Naruto was waiting for the last two members of Squad Seven to show up before he would tell them about the next mission they would be on. His gaze flew to the side, prompting Rona and Mitsu to do the same. They had been relaxed a moment ago, but when your ANBU captain sees or hears something, you look or listen the same way.

Eventually they looked away and looked bored again. Nothing was there.

Until another moment later Kakashi or 'Inu' showed up. His mask was still on his face, but they could feel the serious mood. His mask looked blanker than ever.

"Inu."

"Rini-sama."

Naruto shifted his position to continue waiting for their newest member, who would replace Kakashi. He began right before Kakashi got too anxious.

"Inu, have you passed this…Genin team of yours for once?"

"You never cease to get right to the point. Yes, I actually have passed them. I am formally resigning from the ANBU. I'll… I'll miss you guys."

Naruto smiled under his own standard ANBU mask, even though they couldn't see it.

"We're sad to see you leave. Inu, I'm sorry for replacing you this quickly, but we already have another mission and we need another person. So without further ado, I'd like you to meet Aki."

Said person jumped out from behind a tree, mask completely bare save a small flaming heart in the rounded edge of white.

"Hello."

"Yo."

"Sup?"

"Does she look pretty?" Mitsu whispered to Rona.

Rona rolled her eyes and made a handsign. Her eyes went sightless and Mitsu could see. He rubbed his hands together and rolled his shoulders back and forth.

"Alright then. Inu, would you like to go on one last mission with us? I don't mind." Naruto spoke casually, and he really did wonder if Kakashi would accept or not. The man wouldn't do too much tomorrow anyways.

Inu seemed to contemplate this.

"Alright."


When they were halfway to their destination, the border between Konaha and Iwa, Inu pulled his former captain aside. Naruto let the others go on a little ahead, falling back slightly to talk in private. He checked to see if his hair was still dark before nodded for the other man to talk.

"What is it?" Naruto whispered.

"I have to thank you."

"For what?" Naruto's voice sounded surprised.

"For… everything, really. It's been an honor to serve under the Ruby Maelstrom. Not just that, but… You've saved my life on multiple occasions. It wouldn't feel right if I left without thanking you."

Naruto's eyes blinked away sudden tears. He was an elite ninja; he wasn't supposed to show emotion!

"Oh. Well, I guess you're welcome, Inu. I- I really couldn't bear to lose such a faithful subordinate."

Inu's eye blinked under his porcelain mask and a grin formed as well. It sounded awkward, but that was just how his captain worked. He didn't really know how to show emotion, but he ended up doing just that when he saved his team's butt time after time.

"And…Uhm…..After the last time you saved me…."

Naruto's mind flew to the most recent time he had saved Kakashi's life. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

"Yeah?"

"Can you not tell anyone that Ha- I mean I-"

Naruto's grin was close to bursting off his face. Kakashi was stumbling over words now, seemingly tongue-tied.

"Not to tell anyone that you kissed the 'Ruby Maelstrom' and lived? I won't if you won't. Besides, then everyone will pretend to be dying just to get a piece of this."

Kakashi's mouth was hanging open, even though no one could see it. His captain had never made jokes like that. He knew that this kid was a genius, and that he was only fifteen. His age in maturity was already higher than his own. It was humbling to know that others much stronger than him had the same type of humor.

"Did I steal your tongue that time, Inu? Or just remembering that moment?"

Kakashi's mind actually went back to that moment, moving a hand absently to his lips. Instead of feeling his face, however, his fingers hit solid material. He felt something wake inside of him that he didn't know what to do with.

"No. Just…nothing."

Naruto snuck another look at Kakashi to try to figure out what the man had meant by that. But before he could make another comment, the rest of his team fell back.

"Rini. We've spotted the targets. Who do we get?"

Naruto's gaze settled on Aki. They all stopped and managed to hide their presence from their enemies.

"Good. Aki, go around so they can't retreat. Rona and Mitsu, flush them out. Inu, you'll come with me and take out the main problem. If you need help, just sign for it. I'll be watching everyone. Got it?"

His team nodded and he made two fluid handseals, disappearing without any signs that he was there. Kakashi hurried to follow, only seconds behind. Aki was slipping around back to make sure no one raised an alarm or got away. The twins just rushed in to create a distraction and take out the first few men stationed outside the little bunker.


Inu knew that his captain wanted to finish their conversation. Or he wanted to see…something. He wasn't stupid. But he knew that Rini was too – he wouldn't give up until the silver haired ninja told him. He knew that the youngest captain probably knew all of their identities. He himself had never seen the boy outside of missions and squad meetings, but he had felt his presence following him before. And he knew that it was only because the captain wanted him to know he was there.

