Chapter 3: Demon?

Isshin wakes up, then sits up in bed and gets ready. 'So today's graduation day, huh,' he thinks to himself. He looks out his window. 'Looks like I'm up early.' He slips on his sandals, walks out of his room, and walks downstairs, looking around. 'Mom isn't even up yet,' he thinks. He then heads into the kitchen, looks around for a piece of paper, and writes, "Yo, I'm heading out early. Cya later," and draws a poorly drawn chibi version of himself holding up a peace sign. He glances at his drawing and chuckles, then walks out of his house.

While he was walking down the road, he looked up at the sky. "I might be able to watch the sunrise on top of the Hokage monument for once if I hurry," he thinks to himself, and starts walking in the direction of the stone faces.

Isshin makes it to the top of the stone faces and looks around. Seeing that no one else is around, he decides to lie down in front of a tree, leans back against it, and starts watching the sunrise. He takes out his Ocarina and starts playing a tune, closing his eyes and immersing himself in his music.

As Isshin is playing his Ocarina, he hears light steps near him. Isshin pauses and cracks open one of his eyes to see who is near him. He sees a girl around his age walking near him. She is carrying two bags, with light brown hair tied into a braid, wearing a white robe held close with a pink sash, and violet pants. He decides to continue playing his Ocarina. The girl puts down her bags, takes stuff out, sets up an easel, and places a canvas on it, then starts painting while listening to the music.

After a while, Isshin stops and puts his Ocarina away, glancing at the girl's painting. He sees the village from the viewpoint of the Hokage mountain with the sun rising. He walks over to her and says, "Oh wow, you're good at painting," with a smile.

"Thank you, you're pretty good with music," she says with a small smile.

Isshin chuckles and rubs the back of his head before saying with a smile, "Thanks," and asks, "Do I know you? You seem around my age. Are you a civilian?"

"No, I don't think you do," she says as she starts packing her stuff up and continues, "I am, but not by choice." She then starts scowling down at the Hokage's tower.

Isshin has a puzzled look on his face and asks, "What do you mean?"

The girl looked upset. "Well, you see, I'm from the Kurama clan. We're a clan skilled in genjutsu, and every once in a while, someone from my clan will be born with a powerful Kekkei Genkai. I happened to be born with it," she says with a sad smile before continuing, "However, I was born with a very weak body unsuited for the physical requirements for shinobi. But I truly believe I could still be a shinobi purely by my genjutsu alone." She had a serious glint in her eyes. "I managed to talk my family into getting me a private tutor. My dad had to ask the Third Hokage. He allowed it and assigned Kurenai Yuhi, a jonin known for her genjutsu prowess." She scowls. "But she didn't believe in me and refused to train me, and tried talking me out of being a shinobi, telling me that I could never be a shinobi." She then looks at Isshin.

Isshin is currently scowling. He then says, "What gives her the right to deny your dreams?"

The girl looks down at the ground before asking Isshin, "Do you think I could have done it?"

Isshin looks at her and replies, "Yes," without thinking.

She looks surprised and asks, "Why?"

"Because as long as you put all of your efforts and then some into what you want, you can accomplish it," Isshin says and gives her an eye smile, then gets a puzzled look on his face.

She smiles, then asks, "What's with that weird look?"

He scratches the back of his head and says, "After I thought about the reasoning about you not being a shinobi, it just seems stupid." She stares at him, prompting him to go on. "Well, most shinobi in the Leaf operate in groups to cover each other's weaknesses," he then shrugs.

She frowns, thinking about something, then says, "You know, I never got your name, Mister Mysterious Musician."

Isshin chuckles then rubs the back of his neck and bows dramatically before going a little too far, causing him to fall forward, landing face-first on the ground. "Ouch," he shouts, while the girl bursts out in laughter. Isshin rolls over and puts his arms behind his head, looking up at the sky, then replies to the girl, "My name is Isshin Yamanaka. Might I know your given name, Miss Kurama?"

"My name is Yakumo," she replies.

