Silence, all that he heard was silence.

It was night and there was a man lying in a king size bed, he was no normal farmer, yet he was not that famous either, this man was a ruler of a small country located to the west of Konoha. Even though his country was small, his evil deeds were as big as elemental nations, secret of course, untraceable back to him in his opinion...

Boom! A thunder roared outside. The man in bed yelped out. He hated storms, he hated the rain and he hated the thunders. He was such a coward inside.

"Guards!" the doors to his chambers opened and in came two guards, they looked like samurais.

"I want you to double the security for tonight!" it was nothing new for the two, every single man under his command knew that their master was coward, but he had money and he knew how to use them. Even tightening the security during storm was nothing new, it happened every single time.

"Yes sir!" the guards answered in unison and left the chambers to do his bidding.

The man in bed sighed, it would be okay now right? He had around two hundred man inside his small fortress that he operated from, they could stop any threat.

Feeling drowsy he turned on his left side, he always felt more relaxed sleeping on his sides, his eyes were slowly closing.

"Ah!" he gasped as he sat up, 'another nightmare' he thought, this was common for him, from every atrocity he committed, he remembered some of them, but they always caused him nightmares.

After calming down, he prepared to fall asleep one more time, he succeeded after few minutes, what he didn't know was that he just fell asleep for one last time.

Slowly, very slowly, not to be noticed, particles of sand floated up his bed.

All of sudden, all of the grains got aggressive and constricted around the man, before he could even awake it crushed him, leaving nothing but blood.

In the corner of the room a man with animal mask puffed away, his mission completed. Next morning the maids will come in with breakfast and their screams of horror will be heard throughout the whole castle, as instead of their master in bed, all that they will find is his blood splattered all over the bed.

Next day, in Konoha

Sandaime Hokage was doing paperwork, he always did, and there was so much of it, that he could almost never complete it ahead of schedule, so he was always relieved when some of his ninjas came into his office to report their mission. He cared deeply for his subordinates, so he was always happy to see them make it through the mission unharmed.

So when an ANBU appeared inside his office via sand shunshin, he was eager to hear the report, furthermore he was happy to catch up with his grandson in all but blood after his two weeks long mission.

The ANBU kneeled, his face hidden by a mask, and his mask hidden by a cloak. "Hokage-sama, mission completed." he recited calmly.

The Hokage smiled, he knew that fox always finished his mission and succeeded.

"Splendid, report fox." fox, that was his mask, his cover in darkness, it was his since birth, because no one else wanted to bear the symbol of their suffering thirteen years ago.

"I infiltrated the castle at night, it took me some time to map the guards, how they move, when they switch etcetera. When i did that i took my time to collect all important documents and things that could benefit village, most often money, everything i stole was replaced by illusion, so i wouldn't be found out. When i was sure that i could assassinate the target and get out of the castle without being noticed, i used my sand to crush his body, leaving nothing behind." fox said in an even voice, not once flinching, as if he didn't just kill a man in a most gruesome death.

The Hokage nodded, this mission while not that hard was quite important for Konoha, they needed to eliminate the target because he started meddling with Konoha's dealings.

"Good job fox, now please take off your mask." the ANBU complied and took it off, under it he had long spiky blonde hair, lean face with three whisker marks on each cheek, and he seemed to be blind as he had a blindfold over both eyes. His face was a little pale, probably lack of sunshine because of all the work he did in shadows.

Sandaime smiled at the young ninja that stood before him, he always liked the kid, and protected him with his life. "Naruto-kun, i have another mission for you, but before it i want to spend some time with you, so can i invite you to lunch with me?" Sandaime asked, now smiling lightly.

Corners of Naruto's mouth twitched into a soft smile as well "Of course sensei, i would like that."

"Will dango be alright?" Sandaime asked, while naruto only nodded with a smile, he didn't have dango for some time. Sandaime was already leaving, even though he knew that naruto had one last thing to do, people couldn't know the identity of ANBU, so he had to put on his mask. With that done, they both departed from the office a headed straight for merchant district.

