Alms II
(布施 II.)
"Mizuki-sensei, why are you here?! Please talk to these guys and tell them I'm not a thief!"
The chuunin Mizuki stared down at Naruto with a face frozen in apathy. Was he disappointed?
"Please Mizuki-sensei! You were there when Iruka-sensei told me to get the scroll. I just got it, that's all!" As Naruto pleaded, Mizuki only responded with a slow bat of the eyes.
"I-know-Naruto." Those few words came out from his lips at a low, slow breath. Naruto bit down on his lips, feeling this unimaginable pressure from Mizuki's matter-of-fact statement. Mizuki shrugged. He moved behind Naruto and the boy was suddenly shoved down to his knees. Mizuki's hand clasped upon his neck, holding him down. Naruto's only instinct was to scream in protest.
"Then why? Why?!" Naruto's arms were bound as well by the other mask-and-cloak men. Mizuki also pinned down the boy's legs with his knees. If he was going to be executed, it was like they had to tie down an animal that wouldn't make things simple.
"I volunteered," said Mizuki. "Besides, Iruka would be unable to do it."
"Iruka-sensei tried to kill me. Did he––" Naruto then held his tongue, locking the remaining thoughts in his mind. He didn't want to say it – did Iruka Umino set him up? It didn't make sense to him. Iruka, like the 3rd Hokage, was conscious of him like a true, benevolent instructor. Now, he was even more confused, and both the confusion and the anger boiled as he sensed that he was going to die at any moment. How was Naruto going to be killed in such a struggling, awkward position?
As he wondered, Naruto felt his neck being released.
"But, before that Naruto, I want you to know something." Mizuki moved a small distance in front of Naruto and pushed his hand behind his cloak.
"Mizuki, are you not going to chop the head?" asked one of the cloak-and-mask men. Naruto's stomach churned at the words. He gritted his teeth; the slowly it took, the more his nervousness grew, and the more he believed that this was reality. Naruto was expected a weapon.
"Yes. However," Pausing his words, Mizuki pulled out an object from behind his cloak, setting it in front of his feet. It looked like a round-shaped mirror with a wavy emerald trim.
"The Shinkyo?!"
"Isn't this authorized?"
"A criminal is a criminal, even if it is a boy." Mizuki said. His composure seemed to have slipped, but instead of a pitch in the voice, venom entered his words. "A criminal has the soul of someone that'll do evil now, will do evil later. Trust me. Naruto Uzumaki is evil."
"Mizuki?" The masked men sounded stunned. Staring at his academy teacher, Naruto was speechless.
"You took my chance of honor from me." Mizuki looked up. The words he spoke were like from the deep ends of his soul. Words that were completely hidden. "Now I'm nothing. What is this positive thinking you dare have?"
"What do you mean?" Naruto's voice held fear. It was clear as day that something felt wrong, even to an idiot like Naruto, and there was a cryptic meaning that even he couldn't point out. There was no way that all of his pranks, he thought, or even the incident with the scroll, had some impact on Mizuki. He crooked his lips into a shaking smirk.
"I'm sure…Mizuki-sensei would've…just scolded me the usual way for everything that I did."
Mizuki continued to speak as if his student's words didn't mean a thing. "You can do and think what you want because you have influence of course. And that influence is monopolized by the Jinchuuriki."