Author Notes- Hello fellow readers! I'm uploading this chapter way earlier than I said I would be. I guess, I just couldn't wait to write the fight scene between Minato and Naruto.

So, Naruto finally joins the ANBU in this chapter after his fight with Minato, which I have tried to portray as best as I could.

Now, to answer some questions like whether Naruto will get Kurama's Yin chakra in the future or not. Yes, Naruto will get Kurama's Yin chakra but that will depend on when I will be planning to revive the Sandaime Hokage, since he holds Kyubi's Yin chakra. Yes, I will make Orochimaru be able to undo the shiki fuin jutsu so that he could free the souls of those trapped inside the belly of Shinigami. But, again, that won't be for a while.

I have a different plan about how Naruto will meet Kushina in this story. I know, I could have made the Sandaime seal her chakra into Naruto's seal and make him meet his mother that way, but I want it to be more special. I have a good plot, where they would meet each other. Also, Naruto won't be using six different bodies when he uses Six Paths technique.

[Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.]

Anyway, lets continue with the story

Chapter 10: ANBU

Naruto stared at his brother-like figure blankly as his mind registered the words Kakashi said.

"You can't be serious Kakashi nii-san!" Naruto almost yelled.

"If you want to be an ANBU, you must learn to respect your superiors, Naruto. ANBU are expected to be the most disciplined of shinobi." Kakashi said curtly. Naruto promptly quieted down on hearing that. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, knowing he couldn't go on calling Kakashi with that name.

"Gomen, Kakashi-sensei…" Naruto replied as he lowered his eyes.

"It's Kakashi-taichou now." Kakashi replied with hardened eyes. Naruto fidgeted a little under the hard stare but nodded his head anyhow. Kakashi smirked a little behind his mask, seeing Naruto's predicament. He already knew he would have a lot of fun with Naruto as his underling now.

"Your test will commence in half an hour and it will be witnessed by me, Jiraiya-sama and the next Anbu Commander. So, get everything you need before that time. Hokage-sama or Jiraiya-sama will bring you to ANBU headquarters." Kakashi said. The Copycat-ninja looked towards his sensei and Jiraiya before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Meanwhile, Minato sat on his desk with a smirk. He would finally get to see his son's strength for himself. Even though he had seen him spar with other people like Jiraiya and Kakashi as well as win against them several times, he had never had an all-out spar with Naruto. He could feel his skin tingling at the prospect of fighting someone strong.

"You aren't scared to fight me, are you Naru?" Minato asked, getting up from his chair. Naruto turned to look at his father and smiled smugly.

"We'll see who's better… Hokage-sama" Naruto said mockingly as the three tomoe sharingan in his left eye spun into life. Minato walked to the coat hanger to his desk's right, took his haori off it and wore it over his Jounin flak jacket. He turned towards Naruto and looked at him as his own blue eyes morphed into the sharingan. Jiraiya shuddered a bit, looking at the blood red eyes of both father and son. It indeed looked terrifying.

"Jiraiya-sensei, can you bring Naruto to ANBU headquarters? I will head over there beforehand to clear out some of the necessary formalities." Minato requested. A few minutes later, all three of them disappeared from the Hokage's office. While Minato used the Hiraishin no Jutsu to move to the ANBU base, Naruto and Jiraiya shunshined to the Naruto's room, so the blond could take his chokutō along with more shuriken and kunai.

Naruto's room, Namikaze Compound

A few seconds after Naruto and Jiraiya disappeared from the Hokage's office, they were now standing in the middle of Naruto's room.

Naruto hurriedly went to the closet beside his bed, where he normally kept all his storage scrolls, kunai, shuriken, shinobi attire, first aid kit and his chokutō. Opening the closet, Naruto took the chokutō in his hands that was lying idly by the back. Jiraiya watched the blond take the chokutō out of the black colored scabbard and was surprised at how well-crafted it looked. The blade looked to be around twenty-one inches in length while the handle was around nine inches. The handle of the chokutō was covered in a charcoal colored cloth, with two stripes of darker shade of charcoal color designed in the middle of the handle three inches apart and the blade was a shiny metallic black in color. Swinging the chokutō in his hands a few times, Naruto placed it back in his scabbard and placed in along his waist. Taking as many shuriken and kunai as he could, he placed in his back pouch.

Once he was done, he turned to look at Jiraiya who was quietly standing there with a serious look on his face.

"I'm ready, Jiraiya oji-chan. Let's go." Naruto confidently.

"You have come a long way, Naruto. I know you are eager to test your strength against Minato, but be aware of your surroundings when you are fighting." Jiraiya advised.

"I know Jiraiya-sensei… Just watch me okay? I won't disappoint you, tou-chan, Kakashi-taichou or anyone else." Naruto replied calmly. Without saying anything further, Jiraiya placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder and both shunshined to the ANBU headquarters.

