The Hokage had made ready a larger pouch of his special tobacco after the last debriefing involving Naruto, and was now reaping the rewards of such a move. Every gram was going to be necessary.
He knew any sighting of Orochimaru was bad, but he didn't like hearing his suspicions confirmed.
Although, he'd already known. Danzo had told him several months before, his spies in the Daimyo's courts reporting the meetings, the promises of power and the dark bargain the man had struck.
Now, an ANBU mission sent to find where he had gone had confirmed it. And still not found him. Although it was all falling into place. Somehow Naruto was at the centre of it all. Somehow despite his success at not being noticed, his hiding in shadows, somehow he was at the centre again. He wondered what Kami was thinking.
"Pig, Hare, fetch me Shikaku, Ibiki and Jiraiya immediately. Then you are dismissed."
ANBU did not question orders, even one as ominous as these.
That left Talon, Naruto and the Hokage to wait. Another wad of the thick tobacco was added to the pipe by the Hokage, who showed no signs of being anything other than calm. It was the mark of a good leader.
Talon knew what was about to happen. As the requested figures entered the room, each knew what it was too, they gathered in a loose circle around the Hokage's desk.
Shikaku looked at the people present, sighed, and spoke first.
"This is going to be troublesome isn't it?"
"Perceptive as ever Shikaku. This is a council of defence. We have reason to believe that Konoha is going to come under attack in the coming days. Anyone want to put money on the exact date of the attack?"
The man with the back length white hair laughed.
"If only Tsunade were here. Not only would we have her here, but we'd be able to rule a day out immediately when she bet on it."
It got a few dry chuckles from the assemble meeting. Naruto remained stoically quiet.
"As I suspect you would all guess, the finals day. Not only do we have a large number of foreign delegates hanging around, but we suspect Orochimaru may be coming home for a visit. Hopefully his last."
Talon hit his fist into his palm, the dull thud of fist on metal padded glove.
"What's our plan?"
The Hokage nodded towards his chief strategist and commander. Shikaku thought for a few seconds.
"Unfortunately we cannot act too openly. Orochimaru will attack regardless of whether we are prepared or not, it wouldn't be like him to back out now. He's far too committed. If we started to beef up security, he would just unleash what he has now, some of it probably buried somewhere in our midst. Better that we find that discretely and shut it down when we can, then have a strategy prepared for the invasion.
The junchuuriki that Suna has will be an issue. He's the Kazekage's son, and he has issues with his anger. We don't want a junchuuriki unleashed in our midst now do we?
Suna is our ally, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem, so I recommend that we..."
The Hokage cut him off.
"No chances to take here, relations with Suna have been getting colder of late, and I want you plan to consider our worst case where they betray us."
"Hmm. Well the boy fights the Uchiha in his first match, which leads to the possibility of him getting injured during the fight. What you really want is someone to kill him at a moment's notice at any moment. Or Jiraiya to be ready to shut him down."
"Jiraiya will be best used dealing with any summons that he decides to unleash upon us, ready the toads for action if you can Jiraiya."
The man snorted.
"One does not simply ready the toads, but I'll warn Gamabunta to lay off the heavy stuff before the day. Are you sure you don't want me to deal with the Jinchuuriki though?"
"Yes."
Shikaku continued.
"What about Orochimaru? Surely Jiraiya-sama would be best to challenge his former teammate?"
The Hokage walked over to one of the panels of his office and slid it out of the way. Revealed was an old, but beautifully made suit of armour of the old variety.
"I will deal with my mistakes, along with any ANBU who are prepared to stand alongside me."
Talon slapped his chest with his palm.
"That will be me and just about every other ANBU within Konoha I reckon."
The Hokage smiled.
"Our objectives are clear then, root out and quietly remove any tendrils he has in Konoha, and have the reserves quietly put on standby. Also, once the finals start, begin evacuating the villages to the bunkers, we already risk enough of them in the stadium already. We will lose too many, but it is the best way."
They all nodded. War demanded sacrifice, and Naruto saw the core of steel, the decision that his former master would have made, etched into the action.
"Naruto, your job will be to eliminate Gaara when required."
He merely nodded. Jiraiya nearly fell over as he whipped round to look at him. The man moved faster than any person Naruto had ever seen as he threw the hood off his face.
"Can I help you?"
"We need to have a chat at some point."
The Hokage coughed.
"Now is not the time Jiraiya."
The man withdrew slowly, clearly unhappy at the situation.
"Everyone clear?"
There was a chorus of Hai's and nods.
"Get to work then. Let's hope we're all here when this is all over."
Everyone left but Naruto who lingered a few moments longer.
"You have more questions Naruto?"
"Yes. Why was I lion? Why not another animal?"
"They're assigned randomly. You seem to have outfoxed yourself through over thinking this."
Naruto caught the glimpse of amusement in the older man's eyes and smiled. It was a lie, and he knew the Hokage probably shouldn't have given him fox as a mask. It was still odd though.
He didn't go directly home. He found it odd that he now thought of the basic apartment as truly home. He went to T&I first.
