Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Never did, never will. Masashi Kishimoto does.
Naruto and Asami tree hopped through the Konoha trees as they made their way to the Konoha entrance gate. Their very own dripping wet uniforms slowly began to dry up as the wind blew against them. Jumping around at such speed with the air rushing against them, it was really helpful in wearing the ANBU masks. Naruto and Asami could already see the concrete walls that surrounded Konohagakure. Naruto gave a signal to Asami by holding out his index and middle finger. They jumped off into a road, and stood there as if waiting for someone to come.
Naruto could see Kabuto and Kisame walking slowly wearing their usual Sand ANBU uniform. Cloaked all over in sand brown and a hood over the head, and the two white bone masks decorated in swirls and waves. Kisame and Asami's were always blue; Kabuto had his cat mask in swirls and whiskers of red. While Naruto just wore his special prized possession.
"I didn't think you of all people would come," said Asami.
"We didn't want to, but Baki just kept pestering us about not drawing suspicions and showing respect over and over back in the inn." Replied Kabuto.
"Besides, I want to see those scared faces on the villagers and Leaf-nins again." Added Kisame. He took a deep breath through his mask, "I like it when there's a whole tension and uneasiness feeling in the air."
"Whatever," muttered Naruto as he could already see heads belonging to a group of people just over the horizon the path.
Asami, Kabuto, and Asami already expected the change in attitude.
Naruto and his teammates could see a lot of people already waiting for the Kazekage in the distance. Jounins and Chuunins standing in the midst of villagers, Tsunade and her assistant Shizune were waiting there too. Of course, the two of them were separated from the crowd. The Godaime (The Fifth) was really relieved when she was able to get away from the stacks of papers and come down to greet the Kazekage herself. She'd do almost anything to get out from marking all of those silly papers. Tsunade saw that some of the Konoha villagers looked troubled for all of a sudden.
There they were.
The Sand's ANBU elites were slowly approaching the gates, and they just kept walking towards the crowds of people without slowing down. The villagers, Gennins, Chuunins, and Jounins had their eyes on the both of them. It really was one freaky blood red demon mask; just like those who saw it on the first day pictured them. Naruto didn't pay attention to any of them. Asami knew the moment that Naruto would be near to the presence of even a single Leaf-nin, he would have a drastic change of personality.
Naruto would always change and show different personalities when he was around several types of people. He would be the ANBU captain of the elites trained in Sunagakure, when people he didn't know surrounded him. He would show his carefree, humorous, and happy personality only when he was around his family, friends, and the people he could really trust. He would only show his rare loving personality when he knew he was all alone with Asami. But of all changes, he was like a completely whole different being when he was in for a fight or a kill. Few had ever seen it and lived through it, and those who did were only: his teammates, Gaara, as well as very few ANBU forces that had tested, trained, and worked with him. None could ever explain the terror when you see the student of the greatest Tailed Beast and three Akatsuki members perform a kill.
Naruto, Kabuto, and Asami took a sneak peek out of the corner of their eyes through the mask holes, while Kisame was busy sniffing the different aromas in the air. He felt his Samehada vibrate under the cloak. Both him and his sword could pick up the scent of the different chakra coming off the Konoha ANBU guards hat were hiding in the trees and on the gate walls.
Specially trained nin-dogs such as Kakashi's own pack of dogs and those that belonged in the Inuzuka clan had the ability to smell concentrations of chakra. An example of such ability was back at the Chuunin exam, Akamaru smelled the demonic chakra of Shukaku with Gaara's very own. Even Kakashi's own dogs could smell chakra to an extent of capturing Momochi Zabuza, and trailing after Naruto's team in bringing back Sasuke. Chakra isn't like anything you could always see with your bare eyes. It is a form of energy. It has to be carefully manipulated and have its properties changed like when someone uses Raiken, Rasengan, or medical Jutsu. So detecting its smell was something to be praised about. Especially training types of animals to smell them.
