Oh boy, the inspiration is back! I have so many ideas for this story now its ridiculous! I actually don't know how I am going to put it all in in a cohesive way. Anyway, do me a favor, if you guys are enjoying this, leave me a review with something you like and something that you don't like! It will really help me as a writer and it will help me form a more cohesive and flowing story. Thanks a lot! Onto the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am not planning on making any kind of monetary profit from this story!

XXXXX

'Thoughts'

"Speech"

'Biju thoughts'

"Biju speech"

XXXXX The Sage Summoners of Konoha XXXXX

A hooded man walked quickly through the wooded area, moving with the smoothness and quietness that only a trained shinobi would be able to achieve. He walked to a large tree in a clearing and knocked on the trunk three times, paused, and then five more times. After he had done so, a portion of the trunk slid inwards and then to the side, leaving an opening just big enough for a man to squeeze through. The man quickly turned around and went in backwards, descending down the ladder that was just inside the trunk. The small opening closed as he entered, and he was engulfed in darkness.

Moving with a trained motion, he descended quickly. 'One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.' He counted silently in his head and as he hit ten, his foot hit the floor. He spun around and walked fifteen steps forward, paused, and then reached his right hand forward. He felt his hand hit a door. He knocked two times, then four, and then two again. He heard a grunt and the door slid open, revealing a large, circular room. The man entered the room and stood silently as the door slid closed.

The room was filled with a large circular table made of a fine red oak. It was stained a dark color and seemed quite old. The room was quite dark except for a candle in the middle of the table that illuminated just the features of the men that were gathered at this table. Moving forward swiftly, the man took his spot at the empty table.

Looking around, he saw the five other members of this little group. Four men, and one woman. As he pulled his chair in he greeted them in a smooth, practiced way.

"Greetings, fellow brothers and sister, I hope that all was well getting here?" He smirked as he felt the others get annoyed. He was several hours late. 'Oh well.' He thought. He had been conducting an experiment when he had received the summons.

"Salamander, you are extremely late. When there is a summons, you are expected to be here on time. Do you understand?"

Salamander rolled his eyes. "Yes Dragon. It will not happen again." The response was practiced and as smooth as butter. He heard Dragon sigh and the candle in the middle of the room got dimmer, hiding the features of the others even more.

Dragon stood up and cleared his throat. "It has come to my attention that the True Sons of Fire have been discovered by Jiraiya of the Sannin. This is a hit that was not expected. What is worse, someone on this council leaked the information purposefully. Now, I don't know what any of you are playing at but we all had a plan! We were to slowly usurp control from the Daimyo and then in one fell swoop, overthrow him, implant a decoy, and plan our war against Konoha. So, in light of these treacherous revelations, we have moved up our plans." He turned to the only woman there. "Tiger, you are now tasked with implanting Yoshihiro as the southern governor of Hi no Kuni. I don't care how you do it, but he is necessary for our plans. You are now tasked with defending him and getting him into position."

Tiger nodded and leaned back, relaxing slightly.

Dragon turned to the bulkier man next to Tiger. "Lion, you are now tasked with infiltrating Konoha. You are to do it under the disguise of a civilian blacksmith selling his merchandise. Go see our fence, he will have the paperwork, cart, and clothing. Once you are in, you will begin to map out the villages defenses, as well as their military strength. You will find important targets as well as high ranking political civilians as well."

Lion nodded and sat back as well.

Dragon spun to the rather unassuming man next to Salamander. "Bear, your new task is to recruit some mercenaries or missing nin that will be able to harass the Konoha shinobi when they go out on missions. They are expendable so don't worry too much about the quality. Once you have them hired set them up along the major roadways in and out of Hi no Kuni, as well as on the crossroads around the country."

Bear snorted and sat back. "Of course I get the boring job." His voice was gravely.

Dragon looked next at Salamander. "Salamander, your new mission is to ensure that the Kazekage will not back out of our agreement. Given the circumstances, he may decide that it was an error to join forces with us. If need be, kill him, go undercover, and impersonate him until the plan is in effect. Do not fail me, Salamander. You are becoming a problem as of late and I don't need another problem, are we clear?"

Salamander nodded. "As crystal. I know my role in this, just as you know that I only joined your group to further my own goals. We need each other for the foreseeable future. So until that future is here, You need not worry about me." He leaned back and grinned, his teeth seeming to gleam in the candlelight.

Dragon tensed slightly before turning to the final member of the group. "Phoenix, your task is to continue harassing the Konoha Anbu. Whenever possible, ensure that they are discovered, injured, or killed. We need to make Konoha look as weak as possible for this Coup to work."

Phoenix nodded and rose. As Phoenix rose, as did the others. They all bowed and shunshined out, all except for Salamander and Dragon.

