The night air of Konoha had abandoned its usual symphony that night, settling instead into a heavy silence. It wasn't the peace of a resting village, but the deep, held breath of an ancient war machine. Beneath that profound hush, a single shadow moved. It was not the elegant glide of a seasoned assassin, but a nervous, desperate scuttle.
That shadow belonged to Naruto Uzumaki, the village pariah and the dead last of the Ninja Academy. He moved through the deserted halls of the Hokage Tower with a fierce, blinding resolve. His goal was the village's deepest vault, and his mantra was a desperate, burning prayer: I'll prove I deserve to be a ninja. No more failure and no more stares.
The lock on the vault door was supposed to be impenetrable, but Naruto saw it as a defiant challenge, a final complicated prank. It took far more finesse and audacity to graffiti the Hokage Monument than to pick a simple tumbler. With nimble, practiced fingers that were usually reserved for pulling pranks, he felt the mechanism give way with a soft, final click.
Inside, the Scroll of Seals dominated the space. It was immense, nearly half his height, wrapped in thick silk, bound with heavy crimson rope, and sealed with intricate warnings he couldn't begin to decipher. The sheer weight of it in his hands felt less like a burden and more like a crushing promise. This is it, this is how I become a ninja.
Hours later, the moon was high above a forest clearing behind the Academy. Naruto sat, trembling not from cold, but from exhaustion, the giant scroll unrolled before him like a treasure map. Sweat plastered his unruly blond hair to his forehead, and his hands were raw and scraped from the impossible finger configurations of the first technique. He was focusing on the Shadow Clone Jutsu, a forbidden technique that produced tangible, functional copies, unlike the standard illusion he could never master.
He formed the dreaded cross-hand seal one last time. He didn't just pour chakra into it he poured his entire desperation in it. Every slight, every empty night, every desperate hope was channeled into the single, volatile surge of power.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he roared, his voice cracking with intensity.
Poof!
A thick cloud of smoke erupted, obscuring his vision. When it cleared, two figures stood opposite him. They weren't ghostly illusions. They were real and they were blinking… and grinning with the same unbridled, manic joy mirrored on his own face.
"I… I DID IT!" Naruto threw his head back and laughed, a loud, defiant noise that echoed off the trees, full of relief and vindication. "Take that, Iruka-sensei! I can do it!"
The clones immediately high-fived, a flawless reflection of his euphoria. It was like suddenly having brothers, he wasn't alone anymore. In the silent forest, with his twin shadows, he felt more alive than he had in weeks.
But the taste of triumph was fleeting. The snap of a twig shattered the moment, followed by rapid footfalls. Mizuki, a silver-haired Chūnin with a cruel, wide-eyed grin, burst into the clearing. "Well, well. Guess the demon brat actually pulled it off."
Naruto's grin evaporated, replaced by a cold knot of confusion. "W-what?"
Mizuki chuckled, the sound dry and mocking as he stepped fully into the moonlight. "Oh, come on, Naruto. You didn't actually believe this was some secret test? That learning a forbidden scroll technique would somehow make you a Genin?"
The confusion in Naruto's heart sharpened instantly into a blade of cold dread. Before he could speak, Iruka-sensei arrived, his face a furious mask of confirmation.
"Mizuki," Iruka spat, his hand instinctively dropping to his kunai pouch. "Why are you here?"
"Because it's about time someone told him the truth," Mizuki shrugged, his voice sickeningly conversational.
Iruka stiffened. "Don't you dare."
But Mizuki was already talking, his gaze locked on Naruto, pulling the world out from under him. "They all lied to you, Naruto. Iruka, the Hokage, every villager. You think they hate you for pranks? For being loud?" His smirk widened, predatory and gleaming. "No. They hate you because you're the reason their families are dead."
Naruto flinched, a sharp, physical reaction. "What…?" he whispered.
Iruka lunged forward, but Mizuki anticipated it. "Mizuki, stop-"
"You're the Nine-Tailed Fox," Mizuki snapped, injecting every syllable with poisonous clarity. "The monster that nearly wiped out Konoha twelve years ago? It didn't die. It was sealed inside a crying, clueless baby… you."
Naruto stumbled back, the forest floor feeling suddenly unstable beneath him. His lungs constricted, a raw, burning sensation. "No… no, that can't…"
"You've felt it, haven't you?" Mizuki pressed, leaning into his despair. "The looks, the whispers. The way they all recoil from you. You always thought it was your fault, didn't you? Well, guess what- it is."
"SHUT UP!" Iruka roared, making a desperate lunge.
Steel flashed. The two collided in a brief, vicious skirmish. Sparks flew in the moonlight, and crimson splattered the grass. Iruka staggered back, breathing hard, blood trickling from a cut above his eye and a deeper gash along his ribcage. His kunai skittered across the stones and Mizuki loomed over him, a massive, four-bladed shuriken glinting menacingly in his hand.
"You were always too soft, Iruka," Mizuki sneered, raising the deadly weapon. "Too weak to do what has to be done. Just like your parents when they died to that thing."
Naruto stood paralyzed, the weight of Mizuki's words - monster, Nine-Tails, killed their families anchoring his limbs. Mizuki's foot slammed into Iruka's chest, knocking the wounded Chūnin flat, buying him the time he needed.
"This ends now!" Mizuki reared the shuriken back, ready to deliver a killing blow-
"NO!"
A different voice answered. It was Naruto, but the sound was stripped of all childish bravado. Iruka blinked, confused. Naruto's hands were already forming the cross sign, his chakra surging, focused now, and dark red in colour with pure, incandescent rage. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Poof!
Smoke erupted, and from it burst not two, but a dozen furious replicas. They were gritty, tangible, and full of an unspoken, shared fury. They were the embodiment of Naruto's sudden, devastating realization. They didn't need a command, they knew their target.
Mizuki barely had time to register the threat. The clones swarmed him from every angle one grabbed his arm, two tore the giant shuriken from his grip, another slammed into his solar plexus, driving the air from his lungs. Mizuki fought, destroying a clone with a desperate strike, only to find two more instantly taking its place. These were not just illusions, they hit back too.
The real Naruto moved last, his face set in a grim expression Iruka had never seen. His fist clenched, chakra unknowingly burning almost visible red in his limbs, he launched himself forward. With a singular, focused leap, he drove the full weight of his anger and his newfound power into Mizuki's chest.
CRACK.
Mizuki collapsed like a discarded puppet, broken ribs piercing his heart, his eyes staring sightlessly at the moon.
The forest fell silent once more. The dozen clones dispersed back into smoke, leaving only the sound of Naruto's ragged, exhausted breathing. He stumbled, then straightened, his gaze fixed on the broken body of his betrayer. He looked up, his eyes meeting Iruka's.
"Let's go back," he said, his voice flat, drained of all emotion.
Iruka tried to push himself up, wincing. "Naruto, I'm—"
Naruto crouched, carefully helping his sensei sit upright. "You need to go to the hospital, sensei."
Iruka grasped Naruto's shoulder, his expression a mixture of pain and profound awe. "Naruto… you'll become a great shinobi one day. You already are."
Naruto didn't acknowledge the praise or the confirmation. He turned, retrieved the heavy Scroll of Seals, and started walking away, his back straight. "I'll report to Hokage-sama. You can go now."
Iruka now left alone in the clearing, the smell of blood heavy in the air, his eyes vacant. The bonds between student and teacher were not broken, but the personal relation they shared were certainly broken, permanently warped by the harsh reality that had just consumed the boy's childhood. Naruto had found his power, but the price was every ounce of his naivety.