Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

Author's Note: Okay, here's chapter three. Thanks for the reviews! A little more on team dynamics. Naruto's relationship with the other character's are starting up and quite a bit more on his past and current personality. I'll try to start to go farther into details. As for Ryuujin96 question about the romance in this story... Hmmm, still trying to plan it out. It likely won't come until much farther into the story when their relationship is much more developed. I'm not quite sure how I'll write it out yet. I hope to put more into a sequel after the time skip though there'll be a bit of a twist. About Hinata's curse seal was mostly for her just being in the Branch and yes, would provide a degree of control over her as a jinchuuriki though there is no immediate danger as she's got two seals for the Nanabi. One an even number seal and the other an odd number which was stated to create an absolute barrier between the two.

Italic: emphasis, flashbacks

Bold: dialogue for non-humans, activated jutsu

'thought'

"speech
-

Chapter 3
Beginning of a Team

Naruto lay on his bunk back at the ANBU headquarters having a mental conversation with his fuzzy buddy. He first met the Kyuubi after a particular near-death experience on one gloomy night when it was on the anniversary on the Kyuubi attack. Normally the day was filled with mourning and most people stayed indoors. Naruto never liked going outside that day either. The looks from the villagers were even worse. He was just going back to his apartment after a quiet dinner at Ichiraku when something hard slugged him hard across the face.

xxxxx Flashback xxxxx

"What was that for, you bastard!" A little Naruto yelled. A tall man man with a chuunin vest stood over him with a bottle in his hand. He was obviously very drunk.

"Whaat shwas that for? Yoo sshould knoww damnned fox!" Naruto was confused what fox? "Yoor the one who crushed my little Aoi-chan and my wwife. I can't sstand hoow ruun around babbling aboot being Hokage! As if sameone like yoo who murdered my frieends and my famly could bee Hokage! I'd rather die." He stated the last sentence so calmly, Naruto gasped and backed away. This guy was deadly serious. His drunken ramblings weren't funny at all. Even if the villagers hated him, none actually hit before.

As far as Naruto could tell, he was in some serious shit. The man lashed his hand backhanding him across the face. Half-stunned, Naruto attempted to land a clumsy punch. Even though the ninja was definitely not close to sober at all, he easily caught the weak punch and using his other hand to smash his empty bottle over the child's head. Naruto fell heavily to the ground where the man continued his unrelenting assault.

A few minutes later, the Military Police arrived and subdued him. But not before the damage was done. All that remained in that alley was broken glass and a several patches of blood from that night.

xxxxx End xxxxx

Naruto sighed. The injuries he's sustained that night were not pretty. Both of his arms were broken, several ribs were nearly completely smashed, also resulting in a punctured lung, a severe concussion with a broken cheekbone and nose, and not to mention a bit of internal bleeding from one too many heavy shots to his gut. If it weren't for Kurama, he'd be dead. He had also appeared to him in a sort of dream while Naruto was unconscious. It wasn't much as only the gate and sewer appeared. Kurama's glowing red eyes were the only thing visible behind the bars. The image was brief before it had faded away.

"Kit, you shouldn't be thinking about that."

Naruto snapped back to attention in his mental mindscape. He had somehow managed to warp the dark, dank sewer away and replace it with the night sky and full moon partially covered by the occasional cloud. Though the big steel gate hadn't changed, a metal caged formed as the Kyuubi's jail and extended far into the darkness.

"I know. Bad memories are hard to forget though."

Kurama growled. "Hn, well at least pay attention to the game." Looking at the shogi board.

Naruto observed the new move. Crap.

"So... what do you think of my new team?" he said as he sacrificed his knight.

"Weak. Though there's no question they've got the potential to go real far. Your sensei is a genjutsu user. Along with your teammates, who specialise in taijutsu and you, you make a formidable all-around team not to mention the tracking and reconnaissance abilities of your teammates. A very good combination."

"You seem to like them."

"Do you not, kit? All in all, you're a very good team."

"I normally work solo."

