Chapter 146
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Title: Iruka
...
General POV
Location: Konoha-gakure: Academy.
Time: Evening
The academy had just dismissed for the day and everyone was on the way to their respective places of residence while a blond haired boy walked out with a bored look on his face.
Looking around, he caught sight of some children his age sitting under a tree with one on the only swing in the academy.
"Hey guys!" He called out as he walked towards them. "What are you all doing?"
"What? Stay away Naruto!" A boy who looked to be the gang leader glowered at the boy as he saw him approach.
He, like every other child in the village, had been told to stay away from the kid as he was dangerous. Due to The Third Hokage's Gag order, a few civilians actually knew what the boy was.
"Why? Why can't I? Let me play with you guys too." Naruto, undeterred by their words and expressions, continued walking towards them and asked.
"Why should we?" Another boy sitting at the swing asked with a frown. "No way will you join us in tonight's test of courage!" He said and looked away.
"Test of courage!?" Naruto asked in excitement. It had been a long time since he, with his Nii-san, went around scaring people in the village.
Bonk!
"Ow!"
The gang leader knocked the one who exposed them on the head causing him to shout in pain.
"What are you babbling about!?" The gang leader asked.
"Wow, sounds like fun!" Naruto said, not minding their squabble. "I'm coming too."
"We told you, you can't!" The gang leader shouted to Naruto. "Get this. Don't you dare follow us!"he said, and then walked away. "Come on." He said and his gang members followed him.
Naruto watched as they left with his smile still on his face. Only until they left did his smile disappear and sadness could be seen in his eyes.
Sticking his hands into his jacket pocket, he left the area and went to stroll the village as usual while enduring the looks the villagers gave him.
-Get this, don't you dare follow us.- The last sentence the boy said to him resounded in his mind.
[|You shouldn't feel sad about them, Naruto. They aren't good friends for you.|] The sound of his daily tormentor resounded in his mind.
He stuck out his tongue and said. "Like I'll let that get to me. Since it's a test of courage, I just need to spice things up a little. When he says something like that, Naruto here will follow, no matter what it takes."
[|Your Nii-san is influencing you badly, Naruto.|]
"What do you mean? Nii-san is the best, how can he possibly influence me badly?" Naruto asked and ran towards a mask shop he just spotted while still ignoring the voices of those around him.
Watching the many masks arranged in the shop, he couldn't help but smile in excitement as he suddenly got an idea.
"You brat!" He heard an enraged voice. "Huh?" He turned to the direction of the voice only to see a grown up man, probably the owner of the shop walk up to him.
"Go away!" He said and shoved Naruto hard on the chest, directly throwing him out of the shop.
"What's the big idea!?" Naruto shouted as he sat on his ass while rubbing his back.
"What are you doing here!? You plague!" The man demanded while cursing at him.
"What!?" He shouted in anger at the curse. "I was only... I was only looking at the masks..." He finished in a low voice. Although he was angry, he had always been treated like this by the villagers.
Only a select few treated him well, so ignoring the disgusting looks the crowd shot at him, he explained himself.
The middle aged man walked back to his shop, picked up a mask and came outside. "You want this?" He asked and threw it at Naruto, hitting him on the face. "Well, you can have it. Now get lost!"
Naruto looked at the mask, sighed and stood up to pick it. "Jeez..." He said as he picked up the mask.
Looking around, he took in the looks he was getting which served to annoy him further. "What?! Why are you all looking at me like that!?" He asked and ran off in anger and sadness.
The crowd behind him kept looking at him disappear into the horizon, and amongst the crowd, two boys stood looking at his back in confusion.
One with a pineapple shaped hair and the other, a chubby appearance.
...
Time: Night.
The same group of kids from earlier in the day gathered at Konoha cemetery to have the Test of Courage. The test was to walk into the cemetery and bring out some sticks at the end of the cemetery without chickening out.
As kids, walking in the dark was already scary enough, but walking in the dark in a cemetery was another thing altogether.
