Oblig... Though Naruto continues to rail at Kishimoto for changing his hairstyle he has not yet found a way to be released from the clutches of his owner.

Heaven Can Wait Ch 6 - Revelations

HCW - Dec 5 2016

Iruka couldn't believe what Mizuki had told him. Not only had he infiltrated the Administration building, but he had somehow put half a dozen Chunin out of commission with a well placed poison bomb before making off with the scroll containing the great secrets of Konoha. He still couldn't believe what the other Chunin were saying. Naruto had stolen the prized scroll of kinjutsu knowledge handed down from Hokage to Hokage. He couldn't believe one of his students would stoop so low and betray Konoha, especially Naruto!

It had only been a few day ago when Naruto had come to him for help with the clone jutsu and he had taken the boy to the Sandaime to clear teaching the blond the Shadow Clone jutsu. What could have possessed the boy to do it? This caused Iruka to wince... he knew what COULD, but Naruto gave no signs of knowing anything about the Nine Tailed Fox sealed within him. Was it possible the fox demon had somehow corrupted the boy?

Iruka set that thought aside, his duty was clear, he had to find Naruto and retrieve the scroll. Using his sensory skills Iruka had long been able to target the young blond's chakra. It was a blessing and a curse though. The night of the demon fox attack his parents had died, and a latent sensory ability in Iruka's bloodline had been triggered. It was one of the reasons he'd been able to make Chunin after all. And it was why he could sense Naruto when no Chunin and few Jonin or Anbu could track him when the boy truly tried to hide himself. Now he put that ability to use and was zeroing in on the blond. No more than a quarter mile to go and he would be at the boy's location.

Suddenly an explosion drew his attention ahead. Had some Chunin or Anbu stumbled on Naruto and used a paper bomb? Iruka sped up. Only a few more seconds and he would be there...

Iruka landed on a tree branch above a small clearing near a storage shed used for this remote training ground. Below he could see Naruto laying on his back holding his head rolling around, the scroll lay nearby, rolled out a bit... a worrying sight to Iruka.

Naruto rolled on the ground, his hands holding the sides of his head, trying to get the image out of his mind. The explosion of himself. He saw it in his memory and felt it with his mind. Not so much a pain, but the loss of existing, of popping out of existence like a candle snuffed out as his body burst.

"Naruto... NARUTO!" The blond's mind registered that someone was shaking him, and he opened his eyes and blinked a few times.

"Naruto! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Iruka berated the blond even as his face showed concern for his pupil.

"Ir... Iruka sensai?" Naruto looked up, tears in his eyes. Naruto grabbed the Chunin and hugged him. Sniffles and snuffles coming from him.

"Naruto?" A calmer voice from Iruka brought Naruto out of his fit.

"Iruka Sensai! IT was awful! Awful!... I saw myself die!" Naruto sniffled a few more times even as he started to compose himself.

"You saw yourself die? When?" Iruka looked at Naruto, wondering what the blond was talking about.

"My clone... he blew up... hic... sob... and he died... I died..." Naruto looked at his instructor with wide eyes.

Iruka was trying to understand. What had happened? "Why did your clone blow up? A paper bomb?" Iruka thinking that there might be a Chunin or Anbu nearby, began scanning but not sensing any chakra close by.

"No...no...no... I blew him up... hic sob hic hic..." Naruto closed his eyes but opened them immediately, the memory reeling through his mind.

"You blew him... up?" Iruka was confused, why was Naruto blowing up his clone?

"The scroll... a... jutsu... exploding clones... I was... I was... learning... how..." Naruto trailed off.

Iruka looked over to the large scroll. It was unfurled to a jutsu. Exploding Clones. Iruka shook his head. Is this why Naruto had stolen the scroll to learn a new jutsu to use with his clones?

"Why Naruto?" Iruka turned back to the blond who was still composing himself and wiping away some snot from his nose. "Why did you take the scroll? So you could learn this jutsu?" Iruka began interrogating the boy.

Naruto cocked his head and sniffled a bit, not understanding Iruka's question. He hadn't taken the scroll to learn the jutsu, it was his mission. He shuffled around in his jacket pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper and handing it to Iruka. "My mission... and I thought... I thought..." Suddenly it dawned on Naruto about his mission. "You're not with the organization?"

Iruka looked at Naruto puzzled. "What organization?" But Naruto just pointed to the paper of instructions with a shaky hand. Iruka read down through the paper. It was a plain piece of paper with instructions written on it... but it was no mission paperwork like given by the assignment desk. "Where'd you get this Naruto?"

"From..." Naruto started to say.

"From Me!" A voice spoke out from the edge of the clearing, standing about 10 feet up on a large branch. Iruka and Naruto turned toward the voice of the person they both knew. Mizuki.

Muzuki looked on the scene of instructor and student trying to figure out what had happened. He laughed inwardly. The demon boy had fallen for his plan... and Iruka... well Iruka had signed his own death warrant.

"So, I see Naruto carried out the 'mission', well done traitor!" Now Mizuki laughed out loud, as Naruto's eyes grew large and round.

"Mizuki?! How could you?" Iruka turned to place himself between Naruto and the menacing Chunin who was slipping a huge shadow shuriken from his backpack.

Mizuki began to twirl the menacing device, the whirring of the air caught and stirred by it's edges becoming louder and louder.

"How could I? How could I not? Look at him! He's what's wrong with this village!" A manic grin crossed Mizuki's face. "For nearly 12 years we've had to put up with this..."