Kurama sighed. "You need to learn how to rejoin humanity." he snorted sarcastically. As Kurama saw it, Naruto's unwillingness to become close to people was longterm effect from that first beating from the drunk ninja. Naruto naturally distanced himself from people after that. Not as distrust, but as wariness. It was as if he was unsure if they planned to hurt him or befriend him. Or it could just be that he didn't want to risk losing something you couldn't ever hope to replace.

Not to mention that Naruto had wandered around the Elemental Countries for a year before coming to Konoha. He was used to being alone.

"I guess I'll get used to it." he said.

"Hn."
-

Hinata stood nervously outside her grandfather's study. Hyuuga Hyoto was a strict and very unforgiving man. It was his decision along with the two other elders to name Hanabi heir and brand the curse seal on her forehead. She didn't exactly resent him for that as she was never one to hold grudges, unlike her cousin Neji. She sighed, but that only made her very uncomfortable in his presence. Hinata took a deep breath attempting to calm herself before knocking on the door.

"Come in." She flinched at the unmistakable stern tone before sliding the door open.

Hyoto sat behind his desk. His cold pale eyes bore into her. The long grey-white hair and many wrinkles said he was old. But he was certainly not feeble or frail. Hyuuga Hyoto was very formidable in the Gentle Fist having practiced his entire life and imposed a gruelling training regime on Hinata that 'the heir to the clan should be able to follow'. Because she could not keep up with it, she was automatically deemed a failure.

"So, Hinata. What have you come to talk to me about?"

"Hyoto-sama, I-I've come t-to inform y-you about the g-genin t-teams. Y-You t-told m-m-me to t-tell you h-how i-it w-went b-before I l-left." Hinata cursed herself as her stutter became noticeably worse. Another trait that deemed her weak.

"Well then, continue on." he said with a slight hint of interest in his tone.

"Me a-and m-my team h-have passed o-our g-genin t-test this a-afternoon. M-My s-sensei is Yuuhi K-Kurenai." Hyoto nodded at this. He didn't have any particular problem with her. "M-My teammates a-are Inuzuka Kiba," Hyoto mouth twisted into a slight scowl. That boy was wild, just like the rest of his clan. "And Uzumaki Naruto." Hyoto could not stop his eyes from widening in surprise. The ANBU Black Op on her team? Of course as part of the Konoha Council with the other clan heads and prominent civilians, he knew about Uzumaki Naruto's status as an ANBU. The thing about Naruto was that he was almost exactly Uchiha Itachi. The same ability to mask one's emotions with indifference and the fact that Naruto seemed to distance himself from the people around was just like Itachi had done to his clan before killing them all. And that made everyone uneasy, save for the Hokage. For Kami's sake, they

both enrolled in the Black Ops when they were the same age!

"H-Hyoto-sama? Is s-something w-wrong?" He realized that he'd forgotten about Hinata in his half-panicked whirl of thoughts.

"Nothing. You may go to your room now." he replied in a carefully controlled voice. Hinata nodded and bowed before scampering off.

Hinata lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. She'd taken off her forehead protector and put it on her bedside table and began to nervously poke her fingers together. Another timid habit she needed to get rid of. Hinata did not miss the clan head's surprised expression which quicky morphed into a much more shocked look. If even Hyoto-sama could not hide his emotions, it must be very bad. She flashbacked to Naruto easily holding his own against Kiba's inhanced speed. Kiba was one the best of the graduates in taijutsu, second only to Sasuke the Uchiha prodigy himself. Yet Naruto hardly launched a single serious attack and the way he poofed into smoke when she hit him told her he definitely wasn't a genin.

Hinata didn't rest easy that night as there was one big question in her mind. Who is Uzumaki Naruto?
-

Kiba happily munched on his dinner. It felt good to finally be a real ninja, not to mention they'd be taking their first mission tomorrow!

"Well, someone's in a good mood today."

"Shut up, sis! You're just upset that you don't get to tease me about going back to the academy!"

