AN: Wowza, it's been a month since the last update. Bear with me for this one guys. Initially, I started strong but lost pace with this new story quickly. So I started the new chapters for Brand New Day and Beware My Power, but ended up just finishing this. I just hope you guys aren't angry with me. BMP Chapter 3 is next, I promise, and after that BND. Depending on how much attention this baby gets depends on how much attention it receives in comparison to my other stories. And be aware I have like... 3 more story ideas in my head. Let me know if you wouldn't mind me putting these ideas to paper, or want me to just focus on my big ones like BND? Anyway, on with the show!

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any named military equipment that may appear in this work of fiction.

"..." - Normal Speech

'...' - Normal Thought

"..." '...' - Flashback Speech and Thought.

The moonlight bounced off the dense vegetation, the only sounds being the chirping of night birds and the sound of water moving in the river. "I can't believe we never visited Kusa before, it's a truly beautiful country…" a young man said to himself as he watched the full moon. The man ran a hand through his dark brown hair and smiled as he watched the water flow. "I feel disgusting, maybe I can grab a quick dip before we leave." the man said to himself, casually giving himself a once over. He wore standard shinobi sandals and pants, and a long-sleeved shirt covered by his brown flack jacket. A movement was heard as another man around the same age walked onto the roof.

"Come on Bashir, we have a few more hours until we're supposed to head back to Iwa with the packages." the now-named Bashir groaned at what his friend told him, but gathered his equipment and walked down the stairs. The house they were in was a simple one made from stone, two floors, and the stairs to the room. The inside was quite spacious, but the home was still small enough to sit on the edge of the river with no problems. Walking down to the ground floor, Bashir smiled at his two fellow squad mates doing their best to get some sleep on the floor, before hardening his face as he watched his superior and friend seemingly argue into his radio.

"Is everything alright Shiro?" the slightly older man nodded and rubbed his chin.

"A new guy up in Command was just suggesting we leave now, and I told him how we just got here an hour ago, and being this deep in enemy territory, patrols would surely be rampant. Besides, I don't feel like exhausting our resources fighting back Konoha's reinforcements just for two shinobi." Bashir nodded at his friend's logic. Personally, Bashir loved the thrill of battle, but he understood his friend's concern. Shiro was the man in charge, he had much more to worry about than getting into a fight. Bashir left Shiro in the kitchen to worry, walking over to the living room to check in on their "packages", both bound and gagged, Bashir couldn't help but smirk at the defiant look in the male prisoner's eyes.

"If looks could kill, old man, I'd be six feet under, but too bad for you it doesn't work that way." the man just stared at Bashir with hate in his eyes. Bashir sneered back, before looking over to the woman captive and a sly smirk making its way on his face. "You better stop now if you want me to keep my hands to myself old man." Bashir moved closer to the kunoichi, sitting down right in front of her and began to take in her form. Athletic build, darkish brown hair and seemingly terrified green eyes, she was quite the catch, and those torn Bashir started to move his hands towards her chest, doing his best to ignore the muffled screams from the male before Shiro immediately hit him in the face with a thrown bag of coffee.

"What the fuck Bashir? I told you not to touch the fucking prisoners."

"Fuck you, Shiro, the old bastard was eye ballin' me," Shiro grunted and pulled his squadmate up on his feet, glaring at him eye to eye.

"I don't care if he called your mother a whore. You're a trained shinobi so act like it. If you touched her and she's not able to give us any info because your dumbass was trying to get your dick wet, I'm the one who has to explain to command and the big guy up top why I can't handle my squad sitting around in a house!"

Just then, all the lights inside the house immediately shut off, prompting the two shinobi to curse and radio to their squadmate outside that the power was out. "Jin, go check the fuse box around the house will ya." Shiro got no response from his radio. "Jin do you copy?" both men still only heard static coming from the devices.

"Jin always responds, you think someone found us?" Bashir questioned his friend, doing his best not to panic.

