The Path of No Return - Part 1

------NOTE-------

Content taken from Episode 1, but please read through till the end as the ending is different!

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(Hah!)

(Hah!)

(Hah!)

Naruto breathed heavily trying to recover from heavy consumption of his chakra and running around causing him to sit down in the middle of grassland next to an abandoned storage house. He had a huge scroll strapped to his back which was the secret scroll of the First Hokage!

…

A moment later, a shadow of a person dawned upon him…

"HEY…Naruto…" Naruto heard a spooky voice right above him.

"Hehehehh…" Naruto gave an awkward laugh rubbing the back of his head.

"Hmm…?" Iruka was confused.

"You found me… And I've only learned one jutsu…" Naruto said with a goofy looking smile.

("Huh? He's been practicing all this while until he got this exhausted and dirty?") Iruka thought upon looking at Naruto's exhausted appearance and the wrinkled and dusty appearance of Naruto's Orange Tracksuit.

"Hey umm, Listen Up! I'm gonna execute this amazing jutsu in front of you. You're gonna approve my graduation if I can do it right, After all, isn't that true if I can perform one of the jutsu in this scroll?" Naruto asked.

("WAIT, WHAT? WHAT IS HE THINKING?") Iruka panicked.

"Who told you that?" Iruka asked.

"It was Mizuki-sensei! He told me about this scroll, this place…" Naruto showed off the scroll on his back and gestured to the surrounding around him, excitedly explaining everything to Iruka until he saw the shocked expression across Iruka's face.

"Mizuki did?!" Iruka had an unbelievable expression as the First Hokage's scroll's existence and the location was taboo to others much less entrusting an academy student to learn a jutsu from the scroll. Should Naruto have learned the unsealing jutsu, who knows what consequence it could have on the village?

At this moment, Iruka's senses told him something was quickly heading his direction.

("Naruto!") Iruka quickly pushed Naruto off but didn't have time for himself.

Tk!

Tk! Tk!

Tk! Tk! Tk!

Kunais one after another pierced through his Flak jacket and entered his body.

*Crash!*

Iruka's body was pushed towards the wall of the abandoned storehouse.

"I'm impressed you've found this place" Iruka heard a voice from above him on top of a nearby tree.

"I see now… How it is…" Iruka murmured in defeat.

"Naruto, Give me that scroll," Mizuki asked with authority.

"Wait, wait… What's going on here?" Naruto asked in concern seeing that a fellow academy teacher of Iruka turning Hostile all of a sudden.

"ARGH!" Iruka grunted in pain pulling out a kunai from his body,

"Naruto! Never give him that scroll!" Iruka shouted.

"It's a dangerous sealed object that contains forbidden ninjutsu! Mizuki used you to get it himself!" Iruka explained.

"Wha..?" Naruto stared slack-jawed in shock.

"Naruto, Iruka is only afraid of you holding that scroll!" Mizuki explained calmly.

"Huh?" Naruto was confused once again. Mizuki or Iruka, who was the good guy?

"What are you saying Mizuki? Don't let him fool you, Naruto!" Iruka shouted back.

"Naruto, I'll tell you the truth," Mizuki said.

("NO! ANYTHING BUT THAT!") Iruka was alarmed.

"Idiot! Don't do that!" Iruka shouted, but it was too late.

"After an incident 12 years ago, A rule was created…" Mizuki said.

"A rule?" Naruto asked.

"That is Naruto, a rule everybody but you know," Mizuki said.

"Everybody except me?! What is it?" Naruto asked having a feeling it's connected to why everyone treated him like dirt all those years.

"Stop It! Mizuki!" Iruka shouted.

"It's a rule that forbids anyone from revealing that you are actually the Demon Fox Spirit!" Mizuki said.

(Ba-Dump!)

Naruto felt his Heart jerk from hearing. His eyes widened to his limits.

"You are actually the Demon, Nine-tailed fox spirit, who killed Iruka's parents and destroyed our village!" Mizuki said.

Naruto felt his whole world shatter in front of him.

("That's why…") Naruto thought back to people treating him like crap and throwing salt at him like he was an evil spirit.

"STOP IT!!" Iruka shouted while also pleading at the same time.

"Everyone has been deceiving you ever since. Didn't you find it strange? Why everyone hated you so much?" Mizuki asked.

"No!No!No!No!No!No!No!" Naruto was in complete denial, thinking that he himself was the fox that destroyed the village.

"Nobody accepts you, That's why Iruka hates you so much!" Mizuki declared.

Iruka couldn't bear the pain from the wounds and also the words Mizuki had just said. As he witnessed the scene the words of the Third Hokage flashed back in his mind.

—— FlashBack ——

"Everyone avoids him like the plague after what happened. That's why he keeps misbehaving." Hiruzen the Third Hokage explained.

"It's the only way for him to get any attention or acknowledgment. He pretends to be tough but inside he is really hurting."

—-End of FlashBack-—

"DIE! NARUTO!" Mizuki spun a huge shuriken in his hand and shot it towards Naruto.

("What is that..") Naruto's thoughts were slowed down. His fear had taken over him, incredibly slowing down his movements.

Naruto gritted his teeth hard and forced himself to crawl towards Iruka.

"Naruto! Get Down!" Iruka shouted.

Naruto felt himself move very slow to the point that the shuriken had already caught up. Leaving no choice, Naruto crouched down hard and braced himself to be pierced.

*Shing!*

"Huh?" Naruto was surprised to not feel any pain on his back. At that very moment he turned, his eyes widened like saucers.

Iruka-sensei, his teacher had been stabbed by the giant shuriken trying to shield him.

*Drip* *Drip*

*Drip* *Drip* *Drip*

Drops of blood fell over Naruto's face as he stared at Iruka's face contorted with pain.