Dragon took off his hood and looked Salamander right in the eye. Salamander obliged the man and took his own hood off, revealing yellow slit eyes, and pale skin.

"Orochimaru, what are you doing? I know you are the one who leaked the information. Are you betraying us? After all that we have done to help you? You and your so called village?"

Orochimaru just chuckled. "It was meant with no disrespect but I needed to distract Jiraiya and my old sensei from my trail. They were getting too close and that was the only thing that I had that would get them away from me. Don't worry, the plan will work regardless. I'll make sure of that."

Dragon frowned and let out a large amount of killer intent. "I have not worked for ten years just to have you ruin it to cover your ass. We both know that we need each other so just put up with this for a little while longer. Or else we will truly find out which one of us is the stronger one."

Orochimaru laughed. "Well I look forward to that day if it ever comes. Until then however, enjoy your stay in Hi no Kuni. I'll be heading to the desert now. See you in a few months." With that Orochimaru shunshined out as well, leaving Dragon to his thoughts.

'We will see indeed.' He then shunshined out himself.

XXXXX

Jiraiya stood inside the Uchiha clan district laughing to himself. He had arrived in the area, not even a minute ago and came upon quite a funny development. Naruto was cornered by the wall, with Sasuke and Sakura herding him into a specific area of the district. Naruto seemed to be holding his jacket tight in his arms. Jiraiya laughed and decided that it was probably time to intervene.

XXXXX

"Naruto just give up the jacket!" Sakura huffed and made a grab at Naruto's jacket.

Naruto jumped back and made two clones. "No! This is the only one I have! Why are you guys doing this to me? I neeeeeeed this!"

Sasuke sighed. "Naruto for the love of kami, what kind of ninja wears an orange jumpsuit? Let us burn the damn thing and I will personally buy you a new wardrobe. You seriously need it!"

Naruto stood there, back against the wall and sighed. He was currently wearing a black pair of cargo shorts, and his white t-shirt with the symbol for the will of fire on it. He looked at his jacket, and then back to his team.

"Can it have some orange in it?"

Sakura and Sasuke both fell backwards as Naruto just sweat dropped. "No!" As Sakura yelled no, Sasuke proceeded to get past the two clones and grab the jacket from Naruto.

"You bastard! Wait!"

With no hesitation, Sasuke proceeded to use a Katon: Shuriken to shred the jacket as well as burn it to bits. They then proceeded to hear a cry that sounded inhuman as Naruto dropped to his knees, and rolled over, sobbing to himself quietly.

"Naruto come on. We can go get you new clothes now. You'll actually look like a shinobi! We will all get new clothes on Sasuke!" Sakura grinned at Sasuke as his mouth hung open in shock.

"Now hold on just a...ooof!" Sakura railed Sasuke in the side as he tried to say no. Coughing slightly, Sasuke managed to choke out a response.

"Yeah...clothes are on me..." Sakura went over to Naruto and tried to get him up. At that moment however, something odd happened.

A man appeared behind the group and started to speak.

"Hello kiddies! It is I the great..." Jiraiya didn't get to finish his monologue due to the fact that he had three different kinds of elemental shuriken flying at his face.

Even Naruto had been up and in combat mode as soon as Jiraiya had spoken. Naruto was also the first to talk.

"Who the hell are you? What do you want?"

Jiraiya just looked at them incredulously. "You little brats! I was just trying to introduce myself to you...jeez..."

They all stayed in their combat stances and this time Sasuke asked the question.

"Who are you and what do you want?" A Katon:Shuriken was in one hand as he was prepared to throw it.

Jiraiya laughed. "You guys are really cute. Thinking that you can take on Jiraiya of the Sannin but if it's a spar you want I can oblige you."

Sasuke took a step back. He knew who Jiraiya was. Hell, anyone who was anyone knew who the three Sannin were.

Jiraiya gave them a cheeky grin. "That's right! It is I, Mount Myobokuzan's sage, the man who saves the kids and makes women call out his name. It is I, the one that men aspire to be and all ninja fear, the great, the mighty, Jiraiya!" At the end of his spiel he stuck his hand out, standing with his legs far apart to add to the effect.

'This is Jiraiya of the Sannin?' Both Sasuke and Sakura had the same thought. Naruto however...

'So cool!'

Jiraiya grinned at the reactions. "Alright, well let me get down to business. Kakashi was sent on a week long mission outside of the village. You three couldn't go with him and I have been tasked with training you for one week. So!" He clapped his hands together and motioned for them to follow him.

XXXXX

They came out to training ground seven, the same training ground Team Seven used before their mission. Jiraiya looked at the post and smiled, memories from the past filling his mind with nostalgia. He rounded quickly on the kids and smiled.

"I don't know if you three realized, but you are a continuation of a very powerful line of shinobi."

