Konoha's Assassin:

The Right Hand of the Hokage

Chapter 3

-X-

I own nothing

-X-

AN: I've changed some dates and facts around for this story, for example, Minato wasn't Kakashi's sensei. It's impossible with the dates, Naruto is 24 and Kakashi is only around 26 or 27. So unless Kakashi was a ninja baby straight from the womb, he couldn't be trained by Minato.

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The bell above the door rang loudly.

Walking into the shop, Naruto stood in the doorway for a moment and looked around before heading towards the counter. The shop was brightly lit and spotless with packs of ninja weapons such as shuriken, kunai, and senbon stacked neatly in containers. Some generic swords lined the walls with unimpressive armors and equipment also hung from display stands. But that was for the people without a lot of money or were just starting out, much like Genin, closer to the counter was where the good stuff was stored, safely locked in display cases.

Summoned by the bell, the man he knew as the owner of the establishment walked out from the open doorway from behind the counter to take care of his customer.

He was a large man, large as in buff with thick arms that looked like he could break some of these swords in half without trying. Soot covered his face, obviously from the forge in the back where he made what he needed.

The man's soot covered face broke into a grin, "Naruto, how nice to see you!" he called out while wiping his hands with a rag, "I assume that you're here to pick up that little project and your other orders am I right?"

"Hey, Dustin," Naruto greeted in return , "Yeah, I'm starting to run low and need to stock up for a mission."

Nearing the counter where Dustin had stopped, they grabbed each others arms in a roman hand shake, grabbing each others forearms. The blacksmith was one of the few to know about his assassin status, having built his hidden blade after the blond found the instructions as well as forged his armors and other weapons. He had also done the same for his parents when they needed something so it wasn't like he went to some random person who'd betray him later.

Apparently, Minato invested/donated some of his money into the shop when Dustin was in trouble financially, not only helping him and his family, but making a loyal friend in the process.

Dustin opened up a place below his counter and returned with a scroll, "Here's the throwing knives and those special smoke bombs you needed, but the other thing isn't ready yet, I still need a while to finish it,"

"How long?" he asked while paying the man what he owed and storing the scroll away in his pocket.

"I should have it done either tonight or tomorrow so I'll have my daughter deliver it to you,"

"Tenten-chan?" the younger man exclaimed with a small grin, "How is your adorable little girl?"

The question seemed to make the father frown and level a glare at the blond, "Still to young for you!" he growled, making Naruto sweat drop, "She still sleeps with that stuffed animal that she named Naruto-kun…"

Naruto's sweat drop increased in size.

Dustin calmed down and huffed, "Well at it's better than that obsession that she had with that Hyuuga on her team… that emo prick needs to take that stick out of his ass… but knowing them, he probably enjoys it." realizing that he was rambling, he shook his head, "Oh, sorry about…"

The blacksmith huffed, finding himself alone in the shop, "I hate it when he does that,"

-X-

Tenten smiled to herself as she ran up the winding pathway up towards the top of the Hokage monument. Wearing her green pants and pink sleeveless shirt, she held onto the strap of her pack that was thrown over her shoulder, which bounced with every step.

Her body was tired, having just returned to her home above the family shop after her daily warm up followed by a mission or two and lastly, some training. While she would usually drag herself into the bathroom to wash up, get herself something to eat, and then go to sleep after a day of work, her excitement over being able to go to Naruto's gave her a second wind.

She had known the blond for years and even looked up to him as her secret role model. Ever since she could remember, he'd been coming to the shop and visiting her dad, usually picking up some gear or discussing something while she wasn't near by. When he'd vanish for weeks and weeks at a time, she remembered as a little girl when she asked her dad why, he hadn't been so forthcoming and told her that Naruto was a ninja, which in turn, set her on the path to becoming one as well.

Her dream of being a weapons mistress also came from watching him as a child, when he came in to get a weapon, he'd always test it out on some training dummies out back behind the shop and seemed to be able to use them no matter what they were. She still remembered the awe she felt, watching him with her father as he gracefully decimated the dummies then smile at her when he finished, as if he only did it to entertain her.

Going around a curve, she looked up and saw that she now only had a couple more to go before reaching the top and being able to head straight to the blondes home, using the moons dim light to help her as she got further from the village lights.

She blushed at the thought of being alone with him in his villa, it wasn't the first time she'd come up to deliver something to him for her father but now certain thoughts were running through her mind.

It was funny, just a year ago she'd been hung up on her teammate Neji Hyuuga, crushing on him secretly like some of the others in her academy class. But a week into being a genin, she and her team were assigned a mission to clean the female side of the bath house, which had been closed leaving the male side still up and running. Everything went well until Lee and Guy, got into a contest to see who could scrub the floors while standing on their hands and holding a brush in each hand, saying that the first one to fall would run around the village with a boulder tied to their waist.

