The Harsh Truth

by Shadenight123

There are truths and lies scattered in the shadows of the leaf. Conspiracies and secret meetings, decisions and backstabbings. The plot twists until the point where there is no ally, and no enemy. Only yourself, and your trust. Face the harsh truth: in the midst of the shinobi world, nothing is what it seems. Naruto is born five years prior to canon, and from there...!NidaimeNaruto

10. PC:Preparations

Chapter tenth

It was five in the morning, and Ayame was sulking. The day was probably going to be sunny, with little to no clouds and a clear blue sky. Still, the ramen stand girl was clearly not in a good mood, as anyone could see by her scowl, showing it to the world as bright as the sun that would soon rise above their heads.

"She told me he'd be sleeping it off," she muttered to herself, chopping off an onion, "he'd be asleep for hours…woke up minutes later," she added, slicing a carrot with a bit of excessive zeal, leaving marks on the wood.

"Ayame," her father called, making the brown haired girl turn around, with a perplexed look, "You cut too much vegetables," he pointed out, gesturing to the small pile of chopped and minced greens that stood right next to her wooden tablet.

"Oh," was all the girl said, "More vegetable broth for the day then," she replied with a snap.

"I suppose," Teuchi replied with a small sigh, before turning his gaze to the flap of his stand that had opened, to reveal a well-known customer.

"Ohayo! Teuchi-san, Ayame-chan, how are you doing?" Naruto Senju moved to his usual seat with a small smile, as the man behind the counter gave back his patented grin.

"Everything's fine Naruto-kun, so you made it to chuunin now, huh? Only eleven years old and already a chuunin, congratulations are in order!"

"Naruto-kun! I watched you fight in the arena, you were really, really, like really a lot strong!" Ayame pointed out, sparkle in her eyes, her sour mood forgotten, "Can you sign me an autograph?" she added, with a hopeful gaze.

"Sure," Naruto replied with a smile, "You aren't even the first to actually ask one: Neji came over with, like, more than four-hundred white papers claiming he had friends," letting the last word hint to something else, "who wanted them too…"

"Did you really sign all of them?" Ayame asked, perplexed.

"Suiton affinity saved the day: I controlled the watered down ink on the papers, so all I needed was a single stack, and then I let it seep through the pages," Naruto said, as he then turned to Teuchi, "I'll have only one Pork ramen, and also a vegetable ramen to takeaway."

"Bringing food to Mitarashi-san?" Teuchi asked, in a soft voice.

"Yes, she's cheery alright with her job, but I'm sure she likes seeing me while I go for *the walk*," Naruto replied.

Ayame giggled softly, before adding just a pinch of extra pepper into Mitarashi's vegetable ramen order.

She knew that the purple-haired kunoichi didn't like spicy things, but the ramen stall girl was too good to do anything really wicked. She was just slightly jealous that the boy, her age, clearly seemed to be fawning over the older girl.

He said he liked her sea ramen, and yet he nearly never ordered it!

"So, tell me everything about your class: the first day started well?" Teuchi asked, curiously.

At those words, Naruto couldn't help but outright laugh.

*Flashback-Two Days prior*

Naruto looked at Iruka Umino, the chuunin-sensei he had learned under for no more than a year, and twitched slightly.

The chuunin with the scar-sign on the face couldn't help but try an awry smile.

"It was just a suggestion, Naruto-kun," he pointed out, "You know, it would help easing the students," he added.

"No. I will not transform into an adult, female," stressing the last part, as Iruka turned slightly red, he had just suggested that female teachers were easier to get used to, "version of myself only because you are worried the kids will revolt upon seeing me. They're kids: they'll learn…they are here to learn."

"Mizuki was meant to be the assistant sensei of this class, but he was assigned elsewhere, so I must warn you to be careful, there are many clan's heirs in this class: favoritism could be…" as Iruka tried to convince the boy, the grey-haired Naruto simply opened the door of the classroom and walked in without hesitation.

The class descended into silence. A corner of the class held a really bright red neon lamp, who was wearing a light white jacket and had dark blue hair, more crossing the black.

A lot of eyes settled themselves on him, on the boy that would have seemed more apt at being an upperclassman, than their sensei.

Yet he was wearing a flak jacket, blue dyed, with the Senju symbol on the front, and on the back also, sued with a light white silk thread. He had long dark blue trousers, and his leaf forehead protector stood tied to his right arm.

Naruto quickly scanned the room, looking at all the shocked faces of the Genins that were there, before smirking slightly.

"Those who watched the chuunin exams: raise your hand now," he asked, slowly, as the kids in the class, all in a range of six or seven years old, hesitantly did so, while Iruka, entering, moved to one of the two desks in front of the chalkboards, the bigger one of the two.

"Good, so you know who I am, and there's no need for presentations, but I'll do it never the less," Naruto took a small breath, before exclaiming out loud, "Listen up! My name is Naruto Senju, chuunin sensei assistant of Iruka Umino, your classroom teacher! Yes, I am eleven years old, Yes I am strong and Yes I can give you remarks, punishments and extra homework if I want to, so treat me like you treat any normal teacher, and you'll live!" as he said the last part, with a chuckle, he then moved to his desk, the smaller of the two, and sat down.

The boys and the girls in the class stood slightly shivering, in silence, as Naruto turned with a small smile to Iruka, who was looking at him with slightly narrowed eyes.

"See? Told you they wouldn't revolt," the grey haired boy replied with a small shrug, as the older Chuunin sighed, before standing up.

"I am Iruka Umino, your chuunin sensei. Together with Naruto Senju here we will help you become shinobis and kunoichis of the leaf, I hope that, by the end of the six years we will spend together, you will have grown up into mature and…" the next moment, a loud yell echoed in the classroom.

"That's Boring! Aniki! When do we get Taijutsu practice!?" obviously, Inuzuka Kiba *was* in the classroom. First day of school, small white dog on his head, ruffled and dirt brown jacket, sitting in the furthest away rows.

Naruto Senju looked to a slightly steaming Iruka Umino, before sighing, and standing up.

"Kiba-kun…" and then, after a brief second, his tone became extremely stern and strict, as a barrage of words soon ended up on the poor Inuzuka boy, "You will address Iruka-san as Umino-sensei or Iruka-sensei! I'm Senju-sensei or Naruto-sensei in this class and you damn well better remember it! So get your damn mouth shut, get your ass back on the chair, and if I see you snoring for more than a second or making pranks, I'll grab you by the ear and get your mother right here!" and with that, he crossed his arms, "And I'm baby-sitting you this Friday, so no keeping the whiney look on."

The effect was instantaneous. Kiba slowly sunk back into his chair, defeated. A probable troublemaker immediately rooted out.

"…" Iruka's mouth was opened in a slight *O* shape, as Naruto, raising a puzzled eyebrow, looked over his notes for a moment.

"What? Iruka-san, you said this was how to deal with the potential situation…" at that, Iruka's mouth snapped shut, as the elder chuunin nodded.

"Good…I wanted to show you how a lesson is done…but why don't you go ahead and do the first day?" The question was actually rhetoric, because Naruto simply nodded, and then, sitting down, looked at the classroom.

"First day of school: roll call to begin with, notice that, technically, if I haven't called your name thrice and you manage to get in here before I do, you will not be marked as late," he pointed out, and suddenly a hand raised up to ask a question.

"Yes?" Naruto queried, looking at the boy that seemed to have raven hair tied in a pine-apple sort of way.

"How much time do you estimate you will need to reach the Nara surname and call the name Shikamaru Nara three times?" the boy, probably Shikamaru Nara himself, asked.

Naruto, to his cue, looked at his registry with the names of the students, made a quick mental calculation, and the stated.

"For today, I'd say five minutes and thirty-seven seconds, but interruptions, people missing before you thus forcing me to repeat their names, and various different things may increase the variable of the circumstance time to about seven to eight minutes," as he pointed that out, Shikamaru sighed.

"Troublesome."

"You could come in an average of five minutes later, but that wouldn't do for tests and exams…and your mother is bound to notice," at that, Shikamaru flinched, slightly.

"Ani…Senju-sensei! Did you babysit him too!?" Kiba asked, curiously, as he could see the Nara boy straighten up.

"Once, he was pretty much well behaved: you just had to plop him on a chair near a window, and he'd stare at the clouds for hours, easiest D-rank mission *ever* done," Naruto replied with a chuckle, as he could see the Nara sport a slight embarrassment.

"Are you the Naruto Senju? The one of the fixer's team?" a girl with long blond hair asked, looking at him with dreamy blue eyes.

"Yamanaka Ino, right? I recall a weeding mission in your family's greenhouse, and…" he moved his gaze to the pink-haired girl next to Inoichi's daughter, "Haruno Sakura, yup, the two of you made Itachi mad, always running on his piles of leaves," he chuckled recalling just how the two *had* made Itachi think of turning on the sharingan only to subdue them.

The pink haired girl blushed slightly, fidgeting with her hair with one finger, as a boy, a raven haired boy on the other side of the classroom scoffed.

"Oniisan wouldn't get mad over that, and he's in Anbu now, not like you, Senju," Sasuke snorted, locking his gaze with that of Naruto, who, instead, smiled, with a kind smile, followed by a chuckle, and then a reply.

"They gave me the same deal, Sasuke-kun, I refused the offer," Naruto replied, shrugging, "No need getting paid to draw more blood than what a ninja already does," he added.

"Anbus are the elites among the elites! They protect the village from the shadows!" Sasuke replied, "It just means that Itachi is stronger than you!" he added, and before Iruka could intervene, Naruto had already replied.