"What gave you that idea? I'm happy that my little brother is finally a full fledged ninja!" Inuzuka Hana retorted.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe that mildly annoyed look you had on earlier when I came back and still had my forehead protector around my head." Kiba teased.

"Oh please, I bet you just got an easy sensei!"

"She was impressed with our teamwork and our abilities! Besides, I had enough manlyness to pass anyway."

Hana choked on her water. "Manlyness?! I remember you screaming like a girl last week when I dropped that spider down your back." she snorted. That was very true. His voice rang an octave higher than what Hana thought was possible for a boy.

"Why you-" He stopped abruptly to the sound of cracking knuckles. His mother, Inuzuka Tsume, had a well known evil smirk on her face. One that promised plenty of pain and death. The two siblings knew this as the one big shining sign to sit down and shut up or else. The or else part was part of the reason why their dad ran off.

"Heh, heh. Sorry mom." Kiba said. Tsume's evil smirk turned into a somewhat less evil smile. Her son was as lively as ever. Her only concern about her son's new team was the fact that the two jinchuuriki were on it. Of what she'd of Hyuuga Hinata, Tsume could easily summarise her as sweet, kind and gentle, though incredibly shy and reserved. There was no way she could be anywhere close to a monster. Naruto was a completely different story but she could hardly blame him. Though one statement from him made an deep impression upon her.

xxxxx Flashback xxxxx

It was a regular hectic council meeting. Ten seconds into the meeting, Inuzuka Tsume already had pounding headache. The fox masked ANBU just delivered his intel report concerning Otogakure's movement and large spike in it's ninja forces.

"We should've dealt with the threat of Orochimaru earlier."

"Can't we clear him out now before this problem gets any worse?"

"No, we don't even have enough shinobi who could go toe to toe with him. He's one of the Sannin for Kami's sake!"

"Then why don't we recall Jiraiya and Tsunade and form a strike team."

"That would take far too long with the little manpower we have now. Much less to launch an all-out assault against Otogakure."

"Then what about the jinchuuriki?"

Utter dead silence.

"Which jinchuuriki are talking about?" asked a scowling Hyuuga Hyoto.

Tsume noticed the ANBU stare curiously out from his mask with a single intense blue eye.

"The one created four years ago from the Nanabi's attack. What about her?"

"She is part of the Hyuuga. I will decide what will be done with her."

"A jinchuuriki is a vital addition to our forces. We simply no longer have the luxury to wait for the average genin to graduate and rise through the ranks and replenish the ANBU Black Ops and jonin."

Before anyone could reply, a voice cleared his throat and said "Hokage-sama, may I suggest something." The Hokage, having been silent the entire argument, nodded. Everyone turned to the fox masked ANBU.

"You need a jinchuuriki, right?" he asked quietly. A few nodded, others grimaced. Using jinchuuriki as weapons was a despicable thing to do despite the present situation calling for it.

"Make me your weapon." And he quietly clicked the mask off revealing the right side of his face. Several gasps erupted from many council members. 'It can't be Tsume thought as she recognized the familiar whisker marks from the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki face.

"The boy was brought back here in secret a month ago. It was classified as it would cause mass panic amongst the public." the Hokage explained before anyone recovered enough to speak.

"Hokage-sama-" started Nara Shikaku.

"He had volunteered before to act as a weapon for the good of the village. That is why he stands here today with that mask." Danzo spoke. Tsume grimaced. Danzo fully intergrated his Root division into the regular ANBU from the shortage of active shinobi. She disliked his extremist ways as he'd rather eliminate than negotiate. Nowadays he worked closely with the Hokage.

"I did not know there was another jinchuuriki." Naruto said.

"There was another Tailed Beast attack a year after you left, pup." piped up Tsume who was sitting the closest to him. He nodded slowly. Then he whispered ever so quietly that even her sensitive ears almost didn't pick it up.