It went well for all of one minute, while trying to steady themselves Guy slipped on the cleaner, knocked into Lee and both crashed into the dividing wall between the male and female side.

And who should be standing ten feet away? Naruto Uzumaki, who had just dropped his towel and was about to step into the water. He'd been facing away at the time but with the loud crash he turned and… well, she saw more of him than she ever had in the past.

Reaching the top, she turned to look at the village from the vantage point at the top of the mountain before taking off down the path towards the villa, which was hidden in the dark forest atop the monument.

It was a good thing she knew the way, as it was so dark that those who didn't could easily get lost, even with the path.

As always, his home was nice and well taken care of, it was kind of hard to believe that he lived there by himself.

Knocking, she loudly called out to the man before opening the door and walking in. She knew that he wouldn't mind and went to the room left of her, the same room that she liked the most and the one he knew that she'd go to, the weapons room.

It was more like a display room than an armory, each weapon having a special designated place assigned to it in a rack or a display table. Hanging on special made racks attached to the walls were weapons of all kinds, swords, maces, war hammers, spears, each one ready for combat. But in long cases along the walls were his short bladed weapons, each different from the next and looking like they should be in a history collection. But she knew that every weapon in this room was battle ready and fully tested, she had even helped forge a couple of these.

"I knew you'd be in here Ten-chan." Came the sudden voice belonging to Naruto as he soundlessly came up behind her, making her jump and swing at him, only for him to catch it.

"Don't do that!" she whined at being snuck up on, only for him to hum.

"What?"

"Sneak up on me like that!"

He raised an eyebrow, he wasn't sneaking, he had just walked in. Deciding to just pacify her, he apologized. They talked for a minute before she handed over a sealed package and after skillfully dancing around her questions for a little while, it came time for her to head on home.

When she did leave, he opened the package and found another hidden blade like his other except with two new changes, this one had a hollow blade that could be used to poison someone as well as a small dart launcher that could allow him to shoot poisoned darts.

He knew that Tenten would wet herself over this… hell she'd do it over just the hidden blade, but all she knew was that he and her father were friends, she didn't know about Dustin building the assassination tools for him and he didn't intend for her to find out more until she was ready to take her fathers place, that is if she was ever ready.

-X-

Two weeks later, Naruto found himself inside the Hokage tower standing across from the old man himself while looking over a scroll that sat on the desk between them.

"So Gato is hiding out in the Land of Waves…" he mused while studying the scroll, it was unrolled to reveal a map of the area as well as a few pictures of the man and a physical description. He had more detailed information sealed away inside the scroll but he'd check that out later when he needed to, after all it was mainly information on the land and some of the targets contacts.

The Hokage nodded.

Thinking, Naruto frowned, "There's no courtesans there for me to get information from but if I'm right, there were some mercenaries based there. They might be useful… that is if Gato didn't manage to buy them too."

"Kakashi and his team were sent for a mission there, they've decided to continue despite the risks. I've already received their report that they've fought the Demon Brothers and Momochi Zabuza, missing ninjas from Mist. Kakashi is down at the moment from chakra exhaustion due to using his eye,"

"Oh so this is a rescue mission too…" he mused while shaking his head, "Gotta pull Kakashi's ass out of the hot grease again huh."

Hiruzen nodded, "You leave as soon as your ready,"

-X-

The Land of Waves, a small nation located on an island near the Land of Fire, one of the many that didn't have it's own hidden village and was forced to seek assistance from other Hidden Villages. It had many rivers running through it and was famous for it's mangroves, which were full of life. But it was isolated, relying on shipping for commerce and trade, making it a very prosperous land… or it had been.

Crouched on a towering rooftop, Naruto gazed down at the surrounding land with a look of disgust at what he was seeing. Homeless, starving families begging for food on the streets, terrorized by thugs on Gato's payroll. Stores were closed and boarded up, some were even burnt out shells, those that were still open had barely anything and from what he saw those few things were outrageously priced due to the lack of supply.

With a layout of the land burned into his memory, Naruto reflected on his objectives, first off he needed to contact Kakashi and make sure that both him and his team were ok, then he needed to gather information on Gato and find the runts location, and lastly, use that information to end his life.

"Hey!"

Turning his head, Naruto saw that one of Gato's men had spotted him and was yelling for him to come down. Frowning, he leapt off in the opposite direction, his white assassins robes fluttering in the air as he vanished in out of sight,

-X-

"Dad, I'm back from town!"

Kakashi looked up to see Tsunami, their client Tazuna's daughter, walk in with a small paper bag of food while his student Sakura followed her, acting as protection while in town. Tsunami was the 29 year old mother of Inari, a emo little brat that reminded him of his other students, Sasuke and Sai.

