Chapter Two: The Ruse
The sun shone golden rays over Konoha, throwing everything into sharper array: the green of the trees, the white plaster of the buildings, their swirling colorful roofs, their tall circular wooden wall, their vast sandstone Hokage Monument…
And the detailed and irreverent graffiti art currently painted all over the stone faces of the previous esteemed village leaders. It was beautiful, it was intricate, it was the work of an artist, and it was almost religious blasphemy - a salvo against Konoha's greatest ancestors. Oddly? The artist herself saw nothing consciously or openly political in the fact that she'd painted all the male leaders up to look like weeping geisha.
Konoha Ninja Academy student Uzumaki Naruko's high, cackling shriek of a laugh echoed out over Konoha, as she hung over the faces tethered by a kunai knife and a piece of ninja wire, holding buckets of paint.
She could now proudly add "graffiti artist" to her list of affiliations and skills.
Somewhere else in Konoha, two green flak vested ninja wearing hitai ate bands sprinted up the bulging, multi-storied council building steps and burst through the Hokage's office door past his guards. "Hokage-sama!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen had been out of uniform for a change, enjoying a quiet afternoon smoking and doing calligraphy in the center of his office floor. He sighed to himself, cross-legged. This break, as with all the others, was not to be.
"What is it?" he said, wood pipe pursed in his old wrinkled mouth, turning to look at the two ninja. "Is Naruko causing trouble again?"
"Yes, she is vandalizing the Hokage Monument -"
"With paint!"
As always, there was the bewildering tone of outraged disbelief. Hiruzen would have thought the young people like these two, especially, would have gotten used to Naruko by now. Apparently not.
He sighed an old sigh, pondering past decisions, considering for the thousandth time the troubling Uzumaki Naruko problem as he slid slowly and creakily into his Hokage robes and veiled hat.
By the time he had made it to the Monument viewing platform, a tall, white stone platform lifted up some stairs for a better view of the faces, an angry crowd had already gathered on the platform, below a hanging Naruko. The crowd was shouting things up at her, flinging everything from warnings to angry insults. It was always this way, when she stayed after a prank. And Naruko herself, as always, didn't seem too concerned.
It was a good act, Hiruzen thought as he moved silently through the shouting, jostling hubbub reminiscent of a stoning. One of the best he'd ever seen from a child - and he had seen some very good children, heading a ninja village through wars.
"You need to stop causing trouble!" There was the stern, iron, righteous indignation.
"You'll pay for this!" There was the angry threatening.
"Look at what she did!" And there was the disbelief at the sheer scope and magnitude of Naruko's rebellion, as if no one could genuinely see that most of the village's actions caused it.
As always, no one seemed to guess that it could be worse.
"Read it and weep, everyone!" Naruko shouted back from above hanging by the wire, tough, frowning, and merciless. "Threaten me with whatever you want, but there's not a damn thing you can do about the fact that it just happened, dattebayo!"
"That is true, but still extremely impudent," Hiruzen muttered to himself.
"Hokage-sama, my deepest apologies. I am very embarrassed. Let me handle this."
Hiruzen looked over in surprise to find Umino Iruka standing there. He must have left an Academy staff member in charge of his class to come get his student himself. "Ah," said Hiruzen pleasantly, like this was a casual meeting. "Hello, Iruka."
Iruka looked apologetic and embarrassed, mind-mannered, one moment facing the Hokage. He turned around to look up at Naruko the next moment, put his foot on the bar holding people from falling off the end of the viewing platform, and puffed up like a bird. And in that second moment, he looked absolutely furious, red-faced, his temple ticking.
And then he bellowed.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, YOU ABSOLUTE MORON?! GET BACK DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"
"Ah. Hello, Iruka-sensei!" said Naruko from above, smiling, as pleasantly and casually as the Third Hokage just had.
It was all a facade. Deep-down, she was downright gleeful. Nothing was funnier than when she pissed off Iruka-sensei.
She decided to go for the full effect. "You know," she said, pretend pouting, "it's very rude to call someone a moron. I happen to think it took great strategic ability to pull this off." She smirked slightly at the scream of outrage from the crowd.
"STOP BEING PROUD OF SUCH A HORRENDOUS THING!" Iruka looked as always like he was about to explode from sheer rage. Somehow, he never actually did.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" said Naruko curiously, hand on her hip from where she hung in her orange and blue workout jacket and pants. She tilted her blonde-pigtailed head, finally by this year free of the childish pink baubles, and squinted blue eyes in a fox-like manner. "Don't you have a class?"
"YES! AND YOU HAVE A CLASS! WITH ME! RIGHT NOW AS YOU'RE DOING THIS!"
"Which means neither of us is there, and that's wrong, Iruka-sensei," said Naruko with mock seriousness. "Honestly, someone should be there, shouldn't they? The class can't function without us -"
"NARUKO, SHUT UP! JUST GET DOWN HERE, AND SHUT UP!" Iruka had closed his eyes and put his face in a hand, resisting the overwhelming mental image of throwing a kunai at Naruko's ninja wire and watching the smugness on her face fall as she dropped with a startled yelp.
Don't injure your student, Iruka, he told himself. Don't injure your student.
… Not even when it's really tempting.
But Naruko acquiesced. Her goal, after all, was completed. She dropped calmly down in front of him, let her hands be tied up, and lifted her head with dignity as she was led by Iruka back toward her Academy class through the shouting, insult-hurling, shoving crowds.
That was the worst thing, everyone in Konoha had agreed, about Uzumaki Naruko's pranks.
She always looked so above the anger that was met in their wake. Like she had a right to act that way.
Iruka did what he always did. He sat Naruko down in front of him on their Academy lecture hall style classroom floor in front of the entire class, completely tied up by the blackboard, which was even for a female totally emasculating as a ninja. Then he stood over her, because it made him feel really damn big about himself.
And then he began lecturing her in front of the entire class.
"Tomorrow is the Ninja Academy graduation exam, and guess what?" Iruka snapped. "To my working knowledge, you still can't do the Bunshin!" This was the illusory clone ninjutsu.
"I finally managed the other two," Naruko muttered to herself, looking away.
"What was that?" Iruka demanded.
"I said I finally managed the other two! Dattebayo!" she shouted up at him, irate. The other two were the Henge - or transformation into someone or something else - and the Kawarimi - or the physical replacement with another, nearby person or object.
She'd finally mastered them, with extraordinary hard work. Not that she expected Iruka to congratulate her on that.
And he didn't.
"Well bully for you!" he shouted sarcastically, brown eyes widening, and the class snickered. Naruko's teeth gritted and she glared as her head bent resentfully. She hated Umino Iruka. "But there's an old saying, Naruko: almost only counts in horseshoes! So why the hell were you out playing hookie on the last day of class, when you could have spent that valuable time getting extra time in class practicing the Bunshin?"
"But you weren't going to give us free time to practice," said Naruko, for a moment genuinely confused, as she often was, by her main teacher's weird twisted logic.
"What?!" Iruka snapped.
"You were doing a review session," said Naruko, blinking. She wasn't actually trying to be an asshole this time. She was genuinely puzzled. "If anything, it would have made more sense for me to play hookie and spend the time practicing back at home. I know," she said, laughing falsely as Iruka's hands clenched into slow fists, "us female students and our logic!"