"We would've heard them by now, that's what worries me..." Shiro pulled up his weapon from his leg, Bashir picking up his from the table. "Do you hear that?" Bashir nodded at Shiro, hearing the creaking of the floorboards above them, both men prepping their weapons in the direction of the stairs. The men waited in anticipation, the silence making time feel even slower. However, both men could only watch in horror as a small, cylindrical device bounced down the steps, landing right in front of the two.

"FLASHBANG!" Bashir yelled, but it was too late for Shiro, as his friend failed to move away from the 9-Bang fast enough. Bashir began to panic, this wasn't supposed to happen. In a mad dash, knowing that only death would remain if he stayed where he was, Bashir grabbed the kunoichi prisoner and bolted out the door. 'Disappear into the tree line, make it back to the nearest base. Then we can get a whole detachment and destroy those Konoha bastards!' his noble plans, however, were cut short as a bullet passed through his left leg, Bashir and the woman falling to the ground in a pile. The shinobi recovered before pressing the barrel of his sidearm into his captive's head. "I swear to Kami I will kill her you hear me!" the last thing Bashir saw was a yellow tuft of hair before he felt himself be kicked in the chest and stare into the barrel of a suppressed rifle.

"Say hi to Kami for me then." five pounds of pressure later, Bashir could only stare at the beautiful night sky he had once commented on, a 2-inch wide hole now in his forehead.

"We've secured both HVT's, Havoc. I say again, jackpot."

"That's a copy Bravo 1, start making your way to Nidaime after you take care of those hostages." the blond man nodded after hearing the voice of his superior cut off. Nidaime was the code name for their next objective, but they had more pressing issues to deal with first. Bright blue eyes looked into a frantic green and the older man did his best to calm down the woman.

"Shhh stay calm, we're with Konoha, you're safe now." Minato checked on the frightened woman one last time before leading her back to the small house. The operator had pulled up his night vision and checked his watch, his fellow teammates beginning to remove the bodies from the house into the field.

"All hostiles secured sensei, but they did manage to kill the rest of the Konoha squad these two were with. I spoke to the old man, he said they were being rotated back from the front before they were ambushed, poor bastards." a black-haired boy with goggles on his head did his best not to sound too upset at the information.

"You guys did good, third successful house we've hit tonight." a silver-haired teen spoke out as the group of six gathered around each other. He was 17 years old, the same age as his two other squadmates, wearing a blue face mask over the lower half of his face, though it was now a mix of blue and green thanks to their camouflage. He was wearing a standard assault kit like everyone else, a green chest rig with a blue long sleeve top with rolled sleeves under it, with black tactical gloves covering his hands. The Uzumaki crest adorned his right shoulder while his headband was wrapped around his left. He also wore standard shinobi pants, finishing off the look with black tactical shoes. Next to him were the black-haired boy and a brown-haired girl who wore the same outfit, only small differences in the style and arrangement of equipment. Minato looked away from his students and to the other two shinobi that had joined them on this mission, two of the best operators Hiruzen had at his disposal. Fugaku and Itachi Uchiha, both wearing standard military clothing, but wearing green Boonie hats as well as night vision goggles similar to him. All six shinobi carried an assortment of weapons, most of them M16 and M4 style rifles that were modified, Obito being left to carry the much heavier, but ultimately essential M249 light machine gun.

"Both of the hostages are healthy enough to move, I'm surprised another recon team was able to push this far into our lines," Itachi reported, his eyes tired from the near breakneck pace they had been going at. He was a year older than Team Minato, but it was his first time going out into the field as an operator, and frankly hitting so many targets in quick succession was starting to wear on him.

'This is what war is Itachi,' he would tell himself, 'Be a good soldier and keep fighting.'

"All it means is regular forces aren't doing their jobs. What do you propose we do now, Minato? It's 2200 (10:00 p.m) and we still have a bridge to destroy." Minato began to think as Fugaku looked to him for direction. Getting to Kannabi Bridge on foot from their position would take at least 3 hours, lest they not run into any patrols as they moved into enemy territory. The goal was to take it and demolish it before sunrise, but they also had hostages to deal with. Just as the blond was about to speak, their radios sparked up.

