Here goes chapter one.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto cause' if I did I'd be swimming in money while yelling: "I'M RICH BTCH!"

SPOILER ALERT:

IF YOU ARE NOT UP TO DATE ON THE LATEST MANGA CHAPTERS AND DON'T WANT ANY SPOILERS THEN DON'T READ.

"Hello" character speaking.

'Hello' character thinking.

"HELLO" character yelling aloud

'HELLO' character yelling in his/her mind

LEGEND.

PART 1, CHAPTER 1: SO IT BEGINS.

It all began with a decision.

In the instant it takes for a heart to beat once, everything changed.

Old man Sarutobi was worried. Mizuki had opened his mouth and spilled Konoha's darkest secret to Naruto in despite of Iruka's protests and the poor kid was not taking the news very well.

This was not the way he wanted the truth to be revealed to young Naruto and it could lead to disaster but all he could do was pray and hope for the best.

He could only look at his crystal ball in resignation.

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"Me? The demon fox?" the clearly shaken child asked.

"Mizuki! Shut up! Don't say anything else! You know it's forbidden to talk about it!" Iruka begged.

But the traitor just ignored him. "Yes! Didn't you ever wonder why they hated you? Why they treated you so coldly? Why the beatings happened on your birthday? Why NOBODY wanted you?"

"It's because you ARE the fox. The Yondaime Hokage could not kill the Kyubi, no mortal can so he did the next best thing he sealed it within a newborn child, you. And by killing you I'll be doing a favor to this village." Mizuki finished as he reached into his back for a fuuma shurinken that he had been carrying with him.

By this point the child could feel his cerulean eyes tearing, eyes that for such a young person had already seen too much. He was so shaken by this revelation that he did not pay attention to the weapon that would have killed him had it not been for Iruka throwing him to the ground while taking the hit for him.

"Iruka-sensei!"

"Naruto I'm sorry, if only I had paid more attention to you… If only I had been there for you… the pain of being alone I know it very well and maybe this wouldn't have happened."

Not knowing what else to do Naruto scrambled from the ground and ran as fast as his legs would take him.

"Naruto!" Iruka yelled.

"Don't worry Iruka, I'll come back to finish you off after I'm done with the demon brat!"

Mizuki taunted Iruka as he ran deeper into the forest hot in Naruto's trail.

'Damn it! I had forgotten about Mizuki' Thought a heavily injured Iruka as he managed to stand up and join the pursuit.

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"Naruto! We lost Mizuki! Now hand me the scroll!" Yelled Iruka as he caught up to his fleeing student. He was then completely surprised when the kid attacked him.

"How? How did you know I wasn't the real Iruka?"

"Because I am Iruka" answered Naruto as he dropped the henge to reveal the real McCoy.

"Huh! Very clever! But why do you even help the demon? He's like me; he'll only use the power of that scroll to get his revenge against the village!"

"You are right, the demon would. But not the child, he understands pain and even tough he is a bit brash and clumsy he always tries his best. He is one of my excellent students: Uzumaki Naruto!"

Unbeknownst to them the child in question was listening from a hiding spot with tears running down his face.

"And to think I was planning on sparing your life. Fine! If you like the demon so much then I'll send you to hell first!" Mizuki stated as he prepared to launch his fuuma shurinken.

Suddenly he felt as if he was flying and a very acute pain on his back. He landed on a roll and as he regained his bearings he could see Naruto standing between him and Iruka with a look of determination that he had never seen on him and it had an intensity that scared him.

"If you touch Iruka-sensei, I will kill you."

"Cocky aren't we, brat?"

His only answer was a cross seal he had seen used by jounin on rare occasions.

'The demon actually learned a jutsu from the scroll?'

"Kage bunshin no jutsu."

That was the last thing he heard before he was swarmed by an orange sea and lost consciousness.

Iruka could only look in utter shock at Naruto's incredible display of skill and stamina.

'BY ALL THAT'S HOLY! Did he possess this much skill before?!' Even though he repeated this question in his mind over and over again he just could not help the smile that formed on his face the more he thought about it.

"Maybe I overdid it, ha ha ha!" Naruto said in his usual sheepish stance: with his hand scratching the back of his head and a squinted foxy look in his eyes.

"Naruto come over here. I have something for you"

Naruto obeyed and walked over to his teacher

"Now close your eyes" Once again the kid obeyed.

He felt movement on his forehead but had no time to think about it as Iruka instructed him to open his eyes again.

"Congratulations graduate!"

Iruka's own hitai-ate was on his head. "Iruka-sensei….! Thank you." a subdued Naruto could do nothing but hug his teacher, conveniently forgetting that said teacher was injured.

