I don't own Naruto.

Chapter seven.

The two shinobi stood quietly in front of Sarutobi Genouske , one with a huge grin on his face, the other with a smile. Their happy appearance made the Hokage sweat drop and turn to his papers with a blank look. Training had been very successful and now the blond could easily measure up to a chuunin.

But he was way to young to be part of a squad, even a genin-jounin one, something that troubled him deeply. Naruto would not stand to be kept at bay for a few years until he got a mission and it would be a waste of potential. But laws still existed and they forbidden the boy to become an active shinobi. Recently a group of people have been gaining more and more influence in the council, civilian merchants with a vendetta against Naruto. The could not do him any harm but would not allow him any special privilege. Only one solution was left.

"Naruto-kun, due to the Constitution of the Leaf, adopted by Nidaime-sama, no shinobi may take active duty before he reaches the age of twelve, which is four years from now for you. You can't be a ninja for now but there are a few posts that you can occupy for now. You can either join the ANBU as a special member or become part of the Core. As a core you will enforce order and peace in the border-town or occasionally go on diplomatic missions as an escort.So what is your decision?"

"THE HELL…I DON'T WANNA GUARD STUPID POLITICIANS OR BE STRANDED IN THE TOWN OF ' NOWHERE'. GIVE ME A REAL JOB SARU-NO-BAKA "

Sarutobi picked himself up from the floor and watched Sai do the same as Naruto held his ground glaring at him. He knew that was coming but could do little to prevent it. The blonde's voice volume was really high when angry and the Ne HQ had replaced several windows a week the last few years. When he was a baby, Naruto single-handedly kept all the Ne awake 24/7 and on high alert.

" Calm, down Naruto. It's mot that bad. There are many interesting things to be seen while…"

"I said NO! Give me a real mission! "

"There are none available for you now. Later on…"

"What about joining the Core and go fight in Water Country?"

"Absolutely not ! You are way too young to participate in a war! It's too dangerous!"

"I can handle it and there is no law against it. Let me go to Kiri!"

"Naruto-kun please reconsider! War changes people in more ways than one."

"Please Saru-kun- a vein bulged on the Hokage's fore-head at being continuously called Mr. Monkey by Naruto- !"

"Hmm…Okay then…but let's make a deal."

"A deal?" Naruto was confused.

"Yes. You can go to Kiri with the next shipment but after returning you have to join the ranks of the Independent as a … genin"

"A genin! You gotta be kidding me! That's more boring than the ' Town of Nowhere'. "

"Sorry, Naruto but that's the way it is. What if you return after…let's say four years…then you can be in the same team as… a certain Hyuuga Hinata."

"You've gone senile after all these years, you know that?! Why would I want to be a part of her team?"

"You don't want to?" now the Professor was surprised and at a loss. He had just played his last card and the strongest at that.

"It's not that I don't want to but I don't understand why you mentioned her."

" Okaaayyy….so why don't we get signed up then? Since you are new to this you won't get a platoon going straight to the front lines. And we haven't got any news about our status in Kiri for months so even arriving there would be a problem. Normally I wouldn't send you but given a few 'special circumstance' you are eligible for the Core. Ranking system works separately for both – that means that if you become a jounin in the Core you will still start off as a genin in the Independent and vice versa . You may go and rest now, tomorrow morning report to my office for the meeting of you platoon and departure plan."

"Hai" and with a fast pace he left the office with only dust behind him. Sai remained still the entire time, apparently full of joy but the elder Hokage knew what laid behind those empty eyes of the Ne agent. Always on duty, always ready to defend the village, existing underground and supporting the great tree that was Konoha… admirable and sad at the same time.

" Agent five. Present your report on Uzumaki Naruto's current condition and power level!"

"Hai! From what I've determined in the time spent with him he is strong willed, self-sacrificing and from a certain point on crazy."

"Please elaborate."

" At the beginning of our traning he was at the normal level of a child of his age. He maintained that state for about two weeks. After that he began to show incredible Taijutsu , Ninjustu and Senjutsu . The maneuvers and techniques he executed are very much jounin-level. The most impressive fact are his reflexes. I was informed he had no previous high level training."

"He has not and that bothers me indeed but please carry on."