No animal can match the ability to smell chakra when it comes to beating a shark's. Training them to smell chakra was impossible, but few members of the Hoshigaki clan were able to prove the idea wrong. A drop of blood in the seawater was relatively the same as an ANBU's abilities to suppress their chakra while hiding. Kisame's shark-like behavior, his trusted Samehada, and his rarely used shark summonings were the only things in the world that could smell faint traces of chakra. Demons didn't count; they were from a different world.
"14." Whispered all four of them together just enough for the group to hear. It was like another game, 'Where's the ANBU?'
Tsunade looked at them for the first time as they walked not too far away from her place. The four of them were approached Baki and his three Chuunin students: Takagi, Chiro, and Hirami. Naruto bowed down slightly towards Baki and the three in even respect and acknowledgment. as the other three followed suit. Baki bowed a little, but the three had bowed down all the way to the point each of their hands were touching their knees. Tsunade was definitely intrigued, usually ANBU members tend to be secretive. Their identities were kept a secret, they live a solitary life away from socializing with the community. ANBU members don't even usually stay in their own village for more than a week unless they are part of the village's security. Let alone, have the time to mingle with other shinobis and such.
Tsunade slowly walked towards the group of Sand-nins, surprising Shizune when she made the move.
"Tsunade-sama, where are you going?" asked Shizune out of concern.
"Strengthening our ties with the Sand," merely answered Tsunade. She approached the eight Sand-nins with Shizune following by her side. They already knew she was coming, dressed in the formal Hokage robes and red hat bearing the kanji 'Fire' on top.
Shizune looked at the places where the Leaf ANBU guards were hiding, and she moved on.
"This must be the ANBU elites you and Gaara talked about, aren't they?" asked Tsunade as she gave a good look at every single one of them.
"Yes, they are." Answered Baki in a smug on his face. He wasn't really of having her blowing their cover. She never met Kisame or Asami before, and there was no way she could pinpoint that the ANBU captain of the Sand was actually Uzumaki Naruto. Kabuto had told Baki that he had met Tsunade before, but with the Hidden Village of the Sound destroyed, possibilities were really low.
Naruto just stood there in silence, standing before the very few people he still hold precious to his heart, and not even knowing that he had joined the Sand. He just gave the same bow in respect, not even having the desire to talk at all. Even if she couldn't relate his voice to the shinobi she loved like he was her own brother.
"Not very talkative, are you?" asked Tsunade as she tried to look through the holes of the eyes and nostrils of the Oni mask.
Naruto just shook his head. He could already sense Kisame, Asami, and Kabuto trying their best to stifle their own laughter. The three won't stop bugging him about this for at least a week or so. Things are definitely not going to be pleasant once they all enter their rooms or return to Sunagakure.
"Just like most of the ANBU we have here," said Tsunade. Now she was looking intently on Kisame's hilt of Samehada, "I've heard a lot of things going around about that interesting, huge sword of yours."
Kisame fidgeted a little upon the comment and somehow started shivering. He was definitely trying his best from bursting. The rest of the Sand-nins could already picture Kisame's shark nose growing long, laugh out loud, and gloat out of pride of his sword. Pretty much like how it would usually happens every time he walked around Suna and hears people praising about his Samehada.
Naruto turned around to see Kisame, and that gave the signal for him not to utter a single word. Kisame didn't really like facing Naruto's wrath, let alone Asami's own. He just remained silent as ever, much to Tsunade's dismay.
"So everyone in his group doesn't really talk much," commented Tsunade as she gave a look each at Kabuto and Asami.
She was really getting more curious, about Morino Ibiki's comment yesterday. How these four were the pride of Wind Country, the greatest ever to be produced from Sunagakure's ANBU division. Morino Ibiki had reviewed their documents and papers. How it had the seal of Kazekage, and their status currently were in ANBU.
Just then, a Jounin guard that stood in a guard tower shouted to everyone below, "I see them! The caravan from the Sand!"
Anticipations and excitement now filled the air, completely replacing the slight tension that the four Sand-nin had caused earlier before. Kisame was a really disappointed shinobi under that entire mask, for the moment. The caravan lead by a pair of bulls pulling a well-decorated wooden cart came into view minutes later. Jounins and ANBU guards of the Sand were walking in front, along, and behind the caravan. That was when Tsunade noticed the difference between Sand's ANBU masks and those of Konoha.
