AN: Hello all. Thanks to Lord Kyuubi for proofreading this. He did a good job and you should not find too many mistakes in here as a result. Lord Kyuubi, feel free to leave a review flaunting your awesomeness.
I hope you enjoy. I sure did, even if I don't own anything.
If Naruto was not seeing it with his own eyes and holding it with his own hands, he would not have believed it. Sure, he had been teased good-naturedly by Dog and Owl about it and Owl had done him an awful scare but in his mind, it had been just that: teasing. But here it was; still formless, still blank, save for one large mark across the left eye painted in the rich blood red of the third company.
The mask of an initiate. His mask. The proof he had done well. The acknowledgment of his efforts. The mark he could finally perform vertical walking.
What a pain it had been.
"It's going to be an even greater pain in the ass for you, now that we'll go on real missions." Tiger had warned him. The man had tried to dampen the blond's enthusiasm, he had attempted to limit the unbridled joy mounting in the boy's chest.
Naruto did not even feel the smile that split his face and shone like a second sun. He did not care for Tiger's warnings. He knew his formation was not complete and, truthfully, would it ever be? The Sandaime was called the Professor not because he knew everything but because even at past sixty years old, he kept learning. The blond was impatient to tackle new things. He felt his foundations were stronger than they ever had been and he was ready to build upon them.
The blue-eyed boy sighed contentedly and rolled back on the narrow bed he was occupying for six weeks now. He would be here for a bit more time. Just a bit more time and then he would join the family, he would enter ANBU. Naruto trained his eyes on his clock and read quarter-to-midnight. It was high time to sleep. Initiate or not, he would still wake up at four in the morning tomorrow to run the Warmer. That would not change in a long time, or so Tiger had informed him.
Naruto brought his legs, still dangling from the side of his bed, back on the mattress and put his cover on his feet. It was light and it was always relatively warm inside the underground compound. With a wide, jaw-unhinging yawn, the boy closed his eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.
The boy was startled awake seconds before his steadfast alarm rung in his ears. With a practiced motion, Naruto cut off the blaring sound and fiddled with the mechanism to reset the clock before he suspended his action. If he was going on a mission, he would not need it. The blond thought for a second as he scratched the sleep out of his blue eyes; he would need to get used to setting his alarm up before sleeping.
His resolution made, the boy stood up and trotted to his bathroom for his morning grooming. To say that a month and a half before, he was plagued with the bad habit of oversleeping. ANBU had trained things in but it had also beaten things out. Naruto had never slept so little yet he had never felt so good. After a short shower, the blond put on his new mask and darted to a strangely deserted mess.
"Hello, Buffalo-san."
"Hey Blondie. All good?"
The teen beamed a smile no one would ever see and gave the ANBU behind the counter a thumb up while his other hand was pointing at the red mark of his mask.
"Hell yeah!" Naruto answered excitedly, his voice cracking slightly from the enthusiasm.
The buffalo-masked ANBU huffed in a strange staccato, something Naruto had come to learn was the man's way of laughing. "Congrats, Initiate. Make the corps proud."
"Thanks, Buffalo-san, I'll do my bestest, 'ttebayo." Naruto grinned as he took the tray given by the man. "How is it going for you today?"
"Pretty slow day kid. We have a lot of people away."
The blond's eyes widened slightly in both amazement and impatience. "I hope I'll join whatever they are doing." He muttered hopefully.
The host ANBU grunted. "Don't go too fast looking for action, Blondie. You'll learn to work with your team before you go slit throats and take names," chastised the man slightly. "The first rule of ANBU, you never go and wish for trouble, that jinx's everything. Got me, initiate?"
"Hai, Buffalo-san."
"We are ninjas, not adventurers, Blondie." The older man reminded the boy, his voice surprisingly melancholic. "Don't let my advice go to waste."
Naruto smiled behind his mask.
"I'd never forgive you for pestering me so much if you go die in the first ditch you find."
The boy's smile crashed. "Oy!" He cried indignantly. "I'm not that bad!"
"Sure, sure." Buffalo waved the boy off before he poked him above the heart and on the forehead in a swift motion too quick for Naruto to follow. "Remember, be there, always. Don't lose your head to some fantasy or you'll lose it for real."
"Hai, Buffalo-san, thanks."
"Now go eat your chow," drawled the tall man, "com'on, shush!"
Naruto bowed, his tray still in his hands, and darted to a table where, after performing his partial transformation trick over his head, he started wolfing down his food. He frowned slightly when he could not feel the chocolate in his porridge before the taste of various berries exploded in his mouth. The boy smiled before his thoughts diverted to the man behind the counter.
