The next morning, Naruto sat in the classroom, quietly observing the scene. Most of the graduates have already gathered, wearing their Konoha's headbands proudly, talking to each other.
Naruto own headband was loosely tied to his left bicep, showing his disinterest in taking care of it. He also didn't pay any mind to those talks; his black eyes scanned his peers and then he continued spending his time looking outside.
The doors to the classroom opened and Saori Uchiha walked inside. Her eyebrows were pulled together, her face set in a deep frown. As soon as she walked in, her eyes landed straight on Naruto, giving him a vicious glare.
However, she didn't say or do anything. A second later, she turned away and sat down in her own seat. To be honest, Naruto was actually surprised by that. He was already expecting shinobi to show up at his front door, questioning why he broke into the Uchiha clan's compound.
"Seems like she kept quiet about yesterday. Is it pride?" Naruto wondered inside his head.
Time passed and the rest of the students filled the empty seats. Then their teacher, Iruka, along with Mizuki entered the classroom. All the students settled down as Iruka then gave a long speech about friendship and teamwork which, truth be told, Naruto completely ignored.
Next, all the students were assigned to teams of three under a jounin instructor.
"Next is team 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Saori Uchiha. Your jounin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake," Iruka said as he then moved on to the next team.
"Geh!" Naruto heard a weird sound as he looked down and saw Saori looking at him with a 'are you serious' expression. The two looked at each other for a while. Saori then gritted her teeth and turned away.
With all of the teams created, Iruka left the building with Mizuki, having done their job. All the students quickly found their teammates and started getting to know each other better. From time to time, the jounin came to pick up their genin teams and they left the classroom in small groups.
Eventually, there was only Naruto, Sakura, Saori and the annoyingly loud clock.
Tick, tock.
The three sat in absolute silence, the atmosphere was so heavy that no one was daring enough to breathe loudly. Saori held visible hostility towards Naruto because of yesterday. On the other hand, Sakura was friends with neither of them, and she could feel the tense atmosphere.
Over an hour passed as the three sat in silence when they finally heard the sound of footsteps. The door was opened and spiky, grey hair popped out through the door.
A mask covering his lower face, his headband slanted on his face and covering his left eye. The man wore the standard jounin uniform.
As the man walked in through the door, he looked over the three. He probably sensed the tense atmosphere in the room as you could clearly see the motivation disappear from his remaining right eye.
"This will be an exciting team to work with..." The man sighed as he didn't even bother to hide his disappointment.
"Well, nothing I can do about it. You three, meet me on the roof," The man disappeared into thin air after giving out his order.
Saori and Sakura got up and went to leave the room. As the two were leaving, Sakura frowned as she felt that something was very wrong here. Her eyes widened as she looked back.
"Hey, Naru- Huh?" Sakura noticed that Naruto was not following so she was about to call out to him, but Naruto was no longer in the classroom.
On the rooftop.
The grey-haired man appeared on the roof and took out a small book from his pouch. He then comfortably leaned against the railing as he read his book. A second later, his eye narrowed as he looked to the side and saw Naruto standing there, also leaning against the railings.
"You know the Body Flicker technique?" Kakashi asked, slightly surprised.
Naruto nodded his head as he sat down on the ground, his back leaning on the railings.
"Surprising. Few genin know this jutsu," Kakashi commented.
Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "I'm a quick learner," was the answer he gave.
"So I heard," Kakashi said quietly, not pointing out the fact that first you had to have a teacher. But then he went back to his book, seemingly losing interest in discussing this further.
It took only a minute for Sakura and Saori to appear on the roof. As they looked around, both of them were surprised that Naruto was already here. Well, Saori's surprise was indicated by a quiet 'Che' and a furrow of her brows.
Saori and Sakura went to the front and sat down, waiting for Kakashi to start the conversation.
Kakashi placed the book in his bag and looked at the three genin. Sakura looked nervous and enthusiastic, Saori was openly glaring at Naruto who was ignoring everything with practiced ease.
Kakashi could feel his motivation sink even further, "Ehem, how about we start with some basic introductions?"
