Chapter 3 - Graduation Day

        I awoke from my slumber, only to hear my alarm clock go off. Why do I have an alarm clock if I always wake up before it? 

        With a sigh, I turn the alarm off and get ready for the academy. Today’s graduation day, the day I don’t have to get bullied anymore. 

        I’ll definitely miss Hinata, but definitely not anyone else.

        Maybe Iruka-sensei.

        I leisurely walked to the academy. I stepped inside, and noticed that I was early, and that no one else was there. I decided to sit in my normal spot, the one I sit in everyday next to Hinata, in the far left, second table. I heard the door creep open, and some padded footsteps in my direction. I decided it was probably Hinata, so I fished for my book, and started reading it. Someone went into the chair next to me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw white. Hinata doesn’t wear white, I thought. I turned my head casually, curious to see who was next to me, and paled to see Kiba smirking.

        “So you’re early today, huh Himitsu?” 

        I wanted to say what’s it to you, but I restrained myself. Instead I ignored him, and went back to reading my book. 

        I heard some more footsteps. The person sat on the other side of me. This time, I checked to see who it was, relieved to see that it was Hinata. I continued to read my book, not daring to speak in case Kiba heard me.

        About two minutes later, everyone else started pouring into class. Eventually, Kiba left to go sit next to someone else. With only a glance, Hinata and I switched spots. 

        Iruka-sensei came in from the door next to his desk. “We will now start the final exam. When your name is called proceed to the testing room. The final test will be on the clone jutsu,” he said.

        In front of me, Naruto was holding his head in frustration. 

        “Shino Aburame,” Iruka-sensei called.

        I continued to read, Hinata beside me.

        One minute later, Chōji is called.

        “Himitsu Chikara,” he called yet again. I sighed, and brought my book, my pencil as its bookmark. I walked into what looked like an office. I saw a bunch of leaf headbands in front of me, but all the cloths were blue. Okay, I told myself, I can do this. I took a deep breath.

        Ram! Snake! Tiger! My hands formed into those three signs. I closed my eyes. “Clone Jutsu!” I cried out. My voice rang pure and true. I imagined the number five in my head, over and over again. I opened my eyes, only to see Iruka-sensei staring at me, gobsmacked,  while Mizuki-sensei and Shuji-sensei were watching to the left and right of me critically. 

        “You… you aren’t mute?” Iruka-sensei whispered.

        I sheepishly smiled, “I only let the people who I trust hear my voice.” I looked to the left of me, to see two clones, and the right, only to see one clone. I know the next thing I’m working on, chakra control.

        “Iruka-sensei?” I asked.

        “Yes Himitsu?”

        “Do you happen to have a headband in black?”

        He looked through all the storage before answering me. “Sorry Himitsu, there aren’t any black cloths this year. Would you like a blue or red one instead?”

        “I’ll take the blue one. Is it okay if I change the cloth when I get home?”

        “Sure,” he says warmly.

        “Well, thanks I guess!” I say. I shove the forehead protector into my pocket.

        I leave the room, only to wait awkwardly outside, waiting for Hinata. After some waiting, I saw her outside, with a shiny new forehead protector around her neck.

        “Yeah,” I replied, “it’s in my pocket.”

        “Great! I h-have t-to go now. My f-f-father is most l-likely waiting for me, along with my s-sister.”

        “I understand Hinata.” She left after that. People went by as they graduated, greeting their parents. My bangs cast a shadow over my eyes. I saw Shikamaru go out, slowly, a new forehead protector on his arm. 

        He passed me, and time seemed to slow down. We both glanced at each other, but it felt like an eternity had passed. He continued walking, me glaring at him. He was my best friend, and it hurt that he didn’t acknowledge me.

        The next person to come out was supposedly the sole survivor of the Uchiha clan. He passed me too, but his motions were fast forward. I shed a single tear, when they were both far away from me. Why am I still here? I thought to myself. I pushed myself away from the tree I was leaning on, only to stop when I saw Naruto come out, heading to the swing that was hanging a couple trees away from me, looking extremely sad. He sat on the swing, but in a weird way. The swing itself was a plank with two ropes hanging the swing. He had both feet on either side of the swing, and his head toward a rope. He started crying softly.

        “Ha ha, passed it with flying colors,” I heard a classmate from a different instructor say.

        “They called me first,” another student said.

        “I’m a ninja, genin,” said a third student.

        “I wish your grandma were here to see this. I’m proud of you son, we all are,” the parent of the student that spoke first said.

        “Congratulations! I’m going to cook all your favorites tonight. We’ll have a feast!” The parents of the second student said.