He snuck in. You didn't really want to knock on the front door of T&I. Not that they had one, or a front desk of any sort.
On fact, he went in through the door of a baker's shop that was closed for refurbishment, through a trap door hidden on the floor, down several corridors and through an air vent before dropping into the actual department.
This late at night, the place still had a few grey clothed interrogators wandering about on various errands. He knew the right door to go through because of the slight smell of the sweet sauce.
Anko barely looked up as he came in, but smiled as she did so. She was sitting at her desk, with her back to him, feet resting on the desk as she chewed on something.
The chewing stopped and he ducked as the dango stick flew towards him and embedded itself slightly in the door, quivering a bit. She spun on the chair to face him.
"Darkie-kun! Here for some more private time with Anko-chan?"
She leant over as she did so, and he did his best not to stare at the sight present between the lapels of her trench coat. He had yet to fathom why it was so nice to stare it. Maybe it was the geometry of the squishiness or something.
He tore his mind away from it, and was instantly reminded of it by her smile. It was evil what she could do.
"Actually yes."
She licked her lips in a way that made him both want to run away and made more than just his legs a little stiff. What exactly was going on?
"Oooh, what do you have in mind Darkie-kun?"
"More about poisons, I got to use them in my last mission."
She smiled again, but it was a different smile.
"Good to know, you may be cute under that hood, but you are too young for me."
"For what?"
"You've never had that talk have you?"
"What talk?"
She looked both embarrassed but like she was savouring the moment.
"About sex."
She put a lot of emphasis on that second word, letting it drip thickly off her tongue. Naruto found himself struggling to think, but he did know what it was.
"You mean the physical process whereby a male and female can produce children?"
She looked like she had been slapped.
"Well, it has other uses. Seduction is a good assassassination tool, although mostly for Kunouchi. Plus it can be fun."
"It can be a recreational activity?"
"Yes. But poisons."
'But in a few years though, assuming you stay that cute. You're actually a really nice guy somewhere deep down.'
"I used one of the basic poisons on a mild dose to make the Sound Daimyo feel ill. I then had a teammate sneak him an antidote to gain trust, and then slipped some of the serum that makes people more susceptible to suggestion into a jug of water he asked for so he would give information."
Anko considered the plan.
"Did it work?"
"Yes. I was henged as a serving boy for at least two hours to pull it off."
"Any improvements you can think of? Did any of your teammates have any suggestions?"
"No, I didn't tell them anything beyond giving them antidotes to use."
Anko put her head in her hands, then winced as it slightly bent her shoulder. Naruto noticed.
"Are you ok?"
"Well no. But it's not really anything anyone can help with."
"Oh."
"I just find it funny you did that, go into a plan without telling anyone what was about to happen. Who were the poor bastards that had to deal with that?"
"Talon, Pig and Hare."
She looked at him to check if he was joking for about a millisecond. Then she fell to the floor laughing.
"They mentioned they knew you."
"Oh I know Talon very well. Is he the same as always?"
"You mean he indulges in pointless and terrible wordplay?"
"Yep."
"Ah. We knew each other some time ago, but well. It didn't work out."
"What didn't?"
"Oh. You really do have no clue about the interactions between people do you."
"I don't."
The admission nearly escaped his lips before he could really think about it. He quickly reviewed all the interactions between people in his life.
There was the training, formal, impersonal and littered with beatings and berating, but that was part of his training.
There was Lord Danzo, who gave him missions.
The Hokage, who talked to him differently, asked more questions that weren't about the mission, and talked about him when he wasn't there. He talked differently to Talon, the two sparring with their words.
Kakashi, with his oddly eager advice and willingness to help him.
There were the other genin his age, Hinata's accusation, polite but firm, holding on as long as she needed to. There was Sakura who seemed to communicate via hitting and screeching, Baka's oddly reverential talking to him, eager and full of life.
The ANBU, mission focused at times, then snapping to wild unfocused oddness.
He realised all the teams worked differently. The genin were the least focused and fastest acting, then the T&I and ANBU who were able to focus and unfocus at will, but in different ways.
Then there was Anko.
After a seconds thought, he hugged Anko very suddenly, awkwardly wrapping his arms around her, head slightly off to one side of her.
This knocked her backwards a little, but she caught him and pulled her arms around him just a little too. She was only slightly more familiar with friendly hugs than he was, and just as before, neither knew really how long to hold the contact.
She eventually pushed away to signal the end of the hug.
Naruto stood back, taking his normal, introverted posture as if nothing had actually happened.
"I know that, and that everyone seems to do things differently. What's the normal way?"
"There isn't one."
"That makes no sense to me."
"Yep. That's why you're so special Darkie-kun."
'You're just utterly innocent despite being a hardened killer. What a contradiction you are.'
"Is special good?"
"Yes."
Naruto nodded. By logic, this meant he was beginning to understand the process of human interaction. He would need to run more tests though.
Anko was about to speak more when Naruto suddenly leapt into one of the dark corners of the room and cloaked himself in a genjutsu. She was going to ask why when a junior member of the department cautiously opened the door.