This was the last scene Sarutobi watched on his crystal ball before he left to call of the search for Naruto with a big smile on his face. He had to dispatch a medic team to treat Iruka and an ANBU team to apprehend Mizuki.

'Yes, everything is OK' He thought happily. Then his countenance darkened 'Ugh! But just thinking about the paper work this mess is bound to create is already giving me a huge headache!' 'I know! I'll hand Mizuki over to Ibiki! He's going to be mad to be woken up at this time of the night and a mad Ibiki is bad for your health'.

A sinister smile spread across his face. A smile that would have put even Uchiha Itachi on edge.

Had he stayed to watch what happened next he would have seen an event that would change the history of Konohagakure and indeed that of the entire continent, forever.

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Naruto was still hugging Iruka, happy at the thought of finally being accepted. But he could not help thinking of what Mizuki had revealed to him. Would the villagers accept him as one of their own someday? Could he keep on enduring their horrible treatment?

All of these thoughts were running amok in his mind because he had felt something. A sinister non-human voice deep within him that had urged him to kill Mizuki, had it not been for Iruka he would have given in to its urges.

No, he could not stay. At least not until he became strong and skilled enough for the people to realize that they were wrong about him and if he ever gave in to his anger, to his hatred of the villagers, to the voice; that he now realized must have been the Kyubi, then he would be endangering Iruka and Old man Hokage.

That, he could not allow.

He reluctantly released his hold on Iruka and stood up, determined to go through with his plan. He would just have to hope that Iruka would forgive him.

Iruka looked up to Naruto and saw his face. It had a look of sadness and determination and tears were streaming out of his eyes.

"Iruka-sensei, please tell Hokage-jiji that I'll be back for his job. That's a promise!"

"Huh?!"

"I'm sorry." Naruto whispered

He barely managed to hear the apology before his world went dark.

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It was done. He had knocked his academy teacher out. He hoped that it would delay any pursuit from the village shinobi. He took off the hitai-ate from his forehead and placed it within one of his pockets. He then placed his goggles in one of Iruka's chunin vest pockets with a short note written on it, it read: 'this is a trade when I return you will get your hitai-ate back and I will get one of my own' 'P.D. you'll have to give me my goggles back too!'

Naruto then picked up the forbidden scroll all the while thinking of learning the jutsu contained within and the probabilities that he had of making good on his escape. He started making his way into the forest away from the village when he noticed Mizuki's body beginning to stir.

He could not leave this man with a defenseless Iruka, he would kill him the moment he regained consciousness. Naruto's mind wandered to a lesson at the academy: 'Shinobi are killers. They should not hesitate to take a life on the field, for they risk failing the mission or worse getting your teammates killed'.

He had never actually thought about such things. Naruto had always envisioned shinobi as dashing heroes rescuing princesses in distress and beating up the bad guys. But now, now he understood what had to be done.

After swallowing hard, he reached for Mizuki's kunai pouch with a shaking hand. He grabbed one of the knives, closing his eyes and remembering what he was taught at the academy he plunged the kunai into the traitor's throat. Naruto decided to take all of the dead man's ninja equipment reasoning that he was most assuredly planning to escape tonight after he obtained the forbidden scroll.

His body felt numb, his face incredibly pale, he had to resist from emptying the contents of his stomach to the ground but he couldn't stay here. He turned to see Iruka and the village of his birth one last time and with tears in his eyes he left.

It would be a long time before he would return.

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The next morning Sandaime watched sadly as Iruka lay asleep in the hospital bed. 'The boy will surely blame himself for what happened' he thought 'And he shouldn't, what happened is all my fault' 'I should have… no, there's no point in thinking about it now'

He exited the hospital and headed for the Hokage tower the internal monologue still going on inside his head.

'I hope that the search party finds him' 'And if they hurt him… I will not be kind at all'

But he was a realist. The kid had a huge head start over his pursuers and when Naruto wanted to be sneaky there was no one short of himself that could find him.

'I have contact Jiraiya, with his spy network he should be able to find Naruto' He snorted at that thought 'Spy network my senile ass, he just goes into whorehouses for his research but there is no denying that you hear things you would not find anywhere else'

'Maybe I should retire.' He shook his head 'No, if I do that the fools in the council will demand Naruto's execution and there is no guarantee that whomever they choose as the Godaime will show any leniency for him'

He turned his head and looked up to the fourth face engraved in the Hokage Mountain he closed his eyes and with no small amount of guilt he apologized to his successor.

'Minato, please forgive me my boy. I have failed you.'

A/N

Chapter 1 was a little moody because of the decision that Naruto had to make, but they should lighten up a bit as the story progresses.

Major political intrigue and the introduction of Naruto's sensei for the next chapter!

Feel free to post any criticism (constructive) or suggestions.

Thank you for reading!