Deep in the forest.
Moonlight filtered through dense branches and leaves, casting mottled shadows on the ground.
The air smelled of earth, decaying leaves, and a faint tinge of blood.
"Raaah—!"
Naruto's roar echoed through the woods.
Dozens of shadow clones pounced on Mizuki from all directions, each filled with anger and confusion.
He didn't understand why the usually gentle, kind Mizuki would suddenly try to kill him.
Just minutes ago, Mizuki was talking about 'new exam content', but the killing intent in his eyes made Naruto instantly realize this wasn't an exam.
This was a real life-or-death struggle.
"Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!"
Naruto's main body formed hand seals, Chakra erupting again.
Another twenty-plus shadow clones materialized from white smoke, joining the fray.
Mizuki's expression grew increasingly grim.
He hadn't expected this freshly graduated Genin to have such massive Chakra Reserves, capable of creating so many shadow clones.
Even more unexpected was Naruto's formidable combat instincts!
Though his techniques were immature, that reckless fighting style, combined with the numerical advantage of shadow clones, actually had him, a Chunin, struggling hard.
"Damn it..." Mizuki gritted his teeth, a kunai slashing a shadow clone's throat.
The clone poofed into white smoke.
But immediately, three more clones lunged forward.
Mizuki retreated hastily while grabbing three shuriken glowing with an eerie blue luster from his ninja tool pouch. They were coated with a potent paralyzing toxin, one of his trump cards prepared for this defection.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The three shuriken accurately struck three shadow clones.
These clones hit by the toxin dispelled into smoke, but even more clones kept coming.
Mizuki cursed inwardly, forced to retreat further while throwing more kunai and shuriken.
His Taijutsu and shurikenjutsu were indeed more refined than Naruto's, and each strike could take out a shadow clone.
But Naruto had too many clones.
And as the fight dragged on, Naruto seemed to gradually grasp the rhythm. The clones' coordination improved, their attacks growing fiercer.
Mizuki felt the pressure mounting.
Worse, the longer this dragged on, the worse for him.
Anbu pursuers could arrive any moment!
He had to end this quickly, then take Naruto and leave.
Akatsuki needed intel on the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki, but if he could capture the Jinchuriki directly, his reward would be astronomical.
Greed once again overwhelmed reason.
A ruthless gleam flashed in Mizuki's eyes. He decided to use his final trump card.
"Naruto!" He suddenly shouted, his voice echoing through the forest. "You really are that demon fox! That's what everyone in the village says! The incarnation of the Nine-Tails' demon fox!"
These words were like a cold knife, brutally stabbing into Naruto's heart.
Demon Fox.
These two words were insults Naruto had heard since childhood.
The villagers' whispers behind his back, their looks; children throwing stones, their taunts; shopkeepers refusing to sell him food, their disgust...
All the memories, all the pain, detonated completely at this moment.
Naruto froze.
His shadow clones also all lost focus simultaneously, the offensive stalled for an instant.
Now!
A gleam of successful scheming flashed in Mizuki's eyes. He drew two specially made large shuriken from his back.
Each was ten times the size of a normal shuriken, edges sharp as blades, reflecting cold metallic light under the moonlight.
More importantly, these large shuriken's edges were coated with an even more concentrated paralyzing toxin than before… enough to incapacitate a Jonin for several seconds.
"Die, you demon fox brat!"
Mizuki threw the two large shuriken with all his might.
The oversized shuriken spun through the air, tearing it with sharp whistles, their trajectories precisely locking onto Naruto's motionless, bewildered main body.
The shadow clones reacted, trying to leap in to block.
But it was too late.
The shuriken were too fast.
Naruto watched the two deadly weapons, gleaming with an eerie blue light in the moonlight, flying toward him, his mind blank.
The shadow of death loomed over him so clearly for the first time.
Right then—
Clang! Clang!
Two crisp metallic clangs rang out almost simultaneously.
The first was a kunai precisely hitting the spinning axis of the left shuriken, the immense impact altering its trajectory.
The second was the deflected shuriken colliding with the right shuriken.
The two weapons meant for Naruto collided less than a meter from him, changing direction, grazing past his body, and embedding deeply into the tree trunk behind him.
