Chapter 4

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Behind a huge set of bars within Naruto's mind, a huge monstrous Fox with nine tails swishing angrily around it felt a flood of youki pouring back into its form. The amount was far less than what had been taken, but with the return of the malevolent chakra came memories—memories of itself raging against the cage it was confined within, memories of letting some of its power leak out to its captor, but most important of all, memories of feeling the slightest weakening of the accursed seal that held it trapped.

"So, the more the brat uses that technique, the weaker the seal becomes. Interesting."

Dark laughter echoed within the abyss of Naruto's mind, where the Kyuubi no Kitsune was held scheming and planning.

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"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!"

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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."

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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.

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

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"Uzumaki Barrage!" Naruto called out in triumph as his foot slammed down onto Mizuki's head, completing the combo attack.

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.

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Naruto sat alone in the cell, his arm chained to the table while he awaited another interrogation. But he didn't dare let slip his secret, or who knew what they would do to him? His only hope was to let him see Iruka-sensei or Jiji. Then maybe they'd let him go.

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"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.

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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.

"Whoa!"

The interrogation room was gone. The Hokage was gone. In its place was the forest he'd been practicing the shadow clone technique.

And the Forbidden Scroll of Seals.

"Gah!" Naruto leapt back away from the scroll.

After a few seconds to reorient himself, Naruto walked back over to the scroll, unfurled it to the section on the temporal shadow clone technique, and stared at it for a few seconds. Then he raised his hands in the air in triumph. "Yatta! I did it!"

"What did you do, Naruto?!" Iruka's voice called out angrily.

Images of the first two times he was in this moment flashed through Naruto's mind. He couldn't screw this up like last time!

"Oh, Iruka-sensei! You found me already!" Naruto called out with his patented fake grin.

"What do you mean, 'already'?" Iruka glared at his young student. "What are you doing with the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing! Don't you know how much trouble you're in?"

Naruto laughed dismissively. "Oh, it's alright. I already learned two techniques from the scroll. That means I pass, right? Mizuki will be coming any time now to collect the scroll and test me. Or are you supposed to do that?"

Just as Naruto anticipated, his words set his teacher on alert for the traitorous instructor a second before a half dozen kunai flew from the trees above them. Naruto was moving before the attack even started, allowing Iruka to dodge instead of wasting the critical split second to knock his student out of harm's way as he had the first go round. Iruka pulled his own kunai and turned to face the traitor up in the trees.

"Naruto, give me that scroll!" Mizuki ordered.

"Naruto, never give him that scroll," Iruka countermanded. "He used you to get it for himself!"

"Mizuki-sensei is a traitor?" Naruto asked with feigned surprise.

Mizuki chuckled evilly. "Naruto, Iruka is just afraid of you holding that scroll. I'll tell you the truth that nobody else will. There's a secret that everyone knows—that you are the Kyuubi no Kitsune! The Nine Tailed Fox that attacked the village and killed Iruka's family! That's why everyone hates you!"

"Mizuki! No, stop it!" Iruka called out, angered at what the psychological attack could do to the poor kid.

"Iruka-sensei? Is that true?" Naruto asked with a faux-tremulous voice, keeping one wary eye on Mizuki.

"No, Naruto, you aren't the Fox. You're no monster. You're Naruto of the Leaf, but…"

Before Iruka could finish, Mizuki acted. "Die, Naruto!" he called out as he hurled a giant Fuma-shuriken at him.

Instead of being caught off caught emotionally, the orange-wearing ninja made five quick hand signs: tiger, boar, ox, dog, snake. Iruka, impressed, watched as a log was bisected by the oversized weapon instead of having to interpose his own body between him and Naruto and take the weapon to his back. Iruka was very pleasantly surprised at how well Naruto was responding to actual combat, putting his training to use in real-life situations.

"Get away from here, Naruto! Take the scroll and get to the Hokage, turn it over to him or one of his ANBU and tell them what just happened!" Iruka ordered. Then he flung a brace of shuriken at his former teaching partner and sprinted up to close the distance.

Naruto felt that flush of warmth again for Iruka, that warmth he thought that maybe he'd lost the last time around, and the orange-clad blond felt energized. No way was he going to lose that ever again.

Iruka and Mizuki clashed, kunai against kunai, Iruka struggling to hold the stronger teacher back. He wasn't going for the quick win. He knew he didn't need to. He only need to last until—

Naruto's foot smashed into a totally surprised Mizuki, sending the light grey-haired traitor to eat dirt from the forest floor. The young blond stood next to his teacher, blue eyes blazing in determination, one hand holding a kunai retrieved from where Iruka had been attacked. There was a solid determination there, one which Iruka was starting to believe was not just some false bravado. There was something there to back it up.

