In a remarkably girly room, the soft sound of needles impacting against a dartboard filled the air. Were one to look inside the room at the current moment, they would be taken aback by the sheer contrast present within it; an incredibly pink bed, looking remarkably soft, barely served to distract from the several kunai atop it, while a stack of fashion magazines sat right next to a stack of textbooks labeled with such lovely titles as 'Poisonous Flowers in Hi No Kuni', 'Acupuncture and You! Ways to Harm and Heal', and, in a strange combination, 'Getting Blood Out of Your Kimono; 101 Tips For The Aspiring Kunoichi'.
The owner of this room, one Sakura Haruno, was a freshly minted Genin who had passed her test the day before, and had been hoping to be assigned to the same team as the object of her affections, Sasuke Uchiha. But the recent uproar in the village over the theft of the Forbidden Scroll, the defection of a Chunin and the notorious Dead Last, and the outright murder of another Chunin led the Academy to briefly suspend all operation so the teachers could help provide much needed manpower. This unfortunately had the side effect of delaying team placements for the foreseeable future, meaning Sakura would have to wait even longer to discover if fate would put her on the same team as the last Uchiha.
'That stupid Naruto!' she thought to herself in a brief bit of misplaced anger, throwing a senbon with more force than strictly necessary. 'If I get my hands on him...'
She paused when she remembered the situation; it was so much easier to blame Naruto for everything back when he was just a poor student and a notorious prankster, but now...now he was being accused of killing Iruka-sensei, their teacher, one of the nicest teachers Sakura had ever had. She didn't think Naruto did it-Mizuki, after all, had also apparently gone missing and was the same rank as Iruka, so the possibility of Mizuki being the perpetrator was there-but she remembered how Naruto was looked at in Konoha, how everyone's parents warned their kids not to play with him.
Sakura had heard the rumors, of course. Oh, it was never really outright said, and there was always some kind of excuse they could give if called out on it, but Sakura was a smart girl, even if she didn't quite always make the smartest choices. She saw the way people looked at him, even before he started his rampant pranking sprees. She saw the way some people bit back curses when talking to him. And she noticed the way he always seemed to make himself scarce on the night of October Tenth-the night of the Kyuubi Festival, when the villagers mourned for those they had lost.
The people of Konoha, for whatever reason, had concluded that Naruto was the Kyuubi, or its container. How they got to that conclusion, Sakura didn't know, but reach it they did, and Naruto was now paying the price. Placing a hand on her stomach, Sakura stood in silence, only breaking out of her thoughts when she heard her mother's voice calling her to come to dinner.
"Coming!" She called back, setting down her senbon and thoughts of Jinchuuriki.
The Edo Tensei technique was harder than Naruto had thought. Granted, he hadn't necessarily expected it to be easy, considering it was in the Forbidden Scroll, but he hadn't expected the sheer exhaustion from maintaining control over Yamada for several hours. While the drain on his chakra was negligible to the point of being utterly non-existent after the initial summoning, the mental strain of having to dictate all of Yamada's actions and viewing the world through the deceased swordsman's eyes (er, eye) was starting to get to him.
He had let Yamada go on autopilot while he slept in the container on his back, but that had proven a poor plan when he woke up several hours later only to realize that, while Yamada had stuck to the main roads as Naruto commanded, he hadn't followed the correct roads, and it took quite a bit of luck to get back on course to the Capital. It just brought more questions as to the nature of the Edo Tensei's revival ability. From the conversations Naruto had overheard of Tenshi and Yamada while hiding in their cart, he could assume that Yamada was a well known mercenary around Hi no Kuni.
He was no ninja, and definitely didn't have even a lick of shinobi or samurai training, but being a decently skilled swordsman who actually kept his prices to a reasonable level relative to his skill still made him an attractive choice for merchants traveling on a budget. Considering the damage he had inflicted on the bandit group single-handedly, Naruto could admit the swordsman was likely stronger than he was, which made his revival as a puppet all the more necessary for Naruto's survival as a missing-nin (thought Naruto noted with some bitterness that, having failed the graduation exam, he wasn't really a ninja).
Of course, that did bring up the question of how Yamada didn't automatically follow the correct route to the Capital. As a mercenary who frequently operated in the area, he should have known the roads to follow, but the previous detour made it very clear that he didn't. The rogue sorta-nin from Konohagakure supposed that it was just another drawback of the Edo Tensei; if he wanted to maintain his grip on the people he revived, he would have to give up letting them think for themselves-including remembering.
There goes his plan to learn super cool new jutsu from the people he revives, at least until he works on the command seal some more. It wasn't something he'd want to work on in the middle of nowhere though, and especially not without some other puppets for backup; just in case he loses control completely..