"Hm, you said you were trying to be a shinobi, relying on just genjutsu, so that must mean you're good at it, right?" Isshin asks.

"Uh-huh," Yakumo nods her head with a hint of pride in her eyes.

Isshin sits up and asks, "Do you think you could help me with genjutsu at some point? I've been interested in it for a while, but they don't teach much at the academy."

"Sure, I don't see why not," Yakumo replies.

They sat around and talked for a while before Isshin stood up, brushed the dust off himself, and said, "Well, I need to head off to the academy so I'm not late. See you around, Yakumo." Isshin starts walking away while waving.

"Alright, see you later, Isshin," Yakumo replies as she gets up and leaves as well.

Isshin starts walking towards the academy and then sees a blue blur run towards it. He yells out, "Yo, Naruto!"

Naruto stops in his tracks and looks back, seeing Isshin. "Hey, Isshin, why aren't you hurrying to the academy?" he asks.

"Why would I? We still have fifteen minutes before we are late," Isshin replies.

Naruto looks shocked. "Wait, we aren't late?" he asks.

"Nope," Isshin says, popping the 'p'.

They continue talking until they get to the class. Naruto goes to try to get a seat near Sakura, while Isshin walks up and sits next to Ino, laying his head down on his desk

As Isshin was sitting there with his eyes closed, trying to take a quick nap, Iruka walked in and announced, "We are about to begin the graduation exams. When your name is called, follow me to the classroom where your test will be held. The test will be on the clone jutsu." As Iruka finished saying that, Isshin looked over at Naruto, seeing him hold his face with both hands, cringing.

"Well, that's unfortunate," Isshin thinks to himself.

After a while of Iruka coming in and out of the classroom, the classroom was almost empty at this point. He calls Naruto's name, and he looks over at Isshin, seeing that he has a worried look on his face. Naruto shouts, "I'm going to pass, dattebayo!" while beaming, holding up a peace sign.

"Good luck," Isshin says as Naruto follows Iruka out.

"Do you think he will pass?" Ino asks Isshin.

Isshin shrugs, "No clue," and gets up, making his way to the door.

"What are you doing?" Ino asks.

"Don't worry about it," Isshin says as he walks out of the room and towards the classroom door. He assumed they were doing the test in it. He then eavesdrops on Naruto's test.

"Alright Naruto, show us your clone jutsu," Iruka says.

Naruto shouts, "Bushin no Jutsu!"

"Failed!" Iruka shouts.

Isshin stops eavesdropping and walks back to the classroom, sitting back down next to Ino.

Ino whispers, "Did he pass?"

Isshin just shakes his head with a sad look in his eyes.

After a few more people, Iruka comes in and gets Ino.

Then Iruka comes back and gets Isshin.

As Isshin walks into the room, he looks around. The room is mostly empty, except for a table with hitai-ates sitting, chairs being behind the tables, currently occupied by two men. One is Iruka; the other one is a man with light blue hair underneath a blue banana hitai-ate, green eyes, and a blue long-sleeve shirt under a light green flak jacket. Behind them was a blackboard.

"Oh hey Mizuki sensei," Isshin greets.

"Hello Isshin, are you ready to show us your Bunshin?" Mizuki asks.

"As ready as I will ever be!" Isshin states with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Go ahead then," Mizuki says.

Isshin channels a small amount of chakra and he goes through the hand seals. "Bunshin no Jutsu," he says lazily. A plume of smoke surrounds him, a copy of Isshin appears next to him but quickly fades away. He then places his hands on his face stares at Iruka with a blank look and says, "Oh no," in a monotone voice.

Iruka sweat drops and says, "Isshin, you fail."

Isshin just continues to stare blankly.

"But Iruka, he made a bunshin," Mizuki says while smiling at Isshin.

Iruka just shakes his head. "I didn't let Naruto pass with his sickly clone. I can't let Isshin pass when he faded out a second after he made it," he says.

Mizuki gives Isshin a sad smile.