He watched Rini spin in a circle, water flaring out from the puddle he was in. With a few swift handseals, the water ensnared the necks of the three closest ninja. Inu slid a sword out from its scabbard, slicing through the nearest human. His mind shut out all the blood and the thoughts of how easy it was to take a life. His thoughts were centered on the black-haired ninja helping him kill.


On the way back, Rona checked them for minor injuries. Naruto himself didn't have any, and he knew that Inu had only gotten nicked on the arm once. He watched as Aki came closer to get healing for her neck. The muscles were torn through, and they could all see her blood spilling out faster than it was healing. Their half-medic had almost gotten a heart attack when she started to heal their newest member, only to find that her heart had stopped.

This caused a slight panic in their ranks as they stopped and all pitched in to help. Meanwhile, Aki was gazing at them with a smile that could light up a room. Her mask had gotten lost in their confusion, and they could see her one brown eye. The other one was covered by her headband, pulled down just like Kakashi's. Naruto, however, just leaned calmly against a tree. Inu hadn't understood why he had gone into a panic over his old team but not the newbie.

Until his captain uttered one chilling word.

"Immortal."


Once they continued back to Konoha, Naruto pulled out a cigarette. He twirled it in his fingers, waiting impatiently until they got back to the base so that they could give their report and then disperse. Kakashi knew that they all had their own ways to cope with killing, and smoking was just Rini's. His was a little less obvious, even though he did it in plain sight. He read Icha Icha, not only to avoid talking to people in the streets but to forget all the blood.

"Right. Well, Inu, it was nice knowing you. Don't get yourself killed."

"I'll try not to, sempai." Kakashi gave a mock salute.

"Why do you call him that?" Aki spoke up.

Kakashi had been startled at the sudden question. He figured he might as well answer her.

"You'll find out soon enough."


Naruto hadn't been surprised to hear Kakashi call him sempai until Aki had asked her question. To be truthful, he really didn't know either. He had gotten so used to the older ninja referring to him as such, and he started to think on it. That is, until he had to give a small speech before he could leave. He had to go over their weaknesses on the mission. It had actually gone quite well, but there were a few things left to go over.

"Rona. Great job. You just need to be a tad bit faster. Work on that, please. Mitsu. Same, but you need to get faster on handseals. Yes, I saw that mistake. And finally, Aki."

Said ANBU member just tilted her head, waiting for the praise she so expected.

"Aki. Let's see. You were slow to get to the agreed position, you took too long to kill the assigned people, and…you spilt too much of your own blood. And left a trail for them to follow."

Aki's frown made him roll his eyes.

"This team has high expectations. Either live up to them or don't." He pushed roughly off the ground and into a tree.

"Dismissed."


After getting only three hours of sleep at home, the blond decided to meet with team seven early. He figured that the two Genin would get there right on time, so he just watched the birds and other living things interact. He sketched three pictures, not bothering to add color. They looked just fine when he shaded them in and added shadows and things.

Two hours later, Sasuke showed up. The raven was yawning, but when he saw Naruto he assumed an emotionless expression. A glare wormed its way through and Naruto was forced to adopt a large grin.

"Yo, Sasuke-teme!"

"Dobe."

Naruto watched with the same smile as Sasuke flopped to the ground against a tree near his.

"Tired, teme?"

"Shut up."

"Did the little Uchiha stay up all night?" Naruto himself had only gotten three hours of sleep.

"I slept just fine, thanks."

"Really? Then why are you tired, teme?"

Sasuke's glare lacked anger, though, since Naruto was dead on about the last Uchiha being sleepy. He looked away after a second and shrugged.

"Hn."

"Aww, getting all mopey on me? I'm shocked." Naruto's smile reformed into a pout.

"Just lemme sleep" Sasuke finally ground out, closing his eyes.

Sasuke was forced to snap them open not an instant later, however, when he felt a disturbance. His heart skipped a beat when he found Naruto not an inch away from his face, inspecting him with an odd sense of mother-ship.

"Nope. You didn't get enough sleep last night, Sasuke." Naruto tsked and waved a finger disapprovingly in his face.

Sasuke growled, but his mind wasn't really caught up yet. He was still wondering how the blond had gotten to him so quickly. There must have been ten yards between us….The dobe could never have done that…

"You're not Naruto" was what his mind came up with.

Naruto rolled his eyes and plopped down onto his butt in front of the other ninja.

"Of course I'm Naruto. That's my birth name, at least. I think it is…. I hope it is."

