Alms III

(布施 III.)

"Jinchuuriki?" Naruto couldn't do anything more but hold his mouth open. Nothing was making sense.

"Mizuki, that's enough," one of the masked men instructed. He sounded as if they were stepping into a boundary that they shouldn't have.

"ANBU, it is fine for him to understand why he is at fault before he dies. It no longer needs to be a secret. And besides, why should it be? Why must this boy not understand fate?" As Mizuki continued to ramble without stopping for breath, Naruto remained frozen in wonder over where his sensei's boiling anger came from? Or rather, how did it stay in hiding behind a smile and a tranquil temperament for so long? Mizuki bent down onto one knee and scooped up the green-trimmed mirror with both hands. The glass shimmered; Naruto saw his face reflecting back at him.

"Look closely!" Mizuki's fierce modulation had yet to lower. "This is the Hokage's Shinkyo Mirror (神鏡). It will reflect your soul Naruto Uzumaki, the real you."

Naruto felt the ANBU's grip tighten on him, and he didn't offer any resistance. Mizuki continued. "Through this mirror, a living being will see what horrible deeds they caused in hopes to feel repentance as he or she falls into the next life. It is especially acceptable for a criminal. But you, Naruto Uzumaki, are the worse kind of criminal. Do you know why?"

It can't be stealing, the boy thought. That was complete bullshit. Nothing that has happened in his entire day connected to Mizuki's surprising attitude. However, the fury felt real, and so did the pressure growing within Naruto's chest. Something was out of place; he felt beads of sweat down his face as he leered at the mirror pulsating with energy.

Mizuki's face furrowed as he screamed. "It is because you are a monster, Naruto Uzumaki!"

There was only one way to counter against being confused; Naruto finally opened his mouth and snapped back, "The fuck you mean Mizuki-sensei?! I am a boy!"

"Twelve years ago, you were born on the day of Tenko. Yes, you were a special boy. On such a day, there was a great tragedy where there was destruction and many people were killed."

"That has nothing to do with me!"

"Yes it does. On Tenko, as you may have learned in school, a gigantic demon fox with nine tails attacked the village. The Hokage and many Konoha ninja protected everyone and sealed away the fox at the cost of their lives. Our home was ruined, and-" Mizuki paused and he leaned his head, a shadow veiling his face. His anger simmered down to a low grumbling voice.

"The fox did not die, no. We could not kill that damn thing. Instead, we had to follow the Jinchuuriki decree and contain the fox inside a person in order to protect it."

"Inside?"

"Yes," Mizuki raised his head and a sharp, murderous gaze hit Naruto. "and that person is you."

"Huh?!"

"Not only did you kill many people, kill my family and my future-to-be beloved, you also killed your parents!"

The Shinkyo mirror trembled, and Naruto's reflection warped.

"Look at you, you monster!"

A wide breeze entered the area. Naruto gasped, and the surrounding forest trembled. Naruto watched as his reflection twisted and stretched. His ears pull up into a long shape, the lines over his cheeks thicken into black wedges, and his eyes burst with flame. He touched his face as he couldn't pull his eyes from the mirror image; it was then he noticed elongated fingernails. The transformation wasn't real. Naruto shook his head, wanting to cling onto his defiance. The mirror reflection was a lie he thought.

The only thing he could do was scream.

"NOOOOOO! It's a LIE!" Now the reflection showed sharp animal teeth. It was the face that he kept seeing in his dreams. "A fucking lie! A LIE!" He repeated his words to fight against the agony that he was felt, and he tussled with the ANBU's grips. He felt the grips tightening and he pulled desperately. Even though he was physically still a boy, he did not want to believe the mirror.

The chuunin's mouth curved into a smirk of delight. Mizuki burrowed the mirror into the dirt so that it could support itself. He jolted up and pulled out another item from under his cloak. It was a hand-sized scroll, which he unfurled quickly with a swipe of his fingers. There was a puff of smoke, and appearing before Mizuki was a giant five-bladed shuriken. It looked like the one he threw at Naruto days before when he stopped the kid from running away. However, there was a distinct feature on this shuriken: on each blade was a colored Kanji symbol. A rotary hole was in the middle for Mizuki to set his hand in.

"Now," Mizuki lifted the shuriken over his head with no effort, and the weapon began to spin, the air whistling with each hastened rotation. "Move it ANBU!"

"It's a lie, it's a lie!" Naruto continued. "Let go of me you bastards!"

"Naruto, stop." The struggling ANBU commanded.

"Like shit I will. I don't wanna die! I'm not a monster!"

"Yes, it's true, you do have the fox in you, but it's not what you think."

Naruto turned his face to one of the masked men, gritting his teeth. His blue eyes brimmed with tears. "I said let go of me, pig face! I am innocent! Don't talk like I got to deal with this!"

"Such insolence. Die Naruto! And the fox too." Mizuki pulled back his arm to throw his shuriken. His exhilaration for revenge brightened his face, a grin wider than before twisting it into a sadistic demon of a man. "DIE!" The spinning pressure from his hand was about to be released, until it started to slow down. The shuriken didn't fly.

Mizuki felt a tight grip against his torso. His ears were pierced by a giant, screeching shout.

"Mizuki! STOP NOW!"