The sun beat down upon the broad back of Sarutobi Asuma, the golden rays reflected off the flowing river next to him causing a magnificent light show on the water. Asuma smiled lightly as he noticed the pineapple shaped hair poking out from the long reeds on the bank of the river. He swiftly and silently crept up to the black spikes, taking out a flash tag as he did so. "I swear if you do anything with that I will kill you" the deep voice came from the head of hair. "aw. Your no fun anymore Mr ANBU General." Asuma replied with a playful smirk. The man lying in the reeds sat up and looked at Asuma with a hint of humour in his black eyes. "Well at least I can still get the drop on my students, Old man." I smirked at my once, and sometimes still, lazy student. "ahh, but at least I don't have a wife that will punch me every time I swear." The pineapple headed man scowled at that. "I'm allowed to swear" he said defensively. "Sure you are Shika-chan" the Sarutobi chuckled a bit at the colour the black haired ANBU General went. "I am" he almost shouted, "OK then go on say fuck" Asuma replied

"But she always finds out" Asuma laughed outright at that, his mirth gleaming through his brown eyes. "Shiho-chan sure seems like a handful, I mean you've been complaining about her ever since the end of the war." Asuma said jokingly. Yamashiro Shiho and Nara Shikamaru had first gotten together after they first met before the Pien attack as it was now dubbed. Back then Shiho was a budding genius in the KCS, Konoha Cryptanalysis Squad, and Shikamaru a high level chunin who wasn't motivated enough to become a jonin. Asuma laughed as he thought about his student when he was a genin. Shikamaru looked at him with a questioning glance "what's so funny?" he asked "Oh I was just thinking about when you were a cute little genin and your ambitions set so low. But now look at you, ANBU General, married to the head of the Cryptology department, a baby looming ever closer. But yet I think I preferred the genin you." Asuma finished glancing at Shikamaru "and you know why?"

"No" Shikamaru answered "Why?"

"Because he wasn't covering up that bald spot with his pony tail" Asuma finished with a flourish and a grin. Shikamaru stuck his middle finger up in Asuma's direction. "I swear Naruto's rubbing off on you" Shikamaru said as Asuma fake cried at his students rude hand gesture. Naruto and Asuma had been placed in the same ANBU squad for over a year now ever since Asuma had gotten his Captainship and ANBU Trainee team to mentor. Toad, Butterfly, Goat and Fox were placed under the captainship of Mouse, Sarutobi Asuma himself. After the passing of the seat of Hokage from Senju Tsunade to Hatake Kakashi ANBU went under a slight change in the form of non-obvious references to personality in the names of the ANBU. Hence the name Mouse for Asuma, Butterfly for Naruto, Goat for Hyuga Hinata and Toad for an Inuzuka named Yoake and Fox for Uta Shimemura the grandniece to the late Shimemura Danzo.

There was a comfortable silence as Shikamaru and Asuma stared at the clouds, occasionally pointing and making comments on the similarities the cloud hold to everyday things like: Shiho with her baby bump and Pakkun doing Kakashi's paperwork. Asuma pointed yet again, Shikamaru had long since closed his eyes after becoming bored, "Hey a messenger hawk" Asuma said. "What kind of cloud looks like a messenger hawk" Shikamaru asked with incredulity laced into his voice, he cracked an eye open at Asuma. "No, I mean an actual messenger hawk. Who do you think it's looking for me or you?" Shikamaru sighed "I hope it isn't for me, I promised Shiho I'd be back before sunset so we could celebrate her brother's promotion"

"Oh, I didn't know Aoba was taking the Jonin exam" Asuma said with mild surprise as the hawk landed on the bank, it hopped over to Asuma and took off again. Asuma's eyes skated down the page, "Aw, got another mission I swear Kakashi just likes ordering me around." Shikamaru smirked at the disgruntled ANBU Captain, "But Asuma-sensei that's the best part of being your boss, now get to the Hokage, Mouse. This is your General speaking. Asuma straightened up and gave Shikamaru s cocky grin "Sir, Yes, Sir" he replied with a mock salute. Shikamaru chuckled and shook his head as Asuma sped away using the trees as a launch pad for massive leaps and bounds.

Two ANBU were standing in front of Kakashi's large desk. Ah, the perks of being Hokage he thought as he observed the black clad figures before him. He smiled under his mask as his eyes rested on Goat. Hyuga Hinata had done a lot of growing up since her sensei was killed by Hidan and Kakuzu. After a little pep-talk from Neji, Hinata's confidence sored along with her skill. She had completely obliterated Hidan with an inventive use of exploding tags and senbon. She had wrapped the tags around the senbon and using her precision aim she stuck them into Hidan exploding him into bits. She had become one of his best ANBU. One Kakashi himself would be extremely hesitant to fight. The other ANBU standing in front of him was a one Inuzuka Yoake. He was a strange one, he had brown, spiky hair like an Inuzuka but was built similar to Ibiki, towering above others in the room. His mother was from the Inuzuka's sister clan the Aburame and his father was the first cousin of Inuzuka Tsume, the head of the clan. His Father was somewhat of a prodigy when it came to the Inuzuka style of fighting surpassed only by Tsume herself and now Kiba. Yet, Yoake showed no ability in communicating with dogs like almost all the Inuzuka clan can, equally he showed no ability in controlling and communicating with Kikaichu the small insects used by the Aburame clan. He was like the perfect balance of Inuzuka and Aburame. Not too stoic but not too loud, not too cautious but not too brash either, until someone created a cross breed between a Kikai and a dog, Yoake would stay without a furry partner or a hive.