"Calling all available troops in the area, heavy enemy force is amassing approximately 3 klicks away from FOB (Forward Operating Base) Sarutobi. If we do not get back up soon, we won't be able to stop them, and we'll lose the base. Kami help us all." the transmission cut out and Minato locked eyes with his fellow teammates.

"God damn it! Alright, I hate to do this to you Fugaku, but I need you and Itachi to get these two back to safety." Fugaku grunted but relented, walking towards the two prisoners and explaining what would now happen. Itachi was internally relieved that he wouldn't be getting into any more firefights, something Minato noticed. "Team Minato, you three will continue with the mission, I'm transferring command to Kakashi, follow his orders just as you would follow mine." Obito opened his mouth to speak against it but Rin elbowed him in time to avoid a scolding.

"What will you be doing sensei?" Minato looked at Rin, before looking over to Obito's LMG. Thrusting his M4 into Obito's face, Minato smiled.

"What I was trained for, now hand over the big gun and get moving."

"Ahh Minato, I didn't expect to see you here, I thought you were on the other side of this line blowing up a bridge." the blond rolled his eyes as we walked into the FOB, greeted by a familiar voice and mask covered face. Hawk was an old friend, but he was still a massive asshole when he wanted to be.

"Well you should've heard the distress call, I assume that's why you're here too. Did you bring your squad." the Anbu nodded and gestured to the big tent on the rear side of the FOB. "Big guy in charge is over there, my guys are in the mess hall, I recommend you talk to him quick." nodding, Minato walked over to the man in charge, quickly seeing he was a Captain and had to resist being silently annoyed that the man was not only a higher rank but an officer as well. Clearing his throat, Minato put on his best attempt at being a subordinate, "Sir, you called for backup?"

The man turned around and gave Minato a once over, seemingly not impressed at his attire. "Ugh, you special forces types always trying to differentiate yourselves." Minato did his best not to punch the man in the face and instead stayed quiet. "First some Anbu and now you, I'm starting to think Sartutobi's hubris with his operatives is going to his head. In any case, our scouts found a force of nearly 1000 enemy shinobi heading our way. They don't know our location, but once we open up the artillery they will. Please…" the commander looked Minato in the eyes, "Help me save the lives of these men, they don't deserve to die here because of me."

Walking out of the tent, Minato was greeted by Hawk. "How'd it go brother?" the blond could only groan in annoyance. "Yeah he gave you the whole cake eater talk, Kami sometimes I can't stand Hamaki and his officer bull. Anyway, what's the plan?"

"We're gonna need to know their exact location, with enough artillery we should be able to wipe enough of them off the face of the earth, the rest will be clean up duty for the rest of us. Your boys ready?" Hawk whistled and his five teammates slowly appeared out of seemingly nowhere.

"We were born ready sir." one of the Anbu said and Minato could only smile.

30 Minutes Later: Edge of Iwa Attack Force

"Bravo 1, I have eyes on target, the estimates were right, this is a whole goddamned battalion." the Anbu squad and Minato were currently sitting in trees, watching quietly from above as they enemy army trudged under them.

"Standby Alpha 3, I need to contact Mimura." Minato quickly switched channels on his radio. "Hamaki, do you copy?" Hamaki picked up his radio and grunted.

"Hear you loud and clear Bravo 1, have you acquired the fire mission?" Minato looked around and checked the coordinates with what Alpha 3 had given him.

"Give us time to get out of the blast zone." Minato could practically hear the frown that Hamaki had.

"By the time you leave Iwa and its shinobi will be nearly here. Give me the damn coordinates and prepare for danger close artillery." there was a long pause, the blond waging a war within himself. "That's an order, Jonin First Class Namikaze." Minato relented and gave him the coordinates, quickly switching over to the team's radio channel.

"Fuck, Alpha Team this is Bravo 1. Command is preparing for danger close fire mission on the battalion's location."

"When is he sending the arty?" Hawk asked quizzically, he could hear the panic in Minato's voice.

"... Now." a myriad of swearing was said over the radio and Minato did his best to steel his resolve. "Look if we move now, we can be clear of most of it, now on my count, we move." Quickly counting down, the 6 men jumped down from their trees and began to run adjacent from the column of shinobi. After a few minutes, however, Hawk could hear a whistle in the air.

