*FIVE MINUTES EARLIER*

"We're wasting our time senpai..." Iruka said just before a loud yawn came from his mouth.

Anko was having none of it, for the last two hours they had parked the car just a block away from Naruto's apartment, she had a hunch since the last talk with Chen that somehow clicked inside her head about being there, it could not be a coincidence he had mentioned it, Iruka of course did not believe anything she had said before, Chen was a manipulative individual and his boss just happened to surprisingly believe in his words for some unknown reason. He was very tired, all he wanted to do at that moment was go to his apartment and fall to his bed into deep slumber.

"Back up the seat and get some rest if you're so tired." She replied while she kept watching with binoculars over the place from the driver's seat.

"What are the chances he comes exactly tonight to the apartment anyway? We're just gambling here..."

"Call it what you want, I'm not moving until morning if I have to."

"But why? Why are you so confident what that Chen guy said is true? For all we know he could've played us just to avoid arrest!"

"Mind your tone Iruka, we may be friends but I'm still your superior!" Anko spat angrily.

"S-sorry senpai... can I ask you something though? Do you believe the stories about Konoha?"

"Me? Why would I? I've never been there, only God knows if that place even exists now..."

"Now? So you do believe it existed at some point?"

"Maybe, I've heard lots of stories growing up as a kid, why are you asking me that?"

"Because if that kid went there, how do we know he's even alive now? What if he's already gone?"

"So you're saying he was kidnapped and tortured to death?"

"It's not that far fetched is it?"

"Seriously Iruka, sometimes I wonder where's your common sense... Shinobi don't work like the Yakuza, you know that, if they wanted him dead then his body would've gone to a morgue instead, he would've been another dead body on that rooftop back then."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, shinobi kill on the spot..."

"We Iruka, we kill on the spot, never forget that."

"Senpai... You should not mention that so openly, we don't who's listening." he said concerned.

"If the car was bugged I'd know it, trust me, relax a little-" her expression suddenly changed.

"What? What is it?"

Anko did not answer, she pulled her trench coat off and checked one of the inside pockets until she found what she was looking for, a folded piece of paper that reacted with a low glowing yellow energy.

"Is that...?"

"A seal I placed on the apartment! It reacts to any chakra presence close to it!" She turned to face Iruka and grinned "Someone's in there right now! Call all available units!"

*PRESENT*

From the rooftop, Ino could already feel more police coming her way, she jammed the door using a nearby chain and lock and tried to get a feel for her teammates, to her luck, Asuma had arrived just in time as the five minutes had passed, she was about to take a long jump to reach the other side but when she felt the helicopter was actually going to where she stood her mind changed. As soon as it was within reach, she disappeared as she got to the interior of the cabin.

"Where's Naruto?" Asked Shikamaru, Ino ignored him and she went over to Chōji's seat.

"Take us off, now!" she demanded.

"But what about Naruto?..:"

"Ino! Where is Naruto?!" Shikamaru asked again more sternly.

"Just take us off Chōji!"

He was obviously confused at her demand, how could they leave while abandoning their teammate? Was she out of her mind? Desperately she took the cyclic control and they started to distance themselves from the building, Asuma immediately went to grab her by her shoulders and forcefully turned her around to face him while Chōji regained control.

"Ino! Look at me! Where is Naruto?!"

As that moment from the other side of the building a loud bang could be heard which made the whole team turn their heads over. The door leading to the rooftop had been opened and armed officers surrounded the perimeter looking for someone, they were completely oblivious to the fact that just a few meters from them the helicopter was hovering, had Ino not taken some distance the air current produced could have exposed them.

"It was an trap, the police was waiting on us..." she finally said while walking over to the edge of the cabin to look below.

"The police? How are you so sure it was them?!" Asuma asked walking over to join her.

"I did not sense any chakra signatures from any of them, plus they had uniforms."

"Ino, look at me..." Asuma asked gently this time, she complied with an anxious look "What happened to Naruto?"

"I... I left him there..."