Buffalo was quite an old ninja who had been serving in ANBU for years. He had been the captain of the third company before a mission had taken his leg during the Third War. He had decided to stay in service of the corps he had already given his life to, this time as a cook. He was greatly respected and even wore three stylized chrysanthemums of ivory, as a reminder of his past rank. A gift from the entire third company and a break in the rules Dragon tolerated.
The man behind the counter had been reluctant to open up to Naruto but the hidden smiles of the blond boy and his enthusiasm had eventually cracked the shell. Buffalo was a treasure trove of practical advice and war stories. The man had seen two wars and had led an entire troop of black ops operatives through one.
Many knew of the tragedy of the Kannabi Bridge, where Minato Namikaze's team lost one of their members for destroying the vital piece of architecture.
No one remembered that it was the third company who tracked the soldiers from Iwa beyond the ruined bridge and sent the corpses diced up back to Earth Country and their heads to Konoha to be mounted on spikes.
Everyone knew of the future Yondaime Hokage slaughtering the entirety of an Earth Country's battalion in a flash, saving the remnant of two General Forces Konoha companies.
Few remembered that said battalion had sortied out of despair, its numbers greatly reduced due to the guerilla war that a hundred ANBU of the Leaf had fought against them. The Iwa-nin had been cut from any and all supplies, starved, sabotaged, and assassinated. All for weeks in a row. The actions of the third company had made sure Iwa's main assault on Fire Country had collapsed and had earned them the nickname, "Hounds of Kusa." Less than twenty Leaf shinobi had gotten out of the dreadful jungle but the rest was History.
And Buffalo had been their captain, right until the end, even when a paper bomb had robbed him of one of his legs. Even when ninja wire had severed his right hand. Even when shrapnel had been blasted inside his entire right side. The man had endured and pushed through, all to lead his comrades until the end. He was a true hardened veteran. One a young recruit like Naruto had better listen to as each of the older man's stories held a lesson.
Naruto chewed on his porridge and drank his green goo in silence, reminiscing about the tales he had convinced Buffalo to tell him. The old man kept saying ANBU did not wish for excitement as ANBU life was exciting enough, but the blond had difficulty believing his own career would be even half as incredible.
He would need a war for that and the boy was not wishing for one anytime soon. Buffalo's tales might have been fascinating, but the older man did not hide the fact war was a gruesome business.
A few minutes later, the blond rose from his seat, deposited the tray back on the counter and gave his empty canteen to Buffalo, which the man gladly filled.
"Thanks, Buffalo-san."
"You welcome Blondie. Remember," The man answered, pointing to his own heart and his forehead. "Be there."
Naruto nodded and darted away. He had his new team to join.
The three usual ANBU were waiting for him at the start of the Warmer, their rendezvous point. Cat was examining the sharpness of her blade, Dog her fingers, and Tiger was standing straight, the perfect picture of bored professionalism.
"Hello!" The blond greeted with enthusiasm, making all three ANBU nod in acknowledgment of his presence."Hello, Initiate."
Naruto positively beamed and he did not care one bit it was hidden behind the blank face of a porcelain mask. He was pretty certain his pride and joy were radiating with enough power that the other three could feel it on their skin anyway.
"Your basic training is considered enough but it's far from over. Basic training is never over. A genin with good foundations can topple a Kage with shaky ones. The reason it never happens is that no Kage has shaky basics. Understood?" Tiger asked in a threatening variation of his monotone.
"Hai, sensei!"
"Good. Now that we whipped you in shape, we can start to expand," the man started again. "Dog will teach you tracking, field emergency, and will keep working on chakra control. Cat will keep working on kenjutsu but you'll add shurikenjutsu to that. I will still drill taijutsu and physical conditioning in general but we will also start on your ninjutsu. We will all work with you on sign language and planning. Questions?" The male ANBU delivered in unchanging voice.
"What about missions?"
"We will do all that during our missions. Today, you will leave a clone to prepare your pack while you run the Warmer one last time before we go. Start!"
Naruto saluted. "Hai, sergeant." And with a quick hand-sign, a shout of "shadow clone no jutsu", and a puff of smoke, a replica of Naruto stood next to the original.
"Pack for a standard, month-long outing. Dog will lead you to the armory and explain it to you."
The Dog masked ANBU and the clone departed, leaving Naruto with Cat and Tiger. Both operators looked intently at the blond boy as he started a quick warm-up routine. A few minutes later, the blond sat in a lotus position and focused on the inner flow of his chakra.
