Chapter 11 - A New Course

The sun was just rising on Konoha when Naruto passed through the gates. But instead of turning for home, he went straight to Tsunade's office.

Tsunade usually greeted the morning hours with a grimace, so Naruto knew he wasn't catching her at her best time.

And this morning was no different.

"Why are you here," she barked at him, then touched a finger to her temple quelling a nasty headache from yelling too loud. She tugged open the top desk drawer, cursing and muttering something about "meds" under her breath. "I shouldn't have to see your face for another two days."

"I came back early." Worry lines pinched his forehead.

"Troubles?" Tsunade flicked her gaze up from the drawer, eyes sharpening with concern. Naruto quickly responded "No, everything's ok," and she slipped back into her grumbling search for meds.

"Well then what are you doing here," she said, straightening. She pulled out a small bottle, shook a few pills into her cupped hand and threw them back with swig of water. "You look like you need to rest. Or eat. Or do something other than bother me."

"She's gone isn't she," Naruto demanded. "To the Sand?"

Tsunade's grey eyes narrowed. "This is why you came back early?"

"It's true then? She left with that guy?!"

Tsunade's fist tightened around the bottle as if she might throw it at him. "She's on a mission! If you have a personal problem then take it up with her—"

"So she's just on a mission," he said, a desperate note in his voice, "not gone for good?"

"What do you think I do here? Play matchmaker? Arrange for my best medics to get picked off by other countries? Of course she's on a mission."

He looked relieved. But watching him, Tsunade's mouth quirked into a calculating smile.

"She'll be back in…hmmm…six months. Maybe longer—"

"What?! Why did you let her do that—"

"Because she asked to go, Naruto! And if you had been talking to her, you would already know that."

Naruto gaped like a fish before scowling defensively. "I talk to her all the time!"

Tsunade folded her arms and looked at him as if he were lying. They both knew he was.

Naruto cut his eyes away. "Well, I haven't spoke to her recently. Because she's been gone and all. But we talk. I talk. You know…to her."

"Is there something you want to talk to me about," Tsunade said dryly.

"No," he said too quickly before clearing his throat and lowering his voice a notch. "I mean…no. I just wanted to know, you know, where everything stood. That's all."

Tsunade cocked an eyebrow. "And that's why you left your team mid-mission?"

"Hey, it was a low-level mission," Naruto said defensively. "They didn't even need me." After a long silence he scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "But…yeah. I wanted to make sure, you know, everything was okay. And it is, sooo I'll just be going—"

Tsunade rolled her eyes, seeing right through Naruto's pawltry deflection. But she meant what she said: It wasn't her job to play matchmaker. Whatever problems they had, they either needed to let go of or work out on their own. Her pounding headache was returning.

"Well I'm sure whatever rift you with your teammates," she sighed, "whichever one it is, it will work itself out eventually. Just give it some time."

Naruto looked insulted. "There's no rift. Everything's fine! Same as it's always been—"

Tsunade looked hard at him. "And that's why your standing here? Because you're completely happy with your new team?"

Naruto snapped his mouth shut and looked away. Tsunade smirked. Just as she suspected.

"They're different," Naruto said quietly. "It's…it's not the same."

Tsunade nodded sagely. "It never is." She flipped back her scheduling scroll, wincing at the loud clack it made it hit the desk, and ran her fingernail down the column beneath Naruto's name. "You have about a week before your next mission. Think about where you'd like to be and with whom you'd like to team with. If Team 8 isn't working out, then maybe another team would."

Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets, knowing immediately another team wouldn't work either. He was beginning to think that maybe it wasn't the team…maybe it was him….

"Go home, Naruto. Get some sleep. Things will work themselves out." She pressed her finger to her temple, massaging it in tight little circles. "Whatever you do, don't show your face in my office again this early."

Naruto chuckled. "Thanks Baa-chan," he said, more grateful for the fact that she didn't pressure him than for the time off. Feeling the weariness of a night of travel creep in, he showed himself out.

Naruto cracked open bleary eyes and rolled over in bed. It was late in the day, and he immediately felt the unsettling feeling of sleeping while everyone else awake.

Shaking it off, he got up and went out for ramen. He pondered what Tsunade said while he ate.

The next day, he mulled over her words while he trained. Neither taijutsu nor target practice with the shuriken and kunai could help him pinpoint what he should do..

And after three days of eating ramen thinking and training and thinking, he was thoroughly sick of it.

