Author: YumiAngel. --extra gredit goes to Sufinkusu who has patiently cut off most of the new beginner mistakes. Mixing sigh with sight really sucked. And that coughed that became caught. Yes, people, I'm aware of it it. Really sorry.

Pairings: Naruto/Gaara, some free interpreted Naruto/Neji, Naruto just generally flirting, and will, with most probability be Naru/Sasu/Naru. Oh, and there is a bit of a Kakashi/Iruka on the side (got to love them!). This story is kind of chaotic right now; I lost my notes. SOme serious editing ahead.

Rating: M stands for Mature.

Notes: All right. Following goes:

-Sasuke never gave into the temptation of the seal. There was a second seal placed on it, almost totally blocking Orochimaru's influence.

-Naruto left with Jiriya for training when he was 13, after the chuunin exam. He returner some time after turning 16, meaning he has been gone about 3½ years. Any OoC behaviour, I blame on the slight twists of the story I've made.

Warnings: Violence, language, gore, slash/yaoi/Shounen-ai. Unexpected/unplanned plot changes. Say, If I'd happen to stumble on a good GaixLee fic, I'd feel like writing it, wouldn't I? And most of my fans would recoil in disgust. No flaming if something doesn't fit your taste. Read something else.

Also, bad, shifting, at times disgusting grammar. I'm not ashamed to admit it that this fic is a mess. But if you're an exprience fanfiction-net scroller, you might have learned that nifty habit of reading past the bad writing and seeing the thought behind? Please bare with me.

Disclaimers: Naruto and company along with anything else you must recognize belongs to the genius Masashi Kishimoto and his publisher, etc.

Chapters: Looking at steady 50 chapters at least, with unsteady updates. Be prepared for that cliff-hanger that just might drive you out of you mind.

Hey, is it me, or does this thing look like exactly like Jiriya? --> T-T

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

Byakuya

Chapter #01: The scroll

Kakashi sighed. Sometimes being the best was so troublesome. It often meant he had more missions than others, or people would simply request the famous copy-cat ninja to do the work.

Not that this was completely a bad thing. He just hated being summoned in the middle of the night from the warmth of his bed. Or Iruka's, as the case was.

Kakashi shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts of Iruka. No matter that he had finally succeeded in coaching Iruka into sleeping in the same bed as him, a mission was a mission.

"You all right, my eternal rival?" Gai asked from Kakashi's right side. Unlike popular belief, Kakashi didn't actually always ignore Gai, at least not on missions. And while Gai wasn't the most tactical person, he kept Kakashi from over-analyzing everything. Gai helped to keep things simple.

For example while Kakashi would be thinking how to open the handcuffs, the door, and how to sneak past the guards, Gai would just kick the door open and make a run for it.

"I'm fine... There is something the Gondaime said that bothers me though. She said that I would recognize contact we'll be meeting. I'm not much of a social person, so that leaves Sakura, who is still back in the village; Sasuke, who is still with Orochimaru; Naruto who is still training with Jiraiya. Other than that, people I could possibly recognize better than you could only be..."

"...some old enemies." Gai ended the sentence. Kakashi nodded, while resuming his tree jumping.

"Ya think too much." Anko simply said from the back. Genma, on kakashi's left, nodded.

"She's right. The Hokage said that we have three days until this B-mission turns into an A-mission." the senbon biting man said, his scarf flapping behind him as he jumped down from a particularly high branch.

"Hn." Kakashi acknowledged, sinking into his thoughts again, at the same time turning Gai out with an ability that took years to master. A highly usable ability that Genma and Anko did, unfortunately for them, posess.

"My eternal rival Kakashi is simply being cautious as a high-class ninja should! The spring-time of youth still isn't over for--!" Gai started to enthusiastically explain. Genma bit his senbon slightly harder while suppressing a groan. Anko reached for her flask (which was filled with something other than water), and muttered something about 'eccentric bakas'.

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

The club was dark, and Kakashi felt a shiver run down his back. The whole club was filled with exited males of various ages, as a collective looking at the curtains in the front stage, waiting for the artist to merge. A heavu blanket of sexual tension had fallen over the club, and Kakashi's eyes kept dancing around, interested. This was definitively a very gay club.

It was not just that he was somewhere like this without Iruka, but that he was here with Gai. Kakashi and his partner gathered more than few weird looks. The feeling was oddly unsettling.

Gai pointed to a table in a corner and they sat down. They were to rendezvous with their contact, the person currently in the posession of the scroll, after the show. The curtains opened and a slow, almost hypnotic beat started to play. On the middle of the small stage was a shiny strip-tease-pole. Behind the pole, half hidden in the shadows was a young man. Quessing by his height, he was barely a teenager.