ANBU Headquarters

The ANBU, short for Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai, is a specialized force of shinobi unit which was formed under the supervision of the Nidaime Hokage, Tobirama Senju. Shinobi recruited into the ANBU are hand-picked by the village's Kage for their individual capabilities and special traits. Following the Kage, the Anbu are generally considered the strongest shinobi within the village. The ANBU protect the village from exceptional threats, conduct high risk missions into enemy territory and deal with extremely strong shinobi. They are also responsible for carrying out assassinations, tracking, surveillance and missions requiring specially trained shinobi. However, since the group's main task is to eliminate any or all enemies of Konohagakure no Sato, they mainly undertake missions that are tasked with assassinations or disturbances in foreign nations.

The Anbu headquarters of Konohagakure no Sato is a single large building in the Hokage Mountain, a few miles behind the Hokage's Tower. To avoid the other shinobi villages from finding out the location of the Anbu headquarters, even the regular shinobi forces of the village are not made aware of the location of the base. It is for the very reason, that most of the important offices containing classified information are stored in an underground basement which is protected by a high-level protection barrier, which was designed by Mito Uzumaki herself. The Anbu headquarters has three floors above ground, which houses most of the shinobi working as Anbu agents and two floors below ground, which houses various offices, libraries, and training dojo, along with lounging an inventory room which contains vast amounts of jutsu obtained from other shinobi villages and weapons. The Anbu base of Konoha also houses a large training field located behind the main building, where the Anbu can use ninjutsu in their training spars.

Kakashi stood in his office, stacking the papers together which were Naruto's registration forms into the Anbu. Minato sat on a chair with his eyes closed, patiently waiting, while Yamato stood beside Kakashi with a thoughtful look on his face.

Yamato was about five feet and eight inches tall and had short brown hair along with black almond shaped eyes. He wore the standard attire of the Anbu- a black sleeveless jumper under a gray flack-jacket with strapped up shinobi sandals, arm length gloves with guards over them. He carried a sword strapped to his back and wore a happuri style forehead protector that resembled the Nidaime Hokage. Yamato, was once part of the Root Anbu and a subject of experimentation under Orochimaru of the Sannin. He was recovered by the Sandaime Hokage and the Anbu forces when Orochimaru was confronted by his sensei. Ever since then, Yamato had lived in the Anbu base and learned to be an Anbu shinobi since an early age.

"Inu-senpai, are you sure it's wise to let Naruto face off against Hokage-sama?" Yamato asked.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked with a raised eyebrow. Even Minato looked at Yamato to hear his reasoning.

"I mean…we have never had a test like this for any candidate earlier." Stated Yamato. Though he had never met the boy, he had heard narratives of Naruto's conflict against the two Iwagakure shinobi and his fight against the Root Anbu who were ruthlessly killed by him. He believed if the kid was capable of such feats and if his only objective was to protect Konoha, he should be allowed to join without much of a hard-pressed trial.

"It's alright Tenzo. I know what I'm doing. It's for Naruto's best interests." Kakashi replied off handedly. Yamato, whose real name was in fact Tenzo, became a bit flustered upon being called that.

"Inu-senpai, I have told you many times not to call me that!" Yamato replied with twitching eyebrows.

Once Kakashi put the stacked papers inside a folder, he blankly stared at Yamato for a second with his lone visible eye and eye smiled.

"… you take everything too seriously Yamato. Calm down once a while, would you?" Kakashi asked. Before Yamato could reply, everyone in the room felt the familiar build-up of chakra and a second later, Naruto and Jiraiya were standing in the Anbu Commander's office.

Looking around the office, Naruto took in the details and noticed it looked rather simple. A plain desk in the middle of the office, one chair for Kakashi to sit on, and two chairs on the other side of the desk. A large side-table beside the window with a plant on it and portraits of the four Hokage on the wall opposite to the window. His eyes then landed on Yamato, whom he had never seen before. He wondered if he was the one who's supposed to be the new Anbu Commander.

"Are you ready Naruto?" Minato asked, finally getting up from his chair. He wore his usual blue jumper, his Jounin flack-jacket and his white haori on top of it.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Naruto replied professionally as he turned towards his father. Walking towards his son, Minato kept his hand on Naruto's head and patted it gently a couple of times.

"You'll do well. I know it…" Minato said earnestly. Naruto merely smiled on being encouraged by his father. It always warmed his heart to know that his loved ones believed in him.

"It's time now. We should get started." Kakashi interjected the father and son. Nodding his head, Minato held on to Naruto's arm and disappeared from the room using the Hiraishin, followed by Kakashi, Yamato and Jiraiya who used to Shunshin no Jutsu.

Anbu Training Ground

The training ground behind the Anbu headquarters was basically a large clearing inside the forests which was made by the Anbu for serious sparring among themselves. The tall trees covering the clearing normally kept it hidden from the prying eyes. The training dojo inside the headquarters was merely used for taijutsu exercises, physical training, kenjutsu training as well as shuriken or kunai throwing. There was also a small lake a few hundred meters away from the clearing which provided a suitable medium for the suiton users to make use of high ranking jutsu.

