Hoshigakure *

Kakuzu, Akahoshi, Shiso, and Yotaka emerged from the Hoshikage's tower. All but Kakuzu had injuries and Kakuzu wasn't amused with how the battle turned out. Kakuzu quickly overpowered the so called kage very easily and he didn't even need to use his forbidden techniques. Once the four men walked out of the tower Kakuzu asked them, "Where's my money?"

Akahoshi smiled and pulled out a scroll and unsealed it's content, popping out of the scroll was a metal case full of money, "I'm a man of my word, so here is your payment Kakuzu." Like every other time Kakuzu gets paid he counts the money, but on an occasion like this he closed the case and took it saying, "It better be here otherwise you won't be breathing for much long." Akahoshi smiled replying, "If it's one thing I'm known for in this village it's that I keep my word."

Kakuzu raised his hand in the air with his hand open and quickly made a fist. After that a huge explosion erupted at the base of the tower and the entire lobby of the tower gave way and the tower collapsed. The three Hoshi nins were surprised and ran from the building so as not to get caught up in the explosion. Kakuzu leapt high up in the air and landed onto one of the buildings next to Naruto who was in a meditating position and was making the ram handsign. Kakuzu told Naruto, "We got our money we don't need to stay here any longer." Naruto agreed and quickly jumped onto Kakuzu's shoulder and Kakuzu began running away from the building at high speeds so as not to get connected with the explosion.

The three Hoshi ninjas stopped and looked up at the building watching it as it crumbled. Yotaka shouted, "Should we go after him?" Akahoshi held his hand out saying, "No. This actually works better. A nuke nin appears and attacks out Hoshikage and kills him taking the money left in his office, before setting off a series of explosive tags." Shiso asked, "So do we tell them that Kakuzu did it?"

Akahoshi shook his head saying no, "We can't do that. Until I am able to control the meteorite's chakra we wouldn't stand a chance against that man if we said it was him. By the time I'm able to do that it will be of no use to us, I'll let him leave with this one, but when I see him again I will kill him." He paused for a moment telling both men, "Let's get to work. ANBU should be here soon and we have to explain what's happened." Both men agreed and the three jumped away from the building.

* Outside of Hoshigakure *

Naruto and Kakuzu were sitting on a cliff and the little ninja was the one counting the money while Kakuzu unraveled a scroll he found inside the Hoshikage's office. He glanced through the scroll and saw that they were methods to use jutsu based off of a meteorite, he remembered the Hoshikage trying to explain the dangers to Akahoshi about a certain power. Though Kakuzu didn't care for such a thing. He made an assumption that these techniques would be useless unless you used the meteorite's power, but that didn't mean that he couldn't make knock offs of the techniques. Naruto finished counting the money and told Kakuzu, "It's all here dad."

Kakuzu rolled the scroll back up and told Naruto, "Congratulations Naruto." Naruto was a little bit confused and tilted his head to the side. "Naruto you killed a kage." said Kakuzu. Now he was even more confused, "What do you mean dad?" Kakuzu grabbed the case and told Naruto, "What I'm saying is that I left the Hoshikage crippled and on a death bed, but you pulled the trigger with the explosives."

Naruto followed Kakuzu when he started walking off saying, "But that not really anything dad, I don't feel comfortable being congratulated on something you did all the work on." Kakuzu looked at Naruto and said, "Whether you want the congratulations or not is not up to you. Now let's deposit the money and take a little break at the villa." Naruto quietly followed him back to their home in the Land of the Moon.

* A Week Later: Konoha *

Minato was working in his office talking to his sensei Jiraiya while he was working. Jiraiya was off in the corner with a typewriter on a roll with his new story of Icha Icha novels. Minato was still going through his daily routine of approving and denying important documents, going through the new squads for the newest graduates, picking the squad leaders and going through mission assignments.

Jiraiya was snickering after completing another chapter, "Hey Minato I'm on a roll over here. Yet another masterpiece of the great Jiraiya!" Minato smiled saying, "Yeah and all it cost you were two broken ribs, a few bruises, some lacerations, and fractured skull from the women at the bath house." Jiraiya told his student, "It's all for the sake of my readers who are the hardworking citizens, to loyal ninjas all around the nations, and even the Daimyos. So you can see that I have a lot of responsibility."

Minato rolled his eyes and continued with his work and Jiraiya did the same. The two men worked in silence for a few hours before there was a knock at his door, Minato looked up from his work and called out, "Enter." The door opened up to reveal his secretary holding a document handing it over to him, "Hokage-sama this is a report from the ninja village Hoshigakure."