Naruto stood on the training pitch the afternoon of his third day off, closing and opening his stiff hand. He dropped the kunai back into the pouch beside his foot and stared at the ravaged target post across the pitch. At the last blow a splinter of wood had cleaved off. That was probably a sign he should stop. But he didn't have anything else to do….

Team 8 had returned, but he realized he had no desire to seek them out. Kiba's comments still made him blisteringly mad. And Hinata was sweet, but he was ashamed to admit that maybe it wasn't enough. Or maybe that was the problem: The idea that he was using them as a replacement for his own team had a little too much truth in it.

He raked a hand through his sweat tipped hair, making it stand up on end.

Maybe a team just wasn't right for him. He knew he wasn't "glomming onto another team," as Kiba so eloquently put it. But maybe he'd just outgrown it, like a kid outgrowing Academy classes. That thought buoyed his spirits some. So then all he had to do was figure out what he wanted to do next.

Naruto leaned down to pick up his pouch deciding he'd get some ramen, when three blurs wooshed though the treetops beyond the training field. He straightened in time to catch the white mask of an Anbu agent nodding down at him once before they streaked off towards the wall.

Naruto watched the spot in the trees where they disappeared, then slowly bent to retrieve his pack, thinking of the life of an Anbu agent. Missions, independence, anonymity. They served secretively, doing anything and everything necessary to keep the village safe.

Maybe this was where he should be. In Anbu. He'd be protecting Konoha, like he always wanted, just in a different way. And no one would accuse him of giving up a team or "glomming" onto anyone else.

Feeling better than he had since he'd returned, Naruto strode away from the training grounds to the Hokage's tower.

Tsunade waved him off, telling him she was too busy. She had a stack of scrolls on her desk and Shizune came in grimacing as she brought more on a tray.

"I can wait," he said as Shizune passed.

Tsunade shot him a suspicious look around Shizune's tray, then shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Naruto nodded. He was prepared for a long wait, but what he had to ask about was worth it. He leaned against the far wall with his arms folded across his chest.

Eventually, she was finished. Tsunade signed the last scroll, pushed it aside, and looked up at Naruto. She blew out a perturbed sigh, as if he were her last and least-anticipated chore of the day.

"Alright. What is it. It must be serious if you waited this long."

Naruto smiled and pushed off the wall. "I figured out what I want to do next. Y'know, with shinobi work."

Tsunade watched him steadily.

"I want to join the Anbu. I can still protect Konoha, still have great missions, and I won't get crap from people like Kiba. They seem…different. And maybe I'm ready for that now. Maybe that's what's been missing."

Tsunade shook her head slowly and began rifling through her scrolls. "I was afraid of that."

She pulled out a thin grey tube, unscrewed the top, and let an even thinner yellow scroll drop to the table. Naruto watched it all with interest.

Tsunade held the slim scroll up between them, and leveled a hard look at the open, boyish face that hovered across the desk.

"This is not what you think," she said solemnly. "And neither is Anbu."

She unfurled the scroll and handed it to him. Naruto's eyebrows hitched up. The excitement on his face ebbed as he read down the page.

It was a list of the dead from the last three missions. Their own and others. Some were targets, but some were clearly civilians.

Naruto's mouth flattened into a grim line. He quietly passed the scroll back to Tsunade.

"These agents will never have their name carved on that rock." She thumbed at the window behind her in the direction of the solitary stone marker listing those lost in the field. "They do not know what they're sent out for, they do not know who they kill or what they may die for. They are simply faceless agents, invisible to everyone, even the people they are sworn to protect."

Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets, uncertainty etched into his face.

"I don't think it's a good fit for you," she said and slipped the scroll back in it's tube.

"But…. I want to protect the village. I want to become Hokage and being in Anbu would be way to start—"

"Anbu don't retire, Naruto. They don't leave their ranks. They don't 'move on' to other jobs—"

"But Kakashi-sensei, Yamamoto-taichou, Jiraiya-sensei" he fanned out his fingers, counting them out and pronouncing each a little more firmly than the last. "Even you Baa-chan! There's lots of people who have moved on—"

Tsunade shook her head somberly. "No Naruto, there are very, very few that move on. If they're good at what they do, then they stay. But all it takes is one mistake, one bad day…and they don't return." She laced her fingers together over the silver scroll. "You don't need to be in Anbu to prove you'll be a good Hokage. It's not how you fight, it's how you lead. And you've already proved yourself with your teamwork—"

Naruto's memories of his latest attempts at 'teamwork' showed in hot pink circles on his cheeks. So what was he supposed to do? Go back to Team 8 or try again somewhere else. He could hear Kiba's voice in his head taunting him.

