Chapter 44: Mezu…Mize…err... dude
Meanwhile, the two ANBU that were following the twins around were giving each other weird looks. Today was supposed to be the last day of their mission, but it seems another troublesome situation will happen before the day ends.
They didn't know what Mizuki told Naruto, but after seeing Naruto grin they doubted it would end well for Mizuki. They also noticed that Hinata and Yuna were following Naruto, as well, which obviously would make the situation even worse for Mizuki.
The four people followed Naruto and saw him enter the Hokage tower and leave it again, after 30 minutes, with a huge scroll strapped on his back.
The two ANBU grew even more bewildered when they saw that scroll. Where did it come from and why was Naruto carrying it around?
Yuna, meanwhile, had a rough understanding of the situation. She hid at a different angle when Naruto and Mizuki were talking and managed to read their lips. Mizuki apparently wanted Naruto to steal some important scroll out of the Hokage's office. She had no idea how someone could fall for such a ridiculous lie, but she was pretty sure, Naruto didn't. She had, however, an idea where the scroll on Naruto's back came from and already had a rough idea of what Naruto was planning.
Naruto was currently speeding through Konoha with a smirk on his face. After a few more minutes of travel, he arrived in a forest just outside the village. This was the place Mizuki told him to deliver the scroll to. After a few more minutes of waiting, Mizuki appeared with a smile on his face.
"Good job, Naruto. You managed to pass the secret test. Just hand over the scroll and I will promote you to a genin."
Naruto almost sneered when he heard Mizuki's speech. In the last few years, he has become more and more experienced at reading people's emotions and he could easily tell how much Mizuki hated him. For now, however, he decided to keep up the act. A goofy smile appeared on Naruto's face as he nodded in excitement.
"Haha, of course, I did it. I will be really great one day, so getting the scroll was, naturally, easy for me."
After saying that, Naruto tossed the big scroll on his back towards Mizuki, who caught it with glee in his eyes. Truth be told, he only wanted one of the demons to get in trouble before he betrayed Konoha and maybe get the chance to kill one of them. He never expected to actually get the Scroll of Seals. The reward Orochimaru would give him for this should be pretty good. He couldn't help but get excited at the prospect of becoming one of Orochimaru's most important shinobi.
"Haha, well done Naruto. Here is your reward for getting the scroll. IT'S DEATH!"
Mizuki quickly sank both his hands into the small bags on his belt and moments later, four shurikens were flying towards Naruto. Although Naruto was slightly surprised at suddenly being attacked, he didn't panic, at all. Yuna had trained him for a long time now and constant vigilance was something that has been pretty much engraved into his bones.
He saw the shuriken flying at him and decided to "get killed" by them. Naruto didn't expect Mizuki to hate him enough to actually attempt to kill him, but for the sake of his prank, he decided to just go through with it. Simultaneously, he decided to make the whole thing much more vicious as revenge for actually attempting to kill him.
What Naruto didn't expect to happen, however, was that just a moment before the shurikens were about to hit him, Iruka jumped in front of him in an attempt to block the shuriken with his body. Naruto's eyes almost fell out of their sockets when he saw that. If Iruka just blocked the shuriken with a kunai or something like that it would still be fine. Yes, his prank would have been ruined, but that was all there was to it. Now, however, there was actually a chance for Iruka to get fatally wounded because of it.
Naruto was just about to use some of Kurama's chakra, no matter the consequences, when another 4 shurikens came flying and blocked the four Mizuki had used. Mizuki was, naturally, angered by this and he immediately started yelling.
"Who is there?! Show yourself!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Yuna revealed herself with a wry expression on her face.
"Seriously Iruka, what are you even doing? It good that you want to protect Naruto, but you do realize there are other methods than using your body as a shield, right?"
Iruka's face slightly reddened after he heard Yuna's comment and he was just about to answer when Mizuki intervened.
"HAHAHA, to think both the demons would be here, today is truly my lucky day! Not only did I get my hands on the Scroll of Seals, I even get the chance to kill the twin demons!"
"Yeah, yeah, Mezu…Mize…err... dude, you sure are amazing."
A rather awkward silence descended on the surroundings when everyone realized that Yuna doesn't even remember Mizuki's name. This was actually a problem she had in her past life as well. She simply couldn't remember the names of people she deemed uninteresting. Mizuki, as side character C, naturally, fell into that category.
Mizuki, naturally, grew even more furious when he realized that Yuna doesn't even remember his name.
"What the hell?! How can you not even remember my name?! I have been teaching your class for half a year already! Are you an idiot?!"
Yuna, of course, couldn't let someone curse her like that, so she stepped forward with confidence.
