"Normal speech"

'Normal thoughts'

"Demon/Summon speech"

'Demon/Summon thoughts'

Jutsu name

flashback/memory

~locations and transitions~

Before we start everyone is wearing their canon clothes, they might get a wardrobe change but unlikely except Naruto who I'm still thinking of his new clothes but that's for later

Also please read the notes at the bottom for some things I wish to bring up

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 8: I'm sorry

Konoha never looked better to Hiruzen than it does right now. The sky was the brightest blue, the clouds were the purest white, and the birds were chirping. Hiruzen was enjoying the sight as he looked upon the streets as he was standing on the roof of the Hokage tower and smoking his pipe 'today has to be the most perfect day I have had in a long time, all the paperwork is done, no issues from the council, no meetings, and the civilians are going about their business as normal' he thought as he gave a relaxed sigh and smiling.

"NARUUUUTTTTOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"GET BACK HERE YOU ROTTEN BRAT"

"HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO THE HOKAGE MONUMENT"

Hiruzen's peaceful moment was disrupted by the shouts of several of his shinobi jumping from the rooftops and the laughing of his surrogate grandson. Looking at the jumping group of five shinobi and academy students. Hearing what they said he turned around to look at the Hokage Monument and just stared at the Hokage's faces "how did he even do any of that when there is a security team that patrols above it in front of it and on the outer walls which have the perfect view of it?"

The faces carved into the mountain that make the Hokage monument were painted with different joking faces.

The first Hokage had its eyes painted to look like it was winking, teeth painted to look like a smile in a big smile with a shine on them and a painted hand next to it giving a thumbs up. 'Oh kami, why did he have to choose that face? Thankfully Gai is at the moment out on a mission.' he thought with a shiver

The second Hokage had googly eyes and tongue sticking out with the word "fool" written on the forehead 'a very big contrast to how he was in person' he thought with a chuckle

The Third Hokage's face was painted with a big goofy smile and perverted eyes with a painted blush and nose bleed and on closer inspection on the base of the beard was a small message saying "sorry Jiji". He couldn't help but chuckle 'at least he left that message but why did he make me look like a pervert?' he thought with anime tears streaming down his face

The fourth Hokage was the most interesting as it had three whisker marks on each of its cheeks, a foxy grin and eyes painted to look like they are closed 'could it have been anymore ironic that he chose the fourth to do that to, and Naruto aims to surpass you Minato…'

As he turned back to the village and seeing Naruto outrun his shinobi and several of his Anbu like it was a simple task, Hiruzen couldn't help but think 'you are truly unpredictable, both in your actions and the way your life has become…..'

Naruto continued to hope from rooftop to rooftop outrunning the high ranking shinobi while laughing and taunting them "are you even trying to catch me, cause this is too easy" he said as he threw a paintball at them hitting one of the Anbu

"Your gonna regret that when we catch you, you brat!" yelled the Anbu as he wiped some of the paint off his mask

"bleh try harder." Naruto said as he pulled down on his eyelid, stuck out his tongue and tossed a smoke bomb to the ground

"Aaaah what the hell, my eyes burn! And why the hell am I so itchy! What the hell did he put in that smoke?!" screamed one of the Jonin chasers while the rest of the group agreed and started to scratch themselves furiously

"Better question! Where is that little gremlin, I'm going to hogtie him and drag him to the Hokage after this" the Anbu leader said as he noticed that the boy was gone

"Spread out! Find him!" he said as they all jumped into different directions in search of the boy

Down below on street level was a three-tailed fox(a bit smaller than 12-year-old normal Naruto) laughing as he looked at the shinobi get further away 'yet again I win! Anbu: 11, Naruto: 163'. As he calmed down his laughing and started walking away, he was about to leave the area until he was grabbed by the scruff of his neck and then brought up face to face with Iruka.

"Naruto! What do you think you're doing?! You are suppose to be in class right now, instead, I find you causing problems yet again for the Anbu and desecrating the Hokage monument!" hearing a few grumbles from the fox he continued "after class, you are going to clean up the monument until all the mess you made is gone as well as give an apology to the Anbu squad that were chasing you". Naruto begins to struggle *whine* "don't give me that! You caused it so you must be punished for it. Now undo the henge so we can get back to class" Iruka finished 'I really wish you would stop doing that henge, it's dangerous in this village' he thought as he dropped the fox who then became engulfed in a poof of smoke.

Standing there was 12 year old Naruto in an orange jumpsuit that had a white collar with blue encircling his shoulders, a white swirl with a tassel on the left side, and a red Uzumaki crest on the back. He stood there with his arms crossed as he mumbled: "how the heck do you keep finding me that easily?"

Iruka gave an amused smile as he patted the boy on his back to move him forward "don't worry about that let's go, so we can get to your punishment faster" and with that, they began to walk back to the Academy "we will be able to make it just in time for the start of "History of Konohagakure".