Curious neighbors looked over their windows, some behind the curtains while the police carried a handcuffed Naruto to one of the vans waiting for him, Anko and Iruka were already there waiting for him before he would get inside. Some of the police officers were telling the bystanders to leave the area or to return to their apartments as this was as usual, police business.

"Naruto Uzumaki... Fancy seeing you here, we got a lot to talk about young man." She nodded to one of the officers carrying him by the arm and he proceeded to put him inside the back of the armored van, both Anko and Iruka as well as two more armed police officers jumped in with him, during the ride until the convoy arrived to the police station, Anko was confident she could get some information out of him.

The trip was actually more silent than she expected, she was looking at him the entire time wondering if he would speak or say something to beg for his freedom, but he never did, he just kept his eyes closed the entire time as if in deep thought.

"Ino where are you?!"

"What were you doing there tonight kid?" Anko asked trying to break the silence, her question interrupted him and made him open his eyes to look at hers, he remained silent. "You know, this isn't gonna get any better for you if you don't talk, you've got lots of things to answer for, are you sure, you want to use the silent treatment with me?"

"How did you know I was there?" he suddenly asked.

"We were watching the apartment, we knew you would eventually return." Iruka interjected.

"Did you?" This response got them both curious. "I've been gone for over a month and suddenly you guys show up at the same time I do... that requires some skills you know."

"What are you implying kid?"

"Do you want me to say it out loud in front of them?" Naruto was referring to the other two officers on each side of him, highlighting the fact they did not possess chakra. Anko remained silent for a moment, she leaned over closer.

"Go ahead kid, let me hear your version." She said almost daring him to speak, she already knew what he wanted to say.

"You guys are shinobi, both of you."

Iruka suddenly felt nervous and looked over to Anko who burst out laughing in response to his comment, yet Naruto kept a sly smirk on his face the whole time, this made him feel even more uneasy, Anko continued to laugh until she finally calmed herself.

"Really? That's the best you could come up with? Okay let me tell you something kid, you're facing several charges, suspect on a crime scene, reckless driving even though your blonde girlfriend was the one actually driving that bike, causing several traffic accidents and, oh, those dead men on the rooftop we found? It'd be a shame such a young man like yourself went to jail for so long, don't you think? I'll tell you now what I think... I think it's time you realize the situation you're in and stop fantasizing!" Her tone turning more menacing.

"Play it off all you want, it doesn't matter anyway." He looked away.

His response was definitely not what she had expected, Anko knew now she needed to try a different approach this time, intimidation to her surprise did not work with the boy, aside from the fact he did not seem to care at the moment.

"Look, all I want is some answers, you seem like a good kid so why throw your life away for nothing?"

"You should be asking Fugaku Uchiha, not me."

A tense silence engulfed the van, only the engine roar was heard.

"Fugaku Uchiha? The head of Uchiha Corp? What does he have to do with this?" Iruka suddenly asked.

"Its a long story but if you lock me in a cell tonight you'll be making the greatest mistake of your careers."

"And why would that be?" Now Anko asked.

"Because if you hand me over, you'll be helping him to get what he wants."

"An that is...?"

"To take over."

Again the inside of the van was filled with more silence, Naruto knew his words had picked their interests but lacked the right questions, at the moment he was willing to let them know what was really happening but he felt currently it was prudent to keep quiet in front of the other policemen.

"Could you elaborate more on that?"

He opened his mouth but before anything could be said they all went tumbling inside, the van had suddenly been hit by another armored truck with such impact that it caused them to flip over twice and land hard on the ground.

The rest of the convoy was met with grenade launchers blowing them all up, the four patrols tasked to guard Naruto were gone in seconds, now scraps of burned cars on the side of the road.

Naruto's head was spinning, the headache started to appear and his body ached all over. He slowly opened his eyes to see Iruka groaning in pain, Anko was still moving but struggled to do so.

"Ugh... Are you guys okay?" Iruka asked.

