Ino slowly awoke to the sight of a dull white ceiling present in one of the hospital rooms. She blinked a couple of times to get accustomed to the light and then attempted to move. A shooting pain went through her entire body causing her to grunt loudly. Ino began to think of what could have possibly gotten her in this much pain, but then memories of her last mission with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno hit her.

The team was assigned to go on a mission deep into fire country to deal with strange occurrences in the area. Civilians in the area reported multiple attacks and explosions going on in and outside their settlements. Ino wasn't very happy about the team she was assigned to but she didn't complain. When they finally got to the location of the mission assignment they immediately encountered around fifty kiri shinobi. The three fought as hard as they could but only managed to eliminate around twenty-five of them. The ninja they were fighting included some of the elite of the Mist shinobi rank. This included multiple Jonin, a few ANBU and chunin. Sasuke, who was in charge of the mission ordered an immediate retreat but the remaining Mist nin pursued them.

They were all low on chakra and Sasuke ordered them to stop to at least attempt to fight off the remaining shinobi, rather than getting captured running away, which would have eventually happened with the low chakra reserves they had left. That... that was when the masked swordsman appeared. She remembered his eerie voice which made her shiver. She even noticed Sasuke's scared reaction to the laugh of the masked man. That was all she remembered before she passed out. She figured the masked man must have somehow held off the shinobi long enough for her team to escape. Many questions ran through her mind regarding the masked swordsman until someone walked through the door to her hospital room.

"About time you woke up.."

Said her teammate and good friend Shikamaru. He was lazy as hell but he was also a genius and the first out of the rookie 9 to become a chunin. He was then the first to become a jonin. Ino began to respond but was interrupted as she began to cough loudly. Shikamaru sighed,

"This really is troublesome."

Said the lazy genius. Ino only frowned, too weak to respond to any of her teammate's typical antics. Soon a nurse walked in with a smile on face at seeing Ino awake.

"How are you feeling?" Asked the nurse. Ino smiled weakly and responded,

"Not too good, my body aches and I'm exhausted, what happened?" Asked Ino weakly, the nurse then responded.

"You suffered from chakra exhaustion, had you been brought back to the village an hour later, you might not have made it."

Ino sighed, that was to close.

"Well I guess I better thank Sasuke and Sakura for getting me back.."

Said Ino, causing Shikamaru to scowl. She didn't remember how she had gotten back at all.

"Do you remember anything about returning to the village?"

Asked Shikamaru who was trying to pick up more information on the masked swordsman who had essentially taken his teammate hostage. The weirdest part was that it appeared that the Hokage wasn't doing anything regarding the needle wielding swordsman. He remembered the laugh that the man had that sent shivers down his spine. His long blonde hair swayed in the wind around his kiri ANBU mask.

"No.. I blacked out after this weird masked man with blonde hair appeared in front of us..and he started fighting the enemy ninja."

Said Ino quietly, as she remembered the mist setting in on the battlefield before she blacked out. Shikamaru got a puzzled look on his face, he figured that the masked man had simply kidnapped the Yamanaka as a hostage or bargaining chip to make money or for other possible motives, but from what Ino said, it seemed as if he had saved Ino's entire team. Ino noticed a confused look on her teammate's face. She'd worked long enough with him to notice when he was hiding things. The nurse also got a perplexed look on her face before elevating the room. After the nurse left Ino immediately asks a question towards Shikamaru.

"Ok, what happened, and don't lie to me please.."

Said Ino, to tired and in pain to sustain the typical arguments required to get information out of her teammate. Shikamaru noticed her plea, obviously too exhausted to get into another heated exchange the two were use to. Shikamaru knew he probably wouldn't be able to conceal anything from her, plus she'd definitely find out eventually. Shikamaru then sighed.

"How troublesome… that swordsman who appeared in front of you during your mission walked into the leaf village with you over his shoulder. He used you almost as a hostage so no one would attack him."

Ino grew angry at this, no one used her as a bargaining chip. She then began to wonder what the man could have done to her when she was unconscious. Her thoughts traveled to Sasuke and Sakura. What happened to them? Did they even try to stop the man? Or were they defeated by the kiri nin and they couldn't protect her?

