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Moonlight slipped through the open window, pale and quiet, spilling across the small apartment. It settled on the figure lying awake on the bed, illuminating brown hair and the thin scar that cut across the bridge of his nose.
Iruka Umino stared at the ceiling, sleep refusing to come. His thoughts, as they often did lately, circled back to Naruto.
The boy he had failed earlier that day during the Genin Exam. The same boy who, despite multiple chances, still could not perform a simple Clone Jutsu.
Iruka exhaled slowly.
His feelings about Naruto were complicated. More complicated than he liked to admit. When Naruto had first entered the Academy, Iruka had hated him. Not because of anything the boy had done, but because of what he represented. Naruto was a walking reminder of the night Iruka had lost everything.
Twelve years ago.
Iruka had been a child then, standing at the edge of a world that was falling apart.
He remembered the Nine-Tails.
It was enormous, larger than the buildings it crushed beneath its claws. Its fur was the color of burning embers, its eyes like twin suns filled with rage. Each roar shook the air itself, rattling his bones and drowning out every other sound. The ground had trembled constantly that night. Houses collapsed. Fires spread unchecked. Smoke filled the sky until it blotted out the stars.
Iruka could still hear the voices.
Shinobi shouting orders. Screams of civilians. Someone yelling that they had to hold the line until the Hokage arrived.
In the middle of it all, Iruka had clung to his parents.
His mother had knelt in front of him. His father had stood behind them, already wearing his flak jacket, eyes fixed on the distant chaos.
"We'll protect you," his mother had said, forcing a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
His father had nodded. "It's a parent's duty to keep their child safe."
Iruka had believed them.
Then someone had grabbed him.
He never even saw the shinobi's face. Just strong arms lifting him off the ground, pulling him away while he struggled and screamed.
"Let me go!" he had cried. "My mom and dad are still fighting the demon!"
He remembered reaching for them as they grew smaller and smaller in the distance, swallowed by smoke and fire.
That was the last time he ever saw them.
The memory still echoed in his mind, sharp and unrelenting, even now.
Naruto was the jailer of that same demon. The container that held the Nine-Tails sealed away. Any shinobi worth their salt knew the difference between a weapon and the seal that contained it. Naruto was not the fox.
And yet.
It didn't change the fact that every time Iruka looked at him, he saw that night. The destruction, fear and loss. Naruto was a reminder of the tragedy the Nine-Tails had inflicted on the village, on him.
Iruka wondered, not for the first time, if that was all Naruto would have ever been to him if not for the Third Hokage. "I understand how you feel about the boy. But you must see him as more than the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki. He is a lonely child. Just like you once were."
As the years passed, as Naruto continued to show up to class every day with that loud voice and forced grin, those words began to sink in.
Naruto was lonely... painfully so.
Iruka had been glad when the Third assigned Naruto to his class. He told himself he would be strict but professional. That he would treat Naruto no differently than any other student. If Naruto was going to become a shinobi, then he would earn it properly. And yet, no matter how much effort he put in, Naruto still failed the graduation exam.
Maybe… maybe he should have done more. Maybe he should have offered extra lessons. One-on-one tutoring. Something to help the boy bridge the gap.
The thought barely finished forming when a loud bang echoed through the apartment.
Iruka jolted upright as the knock came again. He moved quickly, crossing the room and opening the door. Mizuki stood on the other side, his expression tight.
"What's up?"
"I'm afraid it's Naruto," Mizuki said. "He's stolen the Forbidden Scroll of Seals. The Hokage has issued an order for his immediate capture."
Iruka's stomach dropped. This wasn't a prank. This wasn't another instance of Naruto acting out. Stealing the Scroll of Seals was treason. The kind of crime that got people killed.
Naruto was in danger.
"We have witnesses that saw Naruto heading toward the western forest."
Iruka grabbed his flak jacket and headband, pulling them on as he moved.
"I'll head there first," he said. "You circle around. Make sure he hasn't doubled back or gone farther than we expect."
"Be careful."
Iruka was already moving, leaping across rooftops as worry gnawed at his chest.
Please, Naruto, he thought. Don't let this be the night you lose everything too.
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Naruto stood in a small clearing, the Scroll of Seals unrolled before him, its massive length spilling across the forest floor.
Every inhale felt like a choice he had to consciously make, like his body had forgotten the rhythm and was waiting for instruction. He kept expecting to blink out. To scatter into smoke the way his clones did when they took a hit too hard.
He had died a few minutes ago.
The darkness had been real. The nothing had been real. And now he was standing in a forest with moonlight on his hands and air in his lungs, and none of it felt... real.
