Chapter 3
Naruto reached the place mentioned in the invitation, a spartan shed right in the middle of the forest. The section of the forest he was currently in stood a bit away from the places anyone usually ventured to and looked all the more suspicious. Naruto barely suppressed another groan of annoyance as he looked around for his sensei. It was well after the sun has set and there were no lights around to see things properly. This secret exam was an inconvenience he would have liked to have avoided.
'Dad, why did I even have to take this? It is not like I want to join the ANBU.'
'Naruto, we can't let them know of your intentions. They will found it suspicious if one of their academy students did not want to take a direct route to the elite.'
'But you said this could very well be a trap. What if we are just being tricked?'
'This will be all the more better for us if it was a trap, Naruto. We have waited for so long looking for opportunities and this could very well be our first.'
'At least they will only be expecting to deal with an academy student if things go wrong,' replied Naruto with a confident smirk. 'The sooner I fail this test the sooner I can work on the new jutsu.'
Their wait lasted another 5 min before Naruto could see Mizuki coming towards him. The annoying smirk in his face was all the evidence Naruto needed to know about the authenticity of this exam.
"Hope you weren't waiting for long Naruto. It took a while to set up things for the exam."
"It's alright sensei. I just got here."
"I know you must be having some questions about this surprise test Naruto. As you must have guessed this exam is given only for the top students of each graduation class. This is a test to see if you have enough skill to be drafted into the elite training program."
"Where are the others students then sensei? Sasuke is the Rookie of the year after all."
"Iruka is with him now Naruto. You have to concentrate on your test before you can worry about the others. This will not be a simple exam to test what you can do in a classroom but how you can use it in a real situation. Come along with me Naruto. For your test you will be helping me out on a real mission." Said Mizuki as he jumped to the branches after adjusting the big scroll he had on his back.
"Hai Sensei" replied Naruto quickly following Mizuki.
'Go along for now Naruto, we will see how far this goes,' said the Father, to which Naruto could only nod along.
Mizuki was taking them back into the village along the edge of the richer section of Konoha residents while being careful to avoid the usual ninja patrols. They slowly crept along the shadows of the night to a destination Naruto couldn't guess. Mizuki stopped near the compound wall of an elegant looking building and signalled Naruto to hold his silence. Counting steps from unknown instructions Mizuki found and marked a spot on the compound wall and extracted an unassuming scroll from his jacket. He carefully placed it against the wall and activated it. When nothing seemed to go off Naruto released a breath he didn't know he was holding. Mizuki started chakra walking along the wall and threw down a rope for Naruto when he reached the top. Naruto didn't make any notion to show he also knew how to chakra walk and silently followed Mizuki.
Jumping down into the garden inside the perimeter they both walked towards the back of the building when Mizuki instructed "This is where your mission starts Naruto. You have to go into the 2nd floor bedroom window that's right above us and have to assassinate Joben, who will be the one on the bed. This mission has been personally approved by the hokage and was selected especially for you. I have deactivated the traps but you will have to do the actual deed. Whether you can go through with it or not will decide your success."
When Naruto thought of a secret exam this was the furthest from his mind. But for a village training killers this did not seem that far out. If this was a trap then Naruto could only think of this as a frame job with the only way out of this is to fail the exam badly where Mizuki could spring the trap right then or play along for now. Naruto gave a nod to Mizuki and started climbing the building the old fashioned way while looking for possible traps and alarms. Other than a basic alarm attached to the locked bedroom window he didn't find any that wasn't already disarmed by someone else. After deactivating it Naruto carefully slid open the window and entered the luxurious bedroom of a wealthy civilian. He looked at the old man sleeping alone in his comfortable bed and thought back at his options because there was no way killing the guy would help him in any way.
'Layer a genjutsu on the bed son' said his Dad. 'We need to convince Mizuki that you did the assassination to see where this leads to.'
