Naruto – Legacy of the Yondaime Hokage
Chapter 10 – Pass or fail, Graduation Exam
Disclaimer – I don't own Naruto. Naruto is the property Masashi Kishimoto. This is just a story using his characters and I'm not looking to make any money out of this.
"Demon/Inner Sakura" talking/thinking
"Flashbacks"
"Normal"
Warnings – Strong (though not invincibly strong), smart Naruto, Major OOC and possible Lemons (unsure at this point)
Four years later
It was a beautiful summer's day in Konohagakure no Sato with the sun beating down on the village illuminating it in its golden glow without a single cloud in the sky. The temperature was fairly warm with a soft breeze in the air; all in all it was a relatively peaceful morning and no one would suspect that anything was capable of shattering this peace. Unfortunately, if anyone was hoping for a quiet morning, then they were about to be in for a massive shock.
"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE VERMIN!" the high-pitched screeching voice of one, Haruno Fuhei came as she along with a platoon of jonins were currently chasing a twelve-year-old Uzumaki Naruto, who was laughing as loud as he could with a carefree look on his face as if he didn't have a care in the world and was having fun, "WHEN I CATCH UP WITH YOU, I'M GONNA RELIEVE YOU OF YOUR ABILITY TO REPRODUCE!"
The hands of the jonins behind her all reflexively flew over their crotches as they noticed the rage-filled woman violently swinging a meat-cleaver in front of her.
"THIS TIME YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR!" one of the men shouted out in an attempt to suppress his nervousness over Fuhei's threat in case she decided to turn on them to relieve her anger.
"YOU'VE REALLY OVERSTEPPED YOUR BOUNDS THIS TIME!" another shouted with the same motives in mind.
"Give it up," Naruto shouted back, still laughing and having a great time, "You're all just pissed off that you don't have the guts to stoop that low. Besides, it was all Sakura-chan's idea. You'll never take me alive ya bunch 'a losers, wannabes."
"HOW DARE YOU!" Fuhei screamed in pure absolute fury as she glared murderously at the annoying spiky-haired blonde, "HOW DARE YOU BRING MY MUSUME-CHAN INTO THIS VULGAR SCHEME!"
"That's for not letting me into your house all those years Fuhei-chan," Naruto shouted back in a rather boastful, somewhat mocking tone.
If anyone were to look up at the Hokage Monument, they'd see what the Haruno matriarch was so infuriated about. To the left of the Shodai Hokage's face was big woman who looked a lot like Fuhei with an overly exaggerated huge bust size and wearing a red two-piece bikini with her hands clasped behind her head ad striking a rather seductive pose. However, each of the four Hokage faces were painted in such a way that made them all seem like sex-hungry predators that were drooling over her and to the right of the Yondaime's face was a man that looked a lot like the late Haruno Takeshi who looked rather infuriated with the four Hokages and had a speech bubble coming out of his mouth that read, "Hey, that's my wife you're staring at ya bunch 'a perverted lunatics!"
Needless to say, Fuhei was absolutely enraged and infuriated over the whole thing. Not only had this "demon spawn" desecrated the memorial built in honour of the four greatest shinobi of their times, but she also felt that he had also violated her by including her image in his graffiti. She remembered after discovering her that many onlookers who had noticed her had taken a look at her breasts, which, though noticeable, weren't particularly all that impressive. Nevertheless, she had found herself crossing her arms over them despite being fully-clothed, feeling that the "demon brat" had robbed her of part of her dignity.
"I'M GONNA MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS!" she screamed furiously as Naruto jumped onto the rooftops and Fuhei along with the jonins all followed him, jumping from rooftop to rooftop as they all frantically tried to catch the little rascal.
"Then come and get me if you can," Naruto dared in a mocking tone, "What's the matter, is your age catching up to you Fuhei-chan?"
Fuhei just screamed, even more determined to catch and hurt the annoying blonde.
Meanwhile, Sarutobi Hiruzen was busy performing calligraphy with a paintbrush and he held up the paper to the wall when two ninja burst in a rather hurried and panicked fashion.
"Hokage-sama!" one of the ninja said, panting for breath, "You must come quickly, it's an emergency!"
Hiruzen just scowled in annoyance; clearly not too pleased that his morning routine had been brought to an abrupt end.
"Don't tell me; let me guess," he sighed in annoyance, "Another atrocity committed by Naruto again."
"Hai, but this time it's serious," the second ninja said.
"Yes, and this time it is an atrocity," the first ninja said while nodded in agreement, "He's desecrated the Hokage Monument by painting graffiti over the Hokage faces; your honoured predecessors and he's also shamed the lady-wife of Takeshi-san."
Hiruzen groaned in annoyance. This was just all he needed, Ever since Naruto had started making friends, the one thing that did not stop were his pranks. In fact, his friends sometimes even assisted in them and gave him ideas, though most of his pranks were still just acts of revenge whenever someone rubbed him the wrong way.
"I suppose we can just be thankful he didn't turn out to be a murderous psychopath," he thought as he looked out the window, which was opposite the Hokage Monument and then his eyes widened in shock when he saw Fuhei's image clearly painted next to the Shodai's stone-carved face with a clearly outrageously oversized bust and blood suddenly gushed out of his nose as he involuntarily took a huge jump backwards, landing on the floor on his back with an unreadable expression on his face.
"Hokage-sama, are you going to be alright?" one of the ninja's asked in surprise, unable to believe what he had just seen.
Meanwhile, Naruto landed in a street and then jumped back up to another rooftop.
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Fuhei shouted with pure rage and venom dripping from her voice as she landed on the street and then followed Naruto back up to the rooftops.
"Man, she's a freakin' banshee," one of the jonin following her said as the platoon also landed on the street.
"You wanna tell her that; try telling it to her face," another said in a rather daring tone.
"Nuh-uh, that's suicide," the first jonin commented with a hint of fear in his voice, "I don't know about you, but I value my life."
"Whatever, let's just get on with our job," a third said as the entire platoon all jumped after Fuhei.
Unbeknownst the them; two sets of fingers seemed to phase out of the fence to the right of where they had stood and then Naruto emerged, pulling down a cloak that coloured and patterned the same as the fence, obviously built for camouflage.
"Kakuremino no Jutsu," Naruto said with a laugh, "I can't believe they missed it. Are they dull or what? I could be an enemy-nin for all they know and they're supposed to protect the village. Man, with security like that, however did Konoha remain at the top for so long? That was just too easy."
"Oh yeah Naruto!" a very stern and not-pleased voice came right up into his ear rather loudly, causing Naruto to jump in fright and then fall to the ground, landing in his butt as he turned to face the person who had spoken into his ear.
