Fate/9th Destiny: Chapter 1

I do not own Fate/Stay Night or Naruto. Those belong to Type-Moon and Kishimoto. I am only writing this for fun and not for any kind of profit. If you like the story then wonderful, if you do not then please move on so others can. For those of you that remain, please leave comments and tell me what you think.

Fate/9th Destiny

By Ten-Faced Paladin

Chapter 1: The Die is Cast

The wind cut through golden blonde locks as the owner of said locks ran through the forests like a cheetah on a sugar rush. He was easy to spot even in the darkness thanks to the bright orange jumpsuit which he was clad in. His face held a massive grin on it, so large that his eyes were squinted shut in his amusement. On his cheeks were three whisker marks which when added to his grin made him look something like a fox that had managed to pull off a truly massive prank. On his forehead were a pair of green goggles that he used as a tool in one of his pranks and decided to keep them since they looked cool. As he ran in his blue sandals, he shifted his shoulders slightly so to get more comfortable with the giant scroll that was strapped across his back.  He looked to be twelve years old, but was surprisingly spry if the way he was leaping from tree branch to tree branch was any indication.

His name was Naruto Uzumaki. And he was awesome.

Why was he awesome? Because he had managed to sneak into the Hokage’s Office after hours and use his Oiroke no Justu to knock Hokage-Jiisan out cold with a bloody nose so he could lift a scroll from storage to bring to the woods. The old man never saw it coming and once Naruto found a quiet spot to read the scroll and learn a technique from it, he’d be guaranteed to become a ninja! Iruka-sensei would be so impressed and he’d be one step closer to becoming Hokage himself! Life was awesome!

Naruto was a resident of the village known as Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, or Konoha for short. It was a ninja village nestled inside the deep forests of Hi no Kuni, or Fire Country. It was a prosperous place and very large, not as hidden as the title of the place would have led one to believe. Then again, it was so populated with ninjas that one would need a huge army and a slew of brilliant tactics or just a lot of bravery/stupidity to even think of attacking the place.

Naruto himself was an orphan and had been since the day he was born. Growing up, not a whole lot of people seemed to like him and would either go out of their way to ignore him and pretend he didn’t exist or would sneakily make life harder for him by overcharging him for things, giving him the worst they had, or both at the same time. The blonde didn’t particularly like it and dearly wanted to pay the jerks back for being so mean. Still, Naruto did know that beating people up just because they were mean to him wasn’t right. So he simply did the next best thing; pranked the hell out of them. Every vendor or simply mean person who tried to do something to make life that much harder suddenly had the insides of their stores explode with vibrant paints, a mob of rats racing through their property, or somehow find all of their underwear being strung up like banners on the awnings of their shops.

Still, for all the mean jerks who were out there that disliked Naruto, there were just as many people who wanted to be his friend or wished him well. The first and foremost was Hiruzen Sarutobi, the current Hokage and leader of the village. Whenever Naruto wanted to visit him, provided he wasn’t in a meeting, the door would always be open to the blonde. He even gave Naruto his current apartment once he started the Konoha Academy along with a monthly stipend so he would be able to buy everything he needed. Then there was Teuchi and Ayame Ichiraku who ran the Ichiraku Ramen Booth. They had seen Naruto when he was little and looking a little thin and so decided to give him a free bowl of ramen to help lift his spirits, incidentally introducing the blonde to what he considered the food of the gods. Also, Naruto had made a few friends among his classmates who likewise knew what it meant to be ostracized by the masses simply because they were different.

It wasn’t the easiest way to grow up, but it certainly wasn’t the worst either.

So why was Naruto running through the woods like a bandit with a scroll he had stolen from someone he considered a grandfather? The answer comes from earlier in the day. The Konoha Academy was having its finals and all of the graduates would become full-fledged ninjas. Naruto crammed like crazy and practiced like nuts so he could pass and not fail it like he had the last two times. He did okay for the theory (he hoped) and some of the practical like shuriken and kunai he could do easy even if he was the dead last of the class. What killed him though was the jutsu part of the exam. Every year the jutsu was different and this year it was the Bunshin no Jutsu which would allow the user to make a clone. Unfortunately, this was Naruto’s worst justu. He screwed it up, making a pale, droopy, and outright sick clone of himself which caused him to flunk. Worse still, if you failed one aspect of the exam you failed the whole thing. Konoha couldn’t afford to have shinobi that couldn’t make a simple jutsu.

Naruto was of course devastated that he failed again. He wanted to be a ninja so bad and he blew it. His depression wasn’t helped when he heard a pair of the mothers gossiping that they were glad he hadn’t been able to become a ninja. That was when his other teacher, Mizuki-sensei, walked up to him and gave him some hope. Apparently there was a way that Naruto could still pass. All he had to do was take a remedial exam which would test his skills in a real world situation. It would take the form of a mission and in this case, Naruto had to take a certain scroll from the Hokage’s Tower and learn a jutsu from it. If he did that and didn’t get caught, he’d have passed and become a full-fledged ninja.

It had been easy for Naruto to get into the tower and Hiruzen’s office. He had been there hundreds of times and had pulled pranks on some of the staff so he knew some of the sneakier ways in and out. Taking down the elderly Hokage had been easy enough too. If there ever was a jutsu that Naruto could be called an expert in, it was the Henge no Jutsu, a skill that allowed the user to look like someone else entirely. Naruto’s skill in it was so great, he could fool even the ANBU, the villages elite ninjas. He had gotten plenty of practice when they chased him after he pulled off his biggest pranks. The mischievous blonde had used a variation of it he whipped up called Oiroke no Jutsu which made him look like a curvaceous blonde woman with a busty chest, long silky blonde hair, wonderful legs, lovely hips, and a small waist who was incidentally naked and only had some smoke covering her naughty bits.

Naruto knew that Hiruzen was something of a pervert ever since he caught the old man reading a little orange book called Icha-Icha Paradise. All of the women in the village would make a big show about hating it while the men would scramble to try and get the latest volumes so Naruto figured it was a perverted book. The Oiroke no Jutsu was constructed to battle perverts like that. In Hiruzen’s case, it worked beautifully as the old man was launched out of his chair by his own nosebleed and knocked out when he hit the floor. If it was the image of the naked beauty or the impact that did it though no one was sure. It allowed Naruto to grab the scroll Mizuki had described for him and head off to where they were going to meet.

Landing inside a clearing where Mizuki said he’d be, Naruto looked around for any sort of life. Seeing none, he shrugged to himself, “Mizuki-sensei must be late.” But then a grin came over his face. “More than enough time to learn a jutsu!” Undoing the ties on the large scroll, he pulled the first foot of the scroll out so to see the first jutsu. “Okay the first one here is Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.” The grin on his face promptly dropped into despair. “Oh man! Not this again, it’s my worst jutsu!” He’d never learn it in time before he got caught by someone or Mizuki came to meet him! He quickly began pulling more of the scroll out to see if there was anything easier.

(LINE BREAK)

‘Dammit Naruto! Do you realize how much trouble you’re in now?’

The one thinking those thoughts was an adult male leaping about the village, looking for any sign of the blonde that made his career such a chore since the day they met. He wore a dark uniform with black sandals and overtop of his short he wore a vest which had a red spiral on the back. On his forehead was a hitae-ate or headband which had a metal plate on the front along with Konoha’s symbol, a leaf with a spiral on it. This was the traditional uniform of Chunin ninjas, ninjas with plenty of experience and trusted to work dangerous missions. The man himself had lightly darkened skin from many hours out in the sunlight on missions with a scar that was horizontally placed across his nose and brown hair that was tied back into a short ponytail. His name was Iruka Umino, Naruto’s teacher as well as his friend.

