Chapter 097

Konoha

One of its Forests

"What do you think you're doing here, Naruto?" Umino Iruka, breathless and apparently furious, with a scar on his face and a brown ponytail that chunin wore, rhetorically asked a young blond with whisker marks on his cheeks.

He already knew, of course, everyone at his level and above knew. Naruto had been caught leaving the Hokage Tower with the Forbidden Seal Scroll, the scroll with tons of Konohagakure's secrets and the best-kept techniques ever accumulated.

This was tantamount to treason, even for a child like Naruto. That's why Iruka chased him and found him deep in the forests outside the village walls.

The boy simply held his hand behind his neck, rubbing it as he smiled shyly, "I didn't think you'd find me, Iruka-sensei!"

Iruka's eye twitched, "Idiot! I found you!" His expression then softened, "Naruto, what the hell possessed you to take the scroll like that? Don't you know it's forbidden?"

Naruto laughed like a fool for a moment before standing up and looking proud of himself, "You caught me fast, Iruka-sensei, I only had time to learn one jutsu from the scroll." That little piece of information made Iruka's eyebrows raise in surprise.

There was no inflection of lying in his voice that Iruka could decipher, not that Naruto could lie to a ninja of his level anyway, but he was completely sincere.

He honestly believed what he was saying: "Naruto, what brought you to do something like this? Don't you know it can be considered treason?" Iruka asked, watching Naruto's face go from one of triumph to one of disbelief.

"I overheard mom talking to Tsunade-obasan about leaving some forbidden sealing techniques in this scroll, and it made me curious about the forbidden techniques that are here."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head.

He thought he had been as cautious as possible, yet Iruka caught him.

And other people found out.

He was really in trouble this time.

"How did you know where the scroll was?" Iruka asked again.

It seemed strange to him that the Hokage would casually talk about the location of the scroll in the Hokage Tower.

"Mizuki-sensei told me where to find it," Naruto replied naturally.

He had told Sasuke about the plan to find out about this scroll, promising to learn cool techniques.

However, Sasuke took it as foolishness.

It's natural, after all, simple Gēnin like them wanted to take Konoha's history of forbidden techniques that has been passed down for generations since the First Hokage.

Sasuke simply looked at him blankly and called him a dreamer.

He had more important things to do.

On the other hand...

Iruka closed his eyes to think. Naruto was lucky to be the first one to find it, others would have probably destroyed it before he knew what was going on.

Speaking of which, Iruka sent a pulse of chakra to see if anyone was nearby. It was one of Iruka's best techniques, sending out a chakra pulse to get a momentary sonar image of his surroundings; the secret behind how he could tell if someone in his class was slacking off or fooling around, even when he had his back to the blackboard.

Naruto looked at Iruka, his eyes on the verge of tears, "Iruka-sensei, am I in trouble?" Naruto had no idea what to do if he was.

He had heard his mother talk so casually about it, that he didn't think giving a glance would be considered such a serious offense.

Iruka sighed before releasing another pulse of chakra, there was still no one around.

What were they planning to do?

He placed a hand on Naruto's hair.

"To be honest, your mother will most likely tear you apart as she usually does when you cause trouble. But seeing that you only did it out of curiosity, I can intervene. If you come with me, I swear on my status as a Chūnin of Konoha that I will do everything I can to vouch for you and help you get out of this."

Iruka said with as much conviction as he could muster. He could see the subtle movements in Naruto's body, he was trying to decide whether to run, fight, or simply wait.

Iruka was well aware of Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke's monstrous talent.

That even he wasn't sure if he could catch him.

But thinking about Kushina and her strange way of raising her son.

Iruka couldn't help but feel sorry for the boy.

He simply wondered how he didn't learn from the education he had been receiving lately.

'Well, it's been like this for years, although now he has his mother, his mischievous and curious behavior is already part of his daily life.' Iruka thought.

He had been Naruto's teacher since he entered the Academy at the age of six.

So he was used to his pranks.

However, this had already crossed the line.

But since nothing serious had happened, he could come up with a way to soften his mother's reaction when she found out.

Naruto stared at Iruka. Mizuki had already lied to him today, apparently saying that nothing serious would happen if he just glanced at the scroll.

Who's to say Iruka-sensei wouldn't do the same?

But he gave his word. Not just his word, his word as a chunin of the village, and if there was one thing Naruto took seriously, it was when people gave their word.

"Do you promise?"

Naruto saw a glimmer of hope when Iruka promised to help him deal with his mother.

What do you expect, he's a 9-year-old kid, although he's much more trained in combat compared to before, his mischievous personality is still there.

Dormant, but it's there.

It only takes a small spark to ignite it.

And that day when he came out of the bathroom and heard his mother talking to the Hokage.

This idea suddenly came to him.

.

.

.

.

🙌🏽Patreon.com/UchihaFamily 🙌🏽

🎉Advanced content and more on my Patreon🎉

🎉Fifteen chapters onwards available🎉

🚬🗿What are you waiting for!🚬🗿