Chapter 3

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Mizuki had not expected to be chasing after the Demon-brat through the forest area beneath the Hokage mountain. He hadn't expected his soon-to-be-dead former student inexplicably to be able to run through the treetops like a seasoned ninja who'd already been out in the field instead of an Academy failure. There were a lot of things about the day that the academy instructor had not expected and it was beginning to piss him off to no end.

The first surprise had been pleasant. That fool, Iruka, had somehow tracked the boy down and confronted him about stealing the scroll and the idiot kid's confusion had led to Iruka being convinced of Naruto's guilt. Mizuki, of course, was able to perfectly capitalize on this and now even if the demon-brat accused him, nobody would believe it. But then the demon somehow managed to create shadow clones, nearly beat him in a taijutsu brawl, and then escape from him and Iruka along with a clone decoy.

As the chunin scoured the trail ahead of him he noted the tell-tale signs of chipped bark and broken branches that gave away his quarry's path, and Mizuki grinned to himself and accelerated. He'd pound the demon-brat into the ground, take the scroll as a gift for Lord Orochimaru, and the village would be none the wiser.

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Iruka Umino shouted at his student, who remained just ahead of him. "Naruto, please! Stop and surrender the scroll! I don't want to hurt you, but if you keep running I'll have to!"

At first, Iruka had hated Naruto. He knew it was wrong, knew the boy wasn't actually the Nine-Tailed Fox which he held inside, but there had been this irrational part of him that resented the boy just as so many other villagers did. The Kyuubi had killed his parents, afterall. But unlike many others, Iruka tried to treat the blond haired kid fairly, because it was the right thing to do.

But the Uzumaki kid hadn't made it easy! The pranks. The disrespect. The lack of effort. As a teacher, the boy was the sort it was easy to give up on and hard to like.

That was, until the Hokage pulled him aside and changed his perspective. After that revelation he started to understand Naruto. They were so much the same that the teacher realized it had only been his prejudice against the kid that had blinded him to emotional pain that lay at the root of the blond's misbehavior. And after that, when Iruka made that extra effort to not just teach Naruto but to help him outside the classroom, he'd started to feel a kind of closeness, a kind of bond with him.

Which was why this sudden betrayal of Konoha was so painful. Maybe Mizuki was right and the Fox had started to influence Naruto. The sudden increase in skills could be due to the power of the Tailed Beast awakening. He hoped not, though.

There. Up ahead he saw where Naruto bounced sideways off a tree, using chakra to redirect his path without losing any momentum. Despite his best effort to close the gap, Iruka found that Naruto was able to maintain his lead, staying just in sight. If he didn't know better, he would think the orange-clad ninja was intentionally letting him keep up and was leading him back towards Mizuki. But that wouldn't make any sense.

"Naruto, stop!"

The blond haired boy did.

Iruka quickly closed the distance, kunai at the ready, just in case.

"I'm not the real Naruto, Iruka-sensei. I'm a shadow clone," the blond in front of him explained as he held up the scroll of seals in front of him and put a kunai through it, resulting in it turning into chakra smoke. "But the real me is up just ahead," the clone scratched the back of his head. "Or he should be if the boss's plan worked."

Iruka cursed. He'd wasted all that time on a clone.

"Mizuki told us to take the scroll, Iruka-sensei. He—" the clone vanished in a puff of smoke, Iruka's shuriken ending its existence as the Academy instructor dashed off. He wished he had been able to hear out what the clone would have said, but he'd needed to make sure it wasn't the real Naruto.

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Naruto came to a stop. Here.

Mizuki would be fifteen to thirty seconds behind. He just hoped that Iruka would be…yes, Iruka would be coming at the right moment. Wait. How did know that? Nevermind. No time for that, gotta prepare.

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Mizuki landed in front of Naruto who was standing, panting in front of one of Konoha's many great trees. The Academy instructor stood up to his full height trying to look as intimidating as possible. "Hand over the scroll," he snarled.

"Okay, okay!" Naruto called, holding up a hand to forestall an attack, then tossed the large scroll in his hand over to the traitorous teacher. "Why are you doing this? You told me to get the scroll and learn a technique so I could graduate. So why are you and Iruka-sensei attacking me?"

Mizuki smirked wickedly, setting the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing behind him. "You really want to know? It's because of what you are."

"What I am? What do you mean?" Naruto asked, eyes wide.

