Chapter 2

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Naruto watched, unable to react, as Mizuki threw a giant Fuma-shuriken that buried itself in Iruka's back.

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"You are the Nine Tailed Fox!" Mizuki yelled.

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"Congratulations, Naruto, you graduated." Iruka placed his own hitai-ite over Naruto's forehead.

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"And Team Seven is Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno—" Naruto stood up and cheered. He got to be on the same team as Sakura-chan! "—and Sasuke Uchiha," Iruka finished. Now it was Sakura who was standing to cheer while Naruto slumped with his head facing down.

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Naruto studied his new jonin-sensei—Kakashi Hatake. The white haired ninja was young, with his headband slanted oddly over one eye. Why the heck would he do that? Wouldn't that, like, make it hard to see? But there was something oddly familiar about the guy, Naruto just couldn't place it. Maybe he'd be an alright sensei, like Iruka.

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"One Thousand Years of Death!" Kakashi called out fromdirectly behind him! What kind of techn—oh the searing pain in the rear!

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Tied to a wooden post, Naruto took a bite from Sakura's rice box, feeling a sense of shame at being in the embarrassing position to need to be fed like this. And worse, Sasuke, that arrogant Uchiha jerk, was the one who was first to be kind to him. But then, on the other hand, there was a different feeling in his gut, a precious feeling of connection that he so desperately wanted. These two would be willing to—

Kakashi appeared right in front of the three, towering over the team as they blatantly violated the rule he had just given them, a dark thunderhead appearing above the man. "YOU!" the man's voice boomed with menace…"pass."

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"Confirmed, red ribbon on right ear," Sakura called into the radio. That was the signal. Go!

"Agggh! Stupid cat!"

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"These don't look like the super-ninja I paid for," the white bearded drunk said, "they look like a bunch of brats."

Why was he so weak? He had trained so hard, but he had to be saved by Sasuke—even Sakura managed to be useful and guard the client. No more. No more falling behind and being useless. Naruto took his kunai and plunged into the poisoned cut on his hand, letting the blood flow freely and taking in the pain to make his vow. "Upon this wound I pledge, that I will never back down again." Not to an enemy, and not to Sasuke. "Believe it!"

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The Demon of the Mist stood atop the water, Kakashi trapped within a prison of liquid soaked in Zabuza's chakra while the sadistic Mist ninja's water clones toyed with the rookies. Sasuke had been swatted aside just as Naruto had, and it was looking grim. But,Naruto Uzumaki pulled himself off the ground, remembering the pain in his hand, and so he would not back down. He charged back at Zabuza, taking another shot from the muscled swordsman, but this time managing to recover his headband that had flown off of his head earlier.

"Come on, Sasuke, lend me a hand. Let's go wild!"

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Sasuke was dying. His body had been pierced a hundred times by cruel senbon hurled by the fake hunter-nin. Naruto stood there, staring at his rival—no at his friend—eyes wide.

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know…my body kind of just moved on its own. That man—I refused to die but…" And then Sasuke fell. He had just awakened his sharingan minutes before, but now he would never be able to fulfill his dream.

And chakra fire burned within Naruto's body unlike anything he had ever experienced. "SASUKE!"

To make it worse, the fake hunter nin praised Sasuke after just killing him.

"Shut up. I won't forgive you. I'LL KILL YOU!"

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Naruto raised his hand, his whole body shaking, then slammed it down on his desk. "Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run! I don't care if I have to stay a genin for the rest of my life, I'll still be Hokage some day. You don't scare me! So, bring it on!"

"If there's any reason you want to quit," the proctor said, and edge of menace in his voice, "now's your last chance."

"No way. I never go back on my word. That's my ninja creed."

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"Are you hurt…fraidy cat?" Naruto jeered at his cowering teammate, his red, slitted eyes staring into Sasuke's sharingan as Naruto held back the giant summoned snake, one hand stabbing a kunai through its brain. "This stupid coward is absolutely not the Sasuke I know."

And then a giant tongue wrapped around him and pulled him up, but the tongue wasn't coming from the snake, it was coming from the long-haired woman in front of him. The orange clad genin fought with all his strength, but with no leverage he couldn't break free as he was slowly dragged towards the creepy kunoichi.

