Chapter 2
Ten year old Uzumaki Naruto woke up bleary eyed, in truth, he didn’t want to get up. He looked at his alarm and saw that it was six o'clock in the morning and sighed. Today was the big day, as he would have to take the Graduation exam. He got up and made himself a simple breakfast consisting of eggs, cheese, ham and bread, then got ready for the day.
As he walked towards the academy, he noticed the whispers and the occasional glare sent his way. He couldn’t help but send a particularly nasty person his own look. Pulling down his eyelid with one finger and sticking out his tongue towards them, and then simply kept walking towards the academy. Never once breaking his stride.
He kept his outfit simple, it was a black t-shirt with some slacks and combat sandals.
And as he approached the town center, towards where the school was standing below the administrative building, his eyes caught sight of the church.
His childhood home. He missed living there, with the motherly affections of Gabby and Rias. Or his adoptive siblings, Todoro, Himeko, or Kuki.
But he had never gone back since the day he left. Which often made him feel lonely, but he refused to go back there due to the fact he felt resentful and abandoned by them.
Why couldn’t he be a ninja and still live with them?
He arrived at the front steps of the academy and sighed as he prepared for another day of being surrounded by other kids who did nothing but jeer at him and mock his every effort. It wasn’t that Naruto disliked being a ninja.
On the contrary, he had a deep interest in ninjutsu and chakra as well as fighting. Taijutsu was fun, and he was the best fighter out of his class. It was almost embarrassing, considering his only problem was the clone jutsu.
He couldn’t do a single clone to save his life.
But the blonde still made his way to the classroom and took a seat by the window.
Iruka-sensei walked into the classroom and quickly took attendance, then he clapped his hands and said, “Alright everyone, as you know today we will have the graduation exam. Mizuki-sensei will begin to pass the written test promptly, you will have sixty minutes to complete the test.”
And of course, after Iruka-sensei finished speaking, Mizuki-sensei, the other Chunin instructor, began to pass out the written test.
It had ten questions, and they all required him to write down his answer. Which he did, he finished his exam thirty minutes into the test, reviewed his answers and then flipped the page over and laid his head down to rest.
“Alright, everyone. Times up,” Iruka called out, rousing Naruto from his nap as the instructor said, “Now take your test, and your gonna walked down a single file line and stack your test neatly on the desk and file out into the taijutsu field,”
“Hai, Sensei!” Everyone else called out.
Naruto of course, usually preferring his own corner next to the window all the way in the back of the class, was the last to turn in his test.
As they filed out into the field, Mizuki spoke, “Alright class, you know the deal, when we call your name, step into the circle. Seal of confrontation, and then when we say go you will spar. First out of the ring, to fall or submit will lose. Then the seal of reconciliation, real simple. Now Tadaku Hoshima and Kirito Monaya!”
The two boys stepped into the ring. Tadako was a relatively shorter guy compared to his opponent, but was a bit more plump. He had brown hair and brown eyes, and wore a red shirt with blue slacks as he settled into the seal of confrontation.
Kirito had black hair and black eyes, wore a gray shirt and black cargo shorts. And of course, both boys were two years older than Naruto.
Considering that Naruto himself was very young when he started the academy. As far as he knew, people typically started the academy a year later than he did, to be ready for graduation by the time they reached the ages of eleven or twelve.
Yet here he was, the youngest in the class.
“Start!” Mizuki called out.
And of course, the two academy students, Tadako and Kirito immediately rushed each other, ducking and weaving each other's punches. Both were fairly good in taijutsu. Nothing exceptional, but both were putting on a solid show, Kirito got Tadako right on the cheek with a quick jab.
Tadako recovered and blocked a punch with his right hand and pulled his opponent to a gnarly knee to the gut, and then proceeded to win Kirito with a punch to the nose, while the punch itself didn’t break the black haired boy’s nose. It did cause Kirito to take a few steps back out of reflex which caused him to step out of the white circle.
“Winner- Tadako!” Mizuki called out and then said, “Now do the seal of reconciliation.”
“Good Job,” Iruka spoke up as he jotted down something on his clipboard, “Both if you did pretty well in this portion. Yoh both passed.”