"Yes, I know Itachi is stronger than me…and so?" Naruto asked, looking at the small boy, "In Taijutsu, he always wins during spars, in Jutsus, he has a wide repertoire, far more than mine, in Genjutsus, he'll probably pass me soon, in Kenjutsu, he's clearly ahead me, in Fuinjutsu I'm the leader, but only because he never picked it up, but then again…what does it prove? We are fellow shinobis of the leaf, his strength is my strength, and my strength is his. There is no such thing as a fellow leaf ninja stronger than another, their strength is added together to show the strength of the village," as he explained, he realized that the entire class was watching him speak, silent like no kid their age should be. He was just a good talker, he supposed.

"And, anyway," finishing it with a childish tone, "We ended up with a draw at the Chuunin tournament."

"Are you really my brother?" that question suddenly brought the atmosphere of the class, silent, but a kind of cheerful silence, to a drop-dead silence of minus twenty degrees.

The question had been asked by a girl, with bright blue eyes and long red hair, tied together into a single pony tail, and that sported an orange jacket, an orange shirt, and an orange skirt, all with red interlinings.

"No," Naruto replied, he had prepared for this moment, since having read the class register and who he'd be in class with, "I am not."

"But…" the girl tried to reply anything, but the grey-haired boy simply looked at her with a sort of small smile.

"My name is Naruto Senju, Katsumi-chan, I am in no way related to the Namikaze clan, thus there is no way I could be your brother," he added, as Iruka, receiving the small tapping motion on the desk from Naruto, the sign that he wanted him to butt in, as they had decided on that secret motion before, exclaimed.

"Well! Anyway let's start the roll call Naruto-san!" and with that, the names were all laid down, until, once more, Naruto reached the name of the girl.

"Namikaze Katsumi," and no reply came. Raising his eyes, to stare at the red-haired girl, who was looking straight back at him with a sort of angry pout, he sighed, ticking the presence never the less.

"Nara…"

"I didn't say I was present!" Katsumi snapped at Naruto, who looked back up at the red-haired girl.

"But you are present," Naruto replied.

"But the laws says I'm not!" the red-haired girl yelled back. Why did she have to yell? Couldn't she just talk?

"Laws?" Iruka raised a puzzled eyebrow.

"He said we need to call in present before he says our name three times, I didn't reply!" Katsumi exclaimed.

"But you are present, Katsumi-chan," Iruka pointed out.

"So? He's not my brother because of some law, so I'm not present because of some law too, right?" and with that, Naruto simply stood very still for a second, as silence entombed the classroom.

Then Naruto's shoulders began moving up and down, shaking, and then a howl of laughter escaped his lips.

"That was pure genius!" he laughed out hard, holding a hand in front of his mouth, "Oh Kami be damned that was pure genius," he chuckled, shaking his head.

"I think you broke him," Kiba muttered to Katsumi, looking at Naruto laughing like that.

"Well then, fine. By laws I am not your brother, by facts I am," Naruto replied, looking at the red-haired girl who nodded to herself.

"Now, on with the…"

"Present," Nara Shikamaru, sleeping as soundly as possible, had sleep-raised his hand after an allotted time had passed.

"Notify Yoshino Nara please," Naruto had barely said that, that Shikamaru himself stood right up, looking utterly shocked.

"Fine," and a set of *troublesome* later, Shikamaru remained awake for the entirety of the lesson.

*Present*

"Well, you handled it with class," Teuchi pointed out, before realizing the horrible pun he had just let out of his mouth, "I mean…well, yes."

Naruto chuckled slightly, "You should know what happened the next day."

*The next day of school*

Naruto looked at the classroom, and then at Iruka. Iruka looked at Naruto, and then at the classroom.

There were a bunch of girls, of six years old girls, wearing dark blue and light blue clothes, with the Senju symbol stitched on them.

"I should be flattered?" Naruto whispered to the Chuunin sensei, "I mean…you didn't cover what to do in case a teacher becomes the subject of a fan club's attention," as he pointed that out, Iruka's face darkened slightly.

"Because it was deemed an impossible feat: no student loves his teacher this openly," the man replied, "truly unpredictable huh? Well…no robbing cradles, I'd keep an eye out, you know, jealous fathers."

"I suppose so," Naruto sighed, scratching the back of his head, "Anyway, if this is…" the door then opened once more, to reveal the Hokage, entering the room.

This was customary too, so Naruto knew to expect it. The first day of academy was to break the ice, speak with the teachers and speak with other students. The second day was the Hokage going from class to class to express his vivid interest in the new future *promises* of Konoha, of which at least a good two-third would be sent back to the academy in the *repeaters* course...but the kids didn't need to know that.

Still, it didn't mean the grey-haired boy couldn't slightly tense, as the Hokage removed his hat, to let his spiky blond hair become freely visible to the classroom.

"Hokage-sama," Iruka said, making a slight bow of the head, followed silently by Naruto, "we were just about to begin the roll call," he added.

"Good, then I suppose I could wait till you're done, before giving off the speech, right?" as Minato spoke with a joke like tone, Naruto's eyes didn't falter, as he picked up the register, beginning the tedious process of calling out names.

As soon as the roll call was out of the way, Naruto's eyes turned to Iruka, who nodded, before speaking to the Hokage.

"They're all yours, Hokage-sama," as Iruka said that, Minato nodded, before giving a wide smile to the class.

"The fire's shadow illuminates the village, Hi no kage wa sato o terasu: as ninjas, or as students who wish to become strong shinobis and kunoichis, know that many times, you will have to sacrifice something, in order to protect the village. Many times, a ninja's deeds go unnoticed, unknown, left to rot in silence, because the village demands it, because it is required, because if it is for the good of many, then few need to be sacrificed…but the most important thing for a shinobi is teamwork! The most important thing are the bonds that you will knit tightly together, one with another, the bonds of friendship and of being teammates, that will guide you through the most perilous journeys. You may be afraid of the future, you may be afraid of not being apt at the shinobi's way, but never falter on the belief that your friends, your bonds, are there for you." As he quieted down for a second, to let the words sink in, he slowly exhaled, before adding, with a small smile.

"The second Hokage of Konoha, Tobirama Senju, said once to his student, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, Guide the people, and believe in them, for it's from among them that one will come who will carry on when your time is done, this academy is his testament to the world of shinobis, that the young minds may grow up strong and loyal, and just like you are now sitting on your desks, looking at me, so once I was in your place, listening to the Third Hokage giving off a very similar speech, To me, Konoha isn't just an organization. Every year there are a lot of ninja born and raised in Konoha… They live and fight to protect this village. To defend what is precious to them they would go to their death. Even if we are not related by blood, those of the village like these are, to me, my most precious, most important… family" the fourth Hokage repeated word by word the speech of the third, just like he had heard it, years before.

"Bonds are what make people strong, friends are what make shinobi rise and teammates are what bring missions to success. Never forget the will of fire: love is the key to peace."

The classroom remained silent for a while, before the Yondaime Hokage suddenly looked uneasy.

"Did I lay it down too thickly?" he whispered, looking at the two senseis, as Naruto, with a sigh, muttered.

"What the Yondaime Hokage is trying to say is to value friendship, that's all," there was a sort of chorus of relief following that, as Naruto's gaze turned slightly cold, while Minato moved closer to him, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.

"Well, I should have gone with a less formal speech: they are six years old only," he muttered with a sigh.

"The speech was beautiful Hokage-sama, albeit maybe it would appeal better to the elder classes?" Iruka suggested, as Minato nodded.

"Yeah, I'll probably repeat it to the graduation class," and just as he was about to turn and leave, he gave a small hand-wave to Katsumi, who didn't return it however, instead choosing to…sulk? Naruto wasn't going to pry.

Just as the Hokage left, someone raised his hand.

"Yes, Shino-kun?" Iruka queried, as the boy, covered in a deep coat, queried.

"Are animal companions included?"

"Yes, they are," the elder chuunin replied.

"Kikaichu have a lifespan of only a few hours, should I feel sorry for all those who die in the span of a day?" Shino questioned once more.

"They're just insects!" Kiba exclaimed, "It's not like they're…"

"Kiba!" Naruto snapped, making the boy wince, "if dogs had a lifespan of a few hours, would you still think that way?" at the question, Kiba's eyes bulged, before his gaze lowered.

"Answering your question, Shino-kun," Naruto added, turning to look at the boy, who had a small pair of shades on, "You shouldn't feel either sorrow or contempt: Kikaichu, from what your father told me once, are offered the Aburame's newborn's bodies to use as nests, in exchange for their loyalty. It is a symbiotic relationship. Honor them by staying alive, but don't feel sorrow: they chose it." Shino merely nodded, as Naruto mentally sighed…obviously the mature philosophical questions wouldn't end there, he was sure of it.

*Present*

"The vegetable ramen is ready, Naruto-kun," Ayame pointed out, handing over the bowl, closed with a paper cover, to avoid the contents spilling, together with a pair of chopstick, all within a paper bag.

Just in time for Naruto to finish his own food, pay, and wave goodbye, as he headed off to deliver the morning breakfast.

Anko knew of the boy's actions, and seemingly didn't care. It was a recurring joke: since he now had a larger income, then he was meant to treat her to breakfast until she made it to Chuunin too, and then she would treat him to dangos for the same period afterwards.

The result was that every damn morning Anko woke up, brushed her teeth, and moved to go to her morning work at the T&I apprenticeship, she crossed roads with Naruto, holding a ramen takeout.

"Vegetable ramen," Naruto pointed out, as Anko grabbed the takeaway bag.

"Did Ayame prepare it?" the purple-haired kunoichi queried.