Seeing no response, he sighed. "Let me go first then. The name is Kakashi Hatake. I enjoy reading books and relaxing. The thing I like the most is... Er... I dislike... You know what? You go next, Pinky."
Sakura held back on commenting on the introduction and followed Kakashi's instructions, "My name is Sakura Haruno. My hobbies are studying and learning new things. I like my friends and I hate Ino. As for my dream... Hm, it would probably be to become a splendid shinobi."
Kakashi nodded his head. A very average, girly introduction but it was better than nothing. "Alright, you are next, eyebrow," Kakashi pointed his finger at Saori.
Saori's glare then turned to Kakashi who only shrugged his shoulders. "What? When you constantly glare like that, it makes it seem like you have only one eyebrow."
Saori's mouth opened as she tried to say something, but closed her mouth as a red tint appeared on her cheeks. Her expression relaxed slightly, obviously embarrassed by the comment.
"My name is Saori Uchiha. My hobbies are training. I don't like anything in particular. As for my dislikes... No, who I hate is-" Saori turned to Naruto with a glare, "Would be a certain someone. As for my dreams, all I want to do is to restore my clan and capture the traitor."
"Goodness gracious... Couple problems?" Kakashi asked with a sigh.
Saori's face became red as she stammered, "C-couple? There is no way I would be a couple with 'that'?" Saori pointed her finger at Naruto.
Everyone turned to the man in question. However, Naruto completely ignored their play, lost in his own thoughts.
"The spotlight is on you, blondie," Kakashi woke Naruto up.
Naruto eyes didn't even twitch at the nickname. After all, he had been called worse things. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. My hobbies are training and studying. For my likes and dislikes... Well, there isn't anything worth pointing out. As for my dream, I just want to become strong."
Kakashi let out a breath of relief, and cheered inside his head, "I can work with this team!"
Kakashi's right eye curled up into a crescent shape, signifying his smile. "Well, now that the introductions are out of the way, let's move on to more serious topics. The thing I want to inform you about is your genin exam. Just to tell you now, what you did before was a nothing more than a test to find out if you have the aptitude to become shinobi."
All three genin's eyes fell on Kakashi, quietly listening. "Your exam will be held tomorrow in training ground 7. Come by at 7 am and we will conduct your test then. Well then, are there any questions?"
Kakashi looked around at the three genin, only to see them sitting quietly. Seeing that there are no questions, Kakashi used a Body Flicker jutsu and disappeared from the rooftop.
Only the three genin were left now. Sakura was trying to decide whether to invite her teammates to a meal to get to know each other or perhaps its best to stay quiet. After all, it seems like Saori would very much like to take Naruto's head off his shoulders.
Saori didn't say anything as she stood up and went towards the exit, quickly leaving the roof.
Naruto then also stood up. His hands went through several hand seals and he disappeared with the wind, not leaving any trace.
"So that's how he got here so fast. Rather handy, " Sakura mumbled quietly. With a sigh, she then stood up and also made her way home.
Time passed and the night was approaching. Naruto was meditating in the middle of the forest, when he suddenly opened his eyes as he sensed a person nearby.
"A person? Doesn't seem like a patrol. It looks more like he is running away from something," Naruto started guessing inside his head.
Curiosity getting the best of him, he stood up and silently followed the figure. Chakra surfaced on his body and he jumped up, landing on a branch.
Naruto then also dashed as he followed the target as discreetly as possible. After a few more minutes of running, the person finally stopped to take a small break, giving time for Naruto to catch up.
Naruto's pace slowed down and he hid his chakra even further. With quiet steps, he approached the person, wondering who it was. As the tree branches moved aside, Naruto's instructor, Mizuki, came into view.
The person had a giant scroll with the word 'forbidden' written on it. He was panting heavily while looking at his surroundings with caution. After making sure that no one was there, he released a laugh.
"Finally, I got this scroll," Mizuki then picked it up and looked it over, greed shining in his eyes.
"This doesn't look like a scroll that he should have," Naruto thought inside his head as he observed the word 'forbidden' written in large print.
