly taken up the habit of beating the person who made fun of Naruto during their sparring matches.
Sakura would often be heard saying that her family's taijutsu style was called the gentle fist, and after several sparring matches where Iruka had to literally stop the match. She started saying that her family style may indeed be called the gentle fist, but there was nothing gentle about the way Hinata fought.
Thanks to her current workout routine Hinata was developing to be a force to reckon to with, Hiashi once believed that Hanabi would be the next clan head and he would have to place Hinata under the bird cage seal. After two years and her winning every single match against her sister this decision was seen as an error in judgment on his part.
It would take something extraordinary for Hanabi to be the next leader of their clan. Hanabi worked hard but Hinata worked harder still. The one thing that really bothered Hanabi was the fact that her sister sometimes would work out with Naruto Namikaze of all people.
She like the rest of the clan simply denied completely the fact that Naruto was in fact the Son of the fourth Hokage. Naruto looked like a carbon copy of the man and they still did not want to believe the supposed demon brat was indeed the Son of their much loved and admired Hokage.
Even with the supposed change in attitude by Mizuki Sasuke was still the rookie of the year and Naruto was still passed by the smallest margin and thus declared once again the dead last. Naruto did not even bother asking the Hokage to listen to his plea. It was fairly obvious that he would do nothing about it. This was the year that he knew that aside from a few people he really did not have any allies in the village.
From then on he stopped paying attention in class and he stopped making an effort in his practically skills practices. He spent every waking moment training to the point of blood loss and he was not the only one. Hinata also trained since she figured that Naruto would eventually need her somehow and she would be ready.
The added benefit was that he was now able to have some extra time and he spent that time either training or taking Hinata to some rather lovely dates. He did not have money to spend on expensive gifts or fancy restaurants. He instead made the food himself from what he either grew or hunted.
For the both of them their favorite place to go on a date was on top of the head of the fourth Hokage. The monument offered espectacular sunsets and wonder views of the stars. It also offered them much needed and wanted privacy to be able to act as a couple dating should. Hinata often told him that if he did not have money she was willing to pay for it, that he did not need to risk his life by gathering the ingredients for their meal.
"Hinata it is no risk at all, I been doing that since I was a small toddler. Let's face it, the supposed beasts in the forest actually are less of a threat than what you are imagining. I have been more injured by the people of the village than any of those supposed dangerous beasts. "
Hinata looked at him and tried to stop worrying but she couldn't." They call it the forest of death for a reason Naruto. It really is dangerous to go there. Is there no other place you could get your ingredients from? " Naruto looked at her and smiled. " Well there are several groceries stores in the village, the only problem is that they will not sell to me at all. "
Hinata asked why are they discriminating against him? Or why he didn't say something to the Hokage? Naruto told her the Hokage was concerned with the village as a whole. Naruto told her it was because unlike most other people his best friend and teacher was always with him. Kurama almost looked embarrassed as he heard him say that to the girl that obviously liked him.
Hinata kept asking till Kurama flat out told her to tell her but to make her swear a secrecy oath before he told her. She was surprised by the condition but if he felt he needed to do so she accepted it and swore that she would never reveal his secrets even under the threat of death.
"I am the jinchuriki of the nine tails fox. The entire village believes my father killed the Fox and that is why I must be the reincarnation of the Fox. But in reality the Fox could not be harmed at all, my father had to seal it into someone that was just born and I happen to be born when this happened and so I was made a jinchuriki protect the village from the wrath of the Fox. "
Hinata being a smart girl she figured out the reason for the supposed hatred by the villagers rather quickly but it still made no sense to her." By what you told me Naruto you are a hero that saved the village from a great and powerful threat. I simply don't understand how can these people not realize that. If they have so much trouble figuring this out, I guess it would be impossible for them to try and figure out where the Fox was and why it could enter the village at all. "
Hinata looked troubled when she heard that last part," What do you mean? Where was the Fox, How did he enter the village and why did he attack? " Naruto told to he would tell her the entire truth, little did he know Hirunzen was also listening with his crystal ball.