"That she did, are you two getting along?" to Naruto, it seemed the two girls had grown a nice friendship, which wouldn't be bad, considering that Anko needed friends to rely on, not many, but good ones. Ayame was a good friend, to the boy's mind.

"Oh, yes, did she understand not to put chili in my sea ramen?" as Anko asked the question with a small smile, Naruto nodded.

"She's still learning, cut her some slack, and it's not like *some* spicy would hurt you," pointing that out, the grey-haired boy looked at the sky, "And I've got to get going, C-rank solo, long-term, escorting mission, you know," and with a wink, he dashed off.

"Yeah, the pwetty white eyed girly," Anko muttered to herself, as she, instead, headed towards the torture and interrogation bureau, deep within the bowels of Konoha's intelligence department. She'd drop off the ramen to the guy at the reception: Naruto could be many things, but perceptive on females? Not a bit.

The grey-haired Senju, having dashed off, to be on time, arrived at the gates of the Hyuga's compound just to be greeted by the branch family guards that stood guard at the entrance.

"Senju-sama, I'm afraid Hinata-sama has yet to arrive," the guard, Ko, had been Hinata's caretaker, and still was, within the walls of the compound, but outside, it was Naruto's job to make sure the clan's heir reached destination safely.

"Ko-san…please, call me Naruto, I hate formalities," the boy replied, "and is Neji still here?"

"Neji-kun departed earlier this morning, Naruto-sama," Ko replied with a light sorrow visible in his face.

"Supposed so, he probably thinks I abandoned him," Naruto sighed, "Well, anyway, when you see him, could you tell him I'll be waiting for him tonight at training ground three? When he gets there he gets there, I'll wait, even if it means for poor old me to catch a cold," the boy joked, as the branch guard nodded.

"I will relay the message," and then he simply stiffened, standing silent, as after a couple of minutes Hiashi arrived, with Hinata walking right next to him, trying her best to keep her gaze steady and determined…as much as a scrawny six years old could be determined.

"I had heard of your desire to teach, but I would never have expected such coincidence," Hiashi spoke quietly, "should any problem arise with my eldest daughter, do come and speak with me in earnest, Naruto-san," as soon as he finished saying that, he crossed both his arms around his chest, giving the subtle signal to Hinata to actually move over, next to Naruto, and grab his offered hand.

"Do not worry, Hiashi-san, I'll heed your words," the boy replied, before courteously bowing his head slightly, and then turning to leave, walking at a slow pace, to let the young Hyuga keep her step.

Just as they finally disappeared from the Hyuga's compound sight, Naruto let out a loud sigh.

"Your father's scary," he said with a joking tone.

"H-He's only rea-really strict, sen-sensei," Hinata stuttered, her face completely red from holding the hand of her bodyguard, of her class sensei. Still, this had been better than the first time he had come over to guard her on the way to school.

He still chuckled recalling how the poor girl had fainted repeatedly, along the road, and once in the classroom, had turned to a sort of bright red neon lamp at him coming in from the door, as her sensei.

"He remains scary, Hinata-chan," Naruto replied, "Anyway, have you done this week's assignments already?"

"H-Hai sensei," Hinata replied, sheepishly turning a light red shade.

"Good, don't let Kiba copy them unless he begs you on his knees, got it?" as Naruto replied that, knowing all too well that, even in the first week, the Inuzuka wouldn't actually do his homework, Hinata nodded meekly once more.

"And if Ino-chan or Sakura-chan try racketing you into joining my fan club, please warn me," there was no need to warn her sensei: she already *was* in his fan club, since having heard of it, months before the start of the academy.

"H-Hai, sensei," she whispered, as the gates of the academy came into view. Once within, she let go of Naruto's hand, while the grey-haired boy himself waved at the girl, who would enter the classroom first, while he had to go to the chuunin lounge, to get the assignments for the morning and his morning coffee.

Kami bless the inventor of the coffee machine, because, while Shizune was a great cook and Tsunade a great mother, both refused flat-out to grant him the nectar of the gods, claiming it wasn't good for his growth.

Coffee was the principal source of Naruto's survival in the harsh world known as the schooling system, at least, the boy was sure of it, since after the first sip, he had been ready to challenge anything and anyone.

In the chuunin lounge, he was greeted by Mizuki, who was just finishing his own paper cup of warm coffee.

"Naruto-san," Mizuki greeted the boy using the *san* suffix, like anyone else around him. Since becoming a chuunin there was no longer a –kun, after all, he would probably lead, were the situation to arise, Genins to their death in battle: respect was to be given where respect was ought.

"Mizuki-san," Naruto replied, moving with the likes of a prowling cat to the coffee machine, "How's your class doing?" number one small-talk question among teachers, but for Naruto, it was personal.

"Well," Mizuki actually knew who the boy would be interested in, so there was no need to beat around the bush, "from the preliminary tests, I'd say your apprentice," with a small chuckle, making Naruto wince slightly, "is going to be at the top of the class, what about yours?"

"If I can manage to convince the girls that I'm not going to play marriage with any of them, then all is fine…the Yamanaka seems to be the principal culprit: I just hope it doesn't spread," just as he pointed that out, Mizuki winced slightly.

"You remember that move of throwing kunais straight out of scrolls, in the arena?" He asked, tentatively.

"Yes, why?" Naruto cringed momentarily within himself.

"One of my class, Tenten, hasn't stopped speaking about how cool that move was…and she's started dressing in blue," at that revelation, Naruto lifted his hands in the air.

"I give up! Let the fan club expand, there has to be someone who hates me somewhere!" he muttered.

"Well, I'm sure some of the villagers still hate you, but most are too impressed with your display of skills, your clan and your natural goodwill to say anything," Mizuki joked, "And you don't look like a towering nine tailed fox, so…"

"Thank Kami, or they'd make a plush version of it," it was at that moment, that Naruto realized something important.

He was joking about his status as a Jinchuuriki. He was a chuunin, he had the respect of the people who knew his skills, he had a fan club and he had a family…he felt…good? Cozy? Warm? Since when did he pass from running for his life from an angry mob to being the center of attention of the new generations? It was…nice.

Now, if only he could manage to convince his favorite and only pupil to stop avoiding him, everything would be even better.

True to his word, at the end of the lesson, and after escorting Hinata back to the mansion, he headed to the Chuunin training grounds.

The Chuunin training grounds were located in a different part of Konoha, and, since Chuunins were expected to know at least one elemental affinity, all had various utensils, and objects, to help training in the respective release jutsus. The Suiton users had a training camp with small ponds and lakes, the Doton users had a rocky slope, the Katon users had bonfires littering their allotted area, the Raiton users stayed near lighting rods on the top of high wooden towers and finally the Fuuton users had windy grasslands. All in all, they were wider, had fewer people in them, and usually more quiet, as the Chuunins were generally considered to be more serious working than the bunch of rag tag Genins.

Naruto carefully walked at the center of a puddle of water, letting chakra exit his feet to keep himself afloat, and then, crossing his legs, he sat down on the clear liquid.

He kept himself silent, and serious, letting the water's gentle gurgles and small waves, due to the wind, become one with his thoughts, as he took in, in silence, the position of those near him. This was the technique the second Hokage had mastered, and that granted him knowledge of enemies by simply touching the ground with his fingers. Truth be told, it was a water sensing technique, that Suiton users normally used to find water sources, deep underground. The key point was that the human body was covered in liquids too, and that thus could be pinpointed, should the adequate control, and senses, be used. The Ninja released a really thin and small thread of water from his palm, that with adequate expertise was molded into a thin water wire, which then expanded in a web-like pattern around the user, and sent back a pulse when water was found: water, or human bodies. The web could theoretically expand also in the air, like a sort of really thin bubble, but that was far beyond his capacities, both of control, and of chakra.

He slowly let his right hand glow a light green hue, the control needed for the chakra scalpel, and for staying on the water while seated was far higher than normal, thus making it a perfect training exercise. He should probably pick up some Genjutsus, but he never had the time, this type of training *was* the only relaxing moment he had, seeing how the morning had him in the academy till after lunch hours, the afternoons had him usually training, and the night was of him correcting homework or doing reports. His window of relaxation closed, as Naruto stood up on the water surface, disengaging the chakra scalpel that flickered repeatedly before being turned off. With small leaps, the grey-haired boy exited the Chuunin training grounds, just as Izumo and Kotetsu were entering them.

He nodded in recognition, but didn't stop there. He was going to training ground three because he knew there was a river, passing through the area that he could use for the practice of Taijutsu while on a tricky terrain...for him water was as solid as earth itself.

So that was where he trained, until the sun began slowly setting.

"I'll have dinner with Neji, I suppose…how to warn Kaa-san?" Naruto muttered to himself, as he moved off the river, towards the ground and the three wooden poles that seemed to have sprouted from the ground itself.

The truth was that Maito Gai destroyed them during his training, and replaced them every morning…while yelling things about youthfulness. It was the reason nobody sane in his mind went to the training ground three at four in the morning.

With a set of precise movements, he bit his thumb, summoning a small chameleon. The animal wasn't bigger than his hand, and was obviously invisible to sight, albeit this one *was* easier to see, probably just a youngling.

"Hey there, listen…" as Naruto grabbed a small piece of paper from one of his empty scrolls, writing a quick message of how he wouldn't be home for dinner, he then handed it over to the chameleon's mouth, "deliver this to Kaa-san, okay? Senju compound, lots of trees and water, big breasted lady with blond pig-tails, should have a raven haired girl near with a pet pig. She *should* give you something to eat, be careful not to get squashed, okay?"