The man, who was leaning towards him, had short dark brown hair that was tied at the back into a short spiky ponytail and dark almost-colourless black eyes. Another feature was that running along the front of his face underneath his eyes was a scar that extended from the end of one eye to the other and he wore a regular ninja uniform that consisted of a dark blue jumpsuit with red circles on the side of each sleeve where the sides of his shoulders were, a green ninja vest with a red circle with a swirl pattern at the back, dark blue sandals, bandages wrapped from his ankles up to halfway between his ankles and knees, going the trouser leggings a slightly baggy look, bandages wrapped round his right thigh were his kunai and shuriken holder was supposed to go and he had his hitai-ate tied round his forehead.
"Oh…. H-hey Iruka-s-sensei," Naruto said with a nervous laugh, still sitting on the ground from his fall, "W-what are you doing here?"
"That's the question I was going to ask you," Umino Iruka replied with an angry "I'm in no mood for arguments" look on his face, "You're supposed to be in class, not gallivanting off vandalising the Hokage Monument with your perverted caricature of Haruno-san."
"Well, that's what she gets for not letting Sakura-chan bring me into her house," Naruto said with a huff, not pleased that he had gotten caught.
Iruka groaned as his eyebrow twitched. In truth, he was getting rather fed-up with Naruto's antics. It wasn't the first time Naruto had cut class to pull pranks Iruka had always been the one to literality drag him back, kicking and screaming like a spoiled brat who couldn't take not getting his way and it annoyed him to no end. It was clear that he was reaching boiling point, though in many ways, he couldn't really blame Naruto.
Naruto reminded Iruka a lot of himself when he was that age. Iruka's parents had been killed by the Kyuubi twelve years previously and Iruka remembered how he had been orphaned and how everyone round about him didn't seem to care and went on with there lives as if nothing had happened and as if his loss was unimportant. People moved on, he knew, but back then, he just couldn't accept it and his grief had started to affect his grades. So, in order to hide it and deal with it, he had played the part of an idiot and acted the clown just to get everyone to notice him and he didn't care if he was the one being laughed at or if the attention he got was in the negative. It was better than nothing.
In that respect, Naruto was the same, though Iruka didn't have lynch mobs to deal with. Like Iruka, Naruto had sought attention, not caring if it wasn't the sort of attention he had in mind. Most of Naruto's pranks had been acts of revenge whenever someone got one up on him, but they also served to have attention focused on him. It may not be the attention he wanted, but like with Iruka, it had been better than nothing.
Also like Iruka, Naruto had no parents, but unlike Iruka who knew who his parents were, Naruto didn't know who his were. As far as he was concerned, he was just an orphan and the boy the village despised for carrying the Kyuubi, either believing that the Kyuubi could possibly take over Naruto at any time or that he was the human form of the Kyuubi.
However, unlike the majority of the other villagers, Iruka couldn't bring himself to hate Naruto. Naruto contained the beast that murdered his parents; that much was true, but Iruka had come to realise long ago that Naruto was not the Kyuubi itself. He saw parallels between him and Naruto. Like him, Naruto may put on a brave carefree mask, but inside the fact that he had no parents and the fact that he was hated by most of the villagers was tearing him up inside. Iruka was one of the few who could see Naruto for who he truly was since Naruto faced many of the troubles he had faced as a child after his parents' death, though he did remember that at first, he did consider killing Naruto, though he had changed his mind after finding him crying.
Eight years ago
Fifteen-year-old Umino Iruka was walking down the streets of Konoha holding a knife in his hand with a look of pure determination on his face. Today was the day he was finally going to avenge his parents; the day he was going to kill the monstrosity that had taken their lives; the Kyuubi no Yoko, which as many had believed had assumed a human form after its defeat at the hands of the Yondaime Hokage. Needless to say, Iruka was rather infuriated. His parents were dead because of that thing, leaving him alone and unloved.
After he was informed that his parents were dead, he had been stricken with grieve. He was alone, orphaned and had no other relatives to take him in. His parents were the world to him and now they were gone. However, things continued to move on and Iruka felt ignored. No one seemed to care that he had lost his parents and had just waved it off like it never happened, prompting him to become the village fool and the class clown in order to get attention, not caring if he was the one being laughed at and it was all thanks to that disgusting fox in the form of a child.
He found the entire situation outrageous. How could it be allowed to live within the village walls? Why did the Sandaime treat it like a human being? He just couldn't understand it. This was the beast that killed so many people in its rampage four years ago. Why was it allowed to get off scot-free? It was an insult. Was the Sandaime really that much of a fool to be deceived by appearances. As a ninja, he had learned to see through deception and to know that even something that seemed so insignificant could be of great importance. Maybe the Sandaime was getting dull for his old age. His senses clearly weren't as sharp as they used to be.
"No more," he thought to himself with a vengeful look in his eyes, "I'm going to end this today. That thing will pay for what it did to my parents."
It wasn't so hard to find where the "demon" was. He was currently staying at the village orphanage along with many others who had been orphaned by "its" rampage. It was clearly an insult. It was as if the Kyuubi was mocking them. Iruka didn't go to the orphanage as he had become a ninja a few months after the Kyuubi's attack a ninja and therefore considered an adult. He stayed in the house that his parents had lived in, though he had been forced to sell just about everything they had owned just to get enough money to get by, as the pay he received as a ninja wasn't enough to get him by; even more reason to see "it" dead. The beast had ruined his lives; destroyed is hopes and dreams and now he would settle for nothing less than vengeance.
Reaching the orphanage, he snuck round to the back with the intention of sneaking in. His plan was to kill the "demon" and make it look like an accident… like he had accidentally slit his own throat while playing with a knife. He was sure that the matrons would let him in and let him do the deed, but he couldn't afford to risk the possibility that word may reach the Sandaime and if that happened, he knew he'd be done for. The Sandaime was pretty fond of the "demon" he knew and he also knew that he made periodic visits to the orphanage to check up on him, though the matrons had disguised their activities well and though the Sandaime knew otherwise, he had no proof in which to take action. Iruka was sure that this way, no one would get in trouble. If it was made to look like the "demon" had accidentally killed "itself" then there was nothing the Sandaime could do.
However, as he reached the corner of the back of the building, he suddenly heard a sniffing sound. It wasn't the sort of sniff that someone made when they were smelling the air… it sounded as if someone was crying.
"Why?" he heard a weak voice say, sounding rather hurt and upset, "Why does everyone hate me? I've done nothing wrong."