The three looked at Jiraiya oddly. "What do you mean?" Sasuke spoke carefully.

"Well, The Shodaime and the Nidaime trained the Sandaime. The Sandaime in turn, trained the Sannin. Myself, Tsunade, and Orochimaru. I personally trained the Yondaime, who in turn, had a Genin team that had Kakashi on it. Your teachings have descended from Hokages from the past. A culmination so to speak. You should feel honored. The Will of Fire was strong with every shinobi of this line and I believe from what I have seen and heard that you will be a perfect example of Konoha shinobi."

Team Seven was all shocked. They hadn't even realized that they had such a renowned sensei! And the fact that their sensei was trained by the Yondaime... He never told them that!

"Now, what do you three wish to learn? Consider this a very potent opportunity. I am a very good teacher if I do say so myself. You have one week with the sensei of a Hokage. Use your time wisely. So what will it be first?"

They seemed to mull it over for a few minutes before Sakura spoke up. "Well, seeing as you're Jiraiya of the Sannin, that would also make you a seal master correct?" The grin that split Jiraiyas face was gleaming. He let out a chuckle. "Go ahead! Ask the mighty Jiraiya anything about sealing that you want to know! I'll have you know that I even trained the Yondaime in sealing! He definitely took it a lot further than I did, but, without my training he would not have gotten to where he did. Tell me this kids, what do you know about sealing? About its applications? Situational uses? Times where it wouldn't be advised to use it?"

The rapid fire questions even caught Sakura off guard. "Well, Sealing is the art of infusing different arrays with chakra to accomplish a goal that a normal person wouldn't be able to do. Its applications are anything from storage seals and explosive tags, to barriers and the immobilization of an entity. Situational uses would be defense, interrogation, offensive maneuvers, as well as storage, and enhancement." Sakura seemed to draw a blank after that and motioned to Naruto and Sasuke to take over.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other before shrugging. Jiraiya laughed at the two of them. "Man, you two are just interested in Jutsu and fighting aren't you? Very astute Sakura. And the correct answer to that last question is never! There is never a time where a well placed seal can't save your ass out in the field. Seals ended the last great war, seals are what keep our village safe, seals are what allow us as Sakura said, to do things we would normally never be able to do. However, seeing as you are all complete novices with seals, I'll break it down for you. There are two different forms of sealing. Paper based and chakra based. For now you will focus solely on paper based. The reason being is that chakra based sealing is typically used on ones self or an enemy. Meaning that you're using your own chakra to either modify something about yourself or that of a foreign entity. If a mistake is made, the consequences are dire for the user. Chakra based can also be applied to surfaces which is typically how a seal master gains experience on others."

Team seven just stood there soaking it all in. Jiraiya was at a loss for this one. Usually the questions started flying and he had to explain everything again. "Did you guys understand all of that?" They each nodded. "We are very serious when we are learning Jiraiya-Sensei. Could you give us a few examples of each?" Jiraiya nodded at the girl. "Alright pay close attention, I'm going to start with the chakra based since it is easier to show you." Jiraiya walked a few feet away from them to a boulder that stood near the river. He put his hand on it and walked leisurely back over to where team seven was.

"I don't get it. What did you d…." Naruto was quickly cut off as the boulder by the river exploded into nothing. Sasukes eyes went wide and Sakuras mouth dropped. Naruto however, had a wild grin on his face. "That was awesome! What did you do?" His excitement was contagious. Jiraiya grinned at all of them. "That, my newbie Genin, was a chakra based explosive seal. Intermediate level stuff. It takes five times the amount of chakra to use than if you were to use a paper seal. However, I'm sure you can see the benefits to having this type of sealing on hand at all times?" Naruto was nodding his head. "If you can do it at will, whenever you want, you always have the element of surprise." Jiraiya smiled at him. "Absolutely correct Naruto. More chakra versus versatility. As ninja, we are constantly looking for ways to outsmart and out maneuver any opponent. Come on, let's set up under that tree there and I'll show you guys how to make a storage seal."

Jiraiya took them over by a large tree that sheltered them from the wind. He set out three scrolls, ink, and brushes for each of them. He himself set up in front of them so they could look up and see his own work. Jiraiya took out his brush with a flourish and motioned for them to look. "Pay attention kiddies, we are going to go over the basics of sealing as well as the easiest seal of them all: The storage seal!" Jiraiya took two more scrolls and set them up to the left and right of the original. On the left most one he drew a rectangular shape in the center, in the center one, he drew four curved arrows in a circular pattern, and in the leftmost one he drew a curved line at the top and a curved line at the bottom. "Alright so, these three are three different "types" of seals. It can get a lot more advanced but think of it like this, the three B's of sealing." He pointed to each in succession, "barrier, box, boom." The three Genin all let out a laugh at that.