" Since he seemed to be in a very good shape we accepted a number of missions of C and B rank, all finished remarkably. But during one of those mission we found ourselves surrounded by thugs in a small town in the north-western border line. We were in a bar and a under heavy fire of various ninjutsu or kunai. Uzumaki-san and I could not make contact with each other. At one point, after the explosion of a tag he stood up abandoning his shelter and charged the attackers. He defeated them all and left victoriously but for a while a certain gleam was in his eyes. My guess is that adrenaline took over him in that impossible situation ."

"Do you consider that a potential flaw in his personality that may eventually lead to jeopardizing the life of others ? now Genouske was really focused on the boy in front of him.

" No. Even tough there were some civilians In the areat none were injured and even more he employed teamwork to defeat some of the enemies. But the ferocity of the strikes is still imprinted in my mind."

"Would you consider it a liability in battle?"

"Not at all. It's more like a power boast."

"Any developments of project ' Snow' ?"

"up until now he could only use Hiraishin unconsciously and that hasn't changed at all. He has some sort of control of direction but none of distance. Yondaime-sama could have trained him better but I do not know much about the Flying Thunder God technique. He only has himself as a teacher."

"Finally what do you think about the Bijuu?"

" The Fox has not manifested itself too much and has not caused any incident. It supplies Uzumaki-san with spare chakra and heals his wounds but that's all."

" Mission is considered completed, agent. Danzou-san has given you two days off duty after which you will report directly to him for missions of any kind. Dismissed." In a blur of black ink Sai disappeared, leaving Genouske alonein the office. He took out his pipe, filled it with tobacco and lit it.

Next day. 5 a.m.

Naruto awoke back in his old room, only out of habit at that early hour. He took out his clothes, bright orange with blue and made a few push-ups just for the heck of it. Normally his training routines should have started late on but he needed a way to stretch his muscles. After washing his face and teeth he massaged his eyes along with the areas around them to adjust his eyesight properly. His gear, consisting of three kunai, ten shuriken and his tanto were quickly positioned in hidden pockets trougout his clothing, merging with the shape of his body.

After being completely satisfied about his appearance he exited the room and slowly moved to the cafeteria for breakfast, finding it rather empty, save for the cook and his two aides.

At precisely 7 a.m. he presented his special pass to the guard, who wished him a nice day.His mask was still on his face, contrasting with his clothes but he couldn't care less.

In the tower an ANBU guard directed him to a small field behind the building were the Professor and nine other men awaited for the last member.

" Welcome, Naruto, and let me introduce you to Platoon 35, third company, battalion 125, second Army corps. They will be your comrades for the next four years."

"Hi, I'm Kishimoto Masashi , sniper." A man with black hair, asian features and a smile on his face shook Naruto's hand.

" Homaru Satoshi, medic and poisoning expert."He wore a pair of googles on his eyes, yellow in color which matched his hair. He had a suit on him which seemed to be changing colors each time he molded chakra into it.

"Uchiha Senparo , demolition and explosives expert."

"Uchiha Kotaro, fire-expert."

" Uchiha Nanashi, fire expert as well as interrogation pro."all three Uchiha looked the same , being twins, only that Nanashi kept her hair longer and her features were more gentle than those of her brothers. They had standard uniforms of the Core on them, black-green and with the Uchiha symbol on their backs.

"Hyuuga Mizuro, reckon and sniper." Unlike Masashi, Mizuro had a patch of black cloth covering his left eye and his hair was full of orange shades, spikier than Naruto's.

"Hyuuga Hizashi, reckon and explosives as well as Taijustu."This time a man of high stature, with a strong voice stepped forward. He had whitish colored clothes, resembling a trench coat and black pants.

"Inuzuga Tsuro, reckon and Taijustu and this is my partener Shiromaru.- bark-" A feral teen ridding a huge white dog. He had black and blue clothes, again Core standard design.

" Nara Shikon, sergeant and tactics." Nothing particulary strange about this individual. Core clothes, black hair, black eyes and a bored look to match his appearance. If he hadn't just introduced himself Naruto wold have considered him a statue.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I don't have a specialization, I'm just proeficient with ninjustu, taijustu and tantojutsu. " He removed his mask showing his fox-like features. Some were surprised to see the jinchuuriki no a part of their squad but didn't show any sign of hatred or repugnance.