Before Sasuke could ask another question, Sakura showed up. Her loud squeal made Sasuke clap his hands over his ears. Naruto seemed pained as well, his normally happy features twisted into pain and fear.

"Sasuke-kun!"

This time, both boys couldn't hold back their groans.


It had been a long morning. After Sakura showed up, she wouldn't shut her mouth. She kept going on and on about 'Sasuke-kun' again. But this time she included Naruto. But her inclusion wasn't praise; it was the opposite. Even though he had been the one to get Kakashi to pass them, but…details, details.

She had only shut up when Sasuke snapped at her to do so, but only after muttering to herself about doing it for Sasuke-kun. She had seated herself close to the brooding boy, and every so often would inch closer, hoping he didn't notice. He did. He inched closer to the blond, even though he didn't notice that simple fact. And Naruto was just bored of waiting. He wondered if Kakashi had ever been this late to one of their briefing missions, and sighed when he realized the answer was yes.

So with the two Genin trying to get closer and further away, Naruto finally had to make his own fun. At the expense of the other two, of course. He made sure that Yin was there to be held, by Sakura, who had fallen in love with the white colored cat. Once she was in place, Naruto made a discrete shadow clone in the tree high above Sasuke. His clone henged into a bird, more shape shifting than disguise. It took lots of practice to do so, but he had managed to get a few basic animals down.

The bird had fluttered down and gently pecked Sasuke's head, annoying him more than hurting him. Sasuke had frozen at the light touch, his hand near his kunai pouch just in case. Sakura's eyes gazed at the bird curiously until she felt Yin bunching her muscles to spring.

"No!" The pinkette had shouted, moving her hands just in time for the cat to lunge at the bird. That was still sitting contentedly on the closest ninjas head.

Naruto had laughed for a long time, only just avoiding Sakura's blows to his head. She had chased him around for that prank after they had figured out it was his doing. Sakura had forgotten to help Sasuke, however, and the raven was forced to get Naruto's cat off his face by himself.

When Sasuke had finally gotten Yin detached from his face, though, Naruto offered to heal Sasuke. The scratched up Genin just let out a mighty humph and sent him a glare. Sakura just shook her head scornfully.

"You couldn't heal anyone, you're the dead last."

"You can't do it" Naruto shot back quietly.

Sakura found that she couldn't respond to that, since he was right, and had stayed silent the rest of the time. Sasuke just wiped the little blood that was there and watched for their sensei. Naruto settled back into waiting as well, hoping the two would think about what he had said. He wasn't disappointed.


Kakashi showed up late and wasn't surprised to see Sakura jump up to yell at him. He wasn't as tired as he had been the previous day, but his mind still loitered on his last ANBU mission. Blood and emotions could affect ninja in bad ways…

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura shouted, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"Sorry, I…" his mind flitted through reasons to be late. "Sorry, I got lost on the road of life."

After Kakashi had told them his lie, they had gotten up to stand in a half-circle in front of him. Sasuke looked ready to fight someone, Sakura's gaze was flicking between him and Sasuke, and Naruto looked ready to jump into the wind to try his hand at flying.

Why, oh why did I pass them…?


"These missions are boring!" Naruto whined, changing his tone of voice to sound even higher pitched and annoying.

Kakashi shrugged, eyes still on his book, and didn't say anything. Naruto pouted but kept painting the fence.

"Dobe." Sasuke huffed, bored out of his mind as well. For the entire week, they hadn't done anything but minor, easy missions. Sure, they got paid for their hard work, but it was degrading for an Uchiha to be seen painting a pink fence.

"Oh, wait!" Naruto shouted, smacking his forehead with a palm.

The two others currently holding paintbrushes in their hands glanced at him curiously.

"I could have done this!" he hit himself again before making a handseal. Three more Naruto's stood around him, all wielding the same paintbrushes.

"Get to work!" the blond ordered them, laying down against the grass and closing his eyes.

The three new blonds shrugged at themselves and attacked the fence with paint. Sakura just blinked, trying to process what the solid clones implied. Sasuke, however, scowled; he had heard that Naruto had been able to defeat a Chunin with this skill, but he had never thought to confirm it. He himself had heard of it, but when he tried to perform it, the single shadow clone drained his chakra enough for him to faint.

Even though Naruto was an elite ninja, he couldn't dodge the two paint tools aimed at him.


"I don't see why you can't just take your jacket off, Naruto." Kakashi drawled, turning the page of his orange book.

Naruto scowled. "I just don't want to."

"It's dirty and the temperature is too hot to wear a thick jacket." Sakura supplied.

"I'm fine."

"Dobe, take the stupid jacked off."

"No." Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke.