Cursing at the realization, he almost failed to notice the sight that appeared just over the hill. Several large walls surrounded a massive city that rivaled Konoha, with more people than Naruto could count pouring in and out of the gates. Quickly slipping in behind a few laughing young men dressed as hunters, Naruto-still hiding in the container on Yamada's back-grinned as he entered the Capital City of Hi no Kuni.
The Capital was big.
There were many other words to describe it. Lavish, from all the fancy buildings that greeted Naruto upon entering. Maybe regal, judging from the Daimyo's palace situated on the tallest hill, surrounded by the mansions of his nobles. Crowded would be another good one, from all the people coming in to sell and buy wares.
But Naruto was a simple guy, and 'big' summed up the experience quite well.
He walked along the crowded streets, in awe at the hustle and bustle of the city, happy to be part of the crowd for once. No one looked at him like he wasn't wanted, and no one ignored him as though he didn't exist. A young woman even said hello to him! He had to quickly work his control over Yamada to return the greeting in the merc's rough voice, and he was sure it took a bit too long to be natural...but still!
The fact that Naruto was feeling more comfortable piloting the corpse of a random man in an unfamiliar city rather than walking by himself in his own hometown was one he remained unaware of, too focused on actually feeling normal.
After spending a few hours just enjoying the city, and a couple more just resting in the container while having Yamada walk around rather aimlessly, Naruto eventually got back to business. He knew he couldn't spend all his time in the container. His legs were already beginning to cramp, and he really didn't want to have to deal with the inevitable bathroom issues that would result if he stayed locked up. But neither could he just hop out and stroll around without a care. The Capital likely already received reports about him, and with this being the home city of the Daimyo, the local guards were well-trained in spotting transformation jutsu. Naruto doubted his understanding of the technique, even his Sexy Jutsu, would be enough to trick them.
Luckily, being in such a large city had its advantages. There were doubtless hundreds of places someone could disappear to in a city this massive, and Naruto was determined to find every single one.
"Shit..."
Normally Kakashi would half-jokingly admonish the younger chunin for the slight curse, but if he was being perfectly honest, he felt the exact same way. After all, stumbling across a clearing of corpses while searching for a runaway student wasn't the greatest of situations. Especially not when said student was the son of a man he considered to be a second father.
"What's the situation?" Kakashi demanded of the chunin assigned to him. She was a member of the Inuzuka clan, a clan known for producing some of the best trackers in Konoha, and she came along with three large ninja hounds. Normally Kakashi would just stick to his own summoned dogs, but he would take all the help he could get for this mission. She communicated with her three large dogs that had been sniffing around the corpses, then turned to him, leaving the other ninja assigned to their team to continue looking through the bodies..
"Seems like the target was here." She confirmed, petting one of the dogs and pointing to the broken down carriage. "We caught his scent in the back of the carriage; Don't know if the merchants were aware of his presence or not." She observed, before looking at the other bodies. "Some of the bandits looked to have died of sword wounds, likely due to the mercenary over there." She pointed to Yamada's body, then to two bandits much farther away. "But those two bandits died of a knife."
"So Naruto killed them?" Kakashi asked, slightly shocked. The thought of an academy student-a dead last, on top of that- killing two bandits was only slightly less laughable than the thought of the dead merchant at his feet having had done so.
Hana nodded, finding the thought just as unbelievable as Kakashi. "Either that, or there was someone else here who managed to completely erase their presence." She said with a slight hint of sarcasm. It was a point of pride to the Inuzuka clan that their trackers were some of the best in all of the great nations, and the chances of someone being able to subvert their noses was slim to none. "That being said, there is a small concern."
Getting serious, Kakashi motioned for her to continue. Hana moved over to the path leading out of the clearing, opposite the one they came in from, and pointed at it. "We managed to find a small bit of Naruto's scent continuing down the road; I'm thinking he hid in another container of some kind, but that just raises the question of who exactly carried him out. We can't find any other recent human scents traveling along the road, which discounts the theory of him being kidnapped."
Kakashi noticed the terminology. "Human scents? So could it have been a summon of some kind?" He asked, wanting to discuss all the possibilities. While the likelihood of Naruto summoning a creature to carry him was very low considering the boy was still just a student, it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility. Jiraiya of the Sannin had earned the Toad contract after summoning himself to the Toad's homeland when he was a Genin, and Naruto was often described as being just as foolhardy as the man. Kakashi brought a hand to his chin, considering the boy's mother-while he didn't know much of the Uzumaki clan, Kushina had mentioned them having large chakra reserves, so he supposed Naruto could have managed a decently sized summoning.