Anko tried responding but a sharp pain shot through her body that made her yell, her coat had started to get bloody. Naruto managed to move through the splinters all other the place to get to her and knelt to see what had happened, Iruka was about to protest but once Naruto moved her coat aside he realized his superior had been stabbed through the right leg by a large piece of metal during the crash, his demeanor changed and started to panic.

"I can't pull her out, she'll lose a lot of blood if I do, You guys must have morphine or something here right?!" said Naruto

"D-don't mind me, I'll be fine..." Anko said painfully.

"Senpai!"

Despite being handcuffed, Naruto managed to rip a lower piece of the coat and use it to wrap it around her leg applying pressure on the wound, the other two officers thanks to their vests and helmets were quicker to recover.

"Here, keep the pressure on this point." Naruto instructed Iruka who simply obeyed.

"You're... gonna pay... for my coat boy..." she said weakly ans starting to sweat.

"I'll get you a new one, that's a promise..." he replied with a smile, he looked over to the front seats but both officers there were either unconscious or dead from the impact, their bodies lied hanging upside down from the seat belts.

"Stay here!" One of the guards said while the other one opened the door to check what had happened, to the group's horror as soon as both men were outside a barrage of bullets went through them and their bodies fell to the ground with a loud thud, Naruto immediately reacted out of instinct and performed hand seals followed by placing his hand on one of the walls, kanji seals started to appear around the van's interior and the doors closed shut.

"W-what are you doing?!" Asked Iruka, his voice agitated.

"Gaining some time..." Naruto replied leaning over one of the small openings to see outside, he noticed several black sedan with no license plates, groups of men with the same uniform and weapons as that night when he met Ino, covered in tactical combat gear, all black from head to toe, helmets and gas masks to cover their faces, two of them were already approaching them, he assumed they were the ones who opened fire against the officers.

"Great... Ino if you can hear me, this'd be a great time to help!"

"What's going on?! Who's out there?"

"The guys who were after me that night..." He turned to face the duo "Someone must've talked in your division."

"W-what?! H-how...?"

Anko remained silent, she already had a pretty good idea of who might have ratted them out, her teeth clenched in anger.

"That snake! Kabuto!"

"Doesn't matter now, we gotta find a way to get out of here and take you to a hospital or you'll bleed to death!"

"You'll run off the moment we... open those doors again..." Anko managed to say still grabbing her injured leg.

"Maybe you're right lady, but I'm not gonna your blood on my hands... hey you, do you have a radio or something to call for backup?" he was again talking to Iruka who snapped out of his state and remembered hi indeed had a radio he could use, only when he went to grab it from his waist he noticed it had been broken probably during the impact.

"Use mine..." Anko said moving her hand to her belt where her own radio was, luckily this one was intact, Iruka grabbed it and started to call the available units in the area also mentioning the officers who were down or injured, a loud thud was heard coming from the doors, they all looked with worry but Naruto kept his composure.

"I placed a sealing barrier around us, they won't get in as long as I hold it, just keep calling that back up!"

More thuds, the van moved but the doors remained shut.

"Ino where the hell are you?! "

"What's taking so long?!" Another voice outside, Naruto peeked through the opening again and saw a man with light blue hair reaching his shoulder length dressed in a grey business suit, green eyes and a menacing aura.

"Shinobi..." he thought.

The man approached the van and one of the armed mercenaries whispered something to his hear, the man smiled and simply proceeded to knock on the door casually, in an unusual jolly voice he spoke.

"Naruto Uzumaki! We know you're theeeere!" he finished almost in a singing yet mocking tone, Naruto and the others tensed.

"Who's that guy?!" Anko asked.

"I have no idea..."

"Just come on out and let's get this over with, we don't mean to kill you or anything, we have orders to take you alive so just be a good boy and open these doors will ya?" the man finished.

"What about the officers inside? One of them is wounded and needs medical attention!" Naruto responded.

"Oh well, that's none of my business really, we're only here for you, ever heard of collateral damage?" He asked casually.