Nevertheless, it was his job as a teacher to protect his student. "Naruto! I told you to run! I can hold Mizuki off until you go back for help!"

The blond shook his head. "No way, sensei. Those who break the rules are trash. I know. But those who leave their friends, they're less than trash. And you, Iruka-sensei, are someone I won't ever leave behind, believe it!"

Mizuki pulled himself off the ground, his visage murderous. "How touching. But I'll destroy you both!"

Naruto cracked his knuckles. "This is the second time I've told you, Mizuki-teme," his voice taking on a feral edge, and his own eyes equally deadly, "Lay a hand on my sensei, and I'll kill you!"

The traitor scoffed. "Iruka is way too soft. And you—you I could destroy in one blow!"

Naruto put his hands in the familiar cross position. "Bring it on. I'll throw back whatever you do…" images of only a few clones showing up flashed through Naruto's head, but he shook it off, "like a hundred times! Or at least eight. But a lot! Tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Naruto poured his all into the technique, and the result…was astounding. There weren't just eight. Or hundreds. Or even a thousand. There were literally thousands of copies of him all around the entire forest, all with a single solitary purpose in their minds.

Mizuki stared, dumbfounded, surrounded on all sides by the "demon brat" he so loathed. He had no chance to even attempt a counter or even an escape. The first wave piled on him, landing raw right crosses and haymakers. The second wave landed on the first, popping them out of existence but landing devastating downward strikes on the now prone and defenseless traitor. And this continued for a seriously long time.

"Hehe, guess I should have stuck with 'a thousand times' instead of second-guessing myself," Naruto said with a sheepish grin. Then he turned to his teacher with a broad smile and gave him a thumbs-up. He'd managed to do things better than this time. This time his teacher wasn't nearly killed.

"I guess Mizuki was actually telling the truth," Iruka said as he stood beside his incredible student.

Naruto looked up at his sensei in confusion. "About what?"

"About you graduating if you could learn a technique from the scroll." And then Iruka took off his headband and placed it on Naruto's head.

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Back in the Hokage's office, Naruto let out a huge sigh of relief. This time there would be no trip to the T&I Department. The evidence of Mizuki's betrayal was clear and there was nothing suspicious in Naruto's performance. So, that was another win for the blond.

After the Hokage explained the true story of how the Fourth Hokage had sealed the Fox inside him and explained that the whole Mizuki incident was an A-rank secret (which meant serious punishment for telling anyone without permission) and that he'd be credited with completion of a B-rank mission for his part in revealing Mizuki's treachery, the Hokage had one last bit of business for the young ninja.

"According to Iruka, you said you had managed to learn two techniques from the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing. You know that all of the techniques in this scroll are kinjutsu and are forbidden to use without permission for a reason."

"Oh, yeah, like all those ones that kill you or you have to kill someone. Don't worry, Jiji! I didn't learn anything lame like that, believe it! It was another shadow clone technique! I'll show you!"

He put his hands in the cross position and then—

Naruto!

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Naruto!

Naruto blinked, suddenly finding himself in an elaborate hallway, the bottom of which was covered in murky water. Naruto was pretty sure he had never been here before, so he mostly ruled out a third time travel incident, and he was pretty sure he'd only used the technique twice. Looking around, there were many doorways and passageways, but he wasn't sure where to—

"Naruto."

The voice came again, deep and ominous. But it was beckoning, and the sound gave Naruto a direction to follow, and soon he came to a wide, massive opening within the strange hallways. The opening became a giant cavern, flooded in the same murky water. In fact, the cavern seemed to be the source of the water.

As Naruto waded in, he noticed on the other side of the cavern there were a giant set of bars and small piece of paper up top with the Kanji for "seal" written upon it.

And then he saw the eyes. Two great, malevolent eyes fixated on him, and from the eyes he could make out the monstrous form of the Nine Tailed Fox behind the bars. Sealed within him. It was massive, as tall as the cage it was held within, easily taller than the Hokage tower. And its entire body was an orange-red malevolent color—not like the awesome orange of his outfit, but evil orange, which Naruto hadn't thought possible before, making it all the more reprehensible.

The young ninja cautiously approached the cage in front of him. When he got there, he could see the great beast glaring at him angrily.

"So, um, I'm here. Whaddya want?"

"Impertinent brat!" the Fox roared, throwing itself against the bars of the cage. "You have come in my presence with such disrespect! I should rend you limb from limb!"

Naruto fell back, landing on his butt in the water, shocked at the sudden ferociousness of the monster before him, but quickly saw that the beast could not reach past the bars of the cage. Then he got up and gave the Fox a frown.

