Deceive Or Be Deceived

*Never Lie to someone who trusts you, Never trust someone who lies to you*

(2 Days before graduation)

Mizuki was thinking for who to dupe for the mission of getting the scroll, there were two options, one is Naruto, the boy is an idiot and he can be duped easily but there are slight chances that the boy could never complete the mission, another person was Shiro although tough to dupe but there was a slight more chance that he will complete the mission

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"You wanted to speak with me, Mizuki-sensei?" Shiro asked, using his public voice. They were in the teacher's office after school, and Iruka wasn't present, having other business elsewhere. He looked at the older man interestedly. Mizuki was one of the people who knew he hid his true skill and had been present for some of Iruka's informal tutoring sessions where he tried to gauge Shiro's abilities.

Mizuki tapped the edges of a stack of papers until they made a neat pile, then lay them on his desk in a tray. "I have a special assignment for you, Shiro."

Shiro nodded brightly. He liked special assignments. Some of them were hard as hell, but he'd learned valuable information from every special assignment he'd ever been given. And he'd never given up, he'd completed them all. Ibiki wasn't completely satisfied with the results of his mission to make friends, but at least he was talking to him again.

"Your grades are horrible, Shiro. You know that. I don't know if you are aware of it or not, but grades have a lot to do with your final assignments as a shinobi, not just passing the academy. Students particularly gifted at math are training in business, finance, or cryptography. Students with tracking skills often get assigned to teams designed to make maximum use of those skills. And grades are our way of determining those skills."

"You know I've deliberately failed those tests, though."

Mizuki nodded. "Yes, we're aware that you're much more than you appear to be. If we had a column in our grade books for 'deceiving and manipulating classmates, teachers, and all of Konoha', well, I'd be the first to mark down an 'A'."

Shiro allowed himself a small grin.

Mizuki grinned back, although his grin was a great deal more rueful. "I'll admit it, kid, you're the best I've ever seen at infiltration your age. You even had me fooled for the longest time." He paused. "But, you're so good, no one who hasn't seen your abilities would believe it. And teacher recommendations only go so far. Any jonin looking to take a genin team will look at grades first. And yours are so bad most of them are going to just look right over you."

Ah. That was what Ibiki had meant. Shiro was glad to finally have that bit of information. Getting anything out of Ibiki was like hunting tiger mushrooms. Easiest just to find someone else to give it to you.

"So, because you deserve better than that, it's been decided to give you a special makeup test, to show what you can really do. This will ensure you get picked by a jonin-sensei based off your real skills, so you need to do your best." He gave Shiro a cryptic smile. "But you shouldn't have any trouble. After all, this is a solo mission, and your goal is to be unobserved. No one to break cover too."

Shiro frowned. That sounded a bit condescending.

Mizuki noticed his expression, then hastened to explain. "You're getting a mission based on a simple mission type. Locate and retrieve. There is a scroll of powerful jutsu in the Hokage tower, that is your target. Your goal is to sneak in, get the scroll, verify that it does contain jutsu, get out, and return it to me. For the purposes of this mission, I will be a sleeper agent, going about my daily life. Your primary goal is to get the scroll to me without compromising my identity. Your secondary goal is to avoid compromising your identity. Should you be chased, do not lead pursuers to my location until you have avoided them."

Shiro looked actually eager for the first time Mizuki had ever seen.

"Where should I meet you?"

"I will be waiting for you at training ground six at one in the morning. You have all evening and half of the night to complete your task."

"This is a difficult mission," Shiro said thoughtfully. "What support do I have?"

"It is a difficult mission. You don't think you make up for years of barely passing grades with just an essay, do you?" Mizuki replied sarcastically. "You have no support. Think of it this way, this mission is the result of a long series of near failures. Your only hope to make up for it is to complete your mission with distinction. No backup. No support but what you can create on your own." He gave the blond a cruel smile. "Of course, if you really aren't that good, I guess we can-"

"No!" Shiro all but shouted. "I just wanted to be clear on the situation. I can do this." His eyes positively blazed. "I will do this. Now tell me about the scroll. Where is it and what does it look like."

