Thanks go to Payce D. Elui, Lady Kyuri, and Nemrut for helping me edit this.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

I was on my way to ANBU HQ yesterday when I noticed a child's laughter nearby. There was a playground, and I had heard that particular kind of giggling before. You were enjoying yourself with some of your friends. It made me remember a mission from nearly three years ago.

Kill Bosko of the Hidden Stone, rank: Jounin. Simple as that. I can't remember the details anymore, the exact reasons behind it. Maybe I had never been told to begin with. Doesn't matter.

I travelled to the border post Iwagakure had set up recently; Bosko had been put in charge. One ruthless bastard, Intelligence said, a hardliner craving for war. Transferring someone like him to the border was a provocation in itself.

I got chosen to take the bait. Maybe there were no more reasons for him to be targeted than this, come to think of it. To show them that we could deal with these sorts of things. That we weren't weak.

Anyways, the security there was tight. Even during the night, I never got far with my infiltration attempts. Multiple layers of trap seals, an excessive number of guards, and at least one sensor-nin made it impossible to sneak in.

I probed their defences for a week, but nothing changed. When the prey didn't let me in, then I would wait outside.

It turned out to be one of the most time-consuming miscalculations I ever made. The guy simply never left.

Took me five weeks to be absolutely sure of that. Maybe they had noticed me and made sure their commander couldn't get targeted, maybe he got sick and was bedridden, I don't know.

I had a small camp in the woods, north-west of the outpost. They never look for infiltrators in their own hinterland. It was an old forest, ancient by every standard. Untouched by humans. People in Earth Country thought of it as some kind of sacred or venerable place for whatever reason. It was a beautiful piece of landscape. Even when I set it on fire.

It didn't take too long before a blazing wall illuminated the night. Made for fascinating shadows.

I slipped right through the midst of the dozens of incoming shinobi; their eyes were fixed on the inferno. The seals meant to trap, delay, and kill invaders were useless against someone who had spent weeks studying them. The sensor that had coordinated their effort before, lacked manpower to organize a proper hunt, the few shinobi he had set up chasing a Shadow Clone. I suppressed my chakra the best I could. I have been told that I'm pretty good at that.

So, all that was left to do was to avoid being seen. And that's my real specialty. Will be yours, too, when I'm done with you. The night will be your hunting ground, the shadows your shield.

I slipped from one dark corner to the next, the orange glow always at my back. The command hub wasn't hard to find; in cases like this, always go for the biggest building around. Works often enough.

I expected the killing to start any second now, to reach the point where stealth alone wouldn't help me anymore. Don't give in to illusions. No matter how good you are with the sneaking, that time comes. Every mission.

The staircase it was, that night; a squad of four was guarding the dim-lit wooden steps. Their formation was sloppy. I managed to bring myself between the one on the lowest level and the rest of the lot without them noticing. One hand covering his mouth, I slit his throat open.

The next two stood together, chatting, just beside the exit to the second floor. For each, I threw one kunai, immediately followed by a Body Flicker. One got hit in the head and slumped to the ground, the other deflected the missile but couldn't avoid the incoming sword slash. He groaned, and a second thrust was needed to finish him off.

By that time, the last guard had noticed me. His eyes raced, from his dead comrades to the exit beside him, to me and back again. The man couldn't decide what to do. When he finally made a move, I was already in front of him. He parried my first sword strike with a kunai, drew another one and deflected my next attack as well. I couldn't afford a long duel, went down on my knees and slashed at his lower body. He couldn't hope to counter in time with his short reach. He fell. A last slash decapitated him.

If your target is valuable, treasured, or high up in the food chain, always go for the place with the most guards. In this case, the second floor. There was some kind of lobby, a long hallway lead out of it. Rooms were left and right, but I didn't bother to check them.

I ended up in front of a heavy wooden door. It was instinct, a gut feeling if you will, but I knew Bosko waited on the other side. Maybe he had predicted someone would be coming for him. Maybe he had prepared a sophisticated trap to catch me at the last second. Maybe the whole building would explode once I were to enter that room. But the sensor would pick up on some of his ally's signatures having disappeared sooner or later. There wasn't much time left.

I opened the door, just a hand's breadth, and tossed in a flash bang. There was no high-pitched noise or bright light I could notice from outside the room, even feared that it might have been a dud. Only one way to find out.

To charge head on into a room where you expect the enemy to be in should never be considered an option. For me, this time, it worked out. The grenade had done its job just fine, only the office turned out to be completely soundproof. Bosko crouched over his heavy desk, both hands pressed over his eyes. He had most likely looked directly into it. There were two lit candles, but most of the light came from the outside. The north-western wall was a huge window, the inferno still raging in the distance. I wanted to end it quickly, someone might have noticed the dazzling flash.

Bosko began to thrash around, threw scrolls and books at no particular target, wiped his desk clean from everything. One of the candles landed on a pile of papers. He was screaming, yelling, after his subordinates for help and curses at whoever had done this. I had closed the door behind me. Blind, deaf, and confused like that, even a Jounin is no enemy. I pierced his heart.

You wanted to know why you sometimes feel like you don't belong here at all? Where the mountains went? Well, this is it.

On my way out, still on the second floor and with a new fire expanding at my back, I suddenly heard a child's laughter in a room nearby. It was you, playing with a stuffed animal.

This was the story how I killed your father.

Thanks for reading.