He was waiting again. He'd watched teams coming and going from the room with all the awareness a rabbit did just before a hawk turned it from a fluffy herbivore into a meal.

He mentally ticked off the number of kills he could have made in the time between the first team coming in and the latest one.

Ignoring consequences like the Hokage being in the room, adding on inaccuracies he could incur if he were to lose concentration or fall asleep, and assuming nobody noticed the rapidly rising body count in the room, he estimated maybe 50 or so. Maybe more if he was lucky.

Still, he was glad he had mastered a state of half alertness that allowed him to get some rest whilst he waited. It wasn't sleep, it wasn't being fully awake. It was a sort of magic in-between zone that could tide him over until he needed to properly sleep.

It was still enough for him to quickly get away if he needed to. If he was found in the first place. All he needed to do was hold his various hiding genjutsu up. The air around him was laced with a lot of his chakra.

In any case, he was now carefully watching a conversation he hadn't expected to see.

The Hokage was talking, respectfully and normal to a pug dog that was sitting on his desk. Wearing a vest. Speaking plain English. With a headband.

He knew summoning animals existed, and knew that these must be the nin dogs of Hatake Kakashi. He had decided to further research the first person who had genuinely found him when he was hiding. He found himself impressed by the man's work.

He was still fascinated. At least the bits of him that weren't working out how easily the dogs could find him or if he could kill them were. There was only a 3.7% chance, and he decided to ignore the possibility.

He could read the Hokage's lips easily, but the dog's voice was muffled and with its back turned, he could only see half the conversation. He wondered if there was a jutsu he could use to hear at a distance. That would be useful.

"The Demon Brothers? No doubt he took care of that."

There was gruff, bark like voice of the dog.

"Continuing with the mission after the genin requested to. Brave. But stupid. I'll chat to him about that later."

More talking. It sounded urgent.

"I would send backup, but there isn't a team to send right now. I mean, I could but will it be necessary?"

The dog's head tilted.

"What do I mean I could? Well let me look above and see if anything reveals itself to me."

He looked up into the air and blew a smoke ring upwards in a lazy, satisfied manner. To the dog on the table, it was a gesture that was confusing, smug and utterly unexpected.

Naruto read the way it was said, the body language and the words.

He had a choice to go as backup on a mission that would be potentially dangerous. He was being asked if he wanted it.

He dropped from where he was lying on a rafter neatly down behind the dog, which turned and looked him over.

"He's a little short Hokage-sama, is he a genin?"

"No Pakkun, he's a special case. He's your team's backup, tell Kakashi Naruto will be shadowing the mission as backup. Shadowing mind, he'll act as he sees fit."

Pakkun gave him a closer examination. He looked intently at his outfit and gear, he took in the headband, he sniffed him and recoiled with a disgusted, gruff whimper.

"When was the last time you washed?"

Naruto considered.

"A week ago? I don't really keep track of these things."

"You smell like the forest."

"Considering how much time I've spent shadowing teams in forests, it helps avoid detection."

"What on earth are you?"

"An assassin."

The dog looked at Hiruzen with an incredulous expression on its pug features.

"Seriously?"

He nodded.

"No. Seriously? He's the real deal?"

"Pretty much."

The dog looked at Naruto one final time.

"Right, you better get going towards Wave country. I'll de-summon to report back to Kakashi, and I might see you out there."

Naruto was up and onto the rooftops in seconds.

Pakkun turned back to face the Hokage.

"I really hope you you're right about this kid. He scares me. Too quiet. He's not normal."

"He isn't."

The dog shook its head and vanished in a puff of smoke.

As he bounced from tree to tree, Naruto realised that he was feeling more...alive than he had for awhile.

He had no idea what the feeling was, but he was feeling it and it was pleasant. More than pleasant.

The wind going through his hair, pushing his hood back, his mind focused on moving tree to tree and readiness to unleash his bow on his targets.

Byakugan active, he sped forwards.

Then suddenly something was blocking his vision. The mist had chakra in it. That was interesting. He slowed to prepare a strategy.

Going into the mist would be suicide, if someone was generating a chakra mist whilst attacking the team; it was likely they were going to be quite powerful. And more than likely they would know if he did go into the mist.