"Naruto!" Iruka landed hard behind him, anger and fear twisting on his face.
The boy didn't respond, which stopped Iruka cold.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble you are in?"
Still nothing.
A knot formed in Iruka's stomach. His hands closed around Naruto's shoulders as he turned him around.
Naruto's eyes were open but not seeing.
His mind was still somewhere else. Still in that last moment before the nothing took him.
Everyone knew death existed.
You grew up knowing it the way you knew the sky was above you, constant and unreachable and never quite real until it wasn't.
He had expected pain. He had expected fear. Every story he had ever heard about death made it sound like the worst thing imaginable.
It hadn't been.
The other side had been... quiet.
He didn't know what to do with that. Didn't know how to pick it up and carry it back into a world that was still moving, still loud, still full of Iruka's hands on his shoulders.
None of it fit together yet.
The part that unsettled him most wasn't the dying.
It was how peaceful it had been.
Iruka didn't know any of that. All he saw was a boy standing still in the forest, eyes weighed down by something far too big for him.
"Naruto," Iruka said, gentler now. "Talk to me. What did you do?"
Naruto's eyes finally focused, slowly, as if the world were sliding back into place. "I…" His voice came out hoarse. "I'm… alive."
Before Iruka could ask anything else, the kunai burst from the darkness.
Iruka shoved Naruto aside as steel tore into his own body. Pain exploded through his shoulder and side as the blades struck, driving him backward. He hit the ground hard, blood soaking into the dirt.
"Seriously," Mizuki said landing lightly on a tree branch above them. "You just had to go and save the demon brat."
Iruka pushed himself up on one elbow, glaring. "So that's how it is."
"Naruto. Hand over the scroll."
Naruto blinked, his mind still foggy.
"Don't," Iruka said, ripping the kunai from his flesh with a grunt. "Protect that scroll with your life. Those jutsu are more dangerous than anything you or I can imagine. Mizuki used you. He wants its power for himself."
"Don't listen to him, Naruto. He's been lying to you your entire life."
Iruka's eyes widened. "No. Mizuki, don't. That's forbidden."
"Lying?" Naruto looked between them, confusion giving way to something sharper. "What's forbidden?"
"The truth was sealed by decree from the Third Hokage. Do you know why the whole village hates you?"
Naruto had always felt their stares and whispers. Parents pulling their children away. He'd told himself it was because he was an orphan that caused trouble. But no one ever explained why.
"Yeah?"
"No, Mizuki, stop!" Iruka shouted.
"Roughly twelve years ago," Mizuki continued, ignoring him, "the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked Konoha. The Fourth Hokage couldn't kill it, so he sealed it into the body of a newborn baby."
Naruto's breath caught.
"And that baby was you."
Everything about the way others had treated him suddenly made sense.
"That's why everyone despises you," Mizuki laughed. "You're the demon fox."
The world seemed to tilt.
Demon.
His mind betrayed him, dragging up the image of the Asylum Demon.
Was he like that monster?
Mizuki grinned, pulling a giant shuriken from his back. "And now I'll kill you and become a hero."
The giant shuriken tore through the air, spinning fast enough to scream.
Iruka moved without thinking.
Despite the blood soaking through his vest and the pain screaming through his muscles, he forced his legs to obey, sprinting toward Naruto with everything he had left. He threw himself between the boy and the weapon, arms already lifting in a desperate attempt to shield him.
At that moment, Naruto felt the familiar pull behind his eyes. The strange sensation of detachment, like his awareness had been lifted out of his body and set just above the battlefield. The Knight's Crest flared to life, invisible but absolute.
Naruto saw Iruka's trajectory before he finished the step. Saw the angle of the shuriken, the arc it would take, the precise point where it would tear through flesh.
No.
Ninja Art: Shadow Clone Jutsu!
Dozens of Naruto burst into existence in a tight formation between Iruka and the incoming shuriken. Their shields came up in unison.
The fuma-shuriken struck.
Metal shrieked against astoran steel as the clones absorbed the impact, the weapon grinding to a halt before clattering uselessly to the forest floor. Several clones vanished instantly, bursting into smoke, but the wall held.
Silence followed.
Iruka skidded to a stop, staring.
"That was… the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu?"
An A-rank forbidden technique that had been learned in hours. And yet his eyes kept drifting to the crest shield.
"Where did that come from…?" Iruka murmured.
A slow clap echoed from the trees.
"How noble of you, Iruka," Mizuki said from the treez. "Throwing yourself in front of your family's murderer."
