Konoha was on high alert.

Every clans and shinobi families had answered the Third Hokage's call, sending their people to scour the village for that little thief.

It was no longer at the level of a prank. The scroll contained many jutsu that was proven so dangerous that it was sealed by the First Hokage himself. If it fell to the wrong hand, the consequences would be dire.

While they were busy coordinating their moves, nobody noticed two fleeting shadows leaping through the rooftops.

"Three and a half years of cultivation... so this is how far I've become!"

Hikari was beside herself with glee.

"Oi, focus! Remember our goal! We have to find Naruto before the others!"

On the other hand, Kiba was a lot more tense. He glanced down the streets, seeing a lot of people that he'd recognized. Ah, damn, that's Mr. Choza. That one was from Aburame clan. Everyone was a big-namer from their clan!

If Naruto got caught by any of them, he would be toast!

"..." Hikari had suddenly fell silent.

"Huh? You finally understood the gravity of this situation?"

"Too slow..."

"What?!"

Kiba's face turned blank.

"This is too slow! Compared to the usual pace, this is like a snail! Aaah, this is why I want to advance the ranks quickly! Traveling really isn't enjoyable until you reached Foundation Establishment Stage-!"

"That's what you're worried about?!?"

Woof!

Kiba quickly covered his mouth after getting reminded by Akamaru. Ah heck, he was getting too loud. It was this girl's fault!

"Anyway, we're really going the right way?"

"Yep," Kiba pulled the collar of his shirt down, letting Akamaru's face to show up a bit more. "Akamaru said that he'd remembered Naruto's scent, so he could show us. It's definitely this way."

They were heading toward the forest at the underdeveloped part of the village. So far, none of the shinobi had searched that place yet. If they could get there on time, they might be able to do something.

"Let's increase the pace."

"Ouh," Kiba nodded, but the next thing that she said almost made him bit his own tongue.

"I want to see how far this body could hold out... who knows? Maybe we could advance a rank from the added strains-"

"I. Said. Focus!!"

Under the shadow of the full moon, he roared in frustration.

---

"You'd even transformed into your parent's killer, just to protect him?"

In the deeper part of the woods, two men, both instructors from the academy were facing each other. The first person, with a large shuriken on his back, was Mizuki, while the other one was Naruto's homeroom teacher, Fumino Iruka. The latter was covered in wounds, especially the bloodied cut on his back. He was leaning on a tree as he felt his energy draining out of his body.

However, he couldn't back down. Not yet.

This person, Mizuki... he had taken advantage of Naruto's sadness from failing the exam, and manipulated him to steal the forbidden scroll from the Third's house. He was the true culprit of this incident!

There was no way that Iruka would let him off. Not to mention, Naruto's life was on the line here!

"I won't hand over the scroll to someone like you!" Iruka declared, trying his best to hold up against the worsening pain.

"You idiot," Mizuki grinned. "Naruto and I are the same! With that scroll, we can acquire limitless power! There's no way that demon fox wouldn't pass this opportunity! You're not wrong to despise him!"

"...Yeah..."

Hiding behind a tree nearby, Naruto was listening to their conversation.

His heart was a terrible mess. He had just learned that the terrible nine-tailed fox from the legend, the monster that had brought disaster to the village in the past, was none other than himself. The Fourth Hokage had died to save the village from the demon fox, and the method he'd used was by sealing the monster inside Naruto's body.

He was... he was the reason that Iruka's parents had died. Surely Iruka had hated him from the beginning, right?

He clutched the scroll tighter, trying to repress the ugly feeling in his heart.

"I do hate the demon fox. That monster surely would use the scroll to take revenge," Iruka continued.

Naruto closed his eyes, not wanting to hear anymore.

"However... Naruto won't do that. He's different. I've... acknowledged him as an excellent student. MY student!"

Even so, Iruka's words...

"He's a lazy idiot. He's awkward, clumsy, nobody was able to accept him. However, that loneliness made him know what it means to be in pain."

...Little by little, had broken through the shell covering his heart.

A faint sob surfaced.