"It's coming, everybody take cover!" the man screamed at the group, all of them throwing themselves at the ground and behind rocks as the shelling began. Screams of terror and pain sounded out into the night, the thunderous roar of the cannons being the only constant sound. Soon, the carnage stopped, and Minato and his fellow operators were left to witness the truth of war.

"So much death…" one of the Anbu commented, looking among the craters and mangled trees. Many shinobi were vaporized on impact, which was good, but many hadn't been so lucky. Chunks of flesh, limbs, and guts were spilled across the impact zone. However, reflection would come at a later time, as the surviving Iwa shinobi noticed the group and began to fire on them.

"Shit, take cover!" the Konoha shinobi took positions among the craters and began returning fire against an enemy that still had a numerical advantage. Minato looked up to see almost 100 able-bodied men still fighting, all of them moving towards their position. Hoping on the radio again, the blond quickly called for more support north of where the last fire position was. The firefight continued until the familiar whistling was heard by the operators.

"Dig in boys!" an Anbu had said before a shell landed two meters in front of him, blasting shrapnel through the left side of his body.

"Holy shit, Arashi's hit!" Alpha 5 had run over to his fallen brother and began to drag him back, calling for their medic, Alpha 6, to do all he could to save the man.

"God damn that cake-eating motherfucker!" Hawk switched channels and began screaming. "Alter your god damned artillery, it's too close." no response was heard.

"Hawk, arty is covering up the signal, we gotta get to higher ground," Minato said between potshots at the Iwa shinobi. He was running low on ammo, and the bastards kept coming. Hawk turned to look at his squad, a smile making its way onto his face.

'I'm so proud of you boys…' the masked man looked towards a fallen tree, the trunk stuck at an angle. Dropping his rifle and moving out of instinct, disregarding the frantic screams of his friends and teammates, Hawk ran up the tree. Ignoring the gunfire and friendly artillery, and help up his radio in the air. "BLUE ON BLUE YOU SONS OF BITCHES, CEASE FIRE, I SAY AGAIN, CEASE F…" Minato watched in horror as a bullet passed through Hawk's neck, with more passing through his chest and arms. The man slumped down but stayed upright against the tree. The blond remembered a conversation the two had during selection and could only give a sad glance to his former friend.

"When I die, I'll die feet first into hell," Minato said a small prayer and glared at the men who had taken his friend. "The rest of you head back, I'll cover you." Eagle looked over to Minato, doing his best to maintain his composure.

"You sure about this Minato?" the blond started moving forward, picking up his fallen brother's rifle, a flash of yellow crossing his blue eyes.

"This is for Kazuma." in a flash of yellow, Minato was gone.

18 Years Later: Konohagakure

"And under the cover of the artillery, the 4th Hokage, held back the Iwa force with nothing but his service weapon, grenades, and flashbangs. Some say the 4th brought the war to an end with this display of skill, but many know of this incident as the driving force of the 4th's moniker, 'The Yellow Flash'." Iruka Umino lectured to his students. Konoha had come a long way since the 3rd Shinobi World War, and an all-volunteer service was set up, as well as making it so the graduation age was at least 15 years old. Most students entered when they were 12 and stayed for 4 years, though the students could be younger or older and the length of time spent depended on who it was. The academy acted similar to a civilian high school, only mixed with the rigorous training of military basic training. 'A lot better than what I had to do.' the Chunin still shuddered when he thought about the rigorous training he had to go through at the ripe old age of 10. Which brought Iruka's attention to his oldest student, Naruto Uzumaki. The boy was 16 going on 17 and looked the part. Taller than most, more defined muscles, and occasionally Iruka would notice a 5 o'clock shadow on the lower half of the blond's whiskered face. His eyes were a fierce blue, yet they always had a bored look in them when any actual

"Iruka-sensei, didn't the 4th use a special jutsu to defeat the enemy shinobi?"

'Speak of the devil…' Iruka thought as he watched a confused look wash across all of his students. A pink-haired girl raised her hand,

"What's a Jutsu Iruka-sensei?" the scarred man sighed, yet found it ironic that in his history portion of the class, he would be going even further back into myth.

