Naruto: The Gamer Scroll

Chapter 2: Unfortunately fortunate

Today was the day of the final exam; a thing Naruto had a displeasure with twice already.

Graduating the academy was a messy thing in Konoha. For those who do not have enough potential, even if they successfully pass the exams, they might not get placed into teams anyway, and instead would be sent off without a Jonin and only be assigned to D-rank missions for a long time.

The test itself, however, was relatively simple to finish. Basic history knowledge and basic Chakra knowledge were all that really took in the written portion of the test; all the other previous minor tests usually determined the future, really.

Otherwise, the practical exam usually consists of checking that they don't run out of steam while simply jogging for a few hours and some basic jutsu that every respectable Shinobi should know. The simplest jutsu was what Naruto struggled the most.

The blond boy just couldn't quite figure out why it was so difficult and what mistakes he was doing. Even if he tried his damned hardest, the clones just wouldn't appear, or would dissipitate in an instant. However, that was a problem of the past now.

"Bunshin no Jutsu(Clone Technique)!" The clone suddenly stood beside him, making most of his fellow classmates gape. "How's that, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka gulped comically loudly. "G-good job, Naruto." The Chunin wanted to say something more, but couldn't quite find the words to. He had heard Naruto had gotten himself in trouble, so he expected even worse results than last year, but here Naruto stood, smirking.

Naruto didn't quite understood why, but he knew for a fact that the Kyūbi that had laid inside of him must've messed with his chakra control quite badly. That, or just losing the beast lessened his chakra and made the portions he used to give to perform them lessen in size.

Losing a tailed beast is a blessing and a curse; in more ways than he could've guessed.

XxX

Fuck, Mizuki inwardly thought. How the bloody hell did he learn the clone technique so suddenly?

Saying that the young Chunin was unhappy would be an understatement; he had planned to use the boy for a long time, and it seemed it was all for nothing. To make matters worse, Mizuki spotted the oblivious blond boy grinning widely, showing off his flashy headband for everyone to see, rubbing it right to Mizuki's face. Then, with his anger mixed with bitterness peaking an idea came to the white haired individual.

How about instead of stealing the Scroll of Seals, how about I get the damned demon himself?

"Oy, Naruto!" Mizuki shouted from afar, catching the boys attention instantly.

"Guess what! I became a GENIN!" Naruto returned by shouting twice as loud, waving the headband in his hand. "I've finally did it!"

"Congratulations," Mizuki said, not hiding his bitterness. The fact that a kid with a demon inside could even attend the academy while Mizuki himself couldn't be promoted to academy instructor made him go even more mad than he ever was before.

"Thanks!" Naruto said, being too dizzy from happiness to notice anything off. "Guess the third time is really the charm!" he happily added.

"Would you want to see something? Oh, it's a very cool thing, if I say so myself. Call it a gift for your successful graduation." Plans change a lot; Mizuki knew that better than anyone. Weak die off, strong survive and thrive. He could find another scapegoat to do his bidding by stealing, but the newly made plan was starting to look better and better with each second he thought about it.

A secret scroll? Worth many lives dying for. The Nine-tailed fox? Literally invaluable and capable of wiping villages off the map.

Leading the way, Mizuki followed by Naruto ventured deep into the forest; once they were clear of anyone and anything, Mizuki delivered a hit to the blond's neck from behind with the back of his hand, causing the youngster to fall unconscious.

"Huh?" Mizuki observed an oddly designed scroll. It was almost entirely black with a slim white stripe near the top and end. Unravelling it, the sudden bright neon lights blinded him for a short second before revealing nonsensical nonsense, in his opinion. What kind of crap does this little idiot do in his free time, Mizuki thought and threw the scroll far into the forest.

Mizuki seized the boy by the collar and dragged him uphill for a long time. It took a solid hour, but it was to be expected as his bunker was quite a distance away from Konoha.

He opened the metal doors and threw Naruto to the floor, causing him to fall harshly onto the concrete. "Here's my congratulation gift, as promised." Mizuki laughed out loud.

XxX

Prying open eyes was more difficult than ever; seriously, it felt as if they were being pulled by the strongest magnets imaginable. As if he knew, Naruto thought he had hit cement with his head.

After a long struggle, Naruto managed pull himself together and inspect his surroundings. It was dark, intensely so, but Shinobi were taught and trained to be accustomed to darkness, so he did all but barely make out his surroundings.

It didn't help that his hands and legs were tied together with a strong rope.