Unlike Naruto himself, Iruka knew the full reason why so many people disliked Naruto. That reason started the day he was born, October tenth. That day, the most powerful of a group of demons known as the biju attacked Konoha, the Kyuubi no Kitsune or Nine-Tailed Fox. Konoha fought bravely and during that attack Iruka had lost his parents to the beast. The end of the battle finally came when the Yondaime (4th) Hokage gave his life to seal the fox inside of Naruto, who was a newborn at the time.

The Sandaime (3rd) Hokage Hirzuen Sarutobi came out of retirement and took back his position as Hokage. He decreed that the people of Konoha be told that the Yondaime had killed the fox and that everyone who knew otherwise keep quiet about the fact as well as Naruto being the host for the monster. It had been Sarutobi’s hope that Naruto grow up a normal child free of the stigma that other biju hosts had to deal with inside the other Hidden Villages.

Unfortunately, while people couldn’t speak about Naruto being the host they could certainly show their displeasure towards him. In their eyes, Naruto was the Kyuubi and they wanted their revenge on the monster that destroyed their homes and took the lives of their friends and families. Sure, Naruto hadn’t shown any sign at all of being the Kyuubi reborn which helped a lot of people calm down around him but in the early days more than a few people were clamouring for his blood. Iruka had heard that in the early years, a mob of drunken people had tried to attack the orphanage where he lived so they could ‘finish what the Yondaime started’. The ANBU had stepped in and stopped the mob before they could do anything, but it had made the director of the orphanage bitter towards Naruto.

It was a long line of mistreatment that made Iruka sick and ashamed that he himself almost bought into it. Adults would ignore Naruto and simply refuse to serve him or outright yell at him when he had asked for something. Children wouldn’t play with him because their parents would make up all sorts of lies to convince them not to. How the blonde boy managed to become the cheerful kid he knew now, well, Iruka certainly knew. As an orphan from the Kyuubi attack, Iruka was used to people giving him looks of pity and sorrow. He hated it, so to make them stop looking at him that way he became the class clown and acted out. It made people laugh and smile at him which was way better than their looks before. Naruto probably discovered the same thing which was how his pranking career got started. People wouldn’t be looking at him in scorn when they were too busy laughing at someone who got covered in paint or their clothes switched out with flamboyant things that no straight man would consider wearing…somehow in the middle of the street.

Iruka himself met Naruto on his first day in the academy. A lot of the instructors grumbled about having him and would shove his name onto different lists while complaining that they didn’t want him. Eventually his name went onto Iruka’s list and he kept the boy. Once meeting Naruto himself rather than hearing rumours about him that everyone liked to spread, he just saw a kid that was just like him who likely needed a friend. Iruka pushed him in his studies and pursuit of truant students, but he was always there to lend a hand when Naruto needed it.

Now though, it seemed Naruto would need more than one hand to get out of his mess.

Mizuki had come storming to Iruka’s door, stating that Naruto had stolen the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage’s Tower. It was a scroll filled with all of the jutsus Konoha knew about that were simply too dangerous to learn or had a cost to them that was too high to even consider trying to attempt them. They were written down so that if anyone had tried them, investigators would be able to tell just what kind of jutsu the guilty party had been trying to attempt. Not all of them were grisly or ritualistic, but frankly they were just dangerous to both the user and the ones they would be trying to use the jutsus on. Incidentally, one of the jutsus in the scroll was the one the Yondaime had used to defeat and seal the Kyuubi.

Many Chunin and even Jounin ninjas were ordered to search for Naruto. A few of them were complaining to the Hokage that Naruto had gone too far and had to be punished severely. Likely they called for that simply because they disliked the boy. The Hokage didn’t say that he agreed, but ordered them to find Naruto quickly.

Iruka could believe that Naruto had taken the scroll. When he wanted to, the kid could pull off all sorts of heists. It was how he managed to get the supplies he needed for his pranks in his early days. What he refused to believe like so many of the others did was that Naruto had stolen it for selfish purposes. Naurto may have been a prankster and known to kick up a fuss now and then, but he was deeply loyal to Konoha and would never betray it. That aside, Iruka wasn’t too sure if Naruto knew just how dangerous the scroll he had was. Enemy villages would do just about anything to get it and some weren’t as compassionate about their shinobi as Konoha was. Worse still, Naruto may actually try learning something from the scroll and put himself in grave danger if he picked the wrong jutsu to learn.

‘Just don’t do anything stupid before I catch you Naruto and you won’t get any punishment from me,’ Iruka thought frantically to himself, leaping towards the forests that surrounded Konoha.

(LINE BREAK)

“This *pant* rocks!” Naruto grinned, sitting on his but in front of the opened scroll. He had finally managed to learn one of the jutsus from the scroll but it was really hard! First he searched through most of the scroll for anything he could learn easier than that Kage Bunshin no Jutsu at the front, but most of them either involved a whole lot of hand signs that he wouldn’t be able to memorize in the short time he had or required sacrifices and the blonde definitely wasn’t going to do that. Kage Bunshin was the only one he could learn on the fly. With no other option, Naruto began putting all of his effort into learning the new jutsu. He was sweaty, dirty, and had lost his breath for a moment but in the end he had managed to work out the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu which in hindsight, was way easier than the scroll said it would be. “I’m a shoo in to pass the test now!”

Moving to his knees, Naruto was about to roll the scroll up again when he caught sight of some kind of doodle sticking out from the last of the roll. Naturally curious, he unrolled the last bit of the scroll to see what looked like a really funky circle with all sorts of designs and words. Naruto couldn’t help but stare at the weird design, “What the heck is this?” Scanning the section of the scroll, he managed to find a description about what the circle was supposed to do.

“Let’s see,” Naruto read. “This circle is an advanced form of summoning that allows the user to summon what is known as a Servant.” Naruto blinked at the word. “A Servant? Like what those rich guys have. Why would I want to summon that?” Frowning, he kept reading. “Servants are…Heroic Spirits? Cool!” Now grinning over his discovery, Naruto kept reading the description. “Servants are highly dangerous and can only be summoned by chosen individuals…blah, blah, blah, okay how do I do it?”

Summoning wasn’t something unknown to Naruto. In fact, he thought it was pretty damn cool. A lady with purple hair who was eating dango had shown up in class one day to give them a demonstration and a lesson on summoning. If he remembered right, she bit her thumb before making a few hand seals before slapping her hand on the ground where a small circle appeared before there was a blast of smoke. Once the smoke cleared, there was a big snake at the front of the class looking almost hungrily at them. The lady said that summons didn’t just go for anyone and you had to prove you were worth their time before they would let you summon them for help. Naruto simply figured that he could summon a Servant and plead his case by showing how awesome he was so the Servant would accept him real fast!

Getting some instructions from the scroll, Naruto immediately went to work, using a kunai to draw the funky circle in the dirt. While he wasn’t the best at academics, Naruto was in fact a someone skilled artist. Skilled enough he could copy things he was looking at onto paper with acceptable detail. Since the circle didn’t have anything more complicated that shapes or words from another language that looked like swirls all connected together, it was easy for Naruto to get the image traced onto the dirt, even bigger than it was on the scroll itself.

“Okay!” the blonde grinned, looking at his handiwork. He then turned to examine the scroll again “Now let’s see those handseals!”

“NARUTO!” a new voice shouted, causing the blonde to flinch. Turning, he saw his teacher leaping down from a tree with a rather monstrous frown on his face.

“Oh man, you found me!” Naruto chuckled. Well, so much for that Servant. Grabbing the scroll, he quickly began rolling it up again. “Man, you caught me fast. I only managed to learn one jutsu from the scroll.”