"Shut up."
Mizuki's hands began weaving signs. "Don't you see? The brat already learned a forbidden jutsu. With the scroll, he'll be unstoppable. It's only a matter of time before the Kyuubi uses that power to destroy Konoha."
"Shut the hell up," Iruka snarled. "You hypocrite."
Mizuki clicked his tongue. "You never see the big picture. This is your chance for revenge. Join me. We kill the brat, take the scroll, and leave. Power beyond anything we've dreamed of will be ours."
For the first time since learning the truth, Naruto didn't know what to expect.
Did Iruka hate him?
"It's true," Iruka said quietly. "I hate the fox."
Naruto's stomach dropped.
"But not Naruto."
The words landed like a hand on his shoulder.
"For him, I have nothing but respect for him."
Naruto's eyes widened.
"He's an excellent student," Iruka continued. "He works harder than anyone I know. Sometimes he's awkward and clumsy. A screw-up."
Mizuki scoffed, but Iruka didn't stop.
"He's been mocked, shunned and treated like garbage. And you know what that gave him?"
Iruka looked at Naruto.
"Empathy. He knows what it means to be in pain."
Iruka turned fully toward Mizuki.
"That boy is no demon fox."
His voice thundered.
"He is Uzumaki Naruto. The future Hokage of Konoha!"
Mizuki screamed in fury. "Then die together!"
He inhaled sharply.
Fire Style: Fireworks Jutsu!
An orb of flame burst from his mouth and detonated midair, scattering into dozens of blazing fragments that rained down like shrapnel. The remaining clones raised their shields, absorbing the blasts before popping in clouds of smoke.
"Okay, Naruto," Iruka said quickly. "I'll hold him off. You grab the scroll and run back to the village."
Naruto however moved forward, "Don't worry, sensei. It's the duty of a knight to vanquish evil."
The astora straight sword materialized in Naruto's hand.
Iruka stared. Was that… space-time ninjutsu?
Before he could think further, Mizuki burst from the smoke in a flying kick aimed straight at Naruto's head. Naruto didn't block as the kick passed through him.
Iruka's eyes widened. "A clone!"
Mizuki was using the lingering chakra vapor as cover. The Academy Clone had been nothing more than a distraction. The real attack came from below, hidden in the smoke. Shuriken linked by ninja wire skimmed across the ground, snapping toward Naruto's legs, meant to bind, pull, and bring him crashing down.
Iruka recognized the setup instantly. "Down!" he shouted, already snapping through hand signs.
Naruto reacted without hesitation, jumping upward.
Midair, the Knight's Crest flared once more. He saw the ninja wire shuriken arcing low through the smoke, and pinpointed Mizuki's position near the tree beyond it. The Astora Straight Sword vanished from his grip, replaced by the solid weight of a handaxe. Naruto twisted in the air and hurled it in one smooth motion.
The axe tore through the thinning fog and struck with a heavy thud.
As the smoke cleared, the blade could be seen buried deep in the tree trunk, embedded inches from Mizuki's head.
Iruka stared in disbelief.
How was Naruto seeing everything so clearly?
Mizuki bared his teeth and surged forward, killing intent radiating off him in waves.
The Astora Straight Sword equipped into Naruto's hand with a thought.
Mizuki closed the distance aggressively, kunai flashing in both hands. He used his longer reach and heavier frame to crowd Naruto, forcing him backward with raw pressure rather than finesse. A downward cut snapped toward Naruto's collarbone, driving him into a quick retreat. Before Naruto's foot had even settled, the second kunai thrust in low, aimed for his ribs.
The sword snapped out in a short, controlled cut, aimed at Mizuki's forward wrist.
The white haired chunin recoiled just in time, the blade shaving fabric instead of flesh.
"Tch."
Snarling, Mizuki rushed forward, abandoning clean technique in favor of speed and volume, kunai stabbing in rapid succession. Naruto kept moving, feet never still, always adjusting measure. He met one strike in a bind, guided it aside rather than stopping it dead, then ducked under the next, the sword snapping back into guard the moment the exchange ended.
Oscar's voice echoed in his head. Recover as fast as you strike.
Naruto flicked out another light cut, a compact horizontal slice that forced Mizuki to twist away. The blade was already back in line, point forward in a simple stance.
Mizuki dropped his center of gravity and lunged in shoulder-first, abandoning blade work entirely. His mass slammed into Naruto, driving the air from his lungs and knocking him back several steps. Dirt kicked up as Naruto struggled to keep his footing.