Since his breakthrough and the work on vertical walking, the maelstrom of his life energy had become much more focused. It was still wild and chaotic but there was a direction to the unstoppable rush now, some kind of general idea of where it was going. It was not simply a chaotic, savage mass of energy anymore. Now it was a chaotic, reluctant mass of energy and it made harnessing it much easier.
Naruto doubted it would ever be a calm river and frankly he was not sure he wanted that. It would be too boring, he had definitely too much fun riding the foaming waterfall crashing in his coils, chakra control be damned. It took a minute for the blond to prepare the three hundred and sixty-one switches needed to open his tenketsus. The technique was not perfect yet and the blond was sure he could further refine it.
Chakra blasted outward as Naruto opened the vents of his circulatory coils. The blond quickly cut the flow in order not to fall prey to exhaustion again and stood up at attention. He felt a strange, if not unwelcome, surge of pride and eagerness when Tiger nodded.
"Ready to go, sergeant."
"Good, run."
Dutifully, the blond started his trek up the Warmer, followed for the first time by Tiger and Cat, much to his pleasant surprise.
A little less than an hour later, Naruto emerged from the Warmer in the dense forest covering the heights around Konoha. Giving him his time, Tiger nodded.
"Well done, Initiate." The ANBU complimented monotonously. "You worked hard, especially during those last three weeks. Your average speed is slightly above twenty kilometers per hour, without active chakra use."
Naruto knew by now that the dead inflection was so his head did not get too large with smugness. The praise was true but the lack of enthusiasm was a reminder that he could do better and that some were better than him. It was to enforce humility. The boy nodded and contained the joy he felt.
"As a reward, we will take the shortcut in order to come back," Tiger continued.
Naruto's face contorted into a grimace when his brain registered what his superior had just said. The blond could feel mirth dance around the man like an aura. "Wait… There is a shortcut?"
A minute after, Naruto, Tiger, and Cat were in an electronically powered elevator, the entrance of which was dissimulated right next to the exit of the Warmer. The blond was hating his instructor with a passion right now. The ridiculous music playing in a loop they were forced to listen was not helping matters.
"Sensei, why-"
"Endurance training, Initiate."
Naruto fell silent. Of course, endurance training it was. His teachers certainly were not sadistic at all after all. The blond mumbled some choice curse words under his breath until a shudder of dread racked his body right before he felt agile fingers snatch his ear and twist it.
"You will watch your language around me, young man," threatened Cat convincingly.
Naruto grimaced through the painful sensation and precipitately nodded. "H-hai Cat-sensei."
The elevator took the trio down to ground level in a matter of a few minutes. Naruto had ceased his grumbling about his slave-driving teachers but not without firmly promising himself he would introduce Tiger's mask to some orange paint. After another minute of walking down a straight, boring hallway, they found themselves back at the start of the Warmer, where Dog was waiting with Naruto's replica.
"Good," stated Tiger. "Initiate, come with me. You are due a haircut."
For a second Naruto nodded reflexively before his eyes widened at what his sergeant had just said. "Wait… What?"
Another few minutes later and Naruto had had his hair cut short in the infirmary. His golden, curly bangs decimated. An efficient, if tasteless, military buzz cut had replaced his flamboyant former hairdo.
"Was that really necessary?" The boy whined. There was some kind of smug satisfaction in the look Tiger and Cat were giving him, Naruto just knew it.
"Do you know anyone in the village with blond hair like yours?" Tiger retorted in his monotone. "If you are out with your blond hair floating behind you, you might as well leave the mask off."
"The guys at the Mission Desk will suspect something."
"You'll pretend you were in need of a change of style. Besides, you can pull off a henge perfectly anyway."
Naruto glared with mock heat at his superior before he sighed. "Alright, let's go for the change of style." The boy fell silent for a second before speaking again. "People will see my hair anyway."
"No, they won't. You thought the mask was the entirety of our armor?"
A few minutes later, after a shower, a new set of clean clothes, and a clone sent to the Desk with a note, Naruto was playing with various armor parts in the armory.
"So it really wasn't," wondered the blond aloud as he dressed in his full, custom made, ANBU suit, which included a balaclava -to absorb sweat, allow air to flow, provide protect against poisonous gas. Dog had joked that it even made coffee. It was made of a silk-like textile and covered his hair entirely. On top was a light tactical helmet built in the same fashion as the standard armor: several packed layers of technical fibers reinforced with a tight meshing of ninja wire.
Ninja wire was not used only to capture an enemy or set a trap. In fact, its exceptional mechanical properties and its relative resilience made it perfect for internal lacing of ninja armor and as such, it was the main market for ninja wire.
