A/N: I changed my mind. This is farther in to the future than I originally planned. Right now, Naruto's age is about 11, as is Gaara's. The original Sound Four are only a year older than the jinchuuriki are. Haku is two years older than Gaara and Naruto. As for skill levels, Naruto, Gaara and Haku are at Mid-Chuunin level now. If Naruto or Gaara go all out, they can give ten Chuunin or three to four normal Jounin a good fight. The Sound Four are about Rookie Chuunin for now. If all of them (Naruto and Gaara included) are working together, they can take down a small army of Chuunins or a few four-man squads of Jounin, provided they have the element of surprise.

None of them are recognized as any official rank in the village though. Not yet anyways.

At this point, the Sound has already been established. No fighting or take-over was done to accomplish this. All Orochimaru and Anko did was to negotiate with the Daimyo of Rice Country. The Hidden Village of the Sound has been active for half a year now though it will take another year or two to produce the first crop of Genin.

Just a reminder, Haku is a guy in the anime. He will remain a guy in this fic.

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Chapter THREE

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Soft footfalls as well as the sharp clicks of high heels fell on the damp pavement. It had rained the night before and mist now surrounded the town.

The mist hardly deterred people from making money or having fun though.

"C'mon, lady. Drop the coy act already. We want what we paid for," a lecherous voice said as the footsteps halted in a dark and deserted alley.

"Are you sure it's okay to do it here? Wouldn't it be better in a room at the inn?" came a more nervous voice.

"Well, yeah, if you want to be boring," a sultry, seductive voice that undoubtedly belonged to a woman entered the fray. "Aren't you thrilled by the fact that anyone could catch us at any moment?" Not giving her clients a chance to answer, she continued with a purr. "What did you boys say you did?"

"We're the guards of a very powerful man in the village," puffed the first man, pride clear in his voice. "Ganjyu-sama gave us a few hours off while he's doing paperwork."

The woman gave a thrilled gasp. "Why, you two must be the…stupidest, most idiotic shitheads I've ever met," her voice lost its refined, seductive purr and became just a bit rougher. The disgust in her voice was obvious as well. There was puff of smoke and in the place of the woman was a young girl, no older than 13 it seemed.

The two men just had enough time to blink in confusion before they were held against a nearby wall and rendered unmovable by something akin to silk. They watched in horror as three more kids dropped into the alley. None of them wore forehead protectors but it was obvious from their stances that they were shinobi. Well-trained ones, at that.

"A-are you going to k-kill us?" asked the second guard, looking about ready to pee in his pants.

"Maybe, maybe not. It really all depends on the taichou (1)," answered a pale blue-haired boy who seemed to have another head growing out of his back.

"I hate doing this kind of crap," muttered the girl that had lured them there. "Sakon, you can be bait next time," she said, addressing the same blue-haired boy.

Sakon regarded her with a sarcastic look. "Yeah, because I look just like a girl,"

The redhead's face flushed with anger. "Fine. Haku can be bait, then," she pointed at a figure with long black hair and a porcelain mask covering the face.

The boy with six arms spoke up, a smirk on his face. "Great idea, Tayuya. I mean, Haku's so much prettier than you,"

"Say that again, shithead?" Tayuya growled as she whirled around to face the spider-nin, fist raised and ready to clobber boys stupid enough to anger her.

"You heard me, red," retorted the spider-nin.

Just as Tayuya was about to pounce on him and beat him into the ground, the person they had called Haku spoke up. "Naruto-taichou would not like you fighting with each other," he said in a calm voice as Tayuya's hand fisted in Kidoumaru's shirt.

The redheaded girl muttered curses under her breath before releasing her hold on Kidoumaru who smirked arrogantly.

"Maa, Haku, it's alright. I sorta enjoyed watching it," a blonde shinobi dressed in dark clothes remarked cheerfully as he and two others dropped onto the scene. "Mission accomplished. The money's with Jiroubo," he said, nodding towards the briefcase the larger of the two he'd had with him was carrying. "If we leave now, we can deliver the money by tonight and get home by tomorrow afternoon."