As soon as everyone came into the training ground, Jiraiya and Yamato walked to the side while Kakashi walked towards Naruto. Minato had already moved to one side of the clearing and stood there with his hands folded over his chest. Walking over to the younger blonde, Kakashi stood before Naruto with a serious look on his face.

"It's not necessary for you to win the match Naruto. If Hokage-sama, Yamato and I are impressed by your style of fighting, you will be accepted into the Anbu immediately." Kakashi said.

"Hai, Kakashi-taichou." Naruto replied firmly. Kakashi then moved to the middle of the field and stood and glanced towards both Minato and Naruto once.

"Hajime!" Kakashi said out loud and immediately jumped to the spot beside Jiraiya and Yamato.

Minato calmly stood on one side of the clearing with a Hiraishin kunai in his right hand and settled into his stance for the fight. Meanwhile, Naruto stood straight with no specific stance. His face was blank and not a shred of emotion could be seen. He could feel his chakra riling up at the prospect of facing someone, against whom his victory wasn't sure. Yet, he smiled darkly at that thought. The thrill of enjoying a good battle was in his blood after all.

Taking a step ahead, Naruto slowly started walking towards Minato, but soon enough, he started pacing at an unimaginable speed. It was only to the trained and experienced eyes, that Naruto's movements were visible. In less than two seconds, Naruto was onto Minato with his chokutō drawn out in his left hand. He made a diagonal slash towards Minato from down but was stopped abruptly when his blade met with a kunai. Putting more strength into it, Naruto was surprised when he couldn't push his father back much further. Minato went for a kick to Naruto's ribs with his left leg, but it was blocked easily with Naruto's right hand.

Seeing both of Naruto's hands blocked, Minato started making one handed seals with his left hand. Seeing his father making hand seals, Naruto promptly jumped a good distance back just in time.

"Katon: Gouryuuka no Jutsu" Minato said as he expelled multiple fireballs in the shape of dragon head from his mouth towards Naruto. The dragon head shaped fireballs travelled towards Naruto at an impeccable speed who barely had any time to recover. Quickly making the Ne (rat) seal with his right hand, Naruto whispered,

"Suiton: Suijinheki". Water from the air materialized to form a large wall of water all around Naruto. As the two-opposing natured jutsu collided with each other, a thick mist enveloped the area. Seeing the thick mist, Naruto's left eye evolved to his three tomoe sharingan. Meanwhile, Minato who too had activated his sharingan, took out several more Hiraishin kunai from within his back pouch and scattered them all around the field.

Sensing his father coming straight at him from front, Naruto made a seal-less Kage Bunshin, who shunshined to another position above a tree branch. Sticking his chokutō on the ground, Naruto quickly made the Tori (bird) hand seal and began amassing quite a bit of chakra in his lungs. Just as he sensed his father was close by, his eyes widened when he just vanished from that position. By pure instinct, Naruto turned around with wide eyes when he saw his father a mere meter away, coming at him with his right hand extended. But the scariest part was the mass of chakra rotating in the shape of ball on his hand. Naruto saw his father get closer in slow motion with his sharingan and felt a strange sensation in his right eye. Unknowingly, he put his left hand forward and whispered words that he had never heard before.

"Shinra Tensei" Naruto whispered as his rinnegan glowed bright silver amid the mist. Minato saw Naruto whisper something with his sharingan, but couldn't make out what it was. However, before he could react or teleport away, he felt a tremendous force crashing into him out of nowhere. Minato flew backward instantly at a high speed while crashing into several trees. When the mist cleared, Naruto's eyes widened when he saw most of the trees in the forests were blasted away due to that invisible force.

'I see… so this is the power of the rinnegan.' Naruto thought amazed. However, he fell on one knee as he realized that the last attack had consumed a larger amount of chakra than he had anticipated. He knew he was running low on chakra and wouldn't last much longer if the fight demanded him to use jutsu consuming large chakra and decided to finish the fight as quickly as possible. Sending more chakra into his left eye, his three tomoe sharingan further evolved into the mangekyō sharingan. With a much clearer perception, he looked at the end of the path which was formed due to the earlier jutsu and widened his eyes at what he saw.

Minato stood on his right knee, taking deep breaths as a bit of blood flowed from his mouth. Surrounding him was a skeletal figure with a head and two arms and the entire thing was black in color. The eyes of the skeletal figure were hollow but they glowed bright yellow. Just when Minato was hit by the invisible force of wall, he had activated his mangekyō sharingan and was forced to use Susanoo. With his rinnegan, Naruto could see that the thing was made entirely of chakra and realized that this was the Susanoo, Kurama was talking about. For a second, Naruto wondered if would be able to form a chakra entity like that.

Wiping the blood off his mouth with his sleeve, Minato stood up, albeit a bit weakly. Sometimes, he wished he healed as fast as his son could. However, he smiled when he realized that this was fun. He had never resorted to using his Susanoo against any shinobi until now.

