Naruto weaved through the crowds of Konoha's central market plaza with a grace that only the most experienced of ninja ever achieved, not that the untrained eyes of merchants and civilians recognized this.
He was making his way towards a small, unassuming shop on the very edges of the plaza by the name of Yamashiro's custom weapons. True to the name, Yamashiro ran a custom weapons and armor shop; however it wasn't just any custom shop. Yamashiro's shop was one of only a dozen such shops that provided weapons and armor to the ANBU, and of those dozen shops Yamashiro's was easily the best. Of course, that particular piece of information wasn't exactly common knowledge, even amongst the ANBU, but Naruto was far from common.
As Naruto entered the dinky shop, both his eyes and nose were quickly assaulted by the foul conditions of the shop.
The place reeked of sweat, rotting food that smelled as though it had been left out for week, water damage, and most of all, booze.
It didn't look much better, either. Various molds of all colors grew on the ceiling, numerous puke colored stains coated the ancient looking carpet, and a black tarp covered a shattered window that was undoubtedly the result of the recent invasion.
His stoic face betraying none of the disgust he felt, the blond approached the counter. As he came closer, the middle aged man behind the granite counter looked up from what appeared to be one of the smut novels that his old seal mentor, Jiraiya, wrote.
"Welcome to Yamashiro's customs shop, how can I help you?" he groaned out tiredly.
"I need a chakra conductive ANBU katana, the best you can make, and a standard-issue ANBU cloak, black and without any markings of affiliation." Naruto answered without missing a beat.
The man, Yamashiro, didn't immediately say anything, instead opting to eye the blond with well-disguised suspicion, not that the aging man was not completely transparent to the young man, but it probably would have fooled many lesser ninja.
"Alright...sorry kid, but I'm going to need some authorization before I make that stuff." the man spoke in a bored drawl, broadcasting that he wasn't really sorry at all.
Naruto calculated his next move for but a fraction of a second before deciding on the most prudent course of action.
With no outward movement, Naruto quickly placed a subtle but powerful illusion over the man, creating a small voice in the back of the man's mind that told him to overlook the lack of authorization just this once.
Having placed the illusion on the man, Naruto began to put on a show.
"Oh, I see. I apologize for wasting your time. Would you be so kind as to point me in the direction of other customs shops?" He suggested subtly.
Yamashiro silently considered his options. On the one hand, this kid didn't have any kind of authorization from the Hokage's advisers so if he DID do this order, and word somehow got back to the advisers that he had been the one to supply the boy with the equipment he would be ruined, if not executed outright.
But on the other hand, this order was worth a hefty sum, easily enough for him to live off of for months, and he certainly didn't want that kind of money going to his competition. Besides, how much trouble could one kid get into?
"Alright," he acquiesced, "I'll make the stuff, but you can't tell anyone that you got this stuff from me."
Naruto nodded in agreement. "Of course."
Ringing up the order, Yamashiro blinked. It seemed that this order was worth even more than he thought. "That's quite the order, you sure you can afford it?"
"I'm sure." Naruto replied dispassionately.
"Alright..." The man could barely contain his smirk. "This is going to cost about 200 ryo (30,000$), give or take."
To the man's slight surprise, the blond remained completely unperturbed. "A fair price for such high quality work. When will it be ready?"
Yamashiro briefly considered the many variables that would affect completion time before replying. "Probably about a week, we don't have many of the necessary materials in stock right now. Business is booming, you see."
"Of course." Naruto replied. Even if Yamashiro didn't say anything directly, Naruto knew what he was implying. After the failed invasion and murdering of the current Hokage, it was more than a little likely that not just the ANBU, but also elite ninja and perhaps even journeyman ninja were gearing up for war.
OOOOOOOOOOOO
As Naruto exited the shop, he pondered his next move. He had already created a shadow clone to observe and monitor Sasuke, so as long as the brat didn't do anything extraordinarily stupid in the next week, Naruto could keep his charge safe. The blond really did not want to have to deal with a threat that required his direct intervention without any proper equipment.
There a few things he needed to do to get himself properly settled in Konoha and remain under the radar: He needed to find his old apartment, as it had been abandoned shortly after his desertion, only the ingenuity of his various contacts in Konoha kept the complex from being torn down.
He also needed to gain the support of at least some political entities in the event that he was apprehended by Konoha. He wasn't exactly sure what the best way to approach that particular problem was yet, but he was leaning towards blackmail.
The blond opted to head to his old apartment. He no longer had the key, but that wouldn't be a problem.
OOOOOOOOOOOO
As Naruto approached the complex, he was struck by just how run down the building was. Sure, it wasn't exactly in pristine condition when he had lived there, but the building was still in unusually poor condition for a mere two years of neglect. Perhaps the complex wasn't as empty as he had been lead to believe?
With the thought of an unknown number of enemies at the front of his mind, Naruto approached silently. It had taken the blond nearly the entire day to make his way to the complex, and as such his approach was further added by the rapid onset of the night.
As he came upon the front entrance, he found that the door had been left unlocked, lending further credibility to the theory that some unwanted guests had taken refuge in the building.
Entering the complex, Naruto quickly scanned his surrounds. While nobody was in that particular area, the aging building was quite large, and the assortment of cheap liquor bottles, cigarette butts, and the empty packs of said cigarettes all but confirmed the presence of intruders.
Summoning up ten shadow clones several clones, he mentally gave them their orders. 'Fan out, search the building for any hostiles and eliminate them, but keep it quiet'.