Hearing this just made Naruto grumble even more 'Iruka: 244, me:...0. Damn it'

~Iruka's classroom~

Naruto was back in the class, trying to listen to the history of the Shinobi, well…...at least he would if he wasn't sleeping through the lesson. When he got back to class almost everyone, through chuckles, began to ask how he painted the monument and all he said with a cocky grin was "I'm just that awesome". Although not everyone gave a somewhat positive response

Flashback

As Naruto was walking through the class to his seat, he heard a voice that grated his nerves "you shouldn't waste time on something so stupid dobe". He couldn't help but stop to retort at the one responsible "like you could do better Teme. no way you could even get close to doing something as awesome as that!" he said as he stared at Sasuke Uchiha, someone he could never and will never get along with,

Naruto hated Sasuke for his high and mighty attitude, expected everyone to bow down at his feet and give him everything that he wanted, something that made Naruto sick to his stomach as he believed that everything should be earned and never given just cause you demand it. It was bad from their first interaction which was when Naruto was staring at Sasuke's head and said "look the duck on Sasuke's head just wiggled its tail!". Safe to say it only got worse as time went on.

"Why would I waste my time trying to one-up you, I already know that you aren't anything special, just a clanless loser that doesn't deserve to be a shinobi." he said with a cocky smirk on his face

With that said Naruto jumped onto the desk facing Sasuke glaring straight into his eyes. It became a glaring contest with everyone in the classroom cheering for a fight with a lot of them telling Sasuke to beat up the "dobe".

Iruka was about to use his Big head jutsu until heard Naruto start to speak in a low tone but loud enough for everyone to hear "You may think that you are special just because you are the "holy" Uchiha but you are nothing more than a spoiled brat who doesn't deserve anything you got. Why don't you live the life of someone who has to struggle every day for a bit and see how long you last without your status?" and with that, he jumped off the desk and walked back to his seat.

As he was walking, Sakura who was standing a few feet away, walked up to Naruto with her fist raised "Naruto-Baka, how dare you speak to Sasuke-Kun like that!" he winced from the loud tone of the girl before he saw the fist aimed for his head. Before the fist made contact he used Kawarimi to replace himself with Sasuke.

*BANG* and with that Sasuke was slammed into the ground, much to his fangirls dismay and a few other's amusements

Naruto just jumped out of Sasuke's seat and went to his seat in the back and laid his head down for a nap, unaware of a Hinata watching him with a smile on her face 'Naruto-Kun'

~Flashback end~

Naruto was woken up with some harsh shaking. Opening his eyes he saw that it was Ino standing next to his desk with an angry look on her face "did you have to start that fight with Sasuke-Kun!?" she said as she tapped her foot.

Burying his face into his arms with a groan "I didn't start it Ino-chan, you saw it so you know I didn't" he said though it was slightly muffled

Ino huffed cause she knew that she couldn't retort to what Naruto just said "well any way class is over and Iruka-sensei said you have to meet him at the gate right now" she said with a shake of her head

Once again Naruto groans "damn it, I don't wanna clean up the paint" he whined as he got up and walked towards the door with his shoulders slumped

With a roll of her eyes, she walked in front of him with her hands on her hips and her ponytail swaying behind her "if you didn't want to clean it, you shouldn't have done it" she scolded him but in her head, she was chuckling at the prank because she also thought it was funny

Naruto, had his eyes following the swaying ponytail as it went back and forth "still don't wanna" he said before he shook his head and started to walk faster to meet up with Iruka "anyway I better go do it, so I'll see ya later Ino-chan" and when they made it outside he ran off

Ino shook her head at his childish behavior "Baka." she said with a smile before she remembered something and shouted out "Oi Naruto! Don't forget about your order, it is ready for pickup whenever you want!"

Looking back as he ran he yelled back "Thanks Ino-chan! I'll pick them up when I can!" and turned back and ran faster to the academy gates.

~Hokage monument 25 minutes later~

"You know this would go faster if you helped me" he grumbled. Naruto was hanging by a rope wrapped around his waist, a bucket of cleaning liquid attached to hi ship and a scrubber in his hand as he tried to remove the paint on the monument.

Looking down from the ledge above Naruto, Iruka looked at his dangling student "this is a punishment Naruto, not volunteer work, so you must be the one to clean it". Hearing grumbles and complaints from the boy he decided to at least lift his spirits a bit "when you finish this up I'll take you to Ichiraku's afterward." and with a big smile on his face, Naruto doubles his efforts just to get to his Ramen faster.

~ichiraku Ramen 3 hours later~

Naruto was slurping up the last of his thirteenth bowl of chicken ramen with a big smile on his face "ah~ that hit the spot" he said as he pats his somewhat inflated stomach.

Iruka just watch the boy as he had finished his first bowl a little bit ago and knew that it would be better not to spend it on a second bowl "I still can't believe that all you ever eat is ramen, you should really eat things other than that"

"I would try and tell you not to listen to something like that but I do have to say that it would be better for you to eating something else once in a while." said Ayame as she came back to the counter with the check

Looking at the two, Naruto gave his foxy grin "but I do eat other things, I go hunting on my own a lot in the forest and get some berries, apples, and fish!"

Both of them were shocked hearing this but Iruka was worried as he didn't know that Naruto had been going to the forest "Naruto, you shouldn't be going to the forest! It's dangerous to go out there without anyone with you"

Naruto just turned to Iruka with his smile dropping a bit "but I've been doing it for like three years...I think" 'since a lot of stores kick me out when I come in'

Ayame seeing Naruto's mood drop a bit walked around the counter and pulled him into a hug "aw Naruto, you shouldn't feel bad about this, we are just worried about you, so stop all those negative thoughts, or I will rub your whiskers again" she said with a small giggle at feeling Naruto stiffen a bit at the rubbing whiskers part.