        I tilted my head a bit, only to see two women glaring at Naruto.

        “There, do you see him?” the first one said.

        “It’s that boy. I hear he’s the only one who failed,” the second woman replied.

        “Hmph! Well it serves him right.”

        “Just imagine if he became a ninja. I mean he’s the boy who-“

        The boy who what? I thought. All the villagers do glare at him, not to mention the first day I met him. He was shocked I ever wanted to be his friend.

        “Shhh! We’re not allowed to talk about that!” the first one says yet again. 

        Mizuki-sensei stood next to Naruto. How peculiar. What’s he doing? I’m going to find out what’s wrong right now, even if I happen to walk into a sentimental moment.

        I ran after Mizuki and Naruto, who started to walk away after having a hushed conversation.

        “Alright!” I heard as I left. Probably the parent of the third kid.

        “Iruka-sensei’s tough, but he’s not against you,” I heard Mizuki-sensei say from my hiding spot a little bit behind the balcony they were currently sitting on.

        “Then why? Why only me?” Naruto said. He must be talking about not graduating. 

        “He wants you to be strong with all his heart, but that will never happen if he goes easy on you. He’s like you, ya know? No parents… no family,” Mizuki-sensei replied.

        “But… this time I really wanted to graduate.”

        “Then I guess I have to tell you,” Mizuki-sensei says, chuckling.

        “Huh?”

        “It’s a secret, but I’m gonna let you in on it.”

        I left then, to go back to my apartment. Before that, I bought paint. Turquoise paint, the color of my eyes. I also bought a black cloth to put my headband on. 

        I stood in front of my apartment, painting the door a new shade, completely erasing the freak that used to be there. I should have done this a long time ago. I took my paint and my paint brush into the storage closet, and then changed out of my sodden clothes, into another one of my ninja clothes. I pried the symbol of the cloth of my forehead protector, and put the symbol onto the black cloth., putting it back into my new pocket.

        I laid down on my bed, awake, bored out of my mind. I climbed out my window, and used a ladder to get to the roof. I looked down, from the odd balcony, only to see multiple ninja running to the same location. Strange. Was there an alert? I thought. I ran to where all the ninjas were going, only to see the hokage.

        “Lord Hokage! This is not just a prank! This is a serious crime!” a ninja said.

        “That scroll contains secrets that were sealed by the first Hokage, secrets known only to our village!” another ninja said.

        “If it falls into the wrong hands it could destroy our entire way of life,” some other ninja said.

        “Alright. Bring Naruto here at once!” the hokage commanded. Wait, I thought, Naruto stole the sacred scroll of sealing? Why would he do that?

        “Sire!” All the ninja said.

        They all left after the hokage gave them the signal, including Iruka-sensei.

        I left too, but I had a feeling I knew where he was. I raced to the forest, hiding behind a tree when I saw Naruto next to a shed.

        I watched him practice.

        “Shadow Clone Jutsu!” he shouted, bringing life to dozens of clones that all looked the same. “All right! I did it!” he said. He fell on his bum the next moment, and placed the scroll on his back, completely tired out.

        I shifted my hands into the hand seal Naruto made, the clone seal. 

        “Shadow Clone Jutsu!” I whispered, and too my surprise, there was a solid clone next to me. I inspected it, finding many faults with it, such as only nine fingers, and the eye didn’t have an iris, but is was real nonetheless.

        I dispelled it, only to see Iruka-sensei pop up out of no where in front of Naruto.

        “Huh?” Naruto said.

        “It’s all over, heh heh heh heh heh,” Iruka sensei said, putting his hands on his hips while his eye was twitching.

        Naruto sheepishly rubbed his head, and said, “Te heh heh heh heh.”

        “Huh?” Iruka-sensei said.

        “Caught me already? Not bad. You’re quick sensei, I only had time to learn one technique.”

         “Listen Iruka-sensei! I’m gonna show you this amazing jutsu and you’re gonna let me graduate, and then everything will be okay! That’s the way it works right? Anyone who learns a jutsu from this scroll passes!” he said elated, spreading his arms out wide.

        “Huh?” Iruka-sensei asked, confused, “Where’d you get that idea?”

        Naruto started flapping his arms, “Mizuki-sensei told me about it. Believe it!” He spinned around to show the scroll, “He told me where to find the scroll and this place…”

        He looked at Iruka-sensei’s shocked face, and I didn’t blame him. This meant that Mizuki was a traitor.

        “Look out!” Iruka-sensei screamed, pushing Naruto out of the way of the oncoming kunai, but getting hit with a few in the process.

