A sigh. It all began with a sigh.
Naruto walked into his room, still thinking about what happened the day before.
Flashback
"He He He He. A lot of Chunins and Jonins unable to catch a simple boy who is not even a genin? That's unheard of!" Naruto said loudly as he sat down with the scroll on his back.
"OI NARUTO!!!" Naruto suddenly jumped up as he heard the harsh voice of his sensei, who had a scar on his face. He turned around with a grin which said that he was trying to be innocent of the crime he just committed.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE WITH THE SCROLL, BAKA?" Iruka asked as he pulled the ear of the blond.
"OW! OW! OW!" Naruto shouted in pain.
"Oi Naruto. Give that scroll to me." Naruto heard the familiar voice of Mizuki.
"Mizuki! Don't tell me that you betrayed Konoha." Iruka said with his voice full of shock at seeing his colleague whom he knew for many years.
Ignoring the scarred face of jonin, Mizuki said with a smirk "Naruto, do you know why you were hated by the people of Konoha?"
"Why?" Naruto asked as he shifted uncomfortably from his position."What's going on?"
"No. Don't do it, Mizuki. It's the Hokage's decree" Iruka shouted, only to be sneered at by Mizuki.
"What decree? What are you talking about?" Naruto asked desperately.
"That you are the container of the Nine-Tailed Fox," Mizuki shouted.
"NO!!!" Iruka shouted in desperation.
Before Naruto could react to what was going on, he saw Mizuki hurling a Fuma Shuriken toward him. The last thing he saw was the green flak jacket of Iruka as he rushed to protect Naruto.
Inside the mindscape
"Naruto, open your eyes." The blond heard a calm voice.
He slowly opened his eyes and saw the Yondaime Hokage standing in front of him.
"Fourth Stone Face? Is that you?" Naruto asked as the man chuckled.
"Idiot. That's your father." Naruto jumped at the harsh voice, coming from behind him.
"Who are you?"
"Me? I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Nice to finally meet you. You can call me Kurama" The cage behind the Yondaime Hokage said with a smile.
"And what did he say?" Naruto asked facing Minato Namikaze with wide eyes.
"Exactly what it sounds like. Nice to meet you, Naruto." Minato said with a smile as tears leaked out of Naruto's eyes as he tried to rub them in vain.
Still rubbing his tears, he walked to Minato who had his arms on his stomach to brace himself from the oncoming punch predicted by Kurama, only to feel the arms of his son around his neck.
"Dad! I always wanted to know who is my dad. And now I have finally got what I wanted to know for a long time." Naruto said as Minato wrapped his arms around his son's neck for a few moments, before breaking the hug.
"Naruto. Please forgive me for sealing Kurama into your body." Minato said as he patted his son's head, who just stayed silent.
"Dad? Can you please explain what's going on?" Naruto said, wanting to know desperately.
"Well. What do you know of the Kyuubi attack on 10th October?"
"I know that you and mom died. Speaking of mom, who was she?" Naruto asked.
"Well, Kurama will answer all your questions later. But I will just say her name. It's Kushina. Kushina Uzumaki."
"Kushina Uzumaki?" Naruto repeated, finally satisfied with the answer he sought for many years.
"Yes. Anyways, during the attack of the Nine-Tails, I was dying in the hands of Kurama before the man in the mask responsible for the attack came to me and showed his Sharingan after showing it to Kyuubi.
"In the genjutsu cast by the masked man, I learned that he was one of my students, named Obito Uchiha. He begged for my forgiveness and told me that he gave you a special power through DNA, which Kurama will explain to you later.
"He told me that he was from the future and showed me what happened in the genjutsu. After proving that he was indeed from the future, he requested me to forgive him for all his misdeeds, a request which I accepted on one condition, that he will train you secretly in his Kamui Dimension or whatever he calls." Minato said as Naruto got more and more excited.
"Anyways, I have to go as I have reached my limit. Naruto, know that you can trust Kurama for support which you might need in the future and present. You can remove that seal now." Minato said as he started becoming transparent.
"Tou san. I-" Naruto began but was interrupted by Minato
"And now, I bid my farewell. May the father of understanding and Kami guide you in the path of Will of Fire. Goodbye Naruto." Minato said as he hugged his son one last time before turning into several translucent triangles and vanishing in the air, leaving a tearful Naruto who could only scream "TOU SAN!!!!!!"