But Iruka had straightened, smirking. "Fine," he said in a low voice. "You want time to practice? Great." He whirled to the class. "We're doing a last-minute review on the Henge! Everybody line up at the front of the room, and get ready to come forward one at a time to perform the ninjutsu, all thanks to your good friend Naruko!"
Then he walked away to get his grading clipboard and left her to use an Academy taught technique and get herself out of her own damn bindings, even as the class shouted and moaned in dismay. People started glaring at her as over twenty chairs squeaked sharply back and students hefted themselves to their feet on a class day when they hadn't actually thought they'd have to move their butts a lot.
And how did Naruko know Iruka was just being a dick, and not actually trying to help her?
Because he hadn't done a last-minute review on the Bunshin.
Students were muttering and glaring at Naruko as she untied herself and went to stand in line right in front of Hinata. "I'm sorry, Naruko-chan," said Hinata genuinely, her eyes sympathetic and understanding.
"Eh. It's okay. We both already knew Iruka's a dick," said Naruko in a slightly hoarse voice, looking away, even though it was not, in fact, okay at all. She'd tried countless times for the Bunshin and she still couldn't get it. She was terrified it would be on the graduation exam and she'd mostly done this latest prank to try and blow off steam.
Iruka wasn't going to offer help with the Bunshin, and that was all she needed. She had everything else.
And it would be just like Iruka to put the Bunshin he hadn't helped her with on the final exam - just in a last ditch effort to prove to himself that she was a shit shinobi.
"Next, Uzumaki Naruko!"
Naruko stepped forward, smirked viciously, and made the hand seal. "Henge no Jutsu!"
And she transformed into - a drugged-out, sunglasses Iruka. "Hey, man," he muttered in a low voice, taking a drag on an illusory cigarette, "this is my last cig. Ya got a pack of smokes anywhere on ya?"
Just for reference, she'd been supposed to transform into a literal, actual Iruka. Iruka-sensei enjoyed watching his own image be repeated countless times, apparently, and he seemed to also enjoy grading each image on their perfection.
"NARUKO!" Iruka shouted in indignation as the rest of the class laughed. This was a deep dig - Iruka's professionalism was important to him.
Naruko transformed back into herself, cackling with laughter, and held up one of her pink signs. The word "Ten!" was written on it.
"What does that mean?!" Iruka demanded, still riding a wave of temper.
"It's my own grade of my Henge. It's also what I am in bodily sexiness. A perfect ten," said Naruko, smirking widely. "After all, we all know that's what this is really about, right Iruka-sensei? Sexual harassment?" She spoke in a high, sickly voice and gave a faux pout, moving her posture suggestively.
Because he couldn't report her without getting himself fired. And they both knew it. He'd played his power card, so she played hers - deep under the surface, it was almost a threat.
"It's - I'm not - I don't comment on my students' -!" Iruka spluttered, red-faced. "Oh, for fuck's sake, just go stand in the hall!" he finally said, pointing at the classroom door, exasperated.
Naruko's goal had been met. He had at last given up on punishing her.
She cackled with shrieking laughter all the way into the hall, slamming the door behind her.
"God, that girl's weird and obnoxious," Hinata heard one guy next to her in line mutter to his friend.
Hinata looked after Naruko worriedly, sympathy in her eyes. Because Naruko had walls of defenses that didn't look like walls at all, but behind them was a deeply self conscious person.
Because Naruko wasn't as iron-tough as everyone liked to believe, and Hinata knew it. Naruko lashed out when she felt cornered, attacked, and harassed.
Then, and only then.
The stress and pressure of the upcoming graduation exam tomorrow was building. Hinata didn't have any problems, but Naruko knew she couldn't do the Bunshin. She also knew it would be on the exam. And this morning's prank was only one in a long line of actions that secretly showed it.
Naruko stood from the kunoichi classroom at the end of the day and said goodbye to Hinata and Suzume-sensei.
"See you guys later," she said, walking backwards toward the wooden door out of the classroom. The kunoichi classroom was a complicated affair, kneeling tatami mats on one end of the long, rambling room and work stations at the other end, with a tiny tea room through a door beyond that.
"Where are you going?" said Hinata, frowning in concern from beside Suzume-sensei's small teacher's desk in front of the mats.
"Penance," said Naruko, purposefully morbid even as she grinned.
"She has to scrub all the paint off the Monument, I expect," Suzume-sensei sighed in good-natured exasperation, shaking her head as she arranged things on her desk. "I don't know what you expected, Naruko."
"Eh, I knew I'd have to do this." Naruko shrugged and left the room. "See you in the funny papers, dattebayo!" she called back over her shoulder.
Iruka met her, looking annoyed, in the front courtyard of the Academy and he led her to the Monument. That was how she ended up on a piece of scaffolding in front of the faces, slowly and methodically scrubbing the paint off of them with a bucket of soapy water and a scrub brush in the golden light of the setting sun.
Naruko was used to cleaning, so she was calm - not particularly angry.
Iruka sat on top of one of the heads above her, on a big sandstone bulge with no barrier to break a fall to the ground a long ways below, glaring down at her to make sure she finished her work. Naruko wasn't sure which irritated him more: that he had to watch her all this time or that she wasn't saying anything.
"You're not leaving until everything is exactly the way it was before!" he finally called down to her in warning.
"Obviously!" Naruko's head whirled up and she glared at him in annoyance. "You keep trying to get to me, but I don't care! No one's waiting for me at home, so I can heat up dinner anytime I damn well please!" Her tone was unusually biting.
She went back to her scrubbing.
And suddenly, unseen by an oblivious Naruko, something inside Iruka softened. He wasn't sure Naruko knew what a sad thing that was for a kid to say: "No one's waiting for me at home, so I can heat up dinner anytime I damn well please." Iruka had grown up an orphan.
He knew what living alone as a kid could feel like.
He watched Naruko's head as she silently scrubbed below him, and it occurred to him for the first time that whatever else she was, Uzumaki Naruko was a really tough kid. She was biting, irreverent, and sarcastic at times, but she had it tough.
He told himself to buck up and force himself to be a good person. Rise to the occasion.
"Naruko…"
Naruko looked up in surprise. "Iruka-sensei," she returned, her blue eyes dancing teasingly, but he could tell she was puzzled.
He took a deep breath and forced the words out of his mouth, tried for a light, friendly tone as he said them. "If you clean everything up… I'll take you out and buy you ramen tonight. So you don't have to cook at home," he finished hurriedly. Alone, he added to himself silently.
Somehow, the thought of Naruko the prankster, the pervert, the loudmouth, the grinning girl in pigtails and an orange and blue tracksuit cooking an entire meal by herself and silently in an empty house at twelve-nearly-thirteen was disturbing to him. That stifling silence… Stop laying your own experiences over hers, Iruka, he told himself, but even in his head he didn't sound totally convinced that the two were so dissimilar.
Naruko's entire face brightened, delighted. She had one of those infectious smiles that just lit her up everywhere, that made the person want to smile back. It occurred to him that she had never actually smiled at him before - not even casually in class after a compliment. He tried to think of a time he'd ever paid her a compliment… and he couldn't think of one, but that didn't have to mean anything, he told himself, didn't have to mean anything at all.
Then she paused. "Wow, Iruka-sensei," she said, sounding impressed. "Have you read one of those child motivation books?"
"STOP MAKING FUN OF ME WHEN I'M BEING NICE TO YOU!"
And just like that, everything was back to normal.
