NARUTO
Destiny Breaker
Just Try Me
"W-What's going on?" Naruto blinked, looking up at his teacher with his hand still firmly grasped around his wrist.
In the few seconds that passed, he was unable to tear away from the fact that he was looking up at the thief's true form, the real thief.
The one that had stolen the scroll from the Hokage's Mansion was Mizuki. His teacher.
No matter which way he sliced it, since he thought he knew the Chunin so well, Naruto couldn't understand what was happening.
Mizuki on the other hand, stunned beyond belief as well, blinked in astonishment and looked down at his form to find that he was standing at his normal height and, as an extension of this realization, was back to normal. His henge had dropped on its own accord and he couldn't fathom the reason why.
"How? I was henged perfectly! How could my technique just fail like that? It's never happened before!" Mizuki thought and looked up in the midst of his raging thoughts. His eyes fell upon another situation unraveling.
The crowd of villagers surrounding the area of the road broke out into a series of surprised murmurs and gasps. Individuals, couples and groups of onlookers began to chatter amongst themselves in confusion, with the details being drowned out by the sheer number of witnesses on the scene.
This was bad.
Mizuki knew it. His cover was blown and his real identity had been revealed. Now it was no longer the idea that it was the jinchuriki who was responsible for breaking into the mansion and stealing one of the Forbidden Scrolls from the Third's vault. It was him, a Konoha shinobi.
The commotion, now escalating in volume, would definitely draw some unwanted attention from any lingering authorities and the Chunin knew that he had to get out of there.
Shaking off the shock of his jutsu's failing, his face scrunched up angrily and he glared down at the boy clamped onto his wrist. With an angry growl, he side kicked Naruto in the stomach, sending him flying at the force of the blow.
At first he thought he landed a clean hit.
However, his reflexes still working away, Naruto managed to cross his arms over his chest in time to take the strike, seconds before he found himself lying on his back many feet away from where he had been standing moments ago. A series of gasps resonated from the crowds when they saw the Chunin take down the youngster without warning or hesitation.
"Get your filthy hands off of me, you brat!" Mizuki bellowed, rounding on the downed Genin as he began to pick himself up off of the ground from the kick. "I don't know what you did to dispel my henge, but I swear to Kami it will be the last time I'll let you do so!"
Naruto shook his head while he pushed himself into a kneeling position and rubbed the forearm he used to block the kick. During which time he glared up at his teacher to see the white haired man glaring at him with frustration framing his features.
"Why…" Naruto groaned, rising to his feet. "Why did you take the scroll, Mizuki-sensei? Is this some kind of a joke or what?"
Spitting to the side, the Chunin grinned as he glared hatefully at the boy. "Geez, that idiot Iruka gives you way too much credit." The man chuckled and threw his arms out, leering at his young opponent. "Well, if you want to know so badly. Fine. Just to help you get to this point faster. Yes. You can call this a joke… a trick if you will… the biggest one you'll ever see performed in this entire village. My plan was to become you and steal the Scroll of Seals from the Third Hokage's vault and escape from Konohagakure with it, while leaving the impression that you stole the scroll for yourself!"
"But why me?" Naruto hissed.
"Heh, because you're just too easy," Mizuki exclaimed, his brow furrowing even more as he pointed at the boy. "You're the fool, the idiot, the slippery troublemaker… the one who's always playing tricks on the villagers," the Chunin grinned, wrapping his arm tighter around his prize. "If anything else, this whole thing was just to disgrace you and put enough blame on you so that the higher-ups would have to step in and bring you in for good… maybe even put you down!"
Naruto gritted his teeth and pointed at the man. "You're the one that they're going to put down!"
"Please, I'll be long gone by the time the Chunin and Jonin forces can organize themselves effectively to begin their pursuit, by which time you will be dead!" Mizuki chuckled. "Death is the only thing that befits a demon-!"
"MIZUKI!"
The Chunin talking down at the little scrap standing in front of him flinched when he heard the familiar voice and glanced behind him to confirm his suspicions. He ground his teeth in annoyance when he saw both Kotetsu and Izumo on the road, side by side. Some of the villagers that had witnessed the events up to this point had fanned out in search of help, and had managed to drag the pair out of the club they were in to settle the situation unfolding.
Them being the closest enforcers for some ways, they were the most logical choices to settle this conflict and with their dates standing wearily behind them with the rest of the crowd, it left the two companions to face the betrayer down alone.