The Sand-nins' masks had no distinguishable animal features whatsoever on their masks. It was simply white bone colored, with weird eyeholes consisting of repeated slits or lines. (It was like a full armored knight's helmet, the visor part it was.) It was either lined horizontally or vertically on the upper part of the mask. However, these four that stood a few feet next to her were wearing animal face like masks. Much like all the ANBU members of the Leaf.
Gaara was walking right out side the caravan he was supposed to sit in, but he never sat in there even once during the entire journey. The people looked in awe as the small caravan entered the city. Kankurou and Temari walked beside Gaara, as though they were his personal guards. Gaara was dressed in the Kazekage robes, while his two siblings wore the usual black shinobi uniform. Kankurou had Karasu strapped to his back, while Temari had her prized battle fan strapped at her back. The three of them slowly separated away from the caravan, and made their way to Tsunade.
"It's been a while, Kazekage-dono," greeted Tsunade as she held out a hand to shake.
"It has," replied Gaara as he gave a shake. Unknown to Tsunade, Naruto and the gang had to actually train their beloved Kazekage to get used to physical human contact.
It was damn strenuous work. As long as Gaara wasn't used to human contacts, the sand would block any form of attempts even shaking his hand. However this didn't work against Naruto, Shukaku wouldn't even dare touching Naruto ever since Gaara came to know of Kyuubi. The others didn't mind much, but Naruto insisted on letting him get use to such contacts.
The eight Sand-nins including Naruto gave a bow of respect at Gaara's presence. Of course the Shukaku vessel could sense the hesitancy of the bows coming from the four. He knew that Naruto, Kisame, Asami, and Kabuto would never really bow down in showing respect to him. The four of them didn't really like showing respect in such a way, because it just wasn't enough. They had their own way of showing their respects, and actually bowing to Gaara wasn't one of them. This time, Gaara could sense the wide foxy grin on Naruto's face under that Oni mask.
"I hope these four didn't cause any troubles while they were here?" asked Gaara as he took off his blue and white Kazekage hat.
"No, not all." Answered Tsunade.
"Really now?" asked Temari as she looked suspiciously at Naruto, Asami, Kabuto, and lastly Kisame.
Lady Chiyo and Old man Ebizou walked out from a caravan, and gave their own exchange of greetings with Tsunade, Shizune, and the rest of the Sand-nins.
Tsunade heard Asami's voice for the first time as she saw Asami bowing to the senior shinobis.
"Chiyo-ba-sama," muttered Asami softly as she bowed down in greetings and respect.
Just then, Naruto and the others could see Hatake Kakashi and his new band of Team 7 walking towards them. Naruto didn't see any of them in the crowd of people, and the other three didn't pinpoint their presence. All four of them must have arrived late like usual thanks to the tardiness of the Copy Kakashi. Naruto sensed that Sasuke was looking intently at him, while the other three talked to Tsunade and Shizune.
"Sorry to be late as usual, Hokage-sama." Apologized Kakashi as he scratched the back of his head. "Sai here needed to refill his ink bottles along the way."
"You better watch it, or I might come over to you're house. Then I'll burn down all those ridiculous collections of Icha Icha whatever you ever collected. Heck, I probably stop right at the source and convince Jiraiya to stop writing those pornography novels of his." Warned Tsunade.
Shizune and Sakura laughed a little. Even Asami and Naruto gave a little smirk under their ANBU masks after hearing such threat from the Godaime (The Fifth).
"Sometimes I wonder if he's too busy training Naruto, or just sit near some bath house while peeking like the pervert he is." Complained Tsunade as she rubbed her temple.
Naruto took note in his head, he corrected Tsunade's words in his mind. He thought,
'It's super pervert, not just pervert. He admitted it himself when I tried to persuade him to train me in chakra water walking.'
