Chapter 37: Curtain Rises
"Lord Hokage!"
A chūnin came barreling into Hiruzen's office in a complete panic. The old man was, for once, enjoying a rare bit of free time and had been practicing calligraphy.
"What is it?"
Hiruzen looked up from his brushwork without much alarm.
"It's Naruto, Lord Hokage! Naruto's pulled another prank! This time he's actually painting on the Hokage Monument! With real paint!"
Hiruzen sighed, finished his last brushstroke, and set the brush down.
"Send for Iruka. Have him drag the boy down."
"Yes!"
The chūnin disappeared. Hiruzen sat back to admire his calligraphy — and decided, with mild dissatisfaction, that something was still slightly off about it.
"NARUTO!"
By the time word reached him, Iruka was practically incandescent. As Naruto had grown, the kid had only gotten more brazen. And now he had the audacity to paint cosmetics on the faces of the four Hokage carved into the cliff face?!
"Hehe... Iruka-sensei..."
The now-twelve-year-old Naruto gave him a sheepish, hopeful little grin, attempting his usual wriggle-out-of-trouble maneuver.
"You little—! Do you have any idea what you've done?! Get up there and clean every speck of that paint off, now!"
Without any way out from under Iruka's accumulated years of fury, Naruto trudged up the cliff with brush and rope and got to work scrubbing his own masterpiece off.
Iruka leaned on the railing at the top of the Hokage Monument, watching Naruto dangle from his line and slowly scrub away. After a while, his expression softened.
"Faster you finish, faster you can go home."
Naruto pulled a face and answered with the casual indifference of a kid who'd long since accepted his life.
"Doesn't matter. Nobody at home anyway. Going back or not's pretty much the same."
Iruka paused. Then, in the most carefully casual tone he could manage:
"Y'know — I heard Sakura's coming back to the village tomorrow. If Sakura found out you were causing this much trouble, you think she'd be mad?"
"EH?!"
"Iruka-sensei! Please don't tell Sakura, I'm scrubbing right now, I'm scrubbing!"
Naruto, suddenly, was vibrating with industriousness.
Watching the boy work in earnest, Iruka's face gentled.
"Keep going, Naruto. Once you're done, we'll go to Ichiraku. My treat!"
"YESSS!"
Naruto went into overdrive — and promptly knocked over the bucket of water hanging next to him, drenching Iruka head to toe.
"NARUTOOO!"
"Eh-heheh~"
Ninja Academy
Cicadas droned in the trees. The blonde boy sat alone on the swing under the shade.
The shadow of the tree fell over him completely. The school gate was crowded with parents picking up their kids. The boy's bright blue eyes stared at the crowd with quiet, deflated misery.
The line where the sunlight stopped and the shade began felt like a sharp, clean border — splitting him from the rest of the world into two entirely different places.
"Is that him?"
"Yeah. I heard he was the only one who didn't pass..."
"Well, of course..."
"Why does Lord Hokage even keep that boy around..."
The whispered comments of the adults at the gate landed in the boy's chest like little needles.
He dropped his gaze to his feet and let the swing rock him gently in the breeze.
"Naruto..."
A warm, familiar voice. Naruto looked up.
It was one of the academy instructors. Mizuki.
"Tough luck about the exam, Naruto."
There was something almost magical about the man's gentle tone — it slid right past Naruto's defenses and seemed to soothe him from the inside out.
"Mizuki-sensei..."
The blue-haired man looked down at the boy in front of him. Behind the warmth in his eyes, something cold and hungry glittered briefly — too quick to catch.
Finally. Finally got my opening.
Night.
A yellow blur tore through the forest at full speed. Naruto bounded from branch to branch with an enormous scroll strapped to his back.
The Scroll of Seals.
Mizuki-sensei had told him: just learn one of the techniques in this scroll, and you'll definitely pass the graduation exam.
Then he'd be a real ninja. Just like Sakura.
The very first technique in the scroll, of course, was the Clone Technique. Which was Naruto's single worst skill in the world.
He'd wanted to keep reading further, but Iruka-sensei had somehow gotten word and was already on his trail. Naruto had been forced to bolt and find somewhere safer to keep going.
A sharp whistling cut through the air behind him. Naruto reacted on pure instinct and threw himself sideways.
A massive shuriken — practically half his body in size — slammed into the trunk of the tree just ahead of him, burying itself deep in the wood.
"Eh?"
"You're a hard kid to track down, brat."
A familiar voice. Naruto's eyes went wide.
That voice was—
The blue-haired man stepped out of the shadows. The moonlight fell over him fully — and the warm expression he'd worn during the day was completely, utterly gone. In its place was something cold, sharp, and unhinged.
"Mizuki... sensei...?"
Naruto stared, uncomprehending. Why is he attacking me? A shuriken that size — if it hit, I'd die, wouldn't I?
"Wh— why? Mizuki-sensei, why are you—"
"Hah? What are you babbling about, you demon fox?" Mizuki sneered down at him. "I think the village would call killing you a public service, don't you?"
Demon fox?
"MIZUKI!"
A new voice. Iruka, sprinting through the trees.
"Iruka. Perfect timing." Mizuki's mouth curled into an interested smile, like he was looking forward to whatever happened next. "Naruto. Do you know why everyone in the village hates you?"
"MIZUKI, SHUT UP! That's classified village information!"
Iruka shot in front of Naruto and put his back between the boy and the shuriken.
"Classified?! HAHAHAHA! Don't kid yourself, Iruka! You think that counts as classified? Every adult in the village knows Naruto IS the Nine-Tailed Fox! Even your parents — Iruka — were killed by Naruto! And the Fourth Hokage himself? Killed. By. That brat."
Iruka's face went white with horror.
"STOP! Stop talking, now!"
"Why? Am I lying?"
Mizuki was past caring. He looked over Iruka's shoulder at the now-frozen boy and continued, savoring it:
"Hell — for all you know, even the village's prodigy, Sakura Haruno — she only ever got close to you because somebody arranged for her to. Or maybe she was after your power. Who else in this village would willingly approach a hated demon fox?"
Sakura...?
Was she just... someone who got close to me on purpose, too?
Naruto's expression cracked open. For the first time in his life, he was experiencing what real paralysis felt like. He didn't know what to do.
His instinct was to run. To get away. To get far away from this insane world.
Why...
Why...
Why am I the Nine-Tails?
Why does everyone hate me?
Iruka. Mizuki. He couldn't deal with either of them right now. He just needed to run.
It's a lie. It's a lie. All of it is a lie!
Naruto bolted, blind and frantic, completely deaf to Iruka's anguished shouting behind him.
Why? Why?
Why was Sakura — Sakura — also pretending?
Am I really that hated?
Right now, Naruto had no idea what to do. No idea who to trust. The way the village treated him had always been impossible to miss — but Sakura. Why Sakura. Of all people, why Sakura?
"Naruto."
A cool, clear voice cut through the night.
Naruto's head jerked up. And when he saw who was standing there — his breath caught in his throat.
A cherry-pink ponytail drifted in the night wind. The severe, suffocating cut of an ANBU uniform. A tanuki mask pinned at the side of her head, leaving her face uncovered — and a pair of eyes the cool, perfect green of polished jade.
Standing with the moon at her back, the girl looked unreachable. Untouchable. Distant.
Three more ANBU stood arrayed behind her, clearly orbiting around her as their center.
Captain of ANBU Squad Seven.
Sakura Haruno.