"Huh… now that was unexpected, Naruto…" Minato whispered to himself. Making the Hitsuji (ram) hand seal, his body became ablaze with potent chakra. His long blonde hair flapped wildly due to the large amounts of chakra that was covering him. It caused his Susanoo to develop even further. It gained muscles around it's chest, arms and face along with a skin on top.

Naruto, who was watching the entire thing, got a bad feeling about this and clasped his hands together. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the chakra that flowed in the world. Allowing the beautiful and calm chakra to enter his body, Naruto felt his chakra reserves getting filled. Opening his eyes, Naruto saw that his father's Susanoo had now formed a sword in its left hand. Minato and Naruto looked at each other briefly and both knew what was about to happen.

Minato's Susanoo pulled its arm, holding the sword back, meanwhile Naruto put his left hand up in the air. Purple chakra started to manifest around Naruto's left hand and formed a much larger hand. Minato could sense the potency of the senjutsu chakra Naruto was using and knew this attack would be fatal.

Immediately, his Susanoo pushed its hand forward along with the large sword that it was holding. Seeing the sword coming right at him, Naruto smiled darkly and formed a fist and punched his left arm forward.

"Senpo: Kami no te" Naruto yelled.

As if following his command, the larger arm manifested around Naruto's own hand also moved forward and clashed against Minato's Susanoo sword with a resounding sound. A large gust of wind blew in the area at the moment of contact. Both Minato and Naruto put large amounts of chakra behind their attack, but after a few seconds, Naruto's chakra manifested hand started pushing Minato's Susanoo sword back. Eventually, Naruto's chakra manifested arm broke through the sword and just as he was about to hit his father's Susanoo, his eyes widened again when Minato, along with his Susanoo, disappeared from the spot.

Minato instantly teleported a few meters behind Naruto with his Susanoo already gone. Taking out another kunai from his pouch, he jumped at Naruto. Sensing his father behind him, Naruto promptly ducked down. Getting hold of his chokutō, he aimed it at his father's kunai. However, Minato reacted quicker. Side stepping the attack, he kicked Naruto on the ribs with enough strength to make him fly back a couple hundred meters away. Naruto flinched at being kicked harshly, but he back flipped and came to a stop roughly, using chakra to stick to the ground. However, he wasn't given any rest when he saw his father teleporting just a few feet above him. Now that he gazed into his father's eyes, he saw his mangekyō sharingan for the first time. Both his eyes were blood red with black dot in between. Surrounding the black dot were two black concentric rings and the two rings were connected to each other with four black lines from all directions.

Quickly making a hand seal, Naruto replaced himself with the Kage Bunshin he made earlier and whispered, "Katsu". In a few milliseconds, the clone exploded. Minato was a tad bit slower, but managed to avoid the full blast by teleporting away. Again, Naruto and Minato stood facing each other. But while Minato was taking deep breaths, Naruto seemed to be completely fine as the natural energy flowing through his body kept healing him continuously.

"You really are damn strong, tou-chan…" Naruto said as he moved his left shoulder a bit.

"I can say the same about you, Naruto. You are stronger than I expected. It's amazing, you know… But I think we have played enough. It's about time we finish this." Minato stated.

"Hai, tou-chan. Let's end this." Naruto replied as he settled into his stance. Yet again, Naruto saw his father extending his right hand and forming a spherical ball made entirely of chakra which was rotating. Minato picked up a Hiraishin kunai from the ground and threw it towards Naruto speedily. Naruto took his own kunai out and ran towards Minato. Just as he dodged the kunai by side stepping it slightly, he felt it.

"Hiraishin: Ni no Dan" Minato teleported to the kunai in mid-air and pushed the rotating sphere of chakra towards Naruto. However, this time Naruto reacted much faster. Turning around instantaneously, Naruto caught his father's left wrist, but his eyes widened when he saw that the chakra sphere in his father's right hand had dissipated and instead there was a single hand seal. A Kage Bunshin of Minato burst out of the ground behind Naruto and gripped both of his hands tightly.

Before Naruto could say another word, the original Minato, who was still in mid-air, punched him in the abdomen with a chakra covered fist. At that moment, Naruto understood why people hailed the Yondaime Hokage as the fastest man ever in shinobi history and knew that this fight was over.

He had lost.

Right away, Naruto fell on the ground on his hands and knees, taking deep breaths. However, just before Minato had punched him, Naruto had covered his entire body from neck to abdomen with medical chakra to lessen the effect of the punch. It still hurt him like hell though. Minato too fell on the ground, too tired to stand anymore. It had been a long time since he had a serious fight with anyone and this one was indeed one of the best fights he had ever had.

