Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, Shikamaru would actually get off his lazy ass…
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New Friends, New Enemies – Chapter 2
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2 years later…
It was the third time. The third time he failed the Shinobi Academy Graduation Exam. Naruto sat on his favourite swing on the Academy's playground. He wanted to cry, to express his sadness to someone, but he knew that nobody would care about it. The only one who would care… Naruto hadn't seen him since he met him two years ago…
With a sigh, Naruto raised his head and looked at the crowd in front of the Academy. The graduates were laughing, their parents congratulating them. Two women looked up, only to glare at him. They whispered with each other. Naruto couldn't hear what they whispered about, but he already knew. They probably were calling him a demon or monster again. Even after all this time, he still couldn't figure out why they called him that. Holding back his tears, he stood up from the swing and trotted away.
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He was moping around the village, when a voice made him look up. It was Mizuki, the silver-haired assistant teacher. Mizuki motioned him to follow, and soon, they sat on some kind of balcony above the village.
"You know," Mizuki said, "Iruka really wanted to let you graduate."
Naruto snorted. "Then why is he always picking on me?"
Mizuki was silent, the spoke again. "He probably sees himself in you. His parents were killed when he was young. He wants you to become strong, you can be sure of it. Try to understand his feelings, since you're an orphan, too." Naruto nodded, but he still couldn't cheer up.
Mizuki sighed. "Well… You still have a chance to graduate, you know…"
Naruto's head snapped up, Mizuki had his full attention.
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It was almost midnight. With the scroll Mizuki described to him on his back, Naruto ran through the forest as fast as he could, finally stopping in a clearing with a small cottage after a while.
'Okay, let's see… Sneak into the Hokage Tower, check… Knock out ojii-san using the Oiroke no Jutsu, check… Take the scroll, check… Run into the forest and to the clearing Mizuki-sensei wants to meet me at, check… Now, let's take a look at the jutsu in this scroll… The first is… Kage Bunshin? Damn, why does it start with my worst jutsu?!'
He did everything Mizuki-sensei told him to do. With the jutsu from this scroll, he would finally be able to graduate. He thought about how weird this task was, though… Shrugging, he started to work on the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.
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Iruka was panting by the time he finally found the blonde boy. He was shocked and enraged, shocked because Naruto had actually managed to steal the Scroll of Forbidden Seals and enraged because he did it. Iruka jumped down from the branch he stood on and landed behind Naruto. Hearing the noise, said boy turned around and pointed at Iruka.
Grinning, he exclaimed "I found you, nose bleeder!!"
"Idiot, I found YOU", Iruka shouted at him.
Putting a hand behind his head, Naruto began to talk. "Hehehe, you found me… I've only learned one jutsu. If I do it, will you let me graduate?!"
Iruka looked at Naruto, surprised. 'So… You were practicing here? Enough to damage yourself…'
Still, Iruka wanted answers. "Naruto," he began, "where did you get the scroll on your back?"
Naruto looked onto his back. "Oh, this? Mizuki-sensei told me about it, and about this place, too. He said if I show you a skill from this scroll, I'd definitely graduate."
'Mizuki?!'
Iruka's head whipped to the side, and he did a weak palm thrust to push Naruto out of the way before he got impaled by several kunai.
"So that was it…" he said. "It was you, all along…"
He looked up and Naruto followed his gaze, only to see Mizuki, in full battle gear, with several big shuriken on his back. Mizuki looked at Naruto.
"Naruto, give me the scroll."
"No, Naruto, don't give him the scroll, protect it with your life!!!" Iruka shouted, pulling out one the kunai in his body. "It has several Kinjutsu written in it, sealed away by the previous Hokage. Mizuki used you to get his hands on it!"
Mizuki chuckled darkly. "There is no point in you having the scroll. I'll tell you the truth."
Iruka's eyes widened. "No, Mizuki, don't!!!"
Mizuki ignored Iruka and continued, "You know about the incident twelve years ago, right? The night the Kyuubi attacked and was defeated by the Yondaime Hokage. That night, a law was made, a law involving you, but you were the only one who wasn't supposed to know about it."
Naruto was confused, why would there be a law involving him?
As if sensing his question, Mizuki went on. "It was a law forbidding everyone in this village to reveal the truth… the truth that YOU are the Kyuubi!! You are the demon that killed Iruka's parents and hundreds of Konoha's shinobi!!"
To say that Naruto was shocked would be an understatement. THAT was the reason they hated him? Was he really the Kyuubi? Did… Iruka-sensei hate him?
He didn't notice that Mizuki had thrown one of his shuriken at him until it was blocked by Iruka, who took it in his back.
"Why…?" Naruto asked. Why did Iruka save him?
"I was just like you… When I was young, I had nobody… Nobody acknowledged or complimented me, so I acted like an idiot, so I would gain at least some attention. It was painful…"
A tear dropped on to Naruto's face. Iruka continued to speak.
"I'm sorry, Naruto. If I had done a better job, you wouldn't have to feel the same pain."
Slowly, Naruto stood up; then he turned and ran away, Mizuki after him. Iruka ripped the shuriken from his back and went after them. After fooling Mizuki through a clever Henge, Iruka sat with his bleeding back against a tree. Naruto was hiding behind a tree not far from them, listening to their words.