" People call me clanless and a nobody. I am the Son of Kushina Uzumaki, honored ANBU Captain of this village and Minato Namikaze the fourth Hokage. She was the only niece of Madara Uchiha. So you see I am actually the member of three noble clans. "
Hinata could hardly hide her surprise." In old times Jinchuriki were made by choosing a successor and this successor would spend time with the current jinchuriki and enter that person's mind. The next Jinchuriki would be then get to know the next Jinchuriki and thus if they got along the transfer would be much easier. Not today, today they take children just as they are born and make them Jinchuriki. "
Hinata understood the difference, in the past the Biju and their next Jinchuriki were allowed to form a friendship and an understanding, but now they were made without that and that caused no ends of problems to both the Jinchuriki and the Biju.
" My mother was the former Jinchuriki of the nine tails, and he loved her like she was his own sister. He even watched as I came into this world. That is why when someone pretending to be Madara tried to steal and use him to destroy the village he went into a bloody rage. He knew that stealing him would cause Kushina to die and thus she was murdered. "
Hinata saw the reason, and understood that the attack was actually the Kyuubi looking for the murderer of someone he cared about.
" I know he was a pretender because Madara would never do something like that to his own niece. Even the fight with the first Hokage he did to avenge the murder of my grandfather. He probably died regretting having to leave his clan so that he could avenge his brother. "
Hirunzen did not like the sound of this, he did not like it one bit. Naruto knew things that he should not even be able to find out and that meant that he also knew that it was Konoha that betrayed the Uzumaki Village to obtain their knowledge on their sealing techniques. The fact that they were able to gain the Biju was an additional incentive for their betrayal.
The fact that the Senju and the Uzumaki clans were cousins to each other was not a fact that many people still remembered. The first Hokage did marry the daughter of the kage of the village hidden in the whirlpools. But it never made any sense that they were blamed for betraying the clan that they were so close to.
Hirunzen had a theory that it was in fact someone else who betrayed the Uzumaki Clan but even after all this time he never found any proof of this. All he knew came from rumors and speculation.
Hinata looked at him and she decided to tell him that she actually did in fact love him. It was kind of a surprise for him to hear it he always expected her to say that she was interested in him or that he liked his company but after hearing so much about his life history she made up her mind she would be the one that would turn his life around.
If nobody saw him as the hero he was she would, if no one would show him love, kindness and care she would, and if they others girls did not notice how sweet, kind and what a great catch he was she did. Hinata told him that if he ever left the village to be sure to tell her all about it so that she could go with him.
"But what about your family Hinata? " She looked at him and smiled and as she kissed him passionately on his lips, she felt him kiss her right back. She was happy to know he too felt the same. She got close to his ear and whispered, " As far as I am concerned you are my family Naruto. "
The third year to the final sixth year were not so difficult for Mizuki and as the day of the final exam came closer he realized that if he wanted the damned demon brat to he would have to make sure Iruka was not around for the Jutsu portion of the exams.
Mizuki decided to spike his morning coffee with a tasteless liquid that would cause the person to fall asleep after some time. The Written exam was probably the easiest Naruto had ever had to answer but something still did not feel alright.
He pretended to sneeze really hard that caused two other people to drop their exams in such a way that he could actually see them. That is when it hit him. The exam he got was not like the ones the rest of the class got from Iruka. This pretty much made him suspect that Iruka too wanted him to fail.
As the Jutsu portion of the exam came and Iruka looked like he had fallen asleep. Mizuki decided to tell the class the Jutsu that the exam would consist of. The rest of the class had no problems at all. They simply waited for Naruto to fail. Hinata was not one of the people that believed he would fail and it turns out she was right.