' As expected' The Third tought' All of them have seen or fought in the battle with the Kyuubi and saw the sacrifice of Minato-sama so they could be trusted to be Naruto's companions."Oh, Naruto-kun, don't forget the most important thing?"

"Huh? What's that Saru-kun?"

"Your konohanin mark, your future, your oath and creed. Uzumaki Naruto, by the authority I was invested as the Sandaime Hokage I now name you a shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato." He said as he took a blue cloth with a metal band on it and the symbol of a spiraling leaf encrusted in the middle…

Water Country. Military Camp of the Rebels. Higarashi port. Midday.

The war council had started three hours ago and still no decision had been made regarding the matter in discussion. The defeat they suffered had been a rather painful one as the morale had been crushed. None of them forgot the inferno at Kateshima.

"This is outrageous, Yukimaru-sama, we must counter-attack at once and capture the Center Lands. We have the men and the supplies. What are we waiting for?"

"Calm down Souske-kun," a deep voice emerged from the distant corner of the room. A man with long-black hair, onyx eyes and a deep green kimono stood calmly on his chair, observing his advisors. His features seemed almost feminine, or in the best case, those of a boy in his late teen although he was almost thirty-five. As he spoke the air in the room chilled considerably and the water from a glass nearby completely froze." Do not speak in anger or you risk saying stupidities. Put away your grudges or your rank."

The older man, dressed I the same fashion but with more accentuated features sat down in his chair. His eyes shifted their appearance for a second from black to bright red before returning to their usual color.

" Gentlemen, as I said before we are not able to counter attack due to the thousands of dead from Kateshima. The only strategy available now is the reconstruction of the army. More troops have been sent from Konoha and will arrive in a week or two. Until we have a solid base we are to be kept on defensive."

"With all due respect, Yukimaru-san, do you propose a guerilla war?" Itachi spoke" Are we to stand passively?"

"Yes. Does that bother you Uchiha-san?"

"My only concern is the ongoing of this campaign. We cannot use small attacks for the moment without dividing the army. It would leave our current territories unguarded and open to attacks. If they occupy the northern ports our supply line is destroyed. Our only option would be a defense line."

"Bringing our troops in the entrenches and await our death is not an easy thing to do.Are you prepared to camp your men in holes in the ground and keep their spirits up?"

" If my duty requires me to then yes. But the last thing we will accept is to be stranded and divided." The room was filled with noise from the other generals protesting, some in not so peaceful tones.

Twelve miles away from the campsite, thousands of men armed in the newest fashion slowly moved trough the dense woods filled with fog. You could count about five thousand. The sky was full of noise, a strange buzz-like sound produced by machines with red cloud symbols on them.

Rain Country. Council room.

Pein and a masked man went through a long list of hand seals before finishing in ram and shouting " Ninpou: Summoning technique" A huge statue appeared, emerging from the ground. It's head had nine eyes, all closed and it's hands seemed chained together. A third figure, a woman with blue hair and wearing the same cloaks as them appeared in a puff o smoke.

" The weekly speech was taken care of, Pein."

"Very well then." Then turning to the masked one" Sensei, our last preparations are done. We await your commands."

" For now instruct the members to keep a low profile and stay away from the main villages. Start gathering information about the nine as well as the most impressive techniques from each country. "

"As you wish. And what of Water?"

"Keep giving them weapons but the old models only. The petroleum's price for them will be doubled. They have no other source so they'll come around. I will go there myself for a while. The next time we meet will be in four years."and with that he disappeared.

"Transmit the instructions to all our agents. You can take a plane to Kumo if you want but keep it hidden."

"Have you finished the statue?"

"Yes. It was hard recomposing that ancient scroll and discovering the correct seals for it. Not even a Sharingan could have done a better job."

"How long then?"

"In a few years, Konan. Be patient. Nagato will be avenged and the world will finaly know our pain."

End.

Kinda lame, I think but I hope I can get myself back in shape for the next chapters. All until now has been just filler and prologue, the real arc starts next chapter.

Please review cause I believe you already read the story. Thanks!

Alexander R out!