"You didn't have to punch so hard, tou-chan!" Naruto said painfully. He laid down on the ground as the pain started to become a little less. As he stared at the noon sun, a small frown came on his face. He wondered just how much stronger his father was. He knew his father could be much more destructive and ruthless than he was a while back. It also made him wonder just how strong his grandfather was. Madara Uchiha was regarded as the strongest shinobi to ever grace the Elemental Nations along with the Shodai Hokage. Naruto wished to reach for the stars, and the way he is right now, he doubted he could do it.

"I'm proud of you, Naru." Minato said gently as he got up. Giving his hand to his son, he helped him get up and ruffled his hair playfully with a proud smile on his face. Naruto blushed a bit at being praised but smiled nonetheless. It always elated him whenever his father said that.

Jiraiya, Yamato and Kakashi stood at the side with disbelief written in their eyes. Kakashi and Yamato had both gone through the Third Shinobi War and yet none of them had ever witnessed a battle of this scale. Jiraiya remembered his, Tsunade and Orochimaru's fight against Hanzou the Salamander. Even he doubted if that battle would come close to this one if Minato and Naruto escalated to using more destructive jutsu. He knew neither Minato nor Naruto had used the full extent of their strength. He shuddered to even think about it. Both were above the norms of normal shinobi.

"I do hope, and I really mean it… I hope Naruto never thinks about defecting Konoha. If he does, there would be nothing we could ever do to stop him." Yamato said a bit fearfully. He couldn't comprehend what he had witnessed right now. A mere ten-year-old went toe to toe with the Yondaime Hokage and with time, Naruto would only grow much stronger.

"Let's hope it never comes to that…" Kakashi whispered.

Kakashi, too, was widely shocked. He knew Naruto was exceptionally strong, but this was beyond his imagination. He had realized that the only reason his sensei won was because he was faster than Naruto.

'He certainly has grown a lot stronger than I expected in the last couple of years.' Kakashi thought.

A few seconds later, all three of them walked to the center of the field where Naruto and Minato were standing. Even though none of them severely injured, both were physically tired due to using excessive amount of chakra.

"You guy sure did a number on this ground." Jiraiya said sarcastically as he approached his two students. He laughed when both father and son rubbed the back of their sheepishly when they looked around. A lot of the trees were uprooted from their spots. There were several small craters on the ground along with a large part of the forest literally wiped out.

"I guess we did go a bit overboard…" Minato said with a laugh. Jiraiya, Kakashi and Yamato chuckled awkwardly at how easily that was said.

"So…?" Naruto asked as he looked towards Kakashi.

"I would have allowed you either way, Naruto. I just wanted you to realize for yourself where all you could improve upon. You still need to work on your kenjutsu skills a lot. A chokutō won't be of any use if you lose it in the middle of the fight." Kakashi said. Naruto sighed in relief and nodded his head seriously, already knowing some of the places he could improve in. However, the most important thing he needed to learn was about his two doujutsu. He shut out all doubts he had about not joining the Anbu now. If he wanted to make a change in the Elemental Nations, then he needed to understand how it worked, he needed to understand the people who made it work, the circumstances that peeved way for this current system of shinobi.

"That was a truly amazing fight Naruto." Yamato said as extended his hand to Naruto.

"Thank you…?" Naruto trailed off rather awkwardly, not knowing his name.

"Oh, I'm Yamato." Naruto shook his hand with a somewhat forced smile. A few minutes later once Naruto collected his chokutō and Minato collected his Hiraishin kunai, all five of them returned to Kakashi's office in the Anbu headquarters to finalize Naruto's initiation into the Anbu Black Ops.

Evening, Hyūga Compound

Still weak from the wound she had received the day before yesterday, Hinata quietly sat on her bed beside the window. She wasn't allowed to go outside the Hyūga compound until she had recovered fully and was thus resigned to stay in her room most of the time. Even though she could walk a little better now, she couldn't walk for longer than half an hour without flinching or feeling the pain in her stomach. Even then, someone had to be there with her all the time when she was out of the bed.

Sighing, Hinata gazed upon at the moon that was now visible. It was a little over seven now and the evening sky always mesmerized her. The orange and reddish hue coming together around the setting sun and the moon- it was truly elegant. However, her minded wandered off to the promise which Naruto had made last night. She had a feeling he was not going to show up and probably wouldn't for a while. She didn't know why, but hearing his voice yesterday, she had realized something was troubling him greatly, but as usual she had kept quiet, knowing that he was hiding something. Sometimes, she wished Naruto told her everything about him, told her everything that was troubling him. However, she felt more anger towards Naruto right now, rather than feeling sad. She never lied to him, listened to him when he was feeling a little down and always stood by his side ever since she met him. Yet he never reciprocated those acts truthfully.

Neji, who was passing by outside, saw the door to Hinata's room slightly open and felt that he should check up on her. Despite being from the branch family, he had cared for Hinata like a sister since he was young and tried protecting her to the best of his limits. But over the past few years, he had been so immersed in his training in the fighting style of the Hyūga Clan and academy that he hardly got any time to see her. But he was glad that there was someone out there protecting her. He had never met the Yondaime Hokage's son in person, but he knew Naruto and Hinata were close friends. At the same time, he was a little worried due to the quietness that had enveloped her these past couple of days.

