Chapter Text
Naruto was used to failure by now, but that didn't make him feel any better about walking out of the Academy empty handed. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the new genin surrounding him, flashing their hitai-ate at proud family members while he stood alone again, a failure.
The scene was stupidly picture-perfect, and so completely foreign to Naruto that he might as well have been looking at an abstract painting. He could stare at it for hours and never make any sense of it.
Naruto caught Sasuke's eyes across the courtyard, and the other boy was the only other one in the yard who'd been pasted into the happy scene. Even with the sun glaring off the shiny metal plate on his forehead, Sasuke's eyes were unreadable as ever, but the empty space around him spoke volumes on its own. For a moment, Naruto could picture Sasuke standing next to him staring at the same abstract art.
"Hey, Naruto?"
Startled, the boy's attention was stolen for barely a moment, but when he looked back, Sasuke was gone. Unsettled, Naruto forced his attention back to his teacher. "What is it, Mizuki-sensei?"
The gray-haired man bent down until he was level with Naruto's wary gaze. "How are you feeling, kid?" Mizuki clapped his student solidly on the shoulder and flashed his teeth in a reassuring grin. "I can't imagine what it feels like to be left behind again. You try harder than anyone, but you've never been able to get yourself past that bunshin." Mizuki sighed, deep and long, as he leaned back to stand at his full height. The chūnin crossed his arms as he looked down his nose at the boy in front of him. "With the way you are, I don't think you'll ever be able to get the kind of proper control over yourself, of your chakra, to make a bunshin. I honestly wonder if you'll ever be to pass with the test the way it is."
Even after all the humiliation and shame of his failure, Naruto hadn't let himself shed a tear, but it was the confirmation that his teacher didn't believe in him that made his eyes prickle. "Do you seriously think I can't become a genin?"
"Well," something strange passed over Mizuki's face, "I don't think you can pass the test, but..." The man's eyes swept across the crowd around them, lingering on the distant forms of the other adults before he beckoned Naruto closer to whisper, "I'll let you in on a secret. There's a secret test only for some very special students. Kids who will never pass the normal exam, kids like you who have something unique inside them, something the village could really use. I really believe you can do this right, Naruto. Will you take the special test?"
Everyone already knew he'd failed, and nothing could take that back, could stop the mockery he'd definitely face if he ever stumbled across anyone from his class in town. He'd never be able to erase his failures, but once he was a ninja, maybe he'd finally be able to force people to take him seriously. So, he forced his frustration aside and saluted his teacher with a grin. "I won't let you down Mizuki-sensei, dattebayo!"
__________________________________________________________________
*
An hour later, Naruto was sitting over the scroll in the woods. He was sweaty and covered in grass stains and happier than he had ever been. He had been able to make the three clones required to pass the genin exam and more. So much more. Nothing had ever come as naturally to the child as the shadow clone jutsu. After years of trying, he had found something he was good at! He was smiling so wide his cheeks hurt, and he just kept smiling through the ache.
All I need is for Mizuki-sensei to get here-
As quick as a breath of air, a sharp blade was pressed over his kidney, and an arm wrapped around his throat.
"You did such a good job, Naruto," Mizuki breathed against his ear. "It appears that you can be a good student if you're motivated properly."
"What do you-"
The arm wrapped across his throat pressed roughly against Naruto's trachea, cutting off the flow of air. "No talking right now. You'd be dead if I wanted you to be, but I think I'd like to draw this out. I want to see the pain in your eyes when I tell you the truth. Then, I want to watch the light leave your eyes as I kill you."
The truth? Naruto clawed desperately at the arm against his throat as his face purpled, but his nails found no purchase in the tough fabric of the chūnin's uniform shirt. What is he talking about?
"I bet it won't take long for everyone to learn what happened tonight," Mizuki sneered, "about how I had to end the life of my very own student after he decided to betray Konoha. Really, it wouldn't take very much to convince people that a demon went rogue in the end with the way people have been chomping at the bit to complete the Yondaime's final act. And in the chaos of it all, no one would notice me keeping a copy of the Scroll of Seals for myself."