"Taichou, what about these two here?" Sakon asked, indicating the people they'd trapped.

Naruto spared them a disinterested glance. "Release them," he ordered. "They've served their purpose. Ganjyu gave up the money easily when I said we'd kill them and pin their murder on him. Our client was right. His reputation is everything to him."

"Oi, taichou! I've got a bone to pick with you," snarled Tayuya as she stomped up to him. "Why do I always have to be the bait, huh? And why is it always a prostitute when it comes to guys like these? They had their hands all over me. It was absolutely disgusting and I…"

The blonde's eye twitched. It was barely perceptible to the two men held against the wall but it was all too obvious to the trained shinobi. Even Tayuya stopped in the middle of her rant. All eyes were now on the Kitsune container.

"You…," breathed Naruto, barely supressing his killer intent as he turned towards the two guards. "You dared lay your filthy paws on Tayuya-chan, trash!" His hand clenched and unclenched as he walked over to them, blue eyes becoming slitted and a deep red.

A strong scent permeated the air as one of the men lost complete control of his bladder but hardly anybody noticed.

It was a well-known fact in the Sound that anyone outside of Naruto's team who so much laid a lecherous hand on the redhead would suffer the young taichou's anger. The last one had been left alive only because Orochimaru needed more shinobi. Naruto didn't push the issue much if Tayuya got hurt during a fight. She was a kunoichi, after all, wounds were an occupational hazard. But if any man, save a select few, touched her out of a spar, the blonde went out of his way to ensure they suffered.

"I-I-It w-wasn't me who d-did it. I n-never laid a h-hand on her. I-It was him," whimpered one man pitifully, turning against his companion in an effort to save his own hide.

Naruto released a growl, glaring at the one who had talked. He got a kunai from his weapons pouch and cut the man loose from Kidoumaru's bindings. The freed man fell to the ground and sobbed in relief before making a run for it. However, his joy at being freed was shortlived. The same kunai that had released him flew threw the air and imbedded itself into his back.

"Anyone who turns against a comrade is a coward. I hate cowards," Naruto snarled ferally. "Of course, that doesn't mean I'm going to take any pity on you just because you were betrayed," he addressed the one still alive. "The moment you laid a hand on Tayuya-chan, you sealed your fate as one of the test subjects of a jutsu my nee-chan and I created."

The Sound-nins present winced slightly at the man's fate. The jutsu the siblings created, some with the help of their father, were always in the bracket of B-ranked to S-ranked. Most of them were fatal, those that weren't…you'd wish they were.

A sadistic smile appeared on the Kitsune container's face as he started on the seals, ending with Nezumi.

Years later, people of the village would swear they could still hear the unfortunate man's agonized screams ringing into the night.

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It was a cheerful Naruto who made his way back to the Hidden Village of the Sound with his teammates. The cheerful mode was always present after he tested any of his jutsu. A curious look replacing his fox grin, the blonde turned his head slightly to observe his friends. When he wasn't in a particular hurry, he liked to study those around him.

Haku, who was farther ahead than the others, acting as scout, radiated waves of apprehension. He'd been placed under Naruto's command six months ago when he and his mentor, an A-ranked missing-nin from the Mist named Momochi Zabuza, had sought refuge in the Sound. Naruto had been told that the effeminate boy was a genius and the demon container was inclined to agree. The former mist-nin was quick, strong and knew how to turn the battle in his favor. The only drawback when it came to Haku was the the boy was still a bit squeamish though his first kill had been a few months ago.

Tayuya, who always traveled on his left (with Gaara on the right), specialised in genjutsu though she'd been taught a few ninjutsu and basic taijutsu just so she wouldn't be helpless when her genjutsu were dispelled.