Mizuki paid little attention to Naruto from that point, shrugging him off as an inconvenience, and decided to focus on the even bigger problems that had rolled in.
Still, the traitor could only scoff at the benchwarmers now readying themselves for battle.
"What the hell do you two want?" the Chunin growled.
"Is everything you said true? That you stole the scroll for yourself and are trying to incriminate our friend?" Kotetsu demanded rather than asked, drawing a kunai from his side holster. "If so, then we hereby place you under arrest for treason."
"Hand over the Scroll of Seals and come quietly," Izumo stated, also drawing a kunai. "You can't defeat us both."
Mizuki smirked. "I beg to differ-OOF!" The man was cut short from another longwinded speech when he felt a fist and something else jagged impale his stomach.
The man leaned over sharply as he was forced back by the Genin, who he had been yelling at before, tackling him with a power hit, kunai held deftly in his hand. The Chunin spewed up blood and staggered backwards, with Naruto grinning triumphantly beneath him. As an added incentive, he buried the knife even deeper into the shinobi's gut.
"That's for kicking me!" the jinchuriki exclaimed. "Rule Number 1 of shinobi combat: never turn your back on your opponent!"
Kotetsu and Izumo were at first shocked at the decisiveness of the young jinchuriki's attack, but shook it off moments later.
"Nice one, Naruto!" Kotetsu exclaimed.
"DAMN YOU… YOU FUCKING BRAT!" Mizuki cursed angrily. Withstanding the hit as best he could, he then grabbed the boy impaling him by the head and slammed his knee into his stomach. That blow knocked the wind out of Naruto, before the white haired Chunin took him by his hair and threw him off, tossing him towards the crowd.
Villagers barreled out of the way when Naruto was thrown at them, the boy crashing into a stack of crates sitting besides a fruit stand and disappearing into the boxed provisions. The tower of wooden storage units collapsed on top of him, with the ones he was thrown into shattering into splinters.
Naruto groaned, coughing out blood onto his jacket after feeling his stomach and chest cave in after taking the full force of the strike.
He may be a ninja now, but that didn't make him any more immune to an attack. He was still young, and a novice Genin at that… an academy graduate with only 12 hours of experience. Mizuki was a veteran Chunin with unclear years of experience and practice as a ninja. The boy knew immediately that it would have been stupid of him to try and take the man on, one on one, but thanks to the distraction by Izumo and Kotetsu which he took advantage of, the jinchuriki had managed to land a lethal hit.
Naruto chuckled and looked up at the staggered Chunin, whom was clutching his gut tightly and trying to keep his bodily fluids in.
"Ha! I got you good…"
"Damned brat!" Mizuki growled and ripped the knife from his stomach, tossing it away. "I'll make you pay for that!"
The Chunin started towards the downed youngster, aiming to kill him with his bare hands.
The sound of metal tearing through the air however drew his attention away, and he looked to his left where he saw a barrage of kunai sailing towards him. He stepped back effortlessly to avoid the projectiles, but lost sight of the ones who threw them. He then glanced up after his dodge to see Kotetsu descending upon him, a giant mace in his hands with a chain attached to it. The spiked weapon resembled a clam of some sorts, and didn't look to be all that appealing as it plummeted towards the white haired Chunin.
Mizuki grinned up at the man diving at him from up high and despite being injured, managed to swiftly grab one of the Fuma Shurikens from his back and respond instantaneously.
The four-pronged shuriken spun like a saw blade when it was thrown up at the Chunin, who reacted just in time to block it when it flew directly at him from the blind spot of his own weapon. The force of the hit knocked him straight into the side of the building he and his partner had been in, with his impact with the wall cracking the brickwork. He slumped to the ground and quickly tried to pull himself up with his colossal melee weapon still in hand.
Izumo meanwhile, had opted to take Mizuki from his blind spot. But when he lunged at the man's back with the duel, curved kunai blades he had gotten from his partner, Mizuki side-stepped and swiped at the man's feet at the same time he flew by. The Chunin yelled out in surprise when he was thrown over and tumbled to the ground.
Performing a barrel-roll, Izumo skidded to a stop and retaliated with another lunge from a crouched stance, roaring when he lashed out with his two swords.
Mizuki grinned and grabbed the man by his wrists, skidding backwards for a couple of feet when he caught the attack meant to cleave him into three pieces.
