While Naruto was looking for a cursed spirit, he suddenly noticed someone who had white hair with a slight blue tint on it running at a fast speed towards the village exit.
Upon closer inspection this person is none other than Mizuki, and currently he is carrying a large scroll under his arm. The scroll is the Forbidden Scroll of Seals and something incredibly important to the Leaf.
Mizuki didn't originally plan to steal the scroll himself; in fact, he had someone he wanted to manipulate into getting the scroll so that he could deliver it to his master.
The person Mizuki wanted to manipulate was none other than Naruto. He originally plans to tell Naruto that he could earn extra credit to pass the graduation by bypassing security in the Hokage Mansion and getting the Forbidden Scroll of Seals.
However, things didn't go according to the plan. Naruto actually passed the test, much to Mizuki's surprise and annoyance. At that moment Mizuki realized that Naruto had been hiding his ability the entire time.
His original plan was foiled, and he couldn't manipulate Naruto any longer, so Mizuki was forced to steal the Forbidden Scroll of Seals himself and to quickly deliver it to his master.
While running towards the exit of the village, Mizuki started to feel that someone was tailing him and decided to drop down to the forest floor to see who his chaser was.
A few moments after Mizuki landed, he saw someone with a teenage boy who had white hair and was wearing dark sunglasses. The boy also wears a dark high-collared jacket combined with dark pants and shoes.
Mizuki knows this teenager, and it is none other than the demon brat he hated, Naruto.
"Well if it isn't the demon fox brat of the Hidden Leaf," Mizuki said with a vile smirk on his face.
Naruto just stood, and his eyes locked onto the scrolls under Mizuki's arms. Naruto decides to follow Mizuki on a whim; that's why he didn't bother trying to conceal himself when following Mizuki, so it wasn't really a shock to Naruto that Mizuki sensed him.
"You're not on active field duty. Why are you attempting to leave the village?" Naruto asks out of curiosity but already roughly guesses the reason.
It wasn't really hard considering the thing Mizuki is currently holding.
"Whoa there, big shot!" Mizuki said in a mocking voice, which Naruto completely ignored.
"Just because you got lucky and graduated, you think you can boss people around now," Mizuki added coldly.
Mizuki then notices Naruto slowly removing his dark sunglasses, and the latter's eyes staring at the scroll in his arms.
"Oh, you want to know what this is? This little rat is the Forbidden Scroll of Seals," Mizuki said, trying to shock Naruto.
"I was just on my way to deliver it to my master, Lord Orochimaru," Mizuki continues.
Naruto's eyes slightly narrowed. Naruto knows the person who Mizuki said to be his master; in fact, everyone in the Leaf knows this person.
Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Three Sannin of the Leaf and a former student of the Third Hokage. Orochimaru also was one of the candidates considered for the position of the Fourth Hokage.
But what truly made Orochimaru famous—or, in this instance, infamous—was the fact that Orochimaru is the biggest traitor in the history of the Hidden Leaf.
'Why does he work with Orochimaru? 'Naruto thought out of curiosity.
It's not like he cares about the reason behind Mizuki's betrayal of the villages; in fact, he didn't follow the latter due to a sense of duty but just out of curiosity, especially with his action earlier this day.
"You're probably wondering why I'm telling you all this," Mizuki said, snapping Naruto from his thoughts. "Well, it's because you're about to die right now!"
Mizuki yells out and at the same time takes out the fuma shuriken in his back and throws it straight towards Naruto. Naruto didn't move and continued to stare at Mizuki, and Mizuki had a sinister smile on his face.
Mizuki thought that Naruto was unable to follow the shuriken, which was going to result in his death, which is something that would bring him great joy.
Mizuki hated Naruto for so long, so killing him this day will be the best day of Mizuki's life.
Just as Mizuki was enjoying himself internally, when out of nowhere Naruto vanished from his position and appeared right in front of Mizuki, much to the latter's surprise.
Before Mizuki could even think of what he should do at this moment, Naruto delivered a powerful punch towards Mizuki's stomach.
'What?! How is he so strong and fast?! 'Mizuki thought as he was sent flying at high speed, hitting his back with the tree.
Blood started to flow from his mouth, and Mizuki tried to get up from his knees, but Naruto grabbed Mizuki's head and directly slammed it to the ground, creating cracks in the soil.
The impact was so strong that Mizuki was immediately knocked unconscious, much to Naruto's dismay, who was about to continue launching another attack towards Mizuki.
Naruto then decides to tie up Mizuki in the tree with a ninja wire so the ninja who is surely going to chase him will apprehend Mizuki.
While he didn't like doing this since it would surely make the higher-ups know his capabilities, after thinking about the hatred Mizuki had for him, Naruto gambled that Mizuki wouldn't tell a soul what happened today.
Naruto's eyes then turn towards the Forbidden Scroll of Seals. Naruto is interested to learn some techniques within the Forbidden Scroll of Seals that attract his interest.
Naruto opened the scroll and started to read the content inside of it. He only manages to find three techniques that he finds interesting, and the techniques are the Multi Shadow Clone Technique—a higher-level technique than the standard Shadow Clone Technique—the Reanimation Technique, and finally, the Eight Gates.
After memorizing the three techniques, Naruto decides to leave the area while at the same time erasing any traces he might have left behind, which is incredibly easy in Naruto's opinion.
Shortly after Naruto leaves, four ANBU ninja appear and are shocked to find Mizuki—whose head is currently bleeding—unconscious and tied to the tree with a ninja wire.
Next to Mizuki were the Forbidden Scrolls of Seals, which he stole, and something that this ANBU was trying to retrieve no matter the cost.
The four ANBU quickly survey the surroundings and notice the cracks on the ground, which are also dented roughly the same size as Mizuki's head, and the fuma shuriken stuck in the trunk of the tree.
Clearly it was a fight between two people... Well, calling it a fight was an overstatement since they know it was clearly a one-sided beatdown that was finished in a short period of time.
After a short discussion between the four of them, they decided that three of them will immediately escort Mizuki towards the T&I Division to know the reason behind his traitorous action and hope to find the one who stopped him, while the remaining one will carry the Forbidden Scrolls of Seals back towards the Hokage Mansion and report what they discover.
The Hokage Mansion.
The Hokage Mansion, or as some called it, Hokage Tower, is the nerve center of the Hidden Leaf. The very heart of the village. It is from here that the Hokage goes about running the village on a daily basis.
And as usual now, the Hokage is currently in his office, which is on the top floor of the tower, where a view of the entire village is available, discussing a matter that will affect the future of the village.
The last few days have been particularly busy for Minato, to say the least. All of his four children had graduated from the academy, which was something he was incredibly happy about.
Yet something happened on the night that they were promoted to Genin, something Minato didn't expect, which was that a Chunin Academy Instructor, one of the two who had been teaching his and others' children, had stolen the Forbidden Scroll of Seals and attempted to leave the village.
Mizuki had come very close to leaving the village with the scroll that contains the forbidden techniques within it. Mizuki would have successfully escaped the village if it wasn't for a certain ninja.
The said ninja attacked and stopped Mizuki from leaving the village and left Mizuki tied in a tree for the ANBU to apprehend and reclaim the Forbidden Scroll of Seals.
For the past few days Mizuki had been interrogated about the reason behind stealing the scroll and who the person was who stopped him before he could successfully leave the village.
Yet Mizuki remains tight-lipped, which really frustrates Minato to no end.
Some of the few who knew about this incident had dismissed it as the actions of a power-hungry fool, but Minato is not sure about it, which is really the cause of his frustration.