Mizuki fumed a bit, as he stared at Naruto. If it weren't for Iruka, he would have had the perfect excuse to use the boy to steal a scroll. He frowned, as he looked at the girl named Sakura Haruna.
'Hmm. The demon-brat has a crush on the girl. Maybe if I use that...,' Mizuki thought.
He stood up and nodded to himself. He quickly found the pink haired girl and Naruto and took them aside.
"Hello you two. I have an idea that will give you some more points on your test," Mizuki said, and smiled.
'Considering I deliberately threw my test, I have no need of it,' Naruto thought. 'Something is up.'
"What is the test?" Sakura asked eagerly.
"It is a simple test. There is a scroll in the Hokage's office. You just break into his office and bring the scroll to me. It is sort of an assessment test," Mizuki explained.
'Mizuki is up to something. The Hokage knows that I've been hiding my skills and wouldn't do this. I don't want Sakura in trouble. I guess I'll have to play along with this,' Naruto thought and gave a nod.
Sakura eagerly nodded at the chance to improve her score.
"Meet me near Training Area Two in thirty minutes and don't say anything to the other teachers or students," Mizuki said.
"Why is that Sensei?" Sakura asked.
"You are to be ninja. You need to be able to keep a secret" Mizuki said and quickly left.
"I really wish he had chosen Sasuke for me to work with," Sakura said, as she looked at Naruto.
"Being a ninja means dealing with unpleasant things," Naruto retorted. "I guess we should get prepared."
Sakura nodded and quickly went to get her ninja gear. Naruto ducked to where he wouldn't be seen and wrote a message on a piece of paper. He then stabbed his right forefinger with a kunai and let a drop of blood flow. He quickly crossed his hands into an 'X' shape and then brought the fingers down to give the resemblance of a bird in flight. A small stork appeared in a puff of smoke. Naruto held the paper he had written on up to the stork's beak.
"Take this to the Hokage," Naruto stated.
The bird took the paper into its mouth and flew off to where the Hokage was at.
"That should take care of that. Now to keep Sakura out of trouble," Naruto mumbled.
Naruto quickly met up with the pink haired girl at Area Two and waited. Mizuki showed up and gave the instructions on which scroll to grab. The two children left for the Hokage's office and Mizuki allowed a smile to form on his face.
'Soon, I will have the scroll and the demon will get what it deserves. It's too bad about the girl, but she is minor in the grand scheme of things.'
The two new genin quickly made their way to the Hokage's tower and looked at the door.
"Sakura? Do you have a hair pin?" Naruto asked.
"That is one of the most cliché things I have ever heard," Sakura replied, and pulled a small lockpick from behind her forehead protector. "I do keep a lockpick on me."
Sakura quickly went through the lock, and the two made their way inside the Hokage's office. Naruto quickly found which scroll that Mizuki wanted and read one of the techniques on it and then grabbed a scroll written by the Shodai Hokage and handed it to Sakura.
"Why are we taking this one?" Sakura asked, with a frown on her face.
"You'll find out soon enough," Naruto replied. "It's not really important. It is just some thoughts written by the first Hokage."
The two of them made their way back to Mizuki and waited.
"You have the scroll?" Mizuki asked, looking between the two of them.
"Well one of us does, traitor," Naruto replied.
"Traitor? Naruto, what are you talking about?" Sakura demanded.
"Mizuki is a traitor. The Hokage would not set up a test for me to add points to my score. I've been throwing the tests for two years now," Naruto explained. "I just went along with this to keep you out of trouble and to capture Mizuki. Isn't that right Morino Ibiki?"
Hearing the name of Konoha's interrogation specialist being dropped caused Mizuki to break out into a cold sweat.
"You're lying," Mizuki stated.
"No, he is not," another voice declared.
The three of them turned and saw a small squad of ANBU led by a person whose head was covered.
"Ibiki!" Mizuki gasped and glanced around frantically.