"The weirdest part of everything was that the Hokage seemed to know him, and once he saw her he simply gave you over to the Hokage and didn't even ask for anything in return. The man carrying you was a shadow clone and he simply poofed away, I don't know what happened afterwards but the Hokage has demanded that no one attack or provoke him or there will be severe consequences."

Ino became even more confused. The man used her as a hostage to get into the village but then didn't even ask for anything. The Hokage also seemed to know the man, which also perplexed her.

"What happened to Sasuke and Sakura?"

Asked Ino.

"They got back to the village and instantly collapsed from chakra exhaustion. The Hokage seemed to think the man may be going after them and sent Kakashi and Gai after him but that's all I know.."

Shikamaru was one of the smartest people in the village and even he was somewhat confused by the blonde swordsman who seemed to know the Hokage personally to the point where she would forgive him for holding a leaf kunoichi captive. Then Shikamaru began making connections in his head. The Hokage knew him, he had a leaf symbol on his mask, he had saved Konoha shinobi and had long blonde hair. He only knew one person to ever have that bright blonde hair. A look of pure astonishment crept over Shikamaru's face, luckily Ino wasn't paying attention to the lazy Nara. 'Naruto..' thought the Nara as he tried to regain his composure but was too shocked to do so.

Ino on the other hand was in complete confusion. She vividly remembered the shape her fellow leaf shinobi were in when they were about to fight the twenty-five kiri nin. If Sasuke and Sakura fell unconscious mere seconds after returning to the village there was no way they could have fought off the kiri shinobi. 'That swordsman must have done it, he must be extremely strong..' thought the Yamanaka before turning to Shikamaru only to see a face that was full of recognition. He looked like he had seen a ghost. Ino was slightly confused under the Nara muttered out a few words.

"I… I have to go.."

Whispered the Nara before leaving, ignoring Ino's shouts for him to get back into her room. Ino sat in her bed in the hospital for around ten minutes until her exhausted body gave out and she drifted into sleep.

0o0

Shikamaru made his way through the streets of Konoha, ignoring nearly everyone and everything. He had one thought on his mind and that was of his one time blonde haired friend who had vanished from the village. He quickly made his way to the poorer part of the village, vaguely remembering how to get to Naruto's old apartment. It was around 10 a.m. so he figured if the masked man really was Naruto, he might be at his old apartment. He slowly made his way to the run down apartment complex that Naruto used to live in.

He made his way up the stair case up to his old apartment. The door had many cruel comments written on the door, most containing 'demon' in them. Shikamaru didn't know what he would say to him once he saw him. From what he'd seen of the boy, he had definitely changed from the care-free and optimistic kid from his genin days.

Shikamaru built up his courage and knocked on the old wooden door, deciding he might as well attempt to talk to his one time friend. There was complete silence for around thirty seconds and Shikamaru figured he'd left the apartment or just wasn't staying there anymore and began walking away. As Shikamaru was about to walk down the staircase he heard the wooden door creak open and out came a tall blond-haired man with a kiri mask on, but Shikamaru had a pretty good idea who was under the mask.

"Why are you bothering me?"

Questioned the masked man causing Shikamaru to finch a little at the hostile tone used, but Shikamaru decided it was now or never to find out if it was really him. Naruto was frowning under his mask, enough people already knew who he was, but he figured Shikamaru would have found out eventually.

"Sorry, I was just here to check up on an old friend…. Naruto"

Naruto grinned under his mask at the smirk on Shikamaru's face. He had caught him and there was nothing Naruto could do now. Naruto stood there for around thirty seconds until responding.

"Figured you'd be the first to figure me out, sharp as ever Shikamaru."

Shikamaru's smirk grew into a huge grin at the knowledge that his friend had finally returned. Shikamaru didn't really know what to say, should he go give him a hug? Naruto was usually the one to carry on conversations but he figured it was up to him now.

"You know, you probably could have come up with a better way to enter the village then holding Ino hostage."

Said Shikamaru, casing Naruto to laugh, not one of his intimidating or high-pitched laughs, but a genuine one and it felt good. Naruto began scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah…I guess your right, so… how've you been?"

Asked Naruto awkwardly, not exactly sure what to say or do as well. Shikamaru smiled at the question and began his response.

"Nothing really, I'm a jonin now… its such a drag.. plus I have to look after that annoying girl you took captive."

Said Shikamaru, causing Naruto to smile again under his mask, he did miss Shikamaru's pessimistic attitude towards everything.