Taking a peek round the corner, Iruka saw a spiky blonde-haired boy curled up in a fetal position up against the wall and beside a dumpster with tears in his beautiful blue eyes. Iruka immediately knew who it was. It was his target, the "demon boy" and he lifted his foot with the intent to go over and do what he had set out to do. However, looking into the boy's eyes caused him to stop; his foot suspended in the air. Looking into the boy's eyes, Iruka saw nothing aside from loneliness, sadness and the pain of someone longing for acknowledgement and attention as well as a nice happy family. Iruka remembered seeing the same look in his own eyes whenever he looked at his reflection in the mirror.
This had to be a joke, he figured. There was no way that this "thing" could be crying. It was impossible; just an act. Monsters and demons were incapable of shedding tears, weren't they? However, the "demon" obviously believed that he was alone, so who was "it" trying to fool? There was no one around to see "it". Just what was "it" trying to achieve?
Shaking his head and reaffirming his resolve, he brought his foot down and started to make his way over to the "demon", but as he looked into the boy's eyes, he found his resolve weakening again. Why; just what was it that was stopping him? The "thing" that had killed his parents was so close to him, all he had to do was walk up to "it" and slight "its" throat and it would be over. It was as easy as that; so why was he hesitating?
Looking into the boy's eyes, he searched for telltale signs of deception. Perhaps "it" knew he was there and was just acting to draw him into a false sense of security, he figured, but as he looked into the boys big blue eyes, he found nothing to indicate deception or even evil intent. They weren't the eyes of an uncaring bloodthirsty monster. He couldn't find even a spec of malice or murderous intent within them. They were the eyes of a confused, hurt and lonely child who didn't know anything about why he was so hated and despised.
Needless to say, after seeing this, Iruka's grip on the knife lessened until it dropped out of his hand. Seeing the boy now and looking into his pain-filled eyes, he found that he couldn't bring himself to do it. This boy was no demon. He then remembered the Sandaime and how he said that the Kyuubi was sealed inside the boy and the boy was not the beast itself. It was then that Iruka came to realise just how true those words had been. Back then, he had been so caught up in his anger over losing his parents that he hadn't been listening to the Sandaime. All he thought about was the Kyuubi and how he wanted to make it pay.
Sighing to himself, he just turned and walked back the way he came, unable to look at the heartbreaking scene in front of him. This boy wasn't the evil demon everyone feared so much. The demon was just sealed inside him. The boy was the demon's living prison, nothing more.
Present
That had been an eye-opener for Iruka. Back then, he had seen Naruto for who he truly was for the first time and not what the villagers portrayed him as. Since then, he had been keeping an eye on Naruto, secretly observing him. A year after that incident, he had been prompted to chunin and immediately became a sensei at the Ninja Academy, vowing to help Naruto. Naruto, as it turned out was a lot like him, pulling pranks and making a fool out of himself just to earn attention. Sure, Iruka heard about the incident on 10th October six years ago in which Naruto had killed someone, but he knew that Naruto had been acting in self-defence.
Unlike him, Naruto had to deal with lynch mobs looking for his blood. However, until that incident, Naruto had never fought back; more proof that he was just a misunderstood child. If he had been the demon everyone thought he was, Iruka knew that he probably would have retaliated and killed his attackers. However, as with all humans; there was only so much Naruto could take and during that incident six years ago, Naruto had reached breaking point and lashed out. Needless to say, the villagers weren't too pleased and from then on, Naruto had started fighting back, though he never killed anyone; more proof as to just how wrong the villagers all were as a demon would have killed them, but unfortunately, they were all too consumed by their anger and hate to realise this.
It had been when Naruto had started making friends that Iruka really started to realise the truth. He had saved Sakura from her arch-nemesis, Ami who bullied her because of her huge forehead and all that talk about how Sakura never asked to be born with a big forehead made Iruka realise that Naruto never asked to have the Kyuubi sealed inside him. He really didn't have a say in the matter and Iruka had done research and discovered that the Yondaime's final wish was for Naruto to be viewed as a hero and he also did research into Jinchuriki and the circumstances surrounding them. It caused him to find an even greater understanding for Naruto.
However, that didn't mean to say that he played favourites. As a sensei, Iruka knew that it was unprofessional to let personal feelings influence his judgement and in that regard, he had always been rather strict with Naruto and did not let him off with slaps on the wrists. He wasn't lenient with Naruto despite how he felt. He knew that playing favourites wouldn't do Naruto any good and could possibly end up spoiling him, so he dealt with Naruto just like everyone else.
"Come on, let's go," was all he said in a tone that told Naruto that he was in no mood for arguments.
Later, Naruto was sitting at the front of the classroom tied up with ropes wrapped round his entire upper torso down to his waist and Iruka stood looking down at him with a furious look on his face.
"I swear Naruto, I'm getting really fed up with you," he lectured in a strict authoritative tone, "You've failed the graduation exam twice already and tomorrow you're going to get another chance and you're screwing it up again."
"Humph," Naruto let out, turning his head to the side as if to say, "I don't care". What Iruka didn't know was that Naruto had intentionally failed the last two attempts as he had wanted to graduate along with his friends, but they had all started attending the academy later than he did and so he had intentionally flunked with only Kakashi and the Sandaime knowing about it.
Iruka glared at him as he felt his eyebrow twitch as he restrained himself from shouting out at Naruto.
"Okay Naruto, if you want to be that way, fine," he said in a rather calm tone, though there was still a hint of anger in his voice, "We're all going to review the Henge no Jutsu since you decided to skip that class."
The other students all let out shouts and groans of protest, causing Iruka to turn and look at them.
"You can all thank Naruto for it," he said simply in an "end of story" type tone.
A short while later all the students were lined up at the front of the class waiting for Iruka to call their name. The exercise was quite simple. All they had to do was to assume Iruka's form successfully in front of him. Needless to say, the students were all not too happy about it as they had already been through this earlier that day, but unfortunately for them, Naruto had cut class to go pull some prank and most sent glares Naruto's way.
"So how was it?" Sakura whispered to Naruto in a rather excitable tone, curious about his prank.
"That went rather well," Naruto whispered back with a laugh, "Can't say your mom appreciated it though. She was trying to kill me."
Sakura just laughed.
"Well then, that's what she gets for refusing to let me bring you into our house."
"Haruno Sakura," Iruka's voice came rather loudly, causing both Naruto and Sakura to turn their attention back to him and Sakura walked out in front of Iruka.
"Okay Sakura, you know what to do," he said, looking up from his clipboard at Sakura.
"Of course Iruka-sensei, I've to henge into you, haven't I?"
"Yes," Iruka confirmed with a nod, "Now whenever you're ready."
