Theres a group out there, full of strong shinobi. People call them missing-nins but, thats only right for a few. Most of them left before they finished the academy, so they weren't ninja when they left.
They call themselves the Kitsune 12, and they are one of the most powerful and best working teams in any of the hidden villages. No one really knows anything about them, other then their vague pasts before they left the Leaf. People only know the bare minimum and the Kitsune 12 want to keep it that way.
They came together one by one. The first three came around the same time. The Uchiha Massacre is well known in any of the hidden villages, but not many people know that the younger heir, Sasuke Uchiha, didn't blame his brother. His brother, the killer, Itachi Uchiha was going to act like he was insane, to get his brother to hate him, so he can restore the honor of the Uchiha clan. But when he looked back to tell his brother, he caught sight of his brother's face and he couldn't do it.
So Itachi told Sasuke everything.
Sasuke, understanding that his brother had to do this, insisted to come with him. Itachi refused and started to leave. Sasuke tried to follow but was knocked out to get away. Sasuke stayed away from everyone after that, only thinking about a way to find his brother.
Until, of course, he met Naruto and Sakura.
Naruto he met when he saved the blond from a mob. Though nobody understands how, they became best friends, connecting in everything from being alone to having trouble training from people that didn't like them.
(While people liked and respected Sasuke a whole lot more then they did Naruto, they still didn't trust the Uchiha heir.)
Soon, they made a plan. A plan to leave the village and everyone who wanted to use them. They planned and planned, but it was all just the dreams of 8 year olds. They could never plan out all of the detials enough to get the plan off the ground.
That was, until Sakura joined the group.
Sakura didn't have the best home life, and when her parents were killed in an accident a few weeks eariler, she wasn't as sad as you would think. Oh, sure, she would miss her parents, but she would rather be without them. Reconizing someone like them, Sasuke and Naruto quickly befriended her. With her help, the plan soon flew up and above anything Sasuke or Naruto would have thought of on their own.
If Naruto's pranking taught him anything, it was how to sneak around. Soon he had taken half of the ninja scrolls in the library, and since they were never read in the first place (How many ninja went into the library?), no one would notice if some went missing.
At the same time, Sasuke was at the food market, buying everything that would last. Being rich had perks after all, and they had to have something to eat as they learned how to get food from the land.
Meanwhile, Sakura was buying all the clothes she could with the money she got from Sasuke. Out of the three of them, she was the best at guessing sizes. Not only would they need new clothes now during training (as their clothes they had now would proubly rip and break during training), they needed clothes when they hit their growth spurts.
Soon, they were out of town with bags full of scrolls, food, and clothes. It was simple getting out. Who would suspect three 8 year olds leaving town?
And so they traveled every where in the Fire Country, training from Sasuke's Uchiha Clan scrolls and the library's scrolls.
The next two came a year later. Rock Lee and TenTen were the simplest. They just simply got lost while training and Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto found them. Not really having anyone in the village besides each other, they decided to stay with the other three.
This was when the met up with Itachi, by the way. Kisame got a laugh at the sight of Itachi being takled by a 9 year old yelling Aniki. Itachi, after getting over his shock and yelling at his brother and friends for just leaving the village like that, agreed to train them as he traveled from job to job, but only if the kids left when he ordered and met back up with him at certin times. Kisame, after a few meet ups, ended up training them too. Though he would never admit that he enjoyed training the little brats.
(But it did make him happy to answer all of the the "weapon expert's" questions about his sword)
Hinata and Neji came rather soon after that, but they were the hardest. You see, Hinata got kidnapped and Neji got involved at the wrong time and got kidnapped too. When the five found the camp on their way to meet Itachi, they reconized the kids from the village. Not going to let the men get away with kidnapping kids like that, the five quickly anbushed the kidnappers and knocked them out. Neji reconized the older two, Lee and TenTen, and Hinata reconized her old crush and friends. After a bit, they ended up staying with the group. Its not like they had anything on the village, not really. Neji didn't have anyone since his father died, and Hinata's father spent all of his time with the heiress, her younger sister.