Jiraiya smirked. "You laugh, but I know you three wont forget it. Every seal starts with a centralized "anchor". The Anchor is defining what the seals end goal will be. For the storage scroll, the end goal is that what you have on the seal, will be stored inside the seal. The more arrows you add, the higher the quantity of one item you can seal. The fewer arrows the less items overall, but the larger the item. This one," he pointed to the left scroll, "Is the start of a barrier seal. A rectangular shape for this one but as long as it has at least three sides, any shape will do. The more sides a barrier has, typically, the stronger it is. Although at the same time, the more chakra it will consume. And finally we have the explosive seal. You put the kanji for explosion in the center of a circular array, and around that circular array you put varying amounts of curved lines. The more lines, the larger the explosion, the more chakra it requires. You seeing a pattern here?"

They all nodded and Jiraiya turned to face them. "Now, start with the arrows around the circular array, start with the four that I drew. Depending on how much chakra you use, you could store a maximum of around four hundred shuriken or kunai in those scrolls. At minimum, I would say about one hundred. Each arrow gives you a quantity of about twenty-five. I say about because fuinjutsu is finicky as hell. One misplaced stroke of the brush and you accidentally created an explosive tag. So, calligraphy is paramount! Get started! I will be back shortly to see how you have progressed. Use my scroll as a reference if you have any issues. Do not put chakra into the seals until I return! Like I said, I don't need you to accidentally blow yourselves up." With that, Jiraiya moved on to more, perverse activities.

XXXXX

Jiraiya came back a little more than an hour later to check in on team seven. He decided to play a little prank on them and see how well they would perform in an ambush. He slowly snuck closer and closer to the tree, using the rustling leaves and branches as cover. Just as he was about to pop out behind the tree, he heard Naruto call out to him. "We already know you're there Jiraiya-Sensei. Come and check out how far we have gotten!" Jiraiya's ego was quickly deflated. He stepped out from the tree and had a particularly pouty face. "How did you know I was there?" 'Seriously, how did they even have a clue?' Sasuke smirked and pointed at Naruto. "Its a chakra control exercise that Kakashi-Sensei has Naruto do at almost all hours of the day. He consistently pulses chakra to get an idea of what is around us. He was able to sense your presence about ten minutes ago."

Jiraiya was very pleased. Most Genin squads don't end up having anyone who is a half decent sensor unless they ended up with an Aburame, a Hyuuga, or an Inuzuka. The first and last being more useful for tracking than for direct sensor work. "Alright you found me out. Good for you! Now, show me your horrible seals!" Two of the three looked at him sheepishly and handed over their scrolls. Sakura and Sasuke weren't terrible, they made lots of mistakes that most rookies make. A smudge here, an out of place line there, asymmetry, and inconsistent line width. He appraised their work for the good work that it was for their obvious lack of experience. Then, Naruto marched over and handed over his scroll.

Jiraiya was able to keep his shock to himself, but right in front of him, was an almost identical copy of the storage seal he had drawn. He raised a brow," and how, might I ask, did you manage almost an exact copy of my seal?" Naruto grinned at him and scratched the back of his head. "Well, I spent a lot of time in the library when I was growing up and they didn't always let me read the books I wanted. They gave me super advanced stuff that I couldn't get my head around. One of the books was a book of sealing for beginners. I didn't get past the first few pages but in those pages were really cool designs that I used to draw over and over when I was bored. I realized after you left that those were actually these three seals. So I sort of can draw those ones easily."

Jiraiya shook his head. "What luck you have kid. Come on, let me show you the final steps to finish the scrolls." Jiraiya took out his brush and ink and began drawing to the left first. "The left side of the scroll is what dictates how many different items you can store. This is turning into a bulk storage scroll so to keep things simple, we will only add two more "slots" to the scroll." Starting from the top, he started writing kanji and then added lines, a circle and then more kanji followed by what looks like a flourish at the repeated the process and ended up with two more, smaller, seals next to the first one. "Now, this at the bottom is what's called a signature. This tells the seal who can and cannot access your scroll. Add a little blood into the ink, and only you or your blood can access it. To link these three seals together, you simply connect the top, middle, and bottom with what's called a "connector". Simply enough, its just a way to transfer chakra into the whole seal without a break in the current. Think of it as a river joining into a lake. Without the connector, the paper is basically a dam. Now to the right, this typically is used to extend how much is stored. Since we don't plan on using more slots, we simply take this ink and add three x's. One at the top, one in the middle, one at the bottom. We draw a solid line going from top to bottom through the middle of the x's, and then…" With an exaggerated movement, Jiraiya slapped his hand down on the anchor of the seal and they felt a pulse of chakra.