A week after the Anbu came looking for the boy, Naruto had wobbled into the stand and tripped onto the ground and gave a frustrated groan. Ayame got to her knees thinking that he was hurt only to see that he wasn't injured but Naruto told her that he was having a really hard time walking. It got so bad that he was about to cry a bit, but Ayame picked up the boy and put him on her lap and hugged the boy, as well as wipe the tears off his cheeks with her thumb and much to her shock, he began to purr as she did it. He liked it so much that he didn't even realize he was doing it and leaned into her hand as she continued to rub his whiskers. It was only after she stopped that he realized he purred and didn't know why but before he could say anything she started to do it again, and after a few minutes of it he fell asleep on her lap. Ayame couldn't help but smile at how cute the boy was. After he woke up he told her not to do it again before he left, although she never promised she wouldn't do it again.

"Ayame-nee-chan please don't do that, it's really embarrassing and I don't want anyone else to know about that!" he grumbled with a small blush on his face

Iruka, confused about what it was but not wanting to pry decided to speak up "Ahem, Naruto you should head home soon, it's late and you should get some rest for the graduation exam tomorrow".

Eyes shooting open as big as dinner plates, he looked at his sensei "WHAT!? That's tomorrow?!"

Iruka gave him a deadpan expression not believing the kid "Naruto you should keep track of these things and if you didn't sleep through my class you would have known about this and I really hope that you have been studying for the written test and practicing your jutsu"

Rubbing the back of his head, he sheepishly nodded "yeah I have been practicing to do it every night" he said not mentioning that he hasn't studied at all but at least he has been practicing his clone jutsu

Nodding his head Iruka left the money for the meal "good, you should do fine with it then, I look forward to giving you your Hitai-ai tomorrow" he said as he waved goodbye and started walking home

Naruto, watching his sensei couldn't help but sigh 'I really hope I can make it work tomorrow, especially after all the time Iruka-sensei spent helping me with the jutsu' he thought heading out of the stand

Ayame seeing how Naruto was acting decided to give him one more hug "it's ok Naruto you will get it right this time, just focus on what you need to do and it will work" she said as she began to rub his whisker for a few seconds to make him feel better

Hugging her back Naruto was grateful to Ayame for looking out for him "thanks Ayame-nee-chan *purr*" breaking the hug with a blush he gave his goodbye as he made his way home

~Naruto's apartment~

Naruto, now home, cleaned and in his Pajamas with his goofy nightcap, was heading to his bedroom. Heading to his little sleeping corner he paused for a second before deciding "I think I will sleep in my little sanctuary tonight". Grabbing a broom and walking to the center of his bedroom, he used the broom handle to poke a certain spot on the ceiling, which cause a piece of it tied to a small rope to fall where he poked. Pulling on the rope, a piece of the ceiling was pulled with it showing an attic-like area. Crouching on all fours he hopped up grabbing the ledge and pulled himself up. In the area was a selection of plants all around the room which is about half the size of his bedroom and a really low ceiling, enough room for him to walk on all fours

He found this area on accident when he first tried using an enhanced jump used for roof hopping and hit his head really hard in the center of his bedroom and made a hole. Afterward, he used a chair and some boxes he had found out, after a lot of falling, he saw that the area was an empty area that separates his ceiling and the roof. After some thinking he made this a little corner for himself, and a place to put his growing collection of plants and flowers that he got from Ino's family shop and from the forest. He had cut a hole on the slanted wooden portion of the and got the Hokage to get him a window for the hole making an excuse saying it was a replacement for a broken window and making a door out of spare wood he had. After some time it became his little bit of nature and he found himself often sleeping in it so he had made another sleeping area, next to the window. He never had to worry about the landlord finding out since the man didn't even check up on the apartment and the rent was paid for through the stipend.

Making sure to close the door to his natures corner he walked on all fours to the pillow and blanket, removing his pajamas so he is just in his boxers and moved under the blanket, curled up on the pillow and began to think 'Rama-san, I wish you were still here to talk to, I'm really nervous about tomorrow, what if I fail again like the last two times, what I don't graduate with my friend…..I miss having you around…' and with that last thought, he fell asleep.

~Iruka's class the next morning~

Naruto was actually really early to class this day because he was extremely nervous and sat in the second row, third column. He had been trying to get his nerves to calm down but with everyone else in the class being just as nervous it was worse like he felt everyone's nervousness added to his own.

'It's ok, it's ok….. it's ok, breath, I can do this, I can do this, it's just another step to becoming Hokage, and you won't let anything stop you' he thought trying to calm himself

"Jeez, I can smell the stress rolling off you". Turning his head to see who it was, he saw it was Kiba

"Yeah whatever mutt, I'm just excited to get my Hitai-ate and become a genin," he said with his normal bravado

"Hah if you can become a genin that it should be a breeze for me and Akamaru" *Arf* Kiba said with his puppy Akamaru that was on top of his head to bark in agreement

Looking at Kiba, he stood face to face with him "ple~ase, I'll breeze through it so quickly, you'll be eating my dust in your dog bowl"

Both growling at each other in their own way for a few seconds until Naruto stopped as he heard them coming. Unzipping his jacket a bit and reaching into the inner pocket he pulled out two sets of earplugs and a small pair of ear mufflers. Giving the second pair of earplugs and ear muffler to Kiba, who took them and put the plugs in his ears and put the mufflers on Akamaru, Naruto put in his pair and looked towards the door, waiting for them to come through.