"Hey, I'm not the one who called you down here and started calling you names! If you want respect from me, you gotta earn it! And so far, all I see is a big mean bully! So, if that's how you're gonna act, I'm just gonna leave!"

"Rargh! You trap me here for decades! How dare…." then the beast stopped, took in a large breath, and stopped railing against its cage. "Wait, Naruto. Stay. I have a message for you: Do not use your temporal clone technique for now."

"What? Why not?"

"Because, foolish human, if you try to use that technique, I will not share my chakra with you. I will refuse to lend you my power!"

Naruto frowned. "But I already did. Twice. So, I don't think you can stop me."

The Fox roared once more and slammed its head into the bars, cursing the young boy in front of it, until after a few moments, it calmed itself. "You—are right. You can take the power from me through your seal and I can do nothing to stop you, but young shinobi, if you are willing to wait a few days before using that technique again, I will grant you my power whenever you need."

Naruto mused at this strange offer, trying to understand why the Fox would want to make such a deal, but unable to come up with anything.

"So, I can still use the technique, only after I wait a few days? And if I do, you'll just give me your chakra when I need it? Any time?"

"Yes. And you will see what power it grants you. Even a fraction of my power will destroy your enemies with ease. And…I will grant you some of my knowledge. There are things I understand about the workings of your power that you do not."

Naruto thought on it, then held out his fist. "Deal!" The Fox did not deign to reciprocate the gesture, but nodded its assent.

"One more thing. Do not tell your Hokage about your use of that technique, but let him know of our agreement, or you may end up in your village's Torture and Interrogation room again."

Naruto didn't quite guess why he shouldn't reveal his temporal shadow clone technique to the Old Man, but the idea of getting sent to T&I again was definitely not appealing. So he nodded.

"Um, how do I get out of here?" Naruto asked after a few moments of looking around.

"You just leave."

And as soon as he decided so, he did.

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Naruto put his hands in the cross position and then—

Hiruzen had raised a forestalling hand, but Naruto was already dropping the hand sign.

"Eh, actually, I didn't really master that second one. I got the clones to explode, but I didn't really have any control about when they'd blow up. So, maybe I shouldn't use it in here?"

"A good decision, Naruto," Hiruzen Sarutobi agreed with some relief.

"Um, do you think, maybe, I can get the notes from the Scroll of Sealing on that one so I can keep practicing?"

Hiruzen nodded, "I think that can be arranged, seeing as you clearly have more than enough chakra capacity and have already started working on it. But you are forbidden from teaching this or any form of the shadow clone to anyone else until you reach jonin rank. Do you understand?"

Naruto grinned. "Got it!"

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Behind its bars, the Kyuubi no Kitsune watched what was going outside of his host with one eye half open.

"Foolish brat. Soon your seal will weaken and I will be free. And I will devour you."

The Kyuubi laughed ominously in the lonely space in its host's mind.

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Author's Note:

Some readers felt that there was some confusion last time as to what happened to Naruto at the end of the chapter, some people speculating that the Hokage might have obliterated for messing with time.

Just to be clear, that's not what happened. The Time Clone just ran out of temporal chakra and returned all the memories back to the original. Don't worry, a better explanation of what's happening will be given a little later. There's just no place for that kind of exposition in the story at the moment.

Japanese Terms

youki— chakra specific to tailed beasts and other supernatural entities. It's "heavier" than normal chakra and caustic to humans other than jinchiriki.

Tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu—"mass shadow clone technique" creates a larger number of clones than the normal technique. In this story, the main difference is that the normal technique allows the user to give individual orders to all the clones at creation, while the mass form gives the same instruction to all clones at creation. However, in both versions the clones are capable of independent thought.

Kyuubi—Nine Tails, shorthand for the Nine Tailed Fox

kitsune—fox (often meaning a fox spirit)

Kyuubi no Kitsune—The Nine Tailed Fox, one of nine "tailed beasts" of monstrous size and power.

Kyuubi no Yoko—Another term for the Nine Tails, referencing its status as a supernatural spirit

Konoha—The name of the ninja village. Alternately called "Konohagakure" the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and so is often referred to as the "Leaf Village" and its people called "the Leaf."

kinjutsu—forbidden technique. Ninjutsu that have a restriction placed on their use or are outright forbidden under any circumstance.

Jiji—grandfather. In this case, it's a term of endearment, but seen as disrespect by others who hear it. It can also be interpreted as "old man."

jinchiriki—"power of human sacrifice" A person who is made to house one of the tailed beast spirits. Their lives are said to be "sacrificed" to hold the beast at bay. While an unsuitable host is likely to be overwhelmed and quickly killed, those that get along with their tailed beast or are able to handle their power can live long and fulfilling lives.