Walking up to her room's door, he knocked on in a couple of times.

Hinata looked towards the door and smiled for mere second when she saw that it was her cousin, Neji. Seeing her nod, Neji walked into the room and stood before her bed. He frowned a little on seeing the blank look on her face.

"Is something troubling you, Hinata-sama?" Neji asked politely.

"I just feel a bit tired… that's all." Hinata replied slowly.

"I could always tell when you are sad or lying, Hinata-sama." Neji said. Hinata sighed once again, knowing she was never that good at hiding things.

"I want to become stronger, Neji nii-san." Hinata whispered, once again looking out of the window. Neji became quiet for a few seconds as he observed Hinata's behavior carefully.

"Is this about Naruto…?" Neji asked. Hinata closed her eyes briefly on hearing his name and became quiet.

"…do you like him, Hinata-sama?" Neji asked curiously. He probably knew the answer to that question but he just wished to hear it from her. But before she could reply, Hiashi walked into the room with his usual stoic expression on her face.

"Neji, it's time for dinner. Let Hinata rest now." Hiashi said. Glancing towards his daughter, Hiashi saw how fragile she looked as of now. He mentally cursed Danzo, because of him, she had ended up this way.

"Hinata, your kaa-san will bring the dinner to room, okay?" Hiashi said, as gently as he could. Hinata nodded with a small smile while Neji reluctantly left the room with the Hyūga Clan head. Had he stayed a little longer, he would have probably heard Hinata's reply.

"Yes… I do like him, Neji nii-san." Hinata whispered to herself.

Two Months later

The darkness enveloping the room was almost palpable.

The only thing visible in the darkness of the room was a pair of two strange eyes. While one was completely blood red, the other was a bright silver. He sat on the bed with the Washi(eagle) mask on his face. Instead of the standard Anbu attire, he wore a black, full sleeved jumper under a gray flack-jacket with black shinobi sandals. He also wore his black gloves along with arm-length guards. His chokutō was beside him, leaning against his left thigh while he merely stared at the small window which was closed.

It was an excruciating couple of months for Naruto. Not so much physically, but mentally. Before he joined the Anbu, he believed one's battle prowess and ability to perform well in arduous situations were the only necessary requirement. But he wasn't declared field ready until he had a better understanding of the inner workings of the village, the general outline of other Great four nations and minor villages in the Elemental Nations along with the strict rules by which every Anbu agent is supposed to abide by. So, he had to spend a lot of hours immersed in books, to soak up the information. Due to the amount of time he was spending in the Anbu headquarters, he too had gotten a room in the main building like Itachi where he could sleep and rest.

However, those were not the only problems the blond had gone through. Naruto was the youngest member to join the ranks of Anbu Black ops since its foundation. While there were some who did not like the fact that a young kid such as him was joining their ranks, some flatly ignored Naruto for being the jinchuriki of the Kyubi no Kitsune which took the lives of many of their family members along with several of their brethren who fought against the demon fox, ten years ago. Almost everyone in the Anbu Black Ops knew that the youngest operative was Naruto, but the hatred and ignorance that had settled into the hearts of many clouded their judgment of Naruto's character. Even though it saddened Naruto to know that some people still couldn't accept him, never once did he say anything against them. He hoped once he had proved himself, that they too would call him one of their own.

Despite a small fraction of people who disliked the blond, a larger number of shinobi in the Anbu respected Naruto for what he was doing. They viewed him as one of their own for having the desire to protect the Leaf and having the will to sacrifice everything for the sake of Konoha's people. They viewed him as a hero for keeping the mighty Kyubi no Kitsune at bay. Three days after Naruto had fought against Minato, he was introduced to his new team- Team Ro by Yamato, who was appointed as the new Anbu Commander due to Kakashi's retirement from the Anbu Black Ops. And Naruto couldn't be happier with the people who were in his team.

In the last couple of months, Naruto had not only learned about the working of the village and Anbu, but had also further advanced his skills, especially in kenjutsu. He wasn't following a specific style in kenjutsu nor had he become extremely proficient, but his daily spars with Itachi and Yugao who were adept in this art helped Naruto improved his stance and balance substantially.

Holding his chokutō and strapping it to his back, Naruto walked closer to the window and opened it. The light from the sun immediately illuminated the once dark room. Upon hearing the birds' chirping and inhaling the fresh air, a small smile came on Naruto's face behind his Anbu mask. One of the things he liked about being in Anbu was the quiet time he got when he was not studying or training. Despite improving in several areas over the course of two months, his most notable achievements were the several abilities of rinnegan and mangekyō sharingan he discovered during his training and the jutsu his father taught him.