"And you?"

Asked Shikamaru, causing Naruto to tense a little bit, which Shikamaru noticed. Naruto really didn't want to tell anyone where he went or why.

Shikamaru sighed at the reaction, he knew he wasn't going to get any real information from him now.

"I won't push for information now, but you're gonna have to talk about it eventually…"

Said Shikamaru. He hated the mask the Naruto was wearing. It prevented him from reading any of Naruto's facial expressions, thus preventing him from guessing Naruto's reaction. After a few seconds Naruto nodded his head, agreeing with what he said.

"I know.. but I just got back… not yet."

Said Naruto as Shikamaru nodded his head.

"Plus, you should probably go apologize to Ino, at least see how she's doing… you did use her as a hostage and all."

Said Shikamaru with a smirk on. Naruto groaned, he knew Shikamaru was right. This was why he didn't want anyone to figure out who he was, it forced him to do unnecessary tasks such as meeting up with old friends which he really wasn't ready to do. He figured he could at least go see if Ino was okay.

"Ok, I'll make sure I go check on her, but I've got to go Shikamaru, so I'll cya around."

Shikamaru smiled and nodded, pleased to finally seen his friend after three years, Sure he had changed and definitely mellowed down but he was still one of his friends and planned on keeping it that way. The Naruto in front of Shikamaru poofed out of existence, proving it to be a shadow clone. This ended up causing Shikamaru to begin his return back to his home.

0o0

Naruto was running along rooftops towards the Hokage's office when the clones memories hit him, he frowned at Shikamaru's new knowledge about him but figured he wouldn't go around telling everyone, he wasn't that kind of guy. Naruto continued his journey along rooftops, gaining many glares from villagers and shinobi alike due to the past days events. They wondered why he was still in the village and not either being tortured or dead.

Naruto continued his journey towards the Hokage office and eventually made it to the Hokage Tower. Naruto walked through the main entrance, gaining gasps from many people within the building. He ignored the demands for him to stop and immediately entered into the Hokage's office, where he found not only Tsunade but also Kakashi.

Naruto tightened his fists, attempting to contain his anger.

"Naruto, we were just discussing our plans on accessing you for our ranks.."

Said Tsunade, somewhat angry at the blonde for simply walking into the office without precaution. Kakashi could also see the anger Naruto was holding back from his body language, he really wanted to at least be able to talk to his student about his treatment towards him in his younger days.

"Then why don't we test my skill against Kakashi, it should be relatively interesting, don't you think?"

Said Naruto wickedly. Kakashi frowned, he knew he would need to resolve this issue with his ex: student. Tsunade was about to decline Naruto's proposal but Kakashi cut in.

"Fine.."

Said Kakashi, shocking both Naruto and Tsunade. Naruto smiled wickedly under his mask, this would be fun.

"Training ground 7, hehe.."

Laughed Naruto, causing Tsunade to scowl, that laugh really could really be creepy. Naruto then jumped out of the window grinning under his mask.

"Kakashi, you know he wants revenge, on you, Sasuke and Sakura, right?"

Questioned Tsunade.

"I know, but I deserve it, I didn't give him as much attention as I should have, even though Jiraiya told me to focus more on Sasuke. I didn't teach him enough, which resulted in me failing him and Minato-sensei, i won't let that happen again."

Tsunade stayed silent for a little.

"We don't know how strong he is Kakashi.. be careful"

Kakashi nodded in agreement. Tsunade had plenty of faith in Kakashi, he was one of the elite jonin in the village, and a possible candidate for the next Hokage but they didn't have any information on Naruto's abilities

"I will.." Said Kakashi as he vanished in a swirl of leaves as he headed off to the training ground.

0o0

Kakashi arrived at their old training ground to see Naruto facing him, blonde hair blowing in the wind, while his mask covered his face. He held his needle blade in his hand. Unfortunately Kakashi didn't really know the full potential of the weapon nor Naruto's abilities with it, but he guessed he'd learn on the fly. He figured he could probably take Naruto without the sharingan, it wouldn't do much good even if he used it with the mist technique.

"Ready Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi frowned at the obvious sarcasm in his tone.

"Aren't you a little feisty, I thought I told you to never rush into a battle."

Said Kakashi, causing Naruto to smirk.