The Nine-tailed fox could only watch in pity as Naruto wiped away his tears.
"Naruto. Calm down and please open this seal as per instructions from Yondaime Hokage." Kurama said as Naruto calmed down and walked to the gates before being raised by the water underneath him.
He closed his eyes and with one move, he tore away the seal, opening the cage surrounding the Kyuubi who walked out from it calmly.
"So Kurama. What's this special jutsu about?" Naruto asked.
Kurama smirked and said "Well, I will tell you about it later. But now, that sensei of yours want to talk with you."
Outside the mindscape
Naruto opened his eyes, feeling wet liquid falling on his face. Looking up, he saw Iruka Umino who was crying and had a fuma shuriken stuck on his back.
"Naruto. You and I are not different at all. We are the same." Iruka said as Naruto slowly backed up.
"Now run," Iruka shouted as he took out the Fuma shuriken from his back and Naruto was immediately on his heels.
"Any idea how to get out of this mess, Kurama?" Naruto asked.
"I have one. I am giving you my chakra. Go back to the fight and make a half ram seal." Kurama said as he started pouring out the chakra.
"Understood," Naruto said as he ran back to Iruka and Mizuki.
He climbed up the tree nearest to where the sound was coming from and formed a half ram seal.
Immediately, a puff of smoke appeared, and when it cleared it revealed a thousand clones standing all in their glory.
"Hey, Mizuki. Do you want to have some fun?" The clones chorused at the same time.
"P-Please," Mizuki said as he backed away only for the clones to pounce on him and start beating him up.
A few minutes later
"Thank you, Naruto for helping me to capture that bastard," Iruka said.
"Hehehehe. No need to thank me." Naruto said, laughing sheepishly.
"Naruto. Close your eyes." Iruka said as Naruto closed his eyes while he felt Iruka wrapping something around his forehead. "Alright, now open your eyes."
Naruto slowly opened his eyes and saw that he was wearing a headband. He became emotional and jumped on Iruka and started weeping tears of happiness.
"Now Naruto. You are a Genin of Konoha. You have to come to school after two days for the graduation and team-ups. Is that understood?" Iruka said as he patted the head of Naruto, who nodded.
A few hours later
"Oi Naruto. We have to talk about that secret new Jutsu." Naruto heard Kurama saying.
"Alright. Alright. Tell me about it." Naruto said curiously.
"Very well. What you have is a special Kekkei Genkai called Crystal Release." Kurama said as Naruto got excited.
"How rare is that? I have never heard of that." Naruto said as Kurama laughed.
"It's not called the rarest jutsu for nothing, boy. It's so rare that it would put the wood release into shame." Kurama replied.
"Oh! You mean The Shondaime's chakra nature?" Naruto asked, remembering the lecture given by Iruka sensei in the past.
"Yes! Anyways, it's not important. I have some scrolls which I made for you with the help of Minato. You can read them by coming into the mindscape. We may have a lot of time to get you trained in using those jutsus if Kami wishes so " Kurama said as he took out the scrolls from thin air.
"Yeah! I love scrolls." Naruto said as he went back to the mindscape to read the scrolls.
Flashback end
"So you passed, Naruto?" The blond snapped out of reverie when he heard the Nara asking.
"Yeah! I got the headband, Shikamaru." Naruto said, pointing his thumb towards the headband of the Leaf Village.
"Troublesome Blonds," Shikamaru muttered under his breath.
Well, Shikamaru. We will see how troublesome blonds can be. Naruto thought with a smirk on his lips.
Kakashi: So that brings an end to the first installment of the Naruto of the Crystal Kekkei Genkai.
Obito: Yeah! This book will be an alternate version of the previous book in the Crystal series.
Kakashi: For those who are thinking "Why another Crystal series?", then Shay san would like to tell you that he loves the crystal release for its nature tending to be deadly.
Obito: Yeah! I remember that fight with Guren in the anime. You barely managed to escape the Crystal thorns.
Kakashi: Shay san believes that Crystal's release is quite underrated.
Obito: But Naruto shall not join the Akatsuki in this book. That will be the main difference between this book and the others he has written in the past. You will find many more differences and surprises which are waiting to spring out of nowhere. (Winks)
Kakashi: And as usual, Keep reading and....
Obito: Peace out.