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The moon hung heavy over Konohagakure, its pale light filtering through the thin curtains of Naruto Uzumaki's sparse apartment. He sat on the edge of his bed, still in his orange tracksuit, staring at his hands. They were clean now—he'd scrubbed them raw in the sink—but he could still see the phantom stains. Could still feel the warmth that had splashed across his knuckles.
"Graduation..." he whispered to the empty room, his voice hoarse. "Nine-Tails... Mizuki's dead..."
The words felt foreign on his tongue, like he was speaking someone else's life. But the ache in his chest, the way his stomach churned every time he closed his eyes—that was all his.
---
*Earlier that day...*
The Academy classroom had felt smaller than usual when Iruka-sensei announced the graduation test results. One by one, his classmates received their forehead protectors, their faces bright with achievement and anticipation. Sasuke's cool satisfaction. Sakura's barely contained excitement. Shikamaru's lazy acceptance.
And then there was Naruto, sitting alone in the back row, watching everyone else move forward while he remained behind.
"The Clone Technique," Iruka had said, not meeting his eyes. "I'm sorry, Naruto. You'll have to try again next year."
The technique that had haunted him for years. Three pathetic, half-formed clones that couldn't even stand upright, let alone fool anyone. While his classmates produced perfect copies with barely any effort, Naruto's attempts looked like melted wax figures.
He'd stayed after everyone else left, slumped in his desk while the Academy emptied around him. That's when Mizuki-sensei had found him.
"Rough day?" Mizuki's voice had been gentle, understanding in a way that Iruka's blunt disappointment wasn't.
Naruto had looked up at the silver-haired chunin, seeing what he'd always seen—one of the few adults who didn't look at him with barely concealed disgust. "I can't do it, Mizuki-sensei. I can't make the clones work."
"Well," Mizuki had said, settling into the desk beside him, "what if I told you there was another way? A shortcut that could get you graduated by tonight?"
The Forbidden Scroll. Mizuki had made it sound so simple, so reasonable. Just borrow it for a few hours, learn one technique from it, and show Iruka-sensei what he could really do. A make-up test, Mizuki had called it. Perfectly legitimate.
Naruto had wanted to believe it so badly that he'd ignored the voice in the back of his mind whispering that it felt wrong.
---
The forest clearing where he'd hidden to practice was peaceful, moonlight filtering through the canopy as Naruto unrolled the massive scroll. The techniques written within were beyond anything taught at the Academy—complex jutsu with warnings scrawled in red ink about their dangers and requirements.
But the first one... the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu... that one seemed almost too perfect. A clone technique that created real, solid duplicates. Not the fragile illusions they taught at the Academy, but actual copies with substance and strength.
*This is it,* he'd thought as he formed the hand seals. *This is how I'll prove myself.*
The technique had worked better than he could have dreamed. Dozens of perfect copies filled the clearing, each one solid and real and undeniably him. For the first time in years, Naruto had felt genuinely powerful.
That's when they'd found him.
Iruka-sensei had burst through the treeline first, his face a mask of panic and anger. "Naruto! What are you doing with that scroll?"
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto had scrambled to his feet, dismissing the clones with a gesture. "I learned a technique! I can graduate now, right? Mizuki-sensei said if I learned something from the scroll—"
"Mizuki told you to steal this?" Iruka's voice had gone deadly quiet.
And then the second figure had emerged from the shadows, and everything had gone wrong.
Mizuki's face was different now—no longer the gentle teacher who'd offered him hope. There was something cruel and hungry in his expression, something that made Naruto's skin crawl.
"Well, well," Mizuki had said, his voice dripping with false sympathy. "The little demon found himself some new toys."
"Demon?" Naruto had looked between them, confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, Iruka didn't tell you?" Mizuki's smile was sharp as broken glass. "How unfair of him to keep you in the dark all these years."
"Mizuki, don't—" Iruka had stepped forward, but Mizuki was already speaking.
"You want to know why the villagers hate you, Naruto? Why children your age were forbidden from playing with you? Why adults look at you like you're something filthy they stepped in?"