Isshin then gives Iruka an eye smile before he walks out of the classroom and heads to the front doors of the academy. After he walks out, he sees all the parents and kids talking in a big crowd right in front of the academy doors. As he makes it through the group, he spots Naruto looking sad, sitting on a swing attached to a tree. Isshin starts making his way over to Naruto and hears two ladies talking while glaring over at Naruto.

"It's that boy, I heard he is the only one that failed."

"Hmph, serves him right, imagine if he became a shinobi."

Isshin turns around and glares at the two women and shouts, "He isn't the only one that failed, you idiots!" The crowd starts looking over to see what the commotion is, so Isshin turns back around and continues to make his way toward Naruto.

Behind the crowd near the walls, we see the Third Hokage Hiruzen standing next to Iruka. Hiruzen is currently chuckling at the scene he witnessed before he states in a serious tone, "Iruka, we need to talk later."

Iruka replies, "Yes, sir."

Naruto heard Isshin shout and looked up, then he gaped at Isshin as he made his way to Naruto.

Isshin walks to the side of Naruto, he lazily waves and says, "Yo, guess we both failed," and then sits down on the ground.

"How did you manage to fail?" Naruto asks as he looks over at Isshin with disbelief.

"I guess my test just wasn't good enough," Isshin shrugs.

Naruto stares at Isshin with doubt. "I don't believe you," he states.

"You want to get some Ramen?" Isshin asks.

"Are you paying?" Naruto asks with a big smile on his face.

Isshin just looks at Naruto blankly before saying, "Didn't you say you were paying the next time we got ramen?"

Naruto chuckles while rubbing the back of his head. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

As they head off to Ichiraku's, Mizuki walks out from behind a tree and thinks to himself, 'It seems like I can get them both to steal the scroll. I didn't have much faith in Naruto, but with a little help, he might be able to.' He then flickers away.

While Naruto and Isshin were eating their Ramen, they heard the flap to Ichiraku's open and saw Mizuki sit down on the stool between them. Then Mizuki looks at Naruto before giving him a small smile and says, "You know, Iruka wasn't trying to be mean to you."

Naruto looks over at Mizuki and asks while frowning, "Then why only me?"

"I also failed," Isshin cuts in quickly with his hand raised.

"You don't count," Naruto snaps at Isshin with a tick mark on his head.

"You wound me," Isshin says as he falls onto the ground, hand over his heart.

Mizuki looks at them annoyed before saying, "You see, Iruka wants you to become strong. After all, you both are a lot alike."

Naruto looks at Mizuki surprised then says, "I wanted to graduate so badly though."

Mizuki chuckles a little and says, "Well, I guess you leave me no choice."

Naruto looks at Mizuki with stars in his eyes and asks, "Really?"

Mizuki nods and then whispers again, "You need to take the scroll of sealing and learn one thing from it. I'm only telling you two because you are my favorite students." Mizuki smiles, he gets up pays for their food, and says, "You only have until midnight. Oh, you also can't tell anyone after all it's a secret." Then he walks away.

"Isshin, did you hear that?" Naruto asks while beaming.

Isshin frowns and says, "Yes, Naruto, but that just doesn't seem right."

Naruto exclaims, "I'm going to do it no matter what."

Isshin sighs before he says, "Alright, I guess I'll come too. I need to stop at my house to grab something though." They start walking away from Ichiraku's.

They make it to Isshin's house. Isshin looks over to Naruto and says, "You need to wait outside. Ino might kill you if she sees you in there after what you did last time."

Naruto chuckles. "I thought orange hair suited her though," he says.

Isshin walks through the door, he hears talking coming from the direction of the kitchen. So he pokes his head in, seeing his dad talking to Ino.

"Yo, Dad, mind stepping out? Got something important to tell you," Isshin asks in a serious tone.

Inochi nods then walks out and motions Isshin to follow him. As they made it to where Ino couldn't hear them, he asked, "What is it?"

"I think Mizuki sensei is trying to trick me and Naruto into doing something bad," Isshin states.

