Chapter 4 – A Thousand Narutos
Naruto didn't know how long he ran.
Branches whipped at his face, roots tried to trip him, and his lungs burned, but he kept going until his legs finally gave out and he crashed behind a thick tree, out of sight.
He hugged his knees and pressed his forehead against them, breathing hard.
The ghostly number floated in front of his eyes, faint but clear.
1000
It looked… small.
"Stupid number…" he muttered, voice shaking. "Stupid Mizuki… stupid me…"
Fox. Monster. Demon brat.
The words circled in his head like angry birds. He dug his fingers into the dirt.
"Why… why didn't anyone tell me…?" he whispered.
Leaves rustled faintly in the distance. Somewhere far behind him, metal clashed, someone shouted. He couldn't make out the words, but he knew it was them. Iruka and Mizuki.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
"Just go!" Iruka had yelled. "I'll hold him here!"
Naruto's chest twisted.
He sat there, doing absolutely nothing. Just breathing. Just shaking.
The number twitched.
1100
He didn't notice at first.
Time dragged. His breath slowed from frantic gasps to uneven huffs. The horrible heavy feeling in his chest didn't go away, but the burning in his legs and arms slowly eased.
1200
1300
The sounds of the fight drifted on the wind. Every so often he heard a grunt, a crash, a shout.
He told himself not to listen.
He listened anyway.
"He's right," Mizuki's voice carried faintly. "…that monster—"
"You're wrong!" Iruka's shout cut through, fierce and raw even from far away. "Naruto isn't the fox! He's a member of this village! He's my student!"
Naruto's fingers twitched.
The number crawled again.
1600
1700
Iruka's student.
He remembered Iruka yelling at him. Hitting him on the head. Buying him ramen. Tying his forehead protector too tight that one time during practice. Sitting with him when everyone else stayed away.
"If you're going to pull a prank, at least do it properly," Iruka had grumbled once, lips twitching like he wanted to smile.
Naruto swallowed hard.
Another distant crash. Another pained sound that might have been Iruka.
The number climbed.
2000
2100
Mizuki's voice floated faintly through the trees again, sharper this time.
"Why do you protect him?! He's the thing that killed your parents! He's the Nine-Tails!"
Naruto flinched like he'd been hit.
He waited for Iruka to agree.
Instead, Iruka's voice came back even louder, cutting through the leaves and into Naruto's chest.
"No!" Iruka roared. "Naruto is Naruto! You think you're the only one who's suffered?! You think you're the only one who's lost people?!"
Naruto's breath caught.
The number eased upward.
2300
2400
"When I look at Naruto," Iruka shouted, "I don't see the fox! I see a kid who's alone and hurting, trying his best to get people to notice him! I see myself!"
Naruto's eyes stung.
"…You… idiot…" he whispered to himself. "Why're you saying cool stuff now…"
The ghost chakra number hovered, brighter than before.
2500
2600
He stared at it through blurry vision.
If that really is my chakra… then it's going up 'cause I'm just sitting here… doing nothing… letting Iruka-sensei get hurt…
Memories flickered: Iruka sitting with him in an empty classroom. Iruka buying him ramen with his own money. Iruka yelling at other teachers when they talked about Naruto like a problem.
More crashes. More grunts. A shout that sounded like pain.
Naruto grit his teeth.
2700
2800
He pushed himself up, legs still trembling but stronger than before. Bark dug into his palms as he leaned against the tree.
"Iruka-sensei… is fighting 'cause of me…" he muttered. "He's getting hurt 'cause of me…"
His heart pounded.
"I ran away… like an idiot…"
He turned, looking back through the trees in the direction he'd come from. Moonlight slipped between the branches like pale fingers.
The number floated in front of his gaze, steady now.
2900
3000
"If I keep sitting here, this'll just keep going up, right?" he muttered at it. "I'll feel better. But Iruka-sensei…"
He remembered the way Iruka had shouted, "He's my student!"
Something hot and stubborn pushed up through the fear.
Naruto clenched his fists so tight his nails dug into his skin.
"…I'm such an idiot," he said. "I'm not gonna sit here and cry while my teacher's out there. I'm gonna go back."
The decision settled in his chest like a stone. Heavy, but right.
He took a step forward. Then another. His legs protested, but they held.
As he walked, the number kept ticking upward.
3100
3200
3300
He wasn't sprinting now. He was moving steady, pushing branches aside, jumping over roots. Every breath hurt, but it hurt less than before.
He thought about the Shadow Clone Jutsu. About the scroll. About the warning that people with low chakra shouldn't use it.
