It's been a while since Naruto felt angry—not angry for himself, but rather, for someone.
Naruto wasn't going to lie. If there was a reason for him to stay in this village, he would list Iruka's presence as one. Without anyone close by, Iruka was the first one whom he opened up his heart to.
And to see such a person used for another's selfish gain... truly enraged him.
"Be aware that your target is a chunin, Naruto."
"And among chunins, he is considered to be ranked high—not too far away from the potential of a jonin. If not for a variety of suspicions concern in his mission conduct, that he may have killed his own teammates, he may have gotten a chance for the promotion already."
Standing on the location that Mizuki spoke of with a huge scroll on his back, Naruto looked filthy; it seemed that he has taken quite some time training.
"Uzumaki Naruto has taken the scroll of seals!!"
"Find him before he's gone from the village!!"
To ensure that Mizuki doesn't get suspicious, Hiruzen spread the false news—under the idea that the leaders of the false operation knew the truth.
Furthermore, he wasn't alone. There was an examiner hiding in the dark, monitoring and evaluating Naruto's progress.
'Now, the preparation is complete.'
Naruto diligently improved himself throughout years. He was quite certain that his skill set has definitely entered the range of genin. He didn't know by how much though, for he didn't have an experience.
However, that didn't mean much to Naruto. After all, what he was going to do now wasn't a front-headed, a fair one versus one fight. He wasn't a fighter or samurai.
He was a ninja.
Someone was walking toward him from the darkness, which Naruto noticed through his sense of hearing.
Acting how a boy would at around his age, Naruto turned with a smile on him.
"Mizuki-sensei."
"Naruto! It looks like you've been training hard!"
Though dark, the moonlight illuminated the white-haired man's visage. His friendly smile seemed natural, but it wasn't enough to fool Naruto.
"Have you managed to master a jutsu?"
"Haha... unfortunately, not yet. I thought I was grasping the hang of it, but the list of jutsus here are so hard to learn."
"Well, that's why this is called a secret method. It is anything but easy!"
With a friendly chatter, Mizuki approached Naruto. Though his eyes seemed to lie on Naruto, Naruto knew that they were focused on the scroll on Naruto's back.
Mizuki's pupils dilated, showing just how concentrated he was in taking the scroll. This also meant... that he's become tunnel-visioned.
'I won't let you do anything, Mizuki.'
Skills applied only if they are usable. What separated a genin from chunin was the gap of skills. Naruto knew that could overcome such gap through preparation.
"Oh yeah, Mizuki-sensei,"
Naruto, taking out the scroll on his back and holding in his hands, spoke to Mizuki,
"There was a part I was confused of in this scroll. Will you explain it to me?"
Naturally, Mizuki was delighted by Naruto's words.
"Sure!"
Naruto handed Mizuki the scroll.
"Which part are you confused about?"
He opened the scroll, and at this moment, he wasn't able to hide his vile expression, full of excitement that imagined his 'glorious' future.
"...Eh?"
And there was nothing to read... except for loads of explosive tags attached on it.
Dumbfounded, Mizuki raised his head to look at Naruto.
Having made a hand seal with one hand, Naruto was coldly gazing at Mizuki.
Then, there was an explosive centering Mizuki, quite a huge one that generated enough noise to boom throughout the forest. Withstanding the gush of wind generated from the explosion, Naruto pulled his other hand.
Instantly, the metal wires sprang up. Tied from tree to tree, It instantly closed into the site of explosion,
"GAHH!!!"
and by the time the bleeding, bruise, and broken Mizuki realized, he was trapped in a complex network of metal wires.
"T-The wires—"
And that wasn't the end. In the midst of pain, Mizuki noticed that the wires were covered in oil.
"I have no idea what you planned on doing with the scroll of seals, Mizuki."
Then, in a cold tone, Mizuki heard Naruto speaking—as the latter took out a lighter.
"And frankly speaking, I am not interested in it either."
"W-WAIT!!! NARUTO!!!"
Without a hesitation, Naruto lit the lighter and brought it to the wire. The fire began to spread throughout the wire, and before Mizuki knew, he found his whole body burning.
He let out a painful screech, one that sounded hideous in Naruto's ears.
"CURSE YOU!!! IF NOT FOR YOU, Y-YOU DEMON—"
Mizuki couldn't finish his words as the extreme pain took away his consciousness.
And little did he know, that what he was experiencing was nothing but a genjutsu.
In the dark forest, Mizuki, with his pants wet and mouth foaming, was twitching on the ground, unconscious. Judging by his injured state, the explosion caused by the explosive tag was real, however.
Standing in front of such Mizuki was Naruto, with ripped scroll parts lying here and there.