Fully decked in the standard ANBU combat attire, Naruto observed himself and had to admit that, covered as he was from head to toe, he was unrecognizable.
"Hmm Sensei?"
"Yes, Initiate?"
"If our entire armor is grey and night blue, why is our mask clean white?"
"Psychological shock."
Incredulous, Naruto had to ask. "Does that actually work?"
"It's a killer on civilians and inexperienced ninjas." Tiger fastened some pouch to his belt before adding, "especially when there are fleshy bits on it."
The blond pictured the mask of his instructor splattered in blood and had to admit it would make for a rather dreadful sight. It was already fearsome as it was, with the blood red markings. He was brought back to the present when Tiger extended his hand, grasping something in it.
"This," explained the instructor, "is a breathing capsule, in case we are under gas attack. It goes in front of your mouth, in the rounded part of the mask. You bite into it if I give the order."
The blond marveled for a moment at the piece of technology he was provided with just as his mind unhelpfully provided that there was a reason ANBU masks weren't flat. No matter the animal, they all had a cavity around the mouth and the small re-breather must be the reason why. Naruto affixed the small black machine inside his mask.
"It's based on a rather complex chemical process. If it breaks, fails, and starts leaking, you throw it away quick. You'll have better chance to survive poisonous gas than a whiff of that cocktail," informed Dog from the sideline.
Naruto shuddered. "If it's that dangerous-"
"'Cause it very rarely breaks the wrong way and we have yet to find a better way to fight Suna and Ame's methods." The older girl cut the blond.
"They absolutely love poison in all its forms." Cat supplied.
Every ANBU was fully equipped with combat fatigues, armor plates, helmets, pouches, and a chokuto sheathed on their back. They made for rather impressive, ghostly figures. Living oaths of pain and promises of death.
Eventually, Tiger approached Naruto with the final piece of the blond's equipment. The man extended his hand, clasping a long, flowing service cloak. The boy smiled behind his mask.
He knew the gear did not make the ninja but if with all that he wasn't an ANBU… he did not know what would make him one. Naruto eagerly draped himself in the cloak. It had long sleeves, flowed until below the knee, and sported a large hood to further dissimulate him. The color was some sort of dark, badly defined earthy brown.
"Pulse chakra inside the cloak," ordered Tiger.
Not questioning his officer, Naruto pushed some of his life energy into the mantle and watched with fascination as some parts of the cloak changed color, taking on a greenish hue.
"Whoah."
"Advanced cloaking technology kid. Heh. Get it? 'Cause it's a cloa-" Dog quipped from the side before Cat elbowed her, keeping the teenager from achieving her sorry attempt at humor.
"There are subtleties to it, we will teach you while en route. It requires better chakra control than you currently have." Tiger informed before he gazed intently at the initiate from head to toe. "You have everything?"
"Hai, sergeant." Naruto saluted. "What is the mission?"
The mission, as it turned out, was what was called a "border sweep" in ANBU's jargon, between Grass and Earth Country to be exact. It had nothing to do with actually patrolling the border. Konoha had not nearly enough ninjas to keep the large, sprawling frontiers of Fire Country under perpetual watch and such a mission was given to soldiers paid by the Daimyo.
An ANBU border sweep was in all effects an illegal incursion inside the territory of another country to have a look at their defenses.
It was intelligence gathering, in fewer words. As ANBU soldiers did not bear the leaf insignia, it was a full black-op that Konoha would disavow if they were to be caught. It was the game of the Great Five to prod like this at each other's defense and if a few ninjas were lost for it, well, it was life.
A border sweep had never sparked a war, seeing as it was an obvious breach of all treaties concerning the border management between the Great Five that no Hidden Village would admit to committing.
Teams sent on such missions were rarely caught anyway. The ground to cover for capture was simply too large and, given one had to send ninjas to intercept ninjas, no Hidden Village had enough competent manpower to simply set up a trap. It was attempted once in a while but it seldom yielded any results. Even rarer were the situations where two teams from hostile countries met each other; given the swathes of land to cover and the fact those missions were obviously not scheduled in a way that made them predictable, the probabilities weren't even qualified as "low" anymore but as "non zero".
It would make for a relatively boring mission and the ideal ground to test Naruto's newly gained endurance and speed in the real world, as well as work out the limit of his stealth abilities in the presence of hostiles in an unknown environment. It would also allow the team to work out team formations and strategies in the wild.
Naruto had a bit of practice in the training field but it did not compare to the real deal.