Iruka blinked, seeing that Naruto wasn’t trying to flee with the scroll or even try to cover up what he did, ‘He’s been out here practicing? Well, his clothes sure show it. What’s going on here?’

“Listen Iruka-sensei,” Naruto grinned, rolling up the last of the scroll before slinging it over his shoulder. “All I have to do now is show you the jutus I learned from this scroll. Then you can let me pass and become a ninja. That’s how the test goes, right?”

“Test? There’s no test like this,” Iruka frowned, now very confused. “Just who the heck told you that?”

“Mizuki-sensei did!” Naruto replied. “He told me where the scroll was, what it looked like, and where to meet.”

Iruka felt his gut drop. Mizuki was the one who told Naruto everything he needed to know to grab the scroll and where to drop it off? He also told Naruto that doing so was part of some kind of remedial test? Mizuki was the one who spread word about the scroll being stolen in the first place. Each stray thought was beginning to add up in Iruka’s mind and it was starting to paint a rather grim picture to the man. Naruto could tell that something wasn’t right in his teacher’s eyes and it made him go silent.

That was when Iruka began to hear something cutting on the wind. Moving fast, he pushed Naruto’s chest so he’d get out of the way, “MOVE!”

Naruto was sent to the ground while at the same time a hail of kunai flew through the air. The teacher dodge a few of them but others managed to stab him in the left shoulder and his right leg. So many kunai kept coming he back himself up against a tree before they ended, letting the weapons stick out of the wood beside him. Grimacing while ignoring the pain, Iruka looked up to see none other than his fellow Chunin with silver hair with a bandanna and hitae-ate holding it back with two massive shuriken strapped to his back. He was crouched on a tree branch, smirking down at the pair. “So that’s the game huh? I should have known!”

“Hey Iruka,” Mizuki smirked. “Seems like you found my little hideout.” Standing up, he looked to the blonde. “Naruto, give me the scroll, now!”

“Huh?” the blonde blinked. “Hey, wait, what’s going on here?” A test wasn’t supposed to involve lethal intent. At least, not a genin test.

“Don’t listen to him Naruto!” Iruka grimaced, pulling the two kunai from his body. “Mizuki was just using you! That scroll contains forbidden jutsus that can be used to put the village in danger or sold to the highest bidder for obscene amounts! Mizuki was just using you to get the scroll for himself!”

“Oh don’t listen to Iruka, Naruto,” Mizuki sighed, playing it cool. “He’s just trying to hold you back, preventing you from succeeding so you’ll be a failure like he is!”

“Don’t listen to his lies Naruto!” Iruka shouted, still glaring at Mizuki.

“Lies?” Mizuki huffed. “Lies? Okay, enough lies then. How about a little truth? How about we finally reveal the truth about you Naruto? The truth that everyone around you has been trying to hide since the day you were born?”

“Mizuki, no!” Iruka cried, unbelieving that the man was willing to break every law just to get what he wanted.

“Secret?” Naruto blinked.

“Oh yes!” Mizuki snickered. “The reason why everyone in the village hates you! Why the adults ignore you! While the children are kept away from you! Why the merchants refuse to sell you anything! Why barely anyone even gives you anything at all!”

“Mizuki! It’s forbidden!” Iruka shouted out.

“It all started twelve years ago,” Mizuki continued, ignoring Iruka’s cries. “When the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked Konoha. You see, the Yondaime didn’t ill the monster, he sealed it inside of you!” he punctuated the point by pointing down at Naruto. “YOU ARE THE KYUUBI NO KITSUNE!”

Naruto couldn’t help but gape at his former teacher, his whole world crashing down around him. He had the nine-tailed fox inside of him? The Yondaime, his hero, had sealed it inside of him? People treated him badly all his life because he had the fox inside of him? Could it be true? Could he really be the fox now? As Naruto struggled with what he was told, Mizuke’s smirk turned downright bloodthirsty as he reached to his back and grabbed one of the giant shuriken. “And now with the fox taking over your body and killing Iruka, it’s up to me to end you! DIE KYUUBI!” Rearing his arm back, he hurled the weapon straight at the blonde child.

“NARUTO, RUN!” Iruka shouted. It was enough to snap the blonde out of his funk and get him scrambling away from the weapon. Iruka grimaced, knowing that Naruto was in now way quick enough to dodge it in time. Yanking himself off the tree by the kunai that pinned him, Iruka charged. “DUCK!”

Naruto did so, half-expecting the shruiken to hit him. When he ducked though, a shadow overtook him  before the sounds of a ‘thunk’ like metal striking meat sounded off before Iruka’s groan of pain echoed into the air.

“Huh?” Mizuki blinked.

Naruto likewise blinked and turned his gaze up, seeing Iruka standing over him with the shuriken sticking out of his back. “Iruka-sensei? Why?”

“Because…because we’re the same,” Iruka grunted out. “I’m an orphan too. I was alone all the time just like you are. No one had time for me since they were all busy with their own families. No one seemed to care to matter how hard I worked at it. So I became the class clown and did crazy stunts. I could have been there more for you Naruto, and for that I’m sorry. I guess…it’s been so long since those days I forgot the pain, forgot that other people were going through it too. I’m sorry.”

“Iruka-sensei…” Naruto gasped. His teacher…he really knew how it felt to be ignored, forgotten, treated like a ghost.

“How touching,” Mizuki snorted. “But a bunch of bull! Iruka’s parents were killed by the fox! He’d say anything to get that scroll away from you and look like a hero to the village!”

Naruto felt his mouth go dry. He wasn’t sure what was going on. He’d trusted both Iruka and Mizuki since both of them had tried to do right by him. Mizuki had told him about the ‘test’ and had tried to console him after he’d flunked a test or even offered a tip or two to pass the next one! Iruka had been cool enough when he wasn’t on duty and always spent a good amount of time and money at Ichiraku’s just talking about stuff and hanging out like real friends. Still, here they were looking like they were about to kill each other while claiming the other one was just using him to try and get the scroll for themselves! Add in the fact that he just discovered the Kyuubi no Kitsune was inside of him and he felt like his head was going to explode!

‘I…I…I..I’VE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE!’ the blonde screamed in his thoughts.

Panicking, Naruto slipped out from under Iruka and made a mad dash into the forest.

“NARUTO!” Iruka shouted.

“Whoops. Looks like the animal’s about to leave the cage,” Mizuki snickered.

(LINE BREAK)

Inside of its massive cage, hidden behind the bars which the Yondaime had created to keep it sealed, the Kyuubi no Kitsune stirred. For twelve years it was stuck in the rotten sewer which represented its prion. For twelve years, it watched through the boy take the abuse of the adults of his village. For twelve years, it waited for the opportunity to influence the boy through his anger and finally lash out at the monkeys who for all its life pursued it and wished to use it for power.

Not once did it get that opportunity.

Now though, perhaps a different sort of opportunity would rise up. The Kyuubi had lived since the beginning of the ninja world and had seen much. It had watched as Naruto studied the circle which he had drawn into the dirt and knew of both its function and what it was supposed to summon. It had seen those arrays before during a time before being sealed inside of Mito Uzumaki. It had seen the beings which it was made to summon, the power they held…and their purpose.

A feral grin spread across the Kyuubi’s lips.

“I think…it’s time the game started anew.”

(LINE BREAK)

Naruto ran himself ragged, his veins pumping fear and adrenaline like never before. He didn’t know who to trust or where to turn. Everyone seemed to know about the Kyuubi except him. Did Jiji know? Did Teuchi and Ayame? If they did, why didn’t they tell him? Why didn’t anyone tell him?