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Hinata wandered the streets aimlessly, sticking close to the tower. She was excited, because of Naruto, bored, because of Naruto and happy, because of Naruto. What a great day. (She is a retarded girl in love)

She cheered silently when the tower suddenly burst into a silent buzz of activity, masked ninja flickering in and out so fast she honestly couldn't follow some of them.

Surprisingly, a stern voice ANBU in a frowning lizard mask appeared in front of her almost immediately.

"State your name and affiliation," the cold voice demanded.

Hinata shivered at the restrained killing intent. Whoever this person was behind the mask, they were not happy. "A-ano, Hinata Hyuga. I'm an academy student," she said hesitantly.

"Do know Shiro the orphan from Konoha?"

"Y-yes, I know Shiro-kun," she replied. "We're in the same class in the academy."

"Have you seen Shiro?"

She nodded, and in an instant a hand as hard as steel gripped her arm.

"Where is he?"

Hinata froze. "I-I-I…"

"Hey, that's one of my students!" came a call from the street behind them.

They both turned to see Mizuki and Iruka running towards them.

"She claims to have seen Shiro the orphan," the cold voice stated as if that explained everything.

Iruka looked at her with concern. "Is that true, Hinata? Where did you see him?"

"Ah, ah, at… school…" she said meekly. She wasn't sure, but she thought that the ANBU frowned at her. Without using her byakugan, she couldn't be sure, and she was willing to bet that he'd take that as a sign of hostile intent.

"She is prevaricating," the ANBU stated emotionlessly.

"She's shy," Iruka countered. "You're scaring the hell out of her, let her go. And what's this about Shiro? What's he done this time?"

What's he done? Hinata wondered. That was a strange question.

"Shiro has stolen a valuable scroll of kinjutsu from the Hokage's library. Currently, all available ANBU are out looking for him, with orders to bring the scroll back at any cost."

"At any cost!?" Iruka exclaimed. "You're going to kill him?"

"Only if it becomes necessary. If possible, he will be captured and turned over to Ibiki."

"I always knew that kid was no good," Mizuki spat. "I know you liked him, Iruka, but no one who hides his skills away from everyone like that can be trusted."

Iruka rounded on his fellow teacher. "Don't tell me you honestly believe he's a sleeper agent! He's been checked out, by EVERYONE!"

Mizuki shrugged. "And yet he stole a scroll of kinjutsu. I tell you Iruka, just because he's not an agent doesn't mean he's not the enemy, what's with-" his teeth snapped together with an audible click and his eyes widened at what he'd nearly said in front of a child.

What?! WHAT?! Hinata wanted to scream, so upset she was trembling.

Iruka noticed and crouched beside her. "Hey, Hinata-chan, why don't you go back home. I'm sure everything will turn out all right. But right now, the streets aren't the place to be, okay?"

Nodding dumbly, Hinata stumbled away when the ANBU released her arm. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. ANBU were hunting him with deadly intent

It just wasn't right!! but she did reach home

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Betrayed.

Lied to.

Manipulated.

"Shiro-kun!" the man called.

Every word, every syllable out of the man's mouth grated on Shiro's nerves.

"Good job! I do believe you've passed!" Mizuki added, walking closer, seemingly unconcerned. The fact that the man was still breathing was an affront to Shiro's sensitivities.

"You lied to me," Shiro said quietly.

"Eh?" He stopped, looking at the boy.

"You lied to me," Shiro repeated, louder. "You lied, and you betrayed me!"

The last came out high pitched, almost like a whine.

Mizuki jumped back, warily. "Figured it out, huh? Not bad." He smiled cruelly. "But not good enough to pass. You're entirely too late now."

"WHY?" Shiro cried, his voice anguished. "Why would you and Iruka-sensei do this?! I trusted you! I TRUSTED YOU!" he wailed.

Mizuki laughed. "For a smart ass, you're pretty dumb, ain't you? I wanted the scroll, obviously. So I conned you into getting it for me. Easy." He chuckled again. "All I had to do was dangle a 'special' assignment in front of you and you jumped in head first. You may be pretty smart, kid, but you're so wrapped up in how intelligent you are that you forgot something."

Shiro was trembling, and one hand slowly felt its way behind his back, reaching for the hilt of his wakizashi.

