Chapter 4: The Test and the Trap
Haa…
Naruto took a deep, steadying breath. He finished a simple breakfast of instant ramen and made his way to the Ninja Academy.
The walk was as familiar as it was unpleasant. The villagers of Konoha still treated him like a walking plague, averting their eyes and giving him a wide berth. He moved through them like a ghost, present but unseen.
Inside the academy, the atmosphere was no warmer. His classmates clustered in their own groups, their laughter and chatter dying down as he passed, replaced by hushed whispers and pointed stares. Naruto was numb to it. He walked past them all, his expression unreadable, and slid into his usual seat in the back corner of the classroom. He closed his eyes, feigning sleep or indifference, and settled in to wait for the instructors.
Directly in front of him sat Uchiha Sasuke, the epicenter of a very different kind of attention. A swarm of fawning girls surrounded his desk, their voices a high-pitched chorus of admiration.
"Sasuke-kun, are you ready for the graduation exam tomorrow? I'm so nervous, I don't even know what we'll be tested on!"
"Don't be silly! Sasuke is the top of our class! He doesn't need to prepare for anything!"
"That's right! He'll pass easily no matter what it is!"
"Ahh, I wish I could be on a team with Sasuke-kun!"
Sasuke endured it with an air of bored tolerance, neither engaging nor driving them away, as if their adulation was merely his due.
The classroom door slid open, and the chatter died as the girls scurried back to their seats. Two Chūnin instructors entered: the scarred but kind-faced Umino Iruka, and the taller, leaner Mizuki.
Iruka cleared his throat, his eyes scanning the room. "Everyone's here? Good. As you all know, tomorrow is the graduation exam." He paused for effect. "The test will be the same as in previous years: mastery of one of the three foundational ninjutsu. This year, it will be the Clone Technique."
A mixed chorus of cheers and groans filled the room. Iruka slapped a hand on the desk for silence.
"Mizuki-sensei and I will be your proctors. Go home and practice tonight. I want to see all of you pass tomorrow!" His gaze settled on the seemingly sleeping form in the back. "Especially you, Naruto! Your Clone Technique is atrocious. Practice hard, or you will be held back!"
The classroom erupted in snickers and muffled laughter. Uzumaki Naruto, the eternal dead-last, failing the simplest of tests—it was the most predictable joke in the school.
Naruto didn't stir, his head still resting on his arms.
Iruka's eye twitched, his temper flaring, but Mizuki placed a calming hand on his shoulder. "Let it go, Iruka-sensei," he said smoothly.
Iruka sighed, letting his anger deflate into weary resignation. He made a few more announcements before dismissing the class to self-study. He didn't notice the way Mizuki's eyes lingered on the sleeping blond boy, a glint of something dark and greedy flickering within them.
The moment the instructors' attention shifted, Naruto's eyes slit open. He caught Mizuki's look, a cold sneer forming in his heart before he shut his eyes again.
His failure at the Clone Technique was, of course, a deliberate act. He had mastered the far more advanced Shadow Clone years ago. A simple illusion clone was child's play.
His target was the Scroll of Seals.
Knowing the script of this world, he was certain Mizuki would approach him. He would convince Naruto to steal the scroll, feeding him lies about it being a secret path to graduation. The scroll was said to contain all of Konoha's forbidden jutsu. The chance to glimpse its contents was too valuable to pass up. And with Mizuki as the patsy, it provided perfect, deniable cover.
Just as predicted, Mizuki found him after school. In a secluded alley, he revealed the scroll's location and spun his web of manipulation, his words dripping with false concern and grand promises.
Naruto listened with internal scorn, outwardly playing the part of the desperate, gullible fool. He nodded eagerly, his face alight with manufactured hope.
Mizuki watched him go, a grim, triumphant smile stretching his lips. The pawn was moving exactly as planned. He never saw the calculating coldness in the eyes of the boy he thought he controlled.
…
Midnight cloaked Konoha in silence.
A dark shadow flitted across the rooftops, moving with a speed and silence that belied the cackling, clumsy persona its owner showed the world. This was Naruto, heading directly for the hiding place Mizuki had described.
The location was, as he expected, suspiciously unguarded. Whether the Third Hokage had ordered the guards withdrawn or Mizuki had somehow lured them away, Naruto didn't know. He suspected the former. The Scroll of Seals was too important for its protectors to be so easily fooled. The Third had likely seen through Mizuki's scheme. Perhaps, in a twisted moment of guilt, the old man intended to let Naruto "steal" the scroll as a form of compensation.