So wrapped in his thoughts, he hadn’t noticed that he had run himself into a circle several times, coming back to the area where he had drawn the circle into the ground. Panting, he hid himself in the roots of the tree, trying to calm down and figure out what was going on and who could he trust. He’d been obviously duped into stealing the scroll, that much he was sure about. The problem was he couldn’t be sure if he could trust Iruka anymore. The fox killed his parents! Did he blame Naruto for it like so many of the other adults did? Was Iruka ever his friend?

‘I don’t know what to do,’ he thought sadly to himself.

Quite suddenly there was a crash from above which made Naruto’s heart stop. Glancing past the trunk of the tree he was hiding behind, he saw Iruka fall from abive, managing to recovering from what seemed to be a kick in the gut. At the base of a tree, he saw himself fall and lean back against the trunk.

‘Huh?’ Naruto blinked.

“Dammit!” he saw Iruka curse before a cloud of smoke burst from him, revealing him to be Mizuki. “How did you know I wasn’t Iruka?”

“Heh!” the Naruto at the tree smirked, his voice coming out as a man’s. A cloud of smoke came from him, revealing the true Iruka with a log that had been the scroll at his side. “Because I am.”

“Grrr!” Mizuki growled as he stood up. “You’re a real fool Iruka. Don’t you get it yet? Naruto’s just like me!”

“Oh?” the bloody Iruka frowned, raising an eyebrow. “Enlighten me. How so?”

“He’s going to take that scroll and use it to get revenge on the village!” Mizuki laughed. “He’s going to pour his hate and rage into it and destroy everything! That’s just how demons are. Even an idiot like you should know that!”

“That’s true,” Iruka frowned. “That’s how demons work.”

Naruto thought he felt his heart stop. Tears began welling into his eyes. “Iruka-sensei…”

“But that’s now how Naruto is!” Iruka snapped, causing both Mizuki and Naruto to stop in surprise. Frowning at his opponent, Iruka continued. “He works hard and doesn’t let anything get him down. He may mess up, but he doesn’t quit. A demon would never act like that. He’s isn’t the Kyuubi no Kitsune! He’s Naruto Uzumaki of Konohagakure!”

Naruto’s tears still came, but this time they were tears of happiness and relief, not heartbreak and pain. It was true! Iruka believed in him this whole time! He honestly believed that Naruto could become great! Even tonight, he wanted to keep Naruto safe from Mizuki!

Mizuki himself was unimpressed, “You honestly believe that crap? You know what, I was going to kill you later,” he removed the last Shuriken from his back. “But you’re really starting to annoy me so I’ll just end you now!” Spinning the shuriken in his hand, he charged to hack off Iruka’s head like a chainsaw would. He looked down for a moment so to get into position, but when he looked up…

…his vision was filled with orange.

A vicious kick smashed into Mizuki’s face, causing him to drop his Shuriken and let it spin out, leaving a gouge in the ground but missing the circle. Mizuki himself skidded backwards a good few feet before coming to a stop. Grunting, he looked up to see the real Naruto standing in front of him with a narrowed gaze of ice and the Forbidden Scroll next to him.

“Ugh, not bad for a punk!” Mizuki grunted.

Naruto didn’t rise to the bait, “If you ever lay a hand on my teacher again, I’ll kill you!”  

“Naruto…” Iruka gasped in surprise…had he…heard all that?

“Bold words,” Mizuki snickered. “I’d honestly like to see you try that. It’d be pointless though. I’ll take you out in one move!”

“Go ahead!” Naruto goaded. His hands were beginning to go through a series of handseals to trigger a jutsu, but Mizuki wasn’t concerned and Iruka couldn’t see it. “I’ll pay you back a thousand fold!”

“Ha! Let’s see what you got then Kyuubi!” Mizuki bellowed, beginning to charge.

Naruto’s eyes narrowed as his chakra began to flare, “Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!”

The entire clearing was swallowed in a massive cloud of smoke, forcing Mizuki to halt his charge. As the smoke cleared, his gut suddenly dropped when he saw that all around him were mobs of the same orange-clad pain in his ass. Each one was lining the clearing with no way out and even more of them were up in the trees, hanging off the branches. There were so many of them, their numbers easily went up into the hundreds and could even possibly be counted to a thousand. Worst of all, each of them had that stupid grin on their faces, the kind Naruto wore when he knew he had his targets in his sights.

Iruka couldn’t help but gape in shock and growing pride, ‘This isn’t just an illusion, but they’re solid clones! Kage Bunshin is an extremely advanced jutsu that most chunin can’t tackle. Hell, no jounin I know of can even make the number of clones you have!’

“What the-?” Mizuki gaped at the sight. How the hell could the class clown, the dead last, have mastered something like the Kage Bunshin?-! It was impossible!

“What’s the matter?”

“You said you’d take us down in one blow?”

“Aren’t you going to attack?”

“No?”

“Then here we come!”

The mob descended on Mizuki like birds of prey.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”

The beating was truly epic even to an experienced chunin like Iruka. Mizuki was pounded at all angles, each blow as punishing as the last. Naruto may have been a twelve year old kid, but he was a twelve year old kid that had been training since he was six to become a genin. Academics weren’t his best subject, but when it came to the physical training he put his heart into it. As a result, he could really lay into someone when he was given half a chance. The sounds of total beatdown continued through the air and didn’t end until the sun began to leap over the horizon. Mizuki was left a battered and bloody mess on the ground, more or less unconscious, but the swelling of his face and missing teeth made it a little difficult to tell since he was all but unrecognizable. The small mob of Narutos all vanished in plumes of smoke, leaving only one behind as he took a moment to catch his breath.

“Ah heh heh heh,” Naruto chuckled weakly, rubbing the back of his head as he turned to Iruka. “Sorry, I kinda got carried away. You okay Iruka-sensei?”

“Yeah, just fine,” Iruka smiled weakly. His thoughts were in a whirl though. ‘This boy, he says he wants to surpass all of the other Hokages that came before. If he keeps pulling off stunts like this, learning an A-Rank Kinjutsu in only a few hours, he may just have a shot at it.’ Adjusting his position, he looked to the orange-clad boy. “Hey Naruto, c’mere a moment. I’ve got something for you.”

“Huh? You do?” Naruto blinked. Trotting over to his injured teacher, he waited with baited breath for whatever it might be.

“Yup,” Iruka nodded. “But first you’ve got to close your eyes.”

Although he was confused, Naruto did what he was told. He waited for a moment before feeling Iruka remove his goggles from his forehead. After a few more moments, he felt something rest on his head where the goggles had been a moment ago. After a moment where the object was tightened, he heard his teacher speak again, “Okay Naruto, you can open your eyes again.”

Naruto opened his eyes and was a little confused at first as to what his gift was. He then immediately noticed that Iruka was missing his hitae-ate and had the blonde’s goggles in his hands. Reaching up to his own forehead, Naruto felt a metal plate with a symbol engraved into it attached to a cloth strapped around his forehead. Time seemed to stop for the boy as he looked up at his teacher again, daring to hope that what was happening was really true.

“Congratulations,” Iruka smiled. “You graduate.”

Naruto couldn’t help but gape. It was really happening. He had actually proven that he was capable of becoming a real ninja and was given a hitae-ate to prove it! Even better, Iruka had given his own hitae-ate! That just made the whole situation even better! He was one step closer to becoming Hokage! The blonde boy could actually feel tears beginning to well up in his eyes as he felt the pride of his accomplishment come down onto him.

“IRUKA-SENSEI!” Naruto cried out, leaping at his teacher and wrapping his arms around him in a hug.

“Ow! Hey! I’m injured here!” Iruka laughed, returning Naruto’s embrace.

It was indeed a happy moment for the pair, much like an older brother revealing a surprise for his younger sibling. With the sun rising and illuminating the forests, it truly made for a heartwarming moment that would linger in both Iruka and Naruto’s minds for some time to come.