The two boys did the seal of reconciliation and then turned to Iruka-sensei and bowed as they gave their thanks in unison.
Next came Kagura Seki vs Himiko Tomo for the first of the female fights, and once again. Naruto found they put up a respectable fight. Himiko pulled a win after hitting her opponent with a three piece combo by catching her opponent with a kick to the back of her knee, then an uppercut and finishing the fight by grabbing Kagura’s neck with her elbow from behind and using her body as leverage to slam the girl into the ground.
Of course, more fights followed soon after- with varying degrees of interest to the blonde as some were excellent fights with fairly even opponents. Others were bores with a significant skill gap between them and others were just… bad.
Particularly two girls who were fighting over some kid named Sasuke. Something told Naruto That those two weren’t going to cut it as ninja. But the blonde ignored them as his name was finally called.
“Alright now, Uzumaki Naruto vs Ayato Himejima!” Mizuki called out.
Naruto stepped onto the circle with his opponents, and as soon as he stepped in he could hear the whispers from among the students.
“He’s so tiny! I bet Ayato crashes him flat!”
“Poor baby, he shouldn’t even be a ninja!”
“Hey isn’t he the kid our parents tell us to stay away from?”
Ayato of course was larger than him by a fair margin, standing at a staggering five feet five inches to Naruto’s four feet eleven inches.
And the boy looked down on him with a cocky smirk and said, “You should quit now squirt, you don’t have a mommy or daddy to go to if you get hurt,”
Naruto looked at him with boredom and made the seal of confrontation, “did you say something?”
“Tsk, you think you’re tough? Im gonna pummel you,” Ayato stated as he also did the seal of confrontation and then the two boys dropped into their stance.
Mizuki called the start of the fight, and then immediately Ayato lunged at him. Cocking his left fist back in a way that allowed Naruto to predict his swing. So Naruto bent his legs a bit more in the horse stance and as the punch sailed beside him, he caught the other boy’s wrist.
Which he quickly used as leverage and pulled Ayato into a knee to the gut and followed that up with further pulling down his opponent to throw him off balance and then swung one leg over Ayato’s arm causing them both to fall.
But Naruto never let go as he locked his legs trapping the bigger boy's arm, and used one of his feet to dig into the opposite elbow as he pulled and twisted Ayato’s arm which caused said boy to cry in pain and rapidly tap his hands into the dirt.
“Winner- Naruto!” Mizuki quickly called out, which caused the whiskered blonde to let go of the bigger boy and walked back to the classroom.
Halfway there Iruka called out to him, “Naruto! Don’t forget the seal of reconciliation.”
Naruto looked at the boy who was sitting up and rotating his arm and then back to the chunin and simply said, “No.”
The blonde reached the door of his classroom, however Suzume-sensei was in the classroom grading the test scores, as she looked at him in surprise, “Naruto-san! What are you doing here?”
“I didn’t feel like waiting around for everyone to finish their fights,” Naruto replied honestly, “They just kinda pissed me off doubting me for my age and size, so I don’t wanna hang around them.”
“Oh,” the brown haired woman replied, “Well, go ahead and take a seat, I am almost done here.”
The blonde nodded and walked to his spot all the way to the back of the class. However, as he sat staring out the window, Suzume-sensei called out to him.
“Congratulations Naruto-san, your written test scores are some of the highest, up there with the likes of Yondaime-sama,” The sensei stated, giving him a thumbs up.
Naruto raised an eyebrow, “Wait, if this has ten questions, how is it scored exactly?”
“It’s simple really,” Suzume-sensei replied as she said, “While the questions remain standard based on what you study, and there are certainly right and wrong answers which are simple pass or fail. We also award extra points for creativity and detail in the answer, so someone like you, who can go beyond regurgitating book knowledge and expand on answers in interesting ways can get extra points. The more detailed and creative the answer, the more points we assign on a scale of one to five. You actually fell just one point short of the Yondaime, tying for second.”
That piqued the blonde’s curiosity and he asked, “Who did I tie?”
“Uchiha Itachi,” Suzume-sense stated gravely, “They pushed that boy out far too early out of the academy, just seven years old. Made ANBU captain by the time he was twelve, no wonder he snapped and killed his clan.”
