Shade; an elite ANBU squad that for all intensive purposes, does not exist. Follow their adventures through the Naruto universe.

Note: I tweaked the timeline to my liking. The first flashback happens after the first retrieval mission when the Shippuden portion starts. I also felt it was bullshit how little Naruto learned on his training trip. So in my AU, he knows sage mode from Jiraiya, all the non elemental rasengans, some level of control over Kyubbi, and advanced taijutsu.

*unknown location*

3...2...1... Counted down the fingers on the masked man's hand. As soon as the last finger dropped, the group dispersed in a blur, barely disturbing the surrounding vegetation.

2 men, walking, 12'oclock. 2 men, 2 guard towers, 11 and 2'oclock signaled another masked man by using his hands. Relaying the signal to his other 2 squad members, he made 3 horizontal circles with his hand, signaling the start of the operation. The man high in the trees placed seals on 2 caged squirrels, and sent them towards the patrolling guards.

"What was that?"

"You are way to jumpy for guard duty" said the clearly more experienced guard as the 2 squirrels scampered to the wall of the compound and climbed up it.

"Hey, I'm just a chunin, and with all the activity lately, you can't blame me for being a little on edge." replied the younger guard.

One shadow like figure used this opportunity to sneak to the wall of the compound. Flashing through hand seals, He quickly merged with the wall, moments later sticking his head out to check for hostiles. Dashing to the target building, he quickly used chakra to adhere to the wall, climbing to the target window. He peaked his head to the edge of the window, and checked for any people inside.

"No hostiles. Spectre, cover me" whispered the infiltrator into his radio.

"Roger"

He silently pulled out a kunai and channeled wind chakra into it, cutting off as much of the window as possible while simultaneously placing his other hand on the glass, channeling chakra through it to prevent it from falling. Once he completed it, the masked man quickly sealed the missing glass, and then ran through more seals, casting a genjutsu over the removed window. The masked intruder than proceeded to enter through the window, and quickly examined the room before using the radio.

"Objective bravo completed, requesting exit."

"You are clear, proceed with mission" crackled the voice over the radio.

The apparition like man disappeared out of the compound quickly silently, with no one the wiser about his activities.

*Konoha*

A young woman walked to work, going through the paces of a typical week. She would smile and greet her friends, but anyone who knew the pink haired woman could see the dull look in her eyes. Could sense that some of the fire that once coursed through her, was now extinguished. The green eyed woman had developed nicely from the large fore headed, 12 year old genin of old. She looked much more mature and shapely, and had an aura of power an authority around her. That's what happens when you are the apprentice to the Godaime Hokage, Tsuanade.

The sadness that permeated the near perfect facade of cheerfulness was evident to few. The reasons for this were known to many though.

Flashback

Sakura and Naruto were not on speaking terms. She was furious at him. How could her loyal blonde friend turn around and betray her so suddenly? He had promised to bring Sasuke back and protect him, and now the Uchila avenger was going to be executed! By none other than Naruto himself! When she had yelled and screamed at him for it, he had just looked at her and said "Sasuke will be killed regardless if I do it or not. I volunteered for it. No one should kill him but me." the coldness is his normally bright blue eyes had shut her up at the time. They hadn't talked since, and now here in the chunin exam stadium, Sasuke was tied to a platform in the center, with Naruto standing nearby. Tsuanade quieted the crowd and her booming voice echoed throughout the stadium.

"For defecting Konoha and assisting one of the greatest traitors known to Konoha, you are sentenced to death. The Sharingan is apparently a cursed bloodline where the users cannot stay loyal to anyone but themselves. And such, it ends here."

The solemn blonde shinobi then turned towards his former best friend.

"Any last words?"

"You claim to be my best friend, and yet you stop me from achieving my dreams!" spat the last Uchila. "You are no friend of mine."

"You are right, we aren't friends." deadpanned Naruto as he whipped through hand signs as his eyes met the platform. While lightning appeared on his right hand and his left hand grabbed his wrist, Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise before they were replaced by anger. "I considered you my brother."

"How dare you use my own technique against me? Fuck you Naruto, you are not my brother and my only brother killed everyone I cared about! I will never find happiness until I kill him!" screamed the raven-haired avenger. "I hope you burn in the fiery... pits..." trailed his voice as Naruto looked up at his best friend. The tears streaming down Naruto's face shocked Sasuke more than the chidori rammed through his chest did.

Too quiet for the crowd to hear, the crying shinobi whispered to his dieing friend "May you find the peace and happiness in the afterlife that you could not find here. I will miss you."

As the light left his eyes, Sasuke's last words were "Thank you, brother".