"Too slow!" Mizuki laughed, performing a grappling twist that disarmed the Chunin and left his mid-section open for attack. With a swift side kick, the skilled shinobi sent Izumo flying back across the road, which he hit after covering about twenty feet. He bounced several times before sliding to a stop, groaning in pain and clutching his arm.
The traitor laughed, sliding a foot under one of the fallen kunai swords and flicking it into the air. Catching it, he then began approaching his fallen, former comrade, who in his groveling attempts, tried to get back up.
"I don't know how you two ever made Chunin," Mizuki laughed. "Sitting on the sidelines for all these months has made you soft… softer. You need to keep in practice if you ever hope to defeat an accomplished, active shinobi such as myself…"
"Shut it, you wash out!" Kotetsu roared, finally back on his feet. He lunged at his opponent with his large mace cranked back. "I don't want to hear it!"
Kotetsu swung his huge melee weapon across, but Mizuki managed to block the hit from the side with the kunai sword he held in a two-handed grip. Despite the enormous force the shell had behind it and from what it generated on its own, it only managed to nudge its target back a few feet, before the man gracefully slid the sword he held across the handle of his opponent's club and pushed the mace straight down into the ground.
Wide open, Mizuki elbowed Kotetsu in the chin, before side-kicking an attacking Izumo coming in from his blind spot again. The attacker was thrown back and skidded to a stop, winded, but with no fatal damage. Mizuki then swiftly followed through with the same leg, spinning around in a wide swing and kicking Kotetsu across the face, sending him flying back and into the ground, beaten, with his primary weapon wedged into the road.
Izumo attempted one last attack with a trench knife to try and bring down Mizuki while his back was open to him, but when he swung at the Chunin, the swift fighter spun around yet again and lunged with the kunai sword. The bandana wearing Chunin ducked to avoid a lethal blow, but ended up with a knee to his face. The upward thrust broke his nose and sent him staggering, seconds before Mizuki spun at him with a spin kick, which also knocked him down.
Within seconds, both Chunin were beaten, wounded and lying with their faces in the dirt.
The crowds gasped in horror at the quick defeat of the shinobi, with all onlookers visibly backing away in fear. Murmuring started up amongst the groups of spectators again, all of whom concerned for the safety of the two men. Individuals on the outside of the crowd with common sense, broke off to go look for more help, whereas those who were in sight remained.
Mizuki scoffed and threw the kunai sword he held towards the ground, which stuck upright from where it struck.
The wound in his stomach was now bleeding heavily from the effort he had exerted in bringing down his former companions, with only adrenaline keeping him from keeling over. However, he paid his own injuries little mind, while he looked upon the downed pair with disgust.
"You two aren't even worth my time," Mizuki spat, before returning his attention to Naruto.
The young Genin was gawking at the sight of the carnage.
It was a lightning fast battle, one that even he could barely follow. He had always thought that Kotetsu and Izumo were two shinobi that couldn't be defeated so easily, and when they arrived the jinchuriki thought that Mizuki was done for. But after watching the pair get cut down within seconds by a severely wounded Chunin made the boy realize that the white haired traitor was much more powerful than he was letting on.
Deception was a major part of a ninja's career. Naruto knew that fact well.
The blonde gritted his teeth as he dragged himself into a kneeling position, wiping the blood from his mouth.
"You bastard!"
"You see this, Naruto?" Mizuki grinned, throwing his arms out and gesturing to himself. "This is what a real shinobi is. This is what a real shinobi can do. You… you're just a scared, little boy with pathetic hopes and dreams pretending to be a shinobi." The white haired man stopped at a certain distance from the youngster, ensuring that there was enough room for him to counter any more sneak attacks that he could possibly be planning. "This is the real world and in the real world, you are nothing!"
"Whatever, like you can take me on in your condition!" Naruto shouted back, rising to his feet. His efforts and words only earned a laugh from Mizuki.
Meanwhile, Izumo and Kotetsu were trying, through various broken bones and concussions, to get back to their feet in order to reengage their target. But thanks to the one sided battle they just stepped into, the two of them had sustained heavy blows. Mizuki was certainly no man to take lightly. His attacks packed more power then either of them could take, and they judged from his movements and strength that he was close to Jonin level.
"Dammit… move!" Kotetsu cursed while he pushed himself off of the ground, shaking from the effort with blood dripping from his mouth. "Come on body! You have to stop that bastard before he gets away…" The man groaned and fell back down, his muscles giving.
