Naruto seeing that someone he didn't know was sitting in his living room droped into a defensive stance and started to reach for his kuni.

The man sitting in the dark of the room noticing the stance and raised his hands in a placating manner "easy there buddy, I mean you no harm."

Naruto looked at the man with a disbelieving scowl on his face but was still slightly relaxed by the words "why are you here then?"

The man lowered his hand "Ok...first things first...my name is Mizuki. I'm an old friend of Iruka's and I noticed he was a little worried about you. I saw that you are having trouble with your bushin because of chakra control and I believe i have a way of helping you which will in turn help my friend...understand?"

Naruto dropped his scowl but then scrunched his eyebrow together in confusion "but Iruka-sensei has been trying to help me, if there was something else i could do why wouldn't he tell me?"

Mizuki just smiled at the question "well the thing is, what I'm about to suggest would mean you would have to break some pretty big laws, and Iruka can't really suggest you to do that now can he?"

Naruto dropped his confused expression and let his lips form a firm line "what kind of laws?"

Mizuki took note of the change in attitude and raised his hands in a placating manner again "don't get me wrong we won't be hurting anyone and I will be returning what you steal after you learn the jutsu you need to graduate."

Naruto keep eye contact with Mizuki "So why would I even have to steal whatever it is you want me to steal anyways, and how will it help?"

Mizuki lowered his hands again "Well, I am suggesting you still a forbidden jutsu scroll that has a type of bushin that you should be able to do because it requires more chakra than a normal bushin but less control...understand?"

Naruto nodded his head "Why is the jutsu forbidden though?"

Mizuki was getting sick of all the question by now "Ok...listen, I don't really know why it was forbidden. Probably just the council being a pain in the ass about the jutsu, with that said I am just offering to help. If you want the help let me know if not...never mind." Mizuki then stood up to leave.

Naruto went through everything Mizuki had said and decided that Mizuki must just be a good person like Iruka so he should accept the help "wait!"

Mizuki looked at Naruto "so i guess that means you're interested?"

Naruto nodded his head "what do I need to do?"

Mizuki seeing that Naruto had taken the bait began to explain.

(Later that night)

Naruto had stolen the scroll of forbidden jutsu and had managed to evade the ANBU that were chasing him. Within the last three hours he had managed to learn the Kage Bushin. He was supposed to meet with Mizuki the next day in order to return the scroll, so he was pretty surprised to see Mizuki land behind him in full battle ready ninja gear. Naruto looked at Mizuki in confusion "Mizuki-san? Why are you here already? I thought you would not be here till morning."

Mizuki just gave Naruto a sadistic smile "Ah...well you see monster-kun I am here to take the forbidden scroll from you and then leave Konoha. Now if I waited till sunrise they would notice I was gone and I would have less time to get away. Besides it's not like you could learn a single jutsu on the scroll in such a short time anyways, so if you don't mind hand the scroll over and please die." With that Mizuki removed the giant shuriken from his back and through it at Naruto. Naruto in a panic gathered up the scroll and used a Kawarimi to get away. When Mizuki observed his shuriken cut the log, that Naruto had replaced himself with, in two he started to laugh like a mad man "oh monster-kun you think you can get away from me?" Mizuki then took to the trees after Naruto.

Naruto was running for his life when suddenly he felt someone grab his arm, but because of his state of extreme fear instead of seeing who it was that had a hold of him. He reached for a kuni and slashed at the person and they both fell to the ground.

Next thing Naruto knew a very pissed off Iruka punched him on the back of the head "what the hell is wrong with you, you can really hurt someone like that. Why the hell are you" Iruka's voice trailed off as he notice the scroll in Naruto's hand "Naruto! Why the hell do you have the forbidden scroll? Actually I got a better question how the hell did you even know it existed?!"

Naruto finally calmed down enough to speak then told Iruka everything that happened.

Iruka could tell the poor boy was telling the truth because he looked scared out of his mind at the moment and if he actually had planned how to even still the scroll he would be trying to talk himself out of trouble right now instead of expecting him to believe that his childhood friend (who Iruka had never spoken about) had tricked him into doing such a thing. Iruka then heard the sound of something flying through the air. It clicked in Iruka's brain what that sound meant and he pushed Naruto down and got in front of him before even having time to think.

Naruto didn't know what was going on till he felt Iruka's warm blood drip onto his face, at that moment time froze for Naruto.

The next thing Iruka and Naruto heard was Mizuki crazily laughing "I can't believe it Iruka, your actually protecting the thing that killed your parent, your protecting the Kyubi?"

Naruto stiffened at the statement, suddenly everything made since, why all the adults hated him, why he was called a monster, why they beat him or through stones at him if he got too close to the other kids. He was a monster, but how...he didn't remember being the Kyubi, "Bull shit, I'm not the Kyubi, I would know if I was the Kyubi, besides the fourth Hokage killed the Kyubi so if I was him I wouldn't be here."

Mizuki just smiled at Naruto's outburst "oh no, you see that's not quite right you see the fourth couldn't kill the Kyubi so he sealed it inside a child, making that child a jinchuriki and the Kyubi just in human form. That child monster-kun was you."

Naruto looked at Iruka with tear filled eyes "I'm not a monster right Iruka-sensei, I'm not a jinchuriki right?" Naruto was almost begging at the end.

Iruka could only look at Naruto and knew what he was about to say might hurt the boy but it had to be said "Naruto...you are the jinchuriki of the Kyubi".

Tear started to roll down Naruto's face as the boy stared at the ground.