Kakashi sighed and decided that they were done.

"Sasuke, Sakura, stop harassing Naruto. If he wants to keep his jacket on, he can. And Naruto, stop being childish."

Naruto looked hurt.

"I am a child" he said before leaping onto a random roof and running in the direction of his house.

Kakashi watched him go, wondering what he said. They weren't little kids anymore. They changed the levels after the war so that when you graduated from the academy, you did it around age fifteen. They were still young, but not at all like what it used to be. After too many kids tried to be like Itachi or Kakashi they upped the age required to graduate and become a genin. What do I feel is off about you, Uzumaki…?

"Um, Kaka-sensei?" Sakura tugged on his sleeve.

"Yes, Sakura?"

"C-can we go now?"

"Sure. See you tomorrow, team."


Naruto hadn't wanted to take off his jacket for a few reasons. They would probably see some of his tattoos, and they would most definitely see his real ninja gear. Kakashi would immediately figure out who he was, and he didn't want to know the Copy Ninja's reaction just yet. His fingers traced the scars on his face, mind going through some of the possible reactions. He didn't like any of them. He could only hope that it would be less suspicious to keep a jacket on then to show his black ANBU outfit.

Eventually he had to get up from the edge of his bed to feed his cats. They weren't making any noise, but staring at him with unblinking eyes sometimes unnerved him.

He just wished that he could smoke around his sensei without the man getting suspicious.


It was the next day that Naruto noticed someone following him. He didn't think it was much of a threat, but it was amusing to turn around and have a purple colored shape duck and hide. They weren't the best of stalkers, although he had seen worse. Like Sakura, for example.

Eventually he went into his favorite ramen shop and ordered two bowls, both miso. A moment later, they were set in front of him. He pushed the second bowl to his right a little. He didn't turn around but carefully called out,

"Would you like to join me?"

A small 'eep' was heard, and he ate some noodles. By the time he had finished half his bowl, a small figure had joined him.

"Hello, Hinata." He said coolly.

Hinata flinched and poked her fingers together.

"A-ano, N-Naruto-kun…"

Naruto nodded his head at her bowl and she squeaked before hesitantly picking up a pair of chopsticks. She delicately ate a few slurps. Silence hovered over them, and he waited until she had swallowed before asking his next question.

"Why were you following me?" He asked calmly, tilting his head and giving her a curious look.

Her face flushed red and she stirred her remaining noodles around her bowl. He quietly ordered another one for him and waited patiently for an answer. He actually knew, but he wanted to see if she would tell him.

"I- I…A-ano, Naru-Naruto-kun…"

Still he continued to wait, occasionally glancing over at her.

"I…" her blush finally got the best of her and she fainted, head aimed at the counter in front of her.

His hands moved quickly, pushing her bowl away from them and catching her head in his hand. He carefully lowered her head to the table. He dropped some money on the counted with a smile and thanks before picking Hinata up.


He took her to their training ground, setting her against a tree so that she wouldn't be dizzy when she woke back up. The other two weren't there, so he didn't have to explain himself. Yet. He took out some blank paper and his pencil and started to sketch.


Hinata woke just in time for him to finish his portrait. Her eyes had been finished before she had opened them, so she didn't disturb the picture. Her eyes alighted on him in front of her and a faint red color jumped to her face.

"N-Naruto-kun"

"Hinata-chan"

"Wh-where am I?" she looked around, just now noticing that they weren't in the same place as before.

"Training ground seven. You fainted."

"O-oh." She pushed two fingers together, looking down at her lap. "G-gomen."

"You didn't answer my question from before, Hina-chan." He mentioned, tilting his head to adjust something on his picture.

Her blush grew darker and he finished his portrait, carefully rolling it up and snapping some string around it. He held it out towards her and she reached for it. Her fingers were trembling, though, and he tilted it back just out of reach.

"This is yours if you can tell me what you were following me for…." He gave a small smile, trying to make her feel a little less frightened.

Hinata's eyes widened slightly and she stood up, not taking the time to brush the dirt off her pants yet. She started to run past him, but he caught her wrist gently. Her panicked gaze turned to meet his and he gave her a wider grin. When her wrist was dropped, she bolted. She didn't realize she held his finished paper in her hand.


"Naruto-kun…" She took in the picture of herself, but what really caught her eye was the signature in the bottom right corner. To my dear Hinata-chan….Uzumaki Naruto~


Naruto had a clone follow her to see her reaction. The girl's crush on him was cute, but once she knew that he contained the nine-tails he figured that she would be even more scared of him. He didn't want to get too close to her, but he wanted to play with her. Not to be mean, but to just… see what happened.