Chapter 32

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Golden-absol: I did? *Looks through chapter*. Oh I did, nice spot and thanks.

Chuck17: Another fifty sounds great since the large majority of the first fifty are positive. As for chapters focused on Rezano, there shouldn't be tooo many, but it's slightly difficult to escape one cropping up especially now we're into the Canon timeline since he is Canon Naruto, just with a better upbringing. But the Prodigal Three will be in and around his major story elements. Him and Tri will butt heads big time ideologically in the Wave Arc for example.

Another week, another milestone. 300 Followers! Thank you all.

The Joint Mission

"Good, now I can explain why you're all here," Minato said as Naruto shut the door behind him. Turning around the blonde Jōnin was somewhat surprised to see his team were present along with two masked ANBU. "As you may have been able to gather, the six of you are all going on a mission."

The unmasked four looked on in intrigue, "An odd number Hokage-sama," Naruto remarked, his voice immediately taking a more serious tone. "Yes, that's because the other six that comprise your total number aren't here."
"So.. Where are they?"
"They should have left Iwagakure a few hours ago."
"Wait, you mean it's happening?" Asked Naruto, his tone of voice shifting again, this time to excited.

Minato stifled a small chuckle, "Yes, the efforts of you and Kurotsuchi-san have finally made both villages relent a little and agree to a joint mission. I'll cut right to the chase, the mission has two primary objectives. The first is the Iwa objective, you are to retrieve the 'Iwa-Tsue' (Rock-Staff), a relic of the first Tsuchikage recently stolen by an Iwa traitor."

"Your half of the mission has two objectives. The first is to recover the 'Raijin no Ken' (Sword of the Thunder God), the second is to kill the man currently wielding it, Rokushō Aoi." Suzushii furrowed his eyebrows, "That name is familiar Hokage-sama," the Hyūga said. One of the ANBU held out a book in front of them, the page shown was a Bingo Book entry for Rokushō Aoi.

"Yeah, I recognise him," his voice had deepened and carried a darker tone. "Suzushii?" The Hyūga took a breath to calm himself. "I'm fine Hana. he used to be in the same class as me at the Academy is all."
"Several years ago Aoi managed to deceive another Konoha Shinobi into stealing the blade. After taking the sword from them, he defected to Amegakure. Intelligence suggests this Iwa nin intends to do the same with Aoi's aid" Minato explained.

"So where are we going exactly Hokage-sama?" Shinsuke asked. "Intelligence believes this Iwa traitor is slowly making their way west to the border between Na no Kuni (Land of vegetables) and Kaze no Kuni (Land of Wind). We believe he will pass through Kaze no Kuni and make his way to Amegakure."
"That's a long way," Naruto noted, "Suna won't want us going through their territory with Iwa shinobi tagging along. Definitely ain't going through Amegakure, Kusagakure no Sato (Land of Grass) aren't fond of either us or Iwa, so that leaves Tsuchi no Kuni as our only option."

"Correctly summarized Naruto-kun, you will be going through Tsuchi no Kuni. The Iwa Shinobi will be meeting you at the border then escorting you to Iwagakure itself. The Tsuchikage made an additional request, the ANBU present are to inform him that his request has been granted and display evidence to prove it."
"Speaking of which, if I may Hokage-sama, why ANBU?" Hana inquired. "To show that we value this mission, it'd be hard to build trust if I sent a bunch of newly promoted Chūnin or something. Besides they won't be wearing their masks for this mission, if you would," Minato finished, directing them to remove their masks.

The first to remove theirs sported a mask designed to resemble a weasel, Naruto wasn't surprised to find Itachi behind it. The second wore a mask black in colour with a nose and mouth stylized to resemble a beak. The removal of their masks resulted in a small mirthful chuckle from Shinsuke, "The old teams back together, eh."
"Well you did say you wanted to build trust," Naruto said analytically. "And there isn't much more I can do in that regard than sending you, Itachi-san and Tri-kun. As for the missions chain of command, they're both the highest ranked Shinobi among the six of you, Itachi-san will be squad leader with Tri-kun as his second."

The four of them nodded in understanding, they all knew that ANBU outranked Jōnin and they assumed Itachi outranked Tri through seniority while Naruto knew the real reason was that Itachi was simply an outright higher rank at ANBU Captain.

