Scroll of Seals (3)

Mizuki snarled before laughing, although his laughter had a hollow, desperate tone to it. "Not even one day since you graduating and you presume to lecture me? A snot-nosed rookie placing me under arrest? You must be out of your mind! Even if I die, I will all of you down with me!"

With that, Mizuki launched forward and wielded his giant shuriken as a melee weapon. He was fast, but not as fast as the hidden boss I faced before and definitely not faster than I could react. The bloodloss and his injury must be seriously debilitating, otherwise there was no way a level 53, seasoned chuunin could be this slow.

Similarly, I sped forward towards the chuunin, brandishing Kotetsu no Ryu. The chakra swelled inside me as I pumped even more energy into my legs. I positioned my blade and swung at the man. Had my Sharingan been turned on, I could've seen the menacing layer of chakra coating my sword threateningly.

The chuunin was running wildly, with openings all over his stance. There was no semblance of rationality nor proficiency in his steps. He must have gone crazy, I concluded.

However, just as my sword was about to meet flesh, Mizuki sneered and disappeared from my sight. My eyes widened at the sudden vanishing of my opponent and I instinctively rolled forward – just in time to avoid being decapitated by the giant shuriken wielded by Mizuki as a makeshift cutting weapon that swung at where my head was located just a moment ago.

I stood back up and cursed at my own carelessness. He got me. He was faking it the whole time. Not the injury, but his speed, sloppiness and what I perceived to be recklessness. Even against a fresh out of the academy genin, he still had to resort to such schemes. As expected of an elite chuunin, they're not to be underestimated.

"Hoh, nice reflexes. You were never so fast in the academy, Shinji. Have you hiding your abilities? How devious." Mizuki cackled.

"You're a good actor, Mizuki. No wonder you were able to deceive even Iruka-sensei." I retorted.

"Kekek, but have you noticed?" The traitorous chuunin questioned slyly. "Our places have switched. Now Iruka and that demon brat is open for me to do this!" He turned and threw the giant shuriken at Iruka.

Because I rolled forward to avoid getting my head cut off, Mizuki was now in between me and the other two. Which meant he was too far from me for me to stop him.

However, Iruka wasn't stupid. He was protecting Naruto and the scroll while watching us in combat. He had a broader view on what was happening and could see Mizuki throw the Shuriken at him from afar. Iruka ran through handseals and spat out a stream of water.

"Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu!"

The powerful torrent of water not only battered away the flying shuriken, it continued heading towards Mizuki.

The traitorous chuunin tsked and paused for a moment before jumping away to avoid the water jet. I could see that he had instinctively been thinking of a jutsu to counter the water technique, but realized his left arm was basically dangling uselessly before he had to jump away to avoid being hit.

Similarly, I followed after Mizuki, not willing to give him another chance to go after the injured chuunin and Naruto. Even though he himself was injured as well, Mizuki had already descended into a state of not caring whether he lived or died. The pure desperation and adrenaline that drove him to near suicidal madness was more dangerous than if he still possessed any rationality or sense of self-preservation.

Furthermore, I also considered holding myself back from using the Sharingan as a pretty large handicap too. Against an elite chuunin, even if he was gravely injured, meant that I had to go all out and continue hiding any other aspects of my true strength.

With just pure speed alone, I could hardly catch up to a fully grown man equipped with a decades worth of training and physical conditioning. With [Flash Step] and [Whirlwind Step] however, that changed. For just a brief moment, I was able to surpass his chuunin-level speed addled by injury and step into striking range.

I held up my sword in preparation to cut him down, but the chuunin swung back around and in an insane and desperate manoeuvre charged right at me.

'This crazy bastard!? Does he want die together or something?'

Regardless, I continued the downward motion slash of my katana. However, Mizuki did something unexpected; he threw his left shoulder forward and flung his useless, dangling left arm in the path of my sword, effectively blocking the slash by sacrificing his arm.

The inertia of my katana swing was already too great for me to stop so I had no choice but to follow through and slice through his arm. Fresh, warm, red blood sprayed out of the open wound, splattering across my face and body; unlike the cold, putrid and festering ichor from zombies, this time I could feel the vitality of the crimson liquid as it splashed on to me.

It was an unnerving experience to say the least, the first time I ever grievously injured or dismembered another living human being. It was in self-defence, sure, but still…

Taking advantage of the moment I was bewildered with his insane actions, Mizuki pulled out a kunai and made to stab me. Yet, he couldn't have known that my Gamer's Mind instantly erased my hesitance and allowed me to counter his hidden strike.

"Do you really think you stop a chuunin if he is determined to kill you? DIE- ack! ARRGHHH!!"