"W-what the hell is this guy's problem?!" Iruka said in a low voice to Naruto who kept thinking what his next move should be, he could hold the barrier for a longer period but Anko's leg would continue to get worse if they stayed there.

"We can do this the easy or the hard way. What's it gonna be kid?"

"Go fuck yourself..." Naruto replied casually, the man obviously did not like his answer and signaled one of the men to give him something.

"Have it your way!"

Click. Something was placed on the doors.

"C4... they're gonna blow doors!"

"I can handle it!"

The men took several steps back and a loud bang shook the van, despite the explosion Naruto managed to hold on to the seal using both hands and the doors held, his seal was stronger that expected.

"Senpai hold on!" Iruka continued to put pressure on Anko's wound, his hands and shirt now stained with her blood.

"Where's your backup?!" Asked Naruto.

"Last chance kid! Nobody's gonna come to save you!"

Before anyone else said a word, several gun shots started to go off from a different direction, some of the mercenary fell to the ground dead, the shots came from the road this time, behind the burning debris other patrols had arrived just in time and used the smoke to their advantage to conceal their presence, now the counter attack began. The man with blue hair saw himself forced to retreat behind the armored sedans, some of his men stayed behind as cover but also fell to the officer's bullets. They regrouped while the police advanced forming a barricade using special riot shields around the van where Naruto and company remained trapped.

"Officer Mitarashi! It's Ibiki!" A male voice yelled from behind the doors, Naruto looked over to Anko and Iruka for confirmation to which they both nodded indicating he was on their side, Naruto released the seal and as soon as the doors opened a tall older man met them, he seemed muscular behind his dark blue Kevlar body armor, his face with two scars that ran down from the length of his eyes to his jaw, instead of a helmet like the rest of the squadron he used a bandanna on his seemingly bald head.

"Glad the SAT is here!"

"Who's this?! What happened to officer Mitarashi?!"

"No time for that now! We need to get her to a hospital NOW!" responded Iruka.

"Hey lady, this is gonna hurt like hell! I need to pull you from that bar, you ready?" Anko weakly nodded, she was transpiring more now but took deep breath and prepared for the worse part "I need you to keep the pressure on her leg as soon as she's free, ready? On the count of three! One! Two!..."

And they pulled, as expected Anko screamed her heart out in pain as the metal bar slid out from her leg, the blood was thankfully controlled in time by Iruka, Naruto assisted him in carrying Anko outside of the van slowly while the man known as Ibiki used his assault rifle to provide cover fire, an explosion engulfed behind the group, the hired mercenaries had switched to using their grenade launchers again, part of the barricade formed started to step back so they all opted to move behind the van for better cover until the barricade regrouped. Naruto took notice of the top of a highway interchange and the van had been dangerously close to the edge.

"Who are these guys?! Why are they after you?!" Iruka asked.

"They're hired goons by Uchiha Corp! They want me because my mom and dad have something they're after!"

"So you're leverage!" Ibiki said.

"I'm sorry you are...?!"

"Captain Ibiki Morino! Leader of the Zero division of the SAT!" he replied.

"SAT?!"

"Special Assault Team!" Anko replied.

More heavy fire continued to rain on them, the armored van's metal structure echoed across the zone as most of the bullets continued to bounce off it.

"We can't stay here! We have a couple of armored trucks over there!"

"The risk is too high Ibiki! A stray bullet could hit any of us if we move!"

Naruto gave some thought to his next move, it would be risky but at the moment it seemed like the only logical option to get out of harm's way.

"Uncuff me!"

"What?!" Anko looked at him like he was crazy.

"Let me help! I got a plan!"

"No! You're still under arrest! We're not letting you go regardless!"

