AN: I do not own Naruto. Big surprise, right?


The shinobi council glared down at the grinning Naruto. The boy had put them all in a rather awkward spot. He had proven beyond any doubt that he was in fact a very skilled assassin, perhaps the best alive as there were precious few who could actually claim to have the skill to kill a Kage. However it also made the blond a security risk to the village as a whole, particularly due to the fact he had proven he could escape the village and go days before anyone realized he was gone.

That he had made fools out of three of them personally, and members of several of the others clans was also not helping their opinion of the blond. The only bright side to all of this was that Hiruzen refused to deal with the civilian council aggravating tensions by calling himself, and his shinobi, into question. So he had barred them from attending the meeting or being informed about recent events.

The Hokage finally had to admit to himself that his death glare no jutsu was still nonfunctional and with a sigh called the meeting to order.

"Naruto Uzumaki, you are here because you managed to kill my shadow clone, escape the village and make fools out of some of my best ninja in the process. While I realize at least some of these things are prerequisite to your winning the bet we had, the degree to which you have shattered the concept of village security is truly astounding. Therefor the entire incident requires investigation. You will explain the whats, whys, and hows of everything you did over the course of your assassination exam. Is. That. Clear?"

Naruto's goofy smile disappeared as the Hokage spoke and by the end he was sitting at attention, his face a blank mask.

"Hai Hokage-sama! Where would you like me to begin?"

"Start with a basic outline of your strategy."

"Yes sir, the first step in my plan was to get out of the village and leave several clones behind in my place, to attempt to assassinate your own clone."

"Why?" Shikaku Nara spoke up. "Why would you make escaping the village you first move?"

"Because that was my only chance of escaping." That response startled several members of the council. "I knew for a fact that once Hokage-sama's clone went down the village would send its best trackers after me." Naruto paused to gather his thoughts.

"I'm good at stealth, my tricks and seals make me great even, but I still leave a trail moving through the woods. I'm not fast enough to outrun jounin or hunter nin outright. So the only option was to not be chased down. That meant a decoy, but you likely would have simply split the party to follow multiple trails and still caught up with me. I could have flooded the forest with clones, but it would have left me too tired to make it to the border before someone caught up with me, and there was always the chance of someone getting lucky and chasing the real me. So I left the villages two days early, arrived at the border and waited for my clones to either succeed or fail. Failing to destroy Hokage-sama's clone would have been a failure, but in a real mission failing and getting caught would have been worse."

"Why paint the monument?" Surprisingly the question came from the Aburame clan head. Naruto simply shrugged.

"It was a strategy, not a good one for a real assassination, but it was the best choice for this drill. Painting the monument drew the Hokage out of his office and right into the area I hoped it would. My kill zone. I had another clone camouflaged as a dying bush waiting on the outcropping the trackers found ready to take the shot. So long as no one else was in the line of fire, when and if the Hokage arrived. Not only that but it pissed everyone off and gave them a target to chase. That split the witnesses between spreading the word, getting aid if I hadn't nailed the heart, and hunting me down. All that bought me time and gave people the impression that they were dealing with the real me. That the drill called for my peaceful capture just let me delay things even more, which gave the clone who took the shot more time to run. With all of that, it really sold the idea that the second clone was the real me."

"A diversion, all one big fucking diversion!" Tsume cursed, feeling well and truly annoyed with the blond. Her frustration grew as she noticed a few of the other clan heads fighting the urge to laugh.

"Enough." The Hokage's chill voice instantly killed the slight amusement in the meeting room. "How did you destroy the clone?"

Naruto slowly rolled up the sleeve on his right arm exposing the sealing tattoo he had gotten when he was twelve. A quick burst of chakra and Naruto's rifle was in his hands. The weapon was around four feet in length, with a green stock. The rifle was tightly wrapped in forest camo tape inscribed with seals. Between the gaps more seals could be seen winding up and down the length of the weapon.

"This is the weapon I used to destroy your clone. It's one of several kinds of guns Higurashi-ojisan and I have been developing for the last eight years."

Naruto's explanation was met by a number of blank looks. With a sigh the teen launched into an explanation.