A few seconds later they ran through the door "I WIN INO-PIG" "NO WAY FOREHEAD, I OBVIOUSLY WON" Sakura and Ino had barged in after another one of their races to see who would sit next to Sasuke. They have been doing this for the two years that he had been in the class and learned really quickly about the shouting, hurting his ears and it only got worse as time went on as his hearing kept improving for an unknown reason.

*THUD*

As the two kept arguing they stopped when they heard a loud thud and turned to see Naruto with his hands over his ears wincing in pain from the shouts. Ino's shouting he could handle a bit since it was muffled but Sakura had some sort of pitch that hurt even if it came in muffled from the earplugs. Ino feeling a bit guilty as she knew his hearing was good and Sakura just huffing thinking he was just showing off

Behind him at the final row was Hinata looking worriedly at the boy and wanting nothing more to go to him and see if he was alright and needed help. For four years she had obeyed the order to stay away from him but she regretted it every day and was close to just ignoring it and be friends with him once again but was too afraid to do it so she just watched him from a distance, seeing how he pushed himself hard to get something right and smile at the world regardless of anything bad happening as she saw a few times. She started moving to go to him but when she saw Kiba patting him on the back and Akamaru licking his face, she sat back in her seat looking down at her desk 'Naruto-kun'

As all this was happening Sasuke got to the doorway to see Ino and Sakura standing there "you're in my way" he said in an annoyed tone and moved forward as they moved out of his way. As he made his way to his seat, he looked towards Naruto who was rubbing his ears to ease the pain 'che, dobe' he thought as he sat down and crossed his fingers in front of his face and just sat there ignoring everyone.

Naruto was standing outside with the rest of the class as he waited for his name to be called for the Shurikenjutsu. He felt like he did ok on the written exam and was a little more confident about this portion of the exam. All of his friends apart from Ino, who haven' gone yet, passed the Shurikenjutsu although Shikamaru only got the 6 out of 10 which was the bare minimum to pass.

Sasuke was called up and as he walked to the starting point as all his fangirls starting cheering for him, much to Naruto's dismay as he began to roll on the ground holding his ears. Naruto didn't even pay attention to Sasuke's score as he was clenching his eyes as every time he threw his projectile the fangirls kept screaming until Kiba and Ino were able to get his attention and pointed at Naruto's pair of earplugs that Kiba was able to get from his pocket, which he quickly swiped them and put them in and although he still heard the loud noise he could watch the rest of Sasuke's exam.

After Sasuke finished he walked back like it was nothing, he looked at Naruto and sneered "beat that Dobe" and then walked passed him.

Naruto didn't even know what the Uchiha's score so he wouldn't even know what to beat, but when he thought of it he felt like he should do his best just so he could pass. Walking to the starting mark ignoring the jeering and booing him, but thankfully he still had his earplugs still in his ears so he didn't hear a thing from them except for a pink-haired girl that kept screaming what she was saying.

Once he made it and got the practice pouch with the shuriken and kunai meant for the test, he took a deep breath and looked at the four target dummies. He grabbed three shurikens in each hand and swinging his right arm tossing the first three towards one of the test dummies and two hitting fatal points, one in the neck and another hitting the forehead and the third hitting the leg area. Seeing the first throw done he swung his left arm, in the same manner, getting almost the same hits for the second dummy apart from the third hitting the second dummy's stomach area.

After his first two throws he decided to finish up his shuriken throws, putting the last four, two in each hand, he threw them at the same time in a criss-cross manner at the last two dummies. The first dummy was hit in both shoulders by two shurikens and the other dummy was hit in the heart and missed the last one.

He pulled out his five kunai from the practice pouch and tossed them one at a time with each hitting his intended target, one in the head one in each shoulder parallel to each other, one in the stomach and one in the center of all four. Sighing a bit as he was able to do good on this and turned around just to see everyone looking at him like he grew two extra heads. "...what?"

He saw Iruka was speaking but he heard nothing and just stood there looking at his sensei. After a few more seconds his mind finally caught up with him "ah" and pulled out his earplugs which caused everyone to face fault at his action

"Naruto-baka, you must have cheated! There is no way you could have gotten better than Sasuke-Kun!" ranted Sakura making Naruto wish he didn't take out his earplugs.

Iruka who regaining his composure as well and cleared out his hearing with his pinky finger turned towards Naruto "Naruto, I have to ask how did you get that good in Shurikenjutsu?"

Naruto looked at his sensei "I used kunai for fishing a lot and kept practicing when they hopped out of the water and for shuriken, I used them to get apples from trees that are too tall for me to grab, back when I couldn't use the chakra jump."

