Naruto: The Uchiha Chronicles Re-Version
Hey yo, so this is the first chapter of cannon, as well as the first chapter in Arc II. I'm making some changes to it. This will be the last chapter with significant changes aside from a few small details.
Anyways, on with the chapter!
Arc II: Formation of Team 7:
Chapter 12: Graduations and a Stolen Scroll
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Sorrowful electric-blue eyes gazed at a gravestone. It wasn't anything special, made of a simple smooth, white stone with a name and epithet carved into its face. Perhaps the most significant part was the monochrome Uchiha crest emblazoned at the top of the stone, directly over the neatly carved name.
Madara Uchiha
A man who loved his family.
A gentle breeze passed by, whipping through the boys long blond hair with black roots, which was held up into a high ponytail. Naruto didn't pay the breeze any mind. He rarely got a chance to visit this place. It had been almost a year since his grandfather had passed away. The death hadn't come as a surprise to either of them; Madara had made no attempt to hide his deteriorating health in the past year. Near the very end, he had been bedridden constantly.
Despite the long amount of time he had to prepare for the death, it still hurt Naruto. He had taken a week off from the academy, to travel to the Land of Rivers to bury his grandfather alongside his grandmother behind their old house. He'd decided to visit the place on the eve of his graduation. This might be his last chance to visit this place in quite some time.
The gentle fragrance of flowers planted by his grandmother long ago filled the air. It was truly a tranquil place, one where his grandfather could finally rest in peace.
"Hey Grandfather, it's me. I figured I'd come and see you and Grandmother one more time before the test." Naruto said to the gravestone. "You'll be glad to hear I haven't slacked off in my training, I think I'm starting to get the hang of that new jutsu, though it still isn't mastered." He looked up at the sky for a moment, watching the clouds drifting lazily overhead.
"This'll be the last time I get to come here for a while. Once I pass the test, I'll be a fully-fledged shinobi. Soon enough, I think I'll have to tell Sasuki the truth. I just can't help but fear how she'll react. But she'll have to know if I'm going to reveal heritage. I just gotta find the right time. Then I can finally start to restore our clans honor."
He had never forgotten his promise to the raven-haired girl to protect her, even though she never knew of it. While he hadn't been able to tell her who he really was, he had remained her friend. "To be honest, I'm actually a little excited. I've spent so long with limits to my strength, it'll feel good being able to cut loose and have a chance to use some of my actual skills." Naruto snorted. There was no doubt his grandfather would admonish him for thinking like that. He'd whack him over the head with his cane and lecture him about not revealing his secrets until he needed to. Naruto allowed himself a brief melancholy smile. It made him think of all the happy times training with his grandfather. Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed to reminisce for long.
"You'd better wrap it up brat, you have to be back in the Hidden Leaf by midnight tomorrow." The Nine-Tails growled.
Naruto let loose a sigh. He wished he had more time. 'I know, just give me one more minute, Nine.'
"Why must you call me that boring name?" The fox asked with a growl.
'Well, Nine-Tails gets tedious. Figured I'd mix it up since you don't want a real name. Would you prefer Fuzzy?' He shot back. Naruto had to withhold a smirk. He'd offered to try and come up with a real name for the fox, but it refused.
His relationship with the Nine-Tails had been another thing to change over the past five years. At first the fox had maintained his desire to be left alone, but eventually he started to come around, and they'd reached a somewhat mutual agreement to be partners of a sort. Naruto himself preferred to think they were friends, but he didn't bother bringing it up, since the fox would just deny it and threaten to rip out his eyes for the thousandth time.
Shaking himself from his reverie, Naruto looked back at the tombstone.
"I promise you Grandfather. I'll restore our family—our clans—pride. I guess I'll see you when I can finally get time to come back. Until then, bye."
Closing his eyes and taking a last whiff of the aroma of flowers in the air, Naruto vanished from the garden in back of the simple wooden house. He had to get back home so he could take his final academy test and begin his journey to restore the clans honor.
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BEEP … BEEP … BEEP!
BEEP … BEEP … BEEP!
BEEP … BEE–SMASH!
A groggy pair of blue eyes cracked open. Naruto sat up with a groan, as he tried to clear his hazy mind of the last vestiges of sleep. The egg-shell white walls of his old apartment greeted his eyes. He'd moved back in here after his grandfather died. It just felt a little weird living in that house alone. He looked to his nightstand and sighed when he saw the smashed alarm clock. 'Hmph, looks like I need a new one . . . again.' He shrugged.
"What's that, the third this month?" Nine-Tails asked mockingly
Naruto ignored his prisoner and or friend (it really depended on which one you were asking). He stretched his arms over his head with a tired yawn. It took him longer than he had expected to get back to the leaf; he had only arrived back at three o'clock in the morning the night before, leaving him with only four hours' sleep. Despite this, he felt an overabundance of energy.