        “I see you found our hideaway!” Mizuki said.

        “So that’s the way it is, huh? I should’ve known!” Iruka-sensei said.

        “Naruto, give me the scroll, now!” Mizuki said.

        “Wait a minute, what’s going on here!” Naruto said, frightened.

        Iruka-sensei pulled out the kunai, and was about to say something, but I cut him off, coming out of my hiding spot.

        “Himitsu?” Naruto said, in more confusion than ever.

        “What’s going on, is that Mizuki’s a traitor, that used you to get what he wants,” I said. 

        Silence. Then, “WAIT, you aren’t MUTE!” Naruto said.

        “Naruto, I just tell you that Mizuki’s a traitor, and you choose to say that I’m not mute first? We’ll discuss this later!” I reply, clearly agitated, “Just whatever you do, don’t give the scroll to Mizuki!”

        “Naruto! Iruka and Himitsu are just trying to scare you because they don’t want you to have the scroll.” Mizuki said.

        “Huh!?” Naruto says, looking at me and Iruka-sensei.

        “Stop lying Mizuki! Don’t let him trick you Naruto!” said Iruka-sensei.

        Mizuki just replied, “Ha ha ha ha ha! Oh I’ll tell you who’s really lying.”

        “No Mizuki!” Iruka-sensei screamed.

        “They’ve been lying to you your whole life Naruto. Since the decree twelve years ago.” Mizuki said.

        “What decree?” Naruto and I both said.

        “Everyone knows except you. Iruka’s trying to hide it from you even now. He’d do anything to shut me up!” Mizuki said.

        “What is this decree? Why does everyone else know about it?” Naruto said. 

        “Everyone can’t know about it if I don’t know about it either Naruto, so calm down!” I tell him.

        “Don’t tell him it’s forbidden!” Iruka-sensei said.

        “The decree is no one can tell you the nine-tail fox is inside you!” 

        We both gasp.

        “The fox spirit that killed Iruka’s parents and destroyed our village has taken over your body! You are the nine-tails fox!”

        “STOP IT!!!” Iruka-sensei said.

        “They’ve all been sneaking around hiding things from you your whole life. Didn’t you think it was strange how they treated you? Like dirt! Like they hated you for just being alive!”

        “No! No no no no!!” Naruto said, blue chakra swirling around him.

        “Naruto!” Iruka-sensei said, agonizingly.

        “That’s why you will never be accepted in this village,” he said, wearing a cruel smirk, “even your beloved sensei hates your guts!”

        “Die Naruto!” Mizuki said, hurling a fūma shuriken at Naruto.

        “Naruto, get down!” Our teacher shouted.

        Naruto crawled back, and Iruka-sensei hurled himself over Naruto.

        “No!” I screamed, and hurled myself over Iruka-sensei, the shuriken embedding itself into my mid-back, cutting my hair a few inches.

        Iruka-sensei came out from under me, removing the shuriken from my back.

        “Why?” Naruto asked.

        I coughed out some blood, careful not to get any on Naruto.

        I smirked, “Because no matter how many times you may bully me, or how many times my classmates might, at the end of the day? I’ll lay down my life for any one of you, because that’s just the right thing to do. Two wrongs don’t make a right, it just throws us further into despair, and besides,” I tell him, “the fact that the Kyuubi is within you only protects us, right? And I also think it’s pretty cool, ya know?” I smile at him. 

        He looked like he was about to cry, and ran away from me.

        “Naruto!” Iruka-sensei screamed.

        “I’ll go after him,” I tell him.

        I run after Naruto, catching up to him quite fast. We nodded at each other.

        “Naruto, let’s hide behind this tree, okay?” I say.

        “Yeah, sure,” he replies.

        We hid behind the tree, Naruto clutching the scroll like it was a lifeline.

        Another Naruto and Iruka-sensei came tumbling out of the trees in front us. I turned as white as paper, and Naruto grabbed me to the other side of the tree.

        “It can’t be,” Iruka-sensei said. The fake Naruto sat down with the scroll.

        “How did you know Naruto?” Iruka-sensei asked the fake Naruto, “how did you know, that it was me and not Iruka,” Mizuki said. 

        Woah, henge jutsu if I’m not mistaken.

        “Because I’m,” the henge released to reveal Iruka-sensei and a log, “Iruka.”

        “You’re a fool!” Mizuki said, “Why are you protecting that freak? He’s the one that wiped out your family!”

        “I don’t care what you say,” Iruka replied back, “You’re not getting your hands on that scroll.”