Sakura nodded and then bought her hands in front of her chest and performed a single hand seal.
"Henge!" she stated as she appeared to burst into smoke with a strange popping sound that could be heard and once the smoke cleared, a second Iruka was standing where Sakura had stood.
"Right, transformed into me," he said with a satisfied nod as he took a pen and wrote down his observations on the paper attached to the clipboard.
The "second Iruka" then exploded into smoke, creating the popping sound and in "his" place was Sakura again, who just walked back to where she had been before she had been called out.
"Shannaro, I kick some serious ass!" Inner Sakura said with her fist in front of her in a victory pose and a rather cocky smile on her face, "I rule."
"Next, Uchiha Sasuke," Iruka called out and Sasuke, who was at the far end of the line near the window just walked out rather lazily, though he glared furiously at Naruto.
Since that incident four years ago in which Hinata had humiliated, Sasuke had been attending therapy sessions with the Yamanaka Clan. However, unfortunately it wasn't doing him any good. He was still the same as ever; still wanting power to kill his brother and conquer the world, still wanting to kill Naruto and all those who he believed had wronged him, which included most of the senseis at the academy, including Iruka, the Clan Heads and the Hokage himself. Back then, he had been shocked to discover that he wasn't getting off with it as he had done so many times in the past and after so many years of getting his own way and getting off the hook, he just could not handle or accept getting punished, blaming Naruto, Hinata, the heirs of the major shinobi clans and the Hokage for it and he made a silent vow that as soon as he had gained enough power, he'd kill the whole lot of them for daring to, as he saw it, force him to abide be their rules and in his mind, it should be the Uchiha who make the rules. The Uchiha Clan should be the ones ruling over the village. The village should be loyal to them, not the other way about.
However, one thing the therapy sessions did do was teach him the value of patience. He knew better than to try and go against the village at that point. To do so would have resulted in his death. So he had decided to play along and bide his time; waiting for an opportunity to get his revenge against the entire village for, as he saw it; turning their backs on the Uchiha. Of course he knew that people still pampered him and gave him what he demanded from them, but that didn't matter. As far as he was concerned, they were just in his way. They were between him and his intended targets and had to die. However, for now, he'd just wait and bide his time; then he would destroy the village and once he'd killed Itachi, he would start rebuilding the Uchiha; not just as a clan, but as an army to conquer the world. He would rename the Uchiha Clan as the Uchiha Army and use them to spread fear and despair; just as he felt when his clansmen were taken from him. All in all, he'd make the entire world understand his pain by spreading it throughout the world.
For now, he'd just do this ridiculous exercise.
"Henge," he said rather dully before Iruka could say anything, surprising him.
Just as with Sakura, Sasuke appeared to burst into smoke, creating the popping sound and just like with Sakura, a second Iruka stood where Sasuke had been. However, the "second Iruka" almost immediately burst into smoke again as Sasuke quickly cancelled the henge and walked back to where he was standing before Iruka could get a word in.
"G-g-good," he said with a rather slow nod as he gave Sasuke a rather concerned look, as he knew of what happened with Sasuke and Naruto two years previously and how it had seemed to drive Sasuke further and further towards insanity.
However, Sasuke just shot him a furiously cold glare as if to say, "I'm gonna kill you someday, so enjoy the time you have left alive", which caused Iruka to shiver before regaining his composure.
"Uzumaki Naruto," he called out after clearing his throat.
"Damn it Naruto, this is all your fault," a random student growled quietly at him.
"Yeah, you always seem to drag the rest of us down with you," another student; a girl said in agreement.
"Get back to me when I decide to care, which'll be… never," Naruto shot back with a troubled angry look on his face and his hands on his hips, "If I can't have fun, I might as well ruin it for everyone else."
The students all glared at him as he made his way towards Iruka. Sure, since four years ago, the children had all warmed up to him, but considering the fact that many had abandoned him in the past, they knew that he was still pretty sore about it and as an act of revenge, he would constantly ruin their day with his pranks, which saw them all get punished. It was his way of saying "what comes around comes around".
Naruto stood in front of Iruka and formed the hand seal as he started gathering his chakra. Naruto had an unusually high reserve of chakra; so much that it would probably put most jonins or kages to shame and it was a well known fact that the more chakra one naturally had, the more difficult it was for them to control it and before training with Kakashi, controlling his chakra had been one of the major factors that had caused him to fail. So Kakashi had also incorporated chakra control exercises into the training regimen such as tree climbing in which he had to literally walk up a tree without the use of his hands, water walking, which had been more difficult and using his chakra to levitate a kunai off the palm of his hand and spin it. He also tried the leaf cutting exercise that Iruka had given his class way back. It had been rather difficult, but Naruto did eventually master all those exercises and was able to use his chakra to perform low-class jutsu, such as create three effective bunshins with the Bunshin no Jutsu, though it had taken him multiple tries to create three exact copies.
"Henge!" he shouted as he appeared to burst into smoke.
However, instead of a second Iruka like Iruka had been expecting, what appeared was a nude female sixteen-year-old version of Naruto with waist-length golden blonde hair tied into two pigtails and smoke covered "her" more private areas.
"Huh?" Iruka said as his eyes bulged in shock as the female Naruto gave him a rather seductive wink and blew him a kiss with "her" hand situated just under her mouth with her fingers aimed at Iruka.
Blood suddenly gushed out of his nose as he involuntarily made a huge jump backwards, landing n the floor on his back.
The female Naruto then burst into smoke and the original laughed while pointing at Iruka.
"How da ya like ma Oiroke no Jutsu?" he laughed as if the whole thing was hilarious, "I gotcha good."
Hinata, Ino and Sakura all sniggered where as Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru and Choji all shook their heads chuckling; aside from Shino who remained as stoic as ever.
"TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!" Iruka yelled as he got back to his feet and his head seemed to grow till it was as big as his body and Naruto felt a strong wind blow by him as Iruka yelled at him, "I'M NOT GONNA TELL YOU AGAIN!"
"How'd he do that?" Ino whispered to Hinata and Sakura.
"Beats me," Sakura said with a shrug.
"Ditto," Hinata agreed while looking at Iruka as his head returned to normal size.
Later, Naruto was standing on a scaffold suspended by ropes in front of the Nidaime Hokage's face on the Hokage Monument. After that stunt he pulled with Iruka in class, Iruka had decided to make him clean up the mess he had made earlier that day. However, the paint that Naruto had used had been a type of paint that didn't last for very long while exposed to the outside elements and most of the paint had already flaked and fallen off. Needless to say, Iruka still wanted Naruto to clean up what had yet to come off.