Today was finally the day! After today he would finally be a shinobi.
Hopping out of bed, Naruto walked across the room to his bathroom to take a shower. It didn't take long, he wasn't one for overly long showers.
His closet slid open with an almost inaudible shuffling sound, and Naruto grabbed his clothes from within. First he pulled on his black shinobi pants, which he bound at the shins with white tape. Then he pulled on a mesh undershirt, over which went his black short-sleeved kimono top, which had a greyish-purple inseam and border. He quickly tied his top closed with a white sash, and then pulled on white arm guards, which covered the front of his forearms up to his elbows. Last but not least, he attached his equipment pouch to the back of his hip.
Naruto then stood in front of the mirror and pulled his hair up into what had become his signature high ponytail, with a set of his blond bangs partially covering his right eye. After he was finished, he just stood in front of the mirror for a moment and took a deep breath.
"Today will be interesting . . . I can feel it." He mumbled.
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Naruto, alongside what remained of his classmates, was waiting for the final part of the graduation exam. They had already completed the written part earlier in the day, and the accuracy and taijutsu portions the day before. Now, though, they had to do the practical part, performing a randomly selected e-rank jutsu for the instructors. So far, most of the class had gone and either passed or failed. Aside from himself, there were less than a handful of students waiting for their turns. Sasuki had been called in just a few minutes before.
Despite how confident he was in his skills; Naruto was anxious to get the exam finished. Most people were curious about the results because it would most likely decide the Rookie of the Year. The Rookie of the Year was decided by combining the overall score from their time in the academy, and the score on the final exam.
Whoever had the highest combined score got the title. Since the competition between him and Sasuki had been so close, it was possible that the Rookie of the Year would depend on the exam alone. But a lot more was at stake than a simple title.
Though most people didn't know it, the potential teams would be a lot different depending on the results. If Naruto got Rookie of the Year, then Sasuki would become Kunoichi of the Year, and they would automatically be placed on the same team. But if she became Rookie of the Year, then someone else would be Kunoichi of the Year, and it would be very unlikely they would be on the same team. Naruto wanted to do everything possible so they could be on the same team. He was fairly confident that he would win, but you could never know …
"What are you going to do if your little girlfriend beats you and you aren't on the same team?" Nine-Tails asked him goadingly. Naruto couldn't help but flush at the fox's taunt. Not because of the fact he was saying he'd lose, but because of his insinuation about Sasuki.
'It's not like that Nine! We're just friends' He insisted. To his dismay, all he heard was a snort from the tailed beast.
Suddenly, he was taken out of his musing by the sound of the door sliding open. A second later, Sasuki stepped out of the classroom and into the hall. Naruto's eyes automatically flickered to her forehead, where he wasn't surprised to see a brand new blue-clothed headband. His then met her gaze and offered her a slight smirk.
"Well, I guess you didn't have any trouble then." He said. Sasuki scoffed at his words.
"Please, what did you expect? I'd think even an idiot like you could pass that test." She replied, with a smirk of her own. As he often did, Naruto found himself bemused at the changes his friend had gone through. If you'd told him the tomboy he first met would start to turn into an actual girl, he wouldn't have believed you.
She'd changed a lot since they were younger. Gone was the tomboyish clothes of her youth. Now she let her long, blue-tinted ebony tresses flow free like her mother, and she favored a feminine Uchiha high-collared zip-up tank top that was partially unzipped, and a white apron skirt with black shorts underneath.. Undoubtedly in a few year's she'd be the spitting image of Mikoto.
Although, her looks weren't the only thing that had changed. She wasn't as bad as she was in the first year after her family's death, but she was still rather cold to pretty much anyone but him. Even then, for most people that didn't know her as well as he did, they would think she was rather scathing towards him.
"Tch, please. Just because you had the top spot most of the month, don't be getting cocky. I've still had it more than you." He shot back. Before they could get too into their back and forth, Iruka's voice called out from inside the classroom.
"Next up, Naruto."
Naruto gave Sasuki one last smirk, and then made his way into the room. Without all the kids in its tiered seats, the classroom looked even larger than normal. Iruka looked much the same as he had since he became their instructor their second year, with his brown hair in a spiky pineapple-ponytail, his deep tan skin, and the large scar across the bridge of his nose. Naruto had always liked Iruka, since he was actually nice to him and didn't seem to hate him for being the jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails. Next to him sat another man, one of a paler complexion.
The pale skinned man stood out most with his silver hair, odd for someone his age. Other than that, he didn't have any distinguishing marks. The man's name was Mizuki. He had joined the teaching staff as Iruka's assistant two years ago, and Naruto found out almost immediately that, unlike Iruka, Mizuki clearly hated him and was one of those that thought he was the Nine-Tails.
