Spars and Mizuki

On the next day, Hiroki had already woken up and prepared his breakfast to eat. He made some meat buns for himself. As he walked towards the academy, he met Naruto on the way.

"Good morning Naruto." Hiroki said as he was still eating his meat bun. He then handed Naruto a few of the meat buns he had made.

"Here, you can have them. I made extras for you." Hiroki said.

"Thank you Hiroki." Naruto thanked as he started eating the meat buns.

After they walked to the academy, they went straight to their seats. Iruka walked in and started lecturing his class. Today, he was explaining about the different types of chakra.

———

After lunch break was over, Iruka called everyone outside of the class room once more.

"As I said yesterday, today we will have sparring matches. Each of you will spar against two others from the class. Boys will fight boys and girls will fight girls. The first match will be Kiba Inuzuka versus Hiroki. Please come forward and stand in the center of the ring." Iruka instructed.

Hiroki and Kiba walked to the circle and stood in front of each other.

"Do the seal of confrontation. Begin." Iruka said.

Kiba stared hard at Hiroki for some time as he faced him.

"You might be an Uchiha, but I'll beat you no matter what." Kiba said as he pointed at Hiroki.

"Look, me being an Uchiha doesn't matter one bit. What matter is the effort I put in. I could have the potential of being one of the strongest there ever was, but if I don't put the effort into becoming stronger and better, then all is for naught." Hiroki said as he took his Hapkido stance.

Kiba growled and sped towards Hiroki as he threw a punch. Hiroki side stepped and grabbed Kiba's fist that went past his face. He then twisted Kiba's wrist and his whole arm did the same. Hiroki forced him down and put his foot behind Kiba's neck while forcing his arms upward. Any more force added would dislocate Kiba's shoulder and the injury would not be light. Everyone seeing their spar were amazed of how fast Hiroki had placed Kiba in a lock. Naruto was the one that smiled the most. He felt happy for Hiroki. There was Ino who felt admiration towards Hiroki as well. She had a joyful look on her face when she looked at Hiroki.

"Give up." Hiroki said.

Kiba grit his teeth. He was feeling pain and saw no other way to turn the situation around.

"I give up." He said.

Hiroki let go of Kiba's arm and returned to the center of the circle. Kiba did the same while rotating his shoulders as he felt some pain on them.

"Begin."

Hiroki maintained the stance and waited for Kiba's attack. He knew that Kiba was a hot blooded person that would always take the initiative. Right now, Hiroki's fighting style was his worst enemy. That is without counting his seven years of experience and the many fights against powerful shinobi. Hiroki felt that he was playing with a child. This was only counting his life in Naruto world. It was nothing compared to his entire life as a black ops agent.

Kiba once more ran towards Hiroki. He threw a faint punch, but Hiroki saw it a mile away and stood in place. Kiba circled Hiroki and then kicked him on the side. Hiroki turned his body and slapped the back of Kiba's head. A loud slapping sound was heard by everyone in the class. Hiroki could see that Kiba was getting angrier and soon he would make a mistake. Five more moves from Kiba equaled five more slaps to the back of his head. Kiba was pissed off to the extreme. He felt humiliated. He went for a tackle, but Hiroki saw it coming and got his back on the ground and propelled Kiba even more by sending him out of bounds with his legs.

"Return to the center. Hiroki wins. Now do the seal of reconciliation." Iruka said.

Hiroki and Kiba did the seal of reconciliation and each went to their spot outside of the circle.

As the matches went on, Naruto was paired up with Shikamaru, who just gave up as soon as the match started. The other matches then continued again and now Naruto was fighting against Kiba. The match was a slug fest as they punched without any strategy. After that, the matches continued.

"Now, for the last match. Please come forward Hiroki and Sasuke." Iruka said.

Hiroki walked to the center and so did Sasuke. Sasuke kept looking at Hiroki all the time and didn't take his eyes out of him.

"Do the seal of confrontation. Begin."

"I don't know what it is you are thinking, but I don't swing that way. So stop staring at me." Hiroki said as he got a few laughs from the students, specially from Naruto.

"What? No, no. That's not it. I just want you to answer some questions." Sasuke said.

"See, that's more like it. If you talk properly, then we can have a good conversation. You should stop with the stare and be more open." Hiroki said.

"Shut up." Sasuke said as he got into his stance and ran towards Hiroki.

Hiroki wanted to finish this as soon as possible. He couldn't take Sasuke seriously and didn't want to waste his time on him. He didn't need to drag this out. He saw Sasuke coming towards him with a punch. As Sasuke punched out, Hiroki grabbed his arm and fell down to the ground while his legs wrapped around Sasuke's neck, putting him in a triangle choke.