"But to elaborate further, Itachi-san's primary objective is the recovery of the Raijin no Ken while Tri-kun's is the killing of Rokushō Aoi."
"Understood, Hokage-sama. So, when do we leave?"
"Well right now. We don't want to keep our Iwa friends waiting," Minato answered.
"Aww," Naruto moaned. Everyone looked at him in bewilderment. "Something wrong?" Hana asked but Shinsuke delayed any potential answer, "Are you pouting?" he humorously questioned. "N-no.." Naruto weakly answered, "By Kami, you are pouting, that's absolutely hilarious," the Chūnin breaking out into fits of giggles. "What is the matter?" Hana repeated.

"I, I wanted to see the look on Rezano's face when he's told what exactly a D-Rank mission entails," he lamely answered, a flush of embarrassment crossing his face. There was a brief moment of silence, then Shinsuke's laughter doubled as he struggled to remain standing, Hana face-palmed while the rest chuckled away at the blondes expense.

"Does everyone has sufficient provisions?" Itachi asked the five Shinobi in front of him. The five of them affirmed that they did and so within five minutes of leaving the Hokage's office they departed the village.

The first hour passed by without incident, jumping from tree to tree. They set a mild pace, or at least it was a mild pace as far as the two ANBU were concerned. "Naruto," Tri called over, "Are your team capable of holding a faster pace?" The blonde looked over his shoulder at his three team members, each nodded. "Yeah we can go faster," he called back. "80%?" One ANBU suggested to the other. "Agreed," Itachi answered, immediately picking up the pace, the rest picking up to match.

His two former Genin teammates knew it was exactly a 60% speed increase and to Naruto it was a greater pace increase than he was expecting but he and his Chūnin kept up without complaint.

An hour that passed in silence ended. "Yo, Naruto, what do you reckon they meant by 80%?" Shinsuke asked as he pulled up next to him. "I'm not sure, 80% of the usual speed an ANBU squad travels at maybe," he answered slightly unsure. "Correct in one, Naruto, " Itachi called from ahead of them.

Everyone could sense an impending conversation so they all sub-consciously shrank their formation, all of them drawing closer to one another. "So we'd still need to go another 1/5th faster to meet the bare minimum for you guys?" he asked in concern. "Also correct but don't worry, we won't be moving to that pace because if we did it'd probably run you all ragged."

"How long can you run that pace?" Suzushii asked in interest. "All ANBU are expected to able to keep that pace for ten hours without pause," Tri answered, "They're also expected to perform 180% for a minimum of two hours." Shinsuke winced, "I'm not sure I can even picture going that fast for that long."

Without so much as moving his fingers a clone appeared next to Tri and immediately began leaving them behind. "That's what it looks like," he added with a slight grin. Within thirty seconds the clone was out of sight. "Yeah.. I think I'll skip applying for ANBU." His comment drew some amusement from those around him. "It's ok Shinsuke, they aren't going to force you to join," Naruto snickered.

"Is there more to the requirements? It can't be just running." Tri and Itachi glanced at one another, the Uchiha nodded and Tri answered. "Much more Suzushii-san. You need a minimum of ten successful A-Rank missions, be able to complete a complex and classified chakra exercise, pass a written exam. Then comes the survival test, you need to single-handedly evade a full ANBU squad in the wilderness for ninety minutes."
"You get a head-start right? Surely."
"Yes you do, Shinsuke-san. You get 45 seconds."

"And how many pass that?" Hana said. "Thirty percent pass rate for first-time attempts. I passed mine first time around," Itachi said. 'What was that voice? If I had to guess I'd say he sounded smug,' Naruto thought. "Yeah yeah, alright mister I passed first time in an almost record-setting 127 minutes," Tri said sourly. "I take it you didn't then?" Hana diplomatically asked. "No, I did not," he replied not looking at any of them. "82 minutes I believe it was."
"I get the feeling he didn't willing tell you that."
"No Naruto, he didn't. But then who do you think caught him," Itachi revealed, a rare grin on his face.

"So is that the final test? Do you become an ANBU if you pass that?"
"Yes," they both lied. Known only to them was the classified test.

Hours Later

"I'm dead, leave me behind in the morning, tell my Kaa-san I love her," Shinsuke groaned as he fell on his back, his face haggard and his breathing rapid. "Oh shut up and quit play-acting, your fine," Hana snapped back, lightly kicking him in the leg.

They'd been moving non-stop since leaving the village and nearly thirteen hours later they were deep into Takigakure no Sato (Land of Waterfalls). "We'll leave an hour before sunrise, we should reach the border before the sun comes up," Itachi told all of them.

