The Scroll of Seals Rewrites Fate Tonight

Naruto hugged the scroll and plunged into the woods, his back already soaked with sweat. One of his shoelaces had come undone, and he nearly stepped into the water when he crossed a stream.

He did not stop. He merely rubbed off the loose shoe with his heel and dragged the scroll to the middle of a clearing.

"If learning one lets me graduate, and the Clone Technique won't work, then I'll find the strongest one."

After he spread open the scroll, the first line was the Multi-Shadow Clone Technique.

Naruto lay over the scroll and read it twice.

"Split your chakra evenly among all the clones. That's so simple?"

He sat cross-legged and formed hand seals. On his first attempt, only three puffs of white smoke appeared. Two clones flopped into the grass, while the remaining one clung to a tree trunk and puked for ages.

"Why is it like this again? Mizuki-sensei said I just had to learn it before dawn. There's still time."

As the Metal-Wood Hardened Knot hidden beneath the tree shifted with him, Chiba stopped thirty zhang away along the underground roots, his body concealed by branches, leaves, and rocks.

On the other side, two Root shinobi split up. One took out a Sealing Chain, while the other buried a tracking tag in the forest clearing.

They did not approach Naruto. They merely guarded the three paths leading out.

Farther away, Mizuki approached with a Giant Fūma Shuriken on his back, stopping several times along the way to wait for the signs Iruka had left while tracking him.

Chiba withdrew his roots into the cracks between the rocks and did not interfere with Mizuki's route.

Iruka had arrived a quarter of an hour earlier than expected.

He stepped over the footprints Mizuki had deliberately left behind, then crouched at a fork in the path and touched a Metal-Wood Hardened Knot in the mud that had yet to dissolve.

The Deep-Copper Wood Pellet pointed northwest.

Iruka studied it for a moment, slipped it into his pocket, and turned toward the real clearing.

Naruto was still forming hand seals.

This time, white smoke filled half the forest. More than a dozen clones appeared at once, collided into a heap as they landed, and the two on the outside even rolled into the bushes.

"I did it! It's not quite like the picture in the scroll, but I'll try again."

"Naruto!"

Iruka rushed out from behind a tree, snatched the scroll away first, then grabbed Naruto by the collar.

"Do you know what you stole?"

"Iruka-sensei, why did you get here so early?"

"Who told you this was an exam?"

"Mizuki-sensei. He said I could graduate if I learned one jutsu."

"You're coming back with me."

Naruto reached for the scroll.

"I've already learned it. Just look. If I try one more time, I can definitely make even more."

"This isn't a graduation exam. The techniques in the Scroll of Seals can kill you."

"But Mizuki-sensei said you wouldn't let me graduate because you hate me."

Iruka's grip on his collar loosened slightly.

"What else did he say?"

"He said your parents died because of the Nine-Tails, so seeing me always annoys you."

The sound of branches snapping came from the woods.

The Giant Fūma Shuriken swept over the treetops. Iruka shoved Naruto aside, but could not dodge completely. The blade tore through his shoulder and back, pinning him to the tree behind him.

Mizuki landed beside the scroll.

"Iruka, you got here faster than I expected."

"You tampered with the patrol schedule."

"If I hadn't changed it, how could Naruto have gotten the book out?"

Naruto fell to the ground, his gaze darting between the two of them.

"Mizuki-sensei, what is this all about?"

"Don't you want to know why everyone hates you?"

"Shut up!"

Iruka tried to pull the shuriken from behind his shoulder. The moment his fingers touched the ring, blood surged from the wound again.

Mizuki stepped on the Scroll of Seals.

"Twelve years ago, the village decreed that no one could tell you the truth. But tonight, you've read a forbidden technique. That makes you half a rogue ninja, and rules don't apply to the dead."

"What truth?"

"The Nine-Tails demon fox that destroyed the village and killed Iruka's parents is sealed inside your body."

Naruto pushed himself up twice, but neither time could he fully straighten his knees.

"You're lying."

"Think about the way they look at you. Think about why no one wants to get close to you. Even Iruka only took care of you under orders, because you're the jinchuriki."

Iruka pulled out the Giant Fūma Shuriken and slid down the tree trunk.

"Naruto, take the scroll and run."

"How long are you going to keep lying to him?"

Mizuki took out a second shuriken.

"Lord Danzo will give him a suitable place. No one will hate him, and no one will treat him like a monster, as long as he hands over the Nine-Tails' power."

Iruka stood in front of Naruto, blood dripping from his sleeve into the mud.

"How long has Root had its eye on Naruto?"

"Since the day he was born."

"So you interfered with his chakra during the exam?"

"That kid couldn't even make an ordinary clone. Who would suspect someone who failed?"

Naruto looked down at his hands. The hand seal he had formed halfway fell apart, then came together again.

"I failed... was that really because of you?"

"Don't blame every mistake on me. Even without that little interference, you'd still be dead last."

Mizuki raised his shuriken.

"Give me the scroll, and I can still plead with Lord Danzo for you."

