Uzumaki Naruto walked away from the academy building feeling far more dejected than ever. This was the third time. The THIRD time. Each and every time, he failed the graduation exam for the exact same reason. It didn't matter how good his aim was with a shuriken. It didn't matter how fast he moved, and it sure didn't matter if he could throw around that flashy wind jutsu he'd been working on. He still couldn't create a single damn Bunshin. Naruto loved this village, even after all the hatred thrown his way, and all the mockery. Even after people avoided him in the streets, or threw trash at him, or charged him extra when he just needed some simple groceries. For some reason, this was still his home, and he loved it dearly.

And it was all made worse by the fact that nobody took him seriously. Not his classmates, not his teachiss - even Iruka-sensei - and not even old jiji who was actually nice and checked in on him every now and then. None of them saw his efforts, saw how hard he worked.

"It really says something about a ninja village that they think my pranks are just me mucking around," Naruto grumbled under his breath, sitting in the comfort of his one true friend, swing-chan. "The chunin can't ever catch me, and they still think I'm a dunce. How? How am I always being left behind?"

Naruto sat thise, swinging gently, and just watching as the occasional person pointed at him and laughed or whispered snide remarks. Naruto was going to become the Hokage one day, and they would finally respect him. Because… A Kage was someone people respected, right? Maybe he could go and talk to jiji, try one more time to convince him that he was ready to be a genin. Genin teams were supposed to be balanced, so what did it matter if one person on the team couldn't create clones? It shouldn't matter… it shouldn't!

After half an hour of silently venting out his frustration while sitting on the swing, Naruto decided it was time to go home and sort out some food. He'd tried really hard showing off for the examiners, and it had him feeling especially hungry.

Except he didn't make it home.

"Naruto, may I speak with you?"

He whirled, turning to see that the voice belong to Mizuki-sensei. Mizuku-sensei wasn't ever all that nice to Naruto, but that didn't make him special. Had he come to tell his student to give up on being a ninja? Well, Naruto wouldn't—

"I want to talk to you about your exam," Mizuku-sensei started, and then stopped for a moment. "I mean, the secret backup exam."

Naruto looked up, and felt a warmth of excitement spread throughout his body. Had they actually recognised all his hard work? Were they going to give him anothis chance, anothis way of becoming a genin?

"Yeah? Yeah? What is it?" Naruto demaned, starting to bounce energetically, his woes already forgotten.

"Why don't you come with me? This is supposed to be a secret, so we can't just talk about it in the middle of the street - I'm sure you understand."

Naruto did understand. It did make sense to him that the academy would have a backup for people like him who had proven their worth but failed the hurdle of producing a Bunshin. Right? He followed Mizuki-sensei for a while, and the climbed up to sit on a balcony that looked over a large portion of the village.

"Aside from the Bunshin, your showing in the exam was quite impressive, kid," Mizuki-sensei offered, and Naruto gave a grin in return. "And it's not fair that you can't become a genin just because of that. And that's why we sometimes issue a secret second exam for impressive kids like you."

Naruto bounced on the spot, and fidgeted with the railing of the balcony they were sitting on. "So what do I need to do?"

Mizuku-sensei grinned back at Naruto almost conspiratorially. "Tonight, you need to break into Hokage-sama's residence and find the Scroll of Seals, which is kept in his personal office library. Sneak away with the scroll and learn any one jutsu from it, and you pass as soon as you show me that jutsu! Pretty simple, right?"

Naruto laughed. "Sounds like a piece of cake, Mizuki-sensei! I'll see you later tonight!"

Without even giving Mizuku-sensei a chance to respond, Naruto vaulted over the balcony railing and set off home. He needed food, and time to plan if he was going to pass this exam.

It had almost been too easy to get away with the scroll. What kind of exam was this? Naruto made his way out of the Hokage's residence with the scroll slung over his back. The old man himself had almost caught him, but Naruto exploited one of his weaknesses that had never failed to distract him. The old man was kind of perverted - all Naruto had to do was transform into his aged-up 'girl mode' without any clothes, and jiji got this massive nosebleed and ran off. It made him kind of uncomfortable - after all, Naruto was still only thirteen. But still, it worked so he would exploit it. That was what it meant to be a ninja. He aged himself back down but stayed in his 'girl' form, transformed some clothes back on, and set off towards the forest. There would probably be ninja trying to catch him soon, and he needed to find somewhere to hide.

Once he found a spot, Naruto unrolled the scroll, and started scanning through the jutsu. he had never been very good with reading dense, lengthy books and scrolls, but he knew they were still important, so he had developed his own method. He would scan through the texts quickly to pick out the most interesting information and start there. It made it easy to go back and read earlier bits, because he already wanted to know the answers from the interesting bits. And that was exactly what he was doing with the Scroll of Seals. he scanned through it, pretty much only looking at the names of jutsu and vaguely taking in the graphic descriptions, until he found something interesting.

Naruto's eyes passed over one particular technique, called the Shadow Clone Jutsu. he kept reading - apparently it took a lot of chakra, which was perfect for Naruto. He knew he had way more chakra than most people, and he knew that he struggled with the ordinary Bunshin because he kept putting in way too much chakra. With this, Naruto could really get back at the graduation exam for constantly failing him, by mastering an even more advanced clone jutsu that was more suited to his chakra.