"He's not a demon fox. He's a proud member of Konohagakure, Uzumaki Naruto!"

The dam had finally broke as tears ran down the boy's cheeks uncontrollably.

For the first time in his life, he had finally felt that someone could accept him for who he really was.

"Tsk... sure, whatever you say!"

Mizuki unstrapped the shuriken on his back.

"Iruka. I wanted to take care of you after I'm done with the kid... but I changed my mind. I'll finish you first. Hurry up and die!"

Mizuki lunged toward the weakened Iruka, who was too weakened to avoid his attack. The shuriken on his hand was swung in full force, threatening to slice Iruka's head off.

'Teacher!'

Naruto quickly sprang out from his hiding spot, trying to tackle Mizuki away from his blind spot.

Before the boy could reached him, however, his attack was abruptly stopped.

An ear-splitting noise was produced as the edge of a ninjato was pushed onto the shuriken, halting it from moving any further. The short sword was then twisted to the side, prying the shuriken away from Mizuki's hand. With a flick of the wrist, the shuriken was thrown into the bushes in the distance.

"W-what?!"

Two people wearing porcelain masks had suddenly landed in front of Iruka, blocking Mizuki's path.

The one wielding the ninjato had a dolphin-faced mask covering her face. She was wearing a thin white robe with mesh armor underneath. With her long hair left flowing down messily and her skin faintly reflecting the moonlight, she looked like a wandering spirit.

The other person had a dog-faced mask, He was wearing a black shirt and shorts. The thing that stuck out from his appearance was the waist-length black wig that was covering his entire back, making him look like a kabuki performer.

"Teacher Iruka! Are you alright?"

"Ah, yeah, I'm fine- wait, teacher?"

"Oh fu-"

Hikari slapped him on the back of his head.

"You moron!" She whispered.

"S-sorry, I was just worried..." Kiba groaned in response.

Iruka blinked several times, still unable to believe what had just happened. At the very least, they were allies, right?

"Teacher!"

Naruto had also come over with the scroll still dangling on his back. When he saw that Iruka was still alive, he almost cried again from joy.

"That idiot, he finally showed up," Kiba sighed.

"I guess the mission is done, then."

"Not yet," he shook his head slightly. "Right, teacher?"

Anyway, he already screwed up once by calling him teacher. It shouldn't make a difference even if he called him like that again.

"I have no idea who you guys are..." Iruka slowly got up to his feet. "However, our priority right now is to catch that guy. Please give us your assistance."

"Ou!"

"Well... might as well see it until the end."

Hikari and Kiba took their fighting stance, with the latter copying the one that the girl had taught him over the past couple of years.

She had told him not to use Four-Legs Technique, since it would immediately gave out that he was an Inuzuka. As a safety precaution, Akamaru was also not coming along. He was watching from above the trees somewhere in the distance.

'No Human-Beast Taijutsu, huh... let's see how far I can go.'

Mizuki was thoroughly pissed. His plan was supposed to be perfect, yet annoyances kept on coming one after another. These guys playing heroes in masks... judging from their short height, they should be children, right? Shouldn't be older than Naruto. He was a Chuunin, damnit! He should be superior to a bunch of kids!

However, what was this pressure? It was so strong that it had made him tremble unconsciously. He quickly shook his head, forcing himself to focus.

"Heaaah!"

Naruto jumped out first and then threw a straight punch at Mizuki.

"Heh, too slow!"

He pulled out a kunai, intending to avoid the boy's attack and strike back with a slash toward his neck.

To his surprise, he found that he couldn't move his kunai.

Hikari had suddenly appeared on his side. The ninjato on her hand was pressing down on his kunai. Strangely, the two sharp edges didn't create a grinding noise like before. Instead, it was as if her ninjato was gently guiding the kunai to move against Mizuki's will. Downward, sideway, in the end, she gave the kunai a sudden flick, knocking it out of Mizuki's hand.

"Damn y-!"

He couldn't finish his sentence because Naruto's punch had landed right on his cheek.