The next few came after the became ninjas, just a year ago. With all of those kids missing, tenisons in the Leaf were at a all time high. Clan heads blamed each other left and right, and even a few blamed Naruto, and assainations were everywhere. The Third was, thankfully, able to negate a Civil War, but in the year of assainations had left Kiba's sister and mother dead, and Shino, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji's parents dead. On one of their missions (the only genin in their class so they had a five man squad), the Wave mission, Zabuza had killed their Sensi and would had came after them if Neji and Hinata (who had gotten over most of their issues in the last year with the others) hadn't snuck up behind them and knocked him out. The others had then come out and talked down Haku to leave the Wave alone before asking the Clan heirs if they wanted to come with them or go back to the village.
You can deduce the choice they made.
And that's were we are now. They all grew wonderfully in strength and what one lacked, they learned to use another's strength. For excample, Lee couldn't use chakra, but took to taijustu like a fish to water, so he stays with Neji and Hinata mostly. Kiba and his dog are fast and packs a punch but tire out quickly, so he stays with TenTen, a long range weapons fighter with meidium stamina and Choji, a close range fighter like Kiba but slower and high stamina. Ino and Shikamaru were together for obvious reasons, as their family justus worked well together, and Shino was their to cover them from the other enemies as they got information. Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto, of course, stayed together, having been the first ones to create this group.
The Kitsune 12, as thats what people started calling them once they figure out Naruto was in the group, made a name of themselves by protecting the smaller countries. As they travel around, they meet up with Itachi and Kisame at regular intervals for training, who sometimes brought along Deidara and Sasori, both of which had taken a liking for the young ninjas.
It was one of those meetings that our story begins, about a year after the last five joined, that the Third tracked them down.
xXx
The Third Hokage looked around. He knew that the young ninja were in this area but it was harder then it should have been to figure out where. He knew he was getting close however, as he couldn't acutly sense chakra anymore and reconized it as a simple seal formed around the area.
'If this is the kids, then Naruto must have done it. He's the only one with big enough chakra reserves...' The Third frowned. 'Where did he learn that? When he left, he wasn't that good at ninja arts...'
Not really paying attention and not really expecting much from the young ninjas, the Third didn't sense the person behind him until to was too late. He stopped, but not because he wanted to. He couldn't move and a glance down (which was all he could do) revealed that he was caught in a shadow.
"Oh man, its the Hokage." He heared Shikamaru say and heared him step out of the woods behind him. He then saw Ino and Shino step out of the woods in front of him.
"Dang it is!" Ino said, annoyed. She turned to Shino. "Shino?"
"My bugs are already on it." Shino said. "Naruto should answer back soon."
"Do I have to keep this up?" Shikamaru asked from behind the Third. At the other two's nods, he sighed. "How troublesome." But it didn't have any of the old annoyence.
The Third watched them calmly, mostly because he couldn't move. The three don't look much different then they did a year ago, but he could notice some changes. Ino looked... calmer, and her purple outfit was covered by a black coat with red trim. Shino looked... well, you could see just a bit more of his face but not much, and the trim on his coat was red as well. Shikamaru, though he couldn't see him, sounded more... active. Not by much, but it was there.
It wasn't long before Shino's bugs came back. Shino stayed quiet before heading back off to the woods, calling out that Naruto said to bring him back with them. Shikamaru let him out of the shadow as Ino walked ahead, and waited for him to move. The Third glanced back and followed the blond girl.
"Why did you leave?" He asked. Maybe he could scare them? They're kids, just genin. They shouldn't be alone like this, especially with non-ninja like the other kids. "You five that left after the academy are missing-nin now, you know."
"No, we're not." Ino answered. "Shika has read the rules backwards and forwards. We were only Genin."
"To be classified as a missing-nin, you have to be Chunin or above. As far as the Leaf rules count, we just quit at being ninja." Shikamaru continued from where Ino left off. The Third glanced behind him. Shikamaru was also wearing a black coat with red trim. He raised an eyebrow. Was that a uniform or something? He looked ahead again and decided to continued his line of questioning.
"What about your clans? You're the Clan heads."
"It's fine." Kiba said, jumping down from the tress with Choji and a girl the Third didn't reconize. TenTen, he thought her name was, having never met her in person before now. Kiba's grey fur coat was replaced with a slightly less thick but still fur black coat with red trim. Choji was wearing the same style as Shikamaru and TenTen was wearing a thiner jacket then the others, but it had longer sleeves. "We have cousins that have wanted to be the Heads for a long time. They can handle it."
"And its not like its causing trouble." Choji joined in, eating berries out of his hand. "We know it's not hard to track us down."
"And you only done it now, a good year since most of the clan heirs joined." TenTen said. "I'm actually surprised you didn't come after Neji and Hinata came."