"AHHHHHHHHH!!" The boy who had his turn didn't even reach the middle of the cemetery before he ran back screaming like a kid...well, he was a kid.
"Sheesh. You're all wimps." The gang leader from earlier said in disdain as he watched the boy run towards him while breathing heavily. "No one is brave enough to go all the way in?"
"Don't say that..!" The boy who just came out said in fright. Not due to the gang leader's admonishment, but due to the fright the cemetery gave him.
"Whatever, I'm going in." The gang leader said, and under the gaze of his friends, he walked into the cemetery.
...
Inside the cemetery, NPC walked with slow and steady steps as he spotted a smile to mask his nervousness, if the sweat dripping down his face was any indication.
{A/N: I can't be bothered to name him, so NPC will do.}
"Gulp," he swallowed, "that was easy." He said to himself as he continued deeper. He walked all the way to the end and spotted the sticks set down on a certain tombstone.
"All I have to do is take that stick." He muttered to himself as he continued walking. However... "Hmmm." A deep humming sound resounded throughout the entire cemetery, scaring the kid shitless.
Stopping in his steps, he looked around in search for the source of the noise only to see nothing, then looking up, he saw it. A figure that stood atop the tallest tombstone in the cemetery with shadowy entrails floating violently behind him.
"A-ah-Ah-A- A fox Demon!" The kid, unable to maintain his calm, screamed and ran at the fastest speed he could.
"Run! Run! A fox Demon!" The boy, NPC, shouted to his friends who were waiting for him, before he reached them, they all ran, while screaming the same thing.
"What's going on?!" A panicked and confused voice asked them as they ran but they weren't in the right mind to answer.
The NPC, being the one left behind, was still screaming the same thing he had been screaming.
"A...Fox Demon!" He screamed, which served as an answer to the young man who asked the question.
"What!?" Hearing this, the young man shouted in shock as he ran towards the place the kids were likely coming from.
As a Shinobi, he knew that there was no way the fox Demon was actually loose. He was around when it went on a rampage Seven years ago, and the foul presence he felt back then wasn't present.
Yet, he still wanted to go make sure nothing was wrong.
Running into the graveyard with a Kunai in hand, he caught sight of the same figure the kids had seen, jumping down towards him.
Being cautious of the unknown, he lept back and put up his guard.
"Hehehe." He heard a childish chuckle. "That served them right. Everyone got scared and ran away." The boy said and took off his mask, revealing Naruto who was looking pleased with himself.
"You better hurry and run, Sensei. Or else, I'll eat you to death." Naruto said to the man, Iruka, who put down his hands and looked down at Naruto with a calm face.
But, underneath that calm, a seething anger and disgust was all there was in his eyes.
*Flashback*
Ding. Ding. Ding.
The sound of alarm could be heard throughout the entire village this very night. People were running around looking for shelter wherever they could find one, all because of one being.
Kyuubi.
The beast famed for its destructiveness had been set loose in the village.
In a dainty corner of the village, a small family of three could be seen talking.
"Dad...mom... Is everything okay?" The boy asked his father and mother.
"It's alright. You must follow the guide and evacuate." The mother replied, assuring the young boy.
"Don't worry. We the Advance Troops won't let the Kyuubi set a single step into the village." The father also assured as he ruffled the boy's hairs.
"Hmm." The boy nodded. " Go beat up the Kyuubi."
"You got it." The father said with pride as well as a well hidden fear in his voice.
"Please take care of him." The mother said to the Chunin standing behind the boy.
"Hai." The Chunin answered.
"Bye then." The father said, and with his wife, they ran towards the battlefield.
"Good luck!" The boy shouted as he watched his parents disappear. Pride could be seen written all over his face. His parents were accomplished Shinobis, what more could he ask for?
...
Later that night.
"Bad news." A Chunin reported inside the shelter. "The Advance Troops have been defeated."
"What!? Then the Advance Troops are all dead?"
"The Advance Troops... All dead...? " The same boy from earlier muttered to himself as he felt a sense of dread and despair. "It's not True."