But Naruko just laughed lightly. "Fair enough," she said. "Alright. I'll take your offer of ramen and raise you one totally clean Monument. How's that?" She gave him a peaceful, cheerful little smile.
Iruka sighed, relaxing, exasperated. "It sounds fine," he said.
And he was a man of his word, and it turned out she was a woman of hers, because she did totally clean the Monument with impressive detail and stubborn determination - really, until her arms hurt - and he did take her out to the ramen joint of her choice afterward, paying for her food himself with his teacher's salary. She chose Ichiraku's.
She apparently knew the people who worked the joint inside, because she breezed in underneath the cloth hangings and said, "Hey, Ayame-nee-chan, Teuchi-oji-san!"
"Naruko!" said the cook from the kitchens behind the counter with unusual jovial friendliness.
"I saw your artwork today," said the waitress, smiling reluctantly and shaking her head. "You know, you continue to outdo yourself and amaze me every single time."
"You and me both," Iruka muttered.
"Guys, this is Iruka-sensei! My teacher who supervised the cleanup!" Naruko waved to Iruka brightly, speaking of him in surprisingly nice terms. "He's paying for my dinner since he made me work so late, so two bowls of pork ramen to start out with, please!"
… To start out with? Iruka began to feel nervous as the cook and the waitress gave each other sly smiles. "Two to start out with," the cook agreed, sounding wryly amused.
By God, Naruko could eat - and eat - and eat. She was like a vacuum or a garbage disposal; everything set before her went in and nothing ever came back out. It was amazing. She just banged down bowl after bowl after bowl against the counter, each totally empty, like they were shots of whiskey.
When the eating for both of them had finally slowed down, Iruka decided to try talking this out with Naruko. He was genuinely interested as to the motivation here.
"Naruko…"
"Yeah?" She seemed willing enough to talk.
"Why would you do that to the Hokage Monument? Don't you know who the Hokage are?" he asked searchingly.
"Of course I do! Basically, those who get the Hokage title… they're the strongest in their village, right? They're voted in as the best and most representative shinobi and the Hidden Village leader," said Naruko. "And the Fourth one is a hero who died protecting the village from a demon fox."
Iruka felt a squirm of discomfort. She said the words so innocently. That was genuinely all she knew.
"Then why would you…?"
"Because someday I'm going to surpass all the previous Hokage, and become Hokage myself, dattebayo!" said Naruko firmly. "I'm going to make the village acknowledge me. But first, I have to get people's attention. I have to show that this whole authoritarian thing doesn't get to me. So I was poking fun a little bit."
Iruka started at her in honest surprise. He'd heard claims like this when she was younger… somehow, he was surprised she still had that dream.
"By the way… Iruka-sensei…" Naruko put her hands together in prayer and smiled winningly, blinking adorable big blue eyes with shameless advantage. "I have a favor to ask?" she said in her brightest, most bubbly voice.
"What? You want another bowl of ramen?" he said in increasingly good-natured exasperation.
"No… Can I borrow your hitai-ate? Just to see what it feels like to wear one?" The words tumbled out all at once, and then Naruko immediately began whining. "Pleeeaaase ~?" She squeezed her eyes shut.
"What, this?" Iruka smiled and pointed at the band wrapped around his forehead. "No. This is proof that you've graduated and come of age, that you're a real ninja. I can't just give it to you to try on," he said, amused. "You might get one tomorrow, yeah?"
But Naruko immediately pouted. "I want another bowl!" she shouted vindictively, turning suddenly and pounding on the counter.
"Hey -!" Iruka protested heatedly.
The next day was the graduation exam. It was taken inside their Academy classroom just like any other, except for the parts taken outside in the central courtyard. This made it seem deceptively easy, but it wasn't, not really. They had to notice and break out of an unannounced genjutsu while walking into the courtyard. They had to last against a fellow student in a ten-minute taijutsu spar once there. Then they had to go back inside their classroom and pass an immediately-graded written exam.
Hinata and Naruko sped relatively simply through every part of the exam so far, silent but determined beside each other, both in the courtyard and in their lecture hall style classroom. To make sure everything was fair, a proctor ninja, Touji Mizuki, was present beside Iruka. He was a quiet but friendly young man with a slight, impassive smile and long, pale hair, almost weirdly calm.
Finally, as Naruko and Hinata sat silently beside each other in the lecture hall, both so far with good grades, Iruka and Mizuki announced the last part of the exam to the watching class. "Now we will test ninjutsu," said Iruka from up at the front near the blackboard, and Naruko felt a squirm in the pit of her stomach. "As I promised, one of the three ninjutsu was randomly chosen.
"Come into the little anteroom connected to this classroom one at a time, by alphabetical order. There, you must successfully perform the Bunshin before myself and Mizuki."
Naruko felt something harden in the pit of her stomach, what little good feeling she'd had toward Iruka last night dissipating immediately. Iruka gave her a long look - she glared at him, her teeth gritted - then he frowned slightly and went impassively into the anteroom as names began being announced by Mizuki. Each student followed Mizuki into the anteroom.
Student after student came out wearing a brand-new hitai-ate. Like it was nothing. No big deal. Which it shouldn't be - not after four years of training.
"Naruko-chan," Hinata murmured worriedly, putting a hand on her arm.
"Randomly chosen, my ass," Naruko hissed out, and she realized she was shaking. "That fucker chose the one thing, the one fucking thing I can't do."
"Everything's going to be alright. You'll just have to try -" Hinata began soothingly.
"Everything's going to be alright for you!" Naruko spat, glaring over at her, face twisted. Hinata paused, and then frowned slightly, unshaken.
"Don't be rude when I'm trying to help," she said simply.
Naruko sighed and put her face in a trembling hand. "Sorry," she forced out in a humiliatingly choked up voice.
Hinata just watched her in concern until at last Hinata's name was called. "Hyuuga Hinata!"
"... Good luck," Naruko said, looking up apologetically, or she knew she'd feel guilty later. Hinata paused; their eyes met.
Then Hinata gave her a small smile and a nod. Naruko felt something in her stomach unclench. She was forgiven. "You too," said Hinata simply.
Hinata stood, went into the anteroom - came back out with a hitai-ate. She met Naruko's eyes at the front of the room, but she couldn't stay and talk about the test. She was a ninja now. So she left across the front of the room and through the far classroom door.
The door closed behind her and Naruko was left alone, among a bunch of other students who frankly didn't give even a single shit about her.
Don't panic, she told herself, looking straight ahead at the blackboard with big eyes, a pale face, and a clenched jaw. Don't panic.
At last, she jumped when her name was called. "Uzumaki Naruko?!"
"Yes?!" She stood awkwardly, and a few people snickered in the silence. Red-faced, Naruko followed a quietly and pleasantly smiling Mizuki into the anteroom.
It was a small wooden room, a long table cutting it in half. Piled on the table were long rows of shiny new hitai-ate bands decorated with the leaf symbol. Mizuki seated himself beside Iruka behind the table, Naruko in the big lone space in front of them.
"Please perform the Bunshin," said Iruka with his clipboard, unreadable, totally different from the relatively warm man of the previous evening.
Naruko made the hand seal, channeled chakra as tightly as she could - so tightly it was painful - and shouted, "Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Beside her appeared… one of herself. But it was obviously not real. Pale, ghostly, transparent, ill-looking where it stood in a trembling stance. It dissipated after a few seconds. Naruko felt a lead weight settle in the pit of her stomach as her insides squirmed around it.