"We thought they were dead for a bit." The Third admitted. "Once we realized they weren't dead, the Clan head didn't want to spend resources on coming and getting them, as neither were the heirs."
Kiba whistled. "Thats some father Hina has... No wonder Neji hates the Main Branch!"
The Third thought about repling, but before he could think of anything, they stopped walking. They were at a camp, nestled in the forest that normal people would have a hard time finding it. There were tents scattered around the edges and an abanden shelter that seemed to be improved recently in the front of them. The kids around him stepped out of their prosition that the Third hadn't noticed them get into and into another one around him at the edges of camp, this time joined by, who he guessed was the other orphan Rock Lee and the Hyuugu ex-clan members Neji and Hinata. Lee was wearing the same type of traditional clothes that the Third had seen him in pictures and his hair was still long and in a braid. The only differance the Third could see was the jacket like everyone else. Neji and Hinata were eaiser to see the differences.
Being the ones with the most problems, they had the last two years or so to work them out. Hinata was the one they sent if they wanted to try peace first. She was the most peaceful one, as she still was shy and quiet and only fought a fight that was unavoldable. She still had a crush on Naruto but it shifted from fainting and stammering everytime he was near to being just silent when he was near. Most of all, she had gotten over he inferiority complex to Neji, him having taught her what he knew of their clan techneques and she taught him what she knew of the clan techneques. Neji, on the other hand, had finally stopped talking about destiny at every other minute (though that habit hadn't gone away completely), and started to treat everyone equally. He had also finally gotten over his.. well, not he never really felt hatred for her, but now he can talk to his cousin normally. The two had turned into two of the most powerful charka users in the group and them and Lee were the ones sent to do the fighting when there was numours enemies, while Shikamaru, Ino, and Shino were used for information, Kiba, TenTen, and Choji were used when the enemies were less in numbers, and finally, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were sent in when the others couldn't handle the numbers.
(Some where along the line, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had become the leaders and the most powerful. That wasn't to say that they could pack a bigger punch then Kiba or outlast Choji [well, maybe Naruto] or could beat Lee in taijustu, but they were meidum in all of the above and didn't have the clear cut weaknesses that the others did.)
But the Third didn't know all of this and could only see the differences in their clothes and stances. They both were wearing pale pants and Hinata was wearing a pale shirt under her open black jacket, unlike the always closed fur coat she wore before. Her hair was longer then before but it was put up in a bun. How she was standing indicated she didn't want to be noticed but it was obvious she would attack if he tried to force them back to the village. Neji, on the other hand, didn't have the shyness in his stance and looked clear he would attack at the order. His own black jacket was thicker then Hinata's and was zipped up all the way. His hair was shorter, just long enough to be pulled back into a ponytail and his forehead and curse mark was cover by a black bandanna.
The Third's attention was taken off of the the Hyuugus, however, when three twelve year olds came out of the shelter. At first, he wondered who they were, but when they got closer, it became obvious who they were. The whisker-like marks on the blond, the bright pink hair on the girl, and the Uchiha fan on the black haired boy's shirt gave it away. He sucked in a breath. They looked so different.
In the front of his mind, he always knew that they would be grow up, rather then the 8 year olds he had last seen, but to truely see it? It was shocking. Naruto smiled at him like he did when he came into his office all those years ago, but the smile was dimmed as the blond obviously didn't trust the Hokage right now. His plain shirt and shorts were traded out for an, of all things, orange shirt with black trim under a black jacket with red trim and pants matching his shirt, and those silly goggles had been replaced with a better-for-ninja-life pair. He had an Uzumaki clan symbol on his shirt that left the Third wondering when he had found out. It made the old man sad to see the boy that called him grandpa grown up like this, even if it was only twelve.
Sakura was glaring at him, though he guessed it was to be expected. Everybody probably thought he was going to drag them back to the village. He shook his head of that train of thought and refocused on Sakura. Her pink hair was short and pulled back in an bandanna. Her red-and-pink ninja dress looked a little worse for wear but, considering it looked like it was bought in the village before they left, it looked better then normal. She didn't have her black jacket on, as it was tied around her waist.
Sasuke was just looking at him without emotion, like most Uchiha he had met. The yound black haired boy was wearing one of his clan shirts, but with the Fan in front instead of back, under his own jacket that had a higher collar then the others. His shorts have been switched out for plain black pants.