Naruto backed behind a tree, his heel touching the edge of the scroll.

Iruka spread his arms and completely shielded him.

"Run. Don't look back."

"Sensei, didn't you just say you were taking me back?"

"I've changed my mind. Take the book and find the Hokage."

"What about you?"

"I'm not weak enough to make a student take a blade for me."

Mizuki hurled his shuriken. The blade passed through the gap between two trees, headed straight for Iruka's back.

Naruto lunged forward and shoved Iruka to the ground. The shuriken grazed his forehead protector and buried itself in the tree beside them.

"You're the idiot. You're hurt this badly and still trying to act like a teacher."

"Naruto, go!"

"You said ninja can't abandon their comrades."

"You haven't graduated yet."

"Then I'll graduate right now and show you."

Naruto formed hand seals.

Mizuki stepped on the scroll and charged forward.

"A useless loser who can't even use the Clone Technique thinks he can stop me?"

White smoke rose throughout the forest.

Naruto's figures burst out from the trees, beside the stream, behind rocks, even at Mizuki's feet. Hundreds of clones filled his vision, their shouting and footsteps drowning out the rustling leaves.

Mizuki only had time to swing his shuriken once.

The first clone grabbed his wrist, the second slammed into his waist, and the crowd behind them piled on one after another, beating him from the middle of the clearing all the way to the tree roots.

"Stop! I'm your examiner!"

"You just called me a rogue ninja!"

"Take him alive! Iruka-sensei needs to question him!"

"Who stepped on my face?"

"You stepped on Mizuki!"

The fists and kicks continued for a quarter of an hour before the white smoke gradually dispersed.

Mizuki lay sprawled among broken bushes, with only half the ring of the Giant Fūma Shuriken protruding from his back.

Naruto braced his hands on his knees and panted. The clones remaining in the clearing disappeared one after another, sweat dripping from his chin.

Iruka leaned beneath a tree and untied his forehead protector.

"Come here."

"We're not done fighting. He moved just now."

"He'll die if you keep hitting him."

"It doesn't matter if someone like him dies, right?"

"Whether it matters or not is for the Interrogation Division to decide."

Naruto shuffled over to the tree and continued staring at Mizuki even after sitting down.

"Did I really graduate?"

"Your number of clones exceeded the standard, your chakra maintenance passed, and your combat judgment was barely acceptable."

"So I passed?"

Iruka tied his forehead protector around Naruto's forehead.

"You passed."

Naruto touched the metal plate twice, then pushed the forehead protector a little higher.

"Don't take it back."

"Get the scroll on your back first. There's still a pile of punishments waiting for you when we get back to the village."

"I get punished even after graduating?"

"Stealing the Scroll of Seals, wrecking the archive room, leaving the village without permission—any one of those is enough to make you write hundreds of self-criticisms."

Naruto hugged the scroll and buried his face beneath the forehead protector.

"Then you can write them with me."

"Dream on."

On the eastern side of the clearing, a Root shinobi stepped halfway out from behind a tree.

Iruka was checking Naruto's arm, Mizuki had lost the ability to move, and all the hundreds of shadow clones had already vanished.

A Sealing Chain slid from the Root shinobi's sleeve, its tip moving through the grass toward Naruto's feet.

His companion hidden to the west raised a hand, signaling him to keep approaching.

When the Root shinobi took his third step, a Metal-Wood Spear shot between two trees and nailed itself into the ground before his toes.

The soil sank half a foot. The spear shaft still hummed softly, and undissipated chakra lingered within the deep-copper wood grain.

The Sealing Chain stopped on the grass.

The Root shinobi looked toward the direction from which the spear had flown.

Between overlapping shadows of trees, only Chiba's eyes were visible. The tip of a second spear had already grown from his palm.

His companion to the west withdrew his signal and backed into the bushes first.

The Root shinobi holding the chain did not try to pull out the spear. He slid his foot back along the same path until the tree trunk concealed his body.

The two chakra signatures retreated from the Root Network one after the other, bypassed the northern gate patrol route, and vanished into the underground waterway leading to Root's entrance.

When Iruka looked up, only a few leaves cut down by the spear tip remained in the forest.

Naruto followed his gaze.

"Was someone there?"

"Maybe a patrol."

"Why would a patrol hide?"

"Worry about what's on your back first."

Iruka used the tree trunk to stand, dragged the unconscious Mizuki to the middle of the clearing, and tied his hands with ninja rope.

Naruto crouched beside the Metal-Wood Spear.

"Why is this piece of wood made of iron?"

"Don't touch it. The spear tip is poisoned."

"You know it?"

"I'm guessing."

An Anbu signal sounded in the distance.

Naruto put the Scroll of Seals on his back and supported Iruka by his uninjured shoulder. The two left along the stream, the moonlight illuminating one corner of the forehead protector on Naruto's brow.

Once their footsteps had completely faded, thin roots curled around the spear's tail and pulled the entire Metal-Wood Spear from the ground.

As the spear tip left the soil, it brought up half a Tree-Felling Talisman that was still warm.