"You're not going home until every drop of paint is cleaned off" Iruka said while crossing his arms. Naruto scowled up at him and snorted.
"So what? It's not like I have anyone at home waiting for me." He said.
For a moment, Iruka felt his heart clench for the orphan boy, watching as the kid scrubbed the paint harshly until another voice chimed in.
"What am I, chopped liver???"
Naruto and Iruka looked over to see you struggling to pull yourself onto the platform Naruto was on, making the platform move and making Naruto unsteady.
"Wha! What are you doing here."
"To say hi." You said before looking over the railing at the ground below.
"And to say goodbye." You said before hopping over the railing.
Naruto's eyes bulged out of his face and stood frozen. Fortunately, Iruka was quick to react and swiftly grabbed the back of your hoodie, accidentally choking you.
"Damn it! What the hell, kid!?" Iruka yelled while pulling you back over the railing.
"Do you have a death wish or something!?" He yelled into your face while gripping your shoulders hard.
"Yes."
"-do you have any ide- what!?" Iruka became baffled by your response.
"Yes."
"Kid, what on earth makes you want to die?"
"I just want to." You shrugged.
He stared at you for a couple seconds before releasing you standing back straight while keeping his eyes locked on you.
"I don't understand what's going on, but whatever it is, we can help you, okay?" He said in a comforting, soft tone.
You narrowed your eyes at him, giving him the most intense stare he had ever seen from you. No longer did you have the stupid, carefree look on your face, but instead, you were glaring fiercely at him.
"Don't." You said in a low voice before going back to your empty gaze and leaned over to look at Naruto.
"Hey. Let's be friends." You said, earning a bewildered look from the blonde.
Iruka was about to question you on your response when Naruto interrupted him.
"Eh? No! You're probably one of those jerks that hate me for no reason!"
"What gave you that idea?"
"You're acting all buddy-buddy with everyone including that numb-skull, Sasuke!"
You laughed at that and crossed your arms.
"Oh please! That cunt didn't even look at me, he just got all broody in the corner like a little bitch!" You snapped back.
"Hey! Language!" Iruka yelled while lightly chopping you on the head as a warning.
"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Naruto said, also blown away by your casual use of swear words.
"I don't got one so I can say whatever I want." You said while cocking your hip and turning your nose up as if you won an argument.
Naruto blinked before his face fell a bit, shoulders slumping a bit.
"You don't have a mom?"
"Nope."
"Not even a dad?"
"Nuh uh."
Naruto looked down at his feet with an even more sad look.
"...oh."
Iruka looked between the two of you and sighed before placing his hands on both your heads.
"Hey. How about after the paint is cleaned up, we could maybe go for some ramen, the good stuff. What do ya'll think?" He said.
Naruto's form immediately straightened up with a wide smile on his face.
"HAH!? Now that's some serious motivation!!!" Naruto exclaimed and rushed back to his bucket.
"Sounds great!" You said happily and leaped over the railing.
Iruka grabbed your ankles and shrieked at you before pulling you back up and whacking you upside the head.
"Naruto. Why would you do that to the Hokage faces? I mean, you do know who the Hokage are, don't you?" Iruka asked Naruto.
Before the blonde could respond, you answered for him, already finished with your bowl of ramen.
"Duh? He's been talking non stop about wanting to be the Hokage, I'm pretty sure everyone knows that." You said, lazily waving your hand around while Naruto finished drinking the delicious liquid from his bowl.
"Yeah, and I'm going to be greater than any of them. Me!" He lifted his hand and pointed a thumb towards himself with determination flashing in his eyes.
"Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage!" He exclaimed.
Iruka stared dumbly at Naruto with a noodle sticking out from his lips while Naruto continued yelling about his dreams. You rested your head on your hand and gave Iruka a knowing, smug-ass smile.
"He's right, you know. He is gonna become the Hokage, I've seen it."
Iruka slurped up the noodle and swallowed before smirking at you in a teasing way a parent would to their child whenever they told fibs.
"Oh? You've seen it, huh?"
"Yeah, and if you still don't believe me, remember that I said that the white haired guy is going to try and make Naruto steal a scroll after he fails clone jutsu."
"Hey! Are you doubting me!?" Naruto yelled while pointing an accusing finger at you.
"No but actually yes." You said while shrugging.
While Iruka didn't believe you, he still had this nagging feeling inside his gut. But like most normies, he ignored it, opting to just watch the two of you bicker back and forth.
You watched as Naruto left the exam room without a headband, as you expected. You were the last one to be tested and honestly? You didn't really think you were going to pass anyways, but just in case, you tried really hard to fail.
Yes.