Minato took the document and said, "thank you." His secretary bowed to him and took her leave. Minato looked over the document and clearly heard his sensei say, "Tell me why we have an alliance with them again? That village has no ninjas worth mentioning nor do they have any power we need to concern ourselves with." Minato kept glancing over the work and told his sensei, "True and it would seem that they aren't very powerful neither. Apparently their Hoshikage was killed a week ago by a nuke-nin, they have only a lead that it was a man wearing mask and hood that hid his face and an accomplice that looked to be either a very short person or a child." Minato tossed the document on his desk saying, "Since we are in an alliance with them they are requesting that we send over a squad to help track the assassin and that they will pay whatever the amount is for the mission."

Jiraiya asked, "You gonna do it?" Minato pulled out from his drawer, "Most likely the evidence is washed away since they waited a week, but I'll send an Inuzuka, a Aburame, and a Hyuuga to do the job. I think I'll send Arashi on this mission so he could be happy with finding more information on Naruto." Jiraiya sighed saying to his student, " Minato I know you don't want to hear this but, It's been eight years now … I know that you and the rest of your family believe that he's alive, but in this world and in these times it's highly unlikely. Like with that whole Kumogakure situation last year, ninjas will do whatever it takes to get the edge on others, by any means. With the Hyuugas heiress they would probably use her to breed stronger ninjas and with Naruto they might have had an idea in their head that they could have an army of flash ninjas."

Minato looked at his sensei with unease, but Jiraiya continued, "Look I know you don't like the idea of something bad happening to Naruto, but that's just how this world is. Especially with if it is Iwa then it's even less likely since Iwa's economy is on the low and they would be in a desperate situation to kidnap him." Minato leaned back in his chair and pulled out from his desk a book and tossed it lightly to his sensei. Jiraiya caught the book, he looked at it and then placed it off to the side.

Minato told him, "I named my son after the character in that book because I believed that Naruto would grow up to be just like the protagonist in that book. I wanted to be able to see him actually grow to be like that, but eight years ago as you know made it impossible. Now I nor my family won't give up until he is back home where he belongs, everyone else might've given up after this long, but not me not us… I refuse to believe that my son dead and so does my family as well." Jiraiya stood up and unrolled a seal with writings all ready on it and sealed his typewriter inside of it, he put the scroll away and put on his sandals telling the man before him, "Well I'll be back." Jiraiya opened the window and said, "I'm gonna go on a scouting mission to look for an eight year old who went missing. I'll let you know what I find. See ya gaki." Jiraiya jumped out the window to the ground below. Minato smiled saying to himself, "Thank you sensei."

* Hokage Mansion *

Kushina, Haru and Haru's friends from the Academy were sitting down watching a sparring match between Arashi and Itachi. Haru's friends from school consisted of Hinata Hyuuga, Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Shino Aburame, Sasuke Uchiha, Kiba Inuzuka, and Kiba's puppy he got named Akamaru. All were watching the fight at the Hokage's training ground and were eager to see the fight between the two. Kushina thought it was a bit strange that Itachi would be the one to seek out her son to fight instead of the other way around, Arashi considered himself a normal everyday ninja, but Itachi was known as the strongest Uchiha and a genius among his peers. Itachi though kept seeking out Arashi and always wanted to fight him, Itachi rarely challenges other ninjas and Arashi doesn't challenge others at all.

Arashi and Itachi were keeping their fight a pure taijutsu match and didn't want to risk using weapons or jutsu since a stray attack could harm the kids. Itachi had his sharingan activated and Arashi had nothing but his pure speed on his side. Itachi tried to punch Arashi, but he knocked Itachi's fist away and he punched back at Itachi. The two kept countering the others moves and it seemed the fight would be at a standstill. Both teens stopped however when they sensed someone enter, they looked over to where Kushina was and saw two ANBU ninjas bowing down to her.

Kushina noticed them as well asking in a cheery tone, "Hello, is there something you need?" One of the ANVU was a woman with purple hair and a cat mask while the other had on a tiger mask and he had spiky brown hair. The tiger mask ANBU said, "Kushina-sama, the Hokage needs to speak with Arashi-sama immediately its concerning a mission." Kushina looked from the two ANBU to her son and waved him over. Arashi used his speed and appeared right next to his mother in a blink of an eye. Arashi asked, "My father sends for me?"