Iruka had to nod his head a bit understanding that the moving target of fish would help improve accuracy and make it easy to hit a stationary target and hitting a small target like an apple doing the same thing "well done Naruto, it terms of score you got second place but you were the only one to throw multiple shuriken at a time and made them evenly separated"

Hearing that he got second place put a smile on his face but it dropped quickly hearing he fangirls saying that the "dobe" shouldn't have gotten that score so close to their "Sasuke-Kun". He just shook his head and went to take a seat with his friends and saw that Ino was next "good luck Ino-chan". He said to the girl who just gave him a wave

Naruto gave a sigh thinking the Academy jutsu exam was next 'I have to do it right this time, not only to graduate with everyone but because it's my last chance' he thought, thinking back at his second attempt that he was goaded into it by the teme who kept pushing his buttons

~Iruka's class 25 minutes later~

Naruto felt like he was about to have a panic attack, sweating bullets and shaking his leg. Staring at the door, to him, hearing everyone being called seemed like a countdown to his doom.

After a few more minutes he was called into the exam room and so he went to the room he dreaded.

Walking into the room he stood in front of Iruka and Mizuki "ok Naruto-Kun, the first jutsu you need to perform is the henge jutsu…..and please keep it human" after hearing this from Iruka, Mizuki looked at him in a bit of confusion "What do you mean Iruka?". Turning to his teaching aid Iruka answered: "Naruto turned himself into bears and tigers before in several of his pranks." He then gave Naruto a deadpan look "you even scared off a few of my years when you walked up to me looking like a lion ready to pounce on me to make me lunch."

Naruto looking sheepish and chuckled rubbing the back of his head "sorry about that Iruka-sensei. Ok I will keep it human"

Nodding his head Iruka grabbed his clipboard and pen ready to give his marks "ok Naruto go ahead"

Naruto thought about who to change into until he was engulfed in a poof of smoke and out of it came Naruko: a very curvy woman with high c-cup breasts (I think), tan skin and long blonde hair tied up in pigtails but what got the two men was that she was naked with small puffs of smoke hiding her nipples and lower region (I didn't think I would need to write this kind of thing but oh well, hope it's ok). After seeing this the two men were launched backward from massive nosebleeds. After they stuffed tissues into their nose the got back up to reprimand the boy only to stand up straighter when they saw the third Hokage standing there "Sir" Iruka said as Mizuki began to sweat with the Third Hokage here

"I must say I am disappointed in the two of you. How could you fall for something like that such a simple technique?" The third said getting Iruka to look down in shame until he heard the third start to laugh, looking up he saw that the third was on his knees slamming his fist into the ground trying to catch his breath. Iruka had never seen the elder Hokage give this kind of action before and was shocked when the Hokage was engulfed in smoke showing Naruto in his place still laughing and gasping for air.

With a big tick mark popping on his head Iruka moved to hit Naruto on his head from the prank he did during the exam "Naruto this isn't a game!" he said as he lifted his head, bringing it down to Naruto's head but much to his shock he didn't hit Naruto….he hit Mizuki.

Naruto felt the fist coming to his head and used the Kawarimi to switch with Mizuki and now sat in Mizuki's seat and laughed, even more, seeing Iruka hitting Mizuki. Seeing Iruka turn back to him and seeing that he was still angry, he sat there until Iruka got up right next to him

"Naruto, you have to take this exam seriously!" Iruka said about to slap Naruto this time

Mizuki was groaning after getting blindsided by the fist. Picking himself up from the ground he was shocked once again when he felt the back of his head being slapped hard enough to force his face into the desk.

Iruka just blinked at this and for a few seconds stood there looking at the groaning Mizuki and then realized that Naruto just did two Kawarimi one after another. Sighing he turns to Naruto who was still chuckling "well Naruto looks like you did both the Henge and Kawarimi….very well I might add" he said and quietly mumbled the last part with a blush "Anyway, you just need to do the clone jutsu and you will pass"

Hearing this Naruto stopped his chuckles and now felt really worried. Seeing the two back in their seats, he began to concentrate 'ok I can do this. You are able to do the other two easily so I can do this one too….please work' he thought as he closed his eyes, put his hands into a hand sign and focused on the jutsu. After a dark purple chakra faintly swirled around Naruto a puff of smoke appeared next to Naruto. Opening his eyes in hopes of seeing himself standing next to him, he was disappointed greatly seeing a white dead and melting clone that barely looked like him '...no'.

Turning to the instructors he saw the disappointed look on Iruka "I am sorry Naruto-Kun, but because of your scores on the written exam….. *sigh* you fail". Iruka could see how destroyed the boy was on the inside but he could not show favoritism and pass him just because he liked the boy. "Come on Iruka, surly we could bend the rules a bit and pass the kid. I mean he did do his best on the exam" said Mizuki giving what Naruto could tell was a fake smile. Turning to Mizuki Iruka said with a frown "I'm sorry Mizuki but we can't do that no matter who it is, it isn't right or fair to the other students" and with a sigh, he turned to Naruto "Naruto I'm sor…" only to see that Naruto had already left the classroom

~15 minutes later outside at Naruto's tree~

Naruto just sat there on his swing, away from all the parents congratulating their kids on passing but he could still hear some of them talking about him

"Look it's him"

"Good thing he didn't pass. I mean what were they even thinking letting it into the academy with our kids"

"I know, he should never have been allowed"

Hearing this and other comments of similar nature kept getting on Naruto's nerve 'why the hell do they keep acting like I'm nothing but a monster and just here to corrupt their kids! What did I even do to them, why SHOULD I GO THROUGH THIS, WHY ME HUH! WHY!'