"Tch, as if a puny human like you could be as majestic and powerful as myself."Nine-Tails scoffed. Naruto barely resisted rolling his eyes at the fox's vanity.
Iruka smiled at Naruto kindly. "Alright Naruto, you have to successfully use the Clone Jutsu to pass."
Naruto nodded confidently.
"Of course." He said. Years ago, he might have been worried about the clone jutsu, but he had gained an amazing amount of control over the years, especially for a jinchuriki. Of course, he didn't gain it solely through training, but that was a story for another time. Unlike that time almost seven years ago, he stepped confidently into the center of the room, and quickly performed the seals. "Clone Jutsu!"
Instantly, a massive amount of–PUFF–sounds filled the air. Just as Naruto had promised, the room was filled with illusionary clones, crammed closer together than canned sardines. They even covered the walls and ceiling. Naruto took more than a little pleasure in the surprised look on Iruka's face, and the downright shocked look Mizuki was sporting. His jaw was literally hanging open! Sure he could have secretly used Shadow Clones, but what was the fun in that?
When Iruka recovered from his surprise, he clapped proudly at the performance. "Very well done Naruto. I think that's the most clones I've ever seen, and they all look extremely real. Needless to say, you graduate. Now come up and choose your forehead protector."
Naruto acknowledged his sensei with a nod, and walked up to the table, where they had laid out headbands of varying styles and colors. A simple, black-clothed forehead protector caught his eye immediately. He reached town and picked it up off the table and tied it loosely around his neck.
"Well, congratulations on graduating Naruto." Iruka said, though he smiled even wider at him, and continued. "Also, although I'll need to tally the score to be sure, I'm pretty sure you've earned Rookie of the Year with this performance."
That drew a rare beaming smile to Naruto's face. "Thanks sensei. I guess I'll see you in a couple days for the orientation."
With that, Naruto strode out of the room. On his way out, he caught something odd out of the corner of his eye. It almost looked as if Mizuki was staring at him with malice, but when he looked again, he was simply looking at him with that same thinly veiled disgust as usual. That's really odd. Nine, was that just me?
Naruto had learned that the Nine-Tails could sense negative feelings. If he were to gain enough control, he would gain the power as well, but for now he had to depend on it.
"No. It was fleeting, but that man definitely has some bad intentions. I can't tell whether he has something planned or not, so I'd advise being careful." Nine-Tails replied.
Naruto nodded absentmindedly. As he exited the room, he immediately noticed that Sasuki was there waiting for him across the hall. She had her arms crossed, and was giving him her signature scowl, though he could tell there wasn't any heat behind it.
"So, I suppose you got Rookie of the Year?" She stated bluntly. Naruto rose an eyebrow at how calm she seemed over it.
"Yeah, I did. You don't sound surprised." Although he said it as a statement, Sasuki obviously took it as the question it was. As they started to walk outside together, she answered his unasked question.
"He didn't exactly say it, but Iruka hinted pretty strongly that unless you failed that part I would be Kunoichi of the Year." She said with a nonchalant shrug. To Naruto's surprise, she gave him a rare smile. "You shouldn't be so surprised. After all, it's based on overall grades, and I never did as good as you in team work and assertiveness. I can't help it if I don't like people."
Naruto snorted in laughter at that. Sasuki wasn't shy about the fact she didn't like most of the people in their class. Whether it be her male fans, or the females who looked up to her, she found them annoying.
"So, you wanna go eat somewhere to celebrate?" He asked hopefully. To his disappointment, Sasuki merely shook her head.
"No thanks, I'm going to go try out a new jutsu. I want to get it down before our orientation." Although Naruto was disappointed, he wasn't surprised. It wasn't uncommon for Sasuki to prefer training to hanging out. Not that he was much better, and more often than not they trained together. Though each liked to keep their own little aces to surprise the other with.
"Oh well, I guess I'll see you then. I've got a jutsu I'm working on too." Replied Naruto. For just an instant their eyes met, and he saw the light of competition dancing in her eyes.
"I bet I get done first. How many times do you think you'll blow yourself up this time?" She asked mockingly. Naruto felt his cheeks heat up at her reminder of some of his more . . . destructive, attempts at creating jutsu.
In response, he fired up and said, "Yeah, well I don't see you making any jutsu from scratch, you just have to read a scroll and do what it says. No imagination!" Unfortunately, his comment didn't have the effect he was hoping for.
"Tch, better unimaginative than missing all my hair. How long did it take to regrow again?"
Naruto growled, and felt his face heat up even more. "Hey, that was one time!" He protested.