"I can't help if I have these on! Just trust me on this one please!" Naruto finished extending both arms to her desperately looking for her approval, Anko did not want to release his handcuffs for obvious reasons, if they set him free who knew m if he would just run and leave them there or if instead he would actually try to attack them, on top of that, if word that he was set free got out, her career could be jeopardized, their situation however looked very grim on their side and at that moment she remembered Chen's words earlier about him being a good person, she looked deep in his eyes for deceit, she found none, the boy was being genuine about helping. It did not take long for her mind to be changed and she nodded to Iruka, he looked somewhat worried but opted to trust her call and used his keys to free Naruto's hands.

"There! Now what are you gonna do?!"

"When I tell you to run to the other side, do it! I'm gonna take care of these assholes!"

Naruto turned to face the van and started to make a series of hand seals, the trio's expression suggested they knew what he was about to do, only they looked at each other wondering how good of an idea it would be.

"You shouldn't use that out here!"

"No time to discuss that with you now! Just run at my signal and get to safety!"

Naruto finished his seals and prepared for the next move, he waited for all three officers to get to the corner of the van, Ibiki being the larger man carried Anko on both his arms, Iruka got his pistol ready and waited for Naruto's signal.

"NOW!"

He pressed his right palm hard on the van and it flew at a great speed, it flipped a few times as it reached its intended target, the mercenary group. It managed to to take out several of the attackers until the final impact against the other sedans finally happened. Iruka turned his head to look at the damage.

"Shit! This kid is serious?! Using ninjutsu in public?!"

"Tch! I don't blame him, look at all the mess they've done!"

Naruto dashed to face his attackers before they could react, the first mercenary on his way tried aiming his rifle but it was pushed away before he could even get a target, Naruto grabbed the man's arm from behind and applied an arm lock while turning him around to face his comrades who started firing, the man's Kevlar vest absorbed a great rain of bullets but he was already dead, Naruto continued using his body as a shield and pushed forward until he closed the gap, he launched the dead man's body against other two mercenaries who were reloading their rifles. He had already gathered enough chakra to move faster and one by one he started taking out the survivors, kicking their helmets, using punches and combinations, throwing them over his shoulder with enough force against other vehicles to render them unconscious, one group hiding behind one of the sedans took him by surprise after he finished another mercenary and fired while his back was turned but the shock in their faces, if it could have been seen at that moment thanks to their masks, was of pure fear as the bullets simply remained suspended around him, his chakra nature being wind had formed a natural barrier that surrounded all his body making the attacks with firearms completely ineffective. Naruto turned his attention to them and proceed to turn their lights out believing this to be the last of the bunch, the he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, he noticed a shuriken had found its way through his prisoner's vest but it did not cause major damage, he jumped a few steps back taking the shuriken out and waited for his attacker to make the next move.

"Attacking from the back huh? Show yourself!"

Anko had given the order to lower weapons and let Naruto handle the situation, this gave the opportunity for the last man standing to step out of hiding.

"Bold move kid, using ninjutsu in a public place, think that's smart?" the man with blue hair said as he walked out with a handful of shuriken.

"I'm not a kid..." Naruto placed himself in a fighting stance while silently he gathered chakra "And I don't care much about shinobi rules, you attacked me and killed innocents, I'm taking you down!"

"So that's how it's gonna be eh? Fine, I don't care much about rules either, I was told to bring you alive, they didn't say anything about hurting you..." the man smiled.

"Who's 'they'?"

"None of your business, now let's do this!"

The blue haired man threw a barrage of shuriken at Naruto, he dodged them and they hit the patrol cars, Iruka and the others quickly took cover to avoid any injuries. He went in for an opening but as he threw the punch was met with a piece of a car's door instead, his eyes went left just in time to see an new barrage of shuriken heading his way, he dodged them again one by one but failed to see the man had placed himself just below him, he smiled before placing a hard punch in Naruto's stomach that took his breath away and launched him against the remains of the now empty sedans, his back bounced against one of the doors but somehow he remained on his two feet. Noticing the predicament Naruto was in, Iruka aimed his pistol and fired, the squadron followed forcing the man to jump and dodge at an alarming speed.

"DON'T INTERFERE!"

He launched a kunai with an explosive tag attached to it, Anko immediately knew what it meant.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" She yelled.

