Naruto: The First Step

Chapter 22

Naruto formed a hand seal never before seen by Iruka.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!!", Naruto proclaimed.

In a flash, thousands of shadow clones appeared in a cloud of smoke and surrounded them. Mizuki and Iruka were astonished.

"W-! How?! Impossible!!", Mizuki stammered.

"Now you'll pay for this!", all the Naruto clones shouted.

All the clones including the real Naruto charged at Mizuki. The Jounin was frozen in place. He was wondering on how Naruto managed to perform the jutsu with ease. He barely had time to react.

Before he knew it, he was tackled to the ground, and attacked several times. When the clones took a step back, he was badly beaten up and was severly bleeding.

All the clones disappeared the same way they had appeared. Naruto walked over to Iruka and held out his hand while smiling. Iruka took his hand while keeping his gaze on Naruto. The boy pulled him up to his feet.

"You okay, sensei?", Naruto asked.

Iruka nodded.

"How'd you do that?", Iruka asked, stunned.

"Do what? I just followed the instuctions. It's no biggie.", Naruto replied.

"No, I mean... no one was able to summon at least thousands of clones.", Iruka said.

"What do you mean?", Naruto asked.

"A regular shinobi can only summon at least 10-20 clones only. Not thousands.",

"Really? Wow. I never knew."

Iruka smiled. He then remembered something. As soon as he found out, 5 ANBU came out of nowhere. They saw a beaten Mizuki and a wounded Iruka.

"What has happened here?", an ANBU with a cat mask asked.

"Naruto took down Mizuki on his own.", Iruka said.

"Good job, boy. Men, take Mizuki away.", an ANBU with a dog mask said.

The ANBUs took Mizuki away. Naruto remembered something and excused himself. He went back to the tree where he hid the real scroll and took it out of his hiding place. He made the fake one disappear then he went back to Iruka and the ANBU.

He held out the scroll.

"Here.", he said.

The ANBU took the scroll from him.

"Thank you. You are a brave one, Naruto. I salute you.", the ANBU praised.

Naruto smiled a toothy smile.

"Ossu!", he said.

The ANBU nodded then poofed away in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto turned to Iruka and smiled while rubbing the back of his head.

"Thanks for protecting me from Mizuki, sensei.", Naruto said.

Iruka smiled back. He pulled out Naruto's hitai-ate.

"You might forget this.", Iruka said.

Naruto took it from him.

"Arigato.", he said.

"I hope you accomplish your dream of being Hokage.", Iruka said.

Naruto's smile widened. He nodded his head once.

"Hai! It's a promise of a lifetime!", he said.