Then the horrific, quiet words: "I'm sorry. You fail."
And suddenly Naruko didn't seem to have any insides at all. She turned to stare at Iruka wordlessly, who was frowning just slightly down at his clipboard. To her distance surprise… he didn't really look much happier than her.
"Iruka," Mizuki murmured gently, "she was superb in everything else, and she did make a clone. That's a marked improvement over her written performance even last year. It seems to be the only thing she's not good at. Maybe we could pass her."
Naruko swallowed and forced herself to speak. "Please - sir," she pleaded, weirdly and unusually polite. Iruka's eyes widened. "I can - I can do anything else you ask of me. I aced the entire rest of the exam." Her voice shook as she spoke. "I can go above and beyond, show you incredible techniques - damn near every trick in the book. I've been training in private for years. I can even show you the other two basic ninjutsu! Perfectly! Do you realize how fucking hard that was? I just - I can't perfectly do this one thing."
She waited on tenterhooks.
The second fall from hope was even more painful at Iruka's next words; tears actually sprang traitorously to Naruko's eyes.
"I'm sorry, Mizuki." Iruka wouldn't even look at Naruko, acknowledge that she'd talked. That was what was worst. "Every other student made at least double what she made, and they were good, useful clones, impossible to tell from the original. I realize everything you just said - I am her teacher - but I tested her on whether or not she could do the Bunshin. It's a graduation requirement.
"And she didn't. So no matter how much I would like to, I can't pass her."
That self-righteous piece of shit. He'd chosen this technique on purpose. After his friendliness last night, Naruko felt weirdly betrayed.
She stormed from the room.
Iruka stared after her, feeling oddly small. Wasn't he the one who had just been proven right…?
Naruko sat on the tree swing in the front courtyard, watching the huge crowd of graduated ninja and their parents happy and cheerful together across the gaping chasm of a distance - the obvious difference between them, no matter how much she hadn't wanted to admit it to herself.
Words floated over to her on the breeze.
"Great job! That's my son! You're a man now!"
"Good job, honey. Tonight Mom's going to make your favorite dinner."
"Hey, is that…. over there on the swing…?" A hesitant whisper.
"Yeah. That's The Kid. She's also the only one who didn't pass." Smug and self satisfied. Proven correct.
"Well, it's a good thing! We don't want her becoming a shinobi!" Shocked and horrified at the very idea. "After all, she's not really even human -"
"Shut up!" A hiss. "You know it's forbidden to say anymore than that!"
Iruka was watching Naruko silently from a corner eave of the main Academy building… and despite himself, though he hadn't figured out why just yet, though he was trying to talk himself out of it… despite himself, he was starting to feel guilty. Naruko's eyes were dull and dead. She just looked so… defeated, sitting there on the swing. He'd never seen her like that before.
As her friend Hinata walked up to her, Iruka turned in surprise. The Hokage was standing before him, looking solemn. Suzume was standing there too, unusually coldly, her arms crossed. And Suzume - Suzume looked furious.
"Iruka," said the Hokage, "I didn't think it would come to this, but we need to have a talk."
Iruka bowed his head quietly and looked away. "... Yes, sir."
Hinata and Naruko didn't notice as the three left for the Hokage's office together.
Hinata stood before Naruko sadly on the tree swing. "My father and my sister haven't arrived yet… Naruko, I'm sorry. I know you'll get it eventually. I know you'll pass. You will."
But all Naruko could imagine was going back to school in a class with a bunch of younger kids, as Hinata and everyone else moved on as ninja without her. All Naruko could think was that she'd failed, again, because she and her clan didn't really belong as Konoha ninja.
Naruko looked past Hinata. "Thanks, Hinata-chan," she said quietly. "But your father and sister have arrived, so you should go. You can't be seen with me."
"Naruko-chan -!" Hinata began, distraught, but Naruko had gotten off the swing and walked away thinking that none of it had made a damn bit of difference after all.
Hinata watched her go, even as her father and sister approached her from behind. "Hinata? What's going on?" said her father Hiashi sharply. "You have your hitai-ate; why do you look so somber?"
Determination formed slowly over Hinata's face.
Naruko was walking along through the streets in the fading light of the setting sun, just wandering, not noticing where she was going, when she heard a serious voice behind her. "Naruko."
She turned to look. Of all people, Mizuki was standing there, looking sad. "Mizuki-sensei," she said, somehow still aware enough to be surprised, her voice a little hoarse. "Wh-what are you doing here?" She frowned.
"Can we talk?" he said simply.
So she followed him. What did she have to lose? They ninja-leaped onto a high rooftop and watched the sunset across the swirling, tree-infested skyline of the village, the sky turning marvelous shades of pink, gold, and orange.
Mizuki was quiet for a while, and Naruko for once had nothing to say.
"I thought you should know," said Mizuki at last, "that Iruka doesn't actually hate you."
Naruko snorted and turned to stare at him in slow disbelief.
"He doesn't," said Mizuki evenly. "Like you, his parents were killed when he was young. Like you, he had to learn everything for himself."
"You're saying that's why he picks on me?"
"Well, yes. He wants you to graduate in the right way, the fair way, by being strong everywhere. He has mixed feelings. He wants you to earn it, like he did."
"Then why doesn't he pick on Sasuke?" Naruko asked sharply.
Mizuki hesitated for a split second. "Because Sasuke never needs help," he said simply at last. "The poor boy seems determined never to need it."
Naruko at last sighed and looked away. For some reason she felt a little better, but that wasn't saying much. "You know, all this explanation doesn't mean much in the end, Mizuki-sensei," she said tiredly. "He still failed me over a technicality that will probably never matter much in the field. I mean, how much goddamn use is an illusory Bunshin? It doesn't even have an elemental-type body. What did he fail me over, a few seconds of intimidation or trickery? It would be different if I sucked at everything, I guess. The point is that I'm a top kunoichi. I know that sounds like snobbish bitching, but seriously, the decision was pretty fucking stupid."
Her voice was flat as she glared at the skyline. Mizuki nodded and took this in.
"... What if I told you… that you didn't have to fail?" he said slowly at last.
Naruko turned to stare at him. "What the hell does that mean?" she asked frankly, giving him a weird look. "There's only one Konoha Genin test, Mizuki-sensei. I just failed it."
"... What if I told you… that you were wrong?" Mizuki smiled slowly.
Naruko had just leapt to the ground again - and Mizuki had just left, jumping away across the rooftops - when Hinata rounded a corner and suddenly appeared in front of her. Three things registered to Naruko in this order:
Of course she found me; she has the Byakugan.
Wow, she looks really fucking serious.
Wait, why is she here and not with her family?
Then two other people rounded the bend behind her, and Naruko froze. That must be Hinata's father Hiashi and her younger sister Hanabi.
Hyuuga Hiashi was tall and dignified, pale and icy and intimidating, with the whitish Hyuuga eyes and a long head of perfectly groomed dark hair tied at the bottom in traditional Hyuuga fashion. He wore fanciful, traditional silvery robes and dark fighting pants. He screamed wealth, reserve, and intimidation.
Hyuuga Hanabi was a little girl with Hinata's short dark hair and whitish eyes, but much slimmer in both body and face than her sister. Also much more fiery and severe, at least in this serious moment when Naruko first met her, though Naruko would later learn that Hanabi's eyes could also spark in a surprisingly dancing, teasing, confident way.
"What -?" Naruko began wordlessly, but Hinata herself had already begun.