Inochi raises an eyebrow. "How bad?" he asks.

"Treason bad," Isshin says with a frown.

Inochi gasps. "What?"

"He told Naruto that there was a secret test where we would be tested on stealth by stealing the scroll of sealing and learning one before midnight," Isshin says.

Inochi scowls before asking, "Where is Naruto?"

"Outside. I lied to him, telling him that I needed to grab something and told him to stay outside," Isshin says sadly.

Inochi pats Isshin on the back then says, "Well, I'm glad you told me. Now let us grab Naruto. We need to go see the Hokage."

As Naruto is waiting around outside, he sees Isshin and Inochi walk out. "Hey, why did your dad come out?" Naruto asked while looking puzzled.

Inochi steps up and puts his hand on Naruto and Isshin's shoulders, then says, "You will find out when we go to the Hokage's office." Inochi states as he flickers them away to the Hokage office.

They all appear in the Hokage's office. Naruto and Isshin look sick.

Hiruzen swiftly puts away an orange book before looking up at Inochi with surprise then sees the serious look on Inochi's face and asks, "What's wrong?"

Inochi recaps the Hokage with what Isshin told him.

"That is troubling," Hiruzen said.

"Why?" Naruto asks while looking at Hiruzen.

"That test doesn't exist. Mizuki lied to you, Naruto," Hiruzen said with a frown.

Hiruzin grabs his tobacco pipe lights it and takes a puff pondering about what to do with the situation. He then blows the smoke out. He grins and says, "I don't want to send Mizuki to T&I without any solid proof, but I think I thought of a solution." He then gets up from his desk and grabs a blank scroll that looks like the scroll of sealing, walks back to his desk, sits back down, and starts jotting something down on it before looking at Naruto, and tossing it to him.

Naruto manages to catch it and asks with a puzzled face, "What's this got to do with the plan, Jiji?"

"I want you and Isshin to 'steal' that scroll and meet up with Mizuki. On that scroll, I would down a jutsu that you should be able to use," Naruto cheers. Hiruzen pauses before motioning to Isshin to step up. "May I see your wrist, Isshin?" he asks.

Isshin shrugs and sticks out his right arm. Hiruzen grabs his wrist and ponders for a moment before he lets go, then he states, "You should be good to make at most two. That will make you low on chakra. If you go over that, you will get chakra exhaustion."

"Two of what?" Isshin asks confused.

"You will find out," Hiruzen chuckles before saying, "You two can start running away with the scroll now."

They nod and walk over to the window. Naruto opens the window and hops out with Isshin following.

Hiruzen then says, "Neko."

A cat-masked Anbu with straight purple hair flickers in front of the table and kneels.

"I want you to go trail them. Don't intervene unless they are in danger," Hiruzen commands.

"As you command, Lord Third," the masked kunoichi says in a monotone voice.

Inochi looks relieved as he witnesses the Anbu leaving.

"Inochi, I want you to alert the Chunin stationed around the tower that the scroll of sealing was stolen. Afterwards, head to T&I. You all will be having a new guest tonight, and I want to know if he is working with someone, and if he's working for someone, I want their name," Hiruzen commands.

"Yes, Lord Third," Inochi replies before leaving the room.

Hiruzen then opens one of his desk drawers and pulls out a crystal ball, closes the drawer, sits the ball on his desk, and moves his hands around it before a picture of what Naruto and Isshin are doing.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the village, we see Mizuki walking up to a door at what seems to be an apartment complex. He knocks on the door and shouts, "Wake up, Iruka."

Iruka gets up off the bed, slips on his sandals, rushes to his door, and opens it. "What's wrong?" he asks while looking concerned.

"I heard that Naruto and Isshin stole the scroll of sealing," Mizuki says with a frown.

Iruka looks dumbfounded before quickly turning around and entering his apartment. He grabs his flak jacket, quickly puts it on, then runs out his door and starts hopping on tops of buildings, looking for his favorite troublemaker.