These last words put Naruto over the edge. He couldn't handle the pain of losing his friend and the tears came in earnest. He turned around to leave the stadium before a physical pain tore at his chest. Looking through his tear streaked eyes, Naruto saw a blood covered sword return through the hole in his chest that the sword originally caused, before he slumped to the ground and blackness overtook him. The crowd stood in stunned silence before the ANBU announced to the crowd "By order of the council, the demon child was executed for his crimes against the village and for causing the insanity and death of the last Sharingan user." The ANBU shunshined away before anyone had time to react.

Sakura was the first to act. Despite the shock of watching one of her teammates killed, and the second one dieing in front of her, she charged to the center of the stadium as the stadium exploded in noise. Screams, shouts and general mayhem erupted as the civilians and ninjas alike scrambled in all directions. ANBU quickly grabbed the Hokage and tried to take her to the Hokage tower, as Tsuanade seemed to be in shock. Meanwhile, Shikaku quickly ordered any remaining ANBU to quickly search for the rouge one that had stabbed the blonde haired savior. Kakashi meanwhile had advanced to the center of the stadium; his Sharingan uncovered and stood guard over the pink-haired medic frantically trying to heal her friend.

'Shit, it missed his heart, but it punctured his left lung and there appears to be a poison within his body from the wound. It is shutting down his organs and I can't remove them fast enough.'

Pulling herself out of her spiraling thoughts, Sakura quickly snapped an order to Kakashi "I need Shizune down here ASAP, as well as Tsuanade as soon as she is able. Naruto will die without their help." With an urgency never seen from the copy ninja before, two shadow clones popped into existence and shot off towards their respective targets. Shizune was quick to join Sakura and immediately tried to stop the spread of the poison while the younger medic started extracting it in a similar manner to how she removed the poison from Kankuro.

Over near Tsuanade, Kakashi's clone had arrived but was quickly stopped by the guarding ANBU. "Stay back, our protocol clearly states no one is allowed near the Hokage during crisis situations".

"As former ANBU captain and ranking Jounin, I order you to move out of my way." The ANBU, realizing Kakashi was one of the most senior Shinobi in Konoha, quickly stepped aside and were shocked when Kakashi slapped the leader of the Village. "Get your shit together now Tsuanade. Your adopted son is dieing while you go into shock. Help him! Save him! Don't let him die like so many of my comrades before him. Like so many of your comrades before him. Don't let all I consider family forever disappear" the grey-haired man all but pleaded. And it worked, as his words reached Tsuanade. With a roar, Tsuanade moved past speeds rivaling Gai with his gates opened and immediately reached Naruto's side. Sakura snapped a status report and explained that her original apprentice had only managed to slow the spread of the toxins into Naruto's organs, and Sakura was struggling to extract the poison. Tsuanade immediately ran her own diagnostic and as quickly as possible, healed Naruto's lung before moving to assist Shizune in controlling the poison. Sakura had already passed her in terms of removing poisons and forming antidotes. With the legendary medics help, the youngest medic of the three removed the last dredges of poison with a sign of relief. Suddenly, their patient started to convulse. "Naruto!" yelled the three medics together before their training kicked in. Sakura and Shizune held down the flailing blonde while Tsuanade once again ran a diagnostic Jutsu.

"Shit, the first poison was also an inhibitor for a second poison, and this one is a powerful neurotoxin. It is already destroying all the nerve connections to his organs! Kakashi, hold down Naruto, now!" The cyclopean ninja jumped into action and held the genin down while the 3 medics tried to control and remove the poison. "His heart is failing! 3, 2, 1, Stat!" shouted the lead medic as she forced a blast of chakra towards her adopted son's failing heart. This was repeated several times, to no avail. By now, several of their friends had arrived and stood in a worried circle.

"Time of death, 12:37 p.m. Cause: Stab wound and poison leading to heart failure." came the dead sounding voice of their once bright leader. She slowly rose to her feet and walked away, not once looking back at any of the loyal shinobi behind her. Her first apprentice summoned a body bag, and with tears in her eyes, helped place the body onto a stretcher when the hospital medics arrived. Kakashi and his only remaining student both stared at their hands in horror. Once again, the lone loyal Sharingan user had failed to protect his friends. With a cry of rage and a burst of lightning, the formed ANBU captain disappeared to an unknown location. Hinata approached the pink haired medic and started to wipe the blood of her hands and clothes.

"Sakura, it is not your fault. You did everything you could to save him" came the compassionate and surprisingly strong voice of the Hyuga Heiress. While she had overcome many of her insecurities, the feelings she had for the now dead blonde were commonly known. No one expected her calm reaction.

