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The New Team Kakashi

At Tsunade's orders a new Team Kakashi formed consisting of the remaining three members, Yamato one of the Hokage's prized ANBU, and Sai a member of ANBU Ne. The members of the new squad met at their new designated training area to discuss the upcoming mission.

"Hiya!" waved Sai with a fake smile as he approached the rest of the group.

"You again? Why the hell do we need this fruitcake? He's the weakest guy here!" ranted a scowling Naruto.

"Don't worry Blond Horse, we ninjas of Root are fully trained ANBU." replied Sai still with the same fake smile.

"Blond Horse?" questioned Sakura.

"This guy is really strong there for he must be hung like a horse. A ugly brute like you must be strong so you know how it is." There was a brief pause before Sai was slammed in the ground courtesy of Sakura's fist.

"How dare you say such things you perverted baka!" she ranted while not taking her eyes off Naruto's crotch.

"Well, I do know one woman who can confirm, but we'd have to take a detour to mist..." pondered Kakashi as he looked away from his book.

Naruto snorted in disgust at them, "Fools..."

After Sai gathered himself from Sakura's blow, Yamato cleared his throat gathering everyone's attention to him, "Since Team Kakashi was missing a member and due the importance of this mission, Hokage-sama added two extra members to Team Kakashi, so why don't we all introduce ourselves."

"My name is Sai!"

"I'm Haruno Sakura."

"Hatake Kakashi."

"I am Captain Yamato."

"Page 147 in the Bingo Book."

"Mah, Naruto common play nice." said Kakashi.

"I'm not paid to play nice, I'm paid to do missions." retorted Naruto.

"Anyway, the five of us are on a mission now, we aren't all exactly used to working with each other, but I believe we have the ability to accomplish our goal." declared Yamato attempting to build some camaraderie within the group.

"Wait a second, whose the lead on this mission you or Kakashi?" asked Naruto.

"Technically it's me, but I'm deferring to Yamato right now. He could use the experience of dealing with non ANBU personnel." replied Kakashi.

"Basically you're being lazy as usual." grumbled Sakura. Yamato ingored her as he continued.

"Our mission is to head to the Tenchi Bridge to intercept the spy within Orochimaru's organization and bring him back. This is an excellent opportunity to find information on Orochimaru and Uchiha Sasuke. We could gain a source that leads to the formulation of a plan to assassinate Orochimaru and bring back Uchiha Sasuke." stated Yamato.

Naruto snorted, "There are way too many flaws in that plan. We have to capture the source, that's one thing that can fail easily. It's much easier to kill that to capture. The source has to be able to cooperate, with Akatsuki and Orochimaru there could some fail safe in place that prevents the spy from talking to us. There is also the possibility that Orochimaru already sniffed out the spy and is setting up and ambush for Sasori. This could also be a trap laid by the Akatsuki."

"Excellent job of reading underneath the underneath. That is why we have four high caliber fighters and a medic on this mission. There is a great possibility that we will encounter Orcohimaru himself in his attempt to eliminate Sasori. I already have and idea for a fail safe, if you will, if the spy lead turns out to be a dead end." said Kakashi.

This peaked Naruto's interest, "Care to enlighten us?"

"Later when we are out of the village." responded Kakashi.

"Very well then, these are our orders. Gather your supplies, we will depart from the front gate in one hour." commanded Yamato.

--

Sakura and Naruto gathered their supplies quickly and were now walking through the village to the Hokage tower to report to Tsunade before departing on the mission.

"So, what do you think about this Sai character?" asked Sakura.

"He's useless. We only really needed Yamato, but those council bastards wanted their own guy on the team using the excuse of trying to keep an eye on me. Meddling old fools..."

"I know that from what Shishou told me, how did you find out?"

"The idiot tried to start a fight with me in the middle of the village. I knocked him out and stormed their meeting before throwing him down at their feet just to prove a point."

"What point?"

"Whatever protection and supervision they want to provide is nothing but dead weight."

"Still, you shouldn't have stormed the meeting like that. Those people have a lot of political power and can make Shishou's job a lot harder and your career miserable."

