I finally got off my lazy-ass ass and wrote this. Yayy you, yayy me... Woohoo.

I have a beta now, and as surprised as I am that someone would actually want to waste their time on this, he(I think so) sure is handy to have around. Thank you, fastrthnwind.


Interesting things seldom happened in Konoha anymore.

Thankfully, it wasn't a bad thing at all.

Of course, being a nearly unparalleled repository of knowledge meant that he wasn't as happy about it as other people were, his curiosity having nothing to stimulate it.

Until word of her reached him.


Smoke. It rose into the air, trailing slowly, like a small river of upwards-moving water. I tried breathing it in, but the dust in the air apparently thought it prudent to come with, and the results were not pretty for my lungs.

Not that it mattered. I was just finding ways to amuse myself; hands folded over the small pile of paperwork that I was supposed to be doing while I played around with other things.

The pages were crisp and smelled of fresh ink, a scent that I had less than pleasant associations with. It smelled of lethargy and restlessness to me.

The stack looked slightly out of place; new and unmarked paper under old and pockmarked hands.

"Sigh."

Nothing seemed worth my time any more, truth be told. I was never a man of routine, I was never meant to be one. The fact that I was still there, shuffling mundane information while my heart and mind were elsewhere was a sign of a lack of a proper replacement, nothing else. The moment someone else raised his hand for the position of Hokage and was deemed acceptable would be the moment I left this office for good.

Hmm... My desk seemed rather bare of stuff nowadays. There was just a picture of Konohamaru in the corner, the ignoble stacks of paper, and a few books I'd decided to re-read when no-one would be bothering me.

I looked at everything, and restlessness began clawing at me, urging me to find something, anything better to do. With no other option left, I brought out the ultimate entertainment device in creation out from a drawer in my desk and set it up on the ample space of my desk top. Yup, this was it. The Hokage's Super Special TV set, a.k.a. my crystal ball.

The ANBU-on-the-wall snorted in good-natured humour, possibly exasperated at the frequency of my drawing the ball out of its spot of recluse. I didn't blame him; he couldn't see what I was seeing no matter what he tried, his position forcing him to stay rather stiff at times.

Hmm... Now who would I spy on with it? Whose life would I eavesdrop on from afar? Heheheh.

There's always Konohamaru to rely on for a little comic relief, and my bored mind tuned into his chakra frequency. A little concentration, a little chakra, a few seconds, and... Ahh, there he was; stalking Naruto like he usually does at this time of the day. Apparently he was just standing behind a trashcan in an alleyway – darn kid had no sense of hygiene – looking outside with strange glee. His friends were nowhere to be seen.

What was Naruto doing anyways?

With a different chakra frequency in my mind now, the chakra I pushed into the little ball brought forth a new image, a picture of one of the most entertaining people I have had the good fortune to meet in my lifetime. He strangely enough, was doing nothing mischievous or interesting whatsoever.

He was somewhere outside my office building, jumping and walking around impatiently, looking like he was waiting for something or someone. Either that, or he'd been made to wait there forcefully-probably running an errand for that pink-haired team-mate of his, bless his poor kind-hearted soul.

That did raise the question of what Konohamaru had looked so positively gleeful about.

I hazarded a glance out of a window that would give me a vantage point of where Naruto was located, and, true to my expectations, he was still there. I signalled to the wall-ANBU to look at the alleyway behind my office building and report back. A few seconds passed after which he came back and nodded, informing me what I needed to know – there was nothing interesting happening anywhere. Konohamaru was going to get a long talk when he got home; the boy really needed better hobbies.

The crystal ball, staring so innocently at me, had lost its appeal. Letting Naruto keep his affairs to himself, I actually directed my attention to my work; the sooner I got it over with, the better.

Of course, the work of a Hokage was never finished - moments later, a paler-than-usual Hyuuga came into the room with the demeanour of a person having seen a ghost, or possibly a genjutsu of one.

I compared his face with the faces of the many Hyuugas I knew by sight and recognized this one as the Genin Rookie of the year from last year; a good Shinobi, but a horribly dull person with no entertainment value whatsoever. Well... Everyone couldn't be perfect, nor could I expect them to be.

"Neji Hyuuga, I presume?" He nodded slightly. "What brings you here?" I searched my desk for any candy that might be lying around to give to him, not wanting to be impolite. One fell into my hands from somewhere up above me. "Thank you ANBU-san," I muttered silently and offered it to the child sitting in front of me. He took it wordlessly.

"Hokage-sama, I apologize for intruding on your working hours-" Hah. 'Working' hours. "-But five minutes ago I witnessed something truly disturbing."

He seemed truly disturbed; his pale-lavender eyes twitched restlessly - and Hyuugas are schooled to the extreme about the value of moving and using their ocular organs.

"Continue..." This seemed interesting. Who knows, maybe today might not be so boring after all - I mean, oh no. The village just might actually be in danger. Not that I really want it to be, heheh... Heh.

"I saw Naruto Uzumaki walking around with two seemingly civilian girls that I had never seen before."

Naruto's made friends? I can see why that may be unusual news, but to be so disturbed about it was... Sad. I felt bad about giving the Hyuuga that peppermint now; Candy is a waste on people like him.