Naruto squared his shoulders, as if accepting a challenge. "You said maybe it was time for me to go in a different direction. Well, this is the direction I want to go in." His voice rang with the determination that had served him so well in the past. "If they can do it, I know I can too. I'll serve Konoha and still return to be Hokage."

Tsunade sighed. She should have known this would have happened. "I don't think it's a good fit for you—" Naruto began to argue but she put up her hand to stop him. "However, you deserve your chance the same as every other shinobi in Konaha. If this is really what you want to do…."

An image of Sakura flashed through his mind. Her, in the Sand, that dude at her side, laughing and working in a hospital. Then the image switched to Sasuke, solemn and quiet, sitting at some dry diplomatic meeting. They had charted different courses for their lives, so why couldn't he?

"Yes, Baa-chan. It is," he said firmly.

Tsunade sighed. But she pulled out an Anbu assignment scroll and wrote his name on it. Then she held two fingers over, mouthed a jutsu and the scroll disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"An Anbu captain will contact you soon. Don't leave the village."

Naruto grinned. "Thanks, Baa-chan!"

She smiled back, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

The captain was strict. And the training was punishing. But eventually, Naruto was selected to go out on his first mission.

He was paired with an experienced captain, Bear, a jonin who was a tactical and weapons specialist, Dog, and another jonin who had a specialized chakra reading ability, Hawk.

True to his name, Dog also had a summons contract with a dog clan. Very much like Kakashi-sensei's, however these dogs weren't nearly as friendly as Kakashi's. Dog had been in the Anbu ranks for a year and was at the end of his trial period. Two more missions and he'd get his tattoo.

But Naruto didn't learn any of that from Dog, or even from their captain, Bear. Both were silent as the tomb. They didn't make conversation, about the mission or themselves. Only Hawk seemed to be the talkative one.

They were the first ones at the munitions department outside Anbu's headquarters.

"H-Hey Cat, welcome to the team."

"Thanks…uh, Hawk," Naruto said. Sometimes being called by his mask name still threw him.

Hawk laughed, "Yeah, it's weird at first but you get used to it."

Hawk was smaller and skinnier than Naruto, but the occasional flash of milky eyes behind his mask led Naruto to believe he was from the Hyuuga clan. He looked to be about the same age. Naruto searched his mind for Hyuugas from his Academy days, but found he couldn't remember anyone else but Sakura and Sasuke. And those memories weren't helping him.

"So is this your first assignment," Naruto asked hopefully. "Like mine?"

Hawk shook his head. "No, I've been in mission training for about four months. Not like Dog though," he nodded his approach. Dog was taller, older, with a powerful, muscular build. And he was all business.

"That's enough chatter you two," he said by way of a greeting. He strode straight into the building to collect his weapons for the mission.

Naruto shrugged, but Hawk nodded like it was always this way. Without a word, they followed him inside.

Both broke the seal on their individual assignment scrolls then began collecting their assigned weapons for their packs.

Watching Dog leave the room, Naruto sidled over to Hawk to continue their conversation. "So what's your story," he said whispered as he looked into the kunai bin and picked through the weapons.

Hawk chuckled and did the same. "No story really. I was the lone survivor from my team, so I thought I'd join up, give me something to do. What about you?"

Naruto paused for a moment, thinking. "Uh…mine's pretty much the same. I'm the only one left. So Anbu seemed like a good fit."

Hawk nodded and rattled the kunai to make it look convincing. "My dad wanted me to join too. He said it would 'look good,' whatever that means—"

"You're Hyuuga, right?"

Hawk looked at Naruto, surprised, then stopped. "Oh yeah, the eyes right?"

Naruto nodded, "I could see a little bit when we were outside. I know Hinata and Neji."

Hawk went quiet. "They're in a different branch from me. I don't know them very well."

"Well I know them, and I like them," Naruto said lightly, hoping to make him feel more at ease. The Hyuuga clan affairs were serious business to those inside their family. But not to him. "So I'm sure we're going to get along great."