"Naruto?"

Hearing this he whipped his head around just to see Ino and surprisingly Hinata looking at him with worried looks in their eyes. They were quiet until Ino spoke up "are you ok?"

Seeing the Hitai-ai they both wore; Hinata wearing hers loosely around her neck and Ino wearing hers as a belt, he turned away to take a deep breath and turned back with his usual grin "yeah I'm fine, I just have to try again next year"

Seeing the shift Ino furled her eyebrows "no! You're not fine Naruto, you look like someone threw away one of your ramen cups" Ino jokes, since she knew about Naruto's love for Ramen

Naruto just got up from the swing, smile still on his face "it's alright you two, I'm fine. I was just thinking about how I'm going to handle another year at the academy." Turning away he started to walk away "anyway, you should go to your families and celebrate your graduation, don't waste your time hanging around me."

Hearing this Hinata couldn't help herself "Naruto-Kun!" Seeing that Naruto stopped and turned his head to look at her she gave a deep bow "I'm sorry!"

Not sure what she was really apologizing for, whether it be from ignoring him or his failure, it didn't really matter as he just gave a smile and waved "it's ok Hinata-chan" and then just continued to walk away

As the girls watch the boy leave they both had the same thought 'I'm sorry Naruto-Kun/Naruto'

Leaving the two behind, Naruto just walked passed the gate ready to head home until he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Looking behind him he saw that it was Mizuki. He never liked the teaching aid, the guy always felt wrong to him and he still felt that way even now.

"Hey Naruto, I wanted to talk to you about something". Mizuki smiled at the boy

"What is it Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto asked as he turned to the man

"I actually wanted to tell you that there is still a way to graduate with the rest of your class" seeing the boy's eyes widen he continued "your scores were actually really close to passing and me and Iruka decided that you will be given an extra credit assignment that will allow you to pass, BUT!" he stopped the boy as Naruto looked about to scream out loud "this assignment will be set as a normal infiltration mission. You know how those are right?" seeing the nod yes he pulled out a slip of paper and finished "good, on this slip of paper are the instructions and rules for it. All you have to do is make sure that you're not caught. Got it?" "yep!" and with that Mizuki walked away with a dark smile on his face.

~Konoha forest 10:40 PM ~

Naruto was sitting in a clearing, looking through a massive scroll almost the same size as himself. After he read the instructions Mizuki gave him which were: to infiltrate the Hokage office and get the forbidden scroll, bring it to a certain point in the forest and learn one jutsu from it before Mizuki found him. Now he would normally think about this kind of thing especially since it was coming from someone that felt wrong, he was desperate to graduate with his friends so he did it without a second thought. And although he had some trouble with the Anbu still in the office when he entered as well as the Hokage walking in as well, a quick Oiroke no Jutsu and a couple of nosebleed fountains later, he was able to get the scroll and leave.

He had spent the last hour working on one jutsu which he completed and was now just reading the last bit of information for it "...retain the memories of clones, Warning: massive chakra consumption and it is recommended to not go beyond chakra limit or user runs the risk of extreme chakra exhaustion which could lead to death" Naruto was writing this down on a little notebook that he kept in his jacket meant for writing tips on plant/flower care

After putting the notebook back into his pocket, he sat down with the scroll rolled back up on his lap and was going to take a small breather before his sensei arrived. He didn't get the chance as he heard his name being called

"Naruto!"

Naruto turned his head to see it was Iruka calling him and got up from his sitting position with the scroll falling off him "Hey Iruka-sensei, you made it and I was able to learn the one jutsu need to pass the assignment!"

Iruka hearing this was extremely confused hearing that Naruto learned a jutsu and began to look at the boy and the surrounding area. Naruto looked tired and his clothing was covered in leaves, sticks, and dirt, and the surrounding area had the trees with some scuff marks and broken branches and a lot of the grass seemed flattened like someone was wrestling around "Naruto what are you talking about? What assignment?"

"The extra credit Assignment so I could Graduate." Naruto said with excitement and some confusion as it seemed that Iruka didn't know what he was talking about.

Original anger dissipating "Naruto there isn't any…" he stopped when he heard something flying through the air before he tackled Naruto to the ground as a large Shuriken flew over them. After making sure that they were safe, Iruka looked back to see it was Mizuki standing on a tree branch, looking down on them.

"Nice dodge Iruka and for saving the demon brat," he said in a condescending tone

"Mizuki what the hell do you think you're doing" Iruka shouting at Mizuki

As both Iruka and Naruto got up, Naruto looked in between the two "What's going on Mizuki-sensei, I thought you said that both of you made this test for me to graduate?"

Hearing this and after thinking of how Naruto wouldn't ever go against the village, he started to put the pieces together even if he didn't like the idea "Mizuki, did you trick Naruto into stealing the forbidden scroll?!"