"I guess you did tell me that Kakashi, one of the few things you taught me, unfortunately, I never really picked up on the trait, you never really enforced it into me seeing to how little you paid attention to me."

Said Naruto coldly. Kakashi's eyes lowered in sadness at how he had indeed ignored Naruto. Naruto smirked at the visible pain in Kakashi's face and decided to begin, this would indeed be fun.

"Go!"

Yelled Naruto as he fired Nuibari at Kakashi. The copy ninja noticed it was flying straight at him and simply side stepped the attack, not impressed with it. He immediately regretted the action as Naruto pulled the wire outward causing it to curve around going straight for Kakashi's back. The grey haired jonin then ducked under the blade as it passed over him and flew back into Naruto's hand.

"Your pretty good with that Naruto… but not good enough."

Said Kakashi as his clone in front of Naruto poofed away, revealing it to be a shadow clone. Kakashi then appeared behind him with a chidori pointed at his neck.

"Its over, now can we please ta.."

Kakashi stopped his sentence as he noticed wires elevating from the ground and the Naruto in front of him poofed away, revealing it to be a shadow clone. The real Naruto sat perched in a tree, sharply pulling up wires of Nuibari that were spread along the battlefield in vertical and horizontal lines.

"Long Sword Ninja Art: Earth Spider Sewing!"

Shouted Naruto as wires began to compress all along the battle field. The goal of the technique was that the wires would cross over with such force that they would cut off the enemies feet, rendering them immobile.

Kakashi immediately lept into the air, barely managing to keep his feet attached to his body. He then skillfully landed on the wires that were now elevated from the ground. Naruto wasn't planning on holding back, something that worried the jonin. Kakashi was about to start going through hand signs when he saw Naruto going through the familiar hand seals to one of Kakashi's least favorite techniques.

"Hidden Mist Technique!"

Said Naruto as a thick mist distended upon the battle field. Kakashi remembered his fight with Zabuza and how effective the Swordsman of the Mist could be with silent killing. He only wondered if Naruto was as efficient at it. He then heard Naruto's high-pitched laugh echoing through the mist.

"Hehehe, brings back old times, eh Kakashi. Back when I though you guys actually cared about me… Unfortunately I'm not hear to dwell on the past, prepare to meet one of my most deadly attacks that I created. Trust me you'll love it."

Laughed Naruto wickedly as Kakashi grew nervous. He couldn't seek Naruto out and worst of all, with that blade of his Naruto wouldn't have to get anywhere near him.

"Ninja art: Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu" Kakashi groaned, this wasn't going to be good at all.

"Long Sword Ninja Art: Raining Needle Web!" Yelled Naruto as the fifty clones who had surrounded Kakashi began firing their copies of nuibari at Kakashi. Some threw it straight at him, others threw them to the sky to attack him from above, and others attempted to curve the blade to attack from the side. Wires crossed over each other in the sky, making it seem as if a web was being formed above Kakashi as the deadly blades flew at Kakashi.

"Earth Style: Multiple Earth Wall!"

Yelled Kakashi as four earth walls surrounded him, keeping him in a box as he heard the needles impale the sides of the wall. He then turned his attentions that the blades that were incoming from above him. It was tricky to dodge the swords due to the Mist but he was able to avoid being impaled by any of the copies of Nuibari. Kakashi was about to think of a counter attack but then heard Naruto say another technique which was all too familiar to him.

"Rasengan!"

Yelled Naruto as the swirling ball of chakra in his hand slammed into one of the earth walls, completely destroying it, allowing Naruto to get a view of Kakashi with the wall shattered. Kakashi stared at the masked Naruto. he had to admit, Naruto gave off an aura of dread and killer intent similar to that of Zabuza.

Kakashi charged at Naruto and began engaging him in hand to hand combat, and was surprised to find that Naruto was not launching any attacks but was rather dodging all of his attacks with extreme ease. Naruto's slender formed allowed him to be much more flexible and he seemed to focus much more on avoiding or blocking attacks while simultaneously exhausting the enemy. After coming to this realization Kakashi lept back to avoid wasting to much energy in the exchange.

"Having fun Kakashi? Well let me show you one of my personal favorite techniques!"

"Black Rain!"