"Give up." Hiroki said as he continued squeezing Sasuke's neck. After ten seconds, Sasuke tapped out and Hiroki let go of him. They went back to the center of the circle and Hiroki stood in place normally.

"Begin." Iruka said.

As soon as Sasuke took the first step towards Hiroki, he was met with a knee on his chest and sent out of bounds from the circle. Sasuke rolled on the ground for some time and coughed. He clenched his chest as he felt a lot of pain. Hiroki didn't use even ten percent of his total strength. If he had used thirty, there was a big chance Sasuke's chest would have caved in. Everyone in the class looked at the scene of the genius from their class rolling on the ground in pain just after the second round started. They then turned towards Hiroki, who just kept his usual face and didn't say anything. After one minute, Sasuke got up from the ground with difficulty and went to the circle.

"Hiroki wins. Please make the seal of reconciliation." Iruka said. Hiroki and Sasuke did that and each went to their spot.

"That was a great class everybody. I hope that each one of you learned something new today even by watching each other's fight. That is all for today. I'll se all of you tomorrow." Iruka said as he dismissed the class.

Hiroki got next to Naruto and was leaving to the training field when he saw that almost everyone in class was surrounding him.

"Hiroki, that was amazing."

"I never thought Sasuke would lose."

"Teach me that fighting style."

Hiroki could only smile at them and dismiss them. "Thank you guys, but I'm busy right now. I'll be practicing with Naruto at the training field. You all can join us if you want." Hiroki said as he walked away.

"Heh. You are going with Naruto? Don't you know that you aren't supposed to get close to him?" One of the civilian boys said.

Hiroki turned back instantly and stared at the boy. "And who told you not get next to him? Why shouldn't you get close to him? All I see is a perfectly fine human being and a good friend. Whoever told you this is someone very stupid." Hiroki said with some anger and then left the small crowd behind.

"Sorry about that Hiroki. That is all my fault." Naruto said.

Hiroki grabbed Naruto's collar and stared him in the eyes.

"Are you stupid? Why is it your fault? What have you ever done to those people? What I see are a bunch of ignorant people that don't even know what they are saying. You don't have to feel bad for the way they treat you. It does not mean you are bad. They are the bad ones for treating you like that. Raise your head and be proud of yourself." Hiroki said as he let go of Naruto's collar and continued running towards the training field. Naruto was just behind him and he felt happy to have someone defend him like that.

After five minutes, they arrived in the training field. Hiroki asked Naruto to stick the leaf on his forehead with chakra. Naruto was able to do that after some tries. Hiroki then kept increasing the amount of leaves until Naruto could hold five of them perfectly. This took most of the rest of the day to accomplish.

"Here, try unsealing this scroll." Hiroki said as he gave Naruto a scroll. Naruto grabbed the scroll, opened it and instantly unsealed it's contents.

"How did that feel compared to the first time?" Hiroki asked.

"It felt easier to do and faster as well. I didn't take long to control my chakra." Naruto said as he felt happy seeing his progress.

"Seal it back again." Hiroki said and Naruto sealed the scroll and handed it back.

Hiroki took a pencil and a piece of paper from his pouch and started writing a few things.

"Naruto, this is a small list of scrolls you have to get in the library. You have to use a henge and get these. They will teach you the basics of how to fight and read your opponent. This is all for today. We can come back tomorrow after the academy is over." Hiroki said.

"Thank you again, Hiroki. I've met you just recently, but you have done more for me than anyone else." Naruto said.

"Hey. No need for that. We are friends, right? Anyways, let's go to Ichiraku's. Today is my treat." Hiroki said as he started walking to the ramen shop and Naruto was just behind.

———

Six months had already gone by since Hiroki arrived at this timeline. He had become great friends with Naruto and had taught him techniques, chakra control exercises, ways to read your opponent in a taijutsu fight, the academy three, how to make small types of seals with basic fuinjutsu and also the advantages and weakness of each chakra basic element. They would spar against each other every other day. Hiroki would always show him his mistake so Naruto could get better and push himself to being better as well. Hiroki found the opportunity to talk to Sasuke as well and tell him about how he was an Uchiha and that his parents had left Konoha before the attack of the Kyubi. Hiroki also conversed with the others of the rookie nine, specially Shikamaru and Choji and they had become good friends. Through the six months, Ino stopped fantasizing about Sasuke and started showing interest in Hiroki. At first Hiroki felt strange as he was someone with an older mentality, but she would jump at him some times and cling onto him and that was all. He didn't push her off, but didn't show any feelings towards her either. He was always polite and kind to her.

