Back in Konoha, it was chaos.
This was the most high profile theft to have occurred in Konoha's history; even the theft of the Nidaime Hokage's Raijin blade a few years prior paled in comparison. The Forbidden Scroll, also known as the Scroll of Seals, contained some of the most dangerous jutsu in the village, jutsu that were either locked away for the horrible costs they required for their activation, or the untold damage they could inflict. Hiruzen could think of three off the top of his head that could turn even a middling ninja into an S rank threat.
The Hiraishin, a jutsu that took mastery of space time ninjutsu and fuinjutsu and combined it into one perfect ability. With this jutsu alone, the Yondaime earned the title of the fastest shinobi to ever live, and earned a 'Flee On Sight' order; the first shinobi to ever gain the warning in the Bingo Book.
Next would be the Shiki Fujin, yet another example of how incredible the Sealing Arts could be. How the Uzumaki clan invented the technique, Hiruzen couldn't even begin to fathom despite his decades of experience, but he did know that it was the perfect suicide technique; a soul for a soul, dooming both to fight in the belly of the God of Death itself.
Last, but certainly not least, the Edo Tensei. A cursed jutsu invented by his own teacher, summoning a spirit from the Pure Lands to forcefully imprison them within a sacrifice, thus making them the caster's slave. The ethics behind the jutsu were terrible alone, but were the jutsu to be used to summon someone like the Yondaime, or even the Shodaime, put a shiver of fear down Hiruzen's spine.
Hiruzen had every ninja he could spare conducting a country-wide search as soon as they had detected two people leaving the barrier at different times. The unidentified rogues were identified as Mizuki, a sensei of mediocre ability from the Ninja Academy, and Naruto Uzumaki, an academy student who had failed the graduation test once again. Due to different times the barrier was activated, Hiruzen was confident that they weren't leaving together, but it did raise the question; why would they leave?
The most popular theory at the moment was that, after stealing the Forbidden Scroll, Naruto waited until an opportune moment to flee the village, and that Mizuki-believing himself responsible for Naruto's defection, as his sensei-set off alone to capture him. The presence of Iruka's corpse in the forest seemed to solidify this theory, giving an explanation as to why Mizuki did not inform anyone else upon catching Naruto's trail. He had to have been so filled with anger and regret at his student killing Iruka that he set off with haste.
It was a theory that many in the village were happy to believe in and repeat, because it cast Naruto as the villain. Despite his best efforts, the rumor of Naruto being the Kyuubi had continued to fester in the population like a tumor, and no amount of denials could change that fact. Hiruzen had even gone so far as to ban mentioning the theory to the younger generation, but that merely made the perpetrators more subtle in expressing their hatred, raising their young to see Naruto as a problem child and to stay away from him.
It was the height of ironies that the Yondaime's own son was being framed as the beast the Yondaime gave his life to kill, and Hiruzen wished he could tell everyone the truth of Naruto's parentage. But it was, quite simply, impossible; Minato had made many enemies during his time as a shinobi, and Iwagakure wouldn't hesitate to declare war if there was a chance to kill one of Minato's spawn. With the Kyuubi attack decimating their forces, the Hyuuga affair causing bad blood with Kumogakure to rise to the surface, the Uchiha massacre almost completely annihilating one of Konoha's strongest clans, and the defection of Orochimaru costing them one of their strongest ninja, there was never a good moment when Hiruzen could explain Naruto's parentage to the village and not risk a war to break out-at least, not a war that Konoha had a chance to survive.
If he had to doom Naruto to being labeled a Jinchuuriki to protect him and the village, then by the Sage that was what he was going to do; he may hate the decision with every fiber of his being, and may pray for forgiveness from every god under the sun, but he wouldn't choose otherwise.
"Sandaime-sama." A masked figure appeared in front of his desk, kneeling in reverence to their leader.
"Report."
"We've scoured the entire village, including the apartments of both Mizuki and Uzumaki. Mizuki's apartment seems to have been cleared of several valuable items. On the other hand, Uzumaki's apartment seems to still contain many of his belongings, including his wallet." The ANBU operative reported.