"You were all there when Higurashi-ojisan demonstrated his earliest model weren't you? A gun is a weapon that uses an explosion to launch a small piece of metal at high speeds. The early ones used gunpowder, but then I started to use sealing to replace the need for it with a heavily modified explosive seal. With all the experiments we do it really helped to cut costs. The larger tube at the front gets rid of the flash and smoke caused by the explosive seal. It's one of the trickier bits of sealing. This tube mounted on top is the scope, it's an adjustable telescope, and is the reason I can hit such far away targets."

Naruto deftly fingered a release mechanism on the guns' underside causing a small block of metal covered in seals to fall from the base of the gun which he then held up.

"This is an ammo clip; it stores several bullets for the rifle. When the previous bullet has been fired I pull back on this bolt," Naruto pointed to a small handle on the guns' right side. "which completes a release seal half inscribed on the clip dispensing the next bullet into the firing chamber."

Naruto reinserted the ammo clip and sealed the gun before pulling out a small pointed piece of lead. "This kind of gun shoots these, Higurashi-ojisan and I have been calling them sharps because they come to a bit of a point compared to the ones used for the smaller guns. This is the best long range gun we have developed so far, it is accurate at up to 800 meters."

Despite knowing the blond had taken his shot from roughly 700 meters away, finding out he could have taken the shot from even further out stunned many members of the council. Seeing this, the blond decided he had earned a tiny bit of gloating.

"I like to think of myself as 'the sharp shooter'." The blonde said with a cheeky grin. "I know you normally don't get a title unless you really impress the people who write the bingo books, but I figure I've earned the right to give myself one." His smug look and tone of voice quickly brought the assembled clan head and the Hokage out of thoughts on the potential for such weapons.

Hiashi Hyuuga while impressed with the boys accomplishments was in no way happy with them either. He had heard nothing but complaints and calls for the boys head for the past three days from the elders of his clan once word spread that the boy had a way to hide from the byakugan. Information he himself was greatly troubled by.

"How did your clone hide from the trackers?" The Hyuuga said while glaring down at the boy. While Naruto noticed the glare he didn't particularly care, it wasn't particularly more intimidating than any other glare he had received over the course of his life.

"Basic seal I learned at the academy to cover my scent and a very heavily modified chakra suppression seal combined with my ghillie suit to hide in the forest. Those same seals are also on the tape I wrapped my gun in so that the slight chakra surge firing causes doesn't draw the attention of any sensor nin."

Before Hiashi could begin grilling Naruto about the seal he was interrupted.

"Ghillie suit?" Asked the clearly confused Akimichi clan head.

Naruto quickly pulled out a storage scroll and unsealed a pair of what seemed to be piles of grass, one green and the other a sickly tan.

"They're great camouflage, especially when I lie down to help stabilize the gun for long distance shots. With the seals to hide my scent and the ones that hide my chakra from sensors they make me almost invisible. I can use them to slip through any area with a lot of vegetation, at least so long as I don't have to move quickly, and even then they are still great camouflage."

"Hokage-sama, I must protest these seals the boy is using." Hiashi Hyuuga spoke. "They are clearly a threat to village security. The use of such seals by our enemies would invalidate the Hyuuga fighting style."

"You're joking right?" Everyone turned to stare at the blond.

"I tell you I've got a way to let our ninja slip into enemy hidden villages as if they were civilians, something that will let assassins freely go after targets guarded by sensor nin and then escape pursuit, and you you're worried about not being able to hit my tenketsu? You should still be able to see my physical body, even if you have to turn off your eyes to do it, which you shouldn't. It's not like anything stopping you from using your style to destroy my brain or my heart. After all I can hit those targets at 800 meters, you're clan ought to be able to do it at arm's length."

Naruto grinned foxily, while Hiashi fumed in his seat and several clan heads grinned at the boy's spunk and strategy. By negating the Hyuuga's argument and simultaneously making a challenge out of it pressing the issue would make him, and or his clan, appear weak. Naruto knew this, but rather than piss of Hinata's father further he decided it would be in his best interest to diffuse the tension and appeal to the man's ego.

"Besides Hyuuga-san, your clan would make excellent spotters or sharp shooters, would you want to deprive them of such a useful tool?"