She was unusually quiet but was traveling closer to him than normal. She was always like this whenever Naruto went out of his way to prolong a death to guard her 'honor'. She didn't approve of it, she'd already said as much. The redhead prided herself on being self-sufficient and needed no one to avenge her. That didn't mean she hated him doing those things for her. With her, Naruto had always had to dig underneath and think hard of his actions. Until now, he wasn't quite sure, though he had a small idea, of what would set her off or what would make her blush.

Of the four people Naruto had first taken charge of many years ago, the only girl had always been the most difficult.

Flashback

Orochimaru had already left the room with Anko, leaving Kimimaro to supervise. Gaara stood beside Naruto and both jinchuuriki were staring at the four before them.

The awkward silence that had fallen on the room was broken when the small girl snorted and turned away, drawing all attention to herself.

Naruto blinked at this. "What's wrong?" he asked, face contorting into a frown.

Silence greeted him. Finally, the large boy next to the girl stepped in. "Oi, Tayuya, he asked you a question,"

"I heard him," Tayuya said gruffly. She gave her newly instated leader a sideways glance before answering, "Everyone tells us you're such a great and powerful person just because you were raised by Orochimaru-sama. All I see is a midget who can't be older than me." Her tiny arms crossed, she gave him a challenging look. "I say prove that you're as good as they say you are."

The others nodded in agreement but they looked a bit nervous, as well. She couldn't live long right after she had blatantly disrespected their supreme leader's son. They were almost afraid to look at the blonde and when they did, what they saw floored them.

Mitarashi Naruto was grinning widely and it wasn't even the psychotic grin his sister was widely known (and feared) for. No, this grin was genuine.

Even the redhead was taken aback by it.

"I like you," Naruto declared, invading the girl's personal space before she even realised it and examining her face closely. "You're cute, too. You're Tayuya, right?"

Unnerved, Tayuya barely managed a nod before schooling her face into a scowl.

"Number one rule when you're in my team. Never asu—," Naruto frowned a moment, trying to recall what the word was. "Never assume anything. It will only get you killed, understood?"

It was then that the boy's subordinates would find out that when Naruto used that voice, it was nearly impossible, even for Tayuya, to answer in the negative.

End Flashback

After that first encounter, Tayuya had acted a bit more respectful but not by much. Naruto didn't mind. He found her attitude a fresh change from the near-worship or the barely tolerance he got from the other shinobis in the Sound Village.

He broke off that train of thought and turned back to the other members of his team.

Gaara was a bit more sociable now. He could crack a few jokes and smiles on occasion and no longer limited himself to one word sentences. Of course, this wasn't much of a surprise since the Tanuki container hardly left his exuberant captain's side, unless either of the two needed to train privately. Ever since a failed attempt on Naruto's life by a power-crazed but weak shinobi a few years ago, Gaara had assigned himself as the blonde's unofficial bodyguard. It seemed fitting.

After all, wasn't it Naruto who had saved Gaara from a life of insanity and loneliness all those years ago? To the redhead, those two things were far worse than any sort of death could be and he now owed the other boy a debt that could not be repaid within any amount of time or with any sacrifice.

Everyone on Naruto's team respected him but it was Gaara who respected him the most. And right next to him was Sakon.

Sakon was the unofficial second-in-command, though officially, that position went to Gaara since he was the stronger of the two. But because the redhead often went with Naruto wherever he went, leadership fell onto Sakon's shoulders when the two disappeared as they were wont to do every other weekend.

Combat-wise, Sakon was a bit stronger than Tayuya, Jiroubo or Kidoumaru since he had Ukon to lend him a hand (literally) sometimes. He was also more thorough than the other three, making sure that none of his enemies were left alive. One would not be wrong by saying that the two-headed preteen wasn't just a little bit obsessive-compulsive.