Stull lying on the ground, the battered and beaten Mizuki began to stir. Years of ninja training allowed him to sleep lightly and recover quickly from a lot of attacks. The sunlight getting into his half-lidded eyes was enough to get his mind working again. A traitor with a temper and a chip on his shoulder he may have been, but he was still a trained chunin of Konoha. He didn’t make noise or move too much and quickly took stock of his situation. He could hear Iruka and the demon-brat nearby, but there was nobody else which meant he hadn’t been out for very long since not even the ANBU had shown up yet. The brat could hit hard but he had been aiming to beat him up, not knock him unconscious. He was knocked out, but not for very long thankfully. That meant that he had just enough time to pull off his last resort, snag the scroll, and get the hell out before he got killed by pursuers.

‘That Kabuto kid had better not been having me on!’ he thought to himself.

Trying not to choke on the blood in his mouth and alert Iruka, he reached into his flak vest and pulled a vial of some opaque liquid. The ingredients had been somewhat difficult to get, considering his duties as a schoolteacher keeping him in a somewhat repetitive cycle of locations. A cave here, a bit of an animal there, for normal chunin they could just explain it away as patrolling or some other duty for a mission that they were taking part in. The teacher duties made it hard to go where the ingredients were located and the excuse of ‘exploring places for a possible field trip’ only worked for so long. Having just finished the potion before coming to the clearing to collect the scroll and kill Naruto, he was ready to use it but hadn’t expected to need it against the failure of the class.

‘This had better work,’ he frowned before popping the top off of the vial and gulping down the contents.

The results were instant, starting with a burning sensation coming from the tattoo on his elbow, actually glowing through his clothes and taking the form of several symbols connected by lines. In truth, it wasn’t a tattoo, but a seal. It depicted the recipe for the potion and activated when the concoction in question reacted to his body. Mizuki began to growl as the burning from his elbow passed through the rest of his body. His battered features began to right themselves as the unnatural power began to phase through him. His muscles clenched as if an electric shock began to move through them before they actually began to bulge and grow from the stimulation. His shirt tore, exposing his arms and his chunin vest was forced open while his chest was exposed through torn fabric, exposing ripped muscles.

“Huh?” Iruka looked up from his former pupil, hearing the ripping and growling noise. Seeing Mizuki beginning to get up, his good mood instantly vanished as his shinobi mindset took ahold once again. “Move Naruto!”

“Huh?” the hyperactive blonde turned to see what changed his teacher’s good mood and quickly saw it. “Oh man! This guy just does not give up!”

Mizuki snarled as he stood up to his full height, taller than his usual height with the enhancements that the seal had given him. Breathing heavily, his snarl looked nigh animalistic as black stripe markings appeared on his arms, forehead, and cheeks in a way that looked almost like an evil version of Naruto’s own whisker marks. His eyes radiated nothing but killing intent as he stared hatefully at the pair who had supposedly defeated him only a few moments ago.

“You two are dead!” he snarled, “You two are so dead!”

Naruto frowned, but he didn’t back down from the threat to him or his teacher. Instead, he stepped forward and prepared to fight again, “I got this one sensei! Kage Bunshin no-!”

“I don’t think so!” Mizuki growled, actually blurring with the speed of his movements. One moment he was a short distance away, easily far enough for Naruto to finish his jutsu and bring back the mob of clones. The next moment though, Mizuki was in front of the blonde and smashing his fist into the boy’s face with enough force to actually take him off his feet and sending him skidding across the dirt.

“NARUTO-ERG!” Iruka cried out before he was punched in the opposite direction by his former friend.

The whiskered blonde coughed, the wind having been knocked out of him by his deranged teacher. He could actually taste blood in his mouth, which he spat out by pure reflex. His vision blurred for a second, making it difficult to see anything for a few moments. His vision cleared, allowing him to see that he had landed on the seal he had drawn into the ground to summon a Servant. Ignoring it, he got up to his feet and spotted the enhanced Mizuki

“Kage Bunshin no- GAH!” Naruto’s jutsu was again cut off by Mizuki’s new speeds, another punch sending him sailing across the clearing and skidding through the dirt once again.

“Do you honestly think I’d let you pull off that jutsu again?” Mizuki chuckled darkly, approaching Naruto slowly to savour his victory. “No, I’m through playing around with you. This time, I’m going to crush you in one fell swoop!” Clenching his fists, Mizuki charged to smash Naruto’s face in and end his life.

“NO! NARUTO!” Iruka cried from where he lay.

Naruto grit his teeth and tried to stand, but his odds didn’t look so good…

(LINE BREAK)

Inside it’s prison, the Kyuubi growled as it witnessed the events it’s host was dealing with, “Hmph! Pathetic! If it weren’t for this seal I’d let you die you little brat,” frustration mounting at the fact that if Naruto ended up dying so would he, the Nine-Tailed Fox decided to perhaps lend a hand with a boost of chakra. If he was lucky, the taint from it’s own chakra would corrupt the boy enough for him to have some personal freedom and perhaps at least damage the seal that damnable Yondaime put together. Pooling its chakra together, the fox was about to push it out of the seal when it felt…a draining sensation?

“What?” the beast blinked, following the draining, but soon discovered where it was going. Once it did so, a smirk came across its lips. “Well I’ll be. The brat actually pulled it off after all.” A dark chuckle escaped its lips.  “Looks like I get to participate this time around.”

(LINE BREAK)

Mizuki smirked as he prepared to feel Naruto’s skull break under his fist. The demon brat had it coming for a long time and Mizuki would be the one to deliver what so many civilians and other ninjas wanted to do for a long time.  Rearing back his fist, he prepared to crush the blonde’s head once and for all…

…and then came the flare of chakra.

It didn’t come from Naruto, but it wasn’t far enough away to be Iruka either. Mizuki hadn’t sensed any other ninjas approaching either, which meant that the chakra was coming from something else. Turning around, he saw that the doodle that the demon brat had drawn into the ground was starting to fill with glowing blood. The glob that the brat had spat out after Mizuki had punched him was filling in the grooves, an impossible thing considering that it was so small and the design was so large. The glowing circle, once filled with blood erupted into a pillar of light that almost blinded the three witnesses. Daring to look, they saw a darkened figure rising from the ground, their image almost like a void in the light of the circle. It certainly wasn’t a Doton jutsu that would have allowed the figure to move through the soil since the ground wasn’t disturbed by the movement of the figure in the circle. The only other jutsus that would have allowed someone to appear out of nowhere was a Shunshin or a Kuchiyose but neither Mizuki nor Iruka had heard of a summoning jutsu that could summon humans while a Shunshin wouldn’t have been as obvious. Once the body of the person was completely manifested, the light died down and allowed the three ninjas to see them.

The figure was dressed in thick silver armour that reminded Naruto of the one time he watched samurai come through Konoha in a delegation even if this suit was noticeably different. This figure was wearing silver armour boots which rode up the figure’s legs to become hidden by a red fabric loincloth and metal plading on their thighs, marked with red colours. The torso armor was fit tightly, making it look like it was skintight. The shoulder armour was large and bulky, looking almost too cumbersome to fight in. The hands were hidden in gauntlets which hard ridges running along them, making look almost monstrous. The figure’s face was hidden behind a metal helmet that concealed all of their features. It looked almost skull-like with a gray faceplate to act as a face with slits for eyes. From the sides two beast-like horns frew out, enhancing the beastial or demonic image Gripped in the figure’s hand was a long sword with a thick blade, much thicker than the kinds that Naruto had seen the ANBU use. It had a silver curved hilt with a red handle and the blade had a red design at the base with a smaller one near the tip. The three ninjas couldn’t help but take notice of the size of the weapon, being nearly as long as the figure was tall.