The chameleon seemingly understood, as it trotted away: not the fastest mean of travel, but he was sure he'd reach destination. That was until he saw the chameleon extend his tongue on a far-away tree, attach itself to it, and then simply fling from his spot to the tree.

"I…That's awesome," he muttered, closing his own mouth at the sight of the slinging chameleon.

"I've got to ask Kozue if he can do that stuff too," he added again thoughtfully, before sitting, his back against the wooden pole at the center of the training ground, in wait.

The sun settled, and the moon began slowly climbing in the night sky. Slowly, the clouds above Konoha condensed, hiding the stars from view. Yet Naruto stood there, silently waiting.

He slowly opened his eyes when he heard footsteps, slow and hesitant ones. Looking in the dark of the night, like it was day, he smiled.

"Took you a while: I was thinking, three hours ago, of having dinner with you at Ichiraku's," Naruto said, slowly standing up and dusting the dirt off his trousers.

"I thought you'd have left already, don't you have to wake up in the morning to take that weakling to school?" Neji spat out, his eyes focused on the boy in front of him.

Why hadn't he refused the mission to escort Hinata? Why had he accepted the offer of the main house? He should have been on his own wavelength, he should have shared his own secret thoughts: that the main house had to be changed. Yet he had accepted, his sensei had smiled at the weak girl one year younger than him, and he had seen his sensei offer his hand, accepting everything the little girl said like truth, like any slave of the main family did.

He only hoped he was wrong, that his sensei had another reason.

"Neji…" Naruto sighed, "I understand your jealousy, but…"

"I am not jealous!" Neji replied, slightly fuming red: he was angry, and feeling betrayed, but not jealous!

"She belongs to the main family! You told me I should focus my anger on who killed my father, and not on innocent bystanders!" he added, "The main family killed my father! The main family holds my family, the branch family, hostage and slaves!"

"Neji…" Naruto whispered, while taking a step closer, as Neji moved his right hand to the side in a dismissing motion.

"Sensei, my four year old cousin threw just yesterday a ball in the pond: he pushed too hard, and it was a mistake, but it did hit one of the pretty azaleas that a fifteen year old girl from the main family liked so much to watch…" Neji's voice grew quieter by the minute, making Naruto cringe, "No four year old should suffer from such an agonizing pain, only because he was playing. So…how can you defend the main family?"

Two arms wrapped themselves around the Hyuga boy, as Naruto whispered something in the boy's ear, slowly, letting go of the hug.

"It is not right, Neji, but what did Hinata do to you? She wasn't the cause, no more than any other child of the Hyuga would be, by being kidnapped by a head shinobi from Kumogakure. The fifteen year old girl is wrong, and I would never side with her, but Hinata is five: she even calls you Nii-san, you can hate the caged seal, and you can hate the elders of the Hyuga…but don't hate the innocents," Naruto whispered, ruffling the boy's head, much to Neji's disappointment, as the white eyes of the Hyuga looked down on the ground.

"Sensei…I'm sorry," he muttered, earning himself a flick of Naruto's index finger on the nose.

"Don't be: I told you once, and I'll tell you again," the grey-haired boy's voice grew slightly colder, and lower, "I will remove that wretched seal from your forehead and from that of your family…when people get hurt, they learn to hate… when people hurt others, they become hated and racked with guilt; but knowing that pain allows people to be kind. Pain allows people to grow... and how you grow is up to you. Remember my words, Neji, because one day, they might be the only thing stopping you from doing something foolish."

The Hyuga boy merely nodded, and as Naruto accompanied him back to the Hyuga compound, holding his hand to make sure the boy wouldn't get lost in the pitch black darkness, he couldn't help but shake the feeling that no matter how much his sensei could be kind and forgiving, his utterly angry face would have made even the Hyuga elders cringe.

Naruto on the other hand was happy the words of Jiraiya had reached the boy, who seemed lost in thoughts.

"Fuinjutsu lessons, here I come…"

*Iwagakure – Undisclosed location*

"Crow, ready on the mark." The voice buzzed slightly into the small radio attached to his ear, and Crow stood ready. There was no need to reply, he was there to receive orders, not to give them.

Perched atop a building on one side of the hidden village in the rocks, the Anbu was silently merged with his surroundings through a set of Genjutsus, weaved to make him look nothing more than a speck of dirt on the façade of the building. Plus, he also held the old trick of the invisibility cloak from the academy on, to be extra sure.

"Mark." Within a moment, Crow descended silently from the façade, reaching the window right below him, and working with a pin and a screwdriver, he swiftly opened the glass panel.

Minutes later, he was within the room that was meant to hold the office of one of Iwagakure's weapon dealers, scurrying for hints on a recent influx of weapons within the fire country.

Somebody was arming thugs and brigands, spending a pretty amount of money too, for whatever reason it was, and Anbu had been sent to investigate.

"Crow, the window is closing," the voice buzzed into his ear, signaling that the owner of the office was coming back any second now.

It was with swift but precise movements that his hands reached for the safe, hidden underneath the carpet of the office, and then, without a hitch, his keen senses helped him unlock the safe, where the important documents were stashed.

There was a need for subtlety, but time was running short. His sharingan managed to memorize the documents, simply by having him flip the pages swiftly: he'd mentally look over the documents later on.

It was with silence, that he left the room, after closing the safe once more, and placing the carpet back where it was. In silence, he closed the window from outside, and in silence he reached back to the upper level of the building, waiting.

"Crow, the distraction will begin in five minutes, get to position," the voice hissed once more into his ear, as the Uchiha stood frozen for a moment.

He had quickly gone over the documents, mentally, and something had forced him to stop. He knew one of the bank account's numbers used for the transactions. He knew it, because he had seen it before. It was one of the Uchiha's clan private one in the land of the Moon.

There had to be a mistake, probably.

Seconds later, he was dashing through the buildings of Iwa, which wasn't an easy feat when their rooftops weren't flat, but conical shaped. Near the gates, a bunch of drunken Iwagakure civilians were having a party about a recently born boy, and with the confusion, he managed to slip through by simply posing as a staggering drunk who had to go take a leak. Never mind the fact that the civilians were all under Genjutsus, the saké was real, and that was enough for the guards. His rendezvous point was two kilometers away from the hidden village, in the general direction of the land of Rice.

He disappeared from sight, as his mind fluttered with the perspective of doing his job, or of keeping himself quiet. There were other bank accounts in the midst of the documents: he could give those out, instead of the one that would lead the Anbu to the Uchiha.

He could do that, he was sure…but then again, maybe he was just seeing too much in it and the documents were falsified: what reason would the Uchiha have to arm bandits and brigands all around the land of fire?

The clearing that was the rendezvous point already held two Anbus, carefully hidden from sight with a set of Genjutsus and mimetic armors: only to be on the extra safe side of paranoia.

One was Hare-masked, the other was Dog-masked, and there was meant to be a third one, a Cat-masked.

"You have the documents?" Dog queried, quietly.

Crow simply pointed at the side of his head, and nodded.

"Told you the sharingan was nifty," Hare commented, "How many leads do we have?"

"Seven," Itachi replied, "One for every elemental country, plus Grass and Rice," as he pointed that out, Cat suddenly appeared, with a ragged breathing.

"Cat, everything alright?" Dog queried, looking at the Anbu, a kunoichi, who seemed to be about to fall down from exhaustion.

"They're mad," was all that Cat said, as Crow simply turned to gaze at the other two Anbus.

"There was a second mission I wasn't involved in?" he queried, not actually expecting an answer.

So it came as a surprise when Hare replied to him, with a small nod.

"Yes: to evaluate the potential of switching sides of Iwagakure's Jinchuurikis; what happened, Cat?" the woman simply shook her head, before replying.

"I explained the things they could do away from Iwa…I think I might have convinced them too thickly: they outright decided to go rogue."

"Any clue on *where* they were headed to?" Dog replied.

"I think their direction was towards Takigakure," Cat answered back, "I was busy dodging lava bullets, you know, and steam geysers…this *is* going down as S-rank in the payment roll, right?"

"Yes, it is going down as S-rank for you, Cat," Hare muttered, turning sharply towards the Konoha's general direction.

"Let's make haste, once out of Iwagakure, Crow can take his time writing down all the financial movements of Iwa's weapon dealer," and with that, the Anbus departed.

*Konoha*

Naruto had barely finished the history part concerning the foundation of the village, making sure that everyone understood the key points, while at the same time keeping an eye out for possible trick questions. Like the color of Hashirama's armor. Somehow he recalled his tests having tricky questions like those: no need subjecting his class to those tortures, but he did need to have them prepared.

Hinata wasn't in the class, that day. Naruto was mentally planning to go visit her later on, realizing that she was still in shock over the death of her mother, a fact he had been warned of in the morning, when he had gone to take her for the usual escort mission.

"And the lesson is…" the ring of the bell, "Over."

In a moment, he was flocked by the blue dressed girls, all asking random questions on different subjects while Iruka, Kami damn him, was handling the male part of the class.

As he answered for the thirteenth time that no, Hashirama's hair wasn't grey like that of his younger brother Tobirama, the door of the classroom slid open, as Ibiki Morino looked straight at Naruto.

"Ibiki-san?" Naruto queried, excusing himself from the pouting mass of girls, as he neared the elder Jounin.

"You're summoned to the Hokage's office," he pointed out, moving swiftly away from the door's entrance, "Ghost lance," he added with a sort of smirk, something that made Naruto lift up a puzzled eyebrow, as he looked back at Iruka, who nodded.

Within moments, Naruto was moving out of the academy walking right next to Ibiki, who was chuckling.

"Fine, hit me with the innuendo, since I don't understand it," Naruto muttered, looking at the elder Jounin.