Hiruzen placed his fingers together as he thought to himself. This...was good news. At least, better news than if it had been revealed that Naruto really had planned to defect. Leaving behind his belongings would indicate that his departure wasn't planned, while Mizuki's was. He looked at the operative, still kneeling on the floor. "Anything else?"
"We have brought Mizuki's girlfriend, Tsubaki, into questioning." The operative stated. Hiruzen just nodded; he personally didn't see it as too promising a lead, considering the girl would have likely bailed the second Mizuki enacted his plan, but hopefully she may shed a light on any changes in behavior before the incident.
Leaning back in his chair, Hiruzen looked outside the window, watching over the village. "Inform the Academy to cancel today's team placements." He ordered. "And get me Kakashi."
"...and so I says to him, I says, 'ya know, you keep sayin' I suck, but ya just gotta ask ya sister to know that ain't true.' So he goes and says 'but I ain't got no sister!' And ya know what I said ta him? Ya know? I says 'ya will, in a few months." The cart driver started laughing hard, clutching his stomach.
"...I don't think I get it, Toshi." His companion said, a scarred man with a sword in his lap and an eyepatch over his right eye. The cart driver, Toshi, snorted as he continued to laugh, before he calmed down enough to explain the joke.
"It's cause I banged his momma, ya get it? The sister in a couple months, ya know, she's my daughter and his sister!" Toshi explained to his exasperated companion, then spit on the ground when the man still didn't laugh. "Ah, whatever, Yamada. Just sit there all grumpy. My mistake for tryna bring a bit of laughter to the world."
Naruto listened to the conversation from inside the cart, hidden behind some crates full of food. He had managed to sneak onto the cart during the night while the two men were resting, and from what he had overheard over the past few hours, they were planning to go all the way to the capital city of Hi no Kuni. It wouldn't be the best place to go in order to lose any potential pursuers, but it was fairly far from Konoha, and Naruto was hoping the sheer stupidity in heading there would serve as further cover. Most shinobi were so used to looking underneath the underneath that they never bothered to look at the surface; sometimes the most obvious place a ninja could go to wound up being the safest, because everyone else assumed they would be too smart to go there.
"Hey, what is that?" Toshi observed aloud, pulling on the reins and stopping the cart. Naruto perked his ears up, trying to listen in on what could be happening, when he heard a sharp sound of something traveling in the air, and a THUNK as an arrow embedded itself through Toshi's arm and into the cart, narrowly missing Naruto. Naruto recoiled at it, while Toshi yelled in pain and Yamada jumped off the cart, sword in hand.
Naruto stayed tight in the cart, straining his ears to their limit. There was a lot of yelling, and he could tell the horses had either run off in the chaos or been killed by the people attacking them. When the fighting seemed to have stopped, Naruto stumbled out of the cart, gulping at the corpse of Toshi just outside, practically a pin cushion for a dozen arrows all over his body. He turned around to find a very disheartening sight: Yamada was pinned against a tree with a blade jammed through his gut, his eyes lifeless, and there were still a few bandits alive despite the swordsman's best efforts.
"Huh?! Who the hell is the kid?!" One of the bandits yelled when he noticed the still shocked Naruto. "Kill the brat!"
Quickly casting his gaze around, Naruto saw a small knife in Toshi's hand; it was clearly of civilian quality, likely just a weapon of desperation the cart driver grabbed when the bandits attacked, but it was superior to the absolute nothing Naruto currently had. He grabbed the knife, runnin forward at one of the nearby bandits.
Dodging the bandit's clumsy swing, Naruto slipped inside the man's guard, shoving the blade in the man's gut with as much force as he could manage. A failed genin he may be, but he had still paid attention to some of the lessons on using chakra to enhance one's physical strength, and the blade practically fileted the man as Naruto ripped it out of the side. The bandit fell, clutching his stomach, and Naruto's ears perked up as he heard the sound of a bow being pulled back. Grabbing the bandit, he threw him up just in time for an arrow to get lodged in the criminal's skull.