From where he was struggling, Naruto felt a burning sensation in his left hand. Looking down at it, he saw red markings that looked a lot like the Konoha symbol appeared on his skin. It was split into three sections with the leaf stem, the spiral in the middle, and the tip all making up their own sections. He blinked in confusion, but wasn’t able to ponder the implications of this seal before Mizuki started talking again.

“Who the fuck are you?-!” Mizuki demanded hotly.

The sort-of samurai glanced at the enhanced Mizuki, but didn’t seem all that concerned about him, “Servant Saber.”

Naruto stiffened in surprise at the figure’s answer. He actually summoned a Servant? The summoning justu was a success? All right!

Mizuki was not impressed with the warrior’s appearance. Snarling like the beast he was turning into, he began charging at the armoured figure. The Servant didn’t seem wholly concerned with the attack. Rather, he began lifting his weapon and moving into a stance with the weapon.

‘As if a Samurai could keep up with a ninja!’ Mizuki thought arrogantly to himself as he prepared to smash that helmet off of the man’s head, hopefully taking their head with it!

Mizuki made his move, moving incredibly fast, almost too much for Naruto and Iruka to watch. At the same time, the armoured Servant seemed to blur silver and crimson as Mizuki got by. Far from striking the silver helmet, Mizuki was sent smashing across the ground, leaving a trench as he went with a deep gash running across his chest spewing blood as he went.

“GAAHHHH!” the traitorous ninja screamed, pressing his hands against the wound on his chest, his lifeblood spilling out from it.

“Be thankful I let you live,” the Servant replied, lowering his weapon which was stained with Mizuki’s blood. “I don’t know the situation so I can’t be sure if I would be able to get away with killing you.” Hefting the weapon over his shoulder, he looked around the area to see Iruka and Naruto. “Now, who was it that summoned me?”

The clearing was silent save for Mizuki’s grunts of pain as he tried to stem the bleeding from the wound on his chest. After a moment, Naruto raised his hand and dared to speak, “Uh...I did...I think.”

“You?” asked the red sort-of samurai.

“Uh,” Naruto hesitatingly nodded. “I drew the circle and stuff but I didn’t get a chance to finish it.” he grinned cheekily. “I guess it worked after all!”

“Naruto...you used a second jutsu from the Forbidden Scroll?-!” Iruka gaped.

“I...thought it would be extra credit...” Naruto sweatdropped.

The armoured Servant kept a blank stare on Naruto before walking across the clearing and up to Naruto’s downed form. Kneeling while stabbing the sword into the ground, the Servant took Naruto’s hands. The warrior was much gentler than expected as he gazed down at the red marking on Naruto’s hand.

“So it seems you are my master,” the warrior nodded. “Let us work together in our future battles.”

“Oh...yeah...” Naruto nodded.

Naruto and his Servant gazed at one another before the sounds of growling echoed through the dawn air. Saber, Naruto, and Iruka turned to glance where Mizuki had fallen, finding what appeared to be steam rising up from the man’s body. His snarls turned more primal as he actually forced himself onto his feet once again. His muscles bulged even further than before , shredding what was left of his vest. Fur growing across his body, giving him the appearance of a tiger. His canines extended as his savage outlook and dropping any pretense of self-control or of his previous humanity. Even the gash running across his chest seemed to have been forced shut, stemming the blood running from the wound. Iruka could only watched stunned as the man who he once proudly called his friend allowed himself to be turned into an actual monster all for the sake of his pride and greed.

“This power...this ultimate power!” Mizuki snarled. “I’ll kill all three of you and take everything I deserve!”

“It seems the idiot doesn’t know when he’s beaten,” Saber frowned behind the steel helmet. She glanced to Iruka, “You, soldier! Is it permissible that I end this man’s life so to protect my master? I know nothing about military protocol here but I am quickly losing my patience for it!”

“We...we’d prefer to take him alive,” Iruka grunted. “He may have intel on threats to our village. If you don’t have a choice though...”

“Point taken,” Saber nodded. Standing up, the warrior drew the large sword yet again.

“Pose all you want you damn samurai wannabe!” Mizuki snarled. “I let my guard down before! It won’t happen again!” The tiger-man blurred out of sight, moving much too quickly for anyone’s sight to follow.

Saber at first didn’t move, making Naruto and Iruka fear that the Servant wasn’t able to follow Mizuki’s movements enough. A split second later though, several of the tree branches around them and portions of the ground exploded like small tags were going off all over the place. Through it all, Saber didn’t move, remaining in the one position. Naruto didn’t quite get what was going on, but Iruka did. Mizuki was attempting to confuse Saber by using his high speeds and leaving indications of his movements everywhere to make it nigh impossible to tell where he might end up attacking from.

Behind the helmet, Saber’s eyes narrowed. The warrior remained still even as the impacts started trailing closer to him, Mizuki’s snickers were practically discernable among the strikes as he shot closer towards Saber.

The Servant still didn’t move. Mizuki snarled and made his lunge.

Silver flashed.

*SQUEALCH!*

“GYAAAAAHHHHHHH!” Mizuki screamed, his high velocity causing him to crash after being struck, leaving another skidding trail in the dirt....in two different pieces. “AHHH! AHHH! AHHH!” The tiger man writhed on the dirt, his left arm gone completely while the limb in question was a few feet away, both leaving a red trail across the dirt to mark their path.

“Be thankful I decided to give the local army something to work with, otherwise I would have killed you for attacking my master,” Saber replied, uncaring of the bloody mess that the traitor was left in.

“GAAAAAAHHHH!” Mizuki screamed out, trying to stem the blood from coming out of his stump.

“Eww,” Naruto grimaced, shivering at the sight of what happened to Mizuki.

“You can say that again,” Iruka winced. Sure, wounds like what Mizuki was just dealt happened on the battlefield but just seeing it happen kind of made it more surreal.

“Is there an outpost for your armies nearby?” asked Saber. “I don’t want to see this man bleed to death when I went through the trouble of not killing him on the spot for his audacity.”

Iruka adjusted himself, pressing a hand against his wounds, but in doing so he heard rustling through the trees. A smile of relief came over his face as he recognized the sound, “That won’t be necessary. Help is already coming.”

Bursting out of the treetops with impressive speed and landing on either the ground or the tree branches were several ninjas dressed in dark outfits with swords on their backs and animal masks on their faces. They were the special forces of Konohagakura, the Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai, otherwise known as the ANBU. They handled all of the worst jobs Konoha had and traitors certainly qualified. Iruka had no doubt once Mizuki revealed his hand, the Hokage alerted them. The man somehow had his ways of knowing everything that happened in the village.

“I hope they are with you,” Saber spoke.

“They are,” Iruka nodded.

From the group of ninjas, a female one stepped forward with long purple hair and a cat mask on her face. She looked at the struggling Mizuki who was still trying to stop the blood flow. Shaking her head, she glanced at several of the others, “Taka, Ushi, take this traitor to the medics before he dies on us.”

“Hai!” the two selected members nodded, leaping to Mizuki’s side. The beastman tried to fight, but the blood loss was already affecting him and his strength was nowhere near where it had been. Hefting him up, they leaped away, a third member claiming the severed arm for either healing or research purposes.

Neko then turned her gaze to the stationary Saber, “Now, who are you?”

“That’s Saber!” Naruto called out, hopping to his feet. “I summoned him using a jutsu from the Forbidden Scroll! I didn’t think it would actually work, but it did! I got marks on the back of my hand to prove it and everything!”

Neko glanced at the blonde, idly noting the hitae-ate on his forehead. She then glanced to Iruka who nodded to the woman’s unspoken question. Naruto was telling the truth. Nodding back to him, she looked to the blonde again, “Well, you’ll have to debrief with the Hokage about what happened tonight. Don’t leave anything out or else we may consider your new friend a threat to us.”