After Kakashi had shaken away the rather disturbing image of the young ANBU in the Toad mask carrying around a puppy sized Kikai on his head like Kiba did when he was younger, a figure came hurtling through the window closely followed by a second. The first figure stood up revealing that it was a black haired girl dressed in standard ANBU uniform with a tanto strapped to her back. She was holding a second mask from the Fox one resting on her face, she was waving it tauntingly in front of the second sprawled figures face "Uta, give it back" the figure whined "Tut tut, Naruto I've got my mask on, it's Fox now" Naruto pulled himself off the floor, he had aged well, from the eager sixteen year old at the end of the war to the strong twenty-one year old he is now. He like the others was dressed in a standard issue ANBU uniform without the mask, his baby fat had disappeared over the years leaving a strong chin and a handsome face. He had grown his hair out in memory of his sensei Jiraiya and his father Minato Namikaze, the fourth Hokage his strands now rested near his shoulders. "Uta, c'mon I need my mask" Naruto whined "Not until you admit I am faster than you" Uta teased "Never! I would have caught you if that old lady with the cheese wheel didn't get in my way." Naruto almost yelled. "Get in your way? Don't you mean you ran into her" Uta smirked as Naruto adopted the thinking pose as he contemplated what to do. His face lit up as he thought of an idea to get his mask back, "How about this I'll by you all the ramen you can eat" Uta snorted "No, I'm not a ramen freak like you, did you really think I'd say yes?" she answered. Through the mask Naruto smirked "No I didn't think you'd agree but that's why a summoned a clone behind you. The clone grabbed the mask from where Uta was holding it Naruto placed the mask on his face and turned to Kakashi who, unlike his teammates, hadn't blinked an eye at Uta and Naruto's antics. Hinata was shaking her head and Yoake was simply leaning against the wall looking at them with a soft smile. The team had become very close during their time in ANBU training; they lived together in an apartment in the ANBU Headquarters building to increase teamwork. "Hokage-sensei" Naruto said giving the silver haired Hokage a nod. Kakashi sighed, "Naruto, I've asked you to stop calling me that"

"Your right, I'm too informal for an ANBU-Hokage relationship." Naruto fell on to his knees grovelling in front of Kakashi. "Please don't chop off my head, Hokage-sensei-sama" He said in a mock terrified voice. Kakashi simply sighed again although he was smirking under his mask. "Well, all we're waiting for now is your Captain. Come on Asuma, I know you're there." Asuma dropped through the window from his perch on the ledge, "Sharp as ever Hokage-sama, now what's the mission" Kakashi unfurled a scroll marked S-rank. "We have marked this mission as S-rank due to lack of information, truthfully this could just as well be a B-rank or even a C-rank" Kakashi said in a serious tone "The Akatsuki have been spotted again". Team Mouse collectively tensed. The Akatsuki had completely disappeared off the map after the war, in fact all crime stopped if only for a month. We were all basking in the peace that was present, but people again got restless, it didn't help that both Mizu and Iwa both lost their Kages in the battle against Obito and Madara. Tsunade lost her medical and de-aging jutsu due to damage to her chakra pathways; however her tiajutsu was still as strong as ever, Kumo came out strongest but also with the largest dent in their forces and Suna lost none of importance. After a year reports of Shinobi of nearly every village were abandoning their villages and leaving everything behind. The immediate worry was if we had another Orochimaru on our hands, however another six months passed with nothing happening, but then stories and rumours of black cloaked ninja with red clouds adorning them started to crop up. Evidently the left over forces of the Akatsuki were rebuilding their group. After the war none of the main members were still alive, even Taka had gone their own ways, Karin had been assassinated in her cell by a still loyal Root member who decided that she would not besmirch Danzo's name with his underhanded dealings with Orochimaru. Suigetsu is rumoured to have been living in wave country. Juugo was captured by Konoha a month after the war, he had been contained and his chakra sealed and was currently a civilian in the village and had a baby with Ayame the daughter of Ichiraku Teuchi the ramen stand owner. Naruto had met with Juugo and sat in silence just staring for an hour until he finally asked "Will you make her happy?" Juugo so startled by the sudden question had blurted out "Yes, I love her" Naruto had nodded and simply said "I know". The child, Named Teuchi after Ayame's father who had died the year before, had not gained Juugos strange abilities. They were now living above Ichiraku's which had been upgraded from a Ramen stand to a full blown restaurant famed for its ramen. Sasuke had died during the war. These new Akatsuki seemed to be doing nothing but just appearing in different places and then leaving.

"Are we sure about this" Asuma asked "it's not like when we went all the way to snow country and it was just a snow leopard" Kakashi nodded grimly "Yes, confirmed sighting in Wave Country. They were seen on The Great Naruto Bridge four days ago" Kakashi threw the scroll at Asuma "If it's Akatsuki observe but don't engage unless necessary. Is that clear?" He aimed this question at Naruto who had been hunted by the Akatsuki and Hinata who held a certain hate for them ever since the death of Kurenai. "Yes Hokage-sama" the ANBU team chanted obediently "Well" Kakashi said "you better get going" Kakashi said falling easily back into his lazy attitude.