"May she never become like me."

xxxxx End xxxxx

That one sentence bothered her to no end. Tsume thought long and hard about it. She came to the conclusion that it was the loss of innocence, childhood and perhaps his own self. It happened far too fast for one Uzumaki Naruto. And it would be a scary thing to see the exact same thing happen to her own children. 'Ah well, Kiba's got a few years before that stage. Hana doesn't actually spend a lot of time in the regular forces for much of that to happen.'
-

Naruto arrived early at training ground twenty-six. He was itching to practice his ninjutsu with his shadow clones. The slow pace was making him restless. Right now he'd probably would've finished up another A-rank assassination, though. He sighed and pulled out a large blue book. This one was titled 'Formula Basics to Chakra and Blood Activated Seals'. Essentially it was about blood seals and seals that use chakra to activate their usage, however it was so complicated inside, the average shinobi would think it was written in a different language. A civilian would think it was gibberish. Naruto used to flunk some of the easiest jutsu when he first started training ('cough', 'cough' Clone jutsu, 'cough') but seals came easy to him. His older cousin just said that it was because he was an Uzumaki like them. His aunt and uncle just said it was also because he was his father's son.

Yeah. He knew he was the son of the Yondaime Namikaze Minato and his wife Uzumaki Kushina. His mom's family didn't hold back on secrets partially because they were bad at keeping them and mostly because they knew they could backfire on them like one big defective explosive tag. Naruto, at the beginning, was wary of them as it was a surprising change to see someone smiling at him besides the Hokage. By telling the secrets, they gained his trust at a much faster it would've actually taken.

"G-Good morning, N-Naruto-san." Naruto looked up from his book and into Hinata's smiling face.

"Good morning to you to, Hinata-san." he replied in an even tone.

Hinata sat down on the grass across from where Naruto sat leaning against a tree. She fidgeted nervously with her fingers. The image of her grandfather's reaction still fresh in her mind. She wanted to know more about him, but she felt that it would be a rude thing to do considering his reserved personality.

"You know what Hinata," Naruto said suddenly as he snapped his book shut. "Why don't we spar for a bit? I didn't get to see your skills in the evaluation."

"Huh?" Hinata looked up startled.

"I just want to see what you can. We are teammates now, so we should get to know each others skills to work together better." Naruto reasoned. True they were teammates but Naruto really needed to evaluate her skills if was supposed to help train her. "A-Alright." she replied softly.

Hinata got up and nervously leaned back into her Gentle Fist stance. Gentle Fist was a special style the Hyuuga clan used. It utilized the Byakugan to its full potential by allowing the user to see the inner coils that carry chakra throughout the body though. With this, a Hyuuga could then target and attack them by funneling chakra into their opponents body and use it to damage the coils which also damaged the internal organs. The slightest touch from this style to the torso could be very dangerous.

"Well Hinata," Naruto slid into an unfamiliar taijutsu stance. "Don't hold back. Even with your Gentle Fist." Hinata wasn't sure about that but he seemed to insist.

Naruto beckoned for her to make the first move. Hinata lunged forward, aiming a palm strike to his shoulder. He parried it by pushing her wrist away and aimed a kick to her stomach. Unable to stop her momentum and twist away in time, she slammed into it and fell back onto the ground. Winded, she struggled to get back into her stance.

Hinata readied herself as Naruto went on the offense. He threw a multitude of lightning fast jabs, a few them landed through her guard as she desperately tried to avoid them. She tried to step only to find that Naruto had hooked her foot when he strategically placed his own foot behind hers when he shifted into his attacking stance. Hinata stumbled and would've fallen were it not for Naruto grabbing the collar of her jacket.

He pulled her back into her stance. Hinata looked down at the ground. She was pathetic, losing so easily twice now. Maybe she should just give up now and accept her fate as a failure just as Neji-nii-san says every time she loses a spar. Maybe she should just-.

A hand clamped down reassuringly on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it Hinata." Naruto said. "It doesn't matter where you are now. What depends is your will to get stronger. The weakest shinobi can become the strongest with hard work and dedication. I believe you can become one of those shinobi." Hinata gaped at him. Nobody said anything like that to her, ever. To her surprise, Naruto did something she never thought he'd do. He chuckled.