“Right!” Naruto agreed. Hey, even he knew when it was time to stop goofing around and be serious.

“Good. Now let’s get Iruka to some medics and you to the Hokage,” Neko nodded, turning to give orders to her men, but she then halted and glanced back, “Oh, by the way. That hitae-ate looks good on you. You finally got your shot, don’t mess it up.”

“Heh! You bet!” Naruto grinned happily.

Saber watched on, not entirely sure what was going to happen next.

(TIME BREAK)

Hokage’s Office

“Well Naruto you’ve kicked up quite a fuss tonight.”

The Hokage’s office was a plush place which spoke on how important everything that went on there was and was usually an intimidating place to go to even if Sarutobi was a pretty nice guy. The man himself was sitting at his desk in his Hokage robes, puffing his pipe. Hiruzen Sarutobi looked the part of the venerable old man, having spiked gray hair that circled his head but not on top of it. Usually he wore robes on an elder, not seeing much action since the days of the Third Shinobi War. His desk was occupied with several stacks of paperwork, all of it requiring his attention for both missions to bring in income as well as how to use that income for the village. At present, Saurtobi was sitting at his desk with the Forbidden Scroll beside it with Naruto and Saber standing across from him.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Naruto apologized, rubbing the back of his head. “I thought it was all just a big test exorcise like Mizuki-sensei said, you know?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Sarutobi reassured his young friend. “We retrieved the scroll and captured Mizuki so all is well. Besides, if a student can’t trust their own teachers then who can they trust?”

“Thanks,” Naruto sighed in relief.

“What concerns me though is that not only did you learn the Kage Bunshin technique, but you also managed to complete the Kodai Kuchiyose no Jutsu which the Shodaime Hokage personally put in the scroll when he first started it,” Sarutobi continued. “While I can let the Kage Bunshin go since in your particular case it’s hardly life threatening to you, what I must impart onto you about the Kodai Kuchiyose no Jutsu is the dangerous factors it considers. Knowing you, you didn’t read the description all the way through, did you?”

“Uh...no,” Naruto sighed lamely.

“I thought not,” Sarutobi sighed, shaking his head. “Naruto, the Shodaime wrote chronicles about events following the Servants and what they were capable of. He forbade the use of the Kodai Kuchiyose no Jutsu for a reason.”

“But why?” asked Naruto. “I mean, is there something wrong with it?”

“Not in the functions of the technique, but the reasons it even works and the after effects,” Sarutobi answered. “The Shodaime’s chronicles explained that he summoned a Servant himself long before he founded Konohagakure and with that Servant, calling himself Saber, he took part in a war that was battled in secret across the continent known as the Holy Grail War.”

“You are oddly well-informed,” Saber commented.

“Our first leader kept very good records,” Sarutobi replied before looking back to the young boy. “Naruto, Servants are summoned to take part in this battle which apparently has been going on for centuries if not longer. Select individuals are chosen by forces we have yet to comprehend and through design or chance a Servant is brought to their side as their partner. They will do war and the last pair standing would receive what would be called the Holy Grail. Supposedly, it would grant the winner’s wildest wish.”

“Really?-!” Naruto gasped.

“We can’t be sure since supposedly in the final battle of the previous war the Holy Grail was destroyed and the prize was left unclaimed,” Sarutobi shrugged. “We can’t be sure how true that supposed prize can be. Is that more or less correct, Saber?”

“Yes,” Saber nodded. “However, there is more to know but I will share that only with my Master. Should he decide to share that with you, I see no harm in it.”

“Fair enough,” Sarutobi nodded. Taking another puff of his pipe, he began to smile, “Now, I believe that since you’ve mastered the Kage Bunshin technique that qualifies you to become a genin, correct?”

“Heck yeah! Iruka-sensei said so!” Naruto nodded, regaining his cheer. “You’re gonna let me be a ninja, right? Right? Right?”

“After hearing you make over a hundred Kage Bunshin, I think it would be a waste not to let you become a ninja,” Sarutobi chuckled. “I’ll have the paperwork made straight away. Since you did assist in the capture of a traitor, you’ll also be receiving payment for an A-class mission on the condition you don’t let the people at large hear about this. We don’t need the wrong sorts hearing our own ninjas are turning traitor.”

“No problem Jiji!” Naruto grinned. “Man, this is gonna be awesome! Ramen-city here I come! Yahoo!”

“I’m elated for you Master,” Saber sighed.

Getting the details for Naruto’s reward figured out as well as letting him know where to go for the induction ceremony for his graduation, the happy blonde and his Servant exited the Hokage’s office. Naruto’s grin could have split his face as he headed back towards his apartment. He couldn’t wait to show off to everyone what he managed to pull off! He was a ninja now just like he always said he would be!

Walking along the street, Saber kept a dutiful eye out for any and all possible threats, spying only a few civilians who were out and about. “Are we heading to your residence Master?”

“Yup,” Naruto nodded, but then blinked as a thought hit him. “Uh, you’re coming with me?”

“Of course,” Saber nodded. “As your Servant, it is imperative that I follow you at all times to ensure your safety.”

“Oh...” the blonde blinked, honestly surprised at how determined his Servant was to follow him. “Well...uh...my place is kind of small. I don’t really have much room for you to sleep.”

“I don’t require sleep Master,” Saber replied. “Nor do I need food or drink. Don’t fret on my account.”

“Uh...okay,” Naruto nodded. How could anyone go without food or sleep? Maybe it was a Servant thing? “Well, this way I guess.”

Naruto guided Saber to where his apartment was and unlocked the door, allowing the Servant to follow him inside. It was a pretty small apartment, only having space for a kitchen, something resembling a sitting room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Sarutobi had given Naruto the place after he found the boy living on the streets and he got to live there for free while he went to the ninja academy. Now that he was graduating though, he’d have to start paying rent. Fortunately, ninja missions paid pretty well compared to other jobs.

“Small, but easily protected,” Saber nodded, examining the living space.

“Thanks,” Naruto smiled. “So sit down. I’ll make some ramen.”

Saber would have argued that a Servant did not need sustenance, but there was something to be said about the rules of decorum and greeting guests be they short term or long term. Approaching the sitting table, Saber’s body began to glow red before a crimson mist swirled around the armoured figure. Naruto flinched and covered his eyes out of reflex, but the mist died down soon enough, leaving the altered form of Saber behind.

Saber stood where he...or rather SHE had been a moment ago, but her outfit changed drastically. She now wore what amounted to a white tube top with a red leather jacket on her shoulders. Her legs weren’t even covered but instead she wore the smallest shorts Naruto had ever seen in his life while thick boots covered her feet rather than the sandals that he was used to everyone else wear. Her face was very pretty, looking almost regal save for the hints of bad attitude evident in her green eyes. Her hair was blonde with it framing her face, but the rest was tied up in a messy ponytail that spiked out. She wasn’t particularly busty, but she was thin and trim in all of the right places.

“Whew,” Saber sighed, scratching her hair. She dropped in front of the table and made herself comfortable.

Naruto on the other hand was openly gaping at what his Servant had done, “You’re a GIRL?-!”

Saber turned her gaze to her Master, a frown on her pretty features, “Is there a  problem with me being female?”

The sharp tone in her voice made it pretty clear that if Naruto did have a problem with her gender, she made sure he wouldn’t have it for long. Now Naruto wasn’t one of those kinds of people who thought girls should stay in the kitchen or something.That was stupid. He’d seen plenty of tough girls like members of the ANBU or gotten himself beaten up by Sakura often enough. Oddly enough, the tone of voice Saber was using matched the one Sakura would use just before she would belt Naurto one.

