Bonds ➳ SasuNaru

Three | You Graduate! The Orientation!

Iruka was running after Naruto through the trees.

"Naruto!" Iruka shouted, and Naruto looked at him. "Everything Mizuki said was a lie. Give me the scroll. Hurry!" Iruka came up in front of Naruto. "He's coming after you to take it away."

Naruto stopped on a branch, then jumped, right into Iruka, sending Iruka flying back. Naruto landed on his feet, and slid to a stop. He was panting, hard.

Iruka was on his hands and knees. "It can't be..." Naruto took the scroll off his back, and backed up to a tree, sliding down to the ground. "How did you know, Naruto?" Iruka looked over his shoulder. "How did you know..." Smoke came up around him, then disappeared. Iruka was actually Mizuki. "... that it was me, and not Iruka?"

Naruto chuckled, and then smoke when up around him, revealing Iruka, and beside him, a small log.

"Because I'm Iruka."

Mizuki stood up. "You're a fool. Why are you protecting that freak? He's the one who wiped out your family."

"I don't care what you say, cause you're not getting your hands on that scroll."

Naruto, listening from behind a tree a bit away, leaned forward angrily.

"As if you could stop me," Mizuki muttered, smirking a bit. "Don't you get it? Naruto is just like me."

"How's that?" Iruka questioned.

"He wants the scroll for his own power, and his own vengeance. That's how beasts are. He'll poor all his rage into the scroll and destroy everything."

"You're right..." Iruka murmured.

Naruto gasped and hugged the scroll. 'So it's true. Iruka Sensei never believed in me. He thinks I'm some beast. Some kind of freak!'

"That is how beasts are," Iruka finished, and Naruto's eyes widened. "But that's not who Naruto is. He's nothing like that. Naruto's one of a kind. Works hard. Puts his whole heart into it. Sure he messes up sometimes, and everyone jumps on him... But his suffering only makes him stronger. That's what separates him from being a beast. So you're wrong. He's nothing like the Nine-Tailed Fox. He's Naruto Uzumaki, of the village hidden in the leaves."

Naruto was crying by this point.

Mizuki reached around to his last shuriken on his back. "Hmph! You really believe that dribble?" He pulled the shuriken off his back. "Iruka, I was going to save you for later but I changed my mind." Mizuki spun the shuriken. "You're finished! Mizuki then ran towards Iruka, about to kill him.

'So this is it...?' Iruka wondered.

Naruto suddenly jumped between them and head-butted Mizuki in the stomach, sending him flying backwards. Iruka's eyes were wide.

'Naruto...?'

"Not bad, for a little punk," Mizuki commented, looking at Naruto.

Naruto just stared. "If you ever lay a hand on my sensei..." Naruto began, glaring now, "I'll kill you!"

"Such big words," Mizuki taunted, standing up. "I can completely destroy you with a single move!"

Naruto made a sign with his hands, like a plus sign. "Take your best shot, fool. I'll give it back to you a thousand fold!"

"Let's see you try! Show me what you can do, Nine-Tailed Fox!"

Iruka just watched, very shocked, mouth agape.

"Shadow clone jutsu!"

Iruka's eyes widened. Surrounding them were hundreds of Naruto clones, in the trees and on the ground.