Inari

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Author's Notice: Hey everyone this is yet another new story I am adding to the list, if you guys haven't checked my other stories please do because I'm sure you guys will enjoy them. I'm just adding more and more stories to work on to keep things fresh for me, I love writing but recently with university, work and my social life I was lacking a bit of time and inspiration so I decided to start these new stories to get me inspired to write again. The new stories other than this one of course are called the Legendary Three and The Will of Fire. While you're at it check out the latest update of The Rise of the Rokudaime Hokage as well, I just released Chapter 21. But while you're here speaking of the Rise of the Rokudaime Hokage, if you voted on the poll in my profile you'll see that NaruSakuIno won the fanservice poll and it is now closed. Thanks for everyone who voted much love everyone.

Also, guys continue to keep an eye out I'm planning on making a few other new Naruto stories and I even have a One Piece story in the works. For those who don't know despite all my Naruto stories, One Piece is my favorite anime and manga and I am excited to write about Luffy and his adventures with the Strawhat pirates. So, for my fellow One Piece fans, tune in because it might be released sometime in the foreseeable future.

The basis of this story will be about, as you know this will be about ANBU and more specifically Naruto in ANBU. I've always believed that Naruto had the potential for this line of work, his ability to sneak around and prank everyone while wearing orange and his ability to get away from it made him a possible candidate for ANBU and this story will delve deep into that.

As per usual this story will be NaruSaku and sorry non-negotiable, anyway thanks everyone for reading this story please head over to my profile and check out my others while you're at it. I really appreciate the help and the support guys, please favorite and follow and review. If you have any questions or suggestions for my stories please leave a review or pm me, thanks again everyone and please enjoy my latest uploads.

Chapter 1: The Trickster

April Fools, a day dreaded by most of Konoha because this was the one day a certain village prankster thrived the most. This day was special to that individual, he'd pull out all the stops to make sure he'd top his pranks from the year before. He was a perfectionist when it came to pranks and tricks, he was a born trickster and by Kami did he have a natural born talent for mischief.

The infamous prankster was known as Naruto Uzumaki, at the moment the young man was sitting on a hill silently observing everyone's reactions to his April Fools pranks thus far. The day was still relatively young and even then, Naruto had managed to unleash so many pranks all over his village and upon his fellow villagers.

Early in the morning was his wakeup call to Konoha to warn them of their impending doom, Naruto woke up extra early to enact a plan he had been working on for months on end. He decided to go and sneakily paint the Hokage's monument, he painted all over the faces of the four Hokages which caused a massive outrage among the village. Many of the villagers didn't find the defacing and the vandalism of the statues amusing, but instead disrespectful. But Naruto didn't pay any attention to the villagers, he wasn't doing this to be in their good books, he did this to get the attention he so craved.

After that early morning warning prank to notify the villagers, Naruto went on to slowly prank various shopkeepers, clan heads, council members, classmates and even academy teachers. Nothing was out of bounds for Naruto, but was amazed everyone was that despite the consensus already knowing that it was Naruto at the root of all these pranks, the young blonde was meticulous and clever enough not to leave any traces that would lead back to him. It was only due to reputation that everyone knew Naruto was guilty, but even then, there was no proof that Naruto committed the pranks.

Having done all those pranks Naruto was finally ready to unveil his grand finale, his pièce de résistance if you will. Naruto started with a bang and wanted to end with a bang, much like the Hokage Monument prank he had been planning this prank for months on end. With a slight chuckle Naruto stood in front of a shady broken down and abandoned building, to the untrained eye it was just that but young Naruto managed to uncover that this was Konoha's ANBU headquarters. For weeks, the young boy tailed ANBU operative until it led him here, and now they were in for a major surprise at the hands of the blonde.

The young man snuck in the rickety old building and upon entrance he found that there was indeed a long dark tunnel passage heading downwards, Naruto slyly walked through the passage until a few minutes later he found himself at a dead end with a strange brick wall in front of him. The young boy was unfazed, having tailed the ANBU operatives he learned that he simply had to press a few of the bricks in the wall and luckily for him he managed to mark in his notes which ones were needed.