"Man this blows," Naruto grumbled to himself as he placed a cloth he was holding into the water-filled bucket beside him and then brought it to the area beside the Nidaime's nose, "What a sad-sack. Can't appreciate a good joke."
"And you're not going anywhere until you've washed off every last spec of paint," Iruka said from his position; sitting atop the Nidaime's head while sternly glaring down at Naruto.
"Gee sensei, you make it sound as if I have a family waiting for me back home," Naruto retorted with a huff and Iruka couldn't help but notice the hint of sorrow in his voice, causing him to think of a way to cheer him up.
He knew just how Naruto felt. He had done some crazy things back then when he was Naruto's age and just like Naruto, he had gotten into trouble. However, he just couldn't afford to be lenient. He felt that it would be unprofessional if he let him off easy. Iruka realised just immature he had been back then and Naruto was equally immature and he dished out punishments based on the punishments he had received. He believed that if they worked for him, then they'd work for Naruto. However, that didn't mean to say that he couldn't spend time with him.
Realising that he may have upset him, Iruka started thinking on how to cheer him up and then he had an idea.
"Hey Naruto," he said in a gentler tone as his expression softened.
"What da ya want now sensei?" Naruto asked in the same angry tone as before.
"I was thinking, once you finished up here, I could take you to Ichiraku's for some ramen," he said with a genuinely caring smile, "I know how much you like ramen, so what da ya say?"
Naruto's face immediately lit up with a big smile as he considered the prospect of swallowing down his favourite food.
"Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout," he said rather excitedly, "Thanks sensei, I'll have this all cleaned up in no time."
Iruka just chuckled.
Later at the Ichiraku Ramen stand, Naruto and Iruka sat along with Sakura, Ino and Hinata, who had all been waiting for him near the Hokage Monument. Naruto was busy eating his bowl of ramen.
"So Naruto, why did you do that to the Hokage Monument and paint such a vulgar scene on it, I mean you do realise who those four people where, don't you?" Iruka said as he looked at Naruto curiously.
"Of course I know who they are," Naruto said, pausing from eating before going back to slurping up the noodles and then picked up his bowl and drank the rest before letting out a small sigh.
"Everyone knows who those four are," Ino said, rolling her eyes, "Even Naruto-ken here."
"They were the best of the best of there respective times," Hinata went on.
"Yeah, they were said to be the strongest shinobi in the village during their primes with Senju Hashirama and his younger brother, Senju Tobirama having founded Konohagakure no Sato and both Hashirama-sama and Tobirama-sama were the Shodai and Nidaime Hokages respectively," Sakura spoke up.
"And it's said that jiji was trained by the both the Shodai and Nidaime themselves," Naruto went on, "And the Yondaime was a student of one of the Densetsu no Sannin, who was one of jiji's students and he was the most amazing. He sacrificed his life twelve years ago to save the village from the Kyuubi no Yoko."
Sakura flinched at hearing this, remembering her discoveries four years ago about how she discovered that Naruto was the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi and how he was also the Yondaime's son; though mostly speculation, the fact that Naruto looked like a miniature version of the Yondaime seemed too great to be just a mere coincidence. Since discovering that the Kyuubi was inside Naruto, she had sworn both Shino and Shikamaru to secrecy, as she feared what would happen if the villagers found out that they knew the truth and were still defending him.
"Idiotic fools," she thought to herself, "Don't they realise that Naruto-kun's keeping the beast from destroying the village? Did they ever consider what would happen if they had killed Naruto? It may release the Kyuubi."
That was a terrifying thought. If Naruto died, the Kyuubi may be released to continue what it had started twelve years ago. However, many people were too blinded by their grief and anger to consider the potential consequences. Of course, many villagers believed that Naruto was the Kyuubi in human form and by killing Naruto, they would kill the Kyuubi.
Of course, it was just speculation. Perhaps the Kyuubi would die along with Naruto and Sakura knew that with the anger and hatred of the villagers being as strong as it was, they'd rather risk releasing the Kyuubi than allowing its container to live. It was pitiful. Naruto was being blamed for something he did not do and all because he was shouldering a burden that he never asked for. She couldn't help but hate the Yondaime for it. It was his fault that Naruto had to bare this horrible burden. Sure, Sakura knew that the Yondaime probably felt he had no other choice and that he probably couldn't bring himself to just snatch some random child if he wasn't prepared to do it to his own son, but Sakura felt that he should have made better arrangements to protect Naruto then he wouldn't have had to grow up like he did.
"Hey Sakura-chan, you seem rather troubled, something wrong?" Hinata asked, noticing Sakura's occupied look.
"Huh… oh it's nothing," Sakura lied with a laugh, "Just pre-graduation jitters I guess."
"Nonsense, I'm sure you'll do fine and pass with flying colours," Ino said as she slapped her hand on Sakura's back.
"So Naruto, just why did you…" Iruka started to say, still curious as to why Naruto vandalised the Hokage Monument in the way that he did.
"Three reasons," Naruto interrupted, knowing exactly what his sensei was going to say, "One, because it's my way of saying that I'm gonna surpass them all and became a ninja legend; me, Naruto, the Godaime Hokage and then everyone will have no choice but to stop disrespecting me and look up to me and so I can protect my friends. Two; Fuhei-san won't let Sakura-chan bring me into their house and I was looking for some payback."
He then paused with his chopsticks pointed at Iruka that he had pointed as he made his proclamation to be Hokage as Sakura sniggered at the thought of Naruto getting some payback on her mother as Fuhei had still refused to allow her to bring Naruto into her house.
"Third, I wanted to test the village's security," Naruto went on as his face became serious, "I wanted to see just how easy it would be for an enemy-nin to elude capture and I have to say that security's pretty pathetic. I mean, all those jonin, plus one retired kunoichi who made jonin level and they couldn't catch me and I'm not even a ninja. I'd sure hope no one's planning on invading the village anytime soon otherwise we may not survive."
Iruka groaned at this, clearly not happy. Though he did admire Naruto's spirit for testing the village security, that didn't mean he had the right to poke fun of it just because the ninjas chasing him couldn't catch him. Just because they couldn't catch him didn't mean to say that the village's security as a whole was pathetic. They hadn't been ANBU after all. If Naruto really wanted to test his metal, he would have provoked the ANBU, though he wasn't going to tell him that. The last thing anyone wanted to do was provoke the ANBU as they didn't take too kindly to being mocked and came down on their targets hard. Iruka knew that Naruto would probably have no chance fleeing from the ANBU and even if he did give them the slip, he knew that they would not give up until they had found Naruto and it would mean that Naruto would probably end up having to watch his back for a very long time, as the ANBU were quite dangerous whenever someone bruised their pride.