Mizuki gave him a look of pure contempt. "This is a ninja village. You think you're the only one hiding something? Fool. And now, since you've brought me the scroll, managed to get all the blame placed on yourself, and are now all alone here in the woods, just like you are the rest of the time. I'll kill you, take the scroll, and anyone finding your corpse will decide that you passed it on to enemy ninja, but were betrayed and killed to tie up loose ends." He smirked, pulling a huge shuriken from a bundle on his back. "Maybe you could learn something from your sensei if you paid attention once in a while. Now DIE!" He hurled the shuriken at Shiro's torso.

Shiro dived to the side, then sprang at his hated enemy, his dripping blade hidden in the darkness as he lunged, trying to bury it in Mizuki's throat.

Mizuki slapped his hand aside, and his following punch bounced off the wide blade of another shuriken the chunin readied. He slashed with the oversized blade in return, overpowering Shiro's block and scoring a slight cut on his forearm.

Shiro's counter kick slapped satisfyingly into Mizuki's thigh but did little real damage as Shiro scrambled backward, throwing a handful of regular shuriken at the chunin, who blocked easily with his huge version.

Mizuki whirled his arm, throwing the shuriken at Shiro, who again dodged hastily, but didn't ready another one instantly.

Shiro charged, then jumped high for all he was worth as the blade, guided by a wire, looped through the air and returned, nearly taking his leg off as it passed. Mizuki caught it easily, then held it high as Shiro fell towards him, his curved blade ringing against the thick steel.

And Mizuki lashed out with an elbow, catching Shiro in the ribs, sending him flying and causing him to lose grip on his blade.

"Too bad you never fought like that in class, eh, Shiro?" Mizuki said conversationally

"One last lesson, kid," Mizuki said, readying his shuriken. "Don't give away your intentions in a fight. If you'd acted normal when I first showed up, you might have had a chance at me when I took the scroll."

Shiro twitched violently and fell to his knees, feeling the poison of the tiger mushroom coursing through his body. Cramps seized his stomach, and bile spilled from his mouth, though he didn't have the muscle control to vomit. A scream built in his throat, but it came out as only a high moan.

Mizuki stared at him dispassionately. "Figures an evil little bastard like you would pick a nasty poison. I bet that hurts."

"Uuuuaaaahhhhh…" Shiro moaned his arms and legs twitching violently as he hugged his stomach and writhed on the ground. Before actually dying from the attack

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Mizuki fuming and panting as he ran through the forest with the forbidden scroll held tight in his grasp

"Going somewhere, old friend?" An infuriated Iruka stepped out.

"Iruka!" the silver-haired man sneered.

"You traitor! How could you turn your back on the village?"

Mizuki glared hatefully at his longtime friend. "I do it for power! Something people like you can never understand. You and those other demon-lovers will be the downfall of this village!"

A shocked Iruka looked at the other man in disgust. "To think Shiro actually respected you. He came to me earlier today, saying how sorry he was for all the pranks he played. He said he wanted to apologize to you as well before he graduated, but I told him I would do it for him. I wonder what he must think of you now. Friend or not, I will stop you."

The traitorous chuunin, however, stood there in profound shock. The brat trapped him, He has nowhere to run because the brat set him up, At that moment the entire scenery changed

Suddenly the entire forest changed and he was standing in front of Shiro dying body but the body just got melted inside the tree while a voice out of nowhere came

"Man it's tough to act, well you should work on your vigilancy sensei, otherwise you would never be placed inside the genjutsu"

"Genjutsu, Genjutsu"!!!!! "YOU BRAT YOU DARE TRICK ME"!!!!!!!!

Mizuki hates that boy...

That boy is really annoying and how Mizuki wishes he could kill the boy!! And now, thanks to that boy too, his plan to get Forbidden Scroll to give it to Orochimaru is ruined!!

"Chunin Mizuki..."

Mizuki stiffened when he heard a voice; he did not even sense whoever called him! He turned around and saw it was an ANBU... The ANBU was, of course, in his duty attire, but strangely having a blank mask. He also seemed quite young by his voice and had black hair with pale white skin.

"Yes?" Mizuki asked, trying his best to bury the anger inside him for now while narrowing his eyes at the ANBU "What can I do for you, ANBU-san?"

The ANBU answer was only silence before he slowly pulled out his tanto making Mizuki stiffened.

"I need you to tell me everything about your connection with Orochimaru..." The ANBU said coldly.