"Quickly come to me, Naruto!"
"No, come to me!"
"I'm over here! I'm the real Iruka!"
Three identical Irukas surrounded Naruto from three different directions, each keeping a certain distance and calling him over.
But he knew that only one of them was the real Iruka.
As for the other two, they had to be Mizuki and Motoki, who had left earlier.
This part of the forest was usually deserted, so it couldn't possibly be anyone else. Plus, Motoki had mentioned earlier that he had a way to track Naruto and could catch up easily.
It was now a game of three choices.
The odds of picking the real Iruka were one in three. The other two—whether Mizuki or Motoki—were certainly not on his side.
While he often seemed clueless, there was no way he could have become a ninja by being stupid. Especially after years of training, he was sharp enough to assess the situation.
Was he supposed to choose which one was Iruka among the three?
Naruto hesitated, but not because he couldn't figure out who Iruka was. Instead, he questioned whether he should trust anyone at all.
He was an outcast in his class; both students and teachers usually avoided him.
Only three teachers ever willingly spoke to him: Iruka, Mizuki, and Motoki.
Two of them clearly wanted to use him from the beginning and had never truly accepted him.
What about Iruka? Was he truly sincere with him?
Could Iruka also have a hidden agenda?
After being betrayed by two teachers in a row, he naturally began to doubt Iruka as well.
If that was the case, then why trust anyone?
Determined, his pace quickened as he attempted to flee from the three Irukas.
Seeing this, one of the "Irukas" couldn't hold back any longer.
"This kid is too troublesome for Mizuki's childish tricks. Grabbing him directly would be faster," Motoki muttered.
With a poof, the "Iruka" on Naruto's left dropped the transformation, revealing Motoki.
Not only that, but the "Iruka" behind Naruto also transformed, dispersing into a dense swarm of parasitic insects.
It turned out the Iruka behind him wasn't a human but one of the Aburame clan's secret techniques: the Insect Clone Jutsu, which turned insects into clones of oneself or others.
Seeing Motoki reveal his true self, the remaining "Iruka" on Naruto's right knew the plan had failed. With another poof, this one transformed into Mizuki.
It turned out that all three Irukas were fake!
Mizuki's strategy had been to make Naruto think one of them was the real Iruka, then use subtle mistakes in the speech of the other two to convince Naruto that he was the real one and draw him closer.
But now that the plan had failed, he decided to resort to force.
Mizuki grabbed the giant shuriken on his back and hurled it at Naruto with a swift motion.
At the same time, Motoki controlled his parasitic insects, which had formed into tentacle-like shapes, to close in on the boy.
Faced with a pincer attack, Naruto had no choice but to leap off the treetops, landing on the open ground below. Motoki and Mizuki quickly followed, closing in.
"There's no escape now."
"Hand over the Scroll of Seals!"
As the two advanced, Naruto instinctively stepped back, only to be blocked by a large tree. He was cornered with no way out.
"You two approached me just to deceive and use me."
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Poof! Poof! Poof!
In an instant, the clearing and treetops were filled with countless Narutos, identical to the original, numbering in the hundreds.
Mizuki immediately recognized the jutsu. It was the Shadow Clone Jutsu, a high-level technique typically reserved for elite jonin, capable of creating tangible clones.
And Naruto hadn't just summoned one or two; he had summoned hundreds.
"How about that?"
"Come at me!"
The hundreds of Narutos cracked their knuckles in unison, the sight so overwhelming that Mizuki's legs gave out. He collapsed to the ground, trembling as if he were about to cry for his mother.
But at that moment, Motoki's voice rang out.
"Pathetic, Mizuki."
"You're a chunin, yet you're terrified by the clones of a mere Academy student who isn't even a genin."
As Motoki finished speaking, the parasitic insects he had shaped into tentacles lunged toward the surrounding Narutos' shadow clones.
The insect tentacles whipped through the clones, tearing them apart like a plague of locusts ravaging a field. Wherever they struck, the clones burst like balloons, vanishing with repeated pops.
The clones had no durability; a single hit was enough to dispel them.
Motoki's two insect tentacles lashed out in sweeping motions, creating a 360-degree barrage. Naruto's clones couldn't even get close to him before being annihilated.
In mere moments, he had transformed into a figure of carnage, slaughtering Naruto's relentless yet futile clones. One by one, they charged forward, only to explode and disappear.
Naruto was utterly shaken by the sight.
He had thought that mastering the basic version of the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu from the Scroll of Seals would allow him to defeat these two chunin.
In fact, the sheer number of clones and their initial battle cries had already paralyzed Mizuki with fear.
But against Motoki, another chunin, the jutsu was completely ineffective.
The gap between chunin was enormous. A mission-ready chunin like Motoki and a teaching chunin like Mizuki were worlds apart in terms of experience and strength.
As Motoki's cold, fish-like eyes locked onto him, and his footsteps steadily advanced, Naruto realized his clones couldn't do anything. Despair gripped him.
Is this the end for me?
Maybe dying wouldn't be so bad. No one in this village cares about me anyway.
So tired... let it all end.
Naruto closed his eyes, resigned to his fate.
But just as he braced himself for the end, a figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere, standing in front of him.
He heard a sound and his eyes snapped open, widening in shock. Staring at the figure, he asked instinctively, "You're…?"