The exam was over and Mizuki told Iruka that he should go home and rest that he would take care of the grading like always. "Thanks, Mizuki I have no clue why but I am feeling dead tired for some strange reason." Mizuki smiled and told him he should really try and catch up on his sleep.
The results were as expected. Everyone except Naruto was told they passed and given their headbands. The parents of his classmates looked extremely proud of their children graduating from the Academy and also that the thing did not. Naruto sat down at a swing set to be away from the parents that had no problem showing their joy at their children passing and of him failing.
"What is the matter Naruto? I know you really wanted to pass but if you don't know the things we asked in the exams it would be suicide to let you graduate and I don't want you to die. I would never be able to forgive myself if something like that happened to one of my students. "
Naruto was surprised to see that Mizuki did seem to mean what he was saying." Teacher I did not receive the same exam as the others did. " Mizuki smiled and looked at him as he got down and looked at him directly to his eyes.
" I know Naruto you probably felt like I did not want you to pass any of those final exams, but it was quite the opposite Naruto. I only asked you those tough questions because I knew that you would have no problem with them. I know how talented you really are. "
If Mizuki was not the one always marking his answers incorrectly then the only other person who could change his score was Iruka, who just happened to be missing from the graduation." Iruka lost his entire family to the Fox Naruto, I wouldn't be surprised that he is the one that changed your scores and answers in your last exams simply to prevent you from graduating. "
Mizuki felt like he had him on the palm of his hand." But did you know there is a secret exam that can let you graduate with the rest of your class? It is really easy just steal the forbidden scroll and head to the place on this map. If you managed to leave the village and learn a Jutsu from the scroll. Someone will be there to ask you to show him the Jutsu and if you did learn one you pass and you would get to graduate. "
Naruto knew if something seems like it is too good to be true it probably is. He secretly took his own storage scroll and went to do as Mizuki expected of him. He stole the forbidden scroll but not without leaving a time release seal on the Hokage's desk. Hinata was shocked by two things Naruto did not graduate and she just saw him running away with the Forbidden scroll.
She decide to follow him. As Hinata reached the place where Naruto Namikaze was sitting she asked him why did he steal the scroll. "Hinata, perfect. I was just planning to tell you that I was planning to leave the village today. I want to ask you if you still want to come with me."
"But why would you leave the village Naruto? " Naruto told her that he could no longer stay in the village that wanted him dead. Mizuki was smiling to see that the situation was even better than he planned.
" So you finally figured out why the village hates you. Here I was planning to tell you that myself. You do have a rather nice idea and very realistic reasoning Naruto. Tell you what, if you give me the forbidden scroll I will pretend that you did as a prank and you planned to come back to show everyone how skilled you were. "
Mizuki jumped down from the tree branch he was sitting on and continued." But tragically you and Hinata who came to talk with you about returning the scroll were both killed and the scroll was destroyed by angry bears. The Hokage would never believe that I a teacher would dare lie to him. "
Naruto took the scroll out of his storage scroll and handed Mizuki the scroll. Mizuki smiled and looked rather happy about it. " I always knew you were too smart for this village Naruto. Let me tell you what. I will give you a parting gift. Take this map and if you go here." Mizuki pointed. "You will find the home village of your real clan the Uzumaki clan."
Hinata did not say anything as the two of them left in another direction. When Mizuki was far away enough so that he would not hear she asked him why did he trust him to keep his end of the bargain and tell the Hokage such an obvious lie? And why did he give him something as valuable as the forbidden scroll?
Naruto smiled and told her he did not give him the forbidden scroll he still had it. The thing he gave him was a special storage scroll he made. Hinata could not help but to laugh as he told her what the scroll would do.
Mizuki decided to check if he indeed the right scroll, Orochimaru would kill him if he brought him the wrong scroll. As he opened the scroll a dozen explosive tags fell on him and became stuck on his body as they all exploded in a tremendous explosion. There was nothing left of him or the scroll.