"Ghost Lance…Lance…Ghost…you know, grow up a bit, and then I'll explain it to you later on," Ibiki replied with a thoughtful gaze.

"Is Idate fine?" Naruto asked, "You really managed to convince the Hokage to let him be stuck as a Genin forever?"

"He doesn't have what it takes to be a ninja, like all the other trash of people that remained in that room," Ibiki replied, a sour look on his face, "I can't guarantee whining won't get through the Hokage, since he's a softie, but I won't have anything to do with Idate if he keeps his attitude up. Kid has to grow up and stop running from his faults," the man replied, as they neared the Hokage's office.

"You haven't answered my question," Naruto replied quietly.

"Aoi tells me he's fine: he's crashing at his sensei's place, since he doesn't want to speak with me," Ibiki replied bitterly, as Naruto merely nodded.

The doors of the Hokage's office swung open, as the two entered the room, taking in the sight of Kakashi and Anko already there, waiting.

The silver-haired Jounin waved with an eye-smile at Naruto, who waved back, while Anko simply decided to cheerfully ruffle Naruto's head, while giving a wink to Ibiki.

"Oh Naru-chan! Like good old times! Only we have a frown bald guy too," at that, Naruto raised a puzzled eyebrow, before turning to Ibiki, who had narrowed his eyes in a sort of slightly angered expression.

"You're bald?" Naruto asked, tentatively.

"No I'm not!" Ibiki replied hastily, "I just have slightly less hair than normal, that's all!"

"He's bald!" Anko replied cheerfully, as the Hokage, finally, coughed a bit to get the attention of the four ninjas, putting them all on attention.

"Well," Minato spoke quietly, "it seems the secret," stressing the word, "cypher division of Kirigakure has been seen in the land of fire's premises, since they are a secret division, their deaths, or any sort of interaction between them and us will be kept under rags."

Just a week before, Kirigakure's shinobis had been in the chuunin exams, and just now, there were Kirigakure's secret ninjas moving around the land of fire. Blood would be spilled, but the façade would remain.

The difference between a ninja, whose loyalty was known, and *secret* ninjas, those who did the riskiest jobs for the highest of pays, was basically the difference that went from a full-out war declaration, to a mere closing one's eyes and looking the other way. Anbus were secret ninjas, who were taught to destroy themselves upon risk of capture, and that, if actually captured, would be accounted as missing Nins who had left the village.

It was a common practice, to have an edge on other villages, distrust needed to be kept within the privacy's of one's own head, while openly, trust and smiles had to be given around.

"This is a B-rank mission, the cypher division should not be heavily protected, and from the reports given, it seems to only have one guard, armed with a long Katana, it should be an easy first B-rank," at that mention, Naruto winced.

"You should direct yourself towards the Land of Water border, precisely near the docks of Wave country, from there, you will have to track them down, but I have faith in Kakashi's ninken dogs. Capture at least one of them alive," Minato pointed out, as he handed over the mission scroll with the additional information.

"Dismissed," and with those words, the Hokage gestured for them to leave, a thing that the shinobis did without waiting a single second.

Alone, in his office, Minato Namikaze turned his gaze downwards, to the preoccupying news he had received: the Senju's blade, the second Hokage's sword of the thunder god had gone missing from Konoha's vaults.

Normally, nobody would have checked for its presence, since it wasn't a weapon that had left the safety of the village's walls, or vaults, since the death of the second Hokage. Yet, when Tsunade had returned, the process of looking for the blade had begun, since it was certain that the slug princess would reclaim the blade sooner or later. The problem wasn't that the blade hadn't been found, no, the problem was that it had then disappeared from the storage it had been kept in, when Tsunade, three days after Naruto becoming Chuunin, had come around to actually reclaim the blade: probably as a gift for the boy's promotion.

So there was a missing blade, but no ninja had left the premises, and no foreign shinobi had been detected. The blade of the thunder god, the Raijin no Ken, seemed to have disappeared from the village without trace.

Looking at those who could know where the blade was, he stumbled upon the Genin team that did report its retrieval from the vaults: Rokusho's. But the Jounin sensei was still in the village, so it had to be a leak? Maybe one of the Genins had spoken of the blade's location to someone else, but why?

"Hokage-sama," an Anbu appeared in the room, a mask on his face depicting a Monkey, "I have urgent news..."

The day was suddenly turning for the worse.

He knew it.

*Land of Waves*

"How do we track ninjas we have never smelled before?" Pakkun queried, his pug eyes looking at the silver-haired shinobi.

"Well…they're shinobis and they belong to the cypher squad, so…they're bound to smell of ink?" Kakashi suggested, as Anko rolled her hazel eyes.

"How long till that pup learns the drill, Kakashi-sensei?" Anko queried, as she slid a snake out of her forearm. Her snakes didn't need to be trained, much differently from the silver-haired litter of Ninken dogs.

Albeit Kakashi could bring out an already trained dog, he preferred to use the trainees, to teach them while working.

"Where's Naruto?" Ibiki queried, realizing that the grey-haired boy had pretty much disappeared from the makeshift camp.

"I sent him to investigate the nearby village: maybe someone saw a group of Kiri ninjas pass by," Kakashi replied, shrugging slightly.

"That doesn't seem plausible, what's the real reason, Hatake?" Ibiki queried once more, narrowing his eyes.

"It's not that I don't trust him, but…he's got quite the schedule. Some boring relaxing option every now and then won't kill him," Kakashi replied with a shrug, only to have Naruto land in the middle of the clearing.

Since he hadn't been heard arriving, for a moment Ibiki was sure he was seeing a perfect replica of the second Hokage, down to the very clothes.

Naruto's attire took the form of the standard shinobi dress of Tobirama's times, consisting of a blue traditional armor, similar to that of samurais, albeit featuring a distinctive white fur collar, worn over a simple black suit. The armor was constructed from numerous metal plates, formed into multiple protective guards along his body, in particular over his chest, waist, shoulders and upper arms. The clothing was accompanied by sandals and a happuri engraved with the Konoha emblem, in the place of his forehead protector.

So he resembled the second Hokage, in miniature version, since he wasn't more than eleven years old…kind of a chibi Nidaime.

"I had people fuss over me for half an hour, before deciding to call it quit," Naruto muttered, turning to gaze at Kakashi, with narrow eyes, "you could have warned me that I looked like the Nidaime Hokage."

"You didn't know?" Anko asked back, holding her laughter to bay in her throat.

"You'd think he'd connect the dots: there *is* a picture of the Nidaime Hokage in your house, right?" Kakashi queried, chuckling slightly.

"It was Kaa-san's idea: she resized one of Tobirama's old armors to fit me…she also said she was going to get the sword of the thunder god…for added protection, whatever it means," Naruto muttered back, sighing, "Why can't she just trust me to come back alive?"

"Because, Naru-chan," Ibiki snorted with an amused face, "All the missions you go on get a rank raise the moment shit hits the fan."

"That's not true!" Naruto replied, vehemently.

"Sure, D-rank missions of delivering messages become C-rank out of thin air, right?" Anko teased, with a chuckle.

"Oh shush it," Naruto muttered, "That Kangaroo was packing a punch."

"Yeah, I still can't believe an anteater and an ostrich teamed up on you," Kakashi grinned.

"We are *not* here to speak about my mission exploits: obviously the cypher division didn't pass by here, but since the border guard didn't check them, they're trespasser."

Naruto's words served as confirmation that, indeed, the cypher division could be engaged without problems.

The pug, Pakkun, suddenly sniffed in the air, before waggling his small tail and heading off, much to the surprise of the Konoha's shinobis.

Not because the dog had managed to leap on a tree branch, heading off towards some unknown direction; no, it was because he had actually found a trace on the ground, and Kakashi's grin was smug and wide, subtly spilling out his thoughts to the rest of the team: "See that Ninkens are awesome!?"

If there actually was a smell of ink in the forest the pug didn't give it away, as, when a wheeze of smell came to the group's nostrils, it wasn't certainly of the acre black liquid: no, it was of sausages being left to fry on pans and of burning wood.

It was a camp. For a split second Ibiki's gaze had gone murderous on Kakashi, who had simply pointed in silence at the men, and at one woman, it seemed, who were camping.

They held no forehead protectors on them, but one had blue skin, and seemed to be set a bit apart from the rest of the group, a long two-handed katana covered in bandages standing loosely on his shoulder. His back leaned against the tree, seeming to be lost in thoughts. He actually resembled a sort of shark, with a little feral grin sported by his shark-like teeth.

"You can't be serious…they're like…kids on a camping trip?" Anko whispered, looking at them with a mixture of perplexity and mistrust.

"Remember that we have to capture one of them alive," Kakashi whispered, as he made the necessary symbols for the Kage Bunshin, creating two more copies of himself, "Naruto, place a Genjutsu on shark-guy, so he thinks they're surrounded. Anko, use Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu to cut off their retreat, and take point behind my Kage Bunshins. Try to grab at least a cypher guy, and Ibiki…you go and scare them."

Ibiki simply smirked: obviously the shitty part of the job had to be his to take.

The plan was simple to the extreme: the shark guy, assuming a defensive position in front of the cypher squad, would have conceded out of numerous odds, and if not, the real Kakashi would have simply ran him through with a Raikiri, while his Kage bunshins and Anko took care of subduing the cyphers. Naruto would stay as support, and Ibiki would come out in a display of force, subtly implying there was no longer a need to hide, since the Kiri ninjas were surrounded.