Mizuki just laughed at Iruka before turning to Naruto 'I was planning on messing with him to get him to doubt Iruka and look guilty but for what he did to me in that exam room I'll just kill him…...but first.' Mizuki thought before he threw some kunai at Iruka forcing him to jump away to avoid them further away from Naruto.

Pulling out a kunai to defend himself he yelled at Naruto "Naruto you need to get out of here with the scroll, Mizuki lied to you, there is no extra credit assignment it was all a ruse!"

Naruto turning to Iruka, couldn't believe what he heard 'so Mizuki-sensei lied, there is no way for me to graduate. Why did I listen to him then….why did I listen to him if he felt so wrong'

With a dark smirk, he looked at the boy "hey Naruto want to know why the villagers hate you so much" getting the boy to turn to him he continued "didn't you ever wonder why everyone called you a monster and demon brat."

Iruka hearing this panicked "Mizuki no it's forbidden to speak of this!"

"Shut up Iruka! You see twelve years ago the demon fox Kyuubi attacked the village and killed everyone including Iruka's parents" he said looking at Iruka who had his eyes wide "and the fourth Hokage went to fight the demon but he didn't kill the fox, he weakened it and used some seal to make it look like a human baby and guess who that baby was"

Naruto stood there, eyes wide open and processing everything he just heard and was piecing what Mizuki was saying 'no, it can't be….'

Mizuki seeing the look in the boy's eyes started to pull the large shuriken off his back "that's right it was you, you ARE the nine-tailed fox that killed everyone that day"

Naruto was in shock 'that's why…...I'm a monster'

Seeing the boy in shock and unresponsive, Mizuki tossed the large shuriken "die demon!"

Iruka saw this and made a move to save Naruto until he felt a kunai hit him in the leg making him collapse onto the ground "no you don't Iruka hahaha". Iruka looked up just in time to see the large shuriken impact in Naruto in the center of his chest "NARUTOOOO!"

Mizuki laughing maniacally landing onto the ground "good the demon is dead and now that he is out of the way, I can deal with you. With this, I can just say that the demon killed you and I finished it off. After I give the forbidden scroll to Orochimaru-sama's spy, he will surely grant me power and status when I abandon this worthless village and join him"

Naruto sat there on his knees with both his hands dangling on his sides and head looking down at the shuriken that was stabbed in his chest with a far off look and light fading from his eyes as tears rolled down his cheeks 'so I am the Kyuubi. I killed all those people. It must be why I like to run on all fours, why my favorite henge is a three-tailed fox and why everyone hated me…...but why?' He lifted one hand to the shuriken 'why is it that Hokage-Jiji keeps treating me nicely, why does he always encourage me to look past the hate and the glares to see the good in the villagers' he lifted the other hand to join his first 'I don't want to die, I don't want to leave the people I care about, Ayame, Ino, Hinata, Shikamaru, Choji, Shino, Kiba, Jiji, Iruka-sensei….how can I say sorry for what I did if I die' he lifted his head and through darkening vision he saw Iruka at the mercy of Mizuki who kept beating on Iruka 'NO IRUKA-SENSEI…..I have to save him from Mizuki…..Mizuki, he's the one that caused this, he's the one that's HURTING IRUKA, IT'S HIS FAULT THAT IRUKA IS HURT AND HE IS ABOUT TO PAY!'

Mizuki had been beating on Iruka for a few minutes now "I always hated you Iruka! Always getting attention from everyone when you didn't even do anything worth the praise!"

Iruka was trying his best to block the hits but with his leg injured his movements were sluggish and sloppy. He kept up his defense until he tripped and fell back onto a tree and slid down tired from blood loss "you talk like I was stealing it from you when all I did was do my job" he said through heavy breathing and glared at his former friend "you think you will be able to get away with this, you think Orochimaru will give you power? If anything you're nothing but a pawn to him"

"Ha with what Orochimaru-sama's spy told me and everything I gave him, I'm guaranteed power and now that the brat is dead I will receive even more praise and power!" Mizuki said as he pulled out another kunai and lifted it over his head to finish off Iruka

He never got the chance to swing as he was launched extremely hard into a tree, hitting it hard enough to break a few of his ribs and him losing the air in his lungs and sliding down slowly on the tree his sliding. His sliding was stopped by a hand gripping hard on his throat and brought up a bit. Opening his eyes he was shocked to see Naruto with eyes so white they were glowing, and behind him on the ground was the shuriken with one of the blades slowly dissolving. Feeling the grip on his throat tightening he grabbed another kunai and cut the arm as he spoke, though it was barely heard "let go of me you fucking demon!"

Looking at the cut he gave, he was shocked to see that the skin around the cut started to peel off showing dark red and black energy underneath, and looking at the demons face he saw the same thing happen to it as well.

Looking to his left where the two were. Iruka was shocked seeing Naruto slam Mizuki into a tree but was even more shocked when he saw his skin start to peel off and red chakra started to swirl around the boy as well as burn his orange jacket and shirt. Iruka then saw through holes in his burning cloths a seal glowing brightly on his lower back. 'But isn't the seal supposed to be on his stomach?'. He began to panic when he saw that the seal looked like it was fading as well like it was being burnt from the edges. The seal continued to burn and Iruka saw changes happening to Naruto such as his ears being replaced with long fox ears in the same spot (ears on the side of his head in the same place as his normal ears, not on top of his head) and out of his tailbone came three long foxtails but soon the center tail began to get covered in the red and black energy. The skin on Naruto's arms and legs peeled off showing the energy as well, with Naruto's nails elongating and his legs becoming like hind legs.