Hawk's eyes crinkled inside the mask. He was smiling. "Thanks Cat—"

"Oi! You two hens! Finished with your gossip?" Bear stood in the doorway looking very much like his namesake. He was tall and stocky and was probably a human wall in battle. Naruto jammed an extra kunai in his pouch and followed Hawk out.

Naruto rather liked his mask, and he liked the sound of being called "Cat" instead of every other name he'd ever been called in his life. Cat made him feel nimble and quick, and he decided that's the type of Anbu he'd be. He'd be known for his quick cat-like reflexes, his ability to land on his feet and—

"Cat. Down here." Bear had spread the assignment map on the ground. The rest looked expectantly at him. Naruto shelved the stray thoughts and gave him his full attention.

"This is the river we'll be following up to the compound." Bear's thick fingers traced up a a stream to an "X" on the bank surrounded by a clump of trees. "Once at the compound, we'll infiltrate the structure and identify their weapons capabilities. The mission is to identify what they are developing…and destroy it." Bear slipped a packet of white papers from his pocket and passed them out. Naruto was last, but instead of pocketing it, he held it in his hand. "Once we've identified the type and scope of their weapons, we will set the bombs to detonate. They are timed for 5 minutes. Everyone understand?"

Naruto looked over that map. There were no names on it, but he was familiar enough with the territories to know that the fort was in the Grass Country. And the Grass was an ally. He thumbed the paper in his hand. Were they going to blow up a munitions factory on allied land? Was this their mission?

"Uh…."

"Problem, Cat," Bear said expectantly.

"It's just that…aren't they our allies now? Should we be running missions on them?"

Bear chuckled, but it was not friendly. "You came to Anbu from the Hokage, right? Yeah, well then this will be a learning experience for you." Dog snorted once in agreement. Naruto decided he didn't like him at all. "Our village is a great one. It may look like that greatness is built on treaties, but its built on action and the willingness of her shinobi to do whatever it takes to support and protect her. Blood is what keeps our peace, not words on paper."

Naruto had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. He'd heard all the boilerplate in training. It sounded inspiring, but part of him didn't believe it. He of all people knew the value of action. But he believed in the words too.

"The way we protect Konoha," Bear continued, "is to strike her enemies at the source, before they have time to grow. Like a sapling on the forest floor," he yanked up a tiny sapling growing beside his foot. It was a weak and spindly with barely any leaves on it. "The tree canopy works together to choke it out. That way it never becomes a threat."

Behind his mask, Naruto looked at him like he was crazy. Bear didn't notice or didn't care. He returned to the map. "Grass is an ally," he pointed to the country, then moved his finger to the left, crossing a red border, "but the Waterfall country is not. And they are too close to Grass for our comfort. If these weapons or this fort fell into Waterfall hands, these weapons would be used against us." Bear dragged his finger over to one of Konoha's main trade routes that entered the Fire Country perilously close to the Waterfall border.

"Understand? Grass is not a threat, but Waterfall is. Either way, the munitions fort has to be destroyed. For our own safety. These bombs," he nodded at the paper tag in Naruto's hand, "will make it look like they had an accident. We will get in, fulfill our mission and get out, and Grass will never know we were there."

Naruto was silent. He looked at the sapling thrown carelessly at his feet and felt a little sick.

Bear might have been seen as a great Anbu, but Naruto thought this was not the kind of shinobi he wanted to be. Nor the kind that Konoha should be putting out into the world. Maybe Tsunade was right—

"This is your first mission, so I'm explaining to you how things work. But in the future, you will not ask nor will you ever receive an explanation. Understand? With that mask on you are a weapon of Konoha. Nothing more, and nothing less. You may not like the job you are assigned to do, but you do it anyway, for the safety of Konoha. It is a sacrifice you make to your village, and it is one you should be proud to make."

Naruto nodded, not feeling very proud. He pushed the paper tags into his pocket and stood with the rest of them.

"Let's go," Bear said. Then they took to the canopy. Naruto looked at the sapling one last time, left there to die on the ground, then leapt up with them.

Eventually, Hawk dropped back so he was even with Naruto.

"Don't worry," he said, "Bear gave me that speech too when I joined. I think he gives it to every new recruit."

"So it gets better," Naruto asked hopefully, thinking maybe it was more bluster than truth. But Hawk's drawn out silence answered that question.

