Naruto: 8-9-3

-xXx-

Undercover ANBU Yugao cautiously made her way through Shukuba Town, which literally meant, "Inn-town" and for good reason. It was a pleasure district located a few miles from Konoha and featured many hotels, inns, restaurants, bars, and brothels. She was on her was to Fun Fun Avenue, one of the nastiest streets in the town.

Her assignment was to get in with the local gang there and try to find out whatever she could, the intelligence department had already set her up with a fake ID and a false background which included a few fake drug charges and a few assaults on the police. Just incase they were to somehow have the connections to do a check on her.

It had taken awhile to set everything up, she had just gotten the assignment a week ago from the Hokage and spent that whole time preparing. The leader was a man by the name of Shinja, an orphan from the Mist village whose parents were killed during the civil war by an unknown group who, ironically enough, had no connections to the war at all.

Information on him was easy to get once you started looking in the right places, he was a party animal, loved fast cash, and easy women. The easiest way would be to get him in the sack and search the place after he went to sleep, but she refused to degrade herself even though she had been trained to do so. It wasn't a problem and it would take longer to do but she had a perfect plan.

Sources told her that the gang was bringing in a huge shipment and would be looking to hire some outside muscle to protect the exchange. It was also invitation only but just the night before she had tracked down a person with such an invitation and... relived him of it. She also had a few of her ANBU friends set up a mock ambush where they would slaughter a few of the guards before being 'defeated' by her, 'saving' the shipment and giving her a real good reputation with the gang.

The shipment was arriving today and everything was set, now all she had to do was arrive and wait for the ambush.

-X-

Naruto sat in the back of the Ox drawn cart and looked at the ninjas escorting him and his shipment of fish and equipment back to the village. Given the small caravan he had traveling to Konoha, the old man saw fit to give him two teams of ninja to escort him, all of which were people from his ex-class back in the academy.

Their reaction to his return was... rather entertaining...

FLASHBACK

Naruto leaned against the wall at the village gate dressed in one of his usual suits, this time a light gray, nearly white suit with a dark red shirt underneath. He had told the Hokage to send the ninjas to the front gate while he had the carts prepared, seeing as they had a nice shipping company here in the village for things that a mail ninja wouldn't be able to carry. Something that Wave had yet to get, seeing as their main thing was shipping over the water.

The four handlers harnessed and soothed the powerful beasts that were to haul the four carts back and fourth from Wave, knowing that an angry ox could ruin the cart and possibly the deal that the blonde had set up with their boss, offering to pay extra should they be quick about things.

"Where is this guy?" A voice wondered off to the side.

Naruto looked over and saw the loud and boisterous mutt known as Kiba along with his dog Akamaru, he still hadn't changed a bit.

"I... h-hope n-nothing happened to... h-him,"

From behind his sunglasses, Naruto saw Hinata standing next to an older woman in a white dress with exotic red eyes.

Then five more walked out of the gates, the first was Shino, who silently walked over to his team and stood without saying a word. Next was another older man that Naruto recognized as the old mans son Asuma, who, like his father, was smoking, just not out of a pipe. Behind him walked three others from the academy, the ever lazy Shikamaru, the bossy blond Ino, and chubby Choji. He had never had a real problem with this bunch, just that Ino was loud and Kiba was too prideful about things.

"Man what a drag," Shikamaru muttered while looking up at the clouds.

Ino looked around, "Hey weren't we meeting the guy here? Just great, its not even been an hour and things are already messing up,"

"For a ninja your awfully impatient," Naruto spoke without moving, drawing their attention to him.

"You the client?" Asuma questioned, not recognizing him just yet.

Naruto chuckled, "Why Asuma, I'm hurt that your father didn't tell you about me," he said while pushing himself off the wall and walking forward, showing them his face and making their eyes widen in recognition.

"N-No way!" Ino gasped pointing at him.

"Naruto?" Kiba asked, "Is that really you?"