His initial bravado was stopped short when my fingers dug into his forearm with the help of [Shinkyoken]. With my other arm, I swung Kotetsu no Ryu at the traitor and managed to slice into his torso before he managed to retreat. The steel-plated chuunin vest did little to thwart the razor sharp, chakra reinforced edge of my blade.

"My- my arm! You fucking bastard; just how much were you holding back in the academy, kugh!" Mizuki howled in pain while clutching his severed arm at the stump.

"You crazy son of a bitch, give up now and there's still time for you to be saved!" I growled out as I wielded Kotetsu no Ryu in front of me threateningly.

"Give up? You must be crazier than I am because there's only one way this is going down. Either I die or you do. Better yet, let's just die together HAHAHAHHA!" The chuunin screamed in a fugue state of bloodloss and general insanity.

Mizuki swung his bloodied stump of an arm at me and unleashed a spray of blood at my face, all the while screaming bloody murder. I shielded my eyes from the shower of blood and jumped away, assuming that he was going to attack me while I was blinded, but at the same time I was gobsmacked at the utter lunacy of what I just witnessed. However, the moment I removed my arm from my eyes, I saw Mizuki missing from where he had just been standing.

Widening my eyes, I turned to see Mizuki dashing towards Iruka and Naruto, no less slower than he had been at the start. I could only assume with such severe blood loss, he had maybe a minute tops before he actually died.

Sprinting towards the duo, Mizuki's face twisted in insanity, "I'm going to kill you Iruka! You and that demon brat!"

From what I could see, Iruka was way too shocked at the drastic change in his once friend's personality and sanity to react in time while I was too far away to stop him. I glanced at Naruto who, while still shocked, looked like he could at least do something.

"Naruto!" I yelled, "Use the jutsu you learned from the scroll, quickly!"

The blonde looked surprised at being called out, but he pulled himself together admirably well "Don't you dare lay a hand on my sensei! Or I will give it back to you a thousand folds!"

"Let's see you try, Kyuubi!"

Naruto glared and formed a handseal, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Just like before, a sea of Naruto clones appeared in an equally dense sea of smoke.

Iruka was shaken from his stupor as he watched what he thought to be his least promising student make actual, physical shadow clones. And not just a couple, but a veritable army of them. "Naruto…! How?"

"This changes nothing!" Mizuki roared as he tore into the army of clones, unleashing a flurry of kicks and punches that popped a large number of them. However, in this case, quantity beat out quality and he could hardly withstand an onslaught of attacks even if they were from a barely-trained academy student given Mizuki's dire injuries and overall lack of rationality.

At first I was proud of the blonde for pulling through in a moment of crisis, however I soon realized something terrible. I shoved my way through the crowd of clones shouting, "Naruto wait! Stop!"

When I got to the middle of the crowd and pulled off two clones that were kicking and punching the now unmoving Mizuki, I gulped.

The frenzy of battle and fog of war faded away from the Naruto clones as we looked down at the motionless body of the traitor. Iruka, half a beat behind me, also pushed his way through the crowd and gasped when he saw it.

I knelt down, and though I knew it to be a futile gesture, checked for Mizuki's pulse. There was none. "He's dead."

With a poof, the sea of clones disappeared as the original Naruto looked startled at my announcement. "Wa-wait, no way… He's dead? Doesn't that mean that… I… killed him?"

Immediately I stood up and gripped his shoulders, "You're wrong! I was the one who killed him. It was me!"

But Naruto was barely taking in my words as he continued staring at Mizuki's corpse, his eyes slowly glazing over. I couldn't even begin to comprehend the guilt and self-condemnation that was running through the boy's mind right now. I literally couldn't since I had Gamer's Mind that erased any such thoughts from my mind before I could even comprehend them.

"Oi! Naruto! Listen to me!" I shook his shoulders roughly to no avail.

Just as I was about to slap him awake, a hand landed on Naruto's shoulder. Iruka grimly, but gently and softly said, "Naruto. It's not your fault."

Only Iruka's voice could wake the boy from his stupor. Naruto looked at Iruka beside him, "I-I didn't mean to, I just wanted to stop him!"

"I know, Naruto. You saved me. Thank you."

"Iruka-sensei, I-" Naruto choked out before burying his face into Iruka's chuunin vest bawling.

I shared a look with the chuunin instructor. Nodding, I turned and left to find help. But not before a notification from the system got my attention.

[Quest [The Scroll of Seals] Completed!]

Help Naruto become a genin!

Help Naruto steal the scroll of seals (√)

Help Naruto defeat Mizuki (√)

Iruka HP above 50% (√)

Capture Mizuki alive (X)

Rewards:

+10,000 EXP

(Hidden) +5 Points

(Hidden) +5 points (X)

[You have levelled up!]