He moved round the edge of the mist, crossbow held loaded in his hands. His Byakugan vision swam in front of him as he watched both real and greyscale worlds at the same time. He traced the edge, looking for anything.

He found something.

Another figure, masked, sitting on a tree branch, waiting tensely just inside the mist, head twitching as it followed the movement of the fighting below.

He aimed the bow, looking to pierce the neck just under the mask. A gust of wind made the mist gently whisp around his leg, only the slightest of touches. But it was a touch nonetheless.

The figure looked round, seemingly able to sense what was happening in the mist and was just able to avoid the bolt as it sizzled past.

By then Naruto was gone, hiding in the shadows his genjutsu cast. But his assailant had some control over the mist and was flooding the area he was in.

Naruto made a shadow clone and backed off before the mist could reach his position.

He moved back and around, keeping to cover, his cloak blending with the world around him perfectly. He heard the twang as his clone fired its bow, and then saw the smoke and gained the memories of the clone.

'Senbon. Well aimed too. They are very quick.'

He silently cursed the fact the encroaching mist that was expanding to cover the ninja's back. Given their reaction time for the first shot, they'd be watching themselves even more carefully.

Oh well, he had alternatives.

He snuck closer, keeping away from the mist just in case it pushed forwards a bit further until he had sight of the ninja. From somewhere in the mist there was a sound like a tidal wave smashing into the ground and the ninja prepared to move. Naruto made another clone and got it into position, the plan the same as the originals.

He began to form hand signs, the jutsu being prepared as fast as he could. He hadn't had much time to practise it since he'd seen it for the first time, but Kurenai had performed it in full view of him and his memory was good.

Just as he hit the final hand sign as the clone fired at the figure. As expected, they whipped round to find the source of the attack, senbon needles held in one hand.

He unleashed the genjutsu, hopeful that it would work even without that much practise and formed ad hoc.

The figure froze and cried out in pain. The clone rushed forwards, dropping the bow and drawing the tanto blade of its back to go in for the kill whilst the original focused on maintaining the genjutsu.

Naruto grimaced as he continued to try and flood his targets mind with terrible ways to die. It was difficult to explain exactly how a genjutsu like this worked, or even how the chakra transfer involved worked properly, but it was like trying to control a puppet from a long distance. His target was fighting the genjutsu.

The clone thrust forward straight for the target's heart as it clapped its hands together.

"Kai!"

Naruto felt the genjutsu break and panted from the excursion. The strike from the tanto slammed into the ninja's clapped hands, going between both but not into the chest. The ninja kicked out fast and knocked the clone away before disappearing deeper into the mist. A crossbow bolt from the original sailed through where they had been and thudded into a tree.

A few moments later, and the mist began to recede. At least the chakra within it did.

Naruto dispelled the clone as he caught his breath. That was far too much like the way other shinobi fought. He had failed to get his kill.

He made a note to re-evaluate the action in his head. Right now, he was on a mission. That came first.

He activated the Byakugan from the undergrowth where the ninja had been.

He recognised the team as the one who had been his first mission. Kakashi was down, and with the Byakugan he could see that his chakra levels were down and that he was unconscious.

His mind blitzed through the options. Kakashi was alive, but heavily exerted. His foe had disappeared when the crash of water had happened, so presumably Kakashi had won his fight. Any foe capable of exhausting him was probably powerful, but alone. That made it unlikely any more attacks were coming. They were close enough to wave country to ensure that.

All of that boiled down to a few simple objectives for Naruto.

'1) Stay hidden and shadow the team

2) Kill any further threats without any kind of delay, taking charge of the mission if need be

3) Report to Kakashi with information when convenient.'

He took to the trees and followed the team as they made their way to the Wave village.

The next day

Kakashi walked slowly away on his crutches as he left his team to the tree climbing exercise.

Zabuza had been a somewhat expected twist in this. Obviously whoever wanted Tazuna dead was willing to pay big money to achieve his goal. That narrowed down the options considerably, and only a few really came to mind. Turns out he'd gone and got himself a man who specialised in killing and water jutsu.