Today was the day of the graduation test, Hiroki got out from his apartment and went walking towards the academy. On the way, he would meet up with Naruto. The blonde had grown up a bit more than four centimeters due to Hiroki making him breakfast and lunch every day. Naruto was also able to buy his own groceries now and ate healthier meals, but dinner was always at Ichiraku's, even though he ate just one or two bowls. He didn't want to stop eating ramen and neither did he want to stop seeing Teuchi and Ayame.

"Are you ready to kick ass?" Hiroki asked.

"You betcha. I'm going to fly through the graduation exams." Naruto said.

"You remember what I told you about Mizuki right? He might try sabotaging you in your exams, specially in the bunshin no jutsu, so be careful. He might want to approach you after the exam if everything goes well. Do what he says and then I'll help you take care of him." Hiroki said.

"Yeah. I can't believe I had trusted him so much before. I thought he was nice to me because he liked me, but you showed me that he couldn't be trusted. I was so naive." Naruto said.

"Anyways, let's go. We have a hitai-ate to get."

———

The graduation exams were over and only the rookie nine plus Hiroki graduated from the class. Some civilians gave up mid semester and others failed the exams. Hiroki had finally gotten his Hitai-ate. He had already missed having it on him.

'I graduated again. Hehe. I could have done it way earlier, but I'm happy to have created a bond with these few people.' He thought.

Before walking out of the academy, Naruto was called back by Mizuki and Hiroki waited for the blonde. After three minutes, Naruto came back.

"You were right. He had tried sabotaging the exams with a chakra disturbing seal. He called me now and said that I was chosen by the academy to have another test. This time I have to steal the scroll of seals from the old man's office and bring it to him today at night at the forest above the Hokage monument. If I do everything right, I'll become a chunin." Naruto said.

"Can't blame him. If it was six months ago, you might have believed him. Too bad that you have me around to help you." Hiroki said as he and Naruto chuckled.

"So, what are you going to do?" Hiroki asked.

"I'll get the scroll and get him into a trap. I'll make him pay for trying to trick me into doing his dirty work. Of course, I won't tell the old man about this, otherwise he wouldn't believe me. But once Mizuki is caught, the old man should believe it." Naruto said.

"Hn. Very good. I'll see you at the meeting point later then." Hiroki said as he ran fast back to his apartment.

Back at his apartment, Hiroki decided to place privacy seals and protection seals and lock seals that no matter what, would not open any of the doors or windows if it was not him doing it. He felt he was "safe" now that he graduated. He didn't do it before because he knew that there still were some anbu investigating him in the first months he came to Konoha and they would sneak in his house. If he had placed the seals before, they would get suspicious of him and his knowledge as well since fuinjutsu was not something taught at the academy. At most, the academy students learned how to use a sealing scroll and that was it.

———

When night time arrived, Hiroki went straight to the meeting point Naruto said Mizuki would meet. On the way, he saw many shinobi were running all over Konoha.

'They must have heard that Naruto stole the scroll of seals. I better hurry and meet with him. I know that he will do fine against Mizuki. Much better than in the original, but I better be safe than sorry.' Hiroki thought as his speed increased. When he was close to the cabin they were supposed to meet, he felt Naruto's chakra coming from a tall tree as the blonde was sitting on a large branch while reading the scroll.

"Did you learn anything?" Hiroki asked as he arrived behind Naruto. Naruto didn't get startled as he had already felt that Hiroki was nearby.

"Yeah. I saw this shadow clone technique that you once told me about, hehe." Naruto said as he chuckled.

"Naruto, Mizuki is getting closer. I'll stay in hiding. You know what to do. I'll come to help if anything happens." Hiroki said as he went to a taller tree and stayed hidden in between the branches and the shadow.

A few seconds later, a shadowy figure dashed towards where Naruto was.

"Did you get the scroll?" Mizuki asked as he landed behind Naruto. He had two big shuriken tied to his back.

"Yeah. I got it. You said I could learn a jutsu from it and I did." Naruto said as he closed the scroll and strapped it to his back.

"That is very good Naruto. I knew you would be able to complete this task. Now, give me the scroll and we'll go back to get you your chunin rank." Mizuki said as he was looking at the scroll. He had a gentle look on his face, but Naruto knew it was all a facade.

"You know Mizuki, I got the liberty to ask a few Jounin about this task and it seems that academy teachers aren't able to give ranks to shinobi. Only the Hokage can do so. I feel that this isn't really a task. It seems that you had me steal the scroll so you could run away with it. What do you have to say about it?" Naruto asked as he told Mizuki that his plan was foiled.

