Naruto: The Child Of Prophecy Has Gone Insane

"N-Naruto, what have you done?" Iruka's voice trembled with a mix of worry and disbelief as he caught sight of Naruto standing over Mizuki's lifeless body.

The bloodied kunai in Naruto's hand glistened ominously in the moonlight.

Even though it wasn't unusual for kids to be sent to the battlefield and take lives in this crazy shinobi world, Iruka had always hoped Naruto could avoid that fate—at least for a little while longer.

He worried that killing someone at such a young age might mess with Naruto's head. And to top it off, Iruka feared the villagers might start hating Naruto even more if word got out.

"It's called self-defense, Iruka," Naruto replied coolly, his voice devoid of any emotion as he yanked the kunai from Mizuki's neck, letting the blood drip from the blade.

He casually wiped the weapon on Mizuki's clothes, not a care in the world, before slipping it back into his pocket like it was just another day at the academy.

But inside, Naruto was a swirling mess of confusion. This world—his world—felt off, like a poorly edited remake of a classic movie.

He knew he'd transmigrated into this world, taking over this version of Naruto's life.

But everything felt… wrong. He had the memories of the original Naruto and had even seen his past life flash before his eyes like some weird river montage in the void.

The Uzumaki Naruto of this world was a complete doofus compared to the Namikaze Naruto of his previous life—a prodigy who was so far ahead of his peers, they basically fell into depression trying to keep up.

By the age of twelve, Namikaze Naruto had already skipped town, started his own organization, and was collecting intel on shinobi with unique abilities like some overachieving spy.

But this world's Naruto? He couldn't even pull off a simple Clone Jutsu and was gullible enough to fall for Mizuki's cheap tricks. How embarrassing.

It just don't make sense to have regressed. By now, he should've been miles away from the Leaf Village, well on his way to world domination or something. Instead, he was stuck here, dealing with Iruka's puppy-dog eyes.

To snap out of his thoughts, Naruto created two shadow clones with ease. Iruka's eyes widened in surprise—it was as if Naruto had just pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

The boy couldn't even make a single clone before, yet here he was, creating them like it was no big deal. Then Iruka realized: Naruto must've learned the technique from the forbidden scroll.

"Help him," Naruto ordered his clones in a tone that left no room for argument. The clones moved to assist Iruka, who was still processing the whirlwind of events that had just unfolded.

Even though Namikaze Naruto didn't have any special bond with Iruka in his past life, he figured he could at least do this one good deed.

After all, Iruka had just saved him from Mizuki's treachery and seemed to genuinely care for him. It was the least Naruto could do—plus, it helped keep up appearances.

"There's something off about his eyes," Iruka thought, catching a glimpse of the clones' expressions.

Their eyes were nothing like the usual cheerful and kind eyes he was used to seeing on Naruto. No, these eyes were cold, calculating—like they were sizing up the entire world and finding it lacking.

"Is it Hiruzen?" Naruto wondered as he sensed a familiar presence spying on him. His chakra detection picked up on someone's signature—one that was unmistakably the Third Hokage's. Only Hiruzen had a jutsu in the Hidden Leaf that could be used to observe someone from miles away like this.

"What a pain in the ass," Naruto mused, keeping his pace steady. He didn't like the idea of someone spying on him—especially not an old geezer like Hiruzen—but there wasn't much he could do about it at the moment.

It made him feel powerless, and if there was one thing Namikaze Naruto hated, it was feeling powerless.

Back in his prime, he'd developed jutsus specifically to counter such surveillance, but they required Sage Mode's chakra, which he didn't have right now. How inconvenient.

"Hey, Naruto! Wait up—I have something for you!" Iruka called out, huffing slightly as he caught up to Naruto. He reached into his pouch and pulled out his headband, offering it to Naruto with a smile. "Here, take this."

Naruto accepted the headband, but his expression remained cold and distant. He didn't bother putting it on his forehead like Iruka expected. Instead, he just shoved it into his pocket as if it were a spare kunai.

Iruka blinked in surprise, then assumed that Naruto's silence and detached behavior were because he'd just killed someone for the first time.

Killing could be traumatic, especially for kids. Maybe Naruto was just in shock.

"Just as planned," Naruto thought, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips as he resumed walking.

Everything was going according to plan. He had created those shadow clones specifically to show Iruka that he could pull off the technique, ensuring his graduation from the academy.

For now, Naruto planned to stick around the Hidden Leaf, playing the part of the clueless academy student while secretly hunting down shinobi with unique abilities.

In his past life, his inexperience had led to his exposure, turning him into the world's most wanted ninja. It wasn't fatal—he was too strong for that—but it was a major inconvenience.

Constantly dodging powerful shinobi who wanted to capture him had slowed down his plans more times than he cared to remember. This time, he was determined to avoid that mistake and kill all the rats without them even knowing.

As Naruto sensed that Iruka could now walk on his own, he dismissed his clones with a simple thought. The instant they vanished, he and Iruka came upon a group of shinobi who had been assigned to capture Naruto.

-------------

"Umm, can you please at least smile?" Genzō, the photographer, asked Naruto, who was standing in front of the camera with a cold face.

"I'll look great either way, so just click the photo already," Naruto said, his expression even colder.

"Geez, kids these days," Genzō muttered to himself before taking Naruto's photo.

"Here, take this," Genzō said as he handed Naruto his photo. Naruto immediately grabbed it and walked toward the stairs of the Hokage mansion to go down to the lower floor where the Hokage was waiting to see his application.

"It's a stupid procedure," Naruto thought, but since he decided to stay in the Hidden Leaf until he at least gained one-tenth of his past life's power, he complied.

As Naruto walked down the stairs, he used some glue to attach his photo to the application form he took from his pocket.

He reached the Hokage's office in about 40 seconds and entered the room where Hiruzen was sitting with another person.

"Here, Lord Hokage," Naruto said as he handed Hiruzen the application for graduation and sat on a chair next to him.

"What's wrong with you?" Hiruzen asked calmly as he looked at Naruto's application. It was too normal for Naruto. He even suspected that someone had taken over Naruto's body but dismissed the thought, thinking he was just overthinking things.

"There is nothing wrong with m—" As Naruto was about to speak, he heard a commotion. "On guard, old man! Right," a strange-looking kid shouted as he suddenly entered the room holding a shuriken, but he tripped and fell.

"I get it! It's a trap, right!?" the kid yelled as he rubbed his forehead, which hit the ground when he tripped.

"A-Are you alright, honored grandson?!" Suddenly, a man wearing strange glasses entered the room, looking at the boy. "And, for the record, there are no traps here," he said.

But Konohamaru just glared at Naruto and said, "It must be you! You made me trip with your traps!"

"I don't need traps to deal with someone like you," Naruto said mockingly, looking into Konohamaru's eyes.

"Demon fox," Ebisu, Konohamaru's tutor, thought as he saw Naruto.

"What did you say!?" Konohamaru shouted as he ran toward Naruto to attack him, but Naruto caught him by the neck with his right hand without even bothering to stand up.

"Unhand him, Naruto! Do you even know who he is?" Ebisu yelled at Naruto.

"All I see are two walking advertisements for retroactive birth control," Naruto said, referring to Konohamaru and Ebisu, as he threw Konohamaru to the ground.