"Mizuki, oh Mizuki... Don't tell me that you couldn't hold it back and actually stole this?" A small smirk appeared on his face.
Naruto had long since seen through this instructor's facade. Mizuki would pretend to be polite and kind-hearted around others, but he would always have trouble completely hiding his rotten personality around Naruto.
"Before I give this away, maybe I should take a peek inside? There is no harm in learning a few jutsu from here, right?" Mizuki mumbled as he observed the scroll.
"How about you give me this scroll?" Before Mizuki could come to a decision, a voice came from the side.
Mizuki took out a kunai as he looked to the side and saw Naruto standing there. He was standing next to a tree in his usual outfit, his pose relaxed and his eyes showing that he was amused by the situation.
Mizuki growled quietly, "Naruto Uzumaki..."
Naruto nodded his head, "Indeed," however, Naruto's next words shocked Mizuki, "My dear instructor, I don't have time here. I am very interested in taking a look at the scroll there, so I will have to get rid of you before the anbu come."
Mizuki released a chuckle as he wanted to mock Naruto, but to his surprise, Naruto disappeared from his spot and appeared before him in a flash, his fist reared back.
Mizuki stumbled back as he narrowly avoided the powerful punch. He wanted to curse a lot now, but he had to swallow his words as Naruto continued his attack.
His fists moved as Naruto barraged Mizuki with a flurry of fists, much to the latter's surprise, as some fists landed on his body, injuring him.
Mizuki's anger surged as he swiped at Naruto with a kunai, forcing him to stop the attacks. Mizuki then jumped up and landed on a branch.
"Che, it seems like there is more to you than what you have shown us, demon. Very well, how about this?" Mizuki said as he took off a giant shuriken off his back.
With a twist of his body, he threw the massive shuriken at Naruto. The shuriken flew at Naruto at great speed, like a scythe of the reaper. Naruto could clearly hear the sound of the wind breaking, and he knew that he would be torn in half if he didn't dodge.
Naruto bent his knees and rolled ot the side, narrowly dodging the shuriken. However, it wasn't over yet as Mizuki unleashed a volley of shuriken and kunai, each weapon flying at Naruto with great precision.
Seeing the volley incoming straight at him, Naruto extended a hand and caught a kunai by the loop, then twirled it in his fingers and got a good grip on it. He then used the kunai to deflect all the incoming projectiles.
Mizuki wasn't a chunin for nothing. His accuracy with thrown weapons was great, he was only slightly rusty from spending years teaching little kids. As Naruto was blocking the onslaught of projectiles, injuries started appearing on his body as several projectiles stabbed into his body.
Eventually, Naruto took a step back after surviving the barrage of projectiles. His blood rolled down his white bandages and fell to the ground, staining the grass red. Naruto then suddenly felt a sense of danger as he heard the sound of the wind breaking. He didn't need to look behind him to know that the massive shuriken has returned and was flying at him from behind.
Mizuki smirked as he took off the second massive shuriken off his back and threw it at Naruto, forming a pincer attack.
Naruto's eyes grew serious as his body tensed. Sensing the two approaching shuriken, Naruto crouched on the ground, his long hair hiding the sharingan that just formed.
Closer.
Closer.
Naruto's eyes widened as he felt the two shuriken were just about to reach him. Then he just barely jumped off the ground, twisting his body horizontally.
The sharingan watched in slow motion as the two shuriken went past him, one right above him and one right below him.
Naruto could clearly feel the wind swirling around the shuriken, the tips of his hair having been slightly cut by the whirling scythes of death.
Whoosh.
The two shuriken flew past him as Naruto's body completed the spin and he landed on the ground. Mizuki watched with wide eyes as Naruto had dodged his attack, not expecting a genin to possess such skill.
As soon as Naruto landed on the ground, chakra exploded around him and he jumped onto a nearby tree, bringing him to the same level as Mizuki. However, what further surprised Mizuki was that Naruto was crouching on the bark of a tree.
"Tree walking? You shouldn't have been taught this yet!" Mizuki yelled as he couldn't understand where Naruto had learned all this.