"I watched him die Hinata. He died in my hands. I wasn't good enough. I wasn't good enough to stop my first teammate from leaving. I wasn't good enough to save my second teammate when he needed me. I am never good enough to help the people around me. I'm useless" whispered the distraught girl before the floodgates opened and she cried into Hinata's open arms. "Shhh, shhh, it will all be okay Sakura. Let it all out."

*Fast forward several days*

The memorial for Naruto was a solemn affair. Most of the ninja population came to his grave. Aside from the few who hated him, Kakashi was the only notable missing person. The cliché rain poured down on the village, crying for the loss of such a pure soul.

Kakashi ran his hand over the latest name to be added to the memorial stone. Namikaze Naruto. 'I am so sorry sensei. I failed your legacy and I failed to protect someone who had become a younger brother to me. You all would be ashamed of me. I slacked and the people around me died. It is time that I change my life around, so the few people left, I truly can protect. Instead of moping, I will truly not fail this time. I only hope you can all forgive me for my past failings."

*Flashback end*

Thus was the cause of the sadness permeating though the pink-haired beauty, and the village itself.

*back with the masked group*

"Alright team, we have 4 hours until the enemy arrives. Our intel suggests it is a powerful escort, anywhere between 10-15 Jounin level Ninja. On top of Kakuzu potentially being here personally" came the instructions of the apparent leader of the group. He wore a dark grey mask with a small brown deer where his forehead would be. Traditional ANBU armor adorned him, including the standard issue tanto strapped to his back. He, along with the rest of his squad, wore a balaclava to hide his hair. "Our main target is the man being escorted. If our intel is correct, he will not be bringing the money he is supposed to exchange with Akatsuki, so killing him during this meeting will stop Akatsuki from obtaining more funding."

"Why can't we just go in and kill them all?" came the enthusiastic outburst of the ANBU wearing a black mask with a light blue wolf between the eye holes of the mask. He was dressed in all black ANBU armor and had one tanto strapped horizontally to his belt above his lower back, as well as two shortened Katanas strapped in an X across his back.

"Shut up Ghost. The goal is to take out Akatsuki, not get ourselves killed." snapped back the black and red mask of another member. His symbol was a red circle in the same location as his peers and he wore similar black armor as ghost. The ANBU member had a single katana strapped to his hip as his only distinguishing weapon.

"Watch the attitude Wraith, we are a team, remember?" stated the feminine voice of the 4th member of the team. She also wore an all black ANBU uniform, and a black mask. Her symbol was 2 blue Kunais in an X pattern. A katana was strapped to her hip. Across her back, an unusual metal apparatus was present.

"Enough!" came the stern, but quiet voice of their leader, Phantom. "Our mission is set, we follow orders. We do not fail and we do not get caught. The plan is simple, and Ghost accomplished all the pre-work needed yesterday. Wraith and Spectre, go to the location you scouted earlier. Ghost, on me, we are scouting the entrance. Move out."

A chorus of "Hai!" rang out before everyone moved to their positions in a blur.

On the hill overlooking the small fort, Spectre removed the equipment from her back and started assembling it. A long barrel, barely separated into two halves was screwed into the metal base, where an apparent trigger and stock were also attached. Attaching a small scope to the top of the device, it quickly became apparent it was some type of projectile device (think a sniper rifle, M82 style for those who know much about rifles). She then proceeded to attack two wires, one to each portion of the barrel, and handed them to Wraith, who proceeded to release lightning chakra for a short time. After he completed charging the weapon, he disconnected the wires and handed them back to Spectre, who quickly sealed them away. Spectre then proceeded to load a strange looking kunai into the weapon. It was essentially a cylindrical version of one but was clearly made of 2 different materials and split down the middle. After preparations were made and several hours went by, the only female member of the squad noticed a group of people entering the building. Peering through the scope, her keen eyes scanned through the windows for her target, and any other identifiable enemy.

"Phantom, this is Spectre."

"I copy."

"Kakuzu is indeed here. He is the only enemy I can identify outside of our target. They have sat down and appear to be starting negotiations."

"Roger that, proceed with mission."

The holder of the unusual weapon quickly took aim through the scope, and when the cross hairs lined up, she pulled the trigger. With a quick discharge of electricity, the projectile flew through the air at supersonic speeds and through the missing window that Ghost had removed the night before. The speed of the projectile completely tore off the head of the representative, sending the room into a state of panic. The keen eyes of several of the more experienced Ninja quickly scanned for where the attack came from, but could figure out nothing but a possible direction.

"Target down."

"Retreat to the rendezvous point. Mission accomplished."