"You are the Nine Tailed Fox that attacked Konoha! Everyone knows it! And that's why we all hate you!" Mizuki pulled out his last Fuma-shuriken and prepared to slice Naruto in half with it.

"Mizuki!" Iruka called out, aghast.

"Too late!" Mizuki called with a savage grin, "the demon dies!" The gray-haired chunin thrust the giant shuriken straight through Naruto's guts.

Naruto grinned. "Gotcha," he said, before puffing into smoke.

Mizuki looked up to see a fist flying at him. He quickly raised his over-sized weapon up to block, but there were suddenly several more poofs of chakra smoke from all around him. The rocks at his feet had transformed into clones, all sweeping towards him!

Tricky. But Mizuki was a chunin, and the brat was not good enough to—

A final poof came from behind and the "Forbidden Scroll of Seals" he had been thrown transformed back into yet another copy of Naruto and swept Mizuki's feet from behind.

"U!—"

The clone descending on him knocked the weapon out of the traitor's hands and then landed on all fours as the clones charging from all sides all kicked him up in the air.

"Zu!—"

That was when the real Naruto emerged from behind the tree and leapt up off the descending clone's back. The kneeling clone then rose and landed a massive uppercut on Mizuki's face.

"Maki!—"

The chunin rose, face-first up into the air, only for the blond to come down with an axe kid that smashed his head into the ground.

"Uzumaki Barrage!" Naruto called out in triumph.

Iruka was stunned, staring at his student, not knowing how to react when the boy quickly ducked behind the tree the brief fight had occurred in front of and brought out he Forbidden Scroll of Sealing and handed it over to him.

"Here you go, Iruka-sensei," Naruto said sheepishly. "This one is the real thing, I promise."

"Look, Naruto—"

Before Iruka could get out whatever he wanted to say, six shadows appeared all around them, each one materializing into a masked ANBU operative.

The masked ninja with the bear mask spoke, his voice cold and deadly. "Naruto Uzumaki, we are here to take you into custody. Do not resist."

"Wait," Naruto called out looking around him in a panic as the ANBU agent put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "It was Mizuki! He was the one who told me to take the scroll!"

"Um, Bear-san." Iruka handed the scroll over to another masked ANBU agent, this one with a falcon design. "I think Naruto may be telling the truth. Mizuki, he—"

"Mizuki will also be interrogated. Please, come with us, Iruka Umino."

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The Hokage, his aged face marred with more wrinkles than usual and dressed in his formal robes of state, stood outside a cell inside in Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Department. Inside, visible through a one-way mirror, young Naruto Uzumaki squirmed against his bonds and yelled, sometimes calling for his teacher, sometimes calling for Hiruzen Sarutobi by name. It was heart-wrenching for the old man.

The door to the observation room opened and in stepped a tall, foreboding man with twin scars running down from the bridge of his nose to his cheeks on one side, and from his eye down through his lips on the other. Ibiki Morino moved to stand beside the village leader, no emotion showing on his visage.

"Well, what have you found so far?" Hiruzen asked softly.

"Iruka is clear. His story matches what your observations. He clearly had no foreknowledge of what Naruto would do and is unsure of Mizuki's actions. He did, however, report a violation of your law concerning…you know what."

"Mizuki disputes this?"

Ibiki snorted. "Of course. He's claiming he was only trying to stop Naruto from escaping with the scroll and that his words were misinterpreted by Iruka."

The Hokage contemplated things for a moment. "Send for a Yamanaka. This is too serious not to be sure."

"What about the boy?" Ibiki asked. "There's very little to corroborate his story of being tricked, and he did assault you to get away with the scroll."

At that, the Hokage's cheeks went a bit red. "Remind me to make Naruto's 'Sexy Technique' a forbidden jutsu." Hiruzen took a breath, watching the boy he almost considered family yelling at the walls of his confinement. "If it were just him taking the scroll, it would be an easy thing to just chalk up to a prank or a misguided attempt to graduate, but the other things…are worrisome."

"The boy was evasive when asked about the Fox," Ibiki reported. "He showed no surprise at the revelation, in fact, based on both Iruka's and Mizuki's accounts, it seems as if he goaded Mizuki into revealing the secret in order to appear more vulnerable."