Flashback One Month and Three weeks ago

Naruto sat in a meditative position in the same training field where he had fought his father about a week earlier. He had both his hands clasped together and his eyes closed. His calm face portrayed the amount of concentration he had right now. A few seconds later, he started to levitate off the ground. A couple meters at first, but as a few more minutes passed, he reached a height of ten meters above the ground and simply stayed there.

The day Naruto used the jutsu, Shinra Tensei, he realized that the invisible wall of force that made his father to fall back several hundred meters, was gravitational force. It had also made him wonder that if he could repel objects, then, could he also pull the objects towards himself? However, when he had tried to do that, he didn't have much success in it. He thought, if he had better control over repelling objects using gravity, the other one would naturally come to him.

About half an hour later, Naruto suddenly fell to the ground, unable to keep the gravity around himself stable much longer. Before he contacted the ground, Naruto made the Tori hand seal and a small circle of wind formed just below him, slowing down his fall. He simply laid flat on the ground and stared at the clouds in the sky move. His mind wandered off to the jutsu he saw his father using during their fight. He had never seen a jutsu like that before. When he saw the jutsu with his rinnegan, he understood that his father was rotating the chakra in his hands in one direction in the shape of a ball at high speeds. He was simply mesmerized at the simplicity of the jutsu because of it not requiring any hand seals.

Sitting up, he put his right arm forward and visualized the spinning ball of chakra he had seen in his father's hand. Opening his eyes, he saw his chakra forming a spherical shape about the size of a soccer ball and spinning in clockwise direction. But just as it formed, the chakra soon dispersed. He tried once more, but again, the result was the same. For the next few minutes, Naruto kept on trying it repeatedly, but every time, it was the same result- the chakra would form a spherical shape, but a second or two later, it would dissipate. Annoyed that he couldn't do it, Naruto laid back down on the ground. Seeing as he did not have much to do rest of the day, he closed his eyes and dozed off to sleep. Kakashi, who was standing atop a tree branch, watching the blonde train from afar, smiled underneath his mask at Naruto's tenacity.

'He doesn't realize how close he is…' Kakashi thought with a chuckle, as he shunshined to the Hokage's office.

A few hours later, Naruto moved a bit in his sleep when he felt someone poke him on his cheek lightly. Opening his eyes slowly, he smiled on seeing his father crouching beside him. Looking up at the sky, his eyes widened a bit when he realized he had slept for more than four hours. He immediately got up from the ground and stretched his arms and legs to get the blood flowing. Minato chuckled a bit at Naruto's realization of what the time of the day it was.

"What are you doing here, tou-chan?" Naruto asked.

"Well, I just finished my work at the office. I thought I could spend some time with you here. You are hardly at home anyway…" Minato said.

"I have a lot to study to get field ready. You already know that, tou-chan!" Naruto replied. Even though Naruto knew this would happen once he joined Anbu, he still missed home a lot.

"It wasn't easy to explain to Mikoto and Tsunade-sama. They weren't happy with your decision… I guess Mikoto's still a little upset." Minato said frankly.

"I… will talk to her soon, tou-chan." Naruto said rather sadly. Both then walked a little deeper into the forest and sat under the shade of a tall tree. Naruto leaned against his father's shoulder and made himself comfortable, the way he used to do it when he was much younger.

"Tou-chan?" Naruto asked.

"Hai?"

"What was that jutsu you used in the fight last time? The jutsu where you made your chakra rotate in a specific direction?" Naruto asked.

"You mean this one?" Minato asked as he extended his left arm forward and formed a Rasengan in his hand.

"Hai. What's it called?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Rasengan. I created it after I saw a Bijuudama for the first time. Bijuudama is a tailed beast's ultimate attack." Minato replied. It was during his Anbu days when he was around seventeen years that he faced off against the Yonbi jinchuriki, Roshi- Yoton no Roshi. That was his first time fighting a jinchuriki and the first time he had ever seen a Bijuudama. That was when he had the idea of forming a jutsu, fundamentally resembling a Bijuudama.

"Really tou-chan? You created it?" Naruto asked astonished. Naruto stared at his father with slightly wide eyes as he saw him nod.

"Would you teach it to me? I tried to do it earlier, but I couldn't do it properly." Naruto asked persuasively. He extended his right arm and did the same thing he tried a few hours ago. His chakra took the shape of spherical ball and rotated in the clockwise direction, but again after a few seconds the chakra just dissipated. Now, it was Minato whose eyes widened greatly on seeing that.

"How did you do that Naru?" Minato asked dumbfounded.

"I saw you perform the jutsu with my rinnegan and understood the basic concept of it." Naruto replied frankly. Upon hearing that, Minato gained a thoughtful look on his face and concluded a key fact. In a way, the rinnegan resembled the sharingan. However, unlike the sharingan, which helped one copy another person's jutsu, the rinnegan gave the user a basic understanding of it.

"Show it to me again" Minato requested as he sat upright. Naruto, doing the same once again, put his right arm forward and tried forming a rasengan, but the result was the same as before. Minato observed the rasengan carefully and noted that it lacked stability and power.