Mizuki glanced briefly over his shoulder at the struggling Chunin and smirked, before turning back to face his other prey.
"If you know what's good for you two, you will stay down," Mizuki stated. "Half drunk or not, you can't beat me."
"Fuck you," Izumo spat, only to be given the cold shoulder from the man they were aiming their glares at.
"You can't do anything in your state," the traitor replied, grinning a second later when a shadow was cast over his eyes. "And since you can't do anything… Naruto," The boy perked up at being addressed, but remained where he was, rigid and weary of an attack. The Chunin gave the youngster his utmost attention, even gracing him with a snide smile. "Do you want to know why the villagers despise you, resent you and hate you so much?"
Kotetsu and Izumo immediately knew where Mizuki was leading to. Expressions of desperation and shock took hold of them.
"NO! DON'T!" Kotetsu roared.
"DON'T TELL HIM, MIZUKI!" Izumo also shouted, trying even faster to get back into the fray.
"You remember being told about the Nine-Tailed Fox, don't you? The demon that attacked the village and was sealed away, right?" Naruto furrowed his brow, wondering where this conversation was going but still wanting to know. He nodded his head in response. "Well, since that day, a special rule was created for this village, but was never meant to be told to you."
"Not to me? What is this rule?"
"Hehehe… do you really want to know?" Mizuki asked with an unpleasant smile.
"Just tell me already!"
The villagers crowding the vicinity also caught on to what was being thrown between the two ninja, and quickly became scared. Not about the repercussions they could receive from the Third Hokage, but from what might happen if Naruto was told of what he was carrying. They were all well aware of the Kyuubi's wrath from experience alone, and nobody wanted the events from that day to happen again. No one could predict what could happen next, but the very thought terrified the spectators.
"Don't tell him!"
"It's the law of the village!"
"If he finds out, you'll anger him and he'll kill us!"
"You'll destroy us all!"
Villagers cried out from left to right, trying to persuade the Chunin otherwise. But Mizuki delighted in their panic and continued to speak.
"The rule is that nobody is allowed to talk about the fact that YOU are the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox!" Mizuki chuckled.
Naruto's eyes widened.
The words hit him like a genuine blow to the head. No, it was far worse then a simple hit administered by a punch or a kick. Hell, it carried way more force then both of them combined. The best way to describe the sudden feeling was a sickening strike to the head from what felt like an otherworldly, unrelenting weapon, as years of persecution, hatred and loneliness and the reasons because of them, fell on top of him like a ton of bricks. Shaken to the core, the jinchuriki staggered back in response, almost losing his balance as strength and adrenaline were seemingly snatched from his body.
It took several seconds to sink in, but eventually Naruto began to visibly tremble from the news.
The crowds braced themselves for the coming storm, with many of the villagers turning to flee.
"W-What… do you mean?"
"STOP MIZUKI!" Kotetsu shouted, crawling towards the man in an effort to get to him and silence him. "THAT'S ENOUGH!"
Mizuki laughed. "It means you are the Kyuubi! The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that killed Iruka's parents, destroyed the village, and butchered the families of hundreds! You were sealed up by the very Hokage you admire, and you were lied to by everyone!" The man cackled, pointing at the shivering crowd with hatred of his own burning madly in his eyes. "Look at how they cower at the sight of you! Look at them! All that fear and hatred towards you! There's not a single person in this village who likes you or respects you! No one acknowledges your existence or your strength! You are nothing but a useless, talentless demon!"
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Kotetsu shouted. Now in range, the man leapt and grabbed Mizuki by the leg. He wrapped his arms around the limb tightly and squeezed like a vice. The white haired Chunin glared down at the individual latched onto him, and attempted to shake him off. "NONE OF IT IS!" Ignoring the thrashing, the spiky haired Chunin glanced over at Naruto, who was still in a state of shock and disbelief. "Naruto! You are not the Nine-Tailed Fox and you are not talentless! You're not!"
"You're different from the fox, Naruto!" Izumo also shouted, pulling himself into a kneeling position. "You are not a demon to us! Do you see that headband you are wearing?
"That headband means you a ninja of Konoha, Naruto!" Kotetsu growled, taking the various punches and kicks from the traitor he was latched on to. However, Mizuki's efforts bared no fruit whatsoever, as the Chunin held on for dear life. "That means you are our comrade and our teammate. No… you are more than that… you are our FRIEND!"