Naruto, like Goro did, gave a dramatic bow with a smirk on his face, "I the flesh,"

"Dude, what are you doing here? I haven't seen you in years,"

Naruto shrugged at Kiba, "Business, with my current position I really don't have to do anything and could live in the lap of luxury, waited on hand and foot day and night. But, unlike Shikamaru, I'm way too active for such a... inactive lifestyle,"

"I kinda got that impression," Asuma stated, "I saw that dad had a few mission scrolls paid for by the same person but I would've never expected that person to be you Naruto-kun... Wow you've really grown up,"

"Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute," Ino called, "you mean to tell me that 'you', Naruto Uzumaki, the dead last in class, is rich enough to pay for multiple missions,"

"Ino!" Asuma scolded.

"No, no, no, It's ok Asuma," Naruto spoke, stopping the man, "It's completely understandable for her to be skeptical. After-all, the last time I've stepped foot in this village I was a poor little orphan who couldn't afford a decent meal let alone a mission."

"So you're loaded?"

"INO!"

Naruto chuckled, "Oh extremely so," he boasted, "You are looking at-"

"LORD CHAIRMAN!"

The blonde stopped short and sighed, making the others blink in confusion as another man cam running up, huffing for breath.

Asuma and Kurenai looked at each other and mouthed, 'Lord Chairman?'

"Hello Nishki," Naruto greeted dryly, "How nice of you to join us, I was just about to send for you,"

Nishki gave a small glare, "Yeah right, I knew you told me to come to the wrong gate, you were just trying to get rid of me," he growled.

Naruto dropped the act and shrugged, "Sure was, but your just like an STD, easy to find, hard to get rid of," he said making Nishki gape, "Everyone, I'd like to introduce my human shield... I mean my assistant/baby-sitter, Nishki. Just ignore him he's basically a living calculator or dictionary,"

Nishki looked down and grumbled.

"Anyway, as I was saying, your looking at the founder and Chairman of the Black Rose Company,"

Choji choked on his chips, "NO WAY!"

Everyone looked at him.

Kiba blinked, "What's the Black Rose Company?"

Choji gaped at him, "It's only the greatest company in the world, my clans been trying to buy into it ever since it was founded,"

Naruto nodded, "Yes and every time your clan council keeps demanding company information, something that only few people such as myself are allowed to know, such as the information on how to make some of our high-class Black Rose delicacies or more recently, how to brew our legendary Black Rose Sake. We only give bottles of that to people who earned our favor, like the Fire Lord who asked my company to cater to his granddaughters birthday."

Naruto then took a thinking pose, "Then again, we really should tell them that no amount of money will bribe us into selling that, we don't even sell the bottles of sake and Kami knows that people have tried to pay vast amounts of money for one,"

Choji pointed a finger at him with wide eyes and an open mouth.

Shikamaru shook his hear and muttered a 'troublesome' under his breath, "What are you doing back Naruto? I thought you disliked Konoha,"

Naruto waved it off, "All that mess it in the past, I've decided to be the bigger person and turn the other cheek,"

"And the Chairman isn't at liberty to discuss company-" Nishki started in a businesslike tone, only for Naruto to slap him in the back of the head with a smile.

"Nishki shut up, over half the village already know that the Black Rose is branching out." he said evenly before looking at the ninjas, "As for your question, I am opening two new places here, the first being a teahouse and the other being a... sea theme place... I have no doubt that there going to be the next big thing around here."

The then walked over to the carts and sat on the end, "As a matter of fact this it the reason for this little mission, you will be escorting me and my living calculator here to wave to pick up some vary important things and upon completion, you will all be rewarded with a free meal cooked personally by yours truly,"

"You cook?" Kiba questioned with a snicker.