"Of course, those guys weren't ANBU," Naruto went on with a laugh, "Maybe jiji should assign better trained ninjas after me instead of those old relics."
"Why not provoke the ANBU into chasing you?" Ino asked curiously, causing Iruka's face to pale as the colour instantly drained from it as he feared that Ino may have signed Naruto death certificate.
"No way, those guys are brutal," Naruto said with a hint of genuine fear in his voice and a serious look in his eyes, "They're not ordinary shinobi. They don't give up until they have their man and it can be days afterwards. Just when you think you're save; bam, they spring out on you."
Iruka then let out a sigh of relief, glad that Naruto was smart enough to know not to mess with the ANBU.
"Really?" Hinata asked curiously.
"Uh huh, seriously," Naruto confirmed with a nod, "Kakashi-niisan was an ANBU once and he told me about it."
"Thanks heavens for Kakashi's secret training," Iruka thought; being one of the few that had known about how Kakashi had been training Naruto since the majority of the academy senseis had sought to sabotage his education, "Thank you Kakashi, you may have saved his life."
"Ano, sensei," Naruto asked, looking at Iruka with a pleading look in his eyes.
"I suppose you want another bowl," Iruka said with a slightly annoyed sigh.
"Nope," Naruto said shaking his head.
"Then what…?" Iruka started to ask as Naruto clasped his hands in front of him and bow his head.
"I-I-I was just wondering, could I please wear your hitai-ate, just this once, please," he pleaded.
"Oh this?" Iruka said as he slightly adjusted his hitai-ate and then shook his head, "No way, you can wear the Konoha hitai-ate until after you graduate and become a ninja, and you'll get your chance tomorrow. Is that why you took off your goggles?"
He then stared at a pair of green black-lensed goggles that were lying next to Naruto's empty ramen bowl.
"Humph, that is so not fair," he said in a huffy tone.
The three girls shook their heads, chuckling as Naruto appeared somewhat cute when he was in a huff.
"Who says that life is fair?" Iruka asked with a cheerful laugh.
"Aaargh… just get me another bowl," Naruto huffed, clearly not too pleased at Iruka's refusal to allow him to wear his hitai-ate.
"Calm down Naruto-kun, I'm sure you'll pass tomorrow," Hinata said in a cheerful tone.
The next day at the academy, it was the day of the Graduation Exam. The students all sat in anticipation, feeling rather excited about the idea of becoming ninja. It was truly a big day for everyone, especially Naruto. The last two times he had flunked on purpose as he had joined the academy earlier than most of his friends. The only exception was Shikamaru, but he had only failed in the past because he was too lazy to even attempt a simple henge. This time however, Naruto was going to pass for sure. He had been practising all night after all. For the graduation test, the students had to perform three basic jutsu; the Kawarimi no Jutsu, which was like a teleportation in which a ninja traded places with an object or thing, the Henge no Jutsu, which was the transformation jutsu they had been reviewing the previous day and the Bunshin no Jutsu, which was the ability to form clones.
"Okay, Uzumaki Naruto," Iruka said as he called Naruto into the testing room, where he noticed a man with silver white hair and dark brown eyes and wearing the standard Konoha Ninja Uniform standing behind a desk with a row of three by three hitai-ates.
However, Naruto wasn't put off. He knew who this was. It was Mizuki, the assistant proctor for the exam. It was common practice for the proctor to have an assistant in case he missed something. It was the job of the assistant to point out anything that the proctor had missed.
"So Naruto, this is your third try, huh?" Mizuki said with a smile, "You must really want to become a ninja if you're coming back for more."
"Uh huh, can we just get this over with Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto said rather excitedly.
"Boy, aren't we eager?" Mizuki said with a chuckle, though no one noticed the evil gleam in his eye as he stared at Naruto.
"Enough already, let's just get this over with," Iruka said in an unimpressed authoritative tone.
"Okay then, let's do this," Naruto said with a confident smirk.
Meanwhile outside the room, Hinata sat with her hitai-ate wrapped round her neck. Sakura hair her hitai-ate wrapped atop her head, replacing Ino's red ribbon that she had given her when they had first met. Ino had yet to be called. Hinata also had her Byakugan activated and could see through the wall as Naruto's test got underway.
"So Hinata-chan, how's he doing?" Ino asked curiously.
"Pretty well," she replied as she saw Naruto transform into Iruka and not that nude older female version of himself.
"So do you think he'll pass?" Sakura asked curiously.
"Of course he will; he's been training after all," Ino replied simply.
Hinata nodded as she saw Naruto use the Kawarimi no Jutsu and traded places with Mizuki and then use the same jutsu to move back to his original position. She noticed Iruka's eyebrow twitch as he gave an approving nod, clearly not expecting Naruto to use his assistant as an example of the Kawarimi. However, her Byakugan-activated eyes narrowed as she saw a rather evil smirk appear on Mizuki's face as Naruto prepared to perform the Bunshin no Jutsu.
"What's this?" she said aloud as she noticed Mizuki inch out of Iruka's field of vision and then he started performing a series of hand seals.
"Huh, Hinata-chan, what's going on?" Sakura asked with a hint of concern in her voice.
"The hell!" Hinata exclaimed as she saw that whatever jutsu Mizuki had performed had caused a disruption in Naruto's chakra-flow, causing him to create only one bunshin, which looked more like an old crash dummy that had been tossed in the dumpster.
Back in the testing room, Naruto's eyes widened in shock as he noticed the pitiful excuse for a bunshin.
"What happened?" he thought in shock, "I was sure that I had it right."
Iruka's eyebrows twitched as he looked at Naruto's bunshin, believing that Naruto was just horsing about as usual and not taking the test seriously.
"YOU FAIL!" he shouted; his tolerance for Naruto's antics finally coming to an end, causing Naruto to slip and fall on his head.
"Iruka-sensei, perhaps you can cut him a break just this once and pass him," Mizuki said in what appeared to be a kind and pleading tone, "After all, he did perform two of the three jutsu correctly and he did hang in there."
This caused Naruto's face to light up with a hope in his eyes. He may not know what had happened that caused him to screw up on the Bunshin no Jutsu, but if Iruka gave him another shot, then he could graduate.
Unfortunately, Iruka just shook his head, clearly not affected by Mizuki's plea.
"I'm sorry Mizuki-sensei, but the other students all created three perfectly constructed bunshins and Naruto could only create one and look at it," he said as he gave the poor excuse of a clone a disgusted look, "It's pitiful. I wouldn't even call that a clone. Beside, rules state that a student must perform all three of those jutsu effective to pass, so if he can perform one properly, I can't pass him."
