Title: Decoding

Disclaimer: Don't own ... yet.

Author: KTaboo

Pairing/Character: Uzumaki Naruto

Summary: Uzumaki Naruto, container of Kyūbi no Yōko, had the lowest scores at the Ninja Academy and had been recently promoted Special Chunin.

Rating: K

A/N: Thank you to MegaTJ for beta reading.

It was a beautiful day in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the sky was clear and the water was cool. The civilian were going about their business and the shinobi were coming or going to a mission, while other shinobi were lying about enjoying this beautiful day.

Unfortunately for a small group of shinobi, the beautiful day would never reach them, or the fact that it was even day. For you see that hand full of shinobi was hidden in a large room deep within the Hokage Monument. This room had no windows, only one door, five tables, four chairs, and was filled with scrolls and pens. If you asked the shinobi that worked there what color the walls were they wouldn't be able to tell you. Their eyes never strayed from the mounds of parchment that surrounded them like a thick patch of underbrush.

Eight shinobi worked there, four of them were ANBU, always standing guard by the door. The rest were Code Breakers. One Code Breaker, one without a chair, a rookie shinobi, only four months in, was particularly special. Uzumaki Naruto, registration number 012607, container of Kyūbi no Yōko, had the lowest scores at the Ninja Academy and had been recently promoted Special Chunin.

"14, 5, 23, 22, 9, 12, 12, 1, 7, 5, 6, 15, 21, 14, 4, 9, 14, 20, 8, 5, 12, 1, 14, 4, 15, 6, 18, 9, 3, 5, 19, 13, 5, 12, 12, 19, 12, 9, 11, 5, 19, 14, 1, 11, 5, 19," Naruto groaned as he plopped down on the hard floor. 'Damn it,' thought Naruto rubbing his soar backside. He looked at the paper in his hand again with numbers continuing on what seemed like an endless loop. "14, 5, 23, 22, 9, 12, 12, 1, 7, 5, 6, 15, 21, 14, 4, 9, 14, 20, 8, 5, 12, 1, 14, 4, 15, 6, 18, 9, 3, 5, 19, 13, 5, 12, 12, 19, 12, 9, 11, 5, 19, 14, 1, 11, 5, 19…"

"Damn it this isn't what I became ninja for! I wanted to save princesses, fight pirates and be all around awesome. Not be stuck in this room all day decoding codes," sighed Naruto. He wished there was someone he could blame for conning him into this job, but there was no one but himself.

Naruto would never admit it, but he missed his old genin team, even though the missions they got were the lamest of lame. They had just gotten back from a mission where his sensei, Kakashi Hetake, had fought and defeated a member of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist and his apprentice. All he wanted to do was tell Ojiisan of his adventure when he made the mistake of noticing a paper on his desk.

Absentmindedly he read it aloud, "Move Suna, less rest kage kaze." The next thing Naruto knew he was grabbed, given a promotion, and was transferred into DCN, Decoding Ninja also known as Code Breakers. He didn't even get the chance to say goodbye to Sakura-chan.

What Naruto didn't know at the time was that message with the code on it was stolen from Kumo and no one was able to decode it for the past month. When Naruto told the other Breakers how he got the message, and gave them the words he was able to figure out, the other Breakers where able to decode it within a matter of minutes. The message now read, "Kazekage is restless, Suna is on the move." The message now proudly sits at the bottom of a drawer in Naruto's desk.

But that didn't help Naruto with his new code intercepted from Iwa-nins. Naruto read over the code again and again. Numbers normally stood in for words or letters, and now it was up to Naruto to put his two month decoding training to use and figure out what language was used.

Being a code breaker wasn't all bad. Yeah you didn't get to see the sun too much. And you didn't get to go on very many missions and you're constantly monitored twenty-four seven, but it had its up sides.

You get personal training in every ninja art for about four hours every day. It sucked being that it started at three in the morning, but training is training. Then you get locked up for nine hours decoding. The pay raise was awesome, believe it! Not that there's much time off to spend it. The other Code Breakers were okay if not a little odd, but working like they did makes people go little crazy. So some talk to themselves and other are afraid that everyone and their cat are out to get them. They are good people, even if you don't know their real names, but that's a rule for "just in case" one of them gets kidnapped.

Naruto looked up that the clock right above the door, a little over two hours had passed and only seven more hours to go before he was let out.

"Code, I'm going to get you. Believe it!" Not even ten minutes passed when Naruto's head shot up before running to one of the ANBU demanding to see the Hokage. He had just broken the code and from the sound of it was important.

"New Village found in the Land of Rice smells like Snakes"