Naruto and his clones leapt high upwards, using their chakra to stick their hands and feet to the ceiling, allowing them to crawl along undetected.
As he silently crawled along, the original Naruto quickly inscribed a simple sound proofing seal onto the ceiling. With the seal in place, not a single sound would escape the complex, leaving anyone passing by completely oblivious to any possible violence going on inside.
Having completed the seal, Naruto continued scouting. He quickly picked up the laughter and noise of a party coming from a nearby apartment.
Leaping down from the ceiling noiselessly, Naruto slowly attempted to turn the knob, only to find that the door was locked.
Briefly mulling over his options, he decided to simply break the door down. Channeling a fairly large amount of chakra to his fist, he punched the door, releasing all the chakra in his hand as it connected with the door. The effect was instantaneous. With a mighty crash the door gave way, flying off its hinges and impacting the opposite wall.
Wasting no time, Naruto stormed inside. He quickly dodged a sloppy swipe by a thug with a switchblade. Grabbing the thug's wrist, Naruto turned into the man, tossing the thug over his shoulder, and then delivered a crushing boot to the poor man's face. With a sickening crunch the man's skull caved in, killing him instantly.
Letting go of the man's wrist, Naruto leapt back a few feet and scanned the room. Counting four hostiles, he quickly bent down and discreetly pocketed the dead man's switchblade. As he did this, the room's occupants recovered from the shock of seeing their comrade utterly demolished by a boy no older than thirteen.
Intent on avenging their buddy, the delinquents drew their various weapons, ranging from throwing knives to samurai swords, and charged at the boy. There was no way he could take all of them, after all.
Naruto deftly leapt above a bat and delivered a vicious superman punch to the man's jaw faster than the eye could follow, sending the man stumbling back a few feet. Not willing to let such a huge opening go unpunished, Naruto swept the man off of his feet with a low kick to his legs.
However, before he could finish the degenerate off, his finely tuned battle instincts screamed at him to move, and he quickly dodged a one handed swing of a rusty katana. Grabbing the offending arm, Naruto forced it behind the man, causing him to bend over. Naruto then delivered a bone shattering knee to the man's face in a split second. The man was dead before he hit the ground.
By this time the thug that Naruto had originally targeted had gotten to his feet, dizzy though he was, and attempted to finish the blond off by swinging his bat like an axe over Naruto's head. The effort was in vain, however, as Naruto spun around and was inside his guard before he could react.
Quicker than the man's eyes could follow, Naruto had grabbed under his arm and deposited the switchblade he had taken earlier into the man's armpit, burying the blade to the hilt. Before he could even scream in pain Naruto had put both hands on the back of his neck and roughly pulled the man's head down...right into Naruto's chakra filled knee. As the two collided Naruto released the chakra, smashing the man's head like a grape in a fountain of blood.
Not even stopping to spare a thought for the man whose life he had just taken, Naruto turned sharply on the balls of his foot, delivering a powerful roundhouse kick to a third man's arm with his other leg. The thug stopped his assault in pain as he felt the kick crack the bones in his arm. As he yowled in pain Naruto let out a lightning fast jab to the man's face, eliciting a satisfying crunch as the man's nose broke.
The man recoiled back in agony as he clutched his bleeding nose, but Naruto didn't let up the assault. Sending another roundhouse kick, this time charged with chakra, into the thug's now unprotected ribcage, destroying it utterly and sending numerous bone fragments throughout the rest of the thug's body, killing him.
Having disposed of the room's three other occupants, Naruto's impassive blue eyes landed on the only other person still alive.
The man simply looked on, paralyzed with fear after seeing his three comrades slain with such ease and speed. As Naruto came closer, the thug dropped to his knees, discarded his butcher blade, and clasped his hands together.
"P-please don't kill me!" he stuttered out.
Naruto stopped mere feet away from the sniveling man. His cold ocean blue eyes looked upon unblinkingly. "What crimes have you committed?"
The man looked up in fear. "W-what?" he asked.
"Answer the question." Naruto replied shortly, his voice betraying nothing.
"Just some petty thefts, I swear!" The man couldn't stop shaking.
Not detecting any falsehood in the man's voice, Naruto eyed him stoically. This man was no better than swine, and Naruto did not doubt that he would not have a problem ruining the life of another if it suited his purposes.
But when he was in the ANBU he saw the very same look that this man had now, the look of someone who knew that their life was in the hands of another, and while in the ANBU every time he saw someone that look, a pang of guilt and pity ran through him, for not once did the poor fools realize that their fate had already been decided, and just once Naruto had wanted to be able to spare one of those fools.
And just such a choice presented itself to him, and in that moment, Naruto saw in the man, the disgusting pig of a man, the father who had charged at him despite the obvious fear he had felt, he saw the mother who had begged for him to let her son go if nothing else, he saw the child crying over his dead mother, no longer caring about the world around him, and in that moment, Naruto made his choice.
"Go." he commanded, "Leave this place. I don't care where you go but if I ever see you again I'll kill you."
The man nodded rapidly and then sprinted down the hallway towards the main entrance.
Naruto surveyed the carnage he had wrought without passion. Without a sound he created yet another shadow clone, ordering him to begin disposing of any traces of the bodies.
Taking a seat on what looked to be the least ruined piece of furniture in the room Naruto silently contemplated his next move, his mind barely registering the faint smell of smoke and burning flesh his powerful nose detected as the bodies of his victims burned.