Tiger and Cat explained all that to the blond as the team of four made their way out of the underground compound. Konoha was still asleep when they exited the barracks by the cliff's secret entrance. The sun wasn't exactly there either yet, the yellow star timidly peeking above the Hokage Monument like a shy child.
"Alright, we have one more stop before we step out the doors," Tiger informed the three who nodded before Dog took point.
As they entered Konoha proper, Naruto felt something prickle at the limit of his awareness. It was like a whisper he could not find the origin of, like an itch he could not scratch. The blond ignored it at first and focused on silently following his three senseis -his teammates now- through the village's streets. After a five minutes walk, they were standing in front of a large, pillar-like stone in a vast meadow. Carved into the rough surface of the obelisk were two schematic fangs with a reversed triangle on top: the insignia of the Inuzuka clan.
Dog simply whistled, the tremolo escaping her lips going progressively higher and higher in pitch as seconds passed. Naruto frowned then grimaced when his ears continued to pick up what had become a screeching sound to him. The blond hurriedly clasped his hand around his ears and whispered agitatedly.
"Ow! What are you doing sensei?"
His exclamation, though spoken in a low voice, caught the attention of two of his teachers.
"You can hear Dog's ultrasonic whistle?" Tiger asked, mild interest piercing in his voice.
One pinkie in each ear, Naruto grimaced under his mask. "The screeching? Yeah and it hurts. You can't?"
Whatever he had said made Dog turn to face him. "You can hear that? That makes your hearing as good as an Inuzuka's!"
The blond shrugged. He had always had good senses, it had helped tremendously when setting up and going through his pranks. His fingers actively rubbing the inside of his ears, the boy looked at the girl. "Thanks, I guess?"
"A month and a half later and we are still…" Tiger mumbled something before he shook his head. "Whatever. What you heard was Dog calling her companions."
"Companions?"
As soon as the blond said that, he could hear the barking of several dogs -three in his estimation- carrying over the meadow. A minute later and three wolfish dogs, all looking the same to him with dark grey fur on top and a white underbelly, came barrelling into Dog who rolled with the animals in a bundle, exchanging yips of joy with them. Well, at least now, Naruto knew the older teenage girl was an Inuzuka without a doubt. After playing for a minute. Dog righted herself and turned to Naruto.
"Alright, Initiate, meet the Haimura brothers. This is Hai." She said, pointing to a dog to her left. "This is Mu." She continued, patting the dog in front of her. "And this is La." She finished, scratching the last dog's chin. Suddenly, the blond could feel all four dogs giving him a sharp glare and the girl spoke again. "They are very intelligent, more clever than some human I've met. So do not insult or underestimate them. They can understand you perfectly and even if they cannot talk, they can communicate. Capishe?"
Naruto swallowed hard and gave his youngest teacher a salute. "Hai sensei."
"Good. Now boys, go introduce yourself."
At this order, the blond was immediately dogpiled, quite literally, by the trio of hunting hounds. Each dog carefully registered Naruto's scent and the blond subconsciously started doing the same. All three hounds growled low when their nose neared the boy's stomach but Dog calmed them with a caress on the head. Some ministrations from Naruto himself sealed the alliance. Tiger allowed the newly introduced teammates to play for a few seconds before he cleared his throat to catch everyone's attention.
"The Haimura trio are as much your teammates as we are. They fight for us, we fight for them. We all fight for each other. Clear, Initiate?"
From the ground in between the towering hounds, Naruto nodded. "Hai, sensei."
"Good. We are ready to depart then. Let's get going."
A few minutes later, the group was outside the city. They had not left by the main gate of course; as a rule of thumb, ANBU missions did not exist, so ANBU were very rarely seen officially leaving the village.
It was a quiet exit. Naruto did not bounce around in excitement; that had been beaten out of him by Tiger, so the blond settled for a shudder of impatience. It would be the first time away from Konoha after all, it was still something of note. As for the rest, it was not their first rodeo and it would not be their last.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was torn; he did not know whether today was a good day or not. A few days ago, he had started to mend his relationship with his surrogate grandson and that had been a source of joy. Today though, the Hokage knew that this aforementioned grandson would partake in his first ANBU mission. A "border sweep" to be exact: he had threatened Dragon with a fate worse than death if Naruto was sent on anything other than an easy assignment for his first outing.
As no ANBU mission could rightly be considered "easy", the border sweep had been selected, given that chances of hostile encounters were the lowest during those types of dispatch. It would still greatly tax Naruto physically and put him to the test but that was something Hiruzen was confident the boy could handle.