Naruto didn't respond as his chakra swirled around his body and then wrapped around his legs. He kicked off the bark, leaving a clear set off footprints on it, and he shot at Mizuki like an arrow.
Mizuki just barely avoided the hit as Naruto flew past him and landed on another tree, forming cracks on the tree bark.
Slowly, Naruto stood up and turned to face Mizuki. The two's eyes met as they watched each other.
"S-Sharingan? H-how?" Mizuki observed the pair of crimson eyes.
Suddenly, he remembered something. "Shit, mustn't look straight at them," Mizuki tried to close his eyes, avoiding the contact.
However, it was too late as the two had been looking at each other for a while now. Naruto's sharingan spun and he used Genjutsu: Sharingan.
Mizuki felt himself fall into darkness, with countless sharingan observing him from all directions. In reality, his eyes grew dull and his body became stiff as a board. Naruto's hands rapidly moved through a set of hand seals and he used the Body Flicker technique.
He disappeared from his spot and quickly reappeared behind the stiff Mizuki. Chakra swirled around his right hand as Naruto sent out a chop towards the back of Mizuki's neck.
Mizuki felt cold air gather at the base of his neck. His chakra flared and he broke out of the genjutsu at the last second. His experience kicking in, Mizuki lunged forward on instinct. However, he was a tad too late and the attack still hit his neck.
The attack was too light, so it didn't directly knock him out, but it did rattle his brain. Mizuki fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes and kicked up a cloud of dust. His experience screaming at him, Mizuki stood up and just barely held himself up on his shaky legs.
Naruto also jumped off the branch to a nearby tree. He then kicked off the tree and jumped to another one.
Through his blurry vision, Mizuki could only see a dark shadow constantly dash all around him. No matter how much he tried, Mizuki just couldn't completely grasp Naruto's position.
Suddenly, Mizuki felt someone appear behind him. But before he could react, a chakra enhanced punch landed on his ribs, sending him into a coughing fit. Mizuki tried to strike back, but the figure was gone, only to appear behind him again.
This time, a kick was sent to Mizuki's knees, striking him there and forming a crack in his knee joint. Mizuki yelled in pain as he fell to the ground, holding his knee.
His vision had finally cleared up, only to see a pair of black shoes enter his field of view. Mizuki looked up and saw a Naruto's two sharingan looking at him, his right fist reared back.
"Goodnight"
The fist flew down and hit Mizuki right in the face, sending him into the blissful unconsciousness. Naruto didn't look back as he hurried towards the scroll. He had wasted too much time with Mizuki and the anbu would soon arrive.
He quickly pulled out a scroll and a pen from his satchel. After picking up the forbidden scroll, Naruto's eyes scanned the contents, sorting things into two categories: things he could use and things he was unable to use.
Anything useful was then written down on the empty scroll, up until Naruto felt more presences approaching. He hid his own scroll and then he pretended that he was simply reading the forbidden one. After all, with his recent temperament, it would be suspicious if he had completely ignored it and acted the goody two-shoes part.
A few seconds later, several figures clad in the standard anbu attire appeared in the clearing. They scanned the surrounding and found the unconscious Mizuki and Naruto.
Some anbu scattered into the surroundings, forming a perimeter, others went to check up on Mizuki. Meanwhile, a man with the mask of a tiger approached Naruto.
"Genin Naruto Uzumaki," A rough voice came from behind the mask.
Naruto looked up from the scroll at the masked anbu. The masked man then asked in an indifferent tone, "Did you defeat the traitor, Mizuki?"
Seeing Naruto nod, the masked anbu's eyes landed on the scroll in Naruto's lap. His two eyes narrowed. "Naruto Uzumaki, you do realize what the word 'forbidden' means, do you not?
Naruto nodded his head again. "Something that is not allowed to see the light of day, unless certain requirements are met."
"If you know this, then why did you read the scroll? The act of reading it without permission has serious consequences. Well, what is your excuse?" The anbu asked.
Naruto shrugged as he played dumb."It was opened by Mizuki by the time I got here. After defeating Mizuki, I got curious, so I sat down and took a look at the scroll. Honestly, I don't even know what this scroll is."
