Under the night, Training Ground Seven was unusually still.
A small figure slipped out of the trees, a giant scroll slung over his shoulder—comically large against his frame.
Naruto.
He made sure to look a little winded, face mixing "guilty" nerves with the thrill of success.
He thumped the massive Book of Seals onto the ground and shouted into the empty grove:
"Mizuki-sensei! I brought it! I got the Book of Seals!"
His voice carried far through the quiet.
A shadow dropped soundlessly from the trunk behind him.
Mizuki.
The warm smile he wore by day was gone, replaced by a twisted, barely contained ecstasy. His eyes locked on the huge scroll with a ravenous gleam—like a starving wolf sighting a lamb.
"Excellent! Naruto, well done!" His excitement sharpened his voice to a near-shriek. "Quick, open it! Let me see the first forbidden technique!"
"Okay!" Naruto squatted down like an eager kid craving praise—he was a kid, after all—and reached to unseal the scroll.
Mizuki crept closer, step by step.
He'd planned it already.
The instant Naruto undid the seal, Mizuki would strike—one blow to kill—snatch the scroll, and vanish into the night.
A perfect plan.
Three steps left.
His hand was already rising to kill.
He stared at the unguarded back of Naruto's head; murder flashed cold in his eyes.
Good-bye, son of the Fourth. Your naivety will forge my greatness.
Then—just as his fingers were about to touch Naruto—
A gold flash.
No warning.
It lanced between Mizuki and Naruto, pausing time itself.
The outstretched wrist was caught—lightly, almost casually—by a warm, iron-strong hand.
Mizuki could not move.
A man in the Fourth Hokage's divine cloak stood where no one had stood a heartbeat ago—as if he'd warped into being—putting his whole body between Naruto and danger.
Short golden hair. A tall, familiar back.
Mizuki's mind went blank.
"F-f-Fourth… Milord…?"
Terror shredded his voice. He yanked at his wrist like he'd seen a ghost, but that hand was a clamp of steel.
Namikaze Minato turned—not to Mizuki, not yet—but to glance at Naruto behind him, confirming his boy was unharmed. Only then did those ice-blue, expressionless eyes fall on the man already scared out of his soul.
"Mizuki."
His voice was calm, but it blew across Mizuki like the chill of the ninth hell, turning blood to slush.
"You thought this little trick could fool anyone?"
"My son isn't trash from the gutters for you to use at will."
Exposed.
All of it—exposed.
This wasn't Naruto's naivety. It was a trap.
A trap the Fourth Hokage himself had set, and Mizuki had walked into it step by step.
"N-no… impossible… H-how did you—?" Mizuki's scream dissolved into babble as his mind frayed.
Minato didn't waste another word. His wrist snapped; force like a hammer hurled Mizuki away.
Mizuki tumbled, rolled, skidded—finally scraped to a stop.
He knew it was over.
Caught by the Fourth in the act—no way out.
Despair curdled into madness.
"AAAAAH!"
He howled like a beast. Cornered, he ripped every shuriken and kunai from his pouch and hurled the whole storm at father and son.
Minato didn't even bother to move.
He only turned a little and spoke over his shoulder, steady as ever:
"Naruto."
"Show him what your training has earned."
"Yes, Father!"
The "naive kid" peeled away like a mask. At his father's order, Naruto's eyes sharpened.
"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Mass Shadow Clone Technique)!"
With a shout, his hands blurred through seals.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Three identical clones burst into being around him.
The thrown steel screamed in, only to be parried and flicked aside by crisp, precise taijutsu from the clones.
Mizuki gaped.
Mass Shadow Clone Technique?
The brat could use an A-rank forbidden art?
He was nowhere near done.
While the three clones rushed him from different angles to shred his focus—
Naruto's real body raised his right hand.
"Move!"
He barked at his clones.
They sprang aside, and Mizuki found himself fully exposed, panic widening his eyes.
In Naruto's palm, blue chakra swelled—gathering and spinning, faster and faster—visible to the naked eye.
A sphere snapped into shape.
It swelled. And swelled.
A dense, roaring orb of blue—bigger than Naruto's own head—stabilized in his palm, its shriek of slicing air scraping the ground into cracking lines.
Oodama Rasengan (Big Ball Spiral Sphere).
"Mizuki-sensei…" Naruto called across to him, mischief tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"This is the one you said was a hundred times stronger than Rasengan (Spiral Sphere), right?"
He lunged.
To Mizuki's terror-slowed eyes, Naruto became a gold streak.
He tried to move, but the clones' feints and the crushing pressure of the Rasengan locked him in place.
The blue sun filled his pupils.
And then—
Naruto drove the Oodama Rasengan into his chest.
"Rasengan!"
No thunderous explosion.
Just a breath of absolute silence.
Then the irresistible drill of rotation erupted inside Mizuki, turning bones to splinters.
He flew like a baseball off the bat—plowing through five, six, seven trees before slamming into a boulder and embedding there like wet clay.
Cracks spider-webbed from the impact. Foam bubbled at his lips; his skeleton was powder. He didn't even manage a scream before unconsciousness swallowed him.
Naruto lowered his hand and let out a long breath.
Minato stepped to his side and ruffled his hair, satisfied.
"Good work, Naruto. Your chakra control's improved again."
He walked over to Mizuki, checked him, and nodded.
Grievous injuries—no mortal threat.
Minato drew a special sealing scroll from his robe, formed seals, and layered complex fūinjutsu across Mizuki's body—locking down chakra and movement alike.
Done, he grabbed Mizuki like a sack and lifted him with one hand.
He glanced at the huge Book of Seals resting on the earth and quirked a small smile.
"All right, Naruto."
"Time to bring the 'stolen goods' and the 'witness' to report a very serious 'forbidden scroll theft' to Grandpa Third."
A sting scripted by Namikaze Shinju from the shadows—and starring father and son—closed to perfection.
(End of Chapter)
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