"Looks like, you've grown up interesting," the strange woman said as she lifted up his shirt, exposing the seal on his chest. Chakra formed on each of her fingers. "Five prong seal!"

Ⱥ Ɲɑɤμƭɵ ίȵ Ʈίϻϵ

There was a flash of blackness, then whiteness, then a strange twisting pull and a kaleidoscope of colors flashed all around, all sense of direction, of himself gone in an instant that seemed to stretch for eternity. And then—

Naruto's eyes snapped open.

The Forest of Death was gone, Sasuke and Sakura were nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, so were the giant snakes and the freaking, long-tongued lady, but the sudden change in scenery was quite disorienting for the young blond.

"Naruto, what are you doing with the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing?!"

Iruka-sensei?

Sure enough, it was the chunin with a scar on his face, the one person at the Academy that really believed in him. But then, for the first time, Naruto realized that he was holding the extra-large scroll filled with secret techniques. What the hell?

"Wait, didn't we do this already?" Naruto asked.

"Everyone is out looking for you, Naruto! This is serious! Why would you do something like this? It's a betrayal of the village!"

"What?" Naruto backpedaled. "No, it was Mizuki!"

"Naruto, I see the scroll right, there!"

"No, I mean—"

"Good!" a voiced called out from the trees. "You caught him, Iruka! Let's get this brat back to the Hokage before there's even more trouble." Mizuki, Iruka's junior teaching partner, had shown up.

And obviously, the ninja with long-gray hair hanging over his jacket had overheard their interaction and was using it to his advantage.

"Wait, this isn't right. This isn't what happened," Naruto protested.

Iruka shook his head towards Naruto, clear disappointment on his face. "You showed poor judgment, Naruto. This sort of immaturity is exactly why you are not cut out to be a ninja. I tried to teach you, I really did, but this is the last straw."

"No," Naruto said, tears filling his eyes. "Iruka, no, it's not like that. Mizuki, he—"

"Hey, Iruka, I'll let you handle the little orange menace. I'll take the scroll back to the Hokage Tower for safekeeping. I know you have a soft spot for the kid, so better if you are the one to—you know."

"Sure," a frowning Iruka was approaching Naruto while gesturing towards the chunin. "Ok, Naruto, hand over the scroll to Mizuki." Iruka sighed. "Look, Naruto, I'll be honest. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you to the T&I department. I'll ask them to go easy on you, I don't think you are really trying to betray anyone, but this is way more serious than your usual pranks."

Mizuki smirked, hand outstretched. "Sorry kid, but you failed," he said, just a touch of cruelty underlying the double meaning of his words. "Now hand over the scroll and go on with Iruka."

"No, way, you traitor!" Naruto growled, slinging the scroll over his back while whipping out his kunai. "I'll never let you touch this scroll, believe it!"

Mizuki laughed. "As if you could stop me." Mizuki looked back to Iruka and gave a shrug, "Sorry I have to do this to your student, but he's not giving me any choice."

Naruto charged towards Mizuki with a growl, but just before he got to his former instructor, he suddenly jumped in the air at an angle and threw a brace of shuriken at the treacherous chunin. He had learned a few things since joining Team 7. Or he will have had? Mizuki easily dodged, jumping back a step—but that was a mistake. His eyes widened as three more shuriken were hidden in the shadows of the first barrage, and the small metal weapons dug into his arms and torso.

Iruka, despite himself, was impressed. He had never seen Naruto use such an advanced shuriken technique, nor have the power and precision he had just displayed.

Mizuki was far less amused. "You dem—brat! If you want to play that game, then let's do it!" He pulled the oversized Fuma-shuriken from his back. Unlike typical throwing stars that were about the size of the palm of an adult hand, the Fuma-shuriken was longer than a grown man's torso and could double as a blade for melee combat.

"I'll take whatever you throw at me and give it back to you a thousand-fold!" Naruto answered back. And he was prepared to do so. He put his fingers together in the cross sign. "Multi-shadow clone justu!"

A total of ten clones popped into existence.

Naruto looked at the ten of them in shock. "You have got to be kidding me!" This was supposed to be his trump card. This was how he had beaten Mizuki originally. What was going on?