"Father." She turned icily to her father, in that moment his pure match. She lifted her chin defiantly. "This is Uzumaki Naruko. She is my best friend."
Naruko's wasn't the only set of eyes that widened.
"She is responsible for my clan heiress status and for all of my progress over the past few years. Including the emotional kind. You may try to separate us, but it will not work. She is my best friend, and that is that."
Hinata crossed her arms and glared.
Naruko was much more touched in that moment than she would ever be able to express in words.
Hanabi seemed surprised, but not displeased. Hiashi raised an eyebrow. "That is… quite a claim," he said skeptically, looking between them.
"Hiashi-san… I need your help," Naruko admitted.
Hanabi edged away from her father a little in nervousness as Hiashi's nostrils flared and his presence strengthened. "That is bold," he said coldly.
"No, not with your daughter and not with the test. I need your help because you're the closest Jounin available," said Naruko seriously. "Touji Mizuki just told me that stealing a scroll from the Hokage and learning a jutsu from it past its forbidden seal counts as a second Genin Exam. I'm supposed to meet him somewhere with the scroll tonight in order to pass."
All three Hyuuga froze, their eyes widening, Hiashi included.
"And as much as I would like there to be… there is no second Genin test, is there, Hiashi-san?" said Naruko quietly.
"... We have to see the Hokage immediately," said Hyuuga Hiashi.
And so, though they did not know it, they were about to walk in on Suzume, Iruka, and the Hokage all sitting together in his office.
"Iruka," the Hokage began, Suzume and Iruka both sitting in chairs before his desk. He had sat back, his face unusually deadly, his hands steepled. Iruka swallowed. "Do you know why I gave Uzumaki Naruko to you, in spite of the fact that she is connected to the death of your parents?"
"... I did always wonder, Hokage-sama," Iruka admitted.
"It's because she was like you."
Iruka's eyes widened as something froze inside his chest.
"Like you, she was a child orphan living on her own and training to become a ninja. Like you, she was not always a natural in the ninja arts. Like you, she chose to react to this by being quite a spirited trouble-maker.
"I thought you, of all people, could understand. I trusted in your natural compassion and ability to move past petty prejudices.
"Perhaps I was wrong.
"Iruka, Naruko is hated by everyone in her village - really, everyone she has ever known. Don't you realize all this is an act? What you've always seen is Naruko's tough face. Everyone likes to complain about Naruko, but in truth Naruko's had probably the hardest life of all. She grew up both alone and despised.
"And if you'd failed more children, perhaps I could have written this off as strictness. But you've always been so willing to give extra training time on a personal level after class for every other student. All of your other students passed, which not every teacher can say. Another reason I gave Naruko to you.
"So why is it only Naruko - the kid who has it worst, the kid who is actually most like you - why is it only Naruko who failed? Because if it was really just that you were strict on her and you wanted her to pass… you would have given her that extra time.
"And she probably would have passed."
Iruka sat there, torn. Yes, that was definitely guilt he was feeling now. But at the same time… images of that massive fox's horrible red eyes, as he was pulled screaming off the moonlit blood-scented forest battlefield, flew through his head. Images of living alone in a silent apartment afterward.
"Iruka, can I be blunt with you?" said Suzume, her head on two fingers. In her own reserved way, she still looked pissed off. "Usually you're so intelligent, but in this case you're being a fucking idiot."
Iruka flinched.
"Do you know why Naruko acts the way she does around you? Because I can guarantee you, it's not because of her connection to the fox demon. You never noticed that Naruko never pranks me?"
Iruka's entire being paused.
"She treats you that way because you treat her like shit, Umino. She treats you that way because she doesn't like you. Obviously," Suzume added slowly, bitingly.
"It's Naruko's tough face. She's trying to hide herself and get back at you because you upset her," the Hokage emphasized. "Because in the end, she's just one lonely kid. Like you. The difference is that everyone openly despises her. That's why she pranks on a grander scale than you did as a child.
"That's it. That's the only difference between you and her. And you're not an idiot when it comes to sealing, so rationally you know that."
Despite himself, the Hokage sounded annoyed.
Just as Iruka was about to start feeling deep-seated shame… Hyuuga Hiashi burst in. "Hokage-sama," he boomed, eyes wide and fearsome, commanding, "Touji Mizuki is trying to betray Konoha!"
Iruka immediately shot to his feet, defensive of his friend. "Why would he do that?! What proof do you have?!"
And then Naruko walked in behind him, unusually serious, Hinata and her Hyuuga younger sister in tow. "He told me stealing a forbidden scroll from the Hokage and learning a jutsu from it would count as a second Genin test and he would personally pass me," she said. "He wants me to meet him somewhere with the scroll tonight. I told the first Jounin I found, and that's Hyuuga Hiashi - Hinata's father."
Iruka felt a punch of cold air, as if he had just been physically betrayed, and he sat back down in the chair slowly.
But the Hokage was calculating. "I have an idea," he said. "I think I know what scroll he meant, Naruko. Is it the one as big as you, with the black forbidden seal?"
Naruko gave him an odd look. "Yeah," she said slowly, "how did you know?"
"Because it's the most important scroll of forbidden jutsu on the books," said the Hokage, and now his eyes were positively gleaming as he smirked. "I propose this. It is only safe at most for Naruko and Iruka to go and meet Mizuki with a fake replacement scroll. Naruko to play the part of the fool, Iruka to play the part of the teacher out looking for her who realizes nothing. The mission will be unofficial and not on the books, but do you two agree to go as a ruse and capture Mizuki together?"
Naruko and Iruka looked at each other.
"Yeah," said Naruko, shrugging. "Mizuki would prove me right through his words. And he tried to fuck me over, so let's do this thing."
"As his friend, I would also like to hear Mizuki speak the words himself. I would like to hear his explanation, and if he is in the wrong, I would like to bring him in in person," Iruka admitted. "So I agree, of course, Hokage-sama."
"Now," said the Hokage, "to make the lie more convincing… one of the jutsu this scroll teaches is a high-level ninjutsu called Kage Bunshin. Shadow Clone. It makes real, physical copies of the fighter and takes enormous levels of chakra. But it is a more useful replacement for the original Bunshin.
"Naruko could learn this jutsu, just in case Mizuki actually asks her for an example of her supposed work at the agreed-upon meeting place. Iruka… if she can learn it before it is time for you all to assume your positions… and if she helps apprehend Mizuki, playing her part convincingly… I assume this is all you need to pass her as a simple Genin ranked ninja, yes?" said the Hokage dryly.
"Of course, Hokage-sama," Iruka said, confused. "She would pass. But… how could an Academy student learn an intensive-level chakra technique in a matter of hours? Especially when she couldn't even do an original Bunshin?"
The Hokage looked at Naruko, who gave a slow, evil grin. "Let's do this," she said, blue eyes gleaming.
And so… with everyone collected watching… Naruko went into a small anteroom attached to the Hokage's office and began practicing hand seals and chakra shaping for the Kage Bunshin forbidden technique. And as everyone watched, amazed… she immediately began making physical things. Shortly after that, physical clones. Shortly after that, useful, perfect mirror clones. By the end, she still looked determined and she seemed barely even tired.
"Tensai…" Hiashi breathed, his eyes widening, the word for 'genius.' "That is incredible. But how…?"
"Yes, how?" Iruka murmured, stricken and bewildered. "She couldn't even do a regular Bunshin!"