"They in themselves were not troubling, but both of them had no Chakra whatsoever... And one of them had a strange chakra network that was blackened so much that that I could not discern any traces of her tenketsu whatsoever."

"Hmm..." So it wasn't about Naruto's friendships after all. It was something genuine to worry about.

"If I know the particulars of the Byakugan correctly, then not being able to see tenketsu means one of three things: that they have either been destroyed, are completely overshadowed by foreign chakra, or the person in question has a severely diseased Chakra network. It's one of the basis of jyuuken, is it not?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama, but what really alarmed me was that this particular chakra was interacting with Naruto's. It seemed to reach into a locked store of Chakra somewhere in his stomach through their interlocked hands and free a different and distinctly orange chakra from that location. Then it and the black chakra mingled and... pulsed."

The Hyuuga's 'expressionless' face shifted through a myriad of emotions during the entire briefing, a briefing that, I must confess, shocked me horribly. Tainted chakra was extremely rare, extremely dangerous and only originated with those having a Demon or other External Chakra source sealed within or on them, judging from the results of Orochimaru's twisted experiments.

And to hear that this Chakra was interacting with Naruto's... No, the Kyuubi's Chakra so intimately...

It was very interesting... and VERY dangerous. So dangerous, in fact, that I myself would have to intervene now. A part of me was overjoyed, and another was apprehensive. Naruto had, once again, dragged himself into another lethal situation, and heaven knew what would become of it.

The crystal ball, still sitting on my desk, became useful once again. Neji sat, twisting his hands under the table, and I offered another ANBU-supplied peppermint to him. He accepted it again, but this time with a small thank you.

I focused on finding Naruto once more, and I found him sitting in Ichiraku's shop, drinking his broth happily. Sitting next to him were two girls, both I presumed to be the ones Neji had mentioned.

"Does one girl have pink hair and the other look like a geisha?" I asked him. He nodded, saying yes.

"Which one of them has the Chakra you spoke of?" I questioned.

"The pink-haired one," he replied plainly.

"What did you notice about the other?" I finally inquire of him. "Nothing that I haven't mentioned, Hokage-sama," he stated again without hesitation.

They were sitting there, looking like a comfortable little party. Naruto occasionally laughed and said something to them, and his company responded very enthusiastically. Well, one of them did anyways. I looked at them for a few more seconds, noticing the subtle interactions that revealed much more about a group than outward appearances would indicate.

What I noticed didn't bode well for the village clown. Naruto and the Pink-haired girl were not merely friends, it seemed. Oh, the cunning deceptions of enemy kunoichi - luring innocents by the force of their emotions, betraying them in the blink of an eye and not even flinching – it was truly despicable. She would have to answer for a lot when the ANBU brought her in.

"Neji, I'm assigning an impromptu B-ranked mission to your team. Assemble them, and perform these tasks within five minutes. Then stand by for further orders," I said even as I wrote the tasks for him on a sheet of the very paper I was so despondent to see in the morning.

Assemble all Hyuuga ninja not on missions; instruct to follow Naruto and wait for orders to engage.

Separate Naruto momentarily from the group; observe behaviour.

I signed the make-do document, verifying it as a bona fide mission objective.

"Keep Naruto in sight at all times and assist the ANBU that I will send who will give the order for your clan to engage the two. I will be observing the proceedings myself as we can take no chances on this mission. Be very careful, Neji."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." The boy went back through the doors, hurrying on his way to complete his new directives.

"Come ANBU-san. Things have just gotten Interesting."

The entire course of action for the shinobi on this assignment was to keep the targets in sight and then capture them when the order was delivered. It was an easy mission by any standards, but the risk involved, being unknown, made all the difference right then. There wasn't much for me to do but observe; for now at least. If anything went wrong I'd rather not leave any stoppers unopened, and that's why I was there with them.

Besides, Gai's team could use the experience. My wall-ANBU knew how tiring his requests for youthful missions were, and he also knew exactly how many times I had listened to that very request.

Neji's team assembled in a few minutes and they traced Naruto's steps to a training ground, with Neji doing nearly all the work while his teammates followed him around apathetically. After that it was a simple matter of a distraction until Naruto went with Gai's protege and left the two suspects alone.

It seemed that our suspicions were not unfounded.

A boy about their age and another otherworldly humanoid creature appeared in front of them out of thin air and conversed with them momentarily. Both were armed, their weapons in a battle-ready state - a cause for alarm in itself.

What could they be planning?

Their very movements appeared to be charged with sizable energy, and by the look of how things were going, they were more than just a group of children. Yet nothing could be more deceiving than their looks, at that moment. I couldn't sense a single shred of any kind of intent emanating from them, which meant that they were either masters at suppressing their chakra, or they simply had no chakra to speak of. I confirmed this with my wall-ANBU, and received an answer in the affirmative. I set my attention to the field again when I noticed that the two newcomers had disappeared.

Neji seemed to have heard what was going on, and I gave myself a reminder to ask him exactly what had transpired. Soon afterwards, Naruto came back, and Lee rerouted his way back to his team after circling a suitable distance away from the targets.