Then she sighed, “Following the massacre of the Uchiha-clan, early graduation was promptly suspended, you would actually be the first to graduate early.”
“I can’t make a clone to save my life,” Naruto said as he rested his head on his desk, “I already know I'm failing the ninjutsu portion.”
“That’s… a shame,” Suzume said with some hesitation, “Your knowledge of chakra theory is more advanced than other academy students. Do you know why you can’t?”
“My chakra control,” The blonde replied, “I can’t get the amount required for a single clone.”
“Then why not make more with the amount you can get down to?” Suzume replied, “You should be able to split your chakra in more ways with less control if you can manage that.”
“I've tried that,” Naruto replied as he stated, “But I would need more than enough clones to make a hundred, I don’t know why I can't get my chakra control refined enough for the clone jutsu.”
“Then do that,” The brown haired sensei replied, “It might come off as a bit showy, but if it gets you to pass dear, you do what you need to do. Ninja remember? Don’t need to let them know you can’t make one clone, if you just make more. Don’t let yourself be held back over one jutsu, I've seen you do the replacement without hand seals and your sexy jutsu is funny. You don’t need to be here, you should be with a jounin sensei by now.”
“Huh,” Naruto said dumbly, of course, he had always considered making more. But more to him meant something like ten, not as many as he would need to make to not make the jutsu work and the clones not come out looking pale.
“Thanks Suzume-sensei,” Naruto said as he leaned back on his chair.
Of course the lady replied with, “No problem dear,” and went back to grading before she eventually finished and packed up her stuff, took the piles of paper and left the classroom.
Soon after the rest of the class started filing in and took their seats. Iruka walked in last and spoke up, “Alright class, we will call you one by one and bring you over to a private classroom where you can do the final portion of the test. It is pass or fail, if you fail. Don’t get discouraged, there’s always next year.”
Naruto put his head down and waited until his name was called, which took about another thirty to forty minutes by the blonde’s estimation.
As Naruto stood in an empty classroom with Mizuki-sensei and Iruka-sensei, along with a table full of headbands the brown haired chunin instructor said, “Alright Naruto, you’ve done very good so far, i just need you to perform a clone jutsu and you’re graduating.”
Naruto quickly did the hand seals, starting with ram, then snake and lastly tiger, and called out, “Clone Jutsu!”
There was a massive puff of smoke, and the blonde could hear the two chunin coughing. It took a bit but the smoke eventually cleared leaving only Iruka, Mizuki. And an Army’s worth of clones that spilled into the hallway and even outside as they looked outside the window.
The two chunin were speechless, but then Iruka turned to Naruto and said, “I hope you aren’t trying to show off.”
Naruto blinked and stated flatly, “This is literally the smallest amount of clones I can make, if I make any less they all look like dookie.”
“He got you there Iruka-sensei,” Mizuki-sensei stated in a joking manner.
The blonde released the jutsu, and Iruka couldn’t help but sigh as he said, “Well, you pass. Congratulations, take a headband and you can go back into the classroom.”
The blonde shrugged and picked a blue headband and walked out
The day eventually came to an end after a congratulatory speech by Iruka. As Naruto left the classroom and approached the exit, he saw the other students being surrounded by their families.
That sight left him with a sense of melancholy, so rather than walking out through the front door, the blonde turned around and walked deeper into the academy looking for a classroom with windows that let out away from the crowd and left through a window.
If he had walked out of the front door, he would have seen a number of people waiting for him outside, but he never did walk through the double doors of the academy to see them.
If he had he would have been left feeling alot better.
The setting sun found Naruto overlooking the village while sitting on top of the Yondaime’s head. He graduated from the Academy, at the age of ten, according to Suzume-sensei his written score was only one point behind the Yondaime’s. The first academy student to graduate early in three years.
He did it, and he should be happy for himself. But instead, he felt empty inside. Something was missing from him, since the day he had moved out of the church.
He had said some pretty hurtful things to Gabriel and Rias. Who were the only parents he knew, once he realized he wouldn’t be living with them again.
And since then, he stayed away out of resentment and guilt for what he said. All he had even wanted to do was be happy and live a long life with the two women he had seen as his mothers, helping out in the church. Following in Gabriel’s footsteps and becoming a priest himself, and playing with his brothers and sisters.