No matter. Naruto seized the large, imposing scroll from its stand and vanished back into the night, speeding toward the dense training forests.
Under the moonless sky, he was a phantom. Deep in the woods, far from the prying eyes of crystal balls, he finally stopped. He looked down at the legendary scroll in his hands, his eyes burning with anticipation.
The repository of Konoha's greatest and most dangerous secrets. What forbidden knowledge lay within?
He unsealed it with practiced ease and unfurled the first section.
His eager expression froze, then melted into blank disbelief.
After the entry for the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, the vast parchment was utterly, completely blank.
He'd been duped.
This wasn't the real Scroll of Seals. It was a decoy, prepared in advance by the Third Hokage, containing only the one technique Naruto had supposedly craved—a technique he had mastered seven years prior.
To him, this precious "treasure" was worthless junk.
"Damn it."
Even Naruto couldn't suppress the muttered curse. All that effort for a blank scroll. He felt like an idiot.
Of course. How would a low-level schemer like Mizuki know the true location of the village's ultimate secret? He'd been a fool to get his hopes up.
With a sound of disgust, Naruto tossed the fake scroll aside. He might as well wait here for the real fool to arrive.
…
It wasn't long before he heard the crunch of frantic footsteps. Mizuki burst into the clearing, panting and sweating, a giant fuma shuriken strapped to his back. His eyes swept the area and landed on Naruto, then the discarded scroll. A wide, relieved grin split his face.
"Naruto! There you are! You led me on a merry chase. Do you have it? The scroll?"
Naruto didn't answer, just looked at him with an unnervingly placid gaze.
Mizuki, too excited to notice, saw the scroll and his grin widened. "Hah! I knew you could do it! Hand it over, quick! Give it to me, and your graduation tomorrow is guaranteed! I promise!"
Naruto tilted his head, his voice curiously flat. "You really think that's the Scroll of Seals?"
Mizuki blinked, confusion breaking through his greed. "What… what do you mean?"
Naruto just stared.
Mizuki's brow furrowed. He decided Naruto was playing games, maybe having peeked inside and gotten confused. He didn't have time for this. Konoha's hunters would be coming soon.
"Never mind! Just give it to me, Naruto!" he barked, impatience shredding his fake kindness. "Don't worry about anything else! Hand it over, and you become a full-fledged Konoha shinobi!"
A faint, humorless smile touched Naruto's lips. He shrugged and picked up the scroll. "Here."
Mizuki snatched it from his hands, surprised by the easy compliance but too eager to question it. He tore it open, his eyes hungry.
His face underwent a rapid transformation—from triumph, to confusion, to dawning horror, and finally to pure, unadulterated rage. The veins on his forehead bulged. With a roar, he hurled the blank scroll into the dirt.
"YOU LITTLE BRAT! YOU DARE MOCK ME?! WHERE IS THE REAL ONE?! GIVE ME THE REAL SCROLL OR I'LL KILL YOU RIGHT HERE!"
The mask was off. The benevolent teacher was gone, replaced by a desperate, snarling traitor. He even believed Naruto had hidden the real scroll for himself.
"The scroll is right there," Naruto said, nodding toward the discarded parchment, his voice dripping with mock pity. "That is the scroll you sent me to get."
"LIES!" Mizuki shrieked, his reason gone. "IMPOSSIBLE! You… you took it for yourself! You want to learn those forbidden jutsu to get revenge on Konoha, don't you?! I always knew it! The villagers are right! You're not human! You're a MONSTER! A DEMON FOX!"
He was screaming now, his accusations filling the clearing. He saw Naruto's expression grow colder, emptier, and mistook it for confirmation. A wild, desperate laugh tore from his throat.
It was cut off mid-breath.
One moment, Naruto was standing ten feet away. The next, the air rippled. There was no blur, no perceptible movement—just a discontinuity in space.
Mizuki's laughter died in a wet gurgle. An iron grip clamped around his throat, lifting him clean off the ground. His eyes bulged, not from lack of air alone, but from sheer, mind-numbing terror. He hadn't seen him move. He hadn't seen anything.
Naruto held the choking man aloft with effortless, terrifying strength. His blue eyes, now utterly devoid of any childish light, regarded Mizuki as one would regard a particularly annoying insect.
Then, Naruto's voice cut through the night, colder than midwinter frost and devoid of any emotion save a faint, deadly curiosity.
"'Demon Fox'… is that what you call me?"