A/N: An old fanfiction I found that I actually like. I still remember all of it. I've noticed I have been starting a lot of new fanfictions, so I'm only going to continue this if it gets a good response. Unedited. Flames will be ignored.-RU

I don't own Naruto.

Any other person would have have been long dead.

Naruto Uzumaki, however, was not like any other person. As the blond sprinted through the twisting and turning alleyways, his azure eyes searched every corner and crack trying to find a way out. He heard shots ring out behind him. In desperation, he started climbing a pipe on the wall behind him. The pipe was small and slippery, but he was light and strong. Plus he had a little… advantage. He climbed until he was on a crosswalk between the two office buildings. He climbed over the railing and sat down, resting a moment. Panting, he ran a hand through his hair. How on earth did I get into this mess in the first place?! He thought. It had started out normal enough…

Naruto woke up on the floor in the living room. He blinked in surprise.

"Hey, Shikamaru! Why am I on the floor? I specifically remember going to sleep on the couch…" He looked up at the young man sitting on the couch.

Shikamaru looked down at the floor. Naruto was lying there in only a white T-shirt and boxers. The blonde's hair was messy as usual, and of course his eyes were the same blue as always. His unusual whisker marks on his cheeks twitched as he frowned up at the boy.

"I wanted to watch the news. You were sleeping on the couch, so I had to move you."

"Shikamaru, I always sleep on the couch. You know this."

"Oh, stop being so troublesome. You were sleeping perfectly fine on the ground." The young man was wearing a long sleeved, dark grey shirt. A black, bullet proof vest lay on the couch beside him. The dark blue-gray pants matched the color of the old couch he sat on. Shikamaru wore his dark hair tied up with a white hair band. Lazy, dark brown eyes looked down on Naruto, who took the liberty to continue their argument.

"How would you like it if I pushed you off your bed?"

"You're too lazy to want to do that. You'd have to get up off your couch."

"I'm not as lazy as you, Bambi."

"That was a low blow, Fish face."

"You're one to talk, Pineapple."

"Will you two stop bickering already?" Tenten asked as she stepped in on the scene from the kitchen. The brown haired girl wore her hair in two buns on either side of her head, and a white shirt that seemed to have a slight tint of pink to it. Tenten also wore long, black pants. "If you're going to argue about something, at least argue about something useful."

"Fine." Naruto sighed. He got up and stumbled into Shikamaru's room, still rubbing his bleary eyes. The room was dark, the lights were off and the blinds were closed. An old, torn leather computer chair sat at a computer desk. The laptop was closed but on. The surrounding area was covered in various other electronic gadgets and empty food containers. Naruto stared longingly at the small bed in the middle of the room, but instead made his way to the closet he and Shikamaru shared. He selected long black pants that fell down by his ankles. A dark orange t-shirt replaced the white one, followed by a black long sleeved jacket. He threw on his dark grey combat boots and walked back through the living room and into the kitchen.

Tenten glanced at Naruto as he walked into the kitchen. "Good, you're dressed. I hear Kakashi and Gai got another mission for us, so you better hurry up."

He nodded as he grabbed a cup of instant ramen from the cupboard. "I hope it pays well- we're running low on funds and soon we'll be moving again."

Later that morning, Naruto was jogging in the city. Konoha was a sooty, industrialized place. The upper half of it was filled with high-tech offices and buildings. Tourists would be flooding the city to see the temples and other sights along with the beautiful leaves of the trees the village was named after. The lower half, however, was not such a desirable place. No trees lined the streets here. The economy thrived on crime, and people were all too happy to do whatever you wanted- for a price, of course. Naruto and his group were one of the many people that made a living on this. They had made a reputation for themselves for never asking too many questions and always getting the job done. He grinned as he approached the cafe. It was going to be another interesting day, from what Tenten had told him.