"Whatever, I'll see you later." She replied, with a vacant wave. Naruto sighed, and waved back.
"Yeah, I'll see you in a couple days."
As he left the dirt courtyard, Naruto felt a shiver down the back of his neck. It was that odd feeling you got of someone watching you. A subtle glance around him didn't reveal anything obvious. There were numerous families greeting their children. An excited chatter filled the air with a confused jumble of voices. Occasionally he noticed some of the parents shoot him a dirty look. 'Oi Fox, sense anything weird.' He asked. No response. The lazy furball was probably napping.
Just to be safe, he decided to try sensing for anything off. Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep, calming breath. A light pulse of chakra rippled outwards. It extended tens of meters around him. In his mind he could see multiple bright blue flames of chakra. He couldn't sense any signatures in a position that might be suspicious, or the presence of any techniques that could be used to spy. Ultimately, he decided to write it off.
'Must've been my imagination.' He had better things to be doing than jumping at shadows. Like trying to finish that jutsu.
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BKRAAM!
A beam of blue-white lightning smashed into a massive brown boulder. Particles of rock blasted into the air. When the dust cleared, a black scorch mark marred the surface of the boulder. Naruto frowned in annoyance. His right was extended in front of him, smoke wisping off it. The smell of ozone was heavy around him. He still felt a slight tingle from the lightning chakra. 'Still got a long way to go to finish this one.' He mused.
There wasn't enough power in the jutsu. It should have been able to pierce straight through the boulder. He'd based it off the Lightning Style: False Darkness jutsu, but it still lacked the piercing force. The beam was too dispersed, not to mention he wasn't anywhere close to performing it without seals. Seals were one of the main drawbacks for him. Since he used Senbonzakura, he needed to be able to use almost any jutsu with one-handed seals at the most. He'd tried numerous different combinations of hand seals to achieve the result, but none of them seemed to work. Maybe the problem wasn't with the hand seals?
Behind him, he could hear the sound of several other blasts of lightning from his clones. Hopefully one of them would have success, because he was at a loss for what to do.
It was beyond frustrating to have to try and figure these things out on his own. Even before his death, his grandfather hadn't been helping him much in his training for about a year and a half. With it being so obvious his grandfather wasn't long for the world, Naruto had insisted that they focus on enjoying the time they had left before his grandfather couldn't do anything with him.
"Brat, I'm feeling something interesting. It's that dumbass instructor of yours." Nine-Tails said.
'Huh, might be nice to take my mind of this training stuff.' Eager for a distraction from his problem, Naruto quickly latched onto what the Nine-Tails said. Though technically it could have meant either of his instructors, Naruto assumed it meant Mizuki. Neither of them were particularly fond of the man. 'Oh, define interesting.' He said with a raised eyebrow.
"I can feel the fool traveling near here rapidly. He's always chalked full of negative emotions, but greed and vindictiveness seem particularly present. More interesting is that pine-apple haired fool is chasing after him, and all he's feeling is concern." Nine-Tails explained.
Naruto's eyebrows shot up. That did sound interesting. Curiosity peaked, he closed his eyes and focused his sensing. This time he felt quite a bit more strain as he pushed them to the limit. His range extended far beyond what he'd done earlier.
In his mind's eye he could see thousands of chakra signatures for almost a mile around him. Most of them were miniscule, barely pinpricks of light. Those presences were probably animals of some kind. Because of how remote his grandfathers house was within the village, the two signatures large enough to be shinobi stood out like a sore thumb. It didn't take long to lock onto the two Kurama mentioned. Each signature had a different 'feel' to it, and he was very familiar with the feeling of his instructors signatures.
Just as the fox as said, he could feel the somewhat rabid signature he'd come to associate with Mizuki moving to the edge of the village rapidly. Oddly enough, from the fluctuations it was giving off, Naruto could swear he was using a transformation jutsu. 'Huh, weird.' Close behind Mizuki Naruto could feel Iruka. His signature gave off warm and sharp feel. Just from the speed at which he was moving, he could tell Iruka was chasing Mizuki. The question was why. He could feel the itch to investigate it. The fact he never trusted Mizuki and this reeked of suspicion may have swayed things in the favor of investigating.
A quick glance at his clones showed them practicing the jutsu on some cliffs in the distance made of orange-brown rocks. Occasionally one would let loose a blast of lightning and a shower of dust would erupt. Yes, they had that covered.
Naruto smirked, an excited tingle started to build in his stomach and spread to the rest of his body. There was no time like the present to go investigate. Luckily, the two chunin were going at a speed he could easily catch up to or even get in front of. His leg muscles tensed as he flooded them with chakra.
"Well, let's go see what they're up too." He muttered to himself.