"It's Naruko's bloodline," Hinata explained, smiling as she watched her friend. "Naruko has superhuman levels of chakra as an Uzumaki - which means the only thing she's bad at -"
"Is chakra control," the Hokage finished, also watching with a sharp smile that reminded everyone of just how long he had been a major Hidden Village leader. "Especially for small Academy-level jutsu."
"I - I never knew -" Iruka stuttered out, horrified.
"You never asked," Hinata reminded him quietly, still watching Naruko stoically. "And you certainly never offered any help. You never thought it was weird, that she was great at everything else?"
Iruka's eyes widened. He was totally silent for the rest of Naruko's practice time.
At last, the last of Naruko's clones dissipated. She checked the clock, barely even breaking a sweat, and she grinned. "Three perfect Kage Bunshin!" she said triumphantly. "And with time to spare! Pretty good, yeah?"
"That shows a surprisingly talent for understatement," Hiashi muttered, and Suzume smirked.
"Naruko has a surprising talent for a lot of things," she returned wryly.
"Very well then," said the Hokage. "I have a private scrying crystal, so the rest of us will watch over Naruko and Iruka from a table in this anteroom throughout their assigned mission. It is time for the two of them to take their places. So, Naruko, Iruka, if you will gather around me for your assigned roles and Naruko will take the fake scroll to strap to her back…"
The Hokage looked deadly serious as Naruko and Iruka moved closer to him to hear their assumed positions.
Mizuki knocked hurriedly on Iruka's apartment door later that night and Iruka opened it, seeming surprised.
"Iruka, hurry. The Hokage wants us because we are the two who know Naruko's abilities best," said Mizuki frantically. "He wants us on top of the council building right now. Uzumaki Naruko has stolen the Scroll of Forbidden Seals as a prank! We must tell no one; this is of the utmost secrecy!"
Iruka looked stunned and horrified. Letting out a cry, he quickly shut his apartment door and leaped off across the rooftops with Mizuki from his second-story outside balcony.
They landed on the flat off-white council building roof, atop the massive dome of the final bulge in the moonlight, and the Hokage stood alone, waiting for them, looking deadly serious in his robes. "This must not get out, not to fellow ninja, not to the general public," he rumbled. "Tell no one of this. What Naruko has stolen is a dangerous scroll of jutsu forbidden by the previous Hokage. If used, it could be an incredible danger to the village."
Iruka's teeth gritted, his face full of mixed emotions; Mizuki looked worried.
"You two, separate into different areas of the village and go find Naruko. Now!" The Hokage waved his hand.
"Yes, sir!" They leaped off the council building roof and sprinted across the village rooftops in different directions.
Mizuki already knew where he was going - he was going where the stupid brat was waiting, in that clearing near the old spy outpost in the forests on the edge of the village. She would have the scroll, and of course she wouldn't actually have mastered a technique. He would kill Naruko in the night where no one could hear her scream, bury her body, take the scroll from it, and make it look like Naruko herself had disappeared from the village with the scroll forever.
Konoha would go on a wild goose chase for a dead person and meanwhile he would have that scroll of powerful jutsu, all along.
Iruka landed in front of Naruko in full red-faced, temple-ticking fury mode. She stood quickly with the scroll on her back from where she'd been resting. The outpost beside them was a ramshackle wooden shack, the brown rocky forest clearing ground dappled in the moonlight gleaming through the leaves in the blackness from the thick forest surrounding them.
A breeze softly lifted their hair, whistling through the trunks and the thin dirt trails toward them.
"Well, well, look who I found," said Iruka, sounding as self superior and irritated as usual.
"Hey, look. I found my favorite teacher for my next move," said Naruko sarcastically, smirking.
"Idiot! I found you! Wait… your next move?" Iruka blinked, surprised and puzzled. Subtly, he was already nervous, half in a stance, but only a fellow ninja would have picked up on his caution. 'Next move' from someone who had stolen a forbidden jutsu scroll might not be a good thing, after all, and one could never be too careful.
"Well, I only managed to learn one thing." Naruko shrugged, casual and self deprecating. "But hey, if I manage to do one of these jutsu correctly in front of you, you'll let me graduate, right? Them's the deal."
"What… gave you that idea?" Iruka asked slowly, stunned and horrified comprehension slowly crossing his face.
"Oh, Mizuki-sensei told me all about the secret second Genin test!" said Naruko, bright and cheerful and oblivious. "About this scroll, learning the jutsu for you, all of it! He said you'd pass me if I did all this successfully and waited for somebody here, and tada, I have!"
Iruka stood there, stunned, as full and dreaded realization hit him.
This was the part that he knew privately would hurt. If Mizuki realized Naruko was so talented, the Hokage had said - if he saw her dodge his attacks so successfully at first, the Hokage had said - he might close up and suspect something was wrong. He might not give them what they needed - a confession.
Iruka would have to let himself be injured… and trust in the abilities of Naruko.
Here we go.
Suddenly, a throng of kunai and shuriken leaped from the surrounding trees. Naruko stayed where she was, trusting Iruka.
And Iruka shoved her out of the way and took the attack, getting a kunai in the knee and being shoved back against the wall of the old spy outpost - trusting Naruko.
Naruko landed on the ground with a thud as Iruka's back was shoved up against the spy outpost wall with a thump.
Mizuki appeared on a tree branch above them, two massive fuuma shuriken strapped to his back. His face was cold now, not quiet at all but deadly serious, a hint of mocking in his expression.
But when he spoke, his voice was still soft.
"Well," he congratulated Iruka sarcastically, "nice job finding the moron."
"I see… so you told her all that because you just wanted the scroll…" Iruka managed hatefully through his pain.
Mizuki smirked. "Of course I did. And neither of you are going to live to tell anyone else about it." Then, the final words to a slowly standing Naruko: "Naruko," he barked harshly, "give me the scroll now!"
"Why?" Naruko demanded. "So you can have it for yourself?!"
"Obviously." His eyes widened mockingly from above, a bit unhinged, as his hands spread.
Naruko paused - and began laughing. She laughed long, and loud, and hard. "You fucking moron!" she managed to gasp out, actual tears in her eyes. Even Iruka was reluctantly smirking, a hardness to his expression.
"What do you mean?" said Mizuki slowly.
"You didn't actually think I'd believe your stupid story, did you?" Naruko asked disbelievingly. Mizuki's eyes widened. "After you left, I went directly to the Hyuuga clan Jounin-level leader with what you told me. He took me right to dear old Hokage-sama, the Hyuuga's newly graduated Genin daughter and her sister in tow, and we walked in on a whopping Suzume-sensei, Iruka-sensei, and Hokage-sama all having a conversation in the Hokage's office.
"We told them everything, and a ruse was planned. This whole thing - it was an act. And you don't honestly think I have the actual scroll, do you?" Naruko smirked as horrified, angry shock filled Mizuki's expression. "Oh, and just so you know - everyone else is still collected in the office over Hokage-sama's scrying crystal. Hyuuga Hiashi and the Hokage of Konoha have heard and seen absolutely everything, from the moment Iruka entered the clearing - let alone you."
"You're finished, Mizuki," said Iruka bitingly, spiteful. "Naruko isn't finished. You are!"
Mizuki's eyes had slowly widened, his face paling, his hands clenching into helpless fists. Then spite filled his face.