Naruto blinked when he heard this and he looked down at Kotetsu, seeing the man grinning up at him, before looking over at Izumo to see that he was also smiling.
"We acknowledge your strength Naruto… your real strength!" the spiky haired Chunin exclaimed above his struggling.
"You mean a lot to us," Izumo stated, growling through sheer effort as he stood straight up.
Mizuki rounded on the shinobi and glared hard, but couldn't move freely enough to necessarily prepare himself, as the other one was still clamped to his leg.
"LET GO OF ME, YOU PATHETIC WASTE OF SKIN!"
"NEVER!" Kotetsu shouted, drawing a kunai from his pouch. With a roar he drove it into his opponent's leg; with Mizuki roaring out in agony when the blade buried itself deeply into his calve.
Naruto looked on in surprise as he watched the two Chunin grapple it out, one wrestling to bring the other to the ground, while the other attempted to peel him off with no success. He then looked over at Izumo, who brought out a cluster of shuriken from his pouch and dropped into a stance.
"YOU FOOLS!" Mizuki yelled, gritting his teeth in frustration while he fought with the man's grip over the knife in his leg. "YOU'D RISK YOUR LIVES TO PROTECT THIS DEMON?"
"He's not a demon! He's a shinobi of this village!" Izumo stated, cranking back his shuriken. "And yes! We will protect him!" he yelled and tossed the handful of weapons, the projectiles cutting through the air swiftly towards their target.
Mizuki stepped back fearfully, crossing his arms over and taking the barrage head on. The stars hit him in the arms and the vest, and though all of them hit with painful accuracy, they didn't bury themselves deep enough to pierce any vital organs. With a shout of agony, Mizuki uncrossed his arms, throwing off some of the blades embedded in him and looked up to see Izumo rushing him.
Having had enough of dealing with the two, the traitor dropped down and slammed an elbow into Kotetsu's back, hitting him between the shoulder blades with a loud crack. The man cried out when he felt his bones break, and relinquished his grip enough for Mizuki to rip him off and kick him away. The Chunin then rounded on Izumo, whom he then sent a heel kick straight into his chest, sending him flying back into the building behind him several meters away.
When Izumo hit, he fell to the ground with a loud thud. Mizuki followed up that attack by drawing the last of his Fuma Shuriken, the giant weapon unsheathing itself completely and spinning in his grip when it was drawn back.
"Die you good for nothing mongrels!" Mizuki bellowed and threw the giant, four-pronged blade, which curled through the air gracefully and aimed to impale the Chunin slumped against the damaged, brickwork barrier.
However, just as the weapon was mere inches away from impact, an orange blur suddenly leapt out of nowhere and a loud clang rang out as the windmill blade was shattered into several pieces. The attack was blocked, the weapon cascaded into pieces, and its path was replaced by a reinvigorated Naruto, who landed in front and at the defense of a stunned Izumo.
The crowd surrounding the battlefield gasped in unison.
Naruto, the very child that was the container of the Nine-Tailed Fox, the malevolent demon manifested from the intense hatred of others and was said to be nothing more than that had just saved a man's life. The audience was baffled beyond belief. Furthermore, Mizuki was also stunned into silence by the boy's response, having first suspected him to go ballistic at learning that he was the Kyuubi's jinchuriki.
But he didn't.
The boy surprised them all by taking a solid stance against the traitor and stood before his defeated comrade to defend him.
Izumo, though relieved at being saved, chuckled as he looked upon the boy's back.
"Thanks a bunch, kid," the bandana wearing shinobi chuckled and tried to sit up some more, but found his energy quite literally drained from his body. "I owe yah…"
"Don't spoil the moment, Izumo-sensei," Naruto stated as he glared their attacker down. "Ultra cool shinobi don't talk during these things."
Izumo laughed lightly at the youngster's humor. "Yeah… I guess you're right…"
"You shouldn't have done that!" Mizuki hissed, dropping into a stance and preparing to combat the boy. He had taken the other two shinobi without that much concern, but against the Kyuubi, he felt more caution was now necessary. "Is that demon of yours begging you to slay me? Hmm? You and I are the same-"
"No we're not, Mizuki!" Naruto angrily growled back at the statement, fists clenching tightly. "Not even close! You are a traitor to Konohagakure, who kills for fun. Me… I am a ninja of Konohagakure who protects his comrades! So if I am really the Kyuubi's container, than what does that make you? Huh?"