"Umm, Ibiki-san requested your presence."
"Requested who?"
"You."
"Who?"
The man sighed and looked upwards as he tried to remember day one of his training.
"The super sexy and single Anko-chan."
"Who?"
The man started to panic, there was more he needed to say.
"The super sexy and single Anko-chan, queen of the snakes?"
The Dango stick pinned the collar of his uniform to the doorframe.
"Wrong. Tell Scarface-kun I'll be with him shortly. Then go and learn what to call me."
The man fled.
Naruto dropped from where he had been hiding.
"He appears to have relieved his bladder as he left."
"I have that effect."
"Not on me. Does it take time to happen?"
She laughed again.
"Nah. I don't want you to, you haven't annoyed me yet?"
"How do I annoy you?"
"Good question. Try."
He decided he would not. Annoying people seemed to be a social negative, and that was to be avoided if he was to try and be more sociable. This entire thing was a mess, none of his planning techniques seemed capable of holding human contact in their scope.
"The news isn't going to be good."
Anko smiled.
"That means it'll be interesting. I assume you heard it given? You could probably hide in the Hokage's office or the ANBU headquarters if you wanted to."
"Only if they weren't looking for me. Hokage-sama tends to be looking for me."
"You do realise all the things I'd do if I could hide like you right?"
"No."
"Probably for the best. See you soon Darkie-kun."
She performed an odd gesture which involved pouting and putting her hand in front of her face, then flattening it towards him with a wink.
He had absolutely no idea what it was. But it did make him feel off again.
He did have one job to do this night, he had some intelligence to gather.
He made the startling discovery that despite the time being somewhere in the region of two in the morning, his target was still awake and training.
This was more than could be said for Baka. It hadn't taken long to sneak into the records office and find out where his registered address was. And to check on his own files, which were absurdly brief. His own were just a name and a serial number on a file with very few bits of paper in it.
Baka had been snoring so loudly that Naruto had decided that trying to talk to him was going to be a waste of time. Whilst he had no qualms about waking the boy and getting the information from him, the noise created in the process was beyond what he wanted to do.
No, another quick trip had discovered the travel logs from the gatehouses, and given to him every detail of every visitor. Name, location of stay, passport numbers and so forth.
He made a note to warn the Hokage that the security was quite lax. The three guard patrols were a little sloppy, and the safe lock was easily broken into by someone with a Byakugan and some time.
So he found himself heading for a small establishment on the edge of the town, where the Suna delegation claimed to be lodging.
The place was small, which wasn't really in keeping with the people that housed it. That was probably part of the security regime they practised, but they didn't really seem all that worried in an allied town.
He'd seen three figures inside. The sensei was snoozing in his own room, and the two other figures were also resting.
His target wasn't there, so he'd gone on a little search for the most barren place he could think of in Konoha.
That had led him to training ground 66b.
It was a place that had been blasted and stripped by years of brutal overuse, and it was effectively a small dustbowl in the middle of the forests. It wasn't too far from the inn either, even so this person was a genin, why would he be training now?
He was staying at nearly the full range of his vision with the Byakugan and that was about as close as he wanted to get. The chakra was absurd.
It was also everywhere, literally swirling around the figure, assuming one was in there.
He'd expected no less. He knew what a junchuuriki was. You learnt that with Danzo. This was one who was using his powers freely and completely without constraint. That was dangerous.
He'd read the reports from the chunin exam preliminaries before coming to find him, and it made for interesting reading. He was certainly going to be a more difficult target than any he had attacked before, even if he was only a genin.
The sand would render his bow useless unless it could be disabled, and getting up close would lead to a swift death. Genjutsu were likely to be his ally in this, or surprise.
He considered going in to test what he could do to the boy, before dismissing it. It was suicide. Fortunately he had ways around that.
He formed a shadow clone, and it went off to do what it had to do.
About five minutes later, he saw the clone die, and he saw the end result. It was as if it got engulfed in chakra, presumably the sand.
Then he got the memory feedback from the clone. It wasn't pretty.
The boy was as described, short, red hair, and the eyes of someone who badly needs sleep. Aside from the hair, that was almost similar to how he looked much of the time.
The clone had been trying to hide and hadn't attacked at all. The boy had barely moved before turning straight at him, knowing exactly where he was despite the cover, clack, shadow genjutsu and the fact he was behind a rock.
That was disturbing; stealth beyond about twenty metres was not going to be effective, that ruled out almost all his options.
He found himself left with some options that were substantially difficult to achieve.
Number one was to learn a new technique to punch through the sand shield. That was virtually impossible given his time span.
Number two was poison. At this time, and given his status as the Kazekage's son, that was probably not a good idea. Not discrete enough.
The only really good options were to find himself a good distraction and hope it survived whilst he got the kill shot.
He realised that a couple of months ago he would have come to that conclusion more quickly, without bothering with the first two thoughts.
He decided to stay and observe the boy until he relented. Plus the swirling sand was surprisingly hypnotic. He found himself likening it to the dawn he vaguely remembered in the Wave, and wondered why he hadn't seen it then properly.