"Hehehe," Mizuki chuckled, "you'd even transform into what killed you parents to protect him?"
"I won't let the scroll fall into the hands of the likes you, idiot!" Iruka replied angrily.
"You're the idiot. Naruto and I are the same."
"What do you mean?"
Mizuki chuckled again before answering.
"If you use the jutsu in this scroll, you can do whatever you want. There's no way that demon wouldn't use that power. Unlike what you're assuming…"
"Yeah…" Iruka replied in a low voice.
Naruto could feel the anger boiling in him.
'I knew it,' he thought, 'deep down, even Iruka-sensei hates me…' His thoughts trailed off as he heard what Iruka said next.
"That is, if Naruto really were the Kyuubi. But he isn't. He's able to feel pain, emotional pain, something that a demon never would be able to. He's clumsy, and not the smartest boy, but he's a hard-working student of mine and for that, I acknowledge him. He is Uzumaki Naruto."
By the end of Iruka's speech, Naruto was in tears. Mizuki just chuckled evilly.
"Heh," he said, taking another shuriken from his back, "whatever. You know, Iruka, I was planning to kill you later, but… I think I'll take care of you NOW!!!"
He lunged at Iruka, his shuriken spinning, ready to kill him. Iruka closed his eyes, ready to die.
'So this is it…'
Then, before Mizuki could strike, an orange blur shot at Mizuki and hit him, stopping his approach and sending him several feet backwards. Iruka and Mizuki looked up to see it was Naruto, his blue eyes shining with suppressed fury.
"Don't touch Iruka-sensei!! Or I'll kill you!!!" he roared.
Mizuki prepared himself to throw his Shuriken, saying, "Shut up! A punk like you I'll kill in one shot!"
Naruto placed his hands together so the index fingers were forming a cross seal. "Try it trash! I'll return the pain a thousand times over!"
"Then try it, Kyuubi!!!"
With a shout of "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!!" the entire clearing was filled with countless replications of Naruto. Mizuki was panicking, stumbling back and falling on his butt. Iruka watched with wide eyes.
'That's… Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! A Jounin-level Ninjutsu that doesn't create illusions, but actual bodies! Maybe…he truly has the potential to become the greatest Hokage…"
"What's wrong, Mizuki-teme?" Naruto taunted the terrified chuunin. "Didn't you want to kill me in one shot? Well, I guess I'll make the first move." The army of Kage Bunshin charged and the forest was filled with screams of pain and the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Moments later, Mizuki was reduced to a twitching black-and-blue pile of modern art. Naruto sheepishly scratched his head.
"Heh, I overdid it a little…" he chuckled. Iruka just smiled at him.
"Naruto," he called, "come over here and close your eyes for a second, I have a present for you."
Naruto did as he was told. Then, he felt his goggles being removed and replaced with something different. He opened his eyes to see the smiling face of Iruka, his hitai-ate missing.
"Congratulations, graduate." Iruka said. "For celebration, I think I'll invite you to a bowl of ramen and…" Before he could his sentence, Naruto jumped him and wrapped his arms around him in a hug, crying in happiness.
Unbeknownst to the student and his teacher, four pairs of eyes had been watching the whole exchange. The Hokage smiled at his crystal ball, happy for the young boy. He other three were watching from the treetops, hidden by the shadows. Three pairs of eyes, one golden, one crimson and one blue.
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"So he finally found out about the Kyuubi," the owner of the golden pair of eyes, a female, said.
"Yeah, that'll make it a whole lot easier for us," the crimson-eyed person, another female, returned. The third and last person, the one with the blue eyes, let out a sigh. The other two turned to him.
"What's wrong, Ryu?" the second female asked.
Ryu turned to the two females, Ai and Tomo.
"While it's true that the fact that Naruto now knows about the Kyuubi will make it easier for us, it'll sure as hell make it very hard for him."
"Why?" Ai asked, cocking her head slightly to the side.
Ryu sighed again. "Think about it. Now that he knows why they hate him, he's afraid that the few people he can consider his friends, like his classmates at the academy, find out about the Kyuubi and hate him just like their parents. He might grow distant and close himself off from others, missing the chance to make new friends, either in his team or outside Konoha."
"I think you're wrong, Ryu," Tomo said. "Naruto is stronger than that; he won't let himself be pulled down by this. He'll pull through and emerge stronger than before. He WILL find friends that accept him regardless of the Kyuubi."
"Well," Ai said, "he already has three that accept him, even though he's Kyuubi's vessel. He just doesn't know that WE know about it."
Ryu nodded.
"You're right, he'll make it. I'm just worried about him. He deserves a better life than the one the villagers gave him. We should leave now. The ANBU will soon arrive and I don't want to explain why we were here. Besides, I need to talk with the Hokage about the team arrangements."
They left, leaving the two shinobi on the ground alone.
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I know, I know, for a wait THAT long, this chapter is pretty short but I'm glad that I finally completed it. The three nightmares called life, school and writer's block were the reason. I'm just glad that I've still got about a week of Christmas holidays left. I'll try completing the next chapter during this week and maybe finally starting on the prologue of my ToS crossover. The next chapter will be longer, as it'll contain both the team selections and the genin test and some talking between two team members. Oh, and pleeeaasseeee, I need feedback, please leave some reviews. At least let me know that you read it...
Until then, DTR signing off.