Both the ANBU were still bowing and nodded their heads. Arashi reached over and grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat off of his neck, "Alright let me get into my gear and I'll head up there as soon as I'm ready." Both the ANBU nodded again and blurred out of the area. Haru stood up and asked, "Your leaving already? But you just got home barely a week ago." Haru began to pout. Arashi shook his head and kneeled down to his sister's level saying, "Look aniki is a ninja of Konoha now, I'm always be called away on missions for weeks at a time maybe even a month. This is something aniki needs to do."

Kushina kept smiling telling her daughter, "Besides you'll have to do the same thing when you graduate from the academy and become a ninja like your aniki." Haru looked at her mom to her brother saying, "Okay…" Arashi patted her head and told everyone, "I'll try and get this mission over with quickly so I'll be back to see if I'm maybe made a Jounin sensei this year." Kushina said to her son, "Don't keep your hopes up."

Itachi walked over to Arashi asking, "Mind if we pick up where we left off when you return?" Arashi rubbed the back of his head, "Umm yeah I guess if there's time." Itachi told his friend, "Good luck on your mission." Arashi gave Itachi a thumbs up and jolted to his room to get set up. Kushina stood up from her spot asking the kids, "Okay how about I make you guys lunch."

Choji stood up first shouting, "Food!" Ino hit him in the back of his head scolding him, "Be more respectful!" Hinata bowed to Kushina saying, "Thank you for letting me eat here." Kushina hugged Hinata saying, "Oh you're so cute when you're polite." Haru said to her friends, "Come on guys lets go wait in the living room till mom finishes cooking." The rest of the kids nodded and ran inside following after Haru. Sasuke started to run, but noticed his brother was putting on his sandals and was about to leave, "Aniki are you leaving?" Itachi looked at his brother and said, "Yes Sasuke-kun I am. Have fun with your friends there is something I need to do." Sasuke said, "I can go with you if you want?"

Itachi made a hand motion with his hand for Sasuke to go. Sasuke ignored it and ran at his brother, Itachi put his index and middle finger together and lightly poked Sasuke in the forehead saying, "Another time Sasuke-kun." Sasuke rubbed the spot where Itachi poked him and saw his brother walk back into the Hokage's training ground before jumping over the huge wall separating the training ground from the rest of the area around them. Kushina watched the whole interaction and kept on smiling saying to Sasuke, "Sasuke-kun are you gonna stay?" Sasuke looked at Kushina and said, "Hai." He ran past her and into the living room where the rest of the kids were at. Kushina then went into the kitchen to prepare lunch for the kids.

* Land of the Moon *

The Land of the Moon was a giant island in the shape of a crescent moon. Three years ago Kakuzu purchased a villa home by the cliffs of the island that made perfect conditions for his and Naruto's training, he had been saving up the money to get a stable home in case they needed to hide out. There was a ninja system on the island called the Getsugakure, but Kakuzu refused to send Naruto there and instead focused his time on training Naruto. He didn't have to worry about ninjas coming over to his home since they rarely come out to the side they live on. The island was a kind of resort for civilians, ninjas, and daimyos alike, the island had fancy restaurants, hotels, casinos, and many other kinds of entertainment.

Kakuzu visits the casinos, but takes Naruto with him ever since they went to an underground casino and Naruto cleaned out the whole hotel and he didn't even know how to play. Naruto won at Craps, Black Jack, Poker, even the slot machines, the Devil himself couldn't best this kid in betting games. Naruto had luck that even God would envy, Kakuzu would take Naruto to the casino only once every time they came home, if they went every day then Naruto would be banned from every casino on the island. The two walked the stone path to their home coming to a two story villa, painted white with the brown tiles on the roof, six rooms, three bathrooms, a living room, a den room, and a study. Though smaller from most villas on the island it fit the two perfectly. Kakuzu made the ram handsign and the kanji for the word 'Key' appeared over the door and it opened up by itself.

Kakuzu told Naruto, "I'm going to the bank on the island to deposit the money from our mission and I'll be back later. I want you to go into the weight room and begin your exercises, when I return I'm going to start your element training understood." Naruto nodded and Kakuzu said, "Good. I'll see you later." Kakuzu walked back down the path back to town to the bank. Naruto walked inside the house and closed the door, once the door shut the kanji for the word 'Lock' appeared and it locked up the door. Naruto took off his sandals and his cloak, he hung up his cloak on a rack that was to his right and he placed his sandals neatly by the wall. Naruto walked throughout the entrance way passed the kitchen and into a room that was on the first floor.