"You need to condense your chakra more into that sphere. Use more chakra and contain it in that sphere. The rasengan is primarily formed of three steps. First is the rotation, where you concentrate chakra in your hand and make it spin in one direction. The second step is Power. In this step, you add a stronger concentration of chakra to add to the chakra flow. Finally, the third step is containment. In this step, you combine step one and step two to form a small shell around the spinning chakra to prevent it from dissipating. In simpler words, this step consists of controlling the rotation and the power of the chakra at the same time. When you are able to do that, a small shell is formed around the rotating chakra which contains it and prevents it from dissipating." Minato explained thoroughly.

Naruto listened to every word thoroughly and understood what his father was trying to say. Closing his eyes, he concentrated chakra on the palm of his hands and made it spin in a clockwise direction. Simultaneously, he pushed more chakra into it, making the spinning ball of chakra much denser. This time, the rasengan lasted in his hands for about twenty seconds before it dissipated. However, Naruto smiled upon seeing that he was getting the hang of it. Minato who was silently observing Naruto had an extremely proud look on his face. This same jutsu took about three years to create and master. And here was his son, doing the same thing in not even less than a day.

'It's not long before you surpass even me, Naru…' Minato proudly thought.

For the next hour, Naruto kept on trying to concentrate on both rotation as well as power at the same time and the small smile evident on his face showed that he was slowly getting better at it.

"Tou-chan, can you show me your rasengan once again? I think I almost got it." Naruto stated. Nodding his head, Minato once again formed the rasengan in his hand and kept the chakra spinning for a longer time. Looking at the rasengan with his rinnegan more closely, Naruto observed how the rotation of the chakra and the density of the chakra complimented each other and were always in constant proportion. Even if one was greater than the other, the rasengan won't remain stable for long. Minato soon dispersed the rasengan spinning in his hand once he noticed Naruto was going to try doing it himself again.

Concentrating chakra on the palm of his right hand again, Naruto made it spin clockwise and supplied it with ample amount of chakra. Making sure that the amount of chakra being supplied was proportional to the speed of the rotation, Naruto smiled widely when he saw that the violet colored spinning ball of chakra remained stable in his hands.

'Your mother would be proud of you, Naru.' Minato thought as a few tears dropped from his eyes, unnoticed by Naruto.

Flashback End

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the door to his room open. He turned towards the door and smiled upon seeing the familiar shade of silky black hair.

"We need to leave for the mission now, Washi." Said Mikasa. She had long black silky hair that reached down to her waist that complimented her dark onyx eyes and pale skin. Despite being only fifteen, she was tall for her age and seemed to be physically fit. She wore the standard Anbu attire of sleeveless black jumper with a gray armor on top and a katana strapped to her back. She had been a member of team Ro, even before Naruto had joined the team. Like Naruto, she too was a close, mid-range and a long-range fighter. But, her main skills were in utilizing the raiton and suiton natured chakra.

"Hai, Usagi-senpai." Naruto replied.

Once both Naruto and Mikasa left the room, they headed straight to their team's usual rendezvous point which was exactly a mile to the north of the Anbu headquarters. After a few minutes of jumping atop the tree branches outside the Anbu main building, both came to a stop when they found all members of Team Ro to be waiting there.

Itachi, who was wearing the Karasu(crow) mask, stood to the side quietly, leaning against the bark of a tree with his eyes closed. Shisui wearing the Tora(bird) mask stood beside Karasu, talking to Yugao, who wore the Neko(cat) mask. Itachi opened his eyes behind the mask once he was sure everyone was here.

"Let's get moving." Karasu stated. All the other members of Team Ro nodded their heads on hearing their team captain's orders and a second later everyone started moving towards the west gate of the village.

So, that's a wrap for this chapter! I will try posting the next chapter by May 23, 2017.

Next chapter onwards, I will begin incorporating the antagonists in the story as well. Now, Akatsuki's timeline of capturing the bijuus will also change due to the change in timeline of certain events I will be making in this story. Also, since Itachi never joined the Akatsuki in this story, there will be some new members in the group too. The Akatsuki members will be pretty damn strong. Some like Kisame who is naturally strong, Kakazu who was years and years of experience, Sasori, Nagato, will be exceptionally strong.

Team Ro- includes Naruto, Itachi, Shisui, Yugao and Mikasa. I got the idea of her character from shingeki no kyojin. I will mostly be going into details about Naruto's life in ANBU, his relationship with his team mates and how he brings others in ANBU to believe in him. So, the next five to six chapters will be mostly be about the events that Naruto will go through, while in ANBU. However, as I said earlier, I will also include how the Konoha 11 will be progressing during the time Naruto will be away.

I really appreciate with the reviews I am getting. Makes me really glad that many people are interested in this story. Thanks to some who help me out with the grammar mistakes that go unnoticed by me!

Once again, Do follow and favorite the story if you come to like it. And do leave a review.

Until next time!