'But what if this is a real exam. Wouldn't deceiving the examiner be worse than failing.'
'Don't worry Naruto. I am confident Mizuki is not telling the truth. Whatever this is about, there is no secret examination. The scroll on Mizuki's back that he is taking precious care of is the possible suspect. Mizuki has shown no previous talent in genjutsu so this shouldn't be too difficult.'
"Ok, if you are sure then. Henkō sa reta genjitsu" Naruto whispered the name of the genjutsu taking care to use his father's chakra to cast it. As always his father's chakra seemed to guide his actions when using it and what is supposed to be a very high ranking jutsu was still well within his reach.
The mental image of the old man lying dead in the bed with a slit throat was imposed upon the actual scene. This genjutsu should hold up for another 30min after which his father's chakra will disperse on its own. Just to be sure he took out the sleeping gas from his pouch and sprayed a bit in the old man's face. He walked to the window he climbed in from and signalled to Mizuki that the deed was done.
Mizuki soon followed Naruto into the room to look at the crime scene. Looking at the dead man he seemed to smile to satisfaction and spat at the guy in some petty gesture of revenge. Naruto saw Mizuki place some papers in the drawer while looking around the room and soon went back to the window.
"Well Naruto, always knew you were one cold bastard. The hokage will be very satisfied with your performance. Now come along, it is time to get out of here" said Mizuki, jumping out of the window onto the compound wall.
Naruto followed his sensei all the way back to their original meeting spot in the forest. Mizuki turned around looking like a kid waiting to explain his successful prank.
"You are keeping yourself very well Naruto. This does not seem like your first kill at all."
"What can I say Sensei? Orders are orders. No use worrying about it."
"That's very mature of you Naruto. You would have made a very ruthless shinobi for Konoha if not for today."
"Why is that sensei, did I not pass the exam?
"No Naruto, you passed the exam. But that was not an exam for Konoha shinobi corps but for Orochimaru-sama."
"What? What do you mean sensei?" asked Naruto in a believable concerned voice.
"Orochimaru-sama was once like you Naruto. He was a very misunderstood person who was ostracised because the village feared him. He loved the village and dirtied his hands for its protection when no one else would. He worked in the shadows while risking his very being to make sure Konoha survived the third great shinobi war but when a jealous friend conspired against him with the fourth hokage, he was run out of the village and forgotten. He still has his people in Konoha that are loyal to him and when he came to know about a kid whom the village hated and ostracised because of something that was not his fault, he wanted to lend a helping hand."
"But the fourth hokage was a great shinobi sensei and hokage also wouldn't have allowed it," said a confused Naruto. There seemed to be conspiracy going on that he could not see how everything connected.
"There are secrets you do not know Naruto, even secrets about yourself. Hokages are not saints but the greatest of the liars and killers who have climbed to the top. What I am about to tell will let you see why your loyalty to this village is built upon pillars of deception. Have you ever asked your beloved hokage why people here do not like you, Naruto?"
"Yes?" came a very hesitant reply.
"Did he once give you a proper answer?" asked Mizuki. "I am sure he didn't. Around 12 years ago on the day you were born the village was attacked by the Kyuubi, a monster of legendary power that no shinobi of today can stand up to. As you may have heard Konoha lost a lot and the fourth hokage died fighting it. What you don't know is that the fourth hokage didn't kill it or run it off. Bijus cannot be killed Naruto. They are sealed inside jinchuurikis to be forged into weapons of war and nothing but the newborns make for the best of the jinchuurikis. But this village doesn't see you as their hero, not even as their weapon. For them you are nothing but a curse and a monster that has been put on a leash."
"But…that can't be. I am not a monster, sensei."
"I know Naruto, but don't tell me you can't remember how they looked at you with their hate and loathing, treated you like you were a rabid dog?" asked a sadistic Mizuki, loving twisting the knife deeper into an innocent soul. "But you don't have to worry anymore. Orochimaru-sama has asked to bring you to him, where you will be safe and happy outside the reach of these ungrateful vermin."