"Jutsu, as well as chakra, are things of legend and myth Sakura. Those who believe in the Sage of the Six Paths and his abilities believe humans have the potential to use ninjutsu to enhance their bodies, abilities, and even create deadly attacks with them. The story goes that the Sage offered people the gift of ninshu, but because of the invention of gunpowder, the humans attacked and drove the Sage into hiding. These, however, are all stories. Science has shown us that no such system exists in our bodies. The most we have gathered are the Uchiha Clan's genetic mutation that allows them to have certain eyes that they call the 'Sharingan'. We still don't know what it does. Now let's move on to the shinobi rank structure, which is quite simple. All of you are academy students, so you have no official rank. Once you graduate you become Genin. Here's the progression, Genin - Chunin - Sergeant - Special Jonin - Jonin - Jonin First Class - Master Chief Jonin - Lieutenant - Captain - Jonin Commander. Now, all of these have their own functions and specifications... " the class nodded in understanding, Iruka doing his best to regather his student's attention, but Naruto just rolled his eyes.

'People are so gullible, I'll show them all that chakra exists.' deciding not to fume more, Naruto raised his hand again. "Well, aren't you going to talk about how the 4th was a badass black ops guy! Kind of like the Anbu I think they're called." Iruka sighed and held his head in his hands, his co-teacher Mizuki becoming frustrated and yelling at Naruto to shut his mouth about such nonsense. Many disliked the boy, shinobi and civilian alike. Not only was it because of his whisker marks, but the blond was born the same day as the fabled Kyuubi attack, a massive beast that the 4th Hokage died to destroy. Many still remember seeing the massive beast, yet it was ruled as an illusion that was sprung on them by Kumo and Iwa engineers. Those who insisted on seeing the beast were labeled as being part of mass hysteria. Either way, Hiruzen, in all his wisdom, told the village that Minato's last act was saving baby Naruto, maintaining his secret parentage and hoping for the villagers to see Naruto as a symbol of the Will of Fire. It backfired. Many in the village wanted nothing to do with him, let alone see him as anything other than the reason the beloved son of Konoha died.

Naruto decided to cut his losses and tuned out the rest of the class. There was no weapons or field training today so why should he care? The one subject he cared about to even pay attention to, though it was centered around his idol, was dismissed entirely. 'It doesn't matter.' the blond thought optimistically, looking out the window to see the 4th's face on the Hokage Monument. 'I'll be just like you someday, I swear I'll become Hokage and the best operator there ever was, believe it!'

"Kid knows a lot more than he should, Hokage-sama. I'm almost impressed."

"Yes he does, but that's why he has so much potential, I feel he will become the best of us."

"You say he's skilled yet he's already failed the Academy exam twice. I fail to see the big deal besides him being sensei's legacy. Do you think he'll have access to his chakra, even with that beast and the seal? Sensei locked him down tight."

"Have faith, it's why when he passes this time, you're going to become his leader and sensei." a single eye had rolled at the Hokage's words.

"Let's just hope he can keep up. I may have retired from Special Operations, but I still earned my rank of a Captain as an Anbu and Operator." Hiruzen nodded sagely and took a puff of his pipe.

"I know Kakashi, hopefully, he proves himself soon. I'm not saying he has to become an operator, but well, all I can say is that he's his father's son."

AN: And done. At first, I intended for this chapter to go all the way into Wave, but figured I would call it a night today and get some sleep. I apologize to any of you who don't understand modern weapons or military terminology. I'll do my best to explain as much as I can as simple as possible. As a reference, Konoha is modeled after the USA obviously, with the ran structure given slightly more depth and being a mix of Naruto, Army, and Naval ranks. Which I find quite funny for a guy leaving for the Marines soon. Anyway, please let me know what you think and I would really appreciate some support for this story. Oh, and also, the cake-eater comment is an insult used by the military to refer to civilians, however in the CBS show SEAL TEAM, they use it all the time to refer to officers so that's what I'm going to use it as. Read, Review, and have a great day!