"Voila! Storage seal! Now to use it, all you do is put the items you want on the center of any of the anchors, like this, and then channel a little bit of chakra to the seal….. And bam!" In a poof of smoke, the only thing that was left was a clean scroll. Team seven looked on in awe and then looked back at the scrolls in their hands. "Now if I wanted to retrieve Naruto's scroll, I simply place my hand on whichever "box" I need access to and…" In another poof of smoke, Naruto's scroll was back in Jiraiya's hand. He tossed it at Naruto and motioned to the scroll on the ground. "Go ahead kiddies. Get to it. Once im comfortable with your progress, we will go over barriers and explosive notes. Get to it!"

Jiraiya stepped back and leaned against the tree, enjoying the shade. This brought back far too many memories for him. Unsurprisingly, Naruto was the first one to get it. He watched the poof of smoke the first time, a pause, and then Naruto yelled out in excitement when a kunai reappeared in his hand. He didn't gloat however. He immediately went over to Sasuke and Sakura and showed them how he did it. He corrected Sasukes line placement and Sakuras line width. He then showed them how to add the secondary slots and how to tie it all together. The kid was a damn natural. It made sense, all things considered. He was surprised by how well they worked together. They didn't argue or fight like most teams. There was no animosity, no arguing. Only joking around and friendly banter.

Jiraiya kept his promise and after team seven got a hang of the storage seal, he showed them how to master the barrier seal, and how to make differing levels of explosive tags. Naruto, once again, was the first to get the seals down. Jiraiya had chocked it up to Naruto getting lucky with the book he read as a kid, but this wasn't the case. There was no way his line strokes could be that straight, that smooth, just from doodling as a kid. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, Naruto was a natural with seals. 'Best not tell him and have him get a big head about it'

Jiraiya spent the next week showing them different ways that they could utilize the three seals. Different combinations and how to execute them. He showed them different barriers that could be used and how to increase the amount of time it would stay up if they needed to escape. The Genin ate it up as fast as he threw it at them. Sakura quickly grasped the informational part of most of the things he said, Sasuke was able to process that and explain how it would help them on a mission by comparing it to their last mission to Nami no Kuni, and Naruto would execute said seal and it worked like a charm.

'These kids are terrifying…' Jiraiya was caught in his own thoughts when he immediately felt a familiar presence. In moments, Kakashi appeared in training ground seven, covered in blood and holding his side. Jiraiya's eyes went wide and he rushed over to grab him as he fell forward. He heard a unison call of "Kakashi-Sensei" from team seven as they rushed over to him. Naruto immediately made four clones and motioned for Jiraiya to pass him to them. The clones ran off in the direction of the Konoha Hospital. Jiraiya frowned. Only he, the Sandaime, and most likely Danzo, knew about the mission he was going on. For something to have gone wrong… Meant that there was a story to be told. "Our training is done for the week. Sorry to cut it a day short, but clearly this takes precedence." Team seven nodded and Shunshined away, Jiraiya assumed, to the hospital to see Kakashi. Jiraiya let out a long sigh and started to make his way to the Hokage's office. This definitely didn't bode well for them.

XXXXX

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat in his office, slowly tamping his pipe with tobacco, a habit that he had maintained since his early days as the Hokage. Jiraiya came through the window just as he was lighting the pipe, smoke slowly filling the air.

"Sensei… Kakashi was injured on his mission." Jiraiya's face gave away his concern and the Sandaime sighed. "Clear the room." In a swift moment, four people shunshined out of the room leaving only him and Jiraiya. "Jiraiya, Sound seal, sight seal, and chakra seal. Layered and connected. Chakra based." He watched Jiraiya frown, but he went to work. It took ten minutes but he walked back to the middle of the office and activated the seal which briefly flashed a red color before fading from the visible eye. Jiraiya stood there, discomfort on his face. "Sensei… What do you know that you aren't telling me?"

Hiruzen sighed once again. Everyday he felt his age more and more. "Jiraiya, the True sons of Fire aren't just a political party in Hi no Kuni. They are a rival group of Hi no Kuni ninja that are seeking to either dispose of Konoha or attempt a coup to replace the command structure in place." He felt Jiraiya's anger. "You tampered with my own spies? You had them falsify reports and send me on a wild goose chase?" His voice was rising and Hiruzen knew this would end poorly. "I falsified those reports Jiraiya. They come to me first before they get to you. I needed to make sure that I was one of the only people to know about this. Now you do, I do, Kakashi most likely does, and Danzo does. It needs to stay that way, do you understand? There are spies in the village. Spies in the entire country. This was only revealed to me based on a hunch of mine less than a year ago. We need more information but in order to do so, I needed to have contact with one of the main members of the group. There are six total. Bear, Lion, Phoenix, Salamander, Tiger and Dragon. Based on what I have heard and been able to gather discreetly, they are all powerful missing nin from this village. There is also a strong chance that Orochimaru is a part of this group."