"They're lying to you!" he finally screamed at Naruko, losing his head completely. "They're playing you for a fool! All the adults in this village know exactly why everyone hates you so much! You want to know why? Because you're a sealed version of the fox demon that attacked Konoha twelve years ago - conveniently, the day you were born!"
"Mizuki!" Iruka screamed, horrified, helpless because he could barely even stand, but Mizuki smirked. He had drawn blood in return, and the cut was deep. Everything about Naruko had completely frozen.
Mizuki had gone for the only thing he could in time to escape - he'd gone for the healthy one, Naruko.
"They all hate you. You killed Iruka's parents, amongst many others. Iruka hates you just as much as the rest, and deep down you've always been aware of that. You decimated half the village," Mizuki said softly, his poise returning. "You didn't think it was weird, the way everyone hated you so much? And the only reason why no one's told you and none of the kids know… is because Hokage-sama made a law saying no one is allowed to talk about it.
"He's been shielding you from the knowledge literally all your life - since the day your human part was born to those foreign Uzumaki.
"And you're trusting the people who haven't told you this?"
Naruko was thinking fast. She hated to admit it, but that was a damn good point.
Because suddenly everything made sense to her. She wasn't the demon - that was factually incorrect. She wasn't even influenced by the demon sealed inside her human body.
But she only knew that because she'd studied what she was. She was a jinchuuriki. A seal must appear over her hara when she channeled chakra, though stupidly, she'd never checked. Even the foxy whisker cheek markings now made sense.
She held the fox demon inside her.
It was so obvious. On the day she was born, she a member of a foreign clan perfect for holding a demon in every possible way… on the day her whole family died… a demon had attacked. It had disappeared.
No one ever said how the Fourth Hokage had defeated it.
Seal it inside the alone and orphaned Uzumaki. No one would protest and it made perfect sense.
And everyone hated jinchuuriki. No one understood the reality of what they were, and no one trusted that they weren't actually monsters.
So. Incredibly. Fucking. Obvious.
It wasn't her foreign alone orphan status. It wasn't her parentage. Not really. The Hokage's law even explained the difference between the people her age and their parents.
It had been the demon, all along.
Which meant she couldn't trust the man standing right beside her, the man supposedly on her side. Because what was inside her had killed his entire family. He must have been about ten at the time. And on a deep-set level, he must hate the demon just as much as Uchiha Sasuke so obviously hated his brother.
Run, her body told her. Run.
"Naruko, don't listen to him -!" Iruka was calling, somehow more distraught as he watched her for once vulnerable expression change - become all too human.
But it was too late. Naruko had disappeared into the underbrush.
"Naruko -!" Iruka went to run after her, losing his head, but a healthy Mizuki jumped down in front of him with a fuuma shuriken in his grasp.
"The brat won't rat me out. She might go missing nin," he said, smirking. "So the minute I kill you, I'm gone - before the Black Ops have a chance to get here.
"You're dead, Iruka," his voice echoed.
And Iruka realized he was right. Because no injured man with a blown-out knee was going to successfully defeat a healthy, well-trained ninja. Because Iruka could barely stand, and he was trapped against the outpost wall.
Unbeknownst to either of them, however - because they hadn't checked - Naruko hadn't actually left.
She'd pretended she'd left. Then she'd quickly ducked and hidden behind a tree trunk at the edge of the clearing, listening hard.
She wanted to see what Iruka would say without her there… before she moved to trusting him.
The entire office back in the village was watching on tenterhooks through the scrying crystal on the anteroom table. "You'd better not fuck this up, Umino," said Hiashi in a quiet, low voice, as Suzume and the Hokage looked deadly serious, as Hinata and Hanabi watched with frantic worry and shock.
"... You want to know the worst part, Mizuki?" said Iruka at last, smiling sadly. "It's that you think you have me figured out. You didn't even think you were deceiving Naruko just a minute ago.
"And you were. And I'll die with that.
"I never knew how to feel about Naruko. Because… on a fundamental level, I understood. After my parents died, I felt so alone. I acted dumb and made lots of jokes, to get people's attention… because I didn't have anybody's attention otherwise, not even a parent's. I wasn't good enough to be acknowledged when I was doing well.
"So I pretended I sucked, and I acted like an idiot, because that kind of attention was better than no attention. Everyone laughed at me. That was my contact with the world. And I needed that. And it was painful.
"So even as a part of me wanted to hate Naruko… another part of me knew I couldn't. I never could. That's why my actions were always so mixed toward her. I guess as a teacher I'm not as good as I thought I was. Because in the end I didn't do a damn thing. And if I'd been a better teacher, a more aware person… maybe it wouldn't have ended up this way.
"Because her experience, and my experience… in the end they were the same. That's how I know she's human."
Iruka was smiling sadly.
Mizuki scoffed. "You think she's human?" he said at last skeptically. "You really think she wouldn't use that power, if she really did have it? She's proved so good at deception… do you really think she's not the demon fox, just biding her time?"
Iruka was calm. "That would be true. I might think that way…
"If I didn't know her at all.
"But Naruko isn't the demon fox, Mizuki. She's not an object for my hatred. She didn't even do what everyone hates her for. She just holds the thing that did.
"Naruko is… complicated, Mizuki." There was a little smile in Iruka's voice. "She's a lot of things. Demonic isn't one of them. No, instead, I've acknowledged her as one of my excellent students.
"She… is totally irreverent, sometimes perverted, and always a handful. She's mischievous, mouthy, troublemaking, blunt, fiery and short-tempered, and eternally capable of surprising absolutely everyone all the time…
"... But no. Not a monster. Not demon, or evil. Not even foreign. She is a Konoha citizen, born and raised here.
"She is a human and a ninja of Konoha, the Hidden Leaf Village… Uzumaki Naruko!" he finished fiercely.
The entire office was silent. Because they could see Naruko, curled in on herself inside the roots at the foot of a giant tree, crying like a little kid. She'd heard the entire thing.
"Very touching," said Mizuki at last, flatly. "Good job, Iruka. And now it's time to die."
And he flung the fuuma shuriken. Iruka smiled, thinking he was about to meet his end.
Then an orange blur flung itself between them and Naruko put her palm out, turning it, her tear-stained face framed by blonde pigtails silent and deadly. The fuuma shuriken was sucked inside the containment seal on her palm, and was gone.
"You ever touch my Sensei again and I'll rip you limb from limb," she said coldly.
Then she turned her palm again, and flung the fuuma shuriken back at a stunned Mizuki.
He dived and just made it out of the way in time. They could hear the fuuma shuriken still cutting through thudding tree branches in the distance.
"Sensei," said Naruko calmly, "I could use another technique to take this guy out. But I'm going to use the one we discussed, just to make sure nothing can be found lacking in my pass."
"... Okay," said Iruka, almost as stunned as Mizuki. "That's… that's a very good idea, Naruko."
"You… hadn't left," Mizuki realized, standing slowly. "It was a fake-out… Wait. What technique?"
And Naruko grinned sharply, all her teeth showing.
"That's right. You still don't know.
"Somebody actually taught me the Kage Bunshin. That somebody happens to be the Hokage. We all agreed. All I have to do is use it to beat the crap out of you… and I'm a Genin.
"You didn't really think they'd let a failed Academy student on a fake-out mission, did you?" she asked, tilting her head, her face twisting into a sarcastic snarl as Mizuki's eyes slowly widened.
Then Naruko straightened, her face deadly, and she made the hand seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," she uttered quietly.