Nishki made himself known once more, "Actually the whole corporation is based around his very own recipes," he said before looking down again, "Sorry,"

"Yes Kiba," Naruto started before slowly drawing one of his razor sharp cleavers from underneath his coat, making the mutt gulp, "And I'm very fond of using my skills for more than just cooking, So don't think that just because you continued along the path of becoming a ninja that you have become the proverbial alpha, Because unlike you my friend, while you were doing the chores that Konoha passes on as missions, I was out in the real world, where you aren't pampered and given another chance if you mess up."

The seriousness of the situation faded instantly, "But were wasting daylight here just standing here, so lets get this show on the road and feel free to ride on one of the carts, I doubt that you'll be given the chance to ride on the way back."

FLASHBACK END

So far the trip was uneventful, Shikamaru laid in the back of one cart watching the clouds with Choji eating from another bag of chips. They were ignoring their sensei and the driver who sat up on the front, Both smoking like a Snow country train. Ino sat on another with a compact mirror in her hand, preening herself before taking out a brush and brushing her hair, not noticing Kurenai who saw her as one of the fan girls that gave others like her a bad name.

On the front cart, Nishki sat next to Shino, who surprisingly was sharing an intellectual conversation while Kiba scratched his head in confusion, not really understanding half of the big word being used while looking at the cart behind him, where Hinata was sitting next to Naruto with their feet dangling over the edge of the cart.

When they all started to load up onto the carts, Naruto had sent Nishki to another cart and grabbed Hinata's wrist as she passed by, asking her to sit with him so that they could talk.

Hinata was extremely shy and nervous as she sat next to her old crush, which was slowly resurfacing as she sat beside him.

He knew about her feelings, only a fool wouldn't... but then again, he never really had any real contact with girls before leaving the village. It was only after leaving Konoha that he found out that girls found him cute because of his whiskers... which led to one thing and then another which ultimately got him in a whorehouse where he was assaulted by an older woman who cuddled and groped him until he succumb to her advances.

Had she not poured a bottle of sake down his throat he would have never done what he did... poor woman would never be able to enjoy her profession after the hours of hot and raunchy sex they had

"So Hinata-chan," Naruto started softly with a charming smile, "How have you been, it's been years since I've seen you,"

"I-I've been well N-Naruto-kun," Hinata nearly whispered, looking at the ground with a blush.

Naruto patted her back, "That's good to know, I've been meaning to see everyone since I returned but things keep getting in the way,"

Hinata swallowed hard, "N-Naruto-kun, I-I... I have s-s-something that I w-wanted to t-tell you," she said nervously while trying to spit it out and confess her feelings.

The blonde looked at her and cocked her head to the side, "What's wrong Hinata-chan?"

The girl opened her mouth but the words wouldn't come out. She tried to force herself to say the words that she had dreamed of saying for years but now that the chance come up... she just couldn't.

She looked down with a sigh, "I-it's nothing,"

-X-

In a brothel a young man in his late twenties sat back on a couch with two slightly older girls at his side. His black hair was styled in a faux mohawk and he wore a black tank top showing off his less than impressive arms and a small dragon tattoo around his sholder.

"Shinja-sama you should've seen it," one of the guys said, "That girl was fucking crazy, she saved the whole shipment after we were ambushed by some group, we even managed to keep both the money and the stuff thanks to her."

"Who is this bitch?" Shinja questioned his underling.

The goon pilled out a file and handed it to his leader, "She's a merc, had multiple run ins with the law, drug charges, this crazy bitch has even fought and nearly killed a officer before,"

"Interesting," Shinja spoke while sitting up, "We need more people like that, people who aren't afraid of fighting pigs, I want to meet her, someone like this deserves to work under me,"

-X-

Yugao received the message to meet the gang at the brothel the next day around ten at night, saying that someone wanted to meet her. She arrived early and walked in, ignoring the whores and perverts, the purple haired UC made her way towards the back where she was told to go.

But she didn't get far as two men in black suits stepped in front of her.

"I was told to meet Shinja here," he told them expecting them to move.