That was the second reason the old Sarutobi felt torn. He still did not know how he felt about Naruto being trained in ANBU. He had ignored it for a month and a half as no immediate dangers lay in wait for Naruto and more pressing concerns had come knocking on Hiruzen's office door. But now, the boy had donned his initate mask, and that meant he was considered mission-ready. It was well deserved according to Dragon, after a gruesome month and a half of training that would have sent lesser ninjas packing for home. The boy had surmounted the problem of his blocked tenketsus and had refined many of his shaky skills into good foundations.
Hiruzen felt a pride he knew he had little to no right to feel but was terribly worried all in all. As Naruto's grandfather, it was his right.
He knew as well that he was not allowed to interfere with the boy's life and career choices. It was the agreement between the Hokage and his ninja, be they from a clan or not: they served Konoha, obeyed the Kage, but their career path was theirs to decide. Naruto had volunteered and that made him untouchable if not for a very long legal procedure that Hiruzen absolutely refused to consider. It would raise one major point he had fought against for the entirety of his two tenures as Hokage and he would not change now.
But by refusing to call the boy a jinchuriki, by refusing to consider Naruto as a weapon, property of Konoha under the direct rule of its Hokage, Hiruzen was left without alternatives to pull his grandson out of ANBU. Especially considering the blond wasn't anywhere crazy or unstable yet. The ANBU corps was protected by a law made by the Nidaime and it was difficult, even for a Hokage, to modify it.
Naruto had been invited and had volunteered his services. Now it was up to the corps to deal with the boy.
Hiruzen sighed. It was truly out of his hands by now, as given the time, Naruto and his team were out of the village by now. The Hokage straightened himself and prepared for his day. He had a few meetings, including one with the civilian advisers. Those were terribly dry and dreary and mainly consisted of people whining for more money. The Academy needed more money, the hospital needed more money, the chunin wanted a raise, the workers at the power plant did too, and there was only so much in Konoha's treasury.
Because raising taxes was obviously out. "More public services and fewer taxes please." The logical contradiction made Hiruzen want to slap some sense into the advisors but that would not do. They were useful in their own right, helping him in managing the more civilian side of Konoha's affairs and actually providing him once in a while with a wise suggestion.
Unfortunately, while they displayed flashes of competence, most were also bickering fools who spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to curry favors from him. Relentlessly trying, to get some sort of greater political footing within the village.
And by the Flame, they would never succeed, Hiruzen continuously saw to that, much like his predecessors. Konoha was a shinobi village and it was ruled by its Hokage and the nine founding clans Not by some ambitious, power-hungry civilians. Konoha was a village of warriors and its rulers were warriors, period.
In all honesty, the founding clans were already enough of a pain in his bottom to deal with, there was no need to add anything to the fire.
With another sigh, the Hokage prepared himself a pipe. It would be his first smoke of the day, one of the many that would eventually lead to some horrible, agonizingly slow, sickness induced downfall, as Tsunade had threatened him numerous times.
Damned, thinking about dreary meetings had made him all depressed! Hiruzen promptly lit his pipe and took two puffs out of it with a satisfied smile soon flourishing on his lips. Good, he was now ready for his first appointment. He was curious about what news Iruka would bring him. The teacher's investigation was slow going but it had yielded some interesting elements yet, with the discreet help of T&I and a special authorization granted by Hiruzen himself.
The scarred chunin had been able to determine the general modus operandi. Many students had been actively sabotaged, their result falsified one way or another, if a bit too tellingly, by an unidentified third party. Iruka was sure that no teachers had been actively involved in the modifications. They had however been asked to turn a blind eye to any inconsistencies they could find in their students' results.
The trail stopped with a mysterious, apparently official looking assignment all incriminated teachers had apparently received years ago yet could not find again.
It reeked but it in a weird way, if Hiruzen had to be honest. Firstly, the falsification of the students' work had been amateurish. Secondly, Iruka and a few other teachers had never received the orders, which was a flaw. If Iruka had decided to correct a few tests he wasn't supposed to, the plan could have been uncovered. It was as if whoever was behind everything had wanted the operation to be discovered. At the same time, the letters had all disappeared, the involved teachers having probably destroyed them even if those who had been interrogated by T&I assured they had no recollection of ever doing so.
It meant their best lead was dead, given that the conveniently clumsy saboteur would not strike before classes started again. If he was even going to continue his job. There was no reason for the infiltrator to stop unless he'd somehow caught wind of the secret investigation, but apparently, some secrets were not guarded well enough if Konoha could be infiltrated like that. Which meant the culprit possibly already knew that his operation was endangered.