"Why…?" Naruto asked.

"B-Because… You and I are the same…"

"After my parents died, nobody paid attention to me or gave me any support. I wasn't a good student in school. I was the class clown, because I wanted people to notice me. I couldn't get noticed through excellence, so I kept doing stupid things. It was so hard…" Iruka said as he started crying.

"Isn't that right…? Naruto…" Iruka poured his feelings out at this point.

"You felt so lonely… right? And you suffered inside, right…?"

"I'm sorry, Naruto. If I had been more responsible, maybe you wouldn't have suffered so much…" Iruka felt truly sorry for Naruto.

"Hehehehe, Hahahahaha" Mizuki started laughing.

"DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH! Iruka has always hated you ever since you killed his parents. He's just saying all that to get the scroll back!" Mizuki broke the moment between the two.

Naruto became skeptical. A truth that had been revealed after all these years. What if Iruka was telling a lie all so that he could get the scroll?

(Whoosh!)

Naruto dashed madly towards the trees for his escape.

"Naruto!!��� Iruka shouted but Naruto didn't stop.

"NAARUUUTOOOOOO!!!!!" Iruka shouted with all his might hoping that Naruto would stop.

"He's not the type of kid who will change his mind. He will take revenge against our village using that scroll!" Mizuki said slowly getting up.

"Didn't you see his eyes? Those are the eyes of a demon fox!" Mizuki declared.

"No!" Iruka denied trying his best to be on his feet again.

"Naruto… isn't like… that…" Iruka said struggling to remove the giant shuriken that had pierced through his back.

"At ALL" Iruka completed his earlier sentence by hurling the Giant Shuriken towards Mizuki.

"Hmph!" Mizuki dodged the Shuriken like it was nothing allowing it to continue through and cut through branches of the tree allowing moonlight to pierce through the forest.

"All I want is to kill Naruto and get the scroll. I'll take care of you later!" Mizuki said following which he left towards the direction Naruto had disappeared in earlier.

…

As these events played out, Hiruzen was calmly watching it unfold on his table, using an Orb.

Hiruzen was worried, Naruto now had a slight possibility of releasing the fox within the village.

…

Mizuki quickly chased after Naruto.

Having caught up to him, he looked at Naruto jumping across trees.

"Naruto, Everything Mizuki said was a lie! Quickly hand-over that scroll Naruto, Mizuki's after it!"

(Bang!) Mizuki was hit in the gut by Naruto.

*Screech*

Mizuki crashed onto the floor hard… Meanwhile, Naruto stopped by a tree and took off his scroll to lie down against the trunk.

"It can't be… How did you figure it out, that I wasn't Iruka?" Mizuki asked after he groaned in pain.

"Because I'm Iruka," Iruka said panting out of breath having overtaken Mizuki and pretending as Naruto.

"I see…" Mizuki stood up after seeing that his idea didn't work out.

He walked over to Iruka, asking.

"What's in it for you to protect the one who killed your family?" Mizuki asked.

��I'm not gonna let a stupid idiot like you to get the scroll," Iruka said.

"You're the idiot, Naruto is the same as me." Mizuki declared.

"Same?" Iruka asked.

"Anyone can do whatever he wants after they get the scroll. There is no way that monster… that fox spirit won't take advantage of the scroll," Mizuki explained.

"You're right…" Iruka said suddenly.

At this time Naruto who was listening in on the conversation felt his heart tighten.

("I guess it was true all along… Iruka sensei never cared for me…") Naruto bit his teeth hard, listening to all his hopes die inside.

"… If he was the demon fox… But Naruto is different…"

"He may not be an exceptional student, He's hard-working, He's single-minded and clumsy at the same time. No one accepts him but he knows the true meaning of human suffering. He's not the demon fox spirit, but he's Uzumaki Naruto of the Hidden Leaf!" Iruka declared.

Naruto had tears coming out of his eyes.

("He really does care about me…") Naruto thought.

…

"I was gonna take you down later, But I have changed my mind…" Mizuki said as he detached the Giant Shuriken he was carrying from his back.

"DIE!" Mizuki rotated the Shuriken at top speed, going in for the kill.

Naruto got up from the place he hid, but what he saw caused him to freeze in place.

(*Shing!*)

Iruka was pierced through, except this time, it was fatal.

"IRUKA-SENSEIII!!!!!!"

Naruto quickly appeared beside Iruka, bringing his hand over Iruka's bleeding chest. The Shuriken pierced all the way through the abdomen, causing huge blood loss and a possibility of some of the organs being mutilated.

"I'm sorry!" Naruto cried holding Iruka's hand with both his hands.

"It's all right… Naruto…" Iruka smiled.

"No!No!No!… Not you too… Please… I want you to live…" Naruto cried dearly.

"Wow, Iruka, How did you manage to get the demon fox to be so close to you?… Oh, I get it, he looks at you like you were his parent, because you were his teacher all this time. Hahaha," Mizuki was laughing.

Iruka looked at Naruto.

"Naruto…"

"Iruka-sensei… I've never met my dad or my mom… ya know…" Naruto said.

"All this time, Only you have scolded me or bought me ramen. You're the only person who has ever done this for me…" Naruto said.

"…"

"I wish you were my father…" Naruto cried.

"You…" Iruka smiled removing his hand to wipe away Naruto's tears.

"I'm sorry… Naruto…" The last of Iruka's strength vanished wiping Naruto's tears away.

"Iruka…sensei…?" Naruto asked hoping for there to be a response.

"Finally, that idiot is dead. Haha. Naruto! Playtime is over! Hand over that scroll now!" Mizuki demanded.

At this moment, however,

(Bang!)

A red stream of Chakra erupted into the sky.