The first, who wore black sunglasses over his eyes shook his head slowly, "Shinja has no say right now, he is in a meeting with Mr. Taiga right now,"

Yugao blinked and racked her brain, trying to remember the name, "Who?"

"Let's go," growled a voice to the side.

Yugao turned and had to look up to see the tall mans face. He was probably the moan physically imposing man she had ever seen. Standing a good foot and a half over her and covered in muscle, the man whom she suspected was Taiga looked like one of those professional fighters on TV.

"Yes Mr. Taiga," the two spoke with a bow.

Taiga gave Yugao a look and walked away, leaving the brothel and disappearing.

She walked towards the back and found the man she was looking for sitting on a couch leaning on his elbows with his face in his hands. As she neared he looked up and she saw the forming bruise appearing around his eye and the evidence of his lip starting to swell.

"So your the one my boys were telling me about," Shinja said trying and failing to look tough, the fact that some of his words were slurred due to the swelling ruined the attempt. "I heard about how you handled yourself and have a job for you, pays a lot more than those pissy guard jobs. A rival dealer has been selling product on our streets and have been stealing our customer, selling his shit at half our prices. But the thing is, we got our hands on some of it and found out that he was cutting it with something else... something that will kill the user if used enough. I don't want his ass around threatening our customers or our business, kill him and destroy any of his product you can. I don't want to see you face around here until your done. The guy at the door will give you more detail."

Yugao nodded and turned away, "Goddamn Taiga," she heard the man curse before hissing.

Looking behind her, she saw Shinja poking at his lip and snorted, served the prick right. With the attitude he had she wouldn't be surprised if he normally got punched in the mouth. But it wasn't just that, it seemed that the reports were right, they were a smaller part of something bigger.

Her orders were to infiltrate and find out anything she could about them, including any partners they had or bosses. Lord Hokage also asked her to gather any and all details she could on the individual members of the crew, it wasn't an order but a request.

So far she had found out the simple things, like their main hangout was the Fun Fun Brothel, the main whore house on the street. She would also have to send a message to the Hokage telling him that the investigator had been correct, that they were apart of some larger group.

She already knew that her assignment was about to get more difficult. Once the Hokage got her report he would send her updated orders telling her to get closer, to get in deeper with the crew and try to reach Shinja's boss. Sure she would be a raise in pay for the added danger but undercover work was messy, it not only fucked with your moral values at times but there was also the possibility of being somewhat brainwashed. There had been quite a few others who got in so deep that they actually started thinking like the enemy and even betrayed their former comrades.

The ANBU tried to teach you ways to keep such things from happening, the most basic was keeping pictures of your loved ones to remind you of who's waiting back home. But it wasn't completely reliable, UC's were often called in for mental evaluations especially after long deep cover assignments.

"Hey, you the chick Shinja-sama sent?"

Looking at the thug by the door she nodded.

"Ok cool, listen, down the street you'll find an alley between the Rising sun Inn and a bar called Ginyo's, the dealers down that alley and behind the bar." he told her before pulling something out of his pocket that was covered in a cloth, "When you find him, use this and leave it in,"

The item was forced into her hand by the thug before he backed away, "Return when your finished, If Shinja-Sama has no more work for you I might, I can also pay you for your work. It's not as big or high profile but the moneys good. I might not be like Shinja-sama but I have connections of my own, if you help me I can help you,"

-X-

(Time skip: Two days)

"Ah, the town of Wave, proof that even under the oppression of a tyrant you can find hope." Naruto said with a nod as the small caravan of carts stopped at the end of the bridge, looking down the towns main street where people were out and about, buying and selling whatever was needed or wanted.

The eight ninja looked around at the busy street.

"I heard about this place," Asuma said, "Didn't Kakashi's team help rebuild the people here?"