Naruto opened the door and inside the room were weights of all sizes, some were even bigger than Naruto. He walked over to one of the windows and opened up the blinds to let some light in while he trained, after he did that he opened the window letting fresh air in as well. Naruto reaches up and takes off his mask and hood allowing his whole face to be shown. Naruto's face was completely normal, no scars or any other kind of marking was on his face, but his hair was very long. Instead of his being wild and spiking everywhere his hair was spiked going backward away from his face and his hair was long going a little bit passed his shoulder blades. Naruto unravels a black hair tie from his wrist and ties his long hair into a pony tail.

After he tied up his hair he walked over to some weights that were perfect size weights for him. He started on his workouts he always does whenever he comes home, though he couldn't wait to begin his element training. Kakuzu had told him many times before that he was a little too young to start any kind of real ninjutsu training, but seeing as how he wants to teach him now means that Naruto might just be ready for it.

* Three Hours Later *

Kakuzu finished his business in town and was currently carrying a small slip of paper in his hand that he picked up from a ninja shop in town. He could clearly see his home walking up the stone path, doing the same thing as he did before he unlocked the door to his home and locked it back up with the same seal method. He looked on the coat rack and saw that Naruto had his cloak already put up, he took off his cloak and put it on the rack, took off his sandals and walked to the weight room. When he opened the door he saw Naruto was hanging upside down on one of the wooden beams on the ceiling while lifting weights. Naruto paused and saw Kakuzu walk in and he dropped the weights on the ground not minding that the two weights dented the floor, he unhooked his legs from the beam and turned his body in the air and landed on his feet.

Naruto was breathing heavily, sweating bullets, and Kakuzu can only assume that he hasn't stopped working out since he left him. Naruto asked, "So when do we start my element training?" Kakuzu held out a piece of paper saying, "Take this paper and charge chakra into it." Naruto took the paper and just looked at it for a moment and he heard Kakuzu say, "If you charge chakra into that slip of paper we will know what nature you are. If your lightning the paper crinkles, if your fire the paper burns, wind will slice it in half, earth crumbles it away, and water makes the paper get wet." Naruto closes his eyes and holds the paper between his index and middle finger focusing his chakra through the paper. A second later the paper splits down the middle.

Naruto opens his eyes and says, "So I'm a wind nature?" Kakuzu nods his head, "Yes you are." Kakuzu brings his hand to his chin and says, "I'm not going to teach you any jutsu until your body is truly ready to handle the strain, until then I'm going to teach you to turn even a rusty kunai into the sharpest weapon you could have." Kakuzu looks at the table to his right and sees Naruto's mask and hood, he grabs them and tosses them both to Naruto, "Put your mask back on and we'll start your training up the mountain." Naruto takes the hood first and puts it over his long hair and tucking it into the collar of his black shirt, and then he takes his mask and wraps it over his hood and hooking it so that his nose and mouth were covered.

Kakuzu walked out of the room with Naruto following behind him, the two went into the kitchen and packed a few days worth of food and placed it into a pack. Naruto grabbed a single kunai and put it into his ninja pouch. After they finished packing they left the house and headed for the island's only mountain.

* Top of the Mountain *

The air was thin up the mountain, but thanks to Naruto's training he was able to withstand the limited air up there. They stopped next to a small pond that was frozen over because of the cold up there, but they were mostly up there because there was no one up there to bother Naruto's training. Kakuzu had taken seven branches off of a few trees that had a lot of leaves on them. Kakuzu sat down and explained, "Okay this is how we will start." He tosses the pack off to the side and says, "Listen I don't expect you to pass this training exercise quickly. In fact I don't think you'll get to the second phase until next year possibly." Naruto looks a little discouraged, but hears him say, "The reason I say this is because you're awfully young to begin this training, but if you can master your element stages before Academy graduates then you'll have an enormous edge over them." Kakuzu holds his hand out pointed to a rock across from him. Naruto gets the message and sits down crossing his legs. Kakuzu takes off a single leaf off of one of the branches and hands it to Naruto telling him, "Take this leaf and hold it between both your hands…"

Naruto does as he's told and holds it between his hands so that it's directly between his palms. Kakuzu tells him next, "Now you're going to cut that leaf with just your chakra alone, once you've cut the leaf completely in half I will teach you the next step." Naruto nodded agreeing with Kakuzu and started to try and cut the leaf in half with his chakra.