Which opened a third point. Whoever the enemy was: he had a man inside the place, was an ancient Konoha shinobi with a relatively high-level clearance, or had a way to buy or steal a high-level clearance code. There was absolutely no way to forge a mission order, various security procedures made sure of that. If the teachers had received fake orders, they had to have received it from the official source.
But orders to directly sabotage the education of the Academy students for years would have never gone past the mission assignment desk save in two cases: they were encoded or someone at the Desk had sold out to the enemy.
If a mission was highly-ranked, the orders could be encrypted so that those in the know were restricted. Any and all ANBU movements, for example, were processed that way -even if it was incredibly weird but every administration had its own share of stupidity after all- so that plausible deniability could be a thing.
The one processing the mission at the assignment desk only had to verify the validity of a credential code that came with the encrypted mission orders and if the calculators gave a positive, the mission orders were stamped and sent back out to whoever had opened the request. Sending the orders was then at that person's charge, no questions asked.
This could mean that a part of the cryptanalysis squad was suspect, which was a headache. Or that someone at the Mission Assignment Desk had shifting loyalties, which was a pain in the ass. Considering all those brave ninjas were supposedly some of the most loyal shinobi available to Hiruzen, it was overall painful.
A cross-examination from T&I would take time and was generally one very unpleasant thing to go through. For a loyal ninja to have his allegiance doubted was insulting. Shinobi had no honor on the battlefield but it did not mean they did not have any honor at all. In a world of cheaters and assassins, being wrongly accused of treason was terribly offensive, as loyalty to the village was the only loyalty one could afford to uphold.
That was where Iruka Umino's involvement was absolutely priceless. Nobody questioned a seemingly innocent teacher pulled off from his duty by the Hokage, who was a kind if whimsical old man, as everyone knew. Even when said teacher asked questions he should not really have asked; as long as one had the clearance, especially one as high level as the Hokage's seal, there weren't many questions asked. Paranoia had its limit if one wanted to keep the bureaucratic process a little efficient.
Iruka's little snooping around was far less violent than a full official T&I investigation, with all the broken morale, lost trust, and general unpleasantness such an operation often left in its wake. Everything had been obviously carefully orchestrated so that Iruka could be nothing but white as snow in the eyes of those he was secretly prodding.
A knock on the door of his office tore the Hokage from his thoughts. There was his first "date" for the day.
"Enter," called the aged Kage from behind a plume of blueish smoke.
Iruka Umino immediately let himself in, a manila folder secured under his right arm. After a month and a half of weekly reports, he had become less and less shy.
"Hokage-sama." The chunin saluted, his face the picture of seriousness.
"Have a seat," invited the old Sarutobi with an open hand, gesturing toward one of the two chairs in front of his desk before a few inconspicuous hand-signs sealed the room off and away from prying ears, eyes, and pretty much whatever anyone could come up with to spy on someone.
Fuinjutsu was quite radical if the user knew their way.
"What do you have for me Umino-san?"
"I might have some something, Hokage-sama," said the chunin with the beginning of an enthusiastic grin that wasn't too dissimilar to something Naruto could have sported. The brown-haired young man took a note from the folder and showed it to the Hokage.
"It's a very dated ANBU assignment seal that hasn't been removed from the calculators. It's high enough that the one who sent the mysterious orders to my colleagues could have used it to validate whatever was written as an A-rank order." The man explained to the old ruler. "It's an old code sir but it still checked out, for some reason."
An A-rank order meant whoever was following it wasn't to discuss it with anyone who wasn't cleared to know or the Hokage himself.
"As it is very old," continued Iruka, "it is entirely possible it wasn't recognized by the team at the assignment desk and when the calculators returned a positive, they accepted it."
"Which clears out the ninja working at the Desk but not the cryptanalysis squad. They are the ones responsible for keeping the calculators up to date."
"With respect, Hokage-sama, I've seen the process as part of my standard rotation after chunin promotion. The process is not complicated and pretty much anyone could have put this old code in there."
"So, our mysterious saboteur?"
"Possibly. It would make sense: too many goons and-"
"The probability of one being discovered rises exponentially." The Hokage hummed, his pipe stuck in his mouth. "Any simulation yet?"
"The boundaries are unknown, Hokage-sama. We cannot reasonably calculate any kind of risk yet. That'd put the Yamanaka under too much unnecessary pressure."
The old man huffed and smiled grimly. "I don't like using this particular jutsu anyway. Anything else? Could you trace the code?"
"No Hokage-sama. The code itself was within the rights you gave me to investigate but the owner is above. I would need S-rank clearance apparently."
Hiruzen stopped a string of expletives from leaving his mouth and took a deep breath instead. Only a few very important persons within the village had their own code to encrypt mission orders and S-rank clearance due to their rank. The ANBU commander, the jonin commander, and the head of T&I were among those.