Jiraiya turned in frustration and threw his arms up in the air. "Enough with Orochimaru! I hate to say it Sarutobi, but when it comes to him, you throw caution to the wind! We have had our chances to take him out over the years and every time, the mission gets canceled. Now you tell me that there is a group looking to take us out, possibly with Orochimarus help, and now you want to do something about him?" Jiraiya watched as the words stabbed Hiruzen, watched as his face dropped and he put the pipe down on his desk, still smoldering.

"I am old, Jiraiya. I have been in this position for forty-eight years. Forty-eight. They have not all been peaceful, but I have done my best to make sure that there were more peaceful than not. As an old man, you look back on your life and you have regrets. I regret not taking care of Orochimaru when I had the chance. I'm sorry that Kakashi ended up getting hurt in this but I need to right some wrongs before I leave this world. Unfortunately, I realize that I need help to do so. Can you help me Jiraiya? Will you help me?"

Jiraiya's frustration was clear on his face. "You will brief all of us on what you know and how we can move forward from this point. That means myself, Kakashi, and his team. Before you say anything, they're good. Their teamwork reminds me of our team when we were younger. I need to be able to rely on someone besides Danzo when it comes to this. I need to check on Kakashi. Was there anything else?"

The Sandaime simple shook his head. Jiraiya nodded and released the seal before climbing out of the window and heading off towards the hospital. 'Orochimaru… If there is one thing that I have left to do in this life, it will be to take you out of it with me.' He stood and turned, looking out the window at his village, a smoldering pipe still sitting on the desk behind him.

XXXXX

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura made their way on the rooftops of Konoha, beelining for the hospital as fast as they could. Naruto seemed to pause for a moment. "He is on the third floor. Room three three one." The other two looked at him strangely. "How do you know that?" Sasuke asked. Naruto just shrugged and sped up slightly. They made their way to the hospital in less than five minutes, shifting around people and rushing up the stairs. They made their way to Kakashi's room and slid the door open. Two Iryo nin were already working on the wounds on his body, the light glow of their chakra filling the room. They walked in and stood to the side, watching them work. Sakura took a slight step to the side, watching the iryo nin do their work. It took more than an hour but after that, they took off their gloves and walked out of the room, leaving just Kakashi and team seven.

"Kakashi-Sensei, we know you are awake." They all heard a groan as Kakashi opened his one eye. "Mah, can't you let a man get some rest after almost being killed?" He eye at smiled them and team seven moved closer to the bed. "Are you alright Kakashi-Sensei?" Sakura seemed nervous. "I'm fine now Sakura. I had a close call on my mission and it almost cost me. I will explain it whenever we are summoned by the Hokage. It is classified information. Tell me, how did your training with Jiraiya go?"

"I think they did just fine" Team seven jumped and turned to see Jiraiya sitting on the windowsill.

Kakashi eye smiled. "Good to hear. What did you teach them?"

"Fuinjutsu. The three B's." Kakashi nodded. "Good. That was one of the few basics I hadn't gotten a chance to teach them. They mastered it?" Jiraiya's grin told him all he needed to know. "In a week. Your Genin are hungry Kakashi. You need to feed them more." Kakashi got the message loud and clear. Train them harder. They were ready for it. "When will the Hokage be here?"

"He already is." Team seven jumped again and turned to see the Sandaime standing in the doorway. Naruto let out an exasperated sigh. "Can you guys stop scaring us please?" Kakashi cut in. "Why aren't you pulsing your chakra Naruto?" Naruto let his mouth drop for a second before closing it. "Well, I was worried about you Sensei…" Kakashi eye smiled and nodded. "Keep pulsing Naruto. I'm alright." Naruto nodded and they all felt the light tingle as the chakra spread through the room. Sarutobi nodded to Jiraiya and he went about setting up the same seals he set up in the Hokage's office. After a few minutes, he activated the seals and immediately they all felt Naruto's pulse stop. He looked around, confused as to what just happened.

Jiraiya smiled at him. "Sorry kid, master level stuff here." Naruto frowned but nodded. Hiruzen looked at Kakashi and nodded to him as well. "Kakashi, report."

Kakashi slowly sat up in bed and shifted back towards the headboard. "Well, first and foremost, mission successful Hokage-sama. Unfortunately, there are complications."

"My first two days were entirely uneventful. I simply stuck to the trees and traveled as swiftly as I could. I had no contact with anyone and arrived at Yamasato almost a day early. The target was spotted the same day and I began to shadow his movements. He was a typical politician. Lots of meetings, paperwork, and drinking. By the end of that day, the man was entirely inebriated. He had an established routine so I monitored from a distance to find my window." Kakashi cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders a bit.