Vibrate—
The shuriken trembled in the trunk, emitting a low hum.
Naruto was drenched in cold sweat, heart pounding wildly. It took several seconds for him to realize he was still alive.
Mizuki's face instantly turned ashen.
He sharply turned his head toward the direction the attack came from.
On the thick branch of a large tree stood a black-haired boy quietly.
Moonlight shone from behind the boy, casting his face in shadow, but those calm eyes glittered with a heart-stopping light in the darkness.
Menma.
Mizuki recognized the newcomer, first feeling relieved inwardly.
'Not Anbu, just a student...'
But immediately, an inexplicable chill ran up his spine.
'That kunai throw just now... it's terrifyingly precise!'
That kunai not only hit the axis of the high-speed spinning shuriken but had enough force to change its trajectory.
The collision caused by the kunai made the two shuriken interfere with each other, veering off target.
This level of throwing skill surpassed 'excellent student'.
Mizuki, as a Chunin, doubted he could achieve such precise calculation and control.
"Menma-nii!"
Naruto's joyful shout broke the forest's silence.
Menma dropped from the tree branch. He stood before Naruto, his right hand hanging naturally, still holding a kunai, his left hand casually resting on his hip. His gaze calmly met Mizuki's, his voice carrying a note of exasperation:
"You've really stirred up quite a mess this time."
Naruto looked at Menma's back, the fear and confusion in his heart gradually calming.
With Menma here, he felt safe.
Mizuki sized up Menma… a twelve-year-old boy, slender but not muscular, black tracksuit suitable for night movement, Konoha's forehead protector tied properly, looking like a standard new Genin.
'But that kunai throw earlier...'
'No, maybe it was just luck.'
Mizuki tried to convince himself.
A freshly graduated Genin, no matter how talented, couldn't possess strength surpassing a Chunin.
He still had a chance.
As long as he disrupted the other's mind with words, created an opening, then landed a killing blow!
"So it's this year's top graduate," Mizuki's face once again showed that false gentle smile, but his voice held clear mockery. "I recall you're also an orphan from the Nine-Tails Attack, right? Your parents died in that disaster?"
Menma's expression didn't change.
But Mizuki continued, deliberately raising his voice to ensure Naruto heard:
"This guy Naruto is the incarnation of the demon fox. Your parents... might have been killed by the Nine-Tails Demon Fox."
"And you're now protecting the one who killed your parents?"
These words were like a poisoned dagger, brutally stabbing into Naruto's heart.
Naruto shuddered, the color draining from his face.
He stared blankly at Menma's back, his eyes filled with incredulous panic and pain.
'Could it... could I really be...'
"Menma-nii, I..." Naruto's voice trembled.
Just then, Menma moved.
Not toward Mizuki.
But slightly turning his body, his gaze shifting to Naruto, a soothing, gentle smile appearing on his face.
"Don't listen to his nonsense, Naruto."
His voice was soft, yet possessed a peculiar power that gradually calmed Naruto's panicked heart.
Then, Menma turned back to face Mizuki.
The instant he turned, the forest's atmosphere changed.
If earlier Menma was like a calm lake, now he was like the sea surface suppressed before a storm.
Calm on the surface, but deep within surged terrifying power about to erupt.
Moonlight filtered through gaps in the branches and leaves, just illuminating his face.
His left eye, originally calm black, had somehow turned crimson.
Three black tomoes slowly rotated against the scarlet background, like whirlpools in an abyss, emitting a heart-palpitating eerie beauty.
Mizuki's breathing stopped abruptly.
'Shar... Sharingan?!'
'The Uchiha Clan's Kekkei Genkai?!'
'But this brat's an orphan...'
'No... wait, a twelve-year-old boy with a Three-Tomoe Sharingan?'
In Konoha's history, no Uchiha had awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan at twelve!
Mizuki's mind was in chaos.
But Menma gave him no time to think.
Those Three-Tomoe Sharingan stared directly at Mizuki, his voice as cold as polar winds:
"You said—"
Menma slowly spoke, each word like an ice spike hammering into Mizuki's ears:
"—who is the demon fox?"
The moment the last word fell, Mizuki felt his consciousness dragged into a terrifying abyss.
Everything before him shattered and twisted like a mirror!