Realization began to dawn on him a little and he broke down in tears. "It's not true. My mom and dad... wouldn't die!"
*Flashback End*
Iruka clutched his Kunai tightly as the memory of that night replayed in his mind. Every fiber of his being was telling him to plunge that Kunai into this kid's heart to get his revenge.
To end the existence of the person who brought him so much sadness in his childhood.
Who took away his source of joy and pride.
"Huh? What's up Sensei?" Naruto asked seeing him keep quiet for so long.
Awakening from his thoughts, he put the kunai back into his pouch. "Naruto... Do you realize what you're doing?" He asked as he looked at Naruto with the same feelings he was feeling in his heart.
Naruto however, felt something else. He felt betrayed. He had always harbored this notion that teachers were like your second family.
His Nii-san had told him that. His mother had told him that. He had been advised to respect them. They were in charge of shaping them into something better in the future.
Those were his initial thoughts towards teachers... His homeroom teacher, most especially.
However, the look his supposed guide and teacher was giving him reminded him of the look he got from every other person in the village.
"Why? Why!?" Naruto broke down in tears. "Why does everyone, even my homeroom teacher... Why do you all look at me like that?!" Naruto couldn't endure it any more and shouted at him.
Seeing the look in the boy's eyes, Iruka instinctively took a step back in fear of angering the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki.
"I'm not a nuisance and I'm not some kind of germ! I'm... I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto shouted.
"Naruto..." Iruka muttered as he looked like someone who had awoken from a deep sleep. 'What the hell am I doing?' He thought to himself.
"I'll never... return to the academy again." Naruto said in a forsaken tone, turned around and ran.
"Hey!" Iruka shouted but Naruto was already out of his sight. "Damnit!" Iruka muttered to himself as he reflected on what just happened.
"You know... I could've killed you if you went for that strike." A soft voice sounded so close to his ears that it Sounded like a whisper.
"Nani!" Iruka shouted, and in one fluid movement, brought out his Kunai and went for the kill, swinging it behind him.
"Bad form. Rule 101 of all assassination, when you're snuck up on from behind, you duck. You don't turn around." The voice said from the same position, only, the owner wasn't injured.
"Who are you?" Iruka asked as he took in the person in front of him, however, what he saw made him wonder if he was in a Genjutsu.
In front of him was a human, standing? floating? upside down, his head as high as his head level, and his legs so high up that it looked like he was flying?
In a surreal display of power and control, this 12-year-old boy with white hair dons a black Shinobi attire while floating upside down.
His white hair floating elegantly downward, creating an otherworldly contrast against the darkness of his outfit.
A black blindfold conceals his eyes, adding an enigmatic and mysterious element to his appearance.
Despite being suspended in mid-air, he exudes an air of calm and confidence, as if he has mastered the art of levitation and embraces the extraordinary nature of his abilities.
'A Shinobi who can fly?' Iruka thought to himself.
"It's bad courtesy to ask that without giving yours..." The boy said as another figure grew out of him and stood on top of his leg, making him stand at a perfect 180°. "However, as I already know you, I'll gladly provide my nomenclature."
The clone of the boy flashed and disappeared as he remained floating upside down. "The name is Tengoku Shun. The one and only genius of this era and also... Naruto's elder brother."
"Elder brother?"
"Hmm. Village secret. However, you really should thank whatever God you serve. One wrong move and I really would have ended you, the consequences be damned." The boy continued as his body gradually corrected itself. However, he was still floating above Iruka's head Level.
"I'll see you around." The boy said as he raised up his blindfold to get a good look at the man he had just scared, and the very same person who had the potential of being Naruto's Godfather. {A/N: After Jiraiya of course.}
Iruka however, was mesmerized at the dark red eye that just glanced at him, and before he could ask anything else, the boy vanished like he was never there.
As a special Jounin, he could at least feel the air movement when someone Flickers or moves at high speed, but the appearance and disappearance of this boy left him befuddled.
"I need to report to the Hokage." He said and disappeared.
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