"They lack real political power. They're all so old that they could easily be pushed into retirement in favor of fresh ninjas with new ideas. The village hasn't exactly been steadily improving under their watch the past decade or so. I wouldn't be surprised if she already started to put their replacements in place."

"You sure did learn a lot on your trip, you didn't used to be aware of such things."

"If these people didn't meddle in my affairs, I wouldn't care about politics. Since they choose to do so they should learn not to get in my way. Plus if I maintain the image of loose canon under Tsunade's control if gives them more of a reason to fear her when they attempt their shady backdoor deals."

"We're here." she stated as they had reached the tower.

--

Tsunade, Naruto, and Sakura discussed the situation of Sai being involved on their mission. Naruto and Sakura just finished debriefing her on their interactions with Sai so far. The root ninja's actions did not surprise her.

"...so that's how it is. I want you two to keep an eye on him. I believe that the council may have ulterior motives on this mission." she stated. Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Enter!" commanded Tsunade. The door opened and Danzo shuffled into the room.

'Not this fool again...' thought Naruto as he rolled his eyes.

"Danzo, what is it?" questioned an annoyed Tsunade.

"I trust you have assigned an elite ANBU to be the leader of Sai's team?" he asked.

"I choose the person who has stood out the most since Sandaime was in office." she replied.

"Excellent, I would hope that he hasn't taken Sandaime's teachings to heart. That old man was too soft, afraid of getting into disputes and making decisions. Like how your own grandfather taught Sandaime." he said casually.

"Hmph.." Tsunade's eyebrows twitched at the insults, but did not respond so Naruto did her talking for her.

"It would do you well not to speak ill of the dead, lest you become one of them. You are up there in years after all. Besides Sandaime was a great man respected and feared by many, I could not say the same for you old man."

Danzo's own eyebrow twitched at the response, but he held himself back from responding, "Well that was all I came to confirm. Thank you for your time, I guess I can go eat now. Good-bye."

"Old man," said Naruto causing Danzou to pause and grip his cane tightly, "Since you view ninja's as tools don't be too disappointed if your tool becomes discarded on this mission if it proves to be faulty."

"Thank you for your concern." grumbled Danzou as he exited the room.

"Naruto why did you say those things! Shishou could handle it!" scolded Sakura.

"I was defending my Hokage. As the superior officer it may not be proper for her to respond to such comments, but I am not bound but such pettiness. Like I told you before, sometimes the leader needs a loose canon to let everyone know you shouldn't mess with them. It also helps that I'm essentially untouchable for him."

"The old you may have been a breath of fresh air from all the crap of this job, but the new you is much more useful. I should have you sit in on all my council meetings. I think those old prunes fear sitting in a room with you more than Ibiki now after your little show yesterday." stated a chuckling Tsunade. Naruto smirked in response.

--

After gathering at the Main gate Team Kakashi departed for the Tenchi bridge. After a few hours of travel the group descended into an awkward silence. Naruto marched along with a scowl on his face, eyes never straying from dead ahead. Kakashi partook in his favorite activity of reading Icha Icha. Yamato walked ahead as point staying alert of his surroundings at all times. Sakura's mind raced through various thoughts, causing her to send supspicious glances at Sai and inquiring glances at her blond teammate. Sai still possessed the same fake smile on his face as he traveled appearing to oblivious to everything.

Kakashi decided to break the troubling silence,"What's up with the awkward silence, you guys should have some light chatter getting acquainted with one another."

"I don't really have anything to say to this guy and tools don't speak anyway." responded Naruto as nodded towards Sai..

"Hey don't say something like that in front of your Captains Naruto. As a student of Kakashi, you should already know the importance of teamwork and cooperation." replied Yamato.

"There can only be teamwork if everyone is working for the same goal. This fool is nothing more than the servant boy of a crazy old man," his voice suddenly shifted to an imitation of Sai's and plastered a fake smile on his face, "It's time to eat Danzo-sama. Let me escort you to the restroom Danzo-sama. Yes, I will wipe for you Danzo-sama. May I have some more Danzo-sama?" By now Sakura was barely holding back her giggling, Kakashi raised his book closer to his face to muffle his own laughter, and Yamato's face was twitching trying to hold back a grin.