Kakuzu took this moment and decided to get some rest; he walked away from Naruto and leaned against a rock to sleep. Naruto kept sending chakra into his hand and checked every other minute to see the results, but every time it was the same. Naruto looked at the leaf and thought, 'I will pass this stage before this month is up. I swear it!' Naruto closed his hands around the leaf again and started to try and cut the leaf in half again.

Kakuzu had his eye cracked a little as he watched Naruto train thinking, 'That was all the motivation he needed. You'll pass the first stage, but not anytime soon.' Kakuzu closed his eyes again to enjoy the little peace he gets in life.

* Konoha: Hokage Tower *

Minato was sitting at his desk going over the mission with the four ninjas assigned to the mission, "Okay this is a B-Rank mission and you'll only be body guards and you'll help with the tracking. If you cannot find anything that could lead you into the assassins trail then you are to immediately return back home." He looked at the ninjas before him. One was his son; the other was a young ninja wearing a light cream colored jacket with a high collar, brown short hair, a four foot gourd on his back, and black glasses. The second was a woman with fan-like tattoos on both of her cheeks, brown hair tied in a ponytail with bangs on each side of her face, a light green ninja vest, tight bike shorts, and light green wrist bands. The fourth and final was a man wearing the standard Jounin attire, his headband was made into a bandana that covered the top of his head, white pupil less eyes.

He continued by saying, "Now apparently the assassin or assassins killed the leader in his own tower in an underground training area reserved for him. After they killed him they activated explosive notes that buried him deep underground, they seem to think that he either was killed before the tags went off or the tags were the cause of his death. Either way they want the assassins brought back dead or alive. Personally I don't understand why such a mission was asked, but I accepted this mission because of the alliance we have with them. Arashi Namikaze, Hana Inuzuka, and Ko Hyuuga, you will follow Hayashi Aburame as he will be the team leader on this mission." He paused for a moment asking them, "Do you all understand your mission?"

All of them said in unison, "Hai Hokage-sama!" Minato smiled and waved them off. Arashi stayed behind however to ask, "Do you think there is any connection with Naruto there?" Minato looked at his son telling him, "To be honest this is the strongest clue we've had in eight years."

Arashi was a little confused asking, "What do you mean dad?" Minato explained, "For the past few years there have been reports of a mercenary going around, no one reports him because they all fear him and they dare not give up what he looks like or his name." Arashi asked still confused, "What does that have to do with anything?" Minato continued by saying, "This particular merc always had an accomplice with him that I now believe to be a child and the two have been working for at least three years, but the strange thing is that eight years ago he went missing and didn't return into the mercenary game until three years ago and that's when his little friend started to be seen with him." Arashi's eyes flared for a moment as he asked, "You think he had something to do with Naruto's kidnapping?"

Minato could see the look of anger in his eyes and said, "It is possible, that child may be Naruto, but there is that big possibility that it's not. In any case I wanted you to check it out." Arashi asked him next, "Do we have anything on the guy's name?" Minato shook his head, "No, he only gives his name apparently to high paying clients and we don't know who any of them are. He gives a codename to the others which is 'Ragdoll'. Other than that we don't have any leads on how to contact him."

His son immediately turned around walking to the door telling Minato, "I'll make sure to find out who Ragdoll is and if he's connected with Naruto's kidnapping." Minato stopped him as he got to the door, "Remember your job as a ninja first. When you are given a mission you need to handle it as a ninja and put family affairs off to the side, capture him alive if possible if not then kill him."

Arashi had his hand on the doorknob and he only nodded his head understanding. He opened the door and left the room to join up with his squad.

* Konoha East Gate *

Since the four were called by the Hokage they all immediately assumed it was for a mission so they had packed beforehand. Joining along with the four were three Akita dogs with black/brown fur covering the top and cream color white on their underbellies. Hayashi like all his clansmen kept his sentences short and unemotional, "Hoshigakure is only a half days travel if we run. We'll get there and do our job as per orders. Anytime when we are relieved of duty you may move around the village freely. Though stay in Hoshigakure territory."

His teammates nodded agreeing with the squad captain. Hayashi told them all, "Now let's go." With no objections from the others they all ran out of the East gate heading to Hoshigakure, Arashi had another thought on his mind all together, 'I'm getting closer to you Naruto. Just hang on a little while longer, aniki is coming.'