"Man, Shikamaru-san is such a liar," Naruto moaned, staring up at the clouds passing overhead. "This is just plain boring. I'd rather train or something."

It had been eleven months since his encounter with Aiyoru. Since then, things had gone smoothly with Hinata.

Two months ago he had moved out of his dreary apartment and into a spare room of the Hyuuga residence. Hiashi had, of course, fought it every step of the way; always to be silenced by a quick appearance by Neji.

At the time of Naruto's moving in, Neji had departed; having obtained a place to live with Tenten.

"Hinata-chan…" he though sadly. "When will you be coming back?"

Two weeks ago, she had been sent on a B-rank mission. Though two weeks wasn't that long, he had become so accustomed to having her around, that the separation left him listless. It had become so bad that he had even consulted Shikamaru for what to do for fun.

"You should have known better, kid." Kyuubi commented. "That brat enjoys playing a war game that doesn't even have bloodshed."

"Shougi?"

"That's the one."

"Well, what would you do for fun?" Naruto asked.

"Kukuku, just leave everything up to me, kid. You're going to have a good time tonight."

Ebisu walked down the street happily, having just finished watching a late showing of the newest of the Come Come movies in theater. "Ah! How wonderful! I can't wait until it comes to DVD."

Suddenly, he heard the sound of air being cut and he hastily hopped left, receiving a tear on his right sleeve as a kunai flew by. Staying on guard, he looked over his shoulder to find another knife on its way and a head of frizzy blond hair falling behind the peak of a roof.

"Wait, that couldn't be the Kyuubi brat, could it?" He thought to himself, nimbly avoiding the second attack, gathering chakra in his feet, and bounding towards the building on which he had seen his assailant.

Landing on the rooftop, small sparks caught his attention. Looking down, he noticed a series of exploding tags in the first stage of detonation.

Without a second thought, he cast himself off the building; narrowly avoiding the explosion and, after landing, he made sure to avoid any of the falling debris.

"I saw the tags clearly, those were set for only thirty seconds; Naruto's still nearby," Ebisu thought to himself as he looked about, finding only a couple frightened of villagers fleeing and few more gathering to see what had happened. "Kuso, he's not here…there's no way that brat could be so far away in this short of time for me to be unable to find him; he must have improved from Jiraiya-sama's training. Even if I face him, alone I'm at a disadvantage. For now, I'll report to Hokage-sama."

Casting one final look at the crowd to ensure that he couldn't spot the blond genin or a feeble henge no jutsu, he took off towards Tsunade's office.

Little did he know that his assassin was hiding, ginning, not far from the scene of the crime. "I didn't get to see some blood, but his escape should put in a bit of fear into the hearts of these people. Well, I've got work to do; some blood must be spilled before dawn."

"Kuso, why me? And why this late?" Tsunade cringed inwardly at the gathering of shinobi before her.

"You're all certain about what you've seen?" she asked wearily.

"Quite, Hokage-sama." Genma replied with a sigh.

Ebisu nodded in agreement, along with the three others.

"He got me with a shuriken," Izumo added, showing the slight wound on his left thigh. "Before he managed to escape, I clearly saw his face. Unless there's another blond ninja with whiskers, the Kyuubi boy has become dangerous."

Tsunade stretched her arms before leaning forward in her chair and resting her chin on her fingers. "I admit that I cannot disregard the testimonies from so many, but it doesn't seem like something he'd do. For now, Genma, I'd like you to keep him under surveillance. If you catch him making another attempt, report to me immediately and something will be done."

"Certainly, Hokage-sama."

"Dismissed."

"Hai!" the gathering shouted, disappearing in a blur.

"Naruto couldn't be the killer, of course…what's inside him on the other hand…" she thought worriedly.

Early the next morning Naruto woke to find that he sitting on the ground propped up against one of the inside corners of the property's outer walls.

"What happened last night?" he wondered, looking down at himself his eyes went wide at the sight before him.

The front of his jacket was stained red with the blood of an unknown victim; splatter appearing on his pants, sleeves, and, most of all, on his hands.

"W-what'd I do? Baka-kitsune, tell me what you did when I gave you control!" he demanded angrily.

The only reply he was able to force from the demon inside of him, was a steady snoring.

"Damn it, this isn't funny! Whose blood is this? What did you do?"

Still receiving no reply, Naruto did the first sensible thing that came to mind: sneak into his room, change his clothes, and discretely clean the soiled ones.

Willokmmen, bienvenue, welcome! Here's the first chapter of the sequal to "Shinobi for Hire". I realize that it's been a long time, but I've been busy working on three stories over at FictionPress (same user name), and with work thrown into the mix, I haven't been able to get much writing done. This chapter was made a priority to show those who enjoyed "Shinobi for Hire" that I am, in fact, going to write the sequal; the only problem is that I won't be updating regularily, and it's going to take me quite some time between chapters. Maybe posting this without at this point is a little bit cruel, but it'll remind you that I am still alive and give you a taste of what will be happening. Now for the review from my previous story:

DemonCloudStrife: Sorry for taking so long, but (as explained above) it'll be a slow moving project. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

anon.: To the person/people who left these: thanks...I think.

KunochiDreamer: Thank you for the blessing of good fortune. I don't know how well it's doing for this story, but I can assure you that it carried over to FictionPress.

Until I can update again.

P.S.: if you would want speed over length, I could post chapters every 500 words instead of 1000 like I'm used to. If so, let me know. Thank you.