He thought about the way the forest clearing had looked when he left Iruka behind.
He thought about Mizuki saying "monster," and Iruka shouting "student."
3400
Naruto gritted his teeth.
"Monster, huh…" he muttered. "If I'm such a monster… then I'll beat you up with everything I've got."
By the time he saw flickers of movement through the last line of trees, the number had crawled a bit higher.
3500
Naruto stared at it for a second, breathing hard.
"Okay," he whispered. "You're my chakra, right? If I try that clone jutsu with everything I have except… except the bottom bit…"
He didn't know the exact rules. He only knew that when the number hit that tiny "1000" mark, everything felt awful and the freeze broke on its own.
"Fine," he muttered. "You can't go under that, right? I'll use everything else. You stay there and don't let me die."
He stepped into the clearing.
---
Iruka was on his knees in the dirt, blood on his clothes, arms shaking as he tried to get up again. The massive shuriken had left a harsh gash; he was favoring one side, breathing ragged.
Mizuki stood a few meters away, smirking, another shuriken ready on his back.
"Just give it up," Mizuki sneered. "Hand over the scroll and I might let you die quickly."
Iruka spat blood on the ground and glared up at him.
"I won't let you touch Naruto," he rasped.
Mizuki scoffed. "You can't even stand, Iruka."
He pulled the big shuriken free and hefted it, muscles tensing.
"I'll kill you first," he said coldly. "Then I'll finish off the demon and take the scroll at my leisure."
He reared back, ready to throw.
A rock flew out of the trees and smacked him right in the side of the head.
"OW! What—?!"
Mizuki snapped his head around.
Naruto stepped out from the trees, panting, eyes shadowed, the Scroll of Seals strapped to his back.
Iruka's eyes widened. "Naruto?! I told you to run!"
Naruto ignored him.
The ghost chakra number hovered in front of his eyes.
3500
He glared straight at Mizuki.
"You lay one more finger on Iruka-sensei," he shouted, voice rough, "and I swear I'll beat you into the ground, dattebayo!"
Mizuki stared, then burst out laughing.
"You? Beat me?" he scoffed. "You're a failure who couldn't even make a proper clone in class. You're a monster who should've died years ago."
Naruto's jaw clenched.
He thought of Iruka throwing himself in front of that shuriken. Of Iruka shouting that Naruto was his student. Of the loneliness in Iruka's eyes when he talked about being a kid.
He pulled his hands together, fingers forming the familiar seals he'd been drilling into his bones in that shed.
"Yeah," he said quietly. "I failed."
He flashed a wild, sharp grin.
"But I learned something new."
The number in front of him pulsed.
3500
Naruto took a deep breath. He pictured the chakra in his body—the big, messy chunk the number was showing him. He imagined grabbing every bit of it except a solid bottom piece and shoving it all into the jutsu.
"You stay," he told the number in his head, locking onto that last chunk. "You drop lower than that, I'm gonna puke."
He shoved.
3500 → 1000
(–2500 chakra poured into Shadow Clone Jutsu, leaving the 1000 floor untouched)
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he roared.
The world exploded in smoke.
Mizuki flinched, raising an arm to shield his eyes.
"What—?!"
The smoke cleared.
Mizuki froze.
Naruto was everywhere.
The clearing, the tree branches, the rocks, the path—every direction Mizuki looked, there was an orange-clad, blond-haired, whisker-marked Naruto glaring at him, cracking their knuckles, stretching their necks.
Dozens. Scores.
Hundreds.
Each clone's eyes burned with the same anger, the same stubborn fire. Every one of them looked ready to throw hands.
The number in the "real" Naruto's vision stayed fixed.
1000
His body felt light and empty, but not in the bad way. More like stretched thin, humming with energy waiting to snap.
All around him, his clones grinned.
Mizuki's mouth hung open.
"H-how…?!" he choked. "This is… this is impossible! A failure like you—! The Scroll of Seals—!"
One Naruto stepped forward, cracking his neck.
"Oi," he said. "Which one is the real me, huh?"
Another Naruto hopped down from a branch. "Who cares?"
A third Naruto clenched his fist.
"We're all gonna hit you."
Mizuki swallowed.
Iruka stared, eyes wide, awe mixing with shock.
"He learned… the Shadow Clone Jutsu…" he whispered. "And that many… Naruto, just how much chakra do you have…?"
Mizuki snapped, snarling to cover his fear.
"You think a bunch of cheap copies can stop me?!" he roared, hurling his shuriken into the crowd.
It sliced through three Narutos—who burst into smoke.