He needed light. Maybe the letters from the scroll would be shiny enough, Naruto thought, and wiggled his hands to his pockets to find them. . . empty. Then an even worse realization hit him; somebody not only stole his curse/blessing of a scroll but also his headband.

A sudden thought hit him and was quickly dismissed. The instructors, even if they found out about the loss of a tailed beast and his bizarre scroll, wouldn't just place him in a dark room; from what he has seen and heard, the interrogation rooms were brightly lit with one guy intently staring at the criminal.

Even if this was a waiting room for the interrogation, he knew for a fact that the criminals wore special chakra draining purplish chains that were shown a few times in the academy to give them some basic knowledge about them. So, it was most likely someone else. Wait a minute. . .

"Mizuki!" Naruto shouted as loud as he could, "What kind of joke is this? I don't find your 'gift' so funny, ya know! Get me out of here already!" No response came, and a frown formed on Naruto's face.

Seriously, even I wouldn't go as far with a prank like that!

"If this is some graduation final-test-bullcrap, I don't care; just give back my headband now!" Still, no response came. Naruto couldn't exactly place a finger on what Mizuki wants to achieve by such prank, but it couldn't be anyone else but him; Naruto figured it was some sort of joke, or a dumb test to prove his worth as a genin.

Fine, I'll play along. Everything should be fine as long as he doesn't unwrap the scroll, or even worse — damage my headband, Naruto inwardly said. He would be in a lot of trouble if Mizuki did the first of the two possible horrible outcomes.

The only visible thing in the room was a wooden desk in the middle of it, so Naruto jumped backward his way to it, and with the last jump he fell down with just enough force and to rip his hands clean of the ropes, then did the same with the rope that was tied around his lower legs.

Angrily, Naruto placed his hands on the walls and inspected them slowly until he found something resembling a door. The metal was dense, Naruto noted upon closer inspection. Breaking it would be a challenge. But a flaming sword ought to do it!

With that, he said to himself, "Kyūbi no Ken(Sword of the Nine-tailed Fox)" and tried summoning his sword to existence, but naught came. Apparently, he needed to have the scroll with him to perform his skills. Why was I so stupid as to skip a tutorial?! Naruto wanted to pull his hair out of frustration.

I'll take things with more caution from now, Naruto swore to himself.

Then, all the abilities to break through were. . . nothing. A crappy clone would do jack all to break through the metal, and he had nothing useful else in his arsenal. He should never fully rely on the scroll, that Naruto understood from this challenge.

All that was left. . . was brute force, a thing Naruto had plenty of.

With each hit he placed on the door, it felt abnormally painful for the boy. The loss of a demonic spirit inside made more of an impact to his body than he could ever predicted. He had to switch between his knuckles and forearm once was hurting too much to hit the door; he could feel his knuckles doing more damage, but they were so numb out of blood loss that Naruto was afraid he'd need to amputate his hand because of it.

It took a lot of blood and bloody screams, but with the full force of his head, he managed to break through, leaving a large hole just enough for him to squeeze through. It was almost as dark outside as it was inside, Naruto saw.

"Show yourself and give back my headband!" Naruto exclaimed out of frustration once he found footing. "I had enough of your jokes, Mizuki!"

"So you find your way through. Didn't expect that from a loser like you," he heard an echo coming afar. The voice was obviously Mizuki's, but with far less pleasantries than usual. "We'll be out here for a while, Naruto. Better get used to it."

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "What the hell are you talking about? Just give me my damn headband and let's go home—"

"Home? Are you kidding me?" the Chunin interrupted. "Nobody told you, Naruto, but the village placed a demon in you. Yes, the Nine-tailed fox didn't die; it was placed inside a blond idiot child!"

To his surprise Naruto didn't move, nor did his expression change the least bit. "I know," Naruto responded coldly. It was a tough pill to swallow that the Village could be so cruel just because of that, but he tried pushing away the thoughts until he'd manage to patch his life together. "But I still think of it as my home." Why was Konoha his home after all of this, Naruto didn't, or rather, couldn't give an answer then.

Mizuki let out a growl. "Seriously? How foolish could you be? But if you're not willing to stay. . ."

Naruto didn't want to believe it, but the evidence was clear. He was kidnapped by what he thought was a friend. "Come on Mizuki, It's not too late to just go back!" Naruto reasoned with a sorrowful expression, not expecting least bit his words to work against the now aggressive young adult.

"Go back to the bunker. Now," Mizuki instructed. "Or else you won't be able to move; let alone breath fresh air ever again."