"I had to get used to praise too, Hinata. We're very similar you know." Then he twitched his nose. "Looks like Kiba is here."
-

Kurenai had been quietly observing from a distance. She was worried when Naruto decided to spar with her but that vanished as she realized he held back quite a bit and could tell he was worried about hurting her. A smile broke out across her face. 'Looks like he's not as cold-blooded as I thought'.
Unfortunately, he had reverted back to his usual stoic self standing outside the Hokage's office.

"Team Eight," a chuunin assistant said. "The Hokage is ready for you." Team Eight then stepped into the room. Sarutobi Hiruzen was mentally bracing himself for the new genin's reaction to taking D-rank missions. Some of the loud ones could be rather deafening.

"So," the Sandaime drawled. "Which D-rank mission would your team like, Kurenai-san? There's babysitting five six-year olds for four hours, weeding a client's garden and painting their fence or tracking down Tora again."

Now came the genin reactions: Naruto didn't react in any way as he already knew about this, which was good but Hiruzen could already see boredom creeping into his eye. Hinata looked... relieved? Kiba was confused, no doubt wondering why they were doing chores.

"Huh? Is that it?" he said.

"Well, you aren't all that experienced yet neither as skilled. How can you be expected to take high-level missions?" the Hokage stated innocently.

Kiba scowled. "I know, I know. But seriously, babysitting?! Who does that?!"

Kurenai smiled. "Little genin who don't know how to be quiet." Kiba facefaulted. This was going to be a long day...
-

Naruto was very irritated now. The babysitting was incredibly annoying. Kurenai had left to help out with something leaving them kids were constantly whining, fighting each other and not to mention pulling pranks on the ninja. Naruto having being a prankster himself managed to avoid most of them but his other teammates didn't have much luck. Hinata, having the less devastating of them, got only got a few buckets of water dumped on her. Kiba and Akamaru got the the worst of them. Akamaru somehow got stuck to a toy truck covered in whip cream. The kids somehow managed to make Kiba chase them around the house with several tripwire traps and lead him outside only for him to get splattered with mud.

Rule Number One on waging war with a prankster: Never let yourself get riled up, always plot your revenge carefully. Apparently Kiba did not have the patience to do so which led to his inevitable downfall. Naruto decided to read his fuinjutsu book while waiting for Kiba to calm down after taking a pie to the face. He reached for his pocket when he realized it was empty. 'Damn those kids!' He thought furiously and rushed to the bathroom. I wild guess, but his old prankster instincts told it had something to do with the toilet. As far as he knew, the pranks they pulled were pretty simple and easy to predict compared to hidden paintballs involving storage seals.

Naruto flew up the stairs and slammed open the door to the washroom just in time to catch his book inches from hitting the water. That book was extremely valuable! Almost any complex fuinjutsu book was considering some of the knowledge in them!

"Awwww, so close!" Naruto glared at them trying to prevent his killing intent from leaking out. It was likely to only alert all the neighbours and incite everyone else into a riot. After working with Kurama and many high level assignments, it could be very potent.

"All of you upstairs now." Naruto said in the calmest voice he could muster. He looked out the window. Hinata was still trying calm Kiba down and figure out a way to separate Akamaru from the toy truck.

Naruto firmly shut the door to one of the bedrooms. The kids looked at him with disappointment in their eyes. That last one had definitely been the closest to getting him. He glared at them.

"So... do you know what torture and interrogation means?" All shook their heads. 'Hn. Probably too advanced vocabulary' he mused.

"What it is..." He paused for effect. Then he grinned evilly, the first time in a while. "Is the ability to make your worst fears come true." They all gaped at him. That wasn't necessarily true about torture and interrogation but it was part of it.

"You're a liar!" one of them cried out.

"I'm not lying. It is quite true and I'm very good at it." Not really but he knew how to inflict pain and extract information. He wasn't quite that good in mind games that made Morino Ibiki famous for. "All the monsters you fear in the dark and all the worst nightmares you could think of can become real in this room right now. If you take another step out of line, I will show you exactly what I mean." And he opted to look as intimidating as possible. Apparently he was as they shut their mouths and paled considerably.