The explosion took everyone by surprise, several police officers and agents were sent flying, their screams of pain echoed across the highway, Ibiki used his body to cover Anko from the blast but he was knocked to the ground with her, she writhed in pain grabbing her leg.

"This guy! I gotta finish this!"

Naruto regained his strength and took the distraction to dash in front of the man and use his knee directly against his face, the impact was harder than he had anticipated and forced him to take several steps back, his nose was dripping blood.

"YOU BASTARD! YOU BROKE MY NOSE!"

"Serves you right! Come!" Naruto taunted, regaining focus "I have to end this now!"

In anger the man took out a scroll and summoned a much larger shuriken, then launched himself again not caring if he killed his target but Naruto was not going to let him have the advantage again, he performed hand seals and also dashed to meet him full front, his opponent was taken by surprise at this act of either bravery or stupidity which allowed the blond shinobi the second he needed to use his jutsu.

"Futon: Reppūshō!"

The compressed air in his palm hit the man directly in his chest, his eyes went wide in shock, his mouth released a painful groan and blood spat and his body was launched several meters away from everyone, he crashed directly against concrete and rolled a few times before finally stopping, immediately after several squadron officers of the SAT surrounded him with their rifle, the man had been rendered unconscious from the attack fortunately for them, he was handcuffed and dragged slowly to where the rest of the remaining patrols were.

Naruto finally let his body rest lowering his hands and taking a deep breath, he looked over to where the inspectors were and walked over to them, Ibiki placed Anko against one of the hoods of one a patrol car, Iruka put his gun away, no longer distrustful of the boy who had just saved them.

"You should go to the hospital and get that leg checked now inspector..."

"Anko Mitarashi... thank you, I..."

Naruto silenced her with one hand "I said I wanted to help, at least now you guys can question him and find out why he's after me..."

"W-wait! You're not leaving! You're still a suspect!"

"Iruka..." Anko gave him a look to let him know everything was fine "This won't look good for you, look at all this mess..." They all took one last look at the chaos provoked by both parties involved "I don't know how we're gonna cover up all of this..."

"I'm sure you'll find a way, the police is good at that, right? By the way, I need that kunai back."

"That's evidence young man."

"No, that's my father's property, you guys don't need it..." he extended his hand. Anko again looked for any hint of trickery in his eyes but found again nothing, she looked over to Iruka and nodded, he sighed in defeat and walked over to the van where they all rode minutes earlier, scrambling and looking through the rubble he found a plastic bag holding the kunai.

"Here..." Iruka handed the bag to Naruto and he replied with a cheeky grin.

'Awesome! So am I free to go now?" Iruka was about to protest but Anko hushed him.

"... We'll give you a 24 hour head start, then we'll come for you Naruto." She finished.

"I hope not, see ya around, officer Mitarashi! Captain Morino! Uh..."

"It's Iruka... Iruka Umino."

"Right! officer Umino! Later!"

Naruto jumped away from them to the area below the highway and disappeared as a shadow, the police trio stood there silently looking to the space where he had been a few seconds ago, ambulance sirens echoed from the distance while more police cars arrived at the scene.

"You think it was wise to let him go?" asked Ibiki.

"He's a shinobi, he'll be safer without us interfering, and we got now someone who can lead us in the right direction of this case..."

"Senpai, look..." Iruka said with a hint of worry in his voice, they noticed several bystanders had stopped their cars and appeared from other sides of the highway, some were either taking pictures or recording what had happened with their cellphones "This is not good, not for him..."

"Shit..." she knew exactly what he meant by that.

Naruto kept darting through the empty roads as silently as he could, he figured if he found a safe extraction point away form the scene he had caused and with the price in his hands, he could contact Ino and the group to finally return to Konoha. A few minutes later he found an open area that seemed under construction and currently empty.

"Ino, talk to me! I got the kunai! I'm waiting on you guys!"

"... We see you, wait there..."

"Whoa! So you were there!"