Naruto snorted, "He probably wrote it in his report, but the truth is, all he did was protect the client." he said with a distasteful tone making the senseis look at in in confusion, "What, don't you find it strange that Wave has yet to ally itself with your village or even open any major trade agreements? In truth, Konoha left Wave to die out here, the council even threatened them, forcing them into debt. They had already paid all they could for the mission and were even worse off than before,"

The ninja were appalled, "They did what?"

Naruto hummed, "I see that they tried to keep that quite, but yes, the civilian council went behind the Hokage's back and threatened the town. Demanding twice the amount that should have been paid and then demanding that the bridge be named after the village or that Uchiha,"

They looked at the brass sign on the bridge and saw that it was not named after either the Uchiha or Konoha, it was named the Bridge of Hope.

"As you can see, it didn't happen, the old man received a nice letter explaining the circumstances and then the threats made by the council. To make it up to them he voided their debt and punished the ones who kept pushing for it, namely some old man named Danzo and some whore with pink hair, never did get her name."

The drivers got the Ox's to continue the trip, down towards the docks.

"I can only imagin the looks on their faces when they found out that Wave refused to ever allow trade with them, especially with the dock being a quick way to travel as well as being a major importer of fish."

Shino nodded, "That would explain the sudden increase in the price of fish,"

"Even with Gato running things he had control over import and export, he wasn't stupid and knew that keeping it going would make him more money," The blonde stated just as they arrived at the correct location.

"Mr. Uzumaki," Yelled one of the dock workers, "We've been expecting you, we're ready to offload your things whenever your ready, all you need to do is sign for them," he called while patting a pile of crates.

Naruto jumped off the cart and stretched before walking over, followed by his faithful dog Nishki and the ninja.

The foremen pulled a small stack of papers off the top of the crate and pulled a pen from his pocket, "Ok before you sign let me walk you through here to make sure you have everything you wanted. Here we have a crate of industrial aquarium supplies," he said while pointing and tapping the crate with the pen, "This is the industrial shatterproof glass rated to withstand even chakra powered strikes... as long as it's not constantly attacked."

Naruto signed for them and the foremen motioned for the workers to start loading them up, all the crates would take up at least the first cart.

"Ok sir please follow me to the next area, due to the nature of these shipments we had to separate them so that they could be cared for,"

They walked over to a warehouse and found a row of large wooden crates with the tops removed. Inside was multiple thick plastic boxes filled with water. The group walked over and looked into the closest and the ninja gasped.

"They're beautiful," Ino, Hinata, and Kurenai said while looking at the occupants of the container.

"Here we have over a hundred exotic Centr... Centropy-"

Naruto shook his head, "Centropyge Loriculus, better known as Flame Angel fish,"

They were a bright reddish orange with black stripes along it's side and electric blue marks on the tail fin. Like the girls had said, they were extremely beautiful.

The next got similar reactions and Naruto saved the man from sounding like an idiot by trying to say the name of the fish.

"Zebrasoma Flavescens, or Yellow Tang," he muttered loudly while looking at the large school of small yellow fish.

The next few had the guys impressed.

Hinata, who had taken to standing next to Naruto, tugged on his sleeve and stuttered, "N-Naruto-kun, y-y-you bought s-sharks?"

He nodded, "Blacktip Reef Shark to be exact," he told her while sticking his hand into the water and rubbing it, making the others, especially Nishki pale at the thought of him being bitten. "It does well in captivity and those large aquariums often keep them, so why not buy a whole family to keep as pets?"

Suddenly the shark thrashed slightly, making a big splash and wetting Kurenai, Kiba, Asuma, and Nishki.

Naruto laughed and patted the shark while the others got in a few cheap laughs, "I knew I'd love having a pet shark,"

To be Continued...

-X-

Please continue, I only got a small amount of reviews for my last chapter and I don't like to write stories that no one else reads, I love reading my reviews and it fills me with joy to do so. So please take a minute to tell me you love it, or, If you really loved it, please tell me what you'd like to see so I could take it under advisement.