You intended to fail.
And you did just that!
While Iruka had a feeling you wouldn't really be able to do it, he was still a little annoyed seeing you not even attempt to pass. Even Naruto put his all into it!
"Fuck my ass-jutsu." You said and a hand appeared out of nowhere.
It was just a hand.
Your clone's hand.
Both Iruka and Mizuki stared at the hand that you picked up. You forced three fingers and a thumb down and showed the two teachers the middle finger on the detached hand before it poofed away.
"(Y/n)..." was all Iruka could say.
"Yay, I failed!" You cheered and ran out the room, yelling after Naruto.
It didn't take long finding the boy, after all, there's only one place with a swing that you know. You pushed through the crowd of kids, earning angry shouts and yelps of surprise.
"Naruto, hey!" You yelled out to the blonde, who was currently having a depressing moment. The said boy looked up with bloodshot eyes, quickly wiping his eyes and glared at you.
"What do you want." He demanded with a slight crack in his voice.
"I just wanna see my friend, is that so bad?" You placed your hands on your hips with a pout.
"Go away! You probably just want to brag about passing." He muttered while holding back his tears.
"I failed." You said flatly.
The boy look up at you in confusion, eyes watering a bit.
"W-What?"
"Yeah, I failed."
"But how?"
You made him scoot back on the swing, earning a 'hey!' Before sitting on the same swing, knees touching his.
"What are you-"
"I ain't sitting on the ground." You said before crossing your arms. You can hear the kids loud and clear in the background talking about Naruto with distaste in their voices. What didn't really surprise you was the shift in the conversation being about you.
"Isn't that the kid who jumped from that building?"
"Yeah? What's that about? Shouldn't they be dead???"
"I heard their bones healed within seconds!"
"Great, now we have TWO freaks in the village."
You rolled your eyes at the group of gossipers and looked at Naruto, who glared at his own hands.
"Hey, who cares if we're freaks. We're freaks together." You said while gently punching his shoulder.
Naruto looked back up at you with a slight frown.
"Besides, who are they to tell us we're not ninjas? We don't need a damn headband to throw hands!" You said while chopping the air.
The swing shook a bit as you kept punching the air, making Naruto hold onto you for balance.
"H-hey! Stop I'm gonna fall!" He yelped, making you stop.
"Sorry!" You said with a lazy smile.
Naruto huffed in annoyance and turned away from you while puffing his cheeks. You noticed his face twitching as if trying to force his face from smiling... which was exactly the case. Your grin grew at the sight and you were about to tease him playfully before noticing a figure approach from your peripheral point of view.
"Hey, Naruto... remember when I told you about the white haired guy and the scroll?"
Naruto turned back to you with one eye open, still puffing his cheeks.
"He's here." You whispered before turning to the man with white hair. Naruto turned to look too and was taken aback, immediately losing his puffed up cheeks.
"M-Mizuki-sensei!?" Naruto said, nearly falling off the swing.
For a moment, Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine before pushing down that feeling.
"Naruto... (Y/n)." Mizuki said while staring you down with an unreadable expression.
You stared back up with sharper than normal and cocked your head. To Mizuki, something was definitely off about you.
"Hi sensei, here to cheer up Naruto?" You said while hugging the boy close to you, who struggled to push you off.
Mizuki looked you in the eyes longer, feeling as though he was looking into the unknown.
"C'mon, Naru!" You said and dragged the surprised boy off the swing towards Mizuki, way too eager to be normal.
'This kid...' he thought to himself before turning and leading you both.
Mizuki just couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. Of being hunted.
He knew there was no one else besides him and the two below average kids, but he just couldn't shake that feeling.
Speaking of one of the kids, he caught you just in time before you 'slipped' off the edge of the platform all three of you were sitting on.
"Woah there, kiddo! You almost slipped!" He said with a light tone as he pat your head.
"Best be careful! Don't wanna get hurt." He gave you his laidback, charming grin.
You stared at him with a blank expression and slowly moved yourself towards the edge, keeping your eyes locked on his as if testing him. He placed his arm across your torso to keep you from moving any closer to the edge and forced a tight smile.
'What is with this kid...?' He thought but decided to not address it.
"I know Iruka can be a bit tough on the both of ya, but he does care." He said in a gentle and VERY convincing tone.
"Then why..." Naruto asked with a look of frustration on his face.
"Because he wants you to be strong with all his heart, but that will never happen if he goes easy on either of you." Mizuki said.
"He's like both of you, you know-"
'Here we go.' You mentally rolled your eyes.
"-no parents, no family."
'Well they gotta kick the bucket sometime.' You thought to yourself sarcastically.