Mizuki capitalized immediately, stepping through the collision and stabbing downward with all his weight behind the kunai.
Naruto planted his rear foot, shifted his grip, and committed.
Both hands locked onto the hilt as he delivered a descending cut, a full-bodied strike driven by hips and shoulders rather than arms alone. The blade didn't land cleanly, but it crashed into Mizuki's forearm and weapon, battering the kunai aside with bone-jarring force.
Mizuki hissed and leapt back, barely saving his arm.
Naruto felt the cost instantly.
The strike had been powerful, but slow. His arms lagged as he recovered, muscles screaming as the sword came back into guard a fraction too late.
Mizuki saw it and smiled.
"Too slow."
He surged forward, ready to punish the opening.
Before he could, Iruka slammed his palm into the ground.
Ninja Art: String Light Formation!
Fuinjutsu symbols flared outward from Iruka's hand, glowing lines spreading across the forest floor like a net. Mizuki cursed and leapt upward, narrowly avoiding the barrier jutsu as it snapped into place below.
That was when Naruto's palm ignited in flames.
Fireball!
Naruto thrust his pyromancy flame forward.
A mass of fire erupted from his palm. Mizuki twisted midair and made a desperate hand sign.
Fire Style: Fire Resistance Jutsu!
Chakra flowed over his body, forming a thin protective layer.
It didn't matter.
Naruto's fire wasn't chakra. It was a flame born of chaos.
The explosion swallowed Mizuki midair.
He crashed to the ground in a rolling heap, screaming as fire tore across him. His flak jacket burned away, fabric disintegrating, skin blistering instantly. Angry red burns spread across his arms and torso, patches of flesh charred black, others bubbling painfully. He staggered upright, panting, smoke rising from his body.
"I'll kill you!" Mizuki screamed, hurling shuriken wildly.
Naruto jumped, clearing the blades as they buried themselves in the dirt.
Midair, the iron ball left his inventory.
It appeared above Mizuki who was distracted by Naruto landing before him.
Then gravity did the rest.
The iron ball slammed down with catastrophic force, crushing into Mizuki's back and driving him into the ground with a wet, bone-shattering impact. His spine snapped audibly. The earth cratered beneath him.
Silence followed.
Mizuki lay there, barely breathing, body twisted unnaturally.
Naruto approached slowly, sword in hand.
Mizuki looked up at him, tears cutting clean tracks through soot and blood. "P-Please," he croaked. "Naruto… remember when I… when I brought you ramen… when I—" His voice broke. "Please... spare me…"
The sword came down with a sickening crack, the edge splitting through Mizuki's skull in two.
Iruka stood frozen as the reality of his old friend's death finally sank in, made all the more unsettling by the look on Naruto's face.
It was emptiness.
Just a flat, distant calm, like killing had already been reduced to a task that either succeeded or failed.
For a long moment, Iruka could only stare. This Naruto didn't look like the boy who had shouted and laughed and painted the Hokage Monument just yesterday. He looked… older. Not wiser. Just worn in a way Iruka didn't have words for.
Iruka's eyes drifted to the sword, shield and fire still curling faintly around Naruto's hand. The massive iron ball half-buried in the earth.
Did all of that really come from the Forbidden Scroll?
He didn't know.
And if it did… then why did it feel like the Naruto standing there wasn't quite the same boy he had known?
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[ Victory Achieved! ]
[ You have gained: ]
[ Fūma Shuriken 2 ]
[ 200 Souls ]
The blood was already drying on his hands.
Naruto stared at them. Turned them over once, then back. The lines of his palms were dark with it, filling the creases like ink pressed into a woodblock seal.
He waited.
He wasn't sure what he was waiting for. Some part of him had expected something to arrive by now. Nausea maybe. The desperate need to be somewhere else. He'd felt all of that after his clones were wiped out by the Stray Demon's blast. Thousands of deaths flooding back into him at once, each one a pale echo of the real thing.
This felt nothing like that.
He looked at Mizuki then he looked away.
That was all it was. Looking, and then not looking. Like stepping around a puddle on the way to somewhere else. He had split a man's skull and the most honest thing he could say was that he was tired.
That should have frightened him.
It didn't.
And the absence of fear was the only thing that came close.
Everything was happening too fast. His thoughts scattered, slipping over each other, refusing to settle. But one name cut through the noise.
Oscar.
He had to go back. He had to save his teacher… his friend. But how? How did he get here in the first place? There was no clear answer, no path in front of him. Just blood and confusion.
Hollows, Oscar, that world… how do I get back? Where was I supposed to go from here?