The rest rushed him.
They came from all sides, leaping from trees, sprinting across the ground, dropping from above like a waterfall of orange.
"GET HIM!" one Naruto yelled.
"FOR IRUKA-SENSEI!" another screamed.
"AND FOR ME!" a third added.
Mizuki swung, kicked, punched, slashing through clones that vanished in white puffs—but for every one that disappeared, three more crashed into him. Fists slammed into his face, his gut, his back, his legs.
"THIS—"
Wham.
"IS FOR—"
Thud.
"CALLING ME—"
Crack.
"MONSTER!"
Bam.
Naruto didn't even know if he was the one saying the words or if his clones were echoing him. It all blended together into one loud, furious voice.
Mizuki tried to jump. A Naruto on the ground grabbed his ankle and yanked. Another Naruto drove a fist into his jaw. Someone axe-kicked him from above.
He went down in a heap, orange-clad fists raining down on him from every direction.
The real Naruto, somewhere in that storm of copies, felt every hit, every movement through the chakra link. It was like he was hitting Mizuki a hundred times at once.
His clones finally bounced back, leaving Mizuki sprawled on the ground, bruised, bloody, groaning, eyes swollen.
One last Naruto dropped out of the air and heel-kicked him in the face for good measure.
"AND THAT'S FOR TRICKING ME ABOUT THE EXAM, DATTEBAYO!"
Mizuki hit the dirt and stayed down.
The Narutos stood around him, breathing hard, glaring. For a second, the clearing was full of them—hundreds of chests rising and falling in sync.
Then, one by one, they began to vanish in puffs of smoke. The borrowed chakra returned to the original, leaving just one battered, panting Naruto standing in the middle of the destroyed clearing.
The number in his vision twitched.
1000 → 1300
(+300 chakra returning as clones dispel and he catches his breath)
Naruto swayed on his feet, but he grinned.
"Hehe… told you… I'd beat you…" he panted.
Iruka stared at him, expression somewhere between shock, pride, and something warm and painful.
The bushes at the edge of the clearing rustled. Several chunin jumped in, weapons drawn—only to skid to a stop when they saw Mizuki on the ground and Naruto standing in the center.
Far away, back in his office, the Third Hokage watched the scene through his crystal ball, pipe forgotten in his hand.
"So," he murmured. "You did it, Naruto…"
Back in the clearing, Naruto swayed.
Iruka moved before anyone else, forcing his injured body to stand. He walked over to Naruto, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey," he said softly. "That was… incredible."
Naruto looked up at him, eyes still a little wet, expression wobbly between pride and doubt.
"Iruka-sensei…" he began. "A-am I really… not the fox…? Even after what Mizuki said… even after… everything…?"
Iruka stared at him for a long moment.
Then he smiled. A real smile. A tired, warm, proud smile.
"Of course you're not the fox," he said. "You're Uzumaki Naruto. The number-one knucklehead ninja of Konoha. The kid who pulled a ridiculous amount of clones out of nowhere just to protect his teacher."
Naruto's throat tightened.
Iruka reached up with one hand and untied his own forehead protector. He looked at it for a second, then gently tied it around Naruto's head instead.
The metal plate settled against Naruto's forehead, just above his eyes.
Naruto froze.
"Iruka-sensei…?" he whispered.
Iruka's smile widened, even as his eyes glistened.
"Congratulations," he said. "You graduate. You're a real ninja now."
Naruto's vision blurred completely for a second. He reached up and touched the headband, fingers trembling.
The ghost chakra number hovered in front of his eyes.
1400
It still wasn't big. He wasn't fully recovered. His body hurt, and he had no idea what tomorrow would bring.
But for the first time, the small number didn't bother him.
Big or small, number or no number—
Someone had looked at him, really looked at him, and said:
You're Naruto.
Not fox.
Not monster.
Naruto.
He sniffed, wiped his eyes roughly with his sleeve, and grinned up at Iruka through the tears.
"Hehehe… of course I'm awesome," he said, voice thick. "I'm gonna be Hokage someday, believe it."
Iruka chuckled, ruffling his hair.
"Yeah," he said. "I know."
Naruto tightened his grip on the headband, feeling its weight, feeling the tired but steady hum of chakra inside him.
The number floated quietly at the edge of his vision, ticking up one tiny step at a time.
1400 → 1500
He didn't need to look at it to know.
He'd already decided.
No matter what anyone called him—monster, fox, idiot—he'd keep moving forward.
He'd fill that number to the top again and again.
And he'd make the whole village acknowledge him.