The words hit like physical blows, each one confirming fears Naruto had carried for as long as he could remember.
"It's because you're not human," Mizuki continued, his voice rising with vindictive glee. "Twelve years ago, the Nine-Tailed Fox destroyed our village. Hundreds died. And when the Fourth Hokage finally stopped it, he didn't kill it—he sealed it away. He sealed it inside a newborn baby."
Naruto's world had tilted off its axis. "No... that's not... I'm not—"
"You are the Nine-Tailed Fox!" Mizuki's shout echoed through the clearing. "You're the monster that killed their families! That's why they hate you! That's why you'll never be accepted!"
"He's lying," Iruka had said desperately, moving between them. "Naruto, you're—"
But the words were already burrowing into Naruto's mind like parasites. Every suspicious look. Every parent pulling their child away when he approached. Every shopkeeper's reluctance to serve him. Every night spent alone while his classmates had families to go home to.
*Nine-Tails. Monster. Demon.*
"It's not true," Naruto had whispered, but even as he said it, he could feel something stirring deep in his chest. Something vast and angry and not entirely his own. "I'm not... I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I'm going to be Hokage someday. I'm not the Nine-Tails."
"Look at yourself!" Mizuki had pulled out a fuma shuriken, its blades gleaming in the moonlight. "You're already using its power! Those clones—that's not your chakra making them! It's the fox's!"
And maybe that had been the final straw. Maybe it was the way Mizuki said *fox* like it was a curse word, or the way he hefted that massive shuriken like he was about to end this conversation permanently. Maybe it was the look of genuine fear in Iruka-sensei's eyes—not fear of Naruto, but fear *for* him.
"I don't care if you're the Nine-Tails," Iruka had said, and his voice carried absolute conviction. "You're still my student. You're still Naruto."
Mizuki had laughed, cold and bitter. "How touching. The demon and its sympathizer." He'd drawn back the shuriken. "I'll kill you both and take the scroll. The Hokage will thank me for disposing of Konoha's greatest threat."
The shuriken had flown in a deadly arc, its path clear and inevitable.
Straight toward Iruka.
Naruto had moved without thinking, the world slowing around him as chakra—his chakra, fox chakra, he didn't care anymore—flooded his system. The Multi Shadow Clone jutsu had activated on pure instinct, and suddenly the clearing was filled with orange-clad figures, all of them wearing his face, all of them sharing his fury.
Iruka had hit the ground hard, the shuriken embedded deep between his shoulder blades. Blood spread across his vest in a growing stain, and his breathing came in short, pained gasps.
"Sensei!" Naruto—all the Narutos—had shouted in unison.
Mizuki had landed in a crouch after his throw, already reaching for another weapon. "Don't worry, demon. You'll be joining him soon."
That's when the killing had started.
Naruto had never intended for it to go that far. The clones were supposed to just overwhelm Mizuki, pin him down until help arrived. But seeing Iruka bleeding, hearing Mizuki's casual dismissal of his sensei's life, feeling that foreign rage mixing with his own familiar pain...
The first clone to reach Mizuki had driven a kunai between his ribs.
Mizuki's eyes had gone wide with shock and pain. "What—how did you—"
The second clone had taken him from behind, another kunai finding the gap between his spine and skull.
By the time the third clone struck, Mizuki was screaming.
Naruto had felt it all. Every impact. Every splash of warm blood. Every desperate sound Mizuki made as the clones carved him apart with methodical precision. The Multi Shadow Clone jutsu didn't just create copies of his body—it created copies of his mind, his memories, his emotions. And when they dispelled, everything they'd experienced came flooding back to him.
Twenty-three clones. Twenty-three different angles of Mizuki's death. Twenty-three sets of memories of what it felt like to drive steel into flesh. Twenty-three echoes of Mizuki's final, gurgling breath.
When it was over, Naruto had stood in a clearing painted red, surrounded by the remnants of what had once been his teacher. Mizuki's body lay in pieces, scattered across the forest floor like discarded puppet parts.
The worst part wasn't the blood or the smell or even the sight of what he'd done. The worst part was the silence that followed. No more screaming. No more pleading. Just Iruka's labored breathing and the sound of blood dripping from overhanging branches.