"Sakura! Hold the scroll I gave you up!"
Not understanding what was going on, Sakura did so and Naruto raised the scroll he was holding. The two scrolls flickered rapidly.
"Now, you have a problem," Naruto said with a smile. "I'm using a variation of the switching technique to constantly switch the scrolls. Either one of us could be holding the scroll you want at any given second."
Mizuki glared at the cheeky boy in front of him and decided to hurt him with the truth.
"You have no idea why the villagers hate you," Mizuki stated.
"I've known for two years now, say around the time of the Stork Incident," Naruto retorted. "If I want, I can tell, since I'm exempt from the Hokage's law."
Sakura was at a loss at what was being said, but she quickly figured out that everyone else knew what Naruto was talking about.
"You?! You were responsible for the Stork Incident?!" Mizuki demanded, as the last of his control left him.
"Accident, but I did find out the truth about myself and the names of my parents," Naruto stated, as he stared at Mizuki.
The ANBU squad quickly tackled Mizuki and started dragging him away. The flickering of the scrolls stopped and Naruto opened the one he was holding. Sakura quickly did the same and saw that she had a scroll detailing some high level techniques.
"This isn't it. Sakura has the scroll," Naruto said.
Sakura handed the scroll over to Ibiki and the man pointed at the one Naruto had in his hand.
"What's that one about?" Ibiki asked flatly.
"It's just ramblings that the first Hokage made about wielders of eye-based bloodline limits, such as the Byakugan and Sharingan," Naruto stated. "It talks about that females that don't have either one will be drawn to males who do have one of them and females that do have either are drawn to powerful chakra holders. There are no special techniques on this scroll. It's talking about human breeding."
Naruto rolled the scroll up and handed it over to Ibiki.
"I'm surprised that we aren't in trouble," Sakura muttered under her breath.
"Mizuki was our failure, not yours," Ibiki stated. "You had every reason to trust what one of your teachers tells you. The only reason Mizuki was caught and neither of you were going to get blamed was because Naruto has been hiding his full abilities."
"Please keep that quiet. I want people to keep underestimating me," Naruto stated.
Ibiki nodded and quickly left and took the scrolls back to the Hokage. As the two children walked away from Area Two, Sakura thought about what had just happened.
"Naruto? Thank you for helping me," Sakura said.
"No problem. Did you learn anything from when you read that scroll?"
Sakura rolled her eyes. "It was little much for me to understand in that short a period of time."
Naruto grinned and several versions of him appeared. "I learned how to do Kage Bunshin."
The clones vanished, and Sakura looked at Naruto in shock.
"You were able to learn a technique that powerful from such a short glance?"
Naruto shrugged. "It's not that hard."
Naruto quickly gave the explanation on how to form a Kage Bunshin to Sakura. The pink haired girl frowned and concentrated and a shadow clone of her appeared in a cloud of smoke. The shadow clone vanished after a few seconds.
"How did you manage that many?" Sakura asked, as she panted for breath.
"That is a long story," Naruto said with a frown.
"Does it have to do with what you found out two years ago?"
Naruto nodded. "Please don't try to find out. You'll be terrified of me if you do."
Sakura opened her mouth to object to that statement, but something in Naruto's eyes and voice stopped her.
"Why did you teach me the Kage Bunshin?"
"No offense, but you need something other than what was taught at school. You should get better with it, as you practice," Naruto replied with a shrug. "I used a technique that no one knows I have to alert the Hokage about what Mizuki was doing. Although, I think the Hokage has a suspicion that I have it now. Well, I'm going home."
Sakura watched as the orange clad boy left and thought about how Naruto was two years ago. She shook her head and wondered.
'Whatever happened back then, changed him. I wonder what he found out.'
Sakura headed home and then thought about the scroll Naruto had at the end of the mess with Mizuki. 'Eye-based blood limits affecting how people act? I'll just have to watch myself.'
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(Posted Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:29)
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