Later that day

Naruto sealed last of his supplies into a smaller scroll and sealed that scroll into a tattoo on his leg. He had two storage seals, one on each leg, that were used for supplies, he had another two seals on his wrists, but these were used for weapons, in a fight where second mattered, he had the advantage of a quicker draw.

Naruto's attire was the typical ANBU style, he wore black pants, black shinobi sandals, and black long sleeved t-shirt that covered his arms except the seals on his wrists, and he also wore black gloves. His legs were protected by shin guards, his forearms had armor as well, and a last piece of armor was in form of silver chest piece. The only striking thing that distinguished him from another ANBU was a black gourd that he wore across his back.

Naruto put on his mask and exited the apartment, he was supposed to meet a team of three ANBU at the village gate, they had a mission to do.

At the gate

Naruto arrived first, but his senses alerted him to the approach of three people, two were coming from the center and one was heading from the Special Forces headquarters. Naruto patiently waited till three figures appeared alongside him.

The first one that appeared was a large man, he had a regular ANBU outfit, brown hair and bear mask, what really seemed out of place was the large blade that he had on his back, it was easily the size of the legendary executioner sword. Naruto knew this man, he was brute, not one to think much, but he was very admirable in fight, naruto knew that with this man on mission, they weren't doing anything delicate.

Second to come was a women, her slender figure giving her away, but naruto wasn't one to judge people by appearance, he knew this member of ANBU as well, her codename was a butterfly, truly a beautiful creature right? This woman wasn't, she was one of the more cruel people he knew, she mainly used genjutsu and she was pretty good at it.

Naruto started wondering, sensei only said that captain will explain the mission, but so far his team consisted of some pretty strong people, so this mission did have to be high A, probably S-rank.

The arrival of his captain only cemented his thoughts, the silver hair that defied gravity, dog mask and tardiness, it could only be dog, or as world came to know him Sharingan no Kakashi.

Kakashi smile at his subordinates, even though they couldn't see it behind his mask, this was his last mission before he retired and took on a genin team, Sandaime has specifically asked him to lead this team, Kakashi knew he got the best of ANBU, even though fox was young, and not that experienced as others, his prowess with sand release proved to be deathly.

"So team, i know that Hokage didn't give you any specific information, but i will brief you on the mission shortly, first we need to get moving as we don't have much time."

With that he took off into trees, his team quietly following him.

After few hours of tree jumping captain ordered to set up a camp, they did so and in ten minutes they were sitting by fire.

Kakashi sighed, instead of reading his favorite book, he had to explain the details of the mission, well better get over it now.

"So, our mission is simple, yet will be tricky to execute. It is combat slash assassination type." Naruto smiled, this meant it wasn't operation kill and run, no, it was create chaos, kill target and then kill everyone who saw it. Naruto liked creating chaos. "Our target is Watashi Hyuga, he is a clan elder, as of late he has been acting strangely and yesterday he defected, not only do Hyugas want him dead because of his byakugan, but Watashi also decided that joining Iwagakure will be in his best interest, which isn't.." Iwagakure was still pissed at Konoha for decimating their forces during the third world war, and they used every opportunity to hurt Konoha back. "The reason why this isn't a simple assassination is because Watashi beforehand contacted Iwa and they send him a number of their shinobis as guard, we will have to eliminate them as well." 'I see, that's why the top members are here, since our numbers are still stretched thin, Sandaime chose to go with quality over quantity, i just hope that this won't be an ambush' Naruto thought.

Kakashi stood up "everyone go and rest, i will take the first watch and wake bear later, we will depart in the morning and ambush the Iwa soldiers at night. Good night." he left them with no room to argument, in few minutes they all fell asleep, except Kakashi whose watchful eye was guarding the campsite.

