Prologue:

The moon was full and the breeze blew gently through the sleeping town of Konoha, slinking in the shadows was a female ninja that was of legend and myths. The way she moved was that of the shadows and she made not a sound as she approached the apartment of the blond haired ninja that everyone knew as Naruto. Once at the window crouched in a tree she smirked with irony.

"So Minato I am here, I guess now you expect me to keep my part of the bargain. I swear if I see you anytime soon I'm going to kick your ass," the shadowed female whispered with mirth.

She watched the young teen that looked so much like his father sleep peacefully away the night. Feeling that there were others out in the night as well seemingly able to detect her she grinned widely as she disappeared into the shadows with out a sound or trace. The ANBU landed on the very branch that she was once perched upon and looked to where it was located. They stared at the object that seemed to brought the unknown ninja here with deep thoughts before they disappeared to report to there Hokaga.

Upon landing in the Hokaga's office through the window, Tsunade and Jiraiya looked towards them with a frown. They had a feeling that something was going to happen tonight but they didn't know what. Apparently they had been right, yet the ANBU came back empty handed which worried them both.

"Well what did you find out?" demanded Tsunade.

One ANBU stepped forward that wore the mask of a tiger, kneeling down before Tsunade. "There was someone that did infiltrate the village Lady Hokaga but we couldn't catch the intruder. They disappeared as if they were the very shadows."

Eyes widening with surprise Tsunade stood up quickly. "No, it can't be… what was she after?"

"We are not sure but when we closed in to where she was located it was near Naruto Uzumaki's apartment window where the boy lay asleep," answered the tiger masked ANBU.

"Damn it! I want you and one other to stand guard over Naruto to make sure that she doesn't come back. If anything is amiss engage on sight and the other to report to me immediately," ordered Tsunade angrily.

"My Lady!" the ANBU team saluted before they disappeared.

Sitting back down in her chair Tsunade sighed in worry, she picked up her forgotten drink and sipped it. Jiraiya came towards her and sat on the edge of her desk looking at her with a questioning gaze.

"Tsunade what is going on? By the look of your face when you received the information about the person disappearing in the shadows and automatically knowing it was a female I thought you were going to crap your pants," stated Jiraiya.

Tsunade laughed with dry humor. "Have you ever heard of the legend and myth of the Shadow Stalker?"

Looking up in thought. "Well yeah, but it's just that a myth. A story to tell children when they get bad or too out of hand, what does this have to do with anything?"

"It has everything to do with it Jiraiya. What if I told you that it wasn't really a myth? What if I told you that she really does exist? Think about it Jiraiya, all those people who died unknown deaths by an unknown person that is said that disappeared into the shadows," Tsunade said in a serious tone.

Jiraiya felt his skin crawl and was becoming a bit antsy. "True there are those but no one has ever seen her or if they did they never lived."

"There have been glimpses and from what they say it is defiantly a woman, hell she is in the Bingo Book as the Shadow Stalker," Tsunade equipped.

Looking out the window in thought Jiraiya was still skeptical but he wasn't about to go against Tsunade about this, mentally shrugging he decided to keep his mind open about it.

"Ok say that she exists. Than why is she after Naruto?" asked the toad sannin.

Shaking her head in not knowing. "I don't know. She's a known assassin and an expert on many things, for all I know she's here to kill Naruto."

Nodding his head in agreement Jiraiya sighed. "So what do we do? We can't very well have Naruto guarded every minute, we don't have the man power nor the time for it."

"That may be so but there is always his friends that can keep an eye on him for me. Besides I don't think she will attack him out in public or around a lot of people, her MO is killing at night in the dark where the shadows are her friends," Tsunade supplied in thought as plans zipped through her mind.

"His friends? Don't get me wrong but aren't they a little out of league with this unknown ninja?" Jiraiya asked with a pause before he continued. "In other to get them to cooperate with you wouldn't you have to tell them what your thinking and what's going on?"

Smirking at that Tsunade shook her head. "No I wont. I'm the Hokaga, what I say goes."

Sighing at Tsunade's cockiness Jiraiya still couldn't wrap his mind around this Shadow Stalker being real or the fact that she is after Naruto for some unknown reason, maybe to even kill him. Getting up from his place he went to the window but before he went out he took one last look at Tsunade.

"I will see what I can get from my spies and sources about this Shadow Stalker, then I will see if there has been a recent hit for Naruto to be eliminated," he said tiredly. With that he left.

Tsunade looked into her cup wishing it was filled with sake instead of tea, Shizune had seemed to poor out all her sake and replaced it with tea. Frowning she downed the rest of the tea and started to work on the papers before her because she knew that sleep will not come to her this night.