Kitsune no Akuryō

The First Day of being a Ninja...a Total Flop

I'm only slightly behind on updating. Don't shoot! School's started up, and I got sick on top of that so I've been occupied with other things. I'm here now though, so that's exciting. Kitsune has met someone who accepts Naruto, and if it couldn't get any crazier, let Naruto into his own home. To top everything off, Iruka has let Naruto graduate from the Academy despite stealing the Scroll of Sealing. Now that Naruto has passed, he must face everyone who thought that he was doomed to fail...

    Kitsune, now dubbing himself Naruto, was at the moment content. The night before, Iruka-sensei had taken him to Ichiraku's Ramen which was now his favourite place at which to eat. When the two found out that Naruto's apartment was locked, Iruka-sensei let him sleep at his house which continued to build on the nice things that no one had yet done for him. He was, however, immediately brought down from his excitement as soon as he walked into the streets of Konohagakure the next morning. The people were still avoiding him and at best glaring at him. They were always whispering whenever he passed, and he could usually tell that they were talking about him, not very nice things either.

     It was almost a relief when Naruto was called to the Hokage's office. He felt a pulse in the seal on his bicep which told him that the Hokage required his presence. However, as soon as he stepped foot in the office, Naruto immediately felt the Yondaime's deadly aura and had the sense to know the villagers were the least of his problems. It seemed that the Yondaime was going to kill him or torture him or take the Tailed Beast out of him. He must have failed his mission or worse yet, broken some rule. He thought back to the three oaths for a moment, and a deep unease settled in the pit of his stomach.

     The Hokage let out a breath. He had tried to organize what he was planning to say before Fox walked in the room. Yes, he had to think about him as Fox. If he didn't, he didn't know what would happen. He should have expelled the boy from the village, but the boy did house the Nine-Tailed Fox. That was what he kept repeating to himself in his head to enforce his Hokage rank over an ANBU. As Hokage, he could also...but he refused to let that thought finish. He began talking before the thought continued further, "You have been disloyal to the village, Fox."

       He turned to the ANBU now to see what the boy had to say for himself, but Fox did not hang his head. The Yondaime found something far worse than that. The boy stood upright, his hard eyes staring back at Minato, and both hands had taken the hem of his shirt, revealing a bare stomach. Before Minato could speak, the stomach became inked with eight prongs and a spiral which circled his belly-button. Minato swallowed as the colour drained from his face before he angrily burst, "What are you doing?"

     The soundless words were enunciated, "I have failed. You will extract the Nine-Tails."

     He said it so matter-of-factly as if there could be no other option. The anger drained just as quickly as it came, and Minato wished that he could take the boy in his arms and tell him everything would be okay. No one would ever hurt Naruto again, but Minato quickly reminded himself that this wasn't Naruto. Kakashi had made that point very clear, or at least he was not the Naruto whom he once knew. He wanted to cry, but he couldn't as the Hokage. Fox was still holding his shirt, the seal still evident as he waited for the beast to be extracted. As tears glazed his eyes, Minato could only whisper, "Please put your shirt down. I'm not, I'm not going to do that."

      The shirt was pulled down, and Fox proceeded to kneel before the Hokage. Minato didn't want to pass judgment, or rather he didn't know what judgment to pass. So he asked, "What happened Fox? Why did you steal the Scroll of Sealing?"

       Fox looked up at the Yondaime and said, "I failed my mission. I could no longer guard Uchiha Sasuke because I had failed the Academy. I was going to leave, but Mizuki told me about the Scroll of Sealing," Fox paused to catch his breath, "He said I could graduate if I learned a jutsu from the scroll. I, I didn't really care since I was leaving," he looked down for a moment, "I didn't want to die after the Nine-Tails was extracted," a pause, "but I couldn't get back into my house, so I decided to try it just to see what was there."