Jiroubo, who was traveling at the back, was the biggest member of the team and served as the 'muscle', so to speak. He was the team's taijutsu specialist but balanced himself off with a few Doton jutsu. In combat, if ever Tayuya's genjutsu was broken, he was the one who attacked first to catch the enemy off guard.

Naruto enjoyed the orange-haired boy's company and both could sometimes be seen consuming a whole restaurant's weekly supply of food in one sitting for the sake of an eating contest. The score now stood 10-9 in the larger boy's favor.

Kidoumaru, the last member of the team, was their own, personal, most of the time snarky, Bingo Book and then some. He knew all the note worthy shinobis by name if not by sight, knew their general statistics, what field they specialised in and even some of their abilities, thanks to his questioning some of the former missing-nin who were now under Orochimaru.

The spider-nin usually attacked from afar, together with Haku. When no one had spotted them yet and they had time to kill, Haku would paralyze an opponent with his precisely aimed senbon needles and Kidoumaru would go in for the kill though this sort of teamwork between the two had waned the past couple of months ever since an incident in which Kidoumaru had nearly turned into a human pin cushion because of an offhand comment he'd made about Momochi Zabuza that the normally ever-tolerant Haku had not agreed with. Naruto had given them a stern yelling for letting personal matters bring down their battle performance once he had found out.

They weren't perfect, that fact was painfully obvious but they were his team and Naruto could live with those small imperfections so long as they didn't get any of themselves killed (2).

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Haku squinted underneath his porcelain mask as they neared the edge of the forest a few miles away from the Village of the Sound. He wasn't sure but it seemed that a small caravan was traveling in the direction of the village.

"Taichou," he said, turning to his captain. "There's something you should see."

Naruto put on a burst of speed and was soon at Haku's side with everyone following suit. The blonde shinobi frowned as he saw the caravan. As far as he knew, hardly any traders used them to get into the village. And usually, they were accompanied by one or two Sound-nins to make sure they weren't up to anything.

But before he took any sort of action, he'd have to be sure who exactly was stepping foot on Sound soil.

"Gaara," Naruto inclined his head towards his best friend.

The redhead nodded, sand and chakra already pooling in his palm. While Kidoumaru's spiders would be less conspicuous, they lacked the ability to transmit images to their master and images were what Naruto needed right now.

As soon as the Third Eye had finished forming, Tayuya began forming seals. A moment later and the Eye was no longer visible to the naked eye. The genjutsu Tayuya had performed wasn't the most complex one but it would stop Genins and lower Chuunins from detecting it. Any Jounin worth his salt would recognize a foreign chakra signature almost instantly though but it would take them a while to figure out where it was coming from.

Gaara closed his eyes and the Eye moved towards the unknown contingent.

"Four people on foot, all of them shinobi…," a frown marred the pensive boy's face. "From the Sand. Two Chuunin and two jounin," he reported.

Naruto's mirrored Gaara's frown. While the Sound and Sand were allies, it was rare for any of their shinobis to travel to the other's village, mostly because the Hidden Village of the Sound was exactly that, hidden. And Orochimaru hardly revealed the location of the village to anyone outside of it.

"Can you see inside the caravan?" he questioned.

The redhead boy shook his head. "There's a veil preventing me from seeing inside. The caravan itself is made of expensive wood rarely found in Sand, though. Whatever or whoever's inside must be important."

The Kitsune container nodded. "We can't confront them right now and accuse them of anything without risking a feud between the Sound and Sand," he said to his teammates. "For now, we'll head back to the village as fast as we can and inform nee-chan or tou-san. They might know what's going on."

Everyone nodded in understanding and once the Eye had returned to Gaara, they set off with a burst of speed towards the Sound.

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A/N: And so ends, chapter three. Sorry for the long wait but even the first month of school is torture now.

(1) Taichou means captain. Naruto doesn't let them call him –sama.

(2) Cheesy, I know, but I had to end that part somehow.

Next Chapter: Gaara's time in the Sound is up and the revelation of the person in the caravan.