She did not respond back but at least she had finally responded after several failed attempts to his surprise, her voice however did not sound content, he expected he would receive an earful for screwing up the plan but he figured it would be fine, after all he had what they came for. He soon fell the wind change from the chopper's helix coming closer until the figure of Asuma stepped out of thin air extending his hand to him, he happily jumped in grabbing his hand and disappeared inside the cabin. His expression changed as soon as he saw the look in Asuma's face, it was not worry, nor anger, it was something different. The helicopter started to lift off again and silence filled the cabin, he looked over to Shikamaru who had the exact same cold look, he finally looked over to Ino and walked over to her.

"Well, I got it! Look!" he showed her the kunai, her reaction however, he did not expect. She grabbed him by the shoulder with one hand and pushed him against one of the seats violently holding him tight with her free arm, this made him drop the kunai to the floor.

"Do you KNOW what you just did?!" She asked with a completely different tone, her eyes only showed anger, this was a different version of Ino, one he did not recognize.

"Uh... I beat the guys after me and handed one of them to the police?" He finished, feeling very uncomfortable by the position he was in.

"You think this is a game?!" Ino slammed him before releasing her hold and walking away from him, now Naruto was more confused.

"Hey! What's your problem?! I just fought with another shinobi and walked out alive! Shouldn't you be at least glad I'm here?!" his voice clearly upset.

"We NEVER! EVER! Use out abilities in public!" She almost yelled.

"So that's it?! You're mad at me because I used ninjutsu openly?!"

"Naruto, this is a serious issue, the people cannot know of our existence, what you did tonight exposed us..." now Asuma spoke, Naruto could not believe it.

"Asuma-sensei...What was I supposed to do? Let all those officers die?!"

"It's called collateral damage, had those guys taken you we would've eventually come to rescue you without causing such a troublesome situation..." Shikamaru sentenced.

"Shikamaru... you too?"

"People recorded you, took pictures of you and what happened, that'll be all over the news soon, which means the world will know your identity, which also means they'll know more of us exist and start looking for us, this is the real problem." Asuma responded.

"Look, we'll talk with Hokage-sama once we arrive, we'll figure something out but you can't just go out there using ninjutsu like there's no consequences, we hide ourselves from the world for a reason and you potentially endangered everything we've built."

"Are you guys joking?! People! Innocent people! They died tonight because of me and you're worried about your lifestyle?! We should be out there helping others! Not hiding like cowards!"

Ino was ticked at his last comment, she went back to meet him face to face.

"It took hundreds of years to build what we have! You think we're willing to risk it all for your selfish idealism?!"

"Selfish?! Of all people I thought you would understand Ino! Friends support each other no matter wha-"

"WE ARE NOT FRIENDS!" she pushed Naruto against one of the seats again, a long silence followed, Naruto's eyes went wide and his chest suddenly felt a painful sensation of emptiness.

"W-what did you say...?"

"You were just a target! A means to an end! You were a mission to me! Nothing else!"

Asuma and Shikamaru looked at each other with concern, had she gone too far with those words? They knew Naruto was a friend and teammate to them so why would she choose to say those things? Had anger gotten the better of her? Even Chōji who had been silent the whole time knew she was being irrational at that moment and was only speaking out of the spitefulness she felt because of what he had done. Naruto's expression remained the same for several seconds as Ino walked to the other side of the helicopter and took a seat on the edge of the cabin to calm herself down, Shikamaru tried to place his hand on her shoulder but she raised her own hand to let him know she needed to cool off. Naruto finally came back to his senses and decided to copy her actions but on the opposite side, his eyes lowered the whole time as he seated there watching at the night sky, something inside of him had broken and he knew it.

It was a long and silent ride back home.

-0-

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

What's this? another chapter so soon? Crazy huh? I decided to start taking advantage of all the free time I have at work so I can start bringing more chapters out, don't expect this to happen every week lol, but I did say at least one more chapter would come out before year's end and it's already being written, hope you guys enjoy this one, until next time!