With précised and fluid motions, Naruto's Genjutsu was weaved within the unsuspecting mind of the blue colored shinobi. Its purpose was simple: generate a belief that there were at least four chuunin level shinobis' chakra signals around them, plus sixteen Genins level ones. The same number of a border-patrol unit.

Then Ibiki descended swiftly, while fire erupted around the group, making the cypher squad stand up in fear and fright, with the swordsman unsheathing his sword quickly.

"You are surrounded," Ibiki said, keeping his coolest attitude, "follow us quietly and we might send you back to Kir…" what happened next wasn't something any of them could have been prepared for: the shark-man moved, quickly, and with that Kakashi left his position, Raikiri ready in an intercepting pattern to guard Ibiki.

Only for his Raikiri to fizzle to a stop in mid-air, as the swordsman hadn't aimed at Ibiki at all, or at one of the Genjutsu chakra flares. No, the shark-man had dashed straight ahead towards the cypher squad, and with a swing so swift that Kakashi's Kage bunshins had barely managed to dodge, pinning Anko to the ground with them, had executed a flawless maneuver...butchering his own teammates.

"No codes are to be given out," was all the man muttered, even as he went through a set of hand signs, faster than what any of them could have suspected.

They had thought him a Jounin, to be sure.

They had been wrong.

The possible explanation was that he was wearing some sort of suppressor, because not even Naruto, perched on his branch, could have fathomed the amount of water that the man had spawned out of his mouth. The veritable river of water had rushed forward, with him on top, riding it like a surfer would have, literally leaving them there, shocked and unable to completely register the information.

"What…What happened?" Anko muttered, standing shakily back up, as she looked at the bodies, the drenched corpses, of the cypher squad. All gutted, slashed and killed.

"He was fast," Kakashi barely whispered, "It didn't take him more than a minute to execute them," that hadn't been murder. No, it had been an outright execution.

"So this mission has failed, I suppose," Ibiki muttered, "Crap, well, the kid's bad luck is legendary…did he take it from his mother?"

"Cut the crap spouting Ibiki," Anko replied, "Naruto! Come on down!"

"Naruto?" Kakashi queried, looking up at the branch where the boy was supposed to be.

"Don't tell me he pursued," Ibiki groaned.

"We didn't say not to: he probably assumed we'd at least capture him," Kakashi pointed out, before starting to dash in the same direction as the shark-man, "Let's move! A second we waste is a second we lose them!"

"Damn gaki! Making me babysit him!" Anko snarled, as she picked up the pace. Still, the boy couldn't have hoped to reach the same speed as that shark-guy, right?

Naruto did, instead, reach the same speed as the shark-guy. He did even better: he actually surfed on the head of one of his chameleon summon, Tokage. The chameleon would have probably said something against the idea of him enjoying the ride, if he could speak. At present, in fact, Tokage was busy spewing from his mouth highly condensed water, to generate a literal Jetstream, that sent them forward on the small amount of water that Naruto, on the other hand, had generate as a cushion.

It was a Chameleon engine-driven hovercraft.

It was pure genius.

It was pure unpredictability.

The shark-man came into view minutes later, when the blue-colored ninja decided to stop his run, on the outskirts of the sea. It was a steep cliff fall towards the sea from there, something that the Kiri ninja probably didn't seem too keen in trying out.

"Tokage: disengage and wait," Naruto whispered, jumping down from the chameleon summon, who had stopped spewing water and was changing his scales to match the surroundings.

"Well, you managed to get till here," the shark-man spoke, grinning as he grabbed his sword with his two hands, "call me interested."

"Interested, is blue your natural skin color?" Naruto replied, adding a small smile to his lips moments later, seeing how the shark-man was wincing at the statement.

"Touché, but let us stop with all this cliché," the eyes of the shark-man narrowed, "I am Kisame Hoshikagi, apprentice to Fuguki Suikazan, and if I'm telling you this, it's because I'm going to kill you, and you'll be taking this information to the grave with you," he added.

"And I'm the Ghost Lance, or so I've been nicknamed, Naruto Senju," the grey-haired boy replied, grabbing his Tanto.

Yes, a Tanto against a Katana. Every idiotic brigand would have laughed, and would have, obviously, been skewered. Kisame wasn't an idiotic brigand: he was a powerful shinobi, on the way of becoming a swordsman himself. So he sidestepped with minimum effort, driving his sword in a forward cleaving motion that was so fast, and quick, that Naruto tensed instinctively.

A moment later Tokage disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a piece of his tongue. The *ghost* lance of Naruto wasn't actually the Kaze no Yaiba, no: it was the tongue movement of the chameleon's summon.

Without that…he gritted his teeth.

"I read of you in the bingo book, only because you did fight in the chuunin exams with such ease…but, anyway, your shinobi career will have to end short," and then Kisame was already on Naruto, the blade flickering briefly in the light of the day.

It all happened fast, to say the least.

The blade moved to slice down on Naruto's chest, his hand wielding the Tanto gifted from Kakashi rose up to receive the strike, and then the Tanto broke, shattering into pieces as the Katana continue the merciless movement downwards, hitting straight at the boy's left shoulder.

There, it met with the metallic armor plates that composed his armor, and dented them, giving the boy a harsh blunt shock that sent him tumbling on the ground, rolling to the side while holding his seemingly unresponsive shoulder.

Yet he was still alive, he wasn't bleeding, externally at least, and he still had his arm attached.

"Nice armor you got there," Kisame chuckled, before making a straight ahead dash, to pierce through the armor's weak spot: the armpit's area.

The boy rolled, and in said motion his back was what received the tip of the attack, sending him to literally fly against a nearby rock, tumble a bit in the air, and then, with blood gushing out of his mouth, falling down, off the cliff.

Kisame simply smiled at the ease of the kill…and then sighed.

"That's a bounty I ain't going to collect, a pity," he muttered, as he slowly went to sheathe his blade, only to quickly move it to the side, parrying a set of kunais that had been flung at him, all carrying explosive notes on them.

"Shit."

The explosion rocked the rocky cliff, sending small chunks of rock to fall in the sea beneath it, while Kisame's quick shedding of his armor, to lessen the blow, had granted him safety.

The wounds were superficial at worse, at best, he looked unscathed.

Naruto, in his fall down, hadn't fallen unconscious, meaning that with the blood out of his mouth, swiftly swiped, he had managed to conjure Kozue, and hold on to him as the chameleon had flung his tongue straight at the cliff's side, had swung on it, and had then used the momentum like on a swing to send them both back up.

To Kisame, Naruto appeared to be floating in mid-air, because Kozue's stealth was *that* good.

The grey-haired boy didn't move from the chameleon's head, keeping himself on tightly attached to the small bone and scale crown of the animal. The truth was that he couldn't feel his legs, and he couldn't thus trust them.

He had a hunch the attack had probably generated a bruise big enough to pressure his spine, since had he actually broken his spine he'd be dead, or at least in a really horrible position for the rest of his life. He kind of wondered when the rest of his team would get there: he was doing all he could, to hold the enemy shinobi there, but right now, he was pretty sure of one simple fact.

It was really simple, actually.

He was probably going to die.

He had kind of expected to be breathing hard, to be shocked, to be worried, to be afraid.

He wasn't.

He wasn't afraid, he wasn't feeling fear, there was no emotion in his eyes except determination.

The reason wasn't something about killing his own emotion in the midst of battle, it wasn't about having some bullshitting crap on mental conditioning, or resignation to one's own fate.

No…he simply looked straight into the eyes of Kisame, who charged at him with his katana in hand, and without a word, without a caring in the world, all his chakra, all his strength, went towards a simple, single, jutsu.

"Suiton: Teppodama!" the next moment, Naruto's chest bulged exponentially, as did his throat, before the sphere of water, laced with chakra, emerged from within the boy's mouth, swiftly followed by the same jutsu, only this time, thrown also by Kozue.

Kisame's katana intercepted the attack, and for a moment, time seemed to stop, as the shark-man tried to hold the twin balls of water at bay, before being seemingly pushed back, his katana cracking under the twin jutsu.

Kisame jumped to the side, letting go of the sword that broke, its pieces soaring into the sky at the same moment the water exploded, releasing a small drizzle of clear liquid upwards, before it began raining down for seconds. The chakra exhausted, Kozue itself had no choice but disappear, as Naruto fell on the ground, gasping for air.

"Nice desperate move…might as well ask you something, before killing you," Kisame chuckled, as he moved closer to the boy, taking out from within one of his pockets a prolonged kunai that seemed to end with a chain that had at its end a round weight.

"I didn't even go all out with you, kiddo. As you might have understood, I didn't use Suiton moves against you: so really, you were desperately over your head…what gave you the nice idea of catching up with me, huh?" at that question, Naruto gritted his teeth, just as the weight began spinning.

"You know: I can make this quick, and smash your head like a watermelon, or slow, and take my time rupturing your organs…your armor is good, but trust me, a nice strong hit and you will bleed from within."

"You're worse than scum," Naruto muttered, his gaze looking straight ahead, at the horizon, where the sea met the sky. It was a pretty last view, at least.

"What, just because I'm blue and from Kiri? I'm taking it on a personal level now," the hit reached Naruto's right side with a strong thrust, as the grey-haired boy gasped, blood emerging from his mouth as ribs had probably dislodged themselves.

Still, he kept fighting off the desire to close his eyes. He kept fighting to remain in the light, in the basking light of the sun.

"You…killed…your teammates…" Naruto whispered, blood trickling down from his mouth, "You're…worth…less…trash," at those words, Kisame smirked, giving the boy a sharp kick to throw him face upwards, to stare at the sky.