"I found it the fourth day of shadowing him. At the end of each day. He went to the same bar in the middle of town. He stayed there until almost two in the morning, and finally stumbled home. Alone. All I had to do was wait until two, strike, and exfiltrate." Kakashi let out a sigh. "Then she showed up."

XXXXX Flashback no jutsu XXXXX

Kakashi crouched low on a rooftop across from the Sake House. The loud chatter could be heard all the way up here he realized. It was a quarter moon this night, just enough to see, just too little to be sure of what you see. But Kakashi was used to this type of lighting. He pulled his Anbu mask back onto his face and adjusted his stance. Two minutes until the target would exit the building.

A gust of wind blew by just as the door to the establishment swung open. Out came Yoshihiro, in all of his drunken glory, stumbling down the alleyway. Kakashi stood and moved along the roof, shadowing his movement. In twenty feet he would throw the kunai, drop the silver leaf on his body, and be gone. Fifteen. Ten. Five. Now!

Kakashi let loose the kunai and just as it was about to hit the target, it was deflected by a shuriken. Kakashi ducked down, using the other slope of the roof to hide his positioning. A quick shunshin later, and he was on the opposite side of the street. He peered over the edge and saw an Anbu wearing a Tiger mask talking quietly to the target. He nodded to her and began to follow her.

'This is not going to be good.'

Kakashi trailed them through the city, and out the gates. A horse and carriage was waiting for him. Kakashi couldn't let that happen. He pulled out a kunai and sent it straight for the wheel of the carriage. It made a dull thwack, before contained explosion went off. It wasn't louder than a firework, but it was strong enough to break the wheel. Now was his chance.

He leaped from the edge of the wall, sending a barrage of shuriken and kunai at the target. The Anbu simply grabbed Yoshihiro and seemed to disappear. Kakashi's eye widened in shock. The speed at which she had moved was faster than a shunshin and requires no hand seals or movement that he could see…

A moment later Yoshihiro was cowering behind a tree and the Anbu stood there, looking at Kakashi. The Anbu spoke for the first time. "Well, not surprising that Konoha scum would try to kill a civilian. Who wants him dead hm? Danzo? The Sandaime? Or maybe someone a little lower… Jiraiya maybe? You Konoha trash are all the same. You follow orders without even asking why it's being done."

Kakashi slowly moved to his left, trying to get a better angle on Yoshirhiro. The Anbu mirrored his movements exactly, blocking him from view. "Nice try, but he doesn't die here today. Only you will." She disappeared in a shimmer and suddenly Kakashi was kicked squarely in the chest, sending him back several feet. He coughed up a small amount of blood. 'Strong and fast..'

Kakashi thought of his options. 'I can either try to avoid her and go for Yoshirhiro, but she'll most likely stab me in the back the second I move. I could try to distract her by talking and stall for more time…'

"Who are you? What are your motives?" Her response was only to laugh at him. "Motives? A better life for Hi no Kuni. Free from the tyranny of Konoha. We will purge any and all that we deem unworthy, and we will rebuild this broken system created by your so called will of fire."

Kakashi frowned. 'Shes been brainwashed. Or lied to.' Kakashi shifted the weight on his left foot and she quickly moved in. Kakashi managed to grab the fist that went for his head, the knee they hit his stomach however, got through. He grabbed the other leg with his free hand and swung her, letting go after a spin and sending her tumbling away. Kakashi spun with kunai and let it loose at Yoshihiro. The man didn't seem to have enough sense to duck. Fortunately for him, the Anbu once again appeared in front of the Kunai.

Kakashi was tired of this. He opened his left eye and everything seemed to slow down. He took a step forward, eye intently on the anbu. She went to step forward and Kakashi saw it. She wasn't teleporting, she was moving insanely fast. 'Must be a kekkei genkai….' She moved towards him with the intent to kill, a tiger claw sliding onto her hand from what he had to assume was a seal.

He rotated his torso just as the claws were about to pierce his side, locking his arm around it as he did so. He grabbed a kunai in that moment, thrusting forward in between her ribs. She let out a gasp and he let her body drop to the ground. He shunshined to Yoshihiro, grabbed him by his arm, and plunged a kunai down into his chest. The man let out a strangled gargle as Kakashi dropped the body.

Kakashi quickly pulled out the silver leaf and placed it on the body. He quickly turned and let out a grunt as tiger claws pierced his side. He grabbed her arm and met her fist with his hand. They struggled in that position for a moment. "You are pathetic. He was a pawn. A tool for us. There are others that will gladly take his place. But you, you aren't going to be so easily replaceable."