At first it was almost like an orange mirage everywhere in the air of the clearing. Then, slowly, the physical clones appeared… on the tree branches, on the ground, in between the leaves, surrounding Mizuki in a total circle. There must have been at least fifty of them.
Naruko stood there calmly. Even after hours of training, even after making fifty Shadow Clones, she was barely even winded.
"Charge," she said, blue eyes gleaming like chips of ice in the moonlight.
And screaming like banshees, the Naruko clones swarmed past her still form. They leaped and descended on Mizuki viciously, from all sides and on high.
Mizuki screamed.
Once Mizuki was bloody and beaten, unconscious on the ground, the clones slowly dissipated. Naruko watched him for a moment with little sympathy, and then turned and walked more light-heartedly right up to Iruka.
She grinned in a friendly way, knelt down before him, and lifted up her sleeve, holding out one seal tattooed arm. "Bite my arm," she said.
"What -?"
"Relax, not in a kinky way," she sighed, faux annoyed, because she knew Iruka hadn't been about to say that and she knew it would make him flush a deep, angry, embarrassed red. "It's a clan thing!" she said brightly. "You bite me, I flood you with chakra, I heal you. It's an Uzumaki specialty. Like seals are."
"... You still have that much chakra?" Iruka asked in slow disbelief.
Naruko actually sighed this time, getting annoyed. "Just bite my damn arm," she said.
Iruka did, hesitantly… and suddenly all of his wounds glowed blue, healing themselves over. He even got an abrupt rush of energy. He stood, suddenly fine.
"Wow," he said, amazed.
"And now, I'm tired," Naruko admitted with a sigh, on her butt. She stood wearily, still rather unfazed. "So what do you say we get this guy back to Grandpa Hokage, huh?" she said casually, throwing a thumb back over her shoulder.
Iruka was smiling. "Naruko," he said, "close your eyes for a second. I want to give you something."
"O… kay…" said Naruko. She closed her eyes, pouting in confusion. "Honestly, this is kinda weird, Sensei, and if you think I'm getting into some kinky shit -"
She paused in surprise. He had just placed something soft, cold, and cloth-like into an opened palm.
"Okay," said Iruka. "Open them."
Naruko slowly opened her eyes…
A hitai-ate had just been placed into her palm, an old and battered but carefully taken care of and long treasured one. The hitai-ate on Iruka's own forehead was gone. He had just given her his.
"Congratulations, graduate," he said, smiling. "You pass. You're a Genin."
Naruko's eyes welled… then she sprang into Iruka's arms, wrapping him in a tight little-kid's hug. He felt his shirt getting wet with silent tears, Naruko's shoulders trembling. Iruka paused… then smiled, and carefully hugged her back.
Iruka threw Mizuki's battered, unconscious body in disgust at the feet of the ANBU Black Ops standing in the carpeted council building entryway leading to the Hokage's office door. They were all tall, wearing black and various animal masks, carrying swords.
Silently, they took Mizuki's unconscious body and trooped off with it.
Revealed standing behind them, as Naruko took the fake scroll off her back at last… were Hinata, Hanabi, Hiashi, Suzume, and the Hokage.
Hinata ran forward first and threw her arms around Naruko in a tight hug. "I still accept you," she whispered warmly in her ear, her voice a little thick with emotion. "I didn't know. I promise you, I didn't know."
She stood back, her hands on Naruko's shoulders, and they shared a fond smile.
"I know," said Naruko simply.
"You have quite proven yourself, Uzumaki Naruko." They both turned to Hiashi. He was standing there, watching Naruko, a newfound warmth, respect, and curiosity in his eyes. "I would like to see what becomes of you. You are welcome amongst the Hyuuga anytime."
"Yeah! You're awesome!" Hanabi cheered, fists lifted and stars in her eyes.
"I think you might have a fan," Hinata murmured to Naruko wryly, then she laughed at Naruko's utter confusion.
"I'm proud of you, kid," said Suzume warmly, smiling and coming to stand before her. "You did good today. Don't worry - your little secrets stay between all of us."
She and Iruka smiled over her head, finally on an equal footing when it came to Uzumaki Naruko.
Then Naruko stepped forward to the Hokage. The room fell silent as the two shared a solemn moment.
"He chose me because I'm an Uzumaki," said Naruko. "The Fourth did. I've studied my clan pretty in-depth, Grandpa. You gave me those scrolls. I know my stuff."
The Hokage sighed. "I was trying to protect you, Naruko," he said tiredly. "And in the end, I suppose I overprotected you. I kept telling myself for years that you simply weren't ready for the information of the nature of what you are.
"All this has always been to protect you. Sadly, sometimes from the truth. I was afraid that you'd tell someone who didn't know. I was afraid that you would get angry, or upset. I was afraid of an unknown variable, because you're the only one who can legally say anything to anybody.
"In the end, I was afraid for you. But I shouldn't have lied. I am sorry. A part of me will always be protecting a little girl, it seems."
"... It's okay," said Naruko, surprising everybody, and the Hokage's bowed head looked up. "I understand. All's forgiven. We hide things. It's what we do. We're ninja.
"I can say that now." She smiled. "Because thanks to you, I'm one, too."
And at this, the Hokage smiled himself. "You did well tonight," he said warmly. "I have never been prouder of one of my ninja." He put a hand on her head as she closed her eyes shut like a fox's and gave him a peaceful little smile.
"I propose," said Iruka, "that we all take Naruko and Hinata out to a celebratory dinner at their favorite haunt - Ichiraku's Ramen."
"Go," said the Hokage, retracting his hand, and he watched the group walk away, chattering happily.
Standing in his office door, he was thoughtful. He wondered how Naruko would fare with Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sakura as her new rookie ninja team. Nobody knew of his decision yet…
But somehow, he stood by it. Once, he would have thought the team might be good for Naruko.
By now? He was pretty sure Naruko would be good for the team.
"Life is a funny thing," he said to the air, and took the fake scroll with surprising peace back into his office, shutting the door behind him.
"Guess who passed her exam!" Naruko cheered, slamming through the Ichiraku's curtain with hitai-ate in hand late that night. Hinata came in after her, smiling and also holding a hitai-ate.
"Hey! We thought we'd never see you two!" said Teuchi, looking up and grinning from where he'd been cleaning up the kitchen at the end of the day.
"Congratulations!" Ayame cheered in a high, girlish voice from a table she'd been cleaning.
Iruka, Suzume, Hiashi, and Hanabi came in after them, and there was a moment of surprised quiet. "We're all celebrating," said Iruka in a purposefully light tone of voice, smiling.
"Yes, we are," said Hiashi quietly, but with surprising certainty. He was sure of his clan heiress decision now. Hinata had been quite the clever Hyuuga, to have seen the truth of this strong girl back before anyone else had.
Hiashi, a heavy hitter on the village council and wealthy and powerful within the village itself, would now be seen as her first real ally.
Yes, this was truly cause for celebration, and not just because both growing women were now Genin.
"... Food on the house!" said Teuchi, smiling with determination, slamming his hand on the counter. And he and Ayame flew into a frenzy, getting to work.
Hinata and Naruko turned to each other and smiled, each understanding, for they had practiced this moment countless times before, planned for it even.
"As one, then?" said Hinata, determined.
"As one," said Naruko.
They each took their hitai-ate and tied it around their neck like a kerchief as twins - the final knots snapped into place behind their heads -
And they were ninja.