He vanished in a blur of speed. A whisper of wind is all he left in his wake.
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Silvery beams of moonlight filtered through the treetops, bathing Naruto in their ethereal light. The trees themselves were reduced to a series of green streaks of varying shade in his peripheral vision. With their massive limbs, it was easy for him to leap through the trees to move faster. Using his sensing abilities, he could tell his targets were only a little bit in front of him. It felt like Mizuki was slowing down. Seconds later the man seemed to come to a complete stop, soon followed by Iruka.
It was the place that Mizuki stopped that caught his attention. He knew this forest like the back of his hand. The only thing there was a decrepit old shack. A remnant from several outposts the village had created prior to building the barrier wall. It was the first method they'd used to prepare for incoming enemies. What could Mizuki possibly want there? 'I suppose there's only one way to find out. Let's speed things up.'
Naruto held up a half-ram seal with his index, middle finger, and thumb pointed upwards and his ring and pinky curled to his palm. With a slight application of chakra, performed a Teleportation to bridge the distance and get to the clearing. The forest disappeared in a blur of colors.
A distance that should have taken him a quarter minute to reach bled away in less than two seconds. He reappeared in the shadows of a massive tree trunk. Immediately, his gaze landed on the clearing below. It took several seconds for it to register.
Directly across the clearing and below, there was a beat up shack. It's walls were worn from years of weather damage, and the single window was covered in a layer of black grime with a prominent crack in one of the panes. Two people stood facing off. A tense atmosphere was in the air. Barely restrained tension waiting for a chance to burst. The first, with his back to Naruto, was Iruka-Sensei. His brown pony-tail was distinctive even at this distance.. He was vaguely aware of Iruka saying something to the second person. Mostly because the sight of him made his blood boil.
His eyes became a glacial blue at the sight of himself with a scroll on his back horizontally that was as long as he was tall. He recognized it from time spent with Gramps. The Scroll of Seals. It was a scroll created by his grandfather's friend Hashirama, the First Hokage. Written on it was every forbidden or powerful technique that belonged to the Hidden Leaf.
'What in the …'
"Ohoho, this is hilarious. Aren't you glad we investigated boy? Hahahaha." The Nine-Tails gloated. His booming laughter made Naruto grit his teeth to stop himself from snapping back.
He shook his head. Now wasn't the time for distractions. He needed as much information as possible before acting. Belatedly, he started to listen to Iruka shouting at Mizuki (who was disguised as himself).
"–ould you possibly hope to accomplish stealing it? Are you really going to throw everything away?" Iruka asked.
The copy of him had a sick grin on his face. Full of arrogance and greed. It was a sight that made him shiver in disgust.
"Hehehe, what do I hope to accomplish? Revenge for how this stupid place treated me." His doppelganger answered.
Though he couldn't see his face, he could tell from the quiver in Iruka's voice when he responded he was totally shocked. "R-revenge? Why? You've never let how people treated you get to you before, and you've worked so hard to be the best. You wanted to be Hokage, didn't you?"
"Hehehe, that was all just an act. I was biding my time to get my hands on this. I even got close to the Hokage, all so I could get this scroll and regain my power." Mizuki replied. The manic glint Naruto saw in his own blue eyes was disturbing.
Despite how disturbed he was, he was also starting to get a grasp on what Mizuki was going for. He was setting the table to frame Naruto for stealing the Scroll of Seals. The fact it was Iruka, a teacher who liked Naruto, that was trying to stop him would help sell the act. Nobody would question it if Iruka himself was convinced. Of course, there were a few flaws, but Mizuki would have needed to know things about Naruto he couldn't possibly know to have avoided them. All in all it was a decent plan.
"…regain your power, I'm not sure what you mean." Iruka said nervously.
"Tch, don't play dumb, I know the truth, Iruka-Sensei!" Mizuki growled. Naruto's eyebrows actually shot up at what he suspected was coming. So he was going to go all in and break the law about revealing his status, just to make it look like Naruto found out he was a Jinchuriki and snapped. "I KNOW I'M THE NINE-TAILED FOX THAT ATTACKED THE VILLAGE!" His doppelganger shouted. The reverberation of it bounced of the wall of tree trunks in the clearing and made it sound all the more deafening.
'Or he's an idiot who just wants get back at me by making me the scapegoat cause he thinks I'm the fox. How cliché.' He thought dully. His grip on Senbonzakura tightened. The cloth felt good in his hand. At this point, he had all the information he really needed. It was about time to end this farce. The only problem was, how did he take Mizuki down without harming the scroll?
"Since you want to get in my way, I guess I'll just have to kill you Iruka-Sensei!" Mizuki said.