"It looks like plan A was enough."
Revealing herself next to Naruto was a jonin kunoichi, one who was to 'assess' Naruto's performance.
Yuki Kurenai, the red-eyed woman. And frankly speaking, though she was masking her expression, her eyes contained a certain degree of surprise.
__________
"The point of explosion wasn't to just injure Mizuki. It was to lower the capability of his senses—enough for my genjutsu to interrupt."
It was an incredible feat, Hiruzen had to say.
Having a large chakra reserve, chakra control should be a hard task for Naruto. Genjutsu was the method that required a superb chakra control for a ninja to use it effectively. The fact that Naruto utilized genjutsu... Hiruzen couldn't imagine just how hard Naruto trained.
"And what if that failed?"
It wasn't Naruto who answered that question, but Kurenai,
"From what I checked, there were twenty traps set up in area."
"That was plan B."
Hiruzen chuckled at that.
"Do you have plan C then?"
"I assumed that if plan A and B were to fail,"
Naruto replied casually,
"Mizuki won't be an opponent whom I should consider as 'chunin' in terms of skill level. Plan C would be to direct Mizuki toward where this person was and cooperative should I have any use for her."
Kurenai stared at Naruto blankly.
"Excellent."
Hiruzen nodded. Knowing what Naruto wanted to hear, he then said,
"Iruka is recovering just fine. There won't be any long-lasting injury, and he will be able to return to work in a week, unless he wishes for a break."
"...That's good to hear."
"And now, speaking of your graduation present..."
Hiruzen revealed a small scroll on his table and threw it at Naruto. Catching the scroll with a raised eyebrow, Naruto opened it,
"...Shadow clone jutsu?"
A B-ranked jutsu, created by the Second Hokage. User's chakra is evenly divided between themselves and their clones, and if excess number of clones are created, user may suffer from chakra depletion, so use it carefully...
Naruto widened his eyes, realizing this jutsu, perhaps, was the most fitting technique for someone like him.
"I wondered if I should give you some bonus sum of money to celebrate, but deduced that based on your craving for knowledge, you'd prefer something like this instead. Usually, this technique would've been taught only if one achieved the title of a jonin."
Hiruzen smiled,
"...I decided to make an exception this time around. After all, I am your guardian, and at the same time, Hokage."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama."
Knowing the importance of keeping the information protected, Naruto read the details on how to utilize the jutsu before returning the scroll.
"Well then, the next step for you is—"
Hiruzen, speaking as his mind took him, paused before smiling once more,
"...I'll leave that as a surprise for you."
Naruto tilted his head, curious of what he was going to say.
__________
"Hey, Naruto."
The day after, Naruto didn't forget to visit Iruka. Wrapped around the clean bandages, he formed a weak smile upon seeing Naruto.
"How are you doing, sensei?"
"Eh, not bad so far. Could've been worse, I'd say."
As Naruto placed down a flower in a vase nearby, Iruka slowly spoke,
"I heard that you defeated Mizuki."
"...Thanks to your teaching, that is."
Iruka chuckled at that,
"I'm proud of you, Naruto."
As Iruka directed his eyes to the window to gaze outside, Naruto followed his eyes stared the same.
"There certainly are bad parts of this village. Sometimes, I too find the people here hypocrites, selfish and only thinking for themselves."
Then, Naruto was found himself surprised. The way Iruka spoke, it was as if he read Naruto's mind.
"I told you about how I was a class clown, right? Of how throughout my career of ninja, I never truly performed well and was rather, a dead weight to my peers?"
Iruka formed a bitter smile,
"People constantly looked down on me and badmouthed me. I tried to pretend as if those words didn't get through, but that wasn't true at all. At one point, I wanted to take revenge on them. But you know, I thought, what after?"
Shaking his head, Iruka looked down.
"It's unrealistic, but let's say my revenge succeeded. The village of leaf is gone, and I am to roam around the world as a rogue. People in Konoha are hypocrites, but are those outside any better? My answer to that was no. In the end, regardless of how good or bad people and environment may be, there is no safer place than here."
"Then,"
Naruto found himself speaking before he knew,
"Where is the hope in all that? I cannot forgive those who wronged me, and probably never will. I try to remain indifferent to them on the outside, but on the inside, there remains the hatred that I accumulated from them. Every time they try to warm up to me as if nothing happened, I get disgusted."
"...There is no answer to that, Naruto. Only you will be able to reach a solution one day. I simply hope that when the time comes,"
Iruka paused with a conflicted expression, before chuckling,
"You would make a choice... that truly benefits you."
Naruto didn't know what to say to that.