In one quick motion, Mizuki grabbed Naruto by the front on the shirt and slammed his back against a nearby tree. "It's an S-rank secret you know. I could die for telling you this, but I think it's worth it." Mizuki twirled his kunai smoothly before pressing it against the boy's throat as he leaned in with a snide grin. "Twelve years ago on October tenth, the demon Kyūbi attacked our peaceful little village. We were told that the Yondaime sacrificed himself and defeated the mighty demon. But as a last act of desperation, the Kyūbi managed to turn itself into a little baby, the picture of innocence! The Sandaime, filled with infirmity in his old age, granted the demon mercy and forced the Village to do the same."
Naruto's jaw went slack with horror.
"That's right! What a clever student you are!" Mizuki's voice was slick as oil as he tore Naruto's world apart with nothing but cruel words. "It was our very own Naruto, Konoha's own baby monster! Our loved ones had been crushed or burned or eaten, but little Naruto got away scot-free. You were a mockery of what we'd lost, and we were required by the Sandaime on pain of death to treat you just like everyone else."
Mizuki readjusted his grip so he could yank Naruto by the front of his jacket up until they were face to face, and his piercing glare bore down so hard that Naruto could feel it in his soul. "Everyone knew except you, boy, and everyone hated you. Poor Iruka was the saddest case. He hated you more than anyone for taking his parents, yet he was forced to deal with you hanging off him like a little leech." Mizuki leaned his weight into the kunai still pressed against the bare skin of Naruto's neck, and a drop of blood trickled down his throat. "Have a good time dying, Kyūbi. I bet the village will have a fucking parade."
A flicker of movement drew Naruto's attention as his other teacher appeared from the dense tree line, allowing himself to feel the barest hint of hope when panic flashed across Iruka's face.
Following the shift in Naruto's gaze, Mizuki turned his head to look over his shoulder, and his grin grew even more bloodthirsty when he saw who'd interrupted them. "Come to watch me finish off your little tormentor, did you?"
A million thoughts passed over Iruka's face before he settled into a pleading stare as he stepped forward with his hands raised pacifyingly. "I know he stole the scroll Mizuki, but there's no reason to kill a child. You found him, so we can all go to the Hokage and sort things out properly."
Mizuki rolled his eyes, grunting his irritation. With a sudden THUNK that shook Naruto to his bones, he skewered his kunai through the shoulder of the boy's jacket and into the tree behind him, leaving Naruto dangling off the ground by the loose fabric as Mizuki turned to address the other man. "We both know this isn't a child. I'm going to kill a demon, and the whole damn Village will thank me for it." When Iruka's expression didn't change, Mizuki grabbed Naruto by the hair yanking painfully as he jabbed a finger in the boy's face. "Don't tell me this face fooled you too? After everything it's done to you? After it killed your parents? Gave you that scar?"
Iruka's forehead creased as he took careful, slow steps closer. "Naruto didn't kill anybody. I learned that a long time ago."
Mizuki sneered. "Come on, Iruka. I'm just finishing what you started all those years ago. What you didn't have the resolve to do."
The other chūnin shifted his attention away to address the boy still hanging prone. "Naruto, you need to hear this," he called in a soothing voice. "I don't know what Mizuki told you, but you're not the demon. It's true that the Yondaime couldn’t kill it the day you were born. He hasd to seal it, and he chose to seal it inside you. But you are your own person. I need you to understand that."
The other chūnin shifted his attention away to address the boy still hanging prone. "Naruto, you need to hear this," he called in a soothing voice. "I don't know what Mizuki told you, but you're not the demon. It's true that the Yondaime couldn’t kill it the day you were born. He hasd to seal it, and he chose to seal it inside you. But you are your own person. I need you to understand that."
Mizuki snarled at that. "Stop that! He doesn't deserve any of your sympathy! After all the pain he's caused us!"
Sadness softened Iruka's face as he took in the frenzied expression on his friend's face. "Naruto has never caused me pain. If you think you're helping me by doing this, then you're wrong. He's clever and kind and has only brought joy to my life, and you need to let him go."
With Mizuki's attention turned away from him, Naruto's eyes searched the clearing desperately, frantically, for anything that he could use to free himself. The moment he found his lifeline, his eyes lit up.
"It's tricked you! Let me kill it now before it-"
"Kawarimi!"