Meanwhile, Neji observed the other side of the page his mission statement was written on and raised his eyebrow before resuming stoicism. I looked over as well and...

Apparently I had given him the receipt of my Book purchases instead of a standard mission assignment form... Never mind.

Also note to self: Destroy all materials that may lead to the exposure of my Icha Icha obsession.

Soon the trio under observation took off towards the hokage mountain, Naruto proclaiming it quite boisterously, while the entire Hyuuga force that could be summoned lent their hand in setting up traps for the two outsiders - traps that simply never activated.

While all the clan members were figuratively scratching their heads, the ANBU made a move and tried to trap them in an illusion. A mass genjutsu was spread around the three of them where they were 'surrounded' by 'lions'... lions which unexpectedly decided not to attack the three.

It was absolutely unbelievable. They even compromised the imagination of some of my best Shinobi.

As soon as they reached the top, they ended up on a precipice. The wind was blowing merrily, the birds were chirping, and all was well and peaceful. My ANBU had gotten up there as well, and were ready to capture them, if the need arose. I gave the order via communicator for two of the masked nin to engage and capture them.

They rushed onwards, showing off how incredibly speedy they were...

Surprise, surprise. They didn't manage to catch anyone, but what I intended to let happen had happened. By that time we had some measure of these people's abilities. It also seemed that they could make perfect disguises, as we seemed to have one more ANBU on the battlefield than we originally started out with.

All of the Hyuugas gave chase, but they made sure that they went unnoticed. Naruto remained unaware of the pursuit, the Hyuugas slipping past his clones effortlessly, and spread out inside the forest. They observed everything with their eyes, and they kept a watch on everything happening.

It was high time for me to spearhead the capture efforts now. The confrontation was bound to come soon, and I wanted to be there personally. It was better to handle the first interrogation myself.

By the time I reached the forest, three Hyuuga were blasting the ground open with precisely placed kicks, a blue shimmery blast echoing along with the rising dust and dirt. The earth crumbled into gravel and gave way to a small underground room.

The three of them jumped in, and not a single sound was heard except for the squishing of muddy earth by wooden sandals. When they had jumped out, they had a kicking and screaming Naruto as well as the scared, pink-haired girl in their arms, held as securely as possible.

Neji had then walked up to me and said, "There are still three of them down there that we can detect, but they are neither visible nor tangible. What should we do?"

I believe my blood froze at the mention of intangibility. The only other known person capable of intangibility was Madara Uchiha, and if these children were able to imitate power of that level and sophistication, then their abilities, as well as the threat level of this mission, may need to be completely re-evaluated.

"Keep them under observation, but don't let them know you are watching," I commanded needlessly to the ninja prodigy who had years of observation experience.

Neji nodded understandingly and walked away. Three other Hyuugas leapt into the trees and promptly camouflaged themselves. A few of the trees rustled around us and I took a good look at my surroundings, looking for anything that shouldn't be. There wasn't much out of the ordinary, and I directed myself back to the matter at hand.

I paid close attention to my recent captives, and both were acting as expected. Naruto was kicking, cussing, and screaming, both at the Hyuuga and the newcomers whom he had acquainted himself with, and the girl was nervously chewing her lip and shooting apologetic glances at said ninja, looking quite pathetic. Pity was not what the situation warranted, however. I put on my daddy-means-business face and turned to the people restricting her.

"Let her go, Damn it, Let her go!" He kept shouting at everyone he could lay his eyes on, and I couldn't believe for a moment just how blinded he could be at times, but I also thought of how loyal he was, and I didn't feel as disappointed anymore. Just sorry for him.

"She goes to Kakashi and Hiashi first. Then to Ibiki," I declared.

They would be able to give a good evaluation of whatever physical or chakra-related quirks she had.

"Take her away..."

The girl tried to struggle, to shake herself out of her predicament, but she froze halfway through. Her eyes went lifeless, her arms and torso went limp and she collapsed into a spineless mass of flesh. Confused, her captor stopped for a second and turned her face to his own. It proved to be the last thing he did.

She erupted in a mass of Black light and Dark intent. Her eyes turned black and she vaporized her restrictor's head off with enhanced punches that cut through the very air. She hit the ground so hard that the debris turned into deadly shrapnel.

We all Kawarimi'ed out of the immediate area, and once we regained our footing we headed back to her. Naruto was in the hands of an ANBU - Boar, to be exact; a precaution I thought of bringing along with me.

Naruto was completely distraught. He fought against his holder... to go and rescue the living powerhouse, presumably, but he wasn't allowed to do so for obvious reasons.

Aelita stepped out of the clearing with eyes burning with absolute fury, and she raced towards Naruto with unimaginable power. She had almost reached him, her arm stretched out towards the boy's neck. Just as she was about to make contact, a giant globe of white light surrounded everything, emanating from an unknown place and engulfing everything within its boundaries…


Ah, paperwork… such a bittersweet joy... Naruto will probably be back from his mission to the Wave Country anytime now. I wonder how he's doing.


May the next chapter come sooner. Hahah. It will be Jeremie's point of view, but it'll comeonly after I update my other story, so... Yeah.