Life upon the battle torn plain, like rain within the desert is often short and violent. Nothing in this world of War explains why we fight. Why in this world of plenty we battle over extra.

Naruto closed his journal and tucked it deep into the pocket on his outer thigh. In his second year he had begun keeping a journal full of his musings, Danzo allowed him to keep this small outlet like he did for all of his agents. Sai liked to paint, Naruto wrote, Fu who had become a member of Naruto's Root team after indoctrination had taken to carving. Danzo understood that, despite his heavy conditioning of most of his agents, shinobi needed an outlet or their longtime effectiveness will decline.

Slipping his pencil back into a black kunai holder Naruto stood up. Gone were the flamboyant colors of his coat, now his coat; shirt, and pants were a mixture of black and gray. His movements processed a sort of unnatural grace as he crossed the clearing while nodding to his teammates. The three of them vanished into the night without the slightest noise.

They had left Konoha 13 hours ago, the traitor to Konoha was dealt with and now they had to deliver the proof of completion to Danzo and go about their lives. Sai and Naruto would have 4 hours to sleep before they had to report to the mission briefing with Kakashi and Sakura. Fu would be able to stay on the base; rest and train until her teammates came back for the next mission.

The team re-entered Konoha through the sewers, the passage way was dark but to the root Nin it was a well traversed home. They knew every stop and exactly which bricks to press to open the secret door hidden within the walls. It took several minutes to navigate the maze of tunnels to reach the Root base.

The halls were filled with silent figures wearing the same blank masks that the three young root agents adorned. The other members bowed to the team as they passed. Finally they reached a thick oak door, Sai and Fu kneeled as Naruto knocked quietly on the door.

"Come."

Naruto pushed open the door and dropped to his knee as his commander was revealed, Danzo sat on a chair with candles on a small desk beside him. Naruto held out the scroll containing the missing Nin's head. "The mission has been completed, Danzo-Oji-sama."

Danzo inaudibly sighed; it seemed even with the changes that had occurred to the blond over the last two years couldn't change his desire to nickname his superiors. The old shinobi knew that there was no disrespect in his blond subordinate's actions. The cripple nodded, "turn your report in with the armory then rest up and meet with Kakashi's team.

"Hai, Danzo-sama."

The three nodded and left their commander to dispose of the remains scroll. Naruto and Sai nodded to Fu and turned down a hallway to the right. Once there they changed into their normal clothes and left their blank masks within their lockers.

Several hours later the duo sat patiently in a clearing at training ground 7, they had arrived an hour early and now awaited their teammate and Sensei. Both sat cross-legged on the ground with scroll and brush in hand. Six months into training under Danzo the old man had noticed that the blond was sitting on a bench drawing and discarding seals. It surprised the Root leader to find out that Kakashi had taken what skills he had and increased the budding seal writer's progress immensely.

In those six months Naruto had progressed and surpassed Kakashi; moving on from simple storage seals to more extravagant designs. At that point the blond had been able to lay down a wide zone gravity increase seal with mere momentary distraction from his allies. He would carve four seals into rocks or trees and leave shadow clones to power them in a roughly square formation around the target. Once the seals were activated the target would feel gravity increase 3 fold and be trapped until released or dealt with.

After personal tutoring from Danzo his skill level had again increased at a prodigious level. After a year within Root the blond had taken Sai on as an apprentice, he had remarked that since the artist's main abilities focused on his skills with the brush it would be a shame not to expand.

While Sai's seal marking wasn't anywhere near the level of Naruto's he had still managed to make good progress under the blonde's tutorship.

Sai quietly held up his scroll, with rapidly drying ink, to his teammate and Sempai. The blonde's eyes zeroed in on it and rapidly started dissecting every line and curve. "Tell me what you think is wrong with it."

Sai's lips momentarily thinned, this was what happened whenever his teacher noticed a problem with his seals. Naruto believed that experience was the best teacher and as such he would tell Sai if it was wrong or not but not what the problem is, that he would have to figure out for himself.

The pale artist took back the scroll and began scrutinizing it, 20 minutes later he was almost at the edge of frustration. He couldn't find anything wrong with it, as far as he could tell when activated the seal should be able to absorb chakra if it was in a controlled form like that of a jutsu.

Rolling up the scroll he put it down and picked up another with a different set of brushes. On this scroll was a painting full of vibrant oranges and reds, Naruto had taken him up to the top of the Hokage Monument after discovering his painting habit in the fall. The changing of the trees that surrounded the village and the majesty of the village that rose out of them finally enabled the emotionally challenged root agent to understand why Danzo loved Konoha so much.