"Waa, that's nowhere near long enough," Shinsuke moped. "Oh quit your griping," Naruto playfully chastised. "Me? Griping?," Shinsuke snorted, "do you hear that? That sound on the wind." Naruto could sense a poor joke on the horizon. "Yes! I'm sure of it, it's the sound of Hypocrisy." He was right, it was a bad joke but Shinsuke wasn't done. "Because you, Naruto," Shinsuke declared while pointing an accusing finger at him, "Are still pouting!"

"N-no I'm not," he retorted. He really hoped his voice didn't come across as weakly as he thought it did. In reality he was pretty gutted about missing Rezano's debut mission but he was never going to say that here, not when it handed the arguments win to Shinsuke.

Meanwhile back in Konoha

"Hey Kakashi," Genma said as he sat down in front of the masked Jōnin. "Yo Genma," he replied not looking up from his book. He rolled the senbon from one side of his mouth to the other as he stared the son of the White Fang.

"Was there something you wanted to talk about?" Again Kakashi didn't look up from his page. "You had your first mission with your new team today didn't you?"
"I did."
"..And?"
"And what?" Genma silently sighed, "How'd it go?" At times getting a conversation out of Kakashi was akin to getting blood from a stone. "It was fine." Another sigh.

"What mission did you take?"
"De-weeding a farmers field," he answered as he turned a page. "And how did your Genin take it?" he asked with a wry grin. "Mixed overall. I expected Sasuke and Rezano to react badly and they did so, whining and complaining the whole way through but Meshikamaru just took it in her stride.

The grin slipped from Genma's face. 'Trust Kakashi to utterly downplay it. Not that I'd know much about it. Damned Prodigal Three.' He sighed again, as proud as he was of his former students, he couldn't help but wish they'd been a bit more like 'normal' Genin.

"Only you could downplay what is supposed to be the funniest moment for a Jōnin," he quietly said. "Huh? You say something Genma?"
*Sigh*

Back in Takigakure

"So how are we handling the meeting with our Iwa counterparts tomorrow?" Suzushii asked everyone. "Just leave the talking to either Naruto or Itachi," Tri said, they all looked at him. "What? It's what I'll be doing," he defended himself, "I tend to get involved when the verbal jabs start flying so I intend on keeping my mouth shut."

"And there's a good Segue," Naruto muttered. "A caution for you all, It's possible that some of the Iwa shinobi will attempt to wind you up to get a reaction out of you. I know it's not going to be much of a problem for you Suzushii, Itachi will be fine and I got used to it last time. But you three," he said pointing at Tri, Hana and Shinsuke, "Behave," he warned.

Naruto and his team slipped into various discussions with Shinsuke and Hana continuing their never-ending battle to one-up the other. It left Tri and Itachi on their own.

"I haven't seen you for a while before today Tri, how have you been?"
"In a word, busy. It's been hectic the last two months on sub-level 4." Itachi nodded, he knew that Sub-level was code for the sub-divisions of ANBU, with each given a different number to identify them. This was despite Team Ro technically not being part of any sub-division since they answered only to the Hokage.

Each sub-level specialised in a particular field. He knew sub-level 1 was general purpose which technically weren't specialists but general all-rounders. Sub-level 2 was Intelligence and 3 was combat. Sub-level 4, however, was a mystery.

Itachi knew pretty much nothing about them, there were incredibly few who did. Almost all of the missions undertaken by them were classified. And you only classified a mission if you didn't want the village to be associated with it, and with one major Shinobi field still unaccounted for Itachi could make an educated guess as to their line of work.

"The Hokage brought me up to speed on 'that' before everyone else arrived this morning. I must admit I'm somewhat surprised you're being so cautious."
"Yeah, it's not ideal. I'd hoped to have my intelligence pipeline in place and operational by now but given the circumstances I'm taking no chances, the slightest slip up will compromise my assets." Itachi mulled it over, it made sense, it was always a bad idea to rush such intelligence operations, especially integral elements. They'd likely never be presented another opportunity.

"It shouldn't be too much longer now. Getting access to the information we're looking for was the easy part, getting it out without being discovered is the difficult part. I've had to set up a series of proxies and dead-ends to help shield it all. Another month or two and it'll be ready."

Itachi nodded his head a few times, nothing more needed to be said on the matter especially given the sensitive nature of it. "How's your eye?" Tri's hand instinctively went to the implanted left eye. "Still some five months off it replenishing, vision is 85 feet before it blurs. I fear another three uses will extinguish it's light entirely."
"It is a powerful ability Tri."
"Of course, but we'd hoped to get more than six uses from it."
"Well let's be honest, the second time you didn't need to use it." Tri snorted, "Daimyō-sama deserves a completely loyal court who'll selflessly help him run Hi no Kuni. So I gave him one."

