"WHAT!?" the exclamation shook the room. "Whaddyou mean I have to go back?" The familiar blonde loudmouth in orange voiced his protest to Tsunade in her office.

"Naruto! Shut up!" Tsunade droned, "God, I swear I've gone deaf from all your screaming!"

"But", Naruto protested, "Why? I'm working A-Rank missions now! I'm too old to go back to school!"

"Not that anyone could tell by the way you act!" She snapped. "Naruto, pay attention to what I'm trying to tell you and let me finish this time!"

"Fine", Naruto grumbled, crossing his arms and plopping down into a chair adjacent to the Hokage's desk.

"Anyway", Tsunade continued, "as I was saying, I've selected certain teams to go on an extremely important mission."

"Yeah", Naruto interrupted, "the mission is going back to school!"

"Naruto", Tsunade said calmly, "this is a mission and you will treat it like one! Besides, she smirked, this is no ordinary school."

"I know!" He yelled, "it's Konoha's school of ninjutsu! I know because I've already been there and graduated!"

"No, no", Tsunade shook her head. "You're going to a special school to acquire abilities outside the average ninja's arsenal."

"Why?" He retorted, "I've got training to do! I don't have time to go to some school to learn… basket weaving!"

"I assure you Naruto, this is no ordinary mission, and they are not ordinary schools, where you'll learn the best... basket weaving techniques around."

Naruto searched for words with which to continue the argument, but was interrupted by the door behind them opening. Through it came Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, bowing to Tsunade.

"Good, you're all here. Uchiha, if you will, I've had some trouble convincing Naruto to accompany you on this mission."

Sasuke nodded and answered by smacking Naruto on the back of the head, murmuring "idiot." Sakura giggled, as she often did when Sasuke disciplined Naruto, which happened often.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, aiming a punch at Sasuke, but missing.

Sakura noticed Tsunade watching with an amused look and waiting patiently, so she elbowed her teammates, signaling for them to stop.

"I assume the messengers I sent told you the general mission parameters, correct?"

Sasuke and Sakura nodded, Naruto looked dumbstruck. As soon as his messenger had told him the mission involved school, Naruto had taken off running to debate the issue with the Hokage.

"Good", said Tsunade, ignoring Naruto's blank look. "I will further debrief you on the mission." She continued lecturing, "as you know, a ninja is specially trained and equipped to handle any situation."

All three of them nodded their agreement.

"Since the attack on Konoha we suffered through last Chuunin Exam, something has been nagging me. Now I know what. During that time, we had to call on other villages' ninja for help, otherwise we never would've made it."

Again, the three nodded, though somewhat reluctantly, they all remembered that time.

"I know it has been a long time since then, but I have a bad feeling about the future. I don't think we can take another attack like that, with Konoha still in disrepair and some of our strongest ninja gone. So I made a decision to take various teams, while you're still young and can learn quickly and well, for special training. You will be Konoha's last line of defense if anything like Orochimaru's raid ever happens again. Don't make me remind you that we lost the last Hokage to that attack (Naruto tensed at the mention of the Fifth Hokage), I don't want to lose anyone else. Do you understand me so far?"

Three heads bobbed up and down again.

"But Tsunade-sama", interrupted Sakura, "what's that got to do with the mission? We have to go to school to be guardians of Konoha?"

"In a sense. I have been thinking on this long and hard, trying to find a way that we can have a superior defense force so that we won't ever be in danger like that again. I think I may have found the solution."

Naruto, his curiosity aroused, asked "What is it?"

"I want to train Konoha's young ninja to be more than just ninja, my dream is to create a new kind of super- ninja with abilities normal ninjas will never know."

"You aren't gonna mutate us into horrible super- monsters, are you?" Asked Naruto, horrified.

"You idiot," Sasuke breathed. "Of course not."

Tsunade looked like she was about to burst out laughing, but she regained her composure.

"No, Naruto, nothing as drastic as that. " Though, She thought, it might be worth a try…

"Then what?" Asked Naruto, rapidly getting impatient.

"Your mission… is to go to a place called Soul Society."