"Haha, I was just playing with you. Of course, I know your name, Muzaki!"
"""…"""
During the awkward silence after Yuna's sentence, Naruto quietly approached her and whispered something into her ear. After a nod of understanding, she crossed her arms in front of her body. An arrogant sneer appeared on her face as she spoke her next sentence.
"Haha, I was just playing with you. Of course, I know your name, Mizuki!"
"""…"""
After another awkward pause, Mizuki finally snapped.
"Hehe, I see now, you want to distract me with your nonsense until reinforcement arrives, but there is no way someone in this village would willingly help you. Do you want to know why? Do you want to know the reason why everybody hates you?"
"Of course, I want to know about it, Miz…"
Yuna stopped for a moment and seemed to be thinking about something very hard for a moment.
"…uka. Tell me about it."
Mizuki simply ignored that Yuna seemed to have forgotten his name yet again and proceeded with unveiling the "big secret".
"You two have…"
"Stop it Mizuki, don't tell them!"
Before the "big secret" could be revealed Iruka intervened, but that, naturally wouldn't stop Mizuki.
"…the Kyuubi sealed inside you. That's right, both of you are monsters, that's why everyone in the village hates you!"
Iruka panicked when he heard Mizuki reveal the secret of the Kyuubi and expected the twins to sink into despair when they heard about it. To his surprise, however, Yuna and Naruto were currently looking at Mizuki like he was an idiot. A few moments later, Yuna's face switched to one filled with joy.
"Oh my god, Naruto, did you hear that? Apparently, the Kyuubi is sealed inside us!"
Naruto, immediately, mimicked Yuna's expression when he understood her plan.
"Isn't that amazing nee-san? To think we would have the Kyuubi sealed inside us!"
"I know, right. This is such an exclusive secret. Only about 90% of the village know about it. We are truly lucky to be informed about a 20-story tall fox being sealed inside us."
"I know, right. How could we possibly find out about someone else literally being stored inside us? That's just ridiculous."
Yuna could have sworn she heard a few people chuckle in the background, but decided to ignore it. She saw how Iruka and Mizuki were both flabbergasted that Naruto and she already knew about the Kyuubi and could only shake her head at their reactions.
'Seriously, why do these people think we don't know about it. Our birthday is literally the same day as the attack on Konoha and everyone is calling us demons. If you are capable of adding one and one together, it is rather obvious what is going on.'
Yuna had already lost interest in the current situation, so she decided to end it now.
"Oh well, Naruto, let's end this. Just knock Mi… him out and we can get this over with."
"Okay, nee-san."
Without another word, the scroll on Mizuki's back disappeared into a cloud of smoke and as soon as the cloud disappeared, a second Naruto was revealed, standing next to a knocked out Mizuki.
Seeing what happened just now, Yuna couldn't help but ask a question.
"I am just curious, but what was your actual plan for the prank?"
Naruto nodded in understanding and started to explain what he had planned out.
"I thought he wanted the scroll to get stronger himself and would take it home after getting it. After he went to sleep, I would knock him out and then paint his whole house orange, like, the whole thing.
After he tried to kill me, however, I changed my plans. I wanted to pretend that I died after being critically injured by his shuriken and after he took my shadow clone in scroll-form home, I would still knock him out. This time, however, I would search for his porn collection, you told me every man would have, tie him up and place him together with his collection in the middle of the market."
Yuna felt a shiver of pure terror going through Iruka and the two ANBU guards but decided to ignore it.
"You do realize, that even if you did it, you wouldn't be promoted to genin, right?"
This time, Naruto actually froze up. He didn't think about that at all! He only had his successful prank in mind, without thinking about the consequences. Seeing that Naruto was pretty close to crying, she could only shake her head in exasperation.
"Fine, fine, Naruto. Don't worry about it. Nee-san will help you solve your problem."
Yuna still had a rather effective trump card against the Hokage, and although she would rather preserve it for more serious issues, if it was for Naruto, she wouldn't mind using it.
"There is no need for that!"
Surprisingly, Iruka had something to say. He approached Naruto and took off his shinobi headband with the Konoha symbol on it.
"Due to your outstanding service towards Konoha in not only reporting about a Chunin attempting to betray Konoha but even knocking him out, I will use my authority as a Chunin teacher to promote you to a genin."
Yuna was rather suspicious about that kind declaration, after all, Naruto didn't report anything and certainly didn't do it for the sake of Konoha. But after seeing Naruto's relieved smile and seeing that the ANBU guards didn't seem to mind, she simply stopped worrying about it.
'Like this, I can at least use my trump card for what I intended it to be used.'