        “As if you could stop me. Don’t you get it? Naruto is just like me!”

        “How’s that?”

        “He wants the scroll for his own power and his own vengeance. That’s how beasts are. He’ll pour all his rage into the scroll and destroy everything.”

        “Your right,” Iruka-sensei said.

        Naruto and I both gasp.

        Naruto sighed, “So it’s true. Iruka-sensei never believed in me. He thinks I’m some kind of beast, some kind of freak!”

        “Naruto,” I say, “I doubt that’s true. Keep listening. He might surprise us both, ya know?”

        “You’re right!” he said.

        “That is how beasts are!” Iruka-sensei said.

        Naruto’s eyes widened. I held his shoulder, and he calmed down.

        “But that’s not how Naruto is.” Iruka-sensei continued. I smiled. “He’s nothing like that. Naruto’s one of a kind. He works hard, puts his whole heart into it. Sure he messes up a couple of times, and everyone jumps on him, but his suffering only makes him stronger. That’s what separates him from being a beast. So you’re wrong, he’s nothing like the nine-tailed fox. He’s Naruto Uzumaki! Of the village hidden in the leaves!”

        At this point, Naruto was full out sobbing, and I hugged him.

        “There is nothing wrong with crying ya know, especially when the tears are tears of happiness,” I told him.

        “Hm, you really believe that shrivel?” Mizuki said, “Iruka, I was gonna save you for later, but I changed my mind. You’re finished!” Mizuki takes out a fūma shuriken, and gets ready to throw it.

        Naruto and I look at each other. I nod my head. “Now!” I scream. We both come in and give a fly kick to Mizuki. The shuriken cuts off a couple of branches on a couple of different trees. That’s how sharp it was. We all land, me and Naruto sliding, while Mizuki tumbles.

        “Naruto! Himitsu!” Iruka-sensei says.

        “Not bad, for two little punks,” Mizuki says.

        “If you ever lay a hand on our sensei,” we said in unison, “then we’ll kill you!”

        “Such big words,” says Mizuki, “I can completely destroy you with a single move!”

        “Take your best shot fool,” we say, putting our fingers into the clone hand seal, “we’ll give it back to you a thousand fold!”

        “Let’s see you try! Show me what you can do nine-tailed fox, and his little companion!”

        “Shadow Clone Jutsu!” we scream. We both made at least one-thousand clones. I felt a little dizzy, but that was probably from using too much chakra in one fail swooop. 

        “Haha! You can’t get me!” he said.

        “Over here!” I said. 

        We confused Mizuki so badly, he fell. Then, we proceeded to pound the living daylights out of him.

        “Oops!” He says, “We might have gone a little overboard.”

        “Speak for yourself, he deserved every single thing we dished out at them, the good for nothing teacher,” I mutter darkly. 

        “Wow! You remind me of a friend I used to have! She used to threaten some guy named Kakashi in her sleep! Now that I think about it, you two do look extremely similar, actually, you look the exact same! Except for the eyes!” he said.

        “Who, me? You probably have me mistaken for someone else!” I say, sweating bullets.

        “Yeah, you’re probably right! You okay Iruka-sensei?”

        “Yeah,” he said. “Ah, Naruto, come here a minute, I’ve got something to give you.”

        I watched Naruto close his eyes, and Iruka-sensei give him his forehead protector. I smiled.

        “Sensei? How much longer!” Naruto said.

        “Okay, you can open your eyes now.” The sunlight started streaming in from the leaves, it was already daybreak. “Congratulations! You graduate!”

        I take out mine and tighten it around my neck.

        “And to celebrate I have a surprise. We’re going out for ramen tonight!” he said. 

        “Iruka-sensei!” Naruto said, jumping onto him.

        “Hey that hurts!” Iruka-sensei said. They both started laughing.

        I felt kind of left out so I started walking back home. “Uh,” I grunted, forgetting about the wound in my back. 

        “Where do you think you’re going! You’re coming with us too Himitsu!” he said.

        “Sorry sensei, but I’m going to have to pass. I think I have to go to the infirmary first, ya know, since there’s this huge, gaping hole in my back?” I reply.

        “Oh yeah, almost forgot about that. Come on, I’ll help take you to the hospital,” Iruka-sensei said.

        “Yeah! Yeah! Me too!” Naruto said.

        “Thanks guys!” I replied. The walk to the hospital was so jovial, I almost forgot about the big, gaping hole. Almost.

        Author's Note: A nice long chapter people! I hope you liked it! :) I had to put this song in. It just fits so well! Peace! Harmony out!