"Oh come on Iruka-sensei, I don't know what happened, but if you give me another chance, I can get it right," Naruto pleaded with a hopeful look in his eye, "I swear that I wasn't messing about this time."
"Come on Iruka-sensei, what do you say?" Mizuki asked in what appeared to be the same pleading tone as before as he secretly prepared to perform the same jutsu he had performed before, should Iruka decide to give Naruto another chance, "It is his third try, so you know he really wants to become a ninja."
For the plan to work, Naruto needed to fail and he knew through Naruto's improvements that the chances of him passing were very high and so, he decided to take matters into his own hands and make sure he failed.
"No; rules are rules," Iruka stated harshly in a strict tone, "If he wants, he can try again next year."
Naruto glared at Iruka as he clenched his fist to restrain himself from lashing out at him. Iruka always seemed to have it in for him. Sure, unlike most of the senseis, he didn't send him out the class for asking for help, nor did he take sides whenever one of the other children picked fights with him, but Iruka never showed any evidence that he had cared for him either and in Naruto's opinion, that made him just like the other villagers that hated him. Sure he would often take Naruto out for ramen, but Naruto felt that it had all been a ruse just to fool him into thinking that he didn't hate him and that angered him.
"Screw you asshole," he said as he turned and stormed out the room, much to Iruka's surprise and Mizuki's glee.
"Perfect," he thought with an evil smirk, "Everything's in place."
A little later as the sun was starting to set over the horizon, Naruto sat outside on the swing hanging from the tree not far from the academy as he watched the other students who graduated being congratulated by their parents as he wondered just what had gone wrong with his Bunshin no Jutsu and as he watched the other children and their parents, he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to his parents; wishing that he had a family to call his own. He couldn't help but feel jealous of the other children; jealous how they had nice kind and loving families while he had no one. Sure he had his friends, but what he truly wanted was a family to call his own. His friends could only provide him with so much. What he wanted was someone to live with him so he wouldn't have to be alone anymore.
"Look, there he is," he heard a woman's voice say, causing him to look up and see two women glaring at him with nothing but disgust and contempt in their eyes.
"It's that boy, I heard he's the only one who didn't graduate," the other woman said in a quieter voice.
"Humph, serves him right," the first woman said in a disgusted tone, "I mean, could you imagine what would happen if they allowed that vermin to become a ninja… I mean considering what he is…"
"Quiet, we're not supposed to ever talk about that," the second woman said with a hint of fear in her tone.
"I could care less about that old coot's stupid decree," the first woman said in a tone of absolute contempt, "Someone should oust the old coot for giving support to that disgusting thing over there."
"Are you crazy?" the second woman said in shock as she placed her hand over her mouth in fright, "Talk like that would be considered treason."
"Well it's the truth," the first woman snorted, shooting Naruto a nasty glare.
Naruto just shot them both a rather nasty glare of his own. However, he then heard the sound of leaves rustling and looked up at the branch to find Mizuki standing on the branch.
Meanwhile, Hiruzen stood with Iruka as he watched the happy children being congratulated by their parents and then he gave Iruka a stern look.
"Iruka, there's something we need to talk about," he said in a tone that let him know that he was in no mood for arguments.
Meanwhile, Hinata, Ino and Sakura, who had been waiting for the crowd to disperse before going over to comfort Naruto noticed Mizuki standing atop the branch and then after a brief conversation, both had made off somewhere.
"Come on," Hinata said as she started walking in the direction Naruto and Mizuki had made off in with the other two girls following suit.
Hinata had told them both about how she had seen Mizuki sabotage Naruto's test with the Bunshin no Jutsu and needless to say they were shocked. However, this left the question as to why? Why would Mizuki sabotage Naruto's test and just what was it that he wanted from Naruto anyway? Mizuki obviously planned on using him for something, but what?
"Hey, Hinata-chan, maybe we should tell someone," Ino suggested, clearly nervous about confronting Naruto in case Mizuki happened to hear them.
"Who can we tell?" Hinata asked in a serious tone as she looked around, "Mostly everyone hates Naruto-kun's guts. Do you honestly think they'll listen?"
"Good point," Ino said with a nod, realising that that much was true.
She knew that no one would care and since everyone knew that the three of them hung out with him, they probably would try to chase them off before they could tell them. However, the prospect of facing down a chunin, who would probably kill them if he discovered that they knew about his sabotage just because they saw too much was frightening. Tying her hitai-ate round her waist, she followed Hinata with Sakura beside her.
"This is for Naruto-kun," she thought to herself as a look of determination flooded her eyes, "I won't let fear get in my way."
Meanwhile, both Mizuki and Naruto were sitting on a balcony to the building where Naruto's home was with their legs dangling off the side.
"Don't feel bad Naruto," Mizuki said in a somewhat comforting tone, "Iruka's tough and I know you don't think so, but he's not against you."
"But why?" Naruto asked in a rather dejected tone, "Why always me?"
"He doesn't take sides," Mizuki started to explain, "Your letting your own feelings delude you into believing that he's out to make your life miserable. He wants you to be strong, but that won't happen if he's lenient with you."
Naruto didn't look all that convinced and Mizuki looked at him and shook his head.
"He's just like you, you know," Mizuki said simply with a look of what appeared to be sympathy on his face, "No parents, no family, he had to do everything by himself. You remind him a lot of himself when he was your age. Like you, he always acted the fool and got in trouble, so just give him a chance, okay?"
"But, this time, I wasn't fooling around," Naruto said with a depressed sigh, "This time, I was really trying to graduate. I was so sure I got that Bunshin no Jutsu right. I don't know where I went wrong. I just wish he'd give me another chance."
Mizuki then chuckled and turned to look at him.
"Then I guess I have no choice but to tell you," he said with an evil gleam in his eye; something that Naruto missed.
"Huh?" he said, looking at Mizuki curiously.
"I'll let you in on a little secret," Mizuki went on, "I'm not supposed to tell you this but that's a shortcut for you to graduate."
"Really?" Naruto said excitedly as his face lit up in a hopeful smile.
"Hook, line and sinker," Mizuki thought as a sinister smirk etched its way onto his face.
Later that night, Naruto had scaled the walls of the Hokage Mansion and jumped in through an open window. This was the test that Mizuki had explained; the one in which he had said would graduate. The test was to steal a very special scroll from the Hokage Mansion and learn a jutsu from it and then Iruka would have no choice but to pass him. According to Mizuki; it was one of the most guarded secrets in the village and he explained that if everyone knew about it then the academy students would all be after the scroll, looking for an easy graduation.