"Naruto..." Iruka had whispered from where he lay. "Come here."
Naruto had stumbled over on shaking legs, his hands still holding the kunai from his final clone. "Sensei, I—I didn't mean to—"
"I know." Iruka's voice was weak but steady. "Help me sit up."
They'd waited together until the ANBU arrived, drawn by the chakra signatures and the sounds of battle. Naruto had watched them survey the scene with professional detachment, cataloging the carnage with clinical precision. None of them seemed surprised to find him at the center of it all.
---
*Back in his apartment...*
A soft knock at his door pulled Naruto from his memories. He looked up to see the Third Hokage entering, followed by Iruka-sensei. The chunin's arm was in a sling, and he moved carefully, but he was alive.
"How are you feeling, Naruto?" the Hokage asked, settling into the apartment's single chair. His aged face was kind but tired, like he'd been having this conversation for far too long.
"Is that what they see me as?" Naruto asked without preamble. "A monster?"
The Hokage sighed, suddenly looking every one of his seventy years. "Some of them, yes. The Nine-Tails attack... it left deep scars on this village. Not just physical ones."
"And Mizuki? Did I..." Naruto swallowed hard. "I killed him."
"You protected your sensei," Iruka said immediately, moving to sit beside Naruto on the bed despite his injuries. "You saved me, Naruto. You saved everyone he would've hurt next."
"But I—" Naruto's hands clenched into fists. "The clones—they didn't hold back. I could see it. Feel it. I remember everything they did. Every cut. Every scream. Every—"
"That's what it means to be a ninja, sometimes," Iruka interrupted gently. "We carry the weight of our choices... and our power. But we don't have to carry it alone."
"The blood," Naruto whispered. "There was so much blood."
The Hokage leaned forward, his expression grave. "Naruto, what Mizuki told you was true, but incomplete. Yes, the Nine-Tailed Fox is sealed within you. You are its jinchuriki—its container. But you are not the fox itself, any more than a scroll is the jutsu written upon it."
"Then why do they hate me?" The question came out smaller than Naruto intended, like the child he still was despite everything.
"Not all hatred comes from cruelty, Naruto. Some of it is ignorance. They lost friends, family, their sense of safety when the Nine-Tails attacked. And when they look at you..." The Hokage shook his head sadly. "What they fear is the unknown inside you—not you."
Naruto was quiet for a long moment, processing the weight of truth and the pain it carried. He could remember every look. Every whispered insult. Every empty street when he walked by. It all made horrible sense now.
"So what happens now?" he asked finally.
"Now you decide who you want to be," the Hokage said. "The fox's power is part of you, yes. But how you use it, what you become—that's your choice. Mizuki chose to let his pain turn him cruel. You can choose something different."
"I want to get stronger," Naruto said, the words coming from someplace deep and certain. "Strong enough that they have to see me. Not the fox. Not the monster. Just... Naruto."
Iruka smiled despite his pain. "Then that's where we'll start."
The Hokage stood, moving toward the door. "Rest tonight, Naruto. Tomorrow, your real training begins. You've graduated from the Academy—" He paused, pulling a forehead protector from his robes and setting it on the bedside table. "Welcome to the ranks of Konoha's shinobi."
After they left, Naruto sat alone with his new headband, turning it over in his hands. The metal was cool against his palms, solid and real. Proof that he'd crossed some invisible line, that he was no longer just the dead-last Academy student.
He was a ninja now. And ninjas, as Iruka had said, carried the weight of their choices.
Naruto looked out his window at the moon, no longer seeing its light as somber but as something else. Something like possibility.
He had power now—real power. The fox's chakra flowed in his veins, and the Multi Shadow Clone jutsu was his to command. But more than that, he had purpose. He would get strong enough that when people looked at him, they would see Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage.
Not the Nine-Tails.
Not a monster.
Just him.
The weight of Mizuki's death settled into his bones like a scar that would never fully heal. But scars, Naruto was learning, didn't always have to be weaknesses.
Sometimes they were reminders of how strong you'd had to become.
---