Saturday, June 9, 2007

Naruto, part 3


Twelve years before the start of the story, the Nine-Tailed demon fox attacked Konohagakure. The Fourth Hokage, the leader of Konohagakure at the time, sacrificed his life to seal the spirit of the demon fox inside a newborn baby: Naruto Uzumaki, whose parents and origin are unknown.

Though the Fourth Hokage wanted Naruto to be viewed as a hero for such a burden, the villagers could not see him beyond the monster that destroyed their homes. The Third Hokage, who had taken over once more the Fourth died, made a decree preventing anyone from telling Naruto about the demon within him. Though Naruto found some friendship in children his age, even they came to ostracize him, following in their parents' example without even knowing anything about the fox-demon themselves.

Once Naruto was admitted into the Ninja Academy, he was befriended by his Chunin instructor, Iruka Umino. Iruka was the first person to believe in Naruto, and became a father-figure for him to look up to.

At the ninja academy, Naruto's reputation as a troublemaker earned him infamy among the teachers and students. Iruka, and the Third Hokage, were the only two positive influences on him. Unbeknownst to him at the time, Hinata Hyuga also thought very highly of him. Naruto failed the graduation exam twice, because he failed to properly perform the Replication Technique.

Mizuki, another Academy examiner tricked Naruto into stealing the Scroll of Seals, a collection of forbidden techniques, claiming that Naruto would be automatically passed by simply learning a jutsu from the scroll. The Third soon realized the scroll was missing and gathered many ninja. As search parties were sent to find Naruto, Iruka goes out on his own and gets to him first.

Naruto had been training in the forest the entire time, ignorant of what he had done, and simply repeated to Iruka what Mizuki had told him earlier. Iruka realized what Mizuki wanted just as Mizuki himself showed up to attack them both. Mizuki then tried to kill Naruto with an oversized shuriken, but Iruka pushed him out of the way, saving his life. Mizuki tried to get Naruto to give him the scroll while Iruka tried to convince Naruto to do otherwise. Their argument led Mizuki to tell Naruto that he was the container of the demon fox that killed Iruka's parents.

Startled, Naruto runs off, leaving Iruka and Mizuki to fight amongst themselves. Naruto watched from a distance, eventually learning what Mizuki was after, as well as the true level of Iruka's devotion to him. Just before Mizuki could kill Iruka, Naruto attacked and defeated him using his newly learned Multiple Shadow Clone Technique. Impressed that Naruto could master such a difficult technique, Iruka lets Naruto graduate, ironically fulfilling Mizuki's original promise.


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