"Did anything happen?" the old bridge builder questioned as she neared.

Going back to his book, Kakashi half listened to the conversation before nearly dropping his book, catching the attention of everyone in the room. "I'm sorry Tsunami-san, but what'd you just say?"

The woman looked at him weirdly, "I said that some of my friends were going on about a strange man dressed in a hooded white robe."

"With a red sash under a wide brown belt and armor over his arms?"

She blinked owlishly and nodded, "You know who is was?"

Before he could answer, there was a string of knocks at the door. Warily of a surprise attack, they opened the door cautiously only to find the person they'd been talking about standing there.

"Identify yourself!" demanded Sasuke, who'd been in the room and opened the door since Kakashi still had to use crutches to move around. Sakura all but hid behind him while Sai was sitting in a chair, paint brush and pad ready for one to use one of his jutsu.

But the answer didn't come from the man in white, Kakashi laughed and rubbed the back of his head, "Figures that the Hokage would send you Naruto."

Removing his hood, Naruto smirked at the Jounin before walking in, bumping past the Uchiha in his way, "Yeah… wouldn't be the first time I've saved your ass now would it?"

"Ah Sensei?" Sakura spoke up, "Who is this?"

"Our support." he replied with an eye smile, making them all sweat drop.

Naruto slowly shook his head, "Actually Kakashi, I'm here to check up on you, I'm here for another reason."

"Huh?" Kakashi narrowed his eye in thought before understanding, "Oh… I see…"

Confused by all the hidden answers, Sakura loudly asked what they were talking about only for Kakashi to tell her that it was none of her business.

"Actually Kakashi, the Hokage doesn't care if this gets out," he said before looking to the pink haired girl, "As for your question, I'm not here to help your team with the mission, I'm here to assassinate Gato."

The reactions he got were amusing, the old man spat sake across the floor, the woman nearly fainted, the pink haired girl Sakura paled, and the Uchiha flinched, only the strange teen and Kakashi didn't really react.

"A-assassinate Gato!" Tazuna parroted while Naruto nodded, he raised his bottle and grinned, "To the Hidden Leaf Village then!"

-X-

Over the next two days, Naruto gathered information on the land and his target. The people of Wave, both beaten and repressed were eager for change but afraid to rise up against Gato and his mercenary army. He managed to bribe some shop keepers into talking, getting them to tell him what Tazuna's family didn't know.

Gato ran his business like a spoiled rich brat leading a wannabe yakuza street gang, answering his problems by throwing money to the nearest thug and saying break this, kill that, or threaten them. Most of said money came from his ill-gotten shipping company, which he took illegally from the rightful owners by forcing them to sign over everything, usually by holding a family member hostage. He used the shipping business for shipping drugs and more recently, slaves. A small fraction of his wealth came from forcing the people to pay tax and protection money, they usually managed to scrape by but those that didn't were taken and sold. He only just recently started that and from what he heard, he had a small handful of the ones who couldn't pay imprisoned somewhere on the island and was looking for a buyer.

Over the past few hours, he'd been combing for information on Gato's location, hoping to take the midget out sooner and possibly aid Kakashi with his little swordsman problem. From the injuries Kakashi inflicted, the scarecrow figured that the man would be up and on his feet by the end of the week, which was in two days at the least. Zabuza also seemed to have a partner masquerading around as a hunter ninja from Mist.

Leaping silently across the rooftops, silent as the grave, he followed a pair of mercenaries as they walked down the road, having just beaten a man and taken what they called 'protection money'. He had to stop himself from dropping in on them and killing them both but when he heard them say something about taking the money straight to Gato he decided to follow instead.

"Hey, did you hear about this guy that's been walking around in white monks robes?" he heard while crouching on the roof above them as they slowly made there way towards their destination.

"A monk?" the other repeated, "What the fuck's a monk doing here?"

"Don't know, it's just a rumor I've heard."

Naruto hummed lowly, the towns people must've been keeping their talk to a minimum if the mercenaries only thought that he was a rumor. They really wanted Gato gone but lacked the guts to do it themselves. Speaking of mercenaries, the ones he had thought about getting information from had disbanded, most leaving the Land of Waves while a few joined up with Gato.

He continued to follow them until they reached a small harbor and boarded a small motorboat, he wouldn't be able to sneak on but he didn't need too as he could see where they were going. A small island sat just a short ways from the main island with a mansion sitting in the middle, surrounded by a tall wall that most likely had thugs stationed here and there.

He had found Gato's place but it wouldn't do him any good right now, he needed to prepare himself and return to Tazuna's home, if he was going to infiltrate Gato's manor and assassinate the parasite, he'd need to fully arm himself just in case.

To be continued…

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