The cafe didn't really have a name. In fact, it was barely a cafe at all. The run-down building had one employee, a fat old lady with an attitude. She huffed and puffed as she served soggy pastries and bland coffee. Despite the terrible food and atmosphere, it was one of the most popular spots for people to request and accept "missions". Kakashi watched his employer. He was dressed in a fancy business suit, with black sunglasses and a pistol holstered on his side. Kakashi eyed the man, nearly laughing out loud. Surely he knows that being dressed like that is bound to get him targeted by someone? That pistol isn't going to help him much against a sniper… Mr. Suit here will either be targeted by a someone else, or arrested by the police because of his gun. He shrugged mentally. If his client was stupid enough to die before he could pay them, then it probably would be better for the business as a whole.

Mr. Suit shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He wasn't particularly comfortable with the silver haired, masked, one eyed man eyeing him. He was thinking about calling it off, but he had agreed to this. Things in the room slowed for a moment as everyone eyed the newest person to enter the room. Mr. Suit gulped nervously as he realized that the young man was heading for their table. Yes, it was definitely too late now.

"Glad you could make it, kid." Kakashi greeted the blonde. The newcomer grinned as he eyed their employer. Tenten was right. This guy really IS out of his league. He thought as he smirked at the guy.

"I assume you already received the basic info from your teammates?" Naruto nodded, and turned to the business man.

"Yeah, I did. So basically, you want us to gain information on this business and turn it into you, right?"

"Correct. I assume a week will be enough time to get the info?"

Naruto thought about is for a moment. "Make that two weeks and we can do it." Kakashi nodded his approval. As they started to debate price, Naruto made his way to the door. He needed to get back to the apartment. He had a job to do.

Tenten wasn't surprised when Naruto said they had accepted the mission. Under any other circumstances they wouldn't have taken it- the mission probably wouldn't pay enough and their employer would most likely be dead before they could be payed. But she understood that any info they collected could also be sold to other people, and Naruto had some personal history with the business they were to spy on. He isn't the only one. She thought.

"So what's the deal?" She asked as they gathered for a meeting at the rickety kitchen table.

"We have two weeks to obtain data on the company. We're looking for company records, CEOs, and data on the... projects they've been working on." Naruto answered, flinching slightly when he said the word project.

"I suppose that means it's up to me to find that info… How troublesome. At least we have plenty of time." Shikamaru said, the boy lazily leaning back on his chair. Tenten glared at the black haired boy.

"Too much time, if you ask me. We're likely to be found out. Ten days would have been plenty." She shrugged, then looked back at Naruto. "You sure you're okay with taking this job? We'll probably end up needing you to make contact with someone." She asked the blonde. "We know your history with them, nobody would blame you if-"

"I'm fine, Tenten." Naruto replied curtly. She sighed, then stood up.

"I guess we should get to work then."

"Agreed. Though it's troublesome, we should probably head to base three."

Naruto nodded in agreement to Shikamaru. "Are we going to do a permanent move?"
"Nah. Gai told me that we may be meeting back at main base so we can pool our new info and funding." With that, they stood up. Preparations needed to be made, and the clock was ticking.

The next couple of days had been pretty uneventful. Shika had found a couple of weaknesses in the security, and was working out a plan to hack them. Tenten had been making equipment runs, buying several new guns and restocking their ammo. Naruto had been mostly lounging around. Their temporary base consisted of a little bunker underneath the ground. It was a decent sized area, with florescent lighting flickering around them. The main door was a grey, inconspicuous thing, squeezed in a tiny alley. The upper area- the "Lounge" as they called it- was just a tiny shack that said door lead into. A couch similar to the one at the apartment, only dark green sat facing an old, cracked TV. The small, run down kitchen had only cold water and evidence of mice living underneath the leaky sink. Leading out of the kitchen was another small door, heading down a darkly lit stairway to the main section of base. As stated earlier, the basement was larger than the shack above. Shikamaru had moved all of his gadgets and it had extra storage space for Tenten's "toys". All in all, base three was a gloomy and run down place.

Naruto was lounging on the couch, as usual. The TV was running the news, as usual. He was tuning it out, more focused on the news Shikamaru had given him later that day.

"Naruto." Shikamaru called, head poking into the living room. "There's been some changes." He said grimly. Shikamaru saw Naruto tense. "We need you to do an info run. We have found an employee that seems to have jumped sides. Well, not necessarily. More like he found a way to rip off a couple hundred thousand credits from the company. He wants to sell all the info he knows before he makes a break for it. We want you to go and purchase the info from him." He explained, watching Naruto's reaction carefully.