Naruto eyes widened. He'd been so busy thinking about how to take Mizuki down he missed it when Mizuki suddenly grabbed a handful of kunai from his thigh. In a flash, the traitor threw the kunai at Iruka faster than he thought him capable of. The black knives glinted dangerously as they whizzed through the air. Despite the surprise, Naruto wasn't overly worried at first. Iruka was skilled enough to dodge a few kunai. That quickly changed. Mizuki began to perform a set of hand seals Naruto recognized in an instant.
'No way, does he really know the–'
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Mizuki Shouted.
In an instant the fifty more kunai flashed into existence around the first three. They were flying at Iruka like a metallic black rain of death. The collective noise as they whizzed through the air sounded like a swarm of bees. No way could Iruka dodge that many kunai, and he didn't feel like chancing whether Iruka could do a Substitution without seals.
Without a second thought he performed a seal less Replacement, switching with a rock on the ground behind Iruka. He felt the familiar odd sensation of being squeezed through a narrow tube briefly. One second he was on the branch, and the next he felt springy moss underfoot and his sensei's back mere feet in front of him. The wave of deadly throwing knives was almost on them. Iruka was so distracted he didn't even notice Naruto. With less than a second to act, he blazed through a series of four hand seals, ending on Dog. In near the same instant he slammed his palms into the ground.
The ground shivered. With the deep, harsh groan of stone grinding together, a large stone wall erupted from the ground. A cloud of dust and upturned earth surrounded the base.
CLANG … SHING … CLINK!
No sooner had the wall been erected when the screech of metal on stone rang out. It continued for several seconds. Naruto withheld a wince at the shrill sound. He pushed through it though. Now that he was on the ground, it was the perfect chance to catch Mizuki off guard.
With the noise of the kunai as cover, he created two shadow clones with orders to skirt the edge of the clearing to flank Mizuki. Before he could even think of taking the man down, he had to get the Scroll of Seals out of the way. As the last kunai bounced off the wall the clearing fell deathly silent. 'Better keep my eyes on him.' He thought. Channeling more chakra into the ground, he forced the wall to recede back to where it came from with that same harsh groan. Just as soon as it appeared, the wall was gone. The only sign it was there a wide, thick scar of upturned earth in the mossy forest floor.
"Wh-what the hell, how did you do that Iruka?" Mizuki stuttered in shock.
"I … I didn't." Iruka said. His voice was thick with so much confusion it made Naruto silently snort.
His lips twitched into a playful smirk at the shock of the two chunin. He had to give his clones time to flank Mizuki. Might as well have some fun.
"I heard imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but I think I'll pass." He said loudly. His words garnered an instant reaction.
Iruka spun around, his eyes stretched wide. "Naruto, but how?" He said. His eyes darted back to the still transformed Mizuki–who'd gone pale–and back to Naruto.
"Funny story that," Naruto said as he took a few slow steps forward. His sensei tensed as he approached. "There I was, minding my own business trying to get down a new jutsu, when somehow I sense two chunin speeding through the forest to the edge of the village. Naturally I decided to see what the fuss was." He said with fake casualness. By that point he was standing right beside Iruka.
"Two chunin?" Iruka exclaimed.
While he answered Iruka, Naruto's eyes never left Mizuki. His sharp gaze pinned him in place. "Yep. Consider me curious, aren't you a little old to cosplay as a teenager, Mizuki?"
"Mizuki?" Iruka exclaimed. His eyes darted to Naruto's doppelganger, who'd recovered from his surprise and looked at them with a sneer.
"Tch, guess the ruse is up." Mizuki growled. A plume of smoke erupted around the doppelganger with a–POOF. The whisps of smoke curled away, revealing his other instructor. Or former instructor, as the case might be. A pair of Fuma shuriken–giant shuriken named after the clan that made them famous–hung from his back. Combined with the black bandanna-style headband, it gave him a much more intimidating appearance. Mizuki pinned Naruto with a fierce glare.
"So you managed to figure me out, Nine-Tails." He spat.
Naruto heard a sharp gasp from beside him. He could practically feel the tension radiating off his sensei. His own reaction was more subdued. Just to piss Mizuki off, he gave the man the most unenthusiastic look he could.
"Was that supposed to make me all emotional and confused? Sorry to tell you, I already know I'm a Jinchuriki. Now, why don't you give up before I have to hurt you." He said.
If looks could kill, Naruto would've died ten times over from the one Mizuki gave him. The traitorous chunin's eyes bulged and he clenched his fists so hard that the knuckles turned white. He let out an insane laugh. "Ha, you hurt me? Don't act so high and mighty with me, you filthy demon!"
Without any warning, he whipped his arm forward and released one of his giant shuriken at them. The giant metal throwing star hurtled through the air with a faint whistle.