"And then there's the issue of his sudden increase in abilities," the Hokage added, putting his hand to his forehead. "His use of shadow clones was not at all like someone who had just learned the technique an hour before, and then there's the matter of his skill with the tree walking exercise. Where did he say he learned it?"

At that, Ibiki laughed aloud. "That was the worst attempt at deception the boy made. He first said he had learned it from 'Kakashi-sensei', then immediately took it back, as if he'd given away some secret, and made up a ridiculous story. I called for Kakashi to stop in for a few questions and he denied having taught the boy anything, or even having contact with the boy outside of official duty."

"Unfortunately, we cannot risk using a Yamanaka with Naruto," Hiruzen sighed. "I've called for Jiraiya to return to look at the seal, but it may be weeks before he arrives. We need to get to the truth about some of these issues before that."

"So, how do you want me to proceed? Soft or hard?"

The Hokage sighed, weighing the options. "Let me speak to him," the older man said, waving away the objection Ibiki was going to make before he could make it. "I know, I know, my presence will disturb the unease you are creating for him and make it more difficult to reliably extract further information. But I think my relationship with the boy will yield faster results."

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Naruto had been trapped in the same room for days. At first he was visited by different ninja, none of them were anyone he knew, and they'd ask him questions about what happened with Mizuki. Sometimes they asked him the same questions, and sometimes they'd ask something new or in a different way, but then that had all stopped and he'd been left alone with nobody to talk to. And he was getting hungry. And tired.

The worst part of being stuck in the room he was in were the screams. Nobody had touched him yet, but he heard what was happening just a few rooms away, and it was not comforting. It reminded him that he was in T&I, where they sent bad ninja and enemies of Konoha. Not that he was one, this was obviously a mistake, but it still felt terrible to hear the cries of agony. Only slightly less horrible was being left alone. Ignored. Sure, he was used to it, but usually if he wanted he could just run out and get some attention with a prank or by getting thrown out of stores. This was different.

So, when the door opened and in walked the Hokage, Naruto was super happy. "Jiji!" he cried out. He would have run over and hugged him, but he was locked to the table with an iron cuff.

"Naruto," the Old Man replied, but notably did not approach.

"I've been calling and calling for you!"

"I know," the Hokage replied. "Unfortunately, Naruto-kun, as much as I wish I could just let you out, I cannot order you released until you tell the truth."

Naruto's eyes went wide. Innocent-wide. "But I am telling the truth! Mizuki-teme told me I could graduate if I took the scroll and learned a technique from it!"

The Hokage frowned and nodded. "Yes, perhaps, but that's not everything, Naruto. There were some alarming things that happened, and frankly, I don't believe you are telling the truth about them."

Naruto folded his arms and frowned. "But if I tell the real truth you'll think I was lying! Kakashi-sensei said sometimes a good lie is better than a bad truth."

The Hokage froze. That was something he had taught to his students. Something they had passed down to their students. That Naruto had heard it...well, that made his claim about Kakashi seem at least a little more plausible.

"I see. So, you are claiming that Kakashi did teach you? He taught you the tree-climbing technique? And what else?"

"Eh, well, Kakashi-sensei didn't really teach me. I mean, he will, but…gah! How can I tell the truth when it sounds so stupid?"

"So, what is this real truth that you don't think anyone will believe?"

Naruto sighed. "You're not going to believe me. I wouldn't believe me."

"Please, try me."

"Well, okay. So, you know that scroll Mizuki told me to steal? Well, I learned more than just the shadow clone jutsu. I also learned the temporary shadow clone jutsu."

"Temporary?"

"Or something like that. And then I used it, but nothing happened. Or so I thought. But then I joined Team 7 with Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme, and Kakashi-sensei. And we did a bunch of D-rank missions and then you gave us a C-Rank mission, which was totally crazy. That's when Kakashi-sensei taught us tree climbing. And we beat Zabuza and Sauske got his sharingan and we totally kicked ass. Then we went into the chunin exams and we passed the first test, but then in the second test I got eaten by a snake and then a big weird lady with a super long tongue hit me in the stomach and next thing I know I was back in the forest with Iruka!"

Hiruzen blinked a few times trying to process everything the young blond had just said.

"Naruto, are you telling me that you time travelled?"

"I told you, you wouldn't believe me!" Naruto exclaimed. "Hey, I don't feel so good." He was suddenly dizzy, very dizzy.

And then Naruto was swallowed by darkness.