5:00, the border of hi no kuni

Naruto awoke, his keen senses picked up a person moving into his tent, he relaxed, sensing it was butterfly, giving him his shift in guarding the camp. Naruto stood up, he was already dressed and created four clones, they made a perimeter around the camp, naruto himself jumped at the highest tree and started to meditate, reaching out with his chakra and trying to sense everything around him, it was quiet.

His shift was soon over, two hours quickly passed and Naruto send his clones to wake his team. In five minutes everyone was prepared and they set towards the land of earth, leaving nothing behind.

Land of earth border

Watashi smiled, his plan worked, he had been planning his escape for quite some time, and it resulted in success, he ran away to Iwa because they offered him great power, they said that in exchange for his information on the village and mainly on Hyugas, they would give him higher position in their politics then he could ever dream of in Konoha, it was true, in Konoha he was nothing, he was one of twenty Hyuga elders, he may have meant something on Hyugas turf, but he really meant nothing in the great scheme of things and he knew it.

Furthermore they appealed his perverted said as well, they offered him his own harem! He knew it was to get their hands on byakugan, but he could careless, he would be dead in like thirty years, so why not enjoy them with good company and fortune? He never suspected that Hokage would be so punishing for this treason.

Watashi stepped outside his tent, there were forty shinobi, quite a number, but he knew that only four of them were jounin level, then there were sixteen chunins and twenty genins, none of these shinobis wore their hitai-ate, they couldn't be recognized as Iwa shinobi yet, if found out Tsuchikage would deny any dealings with the Hyuga. Watashi understood this, the village leader could never be careful enough, even though the deserter knew he wouldn't be hunted down so soon, and if he was, well the squad from Konoha will have to face an elite jounin from Hyuga clan.

Just as he was wondering about skills of these ninjas he bumped into one of them, completely lost in thoughts. He shook himself back into reality, the man he bumped into was tall, very tall, he reached almost two meters and twenty centimeters, his body that of a bodybuilder he had black hair and brown eyes, his face nothing special except two scars, one under his mouth and the second across his nose, both cuts seemed shallow. He wore an outfit common for rock ninjas, black pants, brown shinobi sandals and a brown vest with many pockets, he didn't wear anything under this vest, as the weather in rock country was quite warm. He wore his hitai-ate on his forehead, the name of this huge man was Hidori. He was the leader of Iwa forces, Watashi knew this man, he was in his early thirties, but his accomplishments during the third shinobi world war were almost as known as the legend of copycat ninja Kakashi. With this man here, Watashi wasn't worried.

"Watch where you are going Watashi, you could hurt yourself and we wouldn't want that..." Hidori said with a growl, his dislike for Konoha was known worldwide.

"Ah, don't worry Hidori-san, I'm sure i can handle myself." Watashi said with an overly obvious fake smile.

Hidori snarled aloud, he didn't like this old relic from tree huggers village, he didn't like anyone from there, they took his parents and his brother, his whole family, and he hated them for it with his entire soul. If it wasn't for Tsuchikage's request, he would already kill the fool. But he could wait. "I'm sure of that. Anyway, we depart towards Iwagakure next day, it is starting to get darker and we are in no rush." he wanted to go, but half of his men were drunk as hell so he chose to wait. With his part said, Hidori left back to his commanding tent.

Watashi wanted to argue, he had a bad feeling and wanted to get in Iwagakure as soon as possible, but he saw the look that left no room to argue on the face of his temporary 'leader'.

Watashi sighed, 'well, at least i can sleep and let my old bones rest' with that he went into his own tent as well and after few minutes fell asleep.

Seven hours later

Kakashi and his team finally caught up to their target, they didn't use full speed, because they needed to be strong enough to fight. "Here we are team, eat a ration bar to replenish your energy, we will rest for an hour and attack the camp then." his teammates wordlessly agreed and went through their pockets to find the food.

After ten minutes of resting, Kakashi bit his thumb and went through several hand seals. "Summoning jutsu" four dogs appeared around the hand that slammed onto ground before him, they were medium sized, three of them reaching up to Kakashi's waist when he stood up, and the last one was a pug.