The shipping merchant Gato, a man so rich that even the full military might of Konoha was cautious in dealing with him. Economics was a battlefield that most Kage didn't like to tread, the civilians and Daimyo's being the warriors of such conflicts.

Gato was corrupt as hell, a fact so universally known that he had stopped bothering to hide it. But he was clever and cunning. That made things difficult for Kakashi. Still, too late to back out of this mission.

He stumped slowly up the stairs of Tazuna's house back to his room. He couldn't show it in front of his students, but his exhaustion was so extreme he'd probably need another day's bed-rest before he could be up and about again properly, and a week until he could fight at full power. Still, there was a crumb of comfort that he wasn't the only one who wouldn't be up and about soon. Zabuza would be a few days in healing as well.

He slithered onto the sleeping mat and closed his visible eye. He felt the whisper of the breeze through the window caress the skin and pulled his mask down to experience the sensation on his face.

It took a moment, but he realised that window hadn't been open when he had left the room earlier that morning. And he had been the last one out. He reopened the eye to see the cloaked figure standing over his bed roll.

"So that's what you look like under your mask. What did that?"

"An ANBU mission clusterfuck. My first mission. Someone blew our cover and there were suddenly jutsu everywhere. I ended up facing several Kumo nin who knew some wind jutsu. They left an impression on me before I could take care of them."

He pulled the mask down once more to show his lower face. It wasn't all that bad in Naruto's book. A long scar ran from one side of his face to the other under his mouth. It was fairly clean, but still a thin line of red, ruined skin that ran across his face. Odd, but nothing truly disgusting. The kind of scar that ladies might find dashing and heroic would have been a good way of describing it, but Naruto was ignorant of such a thought.

"Wind jutsu aren't nice to be on the end of. This one was half an inch from killing me. I was the only one that made it out."

The cloaked figure stood still.

"How did it really happen?"

"Do I have to explain it again? ANBU, wind jutsu, cut me open badly."

"You're lying. The wound is too jagged to be caused by a wind jutsu; the scar is too established to be less than ten years old as my guess. Your ANBU time started more than then years ago. Kumo nin tend to prefer lightning or earth jutsu to wind jutsu. Plus you shut your eye to try and hide it."

"You'd make a good interrogator Naruto, why are you an assassin?"

"I try not to talk too much."

"Fine. In the academy I challenged and older student to a spar when the teachers weren't looking. I was the best of my year, and got too cocky. He brought out a kunai and I didn't dodge it well enough."

"Idiot."

"I was, it could have been worse I guess."

He pulled the mask back up over his chin.

"Quite. I am here as backup from the Hokage."

"Good. Tell me what you know about the mission."

"From what I've seen, you're escorting a bridge builder and protecting him from someone who wants him dead. Two high level ninja involved in trying to kill him. The one I fought uses senbon very efficiently."

"Pretty much. The other ninja is Momochi Zabuza."

"Kiri missing nin, uses the Kubikiribōchō. High ranked too."

"I expect him to attack again in about a week. What's your plan, given that you are in effect a team leader of your own cell?"

"I will shadow your team and assist in combat where necessary. Unless there's anyone you need assassinated."

Kakashi stroked his chin, fingers tracing the scar unconsciously.

"Actually, there is. It would benefit our mission immensely if you could, and potentially rid the world of a nasty person."

"Name the target."

"Gato, shipping merchant and notorious crime lord. Probably nearby, likes to see his associates do their dirty work personally."

"I will endeavour to kill him."

It was the emotionless tone of voice that sent a chill down Kakashi's back.

"Make your original mission your main priority. In truth, I'm not sure killing Gato would be a good idea. It's not how Konoha wants to be seen to operate. As I said, we have a week. A normal assassassination mission takes several months of information gathering and intelligence operations, and that's with a team."

Naruto nodded.

"Can I go now?"

Kakashi nodded and felt Naruto leave through the window. He lay back on the mat and tried once again to sleep. It was partially reassuring that he had an extra pair of hands around, but it was the fact that that pair of hands was Naruto that tinged that with a layer of caution.

He had nearly drifted off when Naruto reappeared at the window.

"Oh, and eventually I'll find out the real reason behind that scar."