Mizuki began to scream as the skin of Naruto's hand-peeled off and he came into contact with the energy which burned like slow-acting acid. Mizuki looked at Naruto's face that had all of its skin peeled off revealing a black face with his mouth replaced with a wide row of sharp-looking teeth made with the same red and black energy with bright white light coming from within and the eye holes with the same white light still showing a look of anger and the energy flowing into strand of the blonde hair.

"You were going to kill Iruka-sensei!" it spoke in a deep deep voice that sounded more like growls than speech shocking both of the Ningen "you were going to kill one of the few people that showed me kindness, you were going to betray the village as well, and all for your own selfish reasons!" it lifted its other claw and shoved it into Mizuki's shoulder causing him to give a silent scream since the burning on his throat causing him to lose ability to speak

With the burning on his throat, his hands as he tried to pry off Naruto's arm, and now his shoulder which was burning from the inside. With all the pain he was going through he began to wish for death just to stop the pain and as the hand in his shoulder was pulled out and he was released from the hand around his neck, he finally lost consciousness and dropped to the floor with massive burn marks on the afflicted areas.

"You're not worth it, you scum" Naruto said as he looked at the fallen form of the traitor

"Naruto?"

Hearing his name, Naruto turned to Iruka and with sadness in his eyes, he said "Iruka-sensei ….I'm sorry." before he collapsed to the ground unconscious and laid on his side with his back facing Iruka

Iruka just looked shocked at what he just saw. He looked at the boys back and saw seal which was on Naruto's normal skin finally burn away and with it gone Naruto was engulf in a ball of red energy and then a large puff of smoke and in Naruto's place was a fox the same size as Naruto but it looked a bit different to Naruto's henge. The fox still had three tails but all four of his paws and the tips of his tails were black with a bit of yellow fur in between where the black and red fur were to meet and black stripe connecting the top of his middle tail going up his back all the way to the base of his neck before splitting off to meet with the black that encircles his eyes.

Iruka just stared at the fox until a few minutes later an Anbu squad led by Anko landed in the clearing "Iruka! Where's the Gaki!" Anko yelled in a worried tone

Iruka just pointed to the fox. Anko looking toward where Iruka pointed saw the burned orange jumpsuit and ran to it and stopped when she got to her knees next to it and was shocked and in a soft voice she asked: "What happened to him?".

Some of the Anbu looked weary of the unconscious fox until they heard someone speak "Anbu calm yourselves" spoke the Hokage as he walked to the clearing and looked around at everything with his eyes lingering on Naruto and without taking his eyes off the fox he spoke "Iruka what happened here?"

Iruka spent the next few minutes giving a short version of what happened but made sure to say that Naruto was still Naruto. Hearing this the Hokage gave his orders "Anbu detain Mizuki and prep him for Ibiki, and I want one of you to take the scroll back to my office and guard it, another is to take Iruka to the hospital, and Anko…." Anko turned her head as she had gently picked up Naruto "you will be taking Naruto to the same hospital as I will have Hana come in to examine him since she is friends with the boy and I believe she is trustworthy enough for this but bring him in an empty room as to have some privacy for what must be discussed". With a nod, Anko got up with Naruto in her arms and began to walk in the direction of the village. Everyone followed their orders and Hiruzen was the last one left in the clearing 'it seems it's time to come clean with this to Naruto' and with that final thought he left the clearing

Deep in darkness, a low growl was heard as an eye opened up to see Naruto laying on the ground

"...kit"

DONE. wow what a chapter

Edit notice 2/8/2020: fixed up some of the dialogue and grammar errors. I'm sure that there might be a few left but at least this chapter has been cleaned up a bit

Ok some things to bring up

First things first Naruto is NOT OP he has the cloak but it isn't Kurama's it's his own, it does give him increased strength and dexterity but not the speed boost or the malleable body that he has in the show and he will not be using it a lot as he has no clue how to use it

About the Hokage monument, apparently in an early version of it Minato's face was not the fourth Hokage, in fact, it looked like a bland no-name character. Kishimoto didn't have Naruto being the fourth's son planned, it just happened later in the story and he went back to early artwork to change it to Minato's face when it came to be

I made it so Iruka helped Naruto out with his jutsu but since Iruka doesn't know the shadow clone or other clone jutsu he could only help so much and I felt like Iruka might not have known about the massive chakra levels of Jinchuriki so it just made it harder to help with the academy clones

Mizuki is an idiot (as you can tell I hate him)

For Naruto's cloak, I wanted it to be half chakra cloak/skin and half normal skin since the seal was still active and I moved the ears which normally everyone has on the top of his head to be in the same spot as his normal human ears since I haven't seen it done before and I know that in the anime the ears are on top of his head but at times it looked funny to me so I moved them

And for Naruto's fox form I wanted him to still look like a smaller Kurama but with a new fur pattern so there it is if you have suggestions on a change of pattern let me know as it might change when he gets older

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