"Don't say it! It's forbidden!" Iruka attempted to interrupt what Mizuki was trying to say.

"What... I can't say DEMON FOX?! Idiot! You're as much to blame as that old broken down Hokage leading us! Trying to hide the truth we all know! He is the Demon Fox!" Mizuki's grin widened seeing Naruto's eyes widen in apparent shock.

"See! He know's he's been found out! No more hiding for you Ninetails!" Mizuki increased the tempo of the shadow shuriken in an instant and let it slide effortlessly from his fingers. The great whirling mass headed straight for Naruto, arching to the left of Iruka as it began to swing back toward the blond, dead set on it's course.

"Naruto!" Iruka let chakra flow into his legs and feet and lurched to intercept the great device. But his only hope to save the boy he realized, was to block it with his body. One great blade of the Shadow Shuriken sliced into the back of Iruka's flak jacket before the next embedded itself through the protective clothing and reached the skin of Iruka's back. A searing pain from the contact surged through Iruka even as his arms reached out and grabbed Naruto by the shoulders. "Run! Run!"

But Naruto could not move. He saw Mizuki's face behind Iruka, but it was Iruka's own that drew his attention. The face wasn't one of hate or mistrust because of the Kyuubi, it was the face of someone who saw Naruto as himself, a boy. He was shaken from his revelation again by Iruka's hands which were holding him. "Run! RUN NOW!" The hands roughly pushed Naruto backward. The blond nearly fell as his body rotated even as he still was trying to look at Iruka. The Chunin's eyes were pleading for him to go. He grabbed the scroll even as his last glimpse was of Mizuki jumping to the trees to pursue him.

Naruto's short legs drew strength from his chakra network and he dashed away. He could hear the air whipping past him as his speed increased.

Mizuki's grin widened as he watched the blond boy turn and run away. He had to admit the boy had enough sense to follow his instructor's orders, and he was indeed running. In fact Mizuki was hard pressed to follow the young boy who was distancing himself quickly to the point of being out of sight in the myriad of trees that were rather thick in this section of the forest. He damned his own careful planning, this spot was isolated and not often used due to the density of the trees making combat difficult.

He increased his speed to intercept the boy. If he'd been a sensor like Iruka it would be simpler of course, but his skills were different. He rounded a rather large tree and spotted the blond boy ahead, apparently now slowing, likely due to over exerting the chakra usage in his system. He might be the demon fox, but muscles can only stand so much strain, especially for an under-developed new Genin.

"Hold it right there Naruto!" Mizuki shouted hoping to distract the boy long enough to reach him. And it was working. The blond looked back at him with those blue eyes which had grown large realizing he could not escape.

"I won't let you have the scroll!" The blond yelled, holding on to the large scroll as if it meant the world to him. The boy slowed and turned to face Mizuki.

"I'll have that scroll and you'll be dead in just a moment!" Mizuki advanced on the boy, un-sheathing another Shadow Shuriken and beginning the rotation of the great mass up to speed. This time Mizuki did not wait to throw the huge device letting it fly. It struck true.

Boooooom! The scroll and the blond burst as the great shuriken reached them. All the many trees around them shook with the force causing a deluge of leaves to drop around Mizuki like huge green snowflakes. "What!?" Mizuki lost his footing from the blast and felt the heat of the thing singe his eyebrows and nearly burn his face. The pain was such that Mizuki reflexively covered his face an instant too late to matter.

It took a moment for Mizuki to clearly think about what had happened. He'd exploded... EXPLODED?!

Mizuki shakily regained his footing and looked around. Singed bark everywhere and a sizeable hole in the ground where the blond had been.

"Surprising isn't it?" Mizuki wheeled around. Iruka was leaning against a tree up in the canopy of the forest, looking like a ghost his face was so white.

"Where did that brat go?" Mizuki demanded of the pale Chunin, but all he got was a chuckle.

"I'm right behind you Mizuki-teme!" The white haired Chunin wheeled at the sound and found himself facing 10 Naruto's holding scrolls. Mizuki's own face went pale as the 10 Naruto's advanced on him. "You sent me on a mission. My first as a Ninja of the Leaf. I think it only appropriate to show you what I learned!"

Mizuki turned to run, but was blocked by three more Naruto's standing in his path. "Don't you want me to show you?" The three said.

Iruka was watching from his position up in the canopy of the trees. "Iruka sensai... we should get out of here." Iruka's pale face turned to see Naruto standing next to him. "I think you need a doctor sensai." Naruto held the great scroll under one arm as he lent his other shoulder to his teacher as they distanced themselves from the Naruto clones and Mizuki. A hundred yard further and they stopped, having jumped to the ground. A huge explosion shook the trees, a few leaves falling around them.

"Naruto... about what Mizuki said..." Iruka started to speak.

"Don't worry about it sensai, I know about the ninetails sealed in me. I just didn't realize everyone else knew already." Naruto shook his head.

"Only the adults Naruto... none of your class knows. None of the younger people know why... I'm sorry Naruto... I should have..." Naruto held up a hand to stop Iruka.

"Sensai, it's enough to know you were willing to save me from Mizuki. That tells me all I need to know." Naruto half smiled. "Can you make it to the hospital?"

"With your help I can Naruto... but you've got a lot of explaining to do..." Iruka said looking at his former student. "But you always do don't you?" This time Naruto's smile went all the way across his face and they both laughed.