"Hey Kakashi, what's up?" asked Pakkun, the small pug that ironically looked like leader. "Hey Pakkun, i need you guys to map a camp for me, this will be a fast action, and i will plan according to the info that you'll bring me, you have thirty minutes, find out what you can and come back. Dismiss!" The dogs saluted and disappeared in four identical puffs of smoke.

Meanwhile Kakashi had them all check their equipment and started some basic planning. "Fox, how many enemies do you sense?" It was easy, since Naruto was blindfolded, his other senses became extremely sharp, especially with Kyubi inside of him. Fox started to concentrate, in 10 meter radius he felt everything, every single detail was there, he could feel the energy coming off the bird to the left, he could feel the movement of spiders above him and he felt the life energy that trees and flowers around him gave off. But he needed more, abandoning the details, he expanded the range of his sensor, twenty meters, thirty, fifty, hundred, two hundred, there they were... Forty-one ninjas, it was too far, he couldn't discern their strengths, although there was one that stood amongst others, his chakra was the most bright.

"Taicho, there are forty-one chakra signatures, only one is stronger than the others, but i can't tell whether they have the Hyuga with them." Kakashi nodded, it was good info from such a distance, he could get better only if he had byakugan, but Kakashi was betting his money on Watashi sleeping so he wouldn't notice them.

"Alright, so we have plenty of targets, we are outnumbered, but we have the element of surprise, i would say that stealth will be our best shot this time, more people could survive the exploding tags..." Kakashi started, he chose this because of his team composition, except of bear, they were all assassins.

"Fox, you will take the east side of camp, kill as many as you can without alerting enemy" fox nodded "i will take care of west side of the camp, butterfly, you and bear will be waiting outside the camp, you will only join if battle begins, otherwise, keep quiet and alert." Kakashi finished the brief planning and got two answers "Yes sir!"

Ten minutes went by, everything in the forest as still as possible, suddenly one puff of smoke erupted next to Kakashi, one of his nin-dogs, Pakkun arrived.

"There are forty one ninjas inside the camp, about half of them can only be genins, as their chakra level is low, most of the remaining ninjas are probably chunins and about four to five people have jounin level chakra, one of these people has very strong affinity towards earth and he smells like blood. Camp is guarded by eight men, divided into two-man patrols, they mostly don't move. We also detected a very strong smell of alcohol, so it seems that a lot of these ninjas are under its influence. I myself confirm that Hyuga Watashi is inside the camp, as i smelled him. Any other questions?" Pakkun finished his long report and awaited orders.

"There are none Pakkun, great job, you can go." Kakashi threw him a treat and Pakkun disappeared back into his realm.

"Okay team, let's go, good luck to you all!" everyone nodded and disappeared to do their respective task.

With Naruto

Fox reached the guards, they were drunk, not that much to be out of it, but enough not to pay attention, actually they were talking, and rather loudly at that, but naruto couldn't sense any movement in the camp so he knew no one would miss them.

His right hand settled into half-ram seal and he started to concentrate, sand slowly started to pour out of his gourd, and made its way into ground.

Naruto send some of his sand in front of the guards and made it do a little sand tornado, the guards noticed it and went to investigate, they didn't get far however.

Naruto quietly intoned "Sand coffin!" his sand burst out of the ground right below the guards, before they could even scream, they were already trapped, Naruto brought both of his arms up and made them into fists, ruthlessly crushing both chunin ninjas leaving his sand to soak up their blood.

Naruto moved, he was as silent as night, he entered the first tent, inside were two genins, without a sound he unsheathed his sword, it was a beautiful yet very simple sword, the blade was black, its guard was round and gold just like his sand, the handle was black as well, but had golden streaks in it.

Without any hesitation he quickly sliced the necks of both of them. With this done, he moved to another tent, continuing his path of killing, 'this is going to be a long night…'