"You may leave now." They quickly scurried out the door and they were like angels the rest of the day. Kiba was utterly dumbfounded. He almost begged for Naruto to tell him the secret to his success. Naruto simply told him that he didn't have the right personality for it to work. Kiba protested but Hinata secretly thought Naruto was right.
-

The week went by slowly. Naruto visited Kakashi to see if he failed yet another team. To his surprise, Kakashi told that they actually passed if not barely. During training sessions with Team Eight, he showed Hinata a few things in taijutsu, helping in smoothing out her Gentle Fist and giving pointers in spars. She improved rapidly with his help. Kiba also sought out his tuition in correcting mistakes in his jutsu and improving his defence and speed. They got along well, despite the many differences in their personalities. Hinata and Kiba were very curious about Naruto's past. He never said anything about himself or his family.

As the D-rank missions droned on, Kiba became increasingly impatient until one day in the Hokage's office when he finally bursted.

"Come on! Enough of this bullshit! Can we have a real mission now?!"

"Don't get over your head Kiba! You've just become a genin!" said a chuunin with a scar across his face.

The Hokage sighed. "Iruka, why don't we just let their sensei decide"

Kurenai thought for a moment. They already had good teamwork together and were already much more skilled than some genin. Besides, maybe a slightly tougher mission could perhaps give a much needed boost of confidence to Hinata and despite Naruto's lack of emotional display, she could see he was restless and bored to tears.

"Hmmm... Why not just this once? They're actually quite good for rookies. It would be nice to get them to experience the outside world." Kiba beamed, Hinata looked nervous and Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Alright then. Tazuna, you can come in now." The door opened and a somewhat drunk man stepped in. He had grey hair and a short beard. He wore a dark sleeveless shirt and a towel around his neck. A beer bottle in one hand and a pointed hat in the other. He looked at Team Eight with slight disdain.

"These brats are the ones guarding me?" he said with a bit of disappointment in his voice.

A vein popped on Kiba's head "We are not brats. We are ninja!" he said indignantly.

Tazuna was about to retort until he saw Naruto. His eyes widened.

"Hello, Tazuna-san." Naruto said calmly. Everyone looked towards him.

"You two know each other?" Kurenai questioned. "He's just someone I know. Nothing more nothing less." he stated bluntly.

The Hokage coughed. "Well now, I'll explain the mission. Tazuna-san here is building a bridge in the Land of the Waves and he wants a few bodyguards to help protect him while he does that. The mission will dure until he is done. This is a C-rank mission."

"U-Umm, who a-are we s-supposed to p-protect him a-against." a nervous voice asked. The Hokage chuckled. "Don't worry about it Hinata. Only the common bandit is likely to attack you and that's actually rather uncommon."

Naruto had been watching Tazuna carefully. He already suspected what the real mission was, knowing the problems of the Land of the Waves for quite a while. The bit of sweat that broke out across his brow as the Hokage said that just confirmed it. 'Oh dear. This is going to be a wild ride.' he thought. He could rat him out right now but he desperately needed to get out of the village. He wasn't used to so much peace and quiet and it made him really restless.

"You leave tomorrow at eight thirty." And the Hokage dismissed them. But Naruto stayed put.

"Hokage-sama," he said after his team and Tazuna left. "I wish to ask you something."

"And what is that Naruto?"

"I'd rather not say in front of Iruka-san." The Sandaime sighed and signaled over to Iruka for him to wait outside.

"So what is it Naruto."

He paused for a moment. "I wish to take an assassination mission for Gato of the Gato Company in the Land of the Waves."

-
And end! That took a while. So the Land of the Waves arc is next. I'm hoping to update this weekly or so depending on events and homework. Next chapter I hope to show a lot more of Naruto's real skills.
Wanted to show Danzo in the last scene to show more of his relationship with the Hokage but couldn't seem to fit it in.
Couldn't find a good way to describe Naruto's five-year old flashback. I didn't want to go too far into the details.