Asami, Kabuto, Kisame, and the other Sand-nins just remained quiet at the point where Tsunade said about Jiraiya peeking some bath house. He would probably be peeking in some public house bath at that very moment, ever since Naruto had joined the Sand,
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: I will explain everything. All is going to be explained as the story progresses. There will a chapter a two where I explain everything. It's just not the time yet. Kind of keeps you curious and want to keep reading more. I need reviews people!)
Moments after Lady Chiyo looked and recognized Kakashi presence, she suddenly sprang a kunai from her sleeve. Then out of nowhere there was a spike on killing intent in the air. Asami's eyes widened in realization when she saw Lady Chiyo looked at Kakashi. The old puppet master was about to use the kunai when Naruto and Asami stopped her kunai inches away from Kakashi's face. Asami held Lady Chiyo's wrist with her right hand, and held Chiyo's upper arm with her own left hand. Naruto was standing right in front of Kakashi, with his right hand stopping the kunai. Asami wasn't quick enough to react as the kunai was now lodged right through Naruto's palm.
Everything happened so quickly; even Tsunade, Gaara, and the stationed Konoha ANBU guards didn't have the time to react.
The only way the two could have reacted in time was they would have anticipated this to happen.
Several Leaf ANBU members leapt into the scene, surrounding Naruto, Asami, and Lady Chiyo. Tsunade however just ordered them to simply stand there at the moment, no engagement anyhow. Sai was giving a real smile as he stood happy watching how pathetic Leaf ANBU guards could be. The 'Roots' definitely would have done something. Sai looked at Naruto and had his face changed slightly, he had a doubt playing in his mind at the moment.
'Could the Roots even have sensed that and move that fast?'
Naruto used the same hand to pull away the kunai from Lady Chiyo's grip.
"Chiyo-ba-sama, he's not him." Voiced Asami through the fox ANBU mask. She had a voice of understanding as she tried to convince the old kunoichi before her.
"She's right, he's not the Konoha White Fang," assured Ebizou towards Lady Chiyo as he put his hand on her right shoulder.
Lady Chiyo came to realization as she heard those words, and saw Naruto shook his head. He still had the kunai lodged in his right hand, as if it was nothing. Lady Chiyo somehow looked older than usual as grim sadness and realization over took her. Still holding the grudge of the very person who killed her son and daughter-in-law, yet she knew the killer himself was long gone dead.
"I apologize, I don't know what came over me." Stated Lady Chiyo. "It was just a misunderstanding. Again I gravely apologize."
"Perhaps it is best if you and I head to the inn for a rest, it has been a long day." Suggested Ebizou as he guided Lady Chiyo back to the caravan.
Gaara nodded in agreement while Temari went to escort the both of them. The caravan had long since entered the Konoha gates, and very few people whom hadn't dispersed had watched everything play out. The Leaf ANBU guards slowly backed away when Tsunade gave the signal. They were a little bit disappointed for failing to react in such manner as to Naruto and Asami. However they took notice at their Hokage, Tsunade. She gave word to one of the Leaf ANBU, that was wearing a green dog mask to escort Temari, Lady Chiyo, and Ebizou to the inn. The villagers that were able to watch winced like they were in pain after seeing that attempt of attack. One of the ANBU Leaf-nins took notice, and looked at the still lodged kunai in Naruto's hand.
"Eeeeer…you might want to take that out," suggested the Leaf ANBU wearing a black decorated raven mask.
ANBU and Hunter-nins from all five elemental countries were trained to bear the pain, the best could simply neglect pain. But simply leaving it like that was something very few could do.
Naruto seemed to have forgotten about it, until the ANBU pointed out. He gave a look at it. Pain didn't really bother him much after what he had been through ever since he left Konohagakure. He had Sasuke ram a Chidori in one of his lungs, emotionally hurt by the betrayal of his precious people, survive crazy seal experiments performed by a lunatic Akatsuki member for a month, and let's not forget about being trained by a demon lord along with three Akatsuki members. The end of the sharp, cold metal kunai could have been seen at the back of his hand if it weren't for the metal plate on the back of his fingerless black gloves.