Finally, Hawk cleared his throat. "I think…it's true. What they said about Konoha. That we have to protect it every way we can." He lowered his voice. "But I don't know if it's for me. My dad, you know, he wanted me to join," Naruto nodded sympathetically, "but I really wanted to—"

From up ahead, Bear suddenly flashed quick hand signals. They were to break off here. Cat with Bear. Hawk with Dog. There would be no more time for converstion.

Splitting up, the teams made their way up either side of the river, but still within sight of each other. Hawk and Dog were a little ahead, and soon enough, Hawk's role became clear. Even though they were still a ways off, Hawk started flashing hand signs, counting off how many enemy chakra signatures and in which direction. But suddenly his hand stilled. Then his fingers moved in a flurry of motion. The chakra signatures were on the move and closing in.

Dog nodded to Bear and the two leaders split off, with each team arcing wide to circle around the fort.

Through a clearing Bear pointed out the now empty fort. Bear looked over at Cat, patted his pocket where the bombs were, then flashed two fingers at the fort. Naruto understood. They were to be the bomb squad.

In the distance, shouts and fighting alerted the interior guards of trouble. When they came streaming out of the building, Cat and Bear moved in.

Two shadows hovered outside the windowsill for a moment, then window slid open with a long hiss, and they were inside. Naruto was surprised to find Dog already there, ripping back tarps and inspecting the weapons. Naruto didn't think it looked like anything other than their forge back home where their own kunai and shurikens were made. Certainly didn't look like anything Konoha would attack over.

Bear signaled Hawk's name, and Dog answered with a single point in the direction of the fighting. Bear nodded once and Naruto understood. As a chakra sensor, Hawk was the best one to distract the guards and keep them at bay.

Dog slowed as he approached what looked like a enormous cube. He carefully lifted the corner of the tarp to reveal the fluttering stacks of paper tags. Hundreds of thousands of them. Naruto leaned closer. The paper wasn't white like theirs, but gray. It was a poison bomb. The blast would release a cloud of gas with the explosion, killing anyone within radius of the blast before it dissipated into the air. It was a silent killer. These weren't weapons of self protection; these were weapons of infiltration.

Naruto gulped once. He had been holding out hope they were wrong. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't come up with an excuse for this. The Grass must secretly be their enemy.

Dog slowly slipped the tarp back over, careful not to jostle the volatile tags.

Voices echoed through the woods. All three turned at the sound. The guards were coming back. Dog slapped a paper bomb under the tarp then leapt to the window, while Cat and Bear slapped them around the edge of the giant furnace. That would give them just enough time to get away….

The guards threw open the door of the building just as the window fell closed. Only shadows passed over the glass, rising away like fluttering birds. If any of the guards saw it, then it was lost to the ages. In the next moment, the building exploded with an earth shuddering boom.

Naruto and Bear didn't stop, even as the tree limb under their boots shook from the blow and birds shot up from everywhere. Dog was no where to be seen. Guards were shouting and running back to the fiery compound, all pretense of subterfuge gone. They left a string of moaning half-dead countrymen behind them.

Beyond the apparent battlefield, Naruto caught sight of Dog kneeling at the base of a tree. He looked to Bear, who had just spotted him too. Bear looked grim. They dropped down and came around the tree trunk, only to find Dog leaning over Hawk, blocking his body from view. Only his slender legs stuck out beyond Dog, and Naruto wished he didn't notice that they were painfully still.

Dog looked back over his shoulder at them then shifted back from Hawk. Naruto's stomach clenched at the sight opening up before him. Hawk's clothes were covered in blood and a kunai handle protruded from Hawk's profile. Naruto felt sick. Just below Hawk's milk white mask, the blade was ran through his narrow neck, effectively pinning him to the tree.

He was so still that Naruto thought for a heart-stopping moment that Hawk was dead. Naruto sought out his milk-white eyes through the black holes of the mask, but didn't find them. However his throat bobbed slightly with a slow, labored gulp for air.

Hope was restored for Naruto. He glanced anxiously at Dog, who'd seen the movement too. "If we can just get the blade out, I can carry him back," Naruto whispered. "I'm fast, I know I can get him to Tsunade in time—

Dog offered no response. Instead he pressed his hand to the wound, forcing chakra to it. Naruto stared into Hawk's face. Watching the green glow at his neck, Naruto was buoyed for a moment at the thought that Dog knew how to heal. But just then Dog took his hand away and slowly shook his head.