"Lookout Naruto, we have to move!" Iruka hissed. Naruto smirked with amusement.
"Nah, I got this." He said. Before Iruka could give any more protest, Naruto dashed forward several meters and stood in the path of the Fuma shuriken.
Even though he didn't have his Sharingan active, his training allowed him to follow the shuriken easily. Naruto remembered his grandfather's training and began to control his breathing. He gripped his swords hilt tightly as the metal star approached them. 'Watch the trajectory. Release the blade in one smooth motion, at the last second possible.'
Although it was only seconds, to Naruto it may as well have been an eternity for the shuriken to reach him. At the last instant, he whipped out Senbonzakura, and aimed it for the shuriken. At the same time, he channeled wind chakra into his sword. It met the star with a light ring, and a shower of sparks. The sword cleaved through the hard-forged metal as if it was butter. The two halves veered to either side and impacted the ground with a soft—Thunk. Naruto took great satisfaction in the stunned looks on both the adults faces. He sent a smug grin at Mizuki.
"You should really give up. I'll give you one more chance. Then I'm going to show you what my sword can really do." He said.
His words fell on deaf ears. Mizuki whipped his other arm forward and threw the second shuriken. This time, Naruto didn't even bother to cut the shuriken in two. He simply batted it to the side with his sword. It caused his sword to vibrate in his hand, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. Naruto looked Mizuki coldly.
"Guess that's a no." Said Naruto. He had to hide a smirk, as he noticed his clones hiding in the shadows behind Mizuki. With a subtle nod, he gave them the go ahead.
Mizuki opened his mouth to make a snide retort, but instead he let loose a startled gasp as a bruising kick slammed into his back from the clone on his right. In the same instant the one on the left used his sword to cut the strap holding the Scroll of Seals. He scooped it up in his arms and dashed back into the forest. The silver-haired main was sent tumbling across the ground and into a tree with a dull—thump. All the wind was knocked from his lungs in a harsh—whoosh—and he was left gasping to try to regain it. He struggled weakly, clawing, and scratching his way to stand weakly on his feet, his back supported by the tree behind him.
"I'm growing tired of this, so I'll end it quickly." Naruto held his sword in front of his face. The tip pointed to the sky, and the flat of the blade faced towards him. A haze of visible chakra began to whip about his person, kicking up dust around his feet.
The blade glowed with an ethereal pink light and seemed to scatter to the wind like flower petals. When all was said and done, Naruto was left with only his Katana's hilt. For all intents and purposed, it appeared as if the blade had disappeared. Naruto knew better. He could feel fragments of the blade, composed of thousand, no, millions of particles of steel-alloy sand saturated in his blood and chakra. He willed them to attack his opponent.
Both Iruka and Mizuki blinked in shock. Mizuki, who had looked fearful at the aura that had built up around Naruto, began to laugh derisively. "What, was that it?" Mizuki asked derisively. "Your big bad finish is to make some pretty dust? How pathetic can you—gurk—"
The delusional mans words were cut short. Instantaneously, there was blood everywhere. In a disturbingly beautiful display, pink petals danced around Mizuki. Numerous cuts tore open all across his body, sending his crimson blood spurting into the air. Mizuki slumped to the ground in a heap, gasping from the pain of his wounds.
Naruto stayed alert for several seconds. When it became clear Mizuki was defeated, he let out a sigh of relief. He was glad that was finally over with. He reformed the blade of Senbonzakura and sheathed it once more with a soft—shink.
For a moment he stood in silence, enjoying the night air.
In the aftermath, he could still feel adrenaline pumping through him. It heightened his senses and filled him with a restless energy. 'Gotta slow it down.' Naruto closed his eyes for a few seconds.
"Uh, Naruto, is everything okay?" Iruka asked awkwardly. From the sound of it, he had moved to stand behind him.
Naruto opened his eyes and turned to give his teacher a smile. "Yeah, everything's fine. Just got a bit too hyped up there. I'm good now." He said
Glancing to the side, he met the eyes of one of his clones. He took a moment to dig through his pouch and get a roll of ninja wire. The metal felt cool against his fingers. He tossed the roll to the clone and said "Tend to his wounds, then tie him up and then transport him to Torture & Interrogation. I've got a feeling he'll have a lot to say." He ordered.
The clone nodded sharply and began to carry out his orders. It moved over and quickly began to bind Mizuki so that he couldn't escape. With that taken care of, Naruto turned his attention back to Iruka. The man seemed to have recovered from his discomfort. "You know, you're a lot stronger than you let on Naruto. That was really impressive how efficiently you handled Mizuki." He said, a wide smile on his face.
Naruto flushed slightly at the compliment and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.