"Naruto," a voice came from behind him as he tiptoed towards the room where Mizuki said the scrolls were kept, causing him to jump in fright, "Just what are you doing in my house at this time of night?"
Turning round, Naruto was shocked to see Sarutobi Hiruzen very much wide awake and staring at him with a mixture of confusion and annoyance as he stared at him demandingly awaiting an explanation.
"Damn it, busted," Naruto thought in a panic as he realised that his chances of graduating were about to go down the drain.
"Well, I'm waiting," Hiruzen said demandingly with a stern look on his face that told Naruto that he was in no mood for his usual horseplay, "Is this one of your pranks because if it is, I think it's already gone too far."
Thinking frantically, Naruto then remembered his Oiroke no Jutsu and how Hiruzen was a closet pervert. In fact, he had invented the Oiroke no Jutsu to "persuade" the old Hokage to let him off the hook so many times in the past whenever he got in trouble.
Forming the familiar hand seal, he started gathering his chakra.
"Oiroke no Jutsu!" he yelled, again transforming in the older nude female version of himself and flashed the Sandaime a rather seductive wink and started walking towards him in a way that made it appear as if "she" was going to rub "her" body against his.
Needless to say, it had the desired effect as blood gushed from Hiruzen's nose and he involuntarily took a huge leap backwards, landing on his back.
"I swear; that get's easier every time," Naruto mused with a smirk as he cancelled the henge and made his way to the room where the scrolls were kept.
It didn't take him too long to find the scroll that Mizuki had told him about as he rummaged through the numerous scrolls on the shelves. It was quite huge; the height of a small child to be exact.
"Gotcha," he said with a rather excitable smirk, "Now once I learn a jutsu from you, Iruka-sensei's gonna have no choice but to pass me."
He then took the scroll and ran out of the room and made for the window he had come in through and then jumped through it.
Outside, on a nearby rooftop, the woman stood along with Mizuki as they both watched Naruto exit the Hokage mansion and then make his way towards the assigned meeting place where Mizuki had told Naruto to meet him where he said that he would test him.
"Wow, I can't believe he actually managed to pull it off," Mizuki commented looking off in the direction Naruto had gone off in with an impressed look on his face, "I never thought for a second that he'd manage to pull it off."
"Well, considering who his parents were, I'm not surprised," the woman stated; voice sounding as if it was the voice of a robot, "However, it just means that we can proceed with the next phase of the plan."
Mizuki then stood at attention.
"Right," he said in a serious tone, "What do you want me to do now?"
"Proceed with the next phase of the plan," the woman said simply, "First, inform Iruka-san of the theft and then take him to meet the Hokage, after which, you will locate the boy and kill him and then, as promised; the Fuin no Sho is all yours to do with as you please."
"Of course," Mizuki said with a nod, "Not only that, but by killing that insufferable brat, I will have avenged my parents' deaths as well."
The woman nodded with a smirk.
"Right, now go!" she stated simply in a serious voice and Mizuki then turned and jumped down to the street below.
The woman chuckled as she watched him go. This was it; this was what she had been waiting for twelve whole years since the Kyuubi's attack and the death of that insufferable Uzu-mesu. Now her legacy was going to be eliminated once and for all and she could finally be at peace. Of course, there was always the chance that something could go wrong. She did not trust Mizuki in the slightest, as it seemed he had his own agenda, but that didn't interest her. Both their agendas had given them a common goal for the moment. Mizuki wanted revenge for his parents as well as the Fuin no Sho for his own dastardly purposes; not that the woman cared. In truth, she could care less about the scroll. All she wanted was to be rid of the Uzu-mesu's legacy and that was that.
Mizuki was just an effective tool to reach that end, though she believed him to be nothing more than a pansy that would squeal in the Interrogation and Torture block of the ANBU headquarters before they even started torturing him. He looked like the sort of man who would squeal just at the sight of the various torture devices as well as Morino Ibiki's intimidating face; not that he'd give away her identity or anything if he did squeal. She had taken the precaution wear clothes that hid her appearance well as well as place a voice changer in her mouth underneath the black ANBU-like mask that she wore to conceal her face. She also wore a black cloak over her head that draped down over her entire body to hide her hair colour and other features. In fact, the mask and cloak concealed her so well and the voice changer had altered her voice to the point where her gender was indistinguishable that Mizuki undoubtably believed that she was a man as she kept her hands inside her cloak.
However, she already had a plan in place should Mizuki screw up. Sure, it would be Mizuki that killed Naruto if all went well and not her, but she was rather content with it as Mizuki would do it as part of her plan and that satisfied her greatly. Also, should anyone who didn't hate Naruto happen to witness it, Mizuki would get the blame and she'd get off with it, though it would mean having to lay low for quite some time afterwards as she knew Mizuki would sing like a canary.
"Now, to business," she mused evilly as she started to hop from rooftop to rooftop.
Glossary
Henge – Transform/Transformation
Bunshin – Clone
Fuin no Sho – Scroll of Seals
Kawarimi no Jutsu – Body Replacement Technique
Oiroke no Jutsu – Sexy Technique (variation of the Henge no Jutsu)
Bunshin no Jutsu – Clone Technique
Author's notes – Another chapter done and final in canon territory. I have to say that this chapter has the most scenes in it so far and I even added in a flashback, something I haven't done since chapter six. I know that many of the scenes may seem like I got them from the anime, but I didn't copy the dialogue word for word and the bit at the beginning was different as I didn't want an anime/manga copy where Naruto just painted doodles on the Hokage faces. I will admit that the perverted graffiti was inspired by Psycho G's Neo Yondaime Hokage in which Naruto painted an advert for Jiraiya's Icha-Icha Paradise series before his team selection and I chose Fuhei to be Naruto's unfortunate subject as I wanted to include her more, plus Naruto had to gain some measure of revenge against her for not letting Sakura bring him into her house. If anyone feels that I've reverted Naruto back to his original self, then fear not, I haven't. As a ninja, he will be more serious and as for Mizuki managing to convince him, he just took advantage of Naruto's depression, since as I put it, Naruto intentionally failed the first two times and on the time he was planning to pass, he failed, albeit through Mizuki's secret chakra disruption jutsu and as for Kushina, I do have plans for her in future that involve her being alive. I just need a believable scenario to explain who she wasn't there for Naruto when he needed her. As for the manga, I haven't read the latest chapter yet, though according to the spoilers if I've read them properly, Karin decides to give up on Sasuke; something that Sakura can't bring herself to do and Naruto claims that he'll neither lose to Sasuke nor kill him and become a hero.