"Oh, yeah? Moralism from Konoha Nins was to be expected, I suppose. Well, let me tell you something: It's not the first time. The bloody mist was the name of the graduation exam, the Genins to be had to kill at least three other students of their own class to graduate," the shark-man spoke quietly, as he let his right feet on the boy's throat, looking at him with disgust.

"Pitted one against the other, truly disgusting, right? I'm sure there never was something like that in your pathetic excuse of an academy," he added.

Naruto merely smiled, chuckling slightly.

"I…pity…you, fear…is all…you have," at his words, Kisame's face deformed into a snarling one, as he flung the sharp part of his kunai straight into one of the joints on the chest area.

"I am not afraid! You should be! You're dying, aren't you!? So feel fear!"

Coughs, blood emerging from the boy's mouth, he wasn't more than eleven for Kami's sake and he was staring at him with the eyes of one much older than him.

"What…takes…another…to kill…you too?" was the cryptic reply of Naruto, who, in his small smile, as his eyes closed, had told Kisame all he needed to understand.

What took his sensei from giving the same order to someone else?

What took the Mizukage from giving the same order to someone he knew?

What took someone, anyone, from killing him under orders?

It was strange. The brat was dying from blood loss, chakra exhaustion and worse, yet he was the one who felt a tinge of fear in his soul, not the boy.

It didn't matter anymore, however. He moved to leave, standing at the edge of the cliff, when a snarl, a vicious snarl that seemed monstrous echoed straight behind him.

There, a furious Anko Mitarashi was transformed in what seemed a bizarre and horrible monstrosity: both arms were elongated, ape-like in size but covered with scales. Her teeth seemed to have prolonged into furious fangs, as horns had sprouted from her hair. The problem wasn't that, no. It was the fact that, even though that form was bulky, she disappeared from sight because of speed alone, and the next moment, Kisame was flung like a brick wall had decided to hit him in the face away from the cliff, to fly straight into the sea.

As he flew, his only thankful thought was that he had gills to breath underwater, because he'd be knocked out for a while...the bitch hit strongly.

Anko, meanwhile, was seemingly returning to her senses, her size lowering until it went back to the norm, her trench coat, coming straight from Anbu, was obviously still fine. Her fishnet shirt was seemingly a bit baggy, due to the pressure of the expansion in size, and her skirt was a bit torn up…just a bit.

She sank on her feet, the circle around her neck pulsing slightly, as the numbers resumed their normal pattern. Slowly, her hazel eyes settled on the boy's form, as she got her hands deftly working through the armor's lace knots, to loosen them and grab from within Naruto's chuunin vest the scroll with the first aid kit.

He didn't seem that bad, meaning whatever he had would simply be something outside of her scope of abilities.

She could try and heal him, right? It shouldn't be something *that* difficult.

She was a kunoichi, a female, thus she had better chakra control than males.

Really, how difficult could it be? He was breathing raggedly, his chest going up, down…up after a while, scared her for a moment.

Then it went down again.

And it stayed down.

To perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR for short, she settled his head to the side, and then, with a quick move, inhaled, before exhaling air within the boy's lungs, at the same time both of her hands, swiftly, should have begun the process of pushing against the boy's chest.

Instead the boy kissed her back.

At least, to Anko it seemed like a kiss, but as her eyes were open with shock, she realized that it wasn't the truth. Naruto wasn't kissing her: it was just like that time with Tsunade and her arm. The boy wasn't chewing her lips off her face for some reason, but she could feel the chakra being literally removed from her coils, weakness taking over her limbs as there seemed to be no restraint in the…leeching?

Moments later, she connected a punch straight to Naruto's jaw, breaking the contact, and giving her finally the moment to breathe, panting slightly from fatigue.

"Damn…" she coughed slightly, shaking her head, trying to recall just how she had managed to leave behind two Jounins and reach the boy first.

Oh yes, now she recalled, her mind wavered for a moment, before giving in to the need, to the thirst for knowledge: she had felt a new strength in her body, in her limbs, and suddenly she had jolted from her spot, her pace quickening so much she had passed by Kakashi, heading straight to where Naruto was.

Because she knew where the boy was, Pakkun, stupid pug, didn't. But she did. She had felt it, like a beacon calling to her.

*Mindscape*

"So…since when did I get a mirror in here?" Naruto questioned himself, more than anything else. There was no-one else, except the sleeping fox that he hadn't the guts to wake up again. There was, however, a new addition in his mindscape: a mirror.

A polished mirror that seemed to reflect not his face, but something else: his body asleep on the ground, where it was *supposed* to be.

It was like he was seeing through the eyes of someone else, but who? Kisame? Not possible. The mirror briefly showed some trench coat and fishnet shirt material, and it was enough for Naruto to guess it was Anko's eyes, he was seeing through. A moment later, the mirror turned a dull grey color, no longer reflecting what was happening through the purple haired kunoichi's eyes.

He felt himself being jolted out of his mindscape, thrust upwards, barely taking in the fact that the room…had a door? Since when did the room have a…

*Outside*

"Wake up damn brat!" Ibiki's snarl was more than enough for him to slowly open his eyes, shocked and perplexed at the sight of the Jounin looking straight ahead at him.

"Naru-chan got my first kiss! It's just not fair!" Anko whined, playfully, in the background, as Kakashi sighed.

"Naruto, could you give us a medical assessment of your conditions, before going over with the report?" at the silver-haired Jounin's words, Naruto groaned, slightly letting his chakra move carefully through his Tenketsu points, his chakra coils, and through his skin.

"Two broken ribs, a punctured lung…I think my spine got slightly dislodged, my shoulder is half pulverized and half not, but I'll live… I can't walk however…" he muttered, letting his mind race with the words he had just said. It was like his body had been in the process of repairing himself, as his lung *was* closed, his ribs stopped in a half-set position, his spine dislodged but with signs of having moved from a far worse position, and his shoulder had half of it in mere bone shards, while the other seemed to have been reconnecting themselves. Instead of months of hospital stay and complex surgical damage, he had already healed a good part of his body…by sleeping?

"You'll live? I'd be dead, you know," Ibiki muttered, "Must be the Kyuubi, well, tough luck boy, because we'll have to carry your sorry ass back to Konoha, and since we will be carrying you, you'd do us a favor and tell us just *who* did this to you."

"Fair deal," Naruto sighed, wincing at the pain he now began to feel, it was flaring through his entire body, a telltale sign that he wasn't going to like being moved at all.

"And for stealing my first kiss, I want a five year royal dango box every morning, got it?" as Anko grinned diabolically, Naruto couldn't help but roll his eyes over in acknowledgement.

"And for going forward on your own, you'll have to call me Kakashi-Niisan!" the silver-haired Jounin finished the set of punishments with a soft chuckle, before extracting from a sealing scroll the medic-tray, landing it on the ground next to Naruto.

"I think I won't be able to speak much, after this," the boy whispered, "So, if I start trashing and screaming, do knock me out," he added.

"You are strangely calm for someone in your conditions, Naruto," Kakashi pointed out, grabbing a hold of the boy's legs, as Ibiki instead went for the shoulders.

"Trust me, it's because I learnt how to stay very still…but now I'm going to hurt like hell…please be quick," and just like that, the movement was done lightning fast.

The rib still in the lung moved slightly, blood came out, and the rest…the rest was pain before a merciless injection of anesthetic, strong enough to drop a horse dead.

"Let's move…You're warning his mother," Anko exclaimed, not managing to keep her fake cheerful tone on.

"Well…with him out cold, Anko…could you explain what happened?" Kakashi and Ibiki both brought up the medic-tray, and, as they dashed back toward Konoha, Anko found herself keeping pace with them, albeit slightly wobbling.

"I don't know…I just felt something…someone, calling me. I answered the call," the girl muttered, "I felt a sort of compulsion to go and…well, clash against someone…"

"Hmm…we'll have to ask Jiraiya-sama the next time he's in Konoha," Kakashi replied, "But the Hokage and his wife could have a look at it too," he pointed out.

"You think he's going to be fine?" Anko queried, not needing to ask who she was referring to.

"If it had been any normal shinobi, then I'd say that they'd better stop being ninja…but Naruto? And with Tsunade in Konoha? He'll be up and ready to train in a couple of days, I can guarantee it," Kakashi replied.

"Yeah, tough sport he is! But his mother is going to kill us," Ibiki pointed out, shivering slightly.

"I hope not, I still have to get my hands on an audio recorder…" with those words from the copy-cat ninja, Anko shook her head.

"I'm starting to think your friendship with Gai has some…subtle implications, you know?"

Ibiki began laughing out hard as he caught on the drift, while Kakashi simply scowled.

For a failed mission, it wasn't that bad.

*Konoha – Four Days later*

Naruto was once more in front of the Hokage, for another B-rank mission. On the floor, a giant-sized hole had been covered with planks, hastily put there to avoid someone falling on the lower level.

This time, Ibiki was there together with Itachi and another Anbu masked individual. Well, technically Itachi was also masked with a crow mask, meaning there were actually two Anbu masked individuals: a Crow and a Dog. Ibiki was ghastly pale, and seemed fidgety, to say the least.

"So, I understand your wounds have already healed, Senju-san?" Minato asked, looking at the grey-haired boy, who was now sporting slightly brighter blue eyes.

"Yes Hokage-sama," Naruto replied, his eyes dashing to the figures in front of him…he was going to need shades, soon, the world seemed in Technicolor to him at present, like someone had increased the resolution, "Kaa-san did an excellent job," he added.

Obviously all that his mother had done had been supplying the chakra: for some reason, he could leech chakra through his mouth, and that chakra actually became a powerful healing concoction for his body…it didn't just heal, no, it brought things back like they were before being damaged. One could even think that it merely re-created the destroyed tissue from nothingness…but that was impossible.