"But-... but this time I really wanted to graduate." Naruto muttered under his breathe, loud enough for both you and Mizuki to hear.
"Yup. Same here." You said casually.
The white haired man chuckled to himself and looked at the two of you.
"Then I guess I'll have to tell you." He said.
Both you and Naruto looked up at him with two different expressions.
"Huh, tell us what?" Naruto said with slight interest.
You simply stared at the man with a calm expression, as if flipping through a boring old book. Mizuki did his best to not look you in the eyes and finally spilled the beans.
"Well, there's a scroll that holds many different abilities, one of those being Shadow clone jutsu."
Naruto tensed up with a shocked expression and looked at you. You turned your head with a slight smile, knowing just exactly what he was thinking.
The white haired man.
The scroll.
Naruto hesitated a bit, unsure of how to process the uncanny coincidence, but you answered for him instead.
"Alright, we'll do whatever it takes to get it." You said while grabbing Naruto's hand.
"Wha- but I haven't-" Mizuki paused before continuing once again.
"Alright... to get the scroll, you must..."
"Alright, so you gotta do this hand thingy here." You said while poking the page of the scroll.
Naruto stood in front of you with an annoyed expression.
"What? You have the scroll facing towards you, I can't see the darn thing! You have to show me!" He exclaimed.
You huffed in annoyance and placed the scroll carelessly on the ground.
"Fine, like this." You slowly did the hand gestures, allowing Naruto to copy you.
"And then you yell shadow clone jutsu, or something." You said.
Naruto nodded before doing the same gesture you showed him. There was a cloud of smoke and five more figures appeared. The Narutos looked at each other in surprise before cheering in happiness.
You immediately rolled the scroll back up and held it to yourself while shushing the extra Narutos.
"Hey wait! We need to learn more from the scroll!" Naruto exclaimed and walked over to grab it, only for you smack his hand away.
"Hey!"
"Iruka's coming." You said simply and placed the scroll on the back of Naruto.
The boy started freaking out, turning his head from side to side before Iruka appeared before the two of you.
"NARUTO!!!"
Naruto screamed and fell back before smiling nervously up at Iruka.
"He he... looks like you found us."
"The two of you are in BIG trouble." Iruka seethed with his hands on his hips.
"Eh!? But Mizuki-sensei told us that we had to practice from the scroll! I learned my clone jutsu from it, so you can let me graduate!" Naruto exclaimed.
Iruka's face changed to that of shock and turned to you for confirmation. You nodded at the teacher before your eyes narrowed at something behind him.
"He's going to kill us." You said in an emotionless tone, sending ice into Iruka's veins.
A snap of a branch behind him was all the warning he needed to push Naruto out of the way. However, he did not anticipate you pushing him away so quickly, and it was too late to save you from the blades piercing you and pining you to the wall.
You couldn't breathe with the kunai embedded into your throat, and the pain was intense. But like before, you didn't react negatively to the pain.
Naruto and Iruka, however, did.
Mizuki stood on top of the tree, twirling a kunai in his hand while smiling at your pinned (and surely dead) body.
"Oh- Oh god!!!! (Y/n)!!!!" Iruka exclaimed while Naruto was speechless.
You involuntarily spat blood from your mouth. The red liquid poured like a waterfall from your throat, staining your hoodie and legs.
"Y-YOU BASTARD!!! HOW COULD YOU!?" Iruka shrieked up at the man with nearly unbridled rage.
"You see, it's all because of you, Naruto, that your little friend is dead." Mizuki said before dodging shiruken flung by Iruka.
Naruto looked up at the man, unable to speak from the shock he was in.
"It's because of you, those people and their families have died all those years ago."
"SHUT UP!!!" Iruka said and launched himself at Mizuki and wrestled with the man before getting stabbed in the shoulder and getting pinned to the tree. Mizuki looked down at the blonde child below and sneered.
"You really wanna know why everyone hates you, kid?" He said with cruel eyes.
"NO! DON'T TELL HIM!!!" Iruka yelled tearfully and struggled under Mizuki's foot.
"Because you are the Nine tailed fox."
The world around Naruto seemed to slow more and more, with your death adding to the illusion.
"And as long as you're alive, nobody will ever be safe." Mizuki said with a smile.
Naruto's eyes began watering at the sight of the kid he just met injured beyond comprehension and fled the scene.
"Damn it." Mizuki said and rolled his eyes before jumping from the tree and began chasing the boy.
Iruka pulled the blade from his shoulder and ran after the two, almost hesitating when seeing your corpse hang from the blades on the wall.
Their sounds grew quieter in the distance, leaving your small body to bleed out.