He pulled it out without even a slight wince, and watch as blood sprayed a little out from the wound. Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura instantly remembered the day when Naruto vowed to never run away from an enemy. He had been slightly poisoned by the Demon brothers in escorting Tazuna to Wave country, and had to removed the poison by stabbing a kunai to the back of his hand. Tsunade on the other hand remembered the day when Naruto blocked Kabuto's kunai with his left hand and rammed his ever first Rasengan into Kabuto's chest.
Naruto looked at the bloody dripping hand and remembered other things. He never had to worry about healing cuts and wounds ever since Kyuubi and Naruto made 'that' pact. A freedom that Kyuubi wouldn't ever expect coming from his own 'prison'. When Raetsu finally proposed the idea of fighting the rest the Akatsuki, Naruto made the pact with the nine tailed fox demon. Naruto realized that Kyuubi could share his thoughts with him by channeling the red chakra into his mind. But the containment seal would only allow the red chakra to enter when Naruto summons it or when it was greatly forced through. But Sakai's experiment seals changed that.
He would allow Kyuubi free of his cage, and reside in the his body like being possessed . Of course Naruto remained in constant control, yet Kyuubi was now once again able to see, touch, hear, smell, taste, and best of all to fight again. The demon Lord was amused as it ransacked through the boy's memories, and sees what it was like to live through his vessel's point of view. To live the life from a human's point of view. Most of them just simply disappointed him on just how weak a human could be.
Naruto quickly told Kyuubi not to heal the injury as it would absolute raise suspicions especially when Tsunade and Kakashi were here. He guessed that Sasuke already knew about Kyuubi being sealed inside of him after being with Orochimaru. As four shinobis with the ability to heal the wound, two of them were currently remembering memories of the certain blonde. Tsunade and Sakura was still dazed at the moment, Kabuto didn't want to step forward to raise his own set of suspicions, thus leaving only Shizune.
"You could let me have a look at that. I'm a medic shinobi, Tsunade-sama's very own apprentice," suggested Shizune as she stepped forward.
Naruto could feel everyone around him was looking at him right after she finished. Even the ANBU Leaf-nins were looking at him. Gaara suddenly spoke, "Thank you very much for the offer, Shizune-san. I think he would greatly appreciate it."
Shizune came over from behind Tsunade towards Naruto; he didn't even move his hand. Shizune took off his fingerless gloves to get a proper look at it, and began holding out the wounded hand with her own hands. She gave her usual medical inspection, and noticed how his brown skin was perfectly tanned.
'I guess it's one of the good things of living in a desert.' thought Shizune.
Naruto could detect the slight feeling of jealousy coming from Asami, and looked at the Sand ANBU kunoichi. Their eyes met, and Asami just smiled happily under the mask from the brief look of understanding. Shizune's hands began to glow after being molding out green chakra. The wound slowly closed up as the skin and muscle cells began to regenerate and divide. After only several seconds, the wound was already closed and healed perfectly.
"There. Everything is as good as new." finished Asami as she put the bloody fingerless gloves into his now healed hand. "It will definitely leave a scar."
Naruto turned his hand around and gave a full inspection on it. Even Kabuto, Tsunade, and Sakura couldn't have done a better job after looking at his hand from a far. Naruto just flexed his all five fingers to let the blood run through out his hand. Kankurou gave a hard cough while Gaara gave him a stern look from under the Kazekage hat. Naruto put on his fingerless gloves, and gave a bow.
Naruto politely said, "Arigato Gozaimas. Shizune-san."
In Tsunade, Sakura, and Shizune's opinion, he definitely has one good voice. But even Baki's Chuunin student Hirami already knew he was taken. She giggled when she saw the three Leaf kunoichis just looked at him in awe. They definitely want to see the face that was hidden under that scary mask. But even the three medic-nins could sense that he was already taken with his looks that he gave a at his ANBU teammate kunoichi. It was what all women would call it a woman's intuition. Gaara and the other Sand-nins definitely didn't like this whole turn of events.