"Well...no." Hana shot down his theory, and Kakashi just looked at her, awaiting further explanation, to which she hurriedly complied. "There's some weird scent over there. Like...ashes, or burnt paper. It's not overbearing, but it's definitely there, and it definitely crosses almost exactly with Naruto's scent once you get on the path out of here. I'm positive that whatever it is, it's carrying Naruto."
The Jonin ran all the possibilities in his head, and came up blank. As far as he knew, there was no summon that would give off the smell of burnt paper. "Regardless of what carried him, they can't be far." He deduced from looking at the scene. "Let's continue. Hana, you're in the lead." Hana and the others nodded, and the Leaf team set off.
Mizuki was running for his life.
A kunai impacted the tree above his head, and he hurled a shuriken back. The slight grunt told him he had hit his mark, and he allowed himself a brief smirk before rushing off. Several figures were still chasing after him, and Mizuki could tell that they would catch up with him soon.
He had been so stupid!
It should have been simple! Get the scroll, travel along to the Land of Sound, and get his promotion to Jonin along with quite a bit of power from Orochimaru, finally earning the title and status that Konoha had long denied him.
But he had gotten greedy. After all, Orochimaru was one of the strongest ninja in the world, and even he wanted the power in the Scroll. So why should Mizuki hand it over? Why not open the Scroll, and take all that power for himself? After all, these were techniques that even the Kage would think twice about using due to their power! Screw being a Jonin, with these techniques he'd be called the goddamn 'God of Shinobi'!
He had gotten so obsessed with that thought that he had completely averted his path from going to the Land of Sound, wanting to get as far away from Orochimaru as possible. Now his sights were on the Land of Grass, a weak nation with no notably strong ninja; and most importantly, quite a few places to hide for those who knew where to look. He'd hunker down for a few months, learn every single inch of the scroll, and come out an S-rank level threat.
Simple.
Unfortunately, while he had memorized the patrols for his mad dash to Sound, he hadn't bothered to memorize the other patrol routes. He had been so giddy at becoming an S-rank that he barely noticed he had stumbled right in the patrol squad's route. Had it not have happened to him, he may have found the situation rather comical; after all, a man going missing-nin only to walk right into a squad of loyal ninja?
Since it was happening to him, however, and because he had already taken a kunai to his shin and shuriken nearly cut his jugular, he was most definitely not finding the situation funny. A kunai launched by one of his pursuers hit far too close to his face for comfort, and he found himself losing his step in the trees, falling to the ground below. He struggled to his feet as best as he was able, performing a hand seal as he did so, wincing at the massive loss of chakra as he did so. He hadn't been able to see all that the scroll had to offer before starting his mad dash, and he barely had the chakra to perform the jutsu as written, but Mizuki was a decently talented chunin, and the clone jutsu had always come rather easily to him, even back when he was a genin.
The Konoha team finally stopped in front of him, and Mizuki cast his gaze around to find a way out. Finding none, he focused back on the team. Four people, three men and a woman. None of them possessed clan markings, and from the looks on some of their faces, they were fresh chunin, probably out on their first patrol mission as chunin. He grinned, not even bothering to pay attention to what they were saying to him. Probably telling him to hand over the scroll and surrender. Fuck that!
He was the future 'God of Shinobi', after all, and he would prove it.
He pulled off his Fuma Shuriken, rearing back in an obviously telegraphed throw, and the Chunin team readied their weapons...just as Fuma Shuriken came from behind them, impaling three of them through their chests or neck. The final chunin took his eyes off the real Mizuki as his friends and comrades died around him, looking back to see three Mizuki behind them, all of them grinning madly at the sight of the casualties they had inflicted. He turned back to the 'real' Mizuki, determined to kill him quickly and end whatever jutsu this was...only to come face to face with the final Fuma Shuriken, thrown during his look behind.
"Shouldn't have taken your eyes off me, punk." Mizuki taunted, before laughing. "Course, you're doing a damn fine job keeping your eyes on the shuriken!" He grabbed his Fuma Shuriken, forcefully dislodging it from the man's skull, then made a hand sign as the other Mizuki clones popped. He sighed in relief as he felt most of his chakra return to him; the Shadow Clone technique was damn useful, but the chakra cost for it was horrible.
Just one more thing to work on during his ascent to godhood.
AN: No Tiger Mizuki here. Always disappointed how Mizuki, despite being the catalyst for Naruto's promotion to Genin and gaining knowledge of the Kyuubi, is often taken care of rather unceremoniously in fanfiction. Never mentioned again in canon to my knowledge, and all filler gave us was him becoming Tony the Tiger then becoming the end result of a crack addiction.