Chapter One: Chimamire

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Disclaimer - as per usual, only the things I made up myself are my own.

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The nightmares woke him up again.
Sitting up in bed he took notice of his surroundings. His sheets, damp with sweat, were twisted at the foot of the bed, and - strangely - the pillow was on the opposite side of the room shoved under the dresser.

Naruto sighed, getting up and padding across the wooden floor to dislodge the pillow from beneath the dresser. As he straightened up he saw his reflection in the mirror and grimaced.

Black bags hung under his red veined eyes. His hair, usually spiky and wild, was pressed flat against his head. He ran a hand through the yellow locks, sighing when he realized he needed a haircut. His hair was long enough to put back with a tie. He rubbed his chin, sighing again when he realized that he still didn't have the faintest signs of facial hair.

No wonder he was so often underestimated by his enemies, he looked like a genin.
At least when he was with his ANBU squad the mask covered his shame, and only members of his team could make teasing remarks suggesting he'd yet to hit puberty.

The Konoha jounin made a face, turning away from the mirror and heading to the loo. He needed to brush his teeth, he could taste his own bad breath and the fuzz on his teeth was completely disgusting. No wonder Sakura turned him down last night at the hospital once he'd been released. A quick calculation told him that it'd been at least two weeks since he last had the time to take care of his personal hygiene. ANBU missions weren't all fun and games, sometimes you had to forgo important things like birthday parties, bathing, brushing your teeth, and worst of all, ramen.

Yawning as he leaned over the slowly filling sink, the events of the previous two weeks replayed through Naruto's head. They'd been extremely lucky, and no one had been killed. He himself had taken the only injury, and it wasn't all that bad despite what Sakura-chan and Tsunade-sama claimed.

He couldn't say as much for the Stone Ninja they'd come up against.

With sudden urgency Naruto plunged his hands into the water and began scrubbing at them furiously. He could still smell the metallic tang of blood, no matter how many times he washed them. He continued stubbing until the water was cold and pink with blood, he'd rubbed his hands raw yet again. Sakura-chan would kill him if she saw. Sighing he let out the plug and dried his hands on a towel before opening the medicine cabinet behind his mirror and pulling out a roll of white gauze and a jar of Hinata's salve.

The herbal lotion soothed his sore hands and filled the small washroom with the smell of sage and lilacs.

Once he'd finished bandaging his hands Naruto replaced the jar in to the cabinet and stared at himself in the mirror. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a rubber band and used it to tie his hair back at the base of his skull. He looked very different. For one childish second he picked up the bar of soap from its frog shaped tray and used it to draw a goatee on his reflection in the mirror. He grinned for a moment, then dropped the soap back into its dish. He'd been told to report to the Hokage's office first thing in the morning, and one of the things that Naruto had learned with ANBU was punctuality. It still freaked out lots of people out when he showed up not only on time but anywhere between fifteen minutes to an hour early. Of course, that's only if they aren't already freaked out by the transformation of Konoha's number one hyperactive ninja into a serious eyed, if not aloof, ANBU squad member.

After locking up the small apartment he'd lived in since childhood, the black and grey clad ninja slowly walked down the near empty streets. A few neighbours waved from their windows as he passed, a few more slammed their shutters closed and pulled their children close. ANBU could be both a blessing and a curse.

Luckily he was right on time for the decided blessing half of the equation.

"Naruto-kun," Ayame waved to the blonde ninja as he entered the Ramen noodle shop. "What can we get you for breakfast today? Pork? Shrimp? Chicken?"

Naruto smiled and broke open his chop sticks. "Just pork today, Ayame-chan."

One free meal a day at his favourite Ramen shop seemed like a fair trade for being an ANBU, Naruto decided. Of course, it didn't happen right away. For the most part up until a year ago, two after he made it onto ANBU, Naruto still enjoyed the same appetite he had since he was a kid at the academy. When he saved Ayame's life during a raid, out of gratitude her father offered Naruto the complimentary free meal a day. Coincidentally it was during that same raid that Konoha's number one hyperactive ninja lost his appetite, as well as his hyperactive and sunny disposition.

The Konoha 11 were scattered that day...

Naruto looked down at his bowl and saw more than half of it was still there... but he wasn't hungry anymore. He hated to waste good ramen. Struggling, he choked the rest of the delicious meal down, but it just tasted like ash in his mouth. With a wave and forced smile to the ever lovely Ayame, Naruto took his leave and continued on his way to the imposing building with the symbol for fire written in bold red.

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Shizune watched Naruto walking from the grand window of Tsunade-sama's office, concern rolling off of her in waves so strong that it was distracting the Hokage from her paperwork... though it was as ever a simple thing to do, distracting her from the piles and piles of paperwork she went at great lengths to avoid taking care of, that is.

"Its Naruto, isn't it?" Tsunade said, without looking up from the doodle of Jiraiya being squished by a frog she had been working on while Shizume wasn't looking.

The Hokage's apprentice nodded, fingering the needles hidden in her sleeves. "He's just so different, I keep expecting him to come bouncing in making loud demands and bragging about himself."

Tsunade set down her pen and rested her chin on her hands. "It will have been a full year tomorrow since the raid."

"And three years the day after since he made ANBU." Shizune frowned. She knew the statistics - ANBU had a life expectancy of five years in the field. Very few made it past the five year mark, and for very few reasons. Three to be exact. One: if they are killed or seriously wounded in battle and are unable to return to duty. Two: if they retire of their own free will or are discharged, and third: if or when they snap.

"I know what you are thinking, Shizune," Konoha's top ninja sighed, picking up her pen again and finishing the last piece of paperwork on the current pile she was working on. "And you're right. He's getting close to his breaking point. I'm taking him off ANBU."

Shizune turned around with surprise. "Will he go along with that? I know he's calmed down, but I'm envisioning the two of you yelling and things flying around the room." She eyed the priceless vase sitting near the edge of Tsunade's desk and slowly made her way over to it, removing it from such a careless position and setting it up on a high shelf.

Tsunade watched her grown up apprentice with amusement. "I imagine he'll protest, but he's exhausted and in no shape to be on serious missions right now... no, I have a better plan for him."

"What does this have to do with Sakura-chan, Lee-san and Kakashi-sama?" Shizune looked down at the small discs, now old and weathered from use, with the small images of the surviving original 'Konoha 11' as they were called, and their sensei's. The three she'd mentioned set apart from the others along with Naruto's.

Tsunade grinned almost maliciously, even as a knocking on the door announced Naruto's arrival, and held up a slip of paper with the words 'D Rank Mission' written in large scrawling characters across the top. "I thought a little reunion and R&R was in order."

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So... whatcha think so far? This is my first Naruto fic and I wrote it up one of my many insomniac nights. I have a few more chapters ready to upload, but after that I've hit a writer's block. Anyone with suggestions, feel free to toss them into the ring.
Toots and thanks for reading.