Deep down below Naruto's conscious, in partly filled sewer, malevolence seethed behind the bars that held it.

Hmph. Serves you right. Let's see how you handle this without my power.

Ⱥ Ɲɑɤμƭɵ ίȵ Ʈίϻϵ

Iruka and Mizuki's reactions were quite different from Naruto's.

"Clones? Ten of them?" Iruka said with a rueful shake of his head. "Naruto, I wish you had been able to do that during the genin exam. If you had—"

"Kuso!" Mizuki swore as a line of blood blossomed on his arm where a clone had slashed him. "These—these aren't regular clones. These are solid. I think it's—I think they're shadow clones."

Naruto's head was spinning. Everything was wrong. Last time Iruka had believed him and Mizuki had proven his treachery by his actions. This time, though, Iruka thought he was doing some kind of prank and Mizuki hadn't given himself away. Worse, the multi-shadow clone technique, that was supposed to make dozens of clones, emphasis on the plural, had barely made ten.

Of course, last time, he'd been angry, wanting to protect Iruka. Last time there had been that strange power that had surged up when he'd needed it. This time, though, there was only emptiness. But, he was Naruto Uzumaki. He wouldn't give up. He wouldn't let anyone beat him down, least of all a traitor like his former instructor.

One on one, Naruto was no match for Mizuki. Not in the Academy, and not now. The chunin in his twenties, was just too strong compared to the younger ninja who was just starting to go through puberty, and despite Naruto's moderate improvement under Kakashi, Naruto's taijutsu was still severely lacking. But ten on one, Naruto's clones were too much of a handful for the chunin. The longer this went on, the more confident Naruto was of the outcome.

Poof. Poof. Two of Naruto's clones were dispelled.

By Iruka.

The shock of Iruka killing his clones literally flashed through Naruto's mind. Even the clones, which didn't just receive the memories that he had, were nonetheless shocked and were quickly taken out by Mizuki and Iruka combined.

"Surrender, Naruto," Iruka ordered. "I don't want to hurt you, but you're giving us no choice."

"Iruka-sensei, no." Tears fell down Naruto's face as his sensei, someone he loved, faced him with a weapon drawn, willing to do him harm. He didn't blame Iruka, but it hurt. His head fell and he shook his head.

But he was Naruto Uzumaki. He didn't give up.

He brought his hands up and made the familiar cross handsign. "Kagebunshin no jutsu!"

This time, eight exact copies of Naruto appeared around him in a cloud of thick chakra smoke. Unlike the mass shadow clone technique he used before, which created all the clones at once with identical initial purposes—it was just too much to expect to give hundreds of clones unique individual instructions—the standard shadow clone technique allowed the user to give each clone an individual assignment at creation. The clones were all still capable of independent thought and action, but there was no need for verbal instructions at the start.

Mizuki snorted. "A one trick pony. We'll be taking him back to the Hokage in no time."

Mizuki and Iruka were competent chunin, though still far from consideration for the rank of jonin. Despite the best attempts of the clones, it took less than a minute for the pair to dispel them. Leaving an empty clearing.

"That was seven of them," Iruka. "Naruto and one clone must have slipped away in the smoke." A pretty clever ploy, actually. Had Naruto tossed a smoke pellet they would have expected subterfuge. The extra chakra smoke had just seemed to be an inefficient use of chakra.

"He's trying to leave the village. Iruka, do you think…It has taken hold of him?" Mizuki didn't wait for an answer. "If you find it first, take it down. Don't give it a chance to escape."

Iruka hesitated, but nodded and started chasing one of the two identical chakra signals he felt and pointed the other out to his partner.

"Naruto," Iruka whispered to himself as he put his hands behind him and ran as swiftly as he could. "Please, stop. Don't make me hurt you."

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Japanese terms used

hitai-ite- forehead protector with the ninja village's symbol inscribed on it identifying one as a ninja of the village

senbon- throwing needles

sharingan- special eyes based on in the Uchiha clan with ridiculous powers

kunoichi- a female ninja

chunin- the middle rank of ninja

jonin- the upper rank of ninja

taijutsu- physical martial arts