"Old man!" Naruto said, smiling and drawing attention back to the blond. "Its good to see you again! Though, I hope you're not here to force us back..."
The Third could hear the threat in the words, even if Naruto's tone was happy and carefree. He frowed and shook his head. "No Naruto. I'm not here to force you back. I'm here to ask you to come back... for a bit. Then you may go again."
"Would you care to explain, Lord Hokage?" Sakura asked, respectful even while glaring. "I'm afraid we don't understand."
"Do you know what the Chunin excams are?" He asked, and got alot of head nods in reply. He continued. "They're held in the Leaf this year and it's a thing of honor to have respectable genin entered from the host village, even if they don't win."
"Where are you going with this?" Sasuke interrupted, talking for the first time since they had arrrived.
"To not have genin particapate would cause the Leaf to look weak." The Third continued, ignoring Sasuke for the moment. Sasuke huffed at being annoyed but seemed to get over quickly. "So I would like to make a deal with the Kitsune 12. You 12 come and participate as genin, and the Leaf won't classifed you as missing-nins and you won't be considered enemies of the Leaf."
Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke obviously weren't expecting this answer, judging by their surprised faces. They glanced at each other and started whispering. The Third could have heard them if he used his chakra, but that seemed rude, especially with what he's asking. After a moment, which seemed to drag on forever, the three went silent and turned back to him. Or, well, turned back to the other kids.
"What do you guys think?" Naruto asked. "We're not gonna do this unless you guys want to."
The kids glanced at each other then turned back to him. There was a silence and the Third was begining to get worried. If they enough said no...
"Will there be strong people to fight?" Lee asked after a minute. The Third nodded and Lee smiled. "Then, yes! I would love to participate and test my skills!"
"If Lee's in, then I guess I have to make sure he doesn't do something stupid." TenTen sighed.
"Um.. well, Me and Neji are in Lee's team, so I guess we're in too." Hinata said, looking at her cousin to make sure and looked relived when he nodded.
"I can get some of my things from my house..." Ino trailed off and she got out a scroll and started jotting down a list of some sort.
"Tsk. Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered, before nodding. "It looks like theres going to be enough votes for, so I might as well."
"I'm in if Shika's in." Choji said.
"I can't leave my team behind." Kiba said smirking. His dog barked in agreement.
"I'm in. Why? Because." Shino said, and everyone stopped to see if he was going to explain anymore. But when he stayed quiet, everyone sweatdropped.
"Wait." Shikamaru said as Naruto opened his mouth to give the final vote. "Will we be able to leave afterwords?"
The Third nodded. "Yes. Once the exams are over, you may come and go as you please. As I said eairler, you won't be enemies of the Leaf..." He paused and considered his words. "unless you go and do something stupid."
Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke looked at one another one omre time before nodding in agreement to his deal. The Third sighed in relief. After the last five left a year ago, there wasn't any genin left to compete in the exams, and the Leaf couldn't look weak to the other villages. It just wouldn't end well. Plus, it got the council off his back about the "dangours missing-nin group that held the 9-tailed fox". Now he got a group of, what looked like, strong genin to partipate.
"Wait." A voice called out and the Third was shocked to see Itachi Uchiha and three others in black robes with red clouds on them come out of the shelter.
"Aniki, i thought you and the others were going to wait until the Third left." Sasuke looked at his brother in confustion and the Third wondered when Sasuke stopped wanting to kill his brother.
(Of course, the Third never did know that Sasuke wanted to find his brother not to kill him, but just for the sake of finding him)
Itachi looked at his brother then back to the Third. "I'm not going to stop this, but we have one condition."
The Third had a sudden bad feeling.
xXx
The Third sighed as he watched Kakashi, Gai, and the other Jonins leave from his office. That could have gone better, but, really, he should have expected it. He couldn't tell them were the four new Jonins came from, or why they were the ones teaching the genin he... um... hired. All he could tell them was that they were a package deal and to leave them be. Naturally, the jonin looked closer to trusting them then they would a missing-nin, which was why they would never learn they were missing-nins.
He looked down and got the paper work that showed that Itarki Marko, Kisemo Sharkskin, Deidara Bom, and Sori Scorpian have always been in the village. He sighed again and went over the picures to make sure that not even Danzo could tell who they really were. Itachi, of course, had to look mostly different. He kept his hair style and dark eyes, but that was about it. He looked a few years older and his tear marks (?) were no longer there. He even wore a pair of glasses to hide himself further. He would just use an henge, but with Kakashi and Kuinia in town, that was just asking to get caught. So he had to use a seal.