Called out Naruto as parts of the mist began turning into black clouds, confusing Kakashi. The jonin figured he should probably avoid these clouds. But more and more of the mist turned black and soon the entire mist was black. Kakashi couldn't see anything in front of him now, all he could here was the wicked laughter of Naruto in the mist, causing him to become a little scared. Naruto was definitely not planning on holding back.

The worst part of the entire situation was Kakashi hadn't even been given any time to attack. Kakashi proceeded tocreate two shadow clones who ran off into the black mist, trying to see what Naruto was doing. Kakashi waited patiently but soon felt the first one dispel as Nuibari pierced through its heart. The second went down quickly as well with a needle through the neck. Kakashi then decided it was time to get serious, he removed his headband revealing his sharingan but saw it was also of little use. He then felt wet liquid drench him as the mist quickly cleared revealing the entire training ground to be drenched in a wet substance. Kakashi rubbed some of the blackliquid that he was covered it and recognized it, mostly because of the smell. The realization that the liquid was oil overly frightened the copy ninja.

"Bye Kakashi!"

Naruto pulled out a senbon wrapped with an explosive tag and fired it into the field drenched in oil. The oil all over the training ground erupted in flames and explosions scattered across the training ground. Kakashi cursed as he saw the flames flying towards him in all directions causing massive explosions. He ran through the hand signs for his multiple earth wall, this time creating 4 layers of the wall, attempting to save himself.

o0o

Training ground 7 was completely destroyed. All the trees were either on fire, or blown to pieces from the explosion. Across the grounds were large craters from explosions and there was no grass left anywhere the mist and then black rain had covered. The only thing remaining on the training ground were the last layer of Kakashi's multiple earth walls he created while he currently leaned up against one of them, blown back to it by the force of the explosions around him. He was lucky the last wall stood or else he could have died.

ANBU immediately appeared at the training ground along with Tsunade who had been watching the battle from a distance. It had become difficult when Naruto activated the Hidden Mist Technique an became even more of a bother when she was forced to avoid the explosions from the oil.

There was nothing standing, while smashed and enflamed trees were scattered across the craters in the ground. Whatever technique Naruto used, it sure was deadly. Her attention then turned towards Kakashi who was now standing on top of one of his mud walls, obviously frowning under his mask at Naruto's last jutsu. Then there stood Naruto, standing on the only small circular patch of grass left on the training field, simply staring at his one time sensei.

Tsunade was shocked, impressed and somewhat angry with Naruto, he had just destroyed an entire training ground and in the process had nearly killed his sensei. She was shocked and impressed that Naruto was able to use such a powerful technique and have the capability to defeat Kakashi showed great improvement in Naruto's skill. Granted Kakashi wasn't going all out, but it was still impressive. She was kind of pissed with Naruto though for destroying the training ground which would be a huge pain to replace. Sh e was also pissed for him nearly killing Kakashi.

Tsunade began walking over to the masked Naruto, by this time multiple ninja, including some who were familiar to Naruto were looking on in horror at the man who had single handily obliterated an entire training field. Tsunade walked up to the masked Naruto and simply stared into the black eye slits of his mask. Naruto spoke first.

"Sorry Baa-chan, I guess I got a little carried away…"

Laughed Naruto who turned his gaze towards all the ninja watching their discussion. Tsunade didn't know what to say, one second she saw regular mist, then black mist, then the largest explosion she'd ever seen. Whatever Naruto had done over the past 3 years had definitely made him powerful.

"A LIttle!"

Yelled Tsunade.

"Don't worry Hokage-sama, we just sparring."

Said Kakashi who eye smiled to cover up what he was actually thinking. Kakashi was extremely impressed with Naruto. He had underestimated his student at the beginning of the battle, which ended up being a grave mistake that almost cost him his life. Kakashi imagined that if he had gone out, his skill would be equal, if not a little better then Naruto's.

"You destroyed the entire training field! Not to mention you nearly killed Kakashi!"

Naruto stood still taking in the venal assault coming from Tsunade, perhaps he did go to far, he figured Kakashi didn't expect him to put up this much of a fight.

Tsunade hated not being able to see Naruto's facial reaction. That mask made it seem as if he was just sending her a piercing glare.

"Listen Baa-chan, I'm sorry, I just had a lot of anger I needed to vent….. I've got to go think, I'll talk to you later today."

Said Naruto who then vanished in a swirl of mist. Tsunade sighed, Naruto haddefinitely changed.