The figure didn't turn around but spoke in a calm, steady voice.
"My name is Kagami."
Seeing him suddenly leap out and shield Naruto, both Motoki and Mizuki were stunned.
However, Motoki couldn't afford to hesitate any longer. He directed all his parasitic insects to swarm toward Kagami.
But Kagami remained calm, forming two symbolic hand seals.
"Fire Style: Demon Lantern!"
In an instant, several fireballs appeared around his body and swiftly flew toward the parasitic insects.
The powerful explosions erupted among the swarm, flames spreading through the dark mass of insects. Countless parasitic insects were incinerated, leaving not even ashes behind.
Fire naturally countered these insects, and his flames were no ordinary fire.
These were creations of Cthugha's flames, capable of igniting anything they touched. Even objects deemed non-flammable, such as stones, could be set ablaze by these essence flames, let alone these insects.
He controlled these fiery creations with sheer will and intentionally performed hand seals beforehand to make the fireballs appear as though they were summoned using fire jutsu.
His flames wiped out most of the parasitic insects, leaving only a few that were no longer a threat.
Seeing his carefully bred parasitic insects almost entirely destroyed in an instant, Motoki fell into an even deeper frenzy.
"Argh!"
He roared as he charged toward Kagami, wielding a kunai in each hand, ready for close combat.
However, this was nothing more than wishful thinking on Motoki's part.
The double blow of losing his parasitic insects and having his plan to seize the statue thwarted caused the already unstable Motoki to completely lose his composure. He even forgot that the Aburame clan was not adept at taijutsu.
As Motoki rushed toward him, he remained unperturbed. With a swift motion, he drew a kunai with his right hand, knocking both of Motoki's weapons aside before tripping him to the ground with a quick kick.
Even after falling, Motoki refused to give up. He quickly got up and lunged at Kagami again in a blind rage, only to be dodged once more. This time, Kagami struck the back of Motoki's head with the ring handle of his kunai.
The blow to the back of his head caused Motoki to lose consciousness instantly.
From a distance, Mizuki, witnessing the entire scene, was utterly shocked, his mind going blank.
In Mizuki's eyes, Motoki was already powerful among ninja of the same rank, capable of taking down hundreds of Naruto's shadow clones on his own.
But the young ninja before him, wearing the same chunin vest, was even stronger, defeating Motoki in what felt like an instant.
How could there be such a vast difference in strength between two chunin?
Did he still have any hope of obtaining the Scroll of Seals?
Definitely not.
Faced with reality, he turned to flee. But after only a couple of steps, a sound of something slicing through the air reached his ears.
In the next instant, a kunai landed in the tree right before his line of sight.
"You'd better not leave my sight."
This cold, emotionless warning from Kagami shattered Mizuki's last shred of willpower. His legs gave out again, and he collapsed to the ground.
Naruto, watching the scene, looked on with awe and admiration, shouting, "So cool!"
At that moment, several ninja descended from the sky, surrounding two elderly figures with great reverence.
"It seems the matter has already been resolved," said Hiruzen, glancing at Mizuki, who was being restrained by the other ninja, and the unconscious Motoki on the ground.
He sighed softly.
He wasn't particularly surprised to see Kagami here.
Although the Telescope Technique could easily locate anyone in the village, he believed in fully committing to appearances. After detecting the theft of the Scroll of Seals and the Cthulhu statue, he ordered his subordinates to symbolically send out a dozen ninjas to pursue the thieves. It was all for show.
Kagami must have been one of those dispatched.
As for the Cthulhu statue used as bait, it was actually confiscated during a mission near the Land of Water years ago—not the original Cthulhu statue that Kakashi had discovered.
After research, this statue was found to be far less potent than the original.
What he hadn't expected was that this operation, originally meant to test Motoki's loyalty, would unexpectedly expose Mizuki as a traitor.
"Take both of them to the interrogation department," commanded Danzo from the front. "Make sure to extract any information about Orochimaru from them."
Kagami stepped forward slightly and bowed. "Hokage-sama, if there's nothing else, may I take my leave?"
Danzo glanced at Kagami and gave no additional remarks, responding, "Hmm, good work."
With that, Kagami departed without a trace, leaping across rooftops until he returned to the dojo.
Returning home, he quickly jumped to his second-floor room and changed into casual loungewear. As he finished, he heard the courtyard gate opening downstairs.
"Senpai, I'm here."
"Hmm, hurry inside. Remember to lock the door tonight."
"Senpai, I'm not a child anymore."
The familiar voices downstairs caught Kagami's attention—one of them belonging to Iruka.
Kagami suddenly recalled not seeing Iruka earlier in the forest.
According to the main timeline, Iruka should have been there tonight, sharing a heartfelt conversation with Naruto.
It turned out that Iruka, Anko, and a few others were celebrating someone's promotion to chunin that evening, which had kept them from attending the event.
Kagami was supposed to attend the celebration as well, but knowing that it was Naruto's graduation day, he decided to skip it.
As for who the celebration was for—it was, of course, his younger "brother."
"Kagami-nii, I'm back," called a gentle voice from outside his door.
Kagami pretended he had been in the room the whole time and opened the door. Standing outside was a young man with long hair, wearing a light pink yukata.
"Haku."
"Did you have a good time today?"