Naruto and Isshin make it to a clearing in a forest next to a shack. They plop down on the ground. Naruto places the scroll down and starts rolling it out and says, "I wonder what kind of super cool jutsu Jiji wrote down." He looks down and starts reading. "Taju Kage Bushin no Jutsu." He slaps his head and complains, "Why did Jiji give us a stupid clone jutsu?"

Isshin shrugs and says, "Maybe you'll be able to do this one."

Naruto pumps his hand up into the air and exclaims, "I've got this! I'll get it down in no time, dattebayo!"

Isshin pulls down his bandages and says, "I bet I'll get it done first." He then sticks out his tongue at Naruto and pulls his bandages back up.

"You're on, loser buys Ichiraku," Naruto shouts, and they start practicing.

After a few hours of practicing, they were exhausted, and their clothes were dirty. Isshin looks at Naruto and says, "That makes it 20-17. I'm in the lead."

Naruto crosses his arms and pouts. "One day I'll be in the lead."

"That will be the day Sakura finally agrees to go on a date with you," Isshin replies sarcastically.

Naruto slumps his shoulders. "That's just cold, dude," he replies.

They hear some footsteps and look up to see Iruka.

"Hey, you two," he says, looking very angry.

Naruto rubs the back of his head while chuckling and says, "You found us, Iruka-sensei, and we've only learned one thing off the scroll."

Iruka looks at Naruto and thinks to himself, 'They have been practicing jutsu until they were that dirty and exhausted.'

Naruto says, "Hey, Iruka-sensei, I'm going to show you this awesome jutsu, and you're going to pass us, right? After all, we pass if we can do a jutsu written on the scroll?"

Isshin smacks the back of Naruto's head while having a tick mark on his head. "Lord third already told you that was fake, you numbskull."

Naruto plops down on the ground pouting with a little raincloud over his head, mumbling, "How are we supposed to graduate then?"

"Hm, where did you hear that?" Iruka asks with a puzzled look.

Isshin raises both of his hands in a hand seal uses Shindenshin no Jutsu and transmits his thoughts and memories of the meeting with the Hokage before he kneels and starts panting.

Naruto hops back up to his feet and looks at Isshin with concern. He asks, "Hey, you alright?"

Iruka looks furious. He hears something whistling through the air, so he shoves them down to the ground. A bunch of kunai flies towards him; only one hits him, and it goes into his right thigh. The rest get impaled to a shack behind him. He pulls the kunai out of his leg.

Mizuki has two fuma shuriken on his back, standing on top of a tree branch, laughing, and says, "Hey, Naruto, do you want to know why everyone in the village hates you? Well, you see, after an incident 12 years ago, a law was made."

"A law?" Naruto looks up at Mizuki.

"Yes, Naruto, a law that everyone in the older generations knows that your generation doesn't," Mizuki states with a sneer on his face.

"What is it?" Naruto asks, looking surprised.

"Stop it, Mizuki," Iruka yells.

Mizuki looks at Naruto before saying, "The law forbids anyone from talking about the fact that you are the nine-tailed fox that attacked 12 years ago, the same one that killed Iruka's parents and destroyed the village."

Naruto starts screaming no while unleashing a bunch of chakra.

Mizuki takes a fuma shuriken off his back and starts spinning it gets into the motion to throw it and lets it go.

Naruto sees this and tries to get away, but he stumbles and falls. Iruka flickers over and uses his body to shield Naruto. Naruto looks up in surprise; the fuma shuriken impales the ground as they hear a thump. They look to see Isshin's body lying face first on the ground and hear Mizuki say, "Shintenshin no Jutsu success. Iruka, hurry and tie up Mizuki. I don't know how much longer I can do this." He climbs down the tree before sitting.

Iruka rushes over and disarms Mizuki and pulls a spool of ninja wire out of his pouch. Iruka ties Mizuki's arms up behind his back and then ties his legs up. "Just in... you stupid brat," Mizuki yells.

"Time," they hear Isshin say as he rolls over, closing his eyes.