Kakashi smiled. He was good.

Naruto lay in the undergrowth next to the house. He looked out across the ocean that separated the tiny island nation from land.

The great grey bridge stretched off towards the far shore. The sun, setting gently had turned the sky into a mix of pinks, reds, oranges and yellows, melting into the horizon and dancing on the surface of the water.

A few light clouds had their edges turned to silver and gold by the light, and their bodies pinkened by it. The slightest sliver of the moon was brightening as it rose.

Only the lightest of ripples moved across the surface of the cool blue waters from a gentle breeze. Otherwise the gulf between lands was calm and still, reflecting the sunset so that it stretched over most of Naruto's vision.

Not that he saw of course. He merely saw an area where there were no hostile or allied presence. He was watching the house. Having spent the majority of the day hidden away in a half daze until he could search for Gato's base of operations in the night, he had instead decided to watch what counted as their base of operations.

He was about to move out when his hearing picked up on angry shouts coming from the house. He readied his bow just in case when the door burst open and one of the genin team ran out, frustrated anger written all over his face.

He passed within a foot of Naruto's position. Muttering under his breath as he went, angrily slashing at foliage within reach with a kunai.

Now faced with a choice, Naruto's mind quickly decided what to do. Scoping out Gato's base was a secondary objective, and protecting the team he was with a primary one. He followed the genin out into the forest.

He wasn't the best tracker in the world, more accustomed to hunting through forests of people in glades of buildings, but the genin made it easy. Slashes adorned branches as he went, cut leaves slashed. Naruto checked one or two of the notches as he went, noting the kunai was relatively blunt from its treatment.

He continued to follow the genin until he stopped running in a clearing. His path trampled through the meadow in the clearing, flowers ripped up by his angry footsteps.

The darkness gave Naruto time to hide better, and he kept watch as he watched the furious exercises the boy was doing.

Mousy brown hair shook as he moved through kunai routines, repeating each one several times whenever he made a mistake. He found a tree and began kicking and punching at it viciously.

Naruto was impassive. Training like this was unorthodox certainly, but could only prove useful. He wondered what could have driven the other boy to take such measures.

He hadn't failed a mission yet, so drive to improve by failure wasn't a factor. It was unlikely his sensei had ordered such training, and if he had he should be supervising it. His mind once more worked on possibilities.

It was confusing. There was no reason that he was doing this, no rational reason Naruto's mind could see at least. He did understand the harshness of the training though.

He remembered his younger days in the Root barracks, practising day and night to perfect the arts of his trade. He recalled the hours in the training halls, crossbow in hand as he shot and shot to perfect his aim. How he had gone out at night to learn how to adjust for wind and rain.

He recalled the harsh fights with the weapon instructors, trying to use the tanto blade to good effect. He recalled the pain. There had been a lot. The special training. The even more special training. The white hot pain.

He turned his attention back to the boy, who was shouting loudly as he assaulted another tree. The rough, unyielding bark was slowly cracking under the repeated blows he was sending at it, although Naruto could tell the boy was in pain.

He also noticed the vocabulary he was using was getting fouler by the moment. There were names too, a couple of them repeated over and over. So this had to do with his teammates? Maybe he wanted to catch up to them in prowess? But the bell test had shown him to be far superior to the female member of his team. The other member? Possible. Maybe this was his normal routine?

He watched with increasing fascination as the boy began flicking slowly through hand signs to try a jutsu. He activated the Byakugan without too much further thought. The chakra being formed was a muddy brown, so some sort of doton technique? He watched the chakra build in the genin in a sloppy and uncontrolled manner before a mud wall tried to raise itself from the ground.

He could see it was thin, to the point where the angry kick the boy aimed at it turned it into powdery dust.

He saw the boy do it again. And again. Each time the chakra within him gained was smaller and smaller, until nothing happened. Then the boy passed out. He was still breathing, just sleeping from exhaustion.

Ah well, better keep watch then. He looked up into the pitch black sky that nightfall had finally brought about. The light twinkles of the stars was present as he looked up, picking out formations of stars into shapes.

He didn't know why he did this. He just did, it was something to do to pass the time. He was good at waiting.