Kakashi sighed; sometimes he felt he was getting old for the job. Genma and Anko joined them at the table. Kakashi didn't react, his eyes on the smaller stage on the side. There was a girl on the side, standing, under shallow light.

There was a mic standing before her, and her hands shook slightly as she grabbed hold of it. The girl looked thirteen. A man near her took a sip from his drink and leered at her. She flinched and Kakashi saw the man was missing a lot of teeth. The steady beat faded away and a flute started playing. The girl started to sing as the drums joined in.

"Save your breath baby,

Save your breath baby,

Save you breath here tonight,

Because he ain't worth it..."

The music was exotic in a different way, and Kakashi had a feeling he had heard it before. The boy on the stage started moving. The beat fast as he swung his leg around the pole. The black leather pants revealed shiny tanned skin from the three vertical slashes on his pants. His toned stomach rippled as he swung his hips.

Then, suddenly he was dancing along with the beat. Kakashi felt a knob tighten in his lower stomach. Damn the boy could dance. Blonde, sun touched hair swung to the side, bringing attention to the slightly open mouth.

Kakashi felt himself grow hard, when suddenly the eyes, before closed, opened.

A pair of sky blue eyes met a single black one. The gaze ao intense that Kakashi felt his breath hitch in his throat. Then his he saw the whisker marks on the cheeks and registration sat in.

Oh dear god.

Kakashi turned back to the table where Anko and Genma where staring at the boy, hypnotized by his movements. Gai had tilted his head to the side and was staring too.

"Oh, wow, he's really limber. Must have practiced taijutsu before." Gai noted. Kakashi groaned and let out a choking noise before reaching for the bottle of liquor Anko had ordered before. He didn't bother with the shot glass, but drank straight from the bottle.

"Hey!" Anko protested. Gai and Genma turned to Kakashi too, surprised by the normally non-mission-drinker-ninja.

"I know him all right." Kakashi said while drinking more of the burning drink. Genma took his senbon out so he could speak.

"Him? As in that really hot dancer dressed in black leather?" Kakashi nodded.

"I always said that orange wasn't his colour." Kakashi took another clunk.

I was not just turned on by my sub-ordinate.

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

"Naruto." Kakashi greeted his former pupil, trying not to stare at the sweaty chest before him.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto greeted Kakashi surprised. "They sent you to get me?" Naruto asked, but then turned around without waiting for an answer. He entered a door on the left side of the murky hallway behind the stage.

Naruto stuck his head from behind the door, blushing slightly and smiling sheepishly.

"Umm... Kakashi-sensei? I'll just grab a shower and..." kakashi's mind blanked for a moment as he imagined Naruto's bare chest under a spray of water... "...grass ANBU should be on the other side of the village then, I think... that is if they haven't changed schedules," Naruto continued.

"Wait a minute, foxy..." Anko frowned. Naruto's eyes darkened and he glared mildly at her.

"Yeah, what is this about ANBU? You were supposed to be followed by a team of rock jounin." Genma interrupted. Naruto frowned.

"Look, I don't know what the old hag has been on, but I clearly wrote that I have been trapped in this village by a big group of rock ninja. Three ANBU's and four chuunin, last time I checked. Some grass ANBU's joined in three days ago." Naruto said, before turning back to the room and taking his shower.

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

"How come you aren't with Jiraiya, Naruto?" Kakashi asked from the now orange glad boy. Well, he as wearing orange cargo pants and a black fish-net top, but it was better than the black leather pants.

Certainly makes it easier to imagine him as the twelve year old prat I used to teach.

"Ero-sennin left for some 'research'. Told me to take care of myself on my own." Naruto said, his hitai-ate in place. Ha looked into the woods before checking his watch.

"You don't sound surprised, kid." Genma noted from behind them.

"I'm not. There was a leak in our spy-network in the Wave. Ero-sennin went to check it out. We heard that Orochimaru was still in the Sound and that the Akatsuki were hunting another jinchuuriki in the land of lightning. So we figured I was kind of safe. Nobody should have known about the scroll in the first place." Naruto explained before seeing the flash in the woods he was waiting for. Naruto motioned for them to follow, and they ran into the woods without a word. They traveled through the foliage and headed towards Konoha.

After they had travelled about four miles, Naruto dug out an old notebook. Kakashi moved slightly closer to him so that he could read over his shoulder while they were jumping; a feat easy for the former ANBU. Kakashi noticed that the notebook had just lined pages, but was otherwise empty, well, except for the doodles on the sides he couldn't decipher.

Naruto started scribbling fast in katakana, and Kakashi was surprised how neat it was, considering they were traveling on the same time.