As if I'd go willingly to a cage.

"This is the last time I'll ask!" the blond demanded, causing Mizuki to smirk sadistically.

"Make me," he responded in advance. Then, Mizuki threw a dozen kunai seemingly out of shadows all around which Naruto didn't even manage to react, leaving him bloodied up with many kunai stuck inside of him. Only then did Naruto realized how outmatched he was.

Not only was he still bloody and tired from hitting the door and not only were there a dozen kunai in him, but he was also fighting a Chunin somewhere in what could be any forest in the Fire country. Usually, Naruto could run away from a Chunin and sometimes even higher-ranked opponents, thanks to his knowledge of the village's streets and the inhuman stamina he possessed. Now, however, neither of those advantages were in his hands. Worse of all, he didn't even know where exactly Mizuki stood as it was pitch black. Night vision would be neat, he thought then.

If only there was a device that could give me a skill or something like that, the blond thought with an annoyed grin.

"So what is your plan, boy?"

No demon, no game system, no jutsu. Nothing but himself.

He had to fight with all he's got; not much, but that's life. He was truly out of options.

Slowly breathing in, Naruto listened. And listened some more. Mizuki was in no rush as he was enjoying it far more than an assassin should ever. All it took was another annoying insult thrown by Mizuki for Naruto to find his location, and the blond threw with full force a broken piece of metal that Mizuki never noticed since he didn't take the boy seriously enough.

It pierced right through the Chunin's eye, making him fall down from the tree headfirst. A terrifying screech of pain that couldn't be described as humanly escaped the injured man as soon as he made impact with the ground.

Two of the most important items were possessed by the man, so Naruto couldn't just leave him and go find anyone to handle this mess. Mizuki clearly had no idea about the scroll's power, but that doesn't mean that if he gets arrested that the higher-ups wouldn't confiscate the item for a bit, and then it's all over.

"You try this shit again and you'll be dead, I swear!" Mizuki half-screeched half screamed a lie. He was in no state to fight.

"Then just do it already!" Naruto said back, and placed a fist in his stomach, making him gasp for air. Naruto didn't stop there; he delivered another hit to Mizuki's upper chin making him go forward through dirt straight to a tree headfirst.

It all hit Mizuki with such surprise; really, it was the main reason why Naruto was at all succeeding. Not in a million years could Mizuki envision the boy to fight so fiercely. "I guess a beast will always stay a beast. No tactics whatsoever but brute force. Luck must really be on your side today," Mizuki remarked coldly. The metal shard was deep inside his head, making all his sight wobbly at best.

He was half-dead already. Most importantly, by a good-for-nothing Naruto, so his bitterness and anger could practically be tasted in the air.

"Kill me already. I've had enough shame as it is," Mizuki surrendered, both mentally and physically as he gave up trying to get up. The boy could deliver a hell of a punch, even Mizuki could admit that.

But Naruto wasn't that kind of person.

XxX

Hokage was glancing at the bloodied Naruto, barely clinging to life Mizuki, and at the paper that said that the kid just beat a Chunin with almost comical expression. If the situation wasn't as criminal as this one he might've even laughed out loud.

"You've had quite a week, Naruto." the Hokage said quietly. "Your. . . success, so to speak," he glared a hole through the white-haired traitor, "makes me quite happy. To defeat a Chunin is very impressive. So much, that it messes all up the team I placed you on."

Naruto really didn't like where this was going. "Would you want to help an old man out? I have all this mess of an academy to deal with," Hiruzen said nicely. He really felt bad about how it all turned out; seeing Naruto so full of hate as to destroy a ramen shop; no surprise, as there were people willing to kill and kidnap because of the Nine-tailed fox power inside him.

Naruto gulped. He didn't know how, when, why, or even if it was the scroll's doing, but him graduating the academy was said to grant him team arrangements as a reward. Could this be a compromise since he would only pick his own place as he didn't have the scroll with him as, appearently, Mizuki threw it away, so it shouldn't work, should it? Never skip the tutorial will be his new motto.

Could the scroll break the universe just like that? Just how powerful and influential could a piece of paper really be?

"S-sure," Naruto responded, struggling to properly talk.

It took far more than Naruto would've liked to as the sun was already rising above the horizon, but he thought the list of teams looked good enough, or at least, his team did.