Then Iruka smile "but you are not the Kyubi and you are not a monster. You are the Kyubi's jailer, you have been protecting this village since the day you were born. The villagers are just scared that you won't be able to keep the Kyubi at bay, their scared that the damn demon is going to possess you and finish what it started 12 years ago, but you know what, they are wrong. All you have to do is make them understand that they are wrong and they will see what a hero you really are just like I do." Iruka's smile suddenly turned to a scowl "and if ANYONE here is a monster it's YOU Mizuki!" Iruka pushed himself off the ground to stand then reached behind himself and pull the giant shuriken out of his own back.

Naruto could only stare in awe of his teacher while Mizuki just started to laugh some more. "HEY KIT, WE NEED TO TALK"

Mizuki calmed himself enough so he could talk by taking a few deap breaths "you're kidding right? You don't really think you can beat me do you Iruka-kun? Especially with a wound like that."

Iruka just smiled "maybe I can, maybe I can't, won't know until I try though." Iruka threw the shuriken as hard as he could at Mizuki falling to a knee because of the blood loss.

Mizuki just side step the throw and caught the shuriken then smiled at Iruka. He looked at Naruto who appeared to be in some kind of a daze and threw the shuriken back at the boy.

Iruka could see that Naruto had no idea what was going on and what was about to happen "Naruto!"

Suddenly the unthinkable happened, there was a 5 foot tall version of the Kyubi standing in front of Naruto holding the shuriken in its teeth. The miniature Kyubi then proceeded to bite down on and shatter the shuriken into pieces.

Naruto stumbled over to Iruka "sorry about that Iruka-sensei, the fox had a lot to explain about the seal and how the forth designed it to works. He said he still wasn't happy about being 'chained to a insect' but this seal has removed his ability to ever be truly free again unless I find a way to release him. So considering the alternative he is going to help, but he can't do anything without my permission now. "Maybe this whole jinchuriki thing isn't so bad after all"

Naruto gave Iruka the best smile he could considering how tired he was then turned to Mizuki his head lowered so that his eyes were hidden behind his hair "and if you so much as try to lay a hand on Iruka-sensei again I WILL KILL YOU".

Iruka at first was worried the Kyubi had taken over Naruto, but the Kyubi would have no reason to protect him if that were the case.

The Kyubi walked over to Iruka and Naruto and placed himself between Iruka and Mizuki and then looked at Iruka "I understand you probably hate me, but for protecting the kit, from now on you're under my protection as well. Besides he'll need as many allies as possible because my life is chained to his and I got no intentions of dyeing anytime soon."

Iruka just stared at the Kyubi with a jumble of emotions running through him. He was angry at the Kyubi and wanted to take vengeance for his parents but knew the only way to hurt it was to hurt Naruto so he couldn't do that, but then there was also the confusion why the Kyubi even spoke him, almost as if he talked to people on a regular basis.

Kyubi could read the look on Iruka's face "yeah sorry unless you plan on murdering a innocent child you can't really hurt me. Also the reason I'm talking to you was because my last jailer liked to talk ALOT and knew her seal well enough so that i couldn't just kick her out so I had to get use to talking to her and I guess I kidda missed it...maybe...don't know ...Twelve years of not being able talk to anyone has just been really boring. Watching the Jailer get tortured kidda gets old before the third time around."

Mizuki wasn't sure if he should laugh or not. Here he was and in front of him stood the Kyubi no Yoko having what seemed like a pleasant chat with Iruka and a twelve year old kid giving him what Mizuki figured was his version of a death glare. Mizuki had to admit the eyes flashing red every so often helped. Then Mizuki figured all he had to do to get rid of the Kyubi was kill Naruto, Iruka couldn't do anything now and the Kyubi seemed uncaring to the current situation. So without saying a word Mizuki leapt at Naruto.

Naruto seeing that he would have to fight decided to use his newest jutsu, Naruto formed the hand sign "Shadow Clone Jutsu". Suddenly there were about one hundred Naruto clones all around Mizuki each with a kuni in hand.

Each of the Naruto through their Kuni at Mizuki at once, which force Mizuki to stop and dodge 'no big deal what can a kid d...' Mizuki's though was stopped by the feeling of Naruto throwing a second kuni which slit his throat. The life faded from Mizuki's eyes and he fell limply to the ground...dead.

Naruto's eyes widened and he began to shake as the realization of ending another human beings life hit him.

Iruka seeing this tried to get up but had a hard time doing so due to blood loss, but he managed and began walked over to Naruto.

Naruto noticed Iruka moving toward him, suddenly remembered his wound and ran to help his sensei.

Kyubi seeing the state the Naruto was in walk up to them "listen kit, you should be able to get your sensei to a medic pretty easily so I will be going back in for a little while, I know I'm not one to really talk about this but you need to get over the shock of what happened tonight before I come back out. Just take it as the word of a ten plus century old demon OK. "Kyubi then grumbled something to himself about getting soft and disappeared.

Kakashi having just witnessed everything since right before Kyubi came out till now finally collected himself enough to jump down to a surprised and very happy to see him Naruto and Iruka.

(A few hours later)

Iruka looked over at a half asleep Naruto "Hey Naruto".

Naruto opened his sleepy eyes slowly "I'm awake. Hmm...What..."suddenly Naruto eyes shot wide open "Iruka-sensei? Is everything ok? You want me to get you some water or something?"

Iruka just shook his head "nope I'm good, but you need to go home and get some sleep." Iruka tossed Naruto a leaf headband with a black strap and smiled as he watched Naruto's eyes widen and light up. Naruto's mouth just opened and shut like he was a fish for a second and Iruka just smiled wider "yeah, yeah, you're happy, I'm proud, now go home and get some sleep. They should let me out by morning so I'll see you at the academy in a few hours, but don't be late this time."

Naruto shot straight up and bowed "yes sir Iruka-sensei, and thank you sensei...for everything." Naruto stood back up straight with what Iruka could tell was one of the few real smiles he had ever seen Naruto have.

Iruka just nodded and waved him away to get some sleep.