Suddenly, cat-masked Anbu flickers down, grabs Mizuki, and puts him on his back before stating, "The Hokage will want to see you three in his office."

Iruka walks over to Isshin and asks, "Do you think you can walk?"

Isshin cracks open his eyes before mumbling very quietly, "I might."

Iruka chuckles as he helps Isshin up, and they all start going toward the Hokage tower. As they made their way there, Iruka and Naruto had a heart-to-heart conversation with each other.

They walk into the Hokage's office. Hiruzen greets them.

Naruto exclaims, "Hey, Jiji, look, I did it!" He held up a hand sign, and there was a bunch of loud pops; then the room was full of clones of Naruto. Iruka's mouth comically falls to the floor.

"Good job, Naruto," Hiruzen reaches over and rubs his head.

Iruka recomposes before he says, "Close his eyes." Iruka takes off his hitai-ate, he pulls down Naruto's goggles, then ties his hitai-ate around his head. "You can open your eyes now."

Naruto touches his forehead and then looks at Iruka. "You passed, you are now a genin of Konoha," Iruka states. Suddenly, an orange blur tackles him to the ground, hugging him.

Hiruzen was looking on fondly.

Isshin looks at Iruka blankly. "Where's mine?" he asks.

Naruto looks over at Isshin, smiling, and says, "Why don't you show him your clones? Maybe you will get one too."

Isshin stares blankly. "I would rather not end up in the hospital from chakra exhaustion."

"How could a few clones send you to the hospital? Didn't you see how many I just made?" Naruto asks confused.

Hiruzen chuckles before he says, "As fun as this night has been, these old bones need some rest, so let me go over why I wanted you all here." He pauses before looking at Isshin. "I assume what we heard about Naruto's fuzzy problem tonight doesn't get talked about, yes?" Isshin looks up at Hiruzen and nods his head.

Naruto looks down at the ground and asks, "Hey Jiji, am I the fox?"

"No, my boy, you are what's keeping the fox away," Hiruzen says.

"What do you mean by that, Lord Third?" Isshin asks.

"Naruto is the Jinchuriki of the nine-tailed fox," Hiruzen explains.

Isshin's eyes widen. 'So that's why everyone treats him like that,' he thinks to himself.

Naruto looks puzzled and asks, "I'm a Jinchuriki? What does that mean?"

Hiruzen nods and gives Naruto a sad smile. "Jinchuriki means the power of human sacrifice. Twelve years ago, the Fourth Hokage didn't die killing the Kyubi; he died sealing it within you."

"So I'm like a storage scroll and the Kyubi like a kunai?" Naruto asks while Hiruzen nods.

"Then why do all of the history books say he killed it?" Isshin asks.

"You see, I made a law that where the people who knew about it couldn't tell anyone, hoping that Naruto wouldn't be treated poorly. But as we all can tell, it didn't go as I hoped," Hiruzen frowns.

"But anyways, that's all I wanted. You all may leave, but Isshin, I would like you to stay back for a few minutes," Hiruzen says.

"See ya around, Isshin," Naruto shouts as he leaves with Iruka.

"What did you need from me?" Lord Third Isshin asks.

Hiruzen opens up a drawer on his desk and pulls out a hitai-ate, tossing it to him. "For your help in capturing the traitor Mizuki, you are now a Genin of Konoha," he states with a smile.

Isshin catches the hitai-ate and ties it to his bicep, then gives Hiruzen an eye smile. "Thank you, Lord Third," he says.

"Now you are free to go," Hiruzen says.

"Have a good night, sir," Isshin says as he walks out of the room and sees Naruto waiting for him.

"You passed too? Awesome!" Naruto exclaims as he smiles.

"Yep, well let us make our way out. Thanks for waiting on me, by the way," Isshin says.

"No problem," Naruto says as he follows Isshin and talks to him until they make it near his apartment. "Later, Isshin. See ya tomorrow," Naruto says while running up to his door.

"Later Naruto," Isshin says as he continues to walk home.