Then, there were two or three people Hiruzen had personally granted the same kind of rights. The Sannin, whom he trusted completely. At least, the two who were still loyal anyway. Minato Namikaze, when the man had still been alive.
But one especially was coming to mind and Hiruzen honestly hoped the feeling in his guts was wrong.
"That foolish man, what is he doing?" The Hokage grumbled in a whisper, so low that Iruka could not hear him.
"I'm sorry Hokage-sama?"
"Nothing, Umino-san. Let me deal with this mysterious code and continue to try and find one of those order slips your colleagues have received. Do you have anything else?"
"No Hokage-sama. With all due respect though, I do not think I'll have much success concerning the disappeared letters."
"Then that should give you time to organize yourself for the next semester, right?" The old Sarutobi offered the chunin a wrinkled smile as he said that.
Iruka smiled himself and nodded with a spark of enthusiasm. His role in this investigation was coming to a close apparently and he would soon resume his duty as a teacher. Rising from his comfortable seat, the chunin saluted once and exited the office of the most important man in the village.
School starting again had never sounded so good. Being suddenly designated as some sort of freelance investigator for this mysterious and nonsensical sabotage affair had been tiring and troublesome, and if Iruka was starting to think like a Nara, it was high time to find his routine again.
"I think we covered enough ground for a pause." Tiger ordered suddenly, stopping his tree-running abruptly.
The four humans and the three dogs all screeched to a halt and gathered.
"As it is our first mission together, we will introduce ourselves quickly. Initiate, your codename starting today is Maru. I will start. I'm codename Tiger, a ninjutsu and taijutsu specialist. I have supplementary kenjutsu and tracking skills. I'm this squad's sergeant."
"I'm codename Cat, a kenjutsu and infiltration specialist. I have supplementary genjutsu and ninjutsu skills. I'm this squad's corporal."
"I'm codename Dog, a taijutsu and tracking specialist. I have supplementary iryojutsu and genjutsu skills. Those are the Haimura Brothers. They are taijutsu and tracking specialists."
Naruto quickly understood how the introductions worked. Every ANBU was at least passable in all shinobi skills as his three teachers had mentioned. He had no doubt Tiger was entirely capable of infiltrating pretty much anywhere but the man had simply told his teammates what he was specialized in and what he could definitely help with.
If Cat was an infiltration specialist, it meant the team would probably follow her lead if the occasion to use her skills arose.
Naruto liked this way of thinking. It spoke of humility and efficiency. The blond could only wonder what he could say though.
"I'm codename Maru. Huh… I'm a stealth specialist." It was not exactly a question but the boy's tone wasn't affirmative either. Tiger simply nodded, assuring Naruto his assessment was correct. "I have supplementary skill in taijutsu."
To be honest, the blond would not pretend yet he was anywhere with kenjutsu and bragging would undoubtedly earn him a punch so he cautiously kept his assessment humble, if limited.
"Good assessment, Maru but do not sell your kenjutsu short. You are making good progress, fully within acceptable parameters." Cat chimed in. The blond could only turn toward the woman and hope she could guess his smile behind his mask.
"Very well. Now that we know a bit about each other, we can continue. Maru, most sensible formation."
It took Naruto three seconds to piece together a satisfying march order. "Diamond formation, Dog front for her tracking skill, Cat center, genjutsu cover, Tiger and I to the sides, the Haimaru Brothers to the rear for their tracking."
Tiger nodded and Naruto could feel his sensei's approval ooze from him and prickle his own skin. The blond smiled at the weirdly potent sensation but shrugged it off. He had done well apparently.
"Satisfactory. Dog, I want sixteen clicks per hours."
"Roger, Sarge."
A second latter and the entire team was blitzing through the trees of Fire Country, their sight to the north, in the direction of the Land of Grass.
AN: I hope you enjoyed. I know I'm a villainous tease but I swear, chapter 12 will be action-packed. As in the *bam, wham, boom* kind of action, with some ninja goodness. Now it is time for a random shout out: go read any stories authored by slythefoxx2. He is good at telling them.
A little world-building exercise for you all: Konoha is an alliance of various ninja clans, created to avoid war or, in a less cynical way of seeing it, establishing peace. Logically, the Hokage's rule cannot be absolute, as the clans would fear for their freedom and rights if that were the case. How do you create a coherent political system fitting all that? How do you balance political power? (I want your assignments on my desk on Monday. ;-) )
Like any author, my diet mainly consists of reviews so leave one. Please, feed me!