"No. I don't want to go with you sensei" said a suddenly chipper Naruto.
"What, even after everything that you now know?"
"Well, it's not like I didn't know all of that for a while. Expect the part about Orochimaru but that just sounded like propaganda to me."
"You ungrateful little bastard, you think you have a choice? You just killed a member of Konoha civilian council who has evidence in his house of collaboration with Iwa-nin for stealing this forbidden scroll of seals. When they find this scroll missing from the hokage office and that Joben was killed, they will soon find out that you were the one who killed him. It is too late for you to stay here anymore Naruto. There is no one here that will believe you. You can either come with me to serve Orochimaru-sama or I can silence you forever."
"Hmmm…I guess I will take my chance here sensei. I just graduated after all, no sense in wasting all those years of effort till now. Besides it sounds like you are just asking for me to become someone else's soldier."
"What a waste of effort you have been. Now die you ungrateful monster." screamed Mizuki rushing towards Naruto with a kunai in hand.
Naruto let his chakra flow to his body and jumped back to make space while letting the water from his pitcher flow to his arms. He swiped at the flying kunais aimed at his vitals and redirected them to his surroundings. He kept his space and never allowed Mizuki to close in. Once he was in the trees surrounding the clearing he took off creating some space.
The one thing that his Dad made him take as priority was learning to escape from a tight spot. He worked on his speed and stealth until his dad was satisfied and he could now easily outrun a genin and be silent as the wind doing it. When he had some distance on Mizuki, he created a water clone that ran straight ahead while he used the water to muffle the sounds of his footsteps and turned a sharp right. He used all his effort to maintain stealth and put some distance from his sensei. He smiled when he heard Mizuki cursing some way off, obviously not expecting his surprising speed or the water clone. All he had to do now was survive until the paralytic poison in Mizuki took effect.
Mizuki never even noticed the droplets of poison seeping into the pores of his skin during his big reveal as he was never expecting much resistance or skill from Naruto, certainly not after his shocking news. Naruto loved his water jutsu's and their versatility in combat.
Mizuki was searching the forest for him and as Naruto hoped, didn't use any big jutsus in fear of alerting the patrols. He heard the sounds moving away from him and waited a good 5 mins before searching for Mizuki. It was easy to follow his tracks and soon he came upon his sensei lying unconscious in the forest floor. Now came the inevitable moment he knew he had to face ever since he joined the academy, his first kill. There was no way he could let Mizuki go out alive from the forest. His only way out of this was for everything to look as if Naruto never showed up to the meeting and no one ever heard from Mizuki again.
As he was psyching himself up for the kill he felt darkness creep upon him. He panicked thinking if he was also poisoned and what would likely happen if Mizuki woke up before him, until he heard his Dad's voice.
"It's okay son, it is not the time for you to kill yet. I will take care of this"
Naruto woke up back in his bedroom with his heart pounding a mile a minute.
'Dad, what happened?'
'Mizuki is dead, Naruto. You don't have to worry about it.'
'What about the evidence? Won't the anbu find it in that old guy's house?'
'I went back and took it. There is no evidence of you being there. No one but any of Mizuki's accomplices knows you were involved in any way and they certainly won't think you could have killed a chunin.'
'I think we never should have gone there in the first place.'
'Then we wouldn't have this forbidden scroll of seals now, would we.'
"What?" Naruto looked surprised at the scroll leaning against his bed and opened it up in a hurry. His excitement built up upon seeing that the scroll was full of high level techniques that he could barely understand. He couldn't wait to try any of them out. It had been hard scrambling for jutsus over the years to learn without anyone noticing.
'But first Naruto, you have to hide it in our spot in the forest of death. This can never be found in your apartment.'
'Yes Dad. And thanks again, I wouldn't know what I would do without you.'
'It's okay Naruto, and good acting by the way.'