He pressed the five bricks required the brick wall slowly moved aside allowing Naruto to enter, upon arrival the young blonde was fortunate enough that the ANBU operatives appeared to be out around Konoha in search of the prankster who was disturbing the peace of Konoha. Naruto couldn't help but feel proud of himself, all of his other plans had been purposely done not only to amuse Naruto but also to allow him to act upon his final trick without disturbance.

A sinister grin etched itself on the blonde's face and all around the rooms and offices of the ANBU HQ he dropped a small storage scroll. Naruto couldn't contain his laughter, he saved up money for weeks to buy these storage scrolls containing thousands upon thousands of colorful plastic balls, and now there was at least one storage scroll in each office and room in the base. All that was needed now was a single hand seal and all scrolls would unleash the rubber balls, Naruto first made his way to the entrance of the base by the brick wall door where it all began, and he mentally counted down from ten to one. Finally, as it reached to one Naruto formed a single hand seal and all the sealed plastic balls were set free from the storage scrolls filling up all the rooms and offices in ANBU HQ, Naruto couldn't contain his laughter upon seeing the havoc he unleashed. He was dying to just see the reactions of the ANBU operatives but he knew he had to leave so that they wouldn't be able to find him, and so with that the young man ran as fast as he could outside the base choosing to listen in from as far as he could.

For some reason Naruto's senses such as hearing, smelling and seeing were stronger than most children, unbeknown to Naruto it was due to the demonic fox residing in him. So, Naruto stood rather far away and after twenty minutes passed he heard angered screams and roars coming from the abandoned building which housed the ANBU HQ, and that was his cue to leave. He contained his laughter as much as he can and he decided to leave early before ANBU set out their operatives in search of him.

Naruto's Apartment

The young blonde continued to laugh he managed to pull off all the pranks in his list and he managed to witness all the reactions of his victims. Overall all the meticulous planning and preparations were more than worth it for Naruto, he achieved what he set out to do and dare he say it he outdid himself.

After a hard day's work of pranks Naruto was finally prepared to call it a day, he opened the front door of his apartment and upon entering he was greeted by the sight of the Sandaime Hokage Hiruzen helping himself to some of Naruto's tea.

Now Naruto knew the exact reason why the Hokage was there but he decided to play dumb a bit, "Hey jiji what are you doing here?" he asked nonchalantly.

Hiruzen rolled his eyes clearly seeing through the young blonde's innocent façade, "You know the reason why Naruto, the whole entire village have been complaining about pranks even my ANBU operatives are livid from what happened. Everyone knows it was you behind it Naruto" he replied.

Naruto pretended to act shocked, "Pranks? You know I'd never do such a thing, how would a kid like me even manage to piss off ANBU? You give me too much credit jiji" he replied before a wee shit-eating grin adorned his face, "Also there's no direct evidence leading the pranks back to me" he said in a very smug tone.

The Hokage couldn't help but chuckle as he shook his head, "Touché Naruto-kun, I must say you really did outdo yourself this year. All the elders, Jonin and ANBU operative and even the civilian council members are handing in complaint forms. You really did a number on them" he said.

Naruto smiled proudly knowing full well he wasn't convincing the Hokage otherwise, "I don't know what you're talking about jiji all I did today was go for a walk and eat a bit of ramen, you know the usual" he replied.

"Well whatever it is Naruto-kun you still are our number one suspect despite there being no evidence leading back to you, everyone knows you did it anyway kid. So you're going to have to come with me to my office"

The prankster sighed, "Sure thing jiji I'll just quickly grab a bite to eat, I'm starving"

Hokage's Office

Naruto now stood in front of the Hokage's desk next to quite many pissed off officials. The Hokage's office was littered with people ranging from Jonin, Chunin, Civilian Council Members, Village Elders, Shopkeepers and ANBU operatives all complaining about the damage and havoc wreaked today by the blonde prankster. Naruto couldn't help but smile inwardly seeing how flustered everyone was.

The main complaints went down to the defacement of the Hokage Monument and the plastic ball prank in the ANBU HQ, those two were the big ones for the day.

The noise in the lone office sounded like there was a riot in the room with everyone demanding Naruto be severely punished for his actions but even then Hiruzen couldn't do so since the sly kid made sure to leave no trace leading back to him, it was a clean getaway. But Hiruzen was soon reaching at wit's end, he couldn't think or even manage to speak that much with the level of noise in the room.