"The hell are you idiots doing?! It's just a damn kid!" The bandit who originally spotted him yelled, and Naruto assumed the man must be the leader. Another arrow was notched and fired, but Naruto used the substitution jutsu to switch with a nearby stone, dodging the arrow-and closing the distance between the archer in the process. He swung his blade, slicing the man's throat, ignoring the spray of blood that covered his face in the process. The bandit began choking on the blood, unable to pull in air, but Naruto ignored this as the men fell to the ground. No time to give a mercy kill as the bandit chief charged at him, he instead leapt as far away from the fallen man as he could to prevent any last minute attacks, and went to stab the bandit chief with his knife.
The bandit chief was clearly a cut above the rest of his dead men, however, as he easily knocked aside Naruto's stab, giving Naruto a backhand for his trouble. Naruto fell to the ground, and felt a massive weight crushing him as the bandit knelt down, his hands around the failed genin's throat, squeezing hard. "You little fucking shit." The bandit chief snarled, his disgusting breath hitting Naruto's nose and nearly making him gag. "It wasn't enough that fucking swordsman killed some of my men. You had to go play the little hero and kill the last two!" He roared, tightening his grip as Naruto's attempts to fight back became more and more feeble. He had dropped the knife when he had been knocked to the ground, and he could feel his vision blackening.
He struggled as much as he could, his hands desperately trying to grab anything that could help him, and his heart leapt as he felt something. Salvation. Gripping a rock in his left hand, he swung it up with as much force as he could muster straight into the bandit's left eye.
The effect was immediate. The bandit immediately let go of him as he clutched his broken eye, screaming incoherently at the permanent loss of vision. Naruto was quick to continue the pressure, grabbing the same knife he had dropped earlier, and furiously stabbing it in the man's back, not stopping till the man was only whimpering in pain. Naruto was soaked in blood, making for a fearsome sight as he stood above the dying man, taking in all that he had done.
He had done it. He had killed people.
Part of him felt like crying, or puking, but he crushed that part down as hard as he could. He couldn't break down, not yet. He was a missing-nin now, technically, and missing-nin did not break down.
Looking at how the bandit chief was still breathing, and at Yamada's corpse, a plan hatched in his head. From what the bandit had said, Yamada had apparently been a good enough swordsman to kill most of the bandits on his own, despite being vastly outnumbered. Naruto had managed to kill the final three, but the chief had nearly strangled him to death. He doubted he could've dealt with the full force of the bandits.
He needed that strength on his side...and with the Edo Tensei, he could have it.
He walked over to Yamada's blood stained corpse, taking a good look at the sword stabbing him straight through his leather armor and into the tree. He ripped the sword out, making sure to cover his hands in Yamada's blood as he did so, and offered a short prayer as he laid Yamada's corpse in a more dignified position on the ground.
Walking over to the bandit chief, Naruto gripped the man's forehead with one hand, performing a series of seals with the other. Naruto didn't spare the man any words as he committed the jutsu with him as the sacrifice; as far as he was concerned, the bandit chief had hurt people for no reason, and didn't deserve an apology.
The man began screaming in agonizing pain as his body was covered in ash, only tapering off as the brown haired form of Yamada materialized in his position, even wearing the same leather armor and eyepatch the real Yamada was wearing; albeit, looking rather decayed compared to the real Yamada's corpse. Naruto kept an eye on the motionless form of Yamada's zombie as he dug through the wagon, eventually coming out with a slip of paper. Biting his thumb, he wrote down the proper sealing formula that he had committed to memory, making sure to put a bit of Yamada's blood into it as he did so. Grabbing Toshi's knife, he stabbed the seal into the Yamada zombie's head.
Yamada's visible sclera turned black as Naruto's seal took control, and he stared ahead motionlessly. Making another series of hand seals, and keeping his hands in the Snake seal at the end, Naruto watched as Yamada began moving as Naruto directed; going through the belongings of the bandits and the cart, and eventually fashioning a makeshift container to strap to his back. Naruto hopped into the container as Yamada strapped it to his back, closing his eyes as darkness covered him when Yamada put the cover on. Commanding Yamada to put on a hat to help keep his black sclera hidden from others, Naruto settled himself in the container, and commanded Yamada to march to the next city.
His journey had begun.