An hour passed, and Naruto was feeling quite confident with the justu. It didn't seem particularly complex to him - all the diagrams were really intuitive and just made sense. So he rolled up the scroll, and slung it over his back. It was time to go back and show Mizuku-sensei the product of his hard work! But wait… Mizuku-sensei had never seen him like this outside of his pranks, so… Naruto went back to his 'boy' form. He didn't like it, because he was feeling more in the mood to look more feminine at the moment, but it would have to do.

And then Iruka-sensei showed up. He did not look happy at all. Naruto laughed nervously and scratched at his head.

"You finally found me, sensei! And guess what? I finished the secret exam already!" Naruto grinned, but it was more of a mask for the nervousness than anything. Something was off, and Naruto knew it. Why was Iruka-sensei looking so upset with him? Maybe if he showed the teacher his new jutsu, everything would be okay! "Wait up! I'm gonna show you this amazing jutsu, and you'll finally let me graduate! I get to graduate if I learn one jutsu from this scroll, right?"

"Who told you that?" Iruka-sensei asked. Now Naruto knew something was wrong.

"Umm… Mizuku-sensei? He explained the secret exam to me, and told me to come here to practice!"

For some reason, Iruka-sensei looked… shocked? Afraid? Naruto wasn't quiet sure. And then both of them heard a subtle whistle in the air. Iruka-sensei made to push Naruto away, but he had already jumped back. When Naruto looked over at Iruka-sensei, he realised that the teacher hadn't escaped the flurry of kunai, and was bleeding in several places. Some of the kunai were still sticking out of him.

Up on a thick branch stood Mizuku-sensei, with two giant fuma shuriken on his back. "Naruto, give me that scroll."

Naruto glanced back at Iruka-sensei, and the realisation dawned on him. His mind raced through the implications of what was happening. Mizuku-sensei was demanding the scroll, and had hurt Iruka-sensei. His initial instincts were that something was off about Mizuki-sensei's proposition, but he was so excited about the prospect of becoming a genin that he disregarded his concerns. He was so desperate… that he had fallen for a lie. And now Iruka-sensei had been hurt trying to protect him.

"Naruto," Iruka-sensei growled, wincing as he pulled out the kunai one by one. "Never give him that scroll! It is a dangerous object that contains forbidden jutsu, and was supposed to be sealed away for the village's safety! Mizuki used you in order to get it for himself!"

Naruto glared back at Mizuki-sen… no, just Mizuki. "Understood, Iruka-sensei. Run or fight?"

"Run or fight?" Mizuki scoffed. "Maybe I didn't give you enough credit, brat. You do catch on quick. But you should still give me the scroll, and I'll tell you why. After an incident almost thirteen years ago, a certain rule was created. A rule that everyone but you knows."

A rule that everyone but me knows? What the hell? Naruto thought, keeping his glare level on Mizuki. Still, curiosity got the better of him, as it often did. He didn't say anything though, having gotten the impression that Mizuki would keep talking anyway.

"STOP IT, MIZUKI!" Iruka-sensei screamed, and that only made Naruto more curious.

"The rule forbids anyone from revealing that you are actually the Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Beast that killed the Fourth Hokage and almost destroyed our village!" Mizuku revealed with a snide grin. "The same beast who killed Iruka's parents!"

"Stop it!" Iruka-sensei shouted again, but Naruto had heard enough.

"Oh, that's it?" Naruto smirked, and shifted his stance into a more combative one. "That's old news, dumbass!"

Both Iruka-sensei and Mizuki turned to face Naruto with shocked expressions.

"You knew?" Iruka-sensei asked with a tone that almost, but not quite, conveyed disbelief.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I mean it wasn't hard to figure out, given the way the villagers treat me. All I had to do was hide in the shadows and listen to their whispers. But Mizuki, you've got one thing wrong. I'm not the Kyuubi, it's just inside of me. More importantly, you hurt my favourite sensei! Now you've gotta pay, dattebayo!"

Apparently, Mizuki had heard enough. He hurled one of the fuma shuriken, and Iruka-sensei dove in front of him, taking the blow on his behalf. Inside, Naruto's emotions boiled. Not only at Mizuki, for hurting Iruka-sensei, but at Iruka-sensei too, for doubting in his abilities. Sasuke threw shuriken better than that, so Naruto knew he could have dodged. And still, even Naruto's favourite teacher looked down on him, saw him as someone who needed protecting.

"Iruka-sensei, let me handle this," Naruto insisted with as confident a tone he coudl work up.

He rolled out from under his injured teacher, and once again glared at Mizuki, before barrelling towards the man. He threw a handful of kunai with intentionally poor aim - he needed to get Mizuki away from Iruka-sensei, and he also wanted to employ a little bit of misdirection, playing on Mizuki's underestimation of him. The plan worked well enough, and Mizuki casually jumped backward, out of the path of the kunai.

Naruto kept it up, now throwing barrages of shuriken towards Mizuki, who kept jumping back to avoid the incoming projectiles.

This is far enough, Naruto thought as he ran out of shuriken.

"So, the little fox brat thinks he can take me on? Naive," Mizuki drawled in a tone that was nothing like the friendliness he had displayed earlier.

"Think? No, I know!" Naruto spat back, and he formed his hands into a seal he'd been practicing with for almost an hour now. He pulled on his vast pull of chakra, and shouted the name of the technique as a means of focusing the jutsu. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

Mizuki gasped, and his confidence was shattered. Facing him was an army of several hundred corporeal clones of Naruto, and each and every one of them meant business. A couple minutes later, Mizuki lay on the forest floor in a bloody heap.