But that dream was gone when he enrolled into the ninja academy.
And since then, he had to make a new dream for himself. In the village, he knew only whispers and disdain. It had lessened over the four years since he had moved out of the church, and it faded away into indifference with the exception of a few people.
But in the sea of indifference and ignorance. Naruto decided he wanted to make them all acknowledge him, to become undeniable. So he set his sights on becoming Hokage. Become the perfect Hokage for the people of the hidden leaf, and his lonely existence would no longer be denied, and get acknowledgment he craved since the day he turned six.
But aside from associates in the way of his academy instructors and visits from the Old Man Hokage. He was alone.
“Hey there, Naruto,” a voice called out from behind him.
“Mizuki-sensei?” Naruto said, acknowledging the new presence, “What can I do for you?”
The blue haired chunin sat down beside him, one knee raised so he could put his arm over it as he said, “You know, you did pretty good in the graduation test. But you know, there is another test, to see if you are truly ready to become a genin.”
“Oh?” Naruto asked in genuine interest. For ninja, the graduation test seemed surprisingly simple. A written test, a taijutsu match and the clone jutsu? He wasn’t the smartest cookie in the box, but he knew there had to be something else to it.
“Indeed,” the chunin replied, “This is a test given to genin after graduating to see if they deserve the promotion,”
“I’m listening,” Naruto stated as he closed his eyes and began to think of all the ways this could go.
Iruka heard a knock at his door, and he was quick to open it. He saw Mizuki on the other side, and it was night already, and his old friend looked at him with urgency as he exclaimed, “Iruka! You gotta Hurry. Naruto stole the forbidden scroll?”
“What?!” Iruka yelled in alarm as he watched all the other ninjas running like crazy over the roof.
He reported to the Hokage, who was outside the administrative building as a chubby ninja exclaimed, “Lord Hokage, the brat has gone too far! He stole the forbidden scroll!”
The Hokage inhaled a puff of smoke from his pipe and let it out as he closed his eyes and ordered, “Bring me the scroll, and Naruto back, unharmed!”
Iruka immediately jumped towards the roof as he set about tracking Naruto down. It took him a couple of hours, but he eventually found the boy, tucked away in the outside corner of an abandoned shack.
And of course, he was carefully reading the forbidden scroll as if it was another piece of text, which Iruka found audacious.
He stood in front of the boy who was oblivious to the world and yelled out, “Naruto! What do you think you’re doing? You stole the forbidden scroll?”
The blonde looked up at him with a blank stare and said, “What do you mean? Mizuki told me this was a secret test. To make sure I’m good enough to become a genin. Since you know, the graduation test is too simple.”
Iruka couldn’t help but facepalm, “Damnit Naruto, Yes there is another test. But it wouldn’t involve stealing the most sacred thing in this village, Mizuki is a traitor.”
“If it's so sacred, why did it have such shitty security?” The blonde asked, and then added, “Matter of fact, how do i know you aren’t lying, isn’t that like part of the whole being a ninja thing?”
Iruka knew Naruto had a point there, but couldn’t say more as Mizuki spoke, “So you finally figured it out, Iruka.”
“Damn it!” Iruka said but it was too late as he pushed Naruto away and caught a rainfall of Kunai and Shuriken with his vest, some even piercing his chest a little bit.
Then Mizuki spoke, “Naruto, do you wanna know why everyone hates you? I heard you even got kicked out of the church because of it.”
“Mizuki stop, you're breaking the law!” Iruka pleaded but he knew it was in vain.
“Oh but Iruka, this pertains to Naruto,” the chunin stated, “Don’t you wanna know Naruto? After All this is your life, it’s a law everyone knows. Everyone but you, because the law is about you.”
Naruto’s eyes narrowed and said, “Speak!”
“No, Naruto! Damnit Now is not the time,” Iruka yelled in frustration, but some of the projectiles that pierced his vest had also pierced into his chest, so he was too short of breath to do anything at the moment
“You see Naruto,” Mizuki started, “Ten years ago, when the Kyuubi attacked the village. It was said the fourth killed the beast, but this is a lie. The Fourth sealed the beast into the body of a newborn baby, born that very night. That baby was you!”