Mizuki jumped backwards as the boy next to him was replaced by a rotting log. "Shit, where-"
The blonde stepped out from behind Iruka with a defiant grin tugging at his cheeks. "I don't know what you're talking about Mizuki, but I know you can't talk to Iruka-sensei like that!"
Relief passed over Iruka's face before the chūnin jolted into action, grabbing the forbidden scroll which had until then been left forgotten on the forest floor, shoving it into Naruto's arms, and ushering him towards the tree line. "You need to run, Naruto! Run until you find a jōnin!"
With his fists clenched at his sides, Naruto studied Iruka's face for a long moment, taking in the urgency in his teacher's eyes. Then without another word, Naruto took off into the woods.
"Don't think you can get away from me, demon!"
Naruto dodged between the trees, barely able to hear branches cracking behind him growing louder and louder as his blood rushed through his ears.
The trees crunched overhead, and Naruto flinched when Mizuki dropped down from the trees and materialized a fuma shuriken. "Just give it here demon brat, and I'll make your death quick. You won't feel a thing."
Trembling, Naruto took a step back and tripped over his feet, landing in a painful sprawl on the hard ground. "I don't-"
The chūnin shrugged as his eyes hardened. "I guess it doesn't really matter to me one way or the other."
The man wound his arm back, fuma shuriken raised high in the air, and Naruto squeezed his eyes shut before the man could let it fly.
SHICK!
He flinched at the noise, bracing for pain... But the pain never came. Naruto opened one eye warily, then the other as he raised his head to take in Iruka's smiling face before he yelped in horror when he finally saw the fuma shuriken sticking out of his back. "Sensei," he gasped weakly, "why would you..."
Iruka roughly shoved Naruto to his feet. "Please, keep running Naruto. Don't worry about me."
Naruto swallowed around the lump in his throat. In all honesty, running sounded like the best idea in the world. But how could he ever live with himself if he fled, leaving Iruka to die after the man was injured protecting him? Naruto swallowed back his fear and raised his head to look Iruka in the eyes. "I know, Sensei. But it's my fault we're in this mess, and a real ninja doesn't let other people clean up after them."
Naruto hid his hand seals with Iruka's body and forced down a grin when he saw orange pop into sight high in the trees above him.
Mizuki snorted. "You think you stand a chance against a chūnin, demon brat? You can't even make a proper bunshin." With startling accuracy, Mizuki threw a kunai which planted itself in Naruto's chest-
Only for Naruto to dispel.
"How-"
Naruto dropped down from his new position in the treetops behind Mizuki. He grinned viciously, and the low light flashed across his canines. "What was that about not making a bunshin, Sensei? Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
All at once, a hundred Naruto's flooded the clearing as a dangerous, oppressive chakra filled the air. "You've underestimated me, Mizuki. Now, I'm going to beat your ass." The clones rushed Mizuki in a wave of orange bodies. He was wrestled to the ground and buried under the weight of a swarm of twelve-year-olds.
From his position sprawled on the ground, Iruka could only stare at the pile of orange jumpsuits in awe. "Naruto... You've grown so much."
In a matter of minutes, the clearing had become a mess of uprooted grass and mud, and in the middle, a heavily injured chūnin laid defeated on the ground. Iruka was staring at Mizuki's form in shock as Naruto chattered away in his ear. "I think I have to correct something Naruto. I need you to close your eyes."
Naruto folded his hands in his lap and closed his eyes. He could hear Iruka-sensei shuffle in front of him and a piece of fabric brushed against his face.
"Open your eyes." Naruto reached up and felt the metal over his forehead. Could it really be... He opened his eyes and looked at Iruka's uncovered face. It really is.
"Iruka-sensei..." With a watery smile, Naruto wrapped himself around his teacher like an octopus. "You believe in me."
After a comfortable moment, Iruka ruffled Naruto's hair. "You know Naruto, somebody's going to have to clean up this clearing."
"But-"
Iruka shut Naruto up with a stern glare. "I thought a real ninja didn't let other people clean up after them. You can't go back on your words now that you've made genin."
Naruto sniffled and pressed his palms against his eyes. "I guess I really can't, huh."