The Last Mission - Naruto Undercover

Chapter 10

Iruka stared at Naruto incredulously, and the blonde stared right back at him.

"Okay, alright everything would be fine. It's just root headquarters, nothing big, nothing drastic." Iruka paced around the office.

Naruto nodded in agreement. "Yup, I'm glad you agree with me."

"I know that you," Iruka gestured in the general direction of Naruto, "are not normal. None of us are so that's not your fault. But there is a thin line between abnormal and batshit crazy. And you, you've not only passed that line, you uprooted it, you burnt it, you tore it into a million pieces," Iruka swallowed.

"AND YOU STILL THINK THAT IT'S OK!?"

Naruto winced, ouch his ears hurts. He glanced at Iruka discreetly, but the older man caught his gaze growled at him. Naruto quickly averted his eyes back to the ground.

"Okay. We'll go into the details later, at least tell me why did you see the need to turn up like that?" Iruka gestured bewildered at the Anbu attire Naruto was wearing.

"Ah this? There was a reason of course..." Naruto trailed of nervously  and Iruka frowned at that. Tugging up his sleeves to check the time on his watch, Iruka sighed.

"Stop dragging this out brat, the graduation exams will start soon. Don't make me call Ibiki here to make you talk."

Naruto blanched at that, Ibiki wasn't the best person to have a chat with. "Alright alright. I'll go into the details later, long story short Danzo found out about my mission. Don't ask me how the fuck did he manage that, but he threatened to expose my identity to the council. That old fart was going on and on about how the Hokage's seat will finally find it's rightful owner. But when I was snooping around Root, I found the record of root operatives, kids to be exact. A lot of them were dead and their bodies never found its way back to their families, most of them were taken from their parents illegally. I memorised all of them and used that as a bargaining chip against Danzo, that's how the contract was formed. Danzo's conditions were that I can't be in disguise will carrying out my mission, and I must answer his calls whenever he needs me. In turn, Danzo will not involve himself in any of my future missions unless it concerns him directly."

Iruka frowned, the conditions Danzo put out was weird to say the least. Danzo isn't someone that will just throw around opportunities like that. This would be a perfect chance to chain Naruto down but he chose such a meaningless condition. "How will that benefit him? The condition that you're not allowed to be in disguise."

"How should I know? He's probably just enjoying this whole thing, maybe this is a way to entertain his messed up mind." Naruto shrugged, too tired to bother.

"Ok let's say that you're correct, but Danzo only said that you're not allowed to be in disguise, doesn't mean that you have to be in your Anbu attire right? So answer me carefully Naruto. Why the hell are you wearing this?"

Naruto tilted his head questioningly, he blinked and look down at himself.

"Opps. I just finished a mission from Danzo and rushed here— Shit don't get mad, I'll change okay? I'll do it now."

•°•°•°•
Uzumaki Naruto was late to class once again. And it was the graduation exams. The one that they have been preparing for this whole time. Sakura shook her head disapprovingly. Her motherly senses were threatening to take over her and just wack Naruto at the back of his head for being such a idiot. She held herself back just in time.

They were doing the written portion of the exams and she was pretty confident in this segment. Glancing around, Sakura saw that she was the first to finish the test. Awkwardly placing her head on the table—she didn't want people to think that she was bragging about her smarts—Sakura sighed and closed her eyes.

Naruto was an enigma. Her first impression of him wasn't the best. Pretty bad actually, no actually it was the worst. The first day he came she almost decked him and hauled him out of the window. He asked for it, what made him think that dumping glitters on her head was a good idea?
(Refer to chapter 4)

And she hit him on the head because a voice in her head told her to and she couldn't find a better reason to refuse. It was a moment of weakness, Sakura liked to believe.

But after that day ended, she kinda felt bad about it. She did push that guy into the lake and even whacked his head on his first day of school. And once again the whacking his head part was an accident. But still, she did all that. Usually she wasn't so hot headed and mean, at least she didn't think that she was. The pinkette wanted to approach Naruto to apologise but somehow after the first day of school, he started sticking to Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke of all people. Jashin knows how on the goofy new kid got close to Sasuke. And the fact that the said guy didn't push him away was a feat in itself.

No matter what she believed, it was an undeniable fact that she was pretty infatuated with the young Uchiha. She definitely wouldn't approach Naruto when Sasuke was with him, so till this day she didn't manage to find an opportunity to apologise.

But Naruto was definitely an enigma. Sure, Sakura didn't think much of him at the start, but it all started to change as she continued observing him. While he seemed like a duffes, he had an unapproachable aura surrounding him. And a little mysterious as well. To say that she was interested wasn't an understatement. But since Naruto wasn't her priority in life at the moment, the young Haruno decided to just stuffed all her suspicious into the darkest corner of her mind.

"Sakura, it's your turn."

Iruka tapped her shoulders, effectively cutting off Sakura's train of thoughts. The said girl lifted her head up surprised, and followed her teacher out of the room. She didn't even notice her exam sheet getting collected.

"Yup definitely gonna work on my awareness."

Iruka glanced back at Naruto worriedly as he guided the pink haired girl to the exam venue. When Naruto entered class without his henge, it had earned him curious stares and caused a great amount of disturbance across the class. Sakura even met Iruka's eyes and gestured at Naruto wildly, trying to ask the unspoken question of what the fuck is going on. But after long years of teaching, Iruka expertly averted his eyes and pretended that he, an ex Anbu didn't notice the pinkette flapping her arms around.

Speaking of the pinkette, she looked a little too comfortable while taking the written exam. But who was he to judge? A glance at Sakura told him that she was getting worked up over her impending doom. The girl was never really good at physical activities, getting a passing grade would be the most she can do.

Iruka pushed open the door to the examination venue and gently pushed Sakura in. He sat down and quickly gestured for the teacher next to him to begin the test.

"Haruno Sakura?"

"Yes sir." Sakura confirmed with a nod, bitting her lips nervously. The room didn't look like much, and she wasn't expecting much in the first place. The academy was running on a budget anyways.

"Great! I'm Mizuki, and I'll be your examiner for this portion of the test. The test itself is simple, you only have to perform a henge and create two bunshins and hold them for at least 20 seconds to pass. Do you have any questions?" A pause, and Sakura shook her head. "Alright then, you may start when you are ready."

•°•°•°•

Uzumaki Naruto stood in front of the two examiners in shock. Everything happened so fast, he wanted to deny it, he wanted to argue and say that it's not true. But for the first time since he became a Shinobi of the leaf, Naruto realised that he couldn't do anything about his situation. All his efforts were in vain, and for the first time in years, he felt helpless. It totally didn't help that Iruka was glaring at him.

(He could read a promise of his death in that glare)

Naruto swallowed, took a deep breath and dispelled the bunshins, turning to fully face the examiners. He was prepared to accept he fate, even if it was his death.

"Uzumaki Naruto, you've failed the test."

Naruto could hear the stamp coming down onto a piece of paper, sealing his fate and demise. Everything was decided in that one moment, one second. And the next second, Iruka launched at Naruto. And he saw it happening in slow motion, but he couldn't find it in himself to dodge or coat chakra around his body to lessen the impact. So, the last thing he saw was Iruka's fist finding it's way to his face before he blacked out.