'Wait... don't leave me here.' You thought, being unable to speak.
'...assholes...'
You gripped the kunai that stabbed your throat, feeling just a little bit too uncomfortable having a dagger stabbed into your airway. You tugged weakly at first, feeling the waves of pain but also feeling unbothered by it before gripping it hard and pulling it out.
It slipped from your hands to the ground, slicked up with your blood and getting dirt all over it.
The wound on your neck started tingling and pulsing, letting you know that something was happening to the wound. You looked down at the rest of your body and saw many daggers and ninja stars embedded in your flesh, muscle, and even bone.
'Now onto the next flesh wounds.' You thought bitterly.
Iruka laid against the tree, worn out and weak from the wounds he had received. Mizuki stood before him, shit talking him and Naruto, claiming that the boy was exactly like him. A monster.
Iruka agreed... in that Mizuki was a monster. But he disagreed with the accusation of Naruto being just like Mizuki.
This pissed the cruel man off.
Mizuki gripped his giant shuriken, ready to end Iruka once and for all when a ball of orange and yellow rammed into his gut. Mizuki stumbled back to see Naruto standing between him and Iruka, seething with anger.
"If you touch my sensei again, I will KILL YOU!!!" Naruto said while baring his teeth at the man.
"Oh? Is that so? Why don't you come over here and prove it, nine tailed fox!" Mizuki said with a smirk.
And he did just that.
Not even 30 seconds later, over a hundred Narutos appeared around the white haired man, in the trees and on the ground.
"T-t-t-there's like a h-hundred!" Mizuki said to himself while falling on his ass.
"Make that 200."
Standing by the sides of all of the Naruto's were many copies of you, some wearing hats, others wearing different accessories. Everyone of them had something different, all except the original. You leaned against the tree Iruka was laying against as well and gave him a peace sign.
"(Y/n)!" Both Iruka and Naruto shouted in surprise.
Mizuki was the first to ask questions, eyes bulging at the sight of you with blood soaked clothing but no wounds to be seen.
"H-h-how are you still alive!?" He shouted.
"As it turns out, I can't die, even from the most fatal wounds." Your copy said.
Another crossed their arms, blowing bubbles into a smoke pipe before saying something else.
"Which means I'm stuck on this stupid planet with you assholes." The copy stated.
The real you crossed your arms as well and sighed, closing your eyes.
"It is what it is..."
"It is what it is..." all of your clones said before chuckling to theirselves.
Mizuki watched in horror as the Naruto and (Y/n) clones nodded to each other before pouncing on him. You stood there and watched with Naruto and Iruka as arms and legs punched and kicked the man to unconsciousness.
"Naruto... I have something for you."
It had been a few hours since turning Mizuki and the scroll in to the Hokage and returning back to the area where you and Naruto curb-stomped Mizuki. The sun was just rising and Naruto was about to complain about not getting any sleep at all when Iruka told him to shut his eyes.
You watched with a warm smile as Iruka-sensei replaced the goggles on Naruto's head with the iconic headband. You sighed and got ready to leave, only for someone to gently tug you back.
"Hold on, where are you going? Don't leave us so soon!" Iruka said with a warm smile on his face and gently placed the head band on your head and tying it. Although you wouldn't be able to see it, you still looked up with your mouth in the small shape of an 'o'. Iruka chuckled to himself and ruffled your hair gently, earning a groan from you.
"Iruka-sensei, can I open my eyes yet?" Naruto said impatiently.
"Oh, right! Sorry, Naruto! Go ahead." He smiled, keeping the goggles in his hand visible.
The rays of the sun finally shone on the three of you, bathing you in a comfortable warmth. It took Naruto nearly a minute to process the fact that he wasn't wearing his goggles on his forehead and found himself emotional.
Iruka wasn't given a warning before Naruto leaped into his arms, laughing and squeezing his teacher hard. The man fell back and wheezed in pain before laughing a bit as well.
You stood by and watched with a small grin, blushing a bit when Iruka looked over to you with a smile.
"Alright, get over here, (Y/n)!" He said with a free arm stretched out.
"Um, I'm f-"
But before you could finish, you were pulled into Iruka and Naruto, groaning in embarrassment. Iruka squeezed you both into his torso with a content smile on his face.
"Man... this is really gay." You said with a lazy smile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Iruka, Naruto and (Y/n): *torture dance*
Naruto and (Y/n) clones: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DMI1dHGOPJo
Mizuki: "WRRRYYYYYYYYYY-"
Anyways, yay!!! You're gonna meet Kakashi soon! But shhhh! Don't tell anyone, it's a secret...
Oh wait-