"Everyone be silent" Hiruzen yelled to shut everyone up, when the God of Shinobi spoke up and told you to shut up you better shut the hell up.

The Hokage looked around the room, "I want everyone to leave the room, including you Naruto all of you wait by the waiting room while I sort this out myself" he said. The complainers all grumbled and sighed wanting to give the kid a piece of their mind but the Hokage had the final say in the matter.

Everyone left one by one save for a sole ANBU captain, the only person in the room who refrained from complaining at the young blonde, instead amongst the chaos the grey spiky haired ANBU captain peacefully read through his favorite book in the world, Icha Icha Paradise.

Naruto smiled as he noticed the ANBU Captain before leaving the room, he was one of the few people in the village who was nice to him and he used to protect him when he was a kid alongside other ANBU operatives like Kamaitachi and Neko.

"Hey Inu-niisan" he greeted exuberantly.

"Yo Naruto" he replied before watching Naruto exit the office.

The Hokage raised a single eyebrow at the lone ANBU Captain's appearance in room, "Inu did you not hear my orders?" asked the Hokage.

Inu placed the book away back into his pocket before walking over to the front of the Hokage's desk, "I did Hokage-sama but there is something important I need to talk to you about concerning Naruto and I feel now is the best time for us to talk about this" he said in a voice stressing it was of the utmost importance. Hiruzen sighed and decided to let him speak.

"Alright then Inu what did you want to tell me then?" he asked curiously.

Inu grinned underneath his mask, "Hokage-sama I wish to take Naruto under my wing in ANBU" he said.

Hiruzen remained composed but was surprised nonetheless by Inu's statement. The Hokage knew Inu very well, well enough to know that he was a lone wolf type of person not the type to take on a student, let alone a student like Naruto Uzumaki.

"You caught my attention Inu, please explain further"

"Hokage-sama as we just witnessed today Naruto right here managed to prank the whole village with ease, and he did so right under our noses. Not even mentioning the fact he managed to uncover where our hidden ANBU HQ was, these skills right now are used on pranks and from this the kid has managed to show a level of composure and efficient and tactical planning. He needed to be stealthy, sly, cunning and so on to pull these off, let alone pull these off without a single trace of pure evidence. The kid is skilled in the arts of pranking and I for one believe these could be reapplied to ANBU. Naruto has shown information gathering skills, escape skills, stealth, skills at strategy and planning, and so on"

Hiruzen nodded understanding where Kakashi was coming from but in all honesty, he wasn't convinced just yet, "That may be true Inu but you know of all people just how dark and unforgiving the ANBU lifestyle can be, and in all honesty Naruto may be skilled in those areas but he is far from ready to be an ANBU operative at this age. He isn't you and he isn't Kamaitachi, he still has a long way to go in terms of his ninjutsu skills" he replied.

"I understand that Hokage-sama but I'm not asking for you to make him a full-pledged ANBU operative out of the gate I'm just asking for him to be somewhat like an ANBU-In-Training and I will be more than happy to supervise his training myself, I'm willing to fit him in my schedule. Besides you and I know Hokage-sama that Naruto isn't learning jack shit from the academy, we know they're biased towards the kid and we owe him and his parents for what they sacrificed for the village. Let me take him under my wing, his father was my sensei and I owe it to him to make sure his son grows up to be a fine ninja like his father. He has so much potential and it would only be wasted with the current status quo"

Hiruzen sighed in defeat, "You promise me you'll make sure you train him well? Please also promise me that you discipline the kid and make sure he doesn't have days like this again, I love the brat but he definitely makes my life harder sometimes" he said with a slight chuckle.

Inu nodded, "Hai Hokage-sama I promise" he said.

"Also, there is another problem, you already know about Danzo's similar plan to induct Naruto-kun into ROOT. Well I don't want any suspicion over Naruto-kun and so because of that he should remain in the academy and train with you in his spare time, and he can't show off what he learns with you in school. We want him to remain the same throughout his academy days meaning he maintains his current grades despite how bad they are, we just don't want to arouse any suspicion until Naruto is ready"

"Fair enough Hokage-sama, consider it done" Inu replied confidently.