"Hehehe, thanks." He said with an awkward chuckle. A glance at the sky showed him just how late it was getting. It was about time to wrap all this up. "Well, I guess I better go report this to Gramps. He'll definitely want to know about this. You could probably go home."
Only one of them really needed to report to the Hokage immediately. It made sense for him to do it considering, given their relationship, it was a forgone conclusion that Naruto was going to talk to the Hokage anyways.
Iruka nodded his agreement. "Thanks, I think I'll turn in my report in the morning. See you later, Naruto." He replied.
With a slight whisper of displaced air, Iruka disappeared. A spiral of tree leaves was left in his wake to slowly spiral to the ground. For several moment's he just stood still. There was no real reason to rush off. Finally, he sighed. 'Better get going.' He was about to leave himself, but the voice of his clone stopped him cold.
"Uh, boss, you might want to take a look at this."
Naruto's gaze snapped to the side to see his clone standing over Mizuki, a seal tag in one hand, and a torn up piece of black cloth in the other. Judging from the clones tone, he wasn't going to like the implications of the items.
"Okay, I'll bite. Let me see them. The cloth first." He demanded. Wordlessly, the clone stepped forward and handed him item. Naruto frowned as he felt the cloth deposited into his right hand. It was sturdy, but not rough, with a certain softness to it. He could also tell it was a very breathable fabric. Almost like …
He froze, and hurriedly grabbed the cloth with his left hand and flipped it over while stretching it out. A gasp tore from his lips. As the cloth unfolded, it became clear it was a shirt. Not just any shirt. The light purple inseam stood out starkly in the silver light. This was his shirt. He even recognized the slashes in the fabric. It was from a spar with Sasuki in class last month. Given it was basically ruined, he'd decided to just toss the thing out. After all, he had many more of them.
"Why in the world would Mizuki have this?" He muttered.
"I think the seal tag pretty much answers that." The clone said.
His gaze snapped to the tag in the clones hand. Without even waiting to have it handed to him, he snatched it from his hand. In that moment he was hyper-aware of the smooth feeling of the paper. Chakra flooded his eyes, and his perception shifted. With perfect clarity he started to decipher the symbols on the tag. He was no expert (nowhere near as good as his parents), but he could understand the purpose of it well enough. His eyes widened.
"This tag copies someone else's chakra signature. With this, Mizuki could have fooled the barrier into thinking it was me." He exclaimed. A ringing buzz filled his ears. He felt slightly detached, as the full implications of the items hit him.
If he hadn't sensed Mizuki and decided to investigate, the man would have possibly been able to successfully frame him. Sure, Gramps wouldn't have bought it. But with such overwhelming evidence, even his absolute authority might not have been enough. It would certainly have provided enough distraction for Mizuki to make a clean getaway. That wasn't what had him so frazzled though.
"There's no chance Mizuki could make this on his own. Someone gave this to him. He had help in this." He concluded. Next to him, the clone nodded grimly. His gaze snapped over to it. "I'll take this directly to Gramps. Get Mizuki to T&I, immediately!"
"Will do boss." It said.
Without another word, the clone hoisted the bound form of Mizuki onto it's shoulder. A second later it vanished into thin air. Unlike when Iruka left, no sign of it's departure remained.
In the aftermath Naruto took the time to steady his breathing. That discover had been quite the shock. Now alone, Naruto took a moment to stare up at the moon. It wouldn't hurt anything to take a moment to unwind before he went to see Gramps. Once again, the cool evening air helped to center him. The day had been rather eventful, and he was eager to be done with it. Tomorrow he would need to go and complete his ninja registration, but for now he just wanted to get home and go to sleep. A full night's rest and he'd be good as new.
"Um, maybe this isn't the best time to mention this, but I'm pretty sure this scroll is a fake." His other clone said, stepping out of the forest awkwardly with the massive scroll in his hands.
Naruto let out an exasperated snort. He felt like throwing his hands up in defeat. "Of course it is. Let's just get going before anything else unexpected happens."
With one last glance around the moonlit clearing, Naruto vanished in flicker of speed.
-x-x-x-x-x-x- NTUC -x-x-x-x-x-x-
Well, there you go. As the readers who remember the original version will notice, I decided to swap out Mizuki trying to trick him with Mizuki just trying to frame him. Some people rightfully pointed out how forced that was. I actually feel happier with this version. I feel like it offers a greater opportunity for tying into other parts of the plot later on.
As for why Mizuki didn't try to make someone else the scapegoat, that's because in cannon I think it's reasonable to say the main reason he chose Naruto (aside from being easier to fool) was because Mizuki genuinely hated him and wanted it to be Naruto that took the fall.
Anyways, see you next chapter. This chapter should be posted the day after I'm writing this (8-2-21).
Until Next Time,
RinneTaicho, Signing Off!