Both fell silent for a few moments before Tri spoke.

"How about you? You and your team gotten yourselves into any trouble recently?"

Although they'd both realised it years earlier, both right there were reminded of how much they weren't conversationalists. Back when they were Genin, Genma or Naruto did the talking. They did similar in the Jūnishi. And as ANBU? Well, you never needed to talk much as an ANBU.

"Nah, not really. Not been much to do of late. The bad boys and girls in the elemental nations have been strangely quiet in recent months. Although it doesn't seem to have slowed you much."
"There will always be a long list for sub-division 4 to work through," he replied glumly. "I wasn't supposed to be a full-time ANBU you now, but this is the first mission is several months where I haven't worn a mask."
"So why did you join ANBU to begin with?"
"The Hokage asked me to. I don't particularly enjoy donning the mask. It contradicts why I became a Shinobi to begin with."

Never before had Itachi seen his friend display such reservations about his duties. Tri had always set his personal misgivings aside rather like how he did. "So why did you agree to join at all?"
"Because it is what was required of me, the needs of the village come first."

Again the silence returned. A minute or two passed with them just listening to the others talk. They couldn't help the feeling of isolation, as if they were missing out on other things in life. Things that Naruto and his team got to partake in.

"How's your Kaa-san?" Tri sombrely asked. Itachi's shoulders visibly slumped and his head dropped a little. "No improvement?" The Uchiha shook his head and Tri sighed sadly for his friend, briefly placing a supportive hand on his shoulder. Uchiha Mikoto had been ill for months now and there didn't seem to be any sign she would improve in the near future.

"Tri," Naruto interrupted calling over. "Yeah?" he called back. "How long had you been back in the village before we left for this mission?" The question caught him a little of guard. "Err, three maybe four hours. Why?"
"No reason, just trying to quit Shinsuke's whinging about being overworked."
"Okay.."

Tri turned back to find Itachi had stood," I'm gonna go to bed," his voice sounded so despondent, Tri felt for him but there wasn't anything he could do to help, that inability to help ate away at him leaving him with a slight feeling of frustration.

The Following Morning

"Trust them to be late and keep us waiting," a female voice grumbled. "Oh quit your yapping," another snapped back, "it's only been five minutes."

The Leaf Shinobi they were expecting were now a few minutes overdue, but Kurotsuchi understood that it was a fair distance from Konoha, even if she was the only one not blinded to this by wilful ignorance. So being a little late was perfectly understandable.

"Now, now Kurotsuchi-chan, no need to be short with your squad," a towering male nin with a square face and a rotund nose said to her. "Tsch, whatever Tou-san," she shot back. Technically Kurotsuchi was in charge of the six Iwa Shinobi present, everyone knew, however, that her father Akatsuchi was really the one who'd call the shots. This mission was far too serious a matter to not have a senior Shinobi on the team.

The potential to bicker further was cut short by a fourth voice, the sensor of their group. "They're here," he said as he sensed a group of chakra signatures enter the periphery of his range. "Can you glean anything from them?" Kitsuchi asked. The sensor closed his eyes and concentrated on the nin quickly approaching them.

"Six nin, three animals, Ninken I believe. Three of the chakra signatures are strong, I recognise one of them as the son of the Yondaime."
"Alright then, make yourselves look presentable and be ready to leave immediately," Kurotsuchi barked. The assembled ninja quickly scrambled around packing their things and tidying up a little.

A few minutes later they were all lined up and ready as their Konoha counterparts broke through the sparse treeline, coming to a stop in front of them.

The assembled Shinobi eyed one another warily. Kitsuchi looked over each of them in turn. The first he didn't think much of, the second was obviously an Inuzuka given the three Ninken stood by her side. The third by the way he dressed and his eye colour identified him as a Hyūga. The fourth was Naruto who he'd briefly met when he'd visited Iwagakure a few months prior.

But it was the last two that gave him pause. While the Sharingan was an intimidating sight, Kitsuchi had come face to face with the Kekkai Genkai during the third Shinobi world war, it wasn't that which concerned him most. It was what they were wearing, it was plain, almost minimalist in design, one had a tantō strapped to the back. And while there were no identifying features, to him their outfits screamed ANBU.

"Apologies for the slight delay, we were held up by an overly nosy Taki border patrol," Itachi explained. He didn't receive a reply, just silence as the stare down continued. "Shall we get going? There is a pair of traitors to catch?"
"Indeed but first we return to Iwagakure. I trust Tsuchikage-sama's additional request has been granted?" Kurotsuchi said as she snapped to. "It has and we brought the evidence to prove so."