"It would do you well not to speak ill of Danzou-sama." responed Sai his fake smile finally gone.

"What do you know! The tool finally showed a real emotion! It's a real boy!" replied Naruto over dramatically.

Yamato tried to scold Naruto for ridiculing his teammate, "That's enough! Someone like you in a team with the great Kakashi-san, what is with you!"

"The great Kakashi? Perhaps you two now each other more intimately than we thought, not that there's anything wrong with that. Sasuke is our former teammate you know." casually replied Naruto. Yamato's mouth opened and closed, but no words came out so he turned to Kakashi. Kakashi sighed as he put his book down. Sometimes he wished Naruto would save his banter for their enemies only. He was about to try and diffuse the situation when Sai suddenly spoke up.

"I get it now, you see me as trying to replace that weak shit for brains Orochimaru clone who ran off betraying Konoha. No worries I despise people like him." he said returning to his fake smile. Naruto snorted before chuckling and a smirk crossed his face.

"You know what this guy is alright with me even if he is a tool. 'Weak shit for brains Orochimaru clone' Hah! That's classic!" he cold hardly contain his amusement.

"Well, I'm glad that's settled. Hopefully we can all get along from now on." said Sakura.

"Yes, let us all get along!" stated Sai. Suddenly he was tackled by Naruto forcing him out of the way of a punch thrown by Sakura. They looked back to see the huge crater that had formed in the ground.

"What the hell you crazy woman?! Are you trying to cripple the freakin mission!" Naruto yelled at her.

"I do not know why you knocked him out of the way. You're letting him get away with talking bad about Sasuke-kun. He has know idea what he's talking about. Next time I won't hold back." she threatened.

Naruto laughed, "Who cares? The fact that the emo isn't here to defend himself is of his own doing. You act like he's some saint or something."

"Who cares?! I thought you two were best friends!" replied Sakura angrily. She couldn't understand his attitude towards Sasuke.

"Have you ever stabbed your arm through Ino's chest? No? Well then, I think that takes care of that theory." he retorted sourly.

"Shichuu-Tou no Justu!" A wooden prison erupted from the ground trapping the three young ninja inside with Kakashi looking on impassively.

"If you won't stop arguing I'll lock you all in this cage. We have five days before we need to be at the Tenchi bridge. As the mediator in this situation you can sit in the cage here to work out your differences or we can go to a hotel with Hot springs," Yamato's voice suddenly shifted into a darker tone, "You guys do not know me very well, I can be nice and friendly, but I can rule by fear as well..."

Naruto abruptly blasted open the front of the cage and reducing it to ash.

'If you were sent to keep me under control, they made a bad choice. Fire Dragon Slayer versus a Mokuton user? You have no chance.' Naruto thought to himself.

'I didn't see any hand seals or even sense a spike in chakra! How good are you?' thought Yamato

"Hot springs are useless to me, but the rest of you can do as you please." Naruto said walking forward next to Kakashi without looking back.

'What does he mean by that?' thought a confused Sakura.

--

"Ah, nothing like being naked together builds companionship among guys!" declared Yamato as he relaxed into the hot springs.

"Maybe, it's a good thing Naruto isn't here. Your sexuality would definitely be coming into question again." deadpanned Kakashi as he turned the page of his book.

"Why did you let him go off on his own anyway?" asked Yamato.

"His body naturally produces Fire Chakra, he can make his own hot spring whenever he bathes. He also spotted a casino in town, I fronted him the cash in return for half his profits. The guy has made a fortune of gambling ever since he left with Jiraiya." replied Kakashi.

"His temper and that kind of penchant for gambling, you'd think he trained under Hokage-sama and not Jiraiya-sama." stated Yamato.

"I'm a bit disappointed that he didn't join us." commented Sai joining the conversation.

"Why's that?" asked Kakashi.

"I wanted to see a really big penis." replied Sai.

Silence permeated the air as all the men in the hot springs instantly closed their legs and moved away from Sai, while the women's side of the hot springs erupted into giggles.