"Who are you writing to?" Kakashi finally asked curiously.

Naruto put the piece of paper inside a straw before stuffing the notebook back into his pants. Then suddenly another Naruto appeared out of thin air.

And was killed by Anko who had thrown a dango stick into its heart. It disappeared with a puff. Naruto turned to Anko and glared irritated at her.

"Do you mind!" Naruto snapped before creating another shadow clone. Anko looked sheepish.

"Well geez, kid, how was I supposed to know! It could've been an enemy ninja! People usually warn their team-mates before pulling off something like that." Anko said pulling a dango out of nowhere and starting to munch on it. This time it was Naruto's turn to look sheepish.

"Sorry. Guess I'm just used to traveling with Ero-sennin. He's used to it." and with that he created another clone.

Kakashi was interested in how he no longer had needed to do the seals or say the incantation. Naruto number two puffed into existence before doing a henge. As it merged from the cloud it was a fox with three bright orange tales.

Kakashi froze for a moment, as it was a little surreal how the Kyuubi holder henged to a fox. But then Anko squealed and he watched the fox closer.

"Oh! He's so cute" Anko smiled. Kakashi traded a mysterious look with the fox with golden eyes and smiled. The small fox that reached to his knees was nothing like the Kyuubi. It had small little pointy teeth, golden eyes and bright orange fur, along with a mischievous smile.

Naruto gave the small wooden straw to the fox who took it into his teeth. The fox nodded once to Naruto before zipping out of sight to their left.

"I just told Ero-sennin the situation has changed. He told me to keep him informed." Naruto explained. Kakashi nodded. After a moment of silence, Gai (who had been mysteriously missing for a while) appeared. He looked slightly frazzled, and Naruto noticed the older man had been burned slightly, by a Katon jutsu probably.

"I checked the perimeter; there are quite a few ninja teams in this area. What is this scroll of anyway?" Gai asked, increasing his speed while indicating that they were followed, using ANBU hand signs. The jounin followed Gai's lead, with Naruto trailing behind, apparently unaware of the new danger. Th jounin assumed, and Naruto let them.

Well, that old pervert did always go on about "hiding your strengths"... the look on his face when he realizes I actually listened... is going to be priceless.

Naruto mused, trying to appear ignorant.

"Don't know exactlyabout what the scroll is really about, but there's lotsa jutsu to break into people's minds and to send them different dreams and stuff. Pretty dangerous things. There's like this one jutsu where you can torture you victim through dreams." Naruto answered after a moment of thinking.

"You opened the scroll?" Kakashi questioned. Naruto nodded.

"I'm the one who found the scroll in the first place. It was on one of mine and Ero-sennin travels. This grazy old woman gave it to me. All she would say was; 'every prophet in their own house. Subconscious is a tricky river. The one with the blood-line shall see.'... Pretty weird, huh?"

Kakashi could only nod.

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

"All right. This is going nowhere..." Anko huffed. "Our pursuers are going to catch up on us before we reach Konoha. This scroll seems pretty dangerous, so we should make really sure we get it to the Hokage safe.

So, I and somebody else is going to stay behind to take care of the grass nins. We'll just have to hope that the rock nins haven't gotten ahead of us." Anko explained her plan to the others sitting by the fire.

They had set camp in a clearing a half-day travel from Konoha, making Naruto gather the fire ingredients. Naruto had felt it was injustice, but had soon discovered that tricking Gai to do most of the work had been easy. Genma had taken care of dinner while Anko made some snotty remark of her hair. A moment of silence before all of the jounins laughed.

Naruto had felt perfectly at home.

There was no nagging from Sakura, no disproval from Sasuke, and most importantly, no mask to put to play. Ever since Naruto had been small, he had always felt more at home with grown up people. He knew what they expected of him, and what he could expected from them.

But with teens of equal age Naruto often didn't know how to act. So, for the most of the time, he let them believe their first impresions.

Naïve. Ignorant. Stupid. Useless. Weak.

When they expected nothing of him, they wouldn't get disappointed either --whatever their expectations.

"Ah! I shall help this noble lady in her quest to protect the scroll!" Gai exclaimed. Anko tried to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace.

"Thanks Gai. There's no other taijutsu user I would rather have backing me up." Anko finally forced out. Gai beamed, his white teeth almost blinding them. Gai used Anko's temporary shock to drag her off the clearing, towards where they came from.

"Put me down! No! But what about my dangooooo!"

---------------------------------------
A/N: As stated above, some major (minor really, but this darn fic is getting long) is going on, so if you notice anything extremely strange. Some lands or dates not matching or anything, please drop me a note. And have patience with the updates. On their way. Slowly, but still.