At the same time, Kiba had arrived right in front of him. His body was covered in a thin layer of chakra to emulate the effect of Four-Legs Technique, even though it wasn't as efficient as the Inuzuka clan's prized jutsu.

Legs put apart, his body dropped down slightly as he shot his right arm forward in breakneck speed.

>

When the palm connected with Mizuki's chest, he swore that he'd heard a faint sound of something breaking.

"Guaah!"

The force of Kiba's palm strike was so strong that it had thrown Mizuki several feet away. He rolled on the ground until he crashed on a nearby tree.

Kiba was left aghast. He quickly turned to Hikari.

"That... oi, that technique, if it hit someone, what will happen?"

"Nothing much," she shrugged. "At your level, if it cleanly hit someone who didn't guard their chest with chakra, it'll just break their ribcage at best."

"The heck did you teach me?! That's really dangerous!"

"When you're an expert, one hit can make a hole on someone's body. It's normal."

"@%#%!!!"

"You guys... don't look down on me...! Ugh..."

Even though his entire body was trembling, Mizuki still tried to get up on his feet. He was clutching his chest tightly, tormented by a searing pain that hitched his breathing.

"Mizuki, give up already!" Iruka shouted.

"Never!"

Alongside a defiant yell, he made a Snake hand seal.

Suddenly, his body slipped down into the earth, fully disappearing from sight.

"Damnit! Everyone, on your guard!"

Iruka pushed his back on the tree while pulling out a kunai. He strained his senses, trying to predict where Mizuki would pop up next. He quickly noticed the earth around Kiba starting to bulge out.

"Dog-mask! Under your feet!"

"Darn!"

Mizuki sprung out right behind Kiba. Iruka's warning allowed him to avoid fatal injury, but Mizuki still managed to cut the arm he used to block.

"Tch!" He immediately slipped back into the ground.

Hikari was watching the entire scene while frowning. It was like that time when they were fighting Iwa ninja. More of those weird jutsu.

"So annoying..." She mumbled.

"Indeed. This kind of coward, This One despises them the most," Kokuo commented as well.

She turned her attention to Iruka.

"Hey, scar-face over there."

"Eh? Scar-face? M-me?"

"You're a teacher, right? How to deal with this jutsu?"

Why did he feel as if she was talking him down... whatever, it wasn't the time to worry about that.

"Earth Release has a low activation requirement, but it'll cost him a lot of chakra to stay hidden indefinitely. Not to mention, he still has to take a breath from time to time. The most effective method is to wait it out until he exhaust himself."

"Won't he run away then?!"

"W-well... we can also break the ground he's hiding in. He'll be forced to show himself up. The problem is..."

He wasn't sure if these children had a jutsu in that scale. He might be able to come up with something, but the injuries prevented him from using too much chakra.

Not waiting until they could find a method to rat him out, Mizuki had popped out once again. This time, he appeared right behind of Naruto.

"I'll be taking that!"

"W-wha?!"

Naruto had been preparing to block his attack, so he was caught off guard when Mizuki stole the scroll instead. Before Naruto could take it back, he had already slinked back in.

"N-no! The scroll!"

"On it."

Hikari had arrived beside Naruto. Since Mizuki had appeared just then, he surely hadn't gone that far yet.

"Lord Kokuo, can you use 'that' again?"

"Hmm? You got a plan?"

"Your ability is heating up chakra until it's maddeningly hot, right? Please handle the process, I'll take care of the control."

"Interesting," Kokuo formed a mock smirk. "Let us give it a try!"

Naruto immediately jumped away from her after sensing the drastic change.

The chakra surrounding Hikari's body began to glow brightly, the temperature climbing up like there was no tomorrow. At the same time, she smashed her palms onto the ground with enough force to make cracks that she could inserted them into.

She began to move her chakra, focusing all of them toward her palms. Not just that, she pushed the| out, letting them seep throughout the ground.

"Venerable One, does this move have a name?"

"Hmm? This One is not a human. This One has no need for names. If you want it, name it by yourself."

"Hmm... then let's call it-"

Kiba and Naruto leaped up in shock. The earth under their feet was hot. Really hot, to the point that the grass covering had withered up. It was as if a raging flame was burning underneath.