He was sporting the same attire he had used during the mission to the border of Kirigakure, meaning that, when he had actually entered the room, the first thing the Anbus had done was to look at the picture of the second Hokage, to compare the resemblances.

It was starting to get on his nerves.

Sure, he had Suiton Jutsus, sure, he had excellent chakra control, sure, he was apt at Genjutsus, sure, he liked the color blue…but that didn't mean they had to compare!

"Well then, the reason you are requested is because the nature of this mission is personal to the Senju clan: the retrieval of the sword of the thunder god," at that, Naruto's eyes shot in surprise, before a sudden chuckle escaped his lips.

"Oh this is precious…so that's why the office has a hole on the floor," the mischievous grin disappeared after a moment, with a light cough, "please keep talking, Hokage-sama."

"As I was saying," Minato pointed out, a small smile escaping his lips, "Is he getting over his grudges?", "it seems Aoi Rokusho, departed yesterday, had been hiding the location of Idate Morino, who is seemingly the culprit in the disappearance of the Raijin no Ken."

"The boy is merely a Genin, and since he never displayed any ill will toward Konoha, it is safe to assume he is being played by Rokusho, who seems to also be tied with Iwagakure spies, and with the Iwagakure incident of eleven years ago," Minato continued speaking with a calm and controlled voice, as he let his eyes dart towards Ibiki, he silently nodded.

"We are to pursue and capture Rokusho, before he crosses the border with Amegakure: if he does, we won't be able to go beyond the border…it is also safe to assume he has some sort of deal with Ame: meaning that if we don't catch him swiftly, we might never do it," the Dog masked Anbu spoke, "Idate Morino is to be brought in for interrogation and questioning, but that is of secondary importance."

The fact that Ibiki was pale and slightly shaking was the principal reason for Naruto's perplexity.

"I understand *me* being here…I'm going for a sword, but why Ibiki? He's emotionally involved," the grey-haired boy knew he was probably burning bridges with the elder Jounin…but he was right, and eventually Ibiki too would realize it, at least, he hoped.

"Because it's in the deal, Nidaime no Sairai," Ibiki muttered, a low growl escaping his throat.

"Second coming of the Nidaime? Really?" Naruto eyed Ibiki with a sigh, shaking his head, "Well then, fine! Let's go get the sword so I'll make everyone happy."

And within a twirling of leaves, they were all gone once more.

But while they went towards Konoha's gates, to leave once more, on the other side of the village, in the ninja academy, a red-haired girl was starting to get bored.

Katsumi knew that it wasn't Iruka-sensei's fault that Naruto-sensei had missions, nor did she blame the fact that Mizuki had been chosen to replace Naruto as the assistant of her class, but she knew it was her father's fault. She was pretty sure that the Hokage enjoyed keeping her and her brother separated. It just wasn't fair.

Kiba could go back home to his elder sister, and she would teach him cool tricks. Many others in the class had siblings, or elder cousins, and they too would teach them cool tricks.

So why, why was she the only one who had no cousins, or siblings, waiting for her at home? Her mother was a Jounin-sensei, for Kami's sakes, yet she was busy, always busy, with her Genin team. Her father was the Hokage, and obviously couldn't take time teaching her anything new…so she was stuck with the boring stuff of the academy: history, especially.

"And this is the year that the battle of the valley of the end took place, where Madara was defeated, and killed, by Hashirama Senju, the first Hokage," Iruka finished writing down a number, before turning his gaze to his class.

They all looked…bored.

Was it because he wasn't that good with illusions? Naruto always seemed to know what buttons to push, to make the kids interested in a lesson: like using illusions to recreate battles, acting like a sort of television screen. He also was the only one that actually managed to convince Shikamaru *not* to sleep in class, the Nara had finally perfected his sleeping-with-eyes-open Jutsu, and it was starting to unnerve the chuunin.

Katsumi turned her gaze backwards, feeling someone tap on her shoulders, and revealing that someone being Kiba.

"Katsumi-chan, me, Choji and Shikamaru are planning on…going on a trip, yeah, out of school when the bell rings," Kiba smiled at her, "Want to come too?"

"How are we going to leave?" Katsumi whispered back, perplexed.

"Just you wait, Shikamaru's got it covered," and within moments, when both Chuunin's backs were turned, the Nara silently dropped out of the class, leaving a bunshin in his place, in the same position.

"He knows bunshin?" Katsumi whispered.

"Anything as long as it gets him out," Kiba chuckled, "Now follow my play…" and then the Inuzuka grabbed Chouji by the arm, yelling out loud.

"Oh Kami! Chouji! You're sick! Don't die on me buddy! We'll get through this together! I'm bringing him to the infirmary!" and with that exclamation he began dragging a feigning sickness Akimichi through the classroom, with Katsumi suddenly sprouting up.

"Oh no Chouji-kun! Don't worry, I'll help you out, Kiba-kun!" and with the most horrible performance ever to be created, the three left the room.

For a split second, nothing happened.

Iruka was actually trying to understand if they had done this as a sort of twisted prank, or if they actually thought Chuunins were stupid.

"We'll take them back in after recess," Mizuki pointed out, just as, obviously, the bell for the recess time rang.

Meanwhile, at the Hokage's office, Kushina had just finished handing in the successfully completed D-rank mission, and had ushered outside her Genins, eyeing, really badly, Minato.

"Minato," she whispered, angrily, as the Hokage quickly activated the privacy seals, closing the windows.

"Kushina-hime?" the Hokage asked back, curiously.

"Shouldn't shinobis who have been hospitalized get a one week leave?" the red-haired woman asked, with a small smile on her lips.

"Well, the matter *was* important, and…"

"Minato…" the woman's ire was a bit strange, until something clicked in the Hokage's mind.

"Oh! This is about the teacher-parents event at school!"

The ninja academy held this type of meetings monthly, to make sure every parent was well acquainted with their son's and daughter's teachers. Kushina had probably been looking forward to meeting with Naruto, to engage in conversation, especially after being told by Minato, out of all persons that their son seemed to have forgiven them: at least, theoretically.

"Yes dear…" the woman stressed the *dear* part, "But not only: why did you send him after a Jounin!?"

"He's not alone Kushina-hime, there are two Anbus and…" Minato replied, his hands slowly moving in the motion of *calm down*.

"There is a Tokubetsu Jounin, who still let him get wounded from his previous mission, Itachi, who's the same age as him and his cousin Shishui…don't give me the *Two Anbus* crap," Kushina spat right back at her husband, "and he was wounded, a lot…and still you're sending him back? Not even a week later? I mean it: it took them at least a week to come back from the border, a week I was told he spent with dislodged bones and internal bleedings! And four days later he is magically out of the hospital? Come on Minato! That's not even passable as Uzumaki resiliency!"

"Kushina…you know that…we had to re-valuate our…previous assessment of the situation," Minato began speaking, his eyes slowly moving around the room.

"Oh right, you mean we were wrong not once, but twice! Minato…I can live without ever hearing my son calling me Kaa-san, I can live with him hating me, ignoring me, being cold to me…but if he dies, because of one of us…I won't ever forgive you."

Minato's eyes bulged in shock, as he gritted his teeth.

"Kushina! You had your very own part in this! Who was the one who threw him out of the house!?"

"Katsumi was a newborn! And I thought she was in danger! You were the one who brought him to the apartments for orphans!" Kushina accused straight back.

"How could I have known there were Iwagakure shinobis ready to kidnap him!?" Minato's fist impacted on the desk, "How could I have ever thought that I'd end up having to disown my very own son just to save him from being hunted down!? How could I have known he'd snap like that!? I removed those memories for a reason, Kushina!"

"Because we both screwed up, huh?" Kushina's voice was sad, as her eyes moved sideways, to the carpet, "We are both wrong…and he'll hate us, he'll keep on hating us, he'll never forgive us, no matter how you put it...and when he will learn the truth, he'll fight us."

"Not if I can avoid it," Minato muttered, his eyes narrowing, "Not if I can make my plan a success."
"Your plan?" Kushina chuckled, shaking her head, "What plan, huh? What's your plan going to do when he realizes you toyed with him?"

In that instant, the small radio on Minato's desk buzzed, as the voice of his secretary spoke through the speaker.

"Hokage-sama, Mitarashi-san is here," and with those words, something clicked into Kushina, as she slowly shook her head in disbelief, seeing the discomfort on Minato's face.

"You are not…" she whispered.

"I will," was his simple reply, "For his future, for Konoha's future, for Katsumi's future, for everyone's future."

"Minato…" there were no words that escaped Kushina's lips, and thus she simply turned to leave from the window, shaking her head.

"Kushina-hime…this is a secret, you know…" Minato barely muttered, as the red-haired woman simply turned around, looking at her husband with nearly emotionless and dead eyes, before slowly nodding.

As she left, and the privacy seals were disengaged, Minato pressed the button to reply to his secretary.

"Let Mitarashi-san in," and with those words, he sealed his very own deal…with the devil or with god, he'd probably never know.

Author's notes.

Du-dun!

The more he smiles, the more fake it gets!

The more things are happy, the more hell is ready to break down!

And with that said, next chapter will contain:

Angst!

More family angst!

More traumatic angst!

And something I will not describe.

Yeah, sorry, but I have a policy of not describing lemons. So prepare yourself, for next chapter (and with this line I simply gave you a really big hint on what is going to happen) hell breaks loose!

Oh, one thing: Naruto has *no* Doujutsu, he's just got his Nightvision starting to give him slight troubles with the sun.