Kakashi panicked and looked right at where her eyes would be and started to cast a genjutsu. Tiger let out a cry as she fell to the ground, paralyzed. Tigers body began to twitch as she struggled to move. Kakashi fell to his knees, grabbing his side. "I need to end this now…"

He took a kunai out and poised himself above Tiger, preparing to strike the final blow. In that last moment, Kakashi was sent flying away, having been kicked in the back. He quickly rebounded and took a knee, facing where Tiger was lying. Standing over her now was another Anbu, this time wearing a Bear mask. "Next time, Konoha scum."

With that he disappeared with a smoke bomb, leaving Kakashi bleeding on one knee. Kakashi stood slowly, not wanting to irritate the wound, and began his trek back to Konoha. He quickly created a Katon: Shuriken and used it to cauterize the wounds that he could reach. He gritted his teeth, set his kind to it, and continued on.

XXXXX End Flashback no Jutsu XXXXX

"Your fear as that since you used an ocular Genjustu, that they will know it's you?"

Kakashi nodded. "I made a mistake and I apologize." The Sandaime simply raised his hand." Stop, Kakashi. You performed admirably. Especially having to restrict yourself in that setting. Now we watch, and wait." He then looked over at team seven. "What you three just heard is now considered an S-class secret, as is the existence of this terrorist organization. You three along with Kakashi and Jiraiya, are now my task force concerning this group. You will report only to Kakashi, Jiraiya, or myself concerning these matters. You will NEVER under any circumstances, talk about this unless these seals are applied, understood?" They all nodded in unison.

"Good. Jiraiya, release the seals and alert your spies to be on the lookout for any more activity." Jiraiya nodded and released the seals, all of a sudden, a large pulse of chakra burst from Naruto, knocking each of then back a step. Sasuke and Sakura scowled at him.

"Naruto, what was that?" Naruto frowned and shrugged. "Kakashi-Sensei said to keep pulsing my chakra so I did! It's not my fault, I guess that seal messed with it." Kakashi clicked his tongue. "Jiraiya, perhaps that seal forced the chakra to build up until it was released?"

"I mean, it's possible. Naruto, gather your chakra like it's a pulse, but hold it for as long as you can before releasing it." Naruto stood there, concentration written on his face. After almost a minute, a similar, yet smaller, pulse passed everyone. "Interesting. That may be something to experiment with. Anyway, I'll see you all later. I have some research to do. Later!" Jiraiya very quickly jumped out of the window. Sarutobi said his goodbyes and left as well, leaving only team seven and Kakashi.

"Don't think because I'm injured, that you guys are getting off with no training." He motioned for Naruto to grab his rear pouch from the chair next to the bed. He grabbed it and handed it to Kakashi. Kakashi opened it up and tossed three scrolls to Sasuke who handed the appropriate color to each of the other two. "I already knew that you three were coming along very well. You've blown all of my expectations out of the water. That being said, it's time to step your training up a notch. On those scrolls are multiple things we will be working through. Some things you will be working on together, others, separately. You three don't have to specialize in anything right now, but typically it's best to choose one or two aspects and hone them into a sharp edge. These scrolls I made to show you what you are more likely to be good at. Naruto, you are going to be able to throw Ninjutsu around easily due to your reserves. Sasuke, while you will most likely be almost apt at Ninjutsu, I also see you performing well with Kenjutsu. Sakura, the same is said for your ability in Genjutsu and Iryo Ninjutsu. Take your scrolls and go over them tonight. Tomorrow and for the next few weeks, we'll iron out how you guys want to spend your time." There was a trio of "Yes Sensei" as they shunshined away.

Kakashi leaned back against the wall and allowed himself to sink into the bed. He let out a sigh and closed his eye. He was going to need rest for what was going to come.

XXXXX

And that is chapter five! I have to say that this chapter was very fun to write! I personally enjoyed writing the different perspectives the way I did. Let me know if you like how I split the characters up! Also, I hadn't realized that owls were in the series so I tried to rig something up. The way I decided their summons was on personality. Naruto was stubborn and wouldn't give up. Sasuke is proud and desires power. Sakura is intelligent. Now another thing I want to know is do you guys want me to write out Kakashi's mission? Or just use a flashback to explain what happened? The only difference it would make is honestly about a chapter I think. So like always, let me know if you liked what you read and leave me a review!

09/26/2019 Edit: This is a rewrite of this chapter after the part where Jiraiya appears and starts training team seven for a week. I decided to retcon the previous summons idea because one, I didn't really like it. It felt rushed and forced. And two, I like the idea of working with what the world already has. I have other ideas for how this will all play out. The story will be mostly canon, sans my added bits, up until time skip, so if you are enjoying it, feel free to leave a review.

-D.K

Jutsu list:

Kage bunshin no jutsu (Shadow clone technique)

Katon: Shuriken no jutsu (Fire Shuriken)

Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu (Great Fireball)

Fuuton: Shuriken no jutsu (Wind Shuriken)

Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning technique)