Izumo grinned at the boy's reply, with Kotetsu also chuckling from the sidelines from where he lay. The crowds were also overly impressed by the youngster's choice of words, and though they stood at a distance and had at first been overcome by fear, watched on intently to see what would happen next.
Mizuki growled and flipped through a series of hand seals. Unable to form a coherent reply against the troublemaker, he directed his next threat towards the spiky haired Genin as well as his next attack. "Even so; you have no talent for ninjutsu or genjutsu whatsoever! You may fight like a man, but you can't use any of the techniques that shinobi like me can!"
Naruto stepped forward with his right foot and threw his right hand forward, his left hand pulled back into a fist as he assumed a wide, balanced stance; one that he had practiced for several weeks behind the school.
"Bring it on trash! I'll send whatever you throw at me back at you a thousand times!" the jinchuriki shouted.
"Burn in hell with your friends!" Mizuki finished weaving his hand signs with a tiger seal, and brought his fingers up to his lips. Sucking in air, chakra filled his lungs and boiled, heat beginning to rise off of him. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"
A gargantuan ball of fire bellowed from his mouth and formed a massive sphere of twisting, hot energy in front the user. It spun and whipped, before being flung towards its target just feet away. The crowds screamed out in terror at the proximity and the scolding temperatures of the attack, with Kotetsu blinking in shock from where he was on the road.
"That's too close! There's no way they can stop it in time!" the Chunin thought, watching as the ball of orange flames grew in size, drawing closer to the jinchuriki and his partner. "GET OUT OF THERE!"
Mizuki laughed as he watched his attack engulf both Naruto and Izumo, the blaze expanding and preparing to detonate, and hopefully take everyone else around them with it. Though the bright orange flames would surely alert any nearby shinobi to the battle, the traitor no longer cared. All he wanted was to see the demon child burn before him.
"HAHAHA! WHAT CAN YOU DO NOW, HUH, DEMON FOX?" the Chunin shouted.
However, his loud gloating and the malicious expression he wore soon disappeared when he saw what happened next. The massive fireball he had unleashed simply stopped and a split second later, it 'exploded'. But it wasn't a fiery explosion that created a huge crater or roasted its surroundings. It simply exploded into air… into nothing. The fire burst into flickers on the wind, with the flickers becoming cinders, and the cinders becoming nothing. The trench from where it started finished at an equally shallow trench where it was supposed to end and level the area, right in front of Naruto and Izumo.
Mizuki's jaw dropped when saw that both the jinchuriki and the Chunin were untouched by the flames of his technique.
"I-Impossible…" the man staggered back weakly, his body beginning to tremble. "That's… impossible…"
Naruto was also shocked. His right hand was extended and though his knuckles caught the very brunt of the attack, he wasn't burnt at all. He had kept his fist extended in response to the giant fireball aimed towards him in hopes of taking the hit instead of Izumo; all in order to protect him. But shockingly enough, his right hand, by some otherworldly force or something beyond his own knowledge and experience, had dispelled the technique with just a simple tap.
He had literally touched the fires of hell itself and extinguished them.
The jinchuriki retracted his right hand and looked down at his palm. Smoke rose off of it briefly, but then it disappeared a moment later. He flexed his fingers, overcome with bewilderment at what had happened.
It didn't take him long to piece together everything that had occurred so far in his life into one, simple answer.
It was the reason why he couldn't use conventional jutsu like everybody else, the reason why Mizuki's henge dispelled, and the reason why he was able to completely stop a massive wall of fire composited of raw chakra from consuming him.
"W-What are you?" Mizuki shouted, pointing at him. "WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU?"
Naruto smirked and clenched his fist once again, glaring at the man that had tried and failed to kill him.
"I am Naruto Uzumaki; Shinobi of Konohagakure!"
The blonde exploded into action and he charged straight at the rogue. With his excessive taijutsu training, he had gained yet another step up in strength and speed, which showed as he sprinted directly at the stunned man in an orange blur. The Chunin jumped in surprise at the boy's movements, and reached back to draw a kunai. But by the time he managed to bring it around Naruto was already within his defensive circle.
Directly beneath the much taller shinobi, Naruto lunged straight up at him. He put every ounce of strength and power he could muster into his right fist, and with a tremendous roar of effort he slammed it straight into Mizuki's face.