"Then let's go, all these trees are beginning to grate on my eyes," Kitsuchi said, his subtle/ not so subtle jibe wasn't lost on any of them. Somehow unseen by everyone Naruto managed to sneak a wink to his pink-eyed counterpart.

Iwagakure – Tsuchikage's office

"I'm glad to see you were all able to make your way here without killing one another, that bodes well I suppose," the shortest of the Kage said to the twelve Shinobi before him. "You have been briefed on the purpose and goals of this joint mission?" he asked the foreign ninja. "Hai Tsuchikage-dono," Itachi succinctly answered.

"And what of my additional request?"
"Hokage-sama has agreed to your request Tsuchikage-dono." Itachi turned to his left, "Tri." The Uzumaki stepped forward, as he did he reached into the pouch over his tailbone. The Iwa Shinobi immediately tensed up, one or two's hands sub-consciously slipping to the hilts of weapons.

Ōnoki was wearing a similar outfit to the one Tri remembered him wearing in Kumogakure over six years prior. A Green coat with yellow trim split into four strips with a red collar. Underneath which was a traditional Iwa nin outfit, a light green flak jacket, dark green pants with mesh visible underneath them.

Ōnoki was sizing up the Uzumaki at the same time. The flak jacket was Konoha standard issue but dark grey in colour with a black sleeveless shirt underneath. The full-length pants and sandals were that same shade of grey. The only burst of colour on him was the violet sash around his waist. He could just about make out the top of a mesh shirt around his neck. His entire right arm was covered in wrapping that was in turn covered in Kanji and seal designs.

The left arm, however, only had them around his upper arm. A quick look at Itachi confirmed he also had wrappings around his upper left arm. Overall the Uchiha's outfit was very similar bar colour changes and the presence of a blade over his shoulder . Ōnoki came to the same conclusion as his son had hours before. 'ANBU, have to be. Konoha have the tattoo on their left arm. Well, well Minato, you are taking this seriously after all.'

The relieved exhales were audible as Tri withdrew a small book and not a weapon. He opened it and flicked towards the back, spinning it around he presented it to Ōnoki. The Sandaime Tsuchikage picking the book out of his hands and quickly scanned through a few details on the page in front of him.

Name: Deidara
Designation: Missing-Nin – S-Rank
Actions to be taken: Capture on sight
Bounty: 15 million Ryo – Iwagakure

"Excellent," he said returning the book to him. "I trust this is the latest publication?"
"It becomes available for distribution in the next few days," he said while nodding. "Good and speaking of recent publications, have you seen the latest Kirigakure Bounty book Tri-san?"
"I must confess I have not Tsuchikage-dono. I presume I'm still in it?"
"Indeed you are, they even added another 10% to your bounty," he said with a grin. "Really?" Tri asked sceptically, "Why? I haven't even done anything this time."
"I can only assume they really want that sword back."

"If it meets with your approval Tsuchikage-sama. I would ask that we are allowed to leave immediately," Kurotsuchi interrupted. The aged Shinobi turned his gaze on his sole granddaughter. "Yes I believe that would be best but before you go I wish for a word with you in private." The other Iwa shinobi bowed and departed along with their leaf counterparts.

Grandfather and granddaughter watched them leave and only turned to face each other again after the door had closed. "Ojisan?" she queried. "There is something I've been meaning to ask you for a while. Don't worry you aren't in trouble but for whatever reason I kept putting it off. Why did you push so hard for these diplomatic exchanges with Konoha?"

They stared at one another but her answer was immediate. "I know the elders don't approve and you're highly sceptical. After all you were all alive to hear the reports that the Yondaime Hokage had single-handedly defeated a thousand Shinobi but I wasn't."

"And after watching the Yondaime's two sons and the Uchiha at the Chūnin exams years ago I came to a realisation that if we and Konoha were to go to war again, the same would likely happen. Konoha is seemingly unrivalled in its ability to produce S-Rank Shinobi which I believe those three will be before long. So I took the decision to try to avert history ever repeating itself and a war I don't think we could ever win."

Ōnoki could tell by her tone of voice and the determined look in her eyes that she wasn't lying although he was unaware that she only told him half her reasons. "Will that be all Ojisan?" He nodded, sinking into his chair as she shut the door behind her.

Ōnoki had been putting off thoughts of who would replace him for years, there had never been someone who he felt could assume the role of Kage successfully but now perhaps there was. He leaned back and stared at the ceiling, 'She's still years away from being ready but perhaps, just perhaps,' he thought as a tiny smile appeared on his face.

End Chapter