Hawk tried to speak, but only blood burbled from the wound as his throat moved. He stopped. Naruto desperately turned to Dog. "Well? Can't you heal him? If you could just stop the blood then I'm sure we could—"

Dog shook his head. "I'm no healer." His silence afterwards spoke volumes.

"Then we're wasting time! Let me carry him," Naruto said with mounting frustration. "We can't just leave him here—"

Dog stood up, suddenly irritated. "We're not going to leave him here, Cat," he said viciously. "That's against protocol."

Still kneeling, Naruto turned back to Hawk in confusion, then why was no one moving to help him, when Hawk's voice slurred into the silence.

"Don't worry," he whispered. Fresh blood bubbled from the wound at the movement. "It's a sacrifice I'm proud to make." He raised to fingers in front of his chest. "For Konoha." Bear and Dog nodded solemnly.

Naruto parted his mouth to protest, hands akimbo, when the jutsu kicked in. A puff of grey smoke engulfed Hawk's body and through the wavering heat Naruto saw his pearly eyes behind the dark mask, just once, then they closed and the smoke enfolded him.

In the next moment, the cloud was gone, dissipating into the treetops, and all that was left was his headband and mask on the ground. The kunai was still impaled on the tree, but the body it went through was gone.

Naruto fell back on his butt, aghast and bereft. He knew Anbu were to be the weapons of Konoha, emotionless at all times. So he knew he shouldn't cry. But he never thought it meant this, watching your comrades die, without even trying to help.

He didn't want this.

Numb, Naruto watched as Bear leaned down and collected Hawk's things, probably to return to his family. Now his name would be on that block too, just like Tsunade said.

Behind the mask, Naruto's face burned with hot tears. Bear and Dog launched to the trees, then turned expectantly to Cat. "We have to go. Now," he ordered, although his voice was softened with sympathy. "We can't compromise the mission. He wouldn't want that."

But sudden anger at Bear and Dog — especially Dog for not even trying to help — rooted Naruto to the spot. Bear seemed to sense his rebellion. "Do not dishonor his death," he said firmly. "Come on."

Only that guilt spurred Naruto to move. But before his foot touch the limb they waited on, he decided being an Anbu wasn't for him.

And the rest of the way home he silently railed against every institution he'd held dear in Konoha.

Tsunade knew about this. She had to. And how many others did too? How many others were part of it? How could he fight for a system which left its own people to die, and required individuals to kill their own hearts in order to survive? Were they brought up to hold their teammates dear, a near sacred bond, only to watch them die when they grew to adulthood? How could he fight for the village after seeing this?

The veil had been pulled back, and he didn't think he'd ever be the same again.

Naruto trekked the rest of the way home in silence, hating himself. He went over every scenario he could think of to save Hawk, trying to think of what he could have done differently to convince him to live. But the sad truth he always came back to was what Hawk and Dog and Bear already knew: this was the life of an Anbu. The agent cannot compromise the mission. This was protocol. There was nothing he could have done.

His mind raced back further. Maybe he should have taken Hawk with him and protected him. Maybe he should have told him to quit when they were on their way there, that he should get out while he still could.

Naruto swore to himself. He would have found a way to save him. One way or another. He wouldn't be so dead inside that he let others die in his place.

Konoha's wall was in sight. Naruto watched the two backs of Dog and Bear jump through the branches ahead of him and decided that's what they were. Dead inside.

He didn't know what he wanted to do…but he didn't want this.

They cleared the wall with one leap, but when they landed, Naruto did not fall into step to go back to Anbu headquarters.

The two stopped, turned and looked back, a reprimand clear in Bear's eyes.

But Naruto didn't care. He unclasped his mask and let it swing from his fingers. "I'm done with this," he said viciously.

Bear nodded once, Dog said nothing. Both turned to go without a word. The ribbons from Hawk's mask and headband streamed limply from Bear's hand as he left.

Naruto burst into Tsunade's quiet office and strode to the desk. He threw the mask down in the middle of notes and scrolls and afternoon tea, then pivoted to leave.

"You were right," he said as he walked, his voice firm and emotionless. "It's not a good fit."

Tsunade's eyes were wide with concern. "I'm so sorry, Naruto. Do you want to talk about it—"

But Naruto was already out the door. It closed behind his heel with a resounding thud.

Author's note:

Poor Naruto, he's having a rough time of it right now. But don't worry, he'll pull through. Thanks for all the reviews, faves and alerts! They keep me going! Read and review, and look for a new chapter of Voice in the Wind coming soon! ;)