The result was almost reminiscent of the times he had pummeled all those logs he had been practicing on into submission.
Just like the trees themselves, Naruto toppled Mizuki in a single swing. The man was knocked out cold by the force of the blow he took point blank, which quite literally broke his jaw, smashed his nose and knocked his teeth out. Furthermore, the megaton hit sent him hurling through the air and into the fruit stand Naruto had been previously thrown into. He crashed straight through its remains and bounced along the ground several times, moments before slamming straight into a wall, splitting the concrete barrier.
A second later, Mizuki's unconscious, broken body fell to the ground with a loud thud. All it did from there was twitch and croak as the man looked up through a dream world with a bloodied face. The Scroll of Seals lay unscratched within the wreckage of the fruit stand.
It was over.
Naruto panted while he watched the stall he had sent Mizuki through collapse. After confirming that the scumbag was down and out, the blonde then straightened up and adjusted his forehead protector. With a wide grin, he let out a laugh of amusement and spun around, giving the peace sign to everybody behind him.
"Did you see that?" the jinchuriki exclaimed.
Izumo, Kotetsu and the villagers in the area were quite literally stunned. They were all gawking at him with slack-jawed expressions and looks of disbelief drawn plainly on their faces. Understandably enough a certain amount of time ticked by in which Naruto waited for an applause, his victory sign and expression falling a bit. He exchanged their looks of silent astonishment with a frown.
"What? Ever seen a Genin kick the snot out of a Chunin before?" Naruto rubbed the ridge beneath his nose, sniffing and turning away in a pouting gesture. "It wasn't that tough, yah know."
About a minute later into the victory, Izumo and Kotetsu shared looks.
A brief telepathic word between the pair occurred, in which they silently discussed how in the world a fresh out of the academy Genin was able to beat someone that they were unable to take down together.
However, all of these thoughts passed them in time, and they both smiled in unison, and glanced back at the jinchuriki. Pulling themselves to their feet with the help of the villagers, they then waddled their way over to the boy.
The two Chunin were the ones to start the applause, using whatever energy they could spare to celebrate the boy's victory over the real demon. By the time Naruto looked back, the rest of the crowd surrounding him had already begun to applaud his success along with the wounded shinobi. It started off slow at first, but then slowly progressed and transformed into a storm of praises that was as equally loud as the cheering at a sports festival. The entire neighborhood that had witnessed the unbelievable fight clapped, whistled and congratulated the jinchuriki, with Naruto looking from one face to the other in surprise.
Men and women from the crowds approached him, and began patting him on the shoulders and ruffling his head. It was a surreal sight.
"Good on yah, Naruto!"
"Well done!"
"You are truly a ninja of Konoha!"
"We're sorry we ever doubted you."
The praises came in waves as Naruto was flocked from all sides. Izumo and Kotetsu were also helped over to the boy through the masses, with the spiky haired Chunin with the bandage over his nose patting the youngster on the shoulder, and giving him a reaffirming squeeze to comfort him. The blonde looked up at the injured shinobi to see him grinning down at him.
"Well done, kid," the slacker chuckled. "Must be some transition… getting so much positive feedback from an audience so suddenly, huh?"
At first, Naruto was confused. But after looking back and forth between Izumo, Kotetsu and the people who were still applauding him, he then looked back at the Chunin and smiled. That smile shortly afterwards became a grin and he rubbed the back of his head in an oh-so-Uzumaki way.
"Heh. I guess it is pretty cool…"
As Naruto was swamped by his new fans and more people coming in to congratulate him, more shinobi arrived on the scene to clear up the mess.
Unknowingly, among the first to have arrived in time to witness the final moments of the battle and then some, was Iruka.
The man was squatting on the ledge of one of the many roofs surrounding the vicinity, camouflaged by the night and illuminated ever so slightly by the street lamps. The scarred Chunin smiled while he looked down at the cheering villagers, with Naruto smack bang in the center.
It was quite a sight, and though he had considered stepping in to interfere with the closing battle more then once, deep down he had felt that Naruto had something to prove, something to overcome.
And that's exactly what the boy did.
Iruka was also able to confirm another thing, but that revelation was for another time.
For now, he just stood back and watched the boy receive something he had never received from so many people in his life…
Smiles, respect and acknowledgement.
"He really is destined for greatness…"
"Way to go, Naruto."
TO BE CONTINUED…