"Your new sensei will be quite a chainsmoker. I always wanted him to quit, but before I knew it Asuma smoked more than I ever did." Hiruzen puffed out a large smoke out of his pipe, deep in thought. Is it fate or not, I do not know, but the team looks quite self-sufficient. A Dojutsu user, a girl with perfect chakra control enough so to be a Medic-nin, and the brute force of nature Naruto is, Hiruzen approved the team in his mind.

"I like it," Naruto said as he gave his final touch to the team arrangments. Really, his team mattered the most by a mile, though he suppose, Sasuke's team was designed more because Naruto thought it'd be funny to put the most obnoxiously in love and loud girl in class and an even louder boy that also wasn't fond of the raven haired Uchiha.

Hiruzen nodded with a satisfied smile. "That's good. I'll send the report know. I hope your teachers won't be too mad at me being slightly late. Oh, it's about time," Hiruzen said as he spotted up at his wall the watch pointing west north west.

Naruto, with a yawn, asked, "Time for what?"

"Meeting and introducing to your team, of course!"

The blond dropped his head on the desk. Crapbaskets.

XxX

As much as Naruto wanted to go out and find the Gamer Scroll (a name he just came up with as he realized he had yet to name it), it would have to wait. Hopefully, nobody would find it in the meantime.

Still with a few bloody wounds — luckily, a thing that the Hokage didn't quite put enough attention at — that would've been regenerated with the Kyūbi's help if the demon was still inside of him and not in. . . wherever he was sent to.

Seemingly sliding on concrete, flying through fences, and swimming through the many bushes and tree branches Naruto made his way to the academy in no time.

Bursting the doors loudly open, Naruto made his loud entrance that he quickly followed up with his booming voice all across the class, "Just in time!"

Iruka looked at his watch and shook his head. "No, Naruto, you're 2 minutes late—" The man with a ponytail looked with his eyes stretched to the limit. "What. . . what happened Naruto?" asked Iruka worriedly, genuine panic clear in his voice as the boy looked in a horrible shape. Even his eyes looked as if he'd been awake for a week.

"You should've seen the other guy," Naruto smirked, too happy to care about his wound in the meantime. He's finally a genin, goddamit, let him have his moment of peace with that!

Most eyes shifted to Naruto, even the Stoic Uchiha looking curiously at the bruised boy. It did feel surprisingly good to fight and win against someone much stronger than you.

He sat down. Most thought Naruto looked uncharacteristically cool, collected, and calm, but in reality, Naruto was too dazed off by finally being here with his headband that he had to claim with his life.

After a long minute, just as Iruka wanted to begin announcing the order of the teams, another Chūnin came through the door, out of breath. "Iruka, w-we have new team arrangement from the Third!" They swapped the documents, the new ones in Iruka's hands.

Odd, Iruka noted, but not unseen. The academy has seen messier days. Most though were due to Naruto's pranks.

Iruka then came back to his place near the desk and stood up straight as a ramp, looking proudly, almost with a teary eye at his students. "It's been long time coming," he began, "I know that you all want to see and hear your newly assigned teams, but I just wanted say that I'm very happy with all of you. All of you," Iruka directed his gaze to Naruto with his last words and smiled happily.

"So, without further ado, let's start," he said, and the class looked at him. Some more worried than happy, but most still had shining eyes. Naruto, of course, already knew where he was placed.

"Team 10: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Hyūga Hinata."

Glancing to his left, he felt a bit bad about it; Sakura didn't seem too fond to be on his team as her head layed on the table, seemingly radiating disappointment. Down below, he saw the dark-haired girl meeting his gaze, and breaking it in an instant.

Naruto didn't quite care too much about who'd be the third member of his team, but Hinata never antagonized him, so that put her above most already. Shikamaru was the other option, but Naruto didn't want a lazy-ass in his team!

Though that wasn't the only reason to place the Hyūga princess on his team. . . a much more selfish reason was the she had white Orbs in her eyes that would be very, very convenient to find something that he'd lost just some hours ago in god knows where.

AN: I know some people might not be too fond of the team Naruto chose, but it was what I believe Naruto, at this point of the story, would most likely pick. If Naruto gets to choose teams, Sakura would be an instant pick for him, but the third option could really be just about anyone (not Sasuke and Kiba though, course). The pairings are yet to be decided.

Initially, I had this chapter go a bit differently, but Mizuki's canon plan was so dumb that I had to get rid of it. Seriously, did he expect someone who couldn't even graduate as a Genin steal one of Konoha's most precious secrets?! Not much 'gaming' in this chapter, but I do get to explain some ways it works (or, more accurately, how it doesn't work, in this case).

Anyway, don't forget to R&R!

Until next time.