He ened up being Sensei of Team 7, which consisted of Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke.
Kisame just used a seal to make him look normal. If you know him in his normal form, then you could reconize him now, but you need to have seen him in person. His sword was also had a seal, blocking some of its powers. He had only agreed because of the practice it would give him. As much as he hated to admit it, he had gotten lazy and dependent on his sword in the past few years.
He was the Sensei of Team 9, TenTen, Kiba, and Choji.
Deidara and Sasori hadn't done anything, really. Sasori was suppossed to be a good 50 years above the age he looked, so as long as he wore clothes to cover the joints of his puppets, not even the Sand Ninja should reconize him. Deidara, being from the Rock Village which was the only Hidden Village not to come to the exam, didn't have a big chance on being reconized. All he had to do was tie back most of his hair instead of wearing most of it down (Though his bang was still in place) and take off his eye... thing. The Third could never figure out was that was... Oh, and where gloves to cover his extra mouths, but that seemed obvious.
Sasori was the Sensei of Team 10, Lee, Hinata, and Neji, while Deiara was the Sensei of Team 8, Ino, Shikamaru, and Shino.
The Third sighed again and got up to tell the council. There was only two questions he had. One, how did the kids get four S-Rank missing'nins to like and train them...
and, Two, how did he get involed?
xXx
"It's weird to have a headband on again." Sasori said, tracing the Leaf symbol on the headband on his forehead. Him and the others were sitting on the Hokage momument, thinking it was the best place for peace. None of them were used to large villages anymore, and for him and Kisame, their villages had never been this big in the first place. The kids were setting up rooms in the Uchiha district. It was the only place big enough to hold them all aand not have to deal with annoyed family members. He looked at the others to see if they were even going to respond, and seeing him look, they just shrugged. All three of them wore their old headbands anyway, so the only difference was that the Leaf ones were new and didn't have a line through them.
"Do you think it's safe to leave the kids alone? I mean, in the forest is one thing but here, they can't just start fighting without anyone noticing." Deidara asked, messing with his gloves. They're going to take time to get used to.
"The Uchiha district has a training ground. If any of them start fighting, they have a place to do so." Itachi said.
"Don't worry." Kisame said, smirking, showing off his now normal teeth. "They're not gonna fight and destroy anything so soon in entering the village."
No sooner had he gotten the words out had there been an explosion over in the direction of the Uchiha district. Itachi, Sasori, and Deidara glared at Kisame for tempting fate and set off in to the explosion. Kisame blinked and sighed. It was always him, wasn't it? He shook his head and got in the postion to follow when somebody stopped him.
"Would you stay for a bit? I would like to ask you something." Kakashi asked from behind him, his tone leaving no room for escape without a fight. Kisame sighed again.
Why did he have to promise to play nice?
xXx
Sasuke did not know how this happened.
Oh, wait, yes he did. It wasn't something someone could miss, really.
So, there they were, walking towards the Uchiha district, where they were gonna live for the next month and a half or so. To Sasuke, having to live there was the worst part. He hadn't been back since that night. Even when he still lived in the village, he had lived in an apartment across town, so now, going back seemed wrong. Even with all the good times he had with his family, that night would ruin all of them and he wasn't looking forward to having nightmares every night.
But that wasn't the point of the story, was it? Back to the point, they were walking to the Uchiha district, when suddenly, somebody was calling Hinata. Looking back, the person was easy to tell it was an Hyuuga, and judging by Hinata's suddenly tense body, it was her father. Her father wanted her home and tried to take her. Hinata was to scared to do anything, but of course Neji, being the closest, stepped in. When he did, however, Hinata's father made a quick hand sign that made Neji drop to the ground in pain. Sasuke only had a moment to connect that he had used the seal Neji had told them about before he was springing to defend his friends beside the others. Hinata's father was caught by surprise, but that only lasted for a moment. But that moment was all they needed to knock his off his balance, something they wouldn't be able to do without that moment of surpise. Hinata's father was quick to right himself and was about to attack them back, probably under the guise of self defense, when TenTen threw a kunai with an explosive tag on it.
Now his brother, Sasori, and Deidara are here. This is a great first hour in the village, huh?