The day after graduation
Naruto woke up in a decent mood, three am like he usually did so he could go on an early morning run without having to deal with that crazy dude in the green spandex. The morning went as usual, however, about half way through he heard a commotion. As a shinobi should do, considering he was nowhere near the training grounds, he went towards the sounds.
As he got closer, he saw the two academy instructors, Iruka and Mizuki. He hid himself and decided to listen to what they were saying. Mizuki was in the middle of a rant by this point, "If that damn Kyuubi brat hadn't of passed I would not of been caught by you Iruka! We were friends once; don't make me have to kill you!" Mizuki took one of the Fuma Shuriken off his back, with his left hand holding up a sizable scroll.
"Why Mizuki? Why would you take the Forbidden scroll? Why are you betraying the village?" Iruka drew several Kunai, prepared to fight his former friend, but to confused to do much. Mizuki shook his head in disgust, spitting out "the Kyuubi! I could not live in a village where the monster that took my favorite uncle away! That boy, Naruto…he's every bit the monster that the Kyuubi is, and should have been killed the moment the fourth sealed the beast inside him! I was prepared to give him a chance, but he has no emotion, no good, only the evil that only I can see for some reason!
Orochimaru offered me power, the power I would need in order to be able to kill that beast. All he wanted in return was the forbidden scroll." Naruto's eyes widened, thinking 'that explains quite a lot actually. Though, why did the third not tell me this? If he wanted me to trust him, informing me of this would definitely be the way to go!' While Naruto was musing, Iruka's eyes had widened, saying "He found you after you killed that Chunin on the mission didn't he! That was a mercy killing so he would not be tortured because we couldn't take him with us, and he corrupted you didn't he?
Please, there's still time for you to turn back, we can return the scroll and no one need ever know!" Iruka's head lowered as Mizuki frowned at him. "Corrupted me? I am going to do Konoha a favor! I am going to prevent that beast from ever betraying us and killing thousands! I am going to kill him and you if you don't get out of my way." A tear fell from Iruka's eye, for the man he considered a best friend and a brother, now lost because of one man's manipulations. "I can't let you leave with that scroll Mizuki. I'm sorry, but I have to take you in."
Mizuki groaned, "You could never beat me Iruka. Not before and not now, I was always the better of us. If you refuse to move, than I will make you." With that, Mizuki threw the shuriken, and Iruka only just dodged it. Mizuki leaped at Iruka, starting off with an axe kick that Iruka dodged by jumping backwards. Iruka threw the Kunai at Mizuki, but the man merely dodged them. "You were never a fighter Iruka, always a supporter and medic." It was true, Iruka mused. They had been a good team, Mizuki keeping the enemy ninja off of Iruka, Iruka striking the Nin down from a distance. He was going to die from this, he knew it, and so did Mizuki, and Naruto who was hiding. A few more exchanged blows, and Mizuki got behind Iruka, kicking his legs out from under him. 'On the odd chance I survive this, I am going to train my ass of in Taijutsu' Iruka thought. "Any last Iruka?" Mizuki asked, standing behind him with a Kunai to his neck. Iruka didn't do anything, letting the fact that he was about to die at the hands of his best friend sink in. "Alright, for the record though, I wish it hadn't come to this." Mizuki stated.
Iruka closed his eyes, and then felt a weight fall on his shoulders, the Kunai at his neck fell away and he was driven to the ground by what felt like Mizuki's body. He picked himself up, shrugging the weight off to the right side. Looking at it, his breath caught in his throat, it was Mizuki, 3 senbon sticking out of his neck on the right side. Iruka checked his pulse, and the man was dead.
"Are you alright?" a raspy voice asked him. Looking around him, trying furiously to find out where it was coming from, he heard a tinge of amusement enter the voice. "I'm right here." Iruka looked at the voice, and saw why he couldn't find it before. The voice was coming from one Uzumaki Naruto, who was picking up the forbidden scroll, and was wearing pure grey (Naruto had not put on his Haori this morning, choosing only grey clothes) and in the current greyisness of when the sun is rising, but not over the horizon yet, it blended in with the background quite well. "I'm fine…what are you doing?"
"Collecting the scroll for the Hokage, then I will get the prisoner to him as well. Can you walk?" Iruka was puzzled, and his face showed it. "Prisoner? And yes, I can walk." "Mizuki has been placed into a near death state; he will survive it and come out without any complications, provided he gains medical attention. Come on, let's get to the Hokage. Does anyone know that the scroll was taken?" Iruka shook his head, "No, nobody knows yet. I only came across him by accident; he had stopped to learn some of the jutsus. I was coming out here to…" "Why you were out here does not matter. You were not the traitor, so there is no point in explaining yourself to me. Tell it the Hokage." Iruka nodded, and then they left, Naruto, a boy the age of 12, carrying both the traitor and scroll.
"So let me get this straight. You were out for the whole night, trying to come to terms with exactly how you felt about Naruto, because of…circumstances…and you found Mizuki reading the forbidden scroll of seals, you confronted him, he beat you, and right when he was about to kill you Naruto intervened." "Yes Sir." The Saindame sighed and rubbed his temples. "How much of their conversation did you hear Naruto?"
"Most of it, as I arrived after their first volley, when Mizuki first attacked Iruka, I also learned that I held the Kyuubi inside of me. Care to share when you were going explain that part to me, as well as why I was the one chosen? There were several civilian and ninja orphans who share my birthday." "The reasons the fourth chose you were his own, he did not tell me.
I was intending to tell you upon becoming Chunin, giving you at least a chance at an ordinary childhood." Naruto looked at the old man, narrowing his eyes "You found me on the street, bleeding from several wounds, having lived there for three years. You had yet to even give me an apartment before you were pressuring me to become a shinobi. In what manner of universe is that a childhood?" All of that was stated in a completely dead voice, which worried the Saindame. 'I really hope he does not go missing Nin, this might be just the push he needs.' "Don't even bother answering that, I can guess. You wanted me to be completely loyal to you, because you "rescued me", and by proxy the village would have my loyalty." Naruto merely shook his head. "I'm going now; I do not want to be around any of you."
And he left, leaving the Saindame to wonder if it would have been better to let Danzo at him. 'At least I would know he's loyal, but to sacrifice someone's emotions would be far too much for any village.' "Sir, with all due respect, is it really wise to just let him go?" "What do you want me to do? If I send anyone after him, or go after him myself, I risk pushing him away from the village, and as you know, every village wants more Jinchurikki. Especially Kumo and Iwa, and Suna would accept him too. He would probably be treated better in those places too." Iruka nodded and left, leaving the Saindame to try and figure out a way to ensure the village would survive if Naruto released the nine tails.