"When?"

"Tomorrow. In the lower parts of Konoha." Naruto sighed. He seemed old and tired for his young age of fifteen. Shikamaru eyed him carefully. Naruto was the person that they had the least information on in their entire organization. He understood that Naruto, and some others, were experimented on by ROOT. The had altered their bodies in some way, giving them more power than anybody else. Tsunade, their leader, had been close to Naruto and he was one of the reasons she agreed to lead their organization. She had been reluctant to give information out about him, simply stating that he could be trusted and was useful. They believed her, because she gave them so much information.

They called it Chakra. It was, essentially, the devil's energy. It appeared that Naruto's chakra was forcefully awakened by ROOT, then they were put through painful and inhuman tests. These were designed to expand, power and strengthen their chakra. Chakra could be bended and formed in nearly infinite ways, through the combinations of different mediums. According to the rescued "projects", hand signs were the most common way, but this also included special ink and steel. It could even enhance senses, according to Kiba, Hinata and Neji. Separate types allowed people to perform different things, and that was only scratching the surface. The side effects: Once you awaken it, you need chakra for everything, including living. It was a drug. You run out of it, you die. All in all, it was much too troublesome for the brunette to wrap his head around it. All of them could tell, though, that Naruto had gone through something much more traumatic. He refused to talk about it.

Shikamaru frowned. Naruto was right, he was easily the laziest of everyone in the organization. Nothing ever pushed him to put in energy. Something about his friend intrigued him, though. He had mood swings and a short temper, but was stubborn and loyal. He was slow when it came to strategy, but could react quickly in action situations. With uncanny luck, he was a perfect partner to Shikamaru and Tenten.

"Don't worry, Shika." Naruto said suddenly, interrupting his thoughts. "I promised that I would do anything to harm ROOT, and I always keep my word." Startled, the brunette walked back downstairs. Naruto was unpredictable, strange and a lot more perceptive than people gave him credit for.

Tenten was in the back of the room, cleaning and sharpening knives. An endless array of her weaponry was lining the walls and table. Everything from grenades to guns, and any weapon in between. Yes, she was an expert. Admittedly, though, she always favored her knives. There was just something so… special about them. The cold, hard steel flashed and glittered in the light. It was almost hypnotizing. The knife didn't ask questions. The knife didn't ask for anything, yet it took much. Something about it attracted Tenten, the way it was just a simple object that could so easily be dismissed, but cause so much destruction. Maybe, it was because of how she was constantly teased for her gender. Her father was a weapon producer, and she knew many people, thanks to her father. Setting down her last knife, she turned and looked at Shikamaru.

"What'cha doing?" She asked lazily, walking over and looking at his screen.

"Research." He grunted.

"About what?"

"Must you be so troublesome, woman?" To this, Tenten just rolled her eyes.

"So what's the plan for tomorrow?"

"Too tiring to figure it out today, we'll do it tomorrow morning." He yawned, stood up and stretched. "G'night."

Kakashi was faced with an empty apartment. His one showing eye blinked, half open. Must have moved already. One would think that someone as respected as Kakashi within the shinobi group would know when his team was gone. To his defence, Kakashi was often gone for days, scouting bars and other lowly places for "missions" and a good drink. He scowled darkly when he found his cupboard of sake empty, and a small note near the back.

Dear One eye-

You know where we are.

You better get over here fast, cause mister orange says he's gonna drink all your alcohol. Panda said that if you're bringing spandex too, then we're going again and this time we won't tell you where we are. It's too troublesome, so get over her.

Bambi

Underneath the note was scribbled:

If you let sunshine get drunk again, you're paying the costs.

Lock and load.

Of course, Kakashi knew his group well enough to know that this was, indeed, an authentic note. Sighing, he crumpled up the note and threw it into a pull-out trash can underneath the counter. From under his bulletproof vest he pulled an orange book and walked out the door. Kids can be damn annoying at times.