"What I have to say is that I'm going to kill you and bring the scroll to Orochimaru-sama, you damn fox." Mizuki said as he grabbed one of the shuriken on his back and threw it at Naruto.

"Naruto, run." Another person said as he came from behind them. It was Iruka.

Naruto ran away and the big shuriken missed him and hit many trees along the way it flew.

Iruka tried fighting against Mizuki, but Mizuki used a dirty trick and stabbed a kunai close to Iruka's rib. It wasn't deep enough to kill him, but the pain was close to unbearable. After some minutes of cat and mouse, Iruka was able to catch up to Naruto.

"Naruto, you can give me the scroll. I lost Mizuki. He probably fled from Konoha. Everything should be fine now." Iruka said.

Naruto looked at Iruka and laughed as he threw a kunai at him. The kunai scraped his face as blood trickled from the small wound.

"How did you know I'm not Iruka?" Mizuki's voice sounded as the henge was undone.

"Because I'm Iruka." Iruka said as his henge as Naruto was undone as well.

Naruto appeared out of nowhere and gave a flying kick at Mizuki's face, making him tumble down the trees and branches while he himself went after Mizuki. Iruka saw how Naruto was able to get a blow on Mizuki using the short distraction and he was surprised. He knew that Naruto had made a lot of progress in the last six months, but now he see that his progress was even greater.

As Naruto got down to the ground, Mizuki was getting up from the ground. He looked at Naruto with hate in his eyes.

"Do you know why everyone in the village hates you, Naruto? Let me tell you a little story."

"No Mizuki. You can't say anything about this. It's a law in Konoha." Iruka yelled as he arrived next to Naruto.

"Shut up Iruka. You show care towards this monster, but you were one of those that hated him the most for what happened to your parents." Mizuki said in anger.

"12 years ago... you know about the demon fox being killed, right? It was actually sealed inside a person. A new rule was created for Konoha because of this. The rule is that nobody is allowed to talk about the fact that you, Naruto, are the demon fox." Mizuki said as he rotated the large shuriken and threw it at Naruto.

The blonde froze hearing those words and couldn't move away from the trajectory of the shuriken. Iruka seeing this, instantly stepped in front, protecting him as he closed his eyes waiting for the impact. All they heard was a "thump" sound, but there was no impact.

"What are you doing here?" Mizuki asked.

"I'm here because I want to. Is there any problem with that? I should be the one asking you why you are attacking a fellow shinobi?" Hiroki said as he held the large shuriken.

"He's no fellow shinobi. He's the demon fox. He killed thousands of people from Konoha. What I'm doing is freeing Konoha from suffering any longer." Mizuki said.

"Hahahaha. Ah, this is just too funny. It's because of people like you that can't differentiate the sheath from the blade that our world is like this." Hiroki said laughing. He then looked at Naruto.

"Naruto, remember what I told you. You have done nothing wrong and should not be judged for other people's actions. Keep your head up." Hiroki said. This triggered Naruto and he got up from the ground.

"Mizuki, I am myself and not the demon fox. So be prepared to be beaten up by the one who will be the best Hokage ever." Naruto said as he made a hand seal.

"Tajuu: Kagebunshin no Jutsu."

A thousand shadow clones appeared and they all jumped Mizuki, who yelled in pain as punches and kicks struck all over his body.

———

As the sun rose, Mizuki was unconscious on the ground, completely beaten up. Some minutes later, many anbu and Jounin shinobi arrived at the scene and Hiruzen also arrived just after them.

Iruka told him what had happened. Naruto explained what Mizuki had told him and tricked him into stealing the scroll of seals from Hiruzen's office. Hiruzen heard them and then told his anbu to bring Mizuki in for questioning.

"Iruka, go to the hospital to take care of that wound and you two, congratulations in graduating the academy. I expect good things coming from you. You may now go." Hiruzen said as he shunshined away from the forest.

———

"So, what are you going to do right now?" Naruto asked Hiroki as they walked towards their apartment.

"I don't know. I think I'll just sleep once I get home." Hiroki said. He then looked at Naruto and saw that the blonde was thinking of something.

"Hey, Naruto. After your clones dispelled, did you learn anything?" Hiroki asked, trying to get Naruto to think about the clones. Planting a small seed in him.

"Huuuum. Now that you say it, I remember punching and kicking Mizuki from different points of view. What could that mean?" Naruto said as he struck a thinking pose.

"Let's think about this later on. We have to return to the academy in a week to learn who our teams will be. Let's use this time to train some more. You might be able to learn some new jutsu." Hiroki said as he continued walking home with Naruto.