While the old man was cold and seldom understanding he did let his emotions bleed through when it was for Konoha. He may have felt slighted that he wasn't chosen for Hokage but years of serving with Hiruzen had made it understandable why the Second had told him that one must always remain in the dark.

Five minutes into filling in the coloring of the trees Sai had a moment of clarity, the secondary chakra absorption relay had been turned too far to the left. Pulling out a new scroll Sai quickly redrew the seal with the corrections and showed the finish project to Naruto, just as Sakura and Kakashi appeared at the edge of the clearing.

The blond gave a small smile and rolled up his own scroll after blowing on the ink, "Well done, Sai."

"Thank you Sempai."

"Naruto, Sai. If art class is over, Jiraiya-sama has finally been convinced to return to test the teams progress."

Naruto didn't even look up as he put away his brushes, "You mean to test my progress and try to convince me that I'm still to weak."

"Yes, well. You won't be fighting alone since I want to see how far Sai and Sakura have progressed when fighting a powerful unfamiliar opponent."

"So we're fighting a Sanin today, Sensei?"

"Yes Sakura, we have to report to Tsunade-sama in an hour for the test."

With a nod the three walked out of the trees and back towards the village.

The sun was slowly crawling across the sky when they reached the familiar white and red tower. When outside Root headquarters Naruto had taken to wearing a similar outfit to his past, black pants and black sandals, his dark green chunin vest and a dark maroon long sleeve shirt. He had taken the chunin exam with Sakura and Sai the year before but neither Sakura nor Sai perfered to wear the vest.

Sakura was wearing a red dress similar to when she was younger with black gloves and knee high boots. Sai had finally forgone the half shirts he had been used to after an unfortunate experience with one Ino Yamanaka. Sai now wore a tight black shirt with only one sleeve that connected to a glove and black combat pants.

Once past the secretary they were let into the Hokage's office, she was sitting there with a slightly more red than average completion, combined with her slightly faster than usual heart beat it was likely she was either ill or emotionally distressed.

"Team 7 Jiraiya is waiting at the Hokage training ground behind the mountain, find him and beat him until he stops moving. Then drag him back here so I can say I told you so."

Naruto and Kakashi chuckled while Sakura smiled and even Sai allowed a brief tightening of his face. It appeared that the old pervert had come back still believing that Naruto had made the wrong decision. Over the last three years, on the record, team 7 and Naruto had completed 76 A ranks 129 B ranks and 37 C ranks. They each had a page in the bingo book of other countries and were often a requested team by clients. The idea that Jiraiya dismissed all of this had apparently enraged the blond Hokage.

"With pleasure, Tsunade-Sama."

"Kakashi, you're allowed to join to. I know of your secret training and I want to see your results."

The silver haired team leader stiffened momentarily before relaxing and giving his Hokage an eye smile, "Hai, Tsunade-sama."

The four members of squad 7 disappeared in a variety of different Shunshin, Tsunade looked up from her paperwork with an absolutely menacing smile before disappearing in her own Shunshin to follow her favorite team. She couldn't wait to see that smug look wiped off her teammate's face.

The Hokage training grounds were similar to the other training grounds but larger and there was a seal that would surround the area in a barrier so the mass amounts of Jutsu thrown around wouldn't affect the village. Jiraiya looked the same as he always had, white hair down to his ankles and red vest.

He sat on top of a training post in the middle of the main clearing, he calmly wrote in his notebook while occasionally giggling even as he ignored the team of shinobi in front of him.

The four had taken the time to travel and discuss their plans to deal with the Sannin. Kakashi figured out a long time ago that Jiraiya would need to be convinced by force that Naruto was getting strong enough without relying solely upon the Kyuubi.

With a slight nod from Kakashi the four glowed momentarily as their weight and restriction seals were deactivated before disappearing with the wind. Jiraiya's head shot up as the four disappeared from his senses. It was obvious they had become strong but he still had lessons to teach them.

Author's Notes:

Naruhana14445: I'm not sure if there will be any pairings in this story it's possible but I don't have a plan for it yet.

Serialkeller: Naruto will be stronger than Kakashi but at the same time Kakashi won't be as much of a pushover as he is in cannon. He will be mid kage level at least when not using the Mangekyo. And the Waterfall is an ally to Konoha but in my story they are going through a coup at this time and the conspirators have discovered how to make the other larger villages start fighting each other and had planned to take out the weakest of the winners and take over their lands.

Wondering what you guys think of Naruto's skill level and overall the changes that have been made to him. I'll probably have to start writing slower soon because I am not back at school and things will start getting busy.