'Must not kill him...' thought Sakura.

--

"Ahh that was a good sleep!" Sakura yawned and stretched her arms out as she awakened in her futon. As she blinked the sleep out of her eyes, something outside the window caught her eyes. There was a strange red-orange glow on the far ledge outside the room. She quickly changed clothes and walked outside to get a closer look. As she approached the ledge she saw that it was actually Naruto emitting the glow. She had not seen him since he dissappeared into town while the rest of the team attended the hot springs. Now she stared in awe at the sight before her. Naruto sat eyes closed and Indian style with his hands held out palm up to his sides. His spikes of hair waved around wildly as a flame like aura shrouded his body. The scene was picturesque as a comforting warmth radiated from him. There seemed to be a calmness emanating from him that was not characteristic of his normally turbulent nature.

"Did you need something?" His voice startled her, the scene had captured her mind and imagination.

"I didn't know you had taken up meditation, you almost seemed to have become one with the nature out here."

"Meditation helps retain focus, focus is the key point of every battle."

She chuckled, "I never thought I'd see the day of you prioritizing focus. A few years ago you couldn't sit still, now look at you. You're definitely not a kid anymore."

"If there's one thing I learned from that teme, it's that we never really were kids. He just figured it out before the rest of us."

"Not just him, you did too. That's why you used to try to be so happy and childish all time, to protect that innocence we all had. You knew even before he did that once it's gone..."

"It never comes back. I may not be that kid anymore, but I'll still fight for the kid I used to be and every other kid out there."

"Hmph! Like you need another reason to fight. You should just finally admit that you enjoy fighting for the sake of fighting."

"No way! Few people are like me. Most people fight much harder when they have a real reason too, I won't take that away from them when the face me. It makes it more interesting!"

--

Later that evening Yamato built them a wooden house to camp out in using a mokuton jutsu. The full team gathered upstairs where they were hammering out the details of their plan.

"I used the file on Sasori from Suna to get me started, but I need to know as more about his personality, speech mannerisms, habits and the like. You three have actaully seen Sasroi with your own eyes."

"Naruto and I didn't arrive until well after the battle had already started. We can fill you in on what what we learned, but Sakura will have the best details on the form you will be using." said Kakashi.

"One problem with all this, we still don't know what his real mission is." said Naruto directing their attention to Sai.

"What are you talking about. I have the same orders as everyone else here." said Sai defending himself.

"Yes a likely story." calmly stated Yamato when tree branches abrupty rose from the floor and lifted Sai out the window hanging by is ankle.

"What are you orders..." demanded Yamato in a dark voice. Kakashi put away his book and shook his head.

"I can't believe ANBU are still using such techniques for interrogation. Perhaps Hokage-sama should have Ibiki spread all his teachings throughout all departments." he said disappointed.

"The pervert would especially be ashamed to call that an interrogation from a leaf ANBU." added Naruto as he retrieved Sai from the branches and threw him onto the floor. Kakashi pulled a kunai from his pouch and walked towards Sai looming over him with Naruto standing behind him sporting a maniacal grin.

"Let me show you how to really interrogate someone..." began Kakashi.

--

"...and after I deliver the documents I'm supposed to join them in order to encounter Uchiha Sasuke and give him Danzou-sama's offer. Danzou-sama really wants to have him under his thumb or dead. That's all I can say! The seal won't let me speak of anything else!" rambled a panicking Sai. Kakashi allowed him to collapse against the wall and calmly put his kunai away.

"No matter what resistance training they've experienced it gets them every time." stated Naruto.

"So what do we do now?" asked Sakura. Sai revelations completely destroyed any possibility of their previous objectives succeeding.

"We can use this." responded Yamato.

"How so?" she questioned.

"Now that we know this is truly a trap we can do something different than originally planned upon." answered Kakashi.

"Also, since his mission was going to fail anyway, we can use his mission's failure to cover our own intentions." added Naruto.

"Yes here's our plan..." started Kakashi.

Thanks for reading and stayed tuned for the actioned packed encounter!