“No, no, no!” Naruto quickly denied. “I’m just surprised! You looked and sounded...um...manlier when you were in your armour!”

Saber’s frown persisted for a few moments before she shrugged, “I suppose I do, don’t I? After seeing one such as I in action would make just about anyone believe that I was a man, wouldn’t it?”

“I’ll say,” Naruto sighed. Crisis averted, his mind snapped back to what would be important, “Oh, the ramen! Be right back!” The boy dashed for his kitchen again, causing a clang of pots  before the sounds of boiling water could be heard. After that came a complaint about three minutes before finally Naruto returned with two steaming cups of instant ramen, chopsticks sticking out of the lids. “Here you go! Eat up!”

Saber raised a delicate eyebrow, but she took the offered food. Knowledge granted to her as part of the summoning was how to blend into her surroundings. Using chopsticks was part of the knowledge. Partaking in the broth, she found it acceptable for such a quick meal. It was simple, easy to prepare, and efficient as it didn’t take much time. However, as a Servant, she had no need for nutrients even if the thought was appreciated. Her Master, on the other hand, would require proper nourishment if he were to sustain her existence. If this was all he ate, it was a miracle that he hadn’t become malnourished. It would explain why he was so short though.

Finishing the last of the noodles, Saber looked to her Master, “While your leader was well-informed concerning the Holy Grail War, there are more things that you need to know in order to fully understand what you have gotten yourself into.”

“Mn?” Naruto blinked, his mouth filled with noodles. Quickly swallowing them, he wiped the broth from his mouth, “Okay. So what is it?”

“The first is that you must understand that while I do not need food or sleep, what I do need in order to exist is prana,” Saber explained. Seeing Naruto’s clueless expression, she decided to elaborate. “It’s the energy which your body produces in order to cast spells. In my day they called it magic, but I believe here your people developed a different system and call it...chakra?”

“Oh! Okay! So you need my Chakra in order to stay around?” asked Naruto.

“Yes,” Saber nodded. “Servants require a large amount of prana in order to function properly. We will need even more in order to heal from injuries as well as to use our strongest abilities to help us battle against other Servants.”

Naruto nodded, easily understanding what Saber was talking about. He knew that you needed chakra to do the most powerful jutsus and to recover quickly. “So how much of my chakra do you need?”

“Fear not. You are supplying me quite adequately,” Saber reassured her master. “I do believe that I am fully capable of battling any of the Servants we may run into.”

“Cool!” Naruto grinned. He didn’t mind giving up chakra to help Saber out since they were going to be partners in this Holy Grail War thing. Maybe if he got the Grail he could wish to become strong enough to be the Hokage!

“Speaking of Servants, I must press on the knowledge you will need when we face them,” Saber continued. Seeing she had Naruto’s attention again, she explained. “While I call myself Saber, that is not truly my name. The term Saber actually applies to a type of Servant with a specific skill set.”

“Type of Servant?” asked Naruto. “Well, how many kinds are there?”

“Seven as to my knowledge,” Saber answered. “My class is called Saber. We are masters of swordsmanship and we are one of the three knight classes who are capable of resisting magic and are often hailed as the greatest of the classes.”

“So I got the best Servant? All right!” The happy blonde grinned.

“Flattering,” Saber smirked, but continued. “The second of the knight classes is Archer. They are experts in long range combat. Their eyesight is extremely sharp and they can see from long distances. Like me, they can also resist magic to an extent.”

Naruto nodded. Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out a notebook and began scribbling down notes. He usually just kept it to keep track of prank ideas and the odd school notes, but this whole Servant thing was just sounding too cool to ignore. It was like of those tabletop games Shikamaru played, only cooler!

“The third of the knight classes is Lancer. They are likely one of the fastest out of the classes and hold mastery of spears, lances and other similar weapons which can extend a farther range than a sword can.”

Naruto quickly nodded.

“Rider is the next class. These Servants battle like cavalry, riding on top of a beast or machine of some sort. They are known to have some of the strongest Noble Phantasms, the ultimate attacks of a Servant. Their habit of riding a mount also makes it more difficult to battle them while they ride it.”

“Got it,” Naruto scribbled the notes.

“Fifth is the Caster class,” Saber explained. “These Servants are not what I would call especially skilled in direct combat, but instead work better at indirect combat and using spells and traps. They do however hold secrets to magic that modern people have lost for centuries. I suppose for your people, they would be considered...ninjitsu experts who know many secret or forbidden skills.”

“Wow!” Naruto gasped. Too bad he didn’t summon a Caster or else he would have been able to learn all sorts of cool skills! Well, Saber was pretty cool too so he wouldn’t complain.

“After Caster is Berserker,” Saber continued. “These are the most physically powerful out of all Servants, but the trade off to being so strong is that they are rendered completely insane. Their madness makes them more powerful and that much harder to defeat.”

“Creepy,” Naruto gulped, making the note.

“Lastly is the Assassin, legendary killers whose skills in the craft are nigh unparalleled,” Saber finished. “From what I was made known of your people, you likely know what this means.”

“Yeah...” Naruto nodded. He lived in a ninja village his whole life. Of course he’d know about assassins and stuff. Meeting a legendary one was a pretty scary thought.

“Finally, I must confess to you what those marks on your hand symbolize,” Saber finished, frowning slightly. Naruto blinked and looked to the Konoha marking on his hand. “That marking represents not only our contract, but also three undeniable orders that you can give me at the price of using up a portion of the contract.”

“Undeniable?” Naruto frowned.

“Meaning if you use it, I can’t say no and will be forced to do it,” Saber explained. “You could make me destroy a house full of children, slaughter entire villages, or even force me to become your bed slave if you used one of those spells and ordered it.”

“I’D NEVER DO THAT!” Naruto shouted, leaping to his feet and pointing at Saber. “NO WAY! WHAT KIND OF SICKO WOULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?-!”

“One who wants to win perhaps if a Servant would be defeated by doing such a thing,” Saber shrugged. “But the fact that you show such outrage to those actions makes me feel at least a little better about our partnership. I am no saint, but there were things even I would not consider doing. It would be wise not to use such orders needlessly since once the orders are used up, the contract ends and if the Servant’s pride was trampled on...bad things could happen to the master.”

Saber’s face was neutral at the comment, but the threat that was unspoken was more than audible for Naruto. He gulped slightly and made sure that he always treated Saber with respect. He didn’t want to offend her and make her want to kick his ass. After what she did to Mizuki, he didn’t want her to turn her blade onto him!

“I’d never do that,” Naruto frowned, sitting down again. “You’re my friend now. I wouldn’t do that to a friend.”

“A friend?” Saber blinked.

“Sure! We’re together in this Grail War thing now!” Naruto nodded. “We’re partners! Why shouldn’t we be friends?”

Saber blinked, actually stunned at the declaration of friendship, “Why indeed? I...um...” She couldn’t remember the last time she had any friends, at least true friends and not people she was hiding important secrets from in any case. Could she afford to get attached though? Right on the cusp of a new Grail War? Wouldn’t be best to stay impartial so she could be at her best?

“...friends?” she murmured.

“Yeah!” Naruto nodded with a grin.

Saber smiled slightly while shaking her head. What an amusing Master she had been given.

To Be Continued...

Kodai Kuchiyose no Jutsu - Ancient Summoning Technique

A/N: Well, here is a foray into a Naruto/Fate story which actually has a proper Holy Grail War going on instead of Naruto getting summoned or he somehow gets kicked out of Konoha and ends up in the Fate world or something. I have big plans for this Grail War, and there is going to be plenty going on that no one would see coming. So she lots of reviews and comments if you love this story! I need to know what you guys think! Reviews are my lifeblood!