Hiashi blinked at the shift of tone and tactic before raising a single eyebrow. "I know you referred to yourself as a 'sharp shooter' but what exactly is a spotter?"

"Well the scope on my gun limits what I can see, so a spotter's job is to keep an eye on all possible targets and call out the order in which they are eliminated. The Byakugan is uniquely suited for this especially because it allows your clansmen to see through tents and walls giving them the best possible understanding of the targets and area, if they are working within range of the byakugan. The secondary job of the spotter is to help the shooter take out groups of targets simultaneously so as not to blow cover, and to act as backup in general. Your daughter, Hinata, actually helped me test the tactic and is an excellent spotter. Also her aim is almost as good as mine."

Now Hiashi was truly surprised. Apparently his daughter had been very busy in her free time. Not only that, but his clan was being singled out as ideal for this kind of work because of her. It ran against tradition, but the potential of the guns was a truly interesting possibility.

"You say you've tested this tactic?" Shikaku spoke up. "How is it that you managed that?"

"Shadow clones henged as bandits who set up small camps in a training field that I have to pick off. Almost never managed it solo, but add in a good spotter with their own weapon for when it's needed and things become a lot simpler."

"You seemed to handle this test just fine on your own." Hiruzen grumbled.

"Well in this instance there was only one target." Naruto replied with a shrug. "So I didn't have to worry about not blowing my cover since I knew it would be blown no matter what I did, which again, is why I had the double diversion."

"What kind of training, or prerequisites, does learning this skill require?" The Hokage asked. "Given how effective you proved to be on your own it would be worthwhile to develop a team trained in this." The man took a moment to stroke his beard. "Though I can already see a need for cross training in mid and close quarters else we risk you being slaughtered in an ambush."

Naruto nodded seriously.

"We'd be most useful providing long distance support for assault teams, and running assassinations, but in this line of work overspecialization is a death sentence. Not to mention if we get rushed by a large force things may get dicey. I can nail targets that are just walking but a target moving at jounin speeds, is a lot harder to hit. Might be easier without the scope… maybe I should put some iron sights below the scope… but I'd have to remove the flash suppressor to use them which would take time... I could take that off beforehand sometimes I guess but still-"

A cough drew the blond out of his thoughts.

"Sorry! Umm, close up I'm not much at taijutsu, but my knife fighting is fairly good. I've got a few wind jutsu, and the shadow clone mastered as well, also a smaller gun better suited for close combat. My mid and short range needs work, but they're not too bad."

With a sigh the Hokage rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Naruto you've forgotten my question." The boy tilted his head confused. "What traits would make for a good sharpshooter or spotter?"

"Ohh, right, sorry." Naruto scratched the back of his head nervously. "Well like I said a Hyuuga with a good range makes for an ideal spotter. I understand that the sharingan increases reaction times, making things appear to be in slow motion? If that holds true than a sharingan user would have a great edge as a sharpshooter. Ignoring the unfair advantages of dojutsu though… being able to approximate distance and wind speed, and being able to do fairly complex calculations on the fly, ideally in your head are the required skills. Oh and stealth, can't forget that."

The council fell into silence.

"And you feel the best strategy is for teams to consist of a sniper and spotter, so a four man cell would contain two of each?" The Hokage asked. Naruto adopted a contemplative look.

"To be perfectly honest Hokage-sama, I really don't know. I've been making this up as I go, mostly on my own except for help from Hinata, and Higurashi-ojisan. Maybe two spotter sniper pairs would be best, or maybe three snipers and one spotter would be best. Maybe have four snipers working in sink. Or a sniper spotter team providing over watch for two stealth experts." The blond shook his head. "Most likely we'll find that certain combinations and tactics work best for different situations. If you really want to form this sort of team... odds are we'll be testing out different tactics for quite some time before we can put together a solid SOP."

From there the meeting dissolved into a roving debate as several clan head started to make cases as to why their children would be best suited for the first team of Konoha sharp shooters, and how that squad could be best used in various scenarios. While this kind of squabbling normally would have annoyed Naruto to no end, today it simply had him grinning from ear to ear. His and Higurashi-san's dream of making the gun a powerful and respected shinobi weapon was well on its way to fruition, as was his dream to become the world's greatest assassin.


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