The masked man was stunned as he couldn't rebuke this shameless and obvious lie. He could argue that Naruto was lying, but he wasn't here so how could he know the truth. Furthermore, if Mizuki was already reading it, then Naruto truly had no way of knowing it was a forbidden scroll.
Naruto rolled up the scroll and threw it to the man. "Well, I know what I know already, so what now? Gonna take me to the Yamanaka's place?"
The man stood quietly as he observed the scroll. Eventually he shook his head and released a sigh, "Come with us to meet Hokage-sama. You will give an explanation of the situation and Hokage-sama himself will decide what to do with you."
Naruto didn't resist as the group picked up Mizuki and left the area, only leaving a few anbu to guard the place.
It didn't take long for Naruto to appear in Hizuren's office. At first, the old man was surprised to see Naruto appear before him. Then, the old man was relieved and happy, but once he heard what was going on, he still acted the part of the Hokage.
Naruto just barely changed the story, mixing lies and truth. He clearly explained that he was training in the woods when he sensed Mizuki running. Driven by curiosity, he had ran after him and found him reading from the scroll, planning to learn from it before giving it to someone. In that moment, Naruto had acted and defeated Mizuki.
"Oh, please. I have been playing politics for years, you expect me to fall for that?" Hiruzen said inside his head. However, he was more amused than mad.
He had never dreamed of finding himself in such a situation with Naruto. Though now that it was happening, he felt a strange sense of nostalgia, suddenly remembering the old, younger Naruto.
He was very happy to see that Naruto didn't actually hold any animosity towards him. However, Naruto didn't act friendly either. It felt like the two were nothing more than strangers who didn't know each other.
"I see, so that is what happened," Hiruzen said as he reclined in his chair and smoked his pipe. His eyes then fell on the scroll.
"Well, it can't be helped. Bringing in the Yamanakas just because you took a glimpse at the scroll is not worth it. Furthermore, your act of catching a traitor is praiseworthy, so you can consider that as your reward. Any objections?" Hiruzen asked as he looked around.
The anbu and Naruto were all quiet.
Hiruzen then waved his hand, dismissing the anbu, "Alright, you can go now. Bring Mizuki to Ibiki for an interrogation. Also, strengthen the security around the scroll."
The anbu all bowed and left, leaving only Naruto and Hiruzen.
The old man observed Naruto who had several injuries from the fighting. "You have grown stronger," He said, his voice turning softer, kinder.
Naruto nodded his head. "You, on the other hand, have slipped up. When an academy instructor is stealing forbidden scrolls and bringing them to mysterious people, you should be getting suspicious."
Naruto's words were rude but neither of them minded it. The two we more like strangers now, but past memories couldn't be forgotten and bonds couldn't be completely severed.
Hiruzen nodded his head. "Indeed. Mizuki was a sly one, he completely slipped under my radar."
"A lot of people have," Naruto said harshly.
Hearing those words, Hiruzen froze as he felt a strange sensation after being scolded by a genin. And yet, he couldn't say anything in his defence, because that was the truth.
Naruto observed the aged Hokage with firm eyes. Watching the old man, old memories resurfaced in Naruto's heart. The old days when he had called Hiruzen his grandpa. However, those memories just brought more pain, so Naruto used his years of training and completely suppressed them.
Naruto then turned around and was about to walk out of the office, but then he stopped at the door. His figure slightly shook, as if he couldn't decide whether to leave or stay. Hiruzen only watched with a slightly surprised look.
"There is still a job for you here, so pull yourself together," After leaving those words behind, Naruto quickly left the office.
Hearing those words, Hiruzen's eyes widened as he watched the door in surprise. For some weird reason, he felt strangely invigorated by those words.
A small smirk still formed on his lips as he puffed on his pipe. He then glanced at the stack of papers on the desk and felt a sudden urge to finish the paperwork now. Without wasting anymore time, he grabbed a brush and started going through the papers.
Meanwhile, Naruto went to his house and treated his injuries, preparing for tomorrow's test.