Within the Genjutsu constructed by the Sharingan and the Red Moon Scroll, Mizuki saw Naruto transform into a massive, flame-wreathed crimson Nine-Tails Demon Fox, roaring deafeningly at the sky.
And before Naruto, another even more enormous demon fox slowly rose.
It had a dark red body, ten tails wildly lashing behind it, each tail like a shadow tearing the sky.
The Ten-Tails Demon Fox's scarlet eyes gazed down at him coldly, like a god looking down at an ant.
Brutality.
Slaughter.
Destruction.
Endless negative emotions assaulted Mizuki's mind like a tsunami.
That was the aura of the Dark Nine-Tails from the [Limited Tsukuyomi World], its essence of brutality and terror far beyond what an ordinary Chunin like Mizuki could withstand.
"Ah... Aaahhh—!"
In the real world, Mizuki let out a shrill scream, collapsing to the ground as if his bones had been removed.
His eyes bulged wide, pupils unfocused, drool uncontrollably dripping from his mouth, his body convulsing continuously.
His mind was completely shattered.
From Menma activating his Sharingan to Mizuki becoming a puddle of mud, the whole process took less than a second.
Naruto stared dumbly at the scene before him, completely bewildered.
He only knew that Mizuki suddenly screamed and collapsed, and Menma just... looked at him?
Menma coldly glanced at the mud-like Mizuki on the ground. The Sharingan in his eyes slowly faded, returning to ordinary black, the suffocating aura around him instantly withdrawn, restoring his usual appearance.
He walked to Mizuki's side, crouched down, and checked his condition.
Severe mental trauma, consciousness shattered, neural connections in the brain destroyed by the Genjutsu. Even the Yamanaka Clan's secret techniques couldn't probe it.
Even if Mizuki survived, he'd be permanently brain-damaged.
That was fine.
For someone who tried to harm Naruto, this outcome was letting him off lightly.
Menma searched Mizuki's body, finding several scrolls containing Konoha's confidential intel, along with codes and methods for contacting Akatsuki.
He quickly skimmed through, memorizing the important information, then kept the scrolls.
These might be useful later.
"Menma-nii..." Naruto cautiously approached, his voice still trembling. "Mizuki-sensei, he..."
"He's fine, just unconscious," Menma stood up, dusting off his hands, his tone returning to its usual gentleness. "The Anbu will find this place soon. They'll handle it."
He looked at Naruto, his expression turning serious:
"Naruto, listen carefully. Tonight's events… you were just deceived by Mizuki, thinking it was part of the graduation exam. Understand? You didn't know what the Scroll of Seals was, didn't know Mizuki was a Missing-Nin. You just... wanted too much to prove yourself, to be recognized, so you fell for it."
Naruto nodded blankly.
Menma continued instructing: "When the Anbu arrive, say that. Leave the rest to me to handle."
"But..." Naruto lowered his head, his voice filled with pain and guilt. "Mizuki-sensei said I'm the demon fox... that I killed many people... Menma-nii, are your parents also..."
Menma was silent for a few seconds.
Then he reached out, gently placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder.
"Listen, Naruto," Menma's voice was soft but firm. "You are not a demon fox. You are Uzumaki Naruto, my best friend, and my... brother."
Naruto raised his head, staring dumbly at Menma, seeing the usual calm and trust in his eyes. His eyes instantly reddened, tears uncontrollably welling up.
He nodded hard, choking, unable to utter a word.
"As for my parents..." Menma paused, a complex gleam flashing in his eyes. "They did die in the Nine-Tails attack, but the ones who truly killed them weren't the Nine-Tails, nor you."
It was a half-truth, half-lie answer.
But Naruto couldn't know the truth yet.
Naruto only needed to know he wasn't the murderer, wasn't a monster.
He was just a child who was used and hurt.
Rapid footsteps and the sound of snapping branches approached from afar.
Menma gave Naruto's shoulder a final pat, then turned to face the arriving Konoha's Ninjas.
The footsteps grew closer.
Perhaps fate's will, the first Ninja to burst into this forest clearing was still Iruka.
When Iruka saw Naruto found by Menma, the sweat-drenched relief on his face finally showed, followed by fury as he charged forward and punched Naruto in the head.
"Naruto—!!!"