Kankurou gave another loud cough that snapped the three kunoichis once again. Sasuke and Sai were much too busy figuring how fast Naruto was in blocking Lady Chiyo's attack. Meanwhile Kakashi was busy giving an assessment on Gaara as he looked up and down at the Shukaku vessel. The young boy was definitely fit to be called a Kazekage of the Wind Country.
"I apologize on behalf on Lady Chiyo 's actions earlier." Stated Gaara.
"It's nothing really. Like she said, it was just a misunderstanding. You definitely made a perfect choice in choosing them as your personal guards." Replied Tsunade.
Sasuke was now more determined than ever to fight against the Sand ANBU captain without even realizing who he really was.
"I know her, I understand. The Konoha White Fang killed a lot of Sand-nins in his carrier. I guess he must have killed some relatives of her or something. Kakashi does look exactly like his father, doesn't he?" said Tsunade as she gave a look at the famous Copy Kakashi.
"I'll see you again tomorrow, Hokage-dono," stated Gaara as he bowed at walked towards the path that would eventually lead them to the village.
"Oh, yeah. Sure." smiled Tsunade as she shook Gaara's hand.
"Wait," said Sasuke.
The Sand-nins heard this, and turned around to face the Uchiha prodigy. They were curious as what he had to say. Even the Leaf-nins and Tsunade gave a look on confusion to what Sasuke was doing.
"Hey Gaara," called Sasuke with his usual cool smirk, "If it isn't any trouble, I want to have a spar with that ANBU captain of yours."
Gaara looked back at Sasuke, and back at Naruto. Kabuto already expected this coming from the Uchiha shinobi, he did spend one and a half year with Sasuke back in Orochimaru's fortress. He still had that little arrogance in him, not that any of the Sand-nins would really care. Kakashi, Sakura , and even Sai knew this bad habit that Sasuke tends to show every time he could pick a fight with some unknown shinobi. Sai had only been assigned to the team for six months, yet he tried to learn everything he can about his so called teammates. He definitely didn't like this so called Naruto character.
Sasuke never really had the habit of calling people with their formalities. Most people would already know this, while some would just learn to ignore later on. He doesn't even talk much for that matter. He didn't care calling Orochimaru just by his name, no sensei or master whatsoever.
Naruto looked at his ex-teammate, who was only fifteen years old at the moment. Naruto had aged himself ahead by three years. He would laugh at such the predicament, but didn't want to. Kyuubi was already doing that somewhere in his body. Yet he still wouldn't back away from fighting anyone who was stronger and older than him. Naruto didn't even care if Sasuke had even grown stronger since he returned Sasuke back to Konoha. Sasuke couldn't even match him after even using a second level curse seal, and Naruto didn't even need to think of tapping into Kyuubi's chakra. Naruto wondered if Sasuke had just forgotten that stupid revenge of his, and realize Itachi's true intentions.
Naruto gave a nod. Sasuke's smile widened, while Sakura grew worried. Again surprising the Sand-nins, they thought he would just simply walk away and ignore them much like how he usually does with strangers.
Gaara when straight to the point, "When?"
"I have a Jounin exam to pass tomorrow, let's make it now. But at Team 7's training area, I'll lead the way," answered Sasuke with a smug and confidence on his face.
Baki's Chuunin student, Takagi, who might b fighting Sasuke in the finals gave a remark towards him, "You must be dreaming if you think you could even lay a punch on him."
"Oh, I don't think I'll lay a punch on him. I'm going to beat him." Replied Sasuke with full confidence.
Kisame looked at Sasuke and remembered Naruto's words, he thought to himself. 'I guess you were right. He is kind of arrogant and just plain stupid.'
Kankurou, Kabuto, Kisame, and Sai thought it was going to be boring coming for the reception of the Kazekage at the Konoha gates. They're definitely thrilled at least for now. Takagi saw this as opportunity to be able to see more of Sasuke's tricks and abilities he might face tomorrow on the Jounin exam. Chiro and Hirami was going to enjoy see the arrogant Uchiha Sasuke get his ass whooped. Oh how Sasuke was in for a surprise that awaits him at the Team 7 training grounds.
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