"Alright then Inu, call in Naruto and dismiss the other people for me" he ordered. Inu nodded and quickly left the office for a second and not too long after he returned with the young blonde by his side.

"Hey jiji what's up now?" asked the young kid.

"You really made a mess of things today Naruto-kun, I plan on telling the complainers that if they manage to find evidence of your role in the pranks only then you'll be punished but for now there isn't a single piece leading back to you though. But out of pure curiosity can you tell me if it was really you? I promise I won't tell them and this secret will remain between us three" said the Hokage.

Naruto chuckled before nodding his head, "Hai jiji you should have seen everyone's faces, they couldn't believe it when I pulled out the big guns for these pranks. I really went all out on this one and honestly jiji no regrets whatsoever it was fun" he exclaimed.

Hiruzen smirked, "Thought so, that was impressive Naruto but please refrain from doing so from now on. It only serves to make my day that much more difficult with all the work I have to do" he said.

"Sure, thing jiji whatever you say" Naruto replied halfheartedly.

"Anyway, Naruto the reason I called you back in here was because Inu and I had a serious discussion about you and we want to know what you think"

"Alright jiji what is it about then?" he asked.

"Due to the skills and abilities you showed by your pranks throughout the day Inu here has recommended you to join ANBU as an apprentice. ANBU-In-Training if you will"

This was the least thing Naruto expected right now, the young blonde's eyes widened in shock and his jaw fell to the ground he wondered if his hearing was alright because if he wasn't mistaken he was just asked to join ANBU.

"Now Naruto this is a very unorthodox method of joining, usually its Jonin that show exceptional skill or every now and then prodigious Chunin. But you have shown a strange ability that is required for this line of work and it is an ability not many people have. You use it on pranks but if focused on ANBU you could have a potentially successful career in that field of work. We've all seen what you're capable of and you have the intangible skills needed all you need to brush up on is your knowledge, taijutsu, physical fitness and ninjutsu because at the moment you already have the information gathering skills, the stealth, the cunningness and the ability to escape without leaving a trace. If you really put your mind to it Naruto you could be an amazing ANBU member and this isn't an exaggeration"

Naruto blushed and it took him a few seconds to recollect himself, "I don't know what to say jiji this is a major honor" he said.

Hiruzen nodded, "It really is Naruto no one in history has ever acquired the rank of ANBU in this way, but for now if you choose to accept there will be stipulations you have to agree on first" he explained.

"What are these requirements?"

"First off we need you to act as you do normally in the academy and when in the view of other people meaning you cannot show off what you learn you need to act like yourself right now so that people won't get suspicious. Also, you are not allowed to go on missions until we deem you ready, you will strictly be in training under Inu's guide until then. Otherwise there are no other major rules"

"Yeah, I can definitely do that, this is a major honor and I'm thankful you guys think so highly of me. I won't make you guys regret it I promise, I'll be the best ANBU guy there is and after all that is said and done I'll be taking your job soon jiji" Naruto exclaimed triumphantly.

"I'm sure you will Naruto-kun but for now take your training seriously and take things one step at a time. Inu won't be taking it easy on you and make sure he didn't make a mistake choosing you for this, prove him right Naruto-kun"

Inu walked over and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "He's right you know, my training for you will be brutal and severe but that will be the only way we'll make you better. So, I want you to be prepared when we begin because I will not take it easy on you. I chose you because I saw something in you and because I know you can be great Naruto, even greater than the Yondaime Hokage" he said.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock before looking up at Inu, this was a strange sensation he was feeling right now. He rarely got complimented let alone be praised like this, it was definitely a good feeling when someone believes in you.

"Thanks guys I promise I won't let either of you guys down. Bring on your worst Inu-niisan I'll crush any obstacle you place my way. I accept this proposal jiji, believe it"

Author's Note

Hey guys here is yet another new story of mine, hope you guys enjoyed this like the others. Make sure to also check my profile page for my other stories. Please continue supporting my work I really appreciate it, and also if you guys have any questions or suggestions for my stories please feel free to leave a review or to pm me. Thanks again everyone this was all much appreciated.