“Mizuki, No!” Iruka called out, however he was ignore
The other chunin retrieve a large shuriken out of is back and threw it at Naruto, yelling out, “Now die, Kyuubi!”
Iruka couldn’t help but push Naruto out of the way as he used his own body to protect his former student.
Naruto looked up at him wide eyed at Naruto as he looked back at the boy and said, “Naruto, take the scroll and run!”
The brown haired chunin then tossed a smoke bomb and secretly transformed into Naruto and ran away as well.
As he ran away, Mizuki was hot on his trail, and eventually the chunin caught up to him. And of course, Mizuki himself had also transformed as Iruka.
So the chunin disguised as Naruto tackled Mizuki, and the two landed hard on the ground.
In front of him, the fake Iruka got onto his hands and knees, and looked back asking him, “How did you know… How did you know I’m not Iruka.”
And transformed back into his true visage. So Iruka also released his transformation, revealing the scroll to be nothing more than a log as replied, “Because I’m Iruka.”
“You’re a fool, why are you protecting that freak? He’s the one that wiped out your family,” The blue haired chunin asked, his voice full of contempt.
Iruka merely stated, “I don’t care what you say, you’re not getting your hands on that scroll.”
The traitor smirked, “As if you could stop me. Don’t you get it? Naruto is just like me.”
“Oh?” Iruka asked with a raised eyebrow, if the sithatuin wasn’t so fucked and he wasn’t hurt he would laugh, as he asked, “How’s that?”
“He wants the scroll for his own power and his own vengeance. That is how beast are,” the traitorous chunin explained, “He’ll poor all his vengeance into that scroll and destroy everything.”
Iruka lowered his head to conceal a smirk as he explained, “You’re right, that is how beast are.”
He paused for one moment.
Unknown to them both, Naruto was hiding behind a tree nearby and was listening to the conversation, thinking to himself, “So that’s it? Is that how it is? I’m viewed as a demon. Is that why I was expelled from the church? Is that why everyone hates me?”
But then Iruka spoke, “But that's not who Naruto is, he’s not like that at all. He’s one of a kind. Sure, he’s a loner, and seems distant and aloof. But he’s also very smart, and he works hard. Sure people may jump on him because of his age, but he never lashes out at anyone. Despite how deep his suffering must be, being all alone by himself. And that’s what separates him from being a beast, he’s nothing like the nine tailed fox. He’s Naruto Uzumaki, of the hidden leaf, and my student!”
“If you really believe that bullshit Iruka,” the traitor said as he prepared to toss his second giant shuriken, “I was going to save you for later. But I changed my mind. You’re finished.”
Iruka watched him lunge and closed his eyes as he prepared to meet his fate.
But then he heard, “Install!”
Clang!
Iruka opened his eyes, and standing there was Naruto. However he looked completely different. He wore a strange, one piece breast plate that covered his front and back fastened with leather, along with two metal plates covering his upper thighs. He also wore a blue tunic underneath which he wore under his armor but covering his gauntlet, along with more armor around his legs which connected with knee protection and down onto metal shoes that went up his chins.
The blonde boy was also holding an invisible weapon surrounded by a blue shimmering mist. He was looking down at Mizuki with cold eyes as he pointed the weapon at Mizuki’s neck and said, “Touch Iruka-sensei again, and you will die!”
Mizuki remained frozen in fear as he supported himself on one hand while the other was raised in surrender.
However, ninja wire wrapped around the traitor, as a voice called out, “Good Job, Uzumaki-kun. I'll take it from here.”
Naruto looked up to see a man with gravity defying silver hair, with only one visible black eye, at the other was covered by his crooked Konoha headband, and the rest of his face was covered by a mask.
And of course, the man was wearing the standard Konoha Infantry Uniform consisting of a dark navy blue shirt with the red spiral on either side, aling with dark navy blue pants and the flak jacket all chunin and jonin wore.
Then the man spoke with a cheerful tone, and closing his one eye giving a smiling impression as he said, “So why don’t you go home for the night, I’m sure the Hokage will want to speak to you in the morning once things have calmed down.”