"I-I see! Good thinking!" Iruka exclaimed.

If the surface was already this hot, then it would've been even deadlier down under. That means, it was only a matter of time before...

"H-hot...!"

...the mole would get smoked out!

"There he is!"

Mizuki had popped out a few yards away from their position. He was too far for Hikari and Kiba to catch up. However, there was still Naruto. From this distance, he could still make it.

No, he had to make it!

"Naruto! Get him!" Kiba yelled.

"Leave it to me!"

The rambunctious kid leaped up while making a hand sign.

"Heh, come at me, loser! You can't do anything to me!"

"Shut up! The pain that you've inflicted to teacher Iruka... I'll make you pay a thousand folds!"

"!"

With his proclamation, his chakra flared up as the technique activated.

Poof. Poof. Poof.

Hundreds... no, a thousand smoke clouds blasted out one after another, surrounding Mizuki without leaving any gap to escape. When the smoke finally dissipated, Naruto upon Naruto upon Naruto appeared in their place.

"...Eh?"

"Oh god..."

Kiba and Iruka had the same expression on their face: eyes wide open, jaws hanging limply as if the hinge was broken.

Within her soul, Hikari turned to Kokuo while pointing at the absurd scene in front of their eyes.

"Venerable One, could you-"

"No."

"But I haven't sai-"

"This One said no."

That was such an inefficient way of using chakra. No way would it teach its Jinchuuriki how to do that!

"""Alright, here's your punishment!!!"""

One thousand Naruto spoke at the same time, hurting their ears. The clones lunged at Mizuki one after another. At first, he was still able to knock the incoming clones out. However, he was soon overwhelmed by the number and turned into a pitiful punching bag.

"Goeh! Guh! Agh! Kuah!"

Punches upon kicks upon slaps upon smashes landed on him continuously. No matter how weak each attacks were, when they rained down, they pour. At one point, he had lost consciousness from all the pummeling. His bloodied mess of a body just sway around lifelessly.

"Naruto! Enough!" Iruka shouted.

The numerous clones disappeared with a poof, leaving only the real Naruto at the center. He had fallen on his knees, panting heavily as if his life depended on it.

Even so, when he looked up at Iruka and gave him a victory sign, he had a really wide grin on his face.

'Can't be helped...' Iruka sighed.

"You two, leave that alone," he suddenly changed his attention toward Hikari and Kiba, who was about to take the scroll.

"Ah, but..." Kiba hesitated before telling him the truth. "If we return it back to the Third's house, maybe Naruto..."

Iruka's suspicion was finally confirmed.

'So they indeed came to help the kid...'

"Don't worry. I'll stay here with Naruto. I'll make sure that he won't be harmed, please believe me."

Hikari took a glance at Kiba before nodding. Since he was someone that Kiba trusted, then it would be alright. After all, the Inuzuka rarely appreciate unworthy people.

"Then, we'll leave it to you."

She tugged on Kiba's sleeves, telling him to move before the other shinobi arrived.

"Ah... okay. Please take care of him, Teacher!"

"Hey! I told you not to make useless comment!"

She smacked him again as they leaped back into the night.

'That kid called me Teacher... does that mean he's in my class? But that skill level..."

Those porcelain masks as well, were they imitating Anbu? Because they clearly weren't...

"Ah, whatever. The most important thing is that Naruto is safe."

As for those two, since they clearly wanted to hide their identity, he would pay them back by acting as if they had never existed in the first place.

He turned his gaze back to the yellow-haired boy, who was scratching his head while grinning foolishly.

"Naruto, come over here," Iruka crouched down.

"There's something that I want to give to you..."

---

A shinobi dressed in Konoha's Anbu uniform and a bear-faced porcelain mask was hiding among the tree top as he observed the entire battle. While he found the boy quite fascinating, his attention was aimed toward the two mysterious figures that had entered the scene.

He wouldn't include them in his report just yet. Not until he was certain of their identity.

The figure flickered away from sight, dead-set on finding them at all cost.